Within my soul, an empire expands. Once upon a time, the Lion forged pacts with demons and mined their infernal powers for himself in exchange for remnants of chaos. Just as the flood washed away the iniquity of the earth, so it washed away my soul, and the unholy agreements of the past no longer bind me. Rebuilding a castle is easier than creating it from scratch, but not all of my subjects will accompany me on my new journey.

  Great. Demons cannot adhere to the Trine Flame, and their hatred of each other alone is no greater than hatred for humanity. If I will be a King, I will have the terrors I have conquered at my disposal: monsters subordinate to my own strength, in addition to those I have killed night after night in the world of nightmares.

  Instead of going into the Unknown, I do the reverse process. Dozens of invocations, connected to me through nightmares, cross the veil between the worlds and come to my aid. Their bodies already belong there, and without being destroyed as Aldwyn was before they were absorbed, there is no need for the creation of an anchor.

  And at the command of the king, they rise.

  I jump on the back of a three-headed eagle, soar through the skies and intensify its speed until it reaches the crater where the two fairies collided.

  At the top of a mountain miles away from the battlefield, an avalanche descends to the ground and kills the vegetation on its slopes. As I approach, I see the tunnel caused by the impact, and command the monsters to cut their way through the frozen plants and thorns. From the opening surrounded by stone stalactites, red light shines between poison and steam, and the Demon King lands at the base of the mountain.

  I stretch over one of several stone pillars and use the chaos to randomize the strength of the toxic effects. Yellow mists specialize in affecting the nervous system, the green cloud tries to corrode my flesh. The dump, filled with contaminated debris, uses puddles of acid to plug holes in the uneven terrain.

  Searching the fairy's mind, I could remember the actions my other self committed. Fleeting dreams, confused blurs, barely understandable. They revealed to me that, at the beginning of corruption, whispers killed truth; that daggers in darkness slit the throat of mercy and hyenas laughed when honor was replaced by mere practicality.

  Morgana's sealing occurred after said fall, when despite the physical victory, the damage had already been done. Art collapsed, and the beauty that held Alfheim together forged buildings that cherished illusion.

  And at the end of the deadly maze, Hilda stares at me.

  The fairy forces herself up with trembling legs. The wings that once possessed the beauty of butterflies are now only vestiges, as are the torn flags of their decaying court. The naive Spring princess who hid so much behind her sister's royal robe is no longer with us. She had been replaced by the grip of inaction, allowing addiction to make her its slave.

  “Andreas…” She calls me by the name of the possessed who dared to make a pact with The Lion. “D-disgraced Andreas… How dare you use them against me….?! How did you break your word?!”

  “…”

  Hatred grows in my chest and almost takes me, but there is something beyond it. Even Aldwyn had been a lost child one day. It was no different with Hilda. Equally, she also made the worst decision she could.

  Hilda was not the one who reversed the Mother Tree or the fairy who betrayed Morgana, nor the one who decided to follow in the footsteps of corruption. His mistake was not a choice, but the lack of one. You were silent, preferring the selfishness of comfort to bravery, not comforting or defending your sister when she needed it. It was through inaction that did not banish the whispers that they were able to return, and then, take control.

  So what?

  “Are you surprised a demon doesn't tell the truth? Hiding behind your ignorance will not work forever. Hundreds of thousands died because of his delirium. Your excuses won't save you. Repent. We don't have to do this.”

  “I won't have to suffer…? Yes… Yes. I won't have to. Never again. I will recreate the beautiful garden that was once mine… I will have you back from the clutches of death that you have cast upon this world. Disgraceful snake… wolf in sheep's clothing. I will save everyone in my paradise.”

  She pulls the toxic clouds to herself, absorbs the spores into her body. Yellow veins pulsate through her body, insects levitate her on the ground and form the aura of the Pestilent.

  “Nothing will pass but sweets in infinite festivity. Nothing will overcome this side of the moon. No! In rot or Illusion, I will feast.”

  When I entered this arena, a timer had been started to mark the time I had left to live: Hilda had already made the only big decision of her life, and to reach out my hand was to ask to have it torn away.

  “A happy world, mine and all mine, rotten or clean, all and only mine, for all, all always!”

  The Mother Of Monsters conjures her children. Trolls emerge from the acid swamp as rats, creatures made of flesh and plant, instinct and depravity. She moves forward like a bullet as her children follow her and fill the cave space.

  But her hands don't touch me.

  Ice expands and a glacial wall rises, cutting the arena in two and hurling me to the opposite side. Four blue hands curl around my body, Morgana's warm chill envelops me.

