Chapter 310: First Strike (3)

A colossal, rainbow-hued pillar of light plummeted from the sky.

The 141 Dragon Breaths, having undergone extreme condensation and fusion, shone with a brilliance surpassing that of any gemstone.

Yet the power contained within was terrifyingly destructive.

Kwazzzt-

The atmosphere shrieked as light and space rippled violently.

The torn space sucked in air with such force that even the dragons staggered, unable to maintain their balance.

But that was merely the beginning.

Paaaaang!

A shockwave of Heavenly Punishment surged across the frozen Maha Sea.

Crraaaack-

The black sea ice shattered instantly.

Like dominoes toppling, the ice splintered and flipped over in a cascading collapse.

This was merely a consequence of the shockwave.

The true devastation was yet to come.

And now, Louis’s task began.

Tsu— Groooooan—

Just before the pillar of light struck the Black Ice barrier,

Now!

Louis’s eyes flashed.

At the same moment, his perception of time began to slow exponentially.

The Maha’s ice capsized.

Heavenly Punishment plunged into the top of the Black Ice wall.

Even the dragons staggered under the spatial maelstrom.

1/100th of a second

1/1,000th of a second

1/10,000th of a second

Finally, 1/100,000th of a second.

Heavenly Punishment was mere moments from touching the Black Ice wall.

Time seemed to grind to a halt, as if everything had stopped.

Yet Louis’s mind raced on, the only thing moving swiftly.

I have only one task.

His gaze locked onto the Black Ice wall.

Analyze it.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been impossible.

But the Black Ice wall was already severely weakened.

This was why Louis was attempting a method he had previously deemed too dangerous to try.

Let’s do it.

The moment Louis’s consciousness touched the Black Ice, it plunged deep, deep into its depths.

“As the saying goes, ‘Know your enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.’”

To shatter the Black Crystal, he needed to at least understand its composition.

That was why Louis projected his consciousness into the dark crystal.

One wrong move, and his mind could be trapped by this unknown substance, unable to escape.

Yet Louis held firm to his conviction.

“Even if my consciousness is corrupted… the shock from Heavenly Punishment should be enough to pull me free.”

Heavenly Punishment served as his safety net.

Coupled with his unwavering faith in himself, he dared to attempt this.

Louis’s consciousness sank deeper and deeper.

Finally, he reached the core of the Black Ice Crystal.

There, he began analyzing its properties.

As I thought… this isn’t just a simple freezing phenomenon.

Though it appeared to be ice at first glance, that was merely an external characteristic.

Deep within the Abyss, Louis continued to break down the Black Crystal into its most fundamental components.

How much time passed?

After long and arduous research, he finally reached a conclusion.

At the same time, his eyes widened in shock.

This is… a Law?

A Law was a fundamental principle that maintained the very fabric of the world.

The Black Crystal was precisely a solidified mass of tangled Laws—forced into this state.

Ha… they actually committed such madness?

No wonder it remained utterly unscathed no matter how much it was hammered.

How could something residing in the transcendent realm be shattered by mere physical blows?

Moreover, this was a higher-dimensional attribute, one that even the Zero Rank Elders couldn’t comprehend.

Louis shook his head.

At this rate, even the Heavenly Punishment won’t be able to break through.

The transcendent power formed by the convergence of 141 Breaths.

An immense force capable of obliterating an entire continent in the blink of an eye, but tragically, it wouldn’t be enough to shatter Kaiders’ barrier.

The two forces operate in different domains.

The Heavenly Punishment, though formidable, remained firmly within the realm of physical force.

To break this barrier, something beyond mere physical power was needed.

…Can I really do this?

Objectively speaking, it was impossible for him to break through this barrier with his current abilities.

Unless he could reach the Zero’s Domain with all three attributes, it was impossible.

But…

For a fleeting moment, just a split second, I might be able to pull this barrier into the realm of physical force.

Even then, only a portion of the barrier, not the entire structure.

That’s enough.

His calculations were complete.

Now all that remained was execution.

Louis unleashed his Interference Power and Manipulation Force, making contact with the barrier created by Kaiders.

Don’t rush.

He meticulously began to dissolve and unravel the tangled, solidified Laws, working layer by layer.

Within the span of one hundred-thousandth of a second, an eternity seemed to pass.

