Milk_Is_My_Drug
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Chapter 105: Ashborn's Story
🕑 Added 2025-07-22 08:00:12 +0000 UTCThe sun hung low in the sky, casting long golden rays over the quiet park. Ace and Courtney stood beneath an old oak when Ace broke the silence.
âSo⊠why the park?â she asked, glancing around. âItâs kinda random.â
Courtney rubbed her arm nervously. âI wanted to check on you. After everything. But visiting your house?â She shook her head. âNot ideal.â
Ace gave her a knowing smirk. âYouâre afraid of Dad, arenât you?â
Courtney laughed, though there was little humor in it. She nodded. âAfter what we saw? Iâd be insane not to be.â
Ace looked away, sighing. âHe wouldnât hurt you, you know.â
âI believe you when you say that,â Courtney replied, stepping closer. âBut after seeing what he did, how strong he really is⊠what he is⊠Iâll never forget that.â
âYou talk like heâs not human.â
âBecause Iâm not sure anymore, Ace,â Courtney said. âWhat we saw wasnât human. It wasnât alien either. He controlled the dead.â
Ace lowered herself onto a nearby bench.
âSit,â she said quietly. Courtney joined her.
Ace stared at the ground for a long moment before speaking again. âI told you before⊠about what happened years ago, when he saved me. I saw through his memories back then. Do you remember?â
Courtney nodded silently.
âI didnât see everything,â Ace continued. âBut I saw enough to understand.â
(A/N: To avoid confusion - Ace will be hiding the existence of the system from her story and she will be filling parts based on her understanding, she doesnât know Ashborn is not from DC originally and he knew the story of DC. Also a reminder the story of Ashborn doesnât follow the original solo leveling 100%. This is a mix of truth and gaslighting.)
She looked ahead, voice steady, but almost distant. âWhen he was younger, much younger, he was taken. Dragged by some powerful being to a different world. Against his will. The creator of that world forged beings of light, godlike and absolute, called the Rulers. They were meant to preserve the world. To guide it. To balance it.â
Ace looked over at her, her voice barely more than a whisper. âDad was the first of them, the Ruler of Death.â
Courtney sat still listening.
âBut the creator didnât stop there,â Ace went on. âIt also created another side. Beings just as powerful, but full of rage, destruction, ambition, the Monarchs. Opposite forces. Like night and day. Creation and destruction.â
She paused. âThe creator wanted balance. Not peace. As mortals rose, as the world changed, that balance had to be tested. Refined. The Rulers and the Monarchs fought each other in an eternal war⊠for an eternity. But neither side ever won. That was the point.â
Courtney spoke at last, her voice hesitant. âBut⊠how did your dad become a Monarch if he was created to be a Ruler?â
Ace closed her eyes for a moment. âBecause the Rulers⊠betrayed everything they stood for. They grew tired of the war. Tired of their purpose. So they turned on their own creator. Killed it. Took its remaining power for themselves.â
Courtney gasped softly.
Aceâs eyes narrowed. âDad didnât approve of their actions. He tried to stop them but failedâ
She turned her gaze back toward the horizon, where the last bit of sun was dipping below the skyline. âAfter the Rulers stole the creatorâs power, they became stronger than the Monarchs. The war shifted. The balance tilted. So Dad⊠he turned against the Rulers. Joined the Monarchs and became the Shadow Monarch. He gave them a fighting chance.â
Courtney whispered, âAnd that worked?â
Ace nodded. âYeah. Dad was the Greatest Fragment of Brilliant Light and the strongest of the rulers, with his help the Monarchs started winningâŠ. they began to dominate. The scales tipped again. So he left them, too. Created a third faction, his own. He fought both sides after that. Because he had to protect the balance. That was his binding, his quest.â
Aceâs voice was low but firm. âDad hated the war. Hated the endless fighting. After he turned against both factions, he tried something else, he preached peace. He asked them to stop. To see what theyâd become. But none of them cared. Not the Rulers. Not the Monarchs. Each side wanted only one thing, to destroy the other. And they wouldnât stop until that happened.â
Courtney listened, unmoving, as Aceâs gaze dropped.
âHe kept trying anyway,â Ace went on. âKept fighting only to prevent the scales from tipping too far to either side. But that only made them hate him more. Both sides. To them, he was a traitor. A problem. An obstacle standing in the way of absolute victory.â
She took a slow breath.
âAs both factions lost more and more warriors⊠Dadâs army grew. Shadows. The dead. Their power lived on through him. That only deepened their hatred. So they did the one thing no one expected⊠they joined hands. Monarchs and Rulers. United. Not to end the war, but to destroy Dad first, then go back to slaughtering each other.â
Courtneyâs breath caught.
