I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Endgame Approaches

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Months have passed. There's been a lull in the fighting. M'arrillian camps are being abandoned, leaving behind dazed and confused creatures, former minions abandoned by their chieftains. Spies report that the M'arrillians are fleeing into the Deepmines. Some think the M'arrillians have completely given up. Others believe they're recuperating. I think they're preparing something big, as do many other leaders.

This lull has done one good thing, though. I can finally take some time away from fighting.

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"Hera, let go!" Jupiter squirms in his sister's grip.

"No!" Hera drags her brother by the arm into my room. "You're going to be nice to Daddy!"

I set down the inventory reports I'd been working on, that Mudeenu had timidly brought me earlier today. "What's going on?"

Hera grabs Jupiter around the waist, lifts him up, and sits him on my lap. "Now behave!" she says sternly.

I look down at Jupiter. He looks up at me. I can see his outline shimmering.

"Hi, Jupiter," I say.

Jupiter mumbles," Hi..."

"Did you know that you're named after a god back on Earth?" I grin. "Jupiter was the Roman god of lightning and the heavens, the highest of all the Roman gods."

Jupiter's eyes go wide. "Really?"

I nod. "Jupiter is also the name of a world back where I'm from as well."

"A world?" Jupiter asks.

I put my hands together like I was holding a ball. "Earth is about the same size as Perim, but up in the sky, far away from Earth is another world." I mime a ball growing larger in my hands. "This world, called Jupiter, is very, very big!"

"Whoa..." Jupiter looks fascinated.

"And guess what?" I lean in close, as if about to tell an important secret. He turns the side of his head towards me, and I whisper. "There's no ground on that world. The entire world is made out of clouds."

"Clouds?" Jupiter whispers. "Then how do people stand on it?"

"People don't stand on it," I say. "There are no people there!"

Jupiter looks astonished. The shimmers across his form have vanished. "What other worlds are there?" he asks excitedly.

I adjust so he's on my right leg, and with my left arm I flip a paper over and start to draw on its back. "At the center of the worlds is the sun. It's even bigger than Jupiter! Then there's the tiny Mercury, then Venus, Earth, and Mars..."

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Every free moment I had this past week was spent telling Jupiter about Earth's universe. He simply didn't want the stories to stop. From buses to bicycles, printing presses to the Internet, the Pyramids to the Eiffel Tower. Plants and animals, countries, anything. He didn't find any of it boring, even things I myself found uninteresting.

Today, though, is the happiest day of this week. This morning, Jupiter said, "Can you tell me another story, Daddy?"

Daddy. He called me Daddy.

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...Peaceful moments don't last long. The bearer of the news that reminds me of this enters Al Mipedim running at close to the speed of sound, a small sandstorm flying in his wake.

Is it a coincidence that I happened to passing through the throne room when the creature burst in? Or did my dream guide me here, to be a witness to the beginning of the end?

The creature, a blue, slightly muscular, gazelle-like man, stops and falls to his hands and knees. I recognize him. Gespedan, an Overworld scout and messenger.

"Maxxor b-begs the aid of Mipedian-Danian Alliance," he gasps before his arms give out. As he tries to push himself back up, he says, "M-mysterious energies are surrounding Lake Blakeer, growing stronger by the day. We fear that th-they are the work of the M'arrillians."

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Isis and I are heading to Kiru city. Joalle will once again care for our children. Also going are Iflar, Theb-sarr, and Mudeenu. Mudeenu by my request, because even if he's serving time as my servant, I know that he can fight. Along with the royals comes the majority of the Mipedian military. The Danians are sending their own soldiers, as well as, unbidden, the Underworlders. Somehow, everyone can tell that the war is approaching its end.

I did tell Isis to stay behind, but she wouldn't have it. She won't fight, but she also won't let me leave her until the day I ride to battle. Making up for lost time, we've started calling it.

So we ride. We ride to Kiru City, where the greatest greatest military minds will gather. Where the various weapons of Perim will be perfected. And past Kiru City, the Lake Blakeer, the place we all feel in our hearts will be the end.

The end of who, though? ...I do not yet know.

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Up next: The Dryland Alliance, Finally Born

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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