Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1465: Debt

Khan’s guess couldn’t have been more baseless. Honestly, he partially doubted it himself.

The True Chaos’ God had to have placed a failsafe of some sort, and Khan could already spot many reasonable iterations of that with the little information at his disposal.

If the Kings carried shards of the God’s divinity, chances were that they could expand themselves and evolve, becoming Gods themselves in his absence.

The God could probably also use those shards for himself. Khan had already guessed that the Scarlet Eyes’ army was a superior version of the Nak, leaving that option open.

Actually, the possibilities were endless. Khan didn’t know what that superior realm entailed, so even the most insane and irrational ability had to be within the realm of what was possible.

Nevertheless, Khan’s statement did imply a version of killing appropriate for the target. He didn’t only consider killing one specific creature or existence.

Khan saw the God and True Chaos as one and the same, meaning he was talking about killing that very superior energy. As for how, that was where the problems began.

Strangely enough, Khan had experience with the subject. He had already dealt with one divine existence, albeit with some caveats.

The mana had a heart, so the True Chaos might have one, too, probably in the form of a far less cooperative God.

The way Khan saw it, destroying that heart, or core, wouldn’t only imply shattering whatever item embodied it. It would mean obliterating the very will behind it, effectively eradicating that power out of existence.

Yet, clearly, Khan would have to fight now. That face-off couldn’t be as peaceful as his time with the white-azure sphere. But, to do that, Khan would have to find that heart, or God, first, and he wouldn’t know where to begin.

Of course, all those assumptions could be wrong, too. The True Chaos’ God might have evolved past needing a heart, but Khan didn’t consider that option for now. He wouldn’t even be able to start making plans if he did.

The evolved warriors on the sand knew far less than Khan about the matter but still managed to follow his reasoning, even exploring the implications he had opted not to voice.

The news could indeed be good, but only if the allied front managed to make it so. Transcending the mana was theoretically possible, but only a few unique elites had succeeded at that.

In the same way, killing the True Chaos’ God was theoretically possible. Still, probably only a handful of beings in the entire universe had a shot at getting closer to that.

Luck wanted two of those beings to be sitting right before the evolved representatives, but the latter didn’t dare to get their hopes up. They also immediately realized that luck had nothing to do with that fateful arrangement.

Someone had pulled the strings so that an interspecies meeting could happen for a reason that eventually revealed itself in the representatives’ minds.

The True Chaos was the mana’s natural enemy. It was also its superior. The Scarlet Eyes also had unity under the rule of a God. However, they lacked diversity.

The mutagen was only one initial solution to the deadly problem, but the representatives on the sand could already see it developing into a more effective and stable weapon.

Moreover, that development could take multiple directions due to the various species involved in the project. Each of them would come up with different solutions, and their cooperation could create something stronger altogether.

That theory could be applied to basically everything else. Each species drew strength and specialized in something unique to them, so their cooperation could create something superior, hopefully superior enough to defeat the True Chaos’ God.

All that was due to one person. Khan’s mission had forced him to travel all over the place, learning different cultures and arts in the hope of finding answers that no singular species could provide.

During that journey, Khan didn’t forget about the grander goal, or rather, he actively started working toward it upon learning about it. Even if he couldn’t give voice to the terrible knowledge only he possessed, he had to lay the groundwork so that the universe might one day be ready.

That day had arrived, and Khan’s preparations couldn’t have borne better fruit. The meeting table, or sand, featured the battle-driven Ef’i, two of the most technologically advanced species in the universe, the fearsome Thilku Empire, the flexible Global Army, and the wise Niqols.

The regulated universe couldn’t have asked for a better set-up, and everything started and ended with Khan. Still, that wasn’t due to some ethereal inheritance or predestined fate.

Khan had made himself the center of that war effort. The sole idea of defeating that universal threat was possible because Khan had made it so.

That effort had started to become evident since the public meeting with the Kros, but the evolved representatives felt able to connect all the dots now, and the resulting complete picture led to profound awe.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Khan had been waging a secret war, struggling alone ever since he was nothing more than a promising recruit.

If it weren’t for Khan, the True Chaos’ latest attack would have left all the species in the regulated universe scattered and confused, focusing on surviving and running away against an enemy they couldn’t hope to understand.

Instead, the representatives not only knew what they were up against. They could also start to formulate a counterattack.

Even if someone had harbored resentment over Khan’s actions with the mana’s heart, that realization would have wiped out that feeling.

The representatives knew they owed Khan a great debt. Actually, the entire regulated universe did. Many would never learn about it, but the evolved warriors on the sand were smart enough to accept that truth and suppress any selfish idea.

As for Khan, he ignored the storm of emotions raging in his vision to pour a couple of glasses, engaging in a traditional Niqols’ toast with his wife before forcing the meeting to proceed. "Who wants to share next?"