Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 179

Fragment of Calamity

Sabrac descended from the sky like a meteor, his rigid spear crashing down upon Donovan’s head. The Knight raise his mace to guard against the attack. The impact caused the ground beneath him to crack and the snow around them to explode, obscuring their sights.

“Where is he?!” Nick shouted, moments before a spear swept from the right and hit his shield, sending him flying into a house. But not before he left a small bomb that exploded right in front of his attacker. Sabrac smirked as he withstood the bomb with his own body. “A crafty one,” the man smiled, as he walked through the smoke nonchalantly. “But you need more than that to go through my Golden Vajra Body.”

The gentle giant Rhoddes leapt into action and swung his giant mace, only to miss and received a powerful smack behind his knees, causing him to fall.

“Telekinesis! Fire!” Martell activated his Skill. Five swords came flying towards the old man, but he dodged them with the smallest margin. The boy called back the swords, intending to catch him unaware, but the old man simply spun his spear around his neck, deflecting all of them before using the butt of his weapon to strike the Beastfolk boy right in the stomach, making him keel over in pain.

Akira and Klein came forward with their most powerful Skills, but the old man - seemingly looking down on them – simply gripped the back of his spear’s blade between his toes and released it, flicking the spear with enough force to slap both of them towards Eleanora - who was still chanting a spell – and took her down at the same time.

Hannah who was planning to raised her spear, intending to fight, but Sabrac slapped it away with the tip of his own. “Surrender.”

Knowing how outclassed she was, Hannah could only grit her teeth in shame and dropped her spear. The man before him had reached the apex of spearmanship. What could she do but accept their loss? It was like a group of kittens trying to fight a full-grown lion.

Sabrac walked amongst the moaning victims of his little distractions and as he passed Akira, Akira spoke as he struggled to his feet. One swipe of his spear was enough to lower his HP to the red. “Guild Master Sabrac. Please, at least…tell us why you refuse to return with us. Vorzenny is working together with the Demons! Is that not important enough for you?!”

“I have an unfinished business here. And as long as that business is not done, I won’t move from this place.”

“What is it? What is more important than the danger we are facing now?!” Akira asked again, he was fed up with the old man’s secrecy, but could not accept how such a strong man could ignore a crisis facing Grea.

“Enough, Akira. He doesn’t intend to return,” Klein said, helping Eleanora up. “This is his way of warning us.”

A small breeze brushed the snow underneath their feet. Sabrac’s brows tightened and a mighty frown came upon his face. “No. This is too soon…!” he mouthed.

“Guild Master Sabrac?”

“CLOSE YOUR EARS!!” he shouted. He planted his spear into the ground and folded his arms defiantly.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew from the top of the stairs and a screech so loud and powerful that it shook the snow off the trees, blasted their eardrums.

“AARGH! My ears!”

The only one still standing was Sabrac, his face stern as he withstood the mental attack through sheer willpower.

The sound was so loud and piercing that it felt like thousands of nails scratching at their brains. Voices like thousands of men and women crying and screaming filled their heads and caused them to feel a deep and profound fear that reached into their very soul.

Akira bent down, the fear causing him to see red. He wanted to run. He wanted to fight. No. What did he want? The voices! Fight! Run! Fight! Run!

“Everyone! To me!!” He heard someone said. It was Martell. The Beastfolk boy had clasped his hand together in prayer and mouthed a string of Dharmic Sutra.

A Golden Lotus with eight petals appeared above his head, and from the center of it, a dome of light appeared and protected them from the fear inducing scream. It was the third of the Art of the Golden Lotus of Prajnaparamita: Buddha Teaching the Eightfold Path.

The boy kept chanting the words, teetering between sanity and madness. He bit the inside of his mouth and tasted the iron. The pain kept him awake even as the others within his dome had collapsed into unconsciousness.

Sabrac, who saw this from outside, watched him struggle with a curious look in his eyes. “A Golden Eight-Petaled Lotus…hahaha. What a coincidence. Or, dare I say…fate?”

The scream finally stopped; Martell, unable to hold on any longer, fell onto the ground with a thump.

“Grrrrr…” Large monsters that were attracted by the screams appeared from the edges of the village, gathering at their location. They were eyeing the unconscious preys in front of them. Sticky saliva dripping from their mouths.

“Well,” the man strutted in front of the dozens of high-level monsters with a smile. “It seems plans will have to change.”

The beastlike Sabrac took a low stance, the tip of his left fingers dug into the snow, and his right foot slid back slowly. His back arched as if a tiger about to pounce.

