Chaos

After arriving inside the Palace Grounds, where Seth’s wives were all waiting anxiously for their return, Seth barely materialized when a soft body collided with his, pushing even Leora from the side away and throwing him onto the ground.

Seth recognized who that body belonged to immediately. Still, he didn’t get to say anything before his body dematerialized into the warm embrace, leaving Maya holding onto a handful of crumbling sources.

Maya’s face fell, and she froze in place, her face the definition of regret, until Leora rose and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Seth’s fine. His sources are all spent and damaged, while his soul took quite a few hits, but he’ll recover with time.”

“Can you tell us what happened, Leora?” asked Aleena, coming to sit next to the two. “Maya told us a bit, but we don’t know what happened after you two went to face the gods.”

“We won,” said Leora with a soft smile before her loving eyes turned to the sources Maya was hugging in her bosom. “More exactly, Seth won but got injured in the process. Light says he will need at least a week to reform a physical body.”

“A week?” asked Aleena in surprise.

“Light?” added Hollie, raising an eyebrow.

Leora nodded toward Aleena before lifting a hand and allowing her energy to manifest into a body identical to hers. There was no difference between the new body and Leora’s.

“A pleasure to meet you all. You can call me Light. I’m the greater will residing in the element of light. I’ve been wandering this world for eons, searching for a host to hear and bear me until I found Leora. I’ll be in your care from now on, future host of Air,” said Light with a small and polite bow toward Hollie.

“So you’re the same as Water.” Maya replied instead, asking right after, “What plans do you have? From what I know, you greater wills all have a plan of your own.”

“Plan?” asked Light with a pensive look, her eyes passing briefly by Leora, who was smiling on the side, before shaking her head, “I have no such thing for the moment. I’m content with slowly recovering who I used to be and protecting my host.”

After Seth’s words about greater wills, everyone had skeptical looks, but Leora came in her will’s defense, “She’s telling the truth. I wouldn’t have made it so far or been able to arrive here in time without her help. I know some greater wills have other intentions, but I can guarantee Light holds no such thing.”

Aleena, a first-hand victim of a greater will’s inhumanity, lowered her head and said, “It would seem so, but with everything Seth had told us about his divinity and the cruelty I’ve experienced Time display, I think you should be careful.”

“I’m still here, you know?” added Light with an irked look. “Just so you know, little earthling, your precious Destruction Seat and I already came to an understanding long ago.”

Leora giggled and absorbed the energy forming the light will back inside her source before things got out of control. She knew that while Light was a kind soul, she also had a temper.

With her light will returning to her body, Leora looked around the room and asked, “Where is Lisa? I have something to speak to her about.”

The girls still had suspicious looks, but the atmosphere turned even more awkward at the mention of Lisa’s name, the incident between her and Seth having long brewed a feeling of distrust among the girls.

“She’s in the Imperial Chambers. Seth had set up two rooms for her and her mother, and they’ve been staying in there,” Maya replied since everyone else had mixed feelings about what was happening to Lisa.

It would be a lie for her to say she was also not conflicted, but she had long gotten used to Seth’s principles and knew no good would come from going against his will.

Leora could also read the strange atmosphere and turned to Maya, “I need to speak to her. Can you please keep Seth’s sources safe? He’s not defenseless, but having someone looking after him would be best.”

Maya raised an eyebrow but, in the end, just nodded as Leora faded into a flash of light, and the rest of the girls started crowding Maya, checking on Seth’s condition all on their own.

Hollie caught something else from the conversation and murmured to herself as she approached the others," Future host of Air? I think you might have misunderstood something, Light."

Leora quickly made her way through the corridors of the Imperial Chambers, able to find Lisa’s room quite swiftly and stopping right at it.

‘She’s behind that door, mistress."

Leora nodded and pushed open the door without knocking, taking by surprise Lisa, who was resting on her bed. She first thought Seth had returned and stood up to welcome him, but after figuring out the intruder’s identity, her excitement died down, and she said, “Leora, I had no idea you had returned.”

Leora frowned as she closed the door and asked, “Didn’t the others tell you?”

“Barely anyone speaks to me… It’s good to see you either way,” replied Lisa with a wry and sad smile, coming to the edge of the bed. “Do you need anything from me?”

