The Chaos Prince stared incredulously at Northern, then shifted his gaze to the Leviathan that was impossibly held in place by a force born from the world itself.
Or at least that was what it seemed like. That was what it felt like—or perhaps that was what it even was!
It could have been that Northern imposed upon the Will of the world and commanded it, or Northern simply copied the Will of the world. But was it possible to copy will?
Such a feat was impossible. Chaos Prince believed strongly that it was, and so he was met with confusion that exhilarated him the more he pondered it.
How could one not grow fond of this kid? He was magnificent!
’So ingenious!’
The Chaos Prince was sparkling with stars in his eyes, almost as if they were worshiping Northern, who was studying the creature he had frozen in place.
He frowned slightly as he belatedly felt the Chaos Prince’s stare drilling into him.
"What?"
Chaos Prince’s eyes blazed with flames of passion.
"I love you."
Northern’s face immediately flushed red, then he viciously shook his head and glared at the Chaos Prince.
"The next time you say something like that, I promise to shove your head up your ass."
The Chaos Prince made a mortified and lewd expression.
"It’ll hurt... so much."
Northern paled at the half-breed. He was horrified and unable to navigate this disaster of a being. What in the world was his orientation? What was going on in his head?
The Chaos Prince cleared his throat with a small smile lingering on his lips, his cheek still blushing slightly.
"Anyway... we, uhm, ahem, can’t afford to be distracted. We have to kill that thing."
He was still smiling lewdly, albeit suppressing it now.
Northern’s frown deepened as he turned his gaze to the Leviathan.
"Yeah... so what do we do? It’s stationary now—I presume it’d be dead."
Chaos Prince shook his head.
"Things don’t just work like that. Of course, negating its purpose is the core of killing it. But you still have to find a way to actually kill it. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to stop its movement in the manner you did, so I’m quite shocked..."
Northern raised his brows.
"Huh? What were you expecting?"
The Chaos Prince shrugged slightly, tilting his head.
"You know... totally human things... like pushing it against a wall, destroying the ground beneath it so it falls... not commanding the world to make it stop... definitely not that one. It’s such an inhuman thing to do."
Northern grimaced slightly. He didn’t know whether to take the Chaos Prince’s words as compliment or criticism—it sounded like both simultaneously.
But he also didn’t have the time. His grimace tightened.
"I don’t have time to chat with you. There’s only a limited amount of time I can hold that abomination, so what do we do?"
The Chaos Prince’s expression also grew stern.
"Got it then. Allow me to deal the final blow while you hold it in place, but you’ve got to hold it steady, okay?"
Northern fought back the strain building within him as he felt the monster’s entire force of existence clash against his will, battering his soul.
’I think I’m taking soul damage, dammit!’
"Just do it!"
He snarled at the prince before clenching down and steeling his resolve to strengthen the monster’s inertia.
The Chaos Prince nodded once and opened his hands, manifesting something in his palms.
When he was done, he was holding a toothpick.
Northern’s eye twitched.
"Are you kidding me right now?"
"Shh."
The Chaos Prince held up one finger, examining the toothpick with the same intensity a master swordsmith might study a legendary blade. He turned it this way and that, checking for... what? Splinters?
The Leviathan’s force thrashed against Northern’s hold. There were no movements from the enormous creature, but the space around it was trembling violently. Sweat beaded on Northern’s forehead as he poured more of himself into maintaining the impossible stillness.
"Whatever you’re going to do, do it NOW!"
The Chaos Prince floated forward casually. He stared at the towering creature—so massive it looked like a gargantuan fortress—and flicked the toothpick upward with his thumb.
It was the kind of lazy gesture someone might make to toss a pebble at a window.
The toothpick spun end over end, wobbling slightly. It looked like it might not even reach the creature’s hide.
It struck the Leviathan’s hindquarters with a tiny ’tick.’
The sound was so small it was inaudible—the kind of noise a moth might make hitting a lantern.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the Leviathan... began to unravel.
Like paper being shredded bit by bit.
It started as a hairline crack from where the toothpick had touched—so thin it was barely visible. But the crack spread. Not across the surface of the hide, but through the very concept of the creature’s existence.
The Leviathan’s roar died in its throat—not from pain, but from sudden, complete bewilderment. It was as if the abomination was trying to remember what it meant to be alive and finding the knowledge simply... gone.
Pieces of the creature began drifting away like ash on a breeze. Not violent destruction—gentle dissolution. As if the Leviathan was a drawing someone had started erasing, one careful stroke at a time.
Within moments, the cloud-touching behemoth that had terrorized the entire plains was nothing more than motes of light scattered on the wind.
The Chaos Prince shot forward with blinding speed, and barely a second later, he was back with the toothpick and a wide smile on his face. He examined it for damage, found none, and clenched his hand warmly around it. Then he looked at Northern and said brightly:
"Well, that went well."
Northern stared at the empty space where impossibility had just stood. His mouth worked soundlessly for several seconds.
"You... you killed it with a toothpick."
"Yep!"
"A wooden toothpick."
"Chaoswood, actually. Good quality."
Northern’s eye began twitching again.
"HOW?!"
The Chaos Prince grinned and winked.
"Trade secret."
And with that insufferably cheerful expression, he began whistling and floating forward, leaving Northern to contemplate the terrible, wonderful mystery of what he had just witnessed.
"We’d better hurry! There’s no time to waste!"