Four Shadows, Nu and their resident expert on ancient technology stood in attendance in a small train car discussing the rewards of the last battle.
"How much information were you able to capture from the inside of the Sanctum Zeta?"
Zeta paused thinking quietly for a moment. "What does it mean when the camera stops clicking when you press the button?"
The train car went silent as all eyes turned to her, the only one who had actually read Eta's instructions on the matter. "It means there is limited film in the camera, and you managed to use all of it." It was a good sign for Shadow Garden.
Epsilon smiled back at her as well. "The rest of us all got trapped outside, but Zeta is dependable so I'm sure she didn't waste any film and got only the most important bits."
Except Zeta looked mortified at the words ignoring Epsilons praise and staring down at the camera. "You see the thing is Cid was demonstrating some manoeuvres for me before we entered the Sanctum."
Alpha sighed. "You have more pictures of Cid than of the actual Sanctum don't you."
Zeta nodded meekly and Delta laughed. "The Cat messed up for once rather than me."
Epsilon had left her seat and stood staring at Zeta. "You made the right choice."
It was not the right choice and would never be. Even if such pictures were of a beneficial nature for morale and personal reasons the Cult had to come first, and Zeta clearly knew it. "How much do we have?"
"It stopped clicking when Shadow stopped posing."
So, they had nothing on the Sanctum at all. Alpha breathed in deeply because that couldn't happen, Cid would have known about the limits of the camera and had chosen to prevent them from seeing it. Was it because they were not ready for the horrors that lay within.
If she had been strong enough to beat Fenrir would Cid have had more confidence in her?
Sherry glanced between them all. "But we do still have the Sanctum, as long as we can find a place filled with magic, we should be able to access the Sanctum itself whenever we want shouldn't we?"
Zeta answered for her. "The Sanctum was created from the memories of an ancient battle, from Olivier's memories of the horrors within. But the girl taken away by the Rounds was Olivier separated from it so now it's only an empty shell. Bereft of any information it still needed to be taken so they couldn't set up another horror using it but all of the cults records will be gone."
Sherry paused a single finger raised in thought. "It still had a mind in it when I was taking it apart to take away. It even gave me a number of instructions on how I should set it up when we returned home."
"Could it be Violet?" Zeta paused as they all gazed at her. "She is an ancient hero that Cid met within the depths of the Sanctum, his words were that she recognised him as a kindred soul when he entered the Sanctum and guided him towards the gate that he might close it."
She reassessed everything. "So, we just need to place it down anywhere in the world and we would be able to recreate at least part of its function and gain the aid of said hero."
Sherry paused. "It would have to be an area overflowing with magic, Lindwurm seemed like the lower boundary which is why the Cult could only use it sparingly."
Alpha nodded. "Ah so as long as the magic is so thick you can see it hanging around the ground it should be alright then." Alexandria was just the place for it then. No wonder Cid had decided they didn't need pictures if he was giving them a fully operational Sanctum with a guide already loyal to Shadow Garden.
She hadn't failed and he still trusted her.
Sherry looked uncertain but then that was fine. "Everything will be made clear when we reach our headquarters at Alexandria." She looked at the shy girl. "And on that note we will be likely subjecting you to some manner of training once we get there. I know you're an expert on ancient artifacts and will do well in the research division but is there anything else I should take note of?"
Sherry smiled earnestly. "While I'm not good at combat I can be very stealthy."
But Nu was behind her shaking her head frantically and signing for them to ignore her.
With all the willpower she had and the full understanding of tact she broached the subject in the best way possible. "Stealth is useful in its own way for both Epsilon and Zetas work. But I was thinking that maybe Gamma might be the right person to take care of bringing you up to date fully."
Delta poked the girl. "Gamma can't fight at all."
Nu saved her. "Gamma's swordsmanship is too strong and so is unsuited to working alongside other members on the field. Thus, when an external mission suited to her comes up we would send her, but most of her time is dedicated to other more logistical roles within Shadow Garden."
