The king, feeling a terrible tremor and a flare of power from the courtyard, rushed outside from the throne room, his heart a frantic drum against his ribs. He froze in the courtyard, his blood turning to ice as he took in the sight. Before the dark staircase stood a grotesque statue of his Royal Summoner, frozen in a silent, terrified scream, its form a glistening, jagged obsidian.

  Just then, a towering, ten-foot-tall demonoid, its joints flaring with dark, royal purple fire, emerged from the dungeon stairs. Its head turned slowly, fixing its gaze upon the king. The king's face was consumed by fear as he took in the sight of the obsidian demon.

  "You are the king," the demonoid’s voice boomed, deep and resonant. "Tell me what you desired so badly from Calamity X that you would reject a hero you summoned?"

  The king, utterly petrified, found his voice, a desperate, pathetic plea. "We, we needed the power to eliminate our rivals! That's what you were summoned for!"

  With a slow, deliberate motion, the obsidian demonoid pulled a solid black greatsword from a void made in thin air and plunged the tip into the cobble stone of the courtyard. The blade sank into the stone a few inches as if it were mud, its air shimmering with a visable, dark energy.

  "You desire the power to eliminate your rivals," Xander's voice boomed. " This sword will defeat any foe of this world. I will grant your wish, and then your world will witness a true calamity. A calamity doesn't work for just one person; you will know the weight of what you've done soon enough. But first I must procure something I've taken an interest in."

  The king's eyes went wide with newfound terror.

  Before he could react, Calamity X jumped miles above the kingdom and began to hover. His vision enhanced by the demonic form, he scans for the nearby kingdom, his eyesight zooming in and seeing villagers that looked no different from the kingdom below. Unsure of what differences they had and a lack of interest, he raised his massive hand toward the distant castle.

  "Obsidian Bloom," Xander rumbled, his voice a low, all-encompassing growl that seemed to vibrate the very air.

  Immediately, the earth around the distant castle ruptured. Giant, jagged shards of gleaming obsidian burst from the ground, forming an impenetrable, razor-sharp cage around the entire fortress. Its form looked similar to the outline of a flower, with the walls protruding high into the air. There was no escape. A moment later, a massive wave of dark, royal purple fire erupted within the obsidian formation, starting dead center and quickly spreading out from there. The fire incinerating everything it touched. Screams, faint even from this distance, were swiftly silenced by the inferno.

  After a couple of minutes, the fire died down, leaving behind only the smoking, obsidian ruins of what was once a castle. The demonoid looked down at the recall crystal clutched in its hand. It now pulsed with a soft, steady glow. Seeing the mission complete, the demonoid closed its hand completely, crushing the crystal to dust.

  ?Back on Earth, Dawn's hand was just about to reach her ear, her phone pressed against it, as if the last few moments of her life hadn't happened. Suddenly, she jerked her arm down, her eyes wide. She looked around, at the familiar street, the mundane buildings, the passing cars. Had it all been real? The dungeon, the chains, the towering demon?

  Her heart hammering, she remembered the demon's words. With trembling fingers, she unlocked her phone and pulled up her bank details. Her eyes fixed on the screen: a balance of forty thousand dollars. A choked sob escaped her lips, quickly followed by another, then hot tears streaming down her face. It was real. All of it. The terror, the demon... the money. A future. A real future.

  She wiped her eyes, her mind reeling but clear on one thing. She thought about the demon, Xander, he instructed her to find him. She thought about the stash. With a quick motion Dawn pulled out the card Xander gave her. She read the address on the card, shockingly it was only a couple states away. Still shaking, she quickly searched for bus routes and plane schedules to her destination before continuing her walk home, the world now irrevocably changed. She thought to herself about how she can easily pay off her bills and escape from the reality of greed. Maybe this new life as an incarnate can break me out of this draining cycle. Just maybe someone will summon me on purpose to help.

  Meanwhile, in the sterile white void of the character creation room, Xander stood before the holographic HUD, his chosen form dissolved.

  "Cosmo," Xander's voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "Bookmark that situation."

  "Confirmed, Calamity X," Cosmo's synthesized voice replied instantly. "Reason for bookmark?"

  "For if the new Incarnate comes to learn," Xander explained, his voice losing what little inflection it usually had. "It will be the final part of her test."

