By: B30 who loves to read
Word count-2867
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The storm world of Santara drowned beneath its own sorrow. Endless rain lashed the broken plains, each drop a needle stitching together an atmosphere of suffocating dread. Above, yellow skies groaned with thunder, their echoes lost in the vast fog that smothered the land.
Isaiah walked alone into the inverted mausoleum, his pace almost casual. His pale skin glimmered faintly under the stormlight, staff Kirin slung carelessly over his shoulder. To anyone watching, he might have seemed indifferent But his cyan eyes lingered on the structure's surface- a black tomb crowned with three ominous stars-calculating, dissecting.
His expression hardened. This place is alive. A calamity's heart... an organ pumping corruption across a system.
He muttered quietly, almost to himself.
"So this is what my siblings warned me about... A black mausoleum. A wound in the world itself."
The mausoleum pulsed in answer, its walls bleeding true Hollow energy that made the air itself taste metallic and sharp.
Isaiah's jaw clenched. He raised his right hand, calling Kirin with a surge of electricity. The staff hummed as it settled into his grip, arcs of hollow energy dancing along its jagged surface. He exhaled, then pushed forward through the storm.
Inside was worse.
The entrance gave way to an abyss of shifting shadow. The moment Isaiah smashed through the mausoleum's heavy doors, his body was dragged downward, swallowed by an endless plunge of black. He landed hard in a pool of liquid-thick, tar-like, writhing with shapes that had no names. His fingers dipped into it instinctively, only to recoil as the substance writhed like something alive.
Then the truth sank into him like a blade.
These aren't shadows. They're people.
Every soul he'd sensed earlier-hundreds, thousands-they weren't prisoners.
They were dissolved, reduced to the pool itself. Their pulses were the ripples of that living sea.
Isaiah's lips pulled into a grim line. A surge of hollow energy coiled in his calves. Burst Flow.The ground shattered beneath his first step, sonic booms snapping through the mausoleum as he accelerated forward. Kilometers blurred past in heartbeats, his body ricocheting from platform to platform until at last he struck the sealed chamber of the lowest layer.
The doors exploded outward in a storm of sparks and thunder.
Isaiah landed lightly, staff spinning into his grip as he scanned the chamber.
The silence was suffocating. Then came the sound-wet, steady drips-as an orb of coagulated blood rotated at the room's center. The sphere pulsed like a diseased heart, spilling reflections of crimson across the walls. Isaiah prodded it with the end of Kirin. The sphere shuddered once... then detonated.
A tidal wave of gore surged outward.
Isaiah vanished, the ground beneath him erupting as he blurred hundreds of meters back. The spray hissed where it struck, burning the stone itself.
Then a sound tore through the chamber. A crack. A displacement.The air buckled.
And the Calamity emerged.
A figure coalesced from the gore-a towering form draped in blood and hollow influence, its shape shifting, half-solid, half-fluid.
Its first act was violence.
The chamber screamed with the birth of weapons-spears, arrows, blades- thousands of them, all formed from blood and driven with intent to kill. They rained like a scarlet storm, blotting out the ceiling.
Isaiah braced. His body thrummed with Hollow energy, arcs of static layering across his skin. Every weapon that touched him met that current. Sparks burst, edges corroded. He moved deliberately, step by step, his aura turning the storm into harmless fragments.
Until a hand appeared in front of him.
Isaiah barely saw it. The Calamity's arm blurred through space, its right hand sinking into his chest with enough force to send him hurtling across the throne room. The wall he struck writhed like liquid, spikes of poisoned blood erupting toward him-He was already moving.
Electric arcs snapped across his body, magnetism tearing him sideways as the spikes impaled only afterimages. Sparks lit his pale face, electricity gathering along his jaw, his features swallowed by the forming mask of his Hunter's Eye.
The mask shaped itself into a dragon of three horns, lightning bleeding from its contours.
Isaiah inhaled sharply. His energy spiked, coils of electricity bursting from his back like miniature storm pylons.
The Calamity finally spoke, voice grinding like stone dragged through marrow: "...Young Original. You bleed well" Isaiah spat copper, his grin feral.
