Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

’What a chore...’

Sunny dragged himself out of the Dreamscape pod and sighed.

Even though the battle royale happened inside an illusion and his body wasn’t tired or bruised, the mental exhaustion was real. The qualifier round had turned out to be much more demanding than Sunny had thought.

Of course, he could have used the three shadows to augment himself and devastate the entire arena, but that would have defeated the purpose. Sunny had managed fine with just his own strength. This way, he was also polishing his technique and enriching his comprehension of Shadow Dance, which was not a small matter.

With a small sigh, he went down to the party car, and checked on Seele. She was sleeping blissfully in the pod, so she wasn’t done yet.

Or maybe she was and couldn’t figure out how to get out.

Either way, Sunny returned to his room and checked his phone.

Currently, hundreds of similar illusory battles were being broadcasted for people to see. Some were already close to a conclusion, some were in the thick of bloodshed, and some were only just starting.

However, not every broadcast received the same amount of attention — those arenas where renowned duelists or especially powerful newcomers were fighting pulled the most of it. Sadly, due to Mongrel’s infamy, the one Sunny had just finished was among the more popular broadcasts. It was also one of the earliest to end, so clips of the most exciting moments were already circulating on the network.

Sunny groaned.

’Perfect... just perfect... another damned viral clip...’

His final fight against Kaboom and Saitoh received a lot of views, but nowhere near as many as the clip of his brutal confrontation with the twelve ambushers.

The comments were exploding.

”Hell yeah! Our Lord taught these thugs a lesson!”

”Only twelve? These guys are idiots, they should have gathered at least a hundred...”

”No hard feelings? None whatsoever... Aeons, how can anyone be so cool?!”

”Did you see his odachi shapeshift? I was not hallucinating, right?”

”...Is it just me, or does Mini Mongrel’s hair look extra gorgeous today?”

He grimaced, then look at the comments under the other video:

”That Saitoh guy... why did he even ask? Doesn’t he know that Mini Mongrel is an icon of chivalry? Completely unlike his father.”

”Of course it is beneath Lord Mongrel! He is so noble!”

”What are you fools talking about? Mongrel is not noble! He is a wild beast! He only said that teaming up is beneath him because a beast like him doesn’t need anyone’s help to kill everyone! ”

”Gee, so many edgelords in the comments today. Eh, I miss the early days when only true experts knew about Mongrel. His technique was way better back then, too...”

Sunny stared at the screen for a while, then shook his head.

’What’s wrong with these people? Since when was I an icon of chivalry? Wait, what does chivalry even mean?’

He shook his head again, then switched to the official feed and looked up the results of his match.

Sunny, of course, qualified for the tournament the moment he had won the battle royale. However, other participants also had a chance to move on to the next stage. That depended on their performance and individual score, so there was no set number of people who would be allowed to continue.

As it turned out, out of the thousand Awakened who had fought in his battle royale, two more qualified to participate in the tournament — one of them was Kaboom, the young woman whom he had faced last, and Dar of the Maharana clan, the archer who had almost skewered Sunny with his giant arrows.

’Huh. The bastard squeezed through, after all.’

After a few moments, Sunny started to scour through the different qualifier rounds to find Seele. Along the way, he found that Dan Heng — who was known as Cold Dragon.

For some reason, Sunny felt like the name wasn’t quite complete. Either way, he found that Dan Heng had completely wiped the floor in the battle royale. He gradually picked off the opponents until the end, choosing tactical battles rather than head on encounters.

Until the end, at least. But with his limited Essence usage, he had more energy than the last couple of enemies.

...As for March, her results weren’t nearly as... optimal. Going under the name of: ’Uh, What Name Should I Go With?’ — it seemed that she was another unfortunate soul who got screwed over by the naming system — she single handedly tripled Dan Heng’s kill count.

But she got finished off before the midway point.

Sunny stifled a laugh as he watched her get ganged up on by multiple competitors. She immediately lost after.

However, it seemed like they evaluated her overall skills as impressive enough to continue forward. So Sunny might still encounter her in the real tournament.

’No hard feelings...’

As if. He had plenty of hard feelings!

After a while, Sunny finally found a recently finished match — Seele’s. Clicking on the video that followed her perspective, he began to actually pay attention.

There were multiple reasons that he wanted her to participate in the Dream Tournament. The first reason was because he wanted to assess her performance. Just like how plenty of factions would send their young disciples to evaluate their skills, Sunny was doing the same. It was a good chance to see what she needed work with.

