In a realm outside, yet close to the world,
There was a large castle,
It stood on no ground, nor was there even a sky above or around it.
There was no moon or even a star for the matter,
It was instead floating in pitch dark, built on nothing itself.
Inside the castle, a large figure covered head to toe in heavy full-plated armor trudges up a long staircase that seemed to stretch infinitely,
As one walked higher and higher, they were embraced by the nothingness of the realm,
If a normal person were to walk here, they wouldn't be able to make it a single step before losing their existence and sense of self.
Yet the knight's armor clanged and echoed against the castle's stone walls as they continued to walk step by step, undeterred by this problem.
That was because they had nothing more to lose.
It was then that the tapping of heels resounded up the staircase, and a joyful voice echoed slightly behind the knight
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Sir Mordred! How long has it been? 30 years? How have you been, old friend?"
The knight stopped on the steps, looking back, he spotted a woman of otherworldly beauty with a bright smile.
She wore a dress, her eyes were a vibrant pink, and her long purple hair glowed with the element of fantasy.
In her hand was a staff that glittered like a nebula. An indicator that she was a mage.
The slight mana she emitted touched upon the mind and soul, and even touched upon something at an even higher level than that.
She smiled as if genuinely happy to see Mordred, yet he knew for a fact that it was all a mask.
Or, maybe it wasn't a lie, maybe she truly cared for him.
Maybe she would whisper sweet nothings to him,
Let him drown in her embrace,
Give him the peace he always wanted.
The thought disappeared just as it formed. Mordred, understanding that her gaze had just tranced him, addressed the mage.
"Lady Claudia…"
Echoing through his armor, Mordred's voice was deep, yet its hoarseness grated on the listener's ears.
The sheer emotionlessness of the tone would make one wonder if what was inside the armor was a living person or not.
"Oh come on! I can't let you get rusty, right? Especially in front of his majesty."
Mordred didn't respond to Claudia, continuing his steps up.
Unlike Mordred, who remained unaffected by the staircase's power of nothingness, Claudia pouted, wrapping her body in special energy.
It was the energy of Chaos granted to her by the king at the top of the steps, allowing her to resist nothingness.
But in jest, she faked a struggle, calling out to Mordred.
"W-wait up, can't you help a lady out! Don't ignore me, you… You brute!"
Mordred remained undeterred by her words, continuing until there were no more stairs to climb.
Claudia shook her head and quickly caught up; despite her words, her pace was no slower than Mordred's.
They couldn't keep their master waiting after all.
With no more stairs to climb, they were fully embraced by nothingness as the world twisted, or more accurately, transitioned itself into a throne room.
In the large room surrounded and filled by nothing, even color was gone; their eyes automatically replaced it with black and white.
Yet still there were fragments of what was once real.
Pillars holding the ceiling, an intricate chandelier hanging from said ceiling, and a carpet of black.
This carpet led to the dais, which further led to a throne.
A throne of something in this world of nothing, chaos in the form of a person.
This person sat with their hands resting firmly on the arms of the throne; their head was tilted down, but as the two entered, they slowly looked up as if roused from a slumber.
Two crimson eyes stared at the knight and the mage.
The two walked forward, once close enough, Mordred instantly went on one knee while Claudia, still standing, looked curiously around.
"Goodness, did no one else come? How cruel your majesty! How… how could they ignore the call of their king?"
The eyes stared at Mordred before slowly gazing towards Claudia.
Mordred spoke with intent,
"Lady Claudia, his majesty demands respect, bow."
His voice was hoarser than before as his mana released.
It touched her soul and mind, demanding that it bend to his will, yet Claudia smiled, emitting a pressure of her own.
The figure on the throne then raised their hand, causing the two to stop instantly, Modred bowing deeper while Caludia stared up at the figure, making eye contact.
Their crimson eyes weren't affected by Claudia's ability to trance, merely narrowing as if amused, they spoke, a smooth voice of a man sounding old yet young resounded.
"It's quite all right, Mordred, she doesn't need to bow. Nor do you…"
Claudia smiled smugly while Mordred replied without emotion.
"This is only right, your majesty."
The figure, their king, didn't say anything anymore, instead speaking straightforwardly.
