Countdown, day 2 -

Chapter 6 - Countdown, day 2 -

"Ahahahahaha," a laughter echoed throughout the ever-shifting realm of pure chaos. The landscape was a chaotic tapestry of colors, shapes, and energies that defied comprehension. Mountains of fire gave way to oceans of liquid lightning, only to be overtaken by forests of sentient crystal trees. Gravity fluctuated, causing objects to float aimlessly one moment and crash to the ground the next.

Above, a tempest of swirling energy raged eternally. Lightning danced between fragments of reality, casting eerie and ever-changing shadows upon the land below. The thunderous cacophony of chaotic energy reverberated throughout the realm, a constant reminder of its volatile nature.

Within this realm, creatures of pure chaos roamed freely. These beings were living paradoxes, their forms morphing with every passing moment. Some were composed of shifting elements, while others existed as abstract concepts given life.

Time in the Realm of Pure Chaos was an abstract concept. Moments stretched into eternities, and years flashed by in an instant. It was a place where the past, present, and future overlapped, creating a bewildering sense of timelessness.

Despite the chaotic nature of this ever-changing existence, one figure, Hi'keem, currently manifested himself within this realm. His body seemed to resist the effects of the chaos, but the reason for his presence was unknown. He watched as his son attempted to grasp The Primordial Chaos and cast a chaos spell.

"Hahaha, that's my boy! Even if what you just did was stupid," he spoke aloud, though he remained alone in this tumultuous realm as he watched his son through a rift in reality.

"Well, boy, how are you going to handle this? Every chaos spell cast is from The Primordial Chaos. If you don't understand its nature, you'll never be able to wield it! Now show me, my son, prove to me that my blood runs through your veins!" exclaimed the older wizard.

As he finished speaking, a native creature of the realm landed behind him with a resounding thump. This nightmarish, dragon-like creature was formidable and towering, its serpentine body covered in ever-shifting scales. It had four limbs with sharp, clawed digits, a head adorned with wicked horns and spiky crests, fiery red eyes, and jaws filled with rows of jagged teeth. Its long, sinuous tail trailed behind it, and bat-like wings sprouted from its back. The creature was surrounded by swirling chaotic energies as it stared down at Hi'keem, who simply grinned back.

"Well, look who it is, old Jabberwocky," the wizard laughed and smiled at the creature.

__________________________________

Elizabeth awoke at the first gentle rays of the morning sun, a routine she shared with her sisters. However, she was free of morning duties. After a refreshing soak in their communal bath, she slipped into a more proper cleric's attire, her blonde hair neatly arranged, and exited the church.

Her destination was as spontaneous as her generosity, for helping others was what she was renowned for. Her first stop led her to the local baker's store. The baker, a middle-aged widow who had tragically lost her husband to bandits scouting the village's defenses one random night, was busy kneading dough when Elizabeth entered.

"Good morning, Mrs. Lesley!" Elizabeth greeted warmly.

"Ah, morning, Elizabeth. Are you here to lend a hand again?" Mrs. Lesley replied, her hands never halting in their rhythmic kneading.

"Yes, indeed," Elizabeth affirmed, making her way behind the counter and into the bustling kitchen. After washing her hands, she reached for an apron and joined the baker in her tasks.

Most of the morning unfolded quietly, with the occasional villager rushing past the bakery in haste. As high noon approached, most of the village had scurried past the bakery, converging at a single location.

"Hey, what do you think is going on?" Elizabeth inquired, her curiosity piqued, while Ms. Lesley deftly extracted freshly baked buns from the oven.

"I don't know, perhaps something important," the baker replied, her demeanor unaffected.

At that very moment, a young farm boy caught sight of Elizabeth out of the corner of his eye and hurried into the bakery.

"Elizabeth, is Hi'kim alright?" he gasped, his breathless inquiry also grabbing Ms. Lesley's attention.

"Alright? Why wouldn't he be?" Elizabeth responded, wiping flour from her hands onto her apron.

"You don't know?" The farm boy looked at her with surprise.

"Know what?"

"Hi'kim's and Hi'keem's house is encased in a multicolored dome. Nobody knows what it is, and everyone's afraid to touch it. We poked it with sticks, and they turned into snakes, and the rocks we threw at it transformed into frogs. What's even scarier is that it seems to be slowly growing," the farm boy rushed out his words, his breaths punctuating the urgency of his message.

Elizabeth's eyes widened in alarm just before she darted towards the door and out of the bakery. She sprinted down the path leading to the home of the two wizards, a deep worry etched across her face, her heart pounding in her chest.

Upon reaching her destination, she stood before the peculiar magical dome, just as the farm boy had described, where their home had once stood.

