How To Survive A Calamity

Chapter 152 True Fear [3]

"Who are you?" Xavier warily called out to the unfamiliar person, who just stood there eerily like an unmoving statue.

His inky black eyes seemed to bend and devour light from the world and his messy black hair and outfit almost seemed to fuse with the surrounding darkness.

The youth wasn't donning the same familiar uniform of Aegis that all cadets, regardless of year did.

In fact, his outfit seemed strange and ominous on its own.

To Xavier and Alex who's perception and senses were sharp, it almost seemed...

Alive.

But at that moment, Chelsea's eyes flickered with the sight and image of the mysterious stranger reflected in them.

She felt an odd and indescribable sense of familiarity with him the moment the two locked gazes with each other.

Those deep black eyes... A subtle resemblance laid inside of them and their aloof gaze.

"Uh?" Chelsea blinked her eyes unintentionally.

"...N...Nico..?"

Unconsciously she lowered her raised spear.

"Nico, is that you?" Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

Xavier's head darted to the side and sharply turned to Chelsea.

"Nico? Are you saying that's Nicodemus?"

Alexander, too, slowly he was beginning to see it.

"Yes. That's... I'm sure of it."

There was a vasty change between the strange young man's appearance and Nicodemus's from Chelsea's memory, but the longer she stared, the more she could see, and the more certain she became.

It was hard to notice now. Nicodemus usually had his face and eyes hidden underneath his shaggy black hair and bangs. He had a timid personality and that often usually affected his posture when he stood or moved.

The strange youth standing before them instead had slick black hair parted and swept backwards, his messy side bangs framing the outline of his face.

His black eyes were deep and pathetic, and he stood straight with a dark poise and moved with a graceful and confident gait.

"It's him." Trise's eyes also flashed as she immediately recalled.

Unlike the others there, and Chelsea, she had been among the last people to see Nicodemus's real face at the desert.

There was only a stark difference and change to his posture and the aura he gave off compared to before.

But his gaze...

These dark, empty, and seemingly lifeless eyes.

She remembered them clearly.

...and so did Chelsea.

Chelsea's body trembled.

The image of those dry, dark eyes coldy staring into hers without empathy while Nicodemus strangled her with his fingers wrapped tightly round her neck flashed through her mind.

Meanwhile,

"Nico! You're alright!"

Alexander flashed a broad smile and moved to approach him, but was immediately stopped ny Xavier who held his shoulder back.

"Wait."

Xavier said, gazing deeply at Nicodemus.

"Something is wrong."

His instincts were reacting wildly at the back of his head.

Just then,

"Annoying."

A sigh parted Nicodemus's lips.

Then the black of his outfit suddenly surged like a tide of living darkness.

-Vwhoom!

Black wisps of powdery smoke flowed from Nicodemus's body and scattered lightly into the air around his form, giving him the impression of standing amidst a black murky fog.

And inside of the fog,

Two sinister redish orange eyes suddenly flashed from within and the darkness of the chamber seemed to deepen and grow more suffocating.

"I told you we should have just killed them before." A dark sinister voice like a wretched snarl resounded hauntingly all of a sudden.

Alexander felt the hairs on his body stand on end and prickle. Cold sweat formed against his forehead and wet his palm as he suddenly found It hard to breathe.

The black smokey darkness shrouded around Nicodemus bent and moved, forming into a vague shadow silhouette that stood hunched over next to him, just behind his shoulder.

The black smoke hisssed like a thousand slithering voices as a vague form was slowly outlined. A pair of red eyes flashed in the darkness of the deformed face.

Alexander gasped, his voice like a hiss at that moment.

"...Demon."

Trise and Chelsea trembled as an inexplicable sense of dread ran through their bodies at the sigh.

"Nico! What is that? There's something behind you, get away from it quickly! Nico!!" Chelsea's eyes trembled. She took a half step forward as she shouted in horror.

But Nicodemus just stood there, unperturbed by anything and all. The vague, deformed outline standing just behind his shoulder didn't seem to bother him.

His cold eyes reflected the lightless darkness. He met Chelsea's desperation without empathy.

Then Nico said, seemingly to himself.

His voice dreary and flat..

"This was a mistake."

The darkness surged and 'it' itself responded in a dark voice.

"I agree." It deepened, "The Fragment wasn't supposed to pull everything and everyone." The black smoke around Nicodemus hissed like icy mist as it shifted. It deepened and the vague silhouette formed behind Nicodemus's back slowly dissolved into black ash.

"Then..."

The red eyes glinted one last time.

"Let's rectify it."

At that moment, Alexander could no longer stay still.

His body tensed and his s instincts screamed for him to move forward. Alexander's cold blue eyes glazed over and sharpened as bloodlust surged like a tide outside of his body.

"Step back." His voice was dark and heavy as he took a setp forward.

Alex's grip on his sword tightened as his blade trembled.

"Nico..."

He took another step forward.

"..."

"Answer me, is everything alright?"

And another. His voice was heavy and dreary with each word he uttered. Dark emotions surged inside of him.

"That's a Demon, isn't it?"

Alex was almost certain.

It looked strange now, different from his memories, but Alex was sure. That dark, vile, and sinister aura belonged to that of the Demon race. Albeit, the demon seemingly possessing Nicodemus seemed to be in a peculiar state.

Nicodemus gazed soundlessly at Alex with an empty gaze. Eventually he said with a flat voice.

"Alright? Yes. Yes, indeed, everything is fine. Much, much better than they used to be. No, it will be."

"What are you..."

Alex couldn't fully understand Nicodemus's words nor the implications in them. He uncertainly stared at Nicodemus with trembling eyes from a few steps away.

"Demon? Alex, is what your saying true?"

Meanwhile, the other three behind began to slowly panic.

Demon.

Demon...

They had heard the accursed name so much throughout their lives, but had ever yet to meet one?

Before Alex could respond, Nicodemus's voice cut through instead.

-Flutter.

The mysterious book spread open in his raised left palm began to flutter it's pages on its own.

"Tell me, Alexander," Nicodemus coldly gazed deeply into Alex's icy eyes.

Pitch darkness met feverish blue in a clash of nerves.

"Have you ever felt fear?"