Chapter name: Confrontation!

Zetsu and Kettei ran their way to the stronghold’s entrance, as they saw multiple civilians standing in position being ready to attack at any moment.

“Kettei!” A female voice called.

“Hana!” Kettei called as he and Zetsu made their way over to her.

“Are the enemies here yet?” Kettei asked.

“No, but they could be here any moment.” Hana answered.

“I guess we have no other option, but to wait.” Zetsu said.

After a while 3 people wearing brown cloaks arrived at the scene.

“Hey!” one of them shouted.

“Wait.. it must be them.” Hana said.

“We have come here to research the Tower Of Discovery.” The man explained.

“Why would we let you? You killed our surveillance units!” Hana replied with an angry tone.

“Don’t worry, we only knocked them out.” The man responded.

“More importantly, who are you people!” Zetsu exclaimed.

“Shut it kid, haven’t you learned to stay silent when the adults are talking? But I guess we should introduce ourselves!” The man exclaimed.

Rude people!

All 3 of them took off their cloak.

“I am..”

The one who refuses to give up on his dream.

Giju Yakuso!

He had dark blue hair and eyes and was wearing a training suit with a weird metallic backpack.

Kettei recognised the other man beside him.

“Wait you are…”

“Indeed Kettei.”

The one who wishes to reawaken.

Buro Ganjo!

He had short straight dark brown hair and eyes, wearing grey combat clothes.

“Aren’t you one of the lowest graduates from my year?” Kettei asked.

“Yes I am, but not everyone is as lucky as you are, top 10! I worked my ass off to become an imperial mage, but they found me too weak to be allowed at the Imperial University.” Buro answered.

“Shut it, no one cares about your frustrations, It's my turn to introduce myself!” The girl sneered.

The college failure who seeks fun and trill.

Sara Denki!

She had long blond hair and orange eyes wearing a white with yellow combat uniform.

“Guji, you can go ahead now!” Sara exclaimed.

“Why do you people want to research the tower, couldn't you go to Nyoto?” Kettei questioned.

“Pfft you know how they are! They only care about their own interest, the reason we are here is to see if we can reawaken and if I could get a 2nd chance!” Giju answered.

2nd chance: what does he mean by that?

“I am sorry, but you took out our men, how could we ever trust you! Go away, find another Tower for you to use.” Hana commanded.

“I don’t think they are going to leave anytime soon. Hana be prepared to fight them.” Kettei said.

“We will give you one more chance, allow us to study the Tower of Discovery and will not have to fight you.” Giju proposed one last time.

“No, just leave!” Hana shouted.

“Then we have no other choice but take the tower by force!”

Guro's magic power is lower than Sara’s and Buro’s, but I feel something is off about him. Kettei thought.

“Sara, you take that girl! Buro, go for that elite elite mage. I will take care of the others and infiltrate the stronghold.” Guji ordered.

“Roger that!” both of them replied.

“Don’t think I will let you leave!” Zetsu exclaimed.

He used a magic attack.

Mana Blast!

A big ball of Mana headed towards Guji as he blocked it with a Mana Barrier.

“Hmm, it seems that you have not awakened yet! I have no time to beat up weaklings.” Guji said, heading towards the civilians.

“Don’t forget your opponent is me!” Buro said.

Juggernaut Magic: Strong Punch.

A white transparent layer formed around his fists.

He dashed towards Zetsu as he put up a Mana Barrier, but Buro broke it with his punch and kicked him in the stomach, sending Zetsu flying.

“Gah!”

“Zetsu! You bastard don’t touch him!” Kettei cursed and used All Round Enhancement.

He dashed towards Buro and gave him a punch, but Buro blocked it by grabbing his fist.

“I won’t go easy on you!” Buro exclaimed.

“Zetsu go to the tower and get yourself awakened!” Kettei shouted.

“But…” Zetsu said while he pulled himself up.

“Just go, we got this!” Kettei insisted.

Kettei sent a message to the gatekeeper.

Let Zetsu in the tower to get himself awakened and possibly help out in battle.

Zetsu ran towards the gate as the gatekeeper was ready to let him in.

After Zetsu entered the gate was closed again.

Meanwhile Hana had to face Sara.

“So you alone huh? This is going to be very easy.” Sara said with a cocky face.

As suddenly 2 more people arrived at the scene. It was the guards who were in charge of protecting the stronghold entrance.

“Sorry we are late Hana!” One of them apologised.

“And who might you people be? Your magic power is nowhere near close to mine.” Sara sneered.

The both of them took off their Iron helmets.

“We are..”

The twin guards of support.

Haizo & Daizo!

They both had the same straight short pink hair and eyes. Wearing the same grey combat outfit.

“Now what do you want us to do?” Haizo asked.

“The usual tactic!” Hana shouted.

“Affirmative!” Daizo replied.

Haizo and Daizo nodded and used magic spells.

Support Magic: Weaken!

A transparent red line connected between Haizo and Sara.