“Storm Riding.”

The moment he took a step, a thunderous sound was heard. Each of the monsters attacking him suddenly had a huge hole in their torso.

Sabrac appeared a distance away from them. The tip of his spear smoked from the friction with the air, the snowdrops that fell upon its surface evaporated immediately upon contact. Behind him was a zig-zag line of blackened earth; the snow around it evaporated from the heat caused by his blinding fast movement.

The monsters fell to their death, without even knowing what had just happened as the old man walked over to the unconscious body of Akira and Martell, grabbed them by the ankles, and unceremoniously dragged them away.

Martell was startled awake. He gasped for breath while holding his head. The throbbing pain in his head made him nauseous.

He was lying on a large pile of hay in a cave illuminated by a fire. Everyone else was also there, roughly scattered on the pile, except for Rhoddes, who was slumped over at the back of the cave. All of them were still unconscious.

Martell got up and saw nothing but the white and grey of a blizzard. The weather in the mountains changed at the drop of a hat, and judging by how strong the wind howled, it had been some time since it started.

He wandered over to the fire and saw that there was a large iron pot hanging over it. A fragrant smell similar to vanilla calmed his nerves and he warmed himself up by the fire.

Then he saw it, nestling on a makeshift rack, the spear of Guild Master Sabrac. He did not realize how sinister and inhuman the weapon really was when he was being ragdolled by it. But now, he could see how scary it was, and scarier still the man wielding it.

He was won over by curiosity and was about to touch it when a gruffy voice stopped him.

“Don’t touch it. Your skin’ll be burn off from the lightning it’s holding inside,” Sabrac placed the firewood in his arms near the fire and brushed off the snow that had built up on his shoulders. “You’re the first one that wakes up. It seems that your Skill had protected you from the brunt of the attack.”

The man sat in front of him and ladled the light brown liquid from the pot into a wooden bowl and gave it to him. The smell was fragrant, but as he sipped it, it was astringent and bitter.

“It’s made of pine bark. Very bitter, but will clear your head up, especially after a mental attack of that level,” the old man said as he also ladled himself a bowl. “What’s your name, boy?”

“Martell, Sir. Martell Lobelia.”

“Not a Beastfolk name, that one.”

“Yes. You are right. My Hut-Ner isn’t that interesting.”

“Haha, alright,” Sabrac smirked as he saw the rebellious spark in the boy’s eyes. “Heh, you’ve lived a hard life, haven’t you? I can see it in your eyes,” the man said as he touched his neck with a wry smile.

“I have been…more unfortunate than most, but also…more fortunate than most could hope.”

“Ah,” the man nodded, his eyes staring at him. “Is that why you’re still wearing that unenchanted collar?”

“I wore this to remind myself of my gratitude towards her. As for the contract, my Mistress ripped it as soon as she got it.”

“Hah, you were freed of one chain only to let yourself be restrained by another,” the old man said sarcastically.

“It is a chain I willingly took on,” Martell replied perfunctorily. “Not everyone can be an Unrestrained.”

Sabrac received the jab with a hearty chuckle. “Bah, that just means everyone else just haven’t the balls to go as far as I did,” he finished his tea with a dramatic glug and leaned close to Martell. “But I’m more interested in what I saw you did. Boy, who is your Master? The one who taught you that Skill that made the image of a Lotus appear?”

“I…wait…” Martell looked at Sabrac with a barely concealed surprise. “A lotus is a flower that does not exist in Grea,” he started slowly. “But…you know of it, Guild Master.”

“Indeed. The Rokudo Temple was founded by an Otherworlder who we called The Enlightened One. His teachings are deep and profound. One of the many relics that he left us is a Lotus Bell. A symbol of purity, in the shape of something that does not exist.”

“…” Martel did not know how to answer. How could he? For his Master had died many years before he was even born. However, this old man seemed to be attached to the notion of my connection with the temple, maybe I can use this. “…My Master…is a secretive one. He never told me where he came from.”

“Ah, a fellow seeker of solitude,” contrary to his expectations, Sabrac received his non-answer to be sufficient.

“Ugh…”

Sabrac glanced at the large figure of Rhoddes that was shaking his head to dislodge his weariness. “Hm, it seems your fellows have begun to rouse. We shall continue this later.”

After all of them had a good bowl of bitter tea in their hands, they sat awkwardly around the fire.

“Guild Master Sabrac,” Akira tried to break the silence with a trembling voice. “Is the reason you refused to move…”

“Yes,” the man answered without letting him finish the question. “At first, I just want to beat you all to the edge, just to teach you a lesson. I did not expect it to reactivate so soon.”

