The Eminence in Shadow (An Alternate Dimension)

by Thomas Foyer

Message me if you want a link to a better cite to read the story. At the end of season 2 we find out that there are multiple different dimensions that can range from being very similar or very different from any given world, and occasionally these worlds collide together. This is a story about one of those slightly similar dimensions.

The Eminence in Shadow

(One of the Alternate Dimensions)

𝒯

he seasons were finally beginning to change once again as

Autumn sifts through the wind, the leaves changing to their orange-ish red

color and falling gently to the ground, just as they always do this time of

year.

A young boy sits on the edge of a balcony high up on a mountain top and

observes the coming of Fall as he eats his sandwich peacefully.

His dark brown hair was flowing gently in the wind as an updraft came up

the side of the mountain. He couldn't recall the last time that this place had

felt so peaceful to him before.

"Hey Jett! How long does it take for you to finish a single sandwich!?"

Right on cue

Jett thought to himself as he ate the last bit of his precious sandwich.

"Alright Alright I'm coming Emma! Geez, I was out here for what, 5

minutes?"

Jett groaned as he got up from his peaceful view on the mountain side and

began walking towards her.

"Yeah right, 5 minutes my ass, we've still got a whole report to fill up, and

we're not even done with the 3rd floor."

"Wait seriously? We have to get all 20 floors done by the end of the day."

"That's why I'm telling you to move it or lose it cause we're already behind."

Jett groaned some more as he followed Emma back into their main base of

operations, which was located on the inside of the mountain.

The research base was huge with floors spanning from the bottom of the

mountain all the way to the top. The total number of floors was a little over

50, but only 20 of these floors were used for experimentation on the test

subjects.

Each floor, excluding the 20th floor, had a minimum of 20 test subjects, with

the maximum being upwards of 200 depending on the corresponding floor.

All of which were expected to be reported on by the end of the day, and it

was already noon.

Soon after they got back inside, Jett grabbed his researcher tools as well as

his coat and notepad and proceeded to follow Emma along with a few other

researchers to start wrapping up today's quota.

It was a long and hard day, but fortunately the research team managed to

pull it off as they made their way to the 20th floor.

Jett turned to the rest of the team

"Hey you guys can head back to the dormitory if you want, I can handle the

last one on my own."

The rest of the researchers nodded, they expected Jett to say this as he was

typically the one to deal with the 20th floor alone.

Plus it went much faster when he did it by himself anyway.

"Alright well if it's not too much of a pain for ya then I'll leave you to it."

"Yeah, just make sure not to forget to turn in that last report."

"Don't worry I won't." Jett said as he waved the rest of his team off before the

elevator arrived on the 20th floor.

As the elevator doors opened, a young boy with bright blue eyes and shining

silver hair turned around to look at Jett as he walked into the room.

The silver-haired boy was sitting in a cylinder shaped prison cell which was

connected to both the ceiling and the floor in the very center of the room.

It was also the only cell on the entire floor.

"Test subject number 1175977" Jett said as he flipped open his notepad and

walked towards the cell.

The boy stood up and looked at him without saying a word.

"I have some bad news."

Jett said as he proceeded to write on the notepad and held it up to the glass

for the boy to read it.

The silver haired boy stared at the notepad with a blank expression before

he snickered, and then both he and Jett burst out in laughter.

"We haven't seen each other in a month and that's how you say hello to

me?"

Jett laughs along with the boy as he puts his notepad away with the words

You're a Lazy Ass scrawled onto the front of one of the pages.

"Hey you gotta admit it's a pretty good greeting."

"Yeah maybe if you spoke it with your words instead of your pen."

Both continue to laugh as Jett sits down in front of the boy.

"So how's it been over the past month? Anything new or strange happen to

you? Did they try anything on you?" Jett asks an array of questions.

The boy shakes his head.

"No, nothing super out of the ordinary, they have been trying something

new lately though."

Jett cocks his head to the side in curiosity.

"And what would that be?"

"Well they've been giving me some sort of magic enhancer drug in my food I

can tell, and then after every meal they do a blood test and then they drain

my magic power through the tube like usual."

He points to the ceiling that contained a funnel with some heavy duty seals

around the outside of it.

Jett scratches his chin thoughtfully.

"Interesting, not even I have a clue at what the experimenters might be

testing you for….."

"I know right? What do they think they're gonna find anyway?"

The boy created some snowflakes to blow around the prison cell out of

boredom.

"The only type of magic I've ever been able to seriously produce is ice

magic."

Jett nods in agreement, that was the only type of magic he had ever

remembered the boy being able to produce in mass amounts.

Ever since they were both little anyway.

"I'm guessing other than the constant tests and experiments, nothing else

really happened this month huh?"

The boy scoffs as he lies down on his back and blows around some more ice

and snow particles on the inside of his cell.

"Yeah basically...Oh hey! Did you get your hands on any-"

The boy sits up in excitement before Jett immediately shakes his head.

"No sorry, the cafeteria ran out of papers this month, but I heard that the

news lately is really boring if it makes you feel any better."

The boy sighs as he slumps back down.

"Ah, that's okay. Honestly, if I didn't have you to talk to once a month I'd

probably be going completely insane by now."

Both the boys laugh at this comment as Jett stands up and starts running

some diagnostics on the test subject's health and vital signs.

"Yeah that much is definitely true, actually from what I can tell, you're the

only one who hasn't gone completely insane or become completely

deformed from all of the experimenting yet."

The boy sits up in his cell again and looks at Jett.

"Really? Everyone else went completely crazy already?"

Jett nods solemnly.

"Yeah it appears that way, and the truth is I can't even tell if your reaction to

the treatments is the desired effect that the cult wants or not."

The boy sits in his cell as he ponders over this new information.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much though, they've kept you around for 15

or so years right? I doubt they're planning on getting rid of you any time

soon."

The boy nods softly, his mood steadily declining.

Jett notices this and decides to give the boy something else to think about.

"Hey, you know how you said that the cult put some magic enhancers in

your food?"

The boy looks up at him curiously.

"Yeah, why?"

Jett grins back at him.

"You should try to hide some and give it to me for next month when I come

back here, I wanna try a piece of it myself you know?"

The boy chuckled as he sat up.

"What? Why?"

Jett smirked at him.

"Well, it's for research of course. I've gotta know how the food is affecting

one of the test subjects in order to accurately diagnose them, don't I?"

The boy shook his head as he smiled.

"You're crazy, you know that?"

He sighed softly.

"Fine I'll save some for you, but it's your funeral. Don't come crying to me

when your head explodes from all the magic, sometimes it feels like they're

trying to kill me with how much boosters they put in that stuff…."

The boy laughs softly and Jett laughs along with him.

"Yeah yeah I'm sure you're right, but just do it anyway okay?"

The boy nodded.

"Yeah alright sure, oh wait, are you heading out already?"

The boy asks as he sees Jett make his way towards the elevators again.

"Yeah sorry, I can't stick around for too long cause the Cult wants us to do

some follow up reports tonight, and they'll have my head if I'm late."

The boy sighs in disappointment as he nods.

"Yeah okay….but you'll be back next month right?"

Jett nods.

"Yeah of course I will."

Jett waved to the boy in the cell as he waved back at him. He then got into

the elevator and watched the doors close in front of him.

"He'll be fine, I doubt there's anything they could do to him now that could

break him."

Jett tried to reassure himself as the elevator reached the ground floor.

He began putting away his notepad and other tools in the researching

sector before he made his way over to the tunnel that led directly to the

dormitories.

Right before he entered, an announcement was sent out to everyone in the

main base through the intercom system.

"Attention…..Attention."

Jett had heard this announcement before numerous times, and it usually

just involved the gathering of armed soldiers to put down ineffective test

subjects or to take out some magical beasts around the outside of the

research base.

"Magic beasts are gathering around too much lately….feels like we have to

deal with them way more often now than we had to before."

Jett says in annoyance as he began walking forward into the tunnel that led

to the research dormitory, but right before he entered he stopped himself

out of curiosity.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to know how many soldiers they're calling together

this time."

The announcement went silent for a minute before a different voice that Jett

had never heard before came on and spoke through the intercom system.

"All currently armed soldiers, make your way to the 20th floor immediately."

Jett's stomach dropped in an instant.

"No….."

His face turned pale as he realized what was about to happen.

"No, no, no, no, no, no"

He began running towards the elevators at top speed.

"This can't be happening. This isn't real…"

He stumbled over some scattered equipment as he ran, his mind in a

complete panic.

"This can't be happening, this isn't….they can't, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"

He screamed out to himself in a frenzy before he felt a sharp blow to the

back of his head.

"W-what….."

Jett fell face first onto the ground.

"Is this the researcher sir?"

One of the cult members asked a nearby hooded figure wearing all black

robes, his hood covering his head so that you couldn't see his face.

"Yes that's him alright, bring him to the 20th floor as well."

"Yes sir!"

"Oh man I'm so borrrred…..Are we almost there? I want to hunt already!"

The dark haired beastkin girl exclaimed excitedly as she pumped her fists

into the air, her black tail wagging back and forth in anticipation.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Delta, this mission requires extreme

coordination between all four of us, I don't want you running off all on your

own, is that understood?"

The golden haired elf girl responds calmly to Delta's enthusiasm.

"Yes Lady Alpha….."

Delta's ears fell droopily.

"Don't worry Delta, the research base should be just up ahead, not much

farther to go now."

The silver haired elf girl smiled as she encouraged Delta.

Delta's ears perked up as she wagged her tail again.

"Okay Beta! You're super smart so I'm sure you're not wrong!"

Beta laughed softly at Delta's remark. At the same time, the young elf girl

with light blue hair and purple eyes snickered next to Beta.

"Well I suppose intelligence is the one thing that makes up for her lack of

OTHER assets…"

Beta looks over at Epsilon coldly.

"Oh Epsilon did you say something?"

"Nope, nothing at all."

The two glared at each other intensely before getting interrupted by Alpha.

"Enough you two, we don't have the time to be bickering amongst

ourselves."

The four of them finally stumbled through a few more trees before they

found the research base just up ahead. A giant mountain loomed off in the

distance as the night sky was fading from blue to black.

"Is that mountain up ahead where the research base is Beta?"

Alpha turned to Beta as she asked this.

Beta nodded.

"Yes, according to my intel, the base should be built into the side of the

mountain."

"Very well." Alpha turned to look at the mountain once again.

"Epsilon, Beta, you two are in charge of eliminating any cult members

patrolling the grounds, be sure not to let them warn anyone else of our

presence here."

"Right!"

Both girls exclaim at the same time.

"Delta, you'll take the ground level of the base and work your way up to the

top of the mountain."

Delta wagged her tail excitedly.

"Does that mean I get to kill anyone who tries to stop me!?"

Alpha nods.

"Yes that is acceptable, however if you see any researchers in the base I want

you to spare them."

Delta tilts her head to the side in confusion.

"Researchers?"

Alpha sighs softly.

"The people with the white coats on."

Delta's head nods up and down enthusiastically.

"Okay! Kill everyone but the white coat people!"

She sprints away on all fours towards the mountain.

"Wait… ugh that girl."

Alpha shakes her head in exhaustion.

"I'll search the base from the top floor down, you two just make sure that

Delta doesn't alert the enemy of our presence before she actually gets

inside."

Beta and Epsilon nod together again.

"Right! We'll take care of whoever Delta doesn't finish off."

"Yeah, just leave it to us!"

The two girls run off to catch up with Delta.

"Now then…"

Alpha calmly leaps from treetop to treetop as she makes her way towards

the base of the mountain herself.

Beta and Epsilon finally catch up to Delta as they see a wake of destruction

caused by her, with cult members bruised and beaten from her rampage.

"Man, for as much trouble as she causes us, she certainly causes a lot more

trouble for the enemy."

Epsilon says as she stabs a cult member trying to crawl away from them on

the floor.

Beta nods.

"What she lacks in intelligence she makes up for with raw strength and

combat ability."

Epsilon nods in agreement.

"Alright then, I'll go around the mountain this way and take care of any

enemies I find over there, and you can go around the other way, we'll meet

up once we've made a full circle around the mountain, sound good?"

Epsilon asks Beta as Beta nods in return.

"Yes that's fine, after we're sure that all the cult members on patrolling duty

have been taken care of, we can join Lady Alpha on the inside."

"Right then! No time to waste!"

Epsilon and Beta both speed off in opposite directions to hunt down the rest

of the cult members currently on patrol.

Meanwhile, Alpha made her way to the top of the mountain as she jumped

onto a nearby balcony.

"As far as we know, the cult's hidden test subjects should be located

somewhere inside this base…."

Alpha spoke out loud to no one in particular as she used her magic to break

down the door from the outside.

She walked in and looked around the dark room, with nothing standing out

to her as important in any way. She walked towards the elevators and

hovered her hand over the magic stone that would call the elevator to where

she was, however it didn't seem to be responsive.

"Quite a shame…."

Alpha looks around curiously for any other ways to get to another floor and

she finds some stairs located in the back corner of the room.

She walks over to the stairs and sees that she's on the 50th floor.

"This must be the top floor, there are no stairs leading up any higher."

"I'll continue my way down until I find the test subjects."

As Alpha says this, a loud alarm starts blaring throughout the base.

"Looks like Delta finally made it inside, I guess I should hurry."

She continues on downward in her search for the test subjects, but every

floor seemed to be remotely empty, with some research labs on certain

floors but no signs of life at all so far.

Alpha continues to go down 10 floors to floor 40 but still no luck.

"Perhaps the test subjects are kept below floor 40."

10 more floors but still no luck.

"I wonder if Beta's intel was wrong somehow…"

Alpha thought to herself as she continued to go down the flights of stairs

before she heard some commotion from below.

"Did Delta already get to the 20th floor?"

Alpha pondered this as she flew down a few more floors until she got to floor

21. However there were no stairs leading down to the 20th floor.

"How incredibly unamusing."

Alpha walked around the 21st floor looking for another way down, the

elevators seemed to be her only route to get down there, but they were still

not responding to her magic.

"It's possible that they have some kind of spell only cult members are aware

of to activate the elevators…."

Alpha hears someone cry out in pain from downstairs as she thinks about a

way to get down there.

"As fast as Delta moves I doubt that she'd get up this high that quickly."

With Alpha's curiosity getting the better of her, she shrugs and imbues her

arm with a powerful magic enhancer and slams it into the ground. The

entire mountain shakes as she does this, but the floor doesn't give way.

"Hmm, they definitely built this base to be resistant to all kinds of

infiltrators…."

She notices that her attack did do some damage to the floor, so she creates

a giant hammer from slime and imbues it with far more magic than she

would normally put into any of her weapons.

"This should do the trick."

She slams down the hammer with all her might and the floor finally cracks,

and as the mountain shakes violently, the floor crumbles from underneath

her, sending her down to the 20th floor where she is met with a scene that is

quite unexpected.

At this time, Beta and Epsilon were still making their way around the

mountain finishing off all the cult members they could find lurking in the

forest surrounding them.

"Oh no you don't!"

Epsilon yelled out as she slashed a couple of members down in an instant

with her slime scythe weapon.

"Man these guys are too weak, if I don't get a move on Beta will beat me to

the other side of the mountain."

She frowns distastefully.

"I certainly can't have her beat me in combat speed…."

She chuckles softly.

"But I guess when you have such an amazing and voluptuous figure like

myself, it's hard to be as agile you know?"

She grins as she nods to reassure herself before she looks over at a cult

member bleeding out, listening to her rant.

"You're…. A monster….."

With their last remaining bit of strength, they throw out a bomb imbued

with magical energy.

"Die you witch!"

Epsilon immediately deflects it back at him with her delicate control of slime

magic and it blows up instantly upon making contact with him.

"How rude… monsters and witches are quite ugly, there's no way I could pass

off as one of those…."

She stops herself as she realizes she's talking with a dead man.

"Well I probably just have to deal with more cult members on this side of the

mountain anyway, if Beta ends up beating me it's just 'cause she got lucky

that's all."

In a quick flash Epsilon was gone as she sped off into the night to hurry

around the mountain once more.

Beta was also making her way around the mountain quite steadily, while she

was dealing with her fair share of opponents as well.

"Oh my…. You'll have to be quicker than that to escape from me."

She immediately fired off three quick shots with her slime bow and pierced

three different cult members right through their chests.

"That makes 17, I wonder if Epsilon has more members on her side, for a base

that's this important to the cult, you'd think they'd have more skilled guards

on patrol…."

She ponders over this question for a few seconds before something catches

her eye.

"Hm?"

She turns around to see a snowflake falling onto her nose.

"Snow? But it's not even winter yet…."

She then spotted a few more snowflakes floating around and she started

following them, and as their intensity grew so did her curiosity.

Soon she found the source of the snowflakes, as she spotted a young boy

with silver hair lying face down on the ground next to the mountain.

"That's odd, he doesn't look like a cult member, and he isn't wearing the

cult's signature robes."

She notices that the silver-haired boy is badly injured, his blood was all over

the ground with several cut marks on his body, some of them quite deep.

"Oh dear…. These marks don't look like they were made from Delta… and

Lady Alpha doesn't fight so sloppily."

Beta gently caresses his forehead but his skin is ice cold.

"Oh my, he feels dead already!"

She checks his pulse, but she can feel he's still alive.

"I don't know who you are but I have a feeling that letting you die here

would be quite a loss…"

She puts away her weapon as she kneels down next to the boy and starts

healing him with her magic.

"This should at least keep him alive, I'm sure Epsilon can handle the rest of

the guards if they're all as weak as the ones I've seen so far."

She continues to heal him as she brushes his hair out of his face gently.

"He's a human, but he certainly doesn't look like one, and most humans I

know would die if they had lost this much blood."

She shakes her head.

"Actually I can't think of anyone who would be alive if they had lost this

much blood. Well…. Except for maybe him."

She chuckles as she thinks about the man who saved her all those years ago,

the one who founded Shadow Garden in its entirety.

Suddenly the boy's eyes opened slightly as he gazed up to look at the girl

who was healing him.

"Oh? That was quite fast, how are you conscious already?"

Before the boy could even answer her question, a loud explosion was heard

from up above.

Beta looked up curiously.

"Oh dear, Delta must be getting serious up there."

Suddenly, a second explosion occurred that was much bigger than the first,

and the side of the mountain exploded as bits of rock and rubble started

raining down on Beta and the boy in her arms.

"Ahhh!"

Beta yelped as she took the boy in her arms and dashed out of the way to

safety.

"What in the world is going on up there!?"

She looked up at the hole in the side of the mountain to see Alpha fighting

some sort of hooded figure, and it seemed like the fight's intensity was only

going up from there.

The boy in her arms started coughing as blood came out of his mouth, and

Beta quickly turned her attention to the boy again.

"Let's get you healed up first, I'm sure Lady Alpha can handle things on her

own."

She began using her healing magic on the boy once more.

"One crisis at a time Beta….."

As Alpha had suspected, the 20th floor seemed to be one of the floors

keeping the test subjects contained.

However, upon her breaking of the 21st floor, a cloaked figure wearing all

black robes spotted her, and he started attacking relentlessly with two

curved blades as soon as she entered his field of view.

As she parried and dodged the incoming attacks with her slime sword, she

noticed a young boy wearing a white coat in the corner of the room lying on

the ground, with both his legs seemingly cut up and bleeding badly.

Surrounding the boy were other soldiers of the cult that were focused on

Alpha's fight with the hooded figure.

As they stood by and watched the scene go down, the young boy started to

crawl away from them, but as soon as they noticed this, one of the guards

swung their sword down onto the boy and hit his thigh with the tip of his

blade.

"AGH!"

Jett cried out in pain as he felt the hot sting of getting pierced, if he hadn't

moved out of the way at the last second, his leg would've surely been cut off.

He crawled away some more only for another guard to take a swing at him,

this time the boy dodged the attack completely as the sword cut a nearby

valve sending a chemical smokescreen into the air.

"Agh! What the hell!?"

The guards panicked as they stepped back to avoid the sudden blast of

chemicals from the valve.

Alpha was watching this all unfold, she noticed that the young boy appeared

to have a researcher's lab coat on, but yet he was being attacked by the cult

for some reason.

"How interesting…"

She whispered to herself as she continued to trade blows with the cloaked

figure. Unfortunately her opponent was quite skilled, and she didn't have the

luxury of helping out the boy, for if she turned her back on the cloaked man

even for a second, it would spell her death.

As Jett continued to crawl away from the soldiers who were temporarily

blinded by the chemicals, he glanced over to his right and saw a magic

compressor gauge, and he gets an idea.

He crawls his way over to the gauge, his body screaming out in pain, and he

reaches up and cranks the notch all the way up to the maximum, and as he

does this, a spark emits from the middle of what used to be the silver-haired

boy's prison cell.

Jett grins as he knows exactly what happens when a large amount of

magical energy comes into contact with a large volume of chemicals.

One of the guards spots him doing this and runs over to try and stop him

but it's too late, Jett quickly covers his face with his lab coat as the second

spark emits from the prison cell, creating a chemical reaction due to all the

smoke in the air, and a large explosion occurs sending all of the guards

hurling back against the wall.

Jett chuckles as he sees all the guards scattered everywhere.

"Serves you bastards right…."

Not long after this, a third spark is activated from the prison cell and a

second explosion much bigger than the first one blows a hole right in the

side of the mountain, as rocks and rubble rain down below along with all of

the soldiers and chemical smoke that was filling the room.

Jett recoils from this explosion as the whole mountain shakes and he

reaches up to turn off the magic compressor, right before he falls onto the

ground out of pain and exhaustion.

Alpha saw the whole situation play out as she continues her quarrel with the

hooded figure and she smiles softly at Jett who lays passed out on the floor.

"What an interesting boy….."

The hooded figure continues attacking her relentlessly, but after a few more

strikes, Alpha's sword grazes one of the cloaked man's blades and sends it

flying out of his hand.

"Do you wish to continue this fight?"

Alpha raises her sword towards the hooded figure and he immediately stops

in his tracks.

"..."

The hooded man just stood there in front of her without saying a word.

"Surrendering so soon?"

Alpha tries to provoke her opponent to see if she could get him to stir but

nothing happens.

"...Who are you?"

The cloaked man finally speaks.

"We are Shadow Garden, we live in the shadows to hunt the shadows."

Alpha replied to him without hesitation.

"I see…..so you're with that terrorist group the Knights of Round have been

squabbling over…."

The hooded man begins to laugh softly, his voice sounding almost hoarse as

his laugh turns into a cough.

"I used to be like you once, young and stupid."

Alpha stays silent with her blade still pointed directly at him.

"You've got good swordsmanship, but that alone isn't gonna be enough,

they'll rip you to shreds before you even know what happened."

Alpha continues to stare at him intently, not backing down and not moving

an inch.

"You think that having enough strength will bring about change don't you?

That you'll be able to right the wrongs of this world if you're strong enough is

that it?"

The cloaked man coughs once more before pulling off his robe, revealing his

face.

"I used to believe that strength was what determined a man's worth, and

ultimately, the power he wielded due to his hard work and ambition would

make him rise to the top."

"But that is simply a child's fairytale."

The old man gripped his blade tightly.

"It doesn't matter how hard you work or how powerful you become, the elite

control everything and everyone, and if they deem you a threat, they'll have

you taken care of with any means necessary."

He shakes his head in frustration.

"I applaud you for trying to take on the cult I really do, but give up now, it's a

hopeless gambit that will get you and your friends killed."

Alpha lowers her blade slightly.

"I see that you speak from experience, however that will not stop us from

retaliating against the cult until there is nothing left of it."

"And we will be using any means necessary to do so."

Alpha stood her ground firmly as she looked into the old man's eyes.

The old man smirked as he saw the determination in Alpha's eyes

"Very well then, if that is your goal then so be it."

He swung his curved blade down onto Alpha in an instant.

Alpha brought her sword up and deflected the attack, she backed away

from him slightly.

The old man scoffed at her bold statement.

"By any means necessary huh? Then let us see if you have what it takes!"

The old man releases a mass amount of magical energy causing the

mountain to shake even more. Debris and rubble were falling all around the

two of them now.

In an instant the old man grabbed the second blade that was knocked out of

his hand earlier and with both the curved blades, he struck and scraped at

the ground sending a barrage of rocks and glass towards Alpha.

Alpha moved out of the way as best she could but in an instant the old man

was gone.

She looked around quickly for where he was approaching from before she

felt a spike in magical energy and blocked his attack from behind her in just

the nick of time.

"I see your magical senses are sharp! That's quite impressive…"

Alpha swung her sword back at him a few times, he blocked each swing

with relative ease before going back onto the offensive.

"I can sense you have a lot of magical energy, so why not use it?! Are you

mocking me?!'

The old man laughed as he continued his assault on Alpha, his swings were

getting so fast that he started swinging at the walls around them as well as

at Alpha at seemingly the same time.

"If you truly think you can take on the cult, then show me what you're made

of!"

Alpha continued dodging and blocking as she backed away from him slowly.

"I have no need for magical energy in order to defeat you."

She swung her blade with a lot more force than before sending the old man

reeling back in surprise.

"You've already done an excellent job of digging your own grave for me."

The old man looked confused by this statement before the walls around him

caved in and fell inwards due to all the slashing that he had done previously.

The old man chuckled as he saw his own demise right then and there.

"Not bad…"

He laid down both his weapons as he let the walls cave in on top of him, with

the floor then giving way underneath him followed by the rest of the base

falling to shambles as the mountain shook and caved in on top of

everything.

Alpha immediately turned around to find the researcher boy beginning to

fall towards the bottom of the wreckage that was happening all around

them, and right before he fell, she grabbed him by the arm.

"I suppose this researcher will have to do for now, it seems that I won't be

getting my hands on any of the test subjects after all."

Alpha frowns and sighs in frustration as she hoists the boy up into her arms.

Suddenly, a loud bang was heard from below her.

"Ahhhhh! That was so much fun!"

Delta stretched a bit as she busted her way through the side of the

mountain.

"I wonder why everything fell apart inside though… Perhaps I'm getting even

stronger!"

She pumped her fist up excitedly as she wagged her tail back and forth.

"Ah Delta, I'm glad you're okay, I didn't intend on making the entire base

crumble with that attack…"

Delta looked at Alpha curiously.

"Oh it was you who caused everything to fall apart Lady Alpha?"

Her ears drooped down softly.

"But I thought my attacks would make everything fall apart…."

Alpha chuckled as she rubbed Delta's head.

"I'm sure your attacks did a massive amount of damage just like they always

do, you did a good job today Delta."

Delta's ears perked up immediately as she bounced up and down like a

puppy dog receiving a treat.

"Really!? Oh thank you Lady Alpha!"

She smiles as her tail moves back and forth again.

"Now we just need to find Beta and Epsilon and we'll head back to base."

Delta nodded eagerly.

"Oh! Leave it to me Lady Alpha!"

Delta sniffs the air for a few seconds before she gets down on all fours and

starts sprinting into the forest at full speed.

Alpha shakes her head softly and sighs as she looks down at the researcher

boy in her arms.

"We'll patch you up once we get back to base, you can thank us by

answering our questions."

The boy was still unconscious in her arms as she said this.

A couple minutes later she heard Delta cry out from afar.

"Lady Alpha! I found Beta! She's holding a strange looking boy!"

Alpha immediately followed Delta's voice and found Beta lying next to a tree

with the silver haired boy on her lap who was badly wounded.

"Beta who is this?"

Alpha asks curiously.

"I'm not entirely sure…. I just found him bleeding out and-"

She looks up at Alpha and sees that she's holding a boy in her arms as well.

"Oh? I suppose I should ask you the same thing, Lady Alpha."

Alpha looks down at the boy she was carrying.

"Oh yes this is a researcher of the cult, I'll be taking him in for questioning

since we didn't get a hold of any of the test subjects within the base."

Beta nods in understanding.

"Ah that makes sense, but well, we might not be entirely empty handed

when it comes to test subjects Lady Alpha."

She gestures to the silver haired boy and Alpha nods as she now

understands the situation.

"I see…. Let's get them both back to base and tend to them quickly, I don't

want us to lose our only survivors."

Beta nods softly as she picks up the boy in her arms.

"Right, let's go."

Jett slowly stirred as he began to wake up, his head was in a tremendous

amount of pain along with his legs that were still stinging from all the cuts.

"Agh…"

He slowly sat up and rubbed the back of his head, he looked down and

noticed that his legs had been all bandaged up.

"Where…am I…."

He looked over to his left to see Alpha sitting in the corner reading what

looked like some kind of newspaper or some other formal document.

Alpha looks up at the young researcher boy and smiles.

"Good morning, or rather good afternoon."

She sets her report down on the desk and walks over to sit down on the

edge of Jett's bed.

"Did you rest well? Those were some nasty cuts you had there."

She gestures towards his legs and Jett nods as he recognizes the blonde elf

girl.

"Oh hey… you were the girl I saw fighting with the leader of the research

base weren't you?"

He stared at her in confusion but also with a little bit of admiration.

Alpha nodded.

"Yes I was the one there with you last night, I saw how you dealt with those

cult soldiers and I have to say I was impressed."

Jett suddenly remembers what he did as he recalled blowing a hole into the

side of the mountain.

"O-oh yeah I guess I did do that huh?"

Alpha nodded as she studied his body language and facial expressions.

"Yes you did, which leads me to my next question, why were you at odds

with the cult in the first place? I assume you worked for them at some point

in time."

Jett sighs and nods as he begins to explain the events that took place prior

to Alpha arriving.

Alpha nodded in understanding as he explained the situation to her.

"You certainly have quite the interesting narrative, and this test subject that

you are close to, you don't know why the cult decided to eliminate him?"

Jett slumps back onto the bed looking defeated as he puts his hands over

his face.

"I don't…. I don't know why…. I don't know if he's even still alive anymore…"

Jett's throat tightened up as he spoke, he tried to keep himself calm and

collected but there were a lot of emotions running through him at the

moment.

"Don't worry, the silver haired boy that you mentioned is still alive."

Alpha tells Jett this and he shoots straight up in his bed.

"Really!? He's alive?!"

Alpha nods to reassure him.

"Yes, however he was in critical condition when we found him, he's stable

now but it's honestly a miracle he survived at all."

Alpha watched Jett sigh in relief as he chuckled slightly.

"Of course he is…. He always did find a way to survive no matter what they

threw at him."

Jett relaxed a bit and seemed more stable now.

"What's this boy's name anyway?"

Alpha asked Jett as she stared at him waiting for an answer.

"Oh… well actually…. He doesn't really have one….."

Jett answers Alpha as he continues by saying,

"His name that was given to him by the cult was test subject number

1175977, so I guess that is sort of his name."

Alpha tilts her head in curiosity.

"So you never gave him a name of his own?"

Jett shook his head.

"Well no not really, you see, he and I have known each other for as long as I

can remember. I was taken captive by the Cult of Diablos when I was very

little, I don't even have any memories of my parents."

Alpha listened intently.

"The only thing I know about my parents is that they named me Jett since it

was the name imprinted onto my clothes when I was kidnapped. I'm

guessing the same thing happened to 1175977, he was probably abducted by

the cult when he was just a baby and put into confinement."

Jett thinks back on those days from long ago.

"He and I first met when we were probably…. 10?"

Jett chuckled a bit.

"Neither of us actually know how old we are, we like to joke about that a lot

haha."

Alpha nodded as she listened to Jett ramble.

"Oh I got off track a bit, the reason why I never came up with a name for him

is because when we talked together, there was nobody else in the room with

us. He was the only test subject allowed on the 20th floor, and when I was up

there talking to him and taking his vitals and such, it was just me and him.

It's kind of pointless to come up with an actual name for somebody when

there's nobody else I could be talking to."

Alpha chuckled softly as she nodded.

"I suppose that makes sense, however we'll probably need to come up with

some sort of name for him once you two join Shadow Garden."

Jett nods before he stops himself and looks at Alpha confusedly.

"Wait wait…. Shadow Garden? You're a part of that infamous terrorist

group?"

Alpha nods once again.

"Yes that's correct."

Jett strokes his chin thoughtfully.

"I've heard a lot about you guys, in fact you're like the only group that the

cult has had some real trouble dealing with."

Jett looks back at Alpha.

"You guys must be pretty insanely strong to be a pain for the Cult of Diablos

to deal with."

Alpha smiles at Jett softly.

"So I take it that you'd be happy to join us? Normally I wouldn't even offer

such a proposal, but since you seem to have a long history with the cult, you

could prove to be very useful."

Jett thinks about it but nods his head quickly.

"Yeah okay, I'll join. I have nothing but resentment for the Cult of Diablos

anyways, especially after what they did to us….."

Alpha nods as she stands up from the edge of his bed.

"I'm glad to hear it, you should rest up for a bit longer, your friend is still out

cold and being watched over at the moment, I'll let you know once he wakes

up."

Jett nods as he watches Alpha walk out of the room before he calls out to

her.

"Oh hey!"

She turns around to face him.

"You never told me what your name was."

Alpha realizes that she never gave Jett her name.

"Oh of course my apologies, my name is Alpha. It's nice to meet you, Jett."

She gave him a small courtesy smile as she walked out of the room and

closed the door behind her.

Beta was sitting in one of Shadow Garden's infirmaries as she was reading

one of her books that she had written a while back.

"You know…. I always really liked how the prince in this story interacts with

the female lead. He's not the main love interest for her, but I'd say he's my

favorite in this story."

She looks over at the silver haired boy who was sound asleep on the bed

next to her.

He'd been asleep for quite some time, but his breathing remained stable

ever since they patched him up and healed all the deep wounds he received.

Beta closes her book and sets it off to the side as she leaned in closer to him.

"You're certainly unlike any human boy I've ever seen before, white hair isn't

typically natural for humans to have. Your features almost lead me to believe

that you're part elf or beastkin or something."

She brushes his hair out of his face gently.

"I wonder if you'd like reading my stories at all…."

She shakes her head as she continues to examine his face.

"I wish you'd just wake up already, hanging out in the infirmary all day

wasn't exactly what I had in mind, you know?"

