Creation began on 08-23-18
Creation ended on 01-01-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Victory through Conversation, not through Conflict
Within the shadows, Rades, having reclaimed his grimoire, watched as the city of Kikka was on fire whilst overrun by his undead army. Over a year in prison had allowed him to mellow out over his defeat and incarceration, as well as his humiliation, and he came to the realization and acceptance that his defeat was only possible because of how he did so to be dealt it. Relying upon only one spell was his mistake. He accepted that, and knew that if he was to gain vengeance against the Clover Kingdom, to rectify his failure, he would require more than just one spell to do it all.
It was through this acceptance of his defeat, he had achieved magical maturity within his heart, learning from his mistake. Through this realization, his grimoire had matured with him when he reclaimed it, filling itself with new pages to supplement the original one he relied so heavily on. And now, with new spells to reaffirm his conviction, he was ready to resume his goal to take down the kingdom and get his revenge.
"Time to release my playmates," he uttered, opening his grimoire to one of its newest pages. "Soul Corpse Creation Magic: Skull Army of the Damned!"
From this spell, several skeletons with swords and shields formed from the ground, their empty sockets glowing with green fire. They stood in attendance to Rades, as if awaiting his orders.
"Welcome, my friends," he greeted them. "More than a year, it's been…and yet you stand before me as though…it were only yesterday. I've been looking forward to this. Let's go show the Clover Kingdom the fruits of their arrogance."
-x-
BLAST! The walking corpses were blown away by Tenshi's magic bullet after he got a family of five away from them.
These aren't normal corpses here, he realized, examining the remains of one corpse nearby and saw no trace of decayed bone or muscle tissue present. No bone, no muscle tissue, not even coagulated blood. It's as though these corpses are just…fake, dummies made to look like them, but are no different from clay figures. They just move and make noises a zombie would make. But there's a measure of magic in them, animating them so that they can move on their own accord…and is very strong, too. This is the work of Rades Spirito, huh? Something tells me that facing him won't be easy. Then again, I don't expect easy. I expect difficult.
Behind him, a zombie appeared, wielding a butcher knife, ready to stab him in the back.
"Sword Magic: The Maiden's Graceful Mercy," Tenshi uttered, and from his grimoire emerged a longsword that pierced the zombie in the back of its skull and out its forehead.
"How'd you know there was a zombie behind you?" He heard his squad mate in the Golden Dawn, the sixteen-year-old Mimosa Vermillion, ask him. "You never turned around."
"I have good hearing, Ms. Vermillion," he answered. "In absence of sight, learn to hear the world around you. Learn to measure the distance between yourself and someone else by recognizing the sound of their footsteps, the pace of their heartbeat, the measure of air that enters and leaves their nose and lungs. You can even hear the twitch in one's fingers if you focus hard enough. Don't rely on just magic to solve your dilemma."
"Something you learned to do during your exile?"
"No…something I learned when I was seven."
Mimosa bowed her head in admiration towards his non-magical ability. Something told her she could learn a bit more from an Ikari that was over fifteen-hundred years everyone else's superior.
"These zombies aren't real," she heard him say to her. "They're dummies made to look like zombies. Wasn't Rades Spirito reported by the Magic Knights to only be capable of using a single spell, that grimoire only possessed one page?"
"That's what was reported? But the zombies at that time were…like people that were possessed."
"What type of magic does he use?"
"Something called Soul Corpse Magic. We don't really understand it."
"Magic that hasn't been documented or categorized is always something of interest."
Suddenly, several more of the zombies came from around the corner, armed with larger swords and shields.
"I'm guessing Mr. Spirito learned some new tricks," Tenshi expressed, impressed.
-x-
These corpses were different from the ones that attacked the capital. They were refined, stronger and more dangerous. Not only that, but they knew how to fight, as well. This was something that even Nozel couldn't deny when three of them tried to gang up on him.
Pests, he thought as he fired another magic bullet at one, obliterating it to pieces. For every one I take down…seven more take its place.
"Urgh!" He heard a woman grunt and saw Yui had slain twenty-three of them at the same time with her Goshinki's Fatality.
She looks like she could fight like a demon, he thought, just in time to see her dispatch twelve more that approached her. She IS a demon.
In the air above the other knights, Yuno, who had been informed by William that two of the four Ikaris that had attended the exam had joined the Golden Dawn, was blowing the zombies away with the aid of his wind spirit. He not only saw Yui, but noticed the measure of magic she was using was very precise, not too much or too little, and her claw-based spell was quite deadly.
Sylph noticed his expression towards the woman and remarked, "Not bad for a woman that wields a three-leaf clover grimoire."
Unfortunately, even Wind Magic seemed to be ineffective against the zombies' numbers; they just seemed to increase with each assault made upon them.
They have to be coming from somewhere, he realized.
From afar in the air above the town, Yuno saw what looked like zombies being sent flying in random directions, like they'd been attacked by something. He decided to investigate the matter.
Down below, after taking down twenty more zombies at once, Yui felt the presence of powerful magic nearby, feeling drawn to it.
Is this one of the veteran Magic Knights? She wondered, seeing that she would have to fight through an incoming horde of walking dead to get an answer.
