Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

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 their kingdom... and the conflict escalated when another person — a human of the Sacred Rank — involved themselves. He could just imagine it — a vast pillar of incandescent white flame falling from the skies while a storm of crimson infernos rose, piercing the ground and causing the whole region to fracture, it’s 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 themselves.

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 tilted his head, before shrugging.

"Well, if you say so, Mr. Suspicious Voice."

The voice chuckled.

"Out of curiosity, may I ask which planet you’re from? Mars colony? Pluto?"

Sunny blinked. That was a strange request. And where was Mars and Pluto? Why those specific planets? Weren’t there far too many planets to focus on only a couple?"

"You... can. I’m from Earth. The Outskirts of a city in Asia... uh, you know where Asia is, right?"

The place was quite a backwater civilization now, so it wouldn’t be strange for the only occasion of Earth being brought up was when historical figures were brought up.

When it came to the geography though, Sunny doubted that anyone knew all eight continents.

That’s one thing Sunny knew that other people did not, at least!

Suddenly, the voice replied.

"Ah, a fellow Earthling, I see. And for your information, I do know the seven continents. I am an educated individual after all!"

Although he was surprised to hear that he was speaking to someone from Earth — a place with a dwindling population — Sunny found an inconsistency with his words.

Sunny gazed into the abyss like it was stupid.

"It’s not seven continents. Eight. Eight continents."

"...I beg your pardon?"

The voice genuinely sounded baffled.

Sunny scratched the back of his head. It was just some random information he heard in passing at the nearby police station before he was infected by the Spell, whenever he got caught up in some trouble.

"You know... a couple dozens of thousands of years ago, Australia was cut in half... split right down the middle. At some point, the two halves were too far away from each other to be considered the same continent, so now it’s Australia... and New Australia."

The voice went silent for a few moments.

"...How perfect was this cut, if you don’t mind me asking?"

There was a hidden layer to his voice, one that made Sunny uneasy. Finding the question strange, but being forced to answer by his Flaw, he said:

"Perfect. Initially, at least. It got more messy over time, but when it first happened, it was a completely straight line."

There was a short pause, before the voice suddenly released a malice-filled chuckle.

"Ah... so that limitation has disappeared. I wonder how that came to be. A specially-crafted Memory? Or an increase in Rank?"

The voice seemed to be rambling to themselves, paying no heed to Sunny’s confusion. Disturbed, Sunny changed the topic:

"...By the way, where are you, exactly? I haven’t heard a voice like yours anywhere in the Sanctuary. And I hear a lot."

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.

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.

Sunny sighed.

"Yeah, fine, just ignore me, will you? Who do you even think you are?!"

Who knew that a voice of the void could be more irritating than fighting a Fallen Devil while withstanding an unnatural force of... not nature.

"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?

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.

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...

Started to scream.

"I can’t hear you!"

He couldn’t, because his screams drowned out all noise.

Sunny continued to scream for a few more seconds, before stopping.

The voice hesitated for several seconds, then started:

"You’re—"

Sunny began to scream once more, stopping the voice in the middle of their sentence. Then, after stopping, 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.

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 stronger 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, he asked, or rather, demanded:

"Don’t talk to me unless you’re going to tell me how to survive, how you’re talking to me, or who you are. Otherwise, you can go fuck yourself, Mr. Annoying Voice That Cuts Off The Very Moment Important Information Is About To Be Revealed."

After a few moments of tense silence, the voice replied in a seemingly unperturbed tone:

"When it comes to surviving the sea of stars, I’ve thought of a few possibilities..."