Shadow Slave

Sunny remained silent for a while, looking at the blind girl with a strange expression.

'Aletheia... of the Nine?'

The words sounded familiar. He had met a person with a similar name a long, long time ago. The young Awakened swordsman from his First Nightmare, the one whom he called Hero... the Spell had called him Auro of the Nine.

Was it a coincidence, or something more?

Sunny frowned.

What did he really know about Hero?

Not much. Hero had been alive during the twilight of the Golden Age, not long before the Doom War started. He was a soldier of a militant empire which worshiped War God and had conquered many lands. He was a warrior of considerable skill and had already Awakened at his young age...

Now that Sunny knew how long it took one to Awaken without the assistance of the Spell, that fact seemed even more impressive.

But Sunny had known that Auro of the Nine was not a simple person all along. Not because of his skill and talent, but simply because of all the people in the Nightmare, he was the only one whose name the Spell remembered.

That alone told Sunny that Auro was special. The Spell appraised Sunny's performance in the First Nightmare as glorious, which meant that he had deviated from the natural course of events to a great degree.

What would have happened to Auro if Sunny had never taken the place of the nameless temple slave? The slave would have died, most likely, while the young swordsman would have survived. If he lived on and escaped the mountain pass... what fate would have awaited him in the future?

And there was one more detail...

'What was it that he said to justify killing me?'

Right before their fateful confrontation, Auro had said something peculiar. Something about how he would have gladly faced the Mountain King to let Sunny escape if his life belonged to him alone. But it did not, because the young swordsman had sworn to fulfill an... an unencompassable duty of some sort. He couldn't allow himself to die because of it.

What was the duty Auro had spoken of?

And why was the name of another person of the Nine inscribed on the base of the Seeker's Tower?

Who were the Nine?

Sunny took a deep breath and glanced at Cassie.

do you think it

girl remained

the name of the Seeker who used to live on this island. He or she was proficient in sorcery, it seems. Other than that, it's hard to

Sunny sighed.

ever heard

did not really expect a positive answer, but to his surprise,

have. If I remember correctly, Nephis mentioned once that she had

Sunny blinked.

'Huh?'

Neph have met one of the

been in her Second

a habit of popping up in

been,

to ask Nephis about the person she had

Aletheia was the master of Wind Flower, and left a powerful enchantment to protect the

shook her

not have been called Wind Flower back then. It's just a name by which people of Fallen Grace call it today. When the

Sunny shrugged.

In any case... how do

for a

destroying some of the

silent

runes. But if the key ones are erased, the enchantment will

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

that you couldn't make sense of this strange

The blind girl smiled.

runes are carved deep, and there are certainly measures in place to protect them. We'll have to shatter the entire

He chuckled.

cut a mountain with one slash of my sword,

on identifying the key runes of the

cliffs and shared a meal. Sunny watched them through the shadow and listened to the calming flow of their conversation. Neph was holding the

The two of them moved stealthily around the black cliff and

"There. Destroy that section."