Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the ground, confused.

'What just happened?'

Why did the Spell call that thing and Ascended Reflection? What was a Reflection? And why was it Ascended instead of Fallen?

How could a Nightmare Creature be Ascended?

He frowned.

'...Was it not a Nightmare Creature? How is that possible?'

The apparition was definitely not a human, so what else could it be if not one of the Dream Realm's abominations?

And one more thing…

The Spell did not say that his shadow had grown stronger, did it?

To make sure, Sunny checked the number of his shadow fragments. Just as he had suspected, it didn't change. He even dove into the Soul Sea, and saw that there was no new shadow among the rows of the creatures he had slain.

'This is very, very strange.'

What the hell had he just killed?

With a deep frown on his face, Sunny bent down and cautiously picked up the jagged mirror shard that the apparition had left behind. No matter how he looked at it, the shard resembled a perfectly mundane piece of glass, with a thin layer of silver painted over its reverse side. The only strange thing about it was that no matter how Sunny turned the shard, it refused to reflect anything except for an impenetrable veil of darkness.

There was also an inscription on its reverse.

inscription was not made with runes… instead, what he saw were the familiar letters of the human alphabet. They were clumsy and awkward,

only one word written on the

"Beastie"

the hell is that supposed to

mystery of the Mirror Beast was so strange that for a time, Sunny even forgot about the burning

Eventually, he whispered:

"...An Echo?"

would not reward him with

much... individuality to be a simple copy of a dead Nightmare Creature. Not

however, a type of being

remains of a tree that

strange

then. If so, where were they? What had happened to them, and why was their Reflection wandering

There were no answers.

was just a theory, anyway. Sunny

new Memory would give

about to summon the runes, but a sudden pulse of pain reminded him that he was, in fact, still wounded. With a hiss, Sunny clutched

the fight with Mirror Beast. The Memory could wait until after he wasn't bleeding so

the strange mirror shard in a piece of fabric and placing it into his pack, Sunny used some of his last remaining reserve of shadow essence to step through the shadows and appear near the rocky hill in the center of the island. His shadow had noticed a shallow cave there, which was situated — obviously — behind

that led behind the waterfall, Sunny checked that the cave was empty,

***

very big, but due to its location and hidden nature, there was no better shelter on the entire island. Rather happy with this discovery, Sunny groaned and lowered

he dismissed the Puppeteer's Shroud, then opened his pack and took out a

with a deadpan expression, Sunny

'I hate this part.'

to his Awakened body and the nature of Blood Weave, Sunny could recover from most injuries much faster than any mundane human, or even one of his peers, would be able to. However, if he wanted to be able to travel again by tomorrow,

sigh, the threaded one of the needles, gritted his teeth, and began suturing the edges of the long cut on his side together. The