Who is the fastest hero alive?
Who is the strongest hero alive?
Who is the most durable hero alive?
Who is the bravest hero alive?
Who is the most skilled hero alive?
Who is the smartest hero alive?
Who is the only hero that will never lose a fight?
Who is the one who stands at the top, has reached the pinnacle, and has surpassed what it means to be a Lord and a Super?
Who is the one with the strongest powers ever seen, said to have been blessed by the Almighty himself?
Who is the one all villains fear?
Who is the one who can fight the Beast alone and win?
Who is the hero with the most wins?
Who is the hero who gained the full respect of the Brightest Star and can wield all of his power?
Who is the hero whose mere existence has created a realm of infinite timelines all flowing outwards, creating a better world?
Who is the greatest hero alive?
No matter who you asked, there was, of course, a single answer everyone would give.
Everyone, be it man, woman, child, hero, villain, human, Super, Lord, or even Ruler, would all agree to the same thing.
Full Monarch was the only hero that mattered.
In fact, only a single person would actually say that this wasn't the case. Ironically enough, that person was Full Monarch.
He wasn't the fastest. He wasn't the strongest. He wasn't the most durable. He wasn't the bravest. He wasn't the most skilled, and he certainly was not the smartest hero alive. The fact was, he had lost. In his very first battle with the Emperor, Full Monarch was defeated and sent away.
Now, here he stood. After years of constant flight, he was back. Full Monarch was home.
Silence filled the air. The Emperor remained frozen in place, processing what he was seeing. In the field, looking around was Full Monarch. The man was draped in a wave of blue fire, and it seemed to form a second layer of skin around him. He was bright. Like a star that had come to life, and yet the burning sensation that should have been present did not seep out. It was reserved and all under control.
Full Monarch slowly crouched down and placed his palm on the ground. Then, in a flash of blue, the entirety of planet Earth was set ablaze. Bright blue flames covered every inch of the planet. In an instant, everything became visible. Full Monarch saw everything on planet Earth. Every place that a person was and what they were doing.
In the next instant, the flames went out and pulled themselves into Full Monarch's body, forming over him once again.
"I'm too late." He sighed quietly. "What have you done?"
The Emperor took a step back as Full Monarch's eyes finally looked up at him. He had expected anger. Rage. Wrath. None of that was present. Full Monarch just looked disappointed. Sad even. Like a parent who realized their child did something bad. The Emperor felt his own rage start to boil and bubble up. Was he being mocked? Belittled? Him?!
He was the Emperor! He alone stood at the top. He was the one who had done so much, had walked so far, and committed so many sins, all to get to this moment, and yet Full Monarch couldn't even be bothered to treat him like an actual villain?
The Emperor's hand clenched around his sword, and he raised it. "Storymaker! Send him to—"
'Crack!'
The Emperor felt his hand twist around and snap, the bones breaking and shattering as Full Monarch took the blade from him, ripping it out of his grasp. He hadn't even seen the man move. It was faster than he could even react.
Full Monarch held the white sword and gazed at it in sorrow. "Avalon. I'm so disappointed in you." Full Monarch slammed the sword down and buried it to the hilt into the planet. "I'll deal with you when I'm done with your master."
The Emperor stumbled back and gripped his broken wrist. His eyes blazed in anger, and he glared at Full Monarch. "I don't need that sword to beat you—"
"Just shut up." Full Monarch's fist met the Emperor's stomach, hitting him hard enough to crack the planet. The force of the strike sent the man blasting back. "I'm not in the mood to play pretend anymore."
Meanwhile, on the surface of the moon, the fighting between the side of good and the side of evil was still ongoing. Neither side was particularly winning.
The Emperor, with eyes that blazed red, battled Lucifer, invisible slices cutting through space as Lucifer swung his blade of Dead Virus, attempting to corrode and erase the being who stood before him.
