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.

the apartment, two within - and stood there for a few minutes, mentally

to be dangerous, just... really

The principle was simple.

three steps of Shadow Dance to date. The essence of his battle art was shapelessness and formlessness - it allowed him to shadow an enemy, copying the very essence of

He had achieved that

him a 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

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

yet. Sunny had started his journey toward mastery of it by expanding his horizons and starting to shadow not only humans, but also Nightmare Creatures. In the bloody arena of the Red Colosseum, he had submerged himself into their perverted, demented, rabid minds... which allowed him to intuitively feel what the abominations he fought would do, but also put

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

back together by using his True Name. It served as an anchor for what made Sunny an individual, and through it, he was able to advance his mastery

breakthrough enhanced the speed with which he could comprehend the battle intent and combat intelligence of those beings he shadowed even further, allowed him to actually perceive the flow of essence through

The fourth step...

on his own, with no one guiding him... as such, he wasn't even sure

only felt that the next steps of Shadow Dance went far beyond battle techniques... and would be

he

was the Shadow Shell - a powerful tool he had

fact, its role was perhaps the most important - without deep comprehension of

was a limitation to Shadow

make his mind supremely malleable, he still possessed a human body. No matter

he added another ingredient

combination of his Dormant Ability, Shadow Control,

Awakened Ability - Shadow Dance

reason for the

uh... let's

felt that he might just discover a direction that would eventually lead him