The road to mastering Chaos was the hardest of any element so far for Max.
For what felt close to a decade, Max had absolutely 0 success in understanding a single characteristic of the Chaos element.
He tried everything-
He tried to study the isolated Chaos energy by sending out charged divine essence pulses out of his body in hopes of creating some reaction, some disturbance in his surroundings, however, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he meditated or experimented, he could not even begin to fathom what he was trying to comprehend.
The isolated Chaos energy did not feel different from an environment rich in divine essence and the times where he did manage to create a small change in his environment, he could never influence events that translated to more than a slight shift in the wind currents around him or a slight spatial tear.
Studying these events also did not translate to much as he could not be sure if it was his divine essence that created this disturbance or was it the chaos energy.
It was like hitting a brick wall again and again and again for a decade straight as the repeated failures took a toll on Max's mental state.
Thankfully, he had mastered darkness and within the dark depths of the element he could find the solace required to repair his degraded mental state as by confronting his fears he could clear his mind and focus on the task at hand with renewed focus.
Then, almost miraculously one day Max decided to conduct a repeated experiment inside a small isolated space around him on a small rock by creating a time loop around it.
The idea was to charge it with the same amount of divine essence every single time and then after observing the end result to reverse the time loop and repeat the process all over again.
By doing this Max hoped to see exactly what sort of disturbances occurred to the stone in an environment of only chaos energy and his own divine essence and whether the result remained consistent for all the number of loops and the observation he made from this experiment was shocking.
Loop 100 - This was the first time when Max noticed a difference as the shape of the rock under his feet which was a perfect oval before the experiment started had changed to an irregular triangle for some reason.
Loop 151 - This time Max felt the very constitution of the rock change. It was no longer a solid rock through and through but rather a harder rock at its core and a softer sand like packing on the top as it's elementary constitution seemed to have been altered.
Loop 1003 - This time Max noticed that the rock had changed its base nature itself from that of a rock to becoming a solid black metallic object while also changing its shape from oval to a perfect cube.
Loop 1432 - The rock disintegrated and vanished into nothingness as if it never existed.
Loop 1552 - The rock shifted positions by moving a few metres to the left, teleporting randomly outside the scope of the experiment and hence breaking the loop.
After 1500+ loops Max realised that the Chaos energy was indeed as random and unpredictable as experts before him made it out to be and that Junfred's assumption that it had the power to alter reality was a correct theory.
The power of chaos infringed upon many other domains.
It could influence the laws of space, the law of earth, the law of gravity, the law of matter and mass.
It was almost as if it could alter reality however the question remained as to how?
How could a rock become a perfect spherical metal with different mass and different character and why did this particular loop make it turn this way?
These were questions that Max desperately needed answers to as he felt for the first time in a decade that by following on this path he could perhaps gain some insights into the unpredictable Chaos element.
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( Meanwhile Rudra )
" Ruby, you and Naomi should start preparing yourself and the kids mentally for your return to the universe.
I understand I promised to stay back till Kartikeya turned 18, however, he does turn 17 next month and I feel he's mature enough to survive on his own in the universe from this point onwards.
I'm saying this not because I'm tired of family life or because I feel captivated on this planet.
The last 12 years have been the best of my life and fatherhood has given me great joy, however, it's time for me to finish what I've started so that the next time I'm with you and the kids it's back at Radiance amongst our friends and colleagues without having to worry about the queen hounding our lives " Rudra said as he informed his loving second wife about his intentions to leave for his mission to slay the queen in about a months time from now.
Ruby had recently gotten a feeling that this conversation was going to come up, as she could notice how Rudra had become more detached from the family once again as he was often lost alone in thoughts.
She had no complaints with Rudra, he had really followed through with his promise and had laid down his weapons for over a decade to become a family man.
If he had to go on a mission once again the least she could do was to bid him farewell with a smile on her face.
" I understand, also I miss my father and Patricia and the others as well, so I am excited about returning to the universe as well " Ruby said as she expressed her support for Rudra's plans
" About Naomi….. " Rudra said with a slightly concerned expression on his face as before he could explain more Ruby raised her hand in understanding and said " I know…. I'll talk to her "
While Ruby understood and respected Rudra's ambitions, Naomi no longer wanted the status quo to change.
The past 12 years had been the happiest of her life with Rudra constantly being around and the idea of him leaving again greatly upset her.
Nonetheless, Rudra knew that killing the queen was something he HAD to do and it was not up for debate.
He did try to be caring about the feeling of his wife and tried to not upset her to the best of his abilities, however, in the end he was not a stay at home husband.
The battlefield was his calling and he could not give it up forever.
Not even for his wife…..
