Fate’s Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

After a long-winded explanation on the best way to subjugate the automatons, Sunny stared at the Ascended Soul Shards in contemplation. Considering that he needed Shadow Fragments, he didn't have any use for them.

The same could be said for Seele, who also saturates her cores through the act of killing. Well, one of them at least. Sunny had no idea how the second one worked.

She wasn't present currently, having left to look for Oleg.

And since he couldn't bring them back into the Dream Realm without either a storage Memory or becoming a Master, there was only a single reasonable solution.

He had a needy lady to provide for after all.

"Welcome to Sunny's Brilliant Emporium!"

With a grin on on his face, Sunny quickly snatched the five Soul Shards as he recieved the baffled stares of his recent companions. Standing on the husk of the automaton, he explained:

"Today's item of interest are five Ascended Soul Shards! The price for one of these is a single Memory! Normally, it would be worth one of the Ascended Rank, but I'll graciously give you guys a discount, so an Awakened Memory works just as well, no matter how useful or useless it is."

Bronya frowned in confusion.

"Shouldn't we just split them up? We all contributed to the defeat of the robot…"

With a smile on his face, Sunny replied:

"Unlike you, Princess, some people have to provide for themselves. Besides, I'll take literally any Memory! I'm sure you have some trash that you want to clean out."

Sweeping his gaze over Dan Heng, March, and Bronya — who still seemed skeptical despite his flawless explanation — Sunny asked:

"What are you waiting for? This is a once in a lifetime deal! After this, I'll only be Memories that are equal in Rank, so take advantage while I'm still feeling generous…"

After a few moments of silence, March stepped forward.

"It doesn't matter if the Memory is good or not, right?"

'Saint, you will definitely be feasting.'

"That is what I said, yes."

Extending his hand out for March to grab, Sunny felt her Memories flow into his soul, making them his own.

[You have recieved a Memory.]

[You have recieved a Memory.]

Quickly checking his runes to make sure that they were of the Awakened Rank, Sunny passed two Soul Shards over to March, who immediately crushed them to absorb the essence within. She then left, stating that she was going to look for Seele.

Sunny waited to check whether the Memories were good or not for when he gave away all five of the Ascended Soul Shards. If they weren't very good, he would feed them to Saint in order to increase her Shadow Fragment counter. If they were powerful enough to be added to Sunny's armory, then he would keep them.

Either way, Sunny would get more powerful no matter how strong or weak a Memory was.

The process was repeated with Dan Heng, gaining another two Memories in exchange for two Soul Shards. He also ended up leaving, stating that he was going to look for March… who was looking for Seele. Sunny was starting to believe that she had gotten lost while looking for the Underworlder.

With only a single Soul Shard left, Sunny prepared to receive a single Memory from Bronya. Assuming that they were all Awakened Memories of the first Tier, and were all fed to Saint, she would be five Shadow Fragments closer to reaching her limit.

It was small, but it was progress nonetheless.

As Bronya held his hand, she transferred her Memories over to Sunny.

'…Huh?'

There was only one Soul Shard, so he should have only gained one Memory. Yet, the Spell was telling him otherwise.

[You have recieved a Memory.]

[You have recieved a Memory.]

[You have recieved…]

To make sure that he wasn't seeing things, Sunny examined his Memories…

And found that the list had almost doubled in size.

Blinking, Sunny turned towards Bronya with a confused expression.

"…You know that you were only supposed to give me one Memory, right?"

As expected, she simply nodded, showing that she understood what she had done.

But that only made Sunny even more confused.

"So why did you give me so many?"

Bronya paused for a moment, before smiling.

"Although I don't know the full story, I believe that the three of you truly desire to help Belobog. To me, that is worth much more than a few Soul Shards."

She sent him a curious look as she continued:

"Besides, you have an actual use for these Memories, right?"

Sunny stared at her for a moment, before nodding.

"How did you know?"

Bronya pointed at her eyes.

"One of my Attributes make me especially observant. Also, I doubt anyone remotely competent would give away Soul Shards for unusable Memories — not unless there was something more to it."

