After leaving the mysterious woman's room, Carter closed the door gently behind him. He stood there for a moment, lost in thought.
'What's wrong with talking to me? Am I not him? Do I have negative aura or some sh*t? This woman won't talk at all. Sigh… i guess I'm the Ant-Rizzler,' Carter internally laments to himself, a bit disappointed.
Instead of focusing on the young woman, maybe he can put this excess energy elsewhere. It had been almost a week since he had transmigrated into this world, and yet he knew nothing about it.
He had been so caught up in surviving, in understanding the body he now inhabited, that he hadn't taken a single step toward in learning about this place.
There had to be something, anything, that could help him. A history book, a map, even a scroll with basic information would be enough. He needed to know about the about Sarnath, and why this place felt so familiar yet so foreign.
He sighed and decided to head toward a part of the estate he had never been to and ignored: the library.
The library, located in one of the estate's more secluded wings, was a modest room compared to the grandeur of the rest of the house.
Rows of wooden shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, each lined with metal scrolls that gleamed faintly in the dim light.
The room smelled of old parchment and metal, a strange but comforting scent that reminded him of his old school library back on Earth. Well, almost, if he ignored the damn flying dust particles in the air.
Carter stepped inside and began scanning the rows of scrolls. The collection was far smaller than he expected for a family of wealthy merchants, but it still seemed to hold centuries' worth of knowledge.
And to top it off, his family was looted and robbed multiple times. He was too young to remember any of that.
His fingers grazed the edges of the scrolls, feeling the cool metal beneath his fingertips. Each one was skillfully engraved, the designs ancient.
He pulled one of the scrolls from the shelf, curious by its unique design. As he twisted the bottom half, the metal scroll expanded, pages unfurling from within as though the text was inscribed on the inside of the metal tube. The more he turned it, the more pages appeared, like an ancient hybrid between a scroll and a book.
"Damn, if I ever get the chance to go back home, this will definitely make a killing. All those book nerds will go crazy for this," Carter couldn't help but admire the design.
To his surprise though, he could read the text without difficulty. Although Carter had inherited the memories of Ahmoset, he hadn't necessarily absorbed his skills.
But it seemed like reading the language of this world came naturally to him, thanks to Ahmoset's past. Even then, the previous owner didn't know much about the world.
"That's one less thing to worry about," Carter muttered, shaking his head. It would be weird if the people noticed that he couldn't read all of a sudden.
He scanned the titles of the scrolls for anything that could give him more insight into his surroundings. One scroll caught his eye: "History of Taru."
He pulled it from the shelf and began to read.
According to the book, the Taru Empire had existed for thousands of years. It was a vast and powerful empire, ruled by the Faye Royal Family, with Emperor Setekh Faye IV currently sitting on the throne. The empire had expanded through conquest and diplomacy, enveloping smaller kingdoms like Nebet, the kingdom Carter now resided in.
Nebet, once a proud and independent kingdom, had become a vassal state under Taru's control. Through some strife, the Taru Empire helped it tide through a war im exchange of becoming a vassal kingdom.
Though still ruled by the House of Nebet, with King Horem Nebet at its helm, the kingdom's autonomy was not necessarily limited.
Nebet was known for its vast plains and fertile land, making it one of the empire's important agricultural hubs. Not to mention, it was far removed from the core of the empire.
However, Nebet was also embroiled in a long-standing conflict with its northern neighbor, the Hessian Kingdom.
The Hessian Kingdom, led by the House of Korne, had been Nebet's rival for over 200 years, and their skirmishes along the border were frequent.
Despite Nebet's subservience to the empire, the Hessian Kingdom had always posed a threat to Nebet's stability.
Strife between the hundreds of kingdoms under the empire were not taken too seriously. As long as the integrity of the Empire remained, kingdoms could fight and take over other kingdoms' lands.
In this world, there are countless kingdoms that fell everyday.
Kingdoms of the empire were graded based on the amount of soldiers under their command, the number of citizens, the influence, and ultimately, their fertility and or utility.
As a fertile land, Nebet has its merits, but its other points were relatively low. Thus, its low ranking as a kingdom. The main factor of a kingdom was in fact is military might. As such, the Nebet Kingdom was ranked 336 of the 492.
