Fate’s Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Seele ricocheted off the walls, floor, and ceiling of the orphanage's corridors as she attempted to escape the specter. Said pursuer was right on her heels, the two of them phasing in and out of existence in a game of tag.

She had given up on attempting to fight the wraith — the halls were too small for her to swing her scythe around. If she tried to actually fight it, she would only make mistakes that the creature would be able to capitalize on.

So, Seele decided to drag on the chase for as long as possible in an attempt to stall until Sunny or Bronya could get to the orphanage. She had completely dried out one of her cores while using her Aspect to run away, so she was starting to run out of time.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound — one that came from outside the orphanage. It sounded like… a bell?

Stopping in her tracks, the wraith prepared to impale Seele with it's claws. However, she used her Awakened Ability to dash behind it, running for the entrance.

After a few seconds of sprinting, she located the broken doors. She ran out of the orphanage, blindly chasing the point in which the ringing bell should have been coming from.

If she stayed in the orphanage, she would have been running in circles as she burned through her Essence. Seele wouldn't be able to fight back, as the corridors made it extremely difficult to swing the large polearm.

Unfortunately, leaving wouldn't be very smart either. She would be bringing the wraith back to it's dominion, blinding Seele and possibly making it even stronger than it already was.

Either way, she'd die at some point. Her best bet was to find at least one of the other two, as they might have the means to defeat the wraith. Even if they didn't, she was sure that Sunny would have a better time fighting in the orphanage than she did.

…Based on the echoing screams behind her, she doubted that it would let her return there.

"Gah!"

'Huh?'

Seele ran into something — no, someone. She fell to the floor, rolling over a few times. However, she quickly grabbed the arm of the person she ran into. Based on the voice, it must have been…

"Sunny! I'm being chased by an ice-ghost thing, so come and do something about it!"

The familiar voice spoke in confusion.

"…Right. Can you let go of my leg first though?"

***

Having been rammed into and being toppled onto his back, Sunny couldn't do anything but sigh. As Seele released her grip on his leg, he got up on his feet to reprimand her…

He then realized that she brought something with her.

Frantically moving his hands through the fog, he quickly grabbed the arms of both Seele and Bronya — of course, that was assuming that neither of them were an imposter.

Maybe they were both imposters.

Maybe he was the imposter himself!

Shaking his head out of those useless thoughts, he dragged the two of them away from wherever Seele had come from in an attempt to get away from whatever the thing that trapped them here was.

"Wait, we're going the wrong way!"

Frowning at Seele's voice, he listened to her, but didn't stop running.

"Isn't the creature in the opposite direction? As far as I know, this is the only right way."

"Yeah, but… roll left!"

Not questioning her sudden exclamation, Sunny quickly pushed Bronya to the left, while also being pushed in that same direction by Seele. There were curses, shouts, and many indignant yelps.

He held a breath as he heard something rush through the air — right above where Sunny was. Then, he heard what sounded like ice crashing against stone, grating his ears.

Scowling, Sunny picked Bronya off the ground. It was too inconvenient to move while all three of them were hanging on to each other. If they had to avoid an attack, then they would awkwardly stumble the other, decreasing their ability to maneuver.

He wasn't sure how Seele was able to see the attacks of the enemy, but that ability would become useless if they couldn't even dodge out of the way.

He assumed that Bronya silently agreed on this point, as she didn't protest when he carried her. Instead, she hurriedly shifted her attention to Seele.

"Seele, which way do we go?"

There was a long pause, before she said:

"…I don't know. I can't see it."

A panicked expression appeared on Sunny's face. The creature hadn't attempted to attack them again yet, even though it should have. The three of them were stationary, so it was the perfect chance for it to take the opportunity to pick them off… one by one.

And there was that strange sound…

Sunny paused.

'It's like… the creature is still slamming against stone.'

The sound that reverberated after it lunged over them kept repeating at different pitches. In fact, it sounded like a battle was occurring.

'There wasn't three of us, it was four!'

Sunny, Brony, Seele, and Saint!

He had somehow forgotten about the taciturn knight. He had summoned her when he first found himself within the fog, augmenting her with two of his shadows. He was so distracted in his attempts of locating Seele and Bronya that he had forgotten that his Shadow was following him.

