Izuku dug his feet into the snowy terrain as the Ruler's overload of power buffeted against him. Even with Tusk creating a shield around the explosion, the shockwave still managed to spread outwards and lift up a few dozen tents with its power. It only lasted a few seconds, but to the surrounding area, it felt like minutes.

The light of the explosion was so bright that Izuku was certain that to anyone at a more comfortable distance, it would look like daytime, even while the sun was absent.

It took Izuku a few seconds to blink the light from his eyes as he tried to readjust to the sudden darkness once more. When his vision finally cleared, he saw that Tusk's shield was absent and where Burnin should've been, there was nothing but melted snow and ice.

He felt the blood rushing through his veins with rage as his grip tightened around the golden cube in his hands. He wanted to crush it and condemn the Ruler to be hostless, but instead, he chucked it into his Inventory so he wouldn't have to stare at it. If he destroyed it, it would mean that Burnin's death was for nothing. At least this way, another Ruler would come to earth and give humanity a better chance of survival. Izuku was still pissed, but for now, there was nothing to be done about it. When the Ruler found a host, he'd make sure that they knew just what they had cost him.


Beru danced through the sky with all the energy of Eri hopped up on sugar. With his new power as a Grand-Marshal, he had been able to intercept the Angel suicide squads that came to attack them. They were dead before they could even reach the camp.

With the night that would last for months, Izuku and his Shadows were practically invisible to any visual detection. The Angels were likely still able to sense their Mana, but once they got close, the darkness made it especially hard for the Angels to fight the already powerful Shadows.

But it wasn't all good news. The "permanent" darkness was having some adverse effects on the normal Heroes. Unlike Izuku, who subsided on Stamina Potions from his Store and his otherworldly physiology, the Heroes were still susceptible to the long night. It made them lethargic and overly tired. Their senses were faded and overall, aside from Liu Zhigang, they were going to be next to useless against the Angels, but thankfully, they didn't even need them for that in the first place. It was also fortunate that they were nearly at the end of their journey.

They were only a few hours away from Razar's Bastion and Izuku could even see the light of it from over the horizon. He suspected that this batch of Angels was the last that they would encounter before reaching the fortress.

He still thought that the rules of engagement that Razar was using were strange, so he asked the resurrected Seraphs if they knew anything. But they had been given orders only, no details on the reason for those orders.

"It is likely that the Marshals are privy to his schemes, but unfortunately, that will not help us," Masamune declared, standing next to the other four Seraph leaders.

There was the Seraph Berserker Leader, Ken, the Seraph Sorcerer, Seimei, the Seraph Knight, Ronin, and the Seraph Priest, Saishi. They were, of course, also joined by all of the other Squad commanders like Igris and Tusk that were in the Southern Attack Force.

"That is all, my Lord. The pests are dead," Beru said, appearing next to Izuku, who nodded and reached his hand out to the pile of bodies a fair distance off.

"Arise."

Thanks to the packs of Angels, these ones included, he'd added 1650 Shadows to the army, leaving his total at 34370. The other three points had killed a decent chunk of Angels as well, but Izuku didn't have the time to run around grabbing every last pack, after all, he was busy dumping his Mana into his new soldiers.

[Mana Requirement for next Evolution of Shadow Soldiers: Masamune, Ken, Seimei, Ronin, and Saishi has been met. Beginning Evolution process.]

Izuku had considered forcing the evolution of some of his General Grades or even Igris, but decided that it was more efficient to get five more General Grades rather than one Marshal Grade.

[Seraph Maker Masamune Commander Grade has evolved into Final Species, Celestial Engineer General Grade.]

[Seraph Berserker Ken Commander Grade has evolved into Final Species, Celestial Brawler General Grade.]

[Seraph Sorcerer Seimei Commander Grade has evolved into Final Species, Celestial Spellweaver General Grade.]

[Seraph Knight Ronin Commander Grade has evolved into Final Species, Celestial Spearman General Grade.]

[Seraph Priest Saishi Commander Grade has evolved into Final Species, Celestial Healer General Grade.]

"Final Species? Does that mean they can't evolve any more?" Izuku asked Masamune if he knew what it meant.

All the Angels were now decorated with only two sets of wings instead of three, as if they'd been downgraded instead of upgraded. "To an extent, this is our final form. However, if we were able to defeat the Marshal of our respective army, for example if I defeated Nakir, Correnic's Marshal, in combat, I would take one of her sets of wings and become the Marshal of the army."

