A Gruesome Calamity
A Gruesome Calamity
An ordinary day in South Korea.
The bright sun shone on the city like any other day, an utterly normal day.
That's right.
It had been an utterly normal day.
That was true until the Moonlight Cult Leader delivered a nationwide message—and the sky suddenly went dark immediately afterward.
A darkened sky.
As Stardus flew at top speed through the sky that had gone pitch black in an instant, she shuddered with foreboding.
A supernatural phenomenon—the sky, brilliant just moments ago, now swallowed by darkness.
'.....What the hell is happening?'
All communications across South Korea had been severed, making it impossible even to contact the Hero Association properly.
She flew toward the source of the unearthly howls that echoed continuously through the silent, pitch-black sky.
What she knew at present was that "something" had appeared in one part of Seoul, a city now drowned in darkness.
And that after it appeared, all contact from that area had been completely cut.
Anyone could tell that something deeply serious was taking place.
"......."
With a grim expression, Stardus shot across the sky plunged in absolute darkness, her blonde hair streaming behind her.
When she finally reached the area—
the sight before her froze her in place.
A city engulfed in pitch-black darkness.
Having flown fast enough to make out the city below with the naked eye, she at last beheld "it" — the thing standing in the heart of the urban center.
"....What is that?"
There it stood:
The very image of a descending calamity.
*
[SKREEE—SKREEE—]
"Aaaah!!"
"H-help me!!!"
"H-hurk... what is this... what is thiiis..."
A screech like scraping metal.
The city lay dark. Countless bodies tangled together, scrambling desperately to escape just a little farther from the source of the sound.
And at the center of it all.
Against the dark night sky that had suddenly fallen, beneath a lone beam of pure white moonlight—
something enormous, violet, and grotesque stood in the middle of the city.
[Krrrrrrrrrrrr...]
No matter how she looked at it, it was clearly not human.
Pinkish veins bulging hideously.
A massive body dyed a deep shade of violet.
A face and form twisted into the grotesque.
Yet its eyes alone burned a vivid crimson red.
"Gyaaaaaagh! Urrk, ngh..."
Then the creature—
raised an arm toward the people.
Those in front of it were lifted into the air by an invisible force, choking and thrashing.
Simultaneously.
"Gaaahhhh... Gaaaaaaaahhh."
Something unimaginable happened.
From the bodies of those suspended in the air, semi-transparent white forms began to be wrenched out.
White shapes, their expressions twisted in screams.
The white forms torn from each person were then drawn into the violet "thing" at the center as if being absorbed, consumed.
And in that same instant, every person floating in the air lost all vitality and collapsed limply to the ground.
As though their very souls had been ripped away.
[SKREEE— SKREEE!]
The gigantic violet creature howled.
In the heart of the dark city, where even the power seemed to have gone out—
the colossal violet thing methodically smashed the city apart, demolishing building after building with its massive body.
And around it—
countless people caught while fleeing were dragged through the air, tormented, stripped of their souls, and dropped to the ground one after another.
Against a backdrop of a dark city, people shrieking as they fled. Smoke billowing up from every direction.
At the center stood an otherworldly creature that devoured human souls while destroying the city.
Along with the cold, collapsed bodies of the fallen.
A scene straight out of hell descending upon the mortal world.
A city filled only with screams, eerily dark and forbidding.
In that place where only the creature's violet hue and blazing red eyes were visible.
WHOOSH—
A streak of yellow light flew from somewhere, cutting across the dark night sky to slam down onto the violet abomination standing upon the earth.
KABOOM—
She crashed straight into the monster, an incarnation of hell that had seemed unstoppable.
That person was none other than the hero, Stardus.
[...SKREEE—!]
The creature reeled from the impact, and in that moment, the people suspended in agony dropped to the earth.
Those whose souls had not yet been taken began running in all directions, their screams filling the air once more.
"H-huaaaaaaah!!"
"H-huuuhng... f-fuck, save me!!!"
"A-ahhh..."
People fleeing.
Then, just as the violet monster turned back toward them—
"I am your opponent, you fucking monster."
The blonde woman staring at it with blazing eyes struck it in the back again, drawing its attention back to her.
[—SKREEE... GGRAAAAAAAARGH!!!]
"Urgh...."
Stardus's face twisted under the chilling sound the monster let loose.
Then she swung her fist at it again, with all her might.
BOOM—
A tremendous roar erupted.
The shockwave from her punch blanketed the area in a cloud of dust and smoke.
[Griiiiiii... Kieeeeee...]
The creature took her punch head-on and remained exactly where it stood, as though it had suffered no damage at all. It merely turned its face toward her.
And at the instant its red eyes met hers, Stardus's body stiffened involuntarily.
