“Ok first off, what is the Order?” I ask.

  “Well, the Order is a lot of things. An alliance of various factions throughout the multiverse, an idea, a movement to defend against the machinations of Chaos, among other things.” She answers.

  “Okay, then what is the Chaos?” I follow up with.

  She stops to think about it for a second before answering.

  “Hmm, I guess it’s about the same thing as us really, though don’t tell anyone too important I said that, as that statement could mark me as a heretic in some circles. The main difference between the two of us is ideals, morals, and race, to name a few.”

  “What are each sides morals and ideals then?”

  “The Order fights for peace and prosperity for everyone, wishing for a peaceful existence for those who cannot fight for themselves. The Chaos, on the other hand, is a military state that is the embodiment of ‘might makes right’. They believe that everyone should be sent into the crucible of war to better not only themselves, but the Chaos as a whole.”

  “I see…” I say taking in what I was just told, “So who’re you in the Order? Like what’s your rank?”

  “Well, not to brag, but I’m quite high ranking, all things considered. I manage the entire eastern province of this planet.”

  “So in terms of the whole Order, how high up the ladder are you?”

  “Well, there are four provinces in a continent, about five or so continents on each habitable planet, ten planets in each cluster, ten clusters in each mega cluster, and above that is the hundred of mega clusters that comprise the Order’s territories. So short answer, not very high in the grand scheme of things considering there’s a person above me for each classification. I’m like a mayor of a town on a pre-integration planet.”

  I nod to show my understanding before asking another question, this time directed at the healer,

  “So you said something about the color of the guy who attacked me, what’s that about? Why does that matter?”

  The healer turns his head from rummages in his satchel hearing a question being directed at him,

  “Ah, well you see the Chaos faction that inhabits this planet is a race of people called Elemental Decadent. They are a race descended from the Great Elements, and each one is assigned an element at birth depending on how favored they are by their element. These elements can range from frost, lightning, wind, and even poison. That last one is why I asked, as they tend to imbue their strikes with, well, poison obviously. It’s really rather fascinating all things considered, and it’s a shame they are so aggressive.”

  “Woah, that’s… kinda cool…” I say in admiration

  “Indeed.” He replies.

  “So what element was the one who attacked me? He was red so I would assume fire, but nothing he did seemed to point towards that.” I ask.

  “Well, normally red does indeed mean fire, but that red is more orange than red. What you encountered was most likely a blood one. Increased speed in strength are their basic abilities, though some of the more advances ones have managed to use blood magic, a strong an powerful type of magic. Scary stuff that is.”

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  I nod before returning to my questioning of Selaria,

  “So what race are you? You look human, but… not?”

  “Indeed, I am not. I am a Divine, a descendant of the great shaper Bismuth. We usually tend to have more creation oriented abilities involving healing or earth. Our history is storied and rich on this planet, and goes back millennia.”

  “Uh cool.” I say out loud while thinking to myself,

  ‘Holy shit that’s pretentious. The Divine? Really?’

  I recollect myself quickly and ask,

  “So why are you guys fighting? Like the Chaos and the Order?”

  She stops and thinks, opening her mouth several times but unable to come up with an answer. Finally she says something,

  “Truly I do not know, at this point the war has been waging for tens, or even hundreds of thousands of years. Some on the Order say it is our right to spread our influence as far as possible, others say that the Chaos is so vile and evil that it mustn’t be allowed to live and must be stomped out. Truly though, I have no clue what the real reason is. Greed I suppose, with both sides wanting more land and therefor more resources.” She answers.

  I nod, understanding the complexity of the issue.

  ‘At this point it’s most likely a blood feud than anything else. At this rate the endless cycle won’t end until one sides destroys the other. I wonder how this feud turned out in real life. After all, it’s often said that Trial Dungeons are depictions of past events…’

  “Uh are you sure he’s alright? He’s doing it again.” Selaria says to the healer, staring at me in concern.

  “Hmmm, maybe it’s a side effect of the spell I used…” The healer replies looking at me In interest.

  I shake my head,

  “No, I’m fine, just a lot to think about is all. Anyway last question. What’s the state of the conflict on this planet currently? What’s the status of the battle right now?” I ask.

  At this, both the healer and Selaria’s faces grow dark.

  “Not good if I’m being honest. One province has already fallen in the last year, and the way things are looking now, this one might fall soon too. The Chaos forces have been more aggressive than usual this past couple of years, and if we fall, the rest will fall like dominos I’m afraid.” Selaria says solemnly.

  “Well what’s the issue? Why haven’t you guys been able to fight back?” I ask.

  “Well the main issue is their soldiers are overall, higher tiered than ours. I’m the highest tier in the province, and I’m a tier 7. They have five or six tier 7’s at their disposal, plus multiple times more tier 6’s and 5’s than us. The average tier of our soldiers is 3, while theirs is 4 maybe even 5.”

  “Well how many soldiers do you have? Do you at least have more than them?” I ask.

  She rubs the back of her head in embarrassment.

  “No, unfortunately not. We believe they’ve mobilized two of their standing armies of a thousand each to take us out, which is close to double what we have.” She replies.

  “Double?! How the hell have you guys lasted this long?” I ask.

  “Well, for the past tens of thousands of years that both the Decadents and the Divine have been on this planet, we’ve had a sort of mutual understanding with one another to stay out of each other’s territories. Recently though, the higher ups in the Chaos have been pushing for some sort of all out assault of hundreds of contested planets. The Order factions have been caught wildly off guard by this move and are now struggling to mobilize enough forces to help defend.”

  “Why haven’t they just teleported over?” I ask.

  “Teleport? I wish we could do that. The cost of something like that would be, quite frankly, more than our planet is worth.”

  “What about the system teleporter?” I ask in confusion.

  She tilts her head in confusion before replying,

  “We know of no such thing.”

  “Oh.” I reply.

  ‘They don’t have system teleportation? I thought that’s been a things for at least a million years or so. How far in the past is this place?’ I think to myself.

  We sit in solemn silence for a few seconds before Selaria speaks up.

  “Well I should head out. I’m the best scout we have, so as much as I would like to stay and chat longer, the Chaos will not give us such a luxury. Rest well Rowan, I’ll be back tomorrow to talk to you about what you plans to do, whether that be join us or leave, but know that the Order could use someone like you.” She bows politely before heading towards the door.

  “I better leave too. I’ll have someone bring you food within the next hour. Ask someone around here for Dmitry, they’ll know where to find me, and make sure to rest for at least the next day or so.” He says while packing up his satchel and walking out the door.

  With that I’m left in silence.