As soon as he acknowledged that fact, his soul started to dim.
His body started to lose strength, as well.
His thoughts turned slower.
‘That is right.’
Sunny smiled faintly.
'Come from nothing. Return to nothing.’
He could sense the mist flowing around him.
Through him.
Was his body turning transparent? If so... that was alright. That was how it should be.
Only...
'If I don't exist, if there is no me... then why does it hurt to have never existed so much?’
He had experienced being erased from existence once, already. That pain would have been meaningless if he had never existed, in the first place... so, the mere fact that it had hurt him so badly was a contraction.
If he was nobody, then he would have felt nothing. But he felt something, and therefore, he had to be somebody.
Pain bloomed in his heart like a flower.
And with it, his Transcendent soul ignited with the beautiful radiance of divine flame.
Tenacious blood ran through his body, filling it with strength.
His mind was aflame with desire.
Desire to exist.
'I hurt, therefore I am... wait, what? What kind of nonsense am I spouting?!'
Sunny groaned and concentrated all of his formidable mind on a single thought:
"I am!"
He was not nothing.
He was not nobody.
He was Sunless, formerly known or rather, unknown - as Lost from Light. He was the Devil of Antarctica. He had been the Mad Prince once, but he was not anymore. He was even Lord Mongrel, even if he wished otherwise.
He was... Sunny.
It took all his focus to keep that thought from dissolving into the mist.
Once he managed to prove his own existence, the pressure of nothingness did not disappear, and the pull of non-existence did not lessen. Sunny had to keep concentrating on the fact that he had been, was, and would be without reprieve. l?ght~nоvel~world~c`о/m. If he let go of that fervent thought even for a few moments, both his soul and body would probably turn into flowing mist.
"Dam... damnation…”
Grimacing, he slowly rose from the cold stone and stared into the white nothingness that surrounded him with a grim expression.
'Ah. How insidious.’
This... was not going to be easy.
Mumbling quiet curses, Sunny dusted himself off and looked around.
He could not see anything, and the mist was dampening his senses. So, he didn't even know which direction he was supposed to go.
However, it wasn't hard to determine where the north was.
All he had to do was pay attention to the ground.
The ground under his feet was sloping in a certain direction... going down meant returning to the Chained Isles, going up meant venturing deeper into the Hollow Mountains.
He rubbed his face, sighed, and started climbing the slope.