Chaos felt the primal force of the wolves’ united assault bearing down on him, yet his thoughts were already racing beyond survival, hurtling through layers of impossible revelation that cracked his usually iron-clad composure. “This is not good,” he thought grimly to himself, his molten eyes narrowing in frustrated calculation as he weighed what he had just witnessed.

  The black wolf alone far exceeded the raw power of any normal Grounded, or even a Godborn, a child of divine lineage. This beast surpassed even the monstrous strength he remembered those demigods wielding in the age before the Eternal War. For a moment, he entertained the unthinkable notion that perhaps this creature had somehow grown stronger in death, strengthened within the afterlife itself before reincarnating. Yet almost immediately he rejected the idea outright, scornful of his own momentary foolishness, knowing full well that death never granted souls greater power, but instead robbed them of their strength, leaving them frail and vulnerable as they crossed back into the cycle of rebirth.

  His gaze snapped toward the other wolf, the one with fur of immaculate white, whose presence was equally perplexing, equally impossible, and equally terrifying in its implications. What rested atop its head was something Chaos recognized instantly, though he desperately wished he had not: a Seed of Godhood, an artifact unmistakably belonging to beings who were either ascendant gods or those chosen by divine right to become them.

  His understanding of such artifacts was intimate, absolute, rooted deeply in the savage memory of divine conflicts before the great upheaval; there had been a time when every true god, or those who were destined to ascend to godhood, had borne such seeds as marks of their divine candidacy. His confusion deepened, turning rapidly into gnawing disbelief, as he fixated once again on the massive maw of the black wolf, which now snarled threateningly at the white wolf, revealing another similar, radiant gemstone glowing blood-red within the depths of its monstrous, spinning jaws.

  A terrifying certainty seized Chaos then, wrapping icy tendrils of dread around his mind as he arrived at an unavoidable and deeply unsettling conclusion: these two beasts were not merely powerful souls—these two were either outright gods, or at the very least beings who were candidates to inherit godhood. The implications shattered everything he believed to be immutable fact, causing his vast mind to reel violently, searching for some reasonable explanation and finding none.

  After the divine war, almost every known Seed of Godhood had been painstakingly gathered and locked away securely beneath the Central Liberatorium, an impenetrable vault guarded by forces even he himself would hesitate to provoke openly. The idea that anyone could have stolen such sacred relics and then hidden them within the afterlife itself, undetected by the Liberatorium’s watchful eyes, was utterly preposterous—and yet, impossibly, here he stood, confronted by the reality that mocked his understanding of the natural order.

  His mind spun furiously, feverishly trying to solve the paradox presented before him: gods could not reincarnate—this was an immutable truth, an unbreakable law of existence that even Chaos knew with absolute certainty. Yet before him were two beings that defied that truth, that mocked it openly, residing deep within Kaiser’s very soul, a place where no god had the right or the ability to reside.

  Shadows began roaring around him, answering the silent, furious command of their master, their forms writhing and contorting as they stretched into vast tendrils of abyssal darkness. The white wolf, crowned with its crystalline Seed of Godhood, wasted no time in lunging toward Chaos, its jaws parting to unleash a blizzard of such unparalleled cold that it froze the very fabric of the world around it.

  In response, Chaos summoned chains from the deepest reaches of the void beneath his feet, blackened iron bursting through the frozen earth, forming a lattice of darkness that blocked the bitter gale for mere moments before shattering under the overwhelming power of ice.

  He immediately leaped back, shifting his form into shadow itself, narrowly avoiding being encased in ice, yet before he could regain his footing, the black wolf pounced on him. Its maw tearing into the space where Chaos had stood an instant earlier. The titan emerged from a shadow on the opposite side of the arena, shadows reforming rapidly around his half-melted, half-disintegrated cloak.

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  Chaos knew now, without a doubt, that even the smallest mistake would spell his annihilation; the wolves, individually monstrous, were together an insurmountable force, their duality of fire and ice creating an ever-shifting battlefield that kept him continually off-balance.

  Undeterred, Chaos flung his chains outward again, coiling them like vipers in midair, and with a roar sent them hurtling toward the two beasts. The black wolf, unperturbed, surged forward, its now burning fur devouring the shadows upon contact, the chains melting and fizzling uselessly against its obsidian hide.

