Shadow Slave-Chapter 2320 Ash Castle

He sighed.

'Never mind.'

Sunny smiled.

'What, did you expect me to give her a ride? Thanks, but no thanks. The last time she mounted me was too memorable.'

He paused for a moment, and then added in a glum tone:

'I mean, she cut off my wings, strangled me, and almost drove a knife into my skull.'

Kai blinked a couple of times.

'She did?'

When Sunny nodded, he gave him a reproachful look.

'You know… something like that would have been good to know before I carried her across the sea of clouds on my back.'

Sunny grinned.

'I did cross my mind to give you a warning. But I was sure that she would not try to kill you… well, mostly sure. Reasonably sure? I was somewhat sure that she would not try to kill you.'

With that, he jumped into the chasm, spread his wings, and allowed the currents of heated air to carry him across the abyssal moat of the Ash Castle. Kai followed a few seconds later with a quiet sigh.

If there had been something perilous waiting for them inside, Slayer would have already turned it into a pincushion with her arrows. So, the two of them landed calmly on the cracked floor of the castle's vast courtyard, then walked toward the crumbling keep.

Slayer allowed her bow to turn into a slender chain vambrace, then climbed down the tower with lethal grace. She seemed to plummet from one support to another, wedging her short swords between the weathered stones when there was none to find purchase on - in just a few short moments, she reached the ground and joined them.

When they entered the keep, Sunny glanced around with a surprised expression.

'Huh.'

What looked like a castle from the outside was actually merely a crude model of one. There was nothing inside, really - no floors, no chambers, no complicated maze of corridors and stairwells. Instead, there was simply a vast empty space, the floor covered in ash that piled like mountains in the corners.

It seemed that even Ariel's attention to detail had a limit.

'Well, it makes sense.'

After all, the Ash Tyrants that had populated this castle once would not have been humans. Their size would have varied greatly, too - the towering gate of the keep hinted that some of them were truly enormous.

'Do you see anything under the ash?'

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Sunny did not know what he wanted to find, exactly, but he had hoped to discover some clues about Ariel, his game, and the Jade Queen.

Kai shook his head slowly.

'It's all in ruins. But there is some kind of pedestal in the center.'

They looked at each other, then made their way to the heart of the empty keep.

There, the floor of the castle opened into a great circular pit. Smoke rose through the opening like a rugged pillar, escaping through a similar one in the roof of the Ash Castle.

And just in front of the pit, there was a charred stone pedestal that resembled an altar, its surface covered in ash.

Walking closer, Sunny hesitated for a few seconds, then brushed the ash away. His hand felt two small shapes hidden beneath it - clearing more of the ash, Sunny picked one of them up and studied it impassively.

There, in his palm, lay a bestial figurine cut from flawless white jade.

It was the figure of a Snow Beast.

'Two of them…'

Twelve of the fourteen Snow figures remained on the board, which meant that the player of the Ash Domain had managed to slay two - two Beasts.

And here, two Snow Beast figurines were resting on an altar.

That… could not have been a coincidence.

'Why do you think these figures are here?'

Kai's question made Sunny frown.

He remained silent for a few seconds, then shrugged.

'I'm not entirely sure.'

Then, he suddenly remembered something… the ancient bones resting in the depths of the Ravenheart volcano.

Following an impulse, Sunny shifted his weight a little and tossed the figure of the Snow Beast into the pit.

It disappeared into the smoke without a trace.

A dozen seconds passed in silence, and then…

Sunny was suddenly somewhere else.