The World on the Edge
The clearing had long since ceased to exist.
What remained was a vast crater of cracked stone and bubbling magma.
The once-proud forest was gone, reduced to drifting ash that clung to the air like a funeral veil.
At the crater's center stood the Nightmare Beast—horns blazing brighter than the sky,
its body wrapped in flame and vengeance. Each breath it exhaled scorched the air.
Each pawstep cracked the earth further.
Opposite it, in the same ruined battlefield,
Ahmed ibn-Who-Knows-What stood caked in mud, blood, and soot.
His shirt had disintegrated somewhere between the last explosion and his most recent trip.
He looked like a walking accident report—yet his eyes held something new.
No longer just fear. No longer just panic.
But fire.
Not the beast's fire. Not Liuyue's sharp, tempered will.
A chaotic fire of his own.
The spark had become a blaze.
System in Distress
🔊 [ERROR.]
🔊 [NOTICE: UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED.]
🔊 [WARNING: HOST IS DISPLAYING NON-CATALOGUED BEHAVIOR.]
🔊 [FACT-CHECK: THIS SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE.]
Ahmed clenched his fists, trembling. "Yeah? Well, guess what, System? I am impossible!"
He threw a punch at the air. It looked pathetic. His wrist cracked loudly, and he yelped in pain.
Liuyue almost fainted. This… this was the anomaly? This was the great eruption of power?
But no—beneath his idiotic flailing, the spark pulsed, invisible yet undeniable. Even she could feel the raw energy bleeding into the
battlefield.
The Nightmare Beast felt it too. Its flames flickered uncertainly. It roared in denial, unwilling to let chaos birth itself before its eyes.
The Roar of Vengeance
The Beast lowered its horn, the sky splitting with light. The ground heaved. Every remaining scrap of the crater glowed molten. This was not an attack—it was finality.
Liuyue raised her blade. "Ahmed, brace yourself! It comes again!"
Ahmed's legs locked. His arms shook. He screamed, "I'M ALREADY BRACED!"
But then something strange happened. His spark pulsed outward—chaotic, unshaped, unmeasured. The ground beneath his feet shivered not from the beast's power, but from his own. The mud itself, his eternal ally, bubbled and swirled as though waiting for his command.
Liuyue whispered, "You're resonating… with the battlefield itself?"
Ahmed blinked. "I don't know what that means! But it sounds cool—keep saying it!"
Chaos Erupts
The Beast lunged, horn descending like judgment itself.
Ahmed didn't move. Or rather—he moved wrong.
He tripped forward again, in a way no living being should ever attempt, arms flailing, legs twisted, momentum carrying him like a ragdoll.
But the spark pulsed.
His trip became a tumble, his tumble became a roll, and his roll launched him sideways just as the beast's horn slammed down. The earth shattered where he'd stood.
A wall of mud exploded upward, shielding him from the flames.
Not summoned by magic. Not cast by technique. But pulled instinctively by Ahmed's sheer chaotic resonance.
The System shrieked:
🔊 [NOTICE: HOST IS NOW… UM… WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS.]
🔊 [RECLASSIFYING HOST: ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]
Ahmed popped up from the mud shield, coughing out sludge. His fists clenched, trembling but alive.
"I… I just did something on purpose!"
Liuyue gasped. "Ahmed… you shaped the battlefield itself."
He blinked. "…Wait. You mean I'm a wizard now?!"
🔊 [FACT-CHECK: YOU ARE NOT A WIZARD.]
Ahmed screamed, "LET ME HAVE THIS ONE!"
The Beast Hesitates
For the first time, the Nightmare Beast faltered. Its eyes narrowed, molten flames flickering with something dangerously close to… caution. It circled them, claws raking molten sparks from the earth.
Liuyue took her stance beside Ahmed, her blade steady.
"You've awakened something the System itself cannot name. That makes you dangerous."
Ahmed beamed, mud dripping from his ears. "Dangerous… me?!"
"Yes," Liuyue said gravely. "To yourself, to me, and possibly to all of existence."
His smile froze. "…That doesn't sound like a compliment."
The Countdown Creeps
The System, still glitching, forced itself to chime again.
