Return of the Fallen Volume 13 Chapter 22
In a flash, the entire chamber was filled with solid ice. The ice encased Kazuki in his entirety, just as he wanted. Monsuta looked on in amazement as a soothing, cold mist spread outward from the chamber. The instant Monsuta felt the cool, refreshing air, the mist was vaporized by the surrounding heat.
Monsuta was saddened. He had never felt such an interesting and cool feeling in his entire life. To see it vanish so quickly was disheartening.
Inside the chamber, the ice was already melting at a rapid rate. It was at this time that several inscriptions lit up along the inside of this small ball. The power of space as well as ice activated. The ice that had just barely started to melt had coated the inside of the chamber in a thin, dissipating layer of water. With the activation of inscriptions, a weak pulse of energy drew out a tiny amount of ice energy and froze the thin layer before it could fully melt.
This pulse of ice energy continued and repeatedly froze the small layer. In this way, it created a seal, allowing not even a sip of gaseous vapor to escape. While this happened, the element of space activated, and it pushed all the fire energy toward the center. The ice surrounding Kazuki melted, boiled, and then became steam. Again, it was as Kauzki had expected.
As the ice was turned into steam, the molecules in the air expanded several times. The chamber began to bulge outward in spots here and there. Because the ice was turned into steam very quickly, it caused the chamber to almost explode. Thankfully, the inscriptions did their job. The steam was cooled, and the temperature fell, turning the steam back into water and then back into ice.
This process repeated itself again and again.
At the same time, as the ice went through a strange cycle, Kazuki took in as much fire energy as possible from his surroundings. The element of space forced the fire energy toward the center, allowing Kauzki to draw it in faster than normal. If he could still use his devouring technique in this world, he’d already have taken in all of this energy in a fraction of a second.
Since he couldn’t use his spinning void without repercussions from the primordial flame, he went with the next best thing, or rather, the third or fourth best option. The better options were also taken out of his hands; again, the cause was this world’s suppression and the primordial flames’ interference.
He took in this fire energy and for now stored it within his core. He wished to take in more but his core was still adjusting to this newfound energy. What he could not absorb into his core, he was forced to use it up. All the fire energy trapped inside the chamber with him, whatever he could not take into his core, he burned it up.
This is where his ice came in. The fire energy naturally conflicted with ice and was used to melt it. In this way, the fire energy was depleted at a swift rate. With his ice continuously melting and refreezing, it ate away at the fire energy even faster. Very quickly, all of the fire energy within Kazuki’s chamber was no more.
With a single thought, Kazuki stopped the activation method in the inscriptions and the power of space and ice was turned off.
Now inside this small chamber, there existed a void of zero magical energy. No fire energy, no ice, and no space magic.
(Now the clock is ticking.)
Kazuki could not maintain a space of zero magical energy for long. The moment he stopped the ice magic in this chamber, it meant the layer of ice built up on the inside of the chamber would quickly melt due to the outside world’s heat.
This chamber of Kazukis was anything but perfect. It was not sealed 100%. This meant the moment the ice melted, whatever gaps there were between the slates of stone making up his chamber, the outside elements would find their way in. Even if the gaps were microscopic, even if they were the size of an atom, this would be more than enough for fire energy to pour in like an unending waterfall of power.
This meant Kauzki had to move fast before his experiment was interrupted.
He had almost no objects with him. Anything he brought from the outside world into this chamber could easily have magical energy inside of it. The only thing he had on him was a set of makeshift clothes made from some of the creatures Monsuta had previously hunted.
Kazuki needed to make a natural fire and observe it with his aura. In this way, he could more easily detect the impurities within it. Kazuki reached up and grabbed a handful of his hair before ripping out a fistful of it in one go.
He could have used the clothes he wore but did not want to damage them. When it came to making clothes with limited magic and zero tools, it was more time-consuming than he wished to admit. As for the clump of hair he just ripped out, his body had already filled in the bald spot and it was as if it had never been.
With the clump of hair in his hand, Kazuki held it between his fingers and simply rubbed it together. The amount of strength Kauzki had, the friction he could cause just by rubbing his fingers together was monstrous. The fire he wanted, sparked up and lit instantly.
A tiny orangish red flame sat in the palm of his hand. The ice continued to melt rapidly and both it and the flame would be finished in a mere second or so. There was no time to waste. Kazuki’s aura wrapped around the small flame and penetrated it. Kazuki’s eyes slammed shut so that he could stretch out the time.
With his evolved soul, the time difference between his soul world and the real world was much greater than it previously was. Inside his soul world, time dragged to Kazuki’s advantage.
The impurities he hoped to find, just as he thought. They revealed themselves one by one.
(Interesting. The impurities are not simple but they are now obvious to me. I used my hair for this fire so the impurities are different from what other materials I absorb fire energy from but this at least gives me a head start. Now I have a basic idea of what makes the fire true and what makes it filled with waste products.)
Kazuki began to strip the fire down to its roots and threw away what was needed. As he did this, the tiny fire in the palm of his hand changed ever so slightly. A single hair follicle was made up mostly of a basic protein called keratin. This same protein helped make up hair, nails, and skin.
(This single hair is 95% keratin, the other 5% is a mixture of unneeded molecules. On top of that, there is a small layer of a few other things such as oil, dirt, and for regular people, germs and bacteria. In this environment though, such things can not survive.)
Not only did Kauzki find impurities when it came to the actual hairs but he also found impurities in the oxygen that was required to create this fire. Kazuki expected it but every part he examined was not 100% pure anything. There was always an impurity here or there. What did surprise him however was that some of these things that he considered impurities were actually beneficial for the fire. While most of the impurities weakened the flame in some regard. A few impurities helped the fire burn stronger and brighter.
After a while of testing. Adding impurities here and there and removing impurities, he finally found the perfect balance. This allowed the time his hair could burn to extend to nearly double. Unfortunately, he could not absorb the pure fire energy he personally crafted from his own hair and was rejected by the primordial flame in his soul tree.
He realized it was not just about the purity of the energy but also the strength. No matter how pure the fire energy from his hair was, it was still just burning hair. No Kauzki’s soul craved real powerful fire. Fire energy that came from a beast, a creature with strength, something he ate…something he devoured.
As this thought came to mind, he felt the fire in his palm waver.
(It looks like I’ve gotten as much as I can from burning some hair.)
Kazuki left his soul world and the fire energy immediately came swarming in from the tiny gaps in his chamber.
Stepping out of the chamber, Monsuta already had a million questions lined up but he patiently held it in and asked one question.
“Kazuki did your experiment thing work out?”
Kazuki wore a wide grin.
“Yep.”
As soon as Kauzki answered Monsuta immediately went into the next question. It seems the first was merely to be polite as his next one caused his tail to start to wag again.
“Since it’s over, does this mean I can look inside the chamber now? Can I see it now, can I, can I!?”
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