Morgan stepped down from her throne, graceful but firm. "Tell me how your Gate of Skye works."
Skadi blinked. "Not my chest?"
Morgan narrowed her eyes. "I already proved to Jin-Woo I'm superior. My chest doesn't matter anymore." She pointed toward the battlefield. "From now on, I prioritize capability—just like Jin-Woo's machine constructs. My strength will serve my husband's prosperity."
Skadi grumbled. "…Fine. You win."
Morgan folded her arms, smirking. "Good. Now educate me, frost queen."
At the center of the battlefield, Jin-Woo stood still—relaxed, unreadable.
Kukulcan approached him with a bright grin, pressing something glowing and strange against his palm. A mark shimmered into being: an intricate sigil with alien patterns, unmistakably Archetype: ORT in origin.
"Jin-Woo! You promised me! You'll bring me to your side, all right?! ALLLLRIGHTTT?!" she shouted, bouncing with energy.
Jin-Woo didn't flinch. "After you die. All right?" he replied flatly. "Right now, I'm not looking to erase the Alien God or dismantle your Lostbelt. I have a schedule. And for the love of hell—stop shouting."
Kukulcan pouted. "Hmph."
Then—without warning—she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "You better remember that promise~!"
With that, she twirled away and walked off toward the stands where Daybit and Tezcatlipoca sat.
Tezcatlipoca leaned back,. "So, what do you think of the Shadow Monarch's power—even though he didn't use his main strength?"
Kukulcan threw her arms behind her head, practically floating with joy. "He's awesomeeeee! I might become his girlfriend in the future!"
Daybit, as expressionless as ever,. "He already has Morgan."
Kukulcan winked. "Then I'll be his concubine."
Morgan approached jin-woo , her heels tapping softly across the arena floor, cloak fluttering behind her. Skadi had already returned to the stands, arms crossed and quietly sulking.
Morgan raised one hand, and from her fingertips, a miniature fortress of shadow materialized—its towers and battlements swirling with compact darkness.
Jin-Woo gave a slow, approving nod. "Very good, Morgan. You've learned to replicate someone else's ultimate technique."
Morgan smirked proudly, then turned, ready to retreat back into the World Eternal Slumber through Jin-Woo's shadow.
But his hand gently caught her wrist.
"I think you need to stay," he said, leaning in.
Then—softly, only for her ears—he whispered, "I'm going to promote you… make you into something like me. A Monarch."
Morgan's breath hitched. Her pupils widened.
Oh my god… he's about to give me the greatest gift—power on par with the gods themselves…
Her fingers trembled slightly, but her face stayed composed. Regal. She nodded once—silent, but electric with anticipation.
Jin-Woo turned away, his cloak stirring. Across the battlefield, he locked eyes with the colossal machine form of Zeus still hovering above Olympus.
"You done lifting your restrictions yet?" Jin-Woo called out, voice cool. "Because I'm starting to get bored."
Zeus's glowing eyes narrowed, energy thrumming louder as lightning crackled through his massive core.
"You punk Shadow… You're going to regret letting me fight with everything I have."
Suddenly, across the storm-darkened sky, a booming declaration echoed like the voice of a god through the heavens:
[ANNOUNCEMENT: RESTRICTIONS RELEASED]
Great Composite Authority: Titanomachia – LIMITER: REMOVED
Great Composite Authority: Gigantomachia – LIMITER: REMOVED
Anti-Planet Destruction Mechanism – LIMITER: REMOVED
Anti-Star System Annihilation Mechanism – LIMITER: REMOVED
Anti-Space-Time Attack Mechanism – LIMITER: REMOVED
Anti-Concept Shattering Mechanism – LIMITER: REMOVED
The entire battlefield trembled.
Above, Zeus's true form—Aletheia, the Mobile Flagship Interstellar Combat Annihilation Fortress—began to surge with white and blue lightning, his systems overclocking, transforming. Divine authority saturated the air like thick radiation. His voice boomed across Olympus
"At last…! For a very long time… my power… my truth … has finally been RESTORED—!! AHAHAHAHA—"
The sound was slow, deliberate, and came from below. Jin-Woo was applauding.
"Yeah, yeah," he cut in with a deadpan drawl,. "Very impressive. Very dramatic."
Jin-woo tilted his head, utterly unimpressed.
"Now let's get this over with—I've got loot to collect when I win."
Zeus's glowing eyes flared like miniature stars as arcs of divine thunder coiled around his titanic body.
One strike, he thought. Even without full charge, this lightning can shatter a continent. The Shadow Monarch—without his shadow power—won't be able to withstand it . Not without cheating.
He released the storm. A blinding cascade of cerulean-white lightning descended like divine judgment. It roared through the sky toward Jin-Woo with the weight of a zeus wrath.
But Jin-Woo didn't move. He just smirked.
A pulse of power surged from his feet . Something transfigured.
Yogumunt—the Monarch of Transfiguration.
A giant pinkish-purple portal bloomed in front of him like a blooming abyssal lotus.
Zeus's lightning vanished into it.
And a Little later, a second portal opened above Zeus.
A colossal demonic arm—twisted, plated with runes, dark as ancient myth—erupted from the rift and smashed Zeus's machine god body into the arena floor, cracking the ground like porcelain.
Zeus barely had time to blink before his own lightning came roaring down from above—redirected by another Yogumunt gate—and struck him dead center in the chest.
The fortress groaned, sparks flying.
From within the Aletheia frame, Zeus laughed—angry, incredulous, unhinged.
"Ahahahaha! I knew it! I knew you'd break your promise! You're using your primary power—the Shadow Monarch's ability itself!"
Jin-Woo's voice cut through .
