Chapter 50 - Chaotic Revelations
The onslaught of energy coming from Gael continued to increase, but by the look on the terrified look on her face, it was not her intention. The Mayor was somehow pulling more and more energy from her and absorbing it into himself.
The rush of energy suddenly cut off, and Gael fell to her knees. She looked like a vampire had sucked her dry blood, her face had become thin, and her eyes had sunken deep into their sockets. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her lips were chapped and cracked.
Keeping an eye on the now much smaller Mayor who was talking frantically to a stunned Mayry. Mason warily walked over to Gael. To his surprise, she was still alive and conscious. Her lips moved, but barely a whisper left her mouth. “G g go-“. Mason’s fist shot out, almost without conscious thought. She had been about to use the taboo on the word ‘God’ to try and cause a big enough distraction so she could try to escape. As his fist stuck, her entire body turned to dust, she had been so drained of Mana and energy that she had been barely alive.
*DING*
With the 100% XP boost Mason had been expecting a. Unch of new notification when he killed finished off Gael, he was not disappointed.
Notification 1/5
Quest updated! Kill an Other
Quest Objective - Not all others are as strong as the one you faced. Some are stronger, some are weaker. I suggest finding a weaker one to kill.
Update 1: Gael has come back stronger than ever. She gave you a year but has come back weeks later. Find out what she wants and kill her before she destroys the entire Town.
Update 2: Quest complete. You technically killed her, even if someone else did the vast majority of the work…
Reward -
1. Division Ability
2. Loot.
Notification 2/5
You have slain - Level 35 Gael - Other
XP Boost 100% used
You have received 700XP
Chaos system detected, additional XP received
You have received a total 3000 XP
Level up
Level uz
Level up
Notification 3/5
Level 25 reached
Stats Allocated
Notification 4/5
Reaching Level 25 has unlocked a Perk.
Perk Unlocked: Quarter Centurian
Effect: When defeating opponents who are at a higher level than you, you gain 1% more XP for every level above you they are.
Notification 5/5
You have absorbed the ability. ‘Division’
Division (Expert) - Divide and conquer.
Active effect: Once a day, split yourself into up to three copies of yourself. The more copies you have, the more your power is divided. With two copies, each will have half your stats, with three copies a third. Copies last Intelligence Stat X 5 minutes unless destroyed or recalled. Scales with Intelligence.
That was a lot to process, main points were he had gained three levels, a perk, and an ability. Checking his menu, he also noted that he had 10 points to spend instead of the expected 6.
Seeing Mayry and her father getting closer, he decided he would properly deal with all the new information later, he suspected he was about to get a whole lot more.
When the Mayor got within range, Mason used his new upgraded Identify skill on him. The effect was instantly odd. Instead of one name, the system gave him several, all of which overlapped and gave Mason a headache.
Julius Sparks, Sliver of the Lesser God of Chaos, Demon, Mayor of Sparksford, Mayry’s Father - Level Incalculable - There are many secrets that are known to only a very few. Possibly, the biggest is what truly happened during The War of the Gods and Chaos’s part in it.
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I think it’s about time we spoke, Mason.
Mason jumped, most of that description had been weird, but that last line, he sensed it came from the Mayor himself. Looking up, he saw the man staring, not at Mason but into him. His gaze was so piercing it made Mason shiver.
The man looked as he had both times Mason had previously met him, but despite that, everything about him felt different. He radiated a strange power that felt familiar but also oddly foreign.
“Shall we find somewhere we can all sit and talk? I’m sure you both have many questions.”
Mason nodded and started walking in the direction of the Inn. Before leaving he reached down and touched Gaels corpse, getting the loot prompt and selecting yes.
Loot Received:
Map
9 Daggers, Minor Enchantments
5 Long swords Minor Enchantments
7 Short swords
4 Healing Potions
6 Mana Potions
87 assorted books - Inventory Maximum storage reached - Deposited into Trunk Library
211 Other miscellaneous items - Deposited into Trunk Living room
8 Silver coins
19 Iron coins
47 Bronze coins
32 Copper coins
Jesus! He must have looted her entire inventory, he would need to sort through it all later, but wow, she had been carrying a hell of a lot of stuff.
Exiting his notification list, looked up, and they all headed over to his Inn room in relative silence.
Walking through the empty Town was strange, they didn’t run into a single person. They were all still too scared to leave their homes until an official all-clear was given.
Reaching Mason’s room, they all sat, and the Mayor started to speak.
“To start, how much do you know about the Gods,” the Mayor, raised his hands in a reassuring gesture as both Mason and Mayry started to react to the word, “Don’t worry about the Taboo for now. Just tell me how much you know, and I will fill in any gaps.”
