Chapter 5: Broken Rules
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A rift tears through existence. Laffitte's porcelain body jumps through the vertical tear, opening onto another destination deep within the in-between.
The chaos realm is one of many realms that connect to the in-between and to the numerous interconnected world-trees.
Home of calamities, Laffitte floats down onto a black grass field. Walking along a narrow black river, he follows a trail into the forest, far in the distance, to a massive mansion-sized home. Laffitte approaches the door and passes through briskly without resistance.
Upon entering, Laffitte calls out a name: "Mother, I have returned, and I bring sad news. Adan, my partner, whom I was assigned to take out the weaver guardsmen, was killed." His voice remains calm and emotionless.
It's silent for a few moments, then the loud creak of the door opening echoes through the marble halls. A tall, slender figure emerges from the shadows, dressed in long black robes accented with hints of red floral patterns—a woman with long black hair, deep red eyes, pale skin, and soft features like a porcelain doll.
This woman is none other than the head of Laffitte's noble house and mother to him and his siblings. Her name is Cesella Blood-grave, one of the first calamities born in the Bronze Era, who fought during the golden age of the coin-world multiverse.
However, for Laffitte, his mother did not show as much affection as she did for others, angry that his style of fighting wasn't as destructive or chaos-inducing as theirs.
"I sensed the loss of Adan. So I trust you took care of the weaver's wings and his third eye by thoroughly destroying everything, correct, my son?" Cesella asks, voice steady.
Laffitte steps back, presses his hand against his chest, and bows slightly to his mother, saying, "Of course, Mother. I always aim to please you. Most importantly, I request permission for another bath ritual. Due to my recent battle and the fuel for my trigger abilities—using deceit and theft fueled by chaos—I believe this is a perfect opportunity to gain more strength needed to serve the family better."
There's a pause. Cesella looks down at Laffitte, a warm smile spreading across her face, then she says evenly, "I'd be willing to allow you a bath ritual, on the condition that you help with the Blackwood house and their efforts against the weavers when I call for you."
Laffitte hears this, steps back again, and bows lightly to his mother with a sense of loyalty and camaraderie.
Moments later, Cesella dissolves into sparks of black light. "I'll be meeting with the Black Hand from Black Woods and the other old Bronze Age calamities who have endured through the ages."
"Take care, Mother, and I'll be waiting."
Silence lingers for a few seconds. Laffitte looks around, his third eye twitching rapidly, scanning his surroundings.
In truth, Laffitte was glad his mother had already decided to leave. The reason: he was planning to perform a ritual for himself regardless of her approval. His method was simple—cause massive chaos and breed the essence and terror from the destruction he would unleash.
The bath ritual takes two to three days to complete, during which the hollow energy would saturate and deepen his spiritual body, triggering the awakening of a soul sanctuary. Laffitte, however, has drastically shortened this process by cannibalizing the third eyes of Weaver Luthen and his calamity brethren, Adan.
Laffitte steps forward, observing his body beginning to shift rapidly. Quietly, he shapeshifts into a more natural form—growing a second pair of arms, two additional eyes, and transforming his outfit into traditional calamity clothing: robes, belt sashes, and loose black trousers.
Soon after, he senses something in the distant outside the chaos realm—the presence of a planet. This will be the final piece of essence needed to activate his scheduled bath ritual.
The planet, called Ark-1, is primarily composed of vast oceans and towering mountains reaching kilometers above sea level. Sadly, Laffitte doesn't care for such things. He intends to wipe the place clean of all life.
A tear in reality opens, and Laffitte floats through, a single blackened angelic wing manifesting from his shoulder, with a half-broken spiked crown floating atop his head. An aura of hollow energy radiates from him, exuding an otherworldly pressure across the planet's surface.
The planet's inhabitants are struck with awe at what they see. Suddenly, droplets of pure hollow energy drip onto the surface, seeping into the soil, passing through the mantle and crust, and digging into its core, corrupting it like a parasitic creature.
Soon, Laffitte's smile widens as he snaps his fingers twice.
Snap! Snap!
A giant red bell rings loudly above Ark-1, causing red fissures to appear on its surface—marking the start of his bath ritual. He will use the planet's destruction as raw fuel to strengthen chaos in the world. Although this process isn't entirely necessary, the bath's main purpose is to saturate his hollow energy core and deepen his spiritual body, awakening his soul sanctuary fully.
Soon after, in mere moments, the entire—planet from its core to the outside, including its soil—explodes into blazing fury and black flames; the creatures that were there just moments ago. Are instantly set ablaze and reduced to ash, piled atop the ground before their own deaths.
Laffitte's eyes watch the planet fall apart with indifference in his cold three-eyed gaze, snapping his fingers again, a thin tear in reality opening up leading him back to the chaos domain of calamities.
As he walks back through the portal home, trails of remaining hollow energy from the loss of life flow into his body and third eye saturating his hollow energy core in raw despair and chaos.
Heading down a narrow hallway Laffitte walks into an empty bathroom. Within it sits a singular massive pool, shaped into the form of a pit drop; dropping down into the pool Laffitte slowly and comfortably pulls off his calamity robes stepping into the bath.
Once in the bath, true hollow energy begins to flow in the atmosphere upwards into a large column then shoots down directly into the pool creating a fluid black liquid; Laffitte submerges himself fully into the bath, allowing his body to be reconstructed and improved thousands of times over, replaying every memory or moment since his birth.
The process would usually take three days in human time. But due to the previous endeavors he faced with taking out both partner Adan and the guardsman Weaver Luthen he attained enough hollow energy essence to ascend.
While submerged deep in the pool, Laffitte covers himself in his calamity wings forming a cocoon around him.
In this cocoon. Fragment by fragment, he is pieced back together. Every inch of his mind, body, and spirit is destroyed and then immediately put back together.
Every time he sees a flashing memory of one's life, he takes it directly or indirectly. He feels both their pain and the internalized chaos they fought to lock away, fueling his newfound strength even more.
Slowly Laffitte's doll-like face and slender physique with his curly black hair emerge from the bath's harrowing depths; the bleeding halo atop his head shines brightly. A deep glowing intensity swirls from his back, then sparks of black light shimmer alongside his shoulder forming into eleven black angelic wings.
Laffitte gained a new pair of wings. And while glimpsing into threads of fate, he's able to view the world's angles and dimensions to an even more profound degree. Laffitte smiles as his clothes slip back onto his body while walking out from ritual, he thinks to himself of what plans he has next.
' I must express my gratitude to my mother once again for the generous opportunity she has provided. With my new ascendancy, as one of the strongest of our family's house, I'll use that to my advantage in influencing my standing and gaining an audience with the Black-hand son, what was his name again… …ahh yes, Mekhet, the one who also possesses a similar status to mine, how interesting indeed.' ' '
Now. with his main goal in mind, for a brief period. Laffitte will lie in wait, for his chance to ring the bells of the great war to come.