Shadow Slave

The second lecture had turned out to be a challenge for Sunny. Not because he felt unprepared to teach the less experienced Awakened, but because all of them were very enthused and full of questions about Changing Star's return.

The whole Academy was abuzz.

"Master Sunless, have you met Lady Changing Star?"

"Is it true? Did she Ascend?!"

"Are you going to join the Immortal Flame clan now? Can we join, too?!"

Normally, that would not have been a problem. Sadly for Sunny, he could not refuse to answer any question due to his Flaw, so it took some time and ingenuity to not let anything important slip while reigning the students in. Eventually, he forced them to concentrate on the lecture.

After the lecture was over, he had to take care of some administrative issues, as well as visit Teacher Julius and assist the old man with a few tasks. Seeing that his assistant was very eager to leave, the elderly Instructor did not keep Sunny long and soon let him go with a knowing smile.

"Ah, youth…"

Sunny frowned a little as he hurried to the door.

'What is that supposed to mean?'

Throwing the confusion out of his mind, Sunny decided to not waste time and used Shadow Step to reach the train station as fast as possible. On the way home, he was deep in thought.

After the night of experimenting and exploring their bond, he was very curious what else Nephis and him could do. As far as Sunny understood it, Shadow Bond made it so that their souls were strangely considered to be two parts of a single whole, at least when applied to the function of their Aspects.

So… did that mean that he could pool Neph with him through the shadows when using Shadow Step?

If he used a charm like Blood Blossom, would its effect be shared to her?

If so, would the boost granted to them remain the same, or grow twice as weak?

answers to them could

of the fact that stronger Awakened or powerful Nightmare Creatures could snuff out his life without too much trouble. Anything that could grant him more power to defend himself was a boon, and the memory of how powerful he had felt last night was still fresh in

reality was not

Neph

he had not forgotten that this power came at a

was his

bidding,

was just that… he didn't want to have that talk yet. Talking openly about

do it

himself had not been in the best of shapes

give her some time to

walked inside and took off his shoes. Then , he looked around and noticed Neph sitting on a tall stool near the kitchen counter, staring at her communicator with strange intensity. Her eyes were burning, and it seemed

with what was happening on the screen that she did not even pay attention to his

can do it. She is good,

usually far more reserved. And what did she mean?

talking to herself. But what

a few steps forward and looked over Neph's

appeared

an elegant half-mask. Rose petals fell from above, carpeting a grandiose arena.

Isn't that… isn't that my duel

memorable fight! He

blinked a couple of times, remained silent for a

"Uh… hey? I'm back."

slowly turned and looked at him