If the 'Nine Heroes of Calamity' were the nine individuals who were destined to take center stage, then the following names were the seven individuals who all fell short for one reason or another. If these seven could survive their death calamities and continue down their paths, each name would bring greater glory than the last!
These seven were—
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'Lux Luminaana', the Severed Saintess of the Sun God—
As an orphan of calamity, Lux lost her parents during the First Calamity to the Ice Demons, and then during the Second Calamity, she contracted an incurable illness called 'Sunspot Seeds'. By the time that the Third Calamity began, she was destined to die, buried in the same small village that she had once escaped from. Fortunately, if someone simply cured her illness early enough, the fragile little girl would inevitably grow into the strongest light-element mage in the vast world of Pillomal!
Death Calamity: Death due to illness, requiring a high-level medical treatment…
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'Tellerall' the Trusted—
A prodigy from the Storm Tower, and like many top-level Storm Tower mages, Tellerall would eventually become a soul puppet, his mind and body slowly eroded and enslaved! Naturally, his death calamity occurs when his soul finally collapses under the corruption, and to save him, he needs to be rescued before the erosion reaches its end. Unfortunately, the Great Storm Spell surrounding the Storm Tower leaves him with only an extremely small opportunity.
Death Calamity: Death due to extinguishment, requiring timing and luck…
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'Crossal / Cross Artin', the Sky Overlord, King of the Wind—
Crossal was an infamous scumbag from the Sky Tower, the classic kind of noble young master with a nose atop his head. Strangely enough, his fate had nothing to do with any grand battle or deadly calamities. Mm, no… In fact, shortly before the Fourth Calamity, he was fated to die from something absurdly mundane! Mm, and that was a falling rock. If that tiny accident could be prevented, Crossal would later rise to become one of the most powerful warlords in the world.
Death Calamity: Death due to a head bump, requiring… erm, stepping to the side?
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'Rorall Hellion', the Emperor's Successor—
A princess of the Hellion Empire and the woman fated to inherit the imperial throne! Unfortunately, Rorall is fated to die during the Fifth Calamity, long before she can claim the throne. In addition, saving her is extraordinarily delicate, because the events surrounding her death could only be said to be fragile and easily disrupted. Because of this, Elena had devoted an enormous amount of attention to this particular chess piece, checking repeatedly for alternative options regarding her 'situation'.
It should also be said that, seeing a second princess on this list, even if the Captain of the City Guard was not completely loyal to the empire, he still felt extreme shock!
Death Calamity: A chain reaction involving multiple parties, including the Red Hand, the Telltera, the Hellion Empire, the World Tower, the Beast Kings, the White Robed Cult, the High Elves, and the Hero…
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'Jillian', the White-Robed Puppeteer—
A high-level member of the White Skull within the Mercenary Alliance, Jillian was a genius researcher obsessed with the study and state of the soul. Her death calamity occurred during the initial outbreak of the Second Calamity, when the Corrupted World Tree first appeared. She became contaminated by its corrupted spiritual energy and mutated into something inhuman. If rescued in time, however, Jillian would go on to pioneer an entirely new branch of the necromancy pathway, completely focused on soul splitting and puppet manipulation. Jillian is very important for the future, and she must be found at all costs! With her help, it should be possible to massively reduce the number of deaths in the future.
Death Calamity: Death due to full body mutation, requiring quick timing…
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'Humumonana', the Prophet of Death—
A ghostly girl wrapped in gloom, known for wandering the world while frantically preaching about the return of a forgotten Ghost King or something like that… who didn't seem to exist at all. In truth, she is the key to bringing the Ghost Clan onto the playing field. Unfortunately, her death calamity should have occurred shortly before the Third Calamity, a period that had already passed, when she accidentally encountered a group of priests from the church of light on the Cross Continent and was immediately vaporized by these overzealous, bloodthirsty lunatics.
Elena seemed rather dejected when describing this, because she knew that she was too late...
Mm, but she also didn't know that Petra just happened to swagger past her on the way to the south…
Death Calamity: Death due to 'purification', requiring just a slight deviation on the road…
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'Ora', the Fortress Forging Fairy—
A silver-streaked, blue-haired architectural genius who was cursed with bad luck. Ora's life was defined by a constant wave of relentless misfortune. After losing both parents during the Second Calamity, she encountered life-or-death disasters one after another. These events both traumatized and hardened her Will, eventually refining her mind and pushing her toward the constant creation of multiple massive defensive structures capable of protecting countless people. Unlike the others, her fate involved five separate death calamities, two she had already survived, and three that still stood ahead.
