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 him… the runes themselves might have been the same, but they looked a bit differently. He had designed this whole thing himself, after all, tying

The runes read:

Name: Sunless.

True Name: —

Rank: Transcendent.

Class: Terror.

Shadow Cores: [6/7].

Shadow Fragments: [1591/6000].

fragments… seeing the measly number, which had been very slow to increase

the lake surrounding Bastion… the problem was, his soul only grew stronger when he killed Corrupted and Great abominations, which

being disappointed about only killing a thousand Corrupted and Great Nightmare Creatures, they would have slapped him across

think of it, discounting Fiend, he had never encountered a corrupted shadow creature. Were there none, or had they remained

head, he glanced back

[Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Extraordinary Rock], [Endless Spring], [Weaver's Mask], [Shadow Lantern],

himself. He did not need to seek power in

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

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

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

turned back to

Echoes: —

Serpent], [Nightmare], [Shadow Fiend], [Marvelous

Mimic] was what Sunny had called the latest of his Shadows, which was created from the modified Covetous Coffer and the shadow of the Mordant Mimic. It was

It was next to him right

a cottage. It was the Marvelous Mimic, who had taken the shape of a picturesque house.

shapeshift, devour intruders, and produce soul coins. Among

erased from the tapestry of fate, so he made sure that his new home

glanced back at

They read:

Shadows], [Flame of Divinity], [Blood Weave], [Bone Weave], [Soul Weave], [Onyx

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

you

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

short… it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call Sunny