"Eta, stop right there!"
A weak but sharp voice came from behind Eta. An arrow grazed past her purple hair and nailed itself into the wall.
"Beta, you made a very foolish choice. Looks like you really do want to go back to how you were at the beginning!"
"Right. In the end, you're just a mortal who clings to Master. I'm too lazy to leave first and then send that technology to Alexandria, so I'll make you test subject No. 1.9 for the Life Star Technology right now."
Eta slowly turned her head, looking down at Beta, who was struggling to stand. She raised the syringe in her hand, and beneath her cold voice was a faint trace of irritation.
"There's no way I'd actually let you leave. Shadow-sama gave me the mission of dealing with you, Eta, so I have to drag you, you damn bastard, back to Shadow Garden before you truly betray us!"
"You really are annoying. Don't talk as if you're so loyal to Master. You're just a useless silver-haired Elf whose pursuit of Master is all surface-level. Every day, you act cute in front of Master, pretentious and useless, all chest and no brains, with all your nutrition going to your chest instead of your head."
"Eta, shut up! Are you questioning my loyalty to Shadow-sama?!"
Beta strained to block the sword blade formed from the slime tentacle behind Eta, glaring straight at her in fury. She had to admit that Eta's string of insults had really hit a nerve. She wanted nothing more than to explode at Eta right then and there.
"Heh. I won't even bother asking about something as cheap as your life. Let's make it a simple choice. If Master ordered you to kill all of us Seven Shadows, what would you do?"
"…"
"Hmph!"
Seeing Beta's frozen expression, Eta's face remained expressionless, but the contempt in her eyes truly pierced Beta's heart.
Surely no one thought what she had said earlier was fake, right? Eta had disliked Beta for a long time. In fact, among the Seven Shadows, the affected and dramatic Beta was the least popular.
Epsilon went without saying. They were sworn rivals. Zeta looked down on both of those love-struck fools equally. Delta was dissatisfied with everyone weaker than her who ranked above her. As for Gamma… nothing interesting there, just a neutral mediator who only knew how to give out money.
Since Eta needed to stall for time anyway, she might as well break Beta too, so Beta would not come bothering her later.
With that thought, Eta narrowed her eyes at Beta.
"I-if it's Shadow-sama's order, then I…"
"Stop. Beta, the moment you hesitated and failed to answer me immediately, you already lost to me. In Master's words, loyalty that isn't absolute is absolute disloyalty."
"If I were the one facing that question, I would immediately kill everyone, package them up, and deliver them to Master. Even if that included my own life, it wouldn't matter, because Master is absolutely correct."
Eta said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. As the wisest being in the world, anything Master wanted to do must have its own profound meaning. They must have blocked Master's path somewhere, so of course they had to die.
Compared to that, simply dissolving Shadow Garden last time had been far too merciful. From the bottom of her heart, Eta felt that the fact they had become Master's weakness and still survived, even receiving a pile of severance money, was already unbelievable!
Master, you're too gentle!
"On ordinary days, you act like you don't fight or compete, as though you're satisfied with only obeying Alpha and Master and recording Master's stories. But in your heart, you're probably thinking about climbing into Master's bed twenty-four hours a day."
"That look of wanting something but knowing you can't have it, so you can only pretend not to care. In my social observations, you rank second only to Alpha after her mental collapse."
Unfortunately, she could not learn Master's way of thinking, which possessed emotions yet was absolutely ruthless.
It could only be said that she and Cid were similar, but not completely the same. Neither of them had the slightest doubt about the path they wanted to walk, but when it came to how they dealt with people, they were entirely different.
Looking at Beta's pale face, Eta shook her head in disdain. Her purity was simply too low.
"Let me tell you something interesting. If I'm not mistaken, Alpha was the one who founded Shadow Garden back then, not Master."
"What did you say?!"
"That's what I'm saying, useless silver-haired Elf. It's a very simple deduction, isn't it?"
"From what I've observed, Master is a truly incredible existence. He has a unique perfectionist standard, yet none of the usual arrogance that comes with it. In his mind, so-called perfection seems to be only what he naturally ought to achieve."
