Chapter 1114: Chaos

Chapter 1114: Chaos

The receptionist watched in disbelief as the hotel remained unchanged, glancing back towards the door. Pierce could see from her expression that she wanted to go out and tell everyone to seek shelter here, to use it as a refuge against the monster, but he shook his head. “You shouldn’t leave the building, or even open a door or window.” He told her. “My power is working its way into the structure of this hotel. If you take away any barriers between yourself and that entity, its shadow will effect you.”

“What?” The receptionist seemed confused, barely managing to calm herself down as she walked towards the window. “But... there are so many people out there, and they’re not changing.”

“Some are.” Pierce pointed out. “I sense a foreign power protecting the bodies of many citizens, but it’s not perfect, and can’t save them all. For the record, that power isn’t protecting you.”

In order to prepare for the coming disaster, Pierce had made the smallest gesture he could, which was to purchase a snack from a street vendor. However, the coin that he used to pay for that snack was one that he embedded with his Alteration domain. As soon as that coin entered someone’s inventory, it would infect their other coins, similar to a meme, and anyone possessing an infected coin would be temporarily immune to effects that would change their physical form.

Anyone who accepted change from that street vendor, and anyone that person then went on to pay later. For almost a full day, the natural flow of the economy itself had spread his protective influence over a large portion of the city. As it reached this point, Pierce was quite pleased with his arrangements, a smile coming over his face.

“Is there... nothing we can do? You’re a god, right? Surely, you must have something?” The receptionist asked, looking at Pierce.

Pierce shook his head. “I’m not one that focuses on fighting. Right now, my divinity is being used to maintain this structure. Besides... it looks like there is someone else that is going to take a stand.”

When Pierce realized the source of the coming threat, and devised his plan, there was still one other piece of insurance that he left behind. However, to activate it, he had to use his divinity to alter the present.

Tampering with time was a tricky business, and he was all too aware of that. Pierce would not go back into the past to make a direct change, because he knew that would simply remove him from the present. Instead, he did something far more difficult. To achieve the goal he wanted, he saw a possible history in which he had made a change, and then brought that change into the present.

“Now, what will you do?” He muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping out over the distorted landscape. He had set the scene. The actors were in place. It was time to watch the show.

In the fringe worlds, there were many diseases that had yet to be completely eradicated. Many different methods existed to cure them, but these methods were too costly for the average person to afford. Thus, they were left to struggle with the disease or find some way to pay for a treatment.

Brianna ran through the streets as the buildings on either side of her warped into twisted masses of ice and flesh. Scared cries escaped her lips, running as fast as her little legs could carry her. She had seen so many people changed by this shadow, and was clueless as to why it hadn’t targeted her. Still, she ran, clutching a small bottle to her chest.

Brianna had only just finished buying medicine for her brother when this disaster struck, and was rushing to find him, hoping that he had been protected by this blight as she had. Her brother, Nelson, was inflicted with a disease known as Stone Rot. Those affected by this disease would have their skin harden like stone, their muscles gradually solidifying. If it wasn’t treated in time, the entire body would become a statue, leading to inevitable death.

Looking back, she saw her brother standing behind her, the stone removed from his skin. His hair had returned, thick and black, and his clothes had been replaced with a long, flowing robe. Not only that, but she could swear that he had grown a few inches taller. “N-Nelson?” She asked, and he turned back to look at her with a smile, his brown eyes just as she remembered them.

“Give me just a second, Bri. There’s something that I need to do.”

Pierce’s smile grew slightly wider as he saw a pillar of black energy rise up from within the city. He had tipped the scales as much as he could, ensuring that the dice would roll as he wished. “Out of the infinite possibilities... who’s to say that that thing can’t create something to destroy it?”

Pierce was witnessing the birth of an unconventional Fallen God, one whose power was directly bestowed by a meme. At this moment, information was flooding into Nelson’s mind, giving him an awareness of what his power was and how he could use it. He had become the Fallen God of Order.

While he was still accepting this information, he would have a few moments to truly use his power as he wished. After that, there would be a period where he would need to start properly processing what he had, similar to a rush of adrenaline.

Projecting his vision across the city, Pierce was able to see Nelson lift his small hand up towards the sky. “Disappear.” He commanded, the void rushing to carry out his orders. A thick hole was pierced through the black cloud, a shrill scream echoing from within it.

The shadow condensed, becoming a black form that rushed down towards Nelson and Brianna. However, Nelson was still calm for the moment, narrowing his eyes at the entity that had hurt so many people, and had made his sister cry. “Die.”

The void rushed again, and the black mass froze in midair, its body beginning to slowly dissolve. Unfortunately, the death of this entity did not revert the changes caused by it, so the structures and people that had been altered would need another method of returning to normal, but there would not be any further changes.

That said, Nelson turned around, crouching down to his elder sister, and smiled. “It’s okay now, Bri. The monster’s gone.” He said, his voice regaining its youthful tone. Brianna choked out a sob, reaching up to grab her brother, as if just to confirm that this really was him.

As she grabbed him, she felt that his body went slack, and he collapsed down against her. She let out another cry, pulling back enough to get a good look. When she saw that he was sleeping peacefully, she hugged him again, holding him tight. At that moment, she couldn’t care less about anything else. Her brother was okay, his disease was gone. That was all that she needed to know. Everything else... everything else could come later.

“Is it over...?” The receptionist asked back in the hotel room, pulling Pierce’s vision away from the siblings. He nodded his head, retracting his divine power.

“That’s right. There will probably be a bit of a mess from now on, but people should be coming from the primary worlds soon, when they hear about this. Especially about the birth of a new Fallen God so far out here, and so young at that.” There were still hostile creatures occupying the city, ones that had been transformed from other buildings or objects, but the people were strong enough to deal with that much.

Pierce let out a sigh as he thought about that. “Though... it looks like this place isn’t going to be a good place to take a vacation anymore.” He said with a light chuckle. Originally, he thought that he would need to stick around for a full week, but things progressed faster than he had expected. Now, it was time to move on again.