Shadow Slave

'What the…'

The shards of stone and the dancing flames moved, flying through the air toward the tall woman. Instead of crushing and burning her, however, they somehow assembled around her slender body, the pieces of stone levitating around it to form a strange armor, the fire shrouding her hands like incandescent gloves.

Sunny suddenly felt a deep, dangerous sense of unease.

"How dare you, vile shadow…"

The voice of the War Madein thundered in the darkness that the Shadow Lantern had created, and then, two furious white eyes ignited in its depths, piercing Sunny with a murderous gaze.

"How dare you challenge War…"

A split second later, the Maiden disappeared from where she stood, the stone slab beneath her feet exploding into a rain of shards. Almost instantly, she was already upon him, a flame-wreathed palm shooting forward to pierce his chest.

'Damnation… what is it with women of War always going straight for my heart? This is already the third time this happens!'

Sunny awkwardly blocked the devastating blow, and felt himself being thrown back by the terrifying force of the impact. Luckily, the Mantle of the Underworld had withstood the touch of the divine flames that shrouded his enemy's hands, if just barely, the enhanced enchantment of Memory of Fire still coursing through its polished onyx.

'Argh!'

Something wasn't right here… even for a Master, the speed and strength of this woman were way too terrifying. With three cores nearing full saturation and augmented with two shadows, he was supposed to be near the realm of the Ascended, at least, if not more or less on par with some of them. And yet, her might was far greater than his.

That could have been explained by possessing an Aspect that augmented one's physicality, but as Sunny had just seen, the white-haired War Maiden seemed to be some sort of an elemental sorceress.

'Ah… I see how it is…'

Sight forward to prevent his enemy from chaining the next attack after the first, and then slashed at her with the

fruitlessly across the

that the effect of her Aspect was broader than just elemental control. Not only was the fearsome leader of the Red Sect capable of manipulating the elements, she also drew power from

allow the white-haired Maiden to perceive her surroundings despite the veil of shadows his lantern

her beautiful face, the woman easily swatted both the Cruel

failed to defend against the sharp blade of the ghostly stiletto that suddenly appeared in one of Sunny's hands and slid between the chunks of stone protecting her body. The Moonlight Shard bit into the Maiden's body, failing

There was a benefit to

high and mighty now,

more infuriated than hurt, though. The stone carapace swirled around her, sending the Moonlight Shard flying away from his hand, and then two incandescent fists descended upon him. A spark of flame traveled through the whirlwind of stone shards and licked her body, perfectly cauterizing

'Bad…'

shrouded by a rolling cloud of darkness, no one would have been able to see what was happening under the veil

perceive were the

seen. It was different from how humans of the waking world fought, but in no way inferior… in fact, her murderous technique was utterly

that it made Sunny realize how crude and clumsy his own, which he had been proud of before, really was. His essence was running low, too, because of how much

was not defenseless in that fight. While the War Maiden possessed a sublime technique, Sunny possessed a myriad of them. He was able to shift from one style to another effortlessly, dancing like a shapeless shadow, making it difficult to

to a mirror sword and jumping between his four hands — Sunny had dismissed the Midnight Shard, knowing that it would not be able to withstand the immolating heat

deception to keep himself alive under the ferocious assault of the monstrous Ascended… and through all of it, he was observing how she moved, how her shadow moved, how they fought, how they

battle style, thus making her incredible technique more transparent and predictable. The process was helped by the fact that Sunny had recognized the same foundation in it that he had witnessed when Effie

attack of his own. It seemed as though his death was only a

enough, that moment

orange in several places, as if on the verge of melting. His reserves of essence were almost empty, and his breathing was labored and arduous. One of his

then, he suddenly saw

to be another one

the white-haired warrior raised her hand to deliver another terrible strike, he suddenly turned the