Shadow Slave: Shadow of Blood

The main hall of the Pillaris family was devastated as the battle continued, with a new Saint of Song joining the board.

Lonesome Howl blocked the fist of the armored Saint that had served as Valerius' substitute for years and punched him away, making him crash into a wall.

Not letting the man breathe, she dashed, in a blink of an eye, she appeared before him, launching a series of jabs onto the Saint, denting the armor easily as she plummeted deeper into the wall.

All while having an elated smile on her face.

"C'mon! You are not that weak!"

The Shadow Watchers meanwhile were confronting the family, with Motza overwhelming the youngest of the Clan by the use of his endless mist while an Ascended guard rushed to attack him.

Mei stood in front of the mother of Pillaris, along with the daughter. Finally having enough essence to unleash her Ascended Ability as her normally violet katana unleashed a red tint from its blade…

The ceiling broke down as a man enveloped by a green, hardlight shield dropped down from it, gravity itself pinning him to the ground.

Lunae unleashed his shield, causing a shockwave through the hall and nullifying the energy pinning him down, looking up to witness Valerius slowly descending down the ceiling, floating in the air.

A gaze full of hatred met the Saint of Song as he raised his spear…

Only for Lunae's eyes widened upon looking behind Valerius, immediately, he lowered his weapon and dismissed it. A well of white sparks followed it.

He straightened his posture and sighed.

"Our business here is over, lower your weapons, we're leaving."

The hall seemed to have stopped in time for a moment as even Lonesome Howl hesitated and turned around. All combatants turned to him, only to look at where his gaze was aimed…

Sunless walked out of the hole in the wall of Lycon's room, an empty expression on his face as he dropped to the ground floor, his blade full of blood.

Silence was the only thing alive for long seconds as the Pillaris family absorbed what had happened.

The mother of the family's eyes blurred, her heart raced as she dropped her sword and ran up the stairs on the way to her son's room.

The siblings had different reactions, Victoria dropped to her knees and tears started flowing out of her eyes. Hugo gripped his warhammer tightly, gritting his teeth and dashing on Sunless Song.

He raised his weapon as he was just a few feet away from his target, who showed no reaction.

Only for it to stop in the middle of the air.

Gravity had stopped it.

Hugo widened his eyes and looked at his father.

Valerius stared into Sunless Song's very soul, expressing nothing but hatred. Blood fell from his fists due to how much strength he was exercising into his palm.

The few words that came out of his mouth were cold and piercing.

"Get out of my home."

Sunless looked back with hollow eyes that mirrored his expression.

"You are as wise as they say."

With one motion from his hand, Mei and Motza lowered their weapons and walked to the entrance.

Howl sighed, a part of her annoyed that she couldn't fight as much as she wanted. The other understood they couldn't just do what they wanted, and how her little brother felt… She also walked to the entrance, so did Lunae.

Sunless looked down as he walked out, feeling nothing over the completion of his objective…

"Spawn of the Worm."

He stopped in his tracks, raising his hand to stop Howl from doing something wrong. She had turned and snarled at Valerius due to the insult broadcasted to her brother and mother, only stopping mid way thanks to Sunless.

He turned to the patriarch of Pillaris, who didn't even look at him.

"Once the Domain War starts… I will personally kill one of your sisters."

Valerius snapped his head at Sunless, two amber eyes glistening with fury.

"Just so you know the meaning of suffering."

Sunless stared at him… And scoffed.

"You're not the only one who suffered."

He turned around and left the residence together with his companions.

The last thing he heard that night was the cry of a mother losing her son…

— — —

The memories of last week still repeated inside his mind.

Right after completing the Second Nightmare, he was informed about Lycon's betrayal, and had to go directly to the Pillaris household together with Howl and Lunae with barely enough time to know what Ascension did with his body.

And even after returning, he was hit with even more disappointing revelations.

Valor had killed Rain's foster parents, a brutal act meant to hurt Song and deprive them of another daughter…

Not to mention the fact Nephis has no other choice but to go to Valor now, either that or the War will start much, much sooner than intended.

Right after she changed her mind too…

Sunny was in his room in Ravenheart, his luxurious, dark room where shadows reigned supreme.

It was a few meters in height and width, a room modified to his liking a year after he was adopted by Ki Song granted by the art of sorcery, now supporting a gothic style that made darkness seem even deeper than they were.

Pillars made in intricate detail, engravings with runic runes on the onyx stone that was once pristine jade, now as dark as the outside. An enormous window in the of the room with rune-like metal complementing it being covered by royal curtains that hid the snow that constantly fell on Ravenheart.

His bed was vast, covering a quarter of the room, with dark blankets and sheets, ancient wood covering creating unnecessary ceilling that let down curtains that were made by the maker merely because they could. His cabinets were also bigger than necessary, covering half a wall.

