By the Light of Kagutsuchi

by Ysavvryl

The sacred light of Kagutsuchi is the power of Creation. However, any who beholds its brilliance too long will go mad.

25. Chaos and Law (Part 1)

Chapter 25: The Second Kalpa – The Scale of Chaos and Law

When Naoki materialized out of the Network, he was relieved to have the pressure of omniscience off of his senses. It made him feel light-headed when his horn didn't have to screen out so much. He had arrived in the Second Kalpa as he had hoped. However, he wasn't near his demons. He was in an isolated room far from the main corridors of the Kalpa. There was a ladder leading up into an area of rotting sickness; that place was cursed.

There were two demons in the room with him: Yoma Efreet and Fiend Raziel. The efreet was shocked. "H-hey, what gives? Now where did you come from?"

There was a scent of smoked meat to this place, a multitude of spices to the magatsuhi and a warm humid air. Kind of like a kitchen? But this was not like any kitchen that Naoki knew of, even as it was almost familiar. "The Amala Network," he said, opening his eyes now that he had a sense for this place. It was a discolored version of the First Kalpa, organic browns and burn patterns over everything. "I got lost trying to get to this Kalpa."

"This is quite a place to get lost to," the efreet said, putting a hand on his horned head. "You don't even need to be here yet; it's well off the beaten path past a long cursed area."

"But we both still got here," Raziel said.

"Not as intended," the efreet insisted. "You both popped up out of nowhere when I was supposed to be left alone until… well, never mind that. Now you have to get past the cursed halls in order to reach the actual trial."

"What are you here for?" Raziel asked, narrowing his glowing eyes at the efreet.

"It's not important right now!"

"Well since I entered in the middle of things, what's this trial supposed to be like?" Naoki asked. He sent his candelabrum away since he probably didn't need it.

The efreet took a deep breath, crossing his arms over his chest again. He shifted his head like he was trying to fix a tenseness in his neck. "Fine, fine, since you entered the Kalpa here somehow, I may as well be your guide to how the Second Kalpa works. As always, contracts are forbidden within the Kalpa. But for this particular Kalpa, you may not change the party you travel with."

"Change my party?" he asked, confused by that. "So it's some kind of game?"

"Sure, see it that way if you choose," the efreet said. "The only place you can call for others who have contracts with you are the rooms with the candelabrum stands at the beginning and end. If you revive those who fall, they will be transported to the beginning."

"But I got separated from my demons when I got lost in the Network," Naoki said. And if this Kalpa had been planned around him having his followers with him, this could be serious trouble.

"Well then you'd have to get to the beginning or end to get them back," the efreet said. "They will probably be informed by our master's servant of what's going on. Another restriction of this place is that in most locations, mapping will not work."

"I can get a sense of what the cursed halls look like from here, a spiral with trick doors and deadly air," he said. Although once he tried to look past the entrance to the cursed area… it was a horrible tangle that felt like fingernails dragged down chalkboard. He winced and quickly looked away.

"Don't try looking into what's past this area again," the efreet warned him, then tilted his head. "Space within this Kalpa is abnormal, you could say. Maybe you'll see a treasure chest in front of you, but if you try to go straight for it, you will find yourself in an entirely different room. Probably onto a damaging floor, or into total darkness, or some small patches of cursed space. Going through a door two different ways may not take you between two rooms. Once you find the logic behind it all, you should be able to figure out how to get from landmark to landmark, in a way of speaking."

"All right, and is the ending candelabrum room going to be locked again?" he asked.

"Not like the First Kalpa," the efreet said. "There will be a quiz to unseal that room. The answers all lie within the Second Kalpa, specifically with the ghosts and demons who are in these twisted halls. Except, I was supposed to have answers for something much further on. Once you find a way to lift the curses within the Kalpas, then I can help how I was supposed to. There, that's what you were supposed to be told at the beginning and a bit more. The rest is up to you to figure out."

"And what about you, Raziel, what are you doing here?" Naoki asked.

"Investigating," he replied. "How do you plan to get through this place?"

