Episode 8

Dark Knight Academy Under Attack (狙われた魔剣士学園) is the eighth episode of the The Eminence in Shadow anime adaptation.

Synopsis
Cid sacrificed his life to save Rose. At least, that’s what everyone thinks. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Cid survived exactly as planned, and now his counterattack can begin.

Summary
As terrorists attack the academy, Cid gets excited, but seeing that they are about to kill Rose, he jumps in stating to himself that as a background character, its his role to be first killed by them. Rose wonders why he gave his life away to save her, but then guesses he loved her, which explains why he was motivated to keep standing when he fought her and why he gave his life. The terrorists then move all the students to the auditorium.

Cid starts hitting his heart and as it starts beating again, he wakes up. He reveals its was his secret technique where he stops his heart for ten minutes, but maintains regular bloodflow to his brain. His magic is still obstructed, but he can use it if he narrows its to threads.

Rex enters Sherry's room. He states he is from Shadow Garden, but then wonders if it was Shadow Guardian. He explains his job is to retrieve the artifact and once he is done, he is allowed to wreak as much havoc as he wants. Rex then sees the artifact in Sherry's hands, but as he attacks her, Glen stops him. Rex is impressed he managed to do it without magic, and Rex explains its easy when his opponent is weaker. While Glen and Marco keep the terrorists busy, they let Sherry run away.

Cid observes the movement of the terrorists and is quite excited about the whole situation. He is annoyed they were all black as they aren't doing it properly. He decides to show up at night and snipes quite a few of them, so that he makes his grand appearances easier. He notices a girl running and almost begging to be captured, and realizes she is Sherry. While she moves around, Cid ends up taking out several terrorists, saving her from being captured or detected. Sherry ends up tripping on the stairs and falls, but Cid captures her. He has several things to tell her, but first asks her to remove her noisy slippers. Before reaching her father's room, Cid ends up taking out a few more terrorists. Sherry finds the book she was looking for and explains that the artifact Eye of Avarice is the one that blocks their magic. The artifact absorbs and stores the magic from any user, but it can be programmed to ignore some magical frequencies. Sherry guesses it can absorb magical traces that are too small to detect or powerful spells that exceed its capacity, however there isn't a human capable of doing the second. Once the artifact had absorbed all it could absorb, it will release all the stored energy at once. Since all the students are in the auditorium, Sherry guesses that the artifact is somewhere nearby and if it releases all the energy it will blow up and kill all in the auditorium. Because of that, Sherry states her father didn't publish his findings and gave the artifact to the government for safekeeping. Sherry also explains that the artifact she was researching is used to control the Eye of Avarice and store the energy for a long-term. Sherry plans on using the basements and reach the auditorium. Once she is close to the Eye of Avarice, she will activate this artifact and stop the Eye of Avarice from exploding. However, she left all her tools needed to fine-tune this artifact in her room. Cid then states he will get them for her and leaves her.

Rex reports to the Cult knight that some of their men had been taken out by someone skilled and guesses that Shadow Garden is here. As Rex still haven't obtained the artifact, the cult knight threatens him to go and find it or he will kill him. The cult knight notes that once his ambitions are realized, he will be reinstated in the Knights of Rounds.

Rex is walking with four men, but in an instant he ends up loosing them. As Cid then hits him before Rex manages to react. Thinking Cid is fast due to an artifact, Rex creates a net around himself, stating that no matter how fast Cid is, the moment he gets caught in his net, he will know. He then turns around and sees that Cid is already inside his net. Cid proceeds attacking Rex and eventually takes him in a classroom with each seat taken by a dead terrorist. As Cid attacks Rex again, he notes that Rex is awesome. Meanwhile, Nu finds the dead body of Glen and Marco, who is still alive but knocked out. A moment later, Cid arrives and starts looking for Sherry's tools. Nu explains that Marco was her betrothed. She then explains that Shadow Garden had infiltrated the academy and are awaiting orders. However, she explains that not being able to use magic is a risk and only the Seven Shadows can do it. Currently only Gamma is in the capital, but this type of mission isn't her forte. Even Nu herself can only use about half of her power right now. As she continues her report, Cid asks her to help him find some items. After obtaining all the tools, Cid explains he needed them to fine-tune an artifact and that Eye of Avarice is absorbing their magic. Once they find-tune the other atifact, they can neutralize the Eve of Avarice.

Cid then brings the tools to Sherry, who starts fine-tuning the artifact.