If one had to rank the six Calamities by which caused the greatest disaster, each had its own strengths.
But if one had to pick the one with the greatest destructive power, then Uranos, the Calamity of Earth, unquestionably stood at the top.
As the dust-colored sandstorm rose from the earth, a terrifying vortex of chaotic shattered rock quickly swept across the entire royal capital.
Sand covered the sky, and dust flowed across the land.
Broken rocks rolled across the ground with a violent hurricane, blotting out everything.
The ruins that had already existed became even more shattered under this raging force.
The vast royal capital was completely swallowed by this terrifying cloud of dust.
In such horrific sandstorm conditions, almost no one could survive.
Even the heavily reinforced stone towers were not spared.
After enduring such terrifying pressure, they crumbled one after another.
Their fragments collided with other broken structures in midair, forming shattered walls and ruins.
Fortunately, after such a long period of warning, almost all of the capital's residents had already evacuated.
Those who could escape the city had already left the royal capital, while those closer to the palace had gathered in the central square.
No matter how terrifying the rest of the city became, the central square before the palace would always be the safest shelter.
Outside the palace, the sandstorm raged.
The terrifying wind and sand had almost formed a surging wall of dust, yet all it could do was continuously crash against the emerald forest before it, like a hundred-meter-high wall.
Countless thick tree trunks and vines intertwined together, the forest's bent body seeming to support a natural city wall.
Large stretches of trees twisted around one another, forming a lush green forest that blocked the incoming chaotic sandstorm.
Watching the overwhelming clash between the sandstorm and the forest, the residents gradually felt a strong sense of security.
Of course, along with that sense of security came shock.
"Th... this is what a mage can do?"
'How long had it taken? Five minutes? Three?'
'No...'
Just a single breath.
Just before the terrifying sandstorm arrived, the boundless forest had risen straight from the earth.
They hadn't even seen the trees take root or sprout, as though fully grown trees had already been buried beneath the ground.
Simply waiting for the moment they were needed before rising from the earth.
Hearing the residents' words, quite a few mages present were dumbfounded.
'What? What mage?'
'If you don't know, don't talk nonsense. Mages can't freaking do this either!'
Among everyone present, other than Cocotte, no one else could make a forest appear out of thin air.
At this moment, she sat cross-legged on a cloud, leaning against a newly grown giant tree, lazily stretching.
"Finally finished."
That said...
Summoning this forest hadn't actually taken much effort for Cocotte.
To create a forest like this, she only needed to draw a little of the World Tree's natural energy.
After receiving the worship of elves for hundreds and thousands of years, the World Tree had stored an enormous amount of natural energy. Creating a forest was effortless.
Once these trees had served their purpose, Cocotte could even reclaim them.
Very environmentally friendly.
Of course, although creating a forest to block the sandstorm was no more than lifting a finger for Cocotte...
For someone as lazy as her, the same saying still applied.
If she didn't have to move, she wouldn't.
Still, although the sandstorm had been stopped, Cocotte remained a little worried.
A sandstorm capable of covering the entire royal capital...
That was clearly something only a Calamity could accomplish.
Thinking of what Viktor had told her earlier, Cocotte sighed.
She slowly raised her head and looked at the hazy yet bright sky, her heart full of expectation.
"I hope you can handle it."
"We're all ready over here."
———
Within the swirling dust, a gigantic stone fist as massive as a fortress fell from the sky.
Its target was Viktor.
The instant such a terrifying attack descended, it produced a shock that seemed capable of tearing space apart.
A wave of dust exploded outward, as though trying to rip apart everything nearby.
Yet the terrifying wind never even touched Viktor's shadow.
His afterimage flashed away, and the giant rock slammed into the earth, exploding into countless flying fragments.
[Resolute Edge]
Standing atop a floating rock, Viktor gently pinched his fingers together.
A faint deep-blue glow emerged from his chest, turning into a wisp of light smoke that slowly enveloped him.
BOOM!
The ground beneath rose violently, while the floating rocks overhead crashed toward the rising earth.
The terrifying shockwave tore apart all the surrounding dust, its impact seeming capable of shattering space itself.
Yet with a flash of light, Viktor turned into a streak of radiance and vanished from where he stood.
[Piercing Light Armorbreaker]
Viktor calmly dealt with the Calamity's relentless attacks. Standing in a brief patch of safety, he cast another spell.
None of his spells were aimed at Uranos.
Every single one was cast on himself as a buff.
When the spell finished, the surrounding dust storm slowly converged toward Viktor.
At the same time, a faint azure light rose from the surroundings and gradually merged into the center of his forehead.
Bang!
The enormous stone hands burst through the dust and slammed together horizontally, once again sending endless fragments of rock flying.
Viktor dispersed into a gust of pale wind under the stone palms' strike. The white wind drifted gently to the ground before his figure appeared once more.
This time, he was behind the Calamity.
With both hands in his pockets, Viktor quickly constructed a magic circle in the air. Two rays of blue and red light merged into his body from the front and back.
[Cloudflash Thunderstep]
[Fang of the Remaining Edge]
Each graceful dodge Viktor made granted him another buff.
As he continued blinking and shifting positions, rays of light vividly attached themselves to his body.
Watching more and more lights gather around Viktor until they were almost blinding Vega, the bird finally spoke in dissatisfaction, letting out a series of chirps.
"Viktor, what are you doing?"
"Why aren't you fighting back yet?"
Vega couldn't understand.
