DROWNING CALAMITY

"…A dark calamity!"

Caspian stuttered at the appalling sight. Right from the moment they had gotten close to the frozen lake a strange sensation had come over him. 

Perhaps it had been this thing all along.

When he used spectral gaze he could see some foreign Will hovering above the creature's seething cores. Almost like the mist was slowly being absorbed by the Calamity. 

Just like how humans could gradually assimilate their core by absorbing ambient Celestial Will– where it was most potent. Abominations could also do the same, although theirs was rather subconscious and the Will also had to be more potent than what they already harboured.

The process was slow and wasn't the most common way abominations and humans usually ranked up. But certainly, it was still something they did instinctively.

Right now there was a red mist swirling around the four revolting cores of the Dark Calamity. Since the Calamity had Dark cores it was easy to see.

'Is this thing really trying to rank up to a Red Calamity?!'

Only at the level it was he could barely breathe in its presence. Anything more than this would just be… too monstrous.

All his life he had been labelled a monster. Even after his Calamitous cores had been pulled out of his body, even after his Calamitous Will had been sealed in multiple charms.

He was still feared. Worse of all he still feared himself. His body was still that of a Calamity after all. 

He was well aware of that and so were all the occupants of the orphanage.

They called him a monster, and the truth was he was. 

But right here, right in front of him was an actual Calamity. A true monster.

Its body was giant, mostly hidden underneath the shattering lake. Multiple tendrils shot out of the freezing water in its wake, trashing its hideous limbs about in a mad flurry.

It revealed its head not long after, a seething mesh of rolling black flesh with multiple mouths littering its disgusting hide.

Two mouths had grey plates hiding within, Caspian guessed to be its eyes.

Its harrowing moan reverberated through the air shaking the very atmosphere. Caspian could barely keep his mind in check as he stared at it. 

Just a little more and he could lose his mind.

"What the hell!"

Deven suddenly muttered as she rose to her feet.

The gaunt man barely spared her a glance, he was too focused on the creature before him. 

Makima had used the disarray caused by the parting ice to put some distance between her and the clone. 

The clone also had a thoughtful expression, as he peered at the abomination. The next moment the clone dissipated into black steam, flew across the frozen lake and fused with the original body.

Caspian could feel his body ease up as the black lines on his body also faded into black steam. A couple of moments later it too, fused with the gaunt knight's main body. 

Caspian was free for only about a second, but then the black steam pulled on his hands and legs, tying them both behind him with some black thread. Caspian struggled as much as he could but it didn't let up.

As the clones fused with the main body, the gaunt man's aura seemed to increase rapidly. The calamity's white eyes were now on him and Caspian who lay just behind him. Deven for some reason couldn't move a muscle she just knelt wide-eyed at the humongous entity before them. 

Due to the insanely intense and deathly pressure a profane abomination such as a Calamity subconsciously released someone with a barely formed core couldn't possibly remain fully functional in its presence.

Caspian could because he wasn't fully human. Or at least he believed that was why.

With a grin, the man turned to Caspian and said;

"I'll get back to you kids later. For now, stay put."

The next moment he disappeared, flying across the shattering lake. The abomination was quick to react sending its tendrils after the gaunt man.

It was almost like the sky was falling apart as the colossal limbs of the depth dweller rose high and fell with deafening fury.

Surprisingly the creature moved way quicker than Caspian could have ever expected despite its mountainous weight, it waved its limbs about like they were made of feathers. 

Faux was too fast for it though, easily manoeuvring through the forest of limbs.

The ice only shattered further causing deep tremors all over. 

Even Makima wasn't safe where she was. She had her familiar toss her around to avoid the descending limbs of the abomination.

After getting close enough Captain Faux drew his blade coating it in a dark mist. 

When his blade connected with one of the creature's many tendrils, it went right through hacking it in half.

The creature let out a painful wail, one so powerful it completely incapacitated Deven.

Even Caspian could barely stay conscious in its wake.

Faux meanwhile seemed completely unfazed. Even if he was he didn't let it show, he simply tightened his grip on both his blades and shot forward with a dark grin.

Makima had also engaged the beast as well as she could. Surprisingly her blade could dig into the creature's revolting hide, but still, it was incapable of going completely through it. 

That didn't seem to be her plan though. While Faux neared the creature to deal deadlier damage Makima seemed to be trying to make her towards Caspian and her companion.

Caspian would have panicked if he hadn't witnessed the creature constantly push Makima back.

It didn't look like she was coming anywhere near him anytime soon.

While he watched the Calamity clash, Caspian couldn't help but wonder if this was truly the thing he had been sensing since after they arrived at the slope.

Yes, it was frightening and insanely powerful, but what Caspian had sensed wasn't just threatening and ferocious, what Caspian had sensed so intensely was… familiarity.

Boom!

The lake broke off again rising jets of freezing water as the creature's tendrils struck its surface.

Faux was powerful but whether or not he could take down such a thing was another question. He moved quickly enough and could slice the creature's limbs in half but those limbs were nearly infinite rising from the freezing depths of the frozen lake one after the other. 

Maybe it could even regenerate its lost limbs, all that didn't matter what did was that sooner or later Faux would tire himself out if he didn't draw closer to the abomination soon.

Even as he watched Faux dash around the creature Caspian couldn't take his eyes off the creature's cores or more accurately the red mist that swirled around it.

He tried tracing it but only seemed to lose it under the depths of the frozen lake. 

Caspian didn't mind though, for some reason he felt like there was probably something more deadly than the ghastly creature Faux was currently engaging, hiding deep in the lake. So staring right at it wasn't something he was triggered to do.

He still had his eyes on the fight though, surprisingly Faux had managed to go through all those limbs and was now hovering right above the ghastly thing with both his blades drawn back for a deadly blow.

His blade sizzled with black flames, the air trembling as Faux poured most of his Will into this attack.

"Damn it!"

Faux suddenly yelled as he threw himself on the ground and immediately shot across the frozen terrain, heading right for Caspian. 

Before Caspian could figure out why a massive tendril of seething black flesh was already before him. 

Seconds before it could pancake him and Deven however, Faux had appeared right above it. 

The blow he had been preparing to end the battle he had instead used to sever the creature's limb before it could kill Caspian. 

Still, the force of the blow was powerful enough to shake the mountainside.

Moments later Caspian was submerged in freezing water with both his arms and legs tied behind him.