Ascendant of Shadows: The Monarch and The Eminence

The roar of the crowd was a physical force, a tidal wave of sound that washed over the ruined arena. It was a sound of relief, of awe, of pure, unadulterated hero-worship. The names "Cid Kagenou" and "Sung Jin-woo" were being chanted, screamed, and cheered with a fanaticism that bordered on religious.

In the center of this hurricane of adulation, Cid Kagenou maintained his look of wide-eyed, "what just happened?" bewilderment. Internally, however, he was taking a deep, theatrical bow to his adoring mental audience.

'Bravo! Bravo! A masterpiece of improvisation! The attack, the chaos, the accidental teamwork, the climactic final blow! It was a symphony of misunderstanding, and I was its flawless conductor! My legend as a mysterious, incredibly lucky mob has now ascended to a whole new level!'

Sung Jin-woo, on the other hand, felt a familiar and unwelcome throb in his temples. He had faced down armies of dragons, demons, and gods. He had stared into the void and made it blink. But this—this roaring, cheering, adoring crowd—this was a unique and terrible form of torture. He wanted to be a shadow, and they had just thrown him under the brightest spotlight in the entire kingdom.

The announcer, his voice trembling with emotion, finally found his words. "I... I don't believe it! Our two semi-finalists... our unlikely heroes... have single-handedly thwarted the Cult of Diablos! They have saved the Royal Family! They have saved us all!"

The semi-final match was forgotten. The tournament was forgotten. This single event had eclipsed everything.

Royal Guards and members of the Crimson Order flooded the arena, not as aggressors, but as a tide of respect. They secured the unconscious cultists and began tending to the wounded, but their eyes kept flicking towards the two boys in the center, filled with a mixture of awe and disbelief.

In the royal box, the King was on his feet, applauding thunderously. "Incredible! Absolutely incredible! Those boys are heroes of the realm! I must meet them!"

Alexia Midgar was speechless, her mind struggling to reconcile what she had just seen. The Jinx. The Lucky Mob. It was all a lie. A facade so deep and so convincing that it was more unbelievable than the truth. The passive one controlled the battlefield with an invisible hand, while the active one dismantled his foes with a whirlwind of chaotic precision. They weren't just strong. They were artists of a new, terrifying form of combat.

Iris Midgar's expression was cold, hard, and calculating. Her initial assessment had been correct, but the reality was far beyond her predictions. "Their coordination was flawless," she stated, her voice dangerously quiet. "Too flawless. There was no communication. No signals. They moved as one mind. One doesn't 'accidentally' deflect a Chaos Orb with a wooden sword, and one doesn't 'jinx' an entire squad of trained assassins into submission. We are not dealing with students. We are dealing with monsters wearing the faces of boys."

Her gaze was locked on Jin-woo. "That one... his power is not of this world. It is something other. Colder."

The aftermath was a chaotic blur. Cid and Jin-woo were whisked away by Royal Guards, not as prisoners, but as honored guests. They were brought before the King, who lavished them with praise and offered them titles, land, and a place of honor within the Crimson Order.

Cid, playing his part to perfection, stammered and stuttered his way through a refusal. "I... I'm just a simple student, Your Majesty! I'm not worthy! It was all luck, I swear!" His refusal only made him seem more humble and heroic in the King's eyes.

Jin-woo simply gave a short, polite, and completely non-committal response. "I am honored, Your Majesty, but my path lies elsewhere." His quiet, firm refusal was interpreted as the stoic modesty of a true warrior.

They had become famous. Overnight, they were the most talked-about people in the kingdom. Their faces were on the front page of the Midgar Times. Songs were already being composed about the "Dancing Duo of the Arena." Their lives as anonymous mob characters were definitively, catastrophically over.

That night, in the hidden underground base of Shadow Garden beneath the Mitsugoshi department store, an emergency meeting was in session.