  Hilda stares at her, quiet, and Morgana answers:

  “You will not have him.”

  I bolt.

  Orcs raise shields and weapons from darkened wood, manipulated to form a wall of spears. My monsters react, a large octopus charges against the blockade and its tentacles pierce your organization. Another, a gorilla pierced by metal weapons, spins around and ignores the damage on his body to keep fighting. With such distinct characteristics and forms of struggle, common tactics would not work against the madness of the Unknown.

  And as orcs, trolls, and beings are locked in confrontation, I leap over the barricade and propel myself toward Hilda. Cold freezes wood snakes for the only necessary second I need to make the constructs run amok.

  I concentrate the surrounding air, Hilda pressurizes her poison and launches it like a wind cannon. I burn the surroundings and use the cold to my advantage, expanding the steam in a violent explosion, and the impact hurls Hilda against the wall. An earthquake follows, the pressure causing the gases to create craters to have where to escape.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Morgana creates stakes and throws them at her sister, but their poison corrodes them before they reach her surroundings. From the dust, Hilda steps forward with a blade of leaves in her hand and cuts, propelling me to the opposite side while ionizing the air.

  Crimson plasma illuminates the cave, but is neutralized by the bioelectric charges in Hilda's body. Forged by the aura that conveys chaos, facing the spell caused Hilda's emission to spiral out of control. I take advantage of his hesitation and invest, conjure a claw-shaped monster and wear it in my hand like a gauntlet.

  I punch the fairy's face and break her nose, she fixes her feet on the ground and tears the air with bright claws. Sun rays cross the distance faster than I can react and cut me, Morgana grabs my body and carries me away before I am pierced by the sequence of attacks.

  Winter protects me, the white crow regenerates me, but with each blow, something remains. The fairy have their limits, and many of them have already been overcome during the fight with the dragon. Just like in my fight against the forest witch, I feel my senses fluctuate. If it weren't for the chaos and healing, I would have had one of them ripped out of me with just one attack.

  “I WON'T HAVE TO!” Hilda screams. “YOU PROMISED US WE'D BE BIGGER! THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MORE DEATH! YOU PROMISED US! You!”

  I point to Hilda, and instead of diminishing her emission, I make the probability of her magic turning against her increase. The beam of light explodes in her hand and stuns her with surprise, I launch myself with steam into the air and conjure a monster in The Shape of an armadillo with thorns.

  A tricky sun, solid clouds and talking trees. I cannot order this dimension. The only way to beat her is to replace her madness with mine. Then, with a smile on my face, I build an aura boot around my foot and use the steam boost to kick the Armadillo against the fairy. The projectile breaks the sound barrier and explodes the wooden wall that Hilda ripped out of the ground, I advance against the fairy to press her, and we dance across the acid floor.

  Your thoughts are confused-merely being near me is already a reason to be influenced by metamagic. The fairy's hands tremble, her body already adapted to my spells does not feel the heat or cold. An ogre stands up and lowers his axe, summons a skeleton that attaches the weapon to his right ribs, then picks up a bone on the other side and sticks it in his eye. The Beast roars, sharp leaves meet blades of chaos. Ankles break, blood flies, odds fluctuate and spells fail.

  Don't let her escape! Morgana whispers.

  Alone, he would have been killed a long time ago. But next to those I conquered, in this situation, even a fairy like her will perish. I get a cut on my shoulder and tear off one of her fingers, feel my taste buds lose their taste and make the fairy stumble.

  We fly across the top of the cave, sacrifice a sloth to defend a ray of light and throw an aura hammer against its head, take it to the ground and roll in acid while an orc tries to take down a gorilla.

  Forward, forward, forward. Our swords collide. We fight while the war continues, carnivorous plants devour monsters, moles sink beings and strange beings float through the air. The longer I hold the power, the more of them are removed from my memory. I don't face them. I force them to obey me, I continue the battle.

  “WHY?! WHY DOES IT CONTINUE?! DO YOU CONJURE DEMONS TO TAKE MY LIFE AGAIN?! ELVEN BLOOD WILL KILL YOU! THE POISON WILL KILL YOU! EVERYONE YOU LOVE WILL ROT! WHY ARE YOU STILL FIGHTING?! WHY DON'T YOU GIVE UP?!”

  Nia. Wander. Cloud. Hoffstein. Morgana. Elron.

  “They didn't…!”

  Forward.

  I maximize the emission and break the fairy posture. I cut horizontally and force her back. The fairy stocks up with the leaf and I spin on my Axis, cut off her hand and solidify the aura to withstand the spell. Green lightning carries me across the ground and presses me to the ground. Morgana erects barriers of ice to serve as insulation, but they melt in the face of poison.