In the castle, the Enforcers fought just as hard. Legend traded blows with Fairy Queen, the two going back and forth as they hacked away at one another, neither staying dead for very long. The Princess of Life twisted and expanded, jagged bones and waves of blue slicing out as Feast and Hands attempted to dodge the strikes and counterattack when they could.
Further down the destroyed halls of the castle, metal floated into the air and spun so fast it caught on fire as Palaron attempted to blast Golden Weaver to bits, but the hero swung out of the way on his wire. While that happened, Omega fired lasers into the face of Alien, who grunted as his flesh began to melt off. Gorgeous dodged waves of Daemon's fire, and the female-looking hero created waves of clones, which all struck out.
This fight, which had been going on and on, with neither side coming close to beating the other, was finally about to come to an end. All because the hope of the world had arrived back.
"Why won't you stay dead!" Fairy Queen growled.
Legend dodged to the side, and space compressed and shattered around him. A wave of water formed at the edge of a bow he held, and he fired a piercing beam that blew a hole into Fairy Queen's stomach, but with a wave of her hand, she closed the space around the wound. "Funny." Legend spat out. "I was going to say the same to you. Just drop dead, you freak."
Suddenly, the entire moon shook! A wave of force expanded out so powerfully that it knocked Legend and Fairy Queen off their feet. Every hero and villain froze as the sound of cracking surface filled the air, and the very landscape itself began to twist and shatter. The moon was falling apart!
A few minutes before that, over with the Emperor and Lucifer, the two immortal beings were still hard at work trying to kill each other. In the crater, the Emperor created a jagged wooden sword and swung it at Lucifer, who dodged the strike and sliced out with his own sword. The blade tore through the Emperor's upper body and blew it to bits.
The lower half kept going, though, and slammed a powerful kick into Lucifer's stomach, shoving him away. From the lower half, flesh bubbled up, and darkness flowed out, and Nier's body was replaced. He was now missing his armor, showing off pale flesh that hadn't seen the sun in years. Snow-white hair and a beard covered his head, and a pair of fiery red eyes gazed out. He was muscular and still had the body of a soldier.
"I forgot how ugly you looked." Lucifer sneered.
"Great." Nier sighed. "Now I have to get new armor." He ran his hand through his beard. "I'll worry about that after I kill you."
"You can try."
"I will."
The two charged at each other, and then—
The entire surface rumbled and broke apart, jagged cracks spreading outward as a powerful object collided with it. Everything was breaking to bits, and the castle began to fall into a mile-wide ravine that opened up.
The moon was falling apart.
Even Nier paused, as did Lucifer. Neither of them had been the one to do this. Though they had the power to start the collapse of a planet, this had come so suddenly that only one being could be responsible.
Before Nier could raise his hand, there was a flash of blue, and then suddenly he found himself standing in an open field. "What?"
He wasn't the only one who looked confused. No longer was he on the moon. Instead, he was back on Earth. An open field was before him, and his entire army looked around, shocked at how they got here.
The heroes also were frozen in their confusion and startled, all fighting coming to an end. Only Lucifer managed to catch on to what had happened.
"Well. It seems he's in a foul mood." Lucifer looked up to the sky. "No longer is he pretending to be human. He moved us all back to Earth in an instant. It seems we've lost before the battle even began."
Legend felt a chill go up his spine, and he also looked up. His jaw nearly dropped open when he saw that the moon was being split in two. He then stopped and took a moment to judge what was happening around him. The field he was in was filled with a ton of unconscious heroes who were all finally starting to wake up, the blue energy around them turning off. He also spotted Director Ward.
He wasn't fully sure what was going on, but he was sure Full Monarch was on the moon fighting the Emperor.
"Wait, is that Lucifer?" A hero yelled, and suddenly everyone turned to look at the Ruler.
