It was tradition for the Bushin Festival for her as the only member of the Royal family present to warmly greet Orianna's representative to the festival now that they were moving on to the main matches. Now that the actual nobility would be starting to watch.
She hadn't.
Alexia sat in her seat in the Royal box for viewing the upcoming tournament. For instead the two delegations were staring daggers at one another and she could give Perv the side eye without a care in the world of being reprimanded.
In fact they were gleefully following her lead as she ignored the man and avoiding looking across the aisle at all. On the Orianna side it was perhaps worse not for their silence but because more than three quarters of the seats they'd been allocated were still bare. His own cohort refusing to show their faces and be associated with him.
But then they'd had to triple the guard for this arena just because so many swordsmen were walking around with daggers in their eyes after his abysmal actions yesterday, so he deserved it. And as the man paced in front of no one he clearly knew it, looking to each new guest as though they might break his isolation even as none chose to.
She was almost enjoying it too much, the act of watching him walk on eggshells that she missed the start. The slight clinking as the next guest stepped into the room.
People were staring around her, and she turned to the cause of their focus. Wrapped in a cloak of the darkest night and towering over everyone else in the room the figure that entered was huge. The tallest person in the room by a full head even as his face was shrouded in darkness by the wide brimmed hat covering him.
She tensed in her own head even as she saw none of the guards daring to stop him. A flash of colour revealing the symbol of the royal family of Orianna emblazoned on the clasp of his cloak even as he stooped down to kneel before Orianna's throne. A voice rasping and echoing falling from the being as it spoke. "Your highness."
Rose smiled back at him from the throne as though she'd always been sitting there even if she had never seen her arrive. "In light of Perv's abysmal failures over the last few days he has been dismissed allowing you to represent Orianna any further will only ruin our reputation. You may leave."
Perv looked caught between confusion and fear as he watched the knight that had come alongside her. "While it is a pleasure to see you your highness, I have been entrusted with this task by his Majesty you can't just dismiss me." He chuckled nervously to the crowd.
Noone laughed back.
Even his own cohort were kindly finding the time to look out the window at the battleground despite it being empty. A quiet silence as accusing stares found themselves trying to bore into his back.
Perv straightened himself up his voice regaining some of its command. "Your highness you were missing and…" It broke in a stutter moments later. "I was doing, doing my best to find you I, I assure you."
Rose looked down at him in concern. "Many combatants who are preparing for their place in the tournament spend their last days training, I even left a message with the guard. Even if you were to be surprised by such an event it should be left to Midgar who at least know the lay of the land. Yet instead you blatantly disregarded our host and embarrassed Orianna. Is it any wonder you've been dismissed?"
Perv looked like he wanted to interrupt and speak for himself. But all he could do was slowly massage his neck and look on in horror. His legs shaking ever so slightly as he looked back.
Rose continued. "Never mind that allowing you to continue well." She gestured to Alexia herself and the nobles around her. "It doesn't seem like our host feels that you're welcome either now does it?"
Father wasn't here, Iris was off preparing for her match. Alexia smiled as she gave her verdict. "Naturally Midgar acknowledges the heir to the throne acting in his Majesty's stead."
Her nobles followed her lead even as Perv looked at her in panic. "This is an internal affair of the Orianna Kingdom and." Perv sputtered midsentence eyes turning back to the throne.
Rose interrupted his stutter. "This is a diplomatic meeting between Midgar and the Orianna Kingdom." It was simple enough even an idiot would understand. Yet Perv looked trapped between fear and horror as Rose met his gaze.
He braced himself and spoke again. "Even if I was to be dismissed it would be by his Majesties words and not by yours."
Rose smiled wider at those words. "Oh, then has anyone seen my father throughout this entire trip. He is supposed to be here but when I asked last no one has met him. Well except Perv supposedly."
Silence greeted her question as everyone knew that King Raphael hadn't come out of his embassy for even a moment. The accusation hanging in the air even without her saying it. Perv could clearly see the way the wind was blowing as well for he offered an excuse. "His Majesty is ill and is thus unable to take any visitors at this moment."
