DISCLAIMER! I got tired of seeing reviews calling this story a copy or shit or whatever, so I'm getting it over with and posting the last couple of chapters all today! When this chapter goes live I'll also be posting all other chapters!
Antares had finally reached his perfected state. Hidden in the body of a man with the power to decay anything, his powers of destruction became unimaginable. He could've pressed his hand down upon this pitiful little planet and turned it to dust, but he knew that if he did that, the Rulers would turn tail and save their lives to fight another day. He wanted to end this war right here and now. For that reason, he took prisoners. Corrupted by the fragility of a human mind, the Rulers would take the chance and come running to save their friends and family. And as it turned out, Antares was right.
Two Gates and one Shadow blob popped into existence and the few remaining Higher Beings stepped calmly out into the crater that was Canada. Well, calm only in their motions. Deep within their eyes, Antares saw a rage that threatened to swallow the very planet they were protecting.
In his right hand, Antares held Sakura by the throat. In his left hand, Inko. And sprawled out before him was Rumi and Hisashi, each with molten flames of destruction above them, threatening to crash down and eliminate their entire existence. Behind him, an army of draconic servants stood ready, prepared to fight any Shadow Soldiers.
However, true to his word, Izuku arrived without his forces. Not like he could even if he was willing to risk breaking his promise. Even with the Primordials, the world was falling into chaos and the humans were losing more and more ground. Soon, the only combatants on the field would be monsters, or the dead.
"Izuku! Don't listen to this bastard! Just kill-" The flame became a sharp blade, pressing against her throat and alighting her body with unimaginable pain.
"Now now, let's not get hasty. You can still live if you behave yourselves."
It took all the willpower in Izuku's body to not leap forwards and save his partner. But even he couldn't clear the distance in time. After all, Antares now had the power of every original Monarch as well as four of the Rulers. The only Higher Beings still free were Izuku, Momo, and Nejire, as well as the final Fragment, Serenia, who had yet to make her appearance.
Antares could hear Izuku's teeth grind as the Shadow Monarch used his Sense stat to reach out to the South Pole Bastion. The dust that was once Bakugo littered the floor and Eri hid, cowering in a corner. "What do you want?"
Antares smiled, "Reasonable as always, Ashborn. Don't fret, if you give me what I want, everyone here will still get to live."
Izuku sneered in response, "And what's that?"
Antares chuckled, "Is it not obvious," He nodded to Momo and Nejire in turn, then to Izuku himself, "I want your power."
"So we can leave ourselves defenseless to you?"
"You already are defenseless to me. Do not act naive. Your armies will fall before the endlessness of the Monarchs and against myself… heh… well, you might as well be powerless." Antares shook his head, "No, the only chance that this backwater world survives is if you give your Higher Being Essence to me. As a show of good faith, I will leave this planet till last in my conquest to destroy the universe. Such a journey would take many eons, you humans would be long extinct by then, plenty of time to live in peace before my power reached you."
"Even if we wanted to, we couldn't," Momo responded, "There's no way to give up being a host."
"Haha! I am nearly on the level of the Absolute Being himself! You think such a simple hurdle would be something I could not overcome? With your permission, I can pull those useless gods right out of your bodies, no harm done to you in the process."
Nejire and Momo looked to Izuku. As the strongest, his decision would determine the rest of humanity's fate.
Izuku took in a deep breath, letting it out as a heavy sigh, "Mom, Dad, Sakura, Rumi…" He looked up to see the tear streaked faces of his mother and sister, and the grim determination in Hisashi and Rumi's eyes. They knew. "I'm sorry."
With all the force Izuku could muster, enough power to kick off with a nuclear blast's worth of energy, he launched himself at Antares, fist flying forwards with Shadow Energy pouring off in tsunamis.
Even Antares, though prepared for an event like this, was slightly taken aback by the pure bloodlust. He dropped Sakura and Inko and ignored the two on the floor as he met Izuku head on.
Knuckle met knuckle and for a moment, there was an unsteady equilibrium between them.
"You'd never risk leaving us alone!" Izuku groaned as he pushed as hard as he could with his Shadow Energy, whilst Antares looked almost amused.
Nejire and Momo rushed to flank the Monarch, their physical bodies burning away as their Spiritual Manifestations burst forth. Nejire's body took on the shape of a mermaid swimming through the air, her entire being made up entirely of her yellow spiral energy. Momo became almost robotic as under her skin there was revealed to be a mechanical body made from the same white metal that Correnic reinforced all of her weapons with.
Antares smiled and a burst of grey energy exploded from the palm of his hand. Izuku was shot backwards, slamming into the edge of the crater wall with enough force to break his back. The wind was forced out of his lungs and even with Shadow Energy pouring into his body, nothing repaired itself.
"Well Ashborn? What's it feel like to be beset by my Destruction Energy?!" He boasted, spreading his arms wide as Nejire and Momo used Ruler's Authority to drag back the four hostages, preparing their own attacks at the same time.
But Antares didn't seem too upset about losing his hostages. After all, two of them were already marked by his powers.
