Return of the Fallen Volume 4 Chapter 86
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch86
Everyone had the same thought at this moment.
Asuna studied the ball of ice in Kazuki’s hand, excitement on her face.
“So with these talismans, your saying we can drop the temperature fast enough to completely disrupt her tornadoes. Can this work?”
Kazuki tossed the grape-sized ball of ice to Asuna who fumbled a bit with it but caught it. As soon as it touched her flesh, she felt a burning sensation and almost panicked as she dropped it on the ground. She stared at her palm in amazement. Squeezing her hand into a fist it felt numb to her.
(So cold.)
“This ice is so cold, even colder than Nunully’s ice, how?”
Kazuki pointed at Asuna herself.
“Your locking ability. When you use it you don’t just slow the molecules in the water down, you halt them entirely, reducing the energy and time required to freeze the water and turn it into ice. My talismans have a few objectives but the main two are to materialize water and then turn said water into ice. You may not have realized it but right after the talisman activated and made the water, the moment the water formed, it was already starting to freeze, it’s just that freezing takes longer than materializing water. Your locking ability suspends the moving molecules and allowing my talisman to basically skip that process and get straight to turning the water to ice. Your ability and my talismans combined create ice the instant the water is there.”
Asuna stared wide-eyed before a question popped into her head.
“Wait, that’s all well and good but if this whole plan requires me to lock every single ball of water individually then there’s no way this is gonna work. I…I can’t use my power on so many individual pieces at once. Besides, when it comes to freezing, wouldn’t the ice expert work better for this?”
Asuna pointed at Nunully with her chin.
Nunully was still focusing on her dome. It was constantly getting hammered by the outside forces, causing her to continuously repair her dome and reinforce it again and again. She had little time to pull her attention away for even a moment.
“Nunully will also be doing her part and I think your misunderstanding something. I don’t need you to lock every single talisman, rather I need you to use it on one specifically. All of my talismans will be connected together. If something happens to one, it will happen to all of the others like a chain that’s linked together.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, that…you can’t do that.”
Degra chimed in with a confused look. Everyone thought he was trying to stop the plan and began to glare at him but that wasn’t his intention and tried to clear things up.
“I mean, what your suggesting goes against…If what you say is true, these talismans will all use the same inscription you’ve placed on them. That doesn’t, in turn, mean they will all use the power this girl here puts into it.”
Degra could see no one was getting what he was trying to say and made his words simpler.
“Power, magical energy. Every inscription, every spell requires energy. What I’m saying is, the energy she uses on one talisman won’t be enough for all of them. Your plan isn’t feasible because there is simply not enough energy to activate them all.”
All eyes wandered back onto Kazuki and Kazuki nodded along.
“Your right.”
No one expected this honest answer from Kazuki and Kimi started to gnash her teeth. Before things boiled over, Kazuki quickly added.
“In order for this to work, it will, in fact, require more energy than what Asuna can currently produce but who says I will just use her as a battery.”
Kazuki pointed at Sam, Shin, Asuna, and Kimi.
“Every single one of you will be pitching in.”
Shin chuckled.
*HAH*
“And people say I joke around way too much. Kazuki, you need to be serious. What do you mean we’ll all be pitching in. Do we look like we can use space or time magic? Stop playing around and just tell us what the hell it is your trying to say, enough with the games, we’re running out of time and here.”
“I’m serious. Every single one of you will be helping with this one. This isn’t a game. I never once said you would use the same ability as Asuna, I simply need your power or rather, your hands.”
Kimi looked at her hand and a thought struck her like lightning and her facial expression turned grim.
“You mean the ancient hand symbols?”
Kazuki nodded.
Kimi felt her stomach twist in knots. She along with everyone else that has used the ancient hand symbols realized how painful it is to actually use the symbols. Not all but most symbols required your bones to creak and scrape against each other while you bent your hand and fingers at od angles. Twisting them up and stretching them further than normal, the agony was one that none hear wanted to try again.
