Sitting in his seat in the train car Cid Kagenou was the perfect mob, the very picture of a character with no notable traits that could fade into the background without a second thought. Average achievements compounded with average looks and an utterly uninteresting backstory to make him forgettable.
Because there was nothing notable about him it didn't even take active effort anymore because naturally protagonists had no need to interact with a mob considering their vastly more important lives. Just a few moments here and there where something broke his small façade of normalcy and he had to put the effort to get things back on track.
For instance, just last week he'd thrown away his Princess girlfriend for the sake of his obscurity. Today another Princess had appeared and sat down beside him in complete defiance of his role. It wasn't even the same Princess so he couldn't tell her to get lost. With long blonde hair and athletic form, Rose Orianna was the greatest swordsman of Midgar Academy and the princess of the Orianna kingdom.
She couldn't be sitting beside him but was actually trying to sit across from Sherry. A meeting between two protagonists wherein his only role was to act like a dead fish. He slumped in his seat letting the strength leave his body and glanced at Sherry who was looking between him and her fellow protagonist.
Sherry met his gaze and then instantly wilted. In the act of following his lead it was a solid eight out of ten as she shrunk in on herself and tried to make the seat swallow her up. In her act as the main character it was a firm zero that didn't help him get rid of the Princess at all.
Even so if his plan was collapsing there was still something he could do. A power that belonged to him more powerful than any other. He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep falling into the window and resting his head.
"Are you like Nu is?" Sherry finally worked up the courage to speak. "Oh, are you one of the seven?" He blinked back into wakefulness as he wondered whether he needed to intervene. This was mob time not Shadow time, and as subtly as possible he prepared to silence her.
Rose blinked back before regaining the regal composure worthy of her position. "I am here to spend time with my beloved Cid, the man who won my heart with his bravery and selflessness in the face of danger and worthy of stealing my heart."
"But You don't know who Cid's friends are so you're not one of them." Sherry spoke with the confidence of a girl who had never met Po or Skel who were actually his friends as a mob. Not that Rose seemed to know him either since both of them were describing a main character and not the mob that he was.
"We met during the Bushin festival where I matched against him in the most important match of my life. Though I bested him in skill I can only admit defeat in spirit. For what other combatant could rise and fight again after taking such injuries."
The Bushin festival once more. The singular moment where he had perfectly performed his role to such wonderous lengths and lost in the most embarrassing and unmentionable manner possible. The very image of a mob no one needed to remember daring to stand on the battlefield even without a shred of skill.
Hadn't he been a background character who went down in the first round? He hadn't won a match and only been effortlessly annihilated so why did everyone remember it?
"You're the person that stabbed Cid fourteen times then?" Sherry's voice became noticeably colder. "While I was the one cheering him on from the stands and fed him cookies after he lost."
Beside him he felt Rose shift in her seat, "We exchanged blows as befitting of knights, our swords revealing the truth of ourselves as we met on the field of battle. What greater knowledge of one another can exist then such a state, surely if you watched you saw his determination to showcase his strength in front of me."
Sherry leaned in finally taking up her role of the protagonist. "I think Cid is always like that, when he's confessing his feelings with chocolate to when he stands against a monster that can tear a building apart, he always stands his ground. He chose to spend time with me rather than you."
"Cid is just shy due to the difference between our status. When the situation is dire, he always comes running just like when he almost died protecting me during the terrorist attack. Once he becomes known for defeating one of the shades at Lindwurm it will be different, and we will no longer need to hide our love." Rose sounded more defensive on her own. "Has Cid ever fought to protect you?"
He had in fact slaughtered his way through a small army of terrorists to protect Sherry. In a platonic manner as well because it had fit the scene. Her answer would be no.
"Yes, he carved a path for me to escape when the building was collapsing around me and stood up to free me from a monster who only ever used me."
He was awake, even as he motioned to Sherry for silence. "That didn't happen." Because Cid was a normal person and could not carve buildings to pieces. Whenever it had happened.
