Chapter 241: The Shadow Empress’s Demand
Neil decided it was worth bringing the topic to Jane and Ileana properly, rather than keeping all of it inside his own head.
He found them sitting together near the small outdoor table, the late afternoon light falling warm across the courtyard, and he laid out everything Freya had told him along with his own conclusions on top of it.
Jane considered it for a moment, her fingers tracing the rim of her cup.
"I actually have something that might work well here," she said. "My light manipulation skill lets me take direct control of an opponent’s body through contact. If I can land it on even one of them, I could turn it against the rest without needing to deliver a killing blow myself at all."
"That’s useful," Neil said. "Especially if their numbers get too large to fight conventionally."
Ileana was already running through her own abilities in her head, the slight furrow in her brow the only outward sign of how seriously she was taking the question.
"Most of what I have wouldn’t draw any blood in the first place," she said. "A good portion of my skills work through absorption or suffocation, nothing that breaks the skin or causes bleeding. If your theory about the trigger holds up, I should be able to take down a fairly large number of them cleanly, without ever risking a multiplication."
"Between the three of us, that’s a real answer if it comes to it," Neil said.
Jane gave a small nod, satisfied with where the conversation had landed, and the three of them sat together for a while longer, talking through the logistics of it without arriving at anything more concrete than the understanding that they had options if the situation demanded them.
Mantis found Neil again once Bob had finished walking him through the entire domain, his expression carrying a mixture of exhaustion and genuine awe that hadn’t fully faded since he first stepped through the gate.
"This is a 4th Order domain," he said, looking around at the structures surrounding them, the layout, the barrier humming faintly along the perimeter. "It looks stronger than most 5th Order domains I’ve encountered in my life. The construction alone is better than anything my settlement has managed."
"Bob and Rob deserve most of the credit for that," Neil said.
Mantis straightened, falling back into the formal posture of someone reporting to a superior.
"Lord, what are your orders going forward?" he asked.
There was something underneath the question, a quiet hope he couldn’t quite suppress, the lingering possibility that Neil might still decide to commit his strength toward the broader fight against the creatures spreading across the human settlements.
"We’re heading somewhere important soon," Neil said. "Until then, focus on training the army properly. Pass along what you know, especially to Leon, he’s the one running things on the military side and he’ll need everything you can give him."
Mantis nodded and turned to go find Leon, already shifting back into the practical mindset of someone with a clear task in front of him.
Neil reached out to contact Cynthia not long after, intending to update her on what had happened with Mantis and the creatures, but before Nemo could even open the connection, her signal came through first.
"Master, are you alright?" he asked, accepting the call.
"For now," she said, and there was a tiredness in her voice that hadn’t been there during their last conversation. "Things aren’t looking good on my end. It seems we’re going to have to fight one major battle before we can even think about entering the lost elven kingdom."
"The doubling creatures," Neil said. "The ones you told me about before."
"Those exact ones," she confirmed, the weight in her voice unmistakable now. "They’ll be at my doorstep soon enough, and I can’t simply abandon my kingdom to deal with something else while that’s happening. I might genuinely need your help handling this when it comes."
She knew, in a general sense, what reaching the 5th Origin likely meant for his current strength, possibly something approaching or even exceeding her own, though there were still pieces of him she hadn’t fully pieced together.
The vague impression of some ability that let him return from deaths that should have ended him permanently still sat somewhere in the back of her mind, unconfirmed but never quite dismissed either.
"I’ll be there whenever you need me," he said. "Should I just come now? I’ve been wanting to see your kingdom properly anyway."
"That would be wonderful," she said, "but getting your domain here is the real problem. I’m not sure what we could even—"
"I’ll find a way to bring it," Neil said, cutting her off gently. "Once I’ve sorted that out, I’ll teleport over directly."
There was a brief pause on her end, the sound of her deciding whether to push back on the confidence in his voice or simply trust that he meant exactly what he said.
"Did you hear anything else about the lost elven kingdom?" he asked. "From that werewolf prince, Caleb?"
Cynthia let out a short, tired breath.
"I receive plenty of messages from him," she said. "Almost none of it useful. The most recent one only said the date of entry is approaching and that we should be prepared."
Neil laughed quietly at that.
He knew exactly what kind of man Caleb was beneath the polish and the formal phrasing, and given everything he had already witnessed from him, there was no doubt in his mind that the man was already planning something for the moment they all stepped into that kingdom together.
Whatever it ended up being, Neil intended to make sure Caleb regretted trying it long before it ever had the chance to matter.
They talked a little longer about smaller things, nothing urgent enough to dwell on, and then the call ended.
Afterward, Neil sat with the problem of locating a woman who seemed to appear and disappear entirely according to her own schedule, with no reliable way to summon her on demand.
He decided the simplest approach was probably the only one likely to actually work.
He would walk through the settlement without any clear destination in mind, and if she wanted to find him badly enough, she would.
He spent the better part of several hours moving through the markets, the quieter residential streets, even past the training grounds near the settlement’s edge, and there was no trace of her anywhere, not even the faint disturbance her presence usually left behind.
Eventually he abandoned the settlement entirely.
He called for Magnar, and the two of them headed out past the boundary wall, toward the same stretch of forest he had once fled through in absolute desperation, the place where he had nearly died before Randy pulled him out of it at the very last moment.
Flying came naturally to him now, no need for Aquamorph or any improvised method, just intention carried by a body finally strong enough to support it, and the ground fell away rapidly beneath them as they crossed over the treeline.
She wasn’t here either.
"Guess being subtle isn’t going to get me anywhere," Neil muttered.
He took a breath and called out properly.
"Shadow Empress!"
Nothing responded.
"SHADOW EMPRESS!"
The shadow pooling beneath a tree some distance ahead rippled visibly, and a voice came from it before the shape had even finished forming properly.
"Must you be this loud about it?"
The shadow gathered itself into the familiar figure of a woman in a black dress, her hair slightly mussed, her expression carrying the particular irritation of someone who had just been pulled out of a nap they hadn’t agreed to end.
"What is it now?" she said, stretching once with a small yawn.
Neil rolled his eyes.
"You already know exactly what I’m here for," he said. "Do you have a treasure that can let me carry my entire domain along with me?"
She tapped a finger against her chin, humming thoughtfully as though the question genuinely required consideration, though it was obvious the answer had been sitting ready the entire time.
"I do," she said finally.
She reached into the shadow pooled beside her and drew out a small silver bell, round and unremarkable in appearance, catching what little light filtered through the canopy above them.
"This nearly cost me my life," she said. "I took it from someone on the phantom planet who didn’t part with it willingly. It allows the user to store an entire domain, subjects included, for as long as they need it stored."
Neil’s eyes stayed fixed on the bell, the weight of what it could do for him settling in immediately.
"Can you give it to me?" he asked, not bothering to hide how badly he wanted it.
She hummed again, turning the bell slowly between her fingers, clearly enjoying making him wait for the answer.
"And why exactly should I do that?" she said. "I’ve already helped you a fair amount. What I’ve done so far more than settles whatever debt I owed your mother. This happens to be one of the best treasures I own, so you’ll need to give me a real reason."
Neil clicked his tongue, recognizing there was no point in continuing to guess at what she might want.
"Tell me what you’re after," he said. "Whatever it is, I’ll give it to you in exchange for the bell."
"Good," she said, a small smile crossing her face. "I do appreciate it when people are straightforward instead of dancing around things."
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