Sovereign of the Karmic System

619 Near Death Encounter

“Repeat that.” Chaos ordered right before what felt like an infinity of chaotic power of existence started to move around, rubbing against the matter within the universe like bubbles in a boiling pot of water.

The aspect of Horror relaxed slightly. He had bought himself enough time to speak.. A bargain that might as well have been what would allow him to keep his life. “He can store power.. In his body.” Horror repeated with the meekest of tones.

Chaos’ eyes narrowed into two slits, through which came an icy gaze that seemed capable of reversing Daniel’s very blood flow. Horror’s words were the tallest of all accusations, he thought. After all, he knew what the injured monstrous creature claimed to be impossible.

Yet, he did not outright ignore it either. He had recognized Daniel as the aspect of Karma.. And therefore, he knew what kind of entity he had been before. He knew that, as a former champion of Destiny, Daniel had challenged the validity of Fate’s absolute dominion, and by doing so, he had thrown the multiverse into thousands of years of conflict and war.

It was because of Daniel’s origin that Chaos could not ignore Horror’s claim. After all, the champions of Destiny were known to have abilities that sounded mysterious even to other aspects of existence.

Daniel too had recognized this entity. Not because of his appearance, whose description he had never heard or read about, but because of the unmistakable nature of his power. A power that threw the stability of his body into a forced chaotic state, and that he could feel was everywhere in the universe, nearly as omnipresent as the essence of space itself.

He had only felt such a high degree of power from one creature before, and that was the aspect of Conflict, whom he had met many times before, and who had saved him from the aspect of Balance.

His guess regarding Chaos’ identity was supported by the fact that, had the newly arrived aspect of existence been an ally of Fate, he would have already been dead.. Only an opponent of Fate would have spared him. Just like Conflict, who had saved him against Balance so that he could be the cause of more conflict in the future, Chaos would not kill him either.

Or at least, that was until Horror revealed one of his biggest secrets.

Unimpressed by Horror’s servile and meek attitude, Chaos kept looking at Daniel, until finally, what felt like several minutes after, his slender and pale neck bent to the side. In response to this motion, Daniel felt a uniform faint pressure top over his body.

This pressure was not stable, however, and it pushed against Daniel’s body like the water jet of a hot tub.

Unsure of what Chaos intended to do, Daniel did not resist.. But right away, he realized that the pressure had been rising.

As if sinking into the ocean’s depths, the pressure went from a faint push to the weight of a mountain.. From a mountain to a continent, and from a continent to a whole planet. By this point the pressure had become harmful, threatening to squash Daniel like a fly, and yet, it did not seem that its increase had any intention of stopping.

Soon, Daniel’s body began to fold on itself. His flesh stretched as the fibers of his muscles began to rip, but not before his bones started to crack one by one.

“AAAARGH!” Daniel screamed as the pressure grew to unbearable heights.. But there was no stopping it. Cracks turned into fractures before a series of snaps resounded in Daniel’s ears, making his teeth ache. He was being crushed to death, of that he was sure, so, left with no other choice, Daniel channeled a large amount of karmic power that was hidden inside his body, and pushed it outwards, fighting back against Chaos’ terrifying power.

As his body started to shine of a pure existential power, the pressure suddenly disappeared. Not just thanks to Daniel’s own power, but completely, as if Chaos had stopped it from torturing him any further.

Daniel regained his breath as his bones slowly snapped back in place, and as he did, he realized what had happened. Chaos had been testing him, checking for truthfulness in Horror’s words. Unfortunately, even if Daniel had known of his scheme, he wouldn’t have been able to avoid falling for it. After all, he could feel that Chaos was not bluffing. The power that was crushing him had not slowed down the closer he had come to death. Had he not fought back, he would not have survived.

Worried about Chaos reaction to this, Daniel turned towards the androgynous figure, and immediately, on the latter’s face, he noticed the expression of someone who had swallowed a fly. The corners of Chaos lips twitched as stared at Daniel with furrowed brows. It was clear that Daniel’s existence had gone from somewhat useful, to one of dubious nature.

From Daniel’s perspective, it appeared as if the aspect of Chaos was pondering on whether to kill him on the spot or not.

After about a minute, Chaos removed his gaze from Daniel’s figure, as his head snapped to the side, where the meek and terrified figure of Horror was trembling in silence. “You have exhausted your purpose.” the aspect of Chaos dictated before pinching at the point in space that separated the two of them.

As if bound to that specific point in space, Horror felt as if he had been grabbed by the power of the multiverse itself. Feeling as if he had bound to space, Horror could only move his eyes in responde, aiming them at Chaos’ fingers which then twisted. *SPAH!* Like an overly inflated balloon, Horror exploded into a mist of green blood and gray bits, which soon after exploded as well, starting a chain reaction not much different from an oddly colored firework show.

