Shadow Slave

For a while, Sunny silently experimented with his new power.

Shadow Manifestation was an… interesting Ability, especially when combined with the evolved Shadow Control. It was deceptively straightforward, but held so much depth that Sunny wasn't sure that he would be able to figure out all of its potential uses in a short span of time.

The fundamental function of Shadow Manifestation was rather simple — it allowed him to turn shadows tangible.

But the devil hid in the details.

Now that Sunny enjoyed authority over all shadows, and not only his own, he could manipulate their shape and even make them move according to his will. However, that facet of his Aspect had its caveats.

Not all shadows were the same. Some were young, and some were ancient. Some were deep, and some were shallow. Most importantly, some belonged to inanimate objects, and some belonged to living beings.

Although Sunny enjoyed their respect and reverence, that did not mean that all shadows were going to submit to him implicitly. They simply chose to follow his commands due to his status as the Master of Shadows, as opposed to being forced to do it.

That was not new to Sunny. He had already noticed this pattern of behavior when inviting wild shadows to enter the Shadow Lantern. Most did it of their own free will, but some obstinate ones refused his invitation.

Now that the [Child of Shadows] Attribute had evolved, only the most ancient and deep of the wild shadows seemed reluctant to answer his call. However, not all shadows were "wild" — that was a term he decided to use when speaking about those of them that were cast by inanimate objects.

If a shadow was cast by a living being and connected to a living soul, no amount of authority Sunny had could compel it to abandon or betray their source.

So, Shadow Control only allowed him to manipulate wild shadows. The deeper and older a shadow was, the more concentration it took to command it. He also experienced more strain when commanding distant shadows — now that Sunny became an Ascended Devil, the reach of his control extended to almost ten kilometers. His shadow sense, however, did not usually extend quite that far.

would have been overloaded if it did. So while Sunny could potentially control shadows that were very far away, he

shadows, of course,

the actual Shadow

The shadows would remain tangible as long as

was both a blessing and a curse. For obvious reasons, Sunny would have preferred to

suffused with his essence, they assumed its property. In other words… all of them were akin to

and manifested it, the blade would be comparable to an

formless by nature, he could shape them into anything he wanted. He could create barriers, bridges, ropes, suits of armor… the only limitations were his

he could even create a saddle for Nightmare, or

a shape was, the more essence it took to sustain it. Creating a simple shadow tentacle was not too hard, but imbuing

shadows also took a toll, although they

was not going to fly on its own, but a manifested shadow could move around and grab his enemies. That was not a

of strength, which was usually not too high. Sunny was far away from being able

he really wanted

he wanted to exert above their natural threshold, the more essence he had to burn.

Sunny was a Devil. He had vastly more essence than almost any other Master had at their disposal. If he really wanted to, he could exert truly monstrous strength through his manifested shadows. Even though that would be grossly inefficient in terms of essence

a finger? Even if there were many easier and

And as devious.

allowed him much better control, and demanded much less essence to be used. For a few moments, he imagined summoning Gloomy, Happy, Creepy, and Haughty, arming them with shadow blades, and making them fight

a sight