Rose clamped onto his free arm in that moment with a smile. "See Cid wants to be closer to me look at how we are arm in arm."
Sherry looked crestfallen at that moment, but it was for his act even as she rose. "I'm going for some advice from the lady running the snack cart."
He was left alone with Rose and the suddenly vastly more interesting scenery as he did his best to ignore her lest she decide to become even more attached to him.
When Sherry returned she was laden down with snacks. He eyed the pile of snacks she'd brought back, the exorbitant price tags for something as simple as a bit of chocolate and the truth. That all of his precious funds for this trip had disappeared in an instant. But with it came an idea, two ideas in fact each as terrible as the other.
He groaned even as he let himself rise from his slumber hands clutching his belly. The two of them turning to stare at him as he pushed towards the door. "Are you okay?" Two voices called after him.
He stared back with dead eyes even as he faked stomach cramps. "I need the toilet." Surely there was at least one last respite he had where no princess would dare to enter was there not?
Free at last and on to his other idea. For while the price tags had been high didn't that mean there was money to be had. All he needed to do was find whatever person handled the food trolley and then retrieve his funds, and then perhaps borrow a bit more on top of that.
He stalked quickly through the cars spying a brown-haired girl in the right uniform as he considered his approach. Should he slip past without her noticing and swipe the cash or wait until she spoke to someone and drag it back with a slither of slime.
She turned to look, and it was Nu. Which made it far easier as at least she would play along with his games while he figured out how to steal his money back. "A dark pall hangs over Lindwurm, it is a good night to hunt in the shadows."
She nodded following his gaze out of the train before turning back to him. "Do you intend to handle the Archbishops assassination yourself my lord?"
That was an ambitious plan he didn't know Nu had it in her. To kill the Archbishop under the direct view of his God, how the people would react to it he wondered? Would they worship him as the avatar of a deity of evil, believe he had been wronged by the Goddess Beatrix followers and had sought revenge. He could use so many phrases.
'Know that even the strongest of your believers are no match for my blade.'
'See a darkness so deep even the Gods cannot peer into the depths.'
It was the apex of an arc and the height of all that one could aspire to. He considered it even as Nu waited in reverence. But this was only a short trip, he was going to be here for only a few days and that wasn't the kind of dedication he wanted to put forth if he was going to topple the Divine Teachings themselves so for now he'd shelve it. There was always next year. "One does not kill the archbishop as a goal for it only draws the eye to him. It is bait for when one wishes to fish in troubled waters."
Nu stood up straighter and focused her full attention on him, ignoring the food cart entirely. Even as he allowed a single tentacle of slime to work its way towards the collected funds and retrieve his money for this escapade. "You think the Sanctum is a trap and they've killed him to lure us in?"
Oh, the Archbishop was already dead, wasn't he? That ruined the whole thing, now he would just be a copycat which wasn't cool at all. "The cult dares to call us in for they have had the chance to plan and prepare." The tentacles pulled back with his newfound funds even as he leaned in to draw her attention a smile on his face. "Yet if they think they can set the scene all we must do is steal the stage and their plans will come crumbling down around them."
He strode past to the next car, then turned back with a smirk. "For the sake of Shadow Garden ensure I am not disturbed." That sounded pretty ominous, and Nu took things seriously so it should mean he at least got some free time to himself, and he stepped past into the new car to take his seat.
Opposite him, Alpha was knitting in the train car in her normal identity. The top was bright pink and green, with a stylised cat smiling back from the front as he found his seat across from her. "I guess some congratulations are in order."
She sat up a little straighter in her seat even as her eyes fixed on him attentively. "You think I've made the right decision?"
It would cut into her time roleplaying with him, but he'd already allowed them to head off and make up their own lives. "I'm always proud of you whatever you choose to do." She would always be the first person to begin playing along with his charade so how could he not be.
She straightened up in her seat a bit more. No wonder she hadn't discussed it with him previously if she had been this nervous about it. "Shall we go over the mission in full then before we arrive?"
