Shadow Slave

Slayer seemed satisfied with her payment. Of course, it was a little tactless of her to demand his blood when they were imprisoned in a lethal daemonic realm - but actually, she was being unexpectedly considerate.

After all, it did not escape Sunny’s attention that the murderous Shadow had foregone their usual duel. He had fully expected that Slayer would attack him as soon as there was a chance, but she seemed to have decided against it.

This was the first time Slayer spared him the hassle of beating her into submission.

’I guess we’re making progress.’

Tossing the crystal shard back onto the pile, Sunny pointed to Kai’s bow.

’Give that here.’ Receiving it, he studied the weapon thoughtfully. Unlike the arrows, he was not planning to turn the bow into a Memory - doing that would have required imbuing it with permanence, which would weaken it. But that did not mean that he could not enchant it.

Sunny had created plenty of enchanted items that were not Memories, after all, like various implements for the radiant Emporium and the Beast Farm. The fundamental weaves shared by all Memories, and which therefore defined what a Memory was, were so ingeniously designed and useful that there was usually no reason not to bestow them on a weapon or a piece of equipment. But that did not mean that they were necessary. It was just that the spellweave had to be woven a bit differently for an enchanted item that was not a Memory.

For example, Awakened usually needed to activate the enchantments of their Memories with essence, and only the essence of the person to whom the Memory belonged could do the job. The Memory itself was a concept moored to the master’s soul, while manifesting it turned their soul essence into matter - so there was an innate connection between Awakened and their Memories. An enchanted item was different, since it was inherently ownerless. So, Sunny had to either weave the identity of the master into the enchantments or change their activation principle entirely, allowing them to accept anyone’s soul essence.

The latter offered a sea of possibilities.

Sunny was especially concerned about Kai’s reserve of essence - the charming archer was merely a Transcendent Beast, after all, so his essence capacity was one seventh of what Sunny himself possessed as a Saint. The enemies they faced, meanwhile, were immensely powerful…

Kai would need as much firepower as he could get to fight them effectively, but truly potent enchantments would burn through his soul essence in moments. There would be no time for him to fully replenish it either, considering that they might need to enter battle twice a day.

Sunny had to strike a careful balance between potency and sustainability - if the bow could accept anyone’s essence, however, he could assist Kai by using his own.

He could even make the bow an essence vessel and saturate it with powerful Supreme essence in advance.

’Hmm…’

Sunny sighed.

Now that he had become the ruler of the Ash Domain - which was reduced to a single volcano - he felt like a pauper again. His tens of thousands of shades were gone, and the seemingly boundless river of spirit essence that constantly flowed into his soul had run dry. Compared to what he usually enjoyed, there was merely a trickle. So, he couldn’t go all out and supply Kai with an ocean of his essence. Additionally, Sunny did not know how to make his essence follow the charming archer’s commands. It was an interesting challenge, though… he was not sure that he could solve it, but he felt like he could cheat it somehow, at least to some degree.

’Yeah… that solution might work. This one, too. I just have to be modest in my ambition.’

He could not replace Kai’s essence with his own, but he could at least supplement it.

As for enchantments themselves, Sunny was no stranger to crafting bows and arrows. He had gone through the process of designing the optimal combination both for Rain and for Slayer, so all he had to do was adjust a few things with Kai’s Aspect in mind.

For example…

Unlike most archers, Kai could see through solid objects. So, wouldn’t it be prudent to design him an arrow that could phase through matter?

’Wait. Such an arrow would be amazing in the hands of any skilled archer!’

Why had he not made one before?

Well… it was probably because making things pass through matter was not that easy. He could potentially play with tangible and intangible states, possibly even use an altered version of the [Unseen] enchantment of the Moonlight Shard, but there were a few obstacles to overcome.

Making an arrow pass through solid matter was easy in theory, but in practice, there was no such thing as easy matter in the Dream Realm. All materials had their own mystical properties - especially so the bodies of living beings. So, as much as Sunny wanted to make an arrow that would phase through the armor of an Nightmare Creature and strike directly at the tender flesh beneath, he couldn’t, for now.

Making an arrow that could phase through a mass of rock and strike an adversary hiding behind it, though?

That was a possibility.

’Oh, my… I’m inspired…’

Summoning four shadow hands, Sunny lamented the absence of Weaver’s Needle and got to work.

He would work on the bow first, then the quiver, and finally craft a few arrows.

Kai needed some kind of melee weapon, as well. The weapon could be crafted from the larger pieces of shattered crystal left behind by the slain Wasps… there were Supreme materials and Supreme soul shards at Sunny’s disposal, so he would be able to create something truly destructive. 𐍂ÁƝ𝘰𝐁Ɛs̩

The only limit was time. He had until sunset to prepare Kai for battle, so he had to be modest in his ambition.

’That’s alright… I can take it one step at a time.’

He could weave a basic enchantment for the bow and create a couple of arrows today. Then, he could continue to improve the bow and add new arrows to Kai’s arsenal after each battle. There would be more dead abominations and more materials for him to work with, as well… his Beasts would continue to grow stronger with each day.

His army of shades would continue to grow in number, as well.

Which was a good thing…

Because, at the end of it all, they would have to face the Snow Tyrant.

’We are going to need all the power in the world to kill that thing, for sure…’

Sunny became engrossed in weaving.