Will of chaos

Bringing Freya into the fight was easy; all it took was letting Luci out and incarnating Freya into her body. But Tarzor was another story. He’s a universe, a mass of pure, raw energy that represents creation itself. Both the power of reality and dozens of Essences are fused within him.

It’s one thing to incarnate his power into my body—the weight reacts only within me when I fuse—but letting him out is like throwing a colossal mountain into the ocean, even if its size is much smaller. The impact would be like a falling meteor, sending tsunamis rippling outward, devastating entire islands and affecting the surrounding continents. Large-scale devastation wouldn’t normally endanger the planet itself.

But this wasn’t a normal situation. Space was collapsing due to the loss of the universal core, the power of reality was degrading more and more, and rifts were appearing. The situation was horrific in so many ways that I didn’t need to think for half a second to know that bringing Tarzor into his true body would be tantamount to immediately imploding this universe.

It was so obvious that I didn’t need to think about any of it, so my thoughts immediately raced to create a vessel for him. I didn’t need to think much about how, since it didn’t need to be very durable; I just needed it to be able to help significantly, and there were two options for that.

I could use my blood and Chaotic power to form a body, which, in addition to the power expended, would also consume much of my vitality, which was immediately discarded. The other option would be a sacrifice, so I used the enemies for that.

With the two of them helping Callidora, it would be enough. I myself advanced with my Familiars to help the Twins and Urd fight the thing.

“(Get ready!)” (me)

“(Master, you’re not in…)” (Sakura)

“(Sir, I can’t find one…)” (Ragnar)

“(Are you an idiot, by any chance…)” (Layla)

“(Master, reconsider…)” (Orion)

“(Don’t do this, your condition…)” (Nix)

“(Hinata… happy… hug… master…)” (Hinata)

“(We don’t have time for discussion, I can’t fight on their level in my current state and I need you, so let’s use that technique, understand!?)” (me)

“(Yes!)” (everyone)

“(Hug…)” (Hinata)

Fusing with my Familiars always took a toll on me, and I couldn’t hide from them how much Paradox had weakened me; they could feel it through our bond.

Hinata was the only one who didn’t care. Of all my Divine Beasts, only Hinata had absolute trust in me, to the point of fanaticism, and this has remained since her creation when I saved her.

For her, the fusion is like an intimate embrace, where she can cling to my Soul as if an octopus were wrapping its prey. Having her other siblings along only added to her happiness, like a big group hug.

As we advanced toward the thing that had already freed itself from its chains and destroyed the column of gray energy, I imposed my will on my Familiars as I saw the trail of shadowy hands behind it break the flow of natural energies around it, transforming it into bubbles containing hands of various elements floating around it.

Just getting close to it sent a chill down my spine…

“< Incarnation of the 7 Eclipse Stars >” (all)

My Divine Beasts become streams of energy that envelop my body, penetrate my Soul, and connect with my consciousness, as has happened many times in the past, or as I expected until I heard her voice in our minds.

“(This will hurt, but don’t be afraid… it’s still a reaction to the awakening of your Concept…)” (Paradox)

“!!!!” (me)

“(Master!!!!)” (all)

Suddenly, I felt different. My body wasn’t just absorbing the power of my Familiars, I was literally rebuilding my body from theirs, adopting their characteristics, making their powers my own. Even our connection grew stronger as my Concept flowed into them as if taking root.

I didn’t understand what was happening, I didn’t even know what was happening. It was all so fast, it was all so painful. I wasn’t even in control anymore, and it was only my Will that kept me going, activating the technique, which was reshaping itself along the way into something completely different.

I could feel the Concept of Chaos extending into my Familiars and becoming something else. It was the same Concept, yet different. It was transforming, as if there was something within each of them that could refine the Concept into a new understanding. This made the Concept of Chaos within me grow even more. I could feel it pulsing as it grew. It did this six times, growing over 60% the first time, and decreasing in growth each time. The second time it grew by 52%, the third by 44%, the fourth by 37%, the fifth by 30%, and the sixth and final time it grew by 21%.

This was an absurd growth, as each time it grew larger, the percentage had different values ​​each time, but compared to what it was before, it would be the same as an increase of over 650%. I was overflowing with power. What Paradox had taken from me before was nothing compared to what was now taking over my body. I felt like I would explode with all this power, and indeed, that seemed to be exactly the case.

“(It’s still too early for your concept to fully awaken. I’ll let it slumber a little longer and take 2/3 of that power since it’ll be useful to me, no need to thank me~~…)” (Paradox)

Her voice was irritating. She spoke as if she were doing me a favor, but it sounded like she was sucking me dry again like a snack. I could almost guess she was doing it on purpose and knew this might happen.

I’ll only keep it that way because I have no other choice at the moment. This was the best choice I have right now, and it’s serving me right now.

The power that was sucked away was like defusing a bomb; I felt it being sucked away as the Concept inside me became inert once more.

I was so distracted by all of this that I didn’t even notice when Hinata took control of our bodies and pulled us to the side at the same time a blow struck one of my arms.

Suddenly, my mind cleared, and all that overflowing power disappeared. All the pain of the transformation also disappeared, as my senses became more open to what was happening.

My body dodged dozens of dark hands as I dodged and moved closer and closer to where the Twins were fighting alongside Urd.

Hinata was controlling my body for this, and we were simply in our usual fused form. Nothing I’d felt before had happened, and that’s when I realized my other Divine Beasts were also distracted by different situations.

“(Hinata, switch places!)” (me)

“(Careful… bad influence…)” (Hinata)

Hinata switches places with me, and I can control my body better than she can. My power wasn’t something she could control so easily.

I could control my body and the powers of all my Familiars combined with mine with ease, dodging all the hands as I moved closer and closer to those three.

“(WAKE UP!!!!)” (me)

“(Mom…?)” (Nix)

“(Cute Lamia!?)” (Sakura)

“(I’m going to kill you!!)” (Ragnar)

“(…)” (Orion)

“(So much cake~…)” (Layla)

“(…)” (everyone)

Each of them had always been awake, but I noticed that their consciousness was out of sync, very different from what usually happened. I also wasn’t listening to them during that hallucination, and from their thoughts now, it was clear that each of them was lost in different illusions.

I quickly forced our minds to connect more deeply, leaving no gaps, so our minds wouldn’t fall back into those hallucinations like before.

I let my thoughts flow to everyone, making it clear that we were experiencing the same attacks Hinata helped us deflect. Everyone, like me, became more alert, and it didn’t take long for us to feel the influence of this thing, which made me particularly worried.

This wasn’t an attack; it was simply the presence of this thing. Its mere presence affected not only my mind but also directly my consciousness and Will within my Soul. It was terrifying.

I approached the Twins and noticed they were injured. Cortanata had a black handprint on her face, and Lena’s right leg was growing back. Only Urd was completely fine, her eyes closed, appearing translucent, her Aura blending with the surroundings.

“What is this thing!?” (me)

“The madness of an ancient Chaos Bringer, a creature similar to the Fallen Lord of Chaos you defeated earlier.” (Lena)

“It cannot be destroyed or sealed completely, a true eternal calamity.” (Cortana)

“A being of Madness and Chaos, without a mind, without a Conscience, without a Soul, and without even a Spark of Existence.” (Lena)

“So it’s like a raw, uncontrolled Concept!?” (me)

“Yes!” (Lena/Cortana)