Chapter 58 (Extra chapter because i have nothing to do)

"In creating this, we had only one goal," Bright Mind began, his voice trembling with excitement. "To ensure that what you held in your hand was the best—across all levels of existence."

"So, we did three things," he said, raising one finger. "Step one: We scoured the entire universe to identify every peak form of technology."

Ashborn raised an eyebrow, skeptical. He had only handed them his old phone a few hours ago.

"To accomplish this, we—ah—briefly hacked into Cyborg to reverse-engineer his tech," Bright Mind admitted with a sheepish smile. "Then we infiltrated every highly advanced civilization across the stars, downloaded their collective knowledge, and… improved upon it."

Bright Mind raised a second finger.

"Step two: We expanded our reach into the multiverse. It took us a few minutes, but we successfully gathered and analyzed all relevant multiversal technologies—then filtered and integrated the best of it."

He raised a third finger, grinning ear to ear now.

"Step three: We made sure that no higher-dimensional beings out there had tech more advanced than yours.

"We looked into the 4th dimension, and shockingly, we already had tech above theirs. So, we moved on to the 5th dimension. There, we found that the dimension seemed to embody imagination itself. They had so much reality-warping tech that it was shocking," Bright Mind said happily, all while Ashborn looked at him with a stunned, speechless expression.

Bright Mind went on to explain how he had to enter the Training Dimension for the next step since he didn't want to make Ashborn wait. There, he absorbed all forms of knowledge—going as far as touching the Source of the DC multiverse.

To him, it was easy, After all, the Mother Box had already done something similar. The difference was that the Mother Box had limited use of that connection. Meanwhile, Bright Mind managed to create tech that could rival the capabilities of those who drew power directly from the Source.

By the way, the Source is an aspect of the creator of the DC multiverse. So what Bright Mind gave Ashborn wasn't just a powerful phone… it was a phone capable of doing just about anything Ashborn wanted it to do.

Ashborn's mouth was wide open. This phone drew upon the same power as someone like Doctor Manhattan.

With this phone, he honestly had nothing to fear.

This was the problem with smart people—give them time, and they'd do crazy stuff like this.

"Well, that isn't our best work, my lord," Bright Mind said. "That phone there is a jack of all trades, master of none. But if we focused solely on creating something purely for attack, we're confident we could make some crazy things."

Ashborn nodded lightly.

"Go ahead and begin creating such things. I want all of my shadows equipped with them. But also take into account building tech that doesn't rely on the Source for power," Ashborn said calmly.

"What would happen if we left this omniverse?" he added. Bright Mind's eyes widened—he hadn't thought of that.

"Understood," Bright Mind said before running off to get to work.

Ashborn wanted to tell him he didn't need to start right away, but he quickly sensed the guy's joy at the challenge ahead.

Seeing that this was what the shadow enjoyed, Ashborn allowed him to do his thing while he sat down on a chair.

But Ashborn didn't even get the chance to see what the phone could do, as he noticed a shadow with glasses standing over him.

"My lord, after seeing Bright Mind work, I came to realize I've been failing in my duty. The Shadow Monarch should wear only the best and most fashionable clothing in existence. How could I allow you to keep wearing the same thing you had on yesterday?" the shadow asked, leaving Ashborn speechless.

He couldn't even respond before another shadow appeared—this one dressed like a chef.

"My lord, allow me to be your chef. With that bag and my skills, I'm sure I could create magical food worthy of your table."

"My lord, allow me to look after your garden…" And so the list went on.

All of them—former normal people—stepped forward, wanting to have their own role to play.

They wanted to be useful, since they weren't fighters. Sure, they were now countless times stronger than they had been in life… but even so, they knew their strengths.

They wanted to serve in the ways they shined best.

Ashborn couldn't bring himself to say no to them, so he allowed them all to do what they wanted. Although… he was most interested in the chef.

What could he do that the food generation bag couldn't already do?

Sensing Ashborn's eyes on him, the shadow chef was instantly fired up.

He rushed into the kitchen, using the bag to create the highest-quality ingredients he could think of. Then, tapping into every power available to him, the shadow chef began to cook.

'Forgot that shadows pretty much have infinite energy, so they could just pour a ton of it into the bag to create whatever… So the bag seems to be most useful in their hands,' Ashborn thought, turning his attention back to the phone.

"What can you do?" Ashborn asked lazily, scrolling through the apps—only to find seemingly nothing worthwhile on the surface.

{Greetings, Lord Ashborn. I am Model 1, a prototype for the Shadow Monarch phone that will soon be created for you. Might I know how I can assist you this fine night?} Upon hearing Ashborn's question, the phone suddenly spoke.

"Well, if you can… mind searching for my armor across the omniverse? I tried to call it, but it seems too damaged to hear my calls," Ashborn said lightly.

{Of course… I've scanned every form of tech across the multiverse, from Earth to the infinite dimensions. I did find traces of your Monarch aura in a few places, but it seems something is actively hiding it. I also scanned the higher dimensions—it was far more difficult, but I did manage to locate small fragments of your armor aura scattered there.}

Ashborn was about to respond but paused when the TV in front of him flickered. An image appeared, It showed the Black Lantern, reaching out toward a broken fragment of the ever-changing weapon.

{This is the only piece of your gear that could be found. But the one who has it, Nekron, has disappeared. Some unknown power has taken him away.}

Ashborn's expression darkened at the sight. Nekron was the last person he wanted touching his power.

Darkseid could. Trigon could. Even the Empty Hand could. But Nekron? A necromancer empowered by the Shadow Monarch's energy? And let's not forget the primordial storm sealed within that fragment of armor… That was going to be a pain to deal with.

"Fuck!" Ashborn cursed. He didn't have time for this.

He needed to be far more overpowered, strong enough to one-shot these troublesome threats the moment they appeared.

The best way to do that? Simple—recover his strength and grow even stronger.

"Are you able to recreate a Lantern Ring?" Ashborn asked. 

With that, the phone floated out of his hand, hovering over a nearby table.

Its camera flickered on, projecting the image of a Green Lantern Ring hovering above the surface. At first, it looked like nothing more than an illusion—until the phone moved aside…

And the Lantern Ring remained, now physically sitting on the table.

"Create a second one for the pervert secretly watching me," Ashborn said casually. Ember, who had been quietly watching everything from the stairs, let out a sharp snort and glared at him—clearly not appreciating being called a pervert.