Time seemed to freeze for a moment for all of them before Cantia broke it by exclaiming, “What-nyaa?!”
“The God of… Calamity…?” Sonia asked, her voice containing a bit of fear in it.
Lakshman, on the other hand, did not respond but merely narrowed his eyes to make a sharp expression because of his suspicions coming true. Two-years-ago, when he was informed of an unknown higher being interfering with the lives of the mortals dwelling in the Physical Plane by Engraut, the God of Energy. Since then, Lakshman had listed the names of all the Gods he had met and crossed out the Gods whom he had never met. Within that list, the only Gods that struck a chord with him were:
* The God of Destruction
* The Goddess of Fate
* The God of Trickery
* The God of Death
* The God of Calamity
He did consider the God of Destruction as an afterthought because, while the proud and arrogant god felt he is superior to Lakshman, he cannot ignore the fact that he owes his godly life to him. The thought of the Goddess of Fate plotting against him since he had nearly killed her husband the God of Destruction, but he eventually ruled her out because she cared more for her husband’s life than for revenge. The God of Death did resent him for surviving the battle against the gods, but Lakshman never believed he would hold a grudge against him that was strong enough to target his family.
That left only two gods of whom Lakshman suspected and there were higher chances that it was the God of Calamity. He knew the God of Trickery had been involved in many matters in this world, including starting wars, convincing the thought of world conquest and so forth that suited his entertainment purposes. The main reason he was convinced that it was the God of Calamity was because, during the time when the Gods of gifting him with several Divine Protection, he saw the God of Calamity appear. He seemed pleased more than anything that the Gods were favouring a mortal compared to how some of the others felt.
“Something about him… the way he looked at me…I didn’t like it,” he thought, remembering the scene of the God of Calamity smiling down at him upon learning that he had a younger brother and a clan to rule over.
“That’s impossible!” The Calamity Titan shouted, snapping them back to focus their attention on him. He wore an angry expression on his face as he said, “I don’t believe it, Sera! The God of Calamity, did that to us?! Rubbish!”
“It’s the truth!” Serabella said firmly, trying her best to convince him, but he shook his head resolutely in denial.
“How can you expect me to believe in the god that helped me, Sera?! Have you forgotten what happened that day, the day when that bastard destroyed us! If it weren’t for the God of Calamity’s help, I would’ve be here to seek revenge against that man!”
“Chandra—!” She began.
“Can’t you see they’re tricking you! It’s clear as daylight!” He said, cutting across her before she could say anything more.
Angered greatly by his refusal to believe in her, she shouted, “Chandra!” This time, her shout startled him and made him go quiet for a moment, which allowed her to say, “Listen to yourself! Me? Getting deceived?” She waved her hand in distaste with an irritated look on her face, and she said, “Do you think I’m an easy woman to deceive?! True, I often jump to conclusions, but I never get misled or deceived!”
He had nothing to reply to her words because he knew it was the truth. Remembering the past, he realised it was she who protected him from getting deceived on many accounts, such as people asking him for help, money, protection and so on. Back then, he was kind hearted and wanted to help everyone, but she saw through their deception and protected him on several occasions when the other party were aiming for her husband’s life.
“Don’t be so trusting of strangers!”
Those were the words she always told him repeatedly from time and time again, but he would only smile in embarrassment. It came too late for him to realise the truth in her words when the blind trust in his brother, Asura, brought about their destruction and the eventual death of his wife.
“No…!” He said, slowly shaking his head with a face that was firm with strong resolve. “I refuse to believe it to be true!”
“Chandra—,” began Lakshman in a soft voice.
“Shut up!” The Calamity Titan bellowed, glaring menacingly at him that made Lakshman instantly stop speaking. He waved a hand at him and sent a gust of strong wind in their direction, which buffeted them as he shouted, “It’s you! Isn’t it?! The reason for all of this! The death of my wife, the death of my parents, and the death of countless lives! You were the cause! You were the source! If only you didn’t exist in the first place, we would’ve lived peacefully! Yes! It’s all your fault!”
His shout echoed in the silent vicinity and made Lakshman wear a sad expression on his face. He was breathing quickly from his shout when, all of a sudden, an intense pain occurred in his head, and he instantly clapped his hands over his forehead while yelling in pain. At the same time, he heard a familiar voice speak eerily in his mind.
“Yes. It’s all his fault. If he didn’t exist, none of this would have happened!”
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
“Chandra!” All of them shouted in unison and made to move towards him.
In an instant, the Calamity Titan began to surge with intense power that caused the ground to shake violently and erupt as the immeasurable power exploded from within. Lakshman reacted quickly by casting a barrier on him, his wives, Serabella and the surroundings. As the shockwave subsided and the wind steadied, smoke filled the entire space, which Lakshman used as cover to move their location to somewhere else to land firmly on the ground.
