Chapter 14: Shadow
Something's going on. I can tell from the sounds of explosions, screams of knights being slain and the ground rumbling. Shall I break the cell door? Oh wait. Someone's coming. It's a cloaked figure who, from the silhouette, is most likely female. Although her face is obscured by the hood she wears, I can still see it due to my night vision. She looks familiar. Have I met her before?
She broke the lock and opened the door of the cell and stepped closer, allowing me to see her features more closely.
"Nicoletta… Marquez? " I recognized her from one of the dossier of Compatibles. She was declared dead years ago but the truth is, she caught the Demonic Possession and was scheduled to be transferred to a Cult base before the carriage was intercepted by both Templars and this "Shadow Garden" organization. In the end, the "Shadow Garden" are the ones who managed to take her in. And judging from her black cloak and bodysuit, which are made of slimes, she seems to have joined them.
"I see. I underestimated the extents of your knowledge. No wonder why our lord thinks you are an important ally. But that is no longer my name. My name is Nu."
"Nu…? So what happens now?"
"Nothing for now. You are free to go. But know that you are not alone in the war against the Cult of Diablos." With that, she left and I left my cell as well.
As Nu was about to investigate the Knight Order base even further after freeing Duke Normann's son, she saw her lord Shadow entering the officer's room and immediately bowed to him.
"Your friend has been released as you instructed, my lord."
"Good work." He said as he walked to a bookshelf and reached out to a random book but instead of taking it out, he pressed it.
"Hm? Neat." He muttered while Nu was left in awe of her lord's intelligence due to him spotting something she missed. The bookshelf moved away and revealed a secret passage to an underground facility where they both heard roars of creatures.
They both walked down the stairs and encountered the beasts. Beasts of various sizes and shapes. Beasts with some human features but was mutated and disfigured so badly they could hardly be called humans anymore. They were banging on the walls to create an exit for themselves, some of which has succeeded and escaped to the city.
"They're…!" Nu recognized them as victims of Possession. However their condition seemed to be worse than what the Shadow Garden have encountered so far. They have become mutated to becoming rampaging monstrosities. She gritted her teeth as she now found another reason to hate the Cult.
"Hm." Her lord simply sliced through them and appeared behind them before she could even register what's going on.
"I leave them to Alpha and the others." Ordered her lord as he proceeded to go deeper into the underground facility.
"Yes, my lord!" Nu confirmed her orders as she left to call upon the assistance of the Seven Shades before the monsters could regenerate their wounds.
"Gaaahhh! They've come! They've come! They've come! Dammit! They're going to kill us! They're going to kill us all!" Shouted a mad man wearing white lab coat. His voice echoed throughout the underground prison cell where Alexia and several monstrous beings were being held captive to be experimented by said scientist.
"The Knight Order won't kill you if you surrendered quietly."
"I don't care about the Knight Order! They've come and they're going to kill us! Screw that Zenon! I'm leaving this damned place! But not before I release my babies. Heh heh heh." Laughed the mad scientist as he approached the cell of one of the beasts, who retained its white hair. Alexia noted that he mentioned Zenon's name, suggesting that Zenon is his employer and that he intended to leave him.
"Can you stop it? If you agitate them even further…" Warned Alexia weakly after her blood was being harvested almost daily.
"This base is doomed. I'm going to Everick and I'm gonna join Necromancer and receive his knowledge! These babies are nothing compared to his work! Not to mention he is able to resurrect the dead!" Declared the scientist as he held a huge syringe filled with blood.
Alexia recognized that name. She came with Iris to Everick years ago after Necromancer appeared and kidnapped that infuriating person's sister.
"Now, show me the power of Diablos!" The mad scientist injected the contents of the syringe and it caused a reaction to the creature. Spikes made of bones emerged from its back and it grows massively in size.
"ROOAAARRRR!" It lashed out, destroying its own shackles and Alexia's own as well as their cell doors. It stared at Alexia as Alexia began to fear for her life. With the last of its consciousness, the creature left without harming Alexia out of gratitude for speaking with it like a person rather than as a thing. The creature eventually lost all reason as it left them.
