Chapter 722: Source of Chaos

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

[The original Cynthia has already died long ago at an unknown time…]

Astrya’s tone sounded quite calm, yet her emotions were really complex. Perhaps she never expected that her sister who had fought with her for half their lives was no longer around.

Thanks to her analysis, I was shown the essence of what Chaos Girls really were.

What was the innate nature of Chaos? Evolution.

In that case, if there was a highest point of existence at the peak of evolution, a super apex existence that was impossible to surpass no matter what, then what meaning would there be in evolution?

Cynthia thus decided to be more vicious to herself than anyone else possibly could as she was the purest ruler of Chaos.

She abandoned her self will and transformed into pure Chaos.

Every single Chaos Girl was Cynthia. However, they also weren’t Cynthia.

As Chaos Girls, each of their souls contained one of Cynthia’s soul shards. However, they were also their own independent individuals. For the Chaos Girls, Cynthia’s soul shard was simply a ticket to a grand feast.

A venerated grand feast where all the ticket holders would slaughter each other, that was.

The losers would lose everything, including their life and Cynthia’s soul shard. Each victor would obtain everything from the loser. These soul shards which stemmed from the same source would instinctively desire each other so that they could become complete.

And once a certain time was reached, the victor who had the most Cynthia soul shards would become the new “Cynthia” together with all the powers and memories of the defeated Chaos Girls.

The moment that this victor ascended to Godhood, she would become the true Goddess of Chaos and gain Cynthia’s memories and power, reaching the top of power in the world.

“Ha, the top of power in the world? After a mere 1000-2000 years? Won’t Cynthia simply disassemble herself again for the next Holy War?”

[In Cynthia’s opinion, the old ruler being torn to pieces or exiled by a younger ruler is a show that she enjoys watching over and over again.]

I didn’t even know how to respond to this. Both Creator Goddess sisters had gone to opposite extremes. Pure Order became focused on eternal rigidity and lack of change. Pure Chaos became focused on limitless evolution and chaos.

“…But this time, things are different.”

[But this time, things are different.]

Astrya and I simultaneously came to the same conclusion regarding a certain problem. This time, the final victor amongst the Chaos Girls would likely be unable to become the complete Cynthia.

The Chaos Girl victor would only be at the peak of mortal power after having devoured the most Cynthia soul shards from the other Chaos Girls. She would then still need to combine with the will of the Chaos Abyss and obtain the Goddess of Chaos’s past accumulation before she could truly transform into “Cynthia, the Goddess of Chaos”.

“The will of the Chaos Abyss is in Karwenz’s hands right now!”

In the previous generation, the eternal war between Astrya and Cynthia had given birth to myself and Karwenz, two Children of the Chaos Abyss. Karwenz truly hadn’t been saying something ridiculous back when he said that with karma and bloodline, Cynthia was technically our mother.

However, the will of the Chaos Abyss had been controlling Karwenz until he suddenly managed to turn the tables during the battle of Hell. In the end, Karwenz dragged Cynthia, who was also the will of the Chaos Abyss, away into the void right in front of us.

Perhaps that Cynthia had been lacking in self-will, intelligence, memories, and knowledge due to having split off so much of herself into soul shards. Still, Cynthia was the essence of the Goddess of Chaos. Without this all-important portion, it would be impossible for her broken soul shards to have a foundational transformation back into the true soul of the Goddess of Chaos.

Our theory was that normally, whenever a single Chaos Girl became powerful enough, the will of the Chaos Abyss would automatically come to find her.

“…But for some people, this will indeed be excellent.”

[All that’s needed is to slaughter the other Chaos Girls in order to obtain all of their memories and power, and the victor won’t even need to take on the responsibility of becoming the Goddess of Chaos. Where else can someone find something so wonderful?]

Without the role of the Goddess of Chaos, there also would be nothing to restrain the victor. That meant that there would also be no “time bomb” where the victorious Chaos Girl would be forced to automatically split her own soul as Cynthia again. This meant that the final victorious Chaos Girl would be the last Chaos Girl ever, as well as the strongest one ever in all of history.

[Your theory is highly likely to be correct. In past history, there were truly intelligent Chaos Girls who managed to escape their unfortunate destiny by sitting out the slaughter. But this time, it’s likely that even the ancient Chaos Girls from the past will take action because there will no longer be any restriction or danger for the winner. This means that the old Chaos Girls of past will definitely start joining in the slaughter to gain power.]

I broke out into a cold sweat as I carefully thought this over.

