Shadow Slave Fanfic: The Song of The Shadow Beast

Together, they waited for Sunny to fetch Seishan and Hel. The location of Hel was something Revel could not be sure about, but Sunny had found her anyway. Seishan might have already been close to him, but he feared that she would not come willingly, even if she heard Revel's message.

As Revel thought about what he had said, she kept an eye on him. It was a bit strange for her. Knowing that he had multiple bodies and was supposedly using them all at the same time was a hard concept to grasp. After all, he wasn't showing any signs of distress, even though she knew what he was doing right now.

"Are they complying?"

She was curious about how her sisters would react. Sunny let out a heavy sigh, worriedly clenching his hands.

"Hel is cooperating, fortunately. Seishan, on the other hand… let's just say I'm going to try to make it quick."

Revel's eyes widened in shock.

'Hel has already given up? Well… can't blame her. That Seishan isn't cooperating at all is no surprise. I guess we'll have to help her with a couple of wounds later. Poor girl…'

Moments later, Sunny visibly relaxed. She hadn't noticed his tension building up at all. It was so subtle that one could easily misinterpret it as an uncomfortable seating position. Though she was curious about what had happened exactly, she was sure to get answers later. At least, it seemed like everything had worked out fine.

"I got them. They're on their way. I think they'll come out of the Nameless Temple in half an hour or so."

Revel frowned in confusion. For a moment, she didn't know why he wouldn't just bring them here instantly. Though, the answer came to mind pretty quickly.

"So you let us wake up down there in the darkness so we could put on some clothes before you met us?"

She chuckled while raising an eyebrow. Her amusement only increased when she noticed a light shade of pink creeping up his cheeks.

"Ehhh… yes. Although I can see perfectly in the dark, I just closed my eyes when placing you down there. I'm in a happy relationship, after all. I can't have my eyes on other women like that."

Revel nodded along, considering something. She enjoyed his company way more than she should, but it was different from being attracted to someone. Not that she would deny he was quite the charmer—supremely beautiful, and perhaps the most powerful saint in existence. But when it came to men she liked, she preferred them to be at least taller than her.

Which… Sunny was not. Not at all, as it turned out.

'That mask must act as an illusion-conjuring barrier. It shields the wearer from having his features determined. When fighting him at Vanishing Lake, I could have sworn he was taller than me—even though I had to aim lower than usual. I completely missed that fact. A powerful memory indeed.'

"So, you have no problem beating some of us to the brink of death, but seeing us in underwear is too much? Again… you're proving just how strange you are."

Her carefree tone, when reminding him of the absurdity of the situation, reminded him of Effie. Yet he couldn't help but frown.

"You know, fighting is easy. Emotions… are not. That's why keeping Beastmaster alive was so hard. She played with my mind, showing me all those illusions. Fortunately, they had a pretty severe flaw—one that allowed me to at least ignore them. Well… they hurt, but that was it."

"Oh? And what was that flaw? I know her illusions better than anyone. They are absolutely perfect, as far as I can tell."

Sunny smiled subtly and pointed below her. She followed the trace of his fingers, confused about what he meant. So, he explained.

"Shadows. There is a connection between shadows and souls. One's shadow tells me a lot about them—what they are feeling, the state of their soul. But more importantly, it's the easiest way to find out if something is a living being or not. Beastmaster might know how a shadow is supposed to look and move, but she has no idea how the shadow of a living being is supposed to feel. There was no difference between the shadows of inanimate objects and those of her illusions. That's how I could tell."

Before Revel could say anything else, the grin on his lips widened a little.

"Furthermore, I can sense shadows in a wide radius around me. So I did notice the infamous Lightslayer being defeated by a set of stairs. I really expected you to be able to see in the dark. What a shame that it's only true darkness."

Revel just let her face drop into her hands. The embarrassment pressing down on her was too much. She had hoped this would stay between her and her sisters. As it turned out, there was nothing they could hide—not while shadows were around. And that was something none of them could change.

"Unbelievable. You are so different from what I imagined. How does someone become so strong and still keep his humanity intact? You must be completely removed from the life of a mundane."

She was right, and he knew it. But at the same time, she wasn't. While Sunny was indeed perhaps the strongest Saint in existence and far removed from how a mundane person managed life, he also surrounded himself with mundane things.

Having a girlfriend, managing a café—he had even gone so far as to become a teacher. Surely, there wasn't anything much more normal than that. Although he constantly lived the life of a demigod, he was also living the life of a mundane. Multiple lives, really.

"But I'm not. I manage a café, I have a girlfriend and a student. All of these things ground me and remind me where I came from. I guess your mother tried to do the same by adopting so many daughters. The only problem was that she didn't raise them to be mundane girls. It's like working all day and then coming home just to work more. No wonder she lost her humanity along the way. I'd go insane too without my other lives supporting my mind."

Once again, Revel could not deny his words. It was strange, really. She was constantly confronted with vile words about her mother, yet she didn't become angry with him. Was it because she knew she couldn't do anything about it? Or was it because she knew he was right?

"Is there really no chance you could spare her? I know I have no right to ask this of you. I know better than anyone what my mother has done. After all, I was the one who handled some of those orders personally. But she is still my mother. No matter what she did, I can't bring myself to hate her."