Leora felt bad after noticing how Lisa spoke and nodded as she came to sit on her side. “I did have something to speak about, but that can wait. You can tell me what’s been going on with you instead. You look like you need someone to talk to.”

Lisa giggled and shook her head, “You don’t need to worry about me. How about you tell me how’s Seth? I heard he’s going to fight someone, and the entire Imperial Palace was in quite the turmoil, but nothing more than that.”

“He was injured, but he’s alright overall and will recover after some time. Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” asked Leora.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but there’s not much to discuss. Some things happened in the past, and I injured Seth… It’s been both his and my fault, but in the end, no one can easily get over it, which I understand since I also wouldn’t be able to do if someone hurt the ones I love,” said Lisa with a sigh, remembering her father’s incident. “That’s about it. Now tell me what’s going on. There must be a reason why you came to see me.”

Leora sighed before asking, “You’re the darkness goddess, right?”

Lisa smiled and shook her head, “I am not. If you’re talking about the darkness divinity, it is indeed residing inside my soul, but it’s been sealed by Seth. Seth also stopped my cultivation at the sixth shell, so I can’t hold it anyway.”

Leora remained silent momentarily before nodding, “As long as this is how Seth had chosen to deal with it, I guess it’s fine. I was worried about what she might do to you.”

Lisa organized her thoughts and asked, “Since you are bearing the light divinity, do you know more about the will of darkness? If you do, can you please tell me?”

Leora looked up as she discussed things with Light, who manifested on the side shortly after.

After Seth shared his memories with her, Lisa knew what that was and bowed toward Light, “Thank you for granting me this favor, will of light.”

Light didn’t reply to her nod, saying, “I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for my sister. A being that bore no guilt for her fate except for the fact she was born and forced to exist in my shadow.”

A trace of lingering pain appeared in Light’s eyes as she continued, “When we were created, Mother told us that we were even closer than sisters, that one could no live without the other, but she had omitted to tell us that we’re also cursed never to see eye to eye.”

“While I bathed in the adoration of the living races, as a goddess of light, Darkness only received fear and uncertainty. As time passed, the difference in perception of the world toward us caused us to drift apart, and she even ended up hating me, mother, and most of our sisters and brothers.”

“The one she got along with was Destruction, who also lived in the shadows of Creation, so she slowly drifted apart.”

“Eventually, after the all-powerful All-mother died and her image of perfection in my mind faded along with her, I finally understood that our creation was a mistake. We were never supposed to be two entities but a single one. All of us were imperfect beings.”

“All-mother has birthed Creation, and Destruction appeared as a natural response. She then birthed Light and Darkness rose in my shadow. Once Space formed, Time popped into existence to allow its flow.”

“She must have understood her mistake by the time she gave birth to Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. That’s why we, the primordial gods, are all so different. We’re all incomplete halves of a whole.”

Lisa lowered her head and asked, “So, why did you want to come here in the first place?”

“Because I felt my sister’s return and wanted to speak to her, to explain to her the truths I’ve gleaned ever since we last saw each other and maybe try to reach a common ground, but if the seat of destruction locked her divinity away, I imagine she’s already caused some trouble…” said Light with a long sigh.

Listening on the side, Leora suddenly asked, “Light, what about Chaos then?”

Light turned to look at her host and smiled as she asked, “What about chaos?”

“You said that your mother birthed all those energies, with Creation and Destruction appearing first, followed by Light and Darkness and then Space and Time. The four elemental energies appeared, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, right after...”

“What about Chaos then? Seth also said that chaos was one of the fundamental energies, so when did your mother give birth to chaos?”

Light looked toward the ceiling and sighed as she said, “Mother did not birth chaos. In a way, she was chaos, and we were all born out of chaos.”

“Then what about chaos ascended?” asked Leora.

“Have you seen any? Chaos is not like the other affinities. For someone to have an affinity toward chaos, they must be born out of it, which is challenging considering that the pure chaos in this world is abysmal.”

“I see...” muttered Leora with a nod, but Lisa on the side had a strange face as she quickly said, “Well, there is a being made of chaos in this world.”