Chapter 145: The Original Knight

I stood in front of the monster responsible for the destruction of Arcadia. That blonde hair, that enormous magic power… there's no mistaking it. She's the Original Knight, the first knight ever produced by Japan and one of the first Awakeners in the world. Though… no one ever mentioned her having pointy ears though. Not to mention… she's beautiful… so beautiful that combined with her ears I might think of her as an elf.

The white robe she wears remains unstained despite the massacre she just committed. And that black sword she carries… what is that sword? I have a feeling that it is far more powerful than our etherite weapons.

My squad and Mari's team brandished our weapons and prepared for the worst. The pressure of her magic power alone made us tremble in fear. Strangely she just stood there and glanced at our direction with her blue eyes before turning away, ignoring us completely. I was about to sigh in relief but…

"D-Don't underestimate us, monster! AAAAAAAHH!" One of my subordinates succumbed to panic and charged forward recklessly.

"Wait! Stop!" I tried to stop him but it's too late. He's already attacking the Original Knight with his etherite katana.

With great ease, she swatted him away with her free hand, sending him crashing against the wall of an abandoned building.

Witnessing such overwhelming power, none of us dared to make a move. But what do we do now? One of us has provoked her and now she turns her cold gaze upon us, like a predator eyeing its prey. How will she kill us? Will we even know it when she kills us? Or perhaps we're already dead and we just didn't know it yet?

Minoru-kun… please save me…!

I closed my eyes when I saw her taking a single step forward. And then… nothing.

Few seconds passed and nothing happened. I opened my eyes and saw that she's already gone. The pressure emitted by her magic power also vanished with her.

I let out the breath I've been holding since we saw her. Some of us dropped to their knees and began hyperventilating from the panic.

"W-We need to report this to our headquarters!" I said after calming myself down. The others agreed and we began moving out, though not before taking the squad member who got swatted away by her. Luckily he's still alive, though he suffered a few broken bones and had to be carried home.

How peculiar. The people of this world also have their own Spellswords but they are extremely weak compared to Spellswords of our world. Even the average Midgar Knight is much stronger than they are. They were so weak that they were overwhelmed by my own magical aura. That's why I ignored them. My first concern is those masked men. I have reasons to believe that they were related to Necromancer somehow. They, after all, wore similar uniform as the Reaper Squad (with the skull masks and the black hooded cloaks) and they control monsters with malicious intent, just like the Reaper Squad did with the Possessed girls that they turned into monsters and the undead. To think that his influence extends this far and we have no idea… I frown at the thought of how far ahead he is compared to us.

The fact that this world is in ruins must be attributed to him. I'm sure of it.

One thing that is curious to me is the fact that the tall buildings here (even in ruins) resembled Don Jon Tower. Did Don Jon have came to this world too and stole its knowledge just like how he stole our Shadow Wisdom? The man is dead so we may never know.

Anyway, after coming to this world, I've been wandering aimlessly. I can survive for few days without food but that is about to take its toll on me soon enough. I can't communicate with the locals due to language barrier and thus I'm reluctant to come in contact with them. Their reaction towards my power is another reason I've avoided them. I was about to contemplate about eating the monster's meat before stumbling across this particular ruins, which was recently destroyed (probably by a giant monster judging by the huge claw marks left on the buildings). I somewhat feel bad about taking advantage of other people's misfortune but I have to salvage the ruins for food… and luckily I found them. Most of the food were stored in cans, almost like the products that Mitsugoshi and Snow Fox Corporation recently developed. Curious.

From the ruins I also noticed that the technology of this world far surpass that of our world's. Eta would have a field day if she were to come here.

The canned food is a blessing because they can survive for a long time, allowing me to carry them on the bag I took from Necromancer's lab, which curiously could hold more items than the size suggests, allowing me to carry plenty of canned food. I must return and take this bag to Eta so she can analyze it and replicate it for use in Shadow Garden.

