[You have Leveled-Up!]
Izuku looked at his Stat page again, even though he'd checked it yesterday when he'd Leveled-Up the first time.
Izuku Midoriya:
Level: 198
Strength: 547
Vitality: 444
Agility: 500
Intelligence: 863
Sense: 488
[Mana: 412146/412146]
[HP: 161153/161153]
[Shadows saved: 309421]
"Even though the army is tearing through the wild Gates in South Korea and whatever the Thanatos Agency can get their hands on here, I've still only Leveled-Up twice. It's just been going so slow."
"Arise."
[357 High Orcs Knight Grade have evolved into 357 Ravager Orcs Elite-Knight Grade.]
[1 Orc General Elite-Knight Grade has evolved into 1 Orc King Captain Grade.]
This was the first normal Gate that Izuku had visited in a while. He was making his rounds in Japan today to scoop up all the corpses his Shadows had procured by jumping between his apartment and the Gates to make sure Nejire had relief from her pain. Beru was doing the usual in Korea and piling up bodies for his King. As a Grand-Marshal now, he only needed some basic foot soldiers to collect the dead Villains for him, even the few S-Rank Dungeons that popped up in response to the intense Mana that had soaked into the ground after the Titans rampage were little more than playthings for Beru.
"There he is!"
"It's the Demon King!"
"Get a picture!"
Behind the roped off Gate plenty of reporters were clamoring to get a sound bit from the now infamous Izuku. They shouted plenty of questions at him. How was he so strong? Why did his Summons come through a Supermassive Gate? Were America's offers of money and fame going to tempt him over?
Out of all the questions, however, only one caught his interest.
"Where is the rest of your Agency?! We've only seen your Summons ever since the South Pole Raid!"
Izuku spun around, fixing his brilliant emerald eyes on the man, freezing him in place. When Izuku realized the intensity he was putting off, he dialed down his Aura and let a small grin stretch across his face. It wasn't over the top, but also friendly enough to calm the man.
"The South Pole Raid has put a lot of strain on everyone. I'm simply handling things for a time."
"We heard that one of your Agency Members, the Hero Burnin, passed during the Raid… is her passing responsible for this break?"
Izuku's face fell slightly, "Perhaps for some… But I don't speak for everyone. Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."
"Wait! What abou-"
"Shadow Exchange."
Izuku emerged into his living room, where Yaoyorozu was fiddling with the golden cube left over by the Ruler.
"This is weird. I can't even find a Mana source inside it."
"And there's no trail linking it to the Gap Between Dimensions like the sword I was inhabiting," Correnic chimed in.
"So… are we just supposed to hand it to every single person we meet until it activates?"
"That makes no sense," Ryukyu said, having shown up alongside Mirio to help figure out the cube. "Grantuld actively sought me out. Aeic was passed on by it's host at frequent intervals. Correnic tested whoever beat the Titan Monarch's Gate. Though… Pulra was supposedly hidden away and wasn't searching for a host either."
"It'd be so much easier if they just told us what they wanted us to do."
Mirio shook his head, "None of this feels right. Everyone is treating this like a slow burn. Some of the Rulers seem hesitant to show themselves and the Monarchs didn't even show up during the Raid on Razar."
"Tsukauchi… told me that Rulers were pickier to ensure their hosts shared their ideals and could fully use their powers. But that only explains Rulers. Even if Antares himself was too weak to make an appearance, the six remaining Monarchs, fighting alongside Razar, could've killed us."
"Hmm," Izuku lifted a hand to his chin, "Maybe-"
RING!
The telltale jingle of a System Alert pulled Izuku's attention away from the conversation. The other three Ruler Hosts watched with apprehension as Izuku's eyes widened to dinner plates.
"What?" Yaoyorozu asked, "What is it?"
"I… I think I know what the Monarchs were doing while we were fighting Razar," Izuku spun around the System Screen.
[EMERGENCY Quest]
[EMERGENCY Quest: The Monarchs have begun taming Primordial Grade Monsters. Your only chance of survival is to obtain your own.]
Quest Completion Requirements:
- Use the Eldritch Key to enter the final Instance Dungeon and take the Shadows of Primordial Beings.
Rewards:
1. +200 Stat Points
2. Increase the Potency of one Skill of your Choice (Effects Vary)
3. Evolve one Shadow of your Choice.
While Izuku and his cohorts dealt with this new information, Shoto Todoroki was standing in a perfectly dark room. He was certain he had just fallen asleep and yet, he was also convinced that this was real. He felt perfectly awake and aware. He'd had lucid dreams before and none of them even came close to the reality that this room encapsulated.
