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.

lived a much longer life and

more than enough to rip him to shreds. Especially considering that

looked at Mordret, hesitated, and

but also a bit underwhelming. I guess slaughtering thousands of mundane humans was not very nourishing for your monsters, huh? Now

old man looked at him with a

still enough to

Sunny grinned.

let's not. You are not going to kill

Mordret raised an eyebrow.

makes you

comfortably on his chair, Sunny

I am more useful to you alive. Plus, if you get rid of me, you can say goodbye to all the wonderful Memories I possess. I would have been a bit scared if you had weeks

The old man smiled.

However… are you

shiver run down his spine and

really. I am not sure. In any case, you are also underestimating

Mordret frowned.

have abandoned you. Your Shadows are wounded and can't be summoned again. What can you

shadow devils with apprehension, Sunny lingered for

indeed. I am already a bit of a menace, and these things possess all of my powers, wielding them with the might of Ascendeds

man,

can't be said about you, 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 that, I couldn't help to notice that your Aspect, terrifying as it might be, doesn't offer you any direct combat augmentations. It's all pure Utility.

grew darker, suffused with a dangerous

good chance of destroying your body

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

step back, and raised his hands

would I do without

shook his head

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 one stone and deal with that infuriating oracle of yours at the same time.

Sunny grew quiet.