Return of the Fallen Volume 5 Chapter 62
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch62
Sitting around the campfire, Asuna and the others were hunched over like mad dogs as they scarfed their fish down ravingly.
Only Kazuki sat with legs crossed and eyes closed under a nearby tree. He had absorbed hundreds of magic blood orbs by now and had absorbed hundreds of millions of fragmented memories. By now some had come together piece by piece like a puzzle and formed full memories. Others had not. One such memory that had yet to fully form was Glacious’s special fusion magic. He could fuse the element of darkness with the element of fire, creating something entirely new. Something entirely more dangerous and deadly.
Kazuki held his hands out slightly to his sides, with palms facing up.
Fully concentrated in the moment, a wisp of dark energy materialized and swirled slowly above his left hand until it formed a small fist-sized ball of dark energy. In his other hand, a small flame hovered above his palm and hissed and cracked as it burned.
Inch by inch, Kazuki began to move his hands closer and closer together. Soon the two energies were only a few centimeters away from one another but this was enough for the two energies to affect one another. The dark energy as though it had a mind of its own started to retreat away from the fire as though it were afraid and the fire resembled a hungry monster that wished to devour the dark the closer it got.
Kazuki willed the dark energy to stay center in his hand but he could feel it moving out of his control. At the same time, he willed his flame and contained some of its energy. With the energies seemingly under control, Kazuki went in for the finishing touches and clasped both of his hands together. As soon as he did though.
*Fsssss*
Opening his hands up, the dark energy had completely dissipated and his flame had been snuffed out.
Kazuki opened his eyes and let out a long sigh.
*Haaaaaa*
(Again it’s a failure. How in the 7 realms of hell does this work? I’m following Glacious’s memory to the T, yet the two energies never come together before they seem to cancel each other out. What am I missing?)
“Still can’t do it?”
Glacious walked over and asked.
Kazuki shook his head.
“I’m doing everything the exact same way you’ve done it but it never fuses. Where am I messing up?”
Glacious rubbed his chin for a while.
“Hmm, you say you’re doing the same thing as me but receiving my memories isn’t all there is to learning something. The fact that you still can’t do it is proof of that. No, what your missing is the feeling that comes along with it.”
Glacious grabbed a branch from a nearby tree and broke it off.
Drawing a spiral rotating clockwise and another spiral next to the first going counter-clockwise, Glacious added.
“The one on the left is dark and the one on the right is fire. This isn’t how they actually are but I’m just using this drawing as a representative, keep that in mind. I drew them spinning in opposite directions not because the elements are opposite one another but rather just to show that they move differently. To bring them together, two opposing forces with the same amount of power, when they clash, of course, they will cancel one another out.”
Kazuki understood that perfectly well.
“Senior, that makes sense but that just brings us back to the original point. How do I fuse these energies that cancel one another out?”
Glacious held the branch in his hand. Pinching one end, a small flame came to life on the right end of the branch. Pinching the other side a dark wisp of energy swirled around the left end of the branch. Glacious looked at the two energies and the two moved at the same time slowly heading for the center of the branch.
“Young Kazuki, look at these two energies. Tell me, are they the same?”
Kazuki of course answered with.
“No, clearly.”
Glacious detected a hint of annoyance in Kazuki’s tone but he ignored it. It was natural to be frustrated at this point.
“Right, one is clearly fire and the other dark.”
Glacious then eyed the flame and dark energy and willed them toward the center. controlling them perfectly, the fire and darkness collided and fused instantly. As soon as they did the flame disappeared and so too did the darkness. Replacing it was an even darker energy that condensed into a ball of black flames. The branch that was slowly burning away instantly turned to ash and the flame fell to the ground. The ground started to blacken and fire threatened to spread and wipe out the entire forest. Glacious picked it up casually and held it in his hand, the flames unaffecting him entirely. Showing its new form to Kazuki, he asked.
“Now tell me young Kazuki, is this my original fire? Is it my original darkness?”
Kazuki shook his head.
“No senior, that something new. It’s neither just darkness nor just fire, it’s a new creation entirely.”
Glacious went silent for a bit and just stared at Kazuki. Kazuki on the other hand felt like a bolt of lightning had just struck him as it started to click.
