Return of the Fallen Volume 8 Chapter 103
The Miasma, just as before, it remained in the same spot. Stretched out across the Patar desert, it sat there motionless. All seemed calm and still on the outside of this large dome-shaped mist but the inside was a different story entirely. Just as Danny predicted, Kazuki had taken over his lightning cage.
Somewhere deep inside the Miasma, Kazuki was just barely maintaining the protective sphere of lightning. The moment he forced Asuna to teleport everyone away, Danny’s control over the lightning vanished and Kazuki used nearly every ounce of aura he had left to gain control over it.
*Tzzzt*
The cage rotated slowly around Kazuki and continuously shrunk. With the Miasma repeatedly colliding with the cage, parts of the MIasma were destroyed and reduced to virtually nothing while the cage itself was using more and more energy to counter.
It didn’t take long for the cage to truly resemble a cage and was only 8 feet by 8 feet on all sides. Kazuki was feeling cramped, to say the least. One thing he didn’t understand, one thing that made no sense to him was why? Why did he take control over Danny’s cage? he purposefully stayed behind and sacrificed himself so everyone else could escape. Even if he died, as long as Glacious was alive, Kazuki’s revenge was basically guaranteed since Glacious and Fera were enemies. He should then be able to stop fighting, stop struggling.
He should be able to accept his fate and lie down and die. Kazuki thought he could do that. He really believed he could just give in and die in the Miasma but the moment everyone escaped from here, something…something deep within hammered away at him. He didn’t know from where this feeling came from. His soul, his mind, his basser instincts, or something else entirely. He didn’t know what it was but it was loud, it was chaotic, it was furious.
A scream, a lost echo of unwillingness to give up. It scratched and clawed at his insides and made his blood boil with rage. It was in that moment that he took control of the cage and kept the Miasma at bay for the time being.
Kazuki couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was but something inside of him roared at him to keep going, to keep pushing forward.
This strange feeling for survival weld up within him and he started to grow angry at himself.
(Why must I give up? Why should I be the one to die quietly in the dark like some rotten mutt!?)
A flame seemed to be reignited with him and the gears in his mind began to turn rapidly.
(For now, I must buy some time.)
Kazuki quickly put on his god metal armor and was covered from head to toe. The very next moment he purposefully shrunk the lightning cage until it was millimeters away from him. By doing this he reduced the energy cost of the lightning and bought a few minutes of time.
(Think Kazuki! THINK!!)
Kazuki’s energy was running out. His aura had yet to recover. The only energy he had left was a tiny bit of aura, most of his magic, and plenty of ki.
His first thought was the power of the fused energies. By combing dark magic with aura and ki, a new type of energy is born. This energy is capable of destroying almost anything but Kazuki currently had almost no aura left.
(If only I had more aura. With the amount of magic and ki I have left I could protect the important parts of my body with the fused energy and then I could simply run out of here. Damn!)
That option was clearly off the table. Checking his body, the only thing on him besides his armor and clothes was his golden compass and the weird box he took off Dreunz’s corpse. He had tried to store it in his ring but for some reason, it simply would not enter. With nothing that could help on the outside, Kazuki quickly searched inside of his storage ring for anything that could be of use. A few crystals here and there, Tilly’s mansion, the floating palace, a small amount of god metal, A large hill size pile of gold Zeni, part of a broken black ruler, and a damaged boulder-sized core from Garn’s floating palace. Besides that, there were miscellaneous objects here and there and nothing more.
(This is it? After all the shit I’ve been through, the things in my storage ring seem to be mostly trash.)
*Tzzzt*
The lightning coursing around Kazuki was being depleted more and more and even the amount of breathable air was now gone. Kazuki could no longer breathe within the protective lightning.
(One thing after another. This won’t affect me much but it’s another fucking thing.)
Not having air was of little concern right now. Maybe if a few days passed, not having oxygen would be relevant but for now, it was just another inconvenience.
(This protection won’t last more than a few more minutes and I still haven’t come up with anything. I need more time, more energy, damn.)
Things were bleak but the moment he thought about more time, it came to him. Kazuki divided his mind in two. One part to keep track of things on the outside and the other part entered his soul world.
Standing next to his soul tree he felt a small wave of relief.
(In here time works differently. One second outside is a hundred in my soul world.)
Kazuki sat down next to his soul tree and began to think.
(If I had more aura I could use it to make the element of space and I could possibly teleport out of here.)
Just as that thought came to him, he shook it away. He had no way of knowing if he could actually do it the way Asuna did and he had no way of knowing if he could actually teleport far enough away.
(I can’t teleport away and touching the Miasma for too long is a no-go. I need more energy but there is none…)
Kazuki thought about what was inside of his ring once again and a thought came to him.
(If I can use aura to make an element like fire or lightning and so on, then how much more complicated would it be to use another energy to make aura!?)
Kazuki looked at his Mage core floating a few feet away.
(Could it actually work?)
*Tzzzt*
Like a warning alarm, the cage shrunk by a fraction more and now Kazuki could feel electricity running across the surface of his armor.
(There’s no time to think about it.)
With a thought, Kazuki willed energy out of his core. A sphere of fire followed by a smaller sphere of dark magic and an even smaller sphere of gordonia flew out of his core and pulsed with power.
Kazuki looked at his soul tree and the three spheres of magic flew accordingly. All at once, the three spheres of magic slammed into his soul tree.
*Thud thud thud*
The moment they collided with his soul tree, which paused on the surface before like a sponge they each sank into his soul tree one by one. The very instant they entered his soul tree, Kazuki felt intense heat, followed by an all-consuming darkness and then a hammer-like feeling at the end. A small amount of pain drilled into his head as if his brain would turn to jelly.
The pain was extreme and seemingly unnecessary and the very next moment it was gone as if it were never there, to begin with.
(That pain, what the fuck was that!?)
Kazuki had no time to dwell on that for long and instead quickly examined his aura. He found something strange. No, he did not recover even an ounce of aura but instead, he found that his aura had been strengthened by a small amount.
Kazuki was shocked.
(My aura…Is stronger?)
This was unbelievable. Kazuki had simply moved some energy from his core into his soul tree and the very next moment, his soul, his aura had somehow grown stronger from it.
Kazuki had accidentally discovered a way to strengthen and enhance his soul which in turn strengthened his aura. Any other time he would jump from joy but right now this was useless to him. He didn’t need his soul stronger, he needed his aura to recover so he could escape from the Miasma. This new bonus was in Kazuki’s opinion not worth it. He had used some of his magic energy stored in his Mage core. After it disappeared into his soul tree, he did not get that energy back. Hos soul tree had gobbled it up and now he was out some magic energy.
*Tzzzt*
The lightning shrunk further and now part of Kazuki was outside of its protection. Small bits of his armor were now directly exposed to the Miasma and it didn’t take long for the Miasam to start destroying his armor, eating away at it, like erosive acid.
(NO! I NEED MORE TIME! JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME!)
As this thought crossed Kazuki’s mind, inside his soul world his eyes subconsciously drifted to the base of his soul tree.
Comment (0)