the eminence in shadow: Eminence of the Side Character 5

Chapter 5: Math checks out

Cid stood looking over the warehouse waiting for Alpha, doing his best to look stoic and relaxed as his excitement grew.

This was it. The moment he'd waited sixteen long years to achieve, the unveiling of Shadow and Shadow Garden. An amateur eminence would have impatiently revealed himself years ago in some fight with a gang or something but Cid refused to settle for that. He'd trained until his power was unrivalled and waited until a suitable stage presented itself before making his move.

He noticed a small figure in a green cloak running into the main entrance of the facility and wondered if they might be receiving an early warning. He felt a pang of jealousy at the thought there might be a secret tunnel he should be worrying about.

His own escape had been pretty lame in comparison. He'd originally tried to have a secret tunnel dug under his apartment building, but apparently the structure wouldn't support it.

Why do people even make buildings like that.

Following this he'd designed a less impressive escape option. He'd rented another apartment a floor above and on the opposite side of his building for the last year, and used the window there to jump to a nearby rooftop since his own window was being watched. The ghetto escape tunnel sucked, but it worked so he had to concede that by definition it didn't suck that much.

The closest thing to a problem had been Claire showing up to check on him, but it was late enough that he could just pretend to be asleep (she of course insisted on having a key and wouldn't bother knocking). Showing unusual restraint she just tucked his blanket more tightly around him and whispered that everything was going to be okay before leaving.

Cid could finally see Alpha approaching, long blond hair shining in the moonlight as she made her way over. He wondered if it ever got in the way while she was fighting.

Deciding to try and avoid any potential awkwardness from their conversation earlier Cid forced his voice deeper and said "The time is ripe for shadows to engulf the world"

"Indeed. This moonless night belongs to the shadows. To those who hunt from the shadows".

Cid felt his chest tighten. They grew up so fast.

"How should we proceed my lord."

"Given their hostage, we should move silently until she's secure. We can fight through our enemies more freely then". If they moved Alexia before he could recover her it would be a massive pain to track her down again.

He set off and signalled Alpha to follow him as he made his went to the best entrance he'd found, a second story room with a broken window. The unlit room with it's cracked walls and rotting broken furniture was doubtless left that way to show how abandoned the building was and how worthless everything inside would be. As a man who knew how to set a scene, he'd have to give this an A+.

The jump was thirty feet into a small opening and as he went in face first he noticed small fragments of glass that would crunch underfoot if he landed normally. He partially liquefied the slime suit as he rolled to his feet to cover the glass and silence any breaks.

As Alpha came in he decided to catch her before she landed in case she wouldn't be able to manage the silent landing. If she hadn't improved from the last time he'd seen her, it would be a struggle for her, Epsilon was the only one he'd put money on to first-try this sort of thing. She looked slightly flushed and flustered as he set her down and quickly turned away from him to stalk towards the room's only exit.

She probably wanted to show off her training or something.

Cid decided to stand back and let her take the lead for a little while. As her superior he should have some idea of her skills and he got wanting to show off.

Besides, none of her new tricks could top his showstopper.

------

Something was happening outside. She was too groggy to make out what was being said so far away but she could hear the panic in those voices and felt herself smile, hope bubbling up in her chest. She looked over to new friend "Can you tell what's going on". Her voice sounded hoarse even in her own ears.

The creature looked at her but said nothing. She didn't think it could talk but she thought it liked being talked to. It looked at her intently when she did and sometimes it nodded or shook it's head if she asked the right questions. Talking about whatever came into her head had helped her calm down after the panic she felt realizing this wasn't going to be resolved with a simple ransom demand.

The thing had terrified her at first with it's dark red skin, angry red eyes and a body that looked grotesquely muscular in some places and withered to a corpse-like state at others. At her best guess she'd been locked with the thing for over a day now and the familiarity combined with the knowledge they were both in the same boat had endeared her to it somewhat.