🔊 [NOTICE: BEGINNER PACK FULL POWER AVAILABLE IN… 5 MINUTES.]
Ahmed nearly collapsed. "FIFTEEN?! I've been through the apocalypse twice already since the last update! How slow IS this thing?!"
🔊 [FACT-CHECK: TIME PASSES AT A CONSTANT RATE.]
"THEN WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE CENTURIES?!" Ahmed wailed.
Liuyue's Realization
She glanced at him—covered in mud, hair sticking in smoking spikes, eyes wide with terror yet blazing with something new.
This wasn't mastery. It wasn't discipline. It was chaos, raw and untempered, clawing its way into reality.
And it was working.
Her chest tightened. I misjudged you, Ahmed. You are not useless. You are… the anomaly this world did not account for.
For the first time, she allowed herself to believe—not just in her sword, not just in herself, but in him.
Ahmed's First Strike
The beast roared again and leapt, claws glowing with heat.
Ahmed flinched back, throwing his arms up in pure desperation.
And chaos answered.
A geyser of mud erupted beneath the beast's feet, launching it awkwardly off-balance. Its claws swiped too high, missing them both by a breath.
Ahmed blinked at his filthy, trembling hands. "I… I did that?!"
Liuyue nodded sharply. "Yes. Again!"
He panicked, waved his arms wildly, and screamed, "MUD, HELP ME!"
The ground answered. Clumps of sludge flew upward, splattering harmlessly against the beast's face.
Ahmed gasped. "YES! TAKE THAT!"
The beast wiped the mud away, unamused.
Liuyue facepalmed. "Ahmed. That was not an attack. That was… an insult."
Laughter and Fire
The beast roared, insulted, flames doubling in intensity.
Ahmed, terrified beyond measure, laughed hysterically. "It worked! It made him mad! Strategy!"
Liuyue groaned. "That is not strategy. That is suicide."
Ahmed pointed at her dramatically, mud dripping from his finger. "Hey, sometimes suicide is a strategy!"
She gave him a look sharp enough to cut stone. He immediately backpedaled. "Wait—no, not literally! I meant… creative chaos!"
The beast stomped forward, shaking the crater.
The Spark Expands
Ahmed felt the spark surging through him now, each pulse stronger, louder. His heart thundered, his lungs burned, but he could feel it—his chaotic essence spilling into the battlefield.
The mud trembled under his command. The shattered stones rattled. Even the air warped, bending subtly to his presence.
The System screamed again:
🔊 [WARNING: HOST IS BREAKING SEVERAL LAWS OF PHYSICS.]
🔊 [NOTICE: THIS IS HIGHLY ILLEGAL.]
🔊 [FACT-CHECK: EXISTENCE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO WORK THIS WAY.]
Ahmed threw his arms wide, laughter manic. "GOOD! THEN LET'S BREAK MORE!"
Liuyue's Faith
She stepped closer to him, blade raised, her voice low but fierce.
"You are chaos. I am order. Alone, we cannot prevail. But together—"
Ahmed interrupted. "We're like… like peanut butter and jelly!"
"…What?"
"Or like rice and curry! Or socks and sandals! Okay, maybe not that last one."
Liuyue's face twitched. "Focus!"
But even as she scolded him, she smiled faintly. For the first time, his ridiculousness no longer grated—it inspired.
Epilogue Cliffhanger :– The True Eruption
The beast roared and charged one final time, its flames so bright they turned the sky to day.
Ahmed clenched his fists. The spark within him surged, no longer a pulse but a torrent. His chaotic energy burst outward in waves, bending reality itself.
Mud geysers erupted, stones floated, the very air shimmered.
The System completely collapsed:
🔊 [ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]
🔊 [NOTICE: HOST IS NO LONGER RECOGNIZABLE AS HOST.]
🔊 [CLASSIFICATION: MUD CHAOS INCARNATE.]
Liuyue's eyes widened. The beast stumbled mid-charge
.
And Ahmed, glowing faintly with a halo of mud, filth, and impossible energy, whispered through clenched teeth:
"Your fire doesn't scare me anymore."
The spark exploded outward.
Light, chaos, and mud consumed the battlefield.
[TO BE CONTINUED....]