Axln may have found herself with the situation growing more and more desperate at every passing turn, but things were surprisingly becoming less and less complicated instead. It was becoming glaringly obvious that she had to invest her entire attention into discovering a way to undo the chains of their own misfortune.

Not that such made anything any easier though. Trying to sustain a defense in these circumstances was taking so much out of Axln, having to mount any sort of complicated offense just didn’t even seem plausible. Worse remained the exact nature of the offense she would have to mount. All of this misfortune had some sort of origin, some aspect of chaos chosen to generate this sort of performance, with possibly a network of support to make sure that such influence spread. This would imply that there was a source to all of this, a target she could remove which would interrupt this chaotic manipulation of chance. A target.. somewhere across the entire moon. So even if she was free to do her own scouting, she would have to have a scouting area that could potentially expand around the entire moon. This wasn’t even the smaller moon either, they weren’t quite that lucky. No, that would be the other problem, it would take a miracle to normally deal with the odds of finding this needle in a haystack.. but that was exactly the weapon those fiends had on their side too. This was the immeasurable defense in place to secure their control over luck itself, an all too perfect plan.

“You know, in my time, they were a lot dumber than this.” “Please don’t use that phrasing to refer to the future, you’ll make me feel old.” “Well, I’m sorry for being older than my mother. Even so, mom never had problems like this.” “You mean, until Lyun died? What sort of strategy did they even kill her off with?” “Strategy? I heard she just had a time when she was caught on another separated battlefield, and mom had to do all the heavy lifting. Lyun didn’t take that so well, pressured herself to do better.. pushed herself too far. You can still see that in this Lyun, though she’s a lot more.. reserved here. She’s still unconscious after a massive display of force, but.. she put a lot of effort into not going overboard, that’s not like the Lyun I knew.” “But they held attacks that weren’t nearly so complicated…” “Oh, the voidspawn? Yeah, a massive hivemind of a stupid swarm, they think as one but they never put so much into it. Now they just seem to be pushing too hard.. like Lyun used to.” Mheridz wasn’t about to cover just how much Axln had changed too, such wasn’t a subject she wanted to broach. Mheridz instead felt like her thoughts were a giant cluster of a mess, with absolutely nothing adding up. With a feeling of logic having escaped her, she was more channeling her father’s side.

“Wait, they are panicking! Not only do they fear true chaos, they are also panicking. An ordered response is nothing like their kind, that’s exactly against their nature. If they needed to do anything dramatic, it wouldn’t be with deliberation or care, it would be with reckless abandon.” “Grab the biggest thing handy, over-do it. The moon though was smart.. but it might have also been the handiest place to hide. Instinctually.” “That idea probably helps you about as much as it helps me. I doubt either of us have been especially good at instinctual responses.” “Maybe, but I would guess we’re both familiar with dealing with them. You’ve probably had a lot more Lyun than I have, even though I’ve known her for longer.. it wasn’t as if I had to predict her responses for most of my life.. that had been something far more apt to this timeline. Instead however, having a cross-world friend that I hardly know, that I’ve had to work with so constantly.. trying to predict what that girl was up to was even a child’s game of mine, because we both had the same circumstances. Insert then this timeline, the whole game became an even bigger deal. Both those two share that one trait, such is all too obvious. So the game is to just predict instinctual responses.” This was probably the first time Axln had ever held a true brainstorming session with Mheridz, it was quite the experience too. Predicting instincts.. but where and with what? Chaos was supposed to be pretty simple.

“So, instinctually, they’re evasionary. They don’t like this thing you keep calling true chaos, so it’s like a primal need to avoid it. That’s probably why things only really started to go wrong when you went over to the other world, better to spring a trap while you weren’t there to see it. If they were smart, they would have invested into a diversionary tactic while you were there.. but they aren’t. Probably was more fumbling with whatever ambitions they might have for that world too.” “Oh great, so now I have to hurry because the other side could be in danger while I’m stuck here.” “Uh, possibly? That world is weird.” “Well, the same trick wouldn’t work there, so they would need something else. Then again, when you consider their biggest goal, they aren’t so much setting out right now to take care of both sides so much as they are trying to deal with Lyun and I. If this becomes enough to deal with us, they would be fine with panning out the rest of this timeline much like how you had seen it.” Mheridz knew where Axln’s idea led, that having been her life. However, in this case, such a path would lead to an outcome where she wouldn’t have even been born.. due to her parent’s death. That was a dark path she would far rather avoid.. at almost any cost.

