Return of the Fallen Volume 7 Chapter 26
Kazuki sat on a long couch. An old woman had offered him a cup of tea earlier but he didn’t even seem to be aware of her or her question as he sat across from Tsahmen. Tsahmen’s words were brass and straight to the point.
As Tsahmen found out that Kazuki hadn’t been on the surface for nearly a year, he explained everything to Kazuki. While explaining, A small blue crystal hovered above both of them and played recordings directly from the front line.
“A little over nine months ago there was an incident. With both the miasma and the Azirians continuously moving east, the dark mist and the monsters were nearing our borders. That’s when King Garn made a decision, I dare say it was foolish but that stays between you and me.”
Kazuki thought about his sister and Glacious. When he heard there was a war, he initially thought the reason would be because senior lizard and Fera had become enemies but the start was different.
“What did Garn do exactly?”
“The king, I don’t know whether he was angered or impatient or what but out of nowhere he decides to try and end the Azirians all at once. He took his ultimate weapon, his floating palace, and teleported near the border. Using its power he launched a powerful attack from the skies. A beam of golden fire, and a bolt of black lightning coming down upon the miasma and Azirian’s at the same time. This energy is enough to turn metal into ash, shatter the mountains of old and overturn them, and vaporize all the rivers and lakes. Even just hearing about it now, everyone believed it would work. A power so mighty, so great that it could split the continent in half, and yet…”
Tsahmen paused his words and directed Kazuki’s attention to the hovering video above and Kazuki saw everything as if he were there. Garn’s confident shout rang out.
“I’ll destroy them all!”
His staff came stamping down and hundreds of thousands of inscriptions lit up at once. Light-filled the room for but a moment before a light beam hotter than the sun, a pillar of blazing fire, a bolt of thick lightning, and a column of eroding dark energy all fired toward the cloaking miasma down below. The moment this plasma obelisk came down like God’s decree, something no one ever expected to happen happened.
The Miasma didn’t dissipate. It wasn’t torn asunder nor shredded into oblivion. The reverse instead took place. The moment the shot from the floating palace came in contact with the Miasma, the miasma, like an infinite sponge, it drank up all that energy as if it were no more than a delicious snack. For hours the powerful plasma-like beam was seen moving through the miasma and gradually shrank. It was taken in as if it always belonged to the Miasma and to everyone’s horror, it didn’t end with that.
The miasma that had just absorbed all of this energy, in a nightmare-like fashion began to expand and it grew larger and larger until it stretched for thousands of miles. As the Miasma expanded it began to devour most living things at a frightening rate. What it didn’t devour it warped. Turning the land purplish-black and transforming some animals into monsters and magical beast into even uglier more powerful monsters.
The miasma then started to move once again. It headed closer to the three great kingdoms and destroyed a few small ones along the way.
“A mass migration occurred and 10’s of millions fled further east. Garn tried to come up with a plan and found only one option. He retreated further inland and before all of the fleeing people could cross to safety, he once again used his floating palace and dug a trench with its blast.”
Kazuki watched Garn fire his weapon once more and with it he raved the land, digging a trench a few hundred miles wide and several thousand miles long, nearly cutting completely through the Feya continent and separating one half from the other. Like this east and west truly became east and west. The trench was so deep that no one knew its true depths.
“When people learned of this deed, many were horrified. Garn had essentially cut off millions from fleeing to safety and they were trapped on the other side of the continent with the Miasma and Azirians closing in on them. King Garn had basically sentenced millions to die if not killing them himself. The sentiment of the people was one of confusion, rage, and happiness. Some were just glad that they had survived but things were not finished, no, rather they had just begun.”
Kazuki’s eyes returned to the floating video. He watched as the Miasma coming to the edge of the trench simply floated over it. Garn had expected this though.
