2 years ago,
The rustling of leaves could be heard, as a loud roar of thunder follow suit. The sky brightens for a moment, dispersing the dark clouds and heavy rain.
A group of Seed Calamities could be seen camping around as a large group, their form a wraith, ghastly blue flame lights up from their ribcage. Despite the heavy barrage of rain, their flame stays lit, undying. On the center of the group, a Fallen Calamity is amongst them.
The Fallen Calamity, a wraith that dons bony armor that covers its torso and arm, a worn out feathered hat is on top of its gas-like head, eery protruding teeth that forms a wicked grin and blue flame that rises out of its eyes. A black worn out robe with the hem reaching down the ground as it floats above it flutters through the heavy rain and gust of wind.
Its height the size of two male human adults, a pair of black curved daggers lit aflame with blue fire.
Noticing a weird frequent burst of mana coming from the rainforest akin to a beacon, the Fallen lets out a growl before floating towards the source.
The bursts of mana could be sensed even more now as the Fallen Calamity draws nearer and nearer to the source.
Upon arriving, the Fallen Calamity stops on its track as it stares at a cloaked person. The harsh pouring rain showers onto the cloaked person. A red sword gleams, reflecting the thunder all the way from the distance, as it is brought near to the person's chest.
Light blue pair of eyes gleams beneath the hood of the cloak as the Fallen stares at the person that is a lot smaller than it.
Teeth gnashing against each other, a loud screech soon follows as the Fallen pounds onto the young man.
The young man soon clashes with the pair of daggers, weaving and parrying, keeping a distance.
Not long after, as the two of them clashes, more wounds and tears on the cloak could be seen on the young man. The hood now off as it reveals the light blue hair and streaks of white. Minor stab wounds could be seen on the young man's body, some on the face too. Despite that, the young man remains calm.
The Fallen, upon realizing that it had been moving away further and further from the group of Seed Calamities, finally stops. Suspicion boils from its slight awareness, but it would soon prove to be futile as a party of five humans with cloaks suddenly emerge from the trees.
The most notable one is a tall human with a white coloured middle parted hair. A full beard covers his rough face that is smeared with dirt and grime, his eyes gleaming red. On his hand, a long silver metal double-sided war axe with runic letters engraved on its shaft crackles with electricity. Violent current of yellow lightning emerge from the axe, crackling against the ground.
The man looks at the young man with blue eyes before nodding as the young man nods back before focusing his attention back to the powerful wraith.
The wraith looks between the young man and the party of five that ambushed him. The wraith's face contorts in what seems to be anger as it lets out a loud screech.
***
Opening his blurry eyes, Sirius frowns as he let out a rough groan as a certain past memory flashes in his mind.
Looking forward, he could see the Fallen across from him struggling. Cracks appearing on its shell as there seems to be a lot of rocky spikes that penetrate its shell, trapping it on the ground.
Wincing in pain, Sirius looks down and see a rock spike penetrating his left chest, just right beneath his collarbone. Pain spread from all over his body as he could see that he's laying on a formation of rocks with spikes stabbing the rocks underneath him.
How truly lucky of him to survive this with only a spike penetrating his left chest. Other than that, it seems like that's his only grave injury. He tries to move his left hand but is unable to do so, what followed when he tried to was pain shooting from the spike instead.
Cringing from the pain, Sirius slowly stands up, his left arm limp as it dangles like a broken puppet. Looking at the snake that's more unfortunate than him, Sirius slowly walks over towards the trapped snake. Looking around, he could see his red sword laying down near him. Picking it up, he drags himself to the writhing snake.
The snake looks up to see Sirius walking towards it, hissing, the snake could only watch as Sirius brought his sword up to end its life. A loud hiss escapes its mouth, as if signaling its underlings.
Sirius' eyes widens, quickly bringing his sword down on the gap in between the shell and the head, Sirius beheads the snake, ending its life. From there, Sirius unsummoned his sword and quickly grab a hold of the snake's head, looking towards the entrance of the cavern, he could see a lot of snakes already rushing at him like a swarm.
'I won't make it!'
Looking around, Sirius' eyes landed on the hole on the center of the cavern. Looking back at the rapidly approaching swarm of snakes, Sirius gnash his teeth.
'Gah! To hell with it!'
Limping towards the edge of the hole, Sirius throws the head of the snake down the hole.
'Like hell I'm letting go of what I earned!'
Sirius follows suit as he ignores the loud hisses of the maddened snakes following him. Jumping and summoning [Shard of Night], Sirius stabs the dagger against the rocks with great strength.
Pulling the dagger and stabbing it back onto the rocks as to avoid falling to his death, Sirius tries his best despite the muscle on his arm screaming loudly at him and burning.
Hearing the screeches only makes Sirius fall down at a bit faster pace, the interval between pulling the dagger and stabbing it back longer as soon, he reach the ground by ungracefully falling on his ass.
Pain shoots out of every corner of his body, coupled with the spike still penetrating his chest, Sirius laughs in between coughs.
Taking the head of the snake next to him, Sirius prepares to run on the pathway. Only for him to gaze upon a crack on the air.
Sirius' mind blanks, looking at the air in front of him, the outline of the cracks, the air in front of him that shows a hall with torches on the wall lighting the hall.
Sirius lets out a heavy sigh, he really miss his family.
Shaking his head, Sirius walks towards the crack on the air.
