Will of chaos

I looked closely at that thing. Its body was covered in hands like clothing, its skirt was made of thousands of fingers, and even its shadow looked like a well from which endless hands tried to rise as if trying to escape. Not even a face could be seen, with a pair of hands, fingers intertwined, covering its entire face.

That thing seemed fixated on me for some reason. Most of the shadowy hands that continued to attack were coming toward me, relieving the Twins, who took the opportunity to attack.

“< Art of Rebirth: Vital Pressure >” (Lena)

“< Origin Tomb Technique: Flames of Refinement >” (Cortana)

Lena simply extended her hand upward, and a creature that looked like a planet-sized fish-shaped golem emerged as if swimming through space.

Their two Auras mingled as they fell, exerting pressure not only on their bodies but also on their Souls. It was as if gravity were increasing, threatening to crush the thing.

Its body contorted slightly, and its speed slowed, but it did almost nothing to stop its attack.

Cortana, however, gathered a gray light on her forehead as her eyes glowed. Flames erupted from her eyes, carrying a tense sense of death that spread around the creature with many hands.

The creature stopped in place, trying to sleep along the way, and during that time, its attacks against me ceased as the many shadowy hands extending from its shadow grasped the gray flames as if they were something solid. All the grasping flames distorted into hand-shaped shapes, fusing together to form a single gray hand.

The pressure holding the thing in place was the pressure of life coming from Lena and that colossal golem fish.

The creature with hands simply extended its arm in that direction, and the hands attached to that arm flew toward the Golem as they transformed. One hand turned metallic, its fingers as sharp as blades; another hand created a wooden shell around itself, while leaves shaped like tiny hands grew from its fingertips; another opened thousands of eyes, all staring at the Golem, and so on.

There were dozens of hands, and each one was different. These weren’t just different powers; they were distorted Essences fused into these hand-shaped aspects.

These hands were also different from the creature; they had their own Auras and clearly possessed a complete will. But just as the creature didn’t seem to have a Soul or mind, they acted on their own, and no matter how hard the Golem struggled, it was ultimately shattered into pieces.

Lena did nothing to stop the destruction, simply extending her hand and pulling something from the Golem: a core three times the size of a human, which she kept.

The hands returned to the creature as all the hands reverted to a smaller, more basic hand shape, their individualities fading before reattaching themselves to the creature’s arm.

“(That arm…)” (me)

Before I knew it, Urd had moved away, now near the other Ascended and the Other Avatars who were fighting the black-armored Creatures.

In that moment of distraction, I felt a chill and realized my mind had almost fallen back into illusion. My mind became slightly confused, and even my Will was shaken.

I turned my eyes back to the creature too late to realize that the fingers on its skirt were pointing at me, each of them releasing a different energy beam; there was no escape.

“< Eclipse Magic: Spatial Fracture >” (me)

A seven-pointed magic circle forms on the back of my hands as I tear through space with great ease, opening a Rift right in front of me. Most of those energy beams sink into the void and out of this universe.

I circle the rift that now couldn’t be closed due to the collapse of the universe around us. I advance to attack right behind the Twins who were already attacking, but that’s when suddenly a diary opens somewhere and my head involuntarily turns to look. It was a large eye filled with endless cruelty and inherent malice. It lasted only a moment, and yet it felt like it had been there for centuries. They were eyes I’d seen before, and they still scared me every time.

“(Callidora…)” (me)

“You know, child, you don’t need to worry about so many things, just hug me and I’ll be your mother for as long as you need…” (Anna)

“Boy, you think too much about things. Forget all the pain and think only of those who are truly around you.” (Maya)

“Sister Anna… Mrs. Maya…” (me)

“(Damn Callidora!!!)” (me)

Because of that eye, my mind and will were fluctuating too much. Before I knew it, there were two people I never expected to see again. One of them was Sister Anna, a nun who worked at the orphanage and died during my adolescence. She was a beautiful woman with short black hair and beautiful green eyes.

The other was a middle-aged woman with a slightly plump body, wearing an elegant suit and curly blond hair. She was the social worker who, despite being a bit rude, genuinely cared about the children at the orphanage.

Seeing them so close to me should have been a happy moment, if it weren’t during a life-and-death struggle.

Before I could do anything else, I felt a tiny hand pulling me, and my dragon tail was grabbed by a large hand that sent shivers down my spine.

“< Breath of the 7 Eclipse Stars >” (me)

By reflex and pure combat instinct, my body reacted before my mind could process it. The power of all my Familiars combined with mine in a devastating attack that destroyed the tip of my tail along with the large hands holding it.

“Keep your Will firm!” (Lena)

“Zenos, she cannot be destroyed, but like you, she possesses aspects of the Concept of Chaos, so use that!” (Cortana)

“…” (me)

During my Breath attack, those two illusions disappeared, but I remember the words they spoke; it was the same question I asked them both at different times in my childhood.

I had asked them both, ‘Why did my mother abandon me?’

“Chaos… Concept… Madness…” (me)

“I see, I’m starting to understand…” (me)

The one who had pulled my body away earlier was Lena. She and Cortana tried to advise me, their faces too serious with all this happening, but I began to understand something they couldn’t.

I am a Bringer of Chaos, and therefore I have much more understanding of Chaos than they do with their memories of the great Entities.

Chaos has a twisted and unique logic, just as my transformation requires logic to exist. I can turn water into ice, but I can’t turn water into water; there’s no transformation in that.

Likewise, Paradox, I don’t understand how your Chaos works, but a Paradox is always referred to as two conflicting things that shouldn’t exist together, be it a moral, physical, or even emotional Paradox, as far as I understand.

That creature Callidora released, which I had to defeat, also possessed its logic. It shifted from life to death, and from death to life, constantly evolving, a mimic of the circle of life and death.

If this thing possesses Chaos, then it also possesses its logic, it also possesses something I can use to defeat it, and I only need to think about it.

That thing was loose once more, its two arms extending while dozens of hands came loose, coming toward us. Each hand grew or shrunk in strange and diverse ways, but what I saw were the loose arms that seemed to become opaque and more transparent, as if its own body were fading away.

I didn’t try to attack, I just focused on dodging while staying close to the Twins so we could all help each other.

Meanwhile, I continued to think about the illusions. They weren’t a power of the creature; they were something inherent in its presence, and so there must have been a clue in the illusions.

It was at that moment that I saw in the distance the Creatures of the Abyss entering the universe through the rifts in this space, just as the General of the Abyss was trying to enter. But that didn’t worry me at all. I had Avatars of other Entities nearby who could deal with it for me. My only concern was that damn thing with all the hands.

“(Sakura had delusions about Lamias… Ragnar had delusions about killing someone… Nix had delusions about her mother… Layla had delusions about cake… I had delusions about power… then there were delusions about my questioning of abandonment…)” (me)

“I see… I finally understand…” (me)

I look at the creature and can finally see through it. The reason for all those hands seems so obvious now; this is obsession in its sickest form.

Layla is obsessed with sweets. Sakura loves the Lamias because she watched them grow up throughout her life. Ragnar hates and wanted to kill his own father. Nix always wanted to see her mother, who unfortunately has already reincarnated in a new form. Since my reincarnation, I have been obsessed with power to survive. I was also obsessed with my abandonment in my previous life, just like any orphan would be.

“Hands to grasp, grasp, cling, and never let go, an entity formed by pure obsession, and now I am the target of this Obsessive Specter…” (me)

I had finally understood something about the creature, or at least I believed I was on the right track, but that was also a problem, as the creature seemed to be growing stronger, or perhaps it was just awakening.

“How do I deal with this…?” (me)