As Sunny finished up with the horde of abominations on the bridge and made his way towards the spire, he paused, slightly taken aback by the image of six of the seven severed stone heads of the Heroes.
It was the first time he had seen their faces.
The severed heads of the Lord, the Priestess, the Slayer, the Stranger, the Knight, the Hunter, and the Builder stared at him with surprising vitality in spite of their current lifelessness.
Even with the stony visages they possessed, the traits that they held in life were preserved— like the nobleness of the lord or the gentleness of the priest.
For a moment, Sunny merely stood there taking the sight in with a complicated sort of expression.
Since his time with Audun in that small attic, the concept of a 'Hero' had rooted itself in Sunny's mind.
Along with the lessons on swordsmanship, Audun would frequently regale him with tales of the land he was from— about the stories of heroes who had etched their name into legend.
At first, Sunny never really bothered paying attention— too caught up in the process of getting stronger to truly care about the myths of Audun's home.
But eventually, he had come to realize why Audun had insistently spouted their tales when he reached a plateau in his understanding.
'You see, Sunny, all the swordmanship I'm teaching you comes from the very heroes I've been talking about this whole time.'
At the time, Audun had a distinct but indescribable look on his face.
'As silly as it sounds, the Swordsmanship I've shown you is, without exaggeration, the culmination of their lives, and as such, recreating their techniques will be almost impossible.'
Sunny had had an incredulous look on his face.
'Then why try to get me to recreate them in the first place? Wouldn't it be better if you just helped me make my own style or something?'
To this, Audun had chuckled
'Mm, in some ways that probably would be the most logical path... But I want to teach you something, Sunny.'
There had been a wry smile on his face.
'When you get to a certain level, the act of merely swinging a sword will become meaningless. In the face of utter calamity, what use would just swinging a sword do, after all?'
'In order for a sword to truly be considered strong, it has to be an extension of the self— a representation of the resolve you possess.'
'For a sword to strike with 'heaviness' the swordsman must have a heavy heart. For a sword to strike with 'swiftness' and 'lightness', the swordsman must know what it means to be unburdened.'
At first, it was truly a difficult concept for Sunny to grasp.
He had just barely learned how to even hold a sword a few months ago, and now, he was being told to swing a sword with a 'heavy heart'.
Yet, Audun was a rather patient teacher.
One with quite a bit of faith in his student, too.
'Sunny. In order to understand why a swordsman swings their blade the way they do, you must first understand the kind of life they've lived. What kind of burdens did they possess? What sort of dreams did they chase? That kind of stuff. If you don't understand the reason why they fight, how can you expect to fight like them?'
Naturally, Sunny had his doubts.
'Doesn't this— I don't know— Seems like too much for me? I barely even understand my own life right now, and you're expecting me to understand what it means to be a hero...?'
In hindsight, it was a somewhat pathetic response, but Audun didn't necessarily see it that way.
'Too much? Why would you think that?'
The swordsman had regarded him with a solemn expression.
'Remember when you were telling me about your runes? Remind me again what the spell described you as?'
'Trecherous...?'
'No, not that idiot! I'm talking about the description of your aspect— about being a Shadow and all.'
'I don't see what that has to do with anything.'
'Well, it actually has everything to do with what I'm about to say.'
A small smile had tugged at the corner of his lips as he looked at Sunny.
'You see, in my homeland, shadows have a variety of meanings. Some interpret it as a sign of purity— as possessing a shadow means you've been touched by light, and others interpret shadows as a sort of double or reflection of the soul... but shadows are also a symbol of infinite possibilities.'
'A shadow can be anything— and you, Sunny, are a miraculous Shadow— A wondrous Divine Shadow left behind by a fallen god.'
Audun's smile at the time was brilliant and bright, resembling the stars he had hung in the sky.
'You can be anything— You can be anyone!'
'Even if you don't think it's possible now, I believe in you.'
'I believe that you'll be able to mold yourself into a hero like the ones I was telling you about, into a hero that swings a sword chasing freedom, or a hero who swings his blade while trying to capture the vastness of the sky.'
