Chapter Text
On a random intersection in the middle of a Tokyo that was burning to the ground, a High-Orc made of shadows roared with all of his might.
[High-Orc is using Skill: Aggravate]
Aggravate was an A-Rank Taunt Skill that literally every single Orc had. That on its own would’ve made an S-Rank’s jaw drop. Taunt Skills, unlike most other Skills, worked on anything that was one Rank above them. So an A-Rank Taunt could affect an S-Rank.
It made the Orc army a ridiculously effective front line, and that was exactly what this Orc was doing for his liege.
The few Tenebris in the area began to flock, heading towards the Orc. He stood proud, like a general staring down an army, leading his troops not as a weak man who stood on the backlines and sent others to die, but a truly brave…
He started sprinting in the opposite direction with everything he had in himself.
It wasn’t because he was actually scared. The jury was still out on whether or not the Shadows even felt fear. It was simply following its lieges’ instructions. He knew that his two masters would never let him truly die. Not only was he immortal as long as they had Mana, but they could recall him in an instant and save him if they did run out of Mana.
He wanted desperately to turn on his heel and act on his aggression, as all Orcs did, but he knew his masters were depending on him. Their only command was to Taunt the Tenebris and run for as long as possible. That was what he was going to do.
As they closed in on the Orc, he got a better look at their shape. They were like Arcka, a humanoid shape whose skin looked charred by fire. But without the magical crystals peeking out of their skin, it seemed that the darkness within their bodies was free to rampage. Clouds of black, like a sandstorm made of dark particles swirled around them. It appeared to be similar to their Skill, Particle Storm, but the Orc couldn’t sense any magic from it. It was likely that it was just part of their aesthetic, a passive cloud waiting to storm.
“Just keep running straight. We’ll have line of sight in five seconds.”
The Orc listened to the voice in his head. His liege’s orders were comparable to that of God speaking to a priest.
5…4…3…2…1…
Like a hurricane pelting the world with hail, dozens upon dozens of bullets and arrows rained down on the hellish flock behind the Orc.
*******
[You have gained 6 Levels!]
“Well, they’re certainly good food!” Momo shouted over the blast of her rifle.
“This is gonna take forever though! Five-thousand?! We’ve barely made a dent!”
The two were aiming at the flock directly behind the Orc they had just spoken to telepathically. With their attention forcibly drawn to the Orc they couldn’t cover themselves from the hail of projectiles.
In a fit of panic, they activated their Particle Storm ability, but because Momo and Izuku had planned out multiple paths for the Orcs to take, they would always have flanking views. With the Skill only facing forwards, and unable to turn away, they were - scientifically speaking - fucked.
[You have gained 3 Levels!]
“Time to switch out!” Izuku said aloud, passing the order to the running Orc as it was gained on.
The Orc fell to the ground, like a snowman instantly melting into a puddle. The Shadow moved along the streets of the city at the speed of dark, slinking back into Izuku’s Shadow as another Orc, somewhere else in the city roared, activating their own Taunt Skill.
[Tenebris Souls: 102/5,000]
“Oh this is gonna take a while.”
“Are we getting their Souls for Shadow Extraction as well?” Momo asked. Since she was the most powerful ranged fighter, Izuku was the one to break his focus to check the list.
“Yep, one-hundred and two!”
“Well at least we’ll have a bigger army to take on the Lux!”
Izuku laughed. “We don’t have the room for 5,000 Shadows!”
“Maybe if we get enough Levels from these guys!”
None of the Shadows, aside from maybe Tusk with his magic and Baruka with his bow, had any long range proficiency. Even then, Tusk was too large to fit anywhere for a vantage point, and Baruka’s bow just didn’t have the necessary range. So it was up to the two Shadow Lieges to take down the Tenebris flocks.
“What are you gonna do if Bakugo doesn’t change?”
“Are we really still on that subject?”
“I just want to make sure you’re prepared. I’ve stressed about your physical health for years in Dungeons, but you and I both know that this,” She took her hand away from the barrel, firing with one hand quite effortlessly, to point at her temple, “Is just as important.”
