Will of chaos

“< Art of the Blade of Chaos: 1st Form >” (me)

“< Life and Death >” (me)

“< Calamity of Swords >” (Ayden)

Our blades meet as he approaches, my dagger containing life and my sword containing death, two weapons and only one blade in an eternal cycle of transformation.

He swings his sword before lunging forward, his sword seeming to lead a sea of ​​swords behind him towards me.

The two blows collide, the pressure of the blow throws me backward and when I realize it, I am in the middle of a desert of dusty crystal, in the skies two planets are shattered and the river of stars is cut, a result of our blows.

My body may appear intact, but my soul was wounded, dozens of shallow cuts and a puncture wound that pierced my soul. The pain was bearable, yet the damage was too great; only my body had a few cuts.

Looking at Ayden in the distance, his body was more damaged than mine. One of his arms was hanging, and a large amount of green blood was flowing, but all this physical damage was irrelevant to those at our level.

His aura seemed to show a serious injury, and it doesn’t seem that Guerra has made a move yet. Ayden also didn’t use that field technique he used last time.

“(His attention is scattered… it seems like it’s time… whatever it is…)” (me)

Ayden, who planned this entire confrontation, who came to this Duel full of the will to fight, and yet his focus was momentarily distracted. Others might not notice from the outside, mainly because of the helmet always on his head, but there was no way I couldn’t perceive it. As the target of his concentration until now, I could feel the momentary relief of his distraction.

It was clear that this was a warning, a warning for me, a warning that only I, as his opponent, would perceive. This only confirms everything I’ve noticed so far.

Everything was very strange, too forced, too guided, too easy.

I never expected to win every match. I wasn’t even sure if I would win more than one individual battle, and I had serious doubts if I would have any chance in the group battle. I came to this confrontation with everyone warned to give up before their lives were at risk, which I now see as unnecessary. Their lives were never at risk.

The battles that ended in a draw were strange in themselves; even if War didn’t want to directly interfere in the combat, he could have guided his Avatars to victory with his infinite experience.

The battles they lost were also strange; it seemed too easy. War’s Avatars having only that much power was odd. Xerxes’ fight was a surrender without even trying, and according to her, it was against the very Entity of War.

Hinata’s fight was even more absurd; her Avatar immediately surrendered. They didn’t even start fighting; it was all planned, otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense for him to throw that fight.

(Editor: He really doesn’t understand how terrifyingly bizarre Hinata is, even for the Entities…)

War and his Avatars never tried to kill anyone; they preferred to seal Sarazar and repeat that in the group battle.

Even now, Ayden is fighting me, and yet he’s giving too many signs: his conversation at the beginning of the duel, his exaggerated fighting style compared to when we first faced each other, and now this momentary distraction.

Everything that happened is coming together in my head, a spectacle, a show where we are all actors, emanating from those who observe us while we serve as bait on a game board I was unaware of until now.

A game in which not only War is participating, the Merchant and the System are also involved; they prepared this board. Everything makes sense now.

“Your distraction will cost you dearly!” (Ayden)

“< Cry of the Eternal Battle >” (Ayden)

Ayden’s aura ignites, and his red hair seems to glow like flames floating around him. His presence becomes much sharper and more murderous as he advances towards me at absurd speeds.

“< 1000 Cuts Like 1 >” (me)

Ayden launched himself at me, not giving me time to think. This time he was much faster than before, his murderous intent at its peak. I responded in kind.

“(I need to warn the others…)” (me)

I didn’t have time for explanations or planning, so I simply sent my thoughts directly to Hinata and Xerxes. They will understand what they need to do; Xerxes, at least, should be able to understand.

Ayden’s sword descended towards me, seemingly dragging space as if it were an extra weight. It was a terrifying technique. I responded with my sword descending against him, thousands of cuts condensing into a single blade of energy whose speed surpassed his.

Our blows collided mid-air, a shockwave trying to push us away from each other, but we both resisted before continuing to exchange blows. It was as if nothing had changed in our combat, but I immediately perceived the rhythm of his blows against me; it was Morse code.

Something unique to my world, created for use in wars to securely transfer orders, something I only know because of the war games I created in my past life.

He didn’t give a long speech; he spoke only what was necessary for me to understand, a few words with a clear meaning of cooperation.

[ They are here ]

I didn’t know who they were, I didn’t know where they were, or how Ayden knew this, so all I could do was trust him, trust an enemy. I didn’t like that.

The more I thought about all this, the angrier I felt. I was in the middle of a conflict I didn’t realize until it was too late. I placed myself and my companions in an unknown game, like pieces being manipulated by others.

I couldn’t bear this, I didn’t want to bear this, I wasn’t going to just depend on Ayden. If he signaled that they were here, then let me bring this whole charade down at once!

“Let’s end this!!!” (me)

“…” (Ayden)

Ayden’s aura intensifies, becoming colder and sharper than before, as if he understood what I meant. I don’t care if he understood or not, nor do I care about his plans.

All that mattered to me was revealing whatever or whoever was here.

“< Awakening of the Path: Domination >” (me)

I trained my Concept extensively, and the best way I could find to use it as an Entity should was to relate it to something familiar to me, something so natural that I could perform it almost automatically, and this revealed itself as my stellar paths, like those in my Divine Realm.

Perhaps sensing what I was about to do, Ayden stepped back, pulling a seemingly new sword from behind him. I hadn’t offered him that sword until he put his hands behind his back, pulling it out, which then became visible.

While keeping an eye on Ayden, I took a step forward. It was such a heavy step that all of space trembled. The power of Reality stirred, and the Aura vanished, becoming rooted in the reality around us.

Bizarrely, it was as if everything changed from where I placed my foot. Everything disintegrated and reformed. The crystal earth became ethereal while the sky of many worlds burned, leaving only a river of stars in the heavens. The next thing that happened was a rain of stars that tore through reality, so beautiful and deadly that it soon revealed what had been hidden.

The rain of stars tore through reality, which recomposed itself everywhere except one place—the place that revealed a translucent bubble where three individuals were.

Besides noticing that one of them was a man and the other two were women, I couldn’t identify anything else because their bodies seemed like blurred silhouettes, as if they didn’t actually exist; the power of reality seemed to reject them, thus forming these silhouettes as if they were holes in reality itself.

“Only three…” (Ayden)

As soon as they were revealed, Ayden turned his swords towards them, one of his swords, the one that looked new, was gleaming with a large number of texts running along its blade before he released the sword, destroying the bubble surrounding them.

I don’t even look at Ayden and focus only on the enemies in front of me. I don’t attack immediately, not because I’m afraid, but because I don’t know how to attack. They seem to be one with the very structure of the universe. I didn’t know what they could do to even force Ayden to set all this up instead of just fighting them head-on.

“[You shouldn’t have come here! You’re not welcome!]” (System)

“You can’t do anything to stop our presence, not anymore.”

“Who are you?” (me)

“Who we are isn’t…”

“Don’t waste your time talking to them, here’s the summary… they’re evil… we’re good… finish them all off!” (Xerxes)

Xerxes suddenly appears behind them as if emerging from space. He grabs one of them by the neck with his arm, and her body changes. It was one of the women; her body transformed into something very human, if not for the inconsistencies. Her body was translucent, unlike the Phantoms and other such things; it was more like an illusion.

“(What are these things!?)” (me)