Story: I'm a Daemon, so what?
Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.
Chapter 136: Killing a Monarch
As always, up to 18 chapters ahead at [email protected]/theogbasilisk
______________________________________________________________________
- Sung Jin-Woo -
"I-I think this might be a bit above our paygrade." Lim Tae-Gyu said with a nervous laugh.
He didn't say anything, but Jin-Woo felt similar. All of a sudden he was being confronted with the true dangers that lurked out there.
He thought that maybe, with time, he could come to match those monstrous National Level-Hunters, but even that may not be enough?
Just what was their world coming to?
They all watched in absolute silence as the man they now knew was named Sillad began explaining things to the white-haired Demon they now knew was named Felix.
None of them could bring themselves to say a thing as they learned about the true vastness of their universe.
Sillad spoke about the other dimensions, the Chaos World, and how the Gates led to specific places of the Chaos World. He spoke about an ancient war between the Monarchs and Rulers.
There were otherworldly beings that wanted to use their planet as a battleground to end their eons long conflict?
Sillad spoke about just what and who the Monarchs and Rulers were. Both groups of individuals that were created by some omnipotent god known as the Absolute Being, though said god was seemingly dead which didn't make any sense, but he couldn't bring himself to think about that more.
He explained just where the Monarchs and Rulers place in their universe was.
They were basically the strongest beings in existence, with the power each of them had was seemingly overwhelming going by Sillad's description.
Hell, they said that normally one measly planet wouldn't cause them any trouble at all. They spoke about an entire planet with billions of people living on it as nothing but a footnote.
Sillad spoke about how the Monarchs had conquered and destroyed plenty of other dimensions before, and that Earth would be the next one, for no other reason than because they felt like it.
It didn't paint a good picture of the situation they had found themselves in. Before he got the System, he wouldn't have even imagined something like this was possible. His problems back then seemed so huge back then, but now they were easily dealt with. Instead, he now had even larger problems to deal with.
Sillad spoke about how the Rulers had been thorns on their side, attempting to stop them from their rampant destruction, and were now protecting Earth, which was somewhat relieving to hear.
The Rulers from Sillad's description seemed to be the Monarchs' eternal enemies, opposing them at every possible turn.
He didn't know how he would feel if Earth was left to fend for itself entirely. He was clearly not strong enough to protect Earth on his own, and other S Rankers seemed to be incapable of that as well.
He didn't know how strong the National Hunters were, but even then he found it hard to believe that a Human could fight those monsters.
The only thing he was worried about now was if the Monarchs gained another strong ally, Felix.
He had a good impression of Felix, even if their first meeting left much to be desired as he had entered in a rather dramatic way that made his intentions easy to misunderstand.
He hadn't started anything with them when they made their hostility blatant, instead only looking at them like a group of kids with sticks for swords.
In other words, nothing he needed to take seriously.
He even went on to resurrect Min Byung-Gyu, which further made him think of Felix as not really a bad guy.
But that only made things more complicated.
Because if someone with that much power, someone who could casually breathe life back into the dead, something he hadn't thought was possible, and he wasn't aligned with either the Rulers or the Monarchs… then who was he?
Even the Monarchs that were with him now seemed to have no clue of his existence. Were there others like that out there? Would he always need to worry about people like Felix popping up, except instead they were hostile?
And more importantly, why was Felix here? He didn't want to think Felix came here with bad intentions, but he couldn't help but be cautious; it was in his nature.
Something inside of him almost seemed to agree with that sentiment.
His gaze wandered to the screen that was locked at the side of his vision. A quest he had been given the moment he arrived.
ⓘ NOTIFICATION
[Urgent Quest - Secrets Revealed]
A quest window appeared in front of him and opened on its own.
ⓘ QUEST INFO
[Urgent Quest - Secrets Revealed]
Goal:
Go to the Cartenon Temple.
Reward: The knowledge you have been seeking.
He could summon a key to the Cartenon Temple. He wanted to go there to unravel the secret behind his power, but there were more important things to worry about right now.
He could worry about that when the planet wasn't at risk of destruction.
Sillad explained how the Gates were actually artificially created, that the Rulers set a system up so that Gates would randomly spawn and connect to different parts of the Chaos World, the other primary dimension where the Monsters they fought resided.
The Gates were created by the Rulers in an effort to have Humanity prepare for the war and not be completely helpless.
