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.

watch - two outside the apartment, two within - and stood

seem to be dangerous, just... really

The principle was simple.

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

battle styles. He had achieved

elevated his comprehension of 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 intuitive understanding of the more esoteric components of the truly advanced battle arts - those created and used by the Awakened, thus incorporating special ways of guiding soul essence through

Dreamscape, which culminated during his first duel with Morgan. The inspiration Sunny had received after

the Red Colosseum, he had submerged himself into their perverted, demented, rabid minds... which allowed him to intuitively feel what the abominations he fought

step of Shadow Dance was much more 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. Sunny had made that dangerous breakthrough after being trapped in an endless procession of harrowing dreams by Nightmare and having his personal memories

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

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

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...

steps of Shadow Dance went far beyond battle techniques... and would

Dance, he had achieved progress in other

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

its role was perhaps the most important - without deep comprehension

was a

all, shadows were truly shapeless 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

what if... he added another ingredient

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

Ability - Shadow Dance - was missing from

perhaps, was the reason for the limitations

let's

might just discover a direction