“Grizzizzik, please.” Nick’s body trembled. Something about staying near Chaos weakened him. This being above the rules of nature. The rotting leg was in a state of decay Nick couldn’t comprehend. It shouldn’t go this fast, or this long, with a man talking as calmly as ever. They needed to get out, but he wouldn’t be able to drag Grizzizzik away now.

“What are the terms?” Grizzizzik asked.

Chaos walked around the bench, his hands clasped behind his back. “You don’t get the upgraded sword until you’ve leveled up. You must hit three levels in my class before you get this gift.”

“Fine,” Grizzizzik said.

“In order to level up, you must do something for me. I’m sure you already know, considering my first request.” Chaos moved behind the bench, smirking. “Create chaos.”

Grizzizzik stared forward. “How?”

“I’m marking this day as the start of our partnership. You must create chaos for the experience points you gain to count toward leveling up in my class for that week. If a week goes by and you’ve created none, your experience points will go toward your rogue class, and therefore won’t level up in mine. I don’t care how fast you do it. You can finish all three levels in a week, and I’ll accept it. As long as you create something chaotic that I deem worthy of my attention.”

“That’s vague,” Nick said, staring at Grizzizzik. “It’s too vague. You could detonate atomic bombs and it wouldn’t satisfy him. This is stupid. Don’t do it.”

Chaos chuckled. “Oh, I’d accept detonating atomic bombs. The weeks following would be absolutely…” Chaos took a deep breath, then let it out. “Delicious.”

Nick stared at Grizzizzik in horror. Horror that his rogue was considering it after what Chaos had just said. “Don’t. Dammit, Grizzizzik, don’t! We’ll find another way! There are other groups of people on earth with their own characters playing sorcerers and wizards! They will eventually learn the wish spell! We will defeat Akshi some other way!”

“Ah,” Chaos said. “But it’s not you making the killing blow. That’s what’s eating you, isn’t it? You want to kill your father, not a random sorcerer or wizard. What remains is asking yourself how desperately you want to do it.”

“Stop it! Stop talking to him. You can’t take this deal, Grizzizzik! Don’t do it!” Nick said.

“Oh, and you want to know the best part?” Chaos moved through the bench. Each bar of the bench changed into something random, from a lampshade to a hair tie, until Chaos got to the end when a long, thin man formed, screaming at the top of his lungs before he, too, disappeared. Nick shuddered, fighting the urge to throw up. Chaos faced Grizzizzik again as the bench returned to normal. “You can’t touch this world. Not yet. To create chaos, Nick will have to do it.”

Grizzizzik glanced up and met Nick’s gaze. Nick was on the ground, shivering, but full of questions. “How the hell is that the best part?”

Chaos chuckled, then snapped his finger.

Nick gasped. The anger was palpable. The pure frustration at not being able to control his destiny. Having a skinny little coward control the dice rolls, and not having a say in it. There were too many times he wanted to chop the hands off that coward so he couldn’t roll the dice.

Another snap of the finger and Nick was back to himself, gasping. Were those Grizzizzik’s thoughts?

“Balance.” Chaos turned toward Grizzizzik. “Something I am well aware of. Nick controls your destiny to a point. If you agree, you get to control his, to a point. Listen to my promptings for what kind of chaos I deem valuable. Because of the negative nature of this sword you require, much of my promptings will be negative, too. Have him challenge things. Partake in activities that create a ripple. Suggest he run through the halls of school. Force him to confront his father. Even rob a bank. All would satisfy me.”

“Grizzizzik, no. Please, god. No.” Nick thought of his carefully polished reputation on the line. “This is evil! It’s all evil!”

“Evil?” Chaos turned his gaze toward Nick, which caused him to stare at the ground, another shudder racing down his body. “Running down the halls of Elmwood High is now considered evil?” Chaos chuckled. “Me appearing in this form has placed a certain amount of negative emotions in you, Nick. It’s hard to talk about the good I do when you cannot stop staring at my leg that will never get better. But try to understand me. Good and evil are mortal concepts. If you consider me evil, then you must also consider my sister evil.”

“How could Order be evil?” Nick asked.

“Honestly, Nick. Who do you think inspires your father to control you as he does? Forces you to stay in line? To obey? Gives unusually harsh punishments for things he considers a bit too chaotic? That has my sister’s influence all over it. The only reason you think what I’m doing is evil is because your father will force too much Order on you if you ever get caught. We are neither good nor evil. We simply are. It’s how mortals react to us that creates this moral compass in you all.”

Nick’s stomach churned. He was too terrified to say no to Walt. To be chaotic. It wouldn’t take much to make order-obsessed Walt angry at him. And now Chaos was asking him to do just that.

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“If Nick refuses to do this?” Grizzizzik asked.

“Then you do not create chaos, and you don’t level up in my class. The best part will also be the hardest. You must convince Nick to do this.”

Tears stung Nick’s eyes as he scrambled to his feet. He couldn’t agree to this. He didn’t care if this being was the personification of pure chaos; this couldn’t happen without a fight. Nick tried to tackle Chaos, but the being blipped out of existence and reappeared once Nick passed. Nick’s shoulder hit the ground as he grunted.

Chaos chuckled. “A noble attempt, Nick Larsen. I can tell you will cause chaos well in this world.”

“Get out of here!” Nick screamed. “We don’t want you! We’re not signing any contracts, we’re not making any deals!”

Grizzizzik grabbed Nick’s arm and shoved him on the bench. Quicker than Nick could catch, his rogue had pinned his two arms and tied them to the bench. “You’re not a part of this conversation, Nick.”