"It goes as I have foreseen." Ominous, daring and utterly avoiding the fact that he planned to adlib it all later on. "While I have things to discuss let us start with this." He motioned to the clothes she was knitting.
She nodded bringing it up. "We are currently attempting to establish a brand for Mitsugoshi clothing line to increase our market saturation. This is one of the prototypes and I have a few more if you're interested in them."
Of course, he was interested it was for her… Mistugoshi clothing line for kids that they would soon release. But that was fine because all he'd said was congratulations so as long as he didn't admit his mistake everything was fine. "It is an excellent piece to start a popular children's line of clothes." He was safe.
She looked back at it spreading it out to its full size as she held it up. "I was planning on it for myself as a line for adults. Would I not look good in it?"
"Of course, you could wear a piece like this. But not everyone in this world has your confidence to go out in public wearing such a thing. Kids are free and have nothing but confidence so of course they could also wear it, but adults regularly give up on their dreams to fit into society and will want something that better conforms to its expectations." It had a ring to it, because no matter how hard he tried few adults were prepared to acknowledge that his Shadow costume was the coolest thing ever. But kids could see it and had always respected it.
"Ah." Alpha beamed back at him a light blush covering her face. "So, it suits me but won't work for other people do you think I should change the animal? Which animal would you like to wear?"
That was easy enough for there could only be one choice. "A dragon, it has to be a dragon when it comes down to things. Dragons are powerful and noble, they have just the right aesthetic to make people want to wear them, the kind of monster that deserves to have a hoard of gold and reign supreme over the world."
She nodded along while looking it over. "I have a good reference material for a dragon as well." There she was getting into the spirit of it.
"Um." Oh, Nu was still here sitting in the background. "Mitsugoshi's brand is a red circle so doesn't it need to have that as well. Otherwise, it won't really make people think of Mitsugoshi at all."
That was easy enough. "The circle has always been a dragon coiled around its treasure. The colours should be black and red for a striking contrast, well that's only one shirt but I could pull it off."
"A dragon coiled around Mitsugoshi, so that was what had inspired it." Alpha and Nu nodded in understanding. "I think I could make a design with that as a basis, and we'll get you one of those shirts as soon as possible."
To think he'd just inspired a new clothing line and all he'd got was a new shirt out of it.
All the city was in uproar, all eyes turned towards the spectacle waiting to unfold. Who had killed the Pope and dared to defy God in her place of power? The streets of Lindwurm brimming with famous swordsmen and heroes of old. He eyed the strongest of them with anticipation, looking for the heroes of this world.
A girl with blonde hair and an eyepatch who had to be concealing a dark past as she disappeared down an alley. A dark elf with a tattoo on the right side of her face who slipped away and took to the rooftops. A lady with long flowing pink hair standing at the corner who he vaguely might have met once. It was truly a city of protagonists even as none of them knew that the deceptively mild Cid was truly secretly even more powerful than they could imagine. That the mere mob wandering the streets was Shadow, leader of Shadow Garden.
For a moment outside the bookstore, he let Rose and Sherry on their way, even as he knew this was his moment. Alone amidst the masses he knew the name of the murderer even as he settled into a corner of the street holding a book up just like in a spy movie.
On the other corner his adversary hummed lightly at his own book. "You're also a fan of Nastume Kafka then I take it? Ah my current tale Death Scroll really does speak to me, although the demons present within are too far from the real thing."
"You fancy yourself the God of this world to kill anyone?" He considered the title of his own book that he'd never read. Geass Knight? Code Geass that made sense. "Yet I am the man of a thousand miracles and even the Gods might heed my command. I will step past and take my place on the throne."
Lutheran paused to check his own book. "For two thousand years it has stood. The final whisper of the world echoing endlessly under his thrall. The Devil of Midgar, the Transcendent Swordsman all who have stepped into the world of a dream have become lost within. I suppose you are the fool to walk where demons fear to tread."
He smirked, the all-knowing smirk that secured him in his role. "I am one who has chosen to walk the path of carnage, that even demons would tremble. I will advance today, as an example to all who would follow in my footsteps. No matter how harsh the road stands before me know I do not fear death."
