"Dad?"
Hisashi Midoriya was unmistakable in the light of Ifrit's fires. His jet-black hair had a few streaks of white running through it, but other than that, he looked the same as he did when he disappeared ten years ago.
"T-Tusk? Is… Is this an illusion?"
The Orc Sorcerer appeared, startling Hisashi, "I sense no Magic at play here. Whether or not he is your father, I cannot say, but I can say with confidence that he is real."
"Izu...ku?" Hisashi's voice was trembling, he was barely able to hold back the tears as the two stood mere feet apart, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.
Then, suddenly, they simultaneously rushed at each other. Some of the Shadows tensed up, worried that they were about to fight, but instead, the two collided in a bear hug.
"My god!" Hisashi cried out, tears now freely pouring from his eyes, "You got so big!"
Izuku was only able to sob into his father's shoulder, feeling very much like the times when he was much younger and would scrap his knees playing outside. His father would hold him and just let him cry.
"You're here…" Hisashi trained his eyes on the Shadows behind Izuku, still not certain of what they were, "How are you here?!"
"I-I s-s-should be a-asking you t-that," Izuku stuttered, still completely in disbelief and certain that any moment he was going to wake up.
Hisashi barked out a laugh, "I've got a… long story for that question."
"So d-do I."
[Normal Quest: Gain Entrance to the Dragon King's Palace (Part 3) has been completed]
[You can receive the following Rewards:]
Rewards:
- 1. +30 Stat Points
- 2. Two Items of your Choosing
- 3. Hidden Reward
[You have cleared the Dragon's Domain Instance Dungeon.]
Izuku ignored the messages as he and his father remained hugging for several minutes. Igris and many of the other Shadows watched on with emotional hearts. Realizing that this man was of the utmost importance to Izuku, the Shadows immediately imprinted on him, much in the same way they imprinted on Eri or anyone else Izuku deeply cared for.
Finally, after nearly ten minutes of just standing there hugging, Hisashi pulled away, taking a moment to admire just how much his son had grown. While he did that, Izuku wiped away the wetness near his eyes. "Man… I still can't believe this… mom's gonna freak out."
"Mom?" Hisashi muttered, "Inko is… awake?"
"That's right. I forgot he disappeared right before the Eternal Slumber reached its final stage. He would've expected her to be unconscious." Izuku nodded, "Her and Sakura are both doing well. They're staying at my place right now…" He trailed off, realizing he was gonna have to explain a house full of girls, a daughter, and well… it was a lot to take in at once.
"How? I… I didn't think there was a cure."
Izuku tilted his head, "There… kinda isn't." He ran his hand through his hair, "I was able to create six vials of the stuff, but I already used two. So there's only four cures left in the world, and I doubt they can be replicated."
"Well," Hisashi shook his head, incredibly confused by the entire turn of events, "How did you make it then?"
Izuku sighed, "There's a lot to explain, so let's get you home first, I promise once you're home and mom's done crying over you, I'll tell you everything."
Hisashi was utterly dying to talk more, but he also knew that Izuku was right and that this awful Gate was no place to discuss anything.
"Tatsuya," Izuku began, "Is the Palace clear?"
"Yes, my Liege. It seems that those ten Dragon Knights at the foyer were the strongest enemies that this place could offer."
Izuku squinted, "You'd think the final area would have the toughest," His gaze shifted back to his father, "Then again, it's not like I can complain in the slightest. Now, let's get out of here."
Hisashi was completely enamored by the Shadows, especially Igris, who introduced himself like he was professing his love. Whilst they were flying home on Saphira, Igris knelt before the elder Midoriya.
"You are the father of my Liege and for siring my master, I owe you an unpayable debt. Whenever you or your family have need of my sword, you shall have it."
Izuku smirked as his dad scratched his head, unsure of how to handle such a heartfelt declaration, "Uh… Thanks." Then to Izuku, "So these guys are all your Summons?"
"Yep, I've got a little over four-thousand of 'em." He decided not to include the count that Kojin and the Arch Liches could call upon.
"That's… insane! I've never heard of anyone with this many Summons this strong!"
"Like I said! It's a long story!" He shouted over the wind as he watched his penthouse's massive yard-balcony come into view. "We're almost there! You think we should try and ease mom into the knowledge that you're still alive?"
Hisashi gave a bittersweet laugh and shrugged, "I don't know how you can really break something like that softly!"
Izuku chuckled, "Just wait on Saphira for a minute and I'll talk to her and Sakura!"
As Saphira slowed to a stop, Hisashi laid down on her massive serpent-like frame, hiding himself from the group on the balcony. Izuku saw Yaoyorozu, and Eri alongside Esil. Nejire and Miruko were at work today. Sakura and Izuku's mother were probably somewhere else in the house.
