Shadow Slave

Chapter 15

[Prepare for appraisal…]

Sunny found himself in a space between dream and reality. It was an endless black void illuminated by a myriad of stars. Between those stars, countless strings of silver light were woven into a beautiful and inconceivably complex net, forming various nexuses and constellations. It was truly breathtaking.

Somehow, Sunny understood that he was seeing the inner workings of the Nightmare Spell. He also couldn't help but think that it looked a lot like the celestial equivalent of a neural network. If so… was the Spell alive?

This was a question that countless people had been asking themselves for the past few decades. The best answer they had come up with was that there was no way to know. The Spell was neither alive nor dead; neither sentient nor mindless.

It was more of a function than a creature.

But Sunny was in no mood to ponder philosophical questions. He was eagerly awaiting his boon.

The Spell was still appraising his performance. However, the first reward had nothing to do with it.

[You have received a Memory: Puppeteer's Shroud]

'Yes!'

Sunny felt incredibly elated. He was almost ready to do a happy dance. That Memory belonged to Mountain King, who was an awakened tyrant — which meant that the Memory itself was of the Awakened rank. Getting it was a stroke of incredible luck!

There were seven ranks to everything in the Spell. These ranks were, in order of growing power: Dormant, Awakened, Ascended, Transcendent, Supreme, Sacred and Divine (with the exclusion of Nightmare Creatures, who were ranked as Dormant, Awakened, Fallen, Corrupted, Great, Cursed and Unholy).

From the Spell's point of view, Sunny was a dormant human. Having a Memory of a higher rank than his own soul core would be of great help once he enters the Dream Realm. The power gap between different ranks simply could not be overestimated.

He wanted to take a look at the Puppeteer's Shroud, but there was no more time. The Spell was done with its appraisal.

Here in the void, its voice didn't sound subtle and familiar anymore. Rather, it seemed like the universe itself was speaking. Sunny held his breath, listening.

[Aspirant! Your trial is over.]

[A nameless slave ascended the Black Mountain. Both heroes and monsters fell by his hand. Unbroken, he entered the ruined temple of a long-forgotten god and spilled his blood on the sacred altar. The gods were dead, and yet they listened.]

have defeated a dormant

defeated three

defeated an awakened human:

defeated an awakened tyrant:

the Shadow God's

achieved

glorious. Your treachery

was not really necessary, as far as Sunny was concerned, but he was still pretty satisfied with the praise from the Spell. He felt like his

rank of his soul core, which would remain dormant until much later,

receive your

was an Aspirant no more. Sunny

a

dropped. A true name! He had received a true name! Never in his wildest dreams did Sunny dream of becoming one of the chosen few to accomplish such feat — and in his very first Nightmare to boot! Not even all of the Saints could boast of having one. He was

the rewards

ready to evolve.

of a question

crossed his fingers and said

Temple Slave

[New Aspect acquired.]

[Aspect Rank: Divine.]

Sunny fell over.

[Aspect Name: Shadow Slave.]

***

'Divine… it's Divine.'

knees, stupefied. The shock was so great that for a second

'It said "divine"... right?'

and rubbed his eyes, making sure that he was awake. Or rather conscious, since, technically, he was still sleeping in the underground vault of the police

summoned the runes and found the lines describing

Aspect: [Shadow Slave].

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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