He didn't know how to feel about that. He was angry, incredibly angry at what the Rulers did. He could see the logic behind it, but those Gates took his father from him.
He looked around the room to see everyone else's expressions. He pulled Jinha in a one armed hug as he saw the blatant worry on her face. "It'll be fine."
Jinah slowly nodded into his side.
The rest of the Hunters were all in similar states of worry.
Sillad, meanwhile, continued speaking with Felix, not caring about the reality altering information he had just dropped.
"Two of our numbers are either dead or gone. Legia, the Monarch of the Beginning, and… Baran, the Monarch of White Flames and the King of Demons." Sillad explained.
"Ah."
He immediately turned his head back to the broadcast as he heard the name Baran.
Was it possible?
He shook his head. No, it wasn't. If these Monarchs were as strong as Felix was and how strong the three other Monarchs seemed to be, he wouldn't have had a chance at defeating Baran, King of Demons he faced in the Demon Castle.
Then what was it he fought? It couldn't be a coincidence that both were named Baran and had the title King of Demons.
"Is there something wrong, Hunter Sung?" Baek Yoonho asked.
He shook his head. "Nothing to worry about right now."
"Not only that, the Priest of the Monarch of White Flames has been looking for a new Monarch candidate for quite some time. I believe you would be capable of ascending to the same position as Baran, and becoming the new Monarch of White Flames, as well as the King of Demons." Sillad explained.
"That's a thing!? Someone can just become one of those monstrosities!?" Lim Tae-Gyu yelled in shock.
Baek Yoonho was clenching his fists as he stared at the screen. All of them were waiting for Felix's response. Felix seemed monstrously powerful, and something told Jin-Woo that he had only seen the tip of the iceberg when it came to his power.
They already had a lot of people to worry about now; adding another to that list would not be ideal.
Felix went on to ask how he would become a Monarch which caused a pit to form in his stomach. He thought that despite being a Demon, Felix may not be a bad person, he hoped his belief held true, if only for Earth's sake.
"One must venture to the Sea of the Afterlife, a spiritual dimension where the dead arrive after their deaths. There they merely exist in a void, floating around as nothing for the rest of eternity." Sillad began.
Now one of the other Monarchs, Yogumunt, stepped forwards. "I am more educated on this aspect, so I shall continue." He said as Sillad took a step back.
Yogumunt went on to explain about the World Tree and how it connected the universe's dimensions and how one needed to take a head off of a certain beast before becoming a Monarch.
"Haha, we really were just frogs in a well." Lim Tae-Gyu said with a nervous laugh. Out of everyone, he seemed to be the most affected.
"You gonna join us or not? Having a full roster will make the war even easier than last time." The final Monarch, Rakan, grunted.
Felix didn't say anything for a few moments, instead opting to make his way to the Ant that decimating the S Rank Hunter part.
He wanted to Arise the Ant; it surely would have made for a powerful Shadow, but he unfortunately couldn't. With a touch from Felix, the Ant disappeared. To where, he didn't know.
"Monarch of White Flames huh? It's a cool title I suppose, but I'm way cooler than some bum who got no diff'd by the Shadow Monarch. I'm already a Demon Lord, I don't need your title." Felix said with an easy going smile. "I came to this universe to relax a bit, enjoy life and what not. Not to mention I was a bit curious about your creator. Plus, the Humans here seem pretty interesting. I'd like to watch them a bit, maybe even help them if the Rulers bribe me or something."
He let out an unconscious sigh of relief.
"A vacation? He came from another universe to ours for a vacation?" Ma Dongwook said in awe.
"Hah! And to think we wanted to fight against a being like that." Baek Yoonho said with a laugh, though there was no humor in his eyes.
"...How unfortunate. I would have thought you would be intelligent. It seems I was incorrect. One such as you is no longer deserving of the title of Monarch." Sillad said in a completely different tone of voice.
However, before he could continue watching, he stiffened up as he felt an enormous Aura descend in the area around them. All of them shot to their feet. He summoned multiple Shadows, and ordered them to escort his mother and sister to safety. He ignored their protests as his Shadows picked them up and dashed out the windows.
They slowly began to approach the door to his home; the Aura was lingering just outside of it.
"Be careful, maybe this is a friend of that Demon's." He said out loud.
All of them nodded.
His dagger materialized in his hands as he slowly opened the door.
