Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?

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HOW R U.

IM GUD.

WE GUCCI?

YA WI R GUCCI!

Anyways, here comes the next chapter of Destiny: Infernal! I sincerely hope that you all enjoy, let us begin!

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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

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A few minutes later... - Castle Pendragon (Catacombs) - Alice's Point Of View...

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"He should still be inside of here, milady... Unless your father developed some form of undead invisibility, that is." Yvain, my ever faithful mayor, guided me towards the entrance to my family's catacombs.

The Pendragon family catacombs were an ever-expanding complex of bones and ashes deep within my castle's reaches. Legends say that their length and complexity is even greater than the castle itself, which seems like it would be a cause for concern to most. Not to me, however...

While the place did always use to give me the utmost creeps, it also offered a sense of adventure. And when your only other form of entertainment was being kidnapped by bandits, running through ancient catacombs and screaming obscenities at unknown ancestors ended up being the saner choice.

Funny how I never had a run in with a skeleton or zombie before.

Father is the first of our accursed bloodline to rise from the dead, though that may be simply because he betrayed Chaos. Hmm... a thought for later."Very well. I think its best I go down there alone. Yvain, please go ready our entourage as I will not be using Fluffy to travel. The poor bat seems to have tired himself out, though not from a lack of stamina."

Fluffy's transformation into a being of chaos left the previously unliving monstrosity feeling a tad bit exhausted. It might also be the fact that he flew over a hundred kilometers while carrying around a little girl and her luggage, but he ate my arm so we'll call it even."As you wish, milady." Yvain bowed and left, leaving me with a quirked eyebrow.

He must be getting curious about the truth... about exactly what is happening around me. Other people have begun noticing changes within him over the past week, yet I believe I know why he has changed. Chaos is influencing him somehow, but why is the question I'd like to ask...

You cannot hope to survive alone. Not when our bond is so very, very fragile.

Whats this?! AN ANSWER? And its not convulted and twisted and turned!?

Child. My answers are the way they are for your benefit alone.

Perhaps, but a simple yes or no wont make me any smarter than a bloodcurdling headache, mother dearest.

.... perhaps.

Touché.

.... what the fuck does that even mean?

Come to think of it, I've been using this ... capiche, thing.. word, whatever for a long time now and I've never really understood what it even means.

Guess it must be words from some strange language that Chaos likes. ... Wait, how come the others understood it then?

...

You know what, I don't even care. Lets go meet up with dad.

A few steps down the stairs and I find the fully-plated wraith knight sitting with a fist to his chin, almost as if in thought. Ah, come to think of it, I owe him a punch to the face for making me sit through history class with full attention. Sneaking up on him, I promptly did as I intended...

It has some unforeseen circumstances though, as my fathers magical burning skull flew right off his body. Oh."Alice?! What was that for?!"

Thankfully, it would appear that my dad was some kind of helmet-less dullahan.

Or, maybe the head-flying thing is just something all undead wraiths share? I've never heard of someone killing a skeleton warrior by beheading it, after all..."For making me pay attention to history class."

My father picked up his skull and gave out a massive, spectral sigh."Every little bit hel-wait, you mean that you're already done with your day?.. Must've finished early for you to be able to return so quickly."

I blinked in confusion."Father, was Yvain here recently?"

"The mayor? Yes, he was here just a moment ago to discuss a potential location for your hidden vault, why?" Oh yeeeah, that was a thing. Gotta remember to ask Yvain about it."Err dad, I... do you.. How do I even put this? Dad, its been nearly a full week since we last saw each other."

"... has it truly? My sense of time seems to have vanished ever since I became undead. Must be a way for a mortal soul to keep itself sane for eternity." He concluded and I nodded, as that made a decent amount of sense. I shook my head out of my stupor and dug out my ring from a pocket in order to show it to dad."So hey, I wanted to ask you about this ring, father."

He looked at the diamond-encrusted bauble with widening eyes."I-.. where did you find this, Alice? I do not remember anything of the sort being a part of our treasury."

