novelnext The Cradle of Chaos
The Cradle of Chaos
Silence was not peace; it was a physical pressure that crushed the senses.(Is this...?)
Shija emerged in a space where light was not permitted to exist.
(... Again... I am here...)
It was an absolute void, a blackness so dense it seemed liquid, wrapping his consciousness in an unbearable cold that did not numb the nerves but burned the soul.
(....)
There was no floor, no sky, no horizon; only an infinite expanse of nothingness that resonated with a vibration of ancient, stagnant pain.
(It’s still the same... This space is so... Desolate...)
It was a place Shija recognized immediately, a familiar geography born of his previous experiences at the edge of existence—a corner he could not comprehend where regrets froze before shattering.
(Hic... uuuh... hic...)
But in the midst of the icy nothingness, a sound began to seep through.
(... Ugh... Snif... hic...!)
It wasn't a sudden noise, but a constant leak: a low, broken weeping.
(This is...?!)
It was a sob that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, a frequency of pure desolation that made the void feel even smaller and more suffocating.
(A cry...)
It was a weeping that had no echo and sank into the darkness as if the blackness itself fed on that sadness.
(....)
Shija, feeling the cold piercing to the core of his astral form, began to move.
(¡¡!!)
In that place where nothing existed and nothing should be, his figure began to take shape.
(¡¡Hic... uuuh...!!)
Each step was an effort of will against the inertia of oblivion, while his newly formed eyes tried to perceive beyond the veil of shadows, desperately seeking the source of that lament.
(KRA-KARI!)
And in response to Shija's desperate search, the void began to crack.
(...Thump...Thump...)
In turn, the liquid blackness and the unbearable cold were interrupted by a rhythmic pulsation, a deep echo that was not born in the ears, but from the very center of "something" unknown.
(...Thump-Thump!... Thump-Thump!... Thump-Thump!)
With each beat, a crack of snowy light opened beneath his feet, tracing a path that devoured the darkness in its wake.
(CRACK-SHATTER!)
The sound of the weeping began to lose its strength, replaced by the rising frequency of a violent rupture.
(PIKIN!)
However, ignoring everything in his way, Shija—driven by a force that was no longer just his will—began to run upon the path of light as the void shattered to give way to a brilliant glow.
(KRE-SHEEE!)
At the end of the path, the radiance became blinding, forming a threshold of absolute clarity that promised an end to the icy agony.
(¡¿?!)
Or at least that is how it appeared as Shija hurled himself through the portal of light, crossing the frontier between oblivion and life.
<<"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!">>
The instant his senses were reclaimed by reality, the silence of the abyss was replaced by a warm, electric vibration.
(This place!!)
Only for the joyful laughter, upon crossing the threshold, to become nothing more than a residual echo that died instantly, replaced by the monotonous, electric hum of high-precision machinery.
(shik-kachick!)
The space was vast, of a clinical and aseptic white that hurt the eyes.
(SIVVVV!)
The walls were not made of stone or wood, but of a matte metal alloy, reinforced with polycarbonate panels and pneumatic pressure hydraulic seals.
(WHIIIIII!)
The air was frigid, but not with the cold of the void; it was the controlled cold of a laboratory designed to preserve what should not exist.
(KACHICK!)
In the center of the room, a series of translucent cables and pipes descended like technological tendons, pumping chemical fluids and data streams into a central life-support unit.
"There is still an error margin of 0.0003%... Unacceptable."
Holographic terminals floated in the air, showing vital sign graphs, astral energy fluctuations, and spectral analyses of unattainable complexity.
"I will not settle for an approximation; not after reaching this point..."
The environment was saturated with the smell of ozone and industrial disinfectant, an atmosphere of absolute surveillance where every atom seemed to be cataloged and contained by a figure in a white lab coat.
"Almost... I can feel it. No... I can see it!"
There were no windows, only the hermetic seal of a technological prison designed to withstand reality collapses—a place designed with the sole purpose of controlling something that was, by definition, uncontrollable.
(SHHHHHH-PUM!)
Then the epoxy resin floor slid sideways with a hydraulic hiss, revealing a deep pit from which heavy mechanical extensions emerged.
(ZIIIIII-CLACK!)
They were hydraulic arms of terrifying precision, lifting—with a ceremonial slowness—a reinforced containment capsule.
(Pssssshhh...!)
On both the inside and outside, the capsule's glass was fogged by the condensation of cryogenic gases, but inside throbbed an erratic light, a mixture of boreal colors and void shadows struggling to merge without collapsing.
"The collapse threshold is at 84%... It is not enough."
In that place, coordinating everything, stood a man in a pristine white coat, standing before the holographic control console.
"The key is still creating a feedback loop in the consciousness matrix."
His glasses, made of thick, polished crystal, reflected the white light from the ceiling panels, completely hiding his eyes behind a blinding glare.
"If I don't manage to stabilize the core of will now, the singularity will consume the deepest layers."
His hands moved over the panels with surgical speed and precision.
"I need more flow... more pressure in the density to make them synchronize..."
As he manipulated the very fabric of the contained reality, his voice—a monotonous murmur but charged with a vibrant obsession—filled the sterile space.
"They must assimilate the load... EVEN IF THEY MUST BREAK!!"
The man adjusted a virtual dial and the capsule vibrated violently, emitting a warning beep that charged the air with static electricity, bristling the few traces of essence Shija had left in that place.
"GYAAAAAA-HAAARRRRRGGGHH!!"
At the same time, in that place, the monotonous hum of the terminals was annihilated by two shrieks of suffering that tore through the air.
"KREEEEE-AAAAAAAGH!!"
