How To Survive A Calamity-Chapter 180: Final Act [1]

Alexander slashed his sword for Nicodemus's shoulder and a burst of white flames ensued.

"Aargh!"

A cry of pain quickly spat out of Nicodemus's mouth as the strange, transparent white flames burned his left shoulder and scalded his face.

He felt Alexander's sword which failed to scathe him before, slowly, and painfully bite deeper into his skin, and an intense burning sensation began to ravage him from inside.

Nicodemus grabbed Alexander's sword hand and kicked the boy in the guts to propel himself backwards — away from Alexander, and away from the flames.

'These Flames...'

The savage twisted smile on his unsettling face had been erased as the demon stumbled with part of its shoulders engulfed in flames.

Nicodemus groaned and the pages of the dark book fluttered rapidly.

—a small surge of darkness spewed out of its pages — and severed the part of his burning shoulder to the ground.

With a small groan and grunt, Nicodemus took his shoulder to get rid of the burning white flames.

'What kind are these?!' his mind raced.

A swath pf darkness flowed from his massive wing and across the back of his shoulder to restore the missing body part just as easily.

But the twisted and dark expression never left Nicodemus's faces.

'[I warned you, that boy is dangerous! Those aren't ordinary flames to hurt us, as expected of a Stigmata. Tsk, he just had to awaken now. You should have gotten rid of him quicker when you had the chance.]' Zets voice ranted in his head.

Nicodemus huffed and painted.

'I still can, right?' he said inwardly.

'With the gem, we're both still far stronger than him, i should still be able to kill him.' Nicodemus quickly made up his mind this time.

'But first.'

He snapped his head to the side and turned at Trise and Chelsea.

"[You two firsts.]"

He had had it.

Earnestly, Nicodemus would begin the extermination, starting from every available factors present.

He quickly moved, dissolving into a torrent of black mist that was more than before and travelled through the air, and instantly re-materialising before her.

Trise moved urgently as well, desperately fighting against her body's instinctual urges and reaction to cower and run.

She waved her hand and unleashed a small barrage of icicle lances through the air

The Demon — Nicodemus — simply flicked his wrist and swat aside the spells like they were a bug anx continued his advance, unimpeded.

Then Nicodemus lunged forward with a swift and sudden spring in his step and grabbed the young girl's neck, raising her up into the air.

His deep black and glowing red eyes peered deeply into her's as he scowled.

Just then, the air ruffled as a stream of fire billowed.

Silver flashed as Alexander's blade cleaved apart the air—

—and severed off Nicodemus's wrist that held Trise in the process.

"[Argh!]" Nicodemus let out a pained groan and growled.

He moved his large wing ruthlessly and swat Alexander off to the side with tremendous force before retreating backwards once more.

His severed wrist at the point of the cut was covered by a pale layer of white flames that burned endlessly. The black book hovered mysteriously in the air next to him as it continued to spew miasma.

'I noticed this before but it's not regenerating.' Nicodemus scowled with a twisted expression of pain as he looked at his severed arm.

'[It's the mysterious flame, be wary of it.]' Zets said then added,

'[Cut it off.]'

Using his wing, without a word more, Nicodemus sliced off his arm at the point the white flame continued to burn and regenerated the entire limb from its newly severed part.

At the same time...

—"Cough!"

Alexander spat out a mouthful of blood as he stumbled to rise to his feet.

Red blood poured down his forehead and drenched his face and his eyes were hazy and unfocused.

He rose unsteadily to his feet, gripping the hilt of his sword which had shattered and broken.

At the last minute before he was smashed away by Nicodemus's wing, Alex had raised his sword to block and mitigate some of the force, causing the already chipped blade to shatter instantly.

"Huff... huff..."

The sound of Alexander's slow, uneven and shallow breath filled his ears and he could hear his heartbeat pounding slowly behind his broken chest and rib bones.

The spots of white flames all over his body had been extinguished.

Now Alexander just stood, swaying — a broken man.

Nicodemus huffed, growling under his breath as he straightened up and stood tall.

The massive wing behind his back spread wider.

"[It's about time we finished this.]"

As Nicodemus straightened and declared, he raised his right hand forward, where the pulsing dark red energy still gathered.

