____Flash Back____
Stone crumbled as the giant mess of a statue with a shattered jaw cried out. "I AM THE ARCHITECT OF THE SYSTEM! IF YOU WERE TO KILL ME..!"
"I'd return to being an E-Rank Hunter?" Sung Jinwoo smirked a bloody smile. "I've actually thought about that... But an existing system doesn't fall apart when its creator vanishes, now does it?"
"THEN I'LL HAVE TO MANUALLY..." The architect widened his orange irises as his gaze was filled with thousands of the same messages.
[THE SYSTEM HAS DENIED THE ADMINISTRATOR'S ACCESS]
"WHY IS THE SYSTEM DENYING ME ACCESS!?" He cried out.
"You know..." Sung Jinwoo started, his outline glowing a violet hue. "I once thought to myself... I'll swallow the system whole."
"I'll swallow the system whole."
"E Rank Hunter."
"An existing system doesn't fall apart when its creator dies."
"I won't return to being an E-Rank Hunter."
"E-Rank Hunter."
____Flash Back End____
Sung Jinwoo fell to his knee, feeling a sudden sense of vertigo and the urge to vomit rising up his chest.
Around him, his shadows vanished in an instant.
He grit his teeth as he tried to force himself up. "What did you do?"
As if in response, his system appeared before him
___STATUS WINDOW___
Name: Sung Jin-Woo
Level: 1
Job: Monarch of Shadows
Title: The One Who Overcame Adversity
—
HP: 100 / 100
MP: 0 / 136,160 [Black Heart]
Fatigue: 3
—
Strength: 15
Vitality: 10
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Perception: 10
Available Points: 0
—
Physical Damage Resistance: 46%
[You are under the effect of [Authority Of Reduction] Level has been reduced to one]
---
"What...?" he groaned, his voice strained as pain surged through every nerve in his body. His limbs felt heavy, trembling under a crushing weight he couldn't explain. "How... are you doing this...?"
Before him, the dark-haired girl looked down with an expression as cold as winter steel. Her crimson eyes burned with an unnatural glow, like the fires of hell caged behind her calm exterior. Burning shadows coiled around her feet, spreading outward like living smoke.
Then his vision went black.
---
Kaede lowered her hand slowly, frowning at the trembling figure of Sung Jin-Woo on the ground. "I only wanted to reduce his level a little," she murmured, her tone edged with mild irritation. "But it dropped all the way down to one. So... I can't control how much I reduce something. It's either one, or a hundred."
The air around her thickened, the darkness seemed to breathe, pulsing like a living thing.
Then, without warning, the temperature plummeted. A chill wind swept through the street as thick, oily shadows poured from Jin-Woo's body. The entire area drowned in black mist, yet the darkness curved away from Kaede, parting instinctively around her like it feared her touch.
Soon, the hunter's body vanished completely, swallowed by a cocoon of shadow that pulsed with a heartbeat-like rhythm.
Kaede's eyes narrowed, her senses sharpening. "That's why his energy felt off," she said quietly. "I've felt this before... back in Jeju Island."
The cocoon trembled, then split apart with a low, echoing crack. From within stepped a figure of darkness, its form humanoid, but radiating a dreadful presence that made the air quiver.
Kaede met its gaze without flinching. "You're a Monarch," she said, her voice low and steady.
The figure before her was immense, easily eight feet tall, his very presence weighing down the air like a mountain pressing against her chest. His armor was thick and imposing, forged not of metal but of shifting shadows and swirling mist that seemed to breathe with a life of their own. Through the narrow slit of his helm glowed two piercing violet orbs, steady and ancient, eyes that had seen the rise and fall of countless worlds.
From beneath his helm, a mane of dark-violet flame flowed like hair, flickering without sound, burning with an eternal, mournful light. His cape wasn't cloth, it was the night itself, draped across his broad shoulders, the edges dissolving into smoke and nothingness.
Kaede didn't need an introduction.
The moment she laid eyes on him, the name surfaced in her mind unbidden, like an instinct burned into her soul. Her lips curled in disgust.
Her lips curled in disgust. "The Greatest Fragment of Brilliant Light," she spat. "Ashborn. Usurper."
The moment his name left her lips, the world shifted. Night deepened into absolute darkness, an abyss swallowing the stars, the earth, even the air beneath their feet.
Ashborn stopped just a few paces away, the soundless storm of his power brushing against her skin like phantom claws. When he spoke, his voice resonated, not just in the air, but through her very bones.
"What is your name?" he asked.
Kaede blinked, momentarily taken aback by the question. Her gaze lifted to the towering figure before her.
"I've had a few names in my lifetimes," she said softly. "Kaede Honjou… Kaede Tawata."
As she spoke, the faint shimmer of magic rippled across her body. Her casual attire dissolved into glimmering particles, reforming into the Black Rose Armour. The metallic plates settled over her form, seamless and dark as moonless midnight. "You may refer to me as Maple."
Behind her, the abyss itself seemed to stir. The darkness shifted like liquid, rising and curling around her before solidifying into a long cape that shimmered faintly with violet undertones.
"Thank you," she murmured.
Ashborn inclined his head slightly. "You're welcome."
A pulse of energy rolled off Kaede as her essence fused into the cape, burning away the violet hue. In its place came a fiery black, an infernal darkness alive with her own will.