"Very well." Lutheran paused for a moment looking past his book. "You have chosen your path just as I have chosen mine. Speaking of which I wish to avoid a scene and it appears she returns."
He looked up to where Sherry was speaking to the author herself. Beta the second member of his Shadow Garden who had stolen all his beloved stories and published them all under her own name. Well at least it gave him a chance for other people to get his references when he went for it so that was a plus. "She asked me for your head, are you ready for the day I collect?"
"Shadow." Lutheran smiled back at him. "I am a man who has drawn his sword, I know full well I will die by it one day as well. But today is not the day Sir Gaunt falls." Sir Gaunt strode away, the very picture of confidence and calm, ever more powerful for his new name.
Sir Gaunt. It had all the feudal gravitas you could hope for, a fallen knight twisted by society. "Until we meet again."
Was it that the Goddess had turned away her eyes at the death of the Archbishop? Or were the applicants for this trial all just third rates who weren't even able to recognise their failures? His attendance had gone from a mild interest to boredom as each new applicant failed to call for a hero to fight.
But there was meaning in that as well. For when at the end, after the last applicant had been called and the crowd had given up hope. One final challenger would step into the arena, appearing from the shadows in all his glory. The crowd would wonder who could be so brazen even as the gate would open and a challenge worthy of his magnificence would enter the stage.
The failures here would only serve to heighten his own duel and etch it into the memories of everyone present.
The crowd roared in approval and anticipation as for the first time a warrior of legend stepped forth. The flicker of magic around the arena as it stepped into the ring and face off against the blue haired lady who stood against it.
He rocked back casually in his seat in the crowd, just one amongst many as his faceless mob character fell into place perfectly. Tucked between Sherry and a withered old man who only stared in disappointment. "Is this all after such a bad harvest, a single girl bringing up some minor hero barely worth remembering?"
But he was ever the faceless mob unknowing of the vastness of this world and only able to tremble at the sight of such swordsmanship. "Isn't she the strongest person to have fought so far?" It was both true and meaningless the very picture of stating the obvious like only a mob could do.
The man chuckled. "This is a tournament for fighting heroes, so just the act of summoning one is the barest standard to qualify. Yet if we compare her to Herzog who she replaced isn't she just a placeholder amidst the Seven Swords of Vegalta?"
He nodded along even as he filed away the name. If the organisation was any good maybe he'd go and pick a few of them off one day when he was bored. 'Even your strongest cannot stand against the night itself.' "She doesn't match up to how you remember your youth then. How tragic that age has taken it away from you."
The old man hummed to himself. "This is a profession where growing old is impressive in itself. For on the battlefield you either become a hero or feed the crows and there is no place for those who came second. The strong survive and the weak are devoured, so in that sense everyone else we have seen today is merely carrion waiting to die. I'm quite proud of how long I lasted."
Cid nodded easily enough. "So, you're the old soldier waiting to find your chosen successor to teach them the glory of the old ways of violence and bloodshed."
"Nonsense how could I give over my secrets. I am a connoisseur of combat and so I merely wish to see if any of them are worthy of being my opponent. Why bother to hunt the dregs of society when I could instead slay their champions." The grin on the mans face grew feral, even as his withered body tensed.
It was a good sentiment, a true kindred spirit who had unfortunately grown old before they had a chance to fight. But then the magic in the old man's body still flowed properly so he was at least more of a match than any bandit he'd fought. "For reference how bad was the hero you fought in your youth then?"
A grin crossed the mans face. "The Witch herself answered my call, and for a moment I saw a glimpse of what she had been. A moment of that terrible presence that all aspire to, before she was reduced to a puppet, merely a shadow of what she once was."
He thought about it and answered. "Ah so you're the kind of man who's still dreaming of his first crush all the way at the end of his life, endlessly chasing after one more sight of a girl who doesn't even know your name."
"Cid." Sherry pulled at his arm but all he had ended up saying was the truth, so he didn't really care about it.
