Ch.47: Stage 6.

"Hey. You said 3,000, but why is it 10 times as much?" Kazemi was riding on the back of Tio, high in the sky. Under them was hord of monsters, 3,000 being an understatement while 30,000 was spot on. On the mountain range, Tory was driving the camaro, leading Jasmine back down as well.

In the passenger seat, Will looked at the dragon in terror and fear. Kazemi told him that he'll speak to the dragon and ask it to apologize to him. He also calmed him down by giving him a lollipop.

"Hmm..I'm just as curious as you, Kazemi. The dark mage must have gotten stronger over the past month.." She said while flying around in a circle. 'Yeah, with this many monsters, he's definitely a threat. I might have to actually kill him..'

Him and this body didn't want to kill him. Kazemi was influenced by this bodies memories, leading him to such a conclusion.

'Me and him worked on this manga together. Something about a kid with a demon fox inside of him. I forgot the name but when we published the first chapter, it was an instant hit..'

He sighed.

"How long would you say that it'll take them to get to the city?" He asked in an somewhat quiet tone. "I'd...say half a day at most.." He nodded and told her to go back down to the vehicles where he and Tory would switch places followed by Tio sitting on the roof.

"The number count is 30,000 and we have at most a few hours..." He said to Tory, causing her to shake slightly. 'I guess it's only natural to worry.' He then reassured her by placing his hand on hers.

"Don't worry, Tory. I'll protect you,...all of you if I need too. If it threatens anyone I love, I'd do anything.." Out of embarrassment, she hid her face while nodding. 'You, Jasmine, my little sisters, I'll protect all of you..'

....

Kazemi stood on top of wall that was atleast 7 meters high. To his left, Tory stood with her arms crossed while to his right was Shea who was crouching down with the hammer over her shoulder.

"Kazemi. The men and woman have evacuated. What should we do now?" Asked Jasmine from behind him and below. "Thanks, sis. You're good now. Just uh..just stay back incase we need you.." She continued starring at his back until she realized he wouldn't look back.

"Okay.." She said while turning around and running off. "They'll be here soon...?" Shea said as they all stared out into the blank, open field. "Yeah. Atleast a few minutes out actually.." Just then, a clack sounded out behind them, causing them to turn around and look towards it.

"I am here now, slave. Rejoice as your master is giving you the time of day to speak with you.." She gave a hardy laugh while pointing towards Kazemi, hiding behind a foldable fan at the same time. "Thank you for being here, Tio.."

He said with a small smile. 'Eh? That's all? What a lame reaction..' Even though she thought that, she couldn't help but smile. 'I never seen a human with so much power and yet have such a simple weakness like family.

It's his drive and motivation. I think that...yeah, I think that he wouldn't do this if it didn't cause problems to the ones he cared for..'

She then came up and kissed him on the cheek, an act Tory frowned at and an act Shea wished for. "Always be yourself, Kazemi. Never change for others, got it?"

She said in a stern yet sweet voice. "Yeah, I know. I..know.." They all then simultaneously turned their heads towards the field, only to see it filled up with black creatures that oozed purple fog.

"Hey,...that's way more...than 30,000.." Shea's comment was noted by everyone, realizing it for themselves as well. "60,000. There are 60,000 monsters now."

Kazemi said while beginning to stretch. Shea began to shake at those numbers but calmed down when Kazemi placed his hand on her head.

"It's fine, okay? You seemed okay with 30,000 so why don't I bring it back down to that?" She became confused by his words as he sat down, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. "Huh? You're trying to break through right now? Is this really the time for that, slave?"

She asked while putting her bare foot onto the back of his head. "Let him do it. He won't come up short.." Tory said while putting both her hands out, conjuring a lightning dragon and getting on it to ride.

"We shouldn't wait on him when we can be attacking, right?" Tory flew off with a frown, leaving Shea and Tio to stare aimlessly.

"She's right..." Shea began bawling her fist. "I shouldn't be scared of weak frys like them now should I, Shea?!"

She jumped into the crowd of monsters and began attacking. 'All these fool..' Tio put her hands together like she was praying, causing a black hallow ball to form around her hands, red lightning cackling around the black ball in motion.

'They're brave...' She moved her hands apart, causing a whirlwind of black and red to be shot out at the army of undead. In the Realm Of Magic, Kazemi was connecting dots once again.

'When you reach a certain level, you're able to know about the powers you'll get when you break through...'

He was on Stage 5 with 6 dots connected. All he needed was the last and hardest dot to connect. 'And with this power, it'll be an upgrade to my regular decay...'

His heart beat got faster as grey veins emerged from all over his body. 'In order to save everyone, you need power. Always remember that, Kazemi..'

As the pain of having needles pinned into his body kept happening all over, his thoughts became much, much slower to the point of him being on the verge of death. On the battle field, Tory, Shea and Tio were having no problems with dealing with the monsters.

'They're quick..' Shea bonked a monster on a head then blitzed to another part of the battle field. 'But I'm quicker..' Tory rode around on her lightning dragon while using her chains from above. 'I never use you guys anymore, even though you've been with me since day one..'

She chopped off heads upon heads while the lighting dragon roared out streaks of lightning. Tio was continuing to send out whirlwind of concentrated magic. 'This is all too easy!' She said while grinning.

'I wish Kazemi could see me now!' Kazemi in mention could in fact see her as he was now standing up once again. 'Stage 6..'

He looked down at his open hands and noticed that there were grey dots on the skin of each finger with a small grey dot in the middle of his palms as well.

'I got an upgraded version of decay and a new skill...' He then jumped down and landed in front of a group of monsters.

'But in order to use my decay, I need them all... to leave the ground..' He then shouted at the 3 girls, telling them to leave the ground.

They easily complied as Tio needed this chance to replenish her magic, Shea needed to replenish her stamina and Tory needed to replenish her magic as well. After they all left the ground, the remaining 55,000 monsters all looked in Kazemi's direction.

'With this new variant of power, 55,000 will soon be turn into half the amount...' The horde of monsters all came at him. 'And when that time comes, they should all be done resting..' He kneeled down quickly and placed his hands on the ground.

'Decay... a cursed power that's said to destroy anything in its path..' He smiled as the grey dots on his hands began to glow. 'How true can it be?'

Underneath the ground, grey roots began to sprout. The grey roots then combined together to form a gigantic grey platform.

Like a tide was rising, it came out the ground and anything that touched it was turned to dust, leaving half the field empty.

'What?!'

Every...being that was watching thought. Even the surrounding mountains decayed out a bit which showed the versatility of the power.

'Absolute..Decay. Allows anything that gets caught in my magic to decompose. My title, 'Absolute Decay,' allows for less of a drawback..'

He got up, waving his hands around, causing the grey dots to disappear. 'He's full of surprises..' Tio said with interest. 'Amazing Kazmei..'

Tory said while getting back on her dragon. 'He's so perfect!!' Shea squealed out and jumped onto the battle field.

Kazemi then placed his hand on the center of his chest and used decay. He coughed out blood almost a millisecond later followed by stammering.

'R-Reconstruction... by decaying my insides and by my passive healing factor, my body grows stronger to adapt..'

After rebuilding himself over and over, he felt rejuvenated. 'My title helps with some drawbacks but that's only with less magic consumption. My mental and physical state decreases after using it though...'

The remaining monsters gulped uncontrollably as they were being attacked from all sides now and how they were being killed off easily to boot.

'Now to go find Shimizu..' He pulled his swords out while showing out a bit. 'I don't want to kill my friend...but if I have to, I'll do it..'

He frowned at the worst to come.

....