Time passed…
After she was satisfied acting like an idiot, Petra hopped back up and racked her brain for more ways to open this 'loot-box of a door'. After a moment of serious, very scholarly thought, Hmm-hmm! She clapped her hands together.
"Aha!"
Petra pulled out a pen and scribbled on the door like a child.
Her small hand extended as she balanced on one foot.
"Hmm-Hmm-Hmm!"
After 'writing' something that definitely didn't look like a serious spell, she tucked the pen back into the tiny backpack strapped to her back.
She stepped away, looked at her drawing, and nodded repeatedly.
She was very satisfied!
Her mind drifted back to a recent lesson.
During one of their study sessions, Levy had caught Petra cursing the High Elves, and their overly complicated rune system. To Petra's surprise, Levy completely agreed. Not only that, but she also taught Petra a 'little trick.'
Wang! The drawing on the door flickered to life!
Click!
With a soft click, the door lazily unlocked, then opened with a groan.
Upon closer inspection, Petra had drawn the large rune that represented 'Moon', but not in the Rune Language of the High Elves, no, it wasn't even the Rune Language…
Cough-cough-cough! Well, it was supposed to be… kinda, ish?
Mm, she had written it in 'Celestial Script', the level above the Rune Language, just really poorly...
The reason this opened the door was because the Celestial Script simply invaded the Rune Language of the High Elves and overwrote the control of the door. As for why it was the Celestial Script for 'Moon', that was because the 'Moon' carried the properties of reflection, which was especially destructive to overly complex and rigid systems like this trash.
If a certain faceless emperor knew this, he would probably cough up blood…
This stupid little drawing was basically an omnipotent key for any High Elven door.
Yes, it was that stupid.
Yes, that's how it worked.
Yes, that made Petra just that much more of a scourge.
Although, drawing it was far from as easy as Petra made it seem. Even if it looked like something a bored child would scribble on the sidewalk, it required something else entirely.
As for what that something was…
Hmph!
Wouldn't you like to know!
Back to Petra…
"Mm, Hewwooo~? Secwet stash~? Hewwo-hewwo! Whewe awe yooouuu~? Ah-yah?" Petra called out as she poked her head into the newly opened room. Her words slurred into chibi speech…
Author: "…"
After sniffing with her completely nonexistent nose, she swaggered in like a boss. The confidence that was oozing from her body could also be called the manifestation of 'courting death'.
The room was a small storage chamber, only about six meters across, but the few cabinets within each contained something extremely precious.
And when I say, 'extremely precious', I mean big-time loot!
Petra's eyes, even in her ant avatar, sparkled with starlight. She scanned the shelves, and her eyes grew even brighter with every container she passed.
Just to name a few:
'Myriad Race Dictionary, Genetic Information - Age of Chaos.'
'Old Human - Bloodline Elements.'
'Blood Samples from all twelve Beast Kings.'
'Core Essence from all nine Plant Saints.'
'An artificial vial of the Original Sea Clan's bloodline', whatever that meant…
And finally, the thing that made Petra giddy—
Petra held up a small bottle, about twenty centimeters long, containing something labeled 'Blood of the Void Leviathan.' Petra had no idea what a 'Void Leviathan' was, but she could feel an incredibly tempting aura leaking from the container.
For some reason, she had an overwhelming urge to drink it. It felt just like walking past a deep-fried food stall in a night market.
Every cell in her body was suddenly releasing a greedy aura.
Petra's stomach growled, but she held herself back. Her logic had finally managed to win against her stomach, at least, for once in her existence.
She had a much better idea for where to use this blood.
Even if drinking it might make her stronger, she had other priorities. As for those priorities, they were obviously related to her being a lazy bum.
Petra scooped up all the samples and crammed them into her bag. If any self-respecting High Elf were to see this, they might start a holy war on the spot, and crusade to hunt the heretic.
As for why she didn't just teleport them out…
Hmph!
Wouldn't you like to know!
-
Petra left the room with a spicy skip in her step.
She had really profited this time!
She hoped that the next calamity would also come with this kind of treasure hunt. Maybe they could even turn it into a holiday, once a year, that kind of thing...
Doesn't that sound fun?
Petra nodded to herself.