Izuku hopped down the thirty feet between Saphira and the ground, smiling wide as Eri ran up to him, "Daddy!"
"Daddy?" Hisashi asked, forgetting that he was hiding as he popped up.
"Um… Izuku? Who's…?"
"Well… I suppose mom isn't here yet, so it's not a huge deal," He picked up Eri in his arms, "Momo, Eri, meet my dad."
"What?" A voice said from the door to the inside, causing Izuku to realize that Inko and Sakura had come running after hearing the commotion of Saphira flying in.
"How is it that mom never comes up on my Sense radar?!"
"Um…" Izuku began, not sure how to answer his mother's shock.
"Izuku? Is that…?"
"Yep," Izuku didn't see any reason to beat around the bush any longer, "I found him inside a Gate. It's him."
Hisashi dropped down the same distance Izuku had, showing off that he too had some form of Awakening. "Hi… I'm uh… sorry…"
Inko practically stumbled forwards, Sakura behind her. Izuku stood off to the side, wrapping his free arm around Yaoyorozu's shoulder as his mother and sister went through the same ritual he had upon discovering his father was alive.
Inko's hand came up to his face, caressing the stubble on his cheek and chin. "It's you…"
"You're awake…"
"You'll never cease to surprise me with what you can do in a few hours," Yaoyorozu whispered in his ear as the reunited couple embraced, his mother completely bawling and his father holding his composure far better this time around as he reached out and wrapped his daughter into a group hug.
"Daddy!" Sakura cried into his surprisingly well kept shirt.
"Do you know why he was stuck in there?"
Izuku shook his head, keeping his voice low, "It was a Gate created by the System, so I know he wasn't one of the Rulers' experiments."
"Then, does that mean Ashborn is responsible?"
"I don't know."
Once everyone had settled down, and tears were done leaking, Izuku invited his father inside. Sakura and Inko were still clutching onto him as they walked inside, earning a whistle of approval from Hisashi.
"Damn! You guys live here?!"
"It's Izuku's place," Inko explained, "But we're staying here for now."
"Why? What happened to the apartment? I mean… don't get me wrong, I'd love to live here too, but I thought you said you'd never leave that place as long as you lived?"
"That's… part of the long story," Izuku interjected as he had everyone take a seat at the dining room table. As Yaoyorozu excused herself to make some coffee and tea for everyone, Izuku asked, "How much do you know about the Rulers and the Monarchs?"
"Uhhhh… That Angel guy who occasionally visited me said something about awakening the "Shadow Monarch.""
Izuku felt blood rush to his head, "Angel? Did he have six wings? Was he like… made out of stone? Did he give you a name?"
Hisashi leaned back, somewhat shocked by the intensity leaking out of his son's eyes, "H-He called himself the Architect… Why?"
Izuku shook his head, "I can't believe it… Before I was chosen as Ashborn's successor… you were his first choice…"
"Ashborn? Successor?" Hisashi held up his hands, "Okay, someone needs to explain what's going on!"
Izuku nodded and sat back down, "Right… sorry."
And so, Izuku launched into an explanation, starting at his Awakening at an E-Rank and moving through his encounters with the System and the Higher Beings, explaining Eri along the way.
"Phew!" Hisashi mimed wiping away sweat, which, in all truth, he probably wasn't miming, "I was trying to work out the math in my head and it just did not add up. Regardless, I'm glad you didn't get this one involved in a teen pregnancy," He said, gesturing to Yaoyorozu, who turned bright red, "I saw that happen to a classmate once, was not-"
"Dad!" Izuku interrupted.
"Ah… right…" Hisashi scratched at his cheek.
"Out of that entire story, that's what you focused on?" Inko asked, a nostalgic smile on her face, "I mean, that is just like you, but still…"
Hisashi shrugged, "I've heard a lot of weird shi… taki mushrooms… in my life." He glanced up at Izuku, who was completely mortified already. First, it was Miruko's vulgarity he had to worry about in front of Eri, now it was his father's language too. "Um… After seeing all kinds of Villains, I didn't think other dimensional beings were that much of a leap."
"We're talking about the gods of the universe, created by the actual god of all reality and you're not even a tiny bit fazed?" Sakura asked.
"It's… been a long ten years?" He suggested.
"Speaking of which," Izuku said, "Now that you're caught up with our story, what's yours? What happened in that castle?"
Hisashi cleared his throat, as if he'd been preparing to deliver this story for years, which he probably had. "We were told it was an A-Rank Gate. I was the only S-Rank, but there were plenty of other really experienced A-Rankers behind me, so I wasn't really worried. Then, we stepped inside, and everything changed." Apparently, unlike Izuku, who traversed the entirety of Disneyland, the Gate his father entered only included the Dragon King Palace, which actually didn't have a Dragon King now that he thought about it. "The others were killed right off the bat by those Dragon Knight things, but they left me alone for some reason. I tried to take some of their bodies and go back through the Gate, but it was shut tight. I waited seven days before trying to proceed."