“I’m stronger than him now.”
“But you’re not meaner. If he continues on his destructive path of being a total asshole to everyone around him, the only way to fix that is to get rid of him. And you and I both know we’re not just gonna go off killing someone because they’re an ass. Even if it is incredibly tempting.” Momo said the last part with a sarcastic grin. “Point being, he’ll continue to wear on your mental health.”
“Point taken!” Izuku replied. “But the system is skewed against bullying. A-Ranks aren’t exactly high in supply, nor are they low in demand. The two times I tried to alert teachers or staff to his bullying, they told me off for speaking negatively about another student. Bakugo was never even spoken to.”
“UA’s gotta be different though! You saw All Might, you know that he is what he preaches! You have a bond with Midnight and many of the other students! There’s no way he’ll get away with it so easily if you report it!”
“I just… I don’t want to even consider the outcome where nothing changes.”
Momo smiled gently and whispered under her breath, “You really are too pure for this world, Midoriya.”
[Tenebris Souls: 254/5,000]
“Yeah… this is gonna take forever…”
“Switch out!” Izuku called once more, changing out the Shadows. He then turned to Momo. “Keep firing! I’ve got a theory to test out.”
“Arise.”
[Tenebris Lvl. 1 - Knight Grade]
Izuku pulled just one Soul from his Soul Collection list. He did it partially to test if it would decrease the Soul Count for the Quest, which it didn’t. But mainly, he Extracted the Shadow to look over its description.
*******
[Tenebris Lvl. 1 - Knight Grade]
Skills: Particle Storm (Only with additional Tenebris), Deconstruction Resistance
Equipment: None
*******
“Deconstruction Resistance… Does that mean you can bypass the Particle Storm?”
The Tenebris tilted his hand side-to-side.
“Right… it’s resistance… not nullification. But if you can resist it at all, then you and the other Extracted Tenebris can fight. And we can regenerate you with Mana…” It was a rather horrific idea the long Izuku thought about it. It was like forcing someone with immortality to jump into a vat of acid, they’d be dissolved, but not fast enough to outpace their regeneration.
“Do you guys feel pain?” Again the side-to-side motion. Either it had Pain Resistance, which the System said it didn’t have, or it only recognized pain as damage, to prevent it from doing something stupid. It reminded Izuku of Pacific Rim, where the pilots felt the pain of the giant robot they piloted to make sure they were fighting optimally.
“Well… if we don’t do that, we could be here a while… Don’t want to be stuck here and miss any school days…” Izuku sighed. “Alright, then.”
“Arise.”
[253 Tenebris - Knight Grade]
[Shadows: 1,004/1,023]
The Levels had given Izuku a big boost in Shadow space, allowing him to resurrect all the Tenebris they had killed so far.
“Attack any and all Tenebris in the city that are not Shadows!”
The over two-hundred Tenebris emerged from Izuku and Momo’s shadows, flinging themself off the Skytree and taking flight. At the same time, Izuku felt a mental nudge from Behemoth.
“You want to fight?”
*******
[Behemoth Lvl. 5 - Captain Grade]
Species: Divine Steel Demolith
Skills: Omni-Resistance, Soul Resistance, Metallurgy, Soul Habitation, Spatial Immunity, Deconstruction Immunity, Raw Power, Soul Impact, Inverse Impact, Spatial Impact, Warhammer, Javelin, Soul Communication, Overwhelming Strength, Goliath, Magical Construct, Vex
Equipment: Divine Steel Body
*******
“Oh wow… so you have… a few Skills.” Izuku realized he had never actually looked through all of Behemoth’s description page. And judging by the fact that he had Deconstruction Immunity, the upgraded version of the Tenebris Skill, he wouldn’t even struggle against the Particle Storm ability. He even had a high Rank Taunt Skill in the form of Vex.
“I think you’re plenty strong to join ‘em.” Izuku said, releasing Behemoth from his Shadow, placing him over the edge of the Skytree observatory, so that he dropped straight down to the pavement below. He hit the ground so hard that the Skytree itself shook from the miniature earthquake.
