Return of the Fallen Volume 8 Chapter 68
Garn had literally just died moments ago and yet here was a message of him playing right before Kazuki and Triska’s eyes.
The two exchanged a baffled look as Garn’s message continued to play out.
“I don’t know which bastard you are but this message would only play if my life force was expunged. In life, I only wished to lead humanity to its potential and rid this world of all its enemies so that everyone could prosper and live in peace under my rule, and yet I have failed and died before I could accomplish my goal. I don’t know who you are but since you killed me, you are my enemy and therefore you who has taken my life, I shall take yours in return. Goodbye.”
The message was simple enough but how could Garn kill them when he was already dead. This was a natural thought Triska and Kazuki shared but one that was immediately answered. The moment the message stopped playing, the scepter still standing upright began to send out a signal throughout the palace. At the same time, the magic core behind Kazuki and Triska began to flash rapidly.
Both Triska and Kazuki understood what this meant. Without hesitation, Triska bolted. Her body blurred and she left after images in her wake as she escaped the palace as quickly as possible.
(Does she have no care for Asuna and Sam. I guess she really was only here for Shin.)
Kazuki reached forward and grabbed the magic core, he stored it inside his ring and it flashed no more. This however was not the only Magic core in the palace. Kazuki’s aura extended throughout the palace and he promptly removed each of the cores from the chambers they resided in but Kazuki found out right away that this wasn’t enough.
The cores even after being detached from their housing, they continued to flash rapidly as if they would explode at any moment.
(The cores are still connected through magic. I could destroy them right now but that wouldn’t remove the energy fast enough. I have to store them.)
Using his aura, Kazuki pulled the cores towards him as fast as possible. These large boulder-sized magic cores slammed and crashed through multiple walls and nearly killed several people in their path. The cores closest to him arrived in less than a second and Kazuki stored them but before he could get all of them, time ran out.
*BOOOOOOOM!*
A large explosion rocketed outward and shook the entire palace up and down. A moment later, the floating palace began to fall out of the sky. Just as quickly as it fell through, it suddenly came to an abrupt stop. Aura surrounded the whole palace and kept it in the air, preventing it from falling further.
Back inside the palace, the scene of blood and guts and corpses lining the halls from everyone who served Garn did not take place. Even these people themselves were utterly shocked that they weren’t dead. Looking around they didn’t understand this at all but some of the smarter ones recognized that they had been saved, they just didn’t know how.
Had their senses been heightened to a certain level, they would have realized right away.
Kazuki’s powerful aura surrounded every single one of them. The moment he realized he had no more time to store the last two cores, he instantly covered everyone and even the inside of the palace itself with his aura. This alone wouldn’t have been enough to stop an explosion of this magnitude. To protect these people along with Asuna and Sam, Kazuki used an old trick. His aura folded over itself several times, making multiple layers. These extra layers of aura stacked, again and again, strengthening the protection as a whole and causing the explosion from the cores to do no damage whatsoever.
Doing such a thing sounded simple enough but this was a task that would be considered almost impossible. Sure to cover a single person with multiple layers of aura was simple enough but expanding from there was a different story entirely.
Kazuki not only covered himself with multiple layers of aura but also used it to protect well over a thousand people inside the palace. The bar was stepped up further seeing as how he had to cover each individual over a good distance. To cover not only a thousand people but also do it over such a distance and through walls floors and so on, was a monumental task. A task that Kazuki would never have been able to have done in the past no matter how hard he tried.
Things were different after Zetrazz taught Kazuki his aura breath technique. With it, Kazuki’s mastery over not only aura but energy, in general, exploded upward to such heights that even masters would envy and kill one another over.
With the magic cores now gone, and nothing to power it, it was only natural for the floating palace to fall out of the sky. Kazuki surrounded the palace with his aura and caught the palace and stopped it from crashing into the ground below. After making sure there were no further surprises from Garn, Kazuki lowered the palace to the ground.
As soon as he did that he grabbed Nunully, and Kimi and brought them, along with Sam and Asuna to a large bedroom. He quickly moved several beds in this room and laid everyone down.
He would have grabbed Shin as well but the moment Triska fled from the palace, she had rushed over and scooped up Shin. Seeing how the danger was averted, she arrived shortly after and laid him down as well.
She had no excuse for fleeing and she didn’t try to come up with one and simply said.
“Sorry.”
Kazuki shook his head.
“Why apologize. You did nothing wrong. If I didn’t care about someone else, why would I try and get them to safety. Your concern was Shin and Shin alone, I get it.”
Triska couldn’t say anything to that because Kazuki had literally just saved everyone else in the palace and he had no connection with them whatsoever. Did this action mean that he cared for all of the strangers in the palace, maybe maybe not. Either way, he saved them even though he didn’t have to. Triska felt that reflected back on her. She could have tried to save others but she only went for Shin. This let her feeling annoyed instead of guilty. Why should she save others she thought. They aren’t her responsibility.
She didn’t say this nor mention it to Kazuki but this thought was there.
After Triska arrived with Shin, Danny, Shaila, Tozu, and Sasai entered as well. The room was a little cramped now with everyone in it but no one looked uncomfortable. Instead, there were many looks of curiosity. Tozu and Sasai eyed Triska and the others and wondered if these were the friends Kazuki spoke of.
Shaila on the other hand eyed both Asuna and Nunully. As a woman, she could tell right away just how much Kazuki felt for the two of them. The way he moved them with gentleness and care, while also making sure that they were comfortable. Kazuki moved to the two of them first and gave both of them ki. He gave some to Asuna to calm her and comfort her while he gave some to Nunully to help her mana sickness. This didn’t replenish her mana but it handled some of the symptoms such as fatigue and muscle spasms, easing her pain.
Shaila watched this and knew instantly that these were the two women Kazuki had spoken about before. She looked at Asuna and saw her firey red hair and charming looks and could see why Kazuki was with her. Nunully on the other hand she was actually a little shocked.
In her eyes, Nunully was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her life. A hint of jealousy rose up from a woman-to-woman comparison. The young half-elf in front of her, even while lying unconscious in pain she was still a gorgeous almost goddess-like beauty. She had been around Kazuki for a while now and she knew of his good points. He was handsome as well as incredibly strong and had a decent personality. He was generous when he needed to be and cruel when generosity was not an option. He was an ideal type but even with all of these things going for him, Shaila still couldn’t understand how he had gotten such a beauty. That’s just how beautiful Nunully was.
Seeing Kazuki’s concerned look, Shaila couldn’t help but tease him at this moment.
“Kazuki, I’m just curious, how in fact did you trick such an angelic creature to be yours? Don’t tell me you blackmailed an innocent maiden and devoured her like a tasty snack, hehehe.”
Kazuki though didn’t take this comment to heart. He gently brushed a piece of loose hair out of Nunully’s sleeping face.
“Nunully is not someone you can just trick. She’s incredibly smart. Maybe naive sometimes but that doesn’t hide her cleverness. How I got her though, even I don’t understand how I got so lucky.”
Shaila was expecting Kazuki to get a bit flustered but his response came out romantic and she didn’t know how to respond to that.
Tozu smiled.
“To think you would be the one to get stumped. Kazuki you have my thanks.
Shaila hooked her arm around Tozu’s and countered.
“If I’m stumped it’s because I don’t understand how you’ve never said something like that about me.”
This time it was Tozu who became stumped and didn’t know how to respond. Shaila began poking him in the cheek in a teasing manner, causing Sasai to laugh at his older brother’s foolishness.
With this atmosphere, a strange peacefulness filled the room.
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