Zegna

Biography

Jupiter's Lightning and the Lava World

Zegna is the Radiant Moon chief of Jupiter's Lightning and the power holding its mixed ranks of Morning Star recruits together. He uses the coordinates of the Lava World to trap the Ouroboros Clan's three Dukes, then builds influence there through the Mobius Organization and agents such as Loke. Atlan's suppression and the foreign World Will prevent him from safely descending with his ordinary main-body power, so he relies on Morning Star subordinates and a specially cleansed Rank 5 clone. (Chapters 561–572)

The clone allies with Archibald against Scarlet Eye and can use black lightning, spatial movement, and Radiant Moon force inside Lava World without immediate rejection. Zegna's real objective is the phoenix egg, whose energy he believes can support advancement to Rank 6. By the time he reaches it, however, the clone is already injured; Leylin Farlier combines Fireplume, Giant Kemoyin transformation, and petrification to destroy it. (Chapters 572–578)

The loss is strategic as well as personal. Leylin distributes Lava World's coordinates to Wayde, bringing another Warlock force into territory Zegna intended to monopolize and destroying his relationship with local rulers. Zegna recognizes Leylin as an obstacle to Breaking Dawn and shifts from indirect containment toward assassination. (Chapters 578–583)

Curses and an escalating private war

Zegna uses Jupiter's Lightning's personnel and wealth to hire powerful Magi against Leylin while he works from the Pond of Lamentation in his Magus Tower. He authorizes an ancient cross-spatial curse that sends black masks along a remote connection and cripples its target. The operation consumes twenty-one percent of the Pond's reserves before counterattack is considered, demonstrating that even a Radiant Moon's curse depends on accumulated souls and installation energy. (Chapters 583–598)

Leylin uses the Sun's Child imprint to destroy the hired Radiant Moon and drives part of Sun Scorching Nirvana backward through the curse. The redirected law-bearing flame penetrates Zegna's tower, reduces his body to a charred arm, and forces the Pond to reconstruct him and suppress the remaining fire. Survival consumes more than half of the installation's energy in addition to the original casting cost. Zegna lives, but his tower, body, and central resource are all badly damaged. (Chapters 597–599)

The reversal confirms that Zegna's power still has causal exposure: a curse capable of crossing space also creates a route back to its caster. His anger repeatedly threatens rational judgment, while the woman advising him pushes him toward another plan after the Pond is nearly exhausted. (Chapters 599–625)

The Pond's final counterattack

Zegna dies off-page before Leylin can confront his main body again. The exact scene is not narrated, but Melinda—his hidden teacher and the power within the female face on his arm—later supplies the mechanism. She had warned that if Zegna ran out of power, the spirits accumulated in the Pond of Lamentation would counterattack him. Her performance and immediate takeover strongly indicate that she allowed or arranged that failure once he ceased to be useful. (Chapters 628–630)

Melinda inherits Jupiter's Lightning and ends its military and diplomatic operations against the Ouroboros Clan. Zegna's organization, clone work, tower, and centuries of accumulation thus become resources for the teacher who helped raise him to Radiant Moon. His death completes the same pattern that marked his war with Leylin: he possesses great power, but relies on systems whose hidden dependencies can be turned against their apparent owner. (Chapters 628–654)

Appearance and personality

Zegna wears black and gold and bears a moon rune on his forehead. His movement can dissolve into a streak of black lightning, matching the identity of Jupiter's Lightning and his title Night Phantom.

He is proud, vindictive, and prone to destructive rage when subordinates fail. As a high-ranked Magus he can regain composure and negotiate when benefits demand it, but Leylin repeatedly provokes decisions that consume disproportionate resources. His dependence on Melinda also reveals a blind spot beneath his suspicion of everyone else.

Magic, bloodline, and abilities

Radiant Moon rank and black lightning

Zegna is a Rank 5 Radiant Moon Magus. His soul force and personal combat power exceed Morning Star, and he can move or transform into black lightning at extreme speed. A Radiant Moon clone retains Rank 5 undulations and can fight other rulers inside Lava World, but remains weaker than the main body and becomes vulnerable after sustained combat. (Chapters 561–578)

His ambition is Breaking Dawn, not an achieved Rank 6 state. The phoenix egg is valuable because he believes it can support that advancement, and losing it leaves the bottleneck unresolved. Neither organizational authority nor a Rank 5 clone should be mistaken for mastery of laws. (Chapters 577–583)

Cleansed Rank 5 clone

The clone is prepared through an ancient method that preserves Radiant Moon strength while cleansing enough mental signature to evade immediate classification as a foreign enemy. It lets Zegna act where his main body would draw the World Will's suppression. Its limitations are severe: it is weaker than the original, shares Zegna's objectives, and can be permanently destroyed without killing the main body. (Chapters 566–578)

Ancient curse across space

Working through the Pond of Lamentation, Zegna and his adviser cast a curse that crosses spatial separation as swarming black masks. It has crippling effects beyond ordinary Rank 5 curse work, but costs a fixed twenty-one percent of the Pond's reserves and exposes a connection back to the caster. Leylin follows that path with Sun Scorching Nirvana, turning range into a liability. (Chapters 597–599)

Pond of Lamentation and Magus Tower

The Pond is a soul-filled installation built from Zegna's accumulated wealth. It supplies curse energy, reconstructs his body from a surviving arm, and uses distorted spirits to form a shield and suppress law-bearing flame. These are installation-derived effects. They consume the Pond's black gas rapidly, and Melinda warns that the contained spirits will attack if Zegna lacks enough power to control them. (Chapters 583–599, 630)

Zegna's Magus Tower surrounds the Pond with restrictions and normally adds the defense expected of a Radiant Moon residence. It cannot stop redirected Sun's Child flame; the tower is devastated and the Pond loses most of its reserves. The same spirit system later becomes the stated cause of Zegna's death. (Chapters 597–630)

Organization and cross-world strategy

Zegna commands Jupiter's Lightning, suppresses its recruited Morning Stars, builds the Mobius network, negotiates with native rulers, and hires specialists for assassination. These abilities let him threaten worlds without personally appearing, but require loyalty and compensation. Losses to core Morning Stars, exposure of world coordinates, and Melinda's hidden agenda progressively strip away that network. (Chapters 561–630)

Relationships

• Leylin Farlier: Nemesis who destroys his clone and reverses his curses.
• Melinda: Teacher, hidden adviser, successor, and likely architect of his death.

Items

Zegna's principal strategic resource is the Pond of Lamentation, a spirit-filled installation used for curses and experiments.