He remembers fighting the Brightest Fragment in the other timelines. The last time they've ever crossed paths came to be on the 31st Apocalipse that Earth suffered in its wake. Despite its status as "The Kindest Ruler", that being was merciless to those whom it fought.
Inside the vessel of a middle eastern woman, she was a brilliant force of power. She was much more hostile and bloodthirsty towards her enemies then her older brother could ever become. Antares remembers how its armor would only be a shackle in the way of her brutal massacre.
Being born as a monster for all eternity, he could sense that the face behind its golden mask always smiled wide and hungry. Each swing of her spear would make his servants loose limbs left and right. The Emperor remembers watching the Brightest Fragment fight even as the body of the vessel disintegrated in its final moments. Still, she subjugated her strikes with more and more powerful thrusts until the blood of all monsters rained the mediterranean sea.
She pointed the spear back at him, ready to give him hell. The Emperor smiled back, its claws wide and open as they tempted the Brightest Fragment to come and get him if she could.
Elysium moved faster than the wings of a dragon, but did not have the shred of protection like Ashborn. So Antares always took advantage of that, both in the fight and as a taunt to her ego of a protector.
"Who are you if not just a blunt knife? What good comes from being so good at fighting and killing, when you can't even protect your own heart?!"
Front to back, Antares dodge the lighting speed of the Ruler with its own armor. As the name of the fragment implies, the longer its wings flew and the longer time passed striking down the tail, wings and claws of the mightiest dragon, the brighter she shone. The brighter her attacks became, the more irritating it was for him to pinpoint a direction in which he would attack her with his breath.
However, Antares was stronger. He didn't even need to use his true form to defeat her.
A stab was made right through the chest of the Ruler, its wings still flashing with such a powerful aura, but fading as he took the Ruler's heart and gripped it, tearing it up like it was nothing.
He could only see the raging eyes of Elysium as it grabbed on to his bloody hand that he pierced her with, and with a shaking voice, condemning him yet again.
"My brothers and I will one day see the end... The end of all your kind... of all you monarchs... Forever."
Without hesitation, and a fake smile forming, he replied. "I see that the orders of the Absolute Being still run through your head. What a pity, I was wondering if you could join us too, maybe you could even reunite with Ashborn if you are useful to me."
A cursed glare was the last thing it could muster.
The tenth year had been finished by that point, and Antares resigned yet again in glory as he saw the last Ruler turn on the coup and pour its mana. On the 32nd try, he woke up to the sound of his planet getting ready to invade again, and knew that once more the Rulers condemned them to die until they could reach a better end.
However, despite The Brightest Fragment's powerful force of nature and the only one that most of the other Rulers could rely on, it never appeared on sight after their fight. He wasn't about to care if that statement opened an old wound in the Brightest Fragment, but he was suspicious of its activity. That being said, the fragment could also have just not cared at any point about his words and instead decided to make a better plan, hiding far away until it was perfected.
The truth was, that it was inside this old man all along.
What was so special about this old man anyways? It seemed weird, dubious, for someone as indefatigable as the Brightest Fragment to choose a vessel that wasn't even capable of fighting, much less protecting the world at large.
Unless...
10 timelines passed since Ashborn decided to contact the Monarch of Transfiguration in hopes of finding a magician that could help him obtain a vessel. Yogumunt, smart as he always was, agreed to give him this fallen Alusi who could never grant him a vessel, but still Ashborn would have no reason to hurt the Monarch for he accepted to help him. Right now Antares wished to laugh at this turn of events. The little Alusi that was promoted to a higher status by simple nepotism in order for his boss to wash away his hands, in the end became the best magician Ashborn and Antares could have asked for.
Back to the point, Antares called out to the fallen Alusi.
When did Ashborn find this vessel of his?
If there was one thing he knew about the fight at Kargalos, that event which ended with Baran getting killed then...
The screen appeared, its female voice trembling a bit.
[Please do not punish this pitiful servant for not knowing the answer.]
Contact him for me.
[...]
[...Sir about that...]
[...]
"Mr Lee Kang-Dae, is that right? Nice to meet you, my name is Go Gun-Hee." The man shook away his thoughts. His face had a bright smile and his body was in an almost perfect shape despite the age. "Please take a seat." The chairman guided him to that place, and Kang-Dae did not take his eyes away from him, even for a second. Weak creatures like Elysium would do wicked ploys in order to survive, so he needed to keep his eye out at all times. With a straight back and frowning eyes, the king began its examination. The longer he stared the more obvious it became to him that the old man's body was a waste for the Fragment. His entire reason as to why he was still living was only because there was a small flow of mana healing the cells of the old man before he tried to drop dead. Without such magic then he wouldn't even be standing right now.
