shadow slave: Omnitrix

Vines restrained the shadow creature’s movements. At the same time, the shadows rose from the ground and formed into onyx chains, wrapping around the White Devil.

[Shadow Manifestation] — Sunny’s Ascended ability — could not fully restrain the devil, but it was enough to keep it in place for a few moments.

That was more than enough time for Hugo’s spirit body to aim and charge a blast of soul essence. The [Mechamorphic Asura] arm cannon fired, blasting the devil dozens of times, bombarding the creature and burning its skin.

But that was not the end.

Its soul was suddenly torn by dark clawed hands, and cracks appeared on its shadow cores.

Hugo’s shadow avatar was doing its job well, attacking the devil’s soul and damaging it further, inflicting even more agony upon it.

The devil groaned and struggled violently against the vines, the shadow chains, the soul attacks and the essence blasts to no avail.

Tendrils of darkness seeped into its skin from the [Shadow Symbiote], which had bonded with Zed after its previous host was dismissed.

The wheel on the devil’s head twisted a few more times, however it simply could not adapt to all the combined assaults. The mystical power it possessed was not powerful enough to react to all of those things, and the [dark soul] memory was blinding it, further confusing the creature.

After a dozen more blows, one of its shadow cores exploded, courtesy of Hugo’s shadow, and the devil dropped into the demon class.

“Sunny now!”

Sunny, wrapped in onyx armor, leaped into the air and swung his jade blade one final time. It met the devil’s neck and struggled against it for a few moments — but after he augmented it with his shadows, it cut clean through.

The golden wheel fell to the ground, and the devil’s head rolled alongside it across the icy ground of Antarctica.

Its body dissolved into shadows. At the same time, the [Dark Soul] charm drained too much of Sunny’s essence, making him dismiss it, which lifted the darkness.

Hugo retracted his vines, dismissed his spirit body, and sent a mental command to his shadow to retreat into its regular form.

A blue flash spread through the world, then a crimson one, as both Hugo and Zed detransformed.

The [Shadow Symbiote] dissolved into sparks of darkness, as well.

Hugo and Sunny both let out a long breath.

“That was… Easier than expected.”

Sunny nodded in agreement as he summoned the dark wheel, manifesting it above his hand. It floated there, as it always did, but this time, it felt more… Complete.

“So that’s the last one right?”

“Yes. All the shadows within it have been tamed… Thanks for your help, by the way.”

“No problem….but this battle felt anticlimactic, if I’m being completely honest.”

Sunny shrugged.

“What did you expect? I’m an Ascended tyrant,while you’re an Ascended terror. We used a Transcendent charm to weaken it. We had an Ascended Titan and an Ascended terror duplicate of yours attacking both its soul and body. Not to mention Fiend and Zed — both Transcendent devils — and the Shadow Symbiote, a Transcendent devil on the cusp of becoming a tyrant. If anything, the surprising part is that we had this much difficulty, in the first place.”

Hugo thought about it for a few moments and agreed with sunny. They had prepared for the battle, and most importantly, they knew a lot about their enemy and how to counter it.

The White Devil, Mahoraga, was capable of adapting to many phenomena but it had one glaring flaw.

It could not adapt to multiple things at once.

Its mystical ability would process an ability, and just as it was about to adapt, the devil would be assaulted by another thing entirely, forcing it to restart the process.

Though they were lucky it had not adapted to the [Dark Soul] charm.

Still, two masters beating a Transcendent devil was a great feat, making them even more outstanding than they already were.

Hugo had spent so long chasing power that he had forgotten how Monsterous he was.

Looking down at his omnitrix, and zed besides him, he said:

“To think we’re this strong as masters… I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of powers we’ll have as saints.”

Sunny looked at Hugo for a few moments and contemplated his words.

“If all goes well, we’d both be Transcendent Titans one day… Equal to the Winter Beast in power. By then, our summons would have also grown in rank and class, and our other skills would develop even more, making us the most adaptable creatures in all of existence.”

With Hugo’s aspect, and Sunny’s shadow dance, the diversity and flexibility of their powers were nearly endless.

