Shadow Slave

As a scout, Sunny constantly had to traverse great distances across the abomination-infested wilderness of East Antarctica. He would usually ride atop Nightmare or glide through the shadows with incredible speed, but right now, neither of these methods were an option.

His steed was with Saint, and he obviously couldn't leave the stranded MWP pilot behind by turning into a shadow. Theoretically, Sunny could carry the young woman on his back and run, which would be faster than limiting his speed to that of a mundane human. But he was not too desperate to save time.

There was an army outpost relatively close to the ruined city, and although normal patrols would be slaughtered if they tried to take the convenient shortcut, nothing that dwelled there could threaten Sunny.

As they followed a small river that snaked between barren hills, Sunny summoned the runes and glanced at the list of his shadows. It read:

Shadows: [Onyx Saint], [Soul Serpent], [Nightmare], [Ravenous Fiend].

Sunny concentrated on the last string of runes, summoning a detailed description of the little bastard.

Shadow: [Ravenous Fiend].Shadow Rank: Transcendent.Shadow Class: Devil.Shadow Description: [A pitiful little creature traveled through a nightmarish land, harboring a bitter grudge in its tiny heart. Driven by resentment and spite, it suffered many trials and conquered untold dangers to become a marvelous devil. But fate was unkind. The ravenous devil met a much more terrible fiend, and turned into his shadow.]

Sunny stared at the runes with a bleak expression. The Spell had always liked to tease him... at least he thought that it did... but this one was just unfair.

'How come I'm the fiend? The bastard literally has the word "fiend" in his name!"

Shaking his head, he moved past the description and continued to read:

Shadow Attributes: [Lucky], [Marvel], [Ravenous], [Shadow Sworn], [Lesser Iron Body].[Lucky] Attribute Description: "This Shadow is favored by fortune."

Sunny sighed. His own Attribute, [Fated], attracted both incredible and absolutely terrible luck. The imp, however, was blessed with only good fortune. It was most likely the small Scavenger's very first, innate Attribute... no wonder the bastard had survived meeting him twice.

'Damnation!'

Peeved by the blatant unfairness, Sunny continued to read:

[Marvel] Attribute Description: "This Shadow is a marvelous learner. It is stunningly keen and supremely adaptable, absorbing new knowledge with astonishing speed."

'Lucky and smart... well, who cares? At the end of the day, it still didn't help him survive meeting me for the third time. If the wretch was so smart, he should have avoided me like a plague...'

Sunny had seen these descriptions before, of course, but he still couldn't help seething over them.

[Ravenous] Attribute Description: "This Shadow possesses an insatiable hunger, and a frightening potential for growth. The more it eats, the more it will grow."

This Attribute already seemed rather great, despite the fact that the imp had not grown even by a centimeter in the last two months. Sunny had fed him literally tons of armored alloy, as well as the corpses of many Nightmare Creatures with steel-like carapaces. He had no idea how much the little fiend had to gobble up to become bigger, but knew that the result would be worth it.

The true benefit of the [Ravenous] Attribute was much more subtle, though, and incredibly precious. It was the fact that, unlike Nightmare and Saint, the imp did not need to consume Memories to rise to a higher Rank. There was no counter of shadow fragments. Instead, the fiendish Shadow simply had to... devour. It could become a Supreme Devil by simply devouring Nightmare Creatures... or any creatures, really... in great numbers. The more powerful, the better.

That put Sunny, who was already suffering terribly from the need to procure countless Memories, at ease.

'The imp is indeed lucky. If I had to choose between feeding Memories to Saint and Nightmare or him... well, the poor bastard would have definitely starved...'

Sunny smiled slightly and turned his attention to the last two Attributes:

[Shadow Sworn] Attribute Description: "This fiend is known to shadows."

That one was without surprise, and appeared after Sunny had fed the imp with his flesh. It was the same as what Shadow Blade Kurt had possessed, and showed a high affinity to shadows.

[Lesser Iron Body] Attribute Description: "This Shadow's flesh possesses qualities of metal."

He grinned in satisfaction.

'Finally, progress!'

The [Lesser Iron Body] had been [Nascent Iron Body] before. It seemed that munching on that MWP had finally pushed the imp over a threshold. He would be much sturdier now... and in the future, would even have a chance to become truly indestructible.

There had to be a Greater Iron Body as well, after all.

Happy to see the ankle-biter achieving something, Sunny finally glanced at the imp's Abilities. The runes read:

Shadow Abilities: [Scavenger], [Devourer], [Shadow Step].[Scavenger] Ability Description: "This Shadow can attain the traits, Attributes, and Abilities of the creatures it consumes."[Devourer] Ability Description: "This Shadow's teeth possess unnatural sharpness and strength. It can rend and maul even the most resilient things."[Shadow Step] Ability Description: "This fiend can move freely between shadows, traveling from one to another in an instant or diving into them to move with great speed."

And that was it. Sunny's fourth Shadow... the critter was a sorry excuse of a Transcendent Devil, for now, but it would grow to be a real menace one day. In fact, Sunny had a feeling that the imp might just become one of the most terrifying weapons in his arsenal.

The Ravenous Fiend had been an exceedingly dire enemy, but now that he was serving Sunny, and thus enjoying the support of a benevolent, selfless, and supremely generous master... just how much more terrible would the wretched waif become?

Walking along the small river, Sunny used Shadow Manifestation to slaughter a Nightmare Creature that was waiting to ambush him and the MWP pilot, then sighed.

"I need to find a couple more of those iron golems I killed last week... or better yet, a whole swarm of them. A horde would be even better... my imp is a growing little wretch, after all. He needs to eat!"