Chapter 74: CALAMITY
Azrael followed behind Jasmine.
Thankfully, she was shielding him from the interference of the outside world.
"Have you ever heard of the calamities?" Jasmine asked softly.
Anyone hearing her for the first time would think she was the gentlest being in existence.
But to Azrael, who had witnessed her cruelty firsthand, she only sounded like someone wearing a mask.
He answered anyway.
"No."
Jasmine nodded.
"No one teaches about them because they are too rare," she said. "But know this since this is all you need to know about them. Each calamity is different, and they are all beings that have one law of reality as their power set."
As she spoke, she pointed toward the heart of a crater ahead of them.
Inside it, a single figure sat cross legged, eyes closed, as though sunk in deep meditation.
He was human.
Brown hair that flowed down his back, stopping just past his waist.
He was clad in full gold plated armor.
A helmet shaped like the ones Azrael had seen in films from his previous life. The kind associated with the Trojans.
A long spear was planted in the earth to his right.
A round shield lay on his left.
"This is Achilles. A tier four calamity that is immune to all attacks. That is his law, immunity to all attacks."
Jasmine let those words settle before continuing.
"I was only able to seal him here because of the overwhelming gap between our power. Since I cannot kill him, this is where he stays."
She glanced at Azrael and noticed his expression.
"Yes. You will be fighting him until you can best him. And no matter what skills you use, you cannot win against him through force alone."
She assumed he was shocked by the calamity’s invincible body.
But Azrael was shocked by something far beyond that.
’Achilles. The same one from the myths on Earth?’ He asked the system.
[I cannot answer that.]
In all his time with the system, Azrael had never heard it say that.
Its response was always to name a price. SP for answers. That was the established rule.
But it was telling him directly that it could not respond.
’Is this connected to why you said I could not threaten Earth?’ Azrael asked.
The system did not reply.
"Okay," Azrael said aloud.
Strangely, he found he was able to hold a conversation with the system and speak to Jasmine simultaneously without effort. As though his thoughts could now be split across more than one track at once.
"I need action, not words," Jasmine said.
Her body moved in a blur he could not follow.
By the time she was back in her original position, Azrael had already felt the effect.
His body shot through the air, blasting downward into the crater and landing hard in front of Achilles.
"Aside from his undying body, he is exceptional with a spear, sword, and shield. Probably one of the finest fighters I have ever faced personally."
Jasmine settled into an essence chair that formed beneath her.
"You also do not need to worry about the realm’s interference. It has no effect within a calamity’s domain."
She said all of this as Azrael slowly opened his eyes.
He pushed himself upright.
His body was battered, dust clinging to his clothes like a second skin.
A sharp whistle tore through the air and aimed for his head within a heartbeat.
Azrael’s body moved on instinct, throwing itself to the side.
It was not enough space to fully clear the attack, but it was enough to survive it.
Azrael’s eyes widened at the sudden sequence of events.
A thrust aimed at his head. His body moving before his mind could issue the command.
"Why is today already this unusual?" He muttered, looking at Achilles.
Achilles was still seated, his hand only just completing its withdrawal from the thrust.
Slowly, his eyes opened.
Golden irises settled on Azrael the way a person looks at something far beneath their level of concern.
Azrael’s body stiffened the moment their eyes met.
The paralysis was brief but total.
Before he could shake it off, Achilles was already moving. His body vaulted upward as he pulled the shield from the ground and drove it toward Azrael’s head.
Azrael read the movement through the shift of essence inside Achilles’s body and ducked.
The spear thrust passed above him, the sound from its speed alone threatening to burst his eardrums.
He pushed sideways, narrowly avoiding Achilles’s downward shield bash.
He was about to exhale in relief when he caught the leg rising.
Every instinct screamed at him to move.
But there was no path out that did not involve rupturing his own organs.
Azrael braced himself.
Then phase shift activated on its own.
The kick passed through his body as though he were not there.
Azrael sucked in a sharp breath as the leg moved through him.
"Is this connected to what the fruit did to me yesterday?" He wondered, leaping backward to create distance.
Achilles did not speak. He only watched Azrael with the patience of a predator that has already decided the outcome.
His spear rested in his right hand, tip pointed skyward.
The shield hung loosely in his left.
"Is the calamity suggesting you are too weak to warrant his full attention?" Jasmine called from her chair, clearly entertained.
Azrael ignored her.
"Achilles," he murmured to himself.
A memory surfaced from his previous life. Something well known. Something simple.
"Achilles heel."
The only weakness on the great warrior’s body. His heel. A detail so famous it had become a phrase.
Azrael settled into stance, essence surging through him like a current finally given a clear path.
Singularities began condensing around his fists, warping the surrounding space from the compression alone.
Two coins latched to his feet, adhering to them like a second skin.
Achilles raised an eyebrow.
He said nothing.
But he drew from his essence reserves nonetheless.
The surrounding space began to tremble under the pull.
His body drank the essence like something starved for it, growing denser and more dangerous with every passing second.
His spear followed, drawing everything into its tip until the metal could barely contain what had been poured into it.
That was the signal.
Both fighters launched at the same moment, the earth beneath them detonating from the force of their combined push.