The boy continues to keep his eyes closed as she talks to him, but after she

poked and prodded his cheeks, lips, and ears a bit with her finger, he began

to stir and move slightly.

Beta immediately jumped back away from him in embarrassment and

picked up the book she was reading in a hurry so it looked like she wasn't

doing anything suspicious.

The silver-haired boy opened his eyes slowly and rubbed them as he looked

around at his surroundings, before he laid his bright blue eyes on where

Beta was sitting.

"Hm?"

The boy looked over at Beta curiously, then he looked around the room with

a surprised expression.

"Woah….."

He looked around the room as if he had never seen anything like it before,

his eyes taking in every last detail.

Beta closes the book that she was currently holding upside down, and while

pretending to be calm and composed, looks over at the boy who had just

woken up.

"Why hello there, and good morning to you."

She smiled at him as the boy looked back at her.

He immediately recognized the beautiful elf girl as his eyes lit up.

"You're that girl….I remember you."

Beta nodded as she chuckled.

"Yes my name is Beta, it's a pleasure to meet you."

She reached out to shake the boy's hand but he just looked at her curiously,

not quite understanding what she was doing.

"Would you mind telling me what your name is?"

Beta asks the boy as he awkwardly reaches out and grabs her hand with his.

"My name? I don't really have one."

The boy says with a blank stare on his face.

"Oh is that so?"

Beta says back with curiosity in her voice.

"Well…I guess it's test subject number 1175977. That's what they call me back

at the research base."

Beta nods softly as the boy continues to stare at her with doe-like eyes.

"Ah I see, well it's nice to meet you 1175977. Can I ask how long you've been a

test subject for?"

The boy nods.

"Oh I've been a test subject for my entire life, I'd still be a test subject right

now if it weren't for you Beta. It was only thanks to you that I was saved…."

He thinks back on the events that took place last night.

Beta nods in agreement.

"Yes that is probably true, you were certainly bleeding out a lot when we

found you, it's a miracle you even survived at all if I'm being honest."

The boy takes off the bed sheets that were covering his body to see just how

many bandages were covering his body.

"T-thank you Beta….I owe you my life…"

The boy gets down on the ground and bows to her, groaning in pain slightly

as he bends his body and limbs.

"A-ah! T-there's no need to do that!"

Beta hurriedly bends down and helps the boy back onto the bed.

"Agh…"

The boy sits back on the bed as he smiles at Beta.

"S-sorry, but if I didn't at least try to thank you I don't think I could forgive

myself."

Beta sighs softly as she sits down next to him on the bed.

"There's no need for such formalities, in fact if you don't mind, I desperately

want to ask you about my own personal interests regarding yourself."

The boy nods immediately.

"Oh sure thing, you can ask anything you want."

He sits there patiently as Beta reaches out and touches his hair gently.

"Your white hair color….is quite odd for that of a human…."

The boy nods.

"Oh yes I know, I'm not a normal human."

Beta looks at him curiously.

"Not normal? In what way exactly?"

The boy smirks at her as he touches his lips and pretends to blow her a kiss,

and as he does so, snowflakes and some ice dust breeze their way towards

Beta.

Beta's eyes widen in surprise as she reaches out and touches them,

chuckling softly as a few snowflakes landed on her face gently.

"Wow, that's quite some impressive magic you have there haha."

She smiles at the boy again and he smiles back at her.

"Well it sure must be impressive since the cult kept me around for 15 years to

experiment on, and the only thing I can really do is use ice magic pretty

well."

Beta wonders what the cult could've been testing the boy for during all

those years.

"Would you mind telling me what exactly they did to you while you were

there?"

The boy nodded as he began to explain the various tests and procedures

they ran on him on a constant basis.

"...And then at the end of the month, Jett would always come and check up

on me to see how I'm doing."

Beta nods as she tilts her head to the side curiously.

"Oh? Who's Jett?"

The boy sighs as he becomes saddened suddenly.

"He's my friend…. He's a researcher back at the base that you rescued me

from…."

He seemed disheartened as he thought about the situation.

"I'd really like to see him again but, I really don't want to go back there…."

Beta nods as she understands his thought process.

"Of course you don't want to go back, the cult held you as a prisoner for your

entire life. Who would willingly go back to that?"

The boy nodded before he shook his head.

"N-no I have to go back….I need to let Jett know I'm okay."

The boy gets up from his bed and starts limping over to the door and Beta

quickly stands up and rushes over to his side.

"T-there's no need to go right away, you should probably rest for a bit longer

considering the condition you're currently in."

The boy shakes his head as he continues moving forward.

"N-no I'm sure he's worried about me, I have to go and see him as soon as I

can…"

He groans in pain slightly as he stumbles and falls into Beta's arms.

"I…need to see him…."

Beta sighs as she lays him down against the wall.

"Well even if you did go back right now, I'm not even sure if Jett would be at

the base, when we rescued you from there… well the base sort of collapsed

after all the fighting that took place."

The boy's eyes widened in horror.

"It collapsed?... Does that mean Jett is….."

The boy suddenly put his head in both his hands as tears began forming in

his eyes.

Beta hurriedly waved her hands in denial to try to calm him down.

"No no no! I-I'm sure Jett is okay! He probably got out safely before all that

stuff happened! I'm sure he didn't die…"

Beta hoped that what she was saying was true, but she was mainly hoping

that she could calm the boy down as quickly as possible.

The boy nodded as he listened to her and he looked up into her eyes as he

nodded.

"O-okay…You're probably right…."

Beta couldn't help but reach out and stroke his head softly to console him,

he reminded her of how she was when she was just a little girl, before she

got saved by him of course.

She smiled at the boy warmly as she continued to stroke his hair, she

couldn't help but feel that she had a soft spot for him already. The boy let her

pat him on the head a bit as he blushed softly.

Soon after this, Alpha came in through the door and saw the two of them

down by the floor.

"Oh good….You're finally up."

She looked at the young boy curiously, then looked at Beta who seemed to

be comforting the boy as she had walked in.

"I told your friend that I'd tell him the moment that you woke up."

The boy's eyes widened in hope.

"My friend!? Jett is here?!"

Alpha nods reassuringly.

"Yes he is, I'll go get him, just stay here for the time being."

Alpha looked over at Beta.

"Don't let him move around too much Beta."

Beta nods immediately.

"Yes Lady Alpha."

Alpha then leaves to go and get Jett.

The silver haired boy relaxes against the wall as he now knows that his friend

is okay.

"I'm so glad that he's okay."

Beta sighs in relief as she sits next to the boy.

"See? I told you he survived."

The boy nodded as rested his head against the wall and smiled.

"Yeah, you were right Beta."

His body started emitting little snow and ice particles from the exposed

parts of his skin as he relaxed against the wall.

Beta looks over at him as he creates these snowflakes and she chuckles.

"I think you're quite good at making these bits of frost, they're very pretty."

She reaches out and catches a few in her hands.

"You know since nobody's ever given you a proper name before, I think Frost

could be a great name for you if you wanted."

The boy looked over at Beta softly as she suggested a new name for him,

and he smiled happily.

"Frost huh? I like it…"

Beta smiled as she laughed softly.

"It's certainly not the most creative name I've come up with, but I think it

suits you well."

The boy chuckled as he shook his head.

"No no I like it a lot, I think I'll use it as my new name from now on."

Beta nods at his decision.

"Well I'm glad I was able to choose a name that resonates with you, Frost."

Beta chuckled softly as Frost nodded his head in agreement.

"Well I mainly like it since you were the one who picked it out for me, Beta."

This time it was Beta's face that turned a slight shade of red.

"Oh umm, well that's very kind of you to say….It's really no big deal."

The two sat in silence for a couple minutes before Jett came bursting in

through the front door of the infirmary.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Jett ran towards Frost as he fell to his knees and hugged him tightly.

"You're alive too!"

Frost exclaims as he and Jett both embrace each other for the very first time,

and Frost winces in pain as Jett squeezes his body.

"Oh sorry! I bet you're in a lot of pain right now aren't you?"

Frost nods and groans a bit more as Jett releases him.

"Y-yeah just a bit but, it's worth it haha, that was our very first hug wasn't it?"

Jett nodded happily as he laughed along with Frost.

"That was the first time we've ever made physical contact with each other."

Frost nods as he smiles up at Jett.

"Yeah it was….That's pretty crazy isn't it? I've known you for what, 5, 6 years?"

Frost and Jett laugh together as they both give each other another hug.

"You jerk, what were you doing all those years not giving me a hug?"

Frost laughs again at Jett's enthusiasm and pats him on the back as their

hug eventually breaks off.

Alpha and Beta smile softly as they watch the boys' interaction with each

other.

"I'm glad you two were finally able to escape from that place together."

Alpha speaks as the two boys look back at her as she stands in the doorway.

"Yeah me too, you have no idea how grateful I am to you guys."

Jett says as he smiles up at Alpha and gives a quick nod and smile to Beta as

well.

"Lady Alpha, may I make a suggestion regarding these two?"

Beta spoke to Alpha about an idea she had, but Alpha raises up her hand to

silence Beta.

"There's no need, I already know what you plan on suggesting and I'm of the

same mindset Beta."

Beta's eyes light up as she nods enthusiastically.

"Oh yes! I'm glad we both agree that it would be very beneficial to recruit

them into Shadow Garden!"

Alpha nods as Frost looks around confused.

"Shadow Garden?..."

Jett whispers to Frost.

"I'll explain it to you later."

Frost nods as he understands that there's more to the story he doesn't quite

understand yet.

"Actually you two woke up at the perfect time. Beta?"

Alpha looks over at Beta and Beta nods eagerly.

"Yes Lady Alpha?"

"I want these two boys to look presentable if they are to be the new

members of Shadow Garden. The master will be arriving shortly."

Beta's eyes light up in surprise and excitement.

"Oh my! Master Shadow is on his way!?"

Alpha nods, a small smirk appears on her face.

"Yes he is, and I would like to introduce him to these newest members of

ours if you think they can handle it."

Beta nods ecstatically.

"Oh yes! I'll send out an immediate notification to the other Shadow Garden

members to come and help these two get ready before Master Shadow

arrives."

Alpha nods in approval.

"Good. I'm looking forward to the meeting."

With that, Alpha takes her leave from the infirmary and Beta starts running

out of the room behind her.

"Oh! You two stay here, I'll be back shortly!"

She once again takes her leave out the door behind Alpha.

"Oh? It's raining already?"

A young boy with black hair and grey eyes looked up towards the dark

cloudy sky and realized that rain was just now starting to sprinkle its way

down onto the kingdom of Midgar.

"Looks like I should've brought an umbrella to school today after all."

He said to himself as he began walking back to his dorm from the school

building.

"It's too bad both Skel and Po were absent today, otherwise I might've been

able to mooch off of one of them if they had an umbrella."

He shook his head and sighed.

"But knowing those two they'd be just as underprepared as I am, then they

would try to use me as cover from the rain."

He could already imagine Skel and Po trying to huddle behind him so that

they wouldn't have to worry about getting their uniforms soaked.

"Just let us use you as our umbrella, Cid!"

"Yeah, yeah! No need for all three of us to be soaked!"

Cid could already hear the two extras he had chosen as friends at Midgar

academy try to coerce him to shield them from the rain.

"I swear those two…"

He shook that unpleasant image from his mind as he realized that the rain

was coming down a little harder now, and if it kept up, his uniform really

would start to get soaked soon.

"I could use magic to effectively cover my entire body so that my uniform

doesn't get soaked….But that wouldn't be very background-character like at

all."

Cid smirks to himself, proud of the fact that he was able to pull off being the

perfect embodiment of a background character.

The rain started to come down a bit more and by the time that Cid had

made it back to his apartment, he was drenched and soaking wet.

He walked into his apartment and saw a beautiful blonde elf girl sitting on

the edge of his desk.

"Oh hey Alpha, it's certainly been a while."

Alpha smiles as she looks over at Cid who was dripping water everywhere.

"Yes it certainly has been Master Shadow."

Once Cid had closed the door behind him, he used his slime magic to absorb

all of the water on his body so that he would be dry once again.

"I decided to drop by prior to your visit to Shadow Garden, my lord."

Cid nodded thoughtfully as he made his way over to the kitchen sink and

wringed out the slime that had soaked up all the water on his body like a

sponge.

"Yeah I was about to make my way over, but this storm came out of

nowhere, and I know that all the trains nearby will probably be shut down

until the storm comes to pass."

Cid starts to take off his shoes and school uniform and hangs them up in his

closet.

Alpha hops down from the desk and hands him a burger.

Cid looks at her curiously.

"Hm? What's this?"

Alpha smiles at him.

"Well it's the reason I decided to come see you before you made your

appearance in front of the other members. I figured you probably didn't have

much for lunch today considering your school's strict lunch options for

students who aren't wealthy nobles or royals."

Cid nods as he takes the burger that Alpha gave to him.

"Thanks Alpha, you didn't have to do that."

Alpha shakes her head as she smiles at him.

"It was no problem at all, Tuna King was on my way over here anyway."

She sits down next to Cid as he eats on the edge of his bed.

"I also came to inform you that our members have been rising exponentially

in quantity lately, in fact we have two new candidates looking to join

Shadow Garden today."

Cid nods along as he continues to eat.

"Oh?"

Alpha nods as she continues to talk.

"Yes it's true, however these two are a different case from the previous

members, if they join, they will be the first members within Shadow Garden

that have not been possessed."

Cid continues to eat his burger as he looks at Alpha.

"Not possessed huh?"

Alpha nods again.

"Yes that's right, one used to be a researcher for the Cult of Diablos while the

other one was a test subject that was experimented on by them."

Alpha looks at Cid with soft eyes.

"Since they are such odd cases, I wanted to tell you about them beforehand

so that you could evaluate them for yourself."

Cid finishes his burger and crumples up the wrapper.

"I'm sure if they've caught your eye Alpha, then they'll be perfectly fine

additions to Shadow Garden, even if they haven't been possessed before."

He then throws the wrapper at the garbage can nearby, but misses.

"Plus, it's not like there's a rule that only possessed individuals can join

Shadow Garden anyway, so I'm sure it's fine."

He leans back on his bed and stretches.

Alpha nods as she bends down to pick up the wrapper he threw on the floor

and tosses it in the trash.

"That's true I suppose, but I still think you should meet them while you're

there. They may catch your interest more than you might think."

I wonder why Alpha is so adamant about these two….If she wants them to

join so badly then just have them join. Maybe she's worried that I'll get

upset if she just chooses random people to join even if they haven't been

possessed.

"Well since you insist on it, I'll evaluate them for you."

Plus I'll get to show off my epic 'eminence in shadow' routine to a bunch of

newbies for the first time up close and personal. So all in all it shouldn't be

too boring.

Alpha smiles at him as she stands up to leave.

"Good, I'm excited to hear your personal thoughts on the two of them. I'll

head back now to make sure the rest of the shades are prepared for your

return tonight."

Cid gives Alpha a gentle wave as she leaps from his balcony and disappears

from his sight.

Cid sits on his bed a little while longer as he stares up at the ceiling in

boredom.

"I should probably pay Alpha back for that burger."

Cid looks over at his desk and opens a drawer filled with loose coins, but it

wasn't nearly enough to pay for the burger.

Looks like I'm low on funds again….

Cid thought to himself as he pushed the drawer closed again.

"Or I could just give some high praise to the new members she told me

about, it sounds like she really wants them to get in with my stamp of

approval."

"Yeah, that'll make us even."

Cid nods reassuringly to himself as he falls lazily back onto his bed again.

The rain continues to pour outside and Cid closes his eyes as he relaxes on

his bed.

"I'll head out in a few minutes, waiting around a bit longer couldn't hurt."

He continued to relax on his bed before he heard a knock on the door,

followed by a very familiar voice.

"Cid? Are you in there?"

It was his older sister Claire.

"You didn't show up to meet with me after school like you promised! I mean I

know it started raining and everything…..But you still should've at least tried

to meet up with me like you said you would! You never keep any of your

promises!"

Cid sat up in his bed as he heard his sister yell at him from the other side of

the door.

Like I was saying, I should probably head towards Shadow Garden

headquarters as soon as possible, no point in waiting around.

And with that, Cid had transformed into his infamous Shadow appearance,

and leapt from his balcony off into the night.

While Alpha was absent, Beta was running all over trying to get everyone

ready for Master Shadow's appearance that night.

"Oh, Gamma!"

Beta looked up and called out to the elf girl with long black hair and blue

eyes at the top of a staircase.

"Oh Beta, I heard the news that Master Shadow will be visiting soon!"

Gamma quickly flew down the flight of stairs only to trip and fall in her high

heels and tumble down to the bottom of the stairs.

"Gamma! Are you alright?"

Beta rushes over to aid Gamma as she looks back up at Beta with a bit of

blood trickling down from her nose.

"O-oh yes I'm alright, I guess I got a bit excited…"

Beta sighs softly.

"Try not to injure yourself too much before Master Shadow gets here, we

can't have one of the seven shades looking all bruised and beating upon his

arrival."

Gamma nodded as she knew that among all the members in Shadow

Garden, the seven shades were held to the highest standard of them all.

"Yes yes of course, you're right."

She stands up and wipes the blood from her nose with a handkerchief.

"I've already assembled the rest of the Shadow Garden members, they're

waiting for Master Shadow in the throne room as we speak."

Beta relaxes a bit as she breathes a sigh of relief.

"Perfect, thank you Gamma. I'm excited to see Master Shadow as well, it feels

like we haven't seen him in ages."

Gamma nods in agreement.

"I know! I've been dying to see him. It's just not the same without him here

you know?"

Beta chuckles as she nods.

"I know what you mean, Shadow Garden really feels different when he's

here. I'm so excited for tonight!"

Both the girls share their excitement together as they laugh and giggle

softly.

"Beta, Gamma, have the preparations been made for Master Shadow's

arrival?"

Alpha walks up to the two of them in an inquisitorial manner.

"Oh Lady Alpha! It's good to see you!"

Gamma bows slightly towards Alpha as she nods happily back at her.

"Yes Lady Alpha, everyone is ready and waiting in the throne room."

Alpha nods, clearly pleased with Gamma.

"Good, and what about those two?"

She looks at Beta as she asks this.

"Those two?"

Gamma asks curiously as she also looks at Beta.

Beta smiles and nods.

"Yes Lady Alpha, those two are ready and waiting in the throne room as

well."

Alpha nods as she relaxes slightly.

"Perfect, then everything is ready for his arrival."

Beta fidgets nervously as she hears Alpha say this.

"Unless there's an unforeseen problem I'm not aware of?"

Alpha asks as she stares at Beta and Beta sighs softly.

"Well I've gathered all of the shades, but-"

"Ah I see, Delta went off on her own again?"

Beta nods as Alpha deduces the problem before she can even finish

explaining the situation.

"No need to worry, I can find her, you two just head back to the throne room

and wait for me there."

Gamma and Beta both nod obediently.

"Yes Lady Alpha."

They both chime in unison as they start heading towards the throne room at

once.

"I can probably guess where she's run off to anyway."

Alpha mutters under her breath.

Delta was perched on the top of one of Shadow Gardens watchtowers and

was wagging her tail back and forth excitedly.

Alpha hopped up to the top of the tower with ease as Delta turned to look at

her.

"Boss-man is coming! I can smell him!"

Her eyes practically glowed with excitement as her tail moved so fast that

Alpha thought she might start flying away.

"Yes, Shadow will be here soon, but you need to go to the throne room if you

want to see him."

Delta shakes her head in denial.

"No, I'm gonna find him first! And I'll jump on him and ask if he wants to go

hunt with me!"

She looked excited like a child receiving a present, or rather like a dog

receiving a treat.

"No Delta, he can't hunt with you when he arrives, he has important

business to attend to and I won't let you distract him when he gets here."

Delta's tail stopped wagging as she pouted.

"Huh!? But Boss-man always goes hunting with Delta!"

Delta's ears droop down as she curls up into a ball like a sad puppy.

Alpha leans down and pats Delta's head.

"If you head down to where everyone else is, I'll be sure to let Shadow know

how much stronger you've gotten, I'm sure that will get his attention."

Delta's ears shot up happily as her tail began to wag again.

"You will!?"

Alpha nodded as she smiled at her.

"Yes I will, but you have to go down and behave yourself okay?"

Delta nods enthusiastically.

"Okay okay! I'm gonna go!"

"Oh and Delta, make sure you're wearing something appropriate."

Alpha gestures towards Delta's practically nude getup.

"What!? But why!?"

Delta seemed shocked that Alpha would even suggest such a thing.

"Because I want everyone looking their best for Master Shadow, you

wouldn't want to disappoint him would you Delta?"

Delta shakes her head as she grumbles.

"No….."

Alpha smiles at her.

"Good, now go get changed and join everyone down below."

Delta nods happily as she howls and hops down from the watchtower to go

and meet up with the others.

Meanwhile, Jett and Frost were both waiting in the throne room with the

rest of the Shadow Garden members.

"I wonder what this Master Shadow guy will be like in person."

Jett says under his breath softly to Frost.

"Yeah me too, I wonder if he's powerful."

Jett nods as he hears Frost say this.

"Oh yeah he's gotta be, I saw how Alpha fought back at the research base,

and if she's calling him master, then he's gotta be out of this world."

Frost nods silently at Jett's words.

"Alpha is the blonde elf girl right?"

Jett nods.

"Yeah that's right, I think she's the strongest around here, well other than

Master Shadow of course."

"Yeah you're probably right."

Frost looks around the room and at the other members curiously, and

notices that almost all of them were looking at him and Jett as if they were

studying their every move.

"Hey Jett, I think we're the only boys here…"

Jett looks around with him quickly as he realizes that he's probably right.

"Oh wow, I didn't even notice."

"Yeah I think everyone else here is a girl besides us."

The two boys look at each other with confused expressions.

"I wonder why."

Jett asks Frost as he shrugs in return.

"I'm not sure, maybe Master Shadow is also a girl."

Frost suddenly looks alarmed.

"Uh oh, what if… what if we can't join Shadow Garden because they don't

allow boys in?!"

Jett shakes his head.

"No no, that doesn't make sense. Alpha said it herself that she thought it was

a good idea for us to join. She wouldn't have said that if she knew we weren't

allowed to join."

Frost nods a bit as he agrees.

"Yeah that does make sense…"

"Let's just wait for Master Shadow to get here, maybe they'll clear some

things up."

Jett says to Frost as he nods in return.

"Yeah, good idea."

The two boys stood side by side with each other, along with everyone else in

the room, as they all waited patiently for Master Shadow's arrival.

Suddenly, a loud beastkin girl bursts into the room.

"I found it!"

Delta wagged her tail as she exclaimed loudly, for everyone to hear, that she

successfully made her way to the throne room.

Frost tugs at Jett's uniform.

"Is that Master Shadow?!"

Jett looks at Delta perplexed.

"Uhhhh…."

"Delta!"

A voice from across the room called out to her.

"Oh! Coming!"

Delta made her way up to the front of the room to stand alongside 5 other

individuals.

"I made it in time! Lady Alpha told me to!"

"Good, I'm glad you obeyed her Delta."

Beta spoke to her as Delta gave her a big smile in return.

"Oh hey that's Beta up there!"

Frost exclaims excitedly to Jett.

"I see, all 6 of them must be like the highest ranked in Shadow Garden or

something."

Jett says back to Frost as he nods his head in agreement.

Suddenly, the throne room doors swing open.

Frost looked up excitedly.

"Oh is that….?!"

Jett and Frost both looked towards the door to see if Master Shadow had

finally arrived.

The rest of Shadow Garden's members turned to look at the entrance in

anticipation as well, but it was only Alpha who walked into the room.

"Oh that's just Alpha."

Jett said as she walked in.

"Master Shadow will be here any minute, I want all of you to be on your best

behavior."

Alpha walked into the room with a commanding presence and everyone in

the throne room responded to her immediately.

"Yes Lady Alpha!"

They all said in unison as Alpha made her way up to stand next to the other

six members at the front of the room.

In total there were 7 of them, and together, they made up the elite group in

Shadow Garden known as the seven shades.

After Alpha had arrived in the throne room, everyone continued to wait

patiently for Master Shadow's arrival.

All of a sudden, an intense pressure could be felt by all the members in the

throne room, an intense type of pressure that could only be caused by a

huge surge in magical energy.

"What….is this feeling…."

Jett says as he feels himself start to sweat slightly at the intensity of the

surge, and looks over at Frost to see him look shocked as well.

"I've never felt this kind of magic before…."

Frost replies as they both realize that this was none other than the power of

Master Shadow.

Suddenly, the lights in the throne room go out, sending the whole room into

pitch black darkness.

Then, after a couple of seconds, the lights flickered back on to reveal a

cloaked man sitting on the throne.

Frost and Jett saw the man sitting on the throne in all his might, and knew

without a doubt that this man was indeed Master Shadow himself.

The intense pressure had dissipated completely and all of the members of

Shadow Garden fell to their knees in an instant, and Jett and Frost followed

suit shortly afterwards.

As Shadow sat there on the throne, he crossed his legs and put his fist under

his chin as he looked out over the sea of members gathered before him.

That was perfect! I practiced this type of shadow-broker entrance for so

long and it looks like it finally paid off and left everyone speechless!

Cid thought to himself as he recalled all the planning and preparation that

went into pulling this type of stunt off.

All I had to do was send out a wave of magical energy that messed with the

power lines, then I could sneak in while everyone's eyes adjusted to the

darkness, and when the surge of magic ended, the lights would turn on and

I would appear before they even knew what was happening!

Cid smiles and nods to himself happily.

Plus I got to show off this epic entrance to the two newbies that Alpha told

me about, which makes entrances like these all the more worthwhile.

Alpha looks up at Shadow as she kneels down before him.

"Welcome back my lord, it's very good to see you again."

Shadow continues to stare down at them silently as he maintains his cold

and authoritative disposition.

"I would like to introduce you to two of the newcomers who have shown

great potential and are interested in joining Shadow Garden's ranks."

Jett and Frost quickly move up to the center of the throne room in front of

Master Shadow and kneel before him behind Alpha.

Shadow observes the two boys keenly as he gauges their magic ability.

Looks like Alpha was onto something, both these guys have impressive

magic capabilities.

He glances at one of the boys as they catch his attention.

How interesting….The boy with the white hair, his magic aura is….

He chuckles to himself quietly.

How very interesting.

Alpha begins to introduce the two boys to Master Shadow.

"As I'm sure you're well aware, these two are not possessed by the blood of

Diablos, and thus, would be the first members to-"

Shadow puts up his hand to silence Alpha in the middle of her explanation.

He leans forward as he stares at the two boys kneeling before him.

"You two have captured my attention. Speak now. What are your names?"

Jett lifts his head up as he looks at Master Shadow.

"My name is Jett, Master Shadow, and my friend here-"

"My name is Frost, Master Shadow."

Frost speaks up and Jett looks at him completely caught off guard.

"Frost…?"

Frost nods and smiles back at Jett.

"Yes, my name is Frost."

Beta chuckles lightly at Frost's determination to take on his newly found

name.

Jett still seems confused as Master Shadow speaks up again.

"Very well, Jett and Frost."

The two boys look back towards the master.

"You two have shown great promise, and have gotten the recommendation

of one of Shadow Garden's most esteemed members."

Shadow grins as he looks down at the two of them.

"Therefore! I hereby declare that Jett and Frost are the newest recruits to

join Shadow Garden."

Jett and Frost both look at each other excitedly.

There, now Alpha and I should be even for that burger.

"I will leave your training up to whoever Alpha deems worthy of training

you."

Shadow speaks once more before Alpha stands up and nods.

"Yes of course Master Shadow."

She turns to face the boys as well as the other 6 members of the seven

shades.

"Jett, you claimed that you were a researcher among the ranks of the Cult of

Diablos, is that true?"

Jett nods immediately as he raises his head towards Alpha.

"Yes Lady Alpha, I was."

Alpha nods.

"Very well then, I believe that your talents would be best used under the

careful watch of Eta."

She turns to face a brown haired elf girl, one of the seven shades who

appeared to be falling asleep on Gamma's shoulder.

"Oh Eta! Wake up!"

Gamma shook her awake as all eyes fell on her.

"Mmmm….H-huh…."

Eta opens her purple eyes sleepily as Alpha looks at her.

"Can I entrust the training of Jett to you Eta?"

Eta nods slowly.

"O-okay….as long as…..he doesn't…."

She yawns halfway through her sentence.

"Distract me…. from my research….then it's okay."

Alpha nods, seemingly satisfied with this response.

"Very well, and now Frost."

She turns to look at Frost who was still kneeling right next to Jett.

"Yes Lady Alpha?"

The boy asks earnestly.

Alpha begins to speak and then pauses for a moment, slightly unsure about

who she should entrust to train Frost.

Before Alpha can make up her mind, one of the seven shades speaks up.

"Um, Lady Alpha? I would like to take Frost under my wing if that's alright."

Alpha nods with a hint of a smile showing on her face.

"I see, very well then."

She looks back at Frost.

"I take it that you're alright with this Frost?"

Frost nods enthusiastically.

"Oh yes! I-I would be honored to work under Lady Beta's wing!"

Alpha nods at his response.

"Then as of today, both Frost and Jett will be the newest additions to

Shadow Garden."

The two boys nodded as they looked up at her.

"Thank you Lady Alpha!"

Jett said enthusiastically.

"We won't let you down!"

Frost chimed in afterwards.

Suddenly, Shadow stood up from his throne and walked right up to the two

boys as they continued to kneel before him.

"The new era has begun. Raise your heads."

The boys looked up at Shadow as he lowered his sword down in between the

two of them.

"Forget what you know, follow us into the shadows, and together we will

carve our path and make our way through the darkness that awaits us."

The boys looked up at him, completely speechless.

Shadow lifted up his blade and began putting it back into his scabbard.

"I expect great things from you."

As soon as his hilt reached the scabbard, the lights flickered momentarily

and Shadow vanished before their very eyes.

There was an eerie and quiet stillness that filled the throne room upon

Master Shadow's exit, which was soon interrupted by a clap from Alpha to

get everyone's attention.

"Alright, no need to linger, you're free to head back to your posts now

everyone."

All the Shadow Garden members nodded as they said in unison once again.

"Yes Lady Alpha!"

All the members soon began to exit the throne room now that the assembly

was over.

Alpha then made her way back over to the two boys.

"It seems that Master Shadow has taken a liking to you two."

Frost looked at her curiously.

"Really? That's a relief to hear, he seemed kind of intense."

He breathes a sigh of relief as Alpha chuckles lightly.

"Yes he can certainly be that way when he chooses to be, but for now you

two should probably get some rest, you have a lot of training ahead of you."

She looks over at one of the seven shades as she calls out to them.

"Zeta, would you be willing to show the newcomers to their rooms please?"

The golden-haired beastkin girl looked up at Alpha as she nodded, her tail

swaying back and forth gently.

"Yes of course Lady Alpha."

Zeta walks in front of the two boys and gestures for them to follow her. As

the boys follow along behind her to their rooms, Jett turns around and

smiles as he waves to Alpha.

"Thank you Lady Alpha!"

Frost nods as he waves to the rest of the seven shades as well.

"Yeah, thank you all!"

The girls give a slight wave back to the boys as they exit the throne room

following Zeta.

After the doors shut, Alpha looks towards Beta curiously.

"I'm surprised Beta, this is the first time you've seemed so adamant about a

newcomer. Is there any particular reason why you volunteered to train him?"

Beta seems slightly caught off guard as she shakes her head.

"O-oh umm, no of course not…"

Beta takes a breath as she continues speaking.

"I just saw potential in him, that's all Lady Alpha, and as my role in the seven

shades demands, I shall make sure his potential will not be wasted."

Alpha nods softly.

"Understood. I thought about training him myself, but I have no doubt that

he will be in better hands with you Beta."

Beta nods as she bows slightly.

"Thank you Lady Alpha, I'll make sure I won't fall short of your expectations."

Alpha nods as she begins to leave the throne room herself.

"I know you won't Beta."

Jett and Frost continue to follow along behind Zeta in silence before Jett

finally speaks up with the question that he was burning to ask.

"So Frost huh? What made you choose that name all of a sudden?"

Frost chuckled as he felt slightly embarrassed by the question.

"O-oh well….I just thought the name kind of fits you know? Plus I don't

exactly want to be called by my old name. Or I guess it's more of a number,

right?"

Jett nods softly.

"I completely agree, and I think Frost is a great name for you too."

Frost laughs softly as he smiles at Jett.

"Haha thanks, I'm glad you like it."

Jett then turns his attention back to Zeta who was still leading the two of

them.

"S-so…. If you don't mind me asking of course…What exactly are you? You're

some kind of beastkin right?"

Zeta continues to walk as she glances over her shoulder at him.

"Hm? Yes I'm a beastkin, not like that boorish dog that you saw earlier

however."

Jett nods as he recalls how one of the seven shades burst loudly into the

throne room, and how Frost initially thought that she was Master Shadow

upon first seeing her.

"Oh I see, so are you like a cat then?"

Zeta's tail wags a bit as she nods.

"Yes that's right, why do you ask?"

Jett shakes his head.

"Oh no reason, well actually I've only ever been able to see beastkins like

yourself locked up in a prison cell as test subjects, so I couldn't help but be a

bit curious now that I get to see one up close."

Zeta stops walking and looks at him intently.

"By any chance did you see any golden haired beastkin cat's such as myself

while you worked for the cult?"

Jett thinks for a couple seconds before he shakes his head.

"N-no I don't think I have, your golden hair is very pretty, so I definitely

would've remembered seeing one if they were a test subject."

Zeta nods, with a hint of disappointment

"I understand, I would have been awfully surprised if the answer to that

question was yes."

Jett looks at Zeta as he ponders what would've caused her to ask that

question in the first place.

"Alright, these are your rooms."

Zeta stops in front of two doors that were located in the middle of the

hallway.

"The keys to the room should already be inside on your desks."

Before Zeta walks away Frost calls out to her.

"Oh Zeta!"

