Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 677: I can do this forever [3]

A few moments earlier.

“….”

An eerie calm settled over the surroundings the moment the tentacles shot forward and absorbed Delilah within.

Nobody knew how to react.

How could they react if hardly anyone could even stare at the massive creature that stood in the distance?

They weren’t even sure about what had happened.

All they knew was that it was silent.

So silent that it felt that all noise had been stripped away from the world.

“Is it over…?”

“Did she manage to defeat that monster?”

“Can we…?”

“Don’t look!”

A loud voice shattered the noise, followed by a few others, as everyone started to wonder about the situation while hastily keeping their heads lowered, while the Saint warily stared at the massive creature that appeared in the distance, levitating in the air without making any movement.

The Saint’s face grew extremely grim.

He was the only person who had been able to see what had happened.

As such… he was also the only one who was aware of the strange woman’s defeat.

His expression tightened as he replayed the sequence of events in his mind.

It had all happened extremely quickly, but from what he managed to understand, the woman had some sort of reaction to the beast’s blood, and as a result, grew weaker, which Xa’hurl took advantage of and ended up absorbing her.

Whatever happened to her, the Saint wasn’t sure, but feeling the pressure that was emanating from the distant creature, the Saint grew tense.

This…

This was extremely bad, wasn’t it?

The Saint could feel a terrifying energy starting to boil deep within the beast’s body. If it managed to absorb everything, then—

“Leave! Quickly leave this place! Open the sail!”

He quickly started to bark orders as he looked at everyone on the ship.

“Take off the anchor and make sure you don’t look at the beast! We have to leave now!”

His words were met with a brief moment of silence, but then—

Clamour!

Everyone stood up to their feet, quickly getting to work as they hurriedly followed his order without looking in the direction of the beast in the distance.

“We must leave now! This is our only cha—”

“Wait!”

A voice suddenly interrupted the Saint. Turning his head, the Saint’s eyes fell on a certain figure he couldn’t quite remember.

’Ah, he’s with those strange two people that disappeared. An’as…?’

He only recalled because of the diary that he had in his pocket.

“What is it…?”

“That…” an’as paused, staring at the water while looking back at the Saint.

“There’s still two people in the water. We should—”

“No.”

The Saint cut An’as off, understanding exactly what he was trying to say.

“I understand what you want, but it’s not possible. Given our current situation, I have the responsibility of bringing everyone here to safety. I can’t wait for them. Even if it’s against the Goddess’s wish…” Pausing, the Saint shook his head. “No, this is the Goddess’s wish. We can’t sacrifice our followers like this.”

“No, but—”

“There’s no but. If you don’t like what I’m doing, then you’re very free to leave the boat. Just don’t interfere.”

“Ah…”

An’as wanted to argue, but seeing the expression of the Saint, he understood there was no arguing; he really was planning on leaving without them.

’Oh, no… what do I do? Ah! Right! There’s the emergency ship set up by Anne! If I can—hm…’

An’as suddenly paused, staring at the Saint not far from him.

“What’s your decision going to be? Will you stay or will you leave?”

An’as bit his lips, thinking about the situation. On any normal occasion, he would’ve listened to the Saint without any question, and yet… he found himself hesitating in front of the very figure he had once worshiped.

What was going on?

How could he be like this?

Why did he even care about people he had only recently met and had forced him into this situation?

Normally, any normal person subjected to such treatment would hold deep resentment for them. He’d wish nothing but death for them.

And yet..

An’as didn’t find it within himself to hate them.

Why?

Why was that…?

’Grow.’

A voice suddenly whispered in his mind. Anas hastily looked around but found that nobody was speaking.

’You need to grow. Stop clinging to things that tie you down.’

The voice echoed again, and this time, he realized the voice wasn’t real.

It was within his mind …

What is…

Before Anas could understand, the voice echoed again, in short bursts. It felt familiar, but he couldn’t quite understand to whom it belonged.

And yet something within his chest stirred.

He didn’t know why, but without even thinking, his body moved, and then—

He jumped into the water.

’I have no use for someone that is tied down by weights they themself can’t bear.’

’It’s time to cut them loose and grow up.’

SPLASH!

***

Xa’hurl’s voice slipped into Lazarus’s mind like a whisper, echoing softly but sinking deep. It held him there, motionless, unable to breathe or think.

[…You are more than ready for me to absorb.]

