In the pitch-black space, the crying pink-haired girl clung tightly to the figure in the black coat. Her beautiful face, glistening with tears, pressed against his broad chest as her body trembled slightly.
Cid lowered his eyes and looked at Sherry in his arms. She kept crying, her tears staining her cheeks as apologies spilled from her lips. Like a gentle mother, he softly stroked and patted her back with one hand.
"Go to sleep. When you wake up, everything will be over."
Sherry had only just calmed down when those words left her stunned. She instinctively tried to raise her head to look at Cid, but she stopped halfway. Her frail body lost consciousness and fainted.
"You really can't read the room. Sneak attacks during an emotional moment are something only small fry would do. Didn't you know that?"
Cid lowered the hand he had used to knock Sherry unconscious, then looked at "Shadow," who had just been sent flying by him and was now raising his sword to launch a sneak attack.
"Die!"
His sneak attack failed, and "Shadow's" stance changed. The sword force in his hand shifted from a silent drizzle into thunder heavy enough to shake mountains, stirring up huge waves within the space as it rushed toward Cid.
"You have the same combat techniques as me and stole half my power, yet you're still this boring."
Cid watched the attack coldly, then glanced emptily to the side and exhaled. In the next instant…
Holding Sherry, Cid vanished from the spot and appeared behind "Shadow." The black sword in his hand traced a flourish. After a brief pause, "Shadow" suddenly exploded apart, and a powerful gust swept outward, making Cid's loose black robes billow.
"Let me see. Eta's location is… found her!"
Following the direction of the Magical Power draining from his body, Cid swept his eyes, which could see through all falsehoods, across the space. He quickly spotted Eta unconscious in a corner of the black void, her Magical Power being drawn out without end.
He raised his sword and slashed forward. A sharp sword Qi tore through the black barrier before him and opened a path.
Pitch-black slime tentacles broke through the Magical Power constantly gushing out of Eta's body, wrapped around her slender waist, and with a slight pull, delivered Eta into Cid's hand.
All right, time to leave.
Now that he had rescued them both, Cid planned to get out. Just from spending this short while in the dark space, he could feel his mind being contaminated. As expected of an aggregate of the things he had discarded. To him, it was basically a garbage heap that had gained sentience.
Another slash opened a path. Seeing the light at the end, Cid lightly leaped forward with the two of them in hand and sped toward the exit.
"Rumble!"
Perhaps because Cid had taken Sonki's source of power and soul all at once, the pitch-black space let out a tremendous sound. The black ground around him began surging like waves.
"Whoosh!"
Magical Power sprayed recklessly from the surrounding ground to fill the huge hole. Hundreds of black tentacles spread from the walls, each one packed with tremendous strength and Magical Power, lashing toward Cid to stop him from taking the two away.
"Don't get in my way."
Cid spoke coldly, with no intention of dodging. He simply touched the Magical Power in the air, and his overwhelming control instantly reversed the rampaging Magical Power and countless tentacles in the pitch-black space.
A few seconds later, explosions filled the dark space. The Magical Power meant to patch the hole instead widened it several times over.
Outside, a mass of energy filled with negative emotions covered the sky like dark clouds. One part of it suddenly exploded, and a black dot shot out, followed by two tightly intertwined tentacles wrapped around that dot like thin strands stretched from kneaded dough.
"Huh!?"
Flying through the air with the two of them in hand, Cid felt the Magical Power inside him stop draining. But when he saw the tentacles still connected to him, Eta, and Sherry, a confused sound escaped him.
"If I can't have you, then you won't have them either!"
A shrill scream came from the energy mass in the sky. Cid could feel a powerful suction coming from the tentacles wrapped around them, but the target of that suction… was not him!
"Gurgle…"
A large bulge suddenly swelled from the tentacles wrapped around Eta and Sherry behind him. They had stopped drawing Magical Power from Cid and were now targeting Eta and Sherry's life force. This was not for the sake of gaining power…
"Smack!"
Cid stopped trying to break free from the black cloud, turned around, and grabbed the tentacle, stopping it from escaping after it had already sucked out all of Sherry's life force.
"I can't let you take that!"