Could it be that Elysium feels pity for him now? Hah.
"Mr Lee, please ease up. I invited you in order to congratulate you for becoming the tenth S rank Hunter in South Korea."
Kang-Dae's eyes narrowed, his face still not shifting from the serious one that he held himself with. Either his expressions had seeped through his vessel's facial structure, or Go Gun-Hee was very intuitive of his thoughts.
"There is still a day for the re-examination. Yet, you already seem to know what my rank will be."
Everyone in this office building would be a fool not to see his power that is uncanny to that of the other hunters, he knew that very well, therefore he tried to keep his own powers in order at first. And yet the simple act of just running seemed to have triggered the senses of high rankers. He would have to be even more careful now.
The old man looked up at Kang-Dae who had his legs and arms crossed, before meeting his face. This wasn't his first time dealing with such S ranks, nor does he think it will be his last. So, Gun-Hee knows very well how to deal with them without a single shred of fear even if he too is an S rank.
"To tell you the truth the re-examination is meaningless." Kang-Dae raised an eyebrow at this. A precise detector is to help us segment the results. It is not a tool to help us measure outside of the scoping range. Even if it was possible for us to measure outside of it, it would still be impossible to distinguish between an S rank, SS rank or SSS rank."
"And for what reason would the existence of that procedure be then?"
"To buy us time."
Kang-Dae smiled a little at that, the president and his assistant shaken off a bit by the sudden expression before Kang-Dae went on. "Continue."
"It is to buy us time to meet S rank hunters such as yourself before the public knows. You may know this, but the hunter's association does not have as many talented hunters like chief Woo Jin-Chul over here–" That thing is talented by your standards? Kang-Dae didn't even give a glance back at him. "—Who would join the Hunter's association when the top guilds can guarantee hunters great fame and large salaries. There are people out there that can name every core member of the top guild's raid team, but there aren't many people that can name our chief Woo Jin-Chul despite being a top class among the A rank hunters. That is why we created this little trick for us to meet with talented hunters."
Kang-Dae inched forward from the chair. "You want me to join you."
The older man nodded his head back at him, his arms extended over legs as he kept going. "We may not be able to give you money and fame like the top guilds, however we can give you a different path in which you could flourish. "
Authority.
He can see those words flashing out within that sentence.
Had it been another timeline, Antares would have accepted immediately.
You see, there is just something tasteful in the sight of watching people's despair grow when the one at the top, the one who is supposed to be relied on at all times, betrays them at the worst moment. He has become a small protector in the past to those who are foolishly persuaded by his lies,and then stabbed them when they least expected by sending dragons over to kill those denizens who thought they were special. He has had its fair share of concubines who he always threw away for the dragons to feast on when he got bored. All of them always thought they would be saved because they had been protected once, saved once, and therefore thought they had a place in his heart.
A heart he doesn't have anymore, and never will have.
They think that this monarch might be weak, because he cares about them. And just watching how wrong they were makes him burn alive back again. They are fools, because they don't know that cutting away all ties of love was the only way for Antares and the other Monarchs to survive for so long.
"You can only survive if everyone around you fears you, child. Look at the Absolute Being, didn't you see how they destroyed our all-loving creator? That's what you get for trusting in love, in fate."
"I must decline."
So in the end... It was all about money. Go Gun-Hee sighed. "I must warn you Mr Lee, that the five pillars in our country, the five guilds that our hunters command, are already on an unstable path. If anything were to happen that could shake off the strength of each guild…" Kang-Dae caught up fast to what he was talking about. "Then this whole country would be thrown into chaos."
"That is not my problem."
The chairman was about to speak again, but Kang-Dae cut him off quickly.
"Besides, I don't plan to join anything related to hunting, let that be an association or a guild."
Old eyes widened in front of the man as he stared back at him. He raised his head to meet the man eye to eye. Something he didn't even notice before that he hadn't done. Gun-Hee spoke, his thorathy voice, a bit of shock passing through his tone as the other was ready to leave this place.
"Then, what do you plan to do?"
Scarlet eyes flickered again with a more mysterious glint than any other emotion that one could be seen.
"First, let me ask you something. What privileges come from being an S rank?"
_________________________________
A lot of things.
A lot of things are left in the open once a person becomes an S rank.
There is a famous Mexican chef that is an S rank and a Guild Leader at the same time.
