Return of the Fallen Volume 12 Chapter 86
Carta gnashed her teeth in defiance. It was her people that had made the mistake but she felt Dredinkar’s rebuke was too much. Just as she was about to call him out on it, something terrifying happened.
All around them, the tunnel began to rumble and shake.
Dredinkar scanned the area in alarm.
“What madness is this?”
The source of this was found just a short distance away. On the wall, there was a clear impression of Carta’s fist. Half a moment ago she had punched toward her comrade. In doing so she destroyed his hand, thereby stopping the spread of the infection but at the same time her fist contained too much power.
The remaining force had bypassed her comrade and impacted heavily into the side of the tunnel wall. Just as the wall reacted when her comrade punched it earlier. What followed was proportional if not far worse to what Carta’s impactful punch did.
From up above and down below, and from side to side. Small holes opened up all across the walls and out came rain. This rain was anything but ordinary for contained within it was that very same dark energy.
It came shooting out and pouring, gushing and rushing.
Carta bit her lower lip in a rage.
“SHIT FLEEEEEE!”
She did not need to tell anyone because everyone was already on the move.
A single drop fell on one of the wasps that followed Specxzu. It landed on the shoulder and immediately a screeching hissing noise echoed from this creature’s mouth as it cried out in agony.
Sepcxzu had already seen what this foul energy does to a person so there was no hesitation on his part. He grabbed his soldier’s arm and with a slight pull he ripped the appendage from the shoulder and threw it away. After that, he opened his mouth and spit a strange gooey liquid onto the wound, and sealed it shut.
The soldier cried out no more.
Fleck was shaking seeing this dark energy rain down all around. Kazuki grabbed both him and Nala and kept the two close to his side before deploying a barrier of his own. This barrier contained different Chaotic energy that would counter the dark energy.
Dredinkar saw this and followed Kauzki’s lead.
“Hurry and raise your barriers you fools. Don’t let this nasty energy touch your flesh or it will be disastrous.”
Dredinkar’s words were the truth. At this moment he felt as if most of these Gods were fools. That had forgotten the first rule of engagement when it comes to coming into contact with the unknown. Always raise a barrier.
The second he entered this strange tunnel, he had already raised a small barrier over the surface of his skin. He was being cautious but not overly so.
Watching Carta and her companions act so slowly he could only chalk it up to her youthful immaturity but still he did not see this as an excuse for her. As for Specxzu and his bugs, it made sense as they were arrogant and overconfident in their power. He was a first-hand witness to that.
Seeing Kazuki raise his barrier and keep his calm he was glad to have him on his side. At the same time, he noticed Kazuki’s barrier was not made from Divine energy. He was curious about it but for now, he pushed it to the back of his mind as he flew to the front and led the way.
Leading was an overstatement at first but that quickly changed as the tunnel up ahead split into several paths.
“Damn, isn’t this supposed to be straightforward? Why are there forks?”
The raining dark energy contained a powerful corroding effect. Even though these people were all Gods and had extraordinary barriers. The corrosive power could even eat through this magic and did so.
Dredinkar had no clue which path to take and tried to consult the others but there was still a panic at hand.
Kazuki though was still as calm as ever. At least for him this much was something he could still easily deal with. Kauzki decided to give a small bit of help.
(Dredinkar, Fleck can see the end of the tunnel.)
(Really, which path!?)
(The second one to the middle on the left side. He says the exit is not too far ahead.)
Dredinkar didn’t even question it. He knew Fleck had received some kind of information but was unsure of what. Besides he did not think Kazuki and his group would be leading them into a trap as they were all going together.
“Everyone the exit is near. Follow me!”
Even though stopping yourself in the tunnel caused the tunnel to collapse at your back, changing direction while being pushed along was simple. Dredinkar flew into the path Kazuki told him about and everyone kept pace.
This gave them some relief but that was immediately thrown away. Inside this new path, the so-called exit could still not be seen. At the same time, the foul energy was eating away at their barriers at such a rapid rate that it was actually depleting the power in their cores at a deadly rate. This would normally mean nothing to them as the amount of power they contained in their cores was enough to fill hundreds of thousands if not millions of Lower Realms.
However, this place was strange. The element of space was heavily used in this place and was actually displacing a large portion of their power. Whatever energy they pumped out to repair their barriers before their power ever reached their barriers, the tunnel would actually move 99.99% of it to some unknown location.
They knew it was being moved and not destroyed because they could still sense their own power was now off in the distance somewhere. Trying to draw this energy back to their cores was also met with interference. It was their power but once it was outside of their own flesh they could only control a fraction of it.
This was both mysterious and terrifying.
Because of these crumbs of energy were used to repair their barriers. It meant that the repairs were far too slow. The foul energy was corroding their barriers and slipping inside on some occasions. Anything that got inside, they were forced to sue more magic to knock it away and then even more magic to open their barriers at specific spots to send it flying out of their barriers.
The consumption was truly inefficient and it showed. It had only been minutes and most of their barriers were already wobbling here and there and holes were opening up on them nonstop.
Kazuki kept most of his power hidden in front of these outsiders. He purposely created holes in his barrier as if it was failing. And once the dark energy got inside, he copied the other Gods and knocked it out of his barrier with magic. At the same time, he called out openly to Fleck and Nala.
“Keep fixing the barrier. As long as we all focus on one and not many, we can conserve energy and protect ourselves.”
This was said so that it appeared like Kazuki was really combating the dark energy. All for appearance’s sake.
Carta and Dredinkar both took on this idea and their small forces gathered close and they created one barrier to share amongst themselves.
“Medatte, Specxzu come to us.”
Kazuki, Fleck, and Nala did just that and soon joined them in their barrier. Using his ability to convert Chaotic energy into Divine energy, he helped maintain the barrier in this way.
Specxzu on the other hand moved much slower. One of his soldiers was much weaker than the others and tried to rush forward to get inside the shared barrier but the moment this soldier wasp made it outside, Specxzu caught him by the neck.
Specxzu’s mandibles clicked erratically and the soldier tried to free its neck in despair. it made some high-pitched screeches before Specxzu’s tone darkened.
“And who gave you the order to leave my side? Those that can’t obey…can only suffer the consequences…die!”
Specxzu opened its mandibles as wide as possible before crunching down on his soldier’s head. A nasty popping noise echoed in this tunnel and the soldier’s head turned a dark red color before exploding in a sea of flames.
Specxzu then tossed the body away as if it were trash before looking back at his last soldier.
“Go ahead, join them if you must.”
The soldier lowered its head as it quickly rushed into the shared barrier.
Dredinkar shook his head.
“And what was the point of that Specxzu? Why purposefully lower your overall strength like that?”
Specxzu’s mandibles clicked in excitement before he completely lowered his barrier. As soon as he did this the raining dark energy landed on his body in multiple places.
*Ssssztt Hsssztzt*
The sound of sizzling filled everyone’s ears and they all thought the wasp bug was insane and done for. To their shock though the Wasp did not melt away. Its many eyes lit up with a myriad of colors and the sizzling fizzled out. He was actually countering the dark energy. While everyone looked on in shock, one of Specxzu’s eyes landed on Kazuki as if he knew something.
Kazuki kept up his fake shock but inside he was secretly alert.
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