618 Chaotic Encounter

At the sight of his own limbs drifting away, Horror froze up. It was the first time so much damage had been dealt to him, and it reminded him of the times he was just born.. When, unaware of the hierarchy of the pantheon, he had challenged another aspect of existence to a fight, and was brought to the brink of death.

It was only a miracle that, at that time, he had been spared from annihilation. A miracle where his natural superior had interjected for him, giving him the one and only chance every new aspect of existence would get in their lives. The chance to learn his place.

Never before had he expected that such a young aspect of existence would not only match his power, but be strong enough to deal so much damage to him. And yet, here he was, counting the time it would take him to make a last ditch effort to escape.. And how to reach safety.

In his mind, he could not help but curse the fact that this encounter had happened outside of his domain. After all, within his domain, the nature of horror was not only prevalent, but intentionally cultivated, turning the aspect of existence into the most powerful being among his category. Second only to wielders of absolute power like Conflict and Fate.

What disgusted him the most, however, was not the fact that he had been hurt, or that he had been unlucky in encountering Daniel in a universe where he did not have the advantage. What bothered him the most, was the thoughts of surrender that were appearing in his mind. Surrender to a being he knew he could defeat.. He just needed to reach the portal that was but a few thousand miles away.

Before his dismembered body could continue ahead, however, Horror felt something tug at his horn. He looked back to find the figure of Karma, standing next to him, and preventing him from leaving.

Daniel looked at Horror straight in his beady fish-like eyes, and with a grave tone said, “Your death will settle your debt of karma.” As he spoke, a golden colored light emerged from the depths of his body, forming a physical construct in the shape of a curved blade that covered his entire arm.

Horror had a mind to surrender, but as he noticed the power of Karma emerging from Daniel’s body, his jaw dropped. “How.. how can you do that?” he asked as the golden blade came slicing at the back of his neck. *SLACK* As if finding no obstruction at all, the aspect’s head was separated from the rest of his body.

Following its wielder’s death, the power of Horror, lacking but still present, started to dissipate.. Leaving the mixture of existential powers contained within the multiverse.

At the sight of this, Daniel’s brows narrowed. This was not the first time he had witnessed the death of an aspect of existence, and yet, the disappearance of the power of Horror had been much less violent than Balance’s. Whose death felt like a portion of the multiverse itself had been severed, and cut off from the rest.

While odd, however, he did not linger too much on this thought, for he knew that the power of Balance was much more prominent in Order’s domain than Horror’s power was in this newly opened universe. Just like he knew that, had he met the aspect of horror in one of the universes he possessed, the outcome of their encounter would have been drastically different, possibly ending in his death.

But, alas, what was done was done. All that was left of Horror was its slimy monstrous body, whose head Daniel left to drift the infinity of space. He then turned towards his two former companions, who were staring at him with shocked eyes.

In their eyes, Daniel had not changed one bit. He looked like the same immensely talented young cultivator they had met thousands of years ago, but he also felt very different. His clever and attentive eyes were gone, replaced by pearls of pure gold that shone with indifference. The way he looked at them was one that was devoid of emotions, they could tell.

Nevertheless, a reunion was a reunion, and the two were happy to see him alive.

After making sure that their followers were waking up safe and sound, the two slowly approached their old friend, but then.. Something odd happened. Something that caught Daniel’s attention, causing him to turn around in anger.

At some point, Horror’s detached head liquefied, but not quite. It had actually split into uncountable microscopic insects that shot in every direction at the speed of light.

By the time Daniel had noticed each insect was already out of reach, but that did not stop him from trying something. A thousand more deceased champions of horror exploded into enormous golden mists, which then merged together into an enormous nebula of power that rapidly expanded outwards, chasing each and every one of the insects.

As the golden cloud came in contact with the little blighters, they evaporated, leaving nothing behind.. But Daniel could tell he had not been fast enough, as a few of them were able to push through the last stretch of space that separated them from the interdimensional portal, and plunge into it.

“Damn it!” Daniel barked as he shot in between the army of corpses, and towards the interdimensional portal. As his body went past them, the tens of billions of bodies exploded into an infinite amount of golden lights which instantly seeped into his body, turning him into a human-shaped golden star.

Like a pebble he crashed into the ocean-like surface of the interdimensional portal, leaving the universe. When he reappeared, he was in the Trigate, the separate dimension that contained the entrances of every universe in existence.

Around him were tens of thousands of champions of Horror, all shocked by what they had recently seen. An insect-sized weakened aspect of existence barging out of the universe they were guarding, chased by a golden god.

“STOP HIM!” Horror commanded from afar as he hastily dashed towards one of the universes his domain had recently conquered. The words spoken with the power of Horror himself, one that the champions knew better than to ignore.

