Chapter 257: Oroboros

A moment later, the smoke began to clear, revealing the Dragon Emperor standing exactly where he had been before the attack.

However, something was different...

The hand the unknown man had punched with was completely gone, leaving nothing behind where his arm had been. He immediately vanished from his spot as he instantly absorbed the event of him even coming here to begin with, effectively removing the event that had caused his current situation.

When he appeared back where he had first punched Kael, his hand was already back in its original position, as if it had never disappeared at all. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Zaakrax slowly lowering his index finger, finally understanding that the Dragon Emperor had somehow destroyed his entire arm with nothing more than a single finger.

’He blew off my entire arm with a single finger?... No, it’s his ability. It destroyed the whole arm itself.’ He reached that conclusion as he remembered the sensation that had spread through his entire body when he had punched Zaakrax.

It wasn’t simply the feeling of physical damage, because the destruction had somehow affected the entire structure of his arm at once. Even though Event Absorption had allowed him to erase the event of his arrival and restore his hand afterward, the fact that Zaakrax had been able to destroy it so completely still caught his attention.

The unknown man had fought Atlas and Kael without ever feeling genuinely threatened, but this Dragon Emperor was different. For the first time since the battle had begun, he had encountered someone whose ability could directly interfere with his body.

That realization caused a small amount of genuine interest to appear in his eyes.

Zaakrax also turned toward him as he smiled slightly.

The unknown man didn’t feel anger because of it, nor did he feel humiliated.

Instead, he felt excitement, as after spending so long treating everyone around him as insignificant obstacles, he had finally encountered someone who could actually face him. His grin widened as he looked directly at Zaakrax, and his head suddenly snapped upward as his laughter echoed through the surrounding area.

"Hahahahah! You amused me. I, Orivian from the progenitor race Zin-Ruka, acknowledge you as someone who can face me." There was a brief pause after his declaration before Orivian slowly lowered his head again.

His expression remained filled with amusement as he continued looking toward Zaakrax, "Now, I will show you why I am a progenitor and why I created an Ultimate Ability."

When he finished his sentence, even Zaakrax wore an expression of shock.

He already knew that this man was most likely from an era forgotten by this World, because his soul was far too old for him to belong to any ordinary generation. However, even with that knowledge, he had never imagined that the man would actually be someone directly connected to the progenitor race.

The nameZin-Rukacarried a meaning that existed far beyond the current history of Eliomor, making Orivian’s declaration far more significant than simply revealing an ancient identity. Kael and the other rulers also had the same shocked expressions on their faces as they tried to determine whether what Orivian had said was actually true.

Yet before they could think about it any further, Orivian suddenly did something that made all of them frown.

He pierced his own stomach with his right hand, and a glowing spherical force was rotating continuously around his hand. The force didn’t resemble anything they had seen from him before, and its nature immediately made the surrounding powerhouses become cautious.

That force was not a concentration of Spirit Energy, nor was it Soul Force, meaning that neither of the two known sources of power could explain what they were seeing.

Instead, it was the "Force" of his Ultimate Ability, the same force that Orivian had been using throughout the battle to activate Event Absorption. The sight of him directly manipulating that force shocked everyone, including Zaakrax, Kael, and Atlas, because they had never seen or heard of anyone wielding the "Force" of their own Ability itself.

Even though Abilities were already considered strange phenomena in this World, nobody had ever demonstrated the ability to directly control the fundamental force that formed their Ability.

An Ability was a type of Reality-wrapping "Force" that one was born with, and these Abilities awakened when they stepped into S-rank. They could also become stronger alongside their wielder as the wielder continued to cultivate and reached higher ranks, meaning that the Ability and its user could gradually develop together.

However, the force that constituted an Ability was normally something that remained beyond the direct control of its owner. A person could activate their Ability and manipulate its effects, but directly grasping the actual "Force" behind that Ability was something entirely different.

It was not merely difficult, nor was it a technique that someone could learn through ordinary cultivation or years of training. To directly wield and control that very "Force" was simply unheard of and impossible according to everything they understood about Abilities.

Yet Orivian was standing before them while doing exactly that, proving that whatever knowledge they possessed about the limits of Abilities might not apply to him.

The man, Orivian, vomited blood as he looked at all the people surrounding him, but the pain clearly did not matter to him. His gaze moved across the battlefield before eventually falling toward one of his main targets, Atlas, and he stared at him for a moment before turning toward Zaakrax again.

A grin appeared across his face as the glowing force continued rotating around his hand inside his stomach. He seemed completely confident in what he was about to do, despite the fact that none of the people present could understand the true purpose behind his actions.

Then he finally spoke, "What if I were to absorb the very ’Events’ which created this body? The body which has all the races mixed together? You should all feel honoured that you are about to see the birth of a progenitor."

Orivian laughed again as he continued twisting his own hand inside his stomach, as though he were forcefully rotating something within his body. The movement became increasingly violent, yet he showed no sign of stopping or hesitation.

He then revealed something else, "Although that kid Azarion had the same plan, he failed to calculate the possibility of him being the one getting manipulated by my loyal servant, Hahahah!"

His laughter echoed through the battlefield as the force surrounding his hand continued rotating faster. None of the people watching him could understand what exactly he was doing to his own body, but everyone could tell that something enormous was about to happen. Before anyone could react or interrupt him, the entire situation suddenly changed.

Orivian’s own body suddenly scattered into countless tiny particles. The particles were so small that the rulers had to use Spirit Energy to enhance their perception just to understand what was happening.

Even with their enhanced perception, following the movement of every particle was difficult because his entire physical structure had seemingly broken apart in an instant.

Zaakrax and Kael both narrowed their eyes as they watched the strange phenomenon, their attention focused on both Orivian’s actions and the statements he had made moments earlier.

’Orivian he said and... progenitor race Zin-Ruka?’ Kael’s thoughts were still focused on the revelation when he suddenly sensed Zaakrax moving.

The Dragon Emperor instantly appeared in front of the scattered particles before anyone else could react, his movements so fast that even the others could barely follow what had happened.

He immediately extended his palm toward the countless particles, clearly intending to destroy Orivian before he could complete whatever transformation he had started. His expression remained calm, but there was a clear seriousness in his eyes that had not been present before. Then Zaakrax spoke a single word.

"Oroboros."