Rise of Calamity: Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Librin’s vision cleared as he sat up. Anya may have been ignorant of what the temple he dreamt of was, but Librin wasn’t. This was his home, or as close as he could get to it. He slowly climbed to his feet. He’d been in these very halls billions of times, yet not once had it ever felt so unreal. The lights were brighter than he was used to, singeing his eyes as he walked along. As he walked, the gravity of his situation slowly set in. He had destroyed everything his companions and he had made and maintained for the past thirteen point eight billion years. Life as they knew it was extinguished in a single moment.

And it was all his fault.

He knew he couldn’t be blamed fully for his actions; he wasn’t himself at the time. He himself was lost by what he had awoken to. No other Elemental had any ability like what he had seen just earlier. And he knew he had to keep it a secret. Regardless of whether he was in control or not, he destroyed everything. Everything that they had worked to create. Everything that they had ever known.

Librin was never an emotional person, if he could be called a person at all. His mind was set towards whatever goal he was called to complete. The mission was his life, the mission was his reason to exist. Yet now he had failed the greatest mission he had ever been given. Yet now it felt as if trillions of needles pierced his chest. What reason now did he have to live? He felt his mind slowly decaying. His entire being felt shattered, and he struggled to even stand. Which was quite odd to him, as he didn’t have a mortal body at this point. He, as well as all Elementals, inhabited their souls while in their temples. There should be no physical pain whatsoever, but there was. No amount of logic could explain the pain he was experiencing. But he wasn’t a fool; he knew what he was feeling. Heartbreak. Something he had never personally felt before, but had heard of for thousands of years. It was just as bad as he had heard. He wanted to cry. He honestly wasn’t sure if he ever had. A single tear slid down his cheek as he walked, and he broke down. He fell to his knees, slumping against a wall, and began to weep. He didn’t know how to act; he was stuck between two realities. He knew he was Librin; he knew his lack of emotion was his strength. Now he was feeling emotions he had never felt before. He wasn’t a psychopath; he had felt plenty of emotions in his lifetime. They simply had never impacted him. All the Elementals were trained with military training. They experienced the good and the evil of it. It was likely why the other Elementals hated the authority of their master. Any mistakes they made were met with a lashing. They learned fast, they learned well, and they were now mighty warriors. But now they hated those who had made them, or at least despised their teachings. It made some camaraderie between them as well, with their common pain bringing them closer together. Librin wasn’t exempt from this anger. He had fought back against their treatment, but he found purpose in their missions. So he dedicated himself to it. Each Elemental group learned to use a type of weapon. Each individual within those groups used a different variation of the said weapon. Librin, in the Air faction, used swords. He specialized in single-handed swords, as compared to the double sword and greatsword of his other Air Elementals. Earth Elementals used hammers or blunt weapons, Fire Elementals used axes, Water Elementals used spears, Time Elementals used daggers and knives, and Space Elementals used special variations of each weapon. He was most proficient in his sword type, but was an overachiever compared to the others. While they went and explored the world, he asked other Elementals to teach him their weapons and became proficient with them. He was abnormal. Now he was a monster. And he wasn’t going to let any of them know. But as he wept, he heard, “Librin?”

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