Currently, Sunny was sitting on the Shadow Chair, that was surprisingly comfortable, leaning on his table that was located next to his window. His eyes reflect a tired mind despite their constant well of hollow shadows.

Ascension was not just an enhancement of strength but a fundamental evolution, granting him control over their soul essence, a third Aspect Ability, and the ability to enter or avoid the Dream Realm at will, now he didn't need a sleeping pod anymore, although he still kept his if he ever needed to enter the Dreamscape, something he may need to do soon…

Now that he was a Master, the quality of his essence was much higher, his soul and body merging to become one, that was one of the reasons his body of the Dream Realm and the waking world were now one, once he slept, he would no longer enter the Dream Realm, he could just sleep now, even having nightmares.

He was more handsome now, on the level of a Saint. His body was perfect, pale, like he was a statue, that part was thanks to the [Stone Shell] becoming the [Marble Shell], the only attribute that really evolved once he Ascended, the rest became stronger, but didn't evolve.

In other news, his week had been overwhelming. He could barely talk to his friends or even sisters, from organizing the work that piled up while he was in the Nightmare, from the headaches and meetings with Valor, to even going on some missions for the Clan, he was only able to see Nephis once or twice.

And it was to tell her that Song couldn't welcome her…

He still remembered the disappointment in her face, even more so after she discovered what Valor did with Rain's parents… The anger, but it was not at him.

Now there will be a ball hosted by Valor to welcome her at the end of the week, two days from now, one that he will have to go to.

Sunny sighed, then looked down at the book he was supposed to be reading about runic sorcery, the idea was simple, the execution was not. He had an idea to implement his shadows into sorcery, maybe create his own type of sorcery, something maybe akin to Cassie's 'weaving', as she calls it.

That could be possible, especially with his Ascended Ability, Shadow Manifestation. He could now manifest shadows into real, tangible objects, shapes, forms, now he could order shadows to become a sword or a wall and bring them into reality.

Of course, it wasted too much essence, and it was limited by the shadows on the area, he could use his own shadows, which caused much less essence, but it was a risk.

So the [Shadow Lantern] ended up being a great help, especially since the shadows it brought were stronger than normal, why? He had no idea.

Sunny closed the book and gave up, going straight to his bed and collapsing. Looking at his runes, he observed his Shadows, they were almost all Transcendent now.

Saint and Igris were now Onyx Saints, with Dreadwing now being able to actually create 'spawns', although he didn't have time to test them yet. The Soul-Devouring Tree gained an Attribute, now able to inhabit the thralls like an infection, Nightmare didn't gain anything despite growing two Ranks… Undying Blade was not happy to create even more Memories.

Wraith and Remnant were still in the process of evolution, lucky for the latter, once he comes out, they are going to have a long, long… Talk.

All in all, he got a lot stronger, even if he himself wouldn't beat a Saint, his Shadows possibly would.

But for some reason, the counter for evolution for his Shadows stopped showing, as if he could no longer evolve past Transcendent rank. He had no idea why…

'If this was a webtoon, I bet the reason would be that the character is way too strong and the author needed to nerf them.'

Sunny chuckled.

"As if that was true."

A couple of incessant knocks came by his ears, before he could even lean up, the door opened to reveal his adorable little sister that was carrying a lantern that let out a red glow for her to be able to see

Rain immediately jumped on his bed to join him, then grabbed his shoulders, shaking him.

"Sunny! Sunny! C'mon, everyone is finally on a break! You can finally tell me about your Nightmares!"

Sunny's face became a statue as he let Rain shake him.

"Stop with the Edgelord persona and come on!"

Sunny grabbed her hands, making her stop, he sighed.

Rain had been trying really hard to hide just how much the loss of her foster parents really affected her… But he did not press her to tell the truth, she's been happy with the family, he'd rather not bring that up unless she's ready.

So he let her pretend that he didn't notice. Even after he apologized for everything.

"Are you sure it is just for that?"

She looked at him for a few seconds.

"Big sis Rev got me the novelization of Song of Light and Shadows and she will only give it to me when we are all present."

Sunny's eyes twitched.

"Excuse me? You are excited about that?!"

"Sunny! I have no Internet here, no projector, no nothing! Between the training and the classes, Big sis books are the only things that I can look forward to as a break!"

"The books aren't the problem, which book is! Song of Light and Shadows? Really?"

She twitched her head in confusion.

"What? It is a good movie, and pretty accurate if you ask me… Oh! Can you get me an autograph of Changing Star?!"

"Maybe, it depends on her mood… Wait, you think I am an Edgelord?!! What kind of sister are you? And do you really think my mother adopted me like that? That I hate this world?! C'mon Rain, I told you what happened! You know how we really are!"

Rain stared at her brother for an uncomfortable amount of time.

