- Shadow Girl and Her Fox -

After being compressed becoming small even smaller than Rak's mini size, Yukan was leading them to the way to find Alphine, the said shadow girl.

He warned them to not get into the chamber but on inside, when he watched how these crazy regulars insisted to get into Alphine's chamber, he was smirking because he knew that whoever entered Alphine's chamber will never get out of that place alive. He was sure that these regulars will also die on the hands of the shadow girl.

Khun opened the door and inside the room, he found a short blonde haired girl with a pair of yellow eyes. She was standing there, waiting for them to come in.

After observing her for awhile, she was sure she was the Alphine. Her lips curled up into a smirk.

"You are.....the intruders that I heard about" Alphine calmly said. "You must be Jue Viole Grace's and Nox's companions. I'm impressed that you beat Yukan."

"That's right" said Khun coolly. "Well, let's say that."

"We've come to retrieve the companions whom you took and take away Kaiser's name. Tell us how to get to gallery."

Alphine's expression darkened for a moment.

"....you're too impatient. Your companions could die if I were to make one call right now" said Alphine.

"It's alright. You people can't do anything with the hostages until you steal Viole's and Nox's names. Isn't that why you told everyone about us and drag us into this? And our companions are already looking for the hostages. We left that to them so that we can focus getting Kaiser's name."

"You're very confident. So...? I don't see Jue Viole Grace or Nox, the stars of our show" said Alphine. From outside, she looked like she was unbothered with that matter.

"That's me" said Bam. ". So tell us how to get to the gallery."

After hearing that, Alphine pondered and realized something.

"Was that long hair a wig...?" She asked.

"Yeah."

This made Alphine chuckled.

Surely, no one would ever thought that a slayer candidate turned out to be a cute kid.

"Then who is that little lass on your back?" Alphine asked, referring to Charlotte who was standing behind Khun. "Seeing your similar appearances, could she be the Nox? I didn't expect her to be an adorable young woman."

As expected from Kaiser's most loyal and trusted servant, she guessed her identity within one shot. She was able to tell her identity because of her similar appearance with Bam and that she had long heard that the Nox was someone with a long brown hair and white smiling mask. But no one has ever taken off his mask and saw his appearance directly. Her comrades were exception, of course.

Khun stepped in front of Charlotte. Since he was taller than the young woman, he was able to cover her.

"It seems like I was right then, seeing how protective you are...." said Alphine. "Fine, I'll tell you how to get to the gallery."

"What!?" They were surprised since it was too easy.

Yukan on the back was looking at Alphine in disbelief. Why would she spare them? Why would she tell them about the way to the gallery? Why wouldn't she kill them? The reason why Yukan gladly showed them the way was because he believed that Alphine would avenge him.

"In return, I have "I have a gooone condition. ."

".....prove it.....?"

"That's right. Prove me that you have the right to release Kaiser from that restrain-- for a thousand years."

"Ah..are you talking about Kaiser's past?" Khun asked Alphine lightly as if Kaiser's past was nothing. "Don't worry, we already know about it."

"You...what?"

"Let's just say that we have a good informant on our side" Khun shortly explained. "He had told us everything about Kaiser's past."

"How could that be--!"

Alphine couldn't understand how these regulars were able to know about Kaiser's past. But when she looked at the young lass who she suspected as Nox, she recalled something immediately.

"He knows my identity, Alphine. That Nox....he knows that I used to be one of the Zahard Princesses Candidates. That Nox....he must be eliminated."

Kaiser had told her that there was a slayer candidate who knew about her past. The past that she wanted to forget and buried deeply....the slayer candidate who appeared out of nowhere was able to know something that happened a thousand years ago.

"It's you" she said. Her eyebrows frowned as she looked at Charlotte who was hiding behind Khun. "How do you know that?"

"Well....like what he said, I have a good informant" said Charlotte. "Alphine, you are someone selected and tasked to serve Kaiser when she was about to be chosen as the Zahard Princesses right? Though I don't know much about you...but I know that after Headon chose you as a regular, you climbed the tower and helped Kaiser running this station. You serve Kaiser longer than anyone else, no one could be more loyal to her than you.

Which also mean that if we couldn't help you or fulfill your expectation to free Kaiser from the restraint that has been binding her, you will kill us here to silence us.....so that no one couldn't tell about Kaiser's past. After all, ?"

Alphine smirked.

"You know too much, Nox" she said. "But you are right. If you can't help Kaiser with the restraint, then I would have no choice but to kill you. Like what you said, the dead ones couldn't speak."

Behind them, something showed itself. When they turned their heads around, they were greeted with a big orange fox.

Now, they understood how Alphine earned the name as the "Shadow Girl". The blonde haired woman was both scout and anima, she stayed close with Kaiser like a shadow and she had this Shadow Fox with her.

"This Shadow Fox connects itself to enemies' shadows in certain place. Once it joins shadows with an opponent, it becomes immune with their attacks and it can devour the shinsu in the body of whoever's shadow it has connected to" Alphine explained to them about her fox. "Of course, the people who have their shinsu sucked out of them will die soon."

"What!?" Yukan was taken back.

