What’s going to happen to me?
Her throat went dry, rendering her voice a rasp not worth the effort. She let her eyelids droop as exhaustion overwhelmed her.
Suddenly, everything shook—the ground, the walls, the entire mine shaft.
“E-earthquake?!”
Leah pressed her back against the loose, earthen wall and waited for it to stop, but it only intensified. The ground beneath her feet began to shift, then crumbled away completely. Leah screamed as rocks tumbled down. Just when they struck the place where her head had been, however, the earth took her.
The second time she awoke, gravel and stone crushed her lower body. Somehow managing to crawl her way out, she examined her new surroundings. She was in some kind of cavern—the natural kind, hollowed out by the forces of nature. Hard stone walls radiated a mysterious, pale light, the only light that allowed Leah to make out the chamber at all. From end to end, the space was about the size of a small apartment. She must have fallen through a crack somewhere.
What’s…an apartment? Leah had made the comparison, and yet she did not know. Curious. Regardless, without an exit, her situation had not improved. Am I going to die here? Wait. What is that?
Examining the cavern one last time out of desperation, she spotted an odd, spherical object in the center. Upon closer inspection, she found an orb embedded in the ground.
It’s about the size of a basketball, she thought. Wait, what’s a basketball? And why did she continue to confuse herself so?
Some kind of device, now weathered beyond repair, fixed the orb in place. Leah tried to pick the orb up. “Oh. It came right out.” For its weight, the metallic sphere popped out surprisingly easily. She turned it over in her hands, studying it. “Is it a container? Maybe there’s a keyhole or something somewhere. A power button?” Another unfamiliar word. “‘Power button?’”
Suddenly, the ground shook again. Leah crouched and threw her arms over her head, praying she might be spared a second fall.
The orb, meanwhile, crashed against the rocky floor with an unpleasant crunch, then rolled out of sight. Fractures webbed the cavern’s walls. Rocks thundered as an avalanche crushed the orb beneath a flood of earth and stone. Leah stared at the debris covering the place where the orb should have been.
Shortly, a dark haze began to ooze from the crevices and cracks of the craggy rubble. The ooze thickened to a stream, and then a torrent of gas, coalescing into a physical form.
A form Leah recognized.
“A black wolf?”
Memories flashed before her eyes, playing out the story of a girl with silver hair and eyes like lapis lazuli who battled fate, struggled against tragedy, and emerged victorious. It was a beautiful story of triumph. It was the story of the Saint and her companions, the people she loved, and the ways in which they supported each other. A story about a girl who did not want for people who loved her. A girl whom Shirase Reia admired very much.
“Cecilia,” she muttered, “Leginbarth.”
Leah fell to her knees. The dark wolf stirred her memories, flooding her with information in a violent rush. For every tidbit she picked out of the barrage, ten others ricocheted off her overwhelmed mind. Between that and the crippling reality of her situation, she couldn’t possibly hope to decipher the deluge.
In the end, all Leah could cling to was Cecilia and her story. Though her mannerisms had become closer to the girl called Shirase Reia, that girl was still a stranger to Leah.
“Oh? You possess a fine vessel, mortal.”
Leah snapped her head up as a strange voice echoed through the cavern. The wolf was speaking to her, but she knew of only one wolf who could do that.
“The Dark One… Vanargand?”
“‘Dark One’? Vanargand? The Dark One?!” The great beast guffawed. “Oh, you amuse me, mortal! How trite! How theatrical a thing to call Sangreal!” The wolf’s laughter boomed, seemingly without end. “The mortal can jest!”
Leah could only watch in shocked silence until the beast calmed itself.
When it did, it fixed her with a grim gaze. “I like you, mortal. Would you care to make a deal?”
“A deal?”
“A deal. Become my vessel. Yours is empty and remarkably large for a human. You would take to my eminence quite well, I should think. Bend but not break.”
“Become…your vessel.”
“Indeed. In exchange, I will grant you anything your heart desires. A simple matter for one such as me.”
“Anything my heart desires. What does it desire?”
“That, mortal, can be answered. Worry not your feeble mind.”
Leah flinched as the wolf dematerialized into a fog that enveloped her. It slithered into her body through every orifice, and she began to scream.
“Fear not. Surrender yourself. Bare your very soul. Confess all your heart craves to me, the eighth vessel of the Sangreal Project—nay, to Tindalos, the Dark One!”
As her body soaked up the last of the haze, Leah shrieked. Tindalos squirmed into her depths, following the river of her memories, until it found her one, heartfelt desire.
To be Cecilia Leginbarth.
That desire far surpassed the bounds of Leah’s life. In truth, it was Shirase Reia’s wish. But now, with her life and Leah’s blending together, it shone more vividly than ever.
The self-proclaimed Dark One let loose another cavern-rumbling cackle. “Yes, I see. I can grant this wish. You may consider it fulfilled while you sleep.”
Leah’s mind fell away, sinking into a mire of darkness. Just before Tindalos took over entirely, a single thought flitted through her mind. I wish I got to see Shuuichi-san again.
Tindalos was deaf to this particular wish, as the Dark One’s corruption silenced it.
Dark mana coated Leah’s body, healing her wounds, turning her plain brown hair silver and her chestnut eyes bluer than the ocean.
“Now then, let’s see about fulfilling that request of yours. Cecilia Leginbarth aims to please.”
Some time after resurfacing, Leah—now Tindalos the Dark One—happened upon a wandering knight by the name of Sable Pufontis.