Fate’s Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

"…Am I interrupting something?"

Sunny was being violently shook around by red-faced Seele, who had decided to blame him for Veliona's actions. The red-eyed girl seemed to be able to forcefully switch control of Seele's body without her consent, which was somewhat worrying.

He smiled at Natasha, nodding his head.

"I guess you are. Not that I particularly mind… did you need anything?"

Natasha looked between Seele and himself, probably wondering about what had occurred between them. Sunny wasn't very enthusiastic about telling her, and he guessed that the same applied to Seele.

The older woman shook her head.

"I just came to tell you that your friends are awake."

With that, Natasha entered the clinic again, leaving him alone with Seele.

He blinked. He hadn't expected March and Dan Heng to regain consciousness this quickly. Considering the fact that the two of them were heavily injured, he had expected a couple more days before they would wake up. After all, Bronya had woken up today as well, and she had merely been knocked unconscious.

Maybe Natasha's potions had a hand in this hasty recuperation?

Either way, this was actually quite convenient for him. Sunny would be able to break the news to them before he and Seele set out to try and fix the Stellaron problem on Jarilo-VI.

Seele stopped shaking him, sending him a curious look.

"You have friends? And they're inside the clinic?"

Sunny squinted his eyes in annoyance.

"I do have… uh, a friend? Anyways, they aren't in the clinic."

Her expression turned skeptical.

"You don't sound too sure… and ho—"

Sunny pressed a finger to her lips, effectively shutting her up. He simply shook his head.

"Your asking too many questions. I don't do well under pressure… sometimes."

Removing Seele's hands, which were clasped around the Finality's Farewell, he stood up from his seat on the stairs leading up to the clinic. He walked over to the door of the clinic, Seele following right after him.

Opening the door, he found Dan Heng and March, the two of them being completely free of bandages and stitches. There wasn't even a single sign of their injuries.

When they noticed him, March excitedly waved at him.

"Hey, Sunny! Check this out, I'm good as new!"

She started to flex her arm with a proud expression on her face.

Dan Heng sighed at her antics.

"What's the current situation?"

Sunny's gaze lingered on the two of them for a second, before he shrugged.

"Turns out that Belobog is being controlled by a tyrant that has forsaken the Underworld. Don't use your Aspects down here. Especially not in front of normal people. If a normal person learns that you're an Awakened, you'll get a heart attack and die."

The two of them gave him befuddled looks. He sighed.

"Just… don't do anything more than summoning a Memory. Even then, do it as little as possible so that you don't accidentally break that rule."

Not bothering to make sure that the two of them understood, Sunny narrowed his eyes.

"Anyways, I'm a busy man. I'm going to deal with the Stellaron crisis myself. You two can do whatever you want."

March blinked.

"Huh? But… the two of us are already healed. You don't have to worry about us."

Sunny shook his head.

"I'm not worried about you two. Frankly, I just have no use for two kids who are all talk."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly shifted.

"Fighting without killing? Do you two think of yourselves as gods? You know… if I was by myself, I would have been able to escape without dealing with them. You two don't have the strength to have the privilege of sparing others. Resolve means nothing when you're weak."

Sunny crossed his arms.

"As you are now, you don't have the power to back up your words. If you two are so concerned about killing, then just give up on fighting. The weak have no right to impose their will on the world. The world will simply break you instead."

He sneered.

"And break you it did."

Sunny was utterly unimpressed by their actions. They were willing to fight against a large group of mundane soldiers that were accompanied by an Awakened that was able to make their bodies weak enough to be harmed by such mundane attacks, all without killing them. Such a thing was completely fine…

But it was the height of hubris.

March and Dan Heng didn't have the power to spare their enemies while still defeating them. Their arrogance was what brought their downfall upon them, having only been saved because Sampo had decided to assist them. Of course, Sunny was there too… but he would have definitely killed the Awakened that led the soldiers before saving them.

As a precaution.

In a way, Sunny understood the desire to not want to kill others. When he was a child, he was excessively gentle despite his selfish tendencies. He would cry when he accidentally killed a bug while other kids would pick them apart.

However, he knew that he couldn't survive like that when he became alone. Sunny had to adapt, become ruthless, and do whatever it took for him to survive.

