Mayera did not feel it; no, she experienced it. This overwhelming force of nothing but pure sickness seeping in her velvet soul, a cold void coating her thoughts. She chose this way to protect those who could not; she swore the oath, the words etched into her being:
"I will protect the children of the realms, for everything starts with them."
And she did; she did that in her decades of service, saving those who needed it from famines, disease, war, anything. The cries of the saved, the weight of small hands trusting hers.
Anything but this.
This force of Chaos. It wasn't just power; it had the sound of sanity breaking. A bitter taste rising up in her throat. This made her break down, suffering from thoughts of breaking that sacred oath she once vowed to give her life for.
The core of her being trembled, threatening to collapse onto itself. She was not the only one; all of them, all were shaking out of fear. Eyes wide with terror, pupils dilated with dread.
Rightfully so, these things were encircling them, their unfathomable forms staring back with a thousand shifting, lidless eyes.
The 'air' vibrated with their low, chittering, like insects walking over a window. There was no definable creature any of them had ever seen that could be close to these mangled forms.
Their heads hurt like knives cutting them over and over again, screaming, their eyes threatening to pop out at any moment. The pressure built, like a balloon swelling behind thei eyes.
Madness. It was madness.
It affected the lower-ranking custodes first; they slowly lifted their weapons above their heads, movements stiff, like a puppet, before swinging downwards onto their comrades.
The sickening sound of metal meeting flesh, the rip of skin sliced. throats slit, heads off, stomachs open. The scent of blood filled the 'air'.
It slowly creeped up the Fulgor her mind; she gripped her face, her nails digging deep, screaming out of pain, a raw animal-like sound. Unsteady on her feet, she reached for her short sword and pointed at Heliterna, who did nothing but smile, one that screamed, 'Is it okay to laugh?' from it.
Tears fell down her face when she slashed for his throat, only for it to suddenly slip out of her hands and fall free into the space.
Heliterna just nodded slowly. "Phew," he breathed out, the sound dry. "I just got lucky, didn't I?" he chuckled. But it faded immediately as he saw Mayera collapsing on her knees, a shaky cry escaping her.
He sighed, a sound of weariness forged from millennia, "These people are really nothing like us, don't you think, Ytetra?" A memory of them fighting Crawling Chaos flashed by.
It seemed that the newer generations lost the fire the Golden Generation had. Heliterna had enough; he lifted his hand off his lap and snapped his finger.
Mass Warp, a lower-tier ability, he forced everyone except himself away, so he thought. Mayera refused to leave. "I'd rather die... with honor..." she gasped, struggling to speak,
"than... break the oath I swore my being upon." Each word broken by the pain of the madness creeping into her being.
Heliterna nodded slowly, his neck cracking a little bit because of it. "I see..." He shook his head. "I guess they still have the fire inside of them." He gave a thumbs-up towards her, a crooked smile on his face.
She, in pain, returned the gesture, a trembling hand lifting. She managed to keep the madness off and slowly rose to her feet, wobbly, muscles straining, but she managed.
Heliterna warped him and his wheelchair in front of her; his luck would radiate onto her, which it did, the madness suddenly turning into a sneeze and vanishing entirely. Like a blanket pulled off.
Mayera was confused. Blinking rapidly. "Thanks?" she muttered, relieved her pain was gone in such a... strange manner.
The Chaos creatures now came to a halt; they stood upright. All staring at the same direction, Heliterna and Mayera followed their gaze.
Mayera didn't think it could become worse...
The source of the chaos.
The mangled chaos slowly moved out of the way, limbs scraping against the non-floor, almost like commoners making way for their king in a parade.
The man, or whatever it was, walked slowly, each step louder than the last.
The moment it stood on the paradoxical floors, a wave of pure madness flung outward.
Even the mangled chaos shrieked out in pain, a npise of clicks and tearing sounds, all gripping their impossible faces, almost tearing them off. They slowly fell onto their knees... all caving in because of the man...
Crawling Chaos.