"Since when…" he stepped forward, shadows curling loosely at his heels, "...was being a Monarch ever just about shadow You're the one living under delusion, Zeus. Thinking I'm limited to only one throne."
Zeus shot into the sky like a missile, fury blazing from every thunder-forged panel of his Aletheia frame. Lightning surged around him in a blinding lattice—crackling, boiling, storming.
"You arrogant upstart—!" he roared. And then— The sky above Olympus darkened.
A storm of pure lightning—thousands of bolts, each the size of a imperial star destroyer—rained down like divine artillery. The heavens themselves wept plasma.
But Jin-Woo didn't move.. he called—not one Monarch's power, but two.
[Yogumunt], Monarch of Transfiguration. [Sillad], Monarch of ice folks .
A massive pinkish-purple gate opened above his head. Like the mouth of a devourer, it swallowed the lightning.
Then— A second pulse surged from beneath Jin-Woo's boots. The ground itself began to crystallize.
Olympus—the entire mountaintop arena—was suddenly encased in an impossible layer of divine ice, like frozen starlight. Cold burned the air. The storm stopped.
And above them, in the stratosphere, something took shape.
A giant trident—formed entirely of the same glacial matter , three times the size of Zeus himself—hovered .
Then—It launched. Faster than a railgun. Faster than lightning itself.
Zeus had no time to evade. The trident struck, piercing through one of his mechanical wings with a sonic boom that tore the clouds apart.
CRACK-KA-THOOOOOM!!
He spiraling downward in a flash of torn circuitry and crackling sparks. The stabbed wing—gone. Torn from his body. He hit the ground with a titanic crash, sending a shockwave through the entire arena.
Inside the fractured cockpit of his god-machine body, Zeus's thoughts flickered like overloaded code.
That trident… it was massive… but it struck like a spear of light. That speed…was not fair .
Zeus soared back into the sky, his flight now uneven, limping. Sparks flew from the torn base of his missing wing, and one of his servos strained to maintain altitude.
But his voice—his divine will .
"I am Zeus," he roared, his mechanical voice echoing
"I am the omnipotent god who controls all creation."
"Sever the skies. Shatter the stars. All that is heaven—is me."
"I am the one who rules the stars . World Discipline: Keraunos!"
Above him, the sky split open.
And from that rupture in space, a colossal bolt began to descend.
it was a pillar of judgment, the size of the entire Atlantic Lostbelt.
White-gold. Blinding. Lostbelt-splitting. The World Discipline: Keraunos.
It howled toward Jin-Woo like divine punishment itself.
But Jin-Woo's eyes flared—and this time, they were not blue.
They were black rimmed with molten crimson, the pupils shaped like slitted, ancient wyrms.
He opened his mouth, and for the first time—
He unleashed it . The final Monarch. The sealed one. The king of dragons. Antares—Monarch of Destruction.
From his lips came a beam. Small at first.
A breath. Then—BOOM. It expanded.
Like a nuke folding in on itself and detonating outward. Like the collapse of logic and the detonation of entropy in one sweeping wave.
The Breath of Destruction clashed with Keraunos—and reality bent between them.
Then, everything shattered.
The divine lightning fractured like stained glass under pressure, dispersing into blinding arcs that disintegrated harmlessly into the air.
The breath kept going. It slammed into Zeus.
Half of his Aletheia form was scorched. Torn open. Armor melted into slag. Dozens of his inner circuits were exposed,. . But his core remained. Still floating. Still intact.
Zeus's laugh, fractured but full of pride, rang out across the battlefield.
"Hah… HAHAHAHA! That power—that will! Only two beings have ever struck me like this… And so I declare—by right of Olympus—Jin-Woo, Shadow Monarch… is the second friend of Zeus."
"The first… was Kirschtaria. Wear it with pride, boy."
Jin-Woo's chest heaved once. His breath came ragged—a guttural tremor of power barely leashed.
The sky above Olympus still shimmered with the residual aftershock of Antares's breath, the clouds warped into chaotic spirals, ozone burning the air like a brand.
And then— A new figure shimmered into view: Zeus, once again in his avatar form, projected from his slowly self-repairing Aletheia body still embedded into the broken mountain ridge behind.
"Hey, heyyy!" Zeus held both of his hand , a strained grin across his fractured projection. "Alright?! I lost! Stop wrecking Olympus—seriously!"
The arena cracked again as Jin-Woo's foot slid forward, his breath steaming through clenched teeth.
Then— A silhouette floated down gently.
Kirschtaria. His cloak flared from magical current, wind swirling around him like an aura of dignity.
He landed gently between Jin-Woo and the battered remains of Olympus. His voice was composed, but the tension in his brows said everything.
"Jin-Woo Zeus has lost. The duel is over. You've proven your strength. But if you destroy Olympus… the damage to this Lostbelt's structure—it would fall apart."
"And I'd rather not see another king lost. Not after all of this."
Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed, still glowing with red mana. The breath was gathering again, heat lines rippling at his lips.
But then—a hand. Morgan stepped beside him, her expression regal yet laced with urgency. Her silver- hair shimmered .
"My husband," she said softly.
Her hand touched his wrist—and at the same time, a pale mirror formed behind her. A reservoir of mana opened up beneath their feet: the Lake of England—the one she had forged through True Magic, an offering of calm drawn from Jin-Woo's own power when they visited London.
She whispered, "If you breathe again… the sky will fall. ."
Jin-Woo's breath trembled through his lips as the searing red glow in his eyes slowly faded—returning to their cold, violet.
A cough escaped his throat. "I don't want to use that again," he muttered under his breath, voice hoarse, tinged with exhaustion… and disdain.
Beside him, Morgan's grip on his wrist lingered just a second longer before releasing. The Lake of England behind her rippled once—then receded into glimmering mist, her True Magic dissipating silently.