Author Comment: I want to thank my Beta-reader FollowerOfAnhamirak for his time on this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.
Chaor gripped the arms of his throne, his nails sinking into it. Lately, he seemed to grow more and more frustrated with every day that passed without any news or progress. They had reached Chaotic, but they still hadn't managed to find anything important. Yet that was not the only thing that had Chaor on edge. "And Theb-Saar wants us to bring more creatures at the same time." Chaor growled, his muscles tensing as he said those words. The worst part though was that the blue Mipedian was right. If what he had said was true then the M'arrillians had their sights set on Chaotic too.
It was a race against time and he hated that.
Agitos bowed down and replied, "It is a foolish demand Lord Chaor, but we cannot take any risks against the M'arrillians."
Takinom nodded and added, "We can never let them take the Underworld again." she clenched her hands, "I will not stand for such a humiliation again."
"None of us will." Chaor replied gruffly. He knew that if he failed again, his own citizens would turn against him. If he couldn't stop their enemies from stealing their territory, then he might as well not be their leader. "We have to do as he said for now, but we need to know more about Chaotic and the Cothica. We have to be the ones who reach it first. Find Kazzy and bring him here alone!" Chaor barked out.
"Yes, Lord Chaor." The other two said before leaving the ruler of the Underworld alone.
Agitos and Takinom left the throne room and looked at each other.
"It is a bad idea to bring the human here with his mood as it is." Takinom commented.
"Agreed. If he turned the kid on us, we won't have any guide to reach the Cothica," Agitos replied.
"We will be the ones who interrogate him. If you find him, tell me through the communication crystal and I will check on Chaor. If he has calmed down, we will bring Kaz to him."
"Of course." Agitos nodded.
Grabbing a pair of crystals, the both of them soon left to find the human.
Chapter 58: To Find Out More
Agitos searched the city looking for the boy. He just hoped that Kaz might be somewhere in the city today. The human could be anywhere. No creature could expect to find a specific human quickly given how they could port anywhere in Perim in a second. Under some condition given by the scanners. He wondered if they would even find him today. With every passing day Chaor's mood would worsen, making it extremely dangerous to bring the boy to him.
Agitos just hoped that his ruler wouldn't search for the boy himself eventually and ended up making a mess of things. He knew that Chaor liked the boy, but with his ruler's aggressive attitude, it might not be enough should the situation turn critical. "Still. It might take days to find-." Agitos began to say to himself, but stopped as he noticed a flash of orange hair.
The Underworlder stumbled at the sight, but composed himself quickly, acting as if he had done so on purpose when the other creatures walking around chuckled at his accident. "By the Cothica, talk about a lucky find." Agitos muttered as he sped up his pace. He knew he had to hurry before the boy decided to port out, "Takinom. I found him. I'll talk to him." Agitos said through his crystal.
"I'll go see Chaor and check if he is in a better mood." She replied promptly, sighing in relief.
Agitos knew that his ruler wouldn't have calmed down that much by now. As Agitos approached the boy he noticed the boy seemed to be currently on a scan hunt. Meaning that he hadn't found what he wanted yet. He walked around the creatures nearby, closing the distance between him and the boy. Approaching him, Agitos thought back to their previous one on one meeting. Talking about his past wasn't that difficult for him. He had long since dealt with that. Still, he hoped the boy didn't have the card with the image of Chaor's father on him. If it fell on the ground at the wrong moment, it would be catastrophic. He raised his hand and placed it on the boy's shoulder, "Kaz."
The boy turned around, eye blinking through his tinted glasses, "A-Agitos? I thought it was my friend Tom."
"Tom?" Agitos knew the black-haired boy was Kaz's friend.
"Yeah. We came here together, but I lost sight of him." Kaz replied. He lifted his scanner and called him, "Tom. Where are you?"
"I think I see you with… Agitos?" The boy replied as he appeared on the screen.
The creature knew that the boy was close by and could see them. His blue color in the city would certainly attract the gaze of the human. He spotted the human and nodded at him when he was close by, "Why is he with you? I thought you were on your own."
"Because if I wander alone, he'll think he can do that and a M'arrillian might catch him." Kaz replied.
"Yeah." Tom nervously chuckled. He was a little nervous with the creature in front of him, given how he was an adviser of Chaor.
Agitos knew Tom was a friend of Maxxor. It was not common information in the Underworld though. Chaor made sure to keep that piece of information only to himself and his inner circle, lest any Underworlder try to claim the boy and pressure Maxxor to do something reckless. The ruler of the Underworld didn't want to let any other creature get to his rival first. "Don't be. I won't report you. I wanted to speak with Kaz alone." Realizing how that sounded Agitos corrected himself and added, "Because it is better than meeting Chaor in his current mood."
The two boys exchanged concerned looks. Kaz adjusted his glasses as he considered Agitos's proposal before he made a decision. "He can come with me. I guess it's about Chaotic."
The Underworlder nodded. He knew that with the two of them, they could shield each other from any info he wanted to obtain. He crossed his arms and decided to take the risk. "I don't mind. Lord Chaor wants to know more." Agitos gestured at them to follow him.
The two humans followed him. They knew that Chaor was bound to get impatient if kept waiting. It was obvious that Chaor wanted something, and as usual he wanted it quickly. That was simply who the ruler of the Underworld was.
