Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

An eruption of a cry that sent shivers through my heart bellowed, following the black skies darkened, turning so dark the skies began to appear like a two-dimensional construct.

Balor had stiffened at the sight of the box and swiftly moved five paces away. “Arsene, stop this! You’ll kill us all! Close that damn box now!”

“Better we die than I die. Better my world perishes than you rule it. I’m petty. If I can fuck my enemy, I’m all about it. God damn, I sound like Zariel. Oh well.”

“Arsen—”

Pulling Pandora’s Box open wide, a rancid aura so foul, a fleet of goosebumps prickled my skin as a storm of black whirlwinds cracked this already broken realm. And my eyes snapped to the two Abyssal Fiends.

“Hurry it up! Go! You are required on the other side.”

The two Paragon’s eyes turned lifeless as if my words were king. Without hesitation, they flew up through the Gates of Ilutath alongside the other sovereigns trailing after these two Paragons, alongside various starships and freighter ships.

Suddenly Avar appeared, slapping the box from my hand, and pivoted off the ground into the air with me in her arm.

“No, you don’t!” Balor howled,

But with a flash of her pistol, Avar indifferently stared and fired with such precision and speed. Balor was pushed back a few meters the moment his arm became raised to block the bolt of light.

“Sorry, but unlike Asmo, I’m not so easy to take down,” Said Avar, tossing me into the air towards the Gate. “Get out of here. Your people are already on my ship.

Stopping myself from entering, I looked down towards Pandora’s box, releasing a mist that prickled my skin.

“Go, little snow.” Came the sweet yet cold voice of the Pale Lord. “And we thank you for giving us another Great One.”

“Arsene!” Balor bellowed, reaching for the throne between his brow, but Avar merely chuckled. And with an icy glow dancing along her skin, a surge of Astral qi began to press against the laws.

“Seize the Palace of Night,” Said Avar, “Within its depths resides your brother, my Master. Go.”

Crackles of laughter suddenly began to pool from Pandora’s box as a smiling shadowy figure began to form from the mist.

“F-o-r-s-a-k-e-n” The creature uttered.

Soaring to the air into the gates, I groaned as my injuries began to weigh heavy on my body. Holding on as pain clawed at my flesh, the sounds of a baby cry sent a pang through my entire body, turning it stiff as a board, as I appeared once more in the Temple of Eternal Night.

Standing in the library as before, I willed myself towards the sound. And with a flash of myself, I appeared along a lake of pure Darkness, and at the center stood a silver being, illuminating this eternal plane of Darkness.

“Zariel?” I said.

Silence.

Stepping near my little brother, my eyes went wide at the silvery hair of the little thing in his hands. Clenching his father’s fingers, the golden eye boy nibbled over Zariel’s index finger with large beady eyes.

“Y-You had a baby,” I said in utter belief. “I’d always thought you’d be a virgin. Or you’d find a way to re-virgin yourself. If that is a thing.” ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.

“It is.” Answered Zariel. “I’m just sucking it in. I don’t even know the little one’s name. And yet he’s mine. Can you feel the forsaken lineage in him?”

I nodded. ” yeah. But I don’t understand how it’s there. Your not a forsaken.”

“The soul is the gateway to the body. Whatever you are or once were in your past life will always find itself in your soul. I manage to remove house Lazerus blood from my soul, but you. You are still carrying the astral marker. Your children may very well carry the Blood of Lazarus.”

“Can I?” I saw to ask, and without even looking, Zariel placed the little one in my hands.

Feeling its warm flesh alongside the embryonic fluid still over its body, I shuttered, knowing this little guy was stuck in time for gods knows how long.

“Welcome to the House of Snow,” I whispered, and the little guy giggled, making coo noises as it snuggled up in my arms. I shuttered. ” Bro. You made a little person. You really did it.”

“I still can’t believe it either. The very person who loath the idea of having children,” he said as I placed the little one back in his arms.

I smiled, thinking of Lilith. “Get out of here. I know what to do. I’ll finish the Dao Cycle.”

Zariel chuckled. ” With each dao cycle, a sliver of Chaos will appear into this world, it’ll be small, almost insignificant, but should you give it to Noctem, well, all I can say is that you’ll not die instantly to Balor. Take care, Arsene, and know you are now the bridge.”

Sensing Zariels plus the little ball of hugs and kisses vanish. I smiled and sent a long measuring stare at the abyss of Darkness, chuckling as Noctem appeared in my hand. The Divinity of Sin cloaked my flesh like a flame, warming my injuries.

I closed my eyes and gazed upon the Twelve Plane, the Bed of Chaos, and… Iluthath, covered by a sea of endless Darkness.

“As Monarch… It is my right to govern all Darkness.” I bitterly said as the pulse of the throne between my brow whispered its secrets. “One Chaos Cycle of Darkness.” I soon mused, shaking my head bitterly. ” Why have the Bed of Chaos/ Iluthath when I can have the Myriad Heavens? I can have it all.”

A cruel heat pressed against my chest as I slipped to my knees and finally into the lotus position. The Darkness had begun to envelop me, pulling me into its depths: Leaving not even a sliver of light. There was only me and the Darkness.

“One Chaos Cycle here and one cycle out there.”

“I wonder how much will change once Shadowfell starts spreading over the Exalted Wheel. Immortal beings immune to every element whose bloodlust is so unsalable they crave nothing but oblivion—what a glorious sight that will be. Arbiters will weep, and gods will wail against my kin. And on the day of my return. On the day I reenter the Myriad Heavens from this Palace of Night…

Noctem will rise. Don’t you think so, too, Abyss-Chan?”