"This is… It can't be… It can't be a… An entirely dead galaxy…"

The words left Lars' lips as a barely audible breath of air. He looked here and there in the complex sigil formed by the new law, hoping to prove himself wrong. However, even after scrutinizing corner after corner and thread after thread, Lars could only resign himself to accept his inference.

This was likely… An actual image of a dead galaxy.

There were no signs of any forms of life, no fluctuations apart from the natural motions of the stars and celestial bodies – but even these stars were already dead while the bodies were cold and barren.

Lars felt as if a cold, tight claw gripped his heart as chilling thoughts began to flit through his mind. He weighed these thoughts against each other, first selecting the most likely conclusions, then re-evaluating and discarding these as other pieces of information were a.n.a.lysed and confirmed.

Finally, his eyelids closed softly as he arrived at the most likely conclusion.

"If not mistaken… This scene… I, I can only wish, can only hope that I'm wrong… But I'm 87.36% certain…"

Speaking to himself, Lars paused mid-sentence, voice choking up slightly. A tremor could be seen running through his body at the revulsion and sense of wrong-ness about it all, about the deduction he had made through the picture of this dead galaxy.

Eyes re-opening, looking sad and dejected, the idealistic young man who cared for all life and for all people more than he would ever admit could only sigh as he spoke the words he dreaded hearing himself.

"This scene… Comes from the actual extinguis.h.i.+ng of an entire galaxy… An act of absolute entropy…"

"Why…? Why do galaxies fall? Why does life in hundreds of millions of planets… End? Who did this…?" Lars mused, but he knew he was speaking in rhetoric, voicing out questions that he already knew the answers to.

And as if responding like a mischievous child who was caught red-handed stealing candy, the rune tapestry of the new law pulsed with a sinister black light, as if confirming what Lars had already deduced.

"From this law's resonance… The originator of this destruction is entirely caused by…"

"The owner of this law…"

Lars' fists balled up tightly as he gripped so hard that cracking sounds could be heard from his knuckles. Though his fingernails pressed deep into the surface of his palms, no blood was drawn – his skin was too tough for that. Nonetheless, he could feel the pain in his hands – but this pain could not compare to the pain and hate he had in his heart towards the creature.

He knew now why the scenes of carnage were so strong and in such great variety, with populations of star systems being ma.s.sacred by the hands of the creature, entire civilisations and cultures snuffed out…

And why it called itself the Desolator.

Keeping the memories aside but marking them in his mind, Lars determined himself to never let this creature appear again. A thirst for greater power, surpa.s.sing knowledge and all-conquering might surfaced in his heart stronger than ever before. This time, he needed strength more than ever not just to protect himself and those he loved, but to preserve the life of the galaxies.

And even if he didn't really know just what galaxy he was in right now, he surmised that this realm and the Abyss were likely two galaxies that had intersected, both with vastly different systems of power and inhabitants.

Nonetheless, when faced with the creature known as the Desolator… Lars s.h.i.+vered. It didn't matter whether one side was called Devils – they would just as soon be snuffed out by this vile destroyer… At least the Devils wanted to conquer and not just wipe out all existence!

Considering the dark law pulsing innocently in his soul-realm, Lars was tempted to just shatter it and purge it from his memories, but he realised that he couldn't.

Instead, he placed it to one side, the rune looking deceptively beautiful as it twinkled with myriad lines flowing in endless variation within.

"The Desolator… I guess I'll call this the law of Desolation…"

He needed this law, if only to understand it fully, comprehend it to the limits and hopefully, counter-act the creature's powers once and for all.

To do that… He needed to find out how his parents had sealed it, to understand the law of Insight, to understand the seals formed, to uncover the hidden history of such a monumental event…

On top of that, he still had to resolve the issues of Earth, the All-Heaven Divine Empire, wrap things up on Yiluo planet, repay his debts here on Penjara…

Lars sighed. There was just too much left to do and he felt the burden weigh heavily on his shoulders. He could feel tension in his neck and he ma.s.saged his neck subconsciously, though it was impossible for the muscles of his surpa.s.singly mighty physical body to actually ache.

And he realised he was… Feeling alone in this battle against a veritable storm of challenges.

His thoughts went to his fallen companions both in this world and before, and wished that he had such good companions with him right now.

His thoughts turned to his closest friend of the past year – Kizorik. Even though the lil' penguin guy had his quirks, he was someone Lars felt he could trust entirely. Not because of the contract they had between them, but because of the bond they had formed, one that had started out as a contractual obligation but had developed into what he felt was a true friends.h.i.+p.

Kizorik also had knowledge of odd things that somehow often ended up useful for the situations at hand.

But most of all…

"I miss him…"

Lars sighed as he lifted his feet to move on. He needed to scout out the cave and learn the means of forming inter-planetary teleportation, or at least to secure this site for his return to Yiluo.

He stepped foot into the cave of the crawler, one step at a time - but the steps felt very heavy, as heavy as his heart.

He missed his buddy.

"If only Kizorik were with me right now… There's so much I wish I could discuss with him, plan out and tap on his eons of experience…"

"…Kiddo?"

"WHAYEITIM-WHO!??" Lars leapt up in shock, head hitting the ceiling of the cave and sending a great web of hairline cracks through the rock surface. But Lars had no attention to spare for that, as he could barely contain the shock and elation overwhelming him right now as he heard that familiar, annoying, loveable/ despicable voice.

"Is… Is that…" Lars' mind spun as he turned his gaze inwards to his soul-realm, and when he did so, tears of joy flooded his eyes.

He saw a little fluffy 1.5 foot tall black and white oval-shaped bird, flapping his wings crazily but barely leaving the surface of the ground. He chuckled inside, wondering why his little buddy didn't just use his powers to fly – but that didn't matter.

"It's… It's really you..." he breathed out in shock and disbelief as his soul-body stepped forward, then began to run forward desperately, vision practically blurred out completely but not caring as he dashed towards his buddy, who was also rus.h.i.+ng towards him.

"Ki… Kiddo… KIDDO!!!!"

And when they crashed into one another, one young man/ boy and one penguin demon were reduced to blubbering ma.s.ses of tears as they wept/ laughed/ rejoiced, boy and pet reunited once more.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PET?!?!?"

…

Erm, boy and his demon contractor, reunited again…

"…"

"That's better."