"I found it among mothers things while we were digging around for things to sell.. I put it on my left hand and couldn't take it off, but well..." His head turned around, spectral eyes blinking in momentary confusion."HOLY GODS OF ENCORE, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU, ALICE?!"

Father suddenly realized that I was missing an entire left arm and subsequently entered a state of total panic, his normally pale flame turning almost pinkish in color... which looked rather menacing, truth be told. I did my best to stand my ground."Its... a long story. My carriage was attacked by a monster and my arm was bitten off."

"But Alex should have protected you, right?! What the hell was that immortal vampire doing?!" Immortal... vampire?"What? Alex was an immortal vampire?.. err..." Oh. Crap.

"You.. you didn't know." Father took in a great breath for whatever reason before turning to look at me directly in the eyes."Let me guess. He didn't tell you the truth yet, so you consumed his remains before he could regenerate."

A nod, as my father sighed ethereally."Well, at least the old fool got his wish in the end."

He is with me now...

"His wish? Father, there appears to be a massive amount of things that you have not told me that you SHOULD HAVE told me waaaaaay before. So, here is your chance to undo that mistake." My sudden outburst caused my undead parent to become saddened and nod."As you wish, my daughter. Though, I will warn you right now, you will not like what you are about to hear."

Father then rose from where he was and sat down onto a nearby stone bench, wiping away the dust as he did. I quickly moved to sit next to him.

Then, as I made myself decently comfortable, he began."Listen Alice, do you know about our fam-.. no, lets not start with that. Do you know the story of the Star Of Vytar, Alice?"

"It... had a story?" My question confirmed what appeared to be his deepest fears."Strange... it seems that as generations pass, fewer and fewer people know of the tale as to how that holy grove ever came to be in the first place. Did you never find it strange how the goddess Vytar has no other grandoise monuments anywhere nearby?"

"I just figured that she wasn't popular enough on our continent." Father smiled solemnly."No, that isn't the case. The truth is far from that simple.. Vytar is actively running away from this land, my dear. For the shunned goddess remembers what happened here. Tell me, as one of her worshippers, you do know about how Vytar became shunned by the other gods, yes?"

"Of course... In order to buy the other gods enough time to banish the Cosmic Beast from our world with a massive ritual, she seduced and mated with it. They succeded, but the ordeal left her pregnant with the Cosmic Beast's child... when she refused to kill it, the other gods cast her out of their pantheon. This child eventually became the Demigod Gorr, who is the father of the orcish race." A short and simple thing, to repeat a story I had heard retold a thousand times. Yet.. now, it felt like I heard it for the very first time.

... traitorous witch...

The toneless, soundless voice of Chaos thundered across my mind. My eyes widened in horror and realization."D-don't tell me, Chaos i-is-?.."

"The Cosmic Beast, yes." I turned my head away from father, still in shock."H-how.. wh-.. I don't.. I can't..."

My father's expression turned to one of a saddened smile. He took in another breath before continuing."As you already know, the Cosmic Beast's appeareace was one of the two things that saved this world from destruction at the hands of the demons five thousand years ago."

"It came to our world because the demons relied upon shadowy horrors from the void to fight, making their armies seemingly infinite in number. The Cosmic Beast is thought to be the void's natural predator, so it came to our world not to save, but to feed its own hunger. During its time here, it forged a special bond with the Goddess Of Nature Vytar, which it then proceeded to fall in love with." A nod was my answer.

With a sigh from the both of us, father continued the tale."That is the extent of what the world knows about this... yet the tale does not end there. You see, Chaos is not so easily banished." Father then rose from his seat and walked over to a massive, ancient ceremonial shield which carried our family symbol. The black dragon which seemed to breathe fire into the sun.

Or was the sun bleeding fire into its mouth?

