Return of the Fallen Volume 5 Chapter 39
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch39
*GHUAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!*
Kazuki unleashed an ungodly scream. As the blood orb had finished sinking into his head, a pain similar to a million needles shredding and stabbing into his brain dug into him. All at once, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of images flooded his mind. Each one was a memory, a moment, an experience, a fragment from Glacious’s lifetime. Each fragment burned an imprint inside of Kazuki’s mind, one by one. Though they came one by one, the time in which they fused into him became shorter and shorter, like a flashing light flickering faster and faster.
*AHHHHHHHHHHH!*
The pain was unbearable. Kazuki clenched his teeth until fine cracks splintered through them and then they shattered in his mouth. This pain, however, was not nearly enough to counter what he felt in his mind. Kazuki clawed at his own face, tearing up his skin and leaving lacerations everywhere. Still, it didn’t compare to the memories from Glacious.
There was no more thinking clearly, there was no more thinking at all. Kazuki’s mind flashed bright white and then pitch black repeatedly. Nothing made sense, nothing could make sense. Every sense seemed overloaded and when he thought the pain could go no further, as though to mock him, the agony multiplied.
On instinct alone, Kazuki found the nearest side of the cauldron, and with everything he had inside of him he slammed his head forward, intending on crushing it and ending this torment at once.
However, just as his head was about to slam into the side of the metal cauldron, a powerful force took hold of him and halted his actions.
“Oh, none of that Kazuki. I can’t have you killing yourself over this trivial amount of pain. I still need your help after all. Besides, you should really save your strength as the worst is yet to come. Speaking of which, it looks like your magic is about to fully activate my cauldron.”
Glacious had just finished those words when the inscriptions on the outside of the cauldron lit up fully. They had been glowing dimly when Kazuki first poured in his magic but now, as though they were responding top his personal cries, the many inscriptions glowed brightly and the cauldron began to tremble. Glacious released his hold over Kazuki and allowed nature to take its course.
(He should be fine…I think.)
The green slimy liquid surrounding Kazuki on all sides began to churn unnaturally, spinning the contents of the cauldron in a clockwise spiral. Kazuki who couldn’t withstand the pain had no way of keeping his balance and fell sideways. The spin of the water was like a whirlpool and spun Kazuki around the cauldron, slamming his body into the walls repeatedly.
Kazuki tumbled about. The force of the green liquid tossed him and turned him, repeatedly submerging him under the liquid. Because of this, Kazuki took in mouthfuls of this liquid and his lungs were filled.
He tried to scream, he tried to cry, but no sound was uttered. His throat was torn and his lungs were on fire.
The churning inside showed no mercy and sped up again and again. The force increased and compounded multiple times and Kazuki slammed into the metal walls inside the cauldron, his bones began to crack and his clothes were torn away. Faster and faster the cauldron rotated the contents inside and Kazukji’s bones, they now began to break. Kazuki had lost all sense of reason long ago and with his lungs filled and no air to breathe, just like in the river, all strength was lost and his consciousness slipped from him, no, it was ripped from him.
Kazuki sank to the bottom unconscious. His heartbeat slowing to a crawl.
The green liquid within the cauldron after making 88 rotations started to bubble and the liquid within his lungs began to boil as well. Were Kazuki to be awake at this moment he would feel the energy being drained from his Mage core at a rapid rate. As the liquid absorbed magical energy from Kazuki, the inscriptions on the cauldron unlinked from one another like a break in a chain. Immediately after they reformed in a different way. As soon as they did, the green sludge within the cauldron changed and boiled further. A golden light, mixed with dark green and speck of dark blue filled the green liquid all at once.
(Hmm, young Kazuki isn’t breathing. I thought he was more resilient than that but he doesn’t have a dragons physique so I may have overestimated him. If I don’t step in, it seems he will most definitely die. Should I…)
Glacious paused his thoughts and observed Kazuki within.
(It seems I worried for nothing, his body is reacting nicely.)
The broken bones protruding from Kazuki’s body quickly popped themselves back in place and realigned themselves and healed, becoming denser and stronger. The lacerations on his face came together in an instant and his skin became smoother than before. The green concoction within his lungs seeped into his body as though his body was a sponge. His body started absorbing this weird multicolored liquid rapidly.
