Chapter 165: Failed Monster

"Where's Mari!?" I ask her two friends but they shake their heads as they too didn't notice her leaving. The old men are the same. We were so distracted by the battle that we didn't notice her missing. This is giving me flashback to that time in one of Necromancer's tomb… when I lost people under my command.

"We have to search for-" I cut my words when I notice her heading out of the walls… straight to the direction of that monster. I also notice Akane going in the same direction.

"Alpha-sensei! What's going on?" Aki asks as she hasn't noticed her friend plunging herself to danger.

"Aragaki-dono and Goro-dono. Can you both gather everyone who's still alive and escort them to the escape tunnels?"

"That girl went outside, didn't she?" Goro-dono remarks with understanding.

"What!? Mari-chan!? What is she doing out—No… She can't be…!" Shiina reaches her conclusion due to her knowledge that Mari was looking to avenge her brother's death at the hands of Necromancer, something I wouldn't know if I didn't eavesdrop on their conversations with my enhanced hearing.

"We have to help her!" Aki exclaims as already jumps away towards the direction where her friend is currently heading towards without even waiting for my cue.

"Alpha-dono. Please save that foolish girl before her lust for vengeance and sense of righteousness kills her." Goro-dono begs me while bowing his head.

"That's my intention. Let's go, Shiina." I say as I start chasing the two girls who are carrying burdens of their own, with Shiina in tow.

I hope these two can convince the two of them to abandon their reckless suicidal mission. If not, I shall knock them out and carry them to safety before they reach that monster, especially when he's about to unleash that eldritch abomination upon us.

I head towards the direction of my brother… who is possessed by evil, dispatching zombies and monsters on the way.

In the middle of the way, I met Akane-chan, who seems to have the same idea as me.

"You should leave, Akane-chan." I say to my best friend, who looks… determined to die… just like I am.

"No. YOU should leave." She responds without looking at my direction.

"This is my fight." I press on.

"No. It's mine."

Looks like neither of us are going to give up.

"This is… personal, Akane-chan. I have to stop him."

"What a coincidence. It's personal for me too." She replies. Of course I know how personal it is for her… because my brother was her classmate. She has told me her secret and I've yet to reciprocate.

"The Occult Killer… Miyazaki Tetsuya… was… is… my brother." I finally confess. Her eyes widen because she never know this despite being friends with me for years. We both stop right then and there as she stares at me in disbelief.

"I knew it was him years ago… when I discovered his diary in his apartment. As his sister… it's my responsibility to-"

"He'll kill you, Mari-chan! He has changed!"

"I know he won't. He didn't do it the last time we met…"

"You don't understand!"

"No! YOU don't understand! He is my brother! He will listen to me!"

"Mari-chan! He's…"

"He's a monster. I know. But he is also my brother… while you're just his classmate. Or… were you his secret girlfriend all along?"

"No."

"Then why are you so insistent on confronting him?" Why, Akane-chan? Do you want to die so bad?

"Because I… like him… am a monster!"

"What do you mean? You're-"

"I am the Original Knight." She drops a bomb that even I didn't expect.

"I am the monster who destroyed Arcadia and slaughtered hundreds… perhaps thousands of innocent people. I volunteered myself to become the one of the test subjects to create the first awakeners back in Arcadia… in order to become a hero like Minoru-kun did… but I failed… becoming a monster instead."

"But your hair-"

"Perhaps it changes to blonde when I am out of control."

"Then that doesn't make you a monster, Akane-chan! It's out of your control!"

"The same could be said of you. You're just his sister. What he did wasn't your responsibility."

We kept going back and forth about which one of us should be the one to risk her life to stop my brother. This is getting us nowhere. It seems that there's only one choice.

"Let's go together then." I hold out my hand to her and she grabs it while nodding. We continue running towards the direction where we feel the greatest amount of magic power without letting go of each other's hands.

Strangely we encounter no obstacle… The enemy army parts, giving us free pass to go deeper and deeper into their ranks… as if welcoming us.

"Mari-chan! Akane-chaaan!" We hear Aki-chan's voice behind us but we ignore her and increase our speed, not letting her catch up with us, hoping that she'll just give up and leave. But I somewhat doubt she will do that. She's… too attached to me and would gladly give up her life for me just because I've saved her life in the past… and I don't want that.

