Divinity: Against the Godly System

"Why was the boy punished?" Hearing the words of Janus, Ryder asked the question directly. 

"You're right. The Crawlers were killed by the parents of the boys. And you also guessed it right. Chaos was punished by their parents," Janus answered. 

"Half an hour after the Night Crawlers entered their home did the parents come back. When they came back, they saw the Crawlers all around their house. Strangely enough, no Crawlers were attacking the young kid," he added. 

"You mean the Crawlers were inside the house for half an hour, unchecked, and they didn't harm the kids? That was lucky," Ryder said, amazed. 

"But didn't you say that the Crawlers were dangerous? They didn't do anything; that's amusing."

"It was all because of Chaos. When their parents came back, everything was revealed. They saw Chaos controlling the Crawlers. That was why the entire blame fell on Chaos," Janus answered. 

"Honestly, Crawlers are creatures of Darkness. Basically, no one can control them. No one can even understand them. According to our knowledge, Crawlers only have one purpose— destroying what they see."

" So for someone to not only be able to talk to them but to control them was pretty shocking for the parents, especially when it was their eldest son," Janus explained. 

"Wait! I heard about this! I read in fantasy books about beast tamers. Was that his element? He wasn't a God of Nothing, but he had a special ability. Shouldn't his parents be happy that he had such a unique ability? Why were they punishing him?' Ryder asked. 

"Sigh, this wasn't taming. The Crawlers don't have souls. Controlling them or even taming them is impossible. So you're mistaken here," Janus replied. 

"To understand even a fraction of the Crawlers language, a person must be filled with extreme darkness from top to bottom. Even the Demons don't have that much evil darkness. That's why no one can even understand them. But Chaos was not only able to understand them but even control them," he further said. "Do you understand now?"

"You mean Chaos had an evil heart? That's why he was able to do it? That's why his parents punished him?" Ryder inquired. 

"That's partially true but not entirely. What happened was that Chaos was controlling the beasts, trying to see what he could do when his parents came there and saw everything. It was only after a minute that they came out of their daze and shouted at Chaos, attracting his attention."

"Chaos was shocked and frightened at the sudden noise and lost his control as he looked towards his father. The Crawlers all attacked his father."

"Ahh, I get it. They had seen him controlling the beasts. When the beasts attacked the parents, they must have thought that Chaos had intentionally made the Crawlers attack them," Ryder answered, guessing everything. 

"That's right. The father thought that this was intentional by Chaos. The mother also agreed, saying that it was because their father loved their little son more. That's why Chaos was upset and wanted to kill them," Janus explained, sighing. 

"This whole situation was messy. The misunderstanding was big. And the potential of Chaos being filled with Darkness, nothing like what had ever appeared before, made them trust their notion," he added. 

"I feel bad for the boy. He didn't do anything. The father seems like a prick," Ryder let out as he sighed. 

"Hah, He wasn't that bad. I don't think Chaos ever hated his father. Even after what he went through later. Cheh, anyway, that's enough for history. Chaos was punished. No matter how bad their father was, he still didn't expose his son to other gods. They kept it a secret and made Chaos take the Heavenly Oath that he would never use whatever he did to control the Crawlers again," Janus replied. 

"So they basically took away the only ability the boy had. At Least they kept his abilities a secret. I think the other gods might consider him a risk because of his abilities otherwise," Ryder agreed. 

"That's right. And with the Heavenly Oath, Chaos couldn't control the Crawlers. If he did, he was going to die. So once again, he became the God of Nothing," Janus answered. 

"Wait a minute. You said his father kept it a secret. How do you know about it then? Doesn't this mean everyone found out later? What was the reaction? And what about his element? If this taming wasn't his element, what was it? How was he able to kill the God of Time since he couldn't use the only ability he had awakened?" Ryder asked. 

"I didn't say that was the only ability he could use? All I said was that no one knew what abilities he had exactly, let alone knowing his element," Janus answered. 

"When he was fifteen, he got into his first fight. It was when everyone found out that he wasn't actually useless since he was able to defeat seven godchildren at once. Apparently, he had abilities. It was just that no one knew about it," Janus answered. 

"The day he first controlled the Crawlers was when he started awakening, I think. But he didn't tell his parents. He already had a bad experience with them. They had already made him take a Heavenly Oath to stop him from using his only heavenly ability."

" That's why he didn't tell them about the powers that he awoke later. I guess he was a bit scared that they would force him not to use them as well."

" So for five years, he kept them a secret. He lived his life as a useless god, despite potentially being the most talented out of all," Janus said. 

"So he was exposed at fifteen. Those seven must have done something really bad to force him to use what he kept secret for years," Ryder muttered. 

"Yeah. They did something pretty bad indeed. Honestly, if God of Time and God of Space hadn't arrived in time to stop the battle and to calm Chaos, he would probably have killed those seven," Janus replied as if he wasn't exaggerating. 

"What did they do?" Ryder asked. 

"I can't tell you that," Janus answered, ignoring the topic. 

"Was it so bad that you can't even say? Come on. Tell me!" 

Even though Ryder asked again, Janus didn't answer. He didn't even reply as he went silent. 

"Fine. I won't ask what they did. Don't ignore me. Continue the story. What happened next?" Ryder asked, sighing. Seeing that Janus wasn't going to answer, he stopped with the old question. 

"The God of Time and the God of Space were the closest friends of Chaos. Everyone knew that Chaos was useless and had no ability. Not a single person treated him with respect except a few, which included two kids that were going to take the mantle of God of Time and God of Space," Janus again started speaking.

"I think it was lucky that they had stopped Chaos. If it was someone else, he might not have stopped," he added. 

"Now that it was known that he wasn't useless and had more abilities, how did his father react?" Janus asked. 

"It was clear. First, they scolded him for attacking the seven. But they didn't punish him after knowing that they deserved it. They also seemed somewhat happy to know that their son had some abilities, potentially not negative, unlike the Crawler-related abilities."

" But since the boy didn't wish to tell, he refused. So his father didn't force him; he even took a Heavenly Oath before his father that he would never tell anyone about his abilities. With that, his father couldn't ask him. Since there was no way for him to tell without dying."

"This action enraged his father, bringing even more tension in the relationship between the two. Anyway, now that people knew he had abilities, he didn't need to keep his strength in control or stay hidden. He just didn't use his main abilities ever."

"After that, his rise was very swift. He became one of the strongest of his time and ultimately became one of the strongest that lived in the Demon Realm. Despite all that, no one knew about his real abilities."

"So his name was changed later? What was he called now, instead of the God of Nothing?" Ryder asked. 

"His new name was Chaos— God of Mystery. It was because he was a big mystery which no one truly understood. Anyway, he was the one who killed the God of Time," Janus answered. 

"Wait a minute; you said those two were friends?! He killed his friend?" Ryder inquired, remembering about what Janus told before. 

"Yes. So you're safe now. You can go back in time by dying any number of times you want without worrying about the Lord of Time coming after you," Janus said. 

"That's better, but you didn't answer. Why did he kill his friend?" Ryder asked again. 

"Because he found out..." Janus answered softly. 

"He found out?"