Lumina froze.
Her eyes trembled as they fixed on the black knight.
Her lips parted, and only one word came out.
"...Shin?"
The black knight didn’t react. He simply stared at her.
Devoid of emotion, his lifeless red pupils dug deep into Lumina’s chest.
She felt... disturbed.
The way the knight moved. The way his sword cut the air. And they were a perfect replica of Lumina’s own.
And knowing who had taught her that sword art in the first place, it wasn’t difficult to guess the man behind the black armored mask.
He’d gone missing months ago.
No one knew where he had vanished.
Now Lumina and the other two finally knew what Shin had become.
"I see..." Alice muttered after hearing Leon’s explanation.
—GRRRRRR.
The black knight let out a guttural growl behind his mask.
And by the sound of it, he seemed like a battle-hungry berserker.
’Did someone brainwash him?’ Leon thought, eyes narrowing at Shin’s condition.
Lumina’s body twitched despite the calm mask on her face.
Her hands trembled against the hilt of her blade, and her lips quivered, betraying the denial she was trying to suppress.
"Why... why are you doing this, Shin?" her voice cracked, despite her forced façade.
She didn’t understand.
"Where have you been? Why didn’t you reach out to me?"
He did not answer.
Her heart pounded painfully.
She finally got to see him... but even so... she didn’t want it to be like this.
If reunion was meant to taste like this... then perhaps their fate had never been a bond at all, but a cruel jest played by the heavens.
"Should she be getting this close to him?" Alice muttered to Leon.
Examining the situation, Leon analyzed quietly.
"I don’t know if she notices or not, but there’s a highly concentrated dark affinity coming from him."
"How can you tell?" Alice asked, narrowing her gaze at him.
"I just can."
After hearing him say this, Alice looked at the black knight, who was now circling Lumina with side steps.
Lumina didn’t move, standing at the center, hands on her blade, and eyes glued to the knight’s mask.
Leon deduced that the dark mana could be coming from either the sword he was wielding or the armor he was wearing. Either way, he was not certain about its actual origin.
This was the era when the Demon God walked, and seeing dark mana-laced weapons and artifacts was nevertheless common.
Demons of higher rank, who served directly under the Demon God, would receive dark affinity-laced weapons and artifacts, showing their loyalty.
The Black Knight possessing one could indicate that he served the Demon God.
Yet Leon couldn’t put his finger on one important thing...
"How is Shin here?" he whispered.
Just as he thought the statement, the black knight’s head twisted.
CRACK!
His neck made a cracking sound as it turned to look at Leon.
His unnatural red glowing eyes stared at him as if he were a prey standing in front of a predator.
That was exactly how Leon felt right now.
But he didn’t let it show on his face.
He narrowed his gaze, staring back with the same predator look.
The black knight took the mocking, and as it did, Leon blinked. When he opened his eyes, he saw the black knight standing just a nose’s distance away from him.
"..?! "
Alice stumbled back.
Lumina turned her gaze toward them.
She snapped her head in their direction, holding her blade, ready to jump at any moment.
Everyone thought the black knight would attack Leon immediately.
But something unnatural, unimaginable happened.
The black knight stood in front of Leon, motionless. His red eyes, once glowing with malice, dulled to a natural human hue, as if the world itself had slowed around him.
Not a single muscle moved except for his trembling hand. Slowly, almost painfully, he raised it toward Leon. He was unarmed, shaking as if every joint in his body resisted the motion.
His finger, stiff and rigid, pointed directly at Leon.
A guttural, stuttering sound came from deep within the knight’s mask.
"It... your... turn now..."
The words were slow, almost a whisper, but Leon and Alice both heard them clearly.
"What do you mean by—"
Leon stared back, confused, but before he could finish, the black knight’s entire body convulsed violently.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!"
The dark knight clutched his head, screaming in pain. The sound was jagged, shaking the air around them.
He raised his hands and started punching his own skull. Each strike echoed with a sickening stump, stump, stump, through the snowy cliff.
The shock froze everyone in place, especially Lumina.
"Shin!" she shouted, rushing toward him.
But the moment she moved, his body stopped shaking.
The knight froze as if nothing had happened, and his posture snapped back into perfect control. The red glow of his eyes returned.
He reached for his sword and swung in a sharp, clean arc aimed straight at Leon.
CLANK!!
Lumina’s Moonblade intercepted the strike. Sparks flew, reflecting in Leon’s eyes as he took a cautious step back.
"What are you doing? Have you gone insane?!" Lumina yelled, her voice tight with fear and anger.
—KREEEEEEE—!!
The knight let out an inhuman scream.
Alice, frozen in place, whispered under her breath, "This... this isn’t human anymore. It can’t be..."
"A demon," Leon finished her words.
"No!" Lumina rejected the theory.
A human could become a demon, but there was only one way to do it. To form a contract with a demon and let it possess your body. It was a process every demon-possessed person underwent, which made them easier to hide among humans, even into the modern era, from where Leon and Alice were.
"What have you done?!"
Lumina screamed at the top of her lungs.
Her eyes became watery with realization.
The Honorary Knight, whom everyone had looked up to, who had fought countless demons, who had protected countless humans from bloodthirsty fiends, had now become a demon himself.
Leon also struggled to make sense of the scene.
"So much of the story has changed, to the point where it has become a mess," he muttered to himself as a warning.
[A/N]: If the story is going way too slow paced, then do inform me, I will improve my pacing. Also this Library arc will last for few more Chapters.