He had no smile on his face; he had nothing, not even his eyes were open, all his features nearly covered by a tumor-like foreign body plastered on his face, pulsing with a sickly, internal light.
His walk was put to a stop by a few mangled chaos. "What is it?" fatigue oozing from it.
No answer from them, only a body laid before him. The sniper that shot at the Custodes... his son. The silence was heavy.
He lifted his arm, a slow creaking movement, and the chaos attached to the body like tentacles, sending wet, slurping sounds through the 'air'.
He slowly absorbed it into his own being. No pain inside of him, nothing, a simple sigh from within:
"I warned you, son." The words were monotone, devoid of grief.
Crawling Chaos continued walking as the mangled moved out of the way again, their movements trembling.
"This is going to be fun... Mayera." Heliterna tried to stand up, but then he realized he obviously doesn't have legs; he looked a little hurt, a flicker of frustration crossing his weathred face before returning back into a grim focus.
The moment Crawling Chaos entered the edge of the open circle, he lunged forward, a blur of decaying motion, a tentacle of pure chaos flung towards Heliterna...
Coincidentally, a piece of space shattered with a sound like breaking glass in its path towards his face; it entered it like a portal, and it got spewed out somewhere else across the infinite Fundus.
Another one, another shattered patch of space denying it. Mayera could only be happy he was with her.
She could not believe that each tentacle somehow got warped away somewhere else. The two just stood still and watched Crawling Chaos throw his tentacles towards them like a whip, to no avail.
"Just like always, now, isn't it, dear Crawling Chaos?" Heliterna yelled laughingly, waving his hands as if he needed to get his attention. Crawling Chaos cracked a faint smile, as if he... liked this.
A grotesque stretching of the tumorous flesh near his jawline.
Crawling Chaos used his tentacles to tear open the dimensional folds to appear in front of Heliterna, still smiling. "Boo," he simply said, his breath a gust of decay.
Exploding a gooey ball of pure chaos in Heliterna's face.
Or so he thought; coincidentally, Heliterna was not even standing there but rather a few meters to the side. A cognitive error of Crawling Chaos.
Crawling Chaos was sure... His dear old power... Luck... he thought to himself before hurling more gooey balls towards Heliterna, all missing. Bad aim.
"Mayera..." He called for her nonchalantly, not taking his eyes off Crawling Chaos.
"Yes?" A hint of fear in the tone, she really did not know what he could ask of her.
"Could you, maybe, release the brakes of my dear old wheelchair?" He gestured to his wheels.
She nodded and hastily released them, the metallic sound of the brakes disengaging brakes the silence.
Heliterna sat upright, cracking his knuckles. Crawling Chaos, enjoying the fight, coughed up blood as he hurled himself on top of him.
"How do I get past your power... Heliterna?" His breath rotten, Heliterna shrugged his shoulders, "No idea."
He swung his hand, a casual gesture. The black hole he had thrown before had bounced off another one and shot back.
Swinging Crawling Chaos off of him like a wrecking ball, caught off guard, he stopped it with his tentacles and absorbed it, fueling himself, his Chaos.
"Fine..."
Crawling Chaos stood still, looked up towards the paradoxical roof, and cut off his tentacles...
Heliterna's smile faded immediately, replaced by a cold dread that formed in his gut.
He knew this move...
The reason why they hunted Crawling Chaos back in the day... He wanted to... get the artifact...
His tentacles sputtering like fish on land, he raised both arms, opened his crusted mouth, and with a soft, decaying breath, he whispered it...
"Hand of my Lord."
Chaos laughed in Order Throne's facea sound like stars exploding.
"Oh... Look at that Order; someone called for me."
Order shook its head and waved gently with its hand, the movement silent, but carrying immense weight.
A choir of trumpets and angelic voices resonated throughout not only their surroundings but all existence, a sound both beautiful and terrifying, vibrating the very fabric of fundus.
The call of a Lord, the ability solely reserved for Executioners of the highest order, is now stolen by a rogue spark and used.
The ability was never actually used, only on a handful of occasions, including this one.
