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Return of the Fallen Volume 4 Chapter 27

Author: Blue_Rat

ch27

After Kazuki killed Abura, it only took him a few minutes to relocate Nunully, Tsura, and Mei. Tsura had recovered some and she took them to the skies. Now that Kazuki’s Mage core was reforged, he could directly tap into his earth element and help heal Mei’s broken arm. After a while, with Tsura’s speed, very soon she brought Kazuki and the others over a wide mountain range.

For several days and nights, they traveled during the day and at night they would find a secure place and bunker up for the night. Kazuki or Tsura would hunt for a meal and everyone would rest in shifts. They traveled like this for a bit but a problem quickly presented itself. Nunully, without a magic tool, had no way to keep the cold out. She may be able to use water and ice magic but that didn’t mean her body was immune to the cold completely. Without some way to control the element of ice, and without proper clothes, she would freeze. Albeit at a slower rate than a normal person who couldn’t use ice but this didn’t make her 100% immune to it.

Kazuki had no garments of any kind in his storage ring and Tsura only had a few light dresses in her storage tooth. The solution though came about without much thought. Kazuki would simply create a fire in his hand and Nunully would stick close to him. Not only him though, Mei as well enjoyed the warmth from the flame and clung to him like a hugging pillow. Kazuki didn’t mind the attention but it became too much.

Having one person hang around you so closely everyday all day was already a bit much but multiplying it made it that much more bothersome. Not only that but maintaining a flame that could warm up several people was exhausting. In the end, Kazuki had very little options. He had to switch to a combination of using hi ki and his fire element. The only downside was Nunully and Mei still had to remain super close to him.

Kazuki would make a barrier of ki that surrounded not only him but Mei Tsura and Nunully all at once. The range of this wasn’t very much though and if one walked just four feet away they would leave it’s range entirely. Kazuki would sit at the forefront of Tsura’s back while Mei would sit directly behind him and Nunully would sit directly behind her, sandwiching Mei in the middle.

This would normally upset a child to be between two people for so long but Mei actually found it to be cozy as she wrapped her arms around Kazuki’s waist like a snake and laid her head on his back. Kazuki extended his barrier of ki around Tsura’s head as she flew. The barrier extended backward from there covering Kazuki Mei and Nunully. Kazuki would then crate two holes in his barrier to replace the oxygen within.

Pulling in good air from one side and releasing the bad from the other. Then he would ignite a small flame within this confined barrier. His flame would warm up the inside of the barrier and the heat from this would last several times longer. In this way, he and the others would stay warm for a long time. The only thing though was that his barrier wasn’t big enough to fully cover Tsura’s body.

Because of this, combined with the frozen weather and the fresh snow that continuously fell, Tsura’s wings would frost over within an hour or two. Tsura would then have to land and remove the ice particles from her wings. She could normally withstand the cold but the fact that her wings froze over sent chills directly to her nerves and froze feathers together making it difficult to control her flying. This caused their journey to take longer then Kazuki anticipated.

If things continued like this, the journey would take considerably longer. Kazuki changed tactics and Tsura flew them in a slightly different direction.

On the way to the Rin mountain range, there were two cities nearby. Well, not exactly nearby but within the general northern direction. These two cities were officially considered the last of human civilization for the surrounding thousand miles or so. The furthest away and closest to the Rin mountain range was called Breztul, it was a small city but it still contained nearly 1 million people. This though was considered nothing more than a border city.

Tsura landed on a hilltop. In the distance, Kazuki could see a decent-sized wall. It stretched 60 feet up and was a mix of black and grey. Looking to the left and right, the wall stretched on for miles. Behind the wall, Kazuki could make out tens of thousands of buildings which caused him to grow excited.

He wasn’t the only one. Mei jumped up and down excitedly while Nunully’s eyes seemed to shine. Tsura had the smallest reaction but she still looked on with curiosity. Mei had never seen such a large wall before and this was her first time with an actual city. Nunully as well was holed up in Tresta since she was born. The only thing that really filled her time was diving into books and filling her head with stories, as she was almost never allowed out. Now she was finally visiting a new city. She wondered if they had any interesting books to read. This, in turn, made her think of her mother, and her excitement quickly faded.

She was still incredibly interested in this new city but she felt sad that her mother couldn’t experience this with her. Nunully began to wonder if her mother had left Tresta by now or if Garn might have done something to her. Nunully’s became slightly downcast but then Mei’s eager voice rang out.

“Big bro Kazuki, this place, what is this place!”

Mei was swinging on Kazuki’s arm like a little monkey as she asked this question over and over.

Kazuki grabbed Mei up and swung her around before he placed her on his shoulders. At first, Mei didn’t know what was happening but when she sat upon Kazuki’s shoulders she felt like she had her own ride and grew even happier. Kazuki pointed ahead and smiled.

“If I’m not wrong, that should be Gentis. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest cities but I don’t know Mei what do you think?”

Mei’s eyes shined and she outstretched her arms almost losing her balance and falling backward.

“Big big super big! This must hast to be the biggest place in the whole world. Right Mama?”

Tsura smiled at her daughter and pushed her up so she didn’t fall off of Kazuki’s shoulders.

“Hmm, It must be if my little Mei Mei says so.”

Nunully watched the three’s lively conversation and her mood improved. She remembered reading about Gentis city and knew it wasn’t the biggest city in Treia but she wouldn’t mention it and ruin the good atmosphere. Instead, she walked over and looked at Mei.

“Mei Mei.”

Mei looked down at Nunully. Being so tall on Kazuki’s shoulders she felt like a giant and asked gleefully.

“Yes, big sis?”

“What are we waiting for, let’s go!”

Mei’s eyes grew brighter and she jabbed Kazuki with her feet as though he was a horse.

“Go let’s go!”

Kazuki didn’t mind this and started to trot, making Mei even giddier.

Soon, they could make out the city gate.

Kazuki paused his steps and escorted the thee off the road and into the nearby forest. They wondered what was going on and he explained.

“I’m afraid we’ll need some disguises. I got a bit too excited seeing this city but in the end, Gentis city is still a part of Treia. Although travel to this city is difficult, I’m sure they already know our faces. Especially since communication isn’t difficult. We’re gonna have to get a bit messy. Sorry in advance.”

Tsura and Nunully wondered what he meant by that but Kazuki said nothing and began to dig in the dirt. They quickly put it together and the two ladies faces scrunched up in understanding.

Very soon a small group of four came wandering down the dirt road. This wouldn’t usually be anything to take notice of but the guards at the gate found a few oddities. First of all, this city was a far distance to any other piece of human civilization and took a month by horse. The people approaching though were all on foot. Not only that, but the four also looked extremely dirty and poor.

The guards didn’t necessarily have anything against the poor but this was a well-established city. Usually, when a person came here, they had either money or goods to sell, the people slowly coming up the road obvious had neither. Another weird thing was the clothes they all wore. This was the far north and the cold was first and foremost. The people coming closer though all wore loose or thin clothing. No way could one stay warm in those outfits the guards thought.

As the people appeared before the guards, one of the guards curiously took in the appearance of the four. Two were female and two were male.

(Hmm, two women an old man and a young boy. How’d they get way out here?)