The crow’s head stretched down to me, the tip of its beak dangerously close to my chest. “I see we have another lifelong visitor to the Shadowverse. I’d say to enjoy your stay, but I’m sure it won’t be long before you go insane here.”

  I was sure it would’ve kept its mouth shut regarding my next questions, though I had to ask anyway. “What is the Shadowverse and how do I get out?”

  Instead of staying quiet, the crow decided that cackling in my face was the better option. “Get out? There’s no escape from this place. This is your new Hell away from Hell. You will never-”

  I punched the crow, but to my surprise, my attack didn’t land. Not ‘cause it dodged it. My fist passed through him like its head wasn’t there in the first place.

  “Did-Did-Did you just try to punch me during my mockery of you?” the animal asked, sounding flabbergasted.

  “My bad, man. I just thought this was one of those boss battle video game things where if I defeated you, I'd be transported back.”

  The crow’s mouth gaped. “Of course not, you fool! I am made of darkness. This whole place is made of darkness! You can't touch or hurt anything here!”

  Well, if hurting it wasn't an option, maybe I could absorb everything here? This place must've been created using energy. After all, I was able to absorb the energy from my shadow earlier. This couldn’t have been that different. Although, that assessment was quickly proven wrong upon using my ability. Maybe the energy was hidden somewhere…

  The crow laughed in my face again. “Are you daft? I literally just said you couldn’t touch anything here. What made you think you could absorb it? Everything here besides you and the humans lost in this infinite space is an abstract concept.”

  “Care to educate me on what that is? I dropped out of high school pretty early.”

  “High school!? In that case, I’ll dumb it down for your little mind to comprehend. You can’t touch, smell, taste, or hear anything here. Including me! So don’t you ever try and interrupt me with your fists ever a-”

  “In other words, this ability is pretty useless, right? I mean, it seems like the whole point of this is just to make people sit here and… talk to you, I guess.”

  “Part of me knows you meant that as an insult, but I’d like to believe that having the privilege to talk to me is actually a good thing, so I’ll take that as a compliment. However…” The bird smiled sinsterly, which I was only able to see ‘cause of his slanting green eyes. “You can’t hurt us, but they can hurt you.”

  A low moaning echoed from below, cutting through my confusion with something close to familiarity. Shadowy demons oozed into the dark universe, their pale eyes pinning me in place. The Shadowverse was known for its sterile silence, but the raw suffering in their voices felt strange—almost like the universe was finally exhaling. It was a weird breath of fresh air.

  The group of four charged at me. I knew there was no use in readying a battle stance, yet my instincts always told me to fight first and regret it later.

  To my annoyance, the crow cackled again. “Remember when I mentioned the lost humans within the Shadowverse? Well, there are many of them, and a few just couldn’t take permanent silence, the infinite amount of time they had in here. So they made a deal with me. Turn them into those things, and they won’t have to be conscious of this anymore. Mindless monsters whose only purpose is to beat you to a gooey pulp!”

  Once one of the monsters got close to me, I swung. Obviously, they phased through my hand. The same couldn’t be said for the first demon as it was able to strike my chest.

  “Ha! I bet that hurt, didn’t it!?” His bow tie began to spin, as though the object found the situation amusing too. “Under that darkness are humans, humans who’ll make your life here a living hell! All while sporting such devilishly handsome looks made by yours truly. Even though the darkness can’t touch you, their bodies under it can. How does it feel, huh? Knowing you’re getting beat in here while your child is getting beat out there?”

  A second monster kicked my back. The others joined in, beating on my body while the crow continued to speak.

  “The fun part is… you can’t die here! No matter how badly they break you, you’ll still be alive and conscious. You see, the Shadowverse is the representation of one of the many possibilities of what the afterlife could be. A forever darkness—a human’s biggest fear besides death. That specific fear is what powers this place. The apocalypse and the existence of zombies helps a lot with that.”

  “Um…”

  “Actually, I guess that part would only be fun for me. Haha!”

  “This doesn’t hurt me, man…”

  The bird’s smile faded instantly. “Excuse me? You said that doesn’t hurt you?”

  “Well, no. I’m a zombie, so I can’t feel pain from regular things. And that darkness over them doesn’t seem to be energy, and you need something with energy to hurt me.”

  “Oh.”

  Despite explaining how useless this all was, the demons were still punching me. “And they can’t really damage my body either. I’m pretty tough if I do say so myself.”

  “Oh.”

  Wouldn’t this thing have known that if it’s a part of Roddy’s ability? Maybe it doesn’t know everything that goes on outside.

  “Yeah, so can I leave now or do you let me out? How does this work?”

  The bird’s head shook in frustration. “Even if I can’t torture you physically, it must torture you mentally knowing your child is likely dead outside. There! How’s that sound?”

  “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” I said without a sliver of worry. “My daughter’s strong enough to not get killed by those pair of idiots. Besides, I’m pretty sure one of them is already dead anyway. I got nothing to worry about.”

  “…You’re no fun,” the crow said, his head sinking. “None of this is fun anymore.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Just let me out, man.” I pointed to the monsters who were still attacking me. “Maybe you can, uh, have fun with these guys here.”

  “But they’re practically dead now… I can’t reverse the effects of what I did. This is just terrible.” The crow sighed. “Even if I wanted to let you out, I couldn’t. We’re in the same boat.”

  I groaned, gripping my face. “You’re telling me you're trapped in here too?”

  “Yes, yes I am. Master Richman took me in as his dark pet years ago, and I’ve been here ever since. I haven’t seen the light of the sun ever since. It’s sad, isn’t it?”

  It was hard to feel bad for someone who took pleasure from the suffering of others in this place… Is it trying to earn sympathy points?

  “Screw this shit,” I shouted, blasting energy balls into the sky. “I’ll destroy this whole world if I have to!”

