Shadow Slave

The shadows stared at Sunny, and Sunny stared at the shadows.

After a while, the situation became a bit awkward.

Sunny shifted a little, then hesitantly asked:

"Uh… are you guys not going to do anything?"

The shadows did not react, remaining as motionless and quiet as they had been from the start.

As a matter of fact, he didn't see them move or show any sign of life at all. In that regard, they were even more lifeless than his Echo had been here in the Sea of Soul. Sunny scratched his head.

His initial fear was slowly disappearing. At first, he was scared out of his wits, but more so from being startled than from feeling an actual threat. This was his Soul Sea, after all. Very few things could harm him here.

Sunny was pretty sure that the shadows were not capable of doing anything, let alone attacking him. They seemed more like manifestations of some weird facet of his Aspect rather than actual beings. As such, they weren't dangerous.

The question was… why did the shadows suddenly appear?

After briefly thinking about it, Sunny came to the conclusion that they did not actually appear, per se. Instead, they were always here, it's just that he had not been able to see them.

But now, with his eyes changed by the strange transformation he had gone through, he could, just like he could see the diamond strings inside the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Speaking of the Puppeteer's Shroud…

Glancing at the silent shadows one last time to make sure that they would not lunge at him, Sunny frowned with suspicion and turned away. His back instantly began to tingle.

'Just think of them as fashionable pieces of furniture. Who says Soul Seas don't need a touch of interior design?'

Somewhat consoled, he walked closer to the shining spheres that represented Memories and summoned the Puppeteer's Shroud. One of the spheres floated down and slowly dimmed, revealing the armor within.

Just like before, Sunny could see five glowing nexuses and countless strings permeating the grey fabric. They resembled miniature stars assembled into a constellation.

'The Shroud came from a tyrant, which is a class of Nightmare Creatures with five soul cores. Five soul cores, fifth tier Memory, five nexuses… makes sense.'

For some reason, the number five moved something in his mind. Sunny scowled, not understanding the feeling of unease that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and disrupted the flow of his thoughts.

Trying to concentrate on the task at hand, he summoned the runes describing the Puppeteer's Shroud. The familiar description appeared in the air around the armor:

Memory: [Puppeteer's Shroud].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Tier: V.

Memory Type: Armor.

[A worm of

decided to be helpful and

something that humans had learned from the Spell. Instead, it was just an improvised way of differentiating Memories of different power levels within the

percent true. He could confirm it with his own two eyes just by counting the

might be

his attention was drawn to something else. At the very bottom of the description, a new cluster of runes

[Enhanced

he was hoping for. Previously, he had only been able to intuitively sense the special qualities of his Memories, with no way to learn their true nature and limits except for the trial and error approach. And using that method during a

Now, however…

concentrated on one of the

Enchantment: [Doubtless].

the wearer with a small amount

'Good to know.'

Memory. Since "enhanced durability" was self-explanatory, Sunny dismissed the Puppeteer's Shroud and summoned the Silver

at that. Studying the runes did not show anything interesting. It was a tier one dormant Memory with a single enchantment that increased the

a look at the Midnight Shard. The graceful blade appeared in front

Memory: [Midnight Shard].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Tier: III.

Description: [Forged from the shard of a fallen star, this stalwart blade is firm and unyielding. It favors those who are willing to fight to the

Memory Enchantments: [Unbroken].

blade refuses to be broken, and thus is durable beyond reason. It will greatly enhance the power of its wielder when they are close to death, however only if the wielder

well of power that hid in the deepest parts of his heart when the Midnight Shard was in his hand. However, it could only be done when he was at the death's door, wounded and minutes away from perishing. It could either

heroics, so the second option did not seem appealing at all. The first one was much more useful, but only in the case of him screwing up terribly and getting himself in a lethal amount

words, it could only be used if he failed. In normal battles, the special qualities of the Midnight Shard were

pity. But… an ace in your sleeve in case things really

the new Attribute he had received. Considering how much pain he had

the cluster of runes representing his Attributes, Sunny focused his attention and carefully read their

Divinity], [Child of Shadows] and the new one,

about to summon the description of the [Blood

Something was not right.

not

of unease from before had

did he

a strong inclination to forget all about the