Shadow Slave

What was the best way to fight a Sacred enemy?

Of course, it was to be Sacred yourself. Sadly, Sunny was not a Spirit yet. However, he did command four Sacred shades: Puppeteer, Abundance, the Rat King, and the Wolf.

The Puppeteer Moth was technically the most powerful of them, being a Tyrant. However, its powers did not lend themselves well to direct confrontation — or rather, not as well as those of the other Sacred shades. That was the very reason why Sunny had managed to defeat the Spirit of Doubt and was alive today. Abundance and the Rat King each excelled at many things, but facing a single overwhelmingly powerful adversary was not one of them.

The Wolf, however… the Wolf had been a

Spirit of primal fury, cunning, and hunting. It personified the concept of the Wolf, and wolves were exceptional hunters. They were known to bring down prey much larger than themselves, as well.

Apart from that, the Wolf had been a Cursed Demon — a being of a higher Class than both Abundance and the Rat King.

So, it was Sunny’s best choice to battle the Wandering Archon.

The problem, of course, was that despite being Sacred, the Wolf was a Sacred shade. And shades did not quite possess a Will of their own — and even if Sacred shades were somewhat different, they still could not compare to real Spirits. The shadow of the Will they could exert was far less potent than that of living beings, Sacred or Cursed. There was a cure for that, though — a partial cure, but a cure nonetheless.

As the Wolf launched itself into the horde of the Deathless, barreling toward the distant figure of the Wandering Archon, it

was surrounded by all seven of Sunny’s incarnations.

And then, all seven avatars turned into shadows, wrapping themselves around the shadow of the primeval predator.

One, two, three, four… seven.

With each shadow, the power of the Wolf increased. More than that, it became a direct conduit of Sunny’s own Will.

That Will was Supreme, not Sacred… but it was the Will of a Titan. It was empowered by Spirit Weave, as well. And when it was being channeled by a Sacred shade, the result was truly fearsome — not quite as fearsome as having a true Sacred being attack the enemy, but still terrifying nonetheless.

As Sunny wrapped himself around the Wolf, he fused with it on a deep level. As always, he was instantly overwhelmed by the vastness and unfathomable depth of a Sacred being’s consciousness. It was so overwhelming, in fact, that Sunny could not

contend with all of it. Instead, he had to limit his perception to a narrow band, only focusing on what was important.

All around him, the Will of the Wandering Archon churned and flowed, drowning the world.

If there was one silver lining in all of it, though, it was that even if expressing their Will seemed as natural as breathing for the Spirits, the Deathless did not possess enough of themselves to wield it with a fine level of precision. Sunny, however, knew how to wield his.

Even if the natural affinity of his Will — death — was meaningless in a battle against the Deathless, the fact that he was adept at wielding his Will like he would a weapon gave him an advantage.

The Wolf flew through the horde of undead warriors, followed by his pack. Some of the Shadow Wolves were brought down and vanquished in that mad dash, but most made it through the mass of Deathless by

following the leader of their pack.

The Wandering Archon was already near. ‘It’s good to learn…’

The Deathless Spirit raised his staff and brought it down. It seemed to fall slowly, and looked too far away to hit Sunny… but the space itself was torn apart and twisted by that unhurried blow, and a split second later, the Wolf was only a single moment away from being erased from existence, as if it had never existed at all.

‘..that not knowing death means not knowing salvation:

Sunny pulled the Sacred shade into the shadows, stepping through them to appear behind the Deathless Spirit.

Ignoring the laws of space? Two could play that game.

‘Not knowing death means that one’s suffering will never end. I would have loved to teach this bastard a harsh lesson about unending agony…

The wolf lunged into the air, aiming to sink its fangs into the enemy’s throat. Sadly, the Archon was suddenly facing them, the horrifying gaze of his empty eye sockets pressing Sunny into the ground.

But no, they weren’t empty… two golden disks were set into the eye socket, like enormous gold coins.

An eerie radiance was spilling from behind those disks.

‘But something tells me that the Deathless know that better than I ever would: Instead of the towering skeleton’s spine, the Wolf could only bite into his arm. The shadow of the primordial beast pressed down onto the sleeve of the ivory robe, aiming to crush the black bone beneath. It pulled the Archon down, jerking its head sideways with terrible force to tear the entire forearm off.

At the same time, two Wills — the elemental Will of the Deathless Spirit and Sunny’s sharp, deadly one — clashed with each

other, sending an invisible, imperceptible, inconceivable shockwave spreading through the fabric of the world.

They were competing to see which one of them would get to lure the universal laws of existence to their side.

‘Come on… come on!’

In the end, the bones of the Wandering Archon did not shatter.

The obsidian fangs of the Wolf cracked, instead.

In the next moment, the Deathless Spirit calmly brought his staff down on the enormous beast’s back. The blow fell on the spine of the wolf with the weight of an entire realm, almost managing to snap it in half.

The Wolf survived the attack by releasing the enemy and allowing the force of the impact to throw it down, rolling over the dunes in a whirlwind of white sand.

A few moments later, it was already on its

feet.

The Wolf was ready to continue the fight, a terrifying growl escaping from its maw. Sunny, however…

Sunny was in a sea of pain.

Because the moment the Archon struck his shade with the staff, a net of cracks spread across one of his cores, as well.

He suppressed a tortured groan.

“Yup. It hurts a lot…’