That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.5 Sorrow or Rage?

Lutz' pov: 

"MYNE!?!" I had only dropped her for a moment, I couldn't hold on, her skin was searing hot, and my skin was scorched. My face contorted into a confused pit of sorrow, as I stared...

Her body had only moments before burst into flames, silver flames, that blasted me away from her. Now all that was left of her was a charred corpse, her hair was gone, and her clothes had been caught in the blaze and had been turned to ash. Her hand had fallen off, and her bones were exposed, like a white cracking and twisted stick in a pile of ash. The fire had disappeared as fast as it appeared. 

I fell to my knees, and I could feel the tears coat my eyes as they began to fall down my cheeks, I couldn't even hear the battle going on around me now. I was all eyes on my friend, the person who got me where I am. I wanted to touch her, reach out and caress her, but I knew she was too fragile now to touch. She was fragile before, but now... Suddenly I was taken out of this moment by a punch to my head. It had forced me to the ground and crumpled over. At that moment i was brought back into the situation at hand. 

A soldier who was screaming something at me had done it. "YOUR WITCH KILLED MY BROTHERS!" He was spitting while shouting, and his face was covered in tears. He was in a pit of rage, and despair, he pulled out the shining silver sword at his belt. 

I put my hand to my head and tried to stand up, I put up my fist in a futile attempt to fight back if I could. I wouldn't go down so easily. I knew Myne wouldn't have wanted that. I steeled my self and gritted my teeth, my hair was picked up by the wind. 

Before I could even try fighting the soldier back though, he was swiftly knocked aside, and I was picked up. I was dragged away from the street, being held far above ground as my savior ran. 

When I looked to see them, it was one of the dragon newts we had seen yesterday. The blue one, with a black head piece, my other savior was the green one with big eyes. They took me to an alleyway with other children, goblin and orc children all huddled together and scared. 

I fell onto the ground myself, and curled into a ball, hugging my knees. The ground was quickly wet from my tears. I couldn't think anymore, I didn't want to think anymore. I couldn't understand what had just happened. 

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Tuuli pov: 

My sister and Lutz had wandered off not too long ago. Though the town had caught fire, and I believed it had been invaded. I had yet to experience something like this, but my father had told me what to do. Right now I needed to find Myne and Lutz. I couldn't let them be alone in this chaos. Before this me and my mother had been in a clothing shop with Haruna, she had offered us a chance to see how they made their fabrics, and we took it greedily. I regretted that now, I should've stayed with my sister,  can't seem to find her anywhere. 

While walking I saw an explosion in the distance, it left me shocked and I tried to hold my ears, as they were ringing loudly. I was near the center of the town now, I had clear sight of the entire barrier right now, it was really a sight, one a pink dome and the other a large white pyramid. 

Suddenly a girl, older than me, ran past me. She had silvery blue hair and golden eyes, and was to put it simply, beautiful. Even compared to my family after shampooing our hair, it wasn't a contest. The girl glanced at me as she ran past, I didn't know why but it seemed like she had something to say to me. 

As I was walking I caught onto something, it was the chalk board that Myne kept with herself at all times. It seemed like she had dropped it for some reason, though near where it was I could see scorch marks on the ground. It looked like there were ashes there, and that something had been moved somewhere else. My sister had taught me to take note of details better and take in all the information available, so I was wracking my brain right now to come up with what may have happened. 

Then I saw it, in the scorch mark, sitting near the edge. It was a hair pin, I recognized it immediately. It was a small wooden hairpin that had been badly burned, the little bit of metal inlayed in it had been twisted out of it from the pressure and heat. I picked it up. I held it close and the situation had begun to click in my mind. Tears welled up in my eyes and my face contorted, squeezing all the skin around my nose into wrinkles as I screamed loudly. I didn't know what this feeling was, I had always been close to it. Whenever she was bedridden, I was so close to this, every time she nearly died. Now though? It was complete. 

The feeling engulfed my heart and mind as I fell to my knees and just kept screaming, loudly, as loudly as I could. Soon my voice became hoarse and I could no longer scream, or even speak. I could only cry as I hugged the hairpin. 

Soon, my mother had found me, she didn't under stand the situation yet, but she kneeled down and hugged me. She held me tightly and prodded me about what had caused me to cry like this. I simply showed her the hairpin, and made a motion toward the scorch marks on the ground. 

My mother teared up herself, after realizing what I meant by this. While there was no body, the situation was actually clear. Though she tried to stay strong. We needed to find where she had been taken, to confirm this. To pay our respects for this. 

It's odd really, we both knew this would happen eventually. She was always weak and there was very little expectation for her to survive for very long, yet, after all this time. That just hadn't even seemed to be possible anymore. 

We walked to the plaza, slowly. Both needing time to even get to a point that could even be called acceptable. While we were still crying, at least now we could walk, with each other for support. As we walked we saw body after body. Lined up to allow people to identify them. 

Neither of us had the heart for this, but soon enough. We found Benno. He already knew where she was, as he had talked to Lutz. He seemed completely pale and wasn't even close to his normally serious self, his cold shell had been shattered. Though he hadn't even seen her yet, he was willing to lead us to her. 

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The sun had set by the time we were there. 

I wasn't prepared for this, and I refused to look. Lutz had been crying in front of her since he had been able, apparently he had been saved by the dragon newts when the attack happened. He was very close to being lined up with the rest of them. 

..After a long time, I finally took a glance while covering my eyes, I opened my fingers just barely to peek through. The sight caused me to scream, even more loudly than I had before. My voice immediately got Hoarse as I fell to the ground. 