They were not human screams, but howls vibrating at a frequency beyond madness, as if the very fabric of the soul were being shredded by invisible gears.
(What the hell?!)
And recognizing the origin of those familiar screams, Shija located the source from which they emanated...
"DISMEMBER! CUT! TEAR AWAY UNTIL NOTHING IS LEFT!"
The screams emanated from the heart of the capsule, where the boreal light twisted in violent spasms.
"DEATH! DESTRUCTION! LET THE WORLD BURN TO ASHES!"
Immediately, the containment system entered a state of collapse.
[BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! LEVEL 5 ALERT! WARNING!]
Bolts of static energy and constantly fluctuating sparks began to dance erratically around the capsule, striking the metal walls and control consoles.
"By superimposing and condemning thousands of souls among all kinds of beings and existences together... It should be possible..."
The man in the white coat took a step back as the ceiling lights shifted to a flashing crimson red.
[WARNING. CRITICAL POINT REACHED.]
The warning alarms were not simple sirens; robotic voices, devoid of any trace of empathy, began to broadcast emergency messages through hidden speakers, overlapping with the screams of pain in the room.
"Unlike Alpha, which chooses its wielder..."
The holographic screens were stained with blood-colored warnings, showing graphs plunging toward absolute zero.
"Or Omega, which can be claimed if one possesses enough power... Delta is special..."
The air became saturated with the smell of debt metal and ozone, while the pressure inside the chamber increased to the point of making the floor vibrate.
[CORE INTEGRITY AT 2%. IMMINENT CONTAINMENT FAILURE.]
The reality around the capsule began to fray like rotten fabric.
"DI-DEA-MEMBER-TH! CU-BURN-T! TEAR-DESTRUCTION!!"
The metal of the walls bent at impossible angles, and the resin floor seemed to liquefy, turning into a sludge of shadows and static.
"I didn't think you would come to this place... No, rather... The fact that you have come here only confirms it..."
In the midst of the shrieks of agony still vibrating in the air, a terrifying dissonance emerged...
<<"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!!">>
What echoed was a pure, childish laugh, full of crystalline joy, resonating with a purity that made the blood run cold.
"The one who was named as the goddess of chaos."
One of the greatest taboos of creation was manifesting—and at the same time, the most dangerous.
"An error in the equation of being; something that should not have existed under any circumstances, and yet, even so, it was..."
It was a blasphemy against the order of the cosmos, a rupture in causality that should never have been permitted.
"She has no name, yet they gave her one in the myths that tried to explain her shadow."
In front of the capsule, boreal light and liquid blackness intertwined, forming a silhouette that defied the eye.
"One of the primordials..."
She had no fixed form; instead, she was a constant flow of terrifying possibilities.
"The one known as the void that precedes the light, or the hunger that consumes order..."
The scientist extended a hand toward the manifestation, ignoring how his own skin began to pixelate under the pressure of the anomaly.
"It is an honor to meet you in person... Khaos."
With the pronunciation of that name, the capsule exploded.
(BOOOOOOM-KRAAASH!!!)
Following the explosion of the capsule, the expansion of absolute nothingness stopped abruptly.
<<"Oh, why it's you, Doc! How have you been!">>
As if an invisible hand had pulled the threads of reality, the vast darkness began to compress with brutal gravitational force, sucking the remains of static and metal toward a single central point.
(SHHHHHH-RRRRRRRRRRR-ACKKKKK!!)
The laboratory, now a ruin of obsolete technology, began to be devoured by a spectral fire that emitted no heat, but a light that consumed matter, transforming the white walls into dull gray ash.
<<"A birth, a death, crossed timelines with an observer, and even you being present! HOW COULD I RESIST SHOWING UP?!">>
De entre las llamas, surgió ella.
<<"Especially when you gathered all the conditions!!">>
Her figure was that of a little girl, but her mere presence caused space-time to warp in her wake.
(Ugh?!)
Upon seeing her, Shija's mind throbbed as a dull pain settled into his being, noticing how the girl's hair was an infinite, ethereal cascade that did not seem subject to gravity.
"I know you are excited... but please, restrict your presence... or this world and the 'observer'... will collapse."
It was a mass of cosmic silk that flowed and billowed as if submerged in an invisible ocean; its colors changed in a constant gradient of deep purples, electric blues, and incandescent pinks, peppered with tiny lights that sparkled like living stars.
<<"Ah, right, right. My bad~!">>
Her eyes were of an enchanting, unstable heterochromia, where her pupils and irises did not maintain a fixed color but mutated every second.
<<"Well, I’ve limited it... I think...? So, back to the point!">>
In a blink, her eyes could be the color of a dying sun, and the next, a deep emerald green or a mercurial silver, reflecting infinite realities colliding with each other.
<<"I wouldn't miss for anything in the world the exact moment of the death and birth of my dear 'babies.' After all, the end is just the beginning of another beautiful prank, isn't it?">>
Her skin had the paleness of porcelain, highlighting an excited smile overflowing with a joy that was disturbing amidst the destruction.
"I know I didn't meet the conditions."
But, undeterred, the scientist, whose white coat was now stained with soot and torn, let his hands drop to his sides.
"I know this place is my grave and that my time has run out."
With a slow and heavy movement, he lowered his gaze, stripping away the authority his glasses had granted him.
"I ask for nothing more than a favor..."
Then, casting aside any trace of dignity, the man fell to his knees on the burning remains of the laboratory as the flames spread further and further.
<<"A favor...?">>
Before the innocent smile of Khaos, who tilted her head, the man looked up one last time at the figure of the girl, ignoring how the fire began to lick at his knees, maintaining his posture as he stared directly into an "abyss."