Alexia smiled because she was of course only being nice. "If the King's health is in such a state, would it be acceptable for Midgars Royal Physicians to lend their help?"
"THERE IS NO NEED." Perv was clearly panicking even as he tried to control himself. His eyes darting around the room as he breathed deeper to calm himself down. "Our own people have checked and all his Majesty needs is rest and quiet that you will be disturbing if you go there now."
Alexia smiled sweetly. "The offer is still open if you want it Rose."
Rose smiled back at the both of them. "That would be wonderful and Orianna would love to have a second opinion on my Father's condition. Especially if he is so very ill that only Perv himself has been allowed to see him prior to this. I am concerned for my father's health to know you think he is so ill."
Perv looked lost and the knight behind Rose moved appearing to tower over him directly. "Surely you want us to see him more than anyone else, if the King does still support you of course."
Perv nodded his head glumly in response unable to mouth any words against it.
"Well, the foe has made a move it seems Gaunt, but this Shadow did he have any notable features by your reckoning." Mordred tapped his fingers against the armrest next to him as he watched the events unfolding.
"He is unassuming enough to sit right next to Fenrir and be thought of as an afterthought." Gaunt sipped from his own wine glass in their private smaller viewing box.
That settled things quickly enough. "He's not two and a half meters tall then I take it? Another monster has turned up it seems." The familiar he had following them would be all he sent then. To silence Perv more than anything else.
Alexia's own guards kept step away from the Orianna's group with Beatrix standing between them. Marco, Hubb and the far more reassuring four members of Shadow Garden whom Natsume had lent to her for this excursion.
The other side had Rose standing heedlessly as ten soldiers she wouldn't trust to guard anyone marched in a diamond formation around her. But then the giant was shadowing her by a single step and perhaps he was strong enough that it wouldn't matter.
Perv himself was trailing them like a man for the gallows. Which even more than Rose's confidence made this journey a formality that everyone knew what they would find. She was half waiting to give the order for her own knights to pounce on him before he tried anything.
As much as Midgar would cheer it, it would cause trouble for Rose and Orianna if Midgar actually killed their chancellor before he was found guilty. Afterwards wouldn't be much of a problem at all.
Perv clicked his fingers and the normal guards from Orianna moved. Ten swords drawn as they turned to the man in the centre for an instant before the whirlwind reaped their lives. A single rotation cleaving all ten of them in half as armour and flesh parted. "Is that all?"
Perv stared over to her group pleading. She didn't even like him but clearly the executioner present was never going to spare him now even before they reached the king. His own actions more than an indictment enough. Even as a tiny spark appeared in her vision hanging over them all.
"You've." The rest of Pervs words vanished as they were devoured by the wind around her.
A flash of movement and Rose was flung through the air towards her, crashing into one of her guards even as the giant moved. His overwhelming form appearing between the group of them and Perv as the scythe came round.
Fire crashed down like a wave as Perv died and the torrent raced towards them, the manifestation of magic easily greater than anything her sister had produced in her life. Azrael parted it with a single swing one massive scythe blowing it away.
The wind from the clash leaving the cloak billowing out behind it as the monster inside was revealed. For even as the blank face continued to look forward a thousand eyes across its form stared back at them, a twisting mass of rotting flesh like the possessed shifting beneath.
Then eight more arms reached up from the abomination and pulled its cloak back down until it was wrapped around it once more. The fire passing until it could almost pretend to be human once more.
"Your highness may I pursue our attacker." Closer now she saw under the brim of its hat, a blank face devoid of feature looking down at her. The voice she'd once thought of as odd now reverberated inhumanly in her back now that she'd seen it truly, and she turned to Rose.
Who merely smiled sweetly back at the monstrosity. "Go Azrael and hunt those who are our enemies."
Was she the only one who had seen it? Her friend hadn't been phased in the slightest to see her guardian was secretly an abomination underneath the cloak. A quick glance around showed that the Shadow Garden girls had the swords pointed at him now, Marco and Hubb were eyeing it in horror. Only Beatrix wasn't looking at it in some kind of disbelief and yet her friend was calm.
