"Mmh. Shadows. It is always only a matter of time. Perhaps I should just be grateful to them. It was their sudden involvement which got me back on... his track."
"..."
"They fight similarly to the Undead or most Insectoids. Harmless and relatively weak on their own, Shadows instead try to overwhelm me in groups. Sometimes, it is as if they do not wish to fight at all, but I will not be granting them a possible surprise attack."
"We understand. Creatures, Shadows as call them you do, reversed effects Defensive or Healing Magic on them has! Had conserve our energy we needed not, dispel entire groups would have we!"
"...Fair. Do not do anything stupid against them."
"And rash, we think you wanted to add!"
"Rash could be potential strategy under dire circumstances, resulting in gaining the upper hand in the midst of confusion. Stupid shall always be simply that."
"Nihi-nihihihi!"
"...I fought Demons before, and there is something about these Shadows which reminds me of them."
"Giii gi gi gi gi!! FIND him... GIVE him BAAAAccKK!! Gigi!"
"...Creatures pitiful... Of black blood and magical ash formed, little Lifeforce powers them."
"Esha, you mentioned that you only recently... came back. Yet you seem to know what even these Shadows are. Whatever the reason is, I suppose I did the right thing taking their lure."
"...Lost Souls, dear Knight. Resentment towards the living, the lucky, they burn with! Unclean death the Undead received, mayhaps raised they were, still dead they are! Lost Souls cut from the Astral Plane instead were! In regards to earthly suffering, that much worse is, Knight! Souls collected for means we shudder to think of!"
"Giii-GHIII!! SAVE him... Heeeeelp HIM! ...Gigigi... SINNERS! GIVE HIM... back... gigi."
"The Soulsphere mention we did. Grant great mystical powers it does, the name Shadowlord we fear to even mention linked to it is... Fate terrible than anything you can imagine in this age. ...If one person alive contain it they can, it has to be him."
"Sounds like constant suffering, even if this Soulsphere might bring you... back to life."
"By souls powered, until he runs out. Enters death for a time. We muse: Despicable circumstance which deserve he does not!"
"...People can change, Esha. Pray to whatever entity that the person we are chasing is one and the same of your memories. I will not be taken for a dimwit again, and I offer no guarantees if it turns out otherwise."
"...Knight."
"You said they attack those with regrets."
"Pry into matters want we did not!"
"Not at all. If it is the way you say, then that is simply the truth. Yes... I do have them, and many people, too much seems to have changed because of this one man."
"..."
"The Shadows attack you as well. We are even, Esha."
"..."
"Help him? Find him? Save him? I see."
"...Arcane Enhance, Knight!"
"Hm? This does not feel like a Speed Up. Somehow it is... a lot more than that."
"Far too late, far too meaningless now. An apology owed to him and his companions still is. Defensive Magic from the ancient Fairies comes. Once unmatched masters, now completely withered! Stupid Fairies! Responsibility for the Shadowlord in a Stupid Fairy Queen lies still! Knight! Witness Defensive Magic of Old to the best of our ability you shall!"
"..."
"The need to protect, the root of Defensive Magic is! Tis a great joy to see it guide your bonded fighter. We muse: Belittle such power only a spoiled dimwit would. Nay! Thus if a bond of such ends, hurt immensely the loss of another does. Miraculous user know far too long ago we did..."
"Here I thought that Blade Whirlwind should be saved for later. Esha, do not hold back on that, if you please."
"That certainly we can do, Knight! Niihihi!"
"..GIIII gigigigi-GIII! HELP HELP HELP... Give... give... BRING HIM baaaack!!"
"Decisions yours are, agree with them he certainly would. For once listen to him in many centuries, however, someone can as well. ...Now we muse: One slash. One Shadow. But! One Soul Calm. Three Shadows!"
"...Nothing stupid, Esha."
"Nuuuu... hiii.... Stick our head back in the soil we feel like."
https://youtu.be/0td_qOJiFug
"Would ya look at that! This is shaping up to be quite the stay! Ghehe."
"You dimwit!"
"What did I do!? I barely had the chance to do ANYTHING!"
"Hrh..! If you have not noticed YET, then this thing ruined OUR vacation YOU paid for! ...Terrible service! How do such monsters even get here!? Might as well burn the whole place down now!"
"...Loooriii... Come on. Monsters! You can never predict anything with them! Happens. ...Gheh, if you could, then you would be like... some kind of revered heroic figure. Well, not with that attitude though!"
"Platinum premium hot springs, my butt!"
"...Probably fits the premium receptionist butt. Gehehe..!"
"I HAVE NOTICED! Hmmgh... AT the VERY least you can now slam PAPERS on tables, and everyone goes crazy. Congratulations, ARCHmagus."
"Aaayay. So maybe I should slam papers on more tables, and just get some slow Monster Hunter asses dragged here instead? While we sip something over there pretending the damn thing is immune to Magic! Sooorrryyyy!!"
"Ketrick!! OUR VACATION!"
"Vacation, yep yep."
"OUR VACATIOOON!!"
"Gheh. Lori, you do have some good ideas."
"I KNOW!"
"But ya also need the right guy for the job. I agree."
"Hmmmpgh... What in the Penumbra is this thing anyway!? It cannot be a Leviathan, can it!?"
"Lori... Leviathans are near-Dragons, and they live in the oceans."
"How should I know!? There is like a million tentacled monsters around! Same thing, different habitat!"
