CALAMITY : Legends Of The Chosen

The group had made temporary shelter in the shattered remains of an old train station—half-collapsed, its rusted beams groaning with the wind. Campfire light flickered off concrete pillars, dancing across tired faces.

Zans leaned against a wall, half-asleep. Shojiro rolled his shoulders, adjusting torn bandages. Karl typed diagnostics into a drone. Enme polished her blade, humming softly. Leone and Morgz sat close together, whispering jokes under their breath.

Max stood a few meters away, staring out into the empty horizon through a broken window. Moonlight hit his back, casting him in silhouette. A faint electric hum circled him—barely audible. A storm bottled just beneath skin.

Then—

"I'm leaving."

Everyone turned.

Shojiro frowned. "Max?"

Max didn't look back. "Tomorrow. At dawn. I'm gone."

Enme narrowed her eyes. "Gone where?"

"To find a Catalyst Class."

The group froze.

Zans stood up slowly. "Alone?"

Max finally turned. His eyes glowed faintly—flickers of black lightning surging across his irises like static crawling up glass.

"I've had enough waiting around, watching the rest of you evolve like characters in a power-up montage. I need a real fight. A mirror. A storm that hits back."

Morgz furrowed his brow. "Dude, you just said Catalyst Class. That's suicide tier."

"Maybe," Max replied. "Or maybe it's the only way to break the ceiling."

Karl stood, voice calm but stern. "We're a team. You don't just walk off into a death mission without a plan."

Max shook his head. "This isn't about the team."

He paced forward slowly, sparks skipping across the stone floor with every step.

"Every one of you has awakened something. Shojiro's muscles aren't even human anymore. Zans can turn off a soul with his shadow. Enme's making weapons out of light physics. And I'm stuck with version 1.0 lightning fingers like I'm a defective taser."

He stopped in the middle of them now, standing in full view of the firelight.

"Do you know what it feels like to be the guy right behind the one who wins? To always be just fast enough to save, but never strong enough to finish it?"

Silence.

Enme whispered, "That's not true…"

"Don't." Max cut her off, voice sharp. "I'm not doing this for validation. I'm doing it because the next time something like that demon comes out of a Crack… I want to be the one standing in front."

Shojiro clenched his fist. "You think we don't understand that pressure?"

"You understand it, sure. But you've conquered it. I haven't."

He looked away—toward the direction of the storm clouds rumbling on the distant horizon.

"I've been having dreams lately. Waking visions. Flashes of a Catalyst Class with lightning like mine. Pitch-black. Jagged. Chaotic. I think it's waiting for me. Calling me."

Zans narrowed his eyes. "Your Primordial?"

Max hesitated. "Maybe. Or maybe just the universe telling me it's time to grow up or die trying."

Karl crossed his arms. "You know what we'll say, right?"

"That it's reckless. Dangerous. Emotional." Max turned back, smirking. "And you're all right. But I'm going anyway."

Leone stood up. "Let us come with you—"

"No."

His voice hit the firelight like a thunderclap.

"If I can't do this alone, then I don't deserve to evolve."

Scene: "Storm's End or Storm's Rise"

Max walked past them slowly, the tension in the air like a wire pulled taut.

He stopped at the exit.

Then turned, eyes burning like storm clouds ready to burst.

"Don't follow me. This is my fight. My trigger. If I die… at least let me die on my own terms."

He lifted a hand—sparks swarming across his knuckles—and pointed to the sky.

"But if I come back…"

A grin broke across his face, electric and wild.

"Then you'll finally see what a lightning storm truly looks like."

Scene: "Let Me Fall or Let Me Fly"

Dawn.

The first light broke over the ruins of the cracked city. Mist hung low, curling over broken rail lines and flooded roads. The campfire was dead. The silence was heavy.

Max stood at the edge of the platform, his back to the group.

The black duffel at his side held nothing but old rations, cracked goggles, and a battery pack fused into one of his gauntlets. His coat hung loose in the wind, outlined by soft lightning that shimmered across his shoulders like embers waiting to erupt.

Shojiro was the first to approach.

"You don't have to do this."

Max didn't turn.

"I already did."

Enme stepped forward, arms folded. Her voice carried more weight.

"You're making this harder for us than it needs to be."

"Good," Max said. "Because it's supposed to be hard."

Karl's voice rang out next, sharp and clinical.

"We calculated the odds, Max. Catalyst Classes have a 74% mortality rate even with full squad support. You're walking into a statistical grave."

Max finally turned.

His eyes were empty.

"I don't care."

Morgz tried a softer tone. "C'mon man. Talk to us. Just… give us a real reason."

"I did, yesterday," Max said, voice brittle. "I'm tired of being the storm cloud that never rains. Tired of throwing myself into every fight, giving everything, and still feeling like an afterimage."

Leone stepped up, desperation in her voice.

"Then let us help you change that—!"

"No."

He took a step back.

"Because none of you understand what it's like… to feel like your Primordial abandoned you."

Silence.

Zans took a slow step forward. "Max… You're not well."

Max's hand twitched.

Then… he did the unthinkable.

He raised two fingers.

Placed them against his own neck.

His fingertips crackled with unstable black lightning.

Everyone froze.

Shojiro's voice cracked. "Don't—"

"If you don't let me walk past you…"

His fingers sparked harder.

"…Then I'll just kill myself here, and save the Catalyst Class the trouble."

Enme's glyphs shimmered in panic.

"You're bluffing."

Max smiled.

It wasn't heroic.

It was tired.

"Am I?"

And then —

ZzzZHHK—!!

A blast of lightning surged into the side of his neck — not fatal, but enough to burn straight through skin and sinew.

A chunk of his throat sizzled away, disintegrating like ash in the wind.

Blood poured. He didn't even flinch.

"Max!" Leone screamed.

Karl surged forward with nanite mist, patching the hole in a panic.

"You're insane!" Morgz shouted.

Max just stood there, hand still raised, eyes wild but clear.

"You want me to stay? Then let me die a weakling right now. Otherwise… let me go find out what I really am."

Zans gritted his teeth. "You think this is brave. It's not."

Max finally lowered his hand, voice rasping through the cauterized damage.

"It's not brave. It's freedom."

Moment of Silence

The group stood frozen.

Even the wind seemed to hesitate.

Enme's barrier glyphs stopped glowing.

Shojiro turned away, fists trembling.

Karl looked down.

Zans didn't speak.

Eventually, Enme whispered—

"…Go."

Max turned toward the morning light.

He walked forward, right past the group.

No one stopped him.

"I'll either come back stronger," he said without looking back,

"Or you can bury what's left with a lightning-shaped tombstone."

He vanished into the fog.

Alone.