Shadow Slave

A few days went by in a flash. Nothing serious seemed to have happened, but grand and dire events were being set in motion in the shadows.

Saint Madoc had transported several cohorts of Valor retainers into the Dream Realm and then disappeared. Of course, no one was told about his absence - in fact, Clan Valor made a good show of pretending that he was still around, supporting the Awakened in the Dream Realm.

It was a believable lie.

Awakened, Ascended, and Saints were affected by the Call all the same - if they traveled to the Dream Realm near a Nightmare Gate, they would be brought to the area surrounding the Seed instead of to where their anchor was. However, there was a big difference when a Transcendent was actually involved.

That difference was that Saints could return to the waking world by just using their innate powers, while Awakened and Masters needed to find a Gateway to come back.

Another, no less important distinction was that the pull of the Call was not precise. If an Awakened fell asleep near a Gate, they could be transported right to where the Seed was, but just as easily to a spot dozens of kilometers away. They could even be dropped right into the middle of a horde of hungry Nightmare Creatures.

So, if a cohort of Awakened wanted to use a Nightmare Gate as a pathway to the Dream Realm, they would be scattered over a large area and risk finding their doom long before reuniting with their fellow warriors. A Saint could follow the Call first, establish an anchor in a safe place, and then transport the members of the cohort there one by one.

A Saint could even clear the way to the Seed, if the cohort was truly planning to challenge it. That was how the Nightmare Gates that opened inside the human cities were usually dealt with, unless there was no one to challenge them - in that case, they were simply contained, surrounded by a fortified exclusion zone, and guarded day and night.

So, everyone had been led to believe that that was exactly what Whispering Blade was doing - guiding the Awakened warriors of Clan Valor to the Seeds of Nightmare in order to conquer them.

Sunny, however, knew better.

He knew that Madoc actually left to infiltrate Song's territory and secretly take out Mordret. The Awakened cohorts the fearsome Saint had transported to the Dream Realm had been left to their own devices, presumably supporting Knight Shtad in pursuing a mysterious objective.

The war between the great clans was starting in earnest. Blood had already been spilled, and much more of it was going to flow very soon.

...Sunny himself, meanwhile, had spent these days experimenting with his newfound ability. He was in a real rush of excitement about it, simply because the potential of the corporeal shadow form was all but limitless.

In theory.

In practice, there were still conditions to what he could do with it.

For example, Sunny managed to turn himself into the shadow fiend without the help of the Shadow Shell, relying solely on his own form - that was more or less the extent of how large he could make himself, though. For now. It was also an inferior solution to calling upon the ambient shadows to become the outer layer of the spawn, since he was vulnerable without them.

He also experimented with becoming smaller. That was a much easier change, although not without its limitations either. The smallest he managed to become was about the size of the Imp, which induced quite a reaction from the little wretch.

Sunny also tried other things, like staying more or less his natural size, but changing various aspects of his appearance. Facial features were easy to shift around, as were other things like the length of his hair, his body type, and so on.

It would have been a great subterfuge tool... if not for the fact that all these permutations were still of a matte, jet-black color.

'I won't be masquerading as other people any time soon...'

Of course, his experiments went beyond cosmetic changes. His interest was mostly combat and stealth, after all. So, Sunny started by adding two more arms to the corporeal shadow form, and transitioned to more extreme shape alterations from there.

His ability to shapeshift was limited by his knowledge and experience. Sunny did well with smaller alterations, like adding sharp claws to his fingers or turning his teeth into wicked fangs.

However, when he tried to grow wings, the result was borderline disastrous - he had never lived with wings on his back, did not know their anatomy and how it engaged with the rest of the body, and had the vaguest understanding of the principles of flight.

So, he had no hope of soaring in the sky like Kai or Saint Tyris any time soon.

Sunny was far away from becoming truly shapeless and formless. He did come closer to reaching that goal, though.

...The funniest thing he did, however, was fulfill his old desire to become taller.

Granted, it too was not easy.

When Sunny simply made himself larger, the proportions of his body seemed a bit off. When he elongated his limbs, the result was even more off-putting. Finding the right balance was really hard.

He did manage to achieve an acceptable result, though, and was currently looking at himself through one of the shadows, giggling.

"Damn... it's such a pity Effie can't see me right now. The look on her face would be priceless! Especially since she would be looking up at me... oh gods, I can just imagine it..."

The tall version of Sunny was really weird. He wasn't sure that he liked its lanky silhouette that much... it was really amusing to see, though. Especially because the corporeal shadow form was entirely matte black.

Except for the hair. His hair was actually white, because Sunny had summoned the Autumn Leaf to see if it worked on him in this state.

'I should probably explore purchasing more cosmetic Memories in the future... they seem to be working on this form, which can be of use.'

He glanced at himself one last time, then dove back into the shadows and emerged from them in his usual human form. Truth be told, while being a manifested shadow was certainly fun, he felt much more comfortable in his real body.

It was nice, cozy, and familiar.

He felt really rather attached to it.

Some time later, Sunny was preparing to go to sleep, but then suddenly froze in the middle of washing up. His face grew cold and dark.

Then, a dangerous smile appeared on his lips.

'Well, well. What do we have here...'

A frightening darkness flooded his eyes.

That was because a few moments ago, Sunny had felt something.

Before, his perception had been split between five points of view - his own and those of his four shadows.

But then, a sixth perspective slowly came into focus.

Which meant that the fifth shadow had returned.

The gloomy shadow was now within the walls of the siege capital, and that meant that the assassins Clan Song had sent were here, too.