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Bellion swayed where he stood, weight resting on one leg that no longer felt like it belonged to him. Light still leaked from the torn stumps of his wings.
His gaze never left Arthur.
"…Finish it," he said, voice rough, winded. "Monarch of Shadows."
The title hung between them,
Arthur didn't respond.
For a moment, there was only the faint crackle of energy, the groan of the colossal roots beneath their feet, and Bellion's labored breathing.
Then Arthur's shadow blade began to unravel.
Violet threads peeled away from the weapon, the shadow blade dissolving back into the air, fading.
Bellion blinked.
Arthur turned his wrist slightly as the last of the construct dissolved, his hand empty.
"What if I don't?" he asked, calm, almost thoughtful. "What if I refuse?"
He glanced at his hand, then back at Bellion.
"Do I lose the right to the black heart?"
Bellion straightened as best he could, forcing his body to obey even as pain tore through him. His eyes sharpened.
"I told you before… I am your final obstacle." His voice steadied, despite everything. "The final soldier standing between you and it. But beyond me…" His jaw tightened. "Beyond that, there is something else. Something even I do not understand. Only the previous Monarch knew."
Arthur's lips curved into a faint smile.
"I assumed as much," he said. "This felt too odd to be the end."
His gaze drifted past Bellion, up through the colossal roots and luminous branches twisting into the sky.
"If you're the last soldier, then logically… what waits beyond isn't just another test." His eyes narrowed faintly. "I thought it might be him. Ashborn."
A pause.
"…But that feels too obvious."
He walked past Bellion, boots crunching against the fractured ground, as if already searching for a door only he could sense.
Bellion watched him, confusion threading through his exhaustion.
"…You're not going to finish me?" he asked.
Arthur stopped, but didn't turn.
"I don't feel like it."
Bellion frowned.
The wind stirred his tattered wings again.
He took a step after Arthur. "Then… what was the point of this?" His voice sharpened. "If my strength wasn't enough to push you, then I will rise again and fight until it is."
Arthur finally looked over his shoulder.
"You misunderstand," he said quietly. "You are one of the strongest beings I've ever fought."
He exhaled through his nose, gaze shifting upward again.
"Your strength isn't the problem."
Arthur gestured subtly to the world around them the roots, the air, the golden sky that felt too real to be an illusion.
"The problem is this," he said. "The system. The stage. The illusion of choice."
He looked back at Bellion.
"Tell me… is this place real?"
Bellion didn't hesitate.
"It is."
Arthur's expression tightened, just slightly. The smallest fracture in his composure.
"…So I was right." He exhaled, slower this time. "These aren't simulations. Not constructs." His eyes darkened. "I'm being thrown into actual worlds… real locations."
A pause.
"I suspected it. But I kept telling myself I was overthinking it."
He turned more fully toward Bellion now.
"One last thing," he said. "All of you should be dead… how are you still alive?"
Bellion's gaze softened, though his body shook beneath it.
"With his power… death is a trivial obstacle," he answered. "Our original bodies are long gone. Dust. Memory." His fingers tightened around his sword's hilt. "But he granted us new vessels. Mortal forms made to endure. To bleed. To feel. All so we could test his successor… in strength… in mind… and in will."
Arthur studied his face not as an enemy.
"I see…"
A quiet moment passed.
And then a faint, crooked smile appeared on Arthur's face.
"Funny."
He tilted his head slightly.
"You answered all of that so easily… and you're not even bound to me yet."
Bellion's eyes widened just a touch.
"…Yet," he echoed.
There was a strange calmness that washed over him then.
He stepped back.
The sword in his hand trembled with resolve.
Arthur watched him, sensing the shift too late.
"Bellion..."
Metal and light moved.
Bellion drove his own blade inward, directly into his chest.
Straight through the center.
A sharp, dull sound followed steel piercing flesh and aura and vessel alike.
Arthur's eyes snapped wide.
"You..!"
He surged forward instinctively, hand outstretched but Bellion stopped him with a slight shake of his head.
