Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Sunny and Saint stared at each other for a long second.

"...Can you do anything new?"

The taciturn knight tilted her head, as if registering his words. Then, she shrugged.

She shrugged!

Looking at his seemingly reliable Shadow, Sunny started to question how far his sanity has fallen to be talking to a walking statue. How would she possibly know what her new Attribute did better than Sunny, who was able to directly read her runes?

Rereading the [Destined Destroyer] Attribute multiple times, he concluded that it didn’t have any initial effects. If it did, Saint would have probably shown them — or at least confirm that she had gained something out of it. Since she didn’t, he could only assume that the changes it had made weren’t noticeable at a first glance.

There was also the question of how Saint had gained the Attribute in the first place. Somehow, consuming the Thief’s Instinct allowed her to gain an affinity for the Destruction. The Memory had been obtained from slaying a soldier of the Antimatter Legion, so it was obvious where the correlation came from.

The problem was that Sunny didn’t understand the precise reason for this change. He had fed his Shadow with countless Memories, so why did this one in particular cause a change?

’...Wait, a shadow?’

Turning to look at Gloomy, who glared back at him mockingly, he thought about another example of a shadow being affected by the Destruction.

When Sunny was gazed at by Nanook, he had gained the ability to wield the Destruction. However, it wasn’t that simple. Instead, he needed to augment himself with Gloomy to use that energy. He hadn’t seen many examples, but he was sure that other simply draw power from their Paths without needing to use their Aspect as a conduit.

Of course, Emanators were the exception to this rule. After all, their entire soul is reshaped to accommodate the might of their Path — obviously, this caused major changes to whatever Aspect they may have.

In a way, Sunny was kind of like an Emanator of Shadow, as his Shadow Slave Aspect had been granted by the supposedly dead god. Of course, there wasn’t any Path of Shadows... that wouldn’t make much sense. They generally revolve around ideologies, such as how Destruction revolved around the meaningless of the physical world.

Or rather, how easy it is to break it.

Either way, he needed his shadow to access the Path — which Sunny suspected gave him stronger effects compared to the average Pathstrider. However, he wasn’t an Emanator. There was no reason for a Path to be perfectly accommodated by his Aspect.

But then, he remembered what his Aspect called him.

"You are a miraculous shadow left behind by a dead god..."

Shadows were formless, malleable, and everchanging. That was what Shadow Dance was all about, and why, unlike Echoes, his Shadows can evolve.

As a formless being, it could also be said that there was no defined Path for him to take. Sunny himself didn’t have to follow a Path, as his shadow helpers — Gloomy, Haughty, Happy — were much more suitable for such extreme concepts. Unless the first time was simply a coincidence, then it should be possible for his other shadows to grant him a Path too.

Unfortunately, that would necessitate the gaze of an Aeon. He wasn’t too enthusiastic about being in the sights of another god-like being.

If his shadows could change in such a manner, then what about his Shadow Creatures? Saint, Serpent, and any others that he might gain along the way — they were formless as well, having the ability to grow. They were semi-seperate beings that had their own minds. Even a worm could be an Emanator if an Aeon feels like granting it such abilities, so why can’t a Shadow become one?

...It would be quite worrying if Saint became an Emanator of Destruction. From what he heard, they seemed quite insane. He looked at his Shadow with concern.

"Saint... you won’t become excessively violent like this guy, right?"

Pointing at Gloomy, Sunny ignored it’s indignant glare.

Making a sound similar to a huff, Saint turned her head away. It was as if she was questioning why Sunny was comparing her to the wrathful shadow.

Taking her word for it, he dismissed the taciturn knight.

The [Destined Destroyer] Attribute was either something that would become more prominent as Saint evolves, or affected the abilities she gained as she grew. It was even possible that it was both. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Sunny was very hesitant to be the first to test the Path of an Aeon on a Shadow. He might accidentally draw Nanook’s ire, which would most certainly spell out his doom.

Well, he did have a method to learn more about it. He was sure that she wouldn’t be too adverse to it either...

