Chapter 26: The Lord of Calamity
While purifying she saw Landon still ordering men even though the battle was over.
"What? Really? Really? He's still going at it?" Rose exclaimed.
"Go! Exterminate every last one of them! Don't let a single one escape!" Landon ordered.
"General! There's no point to this the battle's over!" Rose shouted.
"Hmph! The Shepherd, as much as a naïve dumbass as you expect." Said Ladon.
"Well fuck you too." Said Rose. Landon's nostrils flaired out but he regained his composure.
"Don't you know? The more rats we kill the less they'll have next time." He said in a mocking tone.
"And then what? You'll cross the border to kill civilians to make sure they don't produce more soldiers?" Rose asked.
"Don't give him any ideas." Said Edna.
"I don't see why not." Said Landon. "The less assets the enemy has the faster we'll win."
"Fuck. I wasn't being serious! That is completely unnecessary not to mention overkill!" Said Rose.
"Oh come now Shepherd, you made it so you can create this rout. Show more pride!" He said followed by a laugh. Rose grit her teeth and growled.
"You better remember you promise to forgive Sergei and Boris's charges and release Mary Jane." She said through her teeth. He gave her a slimy smile and walked away, with his back turned to her Rose flipped him off.
"Good sweet mother of Maotelus he's a piece of shit." Said Dezel.
"Which is why I'm giving him the bird." Said Rose.
"Stop that." Said Mikleo. "But regardless it wouldn't matter how many hellions we purify at this rate."
"Right. Which is why we should just ditch this place and wait for this to calm down." Said Edna.
"Kay …" Shrugged Rose. "Let's go." While walking out she felt a powerful surge of malevolence that stopped her heart for a moment and had her spit up blood getting it all over herself and the ground in front of her. She collapsed to the ground grabbing her chest and coughing.
"Rose!" Dezel cried then going up to her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm on the ground, my chest hurts, and I just puked up a good quarter of my own blood. What the fuck do you think?" Growled Rose.
"Yeah you're still swearing like a sailor, you're good." Said Dezel.
"Fuck you!" Said Rose.
"This domain …" Said Edna. "I've never felt something like this before."
"No kidding." Said Mikleo.
"What's going on here?" Edna asked as she looked up seeing a mass of malevolence clustered there where soldiers fought. They fought more brutally, which lead to soldiers stabbing their own allies. "The humans are starting lose their minds. What could produce this much malevolence?" At that time Muse's words on the Lord of Calamity and she struggled up the left side of her face caked in bloody mud.
"Edna … do you remember … what Muse said about times like these?" She asked.
"That the amount of malevolence during these times is caused by …" She started. Her eyes widened. "You don't mean …? Shit!" Mikleo and Dezel looked at the two women absolutely confused.
"Yep. I think …" She breathed "I think this domain is made by the … Lord of Calamity." Said Rose finally standing up.
"Who?" Dezel asked.
"Long story short the main source of malevolence during times of shit." Said Edna.
"We … we need to try to stop it." Said Rose and she stumbled over to a path that looked like it would lead to the top of the bluff.
"Are you nuts?" Mikleo exclaimed. "If you're dealing with something or someone that emits this much malevolence after collapsing you're gonna die!"
"Well I have to do something! You're in danger of getting corrupted here!" Said Rose.
"At least run if things get bad!" Dezel called.
"Yeah yeah, I will." Rose called back.
"Yeah. Typical." Edna sighed as the seraphim went back into her. While on the path a huge ass sword swung down but she jumped out of the way before it could chop her in half.
"Gah! Fuck!" She shouted.
"Rose!" Dezel shouted.
"I'm okay." She said. The blade swung again and she rolled out of the way while getting a look at the source of the blade to see a large grey beast with a purple eye and in a familiar General's uniform. "Landon?"
"So Shepherd, you're planning of jeprodizing my glorious victory aren't you?" He asked.
"Hey! You have that without virtually holding me with a knife at my neck!" Rose snapped back.
"Regardless it is as stupid as the rest of the things you do." Said Landon. "Now stand up! The council might see you useful but they'll reconsider once I deliver your severed head!" He then lunged at her and tried to slice her in half but she ducked out of the way. Dezel materialized and whipped a pendulum at Landon's leg and tried to pull it out from under him. However he shrugged it off and stepped forward breaking the pendulum.
"Fuck…" Dezel growled. Landon turned his head and whacked him with the hilt of the blade.
"What the hell are you two doing?" Mikleo exclaimed. "We need to just run and get out of here."
"Yeah about that, in case you haven't noticed there's berserk asshole trying to cleave me!" Said Rose.
"That doesn't mean go in and fight it right after lying on the ground after puking up a lot of your blood! I mean look at you you've gotten so much paler!" Exclaimed Mikleo.
"Not to mention that Landon is basically a total hellion." Said Edna.
"Well it's not like he's gonna let us leave … Guard Decay!" Dezel shouted creating an aura that put cracks into Landon's armor with Rose going in from the side and whacking one of the cracks with the back of her knife causing it to split open before she had to back away so that Landon doesn't do the same with her very squishy self. She backed away to scan the bodies on the battle field until she managed to spot a knife sticking out from one of them.
