Fate’s Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Once the pain was gone, Sunny excitedly checked his runes to confirm whether or not he was right about what had just occurred. Sparkle went to harvest the soul shards of the slain Nightmare Creatures.

***

Name: Sunless

True Name: Lost From Light

Rank: Awakened

Class: Demon

Shadow Cores: [3/7]

Shadow Fragments: [6/3000]

***

Sunny grinned as he saw his Class. He was now an Awakened Demon, giving him two more cores than almost all of humanity. The only exception being those who also had Divine Aspects — which Sunny was only aware of the existence of one besides himself.

He dove into his soul sea, finding himself standing within the sea of darkness and fallen foes. Sunny stared above him, seeing the three hanging orbs of darkness in the sky, reminding him of a solar eclipse.

His essence capacity had effectively tripled. Combined with the [Shadow Guide] Attribute of the Soul Serpent and his own [Essence of Divinity], Sunny was quite confident that there wasn't a single Awakened of his rank that could match him in terms of essence efficiency.

As he exited his soul sea, Sunny made sure to check one last thing. He grasped for his connection to the shadows, sharing his senses with his shadow helpers. As he did so, he didn't see from three perspectives. One of which was his own, and the other two were Gloomy and Haughty.

Instead, he saw from four.

With the formation of a third shadow core, he had obtained a new shadow. He would now be able to not only scout more efficiently, but be able to gain an extra augmentation. He could effectively wield the strength of four of himself, while also being able to do the same for Saint.

Sunny looked towards his shadow, finding the newest member of the team being… bullied by the other two. He stared at his shadows incredulously, almost distracted enough that he didn't notice the presence next to him.

Sparkle stared at his shadows alongside him, a curious expression plastered on her porcelain face.

"So… which one is the new one?"

Sunny pointed towards the one that was being bullied by Gloomy and Haughty. The former shadow looked like it was releasing all it's pent up rage upon the newcomer via violence, while the latter simply looked down upon them, as if it was telling them that it was a superior life form.

For some reason, Sunny felt like the Haughty shadow would cause him to cringe countless times in the future.

The third and newest shadow didn't seem deterred whatsoever by the actions of it's seniors. In fact, it seemed to have a strangely joyful demeanor. It was almost like everything served to merely fuel it's excitement, reminding Sunny of how he was before he became an orphan.

'Hm… I need a name.'

Considering the personality of this shadow, and the general naming scheme… he came up with quite the ingenious name, if he dared to say so himself.

'Right… welcome to the party, Happy.'

The shadow in question joyfully waved towards Sunny, exuding nothing but the most positive of characteristics. Compared to his other shadows, this was a breath of fresh air. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Sparkle found this interaction amusing.

"What's so funny?"

She had an infuriating smirk on her face as she walked away, not answering his question.

Sunny sighed as he sent one last glance at his shadows. There was a matter that called to his attention more than the formation of his new shadow core. When he had attacked the last Awakened Devil, he had felt a rush of energy rise from his soul. He had previously felt this energy while he was on the Space Station, but it hadn't displayed any obvious effect back then.

He new that it wasn't shadow essence, as it was much more… destructive. In fact, he was convinced that the energy served the sole purpose of destruction.

'Wait… destruction?'

Sunny paused for a moment, before checking his Attributes.

Attributes: [Fate's Chosen], [Essence of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], [The War], [Breach of Styx], [Blood Weave], [Pathstrider].

His [Gazed] Attribute was completely gone, and was now replaced with the [Pathstrider] Attribute. If he was correct about what it did, then it would have granted him the power of a path…

Attribute Description: [You have gained the ability to walk the path of an Aeon.]

Paths: [Destruction], [Trailblaze].

It seemed that Sunny was correct about the Attribute. It had granted him the ability to wield Destruction, while also showing that he now walked the path of Trailblaze.

However, this brought up a few new questions.

Dismissing Saint and following after Sparkle, Sunny contemplated the source of these paths. Had he been considered a follower of the Trailblaze the moment he decided to join the Astral Express? When had he received the power of Destruction? How does he access the Destruction?

He recalled the giant figure that he had seen after being hit by the Doomsday Beast. Was that figure Nanook? If so, was that when he had gained the ability to use the Destruction?

He wasn't even sure he knew what conditions had to be met, or if there were any conditions at all.

Deciding to file away this problem for later, he instead redirected his attention to Sparkle, who was merrily skipping off ahead of him.

Earlier, Sunny had resolved himself to trust Sparkle. However, such a task was quite difficult to undertake.

