Shadow Slave

As the city was slowly waking up, Sunny finished his coffee and leaned back, enjoying his last moments of peace. He did not have a lot of regular customers, but there were some. They were probably going to start arriving soon, which meant that he would be busy for the next few hours.

Before that, however…

He glanced at his shadow, his gaze becoming distant for a moment.

Then, a familiar voice whispered into his ear:

[You have slain a Great Demon.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.].

It was his own voice.

Sunny brushed his fingers across the black bracelet on his left wrist and slowly exhaled. The bracelet was a Memory he had created a while back… it was a crude knockoff of the Spell, replacing some of its simplest functions. Announcing his kills was one of them.

He shifted slightly.

'That… went better than expected.'

He had just killed a Great Demon.

Well, technically, it was his other self that had done it. His avatars were not beholden to the maximum range of Shadow Control, so there was a vast distance between them.

Currently, Sunny was simultaneously in three separate locations. His original body was here in Bastion, enjoying a peaceful life in the company of the gloomy shadow — he had kept that guy so that people had no reason to ask why he was walking around without a shadow at all. His second self was incarnated by the happy shadow, keeping an eye on Rain. His last avatar was far away, in one of the most dangerous regions of the Dream Realm, incarnated by the haughty shadow.

Haughty, naughty, creepy, and crazy were together. Saint, Fiend, Serpent, and Nightmare were with them, as well. Unlike the first two, the third Sunny knew no peace. He wielded the most power of the three and spent his days in eternal darkness, often clashing with dreadful abominations.

Of course, the three of them were actually one person. So Sunny had been enjoying a peaceful morning in Bastion, accompanying Rain, and battling the Great Demon at the same time, all along.

But he had grown good at compartmentalizing over the years, allowing him to at least pretend to live three separate lives.

So that thing is finally dead, huh.

It had taken him almost a month of meticulous preparations to finally attack the abomination in its lair. Sunny had expected to sustain heavy injuries, but the battle ended well. With the demon's death, there was no one left to challenge him in the immediate vicinity of the temple…

of familiar symbols appeared in front of him… the runes themselves might have been the same, but they looked a bit differently. He had designed

The runes read:

Name: Sunless.

True Name: —

Rank: Transcendent.

Class: Terror.

Shadow Cores: [6/7].

Shadow Fragments: [1591/6000].

lost in the Tomb of Ariel, and he could not earn another while banished from fate. As for his shadow fragments… seeing the measly number, which had been very slow to increase in the past four years, made Sunny a bit

have been enough to fill the lake surrounding Bastion… the problem was, his soul only grew stronger when he killed Corrupted and Great abominations, which were not that easy to find, and harder still

disappointed about only killing a thousand Corrupted and Great Nightmare Creatures, they would have slapped him across the face. But

during or soon after the Doom War. Come to think of it, discounting Fiend, he had never encountered a corrupted shadow creature. Were there none, or

glanced back at the

Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Extraordinary Rock], [Endless Spring], [Weaver's Mask], [Shadow Lantern], [Shadow Chair], [Overpriced Saddle], [Weaver's Needle],

Sunny made his living by creating Memories, but strangely enough, he was not in a hurry to create many Memories for himself. He did not need to seek power

was not to say that Sunny did not plan to forge himself new equipment in the future. It was just that what he wanted to create was too ambitious to be crafted in a hurry, and he had only opened up his shop

an improved version of the destroyed Essence Pearl, and the [Handy Bracelet] — the poor replacement for the Spell. He also modified

Quintessence Pearl and the Handy Bracelet were simply for convenience, but the last one was of vital importance for him. After all, it was the Nebulous Mantle that allowed him to live in Bastion, pretending to be a mere Master. If people found out that the humble shopkeeper was a Saint… things

turned back to the

Echoes: —

[Soul Serpent], [Nightmare], [Shadow Fiend],

was created from the modified Covetous Coffer and the shadow of the Mordant Mimic. It was the only

needed it. It was next to him

was the Marvelous Mimic, who had taken the shape of a picturesque house. Its interior existed in a separate

shapeshift, devour intruders, and produce soul coins. Among

fate, so he made sure that his new home would be able to

faintly, he glanced

They read:

[Blood

Shadows] had evolved into the [Lord of Shadows] during his Transcendence.

recognize you as

strengthened and enhanced. The range of his Shadow Control was now north of forty kilometers, and he could extend his shadow sense just as far. He could remain the form of an incorporeal shadow indefinitely, and cover great distances with each Shadow Step. The depths and intricacy of what he

short… it wouldn't be an exaggeration to