“Chandra!” Serabella called, trying to go find her husband the moment Lakshman deactivated the barrier. “Chandra!”
None of them could sense the presence of the Calamity Titan, which confused them. Even if he was hiding his presence, they could still feel the faintest trace of it lingering around. Yet, they could not sense him at all but, to Lakshman, he felt that sensing the presence of his brother was trivial because he suddenly sensed the presence of someone that he was somehow familiar with despite not knowing who it was.
“Who is this…?” He wondered to himself, becoming worried by the amount of alarms being triggered by his Elemental Sense. “They’re… dangerous! My Elemental Sense is reacting violently! This isn’t good!”
As soon as he finished his thought, someone burst out from the smoke while moving very quickly towards them. The person was revealed to be the Calamity Titan, and he was holding his Sacred Spirit, Disaster, in his hand while flying towards Serabella. His wife watched him come at her in surprise and became frozen with shock when he raised his sword above his head and swung it down in order to cut her down.
“Ah!” Serabella cried out loud and momentarily closed her eyes.
When nothing happened, she opened one eye slightly to see what had happened. To her shock, Lakshman stood in front of her and was in the process of blocking the Calamity Titan’s sword with his own, which resulted in lightning sparks to burst out as he faced his enemy.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Lakshman demanded, glaring menacingly at his enemy.
“Oh? Removing an unnecessary obstacle from my way,” replied the Calamity Titan, but he spoke in an unfamiliar voice that did not remotely belong to him.
“W-What?!” Lakshman exclaimed, caught by surprise by the sudden unfamiliar voice in which his brother spoke with.
In the next moment, the Calamity Titan began to rapidly swing his sword at him that began to push Lakshman back. His foe, delayed in reacting quickly, was forced to defend before the Calamity Titan knocked the sword out of his hand and kicked him to fly several meters away. As Lakshman flew away, his wives moved forward urgently to stop the Calamity Titan, but he extended his hand at them and waved them aside, causing the Force Control to send them helplessly fly away.
“W-Why are you doing this?! Chandra! Answer me!” Serabella demanded, but no response came from her husband.
Instead, the face of her husband formed an evil look on his face as he said in an unfamiliar voice, “I don’t need you, idiot.”
Thunderstruck by the devastating words, Serabella began to weep tears out of her eyes as she watched her husband raised his sword above his head. The shock of the words, coming from her beloved husband, rattled her to the point that she could not react even if she wanted to. Hope was lost within her, and she easily accepted her death as the words, her husband just said, echoed in her mind.
“Die!”
With one word, the Calamity Titan swing his sword with immense force down on her, but it did not slay its target. Instead, it collided against a barrier that activated out of thin air to block its advance. Momentarily surprised, the Calamity Titan turned and look in that distance to see Lakshman, with his hand extended towards them as he had cast a barrier in a desperate measure to protect his sister-in-law.
The Calamity Titan smirked and said, “Honestly, you think this small barrier could stop me? Maga Distrab!”
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The moment he said those words, the barrier surrounding Serabella shattered into pieces with the sound of shattering glass. As he prepared to finish her off, Lakshman appeared in front of him and summoned his Celestial Blade to parry his sword once more, but his enemy was anticipating this move. Quickly moving his sword, the Calamity Titan smashed his enemy’s sword out of his hand, which flew high into the air and disappeared.
“Now, you’re open!” The Calamity Titan said in an unfamiliar voice, a smirk forming on his face before he brought his sword down before his enemy could do anything.
With not a moment to spare, Lakshman reacted out of instinct and used his right hand to grab hold of the sword that came soaring down to take his life. In an instant, a powerful shock wave occurred upon him grabbing a hold over it, which surprised the Calamity Titan as the wind blew wildly in all directions. At the same time, Lakshman winced as his arm got cut and blood started to seep out of it without pause.
“Lucky!” Cantia and Serabella both said in unison, their voices becoming distort with shock, sadness and grief as they were on their way to get back to them when they saw the scene unfold.
Lakshman was making a pained expression on his face while holding onto the Disaster sword, which contained an immense Energy Force. It was also lethal to the touch, which made the hand clutching it to bleed profusely and cause him immense pain but, despite the pain, he continued to hold it at bay in order to save his sister-in-law from certain death.
“You caught my blade! That’s good!” An unfamiliar voice came out from the Calamity Titan’s mouth, which startled everyone except Lakshman. “Now, let’s see how well do against this!”
Seemingly applying more pressure and power into his sword, the Disaster sword began to dig deep into Lakshman’s hand, threatening to cut it off. Lakshman gritted his teeth tightly and channelled an immense Energy Force into his hand to stop it from winning. While this was going, the wind began to blow wildly around them and shock waves began to buffet everyone as they flew in all directions.