Not all seeds would sprout, because the smartest seeds would be afraid of being harvested. However, the farmer doing the harvesting had now disappeared. This meant that all the seeds would start sprouting and even furiously absorb nutrition from each other in order to grow more powerful, even if this would result in the death of other seeds.

With no more restrictions, all Chaos Girls were now no different from food for other Chaos Girls. Who would want to live every day in fear for their life? In that case, the natural conclusion for the Chaos Girls on how to best preserve their own life would be to become the only survivor, the one who was left alive and at the top of the food chain.

This final battle between all Chaos Girls would be just as insane as this final Holy War to end all Holy Wars. Since the final Chaos Girl would no longer be transformed into the Goddess of Chaos, this would actually make the slaughter competition into a true deathmatch to the end. In the past, the will of the Chaos Abyss would always claim the most powerful Chaos Girl once that Chaos Girl had absorbed enough Cynthia shards, but nothing would get in the way now.

“Lisa wasn’t a Chaos Girl. Yet, Elisa is a Chaos Girl. That means there’s only one possibility. The will of the Chaos Abyss must have embedded a Cynthia shard in her when she was floating in the River Styx. But, how did Cynthia know that I would come for Lisa’s soul…?”

[She had no need to plan for you. Cynthia simply wanted to see her seed sprout in the Cycle of Reincarnation. She was already casting hundreds of seeds at random to begin with. There was no need for her to even consider anything else.]

It seemed that Maria had yet to meet any other Chaos Girls before. Her instinctive desire to kill the other Chaos Girls had yet to awaken. This was an instinct that would be carved deep in the soul of all the Chaos Girls, an influence from the Cynthia soul shard. This instinct would be activated the moment that a Chaos Girl met another Chaos Girl.

If Maria had awakened this instinct already, she would have understood all of this already. There would have been no need for Astrya and myself to investigate this matter.

Judging from how there were rumors everywhere that Maria was a Chaos Girl, someone really wanted her to die. Perhaps it was even another Chaos Girl who was behind this scheme. Maybe Maria’s identity as a Chaos Girl had already been discovered.

Leona was also a Chaos Girl… Karwenz definitely knew something due to having taken away the will of the Chaos Abyss. He also intended to do something with his knowledge.

Karwenz had always been the type to treat his own women well. Could it be that he had a good opinion of Leona, and felt that she would become the final victor?

I didn’t know when Elisa had awoken to her Chaos Girl nature. However, it was quite evident that she had already come to a decision that she would pay any price necessary in order to become the final victor.

Now that I knew the truth about the Chaos Girls, there was an even bigger headache in front of me.

“Should I tell Maria about all this or not?”

“I think you should. She’ll soon learn on her own regardless. At the very least, it’s a fact that someone wants to murder her. What do you think will happen if she dies a mysterious death?” Harloys had remained silent during my discussion with Astrya, but she suddenly interjected at this time.

I was rather confused for a moment. So what if Maria died? What would it have to do with me?

But then, I soon became uneasy as I realized what Harloys meant.

If Maria really died, no matter who killed her for real, the prime suspect would be Prince Winston. It was just like how I refused to believe that Prince Winston wasn’t the one who had started rumors about Maria. It would be impossible for Prince Winston to defend himself against the accusation that he had murdered Maria.

Maria was currently single, with no descendants. Her death would mean only one of two things.

The first was that her faction would completely collapse, and Prince Winston would laugh in delight at having suddenly benefited so much. This was an extremely unlikely scenario, so…

“The other possibility is that civil war will re-erupt. This San Antonio civil war will be a battle to the very death. Maria’s despairing retainers will start another war for the sake of revenge. However, starting an internal war at this time when San Antonio is surrounded by outside enemies from the Chaos Faction will mean that no winner will possibly emerge from San Antonio’s civil war. As long as the ogres and demons take advantage of this, San Antonio, the strongest human mega empire in Eich, will instantly be destroyed. The entire world will be shaken by this news. The balance of the Holy War will tip in favor of the Chaos Faction.”

Harloys had analyzed quite clearly that I couldn’t possibly just sit back and watch all of this happen. But, I started panicking a bit at what happened next.

“Her Majesty Maria was assassinated!! Your Majesty Maria!”

“Catch the assassin! The assassin!”

“Heavens, what will we do!?”

Judging from the tremendous commotion coming from outside the window, the entire fortress city had gone into a major crazed ruckus.

Maria’s personal magic wavelengths in the distance were rapidly dissipating. Even Harloys was no longer able to remain calm at this.

“It’s over, San Antonio is completely finished!” exclaimed a knight outside the window. He stated exactly what I was thinking.

“It’s over, San Antonio is truly finished!”

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