Shadow Slave

Standing up, Sunny stretched and walked over to where Cassie was standing. Extending his shadow sense through the cracked wall, he remained silent for a few moments, then smiled.

"Good catch. There is indeed a hidden space there."

To think that he had almost missed it...

The blind girl stared at him for a bit, which gave Sunny a hint to look around.

'Damn... it's still creepy, to know that she's riding my senses. Can't she ask, at least? That Ability of hers is not limited to sight, so... ah, I don't even want to think what kinds of things she can sense me sensing...'

Suddenly feeling hot, Sunny glanced at Cassie and asked in a stifled tone: "What are you looking for?"

The blind girl lingered. "If there's a secret space, there has to be a mechanism to unlock it. Some kind of lever, perhaps. Oh... and give me some credit, alright? I am polite enough to know when not to use my Ability."

He suppressed an impulse to jump back. "What, you can read thoughts now, too?!"

Cassie took a deep breath, then patiently shook her head. "No. It was just written all over your face."

Sunny let out a sigh of relief, then trembled.

'Wait... she's looking through my eyes, so how can she see my face?'

At that moment, Neph's patted him on the shoulder.

"Because she looked through mine. Honestly, Sunny... for someone who claims to have never used his shadow to do perverted things at the Academy dormitory, you sure think of weird stuff often."

He stared at her in disbelief. "What do you mean, "claims to"? I absolutely did not! You know I can't lie!"

Nephis looked at Cassie with a hint of a smile on her lips. "Notice that he said "did not"... instead of "have not". Hmm."

Sunny remained silent, his mouth open.

I see what's going

and until I say "will not", you better behave.

said a bit awkwardly from behind him: "...So, whatever mechanism there was to unlock the door, it has to have broken a long

grinned and watched as she stepped forward and delivered a swift punch to the cracked wall. The ancient stone shattered and collapsed,

cloud of

wall was a small circular chamber. There was an altar in its center, with something laying on it. As Nephis raised her torch, its light reflected from a polished metal

the shadows shift slightly, and widened

'That glow...'

or dirt. Both its ends were encased in a beautiful weave of bands of polished gold, with a single radiant gem... no, a crystal... crowning the

rather high Rank. Supreme, perhaps, or even higher. What made Sunny instinctively hold his breath,

Sunny could only see because his eyes had been altered by Weaver's lineage. The familiar and unmistakable shine

approached the altar and lowered her head. Her expression was more perplexed than shocked. She remained silent for a few moments, then

I did not know that it was

with surprise. Throwing another glance at

know what this

think I do. It fits the description of one of the holy relics that the sybils brought into the Tomb of Ariel from the outside world. Supposedly, it was a

me that this thing... is a Divine

was beating

However, it is not a Divine Rank artifact, if that is what you're asking. Although it does have

"Actually, that can be said about most Divine relics, and therefore about most Divine Memories created in their image... not that there's many of those around. We humans perceive Memories as something that grants us power, but for the gods and the lesser deities... they themselves were the power. So, any relic they created would have been a mere tool of convenience, not something

them perfectly. Both Weaver's Mask and the Shadow Lantern allowed him to do astonishing things... and yet, there were indeed

powerful, and yet, they did not make him much more powerful. He had considered this paradoxical situation plenty of times,

external sources of power, and so, the tools they left behind

meanwhile, gently caressed the white wood of the beautiful staff and added: "In any case, this relic is called Guiding Light. It's not even a tool made to be used by a god... just something gifted to a mortal out of affection. The powers it possesses are not that stunning. It had served the sybils well before they came to

for a while, then asked in a dubious tone: "Not that stunning? So

supposed

a few moments, the soft radiance of

"What did you