Until she saw that beautiful arc, Rose had been prepared to die. If she was captured and turned into a pawn, her father's death would have been in vain. She wasn't going to let that happen.
Death is petrifying.
However, it was the only option she had left.
She'd been allowed her indulgences as a princess, but she still intended to carry out her royal duties.
This was to be her final task.
She'd been prepared for that.
"Y-you're..."
However, the instant she sees that boy beautifully cleave through everything, she's reminded of a memory from her childhood.
"The time for lies is over..."
And with that, Mundane rips off his face.
The crowd stirs.
Beneath Mundane's skin sits an all-too-familiar mask.
Black liquid swirls and spirals around him.
When the spiral subsides, it leaves a man wearing a jet-black long coat in its wake.
"Shadow...," someone murmurs.
But to Rose, he isn't Shadow.
He's the man who made her want to take up the sword. The one whose blade embodies beauty.
"Shadow, are you...? Are you the Slayer?"
The memories flash through Rose's mind.
[+]
<<•>>
Once, long ago, Rose was kidnapped.
Her father had official business to attend to in Midgar, and she'd secretly snuck out of their inn to play outside. As she was playing with the commoner kids, though, everything suddenly went black.
Then, she passed out.
When she came to her senses, she found herself confined in a small, dark room.
Her hands and legs were bound with rope, and there was a gag stuffed in her mouth.
Although she was outwardly free of injury, her body trembled from worry and fear.
She could hear bandits talking in the room next door. "Man, I knew her clothes looked nice, but we got us the princess here!"
They'd probably figured it out from her personal effects. Now they knew who she was.
"You did it again, boss! We hit the jackpot!"
"This wasn't luck, dumbass! This was all skill!!"
Crude laughter echoed out.
Terrified for her safety, Rose fell into despair. The bandits had two options:
They could either use her as a hostage to bargain with Oriana, or they could sell her to someone who knew what she was worth.
She was certain they'd pick the latter. Although she was valuable as a hostage, mere bandits would be hard-pressed to use her right.
By selling her, they could make some easy gold. Then, she would end up falling into the hands of political enemies...
That prospect terrified her.
She twisted her body to try and undo the ropes.
She shouted through her gag.
But her efforts were for nothing.
"Hey, sounds like the princess is up."
"Go check on her, then."
She could hear footsteps drawing closer. Her muffled shouts turned to screams as tears began running down her cheeks.
But just as the door was about to open...
"Yahoo!! Gimme all your money!!"
She heard a child's voice saying some rather unchildish things.
"Wh-who the hell is this kid?!"
"He just showed up outta nowhere! Kill his ass!!"
"C'mere, you!!"
Something made a sound as if it had sliced through the air.
A scream rang out.
"Wh-who the hell is this?! He's too strong!!"
"What?! He took out three people at once?!"
"You guys can help me practice my fancy swordplay."
Something ripped through the air again.
Rose could smell blood. She timidly peeked through the crack in the door.
Outside, there was a boy wearing a sack over his head and a group of bandits fleeing.
"If you run, you're just bandits! But if you don't, that means you're trained bandits!!"
"Ah, ahhhhh!"
"P-please—!!"
The sack-clad boy swung his sword.
"…?!"
The arc was so beautiful that Rose forgot what was going on and simply stared at it.
She didn't know much about swords, but that technique...was far more beautiful than any work of art.
The blade sliced skillfully through the bandits' necks, and the screaming stopped.
Dumbfounded, Rose just gazed at the boy with the sack.
"Man, I came all the way out here, and they don't have any gold. Huh? Oh, there's more of them."
Noticing Rose's gaze, the boy in the sack opened up the door.
Light streamed into the room as their eyes met.
"Ah, a kidnapped kid. Rough day for you, huh?"
The sack boy swung his sword. Rose was captivated by the elegance of his sword work.
"Bye now. Take care on your way home."
The sack boy began briskly walking off.
Before she noticed, Rose's bindings had been cut.
She called out to him in desperation. "W-wait!"
