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Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 22

Author: Blue_Rat

ch22

“There’s something that’s still bugging me. The magnitium seems like a void of death to you people, yet you seem fine down here amongst the largest cache of it. The village as well, there’s Magnitium all throughout it, how did you people live there without experiencing its death-like effect?”

Kazuki had raised a valid point, one in which Asuna and Shin had overlooked entirely.

Chief Atoh, pointed at the ground below him. A large circle of Magnitium surrounded them for a few hundred feet.

“You said you had been in the village before, so you all must have seen it right? The spots where these Magnitium and the ones in the rest of the cave are different. At my feet, these particular ones are placed in a specific pattern, where they lay makes them form a large inscription. This inscription, like the one in the village, can be activated with the power source. Because of the inscription, those within the village would not be affected by it while those on the outside would. A long time ago, before my sister Aboh had mastered her technique, the Limiter tattoo’s didn’t work fully. So a few incidents happened when a villager became angry or drunk and they started destroying the village. A solution to this was this inscription. We would send the dangerous ones out of the village and they would destroy anything near them, everything except the village. They would sense that black void and flee. After they settled down, the inscription would be deactivated and the villager would be allowed to come back inside.”

A question popped into everyone’s minds as they stared at the inscription at his feet, a small glow came from it which indicated it was activated.

“If what you say is true, why then are you able to stand around here? The spell at your feet seems to be activated, no?”

“Right you are, young lady, but this inscription, as you see, extends for hundreds of feet and its effects reach from here all the way to just outside the entrance of the cave. Right now, from here to the cave above it’s like we are inside the village. So I and my people are unaffected by this while any Mangshi such as Mei and Tsura will sense the black void and will not enter this place no matter what.”

“So how were you and your men going to reenter this place? Last night we encountered you and a few of your men out in the open right? Just why did you leave and how did you hope to come back?”

Shin brought up a good point. For them to leave, it was basically like saying they would never return. The man leading them though was the chief of the village. Him abandoning his people didn’t make any sense.

“We were desperate. If we could capture Mei then everything might have worked out. To return though, we figured if we didn’t succeed in our mission then at the very least we would die trying. Also, I didn’t say it before but I’d like to thank you, young man. Had you not brought us into the cave while we were unconscious, we probably would have resisted and fought you with our life on the line, in turn, I could see you killing us for it. In the end though, things didn’t happen that way, so again, thanks.”

Shin felt slightly awkward being thanked for not killing them but with a smile from Asuna and a nudge in his side, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“No problem old ma…I mean Atoh.”

Atoh smiled brightly, it seemed there was hope for Shin after all.

“Chief Atoh, you said capture earlier but later on you mentioned killing her, what difference does it make?”

Kazuki didn’t know why Atoh seemed to flip flop on his stance with Mei. One minute it seemed like he wanted her dead, while the next he wanted her captured.

“If Mei died, our lives would truly become peaceful once again.”

Chief Atoh felt a pain in his heart and immediately regretted those words the moment he said them. Shaking his head, he spoke bitterly.

“It’s not right, though. Especially when there’s an alternative but I just don’t know if it’s feasible or even if it should happen.”

“What do you mean old man… er, chief Atoh? Explain it properly will ya.”

*Haaa*

Showing the others his wrist, once more they saw his Limiter tattoo.

“I, as well as all of my people have this tattoo…everyone except Mei. Since she is of the new generation hers has yet to be placed. Usually, we would wait for one to reach puberty just before their powers grow exponentially but Mei is clearly the exception. This is also what led to the falling out between her father and I. As soon as she started showing signs, I knew that she had the potential to be the Mangshi King. I knew just how powerful she would one day become and the control she would have over all of us. If I could get the Limiter tattoo on her then I could shave most of her power away before she had time to grow and she would never be able to control any of us. Her father, on the other hand, wanted her potential to be unleashed in totality and wanted her to be free. He wanted her to not be trapped in the village all of her life like he was and he wished for her to go anywhere her heart desired.”

Chief Atoh’s fist trembled and one could not tell whether he was angry or sad.

“This is not our village way, this is not something my ancestors would allow and to go against it spits in the face of everyone else’s belief. Were she to go where she pleased, she would be putting us all in grave danger. I told him this, I told him all of this and yet still he went against me. Even sneaking out of the forest with my map and hiring those adventurers to steal our treasured power source.”

Chief Atoh went on to explain how the adventurers had betrayed Mei’s father and tried to kill everyone but then Mei lost control of herself and slaughtered the adventurers and devoured them. At that point, Mei’s father took the power source away and hid it before anyone noticed. If he could destroy or maybe take it far enough then Mei would be able to leave no matter what. This is what led Mei’s father into the forest that night and that is what led Tsura and Mei to chase after him.

Everything was now coming together for Kazuki and the others. Mei’s father was somewhere within the forest hiding the power source and Mei must have lost control again and transformed. In doing so, she caused her mother and her father to both transform and her father then ran into Kazuki’s group. Afterward, Tsura attacked Kazuki’s group as well and was wounded and had to back off. Cut to a bit later when Chief Atoh and his men ran into Tsura and Mei. With Tsura in an injured state, they caught her by surprise and knocked her out. All that was left was to bind little Mei with the magic rope they carried and it would have all been settled but before they could Kazuki and the others interfered.

“If we capture her then we can use her Mangshi King blood to not only reinforce all of the villagers’ Limiter Tattoos but place one upon her that she herself can not resist. If we did that then all would return to normal but at the same time, how would she ever not hate us. A deep-rooted seed may have already been planted and the more she’s around her mother, the more that seed grips tighter around her heart and mind. When we tried to capture her she only seemed frightened instead of hateful, so there may still be time to convince her that her father’s death was an unfortunate accident and that we can all be one village again. If not though…”

The chief went silent, not daring to mention what would have to be done to a small child were their plans to capture her end in failure.

Kazuki thought about their chances of actually capturing her. From what Nunully and Sam had told him, Mei’s transformation was at the very least 3 times bigger than Tsura’s. Which meant they were most likely going to be dealing with a Mangshi that was 21 feet tall. The wingspan alone could easily be 3 times that. With the difficulty they faced in dealing with Mei’s father and Tsura one at a time, dealing with Mei and Tsura would suggest an impossibility. Kazuki didn’t want to kill a child either but if talking did not work then force would have to. The real question he had, though, was if he was even capable of taking out such a creature in his current state.

“Chief Atoh.”

“Yes, young lady.”

“I was just curious, you said Mei’s father stole the power source and hid it away but then how come the inscription here and the inscription in the village are still operating?”

“Ah, that was going to be my next point. The reason for that is the Acadian crystal.”