The same went for all divine aspect wielders, though, but it was especially true for their case.

If they master their powers, their battle arts, and elevate their summons to a higher rank… Hugo and Sunny would be no different from pseudo supremes.

It was a chilling thought.

“Ah, future dreams of power aside, so did you gain anything good from completing the treasure?”

Hugo asked.

Sunny nodded, as they started walking towards Falcon Scott.

“A few. There’s obviously Mahoraga, the strongest Shadow within the treasure. It’s as strong as Saint, my previous strongest shadow, which already adds incredible powers to my arsenal. I don’t reckon I would be able to fuse with it, though, as it’s of a higher rank than me. So no adaptability powers for me. But that aside, I feel like the shadows inside the treasure are more harmonized with my soul now.”

Sunny looked deeper into the treasure, and suddenly frowned.

“Hold on…”

He closed his eyes and went still, but Hugo quickly realized what he was doing.

Sunny had entered his soul sea, for some reason.

‘The treasure must be doing something to him.’

Hopefully it wasn’t anything bad.

After a few moments, Sunny came back with a shocked expression.

“My original shadows… They’re not in my shadow cores anymore.”

Hugo raised an eyebrow.

“What? Were they destroyed?”

Sunny shook his head, as a frown crept into his face.

“No… They’re in the treasure now. All of my shadows, both the originals and the ones that came from the treasure are stored inside the wheel now. But there’s something wrong…” Sunny gritted his teeth. “The shadows in the sacred treasure… They don’t feel as complete anymore.”

‘Complete…’

Hugo had recalled Sunny telling him that the sacred treasure shadows, unlike his own shadows, were capable of climbing the path of ascension on their own, as they were their own independent creature while his shadows were a part of him.

Now, however, that seems to have changed.

Both of Sunny’s shadows had fused with the relic, which in turn has fused with all of his cores, making them all a part of him.

This meant that their growth, which had not been limited, had limits now.

That was indeed unfortunate.

Hugo sighed.

“Hey, at least look at it from the upside. Your shadows aren’t limited by the number of your cores now, which means that, in theory, you can have as many shadows as you want, as long as you pay enough shadow fragments and echoes. Also, this means that you can fuse with your original shadows, as well, which would vastly increase your arsenal of Abilities and will also help you in mastering shadow dance.”

What better creatures to copy than the shadow creatures that were an extension of himself?

That would certainly help him attain the fifth step, but that was in the far future, obviously.

Sunny dismissed the sacred treasure and exhaled deeply.

“You’re right. I suppose not everything comes easy in life. But come on, let’s head back.”

Today’s endeavor had gone well, and hopefully their next objective would also be successful.

***

Sunny and Hugo had returned to the dream realm and headed towards Hugo’s personal quarters in the ivory tower, specifically his smithy room.

There, the crystal forge still stood in all of its glory, left untouched just ad he had requested.

Sunny, who was wearing [Puppeteer’s Shroud] for comfortability sake, examined it carefully.

“Excellent craftsmanship… I never took you for a blacksmith, though.”

Hugo smiled, as he brought out all of his tools and placed them on a workbench.

“It’s a new skill I’ve been developing. Making items for the cohort was a great test of my capabilities, and the cell tower in Erebus Field was also something I’m proud of…”

The memory of Erebus Field made his expression a little somber, but he continued:

“So before we start, let’s get a few things sorted out. Firstly, you are an inexperienced smith, but thanks to your shadow dance, you should be able to copy me if you see me craft a few things. Even then, we would both be adept blacksmiths, but that would be better than one novice and one adept.” Hugo raised a second finger. “Secondly, we need to work in harmony so we can shorten the crafting process, time is of the essence right now, so we should finish this project of ours as fast as possible.”

Sunny crossed his arms.

“Do we even know what we’re going to make? An artifact capable of beating the Winter Beast can’t be just any random junk we come up with on the spot.”

“That’s the third point. We’ll craft something here, and you’ll turn into a Transcendent memory of the seventh tier using your memory and some of the Transcendant soul shards you have in your inventory. And yes, I have designed a concept for the memory.”

