Shadow Slave

As the clear ringing of the Silver Bell died out, plunging the Estuary Lake into dead silence once again, there was no response. The harrowing figure of the Vile Thieving Bird did not escape from the vertical fracture splitting the base of the mountain, and neither did they hear its chilling cry. Nothing happened for a few long, tense seconds…

And just when Sunny prepared to shout more profanities, Ananke suddenly raised a hand and touched her lips, looking down in confusion.

There, on her slender fingers, a drop of blood was glistening in the sunlight.

A moment later, a stream of blood trickled from her nose, and she swayed.

At the same time, a soft white radiance ignited under Neph’s skin.

And Sunny…

‘What the hell?”

Sunny felt his vast pool of spirit essence being drained at an awful speed.

It was then that he heard a youthful voice resound from behind him:

“Vile? Vile…”

He spun, readying his sword.

Despite being prepared for anything, Sunny was still rattled by what he saw — for a split second, at least.

There, behind him, a young man was standing on the surface of the lake. His raven hair was wild and disheveled, while his skin was inky-black. His eyes glistened like two pieces of precious onyx, and a faint smile was playing on his lips.

His gorgeous face had a bird-like quality to it, but actually… he resembled Sunny quite a lot. In fact, the young man was almost an exact copy.

When Sunny shifted his gaze and looked into the soul of the peculiar youth, all he saw was a boundless sea of darkness. It was not the vile darkness of the Corruption, though… it was the familiar, tranquil depth of a shadow.

And in that darkness, four Shadow Cores were hidden like tenebrous suns.

They were different from the shattered dark embers that burned within Sunny’s Shadows, though — instead, they were very much like his own, resembling flawlessly round spheres.

And just like his own, these Shadow Cores were Supreme.

Not only that, but at the moment, a flood of shadow essence was flowing into the youth’s soul… the shadow essence he had stolen from Sunny.

Sunny’s eyes narrowed a little.

‘The Vile Spawn!’

The damn thing was stealing their lifeblood — quite literally draining the life out of Nephis and Ananke while robbing Sunny of his shadow essence.

The Thieving Bird was nowhere to be seen, but its diabolical offspring was already here, smiling like a child who had found new toys.

Sunny made a move to attack the Supreme Devil, but Nephis was faster. Aiming the Blessing at the raven-haired youth, she unleashed a torrent of radiant white flame. Just before she did, however, the Vile Spawn moved his gaze and glanced at her.

His features shifted, becoming peculiarly androgynous. His hair grew longer, while his stature increased, his figure growing fuller. A moment later, he… she?… looked like a young woman in the prime of her youth, her exquisite features bearing a startling resemblance to Nephis.

The Vile Spawn’s smile widened.

“Vile!”

A split second later, she was swallowed by a torrent of roaring flame.

Only she wasn’t there anymore. Instead, having stepped through the shadows, she was standing a good hundred meters away, looking at Nephis with curiosity.

Then, before Sunny could react, the Vile Spawn tilted her head in quite a bird-like manner…

And raised her hand, pointing it at them. An ominous feeling rose in Sunny’s heart.

‘Crap.’

Diving toward Ananke, he grabbed her and pulled both of them into the shadows.

A heartbeat later, everything around was enveloped by an annihilating ocean of harrowing black flames.

The black flames burned hot enough to incinerate air itself, causing something that resembled a devastating implosion. The dark mass of manifested shadows Sunny had used to cover the Estuary Lake cracked, foaming water rising through the cracks, and a hurricane wind howled as it rushed across the dark conflagration.

Worst of all, though…

Was the voice Sunny heard whispering into his ear.

His own voice.

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed…]

The whispers fused into a deafening choir.

‘Goddamnit!”

The explosion of black flame happened right in the middle of the Shadow Legion, instantly swallowing innumerable shades. They were not merely vanquished, though… they were entirely destroyed.

At least Sunny hoped that they were destroyed. The alternative was much, much worse.

‘That vile thing!’

