The makeshift team of best friends find themselves on a cliff atop a mountain. They see a woman and a man approaching them. Both of the approaching figures had weapons drawn with an aura intenser than the architect Phoenix fought earlier. The male is using a bow and arrow, and the woman dual swords. Phoenix began chanting, “Oh, ancestors past, unleash your arcane wrath against my foes. Annihilate them! Remove their existan-” Before Phoenix could finish the incantation, he got critically wounded by his foes. Twice. Suddenly Phoenix felt a massive surge of power coursing through his body, and healed completely, and then destroyed his foes. The surge of power faded after that, leaving Phoenix completely and utterly confused. Seconds later, a system notification appeared, saying that he is ascending to elder monarch-hood. His alias was going to be, “The Mage Monarch, King of Magic.” He then felt the amount of mana he had skyrocket, and somehow, he immediately knew magic formulas for spells unlike anything he has ever seen, and that there was only one other monarch, who was another elder monarch. This elder monarch was Annarax, the necromancy monarch, king of the dead. Also where they were, and the fact that the reason that they were the only monarch left was because they destroyed all of the other monarchs. Phoenix thought to himself, “If I can sense where this Annarax is, then they can probably sense where I am… Not good.” Phoenix then sensed a powerful presence nearby. A ruler, and one that decided to attack Phoenix, not realizing that he was an elder monarch. The ruler was sent flying on mach 18 due to Phoenix… TAPPING HIM?! What?! An architect appeared, causing the system to violently react. “Another architect?! Unless you want to be destroyed, please leave.” Phoenix says with a commanding voice. The architect replies, “I have been sent by the Grand Arbiter to tell you to register yourself as an elder monarch within a week, or else the Grand Arbiter will destroy you, Mage Monarch.” “Uh… What?” responds Phoenix. Looking surprised, the architect replies, “You don’t know? The system needs to be aware of your existence in order for you to have the authority of an elder monarch!” Still confused, Phoenix asks, “Ok… But how do I do that?” “... Just follow me,” the architect replies. Phoenix does exactly that, and gets himself registered to the system on day 6, hour 23, minute 59, second 59. Talk about a close call! After that, he is approached by the grand arbiter, who warns Phoenix to be aware of Blade’s location due to the fact Blade wishes to kill him, and then warns Phoenix to be wary of the living source of magic itself.

  27 years later - Realm of Magic

  “I am glad nothing serious has happened in the past 27 years, but it also makes me worry that something really bad is going to happen soon, Blade,” a worried Phoenix told Blade. “That is understandable, Phoenix, but I haven’t detected any strange happenings,” replied Blade. “Exactly,” Phoenix warned. “There is a new elder monarch, who commands magic, and no response from extraplanar beings?” “So what, Phoenix?” asks Blade. “Don’t you find that strange in the least?” “No things like that have hap-, huh?! What was that?!” Phoenix wasn’t surprised in the slightest. He replied, “Why don’t we go check on the Realm of the Humans?” “Okay,” answered Blade.