Blood, glowing faintly spilled between the gaps of the armor.
Bellion sank to one knee, coughing, breath breaking apart.
But he… was smiling.
Not in relief or madness.
In something like pride.
"I was the first," he said, voice breaking but steady with meaning. "The first to kneel… the first to ask him… to make me his soldier..."
Arthur froze, staring at him.
Bellion looked up, meeting his eyes one last time.
"So that I could stand beside him… not under him."
His breathing grew thinner, more strained.
"To fight for his noble cause… to carry his will…"
His body trembled.
"And now…" He swallowed hard. "…now I have seen yours."
Arthur's jaw clenched.
Bellion's voice weakened.
"And I choose again," he whispered. "Not because of what I'm… not because of his order… but because I have witnessed you."
His sword slipped from his hand, clattering softly against the stone.
"I pledge myself…once again..." he rasped, his strength draining fast.
"…to you... The greatest fragment of brilliant light... and the Monarch of..S-Shadows.."
The words barely had sound now.
"As your eternal sword… and shield…"
His body gave in.
Bellion collapsed forward, face-first into the fractured ground, wings finally going still.
The light faded.
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
Arthur stood there, unmoving.
For a long time.
His fingers curled slowly.
Arthur was too stunned to speak.
He knelt beside Bellion, not as a Monarch, or a higher being, just as someone acknowledging a warrior's final choice, and the world strangely quiet around him.
Bellion's massive frame lay still, armor cracked, two of his wings torn, yet there was a strange dignity in the way he rested like a knight who had chosen his final battlefield.
Arthur exhaled slowly.
"…You know," he murmured, tilting his head, "it would be pretty funny if I just walked away right now."
A small, crooked smile pulled at his mouth.
"Beat the grand marshal, don't extract his shadow after pledging his loyalty, and move on. A terrible thing to do."
Silence answered him.
Arthur lowered his palm to Bellion's chest.
The smile faded, replaced by a menacing look.
"But I'm not gonna deny you that final request."
His eyes opened fully glowing, vivid violet.
Shadow rippled outward from his hand and legs.
"Arise."
The word echoed.
Bellion's corpse darkened instantly, shadow swallowing metal, flesh, and light alike. The ground beneath them shuddered as a vast, black aura surged upward not violent, not wild, but heavy with authority.
From that darkness, a figure rose.
Tall. Four-winged. Armor now forged of shadow and void, etched with violet lines that pulsed. His face was still Bellion's, but smoothed into something ageless no longer weary, no longer in pain.
He knelt immediately, lowering his head and planting one fist to the ground.
"My monarch," he said, voice deep and clear, no longer strained.
Arthur looked at him for a long moment.
Then a slow, proud smile formed.
"Bellion."
He reached out and rested a hand on the shadow's shoulder. Bellion bowed his head further under the touch not in fear, but in complete, chosen loyalty.
"You might have been Ashborn's Grand Marshal," Arthur said, his voice carrying through the still air, "but you'll find there's a little competition here."
Violet light flickered in his eyes.
"You'll have to prove yourself worthy of that title."
Bellion didn't hesitate.
"I will not disappoint you."
His tone held only certainty.
Arthur gave his shoulder a slight squeeze.
"I know you won't."
He turned from him then, cloak of shadow shifting behind him.
The World Tree responded.
A thunderous creak rolled through the air as a massive branch thick as a mountain ridge extended toward him. The bark split slowly, revealing something embedded within.
A pulse.
Soft at first… then unmistakable.
Thump.
Black light shone through the cracks not dull, it was alive.
Arthur's expression sharpened.
"So this is it," he murmured.
The branch stopped before him, presenting the object like an offering.
A dark, heart, black as void but glowing violet from within heartbeat steady.
Each pulse sent ripples through the entire realm.
Bellion remained kneeling behind him, head bowed.
[You have Defeated the Lieutenant of The Shadow Monarch]
[The World Tree is Offering The Black Heart]
Arthur looked at it for a moment "The Black Heart.." he said quietly, eyes burning violet, "About damn time.."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want