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Arthur moved.
Fast and decisively.
Nidhogg struck first space compressing, claws tearing through distorted air but Arthur slipped between the blows, body weaving through impossible pressure by instinct alone. Each near-miss dragged at him, bones screaming as gravity tried to fold him inward.
Still, he advanced.
Shadows gathered around his forearms.
They locked.
The Shadow Ring screamed as shadow condensed into massive gauntlets, layered and brutal, plates overlapping like black armor forged from shadow itself. At the same time, a sphere of shadow bloomed outward, swallowing Nidhogg in a tight, suffocating shell.
The serpent roared.
Gravity detonated outward.
Arthur's body lurched but did not stop.
"Still trying that?" Arthur muttered, blood streaking down his face, one eye glowing violet through the mess. "You're gonna have to do better."
He wrapped both shadow-gauntleted arms around the sphere.
And lifted.
The weight hit him instantly.
Immeasurable.
Ancient.
Nidhogg wasn't just heavy it was conceptually heavy.
The air screamed as Arthur's ascent slowed, bones creaking, muscles tearing.
The Shadow Ring flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Arthur's teeth ground together.
"Yeah… I feel it," he growled. "You're a heavy bastard."
And then
he rose anyway.
They ascended past shattered roots, past colossal branches thicker than mountains. The World Tree stretched endlessly in every direction veins of light pulsing through bark older than time itself, a structure so vast it made gods feel small.
The sight was overwhelming.
An infinite lattice of bark and light, branches spiraling outward into eternity, Stars flickered between leaves the size of continents. There was no top. No horizon.
Arthur flew higher.
Higher.
Blood streamed behind him, torn away by the pressure. His breath came in ragged pulls, vision swimming, but he did not slow.
The serpent thrashed inside the sphere, tail whipping, gravity howling in protest but Arthur rose anyway.
"You know what's funny?" Arthur said hoarsely, voice echoing in the vastness. "All this strength… all this terror…"
"Look at it," he rasped, breath shaking, one eye blazing violet as he hauled the serpent higher. "All this… and you chose to gnaw at the roots."
This was only a fragment of the world tree.
Arthur flew through it, shadows and blood trailing behind him like a comet's tail.
The gravity head thrashed inside the sphere, gravity surging wildly. Space bent inward, trying to crush Arthur's arms, collapse his chest, tear his grip apart.
Arthur snarled.
"Not today."
He climbed until the battlefield below was nothing but a scar on infinity until the Tree itself curved away beneath them, until even the darkness felt thin.
Then
Arthur canceled the sphere.
Shadow peeled away in an instant.
Nidhogg reacted immediately, gravity exploding outward in a desperate blast
Arthur didn't dodge.
He grabbed.
Both hands clamped around the serpent's neck, shadow-gauntlets biting deep into ancient scales. Gravity slammed into him point-blank, trying to implode his body from the inside.
Arthur's smile widened.
Bloody.
Feral.
Totally unhinged.
"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, violet eye burning brighter than ever, "you look scared."
And he was right.
In Nidhogg's eyes those ancient, hateful eyes ,something new appeared.
Panic.
Arthur rotated midair, twisting them both until the endless canopy of the World Tree inverted beneath them.
Then he let go.
Not of Nidhogg.
Of restraint.
They plunged.
Arthur drove them downward at terrifying speed, gravity screaming as it fought itself, the serpent blasting him again and again with crushing force but Arthur held on, arms locked, shadows bleeding off him like smoke.
He laughed as the world rushed up to meet them.
"Survive this," he whispered.
They became a falling catastrophe shadow and gravity tearing through layers of space, the World Tree rushing upward in a blur.
Arthur's grip tightened one last time and he accelerated, shadow and gravity screaming together as they tore through layers of space. The World Tree rushed upward in a blur of impossible scale, branches whipping past like spears.
Nidhogg thrashed wildly, gravity going berserk but Arthur used it, riding the force, letting it add to the descent instead of resisting it.
"Brace yourself," he whispered. "Or don't." He added.
They hit. Nidhogg's face first.
The impact was cataclysmic.
Arthur slammed Nidhogg into the depths of the World Tree at frightening speed, the collision detonating outward in a sphere of shattered bark, fractured space, and collapsing gravity. Roots snapped like twigs. Shockwaves raced through the abyss.
****
Pain returned before awareness did.
sharp and total.
Arthur's senses came back in fragments. A ringing silence. The taste of iron. The crushing weight of exhaustion pressing him flat against something hard.
He groaned.
"…Is it…?"
His lips barely moved.
"…dead?"
His vision swam as he turned his head to the side.
And saw it.
