Aethon, Kirkcour Woods.
01:01 a.m. 15th Banem 1092.
Crackle!
Tendrils of electricity crackled across thousands of mutilated corpses strewn across the scorched earth. A jumbled mess of body parts from beasts, ranging from small wolves to massive marilith-class monsters, burned under the night sky. The horrific scene contrasted against the smiling demon that stood within the flames.
Kashi grinned as the dragon scales receded into his skin. He looked at the hooded figure that stood transfixed at the front of the army and called out, "You are the leader of these motley crew, are you not?"
The figure looked at the shattered rink in her hand and then sighed as she threw off her robe.
"As expected," Kashi joked as he gazed into the violet eyes of a beautiful, thirtyish-looking daeben. He tried to guess the woman's class from her attire but found it challenging. She was dressed in a leather tunic and pants, with a pauldron and breastplate crafted from hardened leather for added protection. Any class could don this type of light armor. "You guys keep giving me a bad name. You know that?"
"You are Kashi, yes?" The woman calmly greeted, ignoring Kashi's jest.
"Kashi?" Kashi repeated with a perplexed gaze, confused by the respectful tone. He pointed at himself and questioned, "You know me?"
"News of your prowess has spread after your victory over Ruse," she replied as she gave Kashi an appreciative look. "We daeben respect the strong. You have acquitted yourself well for a man."
"Well, I try," Kashi replied as he cast a glance at the thousands of monsters behind the woman. His hour-long rampage had cut down over two-thirds of their number, but this much remained. The daeben inwardly cringed as he realized why he had not fought any monsters during the first few days he spent searching this forest. Every living creature had been infected by the blight and added to this army.
Whichever way this battle ended, this forest was done for unless there was a divine intervention of some sort. Kashi shook his head as he realized he had just added a new burden to this already crazy complicated questline.
Kashi looked at the woman and questioned, "Do you understand what you've done? You've doomed this forest."
The woman's lips curled up in a malicious grin. "Some level of sacrifice is required to put the world in the right place. We do evil so the world may be righteous in the future. Surely you understand. You did not get to this place by being peaceful."
Kashi shrugged as he said, "Listen, I'm not here to judge whether your actions are good or evil or any of that. You can do whatever you want, but you must, in turn, be prepared for the consequences." He looked over his shoulder at the ash-coated rubble that was once Aethon. "You made me see something unpleasant, so I destroyed some of you to vent. Sound fair?"
The woman's brow rose in surprise. "So, you will not pursue this further?"
Kashi chuckled. "Why would I? Fighting's pretty tiring, you know? I'm done venting, so I'm going to leave now if that's alright with you."
"Why should I let you do that?" the woman replied with a teasing smile. "This is a prime opportunity to take down the great Kashi. Who knows, I might even get promoted to a Primate."
Kashi grinned. "Care to bet your life?"
Boom!
The woman instinctively backed off in fear as pressure akin to the world's weight bore down on her. She bit her lips as she stared at the giant, intimidating dragon head that appeared behind the daeben. Defeated, she raised her hand and said, "Fine, you win. You can leave. You won't be interfering in our business, right?"
Kashi raised a brow. "What business? We are technically enemies, right? I shall very much like to interfere with your business. Speaking of which, you are yet to introduce yourself."
The woman's smile grew as she said, "I am a bishop of the Chaos Order, Verlito Amberheart. You may refer to me as Verlito. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Kashi of the Hopeful Maggots."
"Well, this is goodbye, Verlito-san," Kashi said as he turned around. "Hopefully we never again cross paths."
"On the contrary, I expect we'll be meeting soon," Verlito said. "The promised date is just around the corner."
Kashi paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder. "So, the Chaos Order will be coming to the party?" He mused, then added with a light shrug, "Well, the more, the merrier. Maybe I'll finally get an answer to what you guys are really about."
"I can teach you," Verlito called. "You just have to stay."
"Sorry, I've got commitments of my own to attend to," Kashi replied with a brief wave, then walked away.
Verlito's eyes twitched as she watched the daeben disappear within the cluster of flames. She sighed as equal parts relief, shame, and anger washed over her. She was relieved she did not have to fight that monster, ashamed she feared the consequences of fighting him and angered that Kashi had revealed this weakness in her heart.
Verlito shook her head to clear her thoughts. She walked to, then mounted an infected four-meter tall direwolf. She gave the command, and the monster army resumed their march to Lymar.
Kashi, meanwhile, weakly rested his head against Larsial's back while Drixlia galloped through the forest. Sweat poured down the daeben's body in droves as he fought to maintain consciousness. He did not want to risk sleeping, as he was not confident he would wake up any time soon.
Kashi could not thank the heavens enough for Suzuki's ability to retain a neutral expression no matter the circumstance. That acting ability had played a significant role in his bluff against Verlito as his fatigue had reached critical red levels. It wasn't even so much the physical exhaustion as it was mental.
