The Calamity God of War (1)
The deities known as Calamity Gods were primal terrors born from the countless disasters that threatened humanity. They were savagery incarnate, mocking sacred creation and mercilessly trampling upon wondrous life. The more humanity’s fear of calamity grew, the more Calamity Gods were born. After all, the terror of pain and loss was a shackle that bound humans for eternity.
But—.
The Calamity Gods born in this way could never reach the level of a true ‘disaster capable of destroying the world.’ Calamities spawned from humanity’s fear and dread were nothing more than mundane imitations. They did not possess the divine stature required to sever the eternal continuation of mankind and the pulse of the world itself.
The four calamities destined to end the world.
Tyranny.War.Famine.Death.
Endless disasters that had existed since the birth of humanity. Any Calamity Gods born after the creation of these endless calamities were nothing but insignificant counterfeits. The true root of the fear that humanity genuinely dreaded was the endless calamities themselves.
“Kuh…!”
The sight of countless, wildly diverse firearms covering the entire sky and moving in perfect unison was utterly surreal. It was only natural that the blood-red vampire facing them would let out a groan.
Guns and cannons were nothing more than crude toys humanity had created to replace magic. But these were weapons forged under the blessing of the God of War. They existed on an entirely different dimension from ordinary firearms.
Ariel swallowed dryly as she recalled the bullet that had maximized penetration power. The shells loaded in those siege cannons would undoubtedly possess corresponding destructive force.
────────!!
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Soon, countless siege cannons roared with thunderous booms and spat fire. Pitch-black, dull-colored shells all took aim at the blood-red Calamity God. It was like a storm descending. Hundreds of shells rained down at once.
If she couldn’t block them, she would die.
A fierce gale whipped around her, violently tossing her blood-soaked hair.
How the hell am I supposed to stop this?!
She simultaneously deployed offensive and defensive spell formulas to counter the barrage. Yet the blood-red blessing was torn apart like mere paper before the onslaught of shells. She was being utterly overwhelmed by the firepower she had once been so confident in.
Even after drawing out nearly infinite mana and maximizing the blood blessing, it wasn’t enough. As if mocking her desperate struggle, the blessing of war sent Ariel flying backward.
“Guhk!”
The moment her final defensive spell shattered, she tumbled across the ground. It was a complete defeat. The vampire, covered in dirt, stared with horrified eyes at the siege cannons preparing to reload.
“The Calamity God of War…! Of all things, it had to be the Calamity God of War!”
When she had first faced the musket formation, she had been far too complacent. After all, gunpowder weapons including muskets didn’t have a very long history of battlefield use. She had assumed it must be a third-rate Calamity God. She had thought it was some nameless deity worshipped in a remote backwater.
But the Calamity God she had underestimated was an existence that surpassed imagination. She now stood before one of the endless calamities that encompassed every disaster across the three realms.
With trembling eyes, Ariel stared back at Edanant’s gaze as he looked down at her.
“Don’t make me laugh! The Calamity God of War? Why would someone of that caliber pledge loyalty to the Empire?”
The Calamity God of Blood sent a warning ringing through her mind. But Ariel shook it off and bared her hostility toward Edanant.
“Edanant!!”
“……”
She was losing in firepower. Close combat offered slim chances of victory. Facing an Apostle who had summoned the Calamity God of War was practically suicide. Knowing this, the Calamity God of Blood must have urged its devout Apostle to retreat.
Yet Ariel refused to back down. The hatred burning in her chest—the desire to assassinate the ruler of the Empire and avenge her kin—raged like wildfire.
“If war breaks out like this, it would benefit you too! If the entire continent is swept up in the aftermath of war, the Calamity God of War would surpass even the Mother Earth Goddess’s divinity!”
“I’m sick and tired of wars where countless people die. Just because I serve the Calamity God of War… it would be troublesome if you treat me like some blind warmonger obsessed with conflict.”
Ariel and Edanant clashed head-on. She wielded a spear of crimson blood. He thrust forth a holy sword wrapped in pure white radiance. Every time their weapons collided, storms erupted. The spreading gales turned the village of the Luinong into a devastated wasteland.
Even as merciless destruction unfolded, neither stopped.
