Ethan stood at the crater's edge, his blonde hair still flowing from the residual energy of his attack.
The settling dust created an ethereal curtain through which countless shapes began to emerge—an army of the damned responding to the destruction of their master's castle.
Thousands of them.
Ghosts with hollow, echoing screams. Banshees whose wails could shatter mortal minds. Spirits of every conceivable form—some humanoid, others monstrous amalgamations of nightmare and shadow.
Each creature radiated different wavelengths of energy, creating a chaotic symphony of dark mana that would overwhelm most beings.
Ethan observed them with the detached curiosity of a scientist examining interesting specimens under a microscope. A small smile played across his lips.
"A rather enthusiastic welcome, wouldn't you say?" he murmured. "I didn't expect much at first, but seriously? A spectral swarm? That's barely C-Rank dungeon fodder."
He raised both hands, fingers splayed wide. Above each palm, intricate runes materialized—one crimson, one gold—spinning slowly as they accumulated power.
"Let's make this quick."
'First rune: enemy weakening,' Ethan thought, watching the crimson rune pulse. 'Second rune: spell amplification. Let's see how they handle this combination.'
The first, Weakening, pulsed a wave of suppression across the charging horde, visibly dimming their eerie glow.
The second, Empowerment, channeled the surrounding chaotic mana directly into his core, fortifying his own magical spells.
Then the air behind him began to shimmer and distort. One by one, red magic circles bloomed into existence—ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, continuing to multiply until hundreds of rotating magical constructs filled the sky behind him like a wall of crimson suns.
The spectral army charged forward with mindless fury, their collective roar shaking the purple earth.
Ethan's smile widened. "Fire."
From each magic circle, a different spell launched. Lightning bolts that branched like trees of electricity. Fireballs that burned with temperatures rivaling stars. Ice spears that could pierce through dimensional barriers. Binding chains that wrapped around clusters of enemies. Wind blades sharp enough to slice through space itself.
The elemental barrage rained down upon the charging horde like divine judgment.
BOOM! CRASH! CRACK!
The spectral beings didn't stand a chance. Each spell—amplified by Ethan's rune and striking enemies weakened by his other rune—killed dozens with a single impact. Ghosts dissolved into nothingness. Banshees fell silent mid-scream. Spirits shattered like glass.
"I didn't expect much," Ethan said conversationally, even as his magic circles continued their systematic annihilation. "But I wanted to finish this quickly. One or two experiments, then move on to the next target."
His eyes blazed with blue light as Genesis power flooded through him. The magic circles behind him doubled, then tripled in number. The spell barrage intensified into an impenetrable wall of destruction.
Within seconds, the entire spectral army ceased to exist.
Silence fell across the purple wasteland, broken only by the crackling of residual magic and the settling of pulverized earth.
.
.
.
**Deep within the underground of the domain, Yogumunt's Sanctum**
Yogumunt, Monarch of Transfiguration and King of Demonic Spectres, sat upon his throne of writhing shadows. His imposing, shadowy form was trembling. But his mind was sharp and calculating.
'A powerful being has invaded my domain,' he thought, his consciousness spreading through the purple realm like invisible threads. 'Destroyed my castle without warning. An attack meant to provoke.'
He had immediately dispatched his entire spectral army—not because he expected them to win, but to gather intelligence. To understand the enemy's capabilities.
The army died within seconds.
'All of them. Every single one... In seconds.'
'My army may not be as powerful as some of the other Monarchs' forces, but they number in the thousands. Each one capable of destroying human cities. And they fell like wheat before a scythe.'
He reached out with his consciousness, trying to establish telepathic contact with his fellow Monarchs. The link should have been instantaneous—a communication network that spanned dimensions.
Nothing.
'Communication blocked?'
His awareness expanded further, pushing against the boundaries of his domain. That's when he sensed them—four massive runic seals positioned at cardinal points, creating an impenetrable barrier around his entire realm.
'Red runes. Sealing magic. This intruder came prepared.' Yogumunt's many eyes narrowed simultaneously. 'This wasn't a random attack. This was a planned assassination... Meant to end me today.'
He began formulating strategies, running through countless scenarios with the calculating precision that had kept him alive through millennia of war. He might not be the strongest Monarch, but he was certainly among the cleverest. There had to be a way to—
"What are you thinking about so deeply?"
The voice came from directly behind him.
Yogumunt's reaction was instantaneous and violent. He spun, reality itself warping around him as one of his most powerful spells materialized—a black sphere of pure transfiguration magic that could transform anything it touched into non-existence.
The spell launched toward the intruder with devastating speed.