At the very least it was her favourite of the two new acquaintances she'd made in this room. Blood doctor talked but was one note about her having demons blood, mostly unintelligible and had mood swings like an angry three year old.

Speak of the devil.

He walked in followed by another man, finally raving about something else.

"The knights, the knights are coming. Why? Why? First we lose the labs to those idiots in black and now, but now? You were supposed to handle them you. You" The outrage in his voice was palpable.

The blond man who answered was calm "I don't know how they found me out so quickly. You can complain later but we need to move to our backup site outside the capital tonight".

It took her a second to place the place the face and voice "Instructor Zenon?"

"Ah princess" Zenon replied casually "I'd like to talk right now but were on a somewhat rushed schedule."

She laughed "Yeah. Sounds like Iris is hot on your tail."

He shrugged "She suspects me for some reason and this place does belong to a business I own. She'll show up in the next few days I expect but you'll be long gone by then".

Alexia smiled "I always thought you were either a total liar or a complete psychopath, but I never thought I'd be right about both". His slap did little to dampen her mood at knowing she was completely right and seeing his plan beginning to crumble around him. For all of her difficulties with Iris she had complete faith she wouldn't fail. Hell in some way that might have actually be part of the problem. He'd be on a scaffold before the school semester was over.

"Why are you even doing this?" For as much as she hated him the man appeared to have everything; money, status, even a certain appeal with other girls Alexia had never understood.

"I suppose it's because I have more ambition than spending my days instructing a bunch of useless, ungrateful brats how to fight. If you mean why you're here it's for your blood". He answered while looking over the doctor's equipment.

"Again with my blood" she deadpanned "Is this some sort of vampire cult?". She'd heard doc psycho ranting about being excommunicated from a cult early on.

"Not exactly" he said picking up a syringe filled with a dark yellow fluid. She tried to move away as he approached "Don't struggle, you'll only hurt yourself". Alexia had to concede this and tried to hold herself still (it would only be harder to run or fight injured) as he approached and stuck the needle into her neck "Your blood has… Practical and religious value. This is about immortality."

Alexia tried to keep her eyes open as he moved to unbind her arms and legs from the magic sealing chains, but her eyelids felt like more and more weight was being added to them every second. By the time she was completely unbound she was in a deep sleep.

----

Alpha had improved during their separation. Dramatically. The rooms facing onto the streets were all empty but further into the interior the spaces were well lit and clearly lived in, with several of the rooms being occupied when they arrived. They were technically empty again by the time they set off for the next one.

Alpha had managed the first room entirely by herself, a sleeping quarters with three young men quickly packing up whatever they thought was valuable. Moving through the room with a calm, serene grace, finishing all three within ten seconds of near perfect silence.

Not wanting to be outdone Cid had moved taken the next room with five people in in, using a mix of ranged attacks and a double kill from above to get max style points. They took it in turns from then on, occasionally working on some difficult setup together until they got to the research centre(?). This had twelve people furiously grouping and packing away documents, their distraction made it relatively easy to take them unawares and clear the room.

He looked over the documents and picked up a few at random then spoke to Alpha "You might want to take some of these"

"Can't we come back later and retrieve them with a larger team?"

"That won't be possible" Cid foreshadowed.

Alpha looked over the documents and replied "It seems they know someone is coming for them but I'd guess they're preparing for the knights and not us. They've learned not to waste any time if they find out were onto them. Whoever tipped them off has made our task more difficult though". Alpha trailed off somewhat unhappily.

Cid being completely responsible for this decided to change the topic "You've gotten a lot better since I last saw you. I'm impressed."

Alpha tucked a few pages into her slime suit and replied as it reformed "Well… yes. Most of the new girls have never seen you fight, so I have to set a good example".

This floor was entirely clear so they set off still talking to one another "Have you had any luck finding job outside shadow garden?" Cid tried to ask as casually as possible. People could get pretty sensitive about being out of work.

"I've actually decided to follow your example for that. I'll be working as a retail assistant part time as my cover. I can't really afford anything more anyway given the time it takes to run Shadow Garden. I have no idea how you manage everything while maintaining such a complex disguise".