Nier scowled. Luckily for him, no one seemed to know who he was since his armor was missing, so everyone was still under the assumption there was only one Emperor, with only Ruby and Max knowing. Since Max was absorbed, that meant he just had to wipe out Ruby, and the heroes wouldn't know that a second Emperor was down here on the planet. They also likely didn't know how he looked.
Nier might have been famous at one point, but he looked vastly different now. That meant the heroes were all focused on Lucifer. All the heroes were screaming and began to throw attacks at Lucifer, and even several of the villains jumped at the Immortal.
His best bet was to make a quick attack while he had the element of surprise. He looked like a human, and so they wouldn't think he was a monster. If he could take the downed Ruby out, he'd get rid of the strongest hero on Earth, then could join Alpha in space and take Full Monarch out. He'd need to find Storymaker, and things would finally start to go back to the way they should be.
While all the heroes focused their attacks on Lucifer, Nier looked around and then spotted the downed Ruby. Her head was finally almost fully healed, and she'd be back up any moment now.
He cursed himself for thinking it was a good idea to create a Lordian. Luckily, if her head were sliced clean off, she'd fully die since not even she had the same level of regeneration a true Lordian had.
Nier grunted and created his wooden sword, then jumped in the direction of where Ruby was. He lifted his blade and got ready to bring it down, but suddenly a body jumped in front of him. Nier's eyes widened as he saw Ward.
The sword rammed through the man's stomach. Ward took the blow and then yelled out as loud as he could. "This man is the top priority! Take him out!"
"What the fuck are you doing—" Nier felt something ram into the side of his head, and he was thrown back as Legend smashed a fist into his side.
"Heroes!" Legend roared. "Win!"
"Golden God!" Nier screamed, and the ground erupted up as dozens of golden hands came blasting out, and Golden God pulled himself out from the ground. Fairy Queen and the Princess of Life also joined the fray. While they did that, Nier dodged out of the way of another strike from Legend. "Find Stoymaker!"
"You mean this sword?" Nier froze when he heard the voice, and he turned around. Ruby was now on her knees, her head still cracked open but a smile on her face as she gripped the white blade. "It's a pretty cool sword. I think I'll keep it."
"Give that here!"
"Nah." Ruby fired into the air, jumping away.
"You bitch! Get her! All monsters! Retrieved that sword!"
And so, just like that, a new battle began, only this time it was on the surface of planet Earth, and a lot more heroes began to get involved! In no time at all, the monsters began to get pushed back.
"Not so strong now that you can't use those portals to separate all the heroes, are you!" Golden Weaver laughed and began to swing into the air, cutting through several monsters. "You're all outnumbered—"
Nier caught him by the leg and swung him down so hard that one of Golden Weaver's arms exploded, and his leg popped up. His scream of agony filled the air. "I'm going to kill you all!" Nier roared, and bone spikes erupted out of him, slicing through monsters and heroes alike.
While he did that, Golden God flew through the air after Ruby, but she was just too fast for him to get out of his reach. "Give the master back his sword!"
"Nope!" Ruby poked her tongue out. "Fuck you guys!"
The heroes all gave yells, and they began to fight even harder, slowly pushing the monsters and villains back. While that happened, even more heroes began to arrive, rapidly outnumbering the slowly shrinking monster army.
Lucifer dodged to the side, avoiding the bone spikes. He smirked softly. "I might not be winning right now, but I am so glad you're also losing." He declared as he glared at Nier, who was slowly getting more and more pissed off.
Back on the moon, a flickering of blue and black light began to fade out. Buried in a crater, the Emperor with blue eyes began to struggle to get back up. His body ached, all of his bones were beyond broken, and yet he still somehow managed to force himself back up to his feet. Bits of his armor shattered and began to fall off of him, vanishing into the abyss.
The entire moon was breaking and crumbling, pieces flying off, and chunks splitting open. All from a single attack. One that had been delivered straight to him. It had happened in under a second. He had been hit once and went from planet Earth all the way to the moon, being sent deep into the core of the celestial body.
Full Monarch wasn't holding back.