Due to encountering no obstacles we finally reach him… my brother… the Occult Killer… still wearing that black robe and terrifying skull mask with his ominous red eyes shining inside its eye sockets. He's sitting on that floating throne of his which is decorated with bones, with Astaroth and Tamamo-no-Mae standing at his sides grinning amusedly, anticipating a show. But his attention however is not on us.

"Occult Killer!" I shout at him in order to draw his attention but he still didn't pay attention to us, as if we're insects that don't deserve his attention.

"Tetsuya-kun! It's time to stop!" Akane-chan shouts his name and that finally got his attention. Tamamo-no-Mae and Astaroth raise their eyebrows at the mention of the name, perhaps not anticipating the namedrop.

"I've long since abandoned that name. Address me as the Occult Killer here." He says in that terrifying voice of his… only addressing Akane-chan and intentionally ignoring me.

"Whatever! It's time for you to stop this madness!"

"Heh. And what are you going to do if I don't?"

"We'll kill you!" Akane-chan declares, with her red katana pointed at him… which is taken as a joke by him and the two minions he has at his sides.

"Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! You!? Kill me!?" He laughs before suddenly appearing in front her, pointing her own katana at her face. Both of us didn't even notice when he did that. "Now tell me how you're going to do that." Akane-chan is speechless while her own weapon is pointed against her.

"Are you afraid then, Occult Killer? At engaging two girls in a sword fight?" I say as I transform my wand into a katana and adopt a kendo stance.

"Ha! Interesting. I shall indulge you in this game then. Do make this entertaining, will you?" He says as he throws Akane-chan's katana back to her before walking back and summoning a western style runed sword to his hand, only facing us when he's far enough. Akane-chan takes back her katana and also adopts the kendo stance. This will be the ultimate test… where we shall use all of Goro-sensei's teachings to fight him.

"Come." He says while motioning us to come without even adopting a stance. We both rush at him at the same time, attacking him from two sides.

He parries both of our sword strikes with his sword and pushes us back.

We didn't give up and jump at him again. I try to feint an attack while Akane-chan attack him from behind but he blocks her attack and slash my torso through my weapon, leaving me with a not so deep wound. But it wasn't the pain that shocks me… it's how willing he is to harm me. I suppose I was too arrogant in thinking he wouldn't do that. Perhaps Akane-chan is right. He has changed… more than I anticipated.

"Agh!" It's at this moment that someone catches me from behind.

"Alpha… sensei…" I call out to her weakly as I see Aki-chan and Shiina-chan joins the fray, with dragon shaped aura covering her body like an armor.

"Haaah… You're not the only one with burdens. Remember that." She sighs and scolds as she quickly heals my wound and joins the fray herself.

"Ah. You're here, No. 001. This should finally be interesting." He calls out to Alpha-sensei, referring to her with numbers, which I don't understand the context of, but it seems to anger her as she and my bother fought at such high speed that I could barely follow their movements.

"How did they…"

"Is that Alpha-sensei's true power?" Aki-chan and Shiina-chan mutters as they too couldn't believe what's happening and can only watch as they couldn't keep up with Alpha-sensei's movements.

*CLANG CLANG CLANG*

Their blades clash, occasionally generating shockwaves that blows wind around us. We still couldn't see them besides slight blurs.

Suddenly the spectre of death appears in front of me, intending to cut me down. Alpha-sensei appears just in time to parry his attack. They continue fighting at high speed afterwards just as I drop to my knees.

"Why…?" Unlike last time… he tried to kill me. It seems that he is long gone… I was too naïve. My eyes gets wet as I now know that my brother is lost.

"Mari-chan…" Akane-chan calls out to me with her hand in my shoulder. She smiles uneasily as if saying goodbye without saying it.

Don't do it, Akane-chan… I want to say but the words couldn't escape my lips due to my shock.

She stands up and… with the magic control training we received from Alpha-sensei, slowly raises her power level, tapping into her innate magic previously untapped. The amount of magic I'm feeling from her is higher than what I've felt out of her up until this time. Her power level goes so high that the tips of her hair start to become blonde followed by golden colored aura covering her body. Her power level rising got the attention of everyone present, even Alpha-sensei and the Occult Killer stops their fight as their attention is stolen by her.

