Shadow Slave

The [Formless] Ability allowed Serpent to assume the form of any shadow resting in Sunny's soul, Inheriting its powers and abilities. The shadow had to be of the same or lower Rank and Class, which meant that the most powerful form Serpent could currently assume was that of the Sybil of the Fallen Grace... the Terror of LO49.

And, in fact, that form was suited for Sunny's goal much better than the Mountain King. However, Serpent had to maintain the transformation with its own essence, and could not sustain such a powerful shape for a long time, let alone constantly.

Once the Shadow's essence was exhausted, the effects of those powers it had assumed would be gone. In other words, if Sunny had ordered Serpent to turn into the harrowing Sybil and enthrall a swarm of Nightmare Creatures, those abominations would have been released from the mind hex before too long.

The Mountain King, meanwile, was merely an Awakened Tyrant. As a Transcendent Terror, Serpent could maintain that form almost indefinitely, especially after Sunny augmented it with the shadows. That was exactly what he needed in order to collect a small army of abominable thralls,

It was funny... the Larvae the Mountain King spawned were Dormant Beasts. Therefore, his first thrall was also a Dormant Beast - but one wearing a Fallen Monster's corpse. What exactly did it make him, Sunny did not know. Nor did he care that much.

Come to think of it...

Sunny glanced at the towering figure of the Soul Serpent, then at the hideous creature laying obediently on the snow. He sighed.

By now, Serpent had to possess at least two new Abilities since it had risen in Class twice while following Rain, and in Rank once. But without the Spell conveniently informing Sunny about what these Abilities did, he had no way of knowing what they were.

There had not been a lot of time for research and experimentation, either, while he was traversing the toxic wilderness of the Northern Quadrant and fighting his way through the depths of the ocean.

All he had was a suspicion that one of these Abilities had to do with Serpent's weapon form, while the other one had to do with souls and spirit essence. However, he wasn't sure.

I'll find out

be no serious threats left in the Antarctic Center for a while... at least

reason to

Sunny

few moments, and then turned away. The desolate landscape of the Antarctic Center stretched in front of him, tall mountains rising from

darkness in Sunny's eyes

"Time to hunt..."

***

of Nightmares - the Fallen Titan Goliath, the Corrupted Terror Sybil of the Fallen Grace, and the Corrupted Titan Winter Beast. Sunny had killed

the second most

the dreadful gauntlet of the Southern Campaign. Back then, the Antarctic Center was like a merciless death trap, with harrowing abominations waiting to ambush him and his soldiers on every turn. He had crossed it once with the First Evacuation Army, and the

things were

predator, while the abominations dwelling in

slowly moved south, retracing the steps of the army. It was already winter in Antarctica, but the sun had not fallen beyond the horizon yet... there

The corpses of the Nightmare Creatures were brutally torn apart, and their carcasses littered the slopes like morbid gardens of mangled flesh. He appeared out of nowhere, surrounded by a tide of shadows, and butchered the abominations with

even started to enjoy the

all of them died,

which made it harder to hide them. Eventually, he had to abandon stealth and advance forward openly. Sunny hoped that a horde of Nightmare Creatures would attack him, but sadly, the number of abominations seemed to have dwindled under the Winter Beast's