To Be a Power in the Shadows! (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 2.5

Part 5

“I’m sorry, but how far exactly are you taking us?” Alexia calls to the head librarian. She can see his tall figure proceeding down the darkened corridor.

“We’re almost there,” he replies.

“We could have just talked in one of the classrooms, you know.”

“…Then let’s do it here, shall we?”

With that, the librarian comes to a stop. He’s smack-dab in the middle of the hallway.

“Here?” Alexia asks.

“Why, yes. The preparations are complete.”

He turns around wearing a faint smile.

Alexia doesn’t like that smile one bit. She frowns.

“Alexia…” Behind her, Claire taps her on the shoulder. “The fog…”

“The what?” Alexia looks around and discovers that the entire hallway is enshrouded in white fog. “Why is there fog in here?”

The fog rapidly grows denser, and a cracking noise echoes from just out of sight.

“This is like what happened when I got attacked…”

“It is?”

Then the world fractures.

The sound of glass shattering rings out as the scenery breaks into a million tiny pieces.

“Wh-what’s going on?!”

They were just in one of the academy’s hallways, yet their surroundings have completely changed.

Now they’re in a world enveloped in white fog.

A sweet smell drifts through the air.

“Get your sword ready, Alexia,” Claire urges.

Alexia does just that.

“We’re surrounded.”

“Huh?”

Alexia searches for signs of people and discovers a group of them waiting in the fog. The group is slowly approaching while keeping a close eye on them, and it doesn’t look like they come in peace.

“Good spotting, Claire.”

“My spirit friend is good at stuff like that.”

“Ah, got it.” Alexia then turns her sword toward the head librarian and lowers her voice menacingly. “Now, as for you, buddy.”

The librarian stands in the fog with that same thin smile. “However can I help you, Your Highness?”

“What exactly do you think you’re pulling here?”

Alexia is no fool, and any trust she had for him has long since gone out the window.

“Oh dear. You’re cleverer than I expected.” The librarian pulls out a pair of large machetes, one for each hand.

“Well, those are grisly old things. Shouldn’t a librarian like you be fighting with pen and paper?”

“Pens and paper are for depicting ideals. Reality is forged with the blade.”

With that, he brandishes his twin machetes.

“I’ll handle the librarian,” Alexia says. “Claire, you handle the others.”

“Got it.”

The two of them stand back-to-back with their swords at the ready, and the fight begins.

A pair of machete strikes comes lashing out from the fog. Alexia dodges half a step back to avoid the first blow, then parries the follow-up strike with her sword.

“Oh?”

As the librarian’s eyes go wide, Alexia launches into a counteroffensive. Her form is fluid and unfaltering, and her sword lands a shallow wound on his face.

“Well, isn’t this something?” The librarian retreats to where he started from and wipes away the blood running down his cheek. “I must say, I’m shocked. The Princess Alexia I know would never have been capable of such moves.”

There’s nothing in his voice but genuine praise.

“Call it a growth spurt,” Alexia replies.

“Even so, that’s wonderful stuff. Swords carry with them the weight of their wielders’ lives. Before, all you were doing was imitating Princess Iris. Now, though, you’ve taken that instinct and sublimated it. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say you’ve combined it with something else.”

“You really think you have time to be psychoanalyzing me?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“Even now?”

That last comment comes from Claire.

A number of figures lie crumpled on the ground around her. One by one, they shatter and vanish.

The head librarian’s eyebrows furrow in surprise. “You took out all seven Seconds? Claire Kagenou… You won this year’s Bushin Festival. You weren’t nearly this strong back then, but now you’re using some sort of strange power.”

“…You noticed?”

“I saw you use those red tendrils, yes. How intriguing.”

Even when he was battling Alexia, he still kept a close eye on Claire’s fight.

Alexia and Claire square off against the head librarian.

“Now it’s two-on-one.”

“Looks like the shoe’s on the other foot.”

The librarian seems oddly sure of himself. “Does it, now?”

“You’re strong, but together, we can take you down.”

“Ah, to be young.”

“Well, someone’s sure confident.”

