Shadow Slave

Sunny had never fought in his shadow form, and really, he didn't even know how. All he had were his instincts, but that wasn't enough. In fact, trusting your instincts too much was a sure way to get yourself killed.

Intelligence was the most dangerous weapon in the arsenal of a human, and it was Sunny's mind that ended up saving his life.

He had realized that his enemy was not invisible, but a shadow just like him only a moment before the creature was upon him. In that split second, Sunny managed to come up with the only way to escape death.

As sharp pain pierced his entire being, he lunged forward… and escaped the shadows, rolling away on the grass. Jumping to his feet, Sunny staggered and clutched at his side, blood flowing between his fingers.

"Argh…"

The shadow of the unknown abomination lunged in pursuit… and swiped uselessly across his body, not causing him any harm.

It was just a shadow, after all.

Throwing a glance at the thin tear in the Puppeteer's Shroud and a deep wound beneath it, Sunny took a step back. Simultaneously, he gave his shadows a command to hide themselves under his armor and augment his body.

Physical attacks couldn't harm shadows… but shadows also had no way to harm living beings. That was the thought that had saved him. If he had failed to assume the shape of a human in time, he would have been dead by now… most likely.

Because he had not, however, he and the shadow creature were now at a standstill.

The master of the Reckoning Island tried to attack him several more times, each strike ending up as fruitless as the previous ones. Then, it froze, as if slightly confused by the situation.

Sunny finally had a chance to take a good look at the hostile shadow.

It looked just like a shadow would — like a dark, ethereal silhouette of a person painted on the grass in black. The creature seemed to have two legs, two hands, and one head. If Sunny didn't know what it really was, he would have assumed that the shadow was cast by an ordinary person.

There was no one else in sight, though.

Backing away and grimacing because of the pain radiating from the deep wound in his side, Sunny stared at the enemy and thought feverishly:

'No, this is wrong…'

A shadow creature was, indeed, deadly for someone like him.

But to every other human on the Chained Isles, it was completely harmless.

How was it, then, that so many people had been killed by it? And what about the Nightmare Creatures? How had this shadow slaughtered so many living beings?

His eyes widened slightly.

Sunny threw his hand to the side to summon the Midnight Shard… and just in time.

What happened next caused him to shudder.

The creature moved once again, and then, two dark flames appeared in its darkness. A moment later, a human figure stepped out of the shadow. It was a young man with pale skin and cold, cruel eyes of an experienced killer. A spark of madness burned in their depths.

The stranger had black hair and was wearing a light armor made out of soft silk and black, lustreless leather. In his hands, the apparition was holding a long, slightly curved blade of an austere tachi.

Sunny felt fear grip his heart as he recognized the face in front of him.

Of course, he did. It was his own face, after all.

Looking at the devil of Reckoning was like looking into a mirror.

'That's, uh… since when was I so scary?!'

Sunny recoiled in shock.

"What the hell are you?"

The apparition mimicked his expression, then opened its mouth. Its lips moved, however, there was sound, as if the abomination was mute.

Sunny had no problem reading its lips, though.

"...What the hell are you?"

'What is going on...'

Before he could finish that thought, though, he had to defend himself against a lightning-fast strike of the enemy's sword.

Sunny deflected the fearsome attack and staggered back, his hands trembling from the force of the impact.

'Curses…'

The bastard might have looked like Sunny, but it was much, much stronger. About as strong as a Fallen Devil would probably be…

Sunny had no time to recover before his evil twin was upon him once again, attacking with the painfully familiar grace of his own battle style. This time, the tip of the tachi missed Sunny's eyes only by a few centimeters.

A vicious smile appeared on the apparition's face.

Sunny grunted.

As the abomination launched a flurry of lethal attacks his way, each swift and vicious, he struggled to defend himself and fought through the pain. He was barely holding on… for now, at least. Because of how strong and fast the creature was, Sunny had no doubt that he'll be killed eventually.

How could he fight against someone who knew all his tricks, but was also much more powerful? Even the Shadow Dance was useless... what was the point in trying to mirror the style of an opponent who had stolen his technique from Sunny himself?!

The situation did not look good, at all. Especially because blood was still streaming down Sunny's torso.

Between two strikes, he dashed back and pierced the apparition with a furious gaze.

"You... poor bastard... of all the faces out there, you just had to choose mine? Fool, couldn't you have chosen someone, I don't know… taller?!"

Internally, though, he couldn't help but think:

'Not gonna lie, the evil version of me looks sort of… awesome. Am I really this dashing in real life?'

Sunny didn't really know how to feel about this.

...He wasn't, of course, trying to speak to the creature because he wanted to chat.

He was just trying to distract it while Saint was drawing her bow.

A moment later, a black arrow whistled in the air, aimed at the devil's heart.

…However, the young man with cruel dark eyes simply stepped to the side and swiped the arrow away with his sword.

Sunny cursed.

…He became really despondent, though, only a moment later, when a sudden ripple spread through the bizarre creature's body.

In a blink of an eye, the apparition changed. Its face suddenly became white as alabaster and inhumanly beautiful, with ruby eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips. The soft fabric of its armor turned black as onyx and hard as stone. The shape and height of its body changed, too.

Before Sunny could even react, he wasn't facing his own reflection anymore.

Instead, he was facing Saint's.

'Crap…'

As the sickening feeling of his soul slowly falling apart permeated Sunny's entire being, the perfect copy of the taciturn demon raised its bow and sent an arrow flying straight at his heart.