“Don’t! Don’t do this, please!”

Once the rogue finished tying the rope, he stood towering over Nick. For whatever reason, Chaos was not affecting Grizzizzik. Perhaps it was because Grizzizzik hadn’t kept eye contact with the personified being of chaos for as long as he did. Nick felt like a bundle of nerves and nausea held together by a thin patch of skin. Grizzizzik looked as calm as ever. There was a chance that if Nick opened his mouth, he’d vomit, but he couldn’t let Grizzizzik do this. “Don’t make this deal! I have worked so hard to be where I am now!”

“Where you are now?” Grizzizzik shook his head, yellow eyes alight with anger. “In a prison created by your father? No spine to do what you want? Always seeking his permission? It’s pathetic.”

“Mmm,” Chaos said, nodding. “It is as I said. There’s far too much Order in your life, Nick. Let’s pull the rug underneath you and have you embrace my child Uncertainty for a while.”

Tears started streaming down Nick’s cheeks, and Grizzizzik crinkled his snake nose at the display of weakness. Nick was gasping. “I won’t do it. I can’t go back to that kind of recklessness. My dad’ll kill me.”

“Or you’ll grow a spine and figure out Walt is nothing to be afraid of. You’ll find the courage to get out of your situation,” Grizzizzik said.

Nick shook his head, the worry and fear turning into anger. “I’m standing up to you instead. I’m not doing it. Don’t make this deal. Please, Grizzizzik. Please.”

“Oh, goodie,” Chaos said. “I get to throw in my final twist.” Grizzizzik barely glanced at Chaos. “You can still sign the contract, and if Nick doesn’t cause chaos, you can let me create it for the week instead.”

Nick let out a shuddering breath. He didn’t know what the personified being of Chaos could do to the world, but he didn’t want to find out. It would be left to chance whether the chaos was good or evil, and he really didn’t like the idea of bad chaos.

Which is when Grizzizzik smirked.

“Please.” Nick’s tears turned into sobs. “Please find another way.” Grizzizzik turned to face Chaos. “I’ll tell the others. So help me, the instant I’m back I’ll wake up Evelyn.”

“She won’t hear you. None of them can. But you’ve already noticed this, haven’t you?” Chaos said. “Another stipulation to our rules. The only one who can tell anyone about our arrangement is Grizzizzik.”

Nick couldn’t speak. His throat had swelled, blocking off his words.

“So, I must force Nick to do something chaotic every week in order to level up, as you say. And as soon as I get to level three, you will make my rapier capable of killing Akshi?” Grizzizzik asked.

“Despite being Chaos, my sister’s influence still binds me in some things. You earned the first level for accepting the test I gave you.”

“Test?” Nick asked, gasping. “What test?”

Grizzizzik said nothing, but Chaos smiled. “The prompt where he felt a pull to enter a battle with his father without leveling up. It was quite… chaotic.”

Nick stared at Grizzizzik, eyes wide. How long had Grizzizzik received these prompts? Chaos continued. “Once you reach two more levels, you can return to leveling in your rogue class and keep the benefits of mine. I’m not an unfair master. You earned those levels, you may keep them.”

“And I can level quickly?” Grizzizzik asked.

“Kill as many monsters as you want as fast as you can to earn those experience points. You might need to make it as fast as possible, considering who you’re tethered to. I don’t think this one has the stomach for causing much chaos, glorious though it might be,” Chaos said, motioning toward Nick.

Nick couldn’t speak, too afraid as he watched his future fading before him. Cause chaos, create confusion. Challenge the status. Don’t listen to rules. Do what Grizzizzik suggested, which gave him a bad feeling that he’d go back to committing minor vandalism and theft. Nick stared at Grizzizzik, shaking his head. His rogue stuck out his hand to Chaos. “I agree to the terms.”

Chaos smiled. Nick tried to break the ropes around his wrists, but they weren’t budging.

“I don’t touch mortals.” Chaos snapped a finger, and a dark energy exploded from Grizzizzik’s chest, surrounding him and Nick. The ropes around his wrists changed into tomatoes as the energy lifted him into the air. Nick tried to keep in the sob. He couldn’t be at Grizzizzik’s whim. He couldn’t put his future on the line for this.

But at what cost? What would Chaos do to earth? The deed was done; the contract made. This was a being delighted at the prospect of multiple atom bombs going off and the proceeding nuclear fallout. Is that what to expect if Chaos took over for the week?

Nick spun in the air, the black energy sucked into his body as the sob broke out of him. This couldn’t be happening. Yet it was. He had no one to turn to. No one but Grizzizzik, who tossed his life, his reputation, into the contract to get what he wanted.

Grizzizzik’s character sheet flickered into view. The spell sheet vibrated and shifted. Charisma replaced intelligence for spell casting. More cantrips and first level spells trickled into their spots. Grizzizzik gained a leather pouch in his inventory to keep hold of spell components. A d8 appeared in front of Nick, but he refused to take it. It was his own rebellion.

Refusal to roll for hit point. Automatic roll of 5 given.

The +2 from the constitution made Grizzizzik’s twenty-five hit points change to thirty-two.

The blackness disappeared, and the two of them dropped to the ground. Chaos was nowhere to be seen. Nick still trembled in the night air, trying to control his sobs.

“We must get back. I need to take the sleeping potion, so they think I got drugged as well.” Grizzizzik was already heading down the street.

Nick stumbled to his feet, feeling weak. Terror gripped his muscles, causing them to quake. He looked again at the character sheet and noticed at the top something he never wanted to get used to.

Rogue level 3/ Warlock level 1

End of Volume Three