“Lucky! Lucky!” Ondine exclaimed loudly while shaking the unconscious form of Lakshman. “Wake up!”
He was lying down on her lap as she continuously shook him to try waking him up, but to no avail. He wore a pained expression on his face and made small pained sounds from his mouth. At the same time, his entire body was covered by horizontal blocks of lines that seemed to glow randomly with different colour.
“I can’t believe this…” said a soft voice of the Calamity Titan as he and Serabella slowly walked towards them.
As they reached them, Ondine glanced up to see who it was and seeing who it was, she instantly fixed him a fierce glare. This angered Serabella, but she waited to see what her master would do.
The Calamity Titan looked down at Lakshman and said, “The Destiny Lock technique… I can’t believe your simple action of kissing him stopped him and caused this to happen…”
Ondine narrowed her eyes before she said, “Someone like you can never understand the Faith of Love! You can never understand the bond that is shared between me and my husband!”
“What did you say?!” Serabella exclaimed sharply, but the Calamity Titan raised a hand to stop her.
He looked down at Ondine and said, “Mmm… While what you say might or might not be true, I don’t quite understand how you have the guts to speak in such a way to me!”
Ondine snorted and said, “It doesn’t take guts; all it takes is the courage to speak out against oppression.”
“Why you…?!” Serabella exclaimed while looking at Ondine furiously, but she was stopped again by her master.
The Calamity Titan smirked before smiling at her as he said, “Impressive. While I do not appreciate what you’re saying to me, I will complement your strong will and courage to speak out against me. If I don’t do at least this much, I wouldn’t be much of a ruler!”
At those words, Ondine sniffed and did not say anything while giving him a look full of anger. Serabella was taken aback at his decision and fixed Ondine with the same look of anger. She was frustrated that her master could so easily decide to spare Ondine’s life instead of punishing her for her behaviour against him.
The Calamity Titan turned his attention to Lakshman, who was wearing a pained look on his face. He was moving his body slightly and made small pained sounds from his mouth due to the Destiny Lock technique effecting him.
While watching him, the Calamity Titan thought, “Why…? Why do I feel like something’s wrong here? Something’s off… Something that I’m missing… but… what is it?”
He felt something was wrong with the current situation they were in, not knowing about the effects of Destiny Eraser. The Ondine from before used that technique to alter the memories of what had occurred previously with her technique. While Serabella and the current Ondine are not aware of it, the Calamity Titan sensed that something had happened from how strange he found the situation.
At that moment, he was distracted from his thoughts by Serabella’s words.
“Master, are you seriously going to spare that woman’s life?” she asked him sharply. “Is that such a wise decision?”
“Naturally,” he responded simply while turning to look at her. “If I destroy her for the kind of words she spoke to me with, I’d be giving her the satisfaction of winning against me! So, even if she did die, it’d be my loss and that’s unacceptable! By sparing her life, I am showing that I am far better than what she’s making me out to be!”
Serabella gritted her teeth in frustration as she realised that her plan to have that woman killed failed. Even so, she did not give up and decided to take her shot at the woman’s unconscious husband. This way, she would also be repaying him for almost killing her some days ago.
“Yes, but are you going to spare that man from what he’s done to us, from what he’s done to you?!” she demanded in a desperate voice.
The Calamity Titan and Ondine blinked at her in surprise. Ondine looked at the two of them with a worried look on her face as she began to fear for the life of her husband.
“Mmm…” he said slowly with a look of surprise on his face before nodding in understanding. “You’re right. This guy deserves to be destroyed!”
With that, he extended his right hand towards the unconscious form of Lakshman before gathering dark energy into the palm of his hand. As a small ball shape formed in the open palm of his hand, Ondine dived onto the unconscious form of her husband desperately to protect him from harm.
“No!” she cried out in fear. “Please! Not him!”
“Why not?!” the Calamity Titan bellowed in a loud powerful voice. “Not only did he give into his feelings, he lost control and went on a rampage! In doing so, he reduced the Demon Continent to this small island! I’ve spared him long enough! This time, he dies!”
“No!!!” Ondine screamed desperately as she protected her unconscious husband with her body while silently begging for someone to come and rescue them.
