Return of the Fallen Volume 11 Chapter 13
Kazuki took the flask and opened the top before giving it a sniff.
His face soured and his nose scrunched up. A foul whiff of something rotten filled his nostrils and he gave the old woman a strange look. The woman laughed.
*Hahaha*
“Old stranger you’re a funny fellow. That ain’t for drinking, that’s to remove the worms mucus from your body. Leave it on too long and the mucus hardens. Once it stiffs up, ain’t much that can break it. It’s even harder than their flesh.”
Kazuki looked into the flask once again before pouring a small bit of it on his arm to test it. He wasn’t worried about it harming him as his regeneration would take care of him. At the same time, he felt no threat coming from this old lady.
*Tsss*
Pouring only a few drops, the mucus evaporated almost instantly. Kazuki then poured the rest all over and the mucus dissipated as if it were never there. Standing up slowly, Kazuki handed the flask back.
“Thank you, young miss.”
The old woman raised a brow before she slapped Kazuki on the arm in delight.
“You old fool calling me young. Stop trying to flatter me, hehe.”
Tucking the flask into her cloak, the woman held out a hand and shook Kazuki’s.
“The names Marticia but everybody around here just calls me Marty.”
Kazuki looked left and right. From his eyes there was nothing but desert in every direction.
“Around here?”
Marty nodded.
“Yep. Ah, it’s obvious you’re new here, that’s ok stranger, everyone is lost and confused when they first get here. Come on, I’ll show you where I empty these dusty boots.”
Marty walked ahead and went over a small hill, leaving Kazuki kind of lost.
“Boots?”
Kazuki quickly got up and raced after her. He didn’t know what was happening but he finally encountered someone. He wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass him up. Running over the hill, Kazuki was surprised to see Marty standing next to something that looked like a glider. Instead of there being a handlebar beneath it, there was a long bar across the top. Not only that but the glider was not made from cloth but some type of hard greyish-brown material.
Kazuki looked at the weird-looking glider and Marty smiled.
“This here’s all mine. Took a long time to get it working but after a few hundred years, I figured it out. Ah, right I haven’t even asked you your name yet. You already know mine so let me know yours, it’s only fair.”
Kazuki already had a name he could use. This disguise he had came from a certain being’s memory. There was really no point in changing the name already attached to it.
“Jentson. By the way, why are you treating me so kindly? We don’t know one another.”
Marty backed away terrified before she laughed. She was acting.
“I’m not scared of you because I know what this place is. I know its rules, and I know its limitations. Not only that, but why would I ever be scared of someone who’s at the 5th or 6th stage? In a place where regular magic is basically nonexistent, why would a Demigod be afraid.”
Kazuki was a little disturbed. He had not used his aura to take a look into Marty’s soul because he did not feel a threat from her but in fact, she was a Demigod. He understood right away that she could look into his soul at any moment. If she just looked at the surface of his soul tree she would only see Jentson’s memories and experiences, his entire life but if she was suspicious and she forcibly dove deeper, she could easily see through his identity.
Kazuki did not know this woman. He did not know her true aim or anything else about her or the connections she may have. A million thoughts began to race through his mind as he wondered about the possibility of her having a connection with Sephra may be. Even if this was astronomically off, he couldn’t be too careful. He looked at her and backed away cautiously. This only made Marty smile some more.
“Hehe, so you really are below the 7th stage. I was just guessing but your actions confirm it. Also that old appearance of yours. At the 7th stage it’s easy to manipulate the flesh to a certain extent. I was also wondering why you weren’t using your Divine soul weapon to escape from the sandworm. Even if it uses up all of your power, it’s better than being swallowed up but now I know, You actually aren’t a Demigod. This makes your escape even more fascinating.”
Kazuki felt stupid.
(She was only guessing and I revealed such a detail so easily.)
At the same time, he was curious as to why she had an old appearance if she was a Demigod.
