Sunny impatiently paced around the circle, waiting for the next challenger.
'Come on, come on, come on. What's the hold up!'
He looked around at his shadows that stared blankly at him. Sunny was rightfully impatient, outside his Soul Sea, in the Dream Realm. Nephis was in a life threatening fight against the Queen of Worms. Sunny himself has business to finish as well. Like killing the King of Swords.
So he couldn't just stand around all day wasting time.
Sunny had shortly deduced that there would be around Four Challengers. He made this assumption after looking at how many shadows now bow before him after defeating the Forsaken Knight. Defeating each one of these Challengers, would then in turn prove that he was worthy of such a title, like the Sovereign of Death.
Sunny paced.
He would occasionally walk up to a shadow of a creature that had considerable significance to his history. Approaching a shadow, Sunny's eyebrow twitched, looking down at the shadow, his face twisted with disgust.
"Why don't you challenge me, huh. That was your whole thing wasn't it? Priestess of War…"
The young woman stared forward, not acknowledging her lord, although her skin was now inky-black, you could still see the softness of it, how delicate it was. Her once chestnut hair, now like dark silk, even as a shadow her beauty was second to none.
And even as a shadow, he could still feel her Flaw trying to dig its way into Sunny's mind.
'I guess there will be no glory for her today.'
As Sunny thought that, he sensed movement not too far in front of him.
His gaze shifted, the shadows started to part like an ocean, a light breeze started to roll in, blowing loose strands of his onyx hair onto his face. Solvane stepped to the side, when she did, another human shadow approached Sunny.
"What are the odds?"
Sunny muttered to himself.
Standing before him, was indeed someone who held quite a significance in his past. They were one of the first human beings Sunny had killed.
'Hero..'
The young soldier was cladded in his simple leather cuirass, armed with a spear and short sword. He still looked so dignified, noble, even pretty. Sunny wasn't too bad himself these days.
'What was it that Effie called me? ..Eyecandy?'
Sunny shrugged.
And turned, taking a few strides, the legion of shadows shifted, forming a new circle around Sunny and Hero. Turning back around to face the man from his First Nightmare, Sunny looked at him, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, curiosity burning in their depths.
"Shall we.."
The legion of shadows surged.
***
Snow fell onto barren steep rocky slopes, sharp ridges blanketed in white powder. In the distance, there was a mountain that towered above the rest, though… Jagged and lonesome, it dwarfed other peaks of the mountain chain, cutting the night sky with its sharp edges.
A radiant moon bathed the snow in a ghostly pale light.
At the peak of the black mountain, two figures stood. One was a young man who could be considered as a male lead in a historical drama, or be the hero of some fairy tale. He was the Challenger…Auro of the Nine.
The figure that stood opposite of Auro, was a slender young man, shadows seen to dance in his presence. Meeting his heavy gaze, would buckle your knees, making you bow before him. He was the Challenged…The Lord of Shadows
***
Sunny looked closely at Hero.
'What? He's still only Awakened?'
Why had Auro remained his original rank? Was it because he was human? Or maybe it was the fact that he tread along the Path of Ascension, and not of Profane…No.
None of those ideas seemed right.
Sunny was still not sure why the Forsaken knight had become a Cursed One, when it was originally only Fallen. When waiting for the next challenge, he considered that each shadow he fought would be a Rank above him. But that was only a shallow thought.
Sunny couldn't seem to find any logical reasoning for why the Ranks of the shadows were different, or in this case, the same.
'Another set of questions that will go unanswered..'
However, what was there to be upset about?
Hero was only Awakened.
Sunny could kill him just by blowing on him.
"Let's make this quick, I got places to be, more important people to kill."
Auro's head titled.
"I wasn't quick to die when you left me to fight that abomination."
Sunny stared at Hero with wide eyes.
"H–-how did you just talk?"
Auro walked toward Sunny with measured steps, unsheathing his short sword.
"Us shadows have our own secrets too, my Liege."
How was it possible? For years the lifeless shadows in his soul were just that, lifeless. Why does one speak now? And why out of all of them it's Auro?
'Out of all of them, it was one of the Nine…'
Sunny's thoughts trailed off, puzzle pieces of scattered information started to click together in his mind. The Nine had been alive during the Golden Age, one of the Nine happened to be the mother of Defilement. There was the Shadow Slayer, who must have been Sacred at one point, they remained imprisoned in his Soul Sea. And finally Eurys..
None of this was new information, however, It was the Shadow Slayer he thought about most. With its sheer Will, it was able to break the chains of loyalty all his Shadows had for him.
So what was stopping Auro from breaking the vow of silence all the legion of shadow had taken?
'Just how powerful were these guys?'
It appeared he was going to find out.
Auro figured vanished in a haze of snow, Sunny called upon the Jade Mantle, shadows flowed like liquid mercury, forming into a odachi.
After reaching Supremacy, Sunny's Shadow Sense was so great he felt omniscient. Nothing could dare escape the eyes of death after all. However, Auro did. No matter how far Sunny expanded his sense, he couldn't find him.
And then out of nowhere, he sensed a shadow.
He also felt cold steel peirce through the Jade Mantle like butter.
Sunny's eyes widened.
'What the..'
Looking down, Sunny saw a shortsword protruding from his side, sharp burning radiated from the exit wound, the skin around it tender to the touch.
Auro whispers in Sunny's ear.
"I wonder… Do Shadows bleed?"
Sunny did not respond immediately, instead he gritted his teeth and grasped the blade with his hand. He squeezed.
The steel cut through his gauntlet, sharp pains shot out through his hand, however, a moment later the blade gave out. With the sound of glass shattering on the floor, steel rained down onto the snowy mountain ground.
Shadows rose from the ground, like smoke, curling in the air, wrapping around the arms and legs of Hero. Then the shadow smoke hardened.
Sunny turned to meet Hero's calm gaze.
"I'm no ordinary shadow.."