Uber-Talented Gamer in the Omniverse

A/N :

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

« » : Artificial Intelligence,

| | : Sung Jin-Woo's System Panels, Sung Jin-Woo's System Messages,

"Bold text" : Shadows & Deathborns.

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Narrator POV

Sung Jin-Woo backed away from Dante and Shiraori, understandably confused. "What are you trying to do to me?" He asked, feeling quite wary of the pair. "Oh, I'm going to kill you now." Dante says deadpan.

The words hit Sung Jin-Woo's ears like a bomb. He gritted his teeth, feeling betrayed, and prepared himself to fight for his life, when suddenly, Shiraori smacked Dante upside the head.

"What? I'm not lying. Technically, I am killing him." Dante said, his tone now playful. Sung Jin-Woo watched this, his guard still up, just in case Dante was going to try ending his life mid-sentence.

"Explain it so that he doesn't get the wrong idea. And to believe that I used to be the one that couldn't properly communicate my intentions." Shiraori said, exasperated by Dante's mischief.

"What's going on?" Sung Jin-Woo asked, and Shiraori looked pointedly at Dante. "Okay, I'll explain properly. Jeez, just kill the fun, would you." Dante said, still holding the dagger in his hand.

"Your biological "death" is needed for you to break through the limits of the system." Dante said, putting air quotes on death. "Now, I know that sounds suspicious as all hell, but it's the truth." He said after seeing Sung Jin-Woo's sceptical look.

"Look at it this way, all the Monarchs are, at their core, the absolute peak of the beings they rule. Rakan was a wolf, which is a beast. Tarnak used to be a goblin, a monstrous humanoid. Querehsha was basically a humanoid insect. Sillad was the strongest of the Snow Folk. Yogumunt was the strongest of the demonic spectres, and Antares is the most powerful dragon." Dante said, and Sung Jin-Woo slowly started to piece together Dante's rationale.

"I see. So, what you're saying is…" Sung Jin-Woo started to speak, but stopped as he looked at Dante mid-sentence. "For you to truly have the full power of the King of the Dead, you must also experience death. Even Ashborne himself died before the power put in his body by the Absolute Being awakened." Dante said.

"Okay, fine. I'll do it. Just make sure it doesn't hurt. I might be as strong as I am now, but I still feel pain, albeit to a muted extent." Sung Jin-Woo said, lowering his guard. Suddenly he felt something lodge itself in his chest.

Looking down, he saw the dagger that was in Dante's hand now stuck in his chest, all the way to the hilt. Although he didn't feel any pain from the blade, he knew that the dagger had pierced his heart, and only his heart. Dante had sent the dagger into his heart with such precision, that the only other thing that had gotten damaged was his sternum, for being in front of his heart.

However, he couldn't continue to marvel at Dante's exploits, as he was already feeling his body going cold. He was confused at how quickly he was dying. Even with it lodged directly into his heart, he shouldn't have been expiring this quickly.

"The dagger has an enchant that makes it inject death essence into whatever it strikes, making it the best thing for us to use to kill you now. Now, go ahead and make your decision. We'll be waiting for you." Dante said, and after those words, Sung Jin-Woo lost consciousness, with his eyes closing.

…

Location: Sung Jin-Woo's mind

Sung Jin-Woo POV

As I open my eyes, I find myself in a hospital room. Man, how long has it been since I was last in one? A few months, a few years? I honestly can't be sure, especially with all the time dilation that Dante has put me through.

As I'm stuck in my thoughts, the door opens, and I see Woo Jin-Chul and another of the Hunter Association's employees behind him. This feels familiar, but I can't quite place my finger on what makes it feel like that.

"Have you come to your senses?" Ah, I see now. It's the day I woke up after the first time in the Carthenon Temple. "Ashborne, I know that you're the one doing this. Show yourself." I say out calmly, and Woo Jin-Chul stops speaking.

Almost immediately after, everything around me dissolves into darkness, save for a single notification window.

|Would you like to restart the world? |Accept/Decline||

I hear heavy footsteps from behind me, and I turn to look at him. Ashborne, the King of the Dead and Monarch of Shadows, walks toward me in all his dark glory.

For anyone else, his appearance would be daunting. He's wearing a jet-black armour with a smoky cape of darkness. His hair looks like purple flames, and his eyes glow a strong purple as well. His curved horns and sharp claws, which are also as black as darkness, just complete the entire image of his heavy presence.

"This is a bit surprising. I expected you to have at least tried to change some things in this world." Ashborne says to me. "It wouldn't matter if I did. After all, that world is nothing more than an illusion. A near perfect facsimile of reality. And besides, my current reality is something I'm happy to have." I tell him.