With a slow grace, an arm descended from the heavens, ripping through dimensional layers like endless cloth tearing. Just like Crawling Chaos's skin, the same color, the same texture, the same source. Chaos.
The arm was not Chaos... no, it was something beyond it... The True Chaos... The Throne of Chaos.
With grace it stopped right before Crawling Chaos's face. The hand hovered, radiating pure, annihilating potential, grabbed by him, and a kiss placed upon its knuckles with reverence.
Heliterna's face turned white, the blood gone; he looked at Mayera and shook his head. A single decisive movement.
"Goodbye... Mayera..." his voice was soft, final.
Without a second thought, he snapped and warped her away, far, far away.
He turned his head to look at his old enemy. "Cheater," he hissed through his teeth, the word full with disdain and a hint of fear.
Crawling Chaos laughed, a gurgling sound, as his body turned into what it used to be, young, untouched by time, when he was part of The Darkest Generation.
Muscle reknit, posture straightened, but the tumor on his face seemed to cling on, leeching from him still, still pulsing.
Once more Crawling Chaos lunged at him, no tentacles this time, but fists imbued with true Chaos, crackling with black light.
His luck was in full force now; a punch missed due to a muscle in Crawler's body twitching just a second too late, and a punch missed because Heliterna was apparently not as close as Crawling Chaos thought, the fist passing through empty 'air'.
But Heliterna felt the punches closing in, his luck running out; it held no power in the face of the absoluteness of the Chaos Throne.
He now needed to partially rely on his actual combat ability, one he never needed to use.
Crawling Chaos stepped forward; by coincidence he stood on a fractured dimensional pillar.
His weight caused him to fall through it; the rift needed to close to make sure the dimensional structures remained intact with a grinding noise.
Crawling Chaos was stuck between two plates of the infinite dimensions that were. Grunting, a sound of immense strain, he tried to keep them from closing, which he did, muscles bulging.
He warped out back to face Heliterna and punched him in the face.
Heliterna was never hit once in his entire life. Until he met E.K., it was an intense battle. He saw that moment, in the forest of a distant reality,
E.K. was sent to stop a Rogue Spark from slaughtering children... The scent of oak abd fear, the sound of blades clashing...
Heliterna himself was just a child; E.K. was, no, is, his hero... The memory a brief, warm fire in the cold void.
"E.K..."
He called for his friend... The name a gasp of pain as his head snapped back, blood releasing in his mouth, dripping on his armor.
Crawling Chaos stood there, looking down on Heliterna, who lay on the paradoxical floor, dazed, his wheelchair beside him.
What was this look? Pity? Satisfaction? A cold emptiness in the restored eyes.
He raised his fist... He would finally achieve what he strived for so long ago...
to kill the one he could never touch.
His smile widened, triumph, the tumor on his face pulsing franticly.
Heliterna managed to look up through the blood and pain, they locked eyes. A moment suspended in the chaos.
Heliterna whispered, blood bubbling on his lips, "You borrowed power... from a source beyond comprehension..." each word required effort. "It would discard you as fast as it gave you its power."
Heliterna formed a pistol with his fingers, pew, the sound meant to be a joke, a final word before his demise.
Crawling Chaos laughed, a short laugh. "I know..." his voice softer each syllable, "I just..." He leaned in slightly. "Wanted to make you feel vulnerable for once... you lucky bastard..."
The tumor on his face pulsed violenttly before bursting into a thousand pieces, blowing his head clean off... A sound like a watermelon exploding.
His body collapsed immediately, like a log, a heavy tud on the paradoxical floor. The borrowed power snuffed out, leaving only the smell of rot.
Heliterna wheezed, it was hard to breath... the stench of rotten flesh in his nostrils.
He chuckled for a second, a pained sound. "I am lucky, or am I? Or was it?" He scanned the space, eyes blurry, nothing he could see, nor sense, but he really felt someone watching him... perhaps... a force beyond his compression.
A vastm indiferent presence, colder than the void.
The air became cold. Not the chill of space, but the absolute cold of nothingness.
As if heat meant nothing.