That was the right way to put it. "Because being very good at stealth can often mean leaving your comrades who are not so blessed behind, and without the skills to protect them it may be better to keep you away from the frontlines."
Sherry nodded. "I think I'd like that because I don't really like fighting directly, and so I was always looking for a more supportive role. I mean even if I put everything into training I don't think I would ever be able to match Cid or even Nu."
Cid or even Nu was not exactly a low bar to aspire to.
She breathed a sigh of relief, that sometimes there were people who couldn't fight and were happy to be off the frontlines. "We can certainly arrange for something based on that and we would all be much happier if you didn't throw yourself into danger."
"Any further questions." Alpha turned back to her younger sisters prepared for anything.
Except Delta raising her hand. "Why are you wearing something with a picture of a cat?"
She looked down at the pink and green piece she was currently wearing. "It's a piece I made for a new clothing line for Gamma." Yes, it was a simple answer because she had made it herself and had the confidence to wear it.
"Cid said she looked good in it." Nu unhelpfully added along next to her.
The wolf stalked the night under the half-moon.
The streets of a city running red beneath his stride as each new black cloaked member was torn beneath his fury.
In the distance it stood as an overwhelming beacon, a fortress daring him to come closer. A promise of the devastation he could commit on a whim and a message to all who would come after that a monster roamed in the night.
Still there was something wrong as he gazed over the trail of corpses he'd left in his wake. Before he'd faced the best swordsmen they'd had on offer. But shouldn't even the weaker ones be at least a little stronger than this. But even that wasn't truly the niggling feeling in the back of his skull as he looked over the men dead at his feet.
"Weren't there more girls in Shadow Garden than this?"
He sat deep within the reach of obscurity, to stand as a mob amongst mobs unseen by anyone in the world. The train car chosen filled with such minor characters that rather than the normal six people, eight people had managed to squeeze into a single room.
Even in such conditions Alpha's extras would not complain, a breathless silence filling the room. Even as the pink haired girl next to him was forced to squeeze into him to keep all of them fitting in this train car. Clinging to his sleeve like it was the only thing holding her up in the world.
He looked back awkwardly and ah he remembered this girl. She had once clung to his coat for a whole afternoon until he'd pawned her off on Alpha to work out the rest of her life. Well, he'd given her to Alpha and she'd taught her to be an extra, so it wasn't that unusual.
There was no chance she was going to let go like this, it had taken two people to pry her off last time, so he relented and allowed it. Drifting off instead to his head to dream of plots anew. He'd picked up all sorts of new material such as he whispered to himself. "The Seven Swords of Vegalta."
"Yes Shadow." The girl across from him locked her gaze on him. Blonde hair, sweeping over her left eye and sitting as ramrod straight as if she was at a military parade. Even as her hands fidgeted with the small black piece of cloth in her hands.
But he knew how embarrassing such things could be. To go out and roleplay with an eyepatch throughout your nighttime escapades and then to walk in during the morning both eyes fully intact and wonder whether or not to cover your good eye anyway.
He resolved himself never to mention it to her as the only kindness he could give. "You know much of the Seven Swords of Vegalta due to your background." Where else would Alpha pull her extras from if not the ranks of the Knight Otakus of this era.
She composed herself instantly as though she were a real knight. "Of course, the entire organisation acts as a front for the Cult of Diabolos and has done so ever since the founding of the Vegalta Empire."
It was a stock phrase, the kind of thing where he had said every major organisation worked for the cult and now they regurgitated it back at him. But therein lay the beauty of it because it is a stock phrase and so he had all sorts of lines prepared to play off of it. "Their members have chosen to mire themselves in sin as they made a pact with the demons to gain more power."
"It is a sin that cannot be erased." The whole room tensed the girl in front of him fidgeting even more so in her seat. Even as the dark elf beside her put a reassuring arm on her shoulder and he felt the girl beside him bristle.
He was missing something.
Alpha's extras had obviously watched the scene unfold before they'd swarmed in. Seen the Seven Sword member who had been the only one to manage to summon her own heroic spirit to fight and become her fan.
