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.

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

to be dangerous, just... really

The principle was simple.

to date. The essence of his battle art 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 flow of their battle intent, and even

first step allowed him to shadow simpler battle styles. He

battle techniques, allowing him to shadow much more sophisticated styles, and do it much faster. It also gave him a glimpse

first duel with

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 his

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.

pulled the dissipating pieces of his true self back together by using his True Name. It served as an anchor for what

comprehend the battle intent and combat intelligence of those beings he shadowed even further, allowed him to actually perceive the flow of essence through their bodies as opposed to just feeling it intuitively, and even gave him the ability

The fourth step...

Dance was his Aspect Legacy, but it was also something he had to invent all on 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

went far beyond battle techniques... and would be much,

had stagnated in mastering Shadow Dance, he

he had created by bringing together various facets

shells of other creatures. In fact, its role was perhaps the most important - without deep comprehension of the desired form, Sunny would never

there was a limitation to

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

added

Shadow Shell existed as a combination of his Dormant Ability, Shadow Control, his Ascended Ability, Shadow

Shadow Dance - was missing

the reason for the limitations Sunny had to

uh... let's just

succeeded... Sunny felt that he might just discover a direction that would eventually lead him to the next step of Shadow