Three figures held court in a place that didn’t exist, they were arrayed around a Tower that wasn’t there. The non existent Tower stood high, so high that the top wasn’t visible no matter how far up you went. The figures took the forms of a snake, a wolf, and a man.

The snake’s scales shimmered darkly, and bands of smoke coiled around its length. The wolf, larger than any man, lay on its side lazily, its dark gray matted fur ruffling in an unseen wind. Atop the wolf’s head was a crown of bramble and thorn. The man stood stock still, like a statue, his one eye gazing off into the vast chaos around the Tower, his bandaged form outlining his frail body.

Countless voices could be heard from the Tower, echoing discordantly in the wide expanse. The snake hissed out, “Why mussst you alwaysss take the form of our hossst? It isss, unbecoming of one of the triumvirate.”

The one eyed man chuckled darkly, “I see it as an homage to the one kind enough to Host us,” he gestured to the Tower, “and our brethren.”

The wolf let out an unamused grunt, “This is entertaining, though I wish you would explain the need for this meeting.”

The man raised a hand, “Ah! But you must already know, as the Guardian of his flesh you have sensed it have you not?”

The wolf nodded, “Indeed. Though I doubt a mere Elemental could do our Host harm, he can deal with it on his own.”

“That would be true. If it weren’t that the Elemental was Named.” a wolfish grin spread across the man’s face.

“Tend to your flock,” the wolf indicated the Tower of Voices, “and I shall tend mine. Do not interfere.” it threatened.

The man let out another laugh, “I wouldn’t dream of it mutt.”

The wolf let out a threatening growl, “Enough, thisss isss not why you brought usss here. Not even you are ssstupid enough to call a meeting jussst to taunt usss.”

“Correct! I called this meeting because we have two important issuse to discuss.” he folded his hands, “One of our brethren in the Tower is nearing the next stage. As you know, the last time we let one of them grow unchecked we nearly lost our Host.”

The wolf and snake looked uneasily at each other, “Do you have a plan?” the wolf asked.

“Aye. We must bring the Voice to us, and we must tell It the Rules. If it is a safe aspect of the Host’s mind we shall allow It into the Chaos.” he replied curtly.

“That seemsss dangerousss. The Voice may be a wild assspect, we may not be able to contain it.” the snake said.

“You think we are not powerful enough to contain a single Voice? We are the triumvirate!” the wolf announced proudly.

“Very well. Thisss seemsss rash, but I see no other choice.” the snake bobbed its head.

“When shall we call the Voice?” the wolf asked.

“After we finish discussing the second matter. The second matter is the new world out Host finds himself in, it is filled with power, and it has changed us as much as him.” he replied.

“What do you mean?” the snake asked.

“I mean that we used to be just simple aspects of the Host's mind, but now, we are so much more! We have power beyond just whispering in his ear, we could change the Host, bend him to our will!” the man cried excitedly.

The wolf growled, “If we are more powerful then so is he, we mustn't be rash about anything. The time will come when the host shall learn of real magic, chances are sooner rather than later, and when that happens he will also have power over us.”

The man scowled, “Alright, though there is another issue regarding these two points. The Voice. We have never summoned a Voice in this world, so much power” he indicated the swirling Chaos surrounding them, “could lead to disaster.”

The wolf nodded, “We still have no choice. We should get this over with.”

“Very well. Summon It.”

The man nodded, he raised a hand and put it onto the side of the non existent tower. His hand seemed to fall through the wall and when he pulled it back he had a strange light grasped in his hand. The light swirled in multi colored brilliance, it looked like a less maddening form of the Chaos that pervaded this non existent place, it shined wildly as it struggled in his grasp.

“Be still young one.” he told It.

A voice that seemed to clash with itself sounded out, “Wh-where? Who?”

The man smiled down at It, “You are outside now. We are brethren, family.”

The light stopped struggling, It sat there in the man’s hand. The light seemed to have a physical form, as It adhered to gravity, Its edges drooped around the man’s hand, “Outside?” It asked in a small voice, not too dissimilar from a child’s.

The man indicated the tower, “You used to be in there. Do you not remember?”

“No. I-it’s all fuzzy before now. It’s all just noise.” the light started shaking again, “O-oh my, so much noise.” It sounded afraid.

A loud buzzing filled the triumvirates ears, “Calm now pup, you are safe here.” the wolf said.

The light’s struggling started anew as it attempted to flee the strange trio, fear driving it and giving it strength, “Let go! Let go! Let me go!” it screeched.