Zeta looks back at him.

"Hm?"

Frost looks down at her tail like an excited child.

"C-can I? I mean….Would it bother you if I…?"

He points at her tail and looks at her with an innocent expression.

Zeta looks down at her own tail and realizes that he just wants to touch it.

"Oh well….typically if I rub my tail on someone, that leaves a sort of scent on

them, like a mark I suppose…."

Frost nods eagerly as he looks at her, completely unaffected by her words.

Zeta sighs as she realizes her words are meaningless to the boy.

"Fine, just make it quick."

She turns and brushes her tail up to him as he touches her tail with his

hands gently.

"Ah! it's so soft!"

Frost's eyes light up in amazement as he rubs her tail.

Jett walks up nervously and asks if he can touch her tail as well.

Zeta sighs again as she looks away from them both.

"Fine, just make it quick alright?"

Zeta tries to seem indifferent to the boys' attention, but her tail wagging

implied that she was enjoying the treatment more than she let on.

After the boys had rubbed her tail a bit more, they backed away from her

and chuckled.

"Haha, thanks Zeta, I know it was an odd request, but I've never seen a tail

before so I was curious about what it felt like."

Frost says as Zeta shakes her head, her cheeks slightly pink.

"I-it's fine really, I don't mind it."

She turned to face the boys as she regained herself.

"Training for you two will start tomorrow morning, so you better get some

sleep while you can."

Both the boys nodded and waved at her happily.

"Right! Thanks again Zeta!"

Frost said as he waved to her along with Jett before they both walked into

their own respective rooms to get some sleep before tomorrow.

In a nearby kingdom close to Shadow Garden headquarters, two mighty

warriors stood with their swords drawn at each other after a long exchange

of many forceful blows.

The two of them were facing off and dueling to see who amongst them was

the finest swordmaster in all of the Oriana Kingdom.

"You've grown stronger."

The beastkin wolf boy said to his opponent as she smirked with her sword

still at the ready.

"I'm still seeing new skills of yours even to this day, are you sure you aren't

holding out on me?"

The girl with the long and blonde curly hair asked the beastkin boy as she

took deep breaths to maintain her composure.

The wolf boy chuckled as he shook his head.

"No of course I'm not, perhaps I have just gotten stronger as well."

The girl nods in agreement.

"Perhaps we both have."

The girl says before she charges in towards her opponent again, swinging

her blade mercilessly and forcing the wolf boy to retreat slightly.

The boy blocks her incoming attacks, but he realizes that she's backing him

out of the fighting arena and into a wall.

Suddenly, the boy turns on his heel and tries to disorient her with the hilt of

his blade, slamming it down onto her sword while simultaneously bringing

his leg up to strike her knee.

The girl gets caught off guard but only for a second, she stops his attack

quickly by bringing her leg up in return, so both their knee-guards clashed

together.

The boy then pushed off her knee with his leg as he took his sword and

swung down on her blade hard, causing the girl to fall off balance

momentarily.

He then pushed off with his back foot and landed a direct blow to her

stomach with his elbow, then he pivoted his hips and threw the girl onto the

ground before he held his blade up to her neck.

"Looks like I win again, your majesty."

The boy chuckled as he looked down at the princess of the Oriana Kingdom.

Rose Oriana sighed as she let go of her blade in defeat.

"Damn it, and here I went thinking I had actually gotten stronger."

The boy shakes his head as he sheaths his blade.

"You absolutely have Rose I can tell, normally any time I'm close enough to

strike you with my body, I'm able to do so relatively easily. However, today

you blocked my strike to your knee as soon as you saw my leg come up off

the ground."

He offers Rose a hand to get up off the ground.

"If you keep at it, I'm sure one day I'll have to hand off the title of strongest

swordmaster in the kingdom to you."

Rose sighs in reluctance as she takes his hand.

"You're just saying that Grimm, I can tell you aren't even using your full

strength with me."

Grimm shakes his head.

"That's not true at all, however it is true that I wasn't fighting you with a

desperation for victory, but then again neither were you."

He chuckles lightly as Rose shakes her head smiling softly.

"Well it's no matter, I guess we can wrap up here for today, and I was the one

who told you that the winner gets to choose where we eat for lunch."

She looks at him expectantly, and he looks back at her curiously.

"So where do you wanna go?"

Grimm asks Rose as she shakes her head.

"I said the winner of our match chooses where we go for lunch, and since I

was not the victor, I will leave that decision up to you."

She says back to him calmly as she dusts herself off and puts her sword back

in its sheath.

Grimm thinks for a moment.

"Can I forfeit choosing? If it's alright I'd like for you to choose where we go to

eat today."

Rose looks at Grimm with a stern expression.

"Why would you do that? You've rightfully earned it."

Grimm shakes his head.

"Well as the winner, I get to choose where we go and eat for lunch, and my

decision is wherever you would like to go your majesty."

Rose shakes her head as she walks alongside him out of the arena.

"That's not how it works and you know it, plus don't call me your majesty.

You know how I hate that phrase coming from you."

Grimm chuckles.

"Well I'm only being polite, you are the princess of the Oriana Kingdom after

all."

Rose nods.

"This is true, but you and I have known each other since we were kids,

there's no point in acting like we aren't close when we are."

Rose pouts slightly.

"Just call me Rose when we're alone…."

Grimm smiles softly as he nods.

"I suppose when we're alone there's no harm in being a bit informal with you

right?"

Rose nods and laughs softly.

"Yes precisely, oh hey did you see the new cafe that opened up near the

palace? Let's eat there for lunch today!"

Rose exclaims happily, completely forgetting about her previous 'winner

chooses lunch' proposal.

Grimm nods as he smiles at her.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea. I would be happy to try it out with you,

Rose."

Rose smiles and nods happily as they walk together out of the fighting

arena.

Grimm and Rose both make their way out of the palace and through the

kingdom in order to get to the new cafe that Rose wanted to try.

On their way there, many people of the kingdom waved to the two of them

and exchanged quick greetings to the princess.

Rose smiled and waved at all of them politely as she greeted them back with

the politeness expected of a princess.

Grimm walked beside her as he rested his hand on his blade, his black hair

waving in the wind slightly due to a small breeze in the air.

His ears twitched as he heard the sound of giggling coming from a group of

girls who were looking at the two of them as they crossed paths, which

seemed to happen quite frequently whenever he was with Rose.

"Oh hey I think that's the place over there!"

Rose exclaims as she points to the cafe that they had finally arrived at.

Grimm nods as he studies the front of the cafe with interest.

"Oh I've heard about this place, it's popular with many of our classmates

from school isn't it? I heard the Mitsugoshi company made a ton of these in

the Midgar Kingdom."

Rose nods enthusiastically as she places her sword into a sword-holder on

the outside of the cafe.

"Yes I think you're right, come on! Let's go try it out!"

Rose led Grimm into the cafe as she looked around in curiosity.

Grimm walked into the cafe with his sword still by his side and Rose looked

at him sternly.

"Hey, you can't bring your sword inside an establishment of the Oriana

Kingdom, you know that."

Grimm nods.

"Yes I know, however my duty is far more important than upholding that

rule, my job is to protect the princess. You know I can't do that without my

sword Rose."

Rose shakes her head softly.

"Nobody would dare try to harm me if you're with me, sword or not, nobody

in this kingdom could beat you in a physical fight."

Grimm contemplates this as he nods in agreement.

"I….Suppose you're right."

Rose smiles at him.

"Great! Just leave your sword outside next to mine and we'll pick them up on

the way out, sound good?"

Grimm accepts Rose's proposal reluctantly as he places his sword into the

sword-holder next to hers.

Rose nods happily as he walks back inside.

"Right, now then, what do you want on the menu? I'll pay for anything you

want."

Grimm shakes his head.

"That's not necessary, as your bodyguard I get paid very handsomely, I can

afford lunch for myself."

Rose shakes her head now as she states.

"No, I have to pay for your lunch since I didn't win the fight, it's only fair."

Grimm chuckles at this statement.

"Alright fine, if it'll make you feel more motivated to beat me in the future I'll

allow it."

Rose nods as they pick out what they want to order and sit down at a booth

nearby as they wait for the waitress to bring their food out to them.

"So how are you doing in your classes so far? Are you enjoying any of them

in particular?"

Rose asks Grimm as he thinks about it for a second.

"Oh well, I do enjoy our sword fighting class quite a lot."

Grimm chuckles.

"Although that is the primary reason we go to school in the Midgar

Kingdom, they have an amazing sword fighting program."

Rose nods in agreement.

"Yeah, same here! I wish you and I were in the same class so I could fight you

even more."

Grimm nods as he smiles softly.

"Yes that would be very fun indeed, I don't think I'll ever get tired of

swordplay with you Rose."

Rose nods as she smiles back at him.

"I agree, I always love fighting you Grimm, but what I really want to do is

fight princess Alexia and win."

Grimm nods slowly.

"Ah I see, Alexia Midgar, I hear her sword fighting skills are average, but then

again her sister is known to be the best in the Midgar Kingdom."

Rose nods softly.

"Yeah Iris Midgar. I have to say even though I love sword fighting, I don't

think I would like to go up against her."

Grimm chuckles.

"I think she would be very fun to fight, but I'm sure Alexia's sword skills are

actually quite good, she probably just gets overshadowed by her sister a lot."

Rose nods.

"I don't want to say we have a rivalry, but I would like to at least be the better

princess swordsman between the two of us. That way I can prove to my

father that swordsmanship isn't a waste of time and effort."

Grimm nods.

"I know the Oriana Kingdom as a whole looks down on swordsmanship, but I

think it is a beautiful craft, not to mention essential if you want to fight and

protect yourself."

Rose nods in agreement as she looks at Grimm curiously.

"But be honest, do you think you could beat Iris Midgar in a fight?"

Grimm thinks for a moment.

"Hmm, I'm not really sure, I haven't ever exchanged blows with her before,

plus I don't think I've ever had the privilege of watching her fight in person."

Rose nods.

"I guess that makes sense, but you're probably just being modest, you

always hold back when you're fighting me cause you know you'll destroy me

if you go all out."

Grimm shakes his head as he laughs.

"That's not true at all, you are a very good swordsman Rose. I don't go all out

because I don't want either one of us to dent our swords or armor. It's a

hassle to deal with afterwards…."

Rose chuckled softly before she saw their orders being brought out.

"Oh thank you!"

She said to the waitress happily.

"This looks delicious doesn't it, Grimm?"

Rose asks Grimm as he nods in agreement.

"Yes it looks amazing, let's dig in cause I'm starving."

Rose nods and chuckles lightly as they both begin eating their food

together.

Training, training, and some more training. That was what Frost and Jett's

days consisted of the most during their time at Shadow Garden.

Jett and Frost had finally been able to reunite with one another after they

escaped a research base that the Cult of Diablos was in charge of. However,

due to their relentless training, they still weren't able to see each other very

often.

After a long day of training in the basics with Beta, Frost heads back to his

room completely exhausted.

On his way back, he ran into Jett.

"Oh hey Jett!"

Frost smiles at him weakly, rubbing his slightly bruised arms.

"How have you been?"

Jett looks at him with heavy bags under his eyes.

"H-hey Frost, I'm really tired…"

Frost's eyes widen as he looks at Jett

"Oh wow you look even more tired than I am, what are you doing for

training?"

Jett rubs his eyes.

"My mentor, Eta…. She's really passionate about her research…We'll both stay

up for hours and hours….."

Jett yawns as he's clearly just as exhausted as Frost, if not more so.

"She's insanely intelligent though, she's been teaching me a lot of things,

but whenever I have to fight someone I always fight Epsilon."

Frost looks at him curiously.

"Oh? How come? Also, which one is Epsilon again?"

"Oh Epsilon is the girl with the long blue hair, she usually has her hair in

those long pigtails I think."

Jett replies and Frost nods.

"And the reason I train with her is because Eta says she's too busy with her

research to fight me, so she just hands me off to Epsilon…."

Frost chuckles as Jett says this in a bit of a spiteful tone.

"But it's okay, Epsilon is a really good teacher, but she also doesn't like

holding back, even when I'm tired."

Frost nods as he rubs his neck and groans.

"Yeah tell me about it, Beta runs me ragged every day."

He chuckles.

"But you know, even though it's really hard, I'm really happy I get to be here."

Jett sighs as he nods in agreement.

"Same here, I'm sure you're enjoying not getting experimented on every two

seconds right?"

Both the boys laugh together.

"Haha yeah, I would train here for another 2 months straight before I would

let those guys experiment on me again."

Frost says as he thinks about the time that they spent at Shadow Garden

recently.

"I can't believe we've already been here for two whole months already."

Jett thinks about that for a second.

"Really? Has it been that long?"

Frost nods.

"Yup! I'm good at keeping track of the months since I would always count

down to when you came to check up on me."

Jett laughs a bit.

"Haha, that's a pretty neat talent, but for some reason it feels like we've been

here longer than that."

Frost nods.

"Yeah me too, I feel like I've been here for way longer than only 2 months.

Probably 'cause all of our days are way busier than they used to be huh? Well

at least mine are anyway."

Frost laughs a bit and Jett sighs and nods as he rubs his eyes again.

"Yeah you can say that again, I want to sleep for 2 days straight right now…"

Frost nods as he yawns as well.

"Yeah me too, we should both probably rest up for tomorrow."

Jett nods as he opens his door and waves to Frost.

"Yeah definitely, sleep well Frost I'll see you tomorrow."

Frost nods as he waves to him with a small smile as they both go into their

rooms and fall asleep immediately as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

The next day it was training as usual, with Jett spending his day researching

with Eta and training with Epsilon.

"Hey Jett…. How's that potion coming along?"

Eta turns around as she fiddles with a little machine of hers.

"Oh hold on."

Jett runs over to the other side of the room as he was multitasking between

4 different tasks that Eta had asked him to keep tabs on.

Jett then grabs a potion that was brewing in the corner of the room and

runs it over to where Eta was.

"Here you go."

He holds the potion to give to Eta as she looks back at him with her

signature sleepy look.

"Oh thank you, is that the right potion?"

Jett nods without hesitation.

"Yes it is, why do you say that?"

Eta shrugs.

"I thought it would turn out to be more purple."

She picks up the pinkish-purple potion from Jett's hands and turns towards

her little machine that was stretching out some sort of black slime imbued

with magic and was holding it in place.

She then pours the potion over the slime and watches as it sinks into the

slime.

"Hmm, Jett, use this slime and test it out."

Eta seemed to wake up slightly as she told Jett to take the slime.

"Use it? How? I mean…. in what way do you want me to use it?"

Eta shrugs again.

"I dunno, just try channeling your magic through it."

Jett nods as he takes the slime and molds it into a sword like he was taught

to.

He then swings the sword around as he channels his magic into it, and the

sword begins to glow into a pinkish-purple color.

"Oh wow…."

Eta smiles as she watches the sword glow.

"Keep going Jett, you're doing great."

Jett nods as he places both hands on the hilt and puts more magic into it,

but after he does so, the slime sword explodes and slime goes everywhere.

"A-ah!"

Jett yells as he jumps back from the sudden explosion.

Eta sighs as she looks at the mess.

"Another failed experiment… I wonder if the potion worked too well or didn't

work enough…."

Jett sighs as well.

"Sorry Eta, I didn't mean to. I think I put too much magic into it."

Eta shakes her head.

"No you didn't, the potion I made just didn't work, if it did you should've

been able to put all your magical energy into it easily."

Jett wipes all the slime off his face and clothes.

"What's the desired goal of these experiments anyway?"

Eta thinks for a moment.

"Master Shadow is able to make his sword glow a purplish color due to how

much of his magic he puts into his sword, but I don't know how he puts so

much in without the sword collapsing in on itself…."

Eta thinks in silence as Jett nods in understanding.

"Oh I see, so you want to make a sword that holds just as much magic as

Master Shadow's blade?"

Eta nods slowly, her sleepy expression coming back to her.

"Yeah…. I suppose so….."

Jett sighs before the laboratory doors open and Epsilon walks inside.

"Woah, you guys really made a mess in here."

Jett nods as he bows slightly towards her.

"Apologies Epsilon, it was my fault."

Eta whacks him on the head with her long lab coat sleeve.

"No…. It was mine, don't steal all the credit."

Epsilon laughs softly.

"Well come on Jett, let's start on your training for today."

Jett nods as he follows Epsilon out and waves to Eta.

"Okay! See ya tomorrow Eta!"

Eta waves back at him sleepily as she yawns.

Jett follows Epsilon towards the training grounds like usual, but Epsilon asks

him a question on their way there.

"So you were a researcher for the cult right? What did you research there?"

Jett thinks about it for a moment.

"Well we had a lot of researchers there, but we were mainly in charge of

experimenting on test subjects of many different races."

Epsilon nods.

"No I know that, but like why?"

Jett shrugs.

"Honestly, not even I'm sure why we did it really, we were just told that if we

see irregularities in any of the test subjects, we were to report it to our

supervisors and they'd take over from there."

Epsilon nods softly.

"Oh I see, I was just curious that's all."

Jett nods before he continues talking.

"Well…. I guess if you want I can tell you why I think they were experimenting

on the test subjects."

Epsilon looks back at him as they continue walking.

"Oh yeah? What do you think they were doing?"

Jett thinks for a moment.

"I think the cult was trying to create some sort of immortal being."

Epsilon seemed more curious as he said this.

"Oooo, what makes you say that?"

Jett replied to her.

"Well, every time the experiments were performed on the test subjects, we

would measure things like their vitals, magic power, and mental state, and

one of the things that was constantly changing in the test subjects was their

life expectancy. That and their mental states."

Jett continues talking.

"Once one of the test subjects' life expectancy went up significantly, they

started losing their minds and going insane. That was the only real

correlation I ever saw while working there."

Jett chuckles a bit now.

"Actually only one test subject I worked with didn't follow this pattern."

Epsilon looked back over at him as she was listening intently.

"Oh you mean your friend with the white hair?"

Jett nods.

"Yeah exactly, for some reason Frost never went insane or lost his mind, but

his life expectancy never went up either, it just stayed the same no matter

how many experiments were conducted on him."

Epsilon nods thoughtfully.

"Hmm, that's interesting, any idea why?"

Jett shakes his head.

"Nope, not a clue, but I know he was important to the cult because they kept

him around longer than any other test subject. They kept him locked up for

15 years or so, while everyone else was disposed of within a year or two."

Epsilon opens the doors to the training grounds as she and Jett walk inside.

"That's pretty interesting, am I the first person you've told about this?"

Jett nods.

"Yeah you are, I don't like to speculate too much about things I don't fully

understand, but I've had that thought for a while now and I just needed

somebody to share it with, you know?"

Epsilon chuckles as she turns around and puts her hands behind her back.

"Oh? So does that make me special then?"

Jett laughs softly as he nods.

"Yes I suppose it does haha."

Epsilon laughs softly along with him as she regains her composure.

"Well in any case, I think I'm starting to understand what Master Shadow

saw in the two of you."

Jett looks at her curiously.

"Oh really? What makes you say that?"

Epsilon chuckles as she pulls out her scythe made of slime.

"If you want me to answer that question, you'll have to beat me in a fight

first!"

Jett sighs as he conjures up his own sword out of slime.

"Alright then, I'm ready whenever you are Lady Epsilon."

Great, time for me to get my ass beat again.

Jett thinks to himself as he prepares to engage Epsilon in combat like he

always does this time of day.

Meanwhile Frost was dodging Beta's attacks like his life depended on it.

Mostly because it did.

Beta showered a rain of slime arrows onto where Frost was standing and he

immediately used an ice barrier to block them before she slammed her palm

into his backside from behind.

"What the-"

Frost exclaims before he goes flying across the training room and lands on

the ground.

"Agh…."

He groans before Beta tries to slam her fist into his head, but he moves at

the last second and freezes her hand to the floor.

"Hehe, very good Frost, that was clever."

Beta smiled sweetly at him, as if she didn't already try to kill him 3 times over

in the past 10 seconds.

Frost breathed deeply as he regained himself.

"You're…. So fast…."

He heaved as he tried to catch his breath, his slime sword slipping through

his fingers.

Beta chuckled as she broke off the ice on her hand with ease.

"Well there are always going to be opponents faster than you, so how do you

win against someone who's faster than you?"

Great, a quiz? I'm not good at those…

Frost thinks to himself as he racks his tired brain.

"Well…. You have to land a blow on them while they're attacking you, that

way you know you won't miss."

Beta nods as she smiles at him.

"Yup! And that's what you just did to me, but you should've done something

more than just freeze my hand to the floor, you could've done a lot with that

situation but you just used it to escape."

Frost nods as he looks down at the floor in embarrassment.

"You're right, I need to stop being so afraid of you and just go on the

offensive."

Beta nods as she summons her own slime sword.

"Yes that's the spirit, how could you be afraid of such a cute little elf like

myself?"

Frost chuckles as he picks up his sword and stands firm.

"I'm not, it's your skills I'm afraid of."

Beta laughs softly as she dashed towards him.

In an instant she swung her sword at him, but instead of blocking the attack,

Frost chose to do something risky as he grabbed the blade with his hand,

freezing it upon impact.

"Hm?"

Beta froze with hesitation for a split second, but that was all Frost needed

before he kicked her hard in the ribs, sending her flying across the room in

return.

Frost felt excited as he had finally landed a hit on Beta, but then realized that

he didn't hold back at all with his kick and became quickly worried for Beta's

well being.

"O-oh! Sorry! Are you okay Beta?"

Frost runs up to her as she lays on the ground and checks on her.

"You know… I said not to be afraid of me, but you also can't underestimate

me either."

As Frost flips Beta over onto her back, she lifts her sword up and touches his

neck, holding his sword down on the ground with her right foot.

She chuckles happily.

"You shouldn't show empathy to the enemy silly."

Frost sighs as he chuckles.

"I'm just glad you're alright, I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

Beta shakes her head as she stands up and brushes herself off.

"Oh don't worry about that, our slime suits do a lot of protecting, that's why I

don't hold back when I hit you with my attacks, because I know it won't kill

you."

Frost nods as he stands up as well.

"Yeah that's true, these slime suits are really amazing."

Frost glances down at his black and gold colored bodysuit that he and Jett

were taught to make recently for combat using their magic. They were quite

easy to move around in and provided a lot of protection as well.

Beta nods as she looks back at Frost.

"But you're doing much better, Frost, your handle on ice magic is especially

impressive. I don't think I've seen anything like it before."

Frost nods happily at her compliment.

"Thank you Lady Beta, I really appreciate the compliment."

Beta nods as she thinks.

"I think it's about time we move on from the basics, I think you're finally

ready to start going on missions."

Frost's blue eyes sparkle with delight.

"Ah! Really?! You really think so Beta?"

Beta nods happily.

"Yes I do, of course you'll stick by my side at all times until I think you're

capable of going off by yourself."

Frost nods excitedly.

"That's fine by me! I'd much rather stick by your side at all times anyways,

Beta."

Beta laughs softly at Frost's enthusiasm as he continues talking.

"I want to become as powerful as Master Shadow some day."

Frost sighs as he sits on the ground exhausted.

Beta follows suit as she sits down beside him.

"That's a pretty big goal to have, don't be too upset if it's unattainable,

Master Shadow is the most amazing man I've ever met."

Frost nods enthusiastically as she says this.

"Yeah he's super cool! He's absolutely incredible, and I've only ever seen him

once. You're super lucky Beta, I bet you can talk to him all the time right?"

Beta chuckles as she shakes her head.

"No, not all the time, I wish I could talk to him more."

Frost nods as he leans closer to her.

"What's he like?"

Beta thinks for a moment.

"He's truly incredible, he excels in everything he does effortlessly, he has

more knowledge than anyone in the universe, and he's more powerful than

anyone in the universe too. He's the perfect leader for Shadow Garden."

Frost nods as he chuckles.

"Haha, it sounds like you like him a lot."

Beta blushes as she nods.

"Oh well… of course I do, he did save my life after all. He freed me from being

possessed."

Frost nods.

"Oh yeah, I heard Lady Alpha talking about that, what does being possessed

mean?"

Beta chuckles.

"Well you've heard the story of the three heroes right?"

Frost shakes his head.

"Oh I see, well that makes sense, you didn't exactly grow up normally."

Beta thinks for a minute.

"Okay well, the story is about three very powerful heroes that ended up

battling a very powerful demon by the name of Diablos."

Frost nods as he listens intently.

"The story goes that the three heroes defeated the demon Diablos and

Diablos cursed their entire bloodline, meaning that all of their descendants

would be cursed with the possession."

Frost nods.

"So you are a descendant of the three heroes?"

Beta nods.

"Yup! And so is everyone else in Shadow Garden. Well except for you and Jett

of course."

Frost nods happily.

"So what would happen if Master Shadow didn't save you?"

Beta thinks for a moment.

"Well I would turn into a horrific monster."

Frost's smile disappears as he hears this.

"Oh… yeah I don't like thinking about that."

Beta chuckles and nods.

"Me neither, that's why I'm so grateful to Master Shadow. He saved me in

more ways than I can count…."

Frost nods happily.

"Yeah that makes a lot of sense, he saved you just like how you saved me

right?"

Beta thinks about what Frost said for a second and nods.

"Yeah I…. I guess that's true isn't it?"

Frost chuckles and nods.

"I'm really glad Master Shadow saved you, I don't know why but I feel as

close to you as I do to Jett, even though I've known him for a lot longer."

Beta blushes again as he says this.

"O-oh well, I'm really glad you feel that way, it's sort of surprising to me that

you feel so comfortable around me after how hard I've been pushing you in

combat lately. Most new Shadow Garden members end up having a rough

relationship with their instructor because they put them through a lot of

pain."

Frost chuckles as he shakes his head.

"Hahaha, oh don't worry, the experiments that the cult performed on me

were way more painful than this."

Frost laughs as he says this and Beta chuckles along with him, feeling a

tinge of sadness for him at the same time.

"I'm glad you're able to handle my training, I'd say those experiments made

you very tough, Frost."

Beta chuckles as she asks him a question.

"Also did those experiments have anything to do with your magic? You have

quite a lot of it, more than any normal human could ever have."

Frost nods.

"Oh yeah they gave me magic amplifiers in all of my food, so I think it had an

effect on my magic, but it really hurt whenever I had to eat."

Beta nods softly.

"Oh wow that sounds very dangerous, I'm surprised you survived with your

sanity intact."

Frost nods as he laughs softly.

"Haha, yeah Jett said the same thing. Speaking of magic, how come Master

Shadow has so much of it? What does he do for training?"

Beta shrugs.

"In all honesty I have no clue, he's been the strongest ever since I can

remember, and the only time I see him in action is when we're on super

important missions."

Frost nods softly.

"Do you think he's training right now somewhere?"

Beta chuckles as she shakes her head.

"Oh no he's at school currently."

Frost tilts his head to the side curiously.

"School? Like a place where people go to learn?"

Beta nods.

"Yup! Even with his infinite knowledge, Master Shadow still desires to learn

and grow even more."

Frost nods softly as he thinks about how amazing Master Shadow is.

"Man, Master Shadow is truly incredible."

Beta nods as she chuckles happily.

"Yes he really is, isn't he? Oh and it's past our training time now, you can go

grab something to eat and head back to your quarters, I've got some reports

to finish writing up for Lady Alpha."

Frost nods as he gets up and walks towards the training room doors.

"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow Beta!"

He exclaims happily as he waves to her and she waved back at him with a

warm glow still on her face, watching as he walked out through the training

room doors.

The next day soon began, and the 'truly incredible Master Shadow' found

himself being poked, prodded, and teased by his friends as he hopped on

the train to school like he does every day.

"Ohhhh man, yesterday's test results finally came in and guess who scored

the lowest between all three of us?"

A boy by the name of Po Tato jabbed Cid's arms a few times playfully,

making it painstakingly clear who the lowest score belonged to out of their

friend group.

"You know what that means right Cid?"

Cid's other friend named Skel Etal chimed in as he also jumped in on the fun

and gave a couple of noogies to Cid's head.

"It was agreed that whoever scored the lowest on our next test would have

to ask out the prettiest girl in school publicly, in front of everyone."

Skel said as he chuckled at Cid's unfortunate circumstance.

Cid sighed as he nodded.

"Yeah yeah I know, I gotta ask out Princess Alexia at school today."

The other two boys laughed maniacally.

"Oh boy, being in your shoes right now sounds like a nightmare, I just hope

she lets you down easy."

Po says with a smirk on his face, you could tell that he was relishing every

minute of this along with Skel.

"Yeah yeah I know, hopefully she lets me down easy."

Cid says in a monotone voice.

I stayed up all night preparing for how I would execute the perfect

background character performance today! I'll be sure to ask out Princess

Alexia in the most lame and superficial way possible, and then go running

off crying once she rejects me!

Cid smirks to himself softly as he mulls over his perfect background

character plan once more.

Once their train arrived at the school's station, all three of the boys hopped

off and started making their way towards the school.

"Oh man I wonder if we'll be able to find Princess Alexia before school even

starts!"

Po said enthusiastically as he wiggled his fingers together like an evil

mastermind.

"Oh there! I see her!"

Skel exclaimed excitedly as he pointed to the girl with the long white hair

and red eyes as she made her way inside the school.

"Go ask her Cid! Now's your chance!"

Cid sighs in exasperation.

"Yeah yeah I know, I'm going I'm going."

He enters into the school to track down Alexia so he can initiate his perfectly

crafted background character performance .

It takes him a couple of seconds to find her before he sees her out of the

corner of his eye.

"Oh hey Alexia."

Cid calls out to her in a mundane manner.

Alexia turns around to face Cid, her eyes glowing like ruby's as she stares at

him.

"Oh? Can I help you?"

She asked with an air of authority in her voice.

Perfect, here we go.

Cid thinks to himself as he purposefully slouches his shoulders and takes on

a very weak looking demeanor.

"O-oh umm… I-I was actually wondering if….if….Well…."

Cid stumbled over his words, making sure to dart his eyes around nervously

the entire time.

"P-p-p-p-prin-n-cess Alexia…."

"W-Would you p-p-please be my g-g-g-girlfriend?!"

He bowed his head deeply as he stuck out his hand towards her in the

weakest and most pathetic fashion he could.

Hahaha, that went perfectly! I don't think I've ever given off such a

magnificent background character portrayal as this one! Now all that's left

is to get rejected and run away in a fit of tears….

As Cid is thinking this, and as Alexia looks down at him completely

perplexed, a boy walks up to the two of them and smiles.

"Oh hey Alexia."

Alexia turns around quickly to face the blonde haired boy with blue eyes.

"Oh Liam!"

She was slightly startled by the boy's sudden appearance.

Liam smiled softly at her as she turned around to face him.

"I didn't think I'd run into you so soon today."

Alexia scoffs as she punches him on the shoulder.

"Jerk! Don't startle me like that…."

Liam laughs playfully as she hits him.

"Yeah it's good to see you too I guess…."

Alexia sighs as she moves closer to him.

"I thought you said you were ditching school today."

Liam nods as he chuckles.

"You make it sound like I'm some sort of delinquent you know, but yes,

fortunately my family's plans changed at the last minute, so I was able to

make it to school today."

He looks over at Cid who was frozen in place with his head bowed to the

ground and his arm still sticking out haphazardly.

"Is this a friend of yours Alexia?"

Alexia looks back over at Cid before shaking her head.

"O-oh no! We were just exchanging morning greetings, that's all. Are you

heading to class right now?"

Alexia asked Liam as they began walking together to their first period.

Cid stayed behind as he waited for the two of them to walk off.

Damn, that guy completely cut me off right before I was able to run away in

tears! And to think I spent so long trying to perfect that technique…..

He sighs softly as he stands back up normally.

Oh well, it was still a pretty good background character performance all

things considered, plus the fact that he swooped in just before I ran away in

tears means that I didn't even have to create a scene and draw up any

unnecessary attention to myself, so it's still a win I suppose.

As Cid was thinking this, Skel and Po ran up to him and jumped on him from

behind.

"Ahh! Cid! You actually did it!?"

Skel laughed as he wrapped one of his arms around Cid's shoulders.

"Yeah I'm surprised too! I didn't think you actually had it in you! If I got

rejected like that, I don't think I could ever show my face around school ever

again!"

Po said as the two of them laughed at Cid's rejection.

Cid sighed exasperated.

"Yeah yeah I know, it's totally embarrassing."

He said with a flat and disinterested tone of voice.

Skel shook his head as he continued to laugh.

"Well there's no way Alexia would've said yes to a guy like you anyway when

she's already super close to one of the best looking guys in school."

Po nodded along in agreement with Skel.

"Yeah that much is true, if it weren't for Liam I bet even I might've had a shot

with her."

Skel scoffed as he pointed at Po.

"Ha! There's no way Alexia would go for someone like you in a million years!"

Po turned towards Skel as he argued with him.

"Well it's not like you'd be any better of a choice! I think I have a much better

chance than you ever would!"

"Oh really?"

Skel replied snarkily back at him.

"You really think you'd have a better shot with her than I would?"

Po nodded as he folded his arms.

"Absolutely! The difference between the two of us is so obvious!"

Skel and Po argue at length about who would be the better candidate for

dating Princess Alexia, until eventually they get so fed up with each other

that they turn towards an outside source to settle their debate.

"What do you think, Cid!? Which one of us has a better shot with Princess

Alexia?!"

They turn to face Cid only to realize that he was no longer standing next to

them.

"Oh hey where did Cid run off to?"

Po asked curiously as Skel shrugged.

"Huh I didn't even realize he left….Oh crap look at the time!"

Skel pointed to a clock on the wall and both the boys realized they were

going to be late for class.

"Oh shoot! I can't afford to get any more tardies!"

Po exclaimed as they both started running at top speed to their first period

classes.

Cid was already walking to his class while Skel and Po continued to argue in

the school's main entryway.

Man Skel and Po can be such handfuls, they've already made me late to

class three separate times, and if my sister gets word of me being tardy, I'd

never be able to hear the end of it.

Cid thinks to himself as he makes it to his first class and sits down in his

usual seat in the back left corner of the class.