Serabella watched Ondine squirming and screaming with fear while desperately covering her inactive husband. She was mightily happy that the woman that insulted her beloved master and spoke rudely to him was about to destroy by his own hands. It slightly disappointed her that she could not be the one to kill her, but she took pride in watching her master destroy Ondine and her husband.
The Calamity Titan, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes as he held the energy ball steadily in his hand as he was ready to launch it and destroy those two for good. He watched Ondine struggling against her fate as she desperately tried to shield Lakshman with her body.
“Master,” said Serabella to him in an energetic voice as she could not supress her eagerness anymore. “Hurry. Do it! Destroy them once and for all!”
“Mmm…” the Calamity Titan said, but did nothing except stare at Ondine and Lakshman.
Silence was assumed all around them as the Calamity Titan watched the struggling Ondine and the unconscious Lakshman, locked in his own mind by the Destiny Lock. Serabella stood next to her master with a face full of eagerness at the destruction of the two people that caused her great annoyance.
All of a sudden, the Calamity Titan lowered his hand and let the energy escape into the world.
“I don’t destroy them,” he said and surprised both Serabella and Ondine.
“What?!” Serabella exclaimed in a shocked voice while Ondine looked up at him in disbelief. “Why not?!”
The Calamity Titan wore a great look of hatred as his eyes fell on the unconscious form of Lakshman.
“That guy might’ve destroyed an entire continent in his rampage, but above all… He crushed my pride and blasted it away!” the Calamity Titan said and he clenched his fists tightly.
The two girls listened intently with varying expressions and feelings for each of them. Serabella watched her beloved master with a look of sadness filling her face as tears filled her eyes. Ondine, however, watched him speaking with a look of serious anger on her face. They both continued to listen as he went on speaking.
“I prided myself as the strongest warrior in the world and the one to finally defeat the great Phoenix Titan ten-years-ago! Now, this bastard crushed my pride and hurt my ego and for that, I want repayment! Killing him when he is defenceless won’t satisfy me one bit! I want to watch him suffer bit by bit as I satisfy my ego!”
“You… scumbag…!” Ondine said in a voice full of disgust.
He turned on her and shouted, “Shut your mouth! I’m a warrior with power and strength, with pride coursing through my veins and ego radiating all around me! Don’t take me lightly!”
Ondine did not budge and continued staring angrily at him when their attention was drawn to Serabella, who was sniffing. Tears had streamed down her at the powerful words that her beloved master spoke.
“I… never knew you felt so strong… about… about it…” she said while sniffing every now and then. “I’m… so happy to serve y-y-you… master!”
“Sera… Calm yourself and wipe those tears away. It does not suit a warrior like you, a Demon King to cry like that,” said the Calamity Titan, but he was looking pleased by her reaction.
Wiping her tears away, Serabella asked him, “So… What is your plan, master? How do you plan on making him pay for what he’s done?”
The Calamity Titan nodded and said, “My plan is to challenge him, beat him and prove, once and for all, that I am the strongest!”
“What?!” Ondine exclaimed in a sharp voice and they turned to look at her. “You…! What did you say?!”
“You heard me, woman!” the Calamity Titan said with a smug smile as he pointed a finger at Lakshman.
“I officially challenge the Phoenix Titan to war; the Phoenix Calamity War! Note that in two years’ time, on this exact day, I will return with my army to finally crush all those that opposed me! Upon returning, I will expect to see the Phoenix Titan and his supporters, including the mighty Nine Pillars of Power!
Just know that if I am not defeated on my return, this world will belong to me. This is a war to decide the fate of this world and I hope for an interesting fight because my disappointment will not be forgiven!”
In that instant, he began surging with wild dark power while being surrounded by deep-violet aura. His energy got released like a storm and it caused the wind to be blown strongly all around them. It blew like a storm, causing the island to shake as if it was being hit by an earthquake and the ocean to flow rapidly all around, creating tsunami waves.
“Amazing…” Serabella muttered quietly as she watched him in awe. “Deadly power…!”
Ondine’s eyes widened in horror at ruthlessness carried in the words spoken by the Calamity Titan and the scaring appearance it gave him with the release of his power. He was wearing a deadly look on his face with red glowing eyes as he stared at her, causing fear to spring up from within and surround her like ice.
