Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Even while being in a separate and private section, Hal remained connected to the monument and could still sense battles going on all around but he tried his best to ignore the images and focus on the matter at hand... That matter at hand is being the smiling bald monk in front of him.

"I will ask you the same question I asked the last time we met, who are you?" Hal said finally finding his voice.

The monk chuckled slightly,

"Have you not guessed already? Come on, I thought you might be much smarter and learned by now" he said.

To that, Hal just furrowed his brows while he said with a promoting motion of his hand,

"I'm still waiting"

The monk sighed,

"Alright then. If a formal introduction is what you want, then a formal introduction is what you shall get...

I am one of the forces that began creation...

I am the progenitor of the Ordinances...

... I am the Primordial Principle of Order"

Following the monk's grand declaration, he might have expected a dramatic reaction but what followed the declaration was a silence that felt harrowing even though the monk had spoken and made his declaration in mellow tones.

As for Hal, his reply was,

"Wait what?" while he leaned back a tad bit... Not out of fear but out of surprise.

When he had been told of the Primordial Principles by Nihasa, Hal had envisioned both Order and Chaos to be merely forces or concepts and had not expected them to have actual forms.

That said, did it really matter...?

What mattered to him right now was what this monk wanted with him and he wasn't entirely sure that it was going to be a prospect he would like.

"You heard me right. I am one-half and very humbly the most important half of the forces of creation. Through myself and chaos, all things came to be.

Of course, The form you see right now (referring to him as a bald monk) is merely an Avatar and was only created after the great catastrophe right before I put my plan into motion.

My true form is as you would expect... A concept...

A powerful concept that has power over all aspects of nature and can manipulate it as I deem fit." the monk said.

"What plan?" Hal asked as an ominous feeling was starting to dawn on him.

He had a strong feeling that this plan had something to do with the connection to order that was quite a big deal among the top of the echelons of power while also being the same connection that had so far stopped him from comprehending an Ordinance.

The monk spread his arms in a grand and benevolent display while looking upward as he said,

"My plan to finally set things right. When I and Chaos created the spark that went forth to create all that you now see and all that now exists, I let our creations roam much too free.

They have done nothing but create a system that forever negates the concept of eternal peace... The concept of true Order.

It is annoying being just one of the reasons for creation as I constantly have to look over my shoulder at Chaos.

Meanwhile, none of this negativity was my fault... Every negative aspect that now litters the realms are all features added because of Chaos and to rid the realms of this negativity, I need to get rid of Chaos.

That is my plan... To finally establish true Order and create Eternal peace."

The end of the speech sounded quite nice and was enough to draw anyone else into such grand and bright honey-coated plans for the future but Hal was not anyone...

For one thing, a lot of the monk's words were not really making that much sense to him and he also had not yet been told what his purpose in all this was and he refused to relax.

Hal said nothing after the monk's speech and after a brief pause, the monk continued but this time his eyes were no longer facing upward but staring right at Hal with Melancholy.

"After the Great catastrophe, I realized that to really win... To really succeed and put down chaos to achieve this dream of mine, there have to be sacrifices"

As the monk spoke, he walked closer to Hal and when he got too close for comfort and seemed to threaten her master's safety, Sassy leaped right into their midst.

She had her dangers trained at the monk who eyed her weapons with the same melancholic eyes before he wagged a finger in front of her face and following the finger-wag, Sassy was slammed with a mighty force that she had no hope of resisting.

It smacked her against the opposite wall and Hal knew that if the monk actually wanted to pursue her, he could have killed her as easily as had just tossed her away... But he did not consider her important.

Even as she crumpled to the ground more than a few meters away, the monk's eyes never left Hal's.

Hal was still in his Devil form and he tried to muster his strength in an attempt to stop the terrible thing that he could see with certainty was about to happen, but he was bound.

The Monk had absolute control of him and any attempt to resist was futile.

Not even his Dao answered his call... He was powerless.

Hal had still not yet accepted the monk's claim of being the Primordial Principle of Order but that did not change the fact that this was the most mismatched battle Hal had possibly ever been in.

It wasn't even a battle.

To the monk, it seemed like a conversation...

And to Hal, it seemed like a pointless and endless struggle...

The same finger that had been used to smack Sassy many meters away was the one the monk now placed on Hal's chest and the moment there was contact, Hal lost the little control he still had over his bloodline, and his skin returned to normal.

The monk's finger on his chest felt heavy and Hal was quickly finding it difficult to breathe (While also discovering a sudden need to always breathe to survive) but even then, despite the benign smile on his face, there was no pity on the monk's face.

"You have something of mine... A piece of me is inside you and it is just about ripe for the picking."

Hal was not entirely sure what the monk was talking about but he had a strong feeling that once it was retrieved from his body (whatever it was), bad things were bound to happen.

And yet, he could not move his limbs.

"It is pointless to struggle. Every being in existence can trace its start back to the point of creation which is me. The fact that you are powerless is not because of me exerting any power on you but because you can not defy my rule. You exist because of a spark I created with my stupid brother who also now has his touch on you.

There is no point fighting it... No point fighting me..." all this was said with calm and gentle tones that should have been soothing but only served to increase Hal's ire.

In a fit of desperation, Hal reached into himself and made contact with what the monk was trying to retrieve, It was something he had never seen in his body before no matter how thorough the inspection; It was his connection to Order.

When Hal grabbed hold of it just before the monk could rip it out, the images of various sections of the Monument of Ordinances flashed through his mind... He saw Karmen's face and without thinking, he used her face as an Anchor to pull himself out of the private section he was in and into the hall where Karmen was doing battle with Dystopians.

As he was pulled away from the private section, Hal felt himself finally becoming able to breathe again as he was getting away from the touch of the monk who was out to get him.

He did not exit the space alone of course as Sassy, ever connected to her master, was pulled out as well.

The two fell through a sudden opening in the ceiling of the hall Karmen was in and it goes without saying that their arrival was surprising but highly welcome by the Bloodknights.

Amelia was there as well and openly using her abilities as a Lust Denon to her advantage while fighting side-by-side with a Doxon scion.

Following Hal's take over with the Devil pellets, apart from Svetlana and her father Kirill, every other Doxon was in the know in regards to his and his ladies' antics and none of them raised a brow at Amelia's lust flames... Or at the Bloodknights' use of Executioner.

Hal sat up and clutched his chest while taking deep breaths...

And then the only thing Hal could see in front of himself was an ethereal image of the monk as the said monk's voice sounded in his ear,

"A brief respite but you can never escape me. I am Inevitable"

The image cleared up from Hal's sight and allowed him to see a large scaly fist with sharp claws striking downward towards his unprotected head...