A single whisper was enough to send a sharp migraine through Lazarus’s skull. As the eye trembled, seemingly shifting and morphing into something else, the pain worsened, and he strained to grasp what he was looking at.

It was an eye?

A… black void? A…

No, that wasn’t important. Lazarus couldn’t even think about that as he suddenly thought about Xa’hurl’s previous words and his thoughts completely shattered.

The woman from the empire lost?

How…?

It made absolutely no sense to him. He understood just how powerful she was. In his mind, there shouldn’t be anyone beneath the Zenith that was capable of defeating her.

He didn’t even think Em was capable of such a feat.

Then…

How did she lose?

Was Xa’hurl really this powerful?

Lazarus felt his thoughts collapse under the weight of the idea. His gaze toward the creature shifted, his head aching further as he struggled to comprehend the being in front of him as it seemed to continuously shift into different forms, but if there was one thing he was sure about, it was the slow, unsettling heat stirring deep within him.

He wasn’t angry about the woman’s apparent defeat.

He refused to believe that she had been defeated.

He also didn’t believe Xa’hurl was capable of absorbing her so quickly. She was still alive for sure.

He also wasn’t scared about his current situation.

It was more like he couldn’t think about anything else but the pain in his right eye.

It had grown more and more intense, almost feeling like it was trying to escape from his socket.

“…..!”

No, it was really trying to escape his eye socket!

’No….!’

Noticing the situation, Lazarus quickly gritted his teeth, his face turning red as he tried his best to contain the eye and prevent it from leaving.

However, that proved to be an incredibly hard task. It was almost as if the eye was trying to tap into something. A certain power that his body could hardly contain.

’No, shit!

Understanding just how vital the eye was for him, Lazarus tried to resist with everything he had as a result of his struggle which didn’t go unnoticed by the primordial being who looked at Lazarus curiously.

[how peculiar…]

It could feel the strange energy that was seeping out of Lazarus’s eye. it could also feel the struggle and pain that he was currently experiencing.

Just one look and Xa’hurl could tell that the human was on the verge of exploding from the pain.

The energy threatened to spill out of his Body at any second, threatening to spill all over the surroundings.

Even Xa’hurl grew wary of the energy. It wasn’t something that it could take lightly.

In fact, it could feel the threat coming from it and it didn’t hesitate any longer.

[…A pity.]

The eye pulsed with light, and in an instant, tentacles erupted from the ground, lashing toward Lazarus. They coiled around him, tightening with brutal force. The crack of breaking bones echoed through the surroundings as blood spilled, soaking everything around him.

CRACK—!

The sound was so pronounced even the water wasn’t able to silence it.

The energy vanished the moment the tentacles constricted. And when they finally loosened their grip, nothing remained but shredded entrails and a spreading pool of blood, spilling into every corner of the surroundings.

An eyeball also lingered in the water as the eye of Xa’hurl stared at it for a brief moment before the tentacles rose up and absorbed everything that lingered in the water.

In seconds, everything faded, and all traces of Lazarus were gone.

Just like that. He had died.

Xa’hurl’s eye slowly closed before it started to fade from the spot.

By the time the eye opened again, a figure appeared in front of it, struggling as it held onto its right eye.

[How peculiar…]

Staring at the human and feeling the peculiar energy coming out of its eye, Xa’hurl grew slightly wary of it. Even it felt a threat coming from the energy in the eye.

The eye glowed, and several tentacles burst out from the ground, all moving towards Lazarus and wrapping around his body and squeezing tightly.

However, right as they wrapped around the human, they froze in place as Xa’hurl’s large eye blinked in confusion.

[What’s going on? Didn’t I…?]

It only grew confused for a few seconds before pressing tightly against the human, and a muffled cracking sound echoed across the water.

CRACK—!

Blood spilled all over as pieces of entrails and organs drifted across the water.

Xa’hurl raises its tentacles and absorbed everything before closing its eye.

It needs to quickly assimilate with the power and that of the human woman who was still struggling within.

Opening up its eye again, Xa’hurl stared at the struggling human before it.

[How pec—Huh? What is going on…?]

Taken aback, the eye shifted back as it stared at the human and then its surroundings.

This time, it could feel like something was wrong.

It had experienced this before

How could it—

“Ken…”

A deep, hoarse voice echoed through the water as Lazarus slowly raised his head, clutching his eyes, now burning with an intensity that felt unbearable.

Opening his trembling mouth, he managed to force out a few words,

“You’ve noticed it haven’t… you? I… can do this forever.”