"So is that possible?"

"For me to defeat Nakir?" Masamune recoiled, their faceless head shaking like a leaf, "Impossible. They may be called the Marshals of the Ruler Armies, but in truth, their Grade is on Grand-Marshal Level. Only Grand-Marshal Beru would stand even a chance of defeating such a foe by himself."

Izuku pondered on the plan he and the Rulers, as well as Thomas Andre, had concocted. "Is there a Grade above Grand-Marshal? One that could fight Grand-Marshals with ease?"

"I have… heard rumors of beasts like that, but they have always been uncontrollable primordial terrors, the Rulers nor the Monarchs ever attempted to recruit them out of fear," Ronin responded, holding a twisting lance that looked large enough, and powerful enough, to spear a Titan in one fell swoop.

"What makes you ask such a question, my Liege?"

"Curiosity," Izuku answered simply as he continued marching onwards with his army, the Bastion coming slowly into view alongside the remainder of the Ruler Army.

Contrary to Razar's previous battle strategy, these Angels hung in the air around the castle, an impenetrable wall of nearly seventy-three thousand S-Rank beings. Suddenly, Izuku realized why Razar was fine with sparing so many troops at the beginning and intermittently throughout the journey. Because in the end, even if Izuku took every single Shadow he could, they'd still be outnumbered three to one. Or two to one if you counted the human combatants, but they would only be able to slow the Angels.

"HALT HERE!" The S-Rank leading the march yelled. They were about twelve miles out and didn't dare risk getting closer before the remainder of the forces were in place.

"Rest while you can!" Izuku shouted, "The Shadows will watch over you while we wait for the others!" Nobody protested now, they were too tired to complain about relying on creepy Summons pulled from dead bodies.

Izuku took the time to look upon the fortress. Though it appeared to be made from nothing more than standard marble, it was putting off enough light to be nearly blinding. Then again, that could've been the Angels themselves.

"The Eastern Attack Force is in place," Thomas Andre reported as they stopped a similar distance from the Bastion.

"South is good to go to," Izuku responded.

"North will be another thirty minutes at best."

"The Western Force has got forty-five minutes left in our trek."

"So… are we still doing this?"

"So far everything's gone as planned, so I see no reason to stop now. It'll suck, but the quicker we deal with Razar, the quicker we can go back to helping the rest of the humans and Shadows stop our armies."

Unlike most movies, where once the main control was destroyed, the grunts would drop dead, the Ruler Army would continue fighting until they had either destroyed the world, or until their hearts stopped beating. Because of the nature of their brainwashing, the Rulers and Izuku would have no choice but to kill every last one of them.

"Man, I'm really upset I won't get to see him in action," Thomas remarked with a wide smirk on his face, "It would've been a wonder to see him fighting for us."

Izuku smiled, "Once he's helped us inside the fort, I'll send him outside to see his old friend."

Thomas laughed heartily, "That'll be a treat, but first things first, you guys gotta make it outta there."

"Don't worry," Yaoyorozu said, using her powers of creation to forge her weapons for the upcoming battle, "We have no plans of dying today."

"No one plans their death," Thomas fired back, a bit of seriousness entering his voice. "But… you guys are apparently gods now, so what do I know."

Izuku said nothing as he made his own preparations, chugging Mana potions to put his Mana count back to full and going over his Stat page and equipment. "Thinking about it now… I haven't leveled up in a while, not since the fight against the thirty-thousand… even though I've fought plenty since then. Did I just plateau?"

Meanwhile, Igris telepathically directed the Shadow Army into formation, keeping it quiet so the humans could rest. Not many did though, they were too busy worrying about the battle to come.

Over the past week or so that they'd spent in the South Pole, they'd lost over three-thousand Heroes in the Southern Force alone. It was a stark reminder of just how overwhelming and imposing Villains had become in more recent times.

So, for the next hour, the humans waited with jittery nerves as their remaining forces got into position. Finally… it was time.

"All points, commence the attack."


Thank you for reading! I'm terribly sorry for giving you two rather boring chapters in a row. However! There is good news! In order to make up for this, I plan to release the final chapter of this arc, which will include the full length final battle, as an extra long chapter, on the 15th of January! I've had this chapter ready for a little while now, but to hold you over and to give me time, I waited to release it till now. Once again, I'm sorry for the odd schedule, if you want updates but aren't fond of Discord, I finally decided to make a Twitter ShadowSovereig7 Where I'll do my best to give updates or answer questions!