And it seemed that she was able to see through the fog — at least to some degree. The way she perceived the world was different from how a human would, so the frigid fog didn't impair her the same way that it did to him.

'So I lost my shadow sense, but Saint could still see for whatever reason. Bullshit!'

He sighed.

"That thing should be fighting Saint right now, but I doubt she'll last long. We need to get out of this fog…"

There was a long pause. Sunny lamented that he couldn't see anything.

"…Actually, there is a spot where there isn't any fog."

Perking up at Seele's suggestion, Sunny adjusted his grip on Bronya so that he was carrying her with one hand, bringing out a yelp from her. Searching with his free hand, he grabbed onto Seele's arm so she could lead the way.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

***

"…Can you please let me down now?"

Having escaped the fog through the orphanage — although it was slowly seeping in — the three of them were given a form of respite. As such, there was no longer a need for Bronya to be carried around.

Setting her down, Sunny sent a fleeting glance of curiosity across the photos spread on the orphanage's walls. However, they had more problematic things to worry about.

After interrogating Seele about the wraith-like creatures abilities, he guessed that it must have been an Ascended Terror.

It had the ability to take on a spectral form, and was able to alternate it's physical form through those means — Sunny assumed that these were the abilities it gained as a Devil.

It's Tyrant ability was clearly the fog that it expelled, which increased it's strength. The fog also seemed to allow it to move from one point to another, similar to Shadow Step.

As for it's Terror ability… it would have to be something that affected the space around it. So it was clear that it had to do with the fact that the space within the fog was not only isolated, but stretched to the extreme. At most, the three of them would only be a dozen meters away from each other, but the fog easily expanded the area to a few kilometers.

Saint wouldn't be able to last too long against it. She was fighting within it's hunting grounds, putting her at a major disadvantage despite the shadows that augmented her. Sunny knew that he would need to call her back soon, but they needed to formulate a plan first.

Turning to Seele, he said:

"Give me your hand."

Perplexed, she complied with his command. Grasping her hand within his own, Sunny willed for one of the lights that orbited his Shadow Cores to go towards Seele. He felt a Memory exit his soul as it was transferred to her.

Seele blinked as he let go of her hand. She held it up, a graceful dagger with a long and slender blade appearing in her hand. It tapered to a needle-like point and had a simple cross-guard, with a handle made from glossy black wood. It seemed to be forged out of clear, misty glass. In the darkness, the ghostly stiletto was nearly invisible.

There was no indication of the Memory having been summoned, as that was the enchantment it was it was engraved with. The Moonlight Shard had the ability to be summoned instantaneously.

At the confused look on Seele's face, Sunny sighed in exasperation.

"You're not that good with a scythe yet, so I'm letting you borrow something simpler. With your Aspect, this works just fine as a primary weapon. I still expect you to give it back though…"

Seele nodded.

"Thanks…"

As she twirled it around to get a feel for the dagger, Sunny turned to Bronya.

"Can you use your Aspect on us?"

She smiled.

"Of course."

Suddenly, he felt an invigorating feeling course through his body, making him feel like he could simply wrestle with the Terror.

Of course, this was an exaggeration. The difference between Sunny and Bronya's augmentations was that although the former could add the equivalent of seven Sunny's to his strength at his peak, the latter was able to spread her strengthening to a larger group of individuals — although the individual increase in strength was less.

Taking a deep breath, Sunny dismissed Saint. He called his shadows back, as they were simply roaming now that the graceful statue was gone. He dove into his Soul Sea to check on her condition…

Exiting, Sunny scowled. If he had left Saint out there for even a minute longer, she would certainly have been destroyed.

Augmenting himself with Gloomy, a baseball bat appeared in his hands. A wrathful sensation flowed through him — the Destruction.

His shadow sense was able to operate normally, as he was able to sense the shadows within the orphanage. It wouldn't work outside, but he would at least be able to use Shadow Step if he needed to.

…At the sound of approaching, solid footsteps, Sunny snarled. Before either of his shadows could return to him, the specter arrived at the orphanage. However, this was within his expectations.

'…Damn, it's cold. If only I had a burning weapon on me… I could use it to melt that wretch, and to keep me warm! Oh, but I'll enjoy shattering you to pieces too, so it's not all bad!'