Chapter 437 Nothing, Nothing, Nothing
Sunny sat silently for a few moments, thinking.
'Sun God…'
So, the ruler of this land had angered the gods, and one of them struck down her kingdom. He could just imagine it — a vast pillar of incandescent white flame falling from the skies, piercing the ground and causing the whole region to fracture, its fragments falling into the searing inferno of the divine flame one after another.
Well… not all of them had fallen.
He glanced up, wondering if the Chained Isles were created to save the citizens of the destroyed kingdom from annihilation. If so… that prideful ruler must have been not so simple herself.
Who would be powerful enough to dare resist the wrath of the gods?
And what had that being done to provoke it?
But more importantly…
How the hell did the voice of the void knew so much about it?
A subtly suspicious expression appeared on his face.
"...Really? This is very interesting. And how exactly do you know all this?"
Sunny hesitated, and then cautiously added:
"Did you, perhaps, have something to do with that prideful ruler?"
The voice was silent for a moment, and then suddenly exploded with sincere laughter.
"Oh my! I wish! Wouldn't that be grand… but no, I am just an Awakened who had studied the Chained Isles, probably the same way that you have studied them in your travels. The ruins here are all but destroyed by the endless cycle of the Crushing, but if one knows where to look, there are still some answers left to find."
Sunny smiled.
"True. But I am actually a research assistant for the Wilderness Survival faculty of the Academy, and yet I have never seen any of the information you possess in the database. With the level of access that I have, that is very strange, isn't it?"
The voice chuckled.
"How am I supposed to report my findings to the Academy? I can't even leave the Dream Realm."
Sunny blinked.
That… actually made a lot of sense. Sort of. Lost or not, an Awakened still had to survive somehow in the Dream Realm, so they were bound to live in one of the Citadels. Probably. So, it wasn't like they had no contact at all with the real world, even if it was only through the other inhabitants of their Citadel.
Unless the owner of the voice was not a usual Lost. Or was lying to Sunny...
Or was just a figment of his imagination.
He frowned.
"...By the way, where are you, exactly? I haven't heard a voice like yours anywhere in the Sanctuary. And I have spoken to most of the Awakened there at least once."
The voice lingered for a while, then answered:
"I am not in the Sanctuary."
What was that supposed to mean? There was another Citadel on the Chained Isles, the Night Temple. But only those serving Valor were allowed to anchor there. Well… excluding Cassie and her cohort.
Did the owner of the voice have something to do with the great clan Valor? Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"Are you from the Night Temple, then?"
…But there was no response.
It seemed that the mysterious young man Sunny had been speaking with — if he was even real — had once again reached his limit, thus ending their conversation.freёweɓnovel.com
Sunny sighed.
"I swear to gods, this is even more annoying than when Effie leaves me on read!"
Who knew that a voice of the void could be more irritating than someone who had been almost literally raised by wild wolves?
"No manners! No decorum..."
***
Soon, Sunny regretted not asking the voice necessary questions. He would have to be more strategic with his words in the future...
"Survive heavenly fire… survive heavenly fire…"
Sunny glanced at the stars and felt that they had drawn even closer.
How was he supposed to withstand the searing heat of the divine flame?
Could that flame burn shadows?
He didn't really have an answer, but felt that it would be at least damaging to him, even in his shadow form.
And then, there was a more looming problem. The voice said that it would take Sunny a few weeks to reach the layer of the abyss containing the false stars, which meant that he was going to be… very, very hungry by the time he did.
Humans could survive a surprising amount of time without any food, but it would take a heavy toll on his body. Sunny had no idea what he was going to find on the other end of the golden String of Fate, but doubted that it would be a warm welcome.
He had to be ready to confront danger, and becoming starved and weak was not really an option.
Sunny lingered for a while, then stared down, at the lid of the treasure chest.
Was he really going to have to eat… that?ƒreewebɳovel.com
Even his shadows seemed disgusted by the idea.
But hey… food was food.
'Right?'
With a sigh, Sunny summoned the Covetous Coffer, took out his last meal out, and looked at it with regret.
"Tonight… we feast!"
'...Tomorrow, we mourn. And barf. Probably.'
***
A few days later, the stars were visibly brighter than they had been before. The sight of the black void littered with shimmering lights would have been beautiful if not for the terrible danger they represented.
Sunny was sitting in the center of the plummeting treasure chest with an extremely miserable expression on his face. It was deathly pale, and his chin was covered with drying black blood.
Raising a piece of raw devil meat to his mouth, he tore a piece of it with his teeth, and forced himself to chew.
'Disgusting… this is so disgusting… who knew I would miss the taste of synthpaste one day? Maybe I should just starve, after all!'
As soon as he thought that, the void suddenly spoke again:
"Oh, gods! You are actually eating that!"
Sunny stared into the darkness with hatred, swallowed the piece of mimic meat, and said evenly:
"Sure. Want a bite?"
The voice hesitated for several seconds, then asked:
"You're eating it raw?"
Sunny gritted his teeth.
