Chapter 91 - Shadow Princess

Above Hellish Bite, Keimen City

As I looked over the city, my mind was going through several things. Before I realized that since Yokino’s plan had come apart, there was no need for subtleties anymore. I would just go in there and take back Ulva. But to do that, I’d need to get help from the monsters in Larm, which they would need preparation for.

[Hinotori: Gorm, Reiman, Ichi and the others. I need you to get the forces ready for an attack. I’ll teleport you guys here when you are done.]

I sent this message to them and so it wouldn’t be long now till they saw and got off their butts. But before then, I would need to start something to minimize casualties on my side since I wasn’t really sure about this.

"[Shadow Being Summoning]."

A black substance dropped from my leg and formed a black ball beneath me. I found that to be odd since that wasn’t how the first time went.

<<Notice: Interference from a higher being has been detected>>

‘What?’

DING!

[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has borne witness to the modern world for the first time after several centuries]

‘W-What is happening? A G-Goddess?’

DING!

[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has chosen to reveal her name to you]

‘…ZA…TA…NA…’

A voice crept into my head. It was eerie and calming at the same time. I didn’t understand what was happening here.

DING!

[To thank you, the Goddess of Endless Darkness has bestowed upon you the Title [Shadow Princess]]

[With this title your mastery over shadow related abilities has increased massively!]

[You can summon shadow beings for a lesser amount of mana!]

[You can summon higher ranked shadow beings!]

[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has given you the [Shadow’s Crib]]

[Description: A mysterious egg. Nothing much is known of it.]

I looked down and saw the ball again.

‘I-Is this thing the [Shadow’s Crib]?’

But when I looked down with [Analyst] it didn’t even call it that. It was actual a [Shadow Summon Portal]. I was a bit confused, but then another notice came up.

[The [Shadow’s Crib] has been placed in your Item Box]

At this point I was just too tired to even care about the details. I just needed to get Ulva out of the city before anything happened.

[Which rank of soldier do you want?]

Greater Shadow Demon Soldier [60 Mana]

Shadow Demon Soldier [50 Mana]

Greater Shadow Soldier [40 Mana]

Lesser Shadow Demon Soldier [35 Mana]

Regular Shadow Soldier [20 Mana]

Lesser Shadow Soldier [10 Mana]

A screen popped up before me. I decided to go for whichever looked much more dangerous. Since I now had 600 Mana points, I would be able to get exactly 10 of those guys before running out of mana. So I decided to get 5 instead.

From that black ball two arms crawled out, followed by an additional pair. More and more arms came out till there were ten of those. They dragged themselves out of the ball and moved so fast they looked like streaks of black swarming me, before they came to a stop all around me.

All of them were different from the one I summoned before. They had large ash horns protruding from their heads. They were big and wore thick armor or was that their skin? Either way, they seemed to have a mix of blood red and black for their bodies and their eyes were so black their bodies looked bright in comparison.

“GIVE US YOUR ORDERS, PRINCESS.”

The one facing me said. His voice was almost as creepy as the former, but not as bad as it, so I could manage.

‘Um… Just cause a lot of distraction for me.’

“DES…TRUC…TION?”

‘Yeeesss? I don’t know if you understand me.’

“WE…”

“UNDERSTAND…”

“YOU…”

“PRINCESS…”

“MAY…”

“WE…”

“CALL…”

“SOLDIERS…?”

They suddenly started to complete their own sentences. Not wanting to interact any further with them, I just allowed them to do as they please.

‘S-Sure. Go ahead. But if you see a slave don’t kill them… Or wait… more specifically, this one.’

I tried to show them a mental image of Ulva with [Telepathy], but with the way they didn’t react, it would seem that didn’t work.

<<Notice: Skill level too low>>

‘I see. Ah whatever, just don’t kill the slaves. Now, go create my distraction.’

They all screamed… or laughed? Either way it just sounded like metal scratching on the ground or chalk scraping against the board, but on steroids. I saw similar black balls appear beneath all five of them and from those hundreds of shadow demons came flying out like a flood. I was so surprised by the development I was left speechless.

When I looked around me, I saw them. Creatures with shadowy figures and wings, flying in the sky. Cloaked in armor as red as the setting sun, and with blood red smiles and eyes, although not having horns like the first five I summoned. They had completely painted the sky black and red. No sunlight could pierce through the cluster that they had formed. This caused the city below to be completely black.

They all bowed to me, then let roars that echoed above the city, before flying down at full speed towards the mansion, I was certain that there was no way that even the Nobleman could survive this.

These guys though. Even though I pointed to the mansion, they swarmed the entire city, destroying everything in their path. It was absolute anarchy and it scared the living shit out of me for a moment. Such a dangerous force. In mere moments, I could hear citizens screaming and running for their lives.

[You have acquired 9000 XP]

[You have gone up 4 levels]

[You have acquired the skill [Flame Barrier]]

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Sleek blonde hair, sharp emerald green eyes and a pencil mustache drawn plainly on his face. He was a fat man dressed in light morning robes that were too small for one of his physique, exposing more of his body than one might like to see.

The Noble Percy McAllister sat on his chair, a glass of sweet red wine in hand. He smiled devilishly and looked at the cute demi-human girl in front of him. His gaze then switched the big grey ogress standing next to her. Two cuties to choose from.

