Arc III.5: “Zero”
Chapter II: “Conquest of Utopia”
Episode I: “Chrollo”
“Divine beings and spirits have resistance to the vacuum of space,” Chrollo said, like he was reciting a basic fact. “I’ll make a barrier for the two of you—land the ship over there.”
He pointed at a massive space rock drifting a short distance away—too large to be debris, too ugly to be a moon.
“Y-yeah…” Raida swallowed and guided the ship down.
The moment they touched down, Chrollo raised one hand.
A dense barrier unfolded around the rock in a clean sphere—air blooming inside it like a summoned ocean. Sound returned. Pressure returned. Gravity felt like it remembered how to exist.
Raida and Kukito stared at it from the ship’s ramp, hesitating.
Chrollo looked back, annoyed. “Raida… and Kukito, right?” His gaze flicked over their uniforms. “Step in. And go ahead—unleash your full output.”
He paused, then added flatly, “If you don’t want to die, that is.”
They entered.
The instant their boots crossed the barrier line, their bodies buckled.
It wasn’t gravity. It was aether density—the air itself saturated with power, pressing into their meridians like wet stone.
“Hng—!” Raida dropped to one knee. Kukito’s breath hitched, shoulders tensing as if he’d been hit.
Chrollo blinked. “Oh. Right.”
He rotated his wrist once, like turning a dial.
The pressure eased—still heavy, but survivable. Raida and Kukito straightened, panting.
Just how powerful is this guy…?
“Come,” Chrollo said, curling his fingers toward himself. “I’ll test you both at once.”
Raida forced a grin through sweat. “Alright then… back me up, Kukito!”
Raida flared his aura and shot forward.
“R-right!” Kukito’s aura surged as he followed, faster than a heartbeat.
They attacked together—Raida’s controlled rhythm, Kukito’s disciplined force—aiming to compress Chrollo’s movement options from both sides.
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Chrollo didn’t move.
He pivoted in place—barely shifting his feet—yet every strike missed by a hair, like he was stepping between frames of time.
“You’re slow,” he said casually.
Raida gritted his teeth. “Then how about this—Ultraviolet Beam!”
A thin line of concentrated light detonated from point-blank range.
Smoke swallowed Chrollo.
When it cleared—
He was standing exactly where he had been.
Unscathed.
Chrollo lifted his left hand. The beam’s remaining force crackled against his palm like it was trying to argue—and then collapsed into a contained burst he simply let explode.
Raida’s face went pale. “Not even… a scratch.”
Kukito dropped his stance, muscles tightening. “Then how about this?”
He inhaled and circulated Utopic aether through his meridians—Flow compressing, Flux rising—until his body hardened like forged gold.
“HAA—! Utopic Boost… Level Two!!”
A golden aura wrapped him, brighter and denser than before. His Yield spiked.
Chrollo tilted his head. “Oh. You can transform now.”
Kukito blitzed.
His blows came fast—controlled, heavy, clean—each one aimed like an answer to a question. For a moment, it almost looked like Chrollo might have to actually step back.
“Whoa…” Raida whispered, stunned. I had no idea Kukito was this strong… He might even be on par with Ryoda.
Chrollo avoided every strike anyway—small movements, impossible timing—then his eyes narrowed.
No gesture. No visible technique.
Just a shift in presence—Divine Pressure tightening like a chord.
Kukito’s meridians stuttered.
His aura flickered—then collapsed, his form dropping out as he was launched backward, skidding across the barrier ground.
Kukito’s eyes widened. W-what was that—!?
“He didn’t even touch him…” Raida muttered, voice thin.
Chrollo scratched his cheek with one finger. “Wow,” he said, almost disappointed. “Utopians have gotten… weak.”
Raida bristled.
“I thought you two would keep up at this setting,” Chrollo continued, glancing at the barrier as if it were a miscalculation. “Seems I still haven’t adjusted to the average skill level of this era.”
He exhaled. “No matter. That’s enough.”
Raida and Kukito lowered their stances slowly, their bodies still tense like they expected death to arrive late.
Chrollo lifted both hands, palms open.
On his left, a dark shape gathered—heavy, hungry, collapsing light into itself.
On his right, an orange-gold shimmer formed—thin at first, then widening like a field of heat.
“It would make more sense to raise your baseline Yield,” Chrollo said. “But that takes time.”
His mouth curved. “I don’t feel like spending mine.”
Raida’s throat bobbed. Kukito’s eyes narrowed.
“Instead,” Chrollo continued, “I’ll teach you something I made.”
“Is that… an energy type you invented?” Raida’s voice shook with excitement he couldn’t fully hide. “Kukito—this might be insane.”
Kukito kept his face controlled, but his heart hitched. “We’ve come this far.”
He glanced at Chrollo, then at the hands holding two different states of power.
“…And it’s not like we can refuse.”
Raida nodded hard. “We’ll do it!”
“We’ll do it,” Kukito echoed.
Chrollo sighed as if they’d asked for dessert. “Fine.”
He looked between them. “Which do you want? Negative? Or Environmental?”
“Environmental!” Raida blurted.
“Negative,” Kukito said at the same time.
Chrollo stared. “…I have to teach both?”
He rubbed his forehead. “Awful.”
Then his eyes sharpened again. “Whatever. I already decided you’d survive long enough to matter.”
Kukito stepped forward carefully. “So, what are these? How are they different from what we’re already using?”
Chrollo’s expression went distant, bored with how far behind mortals always were.
“I didn’t invent a new origin,” he said, raising one finger. “All power returns to one source—an unlimited, unrivaled origin.”
He interlocked his fingers, then pulled them apart as if splitting a single note into many harmonics.
“After that divergence, you get Natural aether—what mortals circulate. Ambient and Environmental aether—what the cosmos and nature carry. Divine aether—what higher beings can sustain. Same root.”
He dropped his hands. “Different harmonics.”
Raida swallowed. “W-wow…”
“Primordials,” Chrollo continued, “were made with bodies that innately hold more than one harmonic at once—Natural and Divine. That’s why we can… invent.”
His eyes flickered with something darker, like a memory.
“Negative aether,” he said, letting the dark shape thicken, “is conversion through collapse. You take a significant source—external or internal—and tune it into a more potent, devouring state. It eats resistance. It eats mistakes.”
Then he glanced at the orange-gold shimmer. “Environmental aether is the opposite impulse. There was a time when I wanted endurance that didn’t end. So, I learned how to compile the minuscule ambient presence around me—turning the environment into fuel.”
Raida and Kukito stood frozen, trying to process the scale of what he was describing.
One person… can wield all that?
Chrollo’s gaze returned—cold, clear, impatient.
“Now,” he said, “let’s get started.”
[Next Time on Lyte of Utopia]: “Greed of Zereth”
[Yield Levels]:
Chrollo: ???
- Suppressed + Divine Pressure: 11z
Raida: 20,000
- Ultraviolet Beam: x200
Kukito: 15,000
- Utopic Boost (Level 2): 150,000