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Chapter 25 - Provoking the Chaos

  Words wouldn't ever be enough to describe the place they were. It was completely dark and windy, with dark skies. Clouds spiraled endlessly above; it was mesmerizing. On the horizon, peaks rose above, in a sharp contrast with the sky. The magical power there flowed in multiple directions at the same time, as it connected them all. On the ground, a mist covered everything, making it hard to see their own feet.

  May looked to her side and saw that Wren had arrived safely with her. The man looked around before he said:

  "Well, I must admit, it's good seeing something different than the same rooms and halls. Even if it's... this." He gestured with his hands. "Do you know where the hell we are?"

  "I'm not sure, like you said yourself, it's not like people have been making contact with Chaos up and down. But I don't know, I guess. It must be here, I did everything right."

  "Let's be optimistic. If we're not in the right place, where would we be? No, for sure, you did it right." Wren paused for a moment. "I remember reading it once in a book. About those older deities. The ones that don't even have a human form. And this place seems to match the description of the book. But I could be wrong, I read it a long time ago."

  May pondered the words for a little. She then walked in circles, and looked to the ground and to the skies. To Wren, it almost seemed like she was inspecting the place. After a while in silence, the girl said:

  "Do you think it's safe to use our magic here?"

  "I don't know why it wouldn't be?"

  "You know how some deities can be a little temperamental. Especially in the domains that are close to them."

  "I don't know, May, I guess so. I mean, ugh, shit. I really don't know. What's the worst that can happen?"

  "He can destroy us. Just as fast as we arrived here."

  "Oh." Wren looked at May for a moment. "Well, so I don't think we should take the risk. Let's think of something different. But explain it to me, why are you asking this?"

  "Because we need to find him. It's not just being here. He could be dormant, or he could be watching us. Maybe reaching him is some kind of test, to see if we're worth it. If we're strong enough. I don't know for sure, Wren, I don't know a lot about Chaos."

  "Well, me neither, but here we are. Let's do what we've got to do."

  Wren walked, and May followed him. It was something funny about witches and wizards; most of the time, their intuition would be right. Even if it was subconsciously. So whether Wren decided on the direction based on something or the feeling of going somewhere, it would lead them to where they needed to be.

  ***

  The duo found themselves in front of a tower, so big it was impossible to see its top. May couldn't distinguish the material in which the tower was built.

  "Don't you think we should have seen a tower this big from afar?"

  "I'm not sure, Wren. This place is not bound by the laws of physics; it's magic that ties everything together here. We can't judge things based on common sense. It would be foolish of us."

  "Alright, alright. I get it. I'm just saying that it's very strange for a tower to appear out of nowhere."

  "I know, but... Hey, are you feeling the magical power here?" The girl touched the stones in the tower. "It's flowing all through the building. We must be close."

  "Now that you say it, I feel it too. It's just hard to distinguish magical powers here."

  May and Wren decided to get inside the tower. The only door it had was open, although they couldn't see the interior from outside.

  Inside, the walls, ground, and stairs were all covered by a thin black dust, which dropped from a place higher in the tower.

  "Well, I think we'll need to go up the stairs. I don't see any elevator here. Not that I would get inside of one, if it were here of all places."

  "Come on, Wren. Let's go."

  They went up the stairs, and while they got up, they saw that they couldn't see the top.

  "Don't you think it's strange? We climbed a lot, and still we didn't reach the top."

  "It's built like that. Maybe it's testing our endurance."

  "I would say at this point it's testing our patience, and I'm about to lose it."

  "Don't be so anxious, I'm sure you did a lot worse during your missions. There was one time, Karina and I had to watch someone for days, just to be sure if he wasn't a werewolf."

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  "And was he a werewolf?"

  "Oh, no, he was just a very hairy man. But nothing out of the ordinary, I guess. But my point is, we're always doing stuff like this, that's fine."

  "Yeah, I guess you're right. And as I said, I won't complain, it's a nice change of scenery. Comparing to where we were, at least."

  "And you will see, as soon as you notice, we will be facing Chaos."

  "Yes, there is this thing."

  "You don't sound very happy about it."

  "Happy? How would I be happy? I'm trying to control my words, so I won't sound disrespectful. But it baffles me that you're not afraid at all."

  "I am afraid, Wren. It's that I don't show how afraid I am, because I know that you're anxious. And I want you to feel that you can trust me. I know it's not easy, but we're capable of it."

  Wren stopped in his tracks. He turned around and looked right at May's eyes.