He wouldn't let the immersion break but there was a quote he knew that fitted it perfectly. "An enemy is more hurt by desertion than by slaughter."
But that wasn't enough to make it his own. "The Cult of Diabolos markets itself as the only option, entrapping their members not with loyalty and camaraderie but with chains binding them like slaves. To break those chains is to be free and thus show others that they too can escape from their clutches. The first to leave is always the hardest for they forge a path that others then know leads to their freedom."
It was the right thing to say, and he could feel the relief as the tension broke through the room. The little sister beside him clinging tighter to his coat as she leaned in. To think they were so worked up over someone they'd only met once. But that was what it was like to be a fan he supposed.
They were good girls to be so devoted to his roleplay and as they were knight otaku he could even do a tiny bit to help them out. His eyes flickered over the seven others in the room alongside him, each on had an appreciable amount of talent and strength. And even if it was only his first year of highschool right now, soon that too would be over. He would have more free time to be an eminence in shadow and the Seven Shades as they were had real jobs and could not devote all their time to helping him.
He could impart a tiny bit of wisdom to them, offer them promises of more knowledge and he'd have a second set of seven shadows to work alongside him when the current one was too busy to make time for him. "The journey ahead is likely to be dark indeed. We have stirred the hornets' nest and the beast that is the cult begins to move against us." They had just the right amount of reverence as they hung on his every word.
"I must take care of some business of my own first, but once that is done it seems the time has come for me to teach the way of the sword once more. Though you may be pressed for time I will see if I can arrange with Alpha to give you all a few lessons." At least the knight otaku would be willing and maybe a few of the others.
He would call them the Seven Shadows Neo… Shin Seven Shadows? He would need a better name in a bit, at least by the time he was ready to tell them.
Seven pairs of eyes stared back at him with utmost reverence. They were all knight otaku were they then that made things much easier.
The girl clutching his hand looked up at him. "My lord surely we could come with you to help take care of your business and then there won't be any wasted time."
He considered how truthfully to answer and decided to go for it. "I intend to head home for a private matter that must remain secret at all costs."
Gently he tried to remove her hand. That didn't work so his next attempt was less gentle, and he could keep going until something broke. "Surely one day away from my presence won't be too much hassle."
She continued pleading with her eyes and he remembered this was why he'd needed Alpha to help pry her off last time.
The sword in his hand was crude even compared to a normal knight's blade. Nothing compared to the substance that Shadow Garden had used to try and take his head, as ordinary as it was uninspired. "Even your commander only uses something as blunt as this?"
The man beneath his boot gurgled in response utterly unable to close the gaping wound in his lung he'd left there moments prior. But that was fine it wasn't really a conversation anyway.
He'd long ago realised the deepest darkest truth that had unveiled before his eyes. "I've come to the wrong place haven't I?" This wasn't Shadow Gardens headquarters at all.
But there was a firm moral truth in this world that he had laboured under since time immemorial. Because even if he had made a mistake and accidentally slaughtered the wrong people that didn't mean he'd done anything wrong.
He just needed to kill everyone that had seen it, and the mistake would disappear just like that. It was like when he accidentally burned the wrong hometown and when all eyes fell on him to explain it he could just say. 'Oh, that hero I already offed him without you noticing. Guess he never lived up to his potential.'
Beta was in her role as Natsume Kafka and gave a sweet smile as all she could muster as she sat down with them. They could not really be friends because they were unworthy, but they could be allies even as she pitied the two princesses sitting down with her.
For they both loved her master as was natural because he had all the qualities of a King, regal and heroic as the very symbol of valour and honour upon the world for all who had eyes to see.
Yet the two of them were princesses in name only. Born to a title yet lacking any of the qualities that would make them worthy of him. All they could do was yearn for what they were missing never knowing that he could never love them.
Yet even so they had a role in his plan, so she humoured them. "Shadow Garden attacked the festival, and yet the acting archbishop turned out to be fake I'm not really sure what to make of that. But I've heard that the two of you were at the attack on Midgar academy so I'm sure you know more."
