Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Akira was grinning all the way to the lair. He led them through the barrier by creating a small door. Then all they had to do was follow him.

"I was wondering when you will show up. I was bored. You can not do anything more than kill goblins and beasts in the forest."

Is that not enough for you? Eya thought.

"What else did you do?" Kakashi asked.

"Nothing much. I went to the academy twice. Undercover."

"U-undercover?" Eya\'s eye twitched. "What about Kyo-san? Is he not giving you company?"

He shook his head. A sort of cave was visible in the fog.

"Kyo-san has been busy with him so he has not been spending time with me."

That silenced them. Eya and Kakashi exchanged glances. She wanted to ask how the process was coming out, but she feared to hear the worst.

Akira pointed at the cave\'s entrance. "We have arrived," he said.

When Eya looked, she noticed a fire burning in the cave. It was facing the side they came from, that would keep the monsters away.

But from a distance, the fire was not even visible. Kyoryu enchanted the area with the protection spell, and he kept the fog when he would have gotten rid of it.

Akira led them to the cave\'s mouth. They saw fire in the middle of the cave with a pit under it. Noodles were cooking on the cauldron extended by logs.

"It is Akira. We are safe."

"Say the name of your parents." Eya and Kakashi shuddered when they heard a familiar voice speaking from space.

The chill lasted for a second, but the emotion that transformed in their hearts after hearing the voice stayed.

Eya was on the verge of crying. She felt like throwing herself over the man the thick, deep, but old voice belonged to.

"Saibai Hiro and Kaori," Akira said.

They heard a rustle from the border, then saw the wall shed its skin. From the skin came a man with green hair (not even a single strand of grey hair) and a serious expression.

"Kyo-san," she muttered, "Kyo-san!" she shouted and bolted towards the old man.

His eyes widened and his heart melted. He dropped his wand and spread his arms. He was seeing them after such a long time that even he forgot when he last saw them.

But he remembered their faces, and they were glowing with mischief and joy. They were not gloomy and full of grief like in their present state. He knew the reason behind it, he knew it very well.

She was like a daughter who had been lost for a long time when she tried to hug Kyoryu.

Kakashi followed up from behind and gave him a hug. They both became the bread and turned Eya into the ham as they squeezed her.

"I am glad you are alive," he said in his breaking voice. He let the tears of joy roll down his cheeks.

After their moment of reuniting, they rubbed their tears and collected their thoughts.

Eya took a seat on a rock, Kakashi sat beside her, and Akira brought them (handmade) water.

Eya took a sip, Kyoryu was expecting them (since he sent them the address and all) he was preparing their noodles.

"They did not come back, did they?" She asked in a low voice.

Kyoryu paused whatever he was doing and looked at her. His heart full of grief, he shook his head.

"What happened to him?" Kakashi asked.

"Sealed. They banished him, but could not come back."

Although he was up there, he was with them, he could not save them. They saved him instead, but he could not. That image still played in his mind on repeat:

The legendary wand he possesses was clenched in his hand. He saw a dark man with red hair and an angry frown trying to kill Kaori with the ripple of his jab.

He cast a curse but the air created by that red-haired\'s blow blew the beam of curse like a dust particle. Then he jumped. He closed his eyes and jumped to take the blow for Kaori.

But before he could feel anything, he felt a strong blow of air, and he found himself in a void. He heard a voice, it was Akira. He was left in the dark void with Akira. A banishment spell he could not break.

"That devil!" Eya crushed the plastic glass. "Only if we were there…" Her voice broke.

"No!" Kyoryu jumped to his feet. "Do not regret and do not doubt Hiro\'s judgment. You two would have died if he had let you stay. Hiro always knew what he was doing."

Akira stood in the corner, boiling with anger. "I will bring Hitori-nee-san back. And I will finish what my parents could not."

All they could do was give him a glance and nod. Although he was gifted with great ability, he was being naive when he said he would end what his parents could not.

"All I know is… Akuto will come back. Ten years from now or twenty years from now."

Kyoryu, after a moment of pause, went back to preparing noodles.

"Where is he?" Eya asked, "where is Kamiya?"

Kyoryu nodded. He put the cauldron back and told Akira to look at it.

He got up from the rock and walked past them. Eya and Kakashi exchanged glances, kept the glasses on the ground, and followed him.

He led them through a dark aisle, it was narrow as a street where people might deal drugs, rape school girls, and gamble. But nothing of that sort happened here, in this aisle.

Then he advised them to stand right at the entrance as he went to the end and lightened the lamps around the corner. The light fell on a body placed on an altar made of clay and earth.

Kamiya\'s face was covered with a cloth but his body was visible. His hands were still fried and mangled, but his lower part, till the knees, was straightened. Before they could take a good look, Kyoryu snapped his finger and covered the body with a blanket he summoned.

"Thanks to the essence enchantment, you can not smell anything. Or you can only imagine the smell of a two-month-old dead body."

"Do the bacterias attack?"

"No. It is the part of the ritual, nothing can touch the body except me."

"How is it coming along?" Eya asked as Kyoryu extinguished the lamps.

"Bad… very bad. Something is very wrong. I have everything required for the ritual, but it is not coming along good." He led them out of the aisle.

"Still, what are the odds?" Kakashi asked.

Kyoryu stopped in the middle and glanced at him, then he raised two fingers. "Only twenty percent chance that I will bring him back to life," he said.