Chapter 1: The Breakout
2:00 AM
The night sky shimmered beneath a silver moon, stars gathered around it like loyal subjects before their queen.
A heavily armored transport bus moved through the darkness, surrounded by military vehicles and escort motorcycles. It was built to contain only the most dangerous criminals, reinforced with Titaniumite, the strongest metal known to mankind.
Inside one of the isolated containment capsules sat a young man who appeared no older than seventeen or eighteen.
He was alone.
Chains bound his wrists and ankles, and multiple glowing seals were branded into the walls around him. His jet-black hair fell over his eyes as he sat silently on the cold metal floor.
The entire convoy existed for one purpose.
Him.
The reinforced door slid open with a mechanical hiss.
A man in his late twenties stepped into view, stopping just outside the sealed cell.
He had neatly combed brown hair, sharp features, and a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Prisoner Zero," he said coldly. "We'll soon be arriving at Black Maria for your execution. It's time for you to pay for all the lives you've ruined."
For a moment, there was silence.
Then the young man slowly raised his head.
Crimson eyes gleamed beneath the dim lights — calm, ancient, and utterly indifferent.
"Three centuries in silence…" he muttered. "And the first voice I hear is yours."
The guard's smile faded.
"You seem awfully calm for someone about to die."
A faint smirk tugged at Prisoner Zero's lips.
"Die?" he echoed softly. "You misunderstand."
The seals carved into the walls flickered faintly.
"I'm not the one who should be worried."
The guard stiffened.
"And why's that?"
Prisoner Zero tilted his head slightly.
"Because you're the ones who are about to die."
He vanished.
The guard barely had time to widen his eyes before a hand clamped around his throat. The chains around Prisoner Zero's wrists shattered like brittle glass.
"Let… go of me—" the guard begged in choked sobs as Prisoner Zero's grip tightened around his throat, tears rolling down his eyes.
A single squeeze was all it took for Prisoner Zero to end the guard.
Crack.
THUD.
The body hit the ground with a dull thud.
Prisoner Zero stood there for a moment, staring down at the corpse with mild irritation. He retrieved a handkerchief from the guard's coat and calmly wiped his fingers.
"Thirteen percent," he murmured. "How inconvenient."
He removed the guard's identification card and scanned it against the control panel.
The cell door slid open.
Alarms did not sound.
Not yet.
He stepped into the corridor.
The seals embedded into his skin pulsed painfully, suppressing the vast ocean of power within him. For three hundred years they had weakened his connection to his grimoire.
But he had waited.
He had endured.
And now the seals were thinning.
He stopped in front of a massive reinforced vault door nearly eight feet tall.
"There you are."
Three minutes later, the access card was rejected for the final time.
Prisoner Zero sighed.
"So be it."
He clenched his fist.
The seals along his arm flared violently as he drove his fist forward.
BOOM.
The vault door exploded inward, metal tearing apart like paper. Instantly, red warning lights flashed and sirens roared through the convoy.
"FREEZE!"
Nearly a hundred armed guards flooded the corridor, weapons raised.
"Hands in the air, prisoner!" one of the guards at the front shouted, his weapon pointed directly at the young man.
Prisoner Zero exhaled slowly while looking at them calmly.
A suffocating pressure erupted from his body.
It slammed into the guards like an invisible tidal wave.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
"I—CANT… BREAT—"
Crack.
Shatter.
Bones cracked.
Weapons shattered.
Within minutes, the entire hall was filled with screams of agony and horror. A bloody massacre unfolded before anyone who witnessed it.
The weaker ones collapsed instantly.
Some of the stronger ones managed to stand a little longer before collapsing from the pressure, blood seeping from their mouths. Others were crushed to the floor, unable to breathe beneath the weight of his presence alone.
Not one could stand.
Just like that, what remained of the guards was a floor covered in bodies.
He stepped over them without another glance and entered the vault.
At the center of the room rested a small, ancient-looking book bound in dark chains.
The moment he approached, the chains fell away on their own.
The book trembled.
Then it floated into his outstretched hand.
The seals on his body flickered violently.
"…At last," he whispered.
The book pulsed once — almost like a heartbeat — before shrinking and attaching itself to a chain around his neck.
The convoy never saw what hit it.
An explosion tore through the side of the transport, flipping the armored bus and crushing vehicles beneath it.
Smoke and fire filled the night air.
Rushing out of the vehicles that hadn't been crushed, and even some who had managed to escape in time, multiple soldiers rushed toward the fallen bus.
Over three hundred soldiers surrounded the wreckage.
"Hands in the air!!" one of the soldiers shouted toward Prisoner Zero, who could be seen stepping out of the hole in the side of the bus.
Standing atop the wreckage, he completely ignored the hundreds of soldiers surrounding him.
'Feels good to breathe some fresh air' he thought before jumping down to the ground.
"I SAID PAUSE RIGHT THERE!!" the same soldier shouted again. Cold sweat was visible on his face, and his hands trembled slightly. The same fear could be seen among the rest of the soldiers.
The young man with crimson eyes walked directly toward the soldier who seemed to be the leader.
He reached his side and patted him on the shoulder.
"Shut up, will you? I'm thinking here," the young man said with a truly thoughtful expression, not even registering any of these people as a threat.
"...?"
"...?"
"...?"
Everyone was utterly speechless, but fear prevented any of them from speaking.
After all, every single one of them knew exactly who this man was.
Prisoner Zero began to walk past them.
Before he could take more than a few steps, the same voice rang out again.
"WE WILL SHOOT YOU… DOWN IF YOU DON—"
THUD.
THUD.
The soldier's voice was cut off as his head fell to the ground with a resounding thud, followed by the sound of his lifeless body collapsing.
Only an expression of confusion remained on the severed head, as if even his final moments were a blur to him.
"Sheesh… kids these days can't even let an old man have some time to himself," Prisoner Zero sighed irritably as he lowered his hand after making the cutting gesture.
The soldiers' minds were thrown into turmoil after witnessing their comrade die without even being touched.
Fear consumed them.
Without thinking, they opened fire.
"FIRE!"
Bullet rounds lit up the darkness, tearing through smoke and metal alike.
When the gunfire ceased, nothing remained standing in the center of the blast zone.
Silence.
"Behind you."
The voice was calm.
Playful.
They turned quickly.
He stood there untouched, crimson eyes glowing faintly. The small grimoire floated before him, its pages flipping as if stirred by an unseen wind.
Fear filled the soldiers' eyes as they tried to fire again—
—but their guns were empty.
"Goodbye."
He raised his hand.
A beam of scarlet light erupted from his palm, consuming the battlefield in an instant.
When the dust settled, nothing remained but scorched earth.
Prisoner Zero stood alone amid the devastation, pale skin illuminated by moonlight.
He stretched slightly, as though shaking off stiffness from a long sleep.
"Now…" he murmured.
His crimson gaze lifted toward the distant horizon.
"I'm coming for you, Odin."
The wind howled through the ruined convoy.
Then he vanished into the night.
---
Meanwhile, far away from the smoldering wreckage…
In a chamber untouched by time, where ancient symbols glowed faintly against stone walls, a pair of eyes slowly opened.
They shone a brilliant gold.
For a moment, the air itself seemed to tremble.
"So… he escaped, huh?" the voice echoed, calm yet heavy with age.
A pause.
"This will be very problematic."
The golden light intensified briefly before fading into darkness once more.