Darkness vibrated around me, although the light of chaotic energy was slowly fading.

The warrior was still there. He did not dissolve into energy, did not vanish, did not blur like an ordinary unit summoned by the system.

He truly existed.

I was looking at him – at the warrior who had arisen in the whirlwind of chaotic energy. He did not wait for orders.

There was no summoning notification, no system label, no statistics.

He was looking at his hands, slowly clenching them, as if checking whether his body even belonged to him. His posture was steady, full of confidence, but not stiff. He was not a machine, he was not an obedient unit.

He was aware.

And then he looked at me.

He squinted, examining me, as if I was the one who had broken the patterns.

"You…" he began, but stopped. His gaze became more intense.

"I wasn't expecting this kind of chaos."

I didn't know what to answer. My mind was still trying to understand what had actually happened.

"What… are you?" I finally asked.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Good line. I was waiting for you to say that."

His hand twitched, and energy immediately began to gather around it.

It didn't have a single form. For a moment, it resembled a spear, then a waving dagger, and then it disintegrated, leaving only the echo of pulsating air.

"Usually, when I appear, I am certain."

He looked at his hand.

"I know who I am. I know what to do."

He paused for a moment, and then looked at me differently.

"But this time… it's different."

He took a step forward. Not aggressively. Not as an attack. Just… approached.

"Is this your doing?"

I swallowed.

I didn't have a good answer.

"I think… yes."

His smile widened.

"I think?"

He stopped right in front of me. He was taller than me, broader in the shoulders, and his presence was almost overwhelming.

I didn't feel pure hostility in him, but something else – a test.

Then he asked something that threw me off track.

"Are you my mistress?"

I blinked.

His tone was neither mocking nor hostile. It was curious.

And that was what made me feel a pang of unease.

"I summoned you, but… but I don't think that…"

His hand moved swiftly, almost too fast for me to perceive. For a split second, it seemed to me that the air around us rippled, as if space itself was unsure of where it should be. His movement was fluid, precise, as if not subject to any bodily constraints. A blade appeared in his hand in an instant, summoned effortlessly, as if it had always been there, waiting for the right moment. I felt the tension thickening around us.

The blade landed at my throat.

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"Good answer."

I froze.

His gaze changed.

"Creation does not mean ownership."

His voice was calm, but I could clearly hear the sharp edge of that silence.

"What does chaos mean to you?"

I didn't have time to answer before I felt something change. His words were not just a challenge—they were a catalyst. Images appeared in my mind, fragments of memories from the moment of summoning. The chaotic energy I had seen then was returning to me in a wave of enlightenment.

Chaos… is not random.

It never was. It was not just a random entanglement of energy—there was a pattern, though irregular, predictable in its own logic. I just had to look differently.

And then it hit me. Chaos had no master. Chaos was the master.

It did not obey anyone, did not take a form imposed by others. It existed in constant change, in endless evolution. It was the force that guided everything, but was not itself directed.

The world around me stopped for a moment. Space disintegrated into pulsating lines, into wild but orderly fractals of energy. As if I understood for the first time.

My left eye ignited with purple light.

The warrior moved violently, clearly surprised. He retracted his sword a few centimeters and squinted.

"What…? How is this possible?" his tone sounded uncertain for the first time, almost shaken. His eyes widened in disbelief, as if he was seeing something that should never have happened before.

"This… this shouldn't happen," he whispered, as if he didn't believe his own words. "Chaos never obeys rules, and yet… you…"

He looked at my eye, now pulsing with purple light, as if trying to find an answer to a question he could not yet ask.

I felt the tension rising, as if the universe itself held its breath, watching what was happening. I knew. I knew that something was changing right now, that I had crossed a boundary that even he did not understand.

The warrior took a step back, looking at me, but not as an enemy. Not as prey. As something he should never have seen.

I had no answer. My mind was still swirling, but one thing I knew for sure. I was beginning to comprehend Chaos.

I looked at the warrior. In his eyes, I still saw disbelief, but now there was something else—raw, penetrating curiosity. He wanted to hear the answer. He wanted to understand what had just happened.

"Chaos is the master," I said slowly, and my own words echoed in my head, seeming to resonate with the very essence of the universe.

The warrior squinted, measuring me with his gaze. He did not answer immediately. He waited, as if testing the weight of my words.

"Chaos does not rule. Chaos leads. It cannot be tamed, it cannot be bound. It is eternal motion, change, the primal force that knows no boundaries."

With each word I spoke, I felt my understanding deepen. The purple light in my eye pulsed rhythmically, as if reacting to the very truth I was uttering.

[SYSTEM] Achieved first level of understanding the Law of Chaos.

Progress: 1%

[SYSTEM] Awarded new title: 'The One Who Touched Chaos'.

Effects: +20 to intelligence

Magic attacks now contain a fragment of chaos, increasing damage by 40%.

But before I could focus on the system notification, the warrior's loud shout interrupted me.

"Hah! That's how it works!" he muttered to himself, looking at his sword with admiration. "All this time, I was trying to control it, and now, as if my very body has finally understood..." He clenched his fingers around the hilt, allowing energy to flow through the blade.

His movements became smoother, almost instinctive, as if his body had suddenly regained memories it did not previously possess.

"Now I understand," he said to himself, lightly chuckling under his breath. "It's not a matter of control. Chaos was never something to be tamed. It's a matter of... accepting it."

"HA! AT LAST!" he roared with euphoria, swinging his sword, which seemed to tremble under the influence of his emotions. "Finally, I managed to master it!"

He was running around the area, making quick, precise movements with his blade, and each swing was accompanied by pulsating bursts of chaotic energy. Pure excitement was visible in his eyes, as if he had found the missing piece of a puzzle he had been searching for a long time.

"Now I understand! Chaos is not unpredictable! It is everything at once!" he laughed, stopping and looking at me triumphantly.

Suddenly, he halted, still breathing heavily from his excitement, and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Thank you," he said abruptly, his voice, though full of joy, now more serious. "Thanks to you, I was finally able to master it."

I blinked, unsure of how to react.

"But… did you just… not appear only a moment ago?" I asked, trying to grasp the meaning of his words.

The warrior laughed again, but this time there was something more to it. Something that suggested his existence was far more complicated than I could have imagined.

The warrior was still smiling, though there was something in his eyes that hadn't been there before—a sense of awareness. Not just excitement, but something deeper, as if he had understood something that had previously eluded his perception.

"I appeared… a moment ago?" he repeated my words, as if he was trying to contemplate them himself. He tilted his head, and his smile faded.

"That's a funny question, because… I don't know myself."

He clenched his hand on the hilt of his sword, as if trying to feel its existence, its weight, its purpose.

"I have no memories… but I have knowledge. I don't know who I was, but I know what I am." He looked at me sharply, as if it was crucial for him. "And that intrigues me."

I felt a chill run down my spine. His words didn't sound like mere philosophizing.

"So… that means you existed before?" I asked cautiously.

The warrior was silent for a moment, as if trying to find the right answer. Finally, he shrugged.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I was someone else. I don't care."

He summoned his blade once more. This time it was more stable, though it still pulsated with unpredictable bursts of chaotic energy.

"But one thing I know for sure," he looked into my eyes, and his voice became more serious. "You created me. My existence is somehow connected to you."

I swallowed hard.

I didn't know whether to feel relief or even greater unease.

The warrior twisted the blade in his hand, and his smile reappeared, this time more predatory.

"So, how about it, up for a quick spar?"