Shadow Slave

The Exploration Report on Everything had certainly caused quite a stir. Sunny had expected that he would be dealing with the consequences for quite some time... but who would have thought that something else was going to steal the spotlight in a matter of weeks?

Riding across the barren expanse of the Eastern Quadrant, Sunny glanced at the sky and let out a wistful sigh.

Mordret was a Supreme now, which meant that, from the point of view of the public, he was the second Sovereign of humanity. The news would spread among the population soon, and it was bound to take at least some of the attention away from the Exploration Report. After all, most people were more interested in the happenings of today than they were in ancient history.

Come to think of it...

Sunny’s sigh was followed by a quiet groan. “The King of Nothing.”

With a title like that, as well as the timing of his ascent to the throne of Supremacy... Mordret was bound to be mistaken for Nobody, wasn’t he?

Sunny remained silent for a while, swaying in the saddle.

Then, he let out a chuckle and said with a hint of vindictive amusement in his voice: “Good... good! Let him draw the fire away for me.”

Honestly, the idea of Mordret becoming the protagonist of countless ridiculous rumors and having his name dragged through the mud by unscrupulous gossip columnists was kind of appealing. The best part, though, was that the bastard would have no idea how he had ended up in that situation... and who was to blame.

Imagining Mordret’s expression when crowds of misguided fools kept accosting him improved Sunny’s mood a lot. “Wouldn’t it be fun, him attaining Supremacy only to find out that all people want to talk to him about is a research paper written by someone else?”

Knowing Mordret, that would certainly thrown him for a loop. Not only because people would keep seeking him out for strange reasons, but also because he had no idea who Nobody truly was, either.

Sunny let out a wicked laugh.

Hearing it, Nightmare glanced back and stared at him for a moment, then turned away and let out an absolutely terrifying, chilling neigh.

It seemed like he was expressing solidarity, or simply did not wish to be left out.

Sunny smiled.

”Right? You make a good point, buddy.” Sadly, his horse was not the best conversation partner, so they continued their journey in silence.

And speaking of silence and bad conversation partners...

Sunny’s thoughts turned to a different event that had happened soon after he regained his senses.

‘Oh, yes. There was that, as well’

He thought back to a particular day on the Forgotten Shore.

’sonk’

‘Well, this is... interesting:’

A few days after regaining consciousness, Sunny found himself in the underground hall of the Nameless Temple, far away from the bustling streets of Bastion. Granted, the streets of the Dark City were bustling, as well — having been absent for a couple of weeks, he was behind schedule on the reconstruction efforts, so thousands of his shades were currently hard at work. ȓ𝖆₦o͍𝖇Ěs

He was using the simple tasks of preparing the Dark City for potential settlers to get accustomed to how vast his mind had become due to Mind Weave. Before, Sunny could only issue simple commands to his shades — if he wanted something more intricate to be done, he had to actively observe and instruct them. Needless to say, that slowed the work down.

But now, Sunny could observe and instruct countless shades at the same time. So, the pace with which they were cleaning up the Dark City had increased tremendously. From the simple tasks like clearing the collapsed and unstable buildings to sorting out the rubble and recovering stones that could be used for constructing new ones, from digging pits to lay foundations to laying bricks — he could give thousands of commands at the same time and monitor how the shades performed to correct most mistakes before they happened.

It was dizzying, wondrous... and most of all, far more efficient.

‘I’ll be able to move on to battle testing soon.’

The Burned Forest awaited.

Before that, however...

Sunny glanced around the vast expanse of the dark hall. Eventually, his gaze settled on the two others who were currently in the Nameless Temple with him.

There were two taciturn beauties standing some distance away, far apart... staring at each other.

They were Saint and Slayer, of course. Sunny could not really say that their gazes were heated — after all, Saint was always aloof and indifferent, while Slayer cast her dark gazes at all living beings as if they were prey — but there was definitely some kind of strange atmosphere in the air.

Sunny considered it for a few moments, then turned his thoughts back to what he had been contemplating before.

Slayer had spent a long time evolving in the dark flames of his soul after killing and consuming the shadow of Condemnation — her evolution only concluded during his venture into the Palace of Imagination. Saint, meanwhile, just finished hers today. They were both Supreme now.

And that was not all.

Although Saint did not quite become a Tyrant, some of her Attributes have evolved, and she gained a frightening new Ability. Slayer, meanwhile...

After learning the name of the woman whose shadow she had been from Sunny, she showed a subtle, but poignant reaction. Her gaze grew distant for a short while... and then returned to its usual feral darkness. But something about her was faintly different now.

There was a difference that was unseen and hard to define with words. However, there was also a difference that was quite apparent...

Slayer seemed to have regained her Aspect — or a shadow of her Aspect, at least.

‘Lam still trying to wrap my head around the implications of her Abilities... of her Transformation Ability, most of all’

Shaking his head, Sunny turned to the Onyx Saint...

No, not anymore.

He turned to the Jade Saint.