Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

Piercing through the clouds with all I had, sweat trickled down my shoulders as I could feel a powerful flame from a few dozen provenances away. They were unlike anything I’d ever seen before, tainted by some strange force that simply didn’t make sense.

Glancing at Levithan on my heel with a worried expression, I could only sigh, “I’d thought you were looking for Arsene?”

“I was; I’ve been looking for him for months, but it seems ever since the Hell Gates open, he’s not been anywhere of relevance.” She said when I remember the last time I saw him, just outside where Marquess Yor’fenli appeared.

I winced for a few seconds, gazing toward the black pillar seen from two provinces away. I didn’t know who created such a thing, but I was sure it was Arsene. That bastard just can’t keep silent. He has to make an entrance.

“ASMO, STOP!” Levi howled, startling me, ” Look at your skin!”

Glancing down at my dark red palms, I could see blood trickling down my skin. Fear danced along my spine as I gulped, unable to understand what just happened.” What is this?”

“Arsene,” Levi said. “This is a concept! Etherial, Chaos, Eternal, Supreme, Devouring, bloody hell, there’s more!”

“What happened?”

“You think it’s the angels?” Levi inquired as we hovered in the air.

“Impossible. Lilith is leading an attack towards the easten outskirts of Iliya; they would relay reinforcements there; we are in another province entirely on the opposite side.” I stated, a little taken back by what I was feeling. “No man should have so many concepts.”

“And you can feel that Almighty Essence too, can’t you. ” She said, “It’s different from normal Almighty Essence. We need to hurry, something—

“If we enter that Palace of Night in a hurry, we are dead,” I snapped, stopping her dead in her tracks. ” We need to take this slow. We’ll enter sub-space—

“Subspace would shred us alive, this is the abyss, and Arsene Concept of Chaos just shredded any viable stability,” Levi argued. “We—

Pausing for a moment, a barrier covered our bodies. A draconic roar bellowed into the world, turning the lush grass to ash; cracks covered our shields, as the pillar of darknesses piercing towards the skies suddenly turned into a dragon with nine heads.

“Oh Fuck!

“TIAMAT!!!” Arsene’s rage-filled voice bellowed, carrying a force I felt when Lord Lucifer spoke.

“Shit, no time Asmo; we’ve got to head in now. We’ve got concepts too.” She said, dashing past me at a blinding speed. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍．𝒄𝙤𝙢

Chasing after Levithan while keeping up the barrier that did little to defend myself against the flames wishing to cook me alive, the concept of destruction came to life within me, destroying everything that touched me.

While the concept of purity awakened around Levi, ensuring nothing touched her body, we dashed forward, watching as the angry nine-headed dragon formed with almighty essence opened its mouth towards Drar and his generals covered in a slew of blood.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Soaring up into the confines of space to escape the blast range, I frowned, feeling another will within the dragon by Arsene’s side, a Will that did not belong to this world.

Clapping his hands together into a myriad of hand signs, I could only watch in dread as Arsene began releasing spells and rituals one after the other with the endless amount of Qi he had at his disposal due to the concept of Eternity.

All generals in the hells had their own concepts, but—

“This is a slaughter!” Levi gravely commented.

“They’re not using their blessing?” I pointed out, seeing the desperate looks on the devils below, “That would give them a big edge over Arsene. In fact, that is how they would kill him; why are they not doing so?”

The battle was brutal, with Drar battling head to head with Arsene, whose eyes were hollow, carrying willpower I could feel was burning with anger.

He was in control in the hollowing. Or at least the closest one can be when using the hollowing.

“We need to save Drar.”

“Why?” I said, ” Drar will be fine; he—”

“Genesis,” Arsene coldly announced as the hairs on my neck stood on end, and before I could care what was going to take place, I dipped inside subspace alongside Levi.

We were forced to bear the cold, harsh pressure of our bodies being crushed; blood trickled from my nose as I felt my bones begin to crack and my organs begin to rupture. Holding on for a few more seconds, we moved away from Arsene’s blase zone before emerging again. A far, far distance away.

The Etherial Concept made all attacks Etherial; there was no need to aim, no need to touch someone, as everything that Arsene’s power, flames, or, more importantly, the heat that came into contact with would be struck by this dreadful ritual.

“Fuck that; I’m not dealing with this.” I said, “We’re not saving anyone.” Leaning my head against a tree as steam rolled off my body, covered in blood. “I’d rather just kill him.”

“Well, killing is always easier.” Levi faintly moaned, releasing a long sigh, “Drar is fucked.”

“He might live; he’s got a few almighty techniques that’ll keep him alive.” I faintly said, although there wasn’t much hope.

“It’ll take Arsene a few dozen chaos cycles to use those concepts correctly, so that’ll give drar a fighting chance.” She mentioned, “But I don’t have much hope if you know what I’m saying.”

There was a long silence as we felt the rumbling of the earth beneath our feet—the rolling of thunder off in the distance and the dreadful roars of Tiamat.

“War is Hell,” I whispered.

“Especially for pawns.”

“I would agree.” A defeated voice uttered, causing us to lift our heads to the tattered body of Drar’ethiel on one knee, with over half his body missing. “Think you can send me back to Hell before I die? Or he finds me?”

“You ran?”

Drar couldn’t even say another word before falling face-first into the dirt, blood gushing from his pores and the missing left side of his body.

I looked at Levi, and we sighed, “If he gets the Throne of Darkness, I fear for creation.”