Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the little girl, trying not to lose his composure.

'...What is wrong with these people?'

He had two horns, a mouth full of sharp fangs, long claws, and four damned arms… and yet, the first thing that both Effie and Kai had reacted to was his height. Was he not allowed to be tall, for once?!

Continuing to pretend to fight the monstrous child in earnest, he pointed to his chest instead of an answer. Effie, too, slowed down her relentless assault a bit — just enough to give him some breathing room without making her changed attitude obvious.

A few moments later, when they were close to each other, she hissed quietly:

"Let me guess, you saw the message I left that said to not come to the Temple of Chalice… and, naturally, decided to do the exact opposite."

Sunny spun, avoiding her fist, and raised two fingers.

The girl frowned.

"Two… someone else is with you? Cassie? Kai? Ah, it's Kai… so, both of you decided to ignore my warning!"

She deflected his dagger to the side, grimaced when it slid over a barely healed laceration on her forearm, and then squeaked in her childish voice:

"Well… good! I, uh… I might have been too full of myself, thinking that I would be able to actually escape this damned place. So... I am really, really glad that you came…"

Sunny thrust his greatsword forward, narrowly missing the girl's head, and then let out a low growl.

Effie gritted her teeth.

"But, Sunny… we have two problems. One is that these lunatics never let their disciples leave the sect alive. The second… the second is that if one of us doesn't kill the other in this duel, my teachers are going to kill us both… so…"

She caught his sword with one hand, then brought her fist on its blade, shattering it and making Sunny stumble.

hope that you have a plan! No, I know you

sounded optimistic and cheerful. Knowing that Effie was confident in his ability to get them both out of this dire situation alive, somehow,

plan. In fact, he didn't

Yet.

he simply shook his head, making Effie pale and

of the Chalice without a bloody battle against the

not Solvane. She would not have been able to fight her way out of the sect as that fiend had. With Kai and

didn't look too

Even though his physical might was lesser than that of the huntress, overall, he was a much, much

which would leave Kai alone against dozens of Awakened warriors gathered in the hall. That wouldn't work. No matter how Sunny moved the elements

to be a way… the War Maidens had been defeated in the future, after all, so they

then glanced at the massive stone chalice towering in the center of the hall, full of furious white flame. Unlike in the future, it was still whole and imposing, the complex enchantment that permeated the ancient stone holding the mass

His face grew dim.

like this idea… no, I

of a plan that suddenly appeared in his mind. Not only because it would be extremely dangerous and hard to pull off, but also because going through with it had

matter how hard Sunny thought, he couldn't come up with anything else to do. If moving the elements did not work, the only way

for a few moments, and then gestured Effie to keep

same time,

a swarm of white sparks. She took a small step to the side to shield Kai with her body. Both actions caused the

One of his four hands was enveloped by a swarm of scarlet sparks, one in a black fog, and the other two in a

the four-armed demon undergo a strange transmutation. Although just a little, their stances shifted, revealing their readiness to intervene should

to intrude upon the duel without

Saint's arm, while the odachi she held silently slid into the shadows. Sunny was suddenly clad in intricate onyx armor, holding a somber spear in one of his lower hands and

seemed to be made out of a bolt of lightning appear in his upper

Avenger], [Cruel Sight], [Midnight Shard], [Morgan's Warbow], [Strike of Thunder]...

these Memories at the same time, knowing that he

last Memory