Will of chaos

Suddenly the screens reappear, shining brighter as the main screen returns.

“[Now let’s start the event!!!]” (Igor)

“[A battle where power alone has no place, the same rules as individual battles apply!!!!]” (Igor)

Ding!

“[ Start of group battle ]”

Suddenly the space around us begins to ripple more and more, initially like a stagnant puddle where a speck of sand falls, creating slight ripples that gradually distort until becoming an ocean in the middle of a storm. All this happened in the space of 2 seconds before we realized we were in another place. This time we were on top of an ice mountain overlooking two different environments: on one side there was a chain of frozen mountains, and on the other side, descending from this mountain, there was an ice plain that soon leads to a forest.

“Why did I come along?” (me)

“Interesting, now it’s going to be on a planet?” (Xerxes)

“Where is Zenos?” (Urak)

“This is just the group battle, only the five of us will fight, he should still be where we were before.” (Sarazar)

“Can’t you see me? I’m right here.” (me)

“What’s the next step?” (Lolth)

“Continue with the plan, the first is to find the enemies.” (Xerxes)

I tried to touch Lolth, but my hand passed right through, that’s when I realized I was transparent, they couldn’t see or hear me, I couldn’t touch them either.

“Master…” (Hinata)

“Can you see me?” (me)

“Master… hug…” (Hinata)

Hinata was the only one looking directly at me and also seemed to be listening to me, she also jumped directly to me rubbing her face against my chest like a needy child, she was even touching me.

“Hinata, is he here?” (Xerxes)

“Embracing…” (Hinata)

“You should have kept quiet about it, it could have become a hidden card.” (Xerxes)

“Now they know you can see it…” (Xerxes)

Before I realized it, I was already somewhere else, in what looked like the VIP area of ​​a movie theater, but with only 4 sofas instead of the many seats for the audience.

On the 2 middle sofas sat the receptacle of the System with its alien appearance and Igor, who was wiping sweat from his forehead. Now that I’m so close to his body, I can tell that his presence was too great to really be Igor; his behavior was also different, it was the Trade Entity using his body.

Suddenly I feel another presence appearing beside me. When I turn my head, I find Ayden in his red and black armor looking at me.

“Why did you bring us here?” (Ayden)

“The idea was for each of you to watch your groups’ progress up close without being noticed or interfered with.” (Merchant)

“But to my surprise, one of the participants from the Chaos group somehow managed to see, touch, and hear Zenos when no one else should be able to.” (Merchant)

“[That was a mistake on my part for not being able to gauge the anomalous nature of participant Hinata.]” (System)

“I can’t blame you, I didn’t expect that either, I still don’t know how she did it.” (Merchant)

“Regardless of what happened, I couldn’t allow it to continue, and that’s why I brought Zenos here. To maintain impartiality and equality, I had to do the same with Ayden so that both of you could enjoy this battle here where there’s truly no chance of interference.” (Merchant)

“[Take your seats, the game has already started and each group is already in motion.]” (System)

“…” (me)

I remain silent, there’s nothing I want to say to Ayden and I don’t care if it was Igor or the Trade Entity who was overseeing this event, I just listened silently and chose the sofa next to the Merchant, leaving Ayden a step back so he could only choose to sit next to the System’s receptacle.

I sit down and look at the screen, it was large, like a section dozens of meters long, there were 10 smaller screens, each following a participant, and one large screen that changed from time to time, probably based on the choice of one of the two next to me.

I sat down and looked first at my group; they were already moving without separating, just as planned. Lolth uses her power to communicate with nature. Thanks to knowing that one of the enemy group members had the power to go against nature and become a new nature himself, it was easy to find him and the rest of his group.

Looking at Ayden’s group, it was clear they hadn’t found my group. What they did was different; they searched for a base. The planet was larger than expected, with many different biomasses, and for the next two hours, all the two groups did was run, each group with a different objective.

No one in the room said anything. Ayden also didn’t seem worried about his group being tracked from the beginning, which worried me.

Soon something changed. Ayden’s group stopped in a rocky valley in the middle of the desert. The stone walls were high, and the entire valley, seen from above, looked like a spiderweb-shaped labyrinth in the desert.

Everyone in Ayden’s group gathers in the same place in the middle, but they don’t set up camp; instead, they perform a ritual I don’t understand. Only one of them does nothing—that big guy who faced Xerxes.

The ritual was designed with their blood. After that, they used four bone totems carved with strange symbols in the middle of the ritual, each totem over 6 meters tall. The big guy extended his hand, and one of his companions cut it with a sword, letting the blood flow into the totems, which began to emanate a strange energy.

After that, the one who sealed Sarazar earlier left the totems in the middle of the ritual, while the one who went against nature cut his wrists, letting an abysmal amount of blood flow out, where it evaporated into a red mist that engulfed the entire place. The whole labyrinth turned red because of the mist, and nothing inside was visible to anyone looking from the outside.

I started putting the pieces together; it was more than clear that Ayden knew his group would be tracked. In fact, he prepared one of his group members for this from the beginning. They already suspected I would ask Lolth for help to become a participant, just like Sarazar. They planned to use this information from the start to paint a target within their group.

There would be no reason to search for the enemy when you can lure them into a trap. I fell for it from the beginning. They wanted to lure us to the most advantageous place for them. That blood belongs to the one being tracked, and now that it’s spread across this large area, it won’t be possible to track them with the same precision.

“You knew everything from the beginning?” (me)

“Information is the true weapon in any confrontation. Even in a one-on-one battle, opponents try to find a pattern in each other’s movements to create an opening.” (Ayden)

“You wanted a draw from the start, you wanted to resolve everything with our battle!?” (Me)

“A duel without risks isn’t a real duel.” (Ayden)

“…” (Me)

“(Damn it…)” (Me)

I turn my attention to the screen, expecting to see my group arrive at the trap, but I already knew what they would do. It would be different if I were there, but they can’t take risks. They, like me, know there will only be one chance to execute that technique, so they need to confirm the location of the enemies and confirm that they are all together.

Just as I expected, after another hour, my group arrives at the trap, and as I predicted, they discussed for a few minutes how to proceed next.

Finally, everyone fell into the trap. The red mist couldn’t obscure our vision; I could see Ayden’s group noticing my group’s arrival.

They went to the one lying in the middle of the ritual, between the four totems, then took something that looked like a crown made of raw energy and placed it on his chest before activating the ritual.

The crown crushed the person’s body like a meat grinder; the totems cracked and shattered before reforming into four large swords floating above the ground. The blood that formed the ritual transformed into pure energy, while what remained of the man’s body disappeared, leaving only his soul behind, which was recovered by one of his companions.

In seconds, a wave of energy spreads, all the red mist descends to the ground forming a shallow river of blood, while my companions were sucked into the blood as if they had fallen into a hole. All the blood roared to the center of the ritual where it floated in a sphere until it all gathered, and that’s when the four swords moved, piercing the sphere of blood with their blades that transform the blood into red stones. The crown of energy then becomes chains that cover the entire stone.

“They didn’t even have a chance to react…” (me)

“Even if they had managed to, there were still two variations of this plan to be activated.” (Ayden)

“I never had a chance in this group battle, did I?” (me)

“No.” (Ayden)