Nothing could have calmed Hao Ren more than Asuman's words: "The Ancient Ones are an extension of the Lord of Madness?"
"Ancient Ones... is that what you call creatures like us?" Asuman's voice was ethereal, as if drifting from a dream. "Yes. In that mad, dark era, ordinary life-forms simply couldn't survive. Occasionally, the first sparks of primitive life would appear on a few planets at the edge of the universe, but they would often be destroyed for no apparent reason before they had time to develop. It was an age without order, when all physical laws and mathematical definitions were blurred. Birth was random, and death was random too. Under such circumstances, only 'life-forms' like us could survive for any length of time. We were born on the fringes of the Lord of Madness's Dark Power, appearing in the chaotic sea of energy as its power trembled. So there was nothing wrong with calling us an extension of the Lord of Madness."
Vivian gently pinched her chin. "But you clearly aren't creatures of chaos."
"No life could be as chaotic as the Lord of Madness. It was the ultimate manifestation of the universe's chaos, almost a natural phenomenon from the universe's early days rather than a life-form. We who were born in the wake of its power were fated to be utterly distinct from it from the moment we appeared. Those were painful years. We developed self-awareness and yearned for a stable life, yet we couldn't escape the Lord of Madness's oppression. Our faint connection to it allowed us to survive for a relatively long time, but every day some of our people were inexplicably destroyed. Sometimes our entire species would be wiped out, only to be resurrected because of some muttering dream from the Lord of Madness..."
Lily