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 human once,

direction from which the voice was coming. It was just…

then asked

Then what are

few moments, then sighed. Finally, it

"...Lost."

Sunny blinked.

hell

As in lost in

darkness let out a sad

Not in the

felt cold shivers run down his spine, it hesitantly

am sorry. I 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 body in the waking world was destroyed, but my soul continues to exist here, in

One of the Lost…

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 of them, since most of the time the soul perished shortly after the

voice was one of these lost souls made Sunny relax a little… not that he had any reason to believe that the stranger was telling him the truth. He could have

Or something worse...

knew, were just like any

they certainly were not were disembodied voices coming from the

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

hear that. But how is it that I am able to hear your voice, but can't

some time, that answered

a good

waited patiently for him to expand on that answer, but that seemed to be it. A bit irritated,

you going to

the voice

the Sky Below?

a couple of times, then

stuck on an island because of the Crushing, and sadly, that island broke off its chain. So, I had to

Then, he frowned.

dangerous? I haven't seen anything dangerous

a while, then sighed with