He stared in shock at the person there. "Chairman Go Gunhee?"
The amount of power the Chairman was radiating was absurd, far greater than what he was previously capable of. The Chairman was incredibly powerful, one of the strongest S Ranks in the country, but this… this, was far beyond what Jin-Woo believed the Chairman was capable of.
This was many times stronger than his own level of power, and he just reached level 100.
Just what happened to him?
But while the Chairman's power was overwhelming, it was his eyes that scared Jin-Woo the most. They were glowing an eerie yellow and staring right at him. It felt like he could see right through him.
"Ashborn."
- Felix -
I could sense the edge of Sillad's power meeting my barrier, but the frost climbing against it was unable to pass.
Even still, the sheer pressure he was releasing cracked the clouds above us, blotting out the sun with falling frost and a newly conjured blizzard.
Just his Aura alone was reshaping the climate.
"Alright, now that's pretty cool." I admitted.
Sillad's eyes twitched at my lack of seriousness.
"So you have chosen death." Rakan growled as he unleashed his own Aura.
His presence surged outward in a surge of bloodlust. I could feel the intent he infused in his Aura, but I easily ignored the effects.
Yogumunt interestingly took a step back, not doing some grandiose flexing of his power or anything.
"Well since you showed me yours, it's only right that I show you mine."
I released a large portion of the Demon Lord's Haki that this body could handle to clash against both Sillad and Rakan's Auras.
My Haki flooded outwards, devouring the space within its path. The snow in the air vaporized, boiled away into nothing. The frost clawing at my barrier miles away shattered like glass.
Dark lightning, mixed with flickers of red energy, crackled violently in the air as my Haki matched and overwhelmed the two Monarch's Auras.
"Impossible..." Sillad muttered as the spreading of ice faltered momentarily.
Yogumunt didn't rejoin the standoff, though I could see him just watching us.
Cracks split the frozen landscape beneath us, giant crevices forming all over Jeju Island as the frozen land tried to bear the weight of our presences. The sky above had turned black, blotting out any sign of daylight.
"Still want me to submit?" I asked with amusement.
"This level of power…" Rakan muttered. "It's almost like… them."
I raised a brow. So not quite at the level of Ashborn and Antares then. I was showing off about 4,000,000 EP, so they had more power than that.
Sillad nodded grimly. "Indeed. We have been preparing to fight against those two if the time ever came. I suppose now we will test if our efforts were enough."
I could only assume they were talking about Ashborn and Antares.
I could feel the regret coming off of Sillad in waves. He was heavily regretting not being able to get me on his side
"Are we finally going to fight?" I said with an excited smile.
I was super curious about the techniques of eons old fighters. They had to have some good data, right?
The three didn't bother to answer me. The only thing I could hear for a moment was the raging blizzard around the island.
And then everything exploded.
Rakan and Sillad dashed forwards, leaving shockwaves in their wakes. With my perception, I could see Yogumunt in the back weaving spells around us. Most of them were meant to debuff me, but I quickly shook those off with a flare of my Aura as they had yet to fully latch onto me.
By now Rakan and Sillad had reached me.
I stood my ground, letting the tremor of their charge hit me before I moved.
I weaved between their attacks, the claws of the Beast Monarch narrowly missing my torso as Sillad's icy blade swept over my shoulder, leaving a trail of frost that tried and failed to freeze my Haki that was still flaring around me.
Haki was a fun power; I wanted to play with it a bit more.
Though I was having more trouble than expected in this fight already. My speed was far less than what I was used to, which I expected, but experiencing it was another thing entirely.
I tilted my head, allowing an icicle to shoot past my head before appearing above them in a blur.
My knee slammed into Sillad's face, sending him crashing into the mountain of ice behind us, splitting it in two.
Rakan roared, his body partially shifting, fur bursting out, muscles swelling, fangs gleaming, and height increasing. His eyes were glowing red as his skin took on a far more eerie shade as his hair and fur was slowly whitening.
He was beginning to force more of himself into his body, allowing him to use more of his power.
I raised a brow as I felt Yogumunt cast a charm, not at me this time but at Sillad and Rakan; one meant to reinforce their bodies so they could handle more power. I didn't stop him either.
Rakan charged forwards in a rageful cry, but I was already moving again. Demon Lord's Haki surged around my fist, red-black energy spiraling inward with every moment.
