How To Survive A Calamity

Alexander coldly gazed as Nicodemus's transformed figure flapped his wing and sharply rose to the air while causing a storm.

The bright red gem embedded in his left chest had sporadic red veins scattering all across his otherwise inky black body from around it.

The glow from the gem kept pulsing ominously like a heartbeat.

Nicodemus's presence became greater, deeper, more powerful...more ancient as it suffocated through every corner of the old chamber.

Alexander felt the very air grow heavy, and a sinister wave of thick Miasama and Curse Energy swept through the vicinity.

Nicodemus's one-winged demonic form was truly befitting something that struggled abd crawled out the depths of the seventh deepest hell, crackling like grated glass.

"[Shall we begin, brave Hero?]"

The weight of animosity and bloodlust descend against Alexander's shoulders as he stoof under the suffocating gaze of Nicodemus.

"We have to run..." Trise shivered, feeling a an unfamiliar cold wind roll against her skin and made her tingle.

She weakly grabbed her sword with shaking hands and tried to get up as she turned her head to the side.

"Chelsea..."

Chelsea was sprawled against the ground in a pool of her own blood with half opened eyes gazing up at the malevolent figure enshrouded in a billowing curtain of dark red Miasama up above in the air.

"Ni...co...".

Her eyes were hazy and her face was drained of all colours.

The black spears formed of darkness that had pierced holes through her body had dissolved — consumed entirely by the transparent white flames that birthed from Alexander's body only a few seconds ago.

She had retained just barely enough consciousness to watch Alexander's 'Awakening' as Nicodemus had called it, and the black haired boy's demonic transformation.

Something deep inside of Chelsea shattered in the pieces.

She could no longer deny it.

No matter how much she desperately wanted to.

No matter how much she begged to believe.

But the truth was right there — the reality laid bare before her eyes.

Nicodemus's transformation and his new demonic appearance was the last piece of hope destroyed.

"Get up. We have to run."

Trise managed to reach the orange haired Chelsea as she urged.

Instead she heard the sounds of tapping footsteps of Alexander moving forward and stepping even closer towards Nicodemus.

"Alex!"

Trise's eyes widened and shook at that moment as she tensed.

"What are you doing? There's no way we can fight against that Demon, we have to run! Alex, we — we need to get out of here immediately!" She shouted in a panic.

Trise's lips trembled and her hands wrapped around Chelsea's shoulders shook.

She had already given up long ago before Nicodemus, and sensing the rise in new power and presence he gave off, Trise new even more than ever she stood no chance against him, perhaps not even in a hundred years, at all.

—None of them did.

Nicodemus was no longer just a mere Demon Contractor anymore.

She could instinctively feel it — something, deep, unfathomable, and ancient emanating from his being ever since he struck himself with the glowing red gem in his left chest.

Alas, her cries and please fell on deaf ears as Alexander continued to indifferently walk forward without looking back.

—the transparent white flames on parts of his body billowed and flickered.

"No. I can't run."

"What?"

Trise could only exclaim at the boy's unexpected response.

Alexander continued in a composed, measured and solemn voice.

—it was low, and what type of expression he had on while speaking was a mystery to Trise with his back turnef against her.

"Besides there's no point running. Do you think Nicodemu— that demon would allow us do so? Just quietly watch us as we flee and retreat? And even if he did and we somehow managed to get away — which is the most unlikely— he'd just go ahead and massacre everyone else. The other cadets." He said, took a step forward, then paused, and Alex added and continued;

"Run?"

—Where would we run?

"Hide?"

—Where would we hide?

His voice layered slightly, growing more deeper and heavier.

"There's no where to run or hide in this place."

—there was nowhere safe.

In Dark Castle.

Alexander stopped walking and took a pause.

The demonic figure stood malevolently with a curved smile that reached its red eyes, hovering above while surrounded by a maelstrom of Miasma in the form of dark red threads that were billowing around it.

'I can't ' Alexander thought internally, his mind trembled then became cold.

Alexander believed he couldn't just run away.

'Xavier and Ceres, those two made sure we came after Nicodemus to stop him from doing whatever he planned. Running now would make it all a waste and defeat the purpose of coming after him.'

Although they still weren't unable to contend with Nicodemus even before his transformation.

And now that he had amassed even more ancient and deep power, he seemed more unfathomable.

