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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 42

Author: Blue_Rat

ch42

Kazuki slowly opened his eyes and a fogged haze faded and his vision became clear. Water rushed past his face and he felt wet sand between his fingers. Lifting his head, he felt a pounding inside his mind and a slight ring in his ear. The closest thing he could relate this feeling to was a hangover.

The voice screaming in his brain, the one that repeatedly told him to devour everything, slowly disappeared. From a roaring monster to a soft whisper until finally the voice was no more. At the same time, within his soul world, the hole at the base of his soul tree expanded no more and the pulling force seized as though it had never been.

Laying there for a moment, the pounding soon went away and was replaced by the memories of what had recently come to pass. Swallowing all of the stomach acid, eating his way out of the monster’s stomach and his zombie-like behavior once he was outside again. Everything came flooding in. Kazuki witnessed these memories almost as if they weren’t his own but he knew they were for he had witnessed them as they were happening. Everything he did while in that mindless state, Kazuki was there for it all and this terrified him.

(Brother and Danny helped me and they actually managed to fuse that technique with my soul. Without it, I would have died within that monster but that feeling…how dreadful. To have no control over my body and yet at the same time be completely aware of my actions. Like a puppet, that nameless technique completely took over and controlled my body. To think Abura had to go through something like that time and time again.)

Kazuki wasn’t one to show empathy for his enemies but this was a different case entirely. For one, Abura was already long dead, secondly, both Abura and Kazuki have a shared experience, one that to Kazuki’s knowledge no other humans besides he and Abura have gone through. Not only that, this experience was one that was completely terrifying. For your body to go out of control like this and literally eat anything and everything in sight. The horrors that cold occur were this technique to activate around one’s family or friends, the scenes were more than enough to give nightmares.

At the same time, Kazuki couldn’t help but relish in the perks he had received.

Looking down at his newly regenerated right arm. Gripping the air, he made a fist with his right hand repeatedly.

(I should thank whoever created such a terrifying technique. I’ll have to ask Etora whenever I escape from this place, wherever this place is.)

Power, strength, unbridled energy. Kazuki thought when he broke through to the mind-body stage, the fourth stage, that he had truly grasped power. Now though, he understood just how weak he had been. Fighting the goat-headed monster, a being that seemed to have no access to magic yet just its physicality overwhelmed Kazuki in every regard. At the same time, he understood just how much his overall body had improved.

After drinking the stomach acid of the beast as well as devouring just a little of its flesh, Kazuki’s body was on a whole other level. His organs were exuding an immense vitality inside. His blood was flooding through his veins with an incredible amount of vigor. His bones were stronger than steel and his flesh was almost comparable to such metal as well. His senses went through another evolution. His sense of hearing expanded and ascended to a higher degree.

Dragging his body out of the water, he realized he was on a beach deep underground. Just from hearing the waves crashing against the shore, he was constantly receiving flashes and images in his head of the entire beach, which stretched for nearly two miles in both directions. The sound of the water rushing and slamming against the sand was almost hard to endure as it rattled and reverberated off his eardrums. This was an amazing gift but Kazuki knew it would take some time to get used to. Though the upside was that he could now hear so well that it was incredibly close to seeing with the naked eye.

Speaking of seeing, an expression of amazement and wonder stretched across Kazuki’s face as he could now see almost 10 feet in front of himself now. His eyesight, after eating the flesh of the monster had improved so greatly that he could now see a short distance in this pitch-black world. Kazuki couldn’t quite understand this part about himself. He thought the absence of light meant that even with the best eyes in the world, one would not be able to see but here he was looking left and right at his surroundings.

Kazuki couldn’t help but close his eyes for a moment and sense them with his ki.

With his energy, he discovered something he didn’t expect. Inside his body, the pure condensed dark energy that clung to his every fiber had lessened. Not by a large amount, no, but by a small fraction, yes. The suppression he constantly felt, the burden was lessened by a bit. The heaviness as well had decreased. Not only because the dark energy inside of him had lessened but also because his body had gained an enormous amount of strength.

Kazuki grew curious and gave a semi squat before leaping straight up into the air.

*Fwhoosh*

The air raced past his ears as he ascended nearly 500 feet up in one jump. He absolutely didn’t expect this and felt his stomach churn as weightlessness took over briefly and he fell to the ground.

*Thoom*

Creating a small crater in the sand, Kazuki’s fear turned into excitement.

(If I can jump this high while being suppressed, just how far up can I go once I’ve left this shit hole.)

Kazuki had originally been trying to figure out why he could see in absolute darkness but after testing his strength, he soon forgot about such things and pushed the thought to the back of his head.

(If the suppression on my body has lessened then doesn’t that mean my magic won’t be as suppressed.)

Kazuki immediately felt his Mage core. When he first crash-landed down here he could feel a great interference with his magic but now the interferences had cleared a little. Kazuki felt a sliver of power from his Mage core and he began to slowly move it with his will. With a simple thought, he guided it. As soon as it moved through his body and came into contact with that pure dark energy, it immediately fell apart.

Kazuki felt disappointed but he didn’t give up after the first try and kept on. The same thing happened over and over again as soon as his magic came into contact with the dark energy a total collapse would occur.

(I have to keep my magic separated from this dark shit. Maybe if I use my ki.)

Kazuki controlled his ki and made a barrier around his magic. Seeing it succeed, he carefully guided this small thread-like magical energy and sent it into Tilly’s ring. The small purple gem affixed to its top began to glow dimly as though it was about to activate but before the storage ring could open, the gem went dark and his thread of energy was cut.

Kazuki was sad for but a moment.

(This is both a failure and a success. The fact that Tilly’s storage ring glowed for a second means that my magic can open her storage space, I just need a lot more of it. Once it’s open I can solve my problems and leave this place once and for all.)

Kazuki began to think about the one object within her storage ring that would turn his luck from bad to good. Inside Tilly’s storage ring there was the item she had stolen from one of Glacious’s Golems. Tilly had taken a Golems Magic core. The Golems that Glacious owns were advanced, to say the least, and the Magic cores inside were loaded with enough energy to shatter an entire mountain. If Kazuki could open Tilly’s ring and take out such an item, then he could cover it with a barrier and then pour all of its energy into his broken black ruler.

(With that much energy I could let the black ruler absorb it. My ruler would be so sharp it would be capable of cutting through the hardened cliff wall I have no doubt. Hell, I wouldn’t even need it to cut into the cliff wall, I could literally use it to extend the ruler for miles into the sky and using it as an elevator It could take me out of here just like that with energy to spare.)

Kazuki grew excited thinking about this and was overflowing with energy but just as he got to here, he remembered.

(FUCK! My ruler, It’s… it’s still inside that monster’s gut!)

When Kazuki was being controlled by that nameless technique, his only focus was to devour and his broken ruler was completely left behind.

Like a cold bucket of water being dumped on him, Kazuki’s hopes had once more been flushed away.