Defiance of the Fall

He extracted a mote from the churning ball of Chaos , infusing it with his desire as he let it drift out from him . A gate appeared , and Zac wordlessly stepped through , leaving the Calamity behind . He found himself standing on the peak of Mount Illumination . The sky was already overcast and full of lightning , as though the System had anticipated his move .

Zac wasn’t sure if the gate was made possible through the Dao of Chaos or the System’s approval . The true nature of Chaos was ultimately too difficult to grasp . He was only awarded glimpses of the truth , but the truth wasn’t what it seemed when it came to this particular peak . All was flux .

That was fine . He hadn’t been sure if his idea would work , but he’d figured if Chaos could take him from the Orom to Zecia , then surely a short skip back to his mansion would be easy . If it failed , he would simply have jumped down toward the exit , though that would have delayed him by at least an hour . And there was no telling how the two tyrants would act after the System got what it wanted and left .

That wasn’t a headache he needed while advancing to the next step .

Being temporarily connected to the Dao of Chaos confirmed the validity of his idea , but he didn’t have much time . Zac extracted a second Chaos Mote from the ball and gently dragged it into his body , toward his Duplicity Core .

Chaos was the key to forming his core , but that didn’t mean he’d suddenly decided to form a Chaos Core . His blueprint was still the same Trinity Core , Quantum Core , or Void Core , depending on which aspect you wanted to focus on . And before the Chaos Mote could be added to that plan , it needed to be transformed .

The inherent unpredictability in the Chaos Mote struggled against being controlled , but a flood of the Branches of Pale Seal and Kalpataru rapidly bound it to Zac’s chariot . To ensure nothing went wrong , he also activated his bloodline to form a protective layer of Void Energy around the mote .

The Chaos Mote furiously resisted the foreign insights , but its energy was limited while Zac’s soul was overloaded with borrowed strength . Eventually , it shuddered and split apart , like a cell undergoing mitosis . The two forces radiated the unmistakable aura of Oblivion and Creation , then the attunement shifted again . Left were the Daos of Life and Death .

You could argue that he’d ruined the magical nature of the Chaos Mote . After all , it was easy to split a Grand Dao into its lower components but almost impossible to take it the other way . That was doubly true for a broken peak like Chaos . The motes were just like the Primal Dao back in the Twilight Ocean , which likely was why the System was so impatient to get the glimpses . Wait too long , and the ambient Dao would sully their truths .

Still , the two little swirls of incredibly condensed truths contained something crucial , something that put it at the same level as the Supreme treasures he’d prepared for today—potential . It was an energy that once existed as the Terminus of two of his Daos . That meant something , even when devolved into Life and Death .

You could see it from the simple fact that the two clouds of energy didn’t act like what you’d normally see when bringing the Daos of Life and Death together . They calmly floated into the Duplicity Core’s hatch . A small storm already raged inside from his opposing Daos . Life clashed with Death , urged on by the Branch of the War Axe .

That all stopped when the refined Chaos Mote entered the Hollow Core] . The energies mixed , and the violent eruptions were quelled . Not even the Dao of Conflict could trigger the two Daos that snuggled together in an unnatural embrace .

The world lit up as a bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of Zac , but he ignored it . The System could wait a bit longer . Zac kept the Glimpse of Chaos close to his chest as he extracted a third mote . It was refined and pushed into his hatch , further stabilizing the situation .

A fourth mote soon followed , but the fifth would have to be the last . It was a matter of balance . Just forming the glimpse left him in a bad way . Every mote extracted was like a hurricane unleashed in his body , compounding the damage . A little bit of mutilation was fine in the pursuit of benefits , but he had to be in a condition to follow up with the actual Core Formation .

Thank you , - Zac said , finally releasing the Glimpse of Chaos .

It floated away from him , showering the peak in the superlative truths of Chaos . The mountain rumbled , and the Dao of Samsara groaned as it unraveled . Samsara was a path of rules , creating an ecosystem of Life and Death governed by the laws of Karma and Order . Chaos was its antithesis , and its influence was like a rapidly spreading poison .