Axln’s first experiences in this timeline did not lend her the greatest of confidence, only a spiral of uncertainty in exactly what situation she had found herself in. However, much like everything that had challenged her from her own timeline, she wasn’t about to let anything simply stand in her way, she would find Lyun.

The most discoordinating part had to be finding herself in the middle of the citadel, without even a sign what this timeline’s version of her would have been doing here in the first place. It was especially rough in how this version of her wasn’t quite so channeled into chaos, in fact it seemed innately resistant to the influence. There was also quite the concern that her first attempts to simply open a gate to the temporal absolutely failed. Something was a complete mess in this timeline, far more than she would have expected. Clearly, her first course of action would be to gather information.. though that was again a challenging incident. The usual teather she held to chaos was absolutely gone, all she had right now was the ambience of self she had come here with. She could then still influence time, she could even still influence chance, but she was being explicitly denied Lyun’s presence. This.. resistance.. it led her to believe the girl was at least alive in this timeline, but that she somehow had unknown enemies.

Axln could tell as well that the passage between principled planes still laid open for her, but she had been hesitant to take it. All of the familiar presence of the temporal was gone, leaving that path very uninviting. However, with herself so disconnected, there was no certainty which world the girl would be on. Even so, she wouldn’t be yet as blessed by the temporal, so even if the girl did flee to the other principle, she would then simply be trapped there. Axln was the only one free to move in either direction. Quite simply then, she would need to simply get a count of the situation here, and figure out her best move from there. Reliably, she might need to pass off as yet another of the principled in order to do so, but that would just need her to put a lid on her temporal presence, her form’s natural resistance actually helped to do the rest. Even wandering around though, the place seemed mildly uninviting, like it was on guard for some reason. Maybe, in this timeline, the seal of the citadel hadn’t yet been released. Such would certainly explain the lack of ersatz here too, yet another sight she had grown used to. Fortunately, the defenses still did nothing to her, though something about everything seemed.. broken? Was that why she was here then?

It was fortunate that her principled aspirations seemed to still carry over to this world, her gift responding as smoothly as she might have expected. Her arm was as annoying as ever, but she knew such a cybernetic resource would still be imperative right now. Something about the design though was slightly unfamiliar, but it wasn’t something she was going to be too worried about. Principled nonsense, most likely. Even her power gear was more of annoyance than use, but she did have appearances to keep up. Besides, she would have to depend on something if she wanted to avoid drawing too much on chaos. One aspect of chaos she especially favoured though would be the use of probability. Such had an indisputable use right now, an advantage which would simply turn this maze of chance to her own favour. It was in fact this advantage which played out as the greatest resource in her success, eventually finding herself on the other side of a large hall filled with assorted statues, Lyun and Mheridz both standing there. Well, that was alarming, why was Mheridz still here? She should have been wiped clear from the timeline already, something really was up here. With such considerations, Axln knew she would need to be very careful with how she proceeded.

“Axln! You’re alright! I was really worried there for a while, we had suddenly lost you without warning.” “Oh, yeah, I’m not actually sure what happened either, but it’s really not left me feeling that well, my head is killing me.” “Well, do you need a rest then?” “I.. I’m not sure. I think maybe the best course would be to keep going, maybe talk for a while, we can see if this passes or gets worse.” “Oh, yeah sure. Wow, my arm feels like a disaster right now.” “Oh, right, I forgot to make special exceptions for that, sorry. I’ll make sure the arm at least works, but you probably won’t get anything special from it.” “Ah, well, that’s fine, not a big deal. Sorry, I probably look like a huge mess right now, where are we going again?” “Wow, and this was your huge trip. Maybe we should step outside for a while, actually get you some rest, let you clear your head. There is no way we’re going to finish things if you’re like this.” “I guess whatever you think is best.” “Mheridz, let's let her rest a while, a trip back is still going to be a long one. There is a lot of good space here, we could make it a slight bit more comfortable. I’ll figure something out, you make sure she stays okay.” Lyun was off exploring the open room, deep in thought for some still obscure reason Axln couldn’t figure out. The girl really was good at saying a lot that explained nothing.

“You really okay, mom?” “I’m not.. I.. uh..” “Yeah, you look really flustered right now. Don’t worry, Lyun is going to work her magic and get stuff ready for you.” “Magic, ha..” “Right, you probably don’t know. Lyun somehow made magic work, the whole thing powered on wishes. I-I still really don’t understand it.. but I can tell she’s worked really hard to make it happen. You both keep pulling surprises out of nothing.” “Well, I don’t know what to say about that.” “Hmm, I guess not. To you, such wonder’s are just the new normal, right?” “Of course, yeah.” “Are you sure you’re okay? All of your old confidence seems really gone, instead it seems like you’re hiding something. If Lyun finds out you’re hiding something serious, you’re going to be in serious trouble.” “No, I’m fine, really. Couldn’t be better, honest.” “Huh? If you say so.” This wasn’t good, Mheridz was already suspicious of Axln. Without much recourse, Axln decided she might need to scale up her chances a bit further, adjusting probability even more in her favour.