Sunny himself wasn't the kind of person who could trust others. It didn't matter if he had a reason to trust them or not, because it wasn't in his nature to do so. Not only that, but Sparkle was an unpredictable character, and it was quite difficult to get a read on her.

Her ability to control her facial expressions was also a large factor in his distrust.

Sunny didn't believe she would purposely betray him, considering her… affection. However, that same affection may be used in a harmful manner. There was also the possibility that said affection was fake.

'I'm just going in circles here!'

Brushing a hand through his hair, Sunny decided that he should keep a safe distance from Sparkle when it came to an emotional level. It wouldn't do him any good to get attached, whether his past self would curse him for it or not.

Speaking of his past self, Sunny recalled the voice that had spoke to him after tossing Sparkle into the Sky Below. He at first had thought that the voice was simply an expression of his subconscious, or possibly the remaining ego of his past self.

However, he didn't believe that either of those were true. In fact, the voice he was communicating with had to have it's own thought patterns and personality traits. The voice seemed to have more of a conscious, but it didn't seem too attached to Sparkle herself.

It seemed to value human life as a whole. Much more than Sunny himself does.

Sunny tried to see if he could contact the voice by directing thoughts in his mind, but it was no use. Either he had hallucinated, or it was simply a one-time thing. If it was the former, it caused Sunny to wonder if his mental state wasn't as good as he thought it was…

Looking towards Sparkle, he asked her a question:

"Hey… do you remember that warning you gave me a couple days ago?"

Glancing back, Sparkle nodded silently with an ever present grin.

"So, what was that all about? What is this mirror supposed to be?"

She shrugged.

"Who knows? All I know is that this "mirror" is supposed to help you out with something before betraying you."

It seemed that Sparkle's divinations weren't something that would allow her to gain a perfect vision of the future. Maybe she was only able to see the future through vague and obscure messages. Maybe it wasn't meant to be taken in the literal sense…

…Sunny's head started to hurt at the sheer amount of speculating he had been putting himself through in the past few minutes. He decided to focus on more means of gaining power instead.

The first thing that had come to mind was Shadow Dance. To reach the next step, Sunny believed that he simply needed to battle countless opponents while assimilating their fighting styles. He wasn't sure where he could go to find a large group of hostile Awakened, so that wasn't an option just yet.

Challenging the Second Nightmare was also an option, but he didn't know of any Nightmare Seeds, nor did he think he was quite prepared to challenge it. He would also need a reliable cohort before risking his life to become an Ascended.

With that in mind, Sunny could formulate a plan to increase his total strength. He would first need to collect more Memories, expanding his arsenal. This would increase his ability to adapt to more situations.

It would take some time to do so, but Sunny did not want to enter the Second Nightmare without improving his mastery of Shadow Dance. The treacherous battle art was the source of Sunny's ability to fight. It would be a bad move if he couldn't at least get it to the second step.

Plus, he would get another Legacy Relic!

There was also the matter of getting more shadow fragments for Saint. According to the Vessel of Remembrance, he would need to sacrifice Memories. It seemed that progressing the taciturn knight would be quite expensive. Actually, speaking of shadows…

Sunny checked Serpent's runes. If they shared the same class, then the shadow that he had recieved from his Aspect Legacy should have become a Dormant Demon.

Shadow: [Soul Serpent].

Shadow Rank: Dormant.

Shadow Class: Demon.

Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon].

Shadow Abilities: [Serpentine Steel].

Shadow Description: [When the end came, Shadow was the last of the gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him for creating death, but in the end, death embraced all.]

Serpent had indeed become a Demon alongside Sunny. It had even gained an Ability from the increase in Class!

Focusing on the runes for [Serpentine Steel], he read what the Ability did.

Ability Description: [Shadow Serpent's Soul Weapon form can assume the shape of any weapon.]

'I see…'

The ability to switch weapons wasn't anything too special. However, this was a major boon for Sunny, a practitioner of Shadow Dance. His entire fighting style was centered around being formless, unrestricted by the limitations of the mind, allowing the body to follow through with these unpredictable movements.

He had quite a lot to do if he wanted to become stronger.

With an audible sigh, Sunny walked out of the cave with Sparkle. She had removed the soul shards of the spiders while he was checking his runes, so they now had to decide how they were going to split them.

***

"Seventy-thirty!"

Sunny blinked in astonishment. The two of them were sitting around a campfire, roasting the meat of some unlucky monster that they had ran into. Interestingly enough, he had this strange ability to easily cook any type of abomination, which Sunny was sure he wasn't capable of before.

Something to look into…

On the other hand…

"Are you crazy?!"

