Chapter 261: Zero (3)

Louis and the Mad Dragon continued their relentless clash as they soared westward.

They left the village behind, crossed the mountain range, and pressed further west. As time passed, their battle grew increasingly fierce. The Twins doggedly pursued them, but dared not intervene in the brutal conflict.

How long had they been flying like this?

It wasn’t until they reached the western edge of the Spring Continent, over the vast ocean, that their battle momentarily subsided.

“Louis!”

“Are you alright?”

The Twins swiftly flew to his side.

“I’m fine,” Louis replied with a small nod, his gaze fixed ahead.

This battle had made one thing abundantly clear: the Mad Dragon’s physical prowess rivaled that of even the most formidable High Dragon Rank beings.

Don’t… interfere… with me…

A garbled voice dripped from the Mad Dragon’s madness-stained maw.

“Revenge… I… I only want revenge… for my… child…”

Louis responded with a cold sneer, “Your child never existed in the first place.”

“I…”

“And neither does your existence. It’s all a lie.”

“I’ll kill them all… every last one.”

“Enough already. Just piss off and let me live in peace, for God’s sake.”

The sincerity in Louis’s voice struck a nerve.

“I must kill… I must kill you… You must disappear…”

The Mad Dragon’s hostility intensified, and a dark ripple spread outward from its body.

It was late evening, but the sunset’s afterglow still lingered in the air.

Yet, darkness was gathering around the Mad Dragon.

Louis and the Twins had witnessed such a phenomenon before.

An involuntary curse escaped Louis’s lips.

“What the hell?!”

Initially, the Mad Dragon’s power level had been clearly discernible.

He seemed manageable, perhaps even capable of being defeated alone.

But as time passed, gauging his true strength became increasingly difficult.

Whoosh.

The black energy he had spread in all directions grew denser and denser, eventually surpassing any level Louis could comprehend.

In other words, the Mad Dragon’s power far exceeded Louis’s own.

The Twins turned to him, their faces pale with shock.

“Louis, no way…”

“It’s not what we think it is, right?”

Their eyes pleaded for him to deny it.

Louis reluctantly acknowledged the truth.

“It seems that’s exactly what it is.”

“Holy shit… Zero’s Domain?! And that’s Mister’s power!”

“Hey… do we really have to fight him? Can’t we just talk this out peacefully?”

“Idiot! Didn’t you hear what he said earlier? There’s clearly something between him and Louis, and that bastard threatened to kill him!”

“Still, how are we supposed to fight something like that?! I’ve never even heard of another Zero Rank Dragon besides the Elder Lords!”

Louis, his face grim, snapped at the bickering Twins.

“Stop wasting time arguing and get ready to run!”

If that monster had truly reached Zero’s Domain, they stood no chance as things were.

Louis gritted his teeth.

Well… that’s probably why he was so confident.

Chulsoo88.

He’d said Louis would die today, as if he could kill him whenever he pleased.

Louis couldn’t deny it.

This thing is dangerous.

Damn it!

Louis lunged forward, immediately grabbing the Twins.

There was no point in trying to escape by flying away; the Mad Dragon would catch them instantly. It was better to use space movement to escape.

We’ll figure out how to deal with him later!

You can only come up with a plan if you survive.

Louis snatched up the Twins in a mere three seconds.

But the Mad Dragon moved even faster.

In that same instant, Louis and the Twins vanished into the darkness.

Watching the three dragons disappear completely, the Mad Dragon muttered,

[Die… in the darkness…]

Louis was swallowed by the darkness.

Panic rising, he cried out, “Khan! Kani!”

He desperately called for his friends, but the Twins’ voices didn’t reach him. They had been right beside him moments before, yet now they were gone without a trace.

Louis swiftly attempted to cast Sacred Scripture, but none of his spells activated properly. In fact, he couldn’t even tell if they were being cast at all. After trying various methods to no avail, he bit his lip, realizing everything was futile.

Damn it!

This was truly perfect darkness. He couldn’t see an inch ahead, nor could he sense the passage of time.

His body, buried in darkness, had become imperceptible.

Is this my hand? Or my leg? My wings?

This was the darkness created by the Mad Dragon, wielded by someone who had reached the pinnacle of Zero Rank. It was no ordinary darkness.

Louis still remembered it vividly.

Back on the island during his childhood, when Genelocer had come to rescue him, his father had devoured hordes of Monsters with this same darkness.

When the darkness dissipated, nothing remained in its wake.

At the time, he hadn’t fully understood it, but now, experiencing it firsthand, he thought he could finally grasp why that phenomenon had occurred.

The moment you lose yourself to the encroaching darkness… your very existence vanishes!

To be precise, it was becoming one with the darkness.

An otherworldly power that defied the very laws of the world.

So this is Zero’s Domain…

There was no escape from this darkness.

Or rather, there was one way out.

If either he or his twins could reach Zero’s Domain, they could escape.

But how easy would that be?

If they were already High Dragon Rank, it might be possible. But they were merely dragons who had just undergone the Dragon Ascension Ceremony.

Even for dragons, reaching Zero Rank at such a young age was nearly impossible.

But if I just give up and lose myself… we’ll die.

Not just me, but my twins who have been dragged into this as well.

The existence of all three dragons would be erased from this world.

Louis gritted his teeth.