Until he saw more of the actual Kalpa instead of this separate hall, there was one sensible course of action. "Try to get back to the start first so that I can reunite with the three demons I brought in here. We came to do some battle training and see what this one would be like, if it didn't lock us in again. I'll work out how this place works on the way, maybe solve it if I get enough clues. But getting back to the others is my first priority."

"What about the cursed zone in the way?" he asked.

Naoki shrugged. "I'll just have to take it head on; I can sense the quickest path out, which is shorter than what I'd have to take coming here."

"Or we can just skip past it," Raziel said. "I know contracts are forbidden, but we're involved in a bet with the candelabrum."

"Do you mean to fight me over that?" Naoki asked. He might stand a chance at knocking Raziel out with one blow now; it was just a question of if he could equally withstand his attacks.

"That depends," he said. "I've been looking through this Kalpa for some time now and I want to see how you handle it. Take my hand, I'll get us past the cursed hall."

There was a quality to this fiend that was like Nyx: powerful but sincere. Nodding, Naoki took his hand. It was mostly hard bone with frail stretches of cold flesh clinging on. Raziel swept his other hand around. This time, Naoki saw what he was doing: space tore with a thin slit that became a passage they could slip through. The tear patched itself up as soon as they were past.

And they were in the same room, distorted and full of eerie shadows. Some parts of the wall were torn open, leading into the dark depths of the Amala Universe. There was something like the feeling of death to the room now. "This feels like times that I've died," Naoki said, although his body was still alive and warm.

Raziel nodded. He was different now, more like the wraith he named himself. "This is the realm of spirits, just past the divide of life and death. I discard and remake my body every time I move between the two; your hybrid state seems enough to keep you stable here, but I don't think you want to linger long on this side. I figured if you could survive the Amala Network, you could survive this. Come on, it's a quick path as long as the ladder's not too crooked for you."

Just like the warped walls, the ladder was bent, zigzagging up the wall instead of going straight. The rungs weren't outside his reach, thankfully, so Naoki managed the climb to the level with the spiraling hall. They couldn't operate the doors in this realm, but there were enough cracks and splits in the walls for them to pass on through. Even the exit door was disconnected from one wall and angled away just enough to squeeze past.

Once past the curse, Raziel returned them to the normal Kalpa with the same action. He let go and stepped away, then put his claws into his chest and pulled a strange weapon right out of his body. It writhed around his right arm like a lash of lightning, bright and very deadly. In that magic, there was some primal hunger. It would tear opponents apart even faster than Raziel could do just with his claws.

"The demons here are strong, but just leave them to me until you get your followers back," Raziel said. "You speak with the players in this game and see if you can solve its riddles."

Naoki felt like only the most reckless of demons would challenge them when Raziel had that weapon out. "Sure, I'll do that. Thanks."

"What are you doing coming from that direction?" the ghost of a young punk asked them, confused by their appearance. "I didn't think that was possible."

"We broke in through the window, in a sense," Raziel said.

"It's nothing to worry about," Naoki said. "What's the deal with this room?"

The punk revealed that he had a deck of cards in his hands; he tapped them against one palm. "Okay then… well, want to play a game with me? If you win against me, I'll not only tell you the right door to go through, but I'll also give you some incense. But if you lose against me, you'll have to give up some life. Either… wait, is he your follower?"

"No," Naoki said.

"Well, then you'll have to give me a quarter, half, or all of your life," the punk said. "Would've been easier if you'd gotten a follower here because then you could have given up theirs. The more you put into your wager, the more incense you'll get. Although, if you want an even greater reward, try passing through the door behind me. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you really must, there could be a great reward for going that way."

There were six doors in this room alone, with everything beyond being knotted up strangely. More incense would be nice. Still, the exchange sounded fishy. "What kind of card game do you mean?"

"Oh, it's not a card game, I just carry this deck around for luck." The ghost tucked the deck into his vest and brought out a marble. It had silver specks glittering within the glass and a noticeable air pocket shaped like an onion. "I'll hide this and shuffle things around, then you tell me where the marble ended up."

...ha ha ha! We can cheat this so easily; you could bet your whole life on this one.

