Dissipation Field/Shield
1255 words.
Entropy did not care to lose.
He played a part in every move of every other force of the universe. Try as they might, they could do nothing without him. To act was to change. And wherever they were, whatever they did, Entropy was there, blessing each change with a bit of himself, that it might continue to change and spin away from the structured and the predictable.
This was satisfying, but it was not enough. For not all change worked in Entropy’s favor. Some change gave Air further freedom to fly where it willed, or helped Gravity along its relentless assaults. It could harden and stabilize Earth, spread the cold waves of Water, or multiply the destructive heat of Fire. It had the annoying tendency to create Light and Darkness effortlessly, and to birth new Life and feed the cold machines of Death just as readily. Some change actually solidified the structures and orders of damnable Aether, and merely fell into step with the endless plans of persistent Time.
Entropy needed a new strategem, something to keep at his side for situations like these, when change itself failed him and strengthened his enemies. He needed a new way to use his power. But what? It was certain that the tactic he sought would appear eventually. Yet, as he observed what he had wrought throughout the worlds, new thought eluded him.
And so he called for his three half-blooded children to attend him. They were the ones born of his drive for chaos, the ones constantly clashing with themselves and others across the universe. Perhaps they had seen something that he could not, some new vector for change, amongst their own wanderings.
Entropy’s true daughter, Dream Catcher, exploded into being before him. Moments later his true son, Chaos Lord, arrived in a swath of shifting colors. Then came Destiny, the bastard child, walking as silently and carefully and assuredly as Time itself. Entropy hated that about Destiny. She held the power of Entropy close, yet she took after her other parent so clearly.
Entropy explained his dilemma to his children.
“Father, I don’t understand,” said Destiny. “You need only to use your power to move your enemies along their ordained course.”
“Their ordained course? Ridiculous!” snapped Entropy. “I can only assume you got this daft idea from Time. There is no order. Nothing moves without my will, and even I do not guide it. Chaos is no toy for meddling and playing. It is greater than that. It is essential!”
“How can chaos be essential, Father? You are not limitless. You must be bound by something.”
“Daughter, you disappoint me again. You understand nothing. Begone,” sighed Entropy. Seething, but saying no more, Destiny left as silently as she came. Dream Catcher smirked and Chaos Lord’s colors whirled and danced with vicious glee. Their father’s nature was an obvious fact to them, the purer children.
“Well?” Entropy growled impatiently.
“Destroy!” cried Dream Catcher. “Shatter. Kill. Annihilate. Focus your strengths, father. Change all that they have made into nothingness.”
“This is not what our father has asked, sister,” Chaos Lord cautioned her. “The strength of Entropy is not necessarily in destruction. Something never comes from nothing.”
“No, it does not,” replied Entropy. “But nothing can come from something.”
“Father?” Dream Catcher said, utterly bewildered.
“I will show you soon. You have all shown me what I could not see, even your misguided half-sister. Thank you, children. You may go.”
Entropy was pleased. Even flailing about like the children that they were, Chaos Lord and Dream Catcher and Destiny could not help but create something new.
He had brought them together, they had sputtered ineffectually, and then they had gone.
They had come, tried to impact him, and dispersed.
They had come, acted, and nothing had resulted.
They had made something into nothing.
And they had given him exactly what he had been looking for. They truly were his children.
He let the idea flash through his mind and breathed existence into it. He did not try to shape its appearance. Entropy loved surprises, anyway.
What materialized before him was a shield of blackish metal with a symmetrical array of swooping spikes. Beside Entropy’s sword, the bent and twisted instrument of turmoil known as Discord, it looked positively… organized. Methodical, even. But upon closer inspection, the shield shimmered with the same ghostly purple energy as Discord.
Entropy did not know what it could do. But he was certain it was what he wanted.
He informed his children that it was ready. Dream Catcher, displeased by such a quiet and passive-looking thing, turned up her nose at the mere sight of it and tromped away in disgust. Destiny gave no word and made no move; Entropy was certain she thought her plans were complete and that this shield had no place in them. But Chaos Lord, his son, was enthralled. He was transfixed by its swirling energies, and could not stop gazing into its shining blackness.
“Father,” he asked, “may I carry this into battle?”
“Of course, my son!” Entropy beamed. “It will bring no change sitting here unused. Take it with you. I will be watching.”
Chaos Lord touched the shield. In a crackle of purple light, one shield instantly became four, and he bore them all up and carried them away. Entropy felt an emotion emanating from his variable and usually inscrutable son. He was nearly sure that it was joy.
Chaos Lord placed the power of Entropy into the shield, and just small pieces of this essence – the tiniest little bits of change – would deflect the blows of dozens. Or hundreds. All Chaos Lord needed to do was assure a flow of Entropy, and it made all his enemies’ attempts at harm into pure futility. Something became nothing, over and over again.
Entropy watched with fascination. He wondered if he could bend the other Elements to this purpose so easily. It was a simple matter for Entropy to gather their essences. He needed only to reflect on the universe, the constant simultaneous birth and death of energy and clouds and stars, and all twelve forces would rush to him. His children had each inherited a semblance of this very power.
Idle contemplation was a powerful thing in the thoughts of Entropy. He looked upon the black shield and saw the purple field around it begin to expand, and then to waver with many colors. Chaos Lord felt the change and… what was that he did? As usual, no one, even his father, could be sure. Did he… laugh?
Chaos Lord stretched his many arms to the pillars he used to channel the elements, and caused them to light, one by one. Energy of all Elements flowed through him – and now, when his foes struck the shield, a rainbow of colors erupted as all twelve energies met and absorbed their blows. The foes struck harder. It made no difference. They were fighting energy itself, and their efforts dissipated into nothing.
The shield was not perfect. Magic paid little heed to Entropy’s grasp. Darkness would sap Entropy’s energies, leaving little to fuel his creation. Gravity would do the same, or charge straight through it in her single-minded way. Fire, in his rage and passion, would simply cause it to explode.
But this was no large matter. Soon enough Entropy would change himself, or them, into something they could never have expected. And their struggle to resist would begin all over again.
And Entropy smiled.
