/*
https://yts.mx/movie/final-destination-2000
*/
All this whirlwind ended I was 'spat out' in a rather interesting place. This was another analogue of the 'world of the Ascended', but it was quite crowded. Too crowded, I'd say. With the help of illusions and power fields here formed a labyrinth of corridors and offices, on which the spirits of people glided. I found myself in the center of a large hall, where the movement of the crowd resembled an ant riot during a fire. Everyone went somewhere purposefully, ran, and sometimes flew. I did not have time to consider what was happening here, because next to me suddenly appeared an exalted, whose strength was several hundred times higher than that of the snub around the rabble
"Well, here's our employee.” - 'Mini boss' said, critically examining me. Why mini? He just appeared before me in the form of a classic cherubic - a baby with wings and a halo. But judging by his voice, tone, and radiated emotions, his psychological age was at the opposite end of the scale, somewhere around the value of 'ancient half-witted old man'. - "Follow me." - Angel addressed, then pushed through the crowd, pushing them apart like an icebreaker.
While we were walking, I did not stare around, but tried to analyze the information received during the last conversation with the Being. It said that the ritual of opening a portal to the world of demons will always open a passage to the world of Chaos for me. But back in the world of spiders, I used it several times to study the principle of operation, and everything worked according to the description - it opened an unstable portal to the world of the most ordinary demons.
Considering all things, it was clear that something had changed a lot in me since then. And the first thing that came to mind was the appearance of the parasite. It turns out that this creature is somehow connected with the strongest inhabitants of Chaos. Why the strongest? Because an ordinary chaos demon, like the one that possessed Eve-01, could hardly influence the ritual so that I did not even notice anything
I looked at the parasite in my mind's eye and confirmed my fears. He did have a sense of chaos, even though it masked that well. By the way, if you think about it that way, I can expect Being to belong to the forces of Order. In general, there was a lot to think about, but now was clearly not the time or place for it, because we came.
“So, everyone gathered.” - Cherub summed up, looking around the room.
I looked around, too, and found that I was in the hall, in addition to myself and Miniboss, there were the souls of four other ascended ones. At the same time, two of them were clearly game figures with experience. The four of them now represented beings of varying degrees of anthropomorphism. After all, in this place, everyone could choose their own image. A quick look at myself confirmed that I looked the same as I had in the world of Evangelion.
Meanwhile, the flying baby levitated himself to the far side of the hall, where he created an image of a shining golden throne, on which he sat down.
“Please sit down.” - He said, addressing to the audience.
My four 'neighbors' began to look around, trying to figure out what to sit on. I used the chakra to form a golden throne, like a cherub, only simpler and lower, so as not to violate the subordination. In this world, everything consisted of astral energies, so it was theoretically enough to imagine an object and put the energy into an image. But in this place worked some kind of blockage, preventing spontaneous stabilization of images. But the materialized chakra, even if it represented astral energy, worked without any problems. I could see the cherub's displeased gaze directed at my throne. But after the rest of the four felt like suckers, clearly not thinking up something obvious, cherub's displease gaze turned to ridicule.
“Well, they sent to me stupid workers.” - Our 'employer' was critical. - "Well, let's get started. My name is Sariel. As you may have noticed, we have a lot of diverse staff here, but we still don't have enough hands to do everything. So, the five of you were sent to me as temporary employees. Everyone will have a simple task. You need to kill all the people on your list.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
With these words, angel sent astral image with appearance of a scroll. The other 'workers' unfolded the scrolls and began to read them. I absorbed it as an 'information package' and after checking for 'surprises' immediately transferred the contents to my memory. After all these years of practicing magic and psionics, and after constant contact with the computers of the Ancients in the body of Vritras, my mind easily manipulated information and memory. The scroll mentioned more than two hundred people. These were not only their names, but also has information of their astral images, and some 'true names'. What to do with the latter I did not know, although it was obvious that the benefits of them should be considerable.
