Right after the prince placed the ring on the princess's finger, a a guard stepped out from his initial position behind King Baichun's chair. I noticed the murderous glares sent his way by the two kings, but the guard slowly moved toward the center of the platform while slowly taking off his helmet that was obscuring his face. Before I could clearly take in his facial appearance, the whole amphitheater was suddenly covered in darkness—no light, no sound, just heavy darkness that was slightly visible to the eye as it seemed to be moving.
The darkness swelled and moved as my eyes adjusted to the level of darkness, but I still couldn't make out anything clearly. My element was useless since it was related to sound, and with no sound here, it basically meant that I was a sitting duck waiting to be slaughtered under this thick veil of darkness.
My mind quickly raced, and I wanted to believe that this was the work of a talented darkness elemental konqueror, but my intuition told me otherwise. This darkness was almost tangible, and right in front of his eyes, the whole place now seemed like a city made of shadows. Wait, that's it; this is no darkness; we are covered in shadows. That is why the darkness felt so alive. But I have never heard of a shadow elem... no, no, no. If I remember correctly, Elaine did mention something about a shadow soul back when we had just arrived at the capital of our kingdom. Is this somehow related to it?
I try to reach for my master, who was by my side the whole time before shadows befell us, but all around me, there was no sign of life. Before I could even process what is happening, the shadows retreated, and light shone upon the amphitheater again. But what lay in front of me was horrifying; it was exactly like the stuff of nightmares. Dead bodies, young and old, all killed in a gruesome way, filled the whole amphitheater. His master, the one he had been searching for, was standing in front of him bleeding while sheltering him. But from what Timothy did not know, this was the messiest he had ever seen Lenard look, and in his eyes was a determined look as he looked straight at me with his piercing blue eyes. Looking past Lenard's face, there on the platform lay Finn, who had his throat ripped out and half of his face crushed, with the princess weeping as she knelt beside him. My thoughts freeze, and I'm unable to comprehend what was happening. My mind went stiff, and I could see Lenard opening his mouth and closing it, seemingly in the middle of telling me his last words, but I could hear none of it. The pain in my heart was much more than I could bear, and my mind only had one thought: 'This can't be happening. This can't be happening.' Those words repeated in my mind for countless times as I stood there watching as my master falls down and my friend lay dead on the platform, barely recognizable. Suddenly, my head started pounding, and I was suddenly brought back to reality by the soft 'thud' of my master's body hitting the ground after taking his last breath.
'No, no, no. I want them back. I want them back, Finn, Lenard, my team, all of them.' It started as a whisper, but then the pounding of my head got increasingly hard, and one of my eyes filled with tears felt like it was about to burst. I stubbornly clutch the eye as I scream, 'I want them back!' With that scream, my eye busted open, and I could feel my consciousness leaving me by the second as my body slowly falls to the ground right on top of my deceased master. A loud 'gong' resounded in my head, and I completely let go, letting the darkness takeover, my last thought being 'I want them all back.'
...
'Shadow Scape: Veiled City.'
With no time to waste, I made a dash for the princess with my sword already drawn out. The shadows had already covered the amphitheater, and my scape covered the whole amphitheater. Only I could see and move as I please in my scape, or so I thought until I saw the king without a kingdom dashing toward the princess too, his arms wide, preparing to shelter the princess with his own body. Silently snickering, I increased my speed, and just when I was about to plunge my sword into the princess's skull, my sword pierced a large flaming hand instead. Not even giving him time to pause, I immediately let go of the sword and attacked him with a powerful punch to the face that sent him back a few steps. But the princess was in his arms nonetheless. Just as I was about to continue, my eyes catch the cruel death to which King Aerem suffered, his own sacred preacher Romano stabbed him in his heart. King Baichun's hand, which was covered in a ghastly bluish flame, grabbed Amadeus's face, and he started rotting on the spot until he was nothing but a dried-up carcass to which Baichun let fall to the ground. I notice the two Romano and Baichun staring at each other intently before nodding quietly, and their slaughter befell the rest of the crowd. No one put up a fight as the two rummaged through the dazed citizens. Suppressing a chuckle, I moved toward my two targets with the utmost focus.
'Who sent you!' The king without a kingdom asked right after dislodging his hand from my sword. Not giving him the satisfaction of an answer, I closed in, turning my body into that of a shadow as I went in for the kill. My hand balled into a fist oozing with mana about to land a blow that will blow the princess's face up. Right as I was about to connect my fist with her face, my fist met his face, crushing half of it. To anyone else, that hit could have killed them0 right there and there, but the bastard used that brief moment of contact to also deliver a flaming fist of his own straight to my left cheek. I could hear and smell my skin burning right before his fist connected with my face, but I quickly moved my head a little bit to the right, and the punch only grazed me but also burned my ear to a crisp. The pain stung, but I knew I could not afford to lose my cool. One must still die today. And I had made my decision. As I retracted back into the cover of shadows and moved forward again, ready to end this party once and for all, not even a few seconds had passed, but I knew that I did not have much time until both those two attempted to break my scape by casting their own and making us battle through our scapes, which could really hurt the soul. I moved through the veiled city like a silent stalker in the night, clenching my fist. I prepared to land a deathly blow on the princess, but the king intervened, blocking my fist with his arm. Smiling, I quickly transformed my hand into a claw and went for his neck, ripping out his throat and his blood spraying on my face and the princess. My job here was done. Quickly taking back my scape, I slid into the shadows and reappeared in the next district. Quickly losing my royal guard armor, I disappeared into the crowd. As I wove through the sea of people, I felt the threads that I had just cut slowly repairing themselves. My head felt slightly dizzy, and before I knew it...
....
The four royal guards under Baichun's command stood sentinel outside the throne room. Upon the creak of the opening doors, they swiftly bowed, acknowledging Baichun's nod.
"Why do I get a faint feeling of déjà vu?" One of the royal guards thought to himself as they followed behind the king on their way to the amphitheater.