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Return of the Fallen Volume 5 Chapter 82

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Author: Blue_Rat

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ch82

Glacious pulled him from the illusions haunting his mind and Sam sat up with a freight. His complexion pale white and his body soaked in sweat. Finding himself in the darkroom with the others, he reached out desperately for someone. His thoughts a mess, he cried out for his one true.

(“KIMI! KIMI!”)

Kimi was already at his side and released a soft glowing light so he could see her. Sam like a small lost child dove into Kimi’s arms and held her tightly. At first, it was a little hard to breathe due to Sam’s overwhelming size and strength but he soon realized he was making things difficult and eased up.

Kimi at first was surprised. Out of everyone here, she expected Sam to last the longest or fall right behind Kazuki but for him to come out second to last. She couldn’t help but wonder what happened.

(“Sam, you came out…?”)

Sam held Kimi for a while before he relayed his thoughts to her.

(“I…I failed. I’m sorry.”)

Glacious as well thought Sam would have lasted longer, at least longer than Shin. He had seen Sam’s fortitude and will first hand as well as his endurance to physical harm. Sam was built like a smaller version of himself and so Glacious was left wondering.

(“Boy, for you to call out for help so soon, you must have been quite desperate. Just what did you see to lose yourself like that?”)

Sam’s shoulder sunk realizing that barely half the time had passed from the hourglass.

(“It’s not what I saw, rather what I didn’t see. I’ve always been proud and confident in my strength. Even before leaving Earth, I never doubted myself but my strength wasn’t the thing being tested in there.”)

Sam looked Kimi deeply in the eyes and he felt his guts twist up inside.

(“Kimi, you were taken from me. You were in my hands one moment and then you weren’t. I searched and searched for a lifetime. I traveled all over but I could never find you. Eventually, I began to forget what your face even looked like and realities started blurring together. I couldn’t tell what was real and what was false. One thing I knew for sure though was that I couldn’t spend even another minute apart from you and so I cried out desperately and then Glacious appeared before me and I remembered everything. Kimi, I’m sorry, I failed you.”)

Kimi felt Sam shaking and hugged him back with all her strength. She pulled his head in close.

(“I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, and I’ll never leave your side. As for failing me, you could never. If anything I thought I failed you. The horrors I witnessed in those illusions. I thought you would be the one leaving me for being so useless. For giving up again and not making it until the end. I thought… I thought…”)

Tears began to stream down Kimi’s face and she could no longer think properly. Sam’s felt her loneliness, her sadness. He looked her deeply in her eyes.

(“I would never leave you. Nothing in this world could part me from you. I know that now. You being useless, there’s no such thing in my eyes.”)

The two were sharing a precious moment but Glacious felt as though he would gag.

(“Have the two of you forgotten that I can hear all of your thoughts. Do you wish for me to be sick?”)

Kimi’s face flushed red but the two got the idea and sat down next to one another. They did their best not to think anything lovey-dovey toward the other but how could they not. Glacious could only roll his eyes as he passed Sam some calming tea as well. The two sat together sipping their tea and staring at one another. They couldn’t wait to leave but Glacious had told them that this place couldn’t be opened until his magic room ran its course or everyone was pulled from the illusions. In the end, they could only sit there and wait. Though it wasn’t bad to sit so close to the one you loved, holding them and just relaxing in their presence.

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Several miles away, Etora sat at the edge of a large lake. Sitting comfortably, every now and then he would open his mouth and inhale deeply. A massive amount of chaotic energy would rush from the very center of the lake and into his mouth where he would then devour it greedily.

He had just devoured a bunch of said chaotic energy and licked his lips in joy. He loved to eat food but more than that he loved to eat magical energy and right now he was getting plenty. This job his older brother had given him was one all too easy and it came with the benefit of eating and eating and eating. Etora was in pure bliss at the moment.

Opposite of that, Nunully was suffering greatly. In the center of the lake, she sat with her legs crossed in a meditative position. Although she was on the water, she did not sink into the lake and remained seated on the surface of the water as though she sat on solid ground. An easy enough skill for one who’s long trained with the element of water. No, the suffering did not come from sitting on the surface of the lake. Instead, it came from the dangerous energy swirling all around her, through her, and fusing into her every cell.

In order to play catch up with Kazuki and the others, she had consumed a Modoshi pill. This small silver pill would draw the energy from every single inch of her body and combine it with the energy in the world, purifying it and amplifying it before injecting it back into her body and fusing it with her every cell. In doing so, her strength would climb at an unprecedented rate. Years of training could be completed in a single day with this method. The drawback however was the pain that one was required to go through. Not only that, if something went wrong, she could be permanently crippled or even die.