“Senior, it’s something new!”
Glacious nodded.
“A branch you could say. Similar to how lightning magic is a branch or an evolution of wind, my dark flame is a branch or evolution of fire and darkness. It lies somewhere in between the middle of the two. Going back to the drawing. In order to combine the two, you cannot simply stop the direction in which they turn. They will simply cease to be at that point. Instead, why not try nudging them little by little until the two meet somewhere in the middle and they flow in the same direction.”
Kazuki’s eyes went wide before he slammed them both shut and once again sat in a meditative pose.
Glacious clasped his hand and destroyed his black flame. At the same time, he couldn’t help but cough painfully. In doing so a hint of blood spilled down his lips. He quickly wiped it away and sighed inwardly.
(The time is becoming shorter and shorter. We’ve been going at it for months and I’ve grasped most of Kai’s sword forms and have learned a lot about Kazuki’s ki. Now I just have to wait for Kazuki to reach the 4th stage or absorb my memory to learn how to create a Magic blood orb. After that, I should get all his knowledge fairly quickly and master this ki in no time. This disgusting dog lion mark on my soul will be eradicated once and for all after that.)
Once more an orange flame hovered over Kazuki’s right hand and a dark wisp of energy swirled over his left. Bringing the two close together, Kazuki paused and tried to feel the so-called flow Glacious had mentioned but found that he couldn’t sense any such thing whatsoever.
(What, there must be a flow to these energies. Even in Glacious’s memory, I felt it but I can’t feel a thing from these energies except for the heat and cold darkness.)
As he was finding no solutions, a thought occurred.
(My senses are still nothing compared to Glacious’s. He’s a literal master of all the elements so it’s natural for him to feel the elements differently from me. I’m only observing the surface. I have to go deeper.)
Kazuki extended a tendril of ki from both his hands and wrapped the two energies up with a blanket of his own ki. Concentrating on the sensation from his ki, it was there. There really was some feedback. There were thousands of tiny responses from both the energies. Like tiny pricks from a needle, Kazuki could feel the subtle changes from the two energies. It was almost like two puddles sitting next to one another. On the surface of both puddles, Kazuki could sense tiny ripples from the two. From the dark element, he felt a continuous ripple that would never stop, while from the fire he felt a furious agitation that was fast and seemingly chaotic.
Kazuki observed the two energies like this for a while. At the same time, he interacted with them. While still keeping them covered with a blanket of ki, Kazuki observed every reaction. He would add energy to the two or take some away, he molded them into different shapes and moved them about. He tested and observed and sensed all the changes he was causing. As he did this, he began to learn and understand these two elements on a far deeper level.
This was something Glacious had never done o rather he never needed to do. It was the difference between talent and hard work. Glacious just knew how to do such things and could sense such subtle changes without ki, while someone like Kazuki who was far less talented needed a reliable tool such as ki to observe such things. If Kazuki didn’t have ki, without some special treasure or magic tool, there would be no way he could watch nor knowingly understand what changes he was making to the elements.
Similar to looking through a microscope and seeing a whole new world. Without such a tool, people would have no clue what was happening literally right below their noses. After the invention of the microscope, however, that is when advancements came at a rapid pace.
Kazuki did what Glacious said and began to nudge the flow of energy little by little until the energies began to move similarly.
Kazuki closed his hands together.
*Fshhh*
Opening his eyes he felt nervous in his heart and at the same time excitement. He could feel the temperature rapidly rising in his hands and knew something different had happened. Opening his hand quickly, he was surprised to see a red ball of energy floating above his palm.
It was like a tiny red planet. On the surface of this tiny red ball were dozens of specks of dark energy. He could feel the heat rising quickly before quickly falling until the red ball was almost cool to the touch. The red ball did this heating and cooling four whole times before cracks appeared over the tiny red ball and…
*Chshh*
It shattered like glass and dissipated.
Glacious and the others had been watching this and their responses all varied. Some Oooed while others didn’t know what to say. Glacious as well had never seen such a thing and was taken aback.
Shin on the other hand was the only one to shout.
“What the hell was that!?”
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