It really was frustrating how much Chaos's influence was hindering Hvergelmir's ability to learn things. The Chaos-aligned, even when they were willing to answer her questions, were driven -- she assumed by Chaos's influence -- either to withhold information about their power or not to seek it, to realize they possessed it, in the first place. To find someone like Alois, who was both capable of piecing apart information and willing to share it, was rare. Much of his information could only be had in scraps elsewhere. It was both exciting, and made some of her other efforts feel inconsequential.
Bischofite was right. The Negaverse never should've taken in someone like him.
"A being of pure energy, but with a higher consciousness -- or a higher will, at least. So to attain a living form, to exact its will on the living world, it needs to possess a body with a higher consciousness, too -- something intelligent enough to scheme. But if the human body isn't built to handle a flood of pure energy that way, it breaks down and becomes -- for whatever reason, maybe some manifest nightmare of the host mind or something -- a youma.
"We're told the first Queen of the Negaverse, the woman who was your patient zero, was a sorceress. How long, I wonder, did Chaos persist in its monstrous experiments before it thought to try itself on a being that was used to containing magic? When did it first realize its enemies -- knights and senshi -- were the very things it desired most?
"No wonder your lieutenants are so ill-equipped to kill us. You're not supposed to -- you're supposed to keep us penned in, keep our numbers down -- but not wipe us out, not until your own numbers are strong enough to overpower humanity. We're Chaos's breeding project. Its reproductive system. The only vessels durable enough to properly contain it."
Hvergelmir saved her questions, for the moment. They'd keep -- and if there was any credence to the theory that Chaos's influence wasn't limitless, perhaps they were best discussed at some distance from Earth anyway.
She stood, drawing in a fresh breath. "Okay. Don't let go of my arm. Please don't tar the place. And don't jump off the edge." Hvergelmir held out her hand. "Come."
Aeeth
