Return of the Fallen Volume 12 Chapter 114
The seed of Origin energy rested in the depths of his soul tree. A thin line of this energy formed a link from this source to the base of his soul tree where it was actually connected to the spinning devouring void. Kazuki had no words. He did not know when nor how this connection formed.
He didn’t even know when this Origin energy took root inside his soul.
(Arc, Codex, and Sword all took a look inside of my soul world but none of them found a single clue as to what happened with the Origin energy. They couldn’t even detect it yet it was here the whole time. This energy has even formed a connection to the spinning void at the base of my soul tree. What does this mean?)
Kazuki really wished he could communicate with Arc or the others. He was lost on all of this. Not only that but death still loomed over him. The beam of dark energy stayed suspended and frozen or rather near frozen. It was moving incrementally due to the time difference.
Kazuki sighed inwardly. The moment he left his soul world, the flow of time would return to normalcy and this dark beam of light would destroy his existence.
If things were different, if he could access his storage ring or one of the Artifact’s inner space, he could easily use all the Divine crystals they stored for him. Each one of them held countless Divine crystals. If he were to convert all of that energy into his own and then send it into his soul tree to be absorbed, his soul would encounter significant growth.
He wished to access his gauntlet’s inner space but this Artifact was sent flying away the moment his body exploded. His storage ring, Arc, and all the other Artifacts, he was no longer in physical contact with them.
(If I just had them in my grasp maybe there would be a way to overcome the restrictive nature of this world and I could get what I need from them.)
Kazuki knew such a thought was foolish and naive but he couldn’t help but think like this. His options…he could not see any way out of this situation, so he reached for anything.
Kazuki sat down inside his soul world and tried to think of a way out of all of this.
His body was destroyed, all of the Artifacts out of reach, and even if they were within reach he could not access their inner spaces without communicating with them first. His storage ring as well had been sent flying away somewhere in the dark tunnel. To top it all off, this black beam of death was slowly edging toward his soul tree. Which meant that eventually, his soul would be obliterated and his existence would seize to exist.
Kazuki thought about activating the spinning void within him. Maybe if he could absorb this strange energy and convert its energy and pass it onto his soul tree maybe he could strengthen his soul enough to avoid destruction.
After a few moments though he gave up on this idea.
(The second I activate my spinning void, time will return to normal and the dark beam will hit my soul tree. The time in the outside world leaves me no favors. I can move around in here freely and move my magic and soul but the spinning void was something that originally did not belong to me. It is like an outside attachment or a piece of equipment. It does not follow the same rules as the rest of my soul world.)
*Heh*
*Hahahahahaha!*
(Is this my end?)
Kazuki couldn’t help but laugh in frustration.
As he sat on the ground he couldn’t help but think of his life and the way it went. So much pain and anger. So much sorrow. What was it all for? In the end, this is where he ended up. Trapped inside his soul world watching his life tick down towards his inevitable end.
Kazuki began to play his memories in the sky and reminisce. Whenever he got to something terrible, like a movie he would fast forward and skip those sections. He watched himself as a child playing with his older brother, he watched as he met his Granny Master and learned ki from her.
He watched as he laughed and joked with his friends. His first meeting with Asuna and Nunully was entertaining as well. He was still using Ryuta’s disguise back then. He acted like a high schooler and did some pretty silly things to convince the others he was Ryuta. Asuna thought of him as immature and childish but that changed over time as the mask slipped and she fell for him.
When he first met Nunlly, he was negotiating with her over ingredients to reforge his Mage core. He came off as an asshole. Confident but an asshole none the same. He recalled how they wound up in a prison in the sky and how they escaped.
All the things they had been through. Eventually, the three of them came together as one and for the first time in his life, he knew what this type of love was. What it felt like and how it filled him with a new purpose.
Even though he was passing through his memories and was purposely avoiding the bad, the bad still connected with the good and he couldn’t help but think of Fera and Sephra.
As soon as he got to them, he stopped playing his memories and sighed once more.
He tried to clear his thoughts as he got up and paced around his Soul world but the more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
(Why does Sephra get to get away with it in the end? My whole reason for coming to this place was her. Everything goes back to her. I’ve risked everything time and again all because of her. How can I just sit around twiddling my fucking thumbs waiting for my return to the void?)
No matter how he broke it down, it just wasn’t fair. Sephra had killed his real mother and father over jealousy. She had killed his brother, Kai, and all of his friends. His two loves and his unborn child. Kazuki had his future stolen from him and had endured and suffered enough for thousands of lifetimes.
(NO! I WILL NOT LET THIS END! NOT UNTIL I TEAR THAT WOMAN APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!)
A new flame was lit within Kazuki.
(Fuck it. I have a few million years in my Soul world. I refuse to believe I can’t figure a way out of this. Everything has rules. Even if rules can be bent and manipulated, they cannot break, otherwise, the universe itself could not exist. This dark energy, it still has rules to it. I just need to figure out how it works and deconstruct it. Master it, bend it to my will, and then crush it beneath me.)
He took a step and appeared next to the dark beam of death and reached out toward it.
The energy took a few blows before it eventually was able to destroy Kauzki’s body in a single strike. It had grown stronger and stronger and he knew if it reached his soul it would destroy it in one blow.
(Even if it can destroy me when it touches me that alone still takes time. In the outside world, that time would be a fraction of a fraction, of a second. In here, time flows differently.)
Kazuki no longer hesitated as he touched the beam of dark energy.
The moment he touched it, he felt a soul-rending pain rush through him. The pain was enough to drive one insane and cause one’s mind to collapse. There wasn’t a single doubt what this strange dark power could do to someone but Kauzki was different, he was special in a way that none could compare.
When it came to agony, Kazuki was well-versed in it. He had bathed in suffering from the moment Sephra killed Kai in front of him and stole his Mage core. He had been ripped apart far too many times to count. His body had been torn to rags and his blood had been spilled over and over. He burned and melted, froze, and blinded. Soul crushed and shattered, mind broken and repaired.
Kazuki endured all of this because he had to. Kazuki endured because although he was not born into this, over time, however, he was molded and shaped by it. To reach these heights of never-ending sorrow and through all of it and to keep pushing forward, Kazuki did the only thing he could.
He became a fucking MONSTER.
…
As the dark energy flowed through as expected, the destruction of his soul started. This though brought him no fear. Because something else happened.
As his soul was being systematically ripped to shreds, the flow of time remained ever-slow. What should have taken a fraction of a fraction of a second to obliterate him in the outside world? Inside his soul world, only a fraction, of a fraction of his soul had been destroyed.
The instant this happened, Kazuki immediately released the dark beam of death and the destruction to his soul came to a stop. Kazuki smiled before laughing as if he were insane.
(Yes…I can feel it. This energy…I will master all of it!)
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