“So you want us to nearly break our fingers for this?”
“I do. Why, do you think saving our lives isn’t worth a bit of pain. You’ve seen my memories, you should know the number of times I’ve been forced to use them. Don’t tell me you can’t handle a little pain.”
Kimi swallowed hard. She knew all too well. Kazuki had practiced these ancient hand symbols for years and had become fairly proficient with them. Kimi had only done it for a few days but the pain of using it was already etched in her mind.
She thought about Sam, and her parents, and home once more. She subconsciously gripped her shoulder where her arm was missing.
(Pain, I can deal with pain. I can do this.)
Kimi realized something while she was thinking. Her angry tone subsided a bit.
“Kazuki, how did you even know that we could use the ancient hand symbols? We hadn’t seen each other in all this time and we’ve only now had a chance to talk, so how?”
Kazuki’s eyes once more wandered toward Danny before they snapped back.
“The swords. Right when everything erupted and the shit hit the fan, you all had weapons made from the elements. I doubt Reya would allow any of you to have a magic item that would allow you to use magic against her. Remembering that you all have witnessed my memories, I had a thought, why couldn’t you all learn what I learned. I mean you guys would be able to see all the mistakes I made while learning and be able to pick up the ancient hand symbols a lot quicker than I or so my thoughts went. I just put two and two together when I saw the weapons.”
“Hmm, that’s weird, Danny said something very similar to that.”
Shin said that and then everyone again stared at Kazuki, who did his best to play it off and just shrugged his shoulders.
“Anyway, the point is, you four can use the symbols like me, maybe not as well as I can but none of you need to. You simply need to make seven symbols when the time is right.”
Kazuki’s hands went forward and he slowly performed the symbols with his fingers. A small glow gathered at his fingertips before shooting forward and landing on the talisman. The talisman glowed for a moment but did nothing. A mild disappointment filled the icy room. Degra on the other hand, his eyes shined with excitement.
(What power is this? I sensed nothing from his magic tool while he did that. Did he actually use magic without a tool? So many secrets, so many treasures…)
“Please don’t show me those expressions. It won’t do anything unless there are more talismans. Once there’s more, you all will repeat these hand symbols repeatedly on a loop. The power that gathers will extend outward and the talismans like a magnet will suck up that energy on their own and activate together. You all just need to repeat these symbols.”
Kazuki kicked away some space on the ground and drew the 7 symbols on the ground with a stick. His hands moved fast and the pictures actually came out more detailed than one would think.
Everyone gathered around in a small circle and examined the symbols again and again.
Degra didn’t understand what these ancient hand symbols were but after what he witnessed, he realized how special they were in an instant. He watched Kazuki and the others trying to decipher anything he could from this.
“Kazuki, can you show me how to do this, I may be of some help with this plan of yours.”
Kazuki was cautious of Degra and he knew that showing him this much was already far too much. Kazuki changed the subject fairly quickly.
“This isn’t something you can learn without having a special tool. Besides, I still need you to slow Triska.”
Degra pulled back slightly.
“Can’t be learned without a special tool but none of them seem to have this special tool but they can use it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were keeping things from me, Kazuki.”
Kazuki shook his head.
“The tool isn’t something physical. It’s something special that’s become a part of them deep within their minds. It’s truly not something anyone can just learn no matter how badly they want to. I have o reason to lie to you, just ask them if you don’t believe me.”
As the conversation was turned to them, they all remembered Kazuki’s warning long ago back in the town of Edngaul. Kazuki had told them how dangerous it would be if his power was found out and how it could lead to war between kingdoms. It was not something that could be discussed. They all still felt some type of way about Kazuki but this warning of his they took seriously. They all agreed with Kazuki and acknowledged what he was stating as fact.
Degra narrowed his eyes but didn’t press the issue. The most important thing, for now, was escaping this situation alive. Later, there would be plenty of time to plunder the thoughts of others. Degra smiled innocently and said.
“I understand, please continue with the plan.”
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