Ashley

I let out a yawn as I continue to kill off the undead with just my Gaze and my Gaze alone. Flying through the sky above the barren wasteland as I do so.

This is kind of boring.

"I'm sure Hel would love to hear that," Chaos says, his voice echoing in my head for the first time since entering this System Tower. "The place was designed so that the undead can only be killed in a few ways. Specifically for people who can use death magic to take the miasma out of the undead and destroy them in that manner."

Huh.

If they were specifically designed to be killed by death magic, why did Hel also make it possible to kill them with destruction magic?

"Hel didn't," Chaos answers. "Destruction magic can kill anything if given the time and mana."

Interesting. Although I guess that makes sense.

"Most of the Primordial Domains in the System Tower are designed to be beatable by those with the same affinity as the Primordial, and a few rare exceptions out of that," Chaos continues as I keep slaughtering the monsters. "The only ones who can defeat a Primordial Domain without the Primordial's affinity are those who have one of the loophole powers or are strong enough that they might be considered to be made into a Successor. If they're not already a Successor."

Okay. On another note, I thought you weren't able to talk to me in the System Tower?

"It depends on the Primordial whose Trial you're in," Chaos answers without hesitation. "Some of the Primordials wish to keep Successor's Primordials out of their Trials while others don't care."

Oh.

I take it Chronos does care, and Hel doesn't?

"Correct," Chaos says, briefly making me wonder which of the Primordials care and which don't. Only for Chaos to answer my thoughts right away, "Chronos, Aether, Etheria, and Justicar don't allow Primordials to speak to their Successors inside of their Primordial Domains. The rest don't care one way or another."

So four out of the nine other Primordials don't care.

What about you? Do you let other Primordials speak to their Successors in your Primordial Domain?

"I leave that up to a roulette," Chaos exclaims with a little too much pride in his voice.

Uh… I shouldn't be surprised by that.

Although now that I think about it, on the subject of using the Primordial's own affinity in their Primordial Domain of the System Tower, that's exactly what I did against the boss of the Time Domain.

I used Chronos Lock on the boss after all.

With that thought in mind, I continue killing off the monsters while watching their ashes merge together into enormous tombstones one after another. Over and over again.

As I do that thought, a few questions come to mind about the other Primordials.

"Aside from Etheria, Justicar, and Erebos, what's your relationship with the other Primordials?" I ask him without pausing in killing the monsters.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Chaos pauses for a second before answering, "Does pranking them count as a relationship?"

I don't say anything as I kill monsters with my hands in my jacket pockets using my Gaze.

"Nyx avoids most contact with anything, so none of us have any sort of relationship with her," Chaos begins a serious answer this time. "She's an anomaly even amongst us. And I can never tell what she's thinking."

Something tells me the other Primordials think the same about Chaos.

"Aww, my precious daughter just complimented me!" Chaos practically squeals in my head, making my eyebrow twitch.

That wasn't a compliment.

"Anyway, Chronos locks himself away in his Tower most of the time, so we rarely interact with him either," Chaos continues, clearly ignoring my reply to his comment. "But even the few times he does leave his Tower, he avoids entering any sort of affairs of the universe."

Oh. So he is disconnected from the universe.

And yet, he still gave me a skill.

Seems like a decent guy to me. Far better than Erebos at least.

What about Gaia?

"Gaia's so purehearted and it makes for the best reactions when I prank her," Chaos says, sounding like he's speaking with a straight face. "I still remember the day I temporarily mutated all the trees on one of her favorite planets into fleshy sacks of blood while she was away handling a matter related to one of her Successors. Her reaction to seeing it was pure gold."

I stare blankly ahead as I continue killing the undead. Or rekilling them, I guess.

Destroying them.

I'm starting to feel sorry for Gaia.

"Don't be!" Chaos says with a laugh. "I turned them back into trees after a few days, so it's all good!"

That's not the point…

I let out a sigh.

She doesn't hate you, right?

"Nah, she's not capable of hating anything," Chaos says, making me feel even worse for the poor Primordial of Life.

Okay then. Moving on.

What about Hel? She's letting you talk to me while I'm in here, so do you have a good relationship?

"Hel doesn't care one way or another about anything," Chaos answers, sounding a lot less interested now. "She's apathetic, emotionless, and doesn't care about anything other than her responsibilities as the Primordial of Death. Spending all her days managing the death cycle of the universe and doing nothing else."

Oh.

"It makes pranking her boring since she doesn't care," Chaos says with more than a little irritation and disappointment audible in his words. "All she does is stare at me until I undo the pranks."

That's kind of sad in its own right.

Both his finding it boring and her just staring at him.

I'm starting to wonder if Chaos' entire life revolves around nothing but messing with people.

Chaos doesn't say anything in response.

Sounds like I'm correct in my guess.

What's your relationship with Lux?

"She's fun to mess with," Chaos says, for some reason sounding smug as he does so. "Lux has some of the best reactions because of her purity complex."

I'm starting to wonder if I'm asking him about their relationships or who is the best to prank…

"I once sent some of the members of that Tower of Chaos organization over to mess with her," Chaos comments while suddenly laughing. Almost like he's remembering some precious memory. "Lux appeared in person to refute their claims about her when they started spreading rumors with the excuse of having heard people say various different things about her. And she never even realized who was behind it in the end."

Now I'm starting to pity her as well.

"As for Aether? He's entertaining, to say the least," Chaos continues without hesitation. "He and Etheria hate each other with a passion. So all I have to do to mess with him is to tell him one of the many things Etheria has said about him over the years. Then I can sit by and watch as they start fighting!"

Right…

I let out a sigh as I kill more undead, finding more and more tombstones appearing across the barren wasteland.

Shouldn't he realize by now what you're doing?

"Oh, he knows very well what I'm doing," Chaos says. "But he doesn't care. After all, he knows Etheria is really saying those things. So knowing why I'm telling him about her words doesn't change how her words make him feel."

I guess that's understandable.

Although the image I had of the Primordials in my mind is currently breaking down from powerful beings to Chaos' playthings.

Which is rather disappointing.

"What's so wrong about that?" Chaos asks without a hint of shame.

Okay then…

I keep killing monsters until I finally run out of them. At which point a large mausoleum suddenly appears in the middle of the wasteland.

Looks like I found where the boss is.

Time to go check it out.