Creature of Calamity

There was once an old forgotten monster, forgotten by time. It writhed, whirled, and slithered in the dark chaos, its kind banished to the void as the old gods took over. For many millennia it roamed in the nothingness, but at last, and long last, it was summoned up by the daemon forces of dark. And then it was banished again, not by the gods, but by the heroes of the land. It had only a few months to consume all it could. But then, reality broke once more. One of the monsters managed to crawl back into reality.

Asta stared in horror as the nightmarish creature sprang from the hole of reality. Dayan laughed manically as he looked up at the monster. The Serian soldiers surrounding the group lowered their weapons in horror looked out.

"We need to get out of here." One of the soldiers said.

"Sounds good to me." Hanna began to pull a few soldiers away.

"Retreat!" Eliza yelled. "We need to retreat, now! Iwen, come on!" Asta nodded, and turned tail against the gargantuan titan of unreality.

"Spring forth, Calamity!" Dayan declared. The man nodded, and began to leave. "Empyreans! We withdraw for today!" Dayan mounted his horse and raised the Blade of Hresvelgr up into the air. "Empyrea has defeated the Serian army yet again! Withdraw from combat for now!"

Niria and Mayran looked up at the beast in horror as a massive shockwave blasted apart everyone unfortunate enough to get caught in it's beams, Empyrean and Serian alike. Entire columns of men, Empyrean or Serian, fell to the ground as the monster let out a psionic scream. Massive tendrils appeared from underground and devoured men where they stood. From the well plated soldiers of Valor Company to the worn out remaining Eldingenau Serians to the few Empyreans who were unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast, they all died.

"General... What are you doing?" Mayran muttered as he saw the titan rise up from the gaping wound in reality. "How is anyone supposed to destroy that thing?

"Someone stop him!" Niria shouted. "The General has committed a breach of Empyrean law! Someone, please!" The wall the two stood on suddenly, got hit by a massive shockwave from the monster as it fired a beam of unrefined void energy into the wall, disintegrating it. Niria fell.

"Niria!" The girl landed on a tree below before onto the lower wall section. As artillery fire from the siege guns and ballista fire drew the monster away, Mayran ran down to Niria, panting. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She tried to get up, but fell over. "Alright, I might have sprained my ankle. You really have to work on your endurance, by the way." Mayran put her arm around his shoulder and tried to get up, just as the titan turned it's attention back to the duo.

"Oh shit!" Mayran and Niria fell over as the monster stomped (or something, Mayran didn't really see any legs). It lashed out it's tendrils at the duo. Just before the impact struck, Jason landed before them wielding a pike. He skewered the tendril away, which temporarily flinched as it did.

"You're welcome!" Jason said as he ran over and picked Niria up into his arms. "Now where's my thanks?" Jason and Mayran leaped off of the walls and onto a small fruit stall below as the beast demolished the wall section they were on.

"Hey, let go!" Niria said, blushing. She wriggled out of Jason's arms, and landed on her feet before crumpling downwards. "Urg, my leg..."

"See, I told you so." Jason picked Niria back up. "Just relax. And don't go about trying to stab me or something, or I will drop you." He turned his eyes to Mayran. "That goes for you too pal, I'll do to you what I did to Thero."

"We get it." Mayran rolled his eyes. "I'm not stupid, you know."

"Good. Let's go then." Jason took off. "Try to keep up with me, alright?

"Hey, wait!" Mayran watched as Jason ran, carrying Niria and in armor. "How do you even run carrying all that..." Mayran took off as well, trying his best to follow Jason as they dodged tendrils and void beams from the monster.

~~*~~

"Iwen! Come on, we have to go!" Hanna yanked on Asta's arms as she looked up at the giant creature.

"What...what..." Asta was frozen. What is that? He wanted to yell out.

"It's a greater daemon." Eliza pursed her lips. "It's like the ones we read about in legend." She looked over to Asta. "I...I don't know how to bring them down." Eliza looked at Asta, panic her eyes.

"We should get out of here." Hanna said. "There's not much we can do against that, and I'm not interested in sticking around to see what happens next."

"Wait!" A female voice said from behind them. Jason ran up the stairs to the wall, holding Niria in his arms. Mayran also stepped forward onto the platform, just behind Jason as a volley of arquebus fire went off from a distance, clearly panicked soldiers trying to bring down the beast.