Sunny watched her, just observing her face—the way she spoke, how her facial muscles relaxed and tensed, every minute detail. For once today, he actually felt bad about what he was planning. He knew he was right to kill her. Revel most likely believed so herself.

But the love of a child for their mother could not be broken with logic. Just because he had every right—or even the obligation—to kill her, that didn't mean Revel could simply stop loving the woman who had cared for her when no one else wanted to.

Eventually, Sunny sighed and tried to explain.

"You know… I can't say I really understand you. I'm an orphan, after all. My parents died in the Outskirts when I was very young. I put my sister up for adoption so she could have a chance at a better life. That's why she has parents and I don't. So I can't understand how you feel right now, because I have no idea what it's like to have my parents taken away. Or even threatened.

But…

I know someone who does. It's not me you need to convince. From my point of view, your mother could just forfeit her throne and do whatever she wants. That would solve my problems with her. But I'm not the one who is after her life specifically."

Revel realized in an instant who he must be referring to. Her mother rarely spoke about the past, but that event—and the reason for it—was something she had learned about years ago.

"So… Changing Star wants to avenge her father. I can understand that. Maybe that's not all, though. After all, my mother and Anvil tried to kill her as a kid right afterward. She must have been harboring this hatred for decades. This is exactly what they tried to prevent by getting rid of her. And now, they've created a blood-hungry beast they can no longer control."

Sunny chuckled and responded quickly.

"Titan."

"What?" Revel asked, startled.

"She is a Titan, not a beast. The correct term is 'blood-hungry Titan.'"

Revel took a deep breath, averting her gaze from his.

"Sure, then you must be a Terror. Why is that, by the way? You have no problem killing creatures—I see the evidence around us. So why aren't you a Titan yet? Mordret and apparently Changing Star are one, after all."

He scoffed. Being reminded of his long journey to finally complete his cores was annoying, but he was sure she would understand once he explained.

"That is because my essence works differently from theirs. I have Shadow essence, not the standard Soul essence you know. I can't use Soul Shards to fill up my cores. And if I kill a creature lower in rank than me, I get nothing. Even when killing fellow humans, I only get one Shadow Fragment. It's harder for me to rise in class. So I can only hunt Corrupted and Great creatures. But even when I killed the Winter Beast, for example, I only got seven fragments."

For the third time today, Revel was at a loss for words.

'He killed a Corrupted Titan and only got seven fragments from it? More importantly, that was perhaps the strongest Corrupted Titan to ever exist.'

His explanation was sufficient, as it turned out. Now, Revel had no trouble understanding how he had come so far. Today, she had learned a great deal of things—even some secrets about the mysterious Lord of Shadows. A person some didn't even realize could be seen as such.

The thought of how people talked about him while completely missing the truth was amusing, to say the least. Revel couldn't help but wear a permanent grin on her lips.

"What's so funny, Revel?"

The Lightslayer shook her head in bewilderment, as if waking up from a deep slumber. Her eyes met his, like two sets of darkness clashing to see which would come out on top.

Although true darkness was naturally stronger than shadows, Revel knew perfectly well that a clash to the death with him would not end well for her. Shaking off the oppressive feeling of looking into his onyx eyes, she said:

"Oh, I was just thinking about how people talk about you. It must be hilarious for you to listen to them while they speculate about the Lord of Shadows."

Sunny gave her a quick nod before laughing heartily. He knew it all too well. How often had he spoken about himself while fishing for compliments and insults at the same time?

After all, he was playing both the weakest and strongest fighter in two worlds.

"What can I say? Having multiple bodies is just perfect for that. I'm sure some Awakened believe they could beat Master Sunless while they think about the Lord of Shadows and hope never to cross paths with him. I'm technically a Knight of Valor, you know?"

"You are what? How? I thought you were just a hired blade."

She chuckled, raising an eyebrow.

"Wait… it gets even better. I was personally knighted by Morgan of Valor. Do you want to know why and for what?"

Revel leaned forward suddenly, very interested. Sunny did the same, so they were at eye level.

"Because she didn't want a low-life Master to date Nephis. I believe it was either Master Sunless getting the title of a Knight or they would have come to 'eliminate' me. Well… they would have tried. Anyway, I'm now in charge of protecting the elderly. So fear not, Lightslayer—I'm always there to help a granny like you up the stairs."

Revel did something she would have never expected from herself. Even Sunny was at a loss for words for a moment.

The woman pouted.

Red crept up her cheeks as she turned her head to the side in embarrassment while crossing her arms in front of her chest. Sunny was still coming to terms with why she was acting that way.

'Is her age a sensitive subject for her? This woman… full of surprises.'

Little did he know, Revel was not the only woman who would react that way. Really, any other woman would have smacked him. He was lucky that Revel was too terrified to find out what would happen if she did.

"I'm not that old, idiot. I'm only in my forties. If anything, I could be a mother—not a granny."

She mumbled while fighting to keep her face from turning as red as a tomato. Saying that Sunny found it amusing would be an understatement.

"Oh, don't be like that… I'm sure I'm older than you. I mean, technically. But before you ask, that's a story for another time. Seishan has woken up, and the two are coming up the stairs right now."

Revel looked toward the Nameless Temple, expecting them to come out soon. At least until Sunny coughed to catch her attention.

"Well… it seems like you're all more related than you think."

He sighed and stood up from his chair.

"They fell down the stairs. From the top… all the way down."