It had, honestly, hit Sunny quite hard.
He had always thought that a person who believed motivational nonsense like this was an utter fool.
But that flame of belief burning in Audun's eyes truly made him want to be one of those fools.
'And, Sunny... putting aside swordsmanship... I-'
Audun had paused for the briefest of moments before bringing his hand to his chest, right over his heart.
'I want you to remember what it feels like to mold into those heroes...
I want you to remember the sense of humor that allowed a man to laugh off life's troubles.
I want you to remember the weight of a thousand burdens, and the strength needed to carry them effortlessly.
I want you to remember how it feels to dream a dream so unreachable that it seems hopeless, yet still embrace tomorrow to chase it.
I want you to remember, and keep remembering until you don't have to remember anymore.'
It was then, at that critical moment, that the spell had whispered in Sunny's ear.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy, Shadow Dance.]
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Abilities: [Shadow Control].
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance].
Shadow Dance Description: [The Loneliest Star once witnessed a Shadow's treacherous dance, yet instead of mocking the Shadow, the Star chose to speak to it of a new possibility. Rather than doubt, the treacherous Shadow chose to believe in the star, and now foolishly dances while imitating heroes of legend, hoping that one day it'll learn how to be a hero too.]
Sunny could never forget the words Audun spoke that day, even if he wanted to.
And now, here he was, standing before the faces of the Seven Heroes whose story had ended in tragedy.
Funnily enough, however, it seemed the Spire wanted him to do more than just gaze at their visages.
Just as Sunny had managed to tear his eyes away from the statues and turn his attention to the gates of the spire, a cold wind threw pieces of coral into the air.
Instead of falling down, the pieces flew up, with more and more fragments of coral melding into them, eventually resulting in the formation of seven humanoid constructs.
An intricately armored knight.
A delicate and graceful priestess with light, flowing robes.
A mighty hunter wielding a beautiful bronze spear.
A masterful builder holding a mason's hammer.
A noble lord wearing a simple crown.
A Slayer with a ghostly stiletto hidden behind her back
And a Stranger wearing stone-like armor and wielding a heavy, round shield.
They were the Starlight Legion— The Seven Heroes that had once tried to bring light to this land.
Instinctively, seeing the numbers, Sunny was about to call on Saint and Inky in an attempt to level the playing field, but in the same moment, he decided against it.
Sunny simply held out his hand, and the Serpent tattoo marring his arm transformed into a plain, shadowy longsword.
Under Audun's guidance, Sunny had learned a variety of things— including etiquette.
The sort of way you should react to scum.
The kind of way you'd conduct yourself in public.
And the way you showed respect to someone deserving of it before a fight.
There were 7 such someones right before Sunny.
Even if these abominable and corrupted forms barely resembled the originals they were based on— and even if their forms were a desecration of the story they had written, the mere fact that they bore the visages of the ancient heroes was enough to incite the honor that Sunny had molded into his being.
He held up his longsword in the sword salute Audun had taught him to perform.
"I greet the Starlight Legion. I am Sunless, student of the Star of Solitude."
As he was finishing up his greeting, the Stranger suddenly shot forward at a terrible speed, bringing its round shield down on him with as much force as it could possibly muster.
Yet, despite the Stranger's incredible speed, it paled in comparison to that of the Child of Shadows.
Slipping a few yards out of their reach, Sunny brandished the longsword and planted his feet, entering a stance as solid and unshakeable as a mountain.
"I truly hope that my blade can help you recall the traits you once held in life."
The Stranger dashed forward as the other 6 heroes spraing into action.
Sunny's first target was of course the once closes to him.
Wielding the sword of a stallwart guardian, the longsword in Sunny's grasp transformed into a claymore.
He remained firmly planted to the ground, swinging the claymore with power and weight.
The Stranger tried to protect itself with it's heavy round shield, but the heaviness of Sunny's blow exceeded that of the Stranger's.
CRASH
With a single blow, the Stranger was smashed to pieces.
The of the heroes to reach Sunny was the Slayer.
