The Rise Of Calamity

---

Aroura's POV

---

I woke up at the break of dawn to finish the project I had been trying to complete for the last few weeks. It was a ring that was supposed to cloak your presence by using wind and earth magic to silent the footsteps of the wearer and make it so they wont have an odour. I also used a rune my father had told me about to make the ring give the wearer properties to make them as light as a feather at will.

Maybe I can give this to Pandora? I don't see any use of it for her but after letting my apprenticeship teacher inspect it, I might as well give it to her since I don't have any use of it myself.

As I slowly got out of my bed I looked around for a bit just to see a piece of paper on my desk.

Oh that must be the shopping list from my mom. I'll check on it later, I have to finish my work now. maybe if I don't touch it I can make a plausible excuse to why I didn't go shopping immediately after I woke up!

I clapped the back of my fist down on my palm before going to my lab. A few hours later I decided I was hungry but first I had to make food for the family when they wake up. I would eat upstairs with Pany while allowing everyone else to eat downstairs. Dad would join us sometimes like today since he doesn't go work on the weekends.

I wonder what I should make for her... I want it to be really good so she doesn't go gloomy on us again. She has to eat well before she awakens her magic after all.

I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth before making food. When I reached the bathroom a feeling of dread enveloped my body for a second before I touched the handle. I didn't know why, but all my hairs had stood up and I started to have a really bad feeling to the point I started to have butterflies in my stomach.

When I walked into the bathroom, I saw a similar note to the one I found in my room right next to my tooth brush.

WOW! Did mom go through all this effort just to make sure I don't skip out of the groceries? Wow, really wow! Now I'm forced to go the inner distric-

As I opened the folded... letter? I opened it slowly while looking at the contents of the letter just to drop it a second late.

It said: "YO SIS!

going out for a few days! Don't mind me, just a little hunting trip. I'll be back in 3 or so days! Love you dad, Aroura, mom XXX"

I dropped my tooth brush and ran towards my sister's room at full speed. On the way I saw my dad with a panicked expression running towards my sister's room at extremely fast speed with mom walking behind him with a a crying face.

DAMN THIS IS HER FAULT! All I ever wanted was a strong family who took care of each other, yet all I got was a pathetic mother who does nothing but let others spit on her face. F*CK! IT'S ALL BECAUSE SHE STARTED HANGING OUT WITH THOSE NOBLES! THAT'S WHY SHE CHANGED!

My father got to the door a few seconds before me before knocking on it frantically until I got there.

"PANY! ARE YOU THERE!? PANY!" Shouted my dad loud enough to wake up the entire house.

"Pandora! It's big sis... Come on, open the door.... Hey pan this isn't funny! Me and dad are really worried" I pleaded just to hear nothing but silence.

The ear piercing silence lasted a few second before my dad stepped back and kicked the door as hard as he could. The entire door and its hinges broke off. As the door descended onto the floor with a loud bang, we were greeted with the sight of a well made bed with a note sticking out from under the pillow. I ran towards the the pillow just to see the note was a replica of the one in the bathroom. It didn't have the "YO SIS" at the start but everything else was the same.

I started to tear up while looking at the letter before averting my attention to my mother. She looked almost grief stricken, yet i didn't avert my attention from her. I had no idea what my face looked like in the moment but I'm sure it was not a face she wanted to see from her own child.

My father did the same thing but without the crying part before he stood up and asked "please tell me she at least took the gloves with her"

My mother's silence said it all. My father walked towards the door and said "we have to tell the village to inform us if they see her. For now all we can do is search the forest and hope for the best" before walking down the stairs out of sight. I decided it was a good idea to follow him while writing a letter to all my friends to help us with the search

The letter immediately disappeared after i stamped it and went straight to the person i intended to send it to.

---

Pandora's/ Atlas' POV

---

While I was touring around the forest a little longer trying to find the best routes out out the forest I saw a few human soul fires in the distance. I ran towards the from the tree tops as fast as possible to 'spy' on them while they did their business. They were currently camping with a few tens surrounding a single fire. They looked like men in their late thirties. They were ragged looking and covered in both mud, Sweat and small twigs either in their hair or stuck in their clothes.

I decided the best course of action is to scout them for a bit longer without arousing any suspicions. Since I don't have a dimensional rune or amulet it will be hard to rob them off anything they have on them. On the other hand, if I can rob them off their dimensional amulets, everything they have would become mine the moment I decide on the attack.

