Return of the Fallen Volume 3 Chapter 48
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch48
Kazuki thought about the plan.
“So we absolutely have to remove his eyes?”
“Remove, destroy, we just need to make his eyes no longer work. They must be so damaged and beyond repair that his power will not work in any shape or form.”
“What about the villagers he’s holding captive, we’re going to rescue them right?”
Asuna was worried that the captured villagers were not mentioned at all this entire time.
Retsu and Kazuki shared a look before Retsu answered uncaringly.
“Why would we rescue them?”
“Now hold on a minute, this can’t be, Ryuta you say something too, we have to save them. We can’t let them be hostages.”
Before Kazuki said anything Retsu fired off.
“Asuna girl, they are not hostages because to me they no longer exist. They may still be alive but they are not living. Some of them have been with Zetsu for an entire month. On the outside, he’s been keeping them alive but inside of their souls, in terms of time passed, it must have been several hundred years by now and he’s tortured them for nearly all of it. The way you felt such despair, the way you faded away, imagine those villagers. I guarantee you, once they wake up, there will be nothing of them left. Their minds will be mush and any resemblance of them from their previous selves will no longer exist. This is all if they can even be awoken properly at this point. I make go to wake them and the overload of reality may just kill them. Like I said, these people, they no longer exist.”
The words were cold but nothing e said was untrue. Even if he woke them, the chances that any part of them still remain…are basically nonexistent. To be locked away from your senses and all self-awareness for 100’s of years on top of being tortured for most of it, who can come back from that. Asuna didn’t wish to hear this but what Retsu said was undeniable. Another foul layer wrapped around this already terrible atmosphere, causing Asuna to feel a deep bitterness as well as a bit of lingering fear.
(Would my fate have been the same If Ryuta didn’t wake me up. Would I be abandoned with no hopes of return?)
Asuna thought about how lucky she was, that after being trapped for so long she had once again found purpose within her soul as she discovered the tiny purple dots that were the elements of Space. If she hadn’t discovered them, how much longer would she have lasted within. A long shudder went down Asuna’s spine, she didn’t want to think about the unknown and gripped her steel daggers tightly.
“After we damage his eyes then what, I’m sure that can’t be all there is to it, right?”
“Right you are Ryuta. Taking Zetsu’s eyes is the first step. After, I’ll need you all to help me hold him as still as possible so that I can pacify him with my own power. Once he’s pacified, he’ll be like a newborn doe and I’ll have complete and total control over him. Our mission will be complete and we can call it a day as they say.”
“Hold him, for how long?”
Retsu’s antennas began rubbing his large chin in thought.
“Hmm, 10, 15 seconds, yes I believe that should finish things nicely.”
“Are you not sure?”
“Well, these bodies are a first for me and Zetsu so I can’t be entirely sure but my instincts are telling me this is so.”
Kazuki eyed Retsu questioningly and Retsu defended his honor.
“Hey hey hey now, these are godly instincts were talking about. If I say 15 seconds then it is definitely 100% 15 seconds.”
“100% you say?”
“Haha, maybe 99% still, that’s incredibly high you know. Not a guarantee but a guarantee you get it.”
Kazuki folded his arms.
“Yeah…not a guarantee.”
Retsu could only laugh at Kazuki’s comments, it wasn’t worth it to get mad at this point.
Shin walked over n a huff.
“Right, so now we know what we need to do but where are we gonna do it, in this cave?”
Nunully shook her head and shot down Shin’s notion before it got legs.
“We can’t fight here, no we absolutely mustn’t!”
Shin crossed his arms.
“And why not?”
“Can you not see the obvious? Besides this main chamber, the rest of the cave seems to only be narrow paths. Zetsu can fill up a passage with his entire body and move naturally like that but us, we’ll be stepping all over one another left and right. No, we must fight him outside, in a large open space. Kimi and I need to stay far in the back, as usual, that’s where we’ll be most effective. Plus, Mei needs lots of space to transform and her best attack comes from dive-bombing with her large, dense body.”
