Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail-Chapter 458: Dreaming Big

Sunny woke with a violent gasp.

For a brief moment his mind was still trapped in the dream, and the sensation of countless burning hands clawing at his skin felt so vivid that he instinctively jerked away from them. His back struck the wall behind him, the impact dull but grounding, and the world snapped into place around him with uncomfortable clarity.

He was sitting on the windowsill of his hotel room.

Cold night air drifted through the open window beside him, carrying the distant hum of the Xianzhou Luofu’s endless machinery. Lantern-light glowed softly across curved rooftops and quiet streets far below, and the sky above the massive ship stretched wide and dark, scattered with faint stars that shimmered through the artificial atmosphere.

Sunny exhaled slowly.

His heart was pounding.

A thin sheen of sweat clung to his skin.

He had fallen asleep again.

It happened often enough that Sunny barely found it surprising anymore, though waking up in strange positions had become something of a habit. This time he had apparently drifted off while sitting against the window frame, one leg bent awkwardly beneath him and his shoulder pressed against the cool glass. The position had left his muscles stiff and his neck aching slightly.

Still, that wasn’t the thing bothering him the most.

Sunny reached up and touched the bandages wrapped around his head.

The hospital.

He grimaced faintly.

Being released had taken longer than he expected, mostly because the doctors had been extremely unhappy with the condition of his skull when he arrived. Apparently having Bone Weave did not make someone a pleasant surgical patient.

According to the surgeon, opening Sunny’s skull had been a monumental pain in the ass.

Apparently the fragments of shattered bone that had been rattling around inside his head had also refused to behave like normal bone fragments. They had been far tougher than they should have been, which made extracting them considerably more difficult than anticipated.

Sunny thought that part had been funny.

The surgeon had not.

With a quiet sigh, Sunny began unwrapping the bandages.

The cloth loosened gradually, sliding away layer by layer until it finally fell into his lap. Cool air brushed against his scalp immediately, and Sunny raised a hand to feel the back of his head.

The wound had closed... mostly.

Thick, uneven scar tissue spread across the area where the surgeons had opened his skull, the flesh still slightly rough where Bone Weave had begun knitting everything back together. It would heal eventually, but it clearly wasn’t finished yet.

He lowered his hand and leaned back against the wall, letting his gaze drift toward the night sky outside the window.

The Luofu was strangely quiet tonight.

Most of the Astral Express crew had already returned to the train hours ago using a Space Anchor. They had invited Sunny to leave with them, but he had declined without much explanation.

He had told them he wanted to stay in the hotel a little longer.

That wasn’t entirely a lie.

Sunny had been planning to return to the luxurious room that had been assigned to him, but instead he had ended up sitting here for an unknown amount of time, staring out into the city while his thoughts churned restlessly inside his head.

Phantylia.

Just thinking about her name made his jaw tighten slightly.

Sunny could still remember the feeling of her presence inside his mind. The way she had casually peeled through his thoughts as if they were nothing more than pages in a book. The way she had spoken to him with that strange mixture of amusement and curiosity.

It had been humiliating.

Worse than humiliating.

...But it didn’t matter. He had foiled her plans. And he would continue to do so. Whether she changed her face or name, he’ll just kill her vessels again and again... until there was nothing left to kill.

After another moment of staring out the window, Sunny opened his runes.

The translucent interface appeared before his eyes instantly.

His gaze moved directly to the section he currently cared about.

Memories.

There were quite a lot of them now.

Sunny had not spent his time on the Luofu sitting around doing nothing. The Artisanship Commission had been a great haul, especially once he realized that a number of Denizens of Abundance had begun quietly moving through the district, observing the Ambrosial Arbor.

Saint had been extremely helpful during that little operation.

Most of the targets had been shot down almost immediately once the Ascended Demon started hunting them with Morgan’s Warbow. A few had managed to survive long enough for Sunny to drag them away and conduct a slightly more... productive conversation.

Those conversations had ended with Sunny acquiring a large number of Memories.

He had robbed them blind.

It had been very satisfying.

Now he possessed enough Memories to significantly strengthen his Shadows. Bringing Nightmare from an Awakened Terror to an Ascended Terror was easily within reach, and with enough time he could probably push Saint toward Transcendence as well.

The problem was the weaving.

Creating a proper Memory was not something that could be rushed. Even with Sunny’s growing experience, weaving a single Memory still required hours of careful work.

Which meant Saint’s advancement would be a long-term investment.

Sunny sighed quietly.

Then he closed his eyes.

The world dissolved around him.

When his awareness returned, he found himself standing upon the dark waters of his Soul Sea.

The surface beneath his feet was perfectly still, stretching endlessly in every direction like a vast black mirror. Above him hung four massive Shadow Cores, each one suspended in the sky like a perfect eclipse. Some unseen light source shone behind them, outlining their circular forms with faint halos that illuminated the sea below in dim, ghostly reflections.

Across the water stood countless shadows.

Humans.

Nightmare Creatures.

Warriors.

Monsters.

Thousands of silent silhouettes stood motionless upon the black sea of Sunny’s soul, their nonexistent reflections stretching downward into the infinite darkness beneath the surface.

They did not move. They did not breathe. They simply existed.

Sunny exhaled slowly.

Then he spoke a single word.

