Shadow Slave

Sunny salvaged some food from the destroyed fridge, had a very late supper, and went down to the basement again, this time to travel to the Chained Isles.

By then, all shadow essence he had spent during the duels and to keep the Mantle of the Underworld from turning back to stone had already been restored.

Wearing the onyx armor required a constant flow of essence to maintain the [Leaving Stone] enchantment active, and with the Soul Serpent assuming its weapon form, Sunny couldn't use the Shadow to keep the expenditure to a minimum. Wearing the Mantle for prolonged periods of time was rather draining... however, it was also a perfect way to train himself on how to manage essence most efficiently. He had no complaints.

...It was funny, though, that the Dreamscape required a person to expend real essence despite being just an illusion.

'Oh well.'

Climbing into his new, state-of-the-art sleeping pod, Sunny lay comfortably in the soft cradle and smiled.

'No more sore muscles! Finally.'

With that, he closed his eyes, and very quickly fell asleep.

While his soul wandered the Dream Realm and his body slept, locked in an underground bunker behind multiple layers of protection, though... several things happened in the real world.

The clip of his short duel against Leo Striker had unexpectedly gone viral.

All around the planet, countless people watched it with a wide range of reactions. Some found it funny, some fascinating, while some simply scrolled past it as they watched their feeds.

Even those who did not have any interest in the Awakened duels found it striking, though. The image of an infernal wraith clad in black onyx armor defeating a charming, noble human warrior with one swift and ruthless strike was, indeed, very cinematic… just how Leo had predicted. Even if, to his dismay, the roles had ended up being switched.

What's more, even though Sunny had not even known that their fight was being broadcasted, he accidentally looked directly at the invisible camera right after cruelly putting the tip of his odachi through the opponent's eye.

the eyes of the human being behind it, sent shivers down the

arresting, and

the same question after watching the

human there, behind

had an entirely different reaction. Although they, too, appreciated the undeniable aesthetic value of the short and striking duel, they

duelist, someone as famous as Leo Striker… in just one strike? The exact moment when Sunny delivered the deadly blow was analyzed, disassembled, and put under the

confusing: no one had the slightest

they didn't stop

every word that Sunny had uttered during his infuriating visit to the Dreamscape were found and published for

violently shaken. One shock was

during

Saifer in the span of a

other showed Mongrel killing the Fool… once

it took him less than a minute to easily crush three of the most renowned young duelists in the world. They weren't the absolute elite,

Striker was neither lucky nor

how could that

he some other famous

the man who called himself Mongrel had never entered Dreamscape before that day. His profile showed only two pieces of

"Victories: 30."

"Defeats: 0."

And:

"Status: Offline."

to have fun. There weren't that many Masters in the world, and all of them had much more crucial things to do than spend their time having illusory

Master, that would