The merciless corrupted rendition of the ruthless hero, with it's stiletto pointed at Sunny's neck, dashed forward, using the shattered Stranger's corpse as a cover for it's stealthy attack.
Unfortuantely for it however, the claymore in Sunny's hand morphed into a irregularly shaped dagger.
Wielding the dagger of an unseen hero who had protected the one they loved from the shadows, Sunny dove into a nearby puddle of darkness, causing the Slayer's dagger to miss it's mark.
Then— in the fraction of a second the Slayer hung awkwardly in the air, Sunny struck with ruthless precision, cleanly lopping the coral golems head off.
The Slayer crumbled to pieces.
This time, taking the initiative, Sunny's dagger transformed back into a longsword— though, instead of the plain one he initially wielded, this longsword seemed to be far more elegant in it's design.
With an upright posture, Sunny confronted the Knight, and swung his blade along an honest and straightforward path.
Wielding the blade of a Knight who had never strayed from their path, Sunny cleaved the arms of the corrupted Knight's off before severing it's head.
Before the Knight's corpse had even touched the ground, the blade in Sunny's grasped morphed once more.
The longsword morphed into large greatsword with a cross shaped guard.
Sunny gently shut his eyes, allowing himself to be embraced by darkness.
Yet, despite obscuring his vision, Sunny unhesitatingly brought the greatsword in his grasp down on the Priestess— the blade tracing a path born of faith.
Wielding the blade of a blind paladin who had seen the world through faith, Sunny cleaved apart the Priestess.
As the Hunter and the Builder closed in on him, Sunny retreated, the great sword in his arms elongating into a powerful longbow.
Drawing an arrow memory from his Soul Sea, Sunny nocked it and drew back the string, emulating the posture of a hunter who had once tried to shoot down the stars.
Loosing it, the arrow struck true and shattered the Hunter's head, ending the Hunter instantly.
In a fluid motion, Sunny swung back his arm and transformed the longbow into a simple blacksmiths hammer.
As the Builder moved forward, Sunny lunged forward, bring the hammer down on the Builder's skull.
In much the same way you would temper iron, Sunny struck the Builder, practically flattening it's form into a sheet of coral.
The Lord, the remaining golem, drew it's arm back as it ran forward, preparing a viscious knuckle sandwich for the Child of Shadow— but it was futile.
Sunny merely dodged out of the way, retreating out of distance as the hammer in his hands morphed for the final time.
A sword that was too long and thin to be called a longsword, yet two wide to and large to be called an estoc settled into Sunny's hand.
For the Lord, Sunny had prepared the most noble swordsmanship he could think of.
The swordsmanship of the Star of Solitude, the sword of the loneliest star in the sky, unveiled itself as Sunny drew a single line down the length of the Lord's form, severing it's form into two halves.
And with that— the fight was over.
It had been a rather trivial fight for Sunny, yet his mouth tasted quite bitter.
As his shadowy armament slowly enveloped his arm once more, Sunny regarded the crumbled remains of the 7 heroes before turning to look at the faces capture on the severed stone heads.
Sunny stood still for a moment, but eventually, he lowered his head in a gesture of respect— another thing he had learned from his teacher.
"Thank you."
And with that simple expression of gratitude, the Child of Shadows walked through the colossal gates of the spire— his Shadow more complete then it had been just a few moments ago.
___________________________________
(A/N: While editing the chapters I had originally wrote for the conclusion of the forgotten shore, I lwk just had a moment where I was forced to kind of consider the kind of story I wanted to write.
Despite loving Shadow Slave, it never really made me feel the same things that IPOTE did— and I honestly started this whole fic just because I wanted to write sort of like NariaTa did.
I really hope you guys enjoyed the chapter because I lwk put a lot of effort into it, and I also hope that you guys think that this isn't super duper out of character for Sunny either.
Tell me what you guys think, and I'm sorry but I'll probably end up taking a lot longer on the remaining chapters that were supposed to end the forgotten shore cuz like— I wanna write something more fufilling for myself.
Thanks again for the support, and sorry for making you wait so long.)