Chapter 34 – Embracing Chaos

"I can sense something different about you. Why don't you talk to me, tell me why you are down here and maybe we can help each other?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Henderson repeated for the tenth time as the voice in the darkness continued to try to draw him into a conversation. At first, he thought there had been another prisoner down there with him, but eventually he came to realise that the voice was in his head, and that he was almost certainly going insane.

The cell that Henderson had been thrown into as punishment for what he'd done to that arrogant waste of an armband, Titus, was walled on three sides and all but pitch black, other than the tiny amount of light spilling in through the iron bars at the front of the cell that led onto the sparsely lit hallway.

From the moment he'd been left alone, the voice had started. He'd ignored it at first, thinking it was just someone there to play tricks on him - perhaps even Titus, like it was some kind of revenge - but then when he covered his ears to try to keep it away, he found that it had made no difference; the voice was inside his head. And that was how he'd concluded that he was finally going insane.

It stood to reason, didn't it? He was already being punished by the God of Balance because he'd found a way to beat the monsters roaming the wilderness beyond the City wall, a way that kept the people entertained and himself safe. The people - and the God of Balance - should've been thanking him, not shunning him, booing and jeering and punishing him. What did they know anyway? It wasn't like any of them ever picked up a sword to defend their homes. And the Grandmaster. What a joke she was, standing there telling Henderson that taking the easy way out was tantamount to cheating. Who did she think she was?

"I can sense greatness in you," the voice continued speaking, as if Henderson had replied in a more favourable manner. "And something special, unique. It's somewhat of an ability that I have. All you need to do is accept it, and you could be great."

"I'm not listening to you. And besides, I'm already great. My name is Henderson Valeri, of the Valeri family, and nothing will stand in my way to the very top of this City."

"Then why are you locked in a dungeon… with us?" The voice asked.

"Because they don't understand yet, but I'll teach them. I'll teach them to respect their betters."

"And you are their better."

"Did you not hear me? I am of the Valeri family. I have money, power, influence… and the sooner people realise that the sooner I can continue my rise to glory."

"Glory in this place? Or do you not strive for something… bigger?"

Henderson thought about that statement for a moment before remembering where he was and what he was doing.

"Shut up. I already told you I'm not listening to you. So stop this or I'll…"

"You'll what?"

"I'll call the guards and have them take me to the hospital. The last thing I need right now is to go insane, and a voice in my head is something I could really do without."

"Because it'll get in the way of your path to greatness?"

"Exactly. You don't see heroes out there talking to themselves."

"And you believe that you are the hero here?"

"Of course I am, what kind of stupid…"

"You don't for a moment believe that you have been designated the villain in someone else's story?"

Henderson frowned at that. There was no way that he was just a part, a side story in someone else's world.

"Because I have seen another," the voice continued. "I have tried to communicate with the one you felt the need to teach a lesson here in this very dungeon. But he was too far to listen. Though I did sense the uniqueness in that one too. Uniqueness different to your own, but uniqueness nonetheless."

"Titus," Henderson spat. "About as unique as the dirt on the bottom of my shoe. Unique doesn't mean better, unique can also mean ready to be made extinct."

"Unique is unique," the voice grumbled. "But if you would listen to me, I can offer you something that no other can. And it does not matter how much gold you have in your pocket or influence you hold over others, because this is something that I alone can offer. Something that you can benefit greatly from, if only we were to strike a deal. Come to an arrangement."

"What can a voice in my head possibly offer?" Henderson asked. "You're going to disappear forever so I don't go insane?"

"I am not a voice in your head," the voice said, and accompanying that statement, Henderson heard the clanking of chains from outside his cell, across the hallway and off into the darkness.

"I assure you that I am very real. And more powerful than you could ever imagine."

Henderson peered into the darkness, squinting his eyes to try to see what was out there. But beyond another set of iron bars, he could see nothing; it was simply too dark.

"Yes, now you understand, do you not? I am down here with you and not simply a voice in your head. The only question that remains is: are you strong enough to take what is being offered?"

Henderson peered as hard as he could into the darkness across the way, searching for something, anything that would tell him what was happening to him.

"Just leave me alone," he forced out through gritted teeth. "If you're down here too, then you're not someone I want to deal with."

The clinking of chains rang out again and echoed away into the darkness, the sound repeating over and over. A moment of silence followed where neither Henderson nor the voice said anything.

"All talk, I knew it," Henderson growled.

"It would do you well to know when you are in the presence of your betters," the voice replied loudly, though still inside Henderson's head.

"Betters?" Henderson sneered aloud. "If you really think that you're above my station, that you're better than me..."

"I am!" the voice was now so loud that the very cell around Henderson shook, and the iron bars clattered slightly due to the sheer bass of the sound.

Henderson didn't feel so sure any more, but he spoke again nonetheless. "Then how did you get stuck down here just like me? How come, if you think you're so great and powerful that you simply don't walk out of here or even show your face? I'll tell you why: because, just like everyone else who thinks he's great, you're all talk and no action. At least when I say I'm going to do something, I do it."

"The world is changing," the voice said in a low grumble. "Times have a certain way of acting in a cyclical nature, and we are at the precipice of a great change. Creatures that have been pushed from the lands beyond your feeble walls are returning again, and growing strong and fast. You believe that you are better than the rest of the people here because of some family name or inherited wealth, but you measure your own importance by a standard that is beneath so many others."

"Creatures returning?" Henderson asked. "And our walls? You… you aren't from the City?"

