Aren was stunned when he saw Athena there. It did not make any sense to him. He wanted to know what was happening. The one before him seemed to see the eagerness in the eyes of Aren. He let out a smile and then spoke.

"Watch, you’ll come to understand it all."

"Stop what you are doing, Shadow. It’s time you give up," the lady there spoke, her face stern, but Aren could see worry behind her eyes.

"It’s so nice to see you, Chaos. You have always been the one that cared for me. Well, I thought you did until you left and never looked back," the one before him said.

"You know it’s not like that, Shadow. Eternity let us out to build the universe. We all had a task to carry out," Chaos tried to explain.

"Oh yes, and I, I was the cancerous growth that had formed in all the good plans," the one before him spread his hands as he spoke, the rage in his voice loud. "I was the one that served no purpose, and so I was tucked away, never to be seen." He gritted his teeth in anger and then spoke more.

"I had enough, and I took my life into my hands. I fixed things."

"You killed Eternity."

"He brought that upon himself when he decided that my life was not worth anything to him," he roared in anger while he tapped his hand on his chest.

"I have purpose, I have meaning, and if he refused to see that, the same way that all of you refuse to see that, then maybe I’ll destroy this universe alongside the void and bring an end to it all. I’ll take away your purpose." He looked her right in the eye as he spoke.

Chaos frowned as she heard those words. "You know we cannot allow you to do that," she said.

"Oh sweet, sweet Chaos, harbinger of war and destruction, the state of nothing good and nothing stable. You know, for someone that is meant for destruction, you like seeking out peace.

I do not care for what you or the others think. I am the primordial Shadow, the one that killed Eternity and the one that forged his heart into a blade."

Only now did Chaos see the sword that he held, and she felt the energy of Eternity from it.

"How could you?" she asked.

"Haha, how could I not? I chose to wield the power of the greatest being in existence, because with it I can bring my plan to pass and destroy everything, everything."

"I have to say we cannot let that happen," another voice came into the room, and a figure formed there, dressed in a pretty well-made suit, slicked-back black hair, and very pale skin.

"If it isn’t Darkness himself," Shadow said and let out a grin.

"Don’t be stubborn, Shadow. You cannot take all of us down, and you know that. This world is already falling apart as we speak. The battle that you have caused will lead to the deaths of millions."

"Hahahahaha, wow, Darkness, you have not changed a day. Still a smooth-tongued asshole that only knows how to push the blame.

I have had enough of your crap. I stand to lose nothing in this battle. If I win, I destroy reality. If I lose, the battle will shatter the universe enough to ensure that fixing it takes eons, and the void will come with his armies and wipe what is left."

Darkness frowned when he heard that, and he immediately formed a sword made from pure darkness.

"Tch, I can’t believe that Eternity once thought you and I were similar," Darkness said.

"Yeah, what a wild thought that was," Shadow confirmed and then gripped his sword. "Chaos, you best be ready to fight me, for I’ll not hold back even a slight bit. I’ll cleave through all," Shadow said, and then slashed. One slash, and instantly the castle was ripped to shreds, and every part of it exploded in all directions, revealing the world that he had claimed as his own, with skies as dark as night and one red sun in the sky, closer than it was meant to be.

"I made this planet myself, you know. I wanted something that showed me for who I am."

"So a psycho with a daddy complex," Darkness said.

"I really do hate your mouth," Shadow said. He pulled his sword back, and they got ready to engage amidst the battle that was happening around them already, but then the scene suddenly stopped and nothing else showed.

"Haha, this is where I stop showing you," the one before him said. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"It was a battle that spanned two galaxies and destroyed over a thousand planets in the process, and after all that I ended up losing, and that was when I died, but I also did well to take down Chaos. She tried to stop me, to reason with me. Haha, what a stupid woman.

Either way, now you know my past and the reason that all this has happened. The trial was the fastest way to help you grow, and so I sabotaged your awakening and ensured that the ability you got was Shadow, the one connected to us.

After that, the rest is history until you became a Shadow King, and now everything has fallen into place.

So now that you have seen just how much this all means to me, you must now understand why I cannot allow you to continue to hold this body and carry out your whimsical scidadling. All that ends now."

He removed the tendril from Aren’s mouth and then looked Aren right in the eye. "So what do you have to say, soul fragment of mine?"

"You’re a really messed up kid with galactic daddy issues," Aren said without holding back. "Daddy was a little protective, and now I have to hear all this shit when I have things that I should be doing."