Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, a pale smile appearing on his face. Beyond the window of his cabin, the sky was slowly turning black, the stars shining on its velvet surface as they welcomed the arrival of the newborn moon.

'Nightmare… so that is your name.'

What better name could there be for a Shadow that moved through human dreams, turning them into visions of horror?

He hesitated for a few moments, then looked away, turning to a different string of runes first.

There was another Shadow of his that had changed. The Soul Serpent... every time Sunny moved up a Class, so did the Serpent. And every time Sunny mastered a new step of Shadow Dance, the Serpent ascended to a new Rank.

...At least, that was how things were supposed to go.

Shadow: Soul Serpent.

Shadow Rank: Ascended.

Shadow Class: Demon.

Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon], [Soul Beast].

Sunny sighed.

'Ascended...'

Now that he had mastered the third step of the Shadow Dance, the Serpent had, indeed, evolved as well. The tenebrous creature was now an Ascended Demon, just like Saint. Both of them had left Sunny in the dust.

While it hurt his pride a little that his Shadows were more powerful than him… not to mention way cooler, according to some tasteless brats… having two creatures of such formidable might under his command was going to be of tremendous help, without a doubt. Especially considering the caliber of enemies he would most likely have to face in this trial.

He glanced down, at the intricate tattoo coiling around his arms and torso. It seemed larger. Sunny could already feel the rush of the essence through his body, its rate of expenditure and speed of replenishment increased even further.

Not only was the Serpent going to be much more powerful in its Soul Beast form, but also, from now on, any Soul Weapon Sunny would want to use would be of the Ascended Rank, as well.

Basically, he now had a vast arsenal of Ascended armaments to choose from.

'...Well, isn't that neat?'

runes. The Serpent was not supposed to gain any new Abilities from rising to a new Rank, just like Saint had not. However, that Legacy Shadow of his was a bit strange… it had come into possession of the [Soul Beast] Attribute and the [Soul Reaver] Ability the last time he mastered a step of the Aspect Legacy,

time

as Sunny hoped, there was a new set of runes shining

[Serpentine Steel], [Soul Reaver], [Grace

He frowned.

'Huh? Grace of Shadows?'

the new Ability, and

the trust and companionship of their Shadow Guide. One should be careful whom they bestow with their grace; entrusting others

He tilted his head.

'Uh… what?'

of the Soul Serpent to someone else, as if the Shadow was just an Echo. No, not quite… Echoes could be

a random Nightmare Creature. Like the Mordant Mimic,

No, it

his precious Serpent? Especially considering that the description hinted that

Well, not every Ability could be a winner. This one was rather useless… he could imagine a situation where lending the Soul Serpent to one of the cohort members would be beneficial, but just

a sigh, he commanded the Serpent to slither off of his

moments later,

did my cute little

at least not too terrible… no more than six meters in length, at best. But now, a stygian creature of

swallow Sunny whole… well, at least his real, human body… and its triangular head however near the ceiling, two tenebrous eyes looking

it barely fit into the confines of the

Sunny gulped.

boy… you are. Nice snake! Uh, you... you can

for a few more seconds, then hissed deeply and moved, its scales rustling on the floorboards. Soon,

few moments,

afraid of that thing… imagine how my enemies will

***

at its somber steel. Every centimeter of this weapon was familiar to

a weapon one

a tang dao, then a tachi, and finally a battle axe. All of them felt the same

could take any form, but was limited by Sunny's knowledge. The better he knew a weapon, the better he could imagine it, to the smallest of details… the greater the result would be. And so, while he could command it to assume any

steel for a bit, and then put the

time to check on the rest