As he steps through, his foot lands on a shallow dark murky water. Quickly, he could feel the air becoming thick, moving a single step feels as though he is moving inside a pool.
Moonlight slips through some cracks and gaps visible on the ceiling and the walls of the hall, a solemn look.
An eery silence fills the long hall, only Sirius' footsteps echo throughout the hall.
Walking forward, he could see separate rooms with broken doors, storage rooms, rooms with beds, some with chairs. The doors on each room either gone, worn out, or in ruins.
Mist resides in the rooms where broken windows could be seen, old claw marks engraved on walls and floors. With some of the room looking as though as it had been clawed out of the whole building.
Sirius' heart beats up fast, his heart banging against his chest, his footsteps, the loud beat of his heart, and the creaks coming from the wooden floor is the only thing filling the empty misty hall.
Peeking into one of the room, he discovers a room that is still intact, Sirius walks over a door with only the bottom of it left. Entering the room, no cracks or gaps visible, with the window still closed.
Scanning the inside of the room, there appears to be an old desk along with a worn out wooden cabinet on the corner side of the room with a single worn out bed positioned near the wall across the cabinet.
Sirius gulps, looking back, relief cross his mind as he let out a sigh. Nothing is creeping up behind his back, nothing that he is aware of. Only a small mist that is flowing on the floor like a swarm of snake.
Looking back into the room, Sirius sits on the middle of the room, sitting down, he set aside the head of the Fallen and wince at his penetrating wound.
Sirius slowly take off his jacket. Now a sleeveless short jacket with a gaping hole on it.
Cutting up the jacket to several pieces and looking at the spike, Sirius lets out a shaky breath.
'This is going to hurt.'
Sirius folds a piece of the jacket and bite onto it. Grabbing the rocky spike by hand, Sirius slowly pull it out of his chest. Searing pain escapes him as spurts of blood shoots out from the injury. Sirius lets out painful hisses, his body trembling as he slouch down a bit, he stopped pulling the spike away.
Taking short wheezes of air, to quickly get rid of the spike once and for all, Sirius hastily pull the spike away with all of his strength as a choked cry escapes him.
The spike falls with a thud on the floor, Sirius momentarily tenses up, hoping that nothing hears the loud thud. His eyes focus on the door that shows the misty hallway. Heart beating vigorously as he pant.
With nothing coming to get him for the loud thud, Sirius closes his eyes and lay his head against the side of the bed as he look at the injury.
Taking the pieces of clothes, he wrap it around his chest, going underneath his arm and wrapping it around his back, back to his chest.
Using his mouth and one functional hand left, Sirius sloppily wrap a makeshift bandage that stops the bleeding from worsening.
He wants to just cry out and scream from the pain but stops himself, if he could he would.
Stabilizing his breathing, Sirius calms his mind from the overwhelming pain, he needs to come up with a plan for navigating through the Abyss.
Because not only is the air around here thick with mana, there are also a lot of worse Calamities that are going to be roaming around here.
'First of all, it's confirmed now that the tents that were near the crater belonged to House Storm. The battle scars on the cavern from the three Calamity groups were because of House Storm.'
They were trying to reach into this Abyss.
The Abyss, a wide area that is teeming with Calamities. A place where the Calamity must have come from, thought not much is known. While the crack on the space is called a Gate.
This information is mostly known by those of the First Generation and the main forces of House Storm, since Gates doesn't show up. At least none had ever shown up or summoned. It appears that Gates had always already been there, ever since Apocalypse ascended.
Many dangerous Calamities could be found here, and since no one knows what exactly is in there, it is deemed as dangerous and to be avoided until at least an Expedition party is formed.
The most dangerous ones in the area had always been a Usuper Calamity class. The most frightening ones up to date.
Looking down at the severed head of the snake, Sirius reach out to it and start on skinning its forehead and flesh off.
Inside, a black orb could be seen, on it, tiny threads of black wisp radiates off of it as Sirius touches the orb and bring it close to his chest.
'With this, I hope I will fully saturate my soul and rise up to Evoker class.'
Sirius thought to himself, closing his eyes as the orb slowly becomes white and disintegrate after a few minutes. The particles flows into his chest as the painful feeling of burning emanates from his soul.
Inside his soul, the last few murky mud of his soul burns, he could feel his soul becoming fully pure. No more black taint on it as Sirius gasps.
Status: [Blessed]
Name: Sirius
Class: [Seed]
Soul Purity: [4/4]
Body: [Tainted]
Blessings: [Red Horn] [Shard of Night] [Boidae Shell]
Runes: [Brightest Star]: [Supernova's Crown]
Looking at the full counter for his Soul Purity, Sirius chuckles before suddenly — an euphoric feeling akin to downing a lot of food when he is starving — strikes him.
He could feel the sudden flood of mana surging to his soul, the tidal wave of mana fulfills him as he blinks his eyes.
The pool of mana stays in his soul like a tank powering him and not feeling like it'll burst his insides the way [Supernova's Crown] does.
"Huh..."
Most importantly, Sirius feels stronger and lighter. Smiling, Sirius looks at his Status window once more.
Status: [Blessed]
Name: Sirius
Class: [Evoker]
Soul Purity: [1/6]
Body: [Tainted]
Blessings: [Red Horn] [Shard of Night] [Boidae Shell]
Runes: [Brightest Star]: [Supernova's Crown] [Stellar Force]
"...Huh."