Will of chaos

As soon as Urak returned to us, I took her from the arms of the System, which then disappeared. As soon as I held her in my arms, I felt something strange inside her.

“I didn’t imagine that people associated with War had this kind of power.” (me)

I ran my hand across her chest and let my finger pierce her heart, which burned with the power of the Law. Then I let a little of my blood flow inside her to gestate something new.

“What did you do?” (Lolth)

“Your body was contaminated by the power of the Concept, but not the Concept of War; it was more bloodthirsty and savage.” (me)

“So you noticed. Congratulations on finding the truth.” (Xerxes)

Applause

I looked towards Xerxes, his reaction confirming my fear. Andryus is awakening a new Concept; he is on his way to becoming an Entity, an Entity branched off from War.

Therefore, Ayden has him as a disciple, and yet he’s the only one so far who hasn’t been presented as the Avatar of War; he’s preparing Andryus to become an Entity.

I heard that Andryus is from this universe, part of the Ascended people, one of the people with the highest rate of emptiness within them. Ayden must have filled that void somehow to put him on a specific path. This explains why War had such a close relationship with the Ascended; he was searching for a seed that met his requirements.

“(All these damned Entities have overly broad thoughts; the more I discover, the more it seems there’s something behind every decision they make.)” (me)

“(But if they have so many Avatars on their side, why let Andryus participate? What does this mean? Why did they give up so easily on Hinata’s battle? What am I missing here!?)” (me)

The more battles pass, the greater my unease grows. I feel like I’m missing something. I’ve felt from the beginning that this whole event seems unnecessary to them, and yet it was proposed by them from the start.

I couldn’t understand what Ayden was thinking, and even less if it was really Ayden’s decision. It could be one of the War schemes, which seems quite cunning for an Entity geared towards war.

“Xerxes, what’s going on here?” (me)

“How am I supposed to know? I just woke up a few days ago. None of my parts know anything about what’s been happening beyond what you already know.” (Xerxes)

“But did you just talk about some ‘truth’ or something?” (me)

“It was just a figure of speech, I can see the strangeness in all this, I’m used to these hidden games, enough to recognize being in the middle of one.” (Xerxes)

“…” (me)

“[Ladies and gentlemen participants, as well as all observers who are surely watching!]” (Igor)

“[We will proceed with the 5th battle of this great confrontation between War and Chaos!]” (Igor)

“[We welcome our last two participants!]” (Igor)

“[ Sirius X Xerxes ]”

Before I could continue this conversation, Igor suddenly appears to announce the last battle of the individual confrontations. My eyes turn to the screen where the boxes containing the faces of these participants are revealed along with their names.

The contestant facing Xerxes wore a mask with inverted triangles as eye holes, and the mouth was sculpted as if it were open, with three sculpted tongues protruding from the sides of the mouth, which was full of sharp teeth.

“Shall we continue the battle?” (Lolth)

“We must continue, we cannot lose this universe.” (Sarazar)

“…” (Hinata)

“So, what are you going to do…?” (Xerxes)

“Like Sarazar said, we don’t have the chance to give up, we need to win!” (me)

I couldn’t surrender this universe, Urd was similar to the Gems now, one of my daughters, I couldn’t separate her from this universe so important to her.

“[Now let’s go to the random arena selection!]” (Igor)

“[Begin!]” (Igor)

“Xerxes, how confident are you in facing an Avatar?” (me)

“It will depend…” (Xerxes)

Ding!

“[ Natural Cataclysm ]”

Before Xerxes could say anything, she disappeared, my eyes turning to the changing arena.

——————-

Pov Xerxes:

Seeing Zenos’ confusion with everything happening was funny, he’s very uncertain in everything he does, always overthinking and overplanning.

“(The naiveté of youth…)” (me)

As a being of Chaos, plans are merely a reference in everything one does and will never end as expected; what he must do is move forward, attentive to each step and prepared to adapt to any situation.

Ding!

“[ Natural Cataclysm ]”

When the choice of arena arises, I answer him slowly without giving him time to hear everything, just a promotion for his anxiety.

Unlike him, I don’t care at all about Ayden’s or Guerra’s plans; none of that matters. Guerra almost always gets what he seeks, and even when everything goes wrong, he always has countermeasures or replacement plans for different situations; he’s a maniac at that level.

I was looking around; they brought me to a very fun place. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw volcanoes erupting above the clouds, storms full of lightning thicker than my body, earthquakes that appear out of nowhere constantly changing the entire environment, and the wind carrying blades of ice.

