It was born of greed, a scar upon the natural order. The Humanoid of Calamity was a monstrous entity from a realm beyond our own, a being whose fundamental nature was to absorb, to consume, to maintain the very spiritual energy that flowed through the earth. Humanity, in its boundless avarice, saw not a force of nature, but a weapon. They shackled it, experimented on it, and in doing so, they forged their own annihilation. It evolved, twisted by human ambition, until its only purpose was to consume everything in its path. It had become the Humanoid of Calamity in truth.
Deep within the subterranean levels of the First Division Laboratory, the transformation reached its zenith. A form, once amorphous and alien, twisted and solidified into a purple, human-like body, eyeless and perfect in its horrific symmetry. Then, it released a silent scream.
A wave of intense, dark energy erupted from its core, a shockwave of pure negation that tore through steel, concrete, and flesh with equal indifference. In an instant, the heart of the First Division was obliterated, leaving only a crater of smoldering ruin.
From the settling dust and the ground bleeding purple energy into a bruised sky, a figure rose. The Humanoid of Calamity pushed aside mountains of rubble with an effortless, terrifying grace, as if simply shrugging off a light blanket. It stood, a silent sentinel of doom.
"That's it… the Humanoid of Calamity," a soldier whispered, his voice cracking over the comms.
A man with grim eyes, Lloyd, watched from a vantage point, his jaw tight. "Its strength is immeasurable."
"I fear that any move we make will be our last," another unit stammered, the tremor in his voice betraying his terror.
Nearby, a young man named Shiro could only stare in disbelief. The scale of the destruction, the sheer presence of the thing, was paralyzing.
"No, no, we weren't trained for this!" a third soldier cried out, backing away. "This is beyond what we signed up for! That thing is going to shred us into pieces!"
"Don't you dare be a weakling!" a sharp, commanding voice cut through the panic. It was Misuzu, her face set like stone beneath her helmet. "You have a family, right? Then you have people to protect. This… this is exactly what you signed up for." Her gaze swept across the terrified squad. "All units… FIRE!"
A symphony of technological warfare erupted. Bolts of plasma, high-caliber rounds, and concussive shells streaked towards the silent figure, impacting in a storm of fire and thunderous explosions. The air shimmered with heat.
Shiro, however, didn't see the fire. He saw the Calamity. It was ignoring the barrage, a faint, dark aura beginning to ripple around its form. And then… it grinned.
"Get down!" Shiro screamed, his voice raw.
It was too late.
The Humanoid of Calamity tilted its head back and roared. Not a sound of pain or anger, but a release. A sphere of violent purple energy expanded from its body, silent for a heartbeat before the world tore itself apart.
BOOM.
The force of the explosion was absolute. When the dust settled, the battlefield was a charnel house. A female soldier pulled off her cracked helmet, her ears ringing. Her eyes fell on a comrade lying a few feet away. The top half of his head was simply gone, burned away. His remaining eye stared into nothingness, his mouth moving in a silent, final plea for help.
Her scream tore through the sudden, awful silence.
Shiro stood, his body trembling, his ears deafened by the blast. As he took a stumbling step back, his boot knocked against something. He looked down. A severed hand lay beside his foot, the fingers still curled. He stared, numb. "What… what is this?"
Nearby, Misuzu pushed herself up, her mind racing. 'Most of our unit… annihilated in a single blow. Is this how it ends? No. They were weak. But I… I am stronger!'
A surge of defiant energy, her chi, flared around her. "Go to hell, you piece of shit!" she roared, charging forward, a ball of concentrated power forming in her palm.
She never saw it move. One moment she was charging, the next, a phantom force had erased the entire left side of her body. She crumpled mid-stride, a single, confused sound escaping her lips. "Huh…?"
Lloyd watched her fall, a cold fury settling in his heart. "This can't end like this!" he bellowed. "All surviving units, evacuate the area! Looks like I'll have to finish this alone."
"You're not alone," Shiro said, appearing at his side, his face pale but determined.
