Return of the Fallen Volume 13 Chapter 25
After painstakingly shaving off several layers of bone, Kazuki took out a small stone jar. Opening the jar, inside there was a black, bubbling, sticky substance.
(It was a pain in the ass to extract this sticky tar-like substance from the black river but with Monsuta’s help, we managed to get some.)
Kazuki called over one of his golems. Carving a small slot into the stomach of said golem, Kazuki then inserted the jar into the slot and pointed up above him.
The golem already knew what Kauzki wanted it to do. Several extra spider-like legs poked out of its sides before it walked over toward the wall of the cave before ascending upward. With a snap of his fingers, two more golems knelt down on the ground and began to grind away at the floor with fists shaped like pestles. As they ground away, dust, dirt, and tiny flakes of rock jumped up here and there.
Very quickly, the spider golem finished its climb and stuck to the ceiling. At the same time, the two other golems grinding away had made a nice pile of debris in front of them. The spider golem then took the jar and turned it upside down. The tar-like substance made no move. It clung to the inside of the jar as if nothing could remove it. This is when the spider golem’s eyes began to glow and to help it along a few of its hands came loose from the ceiling and began to flash and blur as it used the ancient hand signs.
Very quickly arcs of lightning began to strike the tar in the jar. As the sparks of lightning hit the black goo, a change began to occur. The black stuff began to stretch before the naked eye. The black gunk thinned and narrowed down until it was a tenth as thick as human hair. The lightning struck it again and again and again. In doing so, the black sticky thread descended from the ceiling. From several thousand feet up all the way until it touched the ground below. Only when it reached the bottom did the spider golem stop its sparks of eletricity.
(Good.)
Kazuki picked up one of the bone shavings and with a careful hand, he gently pressed it against the black icky sticky. With this, he secured the bone shaving to the black goo as if it were glue.
After he glued the bone-shaving to the black goop, the other golems stepped forward. Their arms as well changed shape forming stiff tubes. At the tips of their fingers, a nozzle of sorts took shape.
With one hand inserted directly into the pile of debris and the other pointed at the black glue above the bone shaving. the element of wind pulled the debris from the ground and sprayed the debris out of the nozzle fingertips in a fine spray. Like this, they coated the black glue above the bone shaving. Little specks of dirt, dust, and flakes of rock were sprayed onto and stuck to the black tar.
One more golem stepped forward and with the element of earth, it caused the debris on the surface of the black glue to vibrate and dig their way by a tiny bit.
Finally, it was Kazuki’s turn to put in a little work. He took the tiny Monsuta stone he made and changed its shape into a tiny little blade. An edge sharper than ever, Kazuki slashed at the tiyn black dirty coated thread with all of his strength.
*Schink*
The dirty thread was cut through in one stroke. With that, the bone shaving fell to the ground.
Kazuki did not like having to go through so many steps just to cut this thread but it was truly a difficult material to work with without all these extra steps. He wanted to just use his aura in the form of a blade to cut it but this black substance was no joke. It could even stick to one’s aura and in turn the soul.
(To remove this stuff once it clings to the soul is basically impossible. The only way to get it off is to destroy the part of one’s soul it’s attached to.)
Kazuki shook his head. He had learned this the hard way. Thankfully repairing his soul was not something difficult. Well, at least when it came to the tar situation it was an easy fix. Besides that though Kauzki had found something troubling in his soul.
A spot mired in darkness. Kazuki’s soul was already a darkened color. One of a purplish black with threads of a blindingly gold-like color. The spot that left questions was even darker. More than that, it was the darkest color he had ever witnessed. The only thing similar to this darkness was Belux’s dark power.
Ever since he awoke in this burning world, just the thought of Arc or Codex would leave him in mind-splitting and soul-shattering pain. He could not understand why he suffered so until he found this dark spot in his soul.
(Every time I think of those two this spot throbs and brings me agonizing pain. I can still think about Sword and everyone else I’ve ever encountered yet only the thought of those two and it feels as if my entirety will break. I’ve tried to use my soul-reading ability to sense what this is, to heal it and understand it but this is the one thing I cannot repair.)
The only thing Kazuki could think of was Belux.
(Just before my mind went dark, he did something…He must have. Otherwise, this just doesn’t make any sense.)
Kazuki understood Belux’s artificial Origin energy to a tiny degree. If he was going to solve this mystery he figured he needed to leave this place and restore his power to full. Only then could he once again attempt to comprehend Belux’s power on a deeper level and learn what the dark spot meant. Only then could he begin to look for Arc and Codex.
Before all of that though, he needed to make his chamber void of all energy.
With that in mind, Kazuki continued to glue bone shavings together one by one until he had a piece nearly half an inch thick and was as straight as an arrow.
He needed the bone to be as straight as possible and also needed it to be a certain thickness so it would not break. Using normal means, it was worthless to try and use the entire bone to make a straight part as the bone had a heavy curve. One that could only cause more headaches and problems rather than create solutions. In the end, shaving away at the bone was the most logical answer.
With one piece down, Kazuki had exhausted the best parts of the bone. Shaving off any more would only give him curved pieces. After taking off maybe 2 or 3% of the bone, Kazuki could not use the rest for anything else at the moment and tossed it out of the way. He then moved on to the second and third burning bones.
Repeating the same steps, Kauzki first removed the flames from the surface of the bone, then drilled a hole into the marrow and put out the fire permanently within. Afterward, he proceeded to spend several hours shaving off the straightest parts of the bone before gluing them into one fine straight piece.
Finally after well over a day and a half, Kazuki had managed to harvest and craft three straight pieces of bone. Each one was half an inch thick and was also nearly a foot in length.
Kazuki was disappointed in the length but this was all he could make with the materials he had at hand. It would make the final product take much longer to complete but at least he had something he thought.
Using the black tar one final time, he glued the three bones together forming a small triangle.
Again, this world exhausted him with its suppression and he could only take a seat at this point when Monsuta came over.
“Kazuki did you finally finish?”
Kazuki held up the small triangle in front of Monsuta and Monsuta just looked at it with a dumbfounded expression.
“Um…Is that all? I saw you working with three burning bones earlier. Those bones are half as tall as me. Don’t tell me this is all you got. What is it even for anyway?”
Kazuki smiled with a tired, pale face.
“As soon as you finish making your Monsuta stones, I’ll be more than glad to tell you, or rather show you. I’m just waiting on you now.”
Monsuta threw his head back before laughing wildly. The entire cave shook before Monsuta remembered the cave would crumble if he continued, and so he stopped.
“What’s so damn funny?”
Monsuta wore a huge, toothy grin on his face while pointing to the corner of the cave with his tail.
“I was done half a day ago. It was me waiting on you, Kazuki, not the other way around hehe.”
Kazuki looked over at pile after pile of Monsuta rocks. Kazuki was so caught up in his own world that he hadn’t noticed all of Monsuta’s hard work.
“You said you’d show me when I was done. Well, I was done long ago. SO you’ll show me now right right?”
Kazuki flipped the triangle into the air with a flick of his thumb before catching it.
“Looks like you outdid yourself. Fine, let me show you what your hard work will lead to. Just don’t be too shocked.”
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