If March and Dan Heng had the power to stick to their ideals, then that would have been simply sublime! Of course, they didn't, and that led Sunny to believe that it would be for the best if he forgot about working together with them. His options would only become more restricted, causing them to serve as nothing more than deadweight.

Sunny turned around, looking at Seele. The purple-haired girl was seeming surprisingly fidgety — most likely feeling awkward about being present for this conversation. Sunny stared down at his hand, wondering if what he did to Veliona would work on Seele as well.

They did have the same body…

"Seele, let's go."

She glanced back March and Dan Heng before nodding.

"Uh… right."

Once they got out the clinic, Sunny stared at the top of Seele's head. Contemplating whether or not he should try this, he decided to do so. Raising his hand, Sunny tried to pat her head.

'…She has a pretty strong grip.'

Before his hand could make contact, Seele grabbed his wrist in a crushing grip. She sent him a scathing glare.

"Don't even try it."

Sunny stared at her for a second, before smirking.

"Why not? Veliona seemed to love it…"

He specifically emphasized the word: love.

Seele's face flushed. Her glare started to seem much less imposing than before, appearing more like a cute than threatening.

"You're both gross! Perverts! Voyeurs!"

'I'm a victim too…'

With a sigh, Sunny brought his hand back down to his side.

"So, what do we do now?"

Seele sent him a strange look.

"I thought you had a plan."

Sunny simply groaned in exasperation.

"To solve the Stellaron crisis, we need to go to the Overworld. I have the feeling that the Supreme Guardian already knows about it, so we could try to interrogate her to locate it. The thing is, I don't know about any way to get back to the Overworld."

Technically, the path that Sampo had used to bring him here should have worked. However, Sunny had already checked the area the day before using his shadows. The Fragmentum had intensified, spawning monsters that were of the Ascended Rank and of higher Classes.

He wasn't sure if their was anything stronger than that, but he didn't want to go there unless it was a last resort.

For some reason, Fragmentums did not create Nightmare Creatures. Instead, they created monsters that followed the same rankings as humans.

Humans were ranked in this order: Dormant — which ranged from normal humans to Dreamers, Awakened — when one surpasses the mundane and enters the realm of superhumans, Ascended — when the body and soul become one, and Transcendent — when an individual's soul becomes one with the world.

As for Supreme, Sacred, and Divine… Sunny didn't know any humans that have gotten to such level of strength. If there was any beings that had attained such power, they might have been controlling the world from behind the scenes, hidden out of sight.

When it came to Nightmare Creatures, their Ranks were the inverse of humans. Dormant and Awakened were the same, but they then became Fallen, Corrupted, Great, Cursed, and Unholy.

Not only that, but they also had Classes, which denoted the amount of soul cores they have along with certain characteristics. Beasts had no capacity for intelligence, while Monsters grew a more instinctual, animalistic intellect. Demons gained a twisted intelligence, one that was sometimes equal to, or greater than humans.

As a Devil, Nightmare Creatures started to develop strange yet horrifying abilities. As a Tyrant, they gain the ability to create a legion of minions. These minions could be spawns of the Tyrant, other creatures and humans caught under a mind hex, or something even more unusual. Once they became a Terror, they gain the ability to influence a large area. An example would be something like a passive soul attack on any living creature nearby.

Once they obtained a seventh soul core, becoming a Titan… Sunny didn't actually know. It might have simply resulted in a cumulative boost to all their abilities, or have another imperceptible change. People tended to believe that Titans were simply much larger, but that wasn't always the case.

Sunny only knew three people that could have multiple Soul Cores. Sunny and AR-26710 were Divine Aspect holders, having souls that were tenacious enough to form multiple cores. Seele had her Duality Cores, which was due to the fact that she had two souls.

Excluding these exceptions, he had never heard of an actual monster that didn't follow the same rules as Nightmare Creatures. The only other example was the Antimatter Legion, but they were the servants of an Aeon.

This caused Sunny to wonder: What exactly is a Stellaron?

Looking at Seele, he sighed. He had been hoping that she knew of a way to get to the Overworld.

"So, do you got any ideas?"

She pursed her lips.

"I guess… we could ask Oleg?"

Sunny grinned.

'Finally. Some progress!'