The meeting was finally over and Ace was ready to go out but The Water Monarch held him back.
"I need to show you something."
They got up and she took Ace to the back.
Behind the door, there were weird markings on the floor and there was a chalice in the middle of those markings.
The Water Monarch walked towards the chalice and slit her hand with a knife.
Her blood dropped inside the chalice and her hand was bleeding till it was full.
Her bleeding stopped when it finished and the chalice tipped over into the weird markings.
The markings became covered with blood and a spiral of stairs opened.
They started to walk down the stairs slowly.
"Do you want to know why I brought you here?"
"Yes."
"This is where you will learn about history."
They made it all the way to the bottom and there were carvings on the wall.
Ancient carvings.
"In the beginning, there were no skills and there was no magic, there was only technology. 110 years ago, that changed. The first dungeon appeared and it was the first and only SSS+ rank dungeon of its kind."
"SSS+ dungeon?"
"When that dungeon appeared, around 20 to 30 of us were blessed with the power of mana and skills. A lot of them are still alive today including me."
"You're telling me you've lived for over 100 years?"
"Almost all of us have. The only ones who haven't been alive that long are those Monarchs who died in the first dungeon and The Shadow Monarch."
"What happened to The Shadow Monarch?"
"Even I can't explain it, only he can, none of us know why he turned into skill books."
"Which Monarchs died?"
"Monarch Of Strength, Monarch of Magma, Monarch Of Sound and The Shadow Monarch."
"Monarch Of Strength? Is he purely physical-based?"
"Yes, he was."
"How come the other two skills are still accessible even after they've died."
"I can't answer that question."
"Ok."
"Anyways now we will fast forward 10 years. We established the League Of Monarchs and people were gradually becoming able to use mana and skills. Everything was well, I had my son with the Light Monarch which is Ezekiel. A few years later, there was a betrayal, many of the Monarchs turned on us, the Monarchs that you see here are the ones that got turned on including me."
"Don't you guys have around the same strength?"
"Our fundamental strength is similar, yes, but some of their skills were simply too powerful for us which is why one person protected us and he was also the one that helped us to survive. It was The Shadow Monarch."
"Shouldn't he have died though?"
"He should've but he didn't. His last words to us were. Wait 100 years, we'll have our revenge thus the plan that we've been putting up for 100 years."
Now Ace understood almost everything that was said to him, but still, there is one thing he doesn't understand. Why do they hate The Shadow Monarch so much?
"Can I ask one more question? Why do they hate The Shadow Monarch so much?"
"They hate him purely because of his strength especially The Light Monarch, that power-hungry man hates him because he was weaker."
They walked back out of that room and they went out outside, outside there were many people training, that includes the Monarchs.
It looked like they were training in martial arts and fusing their skills with it.
"Go to the Monarch Of Death, he's going to teach you his art."
Ace couldn't see The Monarch Of Death anywhere on the training field.
"Yo..."
The sound came from above and when Ace looked up he could see The Monarch Of Death hanging from a wall looking around.
"You are going to be learning from me now. No complaints or else I'll kill you..."
Ace was a little scared of him.
He jumped down and when he landed it was like a shockwave.
"Follow me, I'm going to teach you my art."
Ace followed him and he lifted his fingers, all of a sudden everything stopped.
Everything around them stopped moving except for them.
The Monarch Of Death quickly moved all the people to the side to make space.
"Now that none of them can see or hear anything that's about to happen we can start."
"Ok"
"Make a scythe with your power."
[Black Shadow has been activated]
[Black Shadow has created sub-skill: Shadow Scythe]
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Scythe has been activated]
The scythe was created and he held it up, it was modeled like The Monarch Of Death's scythe, it was massive.
"Now I want you to stand like me and draw the shadows toward you."
He lifted his body down into a squat-like form and held the scythe as if he was practicing martial arts with the spear.
He put one hand out with the scythe behind him and a dark power was flowing towards engulfing him.
The dark power disappeared and now he looked like a black knight.
In that form, he was intimidating to the point of shaky legs and the pressure that he exuded was next level from all the enemies he met so far.
"Copy me now."
Ace had the exact form and he tried to gather the shadows and complete that same form that he did and he got it.
"This was surprisingly easy."
"Don't celebrate yet."
After he said that, Ace collapsed and the shadows disappeared.
"You need to train, that's why time is frozen, if you train in here for 100 years, once you get out it will only be 1 second."
Ace had to train for a long time and time had hit a stop.
"You will have someone else to spar with other than me as well when you have understood my art."
Ace started to train intensely because he didn't want to stay stuck in time for 100 years.
"When you are learning my art, training is 50 years and practical experience is another 50. We are going to be stuck here for a long time unless you have talent."
Ace was practicing desperately because in real-time it had already been a year, he hadn't gotten much better, maybe 1 second.
"Focus. If you don't have a clear mind then this skill will not work."
As much as he tried to calm down he couldn't, he was miserable with everything the same and nothing changing.
"If you have talent then this won't take 100 years. To finish the training, you must be able to hold the form for 10 minutes."
10 minutes wouldn't have seemed like much to normal people but to Ace, it was what would've decided how long it'd take him.
In a year he only improved by a second or a little more.
It doesn't seem like much but that was a year worth of hard work.
*
*
*
It's been 24 years and now he can hold it for exactly 5 minutes, it was just like The Monarch Of Death said, it would probably be 50 years of training.
*
*
*
It's been 50 years and Ace has met the target goal, he can hold it for 10 minutes.
"You can finally do it for 10 minutes. Now we spar."
*
*
*
For 25 years they sparred nonstop and the scythe was now his main weapon choice.
"Sparring with me is over, you will be having a new partner that will teach you all the martial arts known to man."
"Yo! It's been around 75 years, I'm not sure if you remember me."
He had bluish-white hair with pale skin, he looked very young.
"I think so."
"It's me The Monarch Of Time."
"So you froze this place?"
"Mhm, that's right, I've been watching you two for 75 years."
"It's been a long time."
"You're right it has, now let's spar, I haven't fought for 75 years."
The Monarch Of Time was itching for a fight and Ace was feeling a lot more confident.
*
*
*
For another 25 years, they battled, and Ace was now a new man, he knew how to utilize everything around him and he even knew how to use every single weapon.
He even had his own special shadow arts.
This was his 100th year stuck in time and finally, he was finished.
He could escape the frozen time.
"It's time for us to return to the flow."
The Monarch Of Time snapped his fingers and the still raindrops fell down and he could feel everything after 100 years.
"Monarch Of Death, he's just like you the first time."
"Obviously he's going to be like that."
"Well we should head to the gate, she should be back by now."