「Detecting a chaotic presence nearby manipulating the terms of probability.」Lyun was surprised to hear such, considering there shouldn’t be a chaotic presence nearby that would do such a thing. She was still measuring what sort of style of comfort actually suited the concept of magic, between a chair to a bed. She didn’t think the floor was the best source of comfort, but she was sort of driving spellcraft to not be so materialistic, leaving her generally perplexed. However, if there was a threat nearby, maybe they needed to be careful about getting too comfortable. She even had been listening to the conversation, getting aware that Axln might be pushing herself again, trying to do everything on her own. However, things were in her domain right now, her magic land. Without the others noticing, she carefully crafted a spell, one that would try to detect anything wrong with Axln. The spell however failed, the design not sufficiently applying the rules of spellcraft. Well, that really was unfortunate. 「Detecting that chaotic probability is directly affecting your actions. Attempting to diminish the influence of chaos.」 Wait, what? Why was chaotic probability getting in the way of her magic working with Axln? Okay, something was very wrong, and she didn’t like it.

“Axln, we might need to make our way out of here in a hurry, are you going to be okay with that?” “Oh, yeah, sure, not a problem.” “Well, if we get split up, you know where to meet outside of the citadel, right?” “Uh, well, no, not really. Wouldn’t there be.. several good options?” “Hmm, well, then where would you like to meet?” “Uh, well, I’m not sure. I guess anywhere would be fine.” “Anywhere, huh? So like our rooms in the academy, or even my old workshop?” “Y-yeah, like that. Whatever is fine.” “Axln, you sure you didn’t leave your head on the moon or something, you’re really not all together.” “O-of course not.” “Not even a bit on the moon?” “N-no.” “Mheridz, back away from her, something is wrong.” Lyun was outright scowling at Axln, this whole feint not bearing any weight at all. Mheridz backed away swiftly too, the flow of conversation also leaving her alarmed. Lyun cast a bright light spell, shining the room with plenty of brilliance with which to get a better look at Axln. The shining glow of the light reflected sharply and strongly off of Axln’s pale white arm, the same color as temporal chaos once again.

“Well, I guess if we’re done with this charade, it might be best to get things over with. Lyun, I’m here to make sure you’re saved, so you’ll need to come with me.” “Yeah, sorry, I don’t think so.” “I may not have made myself clear, you’re not exactly being asked a choice. You will be saved this time.” “Excuse me? I don’t think so. I make my own decisions, not you. Seriously, we even just went over this.. though you don’t even feel like the same Axln from back then. Talk about a pitiful copycat, you’re even in her dust from long before we hit the moon. Just how old of a copy are you? Pitiful.” “Copy? See, you don’t even know what you’re doing. I’m no copy, I couldn’t be any more the original.” Axln’s tricks might have been exposed by Lyun, but Lyun still had no certainty what she really was dealing with. She had suspected it was a chaotic copy that was hiding in Axln’s form.. but.. that didn’t seem quite right either. Mheridz however was finding this version possibly too familiar from her memories, though with some very decided differences.

“Mom? Is that really you? I mean.. my original mom.” “You always were sharp, Mheridz. I might be about half my original age, but I’m not going to complain about that. Otherwise, yes, I’m basically the same Axln who helped you back to this timeline, thank you so much for being such a good guide. However, I’m disappointed that things hadn’t worked out as we had originally planned, to think that your resolve had been so fragile that you couldn’t hope to succeed in properly shaping this timeline as instructed.” “Things worked out better than planned, but right now you’re in the way of us completing the final step. If you hadn’t shown up here, we were about to finally finish chaos off for good.” “You.. you were.. what? My word, could your failure be any worse?” “But.. but isn’t this what we’ve always worked for?” Mheridz had gone stark pale in her confusion, Axln's criticism hitting her extensively hard. Axln sighed, knowing where the girl’s confusion would lay.

“You may have missed what had occurred in the time since I had sent you back here, which is far too obviously something you couldn’t have helped missing. Soon after that, the academy had fallen under attack, and both it and the citadel were lost in the process. Confronted by the chaos responsible for that act, I was given a choice. Did I want this to be the end, or was there still something worth saving. After all, you had gone back here, Lyun was already alive, that was everything you really needed to deliver. Everything else, well, chaos is simply our future, it was something to embrace. With the blessing of chaos, Lyun and I would have no further threat from chaos, instead it would ensure our eternal salvation. Chaos is for eternity, becoming one with it would yield us infinity. All that is left is to bring Lyun this same blessing, and everything will be over at long last.” Axln had no more reason to contain or obscure her chaos, so she began to revel in it once again, an act which really did make her feel much better at last. Mheridz and Lyun however couldn’t look any more uncomfortable. This wasn’t just an Axln from the future, it was that Axln after falling to chaos, after succumbing to it. This was a chaos-infused Axln, here to force Lyun down a shared path. This was an unimaginable disaster.

