Return of the Fallen Volume 5 Chapter 5
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch5
Kazuki and the others sat off from Gentis city a few weeks ago. Trekking through the rough north, over the frozen mountains, they flew hundreds of miles and walked hundreds more.
They would have ridden Tsura and Mei all the way to their destination but the cold was more damning than they initially thought. It seemed the further north they went, the colder it became and the winds could barely be traversed. This normally shouldn’t have been much of a challenge but this cold was beyond normal. Even with their enhanced bodies, the cold seemed to constantly penetrate them from all sides. It would dig deep into their skin and numb them in minutes.
The only saving grace was Kimi and Kazuki. As they hiked around another mountain, Kimi would focus her light, concentrating it into a powerful beam, that she would then fire into the ground next to them. The snow would vaporize and soothing steam would billow up, warming them just so. Kimi at first nearly burned herself and the others doing this but over these few weeks, she got the hang of it.
Kazuki as well gifted everyone a fireball as he did back in Gentis with Shin. He would make several fireballs and coated them in a layer of ki before passing them out to everyone. The only catch was everyone needed to stay pretty close to Kazuki, otherwise, his ki would go out of control and the fireball would harm them.
As they stood close to him though, a warm feeling emanated outward from the fireballs and everyone received some warmth. The only one unhappy with such a situation was Kimi. She at first did not want to accept Kazuki’s fireball nor get too close to him but after a bit, she could not take the cold much more. Even with her power of heating up the snow and turning it into steam, she couldn’t do it continuously and it was hard to control. In the end, she walked in front of him with one of his fireballs gripped closely.
The wind howled and shrieked as it raged around the mountains. Whether it was from the left, right, or side to side, no matter the direction, everyone was constantly assaulted by it. The first layer of snow even flew up from under their feet due to the constant push and pull of the wind. The snow came cutting in, stinging any exposed flesh. Asuna and the others almost couldn’t believe how drastically different the environment here was.
They had been forced to march barefoot through the snow for weeks by Reya. They had suffered greatly from that but they now realized that was nothing compared to the cold here. It seemed like every step they took only made it colder. They feared what it would have been like if they weren’t enhanced.
Everyone huddle closely together and held their flames even closer.
*SCREEEeeeeeeeeee!*
Tsura released a high pitch screech from up above before she swooped down, almost crashing as she landed.
She quickly transformed back into her human form and began shivering. Her earing lit up and an outfit came out, which she put on in a hurry. After that, she grabbed, almost snatching a fireball from Kazuki, and held it in her chest.
“How is it?”
Tsura shook her head at Kazuki.
“As you saw I nearly crashed just now. Higher up, the wind is even worse. Forget about flying straight, I can’t even call it flying at all. Rather I’m tumbling about uncontrollably. It took a lot of strength just to descend. The wind is so strong it takes hold of me whether I want it to or not. We can’t go anywhere in the sky. We have to stick with the ground if we want to continue on from here.”
Mei pulled on her mother’s sleeve to get her attention.
“Mama, I can do it. That wind can’t knock me about.”
Tsura nodded and pat her little head.
“True, that wind isn’t much for you but you have to think about the rest of us. Up there, the only ones that can handle that cold are you, Nene, and Kazuki. Everyone else will freeze to death. That isn’t all though. You can power through the wind but what can we do if the wind hits us while we’re on your back. The wind up there is so strong it’s like a stone wall flying at you. If someone falls, it would be difficult to even save them if not impossible. We’re better off trudging through the snow.”
Mei wasn’t ready to give up.
“Mama, what if I just go scout then. I can look for an easier and quicker path. After I find it I’ll come right back and we can walk it together.”
Kazuki looked as if he were considering it but Tsura instantly shut the idea down.
“Absolutely not.”
“But why mama? I can do it.”
“No, I will not be separated from you. You can’t leave my side no matter what. Besides even if you somehow found a path in all of this chaos, there’s no way you’d be able to find your way back to us. The weather up there seems to interfere greatly with our senses. I only went a few hundred feet up and I nearly became lost, and that was only going straight up and straight down.”
Mei didn’t know it was that bad and finally relented in disappointment. Kazuki actually did want to suggest Mei going but after hearing Tsura’s concern, he decided it was best not to push it.
“Tsura is there any shelter anywhere nearby at all.”
Asuna’s teeth chattered as she asked this.
Tsura thought for a moment before something came to mind.
“I did see a small opening nearly a mile to the west but I can’t be sure if it is a cave or not. Judging from the distance, the size of the opening is surely much greater. It might be big enough to hold us all.”
“What are we waiting for then? Let’s hurry up and get there before we freeze to death.”
Kimi actually seemed to have recovered some energy when she said that but Kazuki wasn’t sure.
“Tsura are you sure you remember the way? Were we to become even more lost, well, I don’t have to tell you that would be disastrous.”
Tsura was about to answer when Kimi cut in.
“What do you mean it will be more disastrous? It doesn’t matter if we go this way or that, lost is lost. Tsura says there’s a cave it’s at least worth a shot, what do we have to lose at this point?”
“Really, you think going towards something that may not even be, is something we should be aiming for. Maybe you’re right, lost is lost, but as it stands, north is still that way. That bearing I still have. With that, I know that we head south, we will eventually leave these mountains. If we head to that cave and get turned around though, if we lose north, we could be lost permanently. Stuck walking in circles until we run out of energy or food or whatever else. Is it something you wish to risk?”
Kimi’s brows scrunched and she mumbles something under her breath but she had no argument.
“Kazuki, you may be right, but as it stands we are exposed out in the open and things seem to only be getting worse. So compared to Kimi’s idea, what have you got?”
Kimi hooked arms with Asuna like she were a guardian angel.
“Right, just like Asuna says, at least I have an idea while you got jack shit.”
Asuna rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t say it like that but we can’t just keep standing around in this weather. The temperature is dropping and night is coming. So Kazuki, you’re leading us, what are we doing?”
Kazuki knew Asuna was right but he didn’t want to agree with a smug Kimi. Even though he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction, he knew they couldn’t stay out in this, especially with the day fading. He could get Sam to build a shelter out of magic stone but Sam was no engineer. He could build something sturdy and strong for sure but out here in the middle of a mountain, if one boulder came down and hit it wrong, it could crush them all in their sleep.
The next option was obviously Nunully. Since she was at the 4th stage, her ice was stronger than Sam’s stone.
Kazuki decided.
“Ok, Nunully, you’ll build us a dome for the night right here. Instead of going for a cave that might or might not be, we’ll rest here for the night and…”
*CRACK- KA-BOOM BOOM KA-BOOOOOOM!*
The sky thundered and clapped multiple times in quick succession and thousands of lightning strikes snaked out in every direction up above. The sky became blindingly white for a few moments as explosions rang out again and again and again.
The raging weather disappeared all at once and the world became silent before a booming voice ripped at the sky.
“KAZUKI, COME OUT YOU LITTLE RAT!”
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