Shadow Slave

Just a moment before the Patient Avenger detonated, Sunny fell backward and dove into the shadow cast by a wide stone pillar. He noticed a hint of surprise in Pierce's eyes, and in the next second, everything was suddenly drowned by blinding white light.

The sound came next, a thunderous roar that would have probably destroyed his ears if he had not turned into a shadow. Then, the shockwave arrived, obliterating the pillar and turning it into a mass of flying rubble. Sunny's shelter was destroyed, and he was thrown back into the corporeal world… just in time to be engulfed by a terrifying, immolating flame.

Luckily, he had summoned the Memory of Fire at the very start of the fight. Protected by its enchantment and by the Undying Chain, Sunny had withstood the terrifying heat. His eyes were tightly shut, and so only his eyelids were singed.

The explosion… had turned out to be much more powerful than he had expected.

'D—damnation…'

The hall was completely decimated. The pillars supporting its ceiling had been destroyed, and its walls had cracked, some sections crumbling completely. The bodies of the murdered Lost were practically erased from existence, and everything was obscured by a cloud of stone dust mixed with thin crimson mist, which had appeared after the pool of blood had evaporated.

In all this mayhem, Sunny was able to sense a few familiar shapes. The Serpent had merged with the shadows before the explosion had hit, too so it was unharmed.

Saint, however, was not as lucky — her entire left arm had been torn off at the shoulder, the onyx armor mangled and revealing scorched alabaster skin. Fine ruby dust was flowing from the terrible wound, falling to the floor like a stream of a morbid hourglass, as if counting off how long she had left to live.

That was the result of augmenting and overloading an Ascended Memory… even the wielder was not safe from the consequences, as it turned out.

Sunny's mouth twitched, and he immediately dismissed the taciturn knight, then called back his third shadow.

In the short moment before it reached him and wrapped itself around his body, he managed to sense the rest of the devastated hall.

The Echoes seemed to be obliterated. Welthe was kneeling at a distance, shaken and superficially wounded, but still alive. Mordret was sprawled on the floor, seemingly thrown out of his invisibility.

…Only Pierce was still on his feet, as if not affected by the explosion at all. His armor was battered and scorched, wisps of smoke rising from the cracks, but the Master himself appeared unperturbed. In fact, his murderous intensity only grew more suffocating.

He was like an impregnable stone cliff that could never be brought down by the raging winds.

Not wishing to reveal himself, Sunny suppressed an infuriated growl and silently dashed forward.

The silver blade of the Cruel Sight whistled quietly, shooting toward the bastard's heart.

However…

At the last moment, Pierce shifted and easily deflected the blow with his sword, throwing the spear off course. His armored fist flashed, flying toward Sunny's head.

When the blow connected, Sunny was blinded for a moment. His eyes were still closed, but it was as if something exploded behind his eyelids, and at the same time, his mind blanked. He only felt the world spinning.

lunge and collided with the fearsome Master. The impact threw them both to the ground

against the stone floor. Pierce grabbed Sunny by the throat and drove a knee into his abdomen, causing another explosion of pain to spread

hand snaked toward one of the cracks in the Ascended Knight's armor and planted something

narrow needle forged out of black steel, with gold wire wrapped around one of

Sunny's strength, the Heavenly Burden sunk into Pierce's flesh almost entirely, with only a few centimeters sticking out of his skin and barely visible in the narrow

course, such a tiny needle was not going to wound a Master seriously, or

on the ground, he twisted and landed on his knees, sliding a

feet, too. His eyes were brimming with killing intent, and his longsword was glistening as it reflected the flames burning around them. He was ready

something strange

suddenly swayed, a confused expression appearing on his face. A moment later, the soles of his armored boots separated from the stone floor and rose

points after helping Master Jet put down the demented Awakened, Shadow Blade Kurt. Its single enchantment was simple and straightforward: living beings pierced by the needle would float up, and up,

the Dark Wing and receive the ability to fly out of the

did not mean that

a full meter above the floor. His initial confusion was gone, and he swiftly looked down, at the tip of the needle buried in his flesh. The Master's hand shot toward it, but the fingers of his armored gauntlet were too thick and clumsy to dig the needle out

Ascended knight possessed at least one Memory in his arsenal that would be able to help him

options were going to require some time,

that Sunny wasn't going

ability — the warrior's connection to the ground. He couldn't move to dodge, couldn't control

managed to deflect the ghostly stiletto with his

him open and defenseless

of the strength the

form, just

last moment, the three shadows flowed from his fingers and wrapped themselves around the somber spear's

Pierce's eyes widened.

The force of the throw was so great that it went right through his damaged armor, his tough skin and bones, and then

sent flying up with terrifying speed and impaled on the stones, hanging lifelessly from the tall ceiling of the

fell down like crimson

his hands and let out a shaky

'Come… come on…'

and then, he finally heard the

whisper sounded

slain an Ascended human,

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

actually did

of rest, and then rose to his feet,