Nero was not a believer. He did not acknowledge a higher power that brought justice. How could he? He did not believe in an all-loving God or any demons. Nevertheless, that was his first thought when he saw these strange creatures.

But then Nero pulled himself together,

"Who are you? Or what are you?"

The middle one, Xersies, replied,

"We are Polykenas. We are your army, my Duce."

"What do you mean?"

"We have waited for you, my Duce. Eternities." said the old being, Ramor.

Nero frowned, "Do you want to answer my questions too. And what is a Duce supposed to be and why do you call me that all the time?"

Xersies smiled, which was probably meant to be friendly, but would have driven any normal person crazy,

"The queen will answer that for you. Follow me, please." With that, the three turned and walked toward the cocoon.

Nero briefly considered whether he should flee, but his curiosity was aroused.

Slowly, Nero followed the three "Polykenas", keeping a safe distance. The three walked briskly, but not as fast as before.

They made sure that Nero followed behind them, but also kept the distance. Nero didn't know out of caution, or out of respect.

The journey continued for a short while. The unknown object was even larger than Nero had previously assumed. And only now he noticed that it was not standing on the ground, but hovering in the air. They were approaching a large hole, right in the center of the cocoon. This was by far the largest hole in the entire object. Nero noticed that there were huge black marks on the surface, emitting a dark light. Nero frowned as he looked at them more closely. There was something strange about these marks.

Suddenly he felt a strong pressure on him, and breathing began to become difficult.

Nero fell to his knees,

"What...what the hell...is that?" gasped Nero heavily.

Xersies stopped and looked at him,

"We don't know that for sure either. The cocoon was there before we arrived, and so were these signs."

Xersies waited briefly until Nero straightened up again, nodded to him, and then continued walking.

As Nero followed him again, he was struck by the many stares staring at him from the countless caves in the cocoon. He couldn't tell who or what they were, but he knew it couldn't be good.

Again he toyed with the idea of running away, but he knew that either way, it was already too late at this point. So he followed the three Polykenas into the tunnel.

It was gloomy, but Xersies opened his hand and a bright light radiated from it. It was clearly magic as well, Nero was sure of that.

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They walked through the tunnel. The tunnel led up and down and to the right and left at irregular intervals. Out of the corner of his eye, Nero saw shadows darting back and forth.

Every now and then he recognized a human-like figure, but he knew it meant nothing.

Finally, the tunnel opened into a huge cavern that was probably the center of the cocoon. Nero was shocked at the dimensions.

Above him, it went hundreds of feet into the air. Thousands of corridors led into this room and countless figures climbed the walls, almost like ants. The entire room was illuminated by a huge orange crystal in the center. The crystal pulsated slightly.

On its surface were small bubbles, Nero could not determine the number. Like a raindrop, one of the bubbles flowed down the crystal and fell to the floor. When it hit the ground, the drop burst open.

A small creature fell out, which strongly resembled a human infant. Only its skin was different as it was gray like a stone. Quickly, another creature scurried to the newborn, grabbed it, and took it into one of the tunnels.

Abruptly, the three Polykenas who led Nero here fell to the ground. Nero frowned when he saw a throne in the middle of the room.

This stood just below the crystal and on it sat a woman, or at least it resembled a real one. Nero was not kneeling. That was just another way of submission and restriction.

The female-looking being came closer. She was hard to describe. Her hair was long and golden. She was neither really tall nor really short. She was very thin. Not as thin as Nero, which was morbid, but normally slim.

Her eyes were also a bright shade of yellow and a crown adorned her head. She wore a long robe that slid gently across the floor. Only now Nero asked himself why these beings had clothes at all,

"You are probably the queen of these creatures?" asked Nero.

The woman eyed him and then also fell to her knees. Startled, Nero backed away. He had not expected this,

"Greetings, my lord. I have been waiting for your arrival for a long time."

Nero sighed, "This again. Who are you? And what do you want from me?"

The creature stood up,

"My name is Nyx. As you have already guessed, I am the queen of the Polykenas."

"What are the Polykenas?"

"We," Nyx replied with a sweeping motion of her hand, "We are all beings of chaos. We feed on it. Live by it and are born by it. Chaos is our food and our life essence."

Nero didn't understand, but he asked the next question, "What kind of place is this?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that for you. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't. I was born in this place, with a purpose in my heart. To serve you, my Duce. To give you an army more powerful than any other. For that goal, we are here. All of us."

"Why?"

"Because that's our destiny. As it is yours to bring chaos to everything. You are the only one who can open the door between this reality and yours."

Nero asked a lot of questions. In this place, once lived a flourishing civilization, but one day the queen of Polykenas and the cocoon appeared out of nowhere. Gradually, the cocoon began to absorb its environment.

This created something that the queen called Chaos Energy. Through Chaos Energy and the Queen's magic, new Polykenas were born. Xersies, Ramor, and Shire were the first three Polykenas to be born and thus the most powerful after the Queen.

By absorbing Chaos energy, their power increases steadily.

What Nero could observe earlier at the crystal was the birth of a new Polykenas.

Since he was just born, the little creature still resembled almost completely a real human baby. Only with increasing age, it would develop mutations such as horns or claws.

The Polykenas were divided into two different parts. There were once the Polykenas with skin white as paper. These had the power to influence their immediate environment with magic.

Then there were those with black or gray skin.

They had the power to strengthen their bodies. For example, Xersies was a light mage, meaning he could interact with the light around him and control it to a certain degree. Meanwhile, Shire could briefly boost his body to tremendous resistance, strength, and speed.

Unfortunately, the Polykenas had already destroyed and absorbed all of reality, so they produced significantly fewer Polykenas. It was important to mention that Polykenas were not only created by mixing the Queen's magic and Chaos energy, but could also be produced without, but it took a significantly longer time.

"Duce" was an ancient word that simply meant lord or leader. Why Nero in particular was the leader he did not know, but he accepted the fact rather quickly. All the Polykenas seemed to instinctively obey him, no matter what he said.

It didn't take Nero long to make up his mind and made his decision: He will use the Polykenas to wipe out humanity.