"You hit me once. Don't expect it to happen again."
The Calamity's lipless mouth widened. Its hands clapped together, forming a single spear of reinforced blood that screamed through the air. Isaiah twisted at the last instant, the lance tearing past his cheek with an aftershock that shook the entire chamber.
He was already countering. Kirin snapped upward, electromagnetic waves rippling outward. The three blood orbs descending from the false red sky popped simultaneously, bursting into scarlet rain.
Then the chamber changed again.
Three new figures walked out of the light. Avatars. Two hulking brutes with four arms each, weapons dripping corruption. The third floated, slender, crowned by spheres of Hollow energy orbiting silently like planets.
Above them, the Calamity's true form hovered, smile wide, eyes burning.
"Remember my name, Original. Kivas. It will be the last thing you ever hear."
The clones launched themselves forward. The chamber erupted into chaos.
The mausoleum shook as the three avatars of Kivas surged forward, their movements rippling like blood-stained shadows across the crimson-lit throne hall.
Isaiah exhaled, sparks crawling along his pale skin as the dragon-shaped mask of lightning snarled to life across his face. His staff hummed, veins of radiant Hollow energy coursing through the metal.
The first avatar- a four-armed brute of coagulated blood-charged headlong, each hand conjuring blades that hissed with corrupted Hollow energy. The second followed, leaping with unnatural weight, its claws extended to tear him apart. Meanwhile, the slender third avatar hung back, orbs of spinning blood circling its body like satellites, each one vibrating with murderous intent.
Isaiah's pupils narrowed to silver pinpricks. The Hunter's Eye.
In that frozen heartbeat, the entire battlefield sharpened. The arcs of the avatars' movements, the trajectory of their weapons, even the faint pull of electromagnetic fields within their bloody constructs-all of it unfolded in his mind.
The first strike came fast-too fast for a mortal eye. The four-armed brute brought down two blades in a vertical arc. Isaiah slid forward instead of back, planting his staff against the ground. Sparks surged outward, detonating in a crack of thunder that propelled him under the swing. With fluid motion, he rose on the brute's flank, twisting his staff in a wide arc.
The weapon howled. Lightning lanced outward, cleaving through the brute's torso in a flash of searing heat. The avatar shuddered, its form tearing apart into liquid shreds that hissed on the ground.
But the second avatar was already on him.
The clawed monstrosity crashed down, jagged limbs carving through the stone floor. Isaiah spun his staff behind his back, channeling Hollow energy through the weapon like a live current. With a snap of his wrist, the staff struck against the avatar's claws.
BOOM!
The collision sent a blast of force rippling outward, distorting the air. Isaiah was hurled backward, boots carving trenches in the mausoleum floor. The avatar didn't relent, crashing down again-yet Isaiah ducked low, rolling beneath its swing. As he came up, his free hand lashed forward, fingers crackling with arcs of Hollow-charged thunder.
A bolt screamed from his palm, striking the avatar in the chest. The creature convulsed, its form fracturing into dripping streams before collapsing in a pool of writhing blood.
For a moment, silence.
Isaiah stood firm, his staff humming, the air stinking of ozone.
Then—SHRRRK!
Three blood orbs from the third avatar burst open simultaneously, each one spraying a wave of corrupted liquid into the air. From within, spear-like tendrils snapped outward, homing in with precision that forced Isaiah into action.
He sprinted sideways, staff spinning in his hands. Every movement was sharp, deliberate. He slammed the weapon against the ground, releasing an electromagnetic pulse that repelled two of the tendrils. The third struck his shoulder, cutting deep-but Isaiah gritted his teeth, twisting into the pain.
His staff whirled upward, smashing directly into the avatar's orbiting orbs.
The orbs detonated in violent bursts of scarlet mist. The avatar shrieked, its form unraveling under the surge of Isaiah's Hollow energy-charged lightning.
The three avatars dissolved into streams of blood, retreating to the floor where they writhed back toward Kivas' throne.
Above them, the true calamity watched with an amused smile. His body sat tall, dripping blood and malice, as though the avatars were mere warm-ups.