But the man merely laughed back. "How long has it been since someone talked back to me with such a voice, to be young is to be foolish it seems. So, you would be Cid Kagenou the last warrior intending to fight on the list today, I hope you will be worth hunting once you grow up."
Yes, he was Cid Kagenou, the last warrior to be fighting on the list today.
Fighting on the list today.
He was? He hadn't even paid attention to what this whole event had been about before he'd sat down in this arena, wasn't there supposed to be an actual application and he had been too late for it.
Rather than a sudden crash of the event where he astounded the audience and caused them to tremble at his presence, wasn't this just going out when his name got called? The announcer would say Cid and then he'd walk out in full Shadow garb, and rather than asking who, wouldn't they all just say that was Cid there. Worse Beta was up there sitting next to Alexia and Rose, and so when they asked, she might just go ahead and confirm that yes, he was just dressing up in a costume for it.
No, now that he knew he just had to roll with it and crash the whole thing before it ever came up. Lay waste to the trial itself until no one dared restart the competition and his identity would be safe and secure once more.
But whose turn would be best to crash because he knew he was last. His eyes flittered across the stands to the royalty box, with Rose Orianna and Alexia Midgar two violent protagonists just waiting to be upstaged by him in front of an audience. "When is Princess Alexia's turn then?"
"Midgar claims descent from the dragon rather than the Goddess, so they have no need of it." The old man winked down at him. "So why would they dare turn up and face the risk of rejection when it would ruin their mystique."
Really? "If someone just happened to have a dragon and decided to ride it into Midgars capital they could claim something like I am the true king of Midgar returned in its hour of need just like that?"
"If you had a dragon, I guess you could." The old man shrugged. "They're fun to kill but most are a bit too stupid and arrogant to be worth the hassle of trying to ride them."
He filed it away, because one day he had to try that. But that was a solution for after he had fixed his current problem. "Rose Orianna." The Rose princess winner of a tournament and the protagonist of her own little arc. If she didn't qualify to fight a heroic spirit who did?
The old man guffawed. "It would debase a princess of the kingdom of art and literature to have a member of their royal family do something as uncouth as fighting in the trial."
He filed it away. That when he needed them most, when it was finally their time to have the spotlight stolen from them, that every protagonist he'd found so far was useless. Even the third option Sherry sitting next to him couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag.
There was only one thing for it, he was going to have to actually visit the other nameless contestants to try and find one of them to replace. "Well looks like she's won, I'll be back after I go to the toilet."
The plan was simple because they intended to draw out the enemy in the easiest way possible. The plan was complicated in the extreme because who knew what would be drawn out when they tried.
Still Zeta prepared her weapons slowly testing them as she decided what to use today. Her normal disguise thrown away as she entered under her own name as the only member of Shadow Garden that was fully known to the Cult. The moment she stepped out into the arena the Cult would see her.
The next moment Shadow Garden would begin to see them. It had been a trick Beta had learned from their lord's wisdom that a hunter was at his most vulnerable in the moment before they struck their prey.
She would step into the maw of the enemy in full view waiting to see whether the Divine Teachings themselves were corrupt or if the Cult only operated around the edges. She traced an axe larger than anything she'd used before, but then that way she'd increase her own versatility and be one step closer to catching up.
"A weapon you know would be more appropriate for such a fight." The rebuke light-hearted even as she felt the weight of it on her back.
She knelt without hesitation. "My lord. I stand ready as your sword in the shadows once more."
He looked away. "A disaster beckons, one that will tear the trial itself asunder. But this is a chance and an opportunity as well. For I intend to seize the initiative and break open this cursed nightmare before they have a chance to bring it to fruition."
She tensed but stood firm. Against whatever danger might come she had sworn to stand behind him even if it meant her death. One day she would die in his service to make him immortal. "What would you have me do."
Her lord stood as regal as ever as he spoke. "When your name is called for the trial, I will also crash into the arena to stand under the heavens themselves and break into the sanctum itself that I might steal a relic of Diabolos kept within. For that what name are you entering under."