…In retrospect, it would seem strange if someone specifically asked for Memories that didn't provide much benefit.

"Well… thanks, Bronya."

Looking away in embarrassment, Sunny walked over to one of the mine's walls — ignoring the giggles coming from behind him. Sitting on the ground while leaning against the wall, Sunny entered his Soul Sea in order to both check his new Memories and feed some of them to Saint.

As usual, there were his Shadow Cores within the sky — the third one, his Demon Core, having been formed recently. Below, the shadows of his slain foes stood silently, peacefully resting within his soul.

Around his Shadow Cores were small orbs of light, which represented his Memories. The amount of them increased drastically due to the amount that Bronya had given him.

Looking around his lightless soul, Sunny sighed. Summoning Saint, he watched as his Shadow rose from the dark sea. She silently stared at him with two ruby flames emitting from her eyes, clad in dark, luster less armor that was similar to the Mantle of the Underworld.

In the Vessel of Remembrance, his past self noted that there might have been a correlation between the two, but there wasn't any conclusive evidence.

Sorting through his Memories, he took note of the few that seemed like they could be useful. Having more charms and tools would always be helpful.

The rest of the Memories were either completely useless, or were weapons that wouldn't be suitable for their respective style of combat. Sunny could probably make use of them if he were to shadow another's fighting style through Shadow Dance, but the weapons didn't seem much better than the Midnight Shard.

Plus, if he needed another weapon, he could use Serpent to transform into one. He would need to increase it's Rank first before it could be effective though…

He kept a single weapon Memory though, seeing that it might have some use later…

One by one, Sunny handed over Memories to Saint for consumption, each of them dissipating into light as they were destroyed. He watched as her counter of Shadow Fragments went up with each Memory.

Shadow Fragments: [180/200].

[186/200].

[192/200].

After handing her a few more Memories, Sunny held his breath.

Shadow Fragments: [200/200].

…What was going to happen now?

According to the Vessel of Remembrance, the last time Saint had evolved, her transformation took a very long time. She retreated into a chrysalis after defeating a creature of darkness, and had formed a new core. But this time was different, since he had simply filled her Shadow Fragment counter.

A few moments later, Sunny received the answer.

Bathed in the lightlessness of his Soul Sea, Saint suddenly shuddered. It felt like a deep, dark energy within her surged, radiating from within as Sunny himself felt it.

It was very different, but also very similar to the process he himself had gone through after the First Nightmare.

'Is she… is she ascending to a new Rank?'

The thought filled Sunny with a jubilant thrill.

Meanwhile, Saint was in the throes of her transformation. The still waters around her were now restless, as though assaulted by invisible winds. Wisps of dancing black flame suddenly appeared around her body, and it rose above the surface of the water, becoming partially obscured.

Sunny took a step back and silently watched the strange and beautiful process, his heart beating wildly.

After a few minutes, it was over.

The invisible winds disappeared, and so did the black flames. The water turned tranquil and still once again. Saint landed on her feet and straightened, her graceful figure brimming with new power. The glow of her ruby eyes seemed to have become brighter.

Unlike the previous time, the taciturn demon had not changed outwardly. Her onyx armor was still composed of polished, stonelike metal. Sunny knew that beneath it, her skin was still smooth and white as alabaster.

…On the inside, though, the changes were nothing short of profound.

Sunny hesitated, then summoned the runes.

Shadow: [Marble Saint.]

…Her name didn't change. The next string of runes, however, was vastly different:

Shadow Rank: Ascended.

He froze.

'…Can I marry Saint?'

Sunny was amazed by his own abilities. Not only could his Shadows beside Serpent increase in Class, but also in Rank.

Ascended, Saint was now Ascended! Indeed, she had achieved a new rank… the same Rank, in fact, as that of Cocolia, and Svarog, as well as the Doomsday Beast, the Web Empress, and the automaton.

An Ascended human was called a Master, while Nightmare Creatures of the same Rank were called Fallen. Saint was now somewhere in between — a creature possessing multiple cores, but following the path of ascension as opposed to the path of corruption.

Like Sunny himself.

