Chapter 466: Calamity Seed II

Another image appeared in the young Vorhelm’s mind, the Ant Queen, the same creature that the System had evaluated as a Calamity Seed and had even given him a Quest to kill.

So if he had not killed that Ant Queen, another Calamity would have entered their world.

And that random announcement was not simply a title for a special monster, that creature was a possible candidate for something much greater.

"How many Seeds are there? A hundred? A thousand? More?" The white-eyed man continued.

He gave a quiet laugh.

"Who cares? Many worlds have died, and a lot of time has passed." Then his smile disappeared.

"But none of them succeeded." He placed his finger on the egg’s shell.

"None of them could take the sixth position, so I decided not to wait for nature and make one myself."

Lian looked directly into his eyes and the white-eyed man opened both hands.

"I will make the sixth Calamity."

For a moment, the only sound was the liquid moving inside the container, then that crazy excitement appeared on the man’s face again.

"Think about it!" He took one step forward.

"Something that can stand beside them, not under their feet, not behind them, beside them!"

His voice became louder.

"Something that, when a Calamity comes down from the sky of its world, does not run! Does not kneel! Does not leave its people behind and wait for death!"

He hit the container with his hand.

Bang!

"Only a Calamity can fight a Calamity! So I will give humanity a Calamity!"

The young Vorhelm looked at him for a few seconds and the man took a heavy breath, but then, for the first time, something broke in his expression.

The excitement went away and the smile disappeared.

"Do you think I was happy to see my world destroyed?"

His tone had changed, it was not childish and he was no longer laughing, he only looked tired and hurt.

"I was there."

His eyes moved past Lian, as if the ice walls of the cave no longer existed and he was seeing something very far away.

"I saw our cities... I saw my people.... I saw children who did not even understand why the sky had turned black."

For a few seconds, there was no sign of the crazy man from a few minutes ago.

"Everything we built... everything we learned... no matter how much we fought... it was not enough."

Then he looked at him again.

"Now, out of all the Volkari...only I remain....Ezrak."

Lian recorded the name in his mind, finally the white-eyed man had a name, Ezrak looked at the creature inside the container again.

"So yes... I will make a Calamity."

And the calmness in his voice slowly started to become crazy again.

"With it, I will kill the thing that destroyed my people." A calm smile appeared.

"Then that one... then the next one, and save the rest of humanity."

Vorhelm said nothing for a few moments, now he finally understood the sentence he had heard a long time ago.

In the border city, this man had said that his goal was to save humanity, at that time he had thought it was just another piece of nonsense from a crazy man.

But no, Ezrak had not lied, at least from his own point of view, he truly believed that what he was doing was saving humanity.

The problem was the price of that salvation.

He kept his eyes on the container, images of the dead bodies from the border city appeared in his mind.

People who had died, creatures that had been made from the bodies of several creatures.

Laboratories, killings, and if what Gareth had said was true, this man had probably turned hundreds of thousands of people into test materials over the years.

Especially with the Calamity he had created in East Asia, which had killed a large number of people, and if all the killings across other continents like Europe, North America, South America, and Africa were added together, the number of deaths might even reach the millions.

But to Ezrak, they were not victims, they were materials, they were that worthless, he only saw them as tools to reach his own goal.

Someone like this wanted to save humanity?

"Well?" The white-eyed man suddenly turned toward him again.

"Well what?"

"Your answer! Are you ready?" Ezrak’s eyes were almost shining with excitement and he pointed toward the huge egg.

"Are you ready to stand beside me and become part of the greatest thing a Volkari has ever done?"

His voice became louder.

"The final piece of my greatest monster?"

His smile became so wide that it almost looked painful.

"Together, we will make a Calamity."

He paused and then said in a tone as if he were offering the greatest deal in the world.

"And we will save the worlds."

Lian stayed silent for a few seconds, then laughed and a short laugh came from his throat, not because he was happy, but because of how meaningless what he had heard was.

Ezrak’s smile shook slightly and Vorhelm slowly shook his head.

"Save the worlds?" His eyes stayed directly on the white-eyed man.

"You really still believe that?"

"Why shouldn’t I believe it?" Ezrak kept his smile.

"Because you killed hundreds of thousands of people, cut human bodies apart, created creatures, turned cities into laboratories, and then called all those people you killed materials?"

His tone was still calm and that calmness made the words heavier.

"No, you don’t want to save humanity." And he added with sarcasm.

"Be careful—" Ezrak’s face became cold for the first time, it was clear that this was his line.

Lian cut him off.

"You want to prove that you can make a Calamity."

Silence.

This time the white-eyed man gave no answer and Vorhelm did not take his eyes off him.

"Saving humanity is just a story you made for yourself so that everything you do can become acceptable." He pointed at the creature inside the container.

"You don’t look at the people you killed and call them victims...you call them material, because if you accept that they were people, you have to accept that what you have built all these years is not the way to salvation."

"You have to accept that you are not a savior." His eyes became colder.

The air in the cave became heavy, Ezrak was no longer laughing and instead of madness, anger and coldness could be seen in his eyes.

And Lian continued.

"You don’t love humanity, you love the idea of creating something that even the Calamities are forced to fear."

The man’s jaw tightened slightly, and this small reaction was enough for him, so he delivered the final blow.

"If someone comes tomorrow and proves to you that all five Calamities can be killed without this creature... I bet you still won’t stop making it."

No answer came and that silence was the answer, until this moment, Ezrak had almost always had something on his face.

A smile.

Laughter.

Excitement.

Mockery.

Childish anger.

But now there was nothing, his head became straight and his smile completely disappeared, his white eyes stayed fixed on Vorhelm without blinking.

The madness he showed had disappeared from him and the strange thing was that without it, he looked more frightening.

"You talk too much." Ezrak said in a completely cold voice.

Lian did not answer and the man turned his eyes toward the creature inside the container.

"Salvation."

"Power."

"Pride."

Then he looked at him again and the corner of his mouth rose very slowly.

"Whatever you want to call it, the result will not change." The distance between them became smaller and there was no excitement in his voice anymore.

"Just like I said before...you have no choice." His white eyes slowly narrowed.