Ascendant of Shadows: The Monarch and The Eminence

The courtyard of the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy was a scene of pandemonium. The moment Cid and Jin-woo had vanished—a nanosecond before their blades would have met in a cataclysmic explosion—a collective gasp had been sucked from a thousand lungs. They didn't just disappear. They dissolved into pure shadow, an act so unnatural and terrifying that it dwarfed the summoning of their monstrous blades.

Students were screaming. Teachers were trying to erect barriers. The Royal Guards were shouting orders that no one was listening to. The two heroic saviors of the kingdom had just revealed themselves to be otherworldly beings and had declared war on each other, only to vanish into thin air. The emotional whiplash was enough to shatter the sanity of an entire generation of young nobles.

In the royal box, King Midgar had collapsed back into his throne, his face ashen. "What... what by the gods are they?"

Iris Midgar stood rigid, her mind racing, replaying their final moments. "They didn't teleport," she concluded, her voice sharp and precise. "They became shadows. It was the same phenomenon, but on a far greater scale. They are not just using shadow magic. They are shadow."

Alexia, for her part, felt a strange, thrilling terror. The fear was real, but it was mixed with an intense, burning curiosity. The mystery of these two boys was deeper and more compelling than any ancient ruin or forgotten spell. She didn't just want to understand them anymore. She felt an obsessive need to be a part of their story.

When Jin-woo and Cid teleported back, they didn't return to the courtyard. That would be too simple, too easy to explain. Instead, they appeared in a darkened alley a few blocks away from the academy, their monstrous weapons gone, their auras retracted, and their clothes slightly dishevelled.

 Jin-woo's mental voice was laced with a profound weariness. His plan for a quiet, low-profile base of operations had failed in the most spectacular way imaginable.

Before Jin-woo could form a retort, Alpha and the other Seven Shades appeared before them, kneeling. They had felt the emotional maelstrom, witnessed the public falling out, and felt the psychic scream of the Jester-Weaver's demise. They had pieced together the basics of the plan.

"Lord Shadow. Lord Monarch," Alpha said, her head bowed. Her voice was filled with a new, deeper level of awe. They hadn't just defeated a powerful enemy. They had weaponized public opinion and manipulated the emotions of an entire city to do it. This was a level of shadow brokerage she had never even conceived of. "Your strategy was... flawless. We have already begun spreading disinformation to control the narrative."

"Excellent, Alpha," Cid said with a magnanimous wave of his hand. "See, Jin-woo? Everything is under control."

"What kind of 'disinformation'?" Jin-woo asked, skeptical.

Beta, the chronicler, spoke up, her eyes gleaming with literary pride. "We have started three competing narratives. One: the two heroes were possessed by vengeful spirits from the Cult of Diablos, and they vanished as they fought to exorcise each other. Two: It was a training exercise of the gods, a vision sent to test the faith of the populace. And my personal favorite, three: They were never students at all, but ancient, rival shadow spirits who took human form to judge the worthiness of mankind, and their duel was the beginning of a celestial tournament."

Jin-woo stared at her, then at Cid. 

The immediate problem remained. They couldn't just walk back into their dorm rooms. They were officially fugitives, monsters, or gods, depending on which rumor you believed.

"We will provide you with a new base of operations," Alpha stated. "A secure location, deep within the commercial district, known only to us."

The "secure location" turned out to be the penthouse suite above the Mitsugoshi Department Store, a luxurious apartment that was larger than Jin-woo's old house. It was filled with plush furniture, had a panoramic view of the city, and was stocked with every amenity imaginable.

"This is your idea of 'hiding'?" Jin-woo asked, looking around the opulent room.

"The best place to hide is often the last place anyone would look," Gamma said, pushing up her glasses. She had just "accidentally" tripped and spilled a tray of welcome drinks, which a maid had swiftly cleaned up. "No one would suspect two notorious fugitives to be living in the lap of luxury atop the city's busiest commercial hub. The foot traffic provides perfect cover. Statistically speaking, it's genius."

Jin-woo decided not to argue. At least it was comfortable.

He sat down, finally allowing himself a moment of quiet. He focused inward, on the 'Seed of the Void' in his inventory. It had definitely changed after absorbing the Jester's essence. It felt... less empty. It now contained a faint, mischievous echo. He took it out. It was still a perfect, black sphere, but now, if he concentrated, he could almost see a tiny, smiling mask swirling in its depths.

Jin-woo ignored the speculation and focused on the practicalities. If this seed could absorb their essence, could it also be used to track them? It was a lead, the only one he had.

In the days that followed, the Kingdom of Midgar was in an uproar. The "War of the Heroes" was all anyone could talk about. The academy was placed on lockdown, and the Crimson Order, led by a stone-faced Iris Midgar, launched a full-scale investigation.

Iris stood in the now-empty dorm room of Sung Jin-woo. It was unnervingly sparse. No personal effects, no letters, no history. It was the room of a ghost.

"He left nothing behind," her lieutenant reported. "It's the same with the Kagenou boy. It's as if they were never here at all."

"No," Iris corrected him, running a gloved finger over the dusty windowsill. "They were here. But they were wearing this place like a costume. A costume they have now discarded." She felt a frustrating mixture of fear and determination. These beings were beyond her comprehension, but they were operating in her kingdom, a fact her warrior's pride could not accept. The hunt was her sacred duty.

Alexia's approach was different. While Iris hunted them as a threat, Alexia sought them as a puzzle. She didn't believe the stories of possession or divine judgment. She believed she had witnessed a carefully staged play, and she was desperate to understand the motivations of its actors. She began secretly investigating not the boys themselves, but the organization Jin-woo had named: Shadow Garden. Her investigation led her, ironically, to the Mitsugoshi conglomerate, the most obvious and yet most overlooked source of power in the city.

The stage was being reset. While the world searched for the two boys who had vanished, those two boys were "hiding" in a luxury penthouse, planning their next move.

Jin-woo spent his time meditating on the Seed of the Void, trying to unlock its secrets. Cid spent his time reading the wildly inaccurate newspaper articles about himself and critiquing the "plot holes" in the public's theories.

One evening, Jin-woo's concentration was broken. The Seed in his hand pulsed with a cold, familiar energy. It was resonating with something. Something far away. Not in this world, but in his own.

He shot to his feet.

Cid, who had been practicing cool poses in a full-length mirror, froze. His eyes lit up with a fire Jin-woo was beginning to know all too well.

 He was practically vibrating with excitement.

A new crisis had just presented itself, and with it, a new, thrilling opportunity. The Shadow Alliance was about to go interdimensional.