Chronicles of Chaos & Destiny
The Echoes of Control
Chapter 4
The chamber was chaos incarnate.
Glass shards glittered like stars in the dark as twisted creatures emerged from the broken tubes half human, half-shadow, screaming in distorted agony.
Adrien's twin blades slashed through the air, striking one down. It dissolved into smoke only to reform seconds later behind him.
"Seriously?!" he shouted. "They respawn? What is this, a cursed video game?!"
Lucien punched another creature so hard it cratered into the wall. "Then we hit them harder!"
Juliette rolled her eyes, zapping three more with electric bursts from her staff. "Yeah, because that's clearly been working!"
The laughter barely left her lips before a massive shadow lunged at her. Camille intercepted with a high kick, flipping backward as her silver gun cracked a glowing shot straight through its skull. The monster disintegrated temporarily.
Margot's gaze locked onto the floor. Glowing lines of blue runes pulsed beneath the stone like veins, all leading toward a massive circular device buried under layers of crystal.
"The core," she breathed. "That's what's holding them together."
Etienne ducked behind Adrien, screaming as claws narrowly missed his shoulder.
"Less analyzing, more not dying!"
"No, listen!" Margot yelled.
"That device it's connected to every single one of them. They're bound by a network. A living energy grid!"
Subject XIII turned sharply, his glowing veins pulsing brighter. "She's right."
He stepped forward, blocking a creature's attack with one hand.
"That's the Control Core. It's what binds all experiments me included."
Adrien's brows furrowed.
"Then we destroy it."
XIII's voice grew grim.
"If you destroy it… you destroy me too."
The team froze. Even the monsters' screams seemed to fade for a moment.
Juliette's jaw dropped.
"Wait seriously? That's your soul battery in there?"
XIII gave a faint, humorless smile. "Something like that."
Camille clenched her fists.
"Then we find another way."
"There is no other way."
Adrien's eyes hardened.
"There's always a way."
The monsters surged again faster, more violent, drawn by the weakening core's pulse.
Lucien gritted his teeth. "We're running out of time!"
Adrien looked to Margot.
"Can you reroute the energy cut the connection without killing him?"
Margot's hands shook as she traced the glowing runes. "Maybe. If I reverse the flow manually… but if I make one mistake "
"Then don't," Adrien said firmly.
Étienne crouched beside her, muttering, "Why is it always the glowing death symbols with us? Can't we fight, I don't know, a normal goose for once?"
Margot smirked faintly. "Focus, Étienne."
"Trying! But panic's winning!"
The monsters screamed again. XIII's light flared, hurling a shockwave that bought them seconds. "Now, Margot!"
She pressed both hands onto the glowing core. Symbols burst to life beneath her palms. The energy lines flickered, their light changing from blue to white.
"It's working!" she cried.
Adrien lunged at a shadow trying to grab her. "Keep going!"
Juliette and Camille fought side by side, electricity crackling with each strike. Étienne ducked under a claw swipe and, with a yell that was half bravery, half panic, stabbed a dagger into the runes.
The entire chamber erupted in white light.
The monsters wailed melting, fading, screaming as the light purified their corrupted forms.
Then silence.
The floor cracked. The control core split open, its glow fading into a soft heartbeat before dying completely.
Margot collapsed backward. Adrien caught her before she hit the ground.
Subject XIII fell to his knees, panting, the light in his veins flickering faintly.
"You… did it…"
Adrien looked down at him.
"You're still here."
XIII smiled weakly.
"Half here. But alive. That's more than I expected."
Étienne lay spread eagle on the floor.
"Remind me… never to touch glowing things again."
Juliette chuckled between breaths.
"Oh please. You say that every time."
Margot, exhausted but alive, stared at the cracked remains of the Core.
"This wasn't just a lab experiment," she murmured.
"It was a network. The Eternal Experiments weren't trying to create life they were trying to control it."
Adrien's expression darkened.
"And whoever built this… is still out there."
From deep beneath the chamber, a low hum began to rise steady, rhythmic, almost alive.
Lucien's head snapped toward the sound.
"Tell me that's just the wind."
It wasn't.
The floor trembled again. Faint symbols lit up across the far wall, forming a glowing doorway leading deeper underground.
Adrien sheathed his blades, eyes cold.
"We go deeper."
Camille sighed. "Of course we do."
Étienne groaned. "Can't we not go deeper for once?"
Juliette smirked. "Where's the fun in that?"
The Chamber Below
The air was colder now.
Each step down the spiral stone stairs felt heavier, as if the darkness itself resisted their descent.
Flickering blue torches lit the passage at intervals, humming faintly like they were alive.
Étienne grumbled, his voice echoing.
"Does anyone else feel like the stairs are judging us?"
Juliette laughed softly. "They probably are. You've screamed more than the monsters."
"Excuse me for respecting danger!" he shot back.
"Fear is self preservation in stylish form."
Adrien ignored them, his focus sharp.
"Stay alert. Whatever's down here… it's not sleeping."
At the bottom of the stairs, the tunnel opened into a vast underground chamber.
The ceiling stretched high, carved with ancient runes and celestial symbols angels, wolves, and crowned figures intertwined in a chaotic mural.
Camille's breath caught. "This isn't a lab."
Margot stepped closer to the carvings, tracing them gently. "It's a temple."
Lucien frowned. "A temple built under an experiment site? That makes no sense."
"It makes perfect sense," Subject XIII said quietly, his voice echoing oddly in the chamber.
"The Experiments weren't meant to create life… they were meant to revive something lost."
Adrien turned to him. "Revive what?"
XIII's glowing eyes lifted toward the mural.
"The original subject the one they called The Saint of Chaos."
A chill rippled through the air. The torches flared brighter, reacting to the name.
