The Shade and the Sword Saint

Neo's talk with Merlina ended up taking the rest of the day to finish. It was quite lengthy and the contents of her story was quite harrowing for Neo.

After his meeting with Merlina, Neo was inside one of the castle chambers that Merlina had allocated to him. He was silently staring out of the window into the dark night sky while in deep thought as the city continued to bustle with activity down below, the lights from street lamps and lanterns beautifully illuminating the night.

'I now understand why the High Priest didn't want to say anything to me…to think that I'd be kidnapped right under their noses. It must have been one of the worse events to happen in this timeline and it's no wonder the Luminance Faith's reputation fell...'

A decade back, just before the Demon King was vanquished, Neo had actually been kidnapped in his slumber by the Demon King's lackeys when he was under the protection of the Luminance Faith.

It was because of this incident that the Luminance Faith had lost the trust of the various nations of Edels'herah and after Neo was rescued, the people of the world decided to put him under the care of the Adventurer Guild who, at that time, was led by Master Henry.

It took a few years for them to retrieve Neo and during that period of time when he was kidnapped, the Demons had experimented with his body and the results of the inhumane experiments led to the creation of the Shades.

The Shades were artificial humans or humanoids that were empowered by the holy attribute of Neo's flesh and imbued with the ungodly powers of the Demon King.

In this timeline, the Demon King's powers had weakened just like the Goddess. It was so bad that just like Neo, the Demon King soon fell into slumber and his followers could no longer continue maintaining their army that would permanently lose members whenever they clashed with their enemies.

Opening Demon Gates was something only the Demon King could do, so without him, the demons couldn't summon any more of their kind to Edels'herah. The Archdemons made a desperate attempt to imbue their demonic energy into the creatures of the planet in hopes of turning them into demonic beings, but that only resulted in the imbued creatures dying due to demonic corrosion.

To counteract the corrosion, they kidnapped the only truly holy being on the planet–which was naturally Neo–and experimented on his body. After many experiments, they managed to extract the holy attribute that Neo possessed, transplanted it into the bodies of other people that they kidnapped for the experiment, before imbuing them with the Demon King's demonic energy and enslaving them with magic.

The two conflicting energies created a harmonious balance inside of the bodies of those experiments which allowed them to wield demonic energy and directly manipulate mana just like Neo could after some training.

These experiments who were once ordinary people, but were now those who could wield demonic energy and made to fight for the demons–the enemy of mankind–were what the masses knew as Shades.

Due to their insane battle prowess and complete disregard for their own death due to the enslavement magic, the Shades became one of the largest and most problematic obstacles in mankind's path to victory. Mankind eventually won in the end, but it at a horrible cost.

Once the Demon King had been vanquished, the surviving Shades were released from the enslavement magic that was put on their minds and they immediately retaliated against their captors.

Ironically, the Shades were the ones who completely destroyed the remnants of the Demon King's forces and completely put an end to the demons. They should've been redeemed as heroes for ending the war, but unfortunately for them, the damage they caused during the war was too significant and despite it not being their fault since they were forced to fight against their will, the people of Edels'herah feared and hated them, especially those who believed in the Luminance Faith.

They were branded as devil spawns and heretics so they were hunted down, especially the very dangerous ones who caused the most damage and terror during the war.

Since they were hated by the world, the Shades who were still sane went into hiding, trying to do their best living in secret and away from mankind since they couldn't go back to their old lives and live among the people.

Only a select few were like Cecilia who was taken in by powerful and merciful people like Merlina, the Hero Queen, and allowed to live among the people though their true identities were kept a strict secret since the common folk still feared and hated them.

Merlina didn't see the Shades as enemies, but instead, really unfortunate people whose fate condemned them to a life of pain and suffering. They were kidnapped from their homes, inhumanely experimented on, forced to fight against their own kind, and were now being hunted down just because they had survived through all of their ordeals. They had suffered enough from the demons' hold so forcing them to die was unreasonable in Merlina's opinion.

The Shades were the ones that needed the most help after the war because of everything they went through. Not all of the Shades had even regained their sanity after the enslavement magic was destroyed. The experiments done to them were utterly inhumane and most of them suffered from intense trauma to the point where some even lost their minds.

Cecilia was one of the people that lost control of her mind but since she was only a teenager at the time when Merlina found her, the Hero Queen took pity on her and helped her nurse herself back to the way she was now at the present.

Cecilia was still emotionless but she was recovering. She was able to better control her powers and she was able to hold conversations with other people and get along with them.

Neo looked down at his hands and shook his head after recounting the story that he heard from Merlina.

He couldn't believe that even when he was asleep, he was still causing trouble for the people of Edels'herah. Neo had failed them 8 times already and in the end, it was their own power that brought them salvation, but he nearly destroyed their hopes and brought misfortune to an untold number of people who were forced to become Shades.

