I was walking through a corridor in the main areas of the castle. The coarse stone and fickle lamps were replaced by smooth white walls decorated with paints and statues, all illuminated by magical crystals embedded in the ceiling. There was no hint of that damp smell or the creeping cold so common in the servant’s quarters.
The contrast made this place even more impressive, like an entirely different world just one door away. A place that existed because of our efforts, but that we would never be part of.
I wasn’t in the best mood after what had happened to Blueberry two days earlier.
It’s almost impossible to be a slave in the castle without ever feeling the kiss of the whip. Even I had received ten lashes for a minor infraction two years ago, but what Blueberry endured for an accident was utterly disproportionate.
I trusted Modesty to navigate the complex web that was the power dynamics of the castle, so if she believed it necessary to harshly punish a sweet girl over something she had no fault with, it probably was.
Nonetheless, I resented Modesty for one lie she told: It would not be over after that day. In fact, possibly the worst part for Blue was about to come.
As for Winter... I really did not want to dig there. I had my suspicions, of course, I was not blind or stupid. I had lived with her since she was brought to the castle as a terrified girl incapable of understanding a word I was saying. There were signs all around of the treatment she received from her master, but her master was the future king, and Winter was not even a Central-born slave. Allan could gut her in the middle of the market, and no one would lift a finger. There was nothing I could do for her.
What crappy friend I was…
Without realizing, I arrived at the reception hall. I took a deep breath and pushed those thoughts aside, I had work to do.
Among impeccable nobles and dignitaries, one person stood out like a sore thumb. A man with short grey beard that could really use a trim and wearing an old jacket was waiting in a bench at the side a thick bundle of papers.
“Professor Locan, what a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting you today,” I said, bowing my head.
“No? But I wrote a letter saying I was coming. Ah... here it is in my pocket,” he said, taking out a closed envelope and handing it to me. “Sorry, I forgot to post it.”
“I imagined it would be the case. When the servant told me you were here, I already asked for Prince Uther. Would you mind accompanying me?”
We walked to one of the study rooms adjacent to the Royal Archive. It was the place where Professor Locan used to tutor me and Uther not long ago. One of the perks of this room was its sound isolation, which was good for avoiding distractions during study sessions, but also meant we could talk without the fear of being overheard.
“Uther should be here shortly”. I said apologetically.
“It is fine, I need to ask you something anyway.” Locan put his bundle of papers over the table. “Anything odd happened to you twenty-two days ago?”
“Twenty-two days ago?” I made some mental calculations just to be sure, but I already suspected what it was. “I was hit by an arrow in the chest. It was bad, but when I woke up, I was completely healed.”
“You were hit by an arrow? What the heck were you doing?” He questioned me like a teacher admonishing an unruly student.
I gave him a quick rundown of what had happened. In the middle of the explanation, Uther arrived, but he did not interrupt me. In fact, he looked distracted somehow. I felt him a little strange since he received that letter from Allan a few days ago.
“You closed a diplomatic deal with a monster settlement, and after that you improvised a complex military maneuver using a troll and a pack of wolves? That was … that was impressive. I believed you would be too scared to actually use your power, but I was wrong, that was very proactive of you.”
I blushed a little and let escape a hint of a smile. It was so rare for me to be praised in such a direct way that I did not know how to respond. So, I took the coward’s way and deflected with a question:
“How did you know that something had happened to me?”
“It is because of this!” Professor Locan theatrically unfolded a big sheet of paper and put it over the table.
Me and Uther looked at several sets of numbers and diagrams for long instants.
“You know those numbers mean nothing to us, right?” Uther reminded the professor.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Oh … yes, sorry. This really needs some explanation.
“There is a professor at the academy who is kind of my frenemy, but I must admit that despite her flaws – and there are many – she is very talented. Dahlia Lancaster developed a sensor capable of measuring the tension in the membrane that separates the Abyss and our world. Well, it is not an actual membrane, just a mathematical model she devised, but bear with me.
“Her goal is to find a way to predict where and when gates will spawn monsters so we can prepare accordingly. Her theory is that the tension in that membrane builds up over time, causing it to tear and create gates. These gates bring monsters, which in turn lower the tension.
“Are you two following?”
“Yes. Stuff happens and monsters appear,” Uther summarized.
Locan sighed and continued, pointing at a string of numbers.
“This is the peak tension measured each day. See these values? 129, 129, 130, 130, 9876, 0. Look at this value, over 9000! This is like someone measuring waves in a lake, and suddenly a castle is thrown in the middle of it. That happened 22 days ago, the day you recovered,” Locan said directly to me.
