Shadow slave: The Prince of Death

(no I'm not sponsored lmao)

---

Sunny stood in a room filled with Awakened, their faces grave and somber. They were about to march into battle against an army of Nightmare Creatures, afterall . Sunny seemed to not care however.

Obviously, the real reason for that was that sunny had seen too much shit to be scared of a mere awakened army of nightmare creatures.

Or at least he had the memories of seeing too much shit.

But the awakened took it as arrogance.

He was the only Dormant soldier among them, the only one foolish—or fearless—enough to step into the open field with Awakened warriors. Naturally, they assumed he was some privileged fool who had secured his place through connections.

A rugged-looking Awakened turned to him with a hint of spite. "Hey, kid, I don't care if you have a death wish. Just don't get in our way."

Sunny met his gaze with cold indifference, not bothering to respond.

"Leave him be, Stine," an older Awakened called from across the room. "He's the son of a Master. You don't want to get yourself in trouble."

Stine scoffed. "Damn these legacies and their childish antics."

Sunny finally decided to speak. "I'm not a legacy," he said flatly. "My father may be a Master, but we don't belong to a clan. And don't worry—I have no interest in wasting my time on you."

Stine bristled. "Oh? You wanna go, huh?"

"Go to battle? Yeah, that's the plan."

Stine smirked. "Sure. Let's see what you're made of in the raid. I'm sure we'll all be impressed."

"Enough," the older Awakened cut in. "Focus on yourselves now."

Sunny ignored them and returned to his preparations. He donned a military tracksuit, securing a government-issued transceiver to his ear. Then, he summoned Puppeteer's Shroud and Defiance.He thought about equipping Guardian's Creed but decided against it.

I want them to come to me, I need to be seen for that.

His thoughts flickered to Serpent, and for a brief moment, essence surged through his veins before growing dormant again.

That rush, however brief, made his body feel sharper, stronger—alive.

A soldier entered the room, his voice sharp and commanding.

"The first wave arrives in one hour. There will be four waves in total. The first three will consist of Awakened-class creatures, and the final wave will bring Fallen-class threats.

The first wave will have spider like creatures, the second will have flying bird like creatures and the third will have ice elementals, if you can't deal incorporeal damage you will have to attack the elementals' hearts. Return to base when the third wave ends.

Now, there's a very real chance that the waves would overlap, so be ready for anything!

All units move out now!"

---

The seven masters: Randall, Anurag, Abel, Jet, Han li, John and Sohee were standing at at equal distances apart from each other.

Randall and Anurag were veterans of the government, with Randall later joining the irregulars in Sunny's past life. Anurag was his apprentice, and he had been assigned to erebus field, which then got destroyed by Goliath.

Sunny did not know that though.

Jet and Abel were the other two masters assigned to the raid by the government, they weren't as experienced as the other two, but they were still even stronger.

Master Han li, john and Sohee were masters from their own clans that served under valor or song.

Han li was also the leader of his clan.

They were all legends in their own right.

Behind each master was an army of 200 awakened, and sunny was stationed behind han li himself.

Behind each group was an army of 1000 mundane soldiers, holding ranged weapons to horde the Awakened creatures.

Noticing something, master john took a step and yelled.

"Incoming!!"

The wave of monsters was upon them.

---

The spiders were of two kinds, there were giant black spiders that moved slower but had great defence, quite similar to the carapace scavengers in fact, except that they had higher durability and were the size of a rhino

The other spiders were smaller, about the size of a rabbit, and were red. They had a venomous bite and moved much quicker.

'their carapace is also thinner, I should hunt them down as the 1st priority.' sunless sprung into action with that thought.

As the creatures drew near, the Awakened launched ranged attacks, but sunny had no such means, so he only waited.

Eventually, Han Li surged forward, and the Awakened army followed. Chaos erupted as the two sides clashed and collapsed into each other, mixing into a storm of blood and steel.

Sunny brandished his sword and used his shadows to reinforce himself.

Immediately, his strength tripled. And yet, it didn't stop there. His innate ability flared to life, amplifying his power further. He felt his strength grow further significantly, his senses became sharper and his thoughts became clearer.