Sakura and Inko fell to the floor, grasping at their throats as they attempted to fight back the decay spreading.
Six beings in the universe had attacks that, no matter what help their victims received, it was pointless. No god could fix that sort of damage and it was a damage that Antares happily dealt out.
Antares cackled boisterously as everyone watched their family disperse into ash. There wasn't even time for any final words to be exchanged.
"Y-Y-You…" Rumi pushed herself to her feet, dust lightly clinging to her body, "BASTARD!"
Momo manifested a broadsword as big as Kamish's tail, swinging it with her physically superior body while Nejire locked Antares to the floor with her energy chains wrapping around his wrists and ankles. At the same time, she launched over a dozen spiral spears.
Antares once again looked entirely nonplussed, gently raising his arms to snap the chains and catch the sword by its blade, the insane weight apparently doing nothing to affect him as decay crept up the weapon. The spiral spears seemed to dissipate just before they could touch his skin.
With barely any effort, Antares had cast aside the attacks of two Higher Beings, but that didn't stop Rumi. Overcome with frustration and sheer rage at the deaths of Sakura and Inko, she launched herself at the Monarch of Destruction.
Izuku tried once more to move, or even shout out a warning, but his body spasmed again as the Destruction Energy rampaged through his form.
Rumi kicked out, aiming for Antares's skull. But he caught her ankle like he was catching a baseball. A few seconds later, he dropped her to the floor as she roared in pain, her body being eaten by the decay from the bottom up. It reached her stomach. By then, any normal human would've already given in to the pain, she chose instead to lock eyes with Izuku. Neither could speak through their pain, but the message she conveyed was clear.
"Please! MOVE!"
Izuku watched on in horror as Nejire launched attack after attack and Momo shot shell after shell having manifested her typical rifle. All of them disintegrated before even reaching the Monarch of Destruction. They continued backing up, attempting to shield Izuku.
"No! Just run!"
They refused, even as the distance between them and Antares shrank, the Monarch completely ignoring Hisashi to reach the girls.
Nejire abandoned any offense and threw her all into the most powerful barrier she could manifest in her Spiritual Form. It should've been able to survive anything, but Antares's fist punched straight through, burying into Nejire's glowing sternum and turning her body to ash. The remnants of her Ruler hung in the air, his Spiritual Essence lost without a host. It recoiled from Antares touch as Momo got in his face, dual wielding enhanced longswords.
The Monarch spread his arms wide, allowing the blades to strike his chest and dissolve into nothing. His arm then shot forwards, grabbing her by her metallic throat and carrying her over to the still helpless Izuku.
"Once I'm done with you Rulers. I'll kill your father, then that whelp you call your daughter, and then… I'll turn this whole damn planet to ash!" His fingers tightened and Momo's throat began following in the path of Sakura and Inko.
For a moment, she continued struggling, jabbing weapon after weapon into the Monarch's chest. But then, suddenly, the decay reached further and she used her last moments to look back to Izuku, "Don't…"
Her ash fell to cover Izuku's pitch black armor.
He felt numb, even with the pain of destruction racing through him, this felt all too surreal. They hadn't spent the last three years preparing… only to be torn apart in seconds. None of them… got to fully live their lives. It was all so painful, that Izuku didn't even resist as Antares stomped his foot through Izuku's chest, spreading decay and eating through the Shadows.
"You're the god of death?" Antares asked, chuckling, "So pathetic."
Izuku was cold. He sat there, in a fetal position, on that cold shadowy floor, unable to comprehend any of what just happened. His family, his lovers, killed like they were flies. There was no fight, no struggle, just death.
He would have laid there for minutes, or hours, or even weeks. Nothing mattered to him any more, not even the fact that he was somehow still conscious.
"After all this time following you. All those times you were at death's door and escaped. Here we finally are."
Izuku's eyes drifted up from the hard floor, purple flames licking at the surrounding darkness. Standing above him, was the Shadow Monarch, Ashborn.
By now, the only human left at that battlefield… was Hisashi. Friends and family surrounded him, dust. His wife, his daughter, his son, the three girls he had treated like his own flesh and blood.
Even after being stuck in a Gate for 10 years, he never became bitter. He never lost the spark that made him a man that people wanted to be around. He never gave into that horrible darkness stirring just beneath him. Perhaps that was why he never became the Shadow Monarch himself. He could not handle the darkness and tragedy that the Sovereigns brought everywhere. And that… was why he was given one last chance.
Antares stood over the dust that used to be Izuku, looking around in a rage, completely ignoring Correnic and Arturk's Spiritual forms. The golden clouds escaped over to Hisashi as Antares shouted.
"WHERE ARE YOU ASHBORN!" Defying his expectations, no Spiritual Body had emerged from Izuku. In a way, it was a blessing, because otherwise, Hisashi never would've found three Ruler's offering themselves to him.
It wasn't just Correnic or Arturk, but the final Ruler. The one who had waited until the end of the war to show herself. The Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light, Serenia.
Light enveloped Hisashi as the three Ruler's drew him into a mindscape.
"You've already suffered so much."
