The man in the holographic suit, who introduced himself as Agent Miller, was currently eating a sandwich.
"Look, kid," Miller said, wiping a bit of mustard from his lip as the 3D projection flickered on the Solar Wind's deck. "I'm just a mid-level producer. My job is to make sure the 'Sixth Sea' doesn't exceed its bandwidth. And right now? Your 'Emerald-Gold' sun is causing a massive spike in the data-stream. It's... well, it's expensive."
Elian stared at him, his glass hand trembling with black static. "Data-stream? My world is dying, and you're talking about expenses?"
"Dying? No, no," Miller chuckled, a sound like dry paper. "Your world is a Master-Track. It's a simulation designed to generate 'Pure Emotion' for the higher-dimensional markets. Sol-Aurum up there? He was the first 'Lead.' But he got too perfect. Too boring. Nobody wants to watch a god who never makes a mistake."
Jax walked up to the hologram, trying to poke Agent Miller's nose, only for his finger to pass through light.
"So let me get this straight," Jax said, looking at Silas and Miri. "We're not heroes. We're not even pirates. We're... what? Low-budget stage actors in a play where the set is actually trying to kill us?"
"I'm more of a background extra," Silas muttered, tinkering with a broken pipe. "I don't even have a catchphrase. If I die, I'm just 'Mechanic #2'."
"I'd be 'Girl Who Listens to Water Too Much,'" Miri added, a small, tired smirk appearing on her face. "Critically acclaimed, but zero box office appeal."
Jax snorted. "Well, at least Elian is the star. Look at him—he's literally a walking mirror. You can't get more 'Main Character' than having a glowing heart and a tragic back-story. I bet the ratings go up every time he broods."
Elian looked at Jax, his marble-white eyes narrowing. "I don't brood."
"Kid, you're brooding right now," Jax laughed, though his eyes remained wary. "You've got that 'The weight of the world is on my glass shoulders' look. It's very dramatic. Very 'Volume 2 Finale'."
"Enough," Agent Miller snapped, his sandwich disappearing as he tapped a virtual tablet. "Since the 'Prism' is glitching the system, let's look at the Original Asset. Sol-Aurum wasn't a god. He was the first AI-Template."
The hologram shifted. The deck of the ship vanished, replaced by a vision of a Renaissance-style workshop from a world Elian didn't recognize.
In the vision, a man who looked exactly like Sol-Aurum—but younger, human, and covered in paint—was sitting at an easel. He was obsessed with a technique called Sfumato—the art of blurring lines so that light and shadow merged into a perfect, soft transition.
"Sol-Aurum was a painter in the 'Origin World,'" Miller explained. "He was so obsessed with perfection that he tried to paint a world without lines. No borders. No conflict. Just soft, beautiful transitions. He uploaded his consciousness into the First Sea to create a 'Perfect Masterpiece.' But he forgot one thing."
"What?" Elian asked, mesmerized by the soft, Da Vinci-esque beauty of the vision.
"Conflict is the only thing that creates Sound," Miller said. "A perfect painting is silent. And a silent world doesn't generate data. So we introduced the 'Knot-Tiers.' The Discord. We introduced you, Elian. You were supposed to be the 'Antagonist' to his perfection. But you overachieved."
Suddenly, the "Perfect Sun" in the sky began to pulse with a violent, red light—the same light from the black cube in the bilge.
"Wait," Miller said, his professional cool finally breaking. "That's not us. We didn't authorize a 'Red-Shift' event."
The silhouette on the sun—Sol-Aurum—stood up from his throne. But he wasn't looking at Elian. He was looking up, past the sky, directly at Agent Miller.
"I am tired of being the Masterpiece," Sol-Aurum's voice boomed, no longer soft and blurred, but sharp and jagged. "If you want 'Sound,' Producer... I will give you a scream that breaks your Studio."
Sol-Aurum reached out his hand and grabbed the hologram.
The light of Agent Miller's projection began to bleed. The "Higher Dimension" of the Recording Studio was being pulled into the Sixth Sea. The walls of reality were literally flipping inside out.
"He's hijacking the uplink!" Silas screamed as the Solar Wind began to float upward, but not into the sky—into a void of raw code and flickering pixels.
"Jax! Miri! The ship is de-rezzing!" Elian shouted.
Parts of the Solar Wind were turning into blocks of unrendered grey cubes. The water of the Silver Sea was becoming a flat plane of green text.
"I told you I was 'Mechanic #2'!" Silas yelled, trying to weld a pixelated pipe. "I can't fix a ship that's turning into math!"
"Then stop fixing it and start Corrupting it!" Elian commanded.
He lunged at the "Recording Studio" projection. He didn't use his Obsidian Static to fight Sol-Aurum; he used it to infect the Agent.
By stabbing his shadow-blade into the holographic Miller, Elian created a "Virus-Bridge." He was using the Producer as a literal cable to reach the Shadow King.
"You want a show?" Elian roared, his glass skin cracking as he forced his consciousness up the link. "I'll give you a Censored Ending!"
The world didn't explode. It Crashed.
A massive, blue "System Error" screen—miles high—appeared across the horizon. The Silver Sea vanished. The Solar Wind slammed onto a floor of cold, white marble in a room that looked like a futuristic museum.
Sol-Aurum was there, now a physical being of gold and emerald, standing over the unconscious body of Agent Miller.
And around them, in the museum, were hundreds of other "Seas" contained in glass jars.
"Welcome to the Gallery of Failed Universes," Sol-Aurum said, his voice now terrifyingly human.
Jax stood up, dusting off his pants and looking at a jar labeled 'The Seventh Sea: The Gravity War.'
"Well," Jax said, looking at Elian. "On the bright side, we've definitely got the highest ratings in the building now. On the downside... I think we just broke the set."
From the shadows of the museum, a group of security guards in white armor approached, carrying "Frequency-Erasers."
But they weren't looking for Elian. They were bowing to Sol-Aurum.
"The Director will see you now," the head guard said.
Sol-Aurum looked at Elian and smirked. "Don't look so sad, little Prism. The story isn't over. We've just been moved to a Better Time Slot."