After encountering those masked men, my purpose is clear, to stop them and destroy whatever schemes that Necromancer has concocted for this ruined world. With that in mind, I left the ruins to search for more clues.

"The Original Knight has been spotted!? Are you sure about this, Akane!?" My brother shouted in complete surprise when we reported our findings at the joint meeting between Messiah and Akihabara factions. Of course everyone, including the board members of Messiah and Akihabara, were surprised, but his reaction… seems odd. Perhaps it's because he shared a history with her? He was one of the lead scientists of Arcadia after all.

"We believe that it is her. Her blonde hair and the immense magical power we felt lead us to believe that is the case… though we do notice that she had pointy ears." I continued my report. I could've sworn I saw him smirking when I said that… as if he just found himself a new toy.

"Then her capture is our top priority." He declared, to the surprise of many.

"Are you insane!? She was too powerful! None of us stood a chance!" Shouted one of my squad members who were present when we encountered the Original Knight.

"We have no choice. With the threat of the Occult Killer, we need all the power we can get." He reasoned.

"What do you plan to do with the Original Knight once we captured her, Dr. Akira?" Commander Haitani asked while frowning at my brother.

"To take her samples… data… everything that could improve our knights, obviously." He said while adjusting his glasses like a clichéd villain. I never thought I'd see him do that.

"What makes you think we can actually keep her under control when we captured her?" Haitani asked again.

"That's… well… she spared Akane and the others, didn't she? Perhaps we could reason with-"

"Keep in mind that she's likely the reason that the Alliance was destroyed. Not to mention, according to Akane's report, she was wearing a white robe… possibly because she just escaped from their lab. I doubt she would cooperate if your intentions is to experiment on her again, Dr. Akira."

Play with fire and you're gonna get burned, that's basically what Commander Haitani said. Unable to argue with that, my brother begrudgingly shuts his mouth.

"So… what do you suggest we do, then, Commander Haitani?" Asked the director of Akihabara's protectors, a middle aged man named Kuzaya, who is currently… wearing a… costume resembling a cartoonish cat-like creature. Mari-chan said he is their mascot creature because he turned them into magical girls just like in the shows, that's why she insisted on him wearing that costume. Despite his ridiculous outfit, everyone took his words seriously.

"We avoid her. At our current strength, I believe we would be unable to do anything against her according to Akane's report, and thus, it would be in our best interest to avoid what happened to the Alliance and Arcadia." At his words, everyone seems to agree, except Akira and a few Messiah board members who refused to nod. I have a bad feeling about this. They must be planning something stupid.

Then we moved on to another topic, which is the news of The Land of Light's downfall from an attack from their own closest ally from Kyoto, the Magirangers. I knew they were scum but to think they would do such a thing…

"That is not surprising. The Land of Light were foolish to put all their resources on a single Awakener and depend on such an untrustworthy ally to take care of the rest… although… I have to admit that their gigantification technology is tremendously valuable." My brother remarked, expressing interest on the gigantification technology that the scientists of Otsu developed to create their own Ultraman.

"But that begs the question… how did the Magirangers defeat their Ultra Force?" Asked one of the board members of Messiah.

"It is well known that the gigantification consumes a lot of power. They must've waited for the Ultra Force to expend all his power before betraying and killing him." Kuzaya-san said. How ironic that the weakness of the original Ultraman applied to the real life copycat as well. Although... I suppose that the gigantification isn't something that can be easily done—

"Wait… The Occult Killer… he was able to gigantify that monster's corpse…! And he did it easily…!" I muttered as I remembered what the Occult Killer did when we encountered him the first time. Everyone heard what I said, some began to panic.

"T-Then the only reason he has to retreat back then must be because he is afraid that the gigantification he did on the monster would expire, right? Right?" One of Messiah Knights nervously made a wishful hypothesis that everyone know is wrong. Why? Because all of us Messiah Knights noticed that the Occult Killer's immense magic power didn't even took a dent when he gigantified that monster that we killed.

