Sunny let out a nervous breath. It was already time for his meeting with the Academy personnel.
He stood up and started making way to the office. The halls were eerily quiet. Sound of his foot hitting metal could be heard echoing throughout the hall, seemingly carrying the nervousness he held deep inside.
Soon enough he found himself in a small office, sitting across from him an administrative worker. The interview started right away. Sunny started feeling seeds of dread grow in his heart, he killed them right away. He could not afford to be afraid.
At first Sunny was offered psychological counseling, which he immediately declined. After that the interview quickly switched to questions about his aspect, Sunny started panicking, but he did not let any of it show on his face.
He wanted to keep everything to himself, but with his flaw that was going to be the most difficult challenge he had faced yet. Luckily all the questions were worded in a way to put Sleepers at ease. Most of them started with polite preambles. Almost all of Sunny's tension disappeared as soon as he realized he could give neutral answers.
"Would you mind telling me about the type of Aspect Ability you received, as in combat, sorcery and utility?".
He minded, he minded a lot actually.
"Yeah, I am not sure, I do not really think I can characterize my aspect as of now. I did not have time to experiment with it."
That was true. The Aspect categorization was stupid anyways, there was no real way to actually put an Aspect in a category. All Aspects were different and unique, most could actually fall into more than one category. How could Sunny put his aspect in a category if it could most likely fall into multiple ones?
"That is fine. Can you deal direct damage with your ability?"
"I guess not? I was not even able to harm a towel."
Sunny was almost sure that his aspect possessed an Ability to deal damage or boost his combat capability, but he did not know what that was just yet. Of course he also tried harming the towel back at the police station by using his aspect Ability, he was all but sure he was using it incorrectly back then, but it made the personnel think that his Aspect had no usage in combat.
The worker did not seem to be surprised by Sunny's words at all as he continued to write down everything. The entire interview went on like that. Sunny was able to make it seem like his Aspect was weak, harmless and had nothing to do with combat.
Soon after Sunny started making his way back to his room. Sounds of metal still echoed in the halls but they seemed much calmer now, almost all the nervousness was gone from their song.
Getting to his room he quickly undressed got into his bed. One would think that sleeping the day after a Nightmare would be difficult, but it took Sunny almost no time for the sweet oblivion of sleep to claim him.
***
Early in the morning Sunny quickly got up and did his daily routine. After cleaning up Sunny rushed to the cafeteria.
This time the cafeteria was very crowded, the Sleepers making a commotion. Ignoring them Sunny filled his plate with food and went to sit next to the blind girl from yesterday.
Sunny tried focusing on his food, pretending no one else existed, but the commotion of the Sleepers was getting louder and louder. Lifting up his head he saw them all concentrated around a large screen on the wall. The screen was showing a list of names ranking the new batch of sleepers based on their chances of survival.
As expected Sunny found himself near the bottom of the list. His name was only above one other. Of course on the bottom would be the blind girl sitting next to him, turns out her name was Cassia.
The commotion was too loud for it to just be the rankings though. Sunny knew exactly why everyone was in such a stupor. On the top of the rankings, a portrait of a graceful silver haired girl could be seen.
Of course it also displayed her name, "Nephis" and it also displayed her true name "Changing Star". Sunny's lips curled upwards.
'Thats my girl!'
His gaze started running around, franticly searching for someone, after couple of seconds he had found what he was searching for. Sunny's sight landed on a Sleeper with brown hair and electric green eyes, he was Caster, the proud scion of the han-li clan. His gaze was focused on Nephis's name, not her true one, but her actual name. Sunny almost face palmed, he could have not been more obvious about his intentions with Nephis. By now he was fully sure that he wanted to kill Nephis.
A small chuckle escaped his lips. If they wanted to kill Nephis they would have to send someone much more competent than this pompous fool.
'Lets see… which ditch should I live his corpse in'.
Ignoring the commotion Sunny's gaze now landed on Nephis who was now walking towards them. Sitting right across from Sunny she started focusing on her food. Sunny followed shortly after, Nephis was not someone who liked to talk a lot, especially when eating.
After finishing their food Caster approached Nephis. Sunny looked at the young man, aggression clearly written all over his face. Caster ignored him, seemingly not even irritated by his gaze. Suddenly he shifted his head in a bow.
"Lady Nephis. I am Caster from the Han-Li Clan. I see your trial went well".