"I am not from your City, but far beyond. My family await my return to them at my home, as many of yours do when a member is taken in times of war. This is what I will ask of you, to be clear. I will ask for your help to escape this place and in return, I will bestow upon you a power that only a handful of your kind have experienced in a thousand years."

"My kind? Now you've convinced me. It's not me who's insane, it's you. You're just another Contestant who's been thrown down here for breaking the silly Grandmaster's rules, aren't you? Another victim of the stupidity of those who think they have power but, in reality, are nothing more than glorified caretakers. Well, let me tell you, there's nothing you can offer to give me, what little money I presume your backward family has living out there in the wilderness, that will convince me to what, free you? And this talk of creatures out there? Yeah, we know all that, it's why we have Hunters, Contestants and this very place you've found yourself imprisoned within. You aren't telling me anything I don't know."

Another long, silent pause.

"Your Class is locked, and you are unable to gain any strength," the voice said finally. It wasn't a question, but rather a statement.

Henderson's eyes bulged as he peered into the darkness but didn't get the chance to ask another question as the voice continued.

"I can see into your very soul, and I can see that you desire the opportunity to prove yourself as stronger than any other. I can sense the hatred you harbor for those beneath you and I can help you unleash that hatred and anger, but also direct it to where it will be most effective. I can offer you the opportunity to break the bonds you have been shackled with by your system of rules your people are so fond of. Of fairness and balance. I can do all of this for you, should you ask it of me."

"What can you do?" Henderson answered before he had the chance to stop himself. "I swore an oath to the God of Balance to obey his rules and play my part in the defence of this City."

"Oaths can be broken!" the voice replied so loudly inside Henderson's head that the floor shook. "And if you think that the God of Balance is the only unseen being in this world, then I have a lesson to teach you because he is not."

"And I should trust the words of a madman? A man who's been thrown into the dungeons for some unknown crime?"

"You should trust me because the two of us are not so different. You are down here, and you do not believe it to be for just cause, as am I. You say that you would protect your City, a City that asks you to hand over your life for their entertainment, for gold. A City that lies to you every single day without fail. And one last thing," the voice paused. "I am no man, but I am, in some ways, mad."

Then there was the rumbling again, and Henderson looked down at the ground to try to see if he was imagining it. But then he looked up and into the darkness, out through his iron bars, across the dark narrow hallway and into the cell opposite his own. And then he saw it. The tiniest pinprick of light, like it was a candle burning a hundred feet away. His eyes fixed on the tiny flame as it danced, flickered in the slight breeze that accosted it.

But Henderson could just about see what this was as the flame disappeared, swallowed whole by the terrible maw that was now illuminated from within, staring directly at him with its deadly blood-red eyes.

"Dragon," Henderson breathed.

"Not just a dragon," the voice came again. "I am a Nest Guardian. These foolish humans do not know what they have captured. They thought that they would be able to keep my power from me, but they are not strong enough. I will escape this place one way or another, but what I have offered you for your aid is a truth. I will make you more powerful than any of these beings. I will give you new life and a new God to swear an oath to. One that will not punish you for the methods you decide are best to get the things you want, the things you deserve."

Henderson stared at the black outline of the dragon's head across the way. Its head was the only part of it that was illuminated, but he could see that this part alone was at least as large as ten men put together, and that meant the body would have been multiples larger than that. And then he analysed the beast.

Nest Guardian

Level: 100

He couldn't see anything past that little information, but it was enough to send a shiver down his spine. He'd only ever seen a level one hundred beast once before, and it had taken three Red-Ranked Arena Contestants - Instructors to take it down. And they hadn't all survived.

"Are you impressed with what you see?" the dragon asked. "And to think, this was all achieved without bowing down to the God of Balance you all hold so dear. There is more, oh so much more that you can experience if you would just open your mind to it. If you embrace the God of Chaos."

"I... I've made my oath," Henderson replied again, trying to force his voice to return strong and sure.

"We will break that oath!" the nest guardian replied. "We will tear those words asunder and discard them for what they are: a waste of breath. The God of Chaos will take you under her wing, and you will grow more powerful each and every day with abilities that your world has never heard of before!"

"I... I can't..." Henderson stuttered.

"But do not take my word for it," the dragon continued as though Henderson hadn't replied. "Let me show you a glimpse of what the God of Chaos can do for you right now."

Then before Henderson, in his mind's eye, he began to see text fading into existence. It was very much like when the God of Balance had spoken to him, though this time the text was a deep red hue and even seemed to vibrate slightly, like it was filled with power just trying to burst free.

New Class available: Beastmaster

Would you like to accept Beastmaster as your Class? Y/N

Be one with the beasts and grow as they grow. Feed your ambition and embrace Chaos.

You have been blessed by the God of Chaos.

Permanent increase to Constitution. +6 points.

Henderson felt the power surge into his body as soon as he read the message, it was like he'd just been filled to the brim with strength that he never knew he had before and as his eyes rose from the ground and back up to the Nest Guardian, he felt like he was taller, stronger, and healthier, all when he hadn't ever felt lacking before. It was intoxicating, and the only thing that coursed through his mind, no, his very soul, was that he wanted more.

"Yes," Henderson said. It was in answer to both the question that the dragon had posed, but also the question that had been posed by the God of Chaos. Yes, he accepted his new Class, and yes, he accepted the God of Chaos as his new divine power.

He accepted all of it.

He wanted that power.