"Shut up, you idiot! Didn't you feel his power? He didn't need the huge monster to kill us all! He could've killed us all by himself! That monster was just a toy to him! We were merely-"

"Enough!" Commander Haitani commanded him to shut up before he could utter more words that would bring us to despair. We already know everything he said was true… but we didn't need to hear it or we'll lose our minds.

"I understand that we are facing so many powers far beyond our imaginations right now. But don't think it is the end for us. We were on this position back when the monsters first attacked us out of nowhere. But we survived that, didn't we? This time, we must also persevere so that we may survive through this crisis. I ask of you all not to give in to despair." Kuzaya-san continued with a speech. It is a good speech that lifted our morale a bit.

"What do you plan to do then, huh!?" One of the insufferable Messiah board members, who is still unconvinced, asked him with an accusing tone, as if blaming him for the crisis. That's not a good way to keep the goodwill of your ally, you know? I thought you guys are adept politicians.

"Just like what we agreed before, we need to forge a grand alliance with other factions, just like back in the war against the Doomsday Cult. Only by combining our efforts can we survive." Kuzaya-san said. Everyone seems to agree.

"What about the Magirangers?"

"I consider them to be… a rogue faction on the same level as the Doomsday Cult, considering they destroyed the Land of Light and mercilessly massacred everyone. If they were only looking to steal the technologies, such massacre is too much in my opinion." Kuzaya-san answered.

"Very well… We shall be wary of the Magirangers and we shall also contact all the friendly factions we can, including the imperial family in Tokyo." A board member concluded. The mention of the imperial family sends shivers down my spine. With a grand alliance on the way, I believe those stupid old farts would think that marrying me off to the imperial family would be necessary to secure an alliance with them.

"Akane-chan…" Mari-chan whispered as she held my hand in hers. The comfort of her warmth and kindness always calms me down during my worst times, including on times when my PTSD triggers, like back when we met Astaroth, who was revealed to be one of the men involved in my second kidnapping, the former soldier who was beaten by Minoru-kun.

"I'm fine… thank you, Mari-chan."

"No, you're not. I'm not letting you go before we had that talk, alright?"

I didn't reply and just smiled tiredly. I did notice that her hand is trembling… and she is avoiding eye contact with one of Messiah's board members, who kept staring at her for some reason. It seems that she also needed this talk.

The meeting soon concluded with the decision to contact possible allies to deal with the coming threat.

I walked with Akane-chan beside me, never letting her hand go as we headed towards somewhere private to have our talk. On the way there, we were stopped by her brother, Nishino Akira.

"Excuse me, Mari-san. I need to have a word with my sister."

"Nope! She already has an appointment with me!" I said while hugging her arm.

"I'm afraid you're gonna have to cancel your plans. This is important."

"What we're planning is also important!"

"I doubt it is important enough compared to-"

"Oh please, Akira-san! Don't you know about the phrase "Ladies First"?"

"That is not relevant to our current situation."

"How so? What could be so important that you need to interrupt our girl's time, Akira-san?"

"This is familial matter. Do not interfere." There he goes… bringing the family card even though he barely cared about her as a person. I lost my smile as I frowned at him.

"You dare use the family card when you clearly didn't even care enough to notice her mental state! And you dare call yourself her brother!?" I glared at him angrily while unleashing my aura. He steps back, clearly intimidated.

"K-Kuhh…! Kuzaya-dono will hear about this!" He said as he ran away like a coward.

"Yes! He will hear it from me too! Don't you worry!" I shouted before he's out of sight.

"Th-Thank you, Mari-chan."

"No problem! Let's go, Akane-chan." I said while regaining my smile as we continued walking towards her room. When we arrived, we shut the door and lock it. We also checked the room for any hidden cameras before sighing in relief.

