Chapter 305 – Chaos

Dream sat atop a metal surface. All around him was nothing but the gray of steel and the darkness of space. 

And his chosen abode was a white plastic chair. At least, right now it was.

“Such a chair is not fitting for someone of your stature, my lord. If the machine race saw this, they would fall into distress.”

Aegis appeared beside him with those words. 

Dream shrugged while laying deeper into the chair. 

“Eh, sitting on a throne gets boring. They made one that connects my body to the entire machine consciousness, which is fine and all, except then I have to show up in their fancy virtual world. I just wanted to relax for a bit before the big day.”

“Ah, yes, I had news about that.”

Aegis put out his hand, handing Dream a newspaper. 

On the front page was an article. It detailed the recent events of the war against the Asuras. 

Needless to say, they were getting thrashed. 

Like a martial arts master going full tilt against a toddler, the Asuras were hardly able to delay the advance of the angels and demons. They only did so by annihilating entire worlds, not unlike a scorched earth tactic. This kept the armies from immediately taking everything at once, but it only delayed the inevitable. 

Trillions died, but not even the gods who led them were safe from the fires of war. 

During the entire war, 8 gods fell, with many more demigods being vanquished as well. You could say it was the most devastating war the universe has ever seen. 

And in the end, the angels and demons made it to the doorstep of the asura primary worlds. 

They were close to falling entirely. Dream estimated that they had two more days. 

But before then, the heads of these two warring sides would make their move. That would also be when Dream needed to step in. 

“I’m gonna have to intervene soon. So before then, why don’t we go and do something fun.”

“What did you have in mind, my lord? Hopefully not something that involves a conceptual paradox.”

“No, no paradoxes this time. Instead, I was thinking of getting myself a power source.”

Dream rubbed his chin, tilting his head back and settling his gaze onto the infinite universe beyond him.

Aegis was a bit startled though. 

“A power source? Is there anything in this universe that could possibly provide you with a greater source of power than your infinite core of Khroia?”

“Well, something like that. Don’t underestimate the physical universe. I killed the void god with the supernovae of neutron stars. Of course, I could only do that because I represent a new dynamic of power never before seen in the universe. But nonetheless.”

“Then…”

Aegis pondered for a short moment before getting an idea.

“Are you looking to capture a black hole?”

“Something like that…”

Dream smiled mysteriously, causing Aegis to guess again. 

“A supermassive black hole?”

“Kind of. Unfortuantely, what I want doesn’t quiet exist. At least not yet. I plan to make it, but in order to do that, we’ll need to answer an age old question. What’s inside a black hole?”

Dream stood. Then, he pointed his finger to the sky. His finger hovered around as he began to mumble. 

“14 billion… 140 billion… 1.4 trillion… 14 trillion… Ah, there we go.”

He stopped his finger. 

“That one. The most massive black hole in this universe, clocking in at about 520 trillion solar masses. It contains the mass of some galactic superclusters, and it would take a few tens of years to travel its circumference at light speed. Truly the largest single celestial body in the universe. No star could compare to its colossal size. And, it’s located at the center of the largest void in the universe. Come, let’s go and see this behemoth.”

Saying that, Dream took a step forward, and it was like he melted into the fabric of reality. Aegis quickly left as well, and the two reappeared at another location that was beyond the known universe that Earth had observed many years ago.

Only, the place they appeared in was graced by absolute darkness. 

Not even Dream could sense any light particles. There was quite literally nothing for many thousands of light years around.

But, that was just looking through the standard lens of light and matter. 

Dream wasn’t limited to such things, and therefore, he was able to marvel at the horrifyingly beautiful hurricane of space and time. 

The layers of three dimensional space constantly warped and collapsed in on themselves. It was so extreme that some collapses exposed the underlying second dimension beneath, but those holes were quickly repaired. 

What was more amazing, however, was what seemed like warping space that was close to collapsing and, instead of tearing holes to the second dimension, was generating four-dimensional bubbles. 

Of course, Dream now knew that the fourth dimension was home to the concepts, and the barrier between it and the third dimension was literally infinite, and technically impossible to cross. 

But this black hole was so powerful that it was pushing small points in space into the fourth-dimension, even if only for tiny moments in time. 

