Chapter 4: Shadow
The scrawny servant waited until she was done and took the slop bucket away. He didn't say a word to her, like always he just did his work and then left. Alexia had tried talking to him whenever he brought her a meal or the bucket to let her do what she needed to. At first, she hoped to get information from him and then work on gaining his sympathies. At this point though, she'd have settled just for a few minutes of conversation. So far as she could tell the servant (she had no idea what his name was) appeared to be sane. Having a rational conversation with someone would have made for a really nice change of pace.
It was interesting how quickly a person could adjust to new circumstances. She'd been abducted seven… eight? Nine days ago? She'd left Poochie and been heading back to her dorm room. The next thing she remembered was waking up here chained down to this table. The chains that held her in place had magic suppressing runes on them, meaning she was helpless. A royal princess being kidnapped wasn't unheard of. There were plenty of criminal organizations and foreign governments that would love to use her either to collect a HUGE ransom or else as a bargaining chip to get something else from her father. For that reason, she expected to be well treated and didn't panic too much.
She'd actually been a lot more worried about Poochie. Had they killed him to make sure he wasn't a witness? Even if they hadn't, he would be a suspect in her kidnapping, and someone would have to pay. If the knights didn't find her…
I hope Cid's okay. She couldn't stand the thought of her one and only friend being killed because of her.
She heard chains rattle and the ragged figure on the floor beside her table began to stir.
"Good morning, did you sleep well?"
A literal monster looked up at her, it had leathery skin, misshapen limbs and face, long claws, and sharp teeth. It was chained to the wall but could easily reach her. When she'd first spotted it, she'd been afraid it would do just that. In the days since though, she'd realized it wasn't hostile. It was a prisoner same as she was, and its treatment was far crueler. Alexia had grown to sympathize with the creature, especially as the two of them were alone together most of the time. When she wasn't sleeping, she would talk to it. Telling stories, sharing gossip, or just babbling about whatever came to mind.
The creature didn't speak, and she wasn't sure how intelligent it was. Sometimes when she talked to it, it would listen with rapt attention, and even nod its head. And she thought there was understanding behind its eyes. Other times though, it would ignore her and act like a dumb animal. Whatever the case she was friendly towards it. It only made sense as she didn't want to get it angry with her. Also, since her kidnapping she'd been trapped here, chained to this table and only interacted with three people. Of those three the monster was easily the most pleasant. The servant who brought her meals and took away her poop was a blank slate. Then there was-
The door burst open and the lunatic rushed in. "Idiots!" he shouted. "Why can't they understand what I'm trying to achieve!"
Speak of the Devil, she thought. The crazy doctor with a white lab coat and glasses had arrived. She had no idea what his name was. When she'd first realized what'd happened to her Alexia had expected to be dealing with either a bandit chief or some nobleman. She'd certainly never expected to be facing a deranged researcher.
"Have those fools failed to realize your genius vision?"
He rounded on her. "Yes! They keep making stupid demands of me! They don't understand how much I've lost!"
"It's all that idiot Grease's fault."
"Exactly! That moron ruined everything!"
Alexia had no idea who this Grease was or what he'd done, it was just entertaining to rile the lunatic up. Unfortunately, the maniac got a bit too excited. He stomped over to the side of her table and began kicking the monster.
"They're fools! Such fools!"
Despite looking scary, the monster folded up and whimpered as the crazy bastard kicked it again and again. Alexia hated seeing it. She couldn't help but think of a helpless puppy getting beaten for no reason.
Alexia knew there was only one thing that would get him to stop.
"Hey, don't you need my blood?" She had no clue who this madman worked for or why he was so obsessed with her blood. She only knew that whenever the lunatic heard the word 'blood' it blotted out everything else.
"Yes! Yes! The royal blood! The royal blood!" He stopped attacking the chained up monster and wandered over to a tray covered in instruments. He snatched up a massive needle with a tube running into a glass bottle. "The demon blood! The demon blood! I must have the demon blood!"
Alexia grimaced. She knew what was coming next. "N… Not too much, oaky? If you kill me no more blood. Wouldn't want that now, would we?"
"No, no, wouldn't want that. I won't take too much. Not too much. I'll just take a little at a time. A little at a time." He came over to her with the needle and bottle. "The royal blood! The demon blood! The royal blood! The demon blood!"
Alexia gritted her teeth and endured it.
I wonder if Cid is worried about me.