"So, if Shadow Garden really had been founded by Master on his own initiative, then there is no way he would ever dissolve Shadow Garden himself."
"If there were stumbling blocks on his road, he would kick them aside. But if that stumbling block was something he picked up with his own hands, then before we gave up, Master would absolutely take us all the way to the summit."
Based on Cid's mostly indifferent personality, combined with Alpha's personality, and then copying and pasting the backgrounds of most Shadow Garden members, the answer was actually very easy to reach.
Alpha had gone from a lump of flesh back to an Elf, but she had already been banished by the Elves and had nowhere to go. Then she heard the truth of the world that Cid casually spoke about. Hatred and gratitude gave Alpha a new emotional anchor, so she dragged Cid into fighting the Cult of Diablos.
Master had probably been thinking of sending Alpha back to her hometown at the time, but after receiving Alpha's request, he agreed with a casual attitude, thinking that having an organization to run errands for him was not bad either.
"In conclusion, Alpha is probably like most of Shadow Garden. She treats Shadow Garden as her emotional anchor."
"But at its core, that's putting the cart before the horse. From Master's perspective, it's no different from a child folding a paper airplane, running up to him, and saying they're useful. To a god, numbers have no meaning. "
"We, the ones personally named by Master, are the few people Master pays attention to. You've completely misunderstood what matters, you bunch of mortals."
"It's because of us that Master has a connection to Shadow Garden, not because of Shadow Garden that Master is willing to stay with us."
Thinking that, Eta looked down on Beta even more.
She was fundamentally different from the other Seven Shadows. If the path the other Seven Shadows walked was the path Master intended to walk, then her path was Master's existence itself. She had already won by far too much.
"Is that so? So Shadow-sama values me that much after all!"
???
Eta stared blankly at the smile Beta could no longer suppress, then blinked and suddenly covered her mouth.
Oh no. Wrong line. Against Alpha, those words might have been a fatal blow, but for Beta, who had been so bored after Shadow Garden half-dissolved that she started playing house, it was no different from someone who had burned through all their resources without getting anything suddenly hearing they could claim a guaranteed reward.
"Forget it…"
Eta had not expected herself to make such a low-level mistake. She sighed, though she did not really take it to heart.
After all, as long as they could not unlock the chains in their own perception, they could only get a little closer at most. They could forget about becoming someone who stood parallel to Master like she did. Eta had no intention of giving up the title of the one closest to god.
"Since you know so much, I'll let you become the No. 1.9 test subject for the Life Star Technology. By the way, I'm the 0.9. Quality guaranteed. When you get back to Shadow Garden, remember to advertise it for me. When you all end up using this technology, I'm going to laugh at you properly."
Eta plucked one of Beta's hairs, removed the cap from the syringe in her hand, and reached toward Beta. Then she took a trace of Cid's Magical Power from the Magical Power interface inside her body and placed it onto Beta.
"Hey, Eta. Guess how I found you."
"Hm?"
As if she had made up her mind, Beta took a deep breath, raised her head, and opened her mouth as the needle drew closer and closer.
"Delta!"
"Beta, why are you calling Delta… Hm? Beta, Eta, what are you doing?"
At the nearby window, a dark shadow flashed past from the distance. A cute head with constantly twitching beast ears poked up from below, then froze when she saw the scene inside.
"I should have guessed. There's no way Master would only send you, Beta, to stop me…"
Eta sighed and spoke in a tone that was regretful yet completely accepting. It could only be called unexpected but reasonable. How could the trial Master gave her possibly be just a mere Beta?
"Delta, stop overthinking it! Hurry up and help me take down Eta!"
"Delta doesn't want to. A weak little Beta has no right to order around the much stronger Delta. Delta is Shadow Garden's top general now, so why should Delta listen to Beta?"
"Because Shadow-sama told you to listen to me. Or are you saying you won't obey Shadow-sama's orders anymore, Delta?"
Beta shouted in sheer frustration. She had never been in such a foul mood before. She had been enjoying afternoon tea when Cid ordered her to go find Gamma, only for her to discover Gamma unconscious.
