Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, then chuckled.

"No... that's crazy! It would never work."

Then, he stared at the wall some more.

...Would it?

'No way.'

The thought that had crept into his mind while he was thinking about the limitations of the Shadow Shell was so out there that it seemed utterly ridiculous. But the more he thought about it... the fewer reasons to discard it he saw.

'No, that's... that's a bit too strange, even for me.'

And yet, he could not find a logical reason for why it wouldn't be true.

Sunny hesitated for a while longer, then furtively looked around.

Then, he cleared his throat, stood up, and left the office.

If he wanted to test this bizarre theory, he needed to do it somewhere more private.

He left the Valor compound and made his way to the nearby dormitory, where most of the government staff still remaining within the siege capital lived. There, he entered his living quarters - which were a bit more spacious and had better amenities than that of both mundane and Awakened government workers - and locked the door behind him.

Being an Ascended had its perks.

watch - two outside the apartment, two within - and stood there for a few minutes, mentally going over what he was about

be

The principle was simple.

was shapelessness and formlessness - it allowed him to shadow an enemy, copying the very essence of their combat technique. After doing so, he could predict their movements, the

step allowed him to shadow simpler battle styles. He had achieved

glimpse of an intuitive understanding of the more esoteric components of the truly advanced battle arts - those created and used by the Awakened, thus incorporating special ways of guiding soul essence through one's

first duel with Morgan. The inspiration Sunny had received after being decimated by the Princess of War

Red Colosseum, he had submerged himself into their perverted, demented, rabid minds... which allowed him to intuitively feel what the abominations

third step of Shadow Dance was much more demanding on the practitioner. It required one to truly accept the formless nature of the shadows and let go of their actual self - which, of course, posed the risk of losing it forever. Sunny had made that

an anchor for what made Sunny an individual, and through it, he was able to advance his mastery of Shadow Dance without losing

to actually perceive the flow of essence through their bodies as opposed to just feeling it intuitively, and even gave him the

The fourth step...

his own, with no one guiding him... as such, he wasn't even sure what the correct path was, let alone how to reach the next stop on

beyond battle techniques... and would be much, much harder to

he had stagnated in mastering Shadow Dance, he had achieved progress in

he had created by bringing together various facets of his skills,

a role in him being able to create shells of other creatures. In fact, its role was perhaps the most important - without deep comprehension of the desired form, Sunny would never be able to construct it from the shadows, and that was what his Aspect Legacy allowed him to

there was a

and formless, while Sunny was not. Even if he had managed to make his mind supremely malleable, he still possessed a human body. No matter how much

added another ingredient

as a combination of his Dormant Ability, Shadow Control, his Ascended Ability, Shadow Manifestation,

Shadow Dance - was missing from

reason for the limitations Sunny had to deal

let's just

might just discover a direction that