As the last pop sound was heard, the multiverse began to change.

Horror’s power had started to fall apart, disappearing completely from existence alongside its wielder. A change that was felt all throughout the multiverse, and that seemed to place a hint of hurry in Chaos’ behavior. Daniel could tell that, this time, Horror was truly dead.. And it would take billions of years before a new aspect of horror could be born again.

While Horror’s death was something Daniel had wanted to accomplish, he did not rejoice for it. It was very unlikely Chaos had killed one of his inferiors to save him, he thought. And he was right.

After killing the aspect of Horror, the refined man once again turned to look at Daniel, who immediately dashed towards the interdimensional portal. Yet, before he could go far, he was picked from space, like a moth caged in a human’s fingers.

This had confirmed it.

In Daniel’s mind, Chaos could have only had two reasons to silence Horror. He either wanted to help Daniel, or he wanted to capture him. As he felt the chaotic power of existence grind against his body, caging him in space, Daniel knew he was not going to be set free anytime soon.. And to be honest, he understood why.

“You are going nowhere.” Chaos said indifferently as it silently teleported next to Daniel. His eyes were filled with curiosity and a hint of excitement, yet Daniel could also see alertness. Karma was obviously an entity Chaos did not understand, and while he did not fear him, his powers weren’t exactly as predictable as the rest of his kind.

Specifically, his ability to store existential power within his body, not unlike a cultivator could store mana. That was an ability that was most fascinating to Chaos, for he too, in his nigh-omnipotence, had a finite amount of power.

Daniel, on the other hand, if allowed to store as much power as he wanted, could have cleared universes of their karmic power and unleashed it all at once into any universe he chose to battle in.

To put it in numbers, the powers an aspect of existence could receive from the universe they were currently in, went from one to one hundred. One hundred being an absolute power like that of Fate, Chaos and Conflict, and one being the amount of horrific power the now deceased deity had at his disposal while fighting Daniel.

While the level of these powers could grow alongside the influence of a certain aspect of existence, powers like Horror and Karma had limitations, for one hundred was the extreme a universe could contain. Karma and Horror were driven by sentience, and that made the scope of their production much smaller than Chaos, which encompassed everything. Even at the peak of their influence, Horror could never reach above fifty.

Daniel, however, could gather the full extent of his powers within a universe, store it in his body, and bring it to another. So even if a universe contained only ten, he could bring that amount into a second universe, and have twenty at his disposal. Given enough time to accumulate the power of Karma, Daniel could, in theory, be able to gather more power than absolute aspects like Chaos himself could employ in each universe.

Such an ability was one not only Chaos, but every aspect of existence would have a deep interest in, for it could overthrow any hierarchical structure present in the pantheon, or give the chance to one of the absolute aspects of existence to rise above their equals.

Even Horror, in its desperate attempt to escape, had never abandoned the thought of regaining his strength before going back for Daniel. But he was ultimately forced to ask for help, hoping that sharing this impossibly valuable piece of information could allow him to keep his life.

So naive, Daniel had thought. Aspects of existence truly did not understand true machination.

With no one to spread the information, Chaos would be able to capture Daniel, and pick through his memories to find what his method to control existential power was.. But only if Daniel allowed him to.

Unwilling to suffer such fate, Daniel chose to act. Inside his body, tens of thousands of trapped champions of Horror, now turned normal cultivators, exploded into billions of golden sparks that, like a surge of electricity, charged Daniel’s body with an impressive power.

Surprised by the sudden outburst, Chaos could only watch as Daniel broke his entrapment and shot towards the interdimensional portal like a bullet, plunging into its surface in an instant.

When Daniel appeared in the Trigate, however, he did not leave. Instead, he slowly backed his way through the portal, just in time to witness the infuriated and nigh-omnipotent figure of Chaos emerge. Once back in the universe, Daniel opened a rift to Chaos’ main universe and jumped in, closing it behind him.

Unable to find the escapee within the Trigate, Chaos realized he had been duped, so he followed Daniel back into the interdimensional portal. However, when he re-emerged, he could not find him. “CURSES!” the furious aspect bellowed as the existential power of Chaos throughout the universe started to boil, killing every spark of life it contained. Little did Chaos know that Daniel was in his home universe, dashing across space in a desperate attempt to reach the interdimensional portal before he chose to come back.

Luckily for him, Chaos wasn’t much different from Horror, mentality-wise. His immense power made him the absolute truth, and never before had he been tricked. So instead of giving up, or thinking Daniel could have been hiding under his nose, Chaos once again left the former part of Horror’s domain, and went searching for Daniel in the Trigate.