MORNINGSTAR.

I stood at the edge of the glowing path within the Garden of Forking Ways, my pure eyes narrowed as I gazed into the endless horizon where the Chaoplasm awaited. For a moment, I seemed to hesitate—not out of fear, but out of recognition. I had traversed countless realms, defied cosmic boundaries, and yet this journey felt different. The air grew heavier as I unfurled my wings.

They were magnificent—pure white, and gold tinged vast, and radiant. With a powerful sweep, they caught the ethereal winds of the garden, lifting me into the space between dimensions.

The journey began with a rush of color and sound as I pierced the fabric of the Garden, entering the myriad dimensions beyond. Time and space unraveled, stretching into kaleidoscopic patterns that defied mortal comprehension. Realms of light and harmony shimmered briefly before giving way to chaotic voids where stars burned and died in an instant.

I navigated them with an ease born of millennia of experience, my wings slicing through the chaos as if it were nothing.

I passed through worlds of crystalline cities suspended in the sky, where beings of light whispered songs of eternity. I moved through shadowed planes where echoes of forgotten gods lingered, their despair etched into the very air. Each dimension carried its own weight, its own truth, and I absorbed it all without faltering.

As I approached the edge of creation, the vibrant dimensions grew darker, their vibrancy dimmed by the encroaching void. The Abyss stretched out before me—endless and silent, a realm of unshaped potential. My wings glowed brighter against the oppressive darkness, a beacon of defiance against the unknown.

"This is where the rules end," I muttered, in a low but steady tone, calming myself and proceeding with caution.

The Chaoplasm's wicked realm loomed ahead, a swirling vortex of shifting hues that seemed alive with malevolent intent. It was neither light nor dark but something in between—a realm of pure flux, where nothing remained constant. Fragments of half-formed worlds floated within it, their shapes twisting and collapsing into chaos before reforming anew.

I hesitated only briefly before plunging into the heart of the vortex. The Chaoplasm resisted, its formless essence pushing against my presence as though recognizing him as an intruder. My wings burned brighter, their light carving a path through the chaos.

Inside, the realm was maddening—a cacophony of sensations that defied logic. Colors bled into sounds, emotions took on physical form, and the very air felt alive, wrapping around him like a predator sizing up its prey. Tendrils of Chaoplasm reached for my figure, twisting and writhing as if to engulf me.

Yet my smirk returned, sharper than ever. "Insolence," I muttered, his voice cutting through the chaos like a blade. With a flick of my wings, I pushed forward, my celestial light forcing the tendrils back.

I pressed on, the vortex growing denser with each passing moment. The Chaoplasm's wickedness was not born of malice but of indifference—a raw, primal force that cared nothing for order or will. It simply was, and to exist within it was to risk becoming a part of its endless flux.

My arrival in the heart of the wicked realm was anything but unpleasant, yet I kept a straight face surveying where I stood and beyond. It was just as had been dreadfully described to me.

A fiery barrenness, a nightmarish landscape that bore an uncanny resemblance to the depths of Hell itself. Rivers of molten lava carved fiery veins through the ashen ground, their glow casting an eerie light that danced against the jagged, obsidian peaks jutting from the earth like the bones of a long-dead colossus. The air was suffocating, thick with the acrid stench of sulfur and the constant hiss of searing heat rising from deep fissures in the ground.

The sky was an infernal canvas of blood-red hues, churned by ever-shifting storm clouds crackling with crimson lightning. No stars pierced this tumultuous firmament; only darkness reigned above, punctuated by the occasional roar of the heavens. In the distance, ghostly figures writhed and wailed, half-formed specters of chaos that seemed trapped in eternal torment, their distorted shapes fading in and out of reality.

Everywhere, the terrain was alive with an unsettling, almost malevolent energy. The very ground seemed to pulse faintly, as though the realm itself possessed a malignant heartbeat. Echoes of unearthly wails and guttural roars rose and fell, creating a cacophony that was both oppressive and maddening.

This was not merely a barren wasteland; it was a manifestation of chaos incarnate—a domain of despair, destruction, and unrelenting fire, where the very laws of existence seemed to unravel and the remnants of creation clung to survival by a thread.

I lifted my head and my gaze pierced into chaos until I spotted a massive desolate structure, almost a light year away..

A massive city at the heart of the barren fiery Hell, an awe-inspiring monument to desolation and chaos. Towering spires of jagged obsidian and charred metal rose high into the blood-red sky, their surfaces glowing faintly with veins of molten lava that pulsed like arteries of a living, malevolent entity. The walls of the city, thick and ancient, were blackened with soot and scarred with the marks of uncountable battles, giving the entire structure the appearance of a fortress built to withstand eternity.

The city sprawled across the barren wasteland like a vast, corrupted organism, its edges dissolving into a haze of ash and smoke that seemed to defy the natural order of things. Streets twisted and coiled like a labyrinth, their paths illuminated by flickering, hellish flames that burned without source or reason. Above the chaos, bridges and arches connected the spires, creating a web-like canopy that seemed to trap the very essence of despair.

At the heart of the city stood a colossal tower, taller than all the others, its peak disappearing into the swirling storm clouds. The structure exuded an aura of overwhelming dread, as if it were the seat of an unseen ruler who commanded the chaos with an iron will. Around it, faint, distorted echoes of wailing voices filled the air, a symphony of suffering that resonated through the city like a haunting dirge.

The city was alive in its desolation. It shifted subtly, as though its foundations were not stone and steel, but chaos itself. Every corner seemed to hold a shadow that lingered too long, every alley a presence that was almost tangible. It was a place where hope had long been extinguished, replaced by the perpetual torment of an existence without order, without light.

This was no mere city; it was the embodiment of unbridled destruction, the ultimate testament to the relentless power of chaos unleashed upon creation.

I walked through the barren expanse, my glowing golden eyes scanning the ruins and twisted structures of the desolate city. My voice carried a mixture of wonder and incredulity, resonating against the oppressive silence.

"How curious... that amidst such ruin, sentience dared to take root. In a realm of unrelenting fire, chaos, and despair, something chose to think, to feel, to exist."

I paused, before a crumbling archway, my wings casting long silhouettes over the molten cracks in the ground.

"What madness drives creation in a place so devoid of purpose? What defiance against annihilation compels it to endure? Did they rise from the chaos itself, or was it some cruel design that planted the seed of awareness here?"

I knelt, brushing my hand across the scorched ground, as if searching for answers hidden in the ash.

"Sentience, born in a womb of destruction... Do they dream of escape? Or have they embraced the inferno as their truth? In such torment, do they know hope? Or has hope, too, been consumed by the flames?"

I arose slowly, my voice shifting to one of somber resolve.

"Fascinating. And tragic. To exist in a place where existence itself is a defiance... Yet defiance is a force I understand well. Perhaps they will have answers, or perhaps they are merely echoes, lost to the chaos."

A/N: Sorry the late update guys. Didn't know I had an extra chapter in my reservoir. Anyhoo, I wish you all a Happy New Year.

And sn. Shout-out to ImmortalHermit. Your daily donations to this fic haven't gone unnoticed my friend. God bless you.