Shadow Slave novel Chapter 671

Sunny stared at the little girl, trying not to lose his composure.

'...What is wrong with these people?'

He had two horns, a mouth full of sharp fangs, long claws, and four damned arms… and yet, the first thing that both Effie and Kai had reacted to was his height. Was he not allowed to be tall, for once?!

Continuing to pretend to fight the monstrous child in earnest, he pointed to his chest instead of an answer. Effie, too, slowed down her relentless assault a bit — just enough to give him some breathing room without making her changed attitude obvious.

A few moments later, when they were close to each other, she hissed quietly:

"Let me guess, you saw the message I left that said to not come to the Temple of Chalice… and, naturally, decided to do the exact opposite."

Sunny spun, avoiding her fist, and raised two fingers.

The girl frowned.

"Two… someone else is with you? Cassie? Kai? Ah, it's Kai… so, both of you decided to ignore my warning!"

She deflected his dagger to the side, grimaced when it slid over a barely healed laceration on her forearm, and then squeaked in her childish voice:

"Well… good! I, uh… I might have been too full of myself, thinking that I would be able to actually escape this damned place. So... I am really, really glad that you came…"

Sunny thrust his greatsword forward, narrowly missing the girl's head, and then let out a low growl.

Effie gritted her teeth.

"But, Sunny… we have two problems. One is that these lunatics never let their disciples leave the sect alive. The second… the second is that if one of us doesn't kill the other in this duel, my teachers are going to kill us both… so…"

She caught his sword with one hand, then brought her fist on its blade, shattering it and making Sunny stumble.

"...so I hope that you have a plan! No, I know you do! Don't you?"

Despite how beaten and bruised the girl was, her soft voice sounded optimistic and cheerful. Knowing that Effie was confident in his ability to get them both out of this dire situation alive, somehow, Sunny felt very validated.

…The problem was that he did not have a plan. In fact, he didn't have the slightest idea about how to survive this mess.

Yet.

So, he simply shook his head, making Effie pale and grow silent.

As they continued to fight, Sunny thought feverishly. He didn't see any chance of escaping the Temple of the Chalice without a bloody battle against the War Maidens, as well as any way for the three of them to come up on top in that battle.

Effie was strong and fearsome, but she was not Solvane. She would not have been able to fight her way out of the sect as that fiend had. With Kai and Sunny added into the equation, however…

Things still didn't look too good.

Out of the three, Sunny was the powerhouse. Even though his physical might was lesser than that of the huntress, overall, he was a much, much deadlier creature. Added to that were his three Shadows, two of which were Ascended Demons, while the third was an Awakened Terror.

Sunny alone was most likely enough to contain two out of the three senior War Maidens, at least. Effie would have to handle the third one… which would leave Kai alone against dozens of Awakened warriors gathered in the hall. That wouldn't work. No matter how Sunny moved the elements of the theoretical battle, nothing gave them a good chance of escaping alive.

However, there had to be a way… the War Maidens had been defeated in the future, after all, so they were not invincible…

Thinking of the future, he hesitated for a moment, and then glanced at the massive stone chalice towering in the center of the hall, full of furious white flame. Unlike in the future, it was still whole and imposing, the complex enchantment that permeated the ancient stone holding the mass of divine fire contained inside.

His face grew dim.

'I don't like this idea… no, I don't like it at all…'