BOOM
The moment my punch met his transformed forearm, my Haki erupted from it. For a second, there were no aftereffects of our clash, but then came the shockwave.
The force rippled outwards, vaporizing everything around us. The mountains around us were split apart even more, the snowstorm Sillad conjured above us while I was distracted was dispersed, and the clouds were now blasted away to reveal the blood red sky warped by all of our Auras.
The island beneath us fractured, deep fault lines cracked across its surface, and whole chunks of the island cracked away from the mainland and were sinking into the ocean.
I blinked down at Rakan, who was still standing. His forearm was blown off from the blow, his remaining bone jutting out at an angle, but the wound quickly mended itself.
A bloodthirsty grin found its way onto his face. "It's been a long time since I've had this much fun!"
Rakan, still grinning, raised his hand. The entire mountain we were in began to float. Tons upon tons of stone and ice broke free from the earth. In an instant, it was all condensed into a sphere and chucked at me.
I held my hand out, the hilt of a weapon forming in my palm. This wasn't Yamato; that would be a bit too easy. Instead, I was using the Anti-Skill weapon Yuuki had made. I just altered its shape to be that of a longsword.
Anti-Skill wouldn't do anything to the mountain falling at me since it was a purely natural effect, but I didn't need it for that.
As the sphere approached, I tilted my head slightly, infusing some of my Aura into the weapon, then swung once.
SCHUNK
There wasn't any explosion or anything; the mountain was simply cleanly split in half mid air. Both sides of the mountain disintegrated upon making contact with my slash.
I twirled the sword once and rested it on my shoulder. "That was cute."
I had sensed Sillad vanish into the upper atmosphere earlier, but I didn't bother with him until now. I expanded my senses a bit and realized what he was doing.
A chill swept the battlefield as a cold Aura spread throughout the battlefield. I looked up at Sillad in his new form.
He had used his Spiritual Body Manifestation while I was busy having fun with Rakan.
Sillad's hair grew longer, as his ears became pointy. His old wrinkly skin had smoothened out now. Not to mention the Aura he was releasing was far greater than before.
Ice was practically growing on him now.
I had long since sensed what was coming, but it was once I saw the shadow that I finally laughed.
"Man, everyone has to do this, huh?"
I could understand; it was a badass thing to do.
I smiled as I kept looking up. There was a colossal ice meteor falling from the sky, multiple times larger than even Jeju Island in its entirety.
The pressure and lingering Aura around it alone warped space, dragging the clouds into a spiral around its descent. Due to the sheer amount of energy compacted into the meteor, even I couldn't tank it in my current form.
My Multi-Dimensional Barrier was a bit too weak to tank it completely, and it was a bit boring to rely on that only.
Sillad infused some of his Divinity into it, after all, and it was cutting apart Space like butter.
The light dimmed under the meteor's sheer mass.
While I was all for collateral damage, I didn't want the entire island to be irrecoverably damaged, so I unfortunately couldn't just opt to tank it or cut it into pieces, but I had another idea in mind.
I had a few seconds so I warped in front of Rakan who's eyes widened in shock at my sudden appearance. Despite being in this weakened form, teleportation was still my forte, and Instant Motion could be used freely.
I quickly dropkicked him to the other side of the island with a boom. I had infused some of my Aura into him with that kick, resulting in a fatal wound if Rakan didn't take care of it now, so he was out of the picture for the time being.
Then, before I could move to deal with the meteor, I felt Space around me warp.
Thousands upon thousands of icicles flashed into existence in a broad sphere around me. Normally, someone would be cornered by this, especially since being hit by even one of those was a death sentence for most Spiritual Lifeforms.
All the icicles fired at once.
I didn't need to activate Thought Acceleration as my perception was enough to deal with it all. Each icicle could be felt with my Universal Sense; every trajectory, every rebound, and every ricochet could be easily calculated.
I slid between them, twisting here, pivoting there, a spin, a sidestep. I had to manipulate my body shape to slide between them all, but that was no big deal.
As I did so, I could sense Yogumunt taking action. He was casting all sorts of Spells, I could feel Debuffs, Curses, some Mind Spells, Gravity, Fire, and more all being weaved around me.
He wasn't aiming to kill me, I could tell; he was trying to keep me in place for Sillad's meteor. It seems he played mostly the support role among the Monarchs. From what I could tell, his efficiency was the greatest among the three Monarchs here now as well.
