Shadow Slave

The Chain Breaker was sailing across the bloodred expanse of flowing water. Under the blazing crimson sky, no mystical force seemed to be influencing it... and yet, its course was being set by someone other than the person holding the steering oar.

The ship was being pulled toward the lost temple of Fallen Grace.

On its deck, three Masters were preparing for battle.

Sunny was stretching, his expression calm and focused. Not that Cassie and Nephis could see it - he had summoned Weaver's Mask a long time ago. In the battle against a corrupted oracle, it was both his best weapon and shield.

Cassie had summoned her armor and half-mask. The Quiet Dancer and a long dagger were resting in twin scabbards on her hips. Nephis was still wearing her white tunic, but there was a beautiful longsword in her hands now. Its hilt was black, with the symbol of a scarlet anvil being pierced by a sword etched into the pommel.

"How do we even fight an enemy who can influence the future?"

After Sunny asked the question, both he and Nephis turned to Cassie.

The blind girl frowned slightly.

"...How should I know?"

Who else would know but her?

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then said awkwardly:

"Wouldn't a person who can perceive the future know how to kill one of her kind best?"

The blind girl shifted, then turned to face him. After a short pause, she smiled faintly and asked:

"What, haven't you thought about how to kill someone like me before? A lot?"

He coughed.

"...Never crossed my mind."

Hearing him, Cassie laughed.

"It's like Nephis said, her power has to have a limit. Say she can alter the path of one arrow... then, hit her with two. If she can alter the path of a hundred arrows, hit her with a hundred and one."

Indeed, this was the method he had come up with when pondering how to deal with Cassie... purely out of academic curiosity, of course. Since she could perceive a few seconds into the future, the only way to defeat her was to either exhaust

future, in theory. Assuming that the Defiled sybil could raise the probability of certain events happening, the key to defeating her would

He sighed.

force approach...

stared at

you like

his

"No."

few moments, then

"This mask... is confusing."

so that he could only tell lies. As it turned out, always lying was much more liberating than

be liberating, but he did not think that

Dream Realm alone. But,

than once, but looking back at his life up until now, Sunny clearly saw how it had benefited him, as well. Without the Flaw, he would have continued to lie and deceive, remaining isolated and untrusting. The mindset that had saved his life countless times in the outskirts would have become the end of him in the perilous world of

friends. And that, most likely, would have led to him dying

still had plenty of chances to die in a ditch, but at least his death was not going to be

growth

his breath, he looked at

been right. Only flawed things had a reason to improve... and thus, being

did it mean for the gods and

the gods, who had been born flawless, create the universal law of imperfection to fuel their own rise to power? If

remained motionless for a while, then sighed

were dead, anyway. And he was going to be dead, too, if the three of them failed to kill the

"I don't see anything."

raised an eyebrow, then suddenly

you do see

and peered at

was slowly appearing

view and drowned. Its walls, once white and beautiful, were covered by cracks and overgrown with moss. Dark vines were crawling up the broken facade like a burial shroud, blooming

had once stood upon was broken and partially submerged. What little of it remained above the waves was like a wild garden,

the drifting derelict. The eerie

there's nothing