A giant tree made from shadows suddenly appeared behind the temple, rooting itself on the ground and beginning to search for any beings to enthrall.
On the branches, several beings made from shadows entrenched themselves to guard it.
Saint and Igris wielded a blue bow, the [Last Sight], and a dark spear, [Promise of Mercy] respectfully, standing at the edges of the tree. While Dreadwing made nest on the tallest branch and Wraith looked west, to his master.
In fact, all of the Shadows kept looking west, all with some type of worry to their master, that for some reason decided to face whoever arrived on the island alone. With the order to only interfere if someone else interfered with the duel.
A human body made of shadows appeared before the giant Shadowspawn.
Looking up, Sunny observed his enemy.
He was tall, big muscles trailing his dark skin, he had four arms, two on each side of the body with big hands that held dagger-like fingers with very sharp claws. He was wearing armor that was kind of familiar to Sunny, together with a spear that he could swear he had seen before…
Ignore that.
His face was ugly, fearsome fangs and imposing horns complementing his figure.
Overall, nothing Sunny hadn't seen before.
Moreover, he could feel their shadow, it was an Awakened Demon. So he'd deal with it quickly…
But why did he want to kill it so much?
To the point he left all his Shadows behind to make sure he himself killed him?
He had ordered Saint, Igris, Wraith, and even Dreadwing on the Soul-Devouring Tree to make sure he killed the Shadowspawn alone, only keeping Serpent in its tattoo form in his body.
Why would he do that?
Doesn't matter, I have to kill him.
Sunny raised his guard with [BloodRaven] and began shadowing the sword style of his teacher, Undying Blade.
It seemed like the Shadowspawn also decided what to do, gripping his lance and snarling at Sunny.
A heartbeat passed as both warriors stared down at each other…
In the next heartbeat, both entered the shadows.
Sunny wanted to say he was surprised to find the Shadowspawn also delving into shadows, but in reality, he wasn't.
It felt kind of obvious actually, it was a creature of shadows, born from shadow, why wouldn't it become shadows as well?
So as soon as he advanced, he found his opponent's shadow form as well.
Without hesitation, both Shadow beings stuck their weapons together, entering a sudden bind.
But in a bind, the Shadowspawn had a big advantage. In terms of strength, Sunless was stronger, being a Terror and augmented six times, an Awakened Demon was no match, regardless if it was stronger than normal.
However, the Shadowspawn had four arms, each of them was a weapon in their own right.
So in the bind, the moment he noticed he was losing the contest in strength, the fiend raised his top right arm and slashed at the Terror, intending to use his claws to destroy Sunny's face.
But Sunny was quicker, putting sword guard on the polearm and pushing it upwards, taking the focus off the Shadowspawn's attack and moving backwards.
He was about to rush forward, taking advantage of his advanced mobility to take his enemy off guard, before he noticed he had already recovered and even was with another weapon. An odachi in his right hand, complementing the lance on his left.
'Of course, we are in the shadows, the idea of 'ground' doesn't apply. He's also more mobile here.'
Switching his augmentations around, he put two shadows in his odachi and another two on his armor, that way, he wouldn't have to worry if his opponent had any aces up his sleeve, what could he possibly have that would pierce an Transcendent Memory with two augmentations from a Divine Aspect?
With that done, he switched battle styles, keeping in mind his plan, he needed a versatile and agile style of combat, with a cruel, but efficient end goal.
Silent Stalker's style.
Knowing he was faster regardless of the arena, Sunny moved forward, directly at his opponent.
The Shadowspawn saw this and thrust his lance forward, predicting the movement.
But in the middle of his advance, Sunny began summoning a Memory, and a chain suddenly started forming on his hand…
For a split second, he could swear he saw the Shadowspawn…
Sunny didn't stop his advance regardless of the lance in the middle of his trajectory, swinging his odachi to slash the weapon away, leaving the Shadowspawn wide open for a split second.
The other weapon of the spawn was raised, swinged horizontally right for Sunny's head.
The chain finally finished forming in Sunless' hand, and the [Chain Sword] extended along him. Having a shadow augmentation that had been taken away from Sunny himself.
Swinging his arm around, the silver chain came in contact with the sword that was inches away from slashing his head away. The chain reflected the blow, quickly wrapping around the blade and, with the weight of the sword at the end of the chain, made the sword fall down.
Now, the Shadowspawn was wide open. And so was Sunless.
But the Shadowspawn had two other weapons, his bottom arms.
He trusted his arms forward, one with a motion to grip Sunny's ribs and crush them, the other in a motion to grab a blade…
All according to Sunny's plan.
He let go the [BloodRaven], taking the two shadows that were augmenting it back.
And let the Shadowspawn attack.
