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 had changed while he slept, and there was nothing he

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

I even went so far as to take a nap on top of its dead body. Talk

below, false stars

regenerated, Sunny judged that he slept for about twelve hours. A bit longer than usual, but he was really exhausted after everything that had

his, of course, were very rough. But if he assumed them to be correct, that would mean that

was going to take to reach the thing on the end of the golden String of Fate, but had to assume that

in the real world, his body was safely hidden in the luxurious sleeping pod in the basement of his house. The pod would keep it alive for months, so Sunny

Would anyone miss him?

not. Kai and 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

of keeping a detailed record of who went in and out of the

was avoiding her, as he had

was really going to care that he was gone. So

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

have my

***

to the dead Mimic with his one functioning hand, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing, then

speed, his body felt pleasantly light. Sunny thought about it for a

going

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