Shadow Slave

Welthe froze… but only for a moment. Then, she threw Cassie aside and dashed toward the door, disappearing in a blur. Sunny was pushed away, rolling on the floor and almost crashing against one of the empty mirror frames. By the time he regained his balance, she was already gone.

Pierce growled, then threw a murderous look at him and screamed:

"Kill them!"

With that, he dashed out of the chamber, too, dismissing most of the Echoes to take them with him.

…The fools still hoped that they could save their men.

Or avenge them, at least.

Sunny also couldn't really be mad at Pierce for ordering their death… he would have done the same. Now that their plan to bind Mordret had failed, the next best option was to make sure that there were no more vessels for him to possess. The sentinels were already as good as dead. That left only Sunny…

However, Sunny was not one to let go of the grudge.

'Curse you, you bastard…'

There were only two Echoes remaining in the mirror chamber. One was moving toward Cassie, already thrusting its sword forward. The other was towering over Sunny, its heavy battle axe raised.

Sunny glared at the Echo, not amused.

In the next moment, a stygian serpent appeared from the shadows behind the creature, wrapping its long and powerful body around the macabre effigy. Then, its head shot forward, the maw opening to a terrible width. Sharp fangs closed on both sides of the Echoe's face, easily piercing through the skull and crushing it with a grisly crunch.

At the same time, Cassie rose to one knee and deflected her enemy's sword with a long dagger. A slender rapier flashed from behind her, piercing the creature's neck and emerging from its other side in a shower of blood.

Both Echoes fell to the floor, disintegrating into a rain of sparks. From start to finish, they had not made a sound.

Sunny rushed to Cassie and bent down, trying to ascertain the severity of her wound. His voice sounded tense and worried:

"Are you okay?"

There was blood flowing down her delicate neck, but the cut seemed shallow and not at all dangerous. A sense of profound relief spread through his chest.

The blind girl nodded.

"I'm fine! Go! There won't be another opportunity!"

He hesitated for a moment, then rose without saying a word, and stepped into the shadows.

Cassie was right. There would not be another chance… they were faced with two equal threats — one was the pair of Ascended knights, and the other was the cursed hellspawn, Mordret himself.

Sunny had to make sure that all three died today.

Well… two of them. He didn't know how to destroy the mirror fiend, so leaving Mordret without a vessel was going to have to suffice.

Previously, Sunny had left one of his shadows at the precipice of the stairway, and then commanded it to hide. Now, he appeared out of it, turning into a shadow himself — just in time to see Welthe and Pierce shoot past him.

'...Fast.'

Most of the Night Temple was submerged in darkness now that no one was alive to keep the lanterns aflame. Rushing through it, he followed the Masters, and reached the doors of the last stronghold of the Valor forces almost at the same instant as them.

Welthe simply crashed through the door, pulverizing it into a cloud of splinters.

What met them inside…

Was a bloodbath.

***

The encampment of the Lost was unrecognizable. Before, it had been clean and orderly, somewhat somber, but looking like a well-inhabited space.

Now, all Sunny could see was blood.

The floor was slick with blood, and so were the walls. Even the ceiling was painted red. All of the hall was one vast, morbid pool of the crimson liquid, with severed limbs and mangled bodies sprawled in it, some of them mutilated so thoroughly that it was almost impossible to recognize them as former humans.

The sight of it was revolting and horrid.

…And in the center of this vile slaughterhouse, a lone figure was sitting cross-legged, a carefree smile on her lips.

The beautiful female sentinel looked different, too.

Her appearance was the same, but everything else about her — her bearing, her gaze, her presence — had changed. It was relaxed and friendly, almost polite. She looked… exactly how Mordret had sounded, back when he and Sunny spoke in the lightless abyss of the Sky Below.

The dissonance between her pleasant demeanor and the gruesome bloodbath surrounding her was ghastly, bizarre, and deeply disturbing.

When the two Masters appeared inside the hall, eight Echoes weaving themselves from sparks of light around them, Mordret's smile widened.

He absentmindedly threw a knife cut out of a single piece of a pristine white stone into the air, then caught it again, and somehow made it disappear without a trace.

"...Ah. Sir Pierce, Lady Welthe. You have finally made it."

Then, he shifted his gaze and looked directly at Sunny, who was hiding in the shadows near the door.

"...And you, Sunless! It is such a pleasure to finally meet you face to face. Well… I guess we've already met a few days ago. Still, what an occasion. I've waited for it for a long, long time."

He looked back to Welthe and Pierce, his smile remaining the same, but his eyes growing cold and frightening, as though there was a dark ocean of unfathomable depth hiding beneath their surface, full of harrowing terrors.

"...But not as long as I've waited to meet the two of you."

Pierce growled, taking a step forward:

"You bastard!"

Mordret threw his head back and laughed.

"What? Don't you like my handiwork? I've tried so hard, just to impress you!"

He grinned, then slowly rose to his feet, the friendly smile disappearing from his face. Instead, an expression of dark, cold, murderous wrath appeared on it.

"Six years… six long years you have kept me in that empty mausoleum. You and the rest of the great, noble, illustrious clan Valor."

The female sentinel outstretched her hand, summoning a simple sword from the thin air.

"You destroyed my body, stole my birthright… you even destroyed my Reflections. Ah, but no matter. I had plenty of time to think of ways to repay your generosity. The things I have in store for you… oh, my! When I am done with clan Valor, the word itself will gain a new meaning. Even the gods will look up from their graves, and tremble."

Mordret smiled, then said evenly, not moving his gaze away from Pierce and Welthe.

"...What do you think, Sunless? You and I have no quarrel… well. Unless you are still angry about that little deception of mine. I can't really blame you... these two, however, will never let you leave this place alive. Shall we join forces, deal with them, and then escape together? Ah, I could be lying, of course. Maybe I'll just use you again, then kill that little oracle of yours, and take your body. Who knows…"

Sunny lingered for a moment, then stepped out of the shadows, appearing between Mordret and the Masters.

Welthe glanced at him with a hint of concern. Pierce grimaced, then uttered through gritted teeth:

"Don't do anything stupid, boy. This thing isn't even a human… I don't know what was done to him, but he had not been a human for a long, long time. He will consume your soul and wear your body like a suit… and even then, it won't be of any use. Once Lord Cormac returns, even that which remains of you will be obliterated. It's not too late… join us, and together, we can stop this demon."

Sunny stared at him for a bit, then glanced at Mordret.

Finally, he sighed, took a few steps, and stopped beside the female sentinel. Saint and the Soul Serpent appeared from the shadows to his left and his right.

Together, the four of them — Sunny, Mordret, and the two Shadows — face the two knights of Valor and the eight human Echoes.

Sunny smirked.

"I am somewhat of a demon myself, you know…"