Return of the Fallen Volume 10 Chapter 113
As his soul tree pulsed with energy, it began to shine brilliantly with a golden hue.
Inside, Kazuki could feel a great change occurring. His soul was expanding. A warmth filled his chest as his magic, ki and aura grew. His capacity for magic and its purity and strength all evolved to a whole other level. When he fought with Fera, her crimson lightning posed a real threat and he simply could not match it. Even after he had killed her and advanced his skills further, and created his own blazing lightning, it still did not equal Fera’s but now, he could feel a large difference.
Where he to face Fera again, lightning to lightning, he knew he would outclass her. The changes didn’t stop with just his magic. With his soul having one of its fractures repaired, it made his soul indescribably stronger. With a stronger soul, his ki naturally grew with it. He did not know what that fully entailed but he could already sense the properties of his ki had become enriched to a terrifying degree.
Kazuki opened his eyes and looked at the world around him. everything became clearer than it had ever been before. Tiny unnoticeable details from before now came into focus. The natural laws of the universe were ever closer.
Kazuki’s physical body was once more enhanced and his vitality rose further and further. With a single drop of his blood alone, Kazuki knew he could save any mortal on the brink of death and give them an extra hundred years or so of added life. His senses heightened he could feel a slight vibration all around him. It wasn’t the world exactly but rather the Realm itself. He could feel tiny undulations as the vibrations smoothly moved up and down, back and forth. Though he could not see what these small vibrations were, he knew instinctively that these were the parts that held the Realm together.
Outstretching his hand, Kazuki gently pinched one of these tiny fragments and gave it a gentle squeeze.
*BANG!*
A crack in space formed directly in front of him and a piece of the Realm was broken off.
Kazuki and Nevius were stunned and Kazuki quickly repaired the damage to the Realm. Not even a moment later, Detra’s voice entered Kazuki’s head.
(What was that Kazuki! I felt it just now. A part of the Realm had cracked and then someone hurriedly fixed it. Was that you?)
Kazuki didn’t deny it.
(Sorry, I was uh, just testing something. Everything’s fine.)
Detra was slightly suspicious but she knew Kazuki could handle himself.
(Even if you’re testing things, the Realm is not a toy. Please don’t damage anything else. I’m the one who mainly has to deal with those messes. Asuna has helped some but the mountain share of this burden falls mostly on me. So do me a favor and knock it off.)
The last bit of her tone was coated in annoyance. Kazuki knew she wasn’t really angry at what he did rather she was upset that he had disturbed her little date. Kazuki laughed inwardly but before he could say anything back, Detra cut her communication there and Kazuki could feel that she was blocking his thoughts from reaching her.
Kazuki laughed again.
(Note to self, don’t interrupt Detra when she’s…busy.)
“Well Kazuki, how is it, how do you feel?”
Nevius was both excited and still slightly on the nervous side. He knew he did everything right in guiding Kazuki but you never know when you aren’t personally handling the task with your own two hands so to speak.
Kazuki went to clasp his hand and once more he could see that he was about to destroy another fragment of the Realm and promptly stopped. Carefully he watched as this tiyn fragment moved away and he closed his hand much slower and with much less strength.
*BOOOOOOM!*
Even though he had gone slow and used barely any strength when he closed his fist, it was still faster and stronger than any previous time before this and caused a large explosion. Thankfully Kazuki was quick and got it under control or this explosion could have caused some real damage. In his mind, he had gone slow but anyone bearing witness would have seen a lightning-quick movement.
(I have to get used to my body but besides that, I’ve improved by leaps and bounds.)
Kazuki stretched out his aura and almost instantly covered an area the size of a small solar system but it didn’t stop there. His aura stretched more and more until it was ten times more. Finally, he could go no further.
(So much power. Barely closing my fist and I can damage the Realm. Before it would have taken at least a punch with most of my strength but now it’s come down to this, incredible. If this is how far I’ve advanced after fixing the smallest fracture in my soul then what will happen when I deal with the other two. Will it advance me by this much or even more. What could the limit be?)
Kazuki nodded.
“I feel…God like.”
Nevius shook his head.
“Not your body, your soul, how does your soul feel. What about the memories, how do they make you feel now?”
“How dot hey make me feel now, what do you…
Kazuki didn’t even finish what he was saying as his mind flashed back to the most excruciating memory of his entire life, except this time, something had changed.
(What is this…The memory is exactly the same but now, my anger…my fury, it’s not as hot.)
Kazuki was shocked. The rage that would make his blood boil and twist at his guts was no more. Now when he saw the memory of what Sephra had done, it gave him an almost neutral feeling. He still held anger for her and for that moment but it wasn’t to the point where he wished to kill her.
