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

be dangerous, just...

The principle was simple.

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

shadow simpler battle styles. He had achieved that breakthrough

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

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

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,

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 dangerous breakthrough after being trapped in an endless procession of harrowing dreams by Nightmare and having his personal

together by using his True Name. It served as an anchor for what made Sunny

shadowed even further, allowed him to actually perceive the flow of essence through their bodies as opposed to just

The fourth step...

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

battle techniques... and would be much,

had stagnated in mastering Shadow Dance, he had achieved progress in other aspects of his personal

the Shadow Shell - a powerful tool he had created by bringing together various facets of his

shells of other creatures. In fact, its role was perhaps the most important - without deep comprehension of the desired form,

there was a limitation to Shadow

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

added another ingredient to the

a combination of his Dormant Ability, Shadow Control, his Ascended Ability, Shadow Manifestation, and his Aspect Legacy, Shadow

Dance - was missing from

reason for the limitations Sunny had

uh... let's just

he might just discover a direction