Sunny breathed in, then breathed out, calming down his wildly beating hearts. 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.
He didn't know what the Spell used to create the embers serving as anchors for its weaves. Whatever it was, there certainly was a connection to soul cores… after all, the Tier — and subsequently, the number of nexuses a Memory's spellweave possessed — was directly tied to the number of soul cores that the source of the Memory had.
However, those 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 was use one in place of the other.
He steadied himself, looked upon his demonic figure through the eyes of the shadow, and then dismissed the soul shard once again.
This time, however, Sunny did something strange… he willed the enchanted crystal to remain in an ambivalent state, not quite gone, but also not quite tangible.
Then, he reached into the weave of the black strings and slowly untangled it, breaking the loops and allowing the ends of the tenebrous threads to float free.
And finally, after that was done, he started to weave the whole pattern, including the ethereal soul shard, into the cold steel of his collar.
Slowly 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 new vessel.
After a while, he 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 from it and spreading through the steel. Now, the collar looked almost like a Memory, and even its nexus was almost undistinguishable from the embers Sunny had seen before.
Of course, there was a second enchantment inside of it, this one much more complex and elaborate, crafted from ethereal runes. It was all a proper mess… just like he wanted it to be.
Sunny held his breath… and then tried to dismiss the collar.
The band of metal around his neck shimmered, and suddenly turned extremely cold. Inside, two energies clashed with each other, both enchantments momentarily failing.
He felt 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 long slumber. Full of fear and excitement, Sunny did something that he had done countless times before, but never knew to value.
'One…'
He summoned the runes.
Familiar symbols appeared in the air in front of him, their sight as sweet as honey.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Awakened…
'Two…'
Sunny turned away from the runes and peered into the collar, observing the battle of the two enchantments within. Simultaneously, he grabbed the steel with two of his hands and threw all his monstrous strength into trying to pull it apart.
But the collar held firm, as if utterly indestructible.
'Three...'
On the count of seven, the soul shard he had placed within the band of steel suddenly burst into a myriad of sparks, and the weave of black 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 resumed its function.
…Sunny was not disappointed. For now, all he wanted was to learn how long his sabotage was going to last.
'Seven seconds…'
A dark grin appeared on his face.
'...Seven seconds will be more than enough.'
***
The next day, hurting and barely alive, he brought another soul shard back with him from the arena. Tonight was going to be the night of their escape… Sunny wasn't sure that he would be able to endure any longer. If he had any chance to break free, he had to take it now.
The plan was long finalized in his mind, and even though he was frightened to put it in motion, there was no other way.
As Elyas fell on the bottom of his cage and closed his eyes, too tired to eat the disgusting raw meat thrown to them by the Ascended warrior, Sunny concentrated on weaving a new enchantment. He was now proficient enough to create black strings rather swiftly, even though hurrying threatened to cost him another finger or two.
Still, in a few hours, he had threaded enough to repeat the simple weave of a summoning enchantment.
Following the same steps that he had taken yesterday, Sunny created the pattern around the soul shard, and then integrated it into the collar.
The two enchantments clashed again, gifting him several short moments of freedom.
This time, Sunny did not waste any of them.
As soon as the enchantment of the collar was disrupted, breaking his connection to the Red Colosseum, he took a deep breath… and fell through the shadows.
A moment later, Sunny found himself standing on the cold stone floor, a couple of steps away from a swaying, empty cage.
He was free!
For six more seconds, at least...