I had never experienced anything like this.
I had never been allowed to travel far from home.
Raised in a sprawling estate with servants at every corner, he had never truly seen the world beyond its walls. Now, standing before a pillar that seemed to pierce the heavens, he could not even see the top.
HU HU HU HU! Mathis, well, what do you think? This is my home. The Magic core!
"It's… awesome," Mathis said quietly, his voice small against its scale.
The structure felt alive. It broke apart and reconnected as it rose, shifting as if reality itself was being rearranged around it. This was one of the Magic Towers, constructs that ignored causality entirely, climbing endlessly, even into space.
"I think a god must have sent these towers, to Aurelia, to help us," the old man said casually, as if speaking about the weather.
"Now then," he continued, hands clasped behind his back, "since you rely on the power of light, I believe you may even be able to use star magic. With your strengths, and with how you're blessed, it wouldn't surprise me."
"And why do you think that?" Mathis asked.
HU HO HU HO. "Just an old man's theory."
"I want to get you a spellbook. That's the only reason we stopped here."
Reality tore open like fabric pulled too far. Beyond the rift stretched an endless library, shelves floating in impossible angles, books drifting as if weightless. The old man reached in and pulled one free.
"Arcane Grimoires," he said, handing it to Mathis. "This book will teach you everything about magic. Soon, a tournament will be held in the city. Three legendary items will be awarded. A phoenix feather, an arcane orb, and one of the fifteen legendary blades. It only happens once every hundred years."
"One month?" Mathis asked. "Isn't that kind of long?"
After several scoldings, a few sharp knocks to the head, and being called lazy more times than he could count, Mathis agreed to train for a month.
"All right," the old man said, clapping his hands. "Now that you're on board, we're off. Adios, Magic Tower."
"What? We're leaving already? I didn't even get to go inside!" Mathis protested.
"You'll have plenty of chances once you enter the academy. Patience," the old man said.
Another rift opened, purple and hollow, flat and infinite at the same time. They stepped through.
The next thing Mathis knew, he was falling.
Wind roaring past him as they emerged above an unknown mountain. The old man caught him effortlessly, laughing as if this were a minor inconvenience.
"Go," he said, pointing toward a dark forest below. "Kill the beasts corrupted by magic. The grimoire is enough."
"And you?" Mathis asked, panic creeping into his voice.
"I have something important to attend to. Don't die."
Then the old man vanished.
Alone, Mathis' chest tightened. Regret hit him all at once. The ballroom, the expectations, the pressure of being a duke's son. That had been hard. But this was different. This was real danger.
A roar shattered the forest.
A massive creature emerged. A griffin-like monster with a lion's head and twisted wings. A corrupted Chupacabra.
"LIGHTS ARROW!"
Blazing arrows tore through the air. The beast dodged and slashed Mathis across the side. Pain exploded through him. His first real wound.
"Am I going to die here?" he gasped. "That crazy old man…"
"SUNS BEAM!"
Light burned across the creature's body, melting flesh, but only enraging it further.
Mathis ran. The monster followed easily.
I can't overcome this, he realized. For the first time in his life, effort wasn't enough.
Then he remembered the old man's words.
He flipped through the grimoire desperately while hiding among rocks and trees. He found it just as the beast RoaReD.
Biting his tongue, pouring everything into a single spell, Mathis raised his hand.
"SUPER NOVA!"
Light exploded. The creature was erased, the earth scorched with it. Mathis collapsed to his knees, shaking.
"Hohoh! Super Nova already?" the old man's voice echoed. "That's an advanced spell. He's going to be a future star."
Mathis barely had time to breathe.
More beasts emerged. Ten became more. Twisted forms surrounded him. A serpent with a giant's body. A dragon with a lion's tail. A walking skeleton. A mass of flesh that looked like something dragged out of hell.
Fire blasted toward his face.
"I won't die here," Mathis said through clenched teeth. "I refuse."
"LIGHTS GUARDIAN!"
A massive, Buddhist-like array of light formed behind him. A radiant figure manifested, summoning a thousand hands that blocked the fire in an instant.
"It's not over!" Mathis screamed.
The hands twisted together into a massive spear.
"LIGHTS ARROW!"
The spear launched, impaling the dragon into the mountainside. The light vanished, leaving only a corpse.
Mathis staggered. His energy was nearly gone. He knew instinctively he could not use Super Nova or Lights Guardian again.
Then something hit him.
The giant serpent kicked him across the mountain. He slammed into stone, breath knocked from his lungs.
Do I use my last strength? And then what?
"Curse you for life, old man," he muttered.
"Achoo," the old man sneezed from afar. "My nose is stuffy."
"I, Mathis Aurelia, will not lose to beasts li…"
Something struck him mid-sentence. A crazed monkey-like creature punched him square in the face.
Then the sky darkened.
A colossal being rose beyond the mountain. A creature with a planet for a head, continents shifting across its surface. Its presence crushed the air itself.
"What… is that?" Mathis voice quiet, shaking.
The moment it appeared, the old man moved.
In less than a heartbeat, he was in front of Mathis.
"Troublesome," he said, no humor left in his voice.
He shoved Mathis through a rift.
Behind him, the old man looked up at the being.
The Devourer of Orbits, known as Calamity World Eater: Vaeltharion.
"I didn't think one would appear here," the old man muttered. "Might not be able to beat it alone."
Mathis crashed onto stone floors.
"Where… am I?" he gasped.
The Magic Tower loomed above him.
Mathis collapsed, exhausted.
This was what defeat felt like.
And he hated it.
Voices echoed through the fractured halls as Mathis lay unconscious.
"Isn't that the boy the Old Master Veltrix took in?" one mage whispered, staring at him in disbelief.
Others gathered, murmuring quietly among themselves. Above them, the Magic Tower shuddered. Its structure twisted unnaturally, sections rotating as if responding to something unseen. Slowly, impossibly, the tower's highest spires shifted, angling toward the horizon.
Toward a calamity.
A ripple passed through the air. Something vast stirred far away.
"A calamity…" a mage muttered. "One has appeared."
The color drained from several faces.
"If only the grand father were here," another said under their breath. "He's the one most entangled with calamities."
"What do you mean by that?" a younger mage asked, unease creeping into his voice.
"Well," the first mage replied hesitantly, "there's a rumor going around. They say the Head Master summons calamities. Some even claim… he is one."
"That's nonsense," another mage laughed nervously. "Don't spread garbage like that."
"Maybe," the first said, lowering his voice, "but there's another rumor. They say he once lost someone to a calamity. Long ago. And that he hunted it down and killed it himself."
"Enough with your false fiction," the other mage scoffed, forcing a laugh. "You sound like a drunk storyteller."
But the laughter didn't last.
Silence followed as the tower continued to groan, its strange movements growing more pronounced.
"…Still," one mage said quietly, eyes fixed on the shifting spire, "what if he actually did beat one?"
No one answered.
Because if that rumor were true, then Veltrix was not merely a man who fought calamities.
He was one of the very few who could end them.