Chapter 170

[Third Person's PoV] 

Just above the castle, the appearance of a black rose began to give off an ominous feeling.

Fearing for their lives, everyone ran out of the castle. After they joined the protesters outside, Mordred casually walked out to get a good view of the Black Rose.

He laughed arrogantly as he looked at the Black Rose and watched everyone's frightful expressions.

"May the Banquet of Slaughter begin! Behold the power that sent 100,000 Begaltian soldiers to their graves in one night! And annihilated the Royal Capital!" Mordred laughed as his magic aura became visible around him, giving him a frightening look.

As the Black Rose fully formed, it began releasing black petals into the wind. As they landed on the ground, demonic beings began to form in different shapes and sizes.

They all had dark black skin with red glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and horns of various sizes.

They let out a loud roar which froze everyone. All they could do was stand in fear. Rose gritted her teeth as her grip on her sword tightened. She was ready to jump into the fight but knew that not everyone would make it out alive.

That was until...

*Snap*

Hearing the snap, all the monsters stopped moving, their eyes gaining a glossy look.

"Sin Series: Voice of Seductive Lust."

Mordred stared in stunned silence before he quickly snapped out of it. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? ATTACK!"

But none of them moved until everyone soon heard a voice directed solely towards the demonic beings,

"Kill yourselves."

All the demons had excited expressions as they reached their hands into their chests and destroyed their cores, which were their hearts. They all died with a happy expression, one of pure bliss.

It was almost morbid. Even though the people were saved, they found it weird how it occurred.

"WHO ARE YOU!? SHOW YOURSELF!" Mordred shouted with authority.

They all heard a deep voice scoff. "You blast our symbol in the sky and expect us not to answer our calling."

Following the sound of the voice, everyone found Shadow standing at the very tip of the castle just in front of the Black Rose. His black and gold long-hooded cape flowed in the dark wind as he looked down towards Mordred and Rose, who had a beautiful smile as she looked towards him.

"If it isn't Shadow Garden. You must be their leader, who they call the Shadow Monarch. You keep saying ours and us, but I don't see anyone else. Surely you don't think you will be enough to take me down?" Mordred asked with an arrogant smile, still believing he had a chance due to the trump card he had yet to reveal.

"As a matter of fact, I do. But since you want to meet everyone so much..." Shadow put his finger by his mouth and released a long, sharp whistle.

From multiple parts of the castle, shadows began to appear. Members of Shadow Garden all began to appear around Shadow, all standing just below the tip of the castle.

Alpha and Beta were the closest to him as they were his number 1 and 2. Gamma and Epsilon were sitting on floating objects as they looked down arrogantly. Gamma casually shifted her hat up with a finger, while Epsilon protruded her chest more outwardly.

There were two lower cone-shaped towers near Shadow, opposite of each other, where Delta and Zeta both stood, grabbing the cones and leaning off of them slightly, exposing their sharp teeth and claws.

Eta was seen flying on a large pillow, looking down with a bored expression, ready to fall asleep.

However, they weren't the only ones. Further down from Shadow were sections surrounding the tower where he stood.

The other members of Shadow Garden appeared.

Adelphi (Claire) stood in the middle of the section with other members filling it. To her left stood Aurora, wearing a black and gold long dress with the Shadow Garden signature mask. In her arms was Celeste wearing a shadow onesie with a mask of her own.

She giggled happily as she held the mask with two hands. 'Hehehe, I'm just like Daddy now. I am now the Baby Monarch, hehehe.'

Next to Aurora were both Sherry and Alexia. Alexia had a proud expression as she looked down towards Rose, while Sherry grew embarrassed with so many people looking at her.

To Adelphi's other side were some new members. Elisabeth stood with an umbrella even in the night sky, wearing a Shadow Garden outfit. Even her umbrella had the colors of black and gold. She even had a smile on her face. 'I see why he does this; their shocked expressions are funny to look at.'

Mary, her servant, stood protectively behind her. Next to Elisabeth was Yukime, holding up a fan and wearing a kimono with Shadow Garden colors. The fan was painted with dark roses.

A bit lower than Alpha stood Beatrix, her cape lowering and masking her face. Her hand was on her sword, being extra protective ever since finding out she was pregnant.

Mordred, seeing so many of them, grew a bit uneasy. But even so, his expression showed none of that, except confidence in his power and abilities, not to mention his trump card. He scoffed as he looked at Shadow.

"Is that all?" he asked, trying to show that he didn't put any of them in his eyes.

Shadow chuckled as he heard that. "Funny enough that you ask, because no, no it's not. And it's nowhere close." Shadow casually pointed behind him. "Just turn around and have a look."

