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.

[A vestige of an ancient darkness dwells in

sphere of black stone in the tunnel... she had taken something from it.

of divinity and true darkness now coexisted within Saint, somehow... there was something interesting about that fact, but Sunny, in his pitiful state,

sounds of the conflict grew louder, and a little closer, forcing him to look past the runes nervously and then hurry up. The Gate Guardian

Sunny lowered his gaze.

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

'Two new ones.'

Ability was a bit familiar. He

so, her swiftness and might will increase. Her wounds will be healed,

blinked a couple

explains how she is so powerful right

usually well lit, most tech nearby had been destroyed by the pulse of the opening Gate. Saint was wreathed

seemed to be a formidable one, and combined with the embrace of

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

alluded to both the true darkness dwelling in Saint's heart, and her essence... or whatever it was that the Shadow used instead of

were very similar to what the Black Knight had possessed,

darkness. Those were supposed to be mutually exclusive, but were not, in her

and true darkness. Recalling how harrowing his journey through the underground tunnel had

'Interesting...'

turned his gaze to the second

[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 falters, and never

Sunny smiled.

she fixed her sword herself,

Sage, she could wield any weapon with superb proficiency... which meant that the true

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 elemental property to its

it

when Sunny