Chapter 11 | Chaos

A week into energy training, Matthias still couldn't explain what he was trying to move.

"Don't force it," Joseph said. "Find the reserve first."

Matthias stood in the basement with his eyes closed.

There was something beneath his breathing, a pull he kept losing whenever he concentrated too hard. He reached for it again and felt a sudden depth that made his stomach tighten.

His fingers twitched.

"There," Joseph said. "Hold that."

A phone buzzed.

Matthias lost the feeling.

Joseph checked the screen. His expression changed, and he read the message a second time.

At the far wall, Belial lowered her staff.

"What is it?"

"The network. We need everyone upstairs."

Joseph put his tablet on the living-room table.

"A solar eclipse next Thursday. Totality crosses northern Germany, including the Teutoburg Forest."

He enlarged the map.

Yuki leaned forward. Aki stopped turning his glass between his hands.

"During the eclipse, the barrier to the Chaos Realm will weaken," Joseph said. "Enough for something to manifest here."

"What something?" Matthias asked.

"The entity the old texts call Chaos."

Belial and Astreal exchanged a glance.

Matthias looked at the map.

"Why that forest?"

"In AD 9, Arminius's forces destroyed three Roman legions there," Joseph said. "Varus led them into an ambush. The region saw more fighting in the centuries afterward."

"And that matters now?"

"Places of concentrated violence retain a resonance. Chaos feeds on dread and warfare. It can use what's accumulated there."

Matthias traced the marked area with his eyes.

"So the eclipse gives it an opening, and the forest gives it strength."

"Yes."

"It chose the location."

"Chaos isn't mindless," Joseph said. "It chooses opportunities and works through people. Proxies."

Matthias looked up.

"Dark lords."

Joseph nodded.

"Including me."

"Your former self was one of its most powerful agents in this world. That's why stopping him required all three families."

Matthias leaned back.

Another name for the thing he had once been. Another reason people had wanted him dead.

He'd been able to think of that life as something finished. Now Joseph was pointing to its source on a map and telling them it could return next Thursday.

Matthias looked down at the hand he'd used to summon the Sun Blade. He wished he understood more about what he'd inherited before they went anywhere near it.

"Did he know what he was serving?"

"A proxy doesn't have to understand the connection for it to work," Joseph said. "Dark lords throughout history have drawn on Chaos, knowingly or otherwise."

Belial's gaze fell to the table.

"The Black Death."

Joseph nodded again.

"The plague, the Crusades, the Mongol conquests, Timur's campaigns. Chaos fed on the fear and destruction, then used that strength to encourage more."

"A cycle," Aki said.

"One that grew particularly dangerous between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries."

Joseph looked toward the twins.

"They spent the better part of two centuries fighting it alongside human forces."

Belial folded her hands.

"We did."

"What happened?" Matthias asked.

Her fingers tightened together.

"More than I'd like to remember this morning."

He nodded and let the question go.

Curiosity came easily when the worst of those years was something he only had to hear about. He needed to keep that in mind before asking them to describe another century over the living-room table.

Belial would tell him if she wanted him to know. He could listen then.

"Then came the First and Second World Wars," Joseph said. "Together, they brought a death toll without precedent in warfare. Chaos fed on destruction spread across the world."

Aki's gaze dropped to the map.

"All three families were stretched to their limits trying to eradicate its influence," he said. "They would clear one place and receive word of another before they could recover."

"Even together?" Matthias asked.

"Even together," Joseph said. "Winning the wars didn't end their work. Chaos's influence lingered long after the fighting stopped."

Astreal hadn't looked away from the map.

"Sylvia will be there," Matthias said.

Joseph turned to him.

"If Chaos is what gives a dark lord power, the cult won't miss a chance to reach it."

"We expect them to help the manifestation and defend it," Joseph said. "They may also try to establish a connection to a new proxy."

"Someone they control."

"That's the danger."

Aki put down his glass.

"They succeed, and we have much less time than we thought."

Yuki shifted in her chair.

"Speaking of Sylvia... you know how she ended up in charge of that lot?"

Matthias shook his head.

"Only what you've told me."

"She used to have a pretty normal life. She was married and everything, but she was already getting way too deep into the occult. Then the marriage fell apart, and she got even more caught up in it."

Yuki rested her elbows on her knees.

"She was depressed, shut herself away, kept digging into all that dark stuff. Then she spent five years working her way up inside the cult."

"And they made her leader?"

"No, she took over. The guy before her, Bzekoz? He wasn't about to hand it over nicely."

"She killed him?"

"People died in that takeover," Yuki said. "By the time she was thirty, she was running the whole thing. Their thirty-fourth leader."

Matthias remembered the woman waiting outside the mall, her voice calm as she raised her hand.

"What does she think she'll gain?"

"The cult teaches that suffering makes people equal," Joseph said. "They claim the Gods impose an order that protects the powerful. Chaos is their correction."

