It has been 2 days after the Dark Diablo incident. It was one of our toughest incident yet since The Seven Month War. Half of us were badly injured. A lot of things had happened in the span of a single month. Here we are nearing the end of January. The Magic Duel Opening Ceremony will begin tomorrow. Tomorrow will just be the opening ceremony. The qualification will begin the following day.

Thankfully, all Stardust members who participated in the Magic Duel will be able to make it to the qualification. The reason was because none of them suffered a major injury. Rider was probably the only most injured in our team right now but his injury was a minor one. It will be recovered by the time we enter the qualifier.

“Tomorrow’s the day huh…” I looked outside the window of Haz’s ward.

“The opening ceremony…” Haz takes a sip of a cup of tea that I made.

“Lots of stuff has happened in just one month.”

“Indeed it is" agreed Haz.

Yeah. Even on the first day of school, I ended up eating an Infinitum crystal. Gaining the ability to stop time for a few seconds. The only problem with that was that the ability only affects anything that was 5 metres near me. But I'll try to train myself on how to properly use it. In time, I might be able to do something like I did the first time I used this ability.

Then Blax invited me to join The Magic Duel. At first I was a bit discouraged over the fact that I just recently got my magic. There’s no way I can pull off a victory that easily. But when we began searching for more members for Team Stardust, I slowly gain confidence.

Our first target was getting Rider Blade and Lore Pidea to join us. I got a little help from Kaym Famine who could use an astounding offensive magic called, Devil Trigger. I even got to met the demon that Kaym contracted to during The Seven Month War. Anyway, about Rider and Lore. They are known as The Blade & Shield Combination. That term was also used as their signature moves when they are about to defeat their enemy.

“Did you know, Haz? I actually tumbled down Lore.” I laughed.

“No way! Are you for real? How you did that?” Haz’s voice cracked a little on those early part.

“It was nothing special. It was just smart thinking I guess.”

Rider and Lore invited us to join their training regiment. They were doing this training because they wanted to join The Magic Invitational contest that started and ended last week. I heard that someone from our school won the invitational. I guess it was probably my fault that Rider & Lore didn’t get to become the winner. What happened was after training for about two hours, Kaym issued a challenge to Rider and Lore. If they lose they will have to join The Magic Duel.

It was a simple you win you get the reward kind of challenge. Having just recently knowing how to stop time, it was a hard battle for me. Especially when you realize you can only stop for 1.2 seconds with a range of 5 metres only. Kaym teamed up with me to fight against The Blade and Shield. I imagined that I won’t make it out alive if I ever decided to face Rider. Thank goodness it wasn’t that way. Kaym charged through and exchanged blows with Rider.

Meanwhile, Lore faced me. In a very difficult situation I managed to overcome his unstoppable Shield. During the climax of our battle, Kaym was out of it. Leaving me all alone. I was supposed to surrender but I refused to lose. I successfully devised a wonderful plan that it made both The Blade & Shield topple down together. Probably a first in history. Plus, it was achieved by someone who doesn’t really have a true offensive magic.

“Now that I think about it. What’s my magic type anyway, Haz?”

Haz puts his tea down and explained, “I think Time Manipulation doesn’t count as an Offensive magic given how using it doesn’t really hurt anyone. It’s not really a Defensive magic as well given how you could only stop time. Obviously doesn’t look like a Utility type magic. I conclude that your magic might be categorised in Unknown Type.”

“Unknown Type?”

“It is pretty much a type that does not belong to the three main types. It can be related to the main three and not related to the three at the same time.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that you can manipulate time to hurt people, protect people or even being useful for something. You can do all of those three at same time as well with Time Manipulation.”

“Cool.”

That was interesting. I never knew there was a fourth type that exist in this magical world. It reminds me of how Hosuke got his magic thanks to Blax. After a knowing about his true family, Hosuke was invited by Blax to have a walk. During that walk, Blax provided some interesting piece about The Tale of The Sea God. Yeah. To be honest that was actually just a portion of the Sea God stories.

Blax just told him one of its stories that was carefully similar to Hosuke’s current situation. Given how he was always being distanced by others. Sometimes even by his own family. But that changed when he remembers that he now has friends. Someone that can understand him. Someone that can be relied on. We unknowingly helped him stop from suffering insane depression.

After retelling one of the famous Sea God stories, they found an Infinitum crystal coincidentally at The Sea God Shrine. Knowing that he was somehow ‘chosen’ by the artefact, Hosuke accepts it and thus gained realization that he was actually the reincarnation of The Sea God. The Sea God was a gentle being. The Sea God was never a violent deity in all of its stories. But there were multiple stories that tells about when The Sea God got angry.

“Do you agree that Hosuke is the reincarnation of The Sea God, White?”

“I don’t know the truth. We weren’t there. But I’m sure that was what he believed. As long as he believed he is. So be it. We can trust in him.”

“Interesting theory, White.” Haz smiled.

During that time as well, we gained support from two other friends of mine. Haz and Zone ended up supporting us after a few bargaining to both of them. I had a hard time getting through Zone considering the fact that he was famous for using Cheat without anyone ever realizing it except Rulend of course. Those two have always had a healthy rivalry.

I ended up beating his Cheat. For the first time in history once again I made the impossible, possible. Even Rulend was in awe of how I managed to break away from Zone’s manipulative lies. Zone can be mischievous at times but once you get on his good side, you will totally appreciate him a lot. All it takes was to have a strong mind when you are under his magic.

Haz was also a great addition. Even though he didn’t join the main team, he was willingly enough to support us by providing sponsorship for our team. He even gave me his latest invention, The Infinibot. After days of tuning up The Infinibot, I ended up being attached to one of the model labelled V.0.7. I called it Seven just because of its version number. Seven ended up being a valuable ally when we fought Roman and his men.

While we were trying to gain support, Rider, Lore and Kaym was hunting for the last member for the main team. Airi was their target. Despite all of the rage that has come and go from both Rider and Airi. They will always settle things with a duel. That was exactly how they were able to get Airi to join the main team for The Magic Duel.

Then it was two days ago where we got caught up in a huge prank that was pulled of by none other, Zone. We didn’t know Zone was pulling the strings at first. We ended believing that The Magnificent Three was about to endanger themselves against a wanted Dark Faction. We saved them indeed but in return some of us were badly injured thanks to Dark Diablo.

“It’s amazing how Zone managed to use Cheat on a scale of the whole city.” said Haz.

“I know right? I didn’t expect he would be doing it.”

“Someone like that happens to be our friend. Interesting.”

“Interesting indeed, Haz.”

And here we are today awaiting for the following day, The Opening Ceremony for The Magic Duel. The coming months will be very interesting. I can’t wait to see what will happen soon.

END OF VOLUME 1