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Darkness did not press in on Arthur this time.
It held him.
He lay suspended in a vast, silent pool of shadow liquid night stretching endlessly in every direction. The surface beneath him was cool and weightless, rippling gently. His body rested there without pain, without wounds, without gravity.
Arthur stared upward.
There was no ceiling.
No stars.
No light.
Just an infinite, patient dark.
"…Again," he murmured, voice echoing softly before being swallowed whole.
"I'm getting used to being unconscious and ending up in place like this every now and then."
A chuckle rolled through the void.
Amused and familiar.
"That sense of humor," the voice said, rich and regal, carrying centuries in its tone. "I told you, Arthur, you would still be you."
From the darkness, Ashborn emerged.
Not as stone.
Not as a statue.
But as a living presence clad in shadow-forged armor, violet eyes glowing gently beneath his helm. He walked across the surface of the darkness as if it were solid ground, each step sending faint ripples through the pool.
Arthur turned his head slightly, studying him.
"I don't think anything changed," Arthur said honestly. "I don't feel… anything yet."
Ashborn stopped a few steps away.
"That is because the change is not a sensation," he said calmly. "It is an awakening."
Arthur snorted quietly.
"Did I really have to get stabbed in the chest like that?"
Ashborn laughed a genuine, warm sound that echoed strangely in the void.
"Such is the rite of succession," he replied. "You had already proven yourself worthy of my power. There was never anything to fear."
Arthur's gaze drifted back into the darkness.
"It wasn't fear," he said after a moment. "It was uncertainty. I can't see the future. And that's starting to annoy me for some reason."
Ashborn tilted his head.
"You are annoyed because you can't see the future? An interesting way to live, the feeling of not knowing the outcome, what the next hour holds for us." he said. "But I know that isn't what really troubles you."
Arthur exhaled slowly.
Both of them spoke at the same time.
"It's the world around me."
Arthur blinked and looked at him in surprise.
"…Me?"
Ashborn nodded once.
"Do not be surprised," he said. "We were always the same."
He raised a hand and removed his helmet.
Arthur froze.
Staring back at him was his own face.
Older, perhaps. Sharper around the eyes. Lines earned through eternity rather than years. Ashen white hair fell freely around his shoulders, and those same violet eyes piercing, knowing, met Arthur's gaze without hesitation.
Same face.
Same presence.
Same soul.
Arthur laughed softly, shaking his head.
"…I get it."
Ashborn smiled.
"This shall be the last time we ever meet," he said.
Arthur's smile faded just slightly.
"Death?"
Ashborn shook his head.
"Nothingness," he replied. "I will cease to exist. I'm Death and Death cannot claim me, there is no afterlife for us."
He turned, looking out into the endless dark as if seeing his entire existence laid bare.
"I was a Ruler," Ashborn continued, voice becoming distant and reflective. "I served order. I believed in balance. I was betrayed."
His gaze hardened.
"I became a Monarch. I fought. I conquered. I spared when I could. And in the end…"
He looked back at Arthur.
"It all felt meaningless."
Silence lingered.
"A torch must be passed down," Ashborn said simply.
He stepped closer.
Arthur rose from the pool of darkness, standing opposite him. Ashborn placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder solid, grounding.
"I will pass down everything," Ashborn said. "All that I know. All that I was. Every memory. Every truth."
Arthur felt it then a pressure building behind his eyes, not painful, but vast.
"The moment you wake," Ashborn continued, "you will understand. You will gain awareness of all that exists… and all that once existed."
Arthur swallowed.
"You'll know what to do," Ashborn finished. "You are me, after all."
Ashborn's hand tightened slightly.
"A passage to the Chaos World will open," he warned. "When you wake, the others will notice you. You will no longer be hidden."
Arthur nodded slowly.
"I suspected that," he said. "The moment I stepped into the World Tree, I knew it was real."
He hesitated. "Can they cross to my Earth?"
"They can," Ashborn replied. "Unless you stop them. You choose what to do… everything is in your hands now."
Arthur frowned thoughtfully.
"And the Endless," he said. "Especially Death. She knows about you, right?"
Ashborn smiled faintly.
"We are outside their authority," he said. "Beyond their grasp. She knows. And now... you will know as well about them and the others."
A pause.
"The Dream Lord sought you too," Ashborn added mildly. "They are… nosy. And Death is fond of you for multiple reasons, I can relay them if you want."
Arthur looked away, scratching the back of his neck.