  "You know that I trust you. I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

  "That's good to hear. And so believe me when I say, I promise you we're almost at the end of the stairs."

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "I wanted to play it cool and say that I felt it through the magical flow here, but let's be honest." May pointed to a place beyond Wren. "If you pay close attention, the steps there are different. I believe we were in some kind of loop, and it looks like that is where it ends."

  "Oh, nice. I was starting to get tired."

  Wren and May got to the steps the girl had seen. And as she had told, as soon as the duo climbed them, they found themselves in a larger room.

  "This place is so big, how the hell is the tower sustaining it?"

  "Don't forget what I said before, this place... It's all about the rules of magic, and if magic is able to make it, then it probably exists."

  The room had windows so big that a person could walk right through them. From them, May had a better view of the place they were in. It was as big as she had imagined, surrounded by mountains and with storms and thunder that crossed the skies.

  "But where do we go now? I don't see anything here."

  "Here, take a look." May gestured to Wren to get closer to the windows. "See? There are bridges under every window; we just have to choose our path."

  "But what is the right one?"

  "If I'm correct, I mean, if my intuition is correct, I believe, there's no right one."

  "Wait... how so? Isn't it impossible?"

  "Maybe it is, maybe it's not. We will only discover once we get on the bridge." May said as she passed through the window and stepped onto the bridge. Wren followed her soon, and they walked in the direction the bridge was built.

  "You know, this thing about meeting a deity. For sure, there is a lot of walking." Wren joked.

  "Yeah, maybe there are things being tested, and we just don't know. Or it can be random too. There are more things about this place than we're able to explain or even understand."

  "You know it's like when I discovered magic. I mean, most of my family uses magic, but when I was a kid, I wasn't able to perceive it. So it was like they were all doing something secretly, like a club that I wasn't part of." Wren said. "But the moment I perceived magic, everything shifted and changed. It was like opening my eyes to a world that had always been there. I was too blind to see it."

  "That's a good description. And it fits this place, since we can't even know for sure if what we're seeing exists or not. It's all up to chance. And there's also one thing... but I would rather talk about it when we reach Chaos."

  "Why be so mysterious, May?"

  "I'm not. It's that, it can make you anxious, and I'm not even sure, let's wait and see."

  After they had walked for minutes, they arrived somewhere. It was a plateau in the middle of nowhere. But there was something different about it, even if May couldn't see it, she could tell it.

  "Are you feeling it, Wren? This difference in the air."

  "Yeah, yeah. There is something different in the magical flow here. Not that the magical flow in this whole damn place is normal. But here, in this I don't know, plateau, there's something deeply different."

  "I think... I think it's here, we've finally arrived. That's the only explanation possible."

  "And... I mean, you know the one million question as of now: where is he? Not that I'm anxious for it."

  "Sometimes I miss your nonchalant attitude, Wren. But I guess that's what being trapped in a hotel does to you."

  "I'm so happy that you get it, it isn't like you weren't trapped there too," Wren said in a playful tone. May felt tempted to use an enchantment on him.

  "But okay, you have a valid question. You want to know where he is. Well, how can I say, he is."

  "He is...?"

  "He is, Wren. I thought out of all the people, you would be the one to get it better." May observed. "There are some things about the ancient deities. It wasn't like humans were worshiping them directly. I mean, it's hard to describe, but there's a reason why most of them aren't actually imagined or thought of in a, how can I say it, human form."

  "I don't know if I like where this conversation is going."

  "No, it's simple. Chaos is, in a sense, everywhere here. This is his domain, the place in which his presence lies."

  "If he's everywhere, why did we have to walk that much?"

  "It's not that simple, think about it as the nucleus of something. This place where we are, here in this plateau, it's where his presence and influence are stronger. Being here is key to communicating with him."

  "And how are we going to do it?"

  "Getting his attention. Remember minutes ago, when I advised you not to use magic, so we wouldn't offend Chaos? Well..."

  "Oh, so now we need to offend him directly, as for a chance that he will look at us."

  "It's not that we're going to offend him. Well, maybe. But since we're here in the middle of everything, he will understand that we want to talk to him."

  "You know, I think it's important to remember one thing. I hate that your plan relies so much on a lot of ifs and maybes, stuff like that."

  "Hey, it's my first time doing that kind of stuff. Reading the theory is one thing, but doing it... It's different. And I know a lot of things could go wrong. But I wouldn't be doing it if I thought there were other ways to get out of here."

  "Alright, let's do it. Let's make this grandpa deity furious at us."

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