“W-wha..?” Lazarus shot his eyes open.

What happened? He couldn’t remember. Lazarus could feel a pit in his stomach. His heart throbbed violently, his breath ragged. He looked at his hands, and it was shaking violently.

He felt like something was coming after him.

*Huff-huff*

What was happening?

Lazarus’s head throbbed painfully. He clutched his head and knelt down. It was painful to think.

Then…

He felt sharp teeth sinking into his skin from every corner of his body. A primal fear took over. He was going to die.

“N-no!!” Lazarus began thrashing. “S-stop! Don’t heellpp!! “Nooo!! A-ahh.. Ah?”

His hands stopped trembling. His heart slowed down to a calm. The pain in his head was gone.

A sense of calm suddenly washed over his body.

The memories that played in his head. He could watch them without panicking. He was getting eaten. He could see his flesh getting torn and eaten.

Why was he so calm watching this?

Lazarus frowned. He shook his head trying to get the memories to stop and looked around. Everywhere was a blanket of pure white.

There was something so wrong in this sense of calm he felt. Something he couldn’t pinpoint.

Lazarus felt a presence behind him and quickly turned around.

“Hello child. My name is Doctor Rex Hargreave. What’s yours?” The man with deep brown hair in a lab coat smiled at him.

—------------------------------------------

In the world of nothing but white. There stood a man with deep black hair, unkempt and ruffled. His eyes, a shade of brown with a keen glare, wearing a white lab coat. And his looks could remind you of a very strict science teacher.

Lazarus stared at the grinning man.

“Oh. Didn’t you hear me? Ehem,” The man cleared his throat. Comb his hair with his hands and flashed him a dashing smile. “I am Doctor Rex Hargreave, and you are?” he winked.

Lazarus kept on staring.

“Hmm.. You seem to be confused.” Rex noted. “Perhaps this will help.”

The strange man snapped his fingers.

Lazarus’ eyes widened as he stared at the strange phenomenon in-front of him. Between him and the man was a table that just faded into existence from thin air.

Lazarus’ mouth flopped open and closed like that of fish.

As if it was nothing, the man–again, snapped his fingers. This time a couple of chairs appeared.

-’How is he doing that..?’-

Lazarus didn’t know that such magic existed. Even more frightening than that, was the man casted the spell without any sort of incantation. He just did it with a flick of his finger. Who was this man? Not only that, he was wearing clothes Lazarus had never seen before.

Lazarus pursed his lips, feeling a knot on his stomach.

He had so many questions popping in his mind, and the grin on this man just made him wary.

“Oh-... excuse me. It’s been a while, where are my manners?” Rex shook his head in an exaggerated manner. He snapped his fingers once more and food appeared on the table.

Lazarus felt a churn in his stomach. The more he saw it, the less he understood.

This man was a powerful mage no doubt, one he’s never heard of before. But if he got too close, then wouldn’t this man get sick? What would this man do to him if he found out about his disease? Thousands of questions circled in Lazarus’ mind and he just couldn’t bring himself to respond or move.

It felt eerie to be trapped in this place of pure white with a man that was filled with so much mystery. Yet, Lazarus could feel a strange fascination in the man.

Rex approached the chair near Lazarus and pulled it, giving Lazarus a look that seemed to indicate ‘take a seat’.

“Uhmm-...”

Hearing Lazarus’ words the man twitched for a moment. Grinned comically, then looked away, mumbling something to himself before he faced Lazarus with a much more restrained but toothy smile.

Weird.

“Y-yes..?” Rex replied calmly but the excitement bleeded out in the tone of his voice. This only made Lazarus more cautious.

“Where am I? And why is everything white?”

“You’re in a virtual world. Everything is white because I want it to be.”

“Bertuwal?” Lazarus tried, giving Rex a curious look if he got it right.

Rex’s eyes widened for a moment before he sighed. “So–.. virtual is not being translated since this concept is foreign to you… Right. To you, it’ll just be in plain english, a language that you yourself don’t understand. Sorry…”

“What do you mean..?”

“The words I use sometimes are something you’re not familiar with so the idea isn’t getting across and goes back to the default behavior. That’s the one problem that the virtual interface could never fix.”

“Bertuwal enterfays?”

Rex nodded to his badly worded english. “To put it simply, this is something like a dream.”

“I’m dreaming right now? I thought I was–”

“Wolf chow? Yes.”

Lazarus' face scrunched up as if he’d bitten something sour. Then he looked at his limbs, they were all complete. “Then why am I..”