"That sounds like a really good idea to me!"
* * *
As Petra began her leisurely exit, she was a bit surprised to find that there were two other figures in this underground laboratory.
Wait—
Wasn't the arc over?
What was going on…?
Oh…
She suddenly realised what this was!
This was that cool thing at the end of a story where, in the epilogue, certain characters appeared to do mysterious and cool things to make themselves look more interesting? She bet that they both had cool off-screen inner monologues that tied together some unfinished plot points from the calamity.
Yes!
Probably…
Mm.
Petra naturally couldn't be shown up!
So, she puffed out her flat chest and walked past them without saying a word!
* * *
In the corridor of a dark and long-forgotten laboratory, a small child, an elderly ant, and a red-eyed High Elf passed each other in an inconspicuous intersection, completely silent and without a word.
The old ant carried a cocoon-like mass of light on his shoulder. Inside, a newly shaped human-like figure slept soundlessly. It looked like a small youth that had only just been born.
The red-eyed High Elf carried the damaged crystal core, condensed and retrieved from the previous battlefield after everyone had escaped. It was the supreme grade spirit stone that had once housed an invasive consciousness, now purged and purified using the facilities of the underground laboratory.
And finally, the little green-haired girl, er… the ant, swaggered forward with her blood-filled bag, puffing out her chest, as if any of them cared.
There was a quiet crossing of paths.
- None of them spoke.
- None of them stopped.
But each of these three would leave an unseen mark on the future that would be indispensable…
* * *
With the disappearance of the Ant Queen, and the 'destruction' of the Crystal Core, the Corrupted World Tree immediately began to collapse!
The world trembled.
Far beneath the surface, the first to implode was the colossal underground chamber, the space that had 'sustained' the Corrupted World Tree. Its foundation cracked, its root-enforced walls shattered, and the massive tunnel network that once reached through the region, no, the continent, 'erupted' all at once. The entire cavern folded inwards with a sound like the earth was screaming, sending a wave of devastation through the tunnel system, and out through any weaknesses in the structure that it could find, forming massive volcano-like geysers across the continent, devastating massive areas of land.
Next was the World Tree!
Its darkened trunk, blackened and hollowed from its long battle against the corruption, gave a final groan before gravity ripped it down. The descent was instant, like a titan collapsing into its own grave. The fall spanned kilometers, and the air imploded around it, its sheer force ripping open the void.
A moment later—
The earth exploded!
BOOOOOM!
The shockwave tore through the Yin Wood Forest, nearly vaporizing everything in its path! Oriest, once the proud capital of the western region, was gone in a single heartbeat, reduced to molten stone beneath a storm of light and darkness.
The ground convulsed. Mountains buckled and swamps boiled. The Cursed Hills split apart, forming jagged scar-like ravines in every direction.
Even still, it did not end…
The fallen World Tree, its monstrous body collapsed and sprawled around the ruins of its own making, began to wither at a terrifying speed. Its roots, once vast enough to threaten the Cross Continent, shriveled completely into lifeless husks within a single week. The spiritual energy that had once nourished its body now bled out as poison, darkening the skies for thousands of kilometers.
Outside the western region, the damage wasn't much more than simple tremors, but within… it was the incarnation of devastation.
* * *
Once the roots disappeared completely, several other issues emerged.
The first major concern was the Poison Sea. Contrary to popular belief, the Poison Sea didn't originate from the Second Calamity.
The calamity had 'accelerated' its spread, but the sea itself predated it.
After her dramatic off-screen escape, Elena was recorded by a passing scout, commenting that the 'Poison Sea's advance was unusually slow'. According to her, it should have spread much quicker. Something had clearly been interfering with it, and this was an opinion that was shared by many.
That something was Petra, of course, who had unknowingly absorbed nearly one-fifth of the entire Poison Sea by her little self!
It was good shit!
Ahem!
Even with her unintentional 'help,' the remaining four-fifths of the Poison Sea continued to devour the western region. Containing it was possible, but not easy. It took nearly a week before someone strong and knowledgeable enough, possessing the right qualifications, reached the excavation site and destroyed the terraforming device that had been fueling its spread.
When the device finally stopped, so did the advance of the Poison Sea.
