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.

of an ancient darkness dwells

in the tunnel... she had taken something from it. Sunny

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

to look past the runes nervously and then hurry up. The Gate Guardian could arrive at

Sunny lowered his gaze.

[Weapon Sage], [Underworld Armament], [Mantle of Darkness], [Blade

'Two new ones.'

name of the first Ability was a bit familiar. He concentrated on

of Darkness].Ability Description: [Darkness embraces this Shadow. When surrounded by darkness, and true darkness more so, her swiftness and might will increase. Her wounds will be healed, and her

a couple of

that explains how she is

there was one thing that Antarctica did not lack, it was darkness. Although the staging area was usually well lit,

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

to heal herself from

darkness dwelling in Saint's heart, and her essence... or whatever it

abilities... were very similar to what the Black

seemed to possess dual affinity - both to the shadows and to the elemental darkness. Those were supposed

both mundane and true darkness. Recalling how harrowing his journey through the underground tunnel had been, Sunny could not

'Interesting...'

turned his gaze to the second of the two

[Blade of Darkness].

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 falters, and never breaks. Alternatively, the darkness can be summoned to augment

Sunny smiled.

her sword herself, in the

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

growing stronger 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 adding an

of it was

Sunny gathered