“Lyun, run, I’ll hold her back.” “Nope, I told you, sacrifices aren’t allowed. We’re both leaving.” Mheridz had tried to stand obstruction to Lyun, only to find herself grabbed by Lyun instead, being pulled towards one of the nearby walls. With a quick flash, the Lyun processed her teleportation spell and was through the wall and quickly beyond it. Axln approached the same wall, attempting a rift to follow.. only to find the instruments of the wall denying her. Yes, principles were annoying, but it seemed as if Lyun had taken to creating new ones of her own. It didn’t matter, there was nothing the girl could do that could hope to rival the complete superiority of absolute chaos. A quick probability injection, the instrument of the wall failed, allowing her to easily render it void. Stepping through the opening, she searched along both of her options, not seeing any clear signs of where the pair had retreated too. It didn’t matter, she would find them easily enough, there was no way to escape her.

「Detecting probability influence directed specifically at you.」 “Yeah, I’m getting the impression Axln gained the ability to control probability. That’s not going to help when we’re basically trapped in a maze of chance as is.” “H-how do we stop her? What will happen to mom.. if we stop her?” “Look at what already happened to her? She was practically transparent, her elemental composition was that weak once she let all that chaos in.” “But.. aren't voidspawns white?” “Maybe she just didn’t want to be, but she certainly wasn’t full of elements. She might have also been transparent there because of being in my shift a bit too long. From what I figured from the design of magic, the stuff keeping it together is basically mana, so mana is the principle form of elementals or energy for spell stuff. I haven’t exactly worked heavily on what mana is, though.. so...” “Mom wouldn’t be able to use such spells then.” “No, probably not. Her chaotic presence sort of rejects even my concept of mana, but her chaos still also devours my mana, like she would elementals. She wouldn’t need spells, she has more chaos than I could hope to have without losing who I am.” “That.. that’s not mom then. She gave up on being her, she’s just another voidspawn now. She even took away this Axln doing so. Hells, this is stupid.” Lyun was surprised to bear witness to someone as enduring as Mheridz breaking down so completely in tears. Then again, after everything the girl had done, everything the girl had surrendered.. it had thus all been for nothing. Quite honestly, Lyun could not blame her.

Lyun however was seeing more into exactly how much of this pushed obligation on her. That Axln had been driven to this simply because her Lyun had sacrificed herself, leaving everyone to go on without her. Lyun had gotten to see just how that had impacted Velvet, it had seriously broken the girl. Mheridz hadn’t been innocent to the impact either, the two girls had been thrown to this life sacrifice simply because of that failure. However, now, she’d learned that the real kicker was how this had broken Axln in the very end. Lyun’s sacrifice in that timeline had done nothing, actually it had done worse than nothing. Such a sacrifice had destroyed everything from that timeline, Lyun was effectively at fault for all of it. Sure, she wasn’t the same Lyun, she was the Lyun of this timeline.. but she still felt obligated to make amends. To her, everything sat on her to finish things off from where Axln had brought them to. She alone would have to figure out how to secure the world against the rise of chaos from resurgencing. To do that, she would have to both complete Axln’s final mission.. and she would have to deal with the chaotic-infused Axln. Ideally, she hoped that she would be capable of sealing Axln away eternally in the temporal plane she had developed such a sudden devotion for, but in all practical consideration.. she would have to be ready to deal with the fiend like any other fiend she had ever faced before.

“It is stupid, but we can’t let things end here. We have to keep moving, either finding the secret room or the exit. Within the secret room, we would supposedly have access to whatever would halt chaos’s advantage here, which would make her much easier to deal with. If we instead find the exit, we would be capable of fighting in the elemental-infused lunar fields, not this chaotic maze. It would bring us a very decided advantage, which might be enough to tip the scales.” “Then.. then you need to leave me behind.” “What? No way, I made a promise, you’re going to be a part of this to the very end.” “I seriously thank you for that too, but we have to be rational here. I’m not nearly as fast as you are, you could alone get there much faster. Yes, I know, I can’t stand up to that Axln on my own, there isn’t even a point in trying. However, she won’t be searching for me, she seems outright set on getting you. I failed to find that room on my own before, letting you down.. the future you, at least. Well, this time, I’m not going to let you down. I’ll find it.. or at least something here useful for you. That way, you can keep going without worry, and then you can deal with her with confidence. When she’s out of the way, we can end this threat for good.” Lyun’s bravery was getting contagious it seems, Mheridz not willing to remain any form of a burden. Lyun nodded her acceptance, so long as Mheridz was willing to stick with them to the very end. Thus resolved, she made her way to another wall, and was gone a blink later. Left alone, Mheridz noticed the citadel’s defenses coming back online to get in her way again. That was okay, this was way easier than dealing with Axln, this wasn’t even a challenge at all.

Mheridz pressed her way through her obstruction, pressing her way forward in a desperate search for any advantage she could find. In her rush past, a blossom caught the tailwind she left behind, taking to the current in a new direction.