Smoke covered the corpses, but David could see parts of them jutting out. Homes still snapped to dancing flames in the distance and the acrid smell of burnt flesh was harsh to his nose. But what unnerved him was the silence. There were no cries for help. No one ran to check the bodies or fled in the wake of such horror. Nothing moved except the dwindling tongues of fire licking at what remained of the town. Everything was gone. Either slain or burnt. The dead was all that remained and soon even that will be gone. He looked up to find vultures circling.

  “What is this?” David asked, waving the smoke away. Even with the thick sheet of it, he could still breathe well. He walked through, avoiding the dead. Many had tried to run. Their properties lay scattered about them. Whoever or whatever had killed them, had been thorough. He looked away from an infant, not wanting to see that. He walked through the streets, the stones stained with blood.

  There was no end to the destruction and death. Every corner he took led him to more stark faces, bloodied and cold. Most were killed before they could react, their fingers still tight around the hilt of their sheathed sword. He tried to imagine the shock and the swiftness of the attack. Only the imagined screams filled his head, stealing the silence away from him.

  “Of course, he was born in a time like this,” Vith said, some of the acid leaking from her voice. David could have sworn he felt sympathy. He pushed through the emotions, trying to see if there was anything he could glean from it. He still couldn’t tell what insight he was supposed to get from something like this. He wasn’t new to the aftermath of war.

  He took another bend and stepped back quickly as a wall fell on, the stones blackened by fire. The flames ate at the insides of the house. Although he was familiar with fire, this one was different. It moved as if it was alive, consuming everything. David wondered if that was what he was supposed to learn. His control of the element wasn’t the best, but he was proud of the level he’d gotten.

  “Fire is a simple element,” Vith told him. “But it can be made into something more terrifying. Every element has the potential to destroy the world. If used right, you can fell a god with a gust of wind.”

  “Is that the insight I am supposed to get from this?” David asked, walking around the burnt bricks. That would be a waste of magic. He waited for Vith to respond, and when it was clear she wouldn’t, he asked another question.

  “Who could have done this? What is this?”

  “War,” Vith said as if he was stupid. “You have not noticed it, but he pulls you to him. You should pay attention to yourself, David. You have been lucky so far, but soon, this might get you killed. Or your family.”

  David was about to ask what she meant when he saw they’d broken out into a wide square and he knew it was the center of the town. In the middle was a statue, broken now. It looked like it had once been a man riding a large bull. A man sat under it, his back leaning against the foot of the statue, a smile on his soot-stained face.

  He waved at David, smiling. There was no smoke here. It was the cleanest part of what had become a graveyard.

  “You have come at last,” the man said, waving for him to come closer. He looked regal in his armor. The helm was by his side. His swords too. They were like that of a samurai, but longer. His mustache made his sharp face a little softer, like a flaw on an assassin. All the rage was in his eyes. The storm shook within them even when he smiled. His hands were stained with blood, dried now. He had tried to wash them and gave up halfway. David watched this man, carefully appraising him to find out how much danger he was in.

  “I thought you would be bigger,” the man said. David stood over him, searching his face for any sense of threat. While he knew the man was dangerous, he could feel nothing from him. There was no outpour of essence, no aura, just the sensation of stepping too close to the sharp edge of a blade.

  “Who are you?” David asked. “Did you do this?” David shook his head. That was impossible. He’d seen some soldiers in the mix. This man was terrifying in coldness, but he couldn’t have gone through a town like this on his own. Yet, he doubted that conclusion. And he could feel Vith like an itch in his brain.

  “You should sit down, David,” The man said. “I appreciate your stubbornness, but it will serve no good here.”

  “You know me,” David noted. “Yet, I don’t know you. Is this Balek’s doing? Or is that because I have come to you for insight? I can’t be too trusting within one of Balek’s worlds. There is very little he wouldn’t do.”

  The man grinned, showing rows of immaculate dentition. His hands, scared on both sides, rested on his knees as he leaned forward to bow.