"Are you really dating Lady Changing Star or are the rumors fake?"

"I'm not dating her yet… DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!"

Rain's jaw dropped.

"Yet? Yet?! YET?! My sister-in-law will be Lady Nephis?!"

Sunny sighed deeply.

"No… By the Gods, at least tell me you don't believe mother and Broken Sword are like that…"

"Don't change the subject! You like Lady Nephis! The film wasn't wrong!"

"Yes it was, they made me a Edgelord and Caster a simp… My friend wasn't like that…"

"But you did go on a date with her."

Sunny looked to the side, avoiding her gaze.

"Maybe…"

A knowing, perverted smile creeped onto her face, going eye to eye.

"Did you kiss–"

Before the only son of the Ravenqueen could die of embarrassment, Rain's question was cut short by a shout calling for them.

"Sunny! Rain! Come already we don't have all day!"

Letting out a breath of relief, he quickly delved into the shadows, leaving his sister alone and traveling to the voice calling him, who just so happened to be Moonveil.

He appeared right in front of her, almost making her jump.

"Gods- Sunny!"

He laughed lightly.

"What Moon? A Saint getting startled by a Master is not a good look."

"Oh shut it! You have the Lineage of the sneakiest God ever!"

The room lit up in laughter, after all, they were all there.

Revel was leaning on a wall with a book in her hands, a copy of the novelization of the film 'Song of Light and Shadows, smiling knowingly at Sunny.

Bin was sitting on the couch, Hel right behind the couch with a hair comb caressing her sister's beautiful hair while mumbling about something weird.

Silent and Howl were sitting on the table facing each other in an arm wrestle competition, a rare sight for their silent sister to accept one of Terra's challenges, especially one where their brutish sister had the advantage. Safe to say, Howl was winning, but Silent was going down fighting.

And finally, Ki Song was also there, with her main body, holding the now youngest member of the family, Night.

Rain opened the door and entered, sweating as she had to run a good mile to go there quickly.

"You could have brought me too!"

Sunny raised his finger to his chin and thought a little.

"Hmm… Nah, I would use too much essence."

Rain wanted to jump at her brother.

Ki Song chuckled as she approached her son, the toddler on her hands looking at him with awe and a little nervousness, Sunny was the one Night had least interacted with.

The reason was that Sunny himself didn't want it, still carrying some guilt for what happened…

But Ki Song didn't like that, so she gave Night to him without asking for permission.

"What-?"

His mother didn't let him finish as she corrected Sunny's posture to make sure he held the baby right. Her low, sweet voice dominated the room.

"Whether we wished for it or not, he is now your little brother, you must treat him as such."

Sunny opened his mouth to protest, but immediately gave up, remembering Undying Blade's words: 'Your mother is always right, even when she is wrong. That also goes to your future wife.'

That still made no sense to Sunless, how come someone is right even when they are wrong?

Either way, Sunny held little Night closely, curiosity filling the small eyes of the toddler as he looked at the sickly pale skin of his now older brother.

"Hey little guy, you are going to be one pampered baby."

Sunny tickled Night's belly with his finger, causing the baby to laugh loudly and adorably.

Ki Song smiled, glad her son was able to be happy… Knowing the path he walked, and the one he will have to walk.

She raised her brow as she saw something curious happening in the corner of her eye. Revel was giving a book to Rain in secret, and the latter seemed a little too excited.

Turning to them, her eyes sharpened, but her smile prevailed.

"Revel… That better be the novel I think it is…"

Rain froze mid air as she was grabbing the book, while Revel just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Of course it is mom! Do you really think I would give Rain one of my mature books?"

Ki Song's smile widened, getting Revel in the act.

"You did that one time, didn't you?"

Revel immediately paled as she remembered something she'd rather forget.

Ki Song chuckled, but then paid more attention to the actual book Revel gave to Rain, and curiosity came over her.

"And what exactly is this book?"

Rain slowly turned around and nervously showed the book, a red blush on her face as she informed me what it was.

"I-It is the novelization of the movie about big sis Shan and Sunny!"

"WHAT–?!"

A sudden crashing sound was heard as a table broke in two.

Everyone turned to see Lonesome Howl on the floor, victim of her distraction and the focus of Silent Stalker as she was thrown to the floor after her arm wrestle with her sister ended.

Howl immediately shot up from the floor as if nothing happened and looked at Rain.

"They did a novel version of that embarrassment?"

Beastmaster sighed and straightened, letting Hel free of combing her hair while getting up.

"Can you two at least care for the furniture?"

Silent shrugged, not caring that much, while Howl straight up ignored Eunbin as she got up and went to see the book, an action that left Beastmaster really annoyed.

Howl crouched to look at the novelization of the Song of Light and Darkness.

