Others Side

"[Should you really be worried about me right now, my dear passing storm?]" Rapania's voice is sweet but poisonous, like colorful sap dripping from a leaf enticing curious animals to lap it up. Mereana falls to her knees and holds her head in pain at the sound. "[Your beloved creature is facing a crisis right now.]"

"[She can handle herself.]" Tahiri replies, implying that if she couldn't, it would just be her fate. "[This ends today.]"

"[No, everything starts today.]" The sea witch cocks her head and laughs viciously.

The God of Storm speaks no further and raises her arm. From the tips of her fingers, a bolt of lightning flashes through the air but is redirected to the surrounding machines. Unlike last time, her power isn't enough to overload them, and in turn, the electricity jumps over to the transformed humans, whose bodies warp further.

"[Is this all?]" As Tahiri walks forward, her lightning hair hits the monsters, and their skin becomes scorched, as they writhe in pain.

"[Yes, that is all.]" Rapania waves her metal wand, and electricity jumps to the creatures surrounding the goddess from all the machines in the room, upon which they vanish in explosions of blood and guts.

As the mist of blood settles, Tahiri stands in their center, her body unaffected and her clothes still the pristine white they were before. She looks around with an expression that suggests mild surprise - but not much more.

Then the bloodied remains begin to writhe and gather, quickly turning into a single mass of moving viscera, clicking claws and teeth made of sharp bones, and skeleton-less limbs that flail around wildly.

"[Is this not to your liking?]" The sea witch sneers at the God of Storm's expression of disgust. "[That beloved creature of yours is no different in its true form, you know?]"

"[She possesses a heart, unlike this thing.]" With these words, a lightning bolt strikes almost horizontally through the hole Tahiri came in through and hits the monster in a blinding flash.

However, as the light subsides, the writhing mass has only gained a black sheen as its form collapses into itself and grows out again. The odor it emits goes from foul to an unbearable stench that seems to physically assault not only the nostrils but even the eyes and tongue. The speed of its movements increases as various shapes become visible on its surface, including tormented faces, and strangely deformed limbs of both humans and animals.

"[What have you done...?]" With her eyes wide open, Tahiri turns to stare at Rapania. She has taken several steps back and is regarding her own creation with a mix of pride and disgust.

"[I... no... we gave it a heart.]" Replying in awe, she has her eyes fixated on the tentacles that the mass seems to form naturally. It's becoming more and more uniform by the second as if realizing what it should look like. "[This is our child, Tahiri.]"

Wordlessly, the God of Storm summons a whirlwind around the creature before it can finish its metamorphosis. The cutting winds swallow it whole, the pressure and speeds within the vortex tearing it to pieces.

However, when the wind disappears, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, a lone black figure stands where the shapeless mass was moments ago. Its uncontrolled transformations have stopped, and the stench it emitted is dissipating in the breeze blowing through the room and out the pyramid.

The being looks down on its own ceaselessly undulating arms as if they consist of many individual tentacles. The upper half of its featureless face seems to be hidden behind a haze that exists only in the minds of the beholders, rather than in reality - a natural censoring of something that should never be seen by a sane sentient existence.

"... ma... ma?" A rasping voice that grates on the nerves of all who hear it echoes through the room with no apparent source. However, it's clear to everyone that the creature just spoke, despite having no mouth to do so with. It looks around the room, the head turning a full one-hundred eighty degrees without the body moving. Then the arms and legs bend backward on the spot before it takes a step towards Rapania.

"[Yes, I am your mother.]" The being's voice affected her just as much as everybody else, but she's still able to put on a gentle smile as she regards her creation. Wordlessly, it takes another step forward and stretches an arm towards her, which the former looks upon in hope.

"[No, stop!]" Tahiri screams, but it's too late.

The creature's arm extends and turns into a spike that pierces Rapania through the chest. The God of Storm summons a blade of wind that cuts the arm off, and in the same motion, she turns her body into lightning with which she shoots straight through the being.

Just like against Chaos, it shows no effect whatsoever. It lifts its stump and looks at it while tilting its head before the lost arm slowly grows out again.

