Entropy

"Strange, there's nothing here."

Cain had been journeying for a long time, or at least it felt as much. He'd been traveling a long distance and during this journey, he'd fought many creatures.

Sometimes he would lose and escape, other times he would win and consume the loser.

Floating before the empty expanse, Cain felt weird, in all his time in this realm, nothing was empty. Chaos was a place filled to the brim, space always had something happening, one way or another.

But now, there was nothing in front of him, this was out of the ordinary. It was scary.

"Might as well...."

Without a second thought, Cain entered the zone where nothing was. Immediately he felt nothing, but he heard something. A sharp whistle filled his ears, he could barely notice it.

"It's not empty, just filled with something else." He sighed in relief. 

He was still unknowing of how the World of Chaos operated, Cain guessed some properties based on his experience in it, but trying to understand Chaos would prove impossible, chaos wasn't supposed to be understood or calculated.

Cain used his eyes but he could not see what Chaos was, he could interpret where he was but he could not interpret Chaos without help from order.

Humans were beings of order, and to be of Chaos wasn't in their nature. People could gain attributes of Chaos like madness, but it is only a symptom, not the cause, thus without a proper method only the symptoms can be seen.

This was how Cain could interpret this world, he held a symptom of it.

Funnily enough, Madness was first born from a great ruler of the past, near the beginning of the world.

It is said the ruler was infected by chaos trying to harness it, and so he went mad and destroyed his kingdom. In the end, his demise spread the first thoughts of insanity, which spread throughout the world of order.

Insanity plagued those it touched, and like wildfire, it spread easily and without sense. Madness in today's age was easily achievable, one just needed to push their mind past the brink of their mental limits. 

Most things that disrupt Order were at one point or another caused by Chaos, but the catalyst for these things were the Vessels of Thought, only thought unhindered could destroy order, and thought cannot be stopped, only repressed.

Luckily Chaos also had symptoms of order, otherwise, Cain wouldn't be able to see or hear anything in Chaos even if he held one of its symptoms. He would have been destined to immediately die.

"Hmm, I seem fine, should I just find a spot to cultivate? I'm close to breaking through to the Late Growth Stage..."

Cain floated in thought, the whistling would grow louder and softer over a period, sometimes it even turned into screeching.

...

Existence continued, and Cain floated in the strange zone of whistling. Ever since he entered, he found no creatures bothered him, even if they saw him.

He cared little for it, perhaps problems might crop up but having the time and peace to cultivate was a good trade-off, he didn't know when he would be able to have time to do this next. Cain liked cultivating, it brought a strange peacefulness to him. Yet he couldn't breakthrough to the Late Growth Stage no matter how hard he tried. This confused him greatly.

"Do I not have enough energy? No, I have enough. Is it my Souls? But they are all above Tier 6 and Tier 7. Those tiers let the cultivator reach the Peak of Growth Stage, I even have a Tier 8 Sword Spirit that will let me breakthrough into the Enlightenment Stage. So why can't I advance?!"

Anger filled him, everything was already planned out, how could he have troubles now?

He then had another thought, "Unless.....this place is doing something to me. I have gained power and seem to have an unlimited life. Did it do something else? Oh no!"

When Cain finally realized, the space around him stopped with its whistles, instead, there was now laughter of different sounds and voices echoing loudly. The majority of this laughter was foreign, like listening to a different language.

Weird creatures manifested, they were like small fleshy children with many eyes throughout their body, only they were built like snakes and had scales instead of flesh.

Their laughter was similar to babies and chilled Cain to his core.

The children wrapped around Cain, binding him. 

"To Mother! To mother!" They cooed, securing Cain and hauling him off. Cain struggled but was unable to do a thing, he was ambushed, these creatures had been waiting for a long time, he was sure of it.

...

"Mother! Mother!"

The grotesque snakes brought Cain to the center of the strange zone, unraveling and revealing him underneath their flabby flesh.

Cain gasped as he crawled out like a newborn, covered in the creature's sweat and secretions. He fell to his knees and saw he was on a platform of brass.

"Human, why cross the border to our world? What stupidity filled your mind to walk into chaos?"

Tilting his head upward, Cain saw a massive black shadow made of dark flames. An unbearable pressure exerted down on him as the shadow leaned closer to him, its pearly eyes glowing with interest.

"Tsk. It matters not. Human, you have wandered into my territory, not even my siblings dare to do such a thing, I gave you time to leave but you did not. Now, you must choose a punishment."

The snakes made of human flesh cooed, "Punishment! Punishment!"

Cain was intelligent, he had no pride in situations like this. He slammed his head into the ground, the sound echoing as his blood dripped from his head.

Whatever was before him was powerful. With Cain's mind interpreting their appearance, they looked no more than a shadow. But the shadow and its form were hard to make out, there was no definite form, unlike everything he'd previously seen. 

This was the first time his mind couldn't interpret something. Just this fact alone caused him to act boneless.

Cain swallowed his arrogance. "I am wrong, I have offended you. I am ignorant and accept the punishment."

The shadow's pearl-like eyes glowed brighter, reflecting rays of different light.

"Human, I like you, knowing when to advance and retreat, many die advancing and never stopping. In light of this, I will give you three punishments to choose from. First, to steal something. Next, to kill something. Finally, to deliver something. Choose one."

Cain remained kneeling, he heard the options and didn't have to think to answer. "Delivery! I wish to make a delivery for you!"

Delivery was by far the best option. He wasn't given details but killing or stealing was far harder than a simple delivery. It was the easiest and so it should be picked.

The shadow praised his answer, "Are you a cowardly human? That is also a good trait. Very well, my children will give you a scroll, you cannot open it. There is a rift in these lands that leads to where this scroll needs to be delivered, it is a very dangerous and long journey, but my children will point you in the right direction. Now go."

Cain slammed his head on the brass floor again, the ringing brought pleasure to the weird creatures. They cooed again and began to wrap around him.

"Thank you great one, for your mercy." Cain let the creatures take him away, the farther the better.

"Go and complete my mission human, and know who you do it for." A mouth appeared on the shadow, depicting teeth whiter than milk. "I am Entropy, third born of Chaos, I hope you do not die, to live this long proves you have some ability, do not get eaten while completing this task."

Cain's sight became black as he was engulfed in a ball of moving flesh, the creatures carrying him away cheered and laughed.

Entropy watched, silently.

'A human...interesting, I foresaw him but still didn't believe it. Adapting to chaos is hard, he must be one of the insane within order, a paradox of Rules and Disorder. Or maybe he's just lucky, hehe.'