“I told you, this is a dream. Your real body is–how do I say this..? All over the place.”

“I’m dreaming… and my real body is all over the place…” Lazarus slowly repeated, then he looked at the man upon realization. “Am I dead?”

“You were. In any case, have a seat. I’ll answer your questions.” The man grinned like a child that just received a new toy. “This is gonna be fun..hehe.”

Lazarus, still frowning, obliged and sat down. The moment he blinked, he felt goosebumps all over his body upon opening his eyes once more.

The man who was beside him, was now seated across from him. He did not see him walk over and sit-down, nor did he hear footsteps. It was instantaneous.

“I know you’ve a lot of questions to ask me, so go ahead.” The man said, opening his palm to Lazarus.

For a moment, Lazarus was silent. He couldn’t wrap his head around whatever this man was doing, saying–.. Actually everything.

Rex cleared his throat, snapping Lazarus’ from his thoughts.

“As I’ve said. Please, feel free to ask me any questions.”

Lazarus felt a pit in his stomach, yet he clenched his little fist and resolved himself. The first thing that he wanted to ask was–

“Y-you told me I’m dead… so–”

“No.” Rex cut-in. “I said you were. Not are.”

“What?? How does that even work?”

“Let’s just say I did something to your body, added a few things here and there and with the help of military grade nanites, your body is now A-okay! Probably better than it’s always been.”

“You healed me?”

“Heal? Well, something like that. So what’s your story?”

“Thank you I’m truly gra–” Lazarus paused. Then frowned. “But I can’t be healed… Healing magic doesn’t work on me.” he recalled.

“Magic..? What’re you on about? It’s not magic. It’s-...Wait.” The man paused. His expression slowly shifted to a stony face. “ Did you say ‘magic’?”

“Yeah-.. Uhm..”

“Magic exists..?”

“Of course it does!” Lazarus raised his voice, a bit annoyed at the dumb question. “Aren’t you doing all of this with magic too?”

“It’s not magic.”

“I-it’s not..?”

“Nope.”

The two silently stared at one another. Both gauging the truthfulness of the other.

The man seemed to have done something as Lazarus felt like the man wasn’t lying. He wasn’t sure why he felt that way but he was sure the strange man was telling him the truth as well.

“So you’re not lying.” Said the man, making Lazarus' eyes grow wider. Of course he wasn't, it's just that–how did the man know? The way he said it with certainty it was as if–

“Oh, sorry about that. I adjusted some settings so now both of us can feel if the other is lying or not. It’s just to make sure that-.. Well, you know. Both of us are honest, yeah? This makes the conversations much easier.”

Lazarus, somewhat unsure, nodded hesitantly. All that he understood was that this man saved him but he wasn’t really sure what to make of it for some reason. Too many strange things were happening.

“Anyway. What’s your name?”

“Lazarus-... Lazarus Valh–” Lazarus paused for a moment. Then looked down, feeling a muddling sensation in his chest. “Just Lazarus.” He clenched his fist and smiled bitterly.

In the Twilight Kingdom, when one is exiled from nobility or royalty, they lose the rights to their family name. It has been done before and now it was done to him.

He was no longer a Valheart.

“Lazarus. Cool name! Again, I am Doctor Rex Hargreave, nice to meet you!” Rex gave him a smile but Lazarus just kept on looking down. But soon, just like the panic he felt from before, it was washed away by a sense of inexplicable calmness.

“Uhmm… I feel strange.”

“Hmm? How?”

“I feel calm when I’m not supposed to be… I think.”

“Oh. That.” Rex cupped his chin. Lazarus looked at Rex, from the man’s words it seemed like he knew the reason why. “Well, I also inhibited most of your negative emotions to keep you from screaming and just thrashing around. After all, how are we supposed to have a productive conversation otherwise? You just experienced something horrifying after all.”

“That's-...” Lazarus frowned. He understood the man clearly but at the same time, he couldn’t wrap his head around whatever was happening.

“Still-...” Rex muttered slowly, gazing into the distance. “Magic..huh?”

Lazarus silently stared at the man before Rex returned his gaze and said,

“So, magic is real in this world? Do you mind showing me?”

Lazarus’ stomach dropped. “I-..uhmm. I can’t.”

“Hmm? Why not?”

“I’m manaless.”

“Oh. But have you seen it? That’s what I’m asking.”

“Y-yeah I have…why?”

