Chapter 245: Chaos


    "On the thread of Destiny, there are countless nodes, each representing a coincidence more bizarre than the other."


    *


    It didn''t take Aldrich any fancy calctions to know what these expressions on Maya''s face meant.


    He had expected these presences as an oue of his n, but in his mind, the point of light that had decimated the two Divine Spirits was the limit. The Spirits summoned by a Marchioness and Duchess were enough to make a Duke salivate, but the Kings and Queen shouldn''t have given it much thought.


    ''Why?..''


    Aldrich mumbled.


    He didn''t understand why the KING himself hade here. Aldrich couldn''tprehend that the leader of Hallowed Phantoms was just behind that crack in space, and not one other King had taken any action yet.


    ''Why?..''


    Aldrich couldn''t make any sense of this illogical thing. Aldrich''s n hadn''t failed, and he knew it. Every step was as he had thought it to be and as he had ounted for it to be. He made the Golden Luan weaker for Vritra to overpower it, and the King''s attack annihted them, giving Aldrich this opportunity.


    But when the movie was about to finish, these sudden unnned after-credits bewildered Aldrich. Facts told him there should be other Kings here already, fighting off the Being behind him. Truth told him that there can''t be anything in this Gxy other than himself who could foil his ns.


    All things were jumbled up, like countless threads entangled in aplex structure.


    Everything was confusing.


    Everything was in a state of...


    "CHAOS!!! Oh No! What did I do?!"


    For the first time, Aldrich realized that what he thought to be the pinnacle of Laws, the Darkness, was nothing but a mere child. In front of this Chaos, which he didn''t even know when it materialized and took over the Laws around the, his calctions meant nothing.


    Aldrich''s teeth ttered, and he muttered.


    "No wonder... No wonder... So that''s how it is... So that''s why the Devil said that to me..."


    Aldrich remembered the Devil Aldrich''s words, telling him to meet him on the other side, and got to know the Devil must have already perceived these changes.


    "Daddy..."


    Sha called to him, and shook his neck, making hime out of this stupefying and rarest of the rare moments in Aldrich''s life.


    Aldrich gently closed his life and took a deep breath. In one breath, he let go of everything. He let go of trying to understand when things became chaotic, and he let go of trying to learn and understand this Chaos for now, too.


    This moment was the second time in Aldrich''s life when he had given up on something temporarily. The first was the time in his dream when he had to forgo the Question, What am I, and instead had chosen another question to answer.


    Time was different, the ce was different, but the stakes were the same and so was the man.


    Sigh!


    Aldrich snapped his eyes open, but they weren''t as clueless as before. The conviction with which he had begun his n returned with full strength. Aldrich stepped out into the real world. His skin was on the verge of peeling off, and his stomach almost bulged. But Aldrich was calm, calmer than Sha, who trusted Aldrich more than anything.


    A breath came out of his mouth, and along with this breath came out a sound. But this wasn''t a normal sound, this was thenguage of Law. Not one, not two, but only Aldrich knew how many Laws he understood, full or partial. A blurry image of a hole opened up in his forehead, and an illusory three-leafed Dark Sapling materialized behind him.


    Darkness, Devil, Death...


    Fire, Water, Earth, Metal...


    Electricity, Wind...


    Gravity...


    Attraction, Repulsion...


    ...


    "Hissss Hesss Sheh Sah Sehah!!!"


    SERPENT SLITHER!!!


    The words that hade out of Aldrich''s mouth weren''t normal. It was thenguage of snakes. By now he had already understood that there was a strange phenomenon about thisnguage, stranger than the fiction and truth. The moment he had almost gone insane from listening to the hissing sound, Aldrich got to know that only this sound could counter it.


    Who would have known that a Skill which Aldrich had casually chanced upon would bring these unexpected results to his present and future?


    If this wasn''t a coincidence, then what was?


    Snap!!!


    A snapping sound originated around Aldrich. Only he knew which Ancient Saying he had relied upon to break the constraint of mutation. The space around him fluctuated, the same as Bouda''s, and he became isted from the real world without leaving it.


    But this istion didn''te without any consequences.


    Serpent Slither was a Passive Skill. And ording to its description, it wouldn''t matter if Aldrich wanted to or not, it would exact a heavy price on his Perception. Veins, blue and purple, popped up all around his body, and Aldrich felt the same feeling which he used to feel after finishing a Rumok.


    His Divine Sense was getting consumed at a fast rate. He knew it wouldn''t be long before he would be as useless as Harold, who was still flying maniacally in the sky with snakes bursting out of his stomach.


    "Sha... don''t wait for me if you find it."


    Aldrich didn''t turn back to look at Sha and spoke out. Sha too seemed to sense the urgency in Aldrich''s voice and plunged in his shadow.


    Aldrich did nothing without a meaning behind it. There were countless snakes, getting sucked by the crack behind him. But even after knowing the time was running out, he didn''t want to let Sha devour just any mythical creature. He would get only one chance, and in this one chance, he had to make sure that he would get the better end of the deal.


    What Aldrich was looking for was a mythical snake of Dark Attribute.


    Aldrich had always wondered why the Devil made the Darklingse out and used them as a part of his body. But even in Sha''s memories, he couldn''t figure it out. The moment he brought the Devil Aldrich as undead, through the strange bond between them, he confirmed his theory.


    In El Cid''s Dungeon, it wasn''t like the Devil was otherworldly strong or something. The strength he had used didn''t juste out of the blue. That strength belonged to Aldrich, and Aldrich''s ss. The Darklings weren''t just pieces of jewelry for the Devil; they were the manifestation.


    A manifestation of Creatures of Darkness.


    And the Spawn of Darkness had the Authority to be almost invincible in the presence of Darkness.