Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Sunny finished tying the last wire through an opening at the end of the fifth bone shaft. Before he started with the Spellweave, however, he appraised his work.

Placed atop a pristine, heavily fortified workbench — courtesy of SoundlessHeaven — were five makeshift bone javelins. Each of them were carved from the durable osseous tissue of a Transcendent Beast. Which one? Sunny didn’t know, since the materials were sent by SoundlessHeaven.

Thin, almost imperceptible wires were looped through an unnoticeable opening at the end of the bone javelins’ shafts, which led to a set of five steel rings. The wires were woven from tenacious webs found in the den of a Transcendent Devil. Which one? Sunny didn’t know, since they were sent by SoundlessHeaven.

The wires were impossibly sharp, and their durability made them similarly difficult to snap or cut through. Supposedly, they were an elite resource called Ghost Wire, something that very few Legacy Clans can boast to have a supply of.

Ghost Wire, despite being made of Transcendent materials, was closer to the Supreme Rank in terms of pure quality, making them one of the most valuable materials Sunny has ever laid his hands on.

And he had gotten it for... practically free.

Lastly, there were the rings that the Ghost Wire bound the javelins to. They weren’t anything special, actually. They were just bands of steel treated with Aspect Abilities and Essence to be more durable. Moreover, they were extremely polished, to the point where the reflective surface of the cold steel was almost like a mirror.

Oh, and they were ordered by SoundlessHeaven.

Sunny’s mysterious sponsor has managed to secure her place as his sugar mama. Along with Fu Xuan, he supposed.

Looking down at his future Memory, Sunny nodded to himself in satisfaction — less for himself and more for Tingyun, who was hiding in his nervous system.

With her Awakened Ability, which let her invade nerves like a genuine Heliobus, Tingyun no longer needed to hide in Sunny’s Soul Sea in order to perceive what he did. She could just hide within his physical body... which had its own ups and downs.

Firstly, this made her more vulnerable. As far as Sunny could tell, she didn’t receive the same invulnerabilities that actual Heliobi had, meaning that she was susceptible to physical blows. Granted, she was inside Sunny’s body, and was thus not completely exposed. He had skin from stone, blood that refused to spill, and bones forged from an alabaster phalanx. That didn’t even include his armor and escape options.

She wasn’t defenseless, but she wasn’t invincible. On the bright side, her exact position in his nerves was ever-changing. Tingyun could be completely spread out, or focused on any singular bundle of nerves. She could even hide in his brain.

Another issue was the fact that Sunny couldn’t use Shadow Extension to wield her Abilities. Granted, since she was Ascended herself now, he didn’t need to use her flames himself.

The actual problem was that Sunny didn’t want Tingyun to fight, but he had to respect her wishes on the topic. He had an excuse before, saying that she was far too weak, but her strength has increased drastically in a short amount of time.

If she wanted to fight, he’d let her. She could still use her other Abilities in her possessive state, surprisingly.

But... she needed to learn, first.

And Sunny had more than a couple dance moves to show her.

Naturally, Tingyun shared his experiences more deeply while transformed. His skills would slowly imprint themselves on her, and she’d be able to hold her own at some point.

The bad part about that was the fact that, despite already being able to practically read his thoughts, Tingyun could now easily notice if he ever thought about her ass on his lap—

[Benefactor!]

Sunny grimaced at the embarrassed shriek. Yep. His privacy was gone.

It should be known that Tingyun does not act based on what either Sunny or herself want. Rather, she acts on what she perceives to be best for Sunny, even if he attempts to convince her otherwise.

After much thought, Sunny believed that this was the [Shadow Slave]’s failsafe against human Shadows. The rest found it natural to submit to their Master — Saint was once a soldier, Nightmare was a horse, and Serpent...

Well, Serpent was literally created to be his pet snake.

In any case, they were non-human, and even if Sunny could kind of converse with them, he also knew that they didn’t think like humans do. Even with her pride, Saint did not act as if it was an insult against her to serve him. Quite the opposite, really.

But humans were far too complex, and had myriad desires. Moreover, agency was one of the most powerful desires of mankind.

It was natural to resist... but Sunny’s Aspect was Divine.

His soul had already considered such a possibility and erased it, injecting a personality into the Shadows of humans that would ensure they would never betray him.

So, Tingyun was forced to endure the torture of being in the mind of a horny teenage boy.

As Sunny began work on the Spellweave, his mind went back to SoundlessHeaven.

She was... interesting.

In a really weird way.

She wasn’t stupid, he didn’t think. But she made some very odd decisions that he can’t help but question.

Their contract heavily favored Sunny. He got Soul Shards. He got materials. Both of which were sometimes even of the Supreme Rank, which made them practically priceless.

In exchange, she got a percentage of the Brilliant Emporium’s shares (He didn’t even know he had those).

10%.

Now, Sunny would be the first to admit that math wasn’t really his strongsuit. That kind of thing required an actual education.

But he was pretty sure that a mere 10% of any entity’s shares was only profitable if said entity was big. Sunny’s Brilliant Emporium was not.

It could just be an investment, and if so, it was honestly a great one assuming she was working on limited information. What SoundlessHeaven didn’t know was that the Emporium solely existed for Sunny to get more Memories to study, while also practicing his Weaving as a whole.

Moreover, she was rich. She had Supreme and Great materials on hand like they were scraps.

In fact, Sunny was under the belief that the only reason she had been so lenient on the contract was due to the fact that he cured her friend’s muteness.

That, and she seemed to enjoy the last part of their contract a little too much.