"Lost everything more than once."
"And still, you fought on."
"We have no right to ask any more of you."
"But we must."
"All is not lost."
"Antares can still be defeated, but Ashborn must live in order to achieve this task."
Hisashi finally raised his head, "But… He's dead."
The three beings of light smiled, "When has Ashborn ever let death stop him?"
"He is not dead yet, but soon will be. Antares will recognize this eventually."
"So then… what can I do?" Hisashi asked.
"You can buy Ashborn time."
"By using us."
Hisashi suddenly understood their somber tone. Few humans could handle being host to even just one Higher Being. Three was suicide. But… it was also powerful.
"The three of us working together."
"It will be enough to shield you from his Destruction Energy."
"Just so long as you don't allow yourself to burn away from our power."
Hisashi had just one question, "How long do they need?"
Antares's rage halted as he recognized the insane power pooling behind him. He turned to see Hisashi standing, his body glowing so much that any features he once had were now impossible to spot. He was truly a being of light. And all of that being's fatherly instincts were directed squarely in Antares's direction.
"You?" Antares scoffed as the dust of those he killed swirled into the air, forming swirling blades. They may have been made of mere dust, but with Antares' power behind them, they could pierce gods. "You won't even last ten minutes."
"Good." Hisashi's voice was like a foghorn that was fluctuating in and out of reality, the mass of power flowing through him more than enough to distort space around him, "Cause I only need eight."
Izuku's eyes fell back to the cold floor. "You're too late. Antares already won."
"...I couldn't have been late. After all, I've been here this whole time. And he hasn't won yet."
"I was the strongest being on the planet… he crushed me like a bug. If I stood no chance, who else will? He has all of the Monarchs and several of the Rulers. At this point, not even a Primordial will stop him."
Ashborn's armor clanked as he fell back, sitting down in a throne materializing itself. "You are not the same man I chose as my successor." Izuku finally looked back up, confused by the statement. "In the past, even when shown certain death, like when beset by the Architects puppets for the first time, you fought on and desired a second chance, a longer life. Why has that will vanished?"
"Why should I be forced to go on without the people I loved?" Izuku responded.
"I figured that you would have learnt this by now. The God of Death is the one who should have the greatest appreciation for life… and… for it's fragility. You've lost those you love. But there are still those that you continue to love and those that you will come to love."
Crushing guilt assailed Izuku as Ashborn conjured images of Earth. Eri, cowering in the bastion, Uraraka and the Thanatos Agency fighting for their lives, Beru, Igris, Bellion, Tusk, and so many other Shadows mixed in with the Heroes. But even still, "I don't want to go on without them. I can't. My mother… Sakura. I just got my father back. And…" Izuku stopped himself, choosing not to think about it.
"You are not the same man I chose as my successor," Ashborn repeated, "You are a man crushed under his own strength. Because of what I gave you, everything you could've ever wanted was in the palm of your hands. You became too comfortable with your happiness. You let it become your greatest weakness."
Izuku suddenly shot to his feet, the Shadows curling around him. They recognized him as their master just as much as they recognized Ashborn, "So what?! I'm just supposed to never be happy?! I should just accept that no matter what, everything's going to slip through my fingers?!"
"...Yes." Ashborn stood, "Nothing, not Gods, not even Death, is forever. You should accept that with happiness… comes sorrow… eventually. But… that does not mean that their end should be yours. The Monarchs and Rulers. Their goals, they are not personal. It is merely a task given to them. So, they feel nothing in accomplishing that task, they feel no pity or remorse, no joy or sadness. Their power is absolute, but their drive is dried up." He rested a hand on Izuku's shoulder, "I could've looked upon any species in the universe to inherit my power, but I chose humans. Because out of every existence in the universe, they are the beings most driven by their emotions. They are the most resilient creatures I have ever come across. Their bodies are weak, but their minds, their wills, boggle even the gods. I chose you as my host… because you were not afraid of Death. It stared you in the face every day and your will refused to break. Yet here you are, now a God of Death, broken."
"So… I'm just supposed to keep fighting? Endlessly? Just because it's the right thing to do?"
"NO!" Ashborn roared, "You will keep fighting because you want to! You will fight because that aching in your heart is not the only thing burning there! You will keep fighting because you have the power to!" Izuku looked down as Ashborn echoed a very important sentence, "You need to live. Not just for your daughter's sake, or the world's sake, or even the sake of the universe. You need to live for you. And the Izuku Midoriya I knew would never let Death claim his soul this easily."
Tears fell to the floor of the Shadow room as Izuku wept for his losses. And for a minute, Ashborn stood there with the boy, comforting him.
When the tears stopped, he sensed new resolve or rather, a conversion of his old resolve. Izuku was no longer determined to let the world fade around him as he laid in that room. He was determined to use every last drop of power to right the wrongs done by Antares.
"I don't have a body anymore… how will I fight?"
Ashborn chuckled as he reached up to remove his helmet, "Izuku Midoriya. By now, I thought that you of all people would know… Death is not the end." Underneath the helmet of death, rested the face… of a Shadow Soldier.