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

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

Even Weaver's Mask…

he hurriedly summoned the runes, hoping to see that he was wrong, that the list

no, no,

But…

runes did not appear. There was nothing in the air in front of him, just cold

'Wait… what?'

the runes forth again and again, but they were inexplicably gone. His collar was now

'Can't be!'

was almost

he was completely cut off from

on the bars of the cage and

a Nightmare

was it even possible to

It was the Spell, damn it! The

snatch an Awakened away from

even able to enter his Soul

the Spell that he almost didn't remember what existing without it felt

'I don't understand…'

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 worn leather armor and a tattered red robe, its edges frayed

to split any

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

that Ascended was walking

is my chance! But, uh… to do what,

to his new monstrous body, and was devoid of the ability to summon Memories. He was unarmed and defenseless. He didn't even know if his

supposed to do? Try to fight a Master with his bare fists…