-x-
There were at least three children cornered by zombies that were about to be harmed. A little girl screamed for her mother when one of them raised its sword up to strike them.
"Aaaahh!" She screamed as she closed her eyes.
CLANG! The end that she and her friends feared today hadn't come yet…and she opened her eyes to see why.
The zombie's sword had been blocked…by another sword…wielded by a young man that came in the nick of time.
"Hrrrugh!" He grunted, pushing the zombie back and swinging his sword horizontally, sending a magic wave out at the other zombies present, reducing them to piles of dust. "Are you three alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"
The girl looked up at him and saw that he looked injured, but didn't show it.
"We're okay, sir," she answered him. "Who are you? Are you a Magic Knight?"
"No," he answered, "not yet."
Then he walked away, swinging his sword at some more zombies that stood in his way, leaving the children in order to face the enemy of this town.
"Who was he?" The boy child with them wondered.
"I think that was one of the Ikaris," the second girl suspected.
"Shinji Ikari? Wasn't he trying for the exam today?"
"Maybe he didn't get picked."
Little did they that they were right about that. Shinji Ikari didn't get his results from the captains. But he wasn't about to let that and the suspended exam get in his way of doing something to help the people that lived in Kikka from a former Magic Knight that had a reason for attacking them this way; nobody does anything, not even something horrible, without a reason behind the act. The sooner he found this Rades Spirito, the sooner the town could go back to its peaceful existence and the people could go back to their regular lives.
With that in mind, his grimoire opened up and revealed to him a katana exactly as the one the Guardian of the Void held in his dream…and Shinji felt an influx of strength that didn't feel like his a while back as he grabbed the hilt of the blade.
You know where you need to be, the voice of the Guardian told him, follow the flow of magic, and you'll meet him where you need to face him.
And Shinji ran up and down streets, across alleys and towards whatever zombies stood between himself and his objective.
-x-
"…Hmm?" Rika went, noticing her grimoire was glowing bright blue and transmitting an energy stream of the same color towards a small, circular object on the right of it shaped like a pocket mirror. "Is someone calling me?"
Among the items of her family that were salvaged from over fifteen-hundred years ago, House Ikari had access to Communication Magic Tools that served as supplements to their ability to access the multiple forms of magic that existed. And when they relocated back to the Forsaken Region, Rika took these tools and made sure her children and grandson each had one to keep in touch with her and each other across long distances; just because they were capable of using Communication Magic at will once they had practiced, it didn't mean they would rely upon it all the time…and Rika had put their cell phones away since the Clover Kingdom didn't have the technology necessary to create satellites or cell towers to make them efficient, anyway.
She picked up her device and opened it, unleashing a small window of light that revealed Suki's face before her.
"Hello, Suki," she greeted her daughter. "How has the exam been so far?"
"It was suspended," Suki revealed to her. "A former Magic Knight-turned-enemy broke out of prison and is attacking Kikka with these…dummy zombies."
"What?"
"But the Magic Knights are dealing with it right now. "Tenshi and Yui got picked by eight of the nine squads and both joined the Golden Dawn. They're helping to find the guy and apprehend him again."
"That's good, but what about you and Shinji?"
"We were about get to his results when the exam was suspended, but the reason I'm calling is because…has Shinji contacted you?"
"No, he hasn't. In fact, you're the first to call me since you four left today to go to Kikka. Why?"
"He just disappeared on me when I turned my head away ask others here what they knew about this…Rades Spirito guy. I keep trying to contact him, but he's not answering."
"Hold on. I'm coming to where you are right now. I have a spell that should help find him."
She closed the tool up and grabbed her grimoire.
"Spatial Magic: To the Point of Calling," she uttered the spell chosen, and a ring of green light materialized above her and floated downward.
In less than two seconds, Rika was right beside Suki in Kikka. She could see several people running as fast as they could away from where the danger had to be…and she could feel the degree of magic being emanated from where they were running from.
"I'm guessing today has been full of unexpected surprises," she told Suki.
"The exam being suspended because of one rogue mage is unexpected," Suki responded. "Everything else is a disaster. I can't even begin to fathom why this had to happen today, of all days, and here, of all places."
"I used to ask myself the same question on your birthday. The answer always eluded me, not that it was an answer I could accept, anyway. Well, here goes the spell."
She opened her grimoire to the page necessary to locate Shinji and hoped it was sufficient enough in doing the required task.
"Compass Thread Magic: Link to the Missing!"
A hand-sized compass emerged from her grimoire and shot out a small, blue thread that led towards the danger, acting as a guide and pathway to where the person they were looking for was likely to be.
"Wow," Suki stated, impressed by her mother's spell.
"The compass says to follow the blue thread to Shinji," Rika told her, and then ran towards the danger. "You coming or staying here, Suki?"
Suki followed her mother and hoped that her nephew was fine.
As soon as I know he's fine, she thought to herself, I'll yell at him until his eardrums explode.
-x-
"Time to improve upon my friends," Rades expressed atop a building roof as he unlocked another new spell that was a result of his maturity. "Soul Corpse Reinforcement Magic: Ectoplasmic Fortification!"
The zombies that were already present across Kikka were suddenly augmented and made stronger than they were previously, now as big as seven-and-a-half feet and having bulging muscles wherever possible on their decayed bodies.
