Shadow Slave

There were a lot of things to discuss, so the meeting was going to take a long time. It could even stretch over several days, considering that Sunny, Nephis, and the other three Supremes who had stayed behind did not even know the details of the Nightmare the rest conquered.

Those who returned were not fully familiar with their new powers, either. A lot of the decisions that needed to be made depended on that knowledge, so Sunny expected to spend some time helping the new Sovereigns make sense of their Supremacy.

‘What a novel idea.’

Sunny and Nephis had to figure out the powers of a Supreme all on their own, relying only on each other in exploring the nuances of the Will and Domain powers. Well, naturally they had — after all, they had ascended to Supremacy by killing their predecessors. So, there had been no one left to teach them.

These new Supremes, however, could enjoy the benefit of having more experienced comrades show them the way. They would have to do a lot of work on their own, naturally, but it was still a starkly different situation.

‘Must be nice.'

Sunny was not bitter at all.

Just as he expected, the meeting ended up consuming several days, and in the process, all of them learned more about what the new demigods could do. Needless to say, their Supreme powers were both extremely potent and, in several cases, exceedingly peculiar.

There was also a lot of confusion because to them, those born in the Age of the Nightmare Spell, the power of a Domain carried an innate duality.

There were two ways a Supreme could build a Domain — one natural, one provided by the Spell, with the latter overshadowing the former in most cases. So, finding the true mechanism of spreading one's authority far and wide wasn't even important for some of the new Supremes.

Still, it couldn't hurt to know.

The most straightforward power among the six new Supremes belonged to Nightwalker, and even that one was weird as hell. His Aspect Abilities had been enhanced across the board, with a couple standing out among the rest. His already fearsome Transcendent form, that of a cosmic starbeast, had grown numerous times greater — as if that giant creature had been merely a whelp before.

He had also become capable of manipulating space at a greater scale — and, more importantly, of twisting it permanently. That alone was a tremendous boon, since it allowed many others to enjoy the benefits of Nightwalker's Aspect freely. He could make a road that allowed people to traverse a week's worth of distance in just a day or two, for example — with some effort, but forever.

What else could he do with that versatile power? Only time could tell. Sunny could not help but imagine a network of teleportation platforms that would connect distant corners of the immensely vast Dream Realm one day in the future, though. Instant teleportation seemed like an unreachable goal, but then again, the Demon of Repose had been able to create the Night Garden.

Who was to say that, given time, Nightwalker would not be able to accomplish something similar?

His Domain would have to grow quite powerful for that, probably. And speaking of his Domain, the natural path to expanding it was somewhat unexpected — at least to Sunny, whose view of Supremes was twisted by the few examples he had.

Apart from conquering Citadels, Ki Song had expanded her Domain by creating puppets. Anvil expanded his by forging swords and bestowing them upon loyal warriors — Sunny was still unsure if the swords had been the core of the Domain, or the people wielding them.

Cassie's Domain consisted of those she remembered, while his own consisted of shadows of those he had killed. Neph's Longing Domain, meanwhile, consisted of people she had inspired to strive for something they longed to achieve.

Nightwalker's Domain had nothing to do with people, though, or any kind of living beings. It was land. He could expand his Domain by laying claim to land... but only land that had not been claimed before.

In other words, without the Spell, he would have had to dedicate his life to journeying and exploration, always striving to find the next frontier. Only that would allow his Domain to grow, and his people to flourish... the problem, naturally, was that all easily conquered lands in the Dream Realm had already been claimed, and all that remained was a collection of unexplored, increasingly harrowing hells.

Still, knowing Nightwalker, Sunny could imagine him having a swell time traveling to exotic, distant hells and meeting exciting, unusual eldritch horrors one day in the future.

What mattered now, however, was that he would be able to use the Components of the Night Garden better as a Supreme. With Nightwalker at the helm, the living ship would be able to serve as a connection between various cities of humanity even if it ceased to be a part of the Longing Domain.

Seishan's new powers were also quite straightforward. Just like the rest of the Supremes, all her Aspect Abilities had grown more potent or evolved. The core of her Supreme power, however, was founded in her unique Transcendent Ability, which allowed her to transform others instead of herself.

