Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the menagerie of monsters for a bit, getting used to the fact that his eyesight was different now, too. His eyes seemed to be much keener and were naturally able to see in utter darkness — as opposed to being gifted this trait by his Aspect — but had trouble differentiating colors.

The world was basically black and white, or rather consisted of various shades of grey, similar to how he used to see the world through shadows. His sense of smell was also enhanced, overloading his mind with an avalanche of new information. It was hard to concentrate on any one thing, let alone make sense of all this mess.

'Ah, who cares. Let's just get out of here.'

Just like in the Night Temple, the cage limited his shadow sense. However, this one did not sap him of shadow essence, which was a pleasant surprise.

Sunny's joy was short-lived, however.

As soon as he tried to Shadow Step away, he realized that he couldn't teleport through the iron bars. What's more, even his shadows couldn't slide through them, as though there was an invisible barrier blocking their way.

Sunny gritted his teeth, and felt a sharp pain as his fangs sunk into the soft flesh inside his mouth. He tried to curse, and produced a furious growl instead. After that, he simply remained motionless for a bit, staring at the other prisoners of the dungeon with gloomy resentment.

'Curse it all.'

Finally, he shook his head and awkwardly knelt at the bottom of the cage, grasping the iron bars with all four of his hands. Moving twice the amount he had possessed previously was a bit of a challenge, but he did manage after a couple of attempts.

'Fine. There are other methods… I'll melt this whole damned cage, if necessary.'

He stretched one hand through the bars, and summoned the Cruel Sight.

And then… nothing happened.

The only thing that changed was that his steel collar turned a little colder for a moment.

Sunny frowned, his black eyes growing even darker, then tried again.

The somber weapon did not appear. There was no tenebrous mist shrouding his hand, and no feeling of a small portion of his shadow essence disappearing to grant the Memory a physical shape.

Feeling unease, Sunny lingered for a second, and then tried to summon the Midnight Shard.

more, his collar grew colder for a

is

result. His Memories refused to appear, and not even a single spark of ethereal light ignited in the

Even Weaver's Mask…

runes, hoping to see that he was wrong, that the list of his Memories did

no, no,

But…

was nothing in the air in

'Wait… what?'

called the runes forth again and again, but they were inexplicably

'Can't be!'

was almost

if he was completely cut off from the

realization hit him, Sunny leaned heavily on the bars

kind of a

it even possible to lose connection to

It was the Spell, damn

snatch an Awakened away from

able to enter

Sunny had spent so long living with the Spell that he almost didn't

'I don't understand…'

cope with this new reality when heavy footsteps suddenly resounded in the ghastly dungeon. Raising his head, Sunny saw a giant of a man walking between the hanging cages, his powerful figure radiating a sense of vast, solemn strength. The man was wearing a

and heavy enough to split any abomination in half, and on

face was hidden beneath a hood, but Sunny didn't need to see it to know that he was looking

Ascended was walking straight

But, uh… to do what,

of the ability to summon Memories. He was

a Master with his bare fists… claws, or