CALAMITY : Legends Of The Chosen

Shojiro's POV – Maze of Statues: First Encounter

The maze was too quiet.

Shojiro's muscles stayed tense with every step, eyes flicking between branching corridors of ancient, rune-carved stone. The walls hummed faintly with anti-divine energy — the kind of magic that made his blood itch.

Something was wrong.

He stopped walking when he noticed a statue standing ahead. It hadn't been there before. Humanoid. No face. Arms like needles pointed downward.

Shojiro squinted. "Was that always there…?"

He turned his back on it.

CRUNCH!

His body moved on its own. Years of muscle-memory, instinct honed through hellish battle — his arm shot up behind his neck, just in time.

A sharp crack echoed through the corridor as his arm snapped in half like a twig.

"—TCH!!"

Shojiro whipped around, gritting his teeth, only to see the statue once again perfectly still, frozen in place. But the position… it had shifted. It was closer.

Much closer.

The attack had been real.

Breathing hard, he stared at the grotesque figure, adrenaline spiking. "You… moved."

He looked down. His arm, bent at a horrible angle, was trying to heal — but it wasn't like before. The usual rush of golden, Yggdrasil-imbued vitality… was muted. Sluggish.

The bone was knitting together at a crawl.

"What…?" he whispered, heart pounding. "Yggdrasil… you're not healing me?"

That's when he understood.

This maze — this cursed place — wasn't just a trap. It was interfering with the divine link to their souls.

This was no trial.

This was a place designed to kill Chosen permanently.

He clenched his jaw, his voice low and shaken:

"…I can't afford another mistake."

Slowly, he circled the statue, never turning his back again.

But the thought that clawed at his brain wasn't about his own death. It was something worse:

If I die here… I might not come back.

And somewhere, far off in the maze, he thought he heard a scream.

A familiar one.

"…Leone?"

Shojiro Momo — The Gauntlet of Screams

The second he heard her scream again — raw and distorted like someone gargling blood — something inside Shojiro snapped.

He didn't hesitate.

He didn't care if the statues were behind him.

He ran.

One arm useless, bones shattered from earlier. Blood leaked from a gash above his eye.

But he ran.

Every corridor twisted. Every corner mocked him.

The maze didn't want him to save her.

But her scream rang out again. Closer.

"LEONE!!"

Shojiro turned a corner — and skidded to a halt.

There they were.

A wall of statues. Dozens.

Their eyeless faces tilted slightly, as if amused.

They were blocking the only path forward.

He growled through grit teeth.

"Bastards… get out of my way."

One stepped forward. Another blinked ahead.

He threw a punch with his good arm, smashing a statue back, only for another to strike his ribs with crushing force.

Crack.

He spat blood, but didn't fall.

"I SAID MOVE!!"

He lunged again, kicking with a burst of muscle power — a ligament snap launching him like a cannonball into the horde.

Stone shattered.

But more statues followed. Endless.

He fought.

He clawed.

He bled.

Minutes turned into hours.

His skin was carved open like meat.

His good arm dislocated.

He couldn't feel his legs anymore.

And still—

He heard her screaming.

And that was worse than any wound.

"She needs me. I won't let her die alone...!"

He smashed another statue into the wall. Another tried to impale him — but he twisted midair, shoulder snapping, just to dodge.

His face was a crimson mask. His breath ragged.

"MOVE, DAMN YOU!!"

BOOM!!

A last-ditch surge of adrenaline and hatred. He slammed his full weight into the blockade — breaking through like a cannonball.

Stone shattered.

Limbs twisted.

Shojiro stumbled, then collapsed onto the floor beyond.

Chest heaving. Vision blurred.

He heard it again.

The scream.

But now… it was fading.

Shojiro Momo – "Too Late. No Way Out."

It started as a scream.

Not one of rage. Or pain.

But something worse.

"—Aghh—h-help…!"

Leone's voice — distorted, breaking — echoed through the maze's tight stone corridors. Shojiro's blood ran cold. His lungs seized.

"That's her… That's Leone—!!"

He bolted.

No hesitation. No thought.

His bare feet pounded the moss-slick floor. His broken right arm flailed uselessly at his side, each step sending lightning up his spine. The statue he had escaped earlier hadn't stopped chasing — but it didn't matter.

"Don't you f***ing touch her!"

He ran faster. Harder.

But the maze twisted.

The moment he heard her final scream — a broken, helpless sound — something snapped.

"LEONE!!!"

Veins surged. His broken arm reset itself mid-sprint as muscle fibers twisted, reconfigured. Blood splattered the walls as his bare feet tore through the mossed floors. Every step was seismic.

A statue? He shoulder-charged it to dust.

He refused to be slowed.

His eyes were burning. His skin was steaming.

Shojiro wasn't running.

He was plowing through hell.

"I'm coming—I swear I'm coming—!"

