Speed Is King

Jessica had spent her whole life as a genius in manipulating energy through the use of runes.

Her understanding and mastery over energy manipulation was mostly instinct driven, fueled by her body's sensitivity towards energy and her ability to not only sense energy movements, but also understand their movement patterns and functions.

Such abilities had propelled her into heights completely unseen before by the rest of the known universe.

Even within the expanded universe, her ability remained as yet unmatched!

But faced with the power and application of laws which she had never experienced before in her life, she was completely clueless.

Laws were a completely new thing to her and to every single life form in the known universe, a brand new dimension of life which they had never encountered before.

When has energy ever been created or destroyed in the known universe?

"So when you said "consequential runes" had appeared in their souls after the little girl transgressed forbidden laws when gifting her bloodline to a being with "multiple" souls, these runes were law based runes which either created or destroyed certain energy?" Aleyria summarized Leiget's words and tried to understand what just happened.

"Indeed. Their souls were instantly transported into a newly created area." Leiget said.

"Imprisoned." Magius said grimly. "The question is… by who? And how do we free them?"

"I do not know." Leiget said. "I am newly created. Though my power dwarfs yours significantly, I am not knowledgeable on the affairs of the heavens."

Elliot nodded quietly.

His mind was racing at unimaginable speeds as he compared the rune which Leiget had drawn, the rune which the little girl had drawn as she brought Leiget into life earlier, the Ascendant Runes and the Dark Runes in four parallel lines.

Very vaguely, his mind had somehow sensed a congruence of sorts among the four types of runes, a delicious commonality that would shed some light to the mystery of Laws, and quite possibly, the key to understanding them.

"I need time to crack the runes." Elliot said softly.

"The crisis here is mostly averted. Please try your best to crack the rune and find out where Alexander's soul is! If you do, we will forever be in your debt." Aleyria said to him in a calm voice.

However, she left no doubts in Elliot's mind that she meant every word.

Literally.

"There is no need for debts among friends. I will look for you as soon as I make progress." Elliot replied her very simply and then turned to Leiget.

"I need to learn everything you can teach me about laws. Can you do that?" Elliot said.

"WE need to learn everything." Jessica Sands interjected.

"I am sorry. WE, need to learn." Elliot smiled at Jessica Sands and corrected himself.

"I am a created being under the construct of Laws, I do not wield their full power. At most, I am able to apply basic laws.

The consequential runes that were triggered due to the transgression of forbidden laws were advanced Law Runes. I am only able to show you its form. I am completely unable to teach you anything about it." Leiget said.

"Anything you know is better than nothing. Come, follow me back to my multiverse. We will do our research there." Elliot said.

And with that, Elliot, Jessica and Leiget returned home.

The moment they appeared back in their own multiverse, however, Leiget immediately growled lightly.

"Hmmm? What's wrong?" Elliot immediately asked him.

"This place… is hostile." Leiget growled deeply.

"Hostile?" Elliot was surprised.

"Yes. I am not welcome here. I should go back." Leiget said softly.

His whole body was still, and not the tiniest bit of his aura leaked out.

It was as though he was hiding in a corner and making himself as small as possible.

Elliot waved his hand and created a powerful energy barrier around him.

"What about now? Is the place still hostile?" Elliot asked.

"Yes. It feels as though the very fabric of the universe is rejecting my presence!" Leiget said. "I should go back before things get worse!"

"Hold on." Jessica Sands weaved a series of powerful runes and created a series of spacetime barriers around all of them.

"What about now? My spacetime barrier shifts us completely away from space and time. We should be completely isolated here!" Jessica Sands said.

"It… It is slightly better. I can still feel its hostility. But it is as though it has lost its target." Leiget said hesitantly.

"Indeed. Whatever is feeling hostile towards you can't possibly find you within this barrier. You are safe here." Jessica Sands said.

"Not necessarily. My presence here is probably a forbidden thing as well. I suspect that is the reason why the fabric of creation here is rejecting me. And if I my presence here is a forbidden thing, then it would only be a matter of time till I get sent away as well!" Leiget said nervously.

Elliot nodded slowly.

"We are dealing with a completely unknown event. We need to err in the side of caution. Let us go back to your original multiverse." Elliot said.

"Right. Right. Let's do that." Leiget agreed wholeheartedly.

Elliot opened up a portal once more, and they hastily beat a retreat to Alexander and Aleyria's multiverse.

However, as soon as they stepped through the portal, a bright shining light suddenly burst forth from around Leiget!!

Whoosh.

Leiget crumpled as well, completely unconscious.

"What happened??" Aleyria cried out in shock at the sudden reappearance and subsequent fainting of Leiget!

She was just preparing her heart to settle down and wait for as long as it takes for Elliot to master the runes so that they would at least have a clue to search for Alexander.

But then they had to reappear so quickly and give her a surprise!

"Leiget!!" Elliot shouted in horror.

"It's the consequential runes due to the transgression of the forbidden laws he mentioned earlier! I saw the rune right as the bright light was shining! It is slightly different from the one he showed us earlier, and I think I found a clue for us!" Jessica Sands cried out excitedly.

Caught between two extreme situations, where they had just very suddenly lost their sole clue to finding out where Alexander went, and the sudden finding of a critical clue straight after that caused a flux of emotions to surge violently in Aleyria's heart.

Magnificent black golden wings erupted from behind her and the shrill cry of a phoenix echoed from the very depths of her soul.

Aleyria, as it turned out, was a Black Phoenix Goddess.