Chapter 1554 Familiar Face

Chapter 1554 Familiar Face

The words had been said, echoing in the beautiful darkness of the glowing night. Devoid of the wind, the sails of the ketch fell down. The boat slowly came to a stop, drifting in the current. Cassie remained silent for a few moments, as motionless as the Echo of the Defiled sybil sitting by her side. Then, she asked, her voice tinged with a hint of amusement:

"Should I call you the Mad Prince, then?"

As Sunny's expression changed, she chuckled lightly. "Gods... come now. I know that you only asked that question to probe me for a reaction, but how does it make sense? I'm not Torment."

Sunny frowned, disappointed at the fact that he had not been able to get more out of Cassie. He was considering his next question silently when she turned to face her Echo and said, throwing his thoughts into disarray:

"She is."

He froze, stunned by those words. Then, Sunny slowly moved his gaze to the silent Echo. The red garment, the empty gaze, the veil hiding her face...

'How?'

Back when they met in Fallen Grace, Cassie said that she come to possess this Echo after slaying the sybil who had succumbed to the Defilement on the day of her entering the Nightmare. The two looked alike, true... but both Sunny and Nephis simply assumed that it was because both the slain woman and Dusk had been sybils ruling the same city. The Echo was too eerie and revolting, making Sunny unwilling to learn what was hiding behind the red veil. Therefore, he had never tried to look at the creature's face. The most he had done was glance at its weave, but even then, most of his attention had been focused on the artificial Echo created by the enchanters of Clan Valor — the long destroyed blade mannequin. Now, however...

Cassie raised her hand and pulled on the Echo's veil, removing it. Underneath it, an exquisitely beautiful face was revealed... one identical to her own, but devoid of life. The Echo of the sybil... of Torment... was hollow and expressionless, like all Echoes were. There was a subtle expression on Cassie's face, though. A strange mix of revulsion, sorrow, and even a hint of tenderness. It was not every day that one chanced to look upon a soulless copy of their own dead self, after all. Gears were spinning in Sunny's head at impossible speed, trying to digest the stunning revelation of the eerie Echo's true nature. 'Torment... is dead.'

Sunny remembered the chamber hidden under the Temple of Dusk, with a breach in its floor leading to the depths of the Great River. Was that how Torment had entered Fallen Grace and come into contact with Cassie? Was that where they had fought, and where the Defiled oracle died?

But how could it be possible? How could Cassie have defeated a harrowing Plague alone, despite all the time Torment should have had to accumulate power and information to prepare for their eventual clash?

Staring at two identical, beautiful faces — one familiar and full of life, the other alien and empty — he suddenly felt very uncomfortable. "Can you... put that veil back on?"

He hated human Echoes, and he hated to see the Echo of one of his closest friends even more. Looking at the soulless copy of Torment was like looking at Cassie's corpse, which made him feel disgusted.

The blind girl hesitated for a moment, then put the veil back on, hiding the Echo's face behind it. Torment's empty eyes, however, remained visible, staring at Sunny without any emotion. Cassie sighed. "At least... she is at peace now. That is a mercy."

Sunny shifted his gaze, studied her for a few moments, and then asked his next question:

"How?"

The blind girl smiled. "How else? Of course, it was arranged by the Mad Prince."

She fell silent for a second, and then added, her voice wistful:

"...By the Mad Prince and Torment herself, to be precise. The two of them, you see, were behind all of this together."