After receiving Nu's report and piecing together what had roughly happened, she was just about to track Eta down and settle the score when Cid sent another order telling her to prepare vegetable juice. While she was still utterly confused, Delta came running over not long after.
Immediately afterward, Cid sent her another message saying that Delta had been made to follow her orders, and added that she understood.
Yes, exactly. Beta understood everything. It was all within Shadow-sama's expectations. The problem was...
"Everything is going according to plan, so why am I this pissed off?"
If Beta had to describe how she felt right now, it would be regret. If she had known Eta was this ruthless, she would have brought Delta along from the start and ganged up on her. Fortunately, it was not too late. In fact, she had gained even more from this.
Thinking that, Beta looked smugly at Eta, who had already retreated dozens of meters away. The tables had turned. Once she defeated Eta and dug out everything she had hidden away, she was going to humiliate her thoroughly.
"Ugh... fine. Delta will listen to Boss."
Delta looked conflicted, but she still glared at Beta several times in displeasure before turning toward Eta, her aura turning beastlike.
"Tsk. No effect?"
Seeing that Delta and the others seemed to have reached an agreement, Eta looked at the emptied syringe in her hand, then at Delta, who was completely unharmed, and clicked her tongue.
"As expected, Demon Possession Formula 3.7 only works on Elves for now. Its effect on Therianthropes and Humans is practically zero. Tsk. In the end, the problem is the lack of experimental data. I can only judge the drug's efficacy based on myself."
Eta glanced at Beta, who had already begun to suppress the rampaging Magical Power inside her body, and at Delta, who had joined her in blocking Eta's escape route.
"One more data point. Based on the reactions of Test Subject 1 and Test Subject 2, physical constitution doesn't affect Demon Possession Formula 3.7 through simple addition or subtraction, but through multiplication."
"Hey, Eta, what kind of nonsense are you thinking about at a time like this?"
Putting her thoughts aside, Eta looked at Beta's smug face and tilted her head expressionlessly.
"You don't actually think you've already won, do you?"
"!!!"
"Grendel-kun No. 0.5!"
"BOOM!"
In an instant, it tore through the entire underground space. Standing well over ten meters tall, its whole body was pitch-black like a robot, yet its surface was covered in black dragon scales. Black dragon wings spread open behind it. It was crude, yet imposing and majestic, a top-tier Dragon-Man Mech.
"If Master were standing in front of me, I would immediately raise my hands and surrender. Unfortunately, just like the reason Master abandoned you, his greatest mistake was trusting you!"
Inside the center of the mech, Eta controlled the Dragon-Man Mech's movements while watching the display in front of her and shouting through the ventilation port beside her.
"What terrifying pressure. Delta, in a moment you... Delta?"
Beta had wanted to assign tactics and deal with the terrifying mech cautiously, but when she turned her head, Delta, who had been right beside her, had already charged out!
"Awooo!!!"
Delta nimbly dodged the fierce flames spewing from the dragon maw in the giant mech's chest, then leaped high into the air and rushed straight toward the center of the Dragon-Man Mech, where Eta was controlling it, aiming to end it in a single blow. But a fist packed with enormous Magical Power closed in from the side, forcing Delta to abandon that plan.
"BOOM!!!"
A violent crash rang out as powerful Magical Power scattered from the collision between the Dragon-Man Mech and Delta. The backlash struck both Delta and the Dragon-Man Mech controlled by Eta at the same time.
Delta flipped once in midair before landing, then shook her head to clear it and kept glaring fiercely at the Dragon-Man Mech.
Compared to Delta's composure, the Dragon-Man Mech looked far more battered. Its legs dug into the ground, yet the force of Delta's punch still pushed it back the whole way.
Eta paid no mind to her disadvantage and nodded. As expected, the mech was about the same as Delta. Both sides had unlimited Magical Power, but the quality of that Magical Power was another matter. So...
She put on the Decapitation Collar, took out the Demon Possession Formula, and inserted it into her own body. Feeling the quality of her Magical Power rise sharply, she did not suppress the rampage. Instead, she lowered her defenses and poured all of it into the mech.
"Let's set a small goal. Defeat Delta and Beta before my brain gets damaged."
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