Lord Shadow

FORBIDDEN CONTINENT

[The Mysterious Death of the Merchant King. Who Is The Culprit?]

[The Inventor Reappeared]

The Meeting for the Partitioning Of the World. Is The Death Monarch Demonstrating His Influence?]

[The Divine Archer in India. What Happened In The Forbidden Continent?]

[The Trickster Spotted In the Baltic Sea]

[The Immortal Couple retreated from the world. What happened?]

Milos was reading the newspaper with the symbol of the white owl printed on top of the newspaper.

It is made by a different kind of paper than it used to be in the world before the Fall.

Milos sighed and then got up from his seat on the control room and left the newspaper on his table as he go out and started surveying the work area.

Outside this city, millions of people started their day and they started their day reading the newspaper.

By now, the Death Monarch returns has shook the whole world.

And the way he announces his return is incredibly flamboyant and overbearing. The Mountain of Everlasting Love crumbles and following that shock, Poland was liberated with a federation like replacing the former monarchy installed by the World Government.

Nowadays, Poland out of any nations in the world, is extremely peaceful.

No one even dares think any bad thoughts against them.

When people recalled how Poland could have such luck, one must attribute it to the kindness of man.

Federation President Frederick at the time did not know the person he saved was the Death Monarch and the sister of the Republic highest echelon and the most beautiful woman in the world Snow Princess Katarina.

Because of his kindness, the Death Monarch repay his kind deeds by removing the monarch of Poland, who was just a puppet under the World Government.

With two of the strongest people in the world vouching for the safety of that nation, who would stupid enough to offend these two titanic figure?

And then if the shock of that is not enough, the news of Divine Archer kidnappings were spread out.

And then, the Death Monarch gather all of his people, calling all the great heroes under the Heavens.

Heeding the call, Seven Battlestar departed with the Death Monarch leading the way, slaughtering his way to the Quorum Building and killing all of the Council member in cold blood.

Of course nobody knows that it was Pandikar that killed all the other Council member. And even though Azief did not kill the other Council member, to be attributed killing them is no big deal for him.

He already killed countless of lives, what does a few more lives matter to him?

And on the World Government side, even if they say Pandikar was the one that killed the Council member what would that achieve?

So, they let the world make their own conclusions.

The Island of Peace wrecked again, countless of lives were lost beneath the Death Monarch feet, controlling the Will of the World to create a gigantic figure that reaches the Heavens.

With one battle, The Death Monarch warns the world. He is still the strongest person in the world, incomparable and invincible!

His last word at the end of the battle sounded like a divine decree, and for a while the dark forces that seems to be so strong before, halted.

The crime families dare snot make any waves and the factions that used to harass the Death Monarch companions is nowhere to be found, hiding all over the world.

The Death Monarch has returns and like always he brings the storms with him.

It has been a week since the Massacre of the Mediterranean. The amount of casualty in the Death Monarch attack resulted the battle to be dubbed as such.

With graves and memorials being erected at the site of the battle, the world mourned the casualty of the war.

But even in the mourning period, no one dares anger or mocked, or ever rebukes the Death Monarch actions openly.

But a week since then, the world is also preparing for probably the biggest event next year.

Preparing for that one year meeting, the whole world moves and plot and scheme behind with under the table deals happening all over the globe

Spies, intelligence officers, ambassadors seems to travel through all the world, meeting and speaking with other factions, to try to see the attitude of the Death Monarch and try to divine his intention and how would he distribute the regions of the world, who is qualified and who are not.

The Royal Family of England seems to contact the Imperial Family of Japan during the chaos in the World Government.

Hirate returns to Kai and resumes his position as the Western General while Oreki relinquish his title to his Generals.

Oreki seems to disappear after the War, though some sources reported that he met with the Trickster.

The White Witch have also returned and seems to lose her memories for a few years, yet she remembers some people she met in that timespan but forget about other stuff.

It was like someone expertly surgically removes her memories. Major Arno was found unconscious in the depths of Zimbabwe Mountains

Some news seems to be unimportant, but some are big and worthy of being followed up. With the declaration of the Death Monarch, another storm is being raised.

Small factions, big factions, all have their plots and schemes.

And for those small factions, they made alliances with each other, to prove their influence and gain allies in this turbulent change.

Even though the Death Monarch did not say anything, people were in the consensus that the Death Monarch intend to let the factions governs the world with the Republic, the World Government, league of Freedom and other factions to balance each other out.

And there is another problem brewing below the surface of this facade of peace

Even though the Death Monarch prohibited war between factions, there is still battle in small scale.

Some faction even proposes battle tournament to settle disputes among factions and experts warriors in in high demands.