"Now then, Akane-chan. Tell me. What's bothering you?" I asked her with a concerned face. I can guess why she is in distress… but I want to hear it from her mouth. She needs someone to lend an ear after all.

"I…" It took her a few seconds to respond. Don't worry, Akane-chan. Take your time. You can do it!

"I encountered the Occult Killer… as you know… He's… more terrifying than I thought he would be…" As I thought. It's about the Occult Killer.

"And… meeting him… was like all my worst nightmare became real." She said as she began trembling, as if she's having flashbacks to some traumatic past. I hugged her to comfort her.

"What do you mean?" I asked, growing more concerned. Her problems seem to be deeper than just an encounter with the Occult Killer.

"I… Can you promise to keep this a secret… Mari-chan?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I will!"

"Then I will tell you… Mari-chan. This will be very surprising to you… but…"

I swallowed my saliva as I waited her to continue. The few seconds felt like hours before she finally say…

"The Occult Killer…. I know his identity… I know who he is…"

Author's Note:

Akane finally confessed! How will Mari-chan respond? Find out on the next episodes of The Confession in Shadow!

BetweenIandGirl: Alpha is here! and mistaken as the original knight? just need Shadow to pop up and mess a little with Messiah to make it stronger

Answer: I want Shadow's return to be a surprise… so he won't be returning any time soon.

vikinggold32: Missing Claude a bit, wishing he had taught Iris a few things to impress her. And Iris seemed to want more "attention".

Answer: Claude will enter the scene soon. For now, there is only the Occult Killer.

Guest: For some reason the "Nishino Akane, I presume?" line reminds me of the Netflix Castlevania Dracula's "You must be the Belmont" line.

Answer: Lmao, the punch was so weak that Dracula recognized it as the punch of a Belmont. That meme was funny. The "Nishino Akane, I presume" line was taken from the anime, btw.

Dhestrya: Nice

Answer: Thanks.

borregodillon9: great chapter as always

Answer: Thank you for always enjoying it.

DerTrap: Original Knight, Alpha/Nr. 001 is that you? Because if it is you than it seems like we have to add another one to the "The Misunderstanding in Shadows" Counter. *Ding*

Will Necromancer make a TV speech during this Arc, declaring the respective day as the very first "Necromancer Day"? Obviously inspired by Piccolo Day. I mean technically it would be a perfect opportunity to do something like this in the Japan arc.

Answer: The Misunderstanding in Shadow you're talking about confirmed.

Maybe he will make a TV announcement, though probably a bit more like Cell Games announcements than Piccolo Day thing.

Guest: Great chapter and introduction to akane, quick question does nu from shadow garden like Claude if so will she join him in the future, just curious

Answer: For now Nu just admired him and consider him a valuable ally. Otherwise she is the same as in canon.

Cj The Depressed One: author, dude, we are 144 chapters in and we still didn't see anyone die from shadow side, so can we pleas kill some of thoes annoying ass girls please?like bro they are so fucking annoing! they just keep fuckng with Mc plans and our mc doesn't kill them Which is so out of character of him!

i know you want to experiment on them and make character development and what not but they are just annoying ass girls with white and black view of the world.

our mc is a villain, but his a batter person then shadow or his girls, man i hate them!

( btw, love the chapter keep going author

Answer: If you're talking about the lower members of Shadow Garden, they already have deaths on their side, both on screen and off screen.

If you're talking about the Seven Shades in particular, as you already know, I want to make sure they fulfil more roles before I kill them off. One of the things I want them to do, which is 7 vs 1 against Necromancer, is already fulfilled. I still have other plans for them before I start killing them off though.

Also, they didn't fuck up with the Necromancer's plans as much as you claim. Look at how much success he had in Oriana. I was actually starting to think that they've been losing too much. And why he did not kill them after banishing Shadow is explained already.

And is he that much of a good person though? We shall see. Heh heh heh.

Also thanks for enjoying the chapter.

moosejuice5: Loved the updates

Answer: Thanks.