Chapter 57

Revenge!!!

OH my aching head. I come to inside what I think is still my sanctuary in my tree of life. There is something subtly different about it though. Almost as if the details are just a little bit wrong. The details are wrong. This is NOT my sanctuary. Somebody tried to copy it exactly and the only reason they failed is that I made every single piece of this place myself and I can see details that others cannot.

“WHERE AM I AND WHO BROUGHT ME HERE!”

The sheer power in my voice when I yelled out started cracking the construct around me. Am I that powerful now or was this thing that weak?

“Calm down brother and I will explain.”

I heard a pleasing voice behind me and as soon as it spoke the rest of the fake tree of life disappeared around me. I was floating in what could only be described as a rainbow void. There was nothing around me, yet at the same time I was surrounded by all the colors of mana. It was very distracting and mesmerizing. When I finally regained some semblance of control I turned around. How did I do that? I am not standing on anything and there is nothing around me, but I was able to turn around just fine. This set me off on another set of random thoughts.

“You asked a question brother and I am ready to answer. You can address me as Eros. What should I call you?”

Without even thinking I replied, “You can call me Havoc.”

Havoc? Where did that come from? Eros in front of me was an enchanting beauty with skin made of the universe. No really, her skin had swirls of galaxies and planets and stars. She smiled and said, “I realize that you are easily distracted at this point. All of us who ascend to this level are. I was sent to greet you and answer some questions before introducing you to the others.”

“I HAVE MANY QUESTIONS.” My voice boomed out into the void. “FIRST IS HOW DO I CONTROL MY VOLUME.”

Eros laughed and replied, “It is a matter of willpower. You don’t even need to speak at all anymore, you can just send your thoughts directly to others. However, most of us still talk normally as it reminds us of what we once were.”

“Well then Eros.” Hey it worked. “I do have many questions. In order they are Who are you, Where are we, and finally Why did I answer your question of my name with something different than what I know is my name?”

“Your answers good sir are easy. I am Eros Discord, a chaos being of the Universal Balance. We are in the void between, I pulled you here when you ascended to be a chaos being like myself so you would not destroy the planet Braxis you were on. Finally, each of us is assigned a name which is our position in the balance when we ascend. You are obviously supposed to be in charge of creating Havoc. Most of us use the first name from our mortal lives and then use our title as our last name. My name as a mortal was Eros and I am the embodiment of Discord in the Universe.”

Ok time to let my brain catch up. I powered up into an overlord. I was going to go and kill the Overbeing after that, but continued to power up due to the excess energy into a new form that is known as a chaos being. We evidently are tasked with a job and mine seems to be creating Havoc. Also my name seems to be Mark Havoc now.

“Alright Miss Eros, a few more questions. What is a chaos being? Next up after that is who chose my position and is there any way to change it? Finally, what is expected of me?”

“Well Havoc, a chaos being is one of two types of guardians of the Universal Balance. First are Chaos beings. We are responsible for fostering change and causing destruction, for without this there can be no new creation or life. The other group of beings are the Angels of Order. Those guys obviously create new life and foster innovation and stability. Our best guess as to who chooses our position is the Universe itself. No one has been given specific instructions over the many eons I have been a chaos being, but we just seem to know what needs to be done, as if the information was planted inside of us. Your last question is the most interesting. All that is expected of you is to follow your new nature.”

“So I am supposed to just go out into the universe and create as much havoc as possible?”

“Hmm, no that is not what is meant for you to do. We are beings of balance. We do not do wholesale destruction. We just cause enough change to keep this moving forward. The Angels of Order follow behind us to stabilize the situation and life moves on. Occasionally things get out of balance so bad that we have to make a large move which can change and influence large parts of the universe, but that is very rare. Most of us just live amongst mortals and travel around giving little nudges in the direction we embody. For instance, I currently live on a planet called Estefancia. On that planet I am just a powerful wandering warrior. Coincidentally everywhere I go some sort of discord follows. It can be as small as personal arguments or as large as disagreements that cause war. I will continue this until I get bored and switch areas or I get a feeling I need to do something else.”

“Just to make sure, we don’t have to go out and battle the forces of good or some other sort of nonsense?”’

“No that would be a waste of time and effort. We are agents of change. That may include destruction occasionally, but more often than not it just involves minor changes in thought or a situation.”

“Can I still wrap up unfinished business, say a bit of revenge?”

“Of course, revenge breeds Havoc and chaos so you would be killing two birds with one stone.”

The rest of my time in the void was instructive. Eros gifted me with a few universe level spells and told me to take care. It seems that there are a total of six chaos beings currently including me. Each of us wanders through the universe seeking ways to fulfill our purpose. I met Mayhem, Pandemonium, Destruction, but Bedlam was not available to meet. To my surprise I was also introduced to the Angels of Peace, Karma, Discipline, Systems and Calm. The angel of Law was out with Bedlam. We truly were a group and we did not have to compete with each other. It turns out that the Angels of Karma and System knew me. Karma was the one that helped me reincarnate. System was the one who was feeding me the information in the blue boxes. He performed this function for a variety of people throughout the universe.