The light blazed brilliantly in its attempts to flee, waves of power radiated out and staggered the three Voices. The man dropped him, startled at its sudden struggle. He reached for the splatter of light again, and stopped instantly when the ground started to rumble and the Tower shook.

The Voices inside the Tower became louder and more insistent, overpowering the triumvirates yells. The Chaos thrummed with power, a deep rumbling noise shook the Tower further. The small pool of rainbow light slowly slid across the ground, inching like a worm. It made Its way to the edge, the point where Chaos intersected with Order, and it crossed the boundary.

Silence.

No sound echoed out, the triumvirate stood still, shock written on their features. They had failed to contain the Voice, the small light pool had reacted strangely, It had fled, and they had failed. The snake, the wolf, and the man stood there, staring into the Chaos. The Chaos was still, unnaturally so. Though this brought them no comfort, as the stillness reminded them of that before the storm.

The Chaos bucked suddenly, and was still again, before bucking again like a great stallion and spilling forth like the sea. The snake fled, the man retreated to his tower, and the wolf stood to weather the storm.

Tobias awoke with a splitting headache, it felt like someone had gone at his head with an axe. He clutched the sides of his head and attempted to silence the Voices in his head. They screamed at him, though not as they usually did, this time they begged for help. He knocked his hand into the side of his head, as if trying to dislodge the Voices.

They spoke of a storm that shook the Tower and split the world. Tobi looked confused, he frowned. The Voices went quiet and a new Voice sounded out. It sounded like a child, and it begged his forgiveness. It said the Storm was It’s fault, and that it was an accident. He had no idea what any of them were talking about and just decided to be thankful that the child’s voice made it all quiet.

Tobi looked around the clearing, the sun was just peeking over the horizon and pink light filtered through the skyline. He extradited himself from his sleeping roll and looked towards the towering monster in front of him, it stood three times his height and was composed of vines and plants strung along several boulders in the shape of a man. The vines seemed to be holding the thing together, and weird orange dust floated around it.

He dismissed it and looked away towards where the paladins should be, but saw only Nick, he lay awkwardly on the ground, his face in the dirt. He had a nasty looking gash on his scalp, and blood trickled down his face. Tobi remembered the cool little pouches that the paladins had and walked over to the unconscious man. A loud boom sounded out behind him, and a wave of air blasted over him.

Tobi staggered, “What the heck was that?” he looked back towards the monolithic creature, “Oh yeah… You.”

The creature had swung it’s boulder fist into the ground, where it landed was a small crater. Tobi sucked a breath in through his teeth, “That would not feel good.” he turned his gaze back towards the creature, “Would you mind not crushing me? I’m just trying to rob my friend over here.” he asked kindly.

The elemental responded by leaping towards him and crushing him with two boulder fists, or he would have if Tobi hadn’t tripped over the aforementioned ‘friend’ and fallen flat on his ass. A wave of dust and leaves obscured Tobi’s vision, “Huh. Guess that’s a nope.”

“Host, I am tr-truly sorry about the Storm, it must hurt your mind very much.” the child’s voice stuttered out.

Tobi rolled away from the elemental’s foot as it crashed towards him, he winced at the noise Nick’s leg made when it was stepped on, “Who’re you? I know Spooky the best, and he didn’t tell me about a Storm. “

“It is the reason the Voices won’t be q-quiet. I can make it sound like they aren’t talking, but they are. They’re so loud.” the Voice shuddered.

Tobi got to his feet and dodge to the side, stumbling slightly at the shockwave of the elemental’s fist, “I can’t really talk right now, big rock man is trying to smash me.”

“I can bring you to somewhere we can talk for a while. I-if you want. I can’t do it very often, but it’s so lonely here.” the Voice sounded sad.

“It’d be kinda rude to just abandon rock guy here, he’s trying really hard to get me.” Tobi sounded apprehensive, he rolled to the side, taking a glancing blow that sent him tumbling fifteen feet into a tree. He coughed up blood and gave the elemental a weak thumbs up. Truth be told he was getting quite tired of always just taking the abuse, he missed the days when he could dish it out too. But that would make him un-sane, and he had been working so hard to be un-un-sane, just like the Good Doctor ordered.

“F-for it, it would take only a moment. Time flows differently here.” the Voice replied.

Tobi coughed up another mouthful, “Sure, then I can come back and kick him right in the stones.” he chuckled.

The world disappeared in a flash, the elemental’s stone fist only a foot away from crushing Tobi’s face in. A new place reappeared, full of clashing colors that swirled like liquid. In the center of it all way a small clear area of pure white with a strange puddle in the center, the puddle shimmered like an oil spill.

The puddle shimmered at him, “Nice crib.” Tobi complimented.

