Chapter 81

I'm posting some chapters ahead of time on my discord server: https://discord.gg/r2VSvS5kaH

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The sky was painted black, and the ground was all red. The once beautiful and rich land of Epheotus melted into lava that moved around like a river. The world was set ablaze, and there was nothing else that could stop it. Hurricanes with immense amounts of magic swept across the lands, destroying every last vestige of civilization.

For a few minutes now, the blood was gushing out of Ashborn's chest. It soaked the soil and withered.

Ashborn lies motionless on the ground, his face impaled on the scorched ground and no breath coming from his mouth. His human heart was still beating. It was slow, not strong enough to support life... But it was there.

[With this, we are officially ready for the conquest.]

On the same ground, Antares was standing proudly while holding the black heart in his hands. The magical weapon was still burning strong, and despite its current status, it was harming the dragon monarch in some way.

There is so much magical energy in this thing. How did this bastard maintain it?] The other two monarchs stared at the Black Heart with their jaws dropped. The magical item was burning in Antares' hand, and knowing how durable the dragon monarch was, this feat is unimaginable.

Antares gave the two a side glance. [He is strong, unlike some.]

He was a deceiving person, but he was going to be true to himself. The rest of the monarchs weren't even worthy of Ashborn's percent. Two Of them were killed by the Shadow Monarch's vessel, who hadn't even properly awakened his power.

They were arrogant, and their arrogance wasn't backed by their power. All the work so far was done by him. Antares brought them back, gave them suitable bodies, and even now, if not for him, they'd surely be dead. In the past and even now, he thought about dismissing them. But there was still his loyalty to the Absolute Being. And he created them as equal monarchs. Besides the gap in power. They had their purpose, and they were leading an army by themselves. His dragons were more than enough for him, but he had to admit that there weren't many of them. And in order to rule over everything, he needed the other monarch's authority.

Of course, as he was the strongest of them all, nobody could rebuke him. Those monarchs just looked away, ashamed. Their pride was hurt.

[There is no time for useless bickering. Finally, the power of the cup is assembled and it's in my hands.]

Antares laid his hands on the fourth fragment of the cup before Ashborn could even attempt to get it. He did this with a little catch, but the point is that he has now also got the other three fragments.

[The Cup of Reincarnation? Isn't that the Supreme Being's tool that was used by the Rulers?]

[So it was in the hands of the Shadow Monarch?]

Antares confirmed their statements, [That's how it was. But I guess the ruler's messed up and the cup broke into fragments.]

[Heh, their mistakes will cost them their lives.] The Beast Monarch grinned in satisfaction.

[There are still threats to our goals. Ashborn wasn't the only one with the power of darkness. His successor is still in the corner of the universe, most likely already aware of our comeback.]

The chills run down their spines at the mention of the second shadow monarch. Legia encountered that person while chained with magic-absorbing chains, but the aura that surrounded that guy was no joke. He kept in mind that he wasn't a complete monarch at that time.

The Beast Monarch grunted, [That one… won't he call for the rulers then?]

[We can't be sure of that. The last time he defeated us was alone, without any help from the rulers. Ashborn had made a monster amongst monsters…oh, I get it now.]

Antares glanced at the item in his hands. The Black Heart is the source of power for the shadow monarch. Well, for Ashborn, it wasn't the only one before. He was the greatest fragment of brilliant light. A ruler.

Ashborn wasn't capable of defeating them... But how come his successor was able to? The answer was Ash himself. There was not only darkness in him but light as well.

With only the Black Heart given to Sung Jin-woo…Ashborn...

What is darkness without light?

That's right. Even bigger and much more dangerous darkness. His successor wielded near infinite amounts of power, which was enough to defeat them, the Monarchs.

[But what if the darkness merges with the darkness?] Antares looked at the black heart with curiosity.

[What are you doing, Antares?]

[Something very…intriguing and interesting.]

*Cough* *Cough*

Someone at the scene coughed a few times afterward. The monarch's eyes immediately landed on the laying figure. They questioned how he could be alive with those injuries... but there was some magic in him.

[Would you look at that, still alive…Why are you, the shadow monarchs, so persistent.]

[Shall we kill him.]

[I will after making him watch how I use his power against him.]

With this said, Antares used his authority to lift his enemy into the air. He propelled the shadow monarch's head to stare at him. The blue eyes were open, but the vision in them was blurry.

*Cough* *Cough*

Ashborn continued to cough. The blood was coming out of his mouth with every cough. The blood was also streaming down his eyes like tears.

*Cough*

As the last cough commenced, Ashborn was finally awake. He seemed lost, though. His eyes were darting around, and he had a hard time keeping himself contained. He had an open wound the size of a fist on his right chest.

