Shadow Slave

Sunny had no clue how to create, decipher, or manipulate runic magic. His inherent ability to see the weave and inner structure of magical items, the one he had received after consuming the drop of ichor that fell from Weaver's eye, also gifted him with an innate understanding of the essence of spellweave.

While studying the Memories created by Spell, Sunny was not able to fully understand the intricate purpose of the vast patterns of ethereal strings… but he at least could intuitively feel a hint of it.

He had no such advantage when it came to other forms of sorcery. So, despite the fact that he had managed to perceive the enchantments encompassing the Red Colosseum, it was not like he could simply change them, or create new ones to counteract the old.

He could study the runes, of course… but with no teacher and only his wit and intelligence to help him draw the correct conclusions from observing various enchantments, it would take hundreds of years to gain enough insight to learn how to create any meaningful runic sorcery of his own.

Sunny, however, wasn't discouraged. Yes, he would not be able to create runic sorcery any time soon.

But destroying things was always much easier than making them.

Locked inside the narrow cage, surrounded by the smell of Nightmare Creatures and filth, Sunny stared into the darkness and thought.

Destroy the enchantments of the Red Colosseum…

In theory, it was simple to achieve. He just had to break enough runes to disrupt the paths they created for the soul energy. The problem with that, however, was that the runes Hope had used were giant, and carved into nearly unbreakable stone. Sunny doubted that he would be able to do enough damage to the arena to cause its sorcery to fail.

...Causing a smaller and temporary disruption, however, was not entirely impossible. He felt that he would be able to achieve that much, at least… perhaps enough to free himself of the binding enchantment for a second or few.

of freedom be

to

the darkness, a seed of a desperate plan started forming in

***

at the center of the cage, causing it to sway lightly. Raising one of his four monstrous hands, he stared at it

he had consumed Weaver's alabaster phalanx and acquired Bone Weave, the tactile sense of his fingers went through a strange metamorphosis. It was now much more nuanced,

of his fingers, he felt a strange, ghostly tingling

raising another hand, Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then pinched the air near one

his surprise,

air, summoned by his hand. It didn't look like one of the radiant strings he was used to

like a tenebrous fog, similar to the grey wisps that rose from Saint's armor when one of the

and elusive, not at all like the sharp and beautiful strings

to get a

this small movement instantly caused the strand to break, dissipate, and disappear,

to

try to form it into a thin and durable string, emptying a small portion of his reserves with each failure. By the time morning came, he had not made any progress at all, and

after wasting so much power was

belt. Sunny glanced at the giant in a

be dead either way. But now, at least, there's