He could see it now. The faint flickers of her Spectre chains up ahead.

The sound of her struggling. Whimpering. Dragging herself backward—

Then came the crunch.

Something deep.

Bone on bone.

His breath caught mid-roar.

"NO—!!"

He forced his body harder. The ground cracked beneath him.

Ligament Drift snapped his arm outward. He shot down the hallway like a missile.

Every hallway bent in unnatural geometry. Every time he turned a corner toward her voice, the path split again.

He reached a dead end. Slammed his fist into the wall.

CRACK.

It didn't budge.

Not even a tremor.

"COME ON!!"

Minutes passed. Or hours. Time lost all meaning.

Then, finally…

He heard the wet sound of something slamming flesh. Then chains snapping. Then…

He wasn't thinking.

He was screaming.

He was bleeding.

He was—

Too late.

By the time he skidded to the chamber—He turned a final corner and saw her.

Or what was left of her.

She was gone.

Only blood.

Chains snapped.

A lifeless body, mangled. Barely clothed.

Sprawled like a discarded puppet.

Shojiro didn't speak.

Didn't cry.

Didn't breathe.

He stared.

Shojiro's heart dropped. He didn't stop running.

Her Spectre chains were limp.

Her body sprawled across the cold stone floor.

Ripped clothing. Blood everywhere. Her arm twisted at a brutal angle. Her chest barely rose.

"...Leone?"

He stepped forward—

And immediately froze.

There were six statues.

Circling her like vultures. Eyes unblinking. Arms raised. Faces frozen in that grotesque blank grin.

One stood directly between him and her.

Shojiro's legs locked. He couldn't move.

He couldn't look away.

If he blinked—even for a second—

"God… damn it…"

He swallowed thickly. Every breath burned. His broken arm throbbed. His muscles tensed, but he didn't dare move his eyes.

He couldn't save her.

Not unless he was willing to die trying.

"I was right there," he whispered. "I was almost there…"

Regret stabbed deeper than the broken bone. His entire body trembled — not from fear…

…but from failure.

From knowing that all his power, all his muscle, all his damn fury…

Hadn't meant a thing.

"I couldn't save her..."

He blinked.

The statues jerked forward.

He didn't scream.

He just stood there. Eyes wide. Breathing heavy.

Surrounded.

The room was silent. Except for one stone footstep behind him.

A statue.

Shojiro turned slowly, his eyes shadowed, face unreadable.

"You did this."

Muscles coiled like steel cables.

Then—

He detonated.

Shojiro grabbed the statue and ripped its arm off, using it as a club to pulverize the next one into gravel. His body moved on instinct—an apex predator, enraged and grieving, striking with surgical brutality.

"I WAS RIGHT THERE—!!"

He struck again. And again. Until there was nothing left.

Blood covered his face.

Not his own.

Hers.

He staggered toward her, dropped to his knees.

"Leone… hey… hey—wake up…"

He touched her shoulder. It was cold.

Her hair clung to her bloodied face like seaweed on stone.

His hands trembled as he reached for her. For a moment, he thought she flinched.

But it was just his imagination.

She was gone.

Yggdrasil's revival would come, yes.

Eventually.

But in that moment—Shojiro didn't know that.

Or didn't care.

Because he had failed her.

And no amount of strength could ever undo that.

Silence.

And something inside him snapped.

A flood of adrenaline hit his system like an earthquake. His broken arm started to regenerate—not from Yggdrasil, but from the sheer intensity of muscle reconfiguration. Veins bulged across his forehead and neck. His pupils dilated. His breathing turned into snarls.

"You bastards…"

The statues — a dozen of them — had gathered around Leone's lifeless form, standing in mock reverence.

They turned to him.

"You monsters!!"

Shojiro charged.

The nearest statue's hand lashed forward like a guillotine, aiming for his throat—

But something inside Shojiro snapped.

CRACK!!

His broken arm — regenerated.

Muscle twisted and swelled, realigning at unnatural speed.

Not Yggdrasil. Not healing.

Rage.

"No... NOT AGAIN!!"

Adrenaline surged like fire through his veins.

The statue struck — and Shojiro caught it mid-air with his now healed arm, fingers crushing into stone like wet clay.

"You kept me away—YOU KEPT ME FROM SAVING HER!!"

With a primal roar, he ripped the statue's arm off and smashed it into the others.

They stumbled, staggered—

But didn't stop.

More surrounded him.

One.

He grabbed it by the neck, twisted—

Stone shattered.

Two.

He ducked beneath a blade-arm swipe, then leapt up, driving his elbow through its head—

Boom. Dust.

Three.

His body blurred.

Muscle Reconfiguration.

Ligament Drift.

He extended his leg mid-kick, lengthening it unnaturally to obliterate two more with a single spinning strike.

Another statue raised its hand—

Shojiro grabbed it by the face and slammed it into the wall until its head caved in like a melon.

