Return of the Fallen Volume 7 Chapter 51
Kazuki flashed forward and swung his blade right at Tozu’s thick neck. The moment he moved so to did Sasai and Tozu. Tozu’s large hands appeared out of nowhere and intercepted the god metal.
*Schink*
The blade sunk into Tozu’s flesh, separating it with relative ease until it met his bones. The second his sharp blade struck these dense bones in his ape-like hands, the blades were stopped and could go no further. Tozu caught the blade with both his hand and Kazuki couldn’t remove the blade.
Sasai had taken this time between this quick exchange and wrapped around Kazuki’s ribs and neck and gave him a crushing squeeze.
Kazuki circulated his ki as fast as possible and flexed all of his muscles. The depression in his body was inflated with this flex and it prevented his body from being crushed by Sasai.
Sasai, opened his third eye and dark energy focused in his iris and he prepared to fire a beam of eroding dark energy at this close range when Tozu spread out his aura and roared.
*ENOUGH!*
Everyone paused their movements but Sasai and Kazuki refused to back down.
“You threaten me with death and you expect me to what, just sit here and take one on the chin. You want to drag my name out in front of the other Ancient beast so they can come and hunt me down. Would it not be easier for me to kill the two of you here and now!?”
Tozu stared deeply into Kazuki’s eyes.
“The threat was a call to action as well as a simple fact. I won’t apologize for it but at least let me explain before we all try to kill each other.”
Kazuki had no room to nod but he still smirked hearing this.
“Sure, remove your grip from my blade and the two of you can share sweet nothings with one another.”
The sarcastic tone was expected but Tozu didn’t get mad. Still, he did release Kazuki’s blade.
“You can try and kill me here and now but even if you take my neck and my brothers as well, it still won’t stop the raging storm from reaching you.”
Kazuki was surprised that Tozu actually let go of his sword. Not just him but even Sasai was taken aback.
“Brother what are you doing. He’sss trying to kill usss. We mussst take him right now otherwissse
“Otherwise nothing.”
Tozu interrupted his brother before he finished his words and continued.
“We need him alive, that is the truest fact. If he kills us here and now it will be to his own detriment, he just doesn’t know it yet. Now release him and step back little brother.”
Sasai was stunned. His older brother actually wanted him to let go of an enemy that had literally just tried to kill them. Seeing the determined look upon Tozu’s face though, Sasai decided to trust his older brother. Unwrapping himself from Kazuki, he slithered out of the way.
The moment he was freed from Sasai’s squeeze Kazuki swung his blade forward again like a flash of lightning. Tozu on the other hand didn’t even try and block as the blade inched closer and closer toward his neck. Instead, he never broke eye contact with Kazuki, all the way up until the final moment. Kazuki stopped his blade at the very last possible second before storing his blade back in his storage ring.
“Speak quickly. If what you say is bullshit or makes no sense, I will fight you two to the death.”
Tozu felt a small scratch on his neck and a small line of blood flowed from the wound. Touching the wound he knew this mark was left behind purposely and it showed Kazuki seriously intended to kill if what he said was nonsense.
“Very well, allow me to get straight to the point.”
As he spoke the wounds on his hand and neck healed in barely a second.
“The threat I made was true. If you refuse to help us, I will indeed let your name fall from my mouth and all of the Ancient beasts from both south and east will hunt you down wherever you go. At the same time though, my threat is unnecessary because whether I speak or not the Ancient beast will still come looking for you.”
“You say that as if it were a fact. How would they ever know it was me that killed Motozu and took its treasures if you two remain quiet”
Tozu pointed at the golden compass around Kazuki’s neck.
“Even if me and my brother’s mouth remains sealed for a thousand years, have you already forgotten about the fragment around your neck. You said it yourself, Zetrazz wishes to see more bloodshed. He wants to be entertained. Not to mention I have already experienced this first hand when he whispered his madness into my mind and tried to get me to attack you. Zetrazz will speak even if we don’t and the Ancient beast will not only know who you are but if they ask Zetrazz, who’s to say he won’t give them your exact location just so he can be entertained that much sooner. Not only that, we Ancient beast have our ways far beyond you humans to find the things we wish to find. So even if you were to remove both us and Zetrazz from the equation, that third option to find you still exist. With this, the conclusion and next step should be obvious but I’ll say it anyway. The enemies will come in a group no matter what you do here today and they will come to kill. We three can join together in an alliance and maybe we might not die or I and my brother can go one way and you go the other. As I see it though, that option leads to your eventual death.”
Kazuki raised a brow.
“The way you say it, it’s as if you two will live. What plans do you have if we don’t cooperate.”
*Haa*
Tozu sighed before just coming out and saying it.
“If you don’t join hands with us, I and my brother are not pushed in a corner just yet. We still have a final option to play to avoid our destructions. If faced with death, he and I will simply abandon this lower realm and ascend to a higher one. That though is the final play. We’d much rather avoid ascending but if it comes to that, we will leave this world and realm and never return.”
“You make ascending to a higher realm sound like hell.”
“In a way it is. Neither I nor my brother are demi-gods or gods. If we go to a higher realm, we will be near the bottom of the pecking order. We’ll be lucky if we find protection and could face more danger than now but as long as we surrender ourselves to a God we can gain protection. We would most likely be bound by a soul contract and be forced to serve a god for at least 10,000 years as slaves but with the abundance of magical energy and resources, we should be able to become demi-gods or maybe even true gods by that time. At that time we might even be able to regain our freedom. Depending on the owner of the soul contract, it can really be heaven or hell. I wish to avoid that if at all possible which is why I’m asking you to join us.”
Kazuki didn’t realize that the higher realm could actually be a place of suffering but it made sense. God or not, the weak were always suppressed when there came a power with an ego. It was something that has seemingly always existed. There would always be those that do good, those that act in bad faith, and those that are somewhere in the middle. Kazuki could understand their dilemma.
Grabbing the compass around his neck he felt the dark energy within swirling around. Kazuki had gotten a pretty good grasp on Zetrazz behavior and mood and found that it was a bit chaotic. Zetrazz was the type that wanted what he wanted when he wanted it and damn everything else and everyone else. There was no doubt in his mind that Zetrazz might actually pull a stunt as Tozu described.
If these Ancient beasts from the south and east came, and a few of them were equal in power to Motozu, dying could easily become a reality. There was already so much on Kazuki’s plate. If he knew this was going to be the result of baiting the other Ancient beast over and killing them, he would have taken Motozu’s corpse right after the fight and hid somewhere they couldn’t find him.
As he was thinking about that, a thought appeared in his mind.
(Devour.)
Kazuki shook the thought away but it came back again and again on repeat.
(This might actually not be a bad thing. If more of them come, I could devour more of them and if even more come, I could then devour more with my Ourodyess devouring power and become even stronger. Right now I’m at least as strong as an Ancient beast and they are equal to a 6th stage mage. If I eat more, then even without stepping into the 6th stage I might be able to enhance my body to where I can defend against 7th stage magic with just my physical body alone.)
Coming to this realization, Kazuki’s perspective changed.
“Joining you two, my chances of living go up quite a bit but I’m afraid I’ll have to decline.”
Tozu and Sasai were both left dumbfounded. hey thought Kazuki wasn’t understanding the severity of the situation until Kazuki added.
“So instead of me joining you two, how about you join me?”
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