"I have already told you about how I traveled back in time and became the Lord of Chaos after Pangu. I have used part of my essence and infused it with this solar system's sun, which later evolved and gained sentience. This sentient being was Ra, Pharaoh of the Egyptian Pantheon, the sun itself, and most importantly, my one and only son."
He sighed heavily and continued, "Ra and I had many differences in terms of opinion and the methods he used for ruling because it was mostly based on oppression. Things between us were very tense. Ra died suddenly, in a time when I was not able to save him due to some… reasons."
His eyes looked out of the window in his office, his eyes filled with regret. "The grief was too much, especially when considering that we were on bad terms and after his death we could not ever reconcile. So, in that moment of grief, I had a breakdown and split into multiple incarnations.
"Each incarnation, or clone, took one of my elements and one of my personality traits. There was the main incarnation that cultivated the Laws of Darkness. There was the Fire Clone, the Light Clone, the Water Clone… I had a clone for each of the laws. Two clones, however, gained independent sentience and partially became separate beings from me, and so they rebelled. Can you guess which clones they were?"
"One of them was the Ice Clone," I replied immediately, as the answer wasn't hard to guess. "As for the other, I have no idea."
"Indeed. The Ice Clone was one of the two that rebelled. He inherited my evil personality."
"And because I am the reincarnation of the original Ice Clone, I have those same traits. That's why that bastard called me Evil."
"Correct. The other clone cultivated the Edicts of Death, and inherited my cruelty."
Richard took a deep breath and continued explaining, "The power of the Lord of Chaos was distributed equally by each clone. I reabsorbed the ones that were still under my control, and then focused my attention on the rebels as my power grew.
"I was stronger than both of them by that time, but still, the power they had was tremendous and would affect the universe if the fight was prolonged. I targeted the Ice Clone first, and the fight was not short, but it was not difficult either. I absorbed him, although a wisp of his soul escaped and managed to enter the Underworld to undergo reincarnation. That soul latched onto an incomplete soul of a still-developing baby and fused with it. That baby was you."
"As for the Death Clone, he managed to escape me on every occasion. That is because I cannot harm him."
"Why not? Why were you able to defeat the others but not him?"
"Every creature in this universe has one common core instinct that prevents them from actually harming themselves. Naturally, I am no different. I could not harm the other clones, so I defeated them in other ways. However, the Death Clone was smarter, so he always eluded me no matter what I did, so he remains undefeated to this day.
"To further complicate things, Yggdrasil declared him a Lord and gave him the title of Lord of Death. He even gave himself another name."
"What does that change? It's just a name," I said with a frown.
"Words are powerful. A name means that he further deviates from me."
"And what name did he choose for himself?"
"Orcus."
"Orcus the Lord of Death…" I muttered. Only then did I remember that the seat of the Lord of Death was empty during the Meeting of the Lords.
Richard went on, "For countless years, Orcus disappeared and had no presence whatsoever. But I knew for a fact that he was just preparing in silence. And what I thought became reality, for one thousand and five hundred years ago, he finally showed his hand.
"Are you familiar with the Aesir-Jotun war?"
I nodded my head. Around the time that Richard mentioned, the Aesir of Asgard and the Giants, or Jotun, of Jotunheim were engaged in a bloody war that almost made the Jotun go extinct. Thor rose to prominence in that war.
"That was just one part of a greater war that was publicly famous because it was particularly bloody," he added. "The truth begins with the cause of this great war that affected the whole universe.
"Orcus, to sow chaos, released two artifacts that granted people unlimited power. He used the Edicts of Death, my edicts, to create a staff and a crystal. The staff was powerful beyond imagination, and the crystal would allow the user to substantially ease the comprehension of the Edicts of Death and grant them the ability to mimic these laws at the level just below that of a Lord of Chaos."
My eyes widened. Such artifacts truly would make everyone fight to the death to get them. I was left speechless as I could already guess what Richard was about to say next…
"Yes, greed took over everyone. To make things worse, Orcus gave each artifact to two small powers. Needless to say, they were quickly devoured. And so, the universe descended into an unprecedentedly massive civil war. It lasted for two centuries, and everyone was weakened in the aftermath without a solution in sight.
"I took matters into my own hands then. At first everyone ignored me, but I forcefully confiscated these artifacts and sealed them away. I forced the leaders of all the powers in the world into a peace, and used them to corner Orcus in the Underworld.
"It was not the best of places, as he thrives between the dead. But I had no other choice. With the help of the top cultivators of the world, we sealed the underworld and all of its entrances and established Helheim as the new realm of the dead."
"Helheim wasn't always the realm of the dead?" I asked, frowning.
"All regions had a miniature Underworld that was connected to the main one. It was like streams connecting to a larger river. Helheim was a realm with its indigenous people inhabiting it. Alas, they were all wiped out as most powers chose it as the main battlefield, wiping out every species almost entirely. In fact, only three remain out of millions. Hel, the leader of Helheim and Loki's daughter, and the crow you saw in the realm are the only ones that are still present.
"Helheim became the main realm of the dead, as all the death there changed the nature of the realm itself. It was truly one of the most brutal tragedies of that age. Thus, the war ended, but that was only the beginning.
"You see, Orcus found his own way of procreation. Instead of making children, he makes more bodies and souls for himself. He splits parts of his soul and latches on other dead souls to devour and eventually overcome them. That is his ultimate plan. That is the Grey Lotus. All of its members are his doppelgangers. All of them are Orcus operating at the same time. We discovered the first one not long after the war ended, and that is when we realized that the war was merely one part of his plan."
"He wanted the dead to procreate, so he instigated a bloody war to provide himself with vast amounts of dead souls," I stated what Richard didn't say.
"Precisely," he nodded. "He had countless dead souls to use. That was not enough for Orcus, though. The dead in the sealed Underworld were countless, but they were still limited in quantity. So, he started sending small parts of his soul just like before and started latching onto offspring in their mothers' wombs. It would take years for that small piece to overcome the original soul, but nonetheless, he would consume it and awaken, making doppelgangers everywhere in the world.
"His numbers grow every day. And he is starting to make himself public. Make no mistake, Orion, another deadly war is coming sooner or later."
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Updated on 4/6/2026