"YOU'RE ALL DUST!!"

Ligament Drift and Muscle Reconfiguration surged in tandem. His muscles shifted, condensed, twisted beneath his skin. Every step cracked the ground. His aura pulsed like a war drum.

A statue lunged.

He blocked with his forearm—SNAP—but didn't stop.

He grabbed its head and crushed it, muscle mass bursting through skin. Stone cracked beneath his fingers. Another one stabbed at him—he twisted mid-air, kicked it with a compressed leg, and shattered it into fragments.

One by one—

Smash.

Rip.

Break.

He turned them to dust.

But even as he destroyed them, the truth was clear: they would regenerate… slowly, but inevitably.

And she wouldn't.

Shojiro fell to his knees beside her.

"Leone…"

His hand trembled as he reached for her face. Blood smeared his fingertips.

"I was right there… I was right there… why—why couldn't I make it?"

His vision blurred.

His entire body shook — not from exhaustion, but from regret.

"You didn't deserve this…"

Silence.

The maze had never felt so still.

Then, barely audible:

"I'm sorry."

His voice cracked.

He tried to steady his breathing. His body was still burning with adrenaline, but his heart—

His heart felt like it had been ripped from his chest.

He'd seen death before.

But not like this.

Not her.

Not Leone Shizuku — the girl who teased him when no one else could.

The girl who stood beside him and with fire in her eyes.

Now just… a shell.

A memory.

He clenched his fists so tight his nails drew blood.

"I should've broken the maze…"

"I should've—"

"I should've saved you."

Silence.

He knelt there, frozen in place, surrounded by the faint sound of grinding stone…

The statues were reforming.

But Shojiro didn't move.

Because even now, after everything…

He wasn't ready to let go.

For a moment, silence.

Only his ragged breathing. Only the blood dripping down his arms.

The air was thick.

The maze, quiet.

But then…

A noise. A faint cracking behind him.

The dust began to reform.

"Tch... doesn't matter," he muttered.

Shojiro stayed like that, holding her mangled corpse… until the dust began to stir again.

And the statues started reforming.

Shojiro Momo – Last Stand in the Maze

The dust hadn't even settled.

But already… they were coming back.

The shattered shards of the statues floated, recomposing—arms reattaching, cracked faces restoring, jagged claws twitching to life once more. The maze around him pulsed like a living entity. And Shojiro? He didn't even stand up.

He just sat there.

Cradling Leone's broken body in his arms.

"I couldn't protect you in time..."

He whispered it like a confession, forehead pressed to hers. Her face was still warm. Or maybe that was just his blood. His tears mixed into her matted hair. Her body was barely holding shape… and even though Yggdrasil would bring her back eventually, this death was real. And it was his fault.

"But I'm not letting them touch you again."

He laid her gently on the ground.

Then he stood.

His arm was still twisted out of shape, muscles regenerating slowly. Every part of him screamed from the countless battles leading to this point. But something deeper—something primal—screamed louder.

One by one, the statues began to circle him again. Twelve… no, maybe twenty this time.

He rolled his shoulders. Bone cracked. Ligament Drift activated—his limbs stretching unnaturally as he transferred all muscle mass into his arms and legs. His skin thinned. He looked more skeleton than man.

His fingers twitched.

"You think I'm afraid to die again?"

No response. Just the grinding of stone claws.

"Good."

The first one leapt.

BOOM!

Shojiro turned and drove his fist into its chest. The statue shattered.

Another slashed from the right—Shojiro ducked, then used Ligament Drift to whip his leg back like a spring, splintering its torso.

He fought like a monster.

Limbs twisting. Skin tearing. Muscles bursting and reconfiguring mid-strike. His body was collapsing, but his spirit only grew more defiant.

Blood poured from his mouth.

His vision blurred.

"As long as I breathe—none of you… touch her."

He planted his feet in front of Leone's corpse like a wall of flesh and fury.

They swarmed him.

Claws ripped his shoulders open.

Jaws clamped down on his back.

A spear-like arm pierced his side—blood sprayed, his legs buckled.

But Shojiro kept standing.

"Come on!! IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE?!"

He tore the spear out and used it as a weapon, impaling two more.

Muscle Reconfiguration kicked in—his legs bracing, his spine locking. His heart was pounding so loud it echoed in his ears.

He couldn't feel pain anymore.

Just rage… and purpose.

And then—

The moment came.

His legs gave out.

His arm stopped responding.

Blood dripped freely down his chin.

The statues circled again. A final strike.

Shojiro collapsed onto his knees.

But even then—

He crawled forward. Dragged himself over to Leone. Pulled her close again.

"You don't get to take her again..."

Stone claws plunged down—

Darkness.

Shojiro Momo fell, shielding Leone until his dying breath.

His final act wasn't of violence.

It was protection.