Chương 64: Obliterator

"We won't be opening the door," Ryland said.

"There's no point in letting that presence burgeon out any further." They nodded slowly, but they didn't move yet. They would need to go in to stop the birth of a new Calamity, though.

"I can feel it already," Tyra said, voice uncharacteristically hushed. Tense.

"Warnings will already have rippled through the security Inscriptions."

"I'm not so certain." Ryland was basing his assumption on the understanding that, while the academy's barrier was nearly as powerful as the city's, the magical defences within the academy grounds were a lot less stringent. It had to be, to accommodate the mad array of Academs and their various powers and research.

"Especially once I go in." Tyra and Sint tensed at that.

"We're going in as well," Tyra said.

"I don't care if it is a Calamity in there, I need to help stop it. It's my duty. Sint can remain behind and—""I will not abandon you, ma'am," Sint said resolutely. Tyra looked like she wished to argue, but the presence behind the door flared stronger. There really was no time to be squabbling.

"It's alright." Ryland gave them a smile before facing the ominous door again.

"You're with me." Which was why, before they went in, Ryland ensured they were as protected as possible with a cast of [Eternal Bastion] on both the High Academ and Sint. The two of them marvelled at the barriers surrounding their bodies and adapting to their figures. Tyra more so than Sint. She was familiar with this from the Entrance Trials. Tyra's eyes, however, goggled as she inspected her arms and the translucent coating of energy around them.

"This is…"

"Please marvel at it later, High Academ," Ryland said.

"It's time we headed in and stopped this madness from spreading any further." Tyra straightened.

"I'm ready." One of Sint's hands slipped into her robes, no doubt clutching her Inscribed stiletto.

"So am I." Ryland nodded. He shoved aside thoughts about the new Calamity, especially the timeline of events that had led to him encountering it in this manner. Such considerations could be entertained after the urgency was dealt with. So, he unleashed his magic." [Translocate]," he incanted, and as the ensuing rifts swallowed him and his companions, he added, " [Void Seal]." Several things happened at once. Ryland appeared inside the room, with his two companions spat out almost simultaneously.

At the same time, the entire room was sealed off. Which was good because there really was a newborn Calamity calling Academ Folis's office its cradle. Sint screamed as she came face to face with the impossible monstrosity, though she quickly got a hold of herself. Ryland didn't blame her shock one bit. If the sensation of overwhelming deadliness had been overpowering outside the door, then within it, the aura was practically suffocating. Deadly, even.

Ryland was infinitely glad he had cast [Eternal Bastion] on both his companions. Of course, the sight of the Calamity alone was probably enough to drag out a visceral, heart-stopping fear. The creature was still a mass of writhing tendrils the colour of deepest dusk, a blue so dark that it could be mistaken for black. At the end of each tendril was a gleaming star, bright enough to make one forget everything else when looking upon it. Which was the purported goal.

Beholding the star would distract those unwary enough from the rest of the mass of writhing tendrils, which would threaten to rise and swallow the unsuspecting victim taken in by the stars' brilliance, enhanced by the dimness of the room.

"What…" Tyra's voice was so constricted, one would be forgiven for thinking she was being physically choked.

"What is that thing…?" Sint opened her mouth but couldn't muster out any words. Ryland was about to reply, but the Academ they had been searching for shuffled towards them. He was on his knees in the centre of the room. There wasn't even the slightest flicker of surprise as he turned towards them, like he was expecting someone to come stop his little insanity before long.

"This is a…" His eyes were wild, his stringy hair so dishevelled that it looked as though mating birds had used his head as a nest.

"This is a necessity! Yes. Yes. That's what this is. A pure necessity."

"He is unfortunately not in the right state of mind," Ryland said, eyes fixed on the writhing Calamity behind the man.

"But he isn't why we're here."

"Yes!" he cried.

"I am why you're here. My work is why you're here. Had I not caused this—had I not birthed this—then would you have ever dared show your face in my office?" His words were growing louder, his mannerisms turning more agitating, with every passing second. Academ Folis might have remained on his knees, but he was waving his arms about wildly, his eyes bulging and his mouth frothing. If Ryland wasn't hearing him talking, he'd have said the man was having a fit.

