Maid for Battle

"Conflict...are you aware that this strife has occurred even before sentience is achieve. Animals have already been in this state, fighting and surviving in a cycle of predator and pray and predator against other predators. But for life to survive, there also must be reason or life will extinguish itself."

"Also let me bring this up now that you mention order. What is justice?"

Dixi nodded, grabbed Sierra and rushed towards where Ix was "Sis! Hurry!"

Ix was shocked but started inmeadiatly to heal Sierra "She... Her energy is almost exhausted, I can heal her but will take a while until she recover..."

"Mom... Is it possible to use Themis's power to remover corruption?" She whispered her while Ix was busy.

Yumi gets up as she arrived at the situation finding Kathrynne, Ix, and Dixi forming around an unconscious Sierra. "What happened to her?"

Zara frowned.
"The food chain is part of the natural order. When I refer to conflict, I refer to that which is considered to be unnatural. This is something that has only truly been seen since the rise of humanity and midara-kind. As for justice, it is about fair treatment. People are rewarded for the good they do, and are punished for the bad they do. And before you state something about how my actions could be perceived as bad, I am well aware that in the coming reckoning, my actions may well be seen as unjustified. Once the world has been remade, I will happily accept whatever the world sees as just." Zara responded, before turning to Dixi.

"Only someone who has truly mastered Themis's power may do something as complex as that. Of all the members of Daraku, I am currently the only one who was capable of such a task. I would strongly recommend that you do not try to remove corruption yourself, or else you will end up absorbing it, and most likely, you will not extract all of it, which will result in your becoming corrupted in vain."

Kathrynne follwed after Dixi, keeping an eye on Sierra, a look of concern on her face.
"She was banging on the door. She told me that Ferro, Spring Rose and Robin have all been captured, and need help." Kathrynne responded. "I suspect this is Gweniverre's doing."

"Hm? Ah, Lady Gwenivere! Welcome back!" Nimea greeted gleefully

Dixi's face went dark, sparks starting to come out of her body "That... That... Woman..." Dixi was doing her best to control her anger, that woman not only toyed with her friends during the siege on Daraku's castle, now she managed somehow to capture Ferro, Robin and Spring Rose and not only that, Sierra was in this state because of HER TOO! "Where..."

Ix meanwhile she kept healing Sierra "Mom... is it really my idea that bad? Why not give it a try, please..."

"....are you aware we came from animals? Would that be natural or unnatural?" She pauses her discussion with Zara for a moment as she looks over the well-being of Sierra while under Ix's care. "Is Sierra partially corrupted as well?" To think that even bystanders are now pulled into this conflict.

Ix negated with her head "No... I mean there are little traces... But it was like she managed somehow to cleanse herself."

Yumi looks rather surprised at that. "How is that possible?"

"I... Don't know... Maybe we should talk to her later..." Ix replied, she then looked back at Zara "But mom think it like this, it's not getting released from your contract, is fullfilling it... If one person takes both mantles, there won't be no Order and no Chaos, there will be Balance, peace... With that your contract would be fullfilled since there won't be Chaos." Ix explained.

Dixi who just arrived didn't knew about the plan "Wait, you are suggesting that we defeat both Themis and Eris and someone takes both mantles? That's crazy, the only way to end this is defeating Eris! Besides who would take both mantles? Is not that easy to hold Order and Chaos in perfect balance."

"I... I was thinking... Alter..."

"WHAT!? You are joking right?"

"The issue with your plan is not that I doubt that it is possible, or even viable, but that it will literally solve nothing, other than to potentailly 'free' me from my contract." Zara commented, choosing not to mention Dixi's contract, given that she was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of Ix knowing about it. "Something that I do not wish for. I wish to end Chaos. Moving the avatar from one person to another does nothing to solve that." Zara added, before turning to Yumi.

"The difference between what conflict is considered natural and what is considered unnatural comes down to the motivation behind it. Money. Power. Influence. Land. All of these motivating factors are unnatural. Such things will not be sought after in the new world."

