Chapter 41 – Abyssborn Ascension

The battlefield trembled as Ren and Harbinger collided again, their blows splitting the very air. Void energy crackled, forming rifts in reality itself. Ren's newfound power surged, his every movement sharper, faster, more refined.

Harbinger swiped with a claw of abyssal tendrils, but Ren twisted midair, avoiding the strike by a hair’s breadth. He didn’t just dodge—he countered. His void-forged blade sliced through the tendrils, severing them in an instant.

Harbinger roared in frustration.

“You defy the Abyss itself!”

Ren exhaled, his grip tightening. “No. I control it.”

The moment those words left his mouth, the abyssal energy around him pulsed—not in rejection, but in obedience. The very mist that had once swallowed warriors whole now bent to his will.

Harbinger hesitated for the first time. It felt it.

Ren’s power was no longer that of a mortal Monarch.

He was becoming something else.

Something the Abyss itself feared.

From a ruined tower in the distance, a pair of glowing golden eyes watched. The white-haired figure from before—Ren’s mysterious savior—stood atop the broken stone, arms crossed.

“He’s adapting faster than expected,” the figure murmured, their voice tinged with amusement. “Looks like I was right to pull him forward.”

Beside them, a woman clad in silver and crimson armor—a warrior unlike any seen before—narrowed her gaze. “But will it be enough?”

The white-haired figure smirked. “That depends on whether he realizes what he’s truly becoming.”

They turned back toward the battle, their eyes flickering with interest.

Because they knew the truth.

Ren wasn’t just fighting Harbinger.

He was fighting his own fate.

And if he lost?

He wouldn’t just die—he’d be consumed.

Ren’s breath was ragged, but his stance remained firm. His mind raced. The Void Monarch System was reacting differently than before. He could feel it—whispers at the edge of his consciousness, voices of past Monarchs, of fallen kings who had wielded power like his… and failed.

But Ren wasn’t them.

He was not going to fail.

Harbinger lunged forward, its form shifting, twisting—it wasn’t holding back anymore. Dark chains shot toward Ren, aiming to bind him.

But Ren didn’t move to dodge.

He let them come.

The moment the chains wrapped around him, the battlefield fell silent.

And then—

CRACK.

Ren snapped them with sheer force.

Harbinger recoiled, its abyssal form quivering in disbelief.

Ren grinned. The Abyss could no longer bind him.

He had surpassed it.

And now?

It was his turn to end this.