She turned back to the Monarch of Shadows, eyes steady. "I know you," she said quietly. "I don't know how… but I know you. I've seen you. I've been you."
Ashborn's helm tilted ever so slightly, as though studying her more closely. "An interesting statement," he replied. "Especially since I do not know you. You are a Monarch, yet you are not."
"That's because I'm a Monarch Candidate," Kaede answered, a faint frown crossing her face.
"That is not what I meant." His voice deepened, resonant and heavy with meaning. "You are of Chaos World, and yet… there is something else. Your mind. Your soul." A pause. "Death does not know you."
Kaede blinked, her brows knitting together. "I have no clue what you're talking about," she admitted, her tone a mix of confusion and wariness. "But I have questions, Ashborn. About the war you had with the Rulers. Your connection to the other Monarchs. And…" her eyes narrowed slightly, "…why I just referred to you as Usurper just now."
Ashborn remained silent for a few moments, his imposing frame unmoving as faint motes of shadow drifted from his armor. Then, slowly, he turned, just enough for his side to face her.
"As much as I would like to understand you," he said, his voice deep and resonant, echoing faintly like the toll of a distant bell, "perhaps even to speak with you as equals… my time in this game draws to an end. My role here will soon be over."
His helm shifted again until the hollow eye sockets fixed squarely on her. "What you did to my vessel risked unraveling that which I have set in motion."
Kaede let out a small sigh, shoulders relaxing despite the oppressive aura around him. "Yeah, that was my bad. When he said he was a player, I assumed he'd have some kind of resistance skill. Back in New World Online, everyone stacked resistances to deal with status effects, it just made sense."
Ashborn tilted his head, the shadows around him pulsing faintly. "You possess a system as well… curious. It was not created by the Architect, yet he undoubtedly is the sole creator of the system. Intriguing."
Kaede frowned, crossing her arms. "Are you going to answer my questions or not?"
Her tone sharpened, frustration creeping in as the silence stretched between them, her patience thinning in the presence of a being who intentionally spoke in riddles and half-truths.
Ashborn didn't answer immediately. The shadows around him churned, flowing like a sea caught between tides, drawn to Kaede yet recoiling as if fearing to touch her. When he finally spoke, his tone was quiet, almost solemn.
"You intend to ask questions that even after eternity I have struggled to answer," he said. "And yet… you stand there, unafraid of me. Unafraid of what you represent."
Kaede's eyes flickered, a faint glimmer of crimson glinting in their depths. "That is none of my concern," she replied simply.
A low sound reverberated from Ashborn's chest, not laughter, but the faintest echo of amusement, like the sigh of an ancient storm. "You remind me of someone," he murmured. "One who once gave me GLORIOUS purpose."
He raised a hand, vast, clawed, and shrouded in the swirling remnants of countless shadows. A faint purple light flared in his palm, and the form of Sung Jinwoo appeared within it, unconscious and suspended like a marionette with cut strings. The shadows surrounding him were thin now, unstable, like they'd lost their master's command.
Kaede instinctively took a half step forward, but Ashborn's tone cut through the air, still and commanding.
"Do not."
The single word froze her in place, not through power, but through weight, the authority of something beyond comprehension for mere mortals.
Kaede raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
Ashborn's helm tilted down toward Jinwoo's body. "He carries my legacy," he said quietly. "The vessel of my soul and the will of shadows."
He stepped closer until they stood only a breath apart. The air between them crackled with restrained power. His voice lowered to a whisper that still seemed to echo in the fabric of reality.
"You cannot kill him, Kaede Honjou," he said. "I cannot allow you."
Kaede's expression remained unreadable, though her aura dimmed slightly. "…That sounds like a threat."
"It's a warning," Ashborn corrected. "And a promise."
Then, for the first time, the burning violet eyes behind his helm softened, just slightly. "You and I are alike in one regard. We both stand apart from fate. But where you are still learning what it means to reject it, I have spent eons learning what it means to bear it."
He turned his palm upward. Shadows from every corner of the ruined street surged toward him, Jinwoo's, Kaede's, even the faint traces of lingering spirits, forming a vast vortex that reached toward the heavens.
"I cannot remain here," he said. "The vessel must awaken… and the Monarch must sleep."
Kaede took a small step forward, her tone steady. "I wasn't going to hurt him anyway." She pouted. "Although you do know that he will oppose me. Eventually."
Ashborn's head inclined. "Then you will find no resistance from me. It will be his choice and... I want to believe in him."
The shadows coiled tighter, roaring like an ocean caught in a storm. His form began to dissolve, first his legs, then his arms, then his chest, each fragment turning into a thousand black feathers of darkness scattering through the void.
Just before the last of him vanished, his voice resonated one final time, deep, distant, and carved into the fabric of her soul.
"When next we meet, Maple, it will not be as strangers. You will have seen what lies beyond… and perhaps, then, you'll understand why I chose him."
The world exploded in light.
When the haze cleared, only Kaede remained standing in the quiet street. Jinwoo lay unconscious at her feet, his breathing shallow but steady.
She noted that her authority had been removed from his body and his shadows were starting to move again.
In the far end, the members of the Scavenger Guild also lay on the ground unconscious, along with the officials from the association.
"Ah." Kaede rubbed her neck. "How am I going to explain this?"