Zero was quite certain he could survive in this place, because it was merely a library.
He clenched his frostbitten hands. In the thermal imaging from the armor's internal temperature monitoring system, his limbs showed up blue, and the exterior of his armor was even deeper in frost. In order to preserve the ancient books, the air inside the library had long been kept dry and cold. After being separated from the energy pack, most of the temperature control systems had stopped functioning; only a few emergency systems struggled to operate, relying on small backup batteries and kinetic motors to resist the loss of body heat. This was necessary—he was playing the role of an alien merchant, and only by removing his weapons could he enter this library of the Shi'ar Empire. This was one of Zero's required courses—learning and understanding alien cultures, comprehending how other species in the galaxy operated and survived, especially those extraterrestrial empires of the cosmos. His master believed Zero could draw wisdom from the developmental histories of these races.
This humanoid species, evolved from some kind of avian egg-laying creature, possessed four limbs similar to humans, which reinforced Zero's belief in what his master had said—that humans were the most perfect species in the universe, the most flawless creation of the Celestials' genetic engineering. The Shi'ar Empire was a rigidly stratified militaristic race, and Zero could easily distinguish the two castes by the crests on their heads. One was a triangular pointed style, the other a messy flat-topped style, resembling how ancient Egyptian nobles manipulated skull development in their offspring to denote a class that did not need to bear loads atop their heads. This indicated that Shi'ar people in the past often used their heads to help carry objects.
The owner of this library was one such noble. The most prominent display case in the library contained the noble's bloodline chart, accompanied by the feather patterns on his forearms, serving as proof of his ancient lineage. Zero had already browsed this chart and found lines that supported his hypotheses. But what surprised him most was that, as an interstellar civilization, the Shi'ar Empire had an explicit ban on art—Shi'ar believed art distorted thought, was a sign of madness and deviance, and the punishment for harboring artistic dreams was death. In the past, there had been a race that reawakened the Shi'ar's capacity for imagination, and the Shi'ar had destroyed that race without hesitation, eradicating all music, paintings, and sculptures, and launching a massive internal purge—all to eliminate this "stain" from the genetic level.
Zero knew why the Shi'ar did this.
They were a race tormented by extradimensional evil gods, so close to the veil between reality and illusion that some mutated Shi'ar developed the ability to see through that thin curtain and influence the minds of others. Those with this ability were often mentally affected by the spiritual realm, displaying abnormal imaginative capabilities, creating works of art that could affect others. The library of Kamar-Taj recorded several uprisings within the Shi'ar Empire, and in each case, there were mysterious and terrifying deformed beings—wherever these beings appeared, horrifying sacrificial rituals followed. To prevent such things from happening again, the Shi'ar Empire completely outlawed all artistic behavior, even working at the genetic level to eliminate the capacity to dream.
But such innate abilities could not be fully erased—the owner of this library was someone who still had the ability to dream.
Zero had infiltrated the noble's banquet, seeking an opportunity to assassinate the noble who was performing foul sacrificial rites. However, the plan didn't go smoothly. Upon entering the banquet, he was forced to surrender all his weapons, and only his armor, serving as a life-support device, made it through inspection. After receiving a Halloween gift from his master, he was thrown onto a spaceship, and from the moment he arrived on this planet until now, the internal timer of his armor had counted fifteen Earth days. Now he had found a way—several hours earlier, the trap he had laid at the banquet was about to bear fruit. Soon, the noble would bring his steward to this deep part of the library to privately purchase a gemstone accessory of immense value and exquisite artistic beauty.
"Old Krodda. Go prepare a gift for our great Baron Nelarmani. I'll wait here to receive him," he called to his alien servant. The voice that came through his mask was mechanical, revealing no hint of age. "Get moving, you lazy bones. Don't forget who picked you up off the streets."
"Y-Yes, Master. I'm going now, going now." The washed-up servant shivered from the cold, tiptoeing toward the lounge. This servant was an old vagrant Zero had picked up at the spaceport. After Zero paid for a luxurious bath that only nobles and the rich could afford, and fed him a full meal, this vagrant—nicknamed "Old Krodda"—naturally became his servant. "Old Krodda" never asked unnecessary questions. He didn't even know what "questions" were. Years of malnutrition had nearly ground his soul to dust. He had no egg of his own, no personal incubation room, not even his own nest. If someone were to shoot him now, it would be a mercy. He was a flat-topped commoner. Even though the Shi'ar Empire granted extraordinary social status to imperial citizens, there were still some who ended up with nothing. After all, the Shi'ar Empire, as a commercial union, prioritized profit over social stability.
According to "Old Krodda" himself, he was once a proud member of a death commando unit—but no one believed that tall tale.
Watching the servant's retreating figure, Zero took a deep breath of the dried air. Even without powerful weapons, the mysterious genetic alchemy had given him strength, speed, and intelligence far beyond that of ordinary beings. This allowed him to use the small knife built into his armor as an assassination tool and still fight his way out.
This was part of Zero's testing—he was the prototype of the Royal Guards, undergoing various field tests of his capabilities.
Assassination was just one of them, and he had the ability to carry it out. His escape plan was already set. The noble's name would become a footnote on his medal of honor.
"I really don't think this will be difficult for him."
Solomon stared into the water mirror. The white breath of Royal Guard Zero was clearly visible under the pale lights of the library. Maya Hansen watched the silver basin nervously, fearing that her painstakingly developed experiment would fail in the upcoming operation. "If he fails... save him."
"If he can't even complete this mission, I'll only retrieve his corpse."
"Why are you so cold!" Maya Hansen whipped her head around, looking like a lioness. "He can contain your power—we'll never find another test subject like him again!"
"Precisely because of that, he must endure trials that no ordinary person could survive. This is merely a mission to assassinate an alien cultist. If he can't even do that, it means all our work is a failure, meaningless. It would mean he cannot bear the power we've given him." Solomon shook his head. "But I believe he can. His soul is connected to mine. That's not just the result of genetic alchemy—it's a connection brought by his bloodline."
"What's so special about the Macedonian bloodline?"
"No, not the bloodline of the Byzantine emperor. More precisely, it's the bloodline of Theodora, sister of Zoe I." \[Note 1] "This child has some kind of connection to me—a connection that existed even before the gene modification surgery. That's why he survived the transformation and could contain my power."
"It's said that Theodora was imprisoned in a monastery for 14 years by her sister Zoe I, and even during their joint reign, she refused to marry. How could…" Maya Hansen thought of a possibility, one that made her spine go cold. "You mean… you're capable of producing offspring with normal people?"
"I don't know, Maya. It might be a genetic engineering product I created after jumping through time in the future. It doesn't mean I did anything with Theodora."
\[Note 1] Empress Theodora, the last empress of the Byzantine Empire, final ruler of the Macedonian dynasty.
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I Am Zeus, KING OF GODS (Chapter 79)
Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 391)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 471)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 677)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 1059)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1418)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1422)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1452)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1504)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld!(Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 703)
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