"Soul Corpse Curse Magic: Poison of the Covenant!" Rades added another spell to his zombie minions, incorporating poison into their bodies to make them walking plagues. "The double-edged sword of my vengeance against the Clover Kingdom is now guaranteed. To attack my friends is to be attacked by them, regardless."
Suddenly, he felt an unusual degree of magic coming from nearby, and saw several of his augmented getting slashed away by some kid with a sword, protecting some civilians that couldn't get away.
"Who does he think he is?!" He wondered and jumped off the rooftop to the ground, facing him. "Boy with the sword! You have some nerve attacking my friends like that!"
The boy looked at him and grimaced slightly, like he wanted to run, but couldn't, and then pointed his sword at him.
"Are you Rades Spirito?" He asked, his tone a cross between determined and frightened.
"Yes, I am," Rades answered. "Are you a Magic Knight?"
"I am not. I'm just a guy that wants to stop you before this escalates any further."
"You're not a Magic Knight, huh?! Ha-ha-ha-ha! What hope do you think you have against beating me?!"
"Actually, sir, I just want to talk with you."
"Well, I don't want to talk to anyone."
"Then how am I supposed to know what your problem is with the Clover Kingdom if we don't have a conversation?"
"You wanna know what my problem is with the Clover Kingdom? It's these damned superiority-driven nobles that run it! They think that just because they're born into wealth and privilege, they're the ones in control, that they can decide who gets to be in the Magic Knights and who's a failure or even a disgrace to the kingdom that doesn't belong! I aim to resolve this by eliminating the Magic Knights!"
But Shinji didn't but this in its entirety. Whatever Rades' actual reason for attacking the people was, Shinji had to get to the bottom of it.
"We should really talk, Mr. Spirito," he told the man.
"I don't want to talk to some noble!" Rades yelled.
"But I'm not a noble, sir, as far as I know. I don't even live in Noble or Common Regions. I live in Hage in the Forsaken Region."
But Rades just walked away from Shinji.
"Seriously, Mr. Spirito, I just want to talk with you!" Shinji yelled at him, but his zombies blocked his way. "Communication Sealing Magic: Dome of Conversation!"
Suddenly, Rades' path away from the boy was blacked off by a wall of energy that pushed him backwards toward the middle of the street with his minions that were inside with him. All around them were a dark blue field of magical energy that formed a dome, surrounding him, his undead, Shinji and some strange creature behind him.
"Can we talk now, Mr. Spirito?" Shinji asked him.
"Kill him!" Rades ordered his undead legion, and they charged towards Shinji.
Shinji approached them and swung his sword (cue to Guess Who Is Back by Koda Kumi) at them, eliminating them from existence. As there were at least forty of them within the dome, Shinji had to eliminate at least thirty-two more before he could get near Rades.
The Guardian of the Void jumped into the air under the dome and slammed down on four of the zombies, reducing them to vapor, and pushing the rest of the zombies back towards Rades.
"How is this possible?!" He demanded, seeing one of his zombies get their head grabbed on by the Guardian and sent flying towards the roof of the dome while Shinji slashed away at ten more zombies that approached him, receiving a small cut to his right cheek just near his eye. "Who the Hell do you think you are, boy?!"
Shinji and Guardian took out seven more zombies until Rades was left with only three of them…and then none. Then Shinji, despite now sporting a sword slash on his left side, brandished his sword in front of Rades and looked at him menacingly with the Guardian of the Void standing behind him with a similar look of malice directed towards him with his claws outstretched and at his sides.
"Rades Spirito," Shinji uttered, "please, sit down…and talk with me. If I wanted to kill you or just harm you, I would've done so already."
Rades looked at his grimoire and thought about using another spell, but the book was on the ground and no magic was emanating from its pages; whatever this dome was, it was restricting the magic he had in his possession. Right now, he had no choice but to abide by this kid's demand to sit and talk with him. So, sitting on the ground in front of him, he surrendered for the time being.
"You're just going to hand me over to the Magic Knights as soon as they arrive, aren't you?" He asked Shinji, wanting to know at least that much.
"Even if they show up, they're going to have to wait until our conversation ends, and that could take a while," Shinji told him, sitting down in front of him with his sword sitting behind him. "But while they're forced to wait, they can help assure the people you terrified that things are safe for now because your zombies are no longer around; as long as you're inside this dome, your magic is sealed off and whatever spells you had active outside are cancelled, leaving my sword and Guardian of the Void as the only active spells."
Now Rades was nervous. If he couldn't use his magic, he was at this kid's mercy.
"What do you want?" he asked him.
"I just want to talk," Shinji answered him. "You used to be a Magic Knight, a protector of the Clover Kingdom. What is your grudge against them? Why do you want to hurt them?"
"I've already told you why."
"What you told me was just a fraction of what could be the reason, but not the whole sum of it. I want to know your reason, whatever it is. You have my undivided attention, Rades Spirito."
This was a first for Rades. Prior to his exile, nobody in the Purple Orca would listen to him. Not even the Magic Knights of the other squads would hear him out, not that they were even present when he was disposed of. While the members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun listened to him, it was only because they wanted revenge against the Clover Kingdom, as well, but this boy…who wasn't a Magic Knight yet…was willing to listen to him, to hear his reason for his hatred.
