Ascension of Chaos

B2 | Chapter 10

Ashley

"Aaaand... sent," I mutter as I send off the contract to the Queen of Purgatory. And not even five seconds later, I get a notification about it being signed. Which is incredibly fast. So far I have to wonder if she bothered reading it.

Then again, she could just have completely inhuman reading speed.

"She's not human in the first place," Chaos comments.

Okay, I stand corrected. She probably does have inhuman reading speed.

Anyways, a portal opens as expected a dozen meters in front of me as I stand in the middle of the forest. Having used one of my stealth skills to leave the Spire without anyone noticing.

Meanwhile Blake had to head out to his own Spire to deal with his own affairs. Since he can't just hang out here all the time.

And mere seconds after the portal opens, people begin walking through it.

The first person to step through the portal is a woman with silver hair and pitch black orbs for eyes. Her skin is as pale as snow, with black veins of energy occasionally filtering up to the surface of her skin before fading away again. Kind of like a heartbeat.

Except that I don't hear a heartbeat in her at all from where I'm standing.

I go ahead and identify the woman.

♢ Dhalia Velonna Blight – Level XXXXXX (RESTRICTED) Draugr – 6142 Potential Skills – O ♢

Huh. I guess it kind of makes sense for one of the Successors of Death to be an undead.

Just that I never really considered that before myself.

Oh, right. I probably shouldn't be looking directly at her.

With that, I close my eyes, only briefly looking at the portal behind her as dozens of soldiers spill out of it.

Come to think of it, she didn't take any damage when I looked at her. Is that because she also has a True Damage protection skill?

"She does," Chaos confirms as I begin sensing my surroundings through Enhanced Perception along with my other enhanced senses.

A few seconds pass as Dhalia steps closer to me, meanwhile more and more of her forces flood through the portal. So many more that by the time the portal closes, I count a total of at least a few thousand in the clearing we're in right now.

"Greetings, Successor of Chaos, and may our alliance forever prosper," I hear Dhalia declare as I sense her extending her hand for a handshake.

Without any hesitation, I reach forwards and grab her hand while responding with a short and simple, "Agreed."

Then I proceed with my next contract. A rather strict one on one of the Tower of Chaos's three masters who just so happened to want to set up a branch here himself personally. The three people who rule over the entire Tower of Chaos and all of its sub towers spread across the universe.

Huh.

I go ahead and identify some more of their forces. Specifically some of the other species amongst them.

And there are a lot of different species. Especially amongst the Tower of Chaos's forces.

In fact, there doesn't seem to be anything linking the Tower of Chaos's forces whatsoever.

Their species are all very different, their outfits are very different, and their mannerisms are very different. Even their names are different.

Only their leaders seem to have those incredibly long and difficult to even pronounce names though. The ones standing at the front.

As for the ones under Dhalia? They all share at least one similarity.

Every last one is an undead.

"Well, nothing living can survive in Purgatory, so her forces have to be undead," Chaos comments, mentioning something I wasn't aware of before now.

Okay then.

My focus returns to the Tower Master as he begins to speak.

And kneels down on one knee while doing so. Which is weird. And is an action that all of the other people from the Tower behind him copy.

"Princess Ashley Sinclair Chaos, Queen of Destruction and Successor to our God, Chaos, I greet you with my utmost gratitude for your permission to come and serve you," Xander-whatever the rest of his name was – I'll just call him Xander from now on – says in an incredibly formal tone with what sounds like strong hints of worship in his voice. "Please use us as you see fit."

Did he just tack on Chaos to the end of my full name?

"Well, it's not exactly wrong, is it?" Chaos asks, sounding like he wants me to agree with him.

I pause for a few seconds before slowly nodding my head and saying, "Alright."

To both Chaos and Xander.

Then I find a surprise filling my vision in the form of an unexpected notification.

Through the authority of the Primordial of Chaos, the user Ashley Sinclair's official name registered within the System has been changed.

The user is now known as Ashley Sinclair Chaos.

I open my eyes to stare at it even though I apparently don't need to since the notification is even there with my eyes closed. Then a faint smile stretches across my face as I close my eyes again.

For some reason, seeing Chaos take over as my main family name while pushing the name of the Black and White Enforces back to my middle name... feels nice.