When it came to life, Selene would say she had done her best with what she was given.
Before her tenth birthday, everything had been simple and fun.
Running around the castle.
Playing with the staff.
Letting the world feel bright.
It was after she turned ten that things started to go downhill.
Dad left after that night and did not return home, always staying in the field to hunt even more monsters and lead from the front.
Selene broke her brother's arm.
Then she left to try to find a cure on her own.
She spent years on the road, searching and doing odd jobs like cargo work and more, all while hoping to find what she needed.
It was that day, almost six months ago now, when her luck began to spike upward.
For once, she had a lead.
She helped save a town from a problem that could have caused a lot of damage.
She made great friends.
Went on quests.
Began to enjoy her days.
Though Aiden helped a lot with that.
He had helped her through the ox moth dream.
Worked daily to make sure she could live a semi-normal life.
And when he finally finished that potion and it worked, Selene had broken down crying right then and there.
She had thought that finally, after years of turmoil, her suffering was paying for some good luck.
It shattered so fast.
A notification that Aiden had been hit.
Selene rushing over to try to save him before it could fully work, even if she knew that was not how it actually worked.
Yet the cruelest part was the look in his eyes.
It was a look she had seen on her father's face when he thought she was a monster standing in the room with his daughter.
On her brother's face when she stood over him after breaking his arm.
Fear.
Fear that she was going to hurt them.
To make matters worse, Selene had tried everything.
She had pulled out all the stops and used every drop of energy she had to attack Pip.
To hurt him.
None of it seemed to work.
Severed limbs grew back faster than she could rip them off.
Crushed organs returned to shape.
Even slamming him into the wall so hard he seemed to splatter only had him reforming in seconds.
The entire time, all he did was ask her questions.
"Why are you angry?" Pip had asked. "I just showed you he was a bad match. I'm trying to help you."
He said it like Selene was acting crazy for trying to hurt him.
And while she knew he was in the wrong, a small part of her wondered.
A small part of her realized that it felt like the final nail in the coffin.
So she made a simple plan.
When all of this was over, she would leave and go home.
She had her cure.
She was sure the party would not want her around now that Aiden was scared of her.
Yet fate seemed unwilling to even give her that.
Because the ship was falling toward them.
Selene was tapped out of energy and strength.
She knew that.
Her muscles would not have the power to catch a ship like that.
It would crush her to death if she stayed.
But that voice came back to her ears.
"It only takes one…"
A pause.
"Bad…"
Another.
"Dice roll."
Her feet moved.
Aiden had gone rigid as something hit him.
If Selene could not survive it, he most certainly could not either.
So she leapt.
She grabbed him and positioned herself with the ship to her back.
For once, she refused to let cruel fate yank her around without trying to push back.
Even if it killed her.
Aiden's eyes widened in surprise as she grabbed him.
Selene closed her eyes and waited for the impact.
At least the last thing I saw wasn't someone scared of me.
Then she heard the sound of wood splintering.
And…
Bells?
Selene's eyes opened.
A massive black boot came crashing out from the ship behind her.
A towering, fifty-foot figure stood there, wearing red pants and a red vest, with a large white beard. His feet caught the ground as one of his hands went beneath the ship.
The other caught Aiden, Jax, and Selene.
The giant's boots skidded across the ground as he brought the ship to a stop.
"Well now," the giant asked, looking down at them with a toothy grin, "which one of you is Aiden?"
Selene stared up from where the three of them were gathered in his palm.
She refused to let go of Aiden as her eyes quickly scanned around them.
Thalia was out of sight, but she was alive since there had been no message.
And this giant's side had not been determined yet.
"W-Why?" Selene barked as she felt her strength begin to return, a throbbing pain spreading through her body where she made more mutations by cannibalizing her own HP. "Did Ymer send you?"
The giant stared down at them with a raised eyebrow.
Then, to Selene's surprise, he lowered his hand to let them off.
As they stepped down, he began to shrink.
From a towering giant to a still very tall seven-foot man.
"Well, I don't know a Ymer," the man said. "I came to say hi to my nephew."
Selene's jaw went slack.
She stared at the man.
Then looked back to Aiden, who seemed just as bewildered as she was.
"Aiden," Jax said, "when in the hells were you going to tell us you were related to a giaaaaand you're just as slack-jawed as Selene, so it seems you're just as confused as we are."
The accusation became realization halfway through the sentence.
They all stared for a moment.
Then the man walked over to Aiden and placed a massive palm on his head, one whose pinkie and thumb could probably reach either side of Aiden's torso.
