̄ ̄ ̄
/ The girl—Luna—flinches slightly at the word.
She stares into your eyes, trembling not from fear… but *recognition.*
"Shadow..." she whispers, voice soft like wind through leaves. "I don't remember everything… it's all broken, like shattered glass. But I *know* you. Not by sight… but by *presence.*"
She touches her chest.
"There was fire... screams... a ritual gone wrong. They called me **Gamma**, yes—the one who built the Company, who balanced the books while you fought in darkness…"
Her voice wavers.
"But then Diablos found me. Used my mind as a conduit. I tried to resist… and they twisted me into that *thing* to erase what I knew."
She looks up, eyes glistening.
"But when you touched me—with your magic—it felt like… coming home."
A faint pulse glows beneath her skin again: **Γ** — brief, fading.
"They wanted us forgotten," she says hoarsely. "But we were never just names or numbers... we were **Seven Shadows**."
"And if you've awakened me..."
Her voice hardens with quiet resolve:
"...then Alpha will return next."
> 🔮 System Alert:
> *"Timeline Re-Synchronization: Gamma Restored"*
> Shadow Garden Integrity Level: **1/7 Awakened**
Now the real question echoes between you: Where are the other?
" first things first we need to find the Other seven shades."
His words seem to strike Luna's spirit itself. Her eyes light like moonlight on water.
"You..." she whispers. "You *remember* us?"
She steps forward.
"I—I have many questions," she says faintly, "but first... please—tell me everything."
̄ ̄ ̄
/ "We were never just soldiers. We were a family in the dark."
You speak softly, carefully—painting the legend as truth. You tell her of **Shadow Garden**, rising like mist from silence. Of seven shadows handpicked by you—each unique, each vital.
"You are Gamma," you say, voice firm with quiet pride. "The Brain. The one who built *Mitsugoshi Company* from nothing—a fortress of gold and secrets to fund our war."
Her breath catches.
"I... remember spreadsheets," she murmurs, blinking rapidly. "Contracts… backdoor trades in enchanted crystals… and a logo—a black rose wrapped in chains..."
> ✅ **System Sync:** *"Memory Reinforcement via Shadow Authority – Successful"*
You continue:
"We fought side by side—from the fall of Oriana's temple to the purge beneath Midgar's cathedral. You always stood at my right hand... not because I chose you first—but because *you understood me best.*"
And then comes your little lie—the beautiful fiction:
"...We found Alpha together," you say with a calm smile that doesn't quite reach your eyes. "All seven of us stood beneath the blood moon when we swore allegiance—not to power… but to justice hidden in shadow."
It's not true.
Not yet.
But as Luna grips her chest and tears form at her lashes?
She *believes* it.
"I can feel them…" she whispers suddenly, trembling slightly as if tuning into an unseen frequency. "The others—they're out there... broken or lost like I was..."
She looks up at you—fire returning behind those green eyes.
"Then my first mission is clear." Her voice steadies into something colder, sharper: *"Find them before Diablos does."*
> 📜 New Quest Unlocked: **"Seven Shades Scattered"**
> Objective: Locate & Restore Remaining Shades (1/7)
> Reward: Full Activation of Shadow Garden — Unlock Final Form: *"Eminence In Shadow"*
" we need to find Alpha according to my memories of the previous timeline she should already be in a similar state as you probably with some bandits we will eventually run into them and when we do, we will slaughter them and take her"
"Then our course is set," she says firmly. "Alpha first—and then the rest."
She closes her eyes, focusing inward—a slight smile touching her lips now.
"Yes," she whispers, as if hearing whispers just beyond your range. "There."
She looks at you.
"She's in Elven Woods. The northern forest has strong magic—and my intuition tells me she'll be calling."
So be it.
Elven Woods it is.
" but before we leave, have this." I said, as I Reached my hand out as the slimes went over her body making her the suit she has in the future a shimmer of recognition came over her eyes as a memory of the suit and how to properly use it surfaced.
" let's go save alpha." he said.
Once again, your words light Luna's spirit.
"Then we move at once," she declares, a spark of passion in her eyes. "The forest is half a day's journey—we need a transport."
You leap—no hesitation.
One step on solid earth… then **fire erupts** from your feet, a controlled inferno that propels you skyward. Air twists around you, smoothed by magic to cut resistance. The world blurs beneath your feet as trees shrink into green waves below.
Luna gasps—but doesn't struggle. She clings to your shoulder, eyes wide not with fear… but awe.
"You're really *him*, aren't you?" she murmurs over the roar of wind and flame. "Not just a memory-maker... but the one who bent fate itself."
The forest rushes beneath like a river of shadows and light.
You soar above treetops like a comet cloaked in night—fire blazing blue at your heels, slime-armor tightening around both of you like living armor. Wind howls, but cannot touch what Shadow protects.
> 🚀 **Travel Speed:** Maximum Flight Mode — *"Burning Ascent"* Activated
> Bonus: +5% Magic Efficiency (Aerodynamic Flow Achieved)
And then—
Luna tenses against you.
