Chapter 74

I'm posting some chapters ahead of time on my discord server: https://discord.gg/r2VSvS5kaH

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Only two people were still present beneath Indrath's demolished castle. There was a bubble of air created under this ruined place. The Monarch of White Flames and the Shadow Monarch are facing each other, with the former still clinging to the sword that was thrust into the latter.

The Monarch of White Flames was having a hard time controlling his emotional state. Soon, Ashborn would regain his magic and sweep him off. He won't be able to be hurt by his electricity the same way he was before.

"Why don't you f*cking die?!"

Baran exerted more force in an effort to split Asbhorn's head in half. He should be able to split the Shadow Bastard in half with enough force. Ashborn is still paralyzed by electricity, so the monarch tries to thrust his weapon upward but runs into a tough object.

Baran's white eyes widened as he observed how the sword was utterly immobile. Ashborn's body couldn't be the source of the resistance; on the contrary, it was extremely weak in comparison to his own. By now, the human body should have been cut into pieces.

Suddenly, the sword was grabbed from the front. The monarch looked up to see Ashborn staring back at him with eyes that pierced the soul. For a moment, his grasp on the sword loosened. This period of time was enough for him to lose the handle of the sword completely.

The Shadow Monarch thrust the sword back and hit the chest of Baran with enough force to make Baran's chest deform and take the shape of the handle. The monarch of white flames flew back and was crushed into the rubble.

Before he could regain his composure and stand up, he received a crushing blow to the head and crashed into the rubble again One punch, two punches, three punches, the Shadow Monarch uncontrollably kept punching the traitor.

Then he grabbed the head of Baran and lifted him closer. Just when they made eye contact, Ashborn proceeded to kick the face of the monarch with his knee. This continued until he was blocked.

Baran used telekinesis to bring down the pile of rubble on the Shadow Monarch. Before the destroyed pieces of the castle could reach Ashborn, he used his own telekinesis and stopped them in mid-air.

The demon took advantage of Ashborn's occupied hand to draw his sword. Once more, it was stopped before Baran could bring it to himself, but at this point, both of the Shadow Monarch's hands were occupied.

With great force, Baran ejected himself from this air bubble and emerged from the pile of debris outside the castle after crashing through it.

Chaos reigned supreme in the outside world. Not that he had anything against it, but how did it come about so quickly? Those monarchs needed to deal with the shadow army right away. So why are they putting up such resistance?

*Rumble*

Baran could feel the chill run down his spine; the crater formed on the ground as the rubble exploded. Those purple eyes always terrified him, and now he is facing him alone... Together with the Beast Monarch, he was destroyed. What could he do alone?

To fight the Shadow Monarch, he nevertheless materialized long daggers in his hands.

The speed of his foe, however, prevented him from responding. Ashborn used telekinesis to fire Baran's own sword in his direction. It was painfully avoided by Baran; he lost his left hand in the process.

"I need to reach Antares..." Hurriedly muttered Baran, he wouldn't last long without additional help.

Ash blurred next to him, "I'll take you to him." He bashed Baran's head with his leg and sent him flying towards the largest battle on the flying continent.

They quickly reached the battlefield, and when Baran was unable to properly stabilize himself while flying through the air, Ashborn took matters into his own hands and punched the man to the ground. Antares, who was about to get rid of his shadow soldier, was the target of his aim with Baran.

*Boom*

The violent collision between the Monarch of White Flames and the Monarch of Destruction produced yet another cloud of dust.

This escalation, however, left Ant King Beru, the Marshall of the Shadow Army, speechless. He wanted to cry from happiness, and the tears actually escaped his eyes.

"Beru, don't become emotional again. Concentrate on the battle."

"Of course, my liege!" He wiped away a tear.

Ashborn swiftly gave orders to his troops internally. While others had to make every effort to deal with more minor threats, he would be going up against the dragon monarch. The dust cloud finally settled down, showing both monarchs standing on their two feet.

Ashborn moved forward and charged the King of Dragons without saying a word to his adversary. The two clashed, with both creating swords out of nothing. The great shockwave spread all across the flying continent.

This construction won't be able to hold for very long because of their violent collision, which caused earthquakes on the flying continent. As a result, a sizable chunk of land will inevitably fall to the ground and nearly destroy everything.

*Clash*

"Haha, Ashborn! Will you kill your own human brother?!" As they again swung their massive swords apart, Antares asked.

With a resolute determination, Ashborn gripped the sword and said, "No. I'll kill you."

"Amusing, amusing, amusing!" Despite being in the midst of a battle, the Monarch of Destruction laughed ominously. As this was his goal, it couldn't have mattered less that their conflict was destroying the world.

He had to destroy everything.

Ashborn now made an attempt to seize Antares and teleport him to a different location. Antares exposed his scheme, much to his utter misfortune. He quickly swatted the hand away before striking Ashborn in the chest with his great sword. An already healed wound once again opened, this time it was horizontal, but the damage was as terrifying.

Ash jumped away quickly to evade another attack by Antares. Somehow…he knew about his tactic.

"It won't work on me again!"