The pure magical energy is not something someone can just absorb. At a certain point, the magical energy becomes saturated until it turns into a toxin, a poison to the body instead of a benefit. To counter such side effects, well that’s where Etora came in. After the energy within Nunully was drawn from her very bones, combined with the pure, overwhelming abundance of water element surrounding the lake and then fusing back with her body, her body would begin to transform.

At first, the energy was a gift to her body. Entering her flesh, blood, and bones, etc, her body started to grow stronger and stronger. The magical energy made her bones denser, her muscles contained more power and her organs gained more and more vitality. Every inch of her became better and better but that could not be maintained as her body could not handle nor contain the amount of energy pouring into her. At some point, it would all become too much, causing her skin to split and her bones to crack and break.

This type of pain was also necessary for this process.

Right after thins would break, Etora would halt the invading energy and he would draw it out, pulling it towards himself. He would then eat some of it, not all of it but some. After that, the Modoshi pill inside of her would activate again. Since there was no energy within her to draw out, it would simply take the already pure energy in the lake as well as the pure energy near Etora and amplify it and combine it. The energy would then reenter Nunully and her body would go through the process again and again.

This repeating process, caused her strength to soar dramatically. Still, the pain was overwhelming and Etora could see that.

He called out to Nunully to encourage her.

“You’ve done it 44 times, you’re at the halfway mark. Another 44 and your body will become a living weapon. You can do it little one, keep at it!”

Nunully grit her teeth and nodded. The pain was too much to try and speak and this was the most she could muster. Etora could see her skin splitting open and opened his mouth once more and devoured some of the excess energy.

It was at this moment that Mei’s large figure descended from the sky above. Transforming back into her human form she landed beside Etora with a bored expression.

“Little bird, back already? I thought you were bored here just sitting around doing nothing and now only a bit of time has passed and you’re done. Don’t tell me you picked the forest clean of all it’s tasty snack?”

Etora said that last bit with a serious expression. Next to him, Mei had the biggest appetite. If anyone else could eat all the food in the forest, it was definitely Mei and so this was a legitimate concern for Etora.

Mei laughed.

“Hehehe, Mr wolf, you always say funny things. I can’t eat the whole forest! Well maybe when Mei gets a little bit bigger I can but for now, I can only eat half.”

Mei was serious with this statement and she really believed it. Maybe she couldn’t do it in her human form but in her Mangshi form, it was a possibility.

Etora wasn’t even listening as his eyes had focused on the edge of Mei’s mouth. He could see a bit of some kind of red fruit still on her face. He couldn’t recognize it from the forest and therefore knew it came from somewhere else. He became jealous seeing that and called her out.

“Little bird, you have some food still on your face that I don’t recognize. There’s no way you found it in this forest. There isn’t a spot in this entire tiny world that I haven’t explored so that means you got it from someone. Who, who gave you such a yummy treat?”

Mei’s mouth fell open. She thought Etora was a bit of a dummy who likes to goof around fight ad above all eat but for him to discover that she got the fruit from someone so easily. Mei couldn’t help but question things in her mind.

(Mr wolf is actually clever…!?)

Etora knew he caught her red-handed but she had yet to say anything. He pointed at her and threatened.

“Little bird if you don’t tell me I’ll never share my delicious food with you again. You can’t hold out on me. Tell me which person dares to give you snacks and not me!”

Mei felt terrified.

“No no no, you have to keep giving me snacks, otherwise, otherwise, how will I grow up to be big and strong like you.”

Etora shook his head.

“You can’t flatter me little bird, now tell me or I’ll truly cut you off.”

Mei was worried. She had told Tilly she wouldn’t tell Glacious about what she had seen in exchange for the fruit but at that moment she realized.

(Ah! Tilly said I couldn’t tell Mr dragon but she never said I couldn’t tell Mr wolf.)

Nodding her head at how smart she was, she then began to explain what she saw Tilly doing.

Etora at first thought about Tilly.

(That’s right, she gave me some delicious fruits before of course, she has more.)

Then something clicked.

(For her to destroy one of big bros golems and take its magic core, big bros gonna be really mad at her. He hates when people mess with his stuff and he already told her about messing with his golems.)

Etora’s focus went back to Nunully as her body was starting to break down again. Opening his mouth, he happily ate some of the excess energy with glee and thought.

(Tillys gonna be in some real trouble. I can’t go get any fruit from Tilly right now anyway since I have to help little Nunully for a bit more. Oh well, brother will deal with it like always.)

After that Etora went back to helping Nunully while having a fun chat with Mei about food and different things. All things related to Tilly were pushed out of his mind.

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