Shortly after this, Princess Rose enters the classroom.

A very unusual appearance from the school's student council president

herself.

"Ah hey President! It's good to see you!"

Rose smiled at her schoolmates as they greeted her and said good morning.

"It's good to see you too!"

Rose greeted them back warmly before she turned around and waved to

Grimm who always walked with her to class first thing in the morning.

"Okay now go and get to your class Grimm! And don't be late!"

Grimm nodded as he waved back to her.

"Yeah, I'll see you later today."

He walked off towards his own class as Rose made her way into the

classroom with another student council representative next to her.

Some of the students around Rose chatted a bit with her, with some of the

girls asking if Rose and Grimm were dating yet or not.

"O-oh of course not, I mean we've been friends forever so…"

Rose always answered that way whenever this question got brought up.

"Awww come on, it's so obvious that you two like each other!"

Rose shakes her head.

"No, I promise it's not like that really."

Rose got used to this question being asked, but it couldn't be helped with

how often she and Grimm were together.

All the chatter eventually died down as Rose along with the other student

council girl got up in front of the class and spoke about the upcoming

student council election that would take place within the upcoming week.

Their lecture went on for a little while, and Cid sat in the back of the class

listening to them speak along with everyone else as he meddled with his

slime magic.

He was doing some basic strength training by creating a hand grip that he

could squeeze and release continuously.

It also helped him practice magic control absentmindedly.

As Cid continued to mess around with his slime magic in class, he suddenly

felt a light wave of magic cross his body.

"Hm?"

Cid suddenly lost control of the slime magic in his hand and it started

leaking onto his desk.

That's odd.

Cid thought as he tried to regain the slime's shape, only to realize that it was

a fruitless attempt.

Is my magic being suppressed?

He looked around the classroom curiously as Rose continued on with her

lecture.

It seems like no one else has noticed it yet, the frequency of the magic wave

must've been too small for any normal person to feel a difference.

Cid looked out the window to his left to see if there was anything strange

happening outside, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him.

Weird, I don't see anything strange going on outside, who in the world is

responsible for this magic suppression spell?

Shortly after Cid thought this, he could sense many magic users running in

the nearby halls and on the floor below as well.

They seemed to be in a hurry.

Oh I think I get it….

By the time Cid had finally figured out what was going on, the classroom

doors swung open and a bunch of hooded figures rushed into the classroom

with their swords drawn.

"Alright everybody, shut up and listen up! Put down all your weapons and

come with us unless you wanna die!"

One of the hooded figures shouted to a classroom full of surprised students.

I knew it! The school is being infiltrated by terrorists!

Cid seemed ecstatic that his hunch was correct, with a gleeful smile spread

across his face.

Princess Rose on the other hand was far less amused by this turn of events.

"Hey! Who are you people?!"

She draws her sword from its scabbard on instinct.

One of the hooded figures stepped forward and spoke to her directly.

"We are Shadow Garden, and we will kill anyone who gets in our way."

Cid seemed perplexed by this.

Huh? Shadow Garden's behind this?

However he knew that wasn't true because these guys were far too weak to

be actual members in Shadow Garden.

Oh yeah I remember now! There's been that group lately that runs around

and pretends to be affiliated with us. I think Alpha said something about it

being a plot devised by the cult in order to take us down.

Cid shakes his head as he thinks.

No, no, focus Cid! A terrorist group has invaded your school! There's so many

things I could do in this situation! This opens the door to so many different

'Eminence in Shadow-ey' options that I can choose from!

But I have to find a way to deal with this as a mob background character

first…..

Rose continues to stand her ground against the hooded enemies.

"Well I don't care even if you were a part of the Crimson Order, I would never

let you attack my schoolmates."

The cloaked man in front of her scoffed as he raised up his sword and

imbued it with magic.

"Hah, well then I guess you'll be our first example."

Rose raised her sword up as well, and began to imbue it with her magic, but

suddenly she felt her magic dissipate into thin air.

"Wait, what?"

She looks down at her blade, utterly confused as to why her magic wasn't

responding to her.

The hooded man swung his sword down towards Rose as she took a step

back and held her sword up to block the attack, but due to the fact that she

couldn't use magic on her sword, the attacker's sword cut through her blade

with ease and shattered the sword entirely.

"No way…"

Rose said in disbelief as she watched her sword that she practiced with for

ages, get obliterated in a matter of seconds.

The attacker grinned snarkily as he attempted to strike her again.

"Now die!"

His blade came down towards her, but right before it did, a certain mob

character jumped into the fray.

"Noooooooo!"

Cid came running towards Rose, with tears streaming down his face, and he

jumped in front of her to block the attack with his own body.

"Huh!?"

The attacker's movement stopped right as Cid was jumping in front of Rose

to protect her.

Cid's eyes were shut tight in fear, but he didn't feel the incoming blow that

he expected to feel.

What's this moron doing? Just strike me already!

Cid opens his eyes to see what was going on, only to see a certain beastkin

boy holding the attacker's arm from behind his back.

"Grimm!"

Rose shouted out to Grimm as she smiled in relief.

Grimm proceeded to disarm the attacker easily by ripping the sword out of

his hand.

"WHY YOU-"

The attacker lunged at Grimm but before he knew it, he was knocked out

cold and fell to the ground just like the rest of his comrades.

"Grimm! I'm so happy you're here!"

Rose ran up to Grimm and gave him a big hug.

"Are you okay?"

Grimm asked Rose calmly as she nodded and held onto him tightly.

"Y-yes I'm okay…How did you get here so quickly?"

Grimm looks down at her softly.

"Well as soon as I realized that the school was under attack, I came here

straight away to protect you since you are my number one priority after all."

Rose chuckles and hugs him tightly as she sighs and regains her composure,

slowly turning back to face Cid.

"Are you okay? It was dangerous to jump in front of me like that! You

could've been hurt!"

Rose seemed upset but also concerned for his well being.

"O-oh yeah I'm okay…"

Cid answered her unenthusiastically.

Damn it! What is it with all these people stealing my background

performances today?!

Rose turns back around towards Grimm again.

"How were you able to use magic Grimm? I'm not able to at all."

Grimm shook his head.

"Oh I didn't use any magic, these guys weren't that strong. But you're right I

can't use my magic either."

At this point the other students try to use their magic and realize that they

aren't able to control their magic either.

"We need to get out of here, you aren't safe here at school Princess Rose."

Grimm stated as Rose shook her head.

"No, I can't leave! What about the other students?"

Grimm shook his head back at her.

"The other students aren't my responsibility to take care of, you are."

Rose shook her head angrily.

"No, I refuse! If we don't help out the other students, then what kind of

example do I set as the student council president and princess of the Oriana

Kingdom?!"

Grimm sighs reluctantly.

"Alright fine, if I save everyone then I will also save you as well, so I will

technically still be doing my job. Does that work for you, your majesty?"

Rose sighs as she nods with relief.

"Yes of course it does, I'm glad you feel the same way I do Grimm."

She says to Grimm before he raises his sword up to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone grab your swords and stay close to me, if we can take out

these terrorists quickly and quietly, we can dwindle down their numbers

before they have a chance to overwhelm us."

The rest of the students nodded in determination as they grabbed their

swords and proceeded to follow Grimm out of the classroom.

Cid also followed along as he trailed off towards the back of the group.

Suddenly, he was pulled aside into a classroom without anyone else in the

group noticing.

"Master Shadow, sorry for the sudden interruption."

Cid glances over at his very attractive captor, with her long brown hair and

brown eyes.

"Oh hey Nu, what's up?"

Cid speaks to her casually, and Nu smiles as she realizes he's still acting in his

school student persona.

She bows towards him gracefully.

"I have news regarding the current situation."

"Oh?"

Cid asks as he stares down at her and listens.

Nu nods.

"Yes, currently the Cult of Diablos has infiltrated the school and they have

activated some sort of artifact that is disrupting the magical waves of all the

students and faculty. We believe that the artifact has been programmed to

recognize the magic frequencies of the members of the cult, which is why

they can still use magic."

Cid nods.

"Ah I see, I figured as much."

Nu continues on, feeling slightly proud about her valuable intel so far.

"Also, the Crimson Order is outside of the school currently, but they are

hesitant to charge in due to the magic suppressant barrier surrounding the

school."

Cid nods a little more thoughtfully this time.

"Yeah that makes sense, the Crimson Order probably won't charge in unless

they find a way to use their magic."

Nu nods in agreement.

"Yes exactly, and I have many members of Shadow Garden currently

surrounding the school awaiting your orders."

Cid thinks for a moment before replying.

"Tell them to stand down for now."

Nu looks up at him curiously.

"Stand down?"

Cid nods.

"Yup, I'm kind of curious to see how things will play out on their own."

Nu nods again, lowering her head.

Master Shadow is clearly interested in gathering more intel about the

enemy by himself, that's why he's telling us to stand down. Even if all of

Shadow Garden were able to be here today, we would only end up slowing

him down.

Nu giggles silently to herself as her cheeks flush red.

Master Shadow is truly amazing!

"O-of course, I'll relay your message to the rest of the members

immediately."

She says to Cid as he nods again.

"Good, I'll give you another order when the time comes…"

Cid said mysteriously as Nu nodded with anticipation in her voice.

"Yes of course Master Shadow! I will make sure that we are at your beck and

call when the time comes."

And in an instant, Nu disappeared from Cid's line of vision.

After that, Cid exited the classroom that he was dragged into, and looked

around the hallway.

"Looks like they completely left without me."

He thinks for a moment before he shrugs.

"Oh well, I guess that gives me a chance to wander around the school on my

own for a bit."

Cid begins walking down the hallway, looking for any terrorist members that

might still be lingering around.

Sure enough, there were still a few cult members going from classroom to

classroom seeing if they had missed any stragglers lying around.

"Hey you! What are you doing!?"

One of the cult members draws his sword and moves towards Cid.

"You're supposed to be down in the auditorium with the rest of the

hostages!"

Cid smiles at him nonchalantly.

"Oh am I? I guess I got a bit lost haha."

In an instant Cid appeared behind the cult member and knocked him out

with a strong blow to the head.

Cid then placed his hand on the completely unconscious cult member, and

felt the small magical waves emitting from his body.

"Hmmm let's see here…"

He began to imitate and copy the magical frequency that the cult member

was emitting, and soon enough he was able to use his magic again.

"Hah! Perfect!"

He said as he molded and messed around with his slime magic once more.

"Looks like Nu was right, the artifact is only silencing magical frequencies

that it's not familiar with, meaning that as long as I use this guy's frequency

of magic, I should be able to use my magic just fine."

Cid tries using his slime to create his Shadow outfit just like he always does,

but as he creates more slime, he starts to lose control of it and the slime

begins melting off his body.

"Oh I see, I can't use the same amount of magic I would normally use

because this guy's frequency of magic is too weak, what a bust."

He sighs as he shrugs off the rest of his slime magic.

"Oh well, nothing is really going according to plan today so I guess I'll just

pick off any terrorists that I find walking around with the little amount of

magic that I do have."

Cid then proceeds to walk through the many hallways of the school, picking

off one cult member after another as he uses his slime magic to form a mini

bow and arrow that he could shoot using only his fingers.

"Man these guys are pretty weak, I think I'll head to the roof to get a better

vantage point."

Cid says to himself as he marches up the school's stairs towards the top of

the building.

Once he gets to the top of the building, he walks to the edge and looks

down at the entire school.

"Oh wow, it looks like there's a lot of them here."

Cid looked around the school grounds as he saw a multitude of

black-hooded figures moving about through the school's courtyard and into

the buildings.

It's truly impressive how many cliché tropes these guys are covering, the

school takeover, the hostage situation, the authority figures hesitating on

the outside of the school, it's really quite something.

Cid ponders to himself as he judges the situation from up above.

But they have absolutely no class! I mean really? Wearing all black during

the middle of the day?! What is this amateur hour?! If you're going to wear

all black then you do it at night! Everybody knows that!

Cid sighs in exasperation.

"Whatever, at least from up here I have an easier shot at some of my

targets."

Cid fires off the mini bow and arrow at a few of the cult members down on

the ground, taking them out one by one so that nobody notices what's

happening.

As he continues firing shots one after the other, he notices a flash of color in

the windows across from him.

"Hm?"

He looks towards the window and spots a pink haired girl wandering around

the hallways aimlessly.

Seems like there was a straggler after all….

Cid thinks to himself as he leapt down from the top of the school building

and used his magic to propel himself forward towards the other building

across from him.

The girl with the pink hair was making her way up the stairs stealthily,

checking both ways to make sure that she didn't run into another terrorist.

She hid behind the corners of the hallway and snuck past the classroom

doors and windows so as to not be seen by anyone.

Unbeknownst to her, she wasn't actually as stealthy as she initially thought,

and many of the cult members ended up spotting her immediately, but due

to Cid's quick support on her behalf, she remained undetected.

"Hey you there-"

The terrorists would call out to the girl before immediately getting silenced

by Cid's slime magic.

"Huh?"

The girl turned around as she thought she heard a voice call out to her.

"Oh good, it's just my imagination."

She said to herself as she continued moving up the stairs and along the

hallways with Cid covering for her the entire time.

As she continued her ascent upwards, she lost her footing on one of the

stairs, and slipped backwards.

"Aghh!"

She cried out before she fell into Cid's arms.

Cid caught her easily as he was just following along behind her from the

beginning. He also ended up catching an item that the pink haired girl was

carrying.

"You okay?"

Cid looked at her curiously as he set her down and handed her little trinket

back to her.

The pink haired girl nodded as she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Y-yeah I'm alright, I was so worried, I thought you were one of the school

invaders…"

Cid shakes his head.

"Oh no I'm not, just another normal student sneaking around like you."

The girl nods, a smile lighting up her face.

"Oh that's a relief! I thought I might've been one of the only ones to escape."

"How did you escape exactly?"

Cid asked her on a whim, she didn't look strong enough to fight on her own,

and she definitely doesn't have the wherewithal to sneak around

undetected all on her own.

"Oh some wolf boy in our class ended up knocking out all the school

invaders, but he ran away shortly afterwards for some reason."

Cid nods softly, he has an inkling as to who that might be.

"Well what's with the little trinket you're carrying?"

Cid points to the little device that the girl was carrying.

"Oh this? It's an artifact, and I think it can stop whatevers blocking

everyone's magic."

This catches Cid's attention.

"Oh you think so? What makes you say that?"

The girl answers him quickly.

"Well to be honest, I've been reading a lot about different artifacts lately and

one of their abilities acts as a magic suppression device, which is what I

think is disrupting the entire school's magic except for all of the invaders.

The artifact that I have in my hands has the ability to counter that since it

sucks up and stores magical energy."

Cid listens to her earnestly.

"So basically, I'm thinking if I could get this artifact to work, it could suck up

and store the magical waves that are making it hard for the rest of us to use

magic, you know?"

Cid nods as he mulls over her reasoning.

"Okay I see, but are you able to get it up and running?"

The girl nods.

"Yeah I think so, but I need some materials from my fathers office."

"Oh? Who's your father?"

"He's the assistant principal of the school here."

The girl responds to Cid proudly as he nods slowly.

"Oh okay sure that makes sense, do you need help getting into his office?"

The girl raises her hands as she shakes her head.

"O-oh I couldn't ask you to do that! It's far too dangerous!"

Cid smiles at her.

"Oh don't worry I'll be fine, plus having two people working together is

better than having just one,

right?"

The pink haired girl nods and giggles happily.

"O-okay! As long as you're absolutely sure!"

She starts moving up the stairs again before Cid stops her.

"Oh and while we're at it."

He points down at the girl's slippers that she was sneaking around in so

stealthily.

"Let's take off the super noisy flip-flopping slippers, okay?"

The girl nods her head in embarrassment.

"O-oh right, that makes sense…"

The two of them made their way through the many hallways and stairways

of the school.

They both hid behind the hallway corners as Cid leaned over to check and

see if there were any terrorists walking around.

"Do you see anyone?"

The pink haired girl asks as Cid looks down the hallway.

"Nope, the coast is clear."

Cid says as he fires off four silent shots into the heads of a few terrorists

standing in the hallway, killing them instantly before he drags their corpses

into a nearby classroom with his slime magic so they would be out of sight.

"Oh great! I really didn't think it would be this easy to get to my fathers

office!"

The girl says as she strolls down the hallway eagerly.

She turns the corner cautiously before she spots a couple more terrorists.

"Oh shoot, there's more of them."

She says to Cid quietly as she looks past them.

"My father's office is right on the other side of this hallway, how are we

gonna sneak past them?"

Well if she would've just let me take the lead the whole way I could've dealt

with them easily.

Cid thinks as he looks around for another solution.

"What about this right here?"

He points to a nearby vent.

The pink haired girl nods her head enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, good thinking!"

Cid nods as he squats down next to the vent.

"Okay you keep watch, I'll try and get this open."

The girl nods as she looks around the corner anxiously.

Cid then uses his slime magic to undo the screws on the vent without her

noticing.

"Okay I got it open."

"Huh, already? That was quick."

The girl responds as she climbs inside the vent.

"Okay, I think this vent should lead to the other side of the hallway, and we

should be able to get to my fathers office without being noticed."

The girl says as Cid shuts the vent behind them quietly.

"Oh hey I just realized I didn't actually ask for your name yet."

The pink haired girl asks as she makes her way through the vent with Cid

following closely behind her.

"Oh my name's Cid, what's your name?"

Cid asks her in return.

"My name is Sherry Barnett, it's nice to meet you! Although I really wish we

could've met each other under more desirable circumstances…"

Sherry laughs softly as she says that.

"Oh yeah, same here, today's been nothing but a total disaster…"

Cid says back to her as they continue crawling through the vent.

"Yeah I know, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this happen before."

Cid and Sherry agree with each other, but are coincidentally complaining

about two entirely different things.

"Ah we're here!"

Sherry says as she pushes on the vent to try and get it to open up.

"Darn it's not budging."

"Here let me give it a shot."

Cid says as he squeezes past Sherry to move up closer to the vent.

"O-oh okay.."

Sherry says with a slight blush on her face due to the close proximity in

which she found herself to Cid in this moment.

"There, that should do it."

Cid says as he pushes the vent open and crawls out into the assistant

principals office.

"Wow you're really good at opening vents Cid."

Cid chuckles softly.

"Oh I guess I've had a bit of practice…"

He thinks back to his previous life and remembers how many times he

found himself sneaking around through different types of vents trying to get

the drop on his opponents.

Of course that was long before I was reincarnated into this world to fulfill

my dream and truly become 'The Eminence in Shadow.'

Cid chuckles softly to himself as he reminisces, but he quickly gets dragged

back to reality as Sherry pops her head up from behind her fathers desk.

"Umm Cid? Can you check in those drawers over there and see if you can

find my fathers tool box?"

Sherry asks Cid as he nods his head.

"Oh yeah sure thing."

Cid then starts to help out Sherry as they both attempt to get the artifact

working again so that they could dismantle the magic suppression spell,

and save the entire school.

Grimm, Rose, and the other students were making their way down the

school halls so that they could find the other students and save them from

the attackers.

Grimm had his sword at the ready in case they ran into any more terrorists

that were roaming the halls, and as they turned the next corner, they ran

into a bunch of them all at once.

"Hey!"

One of the hooded figures cried out before getting the hilt of Grimm's blade

slammed into the side of his temple, effectively knocking him out

immediately.

"What the-"

The other hooded figures began to reach for their blades upon seeing the

students, but before they could even unsheathe their swords, Grimm had

slashed all of their hands with the tip of his sword before turning back

around and slamming his fist into their faces, driving them all to the ground

before they could even make a noise.

"Woah, Grimm you're amazing!"

Some of the students ran up to Grimm with bright looks on their faces,

admiring how quickly he took down the enemies.

"Oh thanks, but it's really not that impressive."

Grimm responded to them casually, not quite understanding what was so

amazing about knocking out a few thugs.

"How are you able to beat them so easily without using any magic?"

One of the first year girls asked Grimm curiously.

"Oh, well I never really use magic when I train or fight people."

This came as quite the shock to everyone.

"Wait really? You're telling me you never use magic when fighting people?"

Grimm shakes his head.

"No, I do have to sometimes. If my opponent channels a lot of magic into

their sword, I have to put a little bit of magic into mine or else my blade

would break, but these guys are too weak for me to worry about that."

The students stared at Grimm in awe, as if he had just said the most

ridiculous thing they had ever heard.

Rose chuckled softly as she walked up next to Grimm and turned to face

everyone.

"Okay guys, let's focus, we need to find out where the other students are

being kept, if we all work together we should be able to overpower these

school terrorists and get everyone else to safety."

The students nodded eagerly, seemingly ready to fight as long as they had

Grimm by their side.

Rose smiled at her classmates' bravery.

"Great! Now in order to find out where the rest of the students are being

held captive, we need to come up with a strategy that won't give away our

surprise attack."

She turned to face Grimm with a slight smirk on her face.

"I think I have an idea, but you'll have to trust me Grimm."

Grimm nodded as he looked down at Rose.

"Of course I trust you, just say the word and I'll help execute this plan of

yours no matter how difficult it proves to be, I promise."

Rose smiled at him happily.

"Perfect! Alright then, follow me everyone!"

Rose ushered to them all as she led them towards the doors that went out to

the school's courtyard.

After Rose had finished explaining her plan, Grimm felt his stomach drop as

he immediately regretted his words.

"P-princess Rose….Surely you understand why there's no way I can allow for

that to happen."

Rose pointed towards him teasingly.

"Oh? But weren't you the one who said you'd help me with my plan no

matter how difficult it proved to be?"

"W-well yes but…"

Rose shook her finger at him.

"Ah ah! You promised!"

Grimm sighed in defeat.

"That's true I did…"

Rose giggled happily as the rest of the students watched this exchange go

down between the two of them.

So cute!

All of the students thought internally, but did not dare to say anything out

loud in front of Grimm.

"Alright then it's settled! Me and a couple of other students will pretend to

get captured so we can discover where all the hostages are being kept. Then

once we're on the inside, we can secretly alert everyone that we're gonna

launch an attack of our own so that they're ready to fight."

The rest of Rose's group nods their heads in agreement with this plan.

"I should've tried getting this info out of one of the school invaders before I

knocked them out."

Grimm said, slightly frustrated with himself.

Rose shook her head.

"Well it can't be helped now, you were just doing your job by protecting us,

but now it's our turn to help out, right?"

Grimm nodded.

"I suppose you're right, but if I get even the smallest feeling that something

is going wrong, I'm gonna put an end to it immediately."

Rose nodded her head happily.

"Yes, and I would expect nothing less from you Grimm."

She then turned towards the group of students that would be tagging along

with her to be the fake hostages.

"Okay, you guys ready?"

They all nod in anticipation.

"Great! Then let's go!"

Rose and the others made their way into the school's courtyard, right out in

the open for everyone to see.

A couple of the terrorists spotted them immediately, and ran up to them

with their swords drawn.

"Hey! You guys are supposed to be in the auditorium with the rest of the

students!"

Rose and the other students put their hands behind their heads and

kneeled in front of the attackers in a sign of surrender.

"Thought you could be sneaky and escape huh? I thought we had that place

on lockdown."

The hooded figure turned towards his partner as he asked this and his

partner just shrugged.

"Ugh whatever, just get back inside."

He pointed his sword at the students and walked them towards the school's

auditorium.

"Looks like they're being taken to the school's auditorium."

Grimm said as he watched the whole situation go down just as planned.

"Alright, everyone else follow me, I'll get us into the top part of the

auditorium so that we'll have the high ground when we unleash our surprise

attack."

The rest of the group nodded as they gripped their swords tightly.

"U-umm, Grimm-senpai…"

One of the first year girls spoke up softly, clearly intimidated by this whole

ordeal.

"I-I don't know if I can fight these guys…I know they seem weak to you but…"

Grimm looked down at her as she spoke, and he noticed that she was almost

in tears.

"You don't have to fight anyone."

The girl looked up at him in surprise.

"Anyone who believes they are not ready or willing to fight, they can stay

here and hide in a nearby classroom. Everyone else who believes that they

can hold their own and help out, come with me to the auditorium."

The group of students looked at each other, slightly unsure of which

decision to choose now that they had been presented with the option to

hide in a classroom and stay safe.

Some of the students dropped back with the timid girl, but for the most part

everyone was still on board with the original plan.

"Alright good, now for those of you coming with me, stay close behind me."

The students nodded as one of the first year boys scoffed and said in a

hushed voice,

"I can't believe anyone at this school wouldn't be willing to fight for their

friends and schoolmates."

This made some of the other students upset.

"Hey, not everyone is skilled at sword fighting, jerk. And not everyone at this

school is here to be some sort of stupid knight who fights people all the

time."

This came from another girl who was currently trying to comfort the timid

girl who spoke up earlier.

This incited some bickering among the group, their voices getting louder as

they continued to argue, and before they knew it, some terrorists nearby

overheard them and called out to everyone in the courtyard.

"Hey we have a big group of students over here!"

"What? Seriously? There's more of them?"

After the initial outburst from one of the terrorists, the alert spread to all of

the other hooded figures wandering around the school, and they all made

their way down to the courtyard in order to apprehend the group of

students.

"Great! So much for our surprise attack!"

One of the students said as they, along with everyone else in their group,

watched as over 50 terrorists made their way out of the school buildings and

into the courtyard where Grimm stood at the ready.

The school invaders saw the wolf boy standing, ready to fight with his sword

and they started laughing.

"Give up kid! You're not gonna win when you have no magic! Don't make

this a pain or we'll kill you."

Grimm stood, unflinching in the face of so many enemies.

"I-is he gonna be okay?"

The timid girl watched from the sidelines along with the rest of her

classmates.

"Alright, we tried to warn you!"

The hooded figure gave a hand signal to his colleagues and they all rushed

Grimm simultaneously.

Grimm took a step to the left as 10 attackers ran straight towards him, and

he deflected the first attackers blow with ease.

He then pivoted on his foot and pushed the first attacker from behind,

causing him to stumble and lose his balance, which led to him impaling one

of the other terrorists accidentally with his sword.

Grimm then stabbed the terrorist he pushed from behind right through the

neck before he could get back up, and the other terrorists stopped in their

tracks immediately.

None of them expected any of their men to die, much less two of them in

the span of 5 seconds.

Grimm looked up calmly towards the rest of the attackers facing him.

"So it's a fight to the death then?"

These words sent a chill up the spines of the enemy, before one of them

called out in a rage,

"KILL HIM!"

The attackers all started rushing Grimm again, but he calmly positioned

himself just out of their reach before he went back in and struck them down

with one blow from his sword.

This continued several times as Grimm slashed down 10, then 15, then 20

attackers in rapid succession.

"How is he beating you guys!? Can he use magic?!"

The seemingly highest ranked among them was yelling orders at everyone

as he watched Grimm dwindle his forces.

"N-no sir! From what I can tell, he's not using any magic at all!"

"Tsk!"

The hooded figure who was in charge exclaimed unhappily.

"Captain Rex, what should we do?"

One of the terrorists asked his captain as he racked his brain in this dire

situation.

"You guys just distract him, I'm gonna use my trump card…"

The attackers nodded.

"Right!"

They all said as they rushed towards Grimm, swinging their blades with as

much magic power as they had left.

Grimm hopped away as he dodged and evaded the attackers' desperate

attempts.

I've already cut down roughly half their numbers, of course they're gonna

start getting desperate.

Grimm thought as he continued to move swiftly and use clever footwork to

get ahead of his opponents.

Before he was able to realize it however, Captain Rex had already unleashed

his trump card, and had cast a magical red net that surrounded Grimm and

trapped him inside along with the other attackers, forcing him to fight in

close quarters with nowhere to run.

"Gotcha! You might've thought you were pretty tough stuff, but not even you

can beat 20 men in close quarters without even a single drop of magic!"

Rex exclaimed giddily as he laughed maniacally.

Grimm sighed as he looked around at his situation. Even he could see that

this wasn't optimal in the slightest.

"Whatever…"

Grimm says as he drops his sword to the ground, and for a split second, the

attackers are caught off guard as their eyes follow his blade as it falls to the

ground.

In that instant, Grimm slams his palm into the nearest attacker's jaw,

causing him to stagger and loosen his grip on his sword.

Grimm then takes the sword out of the attacker's hand, and proceeds to

slaughter every last person inside the red net with the little bit of magic that

was still imbued in the sword.

Captain Rex watched from the outside, horrified that Grimm had killed 20 of

his men and smashed all of their swords to pieces before most of them

could even react to what was happening.

Grimm was covered from head to toe in blood, as he finished off the last of

the terrorists in the red net, he turned to face the captain who was still

standing on the outside of the spell that he cast.

"Y-you're an animal! That's all you are! You deserve nothing less than

excruciating death!"

The captain said furiously as he began to shrink the net that was

surrounding Grimm.

"If my men can't kill you then I suppose I'll just have to do it myself…"

Grimm tried swinging the sword he stole from one of the terrorists, but the

sword shattered instantly upon making contact with the net.

"Damn, not enough magic power.."

Captain Rex laughed as he watched the net grow smaller and smaller

around Grimm.

"Once this net is tight enough…"

He walked towards Grimm slowly with his two swords at the ready.

"I'll kill you, and I'll make it slow and painful."

Grimm watched as Rex made his way up closer to him, with the net closing

in around his body.

"There we go…Now die!"

Rex ran up to him and thrusted his sword right at Grimm's neck.

In an instant, Grimm pivoted his body just enough so that Rex's sword only

scraped his neck, he then grabbed Rex's arm and yanked him closer to the

net he was entrapped in so as to throw him off balance quickly. Grimm then

twisted Rex's arm and took the blade out of his hand only to turn it right

back around and aim the sword right at the captain's neck, completely

decapitating Rex in one fell swoop, which then caused the magic red net

closing in around Grimm's body to disappear and release him.

"Grimm!"

The timid girl ran up to him and hugged him, despite him being covered in

blood.

"You're okay! I can't believe you beat them all! You saved us!"

She seemed so relieved that Grimm was able to survive, despite the odds

being against him.

Grimm nods softly as he breathes heavily.

"Yes, I beat them of course."

He rubs his slightly injured neck as the other students make their way up to

him.

"I've never seen anyone that good at fighting! You might even be able to

beat Princess Iris!"

"Yeah you're seriously the best Grimm!"

Grimm smiled softly at their praise and he took a minute to regain himself

from the previous battle.

"You guys were arguing earlier…about whether or not you should fight for

your classmates or keep yourselves safe."

The group of students goes silent as they shift their feet in embarrassment,

realizing that their argument almost cost Grimm his life.

Grimm continues speaking.

"It doesn't matter what you choose."

The students all look up at him curiously, not quite expecting that kind of

response.

"Whether you choose to stay hidden in a classroom or whether you choose

to come and fight with me, it doesn't matter because I'm going to win either

way. Regardless of how many people I have helping me, I don't intend on

losing."

The other students looked at him completely awestruck, as they had never

realized the level of confidence that Grimm had in his own abilities before.

Grimm brushed himself off as best as he could to try and get rid of all the

blood that was splattered on him.

"So if you guys wanna go back to the classroom and wait until things blow

over, that's fine by me I don't mind."

Grimm said to them, but as he looked back at their faces, he already knew

what their answer would be.

"No way, after seeing you in action like that, I don't think anyone has the

right to save their own skin after seeing you risk your life for our sake."

One of the first year boys exclaimed as everyone nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! We might not be able to help out a whole lot, but we can at least do

something!"

The timid girl then nodded along with this sentiment as she looked back at

Grimm.

"Y-yeah, I'll help fight too."

Grimm looked at her curiously.

"Are you sure?"

The girl nodded immediately.

"Yes I'm sure! As long as we have you on our side we won't lose!"

Everyone in the group nodded as they picked up their swords again.

"Yeah exactly! So let's go rescue the rest of the hostages already!"

Everyone yelled in excitement as they had finally come back to their sense of

agreement.

Grimm chuckled as he nodded.

"Right then."

He walked over to where he dropped his sword earlier and he picked it up off

the ground.

"Let's go save the school."

Rose and the other students were brought into the auditorium in order to be

used as hostages along with the rest of their schoolmates.

As the terrorists pushed them all inside, they were told to sit down in the

middle with all of the other students that were currently sitting on the

ground.

"Princess Rose! Are you okay?"

One of the students nearby asked Rose as she nodded softly to them.

"Yes I'm alright there's no need to worry."

She smiled at them reassuringly, but one of the terrorists overheard this.

"Ah hey, is this the princess that the boss was looking for?"

The other terrorist shook his head at the question.

"No, he said we needed to bring him Princess Alexia, not Princess Rose."

"Oh I see. Have we captured Princess Alexia yet?"

"No not yet, from what I've heard she must've escaped already."

The two invaders talked amongst each other for a few more minutes before

one of them suggested,

"Do you think we should let the boss know about Princess Rose?"

The other invader sighs softly.

"Probably, I'll go tell him that we've captured one of the princesses."

Rose watched as the terrorist made his way up towards the front of the

auditorium to report to their boss, who was standing on the stage at the

front of the room.

The boss was wearing a full suit of armor covering his entire body, with a

long red cape and a longsword on his waist.

Due to the amount of armor the man was wearing, he looked very big and

powerful, but the most noticeable part of his appearance was his helmet,

which had a visible magic glow that turned the eyes of the helmet red so

you couldn't see the identity of who was behind the suit.

Rose continued to watch the terrorist interact with the boss from afar,

unsure as to what she or Princess Alexia had to do with this school invasion.

"I see."

The boss said as the terrorist explained the situation to him.

"So we've apprehended Princess Rose, but not Princess Alexia?"

The terrorist nodded in confirmation as the boss sat in silence for a minute,

thinking about how to proceed.

At the same time this was happening, Grimm and his group made their way

up to the balcony of the auditorium, where Grimm stealthily took down

every terrorist up there one by one.

"Alright that should be all of them."

Grimm whispered to the others as he peeked down at all the other students

from above, trying to spot Rose in the crowd.