Sparkle looked at him in confusion as she spilled out the soul shards from her storage Memory. That bag must have had a lot of space in it to store so many trinkets and soul shards.

"I don't think it's a bad deal. I mean, you get to spend time in my company! Isn't that worth way more than a mere extra twenty percent?"

"No. No it isn't."

"…Oh."

She seemed genuinely surprised by his answer.

'Does she take me for a fool?'

"Of course not, silly. I'm the Fool here!"

Sunny's eye twitched.

"Stop reading my mind!"

Sparkle pouted like a child.

"I'm not reading your mind… you're just too obvious!"

'That's not true… right?'

Shaking his head, Sunny redirected the conversation back to the topic at hand.

"Can't we just split the soul shards fifty-fifty? I'm being generous here, since I did most of the work."

She wagged her finger at him.

"I gave you the privilege of giving me a ride, so you should be grateful for the chance of being able to feel these puppies."

His shadows suddenly straightened up.

Cupping one of her breasts, Sparkle lightly squeezed. Despite this, Sunny was completely unmoved. With a completely stoic expression on his face, Sunny gave a perfect rebuttal.

At the same time, his shadows suddenly seemed much too interested in this conversation.

"You're right; I was the one to give you a ride. Therefore, shouldn't I be compensated for being demoted to a mere steed?"

Although Sparkle was meticulously wielding randomness to confuse and fluster Sunny, the boy who had survived in the harsh and unforgiving outskirts alone could not be moved by mere chaos nor lust. He had tempered his mind in the cruel poverty ridden world, using it as a weapon to gain what he wanted while crushing his adversaries.

Starting to actually frown, Sparkle thought for a few moments, before her eyes practically lit up.

"You know, my throat is still sore from earlier. I might have to go to the doctor, so you should give me some of your soul shards since you were the cause. I mean, some planets have brutal medical bills."

Sunny shook his head in dissapointment.

"First of all, you should word things better so that you don't cause a misunderstanding. Second, nothing would have happened if you hadn't done such a provoking action. If you approached the situation more delicately, such a thing wouldn't have happened. And third…"

Sunny took a bite out of his roasted meat, taking a moment to chew. It was quite tasty if he was being honest. Nightmare Creature meat was naturally more nutricious than mundane food after all.

"…If you purposely startle a dog and was bitten by it, who would be at fault? You, or the dog?"

'Checkmate.'

Honestly, Sunny sometimes surprises himself with his own intelligence. His mind hadn't been so sharp before; was this another effect of [The War]? Increasing his ability to fight even mental battles would be quite useful.

However, something wasn't quite right.

'Why was she blushing?'

Indeed, Sparkle's face was currently flushed to a startling degree. He would have assumed that she might have been a bit miffed at having been defeated so flawlessly, but she was smiling.

Actually, her smile seemed… a bit deranged.

Even worse, her eyes were glowing a pink light, changing from a butterfly to a five-leaved flower. She was breathing quite hard as well.

'…Oh.'

She had crossed the threshold of her flaw.

"Hehe… you're really driving a hard bargain here."

Standing up, Sparkle sauntered over to him. Sunny gulped, wondering what kind of things she could do in this uninhibited state.

"The thing is… I know about something that you can't refuse."

Sunny narrowed his eyes, watching as she sat down directly in front of him. She grabbed his hand, with Sunny not resisting unless he believed that she would do something dangerous.

She was extremely unpredictable in this state, more so than she is normally. Treating her with a certain level of caution would be extremely important.

"How about we make it eighty-twenty. In exchange, you could cop a feel."

A bead of sweat rolled down Sunny's face. He stared at his hand, which was dangerously close to her chest. Her unique eyes stared at him in anticipation, almost like she was expecting him to decline.

Which meant…

"Deal!"

He absolutely must accept her offer. If he didn't, who knew how far this would escalate?

Sparkle stared at him blankly for a few moments, before her smile widened even more. If he was being honest, he didn't know how it was possible for a person to take up so much space with a mere smile.

"It's settled~"

Pulling his hand towards her chest, Sunny accepted that his fate was sealed. Despite the pillowy softness and perkiness, alongside the small protrusion that he was able to locate through the cloth, he felt like he had lost. He simply couldn't enjoy himself, knowing that he had given away so many soul shards out of fear of this devious woman.

'Next time…'

With a burning determination in his eyes, Sunny knew that he must win next time. It would become eighty-twenty in his favor, and he wouldn't fold even if she was affected by her flaw.

He must win, no matter the cost.

…He ignored the cheering shadows in the background.