Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

Deep within the asteroid belt on the outskirts of the Thousand Star City star system, darkness, like a blob of ink, shrouded the flagship hidden behind the battlefield wreckage, like a silent hunter lying in wait. On the bow, the jet-black cannon barrel was suppressing a terrifying energy.

The Pirate King directed the raid from his lair, his fingertips lightly tapping the armrest with a steady rhythm. Even after weathering the storm, the countdown before revealing his trump card was like watching the hour hand of a clock nervously approaching zero. Each count resonated deeply in his mind.

"Your Majesty, everything is ready, and we can fire at any time," a crew member reported to the pirate king. He turned sideways and bowed his head, slowing his tone and breathing, as if afraid of disturbing the pirate king's thoughts.

"Wait a little longer," the Pirate King's voice was hoarse and deep, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other. His gaze never left the holographic projection showing the live battlefield, his eyes deep and focused like a warrior lying in ambush in the grass.

The fluctuating parameters indicated the weapon's monitoring status. In fact, they didn't know much about this weapon, which was considered a trump card. This giant cannon was excavated from ancient ruins, and the technology it contained was completely shrouded in mystery.

Even if the pirates invited the most knowledgeable experts in ancient history, they could only glean fragments from the ruins, knowing that it was an experimental weapon that was once installed on a warship called "Titan".

With their technical expertise, this weapon will only have one chance to fire at most, so it will only be a last resort, destined to deliver the decisive blow.

The holographic projection rotated slightly, and countless pirate warships surged towards the City of a Thousand Stars from all directions like a flood rushing out of a reservoir, with cannon fire roaring and rays intertwining.

Casualties were escalating constantly, but this noisy battlefield was nothing more than a carefully crafted facade.

The Foundation believed that the Pirate Alliance's target was the City of a Thousand Stars, but under the Pirate Alliance's all-encompassing offensive, the Foundation, as a global behemoth, was actually the easiest to infiltrate.

The fleets that failed to deploy in time, the core of the Thousand Star City that was tested to meet the Undead Dragon but could not operate at full power during wartime, and the ammunition depot of the Celestial Fortress that exploded at a critical moment... The Pirate King had tailor-made a trap for the Undead Dragon and the Thousand Star City.

All the fierce attacks were part of this conspiracy, all aimed at giving the ancient weapon mounted on the flagship that one and only chance to launch a sneak attack.

"My lord, the target has entered the preset zone," a crew member suddenly reported urgently. In the holographic projection, the undead dragon destroyed another group of pirate warships. The psionic energy reading surged to its peak and had just begun to decline. It was a time when the old power had not yet dissipated and the new power had not yet been generated.

The pirate king's tapping stopped abruptly, and he issued the most crucial command: "Fire."

As the command was given, the ancient weapon at the bow of the flagship finally ceased its suppression. Under the impact of this energy being released outward, the bow shattered first, like glass being crushed under a giant hammer.

The black aura at the top of the cannon barrel suddenly surged, and a black ray shot out from the barrel like a venomous snake breaking free of its restraints, leaving a brief scar in the starry sky.

That trajectory was not a remnant of light and shadow, but a trace that damaged space and was beyond their technological level to comprehend. The surrounding starlight and interstellar dust were silently swallowed by this black ray, as if it were a condensed black hole itself, leaving everything silent in its wake.

There were no surging waves, no dazzling light, only a pure, suffocating darkness, like a death scythe silently slicing across the chaotic battlefield, heading towards the direction of the undead dragon.

Lin Ziming sensed the anomaly. His psionic energy activated on its own, sending him a premonitional warning. He instantly stopped the psionic wave that was destroying the pirate warship like setting off firecrackers, and instead deployed a psionic shield.

However, the black ray was so fast that it seemed to have no time to pass through the starry sky. The moment the psionic shield was activated, the black ray had already reached him.

A silent collision occurred, without an explosion, only an eerie silence.

The black ray struck Lin Ziming's psionic shield with pinpoint accuracy. The seemingly indestructible shield cracked under the impact of the black ray, creating a hole. The black ray then passed through the hole and continued towards Lin Ziming's body.

This was the only time in the entire battle that an attack from the Undead Dragon was successfully hit.

The black ray instantly pierced through Lin Zimo's silvery-white living metal layer without encountering any resistance, as if the dense metal was nothing more than a thin layer of mist in front of this ray.

A tiny, pitch-black hole appeared on the metal layer on Lin Ziming's body. The surrounding living metal was dissolving and annihilating at a visible speed, disappearing as if it were being swallowed up.

The Pirate King sat calmly on his throne, his gaze shifting slightly as he looked at the magnified holes on the undead dragon in the holographic projection.

He commanded through the communication channel: "He is wounded. Send my order: obtain His body fragments at all costs."

The pirate crew, however, lacked this composure. They only knew that the mission given to them by the Pirate King was about to be completed, and the future promised by the king—the future of running rampant in the river system—was just around the corner. Some pirates even began to cheer uncontrollably.

They brandished their weapons, beaming with victorious smiles. In their eyes, this unparalleled final blow had struck the undead dragon. No matter how powerful this mysterious behemoth was, it would be severely injured even if it didn't die.

If they can obtain a fragment of His body, they will have won—they will have defeated the Boros Universal Foundation and the entire galaxy.

The chaos on the battlefield continued, but the pirate warships' attacks subtly slowed down. Their eyes were all focused on Lin Ziming, waiting for the behemoth to fall, waiting for the moment to rush up and seize the fragments of his body. Their wealth and glory, their arrogance and domineering attitude, the ladder to advancement had been laid out.

However, Lin Ziming's movements did indeed stop. His wings ceased flapping, the active spiritual energy around him quieted down, the silvery-white living metal layer stopped flowing, and the originally cold luster dimmed at this moment.

He lowered his head, his skeletal dragon head tilted slightly, examining the hole in his body.

Through that tiny hole, a deep, unsettling black-red hue quietly emerged from beneath the silver-white metal layer, like lifting a curtain from a box to reveal what lay hidden inside.

That deep blackish-red hue was exposed in the sea of ​​stars, and the surrounding living metal was being eroded at a visible rate.

At first, the dark red color slowly seeped out of the hole like a trickle, like vines climbing a tree, wrapping around the silvery-white metal and gradually engulfing it.

Soon, the blackish-red color became even more turbulent, as if it had broken free of its restraints, bursting out from the hole and sweeping towards Lin Ziming's entire dragon bone body.

"The Death of Zero" has been liberated.