Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 681: It’s been a while [1]

Rumble! Rumble!

“Huh? What’s going on…?”

The surroundings shook, throwing me off completely.

The feeling only grew worse as I watched the eye fade before my eyes, leaving me completely at a loss for what had just happened.

Did it just run away?

That…

It truly did seem to be the case as I looked at the empty space before me. But why would it run away? It was useless. Even if it ran, I could just restart the loop.

I was just about to activate the eye again and restart the loop when I stopped.

’Wait, something about the situation makes no sense..’

I recalled the sudden enlargement of the purple orb and realized that something else was at play.

“Hmm.”

Clutching my burning right eye, I gave a light tap on the seabed and launched myself out from the depths of the Maw.

Splash!

Coming out of the water, the rumbling in the distance continued.

“What’s happening?”

“….This… what is going on?”

In the distance, not far from where I stood, were two figures, Sylas and Anne. Neither appeared badly hurt; in fact, they both looked relatively fine.

As the rumbling continued, Sylas looked at Anne before suddenly fading from the spot, leaving the place.

“Wait—!”

Anne tried to reach out for him, but by the time she realized what had happened, he had already left.

In the end, her eyes fell on me as she finally took notice of me and asked,

“Did you… Do this? Are you the one who did this?”

“I… didn’t.”

I was just as confused as she was. Looking up, I forced my way out of the depths of the Maw and onto the outer surface of the Crimson Sea. The moment I did, my eyes locked onto the towering figure in the distance, its enormous frame sending a sharp, searing pain through my skull, and for the briefest moment, my mind went completely blank.

I was quick to snap out of it, but just one look was enough to make me extremely wary.

’That’s… That should be Xa’hurl’s real body.’

It was massive and creepy in every sense of the word.

There were so many eyes, I couldn’t begin to count them, each one bulging and twitching, embedded along its tentacles like the suction cups of an octopus.

They blinked out of sync, staring in every direction, some locking onto me with a cold, inhuman focus that made my skin crawl.

But that wasn’t the most important thing at the moment.

Staring at the massive creature and seeing the purple orb expanding further and further in its body as it started to squirm around, I knew that something was happening.

Something big.

’But what in the world is happening?’

This fear it was experiencing… It was even more pronounced than the one I had created.

Rumble—

Waves formed, growing in size with each second that passed, splashing onto the Maw and its surroundings.

’The situation is getting out of control.’

Seeing the current state of the beast, I was really tempted to restart the loop, but decided against it. I wanted to see exactly what was about to happen.

But that proved to be quite a difficult task as the pain in my eye grew more and more prominent with each second that passed.

The more time passed from the ’locked’ point, the more it demanded from the eye.

I could at most resist for a few more minutes before needing to give up and restart the loop.

But the pain from the eye wasn’t the only thing that was making life hard for me, as I was also having an extremely tough time trying to resist the pressure that was coming from the distant monster. Despite being far, it almost felt as though I was being squeezed into the ground by just standing near it.

It was terrifying.

…And it only grew from there as a sudden black light pierced from the insides of the beast.

Xu!

It was as if a pillar of pure darkness had erupted from the sky, slamming down onto the beast and swallowing it whole.

The pressure that came out of the action was even more terrifying than the previous one, and I had no choice but to move further back, feeling something rise from within my chest as I covered my mouth to feel something wet brush against it.

When I looked down, I saw that it was my own blood.

’What in the world…’

I looked into the distant pillar with a horrified look, staring at the surroundings that seemed to collapse under the pressure that came from the distance.

I wanted to stare at the scene for a little longer, and I was really tempted to do so, but turning my head and spotting a certain ship in the distance, my heart sank.

A figure appeared next to me not long after.

“That’s my ship…”

I looked at Anne and then the ship. Before I knew it, Anne had caught up to me and was staring at the scene in the distance with me. While Lazarus no longer existed, his memories existed with me.

I knew this was the ship Anne had prepared for emergencies. As towering waves, like rolling mountains, battered it mercilessly.

“Let’s go.”

Without hesitation, Anne and I sprang into action. I leapt from crest to crest, chasing the ship through the stormy sea, and finally reached it.

