Void Cuffs

"Arcane cannons… That sounds interesting," Gerald spoke out loud. "How do they work?"

Murik Woods just shook his head, "No idea. I just saw them from afar." He was but a simple foot soldier in that battle. He did what he was told and otherwise just hoped not to die too painfully.

"Can you describe them?"

"Well, they are made mostly of silver... I think," he said. "Some gold is there as well, mostly in the form of runes, perhaps even a pinch of Mithril is mixed in. I'm guessing because some of the metal had a tinge of sky-blue shade to it."

"Okay… What about the cannonballs, or magic, or whatever it was spitting out?" Gerald questioned.

"It's… like a ball of blue and white flames… I guess?"

"You guess?"

"Well, it was constantly changing, sometimes it had sparks trailing behind it, other times it was surrounded by tiny lightning bolts. Sometimes it was eerily quiet, other times loud and scary… But overall it is mostly blue and white. Oh! And it exploded when it hit something. Or when it went a certain distance. Or… whenever it felt like it, really."

Murik scratched his head, "Now that I think about it, I think it's random actually. I have seen it blow inside the Arcane Cannon many times. It was not a pleasant sight." He remembered all those times when the operator got obliterated when the weapon decided to malfunction. A gory sight that still hunted him in his dreams even many months after he witnessed it.

"Interesting… So I guess it's some sort of a primitive magic spell generator?" Gerald concluded. Unfortunately, Woods had no clue and just shrugged.

"I'll have to look into it when I get the time," Gerald decided. They then became quiet as the feeding time approached.

About half an hour later, one of the guards came, banging on the metal bars of their cage while cursing them out. This time they got a piece of old rock-hard old bread each. Nobody complained as this was actually one of the more desirable foods in this hell hole.

Gerald patiently pretended to be out of it until the guard finished his round of abuse, and then removed his shackles and cast a Sound Barrier on their prison cell so they could continue to chat in peace.

Actually, the Sound Barrier was also good at keeping the smells contained since it locked gasses inside.

After cleaning up the outside of the bread, Gerald imbued it with hot steam to make it nice and soft, and then cut it to pieces before scorching it a bit with flames with the addition of a scoop of bear fat.

A pinch of salt was added and some spices as well, and with a juicy piece of meat between the two halves, each of the three guys got a delicious sandwich.

"Oh, wow…" Woods moaned after taking the first bite. "This hast to be the best meal I had in ages!"

"Hmm," Zeph nodded and nearly started crying from the meaty goodness, "It's delicious."

It seemed like his will to live returned after experiencing the miraculous effects of Gerald's cooking. Or maybe he just needed something to give him hope. Having a feast in the middle of a terrifying dungeon certainly seemed to do the trick.

"I'm glad you like it," Gerald gladly accepted the compliment.

After eating the nice lunch, he took one of the Void Cuffs and a notebook as well as some ink. He then went on to copy the Void Cuff onto a page, before slicing it up, after which he attempted to rearrange the paper pieces back into a circular shape.

"Hmm, not like this… Maybe…" He scratched his head for a while as he was figuring out how best to do what he wanted.

The Void Stone from which the cuffs were made seemed to be of extremely high purity, though it was still made of many differently sized chunks. It was all held together in a sky-blue net, a kind of Mithril-silver alloy.

Gerald fixed the cuff to the chain on the wall and gripped it with his arm in an attempt at pulling it apart. It did not budge. Even if he engaged his muscles to the max. It did not give in, not even a little bit.

"Oh, wow… Is Mithril really that strong?" He looked at those thin strands with surprise. He half expected it to snap immediately as if it was made of steel, but apparently not. He even went easy on it at the beginning, but in the end, even his full power wasn't enough.

It seemed like Mithril was a really tough material. But luckily it wasn't among the hardest substances.

He took a piece of rock from the wall, since, surprisingly the dungeon wasn't even reinforced. However, considering none of the prisoners inside it had any Mana, that made a bit of sense. No point in wasting materials on unnecessary Runes.

Anyway, that piece of rock seemed quite hard, and after giving it a try, it did indeed leave a tiny scratch on the metal glove of the Void Cuff. Gerald made a knowing smile and got to work.

He made the edge of the piece of stone as thin and flat as possible, as well as round and overall balanced. He then used Telekinesis to spin it really fast by just holding it in place and adding energy in only one direction. The stone blade then started rotating at high speed, possibly even enough to overcome the structural stability of the stone itself, however, Gerald held it tightly so such a thing couldn't happen.

He then brought the Void Cuff closer and slowly began grinding the Mithril alloy net around the Void Stone. It took a while, and many sparks and dust fell on the floor, but eventually, he managed to cut through it and split the cuffs into two parts. He cut it around the middle, so now he had two donut-shaped tiny cages. The blue stone inside was taken out, and the pebbles being held together by pieces of silver were broken apart, and sorted according to size.

Then, under the watchful eyes of his cellmates, Gerald carefully rearranged the stones and glued them back together with molten silver. Having Telekinesis to do it all felt great! Nothing moved out of place and it could be rotated in any direction he wanted while it conveniently floated in the air in front of him.

A few hours later, the Void Cuff was put back together, the Mithril alloy merged back with the help of a bit of pure silver and some extreme heat.

"What are you doing?" asked Murik as Gerald appeared to be done with his work. He spent the entire time just watching in silence, fascinated by the magic demonstration. It was the first time he had witnessed someone using magic so naturally. Well, except for some of the old guardians of the Empire. But he never saw them from up close, so the charm still remained.

"Void Cuffs," came the short answer. "I just flipped it around."

"Flipped it around?" Woods lifted an eyebrow. It looked much more complicated than that. Why would he spend many hours of hard work just to flip…. "Oh. Ooooooooh!"

Murik Woods just realized what he was implying. "But, wouldn't that mean..."

"You got it," Gerald grinned as he dirtied the first reconstructed Void Cuff with a bit of mud to hide any remaining evidence of his tampering. Nobody would notice unless they paid special attention to it. And he knew well enough how to appear weak and helpless to fool people and divert their attention away from himself.

Then he put the Void Cuff on his hand and firmly locked it in place. It wasn't going anywhere. Immediately the siphoning effect took place.

"Hehe…" He chuckled. "Hahaha! YES! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"