She then raised an eyebrow in Sierra's direction.
"She cleansed herself? Clearly I was not putting her to good enough use in Daraku." Zara responded, looking surprised for, perhaps, the first time.
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Gweniverre took in the scene around her. Sierra had clearly gone, or was at least out of her mental range, but Spring Rose remained inert by Nimea, and appeared to have been.... corrupted? It was difficult to tell.
"Nimea, what happened here? Did you bring me back to this place?" Gweniverre asked, looking rather suspicious of the whole situation.

"Not to mention that Alter is damn crazy, giving her such power would be a really bad idea..." Dixi objected.

"It does! If both Order and Chaos choose the same avatar both would dissapear and then Balance would be born, please mom, can't you at least give it time to think about it?" Ix pleaded her.

Zara shook her head.
"Balance doesn't save the world. As long as Chaos exists, the world will continue to go through suffering and pain. Only true Order can save it." Zara responded, dismissing Ix's idea with little consideration, and not even going into her choice of a vessel.

"Mom... Sis... Please... Picking one extreme doesn't solve anything..." She turned to Dixi "I know you want to save mom, I too want to do it, but please think about it..." The turned to Zara "But you don't get it, picking this option Chaos would cease to exist!"

"I am well aware of the consequence of my actions." Zara responded. "For Chaos to cease to exist is my intent."

"Then let's give this a try, if it doesn't work Chaos will cease to exist anyway, you would have fullfilled your contract..."

"If it doesn't work, we'll lose Order too, and that is literally the worst case scenario." Zara corrected. "I simply cannot risk that."

"No, if that came to happen, I'm sure Alter would understand, she could just abandon the mantle of Chaos leaving the Chaos seat empty..."

Spike spoke up. "If there's a force of good and evil, and you get rid of one of those forces..Something stronger will simply take it's place."

Robin was busy looking at Gwen, his mind still muddled from her working her magic upon him.

"No, I would not draw you to a place against your will, Gwenivere," she told her. "I assumed you came back on your own."

"Spike is right, defeating one would mean something even worst could take it's place, but making them one..."

"And in your option you are trusting Alter to drop the mantle of Chaos by the kindess of her heart..."

"The mantles are not something you can merely discard. They change you. Fundamentally. The concept of free will disappears. When bound by a mantle, there is little effect that you can have upon the world. Why do you think they make deals and agreements with mortals? With their power, they would be able to enforce whatever they wished upon the world, if they were able to." Zara explained. "The mantle of Chaos itself is the enemy, not the one who wields it. Defeating Chaos means an end to Chaos. No more 'stronger' force to take its place."
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Gweniverre frowned.
"Something has drawn me back here. What has happened since I left?" She asked, glancing around the lake at the former heroes.

Yumi frowns for a bit as she goes through what Zara had said. "There seems to be an odd inconsistency within that. Free will disappearing seems like an order aspect, unless free will is neutral, then that does create sources of chaos."

"Free will dissapearing kinda sounds like what you and Daraku were doing mom..." Xana had arrived, after enjoying a really good time with Anika and Airi, she felt something wrong was going on, so as much as she didn't wanted it to end, she had to leave Anika and Airi "Wait..." She noticed the tattoo on Zara's arm gone, instead in her arm was Ix's seal, which shocked her the most was the fact that Dixi HAD it too "What have you done this time Dix..." She asked unimpressed, she was pretty much used to her sister's reckless behavior, not only that, she could feel one of her life-binding spells on them "And why are your lives binded?"

"Ask that to your clone..."

"Free will is not a feature of Chaos." Zara responded to Yumi. "Choices are always something we will face. By destroying Chaos, all I am doing is removing the bad ones." Despite appearances, she was rather glad to have them questioning her beliefs. Perhaps this would give them the chance to see that her way was not only the right way, but the only way, for the world to move forwards.

"Ah, Xana. Yes, the clone you sent bound us. So if you wouldn't mind removing the spell. I would do it myself, but it would take time to do so without consequence."