"You really want to know?" He asked him.
"I wouldn't be here waiting for you if I didn't want to know," Shinji sighed as it looked like some people were gathering around outside the dome. "Don't mind them, they can't get in."
-x-
"What is this dome here?" Nozel wondered as he and the other Magic Knights showed up, and saw Rades Spirito inside it with the boy from the House of Ikari, sitting on the ground with some creature identical to the one seen earlier at the magic exam. "What is he doing in there with him?"
"You're just going to hand me over to the Magic Knights as soon as they arrive, aren't you?" They heard Rades' voice emanate from the dome.
"Even if they show up, they're going to have to wait until our conversation ends, and that could take a while," they heard Shinji say to him.
Nebra didn't like this (mostly because an Ikari was talking to an ex-Magic Knight disgrace) and looked around and saw Asta with her black sheep sister.
"You, Black Bull boy," she yelled at them. "Use that sword of yours and break open that dome!"
Asta looked at the dome and saw the Ikari boy sitting in front of Rades and wasn't sure what was going on exactly between them, other than what appeared to be a conversation.
"I don't think I should," he told her.
"He's in danger as long as he in there with that enemy. Get him out."
Asta raised up his Demon-Slayer Sword, prepared to cut open the dome, but then the creature behind the Ikari boy turned to face him.
It walked up to the side of the dome they were facing and raised its right claw up, phasing through the dome, and pointed at Asta…before raising the tip of its index talon up in a gesture. It gestured 'no' to them.
"Does anyone know what this creature is?" Asta asked, confused.
"It doesn't act like any creature made with Creation Magic would," Klaus stated; he had been present when the magic exam started and saw the creature being unleashed by the boy that had yet to get his results when it was suspended. "The spell that summoned it was an Anti-Magic one. If anything, this creature is an intelligent one."
"…I was with the Magic Knights for three years until I was exiled," they heard Rades say to Shinji; their conversation was still going on while they were outside talking.
"And why were you exiled?" Shinji had asked him.
"My former squad, the Purple Orca, began to fear my magic, and saw me as a threat. One day, they turned on me and ran me out of the kingdom."
"Wait a minute, you mean they just…decided to run you out of the kingdom like that? They didn't just…sit down with you and explain why they were afraid of you? Was the Wizard King even aware of this?"
"As far as I know, the Wizard King was either the one that approved of their decision to cast me out…or he was never informed."
"That's not right. That's not right at all. As the top mage, if he wasn't informed, he alone has the last say to anything. If your squad just up and decided to exile you, it was uncalled for because they were the ones to make the choice without the say-so of the Wizard King. What sort of magic do you specialize in?"
"I use Soul Corpse Magic."
"What is that, exactly?"
"I can use magic to create and manipulate the dead. It's also called Wraith Magic."
"Can anyone else do it?"
"Somebody shut this kid up," Nozel demanded. "End this conversation!"
"I am the only person within the entire kingdom that can do this sort of magic," Rades explained to Shinji.
"Then that sounds like something that would actually impress the Wizard King. He always seems interested in some type of magic that nobody else knows about. It's likely that he wasn't informed about your exile, meaning the Magic Knights are at fault for your grudge."
"Who does this Ikari think he is?" Solid questioned.
Tenshi walked over to him and responded, "He's someone that's actually getting to the root of someone else's anger. To defeat your enemy, you must understand your enemy."
"Well spoken, Tenshi," they heard Rika say to him as she and Suki showed up, following a glowing thread of magical energy connected to a compass. "It looks like Shinji has this under control for now."
"Your grandson has nothing under control, ma'am," Nebra told her. "He's just interfering in the affairs of the Magic Knights and hindering the apprehension of a rogue mage."
"How is he interfering? From the looks of it, he's just talking to the guy." Rika stated her perception of the situation.
"Who was that?" Asta asked, pointing to the dome.
"Who was who?" Noelle asked him.
"I thought I saw someone else in the dome with them," he explained, pointing to the dome. "It was only for a second, but it looked like another guy."
"I thought I saw a woman," went Mimosa, pointing to the dome herself.
Nozel looked at the dome…and for a second himself…thought he saw three more people present, but they weren't there, anymore.
"…I used to live in Nean of the Common Region when I was starting out as a mage," Rades told Shinji. "When I received my grimoire, I headed off to apply for the Magic Knights. I was considered strong for a commoner, which earned me my admittance into the Purple Orca squad. Back then, all I wanted to do was to serve the kingdom with my magic and show the people that they didn't need to be nobles just to be knights."
"Didn't seem bad at all," Shinji responded. "I've seen your magic, and it's quite high. It has to be if you're able to create and maintain so many zombies without it creating a strain on you."
"Thank you."
"What did your parents think of your status when you were accepted into the Magic Knights?"
"I don't know who they were. They died a long time ago. I don't think they were from around Nean or any of the villages associated with the Common Region."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"What of your family? They must be proud of your magic."
"Heh, my family is…is… Well, it's just my mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle, and it's hard to tell as a whole, really. Individually, I know my grandmother, aunt and uncle are impressed by me, but as for my mother, it's complicated."
