🌐 Language / 言語
🇺🇸 [English Edition]
🇯🇵 [日本語版]
There was no mistaking that roar. Even from a distance, it was clear the Calamity ――Elzenag had awakened. Flames swirled around its obsidian frame, a vortex of heat and shadow.
“So, that’s our target,”
Uzeltes muttered, sliding her visor into place. Its sheer scale was one thing, but the pressure radiating from the beast was on an entirely different level. It was no wonder the High Arbiter had called for foreign aid.
“As I feared… there is no trace of the Empress‘s consciousness left,”
Amnez said, her voice thick with bitter regret.
“It’s wide awake and looking for a fight, isn’t it? Can we just go home now?”
Faznir followed reluctantly. It was her own carelessness that had triggered the altar in the Subterranean Sanctum, yet Amnez had taken the entire burden of the seal’s breaking upon herself. Faznir couldn’t leave her friend to face this alone—though she was already starting to regret it.
The beast arched its back, drawing a massive breath. “At this distance? You’ve got to be kidding,” Uzeltes scowled.
They were still fifty meters apart. Yet, the divine energy sucked into the creature’s gullet was instantly converted into raw magic and vomited forth as a searing heat-ray. A pillar of light tore through the air.
“Exhilarating!”
Uzeltes leaped, carving a high arc through the sky to dodge the beam, closing the distance in a single burst. Up close, the beast was a nightmare of jagged scales and wicked thorns, with veins of red light pulsing across its hide. Its tail lunged like a spear; Uzeltes spun mid-air to evade it, only to find a massive claw swinging down toward her.
“Let’s see who’s stronger!”
With a surge of telekinetic will, she swung her Maul. The engine-driven steel slammed into the beast’s wrist with a dull, metallic boom. Forced back by a creature less than a tenth its size, the Calamity widened its eyes in genuine shock.
“Hey! No fair charging in like that!”
Faznir screamed from the rear, desperately weaving combat buffs into the fray. She knew plenty of reckless warriors, but Uzeltes was in a league of her own when it came to flirting with death.
Amnez joined the fray in silence. With Faznir’s support, her strikes began to find purchase. Heavy blows from the maul clashed with the whirring blades of the saws. The beast fought back with a relentless storm of tail-swipes, claws, and gnashing teeth. Despite its bulk, it moved with terrifying speed. Its stamina seemed bottomless.
After a grueling deadlock, the beast’s massive arm finally caught Uzeltes. She braced her weapon just in time, but the impact was too great. A jolt of agony shot through her arm as she was sent hurtling backward.
“Uzel—!”
Amnez rushed to her side, but the whistling snap of the beast’s tail intercepted her. Faznir reacted instantly, using her telekinesis to shove Amnez out of the way, but the tip of the tail still managed to clip Amnez’s leg.
“Ghh…!”
Her greave shattered. Her leg turned a dark, bruised purple—the bone was snapped. As Amnez struggled to move, the beast unhinged its jaw. Fire gathered on its tongue, coiling into a sphere of concentrated destruction.
Just as the fireball was about to be unleashed, the side of the beast’s head erupted in a violent explosion.
NEXT
