Chapter 1285: Declaration of Chaos
Many people couldn’t understand why Rhode kept Mini Bubble Gum by his side. Frankly speaking, this young lady was self-centered, grouchy, insensitive, delusional, and refused to listen to anyone other than Rhode and Canary. But one had to admit that her understanding of clerics was at a level that not even the six deity wardens (now seven deity wardens) could reach. The instant Rhode gave his command, Mini Bubble Gum knew what he meant. She released a light summoning ritual swiftly and dragged Erin away forcefully. Almost at the same time, the strange, terrifying Chaos creature erupted from Ion’s body and bared its teeth to Erin. Even Erin was caught off guard by the situation. When she finally reacted, the razor-sharp teeth had arrived before her!
An ice-cold chill ran up her spine like an electrical current. Even though she was the Dark Dragon now, the ambush still caught her by surprise. She didn’t know what it was, but was certain that something that would terrify her must be really dangerous. But even so, Erin was also bitten by the creature. However, the moment the creature almost sank its teeth into her flesh, a thin, paper-like barrier flickered over Erin and the creature collided head-first, almost shattering the barrier.
It was at that instant when Erin finally reacted. She fluttered her wings abruptly and rotated her body. in the blink of an eye, the enormous dragon s.h.i.+mmering in dazzling, silver-whitish moonlight vanished from sight, only to return to her human form. Erin knew the situation would turn dire if she remained in her dragon form, which was why she decisively shrunk in size, pulled a distance apart from the Chaos creature, and approached Rhode quickly.
“Phew… Thank you, Bubble.”
After arriving by Rhode’s side, Erin heaved a sigh of relief. She stretched out her arm and held her chest, gazing at Bubble with the grin of a dying person. One must know that she barely escaped death. As the Dark Dragon, it definitely took more than an ordinary Chaos creature to genuinely frighten her. Back then, she really didn’t react in time. Logically speaking, when one was at her level, one would possess a certain degree of ‘foresight’. If Ion had a secret ability that targeted her specifically, she would realize it subconsciously. In that case, she couldn’t possibly pounce on Ion and unleash her attacks. However, as she didn’t feel any threats earlier, she charged ahead bravely, attempting to end Ion’s life. It was only when that Chaos creature emerged all of a sudden that she sensed true fear. Back then, if she were to dodge, she would obviously fail to avoid the ambus.h.!.+ Fortunately, with Bubble’s help, she was able to evade the Chaos creature. If not…
At this thought, Erin couldn’t help but feel rather afraid. It would be a result that she didn’t wish to see.
Erin didn’t realize this oncoming ambush, but Rhode was already prepared for that moment. When he witnessed Ion collapsing to the ground, he knew that something wasn’t right. Perhaps Erin didn’t see it, but Rhode had detected the dazedness in Ion’s eyes. It wasn’t dazedness as a result of failure or agony, but it was more like Ion had lost himself. This left Rhode’s heart thumping deep-down because this situation was as though Ion were manipulated by something. But no matter what that thing was, since it chose to control Ion at that very moment, it most likely had designs on Erin. For safety’s sake, Rhode had Bubble pull Erin away and cast a layer of protection at the same time. One had to admit that only Bubble, who worked so well with him, knew exactly what he wanted. Rhode merely stared at Erin, commanded the clerics, and Bubble responded with G.o.dlike reactions and reflexes. If it were someone else, perhaps they wouldn’t be nearly as quick as her.
As Erin retreated to safety, the players also withdrew from battle. The players weren’t fools either. It was obvious that something was wrong for this to happen to Ion all of a sudden. The players’ reactions were also trained through b.l.o.o.d.y storms. As soon as they realized the unfavorable situation, they unleashed multiple attacks to wipe out the Chaos creatures in the blink of an eye.
What exactly is that?
Erin and Rhode couldn’t help but knit their brows at the disgusting-looking, mysterious Chaos creature that looked like a flesh bud growing on Ion’s body. The look of it made one’s stomach churn. After missing its ambush, it crashed into the barrier that Mini Bubble Gum cast and stopped moving. After a few moments, Rhode witnessed it moving gradually, s.h.i.+fting its direction, and widening its ‘petals’ toward Erin and Rhode. A crimson eye widened in the center of the bud, staring at them.