“Are you okay, you suddenly don’t look so good.” “Oh, sorry, don’t forget that I’m actually also out there fighting off a bunch of these things while we talk, this is actually pretty difficult. But there isn’t any way I’m going to just come up with a plan on my own under these circumstances.” “Yes, they would be pressuring you heavily so that they could break you without you being able to retaliate.. much at least. I suspect what you’re doing is about as wild to their kind as it is to our reality. Then again, instinctually, they wouldn’t care to analyze it so indepthly, only fear it. Is that why all the big ones are keeping their distance?” “You're right, I haven’t seen one of the big ones around here yet. Are they all on the other side?” “The other world? Maybe. The larger ones are typically more capable of grander acts though, and if the whole idea was to deal with you, instinctually there would be more value in having them directed at you.” “Grander acts, the bigger ones are probably working to spread the influence of chaos then instead, so that this whole thing could go off swimmingly, constantly. Too much panic to do more than doing that one thing over and over again until it finally works.” Mheridz considered the perspective Axln presented, making use of what she knew of her enemy over all of the confrontations she’d worked with before.

“Gating, the larger ones are probably completely invested in sustaining a link back to where they came from. Keeping the door open, they could flood everything constantly with a wash of their own influence, even bring in more forces. This process is supposedly very difficult, so they’ve allocated quite a sizable force to that one goal.” “So we’re getting a temporal flood? That actually makes sense. However, that’s even worse. How am I to stop them when they are calling for reinforcements that could call for reinforcements? They pretty much have this moon in occupation.. we haven’t even checked the other moon yet.. and the planet is now practically undefended.” “By nature, they probably won’t focus on something that doesn’t relate to what you’re doing right now, so they won’t really mount an offense somewhere else. But you’re right about how that does include a lot of this moon. If their influence spreads enough, it could extend beyond such a container. You would probably need something new for yourself.. if you think you’ve got any new tricks ready that I’ve never seen before.” Mheridz clearly was at a loss for how the Axln of this timeline was so different from the one she knew, making it harder to estimate options. However, Axln knew that the only real extent of her distinct quirks here were in her use of true chaos and in how she had grown to be more socially open, even if that only implied she could trust her friends to…

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“Right, we’re losing the big picture here. Chaos is calling for reinforcements, but I’ve got some of the best backup here imaginable. We don’t need to stop their gating, we just need to disrupt the whole bad luck deal. Once that’s done, then we can bring everyone into the goal of cutting all of the links.” “But if you’re not going to cut the resource, then you need to stop the source. Where would such a voidspawn be to do such a thing? Well, it’s instinctual, and the one committed to the task would be the most valuable, so it’s probably as far from you as possible. The very opposite side of the moon?” “As someone who is trying to influence many places at once, I believe I can state with practical analysis that trying to manipulate chaos at a distance is hell. Being so divested from its target would make it’s usage of chaos weaker, a weakness that wouldn’t impulsively make sense at all.” “So it needs to be both very close and very far at the same time? How? I know, you’re sort of doing something like that, but I can’t see how the source could so viably be everywhere at once. The world doesn’t work like that.” Axln could see Mheridz’s concern.. and uncertainty. Chaos made things slightly less predictable, but it wasn’t as if there wouldn’t at least be an explanation for such. Even Axln’s trick was leaving her at the front of everything, not exactly keeping her safe, it wasn’t a way to hide. To be everywhere at once.. yet be nowhere.. yeah, that wasn’t how things worked here, that was far more like…

“Oh hells, it’s hiding in the temporal plane. There is already a link going out everywhere for it, a direct connection anywhere it could just tap into, which makes it perfect to reach all over the moon all at once. Meanwhile, the temporal plane is its own safe haven, where it could be safe and secure away from everything that might unmake it. That’s.. actually brilliant.” “Brilliant, that sounds simple.” “Simple solutions can still work sometimes. Did you ever hear even once of a battle within those things' own home?” “They.. uh.. well.. actually, no. Mother never once fought there, but I never bothered considering why.” “Without principles, there isn’t any way to actually deal with those things in their own home. Principles don’t exist there, and meanwhile chaos can’t affect chaos either.” “Well, they might not exist there.. but you didn’t say they can’t exist. This chaos stuff seems to have a pretty good grasp on the elementals, between void and all the stuff you can do with it. You’re even making a rift do work with frozen time, even if it is just application of paradox theory. Mostly, I know I’m pretty much elemental.. with a slight trace of the same thing you’re using.. and I’m managing in this chaos of frozen time well enough. You’re also very elemental, but you’ve been to that temporal plane. Voidspawn have always hated elementals.. and that might have more to do with such not being chaotic enough. Either way, their chaos just fizzles away when brought to order. After a lifetime of trying to defend, it would be great to have at least one chance to go on the offensive and show them what it’s like to have your home invaded by annihilation.” Axln however wasn’t of like mind to Mheridz, she knew that the temporal plane wasn’t nearly so simple. Without even having a concept for annihilation, having infinite form.. such an idea simply wouldn’t work.