And the more he talked and moved, the more agitated the Calamity behind him seemed to grow. The lights at the end of its tendrils were blinking and flashing with a dangerous suite of colours now.

"Ryland." Tyra's voice was thin.

"Allow me to hold Folis. The Calamity…" He nodded.

"Don't worry. I have it in hand."

"You do not!" Folis screeched.

"You cannot! It is only my hand that can touch the divine, only my glorious form that can interact with these misunderstood beings that you would call a monster. I will not let you take a single step closer!" Forget merely blocking the path forward, the crazed Academ leaped and threw himself right at his supposed foe. The act actually surprised Ryland for an infinitesimal moment, but his reactions caught up with the situation fast, all thanks to his Inscribed Glyph of Alacrity.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator." [Translocate]," Ryland cast. The man disappeared long before his leap had taken him even halfway towards his target, a rift popping up between him and Ryland. His "Oof!" sounded somewhere behind, close to where Sint and Tyra were standing. Another spell resounded in the air, taking effect before the Academ could cause further trouble." [Seeded Imprisonment]," Tyra shouted.

A quick look back showed the High Academ's Tier [13] spell taking effect on poor Folis. He was covered by a spray of tiny golden seeds quicker than he could resist. They germinated right on his body, the roots digging into his flesh and skin while the emerging stem and vines encased his body in the blink of an eye. He was taken care of. If a little more brutally than what Ryland had assumed, but he certainly wasn't dying in the care of a High Academ.

Folis might have countered with his own spells, but his state of mind had clearly made him forget about magic. He had literally leaped at Ryland, after all.

"Thank you," he said.

"Leave the rest to me." Sensing the capture of the Academ, the Calamity had begun writhing and twisting faster. Its oppressive aura flared out even harder. Now, it was almost a physical blow against them all, pushing them back, acting like a barrier almost as powerful as the ones Ryland had cast on his allies. Which did nothing to stop him, of course.

"Cursed blood of mine," he said as he stepped forward. A dark storm had erupted from the creature, its ferocity eliciting screams from Tyra and Sint, but Ryland didn't look back. He trusted the strength of his magic and their screams were more of shock than actual dismay.

"It is regrettable you were born this way. But this must be done. Your end must be delivered." An unearthly screech rumbled through the room, shaking everything terribly enough to cause the walls and floor to crack, dust raining down from the ceiling." [Untethered Form]," Ryland cast. With his Soul Glyph of Rift combining with his Soul Glyph of Genesis as a Subglyph, Ryland's spell essentially turned him immune to the discrepancies of the world around him.

He continued approaching the writhing mass of dark, star-studded tendrils. The lights blazed right in his face, each and every single one trying to sink into his head and unmoor him from reality so he'd become helpless. A good thing that his Inscribed Glyph of Fortitude was at Tier [25]. Ryland took yet another step closer to the Calamity, his footfall echoing in the room, and then the Calamity fled. It was fast, faster than a blink, faster than heartbeats, so fast that its motion cracked the air.

A thousand tendrils went flying in every direction. It was a reaction born from pure instinct, the desperate act of a being trying to ensure its survival against a foe that it now knew it had no chance against. Calamity or not, newborn or not, it retained enough sense to know that Ryland wasn't someone it could stop. Still, he didn't move. Didn't raise even a single finger to stop the Calamity.

"It's escaping—" Sint's shouted warning cut off automatically when she saw how the Calamity was interacting with the walls of the chamber. In truth, it wasn't. In its desperate attempt to flee, it had failed to note that Ryland had already taken care of any potential escape routes. [Void Seal] had wrapped the entire office in rifts that led to nothing but the space between Realms.

As soon as the Calamity's tendrils had crashed through the doors, windows, and even the first layer of the office's walls, it screeched out. The tendrils immediately shot back inside the office, each one frozen solid. Ryland furrowed his brow. The wailing noise from the Calamity was scratching the walls, grinding broken pieces of masonry to mere dust, turning the whole world fragile. He didn't intend for it to suffer overmuch." [Anima Authority]," he cast.

