Return of the Fallen Volume 3 Chapter 42
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch42
(God clan? What is this monster saying? I’m not connected to any such thing like a god clan.)
Kazuki’s dazed silence was met with anger. Fake Zetsu threw Kazuki to the ground and slammed his own body repeatedly into the wall, smashing and crushing the rocks in frustration. After a while, fake Zetsu finally seemed to calm down. Lowering his head down he got a closer look at Kazuki’s compass and once again inhaled deeply, his eyes squinting in thought.
“There’s no doubt this is a gods aura emanating from this ordinary-looking compass, though ordinary it definitely is not. Boy, are you going to tell me who you are or not?”
Kazuki was unsure of what to do. If he answered wrong right now, in the state Asuna and the others were in, they would easily be killed and Kazuki didn’t know if he could escape. Seemingly sensing the worry from Kazuki, fake Zetsu looked at Asuna and the others before looking back at Kazuki.
“Are you worried I’ll kill them, hmpf, I’m not so petty. Now that I know you’re a descendent of a god clan, I’ll overlook this as foolishness, now answer me, who are you and no lies.”
Kazuki swallowed hard. He didn’t know what to say.
“Why won’t you kill me?”
Kazuki felt it was idiotic as soon as he said it but there was no taking his words back. His curiousness was pushing his luck, to say the least.
Fake Zetsu was about to roar at him in anger as he felt he was being treated like a fool but he could see that Kazuki was genuinely curious.
“Hmm, do you really not know? You don’t seem to be lying but then how can you have an item wrapped in a god’s aura? The one who granted that aura would not give it to someone who wasn’t blood yet you don’t seem to know anything. Well, that’s fine, listen up. For a god to kill a descendent of another god who clearly has their mark would be a violation. The killer would then be hunted through all realms by both the victim’s clan as well as their own clan. So yea, I won’t kill you, otherwise, I’d be no better than that criminal. For you to not know such a simple thing…”
Fake Zetsu circled around Kazuki inspecting him up and down. Fake Zetsu’s legs crawled all over Kazuki’s body, sending shivers up and down his spine. Kazuki though remained still. If fake Zetsu wasn’t going to kill him and Asuna and the others were still defenseless, it was best to not stir anything up and try to seek some information.
(It seems this fake Zetsu knows something about my compass. I’ve always wondered what this was but after uncle died there was no one to ask.)
Fake Zetsu paused for a moment before taking a step back in surprise.
“Oh, so that’s what happened.”
Kazuki tilted his head quizically but before he could ask, fake Zetsu spoke first.
“Your Mage core, it’s been stolen from you. Since you’re still alive it must have been a relative of some sort. You, humans, you’re always so greedy, it’s disgusting.”
Kazuki’s eyes widened in shock.
(He knows my Mage core was taken and he even knows a relative was the one responsible, just, how?)
Fake Zetsu could see the questions forming one after another from Kazuki.
“Alright kid, my mood is a bit better. Answer a few questions of mine and I’ll answer a few for you. Agreed?”
Kazuki nodded along.
Fake Zetsu’s large mouth smiled creepily.
“Good. First question, why in the 7 hells did you attack me. For what reason did you dare provoke me, huh?”
Kazuki tilted his head slightly but it made sense. In fake Zetsu’s eyes, he was just near the mouth of the cave when Shin suddenly attacked. Kazuki put this together and now it became fake Zetsu defending himself against attackers. Kazuki thought about all of this and just answered honestly.
“We were fighting Zetsu earlier and after we chased him off, my impulsive friend spotted you and thought you were him and attacked you.”
Fake Zetsu looked confused.
“Zetsu?”
Thinking for a moment, fake Zetsu let out a small gasp.
*Ah*
“So that’s what you humans call him. Still, how incompetent and blind is your friend, I and Zetsu look nothing alike. Just look at the patterns on my segments, they are completely different from that scum’s.”
Kazuki did look closely but these so-called patterns on the shell, even Kazuki could not see them clearly. Kazuki shook his head.
“Us humans can’t distinguish the differences between you two all that well.”
Fake Zetsu thought it was obvious and continuously pointed at different places on its body with its legs but Kazuki only smiled bitterly. Eventually, fake Zetsu gave up and asked another question instead.