"Trying to stack effects, huh?" I said as I continued to dodge through the barrage of icicles. I could feel three different spells latch onto me, so I flared my Haki, burning away all the Spells. I could feel Yogumunt's annoyance at my actions.
Then I casually sliced down, cutting the remaining chunk of icicles apart. The meteor was far closer now.
The air had reached back to absolute zero levels, solely from the lingering cold the meteor was giving off.
I looked up at the meteor again; it was a pretty admirable attempt at killing me. There was real mastery in the way the ice was structured. There were layers of magic circles hidden inside, all fueled by Sillad's Divinity, making the meteor pack a punch.
I vanished in a flicker, reappearing at the edge of the meteor. The cold up here could have frozen entire nations in a few moments, and the pressure was strong enough that even a strong Enlightened would likely be crushed under it in a moment or two.
I looked around with a bit of curiosity, as if the weather wasn't affecting me.
Time to test something.
I reached out with my free hand and dug into the meteors surface, letting the overwhelming cold try to seep into me, but my Haki clashed with it, devouring the energy and shunting it away.
My haki was as strong as ever due to its nature as a power system being a bit different.
I stabbed the sword into the ice and began carving quickly.
I'd never quite tried something like this, but I was here to experiment a bit. Intricate lines and symbols laced with my Aura formed as I moved, carving a complex seal into the meteor itself. It would only take a moment.
As I quickly carved, Sillad and Yogumunt didn't just let me do so in peace. I had to deal with their recurring attacks, Yogumunt and his spells, and Sillad and his ice that kept coming at me from every which way.
But soon enough I was done. I pulled back, floating above the meteor as it descended even closer to Jeju Island.
Then I stomped down.
The rune ignited, then the energy within the meteor inverted in on itself, imploding into a singularity of frost before exploding upwards into the sky. The shockwave parted the ocean around Jeju Island even more, and the sky was further torn apart.
At this point there would likely be permanent lingering effects of our fight unless I went out of my way to fix them.
I landed lightly on Jeju Island.
There was a pause as Sillad stared at me from above before slowly descending. "...You unraveled that in a moment." He said with shock in his voice.
I have a feeling he was rather proud of his meteor.
I shrugged. "It was pretty cool, but you need to diversify. Everyone does the meteor thing eventually."
He touched down on the cracked ice, fully manifested now, a cloak of frost trailing behind him. Yogumunt followed behind him, who was also now fully incarnated.
All three of the Monarchs were now fully incarnated, but they couldn't stay that way for long, even with the runes that Yogumunt cast on each of their bodies.
Then with a loud boom, Rakan also arrived behind me.
"You bastard!" He roared. I raised a brow and turned around to face him. He didn't look anything like what he did before. Now he was fully in the form of a wolf.
"Well I think it's time to wrap this up. If you have anything else to show me, now would be the time." I said with a lazy smile.
Rakan didn't answer, not with words anyway.
The ground beneath us cracked further as Rakan's body pulsed in an eerie red glow. A thick Aura that gave off the feeling of domination spread off of him, encompassing the entire battlefield.
Behind me I heard Sillad mutter, "Now."
With that the three Monarchs moved at once.
Sillad shot forwards, his body phasing into misting ice as he did so. He was partially changing his body to become more Spiritual, allowing him to bring more of his power to bear for a few extra moments. Not to mention it made it harder to land a strike on him. His body seemed to be similar to that of a Logia Devil Fruit user now. He was his element and basic attacks couldn't hurt him essentially.
Rakan came in a moment later, his massive paws crashing down to create tectonic-level shockwaves, shifting the axis Jeju Island was situated on.
Yogumunt was slinging spells at me. I held back my laugh as a spear of pure Space shot at me. It was similar to Absolute Severance, but he really chose the wrong element to use on me.
With a look, the spear disappeared, leaving Yogumunt in confusion for a moment.
Sillad reformed behind me, his fists coated in black ice; the kind that didn't freeze you literally but metaphysically.
He punched forward with the kind of force that would break the Space in this world apart.
An amusing idea came to mind as I caught his fist.
I used the power of Velzard's Factor on my palm. Cessation Lost stopped the motion of the matter around my palm. Rather than reducing the kinetic energy to zero, it makes it impossible to move in that state while also preventing the outflow of energy.
The instant his fist made contact with my palm, the matter and energy in that space ceased all possibility of motion. The air warped for an instant then froze.
