The Eminence in Shadow, Vol. 2 (Light Novel) Read online

  “‘Called’…? I certainly didn’t intend to do that. I did rather enjoy myself back there, though.”

  “Yeah. Me, too.”

  “My memories are incomplete, but I’m certain you’re the strongest one in them. If only you’d been around back during my era…”

  “I’m honored.”

  “So what are you doing here?” She looks at me quizzically.

  “A door showed up out of nowhere, I went in, and here I am.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.”

  “Yeah, me neither. By the way, do you know any way out of here?”

  “I’m not certain. I don’t have any memories of ever leaving.”

  “You just came and fought me, though.”

  “I was there when I came to. It’s the first time that’s ever happened to me. As far as I can remember, that is.”

  “Oh, huh. Well, that’s a bummer.”

  I rack my brain trying to figure out what to do.

  There is a door, I suppose, but right as I decide to try going through it, Violet calls out to me with her lips pursed.

  “There’s a beautiful woman bound before your very eyes,” she says.

  I look at her and, seeing her limbs strung up to a crucifix, nod.

  “Yup.”

  “Would you please help me down for starters?”

  I tilt my head to the side a little, realizing I’ve been misinterpreting things.

  “Oh, my bad. I figured you were training.”

  “Why?”

  “That’s how I used to train.”

  “…How novel.”

  I take out my school-issued sword and free Violet from her restraints. Using my slime sword isn’t an option.

  She stretches elatedly, a nostalgic smile crossing her face. “Thank you. It’s been a thousand years or so since I felt this free.”

  “Really?”

  “Basically. I don’t recall exactly, but it’s been at least that long.”

  After smoothing out her thin robe, Violet tucks her silky black hair behind her right ear. I guess that’s how she likes to wear it.

  “Now then, let’s agree on our objectives,” she starts, seemingly unruffled.

  “Huh?”

  “Mine is freedom, yours is escape. Am I correct?”

  “Yup, sounds right to me.”

  “Shall we work together, then?”

  “I’m down, but do you actually know a way out?”

  “I don’t. I do, however, know a way to get free. The Sanctuary is a prison for memories, and there’s a magical core at its center. If we destroy it, I’ll be freed.”

  “Just you?”

  She looks at me from the corner of her eye, smiling coquettishly. “Everything. And you should be able to leave.”

  “Won’t that destroy the Sanctuary?”

  “Oh, I certainly hope so. Do you mind?”

  I turn Violet’s question over in my head. “Now that I think about it, I guess not. Sounds good.”

  “Then it’s decided. I imagine you’ve noticed already, but we can’t use magic here. We’re close to the center of the Sanctuary. If we try to practice magic, it’ll immediately be sucked into its core.”

  “Looks that way.”

  It’s stronger than the doodad the terrorists used when they attacked. When I try to fire my magic up, it immediately vanishes. I’m testing a bunch of different options, but it might take me a while to find a loophole.

  “Don’t worry. I’m great at breaking stuff.”

  “Love that I can depend on you. Incidentally, without my magic, I’m nothing but a delicate maiden. I always wanted to be protected by a gallant knight.”

  This smile is just as impish as the last. For a self-proclaimed delicate maiden, she sure seems calm about all this.

  She takes the lead, throwing the door open without hesitation.

  “By the way, what’ll happen to you once you’re free?” I ask Violet from behind.

  “I’ll disappear. I’m nothing but a memory, after all.”

  She doesn’t turn to look back.

  On the other side of the door is a sunlit forest. Light streams between gaps in the trees, and beads of morning dew glisten on the grass.

  This place doesn’t seem familiar, so I glance around, taking in my surroundings.

  “We’re inside a memory,” Violet explains.

  “One of yours?”

  “I think I remember something like this.”

  And with that, she strides forward. I follow her so as not to get left behind.

  After advancing through the quiet forest for a little while, we suddenly reach a clearing. Within it, a small girl is sitting on the ground clutching her knees, lit by the morning sun.

  The girl’s hair is black.

  “It looks like she’s crying,” I observe.

  “So it does.”

  The two of us approach her.

  When I crouch down and look at her face, I find tears streaming from her violet eyes.

  “She looks just like you.”

  “A coincidence, I’m sure.”

  “Why is she crying?”

  “Maybe she wet herself,” offers Violet unhelpfully.

  The girl silently continues weeping. Her body is covered in bruises.

  “So what do we do?”

  “If we want to keep going, we need to end the memory.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Violet yanks the crying child up by the face.

  “Crying won’t do you any good,” she snaps, slapping the girl across the cheek.

  “That’s awful.”

  “It’s fine. It’s me, after all.”

  “So you admit it.”

  The world rends apart. The sunlit forest shatters into tiny pieces like a fractured mirror, then vanishes into the abyss.

  Empty darkness surrounds us.

  I can faintly make Violet out in it.

  “Let’s continue.”

  “Got it.”

  We advance through the void in the direction our magic is being siphoned.

  It’s the only sensation we have to go on.

  I can barely feel the ground beneath my feet, and I can’t even tell which way is up anymore. To test it out, I try walking upside down. It’s kinda like a handstand: feet up, head down.

