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Return of the Fallen Vol1 Ch40

Author: Blue_Rat

ch40

Rust led everyone to another goblin nest but the atmosphere between Kazuki’s group and Master Garn had now become sour. The way Asuna and the others fought became sloppy and no matter how much Garn and the others yelled at them to get serious, the energy that came from Asuna and the rest was lackluster.

Because of this, they had put themselves into danger multiple times. A goblin would rush at one of them and they found it hard to bring themselves to attack back. In the end, the soldiers and mages had no choice but to kill the goblins themselves. Once the small village was reduced to ash, Garn’s anger had reached its limit and he began to tear into Kazuki and the rest.

“What the hell’s the matter with you all? Why are you not fighting properly? Are you still stuck on those women and children from earlier?”

Kimi’s eyes had tears at the edges and she was on the verge of crying when Garn mentioned what had happened previously. Asuna put an arm around her shoulder and hugged her while glaring hatefully at Garn.

“Why are you looking at me like that. Everything I’ve said and done has been the truth. Those women and children your so fond of will bring nothing but disaster to our world as long as they exist. They breed and divide like rabbits, draining the resources and tearing up all the land around them. Once they’ve sucked the life out of their surroundings, they move on to green healthy land and repeat the process all over again. Driving out the naturals and taking everything for themselves, they cannot be allowed to live, do you understand?”

Kimi began to mouth something.

“But in our world…”

With those few words, Garn quickly and angrily cut her off.

“BUT THIS ISN’T YOUR WORLD!”

His shout had stunned Kimi, making her knees grow weak and causing her head to slightly grow dizzy. It seemed he had been so mad that he had actually used a bit of power in his voice. Just as soon as he had done that, he quickly realized he had lost control for a moment and paused his next words. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and spoke much softer.

“This is not the world you know. The peace you have there, do you think it would still exist if your world had monsters? Monsters that could crumble your mountains, level your cities or push your oceans so far inland that a continent is swallowed whole.”

Kimi nodded her head.

“We would surely find a way.”

Garn scrunched his brows at Kimi’s naivety and fired back.

“Oh really, and do tell me how this could be done without killing them or their offspring. I know your world has no magic but I am aware of some tragedies that have been done there. Humans that have raised armies and killed millions of people. If you had a chance to go back in time and kill these mass genocidal maniacs in the crib are you telling me you would not do it?”

All of the surrounding Mages and soldiers nodded in agreement with Garn. Of course they would do what needed to be done. To kill one person to prevent millions upon millions of deaths, why wouldn’t they.

Kazuki as well agreed in his mind. Garn could see that Kimi was starting to falter and pushed a bit more.

“Now, imagine how many more people they would have killed had they had access to magic. Your world would have been a ruined husk long ago. Now, look at Gordonia, my world, where magic is everywhere. Those smart goblins that had better-constructed houses, a variety of different weapons and tamed creatures, I’m sure you saw the difference between them and the 1st village we visited. Some are dumb and some are smart. The dumb ones can kill but the smart ones can kill at a whole nother level. Now imagine we take it one step further and they start to learn magic and they get better and better. You may think one goblin with magic is nothing but imagine if its a million goblins that can use magic or two million. The crisis humanity is already faced with, I pray that we can overcome it but if we are also faced with millions of goblin mages…the outcome of that should be obvious to you.”

Kimi now seemed to be convinced but she still felt guilty and didn’t know if she could ever slaughter like that. Danny for some reason raised his hand to ask a question. Garn saw this as a sign that Kazuki’s group was having a turnaround and nodded for Danny to speak.

“Sir Garn, isn’t it impossible for goblins to become mages and use magic? I mean they don’t have Mage Cores like humans, do they?”

“Every creature has some small traces of magic in them but only humans have Mage Cores. Monsters or magical beast, on the other hand, do have a core within them. Unlike a human’s core which is intangible and has no actual physical shape and is more akin to a soul, a monster or magical beast has a hard gem or stone-like object embedded somewhere within their bodies. That is their core and like us, their magic is stored within. Every goblin we’ve come across so far has had a monster core somewhere within them, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. The only reason none of them could use magic is because of the sheer luck of the draw. Thankfully most monsters are dumb, and so they have no clue and cannot access the power within them.”

Danny once more raised his hand.

“If they are too dumb to use it then why does it matter?”

“Do you not understand? the goblins in the first village were dumb yet in the second village they were smarter. They are the same race and share the same environment yet the gap between the two is wide. All it takes is for one of them to comprehend a little better than the rest and then to teach and pass on their knowledge. All it will take is for one goblin to be born with a talent in magic or for one goblin to discover it on their own and then that one small problem becomes millions of problems. You see goblins may appear rather stupid on the outside but they can be taught and in some countries, they are even sold and used as slaves and taught to do simple chores. Some of the more intelligent can even speak the human language and do mathematics. This alone shows that they have the capacity to learn and grow. Do you all get it now? Do you all understand? I don’t kill the women and children because of some sick cruelty or game. I do this because their species is a real, viable threat. Maybe not to me directly but to humanity as a whole. So when I kill one of them, I see it as not taking a life but instead preventing a human life from being lost.”

As Kazuki was listening to this, he suddenly sensed something with his ki, which surprised him. He didn’t look in the direction it was coming from because he did not want to be noticed but what he felt was clear as day. As Garn continued to speak, Kazuki could feel the tiniest amount of killing intent for a split second leaking from Rust. It was so sudden and so brief that no one else picked up on it but killing intent was not something that could escape from Kazuki’s ki sense. This, however, was not what surprised him. Instead what surprised him was who the killing intent was pointed at. Kazuki began to wonder why.

(Are they not friends? For a split second, I’m sure of it, Rust wanted to kill Garn, but why?)

Rust jumped to his feet and walked over with a large grin strewn across his face. Slapping Garn on his back, he laughed.

“Hahaha, what old Garn here is saying is absolutely correct. Threats need to be removed before they have a chance to develop, otherwise, whether they mean to or not, they harm the environment around them and put everything at stake.”

Garn swung his staff at Rust but Rust laughed once more as he dodged it.

This was seen as playful on Rust part but after Kazuki sensed Rust killing intent, he saw it slightly different.

(Hmm, what he says on the surface is right but it also has hidden meanings or rather everything he said just now was him hiding his own threats in plain sight. Especially if I take into consideration that his words may have been aimed at Garn.)

Garn yelled furiously at Rust.

“How many times must I tell you not to touch me? Do I really have to burn off your hands to get the message through to you?”

A few of the mages snickered under their breath while the soldiers were simply laughing hysterically. Garn and Rust’s back and forth was always a form of entertainment to them. Even Asuna and the others were swept up in the atmosphere and began to laugh at the two’s antics.

With things looking slightly better now, everyone had just started to relax when suddenly…

*ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!*

A roar exploded somewhere in the distance. It was so loud and so powerful that the clouds in the sky were ripped apart and a sonic wave swept outward in every direction. By the time it got to Kazuki, the trees had swayed with so much force that a few were uprooted.

Garn’s eyes glowed a bright light and he wielded his staff like a god of magic. With power bursting out of his own body he roared back.

“Barrier!”

A large dome of energy instantly formed, encircling and covering everyone. Trees and large boulders came flying from overhead and as soon as they touched the barrier, they either bounced away and continued flying off into the distance or shattered into 10,000 fragments as though they collided into the side of a mountain made entirely of metal. This continued on for almost 30 seconds before just as suddenly as it had kicked up, it just as quickly ceased.

Garn and Rust shared a look.

“Can you sense it?”

Rust nodded his head and answered back.

“It’s headed towards us, fuck!”