“…!”
Upon seeing the glare of the crimson eye, Rhode and Erin couldn’t help but feel startled. Just by the mere sight of this eyeball, they felt a strong sense of danger. But at the next moment, Rhode sulked. Because he knew the final BOSS had finally made its appearance.
And soon, a deep, strange voice sounded in everyone’s heads.
“I didn’t expect you to hold on for so long, little mice…”
“I also never thought that the so-called Chaos Eye actually existed…”
Upon hearing the voice, Erin took half a step back. For some unknown reason, this voice made her really uncomfortable. On the other side, Rhode let out a grunt, stared straight at the crimson eye, and said.
“The Chaos Eye was a really mysterious presence to players of the Dragon Soul Continent. Besides, its lore has also been around for a long time. Back in the initial stages of the Dragon Soul Continent, some players posted questions in the forum about encountering a crimson eye while they were raiding dungeons. They thought the crimson eye was one of the BOSSes or involved a specific quest. But the weird thing was that the eye simply observed them without doing anything. Not only that, but not everyone was also able to see it. Some merely caught a glimpse and went “Huh? Was there a red eye looking at us from over there?”
Such instances weren’t uncommon. Of course, as the encounter occurred too quickly, players rarely had the chance to take screenshots as evidence. In addition, the crimson eye was elusive and always pa.s.sed by in a flash. That was why although some players spotted it, most didn’t even catch a glimpse. And usually when that happened, most players went “You must be seeing things.”, “How is it possible that such a thing exists?”, “Stop trying to scare us.”, etc. It went without saying that the accused players weren’t willing to take the rep, which explained why there were often posts in the forum, such as “I saw a huge, crimson eyeball while raiding x.x.x dungeon today. Has anyone else seen it too? Please provide screenshots or videos as evidence!”
With the increase of such posts, it naturally piqued the interest of many players. Even though most of them didn’t run into the crimson eye, every now and then, there were players who posted something similar on the forum and swore that they weren’t mistaken. Not only that, but the posts were also written by players with different IDs, so that naturally attracted a lot of interest from players. A good Samaritan once compiled all the posts and found out that even though the dungeons had different difficulties and BOSSes, there was something in common; the dungeons were linked to Chaos.
It was at that moment the ‘Crimson Eye of the Chaos Void’ was added to the ‘Seven Mysteries’ of Dragon Soul Continent. And at some point, players circulated the rumor that this huge eyeball was, in fact, Chaos that was monitoring Order inhabitants and waiting for the moment to destroy them completely.
After the third major update of the game, the opportunities for players to meet Chaos increased greatly. The chances of one encountering this crimson eyeball became much more common. There was a time when a player, who was recording a BOSS fight, turned around unintentionally and captured an image of that rumored crimson eyeball. It was at that moment that the rumor that had been making the rounds on the Internet was finally confirmed.
Even until this point, Rhode would s.h.i.+ver with fear whenever he recalled that video. A huge crimson eye concealed in the Chaos fog and watched quietly from the back as the players spared no effort in fighting a BOSS. Just the thought of that scene left one’s hair standing.
Thereafter, that was how the t.i.tle of the Chaos Eye spread. What was unfathomable was that even though players didn’t know what it was, most agreed that it was definitely something bad. And amidst the rumors, Rhode got a somewhat bizarre piece of information.
Legend had it that this Chaos Eye was the core of Chaos. It concealed itself to monitor the Dragon Soul Continent and waited for the perfect opportunity for it to destroy the world… However, no one knew whether a bored player made up this information or was it actually true.
Rhode didn’t get to encounter the crimson eye. He didn’t know whether it was good or bad luck for his guild. Everyone had basically heard of this rumor, but no one actually saw it. And now, Rhode finally witnessed it with his own eyes…
For some unknown reason, the moment he saw the crimson eye, he instinctively felt like the rumors that spread across the Internet might possibly be true. Because he did sense an unprecedented and unparalleled aura of Chaos exuding from the crimson eye that shrouded everyone in an instant.
“We have been watching you…”
That voice didn’t respond to Rhode, but continued to speak in an incredibly calm and deep voice, leaving one in shuddering fear.
