Shadow Slave

Sunny exhaled slowly.

If he was honest with himself, he felt a little... ragged.

Even with his seven bodies, there were simply too many things he had to do. It wasn’t easy to fight a world war against an immortal sociopath of a demigod while simultaneously fighting a universal war against the entire Dream Realm and the flood of Nightmare Gates flooding the waking world...

While simultaneously preparing for the inevitable apocalypse and getting ready to conquer not one, but two entire Death Zones.

At some point, the taste of defeat had become familiar to him.

Was it because he was overwhelmed and buckling under pressure, making mistakes, or simply because the problems he faced these days had grown beyond the scope of being solved without an occasional error? Or was it because he was not Fated anymore, and a convenient solution did not present itself at an opportune moment anymore, as if by magic? He had rarely found himself feeling so... ineffective before. Sunny did not think that he had changed from the man he used to be that much. Before, he had only ever cared about solving his personal problems. That had not really changed — it was just that he had grown far more powerful. So powerful that his personal problems were the world’s problems now.

And solving the problems plaguing the world was a far more complicated matter than slaying Nightmare Creatures. It was a kind of work meant for a god... while Sunny, despite his great and terrible power, was still merely a demigod. His human mind was failing to keep up with the demands of his station.

Maybe that was why he had not anticipated the massacre of Red Hill.

‘I should have known. I should have prevented it.’

Mordret had been clear about his goals and plans when they made the deal. He did not make a secret of his fear of Asterion.

He had entered Mirage City to retrieve his other self, so that Asterion couldn’t get to his Flaw first. He threw himself into a lethal soul battle against Skinwalker to attain Supremacy, because only a Supreme could have a hope of prevailing against the Dreamspawn.

And finally, he settled for the Hollow Mountains because they were a perfect fortress to wage war against the Human Domain.

Mordret had been convinced from the very beginning that Sunny and Nephis would not be able to last long against Asterion — simply due to the fact that they were weighed down by the burden of humanity. His opinion proved to be correct, considering how Asterion was now holding humanity hostage to protect himself from their wrath.

So, Mordret had always assumed that the Human Domain would become the Hunger Domain one day soon. Safely hidden in the Hollow Mountains, he had been hunting Nightmare Creatures from the surrounding regions and making them into his vessels, thus increasing the size and power of his own Domain.

With that power, he would then be able to attack the Hunger Domain from the mists of nothingness and retreat back, preventing the adversary from pursuing his raiding parties or counterattacking.

Sunny had known all of it, and yet, he always assumed that Mordret would continue to hide and accumulate power until the Human Domain was completely destroyed.

In hindsight, it was a foolish assumption. Mordret was ready to wage war on the Dreamspawn right now, far in advance of the Hunger Domain reaching critical mass. Surprisingly, he was also not satisfied with hiding in the mists of the Hollow Mountains despite the great advantages they offered him. Instead of preparing for a long defensive war, he was going on the offensive instead.

Sunny took a deep breath.

”I do think that I can destroy you. My source element is death, after all. As for whether or not I will commit to ending your strange existence — that depends entirely on your actions, I suppose.”

Mordret chuckled.

“You seem to think that your Shadow Legion possesses superior strength to my vast collection of fashionable vessels. Personally, l am of a different opinion... does it matter, though? Even if you manage to eradicate this host army, I have plenty of vessels hidden away all over. And even if you somehow manage to find and destroy every single one, I’d still survive.”

Sunny smiled coldly.

”It doesn’t matter, indeed. You might have a myriad of vessels, but you only have one soul. And what would you know? I am someone who excels in damaging the soul.”

All he had to do was plunge his sword into Mordret’s shadow. And since Mordret had millions of vessels now, he also had millions of shadows, each leading to his very own, precious soul.

He tilted his head a little, looking at Sunny with amusement.

“Do you think that my father did not try to destroy my soul? That was one of the first things Clan Valor went for. In fact, they did manage to destroy my soul quite easily. But that did not help them in the end, did it?”

Sunny stared at him evenly.

“Did they try destroying your shadow, instead?”

Finally, Mordret’s smile dimmed a little.

He remained silent for a few moments, then sighed.

“What an interesting question. Admittedly, I do not know what would happen if someone targeted my shadow... maybe it will kill me, and perhaps it will not. But it will definitely require a lot of effort. Do you really want to start a war with another Supreme while fighting desperately against the Dreamspawn?”

Sunny grimaced.

“I might. The Dreamspawn is a threat to all of humanity, but until now, the actual death toll he caused is not even a fraction of what you, psycho, did. Do you even know how many people you killed?!”

Mordret looked at him in confusion.

“What are you talking about, Sunless? I didn’t kill anyone. Not a single human.”

He smiled faintly and pointed to the vast ocean of vessels below.

”These people died the moment they surrendered themselves to the Dreamspawn. He is the real killer — I merely stole what he had already taken. Who do you take me for, some kind of unhinged butcher?”

His smile widened a little.

”Well... I might be a bit unhinged, and a bit of a butcher. However, unlike you, I am quite confident in the fact that I don’t want to start a war against two more Supremes while already fighting desperately against the Dreamspawn. I truly do not wish to antagonize you or Changing Star. That is why I have been behaving myself, holding back from taking the northern Citadels in advance... despite how convenient it would have been. I was willing to wait a little longer.”

Sunny scowled deeply.

Two small details about what Mordret had said did not escape his attention.

The first detail was that he had been willing — but, apparently, no more.

The second was that he mentioned Citadels, not a Citadel.

”...Citadels?”

Mordret laughed.

“Of course. You did not think that I would be satisfied with just one, did you?”

He shook his head.

”No, of course not. One Citadel is too few... so, I will only be satisfied when I take a few more. When I take all of them. When I take everything the Dreamspawn hungers after.”

Sunny stared at him silently for a few moments, and then cursed inwardly.

‘Damn it all...’