Somewhere Khrona has never been...

The Dark Court.

Oh what a wonderful place this was. Khrona had decided to traverse this place alone... Though, naturally, his two weapons were with him.

Khrona: ... I know what to do. I know why we're here...

Misery: .. I mean, you haven't told us why since we started. You just started walking toward the Chaos Village... Which is odd because you don't ever leave the Dusk... At least, not as your real body...

Despair: ... Yes, we are quite worried about this situation, Khrona... Will you inform us now?

Khrona paused for a moment, finally standing before the Gates to Hell. This was Zeik Hellgate's domain... A powerful adversary of Khrona's. But Khrona was not here for Zeik... Not today. Khrona was here because...

"... We're making a pact."

Misery and Despair were rather confused about this... Pact that he was talking about... They had never heard anyone speak of this ever... So why did Khrona know? He would have let them know... Right?

Misery: So... What the HELL is a pact, huh?

Khrona: ... We're getting a new addition to our family... Or rather, to me. I've absorbed quite a bit of knowledge from those I've interacted with before... The last fight with Zeik... He already had a pact. Just by looking at him, I knew everything about it, via psychic abilities... And I figure that going into Zeik's Hell would be the best place to look for a beast to make a pact with. But... At a drastic cost..

Misery: .. WAIT. DRASTIC COST!? KHRONA, WHAT THE HELL--

Before Misery could finish, it would seem as though the doors of Hell were opened by the master himself; the great Hellgate (hahaha, Khrona's standing at the Gate to Hell... Which is being opened by a Hellgate!! That's called irony, kids!) Once the doors were opened, Khrona entered with his two weapons, now completely silent. He planned to find the perfect beast... And Khrona knew just where to look.

Once inside, Khrona saw all of the restless souls flowing about the area. Twas a feast. Khrona was tempted... Damn tempted... to just devour them all. Thousands upon thousands of souls. If Khrona were to just consume 1,000, his power would exceed that of some of the greatest beings even further... As all of Khrona's abilities increased drastically upon consumption of souls. Yet he resisted. His weapons resisted. Khrona knew that being within the domain of Zeik was rather... dangerous. So, if he did something wrong, something bad would happen. It was like if someone were within Khrona's soul... They do something they aren't supposed to, they are terminated without question. It was best to just continue on the path.

Misery: ... So. You still haven't told us what we are going to get. What is the beast, eh?

Khrona was silent.

Misery: ...

There was tension between the two of them, though Khrona only continued to walk.

Misery: ... Motherfucker. I'm gonna ask you one more time... Where. The FUCK. Are we GOING!?

And still, Khrona remained silent.

Misery clenched her fist and grinded her teeth together, ready to massacre Khrona... Though before she even had the chance, Despair would restrain her.

Despair: Try not to ask questions, Misery... I believe we're almost there, anyway...

Though Misery absolutely HATED that Khrona was being so silent... She had no choice but to sit back and watch. It seemed as though they were heading toward a sea... It was red. Red as blood. And there were numerous statues of fallen angels that were very decrepit and old... Most of them only looked like giant mounds with wings on them. Very few of them still had their heads or their limbs. Khrona stood directly at the edge of the blood red sea, staring off into the distance.

"... We have arrived, girls."

Misery and Despair promptly stopped, gazing off at the beautifully dark, blood red sea. The sky was glowing a pale green for some reason, though that made everything look all the more ominous. After a few minutes of just staring off into the abyss, finally... They saw something. It was the size of a man, about ranging from about 6-10 feet tall. Its size seemed to fluctuate for some reason. It wasn't human... Though it didn't seem to be an angel or a normal demon... It was something else. It couldn't be deciphered as to what it was, but... It was surely something that no one had ever seen before.



Khrona squinted his eyes at the beast, for it seemed to appear out of the water and could walk on top of it. Its eye was rather menacing, but Khrona intended to have his eyes as the most menacing around.

"Is this some sort of charade!?! What is this!?" Khrona blatantly shouted.

The creature merely floated toward Khrona, water lightly rippling under it. It did not produce any sort of energy or power source. Even though Khrona could see it, he could find no trace of its existence... it was as if it weren't there. As if Khrona were imagining it... But Khrona knew what he was imagining. This was definitely real, even if it gave off no signs of it. Khrona was genuinely confused... and slightly scared.

The creature halted at the edge of the sea, staring Khrona and his weapons directly in the face. It spake unto them,

"... Do not fear me, for I am your own fear... But at the same time, I am your security."

Khrona was confused, and a little more afraid, though instead of what happens when Khrona is normally scared... he seemed fine.

"... Tell me. What are you?"

"I already told you."

Khrona closed his eyes for a moment, pondering this situation...

"... You seem distraught by my current form. I shall alter my form and your perception of myself..."

Instantaneously, the creature would change its entire structure into that of what seemed to be a human. He immediately sat upon one of the headless statues with a content smile on his face.



Once Khrona was done thinking, he opened his eyes and saw the creature now resembled a human. "... What... Is your name?"

He could only laugh, as his voice now was rather calm and less ominous "... My name is Tabris. I am pleased to meet you... Or rather, you should be pleased to meet me."

Again, confusion. "Why are you speaking to me like this? I'd read your thoughts to tell everything I want to know... But you have no thoughts! Where is your mind?!"

"Where is yours?"

Khrona's eyes began to dart about, not focusing on one thing anymore "... My mind... Is... It's right here! In my head! But..."

Tabris interrupted him "... At the same time, your mind is gone. Lost to insanity, am I correct? You cannot regain it for the life of you. Though then again, regaining it would be the end of you, right?"

Khrona's head bent backwards "Yess... I mean... No... I mean..."

