(Volume 2 Part 2 - Humanities Most Powerful Weapon)
Standing atop the black waters of his Soul Sea, bathing in the dark glow of his black Soul Cores, Sunny looked at his new Echo. The Stone Saint seemed to be literally bathing in the darkness of his soul. Sighing, he looked at his Shadow Fragments and thought for a brief moment.
Shadow Fragments: [476/1000]
Getting to this number was arduous and painful, but he still managed. After over two months in the Dark City and about seventy Awakened Nightmare Creatures, he had almost reached the halfway point.
Now, he was going to bring himself back by 100 Shadow Fragments.
'Well, Juno did always say that I have to experiment with my Aspect, so…'
Making up his mind, Sunny walked up to his Echo and reached out to touch her breastplate, right above where the Spell Weave showed her nexus. If there was any place to touch her, it would be there.
As soon as Sunny touched the cool stone, a new string of runes appeared in the air in front of him.
[Transform Echo into a Shadow?]
Sunny did not hesitate now.
"Transform," he said.
The response was immediate.
Dark radiance poured down from the Core, a pair of black beams that sank into the stone warrior's chest and spine. For a moment, she looked as she always had—a statue in armor, carved from pale granite, frozen in a silent vow. Then the light began to eat her.
Her granite skin darkened, drinking in the radiance until it turned pitch‑black. Color retreated from every plate and curve, leaving behind a silhouette, an outline of emptiness in the shape of a knight. Ghostly wisps of grey fog rose from the joins in her armor only to be devoured again, as though she were being smelted and reforged inside a closed furnace of night. The faint sheen clinging to her stone flesh turned to a lusterless matte, swallowing reflections instead of casting them.
Only her eyes remained unchanged.
Two crimson embers burned in the depths of her visor. Their hue shifted, deepening, acquiring a slow, watching quality that made the back of his neck prickle. Before, there had been nothing behind that gaze. Now, he felt like something was looking back.
After her transformation had ended, Sunny had immediately noticed himself getting weaker. Months in the Dark City had forged his regular body to be stronger, but the loss of so many Shadow Fragments left him weaker than he wanted to be. Hopefully, the addition of a Shadow would balance it out.
After a couple more seconds, runes blossomed above the still surface of the Soul Sea, each symbol casting pale reflections on the black water.
Shadow: Stone Saint
Shadow Rank: Awakened
Shadow Class: Monster
Shadow Attributes: [Battle Master], [Stalwart], [Spark of Divinity].
Sunny blinked. It seemed as though the Stone Saint's divine Attribute had evolved to match his own. Was it because he was her master? This was a nice surprise. However, he still didn't see how she was different from before.
Frowning, he continued to look through the shimmering runes:
Shadow Description: [Shadow Saint was created by the treacherous Lost From Light in the cursed darkness of the Forgotten Shore.]
'Again with this whole treachery stuff. Can I get another epithet, huh?'
But in the next moment, he forgot all about this little frustration. Because the following line of runes showed him something really unexpected.
Just beneath the description, a familiar set of runes shone in the air:
[Shadow Fragments: 0/200.]
That one line had confirmed it for him. Stone Saint was no longer an Echo.
Even though Sunny now knew the Stone Saint was different, he was still a little confused. How could an Echo get Shadow Fragments? They were, inherently, just copies of a dead Nightmare Creature, and his previous Echo didn't have that.
'But this isn't an Echo anymore, is it?'
How could he have forgotten that already?
A Shadow was something else. Shadows were different. They were mercurial things, built on change. His Shadow Core changed with every fragment he fed it. It made a vicious, terrifying kind of sense that the creatures born from it would share that trait. His Aspect Legacy further proved that point. As a Divine Shadow, his battle art was meant to be like a shadow, always changing and adapting to the opponent. Always growing.
But still, how could a Shadow get Shadow Fragments? He tried to imagine finding a "transfer" button in the runes, some handy little arrow he could push to pour fragments into her like water into a cup.
Nothing.
He clicked his tongue.
"If I were the Spell," he said darkly, "what especially annoying method would I use?"
It took Sunny a little bit of time to think of an answer, and when he did, he didn't like it.
One time, while they were sitting around on that damned tree, Juno had seemed to mention something that pertained to Sunny's current situation.
"Sunny, do you know what the answer is to growing a soldier?"
