Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

A month and a half ago...

”...You mean to tell me that you absorbed another Stellaron?”

”Yep.”

”Even though you already had one inside of you?”

”Yeah.”

”And, despite the possible consequences, you thought another one wouldn’t make things worse?”

”...Yes? I’m not dead, am I?”

In response, Herta shook her head.

”No, you’re not. Obviously, this shows that there was something special about you that allowed you to safely carry them.”

She paused for a moment.

”And what is up with your hair? Don’t tell me that you’re in your emo phase...”

Sunny scowled.

”It’s my natural hair. Shouldn’t we be getting back on topic?”

The doll shrugged.

”Fine. Just give me a second.”

Herta stayed silent for a moment, before saying:

”The amount of Paths that have coalesced in your body has increased. Last time I checked, there were only traces of the Destruction. You now have the Trailblaze from being on the Astral Express, and the Preservation due to being gazed at by Qlipoth.”

Sunny nodded. That coincided with what he had seen in his runes under the [Pathstrider] Attribute.

[Pathstrider] Attribute Description: ”You have gained the ability to tread the Path of an Aeon.”

Paths: [Destruction], [Preservation], [Trailblaze].

Herta continued:

”The Destruction seems to be the most potent one out of the three; probably because of the two Stellaron’s you absorbed, but it’s unstable. The Trailblaze’s Aeon has been dead for a while, so the Path has naturally deteriorated to the point where it only leaves behind a few minor effects.”

She crossed her arms.

”Actually, the Preservation is probably the most practical one. In it’s current state, the Destruction isn’t that useful. It doesn’t have a proper vessel.”

Sunny agreed. He believed that the Destruction would have provided him more versatile abilities if it wasn’t simply a rampaging force within him. Thanks to the Lance of Preservation, he had a conduit to wield the Path’s power.

Meanwhile, Sunny could only form the wild force of Destruction into a bat. The bat was simply a manifestation, and not an object that contained the rampant energy.

”Well, if there’s no problems, then I’ll be going...”

”Wait. Since you’re here, you might as well test the Simulated Universe. There’s still some tinkering that needs to be done before the full version is ready.”

Sunny froze for a moment, before nodding. His previous arrangements could wait...

***

Welt nodded after hearing the explanation Sunny gave him.

”It’s just as I suspected. There’s something... unnatural about your disposition.”

His eyes lingered on the top of his head for a moment.

”...Now, I may be wrong, but I believe that someone or something must have tampered with you; both body and soul.”

Sunny tilted his head.

”Do you know any way that someone could have done that?”

The spectacled man shook his head.

”There’s plenty of ways to modify a human. However, I’ve never heard of a person being the perfect vessel for a Stellaron...”

He paused for a moment.

”Speaking of, that was a reckless stunt you performed on Jarilo-VI.”

Sunny shrugged. He wasnt sure why everyone thought it was a big deal.

”It worked, didn’t it.”

Welt just blankly stared at him for a moment, before sighing. For some reason, it seemed that the man was used to such things.

”I suppose it did...”

The door to the Parlor Car slid open, cutting him off. Pom-Pom and Himeko stepped in, the latter smiling towards Sunny.

”There you are. While you were gone on Jarilo-VI, the rest of us have been looking for a spare room for you.”

Sunny blinked. Weren’t all the rooms in the Passenger Cabin filled?

Pom-Pom continued:

”The storage room in the Party Car had been unused for a while. We already moved a sleeping pod and Dreamscape pod in, but you’ll need to get all the furniture and stuff yourself.”

The short, bunny-like creature spoke in a stern tone, which would have been intimidating if Pom-Pom wasn’t so adorable.

***

”It’s huge...”

Sunny mumbled to himself, feeling like a favorite child. None of the other rooms were this large. It was completely empty — excluding the two high-quality sleeping pod bolted to the wall.

He ignored one of them, turning to the other one.

This device looked similar enough to a sleeping pod to be mistaken for one, but had nothing to do with sleeping. Well... not technically.

It also had a cradle and a heavy lid, but unlike Sunny’s new sarcophagus, it wasn’t designed to accommodate a human body for long periods of time. In fact, there was a plaque on the inside of the lid advising people against overusing the equipment and asking them to behave responsibly.

It was the best available Dreamscape pod, allowing one to enter the advanced virtual reality simulation that existed on the edge between technology and magic.

...Sunny had big plans for that thing.

Dreamscape was a place that was neither real nor a part of the Dream Realm, but instead existed somewhere in between. It was created and maintained by a combination of advanced modern technology and a combination of very special Aspect Abilities that a certain pair of siblings — a Master and a Saint — possessed. Their power had to do with illusions, and so, that was what Dreamscape was.