"N...no!"

Her lips trembled as she uttered a single word softly. Afterward, she pushed determinedly through the crowd, desperately trying to reach the house. The determined blonde woman pushed through the gathering, reaching the center of the concerned crowd. Without a second thought, she attempted to run toward the mysterious dome, only to be intercepted by Baroness Issabella.

"Are you crazy? What do you think you're doing?" the baroness exclaimed.

"What am I doing? I'm trying to get to my boyfriend! Now, let go of me!" Elizabeth retorted, her voice filled with frustration

.

"And what exactly can you do? Do you even know what this is? How to stop it? How to get past it?" Issabella pressed on, her tone stern.

"You don't know. All you're doing is being reckless. Only two people could possibly understand what this is, and neither of them have been seen since yesterday. We can only assume they're inside that thing, dealing with it as quickly as possible," Issabella explained, turning her gaze back to the enigmatic dome. "All we can do is wait."

Those words offered Elizabeth no solace, especially when she looked into the baroness's eyes and detected the hidden worry behind her stoic expression—a leader striving to maintain an air of strength but unable to conceal her genuine concern.

Her expression shifted from worry to outright fear as she scanned the faces around her. These were familiar faces, people she had aided in the village and others whose prayers she had heard in the church. Yet, they brought her no comfort or reassurance in this eerie moment. "Am I just supposed to sit here and watch whatever this is?" she wondered aloud.

"That's all you can do, that and pray to the goddess that whatever this is gets resolved quickly," came the calm voice of the bishop from the other side of her. He walked up to the blonde maiden, his gaze never leaving the enigmatic dome.

"It's okay to be worried and even scared when facing the unknown, as long as your faith remains steadfast. The goddess will guide you. So, don't lose your faith in the goddess or in those two," the holy man added as he clasped his hands in prayer.

Elizabeth stared at the bishop, and for the first time since she was a child, she didn't regard him with disgust but with awe. It was the first time in a long while that she truly believed he was fulfilling his role as a spiritual leader. Even during his sermons, she had often felt he was merely going through the motions. Still, at this moment, his presence and words enveloped her in an aura of calm and reassurance she desperately needed.

__________________________________

"Arrgggf!" The wizard's anguished cry filled the room as he clutched the chaotic ball, feeling the very fabric of his hand and body unraveling.

Chaos energy erupted, cascading uncontrollably throughout the home until it became an unrecognizable realm of madness. Hi'kim himself underwent a profound transformation. Multicolored feathers sprouted from the left side of his face, while four sinuous octopus tendrils replaced his left arm. His right leg mutated into that of a giant chicken, and his left leg began to liquefy into an amorphous form.

"YOU. WILL. OBEY. ME!" The young wizard bellowed in defiance, struggling to regain control over a situation that had spiraled far beyond his mastery.

_What in the world? I've never failed to cast a spell, never let magic slip through my grasp like this, _he thought in frustration.

For Hi'kim, magic had always been a birthright, effortless and innate, passed down by his lineage. It flowed like a familiar current through his being, as natural as breath and heartbeat. But chaos magic, even at its rudimentary level, challenged that very notion, striking at his pride and self-assuredness. His eyes blazed with anger, directed at an abstract concept that refused to submit, unlike any other form of magic he had encountered. Yet, he remained blissfully unaware of the havoc unfolding beyond his room.

The room itself had ceased to adhere to the laws of reality. Its dimensions expanded outward, surpassing the confines of the building. Foliage sprouted atop every surface, many sporting malevolent mouths with sharp teeth or tendrils adorned with wicked thorns. Jagged glass formations pierced the ground and ceiling like grotesque stalactites and stalagmites. The floor quivered and shifted, resembling a landscape atop a fault line, causing everything nailed down to crash to the ground. Chaos reigned supreme, and the world outside this room was a reflection of the wizard's internal struggle.

Intense pain coursed through Hi'kim's body, a searing agony that seemed to consume him before everything faded to black, and he tumbled forward into a pool of liquid glass. When he regained consciousness, the world reverted to its former state, and his body was restored. He found himself lying in his bed, a young woman seated beside him, engrossed in one of his books. Even through his blurred vision, he recognized her unmistakable presence—Elizabeth.

"Ughh," he groaned as he stirred in the bed. His movement caught Elizabeth's attention, and she immediately lunged forward, embracing him tightly.

"By the goddess, you're alive! You had me worried sick!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"Auggh, it hurts," he replied with a near-yell, his body aching.

"S...sorry," she stammered, releasing her hold on him and returning to her seat by his side.

"What happened?" Hi'kim began to sit up slowly, every motion sending waves of pain through his body.