"Dezel, can you distract him for a little bit?" Rose asked.
"What?" Dezel asked back.
"I'm gonna try something that is likely gonna be very stupid but I need to grab a third knife." Said Rose.
"Are you gonna do that thing you tried against Sorey?" Edna asked.
"Yeah I mean it's a long shot as I haven't really worked on it since the fight with Sorey." Said Rose. "But I need to get to that knife."
"Okay … please hurry I have a broken pendulum and all my seraphic artes take time to cast." Said Rose.
"Um … can one of you two help him out?" Rose asked as she turned around and sprinted towards the knife.
"… Well let's not have everyone come out at once." Sighed Mikleo before he materialized and ran up to hit Landon with his staff. Rose sprinted over and removed the knife from its sheath and she ran over to Dezel and Mikleo with the latter defending himself from Landon's sword while Dezel casted a seraphic arte and gave Mikleo quick bursts of healing after receiving a rather heavy blow. Rose ran forward while tossing up two of her knives then slashing Landon with her remaining one then tossed it up. However instead of a different knife falling into her hand all of them fell behind her.
"Oh goddammit." Said Rose then jumping back grabbing a knife then throwing it at Landon. However Landon whacked it aside breaking it.
"What the hell was that Shepherd?" Landon taunted. "That was pathetic!"
"Oh you don't say." Rose growled picking up her knives and went over to where Mikleo and Dezel were. "Okay new plan do either of you think you can render him immobile?" Rose asked.
"I need two pendulums for that but one of them broke." Dezel reminded.
"Yeah, though … judging from his size I need you two to buy time and keep him from moving around so much." Said Mikleo.
"I think I can do that." Said Rose. She then rushed up to Landon while keeping low to the ground then stabbed her knives into the insides of his legs.
"Ugh!" Landon grunted staggering almost falling to his knees.
"Vengent Fangs!" Dezel shouted using the arte to leave Landon breathless while Rose got up in his face and started stabbing more exposed parts on Landon causing him to growl and curse while he didn't notice the ice forming around his ankles and slowly anchoring him to the ground. Rose kept an eye on the ground making sure Landon wasn't moving his feet too much and avoided attacking there and prayed to god that he didn't catch on to what she was doing. The process of Rose attacking Landon and Dezel casting seraphic artes on him went on until the two were just about ready to collapse.
"Oh? Did the Shepherd get tired?" Landon taunted. "Guess you're not this all powerful savior everyone makes you out to be but just a silly little girl in a silly outfit that stole a sword. Thank you for providing such convincing proof that you're not as useful as the council originally thought." He raised his blade above his head and tried to take a step forward but it never happened. "What the ...?" Rose smirked as she got behind Landon then got up on him "What are you … get off of me!" She grabbed onto his uniform with one hand then whacked him at the base of his skull with her dagger letting out an unsettling crack.
'Uh oh …' Rose thought.
"You … little … bitch!" Landon hissed as he collapsed to the ground. However unlike every other time he didn't turn back to normal.
"What? It's not disappearing!" Rose exclaimed.
"With this much malevolence it looks like that not even purification would work on even minor hellions." Said Mikleo. "We might need to try to take out the source."
"Good luck." Said Edna. "From what we can figure the Lord of Calamity is a powerful being."
"Well we're gonna have to try to get rid of it." Said Rose. "Otherwise this battle won't end."
"Good luck. Seriously." Said Edna. "But if I were you I would hurry to that cliff."
"Right." Said Rose before running to where the malevolence was centered. As she went up it became more chaotic as allies were stabbing each other and tearing each other apart and there were more obvious hellions as they continued. She stopped when she saw a rather large humanoid figure whose head, hands, and feet, were lionesque in appearance primarily black and purple with a golden mane and the seraphim came out. "You're …"
"Oh. So you came." The figure said turning around Rose shuttered at the glimpse at his cold yellow eyes. "Your weapon was very effective even though I had my doubts. They were proven wrong as Hyland went to rather desperate measures to take out the snipers, using the Shepherd of all people." Rose looked around her to see who he was talking to. Then looked at him trying to hide her confusion. "Oh now here are some familiar faces. How have you been Gabriel, Muse? I gotta say, you two honestly aged pretty well with it being over twenty years since I last saw you two." Dezel tilted his head and Mikleo flinched.
"How do you …?" Mikleo started. He looked shocked for a bit then he started to laugh.
"Oh my mistake." He said. "There's something on your face that made me mistake you for someone else. Not to mention all that." The Lord of Calamity gestured to Rose's blood soaked shepherd's cape.
"I know." Said Rose. The Lord of Calamity chuckled.
"Someone like you of all people stumbled into the role of Shepherd." He said. "Frightened?"
"No …" Rose lied.
"Sure." Said the Lord of Calamity "You know it's a fool's error to charge in here. Then again I guess every Shepherd is a fool just trying to avoid a rigged game with death." Rose's eyes widened and her mouth slightly opened in an expression that just screamed 'Shit shit shit shit shit!'
