Chapter 55 – The Lost Monarch Awakens

The sky cracked.

A fracture split the heavens, and time itself shuddered.

As Ren and Ryze clashed—blades sparking, void colliding with abyss—a third force began to awaken. Neither light nor darkness. Something older. Forgotten.

Kael stumbled back as the ground trembled. “What the hell is that?!”

Ren slashed through Ryze’s guard and looked up—his eyes widening.

A shape descended from the fracture in the sky.

Slowly.

Majestically.

Cloaked in layered robes of shimmering entropy, a figure floated above the battlefield, their presence warping gravity itself. Their face was hidden by a fractured silver mask, but their voice carried across the air like a whisper through time.

“The balance has been broken.”

Ryze froze.

“…It can’t be.”

Aelira gasped. “The Third Monarch…”

[System Update: Monarch Triumvirate Detected.]
[Entity Registered: ??? – Title: The Lost Monarch.]
[Power Signature: Temporal-Class Monarch—Origin Unknown.]

Ren narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

The masked Monarch tilted their head. “I am what was left behind when the world chose to forget.”
They extended their hand—and the rift in the sky began to close behind them.
Their voice dropped, almost mournful.
“You fight over thrones… yet none of you were ever meant to rule.”

Ryze stepped back. “You were erased.”

“Erased?” the figure laughed softly. “I simply waited.”

Then, in a flicker—faster than thought—they appeared between Ren and Ryze. Both were thrown backward like rag dolls.

Their voice became sharper now, commanding.
“I will reclaim what was once mine.”

[System Alert: World Event Triggered – “The Return of the First Monarch.”]
[All Monarch-Class Entities will be tested.]

Ren slowly rose, blood on his lip. His eyes burned with fury—and wonder.

Kael’s voice trembled. “Ren… if that’s the First… what does that make us?”

Ren stood.

“…Still the future.”

He lifted his blade.

No matter who stood before him—Ryze… Nyx… or the First Monarch themselves…

He would ascend higher.

Next: Chapter 56 – Trial of the Ancients