The tournament only could be considered fair if both of the same level fight. If not what was the point of tournament.

This also helps the fighter to hone their skills.

And a week since then rogue levelers and many others that is unaffiliated with any of the factions sail the stormy seas to reach to the Forbidden Continent, braving the dangerous waters full of gigantic sea creatures.

One could consider the world right now return back to the age of dinosaurs with gigantic and titanic creatures roams the Earth.

Thankfully, human were not entirely powerless as they possess power to cut those these beast. Some would fly but those who could fly in this world are few.

Other than using artifact, the only people that could fly is Disk Formation levelers.

Death Monarch made it easy as he travels through the skies unhindered but the skies is like the sea. It is full of monsters like griffins, wyverns, air banshee, Wind Demons and Cloud pixies.

The reason why when the Death Monarch flies he did not encountered these monster is because these monster avoided meeting the Death Monarch.

They are beast.

They have only instinct and that instinct guided their behavior. Fight or flight. They recognize the Death Monarch as a superior being and an apex predator.

Why would they fight when they could flee?

When the Death Monarch flies on the sky, the monsters avoided his fly path like a plague.

These are the reason the people coming to the Forbidden Continent would rather travel through sea route rather than the sky route.

Not to mention there is only a few people capable to travel through the sky route.

The Forbidden Continent is regarded as one of the most dangerous places in the world. But with the Death Monarch there, a net of safety was created for humanity.

A city is built on the Forbidden Continent like a beacon calling all heroes below the Heavens to gather.

The army is also using this opportunity to sharpen their fangs.

With the abundance of monsters, the army of the Death Monarch is quickly gaining EXP and strength.

The reason was because of the quality of the monster in the Forbidden Continent helps the Army to level up like crazy.

With the Death Monarch helping from behind, they quickly level themselves up.

Most of the soldiers in the army that belongs to the Death Monarch faction reaches Energy Disperse Stage.

It might seem easy but without the Death Monarch providing the way forward, those ten thousands of soldier would surely die without a grave.

In the Forbidden Continent, there is many gigantic creatures that could wreak havoc to the world.

Most of them possess power to break apart the sea and cut mountains.

But the Death Monarch possesses the Death Source making him a bane for anything living and with his ability to raise a skeleton army, he is practically invincible fighting monster that possess no intelligence.

Not to mention his physical body that is almost incomparable to anything on Earth, his body radiated with power that defy the heavenly nature.

But if people thought it was easy for the Death Monarch then they are sorely mistaken.

People only heard his exploits helping his soldiers to level up, one did not hear the story where he had to struggle for a day fighting an Earth Dragon the size of a ten story building that spouts mountains from its mouth.

The Death Monarch had to use his Six Exterminating Saber to cut down the dragon.

The only thing the soldiers could do was to create the Dragon Subduing Formation.

If not for that, they would not be able to land even a hit to share experiences with the Death Monarch.

People only saw him when he wins, and that is what he wanted the world to see and hear. His invincibility.

And that invincibility create an image, a reputation that resounds through the world.

It is his brand. That reputation of his is so prevalent that even without seeing Death Monarch face to face, one heart would already wavered and fearful even before meeting him, making him to hold the advantage.

In the week since the Massacre, Wang Jian also appear, though he appears without any memories after his capture in the Island.

He only remembers he meet Loki when Loki breaks him out of the prison. The Death Monarch clearly seems displeased but he did not say anything about it.

Sina on the other hand, weirdly did not say anything about it and she did not say anything about Loki.

But Wang Jian did remember meeting Loki. Other than that he remembers nothing. The happiest about his return was of course Somi.

That day was surely a day of celebration…for many reasons. The moment he arrived at his barracks, she embraces him tightly, like she will never let him go.

She kissed him, tears of happiness dripping down from her eyes, as her act of love is watched over by the blushing soldiers.

And they kissed so passionately that it makes the Death Monarch feel almost uncomfortable but at the same time he also felt happy for Wang Jian.

Wang Jian has always been hesitant to pursue the relationship between him and Somi.

The age difference between them two is about ten years old. Wang Jian seems to have always been hesitant but the Fairy of the Stars seems to know what she wants.

That night she celebrated with Wang Jian.

They make wishes to the stars, and laugh at each other, laugh at the world and laugh because they were happy.

They hug so tightly like they would never let each other go, and they kissed each other like they were never going to forget each moment.

The Death Monarch wanted Wang Jian to assume his duties, but he, probably touched by their love, suspended his duty for a day, to let them to be together.

Wang Jian seems to let go of his hesitation and Somi, that cold woman, seems to be melting, her smile is as beautiful as the dawn of the sun.

