A different building fell. Then one more. The beautiful city of waterfalls and mist, Mistfall, was being taken apart piece by piece.

The Calamity moved with terrible speed, always going after the places where the most metal was. Forges blew up. Armories fell apart. And with each new weapon, the monster got bigger.

"We have to fall back," Marina said as she grabbed Greg's arm. "We're not doing anything but watching people die!"

"We can't just go!" Greg protested, but he knew she was right even as he said it.

Their shields could stop attacks, but they couldn't fix the main problem. The Calamity needed weapons to survive, and Mistfall was full of them.

A desperate scream caught their attention. A family was stuck under debris, and a young girl could be seen through a hole in the rubble. The Calamity's shadow fell over them as it got closer, drawn by the metal support in the building that had fallen down.

Greg didn't think. He ran with his shield up and slid between the family and the monster that was coming.

Greg's shield took the blow from the Calamity's hand. The force knocked him to his knees, and cracks spread through the stone beneath him, but he held on. The family got away and ran.

"That's it," Greg said, breathing heavily and feeling pain all over his body. "We can't do anything else... but at least we can help whoever we can! One person at a time!"

The others spread out, using their shields to protect people who were running away, block falling debris, and make paths through the wreckage. It wasn't a fight against the Calamity, but it was fixing the damage. Triage in the face of the end of the world.

Christoft was the only one in the plaza. His hands moved faster now, drawing on deeper reserves of power.

The waterfalls around Mistfall started to slow down, and he was able to completely control the water. He was using everything he had, and at the rate he was using up his magic, he would be completely drained in a matter of minutes.

"Christoft, stop!" Tunner ran up to him. "You'll kill yourself!"

"Better than letting my city die without even trying!" Christoft's voice was rough.

He had lost all of his calm grace and was now in a state of raw desperation. "I'm an Elite Knight! This is what I should be able to handle! I should be strong enough!"

He put his hands together, and every drop of water he controlled came together on the Calamity. The pressure was so high that it could cut through steel.

The monster staggered from the attack, finally pushed back. A flicker of hope sparked in Greg's heart. Then, the wings of the Calamity spread wide and beat down forcefully.

A giant spray of water pushed the creature forward. One hand caught Christoft before he could get away, lifting the Elite Knight into the air.

"CHRISTOFT!" Tunner shouted, his voice laced with anguish.

The Calamity lifted Christoft high and fixed its swirling eyes upon him. For a brief moment, nothing occurred. Then, weapons began to emerge from the creature's hand, coiling around Christoft like chains.

He struggled fiercely, summoning the last remnants of his water magic, but his exhaustion weighed him down. The chains constricted tighter around him.

"Let him go!" Greg charged ahead with his shield up, but the other hand of the Calamity pushed him aside like an annoying bug. He hit the wall so hard that he saw stars.

Greg heard Christoft's voice through the pain, and it was surprisingly calm. "Veldway Blackcourt."

The Calamity stopped, as if it wanted to know what the words meant.

"There's one more," Christoft said, his voice getting stronger even though the chains were digging into his armor. "One more Knight of the Elite...!"

"The strongest person among us. Blackcourt Veldway..."

"Three years ago, he went missing, and nobody knows where he went."

"Why are you telling us this now?" Marina yelled.

"Because you have to find him," Christoft said. "Use the compass. Return to the Meridian fortress of the Elite Knight!"

"The resonance chamber can find all Elite Knights, even those who have gone missing, if you do something with the mechanism! Look for Veldway!"

"He's the only one who might be able to stop this."

"We're not going anywhere!" Tunner had gotten to the bottom of the Calamity and was hitting it with his warhammer.

Each hit barely made a dent in the metal until his warhammer started to get consumed by its body. "God fucking dammit! Wait a second! We'll get you down!"

"No," Christoft said, and his voice was calm now. "No, you won't."

"That's fine. Tunner, do you know what I just realized?"

"I've never done anything truly heroic in all the years I've been an Elite Knight..."

"I've trained, I've acted like I'm protecting Mistfall, and I've lived there in safety."

"But I've never really put anything on the line."

The chains got even tighter, and Christoft cried out in pain. The metal cut him, and blood ran from his mouth.

"I've lived in a fantasy about how important I am, but... maybe I can do something real this time. Something that really matters."

"Stop talking like that!" Lylia's voice broke. "We can still help you!"

"You can save Meridian," Christoft said. "You can find Veldway."

"You can stop this monster before it eats everything. But you can't do that because you're stuck here with me..."

His eyes closed, and when they opened again, they were bright blue. Something else took the place of the tiredness. He was using his own life force to turn his very existence into magical power.

"Christoft, NO!" Tunner's voice broke.

"Tell Veldway," Christoft said, his body starting to glow with the same blue light. "Tell him that the water remembers..."

"He'll get it."

Thereafter, he let everything go. Every bit of magic energy he had stored in his body over years of training, every ounce of power he had, and every drop of water he had ever controlled.

Everything exploded outward in a giant show. The waterfalls didn't just change direction, but they went back up, going against nature.

The mist in the air turned into millions of tiny ice crystals. The ground's moisture rose up quickly. And all of it came together at the Calamity.

The wave that came after that was indescribable. A tsunami made of pure magic and willpower, taller than the tallest building and moving like an angry god.

It hit the Calamity with such force that it pushed the creature back and even lifted its giant body off the ground. The sound of the unleashed water overpowered the monster's roar.

However, as the terrible wave was forming, other bodies of water moved in a different manner. Calm streams came out of the chaos and flowed around the Brotherhood like walls of protection. The water gently lifted them up and took them away from the damage.

"To the carriage!!!" Christoft's voice echoed through the water, getting quieter and quieter.

"Get to the carriage...! NOW, ASSHOLES!!!"

"The water will show you the way!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.