At the time, Sunny was mostly out of it, so he gave some non-committed response, probably something along the lines of "giving the soldier some of these amazing fruits."
Juno had chuckled at this, what a bastard, and gave him the answer to his current problem.
"When you need to grow a soldier's strength, you feed them memories, of course!"
Current Sunny stopped pacing and stared at the frozen Stone Saint in his Soul Sea. The idea fit how the spell usually operated, and how Juno usually operated. Memories, at the end of the day, were just a soul taken form. They were a physical representation of power, and regular Nightmare Creatures grew on eating souls. Why would a Shadow not be too different?
Sunny dragged a hand down his face.
"How the hell did he know this, that idiot," he muttered at the phantom Juno perched somewhere in the back of his mind. "You couldn't have been a little more literal, huh?"
Had Juno known exactly that this situation would happen, or did he just mention it for some other reason? No, it made too much sense for Juno to already know of this situation. His track record of knowing things was too good. He was a lot like an oracle in that regard, but his Aspect had nothing to do with telling the future or finding out secrets.
"Vexing," Sunny muttered as he began to pick out Memories. "Truly vexing."
Quickly, he began summoning many Memories he never used. There was a tower shield too big for him, an eye that gave off weak light, and other similar Memories.
Without any more delay, Juno handed the shield to his Stone Saint.
"Here," he said. "Try this."
His heart skipped a beat when the statuesque creature slowly raised her hands and grasped the Memory with her stone gauntlets.
The Stone Saint obediently brought the shield to her chest.
And then… shattered it.
Sunny froze, his mouth hanging open.
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
'What?'
She was supposed to eat it and get stronger, not destroy it! Now, he seemed like a fool for following the words of Juno, who, at the time, was just as bewitched as he was by the Soul Devouring Tree. He was just speaking nonsense.
However, at that moment, something began to happen with the sparks from the destroyed Memory. Instead of dissipating out like they usually did, they circled around the Stone Saint's body and then suddenly flowed through it, separating into two streams. Each stream was then absorbed by one of the dark embers burning in the depths of the living shadow that was hiding inside the monster's body.
Sunny blinked.
[Stone Saint has grown stronger.]
Sunny stared at her, the afterimage of the system message still hanging in his mind.
Stone Saint has grown stronger.
He tore his eyes up to the runes.
With a heavy sigh, Sunny summoned the runes and found the description of the Shadow. Down at the very bottom of it, the runes were slightly changed:
Shadow Fragments: [2/200]
Excitedly, Sunny pumped his fists in the air with a happy expression on his face.
Calming himself down, Sunny thought of why the Stone Saint had gotten only two fragments from his Awakened Memory, since he had gotten four fragments from killing the thing. Quickly, he formed an idea. Since he was a Dormant, he got double the Shadow Fragments to his Shadow, which was an Awakened.
Still, this didn't get Sunny's mood down. Even if he needed to feed her one hundred Memories, she would still grow more powerful. Such a small price was a good exchange in Sunny's eyes.
Thus, he continued to feed her.
Holding out the next Memory to her, Sunny watched as his Shadow took the eye of the basilisk in her hand. Just like before, she crushed the thing and took in all the sparks that came from it.
[Stone Saint has grown stronger.]
Checking her Runes once again, Sunny's smile grew wider. Such a useless Memory she took, one that only emitted light, but it was a Memory anyway. More importantly, it was an Awakened-level memory.
Shadow Fragments: [3/200]
Tier‑one junk, one fragment. Reasonable. Slightly depressing, but reasonable.
He pulled out his next Memory—a rusty piece of armor, altogether horrible. It was heavy where it should be light, clunky at the joints, thin in critical places, and thick where it didn't matter. This was a Memory he probably couldn't even sell.
Now it had a purpose.
Sunny hefted it, nearly overbalanced, then shuffled over and shoved it toward Saint.
"You know what to do."
She did.
Metal vanished under stone hands. Light flared and streamed and vanished into the shape inside her armor. The Spell whispered in his ear again.
[Stone Saint has grown stronger.]
Shadow Fragments: [5/200]
Every time the number changed, he felt the same little spark of satisfaction. The same ugly, addictive twinge. This was probably how gambling addicts felt, Sunny decided.
Soon, he got into a rhythm of giving his Shadow Memories, watching her grow, picking out the next one, and so on. He had gotten a good amount of useless Memories, and now they had found a purpose.