I didn’t claw my way through life by any means necessary just to crumble at something like this!

Just as he always had, and just as he always would, Louis would survive.

Whether it’s possible or not… I have to challenge Zero’s Domain.

After all, he had already reached the Top Tier.

Among those, he considered himself a Master of the spatial attribute.

He was more than qualified to challenge Zero’s Domain.

He had simply been biding his time, as the path to that realm felt impossibly distant.

But now, time was running out.

“Haa…”

Louis let out a long sigh, slowly closed his eyes, and began to contemplate his inner self.

Louis floated in the darkness, adrift in the primal terror it evoked. The thought that the entrance to the abyss lay before him surged repeatedly, shaking his sense of self, yet he clung to his sanity with desperate tenacity.

How long has it been? he wondered. He had long since lost track of time. It felt like no time had passed at all, yet it could just as easily have been an eternity. His biological perception of time had utterly disintegrated.

Well, considering I can’t even tell where my limbs are attached anymore… how could I possibly keep track of time?

Maintaining his sense of self in this oppressive darkness was no easy task. The darkness relentlessly tormented his mind.

Let go.

Aren’t you tired?

Why are you clinging on so desperately?

Just relax now.

Become one with me.

Even for a dragon armed with formidable mental fortitude, the overwhelming temptation proved almost impossible to resist. Had it been a monster or human with a weaker will, they might have already vanished, consumed by the darkness.

By now, worry had taken root in Louis’s heart.

Are the Twins safe?

The Twins, always seeming somewhat lacking, their minds simple and unrefined.

Could they truly survive this relentless mental torment inflicted by the darkness?

Had they already succumbed, their beings assimilated back into the void?

Louis desperately suppressed the rising tide of anxiety.

I have to believe… If it’s them, they’ll be alright.

Now wasn’t the time to wallow in fear, but to overcome it.

For now, his only hope lay in reaching Zero’s Domain.

And so, Louis resumed his solitary drift through the darkness.

In the darkness, all he could do was maintain his sense of self and think.

What exactly is Zero’s Domain?

He had once asked his father, Genelocer, about it.

“What is Zero’s Domain?”

“How does one reach it?”

Genelocer had replied casually, “Zero’s Domain? It’s something you roughly achieve as you get older.”

“But not all Ancient Dragons reach Zero’s Domain, right?”

“That’s because those old geezers are lazy. Besides, reaching Zero’s Domain means you have to take on an Elder position. Why would lazy old men want to bother with that?”

“Ah…”

High Dragons can reach Zero’s Domain whenever they choose, but the old-timers deliberately delay it. Some even force themselves back from the brink, damaging their hearts and ending up frail and bedridden.
Wow, that’s unbelievably reckless…
That reckless dragon is your grandfather.

…

Then, about 500 years later, he finally reached Zero’s Domain again and became an Elder.

…

Tsk, no wonder the Elders keep whining for a successor to appear. When your grandfather was lying around with a broken heart, I thought he was an idiot. But it turns out he was the wise one. And here I am, having already rushed to Zero’s Domain…
Hmm… So dragons naturally reach Zero’s Domain as they age?
That’s usually the case.
So, besides naturally reaching Zero’s Domain with age, how else can one achieve it?
No! Why would you even ask that?! Louis, you should enter Zero’s Domain as late as possible! Unnatural Attribute Dragons are already so rare that the Ancient Dragons currently holding the Unnatural Attribute Elder positions are going crazy every day, begging for successors to appear!

…

Once you become an Unnatural Attribute Elder, you’ll be stuck working for thousands of years straight, right?
Still, I’m curious. Father wasn’t even a High Dragon Rank, yet he reached Zero’s Domain. I always thought that was incredibly cool.
Ahem, ahem. Oh, really? Well, this father of yours is indeed quite impressive. I’m in a completely different league from those lazy dragons! Absolutely! No doubt about it!
So, is there some kind of secret? How did you reach Zero’s Domain?
Hmm… a secret, you say? It’s not so much a secret as it is a realization.
A realization of what?
That Zero’s Domain isn’t as grand as you might think.
Huh?
You’ll understand someday. Zero’s Domain is simply grasping a key that’s right beside you. But it’s not a key you find yourself; they hand it to you.
That sounds pretty grand itself… Am I just imagining things? And who are “they”?
Just remember that for now. Hearing the complete answer right from the start would only hinder your own exploration of this domain.

It’s often said that Zero’s Domain is the realm of demigods.

But Genelocer said…

He said Zero’s Domain wasn’t as grand as it seemed.

At the time, Louis couldn’t understand his words.

How could he dismiss Zero’s Domain so lightly, a realm that supposedly transformed one into a Demigod-level being?

Father wouldn’t have spoken those words without meaning.

A key?

What kind of key would “they” bestow upon me?

And who exactly were “they”?

In the darkness, Louis’s thoughts churned relentlessly, plunging deeper and deeper into his inner self.

Paradoxically, the very darkness that sought to shatter his ego instead allowed him to focus with unwavering intensity.

He fixated on the words “key” and “they,” pondering their significance.

Thus, Louis continued his ceaseless contemplation.

He didn’t know.

Unbeknownst to him, his body was emitting a faint light in the thick, impenetrable darkness.

He hadn’t noticed that something within him was changing.

He hadn’t realized it yet.