"Hmm?" The boy stopped and turned back toward her.
"Wh-who are you?"
"Me? Hmm. I'm still in the middle of my training, so...just think of me as a fancy bandit slayer who happened to pass by."
"The Fancy Bandit Slayer... Um, I want to thank you somehow."
"Uh... All right, well, then l'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about me."
"O-okay, I won't."
"Cool, I'm counting on ya."
And with that, the Fancy Bandit Slayer vanished.
"The Fancy Bandit Slayer..."
He had saved her from the depths of despair and, in doing so, changed her very life. Out of admiration for the beauty of his swordplay and the way he lived his life, Rose took up the sword that very day.
<<•>>
It's a precious memory of her childhood, one that she's never told anyone. It's Rose's little secret.
In that moment, though, she gives voice to that secret for the first time.
"Shadow...you're the Fancy Bandit Slayer, aren't you?"
Shadow doesn't answer.
But to Rose, his silence is answer enough.
Ever since he was a child, he's fought tirelessly against evil. He's been saving people behind the scenes this whole time, just like he once saved Rose.
Shadow's words run through Rose's mind. If true strength comes not from power but from the way one lives their life...then Shadow must be strength incarnate.
Rose feels ashamed at having chosen death so readily.
She could still have fought, but living is painful, and failure is terrifying. She wanted to put an end to it all.
She had sought refuge in death.
But she could still fight...because she admired his beautiful swordplay and his way of life.
"Your battle is yet unfinished..." Shadow thrusts his jet-black sword forward.
It impales the stadium's wall and creates a large hole.
"Go..."
"Got it!"
Rose scoops up her rapier and leaps without hesitation through the opening.
She still has things she needs to do.
"S-stop her!!"
"No one else goes through..."
Shadow plants himself in front of the hole.
<<•>>
Thick clouds roll in at some point and obscure the sun, blanketing the stadium in shadows.
Thunderclaps echo within the clouds.
Drop by drop, rain begins to fall.
"What are you waiting for?! After her!!" bellows Perv, and his men burst into action.
They move to surround the hole's guard, Shadow, then leap at him in unison.
The moment they do, an obsidian arc cleaves through them.
A single blow is all it takes to send all of Perv's handpicked dark knights flying.
"This can't..."
So this is Shadow. True to the rumors Perv heard, he cannot be contained by the riffraff.
He presses down on his bleeding gut and falls back.
"H-help! Is there anyone?! Anyone who can take him down?!" he cries.
The only response he hears is the sound of the rain.
The knights of Midgar surround Shadow from a distance, but that's all.
There isn't a single person present who plans on making light of the man who defeated Iris.
The rain is now a bona fide deluge. Massive droplets cascade from the skies.
The lightning reflects off Shadow's drenched long coat.
Each time it strikes, his figure is illuminated amid the gloom.
"I will go."
As the gray-robed woman speaks, she leaps into the air.
She casts her robe off while airborne and lands with her longsword drawn.
"Beatrix the War Goddess…," someone murmurs.
The beautiful blond elf readies her blade in the rain.
She's wearing nothing more than a loincloth and a breastplate, and the lightning makes her pale, drenched skin flash.
Shadow and Beatrix silently gauge the distance between themselves as they square off.
A violent thunderclap underscores the commencement of their battle.
Shadow stretches out his obsidian katana to match Beatrix's longsword.
He slashes.
His black blade cleaves through the air.
The rain parts.
For a brief instant, a trail of empty, rainless air follows in his sword's wake.
He misses.
"Oh…?"
Beatrix reacts instantly by taking a half step back to dodge Shadow's strike.
Then, she counters. Her deadly thrust bears down on Shadow.
Beneath his mask, Shadow grins.
He evades the attack by leaning to the side, then swings his sword as he pulls back upright.
But she recovers quickly, too.
As she retracts her longsword, she stoops low to avoid Shadow's blow.
Then, she counters once more.
The only thing either of them hits is the rain.
Slashes fly through the air, each rending a path through the downpour.