  “Forgive me,” he said with the laugh still in his voice. “I forget you have your own battles to fight too. I know you, and yet I don’t. But that is not important. You are in my domain, my world. No power can reach you here. Not even Balek’s.”

  “That means you are a god?” David asked, sitting in front of the man. Without the smoke, he could finally see the clear noon sky. The sun was up, but there was no heat, no discomfort. David wondered if that meant the place was not real. That would be preferable. The dead he’d seen were devastating. The cruelty was beyond anything he could imagine.

  “No,” The man said and David noticed the scar on the side of his face. And the storm in his eyes was suddenly familiar. He reached for the memory, but it was beyond him. Something was wrong and he could see it now. Not in the way he could see physical things, but a whisper or the scratch of a budding realization.

  “I am something else completely,” The man said and David nodded as if he understood.

  “The dead,” he began. “Are they you doing? If so, why? This slaughter feels excessive. Unnecessary.”

  “Every death is important in war,” The man said. “And I guess you can say I killed them, although not by my hands. I was supposed to protect them. Those with power are supposed to protect the weak. But look at them—broken things scattered around, their protector watching over the remnant of his people.”

  David frowned, seeing the grief on the other man. Vith sighed within him, a mixture of sadness and anger.

  “Fate takes what it must,” the man said, a sad smile on his face, like a mask over his words. “I should have been here, but I was not. What good is strength if you can’t protect what you cherish?”

  David was not sure how to respond. He’d felt powerless since he pushed his siblings through that door. Yet he felt like this was distinctly different. His family was still alive, but this…the dead were everywhere, pulling at him like walking husks.

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  “Perhaps to keep trying?” David asked and he felt a wave of annoyance from Vith. David wondered why Ignis was silent. He would prefer their bickering to this emotional assault. The man had turned to look at him.

  “To keep trying?” He asked David. “Why should I keep trying if I can’t stop what will happen? Their fate was to be destroyed like dry trees eaten in a flood of fire. There was nothing I could do. My powers, great as they are, couldn’t save them. Why must I continue on this path? Why must you?”

  “What?” David asked, the question pushing at him so suddenly he almost missed him. “Why must I?”

  “Your world is weak. You must have realized that by now. You can see your people won’t survive the hands dealt to them. There is no way to stop the annihilation coming for them. Why do you continue?”

  “What is the alternative?” David asked. The man shook his head, his smile gone. Now David could see the killer in him, the waves crashing and lightning splitting a night sky into shreds.

  “There is no alternative, David. No safe route. There is only death.” He gestured to the bodies and the death town. “Fate is inevitable. Those who are destined to meet their end will do just that. You can’t stop it.”

  “Why? Because you couldn’t?” David asked. He felt bad immediately the words left his mouth, but he’d meant it, so he continued. Even though he noticed the man pull back. The air here was cleaner too, as if this space was not a part of the town. He couldn’t smell the smoke or the stench of burnt bodies.

  “Do you want me to give up because you have?” David asked. “There is hope and choice. There is will. I won’t sit down and watch my failures like you do now. Fate is inevitable? Perhaps. I won’t pretend to know that I can change that. But I won’t let myself be pulled down because I fail either. If it is a fate I have to fight against, then I will keep doing so until I am spent or there is an alteration. I have nothing else to do. This fight, saving Earth from the waves and whims of tower gods is what I have pledged my life to do. And I will continue until I can’t hold my blade, until I have lost all my strength and there is no breath in me.”

  “You will dedicate your life to a quest that is doomed to fail?” The man asked, the ghost of his smile coming back, tugging at the edge of his lips. His eyes were wet and David stared at him, confused.

  “There is no other way,” David said. “My stubbornness is the weapon I have. My gifts are lacking as they are now, but they will grow. I will wield them against this fate you talk about. And I don’t mind if I die while at it. But something has to give and it won’t be me. I once feared failure, but that was my fear leading me.”

  “And your siblings? Will you sacrifice them in this journey? Will you walk alone, abandoning them like you did before? What if they are not as strong as you? What if they perish? Will you carry all these burdens?”