XXX
She was asleep. She spent most of her time asleep. There were no windows here and she couldn't tell when it was day or night. So, when she felt the room shaking and woke up, she had no idea what time it was. Alexia had only just come fully awake when the crazy doctor barged through the doors.
"They're here! They're here! Everything's ruined! They've come to kill me! They've come to kill me!"
A smile spread across her lips as the truth dawned on her.
"So, the knights have finally tracked me down, huh? Don't worry, doctor. If you surrender peacefully, I'm sure they won't kill you." At least not until after the trial.
"Knights?! Who cares about he knights?! It's them! They've come and they never spare anyone! They'll slaughter me and everyone else too!"
"What? If it's not the knights, then who is it exactly?" She could hear fighting in the distance.
He didn't hear her or didn't care enough to respond. Instead, the maniac ran over to a table laden down with equipment and different jars and bottles.
"So close! So close! I just needed more time! More time to work with the blood! The blood! The blood! I'll take all the blood! All the blood!"
Hearing that sent a chill through her. "I… If you do my father and sister will definitely-"
To her surprise he didn't grab the needle with the tube. Instead, he got a syringe that was already filled with a dark red liquid that seemed too murky to be blood.
"I need time! I need time!" He ran past her to the monster. "Buy me time you worthless thing!" The maniac stabbed the needle into the monster's neck and pressed down the plunger. "Show them the power of Diablos!"
The poor monster let loose a scream and began to writhe and shake on the floor.
"What did you do?" Alexia demanded.
"I've used the power of Diablos to save me!"
Diablos? The demon from the fairy tale? Just how insane are you? Even for a man with a monster in the basement who'd kidnapped a princess just to siphon out her blood. To think a fairy tale demon was going to save him was just crazy.
Well, crazy or not the monster's body began expanding. The chains around its neck and waist snapped. As she watched the creature was getting bigger and bigger until its head was bumping up against the ceiling. Alexia found the sudden unnatural growth frightening.
Meanwhile, the psycho was dancing about cackling. "Yes! Yes! Yes! You can finally be useful to me! Now go out there and fight you stupid-"
SPLAT!
The monster stepped on him mid-rant. It then stared down at her.
"Uhm, we're good, right?"
The creature brough a clawed fist back and smashed it down. Alexia shut her eyes and put her hands up in front of her face. There a deafening crash and everything shook, but she didn't feel any pain. When she opened her eyes, she was alone in the room, there was a monster size hole in the wall, and her chains had been smashed.
Did it just save me? She couldn't tell if it had been deliberate or if it had just missed her. Either way she was free and was not going to waste time.
XXX
She found the keys to unlock her shackles then went out the hole in the wall to find a number of dead guards. She helped herself to a sword and a pair of boots and tried to find her way out. She seemed to be in the subterranean level of a large building. Not knowing the lay out she had no choice but to search for a stairwell. As she went, she didn't come across anyone other than the corpses of a whole lot of dead guards.
Alexia was relieved to finally find some stairs, but as she approached a figure appeared and hurried up to her. She held her sword at the ready. When he came into view Alexia saw who it was.
"Princess Alexia! I'm so relieved to see you're safe!" Zenon hurried up to her with a too wide smile.
She held her ground and leveled her sword.
Zenon came to a stop just outside the range of her weapon. "It's alright, Alexia. You're safe now. You can put your sword down."
She looked past him and up the steps he'd just come down. There was no sign of anyone else.
"Why are you alone? Why aren't there other knights with you?"
"Ah, I was working solo since I was desperate to find you. I'm very familiar with your mana signature. As soon as I sensed it, I rushed in here without bothering to contact anyone else. I was too afraid of losing you."
"You found me because you sensed my mana?"
"That's right."
She took a step back and kept her sword at the ready. "That's quite a trick, since my mana was being suppressed until just minutes ago."
"Oh. Well, you see I was…" Zenon paused and began to chuckle.
"Something funny, Zenon-sensei?"
His laughter grew and his smile twisted. "It's just that you always manage to be a pain in my ass no matter what the situation. You always make things harder than they need to be." Zenon drew his sword. "Fine, I'll confess, my dear princess. This entire facility is mine. I was the one who arranged for you to be kidnapped and experimented on."
"Is that so? I always knew there was something rotten about you, but its worse than I ever dreamed."
"Sticks and stones, my dear. Sticks and stones."
"I hate to break this to you, but the crazy doctor who was working for you is nothing but a smear now."
