In the middle of a room a bloodied man stood. He had lines of blood that covered his body, tracing weird shapes and runes on his skin. All around him were weapons laid down in their respective spots. While lines of blood stretching across the ground connected them.

Meanwhile Bear was looking at her master Nick from across the room. Wondering if his shenanigans were necessary.

He plunged the last of the weapons in its place as he sang a quiet melody under his breath.

As he did so a flash of red light, rushed from all of the weapons. It gathered in the middle where it started expanding.

It expanded until it reached the runes and stabilized.

But just then a figure materialised in front of the portal. It drew energy from all of the weapons around.

[Chaos Lord]

A being born of chaos. Yet standing there, it possessed no such presence as the long-standing lords. It was birthed just now thanks to the ritual.

It had a crown on its head along with a torn-up cape. Even though its face should have been visible, it seemed to be veiled in shadows.

"Why can't this be easy for once?" Bear barked at that as if agreeing with him.

"Wait you can see him?"

She nodded her head at him.

"Well, so on one try it should be. I don't want to find out if I'll truly die."

Ignoring them and their discussion the Chaos Lord motioned for at a pair of weapons, a dagger and a sword. All the while Nick looked on confused at its antics. But he didn't have to wonder too long as the weapons came flying into its hands.

"Whoa, cool trick dude. I was wondering if we could like maybe resolve this peacefully." Nick said as he came walking towards the Lord. "You know we just need to walk through the portal and that's all. What do you say?"

An answer came flying at him in the form of a blade intent flying through the air. Nick stepped back letting the wind hit the ground before him.

It made a long scar on the ground, deep about a few centimetres.

"That's very rude of you to cut off someone mid speech. Didn't your mother teach you anything." Feeling the emotions hidden behind the words, the Chaos Lord radiated a dark aura outward. But didn't took a step forward from where he stood.

Nick saw an energy being syphoned from the portal by the Chaos Lord, shrinking the portal millimetre by millimetre. While the Chaos Lord's aura was deepening.

"Bear you'll be circling around him, looking for a place to attack. I'll engage him in combat and create some opportunities for you to attack." Having told what he wanted, Nick rushed to combat.

Stepping over the cut on the ground, the Chaos Lord sent along more of them. Seeming as if they took no energy.

Nick weaved through the cuts, getting wounds opened on his body. Yet none hit his vital organs as he manoeuvred through them. They didn't bleed as one might think, thanks to the chaos energy slowly healing them.

He came before the Chaos Lord, swinging his sword at him, the expected deflection of the blade never came. Instead, a mana shield got visible around the Chaos Lord.

Side stepping to dodge the incoming attack, Nick got back his bearing as he inspected the mana shield as it flickered back out of existence.

He dodged the next few hits as he motioned something to Bear. He attacked with an under swing of his sword, bringing up dust into the air.

His blow once again landed on the mana shield. But there wasn't any panic on his face.

Just then Bear jumped at the Chaos Lord as his shield was flickering out of existence.

Nick waited for the screams to come out, but only a low squeal was heard that came from Bear. She hit her nose against the shield.

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"That's fucking bullshit, you-" he got no chance to end his sentence as the Chaos Lord stepped towards him. Getting angry at the pests that were desecrating his birth place. Even though that was kind of his own fault.

Doing a round slash, cutting everything at the waist level. Bear managed to jump off the ground while Nick slid down on the ground.

Bear attacked with her claws, while Nick activated his strength overdraw alongside using his mana.

They both attacked at the same time, but that didn't budge the barrier in the slightest.

They came flying away as the Chaos Lord released a blast from himself. It sent them flying through the room until hitting the walls.

The Chaos Lord started walking towards Nick as he tried getting up from the ground. But found out he could not.

He started coughing up blood alongside pieces of meat and organs.

"Look. What about me and Bear just leave you here and fuck off?" He said and the response came quickly as one of his arms got cut off.

"I'll take that as a no."

What followed was a torture. He got parts of him cut off only to receive chaos energy from the Lord. Forcing him to regrow the parts to repeat the process.