And then it simply... broke apart. Shattered like glass against an invisible barrier, the fragments dissolving harmlessly into the air.
Yogumunt's shock was palpable. 'What? That spell should have—'
"Thanks to that," Ethan said casually while pointing upward with one finger.
Yogumunt's gaze followed the gesture. Above them, floating serenely in the air, was a third rune—this one more complex than the others, pulsing with layers upon layers of interwoven magic.
"No one but me can use magic spells in this domain right now," Ethan explained with the tone of a teacher presenting a lecture. "Quite convenient, actually. Took me a while to develop, though."
He studied the rune with obvious pride. "Had to modify the original runic structure and combine it with advanced Mystic Arts to create something that would interface with this world's mana-based magic system. Your friend Tarnak was very helpful in that regard—his memories contained far more detailed information about mana manipulation than any of the human mages I've encountered. It wasn't comprehensive, but it was enough."
Ethan turned his full attention to Yogumunt, his blue eyes gleaming with intelligence and barely restrained power. "I'm already smart enough to fill in the gaps. So... got anything else? Or should we move on to the main event?"
Yogumunt roared, his rage overcoming his terror.
"YOU DARE!" he roared, his voice echoing with the screams of a thousand tortured souls. "YOU ATTACK ME WITHOUT PROVOCATION! WE HAVE NEVER MET! WHAT REASON COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE FOR THIS ASSAULT?!"
Ethan's expression softened into something almost apologetic—but his eyes remained cold.
"It's true we have nothing personal between us," he acknowledged with a small smile. "But I made a deal with someone to take care of you bugs. Besides..."
His eyes blazed with blue Genesis light as a red magic circle materialized on his right hand, spinning rapidly as it accumulated devastating power.
Simultaneously, dozens of additional circles appeared throughout the space around Yogumunt—above, below, from every angle.
Massive chains erupted from each circle, wrapping around the Monarch's constantly shifting form. Where they touched, his transfiguration abilities simply stopped working, his body frozen in whatever shape it happened to be at that moment.
Ethan's smile widened. "I'm interested in your powers. It's better to give them to my women than let them waste away on you guys. So..." He aimed his glowing hand directly at Yogumunt's restrained form. "Nothing personal, ugly."
"RAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Yogumunt roared, pouring every ounce of his millennia-accumulated power into breaking free.
But the runes worked exactly as designed. The more he struggled, the weaker he became. The binding chains grew stronger, tightening with each futile attempt at escape. And his magic—the very essence of his existence—remained completely sealed.
'This is impossible!' Yogumunt thought desperately. 'I'm a MONARCH! I've survived the war against the Rulers! I've outlasted countless challengers! I cannot die like this!'
Ethan spoke his final words calmly, almost gently. "Goodbye, Yogumunt."
The magic circle on his hand erupted.
A colossal beam of pure yellow energy—condensed destruction given form—burst forth and engulfed the Monarch completely. Yogumunt's scream rose to impossible volumes, a sound that should have shattered reality itself.
The beam didn't stop at its target. It continued forward, crossing the entire domain in an instant, striking the dimensional barrier at the realm's edge with cataclysmic force.
CRACK!
The entire dimension shuddered. Massive fissures appeared in the purple sky, spreading like spider webs across the fabric of reality. The ground beneath them began to fragment, pieces of the domain starting to drift apart into the void between dimensions.
Ethan lowered his hand, looking satisfied. "Finally got to test it properly."
Where Yogumunt had been, there was... nothing. Not even ash.
"I based that spell on my Destruction Fist technique," Ethan explained to the empty air, his inner scientist pleased with the results. "The ability to shatter dimensions themselves, refined and channeled into a ranged magical attack. Never had a chance to field-test it before. Works perfectly."
He turned to survey the devastation, then paused. His eyes widened slightly.
"Oh. Oh, I got too excited and forgot to extract the core first." He sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. "Well, nothing time can't solve."
A green magic circle—intricate and beautiful—materialized on his right hand. Ethan raised it, pointing toward where Yogumunt had been, and began rotating the circle counter-clockwise.
The air shimmered. Reality bent backward... Then Time itself began to reverse.
The yellow beam of destruction un-fired, flowing backward into Ethan's hand. The cracks in the dimension sealed. The fragments of earth reconnected. And in the space where nothing had existed, particles of matter began to coalesce.
Yogumunt reformed, his eyes wide with confusion and primal terror.
"What... what happened?" he gasped before looking around frantically. "I died. I know I died. The pain was—" His gaze fell on the fragmenting dimension above, the cracks that remained despite the temporal reversal. Then he looked at Ethan.
