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?"

seemed shallow and not at all dangerous. A sense

The blind girl nodded.

fine! Go! There

moment, then rose without saying a word, and stepped

was right. There would not be another chance… they were faced with two equal threats — one was

had to make sure that all three

how to destroy the mirror fiend, so leaving Mordret

at the precipice of the stairway, and then commanded it to hide. Now, he appeared out of

'...Fast.'

Rushing through it, he followed the Masters, and reached the doors of the last stronghold of the Valor forces almost

crashed through the door, pulverizing it into a cloud of

What met them inside…

Was a bloodbath.

***

unrecognizable. Before, it had been clean and orderly, somewhat somber,

could see

painted red. All of the hall was one vast, morbid pool of the crimson liquid, with severed limbs and mangled bodies sprawled in it, some of them mutilated so thoroughly that it was

sight of it

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

female sentinel

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

pleasant demeanor and the gruesome

Masters appeared inside the hall, eight Echoes weaving themselves from

white stone into the air, then caught it again, and somehow

Sir Pierce, Lady Welthe. You have finally made

shifted his gaze and looked directly at Sunny, who was hiding in the shadows near

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

frightening, as though there was a dark ocean of unfathomable depth hiding beneath their

as I've waited to meet

taking a step