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.

four shadows to stand watch - two outside the apartment, two within - and stood there for a few minutes, mentally

seem to be dangerous,

The principle was simple.

formlessness - it allowed him to shadow an enemy, copying the very essence of their combat technique. After doing so,

step allowed him to shadow simpler battle styles. He had achieved that breakthrough while fighting

it much faster. It also gave him a glimpse of an intuitive

a vast library of techniques in the Dreamscape, which culminated during his first duel with Morgan. The inspiration Sunny had received after

of the Red Colosseum, he had submerged himself into

actual self - which, of course, posed the risk of losing it forever. Sunny had

together by using his True Name. It served as an anchor for what made Sunny an individual, and through it,

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 fourth step...

wall. Shadow 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

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

mastering Shadow Dance, he

had created by bringing together various facets of his

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

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 training he had put into making it as flexible

he added another ingredient to

his Dormant Ability, Shadow Control, his Ascended Ability, Shadow Manifestation, and his

Ability - Shadow Dance - was

perhaps, was the reason for the limitations Sunny

uh... let's just try

that he might just discover a direction that would eventually lead him to the next step of