Return of the Fallen Volume 1 Chapter 64
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch64
Itsu struggled with everything he had. His blade dug deeper and deeper into Kazuki’s arm until he finally hit bone but this is where the problem occurred. Because of the angle of the blade and the fact that it was a sword, Itsu could not get a proper angle nor put any real strength into the blade. In order for one to cut through a bone, you either need a chopping force or a sawing motion. A plain sword was not designed for sawing and with Itsu’s small frame and weak strength he couldn’t create enough of a gap between himself and Kazuki to swing his sword.
Kazuki felt the muscles and other tissue in his arm being severed and felt his arm start to go limp. If this was any other person, panic would have already set in but Kazuki was different.
With a flick of his wrist, the small golfball-sized blue flame landed directly on Itsu’s shirt. The time it took to burn a hole right through his shirt and touch his flesh was faster than the eye could blink. Itsu hadn’t even realized that Kazuki had already tossed his flame out but as soon as it connected with his flesh, a shriek of horror suddenly filled this dungeon.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Itsu’s body thrashed around violently in agony, those movements affected the magic upon the chains and the inscriptions lit up again. Electricity washed over Kazuki like he was stuck in the middle of a riptide in the ocean. It poured into his veins like a fire from hell and tore at every cell in his body. For some strange reason though, while Itsu cried out for the gods, Kazuki instead laughed like a madman.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Itsu tried to say something but the small flame did not just reside on his chest, within seconds the blue flame melted the surface of his skin causing it to bubble and pop like a fatty slab of meat.
This, in turn, caused Itsu to slam his mouth shut and nearly bite his tongue off. Blood spilled from his mouth like an overturned glass of milk but Itsu couldn’t care less. The pain from his chest was driving him insane and he only wished for it to cease.
A large hole formed in his chest as his flesh was being devoured from the heat. Kazuki controlled the flame and pushed it directly into Itsu’s chest. His body immediately alit and his body burned like a torch.
Itsu’s clothes skin and hair all burned away but Itsu could care less about his odd appearance. His hand fell away from the sword and he clawed desperately at Kazuki’s arm. Kazuki continued to laugh as the flame made its way to him and consumed his clothes as well.
“Hahaha, burn.”
Itsu’s mouth was left agape as he tried with everything he had to try and breathe causing him to look like a fish left on dry land. His eyes popped and melted away, pouring down his face like runny eggs. His feet kicked at nothing and his body spasmed so hard it looked like he was on the verge of breaking his own back in half. Itsu’s fingers and toes curled up awkwardly and his limbs all twisted in an odd direction. He was dead. All of this happened in less than 30 seconds but to Itsu, it felt like eternal hell.
The fire though continued to burn and even affected the chains that bound Kazuki. Unfortunately though, the chains were made from some type of special material and even Kazuki’s flame could not melt them. The temperature though was hot enough to damage several of the inscriptions and the continuous shock finally stopped.
A few moments later and the blue flame ran out of power and faded. Kazuki looked at the corpse within his arms and felt a huge sense of relief.
*Phew*
Releasing Itsu’s corpse, as soon as it fell to the ground, Itsu’s entire body fell apart into nothing more than a pile of black ash and a few pieces of fragmented bone. Even the ring he wore had been melted down into a few rain drop shaped splats of gold on the ground.
Kazuki extended some of his ki and inspected the inscriptions on the chains. Seeing that most of the inscriptions were severely damaged Kazuki nodded to himself.
(I should be able to do it now.)
Kazuki exerted a bit of strength and pulled.
*Chink Chink Chink*
The three remaining chains that held him broke free from the wall behind him. Sitting down, Kazuki immediately went to work healing his arm.
Inspecting it, he found that about 90% of the muscle had been cut through and a good amount of blood had been lost. Inspecting the slash across his chest, it actually hadn’t been too deep and could be taken care of a little later.
Kazuki could use his ki to heal his arm but the result would be a lot slower and right now he could not afford a delay. This place that he was being held was obviously unguarded by the fact that nobody came during the entire time that there was a struggle and screams but that did not mean that there couldn’t be someone close by.