"What's going on!?" Shouted the knight who guards the entrance to the cells before he was mauled by the creature who then proceeded to destroy other cell doors and letting other creatures go.
"ROOAAARRRR!" The creatures left together as Alexia watched.
"Heh heh heh. They're dead." Laughed the mad scientist. Alexia took a sword that the mauled knight carried, noting that it's no ordinary sword, and proceeded to stab the mad scientist in the back.
"What… are you…. doing…? I can't die here…! I can't die before receiving his supreme knowledge…!" Alexia dropped him on the floor and noticed a very distressed Zenon arrived in the entrance where the monsters exited from.
"So you've come, Zenon! I knew it was you who's responsible for all this!" Alexia pointed her sword, which is one of the Pseudo-Artifacts she looted from a guard's corpse, at him.
"Tch! Normally I'd engage you in a meaningless banter but right now I have neither the time nor the mood! You will come with me now!"
"If you think I'll just come with you quietly-"
Not having it, Zenon instantly sliced through the sword in her hand and broke it in half, striking fear into Alexia's heart.
"Now come quietly before I get rough with you." As he was about to reach for the girl, he noticed the hallway became… quiet. The roars of the beasts no longer heard. All he can hear instead are the sounds of footsteps echoing in the dark.
*Tap Tap Tap*
The sound of footsteps echoes in the now quiet hallway and a man, clad in dark… emerged from the shadows.
"So you're the dog who been destroying our bases left and right! Shadow Garden is it?"
"My name is Shadow. He who lurks in the shadows and hunt the shadows."
"Heh. I applaud you for your accomplishments and for your courage of facing me alone. But you now face Zenon Griffey! A candidate for the Knight of Rounds!"
Zenon brandished his Artifact blade and swiftly attacked Shadow, their blades locked together.
"Can you feel it? This power… This weapon that I purchased from him."
"Hmph. Ridiculous." Remarked Shadow.
"What did you say?" Replied Zenon angrily as he continued his aggressive attacks. Slash after slash are effortlessly parried by Shadow at speed that Alexia could barely see. But what she does see amazed her. Shadow showed amazing skills with the blade, on an entirely different level than her and Zenon, but she recognized that swordsmanship style, the swordsmanship style of a hardworker that has mastered the basics, a Mediocre Swordplay.
This sword style…. I like it. Thought Alexia as she remembered her last defeat at Iris' hands at the Bushin Festvial, which caused their relationship to drift apart… and how foolish she was for giving up her love of swordsmanship due to her own inferiority complex. She continued to watch and admire Shadow as he toyed with Zenon, a talented swordsman in his own right, using swordsmanship style similar to her own. The sight of his black blade and his moves inspired her deep inside.
"Tch! How are you able to keep up!? What kind of Artifact are you using!?"
"Hmph. Borrowed powers will not defeat me." Remarked Shadow as he began his own assault, giving an uppercut which sliced Zenon's chest.
"Aghh! You… Who are you!? There's no way someone like you remained unknown!" Shouted Zenon.
"Hmph. We are the Shadow Garden. We lurk in the shadows and hunt the shadows. That's all there is." Shadow replied while giving him a punch in the face.
"Uaaghh!" Staggering backwards and clutches his bleeding nose, which reminds him of the injury suffered by his subordinate Whiny from Claude.
"Grrrr! Don't underestimate me!" Pouring more magic into his sword, he enhanced his body further and moved at higher speed and his strikes have greater pressure. But Shadow seemed even more relaxed as he just barely dodged and deflects any attack Zenon could give him, which caused Zenon to get angrier. Shadow then proceeded to punch him in the face once again.
"AAGHH! How did you-!?"
"You're full of openings. You think the sword makes you stronger while in reality, your reliance on it makes you weaker." Remarked Shadow, which made Zenon realize that he has long abandoned the discipline of the Royal Bushin Style in favour of brute force. But his anger still overrides his reasoning as he took a vial filled with red pills from his pocket.
