Shadow's Confidence

As Syren lifted his hand up thinking that his shadow blade was there, he was surprised that it was gone. He chanted it once more, as the other creatures stood their ground. When he finished, nothing would come out. He didn't understand why it wasn't working, but then he noticed that the spell had one requirement. A requirement that he thought was easy. To cast a shadow. But the whole room was shot up in light in all directions that nothing casted a shadow.

As the black samurai looked down on Syren and his confusion, he spoke in a serious demeanor. "These many-eyed creatures have given me some good information about you. They are intelligent, albeit they are limited like primitive apes. It didn't take long for me to decipher their language and not long for me to teach them to understand the only one that mattered," he said.

He began to flaunt his position as Tyra still kept her blade up at all times. The two of them were thinking of a way out of this as the samurai talked, but neither of them knew what to do.

"It wasn't too difficult to set this up," the samurai said standing tall and proud of his achievement, "As I said, my pawns are quite helpful in telling me what you know. You rely heavily on your black tome. So, I made sure to snatch that away. The only spells that you can remember are shadow-based. Easy to summon and easy to use with little requirements. However, all I did was take away that weapon. These mages used to be just a bunch of hired parlor tricks. I made them create a little room for you. Your choker might have caused some problems, but alas it's been taken away as well. I would make a better demon of envy than the actual one. As for the demon that follows you, I made sure to turn this place into a prison all with a little help from mages and runecraft." When he mentioned the demon following him, Syren looked around for Whisper and saw no sign of him. The samurai continued, "Of course, none of them could have done this alone without my plan - the only plan that matters."

The dark samurai expected Syren to completely give up at this point. In such a small amount of time, he trapped him with no way of escape. He could fight with his bare hands, but that would be it. He didn't even care that Tyra was there. He didn't even look at her as anything but a tiny ant. But Syren was different. He was very different.

Syren laughed at his unfortunate position. Tyra worried that he must have lost hope. "Snap out of it, Syren. We can still fight."

"Of course, we can," Syren said. He covered one eye with one palm. The black samurai and Tyra wondered what he was thinking.

Syren began to chant.

"Call upon thee

Grant darkness unto me."

The black samurai said in a disappointed tone, "That spell won't work. It seems that my brilliance has turned you mad. Such a shame. I was hoping for a challenge to prove myself as the greatest being in this universe."

Syren continued chanting.

"A sun reveals hollow

with black to follow."

The black samurai was about to just give the order for his monsters to kill them. He didn't feel it necessary to waste his own time in defeating such disappointing enemies albeit he did expect them fully to lose.

"The shadow thirsts for naught

But a blade to wither and rot."

Just before the samurai was about to give that order, he saw resolve in Syren's eyes. He truly believed that he could cast the spell. Syren's eye was still covered up with the palm of one hand.

"Follow me, my shadow of wrought."

A shadow emerged from between the palm of his hand and his eye. It slithered over to his arms as the black samurai and Tyra watched in utter shock. Behind the samurai's mask, he smiled with glee. Syren made sure his eye was still covered by his hand as he now carried a shadow blade - albeit smaller. It was more like a shadow dagger. He readied himself to fight with just one hand if needed.

Tyra and Syren smiled as the two of them were side-by-side ready to face down all of these creatures. And the samurai watched from above clapping.

"Impressive. You are a creative, little human, aren't you? I usually don't like feeling wrong, but feeling wrong about you isn't all that bad," the samurai congratulated. But his red eyes were still looking down at them. He expected that Syren would at least try to claw his way out of this situation, but he didn't expect that he would manage to conjure a weapon. If this was anybody else that outsmarted him, he would have taken great offense, but since Syren and himself were connected, it only strengthened his pride.

"I suppose I should tell you who or what I am. Be honored that I would greet you with my name," the samurai said as he maintained his tall stature, "I am the incarnate and demon of pride. I am pride itself. My name is Superbia."