Rose Orianna looked back across the table. "Shadow Garden did not attack the academy, there was a second group who took their name and Shadow Garden rescued us and put a stop to them."
She grinned pulling the thread. "Ah the so called Cult of Diabolos you believe it exists."
Alexia pushed forward. "Rose never said anything about it being a cult."
She hadn't but she was baiting them. "Perhaps she has not but I have a lot of readers and some of them talk to me about their own travels. So, when I heard rumours of children going missing from different places all over the world and the whispers of darker things, I'm smart enough to put two and two together. Although it's the first time I'd been present."
Alexia eyed her with suspicion, but Rose at least reached out her hand. "Once you've seen them it becomes impossible to turn back, doesn't it? They are cruel enough to hurt even the people most precious to me." Beta filed it away because if they had gone after the Orianna Royal family before it was worth noting.
Alexia huffed though. "Rose you're treating her too much like a friend. Don't you find her appearance a bit too convenient?"
"Convenient? The three of us were all in Lindwurm chasing the story of the archbishops death, and with his replacements disappearance into the light don't you want to pull that thread further?" Even if they had nothing to be prideful of, they still had delusions of it. "You want to do something about it and I'm unable to walk away."
Alexia stared deep into her as though daring her to flinch. As if she could pose half the threat of the normal things she hunted. "Somehow I doubt you are much of a swordsman to be able to help the knights I already have working on it." Beta was the best swordsman in the room, having been trained by the best in the world. Some people just failed to see what sat underneath the surface like her master had taught her.
She could not say that as Natsume Kafka, so she gave an even better truth instead. "But I have better contacts than either of you. My books spread across the world into the hands of countless aspiring young knights who seek to fight for justice, and as such I sit at the nexus of a web of knights working to pull back the threads and expose their corruption. Isn't that useful especially for the knight order currently recruiting known as the Crimson Order."
Alexia burned with indignation in front of her. "Does everyone know? Clearly there are too many loose lips in the people my sister has asked already."
Beta looked at the poor girl in pity, no wonder Cid had found her boring. "The Crimson Order has five living members involved at the moment, any knight order needs more than five knights involved so of course you are."
A princess might smile and congratulate her. Alexia scowled because that was all she could do, "I suppose that would be true but that doesn't mean recruiting is available for everyone to walk up unannounced now does it."
"No, it doesn't, it's only natural that you would like them to take a chance to prove themselves. The Bushin Festival main event comes up and a number of swordsmen I could recommend will be attending."
Alexia paused her gaze filled with suspicion, but no one could expect more from her. "How do I know that your sources aren't filled with members of the cult as well?"
Well, her sources were all plants, but saying Shadow Garden was the wrong answer. But she knew the right answer and it was for a good cause. "The broader the differences you pull from, the harder it becomes for an opponent to track them all. Pull some from new knights, some from your own knightly orders, some from further afield. When the only agenda they have in common is that they came to you then you can rely on them to watch each other for acting against your interests for they have nothing else to work with."
Alexia leaned back into her seat. "You've spent far too long thinking about things like this haven't you?" How sad she couldn't even be honest with herself. Because she'd admitted that Beta was right in her analysis so even if she protested, she would go through with it.
"I'm an author I already spent all my time coming up with situations for my characters in preparation for this."
The air smelled wrong, the world around him feeling ever so slightly off. It was all the warning he needed because he always trusted his instincts. For they had led him to the very pinnacle of strength that no other could have hoped to match.
The strongest of the strong, an unstoppable force that lesser men could only hope to beg for mercy under his gaze. His footsteps thudded out the door, an existence of pure muscle and vicious strength made to kill the weak and slaughter the innocent.
He was Juggernaut.
The doors of the tower parted and all he could smell was death. The scent of faeces, blood and piss mixed into a stench so strong that it seemed overwhelming. It was nothing compared to the sight of it, hundreds of his followers piled high in front of him even as a little boy sat casually on top of the pile without a care in the world.