The shadow cradle was supplying him with an all around stat boost now that he was surrounded by his own shadow.

"Ahhh how much stronger Am I with this now? Twice as strong as the already augmented me right? Yeah sounds about right. So I am six times more powerful than my base."

A red spider who was too rash attacked sunny, only to be swatted away with a backhand, exploding in mid air.

'Man I remember harus did this to an Awakened monster in the dark city. But as I am now...'

Sunny's face lit up with a crooked smile. 'i could do this to a demon too.'

Amongst the forces of the 200 awakened, a dark silhouette moved through the masses, everywhere it went, a scarlet sword flashed and corpses of red spiders were left in its wake.

Meanwhile, master Han li faced and block dozens of black spiders himself, his hands continuosly releasing bolts of lightning to keep them in check.

His two nephews, kim and dokja were somewhere behind, fighting to survive the spiders. If there was anyone Han li could count on though, it would be his daughter.

Han li Yunis was his eldest daughter, and she was the only one he believed wouldn't die against these critters. She moved at rapid speeds, using her dormant ability to store momentum and release it, cutting down the necks of the spiders her father trapped.

Together they were getting rid of the Awakened monsters fairly quickly.

But it wasn't quick enough.

Ascended john wiped blood off his face and looked at the sky, terrified he yelled again.

"Second wave is already here! Anurag! Sohee! Assist me in fighting them!"

A kilometre away, sunny yelped "What the hell? It's already showed up?"

He looked at the sky in disbelief, but sure enough. A horde of flying crows and vultures was making its way towards the other flank of the Awakened army.

The flying beasts had picked up another tribe of aerial creatures and were rushing much faster now.

This meant more spiders would come towards them.

"Shit, that's too much at once!"

Sunny didn't have much time to complain as another spider, this time a large one, leapt at him.

Dodging it's attack with a roll, sunny got up and stabbed the creature's neck with 'defiance'.

[You have killed an Awakened monster: Spawn of Shiaori]

There were a dozen red spiders approaching him. Sunny twisted his body into a spin and used the force to knock them into the air. Then he coiled back a bit, and sprung with lightning fast speed punching holes in all of their heads mid air as they fell to the ground.

[You have killed an....]

[You have killed an....]

[You have killed an....]

Two more back spiders came at him, so he kicked one of them in the head, the spider's head burst and it died. Sunny swung defiance at the other spider. Sending it to its brother.

[You have killed an...]

A mix of black and red spiders were all around him. There were a few awakened too. It was chaos. Sunny fought his way through the critters, beheading and exploding them as he went.

A red one suddenly landed on his neck. But before it could bite sunny, he spun, sending the spider flying. Then he threw his sword at it, cleaving it in half.

Another creature came from behind him. Sunny jumped at its back with a backflip, having already unsummoned his sword, he summoned it back and stabbed through the creature through its skull all the way out it's maw.

He was tired. Everyone around him was. He saw a glimpse of the crowd of birds attacking jet's group.

"Is that how she got crow crow?" He could barely muster the strength to have to have these needless thoughts, but they kept him conscious.

"No that's impossible, she already has crow crow, the hell am I thinking?"

If he was glad about anything however, it was that his flaw was finally silent.

Sunny probably killed more than any other awakened.

'except that Han li girl, I don't understand how their clan fell off after caster died, she could have been a saint by the time of the domain war. Where was she?'

Sunny cut an incoming crow "these guys are entering our side too!? How many of them are there?"

Fighting off the two hordes, he hid behind the carcass of a giant spider and checked his runes.

Shadow fragments: [1154/2000]

"Now that's progress!"

Just then, the ground rumbled.

And a huge spider sprung out of it. It's pristine white carapace strangly denying even a hint of dirt.

The spider had spawned right in front of Yunis and stared at her with her six grey eyes.

Yunis gulped, terrified. But she was a legacy afterall, so she composed herself.

"I'll just phase away first." She thought to herself and used her awakened ability.