"..Impressive"" Kivas said, his voice like grinding bone. "You've already outlasted the mortals who dared to enter this place. But tell me, Visionary-how long will that lightning burn before it gutters out?"
Isaiah wiped the blood from his shoulder, lips curling into a grin beneath the dragon mask. Lightning danced across his back like wings ready to unfurl.
"As long as it takes" he replied, tone calm but laced with fire. "Long enough to carve your name into the dirt."
Kivas laughed-a deep, resonant sound that shook the mausoleum walls. With a flick of his hand, the blood at his feet surged upward, coiling into serpents of crimson that lashed toward Isaiah from all directions.
The duel had only just begun.
The blood-serpents screamed through the air, snapping their fanged maws at Isaiah with unnatural speed. Their bodies splattered against the stone as they struck, only to reform instantly, twisting into new shapes-axes, claws, scythes-each one brimming with corrupted Hollow energy.
Isaiah didn't back away. His staff hummed in his grip, lightning surging through his veins until his very bones felt like conduits of thunder.
One serpent lunged. Isaiah pivoted sideways, dragging his staff along the floor-CRACK! A trail of electricity exploded upward, creating a barrier of plasma that shredded the blood-construct in an instant.
But Kivas was already moving.
The calamity stepped from his throne, the mausoleum floor quaking under his weight. Every droplet of blood in the chamber rose into the air as though obeying him, coalescing into massive crimson waves that rolled along the ceiling. He raised one arm, and the waves collapsed, falling toward Isaiah like an ocean of gore meant to bury him alive.
Isaiah's pupils sharpened, the Hunter's Eye flashing silver.
He stomped down, bursting into a blur of motion. Lightning wings spread from his back, carrying him into the air as the tsunami of blood slammed into the floor, crushing stone into powder. The inverted mausoleum groaned, walls fracturing under the impact.
Suspended in midair, Isaiah rotated his staff overhead. The air around him ionized, thunder booming loud enough to shake the foundations of Santara itself. In one swift arc, he swung downward—"return-stroke!"
A titanic bolt of lightning speared downward, cutting a ravine through the collapsing blood-wave. Steam and ozone exploded outward, the scent sharp enough to burn the lungs.
But Kivas simply smiled. He stepped through the destruction, unharmed, his form bending and shifting like liquid.
Then he vanished.
Isaiah's instincts screamed. He twisted, staff coming up just in time-
BOOM!
The calamity's fist, hardened into jagged obsidian blood, slammed into his guard, the sheer force launching Isaiah across the mausoleum. He crashed through one of the black pillars, shards of stone raining like knives.
Isaiah rolled with the impact, coming up on one knee, sparks flaring around his mask. "Tch... quick bastard."
Kivas was already on him again. The calamity's body shifted, sprouting four additional arms, each one wielding a corrupted blood weapon. A spear, a cleaver, a chain, a jagged bow. The weapons lashed out in unison, each attack precise enough to kill a mortal a thousand times over.
Isaiah smiled.
The dragon mask flared brighter, arcs of lightning snapping outward. He slipped between the blows, each movement guided by Hunter's Eye, every dodge costing him less effort than it should. He twisted under the chain, rolled past the cleaver, then slammed his staff into the ground.
The floor answered
Magnetic force surged outward, pulling the calamity's own weapons toward him. For an instant, the spear and chain clashed against Kivas' own body.
Isaiah didn't waste it-he leapt, spinning his staff, and brought it crashing down against the calamity's skull.
CRACK-THOOM!
The impact lit the chamber with white-blue light. Stone shattered. The mausoleum's inverted ceiling split open, revealing the storm-wracked yellow sky above. Lightning from Santara's atmosphere answered Isaiah's call, feeding his body, his staff, his wrath.
Kivas staggered... then laughed.
His body melted apart, blood pouring to the ground. From it, hundreds of spires erupted, stabbing upward like a forest of scarlet spears. The mausoleum turned into a death trap, every surface bristling with killing intent.
