Shadow Slave

Sunny and Effie approached them quietly.

"Hey! Long time no see!" Effie's energetic voice echoed across the canyon, prompting a weak response from the three Masters. Cassie flinched slightly, while Nephis and Jet turned to look at them with dim expressions. After a moment of silence, Soul Reaper forced out a smile.

"Ah. It's you, glutton... yeah, it's good to see you too."

The three were clearly shaken by their experience in the overgrown shrine. Sunny only knew that the creature that dwelled there was powerful and ancient - even Wind Flower did not know much about it, except for the fact that it did not possess a physical body. Therefore, Jet's glaive and Neph's purifying flames were their best bet to destroy it.

With Cassie's supernatural intuition and affinity to revelations, as well as Saint's dark blade, they stood a good chance of, if not prevailing against the shrine horror, then at least getting the enchantment key and escaping alive.

Walking over to the three Masters, Sunny studied their conditions for a few moments, then turned to Cassie:

"Did you get it?"

She nodded slowly and raised a hand. On it lay a strange gemstone engraved with countless runes. Unlike the soul crystal of the Guiding Light, this gemstone seemed to absorb light, not produce it.

The enchantment key.

Sunny let out a long sigh.

"...Good."

Then, fascinated, he asked in a curious tone:

"What was the creature inside the shrine like?"

Cassie shivered slightly and lowered her head.

"I... don't really want to talk about that thing. Right now."

Judging by the heavy expressions of Neph's and Jet's faces, they felt the same.

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

bad

it that she had not even reacted

kinds of terrible things and faced all sorts of harrowing creatures... if they were that shaken by what had

nowhere to be seen, though. Hopefully, they were just damaged and not

Let's go... we should

a while, then rose

deep chasm and entered the caverns. The Terror that had created them was already dead - Cassie's group had slayed it on the way to the shrine. Sunny navigated the system of caves, following

this one was

Eventually, he

"If you will..."

gaze, then walked forward and delivered a devastating blow to the wall of the cave. A net of cracks spread from the point where her gauntlet

wasting any time, she bombarded the wall of

his ears and winced. By his side, the other members of the cohort did the same.

mist streamed into the cave through the opening, as well as a few thin

gently pulled Nephis

"Follow me."

broken cave wall...

well. In other words, they did not have to cross the enchanted bridge anymore - instead, they could cross the moat wherever they

area of the island, which teemed with harrowing Nightmare Creatures by now. Instead of risking their lives in the misty forest, the

its other

terrifying abominations frozen on it still standing motionless. The runes carved into the

gate of Aletheia's Tower

and Effie had frozen, looking at the corpse of the Great Tyrant with complicated expressions. He could understand how they felt... he had been quite the

Sunny sighed.

"It's dead. Don't worry..."

that they had made it so far... the bone orchard, the caverns,

had concocted went without a hitch. All the deaths they had experienced on this nightmarish island had not been for nothing, it seemed. Now,

And destroy the loop.

at Cassie, he nodded and walked to the center of the hall. She followed, holding the enchantment

strange sound, and the

floor of the tower rearranged itself, revealing a narrow staircase. Without saying anything, they descended into the basement of

the rock. Its walls were covered with sheets of polished metal,