Shadow Slave

When Sunny heard what Nephis had to say, he almost stepped on her foot. His rhythm was broken, making it difficult to remain in the flow of the dance. He narrowly avoided stumbling, regained his composure, and threw a burning gaze at her.

"What?"

Her expression did not change.

"You heard me."

Sunny opened his mouth, lingered for a moment, then simply turned around and pulled her by the hand. Despite the fact that many people stared at this sudden turn of events, he cut through the dancing guests, forcing Neph to follow. They left the middle of the great hall, then disappeared from the central chamber entirely.

Finding himself in a corridor that ran along the length of the dancing hall, Sunny walked swiftly, searching for an empty room. Eventually, he had to settle for a kitchen of sorts. Several chefs and their assistants were busy preparing more refreshments for the guests of the ball… or rather, they had been.

Even before Sunny entered the room, the shadows inside suddenly moved and grew darker, startling the kitchen staff. Throwing a heavy glance at them, he said in an even voice:

"Leave."

The chefs stared at the two Masters in confusion for a couple of moments, then silently backed away and left through a different door, their faces pale.

Sunny and Nephis were left alone.

He waited for a bit, then let go of her hand and outstretched his own. A strange flute carved of emerald bone appeared in it from a swirl of sparks. Sunny brought it to his lips and blew into the hole.

Surprisingly, no sound came out of the flute. Instead, it seemed to have absorbed all sounds, enveloping them in a cone of silence. Now, no one would have been able to listen in on their conversations.

Sunny's shadows also kept watch outside the kitchen, just to make sure.

Finally, he turned to Nephis and snarled:

Join Valor? What…

on the wall. Then, she spoke in her usual calm,

you

her in stunned silence. Then, he

after all that talk about wishing to bring the three ghouls to their knees and destroy them… you are just going to

Neph's eyes grew somber.

did

He frowned.

are going to destroy Valor, but you are also going to become

intensely, then said with boiling, but suppressed

this is the only way I can advance my

forward and pierced him with a

contend with them… for now. However, they will fall by my hand, in the end. Did

head with a

Changing Star smiled.

was only made sharper. I spent so many days, so many nights thinking about how to move forward and bring these old monsters down. It was not too hard to realize that if my own strength is

Sunny blinked slowly.

This is

Nephis shrugged.

Although the conflict between Valor and Song had been brewing for a long time, the sudden appearance of the Dreamer Army made it worse. But most of all, the death of Saint Cormac and the return of the banished Prince of

He scowled.

have to

Changing Star smiled darkly.

thing as me. He would have sought out a way to use one of the Sovereigns against

Sunny's eyes widened.

who had spawned him and the