The droplets spread in little splashes as they're sliced aside, casting beautiful streaks as the lightning illuminates them.
Everyone in the stands holds their breath as they watch the battle unfold.
It's like watching a dance.
The rain and the lightning leave etchings in the sky of a battle that no normal eyes can follow.
It's a beautiful sword dance.
It's plain to see that the two combatants stand at the apex of swordsmanship.
The spectators want the dance to last forever, but Shadow brings it to an end.
"It seems this sword cannot reach you..."
He puts some distance between them, then stares at Beatrix.
Beatrix doesn't chase him down, instead choosing to steady her breathing. Her chest heaves up and down.
"Incredible..." She lets out the word of admiration as one would a sigh.
Her blue eyes are fixed on Shadow. For a moment, they just stare at each other.
"Allow me to show you my true blade."
With that, Shadow returns his black sword to its original length.
This is his preferred distance.
"Here I come."
As soon as he speaks, he instantly steps forward.
The field between them vanishes.
"...?!"
Then the impact.
The moment he closes the gap, Beatrix immediately abandons attacking and shifts all her focus to defense. However, she can't even see his sword.
It's not just her. Nobody can.
And his assault doesn't cut so much as a single raindrop.
"—Rgh! !"
The impact sends her flying, and she collapses in the rain.
She can't see the blow but manages to block it on instinct alone. But only barely. She ends up sprawled unceremoniously on the ground, unable to mount a counterattack.
She promptly rises to her feet, preparing herself to pursue.
The thunder roars, and as the lightning flashes, Shadow disappears.
In that one instant, he's right in front of her again.
He swings his imperceptible blade.
Beatrix focuses every cell in her body on Shadow's sword, then finds herself besieged again.
"—!!"
She can't see it.
Ignoring the mud caked on her face, she stands back up and leaps away to put some distance between them.
Instinct and luck are the only things that let her narrowly deflect the strike.
She has no reason to believe she can fend off the next one.
No follow-up comes.
As she looks at Shadow readying his blade beneath the lightning, she thinks, Why can't l see it?
It's not just that he's fast. There's something off about his sword.
After searching her memories of a lifetime of battles, she finds the answer.
Shadow's techniques are natural.
Of the many types of swordplay in battle, fast swords are certainly menacing.
However, even a quick swing starts with some preliminary action. Even if it doesn't, you can still tell when the attack will land with enough experience. As long as you're conscious, you can react to it.
No, the most dangerous type of attack is the kind that comes from outside your perception. It doesn't need to be fast. You just need to be unaware of it.
And Shadow's performance is natural.
There's no bloodlust, no hesitation, no swagger. His swings are just...natural.
And people can't pick them out.
Just like she isn't actively conscious of the individual raindrops falling, she isn't cognizant of Shadow's sword.
"Incredible..."
Beatrix regards the depth of Shadow's mastery with utter admiration. His skill lies at the bottom of an abyss nobody else can reach.
She prepares herself for her inevitable defeat.
"Show me your fangs, War Goddess..."
Shadow brandishes his ebony blade.
Beatrix knows she can't block it.
"Wait." A clear voice interrupts their battle. "I, too, will join the fray."
Iris stands there with her sword drawn.
"Princess Iris..."
Beatrix looks at Iris as though she wants to say something.
"I know. I know I'm not strong enough..." Iris smiles to hide her frustration.
"But I won't back down. I'm not going to stand by and let him flee after laying waste to the Bushin Festival. I have my pride, and so does Midgar..."
She glares at Shadow.
"I'll stop him from moving, even if it costs me my life. When I do, Beatrix, use that to bring him down."
"...Understood. I'll follow your lead."
Beatrix sympathizes with Iris's resolve.
Fire burns in their eyes as they square off against Shadow.
"Come, then... Show me your fangs." Shadow lowers the tip of his sword and assumes a defensive posture.
As Iris waits for an opportunity, she slowly closes the gap.
For a little while, the only sounds are the rain and the thunder.
