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.

seconds of freedom be enough to

was going to have

in the darkness, a seed of a desperate plan

***

Sunny straightened and sat cross-legged at the center of the cage, causing it to sway lightly. Raising one of his four monstrous hands, he stared at it for a while, and then commanded shadow essence to

since 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, vibrant, and keen. Even though his hands were currently

the tips of his fingers, he felt a

moments, then pinched the air near one of his tingling fingers

his surprise,

of the radiant strings he was

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

was insubstantial, ephemeral, and elusive, not at all like the sharp and beautiful

and pulled the fog with one hand while trying to get a hold of it with the other, wishing to draw it taut, and thus more

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

is going to take

a small portion of his reserves with each failure. By the time morning came, he had not made any progress at all, and only managed to

power was going

the Ascended jailer appeared from the darkness, chains rattling on his belt. Sunny glanced at the giant in a tattered red robe, and then

it doesn't matter. I'll be dead either