This black hole was generating enough power to single handedly rival the entirely of conceptual space, poking holes in the impossible barrier to godhood. 

But at the same time, that begged the question. 

If it was so powerful beyond its event horizon, then what was it like inside? 

What was inside a black hole as amazingly massive as this?

If Dream let himself get sucked inside, would he be thrown into conceptual space? Or perhaps he would enter an alternate universe?

“Aegis.”

“My lord.”

Dream called, obviously not through normal means. He could see Aegis who was actually struggling to maintain a foothold in the annihilatory environment that he was in. 

But, through his concepts and god cores, he was managing.

“I handed you the god core of the Singularity, something I took from a being that had the body of a black hole, though one much less massive as this one. And in order to take the god core, I had to enter the black hole. There, I was able to resist the infinite power of the god and destroy the singularity with a paradox, thus allowing me to extract the god core. But entering the black hole’s event horizon did nothing special. The singularity was merely a one-dimensional point in space. So why am I here looking to enter this black hole in particular?”

“...”

Aegis was silent, pondering Dream’s question seriously. 

His words meant that Dream already knew what was inside a balck hole. It was a shallow form of nothing where everything would be reduced to one-dimensional points, like a hidden particle underneath the fabric of reality that nobody could detect. 

So, if this atrociously massive black hole was the same, then why was Dream here?

Well, the answer to that was simple. 

It was because this black hole wasn’t the same as the other. 

“My lord, this black hole has reached such a threshold as to allow it to breach the fourth dimension. This means that black holes have tiers they fall within, each tier granting black holes greater abilities to wreak havoc on the universe.”

“Mm, you’re correct. You could say that there are two main tiers of black holes. Miniature black holes, with are nothing more than momentary holes in the third dimension. And standard black holes, which generate a singularity. Standard black holes can range anywhere from small singularities with a few solar masses to supermassive black holes with billions of solar masses. As for this one…”

Dream turned toward the black hole he was besided. The event horizon was a few lightyears away, yet in his conceptual vision, it seemed to be the only thing he could see. 

“This black hole is close to growing into the secret third tier. It’s a level of physical phenomenon that maliciously violates the universe’s insides with its powerful hands. An entity so great that even the concepts falter before its might. You could say that this thing is on the verge of becoming a concept itself. Or perhaps at the core of this black hole, we’ll find ourselves in a conceptual world being maintained by the black hole’s might. That’s my best guess, and we won’t know until we jump in. So…”

Dream smiled. 

“Let’s do just that. Hold on tight Aegis.”

Grabbing the gloved hand of his butler, Dream suddenly jumped, as if into a pool of water. 

And his body flew along the spatial currents. With the collapsing of the third dimension propelling him, Dream was able to travel faster than the speed of light, seemingly teleporting across vast distances. 

The event horizon rapidly approached. That black barrier, the point of no return. 

Dream did a few flips like a swimmer off a dive board. And without a sound, he dropped into the deep nothingness. His form was flawless. 

And then, after surpassing the boundary of the event horizon, his body and being were warped a infinite amount of ways. Anything existing within the three dimensional universe lost all sense of identity, being reduced into the purest form of informational existence. 

And then, his being finally entered the singularity, a point at which something was both everything and nothing. 

But, Dream wasn’t turned to nothing. Even if he was, he had surpassed that paradox already. 

No, instead, he found himself in another space. 

A space of primordial chaos. 

A space he seemed to know the identity of, though he was surprised to see it at all. 

“You finally found me.”

Then, he heard a voice. The voice was rather… pleasant. It soothed Dream’s mind. 

He turned and observed the queen of the domain he had entered. 

Atop a writhing mass of nuclear obvlivion and spontaneous nothing was her. 

The daemon sultan. 

The icon of hell.

Chaos.

Dream gazed upon a devilish woman who seemed to be on the verge of swallowing him whole, yet too curious to do so.

He sighed. 

“Yea, you’re just how I imagined you would be.”

“I can only be what you imagine me to be. To most denizens of the universe, I am fear itself, the ultimate nightmare, the manifestation of death and destruction. But your view of me has been warped by your wife Iris. Now you seem to enjoy imagining me as a, what do you call it? A sexy lady? I’m surprised someone like you can actually place humanoid restraints on me.”

