They were all directed to a building where they were to sleep for the night. They collected their weapons, and Azaroth was not impressed with having his dagger taken.
The room was small and cramped, with a narrow bed and no window. A candle burned on the bed frame.
Azaroth would have liked it if he was given water to wash the blood in his hair, but the Hound that led him to his room had said nothing when he asked.
He lay on the bed and looked inside himself. He expected to feel sadness and anger, but his emotions seemed to be muted by something.
"Did the technique cause all this?" Azaroth thought aloud. "I wonder where Dad got it and why he kept it."
"Dad and Mother," he whispered. There was no need to feel anger now. Anger would come later. Anger would only slow him down on his way to get power. Anger was a tool that would not help him now.
"I will send souls to you when I am finally ready," Azaroth said.
Sleep soon carried him away.
And he dreamed. Or maybe it wasn't a dream? Azaroth found himself in a deep, dark space. He looked at himself; he wore a sleeveless black robe, and his white hair was long again.
"Hey! Who put me here? Is this part of the Hound test?" Azaroth raised his voice, but it sounded like a whisper, as though consumed by the darkness around him.
This... is just like when I ate the technique, Azaroth thought.
The darkness in front of him ripped, and a slit red eye the size of a house opened.
Azaroth stumbled back, his hand clenching unconsciously on the dagger he had used earlier.
What was this? Azaroth thought. He hadn't seen anything like this before. A red eye surrounded by darkness.
The eye stared at him, and Azaroth stared back.
The eye looked familiar, Azaroth thought.
"So you have chosen the chaos technique." A deep voice filled the darkness around Azaroth, sounding all around him at once.
Azaroth knew instinctively that it was the eye that was speaking. "You mean the technique I ate?"
A chuckle. "That was... a surprising way to get to learn the way of chaos."
"Way of chaos? What's that? What is the right way?" Azaroth had eaten the scroll because he was selfish and didn't want it to burn.
Silence then. The eye focused on him with intensity.
"I see. You know nothing at all. You weren't chosen. Instead, you chose yourself. This is most surprising." The voice sounded surprised and excited.
Azaroth didn't know what all this meant.
"What do you mean?" Azaroth hated when he was kept in the dark about something that concerned him.
"Oh, nothing. Just a musing of an old man," the voice said.
Azaroth didn't believe it. The voice or eye had meant something about him choosing something. Azaroth frowned. Wasn't he in a dream?
"What are you?" Whoever this thing was, Azaroth doubted it was human. Was it a monster? Or were the Hounds playing games with him? Azaroth doubted it. The Hounds didn't know about him eating the scroll.
"You can think of me as a teacher... that will guide you in the way of chaos," the voice said.
"Is that a technique?" Azaroth hadn't heard about it before, if it was a technique.
"Yes... and no," the voice replied.
"What do you mean yes and no?" Azaroth demanded.
"No, it's not a technique if you want to go technical, but instead it's a form of vessel to hold and boost. A foundation, if you will."
Azaroth frowned. "Foundation for what?"
The darkness ripped, and the eye glowed bright, then returned to normal. "I can't say."
Azaroth was tired of whatever was happening. "Why can't you say?"
"I can't say why I can't say."
Azaroth stared at the eye. If only he had the dagger now. He didn't say anything, just turned his back to the eye and started walking away.
There was nothing but darkness surrounding him, but Azaroth figured whoever was playing the game would get tired and leave him alone if he did not reply to their game.
The darkness pressed against him; it seemed thick for darkness, almost physical, but that was how it felt to Azaroth.
Occasionally, the eye would pop in front of him and ask him a question, but Azaroth ignored it all. He wasn't going to play any more games, and he was sure daybreak would come, and he would wake.
Then the eye said something that caught his attention.
Azaroth stopped. "What did you say?"
"Oh! You are interested now? Weren't you ignoring me just now? What changed?" The voice sounded smug.
Azaroth raised his brows at it. He might as well listen to what it had to say. "Just tell me," he growled.
The voice sighed. "Whatever technique you decide to follow when you are Awakened can be boosted by the chaos and make you stronger than any of your current rank, always."
This... was interesting and would be very useful, if it was possible. "An Awakener can only have one core."
The eye laughed, and it reverberated through the darkness. "If only you knew! You already have the chaos core in you."
Azaroth froze. He knew the technique had changed him somehow, but he was sure it wouldn't be to create an entirely different core. He wasn't even Awakened yet.
"That's impossible. I'm not yet Awakened, and I would feel it if I had a core inside myself," Azaroth said flatly. He didn't know how, but he was sure he would know if he had a core. Somehow.
"Oh, but you haven't taken any essence in yet, and the core is only a vessel," the eye said.
Azaroth paused. If it was true, then it would mean he would always be stronger than anyone in his rank. But it couldn't be true.
Wasn't he in a dream?
The eye spun. "Time up for now."
Azaroth opened his mouth, but the eye had already disappeared, and the darkness was pulling him down.
Azaroth sat up suddenly on his bed, and the Hound who carried a bucket in his hand stopped, shocked, as Azaroth moved into a fight stance on the small bed.
"It's time for training. Meet Captain Kael outside," the Hound said flatly and went out with his bucket still full. Azaroth detected a disappointed note in the flat voice.
Azaroth glanced at his hair and clothes. His hair was just as short as when he cut it, and his clothes were still the same.
So his dream was just a dream after all.
He didn't know if he was disappointed. He shrugged. Time for training.