22 Februal, 5679
It was a seemingly peaceful night, with the beautiful luminescence of the moon in the night sky illuminating the world.
The whole world was peaceful and silent as everyone went about their business. Most people were already long asleep, while others stayed up for one reason or another.
But this quiet scene was disturbed by the cackling of bones.
Cackle~
It started with a single cackle, then a second one, and then another.
The cackles resounded in a rythemic tone, almost as if it were a well-rehearsed play.
1, 2, and 3.
This went on for quite a while until the cackles started resembling footsteps.
But the rythemic cackling was stopped by the sound of a music note.
The note resembled sothing lodic, as if played by a professional, and yet the sound it produced sounded nothing less than deranged and demonic.
As the musical note fell, a strange figure erged from the darkness.
Its shiloute was humanoid in shape, but it was hard to see its features due to its whole body being covered in an old, tattered brown cloak fluttering in the wind.
The only visible thing was a black instrunt held within his hands.
The instrunt was held tightly between its boney hands, with white linings around the black body.
Looking closely, it resembled a trumpet, but strangely enough, it gave out a dreadful feeling to anyone who stared at it.
As the figure holding the black trumpet-like object walked, strange, dreadful undeads appeared behind it.
At first, it was skeletons coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Then ca the zombies, with stinking, rotting bodies dragging across the ground.
Behind the zombies, various monsters with one or two limbs missing walked their massive size, taking the breath away from anyone who stared at them.
But this was just the start.
Headless dullahans rode on their intimidating black steeds, liches holding on to their staffs made of bones.
Gigantic titans made of bones, frail-looking reapers with their massive scythes, and faceless wraiths flying in the sky.
Or a frightening undead dragon made of bones.
Undead creatures who looked straight out of a nightmare, numbering in the millions, all followed a single entity trumpet.
What was once rythemic cackling was now replaced by ear-deafening stomps announcing their presence through the vast lands.
Warning them of their arrival to anyone unfortunate enough to be close enough to hear.
Following the stomping ca a deranged demonic sound as the trumpet-holding entity imitated what was known as music by humans.
The entity's steps didn't look aimless but rather deliberate, as if they were moving in a particular direction.
A direction that would soon have it encounter humans for the first ti in a hundred years.
**
It was just like any other day in the adventurer guilds.
Adventurers enjoyed booze and delicious food as they bantered and enjoyed so ti off.
While their fellow adventurer brethren were busy completing whatever quest they had chosen to take,.
"So any news on the guild leader?" asked one drunk, stout middle-aged man as he stared at his tall and lanky party mate.
"Nope," replied the lanky man in a quick, to-the-point tone.
It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the stout man's company, but rather that he didn't like talking while eating food.
"Hmm, it's been 4 months already. I wonder what he's doing?" The stout man asked, not minding the lanky man's seeming indifference to the conversation.
"Have you heard that apparently the super rookie Edge Lord, who blew up a few months ago and completely shook the whole adventururing world with his achievent of S rank in record ti, has also been missing for 4 months?" a short, cute girl chid in, wanting to join the conversation.
"Now that you ntion it, I don't think I've seen him in a while, and that probably ans he hasn't co to Guild in months now since his face is too morable to forget seeing."
"It's not like it's possible for him to co when I'm not here since I'm always here enjoying the delicious food while feasting my eyes on so fair maidens," the stout man said before changing the topic by shalessly boasting about staring at girls younger than him and not doing anything productive all day.
Hearing his boasting, both the cute girl and the lanky man winced in disgust, which killed the conversation.
But this group wasn't the only ones curious about the whereabouts of Michael and William.
Due to their complete absence for the past 4 months.
Many rumours about them had beco popular in the guild.
So of them were completely untrue, like the idea that the two of them had taken on a super-secret SSS mission.
While others were pretty close to the truth suggesting that Michael, impressed by Edge Lord's performance, had chosen to take him as his successor,.
And these were just so of the many.
Due to there being no official confirmation about the two of them, many people had started making their own stories and possibilities.
But Michael and Edge Lord's missing status wasn't the only topic of discussion in the guild.
The rapid rise of cleansers was also sothing being discussed by guild mates.
With Jasmine's promotion to A rank, it has now beco a team with 3 A ranks, led by one of the youngest and strongest S ranks.
It was easy to tell that they had quickly beco one of the strongest and most credible teams in the guild, despite none of the party mbers having been adventurers for more than a year.
The team's fa had grown so much that they had beco known outside of the well-inford adventurer circles and by the general public.
With many people specifically asking for them to fulfil their commission,.
And with their captain missing, one could only imagine how much they would grow once their captain was back.
But that was a conversation for another day.
Today, a brand new commotion was about to blow in the guild hall as a young, black-haired, unfamiliar boy entered the hall.
Similarly to the young boy who had entered these halls all those months ago,.
**
Oblivious and uncaring about the commotion that was about to start outside, Belle stared at a sheet of paper that had been sent to her by Marquis Orlion with dread and worry.
Sweat fell down the side of her face as she stared at the paper unresponsively.
It read as follows:.
-----------------
Greetings to the adventurer guild. It is with great worry that I'm writing this letter to you, asking for assistance.
According to our sources, a trumpet of death has been observed over the past few days, steadily making its way to a particular location.
And according to our estimations, our beautiful kingdom of Markwhelter lies in its path.
Judging by its current pace, it will arrive in roughly 4 days, and that's the best-case scenario.
As you should be able to tell, this is a situation of absolute urgency that requires the unwavering effort of all of us.
For the above reason, I would like to express an invitation for you to send a representative to join us on Februal 23, 5679, to further discuss strategies and our course of action.
-Orlions
-------------------
She had read the letter multiple tis just to confirm she wasn't reading it wrong, and to her dismay, the content of it didn't magically change despite how much she wanted it to.
"Shit" she cursed, no longer caring about her etiquette now that she was alone.
In all her years as the manager of the guild, this was the first ti she had seen such a desperate situation.
The trumpet of death was a monster.
No, that wasn't quite right. It was closer to a natural disaster.
A cruel and indifferent absolute force of nature that can't be stopped.
Records of this entity have existed in the books for multiple centuries now.
No one knows where it ca from or what its purpose is.
The only known information about it is its immortal and ruinous nature.
It shows up out of nowhere, only announcing its presence with its deranged, demonic music, as if laughing at the helplessness of anyone who hears it.
No one truly knew what its trumpet sounded like, since no one who had heard it ever lived to tell the tale.
Any location or person that was in the way of its march was destroyed by its eternal army of undead, without exception.
In the past, many people and organisations had tried to defeat it, yet it always proved to be too strong.
So exceptionally powerful heroes had actually even managed to kill it in the past, and yet no matter what thod was used, it would show up again in the world after a few years at most.
It was its eternal and disastrous nature that earned it the title of a calamity.
One could even call it a calamity upon this world.
Though the na was rarely used,.
The sound of its trumpet was synonymous with the whispers of the reaper itself.
Maybe if Michael were still present, the situation wouldn't be so helpless.
But with their strongest person being God knows where, the situation looked grim.
In the end, Belle could only lower her head and wonder what exactly humans like them were supposed to do against the literal force of nature itself.
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