  Then with my other hand. “COME, ALDWYN!”

  The beast rises again, screaming in an ancient language and paralyzing the perception of organisms. Plants stop their attacks, trapped in their minds as they believe to attack. Their shared minds should be strong against spriggan's delusion, but Hilda's insanity prevents them from using them properly.

  The Queen ignores the illusion, already being prepared for the creature's return. She moves forward, Aldwyn invests and captures her hands. Woods grow, roots sprout to pierce it, but are burned before they can by blue fire.

  I channel, and in unison, we enchant: “Atabito.”

  The serpentine dragon glows in sapphire flames, then lunges at the woman and swallows her. I grab Morgana's hands and dance alongside Aldwyn as his laughter echoes through the cave. The beast drags Hilda like a doll and incinerates her army of lethargic monsters; using the cold to generate the Steam expansions and the wreckage to bring out the darkness of the smoke.

  But the show comes to an end. The dragon eventually dissolves, and Aldwyn returns to the nightmare world. It was only the second time I invoked it, but I was able to do it for a little longer.

  “These invocations…” I say, slowly approaching Hilda. “They really suit me, don't you think?”

  Hilda scratched at the wall, surrounded by the Monsters Of The Unknown. The toxin that once worried you become my territory, burning your skin and entering your lung.

  “You… Put your trust in the very ones who were responsible for the downfall of us all… How can you, Andreas? How can you refuse perfection?”

  “We are responsible. It's our fault too. You can choose not to live with the rest, but you're still bound by reality.”

  “Imprisoned…! No. No more prisons. I will not be manipulated by that Flame-!”

  “Then, you will end in the same way. A slave to yourself.”

  “No! I…”

  She wanders her eyes over the land.

  “… I was scared too. But there is nothing for you on the other side. Your sister will not return, and the lives you took will not forgive her. There will be no gratitude, but maybe you can still fix everything.”

  “… What…?”

  “You are the Queen Of Spring. Destroy the dragon and the forest. Let yourself be killed. Avoid the suffering of all and accept divine judgment, and the flame will have mercy. You have to suffer no longer.”

  “… Suffer. Yes. Everything suffers.” For a second, Hilda contemplated, but her heart is already hardened. “Everything suffers. Nothing ever heals. I will not allow it. This cycle… it ends here. For a perfect world. A perfect world!”

  She moves forward. Her monsters are born, but deformed. Ankles twist, spells fail, constructs are disoriented, then uncontrolled and weakened. The shape of the fairy decays. Elongated arms of wood, vines prevent her stomach from falling to the ground. She screams, our dance remains, timers come to an end. My vision blurs, my lungs collapse, my arms weaken. Hilda staggers, her faltering steps barely keeping her on her feet.

  The Queen of Rot ignites the spores with emerald fire and imitates a sword, then tears the wind and falls in front of me.

  I randomize every characteristic I can. In response, Hilda maximizes her emission and extrapolates every limit that her fragile body has. I summon other creatures—small dragons, bears, and chimeras—to form a shield of flesh in front of me.

  “NEVER AGAIN! NOT ON THIS SIDE OF THE MOON! NOT ON THIS SIDE OF THE MOON!”

  Morgana squeezes my chest, a frozen sarcophagus traps me in its icy cold. Winter dances around me, but in my hand, hell takes shape.

  Chaos affects the surroundings and causes compounds to reach the last form of entropy. In maximum disorder, matter falls apart to return to pure thermal energy. Using Metamagic to achieve heat and forging the flame sword, I unite the elemental effect to the divine for the first time.

  “Blade of Disaster.”

  Scarlet flames take shape. The pink delirium of a tree stretches over the ground, and I invest in its direction so that I can compete the last blow. I cut vertically and split the fairy's body, but the green flash is all I see at the end. The impact obliterates the cave, causing earthquakes and landslides.

  My heart beats, by the hour. I'm sure the contamination didn't make it to the surface. That's enough for me. I made sure Hilda was neutralized, either by killing her or by leaving her without emission. I couldn't see the result of the attack. I can't see anything.

  It's alright. Morgana says in my mind.

  Sorry for not helping you more in this fight. My power is limited while sealed in this way. Fortunately, I was able to defend you and prevent your death. You must be tired, aren't you? It's alright. Sleep. I'll wait for you.

  I feel like drowning in a sea of darkness. My senses stop, one by one, until consciousness is the only one I have left. Then, comfortable, she goes too.

  The Unknown [Dark High-Fantasy / Eldritch Chaos Mage] | Royal Road