Chapter 72: Calamity

Frey stared at the two words floating before him while the enormous illusion of Vritra remained coiled around the hotel room.

The World-Encircling Serpent’s burning eyes watched from above, but Frey’s attention had already shifted entirely to the new ability. Vritra’s Coil had been the only power available to him since awakening, and he had spent the weeks since learning how far something as straightforward as supernatural compression could be pushed.

Five simultaneous Coils had already transformed his fighting style. If Vritra had finally given him something entirely new, he wanted to know exactly what it did.

He selected the notification.

The crimson interface expanded.

[ABILITY II]

[Calamity Reservoir]

[Vritra devours calamity and preserves a portion of its destruction.]

[Energy successfully intercepted, constricted or compressed through Vritra’s Coil may be partially captured and converted into Calamity Mana.]

[Compatible Energy Forms Include:]

[Kinetic Energy]

[Thermal Energy]

[Electrical Energy]

[Explosive Force]

[Compatible Mana-Based Energy]

[Current Reservoir Capacity: Limited]

[Current Conversion Efficiency: Limited]

[Requirement: Vritra’s Coil must successfully interact with the targeted force before conversion can occur.]

[Warning: Calamity Reservoir does not nullify incoming attacks. Forces exceeding the containment capacity of Vritra’s Coil may overwhelm the ability and continue toward the Vessel.]

[Calamity Reservoir: 0%]

Frey read everything once.

Then again.

By the third time, the corner of his mouth had begun climbing.

He leaned backward on one hand and stared at the translucent serpent above him while his mind started putting the pieces together.

Vritra’s Coil could already restrain bodies, crush monsters, fracture obstacles and compress attacks if he caught them properly. Calamity Reservoir changed what happened after that interaction.

If someone struck one of his Coils with enough force, Vritra could take a portion of the kinetic energy. If flames were caught within the compression, part of their thermal energy could be converted. Lightning, explosions and compatible Mana attacks followed the same principle.

Not all of it. That distinction mattered.

Frey couldn’t throw a Coil in front of something overwhelmingly stronger than himself and expect Vritra to swallow it. The ability didn’t turn incoming destruction into free power without consequence. Vritra first had to successfully interact with the attack, and its current strength determined how much pressure the Coil could withstand before breaking.

If Frey tried catching an attack far beyond his level, the result wouldn’t be a full Reservoir.

The Coil would fail. Then whatever had shattered it would continue straight into him.

"Fair enough," Frey murmured, rubbing his chin. "Would’ve been completely ridiculous otherwise."

What interested him more was the phrase partially captured.

Even when Vritra successfully contained an attack, only a fraction became Calamity Mana. His current conversion efficiency was limited because the Rune was still developing. The same applied to capacity.

At its present stage, Vritra could only store so much before reaching one hundred percent.

Frey’s grin widened anyway. Small was temporary.

He looked toward his twin curved swords.

Testing the ability properly inside a hotel room would be spectacularly stupid, but he wasn’t patient enough to wait until morning without confirming that it actually worked.

Frey stood, stretched the stiffness from his legs and retrieved one sword from beside the wall. The familiar weight settled comfortably into his hand.

He moved toward the center of the room, making sure nothing fragile was nearby, then summoned a single Vritra’s Coil.

A spectral serpent appeared beside him.

Frey considered his options. Striking the Coil directly risked losing control and putting a blade through furniture, so he chose something simpler. He held the curved sword horizontally, circulated a small amount of Mana through the weapon and allowed it to gather along the edge.

Nothing dramatic.

Nothing that would put a hole through the wall.

Just enough Mana to produce measurable force.

Frey positioned Vritra’s Coil around the blade without touching his hand. Once everything was aligned, he released the accumulated Mana from the sword.

The spectral serpent snapped inward.

The tiny burst disappeared inside its coils.

For an instant, Frey felt something travel backward through his connection with Vritra. It wasn’t ordinary Mana. The sensation was heavier and more violent, stripped of whatever form it had possessed before being compressed into something raw.

A notification appeared.

[Energy Successfully Captured.]

[Conversion Complete.]

[Calamity Reservoir: 2%]

Frey stared at the percentage.

Then he laughed.

It wasn’t loud enough to disturb the neighboring rooms, but the satisfaction behind it was impossible to hide. He dismissed the Coil and lowered his sword while looking at the new gauge.

Two percent from a deliberately weak test meant almost nothing offensively.

The principle meant everything.

A real battle wouldn’t provide one controlled burst.

There would be dozens of exchanges.

Sword strikes. Punches. Mana attacks.

Explosions. Monster charges. Elemental abilities. Every time Frey successfully placed Vritra between himself and one of those forces, he could potentially take something from it.

An opponent could spend Mana trying to kill him and unknowingly contribute part of that attack toward whatever Vritra intended to do with the stored energy.