He ruffled Aiden's hair.
"There you are," the man said. "Dad said his only grandson might be in a pickle, so I figured I would come help you out."
He grinned.
"I'm Nick, and the very shy hunk of metal over there is your Uncle Steel."
"Shy my ass," a rough voice snapped. "And for your information, how the fuck are you planning to convince him that we are blood related?"
A large black steel greatsword floated over.
"News flash. I'm a floating fucking sword."
Selene found herself agreeing with the cursing sword.
She was, in fact, not convinced that he and Aiden were somehow blood relatives.
"I…"
Aiden stared.
"I… huh?"
He looked between them.
"So you're saying we're somehow related because Grandpa apparently had kids with a giant and a sword?"
"Well, no," Nick said. "I'm human through and through, and Steel was human before his soul skill turned him into a sword."
Aiden opened his mouth as if to protest this.
Nick stuck out a hand and held up a finger to shush him.
"Questions later," Nick said. "Show's about to start."
As if on cue, a wave of heat washed over the city.
In the distance, a glow rose from where the group making the assistive ritual channeled power.
A large cage of whipping wind formed around the towering Zilla.
Zilla ripped and tore at it, his claws going through the wind as it reformed.
The heat continued to build.
Above him, a star of blazing light seemed to gather.
Words echoed over the city as if spoken beside each person's ear.
But the voice was not a shout.
It was more like the world wanted to hear what this person had to say.
"Ash remembers the sun, though the sky forgot its name.
I shatter the silence that caged a starborn flame.
Let the ember of eternity breathe through mortal lungs.
By furnace heart and forge of will, let every doubt be sung."
Zilla's eyes darted upward to where the star was growing in intensity.
In what seemed to be a last-ditch effort, energy charged in his chest.
His scales pulsed and channeled as he turned his head down toward the windswept cage.
A deafening blast ripped the wind apart.
The beam struck the ground.
A wave of green and yellow energy surged as if from another source.
Even from where Selene stood, she felt her fatigue vanish like dust.
Her wounds closed.
For a moment, the beam was deflected from the ground as the wind cage began to reform.
"Crown of cinder, wake—your throne is made of falling suns.
Spiral blaze, devour the void where lesser fire runs.
Ignite the bones of heaven, turn black constellations red.
Burn the future into present, leave the past as molten thread.
As nova, as king, as the roar before creation speaks, rise."
The energy changed color.
Red.
Blue.
Purple.
Then white.
Despite the force of energy rising from the strange green-and-yellow shield, the beam punched through.
A massive wave of dust began to rise.
Nick grew in size again, ready to shield them from the wave with his body.
But the wave was swallowed by a deeper green surge that devoured it.
Its meaning seemed to pass over everyone as it ran through them.
No one dies today.
Zilla's breath ran out.
Now free of his windbound chains, he stood with a deep crater of molten magma at his feet.
He had finished what remained of the distraction.
Then he turned as if to face the star in the sky.
But it was gone.
Instead, a small blazing individual floated before Zilla's face.
The towering beast stepped back as if surprised.
"Cataclysm unbound—let the world learn how a star dies."
As the words finished, the figure seemed to shift from something familiar and knowable into an unknown thing.
It was adorned in a mantle of flames that floated in flowing streams behind it.
Skin charred black, it felt like seeing one small piece of something far greater.
The figure raised a hand.
A single finger reached forward and gently tapped Zilla on the snout.
It was so simple.
So nonlethal.
For one brief moment, Selene worried this being was not there to help.
Then her vision went white.
A strange ringing rushed over her ears.
She had to blink several times before her sight began to recover.
Next to her, Aiden and Jax seemed to be doing the same.
Where Zilla had stood was now a towering pile of ash, roughly in Zilla's shape, but falling apart even as they watched.
Ashen arms collapsed and burst into black and gray soot.
The floating figure stared up at the sky for a moment.
Then they raised a finger.
A series of burning flames flew upward and burst overhead in a display like dazzling explosions.
Loud, satisfying popping sounds echoed across the city as the explosions shaped out a word.
VICTORY.
As if in agreement, the system chimed in with news of its own.
Potential Son of Blue Zilla, Godblight, has been defeated.
The City of Bear Reach has survived.
Main contributing teams:
Fatebound.
Student Council.
Black Dawn.
Casualties: 2.
Alaster.
Trent.
You have assisted in the evacuation efforts with a 100% success rate despite the odds.
You have achieved a monumental achievement.
Your class is ready to evolve.
You have received a title for your actions.
Survivor of Calamity (A).