Shadow Slave

'Damned sword...'

Making his way into the ruined interior of the temple, Sunny was seething with dark emotions.

What did the Sin of Solace even want? One moment, he was fanning the flames of guilt Sunny might have felt about how he treated Cassie in the past. The next moment, the wraith was reminding him of what had happened, and of how cruelly she had betrayed his trust...

Well, it was perfectly clear what the apparition wanted. The bastard wanted to drive him mad.

And he was... Sunny was mad.

No matter how much he understood why Cassie had done what she did, and no matter how many times he told himself that her actions had ended up saving Rain from being killed by Nightmare Creatures, and him from dying in the Nightmare Desert or becoming Mordret's slave... no matter how many things they had gone through together after the Forgotten Shore and how much their relationship had improved and deepened...

At the bottom of it all, Sunny was still hurt, resentful, and angry at Cassie. While at the same time caring deeply about her.

It was a proper mess...

'What else is new?'

It had been for a while.

"This place... is not creepy at all."

Jumping down from a pile of rubble, Sunny landed in shallow water.

The interior of the lost temple was drowned both by stale water and darkness. Since the island-ship was tilted and partially submerged beneath the waves, the long corridors with high ceilings were tilted as well. The three of them had to walk awkwardly, stepping on the walls with one foot and the cracked floor with the other.

was rubble everywhere, forcing them to jump

about the situation, it was that none of them was oppressed by the darkness. Sunny could see

he is trying to say that this place is really

looked at him and smiled with satisfaction,

at

she look so smug? It's really

such a weirdo

way deeper into the temple. Cassie was walking at the front, protected by her Echoes. Nephis

the blind girl had lived in, but she seemed to know

into the labyrinth of half-collapsed corridors. Sunny felt that they had descended far enough to be underwater by now...

surroundings, however,

not even because of the darkness, the stale water sloshing at their knees, and the eerie feeling of something influencing the future. It was because this place had served as a prison for the Defiled sybil for a long, long time before being cut from the rest of

someone had clawed at them in fury. Other times, there was dried blood smeared across

of ghosts. He had slain

he was

Were the sybils.

not want to admit it to himself, he still shuddered when remembering the cold despair of LO49, and the horror of facing its butcher in the depths

and Bloodwave back then. Today, he was with Nephis and

Night on paper, Sunny somehow felt more reassured in

of them had survived far

to be

feel better after putting down another one of these Defiled oracles with

"We are getting closer."

Cassie's words were sobering.