Of course, she was much more powerful than him now.

Sunny was torn between being mad with joy and slightly bitter. As her master, wouldn't it be logical for him to be stronger than Saint? She's starting to seem more like an overpowered summon he calls upon during times of trouble, instead of a minion that fights battles that aren't worth his time.

He sighed, then looked at his Demon with a wide smile.

"Good job, Saint! Who's going to stop us now, huh?"

The taciturn Demon did not answer, and just tilted her head a little.

…Then, however, she silently raised her hand, made a fist, and lightly struck the left side of her breastplate twice.

Sunny nodded, inwardly cheering as he thought about how easy the rest of his life was going to be.

'World domination, here I come!'

He lingered for a moment, and then looked back to the runes.

Saint's Class, Attributes, and Abilities did not change. At the very end of the plane of runes, he was met with the Shadow Fragment counter.

Shadow Fragments: [0/200].

As Sunny stared at the number, he immediately started thinking about where he could get more Memories. He wanted to make a Transcendent Demon as soon as possible…

Dismissing Saint, Sunny looked through some of his new Memories.

Memory Name: [Everwinter Night].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Tier: III

Memory Type: Charm.

Memory Description: [As they walked through the Shade, the cold seeps in. Flesh and bones turn to ice and frost, just as Preservation falls to Destruction.]

Sunny found the Memory's description to be eerie. It seemed to state that the Preservation has already lost to the Stellaron crisis, but what did that mean? Belobog was still standing, so it must have been referring to something else…

Either way, his attention was mainly drawn to the enchantments. Two of them, to be precise.

Memory Enchantments: [Fading Embers], [Coldheart].

[Fading Embers] Enchantment Description: "This Memory provides a small resistance to the cold."

[Coldheart] Enchantment Description: "The wearer of this Memory gains a boost in strength within cold environments."

It didn't need to be explained that such a Memory was extremely valuable within Jarilo-VI. Sunny didn't need the resistance to cold due to the Trailblaze, but the boost in strength was certainly enough. He could attach it to the Mantle of the Underworld in order to increase the potency of the enchantment, or give it to Saint to achieve the same effect.

The second Memory was a weapon: the only one that he had kept out of all of them.

Memory Name: [Sky Reacher].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Tier: IV

Memory Type: Weapon.

Memory Description: [The End comes for all, no matter what they are. And yet, a small girl reached for the sky despite that fact.

Against all odds, The End did not arrive.]

…Sunny found the description of this Memory to be strange. It runes that described The End were different from how they should be. Was "The End" and "the end" different?

One of the lights that orbited his Shadow Cores arrived at his hands, light coalescing as it formed a large greatsword — one that was twice as long as Sunny was tall.

It must have looked comical. Suddenly, Sunny found himself glad that he dismissed Saint.

Checking the enchantments, Sunny read:

Memory Enchantments: [Clear Sky], [Undying].

[Clear Sky] Enchantment Description: "The reach of this weapon can be extended."

[Undying] Enchantment Description: "The stronger the wielder's will to survive, the sharper this blade becomes."

The [Undying] enchantment reminded Sunny of the Midnight Shard's [Unbroken] enchantment, but seemed to be focused on sharpness rather than tenacity.

Sunny planned to give the weapon to Saint, who was able to wield any weapon Memory. It wasn't suitable for Sunny, who preferred to wield more dexterous weapons.

Both of these Memories were given to him by Bronya, who obviously wouldn't wield a greatsword. He had another Memory that he kept, but it wouldn't be very relevant currently.

Today, luck was truly on his side.

…And an Ascended Demon was now by his side, which instantly propelled Sunny to a completely new level of capability. Together with the newly transformed Saint, he would be able to do much more, challenge much more powerful Nightmare Creatures, and therefore, accelerate his own growth even further.

Even better, this change could not have come at a better time.

After all, Sunny had no idea how deep Cocolia's pockets were. Memories, Echoes, Aspect Abilities… her true capabilities were still a mystery.

Exiting his Soul Sea, Sunny started to wonder how many Soul Shards he could get from all the other automatons…