Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Final Flash

It was an odd sight. Crude animations, flashy vibrant colors, and loud characters filled the phone's screen. He watched patiently for a long moment, a grin slowly tugging at the corners of his lips. 

‘...Just what in the world?' Lloriel thought, listening to the fast-paced ending melody. The first episode of 'Seven Deadly Sins' ending. 'What did I just see?'

He was no fool. If it was scientific knowledge, the number of people that could be compared to him was negligible, considering the size of his empire. And with the help of primevalight, he'd peered at the universe in its most barest, fundamental forms. 

Lloriel had seen creatures and weaponry with aspects so absurd, they barely pertained to the laws of physics; straining those very rules. Still, in the face of such beasts and technologies, his power was always absolute in the end. But this… this was different.

He gulped, placing the smartphone on his work desk with a trembling hand. ‘Where did Priscilla say she got this, Aya?'

[She didn't.] A pause. [Shall I ask her?]

Nodding, Lloriel closed his eyes, focusing on what he just felt radiate from within the device. 

Power; abundant and near endless.

Every time a character in the cartoon used a magical ability, it pulsed—surging as if to assure him he wasn't going insane, that it was truly there.

‘How?’ he thought, frowning thoughtfully.

The primevalight he felt was different from his own, however, it was in no way inferior. It was similar to the primevalight found ambiently throughout the universe, but it was far purer; much more malleable. Did that mean such power—which acted as a catalyst, and binding force for most of the natural processes in the universe—existed in video formatted imagery?

His grin slowly morphed into a disbelieving smile. That made no sense.

"Unless," Lloriel mumbled, covering his mouth with his free hand, "the worlds aren't actually fictional, but exist in isolated fractions of reality with their own rules and values…"

He paused before bursting into a peal of deep laughter, tears glistening in the corners of his eyes. This was something an actual bored thirteen-year-old would hypothesize. 

That couldn't be it…could it?

Aya pinged him, rattling his contemplation with a message that read: 

[The cube was found on the dead planet Deha. Coordinates to the zone… successfully transmitted to necessary cognitive facilities.]

Once the specifics of location was fully assimilated, Lloriel stood, conjuring a storm of primevalight from his heart. He felt his chest tighten, the energy spilling into his bodily tissue and muscles.

For an instant, his body emitted a harsh, blinding light, dissipating into nothing. The world bleached white, then he was standing in the middle of a grey desert.

A warm gust of wind blew by, flinging dust onto his clothes. Overhead, a large reddish sun beamed down an unforgiving heat.

Deha, one of the first worlds conquered by humanity. He knew of its tragic history, of course. It was once a brilliant hub of knowledge. Sadly, it was shattered during the earliest days of the Starless War.

Lloriel's studious gaze sieved the surroundings, his consciousness slowly growing, fusing with the primevalight he was wrapping around the planet. 

Electrical humming resonated through his head, and he could almost hear the gears lodged in his brain whirr as he created a live mental image of the surface of Deha.

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The image rapidly became more perfect.

He saw and felt everything, the heat of various bubbling volcanic hotspots; the weight of each individual ash flake falling to the ground; the inertia of the parts of Deha that had been separated—yet locked closely in place by gravity—from the planet.

Most importantly, he became one with Deha's unique primevalight wavelength…and—

"—Nothing's out of the ordinary," Lloriel concluded, crouching to the ground. He dug into the rotting earth with his hand, stopping when his fingers met a rough, metallic surface. "Except this."

He gently blew air out his mouth, sweeping away tons of sand from the strange metal floor. Once the artificial sandstorm he created settled meters away, he pulled a few white spheres out of his pockets, throwing them on the ground.

The devices rang audibly against the metal, sounding like a distant thunderstorm, randomly rolling in different directions.

"Dig." The little spheres flashed with cyan light. "Break." One by one, they unfolded, maneuvering maladroitly; activating. "Analyse. I want to know everything about this metal."

They jerked up, then waddled away mechanically to fulfill his request.

He let his gaze sweep the area one more time. Strange happenings "Then…Aya, Play Puppet and Supervise."

[Commands acknowledged.]

Lloriel closed his eyes, splaying his psyche and pushing it along the threads of primevalight connected to his original body.

***

Like pieces of an infinitely complex puzzle, the bits of his awareness snapped together in an empty vassal.

Lloriel's vision shook, unsteady. He let out a small breath, collecting himself, then he picked up the smartphone, closed the Anime DLR app, and clicked on Tachiyomi. Carefully, he tapped on a random title, reading its content.

Perhaps because it was static imagery, this one radiated far more energy than the video format. 

Curious, Lloriel roused his primevalight, concentrating it on his finger. He zoomed in, getting a closer look at the drawing of the 'demon' radiating a dense amount of energy.

He touched the image, and a flash of gentle red lightning crackled to life from the phone, coiling around his hand. The thin, electric bolts felt foreign but they weren't daunting.

Arcs of the crimson energy danced placidly between his fingers, and he watched in a daze; entranced. 

Then.

His heart burst.

Lloriel winced, pulling back his hand. But it was too late. Without a fighting chance, he felt a violent torrent of sudden energy pull at him.

Red bled into his field of vision, obscuring the many errors from Aya's systems. That didn't matter. Nothing did. For the first time since his birth, Lloriel felt completely helpless. His primevalight severed from his heart and will.

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