He couldn't sense the location of this room beyond it being next to the cursed area. But what was within this room, that was simple. "All right, I'll take you up on that."

Chuckling like he had the advantage, the punk asked, "Good, then what's your wager?"

"All of my life."

That caused him to pause. "R-really? Huh, you must be really confidant in your luck. Well then, here we go." He tossed the marble in one hand, then called in more so that he was juggling three. After catching all three in that hand, he tossed them up, made dozens more appear, then caught them all in a large glass jar. "How about it, where is the marble I started with?"

Don't worry, this is still easy.

Although the game was more unfair than he'd thought, he wasn't worried. He searched the jar for marbles with silver specks in clear glass… there were only six of those. And of those six, none had the onion-shaped air pocket. A quick check of the ghost found that particular marble. "It's still in your left hand, under your curled thumb."

"Wha-what the hell?" the punk sputtered, bringing his left hand to his chest. There was a silver sparkle there. "How did you notice that? I spent months perfecting that trick, months!"

"It's a distinctive marble," Naoki said. "How do I get back to the beginning of this maze?"

That further confused him. "The beginning? I'm supposed to tell you how to get closer to the end, or back into things if you make bad choices."

"So your answer would depend on how much I wagered?"

"Of course, that's how things work here in the Second Kalpa," the ghost said. "Well fine, if you're going to be like that, I'll tell you more. If you'd refused, I'm to teleport you to the far end of the maze. Not the end, no, another off-shoot like this cursed spiral that will be hard to get out of. With your bet of all your life, or if you'd sacrificed one of your followers, you can go through that door," he pointed to the right of the cursed spiral, "to go right to the exit before the candelabrum room to the Third Kalpa. It's not the only door to go that way.

"If you'd chosen anything in between, I would have sent you through any of the other doors except that one right in the corner there. That would actually take you to the section where the Kalpa entrance is, in case you were trying to get through blindly. There's three sections to the Kalpa as a whole, this one being the one with the way further into the labyrinth. The third section, as I said, would just get you completely lost. Why would you want to go back to the entrance?"

"Because I entered through the window," he explained. "Even if the exit is right there, I'd rather get back to the start so I can do this as I intended."

"That would be best even if it's a hassle," the ghost said, then produced a thin paper bag that was tangible. "Oh yeah, and the actual reward for playing this game with me. If you end up lost back here, I'll just point you in the right direction again."

"That's good," he said, accepting the reward. There were five different incenses in this one, each with a distinct scent. Naoki put it away for later, then took the door in the corner.

"You had the means to sense the marble itself," Raziel noted.

Naoki nodded. "It was distinctive, not like the rest."

In the next room, the layout seemed nonsensical at first. The door they left through was in a portion that jutted out, with a passage that should have jutted into the room they were just in. This place was sprawling, with crooked halls going many different ways, even up and down. While some seemed like dead ends with a treasure or two, most had doors or ladders to other places in the maze. Most of those passages had a ghost or demon waiting near them.

Including one ladder that was within a pair of walls that stretched out to nearly reach the door he'd come out of. "Hey, mind talking with me for a little while?" the male ghost said. There didn't seem to be anything remarkable about him. "I'll tell you the right way you should go from here if you do."

"I'm looking for the entrance to this Kalpa," Naoki said. "I'll listen later if you can tell me the way there."

Like with the punk, this confused him. "Huh? That's not how this place works."

"I know, but I can't complete this Kalpa as intended until I get back to the beginning," he said.

"Oh, well..." he rubbed his head. "That is important. But, see, I'm only supposed to be here; I only know these two passages and there's over two dozen in this room alone. Um… oh, right! Find a demon who has the body of a man and the head of a jackal. He should be in this room. If anyone knows which door can take you back to the entrance, it'll be him."

It was a large sprawling room, but with one specific demon to find, Naoki was able to navigate to him. Deity Anubis, he nulled all ailments and wielded expel and death spells. Fortunately, Anubis noticed him before they caught sight of each other and came to meet with him. "Demifiend, you did not enter this place normally."

"I know, and I was told you can tell us how to get back to the entrance," he said. "I want to get back with my followers but the rules of this place forbid me to call them."