「Such spawn might actually have a point.」 Axln was also of the mind that such was not the best way to consider Mheridz either, and not only because she herself hadn’t reached the part of the future where parenting might have occured. Then again, chaos being called voidspawn by the same person... 「Chaos actually is created out of the principle here called void, at least here. To get here, it needs a form that suits being here, and so its presence is created from such a void. This is also true in reverse, visiting the temporal plane requires a temporal form that most suits it. Temporal is not chaos, it is just a form without form, something which suits primitive chaos. To stand as nothing. However, true chaos works just as well over there as its primitive variant does, having chaos harness principles into a temporal form would invite a ephemeral variant of the same. Such might not be as efficient, but would certainly at least invite the impression that true chaos has begun to invade their primitive domain, an idea that would compel reaction.」 Axln could see where that was going, considering they were comparing instinctual reactions to Lyun already. Panic, chaos would panic irrationally. However, she would still have to physically broach the perimeter of a gatekeeper in order to inject such chaotic elementals into it.

“You both might be onto something.” “Both? What?” “Even so, bringing elementals against such chaos in its own lair.. this at least requires confronting one of the larger chaos here, which we know are going to be really powerful. This curse makes things rather difficult already, so how in the world are we expecting me to confront such power so divided and vulnerable?” “Try not being divided or vulnerable?” “What?” “Well, I mean, you might be on the clock, but elementals don’t exactly work as well in such frozen time anyway, you’re going to need to shut it down if you plan to use them efficiently. I’ll try working right away to bring things back up here and get your friends safe, so you won’t have to deal with both fronts.” “The same curse though would still be in effect, making probability work against you.” “Oh, yeah, while you’re at it, can you curse them too? I’m not fond of that part either, thanks.” Axln blinked as Mheridz started going over what she would need to do for her side of the plan, reviewing things nearby in the construction of a mental plan. Curse chaos, but it didn’t work like that, chaos was itself immune to that curse, just as she was. Well, she wasn’t completely immune of course, her physical makeup still suffered because…

Chaos too is created out of void while here, forced to physically follow the rules of the void in order to assume and exert a presence beyond the temporal plane. Chaos needed to become elemental on this side, it had no other recourse. In suffering the laws of the void, it invited itself to endure the rules of this side, even rules that weren’t elemental. Chaos could be made to suffer misfortune if its own void was influenced by the principles of misfortune. She simply needed to exert more than simply attacking her foe as a fiend of chaos, to instead actually make use of the laws of the void to appeal to her foe's chosen design. Such would not be easy, of course, her study of elementals was still outright fresh compared to others.. but she had not only placed quite a lot of recent emphasis on elementals, she also could assume her body’s instincts were sharp on having a lifetime of knowledge working devotedly with it. She still recalled her previously presented history, that she had become an avid study at one point in her life once she had given up on her real passions. Even on the other side, she had spent time in a similar case of living with driven analysis over whatever else she might have wanted. Application of concept analysis, in a study she’s devoted herself to, this shouldn’t at all be beyond her.

Besides, this involved exploring new ideas, reaching into the unknown. She had a genetic passion for this sort of thing, it was actually invigorating.

Leaving Mheridz to attempt her side of the whole ordeal, Axln directed her search towards her own assumed responsibilities. The gatekeepers would be considered larger aspects of chaos, but that didn’t mean they were bigger in size, it implied that they were made up of more chaotic influence. It did not help that everything was practically a miasma of chaos, making it harder to pinpoint fiends that would have sufficient concentrations. What also did not help was how she was constantly still being forced to defend herself in constant ongoing encounters. However, as she extended the reach of her scouting, she started noticing a reaction from her enemy. Her scouting in one particular direction got far more of a reaction than scouting in many others, like her enemy didn’t want her going that way. Mheridz wasn’t joking, chaos was very obviously by nature really stupid.. at least in regards to ordered concepts. Primitive chaos, even being so mighty, still remained really.. primitive. Her own chaos was vastly superior in this regard, being so well learned. It would be an ample opportunity to make use of her intellectual superiority against her enemy, one of the greatest advantages she had against it.

Of course, Axln would need every advantage she held to deal with her next threat. This was going to become an outright offensive, while her defense was completely vulnerable.. a factor which would certainly stack in the list of disadvantages brought to bear against her.