A Level 1 can do all this? Emma watched, gobsmacked at the train wreck playing out before her eyes, her invisible form floating higher into the sky as if to better impress upon her the gravity of the situation.
Her younger counterpart was completely hidden from view, submerged within a slowly growing sphere of darkness that pulsed in tune with her heartbeat. Both her friends and the dealer alike still existed only in name; faint spectres hovering about the twisted remnants of their bodies, reformed into flesh portals from which an endless tide of demons emerged. They were weaker than the wolves Felix preferred, Emma thought, but much smaller and faster; screeching, deformed things lacking anything in the form of discipline that attacked and killed anything they found, filling the air with terrified screams.
[Certain classes are restricted for a reason; locked behind very specific activation conditions and even additional fail-safes beyond that. Do you know how rare it is, for someone yet to reach puberty, with Willpower of all things being their dominant trait, to indulge in toxic substances to the point of severe hallucination? It's not the most common combination, in this land or any other, and even then the Class unlock would have met a hard stop had you not been of my blood. The stars aligned this day, and their omens were ill.]
Is your bloodline a prerequisite for Chaos magic then? Emma wondered. Some secret inherited magic?
[No. There's no inheritance here, only the acknowledgement that despite its immense danger to the wielder and everyone else in the vicinity. It's the only form of magic that is both readily accessible during a mana drought whilst also able to disrupt causality on a large scale; something that is absolutely necessary if you want to pick a fight with the Queen of Hours. If time were allowed to flow unhindered, she could have erased me in a microsecond, so I had to prepare the ground, and make sure we only met on unhallowed ground.
I wasn't the first to wield Chaos against Order, nor will I be the last. I was the best at it though, good enough to earn the name Anathema, one that none have dared to contest even centuries after my death; the weak because of my reputation, and the strong because they know death isn't always final at our level. But no; there's no shortcut that enables acclimation to Chaos, left unaided you'd have died within the day.]
Why even add such a dangerous class to the System? Emma retorted. I understand it was useful for you, but couldn't this bit of magic have been left hidden in a dusty tome somewhere?
[Paradox, Queen of Hours - Level ∞]
"An actual incursion, five decades into the drought? Where's the mana for this coming from? No, wait, this isn't natural at all, this is the System's doing."
Turning to face Emma directly, Paradox pointed a finger at her face with a scowl.
"Anathema! Control your damn kids! I shouldn't wake up to klaxons ringing because your helspawn decided to get blitzed. Make sure she lives to visit me next decade, so I don't waste any effort saving her here!"
[Will do.]
"Hmph, see that you do." Paradox pouted at the easy acquiescence, looking like she'd wanted to argue for the sake of it before shaking her head. "A weak memory block so Marcus can lift it once Emma's ready; erasure for everyone else and a poisoned bottle of wine to Overmind for palming this off on me. Fine, I can work with that. Time reversal."
The memory ended.