NOVEL WEB B1 | Chapter 27
Ashley
After I quickly beat a rather hasty retreat from the strange crowd of people who were outside of the Domain – likely there waiting for me – I go ahead and search out monsters to hunt. Which doesn’t take all that long since I find some when I fly very high up in the room. Then I go ahead and draw the new blades I got from the mini boss.
Between the two blades, one is about two thirds of a meter in length and the other about half of a meter in length. Neither of them weigh very much, and they’re very comfortable to use.
Although I don’t seem to have as much experience using dual blades as I have using a single knife, so it takes me a bit more time to get used to it as I fight against the monsters here. And I once again make sure not to use any skills that I got from others that are obvious.
Not that it’s hard to avoid those skills, what with my new Successor Skill.
Chaotic Surge is great for this.
The very first monster I fight, one of those sentinels, ends up paralyzed by a single slice of my blade. A slice that actually cuts into the iron making up the sentinel.
And because of the paralysis, the thing just kind of falls to its death, smacking against one block after another until it dies.
Almost makes me pity the thing.
Almost.
The second monster ends up dying by my blade without any effects really taking effect that actually harm it. Mostly because the effects that I get only do stuff to biological monsters.
Not blocks of stone or metal that’s floating in the sky.
The third one has two effects that affect it, though. One that rusts the entire thing, and another that freezes it.
Rather interesting, but these monsters are all about half of my level. So they’re not really that strong.
They can’t even catch me while I’m flying, and my blade cuts into their own metal without any heat. Although I wouldn’t say, ‘I cut through them like butter,’ or anything like that.
I continue hunting one monster after another while trying my best to avoid any people. Even when the people in question try to talk to me every time I see them.
Which is really annoying.
I really wish these people would stop trying to talk to me.
But putting them aside for now, I also find my thoughts occupied with wondering about what I’m going to do after the tutorial. Where I’ll go. What I’ll do. How I’ll flee if someone from my old life pre-amnesia tries to find me.
I can tell that whatever effect was altering people’s perception of me before is gone now. Strictly because some people are straight up talking about people called the Black and White Enforcers and calling me their daughter. But my limited fragments of knowledge don’t include them. Or any actual people in particular.
So I’m clueless about that.
In the end I continue running through the tutorial without food, water, or sleep for the entire rest of the tutorial period. All the way till I find myself sent to some large room without a single other person nearby. A room that, at first glance, looks like some sort of throne room. One with a large crimson and black throne at the back and various windows on both sides of the large hall, with a long black and crimson carpet running to the dais the throne is on.
But the large tree with what looks like a nest on top standing in a random outcrop behind the throne kind of throws off that throne room feeling.
Also, while I don’t remember ever seeing a tree, I’m pretty sure trees shouldn’t be black. Nor should they have glowing crimson and purple veins running through them.
I glance out the windows for a second, soon finding myself staring at… I’m actually not sure what I’m staring at. Outside of the windows is nothing but endless skies. Like the throne room I’m in is just floating in the middle of the sky.
But instead of normal clouds, the clouds I see are all dark, with bolts of crimson lightning thundering through them. Meanwhile the only sun out there is a black one, leaving most of the light coming from the crimson lightning.
I turn my focus back to the throne before blinking in surprise at the sight of a man who looks just like Chaos’s clone sitting on the throne.
And after a brief analyzing of the man, I quickly realize that it isn’t a clone.
♢Primordial of Chaos♢
He looks just like his clone did, for obvious reasons. With the same black, crimson, and purple hair that I have, the same crimson pools as eyes that I have, and the same wings as me. He is quite a bit taller than me, is wearing an outfit that I swear was meant to match my own, and I can’t really tell much from the look in his eyes. A look that is far less playful than the one his clone had.
Although that might also be because our eyes aren’t exactly made to express emotions from what I can tell looking into his.
As if trying to refute my thought, he cracks a smirk and suddenly looks playful. And before I can spare a thought about that, the man who was previously just lounging on the throne in a laidback manner suddenly disappears. Then I feel hands going under my armpits as I’m lifted up into the air like a child.
What’s going on?
I try to turn my head to look behind me, only for the person holding me – presumably Chaos – to start spinning around in circles while holding me up.
Seriously. What’s happening?
“You’re so adorable, my cute little daughter!” Chaos exclaims rather excitedly as I find myself spinning in circles with a blank look on my face. Just wondering what is even happening.
I open my mouth to speak, only for me to suddenly be tossed into the air and then caught in seconds. Except this time having me being held by the armpits with me facing him as Chaos smiles at me.
Why is he treating me like this?
