Only silence responded to his words.
The shade was in pretty bad shape, thoroughly roughed up by the spikes and the chains, and it didn't react in any way to Gil's words—whether it simply hadn't heard him or was choosing to ignore him remained unknown.
Seemingly having expected this, Gil's expression didn't change. He simply continued to observe his prisoner coldly.
When after a while it became clear that the other party wasn't going to cooperate, far from being angry,
Gil surprisingly smiled. It was the cold smile of a predator catching a glimpse of its foe's weakness.
"So, you indeed can understand me... Good."
he said, as if talking to himself.
An almost imperceptible shudder ran through the shade, but it continued to lie still in its bindings.
H-how? No, he must be bluffing.
It thought trying to convince itself because It suddenly realized that dying might no longer be the worst possible outcome.
Gil didn't mind and continued his monologue.
"Hmm. You are indeed different from the other shadows."
He proceeded to walk around the shade, examining it with much greater scrutiny. It was the first time he could truly take his time to study these strange entities. Gil hadn't destroyed the other shades just for fun; his sharp eyes quickly picked up on a few peculiarities regarding this specific one.
This particular shade was dark red, and it was tall—much taller than Gil. Were it not for the heavy chains forcing it down, its height would have been towering. Furthermore, despite its lack of facial features, its form was far more defined than those of its peers.
If the other shades were like clumsily molded dolls of clay, looking only vaguely human and often twisted into deformed shapes, the one in front of him was different.
Though it still looked as if it were sculpted from the same substance, its clay had definitely been shaped with far more care. Free of anomalies and deformities, aside from its lack of features, it could almost pass for an actual human being.
A grim look flickered through Gil's eyes.
Having seen enough, he stepped back in front of the shade and began his interrogation.
"What are you?" he asked first.
"..."
Undeterred, Gil asked once more,
"Hum... Then who were you?"
The shade remained unmoving.
Inside, its thoughts grew increasingly agitated, but it refused to let it show.
But Gil nodded, as if it had answered anyway. "So, you don't know either. I see." He sounded a bit disappointed as he said it.
A visible shudder ran through the shade once more before it caught itself, panicked.
What happened to this kid? This isn't the boy from the arena anymore.
It had observed Gil back in the arena, and the shift in his demeanor before and after his awakening was far too glaring.
The shade discreetly scrutinized the young man, but Gil paid its gaze no mind.
He asked again, this time with a sharp edge in his tone. "Alright. Next: why did you attack me?"
By now, the shade understood that its captor could somehow pry answers from it without its consent, so it restrained its thoughts further, trying desperately not to let anything slip through.
A heavy silence settled between the two, neither moving a fraction.
Just as the shade began to think its countermeasures were working, its captor spoke again.
"Greed? Something on—no, something inside of me attracted you 'people' there, didn't it? Hum. That actually explains a lot."
Gil broke the silence, speaking tentatively at first before growing entirely sure of his guess by the end of his sentence.
He threw a glance toward his Aegis from the corner of his eye, a wave of profound relief flooding through him.
Thankfully, the shield had been there.
Otherwise... whatever those things had wanted from him, they might already have taken it.
After the relief, a surge of anger followed, and he had to forcefully rein in the violent impulses racing through his mind... for now.
For now, he needed answers, and he would get them even if he had to tear them out of this shadow.
With a voice and gaze colder than ever, he unleashed a barrage of questions.
How long had the shade existed?
Where were they?
How did it end up there?
What did it know about the cloaked ones?
What were those people capable of?
The jailer?
The man controlling the red threads?
Hector?
What were their weaknesses?
What came after the test?
Every single question that flashed through his mind, he threw at the prisoner.
Elaïdja had once told him: "Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be invincible throughout a hundred battles."
Those were among the few serious words his usually frivolous friend had ever uttered, so Gil had always kept them close to his heart.
Leaving aside any grand fantasies of invincibility, and though he apparently knew very little about his own current state, he could at least learn about his enemies.
Any piece of information on them could potentially become the key to turning the tables on them.
And so, Gil exploited the fact that he finally had a direct source.
By reading the shade's underlying emotions and applying no small amount of guesswork, he managed to piece together some answers.
Unfortunately, the shade's knowledge was rather limited, and despite being deeply shocked and terrified of Gil's methods, it stubbornly refused to speak outright.
After a long while, Gil grew tired and impatient with the shadow's resistance and decided to bring an end to this.
Seemingly sensing that its demise was near, the shade trembled briefly before composing itself.
Straightening its back, it fixated on Gil without a word.
Seeing the creature carry itself with such dignity at the end, Gil felt a small, begrudging spark of respect for it.
As he was about to clench his fist to end its existence quickly, he suddenly stopped.
The shade, having braced itself to face its doom, would have blinked in confusion if it could, wondering why the execution had paused.
Gil's face grew incredibly stern all of a sudden.
When he spoke, his voice carried an immense weight.
"One last question... What exactly is hiding in the bloody sea of the arena?"
Hearing the beginning of the sentence, the shade had intended to ignore him completely, but upon hearing the latter part, it was as if it had been struck by lightning.
Despite itself, it couldn't help but respond out loud for the very first time.
"Y-you... H-how?"
Its voice was exactly what one would expect from such a strange existence—it did not originate from a mouth, but rather echoed directly inside Gil's head.
Like a thought turned into sound, the voice was masculine, remarkably smooth, and not nearly as unpleasant as one might have feared.
Instead, it was rather refined, the kind of voice one would easily associate with a young gentleman rather than... whatever this shade had become.
Hearing the voice for the first time, Gil was justly surprised.
So I was right, it indeed can communicate!
But he quickly raised an eyebrow at the unexpectedly violent reaction.
Why is it only reacting now? Was it the mention of the bloody sea, or the thing in its depths which I felt looking at me?
Just thinking of the presence he had felt made him profoundly uneasy.
Nevertheless, the fact that the other party was finally talking lifted his sour mood. Maintaining his cold expression, he continued to fish for more information.
"Why so surprised, shadow? Just because the others couldn't see it doesn't mean I can't."
The shade hesitated for a moment before finally speaking once more in a tentative tone.
"What... What exactly did you see?"
Having finally cracked the shell, Gil answered candidly, "I can see many things. Whether it's the sea of blood, the phantom limbs floating on its surface, your kind emerging from it, or... the thing resting deep within its depths. Do I really need to continue?"
Gil ended his sentence with a meaningful, sharp smile.
All along, he had been closely monitoring the emotions seeping from the shadow, and he was now sure of one thing.
So I guessed right.
Strange... I didn't even have to focus anymore.
He no longer had to actively search for them.
The emotions simply reached him on their own, as naturally as hearing someone's voice.
He wondered briefly about this new development before refocusing on his prisoner.
He had watched as absolute shock mounted within the creature while he described the arena's hidden horrors.
Then, at the explicit mention of the entity deep inside the blood sea, the shade completely lost its composure, reacting with sheer violence.
"Stop! Don't! Don't... You will bring it here!"
Agitated, the shade looked around nervously, its entire demeanor dripping with absolute, overwhelming terror.
Such a violent reaction instantly put Gil on high guard.
In his sudden state of alertness,
Gil frowned.
The golden light composing his body...
...was fading.