Shadow Slave

The spar with Morgan left Sunny feeling sore and contemplative. The soreness quickly dissipated thanks to his Ascended physique and the Shroud of Dusk, but the ponderous mood remained.

Some time later, he was sitting in his small office, ignoring the paperwork he had to fill out in favor of idly staring at the wall.

That fight of theirs was not exactly illuminating, but it had provided him with a lot of food for thought.

First of all, Sunny was reminded of what true Legacies represented. Over the years, he had forgotten the feeling of awe and reverence mundane people had toward the distant, powerful Legacy Clans - the austere warrior caste that produced the best and most valiant champions of humanity. That existed solely for battling the Nightmare Spell... or was supposed to, at least.

He couldn’t be blamed - Sunny had grown immensely strong himself and had crossed paths with all kinds of powerful creatures, from ancient Saints to Titans. He had even brushed against actual divinities like Weaver, Nether, and Hope. It was not surprising that the fearsome reputation of the Legacies faded a bit in comparison.

But the Legacy Clans, and especially the three Great Clans, were still authorities in terms of personal power and combat prowess. They were in no way inferior to the ancient Awakened of the past, and in fact seemed to be superior in many ways... the most important ways. Legacies - and all modern Awakened by extension - were much harsher, much more extreme, and much better tempered than those from the ancient times.

That was because the Legacy Clans were forged in a much more hellish world. They had risen to resist the Nightmare Spell, and were shaped into a force to be reckoned with by its terrible pressure.

Morgan had reminded Sunny about that.

It was no coincidence that the two most dangerous people he knew - Nephis and Mordret - were products of the Legacy culture. Among the three of them, it was Sunny who was an outlier.

Which brought him to the second avenue of thought... his own power. Sunny would have lied to himself if he said that he wasn’t upset about his loss. Even though he understood that a good defeat was much more beneficial as far as his goals were concerned, a small and unreasonable part of his mind still desired to win.

No one liked to lose, and Sunny especially hated the thought of losing to a member of a Great Clan. He deeply resented them, after all... being defeated by someone he disdained was a bitter pill to swallow.

But swallow it he did.

It was one thing to pretend to be weak in front of Morgan, but the truth of the matter was that she was simply too strong - even the current Sunny, with all his advantages, would find it hard to contend with that level of strength in a direct confrontation. And while he was resourceful and had ways of avoiding such a confrontation, Morgan had all the boundless resources of Clan Valor behind her, as well.

So, even in that regard, she was a dire threat.

Sunny remembered what Jet had told him once, years ago...

’No one survives in the Dream Realm alone.’

Her words had always held true, but now they seemed especially poignant. Sunny had grown powerful - much more powerful than he ever imagined being. But he was still just one man. In front of a collective like a great clan, his personal power seemed insignificant.

Worse still, that collective served as a gatekeeper to greater strength. No one could even become a Saint without their permission - unless that person wanted to be hunted down and slain in retaliation for their defiance.

...There were ways to grow more powerful without achieving Transcendence, though.

The last thing the spar with Morgan made Sunny think about was the duel itself. He slowly replayed it in his mind, considering what he could have done better and what mistakes he could have avoided.

The list was both endless and pointless. Everything was easier in hindsight - it was achieving the best result in the moment that was hard.

Still, it was good to review his performance, as well as that of his enemy.

Sunny spent some time staring at the wall and thinking back to the duel.

’A jian was not a good choice for that strike... here I did not need to saturate that group of muscles with essence, it was just a waste... should have anticipated the effect of the kick better...’

As he analyzed their fight, his thoughts inevitably drifted to what could have been done differently.

’I wonder how Morgan would have fared against me if I used the Shadow Shell...’

Sunny tried to construct such a fight in his mind, replacing himself with a version that was three meters high and possessed four arms. Would Morgan have still held an advantage? Not in physical prowess, that was for sure.

However, he was not certain if the outcome would have been different... Legacies were first and foremost abomination slayers, after all. Anvil’s daughter had been trained to face all kinds of Nightmare Creatures since childhood. A four-armed fiend would not phase her at all.

’...What about some other shell?’

Sunny was currently limited to one form - that of the shadowspawn - because that was what he knew best. But, in theory, he could create the shell of any creature. He just needed to know the creature well enough... perfectly, in fact. And that was not easy to achieve.

A thoughtful frown appeared on his face.

’Is it true, though? That I can create the shell of any creature?’

It was true in theory, but that theory broke instantly when faced with reality. Take Morgan, for example, or any other human for that matter... creating a shell a human had to be easier, because Sunny was one himself and knew how human bodies operated perfectly well.

But how would that even work? The shadowspawn shell worked because the four-armed fiend was much larger than Sunny, and thus, he could form its body around his own.

But other humans, with rare exceptions, were more or less of the same approximate size as him. There was no space for a human shell to be formed.

There were creatures smaller than humans, too. The current Ravenous Fiend, for example - even if Sunny studied his Shadow for a while, he wouldn’t be able to create a shell of the little critter.

So, in reality, the Shadow Shell was limited in what it could recreate.

...A strange expression suddenly appeared on Sunny’s face.

He blinked a couple of times.

’Unless...’