Shadow Slave

In the deadly silence that settled over the underground arena after the Spell had spoken its last sentence, Sunny stared motionlessly at the flakes of ash swirling in the air.

'...An Echo?'

He was now in possession of a new Echo.

A human Echo.

Of course, it was only logical that an Awakened could leave one behind. Sunny had received his first-ever Memory after killing a human, after all, and those were not too different. However, somehow, he had never considered commanding an Echo left behind by a dead man. One that he had killed with his own two hands, no less.

Wasn't it a little bit too ghastly?

He imagined the soulless, empty copy of Kurt staring at him with lifeless eyes, and shivered a little.

The situation was only made more morbid by the fact that a softly glowing soul shard was left in the pile of ash that the killer had turned into. Just like with Nightmare Creatures, the strange nature of Sunny's Aspect left the crystal intact despite absorbing the shadow fragment. If an ordinary Awakened was in his place, the shard would have formed empty and cracked.

Sunny had never dug into the corpses of his human victims to retrieve one, so this was his first time seeing a soul shard left behind by one of his own kind.

…Before Master Jet could see it, too, Sunny bent down, picked up the luminescent crystal, and hid it in his sleeve. His face twitched slightly.

Just as he did, an amused voice resounded from behind him:

"Well, I'll be damned… that was fast."

He hesitated for a moment, and then turned around.

Master Jet was surrounded by a scene of devastation, the interior of the underground theater in her vicinity completely destroyed. She was casually leaning on her glaive, and there was an amused expression on her face. Kurt's Echoes, of course, had disappeared after his death… however, Sunny didn't know how many of them she had killed before that happened.

In any case, there were no wounds on her body.

Master Jet whistled.

actually put down the bastard all

why wouldn't she be? Kurt was… had been an Awakened with at least ten years of experience under his belt, with a fully saturated soul core and an insidious, deadly Aspect. While Sunny… Sunny had become an Awakened less than a year ago. He was never formally trained, and had no clan or organization supporting his

a

He shrugged.

was overly reliant on the unique nature of his powers. A little knowledge of the shadows was all it took,

shook her

you're right. Still, Kurt had quite a reputation back in the day. But hey, why am I surprised? They

and looked at the

moments of silence, she

a promising young Awakened too, once. One of the few who

the ashes, trying to imagine Kurt as young and promising. It wasn't too hard… however, thinking about a person he had killed this way made him

the end — a depraved, demented murderer. More of a

back

what happened

for a

everyone is cut out for the kind of life we

Sight, thought for a few moments, and then asked the question he really

he told about having a powerful protector. What was that all about? Are you going to be in trouble? Wait… am

Jet smiled.

not going to make a fuss about someone like him. Kurt became of no use to them the moment he lost control. What's more, he turned into a liability. So, if anything, we did them a favor by

grew wider…

deal with, Sunny. And they would have to go

also practical sort. They wouldn't hesitate to discard a broken tool, and that was what people like Kurt were… tools to

clan. I guess that is what I would have become if I did. Master Jet warned me against it for

else came to

strange words Kurt had said right before launching

it matters, anyway. You know about the

of this mysterious Obel scale was the real reason

for a few moments,