Shadow Slave novel Chapter 438

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."