Single for Eternity
Chapter 82: CHAOS

Chapter 82: CHAOS

Einar’s voice came out low, barely above a whisper, but the effect was immediate.

"Do you know about the almighty... Chaos?"

The moment the word left his lips, the air inside the chamber turned suffocating. The temperature dropped, shadows twisted unnaturally, and time itself seemed to skip a beat. Ness’s pupils dilated as a shockwave of invisible force surged through the room, centered entirely on him.

At first, he only blinked. A twinge of discomfort hit his chest, like a sharp inhale of cold wind on a burning throat. But then it intensified—pain like no other, raw and soul-deep. He gasped and fell forward, clutching his head.

"Ngh... W-What did you say...?" His voice was barely recognizable, cracking under pressure.

Einar didn’t move. His expression unreadable. He had seen what happens to someone who even thinks about CHAOS.

’Baldy’—his old friend was a livi....a dead example for it. He deliberately said CHAOS, making the god of darkness think about something he shouldn’t.

Ness’s body shook violently. Veins darkened across his skin like spiderwebs, pulsing with a sickly iridescence. His fingers clawed into the stone floor, shattering it beneath his grip. A sound—somewhere between a scream and a guttural growl—erupted from his throat.

"Y-You fool! That name—" he choked, eyes wide with pure, unfiltered terror. "You weren’t supposed to speak it!"

Dark mist bled from his body like open wounds. His limbs twisted, spasming as if something ancient and vile was trying to tear its way out of him.

Inside his mind, it was worse. Far worse.

He stood in an endless void, bound by chains not of metal but of memory. Countless eyes surrounded him—eyes that remembered. From eras before the stars, before gods, before him. Before existence.

They spoke not in words, but in knowing. And they knew him. They had seen him—every version of him, every choice, every failure.

"DIE!!!," the void whispered. "You have uttered something you shouldn’t have, You have thought about something you shouldn’t have....."

His screams echoed inside his own soul. The corruption within him—once a controlled, elegant force—was burning out of control, devouring him. The dark tendrils that made up his being recoiled from the name, unraveling in his very core.

Back in the material realm, Einar observed with unsettling calm as Ness writhed in agony. Blood poured from his nose and mouth. His form flickered, unstable, like a candle in a storm.

"You... you invoked it..." Ness gasped, coughing up ichor. "Why? You don’t... know what you’ve done."

Einar’s gaze sharpened. "Of course I did, that’s the reason why I said that."

"Everything is affected by it!" Ness shrieked, collapsing to his knees. "It is the uncertainty itself. The mayhem. You summoned the attention of what lies beyond the veil! Chaos burns order... and I—I am made of order!"

His corrupted form began to break apart, shards of black fractals flaking off and evaporating into nothingness.

He tried to focus—tried to suppress the pain with sheer willpower—but the agony only worsened. His divine threads twisted, torn asunder. His very name—Ness—began to unravel in the ether. The corruption that had once empowered him was now his cage, rejecting him in the presence of the concept that predated all things.

"This body... can’t hold it anymore—!" he screamed.

Desperation overtook him. With one final surge of strength, he activated the mark embedded deep within the castle’s heart—a latent command, a failsafe:

Awaken the Thralls.

Every corrupted soul across the town jolted like puppets on strings. Hollow eyes blinked to life, and their mouths split into grotesque smiles. Laborers dropped their tools and turned on their comrades. Builders, bakers, children, mothers—all twisted, corrupted vessels—activated in unison.

The town erupted into chaos.

Back in the chamber, Ness staggered toward the window, his body steaming, breaking apart at the edges. "You brought ruin... You idiot!" he snarled, his voice now layered with something else—something ancient and echoing.

Einar stepped forward, but Ness vanished, blinking out of existence like a dying ember in the wind. Not teleported. Not gone. Just... absent.

Outside, the streets became battlegrounds. People ran screaming as their neighbors turned into predators, driven by an invisible command to slaughter everything in sight.

And from the sky, Leiruat, barely reformed, watched with widened eyes as black fog rose from the town center. "He activated the failsafe..." she murmured. "He’s retreating—but leaving hell behind."

She had already sensed the failsafe when she was conversing with him but didn’t point it out because there wasn’t a necessity.

But the fact he activated it so fast, just moments after she had went away. Felt concerning.

’Something must have happened!’

She spun around mid air, and turned at the direction of the castle. She was currently hovering over the forest searching for Tauriel but she was unable to find her.

’I will find her later, currently the castle and town situation is more important.’

...

Away from the hell broke free, a faint dark spirit flickered uncontrollably in a deserted place with nothing but sand.

The spirit continued to flicker for quite a while until finally taking a barely humanoid shape.

The dark spirit materialized into a dark mannequin shaped body, it’s mouth contained just a sharp set of jagged sharp white teeth.

It’s form was flickering not just because of weakness but from the fear of the horror it had faced just moments before.

The figure was the God of Darkness Ness, or better known as Skin. Barely escaping the clutches of Chaos he figure was extremely weak and frail.

But an undeniable fury and hatred oozed from his figure, his shaking body and grinding teeth made it crystal clear.

’You will regret this Einar Sanguis.’

He thought inwardly cursing at the guy, who had launched the wrath of Chaos on him.

He had forcefully stopped himself from thinking about Chaos but the remnants force and after effects were still palpable.

He gazed at his surroundings, seeing nothing but a deserted place with no vegetation or life...

He decided to observe exactly where he was, as such he hovered above ground and levitated to the end of horizon hoping to find something or someone.