Death Calamity: Death due to 'explosion', 'beast tide', 'drowning in a storm', 'loss of free will', and 'eviscerated by the power of time', requiring repeated intervention…
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These seven sealed pieces were Elena's primary targets in this life!
Because of Petra's existence, she had to succeed in this loop. There would be no second chances, not if she wanted to protect her adopted, cute little sister! She didn't know why Levy retained her memories between loops, no, she didn't even know how strong Levy was, but they had always been good friends!
If Levy really did remember, then her warning about Petra being 'unique to this loop' was likely true…
Therefore, if Elena failed—
Petra would be lost forever, and that was unacceptable!
Elena intended to gather every card she could, and so far, she had done very well! The early start of the calamities had thrown her off, and she didn't know how much the altered timing would change the course of history, but she suspected that it wouldn't be distorted by too much. This was because she could feel a more transcendent power pulling everything along, like the whole thing was just a play to prepare for some kind of grand finale! Regardless of the secrets involved in this, Elena at least knew that things would generally follow the same trend as before.
Still, she had to act according to the situation…
She had to keep an eye out for any real deviations, correcting them bit by bit…
At least, for those few that she could…
So far, the events that were fated to happen seemed to anchor themselves around the state of the calamity and not the actual date, which was good news!
This meant that if she stuck to the plan, nothing big would change!
Hopefully…
Mm, Lux's guardian had come to Harnlum seeking a cure, but Elena hadn't been there at the time. Crossal never even arrived in the southern region; instead, something seemed to have happened on the way. Also, Jillian had been rescued before Elena could find her, and Humumonana was never ambushed by the Church of Light in this loop—or at least, Elena couldn't find any signs of it so far.
These things worried her, but there was nothing she could do about it for the time being.
As for Tellerall and Rorall—
They were both unreachable for now…
Only Ora, the 'Fortress Forging Fairy', remained within reach. Through a series of slight nudges and subtle pushes, Elena had already helped her survive the first two death calamities.
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The next five figures that warranted attention were—
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The Five Future Leaders of the world! These five people were—
Noah, the Human God—
The next 'God' to ascend, the future leader of the human race after the Sun God and the Church of Light.
Merlin, the Sage of the World Tower—
The next leader of the 'World Tower' and the 'Ninety-Nine', the Future Sage, and one of the greatest mages to ever exist in the vast world of Pillomal.
Pen Tibon, the Alchemy God—
The future 'God of Alchemy', the discarded child of the Tibon Family, and the boy cursed by fate!
Atrixapell, the Dragon Slaying Demon Dog—
Atrixapell, or 'Pell', the Dragon Slayer! Corrupted by the calamity and betrayed by her brother, she is the number one Dragon Slayer throughout the long history of the world.
Mellia, the next Principal of the Amaranda Academy—
The next principal of the Amaranda Academy, the future pillar of the whole education system, and the greatest 'Controller Pathway' to ever come out of the world of Pillomal!
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Elena put extra emphasis on these five people, making sure that the Guard Captain found them...
* * *
The world was balanced, so if five great figures were destined to rise, then there would naturally be five frightening fiends who threatened to drag everything into the abyss! These five were not part of the calamities; no, they were something else entirely, something difficult to describe. Each of them possessed the potential to become a disaster in their own right—individuals who, if left unchecked, would eventually walk down a path that would turn them into the very embodiment of ruin, perhaps even rivaling a walking calamity! Mm, in other words, if allowed to mature, they would become problems no less severe than the Calamities...
Fortunately—
Most of them had already begun to fade away from their futures!
* * *
The five future threats of the world were—
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Rose, the Red King—
known in history as the Legendary Lord of Beasts! Rose, or rather Rell, was fated to rise during the Fifth Calamity. She—or he—would gather countless beasts beneath a single banner, and wherever their armies passed, the continent would be drowned in blood! Rell the Red King was described as both the herald and the executioner of the Fifth and Sixth Calamity!