  David could see the resemblance now. It was like a secret pushing to the surface slowly until it was too hard to miss. In the place of the man, he could see the young boy. But where there was mischief and childish playfulness on the man’s face, there was only stoic coldness on the boy. His mind whirled with thoughts as he considered the many meanings of this. Then he pushed all the thoughts away and settled on the conversation.

  “They are free to make their choices,” David said, and even as he said it, a sadness settled on him. He knew, without some gift of foresight, that they’d follow him wherever he went. Whatever choice he gave them was a meaningless illusion. They would choose him, even if he was running into a storm of sharp shards.

  The man nodded. “I guess it is time to give you what you came here for. But know this, you are no savior. This world has no need for that. Not in the way you know it. You are meant to sever and destroy. But that, again, is a fate you can fight against.”

  He laughed then. A peal of smooth, sweet-sounding laughter that shocked even Vith. When Chaos was done, he leaned forward, calloused fingers reaching for David’s face. He willed himself from flinching from the man.

  “I will give you a gift. The gift of a name. Names are how we are remembered, and there is power in memory. Names are the beginning of understanding. And insight leads to power. I believe you can tell from how you’ve grown since you learned Vith’s name.”

  “I understand,” David said, leaning forward even as his heart hammered in his chest. He said the fear chants he’d learned from Specter and his father. And when the fingers brushed his forehead, he expected an explosion of power.

  Instead, he felt a frosty grip within him. Then the cold spread and his eyes felt heavy. It wasn’t painful, but it was heavy. As that spread, so did the memories. More and more. Unlike with Vith, the understanding was pure and intense. It was easy to devour.

  When David opened his eyes, he knew who sat in front of him and he bowed in awe. Much more was left to consume, but with what he knew already, he felt himself shiver. If this being was his to control, then what kind of power did the gods have?

  “You can’t use the mantle of Chaos yet,” the man said. “But I know you can feel it now.”

  David nodded.

  “You have to say it,” The man said, slowly transforming into the boy. His wrinkles vanished, the scars faded, his body shrunk and his hair changed from pure black to silver and short. The laugh lines were gone, and so was the playfulness. He was Chaos once again, and his eyes could freeze a world to its core.

  “You didn’t know the kind of power you have?” Vith asked. “And you have not seen the others yet.”

  “Who am I?” Chaos asked, the dead disappeared and the town burned like a painting shedding off a canvas. Chaos’ power was staggering. It was the first time David had seen it reach this extent. This was beyond essence control. It was something else, something more than just power.

  “Aza,” David said and the name left him breathless. He wobbled, falling forward, drained of whatever power he had. He’d used Vith’s name so many times and yet he hadn’t felt anything like this.

  “Are you stupid? We are different entities for different purposes. With me, your connection to essence is stronger, what does that mean?”

  “That you should be kinder?” Aza asked. David realized his voice was in his head now and had somehow returned to the room. The cushion was under him and he felt himself regain power slowly. His head was on the table in front of him and the parchment was gone.

  “What happened?”

  “My name has the power of chaos,” Aza said. “It shook up the essence in you, drained you a little.”

  “He is just weak,” Vith said and David groaned. He’d just added another voice to the ones in his head. How long before I go mad?

  You have completed your insight!

  Your connection to Aza (Chaos) has increased!

  You have acquired the mantle of Chaos

  Complete absorption of Aza completes one of the five stages of [Master of All]

  Your Ruler authority has increased [Sealed]

  David stood up and stretched. He felt sore even though he hadn’t done anything physical. He was a little disappointed that he hadn’t gotten anything new, but he was close to being the master of all. And even though it was faint, he could sense something stirring within him. He wanted to ask Vith, but he knew she would only make fun of him.

  You have once again added another powerful ally, Ignis said, startling David. The dragon’s voice was a rough boom. You disappear and come back with new things. I can sense it, this new power. It is stronger than the first.

  “Shut up, you daft dragon,” Vith cursed.

  David grinned, walking to the door. The bald man appeared before he reached it. He appraised David and nodded.

  “You may leave, Lord Ruler.”