"[But... why?]" The sea witch breathes as she looks down on the undulating severed limb stuck in her chest. Its movements cease, and the form crumbles into dust, disappearing on the breeze. "[Oh no... it is still... incomplete...]"

Uttering these words, she falls backward but is caught by Tahiri - who has returned to her normal state - before she hits the ground.

"[You still... care for me...?]" She looks up and raises her hand to caress the goddess' cheek. "[After... all this time?]"

"[Always.]" The God of Storm replies with a pained expression.

"[Huh... haha... is that so.]" A tear rolls down Rapania's face as she smiles bitterly. Then her form slackens, and her arm falls to the ground lifelessly.

"... ma... m-" The creature begins, but an invisible wind blade beheads it. The head on the ground crumbles away into dust, but from its neck quickly grows a new one - faster than it regenerated its arm.

"[Don't tarnish the moment with that foul voice.]" Tahiri lays the sea witch down and rises. Her skin turns gradually darker again, like gathering clouds before a midsummer storm, and the tattoos on her body glow brightly. Once again, her hair turns into lightning, crackling through the air.

"[That is far enough.]" A muffled voice suddenly comes from behind the God of Storm, and she immediately reacts by unloading a torrent of electricity from her hair. When she turns around, there's nothing behind her but a wall with scorch marks from her attack. "[This one is still a baby, so please do not treat it so roughly.]"

Spinning around at the voice, Tahiri finally lays her eyes on the person it belongs to. A person in a dark blue cloak with every inch of their skin hidden by bandages, wielding a staff with a large diamond inlaid in its tip, is standing right next to the creature.

"[Go to the throne room and help your friend.]" They speak, directed at the God of Storm. It's unclear whether the voice belongs to a male or a female. Turning their head towards Mereana, who has regained her bearings after Rapania's voice disappeared, they then address her. "[If you wish to see the prophecy fulfilled, go to the chambers of the king.]"

With these words, the bandaged person and the black creature deform in a vortex that seems to warp the world itself, before everything returns to normal - but there's no trace of them left.

Then the entire pyramid seems to shake under a thunderous roar.

Chaos Side

Korenga's visage, already distorted in her black form, has grown to a hellish one as she charges forward like a raging bull. Crashing into the Crawling Chaos before me, she runs him straight into a wall, before slamming her fists into his form repeatedly, and splattering him against the stone. She begins to rip him to shreds, while everybody just watches in bafflement.

No, this can't be the end. Mataku is a Crawling Chaos, so he can't die from physical attacks like these, even if they seem to have quite an effect; I know I wouldn't go down from this. And just as expected, the pieces scattered across the room gather together behind Korenga, while she continues to slam her fists into the remains now embedded in the wall.

"[Behind you!]" I scream, but in her rage, the Black God doesn't hear me.

"[Ahhh, my masterpiece.]" Mataku says as he regains his previous appearance and fixes his cuffs nonchalantly. "[I don't remember exactly why I gave her this body though. I must have been drunk or something.]"

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He touches Korenga's back lightly, and out of pure reflex, she swings her arm around and hits him straight in the head. However, unlike last time, he doesn't budge at all; it's as if she was a simple human punching a steel pillar.

"[No matter.]" He shrugs and proceeds to deliver a punch to her side. Her entire body jumps up, and she lurches back a step under the impact. I'm completely dumbfounded at this sight. Even at full density did my punches not have such visible effects.

Korenga immediately shrugs it off though and attempts to overwhelm Mataku with an assault of her own. However, he avoids the punches or deflects them seemingly effortlessly, while throwing his own at the woman who's more than a head taller than he is.

I should help her, but I somehow can't bring myself to move.

"[This is going to take too long.]" With a bored expression, the man in white dodges a punch to his face and returns it with one to the Black God's solar plexus. The impact seems to stop time, as his fist stops at the black skin, and for a split second, Korenga seems to be stunned. Then she disappears.

The sound of an explosion is followed by a massive shockwave, as pulverized rock spews out from a hole in the wall in the almost comedic shape of a human figure. Mataku just punched her with so much force that she shot off while breaking through the sound barrier - and the palace wall.

"Now, where were we?" He turns around to me with a smile, as if nothing happened.