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Pluto, the Silent Reaper of Rage and Regret—
An ancient figure whose name, long lost to the lies of life, was often muttered in fear, Pluto was known as the 'Reincarnated Reaper', a great master who stood at the end of the Necromancer Pathway and a true killer who would emerge after the final fall of the Mercenary Alliance, or more specifically, his 'awakening' came after the death of Hexfill, allowing him to 'advance' without restraint!
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Vanessa, the Witch Hunter—
Known in later years as both the Dark Demoness and the Pure Priestess, Vanessa was a tragic figure molded by the fanaticism of the Church of Light. Once she fell under its influence, her ideals would be reshaped by its ruthless doctrine and twisted ideals. Armed with the holy authority of the Witch Hunters and a terrifying talent, she would lead a worldwide purge against the witches, beginning a relentless crusade that would hunt down and exterminate anyone tied to the Darkness Element on a scale far exceeding anything that had ever happened before!
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Rolilly, the Withering Witch—
The Third Princess of the Hellion Empire. Unlike her two sisters, Rolilly's path would continue to twist into something dark and depraved. In the future, she would betray the empire, igniting a catastrophic war that would consume the royal family and everything they had. By the time the Fifth Calamity arrived, the Hellion Empire would already be weakened, and by its end, it would be gone, along with the 'imperial fate' of both Rotell and Rorall.
Mm, once again, seeing the final of the three princesses on this list, the Guard Captain finally understood something. His mind turned, and he remembered the meaning behind the celestial phenomenon that appeared during their births…
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Last but not least, Pyra the Betrayed Beast—! Dun-da-da!
* * *
Returning to the present—
The Guard Captain, looking at the last name on the list, then reading the massive blurb of instructions surrounding this person, couldn't stop his eyelid from twitching.
Even before Elena came to request help finding the target, he already knew who she was…
The person the Citty Guard had been chasing was exactly this 'Pyra, the Betrayed Beast!'
She was a tragic individual whose story began from the instant when the Sun Cannon was fired during the First Calamity! Her father was not a nameless engineer, no, he was one of the people in charge of the whole project, so he was also responsible for firing it!
Obviously, he was instantly vaporized, leaving his daughter to his wife…
Unfortunately, like him, his wife also had an extremely secretive job which she couldn't talk about, and for some reason, she also died during the battle with the Ice Titan…
This left the people who delivered the pension a little lost, and they could only hand it over to the young girl. In the end, she lost all the money, lost her home, wandered around with nothing, somehow found out the truth about the death of her parents, and began her path towards becoming a monster filled with betrayal and rage!
In her mind, she couldn't understand why her parents had to die!
The capital definitely had the ability to fight the Ice Titan without resorting to such an extreme method, so why didn't the strong practitioners from the Four Great Families or the Royal Palace step in to stop it?
Why did her parents have to die for nothing!
It was a series of small misunderstandings, incorrect assumptions between beloveds, and twin sacrifices that were completely oblivious to each other, and just happened to overlap.
Those who understood the whole situation could only feel helpless. Both Pyra's parents died thinking that the other would live, but they had no idea that the other had the same thought, and their actions just happened to overlap in the dark!
It was almost too coincidental, but from every possible angle, it was indeed an accident!
Accident or not, Pyra didn't care! She only wanted revenge! She wanted to drag down those lazy bastards and crucify them until they faced the same fate as her father: incinerated by the sun until nothing was left!
Elena explained that it was these extreme thoughts that would continue to compound on top of each other until she was nothing more than an extremely vicious and vengeful person who would kill at the drop of a hat! This could easily become a world-destroying disaster where she would massacre entire cities without blinking! To make things even worse, as she became stronger, she was almost impossible to catch, much less trap or kill! Perhaps only Elena and a few people from the palace knew this, but Pyra had stolen some technology from the Sun Cannon and a full inheritance from the Dark Shadows Assassination Order of the Imperial Army—a secret organization of top-tier shadows… that was the origin of her mother, the leader of these assassins!
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After finishing reading the notebook for the umptieth time, the Gard Captain closed it…
Indeed, Pyra was an extremely difficult person to deal with, but it wasn't like Elena didn't have a solution. The reason his eyelid kept twitching was because all the plans to 'correct and tame' her were described in detail, perhaps a little too much detail…
His head turned, and he looked out the window.
Thinking about it, he hoped that the young girl named Pyra was a masochist, because now that she was caught by Elena, she was definitely going to have a tough future ahead of her…
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[End of the '5.5 Interlude' Volume]
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