Earth year 1999, May 27 (200 years after founding the great library)
"The end is not really the end, my lord. It is always a beginning." The voice echoed across the empty battlefield of Asgard.
The people known as Astrals… the gods, in human language, were nothing but piled-up corpses scattered across the broken ground.
"The end may be a beginning," another voice said, stepping closer to the owner of the first.
The man stood before him, while the other knelt on the bloodied ground, his body covered in glowing white, vein-like cracks. "But this is the real end of you, Gabriel, the God of Broadcasting."
Gabriel, the kneeling figure, only smirked, as if he had not just wiped out hundreds of Astrals alone, something unthinkable for an entity like him, one who was born with only flesh. "I wonder about that, my lord," he said.
"Your broadcast guided the death of an Astral! And now you, yourself, have committed that unthinkable sin!" the other man said.
"O' Lord Zeus… O' Zeus…" Gabriel said, coughing. "An Astral is not something to worship."
The sky above them roared with thunder as lightning flared, striking the ground around Gabriel but never touching him. The ground flickered with static as Gabriel tilted his head slightly. "Much weaker than Lord Thor's, if you ask me," he taunted.
"Shut the hell up." Zeus grew angry, his long white hair flaring up like a flame as he struck Gabriel directly with a lightning bolt, hard. The vein-like cracks on Gabriel's body spread even more.
Gabriel felt his soul breaking apart as well. He knew death was inevitable, but he also knew clearly that this would not be his true end.
Zeus raised his hand, and a lightning bolt covered in purple static appeared in his grip, his most powerful attack. Gabriel knew that, with that single strike, his body would crumble, and so would his soul.
But in front of his death, Gabriel just laughed. "Ha… ha ha…" he said, his voice cracking. "The broadcast of the founder's death will end here."
Then, as Zeus threw the bolt toward him, his eyes filled with the reflection of the lightning, and he grinned madly. "But soon, the broadcast of the sunrise… will begin."
The moment those words left his mouth, the lightning bolt struck his heart. The cracks in his body glowed brighter and brighter until they became a blinding light… before he exploded into nothingness.
But just before that, something very faint reached Zeus's ears. He could not fully catch it, as it was too quiet, but it said…
"Catch me if you can… my dear viewers!"
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Earth year 2028, January 6th
The hall of the nodes was silent, except for the faint sound of water dripping from the giant blue flower in the middle. Inside that flower was a glowing blue bubble.
The first to notice it was a cleaner. She suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs, and soon officials rushed in. They gathered around the flower, standing in a circle as if debating what was going on.
"That is surely a system node," one said.
"That can't be. Nodes are not born on Thursday, you know that!"
Their bickering continued, while the little bubble let out a soft sigh.
I can't believe I was born on a Thursday of all days. This is unnecessary attention!
After a long debate, they finally agreed on one point. This little bubble was a node, an offspring of the system, a new potential broadcaster.
"A massive broadcasting event is approaching. We can't lose any of the current broadcasters. We need to spread them all around the Earth, you know?" That was their main concern.
Just hurry up and accept me, you slowpokes!
One officer stepped forward. "O' great one, the paragons, the Astrals… please accept this newborn entity that is here to provide you entertainment. Please protect this newborn from the curse of Thursday and the glitches of the Nameless One. O' hail the great one!" he said, raising his hands as the others joined him.
"O' hail the great one!" they said in unison, as the blue bubble finally began to glow. A soft blue light spread from it, swirling around like mist. The haze grew bigger and thicker, slowly taking the shape of a humanoid figure.
The people watched in awe.
At last, the haze began to clear, and the figure fully appeared. It had crystal blue eyes like the sky, and short blue hair.
A large circular hat, called a kasa, rested on its head, made with a black and blue brim, with a dangling blue stripe and a small moon-shaped trinket from the back. Its humanoid body was still covered in a thin blue haze that flowed like cloth, and it finally smirked.
"His design is… blue," one said.
"Just like the Nameless One. This is bad… a blue-themed node born on the forbidden day," another said, taking a step back.
"Maybe we should not have let it be born?"
"Shut up, all of you. You know how hard it is these days to acquire a system offspring. You want to kill it just because it was born on Thursday?"
The node stared at them for a moment. Then it slowly descended to the center of the flower, still floating slightly above it.
"Hello," he said. "Isn't the sunrise… nice?"
[The Broadcast #01 'The Sunrise' has begun]