A Sunless Dream

Wind whistled in his ears as he moved through the shadows from one tree to another. The land he was entering was foreign to him, although he had pieces and fragments of a life that seemed so different from his own. Those fragments allowed him to guide his way through the world without easily getting lost.

However, he could not appeal to those fragments for a sense of direction. The new land was so strange and foreign he took a step out of a shadow to fully gaze upon it. As far as his eyes could see, multiple people were walking about with their souls blazing with a certain ethereal beauty he couldn't help but want to snuff out.

These people were of multiple different shapes and colours, however as a result of shadow dance the world was a vast colourless expanse which offered him little to no room for imagination.

Focusing in on the strongest soul around, he encountered one as wide and strong as the bearded man he had encountered while trying to speak to Morgan. 'Anvil, was it?' he thought to himself. The man was quite rude, how dare he interrupt his peaceful conversation with Morgan.

If he weren't in a good mood, he would have fought.

Although reminiscing upon past injustices would not do him any good. The woman who's soul he was staring at from afar was not the one he was speaking of her soul far surpassed that of a regular Saints and didn't possess the lightless feeling he got whenever he encountered a user of true darkness.

Zoning in on another, he felt the soul of another. This time, her soul was much weaker however he still did not get the feeling he was looking for. After a minute of silent searching, he found it. Their soul was huge and enveloped in darkness that caused Sunny to smile in anticipation, he wanted to meet this person, talk to this person, kill them!

"No, no killing" he silently reprimanded himself. He took off in a burst of speed before quickly turning into a shadow, after a while he found himself standing right behind the owner of such an alluring soul. It was a woman if he remembered correctly that was what they were called.

"Excuse me, are you Lightslayer?" he tried his hardest to be polite, although parts of him wanted to lash out at the woman and attempt to attack her in broad daylight he wouldn't get what he was looking for by just killing her instantly. He had to take the more...human approach.

'Human...what in the world does that mean' he thought to himself before tapping his foot impatiently waiting for an answer. The woman turned around and looked at him with narrowed eyes "Who are you?" he could notice the twitch of her muscles getting ready to shoot out an attack if he didn't answer.

"That won't do" he sighed to himself, charging at her, he grabbed her by the arm and jumped into the air, manipulating the shadows like a springboard to push him as far away from the rest of those boring uninteresting souls. In a split second, they had crossed a continents worth of distance, and he formed himself wings to slow their fall.

Revel hadn't even seen what happened, a few moments ago there was an imposing figure before her asking for her name and now here they were in an open field, and he was gently dropping her to the floor 'How confusing' she thought to herself.

If there was one thing she knew, this man had to come with her and join forces in the Song domain or he was going to die. It was as simple as that, however at the show of speed she had just witnessed doubts in her ability to accomplish such a feat began to arise.

"See, usually I'd play with you then kill you out of curiosity." Revel tensed at those words "However, after...consuming some of changing star. It appears that I have gained a low form of what you people call 'reasonability'" he paused for a second and stroked his chin before shooting her another glance.

"I'd ask if you're Lightslayer once more but, from the look of your soul it appears you are." He took a second, pausing as if he had said something gravely offensive "That's what you're called right? Or is there anything else you want me to call you, names are important I think."

"Revel. Just call me Revel." The man nodded furiously, 'Why is he treating me like I'm an acquaintance' she thought to herself before responding with a question of her own "What are you called then?" if they were exchanging pleasantries, such a question was only natural no?

Although to her surprise the man stopped moving entirely, he rigidly turned to face her with his eyes opened wide with silent horror. "I...don't know. I don't have a name" he replied slowly.

"What type of person doesn't have a name? Didn't your parents name you?" Revel shot back; it was hard to tell if this person was being honest with her. From his body language, it appeared he was though however, looks have always been deceiving in the life she has lived.

"Parents? I have no clue what those are" to accentuate his point he shook his head vigorously before becoming extremely still "This is besides the point, the reason why I called you here was to speak to you and then hopefully we can fight." Noticing her tense up again at the mention of fighting, he raised his hands "I'll be gentle I swear! I'll try not to get carried away and kill you."

Revel looked at him with a raised eyebrow "You speak as if you could at any moment" she responded. Although his display of speed was baffling, if all he had was speed surely, he didn't think that he would be able to defeat her, right? "I've been told I'm quite strong" he shrugged, this was true although he was the only one who ever said that about himself.

All the others died.

"What do you wish to speak about?" Revel had decided she was going to humour him, there was no point in brushing off another Saint who had no allegiance just because he appeared and acted slightly sporadic. In fact, speaking to him would only make negotiations easier.

"I want to figure out, what I am." He stretched out his hand and conjured two shadow chairs placed opposite of each other and sat down. "People call me lots of things, but it never seems to stick. The mirror man called me the 'Lord of Shadows' and another man called me a monster" he took a pause before locking eyes with the woman in front of him "Who am I, what makes me...me?"

Revel had tuned out all the other words he had said to focus on one specific fact that the man before her had glossed over like it was entirely irrelevant. "You're...the lord of shadows?" she asked.

The lord of shadows shook his head once more before staring at her with his black, dead eyes. "That's what they call me, but really, I think they're exaggerating" he waved his hand dismissively at her question before narrowing his eyes slightly "So are we going to focus on the irrelevant details or do you want to talk?"

Revel slowly took her place seated in front of him as the lord of shadows conjured a table between them for him to rest his feet on. "See Revel, it feels as if I've lived another life. My memories are all fragments and quite frankly I cant see any colour. The only thing that had given me direction up until this point was this strange dance however even it now feels incomplete."

He took a moment to pause and gather his thoughts once more before continuing "I'm nothing, I don't recognise myself, I'm constantly changing and have nothing to anchor myself to. It feels like I'm about to achieve something which may give me some identity when I do that odd dance however currently there seems to be a piece that I'm missing."

The lord of shadows stretched his arm and yawned however Revel could tell through his eyes that he was intensely focused on what he was talking about "After I fought changing star, who was utterly boring if I may add. I took a piece of her into myself, and it allowed me something, no matter how small to anchor myself to. My question is, what is this thing which I'm missing that you all seem to have?"

Revel looked at him, for someone as fearsome as the lord of shadows of all the problems she had expected him to have. This was not one of them. 'Maybe the dance he mentioned has to do with his powers' she mused, after a brief pause, she finally figured out what he had been missing.

"You've forgotten what it's like to be human."