The longer and more violent the battle became, the more opportunities he would have to feed the Reservoir.

Frey looked down at the sword in his hand.

"That is disgusting." He sounded delighted.

Before he could experiment further, crimson light flashed across his vision again.

Frey’s smile disappeared beneath immediate concentration.

[Ability Relationship Detected.]

[Calamity Reservoir successfully initialized.]

[New Divine Rune Ability Unlocked.]

[Calamity Release]

Frey blinked in surprise. "There’s another one?"

He immediately selected it.

[ABILITY III]

[Calamity Release]

[Release accumulated Calamity Mana stored within Vritra’s Calamity Reservoir.]

[Stored Calamity Mana may be channeled through the Vessel, compatible weapons, or manifestations of Vritra.]

[Available Discharge Methods:]

[Fist — Converts released Calamity Mana into explosive striking force.]

[Feet — Converts released Calamity Mana into explosive propulsion.]

[Weapon — Infuses a compatible weapon with Calamity Mana to amplify destructive output.]

[Mouth — Releases concentrated Calamity Mana as a destructive beam.]

[Palm / Body — Releases Calamity Mana as a broad destructive discharge.]

Frey’s expression slowly changed as he read downward.

The Reservoir wasn’t an ability meant to accumulate energy for some predetermined attack.

It was ammunition. Calamity Release allowed him to decide how that ammunition was spent.

He could pour a portion through his fist immediately before impact and turn an ordinary punch into an explosion. Channeling it through his legs could launch him forward with far more acceleration than his physical strength alone could produce.

His swords could carry it into a slash, allowing the stored destruction to erupt through the blade. The mouth discharge sounded considerably less subtle, while releasing Calamity Mana directly through his palm or body offered another option when precision mattered less than getting everything around him away.

The System continued.

[Special Discharge Method Available.]

[CALAMITY RELEASE: TOTAL DISCHARGE]

[Release all Calamity Mana currently contained within the Reservoir simultaneously.]

[Total Discharge Output is influenced by Reservoir saturation, accumulated energy quality, available Mana, Rune Synchronization, and Vessel tolerance.]

[Warning: Total Discharge empties Calamity Reservoir completely.]

[Warning: Discharge output exceeding Vessel tolerance may result in physical injury and Mana pathway strain.]

That erased the last trace of humor from Frey’s face.

He could build the Reservoir throughout a battle and then release everything at once.

Ten percent wouldn’t mean much.

Fifty percent would be another matter.

One hundred percent after a prolonged battle filled with explosions, Mana attacks and heavy physical impacts?

Frey wasn’t sure what that would look like.

He desperately wanted to find out.

Another section appeared when he continued reading.

[Storage Limitation:]

[Calamity Mana is inherently unstable.]

[Stored energy will gradually dissipate during prolonged inactivity.]

[Calamity Reservoir cannot preserve accumulated Calamity Mana indefinitely.]

Frey nodded slowly.

That limitation made sense. Otherwise, he could spend days deliberately charging Vritra somewhere safe, walk into every serious fight with a full Reservoir and immediately unload everything.

Instead, Calamity Reservoir wanted activity. Violence created ammunition, but that ammunition wasn’t meant to sit around waiting for next week.

He would have to build it during battle or shortly before one.

Which meant the ability rewarded exactly the kind of fighting Frey already enjoyed.

Aggression.

Pressure.

Constant exchanges.

The more destructive the opponent became, the more opportunities Vritra gained to steal fractions of that destruction. Frey could begin a battle with an empty Reservoir and become progressively more dangerous as the fight escalated.

An enemy who failed to finish him quickly might eventually discover that every attack they had thrown was contributing toward the weapon Frey intended to use against them.

His eyes returned to Vritra’s enormous illusion.

The serpent had begun fading now that there were no Monster Cores left to consume. Its vast coils became transparent first, followed by the scales and finally the massive head. Before its burning eyes disappeared, Frey found himself appreciating the Rune’s name considerably more.

Vritra.

The World-Encircling Serpent.

An A-Rank Divine Rune.

Vritra’s Coil controlled and compressed.

Calamity Reservoir captured part of what entered those coils.

Calamity Release turned what had been captured back into destruction.

Three abilities, each feeding naturally into the next.

Frey looked toward the wall separating his room from the rest of the hotel and briefly considered testing a tiny Calamity Release through his fist.

He immediately abandoned the idea.

Even two percent wasn’t worth explaining a shattered desk, broken wall or accidental visit from Citadel security.

Tomorrow would be different.

The Thousand Boughs had plenty of empty ground, trees and monsters that nobody would invoice him for damaging.

Frey dismissed his sword, sat back down on the edge of the bed and reopened the ability panel one final time. His eyes settled on the small gauge waiting beneath Vritra’s information.

[Calamity Reservoir: 2%]

Frey smiled.

He needed somewhere to test this properly.