Juliette stepped back.
"Okay… who names their science project that?!"
Margot's eyes widened as she decoded the ancient script. "It says here that the Saint of Chaos was neither angel nor devil born from both realms, meant to balance light and shadow. The experiments… they were trying to recreate that being."
Étienne groaned.
"Because obviously, when science fails, you summon religion."
But before anyone could respond, the ground trembled. Dust rained from above.
The mural's eyes began to glow.
Lucien drew his weapon. "That's not good."
Adrien's blades flashed out instantly. "Positions!"
A deep rumbling sound filled the chamber, like stone grinding against bone. The mural split open in the center, revealing a massive sealed door. From its cracks, blinding white light spilled out, illuminating symbols that shifted like living things.
Subject XIII clutched his chest, wincing. "It's calling to me…"
Camille grabbed his shoulder. "Hey stay with us!"
"I I can hear it," he gasped.
"Voices. Hundreds of them. They're… chanting."
Margot strained to listen, her scholar's instincts kicking in. "It's not just chanting it's a command sequence. Old Saint dialect. It's trying to activate something."
Adrien's voice was low but steady.
"Then we stop it before it activates."
Étienne nervously held up a torch. "And how exactly do you stop an ancient supernatural machine that wants to wake up its own demigod?"
Juliette smirked.
"Same way we stop everything else reckless improvisation."
The ground shook harder, splitting stone and dust. A rush of energy exploded from the door, knocking everyone backward.
Out of the light, a shape began to form tall, winged, halo cracked, eyes burning gold and crimson.
Lucien whispered, "That's not the Saint."
Margot's voice trembled. "No… that's his guardian."
The figure's voice thundered through the chamber.
"Who dares disturb the seal of balance?"
Adrien steadied himself, raising his blades. "Guess that would be us."
Étienne groaned. "And he sounds thrilled about it."
The guardian raised its hand, and the entire chamber roared to life statues moving, light bending, the walls themselves turning into living patterns of war.
Juliette cracked her neck. "Well," she muttered, "time to make history messy again."
And the battle began.Echoes of the Saint
The Guardian's roar shook the entire chamber. Wings of broken light unfurled from its back, each feather shimmering like molten glass.
Adrien lunged first blades clashing against divine armor that rang like thunder. Sparks flew, and the air itself seemed to shatter under the force.
Juliette and Étienne sprinted along the sides, flanking it from both ends.
"I'm starting to regret skipping leg day!"
Étienne shouted as he rolled under a swing of the creature's flaming spear.
"Focus!" Juliette snapped, throwing a burst of energy that ricocheted off its armor.
"We're barely scratching it!"
The Guardian's voice echoed like a chorus of a hundred souls.
"Balance was broken once. It shall not be broken again."
With a single sweep of its hand, light surged outward sending everyone flying across the chamber.
Margot slammed into a pillar, gasping for air.
"Its power... it's feeding on the seal's energy! The longer we fight, the stronger it gets!"
Lucien's voice cut through the chaos.
"Then we break the seal itself!"
Camille's eyes widened.
"Are you insane? That seal's what's keeping this place from collapsing!"
"Exactly," Lucien growled, reloading his pistol.
"We destroy the power source before it destroys us."
Subject XIII suddenly screamed. His body glowed faintly veins of light spreading beneath his skin like cracks in glass.
Adrien turned toward him, alarmed. "XIII!"
"I can see it " he choked out, clutching his head. "The Saint's memories... they're in me!"
The chamber blurred.
For a moment, everyone froze as the world around them flickered stone turning to sky, torches into stars.
They were no longer in the ruins.
They stood inside a vision a vast celestial battlefield, where angels and shadow-born beings fought side by side under a crimson sun.
In the center stood a figure wrapped in both darkness and light eyes golden, halo cracked, a mark of chaos spiraling across their chest.
The Saint of Chaos.
Their voice was soft yet boundless.
"The world was never meant to choose between light and dark. Only harmony could save creation."
A shattering explosion filled the vision chains of light constricting the Saint's body. A council of beings robed, divine, merciless stood over them.
"You defied the order," one of them said.
"Your existence threatens balance."
The Saint smiled faintly, even as the chains dug into their flesh.
"Balance isn't peace. It's fear wearing a crown."
Then the light tore everything apart.
The vision snapped back to reality.
Subject XIII fell to his knees, trembling, eyes glowing with golden tears.
"That's what they feared... they tried to erase the Saint and they used us to rebuild him."
Adrien stepped forward, realization dawning.
"You're his fragment."
The Guardian turned toward XIII, voice trembling with ancient grief.
"You… carry his echo."
For a moment, the creature hesitated its spear lowering. The energy around it faltered.
Juliette saw her chance. "Adrien, now!"
Adrien charged, slicing across the Guardian's weakened chest. Light burst outward, blinding.
The creature staggered back, falling to one knee.
"The cycle… must not repeat…"
it murmured before dissolving into shards of light that floated upward like fading stars.
Silence filled the chamber. Only the low hum of the dying seal remained.
Camille helped XIII stand. "Are you okay?"
He managed a faint smile. "For the first time... I think I am."
Margot touched the ancient door, now cracked open slightly. A faint breeze escaped from within warm, almost alive.
Adrien stared at it, his reflection glowing in the light.
"Then this isn't the end," he murmured. "It's the beginning."
Juliette exhaled, hands on her hips. "You mean there's more stairs after this?"
Étienne groaned. "Great. First angels, now stairs again. My knees hate destiny."
Lucien smirked. "Get used to it. Chaos doesn't take elevators."
They laughed tired, bruised, but still standing as the door slowly creaked open.
Beyond it, a soft, golden light pulsed like the heartbeat of something ancient waiting to awaken.