"They really did…"

Ki Song wasn't really bothered by the table breaking, Howl had the decency to at least use a cheap table to arm wrestle. She was really interested rather in the book itself, she hadn't seen the movie after all, actually she barely remembered they made it. Only making sure the Heir of Weaver had no part in anything.

So the reaction of her children, more specifically, the sheer disgust Sunny displayed, made her… Curious.

"How did they adapt?"

Everyone went into shock as Ki Song muttered those words, all slowly turning to her.

Then, with horror in his eyes, Sunny turned to Moon, who was already smiling at him. Night covered his ears instinctively.

"DON'T YOU DARE–"

Moon took out a notebook from who knows where, the same notebook that she carried into the movie session of the movie.

"Well mother, how about you sit down?"

A myriad of devilish smiles came from every one of his siblings, except Rain that actually liked the film and Night who didn't even know what a movie was.

Sunny had hatred in his hollow eyes. Burning hatred, so much so Eunbin went to him and grabbed Night from his grasp. Muttering softly.

"Alright, go get Shan before you burn the Palace down."

Sunny barely noticed as his little brother was taken away from his hands, turning to his elder sister with a rather annoyed look.

"Agh, fine!"

He turned around as Ki Song sat down, her daughters around her, a sound of laughter echoing in his ears.

He walked for a while, a frown in his face as he kept thinking the same thing.

'I hate this, I hate this!'

He walked a bit more before stopping and breathing deeply, until a smile appeared on his face, not prompted, completely natural.

"I miss this…"

He activated his Shadow Step and went to Seishan's room.

—

He appeared right in front of Seishan's room, he could have entered it as a shadow and appeared in the room already, but he was a decent brother, unlike his younger pest of a sister.

Raising his hand and knocking on the door, he announced his presence.

"Hey, Shan! You are the only one left for the family reunion, are you going to take too long?"

Sunny waited for a response for a second.

Then three seconds…

He got nervous in the sixth second.

Not only was Seishan not the kind to not respond, he wasn't hearing anything from the room, as in: nothing at all.

No footsteps, no shuffling, no nothing. That was weird.

And she wasn't sleeping, Seishan doesn't sleep.

At that moment, he reached through shadow sense and picked up something… There was another shadow in the room, a human shadow. And both his and Seishan's shadow were moving rapidly.

That meant there was a noise canceling Memory inside.

Sunny immediately merged into the shadows and entered the room uninvited.

The next second, he appeared inside, sharpening his gaze and calling for the shadows around to obey his command…

Only to hear a loud click sound, seeing Seishan closing her closet door and turning around quickly, immediately entering a calm facade she always presented.

Ascending made her exotic beauty even more attractive, any man would dream to be with the ideal woman that was Seishan.

Sunny stared at her, completely confused. She was wearing a short red dress that didn't cover a lot, especially in the current scenario, where it was mid-way from being taken off.

Not to mention her hair was disheveled, her beautiful gray skin had… Marks in her neck and her red lipstick was blurred, a mark trailing down her mouth. Not to mention the blood trailing down the other side of her mouth.

Yet she just stood there, smiling as if nothing happened.

"Why did you barge into my room, Sunny? I said I was about to leave, it must have escaped your mind."

He didn't believe her.

"Ahh… Because your room had a sound canceling Memory, and I got worried, plus, there's someone else here, right?"

She put a hand on her chest and looked at him weirdly, as if confused.

"I don't know what you mean brother! I'm the only one–"

Sunny rolled his eyes and walked to the closet that was behind her. She stood in his way.

"Sunny… What are you doing…?"

Her voice got uneasy.

"Exposing your biggest lie ever."

He dodged her presence and grabbed the knob of the closet.

"Wait, Sunny! You are invading my–"

He opened and made a sidestep to reveal a body of someone failing before catching himself.

He was a handsome young man, with clear white skin, auburn hair that was all over the place and green eyes that shined with charm and kindness, wearing a dark shirt under a red jacket, black trousers completing the look.

But most importantly of all: his lips were swollen and filled with marks, as if something was biting them, those same marks were on his neck, only deeper and with more blood trailing down.

Sunny stared at him for what it felt like a long time, his eyes widening in horror for the sheer amount of times the poor man was bitten, all the while Seishan stood there beside both of them, hands covering her red face in pure embarrassment.

He was finally able to find the words.

"Kai… What did she do to you?"

The charming Master couldn't do much, only smile with a red face and answer honestly.

"She likes blood… I'm kind of into it…?"

Sunny did a doble-take.

"Excuse me, rather than kiss and make out like normal people, you let her drink your blood?!"

"Oh no! We did make out, but in the middle of it she bit me, one thing led to another and… We lost track of time."

Sunny stared at Kai.

He then turned to Seishan.

Then he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"By the Gods Silent, lower your damn bow!"