“Then…” The man began fiddling with his fingers in the air. To Lazarus it was as if he was pushing some things that were clearly there but he couldn’t see. Then a rectangular black screen appeared between the two. Lazarus twitched as the unknown object was now suddenly between them.

“Oh, that’s nothing to worry about. Let me just browse your memories and see if you’re hallucinating or not.” Rex stopped fiddling and looked at him, “Please, try to recall the time you saw magic.”

Lazarus did as he was told and the first scenery that came to mind was–

The black screen displayed an image of a young child on the balcony. Free flowing black hair with elegant emerald green eyes.

“Reisha…” Lazarus muttered to himself, feeling a sense of guilt and longing as he watched his memory being played right in-front of him.

The girl in the balcony muttered something and shot forth a burst of snow from the small runic circle she formed at the tip of her fingers.

Lazarus looked at the man in-front of him. And his brows were creased down to a deep frown. His arms were crossed and he stared intently at the Video as if he’d seen something very disturbing.

“Please, think of another thing next.”

And so, Lazarus just followed the man’s direction. He recalled the time when Emilia tried to heal him when he was bruised, when Lara too did the same and they failed. Then the image changed, and it made Lazarus' chest tighten painfully.

It was the scene where he met with Emilia in the garden just before his exile. He didn’t want to think about it but it just popped into mind the moment he saw his own memory of his mother displayed on the screen.

Lazarus wanted to think of something else, but he couldn’t. Rex was just frowning and staring intently at the Video. It continued to play until his exile.

“Your own mother agreed to exile you?”

Lazarus looked away.

“Judging from that tiara on her head. A queen. I see.” Rex muttered, but Lazarus could clearly tell his mood had soured. Then the man looked to the side. “And this world has magic-.. What in heaven’s name is happening here..? Say, can you tell me more about this world? And also about yourself and why you were exiled?”

At first, Lazarus didn’t want to. But since he’d already shown this man a lot of things. He just wanted to let it all out.

“I’m manaless-.. Because I have a disease so that’s why I can’t use magic. My father–”

Lazarus continued to explain. How only his mother ‘loved’ him at first. Everybody treated him like thin air. How, he tried with every fiber of his being to get their attention.

Rex quietly listened as he recounted the stories. Sometimes he would ask more questions and Lazarus answered them to the best of his abilities.

Then he told him when Reisha arrived and his life changed. The very first time they met, it was clear she was dead set on getting close to him. At first he was reluctant but he yielded from Reisha’s forcefulness.

He came to treasure his new little sister. Around the same time he was told he was carrying a disease. The moment he was locked into the farthest corners of the castle was when Rex clenched his fist and said,

“This is child abuse and neglect.”

Lazarus shut his mouth.

“This is-... Haaa..” The man sighed in irritation. “Why didn’t your mother do something? You clearly weren’t sick. Instead, it was always your sister who–..” his eyes widened. “Sorry, please continue…”

Lazarus tried to say ‘it couldn’t be helped, I was si-...’ That was when Rex bashed the table, making Lazarus jolt.

“That is no excuse for a mother who says she ‘loves’ you and ‘treasures’ you. Mother’s are strong, they always put themselves in harm's way for their child. Even when no one stands-up for you they–” Rex clenched his fist. He frowned deeply, looked away and then sighed in defeat. “Yet-... I can’t even remember her name anymore. It was-.. I-..”

He sighed. Then snapped his fingers and looked back to Lazarus, it looked like he calmed down.

“I didn’t expect I’d have to inhibit my emotions too… What happened to you-.. It just brought back memories of my mother.” Rex smiled bitterly. “I’m sorry, please continue. ”

At this moment, Lazarus stopped seeing him as a powerful person, but instead saw him as a human just like him.

“What happened to you..?” He couldn’t help but ask.

Rex shook his head. “Let’s talk about that another time. Please continue.”

And so Lazarus shared his life story with the man. It felt like he was talking for days but he was never tired, he never grew hungry and just continued.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tasty, right?” Rex smiled pridefully as Lazarus bit a second time into this unknown food. It was meat, sandwiched between two pieces of bread and had an assortment of things inside of it.

“Just a regular old burger. I bet you’ve never tasted anything like it.”

“I’be haben–”

“Don’t talk when your mouth is full.”

Lazarus swallowed. “This is delicious!”

Now that he was done eating several different things, he looked back at the man.

At this point, Rex had already told him he was a man from beyond the stars.

