Out of every realm he had ever visited, and he had been to so of the most awful places in existence, the Chaos Door hated this realm the most.
At first, there was no way for him to conceptualize this hatred, many would argue that he was a fool for picking this realm over say so of the particularly despicable levels of the Great Abyss, or the Nest of the Nyrnthgin Horde that could stretch to cover multiple universes, but he knew that this hatred ca about because of the subtle manner this realm poisoned the mind.
It was in the small things. Everything seed off, but not by a lot, at the beginning it was easy to miss, but soon that sense of wrongness would continue to increase, from oceans that had no end or beginning and should have been filled with life, but mysteriously barren, to continents that should house no life but had life, to the subtle sll of rot that perate all things to...
The list was endless, and with everyone that he discovered, the hatred for this place deepened, because he could feel it poisoning his soul, and he wondered how Rowan could have stayed inside here for so long without going mad.
His search for Rowan so far had been fruitless, making him wonder if this fickle client was about to postpone their eting again for another million years. At least he could detect him ahead, but there seed to be a sort of interference.
The thod he was using to detect Rowan was not from any of his senses, but due to what Rowan had left with him. Without it, he could no longer understand the man or what he had beco, and Labaletai hoped the treasure was not beginning to fail him.
Any other ti, this sort of change would be good news for Labaletai since the number of years he held onto the goods outside the agreed ti of disbursent would attract extra charges, and if for any reason the client was unable to pay for his services at the end of the day, the Chaos Door could seize the goods and any item from the client until he had satisfied all the terms of the agreent, this paynt could also include the life of the client.
Like most in reality, the strength of the Chaos Door had been built on a mound of bodies. It did not need to be said that the Chaos Door was charging premium prices to be working in this realm, but he did not want to continue, and for the first ti in a long while, greed no longer was his driving force, now it was fear.
Chasing after the trail of Rowan that he could sense, the Chaos Door began to feel a heaviness inside his soul, different from the normal oppressive nature of this world, and the closer he got to Rowan, the worse this sensation beca. It was as if he was a mortal willfully walking into a den of poisonous vipers, all of his senses were cringing away, telling him to run without looking back, but he pushed forward.
For the Chaos Door, such a situation was extrely strange, and he would be laughing if only he could find it funny.
This body was just one of his many clones and its death should not matter as much to him, like losing a single hair on his head, and yet, he found out that every mont he proceeded toward the trail of Rowan it got harder and harder to find his motivation to take the next step.
Even if Labaletai did not know what he was feeling, the passenger he carried had stayed beside a Primordial for long enough that she understood certain things, and the eyes of the blue snake flashed with alarm as she left the Chaos Door and watched him sweat and struggle to proceed ahead, the thoughts in her mind unknown.
The strain of moving ahead almost broke Labaletai, and then unexpectedly, the daylight vanished and darkness took its place, as Ascendance switched to Calamity,
'Just what I needed, just what I fucking needed!' he scread internally.
The oppression of the seven Calamity Suns overhead then turned out to be oddly comforting after a while, because their overwhelming presence was deadening his senses, making Labaletai feel as if he was traveling through mud.
He tried not to think about the reason why seven Calamity Suns seed to be a more viable destination than where he was going, but the only comfort he had was knowing that he had no skin in the ga,
"Don't kill the ssenger," he chuckled half-heartedly. Unexpectedly the pressure he was feeling ahead suddenly vanished, almost as if a boulder had been lifted from his soul and he did not know where the relief ca from as he scread in frustration,
"Rowan, where are you?!"
Space shivered and Ti stopped and he heard a voice beside him, "Here."
R
Rowan watched the shaken Chaos Door for a while, the presence of this being reminding him once more about the unknown portion of his mories and the mysteries surrounding his
past.
Internally he scoffed at himself, 'You would think that for a person who has been burned by so many secrets, I would try not to keep secrets from myself.'
Rowan spoke out, "Labaletai, welco, I would like to chat, but I am in sothing of a haste, you see."
The Chaos Door looked around, visibly disturbed and Rowan wondered if he could sense the residual presence of the Eye, but this was information that he did not care to know,
"My Lord," Labaletai seed to have shaken himself from his disturbed state, the term he used to address Rowan caught his attention, but he placed it aside.
The Chaos Door looked at the new form of Rowan in shock as he wondered if the pressure he was feeling from the armor in front of him was the reason Rowan had chosen this realm.
Because of his previous state of mind, Labaletai had not been in full cognizance of his environnt, but now that he could breathe a bit better and his senses could spread to their full dinsion, he nearly keeled over in shock, and for a mont he stared at Rowan, and at the surrounding space filled with bright sunlight and then he swallowed, and he bowed towards Rowan, his fra creaking, it was the way of reality that the weak was subservient before the strong,
"For a million years I have kept your charges safe. For a million years, none of your seals were broken, or tampered with. The Chaos Door has fulfilled the end of the bargain..."
The door of the Chaos Door slowly creaked open from its fra, and it revealed darkness, from this darkness a gray unassuming box erged,
"... My Lord, it is ti to fulfill your end."
The box floated towards Rowan and the Chaos Door went silent, taking a few steps back,
waiting.
Rowan did not imdiately pick up the box, instead, he looked at Labaletai and then at the space outside his ti domain. He had previously sensed opportunity and danger. The opportunity was Labaletai, precisely the box he had just delivered to him, the danger was still roving outside, but it was coming closer,
"Tell sothing Labaletai," Rowan glanced at the Chaos Door before looking away, focusing on the danger, "Did you bring any passenger along with you?"
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