"Figured they'd be useful." Jason said. "Might want to work with them for the time being. This is Niria, and that's Mayran. Mages."

"Hmph." Eliza said. "And how are we supposed to trust them? Having mages would be nice, but I don't see why an Empyrean mage would need us."

"Well, they'd be dead, if not for me. And that's after you treated me like garbage back when you had me shackled." Jason gave Niria a sly face. "So you better make up for it, alright?" Niria rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I suppose I can help you out, but don't expect me to be giving your life for all of you. We're only in this together as far as that thing is concerned."

"Cool, then that's settled. I'm Iwen." Asta greeted.

"Hanna." 

"And I'm Eliza." Eliza quickly turned her head back to the monster. "You're a mage, right? Imperial mages back in Seria are considered some of the best read people on Eseltrea. Assuming the Empyrean works the same, you must have some knowledge of whatever that thing is, right?"

"I'm a mathematician more than a daemon expert." Mayran said. "I'm sure Niria could give you a more through explanation."

"An ultimate daemon." Niria said. "Anti-magical. Gunpowder weaponry can hold it, but without any enchantments to the iron, it will heal from it faster than we can wound it. Simple put, it's impossible to kill." Asta turned to her.

"What did you say?"

"At this stage, it can't be killed. Only an elder god can craft a weapon capable of bringing that thing down. And Dayan just took the only one in the region away." Niria shook her head. "Though, even if Dayan was here he couldn't bring it down."

"No, it's not the only one." Jason looked over to the banner of Valor Company. "Valor Company hasn't deployed in over a century. I promise you they probably brought along the Glaive of Eados as a relic."

"Eados? Don't be ridiculous." Niria shook her head. "That's a state treasure. A state as cowardly as yours would never deploy a national treasure, even if it was an artifact of such renown."

"Valor Company itself hasn't deployed in a century, and the last time they did it was with the glaive. You'd be surprised." Jason looked over to where the leaders of Valor Company had fallen. "Want to bet?"

"Don't be ridiculous, you'll just get yourself killed!" Niria grabbed Jason and tried to pull him down. "There is no glaive."

"He might be right." Mayran replied. "Valor Company never leaves the glaive. If they've deployed here, they might actually have it."

"This is nonsense. You want to get yourselves killed, go for it. I can support you from here, but I won't guarantee that you'll actually be able to find anything. And even if you did, you wouldn't be able to wield it properly. You aren't Elyon, usually the only people who can bring out the true power of the weapons are Celestial Sigilites." Asta quickly turned his head towards Niria.

"What did you say?"

"Elyon was an exception, but usually, you can only unlock the weapon's true potential if you are a Celestial Sigilite, a being from the outer worlds. And even that is difficult-"

"I'm a Celestial." Asta replied. "I might be able to wield it." Everyone turned their eyes on Asta.

"Very funny Serian, but I don't think this is a time for jokes." Mayran rolled his eyes. Another volley of arquebus fire hit the monster, and it reeled back before striking the arquebusiers. "We need an actual plan-" Asta held up his hand, and rolled down his sleeve, showing his sigil to everyone.

"Believe me now?" Everyone was silent for a moment that seemed to last forever. Then, the monster roared, causing everyone to cover their ears. Niria looked at the monster, then back at Asta.

"There's so many ways that could be faked." Niria said, trying to withhold her shock. "It could be a tattoo, a scar, or somehow magically grafted on." The beast roared in the background a second time as cannon fire hammered it, only for it to fire back at the guns.

"Niria." Eliza looked at the Empyrean mage. "I...I grew up with Iwen. I know him better than anyone here." Eliza paused. "If my entire childhood is true, if all the weird things I've seen him say and do is true, I have no doubt he is a sigilite Celestial. I've been with him as long as I can remember, and I know my brother. You're not the only one risking your life for this, you hear me?" Eliza looked at Niria. "I understand your doubt, but we are not at the time to complain about that."

"Fine." Niria bitterly shrugged. "I'll believe you, Iwen. But if you're lying to us, we all die. Understand?"

"Yeah, I already know." Asta looked at the monster as it devoured another portion of the castle wall. "I say this because I know I am."