Mason opened his mouth to start regurgitating everything he had read on the topic, but Mayry was quicker, she was clearly shaken after the events of the day, but she jumped right into lecture mode. “The Gods,” She started, then paused, waiting cautiously for something bad to happen. When nothing did, she continued. “The Gods were powerful beings aeons ago, there were five Greater Gods and 10 lesser. The lesser gods betrayed the five greater Gods. This started a war that caused massive destruction and death all around the world. As part of this war, the 10 Lesser gods were turned into terrible creatures called Demons. After decades of fighting, the Greater Gods discovered the only way to stop the destruction was to curse both Gods and Demons alike, putting them all to sleep and, in doing so, ending the War.”
Throughout Mayry’s basic retelling of the official history, the Mayor nodded. “That was mostly accurate. What I am about to tell you Is something that has been kept secret for thousands of years. I am only telling you both now because things are changing, and it seems you,” He pointed at Mason, “are going to be in the middle of it, and you,” he pointed at Mayry, “are no doubt going to get caught up in his mess.”
Both Mason and Mayry leaned in closer, eager to hear what the man was going to say.
“You were right that in the beginning, there were 15 Gods. There was a… disagreement between the Greater and lesser gods. The war started, and the lesser gods were transformed into Demonic atrocities. Things happened, terrible, horrible things that.… Anyway, when the war was at its worse, one of the former lesser gods approached the Greater Gods and switched sides, revealing a powerful curse that would put all the Gods and Demons to sleep and end the war. The Greater Gods, at first, were sceptical of the Demon’s plan, but as the war continued to get worse, they decided it was the only way to put a stop to the death and destruction.”
The Mayor paused to take a sip of water. “Apart from the Demon switching sides at the last minute, nothing really changed, they all still went to sleep, and the war still ended… what the big secret?” Mayry asked.
“The secret, my dear, is that not all 15 of the divinities did go to sleep. The Demon who switched sides knew it was coming and so managed to escape the effects of the curse. In order to escape the curse, Demon, whose name had been Chaos, gave up the vast majority of his power and split himself into hundreds of iterations. This is where Chaos Magic and ACT’s come from. I know all of this because I am one of the Iterations of Chaos.”
Mayry drew in a sharp breath, “You’re a Demon? …What does that make me…?”
“I am so sorry Mayry, I just wanted you to live a normal life. You’re a Demi Demon, but I’ve had most of your power bound, so you didn’t find out the truth.” He looked at Mason, “Then you came along, and I could sense one of my counterparts within you. I tried to keep you away from her, but you wouldn’t listen.”
Mayry was too stunned to speak, but Mason had already put together some of this thanks to his upgraded Identify skill. “So the reason we can say god now, is because you are one?”
He rolled his eyes, “No. Neither the Greater Gods nor the Demons knew that we managed to escape the curse. Each time the word ‘god’ is used, it weakens the curse and risks one of them noticing my presence here. Because of this, several iterations of chaos came together and placed the Taboo on the word. While you are near me, I can stop your words from having such an effect.”
Mason narrowed his eyes, “You said you lost most of your power. You seem pretty fucking powerful to me, you managed to kill the ‘Other’ without much effort.”
“You mortals are all idiots, I gave up my power thousands of years ago, It spread across the world until there were traces of it in everything. Some of us collected as much as we could, planning on all of the iterations merging together once more and regaining our true power, but some were against that idea and wanted to live here among the mortal races as the empty shells of what we once were. I used to be one of the Iterations that collected what you call Chaos Energy, but now the ‘Others’ have managed to capture one of us there is no point.”
Mason’s mouth fell open as he recalled a passage from his system guide.
The people of Ganehfrel have discovered a way to harness Chaos Magic, forcing it to work in ways that go against the fundamental concept of chaos.
The cogs in Mason’s head were turning, things were slowly starting to click. “The ‘Others’ captured one of you and are forcing it to power their champion’s Systems for the trials!”
The Mayor stared at him as if he was stupid, “They’re using him to power their armies to conquer worlds. The Trials are just games they run to train their soldiers. How do you not know this? Why hasn’t the Iteration in your head told you this already?”
Mason’s frown deepened, “It isn’t exactly chatty. Apart from insulting me and giving me quests, it doesn’t really say much at all. How did it end up in my head in the first place!?”
“The Chaos iteration in you was one of the strongest of us. He never gave up on collecting power. He used up most of it, bringing you into this world. We are only able to absorb so much Chaos Energy at once, but if we have a vessel, we are able to gain power far quicker. When he discovered the ‘Others’ had captured one of us and what they were using him for, he spent years trying to get enough power to summon someone to bond with. If what you say about him not speaking to you is true, then perhaps it wasn’t enough power after all.”