“You’re wondering why I’m old when I could be young. I’ll go on and tell you right now. To maintain youthful looks requires divine energy. I’m not wasting it on something so superficial when it’s so scarce.”
Kazuki didn’t know what to say to that and was wondering what his next move would be when Marty called him.
“What are you doing, come on already. You don’t want to be down here when night falls. That would be disastrous.”
“You don’t wish to look into my identity?”
Marty shrugged.
“Even if you aren’t as strong as me old man, we have certain rules in this world. Looking into someone’s soul, and violating that privacy is a no-no. Do that, and you’ll only make enemies here. Now are you coming or do you really want to be out here when the big ones come?”
“Big ones!”
Marty nodded.
“Big ones.”
Kazuki was still cautious but he still went over.
(If she wanted to she could have taken a look at my soul at any time but she still hasn’t. Trusting her flat out is impossible but for now, I’m not seeing the downside.)
Marty held onto the handlebar and directed Kazuki to do the same.
“Make sure you hang on!”
As soon as she said that, inscriptions lit up across the surface of the glider and it hummed as if it was sucking in a massive amount of air. The glider shot upward at an extreme speed the very next instant. Kazuki felt a shit ton of pressure pushing down at him as they ascended upward. As soon as they reached a few hundred feet the pressure decreased drastically and the two flew forward.
“What is this?”
Marty gently pat the glider with her hand as if it were a pet.
“This here’s my baby. I dug it up out of one of the ruins a while ago. Even though you’re not a Demigod, can you feel anything strange about it?”
Kazuki was already analyzing the many inscriptions and gaining several insights but when she asked him if he felt anything, it was true. He could sense the tiny strands of divine energy all around were being sucked into this glider. Using his combined and vast knowledge of inscriptions he quickly understood many of this glider’s functions.
“It’s taking in the Divine energy, that’s what’s powering it.”
“Hmm, so you can notice that huh? It’s rare for someone at the 7th stage let alone someone even below that to be able to tell when divine energy is on the move. Unless it’s affecting them directly or someone’s displaying it right before them. It’s good to know I picked up someone with a little brain’s and good senses this time.”
Right after she said this, she tapped her foot on the glider and the glider began to suck in even more energy before accelerating faster and faster. Kazuki found this interesting. By analyzing the inscriptions, he could tell that this glider could go much faster but due to the small amount of divine energy in the atmosphere, it could only pull in a fraction of its capacity.
(To make a device that can never reach its limit, there must be a reason. She mentioned finding this in ruins earlier. If that’s true and it’s designed in this way purposely, that could mean there used to be far more divine energy in this place but something happened and now it’s almost all gone.)
Kazuki was curious as to just where he had ended up. Just as he was about to ask, he could see something in the distance. A tall tower floating in the sky.
“That’s my home, that’s Oasis Seven.”
At the very top of the tower, there was something reflecting light toward them.
Marty pulled out a small mirror from her cloak. With the help of one of the suns in the sky, she reflected her own light towards the tower. A moment later the light from the tower flashed twice.
“What was that just now?”
“The Oasis knows I found someone and am bringing you back. I didn’t tell them you were a man so right now I bet some betting is going on on whether you’re a girl or boy. Hehe, wait till they see that you’re actually old and you’re not even a Demigod. I can’t wait to see their surprised faces. Someone below the 7th stage ended up here.”
“Is my appearance that strange?”
Marty nodded.
“Of course, this is a place where you can barely use divine energy, let alone regular weak magic. The fact that you survived and were even able to sue magic somehow, I have a feeling there’s something different about you and we could use some different around here. I managed to find you in time is miraculous. If not for that light you used, I wouldn’t have even come looking. Looks like I picked up a gem this time, hehe.”
Kazuki remembered how he was testing his talismans and coincidentally threw a bright flash of light into the sky. After that, he saw the reflecting light in the distance and decided to follow it.
(To think there really was someone at that light.)
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