Zero is a rather unique individual. Before he even became a rank 10, let alone a rank 9. He had created a power system entirely unique to himself. He had gotten inspiration from Owtz Eerth himself. For example. The baseline of his body worked completely differently then a normal human.
Zero specialized in messing with the soul and consciousness. Instead of simply piercing the soul like Owtz Eerth. He shielded it. Zero had learned how to crystalize consciousness.
He called this old power 'Immortal Body'.
He crystalized his consciousness into six points on his body. The brain, heart, hands and feet.
This isn't even factoring his spiritual cultivation.
The soul is constantly giving off energy in the eyes of Zero. By mastering this release of energy. You can create a phantom. Build this phantom up enough and it can even leave the host's body.
There was also his soul cultivation.
There were four stages he had mastered. Those were body, mind, illusion, and consciousness. During the body stage, he had merged the nerves of his body with his soul. Hence the name of that stage.
The next stage is even more mysterious.
In the 'mind' stage. He created another soul to overlap his brain. But his powers stacked on themselves. This type of power wasn't a simple 1+1 =2.
His immortal body had six brain crystals. In the 'mind' stage. He overlapped a soul over each crystal.
The 'illusion' stage was him creating a white room in each soul. This was there as a security measure. He couldn't be hijacked by other entities.
There was also the legendary 'consciousness' stage.
What exactly is consciousness? Zero had some thoughts on this. He believed it was entirely possible to transform it into a wave.
He was successful in his research and trapped a wave of consciousness bouncing in his soul. He stored this in the core of his main soul.
If the soul shattered. The wave will escape.
What is the purpose of this?
He could make anchor bodies with an 'opposite' soul wave in the bodies. Then upon 'true death'. The wave could revive him.
This wasn't even scratching the surface of his methods.
Zero had mastered the genome to a scary degree. He could directly manipulate soul through the genome. His understanding of DNA was on an entirely different level.
It was a completely fantastical level.
Zero was originally a super soldier. He was used to using nanites in combat and for construction.
Zero loved studying the relationship between soul and consciousness.
He had walked a path far removed from the one John had walked.
John's level in formations was beyond reality. But Zero was capable of making his genes naturally grow formations in his body.
John had formations as his blood. While Zero had his bones surface area covered in strengthening runes. They took different approaches to the same problems.
John worked on his body and making it a single organism. While Zero had a much deeper understanding of DNA. He instead relied on nanites and technology.
Using DNA to design his soul and consciousness itself!
Zero had also stolen a law from Owtz that had originally been the power of Gaia.
'Nature'.
This law was crazy. He broke it down into smaller, weaker laws.
Soul, water, fire, lightning, wind, metal, earth...
Does that remind you of anything? Light energy! The energy particles of the wizard world. What John uses isn't laws at all. This is another thing they differ in approach greatly.
Zero follows the path of a supreme being. He even surpasses all others that have ever walked this path.
He is the first rank 10!
John is like Zero in a sense. He is a pioneer.
He is the first conscious 'Origin'.
Who will win? The first 'Origin' or the first rank 10?
Zero is a master of exploiting his world. Since he learned how to shape and create soul by manipulating the genome. He was able to do something of a new style.
John is quite hard to kill.
It is actually impossible to really permanently kill him.
But Zero and John are both entities that do the impossible all the time.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Zero once upon a time created MANY anchor bodies with the laws of 'Nature'.
100% comprehension in the smaller laws of 'Nature'.
John had friends and so did Zero. Werlin and Zero had created 'Dimension Zero'.
He transferred all the souls with the seven smaller laws into his dimension.
Zero had deconstructed the law 'Chaos' into five smaller laws as well.
Dependence, transitivity, origin, random, valency.
That's right! Origin! There are deep secrets of the universe that even would surprise John.
John's methods were far separated from Zero.
John had no connection to the law 'Origin'.
It was part of the foundation of reality.
John's energy 'Origin' was a combination of dark energy and light energy.
Zero had taken these laws and had each soul have them. Hundreds of souls...
He fused all of these souls together.
This allowed him to comprehend the law 'Creation'.
He also comprehended very important laws like 'Destruction', 'Infinity', 'Space', 'Gravity', and 'Time'.
But this wasn't your typical comprehension.
Zero was a completionist. He had 100% comprehension in these laws.
One time, from the sheer power of his laws. His dimension collapsed. But in an instant he recreated it and fortified it.
It was that instance he became a rank 9.
If you know anything about laws. You know that other entities can use other peoples laws. This was how he stole 'Nature' from Owtz Eerth. This is also how Owtz Eerth stole 'Nature' from Gaia.
So you might think that laws are pointless, right? If someone can steal your power... is it really yours to begin with?
Zero thought of this problem and used his experience to design a fake law.
He called it 'Eternal'.
This was the only law his body 'displayed' and 'dropped'.
If someone were to try to use this law themselves. It would act like a virus.
They would get a small amount of GR and such. But it would transform them into a mortal and steal their laws.
