Shadow Slave

Sunny stared into the void suspiciously.

"Yeah? And how come you are so concerned about my well-being?"

The voice remained silent for a bit, then answered wistfully:

"I haven't really spoken to anyone in a long, long time. It would be a shame to finally find someone to talk to, only for them to die soon. Don't you think?"

'That guy is definitely not just a simple Lost… what is his deal, really? Is he actually a human or only pretends to be one?'

Sunny thought for a bit, then said:

"I guess. And since we're on the topic… how is it exactly that we are able to talk?"

He expected the voice to change the subject or ignore the question, but to his surprise, it actually answered:

"I am not really sure. This has never happened to me before, either."

After a while, it added hesitantly:

"Have you… have you perhaps found a piece of a broken mirror somewhere?"

Something clicked in Sunny's mind.

"Broken mirror… Mirror Beast… Beastie…"

The Ascended Reflection! The shard of a mirror that the strange creature had left behind was still inside the Covetous Coffer… smeared with his blood…

'Crap!'

So the owner of the voice was the creator of the murderous Reflection Sunny had encountered on the Reckoning. That… that gave him as many questions as it had given him answers.

He couldn't really think about it right now, though, because the pressure of the Flaw was already building in his mind, forcing him to speak.

"Now that you mention it, I did, indeed, recently find a piece of a broken mirror. With the word "Beastie" written on it in a child's handwriting."

The voice remained silent for a while, then asked quietly:

"Oh? How exactly did you find it?"

not answer for as long as he could, then

creature I killed. I took it

The owner of the voice tried very hard to suppress it, but

it's dead. I

fell silent once

a while, he asked

angry

deep sigh resounded

you? Why would I be angry with you? You are not to blame for what happened

whatever it was that had been responsible for the Mirror Beast becoming separated from its creator — and eventually dying by his hand — was extremely lucky that the owner of the voice

Then, he asked cautiously:

what exactly was it, though? I have never seen a creature like

in control of itself when

of my Aspect Ability. A kind of an Echo, you can say. I… I created him when I was just a lonely kid. We were together for a long

head, then frowned

a kid? A kid with an Aspect

The voice laughed bitterly.

was twelve. It's

Sunny blinked.

the Nightmare at twelve… of course

rare cases, the people infected by the Spell were outside of the usual age range. The entire first generation of the Awakened had been, for example. And there were cases of this anomaly to this day, even though it usually

that

his throat,

better, the creature tried to say something before it died. Uh…

its owner had once again spent all of his soul essence… or whatever it was that allowed him to communicate with Sunny… and

Sunny sighed.

it! I didn't even have time to ask him how to

how he chose

***

into the void. By now, he was having trouble remembering what it even felt like, to not be falling. The darkness seemed to be eternal and everpresent, as though he had always been here, in its empty embrace, and all of his actual life

'Maybe it was?'

wasn't.

only were the distant shimmering lights now closer and brighter, but it also felt as if the

the flow of shadow essence. On the surface of

"...You practice archery?"

eyes and glanced into the darkness,