“It’s because I’ve given up.”

“What?”

“I’ve given up on swordplay. Ours is a big world, and no matter how good you get, there will always be someone better. That’s why I enjoy seeing talented swordplay such as yours. I’m sure the two of you will surpass me in no time.”

“If you’ve given up, then hurry and surrender already. We’ll make you sing like a bird.”

Alexia’s comment earns her a weak grin from her foe.

“Ah, the folly of youth. If you’d just let go of your fixation on swordplay, you would realize that there are plenty of other ways to fight.”

“Huh?”

A sweet smell tickles her nose.

Then, with a pair of overlapping clangs, Alexia’s and Claire’s swords clatter to the floor.

“What…?”

“M-my arms…”

“That sweet smell is a drug that relaxes the muscles and stifles your magic.”

The librarian looks down at the two of them as they fall to their knees, unable to resist the drug’s effect.

“Damn you… I thought we were supposed to be fighting with swords.”

“You two are bursting with talent, and your futures are bright. That’s why men like me come and steal it all away.”

The librarian pulls out some rope and binds their arms.

“Why…?” Alexia asks. “Why are you doing this…?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” he replies.

“You’re obviously strong, so why debase yourself like this?”

“I told you, there’s always someone stronger. My sword broke long ago.”

“It broke? What does that even mean?”

The librarian gets a faraway look in his eyes. “There once was a dark knight by the name of Fenrir. Have you heard of him, perchance?”

“Never.”

“Oh, I suspect you have. There isn’t a person living in this country who hasn’t.”

Alexia thinks through all the past Bushin Festival participants and dark knights who made their name in other nations, but she comes up blank. “A dark knight named Fenrir… You’re not talking about the guy from the legend, are you?!”

“The very same. He was once known the world over and hailed as the greatest dark knight alive.”

“Okay, hold on! The dark knight Fenrir lived hundreds of years ago! Plus, people aren’t even sure if he was actually real.”

“Oh, he was real, all right. And what’s more, he’s still alive today.”

“But if he’s still alive… You mean he’s using the Beads of Diablos?!”

Alexia thinks back to what she learned in the Sanctuary—about how there’s a group called the Rounds who use the Beads of Diablos to obtain eternal life.

“You already know about the Beads? Well, now I really can’t let you live.”

“What are you going to do to us?”

“Offer you up as sacrifices. We were planning on leaving the two of you be, but we’ve barely managed to retrieve any possessed as of late.”

The librarian withdraws a vial of liquid from his pocket and raises it to Alexia’s mouth. There’s a fiercely sweet aroma coming from it.

“Head off to dreamland now. Off to a sleep you’ll never wake from.”

“Rgh…”

Alexia holds her breath and turns her head away, but even so, her consciousness slowly slips into darkness.

“Alexia!”

“Cl…aire…”

That’s when it happens.

There’s a noise like something being forcefully ripped. It feels as if a powerful pressure is tearing into the world itself.

Then the ceiling shatters.

“What is this? What’s going on?” The librarian sets down his vial and looks up.

A dark figure descends from a crack in the ceiling. After landing with an oddly muted sound, the figure rises to its feet.

“You…”

“It’s you…”

The man stands alone in the fog, dressed in a black longcoat.

““Shadow!!””

His longcoat flutters behind him as he casually draws his sword.

The librarian readies his machetes with a harsh grimace. “Can’t say I was expecting Shadow to show up in person… Nobody even gave me a warning.”

Shadow gives him a scathing look. “You’re revolting.”

“And what about me is revolting, might I ask?”

“Everything.”

“…Well, you can say that again.” The librarian scowls, then lets out a laugh that echoes with self-contempt. “My life hasn’t gone the way I hoped. I got swept away in its current, and it broke me. Now I live in shame. If you find me revolting, I have nothing to offer in my defense,” he says calmly. “However, there was meaning to the shame.”

“…Oh?”

“There you are, Shadow, standing at my journey’s terminus. A fitting end for a sorry fool who had his sword broken and betrayed his nation.”

“You’ve made your peace, then.”