Carter felt his understanding of this world grow with each passing sentence. The city of Sarnath, where he now lived, was a relatively minor city within the Nebet Kingdom, known for its long-standing roots as a center of trade. Many merchants come and go everyday here.
It was far from the empire's capital, both in distance and political influence, but it had its own history and significance.
However, as Carter read on, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was being left out. The words felt carefully chosen, the sentences too structured, as though the author had gone out of their way to avoid certain details.
This reminded him of reading between the lines in a football playbook, spotting patterns in quarterbacks or tight ends that weren't immediately obvious to others.
This sixth sense, which had made him such a sought-after defensive lineman, was now telling him that there was more to this story than the scroll revealed.
"This feels… incomplete," Carter muttered under his breath, setting the scroll down.
Frustrated, Carter continued searching the shelves. He needed more—something that felt more authentic, less filtered. After a few minutes of searching, his eyes landed on something strange.
It wasn't a scroll but a book, hidden away on a high shelf. It looked ancient, with a cover made of cracked leather and yellowed pages that looked almost like papyrus.
Carter's fingers traced the weathered, rough edges as he opened the ancient book. There was a sense of mystery as the scent of age and history wafted into the air. The first few lines greeted him in bold, imposing script:
"The Chaotic Sovereign."
The title alone sent a thrill through Carter's mind.
"What kind of book is this?" he says aloud.
He leaned in closer, and as his eyes moved across the text, a voice, deep and authoritative, almost his but not quite, began to reverberate within his mind.
"In a world where power ruled above all, a young man found himself in a precarious situation. He was not a noble born to wealth and privilege, nor a warrior raised to defend great kingdoms. Nah, he was a commoner who struggled to survive."
The young man's life had been dictated by a single, cruel truth: strength was everything there.
Without it, he couldn't even speak normally.
The young man was vulnerable, constantly looking over his shoulder, chased by enemies.
His family had been torn apart by violence, his town razed in one of many wars between cultivators. With nothing left but his will to survive, he fled, seeking refuge far from those who sought bully him to his wits end.
"Chased through the wild, the young man had no direction, no allies. His enemies closed in, determined to snuff out his life as easily as one might crush an insect."
He ran through a forest, over a jagged cliff, his heart hammering in his chest. With every step, he could feel his pursuers getting closer, their impending attack heavy on his neck.
"But fate is not kind, and when the young man thought he had escaped, disaster struck. In the dead of night, as he pushed his body to its limits, he fell—down, down into the darkness of a ravine, his body shattering upon the rocks below."
The fall was brutal. His leg bones snapped like dry twigs, his vision blurred with pain, and blood seeped from deep wounds. He passed out, unconscious the next second.
Death hovered over him like a specter, waiting to take this commoner to hell. And yet, it did not proceed.
"Instead, as the young man lay broken, abandoned by fortune, the sky above him split. With a thunderous roar, a meteor descended, crashing into the earth directly onto his broken body."
The ground trembled. The forest around him ignited in flames, the air buzzed with chaotic waves. The meteor, pulsed with a dark and ancient power, was no mere rock from the heavens—it was a force beyond comprehension.
Once it touched the young man's body, the meteor disappeared.
"And in that moment, when the world itself seemed to collapse around him, the young man felt it: a surge of energy unlike anything the mortal world had ever known. It flowed into him, filling his shattered form with life, repairing broken bones and torn muscles. He was remade in an instant, not by chance, but by the will of the cosmos."
The meteor had imbued him with Chaos Energy, an ancient and untamed force. It was raw and devastating. Chaos distracte distorted the very renka (spiritual energy or qi) in the surroundings.
The power coursed through his veins, binding him to something far greater than he had ever known. Along with this chaotic energy came knowledge, the understanding of a technique born from Ma'at itself: the Chaotic Reversions Senet.
"This technique was no ordinary path to power. It allowed the young man to ascend beyond the limitations of normal cultivation even without a renka root. He could compress his advancements in a cultivation ran, reverting to its first stage while retaining all the strength he had built. It was the key to becoming a force that no one could understand, let alone challenge."
With the Chaotic Reversions Senet, the young man became deceptively powerful.
His cultivation could be compressed back to the first level of any realm, but the power remained. And each time he advanced a realm, his life force became stronger, his energy denser, his connection to chaos deeper.
