Ethereal Paradigm: A Canvas of Black - Chapter 80 First Grand Masquerade

“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night.”

-Victor Hugo

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With all of that asked and done, using my thoughts act as a cursor, I then chose the second skillset presented… ‘The Moon’… I have had always hated the moon, so maybe it can renew that old perspective.

And from there, the moment I clicked on the choice… I felt a massive en masse of power coming my way, even without any negative charisma and dark intents in plain sight… And then the three Celtic crosses, which Azazel calls as the ‘Crossange Arsenal’ begin to gush forth these jet-black bolts of lightning, and from it, this dark eclipse-colored minuscule cube begins to form in front of me, in the palms of my hands…

And it was not yonder, that I felt ready to let go of it…

“Azazel… Shall I say Kame-Hame-Ha?”

“Master, please don’t” She answered as if her range of cringe databases is even interlinked with Earth’s… Oh well…

I then released the eclipse-like cube from my hand and it drifted in the cramped ‘now-dark’ space and it was then, that it came in contact with one of the spaces’ ends and from there, it explodes in an outward direction to this brutal beam of darkness, quickly disintegrating a part of that sealing place without fail… And it was then that the sky becomes clearly seen again, but still being enshrouded by the giant beam of darkness.

As the dark beam ceased, I then trend my foot outside and saw how deformed the tool the priest used to seal me prior. It really was an iron maiden with spikes on the inside that could have killed me and failed for reasons unknown…It surprised me though. It was only about my size, but inside it felt more spacious than how cramped it really looks like in the actual scenes.

“Okaerinasai! Oni-chama!” A familiar voice, but coalesced with this second more mature tone then came into me… I looked up, and there Shiro is, soaring mid-air with a pair of butterfly wings which took the color of blood… She recognized me instantly as if I haven’t had undergone any changes.

“Yow Shiro…” I greeted back waving my hand, but with the same deadpan expression which the kid could have grown accustomed to by now. Flapping her bloody wings and pointing her red scythe away, she then hastily came to me with the same cheerful smile…How refreshing.

“Are you okay Shiro? What happened?” I asked while looking around marveling at the apparent coinage.

There were lots of changes, that I would like to ask Shiro how it happened after this… In her hands was a weirdly long scythe. Even Her hair, her eyes, her dual-toned voice, and even her garments, looked different. It’s very very… red. Well, regardless… I know it’s her.

And in front of us, was not the battlefield that I set prior I got sealed… And heck, it would even be frivolous to call it a sinister forest now. It’s all plain with burnt grass and an array of which I would like to define as ponds of red wines (which clearly isn’t). Some of the mountains on the surroundings were even deformed… And a meter away from us was the aforementioned beheaded Gorgon, Euryale herself, unresponsive which was remotely scanned by Azazel beforehand.

And the moon… It was not how it was always been… It’s now tainted with crimson and is in a state of an eclipse, with the disk-like shadow on the center having the same color of my obsidian crosses…The visage is, for me, more beautiful than beholding the original mundane one of silver which always spelled the most demented situations for me, even as a kid…

“Did you do this Shiro?” I asked, pertaining to the redness of the atmosphere…

“Hai! With the help of Kurenai onee-chan! … Ano ne, Ano ne (*Cute Japanese Loli sounds*) The bad guys were after Kurenai one-chan.”

Kurenai? Isn’t that what the Tarragons called her earlier? I then let Shiro explain the most basic status quo… She mentioned this Synthesized Angel dwelling inside of her, that I am yet to fully understand…

But, coming out of nowhere, the fast-approaching three-million became clear in plain sight… All having a weapon they specialize in their hand, and all equipped with heavy-looking armors, same to that of the hero’s which I crushed, but looked somewhat more economical and inexpensive.

And then, in front of the three million standing while taking battle positions from afar… Three men, in particular, stepped up of which two are already an acquaintance… The priest that sealed me, and the reckless Hero which appeared to be badly hurt. The third guy however in their midst is an unfamiliar beardy guy riding this ‘black’ majestic Pegasus with fiery eyes, wearing this golden and polished armor, having a noble crown in his head inlaid with fine jewels, and in his wrist is a fine sword yet to be drawn. His physical stature, really fits his title of which I presume, to be the supreme leader of these men of war… their King.

As he stepped up from his three million men, the priest with all of his due respect then gave him a magical-circle thingy of which the king would unexpectedly use to make his voice be heard even in the distance…

“We meet once again… Bloody Butterfly, Kurenai, our KIngdom’s runaway lovely angel… And whoever you may be dark-looking feudal overlord.” So, he addressed me with a cold and overly breezy voice. But the name…was somewhat cool to hear…

Feudal Overlord. Nice.

“I am King Aurelius, leader of a sovereign nation, and I am here, to take you home by force, our Personal Angel. It’s just sad that you have had taken the body of a girl from the second realm… But don’t worry, we can just kill the little girl and we will then extract you.” The King added addressing the words to Shiro and whoever it is that’s inside her. But…

On what basis does he think that I will let his speech be? I may have had let my guard down earlier… But not anymore. With Azazel’s 93 percent outcome of her calculation, if I will be able to combat them all at once, and with my satirical ‘rationality’ which should be functioning close at its peak by now, the upcoming incursions of the opponents would be no problem at all. Besides, it’s also a perfect time to test Azazel’s potency in establishing accurate statistics.

“Your ‘Lowliness’… Surely you can’t ignore a visitor now, which your rude underlings treated very poorly earlier” I interceded with his speech… Well, I always hated listening to ones coming from an echelon. It would always end with a mainstream quote.

The men positioned in the King’s back, who all have no toleration of tainting their beloved leader’s title and spoiling his image. and even with their faulty strength begin to mock me as I insulted their king’s noble emblazonment with a ‘Lowliness’ instead of ‘Highness’… Such kids…They are only giving me free power sources to feed my Paradigm Shift.

The King then raised his right hand, signaling for the guys to shut up and to let him talk… But I’m not up to such trivial negotiations. Let’s just get things running on the main course once again. Well, it goes on without saying that I’m also curious as to what ‘Dark By Default’ really is capable of.

“Feudal Overlord… What might be this that you are likely to suggest?” The King asked as if he knows of the development that I seek…

“Your ‘Lowliness’… Now that you’re here, and possibly every official in your puny Kingdom. Not to mention that your famed paradigm-Cancelling priest and your revered hero is also here and that, we got ourselves the blessing from the Angel whom you’re after… Why don’t we start the First Grand Masquerade? What do you say?” I exclaimed…