The surviving Handmaidens of the Bright Castle had been infused with her blood, thus undergoing the empowering transformation and becoming known as the Blood Sisters. Now, however, the power granted to them by Seishan's augmentation had grown tremendously, and they also gained access to lesser versions of her other Aspect Abilities — especially the ability to grow even stronger by spilling blood.

That was not all there was to it, though. The most far-reaching change in Seishan's powers was that the people she had granted the Blood Blessing could, in turn, bestow it upon others now. There was a hierarchical structure to the spread of her power, with each next generation of those chosen receiving a weaker version of it, but seemingly no limit.

None they had discovered yet, at least. For all Sunny knew, there could be seven possible degrees of separation to this Blood Blessing — or even some random number of them, like sixteen.

Naturally, Seishan could expand her Domain naturally by bestowing her Blood Blessing to chosen champions, and having those champions spread it further. The more people they took into the fold, the more spirit essence she would draw from them, and the more fearsome her Will would become. Blessing someone took a toll on Seishan, though, so she couldn't transform crowds of people...

But that was where the Spell could help. She could also expand her Domain greatly by controlling Citadels — in fact, that was a far easier and more efficient path. Nothing prevented her from doing both at the same time, either.

Everything seemed great on paper... it was just that those who received Seishan's blessing did not only inherit a lesser version of her powers, but also, seemingly, a fraction of her Flaw. In the grand scheme of things, though, that wasn't a big problem. Sunny was sure that nothing awful would come of it.

Next was Morgan, whose Supreme power had turned out to be the most versatile. Apart from her Aspect Abilities receiving an overall enhancement, she gained a deep affinity to runes and runic sorcery.

Her Ascended Ability had evolved in an astonishing way, as well.

Before, Morgan had been able to copy a number of enchantments and store them in her body, making her capable of adapting to almost any situation. Now, not only had this Ability become more expansive, but it had also transformed in quite an astounding manner.

Simply put, it allowed her to copy the enchantments stored in her body onto other living beings. There was a limit to how many enchantments a person could accommodate, and of what power — but if she wanted, she could greatly enhance the power of any human below the Supreme Rank.

A mundane person could accommodate an enchantment of the Dormant Rank, an Awakened person could accommodate two enchantments — one of the Dormant Rank, one of the Awakened Rank — and so on. Which meant that she could make mundane humans almost strong enough to contend with Awakened, and make Awakened capable of facing Fallen abominations on somewhat equal footing. The only limit was her imagination, the enchantments available to her, and the competence of the charmed person.

Those carrying her enchantments willingly would become members of her Domain, so she could only enchant beings below the Supreme Rank...

She could place her enchantments on her enemies as well, though, making her Supreme power a bit more sinister. And while doing so, if her Will was sharp enough, she could carve her sorcery into Nightmare Creatures of any Rank, not just those weaker than her. That would not make them her subjects, but could certainly help her kill them.

That was a potent and versatile power that could both assist Morgan in battle and benefit innumerable humans greatly. The only thing Sunny was not entirely clear on was what, exactly, Morgan's source element was. In the end, they tentatively theorized that it was... swordsmanship. Or rather, any kind of martial craft taken to an extreme.

That made a peculiar kind of sense. Morgan had been meant to become a weapon for her father to wield, but in her defiance, she became a sword that wielded herself instead. A sword sharp enough to cut the world.

So, while anyone could receive her enchantments, those who dedicated themselves to overcoming their nature and striving for the heights of martial arts answered to them better. They could draw more power out of them, and Morgan received more spirit essence in response as well.

Sunny could imagine her being called the Sword Queen in the future... which sounded almost like the title of her father, but was actually the opposite. Anvil had looked down on all people, chillingly regarding them as weapons to be used. Morgan, however, had the power to arm her subjects and help them pursue their lives with greater passion, reaching greater heights.

...Sunny found it a bit weird, though, that there were two Supremes who had come from the Valor family.

As far as he was concerned, Anvil was the epitome of an awful father. But both of his children had become Supreme, so if anyone unfamiliar with the King of Swords heard about the dynamic sibling duo — the King of Nothing and the Sword Queen — they'd probably assume that Anvil had been the greatest dad in history, setting the golden standard of parenting goals for all eternity.

That was a concerning thought.

But not as concerning as the fact that there was now a whole continent inside of Effie...