After I had agreed to speak with her for a while, I could sense her arrogance dim just a tiny bit... before she laughed haughtily.
"Haha! I was only jesting, saying I wanted you to stay with me," her voice rumbled through the cavern, rich and echoing off the jagged ceiling rocks. "In truth, I do not care much about loneliness or the like. However, it appears YOU are the one in need of a conversation partner. Your other siblings are mindless and cannot interact at all."
Translation, she is tsundere and doesn't want to admit she's alone by herself? Got it.
But what was that bit about siblings?!
"Siblings?" I asked in that god-forsaken croaky voice, another jagged mouth tearing open on my grey blob surface to push the words out. "These piles of flesh are related to me?"
"Indeed... But because you are just waking up in the world," she started, resting her head on her hand which rested on the stone throne, her long claws tapping lightly against her cheek. "and I am in an absolutely good mood, I shall explain everything you need to know in this world. Be thankful... My name is Edirup. I am the Chaos spirit of Pride."
And Edirup started to enlighten me about this very much fantasy world I stumbled into.
Apparently, as she had said, she was one of the seven concepts of chaos in this world; beings that equaled gods over here.
The other six were similar primal forces—beings born from the raw essence of concepts like Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Envy, and Greed.
There were other concepts besides the concept of chaos, but the chaos ones held about the most power here, shaping wars, disasters, and the rise and fall of empires from the shadows.
Which brings one to the question, "How did one as powerful as a god end up in a... cave?"
"Insolent creature!" Edirup yelled, a faint flush creeping across her pale cheeks as she straightened on the throne.
Her golden-starred red eyes flashed with irritation, the star points spinning faster for a moment. "Allow me to finish my explanation first!"
"Ah, sorry..."
I apologized before she stomped on me, my blob form rippling slightly as I pulled back a few inches across the smooth stone floor.
So, she actually was extremely powerful, and only a handful of beings could challenge her at all.
This made her instead challenge others, causing chaos and suffering all over the world for six centuries.
She spoke of it casually, describing how she would whisper into the ears of kings, twist the ambitions of heroes, and watch entire cities burn just to see how the flames danced.
I think that was mean, but I should just listen to her, my multiple golden eyes fixed on her from different angles while the slug-maggot siblings continued their wet, writhing crawls around me, occasionally bumping into my sides with sticky hits.
She said she had targeted two neighboring human kingdoms and decided to have them destroy each other, planting seeds of jealousy and pride until their armies clashed in endless bloody fields.
"Why...?" I asked, my croaky voice echoing again as another mouth formed.
"Hm? It was interesting." She answered me like it was a perfectly good reason to cause widespread panic and pain.
She leaned back on the throne with a satisfied smirk, her tight pants stretching as she crossed one long leg over the other.
Uh, I think Edirup might be the antagonist here.
Ultimately, she was sought out by a human champion.
"Accursed twig!" She cursed the person, her claws digging into the armrest of the throne, leaving shallow gouges in the stone. "Instead of choosing a side to join and entertain me, he chose to pursue me, the root of the entire issue. I was so enraged!"
"..."
Let's not talk back at her now, she was being very pissed, her horns seeming to darken as the air around her grew thicker.
But... actually, she seemed to be being more casual with me than before.
And we were gossiping for what felt like hours now, her deep voice filling the cavern as she recounted battles and betrayals.
While I rolled my blob form slightly to avoid a particularly aggressive sibling that tried to merge with me, its tongues flicking across my grey flesh before retreating with a wet pop.
{Notice: One day and twenty-one hours have passed since you begun speaking with Edirup.}
And once again, I see my perception of time is lacking something crucial.
The glowing crystals had dimmed and brightened several times during our talk, but it felt like minutes to me.
Back to the recollection: Edirup said this human champion attacked her and was surprisingly powerful for a mortal, talk less of a feeble human twig.
She described how he moved like lightning, his blade flashing with holy light that cut through her chaos aura.
So she decided to turn up the volume of her power, her body growing even larger as dark energy crackled around her like living shadows.
"However, something was strange," Edirup seemed to get a bit lost in reminiscence, her golden-starred red eyes gazing into the distance toward the cavern wall. "My attacks did not seem to work properly, and it was like everything he did to me worked perfectly instead."
He began to slice her up with his divine sword, and if she tried to regenerate or gather her vessel back, she suddenly got shredded again.
With pieces of her form scattering across the area like a bloody raise.
"Yikes. Didn't that hurt?" I asked her, my blob bouncing slightly as a new mouth formed to speak.