Shadow Slave

As ash rained from the sky and the ground quaked, Sunny inhaled deeply and extended his shadow sense as far as he could. Soon, his mind was flooded with an avalanche of sensory data, almost making him dizzy.

He was still unaccustomed to how vast his sight was now. Of course, he didn't actually see anything... but after years of perceiving the shapes and movements of the shadows, it was not much different. Sunny had tested his limits while relying on his shadow sense to stay alive in the ocean, but the dark depths were different from land. They were unfathomable and empty, with nothing but the cold currents to see.

Here in the Antarctic Center, though, there was almost too much to sense.

Further, further, and further still... Sunny filtered out the useless data to keep his Transcendent mind from overloading and reached across many kilometers of cracking ice toward the approaching snowstorm.

Soon, he sensed the shadows trembling from the lethal cold. Even they were not spared from the cruel tyranny of the Winter Beast.

'Somewhere between forty and fifty kilometers.... this is as far as I can reach.’

His shadow sense reached further than his actual sight, which was limited due to the curvature of Earth. And yet, it wasn't enough to find the heart of the vast blizzard - at least not until it got closer and enveloped him.

'Still, it is already close enough for the initial greeting.’

Sunny extended a hand. A thin pillar of darkness rose from the ground, growing to stand at almost twice his height. Then, it solidified, turning into a inky-black javelin with a needle-sharp tip. He grasped and weighed it, looking at the towering wall of swirling snow with a cold expression.

He had created the javelin in the image of the Siege Souvenir - a similar weapon he had once fashioned to slay Goliath. The original Souvenir had been made from the quill of a Corrupted abomination, while this one was merely a manifested shadow. However, that shadow had been suffused with his Transcendent essence, and was thus equal to a Transcendent weapon.

A uniquely powerful one at that, due to the fact that his soul had been altered by Soul Weave.

real Siege Souvenir had possessed. Still... it was not bad for an

torrent of essence into his muscles and tendons, pushed against the ground with his feet, and strained his entire body to whip his hand forward and send the javelin into the dark

it, the world quaked

and a thunderous boom tore through the roaring of the eruption. There was an invisible shockwave that pushed the snow and the

black comet as it shot across the lightless sky,

actually took it an entire minute to reach the wall of snow and disappear into it. Twenty or so seconds later,

same time, he sensed the javelin plummet into the snow and shatter

of his mouth

‘...Not enough.’

that connected heavens and earth racing to swallow him from the front, Sunny stared forward

am no better than an artillery cannon, distance-wise, Granted, that javelin of mine was about twenty-five times heavier than an average artillery shell,

not exactly what he had wanted. What he had wanted was to get up close and personal

gotten exactly what he wanted. He had gotten his

important. Much more important was the fact that the javelin had been able to survive for more than twenty seconds in the outer reaches of the snowstorm. That... was something

his missiles would last

a resentful sigh, and glanced at his

boring affair, isn't

its gargantuan head into the

Sunny smiled.

it a