SSS Class Infinite Regression: Ascension of the Mad Dragon Prince

Chapter 259 259: 500th Regression First Day

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Louis opened his eyes to find Minato and Lisette already charging their attack. They had destroyed the Pinnacle Tower and instantly nuked him and his friends.

Indeed, they were the definition of spawn campers. After five hundred years, he had already figured out their stupid strategy: to send him to Limbo so the Venerable could take him down.

BOOOMMM!!!

The entire tower was gone, and so was half the planet. The two laughed as they looked down, ready to move on to the next timeline.

"It has been five hundred times. He must be getting tired, right?" Lisette wondered.

"...It is strange," Minato said, his eyes narrowing. "Where...?"

"What?" Lisette asked.

"The Venerable's presence... is completely gone." Minato's eyes widened as he felt something lurking behind him.

It was just a small instinct, but it barely helped. His own senses were too slow to detect something completely concealed from all possible senses.

And then it happened.

"Heart of Spacetime – Blackhole."

Louis appeared behind them with all his friends, completely unscathed, and used a power he had never wielded before. He spawned a literal, real black hole right in front of their noses.

"Eh?"

"W-Wha...?!"

TRUUUUUMMMM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

The entire planet and the rest of the tenth layer were instantly swallowed by a gigantic black hole. Endless void consumed everything in a disastrous and massively destructive attack.

"W-WHAT IS THIS?!"

"I-IMPOSSIBLE! WHAT...! SINCE WHEN DID HE...?!"

Lisette and Minato were completely and utterly flabbergasted. Their shock was so palpable that, as the entire dungeon trembled and shattered apart, they screamed in horror.

Yes, these incredibly ancient beings who had traveled through many timelines were screaming in horror. Despite everything, they had never really fallen directly into a black hole before.

"NNGAAAAHHHH!"

Lisette screamed in agony as she was torn to shreds. She rapidly regenerated by activating her Immortal Body Ability, beginning to grow and grow as endless limbs, heads, tails, wings, eyes, and jaws sprouted from her body like endlessly growing cancerous tumors.

Half of her body was torn apart by the black hole before she barely managed to crawl away from its center. She fell onto a small planetoid, leaving a titanic, continent-sized crater.

She groaned, bleeding everywhere. Her regeneration had suddenly slowed down after she took immense damage to her soul, and her energy had been rapidly absorbed.

She activated her powers and quickly began to sap energy from the environment, too focused on surviving to care about anything else.

From above, Louis watched the scene with his friends.

"W-What happened?!" Mirai gasped. "L-Louis?! Did you do that?!" She looked toward the black hole on the horizon.

Half of the dungeon was being torn apart and devoured by the black hole as well, revealing the outside world: an endless expanse of rivers of divine essence, a divine realm where the dungeon had been placed.

The "cage" the Venerable had placed around the dungeon was not gone either. It was a massive cosmic formation constantly keeping things inside, but it was beginning to waver as the black hole expanded even further.

Black holes did not work the way Louis's black hole did. His own was conjured using the Heart of Spacetime, the fusion between the Heart of Time and the Heart of Dimensions. It enhanced his Spacetime and Dimensional Magic power by up to 5000%.

It cost a lot of Draconic Energy, but the spell was massively destructive, and it continued growing, swallowing everything.

What was more, anything it devoured and destroyed within its endless spiraling void turned into his own energy, helping him rapidly recover what he had spent in seconds.

"A lot happened," Louis said. He created a Domain of Spacetime, accelerating time to allow himself to calmly speak to everyone. "To you it might have been just minutes with each regression... but I spent five hundred years doing everything I could to grow stronger."

"F-Five hundred years?!" Anastasia gasped. "L-Lord Louis…! A-Are you okay? Wow... no, wait, you are strong! You got them!"

"A-After dying so much..." Timothy groaned, clutching his head. "Ugh, it still does not feel real. Just what happened?"

The memories were twisted and fragmented for everyone except Mirai. Above all, Louis was only transferring a bit of the previous incarnation's consciousness through his crown.

