Shadow Slave

By then, the Fire Keepers had almost retreated to the entrance of the ancient temple. The darkness seethed and surged, disturbed by the fearsome clash of the two Transcendent champions.

Both Changing Star and the man who called himself Shadow were beyond powerful. A Saint was like a natural disaster, and even though neither of them had called upon the dreadful power of their Aspects, the devastating physical might of two Transcendent warriors was more than enough to obliterate their surroundings, reshape the landscape, and instill terror in the hearts of countless people.

Luckily, both their lady and the master of the ancient temple seemed to be holding back. Otherwise, the Citadel might have been severely damaged by their duel.

Lady Nephis was clad in a suit of knightly armor that had been forged from sublime white steel and adorned with golden accents. With her fair skin and silver hair, pure flames dancing in her eyes, she was like a spirit of light.

Lord of Shadows, meanwhile, was like a devil bor from pure darkness. His ominous onyx armor, demonic mask, and raven-black hair fused wit lightless void of the great hall, making it hard t discern where his figure ended and the shadows began.

The silence had long been torn apart by the melodic disharmony of clashing steel.

But... wasn't something very strange?

One of the Fire Keepers, Sid, looked at their leader and asked after hesitating for a few moments:

"Why... is he still standing?"

Her somber voice was hiding a note of bewilderment.

The seven of them had followed Lady Changing Star to storm the Crimson Spire, across the frozen hell of East Antarctica, and into countless battles after that. In the past four years, they had seen her turn hordes of abominations to ash, topple titans, and bring every Saint who dared challenge her to their knees. Only a few people could claim to be her equal, and even they did not dare to.

How was it that the Lord of Shadows had not only persisted for so long, but also seemed... to be holding his own in a duel against the last daughter of the Immortal Flame?

"Who the hell is he?"

Shim, the leader of the cohort, shook his head slightly without looking away from the barely perceptible whirlwind of the stunning clash.

"Watch carefully,"

Out there in front of them, the cadence of the duel finally changed.

***

‘Now?’

a lightning-fast strike, the air parting in front of the blade of his odachi with a wailing

and strangled the slash by binding their swords. She pushed him and shifted her body to gain an advantage in the follow-up attack. Sunny was forced to take a step back, which would have landed him in an awkward position and made it impossible to mount a stable defense... if he did not increase the weight of his armored boots while at the same time decreasing the weight of his

he had enough stability

blocked it, she unerringly struck the exact same spot where his odachi had already

into a rain of shards. Those shards almost instantly turned ethereal, dissolving back into

like an executioner's axe, Sunny, who had expected something like that to happen,

pieces of stone

wasting a heartbeat, Nephis shifted into a low stance and

already

a step forward and found

clashed against stonelike metal with

of them

the dust settled, the Fire Keepers saw

the hilt of her sword, which had been stopped a mere centimeter away from the onyx surface of

right hand, meanwhile, was gripping his left wrist. Held in his left hand was the hilt of the broken odachi, the jagged steel of

moments, then looked down, at the cracked floor beneath

escaped from his

here. Otherwise, my Citadel will

broken odachi to dissolve into shadows, let go of

back to his unseen throne,

duel? We have not determined

stopped, facing away from

moments of

to admit

and stared at her. His voice turned

joining forces with the

his

personally, not your clan and

a truth and a lie. Sunny might have preferred to deal with Nephis, and Nephis alone, but doing so was

him to get

mask around people w

He suppressed a sigh,