Return of the Fallen Volume 5 Chapter 83
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch83
Time continued to fade with every grain of sand that fell. A few moments after the 9th hour began, Asuna sprung to her feet. She leaped so hard that she nearly hit the ceiling. She awoke in the magical room surrounded by darkness. At first, she hadn’t a clue where she was and her eyes darted all over the pitch-black room. Every hair stood up on the back of her neck, her golden hoop in her hands, and one of her daggers in the other. She searched through the darkness for the invisible enemy who would surely jump out and attack her at any moment.
A hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed at her. Asuna didn’t hesitate to slash away at it but to no avail.
(“ASUNA!”)
Asuna ignored the familiar voice and figured it was just another trick, another illusion. Her eyes began to glow with a faint purple light and she prepared to teleport away and gain some distance but before she could an invisible energy restrained her. Glacious appeared in front of her.
(“Angry red kitten, stop.”)
Asuna again ignored Glacious and tried to cleave his large figure in two. Glacious simply grabbed her hands and held her in place.
(“AWAKEN!”)
His thoughts became loud within Asuna’s head and her clouded eyes began to regain focus. After a moment, her resistance faded and she fought back no more. Kimi flicked a small orb of light over toward the two and it floated quietly around them. Asuna could finally see clearly and her eyes filled with tears.
(“Teacher…I…I thought…I thought.”)
Asuna began to cry and sib softly and Glacious comforted her.
(“It’s ok little red. You are back to reality, this is not an illusion.”)
After a few minutes, Asuna’s tears dried up and she sat down. A few calming sips of tea later, her breathing normalized and she understood she was really back.
(“Honestly I didn’t think any of you besides Kazuki would have made it this far but you’ve done extremely well to make it to the 9th hour. Even some dragons can’t last that long.”)
Asuna’s mood became brighter.
(“Really!? How can dragons not make it all the way through? You’ve said it many times before that besides Titans, dragons are supposedly the strongest creatures in the world. How could they fail?”)
(“Simple, strength of body, not mind. Dragons have undeniable power. That is a fact. What comes with being born superior to every other race and growing up with power above nearly all, gives one an ego too large to handle, and with that comes pride. A pride that misleads one into believing a false narrative.”)
(“A false narrative teacher?”)
(“Yes, one that makes you believe that because you are born a dragon you are absolutely invisible. So what do you think will happen to my kin when they enter this room for the first time. For ones that have never felt true pain, have an ocean of pain dumped on top of them. For their undeniable strength and power, for all of it to be taken away inside this room’s illusions. To be tortured, mangled enslaved by those they deem inferior. Inside here, the truth comes out. No one is invincible. Many dragons are crushed inside this place. Their pride being the main downfall. Only those that throw such pride away and endure, only those that have the will, can complete this trial. This room is a true equalizer. Whether you be a man, a woman, dragon, or human. The strongest and the weakest, none of it matters. If you don’t believe me, just take a look over there.”)
Glacious pointed behind him and Asuna curiously looked over his shoulder. Sitting down on a mat as still as a statue was Kazuki but Kazuki was not who Glacious was pointing to. Next to Kazuki, lying slumped down was Shin. At first, it wasn’t obvious why Glacious was pointing at him but after a moment it struck her like a bolt of lightning. From here in this darkness, she couldn’t tell but with Kimi’s light, she could see that Shin was still out. Shin was still wrapped within the illusions of this magic room.
Asuna’s mouth fell open.
(“Shin is still inside…Hhh…HOW! How did he make it further than me!? How can his will be stronger than mine!?”)
Glacious shrugged his shoulders.
(“Who knows. I thought he would be the most lackluster. It seems though that’ he’s overcome some things in his life. For him to make it this far though, he must have suffered greatly at some point. What tragedies did he endure I wonder?”)
When these thoughts reached Asuna, she froze in place as she recalled something. She remembered what Shin had said a while ago while they were forced to march through the snow by Reya. Blame was being pushed on Kazuki at the time and out of everyone, Shin stood up for Kazuki. He mentioned how he understood what Kazuki was going through. How someone he had loved and cared about had murdered his family and how it changed him that day.