"She's either proud of you…or she isn't."
"It doesn't really have anything to do with magic. A while back…before we even came here…she did something that was uncalled for."
"What did she do?"
"Childhood neglect…in a sense…for a little over ten years… I wish I could say more, but for the time being, I…don't really know her. I admit that that's just messed up, and I've been living with her for over six months since she came back. Does that make me a bad person to keep her at a distance? To not know if she's repentant of her negligence?"
"Honestly, young man, I think that just means you haven't forgiven her for her negligence yet. That's something hard to do for anyone that feels ignored by their parents. What about your father? Where's he in all of this?"
All eyes were on Yui, who seemed bothered by this aspect of the past.
"He's not around," they heard Shinji say to Rades. "He's not dead; he's just…not anywhere around the Clover Kingdom. He's somewhere back in the other world I lived in before I got here…and it's probably better if he didn't come here."
"Why is that?"
"I don't have to worry about what he could do to anyone here if were able to use magic, not that he could, however; he wasn't exposed to any levels of sufficient mana or experienced any degree of magic, and if he were, it'd probably be a bad thing because he isn't a nice person."
"Except not all mages are nice people."
"I understand that; I found out that some mages from some other families went and attacked mine, forcing three of them to flee into exile just to avoid getting murdered out of hatred."
"Exile…three of them… I'm sorry, but which house are you from?"
"The House Ikari, sir."
"You're from House Ikari? You mean to say that…House Ikari…has returned from their exile?"
"Uh, yes, that's right."
"House Ikari, believed by a handful of those that read whatever information they could about them to be the strongest of all the houses of nobility and royalty. You're a lucky person to be related to such a family."
"I'm lucky just to have them. I find it unusual for anybody to have some sort of vendetta against them; my grandmother, aunt and uncle are the kindest people I know, and from what Rika and Tenshi tell me, I had a bunch of other relatives I'll never meet that were also great. I can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt them or hate them."
"Take it from a commoner that was exiled by a bunch of nobles. It's a superiority struggle between the noble and royal houses. They want more of everything all the time: More wealth, more success, more admiration, more…magic. They can claim to be friends and allies, but when it comes to wanting to be the best, they won't hesitate to turn on each other when the opportunity for personal advancement presents itself."
"If it's superiority that drives these houses, I can't see where my family falls into the struggle. I mean, my grandmother did say that a long time ago, our family did live in the capital, but one day chose to relocate to the Forsaken Region. All she really understood about the relocation was that our family was more understanding of people from places where mana was either scarce or they were overlooked by nobles that didn't believe they could measure up to them."
"Watch out for House Silva, though. Of all the houses, they're the one with the most animosity towards anyone affiliated with House Ikari. I think they're the ones that wanted to exterminate your family the most less than two millennia ago."
"House Silva… You mean those three people with the silver hair done in extreme styles that make them stand out too much than their clothing does?"
Noelle got confused by Shinji's question towards Rades; did he not know about her?
"If you mean Nozel Silva, Nebra Silva and Solid Silva, they're the members of the Silver Eagle squad," Rades explained. "Very egotistic, looking down upon anyone, and they don't look like they ever smile unless it's with a hint of sadism."
Suddenly, Shinji looked at the Magic Knights and saw the three individuals of House Silva that just sent a chill down his spine.
"Wasn't there another member, someone younger?" He asked Rades as he turned back to face him. "I thought there was, but they weren't with them."
"If there was, they don't mention them."
"Well, the Silver Eagle squad wasn't one of my choices if I got accepted today. I saw how the guy in charge of didn't raise his hand when my mother and uncle were getting their results. If House Silva hates my family, then it's pretty obvious the reason the Silver Eagle captain didn't raise his hand was out of spite. With any of House Ikari, there's always going to be spite that's unnecessary because of them."
"And what is your squad choice…if you get more than one to choose from?"
"That I'm keeping to myself until I get my results…if I get them. So…what'd you do after you were excommunicated from the Magic Knights?"
Rades sighed as he hated what he had to do to survive.
"The Purple Orca, my former squad, drove me off into territory controlled by the Diamond Kingdom. My former captain declared I was their problem now. I had to steal food from their villages when I was hungry, I had to hide from their mages whenever they went looking for me, and that was for two years until the Eye of the Midnight Sun found me and asked me to join them. Of course, I was more than willing to join them."
"What is the Eye of the Midnight Sun? Who are they?"
"They're a group of rogue mages cast aside by the Clover Kingdom's royalty and nobility. They wish to overthrow them and rebuild the kingdom into a place where there's equality for everyone. That appealed to me. And they didn't look down upon me. They didn't see me as some sort of freak of disgrace. They saw my worth, my value, my magic."
"I saw your magic in action when I was looking for you. Again, it's very impressive. You have a lot to be proud of, Mr. Rades."
"You wouldn't be saying that if you saw my grimoire before I broke out today."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because when I started out after receiving my grimoire…it only had one page."
It sounded like Rades had difficulty in revealing this to Shinji, who didn't seem the least affected by this revelation.
"That's actually impressive," went Rika.
"Really?" Suki asked her.
"Yeah, anyone that could master such magic and only require one page in their grimoire to do so is actually very gifted."