"Zeta." Her identity was already exposed and so she had no need to hide.
Shadow stared down at her and she could almost feel his disapproval. He had taught them well to hide in the shadows and she had blown it and been outed by the cult.
"I understand." Shadow patted her on the head just like old times. "I too have wondered in the past whether I should go all in and let my face be known regardless of the cost. There is no shame in it, in fact it is inevitable that it will happen one day. Raise you head with pride for today the two of us will head out onto the arena together to face down legends once more."
She leaned into the touch and his approval, he smelled, differently to when Delta had been with him. Someone she didn't know but ah well with a flick of her tail he smelt like her as a reminder.
Shadow stepped past picking up her first swords, still hanging in place as a possibility. "I suppose you cannot be restrained by a single blade." He picked up the first set of knives she'd ever used and glanced at them. "You should spend more time with them." He paused for a moment glancing as she took them. "I see Eta has finally managed to construct a camera."
She held the camera entrusted to her by Eta. "Eta was wondering if you might be able to provide some reference material for her." Which would quickly be coopted as reference material by everyone else as well to go alongside Betas stories she was sure.
Lord Shadow considered it for only a moment before nodding. "It is only natural that I would immortalise my endeavours for all the world to see. Be sure to capture my magnificence well."
"Naturally you know how to use your own swords." Shadow weaved across the room hand stretching out to grasp a spear. "So, we'll start with something completely different, the spear grants reach and power while on the offense, but its true strength lies in using the overwhelming force of the enemies advance to impale them. Against anything large enough that it has to commit to a strike you force their own momentum to impale them in a final blow, brace it against the earth and use its own momentum against it." Each sentence was punctuated with a different stance even as the shutter on her camera fluttered constantly, every movement worth being immortalised as the skill of a God.
He moved on switching to a number of throwing daggers as he focused on the target, the unwavering determination that transcended humanity recorded on camera for all to see.
And then to the axe she'd first been pondering. "For the axe you have to lean in all the way, you cannot hesitate or stop mid swing but commit fully to a strike you know will force the opponent to react. If you pull back midway, you will end up lost on the battlefield." Even as he spoke it swung around faster and faster the head becoming like a tornado whirling around him even as the force stirred up the room around them. For Shadow was stronger than anyone and carrying it proved his power to the world.
He discarded it into the ground and moved on, tugging at a series of wires even as she hesitated. "That isn't one of my weapons."
He smiled back at her even as he pulled them loose in his fingers. Another photo etched into the camera just as it was etched into her mind. "It can be one if you wish to make it so, in an enclosed space where the enemy cannot make full use of its strength you can use it to set up the battlefield until it can only kneel before you." He twisted his hands and in a surge of magic they raced across the room.
But Shadow did not stop his lesson there. "But even more important is the philosophy behind it. A single thread is weak and easily broken, but when you wind them together one after another until to move a single one requires to pull on them all you can create something far stronger. I had been working on such a trick recently to continue using my magic under the effect of an artifact that tried to drain it, it is an important lesson to learn."
She burned the wisdom into her mind alongside the sight. She nodded and then felt her ears twitch at a sound on the edge of her hearing. "It is time."
He nodded back. "Then let us end this nightmare once and for all."
The arena awaited them both.
The second they stepped through the barrier came into being as light brighter than before shrouded the arena, expanding more and more into it brushed against the stands themselves. The air shimmering around them as two portals slowly began to grow.
The first portal opened a single girl stepping forth. An exact replica not of a hero of the past but Alpha herself stepping out to greet them. No not Alpha but her ancestor the hero stepped out to face her and she pulled her sword. "Olivier."
Olivier smiled in return. "Lili, you've returned." The words hung in the air; the first words spoken by an ancient hero in eons.
Zeta stared back anger growing. "I am no longer Lili, it's Zeta now." Except the statement had no meaning because Olivier wasn't really looking at her in the first place. But at the Therianthrope Hero of old who was also called Lili.
