Valerian laughed. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated madness.
He threw himself onto the Throne of Shards, feeling the cold metal dig into his spine. He didn't care. He grabbed the neural interface cables hanging from the ceiling and jammed them into the socket at the base of his skull.
"Power!" he screamed, his voice amplified by the hall's speakers. "I can feel it! The sky, the orbital cannons, the gravity engines... It's all mine!"
The red light of the throne intensified, bathing the funeral hall in the color of blood. The aristocrats below bowed their heads, trembling. They had no choice. The one who sat on the throne was the Emperor.
Ceres stood to the side, pressing a hand to her bleeding neck. Her face was pale, but her golden eyes were burning with a strange, mocking light.
"Are you enjoying it, Valerian?" she asked softly. Her voice cut through the chaos like a blade of ice.
"Enjoying it? I am it!" Valerian roared, his cybernetic eye spinning wildly. "I am the God of this new age! And you... you are just a battery I used to—"
[BEEP.]
A sharp, dissonant sound echoed through the hall. It wasn't the hum of power. It was the screech of rejection.
Valerian froze.
Above the throne, a massive holographic screen materialized. It wasn't gold, the color of the Imperial Family. It was a deep, chaotic crimson.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Unauthorized Access Detected.] [User ID: Valerian. Bloodline Status: CORRUPTED / FALSE.] [Action: PURGE.]
"What?" Valerian's smile cracked. He yanked at the cables, but they were locked into his skull. "No! I have the Saintess's blood! I have the key!"
"You have the blood," Ceres said, stepping forward. Her liquid black dress began to ripple, changing its shape. The soft fabric hardened, turning into sleek, obsidian armor plates. "But you forgot one thing, little Prince."
She walked up the steps of the dais, ignoring the terrifying energy radiating from the throne.
"This chair wasn't built for a thief."
She placed her blood-stained hand on the armrest.
The crimson warning lights vanished instantly. The screeching alarm died. A soothing, melodic chime rang out, sounding like a bell from a forgotten era.
[Bio-Signature Confirmed.] [Welcome back, Administrator 001.] [System Control: Transferred.]
Valerian screamed as the neural cables ripped themselves out of his head, sparking violently. He collapsed onto the floor, clutching his bleeding skull.
"Impossible..." he gasped, looking up at the woman standing above him. She looked terrifyingly tall. The data streams around her seemed to bow in submission. "You're just a prisoner... a relic..."
"I am the Past you tried to erase," Ceres commanded. "And the Future you will never see."
She waved her hand. "Guardians. Reboot."
The twelve Royal Mecha-Knights standing guard around the hall suddenly froze. Their blue optical sensors flickered out, then reignited in gold. In unison, they turned their massive cannons away from the crowd and pointed them directly at the man on the floor.
"Fire," Ceres whispered.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Plasma bolts tore through the dais. Valerian was thrown back like a ragdoll, his white uniform instantly soaked in red.
He lay amidst the shattered crystals, gasping for air. His chest was a ruin. He was dying.
Ceres walked over and looked down at him. There was no triumph in her eyes, only a profound emptiness.
Valerian's remaining human eye blinked rapidly. The pain was excruciating, but something worse was happening. The Law of Oblivion was kicking in. The trauma was too great for his mind to hold onto.
His gaze lost focus. He looked at his own blood, confused. Then he looked at Ceres.
"Who..." Valerian's voice was weak, filled with a childlike bewilderment. "Who are you?"
He had forgotten her name. He had forgotten he wanted to be Emperor. He had forgotten why he was dying.
"Why..." a tear leaked from his eye. "Why does it hurt?"
Ceres knelt down, her face inches from his. She didn't offer him comfort. She offered him the cruelest truth.
"It hurts because the world is broken, Valerian. And you are just a glitch that has been corrected."
She stood up and turned her back on him. Behind her, the Prince of the Silver Empire drew his last breath, dying as a stranger to his own life.
Ceres looked at the holographic map of the galaxy floating above the throne. She swiped her hand, zooming in on a cluster of broken asteroids in a distant sector.
Target: The Dragon's Domain.
"System," she ordered. "Prepare the Royal Starship. I have a date with a Dragon King."