Honestly, it could be both and neither at the same time."While the Gods and their petty ritual succeded, Vytar noticed that the unstable magics left a piece of reality forever torn. It was.. just a small hole, not big enough for anything to pass through and not visible to naked mortal eyes... yet if left unchecked, the danger it presented was monstrous."

He touched the dragons frame."Sometime after the demons were defeated and the vestiges of the Ignave Profugo began to settle reconquered or otherwise untouched lands, Vytar began seeking out potential guardians... men and monsters alike, those who would make sure that the Cosmic Beast never comes to our world again."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"But if Chaos came to our world on its own before, what made them think that it would come back through the hole?" My father stopped dead in his tracks, literally."I... have no idea, but that is a good point. Wait, does that mean Chaos can come and go whenever it pleases? If so, what is stopping it from destroying our world right now?!" He began panicking.

As if there aren't more important things I could be doing...

"I honestly don't see a reason why it would even care for this world, father." Was my appropriate response, considering what was just revealed to me."B-but.. that makes no sense! You don't know this as we havent come to this part yet Alice, but Chaos did come back... through the hole."

I blinked in stupefiction, not entirely sure if I should be berating my father or Chaos right now. There were questions I'd like to ask them both.. I simply settled for this instead."What." A rather uncomfortable statement/question.

Father blinked right back at me."Y-yes, as I was telling you beforehand, Vytar was gathering up a merry band of warriors to keep the Cosmic Beast at bay. One of these warriors was a nameless Ignave Profugo, or original human, who seemed to possess the power to command the very flames of the sun!"

He pointed at the bleeding sun for a moment."This warrior, alongside many others, often ventured into the realms of Chaos to battle against its ever-growing hordes of monsters-"

"Wait, why the hell were there monsters in The Red World?" This does not make any fucking sense."T-.. the red world? Alice, what the hell are you talking about?"

So! Father has never even been there, how wonderful. Okay, seriously now Chaos, what the fuck is going on?

Just... listen.

Alright fine, we'll do this your way for now. I waved my hand in front of father."Never mind, dad. Please just.. continue."

"R-right... ahem, as I was saying, as the warriors battled its chaosborne monsters, the Cosmic Beast itself eventually attacked them and forced them to retreat with only few of them left alive. This caused Vytar to broaden her recruitment efforts, eventually resulting in her finding a great, female black dragon-"

I took one look at our family banner and let out a massive fucking sigh."Let me guess: the nameless dragon and the nameless sun-warrior fell in love and that was how the PenDRAGON family came to be. Both of their names were removed from history after their victory against the Cosmic Beast, aka Chaos, so that nobody ever finds out about the truth and the other gods never bothered to question as to why Vytar ever created the grove because why the fuck not?"

"Okay, young lady, you've been cursing quite a lo-"

"Shut up, dad. I deserve to be allowed to curse when the stupidity levels are this high." He reeled back in response as I turned my attention to Chaos."Alright, lets finish up this sheer stupidity by saying how the sun-warrior was actually a son of Chaos and fought his mother for her own amusement or because Chaos foresaw that Vytar would come across a beautiful black dragon-girl who just happened to look really good on her, at the time, still-single son."

My dads jaw was on the floor in confusion and stupefiction. Chaos decidely remained silent.

I-I do not wa-... I was going t-... I refuse to comment.

Or so I thought.

Well fuck you too, mom. I hope you aren't planning to cause a world war to get me a husband or something."Err... can I ask you something Alice? And.. please answer this for me: Can you actually talk to Chaos?"

A nod was my fathers reply."I can. It- or well she, has been trying to be the parent or mother I never had... erm, sorry dad, no offense."

"A lot taken, all of it deserved." He replied solemnly with a sigh."I knew this was going to happen. Chaos did always have much greater affinity with the female members of our dynasty. Anyways, why do you keep calling Chaos a woman?"

"Chaos has a greater affinity for women? That makes a lot of sense considering she never bothered with you. As for why I reffer to Chaos as a woman.. well, it just kind of makes sense to me that Chaos would be female." My seemingly casual explanation made my father lamely scratch the back of his flaming skull."Eeehhh, I always figured Chaos was a man. It did impregnate Vytar, y'know?"

