"Come on, you can tell me," Jin Wang inched closer like a snake coming up behind its prey. He was standing right in front of the golden barrier now.
"I-I can't," Dima muttered to himself while sneaking a quick glance in Lady Natalia's direction.
'So he doesn't want her to know? Well then, allow me to solve that problem.'
Jin Wang snapped his fingers and the few grains of black dust that were stuck to the bottom of their respective shoes came alive. They began multiplying with extraordinary speed and a few seconds later there were enough to completely cover each of them from head to toe.
But only Dima was left untouched while the other two had black sand coming out of every single orifice. It crawled into their armor and up their bodies, down their mouths and over their heads until only a rough humanoid statue could be seen fumbling about.
They didn't even have an opportunity to scream for help.
The sand hardened and despite their many attempts to break free, there was nothing to be done. They froze in the same poses they were making at the end, trying to force the sand out of their mouths so they could breathe.
"WHA-"
"Relax, they are fine. But now they can't move, hear or say anything. If you try to forcefully break the statues they will shatter into a million pieces along with the iron sand. I would say you have about 10 minutes before there is nothing left of them to save."
He reached out and gently flicked the barrier, popping it like a water bubble. Now there was nothing standing between them and no one to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"This was so you would understand that I could have killed you lot whenever I wanted but held back because there was something you have to tell me. Prove your value and I will let you go back, all of you."
Dima peered towards Lady Natalia's statue with a mournful gaze that left Jin Wang confused. But before he could inquire Dima spoke up.
"There were whispers of a prophecy, an old one. From even before the Republic came to be. I don't know what exactly the prophecy was but this 'Son of Chaos' would have something to do with it. We just thought of it as a cautionary tale of the big bad wolf that would be born because of our sins. It is a secret passed down through our family for generations."
"Many millions of years ago a very powerful seer was born into our clan. When her only child was taken away by a demon lord she vowed to get revenge on the ones behind it. So she pried her way into the very depths of hell itself and stole something from there. It was a fragment of the plans of the Great Old Ones."
"They were trying to create the perfect being of Chaos. Someone of the material realm that could channel the true essence of the Domain of Chaos. Someone that could walk all the different planes without any repercussions. They wanted someone that could distort the boundary between the heavens, the hells, and the mortal realms."
"But there were problems with that since the absolute power of Chaos is not suitable for beings of flesh. It distorts under its influence, bringing the user closer to the inhabitants of the Domains of Chaos. The chaos feeds on intense human emotions but at the same time, it endlessly corrupts them. Sooner or later they are left as empty husks capable only of mindless slaughter."
"Only a body that has been washed by demonic blood is capable of acting as a suitable host but such a being would then be corrupted with the essence of hell and their soul twisted into its most primal forms. They would be incapable of feeling human emotions which is necessary to channel chaos."
"They needed something in the middle. A body capable of harboring demonic flesh and a powerful soul to withstand its corruption while still being more human than anything else. And for that, they set forth a plan."
"To find a being pure of heart that had been fouled at a young age and let its soul be subjugated to a powerful spell, one capable of submerging it in a sea of most brutal human emotions without outright killing it. If he could withstand the torture then the result would be someone suitable for the moniker of the Son of Chaos."
"A human soul warped beyond recognition, reborn into a body of demonic origins that is capable of opening itself completely to chaos while still retaining what little humanity it has left. That's the son of chaos."
"You said I had no proof? There is plenty across the ages. This is not the first time they have tried to bring the 'Son' into existence but it always fails. Either the body falls or the mind collapses and yet, somehow, for some strange reason, this time it's different. This time whoever they have chosen as the sacrifice might come to be.. It is serious enough that even the Primordial Spark has reached out."