“Garn, with the help of the kingdom of Jin and the kingdom of Maoudou set up many massive shield barriers on the other side of the trench. They couldn’t stop the Miasma from coming nor could they make enough barriers to protect the entire defensive line of the trench but because there was now a large trench at the front lines the Azirians on the other side would have to fly over to cross or travel all the way to the bottom and climb up and out of the other side. This caused their movements to slow greatly. The three kingdoms took control of the other smaller kingdoms and massive armies were formed.”
The video then showed tens of thousands of Azirians flying or climbing up from the trench constantly. The Azirian’s then had to cross into the barriers to fight the human armies. The barriers against the Miasma could not defend for long and could only last for 15 or 20 minutes before the Miasma absorbed too much of the barrier’s energy and the barrier was destroyed.
“The barriers can only hold on for a little while before the miasma absorbs all of their energy and they lose power. This means that battles often only last for as long as the barrier holds, 20 minutes. After that, our armies can only retreat as fast as possible to set up a new barrier where we then fight the Aziirans for another 20 minutes or so and the whole thing repeats itself. Like this things were bad but we were managing somehow. Things changed though.”
The Miasma in the video, as though it had a mind of its own began to split from itself. One part remained near the frontlines while the other part changed its direction and speed. It began to head directly for Maoudou, towards the south. As it went, it started to shrink but that shrinking led its speed to explode as it covered a long distance in no time. Garn and the other kings had no clue what to do and had their hands full with the frontlines.
“We don’t have much video since this happened so suddenly but a mage in the area managed to record the end of what happened next.”
The video jumped to a different location and showed Glacious in his true dragon form. His body took up a large part of the sky but he was still dwarfed by the Miasma. That didn’t take any of his intimidation away. Glacious hovered directly in front of the Miasma and his mouth slowly opened.
Power began to surge all around and the recording started to become fuzzy as there was simply too much energy in the air. Glacious took in a deep breath before roaring out.
“THIRD FORM! SEVERING TEMPEST!”
The moment he said those words, the power within several hundred miles started to surge and converge into Glacious. The video became even more static and it was difficult to see anything but Kazuki could still make just barely make out what was going on. The moment that power condensed, Glacious roared once more, and a hurricane was blasted from his mouth. The moment it left his mouth, its size expanded hundreds of times over until it was over 200 miles wide and hundreds of miles long.
It drilled directly into the Miasma and tore the Miasma into tatters, dissipating it into nothingness in seconds. The hurricane of power then continued forth for another thousand or so miles, ripping up the land and shattering mountains and anything else in its path. Glacious did his best to control his blow but once it was launched it was something even he struggled with to control.
“Glacious saved Maoudou but also, because of this destruction, 10’s of thousands had died. Had he not done it though, more than 100 million if not the rest of the Feya continent could have died from the Miasma.”
The video then changes once again and is back on the front lines. Glacious is there and is preparing his attack when something attacks him.
Tsahmen points at a large being made of rock in the video.
“And this being is the reason why the war has yet to have a true outcome.”
The video showed a large body of rocks and crystals bigger than a hill clash with Glacious. Every time Glacious tried to destroy the Miasma once and for all, this towering body of rock would interfere. Glacious would use the 3rd form severing tempest on the being and the being would collapse to ruin. This however would only last for a second or two at best before the being would reform and engage with Glacious once more.
“That being is supposedly a powerful queen from the dark continent. Ever since its appearance, it has continuously fought with Glacious. Day and night the two have fought and have yet to seize. No time to rest, no breaks, yet they keep on going and going and going. Whoever wins will determine the fate of our world.”
Kazuki knew immediately who the entity was that kept coming back to fight Glacious, not giving him even a moment of separation, a second of rest. It was none other than Fera. Kazuki’s eyes began to burn as he glared at the video.
(That bitch, she won’t stop until she’s permanently put down.)
“Even with the heroes there, we’re still just barely holding on. I myself am set to return to the battlefield in less than a week. I just came back here to enlist more soldiers.
Tsahmen started to ramble but Kazuki’s attention was drawn to his first words. Kazuki almost popped out of his seat as he broke Tsahmens ranting.
“Wait wait wait wait! Go back, what do you mean heroes!?”
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