  Realm of the Humans

  “...” Phoenix considered what to say, “Not even I was expecting the demons to invade this world.” “... Nor was I,” answered Blade. After considering his options, Phoenix created a few extremely overpowered animated suits of armor and told Blade, “I will be right back.” He then teleported to Julius’s personal realm and asked Julius, “Any prophecy about the demonic legions, Julius?” “Uh, yes. ‘When the realm controlled by those who call themselves humans are invaded by the demonic legions, the child of Annarax shall rise to protect his home. This child’s name shall be Aranuim!’ I received that prophecy a century or 2 ago… Has the prophesied invasion come to be, Phoenix?” “Yes,” replied Phoenix. “Hmmmm… So, the second cosmic war is nigh, then,” murmured Julius. Confused, Phoenix asks, “Cosmic war? What is a cosmic war?” Julius answers, “A war between cosmic level armies, and sometimes, even humans. This is one such case of humans taking part.” Phoenix then returns to the Realm of Humanity and starts to use his magic against the demonic legions as ‘Aranuim’ appears and helps push back an extremely large group of demons into the Abyss using… Unique strategies, to say the least. 13 years ago, in the Realm of Magic, Julius spoke a prophecy into existence, “When demons merge, when a true demon lord approaches humanity to bring about unknowable destruction, thy will be forced to make a decision, assist the humans by reawakening a most ancient force of infinite power, therefore revealing the rulers and monarchs to humanity, or to abandon humanity and preserve the secret forevermore, and his choice will shape humanity’s fate. Choose well, thy prophesied one!” [Present - time of choice] “Oh, great Harmony who has existed for all of time, where is the ancient force that shall save humanity? Please, tell me how to preserve humanity as you have done since time forgotten! Begged Phoenix. “Oren san, qua protectes! Harmonious song of life, reawaken the guardian’s legacy!” Said an ancient voice, as Phoenix felt the demonic presence get closer to the realm of humanity. He then felt at peace, safe, fulfilled. Certain humans inherited fragments of the ancient power, as the cosmic force revealed the monarchs and rulers before humanity, and then Phoenix sensed the cosmic power’s sentient gaze watch him, and then granted him a fragment of the infinite power it wields, and tell him, “Use this power wisely.” The true demon lord then returned to the Abyss. Phoenix then returned to his personal section of the realm of magic and entered a deep, deep slumber and created himself a temporary “human” life for him to live until he is needed once more. As one of the ‘awakened guardians,’ he was treated with a great level of respect. His ability was “limited probability control,” which basically means he can control luck for most things at grand scales. The name he created for his temporary life is “Arcturus.” This ability of his is crazy powerful! It is practically impossible to defeat him due to his ability being capable of increasing his chances of victory drastically. Like I said, extremely OP. If he has absolutely no chance of victory, his ability can’t be used this way. It made the Guardian’s association mark him as an S-rank, though! Even if he has no chance to win a battle, he can still win, by increasing the chances of crazy things happening. So Phoenix fought a demon or 2 every here and there, and enjoying wealth even after ending poverty, waiting for when he is needed once more, and then embodiment of dark fate decided to attack the realm of humanity, so he reawakened his true self, and used his true ability, limitless probability control, which practically allows him to control fate itself, and created a legion of 22,318 nearly indestructible animated suits of armor and one indestructible larger suit of armor to fight off the embodiment’s army while he prepared to destroy one of the three embodiments of fate. During that time, the master of fate related to death, destruction, suffering, and other negative things prepared as well for the fight. Something else happened during that time as well. What happened is that Julius told Blade about a new prophecy he received, “When the dark fate once again attempts to take over the world, thy savior of humanity shall open his eyes once more to face this darkness. Thy grand ruler shall assist him in this fight, along with thy embodiments of fate, law, cosmic balance, and magic! Should thy dark fate succeed, terror shall spread infinitely!” The embodiment of evil fate likes using extremely powerful animated statues made of metal that are the size of an average human adult, which are a lot weaker than the animated suits of armor, but a lot greater in number. After preparing himself, he entered the realm of the fate of law and cosmic balance first, and requested the assistance of the fate, or Xipe, and succeeded. He then approached the fate of magic, Aurora, and did the same. Successfully, too. The fate of darkness, or Siren, quickly became aware of Phoenix’s new