Oh, The Misery //Solo Leveling// Sung Jin Woo x Antares

5: I am Jin-Woo

He remembers fighting the Brightest Fragment in the other timelines. The last time they've ever crossed paths came to be on the 31st Apocalipse that Earth suffered in its wake. Despite its status as "The Kindest Ruler", that being was merciless to those whom it fought. 

Inside the vessel of a middle eastern woman, she was a brilliant force of power. She was much more hostile and bloodthirsty towards her enemies then her older brother could ever become. Antares remembers how its armor would only be a shackle in the way of her brutal massacre. 

Being born as a monster for all eternity, he could sense that the face behind its golden mask always smiled wide and hungry. Each swing of her spear would make his servants loose limbs left and right. The Emperor remembers watching the Brightest Fragment fight even as the body of the vessel disintegrated in its final moments. Still, she subjugated her strikes with more and more powerful thrusts until the blood of all monsters rained the mediterranean sea. 

She pointed the spear back at him, ready to give him hell. The Emperor smiled back, its claws wide and open as they tempted the Brightest Fragment to come and get him if she could. 

Elysium moved faster than the wings of a dragon, but did not have the shred of protection like Ashborn. So Antares always took advantage of that, both in the fight and as a taunt to her ego of a protector. 

"Who are you if not just a blunt knife? What good comes from being so good at fighting and killing, when you can't even protect your own heart?!" 

Front to back, Antares dodge the lighting speed of the Ruler with its own armor. As the name of the fragment implies, the longer its wings flew and the longer time passed striking down the tail, wings and claws of the mightiest dragon, the brighter she shone. The brighter her attacks became, the more irritating it was for him to pinpoint a direction in which he would attack her with his breath.

However, Antares was stronger. He didn't even need to use his true form to defeat her.

A stab was made right through the chest of the Ruler, its wings still flashing with such a powerful aura, but fading as he took the Ruler's heart and gripped it, tearing it up like it was nothing. 

He could only see the raging eyes of Elysium as it grabbed on to his bloody hand that he pierced her with, and with a shaking voice, condemning him yet again. 

"My brothers and I will one day see the end... The end of all your kind... of all you monarchs... Forever." 

Without hesitation, and a fake smile forming, he replied. "I see that the orders of the Absolute Being still run through your head. What a pity, I was wondering if you could join us too, maybe you could even reunite with Ashborn if you are useful to me."

A cursed glare was the last thing it could muster. 

The tenth year had been finished by that point, and Antares resigned yet again in glory as he saw the last Ruler turn on the coup and pour its mana. On the 32nd try, he woke up to the sound of his planet getting ready to invade again, and knew that once more the Rulers condemned them to die until they could reach a better end. 

However, despite The Brightest Fragment's powerful force of nature and the only one that most of the other Rulers could rely on, it never appeared on sight after their fight. He wasn't about to care if that statement opened an old wound in the Brightest Fragment, but he was suspicious of its activity. That being said, the fragment could also have just not cared at any point about his words and instead decided to make a better plan, hiding far away until it was perfected.

The truth was, that it was inside this old man all along.  

What was so special about this old man anyways? It seemed weird, dubious, for someone as indefatigable as the Brightest Fragment to choose a vessel that wasn't even capable of fighting, much less protecting the world at large.