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

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

cracks in

steel, with

centimeters sticking out of his skin and barely visible in the narrow fissure marring the surface of the

wound a Master seriously, or even slow down his movements. But damage was not what Sunny

and landed on his knees, sliding a few steps back and almost instantly regaining

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

then, something

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

put down the demented Awakened, Shadow Blade Kurt. Its single enchantment was simple and straightforward: living beings pierced by

with the Dark Wing and receive the ability to fly out

that it had

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 on the first

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

going to require some time, no matter

time that Sunny wasn't

the Moonlight Shard flying toward Pierce's eye. Without anything to use as purchase, the knight was deprived of the very foundation of combat ability — the warrior's connection to the ground. He couldn't move to dodge, couldn't control the distribution of his weight to mount an effective defense, and

managed to deflect

left him open and defenseless to Sunny's true

of the strength the three shadows gifted

performed with perfect form,

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

Pierce's eyes widened.

comet and sunk into the fearsome knight's chest. The force of the throw

affected by the Heavenly Burden, the Master's body was sent flying up with terrifying speed and impaled on the stones, hanging lifelessly

blood fell down like

supported his weight with his hands and let

'Come… come on…'

and then, he

the Spell's whisper sounded like beautiful

have slain an Ascended

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

actually

allowed himself a second of rest, and then rose to his