His eyes widened in shock and he snapped at Nevius.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”
Kazuki’s aura rushed out like a planet-sized tidal wave. It crushed down upon Nevius causing a loud explosion to ring out and the ground itself to collapse inward and the continent to break. A series of cracks and snapping sounds filled the air as Kazukiv roke every bone in his entire body in a single instant. Kazuki’s aura spun like a bullet and pierced directly into Nevius’s soul world and surrounded his soul tree. His aura had become thousands of spears and swords floating around Nevius’s soul tree ready to strike and destroy his soul there and then.
Nevius was at a loss and had no clue what Kazuki was talking about. His body was wrapped in pain and Kazuki’s initial aura shot had already delivered some damage to his soul causing agonizing soul shredding pain.
Nevius’s world turned on Kazuki and so to did every existence within it. Animals, Beasts, and every artifact wished to destroy Kazuki at this very moment. Dark clouds gathered in the sky and all of the flying artifacts summoned an endless amount of lightning. All at once, thousands of bolts of lightning came raining down atop Kazuki.
*BANG BOOM CRACK KA-BOOOOOOOOM!*
All of these attacks were filled with power and could level a world but to Kazuki, they were simply annoying. They left no wounds, no scars, no injuries, not even a scratch upon his flesh. Kazuki didn’t even need to look as he roared.
“SILENCE!”
The lightning crashing down on him broke apart and vanished as though it had never been. In an instant, his aura covered the planet and all who existed on it. All at once, everything froze in its place, unable to move even a single millimeter.
Nevius was barely conscious at this point and was beyond confused.
“Wh…What are you talking about? Why have you attacked
“YOU DARE PLAY GAMES! DON’T FUCK WITH ME! WHERE IS IT!? WHERE HAS MY RAGE GONE!?”
Nevius could see that his rage wasn’t gone because this attack was clearly fueled by it but he was no fool. He knew Kazuki wasn’t talking about this but rather was referring to his memories.
Blood was spilling down Nevius’s chin as he struggled to talk.
“Kazuki, this is part of the process. The damage to that particular part was traumatic. To heal trauma one must fill the void with something to counterbalance it. Your rage, sadness, and hatred, when you bring in joy, fulfillment, love, and care. It comes together and brings peace. Without this balance inside, that particular fracture could not be repaired.”
Kazuki’s eyes almost bulged from his skull.
“You took it from me. My hatred.”
Kazuki thought back to those memories and tried to hate Sephra again but he could only feel indifference. This was gut-wrenching.
(Why, why can’t I hate her. The memories! I just have to separate them once again.)
Kazuki reentered his soul world and went straight to his soul tree and tried to reverse what he had done but the moment he tried, he felt a soul-shattering pain.
(What is this?)
“You can’t do that, otherwise you will only be causing a greater harm.”
Nevius could sense Kauzki’s soul and what he was trying to do.
“I have to. I can’t lose my hatred. I must seek revenge, I must kill her and rid her of her from the cosmos once and for all.”
Nevius shook his head.
“No, you don’t. Kazuki. A part of your soul has just been freshly repaired, if you try and reverse it, you will cause even greater damage to your soul. This will regress your powers and the damage may not be able to be repaired so easily the next time, maybe even not at all. The hatred you had for Sephra, it was one of the reasons your power stopped progressing. If you bring that damage back, your powers will not improve and you won’t be able to get revenge anyway. If you heal your soul, your powers will only climb to even greater heights but your sense of revenge will be no more. The choice is yours.”
Kazuki felt bitter.
“You didn’t tell me any of this earlier. If you would have told me, I never would have agreed to do this.”
Nevius nodded.
“That may be true but It also may not be. I told you I could sense things about your soul that others cannot. The reason you seek power. In the beginning, it may indeed have been only for revenge. As time went on though, your power was not only for revenge but became a tool to protect the ones you care about. Eventually, it teetered between revenge and protection. You wished to fix your soul for power but even you didn’t know 100% for sure what it was for. You fooled yourself into believing it was absolutely for one thing but the reality is not what it seems. I gave you exactly what you wanted, you just don’t like how you got there.”
Kazuki went silent. After a minute or so, he put the Gosechu box back into his ring and opened a rift.
“Wait where are you going, what about my wife and child. We had a deal!”
Kazuki glared at Nevius.
“We did have a deal but you didn’t inform me of all of the consequences and therefore you robbed me of choice…Fuck your wife and child.”
After that, Kazuki stepped into the rift and disappeared leaving Nevius devastated and crying like an infant curled up in a ball.
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