Chapter 132: Descent of the Great Beast
I lured Lord Shadow out of the capital city into the wilderness in the north, where there's nothing but trees and snow surrounded by mountains. The view around this place is absolutely beautiful during spring. It's a shame that I had to destroy it in order to protect my kingdom from one of the two devils currently manipulating my kingdom from the shadows. I'll take care of the other one later.
I'm sorry Lord Shadow. I know I am repaying your kindness and help with betrayal… but since your help was merely a means to control me and my kingdom, I cannot leave you be no matter how big my debt towards you are. I am still the princess of Oriana… who will soon be crowned queen after all.
We stopped in a clearing and I turned to face him. His gaze… is so strong that I feel like I could be forced to kneel… no! I won't submit to him like he wanted me to!
"Now then. Where is the devil?" He asked a question, no doubt expecting me to say where Necromancer is… But he's not here now. Only you and me, Lord Shadow.
"One of them is currently out of reach…" I said as I glanced at the direction where I felt the Phantom's magic power when we were on the way. No doubt he's making sure nobody interrupts us.
"But one of them is currently here." I continued as I returned my gaze on him, not giving in to his formidable gaze.
"And I shall eliminate him now!" I declared as I held my hand up in the air, causing a bright red light to shine out of my ring into the sky. The beam of light emerging from my ring pierced the sky, forming colourful glowing lights in the night sky. The color of the lights are beautiful… they even resembles rose petals. So that's why it is called the Black Rose.
"Behold… the Black Rose, the weapon that wiped out the Velgaltan army in a single night! I'm sorry, Lord Shadow. But I must kill you here and now… for I cannot allow you to toy with me and my kingdom any longer!" I declared as I watched Lord Shadow's reaction… He's smiling… no he's grinning. No doubt admiring the power he desired. But you're not playing with fire, Lord Shadow. You will get more than just burnt.
I turned my gaze back to the Black Rose. Honestly I don't know what it does, only how deadly it is. And thus the sight… and the pressure of a mighty presence that emerges from the Black Rose shocked me to the core.
It's a huge monster… clad in darkness, possessing wings coated in white flames and huge red claws in each of its limbs. "ROOOOAAAARRRR!" As it opened its mouth, an unworldly roar pierced my ears. What is this creature? Is this the true form of the Black Rose?
"And so the truth that has been hidden from the world… unfolds." Lord Shadow muttered something vaguely as he stared at the beast in the eyes.
"What do you… mean?"
"You have been deceived."
"You have been deceived." I said something mysterious without knowing the full context because she looked like she was surprised by the appearance of the bat-like monster in the sky. What other response could I give other than pretending to be all knowing?
Rose-senpai looked flabbergasted... as if she's receiving the greatest shock of her entire life. Well… maybe she is. I dunno. Anyway, the bat-like monster… looks pretty Satan-like I guess. Its power level is also impressive. But…
"ROOARRR!" It roars and shoots out white light beam out of its mouth, bringing down destruction upon the forests around us.
Yup. The power output, while formidable, suffers a lot from inefficiency. The beast seems to be relying on pure brute force that it wastes a lot of energy in that attack without achieving much destruction. I could've launched 10 I Am Atomics with that much energy and just one of them would have greater destructive force than this monster's mouth beam.
"Gyaahhh!" Rose-senpai was almost thrown away by the shockwave generated by the explosion that destroyed the forest around us. I stood in front of her not only to shield her from the majority of the blast but also to look cool.
"Wha… Lord… Sha-"
"Go. You still have a duty to fulfil, don't you?" I told her to go without even glancing behind me. But I could tell that she's crying judging from the sobbing noises she makes. You're supposed to be utterly in awe of my awesomeness, you know? Not crying like attending someone's funeral.
"Lord Shadow… I…"
"Go!"
"Y-Yes!" With that she finally ran away while I faced the beast head on. The beast seems to have noticed me staring at it challengingly and responds by glaring at me back.
