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.

two within - and stood there for a

be dangerous,

The principle was simple.

his battle art was shapelessness and formlessness - it allowed him to shadow an enemy, copying the very essence

simpler battle styles. He had achieved

the fundamental principles that governed all battle techniques, allowing him to shadow much more sophisticated styles, and do it much faster. It also gave him a glimpse of an

duel with Morgan.

expanding his horizons and starting to shadow not only humans, but also Nightmare Creatures. In the bloody arena of the Red Colosseum, he

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 memories

end, he had pulled the dissipating pieces 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 to

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

The fourth step...

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 what the correct path was,

battle techniques... and would be

mastering Shadow Dance, he had achieved progress in

powerful tool he had created by bringing together various facets of his skills, Attributes,

important - without deep comprehension of the desired form, Sunny

a

still possessed a human body. No matter how much training he had put

added

Shadow Control, his Ascended Ability,

Ability - Shadow Dance - was missing from the

for the limitations Sunny had to

let's just

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