Belial looked up.

"She lost the life she thought she would have. Now she wants to tear everyone else's apart."

Yuki nodded.

"So everyone gets to be miserable? Yeah, that's a horrible sales pitch."

"It finds people who already feel betrayed," Joseph said. "That doesn't make what they're doing right."

Matthias looked back at the forest on the screen.

"Then we go."

Yuki straightened.

"Wait, all of us? Babe, you're including yourself in that?"

"Too dangerous," Belial said.

"Let me finish."

Matthias kept his voice quiet. Both women stopped.

"I'm not proposing to fight Chaos myself. But someone has to keep the cult away from the people who do."

He turned the tablet so everyone could see it.

"Joseph, Aki, and Yuki engage the entity. Belial, Astreal, and I hold the cult's forces."

Joseph folded his arms.

"Go on."

"We stop them from protecting the manifestation or reinforcing it. If we gain enough ground, we help you."

"You'd be fighting people who want you dead," Belial said.

"I know. They already tried."

She fell silent.

Matthias looked at Joseph.

"You said I could handle a lieutenant. I won't be alone, and I won't be chasing their leaders."

"What if the cult brings more than the three of you can hold?"

"Then we give ground and call for help. You'll need to finish and come to us."

He paused.

"I can't promise it will be easy. But leaving me here gives you one less person to cover that side of the fight."

Aki studied the map.

"He's right about the numbers."

Yuki looked at him, then at Matthias.

"You've gotten better, okay? A lot better. But it's been two months. You're not invincible."

"I'm aware. You spent most of it reminding me."

She didn't smile.

He met her eyes.

"Let me put it to use."

He wanted her to agree. That made it tempting to sound more confident than he was.

He kept the next assurance to himself. He'd told them what he thought he could do; they deserved to judge that without having to sort through promises he couldn't keep.

Joseph watched him for a moment, then nodded.

"We plan for two groups. We stay in contact, and nobody goes after Sylvia alone."

"Okay. Fine," Yuki said. "But seriously, if anything happens to him—"

"Nothing will happen to him," Astreal said.

She spoke flatly, but Matthias saw how firmly her hands rested against the table.

"Belial and I will be with him."

Her ruby eyes found his.

"Whatever they bring, you won't face it alone. That hasn't changed."

Belial nodded.

Matthias let out the breath he'd been holding.

"I'm counting on that."

Yuki drew the tablet closer.

"Oh, hang on. Teutoburg? We've got family property near there."

Aki looked at her.

"What kind of holdings?"

"Our castle. The Strauss one. I haven't been since I was, like, twelve, but it's really close."

Her expression brightened.

"Wait, we could totally do something with it! We'd just need to get a few things ready—"

"This isn't a cosplay excursion."

"Hey! I didn't even say cosplay yet."

"You were about to open a castle and host something Gothic."

"Okay, but tell me that wouldn't be amazing. A whole castle, Aki!"

"Before fighting Chaos? Yes."

Yuki folded her arms.

"Ugh. You're no fun."

"Fun afterward," Aki said. "If there is."

"There will be," Matthias said.

Everyone looked at him.

He wasn't sure enough to promise it. But he wanted to come home, and he wanted all five of them to come back with him.

"Let's plan for that, too."

Yuki's expression softened.

Joseph closed the map.

"We leave Monday. Three days to reach the area, assess the ground, and prepare before Thursday's eclipse."

"You'll arrange the travel?" Aki asked.

"And contact the local network. I'll brief everyone by Sunday."

Joseph glanced toward the basement stairs.

"Until then, keep training."

That evening, Aki and Yuki left, and Joseph went to his room.

Matthias found Belial preparing dinner.

He stopped beside the counter. She glanced up, then returned to the vegetables beneath her knife.

"You're waiting for me to object again," she said.

"A little."

"Your plan makes sense."

"You didn't sound convinced earlier."

Her knife stopped.

"When you said you wanted to come, I thought about putting myself between you and whatever might hurt you. Before I thought about anything else."

He stayed quiet.

"But you've trained for this," she continued. "You've thought about what you can do. I won't pretend you haven't just because I'm afraid for you."

"You're still afraid."

He had wanted her agreement to make him feel better about going. Hearing what it cost her, he felt briefly ashamed of that wish.

She could believe his plan made sense and still fear losing him. He wouldn't ask her to hide the second part for his comfort.

"Of course."

She looked directly at him.

"I'll be there anyway."

Matthias rested his hand beside hers on the counter.

"Thank you."

She turned her hand and briefly caught his fingers.

Then she let go and picked up the knife.

"Three days until we leave."

"Three days."

He went downstairs to find Astreal checking the training room.

She looked up as he entered.

"Another session?"

He stepped onto the mat.

"If you have time."

She set her work aside.

"For you, Master."