[You look awful.] Antares commented on Ashborn's appearance.

*Silence*

There was no answer coming from the shadow monarch. His mouth wasn't moving. There were barely any signs of life, except that the bleeding stopped.

[Bastard still got it, huh.]

The hole on the right side of Ash's chest began to close. Slowly, the flesh and bones began to re-grow simultaneously.

Antares still kept his authority on Ashborn in case of a surprise attack.

The dragon monarch narrowed his eyes on Ashborn, [Is there such a strong desire in you that you want to see this planet destroyed with your own eyes?]

His expression then morphed into a grin, [Do you want to see the family of Leywin's killed in front of you?]

*Cough* *Spit*

Again, the shadow monarch coughs, but this time he spits the remaining in his mouth on the face of Antares.

The dragon monarch froze. He touched his face with his fingers.

[Hm.]

He brought them in front of his face. Anger was boiling up in him. This was apparent by magic as his skin began to heat up and evaporate the red liquid on his face.

*Growl*

Antares growled, [You still have guts…] He squeezed his hand to inflict more pain on the shadow monarch. He didn't expect at least some kind of resistance, but even without magic, Ashborn's body handled the pressure.

With his eyes, he signaled the rest to hold Ash instead of him. The others complied and got the hands of Ashborn quickly.

[Who would've thought that the Monarch of Destruction would be using someone else's power at some point.]

The dragon monarch brought the black heart in front of his chest. Everyone understood what he was going to do, and the thought of it was terrifying. The power of the shadow monarch and the dragon monarch. Was it going to happen... their merging?

The black heart slowly floated towards Antares' right side of the chest, and in its astral state, it passed through the flesh.

His limbs trembled as the black heart entered the rib cage. Gigantic amounts of magical energy were concentrated in that thing, and it began to spread across his body. His body was getting filled with magic, and the muscles were seemingly becoming larger.

'So much mana...'

Antares was shocked; this wasn't even the slightest bit close to the amount he thought Ashborn had. Antares had a hard time dealing with the mana surging through his body. so much that for a moment, his golden eyes turned purple.

This scared Legia and the Beast Monarch, who thought that somehow Ashborn had taken over Antares. They had a similar appearance after all.

Meanwhile, the dragon monarch had an internal battle in his mind. 'Why didn't he... use it?!'

This much mana was no joke, not even to him. Ashborn could've used it in a different way and killed him. He could've unleashed a large-scale attack to obliterate him, but for some reason he didn't.

Antares required us to know the reason.

'Was it because of him?'

Antares lowered his sight to his belly, at the place of mana-core. That was the place where someone else's soul was shackled. Arthur Leywin's to be exact. He didn't get rid of him because he had no way to take over this body anyway. Besides, he really needed to acquire the fragment of the reincarnation cup. Blending into the relictomb with his vile soul... It would've been problematic. He kept Arthur's soul there for that reason.

However, it served a second purpose.

[Hahaha!] He laughed madly as he approached Ashborn, who by now was fully awake and kept his eyes locked on him.

[You really didn't use your full force because you feared the destruction of that soul!] Using telekinesis, he pinned Ashborn down to the ground.

*Squash*

The dragon monarch loudly pressed his leg on Ashborn's chest and soon began to apply more pressure.

*Crack*

The bones cracked. It was frustrating to know that the enemy could've killed you, if not for the fact that you had a trick up your sleeve that you didn't know about.

The nearby monarchs had no idea what happened this time, but the Antares' presence became too agitated. They feared for their own lives.

[How is it? How do you feel when you see your enemy stepping on you? Or how does it feel to lose your power?]

*Bang*

Antares, with a loud bang, stomped on the Ashborn. The latter bore the pain and kept looking at his adversary with dead eyes.

'What's with him?' The dragon monarch asked himself. That look on Ashborn's face was scary, but what could he do without the black heart? 'What could he be planning?'

[Have you swallowed your tongue, Ashborn? Now that your power is gone, you can't do anything. Instead, I'm the owner of your power now, I'll use it for its initial purpose. I'll deliver the death sentence to everything. including you.]

Surprisingly, Ashborn cracked a smile, "Hah, funny. You are expressing this to a person who has triumphed over death twice."

[Decided to talk now, huh? Any last words you have to say before the darkness consumes you?]

"Oh yes, I have something to say and show. I'm not sure if my successor delivered my message to you before…"

Ashborn grunted in pain and brought his hand to his pocket. He picked something from it and moved it in front of Antares. He slowly opened his fist slowly...

A middle finger was displayed in all its glory.

"Arise."