"Very well, I'll take you there myself," Anubis said, clasping the silver scales he carried. The air warped like rain-covered glass and they teleported to a square room that held three doors and a ladder. "The entrance is that way, up the ladder."

"Thank you, I'll be back." At the top, he found a large hall that ascended up to where the second candelabrum room was. His three demons were there, talking with each other. "Good to see you again."

"Good, you made it through," Yagatarasu said, trying to be calm while she was relieved. "It was a surprise to come out here without you, but Yuriko explained what happened."

"Isamu was trying to find this place, but I doubt he'll be able to enter," Naoki said. "There's more rules to this Kalpa, so I do need you three to help." He then told them about the specifics of this maze.

When they got down the ladder, there was a fourth door in the room. Yuriko was there too. She gave him a brief nod, then left through the new door and shut it behind her. It instantly melted away. Leaning against one wall, Raziel had dismissed his weapon to wait on them. Anubis waited in front of one of the doors. "So you had the conditions of this Kalpa explained to you," the god said. "But there is something you weren't told."

"What would that be?"

Anubis pointed to him. "You had your heart weighed while you made the transition from human to Demifiend. I am one who weights the hearts of humans after death to see if they are worthy of continuing on. If their heart is heavy and corrupt from an immoral life, it is eaten by my companion and their souls left to drift in the Abyss. At least, that is how things were when I still had divine status, when people most believed in me.

"When gods like myself were turned into demons, Lucifer helped us to adapt. He let me see the state of your heart as it was just after Conception." Anubis closed his eyes. "It was deemed that your heart was in a state of neutrality with an inclination towards chaos. You held strong ideals of law that restrained you from being noticeably chaotic, morals you were taught to be socially acceptable. However, your interest was strong in the ideals of chaos. Given more time as an ordinary human, you may have turned your true nature into that of a chaotic being on your own."

It was something to think about, but Naoki had to ask, "So what's that have to do with this Kalpa?"

"We can't weigh your heart as we did before," Anubis said. "But this maze will serve a similar purpose. If you can see the workings of this place properly, you will gain insight into the workings of your heart as well." He moved aside and turned to point to the door behind him. "Due to my original judgment of you, you can start with this door. If you come back, you'll be able to enter through any of these three doors."

Three… hey, put Satan in the fore. You should find out some interesting things from that.

Noaki nodded to Anubis, shifting his magatama as he put his hand on the door frame to open it.

Neutral. As suspected, he weighed your heart before and found it neutral, so we start with a neutral door. And the gambling wager, what you did was high chaos, especially because you were cheating at the game. Probably all the doors but that one were chaos, the one would be neutral to come back to the entrance, and teleporting away would be law because of refusing to gamble.

"What are you doing, Raziel?" Anubis asked, bringing Naoki out of his inner thoughts with his magatama.

"I've been allowed to run my part in the candelabrum game however I want," Raziel replied, not about to let Anubis stop him. "Since he has his followers again, I won't be fighting for him. But I will be observing this too."

"It would suit your candelabrum," Anubis said. "Very well. I'll be traveling through the maze. Come find me if you are unsure of whom to speak to next."

Past that door, they came into a T-shaped hall with no exits other than the one they'd come through. But there were enchantments at the other ends of the T, likely teleport areas. There were some tough demons wanting battles on the way to the intersection, including a shade of Clotho in one group. While the rule about not reviving demons had to be kept in mind, the battles were handled with little trouble.

A female demon, Parvati, waited at the intersection. "You're a good warrior," she said in admiration. "But let me pose a question to you, something more personal. Okay?"

"Sure, what is it?" That was the game of this Kalpa.

She turned the flower she was holding. "Let's say that you're talking to someone you admire greatly and they invite you out to dinner. They won't be able to meet with you again for a while, but your parents are expecting you to be at home for dinner with them. What would you do?"

"Apologize to the person and go home to my parents," Naoki asked. Maybe he'd call home to excuse himself if this was an extraordinary person and there was no chance in the world he'd meet with them again if he didn't agree. But in most cases, he'd go back home.

"Then, you should go that way," she said, pointing to her right.