She was completely filled with fear at the scary appearance he had assumed to build fear into her. Seeing such fear gripping her tightly, the Calamity Titan smiled in satisfaction and dropped his power. It slowly flowed away and SLOWLY returned the natural forces in the area back to normal.
He clicked his fingers twice and pointed his forefinger before he said, “In two years… twenty-fifth of Yaagan, I will return with my army; the Calamity Army! Upon my arrival, I expect to see his army; the Phoenix Army!”
“This challenge will make history! I know it!” Serabella said to him with great energy.
“Yes. I expect it will,” said the Calamity Titan with firm confidence radiating in his voice and body.
Watching them silently with fear filled in her eyes was Lakshman’s wife, Ondine Reddy. She watched the two of them exchange words of confidence right before her without giving her a single glance. It was as if they did not view her existence as something worth noticing at all. This further caused the fear in her to take a leap and cause her head to shake violently.
Even so, the courage in her did not die and she found some strength to open her mouth and speak as firmly as she could, but what came out was like a croak.
“Y-Y-Y-Y-You… You will n-n-never d-d-d-defeat my h-husba-band… Y-Y-Y-You… You’ll n-never… win!”
With each word she uttered, her body shook from the fear clinging to her like ice. Only the last word, she managed to forcefully say it in a stronger voice than before.
The Calamity Titan and Serabella turned to look at her with their eyebrows raised. They were simply surprised that she still managed to say what she did, despite the fear coursing through her like poison.
Serabella made to attack her, but the Calamity Titan stopped her with a hand. He, instead, walked forward and knelt down to face her on an even level. She stared back at him while her body shook every now and then with fear.
He extended his right hand towards her and not so gently, gripped her chin tightly. With a firm grip on her chin, he pulled her face closer to his and caused her to almost collapse where she knelt beside an unconscious Lakshman.
“Good luck!” he said simply while looking straight into her eyes with a deadly look in his eyes.
Her eyes widened until her eyes were round and she was completely taken over by fear. All she could do was just stare at him as he forcefully released her and sent her sprawling back to where she was kneeling beside the unconscious Lakshman.
Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound from above as a large animal flew towards the ground at high speed. It turned out to be the Eternal Phoenix as it rushed for the protection of its master and mistress.
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“Get away from master and mistress!” Phylex telepathically yelled as it flew quickly at the Calamity Titan.
The Calamity Titan quickly rose to his feet and without even turning his head, he raised his right fist and smashed it to the side of the Eternal Phoenix’s face. Making painful bird-like noise, Phylex flew away and crashed landed several meters away from them. It lay there and moved slightly while coughing blood out of his mouth.
“Get away from me, bird brain,” the Calamity Titan said with a murderous look on his face. Then, he turned to Serabella and said, “I’m done with these trash. We’re leaving, Sera.”
“Yes, master,” replied Serabella with a look of satisfaction at seeing Ondine’s fear filled face.
Turning around, the Calamity Titan held both of his arms out and said, “World Transfer: Demagrad.”
There was a moment of pause before a swirling looking black hole appeared in the mid-air. It made a circular black hole in the centre of the swirl and great to a large size to allow a human sized person to enter it.
With one last glance at them, the Calamity Titan and Serabella walked into the portal and disappeared. After they disappeared, the portal slowly closed on itself and disappeared into particles of light that vanished into thin air.
The only ones left on that small island, which originally was part of the now destroyed Demon Continent, were Lakshman, Ondine and Phylex. Lakshman was unconscious, Phylex was slowly picking itself up from the ground and Ondine sat there while shaking with her eyes completely filled with fear.
***
As the memory reached its end, Lakshman’s consciousness surfaced from within Ondine’s mind. After returning to his own body, Lakshman looked at the still shaking body of Ondine as fear continued to grip her firmly.
Lakshman made an expression of great anger as he remembered the man handling the Calamity Titan did to his wife. He clenched his fists tightly while continuing to kneel before Ondine while his wives remaining standing around his back.
“That… bastard…” he muttered quietly while clenching his fists tightly.
