How To Survive A Calamity

Ranked First of the First year students,

Ceres Walker had arrived on the scene.

Ceres stood at the very precipice of a tall pile of rubbbles that climbed up into the air abd reached the section of the ceiling that jad just collapsed.

A small trickle of light flowed from the opening above and cast small sheen against her impassive face making it appear pale. Her hair fluttered lightly like a flowing stream of silver in the air.

Ceres was donning the academy uniform and wore matching silver gauntlets that covered her arms as she held her broad sword, and complimented the fancy silver pair of boots with blue accents she wore on her legs.

A large monster resembling some kind of throll struggled underneath her feet, and Ceres merely moved her leg and crushed the center of its chest and heart of the monster under her silver boots.

Then she raised her sword and mercilessly thrust it into the troll like Monster's head as easily, killing it ruthlessly like such.

Ceres' gaze was impassive and motionless as she committed such brutality without a change in expression or batting even a single eyelash. It made for a peculiar sight.

One of a haunting sense of dreadful beauty.

It was once the monster immediately stopped thrashing around underneath her feet — after having its heart crushed and its head stabbed by her sword, did Ceres finally shift her cold red eyes and surveyed her surroundings in ine fell swoop of a glance.

The present fog failed to conceal nothing from her penetrating, ascended gaze.

Her sudden descent from the collapsed ceiling seemed to have caused considerable destruction in the new surroundings, making it almost unrecognisable from before — although Ceres had no idea how it might have looked like before she came in.

All she knew was that the chamber was like a wreckage site, with massive piles and chunks of large boulders and rocks scattered around, caused by her.

She shifted her gaze through to the side and caught sight of a figure that was present and staring at her strangely from a corner.

As soon as Ceres' silent gaze fell on him, Nicodemus suddenly felt it hard to breathe for an inexplicable reason. He felt intimidated just from having her stare at him indifferently, as he considered the outcome of a direction confrontation against Ceres if everything went south in the end.

Ceres silently stared incomprehensibly at the person.

They weren't wearing the academy uniform and gave off a dark and sinister feeling.

Just then, one of the piles of rubbles and shook shook, and a massive slab of rock - one of probably considerably weight and size- moved and was roughly pushed away and aside.

Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Since the ceiling collapsed, there were large piles of rocks and boulders scattered around, partially burying what once was.

The heavy piece of material smashed into the ground with a low rumble as the figure of a wounded and battered person rose to their feet from underneath it where it used to be.

Xavier Locke emerged from the pile of rubbbles with a pale face and an expression of pain and discomfort as he doubled over with his hands supported by his knees.

There was a layer of blood flowing from a wound in his head that smeared half of his pale and dirty face and Xavier's bloodshot and trembling eyes moved.

Ceres turned to him silently from her position up against the top of the tall pillar of rubble as Xavier also turned to gaze at her from the ground, her gaze deep, mysterious and profound as she assessed the situation.

Then the wounded young man raised his hand and pointed at Nicodemus without turning.

His expression was grim and his hands trembled.

Xavier's lips parted, his voice raspy and hard as he curtly said two words.

"Demon contractor...!"

Nicodemus felt a lump form in his throat from his position.

Ceres just slowly moved her gaze back toward him, there was no immediate difference or switch to her usual sullen expression.

But at the same time there was a subtle change in the whole weight of her demeanor as her cold eyes closely reflected his figure.

... she recognised Xavier, who was wearing the same uniform as her's, but didn't Nicodemus.

The next moment, Ceres moved suddenly.

Ceres, her figure blurred suddenly, as she disappeared and moved in an instant — her broad sword was pulled out of the corpse and ruthlessy flashed forward in a blinding moment of steel.

With a single push off the ground from her leg, Ceres appeared before the startled Nicodemus. Her expression remained perfect and unrippled as she moved, her deep red eyes seemed to threaten to consume whoever gazed into them.

With a swift and fluent movement, the broad, long blade of her sword flashed forward without hesitation.

Ceres had been too fast and too deadly in her attack, Nicodemus didn't even get the chance to take half a step back.

He dissolved his material body into billowing black smoke that churned and scattered to evade the deadly blow.