"Heh heh heh. Gaze upon me all you want, beast. But know that the Abyss stares back!" I taunt it whilst jumping towards it with my fist ready to give it a punch. It responds by launching its own fist, which clashes with mine, causing a huge shockwave to be generated which shook the ground around us.
Seeing as I was capable to match its strength despite my tiny size, it decided to summon reinforcements. Several black monsters of various shapes, which is smaller in size compared to the bat, appeared from the rose shaped portal in the sky. I suppose this is gonna be quite fun.
I ran and ran and ran. I don't know what's going on anymore. I activated the Black Rose, fully intending to let it destroy Lord Shadow… but it end up summoning a monster of unfathomable power. Is that it? Is that the devil that Lord Shadow referred to? Is that the demon Diablos? Have I been deceived into unleashing it!?
"What have I… done… Oh father… What should I…?" My vision blurred a bit from the tears but I didn't stop running towards the capital city. I felt a shockwave from behind me, which made me stumble down and fell to the ground.
"Aghh!" I grunted. With my body enhanced by magic, I wasn't hurt by the fall but I grunted reflexively nonetheless. The fall also allowed me to see what happened behind me. The creature summons its kin and have some of the scatter towards random directions. So that's why Lord Shadow told me to flee! I must protect the capital city from those monsters!
Now knowing what I must do, I stood back up and ran faster towards the capital. Never in my life have I run so fast in my entire life. I ran faster now than I did back in Midgar when Perv framed me for attacking him and hunted me down.
"APOCALYPSE!"
But before I could go far, I heard an ominous shout and felt an ungodly amount of magic in the direction where the Phantom is supposed to be… And witnessed several black orbs surrounded by swirling green vortexes appear in the sky. I may have witnessed it only once but there's no way I'll forget… the terrible green magic that Necromancer casts… which clashed with Lord Shadow's purple magic back during the school incident. And now there are multiple of them…
"What in the…"
I could only watch helplessly as the orbs rain down upon the ground. The world became so bright, the sound barrier broken and the shockwave threw me away.
When the shockwave passed, I lifted the pile of trees that buried me… to witness the forest and mountains surrounding it to be completely destroyed, leaving nothing but several smoking craters…
I don't know which one is more terrifying… the monster that the Black Rose summoned or Necromancer…? Currently I'm leaning towards the latter.
From here I could still make out the form of the black beast. Its attention stolen by the destruction that just occurred, which exceeds what it did greatly.
"What is… going on…? Did the Phantom faced… Necromancer…!? And he…!" I was concerned of the fate of my mighty ally…
"You have been deceived."
But Lord Shadow's words echoed in my mind. The Phantom of the Opera… has he deceived me… all along? In order to make me unleash the Black Rose?
I was about to run to the direction of the Necromancer before I saw the flying beasts pass through me.
"Oh no! The capital!"
Well… I can find out the truth later. For now, I must return to the capital city as soon as possible!
Ho ho. Bravo my fated rival and best friend. Bravo. To think you could unleash multiple Armageddons… and you even named it Apocalypse. Cool! The wilderness around us has been totally turned into the Grand Canyon. I wonder if I can match this amount of destruction with my I Am Atomic Rain.
The beast I'm currently facing is absolutely stunned by the destruction that the Necromancer brought. It seems that it has enough intelligence to know when it is outmatched. See there, beastie? That's the correct way to use magic to destroy things. Minimum energy consumption, maximum output! Efficiency!
Even its minions ran away to random directions when they saw that much destruction.
Oh? What's this? I felt an enormous amount of magic… and it's not me, the Necromancer or this beast's. It's something else… something that is not here yet but is close… The source is close to the rose-like portal in the sky.
Eventually a crack began forming in the sky, a crack in dimension similar to when I broke through the Necromancer's dimension during our second encounter…
And from that crack… emerges an unspeakable eldritch monster whose form shocks even me because I've never seen anything like it.
