Fivefold Cataclysm

Gaza scanned the square, bafflement twisting his features.

"What?" A crooked smile stretched across his face. "Do they actually think..." His eyes swept over the villagers, contempt dripping from every glance. "...that they could defeat me? Pathetic worms."

The realization that he was being defied by the entire village ignited something inside him like gasoline. Anger flared, then twisted into something far worse.

Gaza slammed his magical item into the ground and threw his head back, howling. His voice tore across the square.

"I'll wipe this place from the map!" he bellowed. "It was never fit to be called a village anyway!"

The incantation rumbled, low, guttural, and terrible.

"All elements, come forth at once!"

The ground beneath his boots convulsed. Stone cracked and splintered as a boulder the size of a cottage tore free from the earth, chunks of rock and dust tumbling from its underside.

Fire twisted around it, roaring, scorching the air. Gale-force winds screamed to life, ripping banners free and sweeping dust through the square, snuffing torches as the flames danced wildly, spiraling into a chaotic cyclone.

Water surged from hidden springs, twisting skyward like serpents. Lightning crawled across the stone like veins.

"Fivefold Cataclysm!" Gaza spat.

The elements braided together, fire, wind, water, earth, and lightning, compressing into a massive sphere that loomed over the square. The village huddled beneath its shadow. 

Its devastating presence hung over the village.

A soldier nearest to the captain screamed, his voice raw with sudden, honest terror.

"Captain! You'll kill us too!"

The boulder shuddered as power gathered. The Cataclysm throbbed with raw malice, and the villagers' cheers choked into silence. For a moment, the square held only the roar of the vortex.

Loid faced the monstrosity, his hair whipping in the violent winds.

He felt the pressure, the static crawling across his skin, the metallic tang of iron and ozone. Yet he didn't flinch. He thought back to Charlotte by the lake, how she had shown him to sense the origin of his mana in the hollow of his belly, trace its delicate lines through muscle and bone, and call the flow into his palms. 

Clumsy then, but real.

Charlotte's patient voice whispered through his memory.

"Feel it. See the lines. Visualize the path."

He breathed in.

He let the villagers' hope and fear gather within him and centered that energy into the dark well inside his abdomen. Not Elisia's vague promise of power, but the basic, stubborn work Charlotte had drilled into him.

Focus on the pool... pull along the lines... make the mana obey the mind...

The Cataclysm fell.

An avalanche of flame and gale. A tidal wall of water. The bite of lightning. The crushing force of the earth.

The square shuddered. Torches died. Wind tore at roofs and banners. The villagers pressed themselves flat against the huts, eyes closed, teeth gritted, silent prayers whispered in unison.

Loid stepped forward, his fist slowly clenching.

His left hand shot out.

This time, Devour was no reflex but deliberate. He felt the searing heat of fire, tracing it into his palm. The slicing howl of wind cut across him. He captured it, following the invisible lines just as Charlotte had shown him.

The heavy punch of the earth slammed into his arm. Faint black lines coursed along his skin as he bent it, redirected it, and absorbed the force. The cold bite of water whipped around him. He corralled it, tamed it, folding it into the growing core.

Lightning arced across his arm, and he drew it into himself.

Somewhere at the edges of his mind, he saw it, felt it, if only for a brief moment — a dark-violet, shadowy face glimmering with its fangs wide open.

Pain lanced through his limbs.

ZSSHP!

A single, blinding column of released energy split the Cataclysm like a seam. The elemental sphere fractured. Braids of fire, wind, stone, and lightning unraveled into harmless motes. The boulder shattered, crumbling into fine dust that spiraled skyward, scattering far beyond the village.

When the force subsided, silence fell deeper than ever. The villagers stared into the sky as the ashes drifted like late snow.

Loid?

His eyes were hidden beneath his hair, but the air around him shifted. Different. Unfamiliar.

When the dust finally settled, an unnatural calm settled over the square. The soldiers who had charged lay scattered, their faces pale with shock. Only one figure remained standing, and he was no longer whole.

Gaza's posture had turned into something animal-like and broken. He staggered, his mouth moving soundlessly, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Wh... what?" His breaths hitched. "But how...? My Fivefold was neutralized too?"

By instinct, he desperately tried to put distance between himself and the cratered scar the Cataclysm had carved, but his legs betrayed him.

His heart drummed, then faltered. The toll of wielding so many elements had finally caught up with him. His weapon slipped from his numb fingers.

His limbs seized.

Spasms tore through him. He dropped to his knees, then face-first into the dirt, jerking in unbearable pain. His left eyeball ruptured, blood splattering across the cracked earth.

"GRAAHHH!!!"

He screamed until his voice went hoarse, veins bulging across his head.

Loid stepped forward through the ringing silence. The playful smirk was gone, replaced by something hollow, his eyes still hidden beneath loose strands of hair.

Go. Devour. Go. Devour... kill... kill... Devour... The dark voice echoed in his mind.

He walked toward him slowly. When he reached Gaza, he stopped right in front of him and looked down.