allies, and had all the animated statues attack a large, highly populated nation. All 800 trillion of them, just to draw Phoenix out. Siren’s plan failed, for all she got was the larger animated suit of armor, or "Commander,” to obliterate said statues, so she created 900 quadrillion more animated statues in response. This time, Phoenix did appear. On a ridiculously large indestructible suit of armor that is in the form of a huge dragon. Phoenix, while on said dragon, asked, “Why do you wish to bring about such an evil fate? I don’t see the point.” Siren responds, “Are you not aware of what kind of fate I embody? Phoenix, was it? You especially should know why, as you strongly wish for the advancement of magic since you are the elder monarch who commands magic. As the embodiment of the fate I shall bring about, I feel like I have to do this.” “Ah, I see. You won’t bring this fate into reality! As the elder monarch who was chosen by the living Legacy of the Guardian, I shall prevent your success, along with the other 2 fates! I won’t allow you to destroy the legacy that protects all!” Phoenix tells Siren. “Never thought I’d see a monarch other than Annarax protecting humanity,” a person said, sarcastically. “... And you are?” Phoenix inquires. “An equalizer, or a follower of the embodiment of equilibrium. The fates aren’t supposed to be acting like this. Xipe and Aurora, on the other hand, are trying to help you stop Siren, which isn’t just allowed, it is required that they attempt to stop the embodiment of fate,” answers the equalizer. “Ok, then let me destroy this embodiment of dark fate so a better behaved embodiment can form!” exclaims Phoenix. The equalizer replies, “I would, but there isn’t enough probability to be successful with that for the Grand Arbiter to allow this to happen!” “... Right. Is there any probability for success?” replies Phoenix. “Yes, but it is under 0.00001%!” responds the person. Phoenix responds, “Do you want to learn what my ability is? The one I got from the Legacy of the Guardian? Even if you don’t, I am going to tell you. It is called ‘Limitless Probability Control,’ and it allows me to do as its name suggests, which is being able to freely create, destroy, and control chance without limits!” “Tell the Grand Arbiter, not me!” Responds the person. “Hmm.” is all that Phoenix replies with. He then chants, “Infernus Eternia!” An enormous jet of magical flame suddenly appeared! It barely skinned Siren, though. In response, Siren strikes back as fast and as powerfully as she can, and hits Phoenix dead on. Then, Phoenix was on the verge of death, but just as he died, an ultra powerful being simply known as The Titan by those aware of them intervened by granting Phoenix an ability that allows him regress upon each time he dies, which means he retains his memory but goes back in time to the very beginning of this mess. Little did he know, he would slowly regain his abilities, starting with his unlimited mana. “What just happened? The last thing I remember was… My death? I can sense that this is the world of the living.” He then looks around, and realizes that this was the day that an architect used illusion magic to trick him to go to the Hero’s statue. Just like last time, his phone rings. “Should I answer? Why not…?” He answers, and before anything happens, he says, “I know you aren’t really Clara or Josh. I know that you are the Architect that wants to kill me for no reason.” A voice replies, “How would you know that? Why answer me if you already know, hmmm?” “Shut up, architect! Since I am already going to destroy you, I’ll tell you the truth. I experienced this before, and I already fought one of the 3 embodiments of fate and died and regressed. From what I know, all temporal regressions that allow the regressor to retain their memories also allow for the automatic regaining of their abilities, even things such as limitless mana. In fact, I can feel enormous amounts of mana reentering my body as we speak! Perhaps that is true!” Phoenix responded while smiling… an eerie smile, to say the least. The architect answered, “So what? Unless the Titan made you regress themself, your memories must be incomplete, ev-” Phoenix used a ton of pure mana to destroy the architect as they were in the middle of saying something. “For now on, in this timeline, I shall keep my true status hidden as much as possible. Even from Clara and Jo-” Phoenix sensed an extremely powerful presence nearby, which cut off his current thought. Phoenix then realized that the presence was coming from near Clara’s house, approaching Josh’s house. He then muttered something, and teleported to the source of the presence and saw a woman wearing magically enhanced armor looking like medieval armor holding a sword pointed toward Phoenix. He then tried to invoke his cosmic authority which allows for wielders to manipulate the system in some ways, but a system notification saying, “Your Cosmic Authority Has Not Been Restored Yet.” Appeared. Phoenix thought, “Personal Status.” The system showed him his personal status.