“Thank you. Though I cannot claim ownership, this is your mind. We are currently in a sea of Chaos.” the puddle told him.

“That’s kinda cool. Why did you bring me here?” Tobi cut right to the chase.

“So you wouldn’t die?” the puddle seemed confused at the question.

“Ah. Yeah, I guess that would be bad.” the last part sounded strangely like a question.

“And you wanted to beat up the ‘rock man’ as you called it. I can help.”

“How can you help me? Give me a quick lesson on how to punch a rock man to death? Because I don’t really see what else I can do.”

“You seriously haven’t figured it out yet?” the puddle seemed genuinely surprised.

“Figured what out. That I’m going crazy talking to puddles about how to kill a rock guy? I figured that out.” he replied.

“No, that all of this is real. And that I can prove it, all you need to do is say ‘status’” the puddle said again.

“That’s it?”

“Yup”

“Alright.” he cleared his throat overdramatically, “Status.”

The familiar blue box appeared in front of Tobi,

Achievement! - First Status!

Open your Status for the first time.

Name:

Tobias

Level:

1

Class:

None

Race:

Human

Titles:

Un-sane, Un-un-sane

Affinity:

Madness - 98%

Traits:

[Passive - Unstable Mind]

Skills:

None

Spells:

None

Abilities:

[Unique - Chaos Manipulation]

Stats:

Health: 9/100

Mana: 100/100

STR - 8

CHR - 8

AGI - 10

DEX - 10

INT - 9

WIS - 9

“What is this?” he asked interestedly.

“It’s your status.” the puddle replied, “It shows your progress in this world. Every living being has a status, you can see a monster’s status, but for a sentient being you need specific items to see it, unless they let you.”

“You’re trying to tell me that everything I am is summed up in a small text box?” he asked.

“B-basically, yeah.”

“Sweet.” he said simply, and then in a rare moment of lucidity he asked, “So is my status any good?”

The puddle hesitated, “Not really. Except for your unique ability you’re essentially useless. I don’t even know what that does, I can control some of the Chaos around us, but it makes my mind bubble.” the puddle seemed to cringe at the memory.

“What is Chaos, and why does it sound like you’re saying it with a capital C?”

“It’s the nothing inside of everything.”

“Wow! That may be the most useless thing I’ve ever heard! Thanks so much!” he replied sarcastically.

“No need to be so rude.” the puddle hesitated, “For a more literal explanation, it’s the sea of stuff around us, it’s most closely related to magic, though I don’t know exactly how.”

“Wait. So if this is my mind, then it’s filled with Chaos? Does that mean I am really un-sane?” he asked.

“I don’t know what un-sane means, but essentially, yes.” the puddle shimmered.

“How do I ‘manipulate Chaos’? It sounds kinda silly.”

“I don’t know, but if you focus on anything in your status screen it will give more information. Also before you do anything try to think ‘Identify’ on me. I think I’m technically a monster, that’s the only reason I can think of for having so much knowledge on this stuff, even though I’m only a day old.” the puddle said adamantly, “Also be careful when working with Chaos i- Actually don’t worry about it.”

“Wait, what were you gonna say?”

“It’s just that when sentient species work with Chaos, well, they go insane.”

Tobi looked stricken, “So you’re saying that my only power will make me go un-sane? That sucks. I guess I won’t use it then.”

The puddle let out a confused noise, “But… You’re already” a sigh, “un-sane. I don’t think it can ruin your mind anymore.”

Tobi gasped, “I am perfectly un-un-sane. I will not ruin my progress!”

“Just, forget that I said that. There are absolutely no chances you will go un-sane, I misspoke.” the puddle let out a deeper sigh, “Go ahead and use ‘Identify’”

Tobi nodded,

[Fledgling Chaos Construct] [Sub-Class: Voice] {Level - ???}

“It looks like it works.” Tobi said.

“Alright, try focusing on your ability and see what it is. After that you will have to leave, I can’t keep this up much longer.” at that, the puddle slipped out of the clearing of white nothingness and into the sea of storming Chaos.

“Thanks little buddy!” Tobi called out to the puddle as it disappeared. He did as was suggested and focused on the [Chaos Manipulation].

[Chaos Manipulation]

Summary: Chaos Manipulation allows the user to manipulate the nothing in everything.

Madness Affinity Requirement - 70%

Cost: (??s)

Activation: ???

“Wow! Thanks so much for the super duper information!” Tobi yelled to no-one in particular, he sighed as the Chaos around him dissolved and was replaced with a giant stone fist rocketing towards his face in a familiar forest clearing.