"Oh Goddess, just what use am I to this world? In the end, the people of Edels'herah saved themselves…All I do is bring misfortune and suffering to these people and yet, you have me relive my life over and over again…"

Neo prayed that night but unfortunately, Uria didn't answer his calls and prayers. In the end, he went to bed feeling completely empty.

The empty feeling he felt was a first for him. The only way he could feel this way was if he had emotions, but that was something Neo was sure he didn't possess so he thought it was something else.

Despite being experimented on for so long, there wasn't anything wrong with his body after he did a thorough inspection on himself. The only thing that felt remotely wrong with him was his inability to connect and communicate with the Goddess.

******

The next day soon came and early in the morning, Neo was able to reunite with a long-time friend of his, the Sword Saint, Sigurd.

This Sigurd obviously wasn't the Sigurd of his past life, but it was always nice to see a familiar face. Sigurd was one of the members of the party who took down the Demon King in this life alongside Merlina.

When Sigurd met Neo, the former stared at the latter for a long time before greeting him, "Hey, how are you, Neo?"

"Huh?" Neo was confused by the greeting but he quickly recomposed himself and greeted back, "I'm fine. I hope you're doing well, Sigurd."

"I am. I definitely am," Sigurd said with a smile.

Even though this should've been the first time they met each other, Sigurd greeted Neo as if he was greeting an old friend. He pulled the latter into a brief hug and patted him on the back with a smile before letting go, just like how old friends would greet each other.

In the usual timeline, Neo and Sigurd would be the best of friends already, but in this life, Neo was deprived of the time he should've spent developing his friendship with this close friend of his though from the looks of things, the two seemed like friends already despite this being their first meeting.

"Well, aren't you two getting along just fine?" Merlina interjected as she eyed the two men with a raised brow.

"It's our first time meeting, but it's like I'm seeing an old friend! By the way, how are you, Merlina?" Sigurd replied with a chuckle.

Merlina scoffed in annoyance and replied, "I'm doing fine, thank you very much. Anyway, since you're here, let's depart?"

Neo tilted his head and asked, "You're going with us too, Merlina–I mean, Your Highness?"

"Haha, it's fine. Just be as informal with me as you are with this bastard. I welcome it," Merlina turned to Neo and said with a laugh. "To answer your question; yes, I'm definitely going. You need me to open the sealed area."

"I see."

"Cecilia, you're coming with us too. Henry, I want you to stay at the castle and keep things situated here."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Of course, Your Highness."

The party that would be going to the Demon King's burial site was Neo, Merlina, Cecilia, Sigurd, and the First Squadron from Merlina's Royal Guards.

While Merlina was addressing the people that were seeing them off, Sigurd pulled Neo to the side and asked, "I know that you've just awoken so please forgive me for asking, but do you have a plan to completely put an end to all this conflict?"

Neo looked at Sigurd and answered, "I haven't been able to communicate with the Goddess since I've awoken, but the path forward is pretty much set for me already, right?"

"Hm?"

"The Demon King has been defeated and sealed by the good people of Edels'herah. All I need to do is completely destroy him. Once he's destroyed, the world will finally be at peace."

Hearing his words, Sigurd gave him an odd look before asking, "...Will it?"

"What's that?"

"Will the world truly be at peace once the Demon King has been destroyed?"

Neo didn't know how to answer Sigurd's question, but in his previous lives, Uria always said that to bring peace to Edels'herah, he must destroy the Demon King. His goal was within his reach in this life so there was no need for him to hesitate.

"Yes, I'm sure destroying the Demon King will bring peace to this world," Neo answered firmly.

A conflicted look flashed in Sigurd's eyes for a moment, but he suppressed it quickly and gave his friend a smile before replying, "Good, then there's no longer any need to hesitate, Neo."

"Yes."

"..."

Merlina had finished with things on her end so she called out to the two of them who were having a private conversation on the side, notifying them that it was time to depart.

The two of them ended their conversation and they split ways. Neo headed towards the carriage he was going to be riding on with Merlina while Sigurd went to find his trusty steed, Gran.

Before they split, Neo gave Sigurd a fist bump to his chest and said, "I've been asleep all this time and when I woke up, the Demon King had already been vanquished. I'm sure you and everyone had a tough time. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help even though that was my mission..."

Sigurd eyed Neo before copying what he did and fist bumped the latter's chest and replied, "Not at all. We did what we had to and from now on, that's what we'll continue to do…for the sake of Edels'herah."

"Yes, for the sake of Edels'herah."

This friendly gesture was something Neo and Sigurd had developed in all their previous lives. Neo didn't think Sigurd would understand it, but seeing his friend do it made him smile.

"That's good to hear. Now let's go and destroy the Demon King."

"...Yes."