SHADOW MONARCH (I)

[NA: This is a chapter related to the summarized story of 'Solo Leveling']

The 'Absolute Being', the creator of everything, was responsible for creating all that exists in the universe. And among all of his creations, life as we know it was the greatest, which he distributed across various planets in the universe.

However, before the origin of life itself, the 'Absolute Being' created two groups of extremely powerful beings. The Messengers of God, born from the very light of the universe, and the Monarchs, created from the deepest darkness.

Emerging from the depths of the abyss, these beings were the first creations of the 'Absolute Being'. Eight of each group were created, with the aim of maintaining balance.

From the outset, the Monarchs, beings filled with pure darkness, sought to destroy the various worlds in the universe, while the Messengers of God, beings of light, sought to protect them.

Thus, these two races were constantly fighting and killing their warriors among themselves, through millennia and ages.

Tired of so much death, the Messengers of God pleaded with their creator to end this senseless fighting, to stop this pointless bloodshed.

But to their dismay, their prayers fell on deaf ears.

Only after several years of pleading did they understand that the struggle between them and the Monarchs was nothing more than mere entertainment, and the 'Absolute Being' did not want their entertainment to end.

This fact filled them with anguish and despair!

Then, over time, anguish turned to anger, and with even more time, anger turned to hatred.

And all that hatred born in the hearts of the Messengers of God was directed towards the 'Absolute Being'.

As a result, the Messengers of God drew their swords and rebelled against their creator to end this pointless struggle!

For life, the most divine creation made by the 'Absolute Being', was something that had to be protected at all costs, thus they had to safeguard the almost extinct worlds that harbored it at all costs, even if it meant going against their own progenitor.

However, one of the eight Messengers of God opposed the rebellion, so he faced his brothers in defense of the 'Absolute Being'. However, he was overwhelmed by the combined power of the rest.

And it was on his deathbed that this faithful Messenger discovered that he had the power of the 'Absolute Being' hidden within him.

His creator had planted a mysterious power in his most loyal servant in case everything went wrong. In the eternal darkness of the abyss, his power finally awakened.

The power over death itself, to extract the souls of the dead and form a powerful army!

And thus, this Messenger ripped the souls of his fallen subordinates and those who died facing them from the beyond, thousands and thousands of them, and charged back into battle against his brothers.

But when he arrived with all his new forces at the residence of his creator to defend him, it was all over.

The other Messengers of God had managed to kill the 'Absolute Being', becoming self-proclaimed 'Gods' and 'Rulers' of all that is known.

With the remnants of the 'Absolute Being's' power, the now self-proclaimed Rulers began hunting the Monarchs in fierce battles, managing to capture one of them and thereby upsetting the power balance between both sides.

As the balance of power collapsed, the remaining Monarchs only then realized the gravity of the situation, trying to find a way to counter it.

And it was in this scenario that the faithful Messenger of God, who had acquired power over death, blinded by the pain and rage caused by his creator's death, decided to join forces with his former enemies.

Faced with the grave situation, all the Monarchs shook hands with their old enemy and thus fought against the Rulers.

For as they say, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'

Thus, this fragment of light, this Messenger of God called Ashborn, acquired the name 'Monarch of Shadows'.

And so, the new battle between the seven Rulers and the nine Monarchs for the preservation of life in the Universe continued for a long, long time.

However, as the battle dragged on, the Shadow Monarch's army grew larger and larger.

Having so many dead soldiers from both sides in each confrontation was like a blessing for the Shadow Monarch, who constantly added the souls of the fallen to his own ranks.

This brought fear not only to the Rulers, who watched as his former comrade's strength grew overwhelmingly, but also to their new allies.

And in a cruel twist of fate, two of the Monarchs attempted to betray the Shadow Monarch, resulting in the death of one of them, but causing great loss for all Monarchs in general and for Ashborn!

Deeply wounded, the Shadow Monarch was caught by the Rulers, who had noticed the confrontation.

