The Eminence in Shadow Just Realises that He is an Eminence in Shadow

It Was Real

"It's all real...everything is real..."

Cid Kagenou still felt surreal, after finding out yesterday that everything he made up...no, everything he thought he made up...was real.

Real...real...real...

Cid had trained for countless scenarios. He had trained to drown dramatically like a mob. To be killed tragically like a well-intentioned mob. To run in terror from the villain like a mob. But he never trained for a scenario like this...

"Doesn't this mean...I've become an actual Power in the Shadows?! No..." Cid forced himself to slow down with deep, calming breaths and replay every memory he had. The memories he had ever since he had saved Alpha.

"So, all along, I was already a Power in the Shadows...?"

That revelation hit him with the force of a thousand 'I Am Atomic' attacks.

"WHAAAAAAAAT?! How did I not notice?! How dumb can I be?!" Cid howled to himself, thrashing and rolling all over his bed in the empty school dorms in classic anime-style. Because, for all his lack of awareness, he was aware that he might actually possibly be an anime character.

[Insert SpongeBob Narrator: Ten Minutes Later...]

Cid flopped down onto his bed, sighing and panting from his tantrum.

"Amazing...I've always been confident of what I wanted to do and how to get there...but learning that I just wasted so many years of my life working for something I already was...for the first time, I'm at an utter loss. What should I do from here...?"

Then, his eyes widened. Why? Because like every Main Character, they get a 'Eureka!' brainwave just when they say "What should I do from here...?"

"So, the Cult of Diablos is real, huh?" Cid's eyes narrowed sharply, and even though he wasn't aware of it, his eyes had turned blood-red from his near-limitless pool of magic power flaring up from barely suppressed rage.

It was the Cult who had kidnapped Claire, his sister. It was the Cult who had experimented on his girls: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Nu...and they had tried to do the same to Alexia. They had tried to harm Sherry and Rose. They were the ones who left Aurora with nothing but loneliness and a scornful reputation throughout the ages.

Cid's face twisted into a grin that he reserved only in his Shadow persona for the likes of the bastards he was most enraged with; like the knights who tortured him. Lutheran Barnett. And Perv Asshat. All this time, Cid had been living out his fantasies, being blissfully unaware of everything that was going on. Blissfully thinking that everything was fake. Except, now that it was all real...

"Looks like I won't be holding back any longer." Cid's uniform was soon covered by a swirling mass of jet-black slime that materialized into his trademark black robes.

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The first thing that Cid did was to visit the library. He seriously needed to brush up on his ancient language reading and writing skills. Fortunately, Cid was smart enough when he was passionate and committed enough, and if learning ancient language was going to help him solidify his role as the Power in the Shadows, why not?!

The next thing he did involved entering Shadow Garden's HQ...wait...WHERE WAS THE HQ?!

Ahem...never mind. Cid managed to bump into Nu and ask her about HQ's whereabouts. Under the guise of a question.

"Let me ask you a question, Nu."

"Y-y-yes, Shadow-sama!"

"..."