He slowly spins in circles as we both lower to the ground with the Primordial talking while floating downwards, “You did a wonderful job! Taking on a mini boss by yourself without any powerful skills like the other top enforcers!”
I continue to stare at him without showing any of my emotions on my face. Partially because it’s what I’m used to, partially because I don’t feel much anymore, and mostly because I just don’t know what the heck is happening.
Seconds before we reach the ground, the man pulls me into a hug and holds me there for a couple seconds. Then he suddenly vanishes, leaving me stumbling onto the ground for a second as I regain my balance. My feet falling the last foot or so to hit the ground in his absence.
I look around, feeling more and more bewildered the longer I stay here.
“To spare you the need to talk, I’ll go ahead and answer some questions I’m sure you have, daughter of mine,” I hear Chaos’s voice coming from the throne. So I turn to look at him, finding him once again lounging on the throne with both his legs stretching over one of the armrests in a very undignified manner. “All Successors are taken to the Seat of Power belonging to their Primordials instead of the System Event Hub after completing their tutorials. You will then be able to ask me any questions you want for half an hour before you’re sent to the System Event Hub.”
Oh. That doesn’t answer the ‘greeting’ you just gave me though.
“I chose you to be my Successor because you have chaos energy, your main skill, and because I felt like it,” Chaos continues, seemingly acting like that over-the-top greeting didn’t happen. “You, as the Successor to the Primordial of Chaos, do not have to follow any orders given by the Primordials. Unlike the other Successors. You’re free to act as you please and don’t even have to follow my own orders.”
Wasn’t planning on following your orders anyways. But thanks, I guess.
“If you meet other Successors, do whatever the hell you want to do,” Chaos says with a shrug before a strange screen appears above him. One with crimson and black lightning running through it. But it doesn’t take long for the screen to start showing what looks like a large city on Val. “This is the capital city of that planet you came from. I am fully aware that you have amnesia and can barely remember squat, so I’ll keep this simple for my adorable daughter.”
I wish he’d stop calling me adorable.
The screen zooms in on a large building that, judging by the many rooms I see through the windows of it that look like hospital patient rooms, is likely a hospital. Then Chaos continues, “I have some advice for you. You don’t have to follow it, but I suggest you do as it will help you a lot.” The screen focuses on one particular room in the massive hospital that must be over a hundred floors. “This is your room. When you wake up, I suggest you go…” he pauses as the screen moves through the city towards a large park. At the center of which is some strange tower. “I suggest you go here. Claim this Spire as your own and it will give you a nice place to stay. One that no one else can bother you in.”
Those words pique my interest.
Specifically the ‘no one else can bother you’ part.
“Before you go questioning my intentions, I will assure you that I have no reason to harm my own daughter and Successor,” he says while finally sitting up on his throne and staring at me, his fingers interlocking over his knees. “Plus you don’t have anything else to do after returning, right?”
He has a point.
I don’t have anything else to do. Other than avoiding anyone who I may’ve known before.
And having a place to stay would help with that.
“Good, it looks like we’ve come to an understanding,” Chaos says with a smile lighting up his face. One that makes me blink in surprise and confusion.
Wait. Can he understand how I think? Or maybe he’s reading my mind?
“Moving on to the next matter, you may ignore the Tower of Chaos if you please, or use them,” Chaos continues without answering my thoughts and confusing me in the process with his statement. “It’s up to you. Do as you please.”
Come to think of it, he’s the Primordial of Chaos.
Maybe he just wants to throw in some sort of wildcard to see what sort of chaos I might bring to the universe or something.
Sounds possible.
“The last thing you need to know that you can’t already learn from the Hub is that you can contact me whenever you’d like simply by wishing to,” Chaos says, his smile starting to creep me out ever so slightly simply due to the happiness I see in his gaze. A gaze directed at me.
I’m not used to people looking at me like that.
Indifference. Greed. Desire. Jealousy. Anger.
Those are the gazes I’m used to.
The corners of my lips twitch slightly at that thought, making me briefly wonder just what made me used to seeing those. But then I shake that thought from my mind.
Out of nowhere, Chaos reappears in front of me again, startling me. Then he puts one hand on my head and smiles at me as he says, “You don’t have to remember anything, child.”
I blink at him, more than a little surprised. But he vanishes again and reappears on his throne seconds later.
“Well then, since you can contact me whenever you want, and since I highly doubt you’ll speak if I asked if you wanted to ask anything, I’ll go ahead and send you to the Hub now,” he says before waving at me with that same smile on his face. “See ya later, my dear daughter!”
But right when light begins gathering around me and I’m likely about to vanish, I see a look of anticipation join the happiness in his gaze.
Like he’s anticipating something exciting happening soon.
Then the light blinds me, and I find myself somewhere else.