Fanfic Shadow Slave - All god (Regression)

The next day, the entire cafeteria directed their gaze towards one corner, where three people were seated.

The rumor had already spread throughout the academy, the pale, sickly boy with black hair had beaten the prominent Changing Star.

Many people had thought that maybe it was false that this boy had a true name, or that it had just been luck; now all those thoughts had been replaced by a greater feeling, admiration.

At a table full of legacies, a young man was drowning in rage.

Caster was furious, how dared a mere street rat stand above the legacies, to be better than him, to be better than the last descendant of the immortal flame clan, a damn half-breed.

Sunny remained oblivious to all this, eating calmly while telling Cassie about his fight.

"And then his sword shattered into pieces while burning in white flames! How poetic!"

Cassie smiled while listening, picturing the situation excited her; having strong friends made her happy.

"Wow! I didn't think you were so strong Sunny. Who taught you to fight?"

"I taught myself, I had some teachers but most was self-learning."

He directed a glance at Nephis, who ate from her plate without much emotion, she seemed a little sour.

'Seems losing doesn't sit well with her.'

He slowly approached her and whispered in her ear.

"Don't I get a prize for my victory?"

She shuddered and her ears turned red, she turned her head towards Sunny to say something but he had already withdrawn.

The meal continued without much incident.

His days were routine, he woke up went to the cafeteria with Nephis, talked with Cassie, then they went to Professor Julius's class, who had prepared a very advanced learning plan for them; Sunny was surprised to realize he still had much to learn.

Then they went to combat class, where he only did training and sparring with Nephis; according to Professor Rock himself, they were already too advanced for the others.

In the afternoons they found themselves bored, without much to do most of the time they spent together; Sunny and Nephis sat on her bed without much to do, just enjoying each other's presence.

Sunny sent his shadow towards Caster several times to discover if he was making any moves; the legacy did nothing in particular except that now he was much quieter and a strange aura surrounded him.

Apparently the fight between him and Nephis affected him, as he worked harder than ever in his past life; other sleepers were also motivated and worked harder, but most felt dejected upon realizing the great gap between them.

Sunny constantly checked his runes to see if the market had activated; one week before the winter solstice, it happened.

Sunny was lying on Nephis's lap while checking his runes, when he reached the end instead of the maintenance message there were several different runes.

[Spell's Shining Emporium]

Options: [Memory Market], [Echo Market], [Sell], [Administrator Functions]

He startled and a small smile formed on his face.

'Finally! Everything remains the same… for now.'

He focused on administrator functions and a set of runes unfolded.

[Members: 0/0]

[VIP Members: 0/0]

[Grant Access]

[Storage]

His smile widened, it seemed everything would work wonderfully; he focused on storage and a new set of runes opened.

[What are you seeking?]

He had created access to the space where the spell stored memories; obviously he didn't need them himself, truly good memories required essence, but he had done it for one thing: to cheat.

"Shadow Weave."

After saying those words the runes vibrated and transformed into others.

Memory: Shadow Weave

Rank: Divine

Type: Unknown

Description: [When the world neared its end a shadow created its heritage, hoping it would travel through time and reach him once more.]

That's right, he had created his own heritage, and he himself would be its heir.

'It will be fun explaining this to Kai.'

Without much waiting he summoned it; his soul sea stirred, the shadows rose and converged into a sphere as dark as the void, yet simultaneously possessing a divine radiance.

[You have acquired the Shadow Weave. Do you wish to consume it?]

Before consuming it, he exited his soul sea and looked at Nephis.

"Hey, I'll be out for a while."

Before she could say anything, he returned to his soul sea.

"Yes."

The sphere shuddered and broke; a sea of unfathomable shadows flooded his soul; the shadows enveloped him and merged with his flesh, his bones, his blood, his soul, his mind, his spirit, and his shadow.

