Plume, the humanoid plant, smirked to herself, her florescent eyes lingering on the devastation from the aftermath of the explosion. “He shouldn’t be able to survive that one unscathed,” she muttered, as she roamed around the battlefield, searching for Scott’s whereabouts. Continuous explosions raised thick dust clouds, worsened by the fact that all manner of different abilities were launched at the same time. The previously clear area was now coated with a thick, dusty, yet crimson smog, churning to the whims of the combating calamities.
With one arm buried into the mountain, Plume wiggled her free hand, and several flowers manifested at various locations within the smog field. Unlike before, the flowers didn’t explode; instead, their petals beamed an iridescent glow, swaying with the winds. Plume wore a curious expression. Where did he go? How come I can’t find him? she thought, confusion evident in her eyes.
She summoned even more flowers, and they too beamed their shimmering lights, unable to dispel the thick smog. Yet, she still couldn’t find any traces of the voidweaver. Did I overestimate him? she pondered, believing Scott’s body had been blown to smithereens in the previous explosion. The more she thought about it, the more she believed her conjecture to be true. After all, the flower bombs, fueled by the corpse, detonated at nearly point-blank range.
If he’s dead, then I should take out the rest of his team, she thought, smiling. She turned her attention toward Zara, who was fighting several beastmen and lizards. Plume smiled eerily, wiggling her hand once more. Eliminating Zara was her primary goal, but it wouldn’t be bad if she took out some of her competitors in the process.
“Seems you’re having fun.” Scott’s voice suddenly echoed behind her, and Plume froze. At that same moment, a whistling thud filled her ears, and before she could turn, her head exploded into a gory mess of fibrous tissue, nectar, and colorful gases.
Scott, with his upper body projecting out of the void he had manifested behind Plume, watched as the lifeless corpse of the calamity fell into the tumultuous battlefield below. He raised his head, his gaze lingering on Ember and the cyclops engaged in brutal melee combat. The dragonkin, covered in shimmering golden scales, displayed her martial prowess as she battled five cyclops in hand-to-hand combat. What she lacked in size, she more than made up for with explosive force and unrestrained might.
Scott lowered his gaze, focusing on Slim, whose undead army grew rapidly by the second. The necromancer’s death domain ensured that every living being that wandered into it lost its life unfailingly, prompting most calamities to avoid a frontal confrontation with the chanting skeletal armies. Instead, they resorted to mid-range and long-range attacks. Wave after wave of assaults raced toward the skeletal army, but the ominous beings eagerly greeted the challenge with their bodies. The skeletal armies exploded countless times, but with each death, their numbers increased, and so did their ferocity. The wraith-like entities singing the praises of their king launched ranged attacks of their own, their ominous spells cursing, poisoning, and eliciting decay and necrosis on their unsuspecting targets.
Scott turned his attention away from Slim, focusing on where Zara fought. Surprisingly, the brawler had teamed up with Orion, and the duo fended off wave after wave of attacks. Orion formed a protective barrier with the golems, while Zara hurled projectiles at the unsuspecting champions at speeds faster than they could react. The brawler’s puppeteer strings wandered, attaching themselves to several of Orion’s clones. The clones, armed with Zara’s arsenal, launched themselves at the calamities like a suicide squad, intending to unleash as much devastation as possible.
Scott averted his gaze from his companions, focusing on the other calamities who fought against each other. While a greater percentage focused on eliminating the hound extermination crew, others fought ruthlessly against calamities from different areas, driven by lingering resentment from previous unsuccessful invasions or simple primal instincts.
The levels of the other calamities in this area aren’t that dissimilar to ours, but they lack our fighting experience, Scott thought. He knew Slim and Zara had grown considerably from their experience in the path of chains, while Ember had been a formidable force from the beginning. Orion was Orion. Scott doubted if he even knew the full extent of the mage’s abilities.
Instinctively, Scott turned to the side, noticing several blooming flowers around the periphery of the blackened void. “She doesn’t know when to give up,” he chuckled, shaking his head. Several tendrils wrapped around the flowers, dragging them into the nihilistic zone. Scott’s gaze roamed the battlefield, stopping when he noticed several figures standing on the adjacent cliff’s edge. There, Plume and several plant humanoids glared at the voidweaver.