It had fought alongside Viktor through countless battles of every size and was already used to Viktor's fighting style.
Normally, whenever they ran into a Calamity like this, Viktor would have already rushed over and started slapping it around.
When had he ever let the Calamity of Earth chase him all over the place, timidly refusing to strike back like now?
This cautious, almost cowardly fighting style left even Vega, who was only watching, feeling stifled.
At that moment, Viktor cast another simple teleportation spell and instantly moved onto a floating rock in midair.
BOOM!
With a tremendous crash, the terrifying stone warhammer slammed into the earth.
Huge cracks instantly spread across the ground, and the earth-brown stone hammer buried itself deep into the land.
When Uranos finally lifted its hammer-like arm, a bottomless crater emerged from the dust.
At the bottom of the deep pit, the howling winds were so fierce that even shattered stones were swept into the air.
The force of the shockwave even shattered the floating rock beneath Viktor.
With nothing left to stand on, Viktor simply floated in midair.
Looking down at the horrifying destruction Uranos had created, he sighed inwardly.
'Such terrifying power.'
A level 70 Calamity really wasn't something a little level 50 mage like him could fight head-on.
Of course, Viktor already had a way to defeat it.
Otherwise, he would never have provoked it.
Hearing Vega's dissatisfied complaints, he slowly explained, "Don't rush. Our moment hasn't come yet."
Viktor knew that no matter how many buffs he stacked, he couldn't directly withstand even one of Uranos's powerful attacks.
So he simply focused every buff spell on offense.
Attack, magic power, penetration... he increased all of them.
Even so, if he couldn't hurt it, he still couldn't hurt it.
Even a super-tier spell could only knock off ten percent of its health, let alone now that Uranos had entered its second phase.
Its entire body was now covered once more by a shell as hard as rock.
Its towering body shimmered with earth-brown light, the manifestation of the natural energy supporting its movements.
At this point, ordinary magic couldn't even penetrate its outer defenses.
Much less deal any real damage.
Fighting it directly would accomplish nothing besides wasting time.
Fortunately, although Uranos possessed tremendous defense and an enormous health pool, it moved extremely slowly.
Its attacks covered a huge area, but for Viktor, there was almost no pressure.
And...
Viktor's figure flashed nimbly aside, neatly avoiding the sharp stone spikes erupting from the cracks in the earth.
At the same time, he glanced at Vega and smiled calmly.
"If we start fighting now, the first one to fall will probably be you."
Vega opened its beak in confusion.
"Huh?"
'What does that mean?'
A huge sense of foreboding suddenly rose from its tiny body.
At that moment, Viktor looked up at the sky, which was gradually brightening with daylight, and slowly said,
"The time is about right."
As his words fell, Viktor slowly descended from the air and landed steadily on the ground, which had become almost entirely covered in craters.
Meanwhile, the coat behind him burst into multicolored flames, becoming even more violent.
Chaotic magic suddenly surged, spreading outward in every direction.
Wave after wave of vast, heavy magic power poured across the dry, lifeless earth like an ocean.
Feeling the overwhelming magic spreading across the ground, Uranos instantly locked onto Viktor's location.
Its six orange eyes flashed intermittently.
Its terrifying gaze, seemingly capable of tearing space apart, fixed firmly upon Viktor's figure wrapped in strange-colored flames.
Then a gigantic stone fist tore through the air, charging toward Viktor with deafening thunder.
Faced with the enraged Calamity, Viktor remained perfectly still, showing no intention of dodging.
The coat behind him continued pouring out layer after layer of flames, intertwining like ocean waves as they spiraled toward the sky.
The terrifying stone fist not only tore apart the surrounding space and raised towering shockwaves, it even ignited into blazing crimson flames through intense friction with the air.
The dry, scorching atmosphere became a wave of heat that engulfed the world, trying to swallow Viktor whole.
At that very moment...
The first ray of sunrise broke through the sky, slowly rising from the east.
Bright sunlight fell upon Viktor's coat, making its blazing flames seem to gain new life.
In an instant, the blazing stripes transformed into flowing magma, rapidly spreading across the entire coat.
BOOM!!!
An astonishingly massive arm of molten lava suddenly burst out from behind Viktor, colliding head-on with Uranos's terrifying incoming fist.
The crimson arm flowed with lava scorched by flames, while its obsidian-covered fist radiated overwhelming heat.
Bathed in the scattered morning light, Uranos blinked its eyes a few times in confusion.
For that brief moment, it had suddenly sensed an aura...
One with the same origin as its own.
Then a pair of enormous eyes burning like molten lava slowly lowered from behind Viktor, staring at Uranos's incoming stone arm.
The next instant, the intense heat and searing flames seemed to ignite the air itself. The terrifying heat wave burned the surrounding rocks into ash.
Crackling flames flickered through the air while endless black fire swirled overhead.
[Molten Stance]
In that instant, Guldon's crimson body was immediately engulfed by endless fury.
Layer upon layer of molten lava flowed down, completely covering it.
Filled with unmatched ferocity, it let out a shocking roar, the terrifying soundwaves nearly tearing apart the clouds.
Facing the giant beast before it, one just as terrifying as itself...
For the first time, Uranos felt the arrival of a threat.
Between the two colossal monsters, Viktor stood bathed in the newborn sunlight, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"The sun is up."
Tiny as an ant, yet like the final Viktor, he declared the final verdict upon the beast before him.
"Now..."
"It's our turn to fight."