Looking at the growing number of Shadow Fragments on the bottom of his Shadow Runes made Sunny quite nostalgic.
He thought about the first time he'd seen that kind of counter, trembling over a handful of fragments after almost getting killed in the Labyrinth.
Shadow Fragments: [7/200].
He remembered sitting on that damned tree with Juno, Nephis, and Cassie. They were all under the control of that horrible plant, and Sunny was just too weak to go against it. How lucky he was to encounter the Great Devil and get Blood Weave.
Or, more accurately, fated for such an encounter.
Shadow Fragments [9/200]
He thought about what he did right after Juno left. How he and Nephis "explored" the Bright Castle, finding out more truths about the living conditions there. Sunny could swear he still felt the bruises and pains from the sparring sessions he had against Nephis, all because his little brother had said to try out Shadow Sense in combat.
Shadow Fragments: [10/200]
Why did he have to be right?
It was such a bizarre experience, dreaming in the Dream Realm. Seeing the original Temple Slave dancing and getting inspired by the dance, and the ultimate benefit of unlocking his Aspect Legacy. The only reason Sunny was confident enough to hunt in the Dark City as much as he did was because of Shadow Dance and what it provided him. Sure, he was still working towards the first step, but he felt he could get that soon.
Shadow Fragments: [12/200]
Sunny let out a slow breath and smiled.
He really had come a long way from the terrified Sleeper who didn't even know what a Shadow Fragment was.
…
Dawn on the Forgotten Shore was always treacherous.
There were many reasons for this, but two stood out in particular in the eyes of Sunny. Firstly, all the Nightmare Creatures migrated during dawn. The ones that hunt during the day were leaving their nests, and the ones that hunt at night were returning. Secondly, he himself was weaker in the light. Sunny was all about hiding in the shadows, so when the sun was in the sky, he felt a little naked.
And additionally, he now had to walk around the city with a maddeningly beautiful Sleeper with only two arrow-type Memories. The only reason he felt even slightly comfortable was that Saint was walking beside him.
The Stone Saint cut a silent path at his right, shield loose at her side, sword riding her shoulder, every plate of her black armor devouring the morning light. Ruby flames burned quietly in the slit of her visor. Even without his shadow wrapped around her, she radiated a sense of danger.
Glancing sideways, Sunny beheld his new beautiful… partner.
Kai walked to his left with the ease and happiness that should not be associated with a man who spent weeks trapped in a well. His lamellar armor hugged his long frame perfectly, deep brown and blue catching little hints of grey. His dark auburn hair was neatly tied back. His face was almost too pretty for this city: small, symmetrical, eyes bright even in the washed‑out light. It even seemed like the recent grime and dirt on his body had magically erased itself from existence.
Sunny sighed inwardly.
Truly, it was so unfair that Kai was so beautiful.
The only other man he knew who came anywhere close was Juno, but Juno's beauty was a different breed entirely. Kai was all soft lines and warmth, the kind of person who looked like he'd fit better under stage lights or on a giant screen than in a nightmare. He had that easy, effortless charm that made people want to smile back just from his good heart.
Juno was… sharp.
His features were all lines, as if cut by a knife and then put on muscle. Clean and straight bones, lazy eyes, and a carefree attitude that didn't come from a good heart but rather a heart that didn't believe anyone mattered. Even when that guy was beaten to hell, he still carried himself on a pedestal that, even if Sunny didn't want to admit it, was deserved. From the small number of stories Juno had shared with him, his own narcissistic belief in himself was justified.
Sadly, this comparison made Sunny think back to the conversation Kai had with him right after he had left the well.
Kai had produced his paper lantern, flooding the place with soft yellow light. Sunny had been blinded by the light, and Kai had looked over both him and his Shadow. Then came the inevitable questions from Kai.
"Where do you live?" Kai had asked after the initial flurry of questions about whether or not Sunny was a demon. "Since I have never heard of a man named Sunless living in the castle or outer settlements, that doubly had an Echo."
"In the city," Sunny had said simply.
"In the city?! Kai had repeated, as if he'd just said it in the sun. "Are you sure you don't live in the outer settlements?"
"Oh," Kai had said then, eyes narrowing with sudden recognition. "You're that guy who lives in the city! I just remembered the stories about you!"
Sunny had grown confused at that statement.
"There are stories about me?"