"…That's actually pretty neat," they all heard Shinji say to Rades in the dome.
"What?" He asked him.
"When you joined the Magic Knights, when you joined the Eye of the Midnight Sun, when you attacked the capital a year ago, before my family returned, your grimoire had only one spell…and you were able to do a lot with it. Bad, the way you used it, it was, yes, but still incredible. I've seen mages, including my grandmother and uncle, needing to use a variety of spells to do different things when magic is required, and they have to jump through the pages. But you, with just one spell… I bet if the Wizard King saw you in action when you were still with the Magic Knights, he'd be fascinated by what you're capable of."
"You…really think so?"
"May I see the spell, please?"
"Do you suppose he's going to try and take his grimoire from him?" William Vangeance asked Rika, seeing Rades pick up his book in showed the requested spell to the boy.
"He's not going to take it from him," she answered him. "If he wanted to, he would've done so earlier. He's just interested in who this guy is, impressed by his backstory."
"…This is the spell?" Shinji asked him.
"Yes," he answered. "Go ahead and put me down. Say that it's an embarrassment. I admit it. I accept it."
"Man, I can't look down upon you over this. A single spell like this deserves praise, not contempt or shame. I mean, even the name defines its purpose. Wraith Magic: Guidance of the Damned. Over time, your magic must've refined the spell so that it functions like a multitude of spells for you. And look at these new pages that are the result of your acceptance of your previous defeat and magical growth. I'm sure if you went up against the Diamond Kingdom, the Magic Knights would have no choice but to admit they were wrong about what they did to you…because they didn't see your worth or try to understand your magic. I'd say that it's human nature to fear what they don't understand, but they understand magic…and chose not to understand your magic."
"Your honesty…is unbearably meaningful."
"But…what the Eye of the Midnight Sun aims to do, however, even with your service to them… It isn't the right way to go about it."
"Why is that? Nothing else works with the royals and nobles."
"It's just senseless violence. You attack with violence, they respond with violence in defense of their people and freedom. And while equality for everyone isn't such a bad thing, the way you want to achieve it is unrealistic. It's unrealistic because there's danger involved, risks you can't avoid and a price you might not be willing to pay."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"Because…back in the world I lived in…my mother, during her negligence of me…wanted something unrealistic. But now we're here, where what she had attempted to achieve with science…came undone the moment I got my grimoire. A giant she had helped create got sucked into it and became a spell I made a promise to myself that I would never use. Anything desired by one may not be desired by all…and anything desired by all shouldn't be forced upon anyone that doesn't seek it, even if it's claimed to solve a problem they have."
"Still, these Magic Knights, they enrage my pride, infuriate me with their arrogance."
"If you hold a grudge against the Magic Knights, you should go after them through legal channels. Demand an audience with the Wizard King, like file a complaint against your former squad mates, not take out your anger on the people that didn't do anything to you. You go after them through a path of suffering, nothing will be solved. Anyone that chooses to use violence to resolve anything, all that'll happen is more suffering. I understand that there will always be a need for military powers, but if people talked out their problems, you'd be able to achieve better solutions than you would never see with them."
"And why did you want to become a Magic Knight to begin with?"
"Why I want to be a Magic Knight? I want to be a good mage like those of my family."
"Sounds like you want to be the Wizard King someday."
"No, not him; I don't ever see myself becoming the Wizard King, no matter how strong I became over time. But if I became a Magic Knight, I'd want for there to be equality between all three regions. Heh, tax the rich, feed the poor…until they aren't that rich no more. Instead of trying to change the world on a large scale, I'd be trying to change it one day at a time by dealing with the problems of the people."
"And if that doesn't work out?"
"You can't change the world until you yourself are able to change."
"And if you can't…or if people don't think you can change?"
"Prove them wrong…show them that you can change…or show them that they need to change."
Rades turned to the dome, looking at the people outside of it, the civilians and Magic Knights, most likely fearful and disgusted by him.
"After this, they'll likely kill me," he told Shinji.
"Maybe they won't," Shinji responded. "If you make a deal with them, they'll likely let you live. You tell them everything you know about the Eye of the Midnight Sun, maybe they'll get why you did what you did."
"Do you really expect a bunch of nobles to even think about making a deal with me in exchange for information?"
Shinji looked at the people, his relatives, and suggested, "Then make a deal with the Wizard King. Share what you know only with him. I saw him only a few times, and the guy isn't anything like I've been hearing about most other nobles. I don't think the guy is a noble; maybe he started out as a commoner and worked his way up through the ranks to get where he is. You don't have to be a noble to have a shot at such a position that's not so much mantle as it is rank."
"How can you be so sure of such?"
"He isn't," they both looked over and saw the Guardian looking at them, having spoken. "He can't be certain of everything…which is why he believes in leaps of faith."
Rades looked at Shinji and asked, "This creature is capable of speech?"
"I'm as surprised as you are right now," he responded.
Guardian of the Void then sat down against the edge of the dome.
"Take a leap of faith, Rades Spirito," it uttered again to them. "Have faith, and if not in the Magic Knights or the Wizard King themselves, then in Shinji. Have faith in him. He may very well be the only reason you will see the next day…and the day after…and the day after."
