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The Necromancer in Shadow by TheOminousRain

Anime » Eminence in Shadow Rated: M, English, Horror & Humor, Cid Kagenou/Shadow, OC, Words: 548k+, Favs: 386, Follows: 387, Published: Oct 27, 2023 Updated: Aug 9

768Chapter 22: We are Shadow Garden

Chapter 22: We are Shadow Garden

It is now dusk. The Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy is still surrounded by the barrier and the Knight Order are still laying siege on the academy grounds when they heard a terrible roar. As I pass through a blood soaked hallway, I look outside the window and see a monster emerging from the ground, sending debris flying around as it emerged.

"ROOOAAARRRR!" Roars a familiar beast, a beast I created myself. A beast who was once an innocent woman afflicted with Demonic Possession. No. 176 was the result of my attempts to create a dragon minion. I injected her with cells of lesser drakes in an attempt to give her some draconic aspect but she ended up being a scaleless lizard instead. She can't even do the proper breath attack.

I eventually got my very own dragon in an abandoned lab near Laugus (a very fortunate and coincidental find) but that's a story for another time.

Now this very beast is currently rampaging around the school. How many people will die today I wonder?

Oh? Is that Iris? She actually entered the barrier? Oh, right. She possessed the Pseudo-Artifacts I made so she has some chance. As much as I would like to watch her and the knights fight my creation, I should go to where Sherry is.

"We are Shadow Garden."

*SLASH*

"UAAAAGHHHH!"

Annoying pawns. This is getting real annoying. I sliced them apart in an instant before stopping myself as I sense an ominous aura.

"There you are." I mutter while grinning.

"And that's the situation I know of. I don't know if other students made it out yet." Rose finished her report to Iris.

"Mr. Claude…" Iris mutters with worry at the knowledge that the person she considered a friend, whom she entrusted her sister's life to, is now risking his life to save the students.

"Well. The lad is braver than I thought. We should go assist him, your highness." Remarks Glen, the Lion Beard, with admiration.

"Indeed. Especially now that that monster has appeared." Iris remarks back as she and the Crimson Order enter the school grounds, followed by the Knight Order, all armed with the Pseudo-Artifacts.

"Let me help!" Exclaims Rose as she chased after them, intending to continue fighting in order to rescue more students.

"No, princess Rose. You've done more than enough. If we let you into more danger, your kingdom will not let it slide. Please entrust it to us." Answers Iris.

"I understand. Please help the other students." Says Rose as she walks back to the gate after bowing to Iris.

Outside the gate stands Alexia near the newly arrived students, who are unable to leave the barrier and thus are stuck at the gate, protected by a few knights.

"Are you okay, Pooch?" Alexia asks her dog, who is sitting on the ground at the edge of the barroer close to her.

"Pretty bad, as you can see here." Cid answers while pointing to his wounds which has stopped bleeding but still stained his uniform quite badly.

"But really, you can't even be a man enough to stand on your own that a princess has to carry you? In a princess carry no less! Do you want to be princess Pooch?" Alexia teases him with a somewhat mocking smile.

"Well, she did it without my consent though. And being a princess might not be so bad if I can become rich… though the whole kidnapping thing would suck." Replies Cid, not affected by her teasing and instead teases back.

"Hmph. Typical Pooch. Bet you just pretended to be more injured than you actually are just so you can get yourself be carried."

"Yup. Let's go with that."

"Not even going to deny it, huh?"

I popped several blood bags to make the wounds look worse than they actually are. This, coupled with my 'supposed' blood loss from my fight against Rose few days ago, should've made me look like a lost cause but that Rose actually carried me all the way here! I need to slip away from this. Perhaps I need to do the usual. Thought Cid as he schemes his escape.

"Ahhh! I gotta poop!" Shouts Cid suddenly while clutching his stomach as if it hurts more than his wound.

"Wh-What the heck are you saying in front of a lady!? And why do you have to defecate at this time!?"

"Sorry, but nature calls! Gotta go! Gotta go!" Says Cid as he disappeared towards the bushes while everyone else just ignored him.

"That Pooch…! He's severely injured but when he has to defecate he immediately regained his strength, huh." Says Alexia in disbelief as she was about to chase after him before stopping herself.

"Hmph. At least that coward can't possibly go anywhere near the danger zone… I hope."

I enter the vice principal's room and find Sherry there. A green board painted with white lines that makes it resemble motherboards from my past life, which is surrounded by several stones with the flower shaped Artifact placed in the middle of it, laid on top of a table.

"Sherry." I call out to her, making her smile as she turn towards me.

"Claude! I did it! I've finished the Control Unit's adjustment! I-It's indeed created as a countermeasure against the Eye and its Caging Unit! But we need to find the Eye of Avarice and get it close enough to the Control Unit in order to stop it!"

"I know where it is. It's on the Auditorium. You should head to the gate. I'll take the Artifact."

"I know of a secret passage to the Auditorium! Please let me help!"

"It's too dangerous."

"Please…!" Sherry pleads while pulling my cloak slightly, her eyes almost tearing up. I try to be as cold as possible but I still grant her wish.