Then he was gone, a single bound enough to take him over the rooftops. She breathed in again and plastered nice Alexia's most charming smile to hide her unease. "Rose about your knight."
Rose's expression didn't change in the slightest. "I know full well who he is beneath the cloak and have always done so. You can rest assured there is nothing to fear from him."
She had never before known that her friend was that twisted deep inside. Perhaps she should have known because Rose was happy and nice and so clearly was the most unbalanced of all of them.
"I believe she is more appropriate." Beatrix entered the conversation. "The possessed are always female whenever they turn, and Azrael is quite clearly one of them confined to a suit of armour."
Rose merely shook her head smiling. "I know Azrael is a guy he did it to himself intentionally, just as he can cure the possessed, he also used that same power to mutate his form to one more appropriate for the fight ahead."
Someone chose to carve themselves a prison of rotting flesh and suffering. She felt like retching at the thought of it even as she remembered Rose standing perfectly at ease next to him throughout their entire journey. "I see."
Rose nodded in acceptance and turned back towards the alleyway next to them. "Natsume you can come out as well we might as well let you witness since you've come."
Shadow Garden's resident author stepped out with a few guards, her smile as fake as her own and nodded. "Then let us go."
He surged forward a scythe passing through the source of the flames, the incomplete existence that had fired that attack shattering in the first blow. His own senses pulling out into the distance as he sought for whoever had been controlling it.
Only a vague direction back towards the arena all he could gather from it. It set his blood boiling because even if creating a visual manifestation of ones magic was a trivial thing in its own right, to do so from hiding without giving the game away was something he'd never encountered before.
He wouldn't have to wait for long, a second blast of flame searing in from his left ever so slightly different than the first. He swung the largest scythe letting the wind tear it away before it reached him as he turned to face his new opponent.
Ghost Alpha. He recognised her now from the feel of her magic and grinned. "It seems the demon of the sanctum lives again once more, better that you should have remained lost to the ages."
She landed gracefully across from him. The storm of magic billowing around her a testament not to a lack of control, but a glimpse of the overwhelming torrent that lay beneath the surface. "You are one of Dollanar's followers exploiting the chaos in this land."
He grinned beneath his mask as he tipped the edge of his hat showing off the blank mask beneath. "I am merely the knight of a princess who would see her country free of the chains you made for it. The trifles of good and evil can be answered once my country is free once more." As could the question of who Dollanar was.
"I am here then to put an end to your delusions." The flame burning around her surged into the sword in her hands even as he felt her magic coil in preparation for her advance. "Though you do not understand the stakes it matters not, the three of us shall take your life today."
He reached out to feel for Gaunt's magic, or any trace of the person who'd sent the first burst and found nothing. Not a hint in his surroundings as only the two of them stood atop the roofs facing against each other. "Then I hope they arrive soon or all they will find is your corpse."
He already had the largest scythe out and swung to start the battle. Yet even as his largest scythe came crashing round she surged forward inside his reach. The sword rocketing forward for his heart in the opening anyone could see.
Four hands caught it in place. Her momentum stalling even as his scythe took up place behind her, trapped in the path of his blade. He pulled back and she vaulted over him one hand moving down to touch the flat of her own blade.
A burst of flame and his hands melted where they touched the blade as it came loose, and he let her pull it back. He felt her spin in the air behind him the sword aiming to come down on the back of his head even as the seventh and eighth arms pulled free a kama and caught her blade wrenching it off to the side.
Then his main scythe finished its swing the massive blade cleaving through the air as it tore her flesh and with a burst of strength he tore through the flesh that was tougher than steel leaving her pieces to fall to the ground behind him as he posed heroically.
Or not as the two halves pulled themselves back together midair and she landed easily enough on the other side of the roof. He feinted for a moment that he hadn't seen even as his magic sense tracked her rush towards his exposed back.
The moment she committed he moved, tilting his body aside as the ninth and tenth arms came free and pushed the blade aside. Her stance just off balance as he swung eight scythes into the opening. Both arms and legs, a cross through the torso, the neck and one final swing as the full length scythe bisected her down the middle.
