Shadow Slave

Sunny looked around the destroyed theater, then found an intact seat and sat down. Relaxing on the soft velvet cushions, he crossed his legs and looked at the broken stage with a complicated expression.

The shards of glass and empty stimulant packs attracted his attention for a moment. Sunny had expected the stimulants to be of the pleasure-inducing variety, but to his surprise, they were more or less the same as the ones he had used to stay awake for an entire week after returning from the Forgotten Shore.

A slight frown appeared on his.

'Don't tell me… was this guy afraid of going to the Dream Realm?'

…Kurt might have been even more broken than he had suspected. From how Master Jet had described her former acquaintance, the man had once been a dedicated combatant, a specialist... but what kind of a specialist was scared of his specialty?

With a sign, Sunny stared into the distance and summoned the runes.

And there it was, written in the ancient symbols in the air in front of him:

Echo: [Shadow Blade Kurt].

Echo Type: Beast.

…All humans were considered to be Beasts by the Spell, since they only had one soul core, so this was not surprising.

Well, all humans except for Sunny and Nephis.

As the thought of becoming a Demon drifted into his mind, Sunny read further.

Echo Rank: Awakened.

Echo Attributes: [Swift Hand], [Shadow Sworn], [Mark of Death].

[Swift Hand] Attribute Description: "Your blade strikes fast and true."

[Shadow Sworn] Attribute Description: "You are known to shadows."

[Mark of Death] Attribute Description: "You bear a mark of Death, as just like Death, you were created to be a weapon."

Sunny tilted his head a little.

So, an Attribute that increased perception and agility, an Attribute that gifted Kurt affinity to shadows — although to a much lesser extent than his own — and a third Attribute that… actually, Sunny had no idea what the third Attribute did.

Its description, though, was very interesting. He knew that death had been created by Shadow God, and now, he learned that it had been created as a weapon… but against whom? What kind of enemy could have demanded the creation of such a terrible thing?

Someone immortal, perhaps… no, that didn't make sense. If there had been a time before death was invented, then everything back then was immortal, eternal, and endless… right?

Sunny wasn't sure that he understood the concept of a world without death. What he did know, though, was that something as harrowing as death would not have been invented without a reason.

his attention back to the

[Shadow Manipulation], [Shadow

"You can affect the movement of shadows and walk

shadows, and your shadow can strike at the living

'...As expected.'

his own. Both were much less versatile and powerful than what he was

almost no more than a slightly different

a Shadow like Kurt could add a new layer to his battle

also the

"This Echo has the innate

That was a nice ability to have. Even Saint herself was limited to only using weapons and

of thought, Sunny looked at

[I have entrusted you with a beautiful blade, but all

a

am I

a funny thought that

waited for a bit,

'Let's take a look…'

motionlessly. Sparing him a glance, Sunny approached the spot between the black suns of his Shadow Cores, found a large sphere of

surface of still waters and slowly dimmed, revealing a gaunt,

his

or rather, a soulless copy of a human. Echo Kurt looked almost like a person, but the lifeless emptiness in his eyes screamed of a profound, abhorrent

the Hollow victims of its original, only even more vacant and devoid of the undefinable spark that all living things possessed. It was an artificial copy of a man that lacked the very

A ghastly effigy.

was incredibly

to think

less useless to him in its current state, but thanks to its [Awakened] Ability, it would possess the

was… did

surface, that question was rather simple. Who wouldn't want to have a creature equal to a powerful Awakened in their service? But

frowned, then raised a hand and poked the ghastly creature in

new string of runes appeared

into

He froze, thinking.

tremendous investment of resources. Nurturing Saint was very hard on Sunny, and especially on his pocket. Less importantly, but still somewhat pressing, was the need to spend a hundred shadow fragments to complete the

so much time and effort to get close to creating a third core, and

to turn

was Kurt

curious to see what would happen if one of

sure that he