He spoke quietly, using one hand to struggle against the tentacle carrying Sherry's life force, while his other hand swung his sword again and again, cutting down the pitch-black tentacles spreading out from the torn opening.
"Hey, Shadow. How about we play a game?"
An invisible ripple flashed through the air, and a voice that sounded neither male nor female rang in Cid's mind.
"A game? Sure."
"Then here's the game. Are you truly a qualified Eminence in Shadow?"
His expression remained calm. His figure kept shifting as he dodged the attacking tentacles, while his unreadable gaze turned toward the top of the black cloud, where a figure with a clearly human lower half was connected to the cloud.
"You want to save them, right? Then I'll take their lives now, and what you have to do is save them from my hands."
"?"
"If I lose, I die. If I win, then stop talking about that bullshit Eminence in Shadow!"
"???"
Ignoring Cid's puzzled look, Sonki stopped the endless tentacle attacks and instead gathered them together to form a screen.
Light flashed, and Cid and Sherry appeared on the screen…
"An Eminence in Shadow isn't threatened by others, so even if I threatened you with Alpha and the others' lives, you wouldn't care.
But if it isn't a threat, and instead you fail to save people because you genuinely wanted to act, then tell me, doesn't that ruin the image of an Eminence in Shadow?"
"!!!"
A trace of surprise flashed through Cid's eyes. He felt like he understood what "Sonki" was trying to do.
"If you save them, I die. If you fail, you'll probably kill me to silence me. But before I die, I'll spread the fact that you failed to save them into the minds of everyone in the world.
Either you give up the identity of Shadow, or that stain will follow your identity as Shadow for the rest of your life.
Well… other people might not care, but knowing you, you'll absolutely care more than anything. Even if I die today, I'm going to make you sick!"
Ah… even though it had already lost Sherry's soul as a host, why had this small fry's intelligence and purity not dropped at all? Why had they suddenly gotten so high instead?!
"Now, let the game begin!"
With those words, Cid clearly felt the connection rooted in Sherry's soul and Eta's body deepen through the tentacle in his hand. At the same time, tens of thousands of tentacles burst from the black cloud and rushed toward Cid like a ten-thousand-meter-high tsunami.
Tch, this is troublesome.
Cid clicked his tongue in annoyance. If he were alone, he could easily deal with both the overwhelming sea of tentacles and the parasitic tentacles endlessly absorbing energy.
But as the saying went, how much water a barrel could hold was decided by its shortest plank. Right now, Eta and Sherry in his hands were the real problem.
It would take him two seconds to sever the link while preserving their souls and life force, without unconsciously damaging Eta's and Sherry's souls. And that was only if he devoted all his focus to it.
But one second was enough for the sea of tentacles to send him flying three times. Likewise, without him stopping it, the time it took him to recover from being knocked away once would be enough for the tentacles to drain Sherry's and Eta's life force and souls ten times over…
"Checkmate. You win!"
Cid looked coldly at the sea of tentacles rushing toward him, but he still did not let go and drop Eta and Sherry.
The next instant, an absolute, dazzling, sacred glow of Magical Power lit up the entire battlefield. The blinding light pierced through the black clouds covering the sky, illuminating the night like a rising sun.
The moment such overwhelming Magical Power appeared, the tentacles coiled around Sherry's and Eta's souls loosened their vicious grip, turned away, and devoured that radiant light.
"A foolish choice."
Echoes rang out. After swallowing the luminous Magical Power, the black clouds erupted with an unprecedented wave of Magical Power, blasting Cid and the two girls away in one surge.
Cid raised a protective shield in time and used the wave of Magical Power to put distance between them. Then he looked up toward where the black clouds had vanished. Only a humanoid figure wreathed in black Qi remained floating at the center.
"For the sake of that bullshit Eminence in Shadow, you let me plunder most of your power. You really did make a stupid choice, Original."
"I don't think it's a big deal. I can just spend some time recovering later."
"Mm, right, you can recover if you spend some time. But that all depends on whether you get the chance to recover.
If the earlier fight was basically you amusing yourself, and you could have ended me the moment you wanted to, then right now, during this window, you are no match for me."
"..."