“There is one more thing: During the siege, Lancaster was too busy acting as strategic artillery to check her sensors. However, later she was able to recover partial data from one. Given everything that was happening at the time, she believed it was a measurement error and had forgotten about it until now. Look at this…”
In another sheet of paper, he pointed at a string of numbers that had a similar pattern: 13, 14, 14, 9999+, 0, 0.
“This anomaly occurred on the 5th day of the siege. We all know what happened that day.”
It was the day I accidentally killed the Armored Sorcerer and caused a contradiction to appear, triggering the destruction of three artifacts and transferring to me the power of the Seal of the Forgotten Gods. Basically, the day all this mess started.
“But what does that mean?” I asked, confused.
“I have some suspicions, but I don’t want to say anything prematurely. I need to investigate your condition in detail. Because of that, I am making some adjustments to the machine I used on you to be able to copy your interface with the rule in full so I can decode it. But this will take time—a lot of time—and we have a more pressing concern.
“This last anomaly caused a localized rupture in the membrane, and all the tension was released to bring one creature to our world,” Locan said, taking a deep breath and carefully uttering, “Based on the level of tension released in this event, there is a good probability that the creature is one of the Cataclysms.”
Any sense of levity in the room just died. Uther, that up until now was only half-heartedly listening, inclined forward. “Are you sure?” he asked with a grave expression.
“No, this theory is new, and a Cataclysm has not gated in centuries, but I have some contact with the Guild. They issued a quest to investigate a possible gate near Ironwall. They sent two seasoned parties; both went missing without any clue. The south is still full of monsters, so this could be a coincidence. But if this is a Cataclysm… we need to act now, this may be our only chance to contain it. Me and Dahlia will go to Ironwall to search for this creature, and I would like you two to accompany us.”
***
The Shadow Warlord, The Endless Swarm, The Last Titan, The All-consuming Deceiver, The Frost Phoenix, The Eye of the Abyss, just to name a few.
We always refer to the Continental Empire as the Old Empire, but the world is much, much older than that, and has told many stories before ours. Civilizations that ruled the world and fell to legend; races that dominate and are now extinct.
But in all those stories, there were some recuring characters. The Abyss was always a foreboding presence, and among its many denizens, there were a few that were considered the world’s main antagonists.
There was very little that unified that group except for their immortality and individual power that could rival that of an entire nation. They shared the intractable nature of a ground splitting earthquake or an exploding volcano, so they were aptly named The Cataclysms.
And now, I was asked to hunt one of those.
Going to a region infested with monsters during winter to search for one of those legendary beings... That would be a hard pass, except for one small detail: It was my fault.
Somehow, my recovery brought this monster to our world. Every person it killed would be my sin. I would be the source of misery and suffering that I was determined not to become.
“You think the power of the Seal will work on this creature?” I asked with my head down.
“It possibly will. The Seal was lost before the rise of the Old Empire, but there are legends from the Elders of the holder of the Seal commanding the Cataclysms.” Replied Professor Locan scratching his beard.
“Central faced the Cataclysms a couple of times before as summons. We mostly tried to buy time until the spell runs its course. But a gated one is here to stay, and if we don’t know the one we are dealing with, we can’t even plan countermeasures.” Uther commented, shaking his head. “We could lose the south for good...”
“Can’t we summon a Cataclysm to fight this one?” I suggested.
“Summoning a Cataclysm falls under a category called Strategic Spell Class III, the most restricted spells we have,” Locan explained. “It also requires special conditions, takes time to cast, and needs a ridiculous amount of mana. This mana should be supplied by an expensive array of high-purity mana crystals, but mass sacrifice would do the trick and was considered more cost effective by the Old Empire. This is why this kind of magic is not as common anymore.”
“Sometimes I wonder why people praise the Old Empire so much...” I mumbled.
“This is why I need you two, especially you, Gift. We are prepared to fight it, if need be, but our chances of victory are not exactly inspiring. If your power can avoid a battle, that would be the best outcome.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, not because I needed to think, my decision had already been made, but because saying it would make it real.
“I will go. I mean, if Master allows it, I would like to go.”
Uther nodded and added enthusiastically: “Well, professor, you can count us in. Let’s hunt a Cataclysm!”
I would love to say that I was doing that out of courage, or due to a sense of responsibility to the country, or even empathy for the people from the south. I would love to see myself as a good and heroic woman, but I knew deep down what my true reason was.
It was fear.
The fear of looking at a mountain of corpses and knowing it was my fault. The fear of a guilt so great that it would crush me. The fear of being again in that courtyard near the library, unable to do anything as my world crumbles around me.
It was a small and selfish reason, but if that was what I had to take a step forward, so be it.
