Zero to Overlord: The Forsaken God's Ascension

Crimson Rain

The rain wasn't just falling; it was screaming against the pavement.

"Don't move," Valeriana whispered, her hand hovering over the hilt of the Sovereign Fang. "They’re high up. Roof rafters and chimney stacks."

"I know," I said. My Void vision was screaming. Six jagged, crimson pulses of light were circling us like sharks in deep water. "One... two... three..."

SHING!

Six black-clad figures dropped from the sky. They landed in a perfect circle, their twin daggers coated in a thick, green paralysis poison. They didn't breathe. They didn't speak. These weren't town guards. These were the Emperor's "Crimson Rain" unit—assassins trained to kill Gods.

"The Emperor sends his regards, Lucius," the leader said, pulling back his hood.

My heart stopped. The world around me seemed to tilt.

The man under the hood had a scar over his left eye—a scar he got protecting me from a training dummy when we were ten years old.

"Kael?" my voice was a low rasp. "You... you’re an assassin now?"

Kael didn't flinch. His eyes were cold, professional. "The Thorne family pays for results, Lucius. You were a Prince. Now, you’re just a bounty with a very high price tag. Julian wants your head on a spike by dawn. Don't make this difficult."

"Difficult?" I let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "Kael, we shared bread. We swore to lead the Empire together. You’re going to kill me for a few gold coins?"

"It’s not just the coins," Kael hissed, his daggers glowing with a sickly red mana. "Julian has the Core. He has the future. You’re just a ghost haunting a world that’s already forgotten you."

"Enough talk!" one of the other assassins barked. "Kill the boy! Secure the girl!"

The five assassins lunged. They moved like shadows, their daggers blurring toward my throat and heart.

"Val," I said.

"On it."

Valeriana didn't even draw her sword. She simply stomped her foot on the wet cobblestones. A massive wave of blue frost erupted from her boots, turning the falling rain into jagged needles of ice.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

The ice needles shredded the assassins' cloaks and forced them back.

I stepped forward, my hand catching the wrist of the closest attacker. I didn't use a technique. I just squeezed.

[Consuming Mana Circuit...]

The man’s eyes bugged out. His skin turned grey as I drank his entire life force in a single second. I tossed his withered husk aside like a piece of trash.

"What... what kind of monster are you?" one of the assassins screamed.

"I'm the one you should have left in the Rift," I said.

I moved. I didn't use "Void Step" this time. I used raw, unadulterated speed. I appeared in front of the next two, my hands moving in a blur. I didn't kill them instantly. I tapped their shoulders, their elbows, their knees. Every touch shattered a bone and drained a portion of their mana.

In three seconds, five assassins were screaming in the mud, their limbs twisted and their magic gone.

Only Kael remained. He stood trembling, his daggers shaking in his hands.

"You're a level zero," Kael whispered. "You have no core. This... this shouldn't be possible!"

"The core was a seal, Kael," I said, walking toward him. "It was the only thing keeping me 'human.' My father didn't rob me. He unleashed me."

Kael roared, a desperate, final surge of red mana exploding from his body. He lunged, his daggers aimed straight for my eyes.

I didn't dodge. I didn't parry.

I caught both daggers between my thumb and forefinger. The metal groaned. The red mana was sucked into my skin like smoke into a vacuum.

"Kael," I said, my voice echoing with the vibration of the Void. "Look at me."

He looked. He saw the black pits where my eyes used to be. He saw the hunger.

"Please..." he whispered. "Lucius... we were brothers..."

"Brothers don't hunt brothers for sport," I said.

I leaned in, my breath cold on his ear. "Tell my father his battery is coming back to charge the world. And tell Julian... I'm keeping his seat warm."

I let go of his daggers. I didn't kill him. Death was too easy. I reached out and touched his forehead, pulling just enough mana to shatter his foundation. He would live, but he would never hold a blade again. He would be a commoner—the very thing he mocked me for.

Kael slumped to his knees, sobbing in the rain.

"Let's go," I said to Valeriana.

"Wait," she said, her eyes fixed on the shadows behind Kael. "We're not alone."

From the darkness of a nearby alley, a single spear of black shadow whistled through the air. It went straight through Kael’s back, pinning him to the ground.

He died before he could even gasp.

A man in a pitch-black mask and obsidian armor stepped into the light. A Thorne Shadow Guard.

"The Emperor doesn't like loose ends," the guard said, his voice a metallic rasp. "And he certainly doesn't like messengers."

I looked at Kael’s lifeless body, then back at the guard. The Void in my chest didn't just hum this time. It roared.

"You shouldn't have done that," I said.

The ground beneath my feet cracked as the black energy began to leak out of my pores, turning the falling rain into black steam.

"I have orders to bring your head," the Shadow Guard said, raising a spear made of solid darkness. "Dead or... mostly dead."

"Try it," I hissed.