Just as with the old Archmage's golem, lines of green and gold energy emerged from the blindingly bright spell circle to start wrapping the Calamity. It struggled against the bind, but it was useless. Ryland's spell soon had the entirety of the creature captured in his life webs, granting him complete control over the being. He had added a Subglyph of Tranquillity to the spell circle to help calm it down, which was working. The monstrosity was slowly pacifying despite integrally knowing that its demise was at hand.

Ryland cast [Grasp of the Gigantes] next. A gigantic, rocky arm burst out of a rift to the subdued Calamity's left, clasping the monstrosity in its seven-fingered hand. He looked back at his two companions, both of whom had eyes that had practically turned into saucers.

"I'll be back soon," he said.

"After I've taken care of this Calamity." Tyra, by dint of being a High Academ, managed to find her voice.

"How are you going to deal with it?" Ryland had asked himself the same thing. The moment he had understood that the piece of himself was beyond saving, was beyond recovery, he had settled on a course of action. It was regrettable, but it was the best idea.

"I can't destroy it with Sundering," Ryland said.

"Because I'm not certain if either [Void Seal] or [Eternal Bastion] will survive the resulting blast. The particle bonds I'd be shattering when it comes to a creature like this Calamity would unleash far too much power. And I'd also like to prevent it from suffering too much."

"Which means…?"

"Which means I'll be taking it into the void and thereby ending its life as quickly and humanely as I can. [Oneself World]." Ryland's Soul Glyph of Aegis flared with radiant opalescence. Not just upon him, but upon the Calamity as well. Twin barriers encapsulated both him and his subdued target, crafting a stable atmosphere keeping them safe as another [Translocate] took them beyond the [Void Seal]. Took them right into the wide cosmos.

As always, the vastness of the void between Realms was enticing and alluring and so magnificent. Ryland never stopped feeling an impossible tug to simply gaze out at the cosmos and take in all that it had to offer. But right now, he had a job to do. He had a Calamity to dispose of. Ryland could feel the emptiness of the void pressing on his barrier.

His spell kept the air temperate, kept the void from reaching in and shocking his body terribly enough to stop his heart and brain from functioning correctly any further. He looked up at the Calamity in the colossus's grasp through the rift. [Anima Authority] was doing a fine job of keeping it contained.

"Farewell," Ryland said.

"May you find rest from your torment." He waved his arm. The colossus pulled back its enormous limb as well, dragging the newborn Calamity as far back as it could. Then it threw the monstrosity like a spear flung from a battlement. It sailed through the void, through the nothingness of the cosmos, overseen only by distant, glinting stars. Arrowing straight for the black hole Ryland had taken it to.

Even Ryland, with all his Inscriptions and his magic, couldn't keep the irrepressible tug of the universe's darkest maw at bay. And it was to this nadir, to this endpoint of existence, that he had flung the Calamity. His barrier spell was holding, even after it crossed the threshold from which there would be no escape, even after it reached the wide-spanning disc of compressed matter and energy that surrounded that imperceptible point of impossibly dense space in the middle. Until finally, it got too close.

[Oneself World] shattered, something Ryland ensured he caught as closely as he could with the help of [Omniscience]. The Calamity was torn at its particulate level instantly. There was no suffering. No moment where it felt pain or even any real fear, thanks to the Subglyph of Tranquillity. When the time came, it simply ceased existing, instantaneously. It was the smallest mercy Ryland could deliver. [Achievement Recognized: Obliterator You have destroyed a newborn Calamity at an infinitely granular level. Rank up from Adamantine [34] to Adamantine [44]. Reward: 15 Evolution Prints.] When he returned, the mood was unsurprisingly sombre. There was a good deal of explaining to do, but the look on Tyra's and Sint's faces confirmed that they more or less understood the gist.

"We need to see the Headmaster right away," the High Academ said. Ryland nodded.

"Yes, let's go. I believe I can shed some light on the matter."

"On how this Calamity came about?"

"Yes. And who might really be behind it all as well."