"True. But you mistake this world as my creation." He says, causing me to raise a brow. "It's not?" I ask, wondering who would have created it. I may not have been in the false world for long, but I could tell that it was quite detailed, as if it was a perfect replica of the real world.

"No. As a matter of fact, you are the one that is responsible for its creation. This world was created by combining your desire to correct your past mistakes with my power." He says, shocking me. "Due to it being built with my power, it is an extension of my territory, the Eternal Rest, death." He says, sending chills down my spine.

"As you may know – due to Dante's intervention – I have been observing you for a long time, far longer than you could possibly imagine. You, who had been closer to death than anyone else, yet continued to desperately resist against it." Those words, they're very similar to how Dante described me that day.

"I am the record of your struggles, the evidence of your resistance, and the reward of your sufferings. I am death, I am eternal rest, as well as terror. I… am you." He says, his form shifting. First to that of Mr Song Chi-Yul, then Hae-In, then Mr Kim, then Mum, then Jin-Ah, and finally, me, specifically, me from my days as 'The World's Weakest Hunter'.

"As you hold my power, you can do anything you want in my territory, being omnipotent in here. You could create anything, destroy anything, and make a world just as you want it." He explains. "I see. But I've got a question; Why choose me?" I ask him the same question I had asked Dante back then.

"I shall show you. Our beginning and end… and your own beginning." He said altering the environment around us, blanketing us in a pitch-black abyss. As time passes, he causes the environment to continue changing as he speaks, and it occurs to me that he's showing me the history of the conflict between the Monarchs and Rulers, which has lasted over multiple eons.

Back then, Dante told me about it, but seeing it up close, especially from someone who has been a part of it even till today, is something different. He shows me the battles before the Absolute Being was killed, the leader of the Emissaries begging the Absolute Being to stop the war, only to realize that the war was entertainment for them.

Seeing all the carnage that they caused and endured, I fully understand their decision to turn against the Absolute Being. But it seems that Ashborne didn't think that way, as he died trying to protect them. Of course, by the power left in him by them awakened, it was too late, and the Absolute Being was dead, killed by their own creations.

The Emissaries, now the Rulers, took multiple artifacts holding the Absolute Being's power, and eventually captured Legia, turning the tides of the war. Seeing this, Ashborne joined the Monarchs, who had no choice but to accept his help. And so, for the battle, he had gone from the side of the Emissaries to that of the Monarchs.

Eventually, Baran and Rakan betrayed him out of fear, taking out a great amount of his army, but he still defeated him, with Rakan turning tail and running, while he killed Baran. This was the memory that played before I killed Kandiaru. I guess this was where the Rulers came to ask for forgiveness.

Just like Dante had said, they did just that, but Ashborne was overwhelmed by it. He had been at their necks for so long because they had killed the Absolute Being, yet they had come to ask him for forgiveness. Since he felt that he couldn't do anything, especially when they had come to him so sincerely, he decided to hide himself away, planning his revenge against Rakan, since he'd already killed Baran.

But when he reappeared in front of the other Monarchs, Antares gave a command to stop all infighting and told them all to recover their strength and rebuild their forces, and allowed Ashborne to rejoin them.

"We went searching for a new world, for the sake of building up our new army." He says, changing the environment once more. "Earth?" I ask and he nods. "That is correct. To the humans, the Monarchs' appearance was unprecedented. Their annihilation was inevitable." He says, altering the environment to one that I was familiar with.

Entire cities going up in a sea of flames, buildings that had been toppled over. It was like I was back in the Demon Castle again. "Is this what will happen in the future?" I ask him, rightfully concerned. Seeing this scenery twice in two different places seemed particularly ominous.

"No, this is a record of the past." The past? How though? "You see, if the Monarchs' reason of existence is destruction, then the Rulers' reason of existence was to maintain this world, where the Absolute Being was no longer." He says, then the skies fill with the Rulers and their armies.

"The Rulers belatedly detected the movements of the Monarchs and sent their armies, but everything had already been destroyed. Naturally, the Rulers became angry that the army they failed to eradicate in the Chaos World brought destruction upon another world. And so, they used the power of a tool containing the Absolute Being's power, one they had prohibited themselves from using, until then. That tool was the Cup of Reincarnation." He says, and the environment rewinds to a time before the Monarchs came to Earth.