"Nightmare."

Dark flames erupted across the surface of the water several meters away.

From within them stepped a towering figure.

Nightmare emerged from the fire like a creature born from darkness itself, its enormous form moving with quiet grace despite its size. The steed’s coat was a deep, lustrous black that seemed to swallow the faint light around it, and powerful muscles rolled smoothly beneath its skin with each step. Its mane flowed like liquid shadow along its neck, and its tenebrous eyes burned with fierce crimson flames.

Two long horns curved upward from its skull.

Its mouth revealed rows of sharp fangs that looked disturbingly similar to those of a wolf. Both the horns and the fangs, along with the heavy hooves that struck the water’s surface with muted ripples, were forged from a strange black metal that gleamed faintly under the eclipse light above. The material looked dense and unyielding — strong enough to rival the impenetrable onyx of the Mantle of the Underworld itself.

Sunny shuddered slightly as he remembered exactly how much those hooves and fangs had hurt the first time they were used on him.

Before doing anything else, Sunny summoned the Silent Mist.

The armor formed over his body instantly.

Black bandages wrapped tightly around his torso and arms first, coiling around muscle and bone with firm precision. They settled into place with deliberate pressure, supportive without restricting movement.

A sleeveless, tight-fitting turtleneck followed, dark fabric hugging his frame like it had been perfectly tailored to his body.

Then the hoodie manifested.

Navy denim flowed into existence over his shoulders, the loose garment forming without a sound as the hood settled lightly against his back. Along the sleeves and spine, faint patterns of dark clouds appeared within the fabric, shifting subtly as though living mist had been woven into the threads themselves.

His legs were covered next.

Spandex leggings sealed tightly against his skin, flexible and resilient, while loose white harem pants layered over them, the lightweight fabric designed for movement rather than protection.

Steel-toed boots locked into place around his feet with a muted metallic clink.

Finally, fingerless gloves formed around his hands.

Two unfamiliar symbols burned faintly across the back of each glove, their sharp-edged characters etched into the dark fabric.

The Spell whispered its translation immediately.

Ink.

Over.

A thin chain hung loosely from a simple utility belt around Sunny’s waist, swaying gently as the last pieces of the armor settled into place.

Then Sunny looked up at Nightmare.

"...Can you speak, now?"

Nightmare’s ears twitched slightly.

The enormous horse tilted its head.

"Friend finally learn to listen to Nightmare?"

The steed said in a deep voice that echoed faintly across the Soul Sea:

"Day to celebrate!"

Sunny stared at it.

"...You’re mocking me, aren’t you?"

Nightmare snorted.

"Friend slow learner."

Sunny pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It’s the armor. An enchantment."

Nightmare’s ears drooped slightly.

"Ah."

The steed looked disappointed.

"Expected too much."

Sunny stared at the horse in silence for several seconds.

He was now completely certain that he was being insulted by his own Shadow.

Deciding not to dwell on that particular problem, Sunny opened Nightmare’s runes.

Two Abilities appeared: Nightmare and Dream Curse.

The first one displayed a clear description.

[Nightmare] Ability Description: "This Shadow can create and subjugate nightmares. The more nightmares serve it, the more powerful it grows, both inside and outside dreams."

Below that were the counters.

Dormant Nightmares: 70.

Awakened Nightmares: 132.

Ascended Nightmares: 3.

Then Sunny looked at the second ability. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Dream Curse lacked a description, only showing a counter:

Nightmares required: 205 / 1000.

Sunny frowned slightly and looked back at the steed.

"What does Dream Curse do?"

Nightmare tilted its head again.

"Trap of dreams. Make enemy submit. Adds to collection."

Sunny blinked.

Then the memory surfaced.

The labyrinth.

The endless maze of nightmares that Nightmare had once trapped him inside when they first met. The prison of terror that had forced Sunny to fight the Shadow again and again until he finally managed to kill it and claim it as his own.

He paused for a moment, then asked carefully:

"You can collect nightmares without hurting people, right?"

Nightmare nodded once.

Sunny smiled.

"Good."

A plan was already forming in his mind.

"First, let’s level you up."

The Memories orbiting his Shadow Cores began to descend one by one, just to be crushed by Nightmare’s hooves as they were converted into Shadow Fragments.

The counter climbed rapidly.

Shadow Fragments: [200/200].

The moment the threshold was reached, Nightmare erupted into black flames.

The fire roared upward around the massive steed, devouring its entire form as the six nodes of darkness within Nightmare’s soul flared brightly. Power surged through the Soul Sea in silent waves.

Then the flames vanished.

Nightmare stood where it had been before. At first glance, nothing seemed different. But its crimson eyes burned brighter now.

Its shadow stretched deeper across the black water.

And the faint aura of fear surrounding the steed had grown noticeably stronger.

Sunny grinned.

"Perfect."

He pointed toward the distant horizon of his Soul Sea.

"Go terrorize people, pony!"

Nightmare’s eyes gleamed.

"Nightmare understands."

The steed collapsed instantly into pure shadow.

The darkness disappeared from his Soul Sea, traveling across the outside world. Sunny felt it go.

Then he slowly turned his gaze toward another presence lurking in the depths of his soul.

Serpent.

Sunny folded his arms and sighed.

"...Alright, let’s see what you’ve got to say."