Asuna had taken those words to heart at that time but because Shin was constantly joking, she very quickly buried that within her mind and began to forget about it. Asuna felt terrible and guilty. She felt jealous and thought Shin didn’t deserve to come further than her. Right now she realized though, that the reason Shin had come this far is that he went through such tragic shit when he was a child. For her to make it that far, would she need her family to die? This thought crossed her mind and she shuddered because of it. To go through those same things like Shin, she would never come back from that. Not only that, for her to actually feel jealous because of this fact. For a split second, Asuna felt anger at herself for even having such thoughts, and then she felt ashamed.
(“No one should have to suffer through all of that but both Kazuki and Shin did.”)
She began to think about how Shin and Kazuki turned out because of such tragedies and thinking about it, Shin came out far better she thought. Kazuki has since devoted his life to revenge and has hurt people along the way. Whether intentional or not, he has done just that. While Shin on the other hand has turned such a sad feeling into laughter. He chooses to laugh with joy rather than cry in pain. There’s is no hunt for vengeance, no hatred.
(“Shin may appear to be an idiot at times but he’s not full of hatred and he does try to brighten the mood, even if his jokes are dumb. I guess he’s not…”)
Asuna’s thoughts paused there as all eyes suddenly appeared to be on her.
Kimi smiled at her.
(“You do realize we can all still hear your thoughts, right?”)
Asuna stared at everyone and once again froze. She tried to think of something to say, to deny her thoughts but even her mind seemed to freeze over or rather malfunction at this moment. She just shakenly picked up her cup of tea at this time and began to drink it while singing a popular pop song on repeat in her mind to try and drown out all useless thoughts.
Kimi and Sam both shared a laugh in their minds and Glacious just shook his head at the weird human thoughts that kept appearing one by one.
—————————————————————————-
A knife cut into Shin’s shoulder and ripped diagonally across his chest. Shin’s reaction to this at first was the same in each iteration. It was one of wild fear. He would cry out in pain and try to flee. Every time he would be caught by his assailants and they would torture him. More cries of pain would follow but after that, something unexpected would come out. Shin would take all of the pain, all of the fear and it would change within him and he would in turn burst out with laughter.
After that, no matter what was done to him, only laughter would follow.
It seemed as if the magic room as though it were alive, would get tired of Shin’s weird reaction and would try something new and different to get him to cry out in pain. At first, it would work. Shin would get hurt and injured in some gruesome way or those around him would become injured. Shin would be terrified of it and then when it seemed as though he were on the verge of calling out for help, something within would cause him to laugh out as loud and as hard as he could.
Once again the room would get tired of such nonsense and change its tactics up. This had repeated, time, and time again.
On the other side of all of this, Kazuki would express anger and his rage would only build. The pain was still there and felt as real as anything else but Kazuki no longer cared and would curse out. Again and again, the two would be tortured in the most gruesome of ways and again and again, one would erupt with laughter and the other with rage. Inside their minds, their thoughts were completely different.
(Just laugh and laugh. No matter what, no matter how terrifying and how bad it feels, just smile and laugh.)
(Endure, fuck them all, murder them. They will not break me, I will break them. I will destroy them all!)
One bursting with laughter and the other cursing with a devilish tongue.
—————————————————————————-
The energy pouring out from the walls and ceiling, the last of it entered Kazuki and Shin and the power of the room stopped.
Glacious watched as the final grain of sand landed atop a small pile of sand and he calmly picked up the hourglass and stored it away.
(“The two have done it.”)
The inscriptions lit up along the walls began to rapidly fade away and light quickly refilled the room. The ceiling once more returned to its rainbow-like color and everyone could see each other once more.
Asuna came beside Kazuki and she was just about to touch him when Glacious stopped her.
(“Don’t disturb them.”)
Asuna was confused.
(“Teacher aren’t they finished yet?”)
(“Yes, the illusions are no more but the power in their minds is churning. With no more illusions, their minds are expanding rapidly. I can feel it, they are both about to step into the 4th stage.”)
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