Shadow Slave

As the silver sword was extinguished, Changing Star lingered for a moment. White flames ignited in her eyes, and suddenly, the pristine white breastplate of the Starlight Legion Armor was enveloped in blinding white light.

The darkness that had begun to seep back into the grand hall of the ancient temple reeled away once more. It appeared as though Nephis changed the target of her miraculous Aspect Ability and used her armor as its conduit instead of the sword.

But from the side, it simply looked like there was a furious white star burning in her chest.

…That momentary delay almost cost her her life.

As soon as Sunny's scream echoed through the cathedral, the terrifying black blade came down once again. This time, Nephis seemingly had no chance to escape.

But, somehow, she did.

Pushing herself off the marble floor, she twisted her body and barely avoided the falling guillotine of the Black Knight's greatsword, then swiftly rolled away. The next moment, she was already on her feet.

As the devil lunged forward to crush her, Changing Star did something that no one would ever expect the proud daughter of the Immortal Flame Clan to do.

She turned her back to the enemy… and ran.

From their early days in the Labyrinth, Sunny knew that Nephis could be incredibly fast when she wanted to. And indeed, just a second later, she was already far away. Cursing under his breath, he followed.

No matter how fast Nephis was, the Black Knight was faster.

The devil was already pursuing his runaway prey, moving with a celerity that seemed strange for a creature of his size, especially one clad in an incredibly heavy suit of steel armor. With each moment, he drew closer and closer to Changing Star, his sword ready to reap her life.

Straining his muscles to their limit, Sunny ran as fast as he could, too, desperately trying to catch up to them. With Effie and Caster temporary put out of commission and Cassie and Kai sidelined, he was the only one left. He had to make it in time, no matter what.

If he didn't…

'Come on!'

Gritting his teeth, Sunny somehow managed to accelerate even more.

Nephis was already halfway through the grand hall of the cathedral. The statue of the nameless goddess on the far side of it must have appeared in her sight.

It was then when she suddenly stopped and turned around, sliding on the marble floor a few meters because of the momentum. The silver sword had already been dismissed and summoned back from her Soul Sea.

It seemed as though out of desperation, Nephis decided to mount one last, suicidal attack on the swiftly approaching steel giant. Or maybe she had just gone crazy.

But it only seemed that way.

…The corners of Sunny's mouth curled upward.

'That's my girl!'

Plan C was about to come to fruition. Changing Star had performed her role perfectly.

Well, what else did Sunny expect from her?

All that remained was to stall the Black Knight for a few seconds.

The devil descended upon the silver-haired girl in a fury of obliterating black steel. Nephis met him with her usual calm resolve, dodging strike after strike with incredible skill. Just like a lifetime ago, when she had been facing Caster at the dojo of the Academy, she used her understanding and control of the flow of combat to breach the gap in speed between her and her opponent.

She wasn't as much reacting to the deadly blows delivered by the devil as predicting them, moving to evade the strikes of the black greatsword before they could even happen.

Of course, this deadly dance could not last. The tiniest of mistakes would have been her last. And even if she didn't make any, Nephis was not going to be able to keep this level of concentration for long, not to mention the insane toll this fearsome clash took on her stamina and endurance.

But she didn't have to. All she needed to do was to keep the bastard busy for a couple of seconds.

And when those seconds ran out…

A sudden crack of breaking stone resounded in the darkness of the ancient temple.

***

In all the commotion, the Stone Saint had strangely disappeared. After Sunny had confirmed that the Fallen Devil was targeting Nephis above everyone else, their strongest combatant — his Shadow — was nowhere to be seen.

That, of course, was on purpose. She was laying the groundwork for the plan to work while the rest of them kept the Black Knight distracted.

The plan, however, could only happen in a certain spot in the grand hall. That was where Changing Star had to lure the Black Knight in case he fixated on her. Following the descriptions provided to her by Sunny, she led the devil deeper into the cathedral and stopped just in the right place.

And then, she engaged him in a fierce battle to give the Sait time to close the trap.

…Which she did by taking a running start and crashing with all her weight into one of the tall, magnificent pillars supporting the roof of the cathedral.

This pillar, in particular, was damaged at the base, making it uniquely unstable. Sunny knew every corner of the ruined temple like the palm of his hand, so he knew about this flaw of the pillar as well.

That had been what he based Plan C on.

As Sunny ran, he could see everything that followed in all its majestic brutality.

The breaking of stone resounded in the vast hall of the ancient temple. A net of cracks appeared on the massive, incredibly tall column and quickly spread to a deep gash in its base. Shards of stone flew in every direction, and the column began to topple.

It seemed slow at first. But in fact, it wasn't.

In the center of the hall, the Black Knight paused his relentless onslaught for a moment and turned his head, following the sound of cracking stone.

…He was a second too late.

As Nephis dashed away, the pillar fell on the devil, crushing him under countless tons of hard stone.