“Wait, my magic power has weakened by 1/5th!” Sara said.

“But I’m still stronger!” Sara added and used a magic technique.

Thunder Technique: Electro Mode!

Her body got surrounded by dense yellow lighting.

Beyond regular speeds.

Sara Denki! (Electro Mode)

“This technique allows me to move even faster than your regular Enhancement!” Sara explained.

“Doesn’t matter!” Daizo said.

Effect Magic: Contradiction!

Daizo touched Hana's shoulder, as a grey aura appeared around her. Sara got bored from waiting and dashed over to them. She gave all of them either a punch or a kick and they were not able to dodge it or block because of her tremendous speed.

“Darn!” Hana exclaimed.

“I am not done yet!” Sara exclaimed.

Thunder Magic: Lightning Bolt!

A neon yellow compressed ball of electricity came their way, when it was about to reach Hana, Daizo and Haizo used a defensive spell.

Effect Support Magic: Counter Broad Shield!

They put their arms against each other as a large grey redish shield appeared in front of them stopping the Lighting Bolt and counter it back against Sara, but she easily dodged it with her high speed.

“Okay then take this!” Sara yelled.

She used another magic attack.

Thunder Magic: Electro Jet!

Sara put pressure on her legs and launched herself at the opponents.

Crap we can't dodge this, she is just way too fast! Unless…. Hana thought coming up with something on the spot.

She used a magic spell.

Destruction Magic: Crater!

Hana touched the ground with her hand and a small crater formed, dodging Sara's high speed attack.

What?! She thought.

Hana went for another spell.

Damaging Magic: Scratch!

Hana did a scratch motion against Sara's back, where suddenly 5 lines of blood appeared behind her back.

“Gah!”

“What?!”

“My effect magic changes the element to the opposite. Hana is a healer and constructor by origin, but now is a fully fledged offensive mage!” Diazo flexed.

“Ugh I had enough!” Sara shouted and used a magic spell.

Ultimate Thunder Magic: Thunder Strike!

An enormous cloud appeared.

“Eat this you bastards!” Sara cursed.

“Oh no it's still going to be strong even with my weakening effect, hurry up and beat her before I run out of mana.” Haizo warned.

“I’ll deal with this, don’t worry about it!” Hana reassured them.

Now the cloud in the sky released a massive amount of thunder coming for Hana and the rest.

Destruction Magic: Detonate!

Hana held up her hand and made it into a fist making the lighting explode.

“My attack!” Sara reacted.

“Now it's time to end this!” Hana yelled.

Hana did 4 scratches where 20 red lined cuts appeared around Sara’s body.

“Gah!”

“I’m out of magic now, Daizo, Haizo, one of you tie her down!” Hana ordered.

“I still have enough for 1 more spell! I’ll do it.” Daizo replied.

Haizo nodded and put his thumbs up giving him the sign that he is out of magic too.

Daizo ran over to Sara, who couldn’t move because of the pain and used a magic spell.

Effect Magic: Wrapping Rope!

A grey rope appeared around Sara and wrapped her wrists and legs.

“Darn it, I can’t get out of it!” Sara exclaimed.

Daizo walked up to her.

“I mean it cancels out your mana flow, so you kinda can’t use magic.” Daizo responded.

“Ugh I didn’t think I would get beat by the 3 of you.” Sara said.

Hana and Haizo joined Diazo.

“You seem to forget that we are Mages too, well at least I am.” Hana said.

“Yeah I am just a high school drop out haha.” Haizo said.

“Same.” Daizo added.

“Ugh maybe I should have trained for next year's tournament.” Sara regretted it.

“Well, you are too late now, time to hand you to the Nyoto authorities.” Haizo replied.

“But first Kettei and the others have to take care of the rest.” Hana added.

“I wish we could have been of any help but all of us are currently out of mana.” She added.

“I guess all we can do is wait.” Daizo said.

“We also can meditate?” Haizo suggested.

“Takes too much time and we don’t have that.” Hana rejected the idea.

“I just hope they are doing fine, anyways we need to keep an eye on Sara to make sure she isn’t doing anything funny.” Diazo said.

All of them were looking at Sara.

“What?” She asked.

The 3 of them went ahead and sat on her back.

“What the heck do you think you're doing?! I still have wounds, damn it!” Sara complained.

“I don’t care, they are not that deep and this is the perfect way to make it impossible to escape.” Hana explained.

Sara made an annoyed face.

We cut to Zetsu as he was before the massive gate.

The gatekeeper was on top of it and used a spell to open it.

Fortifying Magic: Undo!

“Go kid!”

Zetsu ran inside as the Gatekeeper closed the gate again. Gujo saw this as he was surrounded by a group of civilians.

“You better make way for me!” He threatened.

“No you won’t get past us, everyone blast him down!” One of the civilians said.

They began to shoot blasts of different elements existing out of fire, water, earth, wind and nature. Giju blocked all these constant attacks by creating a mana barrier.

