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Return of the Fallen Volume 10 Chapter 58

(Is there anything else you wish to discuss Detra?)

Detra couldn’t say anything more or she felt like she would go a little crazy. She selfishly kept the Realm open for the smallest of chances she could reunite with her husband, while Kazuki kept it open so that he could one day seek revenge. She wished that she could justify her own selfishness over Kazuki’s but in the end, both reasons put the lives of every living creature in this Lower Realm in danger.

Compared to Kazuki, Detra had less in this Realm when it came to those she cared about, less to lose. This should mean she should feel less than Kazuki if this Realm were destroyed but she realized Kazuki was not so caring. He spoke as if he would protect this whole Realm and at all cost but Detra felt his words were slightly off.

(One minute he’s talking about protecting this Realm and the very next he mentions destroying anyone here who threatens that. Does that mean he would kill everyone to protect only what he cares about? The weight of the lives of those he cares about is worth everyone else. Even though this feels wrong, I can’t say that. I’m exactly the same. Even my sons, if it came time for me to choose between them and my husband…)

Detra hated the path her thoughts were unfolding and promptly stopped thinking about such things. She tossed those thoughts away and promised herself to never ever think about it ever again. She felt horrible as a mother and quickly stopped talking to Kazuki and basically ran away from the conversation.

Kazuki shook his head.

(This woman isn’t honest with herself. I on the other hand know what I am. I love Asuna and Nunully and would do what it takes to protect them but I will not give up my revenge, I cannot.)

Kazuki lowered his head. He knew what such thoughts would look like to the outside world. He was stuck between the two options. The women he loved and his revenge. He told himself time and time again he would choose his revenge over them but…

Kazuki looked into the depth of space and trillions of stars entered his vision. He very quickly found a small star, one of the smallest in this Realm.

(I’ll try that one. If it’s that size, even if things go wrong, I should still be able to handle things accordingly.)

Space folded around Kazuki as he entered a newly formed rift in space. The very next moment he teleported across space and appeared near a small blue star. He immediately felt the strong pull of unwavering gravity and retreated a few million miles away. From here he could still feel the effects of the gravitational pull but it was nowhere near as strong from this distance.

(Even though this star is small compared to its cosmic brothers and sisters, it’s still tens of thousands of times bigger than Gordonia.)

Kazuki had to rack his brain on how to go about retrieving the heart of a star. First, he needed to determine if the heart of a star was even a real object. He realized now he probably should have confirmed its existence before he made a promise with old Sid but Kazuki was confident such a thing existed.

From here he couldn’t tell but when he was near the star moments ago, he could feel powerful pure energy spewing outward coming from the center of the star. Kazuki coated his body with his own aura, folding it just over 2,000 times, creating a barrier that no one in this Realm could penetrate besides maybe Alutra. His eyes lit with green light as he changed the flow of gravity around his body. The amount of mass he generated around himself was equal to a small world.

This wouldn’t stop the pull from the star but he was hoping it would at least slow it down.

Once again he appeared near the small blue star and just like before he felt the powerful gravitational pull dragging him forth. It was obviously slowed though. His aura began to move and mimic the power of space as he copied one of Asuna’s moves.

(Lock.)

He locked space around his body but even this wasn’t quite enough as he was still being dragged in. This speed though he was comfortable with for now.

Very quickly he sent some of his aura towards the depths of the star, in order to sense its makeup. He quickly determined what most of the star was made of.

(Mostly hydrogen and helium as expected. A constant reaction is causing a nonstop nuclear reaction across the entire star.)

Kazuki already knew of this fact as he had learned many things from Earth. He had been curious as to how things operated. The first time he saw a car driving down the street was quite a shock. He had found out that there was nearly no magical energy on Earth so to see a large metal vehicle move without magic was more than dumbfounding. After that, Kazuki realized he was very dumb to the ways of the world and he learned of science and so on.

He was in no way shape or form an expert of science but he knew enough to keep pace with most of the population. Once he learned about science, it made his world and universe seem miraculous. Coming back to Gordonia, he couldn’t understand how one world had magical energy and Earth basically didn’t, that is until he realized the two worlds were not in the same Realm.

He had always wondered how seemingly weak Mages could have summoned him and the others from one universe and yet literal Gods could not send them back. Everything came together and he came up with a theory when his grandfather Orberus told him that the infinite Lower Realms move around.

When Kazuki learned this, something came to mind. As far as he could tell, it seemed that when he and the others were summoned so easily is because his original Realm and the Realm that contained the planet Earth must have been close, most likely the two Realms were touching at the time. Since the Realms were that close, it must have been much easier to summon people. Sometime after the summoning, who knows when the Realms must have moved apart from one another. Due to this, even Orberus who proclaimed to be incredibly powerful could not send anyone to Earth. In the first place, the moment Kazuki left Earth with his golden compass, Orberus lost all traces of Earth and the Lower Realm that contained it.

(Magic barely exists in that Realm, or at least on Earth but there is an abundance he…)

Kazuki’s thoughts paused for a moment before he recalled his battle with Fera. He remembered when he fought with Fera, how little there was of magical energy in space. It was only an inconvenience at that time but looking back at it, the feeling was similar back on Earth.

(The magic was so thin. Even now, magical energy is scarce in the emptiness of space. Sure Its power is more than abundant when it comes to astral objects like planets, stars, moons, and so on but between here and there why is magical energy lacking to this extent…?)

Kazuki realized these thoughts were useless for now and put them out of his mind as they were doing no good and were simply confusing him more than anything. His thoughts went back to the star. His aura had only penetrated maybe an 8th the way through when the gravitation, pressure, and heat started to deteriorate his aura. He quickly pulled his aura back before folding it 2,000 times and sent it straight back in.

This time he reached a little more than a third before once again his aura fell apart.

He changed his tactics and the spinning void inside his soul world activated with a thought.

(Devour.)

It looked like Kazuki had become a black hole as the star in front of him began to be devoured. Light, plasma, gravity, the energy of the star itself began to get sucked into Kazuki’s soul world and were pulled directly into his devouring spinning void.

The devouring void pulsed as it sent power into Kazuki’s body. He could feel his strength rising rapidly as he ate this star.

(Once it’s weak enough I should be able to check the core and see if the heart of a star is a real object or not.)

Kazuki could sense a strong pure power coming from the center of the star and he figured that was the heart but before he could confirm it, something unexpected happened.

A large explosion erupted outward and threw Kazuki backward for several million miles before he stabilized himself. The star had become unstable from Kazuki fucking around and exploded. Kazuki quickly sprung into action. He knew that when stars exploded they became black holes o at least that’s what he thought and expected but instead, the star that just exploded continued to shrink. Kazuki could feel the pure power in the center rapidly shrinking along with it. Rather, the cause of the shrinking was coming directly from that pure energy until a split second later, both the star and its core were nor more. Vanished into the void.

Kazuki did not expect this at all. This Realm clearly had science in it but the power of magic seemed to overwrite and rule supreme, at least in this Realm. Witnessing this though only caused more confusion.

(That was not based on the rules of science but I also don’t understand why this happened either. I clearly felt magic though so it was a magical event but…What does this mean? Looks like this won’t be that easy.)

Kazuki wished he understood science a bit more but now it was reversed. He thought his understanding of magic was at a masterful level but what he just witnessed, he couldn’t explain.