Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2103

2103 /2448

Sunny was up against enemies whose power was well beyond his own. He was not sure what their Rank and Class were — if they could even be defined by these concepts — but both the Dark Ones and the nebulous slayer seemed far more threatening than most foes he had encountered before.

Perhaps Sunny would have been willing to attack them openly if his own powers weren't restricted, but with the Shadow Realm limiting what he could do, he was wary and apprehensive about engaging his competitors in a direct confrontation.

But that was alright.

There were many indirect ways to achieve his goal, as well. Sunny simply had to take a page from the mysterious archer's book and use all the resources available to him as tools — tools, after all, were a force multiplier that allowed one to channel their power to a much greater effect than would have been possible otherwise.

It was like Morgan of Valor had told him once, a long time ago, before the Battle of the Black Skull. At its core, war was simple. All there was to it was power, and application of power — the former was important, but the latter was paramount.

The mysterious archer, for example, would not have been nearly as deadly without the arrows they had crafted from scavenged materials, which allowed them to apply all their dire power to a point as tiny as the arrowhead's tip.

The problem was that there were not a lot of things around that Sunny could use. The Shadow Realm was a desolate land, after all. There was nothing here but an endless expanse of black hills...

Or rather, there had not been.

As the shadow of Condemnation marched forward like a walking mountain, too immense to even be seen in its entirety from where Sunny chased after it, his senses detected something far ahead. An anomaly that was different from the monotone desolation of the dark, barren land, and therefore promised possibility.

Sensing the strange, monumental shape ahead, Sunny recognized its nature and took a deep breath.

He had long discarded his shield. The manifested shadows were not eroded by the Shadow Realm as fast as the shadows of living beings were, but sustaining their shape was still a losing game. They crumbled slowly, eventually dissolving into darkness and becoming one with the land of death.

It was not entirely impossible to use Shadow Manifestation here, but Sunny had to change his approach. Instead of manifesting shadows once, he had to constantly rebuild the crumbling construct, using more of the surrounding darkness — and therefore more of his essence — to fuel it.

Luckily, an unceasing torrent of spirit essence was flowing into his soul here, so he had plenty to spare.

Running up the slope of a hill with astonishing speed, he closed his eyes for a moment and remembered the radiant figure of Nephis as she descended from the sky, beautiful wings shining behind her like a halo of white light.

He also remembered the demonic visage of Revel, and the furious battle they had fought at Vanishing Lake.

He remembered using Shadow Dance to peer into the essence of their being.

Then, cresting the steep dune, Sunny opened his eyes and leapt into the air. As he soared above the desolate expanse of black dust, the shadows moved around him, embracing him like a dark mantle.

And then, the mantle of shadows manifested into a pair of tenebrous wings, the raven-black feathers glistening in the silver light of swirling essence.