Shadow Slave

Now that a Supreme soul shard replaced the original nexus of the spellweave, the powerful energy contained within it flowed into the radiant tapestry. The ethereal threads shone much brighter, reinforced by their own enchantment. Most of them held... but some of the more delicate patterns started to glow too intensely, as if a moment away from catching on fire and dissipating into blinding light.

He had to reinforce these sections of the weave, and do it in a way that did not contradict the intricate patterns.

Threading a string of shadow essence into Weaver's Needle, he held himself back from hurrying too much, and started to weave new patterns - these ones black and lightless - on top and through the radiant ones.

The needle worked in the most pressing areas of the weave, while his other hands tackled less critical points. No matter how nimble his fingers were, he still couldn't weave as fast without a proper tool - the reverse effect of his unique ability to touch the ethereal strings was that they were sharper than any sword could ever be, and were thus capable of cutting his flesh without any effort.

Losing a finger was as easy as applying the slightly wrong amount of pressure or missing the mark by a hair's breadth.

That said... while his own fingers were indispensable, those of the shadow hands could be easily sacrificed. They weren't just as responsive as the real ones, but the fact that one or two could be lost with no consequence made up for the fact.

'Ouch.'

No matter how careful Sunny was, the dire need to move fast was bound to cause him some pain. A thin cut appeared on his right thumb, swelling with blood. Luckily, no drop of it fell into the weave to disturb its delicate equilibrium - his blood was tenacious, after all, and knew how to stay inside his body. Most of the time.

The shadow hands were faring worse. By the time Sunny put out the most dangerous fires, they were utterly shredded. He was barely keeping the wounded shadows from dissipating back into intangible forms, and had even been forced to dismiss one of the arms and create an entirely new one on the fly.

Nevertheless... it felt like he was past the most dangerous part.

A shaky breath escaped from Sunny's lips, and a drop of sweat fell from his forehead onto the wooden deck.

Without allowing himself to relax, he froze for a split second, gazing at the entirety of the weave.

'The nexus is holding. There and there... the shadow strings are lessening the burden on the original ones just as planned... that area is a bit frayed, I need to reinforce it more... no, not more, better... those areas, though, looked fine at the start, but are starting to worry me now...'

his wildly beating heart, he resumed his work. Now, Sunny moved at a less breakneck pace,

it's all

was a wonderful feeling. The collapsing weave had struggled against his attempts to save it at first, to the point that he felt like three critical problems appeared for each one he

intertwined in a beautiful harmony. Both were being strengthened

was replaced, and its pattern was invaded by countless new threads,

a brief glance at the

"Hey, you."

wraith raised an

"Hey yourself, fool."

finishing the alteration, but the corner of his mouth rose in a

the river, you insufferable wretch. Weren't you endlessly going on about how I would inevitably fail? Well, did I? Who's the

his hands, then froze, staring intently at the bond of bright metal laying on

done. The alteration had been

took a deep

the Spell whispered

has

His eyes widened.

His hands twitched.

'Ho...'

could even register in his mind, the Spell spoke once

received a Supreme

'...w?!'

the side of the ketch. An infuriating growl