The next morning Wang Jian insisted to assume back his responsibilities. After his return he immediately take control of his White Tiger Army.

With people flocking to the continent, many more enlisted to his army making his army around fifty thousand soldiers.

With Wang Jian in the helm, the organization of the army of the Death Monarch faction is complete.

The Death Monarch commands the generals and the generals commands the soldiers. The key person is the general. Azief while he did not like commanding, he knows the most basic rule of rulers.

No one…rules alone. Unless one could break the heavenly fates and the shackles of creation and destruction, one is bound by these rules.

If one day, he could create a world with a thought and govern life and death like a Supreme Being then this rule would no longer applies to him.

But for now, he is still constrained by this rule

The Death Monarch has always been known to be very liberal in commanding or administrating, always leaving it to other person.

But why…why did no one ever revolted or defect against him?

Simple.

It is because he is the pillar. He is the core power. He do not need army to defend himself, but other people needed him.

In Wang Jian case, he was a loyal retainer and he wants to repay the debt of life.

While Loki did save him, he save Wang Jian for the sole purpose of serving the Death Monarch.

Wang Jian is also known as the Three Talents of Death Monarch. The other two is Freya and Athena.

They are the Three General of Death Monarch faction, possessing a large powerful army on their back that could contend with most of the great factions in the world.

These three army swept through the Forbidden Continent increasing the overall power of the army and increase their reputations and could be compare to the elite forces of the Grand Commander Raymond or the Lion Turtle Army of the League of Freedom.

The stronger they became the more tactic they can employ, the stronger they became and it repeats and the faster the rate it became for them to open new areas and found more resources and treasures.

All three of them have outstanding ability to lead army but they have their differences. Wang Jian is a genius in forming formation attack.

He discover he could fuse formation and arrays in forming attack positions. It enables him to defeat experts using numbers.

Before him, everyone thought that only experts could deal with experts. But Wang Jian devises a way to delay experts and sometimes even defeats them.

The battle that make his name to resound throughout the world was the Battle in Guilin where he was surrounded by three Seed Formation experts.

He uses the formation to kill one and injured the other two.

Athena, another one of the Three Talents is proficient in using strategy to lead her enemy to a death zone.

While she uses battle formation, she uses it in a strategically positioned attack position, trapping, surrounding, and cutting off resources, forcing her opponent to feel it is not worth it fighting against her.

While those two general is a bit alike in their temperament and tactics, Freya is a different type of general.

She capitalizes in fast and powerful charge. If it is a battles she could not win, she would not even start.

But if she is stuck, then there is only one path for her, and that is win or death. She could be considered a figure like Xiang Yu or Napoleon.

Her charisma is the most important thing and it was her charisma that lead people to fight and die for her.

Out of the Three, people regarded her the least.

But if one did that, that person would surely be making a mistake.

Though she was not elegant like Wang Jian and Athena in waging battles and fighting a war, the result of fighting with her has always been risky.

Bite her flesh, she would eat her enemy to the bone.

And her soldiers inherit her stubbornness and when they battle they were like madmen or blood crazed killer, making them looking like a barbarous warlike clan.

She was brave to the point of idiocy sometimes.

By now the three army have carved a path from the center of the continent to the shores and building ports for ships to dock.

In a week all of this happen thanks to the builders and the army working in cooperation with each other.

A city is built in the center of the Forbidden Continent with tall walls that almost reaches the clouds

Properly fitted guards guard the perimeter like clockwork, holding sharp weapons.

Dome like formation covered the sky of the city with formations and arrays seems to be embed into the dome formation that could even hold up even if the sky falls.

Ley lines of the earth was connected to create a defensive formation that link the city wall to the Center Palace where the Death Monarch sits on his throne of skulls and bones.

The Forbidden Continent is acknowledged by all to belong to the Death Monarch. And the Death Monarch has already renamed the continent.

He called it Pandemonium. When investigated, it is revealed, the Death Monarch gave that name to the continent and the city Pandemonium because of all the monster roaming around.

When he saw all the monster he said

‘All Demon’ and he laughed. And then he said

‘Hell’ and he looked at the flock of thousands of monsters in the distance.

Then he said ‘Purgatory’ and he look towards the roads leading to the city and he said ‘Heaven’ as he look towards the city

All Demon Place. That is what Pandemonium literally translates to.

Pandemonium is the power base of Death Monarch, open to all that dares to brave the seas of fly towards it.

But like always, it is forbidden land for its enemy.