Understanding and horror dawned simultaneously.
Ethan vanished from where he stood and reappeared directly in front of Yogumunt, so close their faces were inches apart.
"Pardon me," Ethan said with disturbing politeness, "but I'm taking this."
His hand plunged into Yogumunt's chest—not physically piercing flesh, but reaching directly into the metaphysical space where the Monarch's essence resided.
Yogumunt's eyes went impossibly wide as he felt his very being begin to unravel. The core of his existence—his authority, his concept, his fundamental nature as the Monarch of Transfiguration—was being stripped away layer by layer.
"NO! STOP! YOU CAN'T—"
Binding chains erupted from all directions, wrapping around him from dozens of magic circles.
"RAAAGH! THE OTHER MONARCHS WON'T STAND FOR THIS!" Yogumunt roared, his voice cracking with desperation. "THEY'LL HUNT YOU DOWN! THEY'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR ETERNITIES! THEY'LL—"
"Don't worry," Ethan interrupted calmly, his hand still buried in Yogumunt's chest as he carefully extracted the glowing orb of authority. "I'm going after the others as well. Actually, it would be quite convenient if they could just come and deliver their own cores to me. Save me some time."
Yogumunt's already wide eyes somehow managed to widen further as the implications sank in. 'He's not just killing Monarchs. He's hunting ALL of us. Systematically. We're not facing an enemy—we're facing an extermination by this guy.'
Then Ethan's expression brightened, as if he'd just had a wonderful idea. "Actually... why don't I use you to deliver the message?"
With a sharp motion, he ripped the core completely free from Yogumunt's essence. The Monarch's body immediately began to crumble, turning to dust as its fundamental nature was removed.
Ethan casually tossed the glowing core into his inventory spell, where it vanished into pocket-space storage. Then he snapped his fingers.
Multiple runes materialized in the air beside him—red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, and more.
As they rotated and aligned, their colors began to blend and merge until they formed a single, unified construct of shimmering rainbow light.
The rainbow rune pulsed with an amount of energy that made the domain itself tremble.
"It took me a while to create this," Ethan said, more to himself than to the dying Monarch. "Mimicking Asgard's Bifrost through pure runic magic. The energy requirements are astronomical—creating these runes alone requires more power than most beings possess in their entire lifetime. Actually using them costs even more."
He glanced at Yogumunt's disintegrating form. "Fortunately, I have somewhat massive reserves. And even if they get depleted, they recover quickly."
The rainbow rune began to spin faster, building toward activation.
"The other problem is preparation time," Ethan continued conversationally. "Setting destinations, calibrating the dimensional coordinates, creating the stable pathway—it takes forever. That's why I usually just use portals. Instant travel, minimal energy cost, much more efficient."
He looked directly into Yogumunt's fading eyes, his smile taking on a predatory quality.
"But now I wanted to give the other Monarchs a proper surprise. A clear message delivered in person. So..." The rainbow rune blazed with blinding light. "Do warn the others that Aeon is coming after them."
"Who... who is Aeon...?" Yogumunt managed to whisper with his last breath.
Ethan's smile widened. "Me."
FWOOOOSH!
The rainbow rune slammed into Yogumunt's crumbling form, and reality tore open around him.
A tunnel of prismatic light erupted into existence, and the dying Monarch was pulled into it—his body, his essence, his final screams—all transported across dimensional boundaries.
The destination: the grand meeting hall where the remaining Monarchs were currently gathered, discussing their plans for the upcoming war against humanity.
Yogumunt and Tarnak had both been scheduled to join that meeting.
Neither would arrive in any condition to participate.
The rainbow tunnel collapsed, the runes fading away as their energy was expended.
Ethan stood alone in the fragmenting domain, looking quite pleased with himself.
Then he vanished—pure speed again—and reappeared beside Sung Il-Hwan, who had been watching from a safe distance with an expression somewhere between awe and existential horror.
"Let's get out of here," Ethan said cheerfully, already opening a red portal that showed Seoul's nighttime cityscape on the other side.
Il-Hwan didn't need to be told twice. Both of them jumped through the portal.
One second later, the entire domain—already critically unstable from Ethan's dimension-breaking spell—finally reached its breaking point.
The purple sky shattered completely. The ground dissolved. The very concept of "space" within that pocket dimension ceased to maintain coherence.
Yogumunt's domain collapsed entirely, erasing itself from existence in a cascade of imploding reality.
All that remained was empty void—and the memory of a Monarch who had learned, in his final moments, what true helplessness felt like.