"Would you dance with us in the shadows once more?" Shadow drew his sword and fell into a stance even as he faced the second portal.
The clone stared at the portal in front of them eyes glazing over. "The demon returns once more?" She raised her own blade to match, and with her stance it was almost too easy to see Alpha standing in her place.
Shadow laughed in his place. "Then we shall stand once again as three heroes against the darkness."
The second portal grew larger still, until it touched the very top of the protective dome even as a giant segmented black claw tore its way through. Dragging the memory of a demon that had once ravaged the world out into reality once more.
It's corpse bleeding forth a torrent of blades forward in the first moment even as she took to the air above them. Knives flickering between the blades as she carved a path forward and danced between the blows.
The claw swung in an overwhelming mass she couldn't escape. 'Brace it against the earth and use its own momentum against it.' Her blades extended as her slime armour moulded into a new form. The spear slamming back into the ground behind her even as the tip raced forward the arm crashing down and impaling itself.
The demon twisted in place its body rocking against the barrier even as the second arm struggled in place, caught in a web of strings as it froze in place. Olivier was already there, falling like a meteor into the gap as the hero's sword cleaved the first arm free.
Power surged as the blood floating free turned into a rain of blades even as she found her own armour flickering as she pulled her own pride a swirl of boomerang shaped blades flying upwards to carve it aside.
The head of the demon turned, an overwhelming torrent of magic pouring out into the world even as the orb within its mouth grew into an overwhelming surge of power. But her lord was there resting in place underneath its head as his leg crashed up into its chin forcing the blast into the sky where it parted the clouds.
The right claw swung in for him and she pushed forward even as Olivier pulled ahead by a moment. Alpha would match the claw and drag it in, so she swung in past it into the opening that would exist. The weapon in her hands shifting from two blades to a single heavier axe even as her magic ran through it. Swinging her whole body into motion as Olivier caught the right arm in place.
The axe cracking into the elbow joint in the next instance even as she felt her own magic surge and detonate within the wound as the right arm came free. Just as Shadow had predicted it would. The stump bleeding free as the torrent flowed towards her caught in her own momentum.
A wire pulled her free as the blades tore only air. Her figure flying back to rest as she kneeled by his side once more.
It rose again, and even without arms the blood pouring out congealed into form at the stumps. Forming into giant threads of power the coursed around the arena searing through the barrier and into the stands for a moment. They pulled back twisting and threading themselves together into two giant whips turning back towards them.
Shadow stepped up his hands raised into the air. "Kneel." Even knowing she almost missed them, the wires contracting and tearing its legs out from beneath it. The monster screaming in rage even as its half-formed tentacles surged out to catch it.
She stepped forward her first knives flying forwards to sever the thin tentacles at a distance as they crashed down to either side. Blood from its knees rocketed forward in another blade, and Olivier was there her sword deflecting it away.
And as it screamed her Lord pushed up to meet the falling beast, sword extending in an instant to sever its neck as he came to rest on the corpse. The severed head falling to the wayside as it slowly turned to dust.
As the last ashes of the demon crumbled away, her lord's voice carried on the wind to her like a whisper. "An empty puppet, merely a shadow of what it once was."
The portal from which it had come seemed even more solid now, light blinding her even as Shadow advanced and stepped through, disappearing into the realm within.
"Come Lili, let us return to the sanctum." Olivier pulled her after him through the doorway into the light.
The second chapter goes out. I enjoyed writing it with lots of words much faster than I normally write I hope those of you reading it enjoy it as well. Next chapter is planned, parts of Bushin festival is planned.
Hopefully they come out as easily as this one has.
Reviews:
Anisomeone: Well Zeta has been dragged into the sanctum by Olivier so yeah, I am absolutely diverting her path. That and Cid is now aware that Zeta also wants to continue roleplaying Shadow Garden even without the Cult in existence.
Cid has other actors as enthusiastic as he is and will be taking that very seriously.
InstructionsBear: I'm taking that as positive so thank you.