"The Primordial… of Death?" Izuku had to resist asking the obvious, but Mania answered for him.

"You may be a god of Death, but I am the god of Death."

"I thought the Original Ten were still asleep." Izuku said, a bit of hope coursing through him. If the Original Ten were awake, they could help him kill the Monarchs and maybe they could help him separate his friends from the Rulers before the Primordials went after them as well.

"We are. It's taken me the past three years to gather just enough energy to appear before you without disrupting the recovery of my true body." She rested her hands on her voluptuous chest with an imitation of a seductive smile, "Gazing into the depths of the human souls I've consumed, I found this form to be one that would appeal to your mortal sensibilities."

"Yeah…" Izuku wanted to make a joke, but he could feel the true power behind this woman, if possible, he wanted to keep her placated as much as possible.

Mania rolled her black eyes, "I am here to talk. If we are going to do that, you must be honest. A Being such as myself isn't going to find offense in one of your earthly jabs."

Izuku nodded, "Wait… you've consumed human souls? How? Haven't you been asleep far longer than humans have existed?"

"Nemesis came along every now and again, before she was your Shadow. She was the only one of my children to take her role as a Primordial seriously. She was lucky to find a like minded Primordial like Scion to mate. The rest of the Tens' children are disgraces to our existence."

"Nemesis is your child?" Izuku shook his head, "Right… right, not your true body."

Mania laughed, her amusement ringing hollow through the air, "If you were to gaze upon my body, Nemesis would look beautiful by comparison, that is… if you survived witnessing me."

"That sounds… threatening…"

Mania gave another laugh, but this time, it almost sounded human, "I'm happy to hear that. It's been so long since my existence has scared any Being. With Death asleep, mortal souls have been left to drift free. Aside from those absorbed by you and the Monarchs, no mortal has truly experienced death."

"Souls… you mean their Spiritual Essence?"

"They are one in the same."

"Those souls… is that why you brought me here? You want me to take-"

"Shadow Monarch, I am already starved from my slumber. To take away those souls would cause me immeasurable pain when I wake. Out of all the Beings in the universe, I am the only true immortal. No matter what you do to Death, you cannot kill them. Consequently, I cannot escape to the peaceful existence of oblivion, so unless I consume their souls, I will experience torment no mortal could comprehend."

"Then… why bring me here? What's your goal?"

"I will be the first Primordial to truly wake because of my immortality. The others will take several more millenia. I am not a Being built for combat, or a Being built to edit the universe, so I can do nothing but watch the Universe as the winning faction destroys the balance. If the Monarchs destroy all of reality, I will be privy to a feast of souls, but then I will be starved for the rest of eternity, because no new births, mean no new deaths. If the Rulers win, they will perfect everything. Death will become sparse, if not completely eliminated. I will starve once more."

Izuku crossed his arms, "That sounds terrible… for you. If the Rulers win, it sounds like a happier Universe to me. Why should I go so far to kill Beings that have helped me so far?"

"Happiness resides in tragedy. If you had not had such a turbulent life for the past thirteen years, do you truly think you'd be able to appreciate what you have now as much as you do?"

"That's semantics."

"Perhaps, but in the end, that's not my true offer in exchange for the death of Rulers and Monarchs." Izuku perked up, now it was interesting, "I am the Primordial of Death. I may not have the power of my husband, Life. But, I can prevent the crossing of certain souls."

"A-Are you offering to protect the lives of my family?"

"For a price. Returning a soul to a body and healing that body takes more energy than any one Higher Being. It doesn't matter how weak that mortal is, it will take immense energy to save them. If you take the energy of all fifteen Higher Beings, and offer it to me, I may be able to restore those you desire to be brought back."

"May?"

"The longer a soul drifts from its body, the harder it is to return them and heal them." Izuku pursed his lips, so Mania continued, "The war is approaching. The Monarchs have tamed their Primordials. Do you really want to turn down an offer like this?"

"I accept, only if you tell me one thing. How do I separate a host from a Higher Being?"

"You can-"

Izuku opened his eyes, his body being shaken by Yaoyorozu, "Izuku!"

"Wha?! What?!" He slurred as his body readjusted to reality.

"The Gates… they're here. The Monarchs are sending their final attack."

Seven super massive Gates covered the Earth. China, America, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and Russia were all home to their own Gate. Legia's army had already been killed and absorbed into the Shadow Army, so his Gate was absent and even though Quaresha was dead, her forces still stood ready, happy to wage war.

Izuku remained frozen in front of the television for several minutes before he was able to snap out of his shock and pick up his cell phone. He knew this was always going to happen. One way or another, this was inevitable, but it still didn't feel right.

"This is Ashborn."

It was a conference call, of all the leaders of the world. America spoke first, "It's them… isn't it?"

Izuku nodded, "Yeah… There's no avoiding it. It's time to evacuate everyone to Antarctica. The apocalypse is here."