It's quite simple. You do all the work.

"Well if it work's for you that's nice. Where are you working?"

"Mitsugoshi" she said, looking at him clearly expecting him to know what store that was. Being entirely disinterested in shop brands but not willing to admit to his ignorance he just smiled and nodded. People generally got whatever message they wanted from that.

The rest of the floor was clear so they were able to talk casually as they looked for the entrance to the underground section of the base they'd heard about as they'd prepared to strike. He filled her in on academy life, Claire's overbearing training and his job with Alexia. She probably wasn't used to people complaining to her about their bosses since she was apparently in charge of all of her other friends, which was probably why she ate up his bitching about Alexia.

For her part she talked about how Shadow Garden was doing, about sections where she thought they needed more personnel and occasional 'misunderstandings' with Delta. Gamma and Epsilon seemed to be the standouts with Gamma's business apparently accounting for most of their income and Epsilon becoming a favourite of the imperial court of Velgalta and Orianna's royal family.

The entrance was hidden behind a bookcase they had already passed during their first sweep of the building. It hadn't been locked but was almost completely flat against the wall, explaining how they'd missed it earlier. They fell silent as they headed down the stairs conscious that there would be some serious echo off these walls. After a few minutes of moving through the underground tunnels a figure resolved out of the darkness.

It was actually two figures. A blond man he soon recognized as instructor Zenon with Alexia slung over his shoulder. She was clearly unconscious as her head lolled with Zenon's strides, silvery hair bobbing up and down.

Alpha stepped forward and drew her blade before he could stop her. He decided to join in to present a united front even though it would be kind of lame when Zenon explained he was here as part of the rescue force. This was partly his fault after all.

"Look. A virtuous knight saving a princess, it's fit for a storybook" Cid spoke dramatically.

Zenon had already halted to look across at them.

"It's you. The man in black that's been tearing though the cults outlying positions"

Wait.

Cult wants Alexia + Zenon wants Alexia = Zenon part of cult.

Math checks out.

Thankfully Alpha took over replying while he calculated. "We are those who lurk in the shadows to hunt the shadows. We are Shadow Garden and tonight we shall be your death".

That strange, clenching feeling in his chest happened again as she finished her monologue and a great roar reverberated through the tunnel. He looked curiously past Zenon then back at him as he set Alexia down and drew his own blade.

"It's one of the possessed. One of those freaks you fools like to collect" Alpha visibly tensed. "I expect it'll kill a lot of knights in a rampage before they finally bring it down".

Seeing an opportunity Cid spoke to Alpha. "Deal with her. This will be a step below easy."

She nodded and set off, sheathing her sword as she picked up speed. Zenon made a half-hearted attempt to stop her but had to keep his eyes on Cid.

"That's a shame. The two of you might have made this interesting". He lunged forward as he was finishing interesting and Cid casually deflected the attack and slammed the older man into a wall.

"Only if she had joined your side". He moved over to Alexia and looked over her. She seemed paler than normal and needle marks covered her arm. A faint line of drool had reached her chin.

She says she's not related to Ausaur, but then she does things like this.

He couldn't help but feel a little bad seeing this. She had technically paid him to keep Zenon away after all and this had still happened to her. Deciding he could at least give her a show he set his hand on her stomach and started rapidly healing her. Not enough that she'd be tempted to fight but enough so she could watch (or run later) as he dismantled Zenon.

On that subject Zenon had recovered himself and had settled into a fighting stance. "I've underestimated you. Tell me your name if you have one?"

"I am Shadow. He who lurks in the shadows to hunt the shadows". He was kind of repeating Alpha but since Alexia had missed that it felt necessary.

"I am Zenon Grifey and when I present her and you to the order I will be the 12th knight of the rounds".

----

Alpha could hear the sound of metal hacking through flesh and pushed herself to run even faster. She turned the corner and saw two green cloaked knights and a young woman in black with scarlet hair fighting against a giant.