While doing so, his energy began to surge slowly to the surface and caused the wind in the room to pick up. It blew faster and faster as his energy flowed around them like a wall and the pressure in the room began to increase, causing his wives to become uncomfortable.
Realising that he was extremely angry, Sumara and Emilia quickly knelt down to place their hands on his shoulders.
“What happened, Lucky?” Emilia asked him curiously while Sumara and the rest looked at him with apprehensive looks on their faces.
Lakshman made a fierce side long glance at Emilia, causing her to blink once at him in surprise.
“Do you have any idea what that bastard did?!” Lakshman said slowly in a firm voice and he began telling them what had taken place during his unconscious state.
***
After informing his wives all about what had happened, he saw their faces filled with shock. They were very shocked at the challenge the Calamity Titan had issued to the Phoenix Titan. Venezuela was looking very flustered and her hands shook fearfully at the thought of the Phoenix Calamity War that will take in two years’ time.
“How can such a man treat life with such a lack of mercy or remorse?” Erza asked with a look of sadness on her face.
“He’s a heartless monster!” Sumara said and the other girls agreed by nodding their heads at her.
“He is a monster!” Silvera said firmly with a firm look on her face. “Forcefully making contract with me and then using my powers for destruction instead for the world! There is no better way to describe such a man! He’s a demon!”
Tetra looked at her with a sympathetic look on her face as she said, “I can understand your stress, but you shouldn’t be so harsh on him. After all, he’s just doing what he wants like you when you almost self-destructed when you lost all hope in the world.”
Silvera rounded on him before shouting, “Are you saying that he and I are on the same?!”
Tetra quickly looked shocked and she protected by saying, “No! I’m not saying that at all!”
“Then, why are you supporting him?!” Silvera demanded with a look of anger in her eyes.
“Yeah,” said Venezuela with a narrowed look on her face as she stared curiously at Tetra. “Why are you supporting that man, Tetra? By any chance, do you supporting his actions?”
“No!” Tetra replied in a firm voice with a desperate look on her face. “I’m not supporting anything he did, but—!”
“But what?!” Silvera demanded angrily.
Tetra was surrounded by Silvera, Venezuela and Erza. Cantia nervously hung back and watched the proceedings with her hands raised to her mouth in fright.
“Nyaa…?” Cantia purred nerviously as she looked around as the girls surrounding Tetra.
At that moment, Lakshman firmly said, “That’s enough ladies! Let it go!”
“Let it go?!” demanded Silvera in a shocked voice as they turned to look at him. “Lucky, how can you say that after being the witness to hear her words of support for that bastard!”
“She’s simply trying to stop us from hurting our family member! There is no fault in what she said!” Lakshman said and surprised the girls.
“F-Family member…?” Venezuela asked hesitantly as if she could not understand his words. “What do you mean, Lucky? What family member is she protecting?”
Tetra suddenly looked panicked, but Silvera quickly silenced her with a glare. Erza and Cantia looked puzzled as they stared at their kneeling husband. Emilia and Sumara looked at each other before glancing towards him curiously. Ondine appeared to not pay attention to anything happening in her presence as he body continued to shake with fear.
“Calamity Titan,” began Lakshman while he looked at Ondine’s shaking body. “He’s our family member. He’s my brother.”
There was a collective gasp of shock within the room as the girls received words that they did not expect. They were totally shocked by what he said and all they could do was stare at him with their mouths open slightly. A few seconds later, it was Erza who finally broke the spell of silence sealing their mouths from opening.
“W-W-W-What do you… mean?” she asked him slowly in a nervous voice filled with shock and doubt.
Lakshman closed his eyes and shook his head several times before he said, “I will explain… Just now right now… Sorry…”
The girls looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces. They were shocked and confused by his statement that the Calamity Titan was his brother. The little they knew about Lakshman’s family was that his own living relatives are his twin sisters, Indira and Priya along with their house maid, Mariana. So, it did not make any sense of how the Calamity Titan could be his brother and how that can be possible.
In the meantime, he continued to close his eyes and remembered the words of the God Slayer woman telling him something about the Calamity Titan.
