gg

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.

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. free𝑤ebnovel.com

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 of a swaying, empty cage.

He was free!

For six more seconds, at least...

Seven.'

Sunny stepped through the shadows and appeared outside of the cage, his towering figure finally free and unconstrained by the suffocating iron bars. He staggered as excruciating pain spread through his mutilated flesh, a myriad of badly healed wounds reminding him of their festering existence, and hissed.

Elyas suddenly moved, confused by the direction from which the familiar hiss came. Then, he grabbed the bars and stared at Sunny with wide eyes.

"How…"

All of a sudden, he could see his partner clearly in the darkness, because the obsidian body of the shadow creature had become enveloped by a storm of swirling sparks of light. Sunny had begun to summon his Memories — the Undying Chain, the Cruel Sight, the Midnight Shard, the Prowling Thorn…

'Six.'

The stygian serpent drawn on his skin suddenly moved, slithering forth to turn into a fearsome black odachi. Its sharp tip appeared in the air above one of Sunny's hands, and grew, swiftly forming into the length of the great blade.

At the same time, two ruby eyes ignited in the depths of his shadow with a furious light.

Elys flinched, staring at the gaunt demon in front of him in stunned awe.

'Five.'

Saint stepped out of the darkness, her graceful figure as black as the onyx, her posture straight and indomitable. Her hands were empty, devoid for now of any weapon.

Sunny stared at his Shadow with grim joy, and then bared his fangs, greeting her. He wasn't sure, but he thought that he noticed a slight change to the set of the taciturn knight's shoulders. Had she... missed him too?

'Four.'

The hilt of the Soul Serpent fell into his hand, the length of the odachi considerably increased to account for his towering height. Sunny didn't hesitate and threw the great blade to Saint, who caught it calmly and weighed the weapon in her hand, the hue of her ruby eyes suddenly growing a little brighter. It almost seemed like the Shadow was… excited?

Sunny glanced into the depths of the dungeon, where dozens of mighty Nightmare Creatures still remained locked in cages, waiting for their turn to be slaughtered in the arena.

Then, he turned to Saint.

'Three.'

...And said:

'Kill them. Kill them all!'

She tilted her head, sparing him a short look, and then wordlessly disappeared into the darkness, the black blade of the Soul Serpent raised to deliver the first killing blow.

'Two.'

A moment later, something whistled through the air, and a bestial scream thundered in the silence of the nightmarish dungeon. Sunny wasn't paying attention, though… the plan was already in motion, and his efforts were required somewhere else.

The familiar voice whispered into his ear, making him shiver.

[You have slain…]

…Oh, how he longed to hear it once more!

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

In one of Sunny's hands, a somber shortsword appeared, weaved out of tenebrous fog.

'One'.

In another, a stalwart tachi manifested itself. Sunny gripped the hilt of the Midnight Shard with both of his upper hands, leaving the Cruel Sight in one of the lower ones.

The Undying Chain finally finished appearing from a whirlwind of white sparks, covering his body with a caparace of bleak steel. Its shape changed to accommodate Sunny's monstrous body, new plates of perfectly fitted armor encompassing his digitigrade legs, his four arms, and even his long tail, a sharp metal spike protruding from the tip of it.

His gauntlets ended in vicious steel claws, and his helmet had two holes at the top for his curved horns to fit through.

Instead of a gaunt creature with a terribly mangled body, a fearsome steel goliath now stood amid the empty cages, jagged horns crowning the featureless steel plane of his face.

'One.'

Sunny dismissed his helmet and felt the collar snap back into function. Immediately, he sensed that his ability to Shadow Step was restrained again, and his connection to the Spell was cut. The sparks that had almost coalesced into the Prowling Thord disappeared, and the unfinished form of the heavy kunai with them.

…It didn't matter. He had already achieved everything he needed to achieve in these seven seconds.

Sunny could have used that time to Shadow Step as far as he could, escaping the premises of the Red Colosseum. However, that would have left him with no essence in the middle of Solvane's territory, with the accursed collar still wrapped around his neck.

It was easy to leave the Red Colosseum, but it was much harder to escape it. As long as Sunny was collared, he was going to remain tied to the enchantments of the ancient theater. He was still going to be a slave. freёweɓnovel.com

Plus… there was a thing he wasn't willing to leave behind.

Sunny heard Saint slaughtering the second Nightmare Creature and turned to Elyas, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

The youth was still trapped in the cage…

Of course, Sunny could have left him to die. In fact, doing so was probably an obvious decision. The young Awakened wasn't real, after all.

Only, maybe, he was…

Sunny had no idea whether these people were illusions or not. That was what the government and the common knowledge had told him. But was that knowledge the truth? He wasn't sure.

All he knew was that the shadows of the Mountain King and the old slaver he had killed in the First Nightmare were still in his Soul Sea, undistinguishable from all the rest of the creatures he had slain in the real world and the Dream Realm. An illusion created by the Spell, if that was what they were, might as well have possessed a soul, and a shadow… if so, were they so different from real people?

In any case, it didn't really matter. In the reality of the Nightmare, Elyas was a living being. His partner. Sunny was determined to save him, as well.

The two of them were fated to die in the arena. Well… fate could go screw itself. They had kept each other alive in the Red Colosseum, and now, both of them were going to escape it. Together. That was his furious, adamant resolution.

Plus… Sunny really, really needed Elyas for his plan of escape to work.

The problem, however, was the cage. It was forged out of the same indestructible alloy as their collars. So getting the youth out of it was not going to be easy…

With a low growl, Sunny jumped onto the hanging cage, grabbing the bars with the curved talons on his feet, and swung the Midnight Shard. He wasn't aiming at the cage itself… instead, he was aiming at the chain attaching it to the ceiling.

Reinforced by the shadows, the austere tachi cut through the rusty chain, easily breaking it apart. The cage fell to the floor, sending a loud rumble rolling through the dark dungeon, and then toppled to the side.

Locked inside, Elys was thrown down. Almost immediately, though, the youth regained his balance and crouched, staring at Sunny with wild eyes.

"Hurry! Whatever you're planning, Demon, hurry! The priest is going to be here soon!"

Sunny shivered, remembering the aura of savage, crushing strength radiating from their Ascended jailer, and the cold glint of his terrifying blade.

Elyas didn't need to remind him… Sunny was painfully aware of how little time he had left…