Into his bones, it sank. Into his blood, it circulated. It coated his organs and innards, fusing with them, enhancing them. The muscles that had been battered and crushed into the metal cauldron grew and condensed repeatedly. It seemed as though worms wriggled beneath his flesh constantly as his muscles reshaped and reformed. Denser, tougher. His body screamed not in pain but rather in joy as he was filled with energy.
*Ba bump Ba bump*
Kazuki’s eyes snapped open and the lid to the cauldron was launched high into the sky.
Kazuki had already jumped out, his naked body stood at the edge of the river. Looking down at his reflection in the clear waters below, he could see every single line of muscle and definition on his body. There wasn’t even an ounce of fat on him and he had thinned down drastically. Gripping his fist repeatedly, Kazuki could feel that his strength had risen by several times. Inspecting himself with ki, Kazuki found that his bones had become denser and stronger and resembled something closer to metal than regular bone.
Not only that, but Kazuki could also sense that his organs, muscle, and everything else had a drastic change. He grew and expanded several times within the cauldron before being condensed down. He was now a few times stronger than when he went into the cauldron but his body seemed to have shrunk slightly. Not his height but rather his bulk and he looked leaner. It was then that the faint smell of something being cooked hit his nose.
Kazuki looked over and found Glacious already had a fire going some time ago and he was turning a skewer with a large fish on it. In his other hand, Glacious threw a few unknown spices over the fish and an enticing smell wafted over.
Kazuki couldn’t help but inhale deeply and when he did, a few flowers and several blades of grass, swayed with his breath.
Kazuki paused for a second noticing this.
He looked around to see if the wind was blowing. seeing that it didn’t blow, Kazuki stared at the grass and flowers and inhaled deeply once again. He almost had to do a double-take as the plants swayed with his inhale. His lung capacity had gone up to a terrifying degree as well.
Kazuki looked between Glacious and the plants repeatedly until Glacious mentioned.
“Yes, your breath is much more but don’t tell me you haven’t noticed the rest of your body.”
Kazuki looked down at his body but besides his strength improving and his bulk becoming leaner he didn’t notice anything.
Glacious snickered before pointing in a certain direction.
“Kazuki, what color is that ant, can you tell me?”
Kazuki unconsciously followed Glacious’s point and his eyes seemed to focus in on a tiny ant several hundred feet away on a leaf. Kazuki jumped backward as the ant appeared to be the size of a house cat for a moment.
“Haha, you really jumped.”
Kazuki calmed down and realized something was strange. The ant wasn’t the size of a cat, no, Kazuki’s vision had changed. His eyesight had been enhanced to such that the ant only appeared that way for a split second. Refocusing, Kazuki’s perspective changed and the ant became its regular size. Changing his focus, it enlarged again.
(My sight, this is beyond a humans capability and yet, it’s right before me. I can see so far and with such detail. I wonder if I would even need ki to see in the dark anymore? Wait, my ki.)
Kazuki circulated his ki into his eyes and his vision expanded once more. It was almost like his sight raced ahead of him. As e looked at a tree in the distance it seemed like he was about to crash into it and he looked away. His eyes wandered into the sky and he spotted a bird nearly a mile up. He could make out every detail of the bird, from its feathers fluttering in the wind to the slightest movement in its muscles as it readjusted its body. He could even count all the feather the bird had all at once.
(1547 feathers. This will take time to get used to.)
Glacious picked up the skewer from next to the fire and tossed it at Kazuki who was still observing the bird in the sky.
*FWAHOOSH!*
Even though Glacious had gently tossed it, to Kazuki, it sounded like the wind was torn apart. Kazuki almost gripped his ears in pain. turning his head he looked at what was flying at him and he saw the skewer of fish arcing through the air very slowly.
(This, why is it falling so slowly. Wait, it’s not that it’s falling slowly, I’m just perceiving it as slow.)
Kazuki reached out into the air and took a single step forward. As soon as he did, his vision changed and he was nearly 200 feet up in the air.
(What the fuck!)
Kazuki flapped his arms about in vain. He began falling towards the ground and was about to create some flames to try and propel himself when Glacious reached into the air and sealed Kazuki’s power.
Kazuki could feel his magic no more and he came crashing to the ground with no way of stopping himself.
*BANG!*
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