It only took him a moment to figure out what powers the Vile Spawn possessed — at least to an extent. That was because they were a twisted reflection of his own powers, added to the wicked traits the young Devil had inherited from the Thieving Bird. Sunny had already known the Vile Spawn’s core power — the ability to steal the lifeforce of others to kill them while augmenting itself. Only now that the ghastly thing was a Shadow Creature, it could affect Sunny as well, stealing his shadow essence. The second power of the Supreme Devil was quite similar to Shadow Step.

As for its third power… its third power seemed akin both to the [Formless] Ability of the Soul Serpent and to a facet of Sunny’s own mastery of Shadow Dance. The Vile Spawn could shadow other beings and wield their powers as its own, which made it a terrifying adversary to face — because it was as strong as you were, or at least capable of all the same things.

Just now, it had copied Neph’s [Soul Flame] to summon a storm of black fire to a devastating effect.

What was the damn thing going to steal next?

Sunny did not have to wait a long time to receive the answer.

Just as he escaped the shadows with Ananke, he heard an outraged, pained cry. The Vile Spawn was jumping in place, shaking the hand with which she had summoned Neph’s flame in the air. There was an indignant and quivering expression on her face, her onyx eyes brimming with tears.

It seemed that the damn thing had borrowed Neph’s Flaw, as well… and did not like how it felt at all.

A moment later, though, the teary eyes of the Devil glistened with mischief and wickedness, and its cries of pain turned into laughter.

The Vile Spawn disappeared from where it stood and appeared a moment later in the middle of the sea of suffocating flames — near the scorched, battered figure of the Wolf.

The Wolf snarled, aiming to swipe at the vicious creature with its paw, but it seemed weaker than usual, somehow — that was probably because the Vile Spawn was stealing its essence, as well.

Before it could attack the diabolical creature, the figure resembling Nephis disappeared in a torrent of darkness, and in the blink of an eye, an enormous black wolf lunged forward from the lightless whirlpool of shadows.

Having assumed the form of the giant black wolf, the Vile Spawn sank its fangs into the Wolf’s neck and pulled it viciously to the ground, tearing its throat open.

Sunny was already dashing through the flames when he heard the whisper of the Handy Bracelet once again:

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

‘Damn it!’

Having slain the Wolf, the Vile Spawn faced Sunny and assumed his form once more. Then, it smiled.

As the joyful smile twisted the Devil’s lips… Something stirred in its shadow. Something stirred, then swelled. Then, Sunny’s worst expectations came true.

The Sacred shade of the Wolf rose from the Vile Spawn’s shadow. The rest of the shades destroyed by the black flames — thousands of them — rose from its shadow, too, surrounding the Devil like a silent army. The loathsome hatchling… had just stolen Sunny’s soldiers.

Chased by the gleeful, wicked laughter of the Vile Spawn, Sunny raised his sword to cut down his own shades — shades that had been his, at least.

A flood of them barred his way, and for the first time, Sunny learned what it felt like to be faced by the silent, chilling malice of a seemingly endless horde of the dead warriors.

The shades did not fear pain, did not tire, and knew no hesitation. Naturally, they were not afraid of death, either — all of that made them a terrifying adversary to face.

Even though Sunny had received a bit of training in that regard in the Eternal City and Ariel’s Hell, he still couldn’t help but grit his teeth in discomfort.

‘Those… those are mine, you wicked little thief!’

He cut down an Obsidian Wasp, smashed the skull of a monstrous Godgrave beast, crushed the carapace of a Black Millipede with his boot…

That was when the wings of the Nightmare Butterflies blotted out the light of the stolen suns, and the Wolf descended upon him in all its primal fury.

‘Damn it all!’

The Vile Spawn had already slid away, stepping through the shadows to appear among the shades still loyal to Sunny. In the next moment, Sunny’s ears filled with a cacophony of whispers:

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[You have gained a shade.]

[Your shade has been destroyed.]

[Your shade…]

‘Why the hell is this?!’

When the Vile Spawn killed a shade, he stole it from Sunny. When Sunny vanquished a stolen shade, he gained it back — it was as if the two of them were playing a macabre game of tug-of-war…

And somehow, the damn thing was winning. By now, vast swathes of the Shadow Legion had already been usurped by the Vile Spawn — and the more shades he commanded, the more pressure Sunny and his companions found themselves facing.

Sunny snarled.

“You… vile… wretch!”