A fraction of a second later she was whole again and leaping back to get distance even as he pondered his words. "The ghosts of the past truly do not rest easily, you have drunk so much of the blood of demons so as to become undying."
"I don't want to hear that from someone who has given up so much of himself that even his body has broken under the touch of a demon. Is there anything human left in there or have you heard the siren song of the abyss for so long that you're now nothing more than a puppet?"
He laughed. "Better to give of my body than my mind, that even if I gaze into the abyss all it will see when looking back is that I did not bow." For the moment her regeneration was difficult to deal with but still she was reattaching her limbs rather than making them anew.
"Your arms still haven't regenerated from the burns I gave them though." Her words were tinged with a quiet confidence as she looked him over.
They were mannequins rather than real flesh and blood so of course they wouldn't. Still how to play it up. "I have no intention of letting my flesh rot as I change, I will be immortal under my own terms and no one else's."
"Truly you were once a magnificent knight a shame you could not have chosen the right side." She set her feet drawing her sword up into a guard stance and he cocked his head in response because he could stand here all day. "Surtr, I have named myself for an entity that burns down the world."
"Azrael, who judges the time for all to die." Giving your name to a worthy opponent fit his aesthetic entirely. "I will guide you on to your next life it seems."
The storm of magic surrounding her intensified a hundredfold, more magic than he'd seen in anyone ever before swirling around her as she turned it to heat. The physical manifestation of her magic torching the buildings around them and melting the stone.
Even as he felt her flesh begin to melt and then heal in a never-ending cycle she spoke. "This will be a new trick for me I copied from someone else, so it's my first time trying it against a peer opponent. But I don't think I can beat you in melee normally and I hope you find it half as distressing to fight as I did."
He surged into the boiling air pushing the full weight of a swing as the flat of the scythe crashed into her guard, setting his feet and pushing with all his might as they slammed into the sky. The feel of the magic around them ringing in his senses, with the next swing they crashed down shattering an empty building as far from people as he could find.
Fire spilled outwards regardless into the streets as she only turned up the heat in response, the small cushion of cooler air hanging around him dissipating as her magic ate it away.
She gave ground with each swing letting blows slide past as the room boiled. Letting her flames surge out across every surface until he was forced to step back crashing back through the street and into a building on the other side as he pulled himself a new shield of colder air.
Then she was there again, the same suffocating heat as she ploughed through the wall as though it was paper. His own ten blades swung high and she ducked down through the gap, her blade aiming unerringly for his leg.
He let her cleave off the mannequin foot at the base. The Stump crashing down on her chest a moment later as he drove her into the floor as he brought the building crashing down.
Fire burned his stump a wash of hot air engulfing the ruins as she blew away his shield of air, legs and arms alike starting to melt away even as his breath burned in his lungs and he was pushed back. The corpse already rising as she swung her own blade a wave of fire chasing after him.
His own scythes parted the flames and with just a little more control the blade fired off mid swing as an invisible arc carving away the distance. A single step as she moved aside from its path a grin matching his own. "Even if the blade is invisible the fact that you swing at all gives it away."
He shrugged bringing all ten scythes around again as he pulled another wave of cold air around himself to stop the bubbling of his limbs. It had brought him a gap in her advance and a moment to breathe. The image of her body pulling itself together firm in his mind.
Each time she had pulled her own flesh back, and it was only natural to do so. Magic flowed throughout the entire body and regenerating a limb from scratch would be the same as giving up all the magic it had contained at the moment she lost it.
That was also why she went low because the ground acted as a barrier and a limit to how far he could separate them. She'd known it too so now how to take it from her.
They circled one another warily the heat from her presence suffocating still at this distance. The entire street lit up in a glimpse of a mirage as the soaring temperature pulled the air around them into the sky. Pulled the surrounding air inwards to replace it. He grinned and moved on leading her to the edge of the column of rising air until a relatively cool breeze touched his back.
The direction a simple matter as it was pulled inwards to the swirling vortex of heat she produced.
The two largest scythes swung backwards magic pouring in even as she tensed for the move that would send it spiralling forwards. Instead, he released it into the wind as two invisible blades falling down through her legs.
