Return of the Fallen Volume 13 Chapter 15
After watching Monsuta use his aura a few times to try and carve a rock, something became apparent.
“Could it be that you’re lacking in aura control?”
Monsuta dropped the rock on the ground with a low thud. Again, tears began to build in the corner of his eye, but Kazuki quickly put a stop to that.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I mean of course you wouldn’t have much control, after all, you’ve mainly used it to fight with right.”
Monsuta gave a soft nod.
“Yes. I try and carve whenever I get bored but if I’m not carving, I’m usually out hunting or fighting to defend myself.”
The way Monsuta used his aura was basically as brute strength. It was led with his will and intention mainly for the purpose of killing opponents in a single strike.
(Of course, his aura would be rough. He uses it to kill and only knows how to go all out with it. Holding back when life and death are on the line is one of the quickest ways to catch an unfortunate death. Looking at these crude statues, just like his enemies he strikes them hard and fast. I can carve just as fast but because I have perfect control over my aura, the difference between skill is night and day.)
“From the way you make and shape these rocks, you seem to put in far too much force and your aura is unsteady, unbalanced, and unrefined. Another reason is because most of your aura remains inside your homemade door. How would one ever get better at using their soul if they are never using all of it or at the very least sensing all of it? It would be like trying to find a specific blade of grass on the ground while having one of your eyes completely blindfolded. Taking away part of your senses, of course, it will be harder to find what your searching for. The same basically applies to your art. How can you get better on your own while missing something so important?”
Monsuta was saddened.
“But I can’t destroy my door. Does this mean I’ll never get better at carving my statues?”
Kazuki smirked.
“Who says you need to destroy your door?”
Monsuta was confused.
“But you just said
“I said how can you get better on your own while missing such a large part of yourself? Who says you’re still alone? Am I not here?”
“Kazuki…You will help me?”
Monsuta’s tail began to wag in excitement.
“I don’t see why not.”
Monsuta jumped upward before opening his mouth and roaring.
*RAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!*
From the tip of his tail, all the way up his spine to the top of his head lit up with a bright glow before a powerful blast of flames erupted from his mouth.
Kazuki was shocked as he felt the temperature inside this hollowed-out mountain rises rapidly. If Kazuki did not have the primordial flame fragment in his soul he was certain this rapid rise would have melted his flesh. It would have been different had they been outside where this heat could somewhat dissipate but they were currently in an enclosed space. A space in which hot magma flowed underneath the ground with open vents.
“MONSUTA!”
Monsuta noticed Kazuki was not doing well with the heat and he instantly stopped roaring. Instead, he opened his mouth as wide as possible to a ridiculous degree before inhaling deeply. This time the heat rapidly fell, so much so that the surrounding temperature caused a thin layer of ice to cover nearly everything inside the cave. The very next instant this layer of ice ignited and surprisingly burned away instead of melting.
Kazuki had a dozen questions on how that scene was even possible but Monsuta’s apologies interrupted his thoughts. Kazuki put them to rest as there wasn’t really anything to forgive in the first place. Monsuta still felt bad though and made an offer.
“Oh, I know, since you’ll help me with my aura control, how about I teach you how to make my special rock.”
Kazuki had no reason to turn this down and wouldn’t put on pretenses.
“That sounds great.”
“Really, good. I’ll show you right away then!”
Before Kauzki could say anything else, Monsuta lifted Kazuki up and carried him out of the cave with his aura. The two very quickly were a few dozen miles away from home. Arriving at a nearby valley, the land dipped a few miles down. It was more like a hole than anything. There was no lush greenery nor a calm stream. Instead, there was a river of black running almost parallel alongside a river of yellow.
A terrible smell came off the surface of both rivers. One smelled of foul gasses while the other had a strong odor of something decaying.
“Monsuta what are those rivers?”
Monsuta shook his large head.
