Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 37
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch37
Abura’s father died in front of him. With the very last of his strength and will, he poured in his power and transferred part of this nameless technique to his one and only beloved son.
Ancient words fused to Abura’s soul and a voice from the very depths of his being called out to him. At first with a whisper but it wasn’t long until that faint call became a loud roar that banged around his mind.
(de…vour…devour…Devour…DEVour…DEVOUR DEVOUR DEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOURDEVOUR!!!!)
Abura opened his eyes and it was clear they were filled with madness. Only one thing remained in his mind. Without control, his body moved. Reaching over, he grabbed at his father’s corpse. Opening his large mouth far wider than he’d ever done in the past, Abura bit down onto his father’s hind leg.
The first thing to hit his mouth was warmth. As blood filled his mouth, excitement grew and Abura ground away at the flesh until he tore a large piece away. The taste of meat, blood, and fat was overwhelming and sent waves of pleasure to his brain. Abura didn’t even chew the rest of it and simply swallowed the large chunk of meat. At first, it seemed that such a huge piece of meat would get stuck in his throat but the ancient symbols fused with his soul began absorbing the meat. By the time it got to his stomach, more than half of it was gone, sacrificed to the power within.
In the end, Abura’s eyes cleared. What was let before he was no more than a puddle of blood.
“FATHER!”
Abura felt disgusted as he realized what he had done. He quickly tried to vomit but found that he couldn’t. As soon as the food entered his stomach, it had vanished in seconds. He felt an immense amount of strength well up within him as well as a newfound hunger. He knew the nameless technique had already rooted itself deep within him and Abura was having a hard time not using it again. It was calling out to him.
He slowly stood up and began to move forward. this power his father passed on, how could he control it.
Abura wandered around the mountain aimlessly until he ran into a few of his father’s enemies. As soon as the two sides found one another, Abura instinctually attacked. He blamed them. It was their fault his father was so weak. It was their fault he died and it was their fault he ate him. Abura moved like the wind and fought tooth and nail with all of his enemies but it wasn’t enough. It was at that time that he once more heard the call.
(DEVOUR THEM!)
Abura’s mouth opened and he did just that. He ate and ate and ate some more. He ate all of his enemies while they were living. He tore them limb from limb, drank their blood, and chewed on their flesh with delight and glee. It seemed the more he ate, the more he was hungry. By the time his vision had cleared, he had eaten not only his enemies but those that didn’t oppose him as well. He ate all of the animals on the mountain and nearly all the vegetation as well. Bushes, rocks trees, anything that he could place in his mouth, he consumed.
He found that his wounds regenerated completely and his strength grew some. At the same time though he felt like a monster. Even being as dumb as he was he managed to figure a few things out about this power. Whenever he ate something strong he managed to gain some strength from it. At the same time, as long as he ate periodically, the loud voice in his head would not overwhelm him and would become somewhat dormant. Only when he didn’t eat for a while did it call out to him once more and try to take his sanity.
Abura also found that if he ate too much and not use the technique he would put on weight. Abura liked this though. He could enjoy food more without the power snatching it from his stomach, so he constantly tried to eat things even if he wasn’t hungry. In this way, Abura stripped the mountain in a few days.
With nothing else to eat in his surroundings, Abura, now almost a teenager, descended the mountain for the first time in his life. Not long after that, he encountered Muteki and was taken under his wing. After that, the memories seemed to speed up like a flashing light and came to an abrupt end where Kazuki killed Abura.
Kazuki watched all of these memories play out at first in confusion. He remembered using a Mind Frey on Abura at a frozen lake but because he was already in a fucked up state, he didn’t recall these memories he had witnessed so vividly. He wondered why he was remembering it all now when it hit him like a bolt of lightning. Being on the edge of despair and the verge of death, Kazuki had exhausted all possibilities or so he thought. There was still one last option. Deep in the depths of his memories were Abura’s memories and within those was this nameless technique.
Once he came to this point, something clicked in his mind. Etora had mentioned something in passing. He had said that a long time ago he met a beast in a forest and taught him his technique. Kazuki didn’t take those words to heart and thought they were a joke but by the boar king’s own testament were these words not true.
Kazuki’s dimmed thoughts like a spark began to come back to him.
(The boar king mentioned a wolf god granting him that power. In such a simple-minded creature’s eyes would Etora not seem like a god. He can literally lift mountains with ease. Not only that, Etora has a similar power that allows him to devour everything. Rocks, meat, magical power. The powers are way too similar for this to be a coincidence. In the recess of my mind, this memory came to me. My instinct for survival must have pulled it forward. In order to survive, I need this nameless technique.)