To everyone else Nephis looked a bit perplexed by that question, but Sunny, he could see much deeper into her. Nephis, she was furious, it felt like she wanted to burn the whole place down, but she kept it under control with masterful ease. Despite everything she was feeling, she smiled, not the bright and warm smile she showed him, but a crude, cold and an awkward smile.
"It is what it is."
Caster returned the smile.
"I see… I am glad you returned unharmed."
'Glad she returned unharmed!? Why because you can kill her later yourself!? You fool! You really think you can kill her? I am the heir of death! How can you kill a friend of death!?'
Nephis nodded.
"Thanks."
Casters interaction put Sunny at an unease. He could tell all the emotions Nephis was feeling, even if it was imperceptible to everyone else. Her heart was filled with indescribable fury and longing. She was furious at the sovereigns, at the spell, and their futile attempts at her life, and she longed for their death. He did not like seeing Nephis in this state, he wanted to see her happy, he wanted to see her smiling, the thought of it made his heart beat faster.
***
The wilderness survival classroom was spacious and tastefully decorated. The classroom was of course completely empty, he knew it would be like this. Actually the number of Sleepers attending this class was one of the reasons Sunny chose to attend it, the other…
a gloomy instructor sat behind a wooden desk. Noticing him he immediately perked up. Looking at Sunny his expression changed from gloomy to joyfully shocked.
"Sunless!? Boy. Is that you?".
Sunny's face started showing a genuine smile. 'It seems like he remembers me after all'.
"Teacher Julius… Yes its me."
Julius's lips gave out a chuckle as he started seating Sunny in the front row.
"I always knew you would make it. Have you come back to finish learning what we started?".
Legacy kids like him were taught everything from combat to wilderness survival in their childhood. Sunny was naturally no exception, he was taught everything from a young age. And his teacher for wilderness survival was of course none other than Julius. Unfortunately their teacher student time was cut short due to unforeseen circumstances, but he had still learned a lot from him.
Making a fire, filtering water, rock climbing, making shelter and even building a boat, Julius had drilled all the knowledge into him. Sunny found out the day he started learning from him that he was very passionate about teaching. It only took a year for him to be an expert at surviving many deadly situations. The reason he could read runic language was due to him as well.
He was genuinely happy about seeing him again, and it seemed like the feeling was mutual. After all Julius's best student had come back to learn from him once more.
"Wonderful! Just wonderful! Sunless. I am glad you decided to come back to this old man to learn some more. How many other classes are you taking?"
Sunny grimaced, knowing what was about to come right after his answer
"None. For the next four weeks, I will be in your care"
Julius's face lit up in utter astonishment. Then slowly his astonishment turned into excitement, he looked genuinely happy.
"Amazing! Wonderful! Sunless, four weeks. In four weeks I will make you even more immortal"
***
Returning to his room he fell on his bed. Teacher Julius's class was as exhausting as it always had been, they had corrected many gaps in Sunny's knowledge. The class did not matter to him right now though, a slight smirk found itself on his face as he glanced over to his shadow.
"You know we did not get to spend a lot of time together. I wonder what more you can do, bastard. Now go move"
Sunny's shadow removed itself from the soles of his feet starting to move towards the door. Seeing two perspectives, one from his shadow and one from his body. The gloomy shadow glanced at him for a moment and then exited the room.
Sunny first started checking the range limit on his ability. He commanded his shadow to move as far away as it could. The shadow moved fast, very fast in fact.
'I wonder if the speed is boosted by my [Prince of Shadows] or [The Shadow] Attributes.'
The shadow quickly started going straight north. In a moment it was a hundred meters away, next moment it was another hundred meters away. Sunny let the shadow keep moving north not noticing any restriction on his connection with his shadow.
After traversing ten kilometers with lighting speed Sunny concluded that his ability had no range limit, or at least it did not have a range limit that affected him.
'interesting! I wonder if the ability does not have a range limit or if my lineage removes it.'
The shadow quickly returned to the Academy, but it did not head to Sunny's room. Unnoticed by anyone, the shadow started heading to the combat class, where Nephis currently was.
With the shadows incredible speed it only took a second. Sunny made sure to keep his shadow in other shadows, after all if somebody noticed a moving shadow that would not end well for him.
Hiding in shadows of a large dojo Sunny's gloomy shadow took a look at the group of Sleepers being taught by instructor Rock. Currently they were all arrayed at a Machine that tested their physical capabilities.
Most of the sleepers got a score ranging from ten to fourteen, those with physical enhancing aspects got scores ranging from fifteen to sixteen.