  It works.

  Violet casts a lazy glance at me.

  “Don’t go peeking under my skirt now.”

  “Worry not. I can’t see a thing.”

  After proceeding a little farther, we’re engulfed in vermilion light.

  “Ow!”

  I practically crack my skull, but I manage to break the fall at the last minute.

  “This is what you get for goofing around.” Violet looks down at me sprawled on the ground, then extends her hand my way.

  “Thanks.” I grab her cold hand and haul myself back to my feet.

  We’re standing on a battlefield flush with the light of the evening sun, which is bloodred and shining just above the horizon line.

  “They’re all dead.”

  The land is covered with fallen soldiers and stained dark with their blood. The corpses continue all the way to the horizon.

  “Let’s be on our way.”

  Violet begins walking, almost as though she has a destination in mind.

  There are bodies everywhere.

  As we’re forced to trample over them, dusk descends on the scene.

  I dream about a chance to cut loose on a big battlefield like this one.

  After walking a little while, we reach the center of the field and find a blood-drenched girl in tears. We stop in front of her.

  She’s kneeling atop the corpses and weeping.

  Even without seeing her face, I can tell it’s Violet.

  “You’re crying again.”

  “I was a crybaby. Lend me your sword.”

  “Here you go.”

  I hand it to Violet.

  She stands before the girl, sword at the ready. Her face
is expressionless, and it looks almost as though she’s driving her emotions away.

  Then, she brings down the blade.

  At that moment, I lunge.

  I grab Violet by the waist and drag her backward.

  “Was that…a corpse?!”

  Sounds like she noticed it, too.

  One of the soldiers’ corpses got up and tried to cut her down. If I hadn’t acted fast, it would have had her.

  “The Sanctuary is rejecting it, hmm…? How troublesome.”

  “You mean, like antivirus software going after malware?” I ask as I kick away the zombies.

  “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I don’t really know how they work, either. By the way, what happens to you if you die here?”

  “I imagine I’ll be back in chains in the room where you found me.”

  “That would be annoying. How good are you with a sword?”

  “I can muddle through.”

  “Sounds like it’d be easier if I just took it.”

  Violet returns my sword, and I slash at a nearby soldier.

  I cut him in half with a single strike, but more and more of them keep getting up and surrounding us. I quickly give up on eradicating them and instead choose to charge forward and break their ranks.

  Violet stomps one of the downed zombies beneath her heel.

  “Looks like you’re struggling without magic,” I comment.

  “I think I told you I’m just a dainty girl. You seem to be doing okay.”

  “Like I said: Don’t worry.”

  I swing my sword in a wide sweep and slice apart an onrushing zombie.

  “I’ve been able to use magic since I was a baby, so I restructured myself as I grew. My body is the optimal shape for combat. My muscles, my nerves, my bones… I used magic to manipulate them all into their best shapes.”

  I take out three in one swing, then, with a kick, blast away another attacking me from the side.

  Individually, each zombie is slow. There’s a bunch of them, but I can more or less mow them down.

  “How unfair. You’re like an adult beating up children.”

  “I’d rather you make me sound a little cooler than that.”

  “If they held a tournament where no one could use magic, I’m sure you’d emerge the victor.”

  “I’ll take it,” I say, but if I have to keep fighting like this, my body’s gonna reach its limit at some point or another. The crowd of zombies stretches all the way to the horizon. Taking them out without magic is gonna be impossible.

  Man, if only I could use magic and go hog wild.

  I force my way into the throng, running the crying girl through.

  “Sorry.”

  Blood pours from her mouth, and as Violet and I are swallowed up by the horde, the world splinters once more.

  As the landscape shatters, the two of us find ourselves back in the darkness.

  “You good?”

  “Thanks to you,” Violet responds as I sheathe my sword.

  We start walking through the void again until we’re eventually engulfed in light.

  We’ve finally reached the center of the Sanctuary.

  When Alexia comes to her senses, she finds herself standing in a white corridor. It seems to stretch on forever; at least, she can’t make out where it ends. The walls are lined with rooms like prisons, covered up by iron bars.

  There don’t seem to be any lights, but the corridor is bright all the same. It all feels very real and yet disorienting, like a dream.

  Olivier takes point and begins walking. Alpha follows right after her, and the rest hurry to not be left behind.

  The hero starts off a beautiful adult elf but grows younger with each step she takes, and before long, she looks like a little girl. The young hero slips through the iron bars and crouches down within one of the cells.

  “Children without relatives used to be rounded up.” Alpha’s voice echoes through the endless white corridor.

  Then she walks on.

  At some point, the cells became populated with young children. Boys and girls, humans, elves, and therianthropes—that is, hybrid beasts—are all caged up. They don’t seem to share any commonalities besides their age.

  “Here, they were subjected to an experiment.” Alpha stops in front of one cell in particular.

  Inside is a girl. She seems to have lost her sanity, raging within her cage as if she’s in pain. She’s banging her head, scratching at the walls, and rolling around on the floor.

  Alpha keeps moving.