"We'll see who laughs last, Shadow! With these pills, I shall obtain ultimate power!" He swallowed several pills which caused his magic power to skyrocket and his muscles expands, ripping parts of his clothes apart.
"Now… you're dead!" Roared the hulking Zenon as he swings his sword again, this time blindly like a maniac, slicing through the walls, floor, and ceiling.
"Hmm…. Now you're just fighting like Gamma." Muttered Shadow, referring to the weakest of the Seven Shades.
Shadow used another opening to once again punch him in the face, which makes him angrier.
"Hmph. This is what you called ultimate power?"
"SHUT UUUPP!" Zenon roared again, his form continues mutating as his anger consumes both his mind and body, his right hand seemed to merge with the sword he's holding, its enchantments now in direct contact with his magic circuits, which combined with the Red Pills he consumed, turned him into a monster similar to the creatures he held prisoner here as experimental subjects.
"ROOOAARRR!" Roared Zenon as he degenerated into a beast.
"Ughh… Now your outward appearance match your insides, huh, Zenon?" Remarked Alexia as she watched the once dignified and cunning man turned into a monster.
"Haahhh…" Shadow sighed as he now find the battle to become progressively more boring as time goes on. "Playtime is over." He said with a determined look.
"Carve into your soul… with every last consciousness you have left… The true supreme power."
Purplish light began surrounding them, though it stops before it can reach Alexia. Alexia watched in awe as she has never witnessed someone with that much power before. The power she sensed from Shadow greatly exceeded that of Zenon's even though he enhanced himself with an Artifact and suspicious pills.
Even the monstrous Zenon couldn't believe what's happening as he started feeling fear… Fear he haven't felt since he met Necromancer in person years ago when he purchased the very sword he currently held in his hand, which made him abandon his plans of sabotaging him, especially after Sir Gaunt failed miserably at that.
"I…."
The beast desperately slashed at Shadow to stop him from unleashing his magic, but the Artifact sword broke without harming Shadow. It didn't even make him flinch.
"AM…."
The beast once known as Zenon, who regained some of his senses after his sword broke, fell into his knees in absolute despair as he watched the lights getting brighter.
"ATOMIC."
A white explosion engulfed the underground facility, entire Knight Order headquarters and various buildings surrounding it.
Author's Note:
The first I AM ATOMIC is here! Hope I depicted Shadow's epicness properly. In this fic, Zenon was stronger than he is in canon due to the sword he got, but to Shadow the fight gets easier the more Zenon get desperate, like Zenon got the power boost and start turning his brain off. He even devolves into Gamma's level. That's quite something.
Even though I want the Zenon arc to deviate from canon, I still need to make Alexia witness Shadow's swordsmanship because it's an important part of her character development and she cannot witness it properly without him fighting a fellow swordsman so I had him fight Zenon like in canon. He will not fight the Necromancer yet.
Also, I'll make punching someone in the nose multiple times a running gag. Can't have Gamma's nose being the only one abused after all.
J-More: That reminds me of the theory of Po Tato and the other friend for Cids to be two of the knights of rounds doing the same as Cid. It was nice to see them interact at last.
Answer: Yea I've heard that theory. Would be a plot twist if it's true lol. This interaction Cid had with Claude is now a source of future misunderstandings.
Soulbow109: So Shadow has called Claude a friend huh. Considering the cult believes that Claude has known about their existence for a long time I feel this will cause some entertaining misunderstandings lol. Might be fun for Claude too since I guess he can pull off some kind of betrayal scene. Like the true final boss being one of the hero's companions all this time. Sounds kinda cool as a prelude to one of Shadow and Necromancers fights. Considering his past with Alpha this kind of scene would certainly get the kind of reactions he enjoys. Can easily see her look of horror as someone thought to be an ally maybe friend ends up being her worse nightmare.
Look forward to shenanigans between Claire and Charlotte. Cid and Claude can be brothers in suffering as they deal with their sisters lol.
Answer: Yeah indeed. That's what I'm aiming for.
Overprotective sisters UNITE!