He stood still at the center, in between Alex, and Chelsea and Trise, as the red energy began to grow larger and increase in size.

"No..."

Foggy darkness spewed out from the pages of the dark book hovering in the air next to Nicodemus. Then they surged like dark tides, filling the edges and sides of the chamber as black chains sprouted from within them.

The onyx links lunged at the cadets as if they had a life of their own.

Alexander quickly snapped out of his drowsy reverie and re-firmed the grip of his broken sword.

He swerved quickly to the side, evading some of the chains that suddenly lunged at him from one direction and twisted.

He stumbled on his unsteady feet as a result, almost hitting the ground, but just as swiftly recomposed his balance.

—Clank Clank Clank.

A second wave of black chains rattle at him as a result.

Alexander side stepped, swerved and parried with his broken blade.

Then his gaze, partially dyed red from blood, locked unto Nicodemus's figure at the center as the sole of his feet Ignited with resplendent white flames that melted the solid hard ground underneath.

Alexander channelled whatever little Aura he had left in his body at his feet and lunged swiftly at him.

The chains were persistent and continued to home in on him.

But Alexander, with enough struggle on his part, ignored the rattling links made of darkness and pressed forward desperately before Nicodemus could accomplish whatever he set out to do at that moment.

But it was to no avail.

The chains of darkness succeeded in gaining on Alex and wrapping around his legs and and the rest of his body.

"Khh!"

As soon as the black, lustreless links touched his skin, Alexander felt the rest of his meager energy, instantly sap away.

The next moment, he lost the strength in his legs and knees.

Then the second moment, Alexander was suddenly plagued by a myriad of sudden emotions that boiled from deep inside of him.

He suddenly found himset losing control of his thoughts, feelings, emotion and rationality.

"Ahhh!!"

—Alexander felt rage boil from the depths of his bowels.

—He felt unbridled fear and dread crawl across the surface of his skin like a thousand matching ants.

—Sadness engulfed his mind like a rolling sea of flames.

—His stomach churned as he felt nauseous and the world seemed to twist and flip over on itself.

—Desperation clawed its way into his eyes.

Alex felt pain, confusion, joy and sorrow, a whole gallery of different emotions and sensations that flooded his senses and shattered his thoughts.

The mysterious chains were diabolical, insidiously shattering his mind and thoughts, bit by bit, like broken fragments of glass.

-Clang Clang Clang!

And the chains kept wrapping around him almost endlessly, tying him down from multiple directions in a cacaphony of dark clangours.

The pressure and influence continued to mount in his mind.

Alexander was already tired, wounded, broken, and exhausted at this point in time.

—the white haired boy quick succumbed to the crushing, overwhelming weight of having his emotion run wild like uncaged, hungry beasts and fell to his knees.

The broken sword slipped from his loosened grip, and the bright white sparks that illuminated his eyes was snuffed out swiftly, feeling his gaze with an empty, hollow, darkness that was vague and spiralling.

Alexander's eyes gradually became lightless, loosing their earlier sharp, bright and warm luster.

—and then the air rumbled.

Nicodemus's expression burst into powerful energy that made literal space to tremble.

He sharply rose up into the air as a dark red energy gathered towards his hand, and coldly gazed down at the three cadets restrained in mind-breaking chains.

There were no traces of leisure left in his expression.

Only cold, ruthless and inhumane resolution to kill.

—whatever it was that Nicodemus, or the demon was planning, It seemed he had finally had enough stalling to do so.

Looking down especially at Alex, the Demon's lips parted ominously.

"[Play time is over, young Hero]," Nicodemus declared, his voice dripping with malice. "[It's time we ended this... ill-fated encounter.]"

Just as Nicodemus was about to unleash his attack, a voice cut through the air, its tone calm and authoritative.

"I agree."

The words seemed to come from nowhere, and yet, they carried an unmistakable chill that made Nicodemus and Zets shudder.

"Who——?!"

Nicodemus snapped his head around, but before they could realise what was happening, the same voice resounded calmly again.

"Ruler's Authority——"

And then the weight of the air seemed to collapse on everyone's shoulders.

"——Bow, Demon scum."

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[A/N: ah yes, here we go finally. The moment we've all been waiting for...]