Chapter 135: First Day of Nothing
’This... really sucks.’
Sunny was falling through a boundless, empty void of cold darkness. Far below, false stars were shimmering with pale white light. Their radiance, however, did very little to illuminate the Sky Below. Everywhere around him, there was just... nothing.
Sunny was still resting atop the treasure chest, holding onto it with his one healthy hand. He had no reference point to measure how far he had traveled, but suspected that the distance was swiftly leaving the realm of mundane sense and logic.
He was not very educated, however, even he knew that a falling object would forever accelerate at a steady pace... theoretically. That meant that every second Sunny was falling, his speed was increasing exponentially. By now, it had to be simply insane.
But he did not really feel that speed. All he felt were wisps of cold wind caressing his skin from time to time. If there was one good thing about the situation, it was that he had accumulated a bit of Shadow Essence and was able to summon the Puppeteer’s Shroud again. So he wasn’t naked anymore, at least.
If there was one thing he did know, though, it was the approximate speed with which he could glide forward with the help of the Dark Wing. Adding the weight of the dead treasure to the equation, he could more or less calculate the distance he was covering horizontally. With that in mind, he guessed that he would reach the middle of the Tear in around a day...
Problem was, he had no reliable way to measure time, as well. There were some clues he could try to use, like the rate of Shadow Essence regeneration or the state of his wounds, but they were not exactly reliable.
In heroic stories, characters often found themselves in similar situations. Every time that happened, the hero somehow managed to measure the passage of time by the state of their facial hair. Sadly, despite being seventeen, Sunny could not grow even the most pitiful of beards. That was a real shame.
’...Screw beards! It would ruin the aesthetic anyways!’
Remembering the Mirror Beast’s pretty face whenever it turned into Sunny, he felt comforted about the fact that he was much more attractive than he previously thought. Hestared at the lid of the treasure chest and tried to assess his physical state.
Things weren’t good, but they also weren’t very bad. He had sustained minor internal damage due to the Crushing, as well as several rather ugly wounds in the battle against Mimic. The half-healed cuts left on his body by the Mirror Beast had also opened at some point, and were now hurting once again.