The two in green were thrown back, unable or unwilling to enter the fight again while Iris held her ground and attacked, making the girl howl in pain and fury once again.

She doesn't understand what she's doing.

The thought didn't calm her as she moved to attack Iris, doing what all the giants fury couldn't and sending her flying back. The descendent's attacked her then, but she easily dodged and managed to put her hand on the girls leg. It's mana was surging in uncontrolled bursts and it was child's play to force it into a simple, unusable loop. She fell over paralysed but unhurt.

Iris rose to her feet then and began her own assault. A flurry of furious, rapid strikes that Alpha actually had to put some effort into blocking and dodging. Eventually the onslaught abated and Alpha, untouched, was finally able to speak.

"This is our concern. It has nothing to do with you."

"The hell it doesn't. My sister's been taken and I have no idea who you are or how your involved in this". Iris briefly looked over at the cell that must have contained the possessed and her sister "That thing, is that her?" Her voice lost some of it's strength as she finished.

"It's not her. It's what you would call one of the possessed. One of the hero's descendent's"

"Are you from the church? Are you here to kill it?"

Calm, stay calm.

"No, and there's no need for that". Alpha replied, keeping her voice impressively level. She set her hand on the girl and began the healing. Slowly she began to shrink, skin paling, joints rounding and eyes shifting back to a cool grey colour. Once she was finished the brown-haired girl would have passed for an ordinary teenager. That's what she really was Alpha supposed.

"By the goddess" Iris exclaimed.

Alpha turned to Iris and smiled coldly "Your sister is back the way I came but she's already being attended to. We can fight again or you can go to her. I'm going to take this girl to safety either way."

Iris hesitated "The one 'attending' her is a friend of yours right?". Alpha nodded "Then are you just going to leave him behind?"

Alpha laughed sincerely at Iris's indignation as she lifted the young girl up "He doesn't need my help, believe me."

---

The fight before her was like nothing Alexia had ever seen before. In tournaments there were always injuries and occasionally a few deaths, but there was still a hesitation in those fights, both participants at least had to try and avoid looking like they were trying to kill each other. That was missing between Shadow and Zenon and the difference was stark.

It had began with a few slow attacks and parries back and forth between them as they tried to figure out the man they were fighting. Over time Zenon's attacks grew more deliberate, the speed and power behind them increasing as the fight progressed. She knew Zenon was one of the best spellswords she'd ever seen, even if she hated to admit it.

But Shadow was the best spellsword she'd ever seen. If she had faced that combination of attacks she wouldn't have lasted a minute just trying to defend. Shadow had not only landed a score of small cut's across his opponent's body, he had refused to take even a single step away from his starting position between Zenon and Alexia. It was as if a having to make a larger movement was an honour and Shadow was insistent on not giving it to Zenon.

She had noticed something else about Shadow's style as well, it was remarkably similar to her own technique. She'd noticed him use the exact same move three times, to deflect three very similar attacks from Zenon as his frustration grew and his attacks became less varied. It was pure muscle memory executed exactly the same way each time, a simple move he had practised over and over again and pulled out at the right time to counter his opponent.

It was obviously much better refined than her technique and his control over his mana was so great she couldn't even sense anything from him. If this man had stood beside Cid on the street and she knew noting else, she would have said Cid had the bigger reserve. That meant she had no idea how large his could be and she was beginning to worry about what would happen once he'd finished with Zenon.

She still couldn't bring herself to run though. Watching the arrogant, twisted, lying little worm getting stomped on was the most fun she'd had in months.

She heard someone running down the tunnel behind her and struggled to turn around.

Iris was there almost before she could register her approach. As her arms wrapped around her, crying out her name and asking if she was alright, it was as if all the distance between them and everything Alexia though held them apart didn't matter at all. She could feel tears forming in her own eyes as well. For as confident as she pretended to be it had been a slight possibility that she would have never see her sister again and the thought had terrified her.