At that moment, a mass of darkness began seep out of the blade and threatened to destroy Lakshman’s hand. Reacting quickly, he shouted, “Get out of here, Nandana!”
Serabella was struck with shock at his sudden yell but continued to remain there, transfixed at the plentiful blood seeping out of her brother-in-law’s hand. Just then, Cantia arrived and grabbed her hand before soaring away, taking the frozen woman away with her with Sonia right behind her. Once they were out of harm’s way, Lakshman clenched his fists tightly and applied more Energy Force to push his enemy’s sword out of the way He, then, leaped several meters back and landed firmly on his feet. There, he stood and clutched the hand that continued to bleed with a severe wound on it.
The Calamity Titan landed on his feet and smirked before vanishing on the spot to reappear, moments later, directly in front of Lakshman. Reacting in an instant, Lakshman summoned the Celestial Blade and began to dual, one handed, against this relentless attack that seemed to push him back. His enemy was moving his sword freely with an evil smirk on his face while Lakshman could only defend with his right-hand bleeding and wounded from the earlier attack.
“Not bad. You can actually defend despite that bleeding hand,” the unfamiliar voice, coming from the Calamity Titan, said to him with snort of laughter.
“Coward! Attacking a woman just to injure me!” Lakshman said angrily.
“You? Calling me a coward? That’s laughable!” The unknown voice said in a humorous voice. “You, who relied upon illusions and fighting only when it looked like the advantage is on your side! Of course, in the past, you were different; more blunt and preferred frontal attacks.”
“What?!” Lakshman exclaimed, leaping away at the last second to avoid the stroke. “How do you—?”
“That’s a silly question, fool. I watched your previous style and saw your battles over the years!” The unfamiliar voice said, and the Calamity Titan formed a twisted smile on his face. “I think you can agree that using her as bait to injure you was a great strategy.”
Lakshman could not believe what the man was saying, but he knew he somewhat agreed with him. Under normal circumstances, Lakshman would not have reacted so offhandedly and used his bare hands to protect any of his family members. In that desperate situation, when there was no time to think, he automatically reacted to save his sister-in-law from the danger, falling perfectly into the enemy’s plan and slightly crippling one of his hands.
“Not a problem! I’ve dealt with wounds far worse than this before!” Lakshman replied confidently, wearing a determined smile on his face.
The Calamity Titan looked unperturbed and said, “Oh? You’re right. You can still somewhat use that hand, so let’s deal with it!”
As he shouted, he rocketed at Lakshman at such an incredible speed that the released shock wave buffeted Lakshman as dust flew in all directions. With his eyes momentarily closed, Lakshman uses his senses and raised his sword above his head, catching the heavy blow of the enemy’s sword on it. The impact was so strong that the ground shook, cracked and sank a little around the area he stood upon.
“Good!”
Lakshman managed to look up properly at his enemy and was alarmed when his enemy raised his sword above his head with both hands and swung it down, forcing Lakshman to hold his sword firmly in place. Once again, a tremendous impact occurred when the two swords clashes, causing the ground to sink more and Lakshman to feel an intense muscle twinge in his left hand.
“One more time!”
While saying that, the Calamity Titan raised his sword above his head with both hands and gathered an immense amount of energy in it. As it radiated with dark energy, he brought it down just as Lakshman activated his Force Control and waved his injured right hand towards the right. His enemy became surprised by the sudden force that pulled him towards the left, but he managed to spin his body around to swung the sword at him, releasing a slicing energy wave in the process.
Heavy wind blew everywhere and shock waves swept in all directions, causing dust to rise into the air to cover the view. Lakshman closed his eyes and moved to the left in a desperate move to evade the attack, but something hit him and made him yell loudly in pain.
“AAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!”
It took a few seconds for the dust to slowly clear before the Calamity Titan waved his hand to clear it away by force. There, he witnessed Lakshman bleeding from his right side as a long cut like wound sported on the length of his arm. Lakshman was gritting his teeth while moaning a little due to the intense pain in his arm as blood spilled out of the opened wound and onto the ground, which slowly formed into a pool of blood.
“Damn…” he muttered, clutching his right hand as it hurt to move it in his present condition.
“Ah! Bummer! It missed!” The unfamiliar voice spoke, his possessed body looking dejected by the apparent failure. “The attack missed, but you still got cut. Damn! You’re definitely lucky, Lakshman.”
Lakshman glared fiercely at his enemy and demanded, “Who are you?!”
For a moment, the Calamity Titan looked surprised before he made a sad smile and said, “Yes. It is natural for people to forget me, especially I’m in possession of someone else’s body. In the ancient times, I’m known as the bringer of chaos, destruction and calamity, and as the one responsible for the divide between you and your brother.”
