Return of the Fallen Volume 8 Chapter 92
Tiny holes formed within Asuna, Sam, and Kimi at the exact same time. a call from these insignificant voids called out to the three deep within their minds.
(Devour!)
A small ripple followed afterward and the small holes began to draw energy from the outside world.
All of the condensed pure energy surrounding Kazuki and the rest was forcefully sucked into the three. A surge-like feeling came flooding in as magical energy was taken inward. As these small holes consumed the outside energy rapidly, they too grew, and with their growth, Asuna, Sam, and Kimi’s bodies all started to change.
A strange itchy sensation spread among the three as the devouring began. As these holes consumed this energy, their bodies started to expand and grow ever so slightly. Muscles became denser and bones tougher and stronger. Their blood and organs filled with vitality and that vitality spread throughout every single one of their cells like a rich flood enhancing their everything.
Hair grew rapidly and skin became smoother and more elastic. Strength, their bodies became stronger and stronger. Like this several minutes passed and the holes within their soul worlds quickly took on a new change. They began to pulse and the holes started to spin as they devoured energy at an even faster rate.
Kazuki observed this all very closely and waited. He had manipulated his own soul to activate the Ourodyess technique within the three. His plan was simple when it came down to it. He wanted to give Sam and the others the same regenerative ability, well at least a portion of it. Once the Ourodyess technique is created and it starts to consume a great deal of energy, it causes the body of the user to become greatly enhanced. Kazuki would allow the spiraling voids at the base of the soul tree to consume and consume and consume.
All the while, their bodies would grow stronger and stronger until they reached the point where Kazuki believed they could handle the pure energy directly in their bodies. There of course were dangers that came along with this devouring technique. One of course was the fact that a dark voice calls out to you and when the gate inside of you reaches a certain point, the dark being, a Vazul can escape from inside that gate and possess you.
As Kazuki observed the three’s inner gate, he also used his aura to sense their body’s conditions. The moment they reached up to here and their foundations were solidified, Kazuki called out to Danny.
“Next step.”
Danny who was sitting silently outside of the circle felt a tearing pain in his mind. The very next moment he opened his eyes and there were three versions of himself. Each one was inside Sam, Asuna’s, and Kimi’s soul world along with Kazuki.
Kazuki and Danny needn’t even greet one another at this point as each knew what to do. Danny appeared next to each one of their soul trees and pressed his hand against said trees. His eyes began to glow with radiant light as he connected with their soul. The very next moment he grabbed at a branch from their soul trees and tore a piece off.
The moment he did this, Sam and the other two felt a slight pain in their soul.
(Ignore the pain and focus on your cores. Now is the time to concentrate.)
After telling them all this, Danny swung the branch in all three soul worlds simultaneously.
(How weak.)
Danny stood next to the spiraling voids and gave Kazuki a nod. Not even a second later, Kazuki’s aura began to flow differently. In the outside world, and inside the soul worlds, Kazuki split the magical energy. Making two channels out of his aura, he made half of the energy from the outside world flow into the spiraling gates, and the other half of the energy he guided directly to the others Mage cores.
The amount of energy he had gathered was great. The next step for them would be to condense the energy down and purify it within their cores but Kazuki had already taken care of that when he gathered the energy in the first place. Instead, all they needed to do was absorb and expand their mage cores themselves. This meant the moment this energy entered the Mage cores, the cores with little help began to expand almost on their own.
They bloated at a terrifying rate, causing Kazuki to at first be concerned. He worried that if they took in so much energy so quickly, would it not go out of their control and run chaotically through their bodies. This concern though was already taken care of. As their cores expanded, the devouring ability was not slowing whatsoever and was instead speeding up and growing faster as well. This meant that their bodies continued to strengthen rapidly as well.
A problem though did quickly occur. The spiraling gates began to pulse and dark energy began to leak inside. at the same time, Sam and the others were losing focus as they heard the call from the dark voice resound louder and louder.
Danny who was next to these gates knew what to do. Taking the branches from earlier, he drew them like a blade, his aura and energy gathered around these branches and he slashed out a severing tempest.