One massive, ruined eye, still faintly glowing, staring lifelessly into nothing. The last remaining head of Nidhogg lay torn free, half-buried in shattered bark and stone, its scales cracked, its aura gone nothing but dead mass now.
The rest of the body was gone.
Simply gone.
Blown away by the impact, erased into the abyss beyond the roots, scattered so completely that even its presence no longer stained the air.
Arthur let out a broken, breathless laugh that immediately turned into a cough.
"…Monstrous," he muttered hoarsely.
Another cough. Blood splattered his cheek.
"…bastard."
The crater around him was immense a wound carved into the depths of the World Tree itself. Roots lay shattered like snapped bones.
Arthur lay there for several seconds longer than he should have.
Then somehow he rolled onto his side.
His body protested violently.
Every nerve screamed. His vision blurred in and out, darkness creeping at the edges. He pushed himself up inch by inch, muscles barely responding, shadows sluggish and thin.
When he finally stood, he almost fell again.
He staggered forward, emerging from the massive crater like a ghost crawling out of its own grave. Blood ran freely down his face, soaking into torn clothing. One arm hung useless. His breathing was shallow, uneven, every inhale was a conscious effort.
The Shadow Ring flickered weakly.
Then the System's notification sound rang :
[You have killed Nidhogg.]
[You have obtained: ThePrimordial Darkness.]
[Access to the Sacrificial Altar: GRANTED.]
Arthur stopped walking.
He blinked slowly, processing the words through the haze.
"…Right," he murmured.
He swallowed, throat raw.
"…The altar."
His head dipped forward slightly as if even holding it up was too much.
"Gotta…" he whispered to himself, taking another unsteady step, "…get to the altar now…"
He made it exactly three more steps.
Then his legs gave out.
Arthur pitched forward, hitting the ground face-first with a dull thud. The world tilted, blurred and finally went dark.
The depths of the World Tree fell silent once more.
And the Shadow Monarch lay unconscious at the threshold of ascension.
****
Darkness did not take Arthur gently.
It swallowed him whole.
There was no ground beneath his feet. No sky above. Just an endless, quiet void. Arthur drifted there, awareness dim, body absent, and yet…
He still felt weak.
Not injured or bleeding.
Just… empty. Spent down to the marrow of his soul.
Then
A voice.
Low and calm.
"Arthur."
The sound did not echo, yet it seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Arthur stirred.
"…Huh," he muttered, his voice sluggish, distant. "Where... am I?"
The darkness shifted.
From it, footsteps emerged. A figure walked toward him, A knight. Clad in shadow-forged armor, black as the void, edges sharp yet regal. Violet light burned steadily from his helm.
Ashborn.
He stopped a few paces away.
"You realize what you just did," Ashborn said.
Arthur tried to straighten. Found he couldn't. Even here, his strength felt drained, like something fundamental had been wrung out of him.
He frowned.
"…I killed the serpent," Arthur said slowly, as if confirming it to himself.
Ashborn's eyes burned brighter.
"You defeated a being," he said, "stronger than a Monarch."
Arthur let out a dry, humorless breath.
"Yeah?" he replied weakly. "It sure felt like it... that thing was unbelievably strong."
Ashborn stepped closer.
"When all you were required to do," he continued evenly, "was sever one of its heads."
Arthur laughed.
A quiet, broken sound that barely carried.
"…Destiny really made a bad joke with me this time."
Silence followed.
Then Ashborn spoke again softer now.
"That was not destiny."
Arthur looked up at him.
Ashborn raised a gauntleted hand. Shadows shifted, and the void around them subtly changed as if revealing layers Arthur hadn't noticed before.
"You were tested as usual," Ashborn said. "And you chose excess."
Arthur blinked.
"…Excess?"
"You did not seek the easiest path," Ashborn replied. "Nor the most efficient. You fought until nothing remained. You erased the threat entirely."
Arthur swallowed.
"…It tried to kill me."
A pause.
"Yes," Ashborn agreed. "And you responded by proving something far more dangerous than strength."
Arthur frowned deeper.
"And what's that?"
Ashborn's gaze bore into him, ancient and knowing.
"That when pressed," he said, "you do not settle for survival."
Arthur felt something tighten in his chest.
"You always seek the end."
The word lingered.
Arthur looked away.
"…Someone I know would tell you that's a bad trait."
Ashborn tilted his head slightly.
"That someone is correct," he said. "And yet… that trait is why you stand where others would have fallen."
Arthur was silent for a moment.
Ashborn regarded him quietly.
"You have claimed Primordial Darkness," he said. "You have made your mortal vessel suitable for what comes next, now the choice is yours."
Arthur closed his eye.
"…Good," he murmured.
For the first time
Ashborn smiled.
"Rest," he said. "You will need every fragment of yourself when you wake."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want