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Zero Road
Zero Road, Prologue

Zero Road, Prologue

The void, the holy element, the scourge of Shaitan; it had been called many things by Human and Elf, Markay and Spirit. Yet despite this, it remained as it always had: Empty.

Yet it was empty no longer.

For the first time in six thousand years, something roamed its abyssal depths. Drawing breath and lending noise to the eerie silence that had always pervaded it before their arrival and would continue to do so once they left. Sometimes the being would mumble, sometimes it would scream; but no matter what, an inevitable chime of sound would always follow.

T’tiring

Connect to Royal Road?

Yes | No

“No.” a voice spoke tiringly into the darkness with a tone both young and feminine.

T’tiring

“No.” it, no she, answered yet again as the dim light of the floating textbox revealed the pink locks of her hair. “Please” the girl asked imploringly, wishing, hoping once more with all her heart that it would just let her leave, “I just want to go home...”

T’tiring

“My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière and I demand you answer!” the girl screamed, voice cracking in the process, “Why won’t you listen?! Why are you keeping me here?!”

Again, like always, she received no answer aside from that accursed telltale chime.

A sad, pitiful wail erupted from the girl, Louise’s, throat as she finally collapsed upon a floor she couldn’t begin to see, that perhaps didn’t even exist, and began to cry.

“’ts not fair” Louise moaned out amidst her tears, “Why? Why? Why, do I always fail?!”

“I can never succeed!” she screams, slamming her fist against the floor in a bout of long awaited rage as tears pour down from her eyes, “I can never win! It’s always something!”

Rolling onto her back and slamming her head against the ground, Louise screamed till her face was red.

Yet the black didn’t care, it never did.

Would she be trapped here? Louise wondered in a haze as she stared at the floating textbox, taunting her. The scribbles on that blatant piece of magic were nonsense, no matter what way she looked at them. They were obviously writings of some sort, but beyond that was a futile effort; however, the meaning of it; well…that wasn’t so hard to decipher.

It was why she kept saying no; shouted it to the heavens even, and why she kept cycling through this routine for Founder knew how long.

‘Never agree to something you don’t understand.’ Her mother had always said, ‘Not even when there’s nothing else, No.' Louise mentally added, ‘especially when there’s nothing else.’

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She was being held hostage here until she gave in, and Louise knew it; into what though…that, she didn’t know. As long as she had spent here; it had quickly become apparent that she wasn’t going to be allowed to leave this hole until she died, acquiesced, or went insane.

Grimly, Louise wondered which of the last two would come first.

It was inevitable, what she would say; Louise didn’t need to be told otherwise. In this place that lacked any source of sound but her breathing and her screams? No, it had been a certainty any way she looked at it, a question of not: ‘Will this happen?’, but when.

“I don’t have magic” Louise admitted quietly, her thoughts shuddering at that quiet little revelation which now seemed so small in the comparison to the present. “Even if a commoner can’t cast sparks with a wand, and I can. Even if I somehow brought myself here…” for a moment, her breath caught on air, “It can only be magic if it’s useful. Therefore…” she began hesitantly, “Therefore, I don’t have magic.”

Yet no feelings of freedom accompanied her acceptance, only the slow and insidious creak of a closing door.

“Fine” the pink haired teen spat out into the darkness before yelling “You hear me?! FINE!” awkwardly, yet with haste, she gathered up to her feet and turned towards the glowing screen that had been her bane ever since she’d arrived in this hellhole. “I ACCEPT!” Louise screamed, “I ACQUIESE! I CONCUR!”

“I SAID, YES!”

As if by magic, the box disappeared right before the defiant noble’s eyes as a clear and audible voice, unnatural by her own definition, rang out around her, “The scan on your I-I-Iris is showing that you are an unregistered u-user. D-d-do you wish to create a new account?”

“Who are you?!” Louise immediately shouted into the black abyss, anger burning her small body to figurative cinders as she awaited any possible hint of reply. Silence was the only result.

“Fine,” she grounded out with gritted teeth while clenching her fists so hard they turned white, “YES!”

“S-s-select the name of your Avatar.” It rang out.

“LET ME OUT!” the pink haired noble raged, face red and lips twisted into a snarl towards the blackness.

“Name ‘Let Me Out’ contains i-i-illegal spaces, name has been shortened to ‘Let’. Is this correct?”

“YES!”

“Select your gender fro—“

“YES!”

“Royal Road has—“

“YES!” Louise screamed, red with anger, “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, YES!”

“Defaults have been s-s-selected. Welcome t-to Royal—”

“Founder damn you, YES! Let me out!”

Before Louise’s eyes, the world twisted, flashed white, and then everything tasted…purple.