Something in the air changed as she answered that she was alright (fine seemed like a stretch) and was being pulled to her feet. It felt like she was on ship's deck that had just hit a powerful wave. The stone seemed almost to rock as she looked towards the source.

Shadow stood as impassively as ever (it seemed nothing could shake that man) while something loomed over him. It looked almost as if Zenon had merged himself with the creature caged to the wall. He was still recognisably human but twisted and enlarged. The mana radiating off of him was intense, two or three times what he'd been putting out previously and more than she'd ever felt from a single person.

Iris got between her and the fight and slowly started trying to move away but Alexia wanted to see how this ended. Needed to see.

"The ones who can control this power are the ones who'll rule this world. The knights of rounds"

Shadow chuckled "If you think power comes from without and not from within you don't understand the word. Even if I gave you all the power in the world you'd still be the same pathetic man you are now."

Something about the words bothered Alexia as Zenon charged again. The only difference from last time being that shadow had finally stepped forward to pin the injured Zenon to the ground with one foot as he raised his sword.

"I will show you true power. Take this lesson as my final mercy."

Power started gathering in and around shadow's blade then. More than she could have imagined. Zenon's supply suddenly seemed like a cup beside the ocean as the purple light gathered, darkened and coiled around itself. She stopped pulling at Iris and started running with her in pure animal terror.

"I am"

She looked back in spite of herself as she sprinted down the tunnel. The violet light was beautiful.

"Atomic"

---

Gamma was waiting for the signal when the building erupted. The intense light made the city look as if it were midday and not the dead of night, the hue of the light was the only difference she could see.

She'd been told it would be obvious but this was such a display of power it took her breath away. That man truly had no bounds to his skill or power.

Forcing herself to focus she finally spoke "Squads, engage immediately"

A dozen four member teams began to move rapidly across the rooftops as Beta approached "Delta moved out as soon as the light appeared". Beta looked over at the fading pillar with pure awe.

Trying not to be exasperated at either girl she spoke "Well get after her then, and try to keep her out of trouble". She bet Epsilon's team on the other side of the city didn't have to deal with this.

---

Cid stood on the rooftop again waiting for Alpha at their rendezvous, much more calmly than he had a few hours ago. He had a good view of the crater he'd left in the city. Watching as crews of knights looked through the wreckage, escorted civilians to safety and held back the crowd that wanted to go in after loved ones.

Iris and Alexia's distinctive hair had made them easy to spot as they came out of the wreckage, Iris had moved swiftly to take command and Alexia had stayed beside her, though he couldn't tell which of them was responsible for that.

"It seems you've made quite the impression" Alpha said, probably hoping he would say more. Cid was in a mysterious mood though so simply let the silence drag on for a bit.

"You'll be the cult's top priority now. Stopping one of their most promising research projects and killing one of their rising stars isn't going to go unnoticed".

Cid smiled warmly at the thought "Yeah. Maybe this time they'll send someone worth my time".

Alpha's mood seems to lift hearing that. "I've got to go and so do you I expect but…" she pulled Cid into a hug "It was great working with you again"

"You too" he replied, needing to get away quickly but not wanting to strain his newly rekindled friendship "Maybe I'll see you at Mitsugoshi sometime". Not knowing where their headquarters in the capital was this store was his only lead to finding Alpha.

Alpha set off and Cid moved quickly to where he'd stored the night's prize. EiS technique number 1 "distraction nuke" had worked as flawlessly as always. He'd previously named the technique "Nobody pays attention when the bomb goes off" but now having the power of the atom in hand he could upgrade the name. It was like changing 'Stylish bandit slayer' to simply 'Shadow'. The brief hint of regret at the cringe that was his time as Stylish bandit slayer almost ruined his mood.

He stepped into the room and looked down at instructor Zenon strapped to the chair. The man was terrified but hiding it well enough. Chances like this were rare so he savoured the moment, slowly moving moving his hand up to remove his mask and lower it to reveal his face (it was part of the slime suit and he could have just dispelled it immediately, but that wouldn't have been as dramatic).

