Will of chaos

Author: I’m out of time, file corrupted, and chapter rewritten, ignore the previous one!

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

In the end, everyone entered the trap. The red mist couldn’t obstruct our view; 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 as if it were a meat grinder; the totems cracked and broke before reforming into four large swords floating above the ground. The blood that forms 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 spread, all the red mist descended 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 together. That’s when the four swords moved, piercing the sphere of blood with their blades that transformed the blood into red stones. The crown of energy then became chains that covered the entire stone.

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

“Even if they had succeeded, 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)

Hearing Ayden speak like that was unsettling, but I can’t say anything against it. It was more than clear that everything was planned even before the first individual battle began.

“(Everything was prepared…)” (me)

Suddenly it was as if all the pieces were falling into place. Everything I thought was strange, a coincidence, or seemed wrong, began to come together into a complete picture that revealed something I didn’t know how to react to if I was right. Yet, every instinct in me told me I was at least close to the truth.

“The battle is over, the War team is the winner!” (Merchant)

“[Now I will reveal the score.]” (System)

“[ War: 1 Individual Win / 2 Individual Draws / 1 Group Combat Win ]”

“[ Chaos: 2 Individual Wins / 2 Individual Draws ]”

“Looks like we have a tie!” (Merchant)

Then Igor gets up from the sofa and the world changes around us again. This time we were taken to the same area where the two groups didn’t even meet before it ended.

The system spoke, and more than that, that mechanical voice announced the score while showing on the holographic screen the battles won or battles that ended in a draw.

While Igor finished his draw announcement, I was already facing the seal of my companions. I didn’t need to do much; I had already realized the reason why not even Hinata or Xerxes were able to escape that seal.

It was a technique containing the power of Chaos, and if I had to guess, I would say that crown of energy was a Chaos Artifact.

There was no way any of them could do anything. Xerxes was still trying to understand the concept itself and was weaker than his past self, and Hinata, she still lacked the capacity to go against the power of the Concept.

I concentrate the Concept of Chaos in my hand and touch the seal, which writhes like a living creature, retracting its body into a sphere that compresses in the palm of my hand, freeing everyone who had visibly frustrated faces.

Lolth and Sarazar seemed disappointed in themselves for losing without even seeing the enemy team; Sarazar, especially, seemed close to exploding with anger against himself.

Urak was clearly frustrated; her eyes looked dead as she clenched her hands to the point of bleeding. She should have expected to do more than that.

Hinata didn’t even seem to care about victory or defeat; she flew towards me as soon as she saw me, then clung to one of my arms like a tick.

Xerxes seemed distracted by something and didn’t seem to care about losing the group match. To me, it seemed she must have already understood something about an ancient Entity, and I exchanged a glance with her. Our brief mental conversation lasted milliseconds, which made my heart beat faster when I realized she had noticed something different that complemented what I had perceived.

“With the match tied, everything comes down to the final match, so I’m giving you two choices to be the stars of the final battle!” (Merchant)

“Would you prefer to start the Duel now or enjoy up to 3 hours of rest before starting the combat?!” (Merchant)

“Start now!” (me/Ayden)

Ayden and I exchanged a look. I knew he didn’t want to wait another second, so I spoke at the same time as him, just as a warning, as well as a small joke.

He showed no reaction, but I could feel the pressure on me increasing. He didn’t release any power or Aura, nor did he even use the Concept of War for that; this pressure came purely from my instincts reacting to the focus of his gaze solely on me. It was as if my instincts were warning me that a predator had me in its sights.

“So now, let’s change the arena to a suitable one!” (Merchant)

“[ Threshold of Worlds ]” (System)

This time it wasn’t the robotic voice from before that spoke, but the usual mechanical voice of the System, a voice I’ve heard since my rebirth, a voice that speaks only facts and commands reality.

But a doubt still persisted… why was he here?

The world we were in reformed itself; in fact, reality itself was reforming. The earth disintegrated before remaking itself into pure, raw crystal as if it were the only substance in existence.

The mountains were made of crystal, the plains of powdered crystal forming what should have been earth or sand, the flowers and trees were of crystal, even the river was of liquid crystal.

Looking at the sky, there were no clouds or blue sky; what was there was the immensity of space with thousands of worlds scattered across the sky, some distant and others closer, filling the void between them was a river of stars that seemed to flow between the many worlds.

It was an incredible, breathtaking sight, one of the most beautiful I had ever seen, but not enough to distract my mind from the danger that lay before me.

My eyes, which had momentarily wandered among the surroundings, flew once more to the front where Ayden stood with his arms crossed, his presence still hidden, and yet he was like a fountain of blood emerging from the frozen desert, a red so vivid it could be seen from afar.

It was just the two of us here, no sign of my companions and even less of yours; we were alone in this beautiful place, and it wasn’t meant to be a ploy to keep each other company.

I knew, even without spreading my Aura, that this place was vast, much larger than the planet where the two groups had fought before, even larger than a Star System, and the planets I saw above weren’t mere illusions; they were all real and part of this place.

This was an arena designed not for Ayden and me to fight; it was much more than that, an arena prepared to withstand the clash between Chaos and War.

“Are you sure about that?” (me)

“All problems can be entangled in conflict.” (Ayden)

“Warriors wage battles.” (Ayden)

“Armies wage wars.” (Ayden)

“Artists fight against themselves!” (Ayden)

“Governments compete with each other in many areas!” (Ayden)

“Even scholars have the concept of a battle of ideas where they confront each other with their knowledge.” (Ayden)

“Confrontation opens paths that no one can perfectly predict, creates chaos, and then when order is reformed, there is either the evolution of the previous state or the deterioration of everything that came before.” (Ayden)

“You’re suggesting a bet… are you betting on this battle?” (me)

“War is betting…” (Ayden)

“My only desire is and always has been a fight against someone strong.” (Ayden)

“You are unpredictable, your power doesn’t fit into any predictable patterns, your way of thinking is anomalous, your actions seem to follow no logic or emotion whatsoever, pure impulsiveness and will.” (Ayden)

“In our previous battle, I was limited in my power, even so it was a fun battle, and yet the frustration of not being able to unleash myself against my opponent didn’t leave my mind.” (Ayden)

“(Damn battle addict…)” (me)

It was more than clear that he wanted to fight, needed to fight, his Aura exploded from his body like a storm sweeping everything away with pure will to fight.

“If that’s what you want… now…” (me)

“Just you and me… in this battle!” (me)