The daeben's brain had not stopped functioning at high capacity from the moment he entered Kirkcour Woods. He was either calculating the possible causes for the blight, thinking up methods to squeeze out benefits for himself, figuring out the different centaur roles, or worst of all, engaging in a melee against the monster army.
Monsters were unpredictable by nature. As a result, the Kashi had to ensure he was calculating and preparing for every possible combination of attacks while battling. The last hour had been the worst of the lot. While he only hunted small fry previously, he'd been forced to contend against several marilith-class monsters at the same time.
Kashi took it upon himself to destroy these monsters to reduce the strain on the centaur coalition, which of course, required significant concentration on his part. He might be overpowered to the level of brokenness, but he was certainly not invincible. If he lost focus, all it would take was a few well-timed hits to put him into an irreversible situation.
At that time, Kashi's massive health pool and rapid health regeneration rate would only increase the duration of his suffering before death. This was often known to philosophers as the phenomenon of ants eating an elephant.
Kashi's eyelids fluttered as he listened to the rhythmic beating of Larsial's heart. "Shit," Kashi cursed as he sat up straight and rubbed his eyes. He looked at the back of Larsial's head and said, "Can you say something? I really don't want to fall asleep."
Larsial looked over her shoulder with a strange look in her eyes the daeben could not recognize. "Let's switch. You won't fall asleep if you're guiding."
"Good idea," Kashi agreed.
Larsial stood up without warning and circled around Kashi, who scooched forward and took Drixlia's reins, then sat behind him and wrapped an arm around his waist for support.
"Mmhmm, this will work," Kashi remarked as he guided Drixlia through the forest while following the marks Shadow left on the trees. The daeben let out slow breaths as he emptied his mind until the only thoughts left were brief acknowledgments of the correct paths to take.
Several minutes passed in silence until, Larsial, unable to hide her curiosity any further, asked, "How did you get so strong?"
"Hmm? Just like every other Summoned," Kashi replied. "Killed a lot of stuff, gained experience, and increased my attributes."
"No, that's not what I mean," Larsial stated. "The Chaos Order has many people stronger than you. It isn't your power or speed that I can't wrap my head around. It's your instincts. Your reactions. I've never seen anyone react as quickly or as appropriately as you did during that fight. Every step you took, every action you carried out produced the most optimal results with the least amount of exertion."
"Ah, that's what you mean," Kashi remarked. "Well, everything I know, I learned through the sacrifices of my senior brothers."
"Brothers? You have siblings?" Larsial questioned. She did not sense her heartbeat's increased tempo as she considered the prospect of two more Kashi-like people running around the continent.
Kashi thought about it. He then shrugged and doubled down on the proclamation. "Well, you could call us that. We're too close to be anything else anyway."
Larsial's eyes widened in awe as she imagined the figures that could train this monster. "Your brothers. How'd they get that strong? Can you tell me?"
"Oh? You really want to know about them?" A smile spread across Kashi's lips as he thought of Razznik. "Are you sure you'll be able to handle the truth? They're pretty awesome, you know?"
Larsial snorted. "How great can they be?"
"The Greatest," Kashi replied in a soft tone. He went silent for a few seconds, then began to speak in a low voice, "The eldest, Suzu's a pretty tough son-of-a-bitch. Growing up, life really didn't go his way at all. He dealt with it the only way he knew how, a pair of clenched fists and a bloody nose by the riverbank. You get to be pretty sharp when you are regularly ganged up on by people bigger and stronger than you. You learn when to retreat and advance, where to hit to deal the most pain with the least backlash, and how to read the crowd's intention with only a few hints from muscle twitches and eye-tracking."
"Sounds like he's really strong," Larsial remarked as she recalled an image of a little daeben crying in a corner with a group of pure-blooded daeben children standing over her.
Kashi shook his head. "He might have been strong, but his actions were also damn near suicidal."
"Maybe so," Larsial chuckled. "But I could have used that level of courage as a child."
"How so?"
"Things in the Chaos Order are very different than they were a decade ago. Back then, the daeben prioritized beauty over everything else." Larsial let out a bitter smile as she fondled a lock of her sandy-blonde hair. "We believed there was beauty in purity."
Kashi fell silent for a brief moment as a picture took form, then asked, "How did you deal with it?"
"With a lot of pent-up anger and alcohol," Larsial replied with a chuckle.
Kashi's brows shot up. "You drank as a child?"
"You should live with a dwarven family sometime. They begin drinking in the cradle."
"That's crazy," Kashi remarked with stunned laughter. "In the Summoned's world, children in many countries are not allowed to drink until they are at least twenty-one."
"Madness," Larsial exclaimed. "How do you manage?"
