Shadow Slave novel Chapter 64

Chapter 64 Pursued By Demons

"Let me guess. You want to kill it…"

Nephis continued to stare at him with her usual unreadable expression. After a while, Sunny chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.

"You really are crazy. That's… that's an awakened demon we're talking about, remember? Have you forgotten that we're just Sleepers?"

Then he frowned and scratched his head.

"W—wait a second. I feel like we already had this conversation before. Doesn't it feel familiar?"

Cassie glanced at the two of them and politely cleared her throat.

"Actually, you had said pretty much the exact same thing right before we decided to attack that first carapace centurion."

Sunny beamed.

"Yes! Exactly! And how did that end up? I almost got killed!"

Nephis shrugged indifferently.

"You survived, didn't you?"

He froze with his mouth open, too flabbergasted by the sheer audacity of her remark to answer immediately. A few seconds later, Sunny was finally able to speak again.

"That's not the point!"

Cassie gently touched her friend on the shoulder and whispered.

"Neph! That's not a very nice thing to say."

Changing Star's face flushed a little. Glancing aside, she hesitated and said:

"What I meant to say is… uh… we've won in the end, didn't we? It was a risk we had to take, and it paid off. We've grown stronger since then."

Sunny had a feeling that the fight against the Carapace Demon was already inevitable, but couldn't bring himself to stop protesting, solely out of principle.

"But that thing… it's huge! It's so tall you won't even be able to poke it with your sword! What are we going to do, ask the bastard politely to lower itself to our level?"

Neph frowned and looked at him with displeasure.

"It's just an…"

"...awakened demon, I know!"

Sunny sighed and shook his head again, feeling like he was talking to a stone wall.

Changing Star's mind was still a mystery to him. He had realized a long time ago that there was a deep dark well hidden behind her seemingly radiant exterior. No one pushed themselves that hard, endured that much, went that far unless they were being pursued by demons of their own… he knew that from experience.

And judging by how far ahead of everyone he had ever known Nephis was, her personal demons were especially dreadful. Much more dreadful than the terrifying Carapace Demon, at least. But although Sunny understood that she was running from something, he had no idea what destination she was so desperate to reach.

Just why was she so hellbent on finding that damned human castle, even more so than Sunny himself? His burning desire to come back to reality and rip all the rewards that the world owed him was so intense that it would frighten most people to death. There were very few things that he wasn't willing to do to achieve his dream.

However, it only had meaning for as long as he stayed alive. Nephis, on the other hand, seemed to pursue a goal that held more meaning than her life. Why else would she be so willing to risk it? Sunny just couldn't understand that logic. It was irrational and paradoxical! What can be more important than your life? If you die, you won't be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor anyway.

He looked Nephis in the eyes and said:

"Back when we agreed to fight the carapace centurion, we did so because there was no other choice. We were literally stuck on a rock with it. What about now? Don't we have a choice to avoid the Ashen Barrow?"

She stared at him for a while and then simply said:

"That's the only way west."

Sunny blinked. _{fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm}