Elias floated in the void between the Earth and the Moon. Behind him, the blue marble of the world hung fragile and silent. In front of him, space was tearing itself apart.
A massive Boom Tube, red and angry, swirled like a galactic hurricane. From within its depths, the flagship of Apokolips emerged—a dreadnought the size of a small continent.
Standing on the prow of the ship, arms crossed behind his back, was Darkseid. His eyes glowed with the Omega Effect, searching for the Anti-Life.
Elias took a deep breath. He hovered cross-legged in the vacuum.
Around him, the six Chaos Emeralds he had collected orbited in a perfect circle.
Red (Power).
Blue (Speed).
Yellow (Thunder).
Green (Life).
Purple (Ambition).
Cyan (Patience).
And in his hand, the Grey Emerald (Control) that Batman had given him.
"Seven," Elias whispered. "The full set."
He closed his eyes. He could feel the Sol Emeralds burning in his pocket dimension, ready as a backup. He could feel the World Rings humming in his soul.
But this... this was the classic. This was the power that had defeated Perfect Chaos, the Biolizard, Solaris.
"System," Elias thought. "Initiate Hyper Transformation."
Accessing Chaos Data...
Emeralds Detected: 7/7.
Super Emerald Resonance: Active.
The stones began to vibrate. They didn't just glow; they screamed. The colors bled together, forming a blinding white spectrum.
Elias felt his body dissolving into light. He felt the familiar rush of the Super form, but multiplied by infinity. He felt the ability to breathe in space, to move faster than time, to rewrite physics.
Loading Hyper Form...
98%...
99%...
"Here we go," Elias grinned, opening his eyes. "Showtime, Darkseid!"
100%...
ERROR.
The text flashed red in his mind, shattering the euphoria.
CRITICAL ERROR: DIMENSIONAL MISMATCH.
Elias blinked. "What?"
System Alert: The Chaos Emeralds are bound to the Prime Zone (Sonic's Universe). Prolonged exposure to DC Universe radiation has destabilized their matrix. The artifacts are rejecting the host reality.
"No," Elias gasped. "No, no, no! Not now!"
The seven Emeralds stopped spinning. They froze in space around him.
The brilliant light began to fracture. The gems started to crack.
Initiating Emergency Recall Protocol.
"Wait!" Elias shouted, reaching out for the Grey Emerald. "I need them! He's right there!"
Returning assets to Source.
PING.
The Red Emerald shattered into red sparkles.
PING.
The Blue followed.
PING. PING. PING.
One by one, the Chaos Emeralds dissolved into motes of pure light. They didn't explode; they simply faded, drifting away like dandelion seeds caught in a cosmic wind, vanishing from the DC Universe entirely to return to their own world.
Elias was left floating in the dark.
Base form.
Blue fur.
Red sneakers.
Zero rings.
He stared at his empty hands.
"You have got to be kidding me," Elias whispered.
The shadow of Darkseid's ship fell over him. The Lord of Apokolips looked down at the tiny blue speck floating in his path.
"Is this your champion?" Darkseid's voice boomed across the psychic plane. "A rodent without his toys?"
Darkseid raised a hand. The Omega Beams flared to life.
"For Darkseid."
The red beams fired. They zigzagged through space, locked onto Elias's heartbeat. They were undodgeable. Unstoppable. Instant death.
Elias froze. He had no Super form. No Hyper form. He was just fast. But you can't outrun the Omega Beams forever.
"Think," Elias panicked. "Think, think, think! What do I have left?"
He checked the inventory.
Chaos Emeralds: 0.
Sol Emeralds: Locked (Cool-down from Chapter 18).
World Rings: Drained.
He was empty.
Except for one thing.
The notification bell chimed again.
System Update: Artifacts Removed.
Compensatory Protocol Engaged.
Unlock Criteria Met: "Desperation."
New Ability Unlocked: The Paradox Prism Shard.
Elias felt a sharp pain in his chest—not where the Emeralds used to be, but deeper. A shard of multicolored, crystallized reality he didn't know he had.
It wasn't an external power source. It was a glitch in his own existence. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was a paradox.
"I don't need the rocks," Elias realized, his green eyes igniting with a prismatic, shattered light. "I am the anomaly."
The Omega Beams were inches from his face.
Elias didn't run. He didn't block.
He shattered.
His body broke apart into glass-like shards of reality, letting the Omega Beams pass harmlessly through the empty space where his heart used to be.
The shards reformed behind the beams.
Elias stood in the vacuum, his body flickering like a broken hologram. He wasn't Golden. He wasn't Dark. He was... prismatic.
"Hey, Ugly!" Elias shouted, his voice sounding like it was coming from three different timelines at once.
He pointed at Darkseid.
"You want the Anti-Life? Come get it. I'm running on pure glitch energy now."
Darkseid frowned. This was new.
"Prepare the Parademons," Darkseid commanded.
Elias cracked his knuckles (which sounded like breaking glass).
"Okay, System," Elias muttered. "Let's see what a Paradox can do."