  “Why are you even bothering? Like I said before, this is an infinitely sized pocket dimension. Those blasts are going to be traveling forever until they eventually disperse or perhaps hit one of the lost humans here.”

  “This place is stupid! What kinda asshole would have a power like this!?”

  “That’s Master Richman for you. He uses it frequently to torture misbehaving slaves. Most of the time he does it out of pleasure.”

  I flew upwards, hoping the monsters would get the message. They followed me anyway. “There has to be a way out of here…”

  The crow’s head stretched towards me. “Well, there is one way out. It’s very, very impossible though.”

  “Who cares? Tell me what it is.”

  “Light. More specifically, a light bright enough to shine on an entire city.”

  I stopped, and the monsters continued their barrage of punches. “Huh!? That’s impossible for me to do right now! I’m low on energy.”

  “That’s Master Richman for you. He must have sensed that and chose the perfect time to trap you in here.

  “Yeah, Roddy fucking Richman–Master of Intelligence. Who cares, man? I want to get out of here.”

  “Ah, don't worry about it too much. Give it a couple years and maybe Roddy will trap hundreds of people here smart enough to carry a flashlight around. Or would it have to be thousands?”

  “I have a couple years, but my daughter doesn't! I need to get out sooner rather than fucking later!”

  “Then let me help you.”

  That voice sounded familiar. Was that-

  “Sunflower? At least your memory hasn’t grown rotten, old man.”

  ‘I don't have time to hear you torment me now. Save it for when I'm out of here.’

  “You can't escape unless you have a really bright light, remember? Maybe your memory is getting foggy.”

  ‘I'm not even in my Nature Form right now. How are you even speaking to me?’

  “You absorbed me, which made me and you practically the same person in the same body. Don't you remember? After you killed my… No, I'm not here to talk about that.”

  If she was trying to hide her burning urge to see me dead, then she was doing a pretty bad job with it.

  “You know I can hear you, right?”

  ‘Tell me what you want or leave me alone to think.”

  “I want to help you.”

  ‘Yeah, and I'm totally still a human. I just dress up like a zombie.”

  “Do you really think I'm lying? We are literally one person in one body. You can read my thoughts just like how I can read yours.”

  Despite my initial denial of her intentions, I knew she wasn't lying. Most of me just couldn't get over the fact that Sunflower literally tried to kill me not too long ago. What could possibly make her wanna help me now?

  “Who are you even talking to, old man? You do this shit like every minute of every day. Also, just read my damn mind.

  ‘You’re a sixteen year old girl. I don't wanna read your mind. It's intrusive.’

  “Jesus Christ… Fine! Roddy Richman. Ricky Saints. I want them both dead. And if Jason has the balls to work with them, then I want him dead too.”

  ‘Did those two… do something to you?’

  “They were one of my owners in the Slave Lands. What didn’t they do to me?”

  ‘Well, that’s reason enough for me. Even if it’s someone like you, we could probably use the help.’

  “Don’t get it twisted. I’m not doing this to help you. I still want you six feet… twelve feet under. But if you were a twelve, then those two would be a… nineteen.”

  ‘If you're adding by six, then six times three is actually e-’

  “Eighteen! You don't need to tell me.”

  ‘Anyways… How do you actually plan to help from inside of me? I can't go into the other form right now.”

  “You won't have to because you're going to bring me out. Since you like bringing up what happened in the State Between Release so much, then I'm sure you know what I'm talking about already.”

  ‘That you tried to kill m-’

  “The orbs! You know how I was trying to take my mother out of you by taking back… stealing the orb you supposedly absorbed consensually?”

  Why was she still in denial about that? She can literally see what happened in my m-

  “Stop interrupting me with your narration! Anyways, you don't just have the power to transform with those orbs. You can release them like normal energy blasts too. Except when you release me, I'll be in my normal form.”

  ‘Just to let you know, my trust in you isn’t the highest.’

  “I don’t care if you trust me or not. All you have to do is trust in the anger I have for those men. You feel it, right?”

  ‘My body’s been fuming intensely since I met those two guys.’

  “Good. Then let me be the light that shines in the darkness.”

  ‘Alright, so just focus, find your orb, and release. Should be easy enough.”

  I followed the instructions exactly, and a light green orb slowly emerged from my chest. I had completely forgotten the crow was near me until it screeched in my damn face.

  “What!? What do you want,” I shouted angrily, grabbing the orb. “And stop screaming at me. I’m still here, aren't I?”

  “Well, I’m sorry for trying to get your attention. I usually don’t act so unprofessional, but you were unresponsive for so long that I thought you somehow turned your consciousness off.”

  “I don’t even think that’s possible for me.”

  “What in the blazes is that orb in your hands?” the bird asked, staring intensely at the light. “Is this your answer for escaping the Shadowverse? If so, it’s obviously not enough.”

  “Sit back and watch the light show, bird brain.”

  The orb vibrated in my palm, cold and stiff—like a corpse. It glowed brighter with each pulse, and threads of light began to unravel from its center, curling upward like steam but with far more intent. It lifted from my hands on its own, floating chest-high, spinning faster and faster. The green light spread outward in thin tendrils, shaping into something vaguely humanoid.

  A soft hum filled the air, followed by a whisper I couldn’t quite make out—eerie, ghastly, and chilling. The light dimmed just enough to reveal an outline. Shoulders. A neck. Fingers curled slightly at her sides. Eyes still closed.

  Then she opened them. They were the same shade of light green as the orb—sad, scared, and… knowing.

  Those same eyes turned to me, and I knew I should’ve prepared for the possible battle ahead. However, I remained calm and believed in the trust Sunflower told me about. Something told me this was exactly what she was looking for too as her lips curled into a smirk.

  “Sunspot!”