“On some level, I knew this would happen ever since Zenon bit the dust. Here at the end, though, I stand before you a swordsman—now, have at you.”

He sweeps aside the fog with his oversize machetes and bears down on Shadow.

The librarian’s words echo back in Alexia’s mind: “Swords carry with them the weight of their wielders’ lives.”

And how radiantly his slash shines.

“Excellent stuff.”

Shadow lays his sword in that radiance’s path.

That’s all it takes.

Transient and brittle, the huge machetes shatter into pieces.

“They shattered, did they?”

Nothing remains save their hilts, which let out a pair of sad clangs.

Shadow swings his sword.

A beat later, the sheer pressure from his slash blasts away the fog. Cracks begin splintering across the world, then loudly engulf everything in sight.

The world breaks.

Just like that, they’re back in their original world, as if it were just a dream. However, the pool of blood the downed librarian now lies in serves as proof that it all really happened.

The librarian coughs, sending flecks of blood flying from his mouth. “Well, Shadow… Looks like I was no match for you…”

“I have yet to glimpse the pinnacle.”

With a swish of his black longcoat, Shadow vanishes.

“That was what Shadow is capable of?” Claire murmurs. A chill runs down her spine. The head librarian was a powerhouse, and he was completely powerless before Shadow’s might.

“He’s gotten even stronger…,” Alexia says, vexed.

The two of them stand up after working together to undo their bonds. They look down upon the librarian’s figure.

“Mr. Librarian…”

“I’m…beyond help.”

There’s a deep wound in his chest.

“You were once a pretty famous dark knight, weren’t you?”

Alexia can’t help but ask the question. That final attack of his had a beauty to it that only the truly talented could achieve.

The librarian shakes his head. “No… Just a nameless hack.”

The man is lying. Even Alexia can tell that much. She looks down at his arms and sees timeworn scars carved in his flesh. “What happened to your arms?”

“They were severed. The Cult used their technology to reattach them, but they were never quite the same. Back in my day, I was able to wield a much subtler blade.”

“Who cut them off?”

“Fenrir. That was the day my sword broke.”

“Would you mind if I asked what happened?”

The librarian looks down at his chest wound. “Very well… I’ll share the story with you, right until I breathe my last.”

Alexia and Claire sit down beside him.

“My story begins some fifty years ago, back when I worked for this nation’s Knight Order…” He looks through the hallway window at the night sky now free of fog, dredging up old memories as he does. “I joined the Order after winning the Bushin Festival. There, I righted wrongs, apprehended villains, and secured a future for myself.”

“See, I knew you were a notable dark knight,” Alexia says.

“Zeal was the one thing I had in spades, and it led to me discovering evidence of wrongdoing far above my pay grade. I found vermin infesting the Midgar Kingdom…no, the entire world. I imagine you’ve discovered the same thing, Your Highness.”

“…The Cult of Diablos.”

“Exactly. At the time, I didn’t know they existed. I thought the Holy Teachings priests had just gone rogue, and so I marched straight into the Church.”

“Into the Church?”

“I was so young then. I believed that so long as I had justice on my side, I could do anything. There I was, so certain I was about to bring the hammer of justice down on the corrupt Church.

“My men and I searched the building, hoping to find hard evidence of their crimes.

“However…the ordinary clergy had nothing to do with it. Their devotion was true, and all they’d been doing was spreading the Church’s teachings. And the believers were the same. They believed in Holy Teachings with all their hearts.

“It turned out, the crimes were being committed by just a tiny segment of the clergy leadership.

“After patiently surveilling the priests, we discovered that there was a secret chamber hidden beneath the church. After descending a long staircase, we were greeted by a horrifying sight.

“Down in the chamber, there were countless rotting possessed locked up and crying in agony. All of them had been wounded, and some of them had had something horrible implanted in them.

“As we stared at them in horror, we heard the door close behind us.

“It was a trap.

“I sensed hostility and immediately moved to protect myself. The mighty blow that came next sent me flying, and I skidded across the ground.

