Shadow Slave

Sunny breathed in, then breathed out, calming down his widely beating heart. His hands were trembling so hard that the softly gleaming soul shard almost fell out of his grip.

'Hey… hey, Elyas. Look... it's finished!'

He tiredly turned his head and let out a low growl, trying to attract the young man's attention. But his partner did not even move, laying at the bottom of his cage and staring into the darkness with bleak, hollow eyes.

The last few days, the youth's condition wasn't too good. He even stopped having his one-sided conversations with Sunny, and just sat quietly in the darkness, not moving, until the next morning came and it was time to fight again.

Sunny lingered for a few moments, then turned away.

'It's alright… rest. I'll get us out of here soon. We will be free… free, Elyas! Just hold on a little longer!'

There wasn't much time left. In all of the vile dungeon, barely four dozen Nightmare Creatures were left alive. Their grotesque forms towered in the darkness, locked inside enchanted cages, the long stretches of empty space between hinting that the Trials of the Red Colosseum were going to come to an end soon.

And then, Solvane and her followers would spend another decade hunting down a new hecatomb of monsters to sacrifice to their bloodthirsty god.

Sunny's mouth twitched.

'Who cares… they are all just illusions, anyway. The real Solvane is long dead… the real Elyas is dead, too. Who cares what happens to them?'

He stole a glance at the crestfallen youth, and then looked away.

…But were they, really?

Forcing his trembling hands to grow steady, Sunny hesitated, then studied the soul shard he had just enchanted.

for its weaves. Whatever it was, there certainly was a connection to soul cores… after all, the Tier —

embers weren't actual soul shards, most likely, since shards were harvested from the carcasses of Nightmare Creatures even if the kill had produced a Memory. Sunny didn't care, though… without a better alternative, all he could do

figure through the eyes of the shadow, and then

crystal to remain in an

into the weave of the black strings and slowly untangled it, breaking the loops and allowing the ends of the

he started to weave the whole pattern, including the ethereal soul shard, into the

but surely, he integrated the spellweave into the band wrapped around his neck, submerging it into the flowing stream of soul essence. The task was tenuous, perplexing, and intricate… but it wasn't too complicated. The pattern was already made, and all he had to do was to connect it to a

was finished. The soul shard disappeared from his hands, and from the material world entirely. Instead, it was now burning beneath the surface of the collar, the black strings extending

was a second enchantment inside of it, this one much more complex and elaborate, crafted from ethereal

and then tried

metal around his neck shimmered, and suddenly turned extremely cold. Inside, two energies clashed

a sudden shift… a sudden change in the air, and inside of him, as though a long-forgotten part of his being had awakened from a

'One…'

He summoned the runes.

air in front of him, their sight as

Name: Sunless.

Lost from

Rank: Awakened…

'Two…'

within. Simultaneously, he grabbed the steel with two of his hands and threw all his monstrous

the collar held firm, as

'Three...'

strings he had so arduously threaded fell apart, turning into the grey fog and disappearing. The original flow of soul essence was unobstructed once again, and the runic enchantment

was to learn

'Seven seconds…'