A supreme being that tries to steal laws from Zero would be utterly screwed.
Luckily, John sees laws as trash either way.
So this trick is useless against him.
Once Zero became rank 9. His soul was so big, that it became 'Dimension Zero' itself.
Zero also liked the style of his eyes. A gift from Gaia. Someone who had helped John majorly.
Zero had the eyes of an original incarnation.
The 'place that shouldn't be named' that Gaia transformed into his sea of consciousness. Zero had been blessed with the eyes of the beings of that existence.
He had the 'eyes of time' and the 'eyes of knowledge'.
Zero also saw reality in a weird way. He saw time as what could best be described as a 3D mesh.
He could 'walk' through reality itself.
This was all things he could do at rank 9.
At this level of power. He never could've beaten John's 'Emergence Point'.
How exactly did Zero destroy John's global existence? Especially when it was stored in a place as mythical as the cosmic order?
Well...
After becoming rank 9... Zero mapped the chaos realm for millions of years and came to a scary conclusion.
He was in a book!
He could even analyze the book and chapter he was in. This allowed him to have a weird awareness of his situation.
He was limitless.
One time, when he was rank 6. When he was in the eternal dream to promote himself. He beat the shit out of the person controlling his dreams.
Zero was capable of doing absolute bullshit.
A nightmare to be paired against in a fight.
He was someone who always won.
But who was John?
He was someone who always did the impossible.
You could beat him.
But he would come back.
Somehow... somewhere...
If Zero was an immovable object, then John was the unstoppable force... A brilliant collision!
John's consciousness had been transformed completely from the data lifeform universe. But Zero one time broadcasted his entire consciousness as binary.
He became an artificial intelligence!
Zero had once became the entire internet.
In terms of processing power and mental strength.
John was infinite.
But Zero was... broken.
Zero even had the ability to manipulate data too!
He also studied methods of modifying the body through intent.
Manipulation in an instant.
Zero also used nanites like how John used dark energy. He could do a variety of things with them.
But we must discuss the REAL reason Zero was able to beat John in his first place.
His ultimate trump card.
His everything.
Depended on something mysterious... quite literally.
His 'Mysterious Artifact'.
Originally, it was called his 'Cosmic Artifact'.
He can 'Save Point' and 'Reload'.
He often abuses this to train himself and his intent.
There were a few key abilities that this artifact gave him.
'Temporal Manipulation'.
This included: 'Immunity', 'Travel', 'Edit'.
He could even edit a persons memories...
He could also transform himself into his eldritch form.
Zero once weaponized his 'plot armor' itself. This was how he promoted his artifact.
He destroyed himself and his soul...
But he came back.
A mechanism of an unfathomable number of parts... he had a few seconds to put together a puzzle so complex, that gods would go insane from seeing it.
This is how Zero comprehended the law 'Impulse'.
This allowed him to do things of a similar scale as John's 'Infinite Mind'.
He could do 'perfect action'.
This is how he gained 'Mysterious Consciousness'.
He lacked a 'soul'... but didn't need one.
This is how he reached the cosmic order and found out about 'Emflowcreagen'. John's existence as a former concept.
There was a new ability from this as well.
'Mysterious Presence'.
Zero had become a constant across all time and space.
Every universe would no longer reject him. This is why he could ignore John's rules even when in John's 'Emergence Point'.
He also had the law 'Paradox'.
This meant that his existence wouldn't have conflicts of degrade.
This made it so all of his systems were supported at the same time!
Zero also ate the dao fruit of an celestial emperor. He acquired a law called 'Order'.
His destiny had become mysterious.
He broke down 'Order' just like he had done with chaos. This gave him five smaller laws.
Those were: Independence, Intransitivity, End, Certainty, and Limit.
He abused his reload mechanics to do some shenanigans.
He combined 'Order' and 'Chaos'... and created a law called 'Cosmos'.
This was how he became the first rank 10 in existence!
His ability to break the fourth wall was further upgraded. His mind was like the universe itself.
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"What the actual fuc-"
"Wait... that isn't right."
"The rules are changing..."
"Provenance!? I've never heard of such a place before... Just what is the author doing!?"
All sorts of information floods my mind.
"The author plans to stop me by using the power of another 'main character'?"
"Hahaha! Just what sort of entity could beat a rank 10!? I'll unravel their entire existence."
"Just how strong can this person be?"
I feel a shiver run down my spine for some reason.
I feel goosebumps as I dodge an attack.
"Emflowcreagen!?"
"I couldn't even feel his presence!? That's impossible!"
The man that I just beat appeared...
He speaks.
"Allow me to introduce myself."
"I am John Destinatus."
"The Origin of Calamity!"
Zero laughed.
"Allow me to introduce myself too!"
"I am Zero. Paradox."
John didn't waste any time as he flew at Zero at a speed as fast as light.
Zero waved his hands casually and deflected every attack.
"Too slow..."
John shrugged and then spoke:
"One is ten."
"...?!"