Ready to act, the champions immediately prepared for combat, but the touch of their weapons was the last thing they felt as an immense pressure landed onto their bodies from every direction, accompanied by a golden shine.. And before they could notice, their bodies were shrunk to a size even the former insect would consider insignificant, and dragged into Daniel’s body.

Then, the suffering started.

Not many had experienced the hell of Karma. A plane of existence in which, by using one’s karma as coal, the victims were forced to burn to pay for the price of their karma. In a way, it was similar to the plane of existence Horror would trap his victims in. But while Horror’s powers could create an infinite nightmare, the plane of karma was not really a weapon.. For it would only enforce punishment and suffering to those who had caused pain.. While those with positive karma would experience a bliss that matched their good deeds.

Unfortunately, by nature, the champions of Horror were groomed to cause suffering. A domain built upon the production of pain and fear which had forced them to accumulate astronomical amounts of negative karma.. each comparable to that of Elijah himself.

It was their nature that had given Daniel such confidence against Horror. After all, all the karmic debt they had accumulated, and that he had not been able to force them to pay back, Daniel could use. That was how Daniel had survived the encounter with Corrosion.

At the sight of so much unpaid karma, Daniel had felt invincible.. Yet, he too knew that that amount could not compete against the millions of years of accumulated existential power of horror that was waiting in each of the oldest universes of his domain.. So he chased him with all his might.

Luckily for Daniel, Horror had no intention of reaching for the oldest of his universes, as he headed for one of the newly conquered instead. In a moment, he dove into one of the uncountable interdimensional portals and disappeared from Daniel’s sight.

Daniel, not too far behind, barged into the portal and soon found himself in a different universe. One where the interdimensional portal was surrounded by hundreds of independent planets, each inhabited by the weakest of Horror’s champions, who had been left behind to make sure that any form of peace and joy would disappear from the universe.

As he entered, Daniel knew that this universe contained a lot more of Horror’s power than the previous one. But he did not panic.. For he could see the small insect who now was slowly growing to the size of an average human.

Aware of his previous mistake, Daniel lunged at the aspect of Horror with the intention of erasing him from existence.. Leaving nothing of his body behind.

Panicked by Daniel’s approach, the still weakened aspect of horror slashed the space using the bit of power he had gathered, opening a rift that brought to a separate stable universe.. But he did not enter it. Instead, he faced it, and yelled “HELP ME!”

In an instant, a column of invisible power brushed past Horror and headed towards Daniel, bubbling, and zigzagging in space like magma and lightning combined, but reflecting the stability of time, and the instability of space at the same time.

Daniel did not have time to avoid, for the attack came too fast. All he could do was release a large amount of his power, and construct a block that could shield him from the incoming attack. But, alas, that was to no avail, for the moment the column of odd power came in contact with the barrier, the latter was torn to shreds. The attack then continued forward, landing on Daniel’s right arm and blowing it into smithereens.

Heavily injured, Daniel focused his power towards recovery, but then, several more columns of power emerged from the rift, shattering several more barriers before proceeding to rip apart Daniel’s body bit by bit.

Just as Daniel had expected for one last attack to bring an end to his existence, however, a figure emerged from the rift. Whether it belonged to a woman, or a man.. Daniel could not tell, for it showed physical characteristics of both. A fair and pale skin, a slender body, and a surprisingly flat chest and backside. Her or his stunning facial features stood just underneath a head of fairly long slicked back silver hair.

As it emerged, this creature looked at Horror with indignation. It could not believe it had been bothered like that, and it was clear to both Daniel and his enemy that the being had a mind to kill Horror himself.

Yet, it didn’t, for the being knew that if Horror had the guts to disturb it in his one-universe-domain. His very own home.. He must have had a very good reason. After all, this creature was one of the originals, and its power was omnipresent within the universe.. Born in the same bed as Fate, Conflict and not many others. He was the aspect of Chaos.

As Daniel’s body slowly recovered, he felt an immense power coming from the androgynous individual. No matter how much power he had accumulated in the other universe.. The existential power of Chaos was everywhere, and when paired with its wielder’s presence, it became violent and suffocating.

Luckily, the aspect of Chaos had not come here to kill him, but to prevent him from killing Horror. That was the only reason why he was still drawing breath.

Desperate for a way to escape, Daniel looked back at the interdimensional portal, but before he could even think of channeling the power of Karma inside him, he heard a word being uttered. A single word that carried an infinite power of destruction, and that caused the very atoms of his body to move around in excitement, inflicting him an immense amount of physical pain.

“Explain.” Chaos demanded as the aspect of Horror shrunk to the smallest size it could reach. He was not a threat to it, he was fearful, and not much further from death than Daniel was.

“He.. he.. he can store existential power!” Horror whimpered with great effort, causing the interest the aspect of Chaos felt for Daniel to skyrocket.

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