The Shadowspawn gripped the place where Sunny's ribs were supposed to be with one hand and closed his fingers. The other hand suddenly held a blade that tried to…
A loud sound of metal breaking somehow reached both their ears.
The dagger that the spawn was holding broke, and his fingers weren't able to pierce the [Mantle of Shadows]. They only shifted the form as Sunless was struggling to maintain his form.
The Shadowspawn snapped his head towards the plain ebony face of his opponent. Although his expression was hidden behind a silver helmet, Sunny could tell. The Demon had cursed internally.
He was right where the Heir of Shadows wanted him.
Sunny thrusted his hand that once held his odachi to the shoulder of the Shadowspawn, where the plates of the armor left a slight opening, and in the middle of his attack, the [Moonlight Shard] appeared on his hand, and he augmented it with his two shadows that were once in the odachi.
And knowing the nature of the beast, along with the fact that they were in the shadows, he used his attribute [Executor of Death].
The crystal dagger pierced the skin of the spawn, and a harrowing roar came out of him…
But before Sunless could celebrate, the shadows shifted on his right.
Looking at the direction, the arm of the spawn where a spear should be, there was now a sword, and that sword was moments away from his face.
And before he could get away, the great lower arms of the shadow beast grabbed, not to crush, but to hold.
'Damnation, this guy is stubborn.'
The blade struck his shadow head, easily destroying the form of his face and rippling the form, 'exploding' the side of his face.
In an attempt to not lose two months of progress, he immediately focused on rebuilding his head, not minding the current sword passing through his face.
In a split second, the face was back to the plain ebony exterior it was before, the only exception being the elegant silver sword embedded into where was supposed to be his eyes, if he had any, as Sunny's forced reconstruction had stopped the momentum of the blade… Even if it was a little too easy.
Supposedly, it was fine, he had no brain to speak of, and he was about to…
A sudden pained laugh came out of the Shadowspawn, and Sunny suddenly felt a bad feeling, like a chill ran down his spine, if he had one.
A chill of dread.
Sunny made a mistake, he should have waited for the blade to pass completely through his head.
Because the next moment, he burst into white light.
—
Sunny came out of the shadows in agony.
He felt like was burning intensely, and the pain was real, the light wasn't mundane after all, it was like it attacked his very soul.
But what was worse was that his body's form was rippling, the pain was disrupting his concentration from maintaining his carefully made avatar of Shadow.
Not to mention how his eyes were hurting like hell. The light appeared tight in his eyes, there was no way he could see now, he was blinded.
And his opponent didn't miss the chance, rising from the shadows behind him to mercilessly attack in his opponent's moment of weakness. The spawn looked weak, tired, his own shadow had been attacked and one of his cores was gone, he was a Monster now, and one of his hearts had already been destroyed even before the start of the battle…
But his ferocity didn't waver. His hands held both the silver sword and the odachi, twisting his body to swing his odachi while keeping the sword as backup in case Sunny deflected his first attack.
The black, onyx blade was going to pierce and ripple his form further, and if the silver sword strikes again… Would his soul suffer? Not to mention risking having to rebuild himself again.
Sunny saw no choice, and did something he would rather not do, he ordered the Shadowspawn to stop.
Turning his deformed head to the tall beast, he willed the being to follow his command as he was the Heir of Shadows, and stop, to drop his weapons. He had no mouth, so he simply did what he did to order wild shadows, simply imposing his command.
As the Shadowspawn was born from shadows, he was one of them, so it made sense for him to follow his command as all other Shadows did, even the black steed recognized his authority, the probable reason it accepted his soul despite the madness that seemed to plague it.
But that did not happen.
His command was resisted. The Shadowspawn stopped for a moment, it had received the order… But by sheer will or spite, he resisted.
A loud groan escaped the fiend, it was like their very nature denied being under control. He struggled with all his might and rage, so much so Sunny felt it. The Shadowspawn genuinely hated him at the moment.
So, inevitably, the spawn freed himself from the command and continued his slash at Sunny, regardless if the Heir of Shadows was still trying to maintain his form.
The blade of the odachi was once again inches away from Sunny's body
Sunny cursed internally.
'Persistent bastard! Why did I even bother?!'
But he didn't give up. For some reason, Sunny didn't want to use his Shadows in this duel, something told him to not use Saint or Igris, not even Dreadwing or Wraith in this battle, he had to win on his own. That something would go wrong if he did.
But there was one he was willing to use now.
He ordered Serpent to release itself from his deformed shadow skin.
The blade was milliseconds away from slashing the uniform made by the hands of the forger of Song suddenly met the Terror serpentine skin of the Soul Serpent.
The Shadowspawn received the recoil of his strike full force, being forced to stumble back as his blade ringed.