"Heh heh heh. She has returned." The Occult Killer remarks amusedly.

"What do you mean?" Alpha-sensei asks as she didn't know the history of Arcadia.

"The monster created by humanity, who went berserk and destroyed a settlement called Arcadia all by herself… the one whom these fools almost mistake you for… the monster known as the Original Knight." Just as he finishes, Akane-chan's hair turns fully blonde. She opens her glowing… empty eyes and grips her katana tighter as she locks her eyes at the Occult Killer. The sight of her blonde hair shocks Aki-chan and Shiina-chan, who are shocked that their friend is the Original Knight herself. Alpha-sensei is also shocked but her reaction is more subdued.

"Akane-chaaaan!" I shout as she jumps at the Occult Killer.

But in an instant, she's slammed into the ground by the force of the Occult Killer pushing her down with his sword when he blocks her attack. The impact created a small crater on the ground with her at the center. No matter how powerful she is… she is still not even close to his level.

"A monster you are… but so very disappointing. All that power and yet you can barely control yourself. You failed at being a hero due to being a monster… and yet you're not even strong enough to be a proper monster. A failure is all that you are." The Occult Killer remarks mockingly as Akane-chan lost her consciousness, her blonde hair returns to black.

"Hmph. You all bore me. None of you are worthy as my opponent." He says, still in that scary voice.

"You're going to kill us all then? Before you unleash that eldritch abomination of yours?" Alpha-sensei replies. What eldritch abomination?

"Funny you say that. But I didn't unleash him. He unleashed himself." He says ominously as both of them look at the sky.

It is in that moment that we all notice how the blood red sky has been split apart, revealing pitch black darkness underneath the veil filled with countless shining red orbs staring at us all with great hatred… though I have a feeling that the hatred is not directed at our group.

"What is…"

"Is that… Cthulhu?" Aki-chan and Shiina-chan mutter in disbelief at the alien sight above us. That pitch black darkness is similar to the black portals that summoned the monsters to our world years ago… but as we feel the hatred out of that creature… we feel its power level… which is so high that even the Occult Killer's own power feels small in comparison. What kind of monster is that!?

"It's good that you've finally paid attention to me, Thanatos. I almost thought you'd forgotten about me." The Occult Killer taunts that monster. What is he doing?

"Stop it! Onii-" I try to stop him from taunting that monster but…

*STAB*

"Aghhhh…!" Breath leaves my mouth as his sword stabs me in the chest. Even he is startled at what happened as his shining red eyes can't stop staring at me and his own sword which has pierced my chest, spilling fresh blood to the ground.

"Nee… Onii-chan. Will you always be kind to me? Will you always stay by my side even when you get a girlfriend?"

"I thought YOU want to be my girlfriend."

"I've grown past that phase, Onii-chan! Just answer me!"

"Of course I will! It's what brothers do after all!"

Thoughts of my beloved brother… when he was… kinder to me… flood my mind as my vision gets darker and darker.

"Onii…. -chan…" I mutter weakly as my consciousness slowly fades away.

The last things I hear before losing consciousness are the screams of my friends… and an alien screech.

Author's Note:

Oh… he has went and done it. What happens now? Find out in the next episode of The Eldritch in Shadow 2!

Also, check out my Deviant Art ominousrain as I've drawn several light novel style artworks for chapter 1 – 50 (not for every chapters, of course).

TheVirtualPug: protect the imouto.

Answer: S-Slay the imouto

Guest: So his sister did find the diary after all. I wonder how happy he will be to learn where he inherited his evilness from. Though I don't think he'll be happy to know that his father wants to use him as a tool.

Answer: It will be an interesting meeting to write, that's for sure

borregodillon9: Another great chapter

Answer: Thank you.

Guest: Any chance we'll see adra's backstory and how life was him with delta and what did he do when delta was possessed

Answer: Perhaps in the side story of this fanfic, Records of the Seven Wraiths.

DerTrap: ...

I bet 5 dollars that his fathers plan will absolutely go south, since he is too pathetic to actually be a threat for Necromancer. I wouldn't even be surprised if at the end he will end up as either A: a zombie or B: another pawn for Necromancer.

Answer: You shall see what will happen to him. At least I hope his father will also shine as a villain before his inevitable end though.