The boy looked back despondently. "You know I had it all figured out, their colour is black, and your colour is black. Both of you are supposed to be filled with strong swordsmen, an organisation that stands above the law. Wasn't it obvious that Shadow Garden and the Black Tower were one and the same?"
Did the Juggernaut care for the plight of a child. "Who killed my men?"
The child gazed deep into him, disappointment plain on his face. "I did. I came expecting a feast and now all I have is shit smeared all over my hands, isn't that a waste." He showed them off, blood caked all over them.
He breathed in bracing himself staring up at the child. "Do you know the price of hurting my men, do you know what it means to face down the Juggernaut."
"I'd hope for a fight but if you were half decent there's no way you'd let such dregs serve you. Boredom is what I'm getting right now and doesn't that make you pathetic."
His sword came loose, a massive cleaver falling into his right hand even as blood poured from his throat and he choked on the despair.
Breathed again. His senses coming back as the child looked down on him the sense of absolute dread pouring through his flesh. He was going to die.
The kid only looked even more disappointed. "You stepped back, not even willing to die hopelessly charging forward. Can you be any more of a failure? I was in such a good mood before this too." The thing wearing the form of a child spread its arms. "Do you know who I am?"
Death seeped free of its form. The overwhelming crushing despair of a monster, a demon that drank in the night and slaughtered them by the thousands. He'd heard the rumours before, considered them mad.
Scouts returning to their main camp to find only silence and death. Of people going out for a piss and returning to find the silence of the grave. Of meeting points found with everyone dead entire swathes of bandits caught in a single stride. As though one day death itself had come and taken them all.
"The demon… who." His voice croaked the word struggling to get out. The Silence falling as the overwhelming crushing fear enveloped him clogging his every attempt to speak.
"Much better." The kid grinned. "The other thing I wanted is a living weapon and while I don't know the theory." An entire jar of red pills appeared in front of his face. "I have a volunteer."
His arm was fine, and thanks to the help of Chi and Omega he hadn't needed to break her hand to remove it.
He had stayed too long on this train when the next journey was fast approaching. The plan already whirring away in his mind with just one piece left to test before he knew it could be achieved. There was only one option left, for while a normal man might plainly leave at the station only a true eminence in shadow would jump off it while it was moving at full speed. Like leaving a locked room by phasing through the wall those left behind would never be able to solve the mystery.
As soon as the other two people present decided to leave the corridor he would go. But rather than leaving like they should Sherry and Nu instead walked towards him without a care. Sherry standing at the front as she asked. "Is everyone in Shadow Garden a girl."
He ticked off the actors Alpha had shown him every once in a while in his head and thought about it. Had she really gone astray that much and was only recruiting women, was this because he'd given her six sisters and never found a brother for her to bond with.
"No, we have at least one other male member because I recruited him." He nodded along sure of himself as he had ever been. "Brave and powerful he's almost as amazing as I am giving you that exact kind of aesthetic appeal of a last boss turning up just when you need him. I'll introduce you sometime."
Sherry sat there thinking about it and when she had no answer she turned to Nu.
Nu only looked back at her in confusion. But that was easily understandable because his friend didn't get out much and it wasn't like Alpha would be going around showing him to everyone. "He is something of a recluse and so hasn't been seen in society for some time. But he is every bit as loyal and dedicated to our cause as any other member you have met. He is the oldest member of Shadow Garden who I first met in my childhood when I fought and played with him amidst the forest.
"And he lives at the bottom of my garden."
Sherry blinked up at him mouth half open as she took a moment to come to terms with his words. "I didn't know you were a pet person."
It was a well-kept secret but actually he was. "I have three pets and all of them are part of Shadow Garden, although some of them are difficult to house train." Mostly Delta who was a bit too happy going through walls.
Was that a bit too on the nose, Nu was struggling to keep a straight face as she looked between the two of them. But she knew Delta much better than Sherry did and so it was hitting a bit too close to home. "The time has come for me to depart."
Sherry looked confused. "Isn't it an hour till the next station?"
"We are close enough to my destination that it is faster for me to run the rest of the way."