As the shadows settled within him, he felt unbearable pain, stronger than anything he had ever experienced; his flesh tore and rejoined, his bones broke and melted into stronger ones, his blood was altered, making it thicker and stronger, his mind exploded into fragments, he felt as if a thousand needles were piercing every neuron he possessed; his spirit and shadow were seized and forcefully molded; in his soul there was a great change, profound and impossible; it became more potent, more efficient, more resilient.

His body felt like a furnace, every inch of it burned with pain and didn't seem to stop; he was regretting every decision of his life; several times he had fainted only for the pain to wake him again even stronger than before.

Nephis held Sunny's convulsing body in her arms; she already knew what he was doing, but still she was scared; she squeezed Sunny's body tightly, feeling the flesh move under his skin, and blood constantly seeped from his pores.

It was an eternity of constant pain; Sunny felt terrible, as if he were no longer in the same body; perhaps that was true.

He slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Nephis, who stared at him so intently he felt naked before her.

He opened his mouth and said hoarsely.

"I'm okay."

She seemed to barely realize what she was doing, and released Sunny.

"I…"

Nephis looked at him nervously—well, as nervous as she could be; Sunny found it cute, seeing her flustered was rewarding.

"Agh, I'll go shower first, I feel disgusting."

His clothes had stuck to his body thanks to the blood, which was very unpleasant for him.

Several minutes later he came out of the shower; feeling renewed and clean, he sat beside Nephis, who had already recomposed herself and wore an inscrutable expression.

'There's my Neph.'

"I have the Shadow Weave now."

Sunny didn't know the reason, but Nephis seemed to look at him more than usual; when he realized why, he looked at Nephis mischievously.

His lineage obviously made him more handsome; probably now he was one of the best-looking sleepers in the academy.

He moved much closer to her, bringing his face nearer; he could see a blush stir within her before being suppressed.

She feigned indifference and changed the subject.

"Why haven't you activated the memory market?"

He withdrew a little disappointed and shrugged.

"A few hours won't make much difference, I'll do it right away anyway."

He opened his runes and focused on his attributes.

Attributes: [Fated], [Divine Mark], [Son of Shadows], [Shadow Weave]

Shadow Weave Attribute Description: [You possess the heritage of the future; now you are a different being, stronger, more resilient, and more adaptable. Your body now devours and absorbs everything it consumes, making it part of itself.]

As the description—made by himself—said, his body would now devour any lineage; that would include the Blood Weave, so he wouldn't have to hide from the world anymore.

Besides, he felt much stronger; not as much as an awakened, but not as weak as a common sleeper; somewhere in between.

But there was something even better; he wasn't sure if it would work, but his soul now produced essence; it was no longer like a sleeper who only had enough to summon memories; now it flowed through his body, weakly, but it did.

He summoned serpent and the tattoo of a snake spread over his body; now the essence flowed faster; this was enough to advance with his aspect legacy.

He enjoyed the feeling for a while, then shook his head and returned to the runes; now he went to the administrator ones.

[Members: 0/0]

[VIP Members: 0/0]

[Grant Access]

[Storage]

He focused on the Grant Access runes; they stirred, awaiting his response.

"Grant access to all humanity."

After that, the runes stopped stirring and returned to normal.

Higher up, the member runes changed; they faded and then returned but now with different runes.

[Members: +3,000,000,000/+3,000,000,000]

'Good, done.'

After verifying the market functioned correctly, he exited his soul sea.

"It's done, Neph."

She turned to him.

"I know, the spell just announced it."

"Yeah, right, I had already set it up that way."

They spent a while reviewing things until it was bedtime; despite his displeasure and Nephis's feigned indifference, they had to part.

Sunny stood at the door with her and gave her a kiss.

"Good night, Neph."

"Good night, Sunny."

He closed the door and silence flooded his room; he yawned and flopped onto the bed; today had been a great day; he had obtained his own heritage and opened the memory and echo markets.

The latter functioned according to an economy based on soul fragments and creature materials, which were sold to obtain coins.

The market was self-regulated by supply and demand; Sunny owed that to Aiko, who had given him a very exhaustive lecture on economics, which despite him literally being a God, had been hard to absorb.

