Chapter Twenty-Four – Clash of Monarchs
The hall was cold.
No, that wasn't quite right.
It was frigid.
A deep, marrow-chilling cold that had little to do with the air conditioning and everything to do with the words that had just been uttered. The declaration from (Uchiha Sasuke) seemed to hang in the air, crystallizing like frost on the windows of everyone's minds. It was a direct, blatant challenge to the authority of the most powerful Hunter on the continent.
A collective, silent inhale.
You could almost hear the rustle of fine suits as people shifted, the soft click of a pen being set down too carefully on a notepad.
But, against all expectation, (Thomas Andre) seemed… calm.
Unnervingly so.
He moved with a languid, almost bored grace, raising his crystal tumbler to his lips. The amber liquid within caught the sterile overhead lights. He took another slow, deliberate sip.
Clink… clink…
The sound of the ice cubes, gently kissing the crystal, was absurdly loud in the breath-held silence.
"Really?" His voice was a low rumble, like distant thunder over a calm plain. "So you want to hunt the man. How interesting."
He paused, letting the words settle.
"I wasn't going to take this request too seriously…" Another sip. A slow swallow. "But since you want it so badly…"
Crkk-krt.
A muffled, dense cracking sound emanated from him as he rolled his massive shoulders. It wasn't a loud pop, but a deep, structural noise—the sound of immense muscles and thick bones shifting under a mountain of flesh and skin. To the S-Rank Hunters in the room, it was as clear a declaration as a drawn sword. The relaxed giant was gone. In his place was a predator taking a measured interest.
"I'll take your words as a challenge. How about that?" A faint, dangerous smile touched his lips. "Let's see who can catch this Korean Hunter first. I'm… very amused. Especially since it seems a bit of competition is about to happen."
The most notable thing then was the tone. The clear, unmistakable sound of pleasure in the voice of America's strongest Hunter. It was a game to him. A diverting hunt.
A ripple of tension went through the assembled elites.
"It won't happen."
The voice came from nowhere.
And yet, it was firm enough, present enough, to make every Hunter in the hall snap their attention towards its source. Not because it was loud, but because the aura it carried with it was a palpable weight, enough to press against their souls.
The air around the speaker warped. It shimmered, thick with a darkness that wasn't evil, but was profoundly, unequivocally angry.
"He won't be hunted."
All eyes found him.
A young man who appeared to be just over eighteen. Black hair, an athletic build—not bulging with muscle like (Thomas Andre), but lean and rippling with a contained, lethal power. He wore black: a long black coat over a simple white shirt. His eyes, a piercing violet, glowed with a dominant, regal halo, edged with a cold, icy blue.
(Sung Jin-Woo) stood as the new epicenter of the room.
(Go Gun-Hee), and (Cha Hae-In), who was standing a little further back but had instantly recognized the voice, felt their eyes widen in a flash of simultaneous recognition and dread.
As for (Sung Jin-Woo), he looked at no one save for (Thomas Andre).
When (Thomas Andre) sensed the aura pouring from the young Korean, his gaze—previously filled with bored curiosity—shifted. The curiosity dissolved, replaced by a cold, calculating stare. It was the look of someone recognizing a scent, a flavor of power he had encountered before.
Just who does this brat think he's standing up to?
Regardless, (Sung Jin-Woo) took a step forward.
Then another.
Each footfall was unnaturally quiet, yet carried a crushing finality. With each step, more of his power leaked into the air, a suffocating mist of shadow.
Ding.
— Alert: The barrier concealing mana has been disabled. All player restrictions are now lifted. —
He paid the System announcement no mind. It was background noise. All that mattered was standing before those who dared to hunt his father. And as he fully unleashed the power he had cultivated, letting every S-Rank Hunter in the world bear witness—
The gazes locked onto him intensified, morphing from surprise to outright alarm.
"(Sung Il-Hwan) will not be hunted by anyone," he stated, his voice flat, absolute, cutting through the thickened air. "Is that understood?"
His purpose in that moment was singular: to use the power he had gained to protect those he loved. It was the entire reason for his climb.
Of course, the shockwave was immense.
The force of the aura released in that moment was enough to freeze most of the S-Rank Hunters in place. It was a pressure that made the instinctual, lizard-part of their brains scream to flee, to leave this place and never look back.
The air grew dense, heavy, and bitterly cold. The very light in the hall seemed to dim, choked by the emerging darkness. Shadows across the floor stretched unnaturally, not away from the light, but toward (Jin-Woo), elongating and twisting like supplicants bowing to their king.
But.
In the very next instant, the crushing pressure met a sudden, violent resistance.
It was like two invisible titans had slammed their shoulders together in the center of the room.
Boom!
A soundless yet felt concussion of force rocked the chamber. Dust trickled from the ceiling fixtures. The water in the glasses on the tables trembled, creating tiny, frantic ripples.
(Sung Jin-Woo) felt a spike of surprise, and instinctively pushed back, increasing the output of his monarchical pressure.
The opposing force increased in perfect, mocking tandem.
And then, a cold voice sliced through the struggle.
"You're one of those Monarchs, aren't you?" The voice of (Uchiha Sasuke) was devoid of warmth, analytical and sharp. "This filthy aura… it reeks of them."
From him erupted a transparent, shimmering aura of purple, shot through with streaks of pristine white. The pressure emanating from him in that moment was a perfect counterweight to the Shadow Monarch's.
But it was different.
Where (Jin-Woo)'s power was dominant, cold, and deathly still, this energy—this chakra—was vibrant, alive, and fiercely pure. It felt ancient and natural, as if it had blended with the very atmosphere, far purer than any mana the S-Rank or even National-Level Hunters possessed.
