Shadow Slave

There was one peculiar trait of Divine Lineages that Sunny had noticed after observing Nephis, as well as heirs of the Great Clans, for a long time. It was that their Divine Lineages did not seem like an overwhelming advantage if the inheritor was weak, but gradually revealed more of their unfathomable potential as the inheritor walked the Path of Ascension and climbed to higher Ranks.

It was as if by drawing closer to the Divine Rank — and to beings who had left behind the Lineages — the heirs of the gods could use more of their inheritance, and only by becoming gods themselves would they unlock its full potential.

Sunny had no reason to believe that Weaver’s lineage was any different. So, even if the purpose of the Weave was to grant him the ability to manipulate the Strings of Fate, he would not be capable of doing so immediately, as a mere Supreme.

However, if he was right... then he would at least be able to see where the path he had been walking was leading, and know which direction to follow.

All Sunny had to do was confirm his suspicion.

And just now, he did.

While peering into the depths of his being, he finally discovered the fundamental change that had happened to him when the Weave was completed — not the quantitative enhancement various aspects of him had undergone, but a qualitative change.

The change had not happened to his body, soul, or mind... or even his shadow.

Instead, it happened to his spirit, building upon the foundation that Spirit Weave had already established.

That alteration had to do with the innate affinity of his Will.

Before, the natural inclination of Sunny’s spirit, and therefore of his Will, was to express the concept of death. However, he had always possessed another, minor affinity — an affinity to fate.

There was nothing minor about it now, though. His lesser affinity had been elevated to a startling height, becoming just as profound as his affinity to shadows and death — in fact, it might have even surpassed them.

As such, for all intents and purposes, Sunny was a unique existence now. He was a Supreme who drew power from two source elements in equal measure... and therefore, in theory, could rule two Domains.

He had no idea what a Fate Domain could look like, or how he was supposed to build it, but he already felt a profound change in his perception of the world.

Somewhere in that change, most likely, hid the key to learning how to manipulate the Strings of Fate. For now, however, Sunny could only tell that he had become greatly attuned to them — no less than Cassie was, possibly.

That attunement expressed itself as a mystical, miraculous intuition.

Sunny was not even sure that he could call that sense intuition, now — it was a far more expansive and profound form of perception than mere instinct. It not only provided him with seemingly prophetic hints and hunches, but also granted him a profound, subliminal understanding of everything that surrounded him.

As if he was subconsciously drawing knowledge from the Strings of Fate that brushed against him.

Sunny suspected that if the part of the great tapestry of fate that described the future was still intact, he would have been able to sense what would happen in the future, as well.

Since Cassie and he had broken fate, though, all he could sense was the past and present... however, his subconscious grasp of what had transpired and was transpiring around him was now far greater than his conscious understanding, granting him far greater awareness.

His intuition had reached a truly supernatural level.

Sunny finally inhaled, shivering.

Because now that he was aware of how his intuition had changed, he could not help but realize that the eerie fear that had pierced his heart was not rational. It was his subconscious connection to fate telling him that something harrowing was about to happen.

That something frightening was now imminent.

‘What...’

Concentrating on his newfound miraculous intuition, Sunny tried to discern more about the imminent danger.

He couldn’t quite sense what it was, but he managed to determine the direction from which the threat was emanating. Unsurprisingly, it was the bottomless chasm in front of them.

‘It’s time for us to run.’

That was what Sunny wanted to say. However, as he directed his attention to the dark abyss, a peculiar compulsion suddenly overcame him. It was as if something vast and invisible enveloped him, effortlessly breaking his formidable defenses — the great fortress wall built around his mind, as well as the deep moat filled to the brim with his titanic Will.

He did not even realize what had happened. As Saint finished off the last defenders of the city, and as Nephis rose from the ground with a distant look on her face, Sunny fell into a daze. Not quite realizing what he was doing, he walked past her and stopped at the very edge of the cliff, beyond the cracked sword and the shining lantern. Then, even knowing that he would not see anything in the endless void of elemental darkness, Sunny gazed into the abyss.

And when he did...

The Abyss gazed back at him.

Sunny froze.

Even though he was unable to see, he still perceived what was hidden far below. Perhaps he sensed it through the vibrations of the Strings of Fate, or perhaps the laws of existence were simply twisted and perverted by the being hidden there.

What he saw, drifting there in the abyssal darkness...

Was a giant, weathered skeleton of a humanoid being.

Its bones were broken, the proportions of its body were slightly wrong, and there were three distressing, empty sockets on its eerie skull.

The being’s flesh was long gone... but it was not dead.

Instead, a universe of appalling Corruption made its nest in the flawlessly white bones, animating them with a profane semblance of life.

No, not profane...

Unholy.

The being gazing at Sunny from the depths of the Abyss was an Unholy Nightmare Creature — a dark god of Corruption. However, it was not the abyssal horror he and Nephis had fought.

Because Sunny could perceive that horror, too.

The abyssal horror was like a web of dark tendrils that had wrapped itself around the giant skeleton, endlessly flowing... binding it.

Restraining it like shackles and imprisoning it in the Abyss.

Or, at least, it had been.

Now that hundreds of the dark tendrils had been incinerated by the flames of Godgrave, its ability to restrain the Unholy Nightmare Creature was grievously diminished.

In fact, it had become woefully insufficient. And the prisoner of the Abyss was on the verge of breaking free.

At that moment, Sunny’s shoulders fell.

He realized that it was already too late to escape...

In fact, he had already failed to escape. Because the moment the Unholy One’s gaze fell on him, and the moment Sunny beheld its distressing visage, the seeds of Corruption started to bloom in his soul, consuming it — a part of it, at least.

One of his Shadow Cores, the one that belonged to the incarnation standing on the edge of the great chasm, was now overflowing with appalling darkness, being slowly swallowed by it.

Far below, more of the dark tendrils snapped, and the skeleton moved its giant hand faintly.

Pointing a bony finger up.

At that moment, Sunny did two things.

He dismissed Saint.

And he pushed Nephis, who had just pulled the cracked sword out of the stone and picked up her father’s lantern, back — with all the strength he could muster.

Neph’s eyes widened as she was sent flying through the air, breaching hundreds of meters in a single moment.

Almost at the same time, something pierced Sunny’s back.

He glanced down, his eyes widening in horror, and saw a peculiar, needle-like spike of squirming black material protruding from his chest.

He did not even feel any pain.

...A moment later, one of his Shadow Cores exploded.

His incarnation collapsed and was dispelled, his shadow utterly destroyed and vanquished with a single blow.

A wave of blinding pain washed over his consciousness, and somewhere far away, his avatars fell to their knees.

The six of them did.

Because the seventh was no more.