Kai nodded energetically. "Yeah! They say you saved multiple hunting parties from Nightmare Creatures. Even how you killed a Fallen Monster within a couple of minutes… though the stories always mentioned a crow Echo, not a statue…"
Sunny had stared at him.
"A crow?"
"A crow," Kai had answered. "The stories always mention a crow."
"That's not me," Sunny had answered flatly. "That's the other guy."
Kai had blinked, taken a second look at the black armor standing behind Sunny, and frowned.
"There's… another guy who lives in the ruins?" he'd asked slowly. "With a terrifying Echo and no sense of self‑preservation?"
Sunny had pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, that's the guy… Anyway, how do you, or anyone, know of him? I thought he was being careful not to get spotted."
Kai shrugged.
"Well, clearly not," he began, clearly excited to explain. "He seemed to make sure to save three hunting parties from death… Yeah, he even got a nickname from the residents: Baba Yaga, the Devil of the City. He first appeared–I think, three months ago–saving two pathfinders and eleven hunters from the jaws of a Fallen Monster. They carried that story back to the castle, and then he popped up a few more times. He seems to be really strong, and his Echo is also equally dangerous!"
Sunny had rubbed his temples, feeling a headache forming from this information. That damn idiot, why did he have to save people? Since when did Juno even care about that?
Still, it kind of made sense. Of course the Sun Chaser had turned his own exile into a legend.
'Why did I have to be called the Crazy Kid, though?! Even the Spell gives me better names than that!'
Abruptly, Sunny stopped walking and held out a hand to stop Kai as well. He had seemingly gone too deep into his mind and failed to notice the presence they were approaching.
"Sunny?" he whispered.
Not answering, he raised the Midnight Shard, the familiar grip settling into his hand. At the same time, a thought snapped along the link to Stone Saint.
The Shadow knight's posture changed in an instant. Her shield rolled forward, covering his flank; her sword slipped from her shoulder into a low guard, point angled toward the empty street.
"Get ready, Kai," Sunny murmured, eyes narrowing. "We're about to run into a Nightmare Creature."
Looking ahead, the street looked unchanged. Leaning facades, a toppled half column, and pools of shadows everywhere. Nothing moved. Nothing was there.
That made Sunny all the more tense. If he couldn't see it, but his Shadow Sense could, it meant that their opponent was a powerful abomination.
Suddenly, the street rippled like water with a stone thrown in.
A heartbeat ago, it hadn't been there.
Sunny's fingers tightened on the Midnight Shard. Beside him, Saint took one deliberate step forward, shield lifting, her black silhouette swallowing what little dawn light there was.
Kai swallowed audibly.
"Sunny," he whispered, voice tight, "what is—"
"Quiet," Sunny said without looking back.
He stared into the patch of shadow ahead.
For a long moment, there was nothing.
Then the darkness bulged, almost imperceptibly, and resolved into a shape.
No flash and no noise. One instant, the space was empty; the next, it was occupied by a lone, shadowy figure. It was as if it had always been there.
Every muscle in Sunny's body went taut.
Without hesitating, he sent Saint to cut it down.
The Shadow moved instantly.
One moment, she was a regular statue by his side, and the next, it was already almost on the enemy. Her shield snapped sideways, sword coming up from the ready position into a brutal downward stroke.
It was the kind of blow that even Awakened monstrosities could not withstand.
The figure didn't flinch.
A hand came up from under the cloak, one hand holding the grip tightly and the other placed on the blade's side to brace it.
The impact between these two figures was deafening, as if a thunderclap had descended right in the streets.
Sunny had expected the man to crumple. At least move. All that happened was that his arms shook slightly, and then nothing.
It was also at that moment that Sunny had fully seen the sword being carried by the man. It was a black kakao.
'Saint, back off,' Sunny commanded.
The Shadow obeyed at once. She pushed away, retreating a single controlled step, sword coming back into guard, shield still between him and the stranger.
Kai had an arrow‑Memory in his bow now, drawn halfway, green eyes wide and fixed on the hood.
"Sunny," he hissed, "what are you doing? Why is the Echo retreating?"
Sunny gave Kai a short look before answering.
"Because that isn't an enemy."
Kai growled slightly.
"And how do you know that?"
Sunny sighed, dismissing the Midnight Shard and beginning to walk forward.
"Because that is Baba Yaga," he stated simply. "Or more accurately…my brother."