"Is this what you wanted?" The Emperor jerked his head up and found himself staring up at Full Monarch. The man was glowing with a wave of blue fire that constantly dripped off his body. He was like a god. No. Gods have limits. Gods were fictional structures of power forged by humans to say what stood at the peak. This being was far beyond that realm. The one who held the power of the universe, the one who looked down upon all others—that was what Full Monarch truly was. "Are you happy now?" Full Monarch asked.
The Emperor's body ignited, blue fire and black lightning starting to crackle and sizzle all around him. "How could I be happy when a being like you exists within this world?"
"What's wrong with me?"
"...You are everything that shouldn't be. All that power, and yet what have you done? You haven't saved this world. Crime still exists. People still suffer. The world is still plagued with issues. More than that, though, we live in a universe where we are just tiny specks of dust. Insignificant and not mattering at all! Not when the Lordians exist!"
Full Monarch let out a sigh, and he slowly began to fly down. "The Lordians? Do you know what they are?"
The Emperor stayed silent.
"You don't, do you?" Full Monarch cracked a tiny smile, though it was a bitter one. "You don't even know what they are. Nier didn't tell you, did he?"
"He told me enough."
"And what was that?"
Again, the Emperor did not speak.
"You know nothing about what you're speaking of, do you?" Full Monarch began to walk forward until he loomed over the Emperor and stared down into his eyes. "You're just repeating what he says and what he thinks. What is even your true plan?"
"I told you before, I will conquer everything. Absolute power! I will consume the power of the four Lords and create a better world! One without the Beast!"
"How?"
"With the power of the four Lords."
"How do they help with that? How can you do it?"
"Because their power is great!"
"How great?" Full Monarch asked, speaking like a teacher would to a foolish kid. "Go on. Explain it in detail. What power do you get? How do you do it?"
"I just will!"
"Let's say you can do all of that; what do you do next?"
"I'll stop the Beast!"
"How?"
"With the power of the four Lords—"
Full Monarch slapped the Emperor. The force of the strike cracked the helmet, caved part of it in, and sent the man off his feet, sending him stumbling back. "The four Lords couldn't beat the Shadow. The four Lords couldn't kill the Beast. The four Lords couldn't even stop threats like Golark in the past. Why would having all that power be enough to permanently put the Beast down?"
The Emperor roared and slammed his fist into the ground, kicking up a wave of dust and explosive energy. "Don't you dare question me! This plan was created to do what none of you can! I'll absorb the power of the four Lords! I'll absorb the Beast! I'll do the impossible! I'll create my own universe!"
"And what does that even mean? What is your own universe-"
"Shut up!" The Emperor's power surged out, hundreds upon thousands of constructs exploding out. Dozens of giant hands began to tear more chunks of the moon apart and began to throw them at Full Monarch. Black lightning gushed out of the Emperor, and he threw himself at Full Monarch, hitting him as hard as he could. He rammed his fist into Full Monarch's chest, ignoring the pain in his broken hands or the way his gauntlets exploded. "You have no right to talk about anything! You haven't done enough! You've done nothing, in fact! You just exist to make those below you look bad! With your powers, I could do more! I could save more!" The Emperor wrapped his arms around Full Monarch's arm and twisted him around, slamming him into the ground hard enough to shake the already fracturing moon. "You're not a god! I beat you once! You're a mortal! Just like everyone else! It can be done! There isn't anything special about you! And yet you act like you are blessed! Why don't you do more, though! Why do you let threats still exist? Don't act like you couldn't save the entire planet! Every death, every bit of sin, everything that ever goes wrong is on your hands, and yet you still walk around and fly through the skies as if you don't carry all that guilt! How can it not weigh you down! How are you still sane? How are you even able to pretend to be a human? Even your own kind suffer because you do nothing! Why don't you do more? Why don't you save more? Why didn't you save me!" The Emperor rammed his fists down, hitting Full Monarch across the face over and over again. He kept going and going, and his armor began to burn off him and crumble, falling to bits, more and more of it breaking apart. "Why do you save others but not me! What did I do to deserve it? Why was I created? Was it some sort of sick joke? Did you do it out of hate? Am I the piece of you that you didn't want? Why! Why don't I get to be saved! Why do you hate me!"