I shoot a full blast of plasma straight in his face, and taking this as their cue, my children do the same. Even if he most likely has far more mass than I do, there shouldn't be anything in this world that can withstand this plasma fire for long.

Unlike a dragon, I don't have to cool the cannon down physically - I simply exchange the matter close to the melting point with fresh stuff from the inside and keep up the beam as long as possible. The same can't be said for Uten and Saten, as they don't have such an intricate control over their bodies, yet.

"Hm, is this your answer?" I hear his voice from inside the light and immediately jump back while summoning an array of spirit spears around me, which I shoot out at where he was standing before. "And here I was offering you to see the end with me. You know, share the last moments of this world."

Emerging completely unscathed while surrounded by a translucent barrier with a white glow, he looks at me with an almost sad expression. The spirit spears were completely negated, it seems.

If this were a more lenient situation, I would have smacked my head at forgetting about this; I also know how to use this barrier spell, but I never used it when it could have come in really handy. Maybe I could have prevented any number of my previous losses with it, too...

"I've always been lonely in this world. Nobody was like me at all." Mataku looks down with a crestfallen expression. "And I missed the opportunity to meet your mother..."

I wonder how, since she reigned for over twenty years. It's not like he couldn't have just gone to the Demon Continent using these superior abilities of his and revealed his nature to gain her attention.

"So, I asked the Gatekeeper to introduce you to me." Waving at me with a disappointed expression, he shakes his head. "But you seem to have a false sense of justice. You fraternize with these lesser beings."

He points in the direction of the hole Korenga disappeared through, and then at Kouratua and Awhina, who have been watching the whole exchange, frozen to the spot they stopped at after emerging from the hidden door.

"Is that what you believe?" Suddenly, a familiar voice I haven't heard in a long time echoes through the throne room. Mataku turns his head in surprise, but a sphere of liquid gold swallows him before he can do a thing. "Superiority does not lie in one's birth, but is gained through one's actions in life."

Aurelia is standing in all her naked glory in front of the golden god, whose body seems to have burst open from the inside. He doesn't look like it hurt him, but he appears troubled at her coming out right at this moment, as if this reveal was meant to be a surprise for a different time.

"Huh, what are you doing here?" I blink several times, my mind working as quickly as it currently can to piece together a plausible explanation for her presence. We were separated when Mithra transported me here, and I thought he pulled her out from inside me somehow and sent her to some completely different place.

Wait, now I think it makes sense. Mataku mentioned a Gatekeeper, and my mother called Mithra a gatekeeper demon. So, he's behind all this?

"Rejoice, for I have come to your aid." Walking towards me while flicking her golden hair back, Aurelia looks at me as haughtily as ever. "I was told that you would eventually come here, but you really made me wait."

The golden sphere which Mataku disappeared into is dented from the inside in several places but doesn't break. The golden woman walks past it with little regard to the Crawling Chaos's struggles, before coming to a stop a few steps in front of me.

"Now, do you not have something to say?" She looks up to me but somehow manages to make me feel like she's actually looking down on me.

"I missed you." Is all I can bring out, as a smile inadvertently appears on my lips.

"Is that all?" A little pout plays over Aurelia's, as she frowns. Then she grabs the back of my neck and pulls me down for a kiss. The softness and warmth of her lips run contrary to my knowledge of the fact that her body is made of solid gold, but the sensation blows all my thoughts away.

Even in her first open display of affection, she manages to appear on top of things. Instead of standing on her toes to reach me, she makes me bow before her. It's how she has always been, and the reason why I both appreciate and respect her; she was brought down by me before and even saw my real face, but her attitude hasn't changed much, and she retains her own brand of pride.

"I don't think that's going to hold him for long." I point past her at the golden sphere, which bulges more and more violently. Aurelia's abilities appear to have grown stronger, but they still seem to be limited to gold.

"Indeed." With these words, the stones scattered across the floor begin to disintegrate and turn into a golden mist, before forming into swords. "But until he breaks out, I will do this."

The swords pierce into the sphere from all sides and run Mataku through like in a pop-up pirate game - only that he has no hole to pop up out of. All movements cease for a moment before the struggles grow even stronger. Rather than wound him, she just enraged him, but she doesn't care; she pulls the weapons out and stabs them in again.