The Laws, forcibly intertwined and solidified, were impossibly rigid and tenacious.

How on earth did they… manage to create something like this?

The question gnawed at Louis’s mind as he painstakingly unraveled the entangled laws of the barrier.

Then, in an instant, Louis realized:

This… this is the answer!

The Three-Attribute Zero domain he sought to reach.

This was the result born from that realm.

If there was an answer, all he needed to do was reverse-engineer it, uncovering the process to reach the solution.

Louis delved deeper and deeper, immersing himself completely.

He lost track of time, forgetting even himself.

For what felt like both an instant and an eternity, Louis relentlessly searched for the process to derive the answer, pursuing truth through the labyrinthine laws.

And then…

…I’ve found it.

Louis had finally discovered the path.

Ha ha.

He laughed, a hollow sound escaping his lips.

The answer he’d finally found was absurdly simple, almost laughably so.

What was I even agonizing over?

He’d overcomplicated things, twisting them into knots in his mind.

Three-Attribute Zero… is just simultaneously exerting Manipulation Force and Interference Power?

Of course, achieving such mastery was anything but trivial.

To use a driving analogy, Two-Attribute Zero was like a passenger fiddling with the steering wheel from the passenger seat, while Three-Attribute Zero was like the driver firmly gripping the wheel from the driver’s seat.

The difference between the two domains was immeasurable.

The moment he grasped the key to Three-Attribute Zero, Louis felt a surge of gratitude toward the one who had left behind this trace.

Kaiders, I’ve learned well from you.

With that brief farewell, the entangled Laws began to unravel at an unprecedented speed—a speed far beyond anything he’d experienced before.

The fleeting moment resumed its flow.

Louis had created a weakness in the Law’s Barrier.

Tsuzzz…

Time, which had been flowing sluggishly, returned to its normal pace.

At the same moment, the Light of Divine Punishment pierced precisely through the weakness Louis had created.

Tsu-chunk

At the top of the barrier, the Light of Divine Punishment cleanly bypassed the barrier and vertically pierced the Black Tower within.

Tsu tsu tsu…

The Light of Divine Punishment relentlessly surged into the Black Tower.

The sight resembled a rainbow-colored sword being sheathed into a black scabbard.

Tsu-geu-geu-geu…

How long had passed?

The Light of Divine Punishment, which had been plunging down as if to pierce the world, gradually faded.

Tsuuuu…

Finally, only a faint strand of light remained before the Heavenly Punishment vanished completely.

A brief silence followed.

The surroundings were eerily still, as if the colossal pillar of light that had been plunging down just moments before had been a mere illusion.

Then, in that instant…

Crack—

A hairline fracture appeared at the summit of the Black Tower.

And that was the beginning.

Tsu tsu tsu-

A crack spiderwebbed down from the top of the Black Tower.

Light burst from the widening fissure.

Kwa-Ga-Ga-Ga!

The Black Tower, steadfast for ages, A spatial attribute Purification built over generations by dragons, shattered magnificently.

Bang!

As the Black Tower crumbled, the Law’s Barrier, losing its focal point, vanished. The destruction born at the heart of the Maha rapidly spread across the entire region, shattering even the frozen Black Ice.

Kwa-Ga-Ga-Ga!

The explosions echoed relentlessly for a time.

Louis and the dragons silently watched the scene of devastation they had wrought.

How much time had passed?

With both the barrier and the Black Tower gone, the Maha now revealed a massive Hole at its center, where the tower had stood.

It was an abyss of utter blackness, its darkness so profound that its depth defied comprehension.

Seeing this, the dragons swiftly gathered around the area.

Odilia commanded, and all the dragons immediately assumed combat stances.

The plan to breach the barrier had succeeded, but it was merely a preliminary skirmish. The true battle with Kaiders was only just beginning.

A thick tension and murderous aura spread across the area surrounding the Mahyeol.

One minute, five minutes, ten minutes.

As time slowly ticked by, the dragons grew increasingly puzzled.

Louis shared their confusion.

Kaiders, whom he had expected to find somewhere within the Maha, remained nowhere to be seen. Even when Louis heightened his sensory awareness, he detected no trace of the dragon’s aura.

Even the dragons seemed confused.

“Hold your positions!” Odilia commanded, relaying the Elders’ orders.

