Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1535: Maelstrom

Khan, Liiza, Ilman, Major General Arngan, the four humans, the Emperor, the Royal Court, and Mazatl rushed through the darker-than-black environment past the main battlefield, searching for anything that could lead them to their actual targets.

The elite team didn’t only rely on their senses and heightened perception. Communicators rested in each of the evolved warriors’ ears, or hearing organs, echoing information from the Leviathan-class ship or the probes it had released.

Surprisingly, some Orlats had joined the endeavor, controlling the probes to provide their unmatched information-gathering talents.

Of course, those Orlats probably weren’t risking their lives out of loyalty for the regulated universe, but that hardly mattered, especially when their efforts bore fruit.

That pitch-black celestial body looked unassuming, being no different than ordinary planets. True Chaos made its fabric and very atmosphere, but that only prevented its environments from having any deeper meanings.

After all, odd plains, strangely shaped mountains, and pillars of dense, glowing smoke couldn’t indicate anything when the celestial body could rearrange its layout.

However, Khan and Liiza already had experience with a similar celestial body. The Nak’s blue planet had kept its special valley hidden until it felt ready to hand out its core to Khan, so it was safe to assume that place had to have a comparable location, too.

Still, the allied front couldn’t wait for the True Chaos to show its real face. It might never do that in the first place. The elite team had to force that event before the entire army was wiped out or its enemy lost interest in that distraction.

Through methods unknown to the scientific division, the Orlats in charge of the probes eventually spotted something worthwhile, conveying that information to the communicators and making the elite team change direction.

The directions were vague, and the communicators eventually lost their use when the elite team got further away from the Leviathan-class ship. Still, the evolved warriors’ heightened senses finally picked up something at that point.

The battle on Aynor had confirmed the existence of different levels of True Chaos. Both bloated-backed monsters and warriors only had watered-down versions of that energy, and the same seemed to apply to the black celestial body.

Nevertheless, unless the God and Kings were somewhere else, that pocket universe had to host the superior, and actual, versions of the True Chaos, too. No matter how much the celestial body tried to hide it, it had to exist in that separate dimension.

After following the Orlats’ directions for a while, Khan sensed something, followed by the Emperor, Liiza, Ilman, and Lord Enforcer.

Those experts adjusted their direction, leading the rest of the group on a more precise path toward the location the Orlats had highlighted. Getting closer to it eventually updated everyone else, and reaching it made the elite team wonder how they had ever missed it in the first place.

A vaguely elliptical plain stood at the center of a mountain chain, almost acting as a secluded valley.

Except the plain wasn’t a plain at all. Its stillness tried to hide its true nature, but that couldn’t fool the regulated universe’s elite team. The group wasn’t staring at black ground. They were looking at pitch-black waters.

What the elite team had reached was a lake, but its liquid fabric was merely a secondary effect of its true nature. A radiant trace of the actual True Chaos shone deep inside that mass of watered-down energy. The group only had to dive in to reach it.

Of course, things weren’t so simple. Khan and the others would have sensed that lake far earlier, and without anyone’s help, otherwise.

The black lake was indeed there, seemingly within reach, but also wasn’t. Something about it was fake and hidden, as if the place didn’t truly exist.

The scene made Khan think of the impossible distance he had felt when his spells tried to pierce the ellipses, but the technique at work there seemed to have to do with something other than pure space.

Nevertheless, Khan knew a simple solution to the issue. Sheer, pristine, and overwhelming power could conquer all. Even the trickiest techniques had to bow before something they couldn’t hope to endure, and Khan was capable of far more than that.

Still, Khan never got the chance to act since someone else preceded him. The group was standing on one of the slopes around the lake, and Lord Enforcer knelt to the ground, digging his six-fingered hand into that black soil.

The Royal Guard released some of his mana into the ground, which endured the True Chaos’ annihilating properties to spread everywhere, thinning itself out until it could cover a large chunk of the area.

Then, as that mana was about to vanish, it released a faint tremor that ran at a strangely profound frequency, making the entire valley, or lake, release a humming noise.

The technique had nothing destructive. It lacked the energy to produce such effects. However, the environment transformed in ways that even the mightiest spells wouldn’t have been able to achieve.

An ethereal earthquake that didn’t come from Lord Enforcer’s mana ran through the area, making the mountain chain crumble into dense smoke.

A giant whirlpool followed, sucking the released smoke toward the lake, which also transformed. Its pitch-black waters caved in, seemingly creating a maelstrom that opened a gap into the true nature of that elliptical environment, revealing the fiery world underneath.

Of course, there weren’t actual flames. Ominously dim True Chaos flickered from under the maelstrom, acting as fiery tongues that stretched toward the surface.

More of that hidden environment became visible as the maelstrom expanded until those raging waters solidified, creating a giant cavity at the center of an immense crater.

And, on top of the crater, a small figure floated cross-legged in the air. Two horns grew on the boy’s childlike face, and his closed eyes opened to reveal scarlet irises.

The elite group had met their first King since entering the pocket universe, and that boy-like evolved warrior wore a playful smirk when looking at the invaders.