Rades then picked up his grimoire again.
"I may never have faith in the Magic Knights again, as my history with them is bitter and full of anger that never quelled," he told them, "but you, young Ikari… I'll put my faith in you."
Then…he handed over his grimoire.
"But…that's your grimoire," Shinji responded. "I can't take it. I'm sure there's a law against it."
"Only if a grimoire is taken against the will of the owner. If it's willingly surrendered, there is no law or rule being broken. Take it."
Shinji sighed and accepted his grimoire.
"Thank you for listening to me," Rades praised him. "You're the only person that has ever wanted to hear me out."
"Talking to you…was the only thing I had in mind," Shinji explained, and then the dome began to fade away, allowing the Magic Knights to get closer to them.
-x-
"…Damn it, Shinji, that must've been the craziest thing you have done by far," Tenshi told his nephew after he was treated for his minor injuries at home. "I mean, engaging a former Magic Knight, just to talk to him? And then trapping yourself in a dome with him so you wouldn't be interrupted, that was stupid, reckless and dangerous. Not only that…you did good back there."
"What?" Yui asked as they were all in the living room. "What do you mean, he did good back there? He could've gotten killed by that guy."
"Think about how he did back there in Kikka," Tenshi explained. "The rest of us were facing artificial zombies with one-track minds, trying to find the mage controlling them, and what were we going to do once we found him? Beat him into submission? Trap him and then lock him up again? Execute him because he caused a panic? Shinji found the guy, cut down his minions, and then forced him to have a sit-down with him. He beat the guy through a conversation instead of a confrontation. None of us ever got within two feet of him."
"And Rades Spirito was moved by the fact that Shinji wanted to hear him out that he surrendered his grimoire to him," Rika reminded Yui, examining the book that contained several spells relating to the owner's magical affinity. "Not even a Magic Knight, and Shinji outdid you two when you just got started. Shinji, you were like Vishnu trying to persuade Arjuna that he should do his duty…and you impressed him by taking on your multi-armed form. You tapped into some common-but-rare magic that most overlook and underestimate."
"What sort of magic is that, Mother?" Suki asked her.
"Common sense…and reasoning," she answered her.
"Ooh… You got lucky out there, Shinji. I don't know what those Magic Knights out there are thinking, but they can't forget about this now."
Shinji chuckled lightly…and then looked down at his grimoire, opened to the spell he had used to try and impress the captains today. He had thought the Guardian of the Void had only spoken to him in his dream that one time, but then it spoke to him today, indicating that it wasn't just some spell that existed in the book…but a highly-intelligent creature that must've been converted into a spell at some point in the past and retained its independence. Then he went to the pages containing the Eva spell, reminding himself that he had made a promise never to use it; it was such a pain to him when he was piloting it…and he feared it would cause pain onto others if it was ever set loose upon the kingdom.
-x-
"…Hold on a minute," went Asuka, confused due to the layout of the pictures portraying Shinji and the others, "did Shinji defeat a guy…just by talking to them?"
"It looks like it," Kaji stated, seeing Shinji in a bubble with a guy that looked like he'd seen better days and had lived a better life.
In another picture, the guy had given Shinji a book before being taken away by some people in robes…and in another was Shinji looking in his own book at a picture of the Eva.
"It looks like everyone except his mother is praising him," went Fuyutsuki, noticing that on another page, three of the Ikari family's members seemed okay with what Shinji had done…but Yui seemed…almost disappointed in her son. What is going on in your head, Yui?
-x-
"…He's not talking," went Nozel to Marx as the Wizard King's adviser came to the dungeon to evaluate the situation with Rades.
"You mean, he won't talk to you or any of the other captains," Marx responded. "But he'll talk to the Wizard King after taking advice from the young man from the House of Ikari."
Nozel's face scrunched up in fury over this fact; even though it was the Magic Knights that apprehended and imprisoned Rades Spirito for the second time, his defeat was viewed as an unconditional surrender brought upon by his forced conversation with House Ikari's youngest member, who hadn't even gotten his results from the magic exam because of Rades! It was as though these Ikaris were out to spite them all at every opportunity. It was all the more reason that they didn't deserve a place among the Silver Eagles!
"Well, the Wizard King will be pleased to know that the situation was quelled before it could escalate any further like with last year," Marx continued. "He should be on his way shortly."
"He's on his way here to talk to the recaptured prisoner?" Nozel questioned.
"That's right."
"Is it really necessary for him to come here? Whatever Rades Spirito has as information may not even be beneficial."
"After seeing that magic dome and Anti-Magic creature, Julius would rather see the man who was defeated through the power of speech and understanding from a man that was willing to listen to him."
Nozel became curious; if the Wizard King was aware of what happened in Kikka, then he was aware of what went down between Rades and the Ikari boy.
"Just how much of what happened in Kikka does the Wizard King know about, exactly?" He asked the adviser.
"You could say that…he knows enough," he answered the captain of the Silver Eagles, "and he's looking forward to the resuming of the exam the day after tomorrow."
That, of course, was something Nozel wasn't looking forward to. If what happened was anything to be impressed with, there was no doubt that the other squad captains were likely to want this brat in their numbers…unless he disappointed them before in the exam. He would have to hope that this was the case and nothing to do with Rades.