"Seven days?" Izuku asked, "What did you eat?"
Hisashi laughed, "It was honestly pretty funny. A couple of those little flying snakes brought me food and water everyday, like some twisted version of Beauty and the Beast."
"And when seven days passed?"
"I got up and walked around for a while. Nothing hurt me, or even attempted to attack me. Then I finally got to that throne room and met the Architect. He said that I was the "key" but barely gave me anything to go off of. He said I would not be harmed, but I also could not leave. After that, not much really happened. He would appear and disappear at random intervals, feeding me Mana and making me stronger. Occasionally, I'd get little tidbits out of him, like his name, or why he was keeping me there, but aside from his name he usually just gave me vague answers. And then, one day, he simply stopped showing up. It was like he lost interest in me or something."
Izuku sighed, "I think he did." Hisashi looked up in surprise. "Ashborn and the Architect have apparently been searching for a host for a little while now. If you weren't a suitable match, then the Architect probably forgot about you altogether and moved onto other options."
"He just… forgot?!" Hisashi asked, a hint of indignation entering his voice.
Izuku nodded sadly, "Higher Beings tend to not care about us mortals."
"Ashborn did," Correnic interjected.
"I still think it's weird that a god is talking out of a speaker."
Izuku could practically feel the Ruler glaring at his father, but ignored it, "He did?"
"Ashborn took most things to the extreme. When he was a Ruler, he took his role about as seriously as he could. The trust he put in the Absolute Being was… absolute and when we killed the Absolute Being, his hate for us Rulers was practically unending. But regardless on what side he took, the one thing that was mostly unchanging was his stance on mortals. When he was a Ruler, he took personal offense when they were threatened, or used for the war effort. As a Monarch, he swore to take any fallen mortals into his army, even if they wouldn't be actual fighters. He just wanted everyone to be happy and alive. Whether that meant as a Shadow or not, he didn't much care."
"So then… what you're saying is that it was the Architect's fault entirely?"
"What I'm saying is that I don't see Ashborn abandoning a man with a family for ten years inside a Gate."
"Well, that makes me feel a little better about myself," Izuku thought, his sudden hate for Ashborn fading.
"It's… disappointing that we lost time, but now, I'm just glad to have him home. There's nothing we can do to get back those ten years unfortunately," Inko lamented, resting her head on Hisashi's shoulder.
Izuku squinted, "Time… Ten years…" He turned to Correnic, "I've been meaning to ask. All Might, Aeic's previous host, told me that the Earth has already been destroyed seven times over and that this is the eighth war. How'd you guys manage to restore an entire species? If you have that inherent power, why not use it to create whole legions of those Angel warriors that make up your armies."
Correnic was silent for a moment, a rare thing for her. As the Smartest Fragment, she prided herself on quick and intelligent responses. "We… do not have that power. Nor can we restore the Earth an eighth time."
"Why?"
"...When we killed the Absolute Being, we raided his "vault." The first thing we grabbed was the Chalice of Rebirth. When poured out, it reverses time by ten of your Earth years. We've used it a few times throughout the course of the war to gain an upper hand. But we've never had to use it so much until planet Earth became the Monarch's target."
"You said you can't restore Earth an eighth time…" Yaoyorozu let the question trail off.
"Even the artifacts of God have a limit. The Chalice does not affect the memories of any Higher Beings and… it appears that it also had a limited number of uses that we spent. When we realized that this was our last chance, we injected Mana into Earth through the Gate in the hopes that your species would survive. There are no do-overs, this chance is our last, which is why we are taking such a personal interest in those of you with Quirks. They are a unique attribute we have not seen before. An after effect of the Mana activating them it seems. We were taking some, like Sung Jin-Woo, in order to increase our chances, because we didn't have the luxury of being nice to your world." Correnic didn't even pause for breath, "You can hate us all you want for our "inhumane" experiments, but without us, you humans would be nothing more than ash on scorched land."
Three days later:
"You sure we can come with you guys?" Hisashi asked as everyone gathered up their luggage by the front door.
"Honey, stop asking," Inko lightly teased, "Or else his next answer might be no."
Izuku chuckled, calling up ten of his Shadow Infantry to take the luggage to Firnen outside, who just arrived a few hours earlier after carrying home most of the Shadow Soldiers from Korea. All of the powerful Gates had been dealt with by Beru and turned into Shadows. Now Izuku had six-thousand Shadows instead of four-thousand. Those additional two-thousand stayed behind in Korea to continue clearing Gates and help with the rebuilding process. There weren't many strong ones among them, but the few that were had come home with Firnen, Beru, and the Shadow Magicians.