  Simultaneously, the white wolf raised its head high, and with a resonant howl that echoed like a siren through the cavernous arena, summoned pillars of pure ice erupting from beneath the floor. Chaos, sensing the danger, flowed into shadow once more, darting and weaving between the spires of ice, chains lashing desperately in retaliation, each link shattering instantly upon contact with the icy structures. He gritted his teeth, frustration boiling within his molten core as he narrowly dodged each lethal spike, his fury mounting with every forced retreat.

  Seeing no other choice, Chaos expanded the darkness around himself, a cloak of impenetrable night enveloping his form until he became a living void, shapeless and immense, his chains merging with this shadowed tempest, erupting from his core in a furious cyclone that whipped viciously across the arena.

  For a brief moment, he managed to halt their advance, the wolves momentarily hesitating before the enormity of the darkness. Seizing this fleeting advantage, Chaos compressed his darkness inward, condensing it into a sphere of void energy, before releasing it outward in a colossal shockwave of shadow that shook the arena to its very foundations. The force of the eruption temporarily blinded the wolves, causing even these ancient beings of immense power to recoil and stagger.

  Yet their hesitation lasted but a heartbeat, as the black wolf, furious at the insult, lunged again, this time channeling its magma into a torrent of liquid flame, spilling from its maw in a volcanic river toward Chaos. The titan shifted into shadow, attempting to evade, but the magma seared even through his incorporeal form, leaving burns upon the very essence of his being, forcing him to re-solidify and howl in true pain.

  His footing lost, Chaos stumbled directly into the path of the white wolf, who unleashed another blizzard, its frosty breath slicing through him like shards of frozen glass. His black skin cracked and splintered, shadows bleeding from his wounds like dark ink, his regeneration desperately fighting to knit him back together.

  Chaos retaliated instantly, chains of shadow erupting from every wound, a savage storm of darkness cutting wildly at the white wolf, catching it briefly off-guard and leaving shallow gashes across its pristine fur. The beast snarled, its icy fangs gleaming, eyes flashing with vengeance as it leaped forward, jaws snapping shut around Chaos’s outstretched arm, the titan barely pulling away in time, losing only a portion of shadow-flesh instead of his entire limb. Simultaneously, the black wolf charged, sensing vulnerability, magma erupting from beneath the arena in geysers of fiery devastation, forcing Chaos into desperate evasion.

  Realizing that victory through direct confrontation was impossible, Chaos’s mind raced to find some strategy, some deception that could turn the relentless onslaught in his favor. His molten eyes locked onto the black wolf, noting its reckless fury and its unbridled rage. He smiled darkly, even as the white wolf continued its relentless barrage, great shards of ice flying through the air, forcing Chaos to dance precariously between death’s jagged embrace.

  Drawing deeply on the shadows, Chaos feigned retreat, intentionally staggering backward as if overwhelmed. Seeing its prey falter, the black wolf unleashed another molten assault, rushing forward with a torrent of blazing magma cascading from its spinning, deadly maw.

  Chaos allowed the flames to touch him, searing pain ripping through his form, before collapsing and dissolving into shadows just enough to evade certain annihilation. The magma surged onward, directly towards the white wolf, who had been closing in from behind, too focused on Chaos to anticipate anything else.

  The white wolf howled in shocked agony as magma struck ice, steam erupting in catastrophic waves that obscured the battlefield completely. Chaos reformed from shadow at the periphery, clutching at his damaged form, breathing heavily and savoring the twisted satisfaction of having turned these two divine creatures upon one another, even for a brief moment. The black wolf halted, confused, its blazing eyes widening in sudden realization, turning quickly towards its unintended victim, regret flickering momentarily through its molten gaze.

  The ice wolf, furious yet greatly injured, shook itself free from molten stone and steam, glaring hatefully at the black wolf. The brief unity shattered, replaced by mistrust and fury that crackled between them like an electric storm. Seizing upon this newfound tension, Chaos allowed himself a triumphant, rasping laugh, shadows swirling around him once more, reforming his battered and wounded body. He stood again, more cautiously now, yet emboldened by the discord sown between his enemies, ready to exploit their rage and their wounded pride.

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