Shadow Slave

Sunny got comfortable on his criminally soft bed, picked up a few succulent grapes from the tray placed on an intricate table near it, threw one in his mouth… and finally summoned the runes.

'Let's see…'

The first thing he glanced at was the shadow fragments counter. He vaguely remembered receiving what felt like much more than six after slaying the black steed, who had been an Awakened Terror. So, Sunny was hopeful to see a pleasant number…

However, when he did see it, he almost choked on the grape juice to death.

'What… what the Spell?! What?!'

He even rubbed his eyes, thinking that he was seeing things, but no. The counter was the same.

Shadow Fragments: [2823/3000].

Sunny stared at it in disbelief.

'Six hundred… I received almost six hundred fragments for killing that damned horse?'

Absentmindedly, he threw another grape into his mouth, and proceed to almost bite off one of his fingers from the sheer disorientation of it all.

'How is this even possible?!'

He thought about it for a bit, stunned, and then tilted his head a little.

'Could it be…'

One of the advantages, but also inherent drawbacks of Sunny's Aspect was that it operated through shadow fragments instead of the usual soul ones. So, while Sunny didn't need to collect and absorb shards to grow stronger, he also could not use the shards of creatures that he had not personally slain for that purpose.

all human Awakened, he did not receive a portion of all the accumulated soul fragments after

— did not consider him a human? He was a divine shadow, after all, and shadows recognized him as one of their own. So… would it be safe to say… that

of the Chain Lords. An Awakened Terror possessing six cores, and with a thousand years of battles and bloodshed behind his shoulders to fill them

of the fragments accumulated by the tenebrous courser throughout his long

math certainly supported

Sunny's eyes ignited.

'That… that is it!'

stumbled on one of the most crucial secrets about his own Aspect, power, and

Nightmare Creatures to create a new one would exert. As a Sleeper, or even an Awakened, he was too small and vulnerable. Any powerful abomination would have been able

higher his chances of survival were going to become. However, that also meant that there would be fewer creatures he would be able to hunt down to collect shadow fragments, since slaying those lower than him in Rank did not

he knew how much he could gain from destroying true shadow creatures… perhaps, there was still a way for him to grow

bloodsoaked arena of the Red Colosseum, and now these hundreds he gained by slaying the nightmare steed. Neither of these feats had been easy… in fact, both rewards had cost him an unimaginable amount of pain, torment, and damage both mental and physical… but the result almost made it seem as if it had all been

…Almost.

of gaining enough fragments to create a fourth core had seemed so distant and unreachable. But now, just a few months later, Sunny was already near the finish

amazing.

the Nightmare, Sunny stared at the unbelievable number for some time, then shifted his gaze

almost by accident while seeking the runes describing his Shadows. Before that, he had noticed that the runes of the Mantle of the Underworld seemed to shimmer a bit

and shifted his gaze to the last string describing the enchantments of the onyx armor… the

Now, it read:

Vanquished Foes: [3291/6000].

He blinked.

'Huh…'

He knew that the Nightmare Creatures and humans he had killed in the Read Colosseum had not

thousand

Sunny frowned.