"I talked to All Might. He said I'm allowed to bring whatever guests I want. Besides, when else are you gonna get the chance to see the one and only I-Island?"
"I've heard that it has some incredible resorts and restaurants."
"I'm looking forwards to the conference bar, I hear it's pretty incredible," Miruko said, earning a look of disapproval from Inko.
"Excuse me, young lady, aren't you eighteen? The legal drinking age in Japan is twenty."
Miruko smirked, "Yeah, but I-Island is its own nation, Siddharth Bachchan makes all the rules and one of those rules is that you can start drinking at sixteen."
Hisashi elbowed his son in the side, getting his attention, "Didn't know you were into the bad girl type too."
Izuku just rolled his eyes as Miruko did her best not to turn bright red. Her ears were pretty good after all.
"Kojin, you Pektra and the other Prime Draconians are on family duty for this trip. Pektra's in charge, so divide yourselves up according to his orders. If you believe someone is threatening anyone here, you have my permission to act autonomously, within reason."
Hisashi chuckled, "Izuku, you don't have to put a Shadow on me. I am stronger than most S-Ranks after all." It was the truth. He had received some power boosts from the Architect, but never had them taken away.
Izuku raised an eyebrow, "My Commander Grade Shadows still outpace even you."
"Alright come on!" Yaoyorozu said, trying to usher everyone together, "We're gonna miss our flight if we don't start heading to the airport!"
"It's a private jet," Miruko said, "They leave when we want them to."
"We should still probably get going."
Once onboard Firnen, Izuku had something to do before reaching the airport.
[You can receive the following Rewards:]
Rewards:
- 1. +30 Stat Points
- 2. Two Items of your Choosing
- 3. Hidden Reward
He took the thirty Stat points and threw them into Intelligence like always, then decided to take the Hidden Reward.
[You have obtained Recipe: Lance of Longinus.]
Izuku narrowed his eyes, "Esil."
The Seraph popped out of Eri's Shadow, "What's up?"
Izuku was still a little fazed by her casual nature compared to the other Shadows, but found it refreshing, "Can I see your spear?"
[Item: Spear of Longinus.]
Item Class: S
Item Type: Spear
+222 Attack
A holy lance that can pierce any defense. Will return to the user's hand on command. Can only be wielded by Heavenly Beings.
He nodded to himself, "Yep, it's definitely different."
[Item: Lance of Longinus.]
Item Class: SSS
Item Type: Spear
+666
The true spear of Longinus. Unlike it's lesser version, it can be wielded by any Being. This spear is capable of hurting even Gods and should not be taken lightly.
Required Ingredients:
Spear of Longinus
Spiritual Essence
Slashing Scythe of Light
Izuku squinted, "Spiritual Essence? Is that the stuff Monarch's "souls" are made out of?" He shrugged, deciding to figure it out more when he was relaxing inside the plane. "Now… two items of my choosing…" He smirked, not sure if it would work, "Evolution Core."
A third of the magic enhancing spheres dropped into his hand, making his eyes wide, "Nice." Now, he wouldn't have to take away Tusk's in order to give it to Hinata. "Lance of Longinus."
[Error. Choose another item.]
Izuku sighed, "Okay now that one I should've expected. I guess I have to have made the thing first. Well in that case." He handed back Esil her spear and she walked back to Eri's Shadow, "Spear of Longinus." A copy of Esil's spear dropped into his hands and then into his Inventory. He had given the spear as a gift, he didn't want to take it away.
He closed his System messages and walked over to his father, "So, you ever been on a private jet?"
The Gap Between Dimensions:
The Architect, the real Architect, not his puppeted bodies, was slammed against a wall of pure blackness.
"Traitor," The attacker growled.
"I… serve… all Mon… archs."
"Well if Ashborn is no longer fighting against the Rulers with us, then he's no longer a Monarch!" The voice threw the Architect, sending him bouncing across the floor. Then, the voice started hacking, coughing up a bit of phlegm. "Damn this body. As soon as that boy is adjusted to the power of Destruction, no one will be able to stop me."
A few familiar faces appeared at his side. Stellian, Baran, Quaresha in a new host body, Legia in the body of Gigantomachia, and that Nomu Monarch Izuku saw in Ashborn's memories, just shrunk down to slightly larger than a human.
"Ashborn has finally made his stance clear. He does not intend to interrupt this matter, he plans to let the human fight for whatever he wishes." He coughed, "While Yogumunt and Iriut are helping our "friend" in the arctic, we must take care of our own."
Baran discreetly rolled his eyes as Quaresha bowed down, "What do you request of us, oh Great Monarch of Destruction?"
Antares smiled, "Kill the Shadow Monarch."