As he was thinking this, his mind began to grow clouded once more. The energy he had was already nearly all depleted and he was exhausted to the extreme. He tried to fight it, he tried to resist but Kazuki was still on the verge of starvation and death.
A haze of darkness covered his mind and his thoughts seized at this moment.
“Damn, his heart rate is slowing down.”
“I know Kai, we have to help him right now or his death is guaranteed.”
“What do we do?”
“You saw the technique. We witnessed the boar king leaving this inheritance to Abura. The moment those ancient symbols fused with his soul he felt it and it became a memory. We have to copy those symbols and fuse them to Kazuki’s soul but…”
“But What?”
“Kai you saw how Abura became. That power seeped into him and began to corrupt him even further. He was already inept but after he gained that power, he became even crueler and relentless. It didn’t matter if something begged him and fought him with everything, Abura no longer had an ounce of mercy and his mind sunk lower. If we do this, Kazuki may not be the same ever again.”
Kai took Danny’s words and threw them away.
“So what. Whether he changes or stays the same, so what!? At least my little brother will live.”
Kai waved a hand in the air and tried to draw energy from Kazuki to start but Kazuki had no power whatsoever. Kai grit his teeth. He knew this might be the case but still, he wanted to try it first before he went all in. Waving a hand for the second time, energy began to gather at his fingertips. At the same time, his small child-like body shrank further and his body flickered between transparent and see through.
Danny quickly grabbed Kai’s hand.
“Stop, any more and you’ll disappear for real.”
Kai pulled his arm away in defiance.
“I thought there was nothing I could do earlier to save my brother but now that there is clearly a way, I will not just watch him die!”
Danny grabbed his hand again.
“That doesn’t mean to just sacrifice yourself. I’m not saying to not help Kazuki…I’ll do it.”
“What, but, Kazuki, he’s not…
“Don’t say he’s not my brother at this point. The two of us have been through way too much to say something so cold. Not only him, you and me as well. The time we’ve spent in here is there anything else I’d call you besides a stubborn bastard brother.”
Danny smiled at Kai.
“Plus have you already forgotten, our souls are tied to one another. Shaving away a bit of my soul means nothing. As long as Kazuki lives, my soul will remain and can heal. Now, brother, stop being a stubborn bastard and help guide me already. When it comes to energy and the skill of manipulating it, you are far more advanced than me so I’ll need you in that regard.”
Kai finally relented and smiled back.
“It seems I’m not the only stubborn bastard here, hehe. Right, let’s do this.”
Kai held up both of his hands and showed Danny exactly how to use his own soul as an energy source. Danny saw his body shrink slightly as power was drawn from his soul. Kai followed the memory from Abura and followed the boar kings transfer step by step. He made all of the correct movements but didn’t use any energy. He merely mimicked the movements and guided Danny, telling him how much power to use and how to manipulate it expertly.
Danny was no slouch and followed Kai to a T. His control over energy wasn’t as great as Kai’s but he moved with precision and made up for his talent with focus and determination.
Danny’s fingers moved in the air and the ancient symbols began to form within Kazuki’s soul world. Kai directed the words and showed Danny how to link them together.
“Good, keep the flow of your energy even. Now place them directly on his soul tree. Just like how I fused your soul to Kazuki’s soul tree, this will fuse these ancient symbols there and root them in his entire soul world and soul.”
Danny slowly and carefully walked over to Kazuki’s soul tree, the ancient symbols floating above his palms. Placing both his hands on the soul tree, the ancient symbols flew directly into the soul tree and disappeared.
*SHAAAAAAAAAAAA*
A sound similar to cutting glass rang out and a hole formed in the base of Kazuki’s soul tree. At the same time, both Kai and Danny could feel a pull centering on that newly formed hole. The two had to step a few feet away from it before they no longer felt a pulling force from the hole.
Kai and Danny both looked at one another.
“Did…did it work?”
Kai shook his head.
“I don’t understand. When it fused with Abura’s soul it had an immediate effect but…
As he was speaking, Kazuki’s form disappeared, He had been leaning at the base of his soul tree in a deep unawaking state. As soon as Kai started speaking though, Kazuki just vanished.
Kazuki’s eyes snapped open back in the real world. Although they were open, there was something else there. This something called out to him again and again and again. Kazuki in this completely weakened state managed to roll over to the edge of the platform. Without hesitation, he rolled over the edge and fell into the acid below.
A single word rang out in his head.
(DEVOUR!)
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