The second reason was because... Memories. Sure, he’d allow Seele to keep any prizes she earned, but if he wanted to borrow them, could she really refuse? What’s hers is his, and what’s his... is definitely not hers. In a way, Sunny was getting himself a second set of prizes — assuming she performed well enough to gain them.

As Sunny watched the match, however, he slowly turned more pale. It seemed the only benefit would be the Memories she’d recieve.

How could he test her skills if there was this much carnage!

Spawning into the map as Free Prizes, a name Sunny certainly approved of, she didn’t immediately take action and simply looked around in awe. He supposed that would make sense, considering that she had never even seen the world outside Jarilo-VI. This view must have been alien to her.

She didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy it, however, when an opponent entered her line of sight. He didn’t notice her, so she started to... literally mumble to herself as the camera picked up her rantings.

”So... I just have to kill him, right? They won’t literally die, right? Then... I’ll get my prizes, right?”

After a few moments of contemplation, she activated her Aspect. The moment her eyes glowed red as an excited grin stretched across her face, Sunny had a bad premonition.

In only a few seconds, the player who was dozens of meters away was bisected by her scythe. There was no dancing of blades, no dangerous duel... just a stain of blood, which quickly disappeared into white sparks.

Veliona didn’t seem to know or care about why Sunny had wanted her to participate in the tournament, which was shown very clearly as she killed her enemies in singular strikes. She fluttered through the massive arena, eliminations floolowing in her wake.

Sunny almost thought that she would win on nothing but sheer talent — not skill, just the Aspect Abilities she was fortunate to have.

He tensed when one of her opponents phased through her attack through some kind of Ability or enchantment, thinking that it would be over... but they just ended up crumpling onto the floor despite the lack of physical damage. The more Sunny watched, the more he became afraid of his own lackey.

In the end, she attained victory. Even the commentator was perplexed when a mysterious girl with no battle record suddenly defeated everyone in record time.

Sunny clicked off the video. With how quickly she had won, he knew that she had finished way before him — she must have not known how to exit.

Going back to the training room, he fiddled around with the Dreamscape pod for a bit before triggering the emergency eject function. When the lid flipped open, Veliona suddenly jolted awake.

”...Hey! I was doing something!”

Sunny narrowed his eyes.

”What? Killing people?”

She beamed, rapidly nodding her head.

”Yeah! Turns out, you can kill as many people as you want with no consequences!”

Sunny shook his head in exasperation at this lunacy.

”I’ll get you again tomorrow. Next time, you won’t be using your Dormant Ability.”

Veliona showed an expression of betrayal.

”Wha— Why does Seele get all the fun?! I thought I was being a good girl!”

Sunny grimaced. He wasn’t sure why, but his intuition was telling him that what she said wasn’t a good thing.

”Don’t call yourself that!”

As he turned to drag her away, Sunny froze. March stared at the two from the door of the training area, a slightly disgusted look on her face. She kept a wide area between them as she slowly headed for the other end of the room, going through the other door without a word.

As Sunny and Veliona stupidly stared at where March went, the latter suddenly asked:

”Should I kill her?”

”Why is that your first option? It should at least be the second!”

”Well, if it makes you feel better, you’re my first and only option!”

”...If that means you’re going to kill before anyone else, then it doesnt.”

She shrugged. In the next moment, her eyes reverted back to purple, and her face was instantly reddened with embarrassment.

Sunny arched a brow.

’What a weirdo. Two weirdos.’

***

Tomorrow, the real tournament was going to begin. Around a thousand fighters — those who proved their mettle in the qualifying rounds — were going to face each other in proper duels, and after several days of intense competition, one victor was going to emerge to reap the best reward.

Of course, the tournament was separated into Ranks. Awakened fought Awakened, Masters fought Masters, and Saints fought Saints.

’I better rest well.’

After bringing Seele back to the Underworld, and telling Natasha — the leader of Wildfire — that he would be needing her for some things in advance, he returned to his room. Hopping into his sleeping pod, Sunny dozed off until he was in the Dream Realm.

Without wasting any time, Sunny left the altar, went to his room, crashed on the narrow cot, and almost instantly fell asleep.

...Who said that there was no rest for the wicked?

***

The next day, he recieved a notification informing him that the Soul Shards he had retrieved from the Wormvine were finally sold. Transcendent Shards were infinitely more rare and precious than those of lesser Ranks — not only because they stored more Essence, but also because there were Aspect Abilities and spelltech applications that depended on the quality of the raw materials used.

’Money, money, money...’

If this was some kind of fictional story, then Sunny would certainly have credits floating around his eyes.