Currently a beautiful girl with silver hair stood in front of it. Nephis took a combat stance that he knew too well delivering a crushing blow to the machine. After an infuriating short pause the machine displayed sixteen.
Sixteen. That is exactly how much Sunny expected her to get, people might think that sixteen was not too much, especially for someone ranked at first place, but she had not used her aspect. With the boost her dormant ability provided she could double her score.
'Thirty two. That… is crazy for a sleeper, truly something that one would expect from a divine aspect'.
Could he also do something like that? Sunny was filled with excitement. Just how powerful were divine aspects? How much more would they be able to do compared to everyone else? Would they be able to beat the sovereigns easily? Or would they struggle?
After that it was Casters turn, he was the last one left. He positioned himself in front of the machine and with terrifying speed — he struck it. Sunny could not see the punch, however he could sense it as a blur, it was almost like he had some sort of sixth sense. The machine trembled taking some time to calculate his score and it displayed… twenty one.
Everyone gasped in shock, throwing admiring glances to Caster. Caster himself bowed and took a step back, acting like his score was not a big deal.
After that the students got around a ring, getting ready for sparring. Nephis was the first one to start, she stepped into the ring waiting for her opponent.
Sunny suddenly remembered something his father said to him.
"The shadows. They move… differently, when I sense them I can feel a faint difference in their movements. They… they seem to have a battle art of their own. If I could harness that… if I could learn that."
In the end Sunny's father had learned and started mastering the battle art of shadows. He called it shadow style. Sunny could not believe it, shadows actually had their own hidden battle art.
He immediately started focusing on Neph's shadow, sensing it.
Nephis started fighting the batch of sleepers challenging her, winning every single fight without even breaking a sweat. Every movement she made was graceful and efficient, she was flowing like a river. And her shadow… it was right there, her shadow, it moved differently from her. While Nephis's movements were graceful and flowing her shadows movements were more sharp and unpredictable.
'That's it!'
Suddenly Sunny had another idea. As Caster got into the ring he gave a mental command to his shadow. The shadow moved from its hiding spot jumping from one shadow to another. Evading everyones glances, the shadow moved towards Nephis's shadow and merged with it.
Sunny's senses were much sharper now. His shadows followed Nephis's shadow, but he could feel its movements much better. He started focusing on the fight and Neph's shadow, feeling all the discrepancies between them.
Caster moved fast. It was like he disappeared from existence. Caster moved closing the gap between them instantly, like all that distance was nothing. His fist hazy like a blur he struck. No Sleeper should have been able to defend themselves from this attack, but Nephis turned her body, deflecting the strike.
Although she deflected the strike, it still connected with her shoulder, sending her in a spin. Sunny was not necessarily happy about her friend being pushed like this, but his shadow took most of his concentration.
Caster not wasting any time used his aspect to close the gap once more. His thinking was simple, Nephis in her spin still thought he was still in front of her, so he would just appear right behind her and strike.
His logic was sound. Sunny was sure it would work if it was anyone else, but Nephis… she had already predicted it. Feinting she threw her elbow back.
Caster's eyes widened in shock, but he still managed to dodge, even if it was by a hairs breath. He was just too fast.
After that he instantly lowered his body striking Nephis with a sweep. She could not do anything as she fell to the ground. Caster won… but it was not a real victory, and Caster knew that as well. Nephis had not used her Aspect.
Sunny was shocked experiencing the battle from his shadows viewpoint. He could feel all of Nephis's movements, he could also see them. The way she moved was very different from how her shadow moved, the difference was even greater with his shadow.
'Is it because my shadow is more independent and thus it can show more of its battle art?'
Sunny started pondering about the battle art of shadows, all the insight he had gained from the battle was staggering. His shadow followed Nephis, copying all her movements, but it was not the same, the shadow was more sharp, more firm, more flowing, more unpredictable.
Finally the class was over. Sunny's shadow teared itself from Neph's and started moving towards Sunny's room.
Sunny saw the gloomy shadow enter the room through the gap. a smile found itself on his lips.
"Hey! Look at you! Such an invaluable helper indeed."
Sunny was very much satisfied with his shadows abilities. The scouting capability was already very strong, but it also showed him a battle art, a battle art that his father found, and a battle art that he would complete.
***
late at night Sunny used the shadows to mask his presence. He moved through the halls of the Academy making no noise. Entering the elevator he made sure to select the floor where the dojo was located. Entering the vast training hall Sunny was immediately blinded.
