Shadow Slave

For a while, Sunny stood motionlessly in the living room. Then, he slowly wandered around the house, looking at its walls and tastefully furnished rooms. Finally, he found himself near the refrigerator and took out a glass bottle full of clear, pure water.

With it in hand, Sunny walked outside and sat down on the porch.

The terrace district was quiet and peaceful. The air was still cold, but the sunlight was already full of warmth, promising a vibrant spring. The wind rustled the leaves gently, and streams of meltwater murmured softly as they ran down the pavement. Sunny stared at the piece of land that he now owned and opened the glass bottle.

He spent quite a while there, sipping water and looking at nothing in particular. As hours passed, several PTVs drove by. He saw a few people in clean and warm clothes. A bit later, droves of children and teenagers in school uniforms walked past, on their way home from their studies.

After that, he sighed, retrieved his shadows, and went back inside.

Bringing the empty bottle back to the refrigerator, he stared at it for a few moments.

Inside, there was food… so much food. Enough food to last him for a month. All easily accessible, delicious, and well within his means.

…Before Sunny knew it, his fist slammed into the door of the refrigerator, easily piercing the thin metal sheets and turning the vegetables stored on the other side into vapor. Pieces of metal and plastic flew in the air, and the whole house trembled slightly. The refrigerator itself cracked and deformed, nearly bursting apart from the force of the impact.

Sunny stared at his hand in shock, then awkwardly retrieved it from inside the devastating device and looked at the broken thing with dismay.

"...Crap!"

Now he was going to have to buy a new one. And replace all the food. And clean up all the mess…

'What the hell is wrong with me?'

Shaking his head, he put the empty glass bottle on the counter, sighed, and went to find a mop.

***

Some time later, Sunny returned to the basement and approached the Dreamscape pod. He looked at it for a while, then turned around and paced around the armored dojo, frowning.

'Come on now… you've been preparing for this for a long, long time.'

As he paced, his whole presence slowly changed. The way Sunny walked, the way he held himself, the way his hands moved all became slightly different.

"There are six gods. The War God, also known as the God of Life. The Beast God, also knowns as the Goddess of the Moon. The Sun God…"

recited the names of the gods and their various aspects, the manner in which he spoke also changed. The difference was

a lot of time training for this moment, using the physical malleability of a Shadow Dance practitioner to make

all who would wish to learn it through

undressed, approached the simulation pod, and climbed into its cradle. As the polished mask of black wood appeared on his face, the lid

letters appeared in front of

"Enter Dreamscape?"

"Yes" "No"

sighed, then concentrated

moments later, his vision

***

around him, countless stars burned with ethereal light, an inconceivably complex weave of strings connecting them

or sense in the pattern. He didn't feel any meaning hidden in the

A fake.

naked body, the Soul Serpent coiling around his arms and torso.

'...Huh.'

Sunny summoned the Mantle of the Underworld. It weaved itself from black threads and covered his body. As soon as

to the

small charm that allowed him to change the color of his hair.

do

pleasant voice promptly

further, please choose

a couple of times, then scratched a

'Oh, right. An alias…'

Sunny remembered the legend of Odysseus that Neph like to talk about, and

"Nobody."

he could already imagine how funny it would be, to hear something like "Nobody has defeated the enemy!" or "Nobody has

interrupted by the voice of the

"Nobody" is taken. Please

"Uh…"

that. What would be

is taken.

"What? No, wait!"

No, wait!" is taken. Please choose