44 The Great Calamity

Shesmu couldn't understand a word Kazumi uttered. What great master? What teachings? And what did they mean by a trip? Were these people just messing with him, or was there something more. Shesmu had so many questions but so little answers.

"You two, let's talk for a minute."

Shesmu then turned towards Leo and DepressedRyan.

"Sorry guys, but I'll have to talk with them alone. The situation is really complicated and I don't want to push you guys into it. So, can you just wait for me?"

Leo looked at DepressedRyan for a second before responding, "Sure, take your time."

"Thanks, guys. That helps a lot."

Shesmu then looked at Kazumi and Amaterasu.

"Let's go you two, and you'll explain to me what exactly is going on."

"Sure will do, great master!"

With those words, the trio left leaving Leo and DepressedRyan standing.

"Hey, Ryan. What do you think Shesmu wanted to talk with them about. He seemed so flustered."

DepressedRyan looked at Leo before looking away pondering.

"Who knows. Well, I may have a slight idea, but… Let's wait until Shesmu decides to confront us and tell us everything. I'm sure he will do when the time is right. We're brothers after all."

Leo looked at DepressedRyan before directing his vision to where Shesmu and the chunni duo went.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Shesmu, Kazumi and Amaterasu reached a place far away enough for no one to hear them before Shesmu turned.

"Now, tell me, what's going on?"

Shesmu didn't want to reveal any of his cards yet, so he passed the ball to them.

"We know that you went back to the past." Amaterasu was quick to the point, stating these facts with absolute certainty. "We don't know by how much, but we know that it must be before the great calamity. Else, your reaction to us would definitely be different."

Shesmu was thrown off guard. He did humor the possibility that these two could be time travelers like him, but for it to be actually true, Shesmu didn't expect that. Plus, they talked about a calamity. As far as Shesmu was concerned, no event could have been described as such in his past life. Yes, the switch from pvp to pve was a big problem for him, but it wasn't to such a scale that you could call it a calamity.

"Calamity? What do you mean? Also, how do you know that I went back to the past? What do you guys know?"

"Calm down the great master, calm down. We're going to explain everything that we can explain. As for the calamity, even we don't understand it fully. We just know that one day, reality crumbled and monsters appeared."

"Reality crumbled and monsters appeared? What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it says. Monsters appeared in the real world and killed thousands, millions, even billions of people. The world turned into a game, a horror one. We got power beyond anything we could imagine, but the monsters were so much more powerful."

A moment of silence ensued after Amaterasu's big reveal. Shesmu looked at the duo for a few seconds.

"That's a joke, right?"

"No, it's isn't," Kazumi said. "After the calamity, every human being was given the potential to become a hero, a transcendental figure. But at the same time, monsters appeared everywhere. They killed humans everywhere and killed much more after. We fought for a hundred years, before finally succumbing. That is the great calamity, the day the world turned into a game."

"This is really unbelievable." Shesmu pondered about the situation for a minute, trying to measure its legitimacy before an idea struck his mind. "Tell me, do you still have the power that you claimed to have been given after the calamity? Contrary to me, you don't seem to have come back to your bodies but actually physically came here."

Shesmu knew for a fact that if someone fought for a hundred year, they won't be as clumsy as these two were in their first encounter.

"As expected of the great master, you're sharp. Yes, we did come here through a space-time portal, using the disturbance that went through our universe. And, as you had predicted, we did keep some of our power. However, it's but an ember in front of what we could do in our original timeline. In this world, our skills merely amount to party tricks."

"I have no problem with that. As long as you can prove to me that you have power out of this world, I'll believe you. Also, why are you calling me a great master? Also, what's that disturbance you just talked about."

For Shesmu, every word Kazumi and Amaterasu uttered was a mystery. However, he made sure to make them spill the beans as fast as possible. He had seen many shows where the main character doesn't question everything other characters throw at him only for it to bite him in the backend later. Shesmu was wise enough not to fall for that.

"You're the great master. The hero who saved most of humanity at the beginning of the calamity. The teacher of the world, the old master of the four leaders. Legends of you have circulated the world. I have always wanted to be like you!"

Kazumi's eyes turned into stars for a second. His face was that of a horny teenage girl who just met her most adored boy band.

Amaterasu grunted from the side before saying, "Kazumi will become an even more popular hero than you. He has been training hard since we young after all!"

Kazumi blushed at Amaterasu's declaration, while Shesmu just facepalmed. Hey, b*tch, will it cost you an arm if you were more likable. In the first place, how did you survive in an apocalyptic world with that kind of personality?!

Shesmu's emotions went through a rollercoaster with all of these revelations. First of all, there were these two guys who claimed to also come from the future, then the talk about the calamity, and finally the revelation that he was a hero. Me? A hero? In what world? I hate hypocrisy the most and heroes are the most hypocrite beings. Did I become a hypocrite later? Just what happened? I don't understand!

"So you're saying that I became a hero wannabe later and that I rescued a lot of people? Have you ever met me in that timeline? Did I ever tell you what was I thinking?"

Shesmu genuinely wanted to know, just what kind of event made him become a hero. With his personality right now, he will for sure just teach his friends the tricks and leave the pack in the dust. There was no way he would teach people he didn't know stuff that could make them stronger than himself. That's a recipe for disaster.

"Ah, you weren't a hero wannabe! You were a hero that would save the people in need and lead humanity! As for talking to you… By the time I could speak, you already died. You died at the hand of one of the 72 devils, Beelze."

Hearing news about his death, Shesmu turned a little bit gloomy. But the feeling was ephemeral as everything that was said until now was just way too surreal. At the end of the day, he still needed to check if they did have the power they claimed to have.

"Well, it's a shame that I died, but it is what it is. I guess that things started turning bad from that point onwards, right?"

Kazumi's eyes turned more gloomy as he said, "Yeah. Morale was at its lowest. The four heroes could barely hold off the army of monsters. As for the devils, they were on a league of their own. No one could hold a candle to them. They kept playing with us as if they were playing with their food until our inevitable extermination."

Amaterasu cut in to continue the explanation, "That's where the disturbance come in. For many years we have been trying to create a spell that could let us go back in time. But even though in theory it worked, it needed a very frail space and time continuum for it to work. When we sensed the disturbance, the great mage knew that it was our only chance. At first, the council planned to send the four heroes and the great mage to stop the calamity. However, it became clear later that those that withhold strong power will be rejected by the world before the calamity. That's why in the end, they decided to send some of the weakest of mankind, and in the end… we got chosen."