Chapter 49: Harbinger of Equilibrium | Human, Dragon, & Demi-God

I let my dragon aura, my life aura, mana, and my aura of Infinity flow out of me as I dove into the swirling mess that was my soulscape. Swimming against the amalgamation of energy that I was pouring out wasn't easy, but this made the torrential waters of the whirlpool manageable. I could safely get closer and grab hold of the lifeforce, as soon as I did, I infused it into my physical body- I peeked and was satisfied when I found my body glowing an ethereal gold. 

I then cast my gaze upwards to the floating crown that was slightly resting upon my head, it glowed ominously, as it was basking in the tempest that was my energy. Pressure began building, but I carried on knowing full well this was a good opportunity to jump-start the touki control. 

Sweat poured out of me while the two nekos were grabbing ahold of my shirt with their claws as they absorbed the excess. It was a strenuous process in getting the life force to circle around me, I was able to before but it was more like it was doing it on its own in order to disperse. This time the lifeforce was heavy, like honey it inched along my body through what I assume were ethereal veins, separated from both my mana veins and actual ones. 

I gulped air whenever I could and got right back to pushing it, I so desperately wanted to use my aura to guide it, but that would do no good. The crown already had runes lighting up in response to the many different forms of energy leaking out of me. Slowly but surely golden sparks flew out of my body as the lifeforce sped along at my command, power surges came in bursts, and though it felt good it was draining and a pounding headache from exerting myself was the consequence of moving the honey-like energy. 

Kuroka and Shirone now sagged upon my lap, and I didn't want them to overindulge in my excess energy so I pinpointed the exact point where I wanted to teleport them with my aura of infinity- right on the lap of both Miyu and Mamako- and they were off. This free use of my aura though made the crown send out a ripple of black energy that gouged the ground in front of me. Before I could reel in my aura and cancel the skill, the crown eagerly absorbed the energy taking in the draconic and the pseudo-divinity, though my mana never ran out and was continuously being pumped out of me the crown wolfed it down at a rapid rate. 

The pressure that the crown was exerting on me was palpable, I couldn't move, and though everyone understood that something was wrong, by then the ominously glowing runes made it explode in a brilliant flash of black and white sending out a wave of mana tainted by chaos and order. Reality warped in front of me, leaving deep wrenches on the ground that did not repair itself, it simply vanished and melted. Sparks of black lightning danced around the crown, hitting me and making me flinch as my skin sizzled, my scales that I manifested simply vanished and flaked away leaving my skin black.

The crown began floating and though Jibril teleported to my position, I stared wide-eyed when her attacks simply phased through the crown. I felt the signs of teleportation trying to get me out, but it was no use, it was as if I was anchored to the damn thing. In but a few moments the pressure eased and I could finally stand up- that was all it let me do for the moment- as I watched it float a few feet away from me hovering in the air ominously. The runes and symbols were black and white, but then shifted to a deep red as it shook in place, and right beneath something appeared as if it simply had always existed, the energy was not from this world almost as if liquid chaos and order manifested. It began to form and I swore to god that it looked as if someone had taken a piece of Space and molded it into my exact replica, or at least the shape of me, except it was as if a swirling galaxy was before me. On one side it was a brilliant white but motes of golden veins crisscrossed around it while the other half of its body was inky black with swirling colors of rapidly exploding and imploding galaxies and stars. Draconic features were on it, sculpted to perfection, but it had no facial features except for the two swirling black hole-like eyes 

An eerie silence passed before everyone launched attacks that simply vanished, dispersed or completely phased through it. It was at this moment that I instinctively knew that only the last wearer of the said crown would be able to harm it and shut down the mechanism. And if it couldn't get any more obvious a blinking black and white screen appeared in front of me. 

[ The Balance between Chaos and Order within the Crown has Collapsed. 

The Harbringer of Equilibrium has Manifested. You have been hit with Cosmic Authority, Outside Interference Nullified, Sealing Space in a Boundary, Chaos and Order Recieve a Boost in Power by 200%. 

The Harbinger Temporarily Stabilizes Your Reality, Restoring Distortions that will be caused by Combat. Gradual Restoration in Progress. 

Perfect Parallel has been Activated. The Harbinger has paralleled your abilities and races. Neutralization of the Dominant Force that has disrupted the balance of the crown is imminent. An impartial entity, seeking only to rectify the imbalance within you. Countless Volatile Energies were Detected, Balancing Required.

Preserve or Perish.

May Balance Be With You. ]

A primal fear begins prickling over my skin, but the dragon within me roars and the fear vanishes. The rumble within me picks up while scales erupt from my skin and my form shifts with my pure usage of Shapeshifting and the upgraded skills from my dragon side. 

"Master! My attacks, they're doing nothing, what is it?! Why can't I get you out of there!? Please, come to me! What is that thing?!" Tears streamed down Jibril's face, desperation and fury practically painted on her. Her attacks as devastating as they were didn't even make it flinch in her direction, its hollow galaxy eyes were trained on me and me alone. Everyone noticed that it was not retaliating, and it only stared at me. I sent a telepathic wave to Jibril to calm her down and to tell everyone else to steer clear and that it would only be destroyed by the last wearer of the crown. 

(I know it's not ideal. I'm sorry for doing something so stupid. But right now, I don't have a choice on the matter, unfortunately. I'm locked in a Space-Time Bubble. Bunker down somewhere near and make sure the training room doesn't collapse, thankfully it seems to be healing it somewhat with its aura...)

(But... Master... Tsk... Okay. Your orders are acknowledged.) Her voice was strained and from the corner of my eye, I saw my moms being pulled away by the distraught-looking Jibril and concerned-looking Grayfia. Ice exuded off of her, but she dampened the effects as they ran farther away. 