The moment of realisation hit as her torso carried forward even as a tendril of flesh started to form to pull them back towards her.
He was already advancing all ten scythes spinning into a whirlwind as he fired a stream of blades, severing the limb again endlessly before it could regenerate even as her body started to fall. A path cutting all the way to her in the moment she was still midair.
The air around him burned, his arms were melting but it was only the one moment he needed as the flat of the blades tossed her legs away. As two more scythes tore her arms free while she was still helpless the metal holding them off from recombining.
A single marionette arm extended and latched onto her head, the sudden force snapping her neck even as the arm melted. He sped up further, letting the arm distend as it extended beyond the length of a normal arm as he threw her away.
"Tempest." He poured out his own magic into the swirling winds around them as the funnel formed. A scything mass of wind that not only tore her apart but scattered the remnants of the corpse across the sky. He pulled in more tearing the burning buildings around them apart and dragging the still burning segments around him into the devastation and sending it flying into the sky.
He held the pose dramatically, feeling out for what must be a magnificent funnel cloud visible from all over the city. This was now Azrael's finishing technique, whenever he used this costume he was going to make a tornado just like Shadow had his I am atomic.
Four severed limbs hung on the ground surging with an overwhelming amount of magic, and he reached down to pick them up. He'd find a good use for them at some point he was sure, maybe he could give them to Gaunt as a present later on to show he'd won.
He felt out across the numerous destroyed buildings, but that was still better than having half the city burn down. With a pulse of magic he searched through the ruins and found no traces of the magic of a living person amidst the rubble.
Were there corpses amidst the rubble? He tapped the mask covering his face even as his eyes saw nothing but darkness. There would be he knew, and it wasn't like at this point even if he took it off he could change that.
Next to him Beatrix descended to the ground her steps lightly pressing off the concrete and he removed his hand to turn and face her as she spoke. "Is that thing dead for certain?"
Saying she was dead for sure would only mean she would come back later. "Even if she is immortal from drinking the blood of demons it still takes time to regenerate full limbs." He pulled up his own stumps where the mannequin limbs were melted and misshapen. "The last time rather than dying she slept for millennia, let us hope she does so again."
"You know her well."
He'd seen her work and that was the same thing. "She is a curse upon this world, a ghost that has lived for an eon who poured the blood of demons onto her bloodline and cursed them for all eternity. For those that are found they can be cured, but for those who are left all they do is rot in their corpses."
Beatrix sheathed her sword slowly before him, returning it to her side. "You have interacted with a lot of the cursed then I take it, would you have seen a girl among them who looked like me?"
He thumbed to his mask and the obvious lack of any eyeholes available. "I have not seen anyone for quite some time, so who knows what you or they look like. There are countless among their number saved by those of us who fight but it would take knowing who you are to know more."
There was silence between them as she figured out her question. "How long is there after someone has started showing signs to cure them? It is a curse that has long afflicted members of my village."
"If they're flesh has rotted in its entirety and they cannot hold form, if everything about their humanity has been taken away I can still grant it back. It is an easy enough trick to teach, and every member of the Order of the Black Rose learns it."
Because he'd heard her uncertainty and if he was going to fake an entire order of powerhouses then she at least met the minimum requirements. And he needed to get a new cloak for when he returned to Rose's side to report, so he could always pick up another for Beatrix while he was there.
Hubb and Marco were watching the door, and she was watching both of them. Her sword ever so slightly loose in its scabbard in case she needed to use it. With Perv gone she had expected that to be it, yet as Rose hung by the bed her father was resting in that wouldn't be the case.
They'd sent for the Royal Physicians in part because she didn't trust anyone who had come from Orianna right now because there was no way they hadn't been able to tell there was something wrong with the king.
She wasn't sure it would change anything. The men scrabbling around and poking the king looking as lost as she was. But then if you wanted to control someone then it wasn't like it was important to leave a way for them to come back.
King Raphael of Orianna was able to make out the name of his daughter and little else, from vacant eyes to the way he had struggled to move without assistance it was unlikely he could ever recover. It would make some things easier because when Rose took control all the blame for the last few days could be laid at Perv's feet.
