Return of the Fallen Volume 13 Chapter 12
Inside his soul tree, the primordial flame burned silently in the center.
(Last time I tried this, I got nothing out of it. Instead, I felt the overwhelming might of the true owner of said flame. It was suffocating, to say the least.)
Kazuki wondered if he should ask Monsuta if he could just take a look at his primordial flame fragment but found that to be way too much of an invasion of privacy. To take a look inside the depth of someone’s soul, that was not something just anyone should have access to.
In the outside world, Kazuki took a deep breath. Inside his soul world, he approached his soul tree and opened his mind. His thoughts and will began to explore his soul tree. Within an instant, his consciousness touched upon the glowing flame.
Immediately the feeling of someone watching him fell upon his shoulders. The pressure was amplified several times over and it was like all the air had been squeezed from his lungs.
Kazuki’s mind became dizzy and his thoughts lagged but he kept inspecting this flame. He thought eventually he could get used to it, take it on bit by bit. A second in the outside world was many years inside his soul world. Even after all this time passed, the pressure did not dissipate. Instead, it grew stronger and stronger.
So much so that Kazuki felt his conscious mind beginning to fade. It was as if he was losing his mind.
The moment he felt this, he immediately pulled away and forcefully drove his mind out of his soul tree before he snapped back to reality.
Kazuki fell over as a wave of both nausea and a splitting headache spread over him like a thick fog. He wished to circulate his ki but he still could not sense it. Instead, he burned his magic energy allowing the element of fire to spread through his body in a chaotic manner. Allowing the fire to flow at its whim with no control caused it to burn at Kazuki’s body. This heat brought stings of pain and with pain, Kazuki’s clouded mind focused, and both Kazuki’s stomach and mind settled.
Monsuta saw how pale Kazuki had become and felt worried.
“Kazuki!?”
He didn’t know what was wrong nor how to help and began to stomp around with worry. The cave started to crumble under his desperate pacing. Kazuki shook his head and finished clearing his thoughts.
“I’m fine. Stop before you bring down the entire mountain!”
Monsuta was relieved and stopped. With a thought, his aura wrapped around enormous chunks of rock and he lifted them to the ceiling. His large eyes lit up and the rocks suddenly began to melt around the edges with an orange glow. Once Monsuta placed these chunks of rock back like a puzzle. The melting rocks fused with the ceiling. With another thought, Monsuta siphoned the heat away from the glowing rocks. The rocks instantly cooled, repairing what was moments ago broken.
Kazuki was slightly surprised though he realized he shouldn’t be at this point. Not because of Monsuta’s abilities but rather the rocks, he used them on.
(Normally when a rock cools that rapidly after being at a melting temperature, it’ll crack and break but these rocks were reformed almost perfectly. Even the rocks in this world are far from the norm. Especially that large rock wedged into the entrance.)
There were so many small things that were so different it made Kauzki’s curious mind ignite in thought. He was going to ask about the rock but before he could Monsuta caught him staring at it and smiled.
“You like my homemade door?”
Monsuta’s tail whipped at the door with loud knocking thuds. He stood next to it with a prideful smile.
“This baby is something that I am proud to say is a personal creation of mine. Oh, before that are you ok? What just happened?”
Kazuki shook his head.
“I tried to find out a little more about the primordial flame inside myself. I’m afraid I’m unworthy as your god saw fit to darken my mind.”
Monsuta shook his head right back.
“No no no. Not just my god but our god. You have the primordial flame inside of you just as I do and every other being in this world. Every creature big or small, if they live in this world they all are under god. Maybe that’s why he punished you because you don’t consider him to be your god.”
Kazuki did not wish to argue about religion or the hierarchy of power among immortal beings. Truth was, as far as Kazuki was concerned, whether he accepted this primordial flame god as his god or not didn’t matter. This fire god was above him in every way and there was nothing he could do against that.
“You’re probably right. Trying to look into the flame, it only makes sense one would get burned.”
Monsuta nodded again before switching back to his door.
“Since you know I won’t say more. You were looking at my door, are you interested?”
Kazuki couldn’t resist it actually. He was a forger of metal in many regards. After all this time, he had crafted and built many objects and many tools. Things that could build for him, things that were smarter than most beings. Materials that were the toughest in the Lower Realms and ships that could fly just as fast if not faster than other Vajra ships in the Higher Realms. Alchemy, smithing, inscribing, he had a general love for anything he could make with his own two hands.
That is all to say when he saw Monsuta’s so-called door, it immediately sparked his interest.
“Absolutely.”
Monsuta took Kazuki’s enthusiasm and rolled with it.
“Hehe, first off, why don’t you try breaking it. Come on, give it your strongest attack.”
Kazuki gave the rock a look before looking at Monsuta. Monsuta just smiled wide.
Kazuki’s physical strength was no laughing matter. With a mere close of a fist, he could shatter billions of Lower Realms at this point. With a punch, it space would tremble and tear. Even though he was still only a Demigod, he was physically stronger than many actual Gods. With a fist coated in Chaotic energy, he could even kill most Gods in a single strike.
At the same time, he knew that things were not so cut and dry. His strength was nowhere near Monsuta’s and Monsuta struggled to move this rock to and fro. Not only that but Monsuta’s little outburst earlier caused grave damage to the inside of this cave yet his homemade door was left completely unmarked. Even the shirkers that Monsuta fears, the morning after their attack, Kazuki checked the door and found not a single scratch.
Still, Kazuki’s curiosity and his own pride and ego were calling out in his mind.
Kazuki slowly walked over and cocked his fist back. He gathered all the fire energy he could along with his aura and amplified his aura with aura strengthening. Gritting his teeth, he shouted.
*HA!*
His fist traveled ridiculously slow due to the suppression of this world but even with this suppression, Kazuki was not disappointed in the force he drove out.
*BaNg!*
The moment Kazuki’s fist hit the rock, he felt a powerful vibration bounce back into his body. it ran through his arm like a million biting ants and shook him to the bone. The rebounding force caused the muscle and tendons on his forearm to explode outward in a gruesome display. The blood sprayed out before it was vaporized from this world’s heat.
Kazuki felt his insides shake so violently he thought he might actually die from this. he quickly pulled his fist back or rather as quickly as he could but the force was still alive and well inside of him.
(How can a rock be so fucking tough.)
Kazuki’s natural recovery helped regenerate any and all damage but still, it was quite painful.
He fell to one knee and sucked in a bunch of air as he took on the pain.
“Damn.”
Monsuta was worried at first but seeing Kazuki recover so quickly he smiled.
“Yep, my door is the best thing I ever made. It can even keep the shriekers out on the green burning nights. It’s mostly resistant to magic and even auras have a tough time getting through it.”
“It resists magic and it can even deal with aura. Is that why my aura and aura strengthening did almost nothing to it?”
Kazuki walked over to the door and curiously placed a hand upon it. Sending out some of his aura, this time instead of attacking the rock he began to sense its properties.
He instantly felt Monsuta’s aura overflowing from within the rock. The amount of aura within this rock was far more than what he felt from Monsuta directly. As soon as he felt this much aura coming from the door, something instantly clicked for him.
(Is this the secret as to why Monsuta’s powers no longer grow?)
Comment (0)