'Again?' The Shadow Monarch was initially uncertain as to what he might mean by again. However, when he realized it, he was compelled to both praise and curse his successor. So that was how he dealt with the Antares...

"Your replacement treated me in the same way. He cut me off from my own soldiers because he couldn't defeat me by himself. Never again will I be taken in by the same deception!"

Antares noticed the change in Ashborn, he definitely didn't act according to his principles anymore. The Shadow Monarch changed his fighting style and fully concentrated on defeating an enemy at all cost.

He wouldn't have acted same in his past life as a monarch or a ruler. Just like his successor, who he already told, that Ashborn would never use such attacks. Ashborn has changed…

"What? Still can't admit that you lost to a human?" The Monarch of Destruction was ridiculed by Ashborn. This incensed Latter, but not enough for him to launch an enraged attack on the Shadow Monarch.

"What a funny thing you are telling me. You gave up."

"Yes, I might have, but I don't see myself quitting now."

Both of them started to put on their armor as Ashborn said that. Antares created the silver shiny armor with sparks all over his body. The armor materialized in an entirely dark shade as the Shadow Monarch's response.

"Now that's the Shadow Monarch I know..." Antares couldn't see his opponent's face, but he could tell what he was planning just by looking at his eyes.

The air was filled with the smell of death and destruction. Intensely glaring at one another, the two foes were facing off. Their immediate environment was in ruins, and things were about to get worse. Tornadoes, triggered by the violent storms of mana left by the two monarchs, tore across the land.

The monarchs faced each other as the ground shook beneath their feet. With their swords aiming to cut down the foe. And this was just the beginning of the clash. Soon it would reach a scale much greater.

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Far away from them, Baran was having a hard time fending off the shadows. To be able to not only stand your ground against the monarch but to overpower him was something unheard of for Baran; they were absurdly strong for shadow soldiers.

Beru, Agrona, Windsom, and Aldir.

Together, they made up the ideal team that complemented each other's skills and was unstoppable. Of course, that didn't work against the Monarch of Destruction, but they at least stood their ground for some time.

'I can't defeat those bugs?' Baran was about to make his soul manifest in order to receive a power boost, but this was quickly seen as unnecessary when his ally arrived on the scene.

"Baran, how is the situation with Antares?" The Monarch of Plague landed next to the Monarch of White Flames.

"He is clashing with the Shadow Bastard. Things are escalating too quickly. It's too hard even for me to understand." After regaining his calm, Baran's tense demeanor was lost.

Quaresha nodded and looked at the shadows, "We should deal with this until then."

Next to her, a green mass materialized and assumed the form of a hand. She sent it to the group. She was surprised to see how quickly unknown magic dispersed the mass. Agrona used his decaying mana-arts on the green hand.

"Strong ones, I see." Looking at the group, she grinned. Fighting against her child was something she particularly enjoyed thinking about. The ant-king Beru had none of it though, he couldn't care less about the old wench.

"Agrona?"

"They are also strong. Let's do the same but faster."

He was followed by Screech. Beru charged at the Monarch of Plague after clearly understanding the assignment. For some reason, this woman irritated the ant-king, so he wanted to take on her alone.

Beru reached his target quickly. He was a few meters away from slashing the woman in half. A green hand manifested in front of him and grabbed him. This was such an awkward way of getting caught, that Beru, for a moment, just froze out of confusion.

"Skreeee!" The green hand was destroyed by Beru's claws. "Don't you dare touch me, woman!" Angry, he yelled at the Plague Monarch. Beru attacked the Plague Monarch ferociously after becoming even more enraged.

The group had grown accustomed to Beru's anger management problems by this point, so they chose to take advantage of it. Despite how absurd it may seem, Beru was deflecting the Plague Monarch's attack.

One after another, green masses were getting cut into a hundred pieces. While Beru was taking care of the first issue, they could concentrate on the second one.

"Phew, let's go."

Under the Monarch of White Flames, Agrona raised a pillar of black flames. Baran simply avoided the hazardous attack by stepping away. This made Agrona chuckle,

"Well, nobody said it's going to be easy."

The three attacked the monarchs while Beru shouted their battle cry. Once more taking the form of a dragon, Wisdom attacked Baran with energy volleys. Aldir confronted Baran in a melee. Agrona was using the soul-fire to assist Aldir from a distance.

As they started to lose contact with other shadow soldiers, the battle just started getting more intense. Still, other monarchs were murdering their fellow comrades.

Baran was dealing with the three most vital shadows and only felt slightly pressured. With fewer enemies to deal with in melee, he was efficiently managing to deflect ranged attacks and follow up with counterattacks.

'I have to do something…' Aldir blurred behind Baran, surprising the monarch with a sudden increase in speed.

His unclosing eye shone brilliantly as the mana wave emitted from it. Aldir pushed the Monarch in the opposite direction. The latter was attempting to place him directly in line with the energy blast's impact.

When Baran became aware of this, he sent out his own electrical wave to counter Windsom's. Similar to Antares, he opened his mouth, and the dreadful torment of electricity erupted.

*Boom*

It couldn't get any worse when they once again witnessed Antares' transformation into a gigantic dragon.