Alexander stood tall — perhaps foolishly.

He stared straight up at the Demon and his eyes glowedwith burning resolution like white flames.

"I'll fight."

"[Tutut. Wrong choice.]"

The Demon clicked its tongue in mocking shame and a dark energy began to swell in its open left hand.

He cackled sinisterly from the air.

"[Well, in that regard, any choice in this situation is a wrong one.]"

-WHHOOO~!!

The dark red energy that gathered in his hand began to swell and his single large wing that was twice his body size widened and spread apart.

A torrent of darkness surged out of it like an ocean tide, and black spears littered the air and rained down from above.

Alexander's expression hardened and his form billowed with incandescent white flames that instantly came alive and coated his sword.

A combustion of flames caused a mild explosion as the white haired boy delivered a single slash of his blade across the air over him, unleashing a torrent of rolling white fire that dissolved and burnt the descending darkness above.

"[Hoh.]"

The Demon's face — Nicodemus's face, brightened by the glow and radiance of the white flames expressed amusement and unnerving excitement as the heat prickled at his skin.

Beneath the sea of fire that burned above Alexander and the girls, the whole chamber was dyed in a bright white halo and a searing heat spread through the air.

With this, all of Nicodemus's darkness was chased away and banished.

—For the meantime however.

But not a single trace of discomfort or pressure could be seen on the Demon's face.

"[Stop.]"

Before Alexander could consider himself to take a step forward and make his next action, he found his body unable to move at the sound of the Demon's strange voice and command.

His eyes widened and his gaze sharpened.

Up above Nicodemus's figure gazed malevolently with a smile. The swelling red energy in his left arm continued to amass more power as it enlargened.

An unsettling wailing sounds like hollow cries of ghosts filled the air with each seconds that passed.

Pale, transluscent, almost invisible ghostly expressions, like faces, could be seen emanating from red energy being gathered by the Demon.

The pages of the black book in his other habd fluttered rapidly as misty shadows spilled out, quickly replacing the darkness that once was, and erased.

Alexander as he watched this happen felt his wariness rise as he struggled to break his body free from Nicodemus's strange control.

The white emebers of fire all over his body flickered as if in response.

And the next moment —

"[Too slow, hero.]"

—Alexander heard a voice

The Demonic figure was already behind him without noticing without even the blink of an eye.

-Bam!

The next second, Alexander felt a startling force to the back of his head and was sent hurtling across the chamber and into a wall with a deafening crash.

A tight groan broke out from his lips as the wall surface exploded and rumbled from impact.

Alexander felt his vision turn blurry and he grimaced.

Nicodemus Demonic figure moved swiftly again.

—his single wind flapped, raising a gale, and propelled himself across the chamber at a stunning speed before Alexander could recover and smashed his knee into the boys gut

A powerful sound echoed and the wall rumbled once more as the groove caused by Alexander's body deepened and widened.

Alexander had the air knocked out of his lungs with that single hit and lowered his head while gritting his teeth

This close to the Demon finally, Alexander could feel the concentration of twisted malevolent energy radiating from its being.

The Demon smiled widely, but this time the amusement didn't reach its sinister red eyes.

"[I won't make the same mistake the boy did.]"

The large black wing behind his back arched and bent as a single claw protruded out one of its joints and was aimed for Alexander's heart.

"No!"

A loud cry tore through the air at that moment from behind and distracted Nicodemus.

That split moment of gap was enough for Alexander to quickly recover.

Luminescent sparks ignited in the depths of his eyes as they grew brighter and his chipped blade flashed with transparent white flames for the Demon's left shoulder.

The sound of wooshing flames ruffled the air as Alexander's sword bit into Nicodemus's shoulder.

The Demon's expression twisted and it grunted quietly.

Alas, the simple sword couldn't deal more damage than a mere surface wound and the attempt only served as a nuisance at best.

—Or so Nicodemus believed.

But the next second, the sword biting partially into the shoulder burst into a torrent of white flames that made tearing through the skin, scales, muscles and all as easy as hot knife through butter.

-VWOOSH ~

A smouldering incandescent wave of heat burned the air and spread through the surrounding as the White flames ignored oike fireworks next to Nicodemus's face from his shoulder.

And as a the blistering flames burned him like so...

"[Ahhhh!!]"

—Nicodemus screamed..