Return of the Fallen Volume 4 Chapter 5
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch5
Kazuki laid there for a moment. Each breath he took misted on the air from the cold. His wet clothes clung to him sending a frozen chill to his core. Kazuki’s teeth chattered and his whole body shivered but the last thing he wanted to do was move.
(Abura is down and Nunully should be taking care of Mei and Tsura but without magic, there’s not a lot Nunully can do for them.)
Kazuki wished he carried an extra staff or some other magic tool that Nunully could use. Holding his hand up he looked wistfully at his storage ring. That’s when he noticed the huge gaping wound on his arm. It was as though he saw it for the first time. He actually forgot for a moment that Abura had torn a huge chunk of flesh from his arm with a bite but as soon as he saw it again, and with his adrenaline draining away, a shredding pain spread throughout his arm and shot alarms through his nerves to his brain.
*Uggh*
Kazuki slowly sat up and sent ki into his arm. Though because he was exhausted and his mind was unsettled, his ki moved sluggishly. Only after a minute did it begin to flow normally. A warm sensation spread deep into his arm and a bit of the pain started to fade as his arm began to heal.
Kazuki couldn’t sit around and wait for it to fully heal though and stopped as soon as he sealed his wound and it bled no more.
Standing up was a struggle but he managed to do it anyway.
Looking at his surroundings, he was on a large empty frozen lake. At the edge of the lake was a series of overhangs from a cliff. Kazuki made his way over there and sat down underneath one such overhang.
(The immediate threat has been solved but that doesn’t mean I’m safe. I sicked Reya onto Muteki and his squad. Unless Muteki and his goons have some trump card, Reya’s speed and strength should give her the edge and she’ll either beat them all or chase them away. Either way, someone will still be after me. Most likely it will be Reya and she can still track me by my compass’s aura.)
Kazuki had wanted to throw away his compass multiple times. To do so would mean, Reya couldn’t track him but it meant to much to him. This alone would not have been enough for him to keep it if he had to chose between it and his life but after talking to Retsu and finding out the aura his compass gave off was a godly one, an idea came to mind. He could use this.
(I have no idea how long it will take Reya and the others to finish battling, so I have to do this now while I have the chance.)
Kazuki’s ring flashed and several items fell out in front of him.
Three Magic Beast cores landed softly on the ground. Two were tier one and the third one was a tier 2 Beast core. After that, 13 Nexar crystals were spread out and glowed and dimmed at a constant almost rhythmic rate. Last but not least, one Stazar void rock lay in the center of it all.
Kazuki had thought about this for a long time and theorized hundreds if not thousands of times on how to reforge his Mage core. He wondered to himself on many sleepless nights. What exactly is a Mage core? His conclusion in its most basic form always brought him to the same place.
(A Mage core in its simplicity, it is nothing more than an advanced battery. It is a container that stores energy and is activated by a person to draw upon said energy to materialize the natural elements.)
The question he found stumping him constantly was the same as well. How does one create a battery and then how does one take that battery and combine it with a person or being?
Kazuki held up a Nexar crystal and admired its glow.
(To make the tangible intangible and vise versa, Nexar crystals are required. With these, I won’t have to make the battery.)
The first thing that needed to be done, he had to renter his soul or at least what he thought was his soul. The place he had met the younger version of his brother. He needed to remember that feeling from Zetsu’s soul attack.
Kazuki shut his eyes and focused on that feeling. He focused on the despair he felt as his body failed him and his senses faded away to nothingness and his mind went black. He did this for a while but nothing happened.
Opening his eyes, he didn’t understand where the problem lies.
(How can I recapture that feeling?)
Storing his items, Kazuki sat there for a bit.
He was lost in thought for a while before his eyes wandered back to the frozen lake. Unconsciously, he stood up and slowly walked over toward the lake. Standing at the edge, he knelt down and felt the cold ice on his fingertips. After a bit, he held up his and observed his fingers.
(After the pain comes a numb and a sensation of loss. I can use this.)
Kazuki walked towards the center of the lake and without thinking he stomped hard on the ice beneath him.
*Crack*
The ice shattered with little resistance and Kazuki fell into the dark cold waters below. He quickly resurfaced though as his body broke out into a deep shiver and he felt his lungs paralyze. It took actual effort to inhale and breathe again.
*Puaaah*
The cold water prickled his skin like a million needles. It shrunk his pores yet that didn’t stop the freezing temperatures from penetrating him to the bone and permeating within him. Kazuki could deal with heat, that was what he much preferred but the cold, on the other hand, was like his natural enemy. Today though it would be his friend.
As Kazukiallowed the painful waters to stab at him, he felt his breath becoming shallow. Lying on his back he floated with only his face above the surface. Breathing slowly, Kazuki shut his eyes. One minute passed then two and then five. After that, he stopped counting or rather he forgot to count. As he lost feeling all over, his mind began to grow hazy. Eventually, the only thing he recognized was a faint thumping in his chest.
Kazuki’s eyes slowly began to close. He knew he shouldn’t fall asleep and he tried to fight it but his eyes were starting to roll up into his head. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, he heard it.
“Wake up!”
Kazuki’s eyes shot awake and he looked around for the source of the shout but found that it was still just he and an unconscious Abura around. Kazuki found that he was losing it and that the frozen water wasn’t a help at all. He circulated his ki and pulled himself out of the lake.
“Are you trying to kill yourself, little dummy?”
Kazuki almost slipped back inside as he heard the voice once more.
(Wait I know this voice.)
Kazuki sat down and shut his eyes. His body still numb of nearly all sensation he tried to recall that feeling from Zetsu’s attack once more.
“What are you doing?”
Kazuki’s eyes snapped open but instead of seeing the surrounding frozen lake, he found himself under a tall tree and right in front of him, his older brother was staring at him like he was a fool.
His brother asked him again, this time with a hint of anger in his voice.
“What in the 7 realms of hell are you trying to do to yourself?”
Kazuki’s lips slowly parted.
“It worked.”
Kai raised a questioning brow.
“What worked?”
Kazuki ignored his brother and shut his eyes again. He concentrated on his ki and tried to move it. A warm flow of energy circulated in his body he focused it to his ears and he began to hear the howling of the wind as it whistled over the lake.
(It’s working. I can use my ki even when my mind is focused here.)
Kazuki opened his eyes and he saw the frozen lake around him. Shutting his eyes he focused on that numbing feeling and when he reopened his eyes, he was back under that tree. His older brother was staring at him in confusion.
“Little dummy, how did you do that?”
“Do what?”
Kai punched Kazuki on the head.
“Stop playing. How did you come and go like that? Last time you had to be pushed from the top of this tree to return to yourself but just now, you came in and out as though it were natural, like breathing.”
Kazuki felt proud of himself and bragged a little.
“I just tried to copy that feeling I got when Zetsu attacked me. Oh, right you wouldn’t know about Zetsu, since your not real.”
Kai walked over and punched Kazuki again. The pain throbbed where he was punched. Kazuki rubbed it while wincing and Kai cracked his knuckles.
“Who says I’m not real. Oh, and I know who Zetsu is. I was watching your entire encounter. Not bad but your technique is a bit sloppy compared to mine and your skill with the sword, well we can’t even be compared then.”
Kazuki nodded his head nonchalantly.
“Haha, your right, my sword skills have become sloppy. Granny Master Maya would probably be pissed if she knew how bad I’ve beco…”
Kazuki froze mid-sentence as he realized what Kai had just said. He almost fell backward as he pointed at Kai and shouted.
“WAIT, YOUR…YOUR REAL!”
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