At first, Lazarus didn’t believe him but then Rex snapped his fingers and they were back in the forest. Then they slowly hovered in the air, flying up. Lazarus was, of course, surprised. He’d never done anything like this before.

But then they shot-up beyond the clouds and Lazarus felt goosebumps all over his body.

That was when Rex explained that they were on a thing called a ‘planet.’ Each planet was different, and he also explained that stars weren’t clumped up mana that floated in the air. Instead it was this giant ball of flames that continued to burn.

Lazarus was feeling goosebumps all over his body as the man displayed knowledge that was unknown to Valeria. It felt like he knew everything while everyone else in Valeria knew nothing.

It was like Rex was a god.

The man continued his explanation but always made it simple so Lazarus could understand. That was when they traveled at extreme speeds and zoomed past millions of planets and stars.

It was breathtaking.

But then they stopped at a tiny blue planet. With a small gray moon floating around it.

“This is my home. It’s called-..earth.” Rex said with a subtle smile. Lazarus just quietly listened in amazement and bated breath as the man continued. “This place would have probably treated you better.”

“Why?”

“Because like you, we are manaless.” Rex shook his head, “It’s more accurate to say that mana doesn’t exist here.”

“Magic doesn’t exist?”

“Yep. What we have instead is technology.”

“Technology? What’s that?”

“A product of science. Here, let me show you.” Rex snapped his fingers.

The scenery changed once more to the vast grasslands.

“You guys have castles and villages.” Rex raised his left arm and in the vast infinite grasslands appeared the Twilight Kingdom as Lazarus recalled it. “What we have are skyscrapers and cities.”

Rex raised his right hand. The ground trembled violently. At this point Lazarus wasn’t shaken anymore as he understood that this was a dream-like world. Instead, he focused his entire being into seeing what Rex wanted to show him.

The many structures continued to push up and at this point, it already surpassed the height of the castles. The more it continued up, the more Lazarus felt goosebumps all over his body.

Rex’s city dwarfed their castle with buildings that stretched up to the sky. There was no dirt road, instead they had smooth black roads. They also had horseless carriages that zoomed past one another. They were fast. Their houses looked sophisticated and comfy.

No matter where Lazarus looked, everything was vastly superior. Their castle and villages couldn’t compare.

Rooted to the ground, and feeling electricity surging across his body, Lazarus looked to the man and asked,

“H-how..? You don’t have magic…I-..”

“We don’t need it. We have science.” Rex said, “It seems like magic is halting your civilization’s advancement since you heavily rely on it and try to understand it rather than understand the world around you.”

A loud noise faded in from the sky, getting louder and louder.

Lazarus looked up and there he saw massive iron thing with wings flew by. It dwarfed any bird and it glided through the sky like a ship on water. Again, he felt a surge of electricity across his body.

“That’s just an airplane,” Rex chuckled.

How could this thing just be nothing to Rex? This was clearly the King of the skies. No matter where he looked, Lazarus would just drop his mouth in amazement. How was everything better without magic? He couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“How can this be..?”

“Understanding the world around you, will yield to this result. Let me show you. But first, show me the most powerful thing you’ve read about or seen.”

Lazarus tried to recall. He had heard of legendary artifacts. One he recalled as ‘excalibur’ was a weapon wielded by a neighboring Kingdom’s ruler.

The scenery changed once more. There a lone man stood against an army of thousands.

The man posed with both his legs anchored to the ground and his sword positioned as if he was going to cut the entire army. A bright blue light emitted from his sword, it exuded an aura of warmth and promising protection. Then it pulsed and shined brightly, almost blinding.

The army seemed to halt, and then the man swung his sword screaming, “Excalibuuur!!”

An immense blue light shot forth which engulfed the entire battlefield, temporarily robbing the onlookers' sense of sight. Lazarus could feel the heat of it, even from this distance. The moment the light faded out, nothing was left of the army of thousands.

Surely, nothing would surpass the legendary artifacts powers. Perhaps, only the arcanery of his father could.

Lazarus looked to Rex. He was sure that in terms of destructiveness, nothing would trump magic.

But the man smiled, making Lazarus think ‘Was I wrong’.

“Is that it?”

Lazarus frowned. “T-that’s it?? That’s your only reaction?”

Rex chuckled. “My turn.”

The scenery changed once more. Again it was the very same scene with the army of thousands where a lone man stood. But this time, Rex and Lazarus were standing from further away making the army look like the size of his thumb.

The scenery played once more, and Lazarus could see the light from excalibur swallowing the army of thousands. The light was just as big if not, slightly bigger than the army.