Time continued to drag on endlessly, but Kaiders still hadn’t appeared.

Realizing they couldn’t wait any longer, the Elders ordered a thorough search of the surrounding area.

Yet no trace of him could be found anywhere.

Louis saw two possibilities:

First, that he had been struck by the Heavenly Punishment earlier.

But the chances of that were slim.

Then…

Louis’s gaze drifted to the deep black Mahyeol.

He must have hidden himself in a place we can’t find.

Louis’s eyes darkened as he stared into the black hole.

Meanwhile, on Maha, Louis and the dragons…

“Ugh!”

Wang Cheolsoo gagged, staring at the golden coin in his hand.

Despite holding the universally coveted gold, his face contorted as if he were clutching a piece of filthy refuse.

And he couldn’t help it.

For over a month, aside from eating, sleeping, and relieving himself, all he had done was fidget with this gold.

I never thought… I’d come to see gold as worthless as a stone…

At first, it had been wonderful.

After the first day, Louis and the Red-Haired Demons stopped tormenting him. He had unlimited access to gold, something he’d never even touched in his life, and could spend freely on gacha pulls without worrying about money.

But…

Even that gets old after a day or two!

No matter how enjoyable a hobby might be, it loses its appeal when it becomes work.

Spending the entire day pulling slots, with only the bare minimum time for basic necessities like eating, sleeping, and personal hygiene, couldn’t possibly be enjoyable.

Moreover, it wasn’t even benefiting him.

Confined and forced to continue this life of endless pulls.

Now, even the distinctive metallic scent of gold made him nauseous.

When… when will I be able to go home?

Wang Cheolsoo lamented.

The life on Earth he had once dismissed as insignificant, the life he had considered a failure, now seemed like a blessing—the most comfortable existence he could imagine.

As the saying goes, leaving home brings hardship, and he had only just realized this truth.

But when he could return home remained a mystery.

I need to pull whatever that monster wants…

Whatever that monster Louise wanted, it couldn’t be anything ordinary.

Moreover, this was directly tied to his own survival.

Listen carefully, human. Your survival in this world depends on whether you pull what I want from this slot. So, unless you want to die, pray with all your heart and pull each time.

Wang Cheolsoo shuddered, recalling Louise’s chilling threat.

Ah, no! I can’t die like this!

He couldn’t meet his end here, not on Earth, not in this strange world.

Just as Wang Cheolsoo was despairing over his bleak future,

Tap- tap-

Fin, perched on his shoulder, tugged his ear.

“Human! What are you doing? Get back to work!”

“Ugh, what are you babbling about, you pea-sized runt?!”

“Work, you ugly human!”

“A-ow! That hurts!”

Though he couldn’t understand Fin’s words, after spending the past few days together, Wang Cheolsoo knew perfectly well that when the creature tugged on his ear, it meant he was supposed to work.

Seriously, how can something barely the size of a palm be such a pain in the ass?! I could just…!

A surge of anger flared through Wang Cheolsoo, his eyes widening in fury.

But the anger quickly subsided.

He knew that even though his opponent was a creature no bigger than his palm, it wasn’t one he could carelessly challenge.

He’d learned that lesson the hard way just days ago when he’d tried to escape and had his body pay the price.

“Ugh, my miserable life…”

Wang Cheolsoo, his face a mask of despair, shuffled back toward the random lottery box.

If he lingered any longer, the tiny watchdog Louis had planted to monitor him might just rip his ear off.

Today, as usual, Wang Cheolsoo inserted gold into the random lottery box.

Clink-

As the gold coins clattered into the mechanism, Wang Cheolsoo prayed fervently.

Just come out already!

Isn’t it time?!

I want to escape this life too!

He pulled the slot, pouring all his fervent wishes into the action.

Rattle-rattle-rattle.

The same monotonous sound he’d grown sick of hearing over the past month echoed through the room.

Ping-

The box’s entrance clicked open.

Up to this point, the process was exactly the same as the countless times he’d repeated it before.

Normally, a faint-glowing Soul would have sprung out the moment the box opened.

But this time was different.

“Huh?”

Tsu tsu tsu-.

A blinding golden light erupted from the slightly ajar box.

“E-E-Ehhh?!”

Wang Cheolsoo’s face, now bathed in golden light, registered sheer terror.