Alpha stood before a large tactical map. "The operation was a success," she announced to the assembled Shades. "The Cult's attack was thwarted, and Lord Shadow's public persona has been elevated from 'suspiciously lucky' to 'unbelievably, heroically lucky,' which is a far more effective cover. The presence of the Monarch drew most of the analytical attention, just as planned."

"Yeah, but now everyone knows who they are!" Delta complained, pacing back and forth. "It'll be harder for the Boss to do cool, secret stuff if everyone is watching him!"

"That is the new challenge," Alpha conceded. "Fame is a prison. Our master and his new... associate... are now its most high-profile inmates. Our mission is to become their shadows, to misdirect the attention they draw, and to ensure their secrets remain safe."

Beta was scribbling furiously. "The public adulation is merely another layer of their disguise! The true Eminence in Shadow hides not in the darkness, but in the blinding light of fame! Oh, it's brilliant!"

In his spartan academy dorm room, Jin-woo felt the weight of a thousand new eyes upon him. His shadow spies, scattered across the capital, reported the whispers. They reported the attention from the royal family, especially the two princesses. They reported the renewed, frantic interest from the Cult of Diablos. They reported the hero-worship of the common folk.

His "cover" had become a beacon.

The door to his room opened without a knock. Cid Kagenou slipped in, a wide, triumphant grin on his face.

"Well, that was a spectacular success!" Cid declared, dropping his mob persona now that they were alone.

Jin-woo just gave him a deadpan stare. "A success? I am now the most famous person in a school I joined to be anonymous. Your sister-in-law, Iris, thinks I'm a demon from another dimension. Your other sister-in-law, Alexia, is trying to figure out how to dissect me without being obvious. How is any of this a 'success'?"

"But don't you see?" Cid said, his eyes gleaming with theatrical fire. "The misunderstanding has reached a new, glorious level! They don't suspect our true power, they just suspect that we're hiding something! They're looking for a secret room, but they don't realize we're standing in a hidden palace! It's the perfect misdirection!"

Jin-woo sighed, rubbing his temples. He was beginning to understand that Cid's definition of "success" was directly proportional to the level of complexity and misunderstanding involved.

"Alpha's plan worked," Jin-woo admitted grudgingly. "The attention is divided. But it has also intensified. This fame... it's a liability."

"Nonsense!" Cid declared, striking a pose by the window. "Fame is merely a brighter shadow to hide in. While the world watches the 'Hero of the Arena,' the true Eminence can move freely. While they watch you, the 'Silent King,' I can do the same. We are each other's alibi. Each other's shadow. It is a 'mutually assured distraction'."

Before Jin-woo could argue with that insane piece of logic, his senses flared. At the same time, his shadow-fly on Cid relayed the boy's own sudden tension.

Both of them looked out the window, their gaze piercing through the night, focusing on the distant northern forests—the site of the former Weaver nest.

A new, immense pulse of void energy, far greater than anything before, erupted from that location. It was not a slow drain. It was a violent, explosive surge.

The System's window appeared before Jin-woo, its text a stark, blood-red.

[WARNING: MAJOR DIMENSIONAL INCURSION DETECTED.]

[SIGNATURE ANALYSIS: 'GRAND WEAVER' CLASS ENTITY IS ATTEMPTING TO MANIFEST.]

[Threat Level Escalation: CATASTROPHIC]

Cid's playful smirk vanished, replaced by the cold, sharp focus of Shadow. He had named the "Grand Weavers" as a joke, a cool-sounding final boss. He never dreamed they were actually real.

Or perhaps... his words had somehow made them real.

"It seems," Jin-woo said, his voice dropping to the cold, resonant tone of the Monarch, "the enemy has grown tired of the opening acts."

"Indeed," Cid whispered, his own voice shifting into the deep, commanding cadence of Shadow. "The main performance is about to begin."

Their unwanted fame was already a forgotten problem. A real, world-ending threat had just taken center stage.