“… You have indeed defeated an emissary of Chaos. But this is only the start… Chaos is endless. We shall devour you and make everything return to Chaos…”
The crimson eye came to a pause, blinked, and continued.
“… I’m excited to see… the final destruction of Order… Struggle all you can, little mice. You shall eventually head down a road to ruin. I shall personally witness how you, who lost the Order Star, come up with ways to resist our arrival… I’m looking forward to it…”
Along with this sentence, the ‘flower’ before everyone lifted its head and closed its petals gradually. Looking at this scene, Erin and Rhode were instantly prepared for battle. But what surprised them was that the crimson eye didn’t attack them. On the contrary, it returned to Ion’s body instead.
The ‘flower stalk’ and ‘petals’ coalesced by the power of Chaos melted like snow in front of everyone, completely vanis.h.i.+ng from sight. And along with the disappearance of the crimson eye, Ion’s ma.s.sive dragon body melted into a puddle of rotting, festering, and fuzzy flesh.
Looking at this scene, Rhode and Erin turned grim and solemn. They exchanged looks, spotting the uncertainty in each other’s eyes. It was apparent that Ion was an idiot who was sold by Chaos. All in all, he was nothing more than one of Chaos’s thugs. And now, since the thug was sold, perhaps what would happen next would be an all-out attack from Chaos. In that case, it would certainly be a huge blow to Rhode’s side.
“Seems like we need to prepare ourselves right after we head back.”
Rhode let out a helpless sigh and said. Upon hearing his words, Erin nodded with worry. Even though the battle between Order and Chaos lasted a long time, as dragon soul heirs, they had never fought against high-level Chaos creatures. After all, with the dragon soul protection, most Chaos beings weren’t able to enter the Dragon Soul Continent and battle dragon soul heirs. At most, dragon soul heirs would only face existences on the level of Chaos Lords. But now, they were finally about to enter a war with the most ancient and primordial Chaos species that had existed almost since the birth of this entire continent.
But now, the most important thing to Erin wasn’t facing ancient Chaos, but her big brother.
“Big Brother…”
She looked at the crumbling, decaying body before her with a complicated expression, opening her mouth. She didn’t know what to say. But at that moment, Ion, who had closed his eyes, suddenly opened them and tried to lift his head and look at Rhode and Erin in the distance. Upon seeing Ion’s actions, the players, including Rhode, were prepared for another battle.
Could it be that this fella has decided to step forth with his triple transformation?
But this time, Ion didn’t have the intention to fight anymore. On the contrary, his eyes that were eroded by Chaos gradually returned to their original clarity. The power of Chaos faded away from him slowly. Despite that, he was like a terminally-ill old man. There was no way to rescue him anymore.
“… In the end, I still lost.”
Ion gazed at his younger sister and said slowly.
“I always wanted to win, Erin. But I have never achieved any true victories, be it against you or the Void Dragon… Even until now, I don’t know why I lost.”
“Big Brother… I…”
Upon hearing Ion’s words, Erin bit her lip and was at a loss for words. Why did Ion lose? Erin didn’t know. She also couldn’t understand why her big brother was so stubborn. However, Ion had no intention of explaining. His life force was disappearing from his body gradually, so much so that he didn’t have the strength to raise his head any longer.
“I betrayed everything; Father, Mother, Younger Sister, the country, and Order. And yet, I didn’t get what I wanted in the end. Perhaps this is my fate. From the moment I made that decision, that’s where I finally belonged. But there’s no need to mourn me. I deserve it… No matter what, at least I can still get failure…”
“Big Brother…”
“Erin, I can only go so far… to be influenced and deceived by Chaos and eventually die like a p.a.w.n. This is my end, but not the end for all of you… You must beware of Chaos. Their strength is far more than any of you can imagine, and….”
Ion said and came to a pause.
“… I have awakened the souls of the Dragon Cemetery and made them the minions of Chaos… All of you… have no time left…”
Ion’s voice became fainter and eventually disappeared. At the same time, his body metamorphosed into a mysterious radiance, broke down into cloudy grains of sand that flew in all directions, and vanished thoroughly.
…
But at that moment, instead of the joy of victory, Rhode’s face darkened.
d.a.m.n you… Must you screw us over even on the verge of death?