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

nothing, nothing had changed while he slept, and there was nothing he could do

chest beneath him. After

this poor bastard, I even went so far as to take a nap

down below, false stars

much of his shadow essence had regenerated, Sunny judged that he slept for about twelve hours. A

if he assumed them to be correct, that would mean that he had left

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

of his house. The pod would keep

Would anyone miss him?

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

him, too. The lookouts in the Sanctuary were not in the habit of keeping a detailed record of who went in and out of the Citadel. The most anyone was going to think about

would just think that he was avoiding

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

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

I have my

***

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

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

that the speed of his fall was going to increase exponentially, which meant that at some point his body

— or rather, the air