Sariel continued without waiting for everyone to assimilate the information.
“This task is not as simple as it might seem.” - He glanced at me with displeasure. Well, I honestly did not understand why distract the game figures for the sake of such a trivial task. – “First, our spiritual dimension is separated from the material world by Invisible Veil, so it will be difficult to influence to material world with magic or anything else. But most importantly, to spiritual entities are forbidden to directly interfere in the lives of people and in general in all events of the material world. We are strict with this. The world is controlled by the Laws of God, which closely monitor each ascended and will immediately punish violators.
Hmm... in such circumstances, the task became quite difficult. I immediately began to think of possible solutions, without distracting myself from the angel's speech.
“But, fortunately, there are certain ways to solve such problems. We angels and our reputation doesn't allow us to do this, but you, the creatures of Chaos, will be just right.” - One of the 'workers' rose up in righteous anger, but quickly faded away only when he saw the cherub's displeased gaze directed at him. I was also somewhat surprised by the designation of me as a demon of Chaos, but I was in no hurry to object. After all, I don't know much about Chaos magic. – “The Invisible Veil has a limit of minimal sensitivity to magical influences. That is, you will be able to use the super-weak spells in order to manipulate the probabilities of events. And since I am in advance sure of your stupidity, I will now give a short lecture on the magic of the Air Element.”
I concentrated and prepared to listen to the 'unearthly wisdom' of our mentor. After all, when will there be an opportunity to learn a new kind of magic? Usually I have to reach everything with my own mind, which does not always allow me to understand some difficult moments.
“Are you probably familiar with the concept of the Cross of Elements, where the Element of Air is opposed to the Element of Earth, and you have also heard about the confrontation of the worlds of Chaos and Order. Both of these images are the same. Chaos and Order exists outside of our world. Inside the borders of our world they manifest themselves as elements of Air and Earth. How many of you know how the world of Chaos differs from our world?”
"There are no laws in the world of Chaos.” - One of the 'students' shouted.
The answer to this assumption was the wave of contempt that came from Sariel. His emotions were as if the high mathematics teacher had heard from a student that 2+2=5.5.
"Well, what do you say?" - Cherub asked me. Apparently, he didn't like my trick with the throne, so he decided to crush me with difficult questions.
To be honest, up to this moment, I thought the same way as my neighbor. But judging by the angel's reaction, the version was so-so. If we recall my feelings when opening the portal to the world of Chaos, the fact that the laws of the material world 'flow' there will be obvious. But if the laws flow to there, then they are definitely present there, although maybe not in the same 'concentration' as in this world. Which means...
"In the world of Chaos, laws don't work, or they only work if magician of Chaos needs it. Well, or as a result of side effects from other events.” - I offered a hastily formulated hypothesis.
The cherub winced, apparently, I almost guessed, as if I had answered the same question by 2+2=4.1. Clearly wrong, but pretty close.
“Yes, I think this is the closest description of the essence of this phenomenon that you can understand.” - Our teacher shook his head ruefully. - "It is not correct to expect the impossible things. Stupid oysters like you will never understand the beauty of Order versus Chaos. Okay, let's continue. Chaos is not only the laws of the universe that cannot work. It has everything and at the same time nothing. Only by touching it, any material world breaks into fragments, splitting a single stream of Time into many lines of existence. This is how the Element of Air manifests itself. There are many possible futures where events differ due to random chaotic factors. Mortals are not able to foresee all these options of the future... until he allows to enter a Chaos inside his mind. But if you make Chaos a part of yourself, the magician is able to anticipate thousands and millions of scenarios. However, in your case, we are talking about dozens at best. It should be remembered that Chaos is hidden among small details, so you should pay attention to the most insignificant details. The Air Element looks weak. Here and now, its strength can only be enough to move a match. But when this power is combined with the foresight of the future, only chosen ones can try to counter it.”