Shadow Slave

'What the hell am I doing...'

Indeed. The wall of the city was breached, a menacing Nightmare Gate was towering above him, and not too far away, a furious conflict was raging in the rabble of the staging area. And yet, Sunny was staring at the runes that shimmered brightly in the air in front of him.

His vision was a little blurry, but the runes were clear and perfectly legible, as if existing outside of reality. Which they probably did.

'Oh, well...'

Sunny needed a couple of minutes to recover, anyway.

He looked at the field of runes, searching for the names of his Shadows. A new string of them replaced the old one:[Onyx Saint]

'Onyx, huh...'That had a nice ring to it.

Marble Saint had turned into Onyx Saint. Was his Marble Shell going to evolve into the Onyx Shell, as well, once he Transcended?

Sunny would have loved to pursue that train of thought, but unfortunately, he couldn't. His thoughts were slow and erratic, refusing to consider anything too complicated.

Giving up, he concentrated on the runes of Saint's name and started to read the descriptions.

Shadow: Onyx Saint.Shadow Rank: Ascended.Shadow Class: Devil.Shadow Attributes: [Battle Master], [Stalwart], [Ember of Divinity], [Heart of Darkness].

'Heart of Darkness... that's new.'

Sunny glanced at the mass of attacking arachnid warriors, catching a glimpse of Saint decapitating an especially menacing abomination with a swift slash of her black sword, then sending its body flying into the mob with a strike of her shield. Even before the rim of the shield connected with the creature's chest, the blade of the stone sword was already moving to deflect an incoming blow.

'...She's not dead yet.'

He looked back to the runes.

vestige of an ancient darkness dwells in this Shadow's heart, granting

Saint had not just destroyed the sphere of black stone in the tunnel... she had taken something from

Divinity] was also gone, replaced by the [Ember of Divinity]. The light of divinity and true darkness now coexisted within Saint, somehow... there was something

the conflict grew louder, and a little closer, forcing him to look past the runes nervously

Sunny lowered his gaze.

Sage], [Underworld Armament], [Mantle of

'Two new ones.'

was a bit

[Mantle of Darkness].Ability Description: [Darkness embraces this Shadow. When surrounded by darkness, and true darkness more so, her swiftness and

a

explains how she

Antarctica did not lack, it was darkness. Although the staging area was usually well lit, most tech nearby had been destroyed by the pulse of the

the [Mantle of Darkness] seemed to be a formidable one, and combined with the embrace of his four shadows, it produced a truly

him especially happy was that Saint would also be able to heal herself from now on, at least when surrounded by darkness.

soul. Sunny suspected that it alluded to both the true darkness dwelling in Saint's heart, and

to what the Black Knight had possessed, with one

Devil seemed to possess dual affinity - both to the shadows and to the elemental darkness. Those were supposed to be mutually exclusive, but were not, in

graceful knight paradoxically enjoyed the favor of both mundane and true darkness. Recalling how harrowing his journey through the underground tunnel had

'Interesting...'

he turned his gaze to the second of the

[Blade of Darkness].

true darkness dwelling in this Shadow's heart can be summoned in the form of a fearsome weapon, as long as the Shadow has mastered the use of that weapon. The Blade of Darkness can slay those of flesh and those of spirit; it never dulls, never

Sunny smiled.

her sword herself, in the

Blade of Darkness was a truly powerful Ability, indeed. Since Saint was a Battle Master and a Weapon Sage, she could wield any weapon with superb proficiency... which meant that the true darkness she

if Saint evolved again in the future. It was capable of killing both corporeal and incorporeal creatures. It could even be used to augment an existing weapon or a weapon-type Memory, both making it more powerful and

of it

Sunny gathered enough