Return of the Fallen Volume 8 Chapter 99
Danny’s silence filled the air with dread and this time Kimi shouted.
“WE’RE GONNA MAKE IT…RIGHT!?”
Danny kept quiet.
“Danny, just give it to us straight what are we missing, and what are our chances?”
Kazuki kept his cool in front of the others but inside he was raging. He did not wish to meet his end, not here. He at least needed to kill his sister and mother. After that, if death wanted him at least he would have taken revenge.
“There lies a problem with my cage.”
“A problem?”
“Yes. the energy that makes up the lightning is not infinite. As it collides with the outside Miasma and destroys it as we pass through, well, that cost some energy. Every second we remain within the Miasma means more and more energy is used up. It hasn’t been bad so far and I’ve been manually reducing the size of the lightning cage so as to save energy but…we are currently running out of time.”
Kimi was both frightened and angry.
“Why didn’t you know all of this beforehand? Because of you were gonna die!”
“You expected me to know the expenditure of energy my cage would use up as it collided with the Miasma. Kimi, do you forget this is my first time experiencing Miasma and this is only the second time I’ve used my Storm Tempest. The vast number of calculations and testing
“SHUT UP! STOP TALKING AND FIX THIS!”
Sam grabbed Kimi by the arm and looked at her as if she were crazy but she didn’t care anymore and she was freaking out.
“I don’t want to die! I want to leave, I want to go back home I want to see my parents and stupid brother, I..I…”
Tears began to pour from Kimi’s eyes as she sobbed desperately.
Sam’s expression softened and he pulled her into his arms.
“Right, first things first, we have to reduce the consumption of energy right now. I want you to shrink your cage until there is only a few inches between us and the cage. That should by us some time.”
Danny shook his head to Kazuki’s suggestion.
“Even if I shrink the cage and save on energy, we face another problem that trumps this one.”
Danny pointed at the edge of the cage and into the seemingly never-ending Miasma.
“We should have left the Miasma by now yet we are still inside of it. As we have been moving, so too has the Miasma. Every foot we travel and every mile, a hundred or a thousand, the Miasma follows right on top of us the exact same distance. We are nowhere closer to the edge now than when we started. We are completely in the very center of this mist.”
This news hit everyone like a sledgehammer.
Kimi fainted and Asuna fell to her knees. Even Sam who very rarely showed emotion shook.
Asuna could barely speak and just managed a whisper.
“This, this has to be a mistake.”
Danny shrugged.
“Your right.”
A look of confusion spread among everyone.
“The truth is I can’t say for sure if it’s really moving as I can not sense anything outside of my own cage but my theory shouldn’t be wrong.”
Sam’s eyes bulged as he punched Danny in the face but the moment he hit Danny in the face several bones broke on contact. Sam’s face twitched as he shouted.
“YOU ASSHOLE! KIMI JUST PASSED OTU BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU CAN’T EVEN PROVE!”
Danny felt nothing as his face and everything else was made from god metal. Still, he understood Sam’s anger and explained.
“Even though it is not proven I do not believe I am wrong. For one thing, the reason the Miasma came and surrounded us in the first place was most likely due to Fera’s command. She wants Kazuki dead and since I denied her from roaming about the Feya continent with her fake bodies, she no doubt wishes me dead right along with him. It’s been said that she is the most likely culprit who controls the Azirian’s if true, then it would not be strange for her to control the Miasma as well. The way the Miasma split itself several times and went for the front lines and Glacious. The moment Glacious deals with the Miasma, forcing it away, Fera just so happens to show herself and block him again.”
“So you believe that Fera sent it specifically after you and me but how does that explain it following us as you say.”
” Is that leap really so hard to latch onto? We know that something got in Glacious’s way earlier and he has been battling this something for quite a while. Fera has been blocking him again and again. Why now would the Miasma come after us instead of going straight after an occupied Glacious. Knowing your sister’s anger, knowing how prone she is to rage and following through with grudges, the Miasma coming after us right after she is sent back to the dark continent, this no longer becomes a leap to conclusions and is rather the most probable possibility. If she in fact can control the Miasma, and she has sent it to many places before, is it really so hard to believe that she can make it follow her enemies?”
What Danny said made complete sense. For well over a year, the Miasma has been getting in Glacious’s way but right after Danny traps Fera in his cage and she gets sent back to the dark continent the Miasma comes after Danny and Kazuki. Kazuki could see how this fit.
“She also sent the Azirian’s not to Glacious but rather to the front lines. Whatever she’s doing to block Glacious she’s confident enough to split her forces. She really is trying to end things in one fell swoop. Once King Brian’s army is crushed, humanity’s main fighting force is completely obliterated. Any other resistance humans can muster up after would be like a bug in comparison to before. Fera can then wash her evil over the entire continent after and with Glacious gone, what can stop her?”
Danny pointed back at himself and grabbed one of his fingers. With a slight twist, he tore the finger off surprising everyone. The very next moment, he casually dropped it in the air. The finger shot backward in an instant and nearly fell out of the cage. Just when it came to the edge of the lighting though, it paused in mid-air. Sam and Asuna didn’t know what this meant but Kazuki quickly grasped the situation.
“Your speed. You haven’t lightened your pace for even a second and we’ve only gone in one direction yet we still remain inside the Miasma. Even though you aren’t that fast compared to Ancient Beast, you are still incredibly fast. Moving for this amount of time yet still not reaching the end or exit of the Miasma, it can only mean that it has been moving with us. I don’t understand though, from what everyone’s said, the Miasma is supposed to be very slow. How is it able to keep up with you?”
Danny curled his hand and the detached finger he ripped off flew backward and reattached itself perfectly.
“That I can’t say for sure. Possibly it could be expanding as we speak. Even though we are in the middle of a desert one would naturally think it is empty of energy sources but you’d be wrong. There are several mines beneath the desert sands. Each of them is filled with elemental crystals and other resources filled with energy. Not just these mines either. The Miasma can also feed off of the energy in the air, in the ground, and even water. It’s not unreasonable for it to be constantly expanding to keep up with us.”
Asuna looked shocked.
“So all the while we’ve been trying to escape, we’ve instead been contributing to this monstrous thing’s growth!?!?”
“I believe so.”
Everyone became quiet as they took this in. They thought that this time, finally, they were going to make it but instead, in a way they’ve been adding to the Miasma’s strength.
“What you say follows and makes sense but I know there is more to your words than that. By shrinking the cage we would definitely save energy and last longer inside of here but you refuse to. Danny, tell me, what trick do you still have up your sleeve?”
Danny’s metallic lips formed a wide grin.
“The cage was a brilliant idea Kazuki it really was but we could not have foreseen these circumstances, not under the duration we had to form and execute a plan. Do you remember before we entered the Miasma I dipped my finger inside of it to see its effects? After I did that, I have been thinking of a plan this entire way. The Miasma can only destroy/absorb whatever it comes into contact with. So long as we leave this place from inside the cage without physically touching the Miasma, we should be able to escape from here safely.”
Danny pointed at Asuna.
“Asuna, it’s time to let loose.”
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