Sherry paused and then repeated herself as though on a loop.
But no matter how much he wanted to leave secretly there was an even more important reason to leave this very instant.
Once he had said that Alpha was confident beyond compare. That only she would have the courage to wear a pink and green top with a cat on it in public and that no one else would be willing to do so. Today he was proven wrong for somehow, she had convinced Epsilon, Delta and Zeta to wear similarly garish tops proudly and openly without regard for the viewpoints of society. It was good that they had managed to remain close as sisters even throughout the harsh trials of life in the world.
But being surrounded by four girls in such a getup was the exact opposite of blending in, and it was completely outside his aesthetic as an eminence in shadow. Perhaps there would be a place for such outfits if one day he ever decided to become a clown, but that day was not today.
"Until we next meet." He through himself from the train and into the woods at a breakneck pace to the one retreat apart from the world that was truly untouched by humanity.
It was said that it was every boys dream to have a treehouse at the bottom of their garden. Hidden in the mists of time as an untouched bastion free of the corruption of humanity. A place where the dreams of all children continued to exist.
He would find him there for the plan waiting to unfold.
This is a transitionary chapter, before next chapter is intended to be the build up for the start of the next arc. I would say that it is guessable as to what some of the highlights going forward for it will be.
But that's actually mostly unlikely so cryptic hints.
And in the darkness bind them…
Not quite the right quote but also yes fully enough to see. In my head which is a bizarre labyrinth of confusion.
It won't be done in three days like this one. Next Friday is a much more realistic estimate.
Anisomeone: As I promised it was not a member of the seven shadows, it was instead a dark meta joke. For only Juggernaut can be killed between arcs for a throwaway line.
For the killing, that is how Cid decided to spare Violet. It was I decided not to kill her, so now to make up a cool in character reason to go along with it.
And I just assume no one cares about Nelsons death because he ran a concentration camp for children.
GG725: Glad you are enjoying it.
Tanya VonDegurechaff: Before Cid was born the Cult leaders gained immortality, took over all the most important organisations in all the countries in the world, controlled the most important religion in the world. I wish I won half that much.
ThatRabidPotato: I will look at that scene to see where your high interpretation came from, but not too urgently. They would only be minor edits, and the core point that the cult needs to be weaker is no.
In the end for the two of you.
Strong Cult is here to stay, it is the core concept of this piece that the rounds are strong enough to act off, and against Cid as viable opponents. That they might hold the stage in scenes where he is present and compete for wordcount against him.
All fanfiction chooses to keep some things from the original work and to part with others. I am keeping the fun roleplaying characterisation, the dark humour and the witty social commentary (hopefully at least). I am losing the overwhelming nature of the stomp that is EIS. It contradicts my desire to build tension in scenes and to use potent villains to drive Cid to greater heights.
If you're here on the basis that Shadow Garden will be stronger in every way than the cult in every on screen interaction, all I can say is you're not my target audience. There are many works on this site that play to that trope but this one will not be one of them because it conflicts with the story I want to tell.
It would also get in the way of scenes like this omake I wrote.
He'd followed Gaunt into the darkness through the winding corridors of the complex unseen. The base was amazing just the kind of thing you'd expect a bunch of proper villains to need.
In the centre there was a room, twelve seats placed around a table even as flickering figures appeared at them even as Gaunt fell into his own seat. The very image of the darkest of villains gathering to concoct their evil plans.
Yet one seat remained unfilled as only eleven forms fell into their chairs. The absence striking for all that it represented.
No rather than empty wasn't it waiting? His form shuddered as his clothes changed to more fitting ones even as he stepped free of the shadows and into the seat Gaunt had prepared for him.
As one they turned to him. Gaunt, Ghost Alpha and Mordred eyeing him apprehensively even as one man, a fallen priest dared to stand and question him. "Do you have the right to sit in that seat?"
He grinned turning to the man and letting his magic and killing intent run free, swamping the entire room in his bloodlust. "I am Typhon, is this enough to qualify, or perhaps you would rather I sit in your seat instead."