Cid nodded silently. Sonki had plundered most of his power. Though that power, once separated from him as the main body, was water without a source and would run dry sooner or later, there was no denying that Sonki, after devouring it, was several times stronger than him in his weakened state.
In simple terms, if first-phase Sonki had been on even footing with him, then now, in terms of raw stats alone, the odds were three to seven. Meaning he would be solo-killed by Sonki more than seven times in three minutes.
"What a truly stupid choice. As long as I kill you during this period and take your body and power, won't that so-called water without a source finally have a source?
I'm not naive and childish like you, suffering so much just to become some Eminence in Shadow. Even if I became an Eminence in Shadow, so what? I'd get no authority, no benefits, nothing at all. Only the suffering that comes from constantly chasing perfection. A dream this exhausting, why should I keep going?
I'm a practical person. Once I have all your power, I'll turn the whole world into my playground. I'll kill every man, kill every woman who isn't pretty, and kill anyone who doesn't obey. Those who submit to me will prosper. Those who oppose me will die.
What do you think, Shadow?"
Sonki spoke as if toying with a mouse, then vanished in perfect silence and appeared behind Cid, raising his sword high before swinging it down.
"Clang!"
A white shockwave burst out. Sonki stared in disbelief as Cid turned and delivered a side kick. A blade extended from the tip of his foot, clashing with the sword in Sonki's hand, and the ringing sound of metal against metal echoed through the air.
"Completely correct. No problem with that at all. But to kill me, you first need to be able to use my power properly. Or rather, how long can you even maintain this form?"
Cid spoke calmly as the fluctuations of Magical Power around him drew inward. The numerical gap between them had already shot past the sky. One touch might be enough to kill him now. In a situation like this, he had to take things seriously. He could no longer waste Magical Power on decorative special effects.
When that strike failed, Sonki immediately abandoned the sword in his hand, rolled his body, and launched an attack from below.
"Whoosh!"
Cid turned his head and dodged the attack with ease. Then, with a movement no Human could possibly perform, he shifted to Sonki's chest and bent his leg.
"Boom!"
"Gwah!"
Sonki was sent flying at nearly the same speed, and a large amount of black Qi was punched out of him by Cid.
"No matter how much power you gain, you still can't change the fact that you're a third-rate small fry. Just thinking that someone like you is another me makes me feel pathetic."
Cid looked at Sonki with faint disdain. He had to admit that Sonki, having copied Sherry's appearance, was still quite pretty. But the brutality on her face now ruined Sherry's beautiful features.
To be honest, when Cid had separated out most of his power earlier, he had been rather afraid the other side would not take the bait. After all, from Sonki's tone, it really sounded like she did not care if she died as long as he suffered.
Mm, unfortunately, no matter how convincingly she dressed it up, she was still small fry. The moment he separated that power, she could not wait to release the link.
"Impossible… impossible…"
While Cid looked down on her, Sonki was lost in disbelief. She could not understand it. Why? She was faster, stronger, and had more Magical Power. How could she still not beat Cid?
"This is impossible!"
With a low roar, Sonki erupted with powerful Magical Power and charged at Cid.
"Nothing is impossible. In this world, as long as two conditions are met, there's no such thing as an absolutely unwinnable fight…"
Cid spoke at an unhurried pace. A rain of compressed magic bullets passed through him and the Sherry and Eta in his hands as if they were phantoms.
"First, you need to break through the defense."
He turned sideways to avoid the blade. As if replaying how Cid had just defeated "Sherry," a dense storm of sword strikes swept across his position, but every blade missed Cid by a hair's breadth.
"Second, you need to land the hit."
Cid slipped past the attacks and kicked Sonki away, then adjusted his grip on Sherry and Eta.
"So, how many of those conditions does our fight meet?"
He said it with a laugh, lightly tapping Sonki on the head and sending her falling like a meteor.
"Since you've already recognized that you're a part of me, you should understand the difference between us. In the end, you're not me. If you want to…"
"Talking to yourself over here? No wonder Alpha and the others left you. I bet it's because they couldn't stand you being such a damn riddler, so they stopped letting you play with them."
"..."
Watching Sonki rush up at him, Cid brought together the hands holding Sherry and Eta.