Once again, the ground rushed by at a tremendous speed beneath incredibly fast-moving feet. Maintaining such a swift pace required constant body acceleration through prana, for at such speeds, even a small log or stone could pose a serious danger.

Yes, a fallen warmaster would likely suffer no injuries, but the trail of destruction from a tumbling body could attract unwanted attention.

However, the group often didn't have the opportunity to maintain such speed. The closer they got to the chaos-infested lands, the more "patrols" or just bands of cultists they encountered.

For the sake of disguise, no one dared to engage them, which imposed several difficulties on the fighters. Yet no one complained. Even Yamato, with a stoic expression, quietly waded through the swamp, submerging up to his neck in murky, dirty water when they bypassed particularly troublesome areas.

However, his eloquent gaze unambiguously hinted at what he would do to those who dared to speak of what had transpired here.

In any case, almost everyone present had extensive experience in conducting combat operations, including covert ones. Stas just had to follow the example of his more proficient comrades and do exactly as he was told.

Gradually, Stas began to notice the strange texture of certain patches of soil. In such places, the snow sometimes melted immediately, not daring to linger on the suspicious greenish slime. Ordyntsev was irresistibly tempted to experiment with this slime, but a single glance from Izanami made him relinquish the idea.

The Nine-Tails took her leading role very seriously, so she approached the process with utmost diligence.

Thus, she forbade everyone from communicating or making any sounds, even during breaks. Moreover, she clearly preferred the security of the path over convenience. If they had to dive into the mud for secrecy, they would learn to breathe through it.

By the third day of such "cross-country," Stas involuntarily gained respect for any military units that had to live and fight in the forests for months. Even with strengthening, healing, and warming prana, he found enduring such conditions utterly uncomfortable.

Over the past few years, thanks to his relatively high social status, he had grown unaccustomed to the struggles of his earliest missions.

Yes, instead, he had been participating in real wars, but at least he was no longer a mere errand boy.

Ironically, it was this journey that made the earthling realize that in their conversation, Jun was right in some ways.

Yes, Stas still disliked risking his life, but he had come to thoroughly enjoy the universal respect and the benefits that came with his power.

Polite smiles and hospitality even from the highest-ranking warmasters, solid diplomatic and friendly ties - Ordyntsev had easily settled into this life and had no desire to go back.

Nevertheless, despite all obstacles, the group was making good progress, overcoming one challenge after another.

And the closer they got to the "residence" of the Great Serpent, the more suffocating the air became, saturated with the fumes of rot and decay. The trees that had survived had completely lost their leaves, covered in oozing growths.

And this was just one example. Greasy, oily-gleaming flowers, pimply grass, and suspicious swellings of the earth.

It was becoming apparent that chaos had already altered this world. The only question was whether it could be reversed?

*****

The atmosphere among the troops was strange, a mix of doom and a viscous, black fury. The madness of the doomed marching to their death. The scoffing of a sick man who finds yet another plague spot on his emaciated body.

In ancient times, some cultures had an interesting form of torture and execution. A metal bucket with a rat inside was tied to the victim's stomach.

In one version of the torture, the rat was left hungry; in another, the executioner would start heating the bucket.

Either way, the result was the same: driven mad by hunger or fear, the rat would lunge at the only escape route and gnaw through the victim's stomach, causing unimaginable pain and suffering.

The united army was like that rat, with the vise of the continent's bounds closing in around them, while the "body" was torn apart by the hunger and fire in the form of chaos hordes.

No matter how hard the army leadership tried, hiding the dire situation was impossible.

So, when the command ordered them to move towards the chaos army, no one deluded themselves that it would end well.

It was crystal clear that the odds were not in their favor, and in fact, they were marching to their death.

But even if that was the case, they still wanted to leave in style. Not to die trembling under the excruciating tortures of cultists, but to take as many of these monsters with them to the other side as possible.

To show them the middle finger, heading for reincarnation, rather than rotting in the stomachs of their self-proclaimed masters for centuries.

Centuries, no, millennia of wars had forged from the beings of this world implacable opponents of chaos. The blood of their ancestors sang to them and ignited righteous hatred in their hearts.

And the more chaos servants they encountered on their way, the hotter the anger burned.

Unprepared for attack, hastily erected fortifications and scattered outposts were swept away in an instant as the army of this world's inhabitants moved forward.

