The Eminence of Not-Shadow

Chapter 11 - The Heist in Alexandria (Part II)

[Alpha POV]

It has been a few months since the Water Heist performed in Midgar, where we failed to stop Not-Shadow and his helpers from taking all the water. Or at least, we assumed it was their goal.

In reality, we never assumed it was their true goal in actually taking all the water, but the slow influx of reports regarding their activities finally revealed some sort of trail we could follow.

Using a board nearby in my office in Alexandria, I pinned the following reports were the most important heists that we doubted the most:

The Water Heist, which was the first sighting of the return of John Smith, was never about the water on the surface. In fact, unknown to any of us, even to the upper government officials or historians in the city, that some orb existed within the depths of the water. I suspect that the Cult of Diablos may have had their hand in this, given that recent documents retrieved from one of their hideouts revealed that some orb was placed into the Midgar water supply weeks before the heist. They failed to retrieve it as written on a later report due to the actions of 'Shadow Garden'.

"..."

I look to the second report, where another heist attacked one of our bank vaults that was ran by Mitsugoshi, our public company in Midgar. This was where a sighting of a 'mechanical dragon from the future' was reported by both citizens of Midgar and our Numbers. Shadow took care of the issue, but he was unable to retrieve the vault as Not-Shadow ran away from the scene with it. According to our inventory, it was the only bank that had contained the least amount of gold within the vault but also contained some unique artifacts that we retrieved from the hideouts of the Cult days before the heist. And within our inventory, there was one odd item that was similar to the item in the previous report.

"A red orb."

The orb we obtained appeared to be completely made of Ruby, as there was no evidence of oddities such as mana within the orb. Furthermore, the artifacts within the hideout where it was obtained from were all fire related. A stick that shoots fire, a sword that shoots fire, and clothing that shoots fire...

"..."

These two orbs must be important to them, but at least it appears that they should be part of the Cult.

"And yet..."

The first initial report, which Lambda reported of the initial sightings of both 'Arthur' and 'Mordred', claimed that they had no connections at all to the Cult. That was what 'Arthur' claimed, or Not-Shadow. Mordred, however, initially appears to side with the Cult from recent reports. The previous Mordred in the Cult, who was part of the Knights of Rounds, was defeated by Epsilon and Beta. Before his eventual demise, he was advent towards the revival of Diablos to even consume a piece of flesh of the monster from another world to live. That much is true. But this Mordred kept his name for some reason. It could be a title, but it also seems like even the Rounds themselves don't trust this Mordred to an extent. And yet they accepted him to be part of the Knight of Rounds.

"..."

The Mordred I met appeared clearly aligned with Not-Shadow, of which he made no other action to support the Cult at all. And those reports of him siding of the Cult could also be called into credibility. That is because the only known reports of his other appearances were with Iris and Alexis, people within the Midgar Kingdom. Any other report does not exist, which could be explained by the burning or removal of said documentation.

"And he gave them two weapons."

I pin the weapons separately to their respective heist.

The orbs collected by them was used to either create or fuel these weapons. From careful observation by the Numbers, the water orb is suspected to be a factor in the creation or fueling of the broadsword, which surrounded the user in a light blue aura. It is reported that the broadsword can attack normally like any normal sword or unleash a water attack from a distance. The other weapon, which was probably made or fueled by the fire orb, was a claymore that heavily surrounded the user with flames. To describe in it a few words: