I blinked, unsure I'd heard her right. "Chaos, as in the Chaos faction?"
She shook her head, the faintest tremor in her tone.
I leaned back, rubbing my face. "Great. Because that's exactly what I needed today, ancient sealed horrors watching me through divine CCTV."
Ramona didn't smile.
"Adam," she said, voice steady but low, "this isn't just a coincidence. Whatever you disrupted in that forest, it's woken something that should've stayed forgotten."
"This is true Chaos unlike the gods of the heavenly city who call themselves Chaos aligned" she said trembling slightly.
"This isn't a coincidence. Whatever you discovered… it's linked to Chaos." Her gaze hardened.
"It's linked to the god of corruption, Zelroth."
At that name, something strange happened. The veins around her lips darkened, spreading like cracks, and her mouth turned black. The sight made my pulse spike, but before I could say anything, the corruption faded. Her skin returned to normal, the cracks sealing as if they had never been.
She took a breath and whispered, "Even saying his name carries weight. We sealed him when world was very young. If he and the rest are stirring…"
She didn't finish. She didn't have to.
I rubbed my face again, exhaling through my teeth. "Fantastic. So I didn't just trip a landmine, I kicked open the door to a nightmare."
Her eyes flicked to me. "Not just a nightmare," she said softly. "If Zelroth truly stirs… the gods won't be the only ones in danger."
Ramona's words hung in the air like a storm waiting to break.
"Zelroth," she said quietly, eyes distant. "The god of corruption."
I frowned.
She sat down across from me, her expression heavy, almost haunted. "You should know how he came to be. Maybe then you'll understand why the gods are so... uneasy."
I leaned back, arms crossed. "Alright, I'm listening."
Ramona took a breath, her eyes flickering with faint violet light.
"Zelroth was born from the god of death and a lesser goddess who served under the god of spring. Unlike his siblings, he was born without a divine authority. His brothers and sisters had already inherited all the domains of death, that is the domains of violent death, peaceful death, quick death, and slow death."
"Sounds like all the fun stuff was taken," I muttered.
Her lips twitched, but only for a second. "He fell into despair. Being a god without an authority... it's worse than being powerless. It's meaningless. He searched for ways to claim one, be it ancient rituals, forbidden knowledge, but nothing worked. The only known way to gain an authority was to absorb one from a dead god."
I frowned. "That's... dark."
She nodded. "Like you did" she chuckled.
"He searched anyway. But after centuries of failure, he gave up. And then... one of the lesser gods who served the goddess of winter whispered to him of another way. She told him about the Well of Chaos."
Her tone dropped lower. "It lies at the center of the world, above the heavens, it is a swirling mass of green energy that shifts like smoke. Even thinking about it makes my skin crawl."
She actually shivered.
"So," I said, "he went there."
Ramona nodded. "He and the goddess descended to the Well. There, he partook in its communion and came back... different. He'd gained an authority, Chaos had granted him Corruption."
I stayed quiet, watching her face harden.
"At first, no one minded. He was proud of his new power, and the gods welcomed him. But then, something started to change. His authority began... infecting others. The powers of the gods themselves started to warp. Corruption spread. The council banished him from the heavens, called him a sinner, and cast him into the void never to return."
"Let me guess," I said softly. "That didn't exactly solve the problem."
Her eyes met mine. "No. It made it worse. Alone in the void, Zelroth lost himself to madness. Chaos consumed him, and through him, it reached out to the rest of creation. Gods began to fall one by one. The heavens split. The world broke apart."
She looked away for a moment, her voice trembling now. "That war... we call it the War of Heaven. The world was shattered. Half of it was devoured by the Well of Chaos. You receive, but you must give back in return. The rest, what we have now, was all that survived."
I exhaled slowly. "So that's why everyone freaked out when they felt that pulse earlier."
"Yes." She nodded, then gave a small, sad smile. "It was after that war that I was born. My mother died because of it. She carried me despite being infected by corruption. Some of the gods who fought alongside my father were tainted by it too. That's why our aura carries traces of purple, it's a lesser mark of Chaos, but it doesn't consume us."
Her gaze softened, her voice almost breaking. "It was my best friend, Kron, the god of life, who rebuilt the world. He seeded it with mortals, made it beautiful again. But doing so drained him. His essence faded, and he fell into an endless sleep. The war took my mother, my best friend... almost everything."
I stayed silent. There wasn't much to say.
"So now you see," she said quietly. "That's why we're alert. Why we're... paranoid. The return of Chaos isn't something we can ignore. The council will likely summon you soon, Adam. You should be ready for that."
I nodded slowly. "Right. Guess I'll need to prepare for that then."
She rose to her feet, brushing off her robe. "I'm glad you're alright. Whatever happened down there... it could've been worse."
"Ramona, wait," I said, standing up. "You don't have to go right now. We can—"
She shook her head before I could finish. "I need to see my father. I'm sure he wants to see me immediately."
I wanted to stop her, but the look in her eyes told me it was pointless. She turned to the door, paused for a moment, and glanced back at me.
"Take care of yourself, Adam. The storm's not over yet, it has barely began."
And then she was gone.
The room felt too quiet after that. I sat back down, staring at my reflection in the mirror's water. My hand was still damp from where I'd touched it earlier.
Even though the gazes were gone, I could still feel them, like my body was scorched by them earlier.