“Well, you really did beat us black and blue. But what’s up there isn’t normal, is it? It even managed to hurt an Unrestrained Candidate with just a screech!” Nick said angrily. “And what’ll you do if we all got affected by it?”

“I’ll just make all of you faint and throw you all out at the edge of the forest. The effect of it will disappear as soon as you get out of the area.”

“H-how could you do that?” Hannah could not help but blurt out her words once she heard that she was going to be manhandled like a sack of potato. “Don’t you have manners?”

“I reserve my manners to those who treat me with respect,” Sabrac gave his answer bluntly.

“Alright, Hannah. We’re in the wrong,” Klein said, trying to start things over. “But, Guild Master. May we know what is the thing sealed up there?”

“I agree. We need to know if it’s something dangerous. Perhaps we can help,” Donovan added.

“Yes. Anything!” Akira chimed in helpfully.

The man chuckled harshly at their enthusiasm. He wanted to do this by himself, even if they did help, they would be of no value, as they were barely qualified. But the Beastfolk boy was different. He could be of some real help. And the Hero, he might be of useful in other ways.

“You want to help, eh? That’s a good idea. We’ve got ourselves a Hero. And also, one of my junior disciples. An especially gifted one at that. It’s as if the Enlightened One had smiled upon me.”

For some reason, everyone felt that whatever he was about to say would not be a good thing.

“It’s already too late for you to back out,” Sabrac said slightly pitying the young boy who was blessed by the Lotus. “This too, will be your burden, as is the burden of those who believe in the Enlightened One.”

“What I’m about to tell you is one of the taboos in Grea, known only to those who dabbled in the ancient mysteries,” Sabrac spoke as he pointed outside the cave. “What is sealed in the shrine in this village, is a fragment of a profane being whose very existence could bring ruin to Grea,” the staunch old man lowered his voice. “It is a Fragment of Calamity.”

“A Calamity?” Martell asked, his fist clenching without him knowing. The name itself was already not a good sign.

“Yes. It is a primordial existence as old as Grea itself. It once let itself be known to an old Empire. After a desperate, hard-fought battle, they managed to chip off a fragment of it; which was then given to the Rokudo Temple for safekeeping. This is done because any living beings who got close to the fragment will be driven into a frenzy due to fear. You’ve all experienced it,” Sabrac said as he ran his fingers across his dirty bear. “But that’s not the scariest part.”

“That…wasn’t the scariest part?” Hannah asked cautiously.

“It will be faster to show you,” the man said, while taking out a bucket of milk from the Item Ring tied around his waist. “This milk was fresh before I put it into my Item Ring. Watch.”

In front of their eyes, the fresh milk began to separate; it then curdled up and started to emit a sour smell. All this happened in the span of little more than a minute. “Fresh food will also spoil within an hour if placed near the shrine. The closer we get, the faster they rot, regardless of the cold,” Sabrac said. “Imagine this happening, on the scale of a continent.”

“Famine,” Klein began, while covering his mouth in disbelief. “Shortage of food and widespread hunger in unprecedented proportions. I imagine it would not take a kingdom a month to fall in facing such a disaster.”

“You don’t have to imagine it; The Empire that fought it, fell in the hands of this Calamity in a matter of a week,” Sabrac said grimly. “And this doesn’t just affect humans. It will affect all the Races, even Demons. The Grand Abbot who saw this happened at the time, named this phenomenon…a Catastrophe Authority.”

Everyone stood horrified at this revelation. Eleanora gripped the hem of Hannah’s cape to seek comfort while the others gazed at the sour smelling milk with distress. This taboo secret was a knowledge that they don’t have any capability of handling.

“How…many of them exists now, Guild Master?” Rhoddes asked. This knowledge shook him.

“…There is only one known existence of Calamity in Grea,” the old man replied. “But there could be more, we don’t know. The one that we know of seems content to seclude itself far from the reaches of mortals. However, as of late, things have changed. The Fragment of Calamity that is in the process of being purified here has begun to become active once again. That’s why I’m here, to make sure that if worst comes to worst, then I’d be there to stop it.”

He looked at them with unwavering eyes.

“If not, then I’ll die trying.”

“I…” Akira held his head in shame. “Forgive me, Guild Master. If only I’d known!”

“Don’t worry about that. Like I said, you’re all involved now,” the man said, as he moved uncomfortably close to Akira’s face. “So, are you ready to die for your belief…Sakagami Akira, Hero of Calendia?”