That was when Shadow Walker's voice called out suddenly from behind her.
"Stardus, dodge!"
She threw herself aside.
A violet beam shot from its red eyes, slicing through the space where she had just stood.
When she turned to look back, she found Shadow Walker.
"Hah... hah.... Shadow Walker?"
"Yeah. Sorry I'm late. Hah... fuck. What the hell is going on? I was asleep."
[Krrrgeuuuuuuuu...]
Now it had clearly registered them both as enemies, focusing on the two.
Shadow Walker looked at the creature staring them down and spoke quickly.
"Stardus, I'll make this quick. My power isn't functioning normally. I think this artificial night is interfering with my output. I heard only the Korean Peninsula has gone dark while every other country is normal, so that seems to be the cause."
[Krrrrr... Aaaah!]
The moment he finished speaking, it charged at them.
The two urgently split apart, and Shadow Walker called out to Stardus one last time.
"I'll move the civilians somewhere safe and support you. Just hold on!"
With that final shout, Shadow Walker melted into the darkness and disappeared.
Now, the thing fixed its gaze entirely upon her, Stardus.
[........Eck-krrruuuuuuu...]
Then it raised one hand.
People somewhere in the city were caught by an invisible grip and dragged forth. Their screams soon filled the air again as their souls were torn away once more.
Looking upon that surreal, horrific scene, Stardus clenched her fist and charged again at the enormous violet mass.
The moment its eyes locked with hers, her head briefly throbbed—but that was all. She was not lifted into the air screaming like an ordinary person.
She gritted her teeth and closed in, weaving around several attacks in midair. The creature clenched its fist in turn and began fighting Stardus head-on.
BOOM.
KABOOM—
And so a battle of blood began.
In the darkness, yellow light and violet light intertwined in a ferocious clash.
And Stardus, facing it—
gritted her teeth.
Strong. Far too strong.
No matter how many blows she landed, she could not feel herself doing any real damage. Worse, the creature's attacks, perhaps due to the violet aura enveloping it, were saturated with pure killing intent.
The grotesquely twisted thing simply did not match any known lifeform on Earth.
Even while fighting her, it continued to lift up people nearby with supernatural force and absorb something akin to their souls.
After exchanging several rounds of attacks with it—
she realized instinctively that she could never defeat it.
'........Why is this happening?'
She had already felt her defeat approaching.
Yet she threw herself at it nonetheless.
...Even if it meant dying here—
she would save at least one more person before she died.
And so—
Stardus began a battle with her life on the line.
***
The dark night sky.
Below, a fierce battle raged in the city.
I stood on a nearby rooftop and looked down.
......What a fucking mess.
The city swallowed by darkness.
At the center stood the Soul Devourer, one of the Moonlight Church's ultimate weapons, even more horrifying in person. Opposing it as best she could was Stardus, a streak of yellow light.
And at the same time, the city was collapsing.
Black smoke covered the entire neighborhood.
Countless corpses whose souls had been stolen lay scattered below.
Screams echoed from all around.
Shadow Walker was doing something, but it wasn't helping much.
People floated in the air, clutching their throats as their souls were ripped away.
Stardus was clearly on the back foot.
The violet giant was effortlessly mowing everyone down, proving exactly why it was one of the overwhelmingly powerful ultimate weapons that should not have appeared yet.
Taking in that horrific hellscape—
I muttered quietly.
"What?"
"...I thought this was a real disaster, but the situation isn't actually that bad?"
No, seriously. What's going on?
When I saw the sky go dark I was straight-up terrified, but I rushed over and there was only one Soul Devourer.
It's practically adorable compared to the dozens that popped out during the Original Work's final battle.
It hadn't absorbed enough souls to evolve yet. If I killed it in that state, everyone collapsed below would come back to life. In other words, if I killed it, there would effectively be no casualties.
Everyone was getting wiped out because they were fighting it head-on. But me? A few shots from these silver bullets—the specific weakness I had brought all the way here—and it would keel over dead. Same as every other gimmick boss.
So although it looked as though we were an inch from total annihilation, the reality was laughably simple: I only needed to fire one silver bullet from the anti-materiel rifle I'd brought.
"...What?"
I got scared for nothing....?
Standing on the roof, I began lining up the anti-materiel rifle at the creature.
This feels weirdly anticlimactic.
No. Hah, okay. This is actually better.
I should take advantage of this.
What if I time this shot right to make it look like Stardus took that thing down at the most dramatic moment possible?
...Oh, not bad.
***
At the same time, while Egostic had already relaxed and was thinking things over on the rooftop—
Stardus—
[SKREEE!!!]
'....Maybe I should have written a will first.'
had already given up on everything and fought with resignation in her eyes.