"What happened is that you tampered with something beyond your comprehension and nearly destroyed yourself and not to mention putting the village in danger!" Elizabeth stated sternly. "At least, that's what your father said." Her gaze shifted involuntarily.

He tried to recall the events, but a splitting headache thwarted his efforts.

"Don't strain yourself," she advised, "your father said you'll be in pain for the rest of the day. You've been out for about 5 hours, and most of the day has passed." She reached over and picked up a fruit plate, selecting a grape and gently offering it to him. "Now eat. I know you, and I bet you haven't eaten anything all day."

He didn't resist as she gently pushed the grape past his lips and into his mouth. Even chewing a single grape seemed to be a painful effort for him at the moment, and Elizabeth couldn't help but notice.

The blonde maiden picked up a pear took a bite from it, and after a few moments of chewing, she leaned in, placing her lips against his and transferring the mushed-up pear into his mouth.

"While you were out, I was reading the books on chaos magic you had on your floor. Were you really attempting something so dangerous? I read a few pages, and it's pure insanity. Where did you get it from?" She inquired, reaching for and holding up one of the books.

After swallowing the pear mush, the young wizard shifted his attention from Elizabeth to the book.

"Did you look at who wrote it?" he asked nonchalantly.

"No," she admitted.

"I advise you to look at the author," he suggested, looking away.

Elizabeth took the book and turned to the title page. "Hi'keem Mwangi... wait, this was written by your dad!?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, my dad. To someone of religious beliefs, the words in that book may seem insane or even heresy, while to those of scholarly or arcane backgrounds, the words may be unbelievable. But those words were penned by my father's very hand, so there must be some kind of truth to them. I may not know everything about my old man, but the one thing I do know is that he has never once lied to me. This is even more true when it comes to sorcery."

He slowly attempted to pull himself out of bed, only to be stopped by Elizabeth.

"And what do you think you're doing? Your father had to rebuild parts of your body and anatomy because they were so twisted and deformed when he found you. I... I didn't even know half the things he did were possible. But he managed to put you back together again and said you must stay in bed until tomorrow!" Elizabeth admonished him.

"Rebuilt my body? I thought my leg and arm felt different. I guess I didn't notice at first because I was so focused on controlling the spell," he mused, looking at his left arm and running his right hand across it.

"You're taking this all too well, don't you think?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as she observed him.

"If you grew up with my father this would be the least surprising thing you'd see," he replied with a small laugh.

Watching him laugh, her heart swelled to the point where she couldn't resist lunging forward and hugging him tightly.

"Ouch, ouch, that hurts, ouch!" The young wizard cried out in intense pain.

"This is your punishment for making me cry. I was scared because, at first, I couldn't get to you. I had no way of knowing if you were okay or not. Then your father appeared, and I followed him inside, only to find you passed out on the ground, completely deformed. It made me cry even harder because I knew I couldn't save you!" She squeezed him harder, tears forming in her eyes, accompanied by audible sniffles.

"Elizabeth..." was all Hi'kim could muster as he listened, unable to bring himself to look at her.

"Please, please promise me that you will never scare me like this again," she implored between sobs.

Elizabeth, I scared you this much? You never showed this level of worry or fear when you saw some of the things I trained against or when I hunted beasts or bandits in the forest, so why now? The young wizard pondered to himself, keeping his thoughts unspoken.

"I... I... I guess there's no better time than now to tell you. Hi'kim, I'm actually scared. No, terrified!" She admitted, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Maybe it never dawned on me until now, or maybe I was just taking for granted how protected we were. Your father is a powerful wizard who seems like he can literally do anything. He's protected this village for so long that I believed nothing could go wrong because he was here. The baroness was always a resourceful woman. Despite the village's size and location, she could always pull strings to get items and resources into our village when needed. And then there is the bishop. Despite everything, he is still a powerful healer who has helped the sick and kept the villagers' hopes up in times of need. Even earlier today, his words could calm me down and stop me from doing something remarkably stupid and yet I've treated him with such disdain." She fidgeted as she stared at the floor, her voice laden with regret.

"But today was a wake-up call for me. We will be leaving this village soon. Those protections will be gone, and the security that once enveloped us will no longer exist. What frightens me more than anything is that you will rush headfirst into situations where things want to and can kill you. You want to be an adventurer, to throw yourself into danger without a second thought," she explained, her voice trembling as she continued. "And now, I'm starting to question what if something happens, and you don't return to me or worse, I can't help or heal you."

"Elizabeth, remember I am not a child; neither of us are anymore. The very wizard who protected us and this village is the same wizard who trained me. I won't just die or disappear. I am a powerful wizard in my own right," Hi'kim tried to reassure her.