Tiredness consumed him little by little and finally enveloped him in sleep's warm embrace.

- - -

The next day the academy prepared a meeting with the teachers; the world was agitated by this new addition to the spell; it had already completely overturned normal markets and they wanted to prepare a conference for all sleepers.

The sleepers themselves talked and speculated; this news filled them with hope about their first journey to the dream realm.

A couple of days before the winter solstice, the academy held the conference to share information about the Brilliant Soul Spell Emporium.

Sunny was in a corner, as always; beside him were Nephis and Cassie; the first was as indifferent as ever, while the other had a strange glow on her face, seeming hopeful and excited.

The hall was very noisy; everyone talked until an invisible pressure silenced them; Sunny directed his gaze to the stage; there stood a tall man with long green hair and sharp features; he wore white armor with gold details and a golden cape; Sunny recognized him as a master; he didn't really know him, but the aura he emanated was stronger than everyone present, including the other teachers.

Once silence was established for a few seconds, the master spoke in a deep, clear voice.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Zayd, I am a master from the government."

All the sleepers looked at the Ascended with shining eyes; after all, they weren't common.

"As everyone knows, not long ago the spell gave an announcement about…"

The master briefly explained recent events but didn't go into detail; in the end, he gave a motivational speech and yielded the floor to someone who would explain how it worked; that person was none other than Professor Julius.

"Hello everyone, I am Professor Julius, in charge of the wilderness survival class and a member of the academy's research team."

The professor proceeded to explain the market's economic system and several particular discoveries.

"To sell materials, just place a hand on the creature's corpse and invoke the runes; then it will give you the option to sell; the spell will only take useful materials and the soul fragment if not previously extracted, leaving only the meat and organs."

"Additionally, it also has the function to create custom memories and echoes, although you'll have to pay triple the base value of a memory of the same rank."

"From what we've seen so far, the market is regulated by supply and demand…"

He proceeded to talk about some technicalities and key topics that bored most; only some, like Cassie, really paid attention; Sunny didn't because he had created it; if anyone knew how it worked, it was him.

The conference took practically the whole day; when it ended, they sent the sleepers to the cafeteria.

The atmosphere in his past life had been depressing and heavy; the feeling of having the noose around the neck had been replaced; now everyone felt happier, motivated to face their first visit to the dream realm.

Cassie talked excitedly about the possibilities; Nephis focused on listening and intervening sometimes; Sunny simply observed the girls, knowing he had achieved what he sought.

A smile drew itself on his face; the seer who in his past life had lived a life full of regrets and painful decisions was no more; now there was only an innocent young woman, happy and hopeful for the future.

He would make sure she stayed that way; he wouldn't force her to make difficult decisions; he wouldn't let her hurt herself or others because of fate.

Cassie snapped him out of his thoughts; she called him with a cheerful voice.

"Sunny, why are you so quiet?"

That voice, a voice he hadn't heard for a long time, since they were together in the Forgotten Shore, when nothing stood between them, when they could just be themselves.

Sunny smiled warmly.

"For nothing, just thinking about the future… and the past."

Cassie fell silent and played with her food; she sank into her thoughts; now she could think more about the future; she could believe she could have one.

Sunny felt something brush against his hand; he didn't pull away, because he felt the warmth, the warmth of someone who was by his side, who had been for a long time.

Both held hands; silently they made a silent promise; they would protect Cassie; they would protect that smile.

Not just hers, everyone's; they would save all the sleepers from the Forgotten Shore; they would save all the humans in Antarctica; they would prevent the Sovereigns from killing many for nothing.

Nephis leaned her head on his shoulder; silence followed for several seconds; then a whisper was heard, coming from Nephis.

"Everything will be okay."

Sunny also wanted to say those words, but he couldn't, because deep down, he knew it was impossible; that no matter how hard they tried and strived, they still wouldn't be able to save everyone.

His flaw didn't allow him to tell lies, but above all, it didn't allow him to lie to himself; and knowing the truth was painful; he knew that very well.

So he gave the only words he knew were true.

"I will strive for it."