Shadow Slave

Sunny's bed trembled slightly, and he felt the wind blowing across the room. Still mostly asleep, he sighed and tried to pull the blanket higher. However, that damned thing was nowhere to be found.

'Where the hell is it…'

Reluctant to let go of sleep, he blindly searched for the blanket. Instead of finding it, though, Sunny suddenly felt his whole bed careen to the side. Startled, he opened his eyes… and saw nothing but darkness surrounding him.

'What the?! Oh… right.'

He wasn't in his small room in the Sanctuary. He was plummeting into a lightless abyss atop the corpse of a Fallen Devil, instead.

Sunny stared into the darkness for a bit.

Then, he yawned.

'Well. At least I slept well.'

Indeed, he was feeling rather refreshed. Most of his aches had either disappeared or grown milder, and even his wounded mind felt soothed. He felt rested, energized, and much better overall.

The only problem was, he was still falling into the endless void of the Sky Below.

Sunny scratched the back of his head, though about this predicament, then summoned the Endless Spring and drank some water. Then, he concentrated and tried to assess the situation.

situation was absolutely

changed while he slept, and there was nothing he could

and stared at the treasure chest beneath him. After a while,

this poor bastard, I even

down, down below, false stars shimmered with white

of his shadow essence had regenerated, Sunny judged that he slept for about twelve hours. A bit longer than usual, but he

But if he assumed them to be correct, that would mean that he

going to take to reach the thing on the end of the golden String of Fate, but had to assume that it would take at least a week… much longer than that, most

in the basement of his house. The pod would keep it alive for months, so Sunny was

Would anyone miss him?

Effie were used to his long ventures into the Dream Realm, and even if none of them had been as long as this one was going to be, they would just assume that he was too lazy to answer their messages and go about their business. They were famous heroes now, after

of the Citadel. The most anyone was going to think about him would be when Cassie arrived from the Night Temple, and he wasn't there to help Saint Tyris

think that he was avoiding her, as he had

on the lid of the dead treasure chest in boundless darkness, Sunny realized that no one was really going to care that he was gone. So many things

in his hand, Sunny remained motionless for a while, then dismissed it and knocked on the lid of the

my coins, at

***

a strange aerial dance. Holding onto the rope connecting him to the dead Mimic with his one functioning hand, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing, then cautiously

both of them were plummeting down with incredible speed, his body felt pleasantly light.

of his fall was going to increase exponentially, which meant that

breathe in the Sky Below and felt the wind — or rather, the air moving past him as he fell through it — it meant that the speed of