Chapter 323: The Sixth Calamity (Part 3)

The six swords hung above the battlefield, their combined light bleaching the whole area white.

Kai looked up, every instinct screaming at once. "Everyone—move!"

They descended.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The six blades struck almost together, and the energy didn’t stay separate this time. It connected, a massive wave of spectral force rolling outward across the battlefield.

Kai was thrown backward, catching himself with Air Step.

WHOOSH!

His body was pulled toward the one clean opening, and he barely cleared the edge of the blast. Sera was thrown across the ground. Raze drove his weapon into the earth to anchor himself. Mira raised her shield. Gabriel’s barrier flared to life just in time to catch the overflow.

CRACK!

It fractured under the strain.

Kai landed and looked out at the six enormous scars carved into the ground, their energy overlapping into one massive pattern rather than staying separate.

"...It combined them," he said.

"Yes," Tiamat confirmed.

"So it can combine all six swords."

"It appears so."

He sighed. "I was hoping it had already shown us everything."

"You should know better."

He laughed despite himself. "Fair."

"Everyone!" he called.

Mira climbed to her feet. "I’m fine."

"Still standing," Sera said.

Raze pulled his weapon free of the dirt. "...Mostly."

Kai laughed. "Good enough."

"The outer defense is heavily damaged," Gabriel reported.

"The city’s main network absorbed part of the attack," Lily said over the network.

"But we can’t take many more hits like that," Elden warned.

Kai looked at the spectral warrior. "Then we don’t."

"Back to the plan!" Mira called, and everyone fell into position, Sera and Raze angling for the legs, the rest holding the line. Kai stepped in front of the giant, and the three heads locked onto him instantly.

"Still interested?" he asked.

The center head turned. He ran.

The creature followed, footsteps shaking the ground.

THOOM.

He kept moving, Air Run carrying him across open sky, the giant matching his pace step for step.

"...You’re surprisingly persistent," he muttered.

"It has a clear objective," Tiamat said.

"Kill me."

"Correct."

"Could’ve guessed."

Sera saw her opening. "Now!"

She rushed the left leg.

SLASH!

Raze hit the right.

BOOM!

Mira followed.

CRACK!

The creature staggered, and Kai turned. "Again!"

They struck once more, the damage spreading deeper. It tried to step forward, and the leg buckled beneath it. It caught itself before falling.

"It can’t move properly," Kai said.

"Then maintain that advantage."

"That’s the plan."

Three swords rose, and he changed direction immediately. "Incoming!"

The blades swung. Sera jumped clear. Raze blocked one head-on. Mira raised her shield. The others tore across the battlefield.

BOOM!

Kai used Air Step, one sword passing beneath him, another cutting behind, a third missing his shoulder by inches. He landed, breathing hard.

"...Close."

"Very."

"You keep saying that."

"Because you keep getting close to dying."

He laughed. "Point taken."

[Sixth Calamity Duration: 9:02.]

"One minute," Mira said.

"That’s all we need," Sera said.

"One minute," Kai echoed.

"We’ve got this," Raze said, gripping his weapon.

"Everyone hold," Gabriel said.

The creature surged back into motion, and the last minute became a blur of movement, Kai running, Sera and Raze striking whenever it closed distance, Mira holding the hunters together, Gabriel shielding the line, Lily counting down the seconds while Elden fed the last of the city’s power through the network.

Attack. Dodge. Stagger. Move. Survive.

[9:30.]

"Thirty seconds!" Lily called, voice tight with something close to hope.

"Everyone, hold!" Mira shouted.

"Thirty seconds!" Sera echoed.

"We’ve survived worse!" Raze said.

Kai eyed the giant warily. "...Maybe."

"Do not become careless," Tiamat warned.

"I’m not."

The spectral warrior raised all six swords one final time.

"Again?" Kai muttered.

"It wants to finish you before the timer ends."

"Then let’s disappoint it."

He ran, and the swords descended. He dodged. Sera moved. Raze moved. Mira blocked. Gabriel’s barrier flared bright. The attack crashed down.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Dust swallowed the battlefield.

Kai emerged from it, blood tracing down one cheek. He wiped it away. "I’m still alive."

"Five seconds!" Lily shouted.

He looked at the creature. "Come on."

Four. It raised its swords.

Three. He moved.

Two. The blades descended.

One. He caught the last opening with Air Step, the swords striking empty ground behind him.

Zero.

Everything stopped.

Silence swallowed the battlefield. The spectral warrior froze mid-motion, its six swords stilling in the air, its three heads going completely still.

[Sixth Calamity — Survived.]

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Kai stared at the notification, then let out a slow breath. "...We did it."

Sera lowered her weapon. "We actually did."

Raze dropped his shoulders, all the tension leaving him at once. "Finally."

Mira sat down right where she stood. "I’m exhausted."

"Same," Lily laughed weakly.

Gabriel closed her eyes.

For the first time in what felt like hours, everyone let themselves breathe.