"Please let me land a blow."
A massive thunderclap rings out, and Iris makes her move.
She charges forward, aiming for Shadow's neck with her longsword.
However, all it takes for Shadow to escape her range is to take a half step backward. He watches the attack miss and turns his attention to Iris's next move.
But Iris's sword extends.
By letting go of it, she forcibly lengthens its range.
Shadow immediately shifts gears. He abandons his attempt at a counterattack and instead knocks Iris's sword aside.
Her offense is ruined. That's what anyone would think.
However, she stoops down and uses the momentum from her charge to grab Shadow's torso and grapple him.
It's a valiant move, one designed to restrain his movements in exchange for her own life.
He won't be able to evade in time.
"Bravo."
Shadow's knee smashes into Iris's face.
There's no way she could have known, but hand-to-hand combat is Shadow's specialty.
Iris crumples to the ground.
However, she still achieves her mission.
When he lashes out with his knee, there is a brief moment when Shadow becomes immobile.
That one moment is all she needs.
"Hyah!!"
Beatrix's slash bears down on him. She pours all her strength into her longsword and slams it into his ebony blade.
A thunderous noise explodes as Shadow's katana, hand, and arm are sent reeling backward.
His posture is shot.
This is her chance.
Beatrix's follow-up is impossibly fast.
But Shadow releases his sword faster.
He makes the split-second decision to cast aside his weapon, then vanishes.
He's outside Beatrix's vision.
"Is he below me?!"
After leaning forward so low he's practically crawling, he grabs Beatrix by the waist.
However, his movements are miles more polished and flowing than when Iris attempted the same move.
He's too close for her longsword to connect.
Shadow hoists Beatrix up with ease, then slams her into the ground.
"Gah!!"
The stone floor shatters.
The air in her lungs is forcibly expelled.
But in that split second, she has a chance to use her sword.
As her consciousness wavers, she swings it.
Shadow pays her no heed, instead lifting her up and slamming her down again — but halfway through, he lets go.
Beatrix's sword meets empty air, and she crashes hard into the stadium wall.
A sickening noise resounds as her body is embedded in it.
Then, a slice cuts through the air as something pitches down from the sky.
Shadow reaches out and grabs it — his ebony sword.
It's as though he planned it all out...
Lightning illuminates the bodies of the two downed women.
Even together, Beatrix and Iris are helpless.
The shock of that overwhelms the spectators with confusion and fear.
"...It's over."
Shadow looks down at his two opponents, then turns to leave.
"S-stop right there..."
He hears a voice and stops.
"I...l can still fight..."
Iris staggers to her feet.
Beatrix follows her lead, brushing away the debris from the wall as she rises in turn. "As can I..."
The two swordswomen rise.
However, Shadow merely casts a glance at them before walking off again.
"Stop right there! Are you going to flee?!"
Hearing Iris, Shadow stops. "...Flee?" he repeats.
Bluish-purple light fills the stadium.
"Wh-?!"
"…!!"
It's a torrent of magic, whirling as it floods out of Shadow's body.
Swallowed up by the magic, the rain stops.
"This can't... Is this even real...?!"
"This is...impossible."
The unimaginable force stops Iris and Beatrix in their tracks.
With power like this, annihilating the entire stadium would have been trivial for him.
Iris, Beatrix, and the spectators are all equally helpless in the face of such might.
"Why would I need to flee...?"
Nobody can possibly stop him. They have no choice but to acknowledge that.
"Why...?" asks Iris, her voice shaking. "If you had all that power...you could have killed us whenever you wanted."
"....I achieved my objective. I have no interest in your lives... The only ones we butcher are our enemies..."
Shadow looks at Iris as he makes his magic converge on his sword.
"Make sure you remember...who your true enemy is."
With that, Shadow releases the energy into the sky.
A blinding light floods the stadium and spreads out across the entire capital as it blots out the heavens and blasts away the rain clouds.
When it fades, all that's left is a clear blue sky.
Shadow is nowhere to be seen.