âHe tried to stop them,â Ace said. âTried to reach them with words one last time. Begged them to see reason. But they were blinded. Drunk on destruction. He had no choice.â
She looked away, voice thick with restrained emotion. âHe killed them. All of them. Every Monarch. Every Ruler. They refused to back down to the very end.â
Courtney whispered, âThen⊠he came back to Earth? To live here?â
Ace shook her head slowly. âNo. Not then. Right after that, another force came. The Itarim. Beings like the one who created the Rulers and Monarchs. Ancient, hungry, and more powerful than either side had ever faced. They wanted to devour the world that no longer had a master.â
She paused.
âDad was the only thing left. The last force that could stand against them. So he did. Another war began, more brutal than the first. No sides this time. Just survival.â
Courtney opened her mouth, then closed it again, overwhelmed.
Ace nodded, reading her. âHe needed help. Even he couldnât stand alone against them forever. So⊠he brought the Rulers and Monarchs back.â
Courtneyâs eyes widened.
âHe couldnât turn them into shadows against their will,â Ace continued. âSo he made a pact. In exchange for their help, he wouldnât erase them again. Theyâd live in his shadow for all eternity with some degree of freedom, bound to him, but not erased. They agreed. And the war⊠it escalated into something unimaginable.â
Her voice lowered. âThe Itarim fell one by one over the centuries. But the final battle⊠it ended everything. The last breath. The last life in that world was snuffed out. He won the war⊠but there was nothing left. The balance was restored, not by peace, but by emptiness.â
For a moment, only the wind spoke.
Ace finally looked at Courtney. âThatâs when he came here. To our world. I think⊠he returned to the moment he was taken away all those years ago. Same body. Still young. But with everything, his power, his army, his memories.â
Courtney stared at her, stunned.
Aceâs voice softened. âHe wonât hurt without a reason. I know what you saw was terrifying, but you have to understand. He tried to have peace with beings who wanted to kill him for eternity. He did everything he could to end the bloodshed.â
She stood, looking down at Courtney.
âThatâs why I said weâre similar but his life was so much worse. My choices were taken, my childhood was stolen with endless tests and experiments. He was the same but instead was thrown into endless war⊠defending a place he didnât belong to.â
The last light of day faded, casting the park into twilight.
___________
Courtney hadn't known what to expect when she asked Ace to meet her in the park. A simple check, maybe some closure after everything theyâd seen. But the story she got, the truth about Ashborn, was far from simple. It shattered every assumption she had. The terrifying shadow that towered over the battlefield, deathless and cold, now stood in her mind as something entirely different.
He had been a child once. Taken. Forced into war. Betrayed, hated, used. The story didnât make him any less powerful, any less frightening⊠but it made him human. Somehow, that made it worse.
She didnât keep the story to herself.
Within days, she had shared it with the other heroes. Quietly at first, only those close to her. But word spread. Soon, every member of the Justice League knew. Even those who hadnât interacted with Ashborn in person now spoke of him, no longer with simple fear, but with conflicted awe.
When Superman heard the story, he sat silently for a long time. The memory of his last conversation with Ashborn surfaced, brief, cold, and cryptic. But now? Now it all made sense. Every word, every action, every distant look in the man's eyes.
"This⊠explains everything," Clark said at last, voice low, almost reverent.
Not everyone shared that sentiment.
When Batman learned the full scope of what had been revealed, his reaction was colder. He didnât pity Ashborn. He didnât feel grateful. No, Bruce Wayne only grew more frustrated.
The pieces fit too well. He believed more than ever the three incidents with Ashborn and Joker was Ashbornâs handiwork. But he kept it to himself.
It wasnât the time. Confrontation would bring nothing. And even if it did⊠what could he do? Ashborn wasnât just strong, he was beyond them all. A being who had defeated gods and monsters and stood alone when an entire universe was destroyed.
So Bruce said nothing. He filed the truth away in his mind and let the world keep its peace.
Far from the Leagueâs talks, within the Black Villa, Ashborn stood before his daughter.
âI keep hearing about my story,â he said flatly. âEvery time I check with my shadows, another version, another whisper. Why?â
Ace shrugged âBecause everyoneâs afraid of you.â
Ashborn said nothing.
âSo I figured⊠maybe itâd help if they knew youâre not the great monster they think you are. I did omit a few details and the endingâ She shrugged. âYouâre still terrifying, and they would avoid angering you but at least now they know who you are.â
A flicker of something passed through his eyes, perhaps amusement, perhaps exasperation. He shook his head and turned away.