Tabris continued "... Be at peace, Khrona. Your mind has extended far beyond what you know. Can you figure out what I am if I give you that information?"

Khrona was still rather confused. Khrona's mind only expanded when Khrona wanted it to... It could extend into other realities and other dimensions-- ... But was Hell not another realm itself? Perhaps... Perhaps Tabris could be... "You're a broken part of my imagination taken your own form of reality... And now gone from my control. Not only do you know everything about me and more..."

Tabris finished the sentence "... But I have just as much power as you do... Without having to succumb to you. My form before... The one of many broken pieces... Those are fragments of yourself. Forever lost from your control. No way to get them back to you. They were combined with the presence of Hell, thus making me... Tabris." He floated over to Khrona and hovered in front of him, mimicking Khrona's height and body type exactly. Though, their major differences were that Khrona's eyes were black. Tabris' were red. Khrona's hair was white. Tabris' was gray. Those were the only two differences... Otherwise, they looked exactly the same.

Khrona still didn't move, though Tabris was so close to him. Knowing that this was just another form of himself was rather comforting... Even if Tabris was a demonic hell beast Khrona thing.

"Though.. Tabris... I do have one more question..."

Tabris raised an eyebrow, then cocked his head slightly to the side. "Yes, Khrona? What might that be? Then again... I'm sure I already know. Technically... You should know the answer..."

Khrona paused for a moment. He then figured out the answer for himself, though it was only natural to finish his original thought. Before Khrona spoke, he gave a certain look to Tabris, and Tabris knew what it meant. They then both began to say simultaneously;

"Why do you not give off an existence, Tabris?"
"Why do you not give off an existence, Tabris?"

".. Because. You, Khrona, are my existence. I have my own will, body and own reality... Though... You hold the key to my existence."
".. Because. You, Khrona, are my existence. I have my own will, body and own reality... Though... You hold the key to my existence."

They both gave the same smirk to each other, nodding their heads. They had come to terms. It was odd that all of Khrona's broken parts of himself would end up in Hell... But then again, one could say that those were the 'dead' parts of Khrona, and therefore, since they were dead, they went to Hell. Another reason why Khrona would have no control over them.

"Oh, but Khrona..." Tabris started to say once more "... As you might have known... I cannot leave Hell. Not by normal terms, at least... I believe you were here to make a pact with me, correct?"

Khrona nodded, rather depressed "... Yes... I am here to make a Pact with you, Tabris..."

Tabris nodded "Well then, I guess I should assume my true form them..." In a moment, Tabris had become the eyeball with the broken fragments around it, however this time... The fragments began to swirl and stir around, taking the shape of something new. A terrible black and blue energy started to emanate from the fragments, and they took shape into tentacles protruding from skulls, where the eye would reside... Then the remaining ones became a sort of floating body above that resembled bubbles.



Khrona was... Confused again. ".. True form? Then what was that form that you were in before you turned into a human image?!"

"That was still my true form... But as you can see, I can break apart my fragments into other shapes and forms... That is just the standard form I take... As you can still see, this form I am in right now... Rather large and grotesque..."

It was true. Tabris was now several thousand times larger than before. Probably able to be seen from a few corners of Hell, now. It can be seen why he doesn't assume his 'true form' very often... Though it was cool that he was an octopus. Yaaay.

Khrona sighed. Better get this over with, then.

"Alright... Tabris... Fragment of myself... I would like to make a Pact with you; to accept you into my soul as you are as, once again, part of myself, but to have your own reality untouched by me. Come back to me... Return to your origins, Tabris..."

Tabris chuckled ominously, the sound echoing throughout the land. "... I accept the terms of the Pact, Khrona... And I shall return to whence I came. And once again, we shall be bound once more..."

A seal would appear over Khrona's chest, then over Tabris' skulls (where his eye resides), and the two seals would shoot a beam at each other, linking up in the middle, then slowly disintegrating. This signified that the pact was done...

However...

Something else happened. Upon that being done, red seals appeared all around Khrona. Misery and Despair, who had been sitting back and watching as all of this happened, decided to take action to try to stop whatever was going on, but were immediately stopped by Tabris. The seals around Khrona began to spin, speaking to his very mind.

"Khrona... Your repercussion for insinuating this pact... and completing a pact with your newfound Pact Beast... is your Pact Price. What you love the most shall be taken from you in exchange for the beast... Have a nice day~!"

Without warning, the seals disappeared as if nothing happened... Though Khrona was missing something. Something important... About himself... And he immediately knew what it was.

"... The solitude of my mind. It is... Gone."

Khrona could tell this because every time he had a thought... He was forced to express it. He could keep nothing for himself anymore. He had to inform anyone about any thoughts he had.

"... Did I really love keeping my thoughts to myself the most? I enjoyed sharing them with Misery and Despair and Chroma and Megaera... But... Now... Everyone will know my business... All of the time... I can never keep a secret... I must always tell everyone what I'm thinking... There is nothing that I can hide... No way for me to be alone... No place where no one can get me... Because now... My mind is open to everyone..."

Khrona fell to his knees, blackened tears falling from his face. He finally fell on his face in a sort of vegetative state, wrapping himself in his wings. He was severely depressed by this.

Misery and Despair quickly grabbed him and lifted him up, though Tabris, who floated behind them, used his psychic prowess to make Khrona levitate. Tabris assumed his 'humanshape' form so that he wouldn't appear menacing all of the time once he exited Hell... Since he was rather tired of being in this place, though it was oh, so beautiful... Tabris smiled, closing his eyes "... And forever, we will wonder if we made the right decision..." He placed his hands into his pockets, floating in front of Misery and Despair.

"This way, girls... We need to take him somewhere to rest. This is rather strenuous..."

With a quick nod from the two, they all exited Hell via the gates they entered, which closed behind them.