In all that agony he did not scream. He looked at the Chaos Lord, emotions vacant on his face as his gaze felt like looking through the Chaos Lord.

And indeed, it was. He looked on as Bear sneaked behind him and jumped at the Chaos Lord.

He turned around, ignoring the attack as it collided with the shield. He plunged forward his sword and pierced right through Bear's body.

But just then he felt a terrifying feeling behind himself. He quickly returned his sight behind himself and caught a wind rushing at him. It was the blade intent.

It clung to Nick's sword as he pierced right through the shield. He had activated any and all skills that would seem to give him an edge and struck the Chaos Lord's body.

[+5 Chaos]

It crumpled in front of him leaving behind nothing, but the crown on his head.

[Chaos Crown]

It looked to be made out of dust and cloth piecing it together. What seemed to be holding it together was only the power of belief alone.

But Nick ignored that for now as he left it there laying on the ground. Coming next to Bear he saw her bleeding out on the ground.

The sword that was piercing her now vanished. Thanks to that she was bleeding out like there's no tomorrow.

"Hey, hey. It's okay I'm here with you everything will be okay. You'll get through this and will adventure with me outside in the real world." He brought his hand underneath her head supporting her. Meanwhile with the other he was pumping helping her Chaos energy to deal with the wounds.

But even that seemed to only stabilise her wounds. That's when he felt the crown beckoning to him, luring him in to take it. Which he did.

As it settled on his head, he felt his thoughts clear like never before, and his control of Chaos energy incomparable from moments ago.

It was as if he suddenly went from having his screen pixelated to having a full hd. It was overwhelming for a while, but he soon got it under control.

He didn't even lay his hand on Bear's wound as he guided the Chaos energy. It closed the wound off and made it possible to once again breathe normally for Bear.

Then as if on cue the portal buzzed whilst it started shrinking by the second. As there was an absence of the rightful Lord that it was connected with.

"It seems our time has come to depart. And don't worry I still have a few bones on me, in case of an emergency snack." Hearing that Bear jumped into the portal with renewed vigour while Nick soon followed. Not before giving a last glance at the place that brough him up to what he was.

[Weapon prowess:

---blade intent: novice]

***

It was three months since the recent Assimilation happened. Countless lives were lost, fighting for lofty ambitions or humble needs. The main hit took the human race with their city wiped out while the Ork City wasn't faring that much better. Having lost a number of districts.

As for the other two cities they were gaining ground by each day. Star Reaver City in general as it accommodated the human population and together, they took more territory.

It had a fog covering most of the city thanks to the factories that were in full swing, churning out war equipment. The only thing that made it a bit more breathable was the rain that was falling.

Slowly the rain drops were sliding off the surfaces of windows. Reflecting glimpses of what was happening behind them.

Behind one of those windows was a small team. They had their own apartment where they were all in the living room, preparing for the next task.

"When do you think this will end?" Tami asked no one in particular.

"If you're unhappy you should go work in one of the factories. They're happy for every new employee." Nina sneered at her while working on her robotic legs. They had a few wires sticking out, but it didn't seem to be working on electricity. As it was working on the mana of the user. Other than that, she had one of her eyes robotic.

"Stop the two of you. If you even changed a bit in your characters, we would have someone joining us and not leaving." Julie said as she came out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her body.

"Yeah, yeah. As that would have helped. You heard Mike and Vanes yourself. They didn't want to do anything with this war. Just live a quiet life." Nina said shaking her head at that.

"And what's wrong with that. As long as they're happy with it. It's fantastic."

"What do you think happened to them? They both are now slaving away at the factories. Doing twelve hour shifts just to stay afloat."

The sound of arguing faded away as Julie watched the city below, bustling even at this time. She brought up her system interface.

[Weekly task: Conquer two Dungeons

Rewards: money]

"Is there a way to revive my brother?"

[Anything is possible here. You just have to be strong enough. Or valuable enough in the eyes of the council.]

"Do you think I'll be able to do it?"

[I'm sure of that.]