He had asked for that honour enough times to anyone that would listen that no one would doubt it.
On the flip side her friend was clearly not ready to take over Orianna herself and she couldn't exactly ask for Midgar to take hold. Her father wasn't willing to hold Midgar under control never mind a second country.
She shared a glance with Natsume who was far more composed. As though she'd seen it plenty of times before and worse besides. But then she was Shadow Garden and so if she had been in multiple facilities like the one that had once held her she probably had.
The girl shook her head and motioned for outside, where they could at least talk about it without disturbing Rose. It wouldn't even need to be unusual as she made to voice her own excuse to leave.
The door opened and the monster returned, cloak once more covering the nightmare beneath it. Her guards resting their hands on their swords even as none of them dared draw them. Even as it seemed unsteady on its limbs its gait lopsided and broken.
Beatrix followed in a moment later wearing the same cloak. Shadowing the knight with a look of quiet acceptance.
Without any concern Rose smiled at their entrance. "Can you help him?"
One of the Royal physicians broke off to object, an excuse as to why the king was in a fragile state and it was best to let them work undisturbed.
"Is that so." The words dripped with a promise of fear and the man shrank back and let him pass.
A single touch as lines on the Kings face faded away and a form of vitality seemed to return to his sunken face. The kings eyes seeming to slowly focus as he looked up at the monster. "I have forgotten more about healing then any of you have ever known. I have restored his body and all that is left it to hope his will is strong enough to pull him back."
She worked up her courage and spoke to the monster. "Is regenerating the injuries to your own limbs more difficult?" Because its leg was clearly broken as it hobbled.
The creature paused its empty face turning towards her, the voice beneath seeming almost amused at the answer. Then the cloak spread once again as ten arms marred by burn scars along their entire length stared back at her. His leg missing the entire joint a third of the way down where the foot had been severed. "My limbs are slightly damaged from my fight, but it will only take a few hours for me to grow them again anew. I must depart to prepare for future fights against the darkness lurking beneath the surface. In the meantime, I will be leaving Rose in Beatrix's care, so you need not worry about her safety."
She looked back at one of the most famous swordswomen in history, who had been missing for ten years. Orianna didn't have a strong knight tradition, was in fact known for the opposite. Yet Natsume was nodding in the corner as though this was all expected.
By the time her eyes returned to Azrael it was gone.
She stifled down her annoyance because at least it meant the war goddess wasn't part of the Cult. "So now we all have to know whether it was just Perv, or if the rest of Orianna is under threat. At the very least it looked stable previously."
The king pushed himself up easily into a full sitting position a more resolute look on his face. "It is made to look that way for the darkness of the Cult of Diabolos has wormed its way into every aspect of our lives." He gazed upon his daughter. "I am glad you were able to find safety and allies amidst Midgar it seems I was right to push for that alliance."
She stifled her frustration. "You think she would not have been safe in Orianna even with the order of the Black Rose."
Raphael gazed back from where he held his daughter. "I was not poisoned because I have been cooperative with them. But they have a monster called Ragnarok at their disposal and so open defiance can only go so far. There are always eyes everywhere watching so at least here she might be safe."
Midgar didn't feel particularly safe anymore either. She said as much.
The king smiled at her. "Even if it looks bad the Cult will never operate here as openly as they could in other places. For they fear that one day he will return, and they might not stand against him."
"Dollanar." Beatrix met their confused gazes with calm confidence before clarifying. "He who obscures the Sun, the dragon of Midgar who chooses the King."
Devastation spread out before her eyes, and even as Iris knew she should be training there would be no point if her country fell before she was done. She had decided not to be like her father and avert her eyes.
Still from the few reports of knights who had arrived to the scene while the battle was still ongoing, she doubted she could intervene even if she was right there. From knights who had surged forward only to burn to ashes without ever reaching the fight, to waves of flames tearing out and searing away any building they touched.
To Beatrix who had hovered around the edges unable to intervene as the two monsters in the centre clashed. She was not stronger than Beatrix and knew it.
