The rain hadn't stopped as Arthur stood beneath it all, Didi stood next to him, both sheltered beneath nothing at all, yet the rain could not touch them. She watched him with that same easy expression, hands loosely behind her back.
"You should go," she said at last, her tone light. "You've got a war waiting for you."
Arthur exhaled faintly, the corner of his mouth lifting.
"You've read my mind again."
She smiled at that, amused.
"You've never been that mysterious to me," she replied. "You're an open book, Arthur. Always have been." Her gaze drifted past him for a second, as if looking at something far beyond the city, beyond the world itself. "And the things unfolding on Earth right now… they're not exactly subtle to me as well."
Arthur's expression shifted, he turned slightly toward her, one brow lifting.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "You seem to know more, and I'm not talking about the gates, do you know about the other Monarchs as well?"
Didi rocked back gently on her heels, considering him for a moment before answering.
"Not personally," she said. "I don't make a habit of introducing myself to every cosmic warlord with a title." A small smile tugged at her lips. "But you already know how this works. There isn't just one Earth. There are… a lot of them."
Arthur's gaze sharpened immediately.
"And you've seen them," he said, the realization forming as quickly as the words left his mouth. "All of them. Across different worlds."
Didi didn't answer right away, her silence said enough.
Arthur let out a slow breath, his eyes narrowing slightly as his thoughts aligned. "So they exist there… in those worlds. Every Monarch, every one of them, across different Earths."
"To be precise, every one of them is on a different earth entirely." she corrected gently. "Two can't be found on the same one."
Arthur's jaw tightened just slightly.
"I had a feeling," he admitted. "Something like that would happen, I knew they were active, couldn't find out where exactly, the whole purpose of my trip is to find them and get rid of them."
"There was one," she said, her voice quieter now. "One that stood out from the rest."
Arthur's attention locked onto her fully.
She tilted her head, her gaze distant for a brief moment.
"You know my brother Destruction left his post a long time ago," she continued. "Walked away from his responsibilities. Hasn't looked back since."
Arthur nodded once, slowly.
"I know all about Destruction of the Endless."
"Well," she went on, "in one of those worlds… that someone picked up the slack. Not completely. Not in the way my brother embodies it. But that was more than enough to make him even more powerful, as an embodiment of destruction."
Arthur's expression darkened slightly as he pieced it together.
"Something that carries the concept of destruction," he said. "On that scale…"
Didi's eyes met his again.
"That world is gone, Arthur. It's just… empty. Broken. Like something took it apart piece by piece until there was nothing left worth saving."
A brief silence followed.
Then Arthur spoke, his voice more than certain.
"The Dragon Monarch."
"Monarch of Destruction, that's his doing." Arthur finished.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Didi's lips curved again, just slightly.
"You're not going to ask me why I didn't tell you this before?"
Arthur glanced at her, his expression calm.
"You thought I wasn't ready," he said simply.
Didi's smile widened just a fraction.
"And?"
Arthur exhaled through his nose, his gaze drifting briefly toward the city before returning to her.
"You were right."
There was no pride in his words.
"The others…" he continued, "if I face them one by one, they're manageable. Dangerous, sure, but not impossible to deal with, if anything they fear me."
His eyes darkened slightly, that faint violet glow beginning to stir again.
"But him…" he added quietly. "That's a different story."
Didi watched him carefully now.
"With what you've gained right now," she said, nodding faintly, "you should be able to handle it.
Then, she added softer.
"But don't get careless."
Arthur gave a small nod.
"I won't."
That was all he needed to say.
Didi's expression brightened again,
"Good," she said. "Because I'd hate for all that effort to go to waste.. And I'm enjoying your company, it is nice to have someone that is similar to me." She stepped back slightly, her presence already beginning to feel… lighter.
"Good luck with your war, Arthur."
"And when you come back from that world," she added, "I'll stop by. Your place, maybe." A small, teasing smile on her lips. "We might even find time to have some fun. I do miss that, you know."
Arthur looked at her for a moment, "I'll hold you to that," he said.
She grinned. "I'd expect nothing less."
And then, she was gone.
Arthur stood there for a second longer, he let out a slow breath, his gaze lowering briefly before lifting again,
"Concept of destruction…" he murmured.
Then he turned.
A tear formed in front of him, dark and deep, edges lined with that same faint violet glow that now burned steadily in his eyes.
On the other side,
A whole different world waited.
"Let's see what the chaos world has to offer."
He stepped through.
****
CHAOS WORLD -
The moment Arthur stepped through the portal, the world greeted him with silence. He hovered high above the ground, unmoving in a sky that had been bruised beyond healing. There was no sun and no warmth. Just an ashen light that bled across the landscape without ever truly illuminating it.
This world was barely alive.
Arthur's gaze swept across it, and the longer he looked, the more the scale of it settled in his mind.
The land bore the marks of countless wars layered atop one another, each more violent than the last. Entire regions had been flattened into barren plains of blackened earth, while others had been torn open entirely, leaving vast chasms that split the ground.
Craters, thousands of them overlapped in chaotic patterns, some so large they could have swallowed entire earth cities without leaving a trace. And in the distance, the remains of what might once have been civilizations.
There was no life.
And yet,
He knew it wasn't exactly empty.
Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly, the faint glow of violet beginning to stir within them as something deeper than sight took hold. He didn't just look at the world.
He felt it.
It was all too familiar.
"I have the memories of Ashborn," he said, his voice calm "I know what happened here."
Every detail.
The endless cycle of Monarchs and Rulers clashing without restraint, tearing through worlds like they were nothing more than disposable arenas to host their clash. Enough to understand that this place hadn't fallen in a single war.
It had been broken over and over again until there was nothing left.
Arthur's gaze hardened, then he reached outward.
His senses expanded in an instant, spreading across the land in all directions. It wasn't a simple search. It was an invasion. His awareness pushed into every crevice, every fracture in the world, slipping through the remnants of power that still lingered.
Arthur's eyes flickered, the violet glow intensifying as something behind him began to stir.
Darkness gathered at his back, slow at first, then rapidly expanding as if it had been waiting for permission. It spread outward in thick waves, forming a vast, flowing mantle of shadow that draped behind him like a cape.
Then the shadows deepened.
And from within them,
They emerged. One after another, his Marshals stepped forward, their forms solidifying out of pure darkness. Towering figures clad in armor that seemed forged from the void itself.
Their eyes ignited in unison.
Violet and bright.
"This world…" Bellion murmured, almost thoughtful. "I remember it."
Arthur didn't turn to look at them. His gaze remained fixed on the distance, on the subtle pull in his senses that told him this place wasn't as empty as it appeared.
"They've been here, remnants of their armies are here as well." he said quietly.
That was enough.
The Marshals straightened almost imperceptibly.
Arthur finally moved, just slightly, his head tilting as his eyes narrowed.
"At least one of them made it to this world recently," he continued.
Then he gave the order.
"Spread out."
"Search every corner of this world," he added, his tone sharpening. "I want them found."
For a fraction of a second, the Marshals remained still.
Then, as one, they bowed their heads slightly.
"As you command… Monarch."
The response rolled out in unison,
And then,
They moved. Their forms dissolved into streaks of living shadow, tearing away from Arthur in multiple directions at once. Some shot downward toward the shattered plains, others vanished toward the distant ruins, while a few streaked across the horizon itself, moving so fast they became little more than fading lines of darkness against the dead sky.
Within seconds, they were gone scattered across the remains of The Chaos world.
/-\
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