The Emperor breathed heavily, his knuckles bloodied and shattered, and his lungs suddenly felt like they were on fire. His eyes glared down at the mass of blue fire that made up Full Monarch's form. The man wasn't even remotely damaged or hurt.
"Other heroes exist." Full Monarch began to push himself up and shoved the Emperor off of him. "I told you, the Lords aren't perfect beings. I can't kill the Beast. I tried. I gave it my all, and yet no matter how hard I hit it, no matter how far into space I threw it, it always comes back. I'm not an infinite godlike being. Do you think I don't care? Do you think I don't try? I do. I even kill the villains to ensure that they can't harm again, and yet more take their place. Like rabbits, evil breeds faster and faster and faster, and I find myself unable to truly put it down. You're all a cancer. One that keeps spreading, and even I, with all this "great" power, can only do so much to slow down the infection. I can fly around the planet, I can do as much as I can, but I'm sorry, I just can't save everyone. Even with my senses, there is always someone who will slip through. I don't do this out of hatred. If I could, I would. Which is why the other heroes exist. This planet and its people shouldn't be forced to rely on just me. They deserve better. That's why we all need to work together and create a better world. A world with a single being at the top, one who has to do it all, is not a world that should exist. All that said, I have another question for you." Full Monarch walked forward and slashed his hand out, splitting more of the Emperor's armor to bits and sending him crashing back once more. "Was there ever even a single time when you tried to ask for help?"
The Emperor growled and tried to push himself back up to his feet, but before he could, Full Monarch reached him. The man picked the Emperor up by the horns of his helmet and began to lift him up. He smashed him down, ramming his face into the floor, and began to drag him across the surface of the moon.
"Did you ever call for help?" Full Monarch asked. "Did you ever ask for someone to save you? Or did you simply expect it to fall into your hands and everything to work out best for you? Did you think that just because you suffered a hard life, it meant that you had to be saved by me? If someone else had gotten to you first, would you have even taken their help?"
"I'll kill you!" The Emperor twisted his head until the horn he was being gripped by snapped off. He then rammed his fist into Full Monarch's stomach, but the hero didn't even budge. "You'll die! You have to die!"
Full Monarch swatted the Emperor away again. "I've been trying to figure you out." Full Monarch admitted. "I'm just so confused when I look at you." He lazily blocked a strike from the Emperor. "When we fought the first time, you used your powers to keep us from going somewhere where people could get hurt. Even earlier today, you didn't kill any of those heroes. You knocked them all out and put them under the effects of a barrier. You haven't actually killed anyone. Only absorbed the Lords. Despite that, though, that doesn't mean you can just be pardoned for all crimes. You've done a lot of bad. Your actions have also resulted in the deaths of a lot of people. You've personally gotten thousands killed. Every death one of your soldiers does, and my friend Wano as well. You're clearly evil, just evil with a sense of twisted honor."
"As if you're better."
"I am better." Full Monarch reached out and gripped the Emperor by the throat. The man grunted and began to choke as Full Monarch's hand squeezed down, and he lifted the Emperor up. He forced the man to look at planet Earth. "I think I finally get you. The reason you're in a costume like this. The reason you act the way you do. The reason you're so powerful. You're like me." Full Monarch's voice turned slightly gentle. "You wanted to help people but didn't know how, so you followed those above you. I joined the army. I worked alongside Nier. I was a soldier. A soldier wasn't what the world needed. Not after Lucifer was destroyed. You're like that as well. The only difference is that the Nier I followed and the Nier you followed are vastly different."