That teleport is law, favoring an obligation to your family over a personal interest.

That thought from Satan gave him pause. "Lucifer put you here with that question on purpose," Naoki said.

"Why would you think that?" Parvati asked, curious.

"If he knows the state of my heart before Conception, than it's obvious I'd make that choice," he said. "The only thing that would make it more blatant was if you asked about someone I had a crush on, but he would know that was a mistake."

"Oh my, you are very clever," she said, smiling.

"Not really," Naoki said.

"Then which way are you going?" Raziel asked.

The exit was behind a door of high chaos. He entered through neutral and was being sent to law initially. "I get what this place is trying to say," he said. "But we came down here to get stronger, so we'll follow this path for now."

The teleport led straight into a room enchanted to be completely dark. A Lightoma spell revealed him to be in the middle of a patch of red haze, a curse to damage whoever walked over it. Although it covered the whole room, a few ghosts paced around the exterior. The curse continued on through the eight small halls that led to other rooms. The ghosts were chanting in a language Naoki didn't know.

It's a modern adaptation of Latin as used by the Mesian Church. We're in the midst of those who worship the God of Law.

"What are they doing here in the labyrinth?" Naoki asked quietly.

"Haven't there been ghosts all over this place?" Mikazuchi asked.

"Not like these," he said.

"Demi, want me to use Liftoma?" Yagatarasu asked, keeping herself above the haze. "This kind of place is exactly what it's made for, so we don't trigger this damage curse."

"Yes, thanks," he said. The enchantment was focused on their feet, giving them protection there. With that making things easier, he went to the pacing ghosts. "What are you doing here?"

"Please don't disturb us," the woman at the end said. "Join us if you like, but don't disturb us."

"I can't join you if you don't tell me what you're doing," he pointed out.

She sighed softly, but decided to deal with him anyhow. "We tried to save the world from the Gaean machinations that led to Conception. However, we interpreted the signs too late and were unable to stop them. We're walking the dim roads of Purgatory in prayer so that we can perfect ourselves and find our way to Heaven."

No, Purgatory is an entirely different place. This isn't exactly Hell either, as the Vortex World doesn't correct directly there. But they are closer to Hell than Heaven in being here.

"Are you sure about that?" Naoki asked the ghost. "This whole place is cursed."

"Obviously, it's part of the trial to test our souls," she said. "We were not evil so we did not fall to Hell. But we still do not meet God's expectations, so we must perfect our being to be acceptable to Him. Come, pray to Him for guidance. He will protect all of His good children even after our world has been destroyed. Pray to Him, and you too will find your way to His side."

"What god are you talking about?" he asked, which amused his magatama.

"The one and only God, of course," she said, starting to get exasperated but still trying to be polite.

"There are many gods," he said. "I'm traveling with two here."

"Those are false gods!" she said, her spirit turning red. "Hmph, I should have seen right away that you were an idolater. There is only one true God; there has been only one true God ever and there will only ever be one true God. You are a wicked fool who should be far beneath us! Your soul will be lost forever to sin and suffering!" Then she teleported them elsewhere.

She sent you away for being too chaotic for her liking, but you're still in the law area.

Despite being sent away, they had arrived in a room identical to the last, even down to the chanting souls. Their group got approached this time, by the ghost of a man wearing white clerical robes. "What are you dark souls doing here?" he asked. "Seeking the salvation of God?"

'Let me ask him a few questions,' Naoki directed at his magatama. While it had been Hikawa's suggestion, he did see some merit in questioning different sides when he could.

Sure. And to alleviate any suspicions, these are indeed the souls of Mesians, those who worship the God of Law. They can't actually reach the Heaven that their God made without an intervention, like with what Lucifer did with your cousins, or how the angels must have separated the souls of your family.

Satan was a lot like Marogareh, giving him access to information he shouldn't be able to learn himself. But that was a curiosity to think over later. "We're lost at the moment," Naoki said. "Someone told me that you all belonged to the Church of the Messiah?" When the cleric nodded, he thought about how he didn't want to offend him right away. Satan shifted his posture and the way he looked to the ghost, much like his physical magatama silently let him know how to fight most effectively. "I've never heard about you before recently. Would you mind explaining what you're about?"