"When the Gods fight it is mortals who suffer." The voice was soft but clearly meant for her so she turned. The silhouette memorable from that night where she'd slain the monster during Alexia's kidnapping. Alpha stared across the devastation beside her.
Hubris but in the face of that level of power she wasn't sure she could deride it. The battle had lasted only a short time and still there was this much damage. "Is that how you see the battle between the cult and yourselves?"
"It was something Shadow said once upon a time, to describe the cult and the carelessness towards human lives." With those words Alpha reached towards her side, her hand reaching for something.
She reached for her own sword from her waist in preparation for the fight ahead.
A burger was tossed towards her and she caught it. "The one who burned your city is not one of ours, and I am only here as an observer and to speak with you."
She thought about it, one of the two most terrifying secret organisations stalking the shadows of Midgar conducting a clandestine meeting in the middle of a restaurant. A monster that could cause devastation without any hope for stopping it sitting down calmly for a meal. The image didn't fit at all. Such a level of power should be trying to step into the realms of ruling a country.
She sat anyway and gave her response. "And what message do you bring from this Shadow."
Alpha stared across at the devastation. "That we would offer you salvation from their presence, that if you care for your people and will not offer up children and innocents to them we will help you to cast out the darkness. Even if now you are untrained and weak our lord will grant you strength to fight the oncoming night."
She bit her teeth. "It was peaceful before you came, and all you have seen since becoming stronger is for more battles."
Alpha sighed. "It can be quite peaceful if you give up, if you do not protest as children go missing and sacrifice those who bear the mark of the possessed to those who would kill them. Offer up your weak and those who cannot fight back and you can live peacefully as someone not worth fighting. You can die inside every day without ever once risking your life."
She drew her sword tentatively looking back at the girl several years younger than her. Possibly younger than Alexia. "There is no point in asking for strength from someone weaker than me."
Alpha smiled wanly. "Very well a warm up spar. If you win I will give you information on Shadow Garden. If you lose… I can't enforce anything but it is a lesson to you. Midgar is currently a battlefield we'll fight over and as things stand, you'll have to pick a side."
Iris bit her lip. "Or you'll both just trample over us in the aftermath." It was fine she was going to win, betting everything on the strength of her blade had always been her way.
The guests had left, and while his seat of power had never been strong there was still some authority he still carried. But before that he had one question that well couldn't be asked of his daughter in public. "How did you convince two monsters like that to join this Order of the Black Rose."
His daughter smiled softly. "You know how there was someone who inspired me to swordsmanship when I was a child."
He vaguely remembered there had been something. It certainly wasn't a place where she took after him.
"That was Azrael and he decided to go all in and make it up on a whim. But we have two members right now and I guess no one else knows we don't have more as well."
He eyed her and sighed. "Ten members they have ten from now on if anyone asks, I guess we're not in any position to refuse in the first place."
Omake by Bluye
Fenrir, the most skilled swordsman in history, and Mordred, the Knight Amongst Men, were sparring in a nondescript facility. As friendly a spar as it could be, between two members of the Rounds. Neither went all out, yet the outcome was clear.
"Hmph," Mordred sheathed his sword, Fenrir doing the same.
"Don't be disheartened," Fenrir sneered. "I simply have centuries of experience over you. I've encountered more losses than you could imagine to get to where I am now."
It was a weird thought, Fenrir losing a fight. In the last few decades, Mordred had never seen him lose. Fenrir always won. Always. Yet, a figment of doubt entered his mind.
"If you and Shadow fought, who would win?"
"Well, if he has his closest agents supporting him then I might have a little trouble."
"Would you lose?"
"Nah, I'd win."
AN: Was considering parts of this to be done in Rose's perspective, but it is much better with other people looking in as they misunderstand her conviction. Because why would she be afraid of Cid in a costume, even if they are.
And the first proper combat orientated Rounds fight, to be followed by more later.
Go forth oh chapter for staring at you right now does nothing but make me question you more.
I am now popular enough to get an omake, that's a first. And the main thrust of it is right, Fenrir is certain of victory and Mordred is much less so.
Anisomeone: Cid knows full well that the most important part of every plan is not telling it to other people and then declaring success at the end.