They devastated and mercilessly burned everyone in their path, as they believed no one could have remained untouched by the corruption.

However, despite the flame smoldering in their souls, fear lived in their hearts.

For the lack of any coherent resistance could only mean one thing - chaos was preparing to meet them.

*****

"This was once a decent little city," Jun quietly whistled, looking at the settlement before them. "Hey, Sora, remember what this capital was called? I honestly get confused sometimes with their names. These countries are so unstable, always changing rulers and renaming things."

"Who cares?" dismissed the supreme. "All these lands are dead, and it's doubtful many survived here. If we win, completely different people will live here."

"You're foolish," Jun grumbled. "It's for history. When our deeds are passed down from mouth to mouth, people should know where the main battle took place! Something like Mount Gloom, someone's Citadel, and so on. A perpetually burning volcano would have been more fitting, but we take what we can get."

Stas was barely listening to their light banter, carefully examining the ruins of the capital before them.

The city itself was quite extensive in size, but its central part was located on a hill. The hill itself was surrounded by wooden walls, most of which had either burned down or collapsed during the siege, but some remnants of the former splendor remained.

At the very top, there was a palace complex and court buildings. Because most of them were made of stone, the fire had hardly damaged them. Or perhaps the warlocks themselves didn't want to destroy their future residence.

It wasn't hard to figure out where exactly the Great Serpent was.

However, the extermination team could not proceed with their direct duties. At the moment, all approaches to the city were full of the filthiest creatures of chaos and their followers.

Worse still, the ruined city was bursting at the seams with the number of warlocks inside. Even from such a distance, the glow of unholy rituals defacing the very fabric of reality could be seen.

Stas wasn't a big fan of poetry or philosophy. He was a very practical and somewhat down-to-earth person, but looking at the magic being performed, thoughts like "the rotting of the world itself" or "the entropy of reality" involuntarily formed in his head.

The need to wait for the right moment forced the group to prepare a small underground camp with a couple of observation posts outside. In the shelter created, there was almost no room for solitude, as Izanami preferred everyone to be as close to her as possible.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Fortunately, she wasn't human, so going without sleep for several days wasn't a big problem for her.

So the days of waiting dragged on. And the sole means to preserve one's sanity were those very conversations. Only the difficulty was that each of the six was too independent for teamwork.

However, the right approach, a drop of politeness, and a carefully chosen moment could work wonders.

"Yamato-sama," Stas put on his best courteous mask. "Could you please tell us what the world was like in your youth?"

"Don't try to appear polite, Serpent, if it's not in your heart," the dragon's fiery gaze made Stas freeze, convinced he had failed, but after a couple of slow minutes, to Ordyntsev's astonishment, Yamato, slightly closing his golden eyes, began to speak.

"In those ancient times, the world was completely different," the Ancient began slowly and measuredly, plunging everyone into an atmosphere of true mystery. "In this world, there were only us, its first creations, the dragons."

Jun pretended not to be interested, but his overly tense back completely gave him away. In fact, it was he who had persuaded his student to ask this question, noting that Yamato was favorably inclined towards him.

"Do you know that we, as a species, are among the first usually spawned by a newborn world? We are some of the purest children of chaotic order, so the influence of chaos on us is very, very weak. Few beings in the universe possess this gift, and dragons are among them."

"Yamato-sama, forgive my dullness, but could you explain what order and chaotic order are? Isn't that a contradiction?"

"Foolish fledgling," the lizard snorted. "I have no desire to tell you the full history of our universe's creation… Unless briefly, to dispel your ignorance."

Stas noticed Jun secretly taking out a scroll and preparing a quill. Where he got all this was a mystery.

"Originally, there was chaos and only it. It wasn't the chaos we know, as it had no emotions. Therefore, there were no demons either. However, at some point, order began to form in the chaos; this order started to crystallize the surrounding chaos, and thus, worlds emerged. In worlds, the first intelligent beings appeared, and their emotions perverted the surrounding chaos, making it much more toxic, resulting in the worlds of order beginning to dissolve back."

"So chaos corrects the presence of order, and after the disappearance of worlds, emotions will vanish, and then chaos will calm down?" Stas asked with some newfound feeling, eagerly wanting to hear the answer.

