Chapter 1140: Staring at the Wall

Sunny remained motionless for a while, then chuckled.

"No... that's crazy! It would never work."

Then, he stared at the wall some more.

...Would it?

'No way.'

The thought that had crept into his mind while he was thinking about the limitations of the Shadow Shell was so out there that it seemed utterly ridiculous. But the more he thought about it... the fewer reasons to discard it he saw.

'No, that's... that's a bit too strange, even for me.'

And yet, he could not find a logical reason for why it wouldn't be true.

Sunny hesitated for a while longer, then furtively looked around.

Then, he cleared his throat, stood up, and left the office.

If he wanted to test this bizarre theory, he needed to do it somewhere more private.

He left the Valor compound and made his way to the nearby dormitory, where most of the government staff still remaining within the siege capital lived. There, he entered his living quarters - which were a bit more spacious and had better amenities than that of both mundane and Awakened government workers - and locked the door behind him.

Being an Ascended had its perks.

Sunny sent his four shadows to stand watch - two outside the apartment, two within - and stood there for a few minutes, mentally going over what he was about to do.Updated from n0velb(i)n.c(o)/m

It didn't seem to be dangerous, just... really weird.

The principle was simple.

Sunny had mastered three steps of Shadow Dance to date. The essence of his battle art was shapelessness and formlessness - it allowed him to shadow an enemy, copying the very essence of their combat technique. After doing so, he could predict their movements, the flow of their battle intent, and even their thoughts.

And that, perhaps, was the reason for the limitations Sunny had to deal with.

'Well... uh... let's just try this.'

If he succeeded... Sunny felt that he might just discover a direction that would eventually lead him to the next step of Shadow Dance.

Breathing in deeply, he activated Shadow Step and dissolved into the shadows.

There, in their dark embrace, Sunny himself was a shadow - formless and shapeless.

But he did not need to be.

While fighting the Ravenous Fiend, he had changed his form in this state to possess sharp claws. His shadow form was, too, infinitely malleable.

So, Sunny concentrated and started to slowly change his shadow form... into the shape of himself.

It was a strange endeavor, to turn himself into a shadow, only to then turn the shadow into himself. But that was exactly what Sunny wanted to do.

It was a bit like constructing the shell of the shadowspawn, only instead of shaping the shadows around his body, Sunny was shaping his body - his shadow body - instead.

Of course, he knew the shape of himself the best. Which was why recreating it was much easier than summoning the fiendish form of the shadowspawn.

Eventually, the incorporeal shadow assumed the form of Sunny's body. It had arms and legs, a torso, fingers and toes, and a face that was a perfect rendition of Sunny's face.

It matched his physical body perfectly - not that it needed to. Starting from becoming himself was just the easiest thing he could do for that test.

Satisfied with the result of the shaping, Sunny spent some time in the dark embrace of the shadows, drifting.

'I wonder...'

Then, he took a deep mental breath, activated Shadow Manifestation...

And manifested himself back into the waking world through it.