For the past three years, Masamune and the other Seraph Makers had been working tirelessly on the South Pole. The one Bastion had turned into a city of fortresses. It wasn't invulnerable. In fact, to the armies of the Monarchs, it was probably quite weak, but since it was far away from all the other Gates, it was humanities' only reliable bunker.

"So… who will you protect and who will you leave to die?" Russia asked quite bluntly.

Izuku didn't have to question what the man meant. There were five Higher Beings on the side of humanity. Izuku, Momo, Nejire, Ryukyu, and Mirio. If they split up, there'd still be two Gates left alone. Sending Shadows to those two Gates also wouldn't be a perfect solution. Ideally, Izuku would be hopping around the world, bringing reinforcements wherever they were needed and whittling down the Monarch's forces. The Primordials would have to be reserved to fight other Primordials, as none of the Ruler Hosts or even Izuku would be able to kill a Primordial on their own.

"Sir, I'm sorry to have to say it, but even if we do win this, expect a lot of rebuilding." That shut everyone up long enough for Izuku to say, "Momo Yaoyorozu will be teleporting around the planet to all seven sites, where her and my Shadows will open the Gates to the arsenal we've built up for humanity." He expected someone to ask why he hadn't shared the weapons up until this point, but much to his shock, everyone remained perfectly silent. They understood as well as he did that offering up new and dangerous weapons to humanity would do very little to bring them together. In a time where every single able man and woman mattered, feuds could not afford to break out.

"Gather as many Heroes as you can to the sites… but they should probably know that not many of them will survive."

"Not… many? Then what the hell are we even sending them for?!"

"The… The more bodies we have to throw at this threat, the higher chance the Earth survives."

"So you're asking us to throw our own citizens into this battle as sacrifices? I understand that war is just one big sacrifice, but this sounds less like a noble death and more like you're using them as meat shields."

Izuku said nothing. There was truth in the man's outrage. After all, Izuku was planning on using the Heroes as Shadows once they fell. Over the past three years, he had accrued quite the mass of Shadows. Just over a million. However, in the face of all Seven Monarch armies, it was pretty pitiful. The only reason they stood a chance at all was their endless regen and Izuku's ability to claim the fallen as his own soldiers.

"Regardless, we have seven days to mobilize entire countries to evacuate."

"Something like that… it's impossible. Too many will get left behind."

Izuku shook his head, "It doesn't matter. We have no choice. Evacuate as many as you can, or move people as far away from the Gates as possible. No matter how hard we try, people are still going to get left behind. We only have seven days. So get started." Izuku delayed the men and women no longer and hung up the phone.

"Primordial Kamish is creating a Gate for your parents, My Liege. And Beru is making one for your sister."

Primordials, as it turned out, were capable of creating Gates on their own, though it took much longer than what a Monarch or Ruler could do. "Good… Have Bakugo go with her."

"My Liege?"

"We can't leave any Shadows at the Bastion, so someone has to be there to protect Sakura… even if he wouldn't last half a second against the Monarchs… he's better than nothing."

"Yes, my Liege."

Bellion disappeared into the apartment to inform Beru of the decision.

"So, what now?" Rumi asked.

"Now? Aside from waiting? Suit up." Izuku reached his mind out to Masamune in the Bastion, "Is it ready?"

"Oh yes, my Liege. We have crafted the Divine Weapon Link into the most perfect form."

Across the world, people were ferried onto boats, planes, helicopters and even buses as new of the apocalypse spread. Heroes gathered in front of the massive Gates created by the Shadows, who handed out weapons that held no true equals. They stared in slack jawed amazement at the turrets erected in the middle of cities, cannons mounted on buildings, ready to fill the armies of darkness with magical lead.

It was the apocalypse, but thanks to Izuku, there was just the faintest hope in the air. Their hopes were high. Their hopes… were sorely misplaced.

I have something shameful to admit. I'm tired of Shadow Monarch. I want to move on to write other things and do other stories. It's not that the story really overstayed its welcome or that the more vocal of the annoying commenters got to me. This is just something that comes from boredom/stagnation and it's no one's fault. Originally I planned for several more arcs within this time skip, but… I don't want to leave this story unfinished. I promised that I would deliver you to the end and I shall, but to do that, I'm going to skip the fluff. I was going to do more with Bakugo and Sakura's relationship. I was going to expand on how Todoroki dealt with being denied his power and chance at revenge, however misguided it may have been, and I was going to give the story some time to spend more peacefully with Izuku and the girls. But in the end, in relation to the story as a whole, it's a time waster and only saps more of my energy. So, in order to give everyone a conclusion, I'm moving up the time tables. The time skip was meant to be a short break before the storm, but really, it's just the endgame and to delay it further drains the chances of this story getting the ending it deserves. Said ending will leave room for extra chapters, so if you guys want it, and I feel like it, I will come back and fill some of these gaps. Once again, I am sorry.