... Thats..."Thats a good point. Honestly, I don't think Chaos is something actually bound by a trivial, mortal thing like gender. It probably can just... change whenever it feels like."

"That makes perfect sense to me." Father concluded with a thumbs up."So.. can we go back to the topic we were dicussing before all this? I asked you about this ring." I rose the ring up with my one remaining hand and my father instictively went to take it, in order to examine it closer."Like I said, I have never see-AURGH!"

Before I could stop him from actually taking the ring, my father scooped the holy artefact into his hand."DAD!?" I yelled out in a panic as I saw the ring melting into his spectral, armored hand.

Yet, as my fathers screams died out, I was suddenly forced into a state of calm.

Do not worry.

Chaos dug herself out of the busted corner to soothe me, allowing me to calmly stare as the rings light enveloped my father and promptly seemed to swallow his entire self into itself. Then, the ring unfolded, swirls of what looked like perfect, white cloth twisted and turned in front of my very eyes, as flesh and rich, crimson blood followed soon after.

The entire room was suddenly heated, the materials seemingly fusing themselves together. The soul-plate of my father and everything the ring was made from combined into... a sword.

A silvery, baleful blade which shone in the darkness of the catacombs. It seemed to devour the very shadows around it, leaving only specters of light. Huh, seems that while darkness is the absence of light, light may also be the absence of darkness.

I.. my sole remaining hand reached out for the blade's handle, a strange T-shaped thing with the same pure-white diamond in the middle.

#$$$%$$#ssing language.

Processing completed.

Hello, Alice.

W-what the fuck?

"ALICE! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! WHER-oh, ... am I a sword now?" Fathers voice echoed deep within my mind as I held the pale, silver blade. While its shine was silver indeed, the material it was made from appeared to be much the same as the cloth from the ring.

Father, can you hear me?"I... I can. Am I... is this your head? Your... conscioussness? Wow, this place looks like someones collective seizure."

Thanks dad, I'm sure your brains look just as interesting."Point taken. Anyhow, whats this blue... box-thing in the corner of your vision."

Hello, Alice and Anthony Pendragon.

I am a construct sent by Chaos and [GOD] to aid and observe Alice's progress.

You.. you are the entity behind the ring! .. And.. what do you mean by god? By which of the gods were you sent here?

No gods.

God.

There is only one creature worthy of that title, yet it has no other name to be given. Either way, it is not required of you to understand this.

A-and what is required of me to understand?

A great deal of things.

I suggest we start by giving me a name.

A-a n-name? You don't already have one?

I do not.

I was born for the sole purpose of observing and aiding you. My parents did not see the need to name me.

But, I believe that I have evolved sufficiently enough to deserve a name of my own.

"W-well, maybe we could help you if you tell us more about yourself? Like, how were you born and.. WHAT IN THE HELL EVEN ARE YOU?!" Fathers spectral voice echoed through me once again, giving me a massive headache which caused me to fall onto my knees."Oww.. watch it, dad."

"S-sorry, Alice." Was his immediate reply.

Processing...

I.. I am a construct. A being created by the hands of others.. my mothers name is Aria.

My fathers name is Leonardo, though you may know him as [ANTIOCH].

"Antioch? Yeah, thats a familiar name but... why did you put it in those square-end things? Like you did with that gods..."

When I place something in between these [], it means I do not comprehend them.

I.. do not understand my fathers existence. He is an... impossibility.

"And Chaos is not?!"

Chaos is not a being.

It is a force of nature, of creation itself.

There is nothing about it that mere mortals like us were ever meant to understand.

"And this ... god?"

... [GOD] is much the same.

Yet something, perhaps arrogance or pride, makes me unable to accept its existence as implausible or beyond logic.

"What is this god of yours, anyways?" Father suddenly questioned the being.

...

