last chapter ended with Sam meeting up with Mercury outside the school building, they are about to proceed to a war of wizards. a crowd has already formed in the meantime… can Sam make it?
Mercury: "so… have you gotten enough time to prepare? or do you prefer to train for a few more years?"
Sam: "quit speaking bullshit, let's get