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

and stared at the treasure chest beneath him.

did I kill this poor bastard, I even

down, down below, false stars

by how much of his shadow essence had regenerated, Sunny judged that he slept for about twelve hours. A bit longer than usual, but he was really exhausted after everything

course, were very rough. But if he assumed them to be correct, that would mean that he had left the Sanctuary

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

sleeping pod in the basement of his house. The pod would keep it alive for months, so Sunny was not too worried about

Would anyone miss him?

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

of keeping a detailed record of who went in and out of the Citadel. The

she would just think that he was avoiding her, as he

the lid of the dead treasure chest in boundless darkness, Sunny realized that no one was really going to care that he

a long look at the beautiful glass bottle in his hand, Sunny remained motionless for a while, then dismissed it and knocked on

have my coins,

***

his one functioning hand, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing, then cautiously climbed onto the side of the big chest

fact that both of them were plummeting down with incredible speed, his body felt pleasantly light. Sunny thought about it for a

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

realized that his assumption was wrong. Since he could breathe in the Sky Below and felt the wind — or rather, the air moving past