Extra's Death: I Am the Son of Hades - Chapter 654: Ancient Dragon Bloodline
Chapter 654: Ancient Dragon Bloodline
Zagreus POV
Years Ago
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Zagreus asked.
“I am.” the demon nodded. “Truth Concept allows one to do reality manipulation. It’s a Concept that lets you override the natural laws. But the stronger the manipulation, the more energy you need.”
“So Asmodea has to use Truth to create an Independent Space?” Zagreus questioned.
“Yes,” the demon confirmed. “You can think of an Independent Space as a something that is cut from the Cosmos.
“You can even call it a temporary Cosmos, or a pocket reality.
“If she succeeds in creating an Independent Space, the ancient dragons won’t be able to sense you even if you awaken your dragon blood in that place.
“After all, it is a different Cosmos,” the demon explained.
This solution sounded like it could work.
They already had a place where Zagreus could awaken, and Barbatos could teach Zagreus to awaken his dragon blood only temporarily.
This way, Zagreus wouldn’t be detected by ancient dragons even if he left the Independent Space. He would just need to make his blood go dormant.
Zagreus glanced at Barbatos and Asmodea, then turned back to the demon.
“I apologize, but doing something like that is beyond my current abilities. Creating an Independent Space like you said seem it would require ginormous energy.
“It isn’t something I can provide. Perhaps only Supremes will have enough energy for this,” Asmodea said.
“There’s a way around it,” the demon replied. “Our targets are inside a Space-Time Prison. These places are already separate from the rest of reality.
“If you strengthen the structure of the prison using Truth, you can temporarily convert it into an Independent Space.”
Zagreus leaned forward, listening carefully.
“It’ll only last a few minutes,” the demon added. “But that’s all Zagreus will need to settle the battle. The blood of Ancient Dragons is powerful enough to finish everything within minutes.”
Barbatos looked at the demon. His voice was cold as he spoke,
“Why are you helping so much? You didn’t care so share so much with us before.”
The demon’s expression didn’t change, but his voice softened slightly.
“Zagreus is kind of heart.”
That was all he said.
Others waited for more explanation, but it never came.
Zagreus stood.
“Then it’s settled. When the time comes, Asmodea will prepare the Independent Space by using Truth to strengthen the Space-Time Prison. Barbatos, your job is to buy time for her to do that.”
Asmodea nodded, and left to train.
She needed to increase her mastery in order to achieve a feat like strengthening a Space-Time Prison.
“Will you be using the demon’s power before that day, prison?” Barbatos questioned.
“That’s not the question I want to hear, Barbatos.”
“…Understood, Prince. I’ll buy as much time as you need.”
…
Present
Nameless Death stared at Zagreus.
Zagreus slowly exhaled.
Pressure erupted from him.
A torrent of purple flame surged around his body, licking at the air with unnatural heat.
His skin started to change, scales forming along his arms.
Two black horns curled out from his temples.
“That…”
Nameless Death moved.
Instinct pushed him forward, but Barbatos stepped in his path.
“Out of the way,” Nameless Death said sharply.
Barbatos raised a hand, warning him of the consequences.
Nameless Death’s eyes flicked to Berserker, who wasn’t moving to stop Zagreus.
In fact, he looked pleased.
Berserker was smiling.
Nameless Death gritted his teeth.
Something about this felt wrong.
Before he could do stop Zagreus, it was already late.
Then the flames exploded into a tornado, purple and violent, roaring as it reached for the heavens.
The ground cracked under the pressure.
Waves of distorted space rippled out from the core of the inferno.
When the flames finally settled, Zagreus stood in the center.
His appearance had changed completely.
He wore a long black coat, his hair remained blonde but they now flowed past his shoulders, and his eyes glowed crimson beneath the curved horns.
He raised a hand.
“Fall.”
The air obeyed.
Nameless Death nearly dropped to one knee as gravity surged, air pressure collapsing like it had been given a command it couldn’t refuse.
’What kind of ability is that?’ he thought, shocked. ’That wasn’t Truth. How did he make the atmosphere obey his command?’
Zagreus turned to Barbatos.
“Keep an eye on Nameless. I’ll deal with him later.”
“Understood, Prince.”
Without hesitation, Zagreus walked toward Berserker.
“Where is my mother’s soul?”
“I wonder about that.”
Berserker gave a shrug, still smiling.
“I see.”
Without warning, black wings burst from Zagreus’s back.
One flap launched him forward, closing the distance between them in an instant.
They clashed.
The shockwave from their collision cracked the ground and distorted the skies.
The sheer force of their blows made the air shudder.
Berserker was using Resonance again, fusing Void and Chaos to empower his every strike.
Each attack became more unstable, and powerful.
But Zagreus kept up.
More than that, he started to dominate.
When Berserker lunged forward, Zagreus whispered, “Pull back.”
Gravity reversed.
The entire battlefield bent around Berserker, dragging him away from Zagreus before his strike could land.
When Berserker began adapting too quickly, Zagreus calmly said,
“Regress.”
And it happened.
Berserker’s evolution halted.
The energy flowing through him faltered.
And his evolution was turned back.
Nameless Death watched in stunned silence.
’What the hell is that ability? It’s not just Truth. It’s… something else.’
Truth could rewrite reality by aligning it to one’s words.
Say a rock was water, and it would become water.
But this was different.
Zagreus wasn’t persuading reality.
He was commanding it.
It was as if the world itself had no choice but to obey him.
Berserker didn’t seem discouraged.
He laughed as he fought, even as the tide turned against him.
“Now you are fighting like a true warrior, hahahaha!”
His grin didn’t fade, even when Zagreus’s palm struck his chest and sent him hurtling to the ground.
The impact created a crater thousand miles wide.
Zagreus hovered above, wings stretched, eyes locked on Berserker.
“Where is the Life Flame that ant bastard stole?”
Berserker didn’t answer.
Zagreus narrowed his eyes.
He turned toward a distant temple.
His gaze sharpened.
“That’s where your medium is, isn’t it?”
He shot off toward the temple.
Berserker remained on the ground, but instead of stopping Zagreus, he turned toward Barbatos.
“I let you two plan and grow strong,” Berserker said, rising to his feet. “So don’t feel bad now that I’m just leveling the field.”
“What do you mean by that?” Barbatos questioned.
Before anyone could react, Berserker lunged forward.
He clashed with Barbatos, but his real target was Nameless Death.
The strike landed.
It wasn’t fatal.
It wasn’t even serious.
But something slipped into him.
Information.
Nameless Death staggered back, blinking as his head filled with knowledge he hadn’t asked for.
’What is this?’ he wondered.
He didn’t understand why Berserker gave him that information, but it started to surge in his mind.
He now understood how Zagreus had awakened his Ancient Dragon bloodline.
How they had converted the Space-Time Prison into something else entirely.
“An Independent Space,” Nameless Death muttered.
He saw it now.
The prison had been altered into a temporary Cosmos.
That was how Zagreus had been able to awaken his Ancient Dragon Blood without being detected.
“Oh.”
Nameless Death was surprised.
“Why would you do something so stupid?”
They had completely severed this space from the outside world.
Nothing could enter.
Nothing could leave.
Time was no exception.
“What?” Barbatos asked.
But before Barbatos could say more, Nameless Death activated his Concept.
[All-Shadow.]
Barbatos barely had time to react.
Nameless Death slipped into the shadow beneath him.
Then he vanished.
He didn’t reappear in the present.
He exited from the shadow in the past.
In the exact moment and place where Zagreus stood, moments before his transformation began.