He took a sip of his wine then looked out the window. However, all he could see was pure darkness which was a bit alarming.

"Maude?"

He called out to his right hand. The most loyal of his servants who had been dubbed Red by others due to her signature red hair.

"Yes?"

The red head who had been silently watching him responded.

"Is it already night time already?"

Normally a silly question, but any who would look out in the sky wouldn’t find his question odd.

"Erh, no. It is just past noon."

"Are you certain? It is dark out."

"There's no way that it nighttime already."

"Then what is that?"

He said, pointing out his window. Maude looked out and was a bit stunned, however she would assume that the slime had a role in this.

"It is probably a storm. Please rest easy."

"Ah, a storm, I see. Very well then."

He responded then took another a sip of his wine. Although there was a feeling of uneasiness in his heart, he would ignore it because Red had assured him that there would be no problems. He dropped his robes, leaving nothing covered and jumped onto his bed, spreading out his hands and legs.

"Now you two. Get over here."

The two girls just remained silent, not even managing to make eye contact with him, but the nobleman smirked greedily.

"I order you to come over here, you dolls!"

With a simple wave of his hand, the collars on their necks grew brightly and crackled with lightning. Before they realized it, their limbs had started moving towards the bed without any permission even though they tried resisting.

"Uhm, wait a minute father…"

Maude said, breaking the nobleman's attention.

"Huh? What is it? Father?"

"Yes… father. Do you not remember me? Celeste?"

"Celeste? I don't quite remember having a daughter named Celeste."

"Oh? In that case you'll remember having a son you experimented on to become a woman?"

Percy put his finger to his lips and thought about the issue playfully. After a bit of obvious fake contemplation, a devilish smile drew on his face and with an eerie voice, he said.

"Clyde? Is that you? Hohoho!!! That's priceless. Oh. I thought you died after I threw you in the slumps. Whoosh, to think my son now daughter has been working for me for the past what has it been? Six years?"

"Seven actually."

She corrected him and drew her sword from its scabbard. She pointed her black blade at him and scowled at his smug expression even in this situation.

"I see. So I am assuming you are here to kill me?"

He confidently asked as he sat back on his bed, looking at the dhampyr and ogress with lustful eyes. He clearly couldn’t see her as a threat.

"Obviously-"

Maude froze. She wanted to say something, but at the moment, she was not feeling her best. It felt like her soul was being burnt. She looked at the bastard noble and realized that he had plotted someway to take her life if she dared to oppose him, but it was too late. She could only leave it up to Kawaii the Slime to end it for her.

'Take it from here.'

She said to Kawaii’s soul. Although on a technicality, what Kawaii possessed could not be defined by the word “soul”.

'Huh? You're going already? Kay, bye!'

She said her goodbyes to the first human she ever interacted with without so much as a glimmer of care.

"No."

Kawaii said confidently to the noble.

"Huh?"

Percy hadn't anticipated any response at this point. He had assumed she had simply died.

"I realized that it's not worth it to kill you."

"W-what do you mean?"

It had set his plans off the rail. And he could tell that she wasn't lying, because the magical bomb he had implanted in her hadn't gone off yet. Even if she could have found a way to counter the bomb, she would still be killed by the [Servant's Purpose] artefact that had been burnt into her soul the very first day she arrived. It made it impossible for her to defy her master. It was the basis for the [Slaver's Collars] that he had made. A modified version in which he had absolute authority over a slave and the slave couldn't resist. One couldn’t run an organization as powerful as his if even a single servant would spill his secrets.

"Y-you… how aren't you dead yet?"

"Hmm? Are you talking about Maude? She is dead."

"What? I don't understand you."

"What's so difficult to understand? I ate her."

"You did what?"

Kawaii raised her hand and it began to melt. The ogress and dhampyr were surprised by the sight.

"W-what are you?"

"My name is Kawaii the Slime! Highest ranking servant of Hinotori-sama! Teehee, now please prepare to die."

"Kawaii? Is that really you?"

Ulva asked.

"In the slime!"

She responded with a bright smile.

"You know her?"

The ogress asked.

"You slaves. Shut up!"

The collars around their necks glowed brightly and their mouths were forcefully shut.

"And you. Slime or whatever. It doesn't matter what you are. You made a bad choice coming to my home all alone. I have one hundred well trained soldiers in this esta- What is that!?"

The fat man had to shut up at the realization of the dark tentacles that began to spread around the room, covering everything up. All those present in the room were shocked and looked around, trying to figure out what was happening.

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion resounded in the area. So loud Percy thought he would grow deaf because of it. He dared to look out his window, but there he couldn't see anything. There was only a black screen.

"W-what is this? Maude? What is happening?"

Percy McAllister screamed as he jumped on his bed.

'Hinotori-sama… is this your doing? In that case…'

"I believe this is what you humans would call… Punishment from above?"

"What?"

The nobleman yelled as the tentacles began to wrap themselves around him. The others in the room were the same, except that they kept their mouths shut. The slime impersonating the human woman had a serene smile on her face at the proceedings and her body began to melt away, shrinking into a tinier form.

The tentacles swallowed up everything, leaving nothing but pitch black.