Shadow (2)
The moment I stepped into Benny's workshop, darkness flooded my vision, swallowing everything whole.
Whoosh—!
The Shadow's Hug Me! effect was overwhelming!
“Kyaaaaaah!”
Yona, save me!
An unidentifiable sensation wrapped around every inch of my body—soft in some places, squishy in others, and prickly in the rest. I flailed wildly on instinct, and the shadow flinched before slowly adjusting the pressure of its embrace.
It hadn't exactly been painful before, but now it felt noticeably more comfortable. After being tossed around like that for a while, I finally came to my senses and realized I was trapped inside a large cylindrical container.
“Huh.”
Outside, the shadow monster stared at me with sparkling (?) eyes while Benny flailed in panic. The sight of me suddenly turned into a zoo exhibit made me pause for a second before I shouted.
“You wicked witch Benny! What exactly are you planning to do to me?!”
“N-no! I didn't order this! The little guy just did it on its own, I swear!”
“Don't lie to me! I know everything! You're going to keep me locked up like this and perform all sorts of unspeakable experiments on me, right?! It wasn't about me helping with experiments at all—you were planning to experiment on me!”
“That's not it! What would I even experiment on you for?!”
Benny fumbled with something in a panic while still operating controls at lightning speed. Meanwhile, the shadow monster continued to admire me from behind her like I was some kind of treasure.
“What kind of experiment, you ask… Are you really going to make me say it out loud?! Showing me weird videos to brainwash me, turning me into a new aphrodisiac pickle, pouring slime that only melts clothes to leave me naked! It's obviously going to be some perverted stuff I can't even put into words!”
“I never even thought about any of that?! Isn't the one with the filthiest mind here actually you?!”
“What? So you're saying my mouth might not be, but my body is perverted? That even though I'm a kid, I'm more than enough to make kids?”
“Who are you trying to get arrested with that kind of talk?!”
Benny shrieked and slammed a large button in irritation. A low beep sounded, and the cylindrical door opened. But I didn't step out right away, instead glancing around warily.
“…What are you doing?”
“What if it pounces on me the second I come out?”
“I don't think that'll happen… Just wait a second.”
Benny muttered something under her breath and snapped her fingers lightly.
Clank!
At the same time, silver chains shot up from the floor and wrapped around the shadow monster, which was still only blinking its eyes.
-Krr…
It let out a pitiful whine but didn't resist much. It was as if it had finally realized what it had done wrong.
“Benny. What was that just now?”
“I'm not entirely sure… but this place was originally where the shadow lives in the workshop?”
“Not inside your shadow?”
“My shadow is just where it can follow me from outside, so it hides in there. The most comfortable spot for it is right here.”
Benny pointed at the cylinder I'd been inside moments ago. From the outside, I could see various magic circles etched across its surface—something I hadn't noticed while trapped within.
“This is specially made. Shadow monsters can only live in places like this to begin with.”
“…Just what is this thing? Or rather, is it even okay to call it a shadow monster? To me, it looks like something completely different.”
At that, Benny gave a bitter smile and nodded.
“If I'm going to ask for your cooperation, Yona, I suppose I need to explain this part too. Remember how I mentioned before that it wasn't always like this?”
“Yeah. You said they used to all be your friends, right?”
“Well… some were less close than others, but yeah, we all knew each other. …So let me introduce it again. We've been calling it a shadow monster all this time, but it's actually neither a shadow nor a monster.”
Benny gently stroked the side of the creature wrapped in chains, its eyes downcast in melancholy, its drooping tentacles and sharp teeth now hidden.
“This one is a chimera.”
She blinked her heart-patterned pupils sadly.
“And so am I.”
As always, most of the problems that arise in the labyrinth city can be traced back to Those Who Swallow the Twilight. The tragedy that struck Benny when she was still young was no exception.
The orphanage where she lived was abducted in its entirety. The adults were killed, and only the children were locked away somewhere deep in the labyrinth. There, the heretics were conducting forbidden experiments that were strictly taboo.
