The moment I stepped into Benny’s workshop. Darkness filled my vision and rushed towards me.
Kwaaah-!
It was the shadow’s hug to me!
The effect was amazing!
“Kyahhh!”
Save Jonah!
A mysterious touch, neither soft nor squishy, nor prickly, wrapped around my entire body.
Instinctively, I flailed wildly, and the shadow, momentarily startled, began to adjust the pressure wrapping around me.
It wasn’t particularly painful before, but I felt much more comfortable now.
As I swayed back and forth, I came to my senses and realized I was trapped in a large cylinder.“Eh.”
Outside, the shadow monster stared at me, eyes gleaming (?), and Benny, bewildered and stuttering.
Caught in the cage and turned into a spectacle, I hesitated for a moment before shouting.
“You wicked witch, Benny! What are you trying to do to me?!”
“Ah, no! It wasn’t me! It was just something he did on his own?!”
“Don’t lie! I know everything! You want to trap me here and perform all sorts of experiments you can’t tell others about, right?! You didn’t want me to try to help you with experiments, you were trying to experiment on me!”
“I said no! What would I even experiment on you for?!”
Benny, flustered, quickly manipulated something. The shadow monster still stood behind, observing me like a treasure.
“What kind of experiment… Are you trying to make me say it myself!? Showing me strange videos to brainwash me, invading me with some newly developed aphrodisiac, or pouring slime that dissolves only clothes to make me naked! It’s obviously something too obscene to even say out loud!”
“I never even thought of such things?! Aren’t you the one who’s always thinking the dirtiest thoughts here?!”
“What? Are you saying my mouth says no but my body is lewd? That I’m a child but capable of making children?”
“Who are you trying to get arrested with such talk?!”
Benny shrieked and pressed the large button nervously. The cylindrical door opened with a low signal sound.
But instead of leaving right away, I looked around cautiously.
“…What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it possible that I’ll be attacked again as soon as I step out?”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen… Just wait a moment.”
Benny muttered something and lightly snapped her fingers.
Swoosh!
At the same time, silver chains sprang from the floor and wrapped around the shadow monster, which was still blinking its eyes.
-Grrr…
It cried sorrowfully but did not resist strongly. It seemed like it had just realized what it did wrong.
“Benny. What was that just now?”
“I’m not entirely sure… That’s originally where the shadow lives in the workshop.”
“Not inside Benny’s shadow?”
“The only place that it can follow me from when we’re outside is inside my shadow, so it’s just hiding in there. The most comfortable place is here.”
Benny pointed to the cylindrical container I had been in until now. I didn’t notice it inside, but various magic circles were drawn on its surface from the outside.
“This. It’s specially made. Originally, the shadow monster could only live in such special places.”
“…What exactly is this thing? No, is it correct to call it a shadow monster? It looks like something completely different to me.”
At those words, Benny gave a wry smile and nodded.
“To get your cooperation, Jonah, I should explain that part too. Remember I said before that these monsters weren’t like this from the beginning?”
“Yes. You said they were all your friends originally?”
“Well, some were less close, but we all knew each other. …So let me reintroduce them. We’ve been calling it a shadow monster, but it’s neither a shadow nor a monster.”
With a soft stroke along the side of the creature, wrapped in chains, its eyes cast down in gloom, tentacles limp and sharp teeth hidden, Benny continued.
“It’s a chimera.”
And then, sorrowfully blinked with eyes marked with heart patterns.
“I’m the same as well.”
As always, most of the problems in the Labyrinth city are caused by The One Who Devours the Twilight.
The incident that occurred to young Benny was also like that.
The orphanage where she lived was entirely kidnapped.
Adults were killed, and only children were locked up in some labyrinth. There, heretics were conducting forbidden experiments considered taboo.
By artificially adjusting madness and transplanting it into the human body, can one become stronger while maintaining reason?
The theory is simple.