"Do you not wonder about the fates of your family?"
Shoto spun around the dark room, looking for the source of the voice, but it came from all directions.
"Natsuo died inside a Gate. The only survivor was the boy who now employs you."
Shoto scowled, "Natsuo used his powers like a criminal! If someone had to defend themselves from him-"
"Touya disappeared whilst taking on a Gate alongside the same boy, only to emerge back into reality as a Villain, corrupted and rampaging."
"If Touya chose Villany, that's no one's fault but his o-"
"Your father. Someone not included in the Southern Pole Raid's Hero list, somehow ended up dead inside the palace, where he was yet again."
"H-he-"
"Do you feel nothing?!" The voice shouted. "This boy is at the center of your family falling apart and still you follow his orders like some slave! Your sister and your mother are all you have left! What happens when he comes near them next?!"
"That's… not Midoriya. He wouldn't do anything like that to me."
"Can you be absolutely certain? You never even asked him about your brothers! You never attempted to pry the story out of him yourself! You simply accepted what your mind told you!"
Shoto clenched his fists, "I… Don't doubt my suspicions about Natsuo…"
"You have strong intuition and a close understanding of your brother's personality. But what about Touya, or your father? You didn't know either of them. The only way to know for certain… to know whether or not Izuku Midoriya is responsible, whether or not he is deserving of your vengeance, is to storm into his house and demand the truth."
[Item: Instance Dungeon Key: Eldritch Underworld.]
Item Class: National
Item Type: Key
Use anywhere in the ruined landscape of South Korea to be granted access to the Final Instance Dungeon. Filled with Lovecraftian horrors and beasts, it holds two Primordial Grade Chaos Inhabitants. It will take every last ounce of your power to clear this Dungeon and obtain power to match the Monarchs.
"If it's a System-Generated Gate, then that means these Primordials were either created by the System and aren't truly as strong as a real one… or somehow, Ashborn managed to obtain enough power to entrap them," Correnic explained.
"A real one?" Izuku asked.
"Primordial Grade is a stage that defines any mortal that has surpassed that of a Grand-Marshal, but they are not necessarily Primordials."
Mirio stepped in, "Aeic shared some memories of them with me. At the beginning of existence, the Absolute Being was using tools and his own power to govern the universe. But he was tired of repairing and reusing the tools and spending his own energy, so he created the Primordials."
"Some of them control the inherent laws of the universe. Even if the Monarchs have been using the ability to absorb Spiritual Essence and get stronger, they'd never be able to tame those beasts, so they must be forming contracts with the more physical and monstrous Primordials. The ones that are offspring of their more universal parents."
"So even if Bellion or Beru or one of my other Grand-Marshals ranked up to Primordial Grade, they'd still be weaker?"
"By a fair margin," Correnic responded. "The Primordials are ancient, Kaiju-like beings of untold power. Before the Spiritual Absorption ability was revealed by the Architect, not even the Monarchs dared to approach them. After the Absolute Being was killed, they became even less predictable."
"And the Monarchs are now gathering these things? How many Primordials are there in total?"
"At best, a Monarch could form a contract with one each. Since Antares is likely still too weak and Quaresha is dead, that means they can obtain six in total. Our one advantage would be the Primordials individuality. Without a Monarch to control them, they might just go back to their homes and ignore the war once more. We wouldn't necessarily have to kill them."
"That means that I'm the only one who could control multiple of them," Izuku thought to himself, "Extracting their Shadows would give me their undying loyalty, unlike the unstable contracts the other Monarchs have."
[Alarm: If you do not enter the Instance Dungeon within the next two days, your heart will stop. This Quest is of utmost importance, the Player is not allowed to ignore or put it off.]
"Well okay then, you don't have to be so rude about it. I was going to go anyway." Izuku turned back to Correnic, "How long will it take for a Monarch to obtain a contract with a Primordial?"
"It… depends on the strength of both parties. At best, months, maybe even years, at worst, they could've already forged the contracts."
Izuku nodded and looked over to Yaoyorozu, "I hate to leave again… but it looks like we've got no choice."
"We'll gather your family in the Bastion and wait for your return," Ryukyu said, "And continue to search for a host for this Ruler while you're gone. This may be our last chance to relax and gather our strength, so we've got to use it wisely."
"What do you say, Bellion? You up to kill some gods?"
"For you my Liege? Always."
Sorry for another short chapter! I needed some setup! I promise the next chapter will be a big one with quite a bit of content! I look forwards to you all reading it!