"There she is."

He whispered quietly under his breath as he spotted her sitting on the

ground with the other students.

He then glanced over towards the front stage where he saw the boss

standing in his full suit of armor talking with one of the other terrorists.

"Damn it all….We were supposed to get our hands on Princess Alexia today."

The boss grumbled as he shook his head.

"No matter, royal blood is what the cult is mainly after, just take Princess

Rose in place of Princess Alexia. We don't have any more time to waste."

The terrorist nodded as he made his way back over to Princess Rose and he

signaled to a couple of other terrorists to come help escort her out.

"We got permission from the boss."

The terrorist said and the others immediately understood as they got out

their swords and lifted Princess Rose to her feet.

"H-hey what's going on? What do you want with me?"

Rose struggled slightly in the terrorists arms as they began to bring her back

stage.

Grimm was watching this whole ordeal go down from up above.

"This is odd, what are they doing with Princess Rose? This wasn't a part of

the plan…."

He watched as the men began to drag Rose out of his eyesight.

"No, I'm not letting her leave my sight."

Grimm said as he stood up and jumped down from the balcony.

As soon as he landed on the ground, multiple attackers started unsheathing

their swords, but Grimm was much faster than them as he sliced off their

hands quickly and without a second thought.

His enemies crumbled to the ground writhing in agony, which caused the

other terrorists currently occupied with Princess Rose to stop and turn

around to look at the commotion going on behind them.

Grimm walked towards the terrorists swiftly.

"I would appreciate it if you would unhand the princess immediately, I will

not hesitate to kill anyone who stands in my way."

The boss chuckled as he looked at Grimm.

"You four, make sure Princess Rose gets back to the base, take as many

other troops as you need."

The four terrorists nod as they continue to usher Princess Rose out of the

room.

"Yes Commander!"

They all said as they continued pushing Rose out of the auditorium.

Grimm growled, clearly agitated at this decision made by the commander.

"This should be at least slightly entertaining."

The commander said as he unsheathed his oddly shaped longsword from its

scabbard, facing towards Grimm with an intimidating aura.

"Move, I'm not asking again."

Grimm said back sternly before he struck the commander with a solid blow,

only to see that it was blocked by the commander's longsword.

"My my, you're quite a rude one aren't you?"

The commander snarled back at Grimm as he took his longsword and

swung it hard, causing Grimm to jump far back in order to avoid its reach.

"So you were the one picking off all of my troops on this raid huh?"

The commander chuckled softly.

"I will admit, you've got a bright future in swordsmanship if you were able to

pull that off with no magic. However, I will be cutting that future short

today."

The commander began lifting his sword up above his head, but as he was

doing this, Grimm used his blind spot to charge in and aim his sword right at

the eye sockets in the commander's helmet.

"You talk too much."

Grimm said annoyedly, but before he was able to make contact with the

commander's helmet, the commander pivoted slightly and grabbed Grimm

by the neck with his free hand.

"Not a bad attempt."

The commander then threw Grimm to the ground, and with his left leg

released a devastating kick right into Grimm's ribs, sending him flying off

the stage into the students below.

"You have good instincts, I can tell you're no stranger to winning, you go

straight for the kill without hesitation."

The commander leapt down from the stage and began dragging his

longsword on the ground towards where Grimm was laying.

"With that in mind, I will not hesitate to kill you either."

Grimm coughed profusely as he tried to catch his breath, and the other

students ran up to him with worry.

"Grimm! Are you okay?"

The students in his group asked him as they hadn't seen Grimm get hit even

once before this moment.

"Y-yeah it's nothing."

He picked up his sword again, ready to fight.

The commander then lifted up his longsword and swung down hard right at

where Grimm was, penetrating the floor with the sheer impact of the blow.

Grimm jumped to his right to avoid the impact, and he then aimed right at

the commander's head with his leg as he kicked him, but once again his

attack was blocked as the commander had brought up his left arm in

defense.

"Too easy."

The commander said as he grabbed Grimm's leg and threw him across the

room, causing him to slam into a wall.

"Agh!"

Grimm cried out in pain as he fell to the floor.

Damn, this guy is crazy tough, I don't have time to deal with him, I need to

get to Princess Rose.

Grimm knew that the longer he stayed messing with the boss, he was losing

precious time in rescuing the princess.

He then started running towards the back door of the auditorium where he

saw Rose being taken, but the commander caught up to him quickly as he

swung his longsword right at Grimm's neck.

Grimm ducked right before the sword struck him, and he turned around and

slashed right at the commander's neck in return, but the commander's

chest armor deflected his attack easily.

"Not so fast."

The commander brushed off this attack and thrusted his sword right at

Grimm, causing Grimm to stumble and parry his attack sloppily, resulting in

the longsword slicing the outside of his forearm.

"Tch!"

Grimm exclaimed as he clutched his arm to try and stop the bleeding, but

he continued to hold onto his sword.

There's no way I'd be able to escape from this guy, he's a lot faster than he

looks.

The commander then took the hilt of his sword and brought it right down

aiming for the top of Grimms head.

Grimm narrowly avoided this attack, but the commander simply tilted his

sword in the same direction of Grimm's dodge and thrusted towards him

again.

"SHIT!"

Grimm yelled as he desperately covered his head from being skewered with

his arms, causing the longsword to tear up his triceps as well as some of his

back muscles in the process.

"GAGHH!"

Grimm shouted as he fell to the ground and dropped his sword, the

commander standing over him ready to finish the fight already.

"Those prepared to kill must also be prepared to die."

The commander raised up his sword above his head, about to deliver the

final blow onto Grimm.

Suddenly in a last ditch attempt at survival, Grimm grabbed his blade with

his other working arm and swung it right at the commander's helmet,

hoping to discombobulate him even if only for a second.

This last ditch effort caught the commander off guard for a split second, as

the sword landed a direct hit on his helmet and made a resounding clang

that could be heard throughout the auditorium.

Grimm then got back up to his feet and moved away quickly from his

opponent.

The commander chuckled softly, before he started coughing violently.

Grimm stood there, slightly puzzled about whether that coughing was

related to his attack or not.

The commander then walked up to Grimm slowly with his sword in hand.

"It's been a while since anyone's been able to land a direct blow on me

before, I almost feel bad squashing this kind of talent."

Grimm watched as the commander lifted up his sword, facing him once

again.

"But I'm done going easy on you."

Suddenly an overwhelming amount of magic power emitted from the

commander's sword as he infused it with his magic.

Grimm clutched at his sword as he realized that his opponent that had been

causing him so much trouble had yet to use any of his magic until this point.

But he stood his ground and stared at the commander unflinchingly.

"I don't need magic to beat you…I don't need magic to beat anyone."

The commander laughed as he gripped his sword tightly.

"Oh my dear boy, in this world, magic is everything."

In less than a second, the commander unleashed his quickest and most

powerful attack yet, causing Grimm's blade to shatter instantaneously and

causing Grimm to get hurled back up to the second floor of the auditorium,

where he slammed into the ceiling and got knocked out upon impact.

The students below cried out as they saw this happen.

"Grimm!"

A couple of students from Grimm's group ran up towards the second floor in

order to check on his well-being.

They ran past the remaining terrorists who were too stunned to move from

the sudden explosion of power that the commander displayed in front of

them, and they ran up to Grimm's bruised and bleeding body that was lying

on the ground.

"Quick! Somebody stop the bleeding!"

The students quickly took off their uniform attire and started using their

clothes to wrap around the cuts on Grimm's body.

"Sir! Should we…"

One of the terrorists looked back at the commander for further orders but

the commander raised his hand passively.

"Leave them be, it won't be long now."

He then picked up an orb shaped artifact that was concealed behind the

stage.

"Once the Eye of Avarice reaches its maximum magic capacity, we'll take our

leave and blow the school sky high."

He grins menacingly to himself.

And with the amount of magic I've collected today, all I need to do is

harness it for myself, and I'll be reinstated in the Knights of Rounds.

He laughs softly to himself, before he starts coughing violently again, setting

the orb down in the center of the stage as he does so.

It's odd that we didn't manage to capture Princess Alexia, I was sure that

she would be here today…

He shook his head as he thought this.

No matter, Princess Rose will have to suffice for now.

Sherry groaned slightly as she pondered over what she could do differently

to get her artifact to work.

"Darn, I almost had it that time."

Cid looked at the artifact Sherry was working on with curiosity, it looked like

a small flying saucer with a little red gem stuck in the middle of it.

"This artifact is supposed to be able to counter the effects of whatever is

blocking our magic?"

Sherry nods.

"Yes it's supposed to, I'm pretty sure the artifact that's blocking our magic is

called the Eye of Avarice, and the Eye of Avarice has a counter artifact that

can turn off its effects if it gets close enough to it."

She sighs softly.

"I'm trying to activate the counter artifact here, but I'm not sure if I have

enough materials to make it work."

Cid nods as he understands the situation.

"I see, well maybe I can go get some more materials in the school lab for

you."

Sherry shakes her head immediately.

"O-oh I could never ask you to do that! The school lab is almost all the way

across campus!" It's too dangerous!"

Cid smiles at her unworriedly.

"Oh don't worry I'll be sneaky, plus I have to go to the bathroom anyway so

it's really no problem. Just write down a list of materials you need me to get."

Sherry nods quickly as she gets out a pen and paper.

"Okay here."

She hands him a list of the materials she needs.

"You promise you'll be careful?"

Sherry looks at Cid with a concerned expression.

Cid nods cheerfully.

"Yup! I promise."

He took the list from Sherry before he walked over to the vent and crawled

through it to the other side.

Upon exiting the vent, he ran into the couple of terrorists that were standing

guard outside the assistant principal's office before.

"Hey! What are you-"

Without a second's hesitation Cid used his slime magic to lop off all of their

heads at once.

"So, I gotta get to the school lab, which way would be fastest?"

Cid talks to himself casually as he makes his way through the school, as if

nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

As he walks through the courtyard towards the other side of campus, he

notices the pileup of dead terrorists all around due to Grimm's previous

battle.

"Hm, looks like these guys have their hands full as it is. No wonder they had

to use some kind of artifact for this attack, these guys are too weak to be

taking over a school properly."

Cid rubs his chin thoughtfully as he walks into the school lab building.

"Okay let's see, Sherry needs all of these things huh?"

Suddenly as he was looking around, a figure appeared kneeling down

behind him.

"Oh hey Nu, got any updates so far?"

Cid asks without even turning around.

"I have an update involving Princess Rose, Lord Shadow."

Nu spoke to him with her head lowered.

"Oh?"

Cid replied as Nu continued speaking.

"Apparently, she is one of the main reasons as to why this school invasion

happened in the first place, the cult has kidnapped her and are currently

taking her back to their base. We are still unsure as to what their motive

could possibly be, but we suspect that it has something to do with the

possessed."

Cid nods softly as he looks around the lab.

"Ah I see.."

Cid then turns around as he holds up a jar of dust.

"Would you happen to know where I could find another powdered bone of

Earth dragon jar?"

Nu looks up at him puzzled.

"Oh um, yes my lord, I believe there is one right over here."

She moves towards the cabinets nearby and hands him an extra jar.

"Thanks, also I need a couple other things if you know where they are."

"A couple other things?"

Nu asks as Cid holds up the list that Sherry gave to him.

After a couple more minutes of searching around the lab, Cid finally had

gathered all the materials that Sherry had asked for.

"Alright that should be everything."

Nu says as Cid nods.

"Yeah thanks, you've been a big help Nu."

Nu looks at him curiously.

"My lord, if you don't mind me asking, what are all of these items for

exactly?"

"Oh I need them so that we can build a device that'll disrupt the artifact

that's blocking all of our magic power."

Nu looked surprised as she heard the answer.

"Wow, you make it sound so easy, do you know if it'll work?"

Cid shrugs.

"Not sure, but I guess we'll see."

He begins to walk away with the items he had collected before he stops.

"Oh and Nu?"

Nu looks back at him.

"Yes Master Shadow?"

Cid pauses for a minute.

"Once the artifact is disabled, tell everyone waiting outside the school to

move in towards the school's auditorium. I have a feeling we're getting close

to the climax now."

Nu nods as she bows her head.

"Yes of course Master Shadow, I'll relay the message at once."

"Oh and Nu?"

Nu looks back at him once again.

"Yes Master Shadow?"

"Send someone after the Princess too while you're at it."

Nu bows her head once again.

"As you wish my lord."

As she lifted up her head again, Cid had disappeared from her field of view.

Princess Rose is the definition of a named character, it's probably best not

to have her die so early on in the story. Plus if she does die, that would

definitely stir some unnecessary commotion at our school.

Cid shakes his head softly as he makes his way back to Sherry.

I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.

Alpha sits at her desk as she mulls over some of the reports that have come

in today from the other Shadow Garden members. It seemed like most of

them dealt with the school invasion that was still going on.

As she was sitting looking things over, one of the Shadow Garden members

knocked on her office doors.

"Come in."

Alpha said as the member walked in through her doors.

"Lady Alpha, I have an important status report from Nu."

The member said as she laid out the updated report of the situation on

Alpha's desk.

Alpha nodded as she picked up the members report and listened intently to

what she had to say.

"Nu gave us the order to follow and rescue Princess Rose as she has been

captured by the Cult of Diablos. She says that this order came from Master

Shadow himself."

Alpha's eyes widened ever so slightly at the mention of his name.

"I see, and I take it that you don't have enough members on hand for a

rescue mission?"

The member shook her head.

"No we do not, however we have scouts that have located where Princess

Rose was taken and are now awaiting for further backup."

Alpha nods slowly.

"Understood, thank you for relaying this information to me."

The member bowed her head as she left Alpha's office.

Alpha thinks for a few moments before she makes up her mind.

I suppose those two are finally ready for their first mission, even if it is a bit

bigger than I had anticipated it would be.

Alpha nods to herself slowly as she calls to one of the Shadow Garden

members currently standing guard outside of her office.

"Yes Lady Alpha?"

"Send a message to Lady Eta and Lady Beta and let them know to bring

their apprentices and meet me in my office. I have a new mission for them."

The guard nods her head as she hurries out of the room.

"Princess Rose huh? An interesting target indeed…."

Alpha leans back in her chair as she looks over the new report she was given.

"Wow! Our first mission!"

Frost exclaims as he looks over at Jett.

"Are you excited?"

Jett asks Frost and Frost nods emphatically.

"Oh absolutely!"

Frost looked around at the trees and the dark clouds covering the sky that

made it look like it was about to rain.

"The world really is just as amazing and beautiful as you said it was Jett!"

Jett nods as they both run alongside each other through the forest.

"Haha yeah, I had forgotten that this is the first time you've ever actually

seen the outside world huh? Was it everything you hoped it would be?"

Frost nods happily.

"Yes it's amazing! The wind is so cool on my face, and it makes the leaves on

the trees move around a lot too!"

"Yes it is quite beautiful, isn't it?"

Beta chimes in as she slows her running pace to match the two boys.

"Ah Lady Beta! I'm sorry for getting distracted, I've just never been outside

before."

Beta shakes her head as she smiles at Frost.

"Oh don't be silly I'm not mad, the world deserves to be admired. However,

don't forget we still have a mission to accomplish."

Frost nods again.

"Right! We'll save the princess and kill anyone who gets in our way!"

Frost smiles innocently as Epsilon also slows her pace to match everyone

else.

"I see that your apprentice sure is an eager one isn't he?"

Epsilon snickers at Beta teasingly.

"It's too bad that Lady Eta wasn't able to make it out on this mission."

Beta says passive aggressively to nobody in particular.

"Oh yeah, she's super busy with her research, but it's okay though Lady

Epsilon will help us a lot in combat."

Jett says as he looks over at Epsilon.

"Thank you Jett, at least someone wants me to be here."

Epsilon says back at Beta before Beta cuts her off quickly.

"This is it. The place where Princess Rose is being held."

The two boys look up and see a giant mountain off in the distance and Jett

immediately stops running.

"I-it's a research base…"

Frost stops running as soon as he hears this.

"It is? Another one?"

Jett nods.

"Yeah I can tell, it looks exactly the same as the one I worked at."

Beta and Epsilon stopped as they heard this and turned to face towards Jett

now.

"So are you telling me you might know a way to get inside?"

Epsilon asks and Jett nods.

"I-I think so…Well maybe anyway…"

Jett says hesitantly as Beta thinks over the situation.

"Well if that's the case.."

She points at Jett and Epsilon.

"You two will try and sneak in through a back entrance if Jett can find one,

and you will both be in charge of finding the princess."

She then puts her hand on Frost's shoulder.

"Frost and I will make our way through the front entrance to try and distract

as many guards as possible."

Frost nods with determination.

"Yeah that sounds good!"

He looked back at Jett and saw that he was still slightly anxious about this

whole ordeal, so he walked up to him and put both hands on his shoulders.

"Hey don't worry, we have Lady Beta and Lady Epsilon with us."

Frost smiles carefreely.

Jett sighs and chuckles at Frost's optimism.

"Y-yeah of course, this should be a piece of cake right?"

Frost nods happily and laughs.

"Haha yeah, just like eating a piece of cake!"

Jett laughs and shakes his head.

"Alright let's do this."

Beta smiles and nods at Epsilon as Epsilon takes Jett's arm and they both

speed off towards the base of the mountain.

"Okay, you ready Frost?"

Beta turns around to look at Frost and he nods as he pulls out his slime

sword.

"Yeah I'm ready, as long as I'm with you I know we can win."

Beta chuckles as she nods, summoning her own slime sword now as she

turns back towards the mountain.

"Then let's get ready to make an entrance."

Jett and Epsilon make their way up the side of the mountain, making sure

they were undetected every step of the way.

Jett then spots a familiar balcony.

"Oh up there!"

Epsilon nods as she see's where he's pointing and they both leap up towards

it.

"Yeah it's just like the outdoor area that we had whenever you wanted to eat

lunch in peace away from all the lab equipment and tests and whatnot."

Jett then slowly walks up to the keypad that was connected to an ironclad

door.

"Hmm, I don't think the password would be the same for a different base…"

He tried typing in their research bases past code but the keypad declared

that it was incorrect.

"Damn, I knew it wasn't likely but it sure would make things easier for us."

Epsilon looks at Jett curiously.

"Was that the password you used to use when you worked for the cult?"

Jett nodded.

"Yeah it was, but of course it was foolish of me to think that all bases would

use the same passwords for their doors."

He thinks to himself for a moment.

"I wonder…"

Jett says as he begins taking the keypad apart swiftly with a carefully

construed slime weapon.

Epsilon kneels down next to him as she watches him work on the keypad.

"What are you trying to do?"

Jett shrugs as he continues messing with the wires on the inside of the

keypad.

"To be honest, I'm not really sure. I remember a long time ago one of our

keypads broke, and we had one of our superior's come and fix it, but I sort of

forget how he did it, and which wires he put in place to make it work."

Epsilon nods softly as she watches him use his slime magic intricately on the

keypad.

He has better magic control than I realized…

She thought to herself as she watched Jett disconnect and reconnect

different wires.

Suddenly the keypad lost signal and went completely dark.

"Crap, I probably screwed it up."

Jett said in annoyance as Epsilon chuckled softly.

"Well it certainly looked like you knew what you were doing I'll give you that,

but don't worry about it, we can just go down again and join up with Beta

and Frost."

Jett nodded softly, but as he looked back at the keypad, something caught

his eye.

"Wait actually…"

He looked towards the top of the keypad where a few switches were now

highlighted in the dark.

"I think I remember how he did it back then."

Jett flipped a couple switches down and unconnected the wires from each

other. He then counted to ten in his head and reconnected two wires as he

flipped the switches back on.

Sure enough, the keypad turned back on and the door opened up for them

without a problem.

Epsilon clapped her hands enthusiastically.

"Oh my! That was quite an impressive performance!"

She smiled as Jett stood back up.

"Although I can't say that I'm surprised. Master Shadow himself saw the

potential in both of you, and had you join Shadow Garden even without

either one of you being possessed."

Jett nodded at Epsilon's words.

"Well I don't know what Master Shadow saw in us, but all I know is that Frost

and I are eternally grateful to Shadow Garden and we'll do whatever it takes

to help you guys out."

Epsilon nods happily as she walks past him towards the newly opened door.

"Oh that's wonderful to hear! I certainly wouldn't mind if you two stuck

around a little while longer."

She gestured for Jett to follow her and he nodded, bringing up his slime

sword as he followed Epsilon into the mountain.

"You should probably lead the way Jett, I don't know this place as well as you

do."

Jett nods as he moves in front of Epsilon.

"Yeah you're probably right, although I don't know if the layout here is the

same as the research base that Frost and I were from."

Jett walks towards the end of the hallway and looks around the corner to see

if there are any enemies.

Epsilon walks steadily behind him as she says in a low voice,

"Well if the layout was the same as your old base, where would the cult be

keeping Princess Rose?"

Jett thinks about this for a second before he turns around to face Epsilon.

"I have a feeling I know exactly where we'll end up finding the princess."

Epsilon smiles at him softly.

"Well don't be shy, lead the way."

Jett nods and begins walking towards the stairwell with Epsilon close

behind him.

Not long after however, an alarm starts blaring throughout the research

base.

"Looks like Beta and Frost are finally making their move."

Epsilon says as Jett looks back at her and nods.

"Alright, then let's go while they keep everyone distracted."

Frost and Beta charge towards the research base as they send guards flying

in all directions.

"The entrance doors should be right up ahead!"

Beta says to Frost and Frost nods.

"Got it! I'll break them open as soon as we get there."

Some of the guards right outside the entrance spotted them and sounded

the alarm from the outside quickly.

"I'll take care of the guards, you just work on getting those doors open."

Beta says calmly to Frost as she leaps ahead of him and uses her slime sword

to cut down the many guards in their way.

"There, that should be the last of them out here, how are we coming along-"

Beta turns around to face the entrance doors, and she sees that they are

completely destroyed.

"Wow, that was a lot faster than I…How did you do that so quickly?"

She asks Frost as he turns back to look at Beta.

"Oh I just froze them solid and then I hit them really hard like this:"

Frost punches the air in an attempt to show Beta how he did it.

He then glances down to the frozen bits of metal scattered along the floor

proudly, before he looks back at Beta nervously.

"O-oh unless you needed the doors intact for some reason…."

Beta smiles and shakes her head as she walks up to Frost.

"Oh no not at all, I was just surprised you got them open so quickly that's all."

Frost sighs feeling relieved.

"Oh good, so you don't mind if I break the second pair of doors up there?"

He points down the entrance hallway towards the second pair of doors that

led to the inside of the research base.

Beta chuckles and nods.

"Yeah break them open quickly, then try and give me some cover because I

imagine that we're gonna have some company on the other side of those

doors."

Frost nods as he and Beta walk up towards the second pair of doors.

"Alright got it, just tell me when."

Frost starts freezing the metal doors quickly and waits for Beta's order.

"Now!"

Beta yells, and Frost slams his fist into the doors, shattering them upon

impact.

As the doors shattered, all of the guards on the inside of the base started

charging at them all at once.

"Cover me!"

Beta jumps over Frost and pulls out her slime bow, while Frost blows some

ice out with his breath, effectively covering the entire ground in slippery ice

and causing all of the guards to slip and fall.

Beta takes this chance to shoot all of the armed guards with her bow as they

lay on the ground defenseless, and she does so with unbelievable precision

and accuracy.

All of the guards in Beta's immediate vicinity had their heads pierced by a

slime arrow, all before her feet had even landed on the ground in front of

them.

"That actually went surprisingly well-woahhh…woahhh!"

Beta slips a bit on the ice that Frost had covered the ground with, and he

rushes over to catch her before she slips and falls.

"Oh sorry! I-I should have realized that blowing slippery ice onto the ground

would hinder your movements too."

Beta feels her cheeks turn slightly pink as Frost catches her in his arms.

"N-no it's okay….I mean-"

She shakes her head softly as Frost lifts her back up onto her feet.

"You used your instincts and came to a solution that made it easier for us to

overcome our enemies, but knowing how your actions affect your allies is

equally important as well."

Beta says this as she tries to compose herself.

Frost nods as he listens intently to her.

"Yes of course, I need to learn how to fight with you as a team, I'm too used

to only fighting against you…"

Beta chuckles as she nods.

"And that's my fault as your instructor, I should've implemented more team

oriented drills into your training."

Frost quickly dissipates the ice that he put on the ground as Beta talks.

"Well maybe we can do some team oriented training with Jett and Epsilon

after we complete our assignment here, that would be super fun don't ya

think?"

Frost looks over at Beta as she nods.

"That would be quite helpful for both you and Jett in terms of your growth,

but I would have to talk to Eta about that since she's Jett's instructor."

Frost looks at her curiously.

"Oh but Jett always trains with Lady Epsilon, he only helps Lady Eta out with

her research."

Beta looks at Frost quickly as he says this.

"Wait, Eta isn't the one actually training him?"

Frost nods slowly.

"Yeah I think Jett always says that she'll just hand him off to Epsilon for his

physical training, why do you ask?"

Beta sighs as she puts her head into her hand in exasperation.

"That girl….She is so-"

Beta sighs again.

"The instructor is supposed to train their apprentice personally, but of course

anything that isn't research related is a total waste of time to her."

Frost chuckles nervously.

"Haha, y-yeah, I hear that from Jett a lot too…."

Beta puts her hand on her chin thoughtfully now.

"But it is curious as to why Epsilon decided to step up and train Jett

personally, she's usually not the type to want to train newcomers."

Frost now copies Beta and puts his hand on his chin too, pretending to think

like she does.

"I'm not sure really, but it sounds like they get along pretty well from what

Jett tells me."

Suddenly, an arrow is heard whistling through the air, and it was aimed right

at Frost's head.

This startles Beta as she got distracted talking to Frost.

"Oh Frost! Watch out!"

Frost immediately stopped the arrow with an ice wall right before it struck

him in the head, however he was not fazed in the slightest by this due to the

amount of times he had done so with Beta.

"Oh yeah, I forgot we needed to be causing a distraction…"

Frost says before he fires numerous icicles towards the oncoming enemies,

causing them to drop like flies.

Beta then sighs in relief as he turns back to face her.

"Nice reaction time Frost, I'm sorry for distracting you."

Frost smiles as he shakes his head.

"Oh no it's okay! I distracted myself! You have nothing to apologize for."

Beta chuckles softly as he says this.

Well at least he's honest…

She thinks before she brings out her slime sword again.

"Right, we need to take care of as many guards in this base as we can, that

way Jett and Epsilon will have less to worry about as they look for the

princess."

Frost nods in agreement.

"Got it! I'm ready."

He says with determination in his voice, and Beta then starts to move

quickly towards the stairs leading up to the next couple of floors.

"Good! Then stay close to me and don't let your guard down!"

As Frost and Beta continue their ascent upwards through the base, Jett

moves down the stairs quickly with Epsilon following close behind him.

"The cult is probably keeping Princess Rose in a secure location since they

know people are gonna start coming after her, meaning that they probably

placed her in one of the testing chambers."

Epsilon nods as she understands Jett's line of thinking.

"You're probably right about that, so what floor do you think she's being

kept on?"

Jett shrugs.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. However, I told you before that Frost was kept on the

20th floor, which was the last floor with any testing chambers in it."

Epsilon nods again.

"Meaning that we have to at least get to floor 20."

She says as she looks over at the floor number that they were on.

"12 more floors to go, then we'll be there."

Jett says as they continue moving downwards swiftly and quietly, making

sure to avoid all the scientists running around on all the floors.

Finally they ended up making it to the 21st floor, but there were no more

stairs leading downwards.

"Damn, I should've known that the only way to get down to the 20th floor

was through the elevator."

Jett turns the corner and looks across the room towards the elevator, but

quickly hides behind the wall again.

"What, what is it?"

Epsilon asks as Jett leans closer to her and whispers.

"It seems like this floor is heavily guarded, there's a lot of soldiers of the Cult

here, not to mention some huge guys that not even I've seen before…"

Epsilon looks at him not quite understanding.

"Hm? Huge guys?"

She looks around the corner carefully as she spots who he was talking about.

"Oh yeah, we call those temple guards."

"Temple guards?"

Jett asks Epsilon as she nods in response.

"Yup, they're usually the ones responsible for guarding underground

temple's that belong to the Cult of Diablos."

Jett nods as he listens to her.

"Oh I see that makes sense, but if we want to get to Princess Rose we're

gonna have to sneak past them somehow."

He points over to the elevator.

"I'm gonna have to open the elevator using the same magical frequencies

that are required to open it."

Epsilon looks back at him.

"Are you able to do that?"

Jett shrugs yet again.

"I'm not sure, but I have to try."

Epsilon nods softly as she walks out from behind the stairwell wall,

summoning her slime scythe.

"Very well then, looks like I'll have to buy you some time right?"

She winks at Jett playfully as some of the soldiers spot her.

"Hey! We've got an intruder over here!"

All of the soldiers turn around to face Epsilon, before she disappears from

their line of view.

"What the-"

One of the soldiers says before his torso gets torn in half by Epsilon's scythe.

"Oh my, you'll have to be quicker than that if you want to catch me~"

Epsilon smirks as she turns around and starts causing mayhem for the other

soldiers.

Jett stares at her in awe for a few seconds before he realizes that this is his

cover to get to the elevator.

He shakes his head and begins making his way over to the elevator, while all

of the soldier's attention is still on Epsilon.

Jett places his hand onto the magic stone right next to the elevator, but it

turns red as it doesn't recognize his magical frequency.

"Yeah yeah I know, it was worth a shot though."

He begins to use his slime magic as he puts many little threads of it through

the magic stone to see if he could automatically trigger it like he did the

keypad outside.

After a couple minutes of trying however, nothing seemed to work.

"Damn, what a bust."

Jett turns around and uses his slime magic to grab the ankles of a nearby

soldier, dragging him to the elevator and putting his hand up to the magic

stone.

"Ugh seriously?"

Once again, the stone turned red.

"You guys must not be ranked high enough in order to have clearance

downstairs…"

The soldier struggled against Jett's slime magic as he stared at him angrily.

"You'll never escape this place alive!"

Jett sighs as he tosses the soldier aside.

"Well I've already escaped from this place once."

He drives his slime sword through the soldier's neck and twists it quickly.

He looks over to where Epsilon is and it seems like she's absolutely

destroying the enemy ranks.

"Guess I shouldn't really be that surprised."

Jett says as he chuckles to himself softly.

"I need to find someone who's a high enough rank to open this door."

Jett looks around the room to see if he can spot a scientist or a researcher,

but there was absolutely nobody in the room besides the remaining soldiers

and temple guards still fighting Epsilon.

I might have to go up to the previous floors and kidnap one of the scientists

from up there.

Jett thinks to himself before he discards the idea.

No no, that would never work, that would alert even more people of our

presence, and what if the scientist I grabbed didn't have high enough

clearance? It's too risky…

As Jett was thinking through the very small amount of options he had, the

elevator doors suddenly opened.

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON UP HERE!?"

A cult soldier yells as he steps out from the elevator to inspect what was

making so much noise on the 21st floor.

As the soldier saw the many guards laying on the ground, bloodied and torn

apart, he realized that there were more intruders than the two that made

their way in through the entrance at the bottom of the base.

He quickly reached for the emergency alert on the inside of the elevator, but

noticed that he didn't have any fingers left to press the button. In fact, he

didn't have any hands attached to his body anymore.

The soldier looked down at the bloodied stumps where his hands should've

been in horror, before he spotted a brown haired boy leaning against the

back elevator wall.

"Thanks for your help, you certainly made my job a lot easier."

Before the soldier was even able to cry out in pain, Jett took his slime sword

and cut the soldier's head clean off his shoulders.

"I hope Epsilon will be okay by herself, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it

back up here…"

Jett says as the elevator doors start to close, and he glances out to watch

Epsilon continue to dismember the many guards coming her way.

"She'll be okay, there's no way she would lose to those guys, she's too

strong."

Jett says confidently as the elevator starts to descend back to the 20th floor.

"Alright, here goes nothing."

The elevator dings once it gets to the 20th floor and the doors open up to

reveal a multitude of scientists and guards running around in a panic.

Jett grabs his sword tightly prepared to fight, but to his surprise, nobody

even notices the fact that he has arrived onto the floor.

He steps out of the elevator calmly as he watches some of the lab

researchers run around frantically with some scattered papers and empty

vials.

Yeah I guess it makes sense why they're all so panicked. With Frost and

Beta causing a ruckus, I can only imagine the pressure everyone's under to

get their work finished and the last results in.

Jett moves stealthily off to the side of the elevator and accidentally bumps

into a guard standing nearby.

"Hey, do you have clearance to be up here?"

The guard asks as Jett turns to look at him quickly.

"Oh uhh.."

The guard glances down at the Shadow Garden bodysuit that Jett was

wearing.

"What division are you from? I don't recognize the uniform."

The guard points at Jett's suit.

"Division? I'm not from a division, I'm from a different research facility."

On a whim, Jett decides to engage with the enemy with words instead of

swords.

It would be bad if I caused a scene right now, I need to stick to the objective

and find Princess Rose.

"Oh yeah? What's your facility's serial code?"

The guard asks Jett as he responds.

"Our code was 2589."

"Oh I see, wait wasn't that the research facility that was completely

obliterated recently?"

Jett nods.

"Yeah that would be the one, why do you think they transferred me here?"

The guard nods slowly, understanding Jett's situation.

"I gotcha, although it's too bad you couldn't have been transferred here

before things started going to shit."

"What do you mean?"

Jett asks as the guard looks at him oddly and gestures to the hundreds of

workers running around the floor frantically.

"O-oh yes of course.."

Jett said as he looked around the floor.

He realized that the 20th floor in this research facility was vastly different

from the one that he and Frost were used to. This floor was much larger,

with a multitude of test chambers similar to the lower floors of Jett's

previous research base.

"Actually I was sent here in regards to the newly captured target, I was

tasked with protecting her from any intruders coming in, but well you see

I'm not used to the layout of this facility and I got a bit lost."