“Kuh!”
Offensive spells and muskets deployed simultaneously, firing at each other in rapid succession. As violent explosions spread, the Apostles charged and unleashed sharp exchanges of blows. It seemed like a tense stalemate.
But the one holding the advantage was, of course, the Apostle of War. Aldebaran’s sharp slashes targeted Ariel multiple times. Each time, the blood vampire displayed agile reflexes to dodge, but it was always by the skin of her teeth.
How long could such acrobatics continue? Even Ariel couldn’t say for sure.
If she were swept up by the holy sword’s divine power, she would die. Recalling the strategist’s earlier warning, Ariel desperately kicked off the ground to create distance.
“……!!”
It was a wise yet foolish decision. She had escaped the threat of the holy sword. But by creating distance herself, she had stepped right into the range of the artillery barrage.
At some point, countless siege cannons had surrounded her from all directions. Upon seeing the ominously glowing muzzles, Ariel’s face filled with shock and she raised her sage’s magic artifact.
“K-Kuh…!”
At that moment, a single bullet flew in.
Clang!!
The bullet struck the platinum accessory with perfect precision. Ariel looked up with a gasp of shock. When she saw Edanant—the one who had pulled the trigger—she ground her teeth fiercely.
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There was no chance to counterattack. Brilliant chaos erupted from all sides as the artillery barrage rained down.
“Aaaargh!!”
She hastily deployed defensive spells, but it was futile resistance. The shells flying in at terrifying speed mercilessly tore the vampire apart. If it had been just one or two, she might have endured. But the siege cannons targeting Ariel numbered in the hundreds.
The continuous bombardment reduced the Apostle of Blood to a ragged mess. As if unwilling to allow even the slightest resistance, the shelling never let up for a moment. Flesh burst open. Bones shattered. She tried to raise her hand, but the destroyed magic artifact had already fallen to the ground.
In the end, Ariel was brutally thrown aside, her body grotesquely mangled and drenched in blood.
“Cough…! Hack, hack…!!”
Victory? There had never been any chance of victory for the vampire from the beginning. The moment the Calamity God of War descended, even the faintest hope of winning had been stolen away. After being one-sidedly brutalized, she would simply become another corpse on the battlefield and disappear. The Calamity God of War never showed mercy to foolish fools who dared oppose it.
“Die, vampire.”
The Apostle of War, clad in jet-black armor, raised his hand. In response, the siege cannons surrounding her finished reloading.
Splat.
The near-crippled vampire lifted her head while coughing up blood. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out. Edanant had no intention of granting her even the final mercy of listening to her last words. With cold, merciless eyes, he looked down at the tattered vampire and prepared to end her life for good.
Crack—.
Just a moment before the final blow, the sound of the barrier surrounding Fairy’s Haven splitting apart echoed. It must have been unable to withstand the artillery barrage. Edanant dismissed the change in the barrier as insignificant.
But the anomaly that occurred through the cracked gap shattered Edanant’s composure completely.
From the split fissure, fierce flames surged upward, and a woman with flowing golden hair revealed herself.
“……!”
It was a face far too familiar. Of course it was. They had spent more than a month together. To encounter her in the worst possible situation… Edanant felt his heart pounding wildly, as if he had been injected with a stimulant. Time around him seemed to flow in excruciating slow motion, like a revolving lantern passing before his eyes.
Did the Luinong open the barrier? No, that’s not it. She broke through it.
Why? Why now, of all times?
Countless chaotic thoughts flooded his mind. Faced with this unexpected predicament, Edanant froze in place.
“My lord. No… Edanant.”
Though somewhat disheveled compared to usual, it was unmistakably Ludmilla. He had desperately hoped that the full plate armor might prevent her from recognizing him, but it was a futile wish.
Ludmilla Draig Valtaria. The Second Princess of the Valtaria Imperial Family and the Red Dragon who protected the Empire. The suddenly intervening Ludmilla recognized Edanant at once with her sharp insight and intuition.
“Could it be… that you were the warmonger I had been searching for all this time?”
“……”
Ludmilla hesitated, her plump lips quivering as if unsure whether to speak. When she finally opened her mouth, her voice trembled violently, revealing the turmoil in her heart.