(Sung Jin-Woo) felt his pressure being… neutralized. Even if the Hunter before him was on the same level, the very nature of that aura applied a counter-pressure. It was the clarity of power wielded by a being who had mastered both body and spirit, honed through endless wars, and augmented by the eyes that now glowed a fierce, spinning red—the Sharingan.
The chakra aura clashed head-on with the shadowy dominion. It even seemed to press back, causing the air and space around (Uchiha Sasuke) to vibrate as he stared down (Sung Jin-Woo).
A twitch of movement.
(Uchiha Sasuke) stood before the Shadow Sovereign.
"Do you think I don't recognize this aura you possess?" he asked, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper that somehow carried to every corner. "Tell me. What is the reason for the Gates appearing in this world? If you don't tell me, I'll kill you."
It wasn't just a cold threat. It was a statement of fact, delivered with an arrogance born of absolute confidence. He looked directly into the eyes of the shadow ruler.
The pressure in the hall doubled. Redoubled.
The Korean, Japanese, and American S-Ranks felt as if anvils were being stacked upon their chests. Even the National-Level Hunters—(Liu Zhigang), alongside (Thomas Andre) and (Go Gun-Hee)—had to consciously steady themselves against the dual torrents of power that now warred for supremacy in the chamber.
The very foundations of the conference hall began to tremble. A fine grinding sound emanated from the steel supports deep within the walls. Cracks, hairline-thin, spiderwebbed across the pristine marble floor beneath the two young men, not from physical impact, but from the sheer, crushing weight of their clashing wills.
"I told you to stop," (Jin-Woo) replied, his voice simmering with a rage he could no longer contain. He didn't understand the question, and he didn't care to. Everything was tied to his father now. Negotiation? Reasonable discussion? He was far past that point. Years of his father's absence, the hollow ache, and now these vultures circling—it all boiled into a single, fiery imperative. "You will not hunt that Hunter. I don't care what you have to say."
But was that realistic?
(Sasuke) laughed.
A short, cold, and utterly mirthless puff of air. A snort of derision. But it was audible in the dead silence.
"So, you won't answer. You've chosen." He tilted his head slightly, his Sharingan spinning slowly, dissecting, analyzing. "Then, die. I'll make your death extraordinary. And I'll use your soul to find the answers I need."
(Sasuke)'s fist disappeared.
There was a single, shattering sound—not a boom, but a sharp, localized CRACK-THOOM!
His speed was so transcendent that most Hunters only saw a blur of movement, a flicker of black and purple. The air itself ripped where his fist had passed.
(Sung Jin-Woo)'s body was catapulted sideways through the air.
He flew like a ragdoll, crashing through a row of empty, plush conference chairs in less than a second. The shockwave from the punch alone pulverized the section of marble floor where he had been standing, sending jagged white shrapnel and a cloud of dust exploding outward with a sound like shattering ice.
Crunch-smash-thud.
"I'll kill you," (Sasuke) stated, his voice cold and detached as he watched the body tumble, "and find out how these Gates were made."
But his target wasn't there.
(Sung Jin-Woo)'s form, mid-air, dissolved into swirling, inky shadows that scattered like startled crows before coalescing back into human form directly in front of (Sasuke), untouched.
Swish-ssss…
The sound was like black silk fluttering in a void.
(Jin-Woo) landed lightly, his body reforming from the fading shadows that now wreathed him like a living cloak. His eyes, now burning with a more intense, radiant violet light, fixed on (Sasuke).
The collision of energies became physical.
The ninja's chakra aura slammed into the Hunter's shadow force, visibly distorting the space between them. The air crackled with released energy—violet lightning of chakra meeting a deep, vacuum-like blackness.
Zzzzt-zzzzap! Hiss…
It wasn't a fight yet. Not quite.
It was a contest of realms. A duel of sovereignties.
One fought not for a throne, but for a father.
And the entire conference hall, filled with the world's most powerful men and women, could only watch, paralyzed by the awe and terror of the storm raging in their midst. They were spectators in a coliseum where they themselves were not even gladiators, but ants caught between two clashing titans.
The lights flickered violently.
A low, ominous groan traveled through the building's superstructure.
(Thomas Andre) finally set his whiskey glass down. The clink was definitive. A wide, hungry grin spread across his face. "Now this," he murmured to himself, the sound like grinding stones, "is getting good."
(Go Gun-Hee) closed his eyes for a brief moment, a profound weariness settling into his aged features. This was exactly what he had feared.
(Cha Hae-In)'s hand was on the hilt of her sword, her knuckles white, caught between the instinct to step forward and the crushing knowledge that the space between those two was a blender that would shred anything of a lesser caliber.
And in the center, the standoff continued.
(Uchiha Sasuke) watched, unimpressed, as the shadows around his opponent swirled more aggressively. "A shadow user. How predictable."
(Sung Jin-Woo) said nothing. He simply raised a hand. From the pools of darkness at his feet, shapes began to rise—soldiers of utter blackness, with glowing blue eyes. They emerged silently, a small phalanx between him and the ninja.
Shoo… shoo… shoo… The sound of shadows solidifying.
(Sasuke)'s Sharingan tracked each one. "Summoning? Pathetic."
With a flick of his wrist, a arc of purple chakra, shaped like a blade, extended from his hand with a SHING of pure energy. "You'll need more than that."
The first shadow soldier lunged.
And the world of Hunters held its breath, forced to witness a battle from a completely different story, unfolding violently in their most secure of chambers.
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End of Chapter.
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