The look on his face was priceless "You. You're Shadow".

"Yes. Me." Cid replied casually. "I have a few questions I need you to answer"

"Why would I do that?" he spat.

Cid, wanting to peak the drama cut the ropes holding Zenon to the chair. "If you want to try running you can do that. I assume you know how that will end though".

Zenon looked furious, then defeated, then slumped back into the chair "What do you want to know?"

"What's the cult of Diabolos?"

---

In summary, the cult was in fact a thing. They were trying to gain immortality by resurrecting a demon that almost destroyed the world a thousand years ago, and was primarily a church organisation with holdings in other spheres of power like government and industry.

As awesome as that was it wouldn't change the next task Cid had to complete. Sighing, he approached Alexia on the rooftop "Get it over with"

"What?" she seemed genuinely confused.

"You're going to say something about how you were right about Zenon the whole time and I was an idiot to believe him"

His luck might have been S for spectacular, but his ability to read people (highlighted by Zenon and the shades) was apparently S for sucks-ass.

"I was not" she replied insistently. Cid was certain she was lying.

"Okay, we don't need to talk about that then".

"No, not after I say that I was right about everything" she smiled demurely

Deciding that was as easily as it could have gone he asked what was expected "So what really happened to you, and do you know anything about that massive explosion?"

Alexia proceeded to explain everything that had happened, leaving out a couple of things like her rough treatment by the doctor and her cellmate who was in Alpha's care.

"So you don't know who kidnapped you, or who killed them, or why?" Cid asked as she finished.

"Well..yes. When you put it like is sounds rather unfortunate."

My god, it's more beautiful than I ever imagined. I've unveiled myself on the world stage and remain a complete enigma while a main character is talking to me about it. Ahhh what a great scene.

He struggled to keep a 'yeah I'm awesome' smirk off of his face as Alexia continued on.

"Everything's settled for now at least. I've made it clear to the other students you weren't involved, so they'll probably just never talk to you about it"

"Why wouldn't they ask about it?"

Alexia smiled "Because they were wrong about you. Do you really expect them to want to talk to you about that" She hesitated before continuing.

"About what happened on the tram, I suppose I owe you an explanation for that considering all the trouble it caused you. People have been saying they like my swordplay for a long time and most of them don't mean it, so I just didn't believe it. But some people do actually like it and you're one of them, so thanks I guess."

"I sort of figured it was something like that." After Alpha explained it to me.

She blinked in surprise and then blushed, looking down at Cid's feet before forcing her eyes back upwards.

"I've got something I need to ask you?"

"Oh me too" Cid replied. What he was going to ask about wasn't likely but it was the last loose end in this whole arc.

"Well you can go first, I insist". She said, still flustered.

"Did you tell anyone I was broke and that you were paying me?"

Alexia shook her head "Cid, I was the one who asked you not to say anything. It would be way worse for me if it got out than it would be for you"

It was what he expected "Yeah. I was just talking to...Claire about you and she figured it out. I was being pretty vague so I don't get how she knew".

Alexia looked at him with mild pity "Knowing you whatever you said probably made it completely obvious. What exactly did you say?" Her tone wasn't angry. It was the sort of voice you would use to correct a child doing something very stupid.

Cid gave a quick summary of what he'd told Beta and Claire and the reaction it had gotten. Alexia was smiling by the end but even with his apparently drunk-blind man ability to read people he could tell this wasn't a happy smile.

"So… did you figure out what I said wrong"

Alexia stepped forward and smoothly moved her hand to her sword hilt "Oh yes. I can explain that perfectly for you right now."

The next half hour was a massacre to make any war criminal green with envy. Despite Cid's overwhelming power, incredible luck, with occasional bouts of critical thinking and planning he was unable to avoid becoming the corpseless murder victim.

Afterwards Alexia dragged him to the infirmary to be healed where the explanation that he tripped and fell was accepted (but not believed) by the school healer and he was sent off to find Claire and 'explain things'.