"It was a powerful too that could back time by 10 years. The Rulers used it along with everything else they had to prevent Earth's destruction, but overtime, they found that Earth would be destroyed regardless. Not because they didn't arrive early enough, but rather because Earth, which had not even the slightest trace of magical energy, was far too weak and therefore couldn't endure the mass-scale battles." He says, showing the Earth getting destroyed, only for time to be rewound, and this happened multiple times.

"Understanding this, the Rulers made a drastic decision. If they couldn't save everyone, they would at least make sure that some people would survive the battle, so that humanity could continue on in this world." I see. It all makes sense now. "The Hunters. The few humans that would be strong enough to survive the impacts of their battle." I say in realization, and he nods in agreement.

"The Rulers wanted humans to survive, regardless of whatever they had to do." He says, and I think of how society would have changed if this knowledge was more widespread. If everyone knew that with the exception of the minority of humanity – the Hunters, everyone else would die, could society operate normally?

"So, Earth has been destroyed multiple times." I say as I look at the flaming cityscape. "Indeed. Although the higher beings are unable to go against the flow of time, they are able to perceive the changes to time caused by the Cup of Reincarnation. So, while the Rulers were constantly trying to fix their mistakes, the Monarchs were modifying their plans, until eventually, the Cup of Reincarnation could no longer be used." He says, now transformed into Han Song-I.

"Wait. So, you're telling me that there's a limit to the Cup of Reincarnation?" I say, surprised that something with the power of the Absolute Being was being limited by too much use. "In this universe, there is no such thing as infinite power. Just like how the Absolute Being was eliminated by his own creations, there is a limit to every power."

"Think of it in this way; Humans make machines that are still capable of killing them. In a similar manner, we were created to fight and had enough power to bring down our creator. So, the Monarchs used that limit to their advantage, even utilizing the Rulers' methods in their plans." He says, then alters the environment, showing me the people whose bodies each of the Monarchs had taken over as their vessels.

"Similar to how the Rulers would lend power to humans so that they could kill magical beasts, thus strengthening the world, the Monarchs would borrow a human's body to descend onto this world and bring their armies far earlier than the expectations of the Rulers. They planned to use the magical energy that the Rulers spread around the planet to turn the entirety of Earth into one large trap." I see now. "So that they could destroy all of the Rulers' armies in one go." I say and he replies in agreement.

"For a Monarch to cross over to this world, they need a powerful host that can withstand their power, especially so for Antares and me. While I was searching for a fitting host, I was approached by Kandiaru, who offered aid me in return for an imperishable body. But unfortunately, no living being was able to become a vessel to contain 'death'." The words that Dante told me before stabbing me in the chest replay in my head as Ashborne says that.

"Using the system he created, Kandiaru searched through all of humanity for someone that could have the strength to meet my powers, all to no avail. But in the midst of his search, he found someone, someone who was the exact opposite of what he was searching for; a weak person who was always close to death, yet continued to evade its hold without fail. He found you, and I continued to watch over you." He says, showing the multiple times that I almost died before.

"And even in opposition of Kandiaru, I chose you as my vessel, as my successor." He says, finally transforming to Dad from long before he was trapped in the Gate that took him. The words he said before, he wasn't referring to my time as a Player, or even as a Hunter, but rather, to the entirety of my life.

"I see. But since I was too weak, he had to use something to bring me closer to your level of power, and so he made the system analogous to a game, especially with its 'Player' aspects. But even after that, you betrayed Kandiaru. Why?" I say after understanding what built up to my being chosen.

"Because... I wanted to." Wait. What? "Perhaps, I had enjoyed the time I had spent with you too much, and so I didn't want to lose 'you'." Ashborne says as he returns to his normal form and takes off his helm. As he does that, he reveals the face under his helm… Mine. Taking a quick look at myself, I notice that I am wearing the same armour that he is, without even a single difference, like a mirror image.

"I became you, and you became me." I see now. "It won't matter who gets to control our body, whether it's me or you." We are now one and the same, in body, mind and soul.

"And so, I give you this opportunity to choose." He says, and I start to see everyone I had a bond with; Mr. Kim, Ms. Ju-Hui, Han Song-I, Jin-Ah, Dad, Mom, everyone… even Dante and Shiraori. "You can choose to stay in the domain of death, and enjoy the eternal dreams you've created for yourself. You could choose to rest. Or you could choose to return to reality to face your adversaries." He says as everyone vanishes, only to be replaced by a humongous dragon flying in the sky, with multiple smaller dragons following it, letting off powerful breath attacks that laid waste to the cities on the ground.

As I watched all of this, a question came to my mind. "You said you'd made your decision, but you didn't stand with Antares. So why did you escape to another world with the Monarchs, when your desire to fight the Rulers had long dissipated?" I say out. "Because… there was no place for me there." He replies.

