Shadow Slave

Sunny and Nephis stood opposite each other, holding training swords. Both felt more than a little disturbed by how much this scene resembled their bitter confrontation at the very top of the Crimson Spire.

Of course, today, the situation was completely different. They were just going for a friendly spar, not a battle to the death. There were no stakes in this training fight, no emotional investment… no complicated mixture of regret, fury, and resentment.

…So why did Sunny feel as though he had to prove something?

Forcing himself to relax, he glanced at Nephis and attacked. Their swords met with a deafening clangor.

A few seconds later, Sunny jumped away and shouted:

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Changing Star froze while he looked around, breathing heavily.

Sunny gritted his teeth and spat a muffled curse.

"Damnation…"

His idea to have a spar might not have been the wisest one he ever had. Yes, the underground dojo was designed specifically to allow Awakened to train their powers. It was isolated, reinforced, and heavily armored, able to transform into an impregnable bunker in case a Gate opened nearby and a tide of Nightmare Creatures flooded the district.

The interior was furnished with heavy plates of armor-grade ceramic alloy and supplied with training equipment meant to withstand the rigors of Awakened power.

…However, Sunny and Nephis weren't Awakened anymore! They were full-fledged Masters, and abnormal ones at that!

A few plates on the floor were broken. If this continued, the repair bill for the dojo was going to really sting Sunny's

that… Nephis was not exactly at her best. She had just returned to the waking world yesterday. Before that, she had been a Sleeper, which meant that she

could tell exactly how chaotic and unrestrained the flow of her essence was, because Shadow Dance now allowed him to sense the movement of the mystical energy through the

still took some time to get used to it, and even more to master it. However, every Ascended before Changing

reached Ascension, controlling essence was

a Master might have been miraculous, but it also deprived her of a lot of things that people who did not break the natural order

was out of her

deep frown, Sunny waved a

you'll have to spend some time learning how to guide your soul essence. After that, you will have to spend even more time relearning how

thought for a bit,

try this again, but without using any essence at all. It will be a pure test

Nephis had one more core than him. But with all things considered, if both of them neglected using essence or augmenting themselves with their Abilities, the gap in physical prowess should

each other and concentrated. Each discarded their

later,

went better. However… not

to sense the core of her style. It had

its flow and cadence enough to be able to

the same. Her ability to discern, predict, and control patterns of combat was not based in affinity to shadows, and was sufficiently different from it… but achieved a similar result. It was the

was thinking of doing, while she could predict what he had predicted her actions,

demanded so much mental gymnastics before. He was not even entirely sure what was happening! There had to be a solution for this

was just

result, Sunny had to endure sudden