Shadow Slave

There was a black dot in the sky, far in the distance, slowly moving in the direction of the dark island. At first, Sunny felt a glimmer of hope ignite in his heart as he remembered a similar situation from the past.

That time, it had turned out to be Kai.

But, this time...

This time, his intuition was ringing alarm bells, and a cold feeling of dread crept from somewhere to grip him with icy claws.

Sitting on the Shadow Chair with his legs crossed, Sunny leaned back and sighed.

"...Crap."

With that, he exploded with a flurry of activity.

First, Sunny dismissed his precious chair and dashed toward the middle of the island. At the same time, he sent a mental command to Saint.

Nephis and she were currently engaged in a furious sword fight. Light and darkness were intertwined in a shimmering whirlpool of sharp steel, and the graceful knight's onyx figure was starkly contrasted against the rippling white tunic and alabaster skin of her slender opponent.

Following Sunny's order, Saint froze. The tip of Neph's sword stopped a split second later, hovering millimeters away from the slit of her visor.

Nephis frowned, then retracted her sword and looked around.

There was a shadow on a rock outcropping that protruded from the ground a few meters away. It seemed to belong to a young man, and was currently waving its arms in the air while pointing at the sky.

She swiftly turned around and looked up, then dashed away a moment later.

'That's done...'

leaped over a murky puddle of water and landed near a half-eaten fragment of tarnished silver. The scrawny figure of Imp could

"Stand up, buddy!"

at Sunny in confusion, then awkwardly tried to rise to his feet.

don't have time for

grabbed the weakly struggling fiend, and hoisted him

'What... the hell...'

much had the little bastard

veins swelled, and a befuddled expression appeared on his face. Commanding the shadows to wrap themselves around his body, he grunted and continued to

unceremoniously tossed the little fiend down. Then, he threw one more look at the sky and, noticing that the black dot had already drawn nearer, jumped into the deep ravine

too long, Nephis and he were side by side, pressing themselves into the weathered slope of the fissure as they desperately tried to calm down their breathing. Saint and Fiend were nearby, the former

was there as well, hiding within the deep darkness enveloping the bottom of the gorge in his

white clay was standing on the ground in front of them, its surface decorated with mesmerizing patterns. It was another one of the Memories Summer Knight had given to Nephis, and its purpose was to mask their

knew if the amphora was going to work or

five shadows, one had to volunteer to leave its area of effect and serve as a scout,

"volunteer" was the wrong

to, the next in seniority had to go. So, the creepy guy was currently hiding a few meters away from the edge of the fissure, staring creepily

it company with a bored expression on

he covered them with a dome of silence. Then, he let out

"I... I see it."

at him intently, then asked

"What is it?"

lingered for a few

expression turned

"It's a... butterfly."

toward the island. From afar, it seemed like an ethereal and beautiful creature. But as

were black, but its body and underbelly were the color of white bone. It had six long, seemingly fragile legs that ended in sharp points, and two enormous, faceted eyes that were like orbs of pure darkness. Between them was a disturbingly

the butterfly was at