"And then order will reappear, and everything will repeat in a circle," Yamato nodded lightly. "The endless circle of chaos and order. But if I were you, I wouldn't trust this unequivocally. There are many variations of this legend in the universe, and they can differ substantially. Who knows which one is truly correct?"

"And what is, as you put it, 'chaotic order'?"

"Ah, what ignorance. You, I, yokai, and an infinite number of other races in other worlds - that is chaotic order. We all are creations of order, but at the same time, we possess a part of chaos. It is it that allows us to feel, live, love, hate, and desire."

Yamato grimly smiled at something.

"Once, I had the chance to see creations of pure order. Not a grain of chaos or anything else. Exclusive orderliness and the absence of anything superfluous. That day I realized that in some ways, demons might not be the worst choice. For such beings, even the smallest particle of chaos is evil. And to them, you and I are as much evil as the entire infinity of true chaos."

"So for them, only the worlds themselves are valuable, but not those who inhabit them?" Ordyntsev clarified after a brief reflection.

"Exactly. They can behave extremely politely and seem like something greater, but you should never be deceived by their appearance. If they have the opportunity to remove your presence from the fabric of reality, they will do it. Because they are right, the emotions of intelligent beings destroy order. And if there are no emotions and those who produce them, then chaos will calm down again, and their precious worlds will be safe."

Yamato irritably shook his head.

"But we digressed. As I said earlier, the world was completely different. We, the dragons, were its first creations. We enjoyed our world and wished for nothing to change, but cruel fate decided otherwise. One terrible day, hundreds of portals opened all over the world, from which many thousands of the most horrific and disgusting creatures of all...

The dragon took a breath, then his mocking gaze fixed directly on Stas.

"...From there, you, humans, poured in." Jun's quill crumpled in his fist as the supreme warmaster stared wide-eyed at the dragon enjoying the moment.

"I was still very, very young then, but I remember the ensuing war well. The dragons of the past were no match for the present ones. They were far more powerful opponents than you can imagine. But the humans opposing us were no weaklings."

At that moment, everyone gathered, holding their breath, listened to the story of events that happened two... Three... Tens of thousands of years ago? Judging by the interested face of the great spirit, she had not even been around at the time.

"Your ancestors fled from their world, having lost some war. They were warriors from brain to bone and planned to use our world as a platform to eventually take revenge. But the war with us didn't let them realize their ambitions."

Yamato sighed.

"More and more died in the endless clashes for the right to inherit this world. Did you know that it had far more continents? But in the end, only one remained. Perhaps there are still a few islands left in the ocean, but finding them is no easy task."

Stas's imagination was bursting with images of what could be found in such places.

"This conflict lasted so long that in the end, only a few remained. And most of them were females and children. Both sides lost themselves in the war, and when peace was concluded, each of us felt that irreplaceable loss."

No one tried to hurry the dragon that had ceased to speak. The silence lasted long, unbearable minutes.

"Humans earned the right to live in this place with their blood. They also became the reason for the birth of the second native race of this world…"

"Us," nodded Izanami.

"Exactly. Yokai appeared from the emotions of people. What an irony. The world, trying to protect itself, chose among you protectors. The great spirits." In Yamato's voice, there was a considerable dose of contempt mixed with disappointment.

And Stas could understand this ancient creature. What must it be like for the elder son when his parents turn their devotion to the infant just born, nearly bequeathing him everything?

Yes, yokai and dragons were relatives within this world, but their grievance was even deeper than between humans and dragons.

Jun, with slight disappointment, put away the written scroll. No one else dared to disturb the heavy thoughts of the dragon leader.

They all had something to think about.

*****

On the fourth day of their wait, the chaos troops suddenly came into motion, beginning to hastily leave the city. Stas doubted this was the only settlement where they were stationed, but even so, their power was frankly frightening.

Fortunately, along with the ordinary infantry and monstrous creatures, many warlocks also set out on their way. However, some of them were still with the Serpent King, so the fight promised no easy victory.

The six also feared that the Serpent might leave the city along with the troops, but that did not happen. According to all the information they had, he was inside, which, again, was quite suspicious.

Nevertheless, their team had no choice but to try to complete the mission at any cost, even if it meant diving straight into the maw of chaos.

Stas had a lot to say about this, but there was no point in speaking out.

They all knew what they were heading into.