“You people think you can stop me!” Giju exclaimed.

Proto Activate!

The metallic backpack opened and parts began extending all over his body until it became a full metal suit.

“See here, my Mana Enhancing Suit, Proto!”

Giju used a magic attack.

Mana Beams: Full Rotation x2!

He charged 2 beams out of the palm of his hands and shot them while making 180 spin using the outlets at his feet that can use mana as a trusting source. All the civilians except one got taken down, because the boy used a water shield to protect himself.

“I see one is still left huh?” Giju said.

“Why are you doing this!” The boy shouted.

“Why? Because I will let no one get in the way of my dream!” Giju replied.

“If your dream requires you to take out civilians, then no wonder you haven't achieved it yet.” The boy said back.

"Shut up, what do you know! I asked first and all of you blatantly refused, so it's all your fault that this is happening in the first place!" Giju blamed.

"I don't know what drove you to do this, but you know I cannot let you proceed any further!"

The boy used a magic attack.

Water Magic: Aqua Volley!

He shot multiple water blasts at Gijo who dodged them and moved closer by using his mana thrusters at his legs.

"He dodged them all!" The boy said, surprised.

"Now take this!" Giju shouted as he used another magic attack.

Mana Infused Kick x2!

He spun in mid air and gave the boy a kick in the face, sending him flying all the way until he hit the stronghold wall. The boy was unconscious.

Kettei saw that event.

"What the he…." Kettei said not able to finish his sentence because he had to dodge a blast attack.

Buro dashed at Kettei with another magic attack.

Juggernaut Magic: Strong Punch!

Kettei reacted in time and blocked the punch by putting his arms in a X position, but was still knocked back for at least a few meters.

"You should focus on what is in front of you. Or are dysfunctioning, top 10?" Buro taunted.

"Tsk, you are pissing me off!" Kettei replied.

Meanwhile Giju ran over to the gate.

Since I am more agile on the ground than in the sky, blasting through this door is the better option. He thought.

Gijo used a Mana Beam x2 and managed to break through the fortifying magic.

Hana and the guards saw this happening.

"Look that guy is entering, we have to do something!" Daizo suggested.

"We currently have no mana. If we head over there now, we might actually get killed." Hana opposed.

"Get off me already!" Sara complained.

"No." Hana responded.

"Someone is still protecting the gate, let's put our hope in him." Hana said.

When Giju was about to head straight for the Tower Of Discovery, the Gatekeeper jumped from the wall landing in front of him.

"Make way or get blasted, I don't have time for this nonsense!" Giju threatened.

"I am afraid I can't let you because I am…."

The protector of the stronghold.

Jiro the Gatekeeper!

Giju fired off a Mana Blast x2, but Jiro reacted in time with a magic spell.

Fortifying Magic: Sturdy Wall!

A stone wall with a magic grey outline came out of the ground, stopping the attack with ease.

"I helped to protect the people during the Battle of Sokyo and became a lot stronger because of it, so I am confident that I can stall for a long time." Jiro said with a serious face.

"Oh please, you are doing as if you were the only one who has put in effort into becoming a hero. I wanted to be one too, but this forsaken world never let me! I am tired of hearing you hypocrites talk, I will end this quickly, reach my dream and then get the recognition I deserved for a long time!" Giju ranted.

He gave his suit a command.

Proto: Overdrive!

Proceeding to Overdrive mode!

Suddenly light blue lines appear all over his suit, connecting all at the center of the chestpiece forming a glowing light blue core.

In a higher state of desperation for his dream.

Giju Yakuso! (Proto Suit: Overdrive Mode)

"Seems like this isn't going to be as easy as I thought." Jiro commented.

"Oh where is the confidence now huh?! I will wipe the floor with you!" Giju shouted as he used a magic attack.

Mana Beam x2.5!

An even larger Mana Beam now headed straight towards Jiro, as he was ready to block it.

Meanwhile Zetsu ran towards the Tower of Discovery. A mysterious man was looking at him from on top of one of the buildings.

"Hm I was supposed to stop anyone from entering the tower, but since I already got what I wanted I won't do it." The man said as he was looking at a strange red gem in his hand.

"Besides, this seems to have become a very interesting situation. Good luck Giju, I gave you the information, now you do your part." The man added.

With that said he surrounded himself with fire and did a high jump, leaving the stronghold.

After running for a while, Zetsu finally reached the tower.

"So this is it huh?" Zetsu commented.

Before the tower was a building, which seemed to be made far later.

Zetsu entered it.

It was a huge white with bits of blue empty space with lots of pillars at the back sides of it, in front there was a large opening leading to the tower. Zetsu ran all the way there and passed through the opening leading to another place.

"Wow!" Zetsu reacted.

It was a blue with white open tall space with at the center, a small staircase leading up to a large seeming to be unactivated magic circle.

"So if I stand on the weird circle, would I awaken?" Zetsu wondered as he slowly walked towards the structure.