"Of course I am eating it raw, you fool! How else am I supposed to eat it? I don't exactly have a kitchen here!"
Then, with a furious determination, he tore another piece of meat and chewed on it. As it turned out, his face had not reached its maximum paleness before. Now, it seemed not only white, but also a little green.
The void sighed. Then, it asked curiously:
"Are you not afraid of poisoning yourself?"
Sunny snarled.
"...I have a strong stomach."
He had, indeed, considered the possibility of catching a severe case of food poisoning from eating the corrupted meat of the vile devil. As an Awakened, however, his digestive system was much stroтger than that of mundane humans. And on top of that, there was Blood Weave. So, he judged that his chances of dying from eating the mimic were rather low.
…Now matter how poetic it would have been. Choking to death on the flesh of a devil you killed would be, too...
'How funny.'
Sunny swallowed the disgusting meat and took a sip from the Endless Spring.
A few moments later, the voice asked:
"Have you thought of a way to survive the divine flames?"
He stared at his broken arm, then shrugged.
"I considered a few."
The voice seemed to be pleased to hear that.
"Good. I have thought about it, as well…"
Chapter 438 Prince of Nothing
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?"
Sunny did not answer for as long as he could, then reluctantly spoke:
"That mirror shard was left behind by a powerful creature I killed. I took it with me, thinking that it might turn out to be important."
This time, the voice was quiet for an especially long amount of time. When it finally spoke, there was a hint of anguish in it. The owner of the voice tried very hard to suppress it, but his pain seemed to be too deep to not seep into his words even slightly.
"...So it's dead. I see."
Then, it fell silent once again.
Sunny tensed. After a while, he asked carefully:
"You, uh… you're not going to be angry with me for killing your pet, are you?"
A deep sigh resounded from the void.
"Angry… with you? Why would I be angry with you? You are not to blame for what happened to us."
Sunny shivered, suspecting that whoever or 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 had become one of the Lost.
Then, he asked cautiously:
"What… what exactly was it, though? I have never seen a creature like that."
The voice seemed more in control of itself when it answered after a few long moments:
"A manifestation 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 time, before… before we weren't anymore."
Sunny tilted his head, then frowned slightly.
"What do you mean, a kid? A kid with an Aspect Ability?"
The voice laughed bitterly.
"Ah, that… I had my First Nightmare when I was twelve. It's rare, but does happen sometimes. Few children survive the trial, though."
Sunny blinked.
'Being sent into the Nightmare at twelve… of course very few survive!'
He did know that, in extremely 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 happened to someone older than the norm, not someone younger.
'And I thought that I was unlucky…'
He cleared his throat, then said awkwardly:
"Well… I am sorry for your loss. If it makes you feel any better, the creature tried to say something before it died. Uh… we never stopped searching. Something like that."
The voice, however, didn't respond. It seemed that its owner had once again spent all of his soul essence… or whatever it was that allowed him to communicate with Sunny… and was now gone for another few days.
Sunny sighed.
"Curse it! I didn't even have time to ask him how to survive the damned stars!"
More strategic with how he chose his words, damn it!
***
Sunny spent a few more days plummeting 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 was just a strange dream.
'Maybe it was?'
No... no, it wasn't. He was almost sure.
By the time the voice returned, the void had changed slightly. Not only were the distant shimmering lights now closer and brighter, but it also felt as if the air was getting warmer.
Sunny was in his usual spot, sitting cross-legged in the center of the treasure chest and training to better control the flow of shadow essence. On the surface of the lid near him was a dark longbow and a quiver of black arrows.
"...You practice archery?"
Sunny opened his eyes and glanced into the darkness, then shrugged.
"Not really. But I hope to learn a bit of it soon."
He made a grimace and nodded toward his broken arm:
"I do need two functioning hands before I'll be able to, though."
The bow and the quiver of arrows were the same he had entrusted to Saint before. Both of the Memories were Ascended, but only of the first tier. The bow's enchantments made it incredibly strong and sturdy, while the only enchantment that the arrows possessed was that they came as a whole quiver instead of a single one.
His broken arm, meanwhile, was healing. He could already move his fingers, but the process was far from over. He was halfway there, though.
Sunny healed much faster than mundane humans, and even other Awakened. He was sure that in another week or so, he would be able to take off the splint and draw the black bow.
The voice lingered, then said:
"We had no time to discuss the divine flames last time."
Sunny nodded.
"Indeed."
Then, he remembered something and asked:
"Oh, by the way… what do I call you? Do you have a name? It's a bit awkward to keep thinking of you simply as the Voice."
The voice laughed.
"A name? I used to have a name, I guess."freewёbnoνel.com
Sunny sighed.
"Yeah? Well, what is it?"
The void lingered for a while, then answered with amusement:
"...Mordret. Or, rather... Prince Mordret, I guess."
Sunny opened and close his mouth a couple of times, then asked with suspicion in his voice:
"Prince? What are you the prince of?"
Mordret laughed.
"Nothing! I am a Prince of Nothing. Nothing at all…"