"I see and no need… lately, she's been kind of weird around me anyways."
Ashborn laughed openly now.
"You are about to wake," he said, stepping back.
Arthur looked down at himself, then back up.
"Seems like it."
Ashborn regarded him with pride.
"It has been an honor," he said solemnly, "watching you grow as a warrior, and as a Monarch."
Arthur met his gaze.
"And it's my honor to be your successor."
Ashborn's smile softened.
"You still don't get it, do you?" he said gently. "I'm.."
"You," Arthur finished, smiling.
"Still… thank you."
Ashborn began to fade, his form dissolving into shadow and light.
His final words echoed through the void commanding and eternal.
"May the shadows and death carry you forward," he declared,
"and may you prevail over every obstacle, Monarch of Shadows."
The darkness shattered.
Arthur's eyes snapped open.
Violet light blazed from them as he lay upon the altar
awake,
Arthur stood alone in the altar chamber.
The singing had stopped.
The torches burned steadily now, their violet blue flames calm, reverent as if the hall itself had accepted the outcome.
Arthur lifted his hands slowly and looked at them.
He flexed his fingers. Felt the air shift. Felt the shadows respond not eagerly, not violently but naturally, like limbs answering a thought. Power moved through him without resistance, without strain, without hunger.
He closed his eyes.
And the world opened.
Knowledge flowed in not as a flood that drowned him, but as a vast map unfolding all at once. Memories that were not his, yet felt intimately familiar. Ashborn's wars. The Monarchs. The Rulers. The lie of order. The necessity of war.
Beyond that more.
The structure of realities layered atop one another. The currents between worlds. The way cosmic authorities observed, interfered, withdrew. He felt the Endless not as gods, but as forces constrained by rules even they did not write.
Arthur exhaled slowly.
"I feel like myself," he murmured, eyes still closed,
"but at the same time… not."
The knowledge settled.
His mind did not fracture.
His soul did not rebel.
It accepted.
Arthur opened his eyes and placed a hand against his chest.
There was no wound.
No blood.
No rupture.
Only a scar, unmistakable, resting directly over his heart.
Beneath it deeper than flesh he felt it.
The Black Heart.
Beating, calmly.
And entwined with it, like a second pulse in his very soul.
The Primordial Darkness.
Arthur stood there for several seconds longer than necessary, grounding himself in the sensation.
"…So that's where you ended up," he said quietly.
The System chimed.
Arthur willed it open.
[STATUS BAR]
[Name:] Arthur Blackwynd
[Job:] Shadow Monarch
[Title:]Architect of Fear
(+40 INT | +30 SENSE | +30 AGI | +30 STR)
Passive:Dread Architect
[Level:] ???
[Fatigue:] ???
[HP:] ??? [MP:] ???
[Strength:] ???
[Health:] ???
[Agility:] ???
[Intelligence:] ???
[Sense:] ???
Arthur blinked once.
Then laughed softly, genuinely.
"…It seems," he said with a crooked smile,
"I broke the system."
His gaze moved down the interface, calm, analytical.
[Job-Specific Skills:]
• Shadow Extraction
• Shadow Exchange
• Monarch's Domain
[Skills:]
• Bloodlust
• Ruler's Authority
• Mutilation
• Sword Rush
• Speed Step
• Kryptonian Flight
• Dragon's Fear
[Equipment:]
• Omega-Hardened Hide
• Abyssforged Necklace
• Cape of Silent Descent
• Ring of the Monarch of Beginning
• Ring of the Shadow Corps
[Inventory:]
• Doomsday's Bone Gauntlets
• Azarath Knight Armor Set
• Kamish Twinblade
• Promethium Sword
• Shattered Bolt
• Solar Gauntlets
• Venom Sac Flask ×10
• Tower of Fate Key
• Legacy Shadow Legion Dungeon Key
Arthur let the panel fade.
The knowledge that followed wasn't numerical, it was instinctive. He didn't need the stats anymore. The system simply couldn't measure him anymore.
Another chime sounded.
Sharper.
He opened it.
[NEW ITEM ACQUIRED]
[Key to the Chaos World]
Arthur's expression shifted.
"…So that door is open now, just like Ashborn mentioned." he murmured.
He closed the notification with a flick of his will and looked toward the towering statues once more toward Ashborn's place among them.
"Not yet," Arthur said calmly.
"That campaign will have to wait a little bit."
Arthur Blackwynd turned away from the altar, a Shadow Monarch truly awakened, and the universe had just felt it.
/-\
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