"Very well. Show me the hidden passage."

"Yes!" Sherry exclaims excitedly, regaining her smile. She then walks towards a bookshelf and presses one of the books like a button. The bookshelf then moves away, revealing a hidden passage behind it.

"Here it is! U-Um…"

"Let's go."

"Yes!"

And so we descend the stairs together while carrying a lantern. As we walk through the dark passageways, Sherry grows more and more uneasy.

"What's wrong?"

"I-It's nothing!" Sherry denies it. I ignored her afterwards as I must maintain a cold cold heart, erasing all the warmth I've enjoyed for some time now in order to go back to my villainous mentality.

We silently pass through the tunnels until we reached the Auditorium's second floor. There we see an armoured man holding the Eye of Avarice which is contained within a four fingered claw shaped Artifact, which is the Caging Unit that modifies the barrier generated by the Eye of Avarice to become inescapable once you're inside. He is surrounded by a bunch of 3rd Children and is also holding a group of students hostage. Among them is my sister, who looked like she is in absolute despair. The sight of it pains my heart but… Cold heart! Cold heart!

"There he is. The culprit for this whole attack." I whisper towards Sherry. I wonder what reaction she would have if she knows who he is.

"Is he… Necromancer?" Sherry whispers in reply.

"No. The Necromancer wears a skull mask and black robes."

"What should we do now?"

I was about to tell her to disable the Eye of Avarice immediately but I see they have hostages. Good boy Claude won't let them get killed. Especially with my sister there and when there are many witnesses. "Hmm… They still have hostages. If we disable the Artifact now-"

"It is fine." Whispers a female voice behind us.

"Huh!?" Exclaims Sherry in surprise.

"Sssh!"

"Sorry…"

"We'll handle the hostages. You should do your part." Says Nu, still in her student disguise.

"Very well. I'll trust you on this." I say as I take the Control Unit from Sherry's hands, activate it and throw it to the direction of the armoured man whereupon it shines brightly, breaking the Eye of Avarice's barrier while also shattering the Caging Unit. Using the breaking of the barrier as a cue, a group of black cloaked women emerge all around us, with Nu joining them while wearing the same cloak as they do. They are led by a man wearing black hooded coat who enters the Auditorium by shattering the roof glass and jumps to the center of the Auditorium. Quite the entrance I must say. The students and the 3rd Children gasp in awe at his arrival.

"We are Shadow Garden." He shouts while raising his black blade up in the air.

"We lurk in the shadows and hunt the shadows." The black cloaked women continue his words in unison before they attack Sir Gaunt's men at their leader's command while Sir Gaunt himself escapes through a secret passage while no one but me is looking.

So that's Shadow. Heh heh heh. To think you would come here personally. I'd love to fight you here and now but I have some old grudge to take care of first.

"Sherry. It's over. You need to go to the gate. The knights will take care of you there."

"What about you!?"

"I have something to do. Just go!"

"But my father…!"

"I'll search for him too. Just go!"

"Yes! Thank you, Claude! And…" She pauses nervously.

"What is it?"

"A-Are we still friends?"

"What are you talking about?"

"F-Forget about it! It was just a silly thought of mine! Thank you for everything today!" She says with an uneasy smile as she runs outside, joining the group of students who's running away from the chaos of the fighting between Shadow garden members and the 3rd Children.

As I was about to re-enter the tunnel, the building's lamps and energy pipes start releasing steam uncontrollably before finally bursting in flames. The flames engulf the whole school building, halting the fight between Shadow Garden and the 3rds, forcing them all to evacuate. Sir Gaunt must've overloaded the steam energy generator to burn the whole school down. He must be trying to erase evidences of his crimes.

"Heh. It seems that we would get a very long vacation after this." I say before jumping through the rooftops to reach the vice president's office before he does.

When I arrive at the vice principal's office, which has not caught on fire yet, I wait for Sir Gaunt himself while browsing curiously through folders on his desk and bookshelves and end up finding some interesting documents.

"Hmm… Forged evidence to incriminate Shadow Garden. Not enough men to execute the plan for now. Interesting. I suppose this whole stunt takes priority over Shadow Garden." I mutter while collecting all the relevant folders and storing them in my subspace inventory before the flames reach the office room. When I sense him approaching, I don my Necromancer mask and robes back in order to greet him.

Author's Note:

This arc is close to ending now. The next chapter will be the fight against Lutheran. Also, at the time I posted this, I finished the draft of this arc's aftermath. I'm so excited to publish them so I guess I'm gonna release 4 chapters in one day.

TheVirtualPug: Christina Hope and Isaac. God, I love Volume 5. It's my favorite volume thus far.

Answer: Glad you enjoyed their cameo. Since they are Cid's classmates, I thought adding them won't hurt.

Zero: Well if shadow going punch him in the face then Necromancer must respond in kind by kicking him in the dick to even things out it be hilarious they both thought "Ow he punch me in the face/Ow he kicked my dick!".

Chapter 606 - 25