Scott sank into the portal, and another portal opened a few feet away from the humanoids, using one of their shadows as a medium. The calamities cautiously stared at the voidweaver, each prepared for battle. Scott, on the other hand, chuckled as his body emerged from the blackened abyss.
“I know that neither of these is your main body, and it’s very likely your main body isn’t even here,” Scott began, taking a step forward. “I have a question for you, and you will do well to tell me the truth,” he said, his gaze lingering on the system panel above the heads of the humanoids.
Champion Interface Basic Stats
Name: ??? Level: 55 Experience Points: 2500/5600
Race: Trisos
Class: Scout.
Title:
* Healer.
* Calamity in charge of Area D-19.
Rank:
* 1.
Energy Sources:
* Sunlight.
Abnormal State: Cautious. Incarceration: Blight Domain! Sponsor: None!
Physical Stats Strength: 30 Agility: 50 Endurance: 80 Dexterity: 80 Toughness: 80
Skills Self-Recovery (Level 5). Bloom (Level 5). Heal (Level 5) Duplication (Level 5) Search (Level 7)
Abilities [High-Tier]
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* Flower Detonate: Flowers will bloom, feeding on the surrounding energies. At their peak, they will let the world know of their beauty. The more nutritious the substrate, the more beautiful the ensuing explosion will be.
* Search: As long as there’s light in your eyes, your flowers will continue searching for your adversaries.
* Heal: Return to nature and be reborn again.
* Duplicate: One is good, two is better, three is greater; and so, the more the merrier.
Quests
Main Quest: Stop all champions from accessing Area D-19 – Ongoing! Side Quest: Capture at least two other areas – Ongoing!
All five Trisos had the same champion interface above their heads, an obvious indication they were all duplicates.
Plume glared at Scott, the duplicates subtly retreating. “I don’t know how you found out about that but is that supposed to scare me?” she began. “If you indeed know about my abilities or race, you should know that I’m nigh immortal. You can’t kill me,” she declared.
A thunderous explosion quickly followed, the calamities below continuing their fierce battle. Scott, however, chuckled softly while shaking his head. He continued his advance, and the Trisos retreated further, observing their surroundings cautiously. The memory of the blackened void was still fresh in their minds. They didn’t know when next the voidweaver might disappear and reappear behind them.
“There are far more tortuous experiences I can inflict on you,” Scott said, halting his advance. “You’d yearn for death, but it won’t come—”
“I’m not going to trade words with you,” Plume interjected. “If you have the ability, show me,” she snapped.
The Trisos wiggled their fingers, and several flowers rapidly bloomed where Scott stood. In a flash, the flowers exploded in a fiery bang, yet the creatures created even more flowers to replace them. Explosions rang out consecutively, with rock and stone whizzing through the air. The Trisos stared at the burning area with caution, searching for any traces of life within the inferno, but none presented itself. However, none of the duplicates believed Scott had met his demise via the explosion. If the corpse explosion hadn’t killed him, there was no way their last attack would. With that thought, they continued searching for Scott’s whereabouts while detonating more flowers.
“Where could he be hiding?” Plume muttered, her gaze roaming the area. The only area left unaffected by the blast was where they stood, and Scott wasn’t obviously in their midst. A towering inferno spanning hundreds of feet surrounded them, but they still couldn’t find any traces of the voidweaver.
“You did all that for what?” Scott’s voice echoed behind the Trisos, but they couldn’t move. They didn’t know when, but their shadows had grown darker and thicker, and several blackened tendrils wrapped themselves around their limbs.
Scott ghoulishly manifested in front of Plume, both calamities locking gazes. The yellow sign flickered, projecting itself onto the eyes of the humanoid. Instantly, the other duplicates withered with a scream while Plume writhed and screamed, a maddened light clouding her vision.
“You might be immortal, but that doesn’t mean you are immune to insanity,” Scott declared, staring at the creature who thrashed around in agony. “Since you won’t cooperate, don’t blame me for sifting through your memories myself,” he said, stretching his right hand to the creature’s head.