“While he is behaving like this, please know that he is not doing this by his own free will. You will know the reason behind his actions in time, but until then, I urge you to be please not hate him or his actions.”
He opened his eyes and looked at the shaking form of Ondine sitting before him. Her head bowed and her body shook with fear pulsing through her like poison.
“God Slayer… For what he did to my wife, I really want to kill him, but… You saved my life and I gave you my word to heed your advice. So, all I can do is be patient for the day that I finally know the hidden secrets behind the actions of my corrupted brother.”
While thinking that, he suddenly had a memory vision of his life in the ancient times. He and his brother were always having fun together, doing almost everything together and sharing each other’s pain and happiness. So, it puzzled Lakshman greatly how such a brother could become rotten after leaving the kingdom.
“I don’t understand any of this, but if I keep thinking about this matter, I will really feel like committing a sin of killing my own brother once again…!”
With that, he took a deep breathed and heaved a sigh of resignation. He extended his hand towards Ondine’s face and gently lifted her head to see into her eyes. In the clear blue eyes, he could see the fear gripping her tightly and it saddened him greatly.
She had changed from a reckless to a wonderful woman after completely fusing with the Ondine spirit, so it pained his heart to see his wife surrounded by fear.
While holding her face with his right hand, he placed his left hand on her right shoulder before gripping it firmly. In an instant, there was a blinding flash of light that startled the girls standing around his back. Even, Sumara and Emilia were caught by the flash of light and they felt their eyes watering from the instantons pain their eyes felt. All of them raised their hands up to their faces and covered their eyes for dear life.
As quickly as it happened, the flash disappeared and left them feeling a little strange. Their eyes were stinging a little from the blinding flash of light nearly blinding their eyes, but it slowly faded and brought their vision back to normal.
While they were recovering, Lakshman put his right hand firmly on Ondine’s left shoulder while looking directly at her.
“Ondine. How are you feeling?” he asked her curiously with eagerness in his voice.
Ondine suddenly shivered as if she felt a sudden chill run through her body. Then, once it was over, she lifted her head and blinked rapidly in surprise as she could not believe what just happened. The fear running through her body like poison was suddenly gone. She felt very free and strangely refreshed, far more than she had ever felt in her entire life.
She looked at Lakshman curiously and asked, “Lucky… What… happened…?”
He smiled at her and said, “There is nothing to fear, Ondine. You think I will ever let anything happen to my wives?”
Seeing his smiling face suddenly gave him great strength and she leaned forward to hug him tightly. He was a little taken aback at how firmly she was hugging him, but he also responded by hugging her back. Like that, the two of them stayed hugging for several seconds with the other girls watching them with smiles on their faces.
The girls looked at each other and together cried out, “We want a hug as well!”
Lakshman and Ondine looked up at them in surprise as they all dropped down to hug, forming a wall of bodies all around Lakshman. They hugging him in such a way made it difficult for him to breathe while hugging Ondine, but it also made him happy as he remembered of how happily the ten of them were before the untimely death of his wives at the hands of his corrupted brother.
“I will never let that disaster repeat ever again!”
Those were the words he thought in his mind with firm honesty and belief as he made an oath. He enjoyed the hugs that his wives gave him, making him feel glad that he was alive.
Still, a question hung in the back of his mind about who the God of Power was and why he went to great lengths of embedding his own sword into his spirit. It reminded him of the God Slayer woman telling him to seek out the God of Justice if he wanted answers to many more questions that would spring up later on.
“Oh well. I’ll eventually find answers to those questions, surely. For now, I’ll remain here in the comfort of my wives,” he thought blissfully while hugging his wives happily.
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Author's Note
Hello my dear readers and thank you once again for reading another chapter in the Phoenix Rising story. After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the end of another arc! I think most people, including myself, were very surprised at how long this arc was. I doubt it had anything to do with my planning, but the amount of content and details going into this story. I also thank everyone that liked, supported and encouraged me to keep writing this one amazing story! I really do appreciate all of what you did for me to keep this story going till now and I hope you will still be there as I continue writing more!
Anyway, I hope you awesome readers have enjoyed the story thus far and will continue to read on when the next arc comes out! Until then, please stay safe, healthy and always enjoy your life!