“Ok so you attacked me because your eyes are bad but why did you chase me into this cage? For what purpose did you try to fight me again and again even after I left?”
Kazuki furrowed his brows and pointed at Mei.
“You kidnapped my friend. Of course, wed chase you.”
“The child over there?”
Kazuki nodded.
“I had to take her. If I didn’t, Zetsu would have and he’d have gained even more power. Just like all the other children before her, I took them away and settled them at a different time. It was the only way.”
Kazuki’s mind shook.
“Wait wait wait, explain.”
“What don’t you understand? I stole the children away and placed them in a different time so Zetsu could not feed on their power.”
Fake Zetsu said this so matter of factly that Kazuki was left stunned.
“Do you not get how fucked up that is. This whole time the villagers thought Zetsu was stealing away all their children and eating them.”
“Hmpf, those stupid humans. They ought to be grateful I stepped in at all. Especially after all the trouble they’ve caused.”
“Trouble?”
“Yeah, the number of times they come to the cave, they were just offering themselves up for Zetsu. Because of those fools, my job has become increasingly more difficult. Instead of him growing weaker, he’s only become stronger.”
Kazuki went silent in thought.
“Hmm, do you really not know. You mean to tell me you were fighting Zetsu and you didn’t even know about the source of his power. Zetsu, like me, is a god and in order to maintain our powers, we need to use souls as energy sources. We can draw strength from them or manipulate them for certain purposes.”
“Why are you telling me all of this, arent you and Zetsu allies?”
Fake Zetsu’s face twisted up in disgust.
“ALLIES! ME WITH HIM.”
Fake Zetsu spit on the ground in anger.
“That betrayer is an ally to me as oil is to water. My whole purpose in being here is to capture him and drag his diabolical ass back to my realm. He is to face proper judgment and punishment in front of my clan. As for the reason that I’m telling you, this might actually be a good opportunity for me. I’ve been having a difficult time capturing Zetsu in this realm but apparently, you and your friends have already faced him and managed to wound him. Now, this is an interesting development. Besides, it seems you are oblivious to the gods even though you hold a godly item. I’m sure I can give you a bit of insight and you can help me along as well.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. You want my help. You say that you and Zetsu are gods yet I’ve seen Zetsu bleed but even so, if he uses his soul attack while were fighting…well you’ve seen what yours did to my friends.”
“It seems you are confused about some things but the fact remains, Zetsu and I are indeed gods but due to crossing into this realm, our full power and bodies have been restricted. That is one of the main reasons Zetsu tunneled his way through to this world. He knew that someone from the clan would have to chase after him and he knew that, that someone would be just as restricted as he is. Now he’s trying to feed off as many souls as possible so that he can regain a bit of his true power. If he does that, I will not be able to stop him. As a matter of fact, while he’s been constantly feeding and growing stronger, I’ve had to continuously move all the children away to someplace out of his reach. This has cost me both time and more importantly energy. I’ve consistently grown weaker because of this but now it seems the tides will be changing in my favor. You will help me. You and your friends. We will go on an offensive and crush Zetsu before he has enough power to escape to another realm.”
Kazuki looked at Fake Zetsu as though he were crazy.
“Whoa whoa whoa, haven’t we already done enough? Besides if you know his source of power is souls why not move all the villagers to a different time. Why just move the children?”
“A child’s soul is many times more potent than an adult’s. Their souls are nearly pure. They have not yet been soured and tainted by the world and all of its fallacies. If I didn’t preemptively move all of the children then Zetsu would already have regained some of his true power and fled into a new realm long ago. As for whether you’ve done enough, do you not feel anything for the innocent lives of your fellow humans? I don’t care if they die but shouldn’t you care?”
Kazuki couldn’t really answer because he himself didn’t know. On the one hand, he didn’t like seeing innocent people die but on the other, he didn’t feel much from their deaths as well. If something was happening directly in front of him then he didn’t mind helping but if you told him someone was dying 10 miles away, that wasn’t his business. He basically wouldn’t necessarily go out of his way to save someone. Not because he was cruel but rather he had trouble caring that much.
Fake Zetsu saw the hesitation and laughed.
“Heh, you humans really are cold or maybe that’s just you?”
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