He didn't have much time after all.
"The rest are doing their own missions. I've called you here to check on your progress."
The two nodded, and Claudia took a serious expression while Modred, whose face was covered with a helmet, remained silent.
As they exchanged information, their king spoke,
"Relia Aureus… survived?"
"Yes, your majesty, we are limited in our numbers; we could only send twelve rank 3s and three rank 4s. It seemed only one rank 3 could reach her, though. Marital Lord Hale eliminated the rest."
Mordred explained in detail,
"Hale, the successful experiment? I see, but a single rank 3 boosted by chaos should be rank 4. How did they fail?"
Mordred bowed his head in apology.
"I… don't know your majesty. I apologize."
The crimson eyes stared at Mordred before chuckling in amusement.
"You've done well, Mordred. A single failure is fine; our progress is still smooth after all. Then, how is the progress on the barrier, Calduia?"
Claudia smiled excitedly,
"I'm almost done; unlike the barrier 30 years ago, they hadn't improved it by much. Hehe, they're so confident that another attack won't happen."
30 years ago, the capital of the Rael empire, Baeleon, was attacked by the traitorous Perneus ducal family.
The barrier that was above the capital mysteriously disappeared on the day of the attack.
The culprit was Claudia, or more specifically, her underlings.
They continued speaking, plans in the making for years flowed throughout the throne room.
Eventually, the meeting came to an end.
"My slumber though long is not permanent, once they return, this or the next, all worlds will cease and be wrought anew. To the Eternal One."
"To the Eternal One"
"To the Eternal One"
As Mordred and Claudia spoke, nothingness surrounded them as they disappeared.
"Relia Aureus"
Careim, King of Chaos, God of War, and Herald of Finality, spoke softly in the now-empty throne room.
"We couldn't get our hands on divine blood nor start a chaotic war. How unfortunate."
The Chaos Cult had many powerful people, yet none could descend on the world and could only watch at the [Edge of Dimensions].
This was because of a gate that blocked rank 8s and higher from entering the world.
Relia Aureus's blood potentially held the key to this problem.
Yet it had failed,
"Raelith, was this your doing?"
Thoughts drifted of the person who killed his lord, the Chaos God, and sealed Careim and his castle in nothingness emerged,
Emotion flickered before disappearing.
"No… you're stuck dealing with that Wyrm."
Reaching into the void of nothingness, a simple leather book appeared, the book of Finality.
It was a book that told of the near future of the world with its infinite pages,
[Relia Arureus, at rank 1, will be killed on her way to the capital for her coming-of-age ceremony. This will lead to the war between the Rael Empire and the Lelfon Kingdom.]
It was obviously a powerful artifact, yet its value diminished when you considered the many different worlds in the universe, and the fact that only one future could be seen at a time,
There was also a cost to use the artifact.
Careim stared at the words that were fading as the present became the past,
"It's irrelevant, war is bound to happen, although we couldn't get divine blood, we will still move forward."
As he read the book, his mind grew increasingly tired.
"But since she survived, someone defied fate, but who? They would need to fall into insanity…"
The word lingered,
"Insanity?"
The question led to a single person; the chaos that surrounded Careim trembled, his emotions that had briefly surfaced when thinking of Raelith, who killed his master, exploded when thinking of this other person.
"The Traitor... it was her!"
The figure of a witch appeared in his mind, the same witch who helped Raelith kill his master.
As the energy of chaos trembled, Careim's formerly veiled smile revealed itself as he laughed in the empty throne room.
"But you're a god as well, so you can't descend like us."
Just as the gate prevented the Chaos Cult from fully descending, their enemies were the same, and even Raelith, the person who made the gate in the first place, was barred from returning to his homeland.
"Then you must have people working under you…. But who? And how many? 1 or maybe 2, maybe even a whole cult?"
"Relia Aureus must have made contact with them, ensuring her survival, or maybe it was Relia Aureus herself."
Cariem thought about the other Hearlds of Chaos who were of the same level as him.
"I've lost contact with Cataclysm and Destruction. Could she have been involved in that as well? Interesting…. How interesting."
The many questions lingered in Careim's mind as nothingness lulled him to sleep once more, as it had millions of times before.