“God of Calamity!” Lakshman exclaimed, realising who it was in an instant from such an explanation. “You dare to do all those things to my brother and even go as far as to possess him?!”
“I dare to do anything I please. I’m a god, remember?” The God of Calamity asked, smiling smoothly at his enemy. “I can do whatever I want.”
Lakshman glared menacingly at him and said, “Restoration!”
His entire body was instantly surrounded by glowing green light, which quickly healed all of his wounds. This momentarily surprised the God of Calamity, who was under the impression that it would have taken longer for the wounds to fully heal.
“So, the spell accelerated to heal your wounds and restore your energy. Not bad,” he commented, looking somewhat impressed. “I guess it’s all thanks to your present transformation that’s giving you the edge. For now, at least.”
Lakshman snorted and said, “Believe what you want.”
“Of course, because I know it’s the truth,” replied the God of Calamity, giving his enemy a brilliant smile.
For a moment, the two warriors stood separated by several meters of empty land with large cracks and cave ins covering some part of the place. Then, Lakshman surged with power and disappeared on the spot to reappear in front of his enemy while taking an attacking position. He swung his sword at his enemy with the intention of battling him when he suddenly realised something was wrong.
“Why is he not defending himself?”
That single thought made him stop his swinging sword just before it could reach the Calamity Titan’s neck. The God of Calamity chuckled with the Calamity Titan’s body and spoke in a voice that was both arrogant and taunting.
“What’s wrong? Why did you stop? Were you worried you might kill your brother?”
“You—!” Lakshman began, but he suddenly widened his eyes in shock when his enemy suddenly aimed his hand near his ribs and unleashed a powerful black wave of destruction.
Seemingly enveloped by the wave, it flew away for several meters before he managed to blast himself free from the wave to land firmly on his feet. Lakshman got dragged for several meters before he stabbed the Celestial Blade into the ground to stop his movement. Coming to a stop, he made a pained expression on his face and clutched his side that pained him from the earlier attack.
“Come on, Phoenix Titan. Do it! Kill this man as you’ve done this before. I did kill your wives, after all,” said the God of Calamity tauntingly with a cynical smile on his face while he walked towards him.
Lakshman straightened up and said, “Don’t play mind games with me, God of Calamity! I’m stronger than that.”
The God of Calamity made the Calamity Titan’s body to come to a stop and said with a soft smile on his face, “Don’t treat me like I’m the God of Trickery. He does his stuff, but my job is different,” and he waved his fingers in a downward gesture.
In an instant, Lakshman felt his knees buckle before he hit the ground with a tremendous impact that momentarily shook the ground. He lay there, unmoving with immense pressure keeping him pressed to the ground while the God of Calamity approached him.
“You’re a disappointment,” said the God of Calamity, a hint of sadness in his voice. “After all the trouble of planting the seed of destruction into you, you become… a nuisance to me.”
“What?!” Lakshman exclaimed, not fully comprehending the meaning behind his enemy’s words. “What do you mean?!”
“The Ancient Evil cursing you with the power of destruction. That curse taking on a life form known as Twisted and tried to control you into evil, which had nearly succeeded in your past lives. If it weren’t for that other soul inhabiting you at that time, my plan would’ve succeeded!”
Lakshman widened his eyes in disbelief and exclaimed, “All of that, my past misdeeds and misconduct…! All of them were because of you?! Why? Why did you do it?!”
“Why?” The God of Calamity asked, momentarily looking surprised before letting out light laughter, then saying, “It’s simple; I wanted you.”
As Lakshman looked confused, his enemy elaborated by explaining his intentions.
“When you first challenged and lost to the God of Justice, I saw a powerful warrior in you, and I thought I could do many things if I had you by my side. So, I attacked your brother, put him until my control and killed his wife, making him think it was all your doing. After that, it was a simple matter of time before he killed your wives and, in turn, you killed him. I expected you to break, I thought I could capture you but, instead, you chose to resolve to reality and keep yourself sane.
I was left with no choice but to release the Ancient Evil upon the world in order to turn you into my minion no matter what. After knowing that you could reincarnate, I knew I had many more chances to control you if you died, so I had the monster attack the world to make you come out of hiding. As planned, you came and, as planned, you died with its curse planted deep within you, after which I thought I would succeed, only to miserably fail!”
For a moment, the God of Calamity looked angry before he returned to smiling serenely once more just as Lakshman yelled, “Why?! Why did you do it?! Why was I so important?!”
This time, his enemy chuckled before he said, “Your brother is strong, but you’re different. You’re not just strong, but you’re amazing and the reason to it all lay in your ancestral lineage.” When he saw the confusion on his foe’s face, the God of Calamity smirked and said, “You wouldn’t know because it was forgotten, but your ancestor is none other than the God of Power.”