Now that I had gained control of my powers I felt it was time to finish my revenge. I had been waiting a long time for this. I no longer knew how long. It could have been just a few years like I thought or it could have been centuries. Time worked differently in the void. I condensed myself down into a being that looked like my former self, Mark Stefanopolis from Earth and teleported into the throne room of the “Overbeing” that was responsible for my original death. He was sitting on his throne flanked on either side by the two beings I took as his children before. The throne room was occupied by a variety of God level beings.

“Who are you and why have you appeared before me.”

“Why Mr. Overbeing, has it been so long that you have forgotten me. I am Mark Stefanopolis, the person you killed from the planet Earth to prevent some prophecy. Speaking of which, what exactly was the prophecy you were trying to stop?”

I could see the Overbeing’s eyes open wide and his mouth drop. He was obviously surprised to see me again.

“Yes, I understand your amazement. You never expected me to survive, I get that, but I am still curious, what was the prophecy.”’

The Overbeing just started mumbling, “It’s impossible, you can’t be here, it’s just not possible.”

I looked around the room. “Can anyone tell me the prophecy? Something about the Overbeing being replaced or losing his job or something I am guessing.”

One God more bold than the rest stepped forward, “Sir I believe what you are referring to is the prophecy of change. It goes something like this,

Every Century one shall be born with the potential to shake the foundations of the Universe.

Havoc shall be his name and it shall follow him as he gains power.

Nothing will remain the same.

Balance shall be his legacy.”

Well that is fascinating. So far it sounds like this thing is legit. It predicted my rise to a chaos being, name and my purpose.

“Fascinating, who gave the Prophecy of change and how long has it been known?

“Sir it was a wandering God Level power from the neutral faction, or at least that is what we believed at the time. He prophesized the change just over a millennium ago.”

“What do you mean at the time?”

“After the prophecy this wandering man disappeared and when we inquired about him, the neutral faction claimed to have never heard of him.”

I bet it was one of the beings of balance in disguise that actually gave the prophecy. It seems like something they would do. The Angels of Order actually outnumbered the Chaos Beings until I ascended which was not very balanced, so the Universe arranged for me or someone like me to go through the trials to become a chaos being. Now that I have ascended the beings of balance are equal once more.

“So, Mr. Overbeing, your solution once you heard this prophecy was to kill off anyone with potential on Earth so they would be reincarnated somewhere else, thus thwarting the prophecy. How funny, the very actions you took were what allowed me to become Havoc. Your selfishness ensured your own downfall.”

Finally, this got a reaction out of the Overbeing as he called himself. “What are you talking about. Everything I did was to protect the universe.”

“You can quit pretending. Nothing you did was for the Universal Balance. It was all so you could keep what power you had. If you had done this in the name of Universal Balance I would not be here.”

“Fine you want the truth. I did what anyone of these gods here would do. I used my power to keep my power. That is what the Might Faction is all about. What are you going to do about it little godling?”

Oh this was what I was waiting for. When I first came I suppressed my strength to God level as to not cause the Overbeing to flee. I may more powerful than him now, but he had been alive a long time and probably had several tricks up his sleeves. The last thing I wanted was for him to escape his fate. I used my new chaos power to lock the space around us from teleportation. I don’t know how I did it, it was more of me wanting something to happen and the universe agreeing so it did happen. It was very strange.

“Now Mr. Overbeing, who actually said I was a God?”

With that enigmatic statement I released my full power which put everyone in the room to their knees at the least and several of them could not stand the pressure and directly passed out.

“I AM HAVOC, AND YOU LITTLE OVERBEING HAVE BEEN A THORN IN MY SIDE FOR LONG ENOUGH!”

That sounded dramatic enough and announced my name throughout the universe. I enjoyed watching the Overbeing struggle for a few seconds. First he tried to teleport out. When that did not work he ordered everyone to attack. They all looked at him like he was an idiot. Finally, after a minute or so of escape attempts and trying to bribe others and me he attacked. I let his spells wash over me with no effect and for the big finale I caught the sword he swung at me with my bare hand.

I had seen this move in some cartoon or anime when I was a child and the sheer awesomeness of stopping your opponent’s sword with just your hand and proving how much stronger you were had stuck with me. It looked as cool as I imagined and the gasps from the crowd were worth the posturing. I decided that enough was enough and I needed to end the fight. I grabbed the overbeing in both hands and just started to squeeze. His yells were refreshing and I focused on putting pressure across his whole body, just not where my hands were. I was basically smashing him into a ball shape. The overbeing quit yelling about halfway through the process and I assumed he died at that point, but I cannot stop until finished. I had an audience and I needed to finish. I continued pressing his corpse into a smaller and smaller sphere until it was the size and shape of a marble. Then I pretended to eat it.

Eating another person would be gross so what I actually did was put it into my inventory, but no one else needed to know that. I needed to establish my chaotic reputation and I think this was a perfect ending to that. The sounds of retching from the audience told me that I may have taken it a bit far but no turning back now. I turned and faced the crowd of gods surrounding me.

“I don’t care how you do it, and I don’t care how long it takes, but you will all work hard to bring the tier 0 world of Earth back to its rightful place as a tier 1 world. Trust me you do not want me to have to come back.”

My revenge was complete. I really did not feel any different, but that was expected. I had changed considerably since I started on my path of revenge. I could have stopped at any time, but I believe in finishing what you start. With that I teleported back to my sanctuary on the Planet Braxis to plan how I was going to live my new life as a Chaos Being.

THE END