There is a Spanish S rank that has become an actor and a supermodel.
There has been an Indonesian S rank whose crimes topple even those of what would be expected.
There is another Indonesian S rank that killed the ladder off and became a vigilante.
There is another S rank that helps out immigrants escape from dictatorship in their countries.
There is the story of an Egyptian S rank that took down a highly organized crime after they killed their daughter.
There is another group of S ranks that have started to take over countries and live as kings and queens there.
And there are so many more S ranks all around the world that do not care for the rules of the government, nor the reason for why they are S ranks in the first place and simply decided that this new power of theirs is... well something they can use to take advantage of others.
"That is why the Hunter's International Surveillance Association— HISA for short— was established a year later after Kamish had been defeated. Founded by none other than the Fifth National Huntress, accompanied by Siddhart Bachchan and Jonas de la Cruz Rodrigues, to pledge: peace, balance and justice around the world despite the turmoil magic has caused. The other three National Hunters also took part in the agreement but are not as active in it, mainly because North America and China did not suffer extreme consequences over the wars between hunters."
"How come?"
Ju-Hee was not only a blessing of information but despite her entire life fearing for monsters, she had a deep fascination with anything related to hunters, especially if it also came to new discoveries in magic that connected to the technology they have today.
"Well America lost a lot of its S ranks on Kamish, so most of the internal warfare would have been plummeted down by the fear of messing with Cristopher Reed as well as Thomas Andre. And those two had lost so much in that event that it wasn't like they were willing to destroy their country again for a little brawl.
As for China, since the first day gates appeared they already had established a strict form of military training for how to deal with each and every one of them. Its policies for every hunter were limited to their rank, so they had a far better chance at survival and quelling rebellions by following the strict rules than any other country did."
Ju-Hee took a deep breath again as she finished the small powerpoint she had set up with only a map of the world on her hand and a hundred scribbles everywhere in said map.
Humanity was somewhat organized at least. That's all he could understand.
"Now for Oceania, Africa and South america—"
"That's it, I don't need to listen to everything else."
Ju-Hee pouted. "Aww... but that's the best part, Oppaya! Since they—"
"No, we are going to sleep."
Ju-Hee pouted back again as she left the papers aside and raised the sheets of the hospital bed. Kang-Dae dimmed the lights off a bit, because the last time the lights went out completely Ju-Hee had almost screamed. The spike of her mana everywhere, like a pupperfish waiting to attack, had let him know just how deep that fear of the dark had taken control over her.
He had also taken 250 gold coins because he suddenly turned off the lights. When he tried to demand those back, the system did not answer, making him mad as he knew the system had an automatic function that did not fear him as its creator did.
Where was that architect anyways? They had suddenly disappeared from the world as soon as he entered the office of the chairman. It doesn't seem like they are slacking around or else Antares would have been notified through the connections he had with his generals.
Anyways, it didn't matter anymore, he still had doubts about Elysium, but that could be answered soon once he reunited with the rest of the Monarchs.
And even sooner with Ashborn.
Kang-Dae sat back again on the cushion of the hospital. His senses wide awake as they could feel the tiny boy in the other room slowly begin to move its fingers, its eyelids, everything in its body slowly growing awake of their senses around him.
"Oppaya, can you hold my hand today."
"No."
[500 coins have been taken.]
H
e is going to kill that automatic function, but first, he held Ju-Hee's hand with a grumpy expression. Due to the low lighting, she would never know what true fear is because she couldn't look into his eyes.
"Thanks."
[...]
[Brotherly duties achieved!]
[You have been rewarded 100 coins.]
Just 100?? How. Dare, You--- This is why he hates magicians in the first place.
"Oppa, you said that the Association had called you to join them, right?"
"That's correct." He had told her all about it when he came here. There was no reason to hide it from her either since she was the most informed about Earth from both of them. So he could at least gain something by telling her.
"And well, what did you do?"
"I rejected it."
He squeezed his hand tighter. "You're not planning on becoming a hunter, right?"
"..."
And if he did become a hunter? Sure he couldn't care less about the danger of ending on a bad reputation with his sister, the money would drop but not his life. However, he would contribute to the cycle of the Rulers opening those gates (for whatever reason they had to do so) and also be killing his own kind in the process.
It was a dangerous game to play there, and everywhere he looked, it could have been better to simply work for the association. If only that Fragment did not appear here and in this timeline of all times.
"I don't know really."
"...Then how about you volunteer with me?"
