With Baran's defeat, the place Damien had battled him in began to crackle and break. The walls groaned, the ceiling fractured, and the ground beneath him shuddered. Light poured through the cracks, and then..he was back.
He stood in the empty throne room of the castle he had entered before finding the gate. The familiar stone walls, the cold air, the silence that had greeted him when he first arrived.
Everyone was inside.
"DAMIEN!"
Tiona and Tione crashed into him, their arms wrapping around him in a tangle of limbs and relief. They held him tight, their bodies trembling with the aftereffects of the battle they had survived.
"You guys..." Damien blinked, looking over their heads at the others. "You were waiting for me?"
Riveria stepped forward, her staff planted against the ground. "Yes. We could not get in. This gate thing... it would not allow any of us to pass."
Damien smiled. "Riveria."
He looked around, taking in the sight of everyone gathered in the chamber. Ryuu and Ottar had both awakened, their wounds healed, their bodies no longer broken. Finn stood tall, his spear resting against his shoulder, his face no longer pale with exhaustion.
"It seems like you all healed up well, eh?"
Riveria nodded. "It took some time. But we are back."
Damien glanced around again, his expression shifting. "You did not have any issues? Correct? Outside? I learned that there are no demons of Pride inside."
Tiona snorted. "I wish we had fought a demon. Instead, we had to face a bitch far stronger and worse than any demon."
Damien's eyes narrowed. "Huh?"
Riveria stepped forward, her voice grim. "We faced one of those things you mentioned. A Guardian Rex of the Dungeon. She said she was the Sixth." She paused. "Her name was Baobhan Sith."
Finn's hand tightened on his spear. "She almost killed all of us, to be honest. We were not ready to face something like that."
Tiona grinned, patting Ais on the back. "Thankfully, we had her!" Her eyes sparkled. "She was so cool!"
Damien turned to Ais. Her golden eyes met his, and he saw the quiet strength in them. The battle had changed her. He could see it in the way she stood, in the way she held herself.
"You did great, Ais." His voice was warm. "I am proud of you."
Ais's cheeks flushed. "Thank you..."
'But...This is an issue...How did a A Guardian Rex of the Dungeon come here?' thought Damien, but before he could finish that thought
Tione stepped forward
Gesturing toward the empty throne at the end of the chamber. "Now, what are we to do with that glowy thing over there? I am assuming you beat the Demon King, right?"
Damien nodded. "Yes. I beat him."
He turned to look at what she was pointing at. On the empty throne, there was a glowing blue crystal, its light pulsing gently, casting soft shadows across the stone.
"Let me check what it is." Damien walked toward it. "I am thinking it will be the reward for clearing this dungeon."
He placed his hand on the crystal.
The moment his skin touched the surface, he lost consciousness. His body went limp, and he sat down on the throne, his head lolling to the side, his eyes closed.
Like a sleeping king.
....
Damien's mind was being filled with memories.
Selective memories. Fragments of a life that was not his own, yet somehow connected to him in ways he could not fully understand. They were memories of Ashborn—revealing the final pieces of truth Damien needed to understand the world.
What Vritra had said was not exactly wrong. It was simply veiled by lies she had heard as well. Now, he understood it all.
He had always wondered why the King of Dragons, Antares, was called the Monarch of Destruction, and why the Shadow God, Ashborn, was called the Monarch of Shadows. It made no sense to him—why the two of them would share the name "Monarch" when, unlike the history he knew from Solo Leveling, they were not the ancient race of monsters created by the Absolute Being.
Ashborn, even in the original series, was originally a Ruler. So Damien had assumed that "Ruler" equated to "god" here.
But then the King of Demons, the Monarch of White Flames, had emerged. So what was he? He was clearly not a child of Anu and Ki.
...
Today, Damien finally learned all the answers he needed.
In this world, there were Nine Realms.
Each had its own ruler and Monarch....except the Realm of Emptiness, which was the void from which all things arose.
When Anu and Ki created Heaven and Earth, they created them in the Realm of Emptiness. Their first child gained the right to be its Monarch....the Dragon King, Antares. But as already established, gods and other mortal races also existed, and the events Vritra had described happened.
However, Ashborn was never a child of Anu and Ki.
He was an adopted child.
He was the future Monarch of the Realm of Shadows...a Realm that had been destroyed by some unknown event. Anu, while learning of the existence of other Realms, had saved Ashborn and taken him as his own child. It was also because of Ashborn that Antares had picked up the name of Monarch in the first place.
Anu then tried to unite the Realms.
At first, it was peaceful negotiations. But then, Anu felt insulted by how the other Monarchs treated him. He was a Primordial God...a being of immense power and strength. So he declared war on them all.
Using his adopted son, the Shadow Monarch, he eliminated all the other Realms....including the Demon Realm. All the Monarchs ended up dead.
But Ashborn had never liked what he had done.
So he had always prepared an out.
That out was Baran. Using a piece of Baran's soul, Ashborn had revived it with his power and placed him in this prison....for the future generation.
The other Realms now lay empty, dead, without their Monarchs. Because Anu had never managed to take control of them. Shortly after his return with Ashborn from the conquest of the other Realms, he had learned of Ki's death.
...
Damien sat in the void, the memories fading.
He understood now.
The Nine Realms. The Monarchs. The war. Ashborn's guilt. Anu's grief. The fragments of truth that had been hidden from him for so long.
He opened his eyes.
The throne room was silent. His friends stood around him, watching, waiting.
He looked at them, and for the first time, he truly understood the weight of what he had inherited.
The Shadow Monarch. The heir to Ashborn's legacy.
And the key to everything.
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