All monsters are the result of ordinary flora and fauna failing to resist the final curse bestowed by the God of Madness.
If one could absorb a manageable level of madness, one could maintain reason and gain a permanent enhancement buff without any cost.
This means that we could take the powers of the God of Madness for ourselves and offer them to the Goddess.
Based on this idea, something even a child might conceive, The One Who Devours the Twilight began to carry out all sorts of insane experiments.
Transplanting Magic Stones into human hearts, replacing parts of the human body with those of monsters, crossbreeding humans and monsters, and so on.
Most were reckless human experiments conducted without proper theories, and naturally, most subjects died in horrific agony.
The child with a Magic Stone implanted in their heart couldn’t maintain their body’s form and melted down.
The child who received monster limbs died with their entire body grotesquely deformed except for those limbs.
In the case of crossbreeding, the monster used as the seedbed remained fine, but the boys who became the seeds couldn’t endure the madness and self-loathing transmitted through intense physical contact and resorted to self-harm.
However, there was one experiment that turned out relatively well.
That was Benny, who had a succubus’s magic eye transplanted.
The first successful case of acquiring the ability to maintain youth and magical aptitude, although unable to use the succubus’s inherent charm.
Benny was trapped in an undeveloped young body that day, and had to watch one by one as her friends died.
“But that’s not the end. They even began to desecrate the corpses.”
They mixed the melted corpses together. Until the multicolored mucus turned black.
They took intact monster fragments from the twisted corpses and buried them in the mucus. Bloodshot eyes, sharp teeth, tentacles, acidic bodily fluids, and so on.
They poured the energy and vitality extracted from the maddened children into the grotesque mixture.
So that what originally had no life could move as if it did.
Thus what was born was this shadow monster…no, the nameless chimera.
“They fused this newborn creature with my soul as a final step. I have no idea how they did it. I know they used some divine relic, but I can’t fathom which god’s power it contains. The only thing that’s certain is….”
Benny carefully stroked the shadow monster after pausing to choose her words. The creature growled as if displeased but eventually accepted the touch.
“This creature and I became one, and we gained strength. At least, enough strength to escape that damned place.”
The moment Benny and the shadow connected, they could understand each other’s thoughts.
Hatred toward The One Who Devours the Twilight. A vengeance that must be fulfilled even if it means immolating oneself. …And a madness so intense it made one’s mind reel.
“I gave in to the madness and went on a rampage. And when I came to my senses, the cage that held us was broken… I could taste blood in my mouth. Ah, and my teeth ended up like this.”
Benny opened her mouth wide, revealing sharp teeth like those of a shark. They looked exactly like the shadow monster’s.
Swoosh.
Only then did Benny release the chains that bound the shadow. Naturally, the creature blended into her shadow, peeking out with just its eyes to observe this side.
Benny looked down at her feet with a sorrowful smile.
“As a result, this creature hates everything fundamentally. It wants to return the pain it received. …But you are an exception.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I don’t know the exact reason either. But, Jonah, it’s showing you a lot of kindness, isn’t it? Just now, it put you in the tank because it’s the place it feels most comfortable, and it yielded to you.”
“That…is quite considerate, indeed.”
As I stared at the shadow with a peculiar look, Benny continued in a slightly stiff voice.
“I think I can guess the reason. …You’re similar to us, aren’t you?”
“Yes?”
Benny looked at me with eyes full of empathy. As I tilted my head in confusion under that gaze, she hugged the shadow.
“In the Fairy and Silver Coin, I said I am researching how to stop the erosion or how to separate it from me, right?”
She said that and let out a deep sigh. As if it were the last breath of her life.
“I’ll tell you more precisely. I want this child to have their peace which was taken from them, returned. And I want to reclaim the future that was taken from me.”
“…Do you think I can do that?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll make it happen.”
Benny’s heart-patterned eyes sparkled purple.
“Because magic is a miracle.”
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