Kang-Dae's eyes dimed out to the normal pupils he had. "I'm surprised you still want to fight considering you can't even sleep at night anymore."
"Well... I don't want to fight. I want to save others. And dungeon breaks are occurring more often than not. Besides, tomorrow I'll be discharged and I'll need to work twice as hard to earn some money for retirement."
"Don't we have enough?"
"I don't wanna rely on our parents' money, you know that."
He did, in fact, not know that.
What was money to them anyways, she seemed capable of eating the food from the planets, and if he infused her with a little bit of his mana then she could easily live away in a castle of a dragon, a along with the grandparents, he wouldn't have to worry about them at all until the system decided to stop giving him those penalties, and then let them go. A small mercy he could do since they were relatives to the body of a useful human.
[Your portal capabilities have been blocked.]
Well, that was thrown out the window.
"So? Will you join me?"
"Tomorrow."
____________________________
The next day appeared with a bright morning.
"Ju-Hee..."
He didn't expect any visitors today, apart from the surveillance team and Jin-Ah, he didn't think there would be many people that would care for his well being, much less come to visit him. Also, most people would have expected this anyways, so even if he had friends then they would have seen this as a daily occurrence.
That did not apply to Ju-Hee apparently.
"Jin-Woo... oh Jin-Woo you are alive!" The way she jumped towards him would have thrown him from the bed had he not been a little stronger than most humans. Her warm arms wrapped around him and in a second she started sobbing his shoulder, only releasing him when she remembered the state that Jin-Woo had been in the double dungeon. Her eyes frantically jumped from his face to his arms to his legs.
"Are you hurt anywhere!?! What happened to you after— And— and your leg! Your... leg."
His curled and uncurled his toes in motion, every part of his body regaining its senses back to the way it was, no, it was more healthier than before, there wasn't a single bone in his body that seemed fractured, or even with the scars he used to have since his first days. It's as though he had gone back in time, four years ago, to when he had first started his raids.
All clean, all ready to become a stronger man in order to survive.
All naive too.
"It came back." He forced a smile on his face, hoping she wasn't about to ask how that was possible.
"That is..." She faced down towards the leg again, then also pulled out a smile back at him. "That's good to know."
His face softened a bit with her smile, still, that smile went away early as she slapped the top of his head and, in a way that was almost foreign to Jin-Woo, Ju-Hee had already changed her face as fire burned in her eyes. All of that fire is ready to scorch him.
"Don't! Ever! Ever! Ever! Ever! Put! Your! Life! On! The! Line! Again! You hear me Sung Jin-Woo-ssi!" Each word in sync to her chops in the man's head. "I really care about you a lot! You know that! When you said you where going to... I couldn't... that felt...." his hand tried to reach out to her, but Ju-Hee moved hers to wipe away her tears. "Never. You have to have something to take care of, right?" Jin-Woo quickly nodded. "Then don't die. Don't do it again. Don't say those words again. Alright?"
A small breath, a shaky breath, escaped his mouth, both eyes hidden behind the dark locks of hair that he so choppily cut two years ago because he could never afford even a haircut in the first place.
"Mn...Alright..."
But he had already been so used to the injuries, so used to death. He didn't want to die... and It's not like he also had a choice in the matter.
At least not until now. The screen hovered over him.
"Ju-Hee, it's time."
A new voice reached Jin-Woo's ears, loud but not demanding, clear cut and yet with an accent on him that fit him quite well. Between his sloppy hair, and his eyes getting used to the morning light, he tried to make out the image of this new visitor.
Red eyes with the color of roses, hair that was the color of autumn, his height was like that of supermodels or kpop stars, and his outfit also seemed to have this aura of elegance around him. Despite his good hearing, Jin-Woo didn't even hear him open the door, much less his steps as he came closer to it.
And with a face akin to that of Ju-Hee, he began to wonder as they met each other's eyes...
"Ah yeah, I'll be there, thanks oppa."
So Ju-Hee has a brother... huh.
The man smirked back.
So Ashborn didn't take full control of his vessel... huh.
____________
Authors notes:
Something about pronouns which I forgot to mention, for the spiritual forms of both Monarchs and Rulers, i plan on using It/ or They/Them or just their names like in the original. However when they take the form, they will be using that person's pronouns, Antares with Kang-Dae, Elysium or Brihhtest Fragment with the middle eastern woman, ect ect.
While the Alusi like the architect share a They/Them since they are hermaphrodities.
As for the concubines of Antares and the small quote of "see how they killed our all loving creator?" They will be somewhat relevant in the far future.