He moved in a flash and Alexia sudden pain in her right thigh. She leapt back, but Zenon made no effort to follow up. Instead, he held up the tip of his sword in front of his face. It was coated in fresh blood.
"It doesn't matter, so long as I have your blood."
"What is it with everyone and my blood?" she growled. "Are you researching vampires or something?"
He laughed. "It's nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about. With your blood and the research results it'll clear the path for me to become the twelfth knight of the rounds. I'll finally get everything I've ever wanted."
"What are you talking about?" Over the past week she'd gotten used to hearing crazy nonsense coming out of a man's mouth. It didn't mean she'd learned how to make sense out of it.
"The Twelve Knights of the Round are the ones who hold ultimate authority within the cult. Once I join them, I'll have rank, power, and wealth beyond imagination! Everything I've ever dreamed of will be mine! They already know about my skills, all that was left was to show them results from the research. With your blood I'll finally be able to."
"You should have just asked. If I'd known how precious my blood was to you, I'd have given you some a few days each month."
He sneered. "Actually, I would have much preferred Iris's blood to yours. Sadly though, she was too difficult to approach. You're a poor substitute, but I made do."
"You son of a bitch!"
"Oh! I do apologize," he gave her an exaggerated bow. "I forgot, you don't like being compared to her, do you?"
Alexia launched herself at him. Her sword lashed out in a series of lethal strikes. Head, neck, heart, and belly, she struck as hard as she could. If she could land any one of those hits it would lead to his death. Her movements were fast and clean and ferocious.
Zenon blocked them with barely an effort.
"Is that the best you can do?" He mocked. "Well, of course it is, you're only mediocre after all."
She screamed in frustration and attacked. Her sword aimed for his heart and Zenon moved to block. As he did so she revealed it to be a feint and diverted the strike to his head. She had the very great satisfaction of seeing genuine surprise and fear on the asshole's face. He was forced to twist his own blade back and just barely deflected her strike, but not before she cut his cheek. It was not deep, and certainly not a serious wound, but she'd drawn blood!
He jumped back and so did she. Seeing the arrogant genius bleeding because of her gave Alexia a rush of pure joy. Maybe all the hours spent training hadn't been a waste after all.
Zenon took a single finger and scraped it across his cheek. He started at his own blood as if wondering what it could be.
"That attack was one of Iris's."
"I've seen her swordplay more than anyone. Of course, I'd know it inside and out. Don't underestimate me!"
"Is that so?" Zenon laughed and licked the blood from his fingertip. "You surprised me, my dear princess. So, in return I'll do you the same honor. Let me show you what I'm really capable of. This is my true power level. No one outside of the cult has ever seen it and lived."
He used his magic to gather a frightening amount of physical power into his body. Alexia had seen her sister go all out in the tournaments; she'd easily been the strongest magical swordsman Alexia had ever witnessed. She'd always judged Zenon to be near her sister's level, but slightly inferior. He'd fooled her. Not even Iris could summon up this much raw mana.
Zenon covered the distance between them in a leap. It was so fast she had no chance to react. If he'd wanted to, he could have taken her head or cut her in half before she could do a thing. But he instead aimed his attack at her sword. His magic reinforced blade struck hers and it shattered like glass beneath a hammer. The impact alone was enough to knock her on her ass.
She found herself holding the hilt of a broken sword looking up at Zenon.
"Do you get it now, my third-rate princess? You're nothing like your sister. The gulf between us is as great as the ocean and always will be. No matter what you do you'll never be anything but mediocre."
The hilt dropped from her hand and clanged on the stone floor. There was nothing she could do. It was completely, totally hopeless. The tears began to fall.
Zenon extended a hand to her.
"Now, let's go. This has been fun, but I've wasted enough time on you. Someone is attacking this base and we need to leave. Come quietly. If you cause me any more trouble, I'll break your legs and carry you out of here over my shoulder."
It was hopeless. With no other option Alexia reached up a hand.
That was when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
Zenon heard them as well and placed himself between her and the stairwell. She saw a lone figure descend the steps. He wore a black suit with a black cloak and hood. His face was covered by a mask and in his right hand was an ebony blade with a jewel encrusted in its hilt. Alexia assumed he worked for Zenon but the look of surprise on the bastard's face refuted that notion.
"And who might you be?" Zenon asked with his sword at the ready.
The stranger stepped down onto the hallway, his own sword in hand but lowered.
"My name," he said in a thick baritone. "Is Shadow. I hide in the darkness and hunt down shadows."