The clouds, the rain, the lightning, and Shadow himself... It's like they were never even there.
"Remember who my true enemy is...? Shadow. Who are you...?"
Iris gazes up at the cloudless sky as she ruminates on the words with which Shadow left her.
What was his objective…? Who was her true enemy…?
Far up above, a massive rainbow stretches across the firmament.
<<•>>
Rose runs through the rain.
She has no destination in mind. She just keeps running, and before she notices, the rain stops.
She's in a forest.
Sunlight streams through the gaps in the dampened trees.
Rose collapses against a trunk and catches her breath.
All sorts of thoughts are racing through her head. She thinks about her father, about her homeland, about what's going to happen to her now...
All of those worries and more get tangled up inside her, sending her heart into disarray.
She may have had her reasons, but that doesn't change the fact that she's now a criminal guilty of murdering a king. She isn't going to deny that, and she has no intention of seeking death to flee responsibility.
She fully intends to shoulder the burden of committing patricide alongside her duties as a princess.
But it's all too much for her.
The more she thinks, the more the anxiety makes her shiver.
The weight of her responsibilities is crushing her resolve.
She can still fight. She has to fight. But what can a frail seventeen-year-old girl really hope to accomplish...?
She buries her head in her knees.
Then, she curls into a ball and trembles.
She stays that way until the sunlight takes on the vermilion hue of twilight.
At that point, she tells herself it's time to go and stands.
She doesn't know where she's going, but she knows she has to press on.
Right when she faces forward and starts walking, a lovely voice calls out from behind her.
"You have two choices you can make."
"?!" Rose whirls around and finds an elf wearing a jet-black dress.
She has blond hair, blue eyes, and features so elegant they could have been chiseled from stone.
"You're...Alpha..."
Alpha crosses her arms and smiles mysteriously.
"You can fight alone, or you can fight with us. But you have to choose."
"With you...?"
Rose's enemy and the Shadow Garden's enemy are one and the same.
However, having the same foe is no guarantee they'll be able to work together.
Still, it's true she's short on options.
People will be after her soon. If she's going to fight alone, she needs somewhere to hide.
For now, her only option on that front is taking refuge in the mountains... Well, she could also head for the Lawless City, she supposes.
But in this moment, she's the criminal who murdered King Oriana. If she goes to the Lawless City, people will come seeking the bounty on her head.
"Can you save the Oriana Kingdom?"
"That depends on you. Right now, we have no reason to act on your behalf. If you want to save your country, you'll need to prove your worth."
"My worth...?"
"Your worth... and the Oriana Kingdom's worth..."
"And if I prove those, can you save it…?"
"It's within our means."
Alpha's reply is succinct. All she's doing is presenting Rose with her choices.
She's neither giving Rose advice nor offering her aid.
The decision is Rose's to make.
"...Is the Slayer...I mean, Shadow the leader of your organization?"
"...He is."
An image of the boy who saved her as a child and tirelessly fought evil flashes through her mind.
She decides to believe in him.
"...Then my blade is yours."
"I see. Welcome aboard. Now follow me."
There's no emotion in Alpha's voice as she leads Rose deeper into the forest.
"Can I ask you a question?" asks Rose as she follows her.
"You may."
"Who exactly is Shadow...?"
He's a man with an iron will who's fought evil since he was a child, and he has so much power, he can actually vanquish it. But Rose doesn't know anything about the secret to his strength, his beliefs, or even his identity. He's utterly shrouded in mystery.
"If you want to know, you'll need to earn our trust."
"Your trust..."
"But if you end up being worthy of it, you're sure to find out eventually..."
Afterward, the two of them proceed through the forest in silence.
<<•>>
They make their way through a dense fog untouched by the sun's light.
"Where are we? Is this...?"
"These are the Abyss Woods," Alpha answers.
Rose has heard the stories. Nobody knows where it is, but rumor has it that anyone who enters can never leave.
Rose can't even make out Alpha, who's supposedly right in front of her.
The magic-rich fog that's almost blue or purple is messing with her senses.
