Shadow Slave

Summoning the Covetous Coffer, he commanded the toothy box to climb inside the… bigger, toothier box and open its lid. Then, he started whistling a lighthearted melody while throwing the heavy coins inside.

'One, two, three, four… ah, what a day to be alive… five, six…'

One after another, the miraculous golden discs disappeared into the Coffer. After a while, Sunny shifted his weight slightly, got more comfortable, and continued gathering his spoils.

In the end, he had recovered almost fourteen hundred coins from inside the dead devil. Just as Sunny had expected, the entire top layer of the treasure pile had turned out to be real.

That was an incredible, astonishing boon! Suddenly, everything that had happened seemed worth it…

Almost.

Glancing at the lightless void around him, Sunny sighed.

'Who knows if I will even be able to return to the Sanctuary? Without the altar, these coins are just dead weight.'

Somewhat disheartened, he lingered for a few moments, then turned his gaze back to the opened treasure chest.

The top layer of the treasure pile that he had successfully plundered was indeed real, but beneath it…

Sunny struggled to keep the contents of his stomach inside. Beneath the treasure, the limbs and organs of the Mimic were tightly packed together, taking up most of the chest's volume. The whole thing was soaked in black blood and producing a sickening stench, not to mention looking like a butcher's nightmare.

'Disgusting… so disgusting…'

Thinking about how repulsive the sight in front of him was, Sunny used the Moonlight Shard to cut through the terrible sludge and fished out four large soul shards with a wide smile on his face. After cleaning them up a little, he placed the alluring crystals inside the Covetous Coffer and dismissed the Memory with a feeling of great satisfaction.

After that, Sunny stared inside the treasure chest with a dubious expression on his face.

The thing was… he only had around three days worth of provisions left, stored neatly inside the Covetous Coffer. If he rationed his food, it would probably last him for about a week. After that…

Sunny scratched the back of his head, then shuddered and closed the lid of the chest with a loud thud.

'...I'll think about it when the time comes. But, hopefully, it never does!'

With that, he climbed back onto the dead devil and rested for a while, looking into the darkness.

As time slowly passed, Sunny grew more and more solemn. Finally, he came to a frightening realization.

…He had nothing else left to do.

***

"This is going to be a problem."

later — or just a few hours, who knew — Sunny was sitting

what else would he be doing? There was nothing else to

to summon the sunlight the somber spear had absorbed and project it into the darkness of the Sky Below. Thanks to that light, the shapes of his two shadows could be clearly seen, one resting on the surface of the chest to his left, the other to his

his head,

bored. How are we

right hesitated, then raised a fist encouragingly. Its

"You got this!"

stared at him grimly, then simply shook its head. Its meaning was

"Just give up already…"

blinked a couple of

going to be fine. I'll just… think about it as a vacation. Yeah. When was the last time I could just relax and do nothing? That's right… never!

remained silent for a while,

literally have no choice but

him, then

the happy shadow hesitated for a bit before giving him a

Sunny frowned.

done with being crazy. Been there, done that, as they say. There

shadows didn't answer, making him huff

It's not like you even have enough decency to pull your weight in the

Cruel Sight, letting the darkness

a while, Sunny said

it's not like I don't have better alternatives to

had he put the

***

it had been three days, since that was how long his shadow essence usually took to fully recover without the aid of the

was the worst, it was

disappeared, or was there at all. There was nothing but empty darkness, the

And falling.

start of it all, Sunny had been worried that he would encounter evil, colossal, inconceivably horrifying creatures in

hoped to encounter

prone to going insane in isolation, but never expected to be in such a situation

day thinking about this and that, remembering his experiences and

the Mirror Beast and the Cruel Sight. Why was the silver spear

the Cruel Sight because its polished blade showed a

wondered about the shipwreck, the coins, the Mimic, and the person called

and the person whose face was depicted on the miraculous coins.

they could only be used in

what Kai, Effie,

He wondered about Nephis.

had become a devil. Sunny stared at

Memories and the shadows