A massive illusion that countless people could share.

However, that illusion was not entirely malleable, and functioned according to a set of absolute rules. It reflected reality instead of being a complete replacement for it. As the result, a person entering it was bound by the same laws that existed in the real world.

And since one of those laws was the Nightmare Spell, a person’s Aspect, Abilities, Memories, and Echoes would function in the illusion the same way they functioned outside of it, with one important difference. One couldn’t be hurt, wounded, or killed in the Dreamscape. Neither Memories nor Echoes could be destroyed.

Which meant that Awakened were able to battle each other there without having to risk their lives and keep the destructive force of their duels out of the real world. This application was the primary use of the Dreamscape... well, in a sense.

At the dawn of it, the Dreamscape was mostly used by Legacy Clans, the IPC, and plenty of other factions to train the elite Awakened that served them. While such training could facilitate safe duels between the human carriers of the Spell, its simulation of the Nightmare Creatures was not that close to reality. The illusory monsters lacked the will and mind of actual abominations, after all.

So, the Dreamscape had failed to become a successful training tool and was thus largely abandoned.

It had, however, unexpectedly found incredible success in the entertainment segment.

Those Awakened that were not part of elite strike forces deemed it to be very engaging, useful... and fun. The duels in the Dreamscape became very popular, and that popularity simply exploded once the company behind it came up with the idea to integrate a broadcast function into the simulation pods, thus making these duels available to a much broader audience — the mundane humans.

Today, Dreamscape was a whole industry with both amateur and professional leagues, famous celebrities, and passionate fan clubs. There was even a version of it for non-Awakened, with its own set of environments and adventures that allowed people to experience a facsimile of what it meant to travel across the Dream Realm while battling Nightmare Creatures.

Sunny, however, wasn’t interested in the fame, glory, and money that becoming a renowned Dreamscape champion could bring him. No matter how lucrative, it was just a toy, at the end of the day.

He was, nevertheless, extremely interested in that toy for three very important reasons.

The first reason was the anonymity that Dreamscape offered. It was all but impossible to track a person entering the illusion if they didn’t wish to be tracked, which was very much to his liking.

The second reason was Shadow Dance. Sunny needed to fight against a multitude of opponents skilled in wielding different weapons and using various styles to sharpen his battle art and make it — as well as the Soul Serpent — stronger. In a sense, he needed to create a library of mirrored styles to enrich his own.

Was there a better place to find thousands upon thousands of Awakened who were willing and ready to cross blades with him? All without having to risk his life, to boot.

The third reason was rather unexpected. In fact, Sunny had stumbled upon it by pure accident.

After the battle with Cocolia, Sunny found that the counter for the Mantle of the Underworld’s [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment had increased by one. He paid very careful attention subtle changes in his runes, and his perfect memory didn’t allow anything to escape him.

That was when he discovered how the [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment really worked. Its description said that the onyx armor grew stronger according to the number of opponents its wielder defeated... and it did exactly that. The enchantment didn’t care whether the opponent lived or died, all that mattered to it was that the enemy lost.

So, Sunny hoped to kill two birds with one stone in the Dreamscape — to both elevate his technique and satiate the requirements of the [Prince of the Underworld] with a constant stream of victories.

He looked at the pod for a while, then turned around and paced around the armored dojo, frowning.

Pulling out his phone, he pressed a specific app. Suddenly, a list of devices appeared. Pressing on the one that denoted the Dreamscape pod, he quickly set it to untraceable.

He wasn’t stupid enough to believe that, in case a criminal were to enter the Dreamscape, that there were no ways to track them down. By taking out the technological tracking through the strange hacking app on his phone, he only had to worry about divination.

He also had that part covered.

As he paced, his whole presence slowly changed. The way Sunny walked, the way he held himself, the way his hands moved all became slightly different.

”There are six gods. The War God, also known as the God of Life. The Beast God, also knowns as the Goddess of the Moon. The Sun God...”

As he recited the names of the gods and their various aspects, the manner in which he spoke also changed. The difference was subtle, but noticeable.

Within the Vessel of Remembrance, Sunny had noted down the six gods that were worshipped by the past civilizations of the Dream Realm.

Each of them carried different authorities. Besides War and Beast, there was Sun God, who ruled over the domains of passion, creation, and destruction — that lineage was carried by AR-26710. Heart God, also known as the God of Souls, Storm God, the God of the Depths, stars, and travel...