The lights were on, he expected this but the shift from utter darkness to light was still hard to adapt to, even though he could see in the darkness. Immediately his gaze fell on a girl with silver hair practicing swordsmanship. She held a longsword, swinging it repeatedly, the sound of steel cutting air was like a beautiful symphony.
"I knew you would be here!" he called out.
Nephis stopped her relentless training and looked over.
"I knew you would come too."
Sunny started moving to the machine that tested the strength of Sleepers. Nephis interested in what Sunny was going to do stopped her training and got closer to him.
"So… you got a sixteen huh? How much do you think I will get?"
Nephis responded immediately without hesitation.
"Fifteen… Force is based on acceleration and mass. Acceleration can be improved with technique but mass can not. In terms of technique we are about equal… but I am taller than you, thus I possess more mass."
"Really now? …Is this your way of calling me short?"
Nephis smiled. Not the fake smile she gave all the sleepers, but the genuine smile only reserved for him. Seeing her smile made Sunny feel at ease, almost like all his problems just disappeared.
"No… theres nothing wrong with your height."
Sunny smiled back as he took a combat stance, he used the same style that Neph used, swinging his best punch the machine hummed for a few seconds and displayed his number.
Fifteen.
Nephis was right, Fifteen was Sunnys guess too. Even though he did not like being called short he could not really object to Nephis's logic, it was fully sound.
Suddenly a strange instinct woke up in Sunny's mind. Following the instinct his shadow flowed up and wrapped around him.
Sunny felt much stronger, twice as strong in fact. Nephis's brows raised in shock and confusion.
"What? What just happened?"
"I… I don't know. My shadow it wrapped around me. I feel stronger, twice as strong"
Sunny took a combat stance once again, swinging his fist at the machine. His punch was much faster and stronger shaking it. Faint humming could be heard for couple of seconds, longer than last time, and in the end the machine displayed Sunny's score.
"Error."
"WHAT!?"
Infuriated Sunny punched the machine with all his might again. The machine hummed and displayed.
"Error."
a slight chuckle echoed through the halls. Sunny looked back to see Nephis laughing. Seeing her happy like this made all his problems disappear, almost like the looming threat of the dream realm was not there.
***
Sunny opened his eyes confusion immediately settling into him.
The world was unfamiliar, covered in a dim twilight. He could feel deep and ancient shadows all around reacting to his presence, tall walls cut from black marble were enveloped in those ancient shadows. Looking between them he saw a dark sun burning in the black sky.
An eclipse.
What was this place? Was he not supposed to be sleeping in his dorm at the Academy?
Suddenly a womans scream filled with pain tore through the silence. And then a cry could be heard.
'Wha—'
a dream, this was a dream.
The womans screams had now gone silent, cries of the baby being the only thing he could hear. Suddenly he started swaying moving up and down.
Sunny was in the body of… a newborn. Currently held by a gentle young woman who was walking down the long corridor.
'Child- Child of shadows?'
if the body Sunny found himself in belonged to the temple slave in his nightmare then… this young woman must have been her mother. The temple slave… he was born during a solar eclipse, just like him. Just how many similarities did they share?
Soon, the girl entered a hall that was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the center where seven tall braziers lit with pale flames stood. On the edges of the light a few dozen people were waiting. all of them were marked with shadow gods marking… a serpent coiling around their arms and necks, the same marking he had in his nightmare.
'Slaves and priests… from the temple of shadow god? Wha- What is going on?'
Walking up to one of the priests the mother handed the toddler… Sunny to them. Feeling separated from her mother's warmth Sunny suddenly felt a urge to cry, it reminded him of the time he got separated from his mother, and his father, they were dead now… he was never going to see them again.
The priest started consoling the baby with gentle words, soothing Sunny's urge to cry and then she moved back to stand where everyone was standing waiting for something.
The mother though, she slowly walked into the light. Stopping at the very center, seven deep shadows could be seen, cast by the seven pale flames.
He felt like something important was about to happen. The hall was shrouded in eerie silence, until a sound of a stringed instrument could be heard.
As the instrument sung the slave girl also moved.
She was dancing… and her seven shadows followed.
The girl was weaving a beautiful pattern with her movements. The dance was firm and flowing, sharp and gentle, clear and unpredictable… it was shapeless and formless.
Sunny recognized the movements. They were exactly the same as his shadow. Was this what his shadow was trying to show him?
Yes! This was it. What his shadow was trying to tell him and What his father sought out to complete.
This was the shadow dance.