"Well, many people ignore the age limit, but it also helps that there are no major wars in the Summoned's world," Kashi stated. "Then there's always the therapeutic online trolling."
Larsial's brow rose. "Online? What's that?"
"You know how every soul returns to The Circle after it passes?" Kashi mused after a moment. "Well, imagine if everyone could connect to it and communicate with each other while alive. Trolling is when someone connected to you keeps doing something they know pisses you off for fun."
Larsial's head hurt as he imagined the scenario. "That's too many voices. I believe I would explode if I had to listen to Grewal's constant singing. He never stops."
"Well, I mean, you have the option to disconnect whenever you want," Kashi laughingly expressed. "Though I suppose it's harder to do so once you experience that level of freedom."
"I'd suppose so," Larsial muttered and fell silent as she sunk into her thoughts. Several minutes later, she looked up and tentatively prompted, "What's your second brother like?"
"Razz?" Kashi muttered as he looked off into the distance. "Razz saved us. He was the one who taught us it wasn't wrong to be angry. That we must learn to channel our focus our anger to achieve something—"
"Anger is good," Larsial softly interrupted. "But anger without cause is useless. It is a tool you must learn to control, or it will control you."
Kashi blinked, shocked by her words. He managed to keep the surprise out of his voice as he asked, "Sounds like something Razz would say. Where did you learn that?"
"The pope taught me those words," Larsial muttered as she recalled the warmth of a kafu's snow-white fur as he hugged her ten-year-old self to his chest. "They are part of a set of teachings passed down by Lord Razznik."
"I see," Kashi muttered as his eyelids twitched. "So your Order is based around worshipping this Lord Razznik?"
"What? No!" Larsial vehemently refuted. "Yes, we all respect Lord Razznik, but we do not worship him. Lord Razznik hated the gods' hold over the common people and cut them down for their arrogance. He allowed humes to govern themselves and build a civilization without dependence on the gods. He would never abide anyone worshipping him as he does not view himself as a god."
Kashi was left even more perplexed by her explanation. The Chaos Order had teachings, bishops, and a pope. They had all the ingredients of religion, but now they did not worship their god? What kind of faith did not worship a god? "Then what do you believe in? What do you worship?"
"The Chaos Order does not worship anything," Larsial replied. "We believe in the reformatory power of Chaos. Order leads to stagnation. Only Chaos can bring true change to the world."
"You're losing me here," Kashi muttered as a sense of foreboding began to take root in his heart. "What is the overall end goal of the Chaos Order. Isn't there something every member is working hard toward?"
"No, there's nothing," Larsial shook her head. "There is no overarching purpose. No afterlife to aim for. The only mandate of members of the Chaos Order is to achieve their desires however they please."
Kashi's heart violently trembled as that bad feeling grew worse. "Then what happens if the goals of two members of the Chaos Order clashes?"
"They fight, and someone emerges the victor," Larsial stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
'Well, fuck!' Kashi inwardly cursed as he finally realized the real terror of the Chaos Order. This was a giant organization with a spiel anybody down on their luck could latch onto. Furthermore, there were no forceful edicts that would chase away the weak-minded. It also explained why he had not met any suicidal members yet.
The members of this organization were loosely held together by Chaos' teachings, but beyond that, they were free to do their own thing and accomplish their dreams. However, this made it even harder to track the organization's goal because their members could be doing their own thing while simultaneously achieving the overall purpose.
Kashi did not believe Larsial's line about the organization not having an overall goal. No one started an organization this large without an end goal, which left one of two options.
Either Larsial was lying, or she did not know the end goal. It could be that her rank was too low to be privy to the truth. Kashi was more inclined toward the latter.
Kashi gritted his teeth as he realized the severity of the situation. This was an organization formed through an ideal. He could cut down all the heads of this organization, but the ideals would live on in the heart of some beggar in the street somewhere.
"We are told to remember the idea, not the man because a man can fail. He can be caught. He can be killed and forgotten. But four hundred years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first-hand the power of ideas. I've seen people kill in the name of them and die defending them. But you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it. Ideas do not bleed. They do not feel pain. They do not love."
Kashi burst out in laughter as he recalled a quote from his favorite movie. "Just perfect! An enemy I cannot stab to death. What do you think, can an idea be killed?"
Larsial blinked, shocked by the question. "Huh?"
"There is a way to kill an idea."
Kashi's eyebrows jumped in shock. 'Twice in one day. Did Razz's challenge excite you too?' "Say, how does one how does one go about killing an idea?"
Larsial, once again stunned by the question, only managed a weak, "I do not know."
'Replace it with an even stronger one.'
Kashi laughed as a cluster of centaurs came into view. "Looks like the Maggots will have to inject hope into some lost souls."
'...That hurt you, didn't it?'
Kashi grimaced. 'Yes, I regretted it the moment it left my mouth.'