With the molecular activity stopped, none of Sillad's cold energy could escape.
Sillad's eyes widened as the surrounding air molecules, unable to move or vibrate, crystallized into ultra-dense frost that crawled along my arm and up Sillad's wrist. This ice was filled with Velzard's own Authority, putting it at the Ultimate level.
I expanded the Space around us to prevent Yogumunt and Rakan from interfering.
Shard formed along the edges of where our two hands met.
Sillad tried to pull his arm away, but his entire arm was already layered with Velzard's ice. Sillad may have been powerful in Ice, but he wasn't as good as the Frost Dragon.
The ice that was creeping up Sillad's body wasn't just physical either; it was also doing Spiritual damage to Sillad, something he quickly found out as he tried to Spiritualize to phase through me.
His struggles grew more desperate, but I poured more energy into Cessation Lost. My brows furrowed as I felt a sudden wave of tiredness hit me. I had overexerted myself a bit, I was too used to being able to draw on my overwhelming reserves. Magicule Breeder Reactor covered for me, but that couldn't fix me up entirely.
The frost accelerated, causing Sillad to grow more desperate as the frost moved from his arm to his shoulder then his chest.
He flared all of his power in its entirety in an attempt to break the ice off, but my own Haki met his Aura, canceling its effects.
"You're not getting out that easily."
He continued to struggle as the ice spread over him more and more. Soon enough the ice that Cessation Lost caused reached his jaw. His expression was locked in place now; rage, fear, and disbelief.
His body was now entirely encased in ice.
"Damn it Yogumunt, come on!" Rakan yelled.
Yogumunt was trying to break the spatial phenomena I caused to reach us, but by the time he did it would be too late.
I poured more energy into the construct causing fractures to begin spreading, not only on his Physical Body but in his Spiritual Body as well. His very soul was encased in ice and was now cracking.
The final lines of energy converged at his core. I clenched my fist.
Sillad's body and soul immediately shattered into millions of pieces.
It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to beat a Monarch. Sure I did still have an EP advantage, but it was more than possible to bridge the gap with technique. These guys have had eons to train and they were incapable of that still.
I wouldn't lie and say I didn't still have an insane advantage, as my sheer computational power alone, even nerfed in this state, was still overwhelming in comparison to them I imagine.
That allowed me to just operate at a far faster level than these three, even now.
Still, they should have been able to do more. They probably got complacent with their position on the top. They'd won all the wars with the Rulers so far, the Rulers merely rewinded time, so they probably thought they didn't need to train since they only lost due to circumstances out of their hands.
Also Velzard's Authority made it a lot easier. Cessation Lost was not to be underestimated. Even in the hands of my current more limited version, it easily allowed me to punch above my weight class.
Perhaps for my future fights I'd try something else.
Finally the Space around us thinned, meaning Yogumunt had gotten through.
I smiled and turned to the other two. "One down, two more left."
Yogumunt flinched, and Rakan's claws flexed.
- Sung Il-Hwan -
Sung Il-Hwan clenched his fists as he watched the broadcast on one of the massive screens in the plaza he was in.
He was merely going about his day, continuing his investigations into the Monarchs when the broadcast started playing.
He had heard about the raid on Jeju Island. It was a noble goal to retake the island from the enemies of Humanity. He had already looked into it, and his son was not participating, so he was incredibly surprised when his son showed up and beat the Ant.
But none of the surprise could compare to what he felt when he saw the power his son used.
The Shadows….
His son was the vessel of the Shadow Monarch, doomed to be replaced by the Monarch in question and used as a host to rampage across Earth.
His mission, given to him by the Rulers, was to kill the Shadow Monarch. Would he have to kill his son to prevent the Shadow Monarch from fully incarnating?
He shook his head. There had to be another way. He refused to slay his son.
Things had changed rapidly. He almost wished he could go back to before the world changed.
He enjoyed his carefree life as a firefighter with his family far more than his current one. If he didn't get trapped in that damn Gate then he could have been there for his family. Instead the Rulers found him, and he had to agree to their demands if he wanted to survive. The Rulers were not running a charity after all; they would not help him for nothing.
Then he trained in various Gates for a decade, mastering his power before the Rulers allowed him to return to Earth with the mission to slay the new Shadow Monarch before he could fully incarnate.