“When I returned to my feet, I saw my severed left arm, the corpses of my beheaded men…and the dark knight Fenrir, standing at the center of it all.

“I slashed at him, giving in to my rage as I clutched my sword in my remaining hand. That was how I lost my right arm, too.

“The Cult of Diablos was no stranger to having to deal with do-gooders like me.”

He drops his gaze to the old scars on his arms.

“His power was overwhelming. As I lay there, prone, Fenrir brought an unconscious woman before me. It was my wife. I was a Bushin Festival winner and a prominent member of the Knight Order, so the Cult thought I could be valuable to them. I sold my soul to them in exchange for my wife’s safety.”

“What happened to her? If she’s safe, I promise I’ll protect her.”

“Thankfully, she died of old age without ever learning the truth.”

“And you never tried to defy them?”

The head librarian gives his head a sad shake. “Any will to resist I had was cut off in the same stroke that severed my arms. Take heed, Your Highness. The road you walk is the same one I did, and at its end lies despair and a darkness that never ends.”

His stare bores into Alexia, but she meets it without flinching. “That doesn’t change what I must do. As a princess, I have a duty to this nation.”

The librarian stares at her in amazement. “You’ve become a fine young woman. In that case, I have one final thing to tell you…” His breathing is shallow, and a trickle of blood runs out the side of his mouth. “Tell me, Highness…do you know what the Cult’s goal is?”

“They want to resurrect the demon Diablos, don’t they?”

“Let me rephrase. Do you know why they’re trying to resurrect it?”

“Well, that’s because, uh…”

Alexia is at a loss for words. She knows what the Cult is trying to do, but she’s never stopped to consider the why.

“There are two reasons. The first is to obtain more power. The three heroes were all women, and the possessed are all women, too. Women are the only ones Diablos cells have ever responded to. That’s why the Cult has been forced to rely on these flawed pills to gain strength.”

The librarian pulls out some red pills.

“Those are the ones Zenon used,” Alexia notes.

“He was a fool, that pupil of mine.”

“Why didn’t you use them?”

“Because to do so is to shame yourself as a dark knight. However, the Cult saw potential in them. They’re trying to perfect them, to create a more potent version without the side effects. That’s why they’ve spent so many long years researching the heroes’ blood. If they resurrect Diablos, they’ll likely be able to attain their goal and obtain power surpassing that of even the heroes.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“However, the Cult’s second reason is the more pressing of the two. You know about the Beads of Diablos, correct?”

“They’re supposed to grant you eternal life, right?”

“Well, the Cult can harvest only twelve a year. Imbibing a Bead prevents you from growing older for the coming year, but at the moment, the amount they’re able to produce is declining.”

“What do you mean, it’s declining?”

“I don’t know what’s causing it, but if things go on like this, it won’t be long at all before they lose that eternal life of theirs. That’s something the Cult’s leadership absolutely cannot allow to happen. They want to resurrect Diablos so they can go back to mass-producing Beads and ensure their eternal lives. The Cult has been ruling the world from the shadows for a long time, and their immortal leadership is what keeps their operation unassailable. If they lose the Beads, though, that foundation will waver… Koff.”

The librarian takes a moment to steady his breathing, then looks up at the moon hanging in the night sky.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is the era the Shadow Garden appeared in. This is the beginning of the end for the Cult’s long rule. That’s why you must pro…ceed with caution. Are those people truly…defending the peace and fighting for justice?”

Alexia has no answer for that. All she knows about the Shadow Garden is that they stand in opposition to the Cult. Aside from that, everything about the organization is shrouded in mystery.

“They might simply…be trying to steal it from the Cult…”

“Steal it? Steal what?” Alexia asks the head librarian.

“Eternal life… And also…the world itself… Koff, kaff!!”

“Mr. Librarian…”

“Wh-when the Cult falls…the world…will belong…to…the Shad…ow Gar… Koff.”

The librarian hacks up a huge mouthful of blood.

“Mr. Librarian!”

“P-Princess Alexia…” He sucks in a pained breath as he chokes out the words. “The fate of Midgar…is in your hands…”

And with that, he breathes his last.