It could just be that they assumed that the prisoner was being tortured and remained guarding or patrolling their spot. Kazuki though didn’t have time to guess and decided it would be smarter to be combat-ready as soon as possible instead of just running outside and trying to escape in an injured state.
Therefore Kazuki used the same technique he had when he first woke up in the infirmary. Like how he had regenerated and made an eye, Kazuki began to make ancient hand symbols and gathering power. First, he gathered a bit of his second element, the element of darkness. He made almost a glove out of it and covered his left hand entirely.
Like a surgeon, Kazuki used his left hand covered in dark element and cut away any injured tissue and nerves that he deemed too badly damaged, destroying them in the process. The time it would take to repair damaged cells and so forth versus completely regenerating them from scratch was like day and night. In order to heal an injury, he would have to heal different parts in sections otherwise he could suffer from something called overgrowth, which as the name implies is an overgrowth of cells.
This, in turn, can lead the body into believing that there are too many cells in the body and causes a sort of shedding or destroying of the cells, in order to prevent mutations that sometimes occur and cause cancer. If his body is destroying cells though it then defeats the whole purpose. So Kazuki found that the best and also the fastest way to heal himself was to first remove anything that was damaged within and then regenerate everything together from scratch. This way everything grows in unison and there is no overgrowth.
This process may be quick but the pain was excruciating. Using Dark elemental energy within the body was truly harsh and painful. Kazuki wondered if this was similar to what the Scron wolf felt when Kimi used her devour spell. Her dark element invaded the Scron cub’s wounds which bought everyone precious time. Kazuki was only reminded of it now but he was curious if her spell and the way he uses dark energy to cut away at his wounds were anything alike.
After he was done removing the bad, it was time for the good. Kazuki again flashed some ancient hand signs and gathered this time green energy in his hand. With these ancient hand signs, Kazuki could basically use any element but the drawback was, it was inferior in every way to anyone else using magic with a tool. This, however, was the magic that showed Kazuki that worlds were actually connected.
Since earth energy was not one of his two main elements, his technique with it was lesser than someone born with it, but the healing power of earth energy was something natural and required little skill to actually use. Kazuki merely had to direct its healing powers into his arm instead of manipulating it like he would a flame.
Kazuki made a glove of earth energy and gently pressed it upon his wound. Like his eye regenerating that first night, little by little tissue, blood muscle, everything began to regenerate. At first, it was slow but the more time that passed and the longer Kazuki passed earth energy into his wound, the more rapidly he would heal. Nerves reformed and reconnected, muscle extended and wrapped around his bone and everything else in between quickly grew anew.
Within only a few minutes, his arm that was completely unusable was now healed and back to normal. Kazuki then healed the wound on his chest.
Standing up, Kazuki flexed his arm and tested his grip. Feeling the power within, he could not help but smile. Looking at the pile of ash and bone fragments on the ground, Kazuki thought about what just happened.
(Hmph, you actually tried to kill me up close. Had you thought for a moment and not lost yourself to rage, you might have figured out that I was actually baiting you and maybe I would be the one dead instead. Hehe, to change every inscription would have taken way too much time but to change just a few on the cuff. I got lucky, that’s for sure. Had he just killed me at the crossroads outside the city instead of bringing me here and giving me time, hehe.)
“Time to take my leave.”
Kazuki wondered if he should completely leave the country or stick around. From what he knew, only Garn was told about his imprisonment, and the soldiers at the crossroads knew he was captured. At the same time, Garn was under house arrest and the king didn’t like Garn or Itsu. Kazuki might be able to slide past the whole situation but then again the king himself was unstable and even Rust could try and kidnap him or another hero and use them as a hostage.
(Looking at all the factors it’s best I leave this country. I’ll find someplace safe and then acquire the items I need. I should probably help out Nunully as well. Hmm, I might be able to get a reward from her mother Lamia if I rescue her from this place. First though, I should probably remove these chains and also…)
Kazuki looked down at his exposed junk and laughed.
(Should I just make my escape like this, now that would be a story to tell.)
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