Shadow Slave

“Ah! What the hell?!”

“Relax.

In the cavernous darkness of the giant snake’s maw, Nightwalker rolled on something slick and hard, then jumped to his feet. Then, as a nonchalant voice resounded from the shadows around him, he lost his balance and fell again. That was because the dark cave he had found himself in was swaying.

That voice, though...

Why did it sound familiar?

“S—sunless?”

Slithering through the crumbling corridors of the Palace with astonishing speed, Sunny chuckled inwardly. Junctions and intersections flashed past him in a blur, and the walls that groaned and bent threatened to suffocate his Shell in a crushing embrace. ”Yeah, it’s me. I just assumed a different form. Welcome to Sunny Express, Lord Nightwalker!”

Somewhere in his maw, Nightwalker carefully sat up and glanced around with a resentful expression.

”You could have... ah, it’s a Metamorphosis Ability. I get it”

Sunny was confused for a moment.

“People usually call it the Transformation Ability, actually. Or one’s Transcendent form.”

But how would Nightwalker know? He had been stuck in the Eternal City for decades. There had been no Saints during his glory days, let alone colloquial terms to describe things that had to do with Transcendence. So, he would have had to come up with his own terminology.

Technically, the Onyx Serpent Shell was not Sunny’s Transcendent Ability, but since Nightwalker had not posed his comment as a question, he was under no obligation to explain the difference.

Speaking of Transcendent Abilities, though...

As Sunny reached a seemingly bottomless stairwell and sent his serpentine body down its vertical expanse, he realized that he actually knew very little about Nightwalker’: Aspect and Abilities. There had been little time to ask, and it was a sensitive subject anyway.

Asking another Awakened about their Flaw was considered exceedingly rude, while asking them about their Aspect could go either way. Colleagues had to share what they could with each other, naturally, but it was always a little awkward. After all, everything you revealed could be used against you.

Then again... Cassie definitely knew what Nightwalker was capable of, already. So, Sunny could simply ask her.

But why would he when the man was right there?

”By the way, what is your own Transcendent form? Actually, what can your Aspect do?” Nightwalker hesitated a little, prompting Sunny to add:

“It’s just that we’re about to fight a Great Titan, so I thought I’d be nice to know.”

His youthful guide sighed..

”Well, I guess it’s only fair. You showed me yours, I show you mine...”

Sunny almost spat the bastard out.

He did not like that phrasing at all! Nightwalker chuckled.

”My Aspect is on the stranger side, though. It’s a bit difficult to wrap your head around. My Dormant Ability is... a form of divination I suppose. I have this feeling that tells me where to go to get to where I want to go. Or where to find what I am searching for. Like intuition.”

Sunny nodded mentally. That made sense. It was an understated, but unquestionably powerful Ability. In fact, it might just be the most potent Dormant Ability he had ever heard of, considering what kind of challenges Awakened usually faced in the Dream Realm and in the Nightmares. Cassie possessed a similar kind of supernatural intuition, albeit hers was far less specific, and therefore not as powerful. There were benefits to her more vague but general sense, though, because while it did not clearly tell her where to go in any given situation, it did tell her where not to go from time to time. Nightwalker’s Ability did not, which was a fatal flaw.

The man, meanwhile, continued:

”My Awakened Ability is, uh, how do I explain it? It’s like a magical containment suit. Only there’s no suit, it’s just that my body becomes isolated from the environment. So, I can be impervious to all hazards for as long as I have essence — cold heat, radiation, contaminants, pressure, and so on. At the same time, my body becomes self-sufficient, producing its own oxygen and nutrients. Something like that. Basically I can go pretty much anywhere without dying... anywhere reasonable or only faintly unreasonable, at least.”

‘What the..’

Sunny vividly imagined Nightwalker just comfortably floating in space in comfortable pajamas, stargazing. For a moment, he felt a hint of envy.

That was basically any explorer’s dream Ability.

‘Lucky bastard’

”What about your Ascended Ability?” Nightwalker smiled.

”I can fold space.”

If Sunny had eyelids at the moment, he would have blinked.

”Huh?”

Nightwalker shrugged.

“Simply put, I can fold it to make something long short, or unfold it to make something short long. It’s a bit tricky and there’s a lot of applications — an infinite amount, really — but with some practice, you can get amazing results. Taking one step and walking a hundred meters, for example. That was how we reached the center of the Palace so quick, by the way. I folded space to make each of our steps count for a dozen.” Sunny felt a strong desire to scowl.

‘No, but how does it even work?’

And he had not even felt anything peculiar! ‘That’s a cheat Ability! Not fair!”

If anyone heard his thoughts at the moment they would have probably commented that hypocrisy had a name...

Nightwalker, meanwhile, added with a hint of malice in his voice:

”Or, you know. I can fold the space that my adversary occupies. Or a body part of theirs. So, it’s quite useful in combat, as well.” Sunny sighed.

”No kidding”

There was indeed an infinite number of ways that Ability could be used, from traversal to fighting to even things like creating hidden storage spaces.

If Nightwalker had not been the founder of a Great Clan, he would have made for a peerless smuggler.

”So... you Transformation?”

Nightwalker scratched his nose.

“Well. I call it the Starbeast.’

Sunny was a little confused.

“What is that?”

Nightwalker shrugged.

”Just like it sounds, a strange beast made of starlight. You know, light is both a particle and a wave. Similarly, my Transcendent form can be both tangible and intangible, or shift seamlessly between the two. It’s a bit silly, but if there were animals grazing or cosmic radiation and gravity waves while drifting from star to star through the endless dark void... that is what I imagine they would look like”

Sunny remained silent for a while. Eventually, he said in a disgruntled tone: *..And you were surprised when I turned into a big snake?”

Nightwalker blinked a few times.

“Hey! It’s not every day that I am swallowed by giant snakes, okay?!”

He paused for a moment and then raised three fingers in indignation.

”In fact, if 1 remember correctly, this is at best my third time!”

Which was three times too numerous, as far as he was concerned.