When she pulls them out the second time, they have melted away except for the parts that were outside the sphere. Then the entire thing seems to heat up and the gold drips down on the floor, out of Aurelia's control. Apparently, she can't weave gold when it's beyond the melting point.

I really wonder how we're supposed to fight this guy. He can shield himself from plasma, has the same physical immunity as I do, and according to his story, he's had many millennia to learn how to use the Imagination Engine's powers. In contrast, my imagination is awfully limited by the preconceptions I have about reality.

For now, all I can do is try everything to damage him. I sure as hell don't want to use this opportunity to test out how a Crawling Chaos consumes another one; if the one with more mass wins, I'm sure he'll come out on top. While I might never know for sure if I don't take some risk, I feel the likely outcome is greatly in his favor.

As the last bits of the golden sphere drip to the floor and slowly cool down again, Mataku stands where he was moments ago, with a glowing hot body that appears like the sorcerer who was living lava. It's like a smaller and more refined-looking version of Roamukao.

"It is done." From above comes a voice that I've also not heard in a long time. Even though this is a dangerous situation, I can't help but throw my head back and look up. There, I find the familiar figure of Mithra floating in the air while carrying his staff. My suspicions were right; he's been working with Mataku.

"Oh, really?" The latter's body solidifies again and returns to the one he had earlier, with the anachronistic business suit. "Seems I don't need you anymore."

These words send a shiver down my spine. It sounds exactly like one of those where a super powerful person snaps a finger and the entire area explodes, with everyone in the vicinity being evaporated on the spot. I don't doubt that he can do exactly that, too.

But before I can come up with something, a massive lightning bolt enters from the hole Pakangaroa left in the wake of his entrance earlier and strikes Mataku. A moment later, a smaller bolt hits the ground next to me, and Tahiri emerges from it in her battle mode.

"... you know what, I'll watch you struggle a little longer." The ancient Crawling Chaos says as the light subsides. As before, he's completely unhurt, even though this bolt looked like the one that was able to cut Roamukao in half. "I want to see what conclusion you arrive at. But I'm sure you'll come around, and see the world the way I do."

Isn't this exactly what an overconfident villain does? He lets the heroes who opposed him go, solely based on the fact that they don't seem to pose a threat to him at the time. I mean, he's even indirectly gloating, especially towards me. Has he, in all this time, never read any fiction? I doubt this world doesn't have any fictions that detail a group of heroes' struggles against a seemingly overwhelmingly powerful villain. In those, the endings always have the heroes winning by growing stronger while the villain remains relatively the same.

Then again, no Crawling Chaos ever just remains the same. While I can grow, so can he. That's where his confidence must stem from, too.

"You betrayed me." I glare up at Mithra, who slowly comes floating down to stand next to Mataku.

"I apologize if I may have given you the wrong impression, but I never had any loyalty towards you. I followed your mother, but she is no more." He replies in a neutral tone.

"... that seems to be the case." My emotions grow colder as I stare him down. At one point I was sure he was a traitor who had joined up with the humans to eliminate my mother, and the fact that he didn't help her during the battle in the demon castle should have only solidified that opinion. But when he teleported me away, clearly saving my life, I thought he might have been a good guy working for my mother after all.

"Cut the Gatekeeper some slack. They can't oppose the highest directive of the Crawling Chaos." With a shrug, Mataku speaks, and I return my attention to him. What does he mean with that? "I'll see you before the end... I never asked your name, did I?"

"... Chaos." It doesn't matter whether he knows my name or not, so I give it to him freely. When I thwart his plans, I hope he'll remember to scream it at the top of his lungs.

"Fitting." He smiles at me, a genuine one free of sarcasm or malice. "Until the end of the world then, Chaos."

The space around Mithra and Mataku twists into a vortex, before snapping back to reveal that the two of them have disappeared. Their sudden departure seems to lift the tension in the room, as I can hear the twins audibly breathe out a sigh of relief - as do Awhina and Kouratua, who must have been left on the sidelines in this confrontation beyond their scopes.

I continue to silently stare at where the two enemies stood only moments ago, a bad aftertaste in my mouth.