They were trying to implant artificially adjusted madness into human bodies to see if one could grow stronger while retaining their sanity.
The theory was simple. Every monster was the result of ordinary plants and animals failing to resist the final curse bestowed by the God of Madness. Therefore, if one could absorb only a manageable amount of that madness, they should be able to maintain their reason while gaining a permanent enhancement buff with zero cost.
In other words, it meant claiming the authority of the God of Madness as our own and offering it to the Goddess.
Based on an idea even a child could come up with, Those Who Swallow the Twilight began carrying out all sorts of insane experiments. Implanting magic stones into human hearts, replacing body parts with those of monsters, crossbreeding humans and monsters, and so on.
Most of it was reckless human experimentation without any real theory behind it, and naturally, most subjects died in horrific agony.
The child who received a magic stone in their heart couldn't maintain their body's shape and melted into a puddle. The child who gained a monster's limbs had the rest of their body grotesquely twisted and died. In the case of crossbreeding, the monster serving as the base remained fine, but the boy used as the seed couldn't endure the madness and self-loathing transmitted through intense physical contact and resorted to self-harm.
But among them, there was one test subject who fared relatively well.
That was Benny, who had received a succubus's magic eye implant.
She couldn't use the charm ability inherent to succubi at all, but she was the first successful case to gain the power to maintain youth along with magical aptitude. Benny became trapped in a body that had stopped growing too early, and she was forced to watch her friends die off one by one.
“But that wasn't the end. They even began desecrating the corpses.”
They mixed the melted bodies together. Until the colorful mucus turned pitch black. They extracted intact monster fragments from the twisted corpses and soaked them in the mucus. Bloodshot eyes, sharp teeth, tentacles, acidic bodily fluids, and more.
Into that grotesque mixture, they poured the vitality and life force extracted from the children driven mad. So that something without true life could move as if it possessed life.
What was born from that was the shadow monster… no, the nameless chimera.
“Finally, they fused this newly born creature with my soul. I don't know exactly how they did it. They definitely used some kind of divine artifact, but I can't even sense what god's authority it carries. One thing is certain, though….”
Benny paused to choose her words carefully, then gently stroked the shadow monster. It growled as if it didn't like being touched, but eventually accepted her hand.
“This one and I became one, and we gained power. At least enough power to escape that damned place.”
The moment Benny and the shadow connected, they could understand each other's thoughts. The hostility toward Those Who Swallow the Twilight. The revenge that had to be achieved even if it meant burning themselves alive. …And madness so intense it made one's mind go blank.
“I surrendered my body to the madness and rampaged like a lunatic. When I came to my senses, the cage that had held us was shattered… and I tasted blood in my mouth. Oh, and my teeth ended up like this.”
Benny opened her mouth wide, revealing teeth as sharp and pointed as a shark's. The sight was identical to the shadow monster's.
Clank.
Only then did Benny release the chains binding the shadow. The creature naturally melted into her shadow, only poking its eyes out to observe me.
Benny looked down at her feet with a sorrowful smile.
“That's why this one basically hates everything. It wants to repay the pain it suffered in kind. …But you're an exception.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I don't know the exact reason either. But it shows you tremendous goodwill, doesn't it? The reason it suddenly shoved you into the tank earlier was because that was the place it feels most comfortable, and it was yielding it to you.”
“Well… I guess I should be a little grateful for that.”
As I stared at the shadow with a strange look in my eyes, Benny continued in a slightly stiff voice.
“I can probably guess the reason. …You're similar to us, aren't you?”
“Huh?”
Benny gazed at me with eyes full of empathy. I tilted my head in confusion at her stare, and she pulled the shadow into her arms.
“You said at The Elf and the Silver Coin that you were researching ways to stop the erosion or separate this one from me, right?”
She let out a deep sigh, as if it were her last breath in life.
“Let me be a bit more precise. I want you to return the peace that was stolen from this child. And I want to reclaim the future that was stolen from me.”
“…Do you think I can actually do that?”
“I don't know. But I'll make it happen.”
Benny's heart-patterned pupils sparkled purple.
“Because magic is a miracle.”