Nothing ever changed in the Sky Below. Nothing ever happened. Nothing ever appeared, or disappeared, or was there at all. There was nothing but empty darkness, the distant shimmering stars, and him.
And falling.
At the start of it all, Sunny had been worried that he would encounter evil, colossal, inconceivably horrifying creatures in the abyss. That was what one would expect from an abyss, right? But there was none.
By now, he almost hoped to encounter a stray titan or two.
He had heard that people were prone to going insane in isolation, but never expected to be in such a situation himself.
Sunny had spent the first day thinking about this and that, remembering his experiences and trying to learn something from them.
He wondered about the Mirror Beast and the Cruel Sight. Why was the silver spear even called that? Then, he understood.
It was called the Cruel Sight because its polished blade showed a person their own reflection.
He wondered about the shipwreck, the coins, the Mimic, and the person called Noctis. How were all of these things connected?
After a while, he guessed that Noctis had been the captain of the ancient ship, the master of the Mimic, and the person whose face was depicted on the miraculous coins. Noctis was also probably the one who had created the coins, in the first place.
That's why they could only be used in his Sanctuary.
He wondered about what Kai, Effie, and Cassie were doing.
He wondered about Nephis.
On the second day, he summoned the runes and saw that she had become a devil. Sunny stared at the counter that showed [2/4000] with a deadpan expression, then sighed and dove into the Soul Sea.
There, he had studied all of his Memories and the shadows of all the creatures he had killed.
That only took him a couple of hours.
...Or an eternity.
On the third day, Sunny just lay on the lid of the dead mimic and stared into the void. His mind was starting to behave in strange ways. Although there was nothing around him, Sunny could sometimes see strange shapes and silhouettes in the darkness, as well as hear distant noises.
He wanted to think that they were real, but knew that it was just the result of prolonged sensory starvation. Human minds were weird that way… they couldn't really withstand a lot of nothing.
Suddenly, the story of a man who had to turn back after seven days of descending into the Sky Below out of fear of going insane made much more sense to him.
To make himself perceive at least something, Sunny summoned the Silver Bell and rang it in the darkness, listening to the melodious ringing as it disappeared into the abyss.
And now, he was sitting on the treasure chest, looking at the distant stars, and speaking with the Ordinary Rock.
"So, how has your day been, Rock?"
The Memory answered in his own voice:
"Same old nothing. Yours?"
Sunny remained silent for a while, then said:
"I am enjoying my vacation."
The Ordinary Rock laughed.
"Sounds wonderful! How is your vacation going?"
He sighed.
"Splendidly. I've yet to hit the rock bottom."
For a while, there was nothing but silence. Then, a new question came:
"...Why is it so dark?"
Sunny smiled weekly.
"Why wouldn't it be dark? This is the Sky Below, after all!"
But then, he froze.
'...What?'
The voice that asked the question… had not come from the Ordinary Rock.
That voice was not his own.