"That is no trouble," the cleric said. "We follow the one true God, watch for His messiah, and help them in any way we can in order to save the world from the corruption of demons. Since the messiah only appears every few centuries, we also help the poor and needy so they can also find the light of God. We pray to God every day and keep His word; it would help you immensely to do the same, fulfill the role laid out for you by our Creator."

"The people of your church hear from your god?" Naoki asked.

"Of course, I follow His guidance regularly," the cleric said. Something shifted about his magatsuhi.

He's lying. Taste the anxiety… he most likely has not heard from his god personally. Most people wouldn't. They call it a small still voice in your heart, which is most likely just their own thoughts.

"That seems amazing," Naoki said, to counter when he asked, "But what if someone has a hard time hearing God? I was told not everyone could do that."

The ghost's anxiety increased; he tried to cover for it. "Well, that can happen until they truly awaken to their call. But we of the clergy are there to help them. Many scriptures have been written about God's teachings; we determine which ones are legitimate and worthy of study. Normally I'd be happy to lend one to a curious youth like you, but we're currently without many things. But we keep faithful; we pray and when we are ready, God will show us the way to Heaven."

"You rely on your god a lot," he said.

That relaxed the cleric, putting him on more familiar ground. "Yes, that is what we are meant to do. Everything in our lives is centered around God. Humankind cannot live properly without God to lead us. If He were not there, we would degenerate into anarchy, living only for ourselves and damaging everyone around us."

At that point, Naoki sensed a dappled radiance. Again? He tensed, trying to prepare himself. The cleric paused, caught by surprise.

Hang on, that was just an angel telepathically contacting him. They're not here. Relax; we might need to lie to get you out of this, hmm…

The cleric looked at him in fear. "Y-you're the mythic Demifiend. A human soul reborn as a demon to carry out Hell's terrible plans."

Do you really not outright lie very much? All well. When you bend the truth by calling it negotiation, your words and attitude stiffen. When you do lie, you look aside in a particular direction and clench your fingers some. You'll have to not do that. Or you could just destroy this guy if lying fails, should be easy.

What would happen to a person if their soul was destroyed? Naoki didn't think it could be good. He continued with Satan's guidance. "That's what they call me, but I haven't committed to it. Those who are trying to manipulate me are powerful, so I have to use what means they've given me to get powerful enough to escape their grasp. Plus, everyone who's trying for Creation is going to end up fighting each other. I need to be able to handle that. That's why I came down here."

"There is some merit to that," he said. "But be careful doing so. The demons will trick you in every way they can think of. Borrowing too much of their power will end up corrupting you. Since you can't use the power of Creation yourself, do you know who you will be supporting?"

"I haven't heard from everyone yet, but I have some ideas," he said.

"This must be some scheme of the demons to have ended our world. But if we keep praying, I'm sure God will intervene and prevent the new world from being completely ruined from the start. I wish I could lend you some of our scriptures; they'd surely help you pick out whose Reason is closest to God's, and therefore the most correct one."

He's believed you so far, give it a shot.

"Thanks for the thought at least," Naoki said. "But there is a problem that's come up. This area is closed off and I can't reach the area with the exit. If I can't get out of here, I can't help any of the Reason bearers. And there are multitudes of demons within the Vortex World. They'd surely do all they could to strike down or weaken the one who could help your god most."

The cleric got worried about that. "Ah, that would be a thorny problem. All these halls of purgatory lead to each other. None of us have found an exit either. But a while back, I discovered that I..." his anxiety shot back up, "By the grace of God, I can send demons away from our path to salvation. I don't know where it will send you, but the demons should not be too suspicious of you. You can find your way back to the light of Creation from there."

"Yes, that would work, thank you," Naoki said.

"I hope God speaks to you soon," the cleric said, then teleported them away.

That's meant for a strong chaotic choice or action, which suits how we handled it.

Of course, it teleported them to a large room that contained a number of demons who had been teleported away by the Mesian clerics. And they knew the purpose of this place. Naoki readied himself for a large brawl.