Ceres' sword struck air, and severed through the intangible black smoke that scattered and dispersed. In his intangible form, Nicodemus quickly retreated far away from Ceres' ranged.

At only a couple of distance away from Ceres did Nicodemus re-materialise and reassumed his physical form — black, shadow miasma wrapped around his body like a billowing outfit.

Nicodemus's express in that moment was dire. The pages of the mysterious book in his hand fluttered rapidly.

Nicodemus wished to avoid direct confrontation against Ceres — or any type of confrontation at all.

He wasn't ready yet.

Even with the Demon's aid and contract he still wasn't strong enough yet to go toe to toe against Ceres.

Despite everything, Nicodemus wasn't omnipotent. Opponents higher ranked than him posed various threats and challenges against his current self, when he still hadn't fully assimilated Zest's powers.

And the reason he feared and was most cautious of Ceres in particular...

Nicodemus stretched out his hand and his black eyes deepened even further as he stared at Ceres who was slowly turning around, sword in hand.

"Stop!" His voice reverberated with a suggestive pull that was ultimately wasted on its target.

But...

Nothing happened.

Ceres blatantly raised her sword and dashed forward at him once more without a change in expression or action.

'Again.'

Nicodemus cursed inwardly, his expression becoming even more grimm as he watched her figure swiftly approach at a stunning speed.

For some reason, Ceres was the one person so far who was entirely immune to his ability and Spells, that was why he had the most reservations about having Ceres as an opponent.

Perhaps, it was a Skill, or an Attribute she possessed, but Nicodemus was unable to cause any sort of effect on her when he tried.

Or maybe, perhaps, his level was just still too low.

Who knew?

Regardless, Ceres wasn't an opponent he could beat easily.

At least not now.

A long, black scythe formed in Nicodemus's hands as he raised it forward to block Ceres' sword before being pushed back from getting easily overwhelmed.

Ceres rammed into him ruthlessly with overwhelming force, making Nicodemus instantly cave under the weight of her sword, bringing him down to one knee. A powerful sound of impact reverberated from the heavy collision.

Nicodemus's arms vibrated — the bones and joints in his hands holding the long black shaft of the scythe trembled and he gritted his teeth.

It felt like getting rammed by a small moving mountain.

He stared at Ceres with trembling black eyes.

Ceres raosed her sword and brought it down swiftly onve more, the weight behind her blade multiplying than the first time.

As Ceres' sword raised, Nicodemus seized the brief moment to move. He raised his knee and shifted off his feet to adjust his footing for a follow up, but ended up being to slow at the end.

Ceres' indifferent sword swept the air and ran into him from the side. Nicodemus could only move the long sytyhe, just barely to guard as he felt the heavy brunt smash against his own weight.

-Boom!

Heavy steel collided with a loud noise, and Nicodemus was effortlessly sent flying backwards, skidding off his feet uncontrollably.

Skills, strength, speed and ability... In terms of everything Ceres was far superior.

Nicodemus was a Mage and magic user, while Ceres was am Aura user who excelled in physical reinforcement, strength, and stamina. Right from the basics, there was a substantial gap in base stays and physical abilities between the two that signing a contract with a Demon couldn't close entirely within just a short period.

Ceres stats, compared to his and all other first year students in Aegis, was a literal realm apart.

She was also being cautious of Nicodemus as a Demon contractor and was gauging his ability and reaction, so Ceres was actually holding back.

A lot.

Nicodemus knew this.

In the first place, he shouldn't have been able to survive three consistent blows from ger on a good day.

The thoughts were sinking.@@novelbin@@

Then Nicodemus's eyes became colder and more unfeeling.

"I was waiting to use this later, but...' He pulled out a bright red crystal from inside his clothes.

It was a glowing red ruby as big as a fist.

Nicodemus's actions brought about a flicker of caution to Ceres as she warily observed and prepared to lunge forward immediately, once more before Nico could accomplish whatever he was trying to do.

Ceres moved quickly again, but it was already too late.

Nicodemus held the strange blood red crystal in his hand, then crushed it.

And then...

-Rumble -Rumble!

The whole chamber trembled like an earthquake.