Arriving at an alley the trio entered. Making sure nobody was around Agitos gestured at them. "Good. There's no one nearby who might overhear us. I know this alley very well. Many creatures like this isolated place to spill a few secrets between themselves."
"And you know that because?" Tom started.
"Because I was one of the first who used this place long ago. Before he got me and I met Lord Chaor Kaz," Agitos explained, looking at the boy in question.
Kaz nodded, "What do you want to know? We might not answer everything." Peering at Agitos Kaz added, "However, I also want to know why C- Lord Chaor chose me as your guide."
"W-what?" Agitos stammered, taken aback at the boy's question. "You know."
Kaz nodded, "Yeah. We guessed that and our friend Sarah confirmed it. It was easy to guess the other tribes wanted to do the same with Tom, Peyton and I."
"That will save some time for later if you already know." Agitos said, regaining his composure, "Anything else before I ask what I want to know?"
"Why do you want us as a guide?"
Agitos could feel the answer was already made in the mind of the boy. He could see the wisdom in Kaz, "To reach the Cothica of course. You probably knew that already though." Agitos replied, raising his arms.
The two didn't react to the statement. This was simply confirmation for them.
"And you want to ask us?" Tom went on the next subject.
The adviser guessed it was all they were curious about or wanted to confirm, "Chaor wants to know more about Chaotic and the Cothica. I would rather be the one who asked the questions first though." Agitos raised his back and looked at them.
"You saw pretty much everything we can say about Chaotic," Kaz replied.
"What about the other locations you go for your matches? Chaor said it took awhile for you to appear on this crystal thing called a screen." Agitos said, pushing on.
"We have to get to the Battle Drome for that first. This is where we have our matches," Tom replied. It wasn't something they were forbidden to talk about and the creatures weren't officially forbidden to access them.
"With so many of you, you must have many of them." Agitos commented, gently pushing on, hoping to get more.
Kaz thought a little more before looking at his friend, "There are only eight, but everything is organized. Matches are prepared in advance and at a certain time. There are a lot of us, but not that many." Kaz explained, though he did wonder if there were matches made at the same time. The Dromes were rather large after all.
The two had never learned of the intricacies of the inside and how a Drome let a match go. They had also never gone to a Drome and entered at the same time as someone else's who wasn't their opponent.
"Like the Colosseum." The blue creature surmised, scratching his jaw. He had to admit it was better organised. It did, a few times, take a while for the next battle to begin and led to impatient Underworlders vent their grievances. Nothing out of control at least though.
"Yeah." Both boys replied.
Agitos decided to strike for the target now, "And I suppose you don't know anything about the inside of Chaotic."
"No," the humans replied together.
The Underworlder knew it wasn't a lie. Still, he noticed a little bit of nervousness from them. Here was a chance to find something out, "You've never been curious about it? You explore all of Perim when you want, but not Chaotic?"
"Naw. We can get in trouble for that." Kaz replied a little nervously.
Tom avoided looking at the creature, "And it's just a location with nothing to scan."
Agitos noticed the black-haired boy's reaction and let out a small smile, "You are indeed curious." Agitos put his hands behind his back when he saw the two humans looking at each other, "But you cannot explore it because of the security?"
"Of course/Right." The two humans again replied at the same time.
The Underworlder decided to push a little more, "But I am guessing there is something else."
Kaz sighed and honestly replied, "We decided not to try our luck and check. We could be banned forever if caught up. That means we would never come back to Chaotic."
"We also agreed not to try that with that risk," Tom added.
Agitos hummed. He raised his finger and added, "That is rather… disappointing. It would greatly anger Lord Chaor."
"I know." Kaz said as he looked into the eyes of the creature, "But if you can never come back from that infraction, you will have to find another guide."
"That would infuriate him more." Agitos sighed, "And what about the Cothica? What can you say about it?"
"The Cothica?" The two humans looked at each other.
"It's not the Cothica. It's Earth. Our world isn't the Cothica." Kaz replied.
"You call it earth… like the ground?" the creature couldn't believe they had given such a simplistic and primitive name to the Cothica. They had such strange technology and they named the Cothica Earth. He shook his head, "Anything else? Lord Chaor wants to know more."
"We are forbidden from saying anything about our world. It's strictly forbidden with the same consequence as trying to search in Chaotic." Tom replied.
Agitos groaned and looked at them, "That will be enough for now. Maybe it would calm Lord Chaor down a little. Then it would be safe for you to tell him that directly."
"We'll get back to our scan quest then." The black-haired boy pointed at the street.
"Of course." Agitos said, then added, "However, there is something I have to tell you. I don't know if the other tribes have mentioned this, but it directly concerns you," Agitos's expression suddenly turned grave as he spoke, "The M'arrillians are after Chaotic. They want to go there and probably to reach the Cothica. Your world."
The two humans paled at that.
"No wonder they are after us." Tom whispered.
"We got to tell the others," Kaz replied as he took out his scanner.
Agitos turned around and walked away. He gazed at the humans behind. He had nothing else to add and this was an important warning. If it went to the Codemasters, they might get ready for the coming of the M'arrillians. He just had to prepare himself for Chaor anger when he gave his report.
AC: This is the end of this chapter.
Next Chapter: More Of Them In Chaotic.
The Chaotic Players noticed quickly that two creatures per tribe were now present in Chaotic. The Codemasters were aware of it and wondered what was going on as the timing of when the new creatures came was suspicious.