Shadow Slave

Surrounded by devastation, Sunny, Kai, and Effie stared at each other with confused expressions on their faces. Their weapons were still raised, ready to strike at the enemies… however, there were no enemies around.

Just dead silence.

Sunny tensely studied the devastated hall, then slowly pulled out the emerald amulet and looked at the little girl with a silent question written on his face.

"Effie… tell me… is there, perhaps, a slumbering Saint somewhere in the temple?"

She frowned, then shook her head.

Sunny was genuinely perplexed.

"Uh… maybe there is an indescribable horror that had been contained by the chalice? And we have set it free? Or an ancient curse? "

The little girl wiped the sweat off her bruised face, then said in her soft, childish voice:

"Not that I know of. Uh… no, there are no horrors. Or curses."

Sunny blinked a couple of times.

"So, what… we really won? Just like that?"

Effie stared at him for a bit, and then yelped in outrage:

"What the hell do you mean by just like that?! We just wiped out half a hundred vicious Awakened battle zealots, and you yourself killed three Ascended champions! Not to mention destroying the chalice… which was supposed to be indestructible, by the way… was that not hard enough for you, you crazy demon?!"

He tilted his head a little and thought about it.

put it like that… I

of them, especially Sunny, had indeed achieved something remarkable just now. But it still felt weird… he didn't even

he did lose half of a horn. That had

the opposite of

after being mangled by the Strike of Thunder and the consequent explosion of the chalice. And he had only been able to damage the chalice, thus

surviving in the Red Colosseum, as well as his trials in the

than a bit

then

We can

around, her gaze lingering on the corpse of the white-haired Maiden for a few seconds. Her little face turned somber, and

roasted even more by the

as well. His gaze, however, seemed to be aimed at something beyond the walls of the devastated hall. Then, he lowered his head,

man lingered for a few moments, and then said in a low,

that were being trained in the sect?

froze, then scratched the back of his head

think about that. The War Maidens were known

prospect of taking care of a bunch of kids, especially since he had just slaughtered their previous caretakers. But the idea of leaving them here did not sit right with Sunny, whether or

having to deal with settling the children in the Sanctuary,

turned still, and she briefly glanced down, in the direction where Kai had been looking a few moments ago. She turned away and said in a strangely even

a few other girls with me before, indeed. But

the Dusk Shard, then bent down to pick up

all. But somewhere along the way, the sect changed. By

with strange darkness in her eyes, and then picked up

obsessed with the idea of creating a warrior capable of slaying someone called Solvane. So, their training — what they called training, anyway — had grown vicious, cruel, and inhumanly hard. Of all the girls subjected

again at the body of