Chapter 21 - The war begins..

Akio starts worrying. Why? Why is the city destroyed? Why is there only blood? He closes his eye and shakes his head, only to open his eye once again and actually see that the city's in tact. Akio wonders what the hell was what he saw, though he dismisses it, going to Hisako's house.

He looks at his watch, and seeing as it's 4pm, they should be home. With the spare keys that he had been given by Hisako when he had moved out a few months ago, he opens the door, only to see Ichika sleeping on the couch, feeling Ruby's magic energy upstairs.

Heading towards the couch, he kisses Ichika on her forehead, as he goes to check up on Ruby. Slightly opening her door, he is surprised to see that she's reading manga, and in certain the very same one that he was reading almost four years ago, before he headed out to train.

Smiling slightly, he closes the door silently, deciding to head out to go back to his own home. When he closes the outer door, however, he feels a devilish magic energy heading towards the city, as the very same vision as before resurfaces.

The young adult kneels, breathing heavily, but he returns to his senses quite quickly. The best plan of action would be to let them come here and then fight them at a safe distance, in which the minimal possible damage would be done to the city.

Akio felt like a genius at this point, thinking that this is the first plan that he has ever thought of himself and would work. For three days, he spent his time preparing himself in the headquarters, all while making sure that only the soldiers know of his return. These three days pass, and surely enough, the magic energy has come closer.

Hell, its actually a charge. Akio prepares himself for what is to come, as the soldiers are too weak to handle The Dark Wizard's minions, but to his surprise, this charge disappears from his eyesight. What could've happened?

He checks his watch, only to see that thirty minutes have passed. What? It was 1:18 PM a few seconds ago, but now it's 1:48 PM? Did Akio fall unconscious, or did the enemy use some kind of time acceleration?

That doesn't matter. Akio rushes back to the city, only to see that the soldiers have reached their destination and are wreaking havoc. He plows through a swarm of soldiers, when he feels the magic energy of Ichika slowly fading away.

Meanwhile, Ichika is kneeling, apparently having fought, as she had left school early to pick up Ruby, who's tearing up, as she couldn't do anything. If only her daddy was here..

In one second, a purple circle appeared in front of Ichika, and surprisingly enough, Akio came out of it, punching the soldier that was about to kill Ichika in the face. Both Ichika and Ruby are surprised to see Akio, who is surprised for a different reason.

What was that circle that was in front of him a second ago? How did it teleport him to here? Well, that doesn't matter, as he hugs his little sister and his daughter, asking them if they're alright. Akio notices that Ichika is quite heavily injured, which appears to be a sign that she was fighting, and he heals her, saying that this opponent is too strong, and that she should simply fight some of the weaker ones.

Ichika nods, as Akio rushes to the soldier from earlier, who had resurfaced. He curses at Akio, asking him what the hell he thinks he's doing, as he charges up a beam, firing it towards the young adult. Akio smirks, asking if that's all he's got, activating Cursed sense and catching the blast, reflecting it towards the soldier.

The soldier does not die, nor is he injured. He simply reabsorbs the energy back into his body. When he returns to his senses, however, Akio is in front of him, preparing a punch. Seconds before the punch connects, the soldier catches it, responding with a jab, sending Akio away.

Planting his feet on the ground, Akio manages to stop himself, as he flies back to battle the soldier, though it appears that Akio continues to have the advantage, when he finally activates his Phoenix and Lightning magic combo.

This turns the tides of battle quite quickly, as the soldier is taken care of. Ichika can only watch in awe, as she sees her late father inside of her big brother, tearing up. She gets up, taking Ruby to a safe place, and she returns to the battle.

Akio tells her that in reality, he doesn't really want her to fight, but he knows that she is as stubborn as him, so he once again instructs her to fight the weakest soldiers, and that Akio will aid her if need be.

Nodding, Ichika runs to battle, while Akio goes towards the stronger energy, sweeping through even more soldiers. In the end, he doesn't manage to reach the strongest one, but he reaches someone that equals his power.

The man facing him is actually an apprentice Shadow Commander, so of course, his power would be high, though this surprises Akio.  This is an apprentice Shadow Commander? He gets hyped up, knowing well that the real thing will be far stronger.

In any case, he must defeat the enemy in front of him. Knowing that he mustn't hold back, he powers up to his strongest, slowing his time using his Cursed Sense in order to avoid the apprentice's attacks.

It works for the first few attacks, but Akio is surprised. The apprentice.. can break through Akio's Cursed Sense? Akio is alarmed, now focusing on his attacks. He makes sure that they're as strong as possible, but even so, he cannot seem to land not even most of them.

The apprentice's turn comes, and he does quite the combo against Akio, who kneels to the ground, as he thinks:

The opponent against him is very strong, indeed, but it's not enough of a gap that he couldn't close, so why..? Why does he feel like he's getting weaker with each individual hit? The apprentice reveals that Lord Gawain had blessed him with the ability to steal the strength of others, if he's wondering why he feels weaker.

Akio spits blood, seemingly trying to stand up, but the apprentice steps on Akio, telling him that he really shouldn't stand. After all, he's going to die. Unable to do anything, Akio simply lowers his head in defeat.

Charging an attack at point-blank range, the apprentice is about to fire it, but before he does, someone punches him. Akio looks up to see that Jack just saved his life.

"What are you doing, Akio!?"

Jack shouts at his friend, telling him that he isn't this weak. Genkei also appears, telling Akio that he must lay back for now. Akio feels a warmth on his back, only to see that Sarah is there, healing him with the healing training she had received from Michael during the eight months.

The now-healing Akio asks where the others are, but Sarah says that for all of them to come at once, it'd take a whole two weeks, since God's teleportation ability isn't all that strong when limited, and only three could come with the energy built up currently.

Naturally, Akio would be tempted to ask why God didn't ask him to take others, but she says that apparently, Akio's energy was too strong, so only he could come. In other words, the story about Akio being the first to come in order to make sure that everything is safe was fake.

Now understanding, Akio asks Sarah when will he be fully healed, but Sarah simply says that they should be done right about.. now. Akio gets up instantly, having been healed back to both his full health and power, as he rushes to aid his friends against this foe.

It appears as though Jack and Genkei aren't struggling much, but Akio joins the battle, telling the two to not hit the apprentice with any attacks that require direct contact. The apprentice doesn't appreciate that, but he sees that Akio has already seen through him.

He knocks Akio and Jack away, leaving Genkei to be the only one to fight him. Genkei continues to hold his own against the apprentice, as he's flowing like water so as to not make contact with him. he shoots out a blast of Vortex magic, hitting the apprentice head on.

Genkei continues to hit the apprentice with a drill punch, which is not real direct combat, since Genkei's Vortex magic is what's touching the apprentice. Apparently, this did a good amount of damage, as the apprentice laughs.

They did well, but now, they shall die. He powers up to his own maximum, and the three know that they must beat him here and now.