The Three Catastrophes of the Fallen Lands
Beings whose terror is equal to, if not greater than, that of the Hollows, entities that were among the main contributors to what the Fallen Lands have beco today.
The number of events that had shaped those lands into its current state was enormous, but among the primary culprits, these three catastrophes stood above the rest.
The Calamity Dragon, also known as The King of Dragon.
The White Dread, one of the first beings to have terrorized the entire world. A creature that had already perished in the Age of Gods, yet whose influence persisted till this day, through the veil of black clouds that covered part of the Fallen Lands’ sky, clouds from which fell black snow, ash-like, capable of killing any being beneath a certain level.
The Crawling Plague, If the first brought pure destruction, and the second a slow one, then this one brought destruction that spread. Of the three, it was the most insidious, always striking when least expected, and every victim it claid carried entire cities with it, never stopped completely.
No one knows its current location; only the coordinates of places it visited are known, and those are now re remnants of what once existed.
With one dead and one lost to the unknown, only the Calamity Dragon remained, and as far as anyone knew, it had gone into slumber many centuries ago, after the Age of Gods ca to an end. It hadn’t been sighted since, but even so, the most powerful beings in the world had a rough idea of where it was sleeping, and had done everything possible to ensure it was never disturbed. The last thing anyone needed was a walking calamity deciding to wander the world.
Until now, all had gone well, and a certain peace had been maintained. But two weeks ago, the site where the Calamity Dragon was believed to be resting was leveled, and for a brief mont, a powerful presence had erged from it before vanishing.
The news had sent all six kingdoms into a panic, everyone asking what could possibly have caused this. They had ensured no one had gone near the site, which made it clear this wasn’t the work of an outsider, most likely, the dragon itself had destroyed the place. In other words, the dragon had awakened.
And as far as anyone understood, whenever it awakened, sothing extrely bad was about to follow.
At this very mont, the head of the academy could sense an oppressive presence moving forward from the Fallen Lands toward the Solren Kingdom.
It didn’t take much to understand who it was. And it was anything but good news.
No one knew what business the Calamity Dragon had with them, but in any case, depending on how things went, this kingdom could face a serious catastrophe.
While the world held its breath for what was about to co, in a cave deep in the Greystone Forest, a figure sat quietly, roasting what appeared to be an enormous animal leg over an open fire.
Given the sheer size of the thing, the animal it had co from was almost certainly massive, but the person cooking it didn’t seem particularly impressed by that detail. If anything, he seed entirely absorbed in their own world.
It was Evan, of course, who, after leaving the city with Luna, had taken temporary shelter here.
He had found the spot so ti ago while hunting a few E-Rank beasts. It was slightly deeper into the forest, in an area where E-Rank creatures road more freely, many of them mid-stage with several at peak. Far enough from the city, and with an average power level that both he and Luna could handle without too much trouble.
Luna was lying on a makeshift bed nearby, close to the fire, asleep while she recovered.
About five hours had passed since they had co here, and she had been in that state the whole ti, but he wasn’t particularly worried. He knew that girl’s capabilities better than anyone, and he could already tell that the void energy inside her had begun doing its work, repairing the internal damage at a rate that would have made anyone doubt their own eyes.
At this pace, she would recover before long. And once she did, the two of them would figure out what to do next.
The battle had been brutal, and while most of those who had seen their faces had been more or less eliminated, a handful were still alive. As far as they were concerned, he was dead. Luna, on the other hand, was still known to be alive.
Finding her with the little information they had wouldn’t be easy, but it was still better to stay alert.
He had pulled his clone back at the last mont, when the pressure being exerted on it by that Elite had suddenly spiked, the intention behind it unmistakably clear: eliminate him. As far as that person was concerned, assuming they had survived the fight against the Abyss creature, he was already dead. Learning anything more about him would be near impossible.
He had never gave too much info about himself to the Association, and the sa went for his hunting habits. Finding any real information on him would be next to impossible for them.
While preparing himself a quick snak, he had been going through the system notifications he had ignored earlier.
[Congratulations! You have killed a D-Rank (Mid-Stage) Awakened.]
[You have gained 1,500 ESS]
Evan had felt a considerable surge of strength when he killed Darius, but he certainly hadn’t expected that amount of ESS all at once.
’It usually takes at least four advanced stage E-Rank beasts to earn this much, and to think I got all of it at once, from a stolen kill no less,’ he thought, both surprised and imdiately curious about whether he could actually exploit this going forward.
When he killed while inside his clone’s body, the ESS was divided between him and the clone in percentages that varied depending on who had taken control, but that didn’t seem to apply when he made the kill directly himself, without using the clone.
On top of that, Darius had been nearly killed by Luna before he finished him off, and yet he appeared to have received the full ESS rather than just a portion. Did that an he could exploit this to generate significantly more ESS in the future?
Luna’s rank was increasing due to the corruption of the Void Energy inside her, making her stronger without suffering the negative effects that would normally occur. With him involved, the harmful part had been suppressed, leaving only the benefits.
So in a sense, he was simply helping her along, wasn’t he?
That was the reasoning he had settled on to keep his conscience clean about the whole matter, but setting that aside, with this absurd amount of ESS all at once, he had now surpassed his clone, if only slightly.
While his ability set was limited to a single skill, that one ability was exceptionally powerful, especially after he had ranked it up two days ago, when he had finally gathered ten Advanced-Stage E-Rank mana cores.
Spending all of them at once had felt like a needle through his chest, but the ability’s effects had grown considerably stronger, and the number of marks he could create had risen from one to two, no small thing, considering the damage he could inflict in battle with that.
His strength had grown, and so had his arsenal.
He was certain that fighting an Advanced-Stage E-Rank beast now wouldn’t put him through the sa ordeal it had the last ti.
’Hmm. I wonder where I should go from here,’ he thought, as the map of the Kingdom of Solren ca to mind.
He had never ventured beyond the city of Lirath, but he had seen the kingdom’s map more than once, and had bought one recently, just in case it proved useful.
He had always thought about escaping and leaving that cursed place behind, but he had never really thought about what ca after.
Lirath, being a border barony on the edge of the kingdom, was extrely isolated from the rest of the territory. To give a sense of scale, heading north from Lirath, it would take roughly two to three months by carriage, or about a month at his current maximum running speed, to reach the kingdom’s capital.
Needless to say, it was very far. And while there were settlents between Lirath and the capital, they were mostly small towns and villages. The largest city in the region comparable to Lirath’s size was about fifteen days’ travel on foot, to the northeast.
Evan didn’t have a clear destination in mind. He just wanted to leave.
Maybe wander for a while and finally see the world with his own eyes, and perhaps eventually make his way to the capital and see for himself whether it really deserved the reputation it had, spoken of like so kind of paradise in the middle of a land full of danger.
While he sat with these thoughts, Luna, who had been unconscious all this ti, finally began showing signs of waking.
Evan glanced over at her, and eventually decided to find out what plans she had.
As far as he knew, she had grown up here with her sister. Now that her sister was gone, he had no idea what she intended to do.
If she didn’t have a destination or sowhere to be, then perhaps the two of them could continue traveling together,
otherwise, they would each go their own way.
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