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:

be a

even pinpoint the direction from which the voice was coming. It

then asked

Then what are you

disappeared for a few moments,

"...Lost."

Sunny blinked.

the hell does

lost in

darkness let out

Not in

shivers run down his

haven't spoken to anyone in a long, long time. Instead of lost, It would be more proper to say that I am one of the Lost. My

One of the Lost…

people, although he had never met one in person. Just like there were Hollow — people whose souls were destroyed, leaving an empty body behind — there were also 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

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...

was Lost, that didn't explain how they were able to converse. The Lost, from what Sunny knew, were just like any other Awakened in the Dream Realm. It was just that

were not were disembodied voices coming from

ready to… do something to protect himself, if need be, and

that I am able

time, that answered with a bit

a good

but that seemed to be it. A

you going to

voice

are you descending into the Sky Below? This is a very dangerous

a couple

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 off. And here

Then, he frowned.

I haven't seen anything dangerous anywhere

lingered for a while,