I could recognize her face, it was burnt mostly black though, and her arms and legs had  been charred to a crisp, one of her arms even fell off, exposing a twisted white bone that was covered in cracks and surrounded by charred ash. Her position was locked in a sitting position and it looked like she had raised the arm that had fallen off. I couldn't understand how she ended up like this. I had no heart to ask though. 

It was at this point I heard another scream, a screeching cry and a wail. It came from beside me, from my mother. Her face contorted into a horrible scowl as her eyes were filed with tears, which quickly ran down her cheeks. 

Just screaming, and wailing. She was ripping at her hair and her entire body was shaking violently. Her entire being, absorbed into this moment as she could no longer control the flow of her emotions. 

Every bit of calm, confidence she was putting up for me, all of it burned up in and instance. Her emotional entire mask turning to dust and blowing away. 

Like ashes in the wind. 

I heard a small thud, my mother was then leaning against me and holding onto me, I could barely support her. I felt her own lack of control flow into me as I was immediately brought to a full wail once again myself. No consolation could even begin to approach us. 

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Rimuru's pov: 

While following Benimaru, out of the corner of my eye I saw the family. A young woman and a girl, I promised myself to talk to them again. I needed to find out about their second daughter. Though I had a sneaking suspicion the situation had changed. 

I continued following, though. Straight to the plaza, and to the body covered with a small tarp. Out of the corner of my hear I heard Gobta scream and wail. While I was feeling something myself, I could not cry. Even though I wanted to. 

When I saw her, finally. My aura exploded, no one could move. The full breadth of my aura was freezing them in place at the moment. I realized what I was doing and immediately stopped. I asked great sage to replicate the antimagic mask, then asked everyone to leave. Then I put the mask on and fell to my knees. Shuna had hugged me from behind. She asked me to call if I needed anything, and then left. 

As I sat there, solemnly, the mask cracked. I began berating Great sage with questions I simply couldn't expect her to answer. That didn't stop me though, I desperately needed someone to answer those question for me.

I still couldn't shed a tear, 'Had I become a monster at heart too?' was all I could think to myself. I sat there, asking questions until the sun had began to rise. Soon I had resolved to make the choice to allow them all to rest inside me.

Before I could use [Gluttony] on them though, Eren had shown up. She told me there was a chance I could revive the dead. She told me the fairy tale. I had another sneaking suspicion I may know the person it was about. Though that was unimportant now. I had a chance to bring them all back. I brought my mask down and smiled to Eren, and told her to go to the meeting room, after saying I would take any chance I could get. 

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As  I was going to walk to follow them, I noticed the girl's family was still there. This had all but confirmed my suspicion now. My heart sunk, as I realized there was a chance I could maybe not fulfill this promise. I steeled myself though, finding it easier with the sudden loss of my reactions to these feelings the night before. I slowly walked to them. 

As I made my way there, I saw the young girl look to me, it seemed she recognized me. Though her cheeks were stained with tears, and her eyes were filled with despair. I wanted to do all I cold to take all that away. "Tell me." I simply said this. I wanted them to vent their feelings onto me, I would take their burden unto myself. 

At this, the boy with the deep blonde hair was the one to speak up. "She..... Myne... She died trying to save someone... Fire consumed her as she casted the spell.... I saw it happen before my own eyes.." He was shivering as he said it. I believe I understood, even with the vagueness of the answer. 

<Notice: It can be assumed that the amount of magicules built up in the child's body all activated on the spell's ignition. Unable to be properly controlled by a human, in solid clumps, simply activated the spell in the location they were present.> 

I had assumed as much, though Great Sage was able to confirm it. Magicules are dangerous to humans because they cannot properly control them. They use magic unintetionally, so they can quickly cause many toxic effects in the body. A resistance can be built up to them, and one can get passed this by evolving from a human to a sage, though humans born with high stores of magicules, and without a high enough resistance. They will simply die to their own will acting on the magicules. 

I had used [though acceleration] while my mind wandered, so no time had really passed while I put all this together completely. This had also completely confirmed my suspicion, this was that girl who was a calamity rank, at least in magicule count. "I see.." I kept it short, and simple. 

The other girl, the one beside the young woman stood up, and punched me, in the gut. It had no effect on me, but she just needed to vent her frustration. "Why weren't you here!.. You should have fended them off yourself!.." It seemed she had realized who I was the night before. 

I turned away and stared into space. She had reignited my regrets. "...Why wasn't I..." I softly asked myself. 

The girl kept trying to beat at me, she started crying again and yelling incomprehensibly. I didn't stop her. Her punches and kicks slowed and weakened as she fell to her knees again. She stared at the ground.

The young woman grabbed onto her and held her tightly. Trying to calm her, and clearly scared of what I might do if she angered me, though I would do no such thing. This was ultimately, my fault. If I had come the moment I heard about the younger girl, I could have helped, and none of this would have happened at all. 

This though, was when I decided to say something to them. To do this I kneeled down and waited for them both to look into my golden eyes, and with as much sincerity as possible, I said  
"I can't promise anything, but I will do everything in my power to bring her back. I'd become a demon lord to save my people, and she died when she should have been under my protection. I will do all I can to right that wrong." It may have been long winded, but I needed to emphasize I'd leave no stone unturned. I had my own to bring back as well, If I could. 

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--2507 words, revised 26/11/2021, originally 2471 words--

(AN: I mixed the explanations of magicule poisoning and Mana poisoning to make more sense in the tensura universe, and I think I did it in the best way I could. I hope you all like the explanation.)

(AN: There will be a big next chapter focusing on rimuru and after that a chapter focusing on something else I made to spice up the story.)

(AN: Comment suggestions and criticisms please.)