Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

“Let’s go!” I shouted, lunging through the darkness. I Shadowed Stepped directly in front of Zantar, whose eyes merely seemed to refocus on me as his right arm whipped towards my neck to decapitate me where I stood.

Wielding the Concept of Supremacy cloaked around my palm, I matched his speed and grace and parried his palm with mine.

Space rippled like waves sending tears throughout the Hells. I was pushed back five paces, but with a step into the darkness, I was behind him when his spear came to my eye, forcing me back into the darkness as I appeared just above his head with my feet bleeding an abyssal flame, a rich aura of the Abyss suddenly sprinkled over the nines causing the light to fade.

“Die,” I whispered, using the concept of Abyss… a concept I truly didn’t understand.

Freezing the Almighty Qi rippling off Zantar like flames, his eyes went wide as stars as my aura locked him in place, removing any form of escape… no matter if they were Almighty or not.

Cracks in the fabric of reality burned away as my skin became pale as the dead and my eyes hollow as the Abyss. The warmth in my flesh burned to ash, leaving only darkness… the true darkness within the Abyss.

Abyssal Flames flared to life, howling towards the nines just as my foot came crashing down towards Zantar. There wasn’t enough space or time to use Noctem. I needed dexterity, and what has more dexterity than the body?

“No, you don’t!” Bune uttered, pointing his hundreds of fingers toward me. “INFERNAL CAGE!”

My soul clenched, and a blazing sea of pain overwhelmed me. Reawakening old wounds from my time in the Origin Realm, I howled as this soul attack struck.

“LILITH!”

Shadowing me somehow, Lilith appeared like an apparition and whipped her blade out, forcing Zantar to retreat as I tumbled over.

Blood oozed from my lips as my soul grew ablaze with Abyssal Flames and Astral Force. I shuttered for a moment or two before forcing myself up. I snapped my eyes towards Bune, acting as the best backup I’d seen in my life.

Hundreds of clones smiling, archduke Bune chuckled menacingly. “You’ve still got a ways to go. You’re no paragon.”

“…”

… that attack. It broke my soul defense. Is that the Infernal Cage? It’s definitely weaker than Heavenly Bind, but… something is off about it.

“Lily, can you tell me what happened?”

“Infernal Cage is a spell that forces you to experience the Hells. It turns your own fear, Attunement, and experience against you. So the more evil the user and victim are, the harder the spell hits. It’s an unblockable force, but it truly shines with the Ilthads or people like Iza. The spell feeds on insanity.”

“Unblockable?”

“You can block it, but you’ll have to completely cloak yourself in your Abyssal Flames.” She replied grimly, knowing that was a drain of divinity.

Wiping the blood ebbing from my nostrils, I glared at Bune and sent a message to Lilith, Ava, Victoria, and Elsa.

“Target Bune. All of you must kill him and keep Beleth at bay. I’ll handAttunement Just be quick.”

“Sene! that’s not a—”

“It’s fine. I’ve got my abyssal Attunement. If push comes to shove, I’ll use it. I battled Belphegor before, remember?”

Lilith hissed. ” and you remember what happened next?”

My lips pursed. ” just handle what I tell you.”

“Ya can’t tell me what to do.”

“Yeah, I can,” I said to her, locking eyes with Zantar, whose body slowly bulged with veins dripping with Almighty essence.

I need to take this fight into subspace. That way, we’ll both be at a disadvantage.

“Almighty Binds,” Said Zantar as his voice echoed like a lone ancient god that weakened my legs.

By the time I blinked, my eyes had gone wide, and a horrendous pain came crashing through my neck as his spear entered my throat, tearing through the carotid artery alongside any other ligaments.

My blood stilled, and my heart seized.

“Good Bye” He soon uttered softly like an angel whispering a prayer. ” Almighty Atonement”

“ARSENE, GET OUT NOW!!!! THE DARKNESS WILL NOT PROTECT YOU!!!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM~

Blinding light came through my mind cutting deep into my soul, but with Lily’s warning, I called upon the darkness to move and appeared hundreds of kilometers away.

‘… I’m alive?” I uttered, touching my throat were no wound existed.

“The darkness gave you a few lives. It took the hit for you.” Said Lily. ” Now move, and don’t ever stop; that’s the only way to get around Almighty Binds. Its an upgraded version of Heavenly Bind, except it usually uses—” .

Swiping my spear upwards, a clash that shattered the hells resounded through my arms, almost forcing me to my knees as Zantar appeared with an icy grimace.

Swallowing my spear in the Concept of Supremacy, a brutal battle began as blood danced north of Avenos. Wounds, small and deep, began slowly filling my arms and legs as I used everything I had to defend against Zantar’s wild burst.

I was slowly losing even as I tapped into my Abyssal Attunement, fueling me with unending energy and life force.

Swatting me down into a blazing ocean of flames, a searing pain clawed at my mind as I felt the torment of this Hell, but as I blinked, Zantar was there, thrusting his spear towards my head while chanting spells threatening to wipe me out.

By the time I blinked again, we were already battling on the surface of the blazing lake. With another blink, I was in a cave, then the skies, a city, ruins, and forests. I toured so much of the first layer of Hell that I knew it by heart.

I didn’t know how I was still alive fighting Zantar… It had been two years. Two years of constant movement, constant schemes. My soul could handle the Attunement, but my body was burning. It was a good thing my adaptation was kicking in else, god knows where I’d be.

Gashes of new and old wounds littered my body bleeding a cruel necrotic force ensuring I couldn’t heal. It took a month for my flames to wither this qi away, allowing me to heal, but this placed a massive strain on my body and soul.

“Arsene, you cannot resist,” Zantar said cooly, drawing close without the slight bit of wounds. Although not for lack of trying.

I had been close. And I was getting closer with each clash, but this bastard was also adapting to my fighting style. He was adapting faster than I was.

Another Angelic ability, I was sure.

Zantar showed a thin smile over his fiendishly buff body, oozing an almighty aura that wished for nothing more than to force me to my knees.

“You’ve gotten taller. Two years. Another two, and you’ll look like a teen.”

Coughing up blood as his Necrotic Qi wreaked havoc on my insides, I showed a smile.

“It’s too bad you’ll not live that long.” He added.

I chuckled. ” Zantar… this battle is far from over. You killed me once, and I came back. Do you think it’s so simple?”

‘Careful, Sene. You only got Nine Lives. And when one dies, it takes Ten Years to regenerate another one.” Said Lily sharply. “Each Regeneration will cause you to recover completely; if you really want to survive, you need to use your other abilities to the max.”

A/N: This was the first ability Arsene got from being a Monarch of Darkness a few hundred chapters back.

“You sure know a lot about my abilities,” I said, as I’ve always wondered how many lives I had when I first got this ability. It’s not like there’s a way of checking.

“Your son’s sub-affinity is Darkness, so of course, I know.”