Shadow Slave

Imp... or was Sunny supposed to call him Fiend now?... did not get new abilities. Which was logical, really, since the Black Turtle was only a Monster - and the gluttonous Shadow had not even consumed the flesh of the abominations, only its armor.

Still, the scrawny goblin had become a fearsome ogre. He was going to significantly increase Sunny's battle power, not the least because of his carefully chosen diet. Sunny had given up on feeding Ravenous Fiend a lot of valuable stuff so that his growth did not become muddled.

Imp's main affinities had to be established first - steel and shadows. The flames he had absorbed from the colossal body of the Sun Prince were a pleasant side effect, increasing the power of the steel devil's attacks... but what Sunny had really wanted was to make his youngest Shadow as indestructible as possible.

Saint possessed an incredible level of defense, which was only made greater by her masterful battle prowess. But Imp was different - if not guided cautiously, he could have ended up being vulnerable. Considering the types of situations Sunny often found himself in, that vulnerability was bound to result in him losing his first Shadow sooner rather than later.

Survivability was king. He had regrettably proven it himself over and over again, clinging to life by the skin of his teeth on many occasions.

Which was why Sunny was so impressed by how hard to kill the original Scavenger had been. He had experienced the toughness of the spiteful fiend's bone armor personally, after all, and wanted to make Imp at least as durable. If the ravenous Shadow managed to approach the level of defense Saint possessed, that would have been even better.

In that regard... Sunny seemed to have overshot his initial goal. By a lot.

Imp's [Complete Steel Body] was not only as durable as Saint's graceful body was, but vastly more so. His metal carapace was sturdier than her stonelike armor, and much more importantly, that durability encompassed the entire body of the ravenous devil, not just its surface.

Although Saint was hard to wound, she was actually quite vulnerable once her armor and resilient skin were breached. The internals of her miraculous stone body were well protected, but fragile. The ruby dust that flowed out of the wounds like blood was proof of that.

Ravenous Fiend, however, was now fully tempered, both outside and inside. There were no vulnerabilities that an enemy could exploit - at least not an enemy using physical attacks.

Which meant that while Imp could deliver fearsome blows, his true power lay in being nearly impervious to physical harm. He could become the shield of the Shadow Cohort.

'...Or a punching bag.'

scratched the back of his head and looked in the direction where Imp was standing, hidden from view by a wall, with a

'Sorry, buddy...'

shook his head and remained silent for

unbelievably strong due to Shadow Dance, at least for an Ascended. If augmented by Nephis, his power was probably comparable to some Saints now - enough to give him a

Shadows, most Saints would probably be the ones at risk, not him. And that was without Soul Serpent, who should have become the strongest

After experiencing the dire perils of the upper reaches of the Great River, and knowing that he would have to venture far downstream, into the distant past, Sunny knew that

The problem was...

am almost at

were very few things he could realistically achieve in a short amount of time to increase his power even further. The only feasible one was helping Nightmare evolve into an Ascended Terror and unlock his [Dream Curse] Ability. That was going to happen relatively soon,

effort, he could potentially become a Terror. But even that boost was not going to be significant enough to change the odds in his favor.

more than any Master in history had, perhaps - but now, his head was pressed against an indestructible ceiling. The only way for him to leap to a new height was by

could only happen after the Nightmare, meaning too late. Of course, he had recently learned from Ananke that people could Transcend without the assistance of the Spell - that path was open to him, but sadly, Sunny did not have a hundred spare years or more to slowly learn how to do just

What was left, then?

He frowned.

I am thinking about it

most of his life, and even after learning how to rely on others and trust his friends, he still

through Neph's Second Nightmare, the lesson she had learned there resonated with his own experiences. Personal strength was important, but it

incredible things there, but he had not achieved them alone. The evacuation of hundreds of millions of civilians was only possible because the government had mobilized vast resources to send the First and Second

fought and died to save the people of Antarctica, Sunny would

compared to the united