With a sudden jump, I landed on top of the ship and used [Step of Suppression] to steady it, anchoring it firmly against the relentless fury of the waves.

Although the ship continued to rock around the waves, it was a lot more stable, and the people within the ship managed to recollect themselves.

“Lazarus, Anne…”

It was also in that moment that I heard a certain voice, and when I turned my head, I saw An’as heading in our direction, his expression somewhat at ease as he looked at us.

Wait…

Wasn’t he supposed to be with those from the Goddess of Light?

Why was he here?

’No, I can already guess the reason.’

Looking at him and seeing how wet he was, I quickly understood the situation as I felt a strange sense of discomfort build up in my chest.

“Do you know what is happening? Why is the monster acting like this…? No, seeing how you two are still alive, everything went well?”

Staring at An’as and seeing just how calm he appeared to be despite the situation, the sense of discomfort only grew as I felt a mix of feelings well up from deep within me.

These feelings…

They weren’t exactly mine. I knew that.

But at the same time, I had spent some time with An’as as myself. I knew how he was before, and seeing his current change, I really felt a mix of emotions.

“Lazarus…?”

“Hm, oh.”

Hearing him call again, I snapped out of it and looked towards the distant beast as the pillar that surrounded its body grew larger and larger, masking its entire figure.

It had gotten to the point where I could no longer see its features, and seeing the scene, I looked around before speaking.

“Let’s get out of here. This place isn’t safe anymore.”

“You’ve heard him!”

Anne and the others moved swiftly, hauling up the anchor and raising the sails while everyone on board fought against the storm to get the ship moving. Thankfully, with Anne’s help, and my own, we managed to pull the vessel a safe distance away, escaping the worst of the chaos without so much as a scratch on the hull.

“I didn’t invest a lot of money in the ship so that it wouldn’t last against some waves.”

Anne looked rather proud at the fact, and as I looked at her, I turned my attention back towards the distant pillar.

I wanted to understand exactly what had happened.

What was the pillar of darkness, and wh—

I didn’t need to wait long to get my answer. As the rumbling in the distance persisted for a few more seconds, it all suddenly stopped.

The waves, the rumbling, the everything…

Everything stopped.

The world grew silent. As though it was holding its breath.

And then—

The pillar started to recede, slowly shrinking into itself as a figure soon became clear for everyone to see. Me included.

But the moment my eyes fell on the figure, it was as if my entire body had frozen in place, my heart and my mind stopping at the same time.

Her long black hair flowed silently in the wind, framing deep obsidian eyes that seemed to hold the endless depths of the abyss itself, and an appearance so striking, it felt unmatched anywhere in this world…

Delilah stood right where Xa’hurl had once stood, her presence seeming even more terrifying than it was before as her emotionless eyes were fixed on the water beneath her.

She didn’t say a word.

She just stood there, staring in silence before closing her eyes and fading away from the spot.

Like that, she left.

…Alongside her disappearance was Xa’hurl.

I couldn’t see any trace of the beast, and as I touched my right eye, it no longer felt as hot as the connection I had set up with it, and the eye was gone.

That… was enough to confirm it to me.

’Dead.’

Xa’hurl was dead.

It had been killed by Delilah as she appeared from out of nowhere and completely dispatched it.

I stood in silence, alongside everyone around me.

But in the end, a smile cracked on my lips as I found myself unable to hold back my smile.

’So this is the end…? Delilah managed to kill it just like that? But what about her being defeated by it? That was what it told me. I guess… it had mistaken the situation, or something else happened?’

I wasn’t sure, and the others also looked just as lost as I was.

However, that was of no importance.

Thud!

Slumping down onto the wooden deck beneath me, I took a long and deep breath.

Finally.

…Finally, this experience was over.

Xa’hurl was dead. I managed to collect the eye and had almost all four relics with me.

Staring at the gray sky above me and the distant white sun, I closed my eyes and let out a long and tired breath.

Finally…

I could go back home.

’I’m fucking sick and tired of the Mirror Dimension.’

Water too.

I hated the fucking water.

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