Chapter 260: Zero (2)

The voice was androgynous, impossible to tell if it belonged to a man or a woman.

Louis froze at the sound.

Meanwhile, the Twins snarled at the Black Dragon.

“Hey, who the hell are you?! What gives you the right to barge in here and spit around like that?!”

“This is our territory! Get lost!”

Ignoring their warnings, the Black Dragon continued muttering to itself:

The Twins exchanged bewildered glances.

”…What’s wrong with that thing?”

“I don’t know… Looks like it’s lost its mind.”

“Now that I look closer, its eyes are messed up too.”

As Khan had pointed out, the Black Dragon’s eyes were unfocused, as if it had completely lost its reason.

While the Twins bickered, Louis began to sort through the chaos in his mind.

A dragon had suddenly appeared, its hostility towards him undeniable.

There was no connection between them.

But…

That guy…

The dragon’s earlier words kept echoing in Louis’s mind.

He said his child died.

A dragon driven mad by the loss of its child.

Was it merely a coincidence that this immediately brought a certain being to mind?

No way…

Louis barely suppressed the ominous thought that kept surfacing and demanded, “Who… what are you?” A faint killing intent tinged his voice.

”…”

“You…”

The Black Dragon’s words dripped out slowly, each syllable slow and deliberate.

”…!”

Louis bit his lip hard.

The voice continued to drip out in slow, halting fragments, yet it rang with perfect clarity in his mind.

He knew those lines.

They were the very words spoken by the deranged Genelocer in the original story from his previous life.

And now, this creature was reciting them verbatim.

With each syllable, Louis’s suspicion solidified into certainty.

“Who are you?”

”…Who the hell are you?!”

Louis’s thunderous shout echoed through the cavern.

The Black Dragon remained silent for several seconds.

Then, its bloodshot eyes, previously unfocused, suddenly flickered with light.

Slowly, its gaze sharpened.

And for the first time, a clear, coherent voice—not the halting, broken speech from before—flowed from the creature’s throat.

The voice, previously androgynous and impossible to discern as male or female, had now unmistakably deepened into a masculine tone.

A flicker of intrigue crossed Louis’s eyes.

”…”

Rage clouded the Mad Dragon’s eyes as he regained control of his sanity.

Facing him, Louis suppressed his burning curiosity and asked, ”…What are you talking about?”

“No way… are you the Coercive Force?”

The Mad Dragon sneered at Louis.

”…”

”…”

Hearing this, the twins exchanged glances.

“Kani, he says he’s God.”

“I’m not deaf.”

As the twins blinked, the creature continued its tirade.

”…”

Louis listened patiently to the entity’s furious, almost childish rant, a flicker of amusement crossing his eyes. He deftly concealed it and spoke.

“So, you think I should have just died?”

”…And you’re the one who’s been trying to kill me all this time?”

The entity’s voice dripped with such self-assured certainty that the corner of Louis’s mouth curled upward slightly.

“Natural order? What a load of bullshit.”

“Who the hell do you think you are, spouting nonsense about death being my fate?”

Louis abruptly cut off the entity’s tirade.

“Creator? What a joke! Your art is absolute garbage. I could do better in MS Paint. How can you call this the world you created?”

The man, who had reflexively shouted at Louis, suddenly froze mid-sentence. At the same time, his pupils began to tremble as if an earthquake were ravaging them.

[ “H-how…?” ] Confusion filled his eyes.

Louis smirked slyly and said, “So it’s you, Chulsoo88.”

Chulsoo88. That was the nickname of the blog owner who had originally serialized the story. Seeing the man’s obvious panic, Louis was certain his hunch had been right.

This question had been nagging at him for a while.

The Coercive Force that had relentlessly tried to kill me at every turn.

Was it simply the flow of Fate? I couldn’t help but wonder.

Or could someone be intervening, manipulating events behind the scenes?

The moment I entertained this thought, the original author was the first person who came to mind.

But the Coercive Force had been targeting me for at least several centuries.

If the author were an ordinary human, there was no way they could have lived for so long.

That’s why I had naturally dismissed the idea that the author was behind it.

Until today.

One thing the Black Dragon had said earlier struck me:

“The story.”

He uttered the word “story” with such casual ease, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

This reignited my suspicion that the Coercive Force might be the Author’s intervention.

I casually probed him to confirm this.

He fell for it right away?

It seemed the Author wasn’t as clever as I’d assumed.

He also wore his emotions on his sleeve.

“Hmm? What could I be?” Louis retorted mockingly, making the creature grit its teeth.

With those final words, the Black Dragon—no, the newly christened Mad Dragon—lost all semblance of reason in his eyes.