"We have been locked in this place ever since we found them..." Mirai explained to everyone. "They have been killing all of us constantly, even as Louis jumped through timelines with his power of Regression, carrying along pieces of our consciousness to transfer to our selves in the next timeline... It must have been so arduous... Are you okay?"

"No, I am not..." Louis sighed. He remained in his human form, his eyes showing deep sorrow and a tinge of madness that had been overcome hundreds of times only to return again and again. "But that does not matter. Our efforts and everyone's sacrifice were not in vain. Now, we must fight and kill those bastards, or we will never get out of here."

"I mean, sure, but how?!" Anastasia asked. "You said they were Tier 0?! We can never win against beings at the level of the Abyssal Mother!"

"They are not as strong as her..." Louis had already calculated and fought against them countless times in his head using his psychic abilities through special simulations. "And I have already dealt with that Venerable boosting their power. They are no longer their apostles, thus they are weaker than before."

"That is amazing... wait, you dealt with a Venerable yourself?!" Agustina asked. "Aren't those so strong that your Fairy friend had to sacrifice his own life to stop one? And they did not even really accomplish it?"

"I have grown strong, as I said earlier, Agustina..." Louis smiled back at her. "I have missed you."

"Eh? Me?" Agustina blushed. "I-I..."

"I have missed you all..." Louis said. "I am glad to see you here, that we can finally take a break and talk..."

"I can feel they are returning though...!" Timothy said. "Insane that they can survive a fucking black hole!"

"They will take their sweet time," Louis said. "And this bubble has accelerated time a hundred-fold, so do not worry. We can speak in peace."

"If you say so..." Timothy nodded. "Wait, what? Hundred-fold?!"

"They will take approximately three to five minutes to recover," Louis calculated. "At the very least, two and a half or two... We have at least two hundred minutes, almost four hours."

"Haaaa..." Melisa and Selene sighed in relief. The girls were very agitated as they dropped onto the glass-like floor of the bubble.

"I am so exhausted from all these weird memories and dreams inside my head..." Melisa sighed. "B-But I am glad we are not dying instantly like they showed..."

"Hmm..." Selene nodded. "Master Louis, what do we do now? C-Can we really fight such strong beings? It is so unfair... We have been growing so fast but... there are so many powerful beings that do not care and will not wait for us to catch up... They crush us like ants..."

"That is the true nature of this universe. One must learn how to hide and grow stronger in silence before provoking anything or anybody," Louis said. "But unfortunately... I have been targeted since the beginning. Let us sit down, eat, and talk. I will explain everything I have learned in these five hundred years."

Louis snapped his fingers and teleported everyone inside his Inner Macrocosm, to a gigantic planetary system made from all the residual fragments of the seventy dungeons he had eaten and the Immortal Mountains.

Now, the Immortal Mountains had grown into a large planet he had baptized as Murim, and the people inside were thriving. New nations had been forged, and the Qi Sword Sect had risen into an Empire.

Naturally, the Empire's Emperor was Louis. He was greeted with celebration and applause, although he simply waved his hand at them before landing inside his throne room, where a great feast already awaited them.

"Food!!!" Selene cried happily, jumping toward the table and sitting down to eat.

"Let us eat," Louis said.

Everyone ate together, enjoying a grand and luxurious meal despite the dire situation. As they ate, everyone started to feel divinity and cosmic energy coursing through their veins.

"W-What is this power swelling inside me?" Timothy asked in disbelief.

"Wow, this is amazing...!" Agustina said. "W-What did you put into this food, Your Majesty?"

"Several Divine and Cosmic Ingredients I have been growing in the Inner Macrocosm," Louis explained. "As you can see, a lot has happened in five hundred years..."

"T-This is incredible..." Zorba was flabbergasted, taken aback by everything. "Lord Louis... you have truly made use of that time. I can feel it even from here. Your power has grown incredibly."

"Perhaps," Louis said. He seemed strangely humble. The time he had spent suffering must have truly hurt him more than they imagined. His usual high-energy personality was completely gone, and he seemed deeply disturbed and depressed. However, he still smiled at them, showing genuine joy at seeing them. "Now that you are all eating, let me explain what happened."

Louis went on for an hour about everything he had gone through as quickly as he could. His friends enjoyed the meal while listening attentively, learning what Louis had discovered and much more.