It stomped off into the ruined city, roaring with a vengeance and attracting its own flock of Tenebris. It swung all four of its mighty arms, bashing them apart with a single swing. The Tenebris swarmed its body, but Izuku’s Mana refused to decrease. Behemoth was certainly a powerhouse of a tank.
[Tenebris Souls: 532/5,000]
“Well… I guess it’s a little faster now…” Momo remarked with a smile as the two of them watched the carnage unfold before their eyes.
*******
Level: 112
Strength: 261(+5)
Vitality: 232 (+25)
Agility: 313 (+45)
Intelligence: 265 (+5)
Sense: 250 (+25)
Available Points: 0
[Mana: 30,425/30,425]
[HP: 18,271/18,271]
*******
“We might even be back in time for the Jeju Raid!” Izuku shouted back, watching the numbers steadily climb.
*******
Four Days Ago:
“Hello again…” Shoto had just fallen asleep, appearing once more in Yogumunt’s pocket dimension.
“Well that’s a rather demure greeting for a Higher Being.”
“It’s been a rather demure couple of months,” He responded. “Nothing has happened since we made our deal. You told me to kill a few things, like that Rat in the teleporting forest. But other than that, nothing’s going on.”
“Well, to be fair, if that ‘Rat’ had been allowed to live it would’ve eventually grown into a semi-Higher Being itself after being seized by our enemy. I’m not kidding. It would’ve been a massive threat to the Higher Beings trying to save your planet. And consequently it would’ve been a threat to your world. So really, you’ve already saved humanity a few times over.”
“There’s no way I could know that though. You’re telling me all of this, but I have no idea if it’s true.”
“I understand.” Yogumunt’s shape bowed in apology. “You must understand, as a Higher Being it is next to impossible for me to comprend time as a human does. To me, the progress being made has been immense. To you it has been… nothing… So!” Yogumunt rose back to full height. “It is time for you to get your first shot at your father’s head.”
“Oh?”
“There’s a caveat. You wouldn’t exactly be the one killing him, just helping him fall into the clutches of death.”
Shoto nodded. “As long as there’s a chance he ends up dead.”
“There is a very high likelihood he does end up torn in half. You’ve heard of the upcoming Jeju Island Raid right?” Shoto nodded. “Well, I think you should refuse to go, but accompany them anyways… secretly, of course.”
Yogumunt pulled a small ring from the innards of his blobby body. “You’ll wake up with this. It should be powerful enough to hide yourself from any Heroes or Villains that are a part of the Raid. Just wait for the right moment to distract your father, and the Boss Villain will make sure he takes his last breath. Just make sure you kill that Boss, otherwise it too will become a threat to us Higher Beings.”
“How? How are all of these Villains such a threat?”
“Well… it’s not exactly the Villains… rather, it’s who gets their hands on them…”
“And that would be?”
“Your classmate, Izuku Midoriya… the Shadow Monarch.”
*******
“So that’s really the end of it, huh?” A young man with blonde hair stood amongst the history of a 30-year-old office. It wasn’t cluttered or messy, but the walls were crowded with photos of the civilians that had been saved by this particular Hero. Shelves were covered with gifts, trophies, and medals.
“Yes… The injury from the previous loop is… it’s too much… I can’t channel that power anymore. I know it. He knows it. It can’t be fixed.”
The young man grimaced. “In that case,” He took a knee. “I will do my best to live up to your legacy.”
“Young man… Mirio Togata… Thank you for bearing this burden.”
“It is the greatest honor I could have, All Might.”
“The power will not be instant. It would destroy your body, even as an S-Rank. It will be slowly fed to you. Until you can match anything in this world. So you must be careful until that day comes. We already know of one Higher Being on Earth. We must remain vigilant.”
“I understand. Uhm… So… What will you do about Jeju Island?”
All Might rose from his desk, his body so atrophied that you could see his bones. Even beggars on the street had a better physique. “I shall make an announcement… All Might… is no more.”