This place was incredible, tyrannical, with an overwhelming amount of pure elemental power devoid of any harmony; even the space itself seemed to float, distorting various places.

Amidst the collapse of a nearby mountain, I see something flying towards me, stopping a few hundred meters away.

“[I begin the fifth match!]” (Igor)

“[On one side we have the daughter and pseudo-Avatar of Zenos, Xerxes!]” (Igor)

“[On the other side we have the Armor of War, Sirius!]” (Igor)

“[The battle begins!!!]” (Igor)

“A flashy and unnecessary presentation; the Merchant must be enjoying impersonating his Avatar~.” (me)

“What do you think, Malakyel?” (Me)

“So it really is you…” (Malakyel)

I had forgotten about the hood, so I moved it, revealing my appearance. As if responding to my actions, he did the same; his hood burned to ashes, his thick armor melting until it completely dripped onto the ground.

What was revealed beneath the armor was a suit fastened with a bow tie, an unthinkable garment for a mountain of muscles where each arm could be mistaken for a tree trunk, his neck possessing more muscles than my entire body, and his abnormally small head compared to his gigantic body, his face hidden by a mask.

“Why did you take one of my children?” (Me)

“I saw in him a vessel, a wild beast that could be trained and was very suitable for me.” (Malakyel)

“Lies~…” (Me)

“You just wanted to annoy me, all because I turned your sword into a universe full of rabbits.” (me)

“…” (Malakyel)

Malakyel has always been like this, he’s easily irritated, unfortunately he’s also good at controlling his temper, or it would be much more fun to mess with him.

“You’re back to your old ways, it seems your plan worked.” (Malakyel)

“But I didn’t think you’d become so weak.” (Malakyel)

“Don’t say that, at least now I can smile without warping a universe or turning whoever hears my voice into a cosmic horror.” (Me)

“You understand what I mean~…” (Me)

“I don’t need to hold back anymore~…” (Me)

“I don’t need to keep a calm and boring mind all the time~…” (Me)

“You still remember those days~…” (Me)

I smile at him, memories as old as creation itself flashing through my mind, the first sword ever created being handed to a man who smiled like a child looking at the blade.

Now I look at the deformed body I accidentally created being used by him, his Aura couldn’t hide his ever-growing will to fight.

“Anything to say before we begin, Paradox?” (Malakyel)

“Of course, dear brother… I’m back~!!!” (Me)

I advance against him just like in the old days, when it was just us, just family, before knowledge, before power, before the Concept, in the Genesis of creation itself when existence was born.

I smile as I throw a punch at his face, but he dodges with more speed than I expected from that giant body, his fist already inches from me.

I twist my body, placing my foot on top of his fist before straightening up and delivering a kick to his neck, which he counters with a headbutt.

Our blows have no energy, no active Concept, no Aura or powers; we’re just using our bodies in the most brutal way possible.

My body being almost three times smaller than his, where he uses strength, I use flexibility; where he uses technique, I improvise; where he resists, I dodge, and so our fight intensifies.

Suddenly, I find myself trapped in nostalgia, as if we’ve returned to the best moment of that time, before everything went wrong.

I lost all sense of time when magma surged from beneath our feet. I simply kicked a wave at him, which held a mountain as if it were a garden stone, hurling it at me.

I leap and let the strong storm winds carry my body, helping me dodge the mountain before landing on an axe kick that he defends with both arms, transferring his weight to the ground, which shatters for miles.

When his foot came towards me, I bit his big toe before twisting my neck, throwing him sideways. It was funny to see his large body thrown by my bite.

“You’re as wild as ever.” (Malakyel)

“You’re too stiff, have fun, this is my first fight since… how long have I been away?” (me)

“Too long, but those were better times, they won’t come back.” (Malakyel)

“That hurts my feelings~~…” (me)

I look at him, even without seeing his mouth, I know he’ll be smiling, he likes to fight like this. I couldn’t smile with amusement either; I haven’t felt this free in so long.

I didn’t even realize when a lightning bolt struck me, then another, and 50 more after that in sequence as if it were a joke.

“Your luck remains the same.” (Malakyel)

“How about we start taking this more seriously?” (me)

“No, this event isn’t about us… we’ll have our time, sister… if you survive.” (Malakyel)

Suddenly I feel his Aura diminish, the giant body falls to the ground and snoring sounds can be heard; Guerra was no longer using that body.

“Damn it, you still don’t like being honest…” (me)

“[It seems Sirius has become unconscious, so he’s out of combat!!!]” (Igor)

“[The winner is Xerxes!!!]” (Igor)