"...Not the same in the slightest, but anyways. This gentleman right here is a pristine example of a Chaplask. The body is still happily vacationing in the mud, instead of us, but the tentacles are... well. How should I put this. Basically one of the worst deaths to... observe... since experiencing it is at least a swift, but briefly excruciatingly painful, death."
"Ghh... Better one of the millions of claws then... huh."
"Yeeeesss... Chaplasks stick a tentacle up your sorry ass, and then... FFFSSHHH! Full blown torrent of extremely hot water. Slurp your meat soup inside, and spit out the uninteresting bone parts."
"...Kill it."
"Gahahahaaa! Well well! Here I thought ya do not wish to participate anymore!"
"...Uh, I... I find it easier when we can fight together, Ketrick. You... have a surprisingly good judgment for once! Ffhhh."
"Lori, Lori... Tsk. Unofficial Clause One! Never ever get attached to a Combat Magician! Geheh."
"Shush! Kill it! LIGHT-"
"STOP right there, Lorica!"
"!!!"
"That is exactly what the Chaplask wants! Haaa... and you can be hopeless. Okay... Listen up. If you hit it with anything Lightning based, sure, I get why you would want to, then we set ourselves up for dodging lightning shocks from its charged up tentacles, and... eeeeh... I KINDA do not FEEL LIKE doing that today, ya hear?"
"O-Okay..."
"See that bulge? ...That one, I mean?"
"YES."
"...Good. Gheh. Well aimed Fire Magic to boil the tentacle's water sack, and then I get up close and personal to cut the tentacle off. Somehow. Heh. ...We repeat that until the body emerges. Got that?"
"Just do not show off."
"...Right, sure. Can I get a shield up? Thanks."
"Fine. It is not like you need it, or anything."
"Alrighty! Sorry, tentacle boy, but ya know, women. She expects me to do something about this!"
"KETRICK! KILL IT!"
"Gahahaa! Oh, you might want to watch that towel before... cas... ting. Ghhh... Goooo-oo-dess bless! BLESS!"
"...GYAAAAAHHH!!"
https://youtu.be/4PYnvfQkK-4
"Good morning, Liandra!"
"...Good morning, Your Excellency."
"Your face tells me that it is not Jellies this time. What? Blood Snails crawling out of the bathtub?"
"Your Excellency, my face does not say anything. You simply assume based on a number of previous morning experiences - a quite dangerous act for someone of your status."
"Beautiful morning, I know."
"My hairstylist turned out to be a Heretic! I cannot believe this!"
"Mhm..? Is that a title of a book, or did that happen?"
"...As expected, Your Excellency, you immediately dismiss the reason you learned despite inquiring about it just moments ago, and thus clumsily unmasking your true intentions."
"Nmhm... Sounds like a book then. ...Is this when the Cheery Weary Laugh Squad chimes in?"
"For that you would need to say something actually funny."
"Cue on that. Anyways, would you like a bar of chocolate? Saved one just for you."
"Thank you, Your Excellency. I appreciate it."
"Unmistakably Alyahan craftsmanship! A real treat!"
"...But I have to decline."
"Oh well, have it your way then."
"Your. Excellency. The fact that you took this personally and became defensive might just imply your inability to have your ideas challenged. While that is a common tale, I would assume you, for once, would not want that to reflect poorly on your tenure. Eventually. I recommend to exercise caution with such deeply rooted personal problems."
"Liandra! I just finished a book on Projection Magic a few days ago! I do not mind borrowing it to you since I am sure you will make more sense of it than I did! Aarh... The curse of combat Magicians. We are sort of slow on anything else! I wanted to pass it on to Archmagus Lemrey, but the dimwit just picked up and went away! Archmagus Quint? Dimwit fireballs his own coffee so I would rather not! I am not even going to mention Archmagia Mya because she cannot read."
"...I completely fail to understand, and the tone, but no, thank you. I have enough to go through as is."
"Do you?"
"I do?"
"Hoh... All right then. ...Liandra, do you think there is a parallel universe where you are wrong on something?"
"Of course, Your Excellency, I hope we understand here that any talks about parallel universes, and such, are complete fabrications of old Mystics, but since it is you, I cannot be too sure."
"Inquisitor, please answer the question with a well structured reasoning."
"Only to humor you, Your Excellency, despite the fact that I have better things to do: The one where I unfortunately think that you are a sensible person."
"Oh ho ho ho ho! Aaah-yay... Liandra! Of course, of course. ...Back to work then."
"I expected as much, if you call that a response, Your Excellency. Still, you are no good, but at least you can fight Demons properly."
"Hsskh... morgha na derna tor!"
"Ghh!"
"Hmmm..! What is THIS, Liandra? You call this proper formatting? Oh no no no! We need to do something about it! There is a guideline and protocols for this! ...Mmmhm!"
"I am pretty sure that-"
"Oh? Well, it should not be a problem then! Naturally, we both know that you would not have problems following simple rules, correct? Absolutely unthinkable!"
"Y-Your Excellency! A-As I just wanted to-"
"...Hiiiii! Liandra! This certainly does not follow the four lines rule! My... I fear that we need to start asking people on interviews if they can write. What a travesty! ...And this? Hoh! Does the half-line rule means nothing to you? This tittle is above that!"
"I... uh..."
"It cannot be helped, Liandra. I know some guidelines are open to interpretations, sadly, so I say we need to burn this scroll, and you start over and proper."
"Khuu..!"
https://youtu.be/qRn1Z6KT91Y?si