When he finally regained his posture, he looked up to see the terrifying sight of an Ascended Terror in the form of a Serpent made from pure shadows, opening its enormous maw to hiss at him and circling the Awakened Terror he wanted to kill so much.
The Shadowspawn suddenly felt tiny in his tall body as dread consumed him, he felt he could be consumed at any moment…
But luckily, his opponent felt the same bloodlust to kill as he did.
The serpent encircled itself and delved inwards, becoming smaller and smaller, until the reconstructed figure of the human made of shadows was revealed, the Serpent becoming his opponent's weapon, an odachi.
Sunny was done with this, he had just returned from two months of remaking himself while in terrible pain. He had already spent enough essence as it is by fighting inside the shadows. And he had been deformed and blinded by a damn light coming from some stupid weapon enchantment.
He raised Serpent in its weapon form and stood in the style of his teacher: Frostblade. He would use his usual style, but the fact his opponent also used the shadows, he chose to use something different.
The Shadowspawn shook his head in anger. He knew there was little to no way he could win, but he also couldn't run away, Sunny was way faster than him.
So he did something that seemed to go against his very nature at the moment.
Something appeared beneath the Shadowspawn, and a creature seemed to rise from–
Two projectiles suddenly pierced the air.
One was rather small, made from a deep blue material.
Another was large, being dark as midnight.
Both aimed at whatever was being summoned, both finding their target.
Both destroying whatever was about to form.
The shadows scattered as the Shadowspawn's summon was destroyed. A blue arrow and a dark spear on the place.
Saint and Igris were observant, they noticed when the shadows parted to reveal whatever the spawn was summoning, and they shot their weapons before it had a chance to completely manifest with the [Last Sight] and the [Promise of Mercy]. Fulfilling their orders to not let anyone interfere.
The body quickly faded with the shadows, together with the lance that disappeared in white sparks.
[You slain an Ascended Demon, — —.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
'Huh? It didn't say what rank and name?'
But before Sunny could ponder what happened, the Shadowspawn attacked, swinging both of his weapons wildly. A ferocious roar escaping the mouth underneath the helm of the armor.
If he was angry before, he was furious now, killing whatever that was must have angered him beyond reason as all composure was lost.
Sunny was quick to react, blocking his attacks in quick succession.
Metal rang as they exchanged strikes, Sunless met every single attack that the Shadowspawn sent easily. He had augmented himself with three of his shadows, his odachi with two, and his uniform with one.
They exchanged strikes again and again, for some reason, the spawn didn't cast a shadow, as such, Sunny couldn't adapt and predict the moves of the spawn, but that didn't impede him.
He was dominating the battle. He was faster, stronger… Better. The only reason the Shadowspawn could keep up was the fact Sunny was still concentrating on maintaining his body and the Shadowspawn's own skill and advantage of having four arms.
The spawn tried once again to strike Sunless with the silver sword, slashing vertically with the odachi as a distraction, forcing Sunless to deflect using his own odachi and thrusting the silver blade at his torso.
But Sunless saw that coming and delved into the shadows for the first time since their exchange in the shadows.
That surprised the spawn, and made him not notice as the Heir of Shadows remerged immediately slashing the helmet of the Shadowspawn's armor, cutting it in half.
Sunny straightened as he raised his guard again. The Shadowspawn recovered quickly and snapped his head towards him and snarled, his ugly fangs once again visible as he dashed to his enemy.
Sunny blocked yet another strike from the odachi and ducked the strike of the silver sword. Only to meet the lower arm of the spawn that slashed his claws at him.
Grabbing the hand before they made contact, Sunny raised the arm and switched his footing, separating his legs and slashing at the spawn.
For the sake of allowing flexibility, the armor didn't have as much protection for the lower arms, as such…
The Shadowspawn roared as his arm was severed.
And now, he had his back wide open.
The Spawn wasn't casting a shadow, but he was still made from shadows, so [Executor of Death] dealt just as much damage.
Sunny pierced the spawn on the back. He met some resistance, but it didn't resist much.
The other end of the dark odachi appeared on the spawn's chest, through their heart.
He looked down in pure disbelief.
He kneeled, losing strength as life slowly left him…
Turning his head slowly, the Shadowspawn gazed at the unreadable plain face made of shadows of their murderer as he felt his shadow be slowly destroyed.
Sunless looked up to meet the gaze, trying to find something, a reason for why he wanted to kill this Shadowspawn so much…
He only found anger and spite. The spawn hated him, so much so he tried once again to do something, Sunny could tell, he was trying to delve into the shadows…
But it was useless, he couldn't anymore.
'I'm sorry… I don't know why I did this… But your Nightmare is over.'
Almost as if the spawn heard him, the beast glared even harder, hatred burning…
Before they were extinguished.