"Driven by newfound strength, the young man wasted no time in seeking revenge. His enemies, those who had hunted him mercilessly, would fall by his hand. They had thought him broken, but they had miscalculated. His rise was not just about vengeance; it was about survival through domination."
The young man, now filled with chaotic energy, returned to the world of men. His first steps were not subtle. He hunted down those who had wronged him, and with each life he took, his power grew.
The chaotic energy inside him responded to violence, feeding on the destruction of others, amplifying his strength with every battle.
"In the lands he once fled from, the young man was now a force to be reckoned with. He crushed his enemies, their blood staining the earth. This was the beginning of the Chaotic Sovereign."
The Chaotic Sovereign was no mere cultivator. Not at all. He was an anomaly, a walking disaster who could not be predicted or controlled.
His mastery of the Chaotic Reversions Senet and his chaotic energy made him feared by even the most powerful of warriors and cultivators.
"As he rose, so too did his influence. Other forces began to notice the Chaotic Sovereign's rise—sects, powerful ancient families, even rival empires. Many sought to ally with him, and he, in his calculated wisdom, forged some alliances, a few times by marrying women of great power and influence."
Over time, the Chaotic Sovereign gathered around him a pantheon of beings—powerful cultivators, warriors, and sect leaders who followed him not just out of loyalty, but out of fear. Fear that they could not be with him during his rise to the top.
His seven wives, women of various races and sects, became part of this powerful Chaos Pantheon, standing by his side as he expanded his dominion.
"For over a billion years, the Chaotic Sovereign's influence spread across countless worlds. His children, born with the essence of chaos, carried his legacy forward, expanding his reach to realms unseen by regular mortal eyes."
But with power came enemies.
"Rival pantheons, ancient and powerful in their own right, began to see the Chaotic Sovereign as a threat to their dominion. Some sought alliances, hoping to bind him to their cause, while others plotted his downfall in secret."
The tension between the pantheons grew. His unchecked power threatened the balance of the universe. And soon, the seeds of betrayal were sown.
"It was from within his own ranks that the greatest threat emerged. One of his most trusted allies, fearful of the Chaotic Sovereign's strength and ambition, conspired with rival pantheons. In their eyes, the Chaotic Sovereign had grown too powerful, too uncontrollable to deal with in frontal assault."
The betrayal cut deep. It divided his forces and left him vulnerable. His enemies struck from all sides, launching a war that would tear through worlds underneath his control, devastating everything in its path.
"The battles that followed were apocalyptic in scale. Whole realms were reduced to dust. The heavens themselves trembled as the Chaotic Sovereign fought back with everything he had. But even with his overwhelming strength, the treachery from within his own ranks proved too much."
In the final, cataclysmic battle, the Chaotic Sovereign fought valiantly, unleashing the full force of his chaos energy. He tore through his enemies, but the cost was too great. Wounded and betrayed, he fell—his empire crumbling with him.
"Though the Chaotic Sovereign was defeated, his bloodline survived. His youngest daughter, born with the purest essence of chaos, more so than himself, escaped in the chaos of her father's downfall. Protected by loyal members of the Chaos Pantheon, she fled to a distant universe, where no one could follow."
The story ended with her flight, whereabouts unknown. The remnants of the Chaos Pantheon scattered across dimensions, their influence greatly diminished but still powerful. The once-mighty empire had been reduced to fragments, its glory days long behind it.
But even as the universe reeled from the Chaotic Sovereign's fall, the true threat remained unseen.
"Beyond the universe's edge, the Beyonders, truly evil beings of various kinds from outside reality, watched and waited. With the Chaotic Sovereign gone, the barriers between worlds had weakened, and soon, they would begin their assault."
The other pantheons, still reeling and gloating from the war, were oblivious to the true danger.
They squabbled amongst themselves, blind to the impending storm. Not knowing that they were just pawns in a game of chess.
And the Beyonders were coming; they would destroy everything.
Carter stared down at the final page, the weight of the story settling over him like a dark cloud. The Chaotic Sovereign's story was unlike anything he had ever encountered.
It wasn't just a tale of power—it was a cautionary warning, a reminder of how ambition and betrayal could destroy even the most unstoppable force.
He closed the book slowly, his thoughts racing. There was something profoundly unsettling about the story, his spirit was tingling.
With one last glance at the book, Carter stood and left the library. For now, his need for information on his current location was thoroughly sated. Now, he could put his mind to other things instead.