Ashborn in ashes' dynamic to me gives off the vibes of a stray cat. Y'know, he just shows up around Antares whenever he feels like, being all "I'm in the mood for you to love me", letting Antares take care of him and "hissing" at everyone stepping too close in. He hangs out with him for awhile, only to dissappear just as suddenly and return a good time later. And the same goes on and on and on, and Antares... has nothing but to accept it all the way it's given

.its— he is the most cutest stray cat or so Antares thinks 🥺.

Incoming crazy rant below

But yeah he does give off that vibe of always trying to be alone and only showing up whenwver he feels like it, but I do pose it as a little more complex than that. Cuz when he was a ruler I do think he was often used to being so charismatic, beloved by everyone, he was the leader type, the ideal type for a warrior and a king, it's probably why never cared as much about AB's true intentions because to him AB had given him the best life (kinda like, why loose faith in your God when you already have the best and are the best?), and I mean he had to at least a little sociable if he had the strongest army out there (or was he just strong enough himself? Either way we do see even from bellion that he managed to gather himself a group of people who had at most some loyalty towards him).

But then AB dies, your family (?) Betrays and kills you, the only people you can rely are your worst enemies and even they come to betray you at some point. It's crazy, the only people you can trust are all shadows of their former selves that you decided to keep, like a corpse you can talk to but in the end it's not the real thing, and then the one person you love(going by the ashes shipping) could also try to betray you at any point if he wanted to so for Ashborn solitude really was the only thing he could ever have, what everyone backed him towards, from a high king to now someone that is seen as a prey in everyone's eyes.

With so much potential betrayal he would often try to keep his distance because it would keep hurting him in the end—in the LN we know he cares a lot about loyalty which is why even though he went against the architect to protect someone he cared about, he still felt ashamed about it. — so with Antares he would only try to be around him so as to make the others think he was still on the monarchs side, and the moment his emotions are to get the better of him he just flees, too afraid to think what could happen if he becomes loyal to a point of no return.

As for Antares, I think he does see that, and I have yet to grasp what a dragon like him would think. In canon he does only want destruction, as well as a mighty rival, and quite sadly Ashborn is a perfect fit for that. So even if he is still saddened by all the lonelyness he knows that it would be the best for them. And at the same time no matter whenever or not Ashborn is very affectionate with him or so little, he still ends up on the loosing side, either by having his wishing of destroying everything be fulfilled at the cost of his love or by having the love of his life with him forever at the cost of his own wishes to destroy everything..

(But damn, I would get it, he is just chaos incarnate and that's how AB constructed him yet we see he leads an army, he leads his own loyal people and the dragons, at least in slr, have their own culture, their own lives as well as the need to protect themselves and children. So even in both places it doesn't make sense why he wants to kill and destroy everything yet still let's the other monsters and even his own dragons live. Will he plan to kill them afterwards? And what will he gain? Yeah I know he is just pure evil and that jazz but I'm still curious about it, literally cuz the author did not care much about that villain background honestly. Still he is called a monarch instead of being a single entity of chaos, he's got something to lead right? So why does he do it? Just pure destruction again, kinda answering my own question here since it's as simple as that. God I love SLR again cuz at least we can get to learn more of him heck yeah. And if we go by that, (spoilers? Kinda? It's not much) them we do see he just wants to be strong, wants a strong rival and likely the only reason why he became a monarch was purely because he was always too greedy for power. Does it mean that his plan was or wasn't to become a king? Idk but he didn't care a single bit about it afterwards. Who or what became king and to him he didn't care even about his race at all or trying to keep the lineage alive, he is by far the most selfish one out there.

And that's cool fr cuz if putting the shipping lens in, it would mean that he would try so hard into getting all what he wants and yet no matter how hard he tries he has to loose something in the end.