Return of the Fallen Volume 7 Chapter 28
As the light of the moon shone brightly through the skylight, Kazuki’s eyes gleamed as he looked over what he had drawn. It was a design for an arm. Not just any prosthetic but a very detailed magic tool that could be attached directly to one’s flesh. Kazuki had been completely zoned out and let the magic pen flow freely with his thoughts. He had drawn for several hours and had stacks of paper filled with notes. As his mind drifted, he couldn’t help but think about his friends as well as the problem with Fera.
(Showing up on the battlefield just invites Fera to attack me at any moment but I can’t just let Glacious fight forever. Something needs to break so we can push through and finish this war. If the Miasma is dealt with, the Azirians as well will no longer have a shield and will be destroyed shortly after. If they no longer exist, then that leaves Glacious to counter Fera freely. Glacious could travel to the dark continent and finish Fera off once and for all. In the end though, he needs an opportunity.)
Kazuki looked over his designs and was both surprised and confused.
Some of the designs had inscriptions from Glacious’s memories. There were many Kazuki recognized from his own knowledge and many that came directly from Glacious. Seeing this combination of his own mixed with Glacious’s, more and more ideas came to him and he began to think deeply about such combinations. This in turn led him to think about Glacious’s fused magic. His Black fireball was a thing of true destruction and could easily reduce anything below the 6th stage to ash.
Kazuki had tried to recreate Glacious’s magic from his memories but had failed every time. It was one thing to have a memory of it and another to have experience. Still, just thinking about the way Glacious fused magic, led Kazuki to think about other combinations. There were his brother’s sword forms. A combination of martial arts and magic. There was also King Oren’s masterful control over aura and the unique techniques he used.
Kazuki pushed his sister out of his mind for now and his curiosity led him another way.
(All three of these abilities are odd. Glacious’s fused magic, combining elements together to create something entirely new. To me, it literally feels as if it’s bending the laws of magic but to Glacious it is entirely natural like breathing. To my brother, his sword forms are like his soul and Oren’s way of mimicking the elements with his aura… All of these are of this world yet they seem off somehow or is it me that simply can’t comprehend.)
Kazuki looked at his hands and the ancient hand signs came to mind.
(I as well have something that is unusual. By making ancient hand signs, I can gather energy, gather the elements and materialize them. Not only that, but I also have ki. I learned it from Granny master back on Earth yet it works in this world. There is a flow of ki in this world just like back on earth. All of these different energies, techniques, all of them exist and yet the world has not collapsed. They exist because they were meant to? Or maybe there is no set rule….)
Kazuki started to confuse himself at this moment and he had to stop for a moment and gather his thoughts.
(All of these things exist in this world yet they don’t seem to interfere with one another nor interact…That’s not right either. I’ve used ki many times to block and interfere with magical tools. So ki can interfere with magic but is the opposite true?)
This thought brought Kazuki to immediately try something out.
Kazuki shoved the papers to the floor and made space on the table. Slowly he set his hands on the table so his palms faced each other. In his right hand, he willed his magic forth, his ring lit up, and a small fireball floated in front of his hand. With his left hand, he extended his ki outward toward the fireball. The two energies came into contact with one another and Kazuki’s ki instantly snuffed out the flame.
Kazuki expected this and tried again. This time he increased the power of his flame making it bigger and stronger, while on the other side he used the exact same amount of ki. The moment the energies met in the middle, this time it was the ki that was burned away by the flame.
Kazuki tried this little experiment a few more times.
(Hmm, it seems that one will always conquer the other. No matter how I try and make the two energies equal, one always beats the other. This does show me that the two do in fact interfere with the other but what does this mean exactly?)
It was with these thoughts that Kazuki decided to throw in a third variable. A flame in his right hand, his ki extending from his left, and some of his aura. The moment the three powers came into contact together…
*BOOOM!*
For a fraction of a second, all of the energy was sucked inward like a black hole, and a fraction of a second after that, all of the energy condensed before exploding outward. This small amount of energy blew the entire roof off of the attic and sent Kazuki flying backward. The entire building shook and a loud bang echoed throughout the city.