The devilish woman smiled as she spoke, as if trying to tease Dream. But he only shrugged. 

“What can I say? I tend to enjoy powerful women. Unfortunately for Order, he appeared to me as an eyeball, so he gets to stay that way in my mind. Otherwise he’d get to be a very handsome pope.”

“Hmm, you’re interesting. To be so aware yet impose blissful ignorance upon yourself… Anyway, how do you suppose we proceed?”

After narrowing her eyes, the devilish woman, Chaos, laid back into her seat. 

Dream smiled. 

“Well, I don’t mind holding a productive and enlightening discussion. Those are always fun.”

“No, not really. Besides, you couldn’t impart anything interesting to me. Not only do I stand at the highest height, but you don’t actually come into existence for a little while longer.”

“Oh? You could tell?”

Dream’s eyes widened in surprise, but Chaos only rolled her eyes. 

“Of course I could tell. Your place in Time comes from the future. After all, Sophia has yet to finish her reconstruction of the universe. And she can’t do so until your precious little wives make the final step to become Order and Chaos.”

“Ah, you’re going to spit it out just like that huh?”

“Well, it’ll accelerate the process, so yes.”

She smiled mysteriously. 

“So, instead of finding a way to pass the time, shouldn’t you be trying to figure out how you can possibly win this war?”

“Well, I don’t plan on losing. Though, you being the owner of this black hole kind of puts a dent in my plans. Not that I’m unprepared anyway.”

“Don’t play dumb, Sylus Dreamer.”

Suddenly, Chaos stood. And her devilish figure that dream preferred began to transform. 

She became true Chaos, a mass of infinite forms and faces, one that couldn’t be constrained by any law or perception. She, it, was the definition of incomprehensibility. 

Chaos was inherently unknowable until it was. To go against all senses, all directions, all logic, all systems. It was the antithesis of Order. 

And that mass of everything surrounded Dream. It was the entire conceptual world, and it enclosed him within its infinity. 

Now, it had no soothing voice. It’s words and meanings came to Dream like a foreign parasite entering his mind. It infected him its chaos. 

“You can’t win.”

It declared simply. But Dream was unfazed. 

“You can’t know that. Only Sophia can.”

“No, not even Sophia can know. Chaos does not propagate through Time. It simply is. Nothing can predict that which inherently cannot be understood. I am nothing, everything, and what has yet to become. I am everything paradoxical, existence and non-existence. What I am cannot be known. And you cannot win.”

“...This time, it’s my turn to say it. Let’s not play dumb, Chaos.”

Dream leveled his gaze, his face becoming a bit colder, and his demeanor becoming a bit more true to his self. 

“We both know what you’re looking for. That which is impossible.”

“Yes. Khroia. The thing only you have.”

“And you seek its ascension. It’s why you’ve been waiting. It’s the reason I’m able to exist. What I can become is valuable, so you left the anchors for my existence in the universe, like Tersa Prime and the Asuras. But, what I can become also surpasses Chaos and Order.”

“And that’s why it shall only take a single instant for this war to be decided.”

The voice of Chaos continued to intrude upon Dream’s mind. 

“Just a single moment in Time. And everything shall be revealed.”

“Indeed. Unfortunately, you don’t know when that time is, was, or will be. So, perhaps this question will answer yours.”

Suddenly, Dream’s body opened, and his core of Khroia was exposed. 

It created its own domain. Chaos was expelled, and the conceptual world was forced to bear his words. 

His voice, now like Chaos, directly intruded into its infinite mind. 

“Is it possible to surpass the infinity of ascension?”

“...No.”

After taking a few moments, which may have been an infinitude of thinking, Chaos spit out that answer. 

But, that also caused a reaction. 

Chaos, from its previously infinitely changing self, was suddenly reduced. It went back to what Dream imagined it to be, that devilish woman. 

But, upon her throne of oblivion, she sat in a daze. 

“No, it is impossible to surpass the infinitude of ascension.”

“There’s your answer.”

“...Leave.”

The woman spoke dully, as if falling into depression. Dream tilted his head. 

“Really? I thought you wanted to accelerate the process?”

“...It doesn’t matter.”

“Hm, if you say so.”

Dream shrugged, but he couldn’t help a smile. 

“Then I’ll be going.”