Lloyd glanced at him. "Are you willing to throw your life away so easily?"
"No," Shiro replied, his fists clenching. "But this is what we were created for, right? Now… let's end this."
A grim smile touched Lloyd's lips. "If we make it out alive…"
Without another word, they moved. A synchronized blur of motion, they ran towards the epicenter of the destruction. Shiro vanished, reappearing in an instant directly in front of the Calamity. It was fast, its fist already a blur aimed at his face. But Shiro was faster, pivoting to deliver a devastating kick to its gut that sent the monster crashing backward through the rubble.
Lloyd was already in the air, elemental energy crackling around his hands. He rained down blasts of pure force, hammering the creature into the ground. But the Calamity was adaptive. It tore a chunk of the earth from the ground and hurled it like a meteor, then teleported behind Lloyd in the same motion.
Lloyd merely smirked. "Too predictable." He spun, letting the momentum carry him, and slammed an energy sphere point-blank into the creature's chest, sending it rocketing skyward.
Shiro was there to meet it, grabbing the eyeless face and using his own weight to slam it back down, driving it through the skeleton of a broken-down building like a nail.
The Calamity roared, not in pain, but in annoyance. It unleashed a sharp, piercing shockwave that threw both Shiro and Lloyd back. Then, it began to change. An intense aura flared around it, and the very air grew heavy. It was absorbing the residual spiritual energy from the land, the fading elemental powers of the dead. Its body swelled, becoming more muscular and defined. Dark purple lightning arced down from the heavens, striking its form, and with a burst of impossible speed, it was before them again.
Its hammer-fist came down. Lloyd and Shiro barely dodged, the shockwave of the missed punch alone shattering the ground beneath their feet.
"Burn!" Shiro yelled, unleashing his elemental fire. A barrage of flame-wreathed attacks peppered the monster. He and Lloyd became blurs of motion, one trailing a red-pink aura, the other a fiery orange-red, circling the dark purple core of their enemy. Their attacks connected in a furious, deafening crescendo, the force of their collision cracking the very continent. The elemental energies clashed and merged, culminating in a colossal, colorful explosion.
From the heart of the blast, the Humanoid of Calamity emerged unscathed, radiating an immense pressure that pinned them in place. It moved faster than thought, grabbing both men by their heads and slamming them into the earth. It didn't stop, dragging them through rock and soil as if they were rag dolls. Shiro managed to free a hand, unleashing a point-blank fire barrage into its side.
The Calamity roared, finally releasing them only to unleash a flurry of speed-punches that sent Shiro flying through a ruined building. Lloyd recovered faster, landing nimbly and countering with a blow of such concentrated force that a web of cracks spiderwebbed across the monster's torso.
Its weakness! Lloyd had found it.
The Calamity screamed, a sound of genuine horror this time. In response, it released a torrent of energy that exploded upward in a pillar of destruction. It was adapting again. Purple lightning struck Lloyd, and the ground beneath him fractured, spewing molten lava. Lloyd flew upward, moving with the speed of light, firing countless energy rays from all directions. The entire First Division crater glowed, then detonated in a multi-colored cataclysm.
The Calamity's body was riddled with cracks, but it was not finished. It simply stomped the air, and a wave of vibrational energy neutralized Lloyd's assault. Before Lloyd could react, it was before him, a knee kick connecting with his face. He felt his cheekbone shatter. The monster grabbed his leg, hurled him away, and finished him with a dark energy orb that carved a new canyon into the landscape.
As the dust settled, Shiro dove from the sky, his one remaining arm cradling a sphere of molten rock. "Consume this!" he roared, shaping the lava into a giant, roaring skull of fire that swallowed the Calamity whole.
The resulting explosion was immense, but when the fire cleared, the monster stood taller, its dark aura intensifying. It was evolving, growing bigger with every attack.
"It's no use…" Shiro gasped. There was only one path left. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they burned with white light. His hair bleached to a stark white, and his body flared with power. Overdrive.