How To Survive A Calamity

Alexander crumpled to his knees, the weight of his heavy body pressing down on him.

"Haah...haah..."

His hands hung loosely and vlood trickled down the sides as he held the hilt of his chipped sword loosely. Alexander's shoulders continued to rise and fall as he breathed deeply.

Each breath he took felt like a tug from inside.

Next to him, close by, Trise was groaning against the ground, coughing up her insides mixed with blood.

Her skin was bruised, marred with cuts and ugly dark spots. Her shot black bobbed hair was a completely mess, and her eyes were vain with pain and dark.

Tears streaming down her face as ger body trembled.

The orange haired Chelsea was embedded deeply in a wall.

Massive twisting cracks spread out from behind her back against the surface from impact.

Her hair fell over her face and her head was lowered.

Chelsea's figure remained still and unmoving. Her steel spear was sprawled against the ground at her feet.

Deep groves and cracks, fine scars of battle and struggle littered the environment.

Portions of the wide walls and pieces of the tall ceilings were scattered all around.

The air was putrid with the smell of blood.

Alexander's ghostly blue eyes...

—they were vain and empty.

Lightless and lifeless.

His dried, crack lips parted slightly.

"... No...more..."

A hoarse voice left his lips.

How long has it been?

How many times had he been forced to see the same thing? Watch the same scene over and over.

The persistent image of the scene from before continued to flash through his mind and vision and his mind continued to cool.

In front of Alexander, he heard the sound of a foot step.

-Tak.

"You're persistent." Nicodemus sneered.

His deep, lightless black eyes gazed with ill hidden contempt and irritation at Alex's kneeling figure.

Alexander's eyes flickered slightly and he raised his head to meet the sinister figure, weakly parting his lips in the process.

"Nico..."

Hos expression was pale and lost, it was wistful and drained.

Nicodemus now stood before Alexander, looking even more different than he did before.

His already pale skin had turned whiter, and the dark rising bumps against his forehead and protruded even more.

In one eye, there was a dark red point nestled in the black emptiness of his gaze. Dark outreaching veins like black tendrils spread across his neck and face from his shoulders and below.

Nicodemus's figure was shrouded in an undulating and constantly billowing wave of darkness forming shapeless, sinister forms.

They moved behind his back to one side, often shifting between the makeshift unbalanced form of a pitch black wing before dissolving back to its original shapeless form of living darkness.

In Nicodemus's thoroughly blackened fingers that ended with sharp, long claws, was the black book.

In the other, was a blood red gem that was glowing ominously.

Something seemed to swirl and shift around it, drawn into it as the gem absorbed the light.

It's crimson glow deepening ominously.

Nicodemus's cold white face made Alexander's eyes to flicker once more and his expression slowly came alive.

His brows furrowed and Alexander gritted his teeth as he forced himself to weakly rise.

Alex had learned a couple of things since facing Nicodemus after retreating from the Sand Dragon.

And for one —

"Nico...!"

— he had to get that Red Gem.

Alexander strained to his feetz swaying in the process and bit his lips to dispell his unusual listless state and lunged forward immediately, raising his sword.

He knew his condition was something that was all in his head — Nicodemus... the Demon had constantly proven to have insidious insidious skills and abilities that were adept at manipulating the mind and inciting one's emotions and reactions using mere utterances from his voice.

It was like that how Alexander, Chelsea and Trise had repeatedly fell pathetic victims over and over again — having their minds twisted and their natures turned against each other.

It was.... draining.

He growled and his eyes glowed with intensity — trying to.

Nicodemus's sneering expression became more aghast as the tattered figure of Alexander lunged at him — yet again.

His irritation was quickly increasing and his ill patience was running thin even more faster.

The frustrating white haired boy just refused to stay down, no matter how many times he put him to his knees.

And so...

"Nico!!"

"Alex!!"

The two roared as they prepared to collide, their intentions brewing into the surroundings around them.

—Alexander's eyes glinted ferociously.

The black matter ebbing around Nicodemus surged alive, enshrouding his figure like a bottomless cocoon.

-SWOOSHH~

Then inky black hands with seven clawed fingers — some five and eight — sprouted out of the misty shadows and tore through the air at their targets.

The varying number's of fingers and palms each ending with sinister black claws and talons spread out, ripping through space and distance to grasp at Alexander.

Alexander's figure briefly halted at the sight of hands manifested from darkness, and pivoted sharply on one heel.

The blade of his sword flashed forward in a fluid torrent of cold ruthless steel, severing the first three limbs that reached the closest to him first, bent for a diagonal slash and took the next two coming for his sides with a grunt.

Alas, Alexander was but one tired, drained and exhausted man — his mind slowed down by the insidious effects of Nicodemus's abilities that still continued to plague him even as he moved — he failed to react properly in time, and one of the clawed black hands dug deeply into the back of his thigh, and another, struck painfully at his exposed other side.

-Splusshh~

"Aargh!!"

Blood spurted deeply from the wounds, causing the white haired Cadet to grunt painfully and genuflect.

Another black hand shoved Alexander in the shoulder during that moment causing him to sway backwards and fumble his center of gravity and defence.

Alexander was left wide open in the process, and a ninth and last hand — one much larger and imposing with a wider palm and longer fingers this time — thrust into his centre and grabbed him by the ribs before shoving him the entire way across the room.

-BOOM!

Alexander ruthlessly crashed into a wall and a painful tremor rocked through his body and dislocated his bones and joints.

Blood rose from his insides and up his throat and his eyes rolled back.

For a moment, Alexander saw stars swirling above his head as his consciousness threatened to fade one second.

—And the next he felt suffocating pain squeeze at him from around his chest.

"Heik--!!"

—Crunch~

Alexander gasped and the sound of crushing bones that painfully resonated in his ears.

His eyes widened to their extremity.

And the next moment.

—Crunh~

Alexander screamed.

"Aarrggghhh!!!"