His power cut apart all of the dark energy, causing it to become nothingness. He didn’t stop there. He aimed his sword form at the gates themselves and swung down several times. The energy Kazuki was channeling became disrupted and the gates themselves were partially broken and destroyed. Danny only used a bit of power and held back a great deal. He did this so the dark energy leaking in would be completely destroyed, allowing Asun and the others to regain their focus.
The second part was to weaken the gate by a bit. In doing so, the gate would have to consume more energy to get to its previous size and growth. This made the Vazul within unable to cross through as it basically was starting over from scratch. Danny could destroy the entire thing at this size but after it reaches a certain size, he would be able to do nothing to it and the Vazul would be allowed to enter freely.
The only way to prevent that at that point would be Kazuki creating seals on everyone, just as he has a seal inside his own soul world. That though was not a point he wanted it to reach. That was why it was imperative that Danny continually weakened the gates inside everyone.
Like this, Kimi and the rest continued to grow their Mage cores swiftly. At the same time, Kazuki was busy splitting the magic energy between the three and Danny was dealing with the gates. This repetition only lasted for a few minutes when surprisingly Kimi reached the last part first.
Her body was the weakest of the three and could only contain so much power. Her core had become incredibly large and looked as if it were about to explode.
(Kimi, this is it. Push yourself to the utmost limit and endure what follows!)
Just as Kazukis said this, Kimi’s brows furrowed both in the outside world and inside as well. Her soul world shook and she felt a devastating pain ripple through her soul as she put everything into her core. It expanded one final time and then…
*TSHHHHH*
It was like a small explosion of steam escaped outward in every direction as light filled the soul world with blinding rays of power.
…
The light faded from whence it came and reentered her Mage core. A halo-like glow surrounded her core and made it shine like a shimmering diamond under the glow of a brilliant star.
Kimi’s core was now several times larger and it exuded pure light energy. Danny was about to destroy the gate inside of her when Kimi called out.
(Please don’t! My arm…can you let it continue until my arm heals?)
Danny exchanged a look with Kazuki.
(Kimi, I thought you would have regenerated it by now but it still hasn’t happened. If this gate continues to grow inside of you, it will get to the point where neither I nor Danny will be able to put a stop to it. That thing I told you about earlier, the Vazul, it will devour your soul and then take full control over your body. It will then run rampant and mindless eat anything and everything until it can no longer contain all of that power and then your body would explode and there would be nothing left. Is this a risk you really want to undertake?)
Kimi grit her teeth but in the end, she couldn’t take such a chance. She couldn’t risk losing herself and never seeing Sam ever again. Kimi shook her head and then Danny without hesitation, swung the branch with everything he had.
The severing tempest came crashing down atop the gate in a flurry of devastating slashes. The gate which held the darkness, as if it never existed in the first place, vanished entirely from Kimi’s soul world.
The very next instant, both Kazuki and Danny removed themselves from Kimi’s soul world and focused entirely on Sam and Asuna. These two it went far smoother. Asuna finished before Sam and her core now contained firey energy that blazed like a violent volcano. After her Sam was next. His core received far more energy and grew to an incredibly large size. It matched his personality to a T. It glowed with emerald light and looked like a dense mountainous rock.
Danny destroyed the last gate and everything surprisingly ended without incident. Kazuki had predicted things would be incredibly dangerous but as long as he and Danny worked together, there was basically no chance of the gates growing to an unfavorable size. Due to all of these factors, the pain Asuna and the others felt was lessened by a great amount and they all entered the 5th stage in only a few minutes.
(If word of this got out in the world, everyone would be shocked by what Danny and I accomplished. to bring not only one person but three to the 5th stage in only a few minutes, the world would be terrified and excited by this news.)
As Kazuki was lost in thought, a terrible rancid smell soured his nose and almost caused the hairs within to shrivel up and die.
He looked around at the three hairballs sitting around him. Waving his hand back and forth he compalined.
“You three smell like shit.”
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