His affinity with the Rulers was among the highest of the vessels, letting him draw upon far more power than the others could.
When he first arrived back on Earth and met that S-Rank Hunter who had it out for his son, he had been worried, but thankfully his son was more than powerful enough to protect Jinha and his mother now.
But at what cost did that power come?
He had been watching the livestream from the start out of curiosity about the raid. He was even about to Gate to the S-Rank Hunters before his son showed up. It would expose him more than he already had, but he still had to try.
He didn't have to do that of course.
Once the Monarchs appeared he was immediately going to Gate over, but as he created the Gate, Jin-Woo was transported away with the Shadows, meaning he had no reason to go to Jeju Island and face off against the three Monarchs.
He was not confident in the odds of his victory against three of them.
Now he was with many other Humans watching the broadcast, as that man called Felix faced down three Monarchs while being completely relaxed.
The Rulers hadn't told him about any such individual before, though if what the Monarchs said was true, that the Demon was from another universe entirely, then that was more than possible.
He clearly wasn't with the Monarchs seeing as he rejected an offer many would not. Being a Monarch came with many benefits; overwhelming power and immortality being only two of them.
Now just who was this man…?
He said he came to their world for a vacation, but someone that was capable of taking on three Monarchs at once was a terrifying existence. The Rulers would most certainly want to meet him if he is not hostile.
Sung Il-Hwan's brows furrowed deeper as he watched the battle unfold on the colossal screen. The crowd around him had grown silent, all the revelations revealed would make many question the reality of the world.
He had seen Monarchs fight before through the memories of the Rulers. They had granted him some of their own to better prepare him.
The sheer presence of a Monarch could bend nature itself. They were practically cataclysms given form, yet the Demon was handling all that.
He had no idea what the effects of this broadcast would be, but he knew they would be massive. The countries were already likely taking measures to secure their nations as well as keep their populations under control.
He was sure they tried to shut the broadcast down as well, but something was clearly keeping the broadcast running.
The level of power being showcased alone would make people fear for their lives. After all, what could one do against such power?
Whoever or whatever was controlling the broadcast had zoomed out, showing the entirety of Jeju Island and the ocean around it.
The ocean was practically frozen solid before it fractured due to the shockwaves. The island was in frozen pieces and fractured, with parts of it already having sunk into the ocean. The weather was extremely abnormal, and the sun was blotted out for the island as well.
The view made it look like there was a localized apocalypse occurring at Jeju Island. He knew that Korea hoped to reclaim Jeju Island and make use of it, but he doubted they'd be able to get much use out of it now.
If it wasn't for the barrier surrounding the island, the effects would have spread even further.
"Man, that Felix guy is totally aura farming, isn't he?" He overheard a teen say.
"Oh yeah. Pretty sure that Sillad guy was too." Another teen said. "Did you see how as he walked each step froze more and more of the area? He totally did that on purpose." One kid said, nodding in the same manner as a wise old man.
He sighed. He forgot how teens could be.
"And I thought that new Korean S-Rank Hunter was the king of aura farming. I mean did you see his entrance?"
They continued to talk about those irrelevant things as they watched the broadcast. Truly, how have Humans made it to the current era?
That was when the unthinkable happened. He watched in shock as the Demon froze the Monarch of Ice, and shattered him entirely.
A Monarch had just been slayed.
___________________________________________________________________
I am highly motivated by your guys' reviews and likes, so do that! I'll probably keep writing or something.
I have a discord server, come hang out if you want! https://discord.gg/VxR5Gn72Fp I also have a channel in Shiro's Gaming Omniverse.
Links: patreon.com/theogbasilisk
Author's Note:
Sup everyone, back with another chapter of Daemon.
Sung Jin-Woo is overthinking and being cautious as per usual, Go Gunhee also showed up though it wasn't really him. By now the Rulers would know what's going on, through their connection with Jin-Woo's dad and they could also likely feel the battle itself.
Felix just had some fun with the Monarchs. There isn't a vast EP difference between them, but the Monarchs really don't have too much technique, the only one who may is Antares and to a lesser extent Yogumunt. Other than that, they seem to be the kinds to see no reason to train when they're already so strong.
Anyways, thanks for reading, peace.
Thanks to @Salante and @Flowerman for beta'ing this chapter.
Last bit of editing -Omnax
Support me if you want to read ahead on pat reon *.com* / theogbasilisk