However, once reunited with his former comrade, they did nothing; rather, they begged for forgiveness, as they considered going against their creator the worst thing they had done and felt ashamed before him.

Unable to decide whether he wanted revenge for the hatred he felt or to return to nothingness to rest, the Shadow Monarch disappeared along with the Remaining Monarchs, hiding in a place called the dimensional rift, an isolated empty wasteland between dimensions.

After settling 'differences' with the other Monarch who betrayed him, they all waited in the dimensional rift to hide from the eyes of the Rulers while seeking a new world and making their army grow again.

After a vast and almost immeasurable amount of time, that sought-after world appeared.

A beautiful blue star shone throughout the dark universe.

It was Earth.

After a long period of hard work, the Monarchs managed to create a passage from the dimensional rift to this planet.

With the arrival of an unprecedented enemy, humanity had no way to avoid annihilation!

And annihilated humanity was left.

The Rulers, belatedly sensing the movements of the Monarchs, sent their troops to confront them and prevent the destruction of the world, but it was already too late.

If the purpose of the Monarchs' existence was destruction, the goal of the Rulers was to defend the world.

The wrath of the Rulers was terrible as they had failed in their reason for existence once again, for Earth was one of the last worlds containing life!

And to correct that mistake, they used the divine instrument they had cherished and kept as a complete treasure.

Before they were revealed, the Rulers had stolen a device called the 'Reincarnation Cup' from their creator.

It was a colossal object that could rewind time about 10 years into the past.

Ten years!

However, the Monarchs, being beings of the same nature as the Rulers, were aware of the time reversal, so this action did not serve much purpose.

Yes, the Rulers managed to rewind everything to how it was before the arrival of the Monarchs, but these latter attacked again and would again fight against the force of the Rulers, destroying Earth and humans in the process.

With each destruction, there came a reset, returning everything to what it once was. But no matter how many resets the Rulers made, the destruction of the planet Earth seemed inevitable.

While the Rulers corrected their mistakes several times, the Monarchs were also refining their battle plans. Regardless of who won, no matter how many times they went back in time, the results would be the same, Earth would be destroyed.

The Rulers did everything possible to save this world, but Earth was too weak to fend for itself, let alone fight against the Monarchs in a massive war. A planet without 'magic' could not survive such a massive war between the Rulers and the Monarchs.

After several repeated battles with the same results, the 'Reincarnation Cup' could no longer function. Therefore, the Rulers made a final decision.

If they could not save everyone, then they would slowly prepare the world and save some members of the human race.

To do this, they made portals appear all over the Earth connecting to different small worlds called Dungeons, where monsters and magical beasts of different classes and powers lived.

At the same time, they filtered part of their powers into the world and caused some people to 'awaken' various superhuman powers with which they could confront these Dungeons and the monsters they contained.

And thus, an era of awakened superhumans called 'Hunters' began to rise as heroes, engaging in epic battles against the different beings found on the other side of the portals.

Since the 'Reincarnation Cup' could no longer be used, this was the final play.

However, this plan was soon known by the Monarchs, who devised a plan inspired by the Rulers' own plan.

Both sides, unable to 'descend' into this world with their original bodies due to their overwhelming power, always waited until the climax of the confrontation to do so.

This was why, no matter how hard they tried, they always ended up shattering the Earth in all previous occasions.

And this time, despite the Rulers themselves taking a new path by slowly preparing the world, it was an action seized upon by the Monarchs.

Just as the Rulers lent their power to humans so they could defend the world from magical beasts, the Monarchs also borrowed the bodies of some humans to strengthen the world and then expedite their own army much faster than the Rulers expected.

The plan was to use the magical power that the Rulers had spread across Earth to turn Earth itself into a great trap, secretly bringing their armies much earlier than anticipated, thereby eliminating the Rulers who would later 'descend' to support humanity.

However, not all Monarchs could find suitable humans to contain their immense power.

Those were the Monarch of Destruction and the Shadow Monarch.

But, by twist of fate, the Shadow Monarch found a method to locate a suitable human to contain the overwhelming power of death.

And that human was...