Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the two shadows, dumbfounded. After a while, he said in an uncertain tone:

"Am I… am I seeing things, or are there two of you?"

The shadows, of course, did not answer. They had no vocal cords, after all. However, the sulking one looked at him with contempt and shook its head in derision. The friendly one, meanwhile, looked down shyly and slightly shrugged.

'What is going on?'

Frowning, Sunny lingered for some time, and then dove into the Soul Sea. With the [Soul Conduit] Attribute gone, it was back to its usual, tenebrous appearance. The surface of the water was tranquil and still, and hundreds of motionless shadows stood silently in the darkness. Above him, shining spheres containing the Memories were circling around the…

Sunny raised his head, then flinched.

Where the black sun of the Shadow Core had once loomed above the quiet sea, there was now… two.

Two identical Shadow Cores hovered in the dark sky, shining with lightless black radiance.

He blinked.

'Two… there's two of them.'

A few minutes passed, or at least something that felt like a few minutes.

'There's two… I have two cores… why do I have two cores?'

Humans only ever had one soul core. That was a fact. Only Nightmare Creatures had more...

Sunny looked down at his hands, then made them into fists, feeling newly gained strength course through his muscles. Then, he scowled and looked up again.

"Your shadow is taking shape, your shadow is complete…"

So the Spell was not speaking about the bad-tempered shadow that had accompanied him for so long. Initially, Sunny had assumed that the shadow — and his core — were going through a transformation due to the acquisition of the thousandth fragment, perhaps evolving or even Awakening. But the Spell actually meant to say that his second shadow, and thus a second Shadow Core, were complete.

They had been assembled from the thousand shadow fragments he had collected.

Making him a… what?

Sunny hesitated for a bit, then ordered the shadows to wrap themselves around his body. The sulking one seemingly rolled its eyes before obeying the command; the friendly one seemed extremely delighted to do as he asked.

Both flowed up and covered his body. Immediately, Sunny felt his already considerable strength double…

And then triple.

His mouth hung open.

powerful… this

This was incredible!

experiment further, he commanded one of the shadows to return to the surface of the tranquil water. A moment later, he had a shadow once again, but still enjoyed the

his body and his sword were augmented. Then, he sent the sulking shadow to join the friendly one. His body was not enhanced anymore,

to leave the Midnight Shard and

Memories were augmented at

'Holy hell...'

too good. Sunny stood silently for a while, staring

of his Aspect. A Divine Aspect,

had

second shadow, the gap between Sunny and the other Awakened was going to increase. And if he was right about it… if he was right, this was only the beginning. Because if there was a second

it all made

soul core, no matter how many shards she absorbed, no matter how many Nightmare Creatures and humans she slew. Why she had been incapacitated after killing Gunlaug. Why she was

Aspect was Divine, just like his. But she had discovered its secret

appeared in his heart, Sunny banished the image

make sure that his

Name: Sunless.

Lost from

Rank: Dreamer.

new runes were shimmering in the darkness. Sunny's eyes

Class: Monster.

Shadow Cores: [2/7].

stared at the glowing runes, his face calm,

out of

was indeed different from all of humanity.

promise of it was as vast as it was frightening. He was reluctant to even try to imagine the pinnacle of what he would potentially

possibilities were simply

might of a titan be capable of? What obstacles would they be

to

live that long. In fact, the magnitude and scale of such an ambition were

...Almost.

he really

and continued to read the runes. His face looked like that of a madman — there were simultaneously a deep frown and a wide smile somehow coexisting

smile disappeared, leaving only