  The girl in the next cell is covered in blood, but not all the damage appears to be self-inflicted. Her body seems to have undergone some bizarre change, causing her skin to tear and drench her body with blood.

  Alexia recognizes that blackened, rotting flesh.

  “She’s one of the possessed…,” someone murmurs.

  “Most of the children died, unable to adjust to it.”

  Alpha resumes walking.

  The next cell is unoccupied. The only things of note are the bloodstains coating the walls and floor and the handprints of someone plainly pleading for help.

  Alpha just keeps going, unfazed.

  The rest of the cells tell the same story: children suffering and dying.

  “This is horrible…” Rose gasps, covering her mouth. Alexia silently agrees.

  There is one pattern to their deaths. The girls’ bodies are falling victim to the possession, but the boys’ aren’t.

  “The only ones able to adapt were a handful of the girls.”

  Then Alpha stops.

  The cell before her houses a slightly older Olivier. She bears no injuries and doesn’t seem to be in pain. She’s just sitting motionless, clutching her knees and staring at the opposite cell.

  That cage, on the other hand, is covered in blood. The next moment, however, it’s as clean as though it had just undergone a scene change, and there’s a girl inside. She suffers, then dies. Another girl appears shortly thereafter.

  The young Olivier just keeps watching.

  “Why are they doing something so dreadful…?” asks Rose, her voice trembling.

  “Care to answer, Acting Archbishop Nelson?” Alpha turns to the man in question.

  After turning his head away and faltering for a moment, Nelson quietly speaks. “They needed the power to stand up to Diablos…”

  “Or so the Cult claims. Regardless of the truth, though, it’s fact that Olivier cut off Diablos’s left arm. She was one of the few children who could adapt to it,” says Alpha as she proceeds.

  “What is this ‘it’ you keep mentioning?”

  At Alexia’s question, Alpha stops for a second to answer. “Diablos cells. That’s what we call them, at least. In order to fight Diablos, they decided to try stealing his power.”

  “Steal his power…? That wasn’t just a fairy tale?”

  “We haven’t seen it for ourselves. That’s how history has recorded it. If you want to think of it as a fairy tale, that’s your choice.” Alpha starts walking again. “After all this time, there isn’t much point debating the veracity of ancient history. We can’t even know if these memories are all true. After all, they fade with time, reshaping themselves to fit their owner’s narrative.”

  They pass by caged room after caged room.

  As they trudge farther down the corridor, they find more empty cells. Olivier ages, eventually growing into a lovely young woman. Her face really does resemble Alpha’s.

  “After she grew older and obtained Diablos’s power, Olivier was given a mission.”

  “Slaying Diablos…?” Rose tries to confirm. Alpha shakes her head.

  “That’s how the history books tell it, but we suspect that’s a lie. In all likelihood, Olivier was tasked with harvesting more Diablos cells.”

  “That’s bullshit!” booms Nelson. He glares at Alpha, his face flushed. The woman in black hoists him up by the scruff of his neck, and he lets out a frog-like croak.

&nb
sp; “Even after she grew powerful, Olivier still obeyed the Cult. It’s unclear why, but we suspect it’s because she truly believed that defeating Diablos would bring about peace. That’s why she was cooperating with the Cult.”

  Olivier leaves her caged prison.

  After putting on a suit of armor and strapping a sword to her back, she sets out on a journey. Seeing Olivier’s face, Alexia finds herself agreeing with Alpha’s assessment.

  Olivier must truly have wanted the world to be at peace. Her expression is one of hope and resolve.

  As she walks down the endless white corridor, her destination becomes flooded with a blinding light.

  “But that wasn’t what the Cult was after.”

  Then, the beam drowns out the world.

  “The Cult wanted to take all the power for their own…”

  The illuminated reality cracks like the surface of a mirror, then shatters into tiny fragments and reveals a new world in its place.

  They are on a battlefield, but there are no soldiers.

  The landscape is steeped in twilight and littered with corpses, and a group of men in white robes are crowded around a black lump.

  Olivier is nowhere to be found.

  Alexia and the others follow Alpha and draw nearer.

  “What is that…?” Rose asks under her breath.

  The lump in question is a massive arm. It’s a monster’s arm—black, thick, and horrifically engorged. Chunks of torn flesh hang off its massive nails.

  “Diablos’s left arm. Severed but still alive.”

  Just as Alpha said, the arm still lives.

  One of the men in white robes accidentally steps too close and finds himself fatally run through by one of its nails. Even though it’s pinned down by chains and stakes, the arm is still pumping out massive amounts of magic.

  “Using a high-grade artifact, the Cult was successful in sealing the arm away. However, their seal was imperfect, and its distortions eventually gave birth to the Sanctuary. But, well, that’s a whole other story. The Cult was after the incredible life energy contained within Diablos cells.”

  A robed man draws blood and slices away skin from the sealed arm.

  After a little while, the extracted blood and skin regenerate completely.

  “Thanks to their research on Diablos’s arm, the Cult was able to develop medicine that strengthened humans. It still had side effects, but unlike before, it was effective on men now as well.”