Shadow Slave

The fundamental function of Shadow Manifestation was rather simple — it allowed him to turn shadows tangible.

But the devil hid in the details.

Now that Sunny enjoyed authority over all shadows, and not only his own, he could manipulate their shape and even make them move according to his will. However, that facet of his Aspect had its caveats.

Not all shadows were the same. Some were young, and some were ancient. Some were deep, and some were shallow. Most importantly, some belonged to inanimate objects, and some belonged to living beings.

Although Sunny enjoyed their respect and reverence, that did not mean that all shadows were going to submit to him implicitly. They simply chose to follow his commands due to his status as the Master of Shadows, as opposed to being forced to do it.

That was not new to Sunny. He had already noticed this pattern of behavior when inviting wild shadows to enter the Shadow Lantern. Most did it of their own free will, but some obstinate ones refused his invitation.

Now that the [Child of Shadows] Attribute had evolved, only the most ancient and deep of the wild shadows seemed reluctant to answer his call. However, not all shadows were "wild" — that was a term he decided to use when speaking about those of them that were cast by inanimate objects.

If a shadow was cast by a living being and connected to a living soul, no amount of authority Sunny had could compel it to abandon or betray their source.

So, Shadow Control only allowed him to manipulate wild shadows. The deeper and older a shadow was, the more concentration it took to command it. He also experienced more strain when commanding distant shadows — now that Sunny became an Ascended Devil, the reach of his control extended to almost ten kilometers. His shadow sense, however, did not usually extend quite that far.

His human mind would have been overloaded if it did. So while Sunny could potentially control shadows that were very far away, he simply had no way of sensing them.

…Unless they were his own shadows, of course, or those he perceived through them.

And then came the actual Shadow Manifestation.

Unlike Shadow Control, manifestation required him to expend essence. The shadows would remain tangible as long as he continued to sustain them with essence, and return to their natural state if he stopped.

This was both a blessing and a curse. For obvious reasons, Sunny would have preferred to keep his essence… however, there was an unexpected and incredible boon to this Ability.

Due to the fact that the manifested shadows were suffused with his essence, they assumed its property. In other words… all of them were akin to Memories of the Ascended Rank in terms of durability and resilience.

In other words, if Sunny shaped a shadow into a blade and manifested it, the blade would be comparable to an Ascemded Memory in terms of both sturdiness and the damage it could do.

But he was not only limited to creating weapons! Shadow Manifestation offered him an incredible measure of utility. Since shadows were formless by nature, he could shape them into anything he wanted. He could create barriers, bridges, ropes, suits of armor… the only limitations were his imagination and his reservoir of essence.

Hell, he could even create a saddle for Nightmare, or an entire house!

Of course, nothing came without a cost. The more complex and condensed a shape was, the more essence it took to sustain it. Creating a simple shadow tentacle was not too hard, but imbuing it with enough solidity to cut through an enemy like a sword was much more taxing.

Manifesting deep and ancient shadows also took a toll, although they were more powerful.

And lastly… all the things he made tangible were able to move on their own, as long as their shape allowed it. A sword was not going to fly on its own, but a manifested shadow could move around and grab his enemies. That was not a very efficient form of attack in most cases, however.

Each shadow possessed its own level of strength, which was usually not too high. Sunny was far away from being able to rip an Awakened Tyrant to shreds… for now.

And unless he really wanted to.

By experimenting a little, he found out that he could enhance the might of the manifested shadows by pouring more essence into them. The more force he wanted to exert above their natural threshold, the more essence he had to burn. That would not have been too powerful in the hands of an average Master…

But Sunny was a Devil. He had vastly more essence than almost any other Master had at their disposal. If he really wanted to, he could exert truly monstrous strength through his manifested shadows. Even though that would be grossly inefficient in terms of essence expenditure, he felt very happy to have such an option.

Who wouldn\'t want to rip enemies apart without having to lift a finger? Even if there were many easier and smarter ways to kill something… very few were as cool!

And as devious.

…Apart from the wild shadows, Sunny could also manifest his own. In fact, doing so was much easier, allowed him much better control, and demanded much less essence to be used. For a few moments, he imagined summoning Gloomy, Happy, Creepy, and Haughty, arming them with shadow blades, and making them fight in his stead.

\'What a sight that would be!\'

However, after thinking for a bit, he decided that this was not a very good idea. There was a very simple reason for that — while tangible shadows could affect the real world, they could be affected in turn. Manifested shadows could damage his enemies, but could also be damaged instead.

Since his shadows were deeply connected to his soul, making them vulnerable to physical attacks was a very stupid thing to do. Sunny did not even want to think about what would happen if one of them was destroyed.

At most, they would be able to perform simple tasks that did not pose any risk.

…Overall, Sunny was very happy with his new Aspect Ability.

It was powerful and versatile, providing him with potent means of both attack and defense, as well as incredible utility.

What made him especially happy, though…

Was how perfectly it synergized with the Shadow Lantern.

Shadow Manifestation had only one apparent weakness — the fact that he would not always be surrounded by shadows. Without anything to manifest, its worth was almost nonexistent… unless he wanted to risk his own shadows, of course.

However, that weakness was made moot by the Shadow Lantern. With its help, Sunny could carry an infinite amount of shadows with him at all times. No matter where he went, he would never be without their assistance. He would never be a master without servants.

Wherever Sunny went...

A swarm of shadows would follow.