Sunny heard the voice of the Spell, this time, it was full of malice, a sarcastic amusement meant to mock the Hollow Death.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, ——]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a Memory.]
'What? No name? Just like the last one? And the voice of the Spell, my bloodlust… Just what was happening here?'
As he pondered, the Shadowspawn's body slowly dissolved into shadows.
The bloodlust he felt finally vanished, and he could only pretend to sigh, as he had no lungs to do so.
'I don't understand anything…'
He could only accept what happened, as he didn't understand anything, there was no reason to dwell on the matter, especially in the middle of a Nightmare.
He turned to his soul sea, he needed to see what he gained.
Shadow Fragments: [2739/6000]
'Huh?! What the… How did he gain so many Fragments?! The only different thing he did was…'
Kill a Shadow.
'So in my case, killing a Shadow is like killing a human and I gain all their fragments? Maybe I shouldn't have destroyed his soul core… Then again, how did I destroy one of their cores?'
Doesn't matter, shaking his head, he looked at his new Shadow.
Shadow: Nightmare.
Shadow Rank: Awakened.
Shadow Class: Terror.
Shadow Description: [This beautiful steed was tamed by the emptiness of the Hollow Death in the depths of harrowing dreams. The two Shadows witnessed countless nightmares, some from each other, others from themselves, in the end, the steed finally found a place in the endless abyss of the Hollow Death.]
'... Really? Calling me empty again? Well, at least the steed is grateful, and the name, Nightmare, kind of fitting. Plus, another Terror.'
Shadow Attributes: [Swift], [Dark Destrier], [Dreadlord], [Dreamwalker].
Shadow Abilities: [Flowing Shadow], [Mantle of Fear], [Nightmare], [Dream Curse].
Reading everything… It was really powerful, even more than his Tree, even more, actually, if they weren't one rank lower…
Turning to his Memories, a new one appeared.
Memory: [Shadow's Curse]
Rank: Awakened.
Type: Charm.
Description: [The shadow that loved her, he really did, after all they've been through, he loved her, but he hated her at the same time, for she took away the very thing he valued the most… All to save him, because she loved him back.
But in the end, they were separated, and anger grew in the shadow's heart together with his unquestionable love. Because she gave him the chance, the chance to see his sister again, the sister he had left because she didn't need him, to live the life he wanted for so long, a chance to survive…
But none of that mattered to begin with, as the shadow was Fated to not even exist. In his place, only a phantom remained.
A phantom that was slain by a hollow shadow.]
Sunny read the description again and again, trying to understand what he was reading.
Because for some reason, as he read the runes, a complicated emotion swelled up in his heart, and then, his heart began to ache.
He didn't have a heart, all he was feeling came from his mind, as all emotions do, but still, if Sunless had his normal body, he felt he could have cried right then and there.
It was almost as if this description was personal…
Something was very wrong here, this whole battle felt wrong, he needed to get out of there right-.
"My friend! Are you there? Alive, perhaps?"
Sunless immediately turned back, raising Serpent in its odachi form once again in an offensive stance.
A man was walking towards him.
'I didn't sense him!'
He immediately summoned his Shadows back. Tree didn't pick up their presence so it went back to the soul sea while he put the rest with him.
Igris took a step forward with the lance, targeting the approaching man together with Saint that aimed her bow.
Wraith snarled at the trees, while Dreadwing opened their wings behind Sunny.
Some heartbeats later, a human figure appeared through the woods, a young looking man.
He looked around until his gaze settled at Sunny and his Shadows, yet even with the imposing force of shadows in front of him, the young man flashed a small, pleasant smile, awfully calm.
And Sunless knew exactly why…
The man was young and beautiful, with smooth silken skin, high cheekbones, and exquisite features. His gray eyes bright and humorous. A symbol of a crescent moon drawn on his forehead.
He was wearing a red tunic that showed most of his top body while covering his bottom half completely, with an effeminate face and the body of someone who had never once exerted themselves physically. His hands were smooth and uncalloused, and his build was slender and soft, almost frail.
If Sunny had a spine, he would have felt a chill pass through it.
The man was a Transcendent.
"Hello! I'm looking for my friend, he must be somewhere around here. You must have seen him, he is tall, muscled, has four arms, looks like a dark gorilla?"
Sunny froze.
'Oh no.'
The man seemed to not have noticed as he continued talking.
"... Kind of scary? I mean, no one chooses the way they are born after all, and I will never judge a friend of mine!"
'Oh no…'
"Either way! Did you see him? If I'm not mistaken, he is a Shadowspawn, like you!"
The Transcendent seemed to stop for a moment before lightly tapping his head and making an aloof face.
"Oh my! Where are my manners? My name is Noctis! What might be yours?"
Sunny had just killed the friend of a Transcendent.
And said Transcendent was standing right before him.