Shadow Slave

Sunny returned to the Brilliant Emporium as the sun was rising above the eastern horizon. If someone had seen him coming back home at the break of dawn, they would have probably assumed that he had spent the night elsewhere… and with someone else, engaging in revelry.

Of course, being mistaken for a philanderer would have been the least of his problems — many people already considered him a lecher, anyway. It was better to be seen as a profligate than as someone who had a habit of sneaking into the forbidden parts of the royal castle at night.

«Now, wait… what does it sound so wrong?»

In any case, his goodbyes with Cassie had felt a little hurried. She had seemed to be a little dazed and a little rattled, acting strangely around him… well, it was not surprising. Sunny doubted that she had expected him to dump two years worth of memories into her head in the span of a few hours.

But he had no other choice… initially, Sunny had wanted to share his memories with Cassie little by little. But the war was approaching faster than he had expected, and so, he needed her to trust him sooner.

Cassie was smart. With what she had shown her this time, she would be able to figure out many things. Most importantly, she would understand that he had been a companion to her and Nephis for a very, very long time.

Even if their relationship had been turbulent and rocky for most of that time…

Knowing that, she would lower her guard around him more. She would also advise Nephis to trust him better.

Well, and…

The things Sunny, as the humble shopkeeper, might do in the future would not look as outrageous. Which wasn't to say that he was planning on doing something outrageous, of course! But he had also not planned on participating in scandalous duels and being publicly embraced by Nephis because of a candy wrapper, so…

Things just sort of happened when Sunny was around her. He could put a leash on his emotions and control himself better, but… he didn't want to.

«Ah, so many things to do…»

Entering the Brilliant Emporium, Sunny yawned, stumbled sleepily to his bed — the very same bed he had taken from the hidden chamber of the ruined cathedral — fell on it, and closed his eyes blissfully.

At the same time, his avatar in the basement of the Marvelous Mimic looked up in disbelief.

«No way.»

They had so many things to do, and the original body decided to just go to sleep?!

Sunny couldn't believe himself.

Shaking his head, he sighed and continued pouring over his notes.

a

for Rain, developing a design of the soul sword for Nephis… oh, and by the way, today was the day they were supposed to

he was not suffering enough from

looking forward to their date. Even if

Before that, however…

had to work on

a soulbound weapon was a

three parts to it, each presenting its own set of

which was not to say the easiest. It

the most potent ones at his disposal — those harvested from Great abominations would be ideal. He also needed a set of powerful soul shards,

higher the Rank of the material, the harder it was to process it. That was why Sunny did not seriously consider using materials

was entirely different this time

point in making its Rank higher than Nephis' own. Actually, it was impossible since she was a Saint, the sword would inevitably become a Transcendent one. Therefore, using stronger materials would only

refined into a greater version of itself by the flames of Changing Star's soul as he walked the path of Ascension. Really, there was no one better suited to wield a

to Nephis and her Aspect. Her weapons and armor had a tendency to melt

he already had the main

the material storage of the Brilliant Emporium.

was staring at… were the shards of the mystical ice that had once been the heart of the Winter Beast. It seemed a little odd, using ice to channel fire but Sunny believed that there was no better material

mystical ice, or create an alloy on its base? A lot of experimentation was needed to answer that question. He had been experimenting for a while now, and would continue to do so for some

the weave of the Mantle of the Underworld well, and had come a long way in learning its secrets. He had reached a point where he could theoretically recreate

to fulfill its requirements, Sunny had had to defeat thousands of opponents. The strangest part was that he had not needed to kill them… just defeat them. How did that work? How could a weapon grow stronger from such

counter of the [Prince of the Underworld] the means of soul binding, or simply a restriction placed on the onyx armor by its creator?

of the Underworld from a Memory to

was fulfilling the demands of

either of the enchantments was a titanic task, and Sunny wasn't even sure that what he wanted to achieve would happen on the

he was considering temporarily manifesting more avatars to keep working on all these

was not as elaborate, but also the most

include, and constructing the map of the

a lot

time recreate the [Unseen] enchantment of the Moonlight Shard, which allowed the

to be an enchantment that augmented the resilience

Beyond that, however…

too much