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  [Phoenix]

  [Str <100,000>]

  [MP ]

  [Agility <99,000>]

  [End ]

  [Vit <9,000,000>]

  [Titles: Regressor and Transcendant]

  [Class: Unawakened Monarch and Archmage]

  [Path Sealed Until Restoration Is Complete]

  [Restoration Is 1% Complete]

  [Currently Restoring Cosmic Authority: 10%]

  [Skills Have Been Retained From Pre-Regression]

  “I see.” He thinks. He asks the woman, “Can you attack me?” The woman reasonably looks confused, but obliges. [Critical Hit. DMG Is 0.] “What exactly is your endurance at, boy?” she asks. Phoenix responds, “It is maxed out. Also, I am actually a few million years old, thank you very much.” Shocked, the woman replies, “Impressive. So you’re the regressor, then. What is your business with Clara and Josh?” Phoenix answers, “We are best friends. I will spare your life if you leave them be. I think you know what will happen if you don’t.” “Fine,” the woman says. “I’d be careful around Annarax, the monarch of necromancy.” Phoenix then thinks, “Skills menu.”

  [Skills]

  [Regressor: Passive skill. Owner automatically regresses upon death]

  [Ultimate Mage: Passive skill. Owner knows all spells that exist upon activation/reactivation]

  [Limitless Probability Control: Active skill. MP cost is 0. Allows for unrestricted control over chance]

  [Cosmic Authority: Active skill. Allows for limited control over the system]

  [Elder Monarch: Advanced Passive skill. All stats are doubled. This is not shown in the Personal Status Menu.]

  There is a lot more as well. “Okay, then.” Phoenix thought. “Invetory,” he requested. Another image appeared.

  There were a few sections, and Phoenix decided to check accessories first.

  [Accessories]

  [Staff of the Monarch; Power of all Magic is Tripled]

  [Amulet of the Eternals; You Regenerate 100x Faster Than Normal]

  “I am surprised that any of my items stayed in my inventory at all. Anyway, let’s check my inbox.” He thought. He has 1 notification.

  [Warning - When you choose a different action than you did in the previous timeline, there will be differences to what happens in this one. Choose wisely. Here is your reward for regressing: 10,000,000 Astralite] “Astralite?!” Astralite is the most valuable currency in the system. He then received another notification, saying, “[Including you, there are 100,000 regressors in total. As a regressor, you have access to the Regressor Chat, where you can ask other regressors questions or just chat with them]” “Anything else new?” Phoenix thought to himself, with curiosity. As if it heard him, yet another system notification appeared.

  [You have been invited to a private conversation by the Titan, which is an Administrator. Note: you acquired from the Titan. Admins are what humanoids might consider deities. Do you accept the invitation?] Phoenix thoughtfully replied, “I accept.” [Invitation has been accepted.] Almost immediately, Phoenix asked the Titan, “Why did you give me ?” The Titan tried answering, “Because - This data is restricted. Resetting conversation. Reset has failed. I see. To think that you can’t be told this info, even by me.”

  [Path has been restored. Path: Elder Monarch guardian of Humanity. Buff: All stats are doubled while protecting humans.] [Status has been restored.] Phoenix asked, “What do you want from me?” The Titan, successfully this time, answered, “I need you to prevent the destruction of the current fate of all things evil and dark, known as Shade. He is a good hearted fate, despite what he is in charge of. You have around 15 years in total until he would be destroyed, but you need to finish preparing yourself within 14. Can you do that, or should I choose someone else?” Phoenix replied, “I think I could do that if I know who the being that I should be stopping is.” The Titan replied, “The being is the very true demon lord that you forced back into the abyss.” While he wasn’t expecting this, he wasn’t very surprised. The demon shouldn’t have been so weak as to be unable to endure the energy that was released otherwise. He replied, “Very well.” The Titan then requested, “One last thing. I have a feeling that you’ll find it helpful to bring your best friends.” Confused, Phoenix asked, “What do you mean? How could they help me?” Expecting this, the Titan calmly answered, “Have you ever seen their statuses? If not, you should.” Phoenix, who was still confused, checked the status of the semiconscious Clara.