“I don’t know what the names are. I just call them bad. The black one is very sticky and I can’t find the bottom with my aura. I once got my tail stuck in there and couldn’t remove it it was so bad. In the end, I had to bite off a big chunk of my tail just to escape it all. The yellow river is even worse though. Something inside of it can burn even my flesh. The yellow river is so strong that even after leaving that nasty stuff, it keeps burning you for a long long time. I almost died in that one. Kazuki make sure you never go near them, that yellow one especially.”
“Got it. Blakc bad, yellow way worse.”
Monsuta nodded before leading Kazuki to a spot a few hundred feet away from the two flowing rivers. Off the shore, there was some loose red and blue sand intermingled. Monsuta’s tail came whipping from behind. It spun like a fan whipping up a torrent of wind. This speed though was not too fast nor too slow. At this speed, it created a current of air similar to a swift breeze but nothing more.
As he did this, the red sand began to sink down while the blue sand rose into the air and was blown away.
“You see Kauzki, the red sand for some reason the red sand goes deeper down and the blue sand flies away. When it does this, those get revealed.”
Kazuki could sense different fire elements from both of these sands. He felt something close to magnetism inside the red sand and something close to wind element inside the blue sand.
(This makes no sense, that is clearly fire energy in both types of sand but they somehow feel similar to earth and wind. What is this world?)
When the sand was dispersed, a bright-looking brown stone was revealed. Not just one or two but hundreds. These brown stones shined like diamonds, causing them to reflect rays of blue light from the sun.
Monsuta picked all of them up with his aura and moved away from the sandy area to a clearing.
The moment he was in the clearing, he smiled and promptly began to eat one brown stone after the other.
“Wait Monsuta what are you doing?”
Monsuta ignored Kauzki and quickly swallowed every single brown stone down in seconds. The moment the last stone was gulped down, Monsuta’s face changed. large beads of sweat gathered on his face before they evaporated due to the heat. To Kauzki’s surprise, water was not the only thing contained in his sweat. After the drops of sweat evaporated, tiny particles of dust fell away and landed with low dull thuds on the ground.
*Thud ba ba thud*
Kazuki was surprised. The dust was heavy enough to sound like heavy drops of rain on the ground.
Curiously, Kazuki picked one up and observed a speck of this dust. The first thing he noticed was its weight, this single particle of dust was almost 100 pounds. He was taken aback by this discovery. The very next thing he noticed was the fact that this speck of dust contained odd properties. He tried to inspect it with aura but found his aura bounced away from this speck of dust or maybe the better word would be to bend away from it.
Honestly, he could not tell himself whether his aura was bouncing away or bending.
(This speck of dust is blocking my senses? How did this come from Monsuta’s sweat?)
As Kazuki questioned this, he sensed a profound amount of heat building in Monsuta. This heat was not coming from his whole body but rather from the center of his gut.
(Could it be that his body is acting like a forge?)
Kazuki desperately wanted to see what was happening inside Monsuta’s stomach.
(He’s making it inside of him somehow. Maybe his aura is entering the stone at this very moment.)
Just as Kauzki thought this, the temperature inside Monsuta rose further, so much so that even through his thick red-colored flesh a hot bright glow could be seen shining through.
Monsuta’s face warped in pain and he actually looked constipated.
(Whoa, don’t tell me he’s about to shit this stuff out. Is that his secret!?)
Kazuki instinctually took several steps back. He did not even think creatures as strong as Monsuta needed to shit but he would not take any chances.
Monsuta spread his legs and bent over before pushing with a struggle. Kazuki’s eyes widened and he felt terrified from what he was about to witness. Just as he thought he was about to see the brown stone become brown shit, Monsuta opened his mouth and vomited a large boulder out onto the ground.
With heavy breathing, he smiled back with pride at Kazuki.
“This is how I make my special Monsuta stone. What do you think, pretty amazing right?”
Kazuki slowly smiled awkwardly before giving a thumbs up.
“Ye…yeah.”
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