As if compelled by a mysterious force, Plume moved her head toward Scott’s hand. However, before the Trisos’ head could meet Scott’s hand, the voidweaver suddenly raised his head. Scott narrowed his gaze, staring at the chaotic skies, his vision lingering on Ember who fought with the cyclops. Horror twisted his visage, and without warning, Scott and Plume sank into the nihilistic zone.
Ember, who had continuously fended off the assault of the boisterous cyclops, continued fighting the aggressive creatures. The cyclops blessed with spatial control remained hidden, nullifying all her lightning-based attacks. However, Ember fully displayed her martial prowess, overpowering several cyclops simultaneously.
Unexpectedly, Scott manifested out of the dragonkin’s shadow, rapidly pulling her into the nihilistic zone. At that same moment, the shadows of all his companions darkened, and tendrils forcefully dragged them into the abyss before they could understand what was happening.
The sudden disappearance of the hound extermination crew left the warring calamities in a moment of confusion. Those who had been confronting them paused, bewildered by their sudden disappearance. Meanwhile, those who had been fighting each other from the beginning continued their ruthless assault, ignorant of the prisoners' disappearance.
The strange moment of flux lasted barely a minute before a whistling echo resounded across the area. This time, all fighting ceased. The cyclops lingering in midair shuddered, haphazardly approaching a spatial gateway, their companion beckoning them with urgency. The whistling intensified, and then a crimson, fiery hue dyed the skies. The expressions of the calamities below darkened, fear evident on their faces. Without warning, they fled as fast as they could muster, each utilizing their unique means. However, massive meteorites descended from the heavens at a speed faster than most could outrun. The cyclops closest to the spatial gateway escaped successfully, but those farther away were turned to ash by the gigantic balls of destruction. The calamities below fared no better, several forced to the ground by the intense gravitational anomaly. Like the cyclops above, they didn’t have time to scream before being turned into ash by the flaming rocks.
The first meteorite hit, laying waste to all in its path. The skies remained crimson, and even more meteorites descended. Explosions rang out as massive fiery lava pools consumed the earth. Whatever was left of the calamities had long been buried under several layers of lava. Surprisingly, the blackened portal remained unscathed. The eerie gateway gulped up the lava and debris flowing toward it in mass. Barely a minute had passed since the meteorite rain began, but the mountain landscape had disappeared. Instead, the portal seemed to float above an ever-expanding sea of lava.
A solitary figure—a burning goliath enshrouded in flames—descended from the chaotic heavens. The figure hovered several meters above the magma sea, seemingly staring at the blackened portal which devoured the devastation without end.
The Calamity of Fire has descended!
The system’s cryptic voice echoed, announcing the might of the burning goliath to all who could hear. The fiery calamity flew toward the portal, but it suddenly paused, turning toward the distance. A gigantic silhouette seemed to stride through the lava sea at a measured pace. The creature, covered in thick soot, leaned as if falling backward, but its lower half stood firm and upright. Severed heads of various races, strung together by their hair, adorned the figure, and its steps didn’t cause a single ripple within the magma sea. Its gait was odd and lazy, each slouching step eliciting strange creaking echoes while its feet stirred through the molten surface.
The Calamity of Torture has arrived!
The system declared again. The gigantic calamity paused its advance, the grime-covered entity lifting its head to stare at the calamity of fire. The duo exchanged glances for a moment before turning toward the blackened portal once more. Their interest in the portal only lasted a moment before they turned their attention northward. There, a towering snow fog rapidly approached. The lava visibly hardened, and footsteps echoed from the billowing fog. A centaur clad in silver armor trotted on the cooled lava, stopping a fair distance away from the two calamities.
The Calamity of Ice has arrived!
All three calamities exchanged glances, a tense silence enveloping the area. A moment later, the calamities simultaneously departed without sharing a word.
The Calamity Showdown will now begin! Calamities, regardless of the area, will be granted clemency if they defeat a named Calamity! Several gods are now watching Infernia!