He wouldn't mind if those bastards die here but he couldn't die there. His shadow was connected with the Shadow Fox, was Alphine planning to kill him as well!?

"I know that any of you won't be able to save Kaiser anyway. So I better end our conversation with this. I really wanted to send you to the festival after stealing your names but since you made it this far, I have no other choice.

Die."

The Shadow Fox was ready to attack them.

"....A....Alphine!!" Yukan desperately called. "You're not going to kill me too, are you?! We're both the members of Ten Bosses!"

"....you're not one of us anymore now that you have been defeated" Alphine coldly responded. "Plus, I can't let you live after knowing Kaiser's secret."

"What!? I don't know anything about Kaiser's secret!" Yukan tried to defend himself. He truly, unlike in the manhwa, had no clue about Kaiser's past since Charlotte had made a change on it and altered the story.

He was getting more and more scared and desperate, "...please! Alphine. I always had a thing for you as a woman!! I just couldn't tell you because of Kaiser!!"

"Then I should definitely kill you. You should have never told me that. Thank you for making me feel worse."

"Man, stop this nonsense!" said Khun as he used his lighthouse again. "Do you think we'll just die at your command!?"

Bam was trying to use bangs to hurt the Shadow Fox with the help of Khun's lighthouse which didn't work out well, for the fox was now immune with their attacks because their shadows have connected with each other.

"Don't waste your energy, brother" said Charlotte calmly. "It is just like Alphine said, there is no way for us to attack him. We couldn't damage him since our shadows have connected with each other."

Before Yukan got himself sucked, Charlotte caught him and then threw him away.

"Are you stupid? Don't get yourself killed!"

Khun turned around to look at Alphine since he believed that she was the weakness of the Shadow Fox. But unlike what he expected, Alphine disappeared and on the table, there was a yellow observer.

Their attacks were futile, the weakness of the Shadow Fox or Alphine wasn't there in the room. There was no way for them to escape unless he found the tank of the Shadow Fox. A tank was a place where animals that were commanded kept and was made by a special type of shinsu. If they could make use of it, perhaps they could escape from death.

But the problem was that he didn't know which one was the fox's tank.

"HMPH!! If we can just break through the wall--!" He kicked the wall of the room out of irritation.

"It's impossible! A room made by the Workshop would never get smashed through by any regulars!" Red Gramon said.

"Charlotte, you could see the future right?" Bam looked at Charlotte who was coolly fanning herself. "Then can you tell us how to get out of here?"

Charlotte snapped her fan and glanced at Khun with a smile.

"Regulars couldn't break the wall of this room....it is as if that this room is a cage to trap us with this Shadow Fox" said Charlotte, wishing that Khun would get the hint that she gave to him. "We can't attack it but we don't have the time to run away from it forever. The anima is gone, so we'll have to find its tank."

Khun heard her words and pondered about it for awhile before he came up with an idea.

Though it was just a hypothesis, he wanted the twins to try to control the shinsu in this room and move it to somewhere else.

Alphine always used this room to lure the regulars and this room was freaking strong. It was impossible for the Shadow Fox to not have any tank in this room so he assumed that this room might be its tank. If they could move the shinsu to his lighthouse, maybe they will have a chance to survive.

≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫

"Hey, you look like you've got a lot in your mind."

Alphine who was walking was surprised to hear that voice. She didn't expect any of them to get out from that place alive.

"How did you get here?" She asked the regulars.

"What do you mean how?" Charlotte asked. She was slightly annoyed because earlier, she tripped while running. "We ran here to chase you."

"Then what abut the Shadow Fox?" Alphine asked.

"Ah, that fox?" Khun showed his lighthouse. "It's doing fine in here."

In the lighthouse, there was the Shadow Fox, trapped and caged there.

"W...what happened!? Why is my Shadow Fox trapped in your lighthouse?! What the hell did you do?!"

"Well....the decisive moment was when we realized that the room itself was your tank. But the room is too strong for us to break, so we thought 'let's move the tank to our lighthouse'" Khun explained.

"Y- you moved the tank!?"

"That's right. We used a special skill to move almost all of the shinsu into the lighthouse" he answered. "I figured that if all of the shinsu in the room moved to the lighthouse, the fox would have to follow shinsu into the lighthouse. It must be the basic instincts of animals. We hoped the fox would follow its instinct when you were gone at the moment.

In the end, it's a good thing that the Fox moved according to the plan. It could have endangered our own lives if we had gathered any more shinsu in the room, so the moment that the fox leapt, we moved to other lighthouse with shinsu stored in. Basically, we're using two lighthouses the whole time.

As soon as the fox went in, we escaped after locking that one. It was very dangerous. We could have died if our timing was just a moment late."

"But how did you open the door?! It was locked from inside!"

"Yeah, we knew that much. We placed a few named from no- named zone near this room. We contacted them and they got us out, and then we refiled the shinsu. One of them told us your location. Few of them spotted you running away and contacted us. A lot more than you imagined are holding grudges against you here."

All Aphine's questions were answered by Khun with his explanations honestly. She was left speechless for a moment.

"We'll have to keep thinking of a way to save Kaiser, but it looks like we have managed to break free very impressively from your shackles. So could you tell us now, how to get to Kaiser?"