Ascendant of Shadows: The Monarch and The Eminence

The air in the Mitsugoshi penthouse crackled with a strange energy. On one side, Sung Jin-woo stood, his expression grim and focused. The Seed of the Void in his hand was pulsing with a steady, rhythmic coldness, a metaphysical heartbeat echoing across dimensions. On the other side, Cid Kagenou was practically vibrating, his eyes sparkling with the thrill of a new adventure.

Jin-woo sighed. There was no stopping Cid's theatricality. "I can open a Gate," Jin-woo said aloud, switching to spoken words. "It will connect directly to the energy source. But it will be temporary."

"A Gate to another world!" Cid exclaimed, his voice filled with boyish wonder. "Will there be 'truck-kun'?"

Jin-woo just stared at him, not even bothering to ask what that meant. He turned to Alpha, who had been summoned along with the other Seven Shades. "The world we are going to is... different from yours. There is no magic in the air. The power there came from a different source. Be prepared for a... cultural shock."

"We understand, Lord Monarch," Alpha said with a respectful bow. "We have studied the chronicles written by Beta, which include Lord Shadow's tales of his past life. We are prepared for concepts like 'automobiles,' 'skyscrapers,' and 'the internet'."

Jin-woo was momentarily taken aback. Cid had told them about his past life? He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. Of course, his entire past was just more fodder for his grand, self-created lore.

"Very well," Jin-woo said. He raised his hand, and the shadows in the center of the room began to coalesce. He wasn't punching a hole in reality this time. He was using his Monarch's authority to create a stable, controlled portal, keyed to the signature of the Weaver in his world.

A perfect, shimmering black-and-purple vortex, swirling like a galaxy, appeared in the middle of the penthouse. The air hummed with trans-dimensional energy. On the other side, through the swirling colors, they could see the faint image of a familiar city at night, lit by millions of electric lights. Seoul.

"Who is going?" Jin-woo asked.

"I, of course!" Cid declared. "An Eminence in Shadow cannot miss the premiere of a new stage!"

"Alpha, you will come with me," Cid commanded. "Beta, you too. Your chronicles must be accurate. The rest of you, hold the fort here. Keep the rumors of our 'war' circulating. Confusion is our greatest shield."

"Yes, Lord Shadow!" the remaining shades replied in unison.

Alpha stepped forward, her expression a mixture of steely resolve and profound curiosity. Beta followed, her grimoire clutched to her chest, her eyes wide with the anticipation of a historian about to witness a new epoch.

"Stay close," Jin-woo warned. "The atmosphere will feel... empty to you."

He stepped through the Gate first. Cid followed with a dramatic leap, and Alpha and Beta walked through with disciplined grace. The Gate swirled shut behind them, leaving the penthouse in silence.

The location they arrived in was the rooftop of a skyscraper in Gangnam, Seoul. The Weaver's faint energy signature was coming from somewhere deep within the city's electronic network.

The moment they stepped through, the three visitors from the magical world felt it.

"The air..." Alpha gasped, her hand instinctively going to her chest. "It's... dead. There's no mana." For a mage and spellsword whose entire existence was tied to the flow of ambient magic, it was like being plunged underwater. She felt weak, disconnected.

"Fascinating!" Beta exclaimed, already scribbling. "A world devoid of natural magical circulation! The laws of physics must be incredibly rigid here! How do they even live?"

Cid, however, just took a deep, dramatic breath. "Ahh... the smell of exhaust fumes and capitalism. It brings back memories." He looked out at the sprawling cityscape, a neon-lit wonderland of steel and glass that stretched to the horizon. "Magnificent! A completely different aesthetic of power! Not castles and magic, but corporations and technology!"

Their awe was interrupted by a new presence. Several, in fact.

A figure landed silently on the rooftop behind them. A tall man in a pristine black suit, his face grim, his eyes sharp. It was Woo Jin-chul, flanked by two of the best hunters from the newly formed Korean Hunter Monitoring Division. They had detected the massive energy spike of the Gate's opening.