Nearly half of the western region, along with a narrow strip of the central region, had been permanently transformed by its influence. The land itself was 'rewritten,' and its essence replaced by something unrecognizable and foreign.
These lands could never be restored.
The soil was dead, the air was unbreathable, and even the rain carried a deadly poison. No creature, no spirit, no life at all, could take root there again. The western map was redrawn, and a new sea, the Poison Sea, became its new border, connecting it to the Central Region.
But then—
The strangest thing happened...
Far apart from one another, in entirely different corners of the region, three people spoke the same words almost simultaneously. Elena, who was catching up to the main evacuation group, Arthur, who stood atop the ruins of Darkwell with two youths behind him, and Kilemin, gazing from the peak of the central region's western cliffs.
Each one foresaw the same thing—
And that was, within a century, the devastated areas within the range of the Poison Sea would change dramatically, possibly for the better.
* * *
After the Poison Sea, came the matter of the Dusk Dwellers and the Duskwood, along with the Mercenary Alliance and its people.
Although they were later suspected as the primary source behind the Second Calamity, finding the true culprit was nearly impossible after the fact. Whistleblowers attempted to blame the Mercenary Alliance, but for some reason, these claims never held up. Each time the subject was raised, the evidence was either contradictory or simply did not make sense.
There were a few who knew the truth and found this suspicious, but none cared enough to bring it up.
* * *
Meanwhile, the black sky that hung over the western region began to dissipate.
Because the clouds had been incredibly dense, the process stretched over many weeks. It was predicted that within a month after the collapse of the Corrupted World Tree, the dark skies would fade almost completely. The environmental damage, however, remained permanent, and mutated monsters continued to appear.
* * *
Another lingering issue was the sudden surge of massive insects.
At first, everyone believed it was connected to the Ant Queen, but no one could find a clear link. The timing made sense, but the nature of the insects didn't.
Something was clearly wrong.
Much later, long after the calamity had passed, Arthur would 'accidentally uncover' the truth.
Hidden deep within a forgotten chamber of the tunnel system, beneath the Corrupted World Tree was a small, derelict laboratory, one so insignificant that it had escaped all the previous searches. Inside, sealed away and located high on a dust-covered shelf, was a single vial of strange liquid, barely half a centimeter long.
When the World Tree's roots broke through the small room during its initial awakening, it had pierced the chamber and 'absorbed' the vial entirely. Through that single act, the liquid's influence spread into its massive body and dispersed through the black clouds, the poisoned winds, and the endless rain.
If Petra had been there, she would have recognized it instantly.
It was the same substance she had looted, a tiny sample of the Void Leviathan's blood. This one, though smaller than the bottle she possessed, had been enough to mutate the entire ecosystem and spawn countless monstrous insects. They clearly didn't come from the same source, because what she had was a highly refined substance, and the small vial was more like a replication. Knowing this, the massive changes cause by the blood only stood to further demonstrate the absurdity of this blood. If such devastation could come from a mere droplet, the potential of the larger bottle Petra carried was beyond comprehension.
The origin of the vial was never discovered. It had no records, no trace of its creator or history, and no verifiable purpose, and by the time the truth surfaced, it no longer mattered.
No one asked how Arthur had found it.
They never did...
After all, this Hero was an enigma in his own right, one whose casual actions always seemed to lead him to the answers no one else could reach.
* * *
Over the month that followed the end of the Second Calamity, the majority of the western region's survivors were successfully evacuated. They traveled through the vast network of Black Dwarven tunnels that stretched under the Grey Plains to the central region.
Kilemin personally oversaw each wave of the evacuation.
Under his guidance, tens of thousands of people managed to reach safety!
With the crisis finally stabilizing, only one challenge remained, relocation.
The eastern region had 'exiled' itself, while the northern region simply lacked the infrastructure to sustain such a massive wave of people.
That left only two choices, the central region or the south…
However, with the Sky Tower temporarily isolating itself, the burden fell to the southern region.
The Hellion Empire took full responsibility for the mass migration, mobilizing its army to receive and escort the refugees directly to the empire. At the forefront of this operation was the Rotell.
* * *
With that, the Second Calamity had officially come to an end!