"So the reason all of this is happening is because of Oblivion...? A god-like being that is your enemy... I mean, your parallel self's enemy, and somehow he is blaming it all on you? Did I get that right?" Timothy asked.

"It is way more complicated than that, but I suppose we can say it is like that," Louis nodded.

"There was an original and... ugh, I am not made for this complicated stuff," Anastasia sighed, groaning.

"I am sorry..." Louis sighed. "I have dragged you all into this, something that I should have dealt with on my own... You have died so many times already. I do not want to see that ever happen again... I... I will not let it happen again... no more... no more...!"

Although they did not have the exact memories of dying, they knew that something had happened. The only one who kept those memories was Mirai, who remained at his side, hugging him and trying to comfort him.

"Louis... I am here for you..." she said, letting him rest on her shoulder. "I love you... you know that? I will never leave your side, okay? It is fine... you are here with me, with us... it is alright." She kissed his lips, comforting him at a level nobody had seen before.

They had expected the prideful Louis to say he did not need that, but he accepted it in silence and then hugged her back tightly. "I love you too, Mirai... I love you so much... I am sorry... I do not want you to die again... no more..."

"We will not..." Mirai nodded calmly, caressing his head and kissing him many times to show him how much she loved him. "We will not, alright? You have grown so strong... I am sure we can make it now."

"Yeah, that is why..." Louis raised his hand as Mirai finally let go of him. "I have prepared this for you and everyone else."

The Divine Cosmic Soul Treasures he had created emerged. Each one was a weapon made for his friends using Gungnir's own metal and many more materials, even spirits and soul fragments.

They were supreme weapons bordering on Gungnir's level, though not entirely there yet. At Rank 9, they were immensely strong, possessing their own Souls, Egos, and even Spirits.

"T-That is...!" Timothy gasped. "Is that axe for me?! It looks incredible...! W-What the hell is this, Louis?!"

"These are Divine Cosmic Soul Treasures!" Louis declared, recovering some of his confidence and composure after Mirai helped him feel better with her warmth. "I have created each one using the materials I gathered through this entire time, plus Gungnir's own metal, making them her children. I have kept them unnamed, as you will be the ones to name them. I have placed a spell on them: whoever names them becomes their soul-bound masters."

"They are incredible!" Agustina said. "I-I cannot believe it... I am supposed to be the crafter here but... you have surpassed me already, Louis... I am a little jealous, hehe... and now I feel kind of useless too, ugh."

"You are not useless, Agustina," Louis said. "Without you I would have never been able to master Blacksmithing and Crafting to this level. As your Incarnation I was able to share and learn all of that and more from you. Without you, I might have never been able to evolve Gungnir to this level and slay that Venerable with her power."

"R-Really?" Agustina blushed again.

"Although the weapons come in these shapes, I can freely reshape them if you dislike them," Louis said. "Anybody want something different?"

However, there were no objections, so Louis quickly distributed the weapons, which slowly descended into everyone's hands one by one.

"Even I get one?" Zorba was amazed, blushing happily as tears streamed from his eyes. "Master Louis... to hold such a precious creation of yours, made through five hundred years of fighting and struggling for us... I am deeply honored. I shall treasure this forever."

"I also have another gift for you, Zorba," Louis said. "Come with me. I will show him to you."

"Huh?" Zorba's eyes sparkled as he nodded, following Louis happily while everyone else analyzed their new weapons and grew familiar with them.

Louis guided Zorba to a vast open area leading to mountains below the palace. There, Louis opened his palm, and from a deep black shadow, a gigantic being surged.

"GROOOOOHHHHH!"

It roared mightily, exuding Void Shadow and Cosmic Energies. The power of over a hundred cosmic beasts and living reflections was accumulated within it.

"T-This is...!"

Zorba almost skipped a beat as he saw such a magnificent Undead! His hands trembled as he fell to his knees, filled with shock, disbelief, and... love!

"Master Louis, what is this being? Who is this creature?! So incredibly perfect! And... it looks like my dear child, Hecatoncheires?!"