Saving that for later, Sunny dove into his Soul Sea, the Sparkle doll seated on his chest as he comfortably lay in bed.

Finding himself in the peaceful darkness of his soul, Sunny looked through his Memories. He had recently recieved one from defeating the Architect of Lost Preservation, but he was too distracted by the change within Saint to check it.

"An Ascended Memory of the sixth tier... it should be pretty good, right?"

Mumbling to himself, he hoped that [Fated] wouldn’t give him another single-use Memory. Preferably, it would be nice to have a weapon. The Midnight Shard was starting to be outranked by his enemies, while the Moonlight Shard wasn’t very effective as a primary weapon. The Sky Reacher didn’t match the way Sunny fought, so he was in desperate need of a new weapon!

Memory: [Ghastly Hunger].

Memory Rank: Ascended.

Memory Tier: VI.

Memory Type: Tool.

’...Just my luck.’

Scowling, Sunny forced himself to read the rest of the runes.

Memory Description: [As the Legion of Ruin rained down upon the last bastion of Preservation, the First Supreme Guardian gazed upon the fell star. Almost consumed by Destruction, she turned to the Stellaron.

Soon, the originally lush land was consumed by a relentless blizzard, freezing the war-torn world. Life couldn’t survive, yet, the blessing of the Amber Lord brought warmth to the last of it.

In the latest stages of her life, She Who Evokes Miracles disappeared in the depths of corrosion, attempting to bid farewell on her own terms.

And so, there was nothing left except for an Eternal Freeze.]

Blinking a few times at the runes, Sunny’s face contorted into astonishment.

Somehow, he had learned the secrets of the Supreme Guardian through the Memory he had just recieved!

He resisted the urge to laugh at his luck. Despite not gaining a weapon Memory, he now knew something he shouldn’t. There was nothing more useful than knowledge.

The issue was how he was going to use it.

Rereading the description, Sunny figured that it was referring to when Alisa Rand had fought off the Antimatter Legion. It also revealed the truth of the Eternal Freeze’s origins.

As expected, it was spawned from the Stellaron’s power. However, unlike what Gepard had said about it appearing suddenly, the Eternal Freeze was brought down on this world due to a request from Alisa Rand.

’Who would have thought that these things are sentient?’

It seemed like Belobog’s current predicament was brought upon by a simple mistake by the one who was meant to protect and lead the city.

Of course, the city was able to survive due to the Preservation.

As Sunny thought about it, he couldn’t really say that Alisa’s decision was the wrong choice. It was either making the planet mostly uninhabitable, or go extinct. Now, they at least have a chance to be saved.

Another thing he was able to learn was that the Supreme Guardian had the Stellaron herself. If nothing changed, then the same might have been true for Cocolia.

The Stellaron had shown the ability to understand the words of others, so it was certainly possible for it to communicate with humans. The sudden shift in Cocolia’s behavior might have been due to the Stellaron’s influence. An object that is meant to destroy worlds would certainly attempt to remove possible saviors.

Sunny sighed. This was too much information.

’Maybe I’m looking into this too deeply.’

...Now that he thought about it, he had gained this Memory from a random Fragmentum monster — one who’s Rank followed the conventions of Nightmare Creatures. It was somewhat strange to obtain such an enlightening Memory from something like that.

What was that about? Why had it been a Fallen Terror instead of an Ascended one? Was there even a genuine difference between the two when it came to the Fragmentum and Nightmare Creatures? After all, the difference in terms was to seperate humans from beasts. Why would creatures that share the desire to kill humans have any difference in classification between them?

Looking at the legion of shadows, Sunny tried to pull out the Architect of Lost Preservation’s shadow. Not only did it’s name seem important, but he wondered what it’s true form looked like. The wraith had the ability to change shape, so he was quite curious.

A figure rose from the dark waters of his Soul Sea.

Sunny stared at it for a moment, before gasping.

In the same place where the abomination that haunted him, Seele, and Bronya should have been, was the shadow of a human woman.