Immediately she started to sink into the ground, having turned incorporeal.

But the spider reacted immediately and swung it's pedipalps at her legs, Yunis had always seen nightmare creatures attack her in her phase state and be bewildered when they didn't touch her.

But today she was the one bewildered. As the spider sliced away her knees, somehow damaging her.

"AAHHHGHH!!!" Her scream reverberated throughout the battlefield, stifled only by the noise of the overall battle.

"That thing can deal damage to incorporeal targets!!" An Awakened called out in disbelief. Even sunny was momentarily stunned.

But not because he was horrified at the sight, but because he saw something else.

'there's eggs on that thing's back...dormant spawns? Must be...if I could kill them all...'

Indeed there were eggs on that thing's back, nestled in a bush like webbing. There was a waxy layering on top of the eggs.

A glint of mad hunger flashed through his eyes. A drop of saliva almost dripping off his mouth.

Sunny dashed towards the giant spider fearlessly, towards the spider that could possibly be a tyrant.

Master Han li had noticed his daughter's cry, and wasn't going to let her die today either.

So he concentrated his powers into a single point in space, between his hands.

Sparks flew and a sharp buzzing sound like a corona discharge shrieked through the air.

Lightning was being coalesced into a sphere.

Then Han li grabbed the sphere with his hands, and stretched them, forming a shape out of it

and threw the spear of lightning at the spider matriarch.

The blue spear streaked through the sky, and hit the matriarch in her back.

BOOOOMMMM!!!

Lightning surged inside her abdomen, burning her from the inside, unfortunately that wasn't enough to kill the monster, but it did fall on its legs to scream in pain.

A heat wave surged throughout the area, making sunny sweat a little and destroying the protective layering on the matriarch's eggs.

But she was still alive, and was going to get up in a few seconds, then it would kill Yunis. And then more people.

'Thats what happened to her!' sunny thought to himself as he approached the matriarch.

Summoning guardian's creed to avoid detection, he jumped on top of the matriarch and made his way to her back. Where all her eggs were nestling in the weird bush like structure of webs.

The spider's perception was also hindered because of the sheer pain it was in, so it offered no resistance except shaking itself a little to throw sunny off.

Sunny summoned the [indecent desires] memory, and reinforced it with the gloomy and happy shadows. Immediately the flames grew much fiercer.

He threw the memory into the bush like nest and dashed towards the spider's head.

"Alright! Now to kill it and gain the second attribute for defiance!"

The matriarch was about to get back up from the initial pain, but just then her back lit up in flames.

A sonorous song of death played in Sunny's mind, sung by the spell itself.

Hundreds of dormant souls were extenguished in an instance. And hundreds of dormant soul shards fell.

Or atleast they were going to.

Sunny summoned his storage memory Frozen and sucked them all in.

It was too much work to retrieve the soul shards from the Awakened corpses and besides, the government was going to keep a check on them and only distribute them through contribution points.

They wouldn't know about the dormant shards missing though, not when the carcasses of their hosts were thoroughly burnt.

The matriarch winced in pain and fell down again. The wound given by the ascendant burning once more.

By now, his shadows had returned to amplify him again.

Sunny turned defiance upside down, and thrust it deep into the matriarch's head.

It was tough, even for sunny with a six times amplification. But soon he cracked the hard exoskeleton and reached the soft brain.

In the core of Defiance, a new power had arrived.

[You have killed an Awakened terror: Shiaori the white.]

[You have recieved a memory.]

Sunny let out a satisfied sigh and fell down.

With the terror's death, the spiders all fell into a disarray.

"A-are you okay!?" Yunis who was lying right in front of the terror, asked anxiously.

The fact that she was able to enquire about someone else's condition while having her legs sliced off, spoke volumes of her conviction.

Not that sunny cared in the moment.

Whether he felt okay or not was none of Sunny's concern right now, he had earned hundreds of fragments and a memory from a terror.

"Ooohhh yeah. Totally."

And that was enough to satisfy him.

But not keep him alive.

In the distance, a wild cold storm grew closer, undetected yet by any human. Master or otherwise.