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.

was absolutely

surrounded by nothing, nothing had changed while he

chest beneath him. After a while,

I even went so far as to take a nap on top of

down below, false stars

about twelve hours. A bit longer

if he assumed them to be correct, that

the golden String of Fate, but had to assume that it

of his house. The pod would keep it alive for months, so Sunny was not

Would anyone miss him?

was going to be, they would just assume that he was too

the habit of keeping a detailed record of who went in and out of the Citadel. The most anyone was going to

would just think that he was avoiding her, as he had done

was really going to care that he was gone. So many things had changed, but even more

in his hand, Sunny remained motionless for a while, then dismissed it

I have my

***

the rope connecting him to the dead Mimic with his one functioning hand, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing, then cautiously climbed onto the side of the big chest and tried

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

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

— or rather, the air moving past him as he fell through it — it meant that