Shadow Slave

Welthe froze… but only for a moment. Then, she threw Cassie aside and dashed toward the door, disappearing in a blur. Sunny was pushed away, rolling on the floor and almost crashing against one of the empty mirror frames. By the time he regained his balance, she was already gone.

Pierce growled, then threw a murderous look at him and screamed:

"Kill them!"

With that, he dashed out of the chamber, too, dismissing most of the Echoes to take them with him.

…The fools still hoped that they could save their men.

Or avenge them, at least.

Sunny also couldn't really be mad at Pierce for ordering their death… he would have done the same. Now that their plan to bind Mordret had failed, the next best option was to make sure that there were no more vessels for him to possess. The sentinels were already as good as dead. That left only Sunny…

However, Sunny was not one to let go of the grudge.

'Curse you, you bastard…'

There were only two Echoes remaining in the mirror chamber. One was moving toward Cassie, already thrusting its sword forward. The other was towering over Sunny, its heavy battle axe raised.

Sunny glared at the Echo, not amused.

In the next moment, a stygian serpent appeared from the shadows behind the creature, wrapping its long and powerful body around the macabre effigy. Then, its head shot forward, the maw opening to a terrible width. Sharp fangs closed on both sides of the Echoe's face, easily piercing through the skull and crushing it with a grisly crunch.

At the same time, Cassie rose to one knee and deflected her enemy's sword with a long dagger. A slender rapier flashed from behind her, piercing the creature's neck and emerging from its other side in a shower of blood.

Both Echoes fell to the floor, disintegrating into a rain of sparks. From start to finish, they had not made a sound.

Sunny rushed to Cassie and bent down, trying to ascertain the severity of her wound. His voice sounded tense and worried:

"Are you okay?"

was blood flowing down her delicate neck, but the cut seemed shallow and not at all dangerous. A sense of profound relief spread

The blind girl nodded.

There

moment, then rose without saying a word, and stepped

chance… they were faced with two equal threats — one was the pair of Ascended knights, and the other

sure that all three died

didn't know how to destroy the mirror fiend, so leaving Mordret without a vessel

had left one of his shadows at the precipice of the stairway, and then commanded it to hide. Now, he appeared out of it, turning into a shadow himself — just in time to see

'...Fast.'

the Night Temple was submerged in darkness now that no one was alive to keep the lanterns aflame. Rushing through it, he followed the Masters, and reached the doors of the last stronghold of the Valor forces almost at the same instant

through the door, pulverizing it into a

What met them inside…

Was a bloodbath.

***

was unrecognizable. Before, it had been clean and orderly,

could see

with blood, and so were the walls. Even the ceiling was painted red. All of the hall was one vast, morbid pool of the crimson liquid, with

it was

this vile slaughterhouse, a lone figure was sitting cross-legged, a carefree smile on

beautiful female sentinel looked different,

— her bearing, her gaze, her presence — had changed. It was relaxed and friendly, almost polite. She looked… exactly how Mordret had sounded, back when he and Sunny spoke in the lightless abyss of

pleasant demeanor and the gruesome bloodbath surrounding her was ghastly, bizarre,

Echoes weaving

knife cut out of a single piece of a pristine white stone into the air, then caught it

Welthe.

Sunny, who was hiding in the shadows near the

finally meet you face to face. Well… I guess we've already met a few days ago. Still, what an occasion.

back to Welthe and Pierce, his smile remaining the same, but his eyes growing cold and frightening, as though there was a dark ocean of unfathomable depth hiding beneath their surface, full of harrowing

not as long as I've waited to meet the two of

taking a step