“It does look small if you are really far.” Lazarus noted and looked at Rex who was grinning.

“Now then.” Rex snapped his fingers, and the scenery paused in time. “Look up.”

Lazarus looked up and the ruler of the skies could be seen high above the clouds. But it wasn’t white, like the one he saw before, no. It was black and looked different, much smaller. Then it let out a small object that Lazarus could somehow see clearly.

He just kept on staring at the weird object but for some reason, Lazarus could feel that something was coming.

The moment the strange object touched the army englufed in the light from excalibur.

Everything went silent. It flashed and a powerful shockwave swept across the terrain and Lazarus was flung back. Then a burst of flames engulfed the entire army, the lone man from the distance, and even the light that had engulfed the army was swallowed whole. The burst of flame then engulfed Lazarus and he felt it seer across his body before the sensation became numb.

Rex snapped his fingers. They were transported somewhere even further.

A large mushroom cloud formed from a distance, where Lazarus was sure where they were.

The sheer destruction Lazarus had seen...

He felt goosebumps across his body and he dropped to his knees.

The raw power… No legendary artifact could rival such incredible power.

“What-... what is that..?” He looked at the man who stood before him. His back seemed to dwarf everything that Lazarus understood, this man was vastly superior to any King and any forms of magic.

Rex, smiled. “That’s an atomic bomb. A weapon made in the 20th century. A weapon made around 3 thousand years ago. Unfortunately, that was only a fraction of what we’re capable off.”

“What!? You can do more!? Impossible!”

“Then. Let me show you the true power of technology.” Rex snapped his finger once more.

At this point, Lazarus couldn’t stop feeling goosebumps all over his body. He just trembled wildly as he already felt insignificant at this point.

Long had he sought power. A power other than magic that he himself could use. And now he was seeing it in-front of him. A power that far exceeded magic in everything. An unrivaled power.

And now, Rex was saying there was more? Impossible. Yet, Lazarus couldn’t help but know deep down in his heart that Rex wasn’t lying.

Never had Lazarus felt so much excitement.

Never had he felt this alive.

The sky suddenly turned black. Lazarus looked up. There he saw a massive iron thing with a head with the shape of an inverted crescent. The ‘airplane’ that he thought was the ruler of the skies, was just like the drop of the ocean compared to the sheer size of this thing.

It was even bigger than the cities that Rex had shown him. It swallowed the entire sky.

Then he could hear whirring. Ominous but Lazarus only felt exhilarated.

“A military spaceship that traverses space and a weapon that can end worlds. This is what destroyed Mars in the war of extinction. The Enterprise battle cruiser.” Rex said.

The giant hole in its head then glowed blue. The whirring grew louder and louder and then, it shot a blue laser where the crater left by the nuclear bomb was.

The ground began trembling violently. It shook Lazarus like a ragdoll in the air. It wasn’t painful, he could just feel it happen. And yet despite the sheer violence of the trembling ground, he wasn’t scared. He loved every second of it. He reveled in the destruction brought about.

Magma erupted from the ground and loud cracking and screeching could be heard everywhere. Rex snapped his fingers once more and this time they were back in space, on top of the massive battle cruiser.

“Woaaahhhh!!!!” Lazarus screamed from the top of his lungs. The earth that was once blue, was now turning red and dark.

*Crackle Crackle*

It began cracking. Lazarus' eyes grew wider. He felt a demonic grip in his mind. The hairs on his body stood-up.

Then a shockwave emitted. The planet violently exploded into pieces. Some chunks flew to them but a blue film of light protected the ship, deflecting the chunks and sometimes breaking them apart.

The planet was destroyed.

Lazarus’ mind whited out from the sheer epicness of the scene.

“This is the power of technology!” Rex shouted, opening both of his arms as his coat fluttered. “Everything you see here is a product of science! You!” he pointed at Lazarus who halt his breath. "You, who have been discarded by the World of Valeria. The world of magic. Let earth welcome you, embrace science!!"

Lazarus just looked-up to the revenant of destruction before him, the man called Rex. No thoughts came to mind, all Lazarus could feel was excitement, goosebumps and a sense of elation like no other before.

“It was said that this understanding and curiosity was brought forth from the very first humans who committed a grave transgression to god. We are sinners. But not you.” Rex said as he knelt down and eyed Lazarus who jolted.

“So tell me, do you want to partake in the forbidden fruit of knowledge?” The man whispered grinning like a devil.