And his true voice, not Chulsoo88’s, erupted from his throat.

With a mad roar, long tendrils of black darkness erupted from the Mad Dragon’s body.

Hundreds of strands of living darkness shot toward Louis and the Twins like writhing tentacles.

Though resembling tentacles, the blade-sharp darkness stretched infinitely, relentlessly targeting the trio’s weak points:

Their faces and eyes.

Their wings and hearts.

A single strike would inflict a fatal wound.

Louis recognized the attack all too well. It was Genelocer’s signature move, his trademark technique.

The implication was clear:

The fundamental setting for the newly reborn Mad Dragon was that it was Genelocer himself, transformed into a Mad Dragon.

Louis had witnessed Genelocer’s techniques countless times. He knew exactly how to counter them.

Behind Louis, a dozen magic circles materialized, simultaneously casting Sacred Scriptures. At the same moment, his spatial holy magic expanded outward.

Then—

The dark tentacles hurtling toward Louis and the Twins abruptly veered off course. They began colliding and entangling with each other.

Louis effortlessly deflected the Mad Dragon’s attack. The Twins seized the opportunity he had created.

Two colossal silver dragons vanished in an instant, engulfed in thunderous lightning.

They appeared right beside the Mad Dragon.

With a violent crack of displaced air, the Twins’ tails lashed out.

Each tail, crackling with thunderous lightning, targeted the Mad Dragon’s upper and lower body simultaneously from opposite directions. For any ordinary creature, such a strike from the Twins’ lightning-charged tails would have been catastrophic.

But the Mad Dragon’s response was simple and brutal.

The beast spun in place, its own tail slamming into both of the Twins’ tails with shattering force.

Despite being outnumbered two to one, the Mad Dragon’s tail completely overpowered the Twins’ attack.

Worse, the Twins themselves were sent flying backward from the impact.

“Ack!”

“Gah!”

Staggered by the blow, the Twins nearly lost their balance mid-air before barely managing to regain their footing.

Louis’s face hardened as he watched.

The Twins, who usually reveled in close combat, had been utterly outmatched in a single exchange.

In other words, Louis’s physical abilities far surpassed those of even a Holy Dragon.

Grrr…

A primal, beast-like growl escaped Louis’s throat.

At the same time, a dark, translucent space began to envelop his body.

This was Louis’s custom-made Sacred Scripture, specifically designed for Manifestation. It amplified his physical capabilities and granted him various enhancement effects. He was confident that activating this Scripture would bring his physical abilities close to those of an Ancient Dragon.

After a few seconds, a pure white dragon clad in jet-black armor materialized.

The moment the Sacred Scripture was complete, Louis charged toward the Mad Dragon.

With a thunderous roar, a stream of Breath erupted from Louis’s mouth as he soared forward, hurtling toward the Mad Dragon.

The Mad Dragon countered with its own Breath attack.

Their breaths collided in mid-air, creating a brief explosion.

But this was merely a light greeting.

Whoosh.

With a single, effortless flap of his wings, Louis shattered the sound barrier.

Boom!

He slammed head-on into the Mad Dragon.

The force of the impact entangled them, sending both creatures hurtling through the air at breakneck speed.

Even as they soared, Louis and the Mad Dragon continued to target and attack each other relentlessly.

“Clara!”

Crack!

Despite being nearly ten meters smaller than the Mad Dragon, Louis held his ground without wavering.

His smaller frame granted him greater agility, and his body, fortified by Sacred Scripture, relentlessly pressured the massive dragon.

Bang! Bang!

Dozens of strikes and parries flashed between them.

Clashes of flesh and bone.

Manifestations of various Sacred Scriptures.

And occasionally, blasts of breath.

With such perilous attacks exchanged at point-blank range, thunderous explosions echoed ceaselessly.

Watching the spectacle, the Twins stared blankly at each other.

”…What should we do?”

“What else can we do but watch? Honestly, we can’t even interfere. Besides, Louis seems to be handling things well.”

As the Twins exchanged these words, they continued to follow Louis and the Mad Dragon.

Meanwhile, the villagers watched with relief as the four dragons disappeared over the mountain range.

“W-we survived…”

“Haaah…”

When the Black Dragon had first appeared, they had all believed their lives were forfeit. But then, two dragons—one pure white and the other silver—had emerged in succession, saving them. The villagers were stunned and deeply moved by this miraculous turn of events.

Yet one person remained uneasy. Tania, the red-haired woman, was gripped by anxiety. She gazed at the sky where Louis had vanished, clasping her hands together.

“Please… please return safely, Teacher.”