Shadow Slave

In a dark underground chamber, a metal sarcophagus stood shrouded in silence. Nothing had disturbed the silence and no light had penetrated the darkness in a long, long time.

Until now.

Suddenly, the sarcophagus came to life, and a scattering of lights ignited on its surface. A crack appeared on the smooth alloy surface, revealing where the edges of a heavy lid were. The lid smoothly slid away, and a flood of radiant light chased away the darkness of the underground chamber.

Cold vapor shined as it rose from inside the sarcophagus. Then, a pale hand rose from within it and forcefully grabbed the metal lip, easily bending its armored alloy.

Sunny struggled to climb out of the sleeping pod for a few moments, then lowered his feet to the cool plates of the dojo's floor. A moment later, he swayed and fell down with a yelp.

"Damnation!"

Sunny remained sprawled on the floor for a few seconds, trying to understand what had happened and why he suddenly lost balance. Then, his eyes gleamed.

"Wait… I can speak again? I can speak again!"

A happy smile slowly appeared on his lips.

Of course… he was back to being a human! He had returned to his own body. Trying to move like a towering demon was not going to do his sense of balance any good…

With a mad grin, Sunny nimbly jumped to his feet and looked down, enjoying the sight of his slender, pale body. Then, he suddenly spun and performed several lightning-fast strikes and kicks.

"Ah, it is good to be home!"

agile… but most of all, so himself. It was as though a giant weight fell from his shoulders, quite literally — the shadowspawn must have weighed three times what Sunny weighed. Being a tall, powerful devil had its own advantages,

enemies to stick their blades in. And although having only two hands seemed rather inconvenient and silly, shedding the cumbersome shell of the inhuman creature feel nothing

body packed more punch than the shadowspawn could ever hope to muster. Not to mention how in tune it was with shadow essence now, and how

height. Only after being forcefully turned into a lumbering monstrosity did he learn to appreciate all the benefits of being light,

the crumpled metal of the lip of the sleeping pod. He had inadvertently damaged the armored alloy by simply grabbing it too hard. Getting used to his new strength was

disheartened about the damage he had done to the expensive machine. Replacing the bent panel was not going to be cheap. It was well within

then, he tilted his

do I even

about the

need

he would travel there physically. His body would not

could leave the Dream Realm behind, forever. If he wanted to, he could never go back to that hell. He could just remain in the comfort and safety of the real

becoming infected by the Nightmare Spell, Sunny was free to refuse it. He had won his right to have a choice. He… he

For now…

thriving enterprise would not be a problem. Sunny would be able

could even sleep in an actual bed, and see

happy ending for a

into the distance. Slowly, a pale smile

if that

Spell would be that easy. Even if he learned how to

would leave him be… especially the latter. Sunny suspected that he was going to receive

to subtle assistance from Master Jet, they had largely let him be when Sunny had been simply a promising Awakened. Now that he

that trying to become