"Yes, a powerful wizard, yet one who, instead of using his abilities to persuade some random noble to hire you as a court wizard or magical advisor, you would rather accept requests to venture into some dark forest and fight evil cultists trying to corrupt the forest and its guardian as they work to resurrect their dark god," she exclaimed, her voice bordering on a yell amid her sniffles and now full-blown crying.

Dark cultists? Guardians? Forest? Elizabeth, what scenarios are running through your head? The young man thought, wanting to chuckle but refraining from doing so, not wanting to belittle her feelings.

Elizabeth's grip on him tightened even further. She hadn't let go throughout this exchange, just crying into his chest.

Still, this is the first time I've ever seen her like this... seen her this ****. I guess that I just thought she could take everything in stride and keep pushing forward. I thought she was just like me, wanting to seize the future without hesitation or regret. But now, I don't know, he reflected as he gently placed his hand on her head, offering comfort and solace.

___________________________________

"What was even the point of all of that?" The creature of chaos asked, while he and another figure stared into one of the rifts in reality. On the other side of the rift was Hi'keem's study. Within it, a figure in the form and shape of the wizard himself walked towards the rift. As the figure approached, its body began breaking down into pure energy, which would be drawn into the rift and back to the man standing by the Jabberwocky.

"I am a creature born of chaos, and yet your actions perplex me. The spell that boy cast, while he was ill-prepared to handle it, should have dissipated the moment he released it, causing minimal actual damage," the strange creature remarked, its head, neck, and body shaking in a manner reminiscent of a wet dog drying off.

"Yet it was you who maintained it, pouring more chaotic energy into it, causing it to overcharge. The boy had no chance or hope to stop it because you hijacked his spell. Why?" The creature continued and concluded with a question.

Once the doppelganger was fully absorbed back into the wizard, he turned towards the Jabberwocky with a smile.

"I know that there are many things you beings born here don't understand when it comes to the material planes; mortality for one. You all never truly die when killed; you just resurrect in a weaker form than you were and start at the bottom of the totem pole again. Familial ties being another."

With a wave of his hand, the interior of the rift changed from his study to Hi'kim's room, right at the moment when Hi'kim attempted to comfort Elizabeth by placing his hand on her head.

"In the past three thousand years, I've had about one hundred and fifty children, all from women of different species. Some are still alive to this day, while others' descendants are still alive, even if they've forgotten where their lineage comes from," he said as he turned his head to the rift.

"All of them shared one very interesting aspect: they were all gifted in one way or another, and he is no different. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they were all prodigies."

With swift hand gestures, several more rifts appeared, but this time, they showed glimpses of Hi'kim's youth and his journey in learning magic.

"All four primal elements and secondary elements, Conjuration, Alteration, Necromancy, Divination, Enchantment, Illusions, and even Alchemy. No matter the school, no matter th me spell, all he needed to do was see it once, and he could mentally break down the formula of a spell and understand it."

One rift displayed an eight-year-old Hi'kim holding hands with a little blonde girl of the same age. They were in the village marketplace, following a younger-looking Hi'keem as he shopped randomly. The wizard was freely casting the spell "Mage Hand" to carry items and objects around them. Unbeknownst to the wizard, the children who followed him stared in awe. The little girl admired the magic, while the boy intently studied the spell itself. Within seconds, the boy found himself casting the spell to entertain the little girl. He used mage hands to pick up random things, causing vendors to panic and chase after their merchandise.

"You inquired about my reasons for overcharging and maintaining that spell – it was to impart a simple lesson. Chaos magic isn't merely another school of magic. While all magic carries its dangers, chaos magic stands on a different plane, with no shortcuts. You can't merely break down and recreate the formulas of these spells. To genuinely grasp this, he had to confront the consequences of failing to comprehend chaos theory itself. You mentioned that I took over his spell, but you're mistaken. I assumed control of a spell he never had mastery over in the first place. Then there's the second realization he needed to confront: he will soon leave home, and Father won't be there to rescue him if something goes horribly wrong," Hi'keem declared as he closed all the rifts.

"It just sounds like you want a reason to bully the young sorcerer to me. The boy possesses the abilities of a sorcerer, which isn't surprising given who his grandmother is," the Jabberwocky replied.

"Please, I don't need a reason to bully my son. I do that just when I get bored, and do not mention my lineage again," the wizard responded.

The Jabberwocky let out a low laugh. "The boy knows not where his blood originates, and the father continues to deny where it comes from."

"Hush up before I change you into a scaly chicken. Now, we have more important things to discuss. Its getting close to the hundred year mark."