If I play my cards right, I can find out where the princess is currently being

kept.

The guard laughed as he shook his head.

"Ah no worries, you're talking about the princess aren't you?"

Jett nods his head.

"Yes precisely, is she on this floor?"

The guard looks around slowly before he whispers to Jett.

"She's currently being held in an undisclosed location, the boss wants to

keep it that way for confidentiality reasons."

Jett sighs as he nods.

"Oh of course, I'll keep asking around then…"

The guard grabs his shoulder before he can walk away.

"Well, that's what I'm supposed to say anyway, but I happened to see her

being taken back through that hallway right over there."

The guard points towards the far end of the floor and gestures towards the

right side where the hallway was located.

"Normally I wouldn't leak information like this, but I'm sure having your

entire research facility destroyed would be so damn annoying.."

Jett nods as he pretends to groan in annoyance.

"Oh you have no idea…"

The soldier shakes his head as he pats Jett on the back a little aggressively.

"Yeah if anyone did that to this research base I'd be losing my damn mind,

plus I know you're not an intruder since you gave me a valid serial code. Just

don't tell anyone that you got the information from me, yeah?"

Jett nods as he pats the soldier on the back in return.

"Yeah of course, I really appreciate it man."

He waves to the guard as he makes his way across the floor towards the

hallway, acting as natural as he could in order to avoid any further

questioning.

Thankfully however, he made it to the hallway without any trouble due to all

the pandemonium in the air around him.

Jett walked down the hallway and was about to turn the corner to his right

before he heard a couple of guards talking on the other side.

"What do you think they're gonna do to her?"

One guard said to the other, as they both stood idly by a sealed door.

"How should I know? The only thing I've been told is that she's important to

the cult due to her royal blood or whatever."

Jett listens to this conversation with his interest piqued.

"Yeah I heard the same thing, I heard that the cult was planning on taking all

the royals in the country and using their blood to summon the demon

Diablos again."

The other guard laughed as he heard this.

"Don't be stupid, there are plenty of royals who are a part of the Cult of

Diablos themselves, and they would never agree to that."

"Well what do you think the blood is gonna be used for?"

The guard thinks as he's asked this.

"Like I said, I don't know anything. But if I had to guess, it probably has

something to do with the magic in their blood. Maybe it's special in some

way and the cult wants to harness it."

"Ohhh yeah that does sound like something the cult would do."

Jett listens some more before he shakes his head and slaps his cheeks

gently to reinvigorate himself.

We don't have much time left, I don't have the luxury to sit here and wonder

why the cult took her.

Jett turns the corner slowly and gets a good glimpse of the two guards as

well as the ironclad vault door that they were protecting.

Princess Rose is definitely being held here there's no doubt about it.

Jett thinks as he tries to devise a way to get inside without alerting any more

guards.

"Oh hey excuse me."

Jett says as he walks up to the two guards.

"I apologize for how late I am, but I'm here."

He attempts to bluff his way through the guards.

"Hey hey, that's close enough."

The two guards place their hands on the hilt of their swords.

"What exactly can we help you with? This area is off limits."

Jett shakes his head as he gestures to the vault behind them.

"I was sent here in order to provide some additional security to Princess

Rose, I got a bit lost on my way here that's why I'm late."

The two guards looked at each other as Jett said this.

"Well it is odd that you knew that she was being held here…But we can't

allow anyone inside, bosses orders."

Jett looks at the two of them curiously.

"Is the boss inside? Ask him to come out, he'll know me."

All I need is an instant where the door is open, even if it's just a crack.

The guards shook their heads.

"No, he's currently dealing with all the commotion downstairs."

Crap, that means that Beta and Frost have to deal with him.

"But don't worry about it, we have plenty of security on the inside already,

having one more soldier in there is not going to make much of a difference."

The guard on the left said to try and reassure Jett that his services weren't

necessary.

"If you really wanna make a difference and protect the princess, you should

probably stop the intruders from coming up any further. That would be the

best way to protect her for now."

Jett nods softly as he thinks hurriedly.

Damn they're not budging! I could just kill them but the door would remain

locked. On top of that, I don't see a keypad or anything else for that matter

that would even open the door in the first place!

Jett fumes silently as he smiles at the guards.

"Oh alright then, as long as I tell the boss that I tried to get in, it'll be your

heads on the chopping block, not mine."

He turned and started to walk away before the guard on the right called out

to him.

"Wait…just hold on a sec, alright?"

Jett grins to himself as he turns back to face them.

"No really it's fine, as long as you two are doing your jobs then there's

nothing that can be done right?"

The two guards started to look physically uncomfortable as they thought

about the consequences of the boss's wrath.

Jett waited patiently for the guards to make up their minds and come to a

decision, but just before they did, a loud explosion was heard right outside of

the hallway.

"What the hell…"

One of the guards said under their breath as Jett put his hands up towards

them.

"You guys stay here, I'll go check it out."

Jett then proceeded to walk back through the hallway, only to discover that

the stairs leading to the lower levels had been completely obliterated, with

giant ice spikes protruding from where they were.

He then saw snow and bits of ice flurries blow around the room and he

immediately knew who was behind this.

"Frost!"

Jett called out through the wind that was whipping around on the entire

floor.

As Jett called out his name, the winds died down immediately and Frost

tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

"Oh hey Jett, I was just looking for you."

Jett jumps back slightly startled by Frost's action.

"Geez, don't scare me like that. How did you make it up here so quickly?"

Frost laughs a bit.

"Oh Beta is currently holding off some of the soldiers that are downstairs.

One of them seems pretty strong so she told me to go on ahead and she

would catch up later."

That's probably the boss that the two guards mentioned earlier.

Jett thinks as he smiles at Frost.

"Well you got here just in time! I found the princess."

Frost's eyes light up.

"Ah! You did?!"

He says excitedly as he stabs a soldier coming at him from behind with his

slime sword.

Jett nods.

"Yeah I did, she's right through this hallway over here."

Jett leads Frost to the two guards that are stationed in front of the giant

metal vault.

"She's right behind this door, isn't that right guys?"

Jett looks at the soldiers as they draw their blades.

"W-who is this guy? Who are you people!?"

One of the soldiers shouted as Jett walked up to them calmly.

"Is there a way to open this vault? Or are we gonna have to break through?"

Jett asks the soldiers before one of them charges straight at him.

"YOU TRAITOR!"

Jett uses his slime magic to rip the sword out of the soldier's hands and

press it against his throat in an instant.

"I asked if there was a way to open it."

He said coldly, watching the anger in the soldier's eyes get replaced with

fear.

"I-I don't know…"

The guard began to say before Frost cut him off.

"Oh I can open this door easily, just hold on, I gotta freeze it first."

Frost walked up to the door before the other guard tried to stop him.

"Hey, don't you even-"

Frost killed him without so much as a second thought.

"Okay, you ready Jett?"

Jett nodded, discarding the other soldier's blade and summoning his own

slime sword.

"Yeah, let's get this princess and get outta here already."

Frost nods in return, freezing the vault door solid before taking his slime

sword and cutting the door to pieces like it was made out of paper.

The vault door crumbled in front of them, and the two boys walked into the

secure room that was holding Princess Rose and looked around in

amazement.

"Oh wow, this place is way bigger than I thought it would be."

Frost says as they look at all of the heavy machinery and lab equipment all

over the place.

"Yeah I know right? It's like it's an entirely different floor altogether."

Jett responds as he uses his slime magic to grab the closest scientist he

could find.

"Excuse me, sorry to barge in like this, but could you direct us to where

Princess Rose is currently being held?"

The scientist looked at Jett in surprise and shock as he struggled against the

slime that was holding him still, but to no avail.

"INTRUDERS! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!"

The scientist shouted before his mouth got covered by Jett's slime.

"Oh no that's actually not what I asked, I asked for the whereabouts of

Princess Rose."

Frost jumped ahead of Jett as a multitude of soldiers and temple guards

rushed towards them.

"You interrogate him and I'll deal with everyone else."

He said to Jett as he covered the floor with ice just like he did downstairs,

causing all the soldiers to slip and fall with some of them being so surprised

they even lost hold of their weapons.

Jett then turns back to the scientist and smiles softly as Frost leaps away

from him to kill the rest of the soldiers in the room.

"Please don't make this difficult, if you do I'll kill you."

Jett says with a straight face, causing the scientist to become even more

panicked and struggle even more.

"Just tell me where the princess is okay?"

Jett removes the slime from the scientist's mouth and waits for him to start

talking.

The scientist instead just starts coughing and smiles at Jett with a sinister

grin.

"Y-you're too late, you'll never find her, and we've already begun our

operation-"

"Hey Jett! I found the princess!"

Frost calls out to Jett from across the room as he holds one of the guards'

severed heads in his hands.

"She's in this room here! And she doesn't look too good so we gotta hurry!"

Jett gives a slight nod to Frost as he tosses the scientist aside.

"Perfect, grab her and let's get out of here!"

Frost nods as he goes into the testing chamber holding the princess captive.

Princess Rose was completely unconscious and was laid out on a table with

metal restraints holding down her legs and arms.

Frost notices multiple dark red veins spread all throughout Rose's body, and

he put his hand on her heart to see if she was still alive, and he nodded softly

as he felt her heart beat ever so slightly.

"Good, she's still alive."

Frost then freezes all the metal restraints and rips them off of Princess Rose.

He proceeded to lift her up in his arms and walk out of the testing chamber,

only to see Jett struggling to make his way over to him.

"Hm? What's wrong?"

Frost asks before he looks down at Jett's feet slipping all over the floor and

he laughs out loud.

"Hahahaha, oh yeah I forgot I put all that ice down on the floor."

Jett struggled to stand upright.

"Man, how do you…..Walk on this stuff….Woah!"

Jett slips and falls onto his butt as Frost laughs at him again.

"Hahaha, well you always told me how you wanted to try ice skating right?

Also how do you think we should get Princess Rose out of here? She looks

like she's in pretty rough shape."

Jett stands up to look at the princess and his eyes light up in shock.

"That's…She looks just like the test subjects did when they began losing their

sanity…"

Frost looks back at Jett quickly with concern in his eyes.

"Wait, are you serious? Then we gotta get her back to Shadow Garden like

right now!"

Jett nods in agreement.

"Yeah you're definitely right about that, do you think you're able to break one

of these walls by freezing them?"

Frost nods.

"Yeah of course I can, but I can't do it while holding the princess."

He hands off Princess Rose to Jett, who has moved off of the icy parts of the

floor entirely now.

"Okay, give me a second because we might be deep in the mountain, so it

might take more time for me to freeze it over."

Frost begins to freeze the wall with both his hands as Jett watches from the

sidelines.

Suddenly, multiple guards run into the room with their swords drawn.

"Hey! They've got the princess!"

Jett turns around quickly with the princess still in his arms, and leaps out of

the way of the many blades swinging in his direction.

Shit, talk about bad timing.

"Hey Frost! I hope you work better under pressure cause we have company!"

Frost takes one of his hands off the wall and fires a blast of cold wind and ice

towards the incoming enemies, sending them hurling back.

"Just give me a few more seconds…"

Frost turned his attention back to the wall in front of him now as Jett set

Princess Rose down behind him.

"Alright I can make that work."

He drew his slime sword as he prepared to face the remaining soldiers that

were attacking him.

Jett swung his blade hard against his opponents swords, causing them to

stumble backwards.

He stood his ground as he sent out a multitude of slime tentacles to try and

pierce the enemy soldiers.

This forced the soldiers to retreat slightly as they used their magic to slice

the slime tentacles to bits.

"Those tricks aren't gonna work on us!"

Jett smirked as he threw his sword right at one of the soldiers, causing them

to lose their balance and fall backwards in order to avoid the incoming

blade.

The remaining couple of soldiers saw this as their opportunity to overpower

Jett now that he had discarded his weapon, and they all charged him at

once, raising their blades as they did so.

Jett then stepped back in order to get a better angle on his opponents, and

he created a second slime blade that he swung right down across his

enemies legs, slicing all of them off at the knees.

The soldiers all fell down and cried out in pain before Jett finished them off

to avoid too much noise being made.

"You bastard.."

The soldier who fell down due to Jett's previous attack got back on his feet

and started charging straight towards him yet again.

Jett smiled at him unconcernedly, as he snapped his fingers, the slime sword

that he threw previously came shooting back towards him from off the

ground, and cut the soldier's head clean off his body.

Jett proceeded to catch the slime sword in his hands as if it were a

boomerang, before Frost called out to him.

"Alright it's done!"

Frost said as he took both his hands and created a giant icicle that he used

to break apart the frozen wall, causing the whole mountain to shake

violently with the wall beginning to collapse in on itself.

However, Frost didn't realize that the damage done to the wall was so severe

that the very foundation of the room was starting to give way, and rubble

was falling down all around them now.

The ceiling started caving in slowly, and the large machinery in the room

was getting crushed and destroyed by all the falling rocks, with some of the

rocks about to fall right onto where Princess Rose was lying.

"Oh shoot!"

Frost cried out as he jumped over top of the princess and created an ice

covering that shielded them from the falling debris.

Jett rushed over to where Frost was currently protecting Princess Rose.

"Frost! Are you okay?"

Frost nods as he looks at Jett.

"Yeah I'm fine, just take the princess and get outta here quick!"

Jett nods as he bends down to scoop the princess up in his arms.

"What about you? Will you be okay?"

Jett asks Frost with concern in his voice, but Frost smiles softly and nods his

head.

"Yeah I'll be fine! I'm gonna head back to help out Beta and Lady Epsilon,

and then we'll meet you back at Shadow Garden!"

Frost shouted to Jett as the noise of the collapsing room continued to get

louder.

Jett simply nodded at Frost's explanation as he took the princess in his arms

and ran towards the gaping hole in the wall, avoiding the rest of the falling

rubble and machinery coming down around him.

Finally, he jumped out from the side of the mountain, and dashed off into

the night at full speed.

Frost sighs in relief as he watches their mission objective turn out to be a

success, but he shakes his head quickly as he knew he also had to get out of

there.

Frost then ran out of the room towards where the vault door used to be as

he used his slime sword to cut through any falling rocks that blocked his

path, until finally he made his way out of the room.

He turned around to watch the entire room crumble and collapse in on itself

in a matter of seconds.

That was pretty close.

Frost thought before he started making his way out of the hallway and

towards the other floors.

But now I gotta make sure that Beta and Epsilon get out of here!

The sun had already fully set as Cid looked out through the school's

windows.

He continued to watch as Sherry used the tools that he brought her to the

best of her ability, so that she could create the control device to the Eye of

Avarice.

Sherry finally finished tinkering with the wires and circuitry strewn out

across the table.

She took a light metal rod and tapped it gently against the two sides of a

magic crystal, causing a light ringing sound to echo throughout the office.

"Please work, please work, please work…."

Sherry whispered under her breath right before a bright light emerged from

the crystal, causing the circuitry to fire up and begin sparking the device

that she put into the middle of all the wires and magic crystals.

Finally, the red gemstone in the middle of the device sparkled brightly and

Sherry's face lit up with joy.

"Ah! It worked!"

She exclaimed happily as she picked up the device in her hands.

Cid looked down at the device that now laid in Sherry's hands.

"Impressive, I'm surprised you were able to make it work as fast as you did."

Sherry nods enthusiastically.

"Now we have a way to shut off the Eye of Avarice! But in order to do that we

have to get this control device close enough to the artifact for it to actually

take effect."

Cid looks at her curiously.

"Oh? How close?"

Sherry shrugs.

"Perhaps within 5 to 8 meters would do, it just needs to get close enough for

a single second, then it'll absorb all the magic in the air that has been

blocking everybody's magical frequencies at the school."

Cid nods softly.

"Oh I see, then that means we should probably make our way to the

auditorium as soon as we can. From the sounds of things, the artifact is

probably being held there along with all the rest of the students."

Sherry nods as she stands up with the control device and walks over towards

the nearby bookshelf.

"Yeah you're right, and I think I know a way we can get there without being

seen on the way."

Cid watches her mess around with some of the books on the shelf with

interest.

"My father told me that the school has a series of hidden passages, and that

he has one in his office for emergencies…"

Cid's eyes light up as he hears this.

"Secret passages huh? That's quite interesting…"

Sherry nods excitedly.

"Yeah I know right?! But I don't exactly know where it is, or how to open it

either…"

As Sherry says this, she puts her hand against one of the books and leans

against the bookcase as she sighs in defeat.

Suddenly, the book she was leaning on pushes back into the wall, and the

bookshelf moves itself out of the way revealing a secret tunnel leading out of

the assistant principal's office.

"Oh! I found it!"

Sherry says excitedly to Cid.

Cid nods as he walks up next to Sherry, grabbing a lantern off the assistant

principal's desk.

"You certainly did Sherry, nice work."

He lights the lantern as he hands it off to Sherry.

"Here, you might need this in order to get to the auditorium."

Sherry takes the lantern as she looks at Cid curiously.

"Are you not coming with me Cid?"

Sherry looked at Cid with sad eyes as he shook his head.

"No sorry, there's something else I need to do first."

Sherry sighs softly.

"Oh…I see."

Cid smiles at her, while giving her an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"But I know you'll be able to pull it off! Now it's up to you to save the school

Sherry!"

Cid says confidently, leaving Sherry to feel a bit more confident in herself.

"Y-yeah, of course! Don't you worry Cid, I'll make sure I don't fail!"

Sherry says this as she takes off down the dark secret tunnels, with her

lantern in one hand and the magic control device in the other.

Cid watches her leave before he turns back towards the office doors.

"I think it's about time I made my opening entrance now…."

Cid says to himself as he opens the office doors and disappears off into the

night.

Sherry continued making her way through the secret tunnels that ran deep

throughout the school grounds, determined to make it to the auditorium

and save everyone.

I'm sure that it's just up ahead…

Sherry thinks to herself as she grips the control device in her hands firmly.

Finally, she was able to stumble into the auditorium, as the secret passage

led to the second floor in a dimly lit corner so none of the guards would spot

her.

Finally! Now I just need to find where the Eye of Avarice is being held…

Sherry thinks as she crouches down behind the second floor balcony and

looks around the auditorium.

She notices that all of the students are being held in the middle of the

auditorium with lots of guards around them.

Oh my, this is terrible…But I don't see where the Eye of Avarice could be-

Suddenly Sherry spotted a man covered in heavy armor, the eyes in his

helmet glowing red as he walked in with a red cape flowing behind him.

However the thing that caught her attention the most was the fact that he

was carrying the Eye of Avarice in his left hand.

There it is!

Sherry perks up immediately as she sees what he's holding.

"I just gotta throw the control device towards the Eye of Avarice and it

should counteract its effects…"

Sherry begins to throw it but then stops herself.

"Oh but if I throw it and it shatters on the ground that wouldn't be good…"

Sherry thinks about what she should do in order to get the control device

closer to the Eye of Avarice without it breaking and without her getting

spotted.

As she was thinking about this, a guard suddenly spots her as he was

patrolling and calls out to her.

"Hey! What are you doing up here? Get back downstairs with the others!"

This sudden command from behind startled Sherry and she stumbled

backwards towards the edge of the balcony and bumped into the railing,

causing the control device in her hands to slip and fall.

"Oh no!"

Sherry cries out as she watches the device fall to the ground.

That's not close enough! It's not gonna work!

Sherry shuts her eyes tight as she tries not to cry.

I'm sorry father, I failed you!

She waits to hear the sound of the control device she worked so hard on

break, but for some reason there's no sound coming from down below.

"W-what.."

Sherry looks down slowly to see where the control device went, and she

spots someone mysterious looking who seems to have caught the device in

their hands.

"H-hey wait a minute… that's…"

She begins to say as the guard who was behind her glances down at what

she's looking at and steps back in fear.

"Wait, HE'S here!?"

The guard cries out as he looks down at the man standing in an all black

flowing robe, the collar of his outfit waving slightly back and forth.

"The time is nigh…"

The man mysteriously says and he moves quickly right up to the boss and

grabs the Eye of Avarice from his hands before he even has time to react.

As he does this, the magic barrier surrounding the school gets taken down

immediately, due to the Eye of Avarice and the control device finally being

close enough together.

The commander scoffs as he takes a step back from the mysterious man in

front of him and grabs his sword.

"You….you are-"

He begins to say before the mysterious man raises up his slime sword.

"We are…Shadow Garden."

His voice reverberates throughout the auditorium, and suddenly the

windows up above, along with the glass ceiling, shatter as many members of

Shadow Garden come flooding inside with their faces completely covered by

the hoods of their robes.

"We are Shadow Garden."

The members repeat after him as he slowly lowers his sword to face the

many guards.

As his blade lowers all the way, the Shadow Garden members draw their

swords and dash towards the remaining guards, fighting and cutting down

everyone in their way.

The commander growls as he pulls out his sword and yells.

"KILL THEM ALL!"

As the other guards hear this, they run down to the center of the room and

begin a huge clash with the Shadow Garden members.

As sparks flew from the many swords slamming into one another, the

students suddenly realized that they were finally able to use magic again.

"Hey everyone! We have magic again! Everyone get a sword and start

fighting!"

Somebody shouted from the crowd, and now all of the students stood up

and started fighting the members of the cult alongside Shadow Garden

forces.

The commander growled in frustration at the sight of his men being

completely overwhelmed in both skill and numbers, he then laid eyes upon

the man responsible for all of his misfortune.

"Shadow…"

The commander whispers angrily as he takes his longsword in one hand and

in a burst of energy, dashes over towards his position in an attempt to finish

him off in a single head-slicing blow.

Shadow turned to face him with ease as he saw the attack coming from a

mile away, however something unexpected happened before their blades

could even touch.

The commander was sent flying backwards as an attack landed straight into

his helmet and caused him to lose his footing as well as his momentum.

"What the-"

The commander looked up to see Grimm standing before him, clutching his

side and breathing heavily, with his leg still up in the air from his

devastatingly powerful kick.

"You! You should be dead!"

The commander called out angrily to Grimm as Grimm stared back equally

as angrily.

"It'll take a lot more than that to kill me."

He lowers his leg and enters a fighting stance, even with his sword shattered

and the fresh wounds still on his body, Grimm was still confident in his

abilities to fight.

The commander scoffed as he entered a fighting stance too, but one look at

Shadow and he knew it would be over if he so much as made one wrong

move.

"Tch.."

He backed away from both Shadow and Grimm, turning towards the back

exit of the auditorium in order to make a quick escape.

Grimm saw this and he moved quickly in order to block the commander's

path.

"Oh no, I'm not letting you out of this one, I'm getting back Princess Rose

even if it kills me."

Shadow overhears Grimm say this and he ponders to himself.

Princess Rose huh? Ah, so he's the bodyguard then….

He remembered the order he gave to Nu previously regarding the princess.

He might be useful later.

As Shadow contemplates the situation, the commander scowls at Grimm as

he points his sword in his direction.

"Move, or your next breath will be your last."

Grimm stared daggers into him as he gritted his teeth and stood his ground.

"Ha! Fine then…"

The commander raised up his longsword and swung down hard towards

Grimm, but now it was Shadow who was the one to intervene.

"The time for play has come to pass, let us finish this…"

Shadow says mysteriously as he glances back at Grimm.

"Go, take the students out and save yourselves, before it is too late."

Grimm wasn't one to take orders on a whim, but in this moment he knew

not to question the mysterious man and he nodded swiftly, running off to

help the other students.

"Everyone! Get out of the auditorium now!"

Grimm shouted as he fought off many of the guards with his bare hands.

Many of the students saw this outburst in attack power and speed and it left

them stunned for a few seconds.

"Leave now!"

Grimm shouts again to snap them out of it, and all of the students start

quickly making their way towards the auditorium doors.

Shadow continues to exchange blows with the commander as the students

make their way out of the auditorium, and the commander yells angrily as

he shoves Shadow backwards with the edge of his sword.

"Damn you….Why are you interfering in matters such as this? In some old

school….This does not concern the likes of Shadow Garden."

Shadow stands there silently, his sword in one hand as the breeze blows

through the open doors towards his backside.

"And what should concern us?"

Shadow's voice echoes throughout the now empty room as the two stand in

confrontation.

The commander scoffs as he lowers his sword and starts coughing violently

again.

"I can tell you are a master swordsman, just like I used to be. Back when I

was young there was nobody better with a sword than I was."

The commander coughs again.

"I would still be a member of the 12 rounds if it weren't for this dreaded

illness…You may think you are special now Shadow but believe me you are

not, time comes for us all."

The commander slowly removes his helmet, revealing the face of an old man

far past his prime.

Shadow's eyes widened in surprise.

"You are-"

The commander chuckled.

"Yes, I am Lutheran Barnett, the assistant principal at this god forsaken

school."

Shadow seemed intrigued by this information.

"Your plans amuse me, but to what end are you willing to go for them?"

Lutheran laughed at Shadow's question.

"Oh please, the students here don't matter in the least and you know it! It is

only the truly strong that matter in this world, and once you are passed your

usefulness, you are tossed aside. It's as simple as that."

Shadow narrows his eyes slightly at these words.

"And what of your daughter?"

Lutheran laughs.

"Oh Sherry? She is not even my biological daughter, I only keep her around

because her genius far surpasses anything I have ever witnessed before in

all my years. But even she was not able to make a cure for this sickness of

mine…How utterly useless."

Lutheran continues speaking.

"Her mother was the same way, a genius in science, one that I worked

closely with, but as soon as we made any progress whatsoever…"

He clenched his fists angrily.

"She wanted to lock it away, fearing that the information might fall into the

wrong hands. So I killed her."

Shadow remains silent at this revelation.

"Weaklings with no aspirations of the future are not needed in this world…."

Lutheran states as he raises up his sword to face Shadow once again.

"I will paint this room with your blood."

He says to Shadow as he grins menacingly.

Shadow holds up his own sword in turn.

"You may try…"

Lutheran grins as he gets out a bottle of dark red beans.

"I am prepared to risk everything to gain that which I have lost…"

He pops open the bottle and throws all of the beans into his mouth in one

motion, and devours them swiftly.

Suddenly, the room itself started to shake as the old man that was once

standing in front of Shadow now became nothing short of a beast, with

piercing bloodshot eyes, and a body that grew exponentially so that it

shattered the armor he once had on.

Shadow watched as Lutheran transformed into this unholy beast, which

made the previously giant longsword he was holding seem like nothing but

a toy in comparison.

"Relying on borrowed power is not a mark of the strong."

Shadow said calmly as Lutheran gripped his sword tightly and swung it in

Shadow's direction.

Shadow set his feet firmly on the ground as he parried and maneuvered

around Lutheran's savage attacks that had far more power than they did

before.

Every strike between their blade's sent a shockwave of power throughout

the auditorium with sparks flying in all directions.

All of the students finally made their way out of the auditorium and off of

school grounds as the Crimson Order began tending to all of the wounded,

with Princess Iris at the forefront of the commotion.

Her sister Princess Alexia was also standing by and attending to the other

students as they came flocking out of the school.

"Hey Alexia!"

A familiar voice called out to her, and Alexia perked up as she heard it.

"Ah Liam! Perfect timing, we just got a ton of students all coming out of the

auditorium!"

Liam nods in understanding.

"Oh I see, then that means somebody stepped in and freed the hostages

then?"

Alexia nods.

"Yes but, I'm not exactly sure who's to blame for all the commotion."

Liam sighs softly.

"Well I'm just glad that you didn't get caught up in all of this, it was really

fortunate that we ended up being one sword short for sparring today."

Alexia nods.

"Yeah tell me about it, what are the odds that the same day I have to go back

to my residence to grab my own sword for sparring, the school gets attacked

by terrorists."

Liam nods as he helps her wrap bandages around some of the injured

students.

"Yeah but I would've protected you either way you know that."

Alexia scoffs softly, feeling a slight blush on her cheeks.

"W-well I don't need protection, and you know that too."

Liam chuckles as he nods.

"Fair enough, can't argue with that."

Suddenly, a beastkin boy comes running out from the auditorium, with

many of the terrorists fighting him all at once.

Grimm kills them all barehanded, and as he finishes off the last one, Princess

Iris runs up to him along with several members of the Crimson Order.

"Hey, what's going on in there?"

Iris asks Grimm quickly.

"Are there any more hostages inside?"

Grimm shakes his head lightly.

"No, everyone's evacuated from the auditorium, but right now the leader of

Shadow Garden is fighting off the leader of the terrorist group in there."

Iris looked at him in confusion.

"My sources reported that Shadow Garden was the sole organization

responsible for the terrorist attack. They said that the terrorists announced

that they were affiliated with Shadow Garden."

Grimm nods.

"Yes you're right they did, but I think they did that purposefully so that the

blame wouldn't fall back on them. The true Shadow Garden organization

just recently showed up to fight on our behalf."

Iris nods slowly, she was skeptical of this new information, but she knew that

Grimm was a reliable source of intel given that he was Rose Oriana's

bodyguard.

"I see, and what makes you believe that the organization that showed up

was the real Shadow Garden?"

Grimm wipes some of the blood off of his body and hands absentmindedly.

"Well, I've heard rumors about the man known as Shadow throughout the

kingdom, and I heard he was strong but I figured I would be able to hold my

own against him if I needed to."

Grimm shook his head lightly as he breathed deeply.

"I exchanged blows with the leader of the terrorist group, and I lost because

he was very strong. But the man known as Shadow... One look and I knew

that there would be no point in even trying to fight him."

At this revelation, Iris seemed to be completely caught off guard.

"Is that so? You really wouldn't even stand a chance?"

Grimm nods.

"I can tell, he's much stronger than anyone I've ever encountered, it's

possible he surpasses even you, Princess Iris."

She seemed stunned, at a loss for words, but she shook her head to re-focus

herself.

"W-well in any case, you're badly wounded, please let the Crimson Order

treat your-"

"No! There's no time!"

Suddenly Grimm shakes his head as he shouts.

"Princess Rose has been captured and I must get her back!"

"Princess Rose…. Was captured?"

Iris spoke in a completely bewildered tone of voice.

"Yes, and I intend to get her back…"

Grimm says as he begins walking back into the auditorium.

"W-wait just a moment!"

Iris reaches out to grab his arm.

"You're already injured, please show some restraint and allow us to-"

"I WILL NOT!"

Grimm shouted fiercely.

"I'm going to get her location out of the terrorist leader, I'll torture him if I

have to-"

Before he was able to finish, a sudden burst of energy from within the

auditorium sent both him and Princess Iris flying backwards, causing

massive damage to the auditorium's infrastructure as well.

"What the hell-"

Princess Iris says as she glances in to see what was going on.

Shadow and Lutheran were exchanging blows so fast that it was extremely

hard for Princess Iris to see what was even going on, and for the average

citizen it would look like nothing more than a flurry of movements that are

indistinguishable from each other.

Lutheran kept slamming his sword into Shadow's blade in the attempts that

he could shatter it and kill him, but Shadow's sword seemed to be far more

capable of taking damage than he initially thought.

Finally Shadow pushes Lutheran back with his own blade causing him to

stumble and lose his balance momentarily.

"Enough with this, if you want to discover true strength then so be it…"

As Shadow says this, he raises up his sword towards the sky, and suddenly

the entire auditorium rumbles.

"What in the-"

Lutheran says as he looks around to see a deep purple color covering the

entire area, with tiny strings of magic circulating throughout the auditorium.

On the outside of the auditorium, Grimm and Iris watched as the purple

colored magic area stopped right at the door and proceeded to cover only

the entire auditorium with not even a centimeter of space to spare.

They watched in awe as the magic area that Shadow had cast lit up the

newly found night sky with ease.

The small magic strings circled around Shadow's sword that was still

pointing directly towards the sky, becoming brighter and brighter as they

collided against each other, building up an immense amount of magic

power that Shadow could use in an instant at the drop of his sword.

Lutheran looked at him in awe as he had never seen magic power quite like

this in all his years

"What is this…. Who are you?"

Shadow smirked from underneath his hood that covered his face entirely,

showing nothing but black to his opponents.

"You claim that you have seen the pinnacle of strength, but I am here to

show you what true power is."

Shadow's voice boomed across the school and into the night, and the magic

circle became even brighter as he uttered his next words.

"I…..Am…"

Shadow moved his sword quickly through the air, his eyes glowing an

immense and deep purple as he cut the air in two with the drop of his

sword.

𝓐𝓽𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓬

As soon as Shadow uttered that word, the auditorium shook heavily, and a

surge in magical power reached its maximum, causing the purple domain to

collapse in on itself before exploding into a vicious display of power.

Iris and Grimm both leapt backwards quickly as they felt this strong surge in

magic, and they watched as the entire auditorium got eviscerated by

Shadow's magic power, with a shockwave being sent throughout the school

causing the wind to circle around violently, whipping through everyone's

hair.

The explosion created a bright purple light that lit up the night sky entirely,

causing everyone to cover their eyes from the intense brightness of it all.

Princess Iris was the first one to recover as she glanced back at the

auditorium to see that it was completely destroyed with the exception of

certain parts of its foundation.

She then noticed an individual in the middle of the auditorium who seemed

to be lying on his back, completely out cold, and she called out to her men.

"Move in! Make sure that all the targets are captured!"

The Crimson Order did as they were instructed and they ran in to check out

the remains of the auditorium, but they were only able to find the dried up

corpse of the terrorist leader still holding onto his sword.

Iris then turned to face Grimm to make sure he was alright, but to her

surprise he was nowhere to be found.

"That's odd, where did Grimm run off to?"

She looked around curiously, but her search was cut short by her soldiers

calling out to her for assistance pertaining to the individual found in the

auditorium, so she walked over towards them in order to assess the situation

calmly.

Grimm however, was the opposite of calm due to the situation he was in.

"Shadow!? What are you doing!? What's going on!?"

Grimm shouted at Shadow as he was currently flying across acres of open

land with Grimm being dragged along for the ride. Grimm looked down at

the ground and his face went slightly pale as he saw how high up he was.

Shadow held onto Grimm tightly with his free hand as they continued to

glide across the air.

"You claimed to know of Princess Rose did you not?"

Shadow called out to Grimm.

