CALAMITY : Legends Of The Chosen

Scene: Faster Than Teleportation

The crack of quantum energy ruptured the air like a bomb — blue lightning spiraled in from all sides as Karl Mitsubishi emerged mid-step, boots grinding into bloodied marble. His body shimmered — no longer fully human, but layered with tech-armor woven from living nanites. A halo of drones spun silently over his back like sentient wings. His face was leaner, paler. More machine than man.

He scanned once.

"Shojiro located. Confirmed—"

But he never got to finish the thought.

The world blurred.

There was no wind, no footstep, no warning.

One moment he was alone—

The next, Shojiro Momo stood behind him, arm thrust forward, fingers sharpened like spears. Veins coiled like steel cables, muscles compressed to the density of dark matter. His body was nothing but bone-thin sinew and raw, scorched muscle. Steam vented from his pores like a leaking reactor.

He was skin, scar, and slaughter incarnate.

And his eyes were dead white.

Karl's HUD screamed in red:

"Fatal trajectory detected — evasive action—!"

But it was too late.

Shojiro's arm had already pierced forward, set to rupture his nanite core—

Until it froze—just centimeters from Karl's stomach.

His pupils flickered. His jaw slackened.

And then:

"...Karl?"

The voice cracked like a shattered rib.

One word — one real name — after a month of madness.

The steam around Shojiro's body hissed out in a choked gasp.

His entire form trembled.

And then he collapsed to his knees.

"K-Karl— I— I thought—"

His voice fell apart, his breath hitching in broken bursts as his eyes widened.

He looked up at Karl — and for the first time — truly saw him.

"...you've changed."

Karl didn't answer.

He was staring, stunned, at what remained of Shojiro.

The once-burly warrior now looked withered, like a starved beast.

One massive scar sliced from his brow to jaw, right across his now-dulled eye.

His chest was a landscape of burns, cracks, and healed fractures.

Shojiro looked like someone who had died fifty times — and remembered every second of it.

Karl's voice trembled:

"So have you…"

He knelt.

His systems buzzed in his head, telling him this was dangerous, inefficient, tactically unwise.

But none of that mattered now.

He placed a hand on Shojiro's shoulder.

Shojiro lunged forward — arms wrapping around Karl like a collapsing dam — burying his face in his friend's chest.

"I tried… I tried, man. I watched them die. I held Leone when she stopped breathing. I thought I was next. I almost let go…"

Karl's mechanical arms wrapped around him.

The nanites softened, forming a warm layer like skin.

"You weren't supposed to be alone that long," Karl whispered. "I should've come sooner."

"No," Shojiro muttered into his chest, voice hoarse. "You came back. That's all that matters."

Both shook.

Both cried.

They were not the same boys who had entered this trial.

They were remnants.

Burned. Broken. Barely stitched back together by hope.

But now?

Now they weren't alone.

Scene: The Uncoiling Titan

The silence between them faded into a fragile calm.

Shojiro stood now, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of a scorched forearm. Steam still hissed from his body in slow, rhythmic bursts. His spine cracked as he straightened. His muscles still looked wire-thin, emaciated—like he had been eaten alive by his own power.

Karl studied him.

"You… really don't look like the guy who used to carry three vending machines just to flex," he said with a weak smirk.

Shojiro exhaled slowly, almost... amused.

"That's because I'm hiding it."

"Hiding what?"

Shojiro didn't answer.

Instead, he took one step forward. Then—

CRACK.

A shockwave rang out as every fiber of his body began expanding.

It was grotesque, yet seamless — like a tightly packed spring finally uncoiling.

Muscles didn't just grow. They emerged, layer by layer, bulging beneath his skin with supernatural precision. Veins like cables wrapped around biceps that tripled in size, his chest widened with a seismic pop of air pressure, and every wound across his body seemed to vanish under new, godlike flesh.

It wasn't just bulk.

It was controlled, divine mass — absolute density.

And the scar across his right eye remained, glowing faintly red.

Karl took an unconscious step back.

"You're… kidding."

Shojiro rotated his shoulder slowly — the motion alone causing a ripple of thunder to echo through the corridor.

"I condensed every muscle fiber in my body for a month straight. Compressed to molecular tension," he said calmly. "This is what I really look like now."

"So the skeleton look was… a disguise?" Karl whispered.

Shojiro nodded.

"The maze taught me speed. But it didn't take my strength. It refined it. All that's changed… is how much I need to try."

Karl's HUD silently flashed an alert:

[DANGER LEVEL: UNKNOWN. RECOMMENDATION: DO. NOT. ENGAGE.]

And Karl?

He just grinned.

"Yeah… you're still the same idiot."

Shojiro chuckled, his massive chest rising with a soft snort of air.

"And you're still the nerd with too many gadgets."

Then, without warning, Shojiro compressed all that muscle again, shrinking back to his wiry speed form with a hiss of steam and popping joints.

Karl blinked.

"No cooldown?"

Shojiro simply said:

"Kaiser taught me better."

Palm Gate — The Spark of Hope

Karl stepped forward, standing beneath the flickering crystal lights of the chamber, his mechanical hand unfurling like a blooming obsidian flower.

The air warped.

From his palm, a circular void opened — etched with circuit veins and flickering data streams. It hummed softly, unlike any portal Shojiro had ever seen.

Shojiro blinked, his lone good eye narrowing.

His voice, hoarse but curious:

"A portal... from your hand?"

Karl gave a small smile.

"Quantum Displacer. Got it after my fiftieth death. I can go anywhere I've ever seen... and bring someone with me."

Shojiro scoffed.

His body flexed for a moment — the tight coils of condensed muscle surging beneath his torn skin — then he exhaled steam, relaxing.

"Heh. Looks like I wasn't the only one who evolved."

Karl didn't joke. His gaze was steady.

"We've all changed, Sho."

Shojiro looked down at his own bloodstained hands, then up at the glimmering ring of tech-space.

He clenched his fists, silent for a beat.

"Let's go find them."

Karl nodded.

"We're not leaving anyone behind."

Then the two walked into the portal side by side — one wrapped in raw muscle and regret, the other cloaked in cold intellect and nanite armor.

As it closed behind them, only a faint pulse remained in the air — like the echo of something beginning to hope again.