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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 1

Author: Blue_Rat

ch1

Down into the darkness, he fell. The wind rushing past his ears as the black void engulfed him. Kazuki could see nothing in this pitch-black surrounding him but that wasn’t his biggest concern at the moment. He knew from Glacious that the Abyssal trench was miles deep. Going splat on the ground at least for now, at his current speed, was several minutes away.

His most current concern was his organs currently being disintegrated from the Azirian blood coursing rapidly through his body.

Kazuki shut his eyes, they were useless in this darkness anyway. Concentrating, he circulated his ki and blocked all of the Azirian blood. He surrounded it using his ki and forced it out through his pores. The purplish-black blood flew away from his body and splashed somewhere. As soon as it did, Kazuki located the cliff wall with sound. Extending his ki out of his body, he found that he wasn’t too far from a cliff wall. He was falling parallel to it. Not only that, using his ki he could sense several long jagged spikes protruding out from the face of the cliff. Each one was several feet long and a few feet in diameter.

(As long as I’m careful of the sharp end, I should be able to grab on and stop my descent. First I need to deal with the blood inside me. If I move too much, it multiplies inside of me and spreads within me like a plague. I don’t know how it keeps replicating within me but one thing I know for sure, the source is somewhere inside my head.)

After the Azirian blood spread within him several times, Kazuki had noted its source. No, he couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly where it started within his head but he at least understood it started from somewhere inside his brain. With that one clue, Kazuki quickly went to work.

(First is my head.)

Kazuki’s ki flowed naturally to the base of his spine and then upward until it reached the bottom of his skull. First, he coated the outside of his head with ki and then went deeper. He covered his skull and then the liquid flowing around his brain and then his brain itself. He made layer after layer of ki around his eyes, and then behind his eyes inside his orbital cavity. Kazuki surrounded all of the important bits inside his head and out and made sure each one had its own layer. In doing so, he was not only protecting himself from the hiding Azirian blood but he was also setting up a security net. As soon as he felt one of the layers of ki coming into contact with the Azirian blood he would now know exactly where it starts from. In doing so, he could hopefully pinpoint the exact location where the blood starts from and spreads.

Although that was now settled, Kazuki had to constantly keep a portion of his mind focused to keep supplying his ki to his brain. If his concentration is broken for even a moment, it could give the Azirian blood the perfect chance to once more spread like a deadly virus within him.

With his mind seemingly secured, his senses that were just fuzzy now become much clearer. It felt like he was under a haze or fog but with that round of blood purged from him, he became far more alert than earlier. Kazuki instinctively tried to use his magic. He wanted to will his magic forth and create a thrust of fire beneath his feet so he could fly out of here but as soon as he tried it, he felt stupid. Right now, he could feel none of his magic energy whatsoever.

Glacious had explained to him before that there was some type of interference in this trench and Kazuki had even witnessed it first hand when Asuna and Shin tried to save him.

He knew that his magic wouldn’t work but it was instinctual to use it.

With that failure out of the way, Kazuki concentrated on the wall. As he fell faster and faster, he knew things would actually get dangerous if he didn’t hurry up and act. Using a bit of his ki, he felt exactly where the spikes were at. He had to time it right if he wanted to avoid the sharp point and so he waited for the perfect moment and reached out with both hands.

*SHCK*

One hand wrapped over the other and he grabbed one of the spikes but as soon as he touched it, he felt pain enter his hands and quickly released the spike.

Hot blood spilled from one of his hands and the flesh from the bottom part of his pinky, index finger and middle finger was sliced cleanly through.

Kazuki grit his teeth in pain and could tell that his bones were exposed on the three fingers. He quickly sent ki to his fingers. If one could see in this pitch-black world, they would notice fresh skin and nerves already starting to grow, replacing what he had just lost. Circulating his ki aided as well and the bleeding stopped in seconds. Kazuki however couldn’t be happy at this moment.

(So fucking sharp. What the hell are these rocks made from. Even steel can no longer cut my flesh yet the jagged rocks nearly took off my fingers. Had I not removed my grip from the spikes as quickly as I did, my fingers would be gone.)

Kazuki didn’t slow for even a moment and continued down into the infinite blackness.

The further he sunk, the more he noticed a heavy concentration of dark energy flowing all around him. The concentration of such dark element was far too much for the average to deal with and even Kazuki was having trouble bearing it. The high concentration of dark energy sting his skin and made it difficult to breathe but that was the least of his worries for now.

Extending his ki, Kazuki searched his surroundings as he fell. He could extend his ki outside of his body for about 10 feet but it helped very little right now. All he could sense as he fell was the wall with all of those dangerous spikes stabbing out and opposite the wall, nothing but emptiness.

(There’s nothing else around me but the wall and those spikes. I have to do something before I smash into the ground below but what can I do? Think, think…)

Fear began to well up within Kazuki’s heart. It was one thing to die by an enemy. To be outclassed by overwhelming strength. To know where and when death was coming from but in this darkness, you could never know such things. Where the ground was and how long until you crashed into it, there was absolutely no telling. To know death was coming but not know if it would happen in the next 2 seconds or the next 2 minutes was something agonizing in and of itself.

The air screamed as it rushed past Kazuki’s ears. His mind churned at million miles an hour as he tried to think of a way out of this. No way to use magic and no way to grab the wall without losing his limbs. His heart beat faster and louder drowning out his own thoughts.

Kazuki sent out a tendril of ki and tried to grab a spike like that.

*Scwhip*

His ki could hold physical objects but the weight was limited to a few measly tens of pounds. His ki was ripped apart the moment his weight was realized upon it and he continued falling downward.

He knew it wouldn’t work before he even tried it but as death loomed closer, some of his thoughts became irrational.

Kazuki balled up a fist and circulated his ki into his arm and hand. He coated his fist in a layer of ki. Using all of his strength he punched out.

*BANG*

Kazuki felt his layer of ki torn through and the bones in his hand and arm break. Blood spurted out from his hand and arm and bones protruded through his skin. His fist was now mangled and the spike he punched with all of his might was left undamaged as he quickly fell past it.

His thought was to try and destroy one of the spikes in a single instant. With it gone, a space in the wall would be cleared and he could send out another punch just as quickly as the first and put a hole in the wall that he could grab hold of. He was desperate and thought on hopes hope it would work but the spikes were made of something Kazuki had never come across. It was so incredibly tough and sharp that his arm was completely wrecked.

Kazuki could punch through an entire hill and shatter it. He could grab metal with his bare hands and tear it apart like it was made of paper. He could handle fire without being burned and ice without being frozen. Even Glacious’s cauldron needed to slam him multiple times within before his body would start to break apart but a single punch of his full strength had done nothing to this wall in front of him and instead fucked him up badly.

Kazuki’s heart raced even faster and it felt as though it would explode at any moment. He knew he was running out of time as well as ideas.

It was at this moment that he remembered what was at his waist. He grabbed the black ruler wrapped around his waist like a belt and began to fill it with ki.

(My ruler can use any energy, that’s what makes it special. The more energy it absorbs, the sharper it can become, and I can even increase its size and weight. I’ll use this to cut into the wall and stop my descent.)

Kazuki grew excited and terrified but in this black void, a spark of hope was lit within him.

(It’s worth a shot.)