Shadow Slave

Five Reflections surrounded Sunny, each bearing his own image. The towering shadowkin devils looked nothing short of terrifying. Their gaunt, ironclad figures emanated a feeling of profound threat and malice, and their black eyes peered at him with inhuman intensity. It was deeply disturbing.

'Damn... am I that scary?'

Sunny leaned on the backrest of his chair and said without skipping a pause:

"Lost from Light… kill that wicked old man!"

The Reflections continued to stare at him, unmoving. A few moments passed, but nothing happened.

An awkward silence hung in the air.

Mordret chuckled.

"You didn't really think that this trick would work again, did you?"

He smiled, then glanced at the shadow devils with satisfaction.

"Naturally, I bound them to myself before you arrived."

Sunny glared at the old man for a bit, then looked away and shrugged.

"Well… it was worth a try, anyway."

'Disappointing…'

He studied the Reflections for a second, trying to determine how powerful they were, exactly.

Unlike how Mordret had appeared during their soul battle, now, Sunny could only see one weak core in the frail body of the old man. It was dim and unremarkable, hinting that he was looking at the priest's own soul… or at least its perfect imitation. It seemed that determining which body the Prince of Nothing possessed in that manner was impossible. His own soul was perfectly hidden.

The Reflections, on the other hand, were different… and quite bizarre. Sunny could see shadow cores inside each of the creatures, but despite looking like shadow devils, none of them were.

All of them were Ascended, but two out of five were mere Beasts. Two more were Monsters, and one was a Demon. Sunny had no idea how the Class progression worked when it came to Reflections, but he suspected that they were less powerful than the Mirror Beast, their elder sibling, had been.

had lived a much longer life and risen to an

than enough to rip him to shreds. Especially considering that each of them was reflecting a wielder

Mordret, hesitated, and said

impressive… but also a bit underwhelming. I guess slaughtering thousands of mundane humans was not very nourishing for your monsters, huh? Now that I see them, I do agree

at him with

enough

Sunny grinned.

not. You are not going

Mordret raised an eyebrow.

you

comfortably on his

the point? I am more useful to you alive. Plus, if you get rid of me, you can say goodbye to all the wonderful

The old man smiled.

reasonable answer. However… are you that sure

felt a cold shiver run down his spine and forced out a weak

sure.

Mordret frowned.

allies seem to have abandoned you. Your Shadows are wounded

apprehension, Sunny lingered for a few moments, and then

powerful, indeed. I am already a

shifted his gaze to the old man, a wicked smile

can it? You sacrificed all your cores to create these Reflections. By now, you could have succeeded in creating one, maybe two. That still makes you weaker than me. More than

darker, suffused with a

destroying your body before they can

with explosive might. There were just a few meters separating him from the frail old man… he

step back, and raised

Please, don't! What would I do without a

he shook his head

can take, right? Come to think of it… maybe I'll travel outside the city, find one of your allies, and wear them instead. Which one should I pick, huh? The child or the cripple? I can kill two birds with

Sunny grew quiet.