The Emperor struggled but couldn't get out of the chokehold that was on his throat. His supply of air was fully shut off, and he began to fall slack.
"You're a kid." Full Monarch sighed. "An idiot kid. You don't have any plans of your own, do you? You're just doing what others told you to. What Nier ordered you to. That BS about saving the universe. That's Nier's plan. Not yours. You aren't real. You're just a robot. A machine. A tool. A weapon. One that was aimed and fired by the first person who saved you. You hate everything because you suffered, yet you have no actions of your own and don't do anything else. You could have done anything with your powers or challenged me in other ways, but you walked down this path because someone else put you on it. You're a child playing pretend and throwing a hissy fit because the world didn't go your way. Instead of making yourself someone great or someone worthy of being saved, you repressed and fell in on yourself and turned into this blank slate, obeying the words of some twisted, fucked-up madman. Nier doesn't even believe in the shit he spews out. He doesn't care about any of that. He's a pathetic loser who is trying to commit suicide and take the whole world with him, and you're the fucked-up pet he picked up to cause it. It frustrates me seeing how much of this could have been avoided if you had even tried a little bit to do something else. You ask why I didn't save you? Why didn't you ever ask for help?"
Full Monarch finally shook his head and let go of the Emperor. The armored man landed on his knees and wheezed and coughed, struggling to regain the air that he had lost.
"I guess it doesn't matter." Full Monarch pulled his arm back. "You want to fulfill the role that was given to you so badly? Fine? I'll do the same. I'm the hero. The one who kills the villains that can't be reasoned with."
Full Monarch rammed his hand forward and punched the Emperor as hard as he could. The man cracked further, and more chunks were blown to bits.
Back down on Earth, the heroes began to cheer louder as the villains were pushed back. Even Nier began to have trouble as hundreds of heroes swarmed him and all sorts of powers were used on him. It was Ruby who was giving him the most trouble, though.
The woman had fully healed, and with a laugh, she used his own sword to slice him to bits. Golden God was a pile of trash in the distance, also having been cut up.
"Swords are so freaking cool!" Ruby announced with stars in her eyes.
Nier's teeth ground together, and he forcefully healed himself, throwing more attacks out at her, but she deflected them all. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! You have to lose!" Nier roared. "I came so far! I can't have it end like this."
"Well, it is going to end like this." Ruby dodged another strike and sliced his head clean off. "The good guys are going to win—"
Suddenly, the battlefield shook as an object rammed into the ground hard enough to make everyone pause. Groaning filled the air, and to everyone's shock, the Emperor was laid out in a crater. Blue fire suddenly filled the sky, and everyone looked up with wide eyes as Full Monarch began to float down.
The fighting was over.
Full Monarch landed on the ground, and he looked around slowly. All the villains and monsters stood frozen in terror. Even Lucifer stopped fighting.
Calmly, Full Monarch walked up to the Emperor and looked down at the man. "It's over. You lose."
The Emperor struggled to breathe but began to push himself back up. More bits of his armor slid off, and his helmet was on the verge of sliding off as well, but he caught it and held onto it. Then, laughter filled the air.
"Something funny?" Full Monarch asked.
The Emperor looked back up, his eyes madder than they had ever been before, and his energy started to surge. "Taking us back to Earth was the worst mistake you could have made."
"Oh?"
"Hell Hound!"
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around Full Monarch as from behind, Hell Hound threw herself at him from behind. Full Monarch easily destroyed her guard and smashed a punch into her stomach, blasting her back, but then his eyes widened as something happened.
All around him, his blue fire shut off, and his golden hair stopped glowing. Red locks fell down his back as his power fully shut off.
Hell Hound existed for one purpose. She was built to shut down Full Monarch's power. Full Monarch turned around, and this time, he recoiled as the Emperor's fist slammed into his face.
"Let's see how you like it." The Emperor announced. "It's time you know what it's like for a mortal to fight a god."