And basked in the glory of his recent exploits, the Death Monarch name resound throughout the world, overshadowed all heroes under the sky, lording over the world akin of an Emperor that rule the four corners of the world

A man among men, heroes among heroes. With his return, the status quo is broken, and a new order is about to begin and once again this era would be dominated by him

The world is once again swaying under the fingers of the Death Monarch *****************************************************************************

SOMEWHERE IN THE VAST GALAXY

INTERIUM

BOOOM!!

A broken star that resembles a planet just plow through an asteroid belt without any damage. The inhabitants of this broken star did not even seem shocked as they cheered in the War Ring for their favorite champion to win.

Interium is the broken star belonging to the famous Lord Wargod. One of the top existence in the Universe, they are only a few things he feared.

Like always his star is sailing the stars to seek talented warrior to fight with him in the Final Battle.

Usually he would sit on his Red Throne, a throne constructed of myriads of weapons. But today he is not sitting inside his throne room or presiding his War Ring.

He instead is walking towards one part of his city. That part of the city is cordoned off from the people of his Dominion.

His body emitted an aura of madness and bloodlust but his face is calm as he walks slowly to his destination.

Scarily calm like he is about to do something momentous.

The closer he came to his destination, the more he could not control his excitement. And then he finally arrived.

He smiles as he enters that place.

The place he enters is a Temple with ancient scribbles on the staircase and ancient aura emanating from it.

It was so ancient there is only a few people in the entire Universe that could read, and only some undying or immortal existence that lived since the beginning of time could understand the abstruse concept embedded in that scribbles

Sacred aura envelops the entire structure, yet at the same time there is a hint of the purest Destruction aura that could ravage entire worlds.

This temple is one of a kind as the other temple in Interium is of a different design and emits a different aura from this Temple.

And of all the other temple, they are all dedicated to Wargod and no other.

This Temple possess the aura of Time and Space. And this aura distorted Space-Time spiraling, breaking and reforming in a display of unexplained phenomena on many parts of the Temple.

If not for Wargod powerful spell that seal this Temple here, this Temple would fly off to other parts of the Universe.

And the aura it possess could disregard Karmatic Cause and Effect, disregards Time, Fate and Destiny.

He entered the temple and he traces his hand on the pillars of the Temple, his eyes glittering in excitement.

‘Asargan, your Grand Will survives’ he exclaimed. And then he laughs joyously. In the many eons he lived, there is never a time he was so happy.

‘I feel you again after eons. I felt your force, beating, with power.’ Then he shakes his head, smiling and at the same time showing a proud expression.

‘Sooner or later they will come here. For this is one of the Ten Temple. And those who are destined with it will find it whether they wanted to or not. Our Will covered the entire Universe and while we perished, Our Will still survives, passed down through the eons’

And then he could not hold his tears. It was a tears of happiness but it also contains an unspeakable sadness that he did not know how to express.

He has been alone for so long, maybe the last of his kind.

Borgan was the last one he found before she sacrificed herself to become Belthana and spread her Grand Will enabling all fated creation to glimpse the plans of the Supreme One.

However, Asargan death was the most tragic for him. For he knew him, close as brothers.

Wargod still remember how Asargan died. With one finger of the Destroyer, he was destroyed in body and soul

If not for the Creator, his Grand Will would have been eradicated without a doubt.

In his death, to spread his Grand Will, he created ten temples that lies inside it, his Grand Will and blessings for people who call upon his name

But out of ten temples only six remained intact.

One of them is destroyed by the Destroyer finger and created the Cosmic Speedster, the Pale Speedster that hunted all of Speedster and Beings too fast for Death.

That Temple was embed with the Destruction will of the Destroyer and formed into the Cosmic Speedster

Another one was destroyed by the sound of the Bell tolling and created a planet. Another one was stolen by Yu Wang who now has becomes the Jade Emperor.

The other one was destroyed by that Witch speedster.

She used that Temple to hide from the executions of the Destroyer. Who would have thought she would finally be released.

She is still weak but not for long. Wargod could feel it even though she is far away, she is thrumming with life, slowly and gradually regaining back her life force.

‘And so it began’ he said.

As he walk closer to the inner sanctum of the Temple, he smiles.

‘Like the Destroyer and Creator playing chess with the Universe and we as the Pawns, I intend to turn a pawn into their stumbling block.’

‘HAHAHAHA!’ he laughed and there is a trace of madness in it as he enters the deep inner sanctum and saw that item.

A small blue chain that seems rusted. But Wargod seems to look at it longingly. He knew he could not take it. He is allowed to see it…but not to take it. For he is not the destined one

‘Little Speedster that inherit the Grand Will of Asargan…come!’ And Wargod smiles a big smile.

***