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 is too

This was incredible!

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 familiar augmentation, even if it grew weaker,

both his body and his sword were augmented. Then, he sent the sulking shadow to join the friendly one. His body

commanded one shadow to leave the Midnight Shard

augmented at the same

'Holy hell...'

silently for a while, staring into the

Aspect. A Divine Aspect, after all,

it had

core and a 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 core, there would most like be the third one, and

all

matter how many shards she absorbed, no matter how many Nightmare Creatures and humans she slew. Why she had been

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

dull pain appeared in his heart, Sunny banished the image of Changing Star

sure that

Name: Sunless.

Lost

Rank: Dreamer.

runes were shimmering in the darkness.

Class: Monster.

Shadow Cores: [2/7].

glowing runes, his face

out

different from all of humanity. It was

it was frightening. He was reluctant to even try to imagine the pinnacle of what he

were

seven cores and the might of a titan be capable of? What

dare to call

creating five more cores would be long and arduous. It would take him years, if not decades. If he even manages to live that long. In fact, the magnitude and scale of such an ambition were nothing short of insane. After all, the stronger he grows, the stronger enemies

...Almost.

he really going to

His face looked like that of a madman — there were simultaneously a deep frown and a

wide smile disappeared, leaving only the frown