The enormous creature began fading, its three heads dissolving first, then its arms, the six swords turning translucent before the whole body broke apart into drifting spectral particles that rose gently into the sky.

"...Goodbye," Kai murmured, watching the last sword vanish entirely.

Nothing remained.

He looked at the empty sky. "It’s really over."

Tiamat stayed quiet for a moment.

"...Tiamat?"

A pause. "I suppose it is."

He smiled. "You sound uncertain."

"I’m tired."

He laughed. "Even you?"

Across the city, hunters began sitting down wherever they stood, some leaning against half-collapsed walls, others laughing quietly, a few just staring up at the sky.

"We’re alive," one muttered.

"I thought that giant thing was going to kill us," another said.

"It almost did," a third answered.

Mira looked out over Mythal, damaged but standing, hunters alive and breathing all around her. "We made it."

"Nothing else," Lily reported, checking the System one more time.

"No additional warning?" Elden asked.

"None."

"The Six Calamities have ended," Gabriel said, looking toward the sky.

Raze exhaled hard. "Thank God."

"We actually did it," Sera said, smiling.

Kai looked around at everyone. "Six disasters." He shook his head slowly. "We survived all six."

Mira laughed. "You can say that again."

"Six disasters."

For a moment, everyone laughed, tired and genuine, the sound spreading through the wreckage like something warm.

Then Kai’s smile faltered. He looked up. The clouds overhead had been drifting, and now, suddenly, they weren’t.

"...Wait."

Sera glanced at him. "What?"

He didn’t answer right away. The clouds had stopped moving entirely, and now they were pulling apart, slow and deliberate, a circular gap opening in the sky above Mythal.

Lily checked her readings, and her face changed. "...That’s strange."

"What?" Elden asked.

"I’m detecting something."

Gabriel looked up, and her expression shifted fast. "...No."

Mira turned toward her. "What?"

Gabriel didn’t answer. The gap in the clouds kept widening, and a tiny black point appeared far in the distance.

Kai squinted. "Is that..."

The point grew. And grew. And grew.

The clouds finally parted fully, revealing something enormous falling through them. At first it looked like a meteor, a massive black sphere tumbling through the sky.

Then Kai saw the details, and his stomach dropped.

It wasn’t rock. Black liquid moved across its surface, alive and shifting. White frost coated broad sections of it. Crimson lightning crawled through the frozen shell in jagged veins. Golden weapons surrounded it in a slow, rotating shell.

"...What?"

The black liquid spread across the surface like something breathing, curling around the frozen patches.

"Black Flood," Kai said.

"That’s impossible," Lily said, staring at her readout.

The liquid kept spreading, coating more of the sphere. White frost followed close behind, freezing the water solid, cracks spidering through the new ice.

The temperature around Mythal dropped sharply. Kai shivered. "...White Frost."

"That’s one of the previous Calamities," Sera said.

"Yeah."

Crimson lightning flashed across the frozen shell.

CRACK!

The whole object lit up, red bolts crawling through the ice like veins.

"Red Storm," Kai said.

Mira’s face went pale. "It’s combining them."

"All of them," Gabriel whispered.

Thousands of golden swords began appearing around the sphere. One. Ten. Hundreds. Thousands, forming a rotating shell of blades around the whole mass.

"...The Arsenal," Kai breathed.

The swords spun faster, gold light spilling across the darkening sky.

Then something shifted deep within the frozen core. Six enormous shapes became visible, trapped inside the ice.

"...The Sixth," Kai said.

The six spectral swords twisted, cracks spreading through the ice that held them.

CRACK.

The full shape of it came into view at last. A massive black-water orb, sheathed in frost, cracked with red lightning, surrounded by a rotating shell of golden blades, six enormous spectral swords sealed at its core.

A supernatural meteor.

Falling directly toward Mythal.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

Kai stared upward, the pieces falling into place in his mind. Six Calamities. Every remnant. Every power. All of it merged into a single, impossible mass.

His eyes widened. "...You’re kidding."

"No," Tiamat said.

"We survived six."

"Yes."

He pointed upward, voice cracking with disbelief. "Then what is that?"

Tiamat said nothing.

The orb accelerated, clouds shoving outward around it, the air growing heavy enough to press against every chest in the city. The remaining barriers activated on instinct.

WHUM!

The ground shook. Hunters looked up. Some ran. Others simply froze in place.

"EVERYONE MOVE!" Mira shouted.

"It’s too large!" Lily called.

"How are we supposed to stop that!?" Elden shouted back.

"I don’t know," Gabriel said quietly, staring at the sky.

Kai watched it fall, black water and white frost and crimson lightning and golden steel and six trapped swords, everything they’d survived compressed into one impossible weight bearing down on the city.

He raised both hands slightly, voice cracking with pure disbelief.

"Are you kidding me!?"

Tiamat said nothing.

The meteor kept falling. Faster. And faster.

The entire sky went dark.