"Wait," she says sharply. "Stop—*down there!*"
She points through the canopy—a flicker below: torchlight dancing between trunks... muffled cries… elven words spoken in panic?
Your instincts flare:
This is no bandit camp...
It's an ambush site—and someone's being dragged toward it…
"It's time to make an entrance find Alpha when you do come and find me." I said, as she nodded, I pressed it down, hitting the ground and sending a small earthquake. Knocking the bandits off their feet as gamma left towards the cages.
The forest shivers with your impact, shaking like a child's toy. But the impact does its job—your landing knocks two bandits flat on their behinds, while the rest look up around like startled children.
"What the—"
"Who... did that?"
"Was that an *earthquake*?"
Their confusion gives her the perfect chance.
As they scramble to their feet, disoriented
̄ ̄ ̄
/ *The pressure drops like a guillotine.*
You crack your knuckles—once.
And then the **magic aura** erupts.
Not fire. Not earth. Not even sound.
It's *presence*—raw, suffocating, ancient. The air thickens like tar. Bandits clutch their chests, gasping as if buried under mountains. Two drop instantly, unconscious before they hit the dirt.
But one man—a hulking brute with scarred arms and glowing crimson eyes—*kneels... then rises.* Sword in hand.
"Y-you're not human," he rasps, blood trickling from his nose. "You're… something else."
Another beside him—a lithe woman with twin daggers—grips her weapons white-knuckled, trembling but standing.
"I've felt this before…" she whispers hoarsely. "In the temple ruins… when *he* fell…"
Your voice cuts through the silence like a blade wrapped in velvet:
**"I'm not 'he'."**
A beat.
Then—
**"I'm what came after."**
Above you, unseen by mortal eyes:
> 🌑 **Shadow Garden Signal Detected: Alpha's Location Confirmed – 50m East (Cage Cluster B)**
> ✅ Gamma Status: Infiltration Successful | Rescue Imminent
The skilled bandits brace…
Your slime forms like molten fire, a burning blade in your fist. Sparks of blue lightning flicker and dance along the edge—raw magic channeled into a lethal weapon.
"Impossible," someone in front of me murmurs. "A mage can't cast two elements..."
" I am no mage. I'm something else."
"Then *what* are you? Some kind of monster?" The brute snaps, glaring through the pain.
The woman beside him—the one who remembered something—stares at the air above with an odd expression on her face.
"Something's... there," she whispers, eyes narrowing.
Before she could say anything, though, I was always in front of her so close to her neck
You move *so fast* she doesn't feel your strike until your blade is at her neck.
Her eyes go wide—not with fear, but *fury.*
"Damn it," she hisses through her teeth, holding her dagger *shakingly still.*
"You'll pay for that…"
"no, I won't as a matter of fact you will die just like everyone else here." as I judged my sword into her neck as I threw her body at the other, still standing bandit with him distracted I sent an earth spike through his chest.
You strike faster than sight, and blood sprays like a mist—spattering one bandit with red even as his comrade falls to the ground.
"Elena—" the leader barks at the loss of his second in command, looking wildly for his missing mage. "Where are you?"
From around him: an uneasy silence.
Then a whisper hisses from the darkness.
"Looking for someone?"
"Show yourself," the bandit snaps, whirling around to face new threats.
For a moment, the only answer is the silence of night…
Then: a whisper in the trees.
"Why should I?"
There's no warning—one moment the bandit's snapping his glare around like a madman; the next there's a blade through his throat and darkness dripping down his chest.
"I was *right here*" a voice murmurs in his ear, as mocking as death itself. "Right behind… you."
I watched as he fell, as I turned the five remaining bandits as they still were unable to get up before they can even move earth spikes pierced their chests, dragging them underneath as they died.
The clearing is eerily quiet now.
No more screams. No more cries or whispers.
Just the wind rustling among the trees like a cold, silent reaper.
"Well then."
You turn to find Gamma stepping out of the night like a shadow herself.
"That was… efficient."she said, as she Bowling accidentally tripped and fell on her face.
" did you find her?" he asked, she nodded as she brought me to Alpha was The truth hits like a blade to the chest.
He steps into the cage cluster—his breath still calm, but his pulses rising.
There she is.
Curled on the cold ground like a broken doll. Small, frail… *transformed.* Not into a beast—but into something *worse.*
A writhing mass of flesh and half-formed limbs. One ear twitching—the unmistakable mark of an elf. A single visible eye flickers open as you approach…
And in that gaze—you see it:
**Recognition.**
Not fear.
*Hope.*
Luna kneels beside her, voice barely above a whisper. "Alpha… can you hear me?"
The mass trembles—then gurgles one word:
"…Mas… ter?"
Your system **screeches to life:**
> 🔔 **Quest Update:** *"The First Shade – Reclaimed"*
> Objective: Restore Alpha from Diablos Corruption (Stage 4)
> Requirements: High-Level Life-Weave Alchemy + Shadow Blood Infusion
Luna looks up at you, eyes wide with urgency.
"I remember now," she says softly. "When Shadow Garden was founded—healing Alpha was your first miracle."
She hesitates.
"It took *everything* you had last time…"