...And Shadow God. The God of Peace, Death, Solace, and Mysteries.

Sunny carried the lineage of War, and had an Aspect blessed by Shadow. They should have been opposing forces, Life and Death.

Yet, they peacefully resided in him without conflict.

Then, there were the Daemons... but that was a topic for another time.

One after another, Sunny changed every little bit of behavioral traits that could be traced back to him. He had spent a lot of time training for this moment, using the physical malleability of a Shadow Dance practitioner to make himself unrecognizable. Surprisingly, the task had turned out much easier than he had thought. It was basically his specialty, anyway.

Weaver’s Mask could protect his identity from all who would wish to learn it through divination and other Aspects, but he had to deal with mundane forms of identification on his own.

After a while, when he was ready, Sunny undressed, approached the simulation pod, and climbed into its cradle. As the polished mask of black wood appeared on his face, the lid closed.

A string of shimmering letters appeared in front of him:

”Enter Dreamscape?”

”Yes” ”No”

He sighed, then concentrated on the ”Yes”.

A few moments later, his vision darkened.

***

Sunny found himself standing in a boundless, black void. All around him, countless stars burned with ethereal light, an inconceivably complex weave of strings connecting them together.

...There was, however, no logic or sense in the pattern. He didn’t feel any meaning hidden in the beautiful weave of the strings of light. It was just a pretty backdrop, and nothing more.

A fake.

Other than that, though, the simulation was pretty realistic. He looked down and saw his naked body, the Soul Serpent coiling around his arms and torso. The Dreamscape recreated his appearance to the sma... uh... in great detail.

’...Huh.’

Shaking his head in bewilderment, Sunny summoned the Mantle of the Underworld. It weaved itself from black threads and covered his body. As soon as it did, a pleasant voice resounded in the darkness:

”Challenger! Welcome to the Dreamscape.”

Sunny summoned the Autumn Leaf — a small charm that allowed him to change the color of his hair. After a short hesitation, he made them appear white.

’What next? How do I fight people?’

The pleasant voice promptly responded:

”Before proceeding further, please choose an alias.”

He blinked a couple of times, then scratched a back of his head.

’Oh, right. An alias...’

”Nobody.”

That would be a good alias... he could already imagine how funny it would be, to hear something like ”Nobody has defeated the enemy!” or ”Nobody has won!”.

His thoughts, however, were interrupted by the voice of the Dreamscape:

”Alias ”Nobody” is taken. Please choose another.”

”Uh...”

He did not expect that. What would be a better...

”Alias ”Uh” is taken. Please choose another.”

”What? No, wait!”

”Alias ”What? No, wait!” is taken. Please choose another.”

Sunny shut his mouth, then thought for a while.

His alias had to not only sound nice, but also be the opposite of what he would ever call himself in real life. Just like his movement and speech patterns, it had to be a part of the disguise. That’s why coming up with one was not that easy...

In the next few minutes, he tried a dozen different aliases, all to the same result. The level of coolness of the aliases he could come up with rapidly dropped, while the level of his irritation quickly rose. He felt as if the damned simulation was mocking him.

Finally, Sunny growled in frustration and said the first word that came to his mind:

”...Mongrel!”

The Dreamscape was silent for a while. Then, it said:

”Welcome, Mongrel. Please, choose a dream of your liking.”

Suddenly, Sunny paled.

Mongrel — his secret criminal identity — was a name known across the cosmos. His bounty was astronomical.

So, the fact that this name was completely unused despite the infamy was very concerning.

Sunny believed that people were so scared of Mongrel that they didn’t dare to use his name.

...He supposed that he would simply play it off as being a fan. Otherwise, nobody would dare to face him.

Oh, the irony...

As Sunny huffed and puffed from frustration, several images appeared in front of him. All contained depictions of different environments, although most looked like an arena of some sorts.

From his research, Sunny knew that the choice of an arena decided what type of opponents he would get to fight against. Some were available to everyone, some required a certain number of victories to be accessed. Professional duelists all spent their time in those elite dreams.

’Dreams... what a stupid name. If I was dreaming, I would be on the Chained Islands right now, wouldn’t I?’

His body was, indeed, awake right now. It’s just that his mind was inside of an illusion.

Regardless, what he needed was a place where he could fight sufficiently skilled amateurs without drawing too much attention. He knew just the place.

Pointing at one of the images, Sunny said.

”There.”

A moment later, the black void disappeared, and he was suddenly somewhere else.A loud voice thundered from somewhere above:

”Challenger Mongrel has entered the Colosseum!”