As the entire world froze, Owen watched as the Chaos burned through the karmic threads. Without his intervention, the chaos moved in complex patterns that on closer inspection didn't seem to be patterns at all. Just like the time before, the chaos seemed to grow in size as it moved to cover the entire bracelet and slowly started moving towards his body.
He tried to control the flow, but it was chaos. Any attempt at controlling the power was instantly crushed, all the while, it continued to grow in power. Intense pain lashed its way through his body as chaos met with his flesh. Skin bubbled and popped, while it other places it seemed to grow stretchy and malleable. His panic began to rise as his body's reaction to the chaos was so much worse than he expected.
He did his best to fight back, but it was like he was held in a vice grip as it continued to eat through the karmic threads and his body at the same time. They were slowly being torn apart, but not fast enough to keep his body from tearing itself apart. Panic and terror commanded all of his thoughts as he tried to think of a way to stop. It felt like hours passed as his body continued to struggle, but finally in the moment the threads broke, he was able to move the chaos away form his and make it disperse.
He had less than a second of relief as he turned to Myra, but the movement causes his entire body to start spasming. He heard shouting, but couldn't respond as everything seemed to darken until everything was black. No thoughts joined him in the dark and he merely existed in silence. A jolt of power forced him to open his eyes and he found himself lying on his back and staring at the sky. All at once his panic and worry clouded his mind and he tried to bolt up into a sitting position.
"Are you okay?" A panicked Peggy asked as Myra cried while holding him. His brain wasn't able to process what had happened for a while as he just sat and stared at everything around him. "I... I think I am okay now." He answered. Every breath still felt like a chore, but his thoughts raced as his mind flashed back to the void he had been in. "Did I die?" he asked, unable to hide the worry in his tone. Peggy shook her head, but paused for several seconds. "Not exactly, I had to use a skill I have been working on to make it easier to heal the damage."
She threw a look over her shoulder at Malik, who was standing off to the side looking genuinely worried. "That energy you were using," She said putting emphasis on the word energy. "Was still affecting you slightly, so it was easier to deal with when convincing the energy in your body there was nothing to sustain it." Owen couldn't help himself and stared in horror at the proclamation. "So, I technically did die?" Peggy seemed to realize that it wasn't something he was going to let slide and nodded.
The next several minutes, he just let himself hold Myra close. As he calmed down, he thanked Peggy, before turning to Malik. "How far away is the next one? I think I might need a break before going after more." He asked. Malik looked at him as if he was an idiot. "I'm pretty sure if Myra thought I even considered letting you throw your life away, she'd kill me first." He answered and Myra nodded. "There is no way I'm letting you try again. You almost died, and for what?" Owen heard the anger and worry in her tone and decided to keep the notifications he had gotten to himself.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken those risks. But I think I can control it now." He lied. His notifications didn't look good. he had talked with Xerxes before and was already well aware what the results were.
*You have successfully accomplished something unexpected.
Rewards have finished calculating
You have gained 5 levels for destroying the karma connecting a domain to its demigod
You have twenty unallocated stat point(s)
Your secondary class has gained a level*
*Your body has been corrupted by chaos
Your core has been corrupted by chaos*
While the first several notifications he had seen were good, he couldn't miss the last two. He had talked with Xerxes about chaos corruption and none of the results were ever good. Often times when someone experience physical corruption, it would lead to them losing levels, stats, or in the worst cases, their physical make up. When it effected your physical form, it meant that the mana in your body or in sections of it had been replaced by chaos energy. Despite his body holding together now, over time he would slowly fall apart and die.
Owen just stared at the last notifications while he pretended like everything was okay. His stomach roiled and his heart felt like it would beat out of his chest. But he kept the smile on anyways, he was going to tell them, but he wanted to talk to Peggy about it first. She was the most knowledgeable out of their group, excluding Malik, but even then he wasn't sure it she would have any ideas to fix it.
A part of him was at peace and almost happy at the situation. It felt disgusting and he had to force himself not to make eye contact with Myra or any of the others. But his mind still wandered. He had an excuse now to get rid of the sins. He was on a timer now anyways, why not push the rest of the way through and finish the job and get revenge, all the while speeding up what was guaranteed to be a painful death.
His thoughts wandered to his secondary class and how he had decided to live his life. It helped to calm him down a little bit and the faintest of smiles reached his face as he considered the past several months of his life. He had gone from someone who couldn't hardly stand up for himself and mostly hated his life. Now he stood at what felt like the end, as he stared at the notifications. He had made friends, gotten stronger than he had thought impossible, and for once felt like he was the main character on his own story.
But more than anything, he was happy. Deciding not to beat around the bush, as his racing thoughts and battling emotions settled fully with the realization, he looked at his friends. "I think this is it," He started and shared his notifications. "I don't know if you are all familiar with how chaos corruption works, but when it infects the body, it's only a matter of time." His heart ached as he watched Myra's face look to Peggy for answers. Peggy looked pale and kept looking between him and the notification he had shared.
