Shadow Slave

Sunny shuddered.

The voice he heard… was not his own. It sounded pleasant and calm, and seemed to have come from the darkness of the Sky Below itself.

'...Have I finally lost it?'

His first thought was that he had gone crazy again and was now hearing things.

His second thought was much less comforting…

'Damnation!'

Had he summoned some unholy titan from the depths of the Sky Below, after all?!

Sunny outstretched one hand, ready to manifest the Cruel Sight, but then hesitated.

If the owner of the voice was not a figment of his imagination, but some harrowing being of the void, was it really wise to agitate it? Would the silver blade even do anything against it?

'Calm down. Calm down. Maybe you just imagined the whole thing…'

As if to answer his thoughts, the void laughed softly.

"Ah, my apologies. I seem to have startled you."

Sunny gulped.

The pleasant voice seemed to belong to a young man, but no matter how hard he looked into the darkness, he couldn't see anyone… or anything… nearby.

He was reminded of his first meeting with Kai, only this time... this time, things were much more frightening.

"N—no worries. I just… didn't expect to hear another human's voice here. You, uh… you are a human… right?"

The void was silent for a while, then answered in a neutral tone:

used to be a

pinpoint the direction from which the voice was coming.

tensed, then asked

what are you

disappeared for a few moments, then sighed. Finally, it

"...Lost."

Sunny blinked.

the hell does

As in lost in the Sky

darkness let out

in

run down his spine, it hesitantly

I am one of the Lost. My body in the waking world was destroyed, but

One of the Lost…

the Lost. People whose bodies had somehow died in the real world, leaving their souls stranded in the Dream Realm. There wasn't a lot of them, since most of the time the soul perished shortly after the

Sunny relax a little… not that he had any reason to believe that the stranger was telling him the truth. He could have been a Nightmare Creature,

Or something worse...

explain how they were able to converse. The Lost, from what Sunny knew, were just like any other Awakened in the Dream

were not were disembodied voices coming from the

shifted his weight slightly, ready to… do something to protect himself, if need be,

But how is it that I am

voice lingered for some time, that answered with a bit of

is a

waited patiently for him to expand on that answer, but

you going

the voice suddenly

Sky Below? This is a

a couple of times,

well, you see… I am not so much descending into the Sky Below as I am falling into it. I got stuck on an island because of the Crushing, and sadly, that island broke off its chain. So, I had to jump

Then, he frowned.

haven't seen

for a while,