"I made him in his image," Louis said. "This is a powerful being I created using three different skills, a hundred souls and shadows from cosmic beasts, and a few other materials. Its core was forged using fifty cosmic beast hearts too. It is yours."

"R-Really? For me?" Zorba was shocked. "My lord, I could never..."

"Accept it, Zorba," Louis smiled warmly at his friend. "I made it thinking about you... so I want you to have it. It will fight by your side."

"Yes... of course, my lord," Zorba smiled warmly, showing the sincerity, kindness, and emotions deep within his dark heart. Only Louis allowed him to open it. "I will take it... thank you."

"I cannot name you like your big brother though..." Zorba said, rubbing his chin. "Ah! I know! How about I call you after a comparable beast?! Typhon! That is your name!"

FLASH!

Zorba established a bond with the giant Void Shadow Cosmic Beast Specter, gaining immense power as the bond allowed him to obtain a weakened form of Louis's [Void Shadow Extraction]!

A regal armor of shadows surged around him. His horns grew longer and more majestic, and his hair grew longer until it reached his hips, waving majestically under the pressure of this new power.

"W-Wonderful! Incredible! With this power... heheh... we can win, master."

"You think so?"

Zorba noticed Louis was still acting different. "Master, you have grown so strong. What makes you so unconfident?"

"I am confident. I am... well, it is complicated. Do not worry about it, Zorba," he smiled back at his friend, patting his shoulder. "I am happy if you are happy."

"..." Zorba had always seemed like a deeply unsettled and bizarre man, but that was merely the surface of his complex heart. When he saw Lord Louis acting this way, he felt a deep sorrow and wanted to help him in any way he could. Even if he had to embrace the humanity he had long ago left behind once more, for him, he would do anything. "My lord... let us talk. You do not need to bottle up these things."

"Zorba?" Louis was surprised by Zorba's change, though it was subtle, it was indeed unexpected.

"We have little time, right? Even then... as your friend, and... even as your 'brother' as you considered me, please, let us sit down and talk," Zorba said.

"..."

Louis sat down, admiring the mountains beyond. Zorba sat by his side, listening. Louis spoke a little, explaining the pain he had gone through, the agonizing growth, the powers he had obtained, but also... how empty it felt, somehow.

"The stronger I grew, the more it felt like everything started to stop mattering," Louis said. "At some point... I was even able to leave entirely to another Reality, leaving everything behind, even this conflict... I wonder even now if... I should have done such a thing... I chose to stay, knowing I would only continue to suffer..."

"..." Zorba remained silent, thinking. "Hmm, I am no expert in the subject, but I believe there is more to that. You stayed behind because it was the people here, and your family, that gave you purpose. Strength alone is not enough to have a fulfilling life. Even if power grants you freedom, it is the bonds we forge that... make life actually colorful and worth living, right? It is the people around us... who shape our stories, our lives. And no matter how hard... we cannot escape from them. We will always return."

Louis knew Zorba was likely talking about his brother and his past, how much he was abused and yet, because of those bonds and his craving for love, he still wanted to have his brother back and felt deep regret for what he had done to him.

"Maybe you are right..." Louis smiled faintly. "But even still... living five hundred years... I do not know how I did it, and how strangely quickly it all felt, frenetic even. Killing that bastard was cathartic but also... it felt empty. I am certainly not fighting a war where I belonged, but one I was thrown into... fighting against enemies I do not even know. If it had been the Abyssal Mother or the Vultarn High Dominion, even the Gardener... it would have been different, but these beings... it truly made me realize how empty this war is, this entire conflict is."

"Hmmm..." Zorba thought for a moment. "You are right, but we do not have another option, do we? These are the cards we have been given. We must play with them and find a way to survive together and win... And, with the power you have obtained, perhaps a proper revenge against them would be around the corner, yes?"

"As long as we can stop Lisette and Minato... it is definitely a possibility," Louis nodded. "Well, that is all. We cannot waste much more time talking about my stupid head or the foolish thoughts that have accumulated inside the head of a five-hundred-year-old man... Let's go."

"Yes, let's destroy them all, Lord Louis!" Zorba smiled confidently, his eyes gleaming with bloodthirst.

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