Loyd wouldn’t wake up even after me screaming right into his ears. Meanwhile, Duk was getting closer and closer.

“Loyd doesn’t make companions easily.” Duk approached slowly. “If you are really tagging along with him, you probably are just a tool or a toy.”

He was right. Loyd never made companions. The only people he cooperated with were people that were part of the government and Crimson. And even if anyone actually became friends with Loyd, they would be killed or kicked out. That’s why he was called, ‘The Lonely Priest of Peace’. He always desired peace but conclusionally never was able to achieve it.

“Or did he just throw away his stupid ideology?”

“Shut up Duk. You know nothing about Loyd.”

“There is no one in this world that understands him better than anyone.”

“Lies! The name ‘Catastrophe of Deception’ really matches you. Your arrogance and hatred will lead you to doom.”

“Keep your friends close, your enemies even closer.”

Duk dashed towards us in a blink. His fist hit me directly in the face and pushed me off into the tree nearby. I felt extreme pain travel through my spines. I felt like my back broke but I stood back up.

I saw Duk standing in front of Loyd. I don’t know why but for some reason, he didn’t kill Loyd yet. I tried to run towards Loyd but I was soon knocked out and collapsed onto the floor. My eyes were slowly closing. I tried my best to not lose my consciousness but I wasn’t able to control it. Right before my eyes closed fully, I saw a silhouette that was familiar. He looked back at me and smiled.

“I can’t believe we have to bring a skeleton like him with us.”

*

Although the new body wasn’t familiar, Duk was able to adapt to it quickly. His new powers, the catastrophe of deception, allowed him to use powers that weren’t even similar to the ones he used to have. He became a powerful being that can oppose the constellations in the sky now. But the journey he suffered through couldn’t be described with words. He had to float in the empty void of Abyss for decades until he was found by an unknown god. A giant hand made from chaos and shadow grabbed him away. When he was absorbed into the darkness, he heard bloodcurdling whispers.

“Father, please let me use him as my incarnation.”

“My deer reign of The Crawling Chaos, why are you so obsessed with this world? We promised not to be attached to the curse of ‘System’.”

“The Blind Idiot God, what we oppose is the people who hold power and abuse them, not this world and the system itself. Do you not remember parallel universes forming because of you and The Lurker at the Threshold?”

“...”

“Please use The Key and the Gate to open the crack in this dimension. We can send this soul and 3 others to make that world fall, just like you wish.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

After the conversation ended, Duk felt an enormous amount of energy flowing into his body. He felt extreme pain, chaos, and anger flow. He tried screaming out but his voice wouldn’t come out. When he opened his eyes again, he was in complete darkness. And out of nowhere, a system message popped up.

[Your status has been updated.]

+

Name: DuknotDuke (Diego)

Guardian: The Crawling Chaos

Mythology: The Bringer of Chaos, Great Old Ones (Borrowed), Outer Gods (Borrowed)

Ability: Understanding of Humans (Epic), Illusion Creation (Rare), Hand of Deception (Epic), Healing Factor (Legendary), Catastrophe (Legendary).

+

It was that moment when he was reborn in a new body.

*

I gasped and woke up. I coughed heavily and suffered when I started breathing. I felt like I was choking. Was that someone’s dream? I felt pain, chaos, and anger overflow in my brain when I became unconscious. It was as if I was possessed inside of someone’s body. When I recovered, I got up on one knee and looked up. I don’t know how much time has passed but fortunately, Loyd was still alive. The unknown silhouette disappeared and Duk was preparing to kill Loyd. I saw him taking out his dagger to end him. I quickly got up and started running towards them. Right when Duk brought up his arm to slash Loyd, I jumped and held Loyd in my arms. I felt the dagger cutting the skin of my back. I saved Loyd but I was injured heavily. And then, I fell asleep again.

*

Duk stared at Loyd for a while. Loyd was fragile against mental attacks, especially the ones made by him. At this point, Loyd’s mind should’ve collapsed and Loyd should be insane but he was still unconscious. Something went wrong with his plan. But how? His plan was perfect. He chose the worst trauma that could affect Loyd and made him suffer it. But it didn’t matter anymore. If his spell can’t kill him, he would have to kill on his own.

Duk pulled out his dagger and prepared to kill Loyd once and for all. The long ages he suffered through, the extreme pain of becoming a catastrophe, were all waiting for this moment. He had survived through those times looking forward to this moment.

“Well this is the end of our cycle of hatred. Good bye.”

Right when Duk prepared to kill Loyd, an unknown being flew between him like wind and took Loyd away. His face was full of shock and surprise. When he looked to his right, he saw Loyd, and the weird boy that tried to save him. He stood still for a few moments and stared at the boy.

Who the hell is this kid? He just appeared out of nowhere, claims that he is Loyd’s companion, and tried to risk his life trying to save him.

Duk was fascinated with the boy. He first thought of just killing him but not, he wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to make him one of the corpses on the tree. The tree that Duk made helped him understand things going on in this world. Every dead corpse added to the tree, he obtained their memories and their abilities. Most of them were useless and because he was able to understand most of the recent events, he decided to not add anymore bodies but he changed his mind. He wanted to look at this guy’s memories.

He approached Luke and Loyd and put his hand towards Luke. Then, the shadow hand that previously attacked Loyd came out of the air and slowly approached them. Behind Duk, a dark aura was rising. A monster looking shadow rose and screamed a soundless scream. When the monster was completely in shape, it faded in with Duk and the dark hand. The hand started absorbing Luke and Loyd. Energy and aura was flowing into the hand. And after a few seconds, the monster opened its mouth and tried to eat Luke. Right before he ate him, someone flew directly towards Duk and cut his head. When the head landed in front of a man, the man stepped on it and crushed it into pieces. Because Duk was currently in a shadow form, he recovered his head again. He looked around and searched for who was the one that cut his head. When he turned around, he was welcomed with a familiar face.

“My god it took me a long time to find this sword again.”

Duk shivered with fear. Duk was scared because he knew who that was.

“You’re always making me do extra work.”

The golden crown, red knight looking armor, and 2 swords that were used by a single man.

“Long time no see, Diego.”