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.

to stand watch - two outside the apartment, two within - and stood there

didn't seem to be dangerous, just...

The principle was simple.

an

He had achieved that breakthrough while fighting Nephis in the Crimson

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

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

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

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

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

and combat intelligence of those beings he shadowed even further, allowed him to actually perceive the

The fourth step...

the wall. Shadow Dance was his Aspect Legacy, but it was also something he had to invent all on his own, with

battle techniques... and would be much, much harder to conceive and master for

stagnated in mastering Shadow Dance, he

of it was the Shadow Shell - a powerful tool he had created

important - without deep comprehension of

was a

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 and

what if... he added

a combination of his Dormant Ability, Shadow Control,

- Shadow Dance - was missing

that, perhaps, was the reason for the limitations Sunny had

let's

that he might just discover a direction that would eventually