A moment later, alarms went off and soldiers were dispatched to try and find the source and it was thought that an enemy attack had taken place.
Barely a second later, Sid came rushing up the steps and busted the ladder door open. He was ready to shout hellfire but the moment he saw his roof was now completely gone and Kazuki on shaky feet his expression turned to concern.
He held his hammer and his eyes darted around, scanning the room.
“Where is he!?”
Kazuki was confused by Sid’s question.
“Where’s who?”
Sid thought Kazuki was still out of it and answered back.
“The person who attacked you. Did you already slay him? I don’t see a body, whoever it was to face you and get away must be powerful.”
Kazuki shook his head.
“Your wrong, there was no enemy.”
Sid’s brow raised a high as it would go before he pointed his hammer at Kazuki’s chest.
“Then how did you suffer those wounds?”
Kazuki again was confused but looked down at his chest anyway only to find a dozen tiny holes, no bigger than the size of a needle’s head. These holes were incredibly small but to Sid who had an acute sense for attention to detail, they were easily noticeable. Kazuki looked at these open wounds with even more confusion. They went completely through his body and clear to the other side. You could literally look through these holes and see what was left of the room on the other side.
Kazuki’s eyes widened, the wounds were small and only carried with them a little pain as Kazuki’s tolerance for it was so high. This though, even if the pain wasn’t great, it was truly terrifying. This needle-like wound had penetrated through Kazuki’s incredibly tough body and tore through several organs. His body was tougher than metal and yet he was riddled with holes. This still was not the most horrific thing about these wounds. Even now, they had yet to fully heal. They healed incredibly slowly. For wounds of such a size, Kazuki should have regenerated in a near-instant yet the tiny holes still persisted.
Not only that, there was a weird feeling coming from these holes. A weird lingering energy was left behind. It felt like fire, aura, and ki all mangled together as if the energies themselves were fighting each other, still vying for supremacy over the other.
Kazuki concentrated and sent waves of ki to these wounds and very quickly his ki snuffed the other powers out. The moment these other energies were removed, the wounds healed instantly and Kazuki was injured no more.
“Kazuki, are you gonna answer me. If there wasn’t an enemy then what in the 7 realms of hell just happened here!?!?!?”
Kazuki started to explain when pounding was heard coming from down below. Someone was beating on the front door. Kazuki and si both came downstairs and opened the front door. The moment the soldiers saw Kazuki standing in the doorway, their eyes widened in shock and they started to shake in fright. The one leading them promptly apologized for interrupting them and turn and fled with the rest of his men, reporting to the city lord immediately.
Sid laughed as the men left.
“Heh, they must be fans of yours. Looks like the city lord has told everyone not to get on your bad side. They’re all terrified of you now.”
Kazuki shrugged.
“That’s fine. Them fearing me makes things easier. Back to what I was saying.”
Kazuki then told Sid what happened but Sid ignored most of it and only cared about the designs Kazuki spoke of. Sid rushed back upstairs and dug through piles of paper in search of the arm blueprints. The moment he found them he clutched it tightly and raced back downstairs.
“Wait, what do you want me to do about the attic?”
Sid looked back.
“Just fix it or don’t I don’t give a shit. Now that I have this, don’t disturb me until I’m done. So keep doing your strange experiences or don’t but just make sure you’re as quiet as a mouse. I’ll never forgive you if you make me lose focus, you hear me!?”
Sid was about to run back down the steps when he promptly turned around and held out a hand.
“God metal, otherwise how do you expect me to make this.”
Kazuki rolled his eyes before handing over a hefty block of orichalcum to Sid. Sid waited no more. With more god metal and a new design, he rushed downward into his back room and slammed the door shut. Kazuki was left looking at the shattered remains of the attic. In the places that weren’t completely destroyed, Kazuki found 10’s of thousands of tiny holes in the wood. These were the same holes Kazuki had suffered from. All around there was lingering energy in these small holes. Kazuki began to examine these holes and as he did, he couldn’t help but grab the nearby magic pen and start writing.
Once more his head was filled with thoughts and the pen started to race.
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