"Y-yes! Do you know where Princess Rose is?"

Shadow doesn't respond to this immediately.

Actually I have no idea where she is, but hopefully Nu was successful in the

task that I gave to her.

"If you wish to see the princess alive and well, you will come with me."

Shadow replied cryptically towards Grimm, and the two of them remained

silent until they had made their arrival at Shadow Garden headquarters.

Princess Rose was laid in the infirmary as Alpha and Eta looked over her

well-being, ensuring that she didn't die to whatever experimentation was

done to her by the Cult of Diablos.

"So, how's she doing? Do you know what's causing this?"

Jett asks Eta as he himself had seen this exact illness occur many times

among the cult's test subjects, however every last one of them was driven

completely mad, right before they died.

All except one of course.

"Well…..Yeah of course I know…."

Eta said in her sleepy tone of voice.

"It's….The possession….Obviously…"

Jett freezes in place as she says this.

"Wait….This is what the possession does?"

Alpha nods and looks at him curiously.

"Yes this is what happens when someone is under the effects of the

possession, and only those who are descendants of the three heroes can

become possessed. Are you familiar with the possession, Jett?"

Jett nods earnestly.

"Yes I am, all of the cult's test subjects looked exactly like this as their minds

deteriorated."

Alpha nods slowly.

"I see, the research base you were working at must've been testing

something very specific with their possessed test subjects, although what

they were trying to test is beyond my knowledge."

Jett nods in agreement.

"Yeah I couldn't begin to tell you either, I was never told anything important

regarding the experimentation. The only thing I was ever in charge of was

the test subjects' vitals and their mental sanity."

Jett looks at Alpha curiously.

"Lady Alpha, you said that everyone in Shadow Garden used to be possessed

at some point?"

Alpha nods.

"That is correct, I was also possessed long ago, however I was at a far worse

stage than the princess is in right now, but Master Shadow saved all of us

from that fate, a fate worse than death. We all owe our lives to him."

Jett nods as he slowly understands the vast power that Master Shadow truly

holds.

"Does that mean that Master Shadow will be able to save Princess Rose as

well?"

Alpha nods as she shows a hint of a smile.

"Oh he certainly can, one thing that you will learn the longer you stay here in

Shadow Garden, is that nothing is impossible for that man."

Jett nods at this, thinking again about how incredible Master Shadow must

truly be.

Suddenly, Frost runs into the infirmary as he opens the door hastily to the

room where Princess Rose was being kept.

"H-hey Jett, how's she doing? Is the princess still alive?"

Frost asks as he's partially out of breath and partially anxious to see how she

was doing.

Jett nods as he walks up to him.

"Yeah she is, but she seems like she's in rough shape, Lady Eta said that she

gave the princess a potion that causes her heart rate to slow down so that

the possession doesn't spread as quickly."

Frost tilts his head curiously.

"Wait, Princess Rose is possessed?"

Jett nods again.

"Yeah, apparently the test subjects that I used to work with suffered from

the possession too, I just didn't realize it was called that until right now."

Frost nods a bit as Jett explains this to him.

"Oh wow that's certainly interesting…Wait but wouldn't that mean I'm

possessed too then?"

Beta and Epsilon now walk into the infirmary right behind Frost as they

overhear the discussion.

"Hm? What's going on Frost?"

Beta asks him as she walks up to him.

This comment also caught the attention of Alpha as she diverted her

attention to Frost now.

"Frost, you believe you're possessed as well?"

Alpha asks him and Frost shakes his head.

"Well no, I don't think I am."

He checked all over his body for any dark red spots that were visible, but

found none.

"But Jett, didn't you say that the experiments that they performed on me

were the same kind that they performed on all the other test subjects?"

Jett nods, but then sighs.

"Yeah I did, but looking back on it from what I know now, that must not be

the case, there's still a lot I don't understand about the experiments that

were performed back then…"

Frost nods and laughs a bit.

"Haha, well that's okay I guess, but what are we going to do about Princess

Rose?"

Everyone's attention shifts back to the princess as she lies on the infirmary

bed while breathing softly.

"Well if she's just possessed, surely Master Shadow can heal her."

Epsilon says and Alpha nods in agreement.

"That he can, however I am not exactly sure if he has any free time to spare

at the moment, he could still be taking care of the terrorists at Midgar

Academy for all we know."

Everyone in the room stays silent as Alpha explains this, and nobody has a

solution for their predicament.

However, right before Jett speaks up, a strong wave of magical presence

washes over the room, and Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon's faces all light up

immediately.

"Master Shadow!"

Beta and Epsilon exclaim at the same time as Alpha smiles softly.

"He's here, of course he is."

Eta opens her eyes sleepily as she feels the magical power as well.

"Master…..He's nearby….I can sense him…"

Footsteps were soon heard right outside in the infirmary hallway, and they

were approaching quite quickly.

Finally, Grimm burst through the door into Princess Rose's room.

"Princess Rose! Are you-"

He began to say before he stopped in shock as he saw her lying on the

infirmary bed, with the dark red veins pulsing all over her body.

"What on Earth… What did they…How could I let this happen…."

Grimm collapsed to his knees, the shame he felt as the princess' bodyguard

was almost too great for him to bear.

Frost began to walk up to Grimm, but Jett put a hand on his shoulder and

simply shook his head, and Frost stood down.

Shortly after this, Shadow walked in behind Grimm and everyone's eyes lit

up.

"Master Shadow! You're back!"

Beta exclaimed as she and Epsilon smiled gleefully at him.

"Welcome back my lord."

Alpha said calmly as she smiled at him.

Shadow walked into the middle of the room as he looked down at Princess

Rose.

He then turned to Grimm who seemed to be distraught.

"Lift your head bodyguard, Princess Rose is still among the living."

Grimm knew that she was still alive, however, he lifted his head slowly as

Shadow's words stirred in him a sense of hope.

Shadow raised his hand above his head, and a small purple flame appeared

as it flickered in his hands.

The other Shadow Garden members watched in earnest as the purple flame

grew and grew into a magnificent giant flame that lit up the whole room.

"Now, the time to awaken has come, Princess Rose."

Shadow states as he lowers his hand towards the princess and he closes his

fist, sealing the purple flame inside his hand.

He then turned his hand around and pressed it against Princess Rose's

stomach, and Grimm watched Shadow's every move with anticipation and

curiosity.

The dark red veins that covered Princess Rose's body suddenly started to

vanish, and within a matter of seconds she was back to her former self.

Shadow smirks to himself as he waits for the princess to arise.

That was perfect! Now all I have to do is wait for the princess to wake up

and I'll be able to act as the mysterious shadow broker who rescued her

from the clutches of evil!

He grins to himself softly as he steps back and patiently waits for her to open

her eyes.

And he waits.

And waits some more.

I-is she actually just sleeping right now?

Cid thinks as all eyes had been on him for the past two minutes, and he

starts to wonder why the princess isn't waking up by now.

"O-oh umm, I think Lady Eta said that she gave the princess a potion that

slowed her heart rate down so the possession didn't spread faster my lord…"

Jett says softly to Shadow after they had all been standing there for some

time.

Of course she did….And I've just been standing here like an IDIOT!

Cid shouts internally at himself as he turns and walks towards the door.

"The bodyguard shall remain with her until she has recovered completely."

Grimm nods quickly as he bows deeply in Shadow's direction.

"T-thank you Shadow! I owe you my very life for what you've done!"

He lifts his head up again.

"I will remain with her and I will not take my eyes off of her the entire time."

Shadow nods softly as his back is facing the group.

"That you shall, once she arises it will be imperative for someone to explain

the situation to her, I believe her bodyguard is the most suited for that."

Grimm nods as he bows once more.

"Yes of course, I will explain everything to her-"

He looks up only to see that Shadow had vanished from the room

completely, along with his strong magical presence as well.

"Hah, that's Master Shadow for you."

Epsilon says to Beta quietly and they both chuckle a bit.

Grimm moves over to Princess Rose's side as he checks her pulse.

He breathes a sigh of relief as he feels her heart pumping, it was faint, but it

was there.

"Does anyone know who helped rescue Princess Rose from the terrorists?"

Grimm asks calmly as he turns around to face everyone else in the room. He

seems to have calmed down significantly from before.

"Yes, Beta and Epsilon were the ones tasked with rescuing the princess."

Alpha answers Grimm as she gestures to Beta and Epsilon.

"Both of you have my deepest gratitude."

Grimm says as he bows to the both of them.

Beta puts up her hands in embarrassment.

"O-oh it wasn't all us, in fact, Lady Epsilon and I really got outdone by the

new Shadow Garden members here."

She gestures towards Frost and Jett who were standing right behind her.

"They were the ones who actually saved the princess, Epsilon and I mainly

dealt with the guards, that's all."

Jett shakes his head quickly.

"No we don't deserve nearly as much credit as you guys."

He nudges Frost and Frost nods along with him.

"Y-yeah you guys did amazing! If Jett and I didn't have you two there we

definitely would've died!"

Frost laughs a bit as he smiles at Grimm.

Grimm looks at all four of them for a few seconds as they all try to give the

credit to someone else, before he chuckles to himself lightly.

"You four must be particularly close I can tell, but it seems that my gratitude

should go to all of you."

He bows towards the four of them.

"Truly, words cannot describe how grateful I am to you."

The four of them stood in front of Grimm as he bowed his head towards

them. They were happy that he seemed to be calm now, but it was also

slightly embarrassing to be praised so openly like this as none of them were

used to this kind of praise before.

"Oh it was really nothing at all, don't mention it."

Epsilon says as she's the first to come to her senses.

Grimm nods softly as he stands back up, and Alpha suddenly notices that

Grimm was quite tall, beating everyone else in the room in terms of height.

"I shall remain here with the princess, I swear no harm will befall her while

I'm watching over her."

The rest of the group nods as they begin making their way out of the room.

"Let us know when the princess wakes up alright?"

Alpha says to Grimm as she was the last one to make her way towards the

door.

"Don't worry I'll let you all know as soon as she awakens."

Alpha nods, but before she leaves the room she turns back around.

"Oh, I should ask for your name, I assume it isn't simply 'bodyguard' is it?"

Grimm shakes his head as he laughs.

"My name is Grimwolf, but just call me Grimm. What's your name if I may

ask?"

He asks Alpha in return.

"It's Alpha."

She smiles at him softly.

"It's nice to meet you Grimm."

Grimm smiles back.

"It is nice to meet you as well, Alpha."

Alpha now shuts the door to the room and lets Grimm attend to Princess

Rose while she sleeps soundly in the infirmary bed.

As Alpha begins walking out of the infirmary building, Epsilon walks up to

her briskly and waves to her.

"Ah Lady Alpha! How are you?"

Epsilon smiles at her happily and Alpha looks at her in confusion.

"Oh I'm fine, is everything okay Epsilon?"

It was now Epsilon's turn to look confused as she answered Alpha.

"Oh yes everything is fine, why do you ask?"

Alpha replies to her.

"Oh good I'm glad, usually you don't run up to me and make small talk

unless you're going to ask me for something or have a bad report to share

with me."

Alpha looks at Epsilon calmly.

"And since the last mission you were assigned to went exceedingly well, I

assume you must have something you're going to ask for."

Epsilon chuckled nervously as Alpha said this, she saw right through her

immediately.

"W-what? I don't always ask for stuff when I go out of my way to talk to

you…Did you ever consider the possibility of me just wanting to be nice by

checking up on you from time to time?"

Alpha nods softly and smiles at her.

"Oh, well then, I've been doing very well thank you for asking."

She begins to walk away and Epsilon shifts nervously on her feet.

"O-oh! And well, umm…"

Epsilon calls out to Alpha weakly and Alpha smirks softly before she turns

back around to face her.

"Oh? What is it, Epsilon?"

Epsilon tries to maintain a calm demeanor as she walks up to Alpha and

smiles sheepishly.

"W-well actually, you just happened to remind me that I did want to ask you

something now that I think about it…."

Alpha nods calmly.

"Oh I see, and what is this something that I reminded you of?"

Epsilon looks at Alpha as she prepares to ask her question.

"Well, I was thinking….Since I'm always the one training Jett in combat and

watching his techniques grow, I wondered what you might think if I

volunteered to make him my apprentice instead…."

Alpha's calm look dissipates as she hears Epsilon say this.

"Wait, you've been the one training Jett?"

Epsilon nods.

"Oh yeah I have been, Jett's been helping Eta out with her research but

when he trains in combat he does it with me, Eta said you were fine with it…"

Alpha sighs heavily as she puts her head into her hand in exasperation.

"That girl….Sometimes she is just so…."

Epsilon chuckles as she nods.

"Y-yeah…Eta can be a handful at times…But that's why I was thinking Jett

might be better off with someone who can properly take care of his training,

and we worked together really well on the last mission. Plus, his magic

control is almost as good as my own."

Alpha looked at Epsilon in surprise.

"Really? His magic control is that far along? But he's only been training here

for a little over 2 months."

Epsilon nods excitedly.

"Jett's particularly gifted in magic control, however I haven't told him this

because I want to see him strive to become even better. I have a feeling that

if he continues to train with me, he could very well be a candidate for that

new division of Shadow Garden that you were trying to create."

Alpha nods softly.

"I see, do you really think he could operate on the same level as number

559?"

Epsilon nods.

"Yes absolutely, his combat skills are still a bit weak but, once that improves

he'll easily surpass Victoria I'm sure of it."

Alpha chuckles at her enthusiasm, and she thinks for a couple moments

before she nods.

"Very well then, starting tomorrow you will be the one fully in charge of Jett's

training. I will go and inform Eta that you'll be the one taking over from here

on out."

Epsilon nods enthusiastically.

"Oh perfect! That's wonderful news!"

She clasps her hands together with a bright smile on her face.

"I knew you'd agree that it was a good idea!"

Alpha chuckles softly at Epsilon's enthusiasm.

"You surprised me today Epsilon."

Epsilon's smile fades a bit as she looks towards Alpha.

"Oh? How so, Lady Alpha?"

"Well normally you would never even bother spending your time to train up

a new recruit for Shadow Garden, and yet here you are asking to take on a

full apprentice all by yourself."

She smiles as she looks at Epsilon.

"So for you to show interest in someone, they must be truly special in order

to catch your attention like this."

Epsilon's cheeks turn slightly red as Alpha points this out, but before she

could respond, Alpha waves to her as she walks off.

"Keep up the good work Epsilon, I'm counting on you."

Epsilon nods slightly as she waves back to Alpha, watching her walk back

towards the main hall.

Epsilon giggled to herself softly as she shook her head to compose herself,

and she began walking across the Shadow Garden grounds in a carefree

manner.

Beta happened to be turning a corner nearby at the same time as Epsilon,

and almost ran straight into her.

"Oh! Hey Epsilon."

She exclaimed as she looked at her.

"You seem to be in quite the good mood, what happened?"

Beta asks as Epsilon smiles happily.

"Oh well you know….I just convinced Lady Alpha to make Jett my official

apprentice that's all."

She smiled proudly as she told Beta, and Beta simply nodded and smiled

softly.

"Oh, did you? That's wonderful to hear! Frost told me that you were

practically already training Jett anyway."

Beta chuckles as she shakes her head softly.

"I swear sometimes it feels like Eta just has no concept of anything outside

of her research."

Epsilon nods in agreement.

"Yes it certainly does seem that way doesn't it?"

Beta suddenly lights up as she looks back at Epsilon.

"Oh! Actually, since you're Jett's official instructor now, We should do a bit of

team training between us four. It will help them learn how to work better as

a group, don't you think?"

Epsilon thinks about it and slowly nods her head.

"That would be pretty helpful especially for Jett and Frost. However, if we do

train together, we should partner up with our apprentices since we'll be the

one's working assignments with them the most."

Beta nods.

"Oh of course! I was thinking that you and Jett could go up against Frost and

I in a combat training exercise."

Epsilon scoffs lightly.

"Ha! It's cute that you think you two could ever compete against Jett and I,

but if you think you can handle it then I suppose we could do that."

Beta flushes red in embarrassment as she pouts at Epsilon's teasing.

"Frost and I can hold our own perfectly fine! And for the record, we work

amazing together, it's actually quite impressive you know."

Epsilon smirks at Beta's retort.

"Oh please, that boy probably can't even conjure his own slime suit properly,

and we both know that combat isn't your area of expertise either."

Beta furrows her eyebrows as she feels Epsilon's taunts becoming more

egregious the more she talks.

"Fine then. We'll schedule a time and place for the training exercise to take

place, and you'll see for yourself that Frost and I are just as good of a pair as

you and Jett are, if not better."

The two girls stand there as they glare at each other, the atmosphere around

them becoming exceptionally tense.

"Hm?"

Frost pops his head out from inside one of the nearby buildings and he spots

Beta and Epsilon.

"Oh Lady Beta, Lady Epsilon."

He smiles at them both while not being able to read the situation even if his

life depended on it.

"I was wondering if you needed any help with any reports you have, or

maybe I could help around your office or something..."

He asks Beta as she turns to face him, forcing a smile to her face.

"Oh that's very thoughtful of you, what brought this on?"

"Oh well, usually we spend all day training, but since it got canceled due to

our assignment I have nothing else to do today and I guess I'm just a bit

bored…"

Frost says as he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

Beta looks surprised but chuckles softly as she nods.

"Well okay then, I might have some stuff you can help me with."

"Oh lady Epsilon!"

Now it was Jett's turn to run up to his instructor.

"Oh? What is it, Jett?"

He smiles at her happily.

"I just heard the news! You're gonna be my official instructor now?"

Epsilon smiles proudly as she nods her head.

"That I am! I figured you'd much rather have me as your personal instructor

rather than someone like Eta or Beta…"

Epsilon smirks in Beta's direction, and Jett nods but then he looks confused.

"Wait, why would I train with Lady Beta-"

"Say Frost, what do you think about doing a combat training exercise with

Epsilon and Jett as our opponents?"

Beta cuts Jett off as she asks Frost this question, not breaking eye contact

with Epsilon for even a second.

"Oh that sounds fun!"

Frost says as he nods eagerly.

"Yeah that does sound fu-"

"Oh you poor boy, are you sure you'll be up for the challenge? I mean you're

going up against both Jett and I with little miss bookworm as your

teammate."

Epsilon says, with Jett accidentally getting cut off for a second time.

Frost responds to Epsilon by nodding enthusiastically.

"Yeah I'm sure we'll be up for the challenge! And what is this about a worm

being on our team? Do worms normally help out in a battle?"

Frost asks this question with such a pure and innocent look that it causes

Epsilon to stammer over her words slightly.

"N-no, umm, well actually-"

Beta couldn't contain her laughter as she giggled at Frost's response.

"O-oh did I say something stupid?"

Frost asks as Beta shakes her head and chuckles some more.

"No not at all, in fact it was quite a reasonable question."

She turns to face Epsilon with a small grin on her face.

"I'm not sure who you were referring to Epsilon, but I assure you there are no

'worms' on our team, right Frost?"

Frost nods happily as he moves up to stand next to Beta.

"Haha no of course not, we'll beat Jett and Lady Epsilon with ease."

"Haha, well don't go thinking it'll be that easy Frost."

Jett replies as the two boys grin at each other confidently.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out isn't there?"

Epsilon says as Beta chuckles and stares daggers back at her.

"How about we take the day after tomorrow to settle this debate? I'm sure

that will give you two the much needed time for training beforehand."

Epsilon sneers as Beta says this.

"Jett and I would be perfectly fine taking you on even without any practice

on our part, but I suppose that date would work for us as well."

Beta sneers back at Epsilon now.

"Then I guess it's settled isn't it?"

The two girls glare at each other, causing the atmosphere to become quite

tense once again.

Jett finally picks up on the situation and nudges Epsilon.

"Hey Lady Epsilon, if you don't mind, could you help me with something real

quick?"

Epsilon refused to break eye contact with Beta, so Jett sighed and asked

again.

"I-it will only take a second, it won't take up much of your time at all I

promise."

Finally, Epsilon broke eye contact with Beta and turned to Jett, putting on a

smile for her pupil.

"Oh of course! As your official instructor it's only natural to help out my

apprentice in times of need."

The two of them walk off together as Jett explains his problem, and Beta

turns towards Frost now.

"Hey Frost, you said you were bored earlier didn't you?"

Frost nods as he looks at Beta.

"Uh huh, why do you ask?"

Beta looks at him determinedly.

"Well how about you and I do some intense training today? We've got to

know how to fight well together so that we don't end up losing to Epsilon."

Frost nods and smiles confidently.

"Yeah good idea, I can't let Jett get the better of me right?"

Beta nods and smiles back at him.

"That's the spirit. Now come on, we've got a lot of work to do."

The two of them promptly made their way over to their designated training

room to practice for the remainder of the day.

Rose was unconscious for quite a while, and Grimm had steadily dozed off

while sitting next to her. He was absolutely exhausted from the battle, and

with no professional medical attention to heal his injuries, his energy was

sapped from his body.

As Grimm laid his head on the wall next to where Rose was lying, she woke

up slowly, and rubbed her head as she sat up.

"Mmm…Oh Grimm, good morning."

She said calmly to Grimm, causing him to wake up slowly.

"P-princess…"

His eyes widened as he saw her awake before him.

"Ah! Princess! How are you? How are you feeling?"

He asked her with concern in his eyes and voice.

"I'm doing fine, however-"

Suddenly she spots Grimm's massive injury on his chest and she gasps.

"Ah! Grimm! What happened to you?!"

She moved over to him and touched his chest gently.

"Oh don't worry about it, it was just a flesh wound, nothing important got

cut or damaged."

Rose shook her head as she looked back up at Grimm with her face in a

pout.

"You're hurt, of course I'm gonna be worried about you!"

Grimm sighed as he smiled softly.

"Looks like you really are okay, thank goodness."

Rose looked around the room they were in curiously.

"Hey Grimm, where are we exactly? I can't remember anything after the

terrorists knocked me out."

Grimm nodded.

"It's okay there's no need to be alarmed, we're currently in Shadow Garden's

headquarters."

Rose seemed stunned as Grimm said this.

"Wait, what!? Shadow Garden? The terrorists who attacked the school were

from Shadow Garden!"

Grimm shook his head as he took the next couple of minutes to explain the

whole situation to Rose.

As Grimm finishes up recalling what had happened, Rose sits in silence for a

few seconds.

"So….Shadow Garden was the one who saved me from the actual terrorists?"

Grimm nodded.

"Yes, they saved you when I could not, and I am very grateful to them for

that."

Rose sighs and nods, understanding Grimm's position.

"Yes, that was very kind of them, but you fought valiantly on my behalf, and I

couldn't ask for anything more from my bodyguard."

Rose then reaches up and smacks Grimm's forehead.

"But you went far too overboard! What if something terrible happened to

you? It is your job to protect me, but you should not neglect your own well

being like that."

She gestured towards Grimm's large injury on his chest.

"I'll go grab a doctor so they can patch you up properly."

Grimm shakes his head as he stands up to stop her.

"Oh no really I'm fine Princess, however I told Alpha that I would let her

know the moment that you woke up, so I should go get her promptly now."

Rose looks at Grimm quickly as he mentions this.

"Who's Alpha?"

"Oh, she's one of the leaders of Shadow Garden, and she was one of the

people who helped save you. I think she knows something about what those

terrorists did to you, so it's imperative that I let her know that you've

awoken."

Grimm responds to her and Rose simply nods and sighs.

"Very well, but I will not speak to her one bit until you promise you'll get

those injuries looked at shortly."

Grimm nods and smiles softly.

"Yes I promise I will, you just stay here. I'll go get Alpha quickly and then I'll

have someone tend to my leftover wounds."

Grimm then leaves the infirmary promptly to go and track down Alpha.

After a couple of minutes, he walks back in with Alpha by his side.

Fortunately there was a Shadow Garden member tending to the infirmary so

she was able to contact Lady Alpha for him.

"Hello Princess Rose, how are you feeling?"

Alpha asks as she walks into the infirmary room.

Rose looks over at Grimm and notices that he did indeed get all of his

wounds tended to while he was out, which made her feel a bit better.

"I'm feeling fine, I take it that you are Alpha?"

Alpha nods.

"I am, I assume that Grimm has already told you a bit about what your

situation is currently."

Rose nods in return.

"Yes he explained everything to me, I am very grateful to you all for what

you've done for Grimm as well as myself. I will see to it that the Oriana

kingdom knows that your organization was not the one responsible for the

attack on our school."

Alpha shakes her head.

"That is not necessary, however I appreciate your willingness to do so."

Rose stops talking as she seems slightly confused by Alpha's words.

"I-Well, certainly you can't be serious, having your organization take

responsibility for attacking Midgar Academy will turn the public's opinion

against you-"

"That is irrelevant to us."

Alpha states, cutting off Rose before she could even finish her sentence.

"The public's opinion has no bearing on our actions, our goal is and always

will be to walk the path that Master Shadow has laid out for us, no matter

how difficult or troublesome it becomes."

Rose sits in silence for a few seconds before she nods lightly.

"I understand, however, if the public's opinion truly does not matter to you,

then allow me to continue to advocate on your behalf. It's the least I can do

to thank you for helping us."

Alpha nods again.

"Very well, I can't stop you from advocating for us, however I'm afraid you will

not be able to return home to do that just yet."

Both Rose and Grimm looked at Alpha with surprise as she said this.

"Wait, what are you implying?"

Grimm asks quickly.

"What I'm saying is, that you two don't entirely understand the situation at

hand. I can't allow Princess Rose to return home, at least not for right now

anyway."

This time it was Rose who spoke up.

"Can I at least know why I am not allowed to return home?"

Alpha nods in response.

"Yes of course, you see Rose, you were targeted by those terrorists at your

school due to the fact that you are the princess of the Oriana Kingdom. That

much shouldn't come as a surprise to you."

Rose nods slightly.

"Yes I imagine they were simply holding me hostage as collateral in case

their plan went sideways…"

Alpha shakes her head.

"That's where you're wrong, you see these terrorists weren't your everyday

bandits seeking reward money, they are part of a highly elite and secret

group known as the Cult of Diablos."

Rose lifted an eyebrow in skepticism.

"The Cult of Diablos? As in that old child's fairytale?"

Alpha nods.

"Your disbelief that such a thing could possibly exist is proof that their tactic

works. This group has been around for hundreds, maybe even thousands of

years, controlling kingdoms from the shadows as if they're nothing more

than puppets on a string."

Alpha continues speaking.

"I'm sure Grimm told you about the state that we found you in, are you not

the least bit curious as to what that was?"

Rose nods softly.

"Yes you're right he did, and he seemed very concerned from what I could

tell, what exactly did they do to me?"

"In all honesty, they barely did anything to you, while you were in the cult's

confinement, they must've ran some experiments on you that caused the

possession in your body to spread at an abnormally increased rate."

"The possession?"

Rose asks curiously.

Alpha nods and answers Rose's newly found question.

"Yes, the possession is an illness that befalls humans, elves, and beastkin

alike, and although these aren't the only races it can affect, these are the

most common. I'm sure you're well aware of the story about the three

heroes?"

Rose nodded.

"Yes of course, the three heroes who defeated Diablos in the story, right?"

Alpha nods in return.

"Yes, those three heroes existed in real life as well as Diablos, and before

Diablos was sealed away for good, in their final act of revenge they cast a

curse upon the three heroes, causing all of their descendants to suffer from

the possession. If left untreated, it would turn your body into a pile of flesh

that continues to rot until all of your life force is drained away."

Rose remains silent as Alpha explains the curse to her.

"Since you showed signs of the possession, that means that-"

"That I'm one of the descendants of the three heroes…"

Rose finishes Alpha's sentence as Alpha nods in confirmation.

"Precisely, which makes you and I fairly similar in that regard."

Rose looks up at the beautiful blonde elf girl with surprise.

"Are you saying you're a descendant of one of the three heroes as well?"

Alpha nods again.

"That I am, in fact, every member of Shadow Garden is a descendant of one

of the three heroes."

Rose's eyes light up in intrigue.

"Oh is that so? That's absolutely fascinating! Most people simply assume that

Shadow Garden is a terrorist organization and for a while I thought the

same, but I had no idea that Shadow Garden consisted of only members

who are descendants of the three heroes…"

Alpha nods before she stops herself.

"Well actually, almost all the members are direct descendants…"

Rose tilts her head curiously.

"Oh? And who would those exceptions be?"

Alpha smiles softly.

"Well of course Master Shadow was the only one in Shadow Garden who

wasn't a descendant of the heroes, but recently we've gained two new

members who are also not descendants of the three heroes."

"They also happen to be the ones who ended up rescuing you from the Cult

of Diablos, Princess Rose."

Alpha states this and now it was Grimm's turn to be surprised.

"Wait, those two new members, were they those boys that I talked to

previously?"

Alpha nods at Grimm's observation.

"Indeed they are, they also happen to be the only boys within Shadow

Garden as of right now, well besides Master Shadow of course."

Grimm and Rose both looked perplexed right now, and Alpha continues

speaking.

"They were admitted into Shadow Garden under very special circumstances,

however I can see that the two of you have another burning question on

your mind."

Rose nods as she speaks up before Grimm gets the chance to.

"You said that all members of Shadow Garden were descendants of the

three heroes, correct?"

Alpha nods her head in agreement.

"And all of the Shadow Garden members are women too?"

Alpha nods her head again.

"Then what about the male descendants? Are they involved in Shadow

Garden too?"

Alpha shakes her head this time.

"No, the reason for this is that they are incredibly rare, it seems that the

possession specifically only targets the daughters of the descendants. While

we don't have an exact reason for why this is, we believe it is because the

three heroes who defeated Diablos were also women."

Grimm nods slowly as he processes this information.

"I see...The thought of the three heroes being women has never even

crossed my mind before, this whole situation is quite surprising to say the

least."

Alpha stays silent for a couple of minutes as she lets the two of them process

the new information that she dumped onto them very quickly.

Finally, she speaks up again.

"All that is to say, the cult will not rest until you have been captured yet

again, and as I'm sure your bodyguard is well aware, if they were to attack

the Oriana Royal Castle at night, they would surely be able to kidnap you

with ease."

Rose shook her head.

"N-no of course it wouldn't be that easy, I mean obviously it doesn't sound

like we should take them lightly, but if Grimm had the backup of the knights

at the royal palace, then I'm sure it would all be-"

Rose trails off as she looks over at Grimm and notices that he's looking down

at the ground with his head shaking slightly.

The next words that came out of his mouth were words that Rose had never

even imagined hearing him utter before.

"I'm sorry Princess Rose, but Alpha is correct. I'm not able to protect you as I

am right now."

Rose seemed too stunned to speak as she finally realized how dire her

situation was.

"That is why I said that I cannot allow you to return home for the time

being."

Alpha says calmly as she waits for Rose to respond.

After a few moments Rose nods softly.

"Y-yes I think I understand better now…"

Alpha nods in approval.

"Good, now that you have a better grasp of the situation, I think you'll be a

little more open to my next proposal."

Rose and Grimm both look up at Alpha as she mentions this.

"I would like for you to join Shadow Garden's ranks."

Alpha said calmly, and Rose seemed shocked to say the least.

"W-what!? I can't do that, surely you know why I can't!"

Rose stutters over her words slightly.

"I-I'm the princess of the Oriana Kingdom! I-I-I can't be involved with some

secret terrorist organization! Even if you have some noble goal, if the public

ever found out then nobody would ever trust the Oriana royal family ever

again!"

Alpha waits patiently for Rose to get all of her concerns out.

"Of course, you're absolutely free to decline, however if you did join our

organization, your identity would be kept hidden. Nobody would know your

true identity, not even the members of Shadow Garden."

Rose pauses as Alpha says this.

"How would you accomplish that? I mean my face is pretty well known

throughout many kingdoms after all…"

Alpha nods as she acknowledges this fact.

"This is true, we'd have to give you a light makeover of sorts to make sure

that your identity stayed hidden. Lady Eta happens to be Shadow Garden's

number one researcher, and she has recently constructed a machine to

change the appearance of one's face."

Rose took a minute to process this information, Alpha's proposal was slowly

starting to become more plausible.

"W-well even if it was possible to achieve, why would I join up with you? I

mean do not misunderstand me, I am incredibly grateful to Shadow Garden,

but joining your ranks seems a little excessive, don't you agree?"

Alpha shakes her head.

"It isn't excessive whatsoever, in fact I'd argue it is a necessity to ensure your

survival in the future."

Alpha pauses as she notices Rose's obvious confusion, so she continues to

explain her reasoning.

"The cult is after you specifically for your royal blood. We don't know the

exact reason for this, but we speculate that royal blood containing traits of

the possession is something that they plan to use in order to re-awaken

Diablos one day."

Rose listened intently as Alpha continued.

"To make sure that never happens, you need to have the necessary skills to

fight off the Cult of Diablos by yourself, despite the circumstance you find

yourself in. As I'm sure both you and Grimm are well aware, even if you both

had your magic during the recent terrorist attack, the most you would've

been able to do is escape before they captured you."

Rose and Grimm both look down at the ground now as they knew all too

well that what Alpha told them was the cold hard truth.

Suddenly, Grimm spoke up.

"I've seen Shadow Garden members in action before, and I'll be the first to

admit that their skills are nothing to brush off. Their swordplay was the real

deal."

Grimm pauses before he continues.

"I wasn't able to protect Princess Rose in her darkest hour, but I won't make

that same mistake ever again…"

He looks up at Alpha now.

"I humbly request for you to train me, Alpha. As I am right now, I am unfit to

be called the princess' bodyguard."

Alpha looks down at Grimm as he asks her to train him.

"Well, normally we don't allow people to become Shadow Garden members

unless they have the express permission of Master Shadow himself…"

Grimm bows his head deeply.

"Please! I beg of you to make an exception!"

Alpha nods and smiles softly.

"...However, seeing as how Master Shadow trusted you enough to bring you

here to the City of Alexandria, I have a feeling that he wouldn't be opposed

to the idea."

She then turns to face Rose.

"However I will only accept your request if Princess Rose agrees to

accompany you."