Mordred quickly spun around and his eyes widened. There were hundreds of Shadow Garden members appearing, all standing on the rooftops, looking towards the castle and bowing their heads with a fist close to their chests.

Shadow couldn't help but smirk. He saw familiar faces, like Lambda, a dark elf with one eye. Omega, another dark elf, and Chi, who had short blond hair covering her eye, and were always together. Not to mention Victoria, who was mostly in the lead. 

There was even Zeto, Zeta's younger brother, who was starting to grow more independent of Zeta, wanting to show that he was responsible enough to officially become her niece-in-law's official guard. 

Lambda, who was the General and trainer of everyone, stepped forward, her fist still by her chest. "My lord, our master, the Shadow Monarch. I hope our quick and orderly arrival was to your liking?" she asked with a serious expression. 

"Wonderfully executed, Lambda," Shadow praised warmly. 

Lambda bowed, but it was mostly to hide the smile growing on her face as she still wanted to maintain her professionalism. She controlled her growing grin and stood back up. 

Mordred couldn't help but laugh and hold his stomach. "Just how scared of me are you that you decided to bring your entire army just to take care of little ol' me?"

Almost every member of Shadow Garden narrowed their eyes, bloodlust slowly leaking out of them. They all knew that insulting their lord was one of the worst crimes imaginable. 

It was Shadow's turn to laugh. "Hahaha, it's alright if you can't see why I'm doing this. After all, I couldn't expect you idiot cultists to understand," Shadow said, tapping his head. 

Shadow spread his arms, making his figure more imposing against the black rose standing behind him. "This is merely a show. A show to your worthless execution. They, they are just the audience… So go on, call it," he said, his expression turning serious. 

Veins protruded from Mordred's forehead as he gritted his teeth. "Call what?" he asked. 

"Call the reason you're so confident. Call this trump card of yours of which you have so much faith in." 

Mordred smirked. "Fine, you want to see it so bad, then here you have it! Come forth, Ragnarok, the Almighty King of the Fourth Hell!!!" 

A giant demonic figure began slowly floating out, its entire being expelling an overwhelming aura. 

The townspeople began to despair, seeing no hope of Shadow ever beating it. They took Shadow's previous words as mere boasting. 

Shadow just made a beautiful ebony sword with his slime. 

"ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRR!" Ragnarok screeched, expelling a suffocating magical aura that made people sick and begin vomiting due to the nauseating feeling. 

Shadow merely held his sword to his face and closed his eyes. His sword was covered in Armament Haki alongside Conqueror's Haki, the two mixing together and giving the illusion of withering black rose petals, Shadow added pure death energy alongside the blade's edge. The illusionary petals left a black trail as they fell. 

Ragnarok disappeared from behind Shadow and appeared in front of him, its hand stretched out in an attack. 

Shadow just slowly lowered his blade in one serene slice, as he said something softly, but surprisingly everyone heard him.

Everyone at the same time had a vision. They all saw themselves dying, but it wasn't as simple as them dying; they saw how they wanted to go, most with family members by their side, some in battle, some in their sleep peacefully, and some after completing their deep wishes. 

Tears poured out of their eyes as Shadow finished his sword movement. 

"Death's Serenade." 

Ragnarok's fist stopped in front of Shadow's face, creating an enormous gale force that pushed all the clouds around them from the night sky, revealing the beautiful image of the moon. 

Ragnarok exploded into multiple black petals of roses. That was far from the only effect of the attack. They all looked past Ragnarok's petals and saw a giant cut in the atmosphere. 

It was as if a passageway to the cosmos had opened up. Some plopped down to the ground on their asses, looking up at the skies. Everyone could practically feel the celestial energy expelling from the tear; it was as if Shadow had killed the distance between spaces, which was exactly what he did. 

Celeste had tears in her eyes as she reached her hands out. It all looked so beautiful to her; she wanted to reach over and grab the stars with her bare hands. Her eyes were gaining the same glow as them. 

Shadow's eyes widened as his dragon eyes gained a red glint. He covered his arm in Armament Haki just in time to block sharp claws that were going towards his throat. 

The beast in front of him was almost wolf-like, with white fur and glowing red eyes. Sparks flew between their points of contact, and a shockwave manifested with them as the epicenter, crumbling Rose's castle. 

"Rakan?" Shadow said as he was pushed off where he stood and had to fly in the air. 

"ASHBORN! SO YOU DO LIVE!!!" the Beast Monarch yelled, snarling and exposing all his canines. 

"You fools never learn, do you? This shall be the very last life you experience. Your mere presence annoys me," Shadow said, with no emotion present in his eyes.

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