"This fog is caused by a sigh of a dragon..."
"A dragon..."
They were practically a thing of legend. Once in a blue moon, someone would report seeing one, but the records of the most recent dragon hunt were over a century old.
"Long ago, he came to this land and battled the Mist Dragon."
"...Who's he?"
"In his youth, he was powerful enough to defeat the dragon, but he couldn't slay it. So the dragon accepted him and let out the sigh."
So this fantastical bluish-purple mist was from the dragon...
"By the way, it's a deadly poison."
Rose twitches.
"Don't get too far from me. If you do, you'll die in a heartbeat."
"Understood..."
As they trod through the thick fog, the air suddenly clears.
"Wait, this is..."
The sun's rays beat down upon a venerable white castle.
"This is Alexandria, the ancient capital destroyed by the Mist Dragon. This is our base."
Alexandria, the old capital. Rose had once seen that name in a book.
But no book could have possibly described its beauty.
Massive fields spread out around the capital, and they're all full of crops she's never seen before. Women are enthusiastically harvesting the produce.
"That one there is a cocoa field. It's the main ingredient in chocolate. We may have you working in it at some point."
"Wait, chocolate? You mean that Mitsugoshi is part of the Shadow Garden?"
Alpha only smiles.
Currently, Mitsugoshi remains the only place that sells chocolate. Nobody knows anything about the ingredients or manufacturing process.
The two of them pass through the portcullis and enter the castle.
"Is Lambda around?"
"I'm here."
A woman responds to Alpha's call and kneels before her.
"We have a new recruit. Train her."
"As you wish."
"Start by showing us your strength. I'm sure you'll be able to forge your path quickly..."
After speaking to Rose, Alpha takes her leave.
Rose remains behind with the woman named Lambda.
She's an elf with dark skin, gray hair, and gold eyes. She's tall, and her muscles are evident even through her black bodysuit.
Also, her eyes are sharp and her lips are plump.
"I'm Lambda, your instructor. Come."
"Yes, ma'am."
Rose follows Lambda, and they exit through the rear of the castle.
Many girls are fervently training here.
"Wow..."
All it takes is a single glance for Rose to realize-every single one of them is powerful.
"Number 664, number 665!"
"Present, ma'am!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Two of the women come running at Lambda's summons.
One is an elf, the other a therianthrope.
"Instructor, you called?" asks the elf, practically shouting. The therianthrope stands at attention beside her.
"This is the new recruit. I'm putting her on your squad."
"Understood!"
"Number 666, strip."
"Huh?" Rose doesn't understand what had just been said to her.
"Number 666 is you. Here, your number is your name."
"I'm number 666..."
"If you got that, then hurry up and strip."
"What?"
"Don't make me repeat myself!"
Immediately, Rose finds her clothes sliced off her body.
It happens in the blink of an eye.
Now she's buck naked.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" Rose squats down in an attempt to cover herself.
"From today on, you're the scum of the world. You're nobody. Discard your name! Abandon your clothes! Throw away everything so you can become the perfect soldier!"
Lambda throws a dark lump at Rose's feet.
It's a springy black slime.
"Number 664, teach the worm how to use it!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Hmm? What is this?"
A piece of paper flutters up from the tatters that were once Rose's clothes.
Instructor Lambda picks it up and holds it in front of Rose.
"That's…!"
It's the wrapper from the Tuna King sandwich Cid gave her.
The moment she sees it, all the bottled-up feelings she has for him begin bursting out.
He was her first love.
He'd fought her in the preliminary tournament, saved her life in the terrorist attack, and gone on a journey with her.
She considers each of those memories irreplaceable.
A mere week ago, she'd dreamed of taking his hand in marriage.
But she can't go back anymore.
Their paths will never cross again.
"What's with that look? I told you to throw everything away!"
Lambda shreds the paper before Rose's eyes.
The scraps catch on the wind and soar high up into the sky.
The fragments of a dream that will never come to pass...
Drops of tears begin spilling from Rose's eyes.