Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

“I am ready,” I said, but inwardly I might as well be shitting myself.

I’d heard Zariel was struck down by god quite a few times… I guess it’s only fair I do my share.

“Abyss-Chan, watch over your hubby.” I prayed, and the Spear of Noctem spiraled in a semi-circle arc of light, and I waited. Feeling my entire being about to end with a single strike.

“It’s not so bad, Sene. Your kids took an unfiltered hit with the intent to kill. You got this. God is all about fairness.”

These days it feels like I’m the only one who hasn’t done anything. Guess that’s all changing.

Almighty essence dancing along the skies stealing the light and color from reality. Even the spectrum of black and white seemed to struggle to exist under the force of the Holy Spirit.

My heart dipped in a stifling amount of fear but as my fingers tightened around Noctem, the Path of Abyssal Night awakened. And to my surprise, something stirred.

“Seems you exaggerated your grandeur… Father.” A soft, effeminate voice whispered into my ears. “Show me the Abyssal Sin.”

The voice made my skin crawl, and even the holy spirit above me paused its onslaught of destruction.

“Call upon Mother. And show me my Heritage of Madness.”

The Path bubbled, tearing through me with utter madness in response to who I knew to be my daughter. But for some reason, my heart splintered into Chaos as the insanity bled out of reality.

A type of madness that only demanded carnage.

“What is this?”

“She got worse… Jesus Christ. People are about to die.” Lily muttered with a grimace. “Arsene… Do you know how Lilith was super into you? Well, she’s super into Chaos. Your daughter is a convulsive battle maniac. She is the Super Villainess the world bands together to kill but can only seal.”

“… no sex, right?”

‘What?’

‘That’s really all I care about. Super sexist, but I can’t help it. That’s my baby girl!’

“MR. HOLY GHOST, YOU CAN ATTACK NOW!!!”

Chuckling, unable to help myself, I smiled from ear to ear and allowed the Path of Abyssal Night to howl like a vengeful dragon taking me by surprise.

Almost as if the Path itself was alive, nodes of vengeful light, cruel yet aloof, burned off my skin like embers in the winds.

The sounds of glass shattering came about and…

All seven Fallen appeared with widened eyes, Zariel, Zero, Aurelia, and Little Jin, followed by other members of the Order, and more, all began to show.

Thirty-three times, the chimes of glass shattering sounded before coming to a halt, and something in me broke as the streak of light flickered through my soul.

“…. I remember,” I whispered.

Mother… Father… Zariel… Zhu… I remember it all… Aldrich’s Mercy… Mephisto scheme… And the eyes of my brother… the man who betrayed me, who appeared just as I died. I remember!

Boooooooooooooooom!!!!

I didn’t even know when it happened or when my head struck against the surface of Iluthath.

Or when my arm was seared off. It didn’t feel like anything… It was like watching a TV show. It was like it wasn’t even happening to me.

But it all felt so surreal…. I remember. The pain… the betrayal… even my trillions of lifetimes lived through Zariels spell. I remember it all.

The good. The bad. The fucked up. And the super fucked up parts. All of it was spiraling through my mind. Hitting me hard… so hard tears of Mother’s last moments trickled down my cheeks.

Her smile, her kiss… and her goodbye.

“Protect them for me,” she’d said with arms wrapped around me. “Protect your little brother and sister.”

White was all I could see under the Holy Ghost’s judgment. No pain, no hate, only melancholy streaking from my eyes.

The Laws around me had begun to die one after the other. Changing the rules as my body was flung through Subspace into a far-off Plane. I continued on through space piercing through planets as though they were buildings, before finding myself at the center of a black hole trying to tear at my flesh.

Everything went black and still.

“Am I dead?” 𝐞𝗼𝐯𝐞𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“Don’t see how your alive, but no. Not yet.” Lily said in a hurry, “I’m trying to repair you, but these wounds are insane.”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“Arsene?”

“It… doesn’t… hurt.”

Feeling my consciousness fade into sweet oblivion, I did nothing to stop it and opened myself up to its embrace.

…

…

…

“Oiiiii~” Lily squealed, stirring my consciousness. ” Wake up!!!! It’s been Seven Chaos Cycles!”

“WHAT!!!!”

“Jk.”

“Damn it, Lily,” I shouted, noticing something was off.

Looking around the web of darkness consuming me, I felt myself frown. And rose my hand over my face.

Nothing.

“… Lily? Where are my hands? I can feel it there, but it isn’t.”

“Your dick is gone too. As are your legs, head… you’re pretty much a soul flame.”

“I died?” I asked as I could somehow feel my heart dip.

“No. You just got your material body annihilated. And your soul was blasted into the third dimension. Seems to be the center of the Andromeda Galaxy. Oh, look, there’s the Milky Way.”

“That’s nice and all. But my body! What the fuck am I supposed to do? What happened to the other gods like me there? ” I hastily said, in a little panic. How the hell was I even alive? Wasn’t I a soul bender? Did the Path change up the game that much?

“Same shit. You were the main target. They merely felt one percent of the blast. No one died, but these Paragons will be out of combat for a very long time.”

“Just like me.” I moaned.

“Did you forget I’ve got an abyssal fragment? I just needed you to wake up.” She said in a glorified tone. ” you’ll be fine in a few a years. Just chill here. Although… I am anxious about creating a body out of an Abyssal Shard.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s your soul that allows you adaption. So you’ll have to restart your adaptation with the loss of your material form but what worries me is the effect it’ll have on your new body.”

“I don’t understand. Why do I have to start over? That’s bullshit!”

“Within your soul is something we call Soul Blood or Astral Blood. It’s what allows you to keep a particular bloodline through the ages. It can skip a few lifetimes, but it will always exist within you. Right now, you have Forsaken and Shadowfell within you. That’s your core genetic material.”

“And?”

“And it has nothing to do with your adaptation. Zariel made it so you can adapt to anything. He never made so you can keep your adaption through lifetimes.”

“But the Shadow Fell has my resistance and immunities. Shouldn’t they all come back? Your not making sense? It’s the very race that I created that holds all my immunities in the genetic code.”

“Hmmm. If you regenerated naturally, yes, but if I use the Abyssal Shard. You’ll become something new. Everything comes with a price… so are you going to risk it?”