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"There is no way right?" Myra asked and Peggy still wasn't able to answer. "Didn't this happen before, you had been just fine that time?" Myra's voice picked up in pitch as she looked between Owen and Peggy. Peggy barely nodded, before speaking. Her voice cracked slightly as the words came out, but even for Owen there were a sad reminder of the truth. "When chaos corrupts your body, there isn't anything anyone can do. I don't know, maybe a god could step in, but I don't know." Peggy finished the last words and stared into Owen's eyes,
Malik standing off to the side just shook his head. He stayed silent, but he moved to give the group their space for a while. Owen felt bad for the guy, even if he knew he'd get smacked, if he voiced his apology. Owen had urged them to continue, but he knew that Malik didn't see it that way. he was still thankful for the privacy and pulled both women into a tight hug. Myra hadn't spoken in several seconds and he just held her.
"I'm sorry." Was all he could say, before she slammed a fist against his chest. "I told you to be careful." She said and tears were pouring down her face. "I told you..." Owen felt his eyes well up, but he just kept smiling. "I know, I'm sorry." He let her rant. He didn't keep track of time and Peggy left looking shaken, but he continued to hold Myra and left her vent.
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Xerxes looked on and felt his heart fall. He had finished putting together the last sections of the array to help push his power into Rat once she was ready to ascend. He hadn't been able to see the result of their adventure, but the joy he had felt when he had imagined Owen destroying a sea of domains was replaced with sorrow.
He was aware that it could've ended in death, but karmic threads didn't only bind domain's to demigods. He had been bound to the Zodiac and now that things had moved this far forwards, he didn't have a way to sever the bonds without dying. So, all he could do was watch. He did his best to try sending a message to Lucas, but he didn't expect the boy to receive it anytime soon.
He had started fighting against an impossible battle and was pushing his way towards where his city used to be. He would get the message before he reached the center, but not soon enough to try and prevent Owen from continuing. Even with the corruption, Owen would still have a long enough life ahead of him. If he continued, there would be no way he would survive past the last domain he was aiming for.
After sending the message, he forced himself even further into his work. It wouldn't fix anything, but it would help it melt into the past.
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Owen and his group of friends slowly started moving towards the next domain. It had taken a lot of time to convince them, but they weren't going to let him miss his last chance at getting revenge before dying. Myra still tried to convince him to change his mind, but he was steadfast.
Malik almost seemed to be in the worst mood. They had left after a full day of talking and just enjoyed each other's company. Malik the whole time had been throwing him glances and while they were on the move, Owen finally got him to walk next to him. "I don't blame you, I knew the risks, even if I had almost managed to convince myself I was invincible." He tried joking, but Malik's face was grim. "But if I hadn't told you my plan, or gave you access to their locations, You can't tell me you wouldn't be in a better spot right now."\
Owen shrugged. "It's hard to say. I had wanted to go out at some point and find them, but while you did make it easier, I still would've done it and then I would've been in the same position, but with one less friend." Owen said, as he patted Malik on the back. Malik sighed before grinning. "You know, I would've never expected that power to be chaos." Owen shrugged. "Without the notification I wouldn't have either."
With the tense moment gone, Owen spent as much time as he could, talking with each of them and sharing stories. The whole time, he held hands with Myra and more than anything enjoyed having her stay next to him.
When they were getting close to the next domain, Malik gestured for them all to stay back. "I am more than strong enough to clear out anyone who might be there. I can clear them out and then we will take things slow after that." Owen nodded and felt Myra close her hand on his even tighter. "It'll be okay," He lied and he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. They both knew it was a lie. This time was still going to be worse than any other instance so far, if it kept up the trend.
Malik didn't take long to return and they continued moving forwards. They passed the domain's barrier with next to no effort and quickly moved towards the item that helped hold the domain present. "It'll be okay," Owen said again, as he made eye contact with Myra. While he had mostly come to terms with his death, he had still been trying to find ways to prolong it, despite his suicidal mission.
As he grasped the calligraphy pen that held the karmic threads, he first covered his arms in mana. It was a risky choice, but one he had thought through. Chaos poured from his body and surrounding both the threads and the pen in quick succession. He had to try and focus on both keeping the chaos focused on the karmic threads, but also from keeping the mana he was using as a barrier from inching back as the chaos inevitably moved towards his body.
The whole world seemed to freeze like the first time, but as the chaos and mana mixed, small explosions of power began bursting along his arms. Before he could do anything about it, the powers cracked together and both his arms were vaporized in seconds. Even though he had been hoping for that exact result, he couldn't help the scream that burst from his lips. Pain wracked his entire body, but it was still better than the feeling of uncontrolled chaos seeping back into his body.
Despite the clawing pain, Owen was able to keep his attention on the chaos that moved back towards his body and despite his every attempt, it still reached him. The agonizing feeling on his cellular structure being changed in real time was even worse than he remembered, but this time the threads were burned through before the feeling lasted longer than a couple seconds. He was barely able to smile, before everything seemed to slip out of focus.
Everything went black and what felt like seconds later, his eyes opened and he gasped for air for several seconds, before he was able to calm himself. He did a quick scan of his body and checked his notifications, but nothing had noticeably changed. Grinning, he looked around, but didn't move as he felt someone curled up beside him. Both of his arms were back and Owen was almost certain that it was thanks to a combination of Peggy and Malik.
Seeing as his body's corruption had hardly changed by more than a percent, he grinned as he pulled Myra in closer. It would work for a while and he would give himself a chance to just enjoy these moments. He knew it would only get worse and worse. His loose control was already slipping and the energy had started to act almost as if it were sapient. But he had already decided on his path and they were already almost halfway done.