Chapter 2076: The Big Three
"So, your plan is to become one of us?" Nyar’s avatar spawned beside Arad and gave Cain a glare. "That isn’t a bad plan, but you understand what that would mean?"
Cain smiled as he glared at them with glowing blue eyes. "It’ll be a threesome, with each one of us trying to kill the other two." While both Nyar and Cain want to consume the universe, neither wants the other to be the one to consume it. Nyar now needs to get rid of both Cain and Arad. Arad need to get rid of both Cain and Nyar, and Cain, the new challenger, needs to get rid of both Arad and Nyar to win.
Nyar glared right back at Cain. "Yog did indeed train you." He then lifted one of his tentacles and looked toward Arad. "Even if he is a figment of madness in our minds, he still can affect reality; he isn’t just a hallucination."
When Nyar’s avatar swung his tentacle at Cain, it passed right through him as if he were a ghost. "His goal is to drive everyone mad to gain as much power as possible, and if you were to go mad, he’d have control over your mind."
This will be the final battle, the final war where Reality, Madness, and Nightmares would clash over dominance of the crumbling universe. Would reality prevail and maintain order, or would it fall prey to madness? What about the horrid, nightmarish abominations? Would those creatures devour everything, down to the fabric of reality, or would they too fall prey to the creeping madness?
The one who reaches their peak first without getting consumed by the other two wins the race. Arad cannot grow too fast because he might either go mad, giving Cain the win, or lose control and give Nyar the edge. Nyar is constantly getting damaged, so he can’t go all out either, and so is Cain, who is basically a newborn.
The last five seconds had passed, and the ground shook as Kali burst out like a missile. She didn’t even need to slow down or ask the questions. She immediately flew right toward Arad’s black hole, got inside its range, and pierced right through the event horizon unharmed. She wasn’t fine because he protected her; she was fine because the black hole wasn’t powerful enough to hurt her.
But the moment Kali broke into the black hole, she only found Arad standing alone in a space marred with eldritch magic, boiling to the point where it was sickening, as if the fabric of existence itself came undone. Mortal souls and even lesser gods won’t even be able to exist here without crumbling to pieces, getting turned into abominations, or going mad.
What did happen here? She had no idea, could tell one thing apart, the fact that Arad is still alive was a miracle.
Arad stared at her for a second, and then sighed. "The moment you touched the blackhole, they fled."
Hearing him, she was relived for a second, but then, paled. "They?"
"Cain and an Avatar of Nyar. This was a three-way clash." He started sucking the black hole back to his stomach. "It seems that Cain and Nyar are enemies for now, but that doesn’t mean he is on our side." He stared at her. "Cain’s goal is to become an eldritch horror like Nyar, a creature of madness."
Kali immediately understood what that meant. Cain has to kill both Nyar and AO to win. Nyar has to get rid of Cain and AO, and they now have to get rid of both Cain and Nyar for Arad to win. Her showing up here would’ve upset that balance.
"How did you survive that? Those two could’ve ganged up on you first, then got to clubbing each other." As she asked, Arad smiled. "One is mad, and the other has been burned by that mad man for ages. Do you think they’ll just join hands to kill me? Besides, even if they did, I would’ve survived thanks to my incarnations."
She looked around, and soon, they were back in Merida’s layer. "That doesn’t explain how you survived, just how they didn’t work together."
He smiled, "Well, two of us did team up."
She sighed, "So Cain still retained a bit of reason? That would explain it."
Arad shook his head. "No, he already lost it all. The two who teamed up were Nyar’s avatar and me. Otherwise, Merida’s entire layer would’ve been obliterated." He floated toward her with a stern face. "Cain is already dead and has turned into a strange being of madness. He has no body and instead is living inside everyone and anyone. You, me, everyone have a part of Cain inside their minds, and that’s why he is dangerous."
He looked around, "Even Nyar now has a fragment of Cain’s madness inside him, so we all want to get rid of him before he grows too strong."
"Arad! You’re alive!" Merida jumped at them and landed right beside Kali, "How did the fight end?"
"Arad is safe." Kali replied, and Arad smiled, "They both are gone for now. Your layer is safe. We should sort those paladins and check on that peace goddess to see if Cain has done something to her."
Kali looked around, "But hold on a minute, the abyss is quivering. What did happen while those two were fighting?"
Arad looked at her and then shrugged. "The abyss conjured someone the two called Myno, and she gave them a huge scare."
"Wait... what?" Kali cried, "My old body?" She had never expected to hear about that body ever again, but now looking at the demonic magic engulfing the entire layer, it was indeed her old self. A creature born from AO’s sheer destructive will, the Demon of Ruin and Annihilation Myno. He had created her for two main reasons.
To wipe the abominations inside the universe, and to destroy the universe, just so her cousin, Nyar, cannot take it. For all intents and purposes, she was just as abominable as Nyar was, but unlike that slimy tentacle monster, she did not turn on AO.
Myno, AKA Kali, and her demons could’ve turned on AO as Nyar did, and with that, she and her demons would be in the same predicament as Nyar is now with his abominations. She might be stuck here fighting AO like Nyar is, or be lost somewhere else in the void.
But she was smart; she chose the stable route. She knew that she was a destroyer who could not create anything for herself and her demons, and that was why she remained bound to the universe, settling down.
She looked up and then sighed. "So... the abyss is indeed still alive. This horrid place."
Arad smacked her on the back. "Well, of course it is full of life. Look at all those demons. Big ones, small ones, crawlers, birds, other... strange things..."
She lifted her foot and then kicked the ground gently a few times. "I’m talking about the abyss itself; this entire thing is the corpse of my first body. I guess that such a great body has its own will and power that transcends existence."
Arad lifted her and Merida up, sitting them on his massive shoulders. "The fight is over. If you didn’t come in time, I might’ve been in trouble." He then smiled, "But don’t worry, I’m hard to kill."