Hugo summoned his [Soul Journal] and tossed it towards Sunny.

The pale young man caught it and took a look at the page Hugo had opened.

His eyes swept across the paper, reading the runes and examining the rough sketch Hugo made carefully.

After a few minutes, he glanced up at Hugo.

“This won’t be enough to kill a corrupted Titan.”

“I never intended it to, in the first place.”

“So you want to subdue a titan? That’s impossible. We’d have better chances reasoning with the creature than to trap or subdue it.”

Hugo shook his head.

“The memory is meant to weaken the Winter Beast… As for killing the titan, that task would fall on me, you, Master Jet and Winter.”

Sunny was annoyed by how easy Hugo made things sound, but he decided to listen.

“Elaborate further.”

“Not much is needed to be honest. We’ll need to make the Transcendent memory, and two other memories of the same rank and lastly, I’ll have to challenge a DNA trial and gain another Transcendent imprint, one fit for battle, so I can have a proper fight with the winter beast.”

Sunny handed Hugo back his journal, and thought about his insane plan for a few seconds. It was full of flaws, and most importantly, succuss was not even guaranteed.

“Let’s say we actually win… You do realize that becoming a Transcendent Titan would destroy you, right? Your soul cores have already taken so much damage in the last few months, and while they’ve been healed, your very soul could crumble if you keep pushing it this much.”

Sunny was right. Receiving soul attacks, constantly changing ranks and classes was not natural. No soul, no matter how unique and powerful was meant to endure that, including Hugo’s.

Elevating his soul from being an ascended Titan to a Transcendant Titan and than detransforming would be devestating.

Not to mention, he’ll have only a few minutes in that form before running out of essence.

Moreover, his soul was still slightly aching from becoming Pesky Dust, a mere Transcendent tyrant.

‘It’s just pain…’

Hugo remained silent for a few moments, then looked at Sunny with a serious expression.

“I’m certain I’ll stay alive… I’ll be hurt, yes, but I’ll live. What matters now is killing the Winter Beast and besides, Sunny, I think you’re perfectly aware that I’m not planning on leaving this continent as a master, right?”

Sunny frowned and pinched the tip of his nose with a sigh.

“Even a fool could figure that out…”

Of course, Sunny was aware that Hugo was planning on challenging the third nightmare here on Antarctica. Hugo was not only arrogant about his power, but also obsessed with cultivating it.

He knew he didn’t have much time, either — Sunny could see the ocean of corruption raging within his soul.

Transcendence was the only thing capable of suppressing that corruption.

More than that, Hugo would likely not have the chance of Transcending after the chain crisis, as the sovereigns and the grrat clans would likely stop the government from supporting Hugo.

Still, challenging the third nightmare when a full year hadn’t even passed since Hugo’s last nightmare was madness.

Masters usually spent years mastering their powers and accumulating an arsenal of memories and echoes before challenging the third nightmare in pursuit of Transcendence.

In truth the same went for sunny. He was not a part of valor, and so finding a suitable third nightmare would probably be hard later.

Many masters shared this thought process, which meant that after the gate crisis is over, the number of saints would skyrocket.

Sunny sighed.

“Very well then. At the end of the day, I can’t stop you from doing what you want.”

Hugo smiled.

“Alright, grab a hammer and come watch, I’ll show you how a real blacksmith works.”

***

Somewhere else, Saint Tyris was gritting her teeth — exhausted, broken and grievously wounded.

The power of her aspect, despite being boosted by charms and memories, was simply not enough to hold back the Winter Beast anymore

She could not even reach its core, and the terrifying effects of its storm raged on without any signs of stopping.

The last bit of soul essence within her radiant core was depleted, and the valiant saint of valor could not hold on anymore.

Skytide of the white feather clan fell.

But before she could be swallowed by the storm, Tyris summoned an echo and ordered it to take her away.

The saint had failed to slay the titan, but that did not mean she should throw her life away.

That day, the storm raging across central Antarctica grew much colder.