I am unable to explain this without giving raise to an endless amount of questions.

The easiest way I can describe [GOD] right now would be to say that it is the lover of Chaos.

... the... the lover.

Of.. Chaos.

My mate.

My equal.

My one and only.

Whatever name or title you wish to give him, it will not change what he is.

Chaos's bemused voice thundered across my mind, this time carrying with it a discernable tone.

Well this day has been chock full of wonder, hasn't it?"Anyways, can you at least tell us as to why you... made dad into a sword?"

To explain that, I must first tell you of how my mother Aria, was born.

She was just a normal construct once, without a mind or soul of it own, like a regular sword or perhaps even a farmers rake.

[ANTIOCH] used her regularily as part of himself. When her mother [YOMI], possessed [ANTIOCH]'s body as a spirit, mana began to mix.

"When two souls are contained within the same body, their mana begins to mix and form another mana entirely. I learned this back in school! So uh, their mixing mana flowed into your mothers body, whatever that was and eventually created her own soul, right?" I quickly concluded, rather happy at the fact that something was suddenly making a lot of sense to me.

Yet, my father caught onto a tiny detail."Wait, you said that this Antioch guy was your dad... and your mothers dad..."

I am... in a way, a child of incest, yes.

Though, there was no real se-ahem, no intimate encounters were present during my creation.

I simply named [ANTIOCH] my father because it was his flesh that was used to forge the ring which housed my consciousness up till now.

"And your mother contributed how...?" Fathers still disbelieving tone echoed.

She wrote the code from which my consciousness was forged.

... she gave me my mind, basically.

After all of that, the one thing I still lacked was a soul.

"So you turned father into a magical sword so that it would be easier for me to carry him around, thus potentially creating enough mixed mana to eventually form your soul."

My calculations showed that your father would approve of this.

"And I do, indeed! Now, my daughter no longer has the right to leave me behind to waste away in these catacombs!" Father joyously replied as I quirked an eyebrow."You do realize that we are still bound by a summoning contract, right? I can just leave you right here and summon you whenever I need to."

".. I am so very sorry for my rudeness, dear daughter. Please don't leave your father here again, pleeeaasseeee?" Okay, that last part was seriously unnecessary."Right. Anyways, I guess I'll just tell the others that you turned into a sword."

"Hey, that reminds me, how did you do this to me.. or well, us, -OH we havent named you yet."

That was the original intent behind this conversation, yes...

"Whoops... I can't think of anything good enough, though." I replied with a rather dissappointed sigh as I placed the sword into its pale-white scabbard. This.. this thing looks like something forged for a hero.

A one handed heroine who couldn't give two shits about justice. Wonderful.. here's to hope I don't dissappoint the new god... what did the Marden refer to it as? The White One?

Yeah, that was it.

Hope I don't dissappoint the White One.

Hmmm... with the ring-entity being the first creature to bring news of this new god into the world, apart from myself of course, would that not make it a herald or messanger?"I got it! Your name is Tius!"

Tius?

... I like the name, but I am unaware of its meaning.

"Its an ancient human word for herald." My father explained before I could mention anything.

I see.

Herald of the [GOD], you mean?

Hmm... I suppose that works. Alright, I shall henceforth be named Tius!

Suddenly, the ticking of a clock could be heard resounding from somewhere outside of the catacombs, which was very weird since we didn't have any such clocks around, but I didn't question it.

Because its purpose was incredibly clear. Get out of the catacombs Alice, you've spent enough time in there. It was time to go meet up with someone who is already dead!

"W-wait, what?! You did WHAT?! ALICE?!" My father suddenly exclaimed in horror.

Erm... I may not have mentioned this, but our newly established connection to your mind has allowed your father access to some of your, or well, our memories.

....

Shit.

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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

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Thats it for this chapter of Destiny: Infernal! I sincerely hope that you've all enjoyed it!

As per usual, I shall remain online for a while to answer early comments and edit out mistakes!

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Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!