Return of the Fallen Volume 13 Chapter 11
“I’m just sick and tired of being alone.”
Monsuta poured his heart out. Kazuki and he were complete strangers a mere day ago, but now Monsuta felt he could relieve himself of these troubling thoughts.
Normally, this would be all too much, but Kazuki understood to some degree. He as well was all too familiar with isolation. A deep loneliness that could drive you to the edge of insanity or numb you to the core where you no longer feel anything at all. Both ends of the spectrum were not a place anyone should dwell in.
At the far end of this type of loneliness, Kazuki could only claim 2nd place compared to Monsuta. Monsuta had lost his entire family and had been without communication with anyone else for many years. Kazuki on the other hand, even when he was alone, looking back he was not fully alone.
On Earth, he had his granny master and had even made a few rare friends. Back in the Abyssal trench, when he was being hunted in the darkness, there was still his brother Kai and Dann’ys soul he could talk to. When he thought no one could understand what he was going through there was Glascious and then Nunully and Asuna. Other times there was Mei and little Kosaru and so on. The only time he was absolutely alone, where there was no one at all was when he was trapped inside his own soul world for 2 million years.
After understanding Belux’s dark energy to some extent, he could finally leave his soul world and return to reality. What he suffered inside though, left a permanent scar, a dark cloud that lingered over him. Kazuki had a long streak of silverish-grey hair that he had collected and kept from his time in his soul world. He held onto it as a reminder of the agony he endured for 2 million years.
If there was anyone that could understand Monsuta in all the cosmos it would be Kazuki.
“I get it Monsuta. Being alone…sometimes death seems far easier but in truth, as long as you move forward, the lonely times will not last. So long as you keep pushing ahead, eventually, there will be someone. I know for a fact when I was pushed into a corner, I found those that would support me without a second thought. You as well, you’ve continued on even though it was painful and you moved on even when the sadness felt as if it would eat away at you until there was nothing left. Now, you two are no longer alone.”
Kazuki gave a reassuring smile causing large tears to well up in the corner of Monsuta’s eyes. As soon as they formed, the heat of this world vaporized them.
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Monsuta wished to not be alone and Kazuki wished to get stronger. In this way, the two needed one another. For alone, they would both crumble in this world. Kazuki’s strength would fail and Monsuta would eventually succumb to his lonely heart.
After a few days, Monsuta had helped hunt down several strange and exotic creatures or rather strange and exotic for Kazuki. To Monsuta these creatures were completely normal and everyday occurrences. Creatures with multiple heads and sharps claws. Vicious poisonous flames that would burn the bones but keep the flesh intact or creatures with silver fins atop their heads that could slice through mountains as they dove into them head first.
The weirdness of these animals did not stop the valuable information they gained.
Monsuta may not be the smartest but he was observant. He had witnessed Kazuki’s strength improve after eating one beast. Following this route, it made sense to hunt down more creatures to fuel Kazuki’s fire so to speak.
After hunting down several more Pteradactyl’s a problem promptly presented itself. After only eating 5 more of this specific species, Kazuki’s power and strength stopped improving. Rather, it slowed to a near-dead crawl. The two quickly theorized that it wasn’t the primordial flame itself that improved Kazuki’s body but the creatures he ate as well. Hunting a few different creatures here and there the two concluded that he could only eat a few of the same species before he stopped improving.
What neither knew was why. The more Kazuki ate, the more the tiny primordial flame within his soul world grew and so too did his strength but at a certain number of consumed creatures, while the flame continued to grow, the strength would slow to almost nothing. Even if he ate more and more of the same species, again the primordial flame would grow at seemingly the same rate but his strength came to a standstill.
Only after moving to a completely different species did his strength start to grow again.
“Monsuta, why is it that the primordial flame continues to grow and so too does my soul but the growth of my strength keeps slowing. Only when I move on to a different beast does it start up again?”
Monsuta twisted its head around a few times in thought. Because of its extra-long neck, it was like a snake in its flexibility.
“I don’t know Kazuki. When I was younger I never had this problem. Usually, whatever I ate, I would gain its strength right there and then. That stopped though a long time ago.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying your strength no longer grows?”
Monsuta nodded.
“Yes, it hasn’t improved for a very long time. I’ve eaten all kinds of different things since then but it still hasn’t improved. It’s like I’m just stuck behind an unbreakable wall.”
Kazuki thought for a moment.
(The flame grows no matter what I consume but my strength stops growing after eating a few of the same species, what is the correlation, is there any in the first place?)
“Monsuta, you say it feels like you’re being blocked by something, and so your strength has stopped growing for a long time now?”
“Exactly that. I know my flame is strong but I can’t seem to go any further. Do you have any ideas Kazuki?”
Kazuki really didn’t know and shook his head.
“Let me think first.”
Kazuki sat down and closed his eyes and was about to enter his soul world when Monsuta shoved him out of it.
“What, what are you doing?”
“Kazuki not out in the open. If we get attacked out here it will be too late to act. It’s not smart to be a free meal for the beasts.”
Kazuki felt a bit foolish. His sense of fear had fallen greatly due to Monsuta’s presence. Out here, at least in the several hundred surrounding miles or so, this area was basically Monsuta’s territory. The only thing Monsuta feared were the Shriekers which Kauzki learned only come out at night and only on certain nights when the green and yellow fires burn brightest. During the day there was no need to worry about the shriekers but there were other things that could attack at any time.
Kazuki found that nearly every creature they encountered always came in number. A pack of them. Even though Monsuta was quite powerful, more powerful than many Gods Kazuki had witnessed. That though was not the end all be all out here. This was something Kazuki had to remember lest he makes a stupid mistake and ends up on the dinner plate of some rando that comes and picks him off.
After getting back to the cave, Monsuta sealed them inside, wedging the giant hill-sized rock into the entrance. Once they were secure, Kazuki entered his soul world. There in the center of his soul tree was the unmoving primordial flame.
(This thing is a part of something greater, something that can see every move I make. Would this being be upset if I tried to figure out more about it or would it even bother to care at all.)
Kazuki had promised himself to keep a low profile earlier but he needed strength first and foremost. Without it, he would never get off this planet.
(Monsuta says there are intelligent creatures in this world. These creatures are scary enough to make Monsuta stay far away from them. To get that strong, surely they must have come to understand this flame and the secrets within to some degree, yet they remain among the living. Nothing has smited them to my knowledge. Would a being that strong really give a flying fuck if some small being such as myself grew a fraction stronger…I don’t think so. Rather…I hope not.)
Kazuki was already going back on his promise to keep a low profile but this world and the mysteries that lie within gave him little choice. He just hoped that this was not a mistake on his part.
Kazuki’s eyes began to glow as he touched upon his soul tree and sensed the primordial flame fragment in its depths.
(Now…show me what you’re made of!)
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