If I were to describe it, it's a gigantic lump of flesh with several skeletal hands and scythes attached to it… along with several bone parts like ribs, spine, hip bone, skull, etc emerging from the flesh in various places. The biggest skull is at the bottom of the lump of flesh, with red glowing eyes to boot. I guess that big skull can be considered its head. Not all parts of its body managed to pass through the crack, though so I assume that what I'm seeing is its head along with its neck.
"SCREEEEECHHHH!" It screeches like a Nazgul… its voice hurts even my ears… and a green ring of light began forming around its neck. The ring of light is connected to its flesh through green sparks of electricity. The amount of magic on that ring of light alone is no joke. It exceeds both mine and the Necromancer's… and looks like it has magic control to boot, unlike this bat monster whom I'm pretty sure is currently trembling like a scared dog.
The bat monster tries to fly away but that caused the skull of the eldritch monster to stare at it… and annihilates it with laser beams coming out of its eye sockets. Yup. This thing has decent magic control on top of having huge magic power. Looks like this is going to be hard even for me.
Is this him? Is this Satan himself? Well… it doesn't really look Satan-like but who knows… maybe it is him. Even angels looked like eldritch monstrosities according to some sources. And Satan used to be one of them.
And I was about to prepare myself to face it… but instead gazing at the nearest largest source of power, namely me, it turned its gaze towards the Necromancer instead. What, you're more interested in him because he's wearing a skull mask just like you?
I flew to the Necromancer's side as he floats in the air, leaving some kind of bone throne behind. Ah. The Seven Shades is below him. So he was playing with them all along. They look exhausted though. They should've known how hard the Necromancer plays.
"Shadow!" Out of the stunned Seven Shades, only Alpha manages to call out to me. I responded by giving her a smile before facing the giant skull face together with the Necromancer.
"Feeling scared, my nemesis?" I asked him because he too looked like he's stunned.
"Au contraire, my nemesis. I am absolutely ecstatic." He replied without breaking eye contact with the eldritch monstrosity.
"Glad you're still yourself. Shall we?"
"Of course."
And so, two fated rivals, without needing to communicate verbally, agreed to fight side by side against a new and greater foe.
Author's Note:
Now I fulfilled the hero and villain joining forces trope. Who is that monster that forces Shadow and the Necromancer to join forces? Find out on the next episode of The Alliance in Shadow!
Btw, if you're curious as to how the eldritch monster looks like, you can check out my DeviantArt (OminousRain), my tumblr (ominousrain), my twitter (TheOminousRain) or my Instagram (ominous_rain). Alternatively, you could also check out this fic on Sufficent Velocity where I also post my artworks.
DerTrap: About "TheAbyssWatcher"'s Review, you should absolutely watch JJk. As at least in my opinion it's main antagonist Sukuna could definetly be a big inspiration for Claude as they have some similarities. And as TheAbyssWatcher said, he could also take some inspiration from Gojo as well. JJK is a very good Shounen Anime, absolute Cinema even. Especially the Animations and especially Season 2's animations are absolute peak. (Most notably Sukuna vs Mahoraga).
Answer: I'll give it a shot when I have the time.
TheAbyssWatcher: I most definitely enjoy the despair wrought upon the Shades by Necromancer. However, what is this otherworldly eldritch voice we heard calling? Satan? Or could it be... Yog Sothoth!? And the one who arrives, Shadow perhaps? So many questions!
Answer: Find out in the next episode of The Eldritch in Shadow!
Cj The Depressed One: what happened to our vampire queen?
Answer: For now, still chilling in the Necromancer's base.
borregodillon9: Another great chapter
Answer: Thanks. Hope you like this one too.
A-Yellow-Lizard: meanwhile in another universe...
Voice: Tetsuya-
Necromancer: stfu noob i diffed u so hard ratio ez
Answer: *teabagging*
Guest: Aww man, in reference to my Urizen comment, I was hoping Alpha would at least land a small scratch on Necromancer. Too bad, so sad, gg ez. Better luck next time Shades.
Answer: Well, if they had a little more time, they may be able to scratch him while he's still in playtime mode. But sadly, they ran out of playtime.