-"yo Jacob, you think the girl is even in this forest? I know its the closest one to her home but still, she could have went anywhere for all we know"-

-"We might as well try to find her right? Give it a few days, if we don't find her by then or she doesn't return home, it means some wild animal ate her or worse. There aren't many beasts in the forest but if we do come across one we might as well mark her dead and run for out lives."-

-"If we do find her though, I think we should sell her to the slave market. They give huge offers for little girls since they are easy to manipulate. All those disgusting nobles like the little ones better too...."-

-"we aren't much better you know... We are the one's hand delivering those girls to their door steps..."-

-"Yeah, but survival comes first bro! We gotta do this so we don't starve!"-

-"I CALL BULLSH*T! I know you like doing this job bro! You could have done any other job like working as a waiter or even hunting animals yet you chose to kidnap children instead. We are all disgusting, all we can do is hope for those girls to be taken out of their misery as fast as possible"-

The six men then sat their for a few minutes sulking and thinking of the words of their colleagues.

Well, at least one of them is honest. I might as well take them out of their misery that is this life too! They would make excellent test subjects, especially the one that enjoys kidnapping kids.

I spat behind me to get the bad taste out of my mouth before plunging down from the tree and slicing the the back of the closest one wide open. The man Screamed in agony as my 11 inch blade went right through his body, from the left shoulder down to his hip. The feeling that came over my body was something else though.

Normally when I kill living creatures, I would absorb their soul flame through my veins into my own soul flame. This would both energize and strengthen me depending on how strong or healthy the opponent was before the fight. The immense amount of euphoria I felt when my knife plunged into his back was akin to stretching my limbs after a long day of work, but at least seven times better. I have no idea why seven times better, but just take it at face value.

I Expanded the knife to become a 25 inch sword that decapitated the head of the man to my right.

"YOU B*TCH! JACOB NOOOOOO!" said a man with a ginger scruffy beard while charging at me in outrage for his fallen comrade. Everyone seemed too shocked a second ago but had been brought back to their senses at the shout of their comrade and the realization that their friend was dead. In the time it took them to regain their senses I had already conjured 5 air bullets. They were faster to cast compared to air sniper bullets and at point blank range they had almost the same affect. Unless the person had armour, I would be able to blow their brains out as long as they were human of course.

One bullet hit the liver of the man in front of me before another hit his dominant arm's shoulder making it go limp immediately and making him fall on his a*s. The other three bullets hit the three other men who were charging at me at the center of their foreheads and blowing their brains out. I went and touched every single one of them to take their soul fire, making my body spasm at every one of the touches.

I then went towards the man clutching onto his right side in pain. I stared at him with the largest grin on my face going ear to ear. I shot his legs and then his other hard with icicles I conjured by condensing and freezing water molecules in the air. His screams of pain made me feel lively again, as if I was in a amusement park back when I was a kid on earth. The moment I touched him I felt something slowly course through my veins. It was pleasurable, maybe even more than killing them straight off the bat. His soul flame's energy seeped into me slowly, while at the same time, his soul flame was decreasing in size and becoming dimmer by the second.

"Y-you m-monster. You're no child... no, you're a demon!" the ginger man said while staring at my face in horror. I slowly touched my face before making a mirror out of ice just to see a huge smile on my face that I couldn't hold back. My cheeks were a pinkish red colour and my golden eyes were shining vigorously. All I could think of at the moment was how much of a shame it was that I had to kill those guys right off the bat.

Maybe if I kept them alive they would have served as good test subjects? Ugh, this is annoying! If I slowly drained them of blood this would have felt much better! What are the chances that I will find other humans again? hmm, is this how taking drugs feels like? If that's the case I should probably restrain myself from killing any more humans. I'm crazy, not stupid! I'll restrain myself to once a week and if I have to kill more than that I have to make sure it is long range.

Anyway, let me see if there is anything to rob from these a*sholes before I have to go again. Best case scenario, I'll find a dimensional amulet that allows me to carry everything including their bodies depending on how big the dimensional amulet is.

I started to search every body one by one before finding nothing. I decided to defile their dead bodies with an air slash or two before burning their remains and using water to extinguish them. Even if anyone happens to find their body before an animal or beast eats them, they shouldn't be able to link it back to me, especially due to the fact that I cant use magic.

Man, i really didn't find a single dimensional amulet? Well that's a bummer. I guess ill have to rob a few more humans or even ask my grandma for a dimensional amulet. I should get out of here befor-

-"A human cub?"-

-"they called her a monster and a demon, but im pretty sure its a human cub"-

SH*T!