Mei felt a little upset hearing her body being called large and dense but besides her everyone agreed with Nunully’s assessment.
“The elf woman is right. Plus with his grip over the fog in this cave becoming more and more his, that would put us at another disadvantage were we to remain within this cave. So we must bring the fight outside but here comes a problem that I didn’t think of beforehand. Well when I say problem, I really mean a moral one, that is for you all.”
Kazuki and the others looked questioningly at Retsu.
“You see, we know we need to fight Zetsu outside of the cave but here’s where things become tricky. How are you all going to force him out of the cave?”
Asuna and the others couldn’t see where the moral problem lies but Kazuki had already put the pieces together and was waiting for the others to catch up as they threw out suggestions.
Shin grinned confidently.
“Hmpf, I alone will be enough. I’ll simply go to where he’s hiding and get him to chase me out of the cave. With my speed, there’s no way he’ll even touch my shadow.”
Kimi grumbled.
“And why in the world would he chase you. You heard Retsu, Zetsu has everything he needs and a bit of his true power has almost recovered. Chasing you would just be a waste of time and Zetsu has no reason to do it, dummy?”
Shin glared at Kimi.
“You just had to add that last part, you lopsided tit bitch.”
Kimi’s eyes widened in rage.
“What the fuck did you just say to me?”
Asuna got in between the two of them.
“Knock it off, this is serious. The clock is ticking away. We need to solve this here and now and the constant back and forth is tiresome and gets in the way, so knock it off!”
Asuna put a bit of power in her voice and put the twos fighting on ice for now.
“Good, now back to the topic at hand. If just one person goes it might not work but if a few of us go and pick a small fight. You can’t tell me he’ll sit back and let himself get attacked. We poke him enough times and I’m sure he’ll chase.”
This time Nunully was the one who disagreed.
“That won’t work either, at least not in the way you intended. It’s true attacking him and provoking him, will definitely get him to chase and attack back but we must remember Retsu’s words. He’s lost control of the fog before and has been rapidly losing his grip over it. If e loses it again just once while we’re leading Zetsu out, Zetsu can then flip the whole situation in an instant. He could easily use the fog to displace us, separate us and kill us one by one. Getting him to chase us is dangerous if not the most dangerous plan we could come up with. The chances of him countering us and using the greyish purple fog are high, exceedingly high. We have to come up with something else.”
Shin scratched his nose and spoke.
“He almost has regained some of his true power but not yet. If his true power is simply souls then we just need to take out his power sources. Then he’ll be forced to leave his cave to gather more right?”
Shin didn’t seem to realize the weight of his words as he only now noticed the disgust filled stares that were coming his way.
“Wh…what is it, what did I say wrong?”
Asuna already had her hands on her hips.
“How can you even say that. Are you suggesting we just slaughter a bunch of innocent people who wound up in this situation through no fault of their own? Shin, how can you be, so…”
“ASUNA! that’s enough, your words are more than enough.”
“Eh, Ryuta…I just.”
“No, do you not get it, this is the moral problem Retsu mentioned. It’s not a matter if we should or shouldn’t do it. Its already far beyond that. Their lives, in order to realize the final goal to capture Zetsu and return us and the other villagers back to the right time, Zetsu’s hostages it’s already too late for them.”
“But but…to just kill them, I…I can’t do it, they’ve done nothing wrong.”
Kazuki shook his head.
“Your right, they did nothing to deserve whats happened to them but would you rather they continue to suffer in the state their in now. To kill them would actually be considered mercy.”
Asuna froze as that word echoed within her mind.
Kazuki grabbed her shoulder.
“Don’t worry, no one here is asking you to do something so dreadful. As a matter of fact, only one person will carry this act out.”
Kazuki slowly walked past Asuna and held out a hand towards Shin.
Shin was confused but Kazuki’s words rang like thunder in his ear.
“Shin, I damaged my sword in the fight earlier, I’ll need to borrow yours.”
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