Isaiah's chest heaved. He could feel it- the scale of the fight rising past mortal comprehension. This was divinity clashing. Worlds could fall from battles like these.
He gripped his staff tighter, aura surging until the lightning around him became a storm of its own. Sparks formed into coiling dragons that circled his body, their roars echoing through the inverted tomb.
"Enough playing." His voice was calm, but the edges trembled with raw voltage. "Let's finish this, Calamity."
Kivas spread his many arms, his body towering into a titanic form of blood and shadow, nearly scraping the mausoleum ceiling. His voice reverberated like a chorus of screams.
The mausoleum shuddered as Isaiah and Kivas clashed, each strike carving scars into the inverted temple. The storm outside raged harder, as though Santara itself knew it was about to die.
Kivas' titanic form of blood loomed like a mountain, spears bristling from every inch of his body. He slammed his palms together - the entire mausoleum's sea of blood rose in answer, twisting into a single colossal spear that stretched from floor to ceiling, a weapon large enough to impale a continent."You will drown in my endless hunger!" the calamity roared, driving the spear down.
Isaiah braced. Lightning bled from his pores, scorching the stone beneath his feet. He slammed the butt of Kirin against the ground - the staff sang, a conductor calling down the fury of the skies.
CRACK-THOOM!
A beam of lightning crashed through the ceiling, wider than mountains, intercepting the blood-spear. The impact tore the mausoleum apart. Stone shattered. Entire sections of the inverted temple collapsed into the abyss below. The sky above split open, showing Santara's storm-laden atmosphere swirling like a whirlpool.
Isaiah was hurled backward, blood dripping from his lips. His dragon mask flickered. Kivas' laughter shook the heavens. "You're strong, youth... but not enough. My hunger is eternal!"
The calamity's form dissolved, spreading across the battlefield until it blanketed the entire chamber - the blood sea itself became Kivas, a planetary will of devouring chaos. Dozens of mouths opened across the liquid abyss, shrieking in a chorus of madness.
Isaiah's grip on Kirin tightened. He could feel the planet cracking under the calamity's presence. He had one choice left.
"..Then I'll end this storm with my own."
His aura surged, exploding outward. Lightning erupted in waves, arcs leaping from wall to wall, tearing stone into ash. The storm above bent downward as though drawn to him - billions of volts converging into the pale youth, his body becoming a living sun of thunder.
The Hunter's Eye flared, the dragon mask solidifying, three horns gleaming with electricity. His voice thundered through the chaos: "Ultimate Art - Kirin's Wrath!"
Isaiah hurled his staff into the sky. In answer, Santara's storms collapsed into a single point. A colossal thunder-beast formed above the planet - a dragon of pure lightning, its body stretching from stratosphere to void, eyes glowing like dying stars.
The beast opened its maw. Kivas roared back, raising the entirety of his bloody ocean into a colossal avatar, a titan of gore wielding a blade forged of every soul he had consumed.
The sky and abyss screamed as dragon and titan collided.
BOOOOOOM!
The impact ripped through Santara. Lightning and blood devoured the world, magma bursting from cracked crust, oceans evaporating in seconds.
Mountains crumbled like sand. The planet's core shattered, torn apart by forces no world could withstand.
Isaiah stood at the eye of the storm, his staff blazing in his grip, as he drove Kirin forward. The lightning dragon surged with him, piercing the calamity's titan form straight through the heart.
Kivas screamed, his body rupturing into rivers of blood that evaporated against the endless thunder. "This hunger... cannot-!"
The words were lost. His form disintegrated, swallowed whole by the lightning beast, until nothing remained but ash and silence.
The planet Santara gave its last groan. The surface split in a final explosion, the atmosphere scattering into space. A world died in fire, blood, and storm.
And at the center of it all, Isaiah hovered amidst the ruin, his body smoking, lightning still whispering across his pale skin. He caught his staff as it returned to his hand, the dragon mask dissolving into sparks. He exhaled, eves glowing cyan in the void.
"Another calamity down... one less shadow to devour this universe.
Around him, Santara crumbled into nothingness — a tomb not for Isaiah, but for kivas.