"My answer is the same. This is not a place where I should be." I say resolutely, and he nods approvingly. "Will I ever see you again?" I ask him as he walks into the darkness. "I will return to rest. But you, the Shadow Monarch will live an imperishable life. Thus, the crossing of our paths is unlikely. And now, with your death, your power has become complete. As for how to return, it's…" He says, as his voice starts becoming indistinct. "I know." I knew exactly how to return to reality, after all, I have called many others from death in the same way.

"Arise."

…

Narrator POV

*15 minutes before Sung Jin-Woo awakens*

All Hunters in Seoul felt a surge of mana that overwhelmed their senses come from the Dominion Guild's building. Most of the S Ranks felt that the mana signature was familiar, with two in particular knowing exactly who it belonged to. Sung Il-Hwan and Cha Hae-In rushed to their guild building, both hoping that no harm had come to Sung Jin-Woo.

With their highly superhuman physique, they reached the building within three minutes, and upon entering, went to the roof using the elevator. As they reached the roof, they saw Sung Jin-Woo standing motionlessly as mana erupted from his body, while Dante and Shiraori were on a couch watching and seemingly critiquing an animated show of some sort.

"You know, he could have had a better ending." Shiraori said, and Dante soon countered. "Honestly, it wasn't bad. He achieved his dream of becoming a hero, even losing the powers he was bestowed with. The main gripe I have with him is that he didn't work to improve himself before getting those powers." He said, throwing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"What's happening to Jin-Woo?!" Cha Hae-In asked alarmedly, attracting everyone else's attention. "Oh, that. Yeah, he's fine. He's just leaving behind his status as a human." Dante said nonchalantly. "What? What does that mean?" She said, this time, looking to Sung Il-Hwan.

"It means that he is now… truly becoming the Shadow Monarch." Sung Il-Hwan said, then went to the empty couch that Dante had created right as they reached the roof, then sat down with his gaze focused on his son's body. Cha Hae-In looked at Dante and Shiraori, then to Sung Jin-Woo's stationary body, then to the couch, before eventually deciding to sit and wait like Sung Il-Hwan.

After ten more minutes, the surge of mana became so great that it started to visibly press on everything in the district, with lightning streaking about in the sky. And shortly after, Sung Jin-Woo opened his eyes, feeling a great power well up within him. He felt that he could defeat… no, destroy himself from the time Dante stabbed him within 5 casual attacks.

But before he could continue his reverie, he was wrapped in a tight hug by Cha Hae-In. Understanding that she was worried, he wordlessly returned the hug, calmly stroking her hair. "Okay. Now that you're done, let's go get that Gate opened. Antares would have sensed that surge of mana from you even through dimensions, so it'd be best for you to get them." Dante said, interrupting them.

Letting go of Cha Hae-In, Sung Jin-Woo agreed with a sigh. Dante snapped his fingers, teleporting all of them to the rooftop of a high-rise building that was very close to the gargantuan Gate that was hovering over in the skies of Seoul. As they arrived, cracks suddenly spread all over the Gate, cracks that all Hunters knew signified the beginning of a Gate Break event.

Many of the Hunters that were in the city noticed this and were gripped by fear. They had no idea what level of monster would emerge from the Gate, nor how many of them would come out. They could only hope that they would survive what was coming.

As the final cracks came forth, the boundary that kept monsters in Gates shattered, and with that, the inhabitants of the Gate began emerging, and to the Hunters' shock, the monsters looked familiar. To be exact, they looked just like the shadows that Sung Jin-Woo was known for using as his summons.

The shadows were mostly comprised of dragons and winged humanoids that were wielding various weapons. "Everyone, stand down!" All of the Hunters heard Dante's voice order them from within their minds. And as they put away their weapons, they saw Sung Jin-Woo appear from seemingly out of nowhere, then walk up to these new shadows.

As he reached the largest winged humanoid, which had two pairs of wings, it suddenly went down on one knee, as a knight would do to the king they serve. "Grand-Marshal Bellion and the Shadow Army respectfully greet our liege." As the winged humanoid, Bellion said this, many of the other shadows followed his actions and bowed with reverence to Sung Jin-Woo.

Feeling that they were not complete, Sung Jin-Woo summoned out the army he had raised, which now totalled a hundred thousand shadows, and just like the shadows that emerged from the Gate, they too bowed in reverence to Sung Jin-Woo, the Shadow Monarch. But as this was happening, he looked at the Hunters and other humans, and a single thought ran through his mind. 'Just how am I going to explain all this?'

Chapter End.

Word Count: 3,862

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