"Monarch-nim," Woo Jin-chul said, his voice filled with immense relief. "You've returned."

His relief quickly turned to confusion as he took in the scene. Jin-woo was not alone. He was accompanied by a handsome, if theatrical, young man and two impossibly beautiful women with pointed ears, dressed in what looked like some kind of advanced, skin-tight combat armor. They were all radiating a faint but undeniable power, a power that his senses couldn't classify.

"These are..." Jin-chul began, his hand instinctively hovering near the hilt of his blade.

"Allies," Jin-woo said simply. "From another world."

Woo Jin-chul's professionally stoic expression finally cracked. His jaw went slack. He had dealt with monsters, Gates, and Monarchs. He thought he had seen everything. He was wrong. "Another... world?"

Before he could ask the thousand questions flooding his mind, a new voice cut through the air.

"Kiiieeeek! My King!"

A black blur shot through the sky and landed on the rooftop with a thunderous crash, cracking the concrete. It was Beru, his insectoid form quivering with ecstatic loyalty. He had felt his master's return and had come instantly.

Beru immediately noticed the newcomers. He sniffed the air. His gaze fell upon Alpha, then Beta. They smelled... powerful. And strange. They smelled like his master's new associates. Then his multifaceted eyes locked onto Cid.

Beru, the terrifying S-Rank summon who could make entire nations tremble, froze. He took a hesitant step back. He remembered this one. The one from the ramen shop. The being whose true power felt like a bottomless pit. The one his King treated as an equal.

A low, reverent buzzing sound escaped Beru. He slowly, hesitantly, bowed his head, a gesture of respect he only ever gave to his King.

This single action broke Woo Jin-chul's brain. He had seen Beru tear S-Rank hunters apart with contemptuous ease. He had seen him mock dragons. To see this monster, the right hand of the Shadow Monarch, bow to this... pretty boy in a school uniform... was a contradiction on a world-shattering scale.

"Who... Who in the world are you?" Jin-chul finally managed to ask, his question directed at Cid.

Cid, who had been enjoying the dramatic reunion, saw his cue. He struck a pose, one hand on his hip, the other sweeping through the air as if to encompass the entire city.

"Me?" he said, a mysterious, charming smirk on his face. "Just a tourist, admiring the scenery. You have... a very loud world."

Alpha and Beta simply observed, their minds cataloging everything. The strange clothes of the hunters. The flying insect-man who bowed to their master's ally. The towering buildings that scraped the sky. Beta was already on her third page of notes.

Jin-woo decided to intervene before things got even more confusing. "Jin-chul, the enemy we fought before has sent a scout to this world. It's hiding in your electronic network. It's an information-gathering entity."

"The network?" Jin-chul's focus snapped back to the mission. "You mean... the internet?"

"Yes," Jin-woo confirmed.

"How can we possibly fight something that's inside the internet?" Jin-chul asked, the concept utterly alien to him.

It was Cid who answered, his voice full of confidence. "You cannot fight a shadow in the dark. You must drag it into the light." He turned to Beta. "Beta, your 'research' on this world's 'internet'. You are a master of information warfare, are you not?"

Beta's eyes lit up. This was her time to shine. "Yes, Lord Shadow! Based on your stories, their 'internet' is a chaotic web of information and misinformation. A perfect battleground for a story-teller!" She pulled out a sleek, black smartphone—a piece of technology Gamma had reverse-engineered and "improved" with magic. "I believe I can... 'write' a story that will force it to reveal itself. A 'flame war,' I believe it's called."

Woo Jin-chul and his hunters could only stare in stunned silence. The Monarch had returned from another dimension with a theatrical pretty boy who made his strongest summon bow, an elf who was a master of information warfare, and a plan to fight a data-monster by starting an online argument.

His world had been saved, but he was beginning to think that reality itself had been irrevocably broken in the process.