  Meanwhile, back in the ruined courtyard, King Theron lay on the cold stone, trembling uncontrollably. His eyes were fixed on the obsidian blade still plunged into the ground. He had wanted power, and the terrifying creature had given him a taste of it, a power so absolute it could erase an entire kingdom from the map with a single gesture. The blade was a mockery, a trinket left to a pawn. He had seen the "Obsidian Bloom" with his own eyes, a beautiful, terrible, and final act. He had wanted to rule, to have no rivals, and Calamity X had delivered, ensuring there would be no one left to challenge him. His mind raced with a terrible new clarity. He had summoned a calamity, and a calamity, by its very nature, left nothing untouched. He was not a winner, not a king, but the final, insignificant remnant of a world that was about to be reset. A glimmer of hope came across the king's face as he remembered what that calamity said about the sword. His eyes focused on the sword that was left. The only promise of power that was left behind. The king gathers his wits as he stands up and makes his way over to the sword. The power pulsing from the sword makes it hard for the king to even approach the weapon. What is this strange power? the king thinks to himself. Nervously the king reaches out with one hand. He grabs the handle and pulls. The sword does not move. Frustration starts to set on the king's face. He puts his other hand on the handle and pulls as hard as he can. The blade refuses to move, as if the weight of the world was holding it down. The king's mind races with thoughts. "I must gather the strongest men I have and see if any can wield this weapon of calamity. We must grow our strength before his return."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Xander returned to his luxurious, minimalist house. He sat back down on his sleek sofa, in his suit and loosened tie, his mind drifting. I wonder, he mused to himself, if this Dawn will seek me out, or give up before she even begins.

  A week of Earth's time passed. Then, one afternoon, Dawn found herself standing before Xander's door, a knot of anxiety twisting in her stomach. Her mind raced, picturing the towering obsidian terror, wondering what kind of human could possibly be behind such a monstrous avatar. She swallowed hard and knocked.

  After a moment, the door opened. A tall, well-dressed man with striking jet-black hair stood in the doorway. It was Xander. He looked at Dawn in silence, his expression unreadable, those cold eyes assessing her. Dawn's panic flared.

  "Um, hi," she stammered, shifting nervously. "I'm Dawn. I... I hope this is the right place? The residence of someone named Xander?"

  A small, almost imperceptible grin touched Xander's lips. "Oh, Dawn, is it?" His voice was the same low monotone she remembered, but without the booming distortion of his demonic form. "Come inside. We have much to discuss."

  He led her into his minimalist, modern living room. He gestures toward a seat for her to sit. "We are Incarnates, agents who work for a cosmic system that maintains the balance of the multiple realities, I call it Cosmo." Xander thinks to himself, where to start? Maybe I should detail the four situation types. Xander nods to himself before beginning. "There's four different situation types. My specialty is the calamity type, where you're tasked with the total destruction of a realm for a reset. Intervention, where you need to take a dangerous artifact or ability that the realm could use to end themselves prematurely or escape their reality. Another situation type is intervention; it could be to stop a major power from coming into position or killing a high rank beast that is on a rampage. Then you have Containment, mainly it requires the cure or lockdown of a disease or dangerous beast. The beast containment situation has an annoying rule where sometimes the summoner wants the beast in question alive, so if you kill it, you fail. Lastly, we have the one you're familiar with: Restoration. It is usually centered around fixing something, whether it be buildings, political power, or even just general knowledge for a realm stuck without progression. Lastly there is a modifier, where you could be required to take the form of a beast in any of these situations if Cosmo or the summoner sees a beast as being a better fit. Examples include a legend of a beast that can change the weather for crops or a savage beast to summon onto your enemies.

  During these situations, any gold you have on your avatar or in a storage container belonging to you, will be converted to money here. Assuming the situation was a success, roughly ten thousand of our currency per gold piece. Anything inside your stash will stay there across situations, as long as it's in the stash before you recall. Finally I'm sure you're wondering about death. If you die in a situation, it just simply kicks you out with a failed situation. You will receive no goods and anything not in your stash will be lost. If more than one incarnate is summoned at once, they are linked. If a recall crystal is broken, it will send everyone back together. If you die before the rest, you will be forced to watch the others as they go. You can switch perspective between your team, but you cannot communicate with them. When you are in a situation, one year equals one second on earth. If you are ever gone for a long period of time, Cosmo will basically work as an auto pilot for your earth body."

  "Situations are ranked, from F being the easiest, working up to S, the hardest, skipping E." Xander explained. "Incarnates like us are ranked the same way. Lastly magical beasts in these realms are identified by stages. In short they start at stage one and usually end at stage five. The sixth stage is rarely ever reached by a creature."

  Dawn, overwhelmed but intrigued, looked at him. "What... what's your rank?"

  Xander paused, his gaze distant for a moment. "You pass my test, and I'll tell you my rank, and how to truly become powerful."

  Dawn blinked, confused. "Your test? What is your test?"

  Xander's eyes fixed on her, cold and unwavering. "I will follow you and guide you through one of each type of situation. After that, we will have a duel. If you show promise, I will tell you what you want to know and teach you how to be a successful Incarnate."

  Dawn stared at him for a long moment, processing the weight of his words. This wasn't a choice about whether to work a low-wage job; it was a choice about a new, terrifying, and lucrative existence. The forty thousand dollars in her bank account was a beacon, a promise of a life beyond her wildest dreams. But the price...

  Finally, she nodded, a determined glint in her eyes. "Okay," she said, her voice stronger than before. "Where do we start?"

  Xander gave another one of his small, almost imperceptible grins. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "For now," he said, holding it up, "we start here." He began to dial as he reaches out and grabs Dawn's hand.