Now the decision is left entirely up to Rose, and she looks over at Grimm

who still had his head hung low, and she proceeds to sigh reluctantly.

"Well, if what you've told us about the Cult of Diablos is true, then it would

be incredibly foolish of me to return home under these conditions."

Rose shakes her head softly, as if to clear her mind.

"Very well then, both Grimm and I are in your debt, and we will train under

your corps for as long as it takes to subdue this 'Cult of Diablos'."

Grimm nods along with her, and they both look at Alpha for her response,

and she nods calmly, while still appearing to have a small smile still on her

face.

"Good I'm glad to hear it, although there is no need to stay with our

organization for that long, I only ask that you train with us and work among

us until your safety from the cult can be guaranteed."

Alpha turns towards the door and gestures for the two of them to follow her.

"Come, I'll show you both to your rooms."

Rose and Grimm both followed Alpha out of the infirmary and into the rest

of Shadow Garden's headquarters.

"I'm sure you already got a good glimpse of our headquarters since Master

Shadow brought you here Grimm, but for Rose who just woke up, this is

Shadow Garden's main base of operations. Otherwise known as the City of

Alexandria."

She gestured around to the surrounding area, Rose happened to wake up

later in the night, so the stars were clearly visible as they walked around

through the city.

"Wow, it's beautiful."

Rose states softly as she takes in the view.

"Yeah, it really is, I didn't get a chance to see much of it before now."

Grimm adds in to Rose's comment as they look around in awe.

The City of Alexandria was just as it sounded to be, it was the size of an

incredibly large city, with buildings that seemed to be more advanced

architecturally different than anything Grimm and Rose had ever seen

before.

Along with this, there was also a giant statue of Master Shadow standing

erect in the center of the city square, beating the height of the Oriana royal

palace with ease.

"I'm glad you two find the city appealing, I also hope that your temporary

stay with us will be pleasing as well, however I cannot promise you the same

level of comfort you had as a princess back home."

Rose nods her head at Alpha's forewarning.

"That's perfectly fine, you have already done more than enough for both

Grimm and myself."

Grimm nods along with her in agreement.

"Yes please don't worry yourself over our personal comforts, we'll manage on

our own just fine."

Alpha silently acknowledged that these two seemed to be quite resilient,

but she couldn't help but wonder if their resilience would eventually dwindle

over time.

They finally make their way to the dormitories and walk inside.

"Alright, here is the room where Rose will be staying."

Alpha says as she walks down the hallway, leading both Rose and Grimm to

the end of the hall where Rose's room resided.

"You'll find a key to your room inside on the desk, be sure not to lose it."

Alpha says to Rose as she nods.

"Of course, I won't don't worry."

Alpha nods and proceeds to look at Grimm.

"Unfortunately, having boys among the Shadow Garden ranks is something

fairly new to us. So as a result, we decided to sanction off a portion of the

dormitory area for the only two boys currently in Shadow Garden, so your

room will be right next to theirs."

Grimm nods.

"Oh you mean the two boys I met earlier? The ones who saved Princess

Rose?"

Alpha nods.

"Yes, precisely. In order to separate the men and the women, you three will

have your own separate area of the dorm, so there should be no need for you

to wander off to this side, understood?"

Grimm nods again.

"Of course, I understand."

Alpha nods at his confirmation as she continues speaking.

"We will assign you to your instructors in the morning. Once you are

assigned to one you will complete all of your daily training with them and

they will oversee all of your progress. But for now, you two should get some

rest. You both have some long days ahead."

They both nod at Alpha's words, with a sudden drowsiness hitting them

after the very impactful day they just had.

"I'll leave you two to say your goodnights. Once you've wrapped up, meet me

down the hall and I'll lead you to where you'll be staying Grimm."

Grimm nods and smiles at her as he bows his head in appreciation.

Alpha nods back at him and turns around as she makes her way back down

the hall in which they just came.

Grimm sighs as he looks back at Rose.

"Please forgive me, I know you're probably seething because of my actions-"

Rose pouts as she stares at Grimm, before she sighs as well.

"N-no I'm not, I know you're right. You only have my best interest in mind

like you always have."

Grimm nods a bit as he breathes a soft sigh of relief.

"I'm glad you're not mad at me, I really do believe that this organization, this

'Shadow Garden', is truly on our side and they want to help us."

Grimm grits his teeth determinedly.

"And I'll be damned if I choose to remain as weak as I am if I had the option

to get stronger…"

Rose nods her head, understanding where Grimm was coming from.

"I agree, if you think that Shadow Garden is the real deal then I trust you, I

always trust your judgment Grimm, even if I'm not exactly fond of it all the

time."

Rose laughs softly as Grimm chuckles along with her.

"Well in any case, I'm truly just glad you're okay. If something terrible

became of you I honestly don't know what I would do with myself…"

Rose shook her head as she placed both her hands on his shoulders.

"Hey don't think like that, nothing terrible has happened to me, and I'm

standing in front of you unharmed as always."

She smiled warmly at him.

"I worry about you too you know…Even though you're the strongest guy I

know, I'm well aware that even you aren't invincible."

Grimm nods gently.

"Yes, as unfortunate as that reality is, it is very much true…"

He smiles warmly back at Rose.

"But one day I'll become invincible, in order to protect you. Then, you'll never

have to worry about me ever again."

Rose seemed a bit surprised but chuckled lightly as she nodded.

"Haha, okay then, I'll be sure to hold you to that promise."

She holds her hand to her chest.

"And in return, I will become the Oriana Kingdom's most noble, and most

respected queen ever, with my invincible bodyguard by my side right?"

Grimm chuckles softly as he nods in agreement.

"Haha, of course. I won't rest until I see it through."

Rose yawned as she felt quite tired all of a sudden.

"W-well speaking of rest, I think Alpha is right, we should both do our best to

rest up tonight."

Grimm nods.

"Yes you're right, I'm sure you're still very tired after today."

He takes a few steps back from her door.

"Sleep well, princess."

Rose chuckles lightly as she shakes her head.

"No I'm not a princess anymore, for now I am just Rose."

Grimm nods immediately, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Oh yes right, I'll be sure to break that habit while we're here. Sleep well

Rose."

Rose smiles as she waves at him.

"Yes, goodnight Grimm."

Grimm waves back at her as he walks down the hall to meet up with Alpha

once again.

Rose shuts her door softly as Grimm leaves, and immediately afterward, she

crashes onto her bed without a second thought and falls into a deep sleep.

The next morning quickly rolls around, and Rose is still sound asleep in her

bed as she hears a knock on her door.

"Mmmhh…"

She groans wearily as she slowly gets up and moves over towards the door.

As she opens the door, a Shadow Garden member stands before her and

bows slightly towards her.

"Good morning to you. You're the newcomer, correct?"

Rose rubs her eyes sleepily as she nods her head, quickly remembering the

events that took place the previous day.

"O-oh yes, that's me."

The Shadow Garden member nodded and smiled softly.

"Perfect! Lady Alpha requested that I go and retrieve you first thing in the

morning. She asked me to lead you to the main hall so she could reconvene

with you there."

Rose nodded again, still a little bit out of it, and the Shadow Garden member

noticed how disheveled she seemed to be so early in the morning.

"Do you need some time to get ready? There's no rush if you do."

Rose yawned and shook her head.

"N-no, that's quite alright."

She ran her hands through her long hair to try and straighten it out a bit.

She certainly doesn't seem to be much of a morning person…

The Shadow Garden member thought to herself.

"Unfortunately I didn't have the luxury of bringing along any of my toiletries,

not to mention any skincare products or beauty cosmetics."

Rose said as the Shadow Garden member nodded in understanding.

"Ah yes of course, I heard you were a little bit of a sudden case. Don't worry,

we'll make sure you have the basic necessities by the end of the day."

The Shadow Garden member reassured Rose to the best of her ability.

"If you'll simply follow me, I'll take you straight to the main hall. Lady Alpha is

waiting for us as we speak, along with the other newcomer that came in

with you."

Rose's sleepy attitude finally wears off as the Shadow Garden member

brings up Grimm.

"Ah, Grimm is already awake and ready, is he?"

She chuckles lightly.

"That doesn't surprise me for a second."

Rose then looks back at the Shadow Garden member and smiles softly.

"I would be very appreciative if you could lead me to see Lady Alpha now."

The Shadow Garden member bows again.

"Certainly, let's be on our way."

The two of them make their way down to the main hall.

"Oh pardon me I don't believe I asked for your name."

Rose asks the Shadow Garden member and she smiles warmly at Rose.

"Oh you may call me Nu. That is the name that was bestowed upon me by

Master Shadow."

Rose nods.

"It's very nice to meet you Nu."

Nu nods back at her.

"It is nice to meet you as well, Princess Rose."

Rose seems a bit shocked that the Shadow Garden member figured out her

identity so quickly, but it couldn't be helped due to how recognizable her

face was.

Nu turned back around and smiled at Rose once again.

"Oh don't worry, your identity is still being kept under wraps, Lady Alpha

simply informed me of the situation that's all. The other members still have

no idea who you truly are."

Rose sighs and feels a bit more relieved.

"Ah I see, that makes sense."

Nu nods as she continues on walking.

"The very reason why Lady Alpha requested to meet with you so early in the

morning was so that we could continue to keep your identity hidden. Has

she already mentioned the new piece of technology Lady Eta has recently

created?"

Rose thinks for a minute and nods slowly.

"Yeah I believe she did, although she didn't go into too much detail."

Nu finally stopped in front of two large doors that led to the main hall, and

she pushed them open and gestured for Rose to enter.

"Lady Alpha, the newcomers as you requested."

Nu announced to her, and Alpha turned around from what she was doing to

face Rose.

"Oh good timing, thank you Nu that should be all."

Nu bows towards Alpha as she closes the main hall doors behind her.

Rose makes her way up towards where Alpha and Grimm were currently

standing

"Ah good morning Grimm."

Rose said cheerfully and Grimm smiled and nodded back at her.

"Yes, good morning to you as well."

Alpha walked up to Rose after the two of them had exchanged their good

mornings to each other.

"I assume you understand the reason for your being here. Your identity as

the princess of the Oriana Kingdom still needs to be dealt with."

Alpha says, answering her own question before Rose even gets the chance

to respond.

"This device here is the one that I mentioned to you yesterday, the one that

is capable of changing a person's physical appearance."

Rose nodded as she glanced over at the machine currently being operated

on by a young elf girl with long brown hair and dark purple eyes that were

currently being covered by her thick bangs that clearly haven't been

trimmed in quite a while.

"This is our top researcher Lady Eta, she also happens to be one of the

esteemed Seven Shades."

Eta nods sleepily as she looks up at Rose.

"It's…nice….to meet you…"

Rose smiles and returns the greeting back to her as Eta continues to work

on the machine without skipping a beat

"While Eta finishes getting the machine up and running, I'll take this time to

go over your new identities."

Grimm and Rose both looked at Alpha as she continued to speak.

"During your time here in Shadow Garden, you will train under us and fight

alongside us, which means that you will inherently join our ranks as well."

Alpha then points at Rose.

"Since your identity needs to be kept under wraps, both you as well as

Grimm will join us as our newest 'numbered' members."

"Numbered?"

Grimm asks softly as Alpha nods, beginning to clarify.

"There are currently 3 separate groups within Shadow Garden. The highest

of these groups is the Seven Shades and I, Alpha, am the leader of the Seven

Shades. The next highest is the 'named' group, the Shadow Garden member,

Nu, who escorted you both here this morning is one of several named

members within Shadow Garden."

Rose and Grimm both nod as they understand the hierarchy so far.

"Lastly, there are the 'numbers' and they make up the remaining members

of Shadow Garden. Currently, there are 665 members in total, meaning that

as of today…"

Alpha points at Rose suddenly.

"Your new name will be number 666, and your new name will be number

667."

Alpha says as she proceeds to point at Grimm.

"This way, your identities will not be revealed to anyone within Shadow

Garden, or outside of it."

Both Rose and Grimm nod in understanding.

"Yes of course, so we shall refer to each other as those numbers from now

on?"

Grimm asks as Alpha nods in response.

"Precisely."

Suddenly, the sound of snoring echoed throughout the room.

"Hm? Eta?"

Alpha turns around to see the elf girl leaning against her machine and

sleeping soundly, before she wakes up abruptly.

"A-ah, Lady Alpha…"

She yawned sleepily.

"The machine…is all good to go…"

Alpha nods and smiles.

"Good, now then."

She turns to face Rose.

"You'll need to sit on the prepared seat for the desired effect to work. Make

sure not to move until the process is completely over."

Rose nods, moving towards the machine with a hint of nervousness.

"This won't injure her in any way, will it?"

Grimm asks with an air of concern in his voice, and Alpha shakes her head as

she turns to look at Eta.

"No, it shouldn't be painful, isn't that right Eta?"

Eta nods half-heartedly.

"Y-yes…the machine only molds the face using slime…so…there should be no

pain involved."

Alpha nods, seemingly satisfied.

"Right, meaning that the physical change will also not be permanent by any

means either."

Rose nods as she sits down on the machine's chair.

"Alright then, I'm ready."

Alpha nods as she gives the thumbs up to Eta.

Eta then proceeds to place a giant helmet over Rose's head, covering her

entire face.

"Okay…hold still then…"

She moves over to the corner of the room, and starts up the machine.

Suddenly, a bright light emits from the helmet and a loud whirring noise fills

the room.

Rose continues to sit on the seat, not moving her body in the slightest.

However, after a couple of seconds Grimm could hear her make some

muffled sounds from under the helmet.

"U-umm, Lady Eta…are you sure this procedure won't be painful? I mean,

you've tested this before haven't you?"

Eta nods sleepily.

"Y-yes a few times….It shouldn't be painful…probably…"

Her sad attempt at consoling Grimm did not help in the slightest as the

machine continued to whir even louder than before.

The light emitted from the helmet also continued to get brighter and

brighter as Grimm, Eta, and Alpha all watched in anticipation of the result.

Finally, the machine stopped whirring and the light from the helmet

dimmed slowly until it was off completely.

"Can I remove the helmet now?"

Rose asks and Eta nods.

"Yes…that should be fine."

Rose takes off the helmet, revealing her new face for the three of them to

see.

Grimm's jaw drops as he looks at Rose, while he was still well aware that it

was her, the sudden change in appearance almost made him believe that

the woman standing before him was in fact not Princess Rose.

Alpha smiles and nods her head, seemingly very pleased with this outcome.

"Oh wonderful! That took much less time than I anticipated and the change

in appearance is very distinct."

She then turns to face Eta and nods in approval.

"Very nice work Eta, you can take the rest of the day to catch up on your

sleep if you would like."

Eta nods sleepily, feeling the effects of all those late nights staying up and

researching was finally catching up to her.

"Y-yeah…that….sounds fine…"

She moves slowly out of the main hall and closes the door behind her.

Grimm walks up to Rose as he continues to stare at her face intensely, which

in turn causes Rose to feel quite embarrassed as she wasn't used to Grimm

gazing at her like this before.

"D-do I look weird? D-does it look horrible?"

Rose asks in a slightly shaky breath.

Grimm shakes his head immediately.

"N-no not at all! I am simply amazed at how different you look, the machine

really worked!"

Alpha walked up to Rose as she held up a mirror and handed it to her.

"Grimm is right, even though your face has changed, your natural beauty still

remains. Here, have a look."

Rose took the mirror from Alpha's hands and looked at her reflection with a

look of shock on her face.

"Oh my…I really do look entirely different don't I?"

Grimm nods.

"Yes, but don't worry I think this new look suits you quite well."

Rose nods in agreement before frowning slightly.

"However, I wish I had known beforehand that my hair was going to be cut

that short…"

She glances at the cold dead remains of her previous long blonde hair that

lay on the ground at her feet.

Grimm sighs and puts a hand on his chin, looking down at the hair she had

lost as well.

"Yes it is a shame, I quite liked your long hair, but your short hair look is quite

remarkable as well. Plus, having long hair in battles can often be

disadvantageous, so I believe that this new look of yours should be for the

best."

Alpha nods in agreement with his statement.

"Yes that is true, perhaps that is what Lady Eta had in mind when she

prepped the machine beforehand for you."

However, something in the back of Alpha's mind told her that most likely

was not the case.

"Fortunately, it all turned out very well as Princess Rose looks completely

unidentifiable from her previous self, while also maintaining her natural

beauty from before."

She turns to face both Rose and Grimm as she continues speaking.

"That should be all we need to conceal your identities, as Grimm's face is not

recognizable enough to draw in any unwanted attention, there should be no

need for him to undergo any physical change."

Grimm nods in agreement.

"That is true, I don't partake in any fighting tournaments, and the only time I

make public appearances is when I'm accompanying the princess."

Grimm says thoughtfully as Rose touched her new face gently, marveling at

how the texture was indistinguishable from her own skin.

"You'll have to make sure you maintain your new look with your own magic

on a regular basis, otherwise the look will fade and your face will revert back

to normal."

Alpha says as she watches Rose poke and prod her own face.

"And if it ever does begin to revert back to normal, we can always use the

machine again to make sure your face remains in its current state."

Rose nods as she turns towards Alpha with a determined smile.

"Right, I'll be sure to keep up my appearance daily, but what about when I'm

asleep? There's no way I'd be able to have that much magic control when I'm

unconscious…right?"

Alpha nods in agreement with Rose's statement.

"Right you are, which is why the machine also prepares a mold of the face

that you can keep in order to….re-plaster it on every morning."

Alpha walks over to the machine and presses a button which causes the

head compartment to open up, revealing a perfect mold of Rose's current

look that she then puts on a mannequin head.

"Keep this in your room and it'll help you re-apply this look onto your face

every day. Think of it like a very detailed form of makeup that you have to do

every morning when you wake up."

Alpha hands Rose the mannequin head with the mold of her face on it as

she continues speaking.

"You'll just use your slime magic on the mannequin head to copy the face,

then you'll re-apply it to your face. It'll take only 30 seconds or so every

morning, but you must not ever forget to do it."

Rose nodded as she understood.

"Okay yeah that sounds simple enough, it's like a very high quality makeup

product I guess…but wait, you said I needed to use some specific kind of

magic in order to keep up this appearance right?"

Alpha nods at Rose's question.

"Yes that's correct, the face mask is created using a certain type of slime

magic, which actually brings us to our next important topic of discussion for

today."

Alpha claps her hands together twice and the doors to the main hall swung

open, revealing a Shadow Garden member who made their way inside

before closing the doors behind herself.

As she walked up towards the three of them, Rose noticed that she had long

white hair that was partially tied behind her head in a ponytail, and a

noticeable scar over her right eye.

"This is Lambda, she is one of the named members of our corps and will be

your training instructor moving forward."

Alpha said as she turned to face Rose.

"She will teach you all of what you need to know during your time here at

Shadow Garden, she is also aware of your true identity, but she will call you

by your numbered name."

Lambda nodded at Alpha's explanation as she continued to look towards

Rose.

Rose in turn, bowed towards Lambda.

"It is nice to meet you Lambda, I sincerely look forward to training under

you."

Lambda nodded again with her serious demeanor unchanging.

"It is nice to meet you too, number 666, I expect great things from you."

Alpha nods approvingly at the exchange of greetings between them, before

turning quickly back to Lambda.

"You may start her training today Lambda, and see to it that you start with

teaching her basic slime magic first since she needs to use it properly in

order to maintain her outward appearance."

Lambda bows towards Alpha after she was done speaking.

"Of course Lady Alpha, I will see to it that it will get done."

Lambda then turns to Rose and gestures for her to follow along behind her,

and Rose quickly adheres to her as they both make their way out of the

main hall.

"Good luck at training today, Grimm!"

Rose says as she turns around and waves towards him, and he smiles and

waves back at her gently.

"It's number 667 now, but same to you, number 666."

Rose chuckles in embarrassment as she rubs her head.

"O-oh right of course, good luck number 667!"

Grimm waves at her until she's out of sight, chuckling softly at the confusing

predicament of their newfound identities.

"Now as for you, number 667."

Alpha says, snapping Grimm back to reality as he turns to face her yet again.

"Given the information that Shadow Garden already has on the Oriana royal

family, I understand that you are already quite a capable swordsman as well

as warrior."

Grimm nods softly.

"Yes that's true, but I still have much to learn."

Alpha nods in agreement.

"With that being said, picking a training instructor for you was quite a

difficult task indeed. Seeing as how you are nowhere close to a novice, you

could most likely rival most of our training instructors right away."

Alpha says as she begins walking across the hall, with Grimm following close

behind her.

"As it stands now, Shadow Garden is already stretched a little too thin for my

liking, and having two newcomers at the same time certainly doesn't help

things."

Alpha says as Grimm hums softly.

"I apologize for our inconvenience-"

Alpha held up a hand to stop him from speaking as she opened some side

doors that led to a narrow hallway out of the main hall.

"There's no need to apologize at all, I was just explaining the state of our

organization to you that's all. This applies to you because I've made the

executive decision to assign you to one of the Seven Shades."

This caught Grimm's attention as he remembered that the Seven Shades

were considered the highest ranked group in Shadow Garden.

"Oh is that so? I understand the lengths you went through to accommodate

both the prince-I mean number 666 and I, so I will do my best to not waste

their time, and I will ensure that I learn quickly."

Alpha nods as she makes her way out of the narrow hallway and enters a

large training auditorium, where both she and Grimm were met with the

sight of a whirlwind of devastation, with training dummies and Shadow

Garden members alike being thrown in all directions.

Grimm stands at the entrance not quite sure what to make of the scene

unfolding before him, but Alpha walks up into the midst calmly.

"Delta! That's enough!"

Suddenly, all the motion in the auditorium came to a halt as the dark haired,

purple eyed beastkin girl, who was primarily the one responsible for this

chaos, turned to look towards Alpha.

"Lady Alpha!"

She exclaimed as she jumped towards her but Alpha held up her hand to

stop her gently.

"I brought someone for you to train with, and I want you to help them

become stronger."

Alpha said to her as Delta looked up at her curiously, her arms still

outstretched towards her in hopes that she could still tackle her to the

ground in a bear hug.

"Lady Alpha brought me someone to play with?!"

Her tail starts wagging back and forth excitedly.

"No, not to play with, to train with, make sure you do your best to train him

and help him grow."

Delta slouches her shoulders a bit as she softens her voice.

"B-but Delta has never trained people before…"

Alpha nods and places a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I brought this new member to you because I believe he could potentially

match your strength one day, just do what you do best and spar with him.

By having him fight you, I think he'll become stronger."

Delta looks up excitedly.

"So I can play with him!"

Her tail wags back and forth even faster than before.

Alpha stammers and then sighs.

"Yes, but go easy on him at first please."

Delta nods enthusiastically as she hugs Alpha tightly.

"Delta will go easy on him! Thank you Lady Alpha!"

Alpha smiles softly and rubs her head.

"Remember what I said, teach him how to fight better, can you do that?"

Delta nods earnestly and lets go of Alpha, setting her eyes on Grimm as if he

were nothing more than a treat to be devoured.

"Delta will teach this new toy to fight better!"

Alpha nods as she begins walking away.

"This new toy's name is number 667, please don't break him Delta."

Alpha says as she walked up to Grimm and placed a hand on his shoulder

before exiting the training room.

"You said yourself that you needed to become stronger, so I chose the

strongest fighter we have in Shadow Garden to train you. As you can see, she

is not that great of a teacher, but if you are truly as talented as people say

you are, then I believe you'll be able to train yourself under her example."

Grimm nodded as he understood her reasoning.

"Thank you Lady Alpha, I won't waste this opportunity that you've given me."

Alpha nods and smiles softly at him, before whispering to him quietly.

"Good luck."

And with that, Alpha exited the auditorium, leaving Grimm and Delta alone

to train together.

"This is unacceptable! Complete and utter failure!"

The soldier of the Cult of Diablos flinched when his bad news caused one of

the leaders of the cult to slam their fists down on their desk in rage.

"Not only were they unsuccessful in capturing Princess Alexia, but the

princess that they did capture managed to escape within the span of a few

hours!"

Despite being an old man, the cult leader had surprising strength in his fury.

"I-I was also told to report that Lutheran Barnett was publicly declared to be

deceased just a few hours ago by the Crimson Order, and he is currently

being blamed entirely for the attack and destruction of the school. The cult

has henceforth cut all ties and any past connections with him so there

should be nothing that leads the authorities back to us."

The old man sighs annoyedly as he rests his head on his hands.

"Well good riddance! With a failure like that, Lutheran would've been hunted

down by the cult and killed anyway, it certainly saves me the time and

trouble of tying up loose ends."

He composes himself slightly as he digests the information.

"Our track covering skills are still as good as ever I see, so that's at least

something...But how the hell did this assignment fail so spectacularly?!"

The soldier nodded as he quickly flipped over to the next page of his notes.

"Apparently the entire attack was thwarted by the appearance of the real

Shadow Garden, we believe that because we were under the guile of their

name, it provoked them to make a move on us."

"Damn it! How did those idiots approve of this plan…."

The old man slammed his fists down on the table again as he scratched his

head and rubbed his face anxiously.

"Be sure to relay back to the other Knight of Rounds that we are to never

operate under the Shadow Garden name again, it's too risky and it could

provoke even more unnecessary trouble for us in the future….We'll continue

to stick with pinning situations on insignificant bandit groups."

The soldier nodded as he wrote down in his notes.

"Of course sir."

The old man sighed and rubbed his eyes in exhaustion.

The soldier saw his distress and debated about whether or not he should

speak up about it.

"Are the higher ups continuing to dump their work on you, sir?"

The soldier asked simply and the old man groaned and rubbed his eyes

some more.

"They've never stopped dumping all their dirty work over to me, it's such a

pain in the ass….I need a vacation."

The soldier nods as he puts away his notepad.

"Well you should take one sir, you've done enough that you deserve it."

The old man shook his head as he stood up.

"I can't, the church has been too busy lately, plus, we have the Goddess's

Trial coming up shortly, and I have to be present for it."

He began to put on his church robes and archbishop's gown.

"Just make sure that the information I gave you gets relayed back properly, I

can't handle these setbacks anymore and I won't tolerate them in the

future."

The soldier bows immediately.

"Yes sir!"

As the soldier leaves his office, the old man sighs once again.

"What a disaster….These kids need to stop being given so much power, they

don't have enough experience to properly lead the cult and it's

embarrassing for the rest of us."

He shakes his head and chuckles.

"It's no matter, any revenue that we lost will be easily made back by the

Goddess's Trial that the church holds every year, so this setback shouldn't

prolong things by that much."

He turns toward the mirror to adjust his clothes and make himself look

presentable before he sighs once again.

"I really need that vacation…"

Cid stares at the recent destruction of their school, although the majority of

the campus remained mostly intact aside from a few broken doors and

windows, the schools auditorium was completely eviscerated.

"Hmmm…."

Cid leans on the railing with a bored expression plastered across his face.

Looks like everything has died down now, and the destruction isn't too

bad…They should have the school fixed before too long.

Cid thinks to himself as the wind breezes through his hair gently.

I'm glad they let us stay in the dorms till the school was repaired, going

back home would mean having to interact with my sister on a regular basis

again, and that sounds kinda tedious.

"Oh, Cid?"

A familiar voice called out to him, and he turned around to spot the pink

haired and pink eyed girl that he was now acquainted with.

"Oh hey Sherry, did you come to look at the school too?"

Cid asks as Sherry nods and walks up to lean on the railing beside him.

"I did. Since it'll be the last time I'm able to look at my former school before I

leave."

Cid looks over at her slightly perplexed.

"Before you leave?"

Sherry nods solemnly.

"Yes, after all, my father was the one responsible for the attack on our school,

so I have no real reason to continue attending here…."

She says this with her head hung low.

Cid thought about how to respond to Sherry's devastation.

Finding out that your adopted father is secretly a terrorist certainly wouldn't

be easy to talk about.

"Well of course you could still attend here, it's not as if you were to blame for

the destruction of the school, it was Shadow Garden that did it."

Sherry shakes her head.

"No, actually it was Shadow Garden who saved the students from my father,

that's what the Crimson Order said anyway….I'm not really sure what to

believe anymore if you want the truth…"

"Shadow Garden huh? I've been hearing a lot about them lately…I heard

some students also talking about some secret cult organization that might

be behind the attack yesterday too."

Cid says as he thinks back on the rumors that he had heard yesterday, even

though most of them were just from Skel and Po who were running wild

with their imaginations.

"Is that so?"

Sherry says with a quiver in her voice.

Cid stays silent for a few seconds, pondering what to say next.

"It must be hard thinking about it, but I'm sure your father had a good

reason for doing what he did, after all you and him were really close weren't

you? I'm sure he's always had your best interest in mind."

Cid lies blatantly to her face without a second's hesitation.

Sherry nods as she smiles softly, a single tear runs down her face before she

wipes it off and turns away from Cid.

"I-I'm glad that you made it out of the school safely Cid, I was worried about

you…"

Cid nods as he turns his gaze back towards the tattered school again.

"Yeah I'm glad that you made it out safely too, without you the school

might've been damaged more than it already is, not to mention all the

students being severely injured too. You should be proud of yourself Sherry."

Sherry sniffles a bit before she regains herself and smiles weakly at Cid.

"Thank you Cid, your kindness means a lot, I'm sorry that our time together

will be cut short here, even if I could stay at this school….I think it would just

be too hard on me."

Cid nods softly at her explanation.

"I see, where will you go now?"

Sherry takes a deep breath before she says.

"I'm heading out of the country to go study abroad, there are several schools

that are offering to accept me, so I'll have to choose one by tonight."

Cid nods as he watches Sherry begin to turn around to leave.

"Take care of yourself Cid, I hope our paths will cross again someday."

Cid turned towards her as she walked towards a nearby carriage and he

walked up beside her to offer her a hand in getting inside.

"Thank you Cid."

Sherry said softly as she took his hand and climbed up the steps into the

carriage.

"Take care of yourself too, Sherry."

Cid said as he backed away from the carriage slightly.

She nods and smiles as she waved to him before the doors closed

"Bye Cid."

She says softly as the doors closed and the carriage began trotting away.

Cid waved to her through the window and Sherry did the same until they

were both out of sight of each other.

It's too bad that Sherry chose to leave the school, she was an excellent

researcher and scientist, a little bit like Eta I suppose.

Cid thinks as he begins walking back through the town.

"Guess I should pick up something to eat now."

After Cid made his way back to the dorms, Sherry was already packing up

everything into small boxes to prepare for her departure in the morning.

"My father would never do something like that, someone must be behind

it…"

She says quietly to herself as she had an array of newspapers and articles

about the incident scattered around her room.

She had scanned every newspaper and article to the letter, and had found

nothing significant about the motives behind the attack.

Assistant School Principal Launches Terrorist Attack on His Own School for

Ransom Money!

Most of the headlines circled around this motive, but Sherry couldn't bring

herself to accept it as fact.

"No no no! It's all wrong! All of it!"

She says as she throws the newspapers across the room in a fit of anger and

desperation.

"He was set up! He was framed! Someone else is behind this!"

Tears start rolling down her face once again as she claws at her face in

frustration.

"He would never! MY FATHER IS NOT A-"

Sherry stops herself as tears stream down her face, and she glances at a bit

of an article that caught her attention.

Terrorist Group Thwarted in Attack on Midgar Academy! Is This the Work of

a Secret Underground Organization? Conspiracy Theorists Offer Valuable

Insight on Page 67!

Sherry had read every article that she had found about the recent attack on

their school, but she had seemed to skim over this one as it was dealing with

conspiracies.

"Secret Organizations….Is that what Cid was talking about today?"

Sherry says as she began wiping away her tears and reading the article on

page 67, where she then saw something that piqued her interest greatly.

…and many anonymous students at Midgar Academy have also claimed

the same thing, with one of our anonymous interviewees stating, 'We hid in

the lockers during the attack and heard the terrorists call out to each other

to talk about some cult, about some mission that they were assigned to

that day, their voices were a bit muffled but it's the truth!'

Sherry's eyes widened at this revelation.

"A cult….That is what Cid told me today….A secret organization behind the

attack?"

Sherry nods slowly as she begins to start laughing.

"Haha yes yes! This must be true! It was their fault! They forced my father to

do this! That's the only explanation!"

Sherry falls into a fit of giggling as tears continue to roll down her cheeks.

"I'll prove it….I'll clear my father's name…"

She rips out the article in the newspaper and stuffs it into her briefcase

nearby.

"I'll avenge you father, I'll find this cult and make them pay for what they did

to you!"

She spotted her book on rare artifacts on her desk and picked that up next.

"Were you truly able to get your hands on the Eye of Avarice, father?"

Sherry mumbled quietly to herself as she flipped through the pages of the

book, and for the first time in her life, started wondering about how these

artifacts could be used as weapons instead of pillars of research.

"I'll find this cult, I'll kill them…."

Sherry felt rage well up inside her, the likes of which she had never felt

before, and she slammed her hands down on her desk as she screamed out.

"I'LL KILL THEM ALL! I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE FOR WHAT THEY DID TO

YOU FATHER! I'LL KILL THEM, I WON'T LET THEM LIVE, I-"

She began to sink down into a fit of laughter and tears, as she buried her

face into her own hands, feeling utterly helpless and frustrated.

"I'll kill them….I'll kill them….I'll kill them…."

Sherry repeated to herself through her tear-stained hands, taking a few

moments before she gathered herself emotionally and began looking over

her list of school choices that she had to pick from in order to study abroad.

"I'll dedicate my whole life towards this if that's what it takes…"

She says as she made her final decision, tossing the other school acceptance

letters in the garbage as she held in her hands the world renowned Velgalta

School of Magic in the Velgalta Empire.

As Sherry looked over her decision to study under some of the greatest and

most powerful magic users in the entire world, she felt a sense of

determination fester within her.

This determination burned inside of her like a small flame, ready to ignite

the way forward, and if necessary, scorch and destroy anything that stood in

its path.

"I'll find them, father, and I'll make them answer for what they did to you, I

swear it."