"What is your opinion of the boy, Nozel Silva?" Marx questioned the captain.
"He's no better than the rest of House Ikari," he expressed his opinion, "and they're a bunch of self-righteous embarrassments with their ability to use multiple forms of magic while the rest of us have only one affinity to one type of magic."
"So then, you don't like him simply because of the house he belongs to…or you don't like him in general?"
"All of the above."
Marx, despite not being affiliated to any squad, got the impression that House Silva, or at least the three members of House Silva that were in the Silver Eagle squad, exhibited an extreme case of disgust towards anyone affiliated with House Ikari, and the worst thing of it was that they didn't even know each other. Three of House Ikari's members were survivors from an ancient past while two were from a more recent past, and none of them had any ill will towards the other noble houses for what had been committed against them back then.
"So then, I guess this rumor has been true from the beginning," he told Nozel. "Of all the houses, House Silva has the most animosity towards House Ikari."
Nozel didn't confirm this rumor…but he didn't deny it, either.
-x-
"…Where's Shinji?" Rika asked Suki as her daughter came downstairs the next morning for breakfast. "I went to his room, but he wasn't there."
"He must've gone out for a jog before either of us got up today," she suggested as she sat down at the table. "Can I ask you something about Shinji's chances of impressing the squad captains at the exam?"
"Sure."
"Say that he gets picked to join a squad, say that he gets to choose which one he wants to be a part of…what do you suppose are his chances of impressing the same number of captains that Tenshi and Yui impressed when they got picked?"
Setting the plates down and sliding over a cup of orange juice, Rika sat across the table and responded, "Considering that the captain of the Silver Eagles is a member of House Silva, and they hate our guts… I'd say that Shinji's chances of impressing the other eight captains to get a choice of which squad to choose from…are still the same as Tenshi and Yui's had been."
"He actually suggested that I join the Coral Peacock or the Blue Rose if I got more than one squad to choose from…and if he didn't get picked."
"What's your squad preference?"
"I'd like to join the same squad as him."
"Sounds like you'd rather stay close to Shinji…which would be obvious. When he was little, he took more to you than he did towards me or Tenshi."
"I'm pretty sure that had to do with the fact that I was the youngest out of the three of us back when we were elderly and not as (Suki raises her left hand to look at it)…"
"Fragile, Suki? Withered? Things Gendo wanted to make us out as to keep Shinji away from as much as possible?" Rika asked her. "You and Shinji are the only two in the family currently alive that have the same birthday. Whatever your reason for wanting to stay close to him…is your reason."
Meanwhile, outside in the village, Shinji, wanting to stay in shape and build up his appetite for breakfast, ran across the farmlands to the remains of the demon that had been defeated by the first Wizard King long ago and back to the house.
"Whew," he panted, stopping in front of the church, halfway back to the house. "What an exhilaration just now."
He then looked up at the top clover on the church's roof and pondered his chances of getting accepted into any squad that excluded the Silver Eagle and Purple Orca squads; the three Silva siblings' disgust towards his family and Rades' personal experience with a squad that feared him left Shinji viewing the squads as anything but inspiring. And the Golden Dawn, his mother and uncle's new squad…was not on his list of preferred squads, either. As much as he wanted to become a good mage, he needed to achieve it on a path that wasn't so…easy or within reach without any effort thrown in. And he couldn't be perfect, either; perfection was something that left him feeling unfulfilled and reminded of how NERV operated and stressed over.
"Nine squads, seven potential paths…and only one road to take," he sighed. "Is there even hope for me to get an opportunity to become a Magic Knight as I take a leap of faith?"
He then resumed his jog back to the house.
-x-
"…So, you're Rades Spirito," Julius Novachrono addressed the former Magic Knight as he stood in front of him.
Rades, restrained by Steel-based Restraining Magic, looked up at the man that held authority over the Magic Knights and nodded in the positive.
"I am," he answered. "Are you the Wizard King?"
"I am," Julius responded.
"You want to know everything I know about the Eye of the Midnight Sun, don't you?"
"Yes…among other things."
"Meaning what, exactly?"
"You're capable of something called Soul Corpse Magic, something I've never seen before."
I guess the rumor was true after all, Rades thought; he heard someplace that the current Wizard King was a magic geek.
"Could you show me a sample of what you're capable of?"
"To a limited degree. I'm afraid I surrendered my grimoire to Shinji Ikari when he defeated me with a conversation."
"Ah, yes, the young lad that was deprived his results when you attacked Kikka."
"He's gifted…and exhibits simple reasoning and a desire to understand the cause of suffering rather facing the symptoms without questioning their roots. If he gets accepted into a squad, they'll be better with his presence."
"Really? Then, there's hope that he'll get accepted after this. What do you see in him?"
"A strength that surpasses that of the nobility. Is he viewed as a noble or is he a commoner despite his affiliation with such an ancient family?"
"Despite being related to a noble family, his social status is somewhere in between a noble and a commoner, even though he should be either one or the other."
"Either way, he earned my respect."
To be continued…
A/N: The first chapter to be completed on the first day of the new year. Let me know what you think of the outcome and what you think will transpire later when the next chapter comes.