I turned to the entity in front of me. No movement, nothing at all except for the twinkling of stars within its body. The energy within the being was calm, but frothy at the same time. The energies were the same as my own, except it had already reached a balance within itself and was currently in the process of finding ways to eliminate the cause of it all, me. Cold sweat was pouring out of me, this wasn't the same as the rage state I was in last time. This time I'm fighting for my life against an entity specifically designed to purge the one who upset the balance. 

The scales I had on me seemed brittle in comparison to the ones it had. I was battle-ready, so then why wasn't I acting?!

My head was pounding and my heart was throbbing, and it was then that the pain registered within me, the Harbringer in front of me had its head tilted to the side and when my eyes looked down, I saw a splash of red. I clamped down on my screaming, it had taken a chunk out of my tail and thigh, perhaps having moved triggered a response. I refused to crumple from the injury though, so I stood definitely as the rapidly healing tail centered me enough. My eyes shifted, and low grumbles rocked my stomach, while the fire within me smoldered. A dozen spells began coming to mind and I slammed them together with the magic that I got from the Star Star fruit. The flames were ready. 

No sound, no movement, no twitch. 

And in that same instance, dozens of magic circles came to life around me, already having completed the incantation inside my head, purifying flames and root-like tree trunks erupted from the ground as they lashed out and struck the being in front of me. I was on the move, throwing myself backward with my wings as I let out a pure concentrated blast of cobalt fire at the last place I saw it dodge. The beam of fire was then accompanied by waves of stars from every direction, ensuring at least one of them hit. 

The harbinger made no move at me yet. I saw that it was focused on shooting down the stars with blasts of miasmic energy balls. My purifying flames were snuffed out by what appeared to be galaxy bubbles. My nature magic wasn't fairing any better, the harbinger sent waves of brilliant white swords to strike them down. I focused on the aura of infinity I spread out and I felt it teleport accurately away from where the attacks were about to hit. It then disappeared abruptly and then reappeared near my position. I let out an unconscious growl, clenched my fangs, and in defiance enhanced the scales covering me with tightly packed mana. I used every instinct I could call upon with my martial arts skill to avoid whatever the being had planned. The honed instincts just barely allowed me to avoid a draconic claw coming from the left, but it seemed to blink in and out of existence before it vanished and reappeared moving into an upward slash. My eyes widened and I pulled back by pushing myself with a gravity beam, scales were torn from my abdomen upwards splattering blood, that sizzled when it touched the herald, but I avoided any severe repercussions as my healing took effect. 

The eyes within the harbinger seemed to twinkle and it formed a maw that belched out inky black flames. In desperation to not get hit I threw myself into a teleport with what I knew about space from my Star star fruit and my aura of infinity. It wasn't instantaneous because of the debuff I still had. But I escaped. The flames licked and singed the surface of my scales, cracking them, but they held, just barely. 

I was dozens of feet in the air, while the entity just slowly shifted its eyesight upward. The flames sputtered out and then it pulled back and launched countless physical slashes of pure white energy. Reality seemed to tear and mend itself as the oncoming strikes flew in my direction, I teleported and teleported and then flew down in a dive. I pulled back at the last second and used my transformed arms and legs to sprint to the Harbinger, my wings pumped- positioning themselves in a way that allowed them to gather wind and push myself from the ground. 

It calmly lifted its claw in response and a golden light erupted from it. The light then descended upon me, so I desperately teleported a couple of feet in front to avoid it and get closer. Debris hit me on the way, but I successfully escaped. I eyed the bits and pieces of chaos and order energy that dispersed here and there, I sent out pac-man duplicates to see if I gained something. I then refocused and finally tapped into the skill that I was avoiding using, mostly because it was dangerous, but since we were in a bubble it hardly mattered.

At once a slightly demonic halo manifested over my head, with it power came with me and reality began twisting in front of me which successfully confused the entity. I had a feeling that my subconscious would hide this skill, mostly because of how dangerous it was and I was right. It might've even hidden the wrath and dragon form too- what luck. With this new opportunity, I increased my speed and began spinning like a drill throwing all of my mana with me at the center. Dark energy began coalescing together with gravity from my star fruit. Flames erupted from my mouth covering myself as took control of the volatile energy. It fought violently so I threw in the bits of lifeforce I could control as well as the dormant pesudo-divinity. 

Unknown to me the energy that was being siphoned by the Pac-Mans reacted to my will, it took on a golden, purple, and azure-like coloration forming a sphere somewhere within me. It spread out evenly throughout my body enhancing it even further. The halo continued to form annihilation waves around me effectively disrupting the balance the harbinger had so meticulously kept in control, but as I got nearer, it started blinking red, I was committed to this attack, however. 

Throwing caution to the wind and every bit of power I could muster, I made contact with the entity and an explosion rocketed my ears, pain began registering and I couldn't feel any of my limbs so I assumed the healing was barely kicking in. I couldn't make out a thing, but the explosion sent waves of chaos and order energy through me effectively engulfing my body. The energy seeped into me kickstarting the hidden ability within my blood assuming it got the memo that I was fatally wounded. The entity gave no cry of despair or pain, I assume it just got destroyed and blipped out of existence. I felt reality tearing itself apart, but small bubbles of power that I assumed were the crown fixed them at a relaxed pace. 

Exhaustion hit me seconds after, muddling my thoughts and senses and as I struggled to stay conscious I was enveloped in a soft warm body that I assumed was Jibril because I heard her distant voice yell Master. My eyes grew heavy but the last few things I saw were a soft blue screen blinking away, the space bubble shattering, and the blurry faces of the three other women. 

[ The Harbinger of Equilibrium has been successfully Recalled. Crown has Detected Optimal Stable Balance within the Host. Canceling Defense Mechanism...

Crown of Chaos and Order successfully Secured and Stable. ]