Zero to Overlord: The Forsaken God's Ascension

Zero is Not Nothing

The inn was silent for exactly three seconds. Then, the screaming started.

"My hand! He broke my hand with a spoon!" Silas wailed, his voice cracking like a child's.

I didn't look at him. I looked at the door. I could feel them—the boots hitting the cobblestones outside, the metallic hum of armor, and the sharp, jagged mana signatures of the Governor’s elite.

"Twenty of them," Valeriana said, calmly wiping a spot of gravy from her silver gauntlet. "Sixteen standard guards, four specialists. You really know how to pick a fight, kid."

"I didn't pick it," I said, my voice dropping an octave. "I'm just finishing it."

The front doors of the inn exploded inward. Splinters of oak flew like shrapnel. A man in heavy plate armor, glowing with a dull orange light, stepped through the dust. He carried a massive claymore that smoked with heat.

"I am Captain Vane!" he roared. "Identify yourselves before I burn this rat-hole to the ground!"

"Uncle!" Silas shrieked, crawling toward the Captain. "Kill him! He's a monster! He stole my mana!"

Captain Vane looked at his nephew’s ruined hand, then at me. His eyes narrowed. "No mana signature. A commoner? You used a cursed tool to sneak-attack a Noble?"

"I used a spoon," I said. "And if you don't move, I’ll use the table next."

"Arrogant trash!" Vane raised his claymore. The air in the room spiked to a hundred degrees. "Men! Take the girl alive. Shred the boy."

The guards rushed.

"Zero," Valeriana whispered, her hand resting on her broken hilt. "Show them why the Void is feared."

I didn't draw a weapon. I took a single breath, and the world slowed down. My heart beat once—thump—and the black energy in my marrow flooded my nervous system.

[Skill Manifested: Void Step.]

To the guards, I simply vanished.

I wasn't invisible; I was moving between the beats of their hearts. I appeared behind the first guard. I didn't punch him. I touched the back of his neck.

[Consuming Mana Circuit: Fire Attribute.]

He didn't even scream. He just wilted, his armor clattering as his strength turned to ash.

I shifted again. A blur. A shadow. I appeared in the center of three guards. I spun, my hands grazing their chests.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

They hit the floor like sacks of grain.

"Where is he?!" Vane screamed, swinging his flaming sword in a blind circle. "Show yourself, coward!"

I appeared inches from his face. The heat from his blade licked at my skin, but the Void in my chest drank it like cold water.

"Coward?" I asked.

I grabbed the glowing blade of his claymore with my bare hand. The orange fire turned black as it entered my palm. The metal began to groan, turning brittle and grey.

"What... what are you?" Vane gasped, his eyes wide with a terror he couldn't name.

"I’m the consequence of your Emperor’s greed," I hissed.

I squeezed. The claymore shattered into a thousand pieces. I drove my palm into Vane’s chest plate. The heavy steel crumpled like parchment. He flew backward, smashing through the tavern wall and landing in the muddy street outside.

The remaining guards froze. They looked at their Captain, then at me—a boy in rags with eyes like the bottom of a grave.

"Anyone else?" I asked.

They dropped their swords and ran.

I walked out into the rain, Valeriana following at a leisurely pace. Vane was coughing up blood in the mud. I stood over him, the rain washing the soot from my face.

"You... you have the Thorne footwork," Vane wheezed, looking up at me. "But the Prince is dead. Who... who sent you?"

I leaned down, the shadow of my hood obscuring my face. "Tell the Governor to double his guards. Tell him to sleep with his eyes open. Because 'Zero' is just the beginning of the count."

We turned and walked toward the edge of town.

"That was loud," Valeriana noted. "The Shadow Guards will be here by morning. We can't stay in the inns anymore."

"We don't need an inn," I said, looking toward the distant peaks of the Silver Spire mountains. "We need the Academy. If Julian is there, that’s where the hunt truly begins."

"You're going to walk into the heart of the Empire's power?" she asked, a challenge in her voice.

"I'm going to walk into their home," I said. "And I'm going to make them wish they’d stayed in the Rift."

Behind us, a crow perched on a nearby roof. It didn't fly away. Its eyes were a flat, mechanical gold. A recording eye.

In the capital, a thousand miles away, a screen flickered to life in a dark room.

A man with a stolen core in his chest leaned forward, his grin fading as he watched the recording of a boy breaking a claymore with his bare hands.

"He's alive," Julian whispered, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and excitement. "The battery... it’s coming back to be recharged."