"H-Hephsin Yulind!" She shouted armatizing with her prime lord.
"Rose?" Dezel and Mikleo questioned going back into her. He smirked witnessing the Shepherd transform then charge at him going to punch him. The Lord of Calamity knocked the hovering fist out of the way and grabbed Rose's wrist. Rose panicked and struggled to get out of his grasp while dangling in the air.
"How cute." Said the Lord of Calamity "Your purity and your absolute stupidity manage to make you a bit of a conundrum. All the more fun for any vindictive god to toy with." The Lord of Calamity felt something hit him in the back. He turned his head. "And you have a friend with you I see. Heh, adorable." He then tossed her over his shoulder which sent her flying straight into another person with the shock of it all causing her to dearmatize with Edna when she landed. Lying down she saw a rather familiar mask and she then got up.
"Sorey? What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Boss asked me to keep an eye on you and keep you from getting killed." He said rather bluntly.
"In hindsight you probably should've stayed back boy, as well …" The Lord of Calamity said gesturing to the two "it didn't help you." He then started walking forward to the two humans and the seraph. Edna retreated into Rose and the other two scooted back as he got closer. He then let out a roar which created a strong field of malevolence that knocked the two further back and Rose felt like something went through her which caused her to throw up.
"Hey! Are you all right?" Sorey asked. After a few dry heaves and coughs Rose whipped the edge of her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Yeah." Said Rose.
"Listen well Shepherd and … random boy that probably saw everything and was stalking the Shepherd." Said the Lord of Calamity's disembodied voice.
"Hey…" Said Sorey.
"You know we have names." Said Rose.
"Good for you but I don't particularly care." Said the Lord of Calamity. "But keep this in mind, my name is Heldalf and I wonder how long you will last."
"And why should we care about your name when you obviously don't give two flying fucks for ours?" Rose asked.
"Touche." Were the last words that they heard from Heldalf after a chuckle.
"What in the world was that?" Sorey asked.
"I don't know, what do you think Edna?" Said Rose. But she got no response. "Edna?" She still got no response. "Edna? Mikleo? Dezel?" She called getting more frantic. "Guys what are you doing this isn't funny!"
"What's going on? How come we aren't hearing the seraphim?" Sorey questioned.
"Fuck! I don't know!" Rose hissed. They then heard a footstep. "Dez-!" Rose started turning until she saw a horde of malevolent soldiers slowly moving towards them like zombies. "Shit!"
"Oh god where the hell did they come from?" Sorey asked in a panicked tone.
"I don't know!" Rose exclaimed. "Run!" The two sprinted away from the horde up until they ran into another section of the horde which caused them to turn around and nearly ran off the edge of a cliff.
"Ugh! We're surrounded!" Sorey shouted.
"We're gonna have to break through!" Said Rose.
"Are you crazy? There's at least a hundred of these guys! And you're without help of the seraphim!" Sorey pointed out.
"What are you complaining about? You're assassin!" Rose shouted.
"An assassin not a juggernaut!" Sorey snapped back "I can really only handle back stabbing one person at a time before I end up overwhelmed! And can't you try getting the seraphim back by doing that fusion thing?" Rose paused to look at him for a bit.
"Hephsin Yulind!" She shouted, but nothing happened. "Hephsin Yulind!" She tried again but again, nothing. "Welp it looks like we're gonna have to jump."
"Can't you use that weapon to try to fire off like a signal for help?" Sorey asked.
"I don't have anything that could cause it to fire off!" Rose replied.
"Dammit! Ugh … there's gotta be some way we can get around them!" Said Sorey and just as he said so a horse came charging through. "… That'll work."
"Goddammit Dezel! You disappear on me and the first thing you do is steal a fucking horse!" Rose shouted.
"Save it for some other thing get on!" Sorey snapped getting on the horse. "Do you know anything about riding?"
"No!" Rose answered struggling to get on the horse. Sorey pulled her up and then they rode out trampling the stray hellionized soldier but Sorey pulled at the reins when they got the bulk of the horde. Sorey then looked over his shoulder then rode out to the cliff they were on. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Trying to get across the canyon!" Sorey replied. "Hope this works!"
"What?" Rose exclaimed. The horse jumped off the cliff but unfortunately due to the weight on it they plummeted as soon as they left the edge. Sorey and Rose screamed as they fell into the river below though the bright side is that they missed the lance that once of the hellionized Hyland soldiers by a mile.
Yes Heldalf is still the Lord of Calamity here, sorry those who are expecting for it to be someone else. Though here Heldalf may seem the most out of character out of anyone in this fic because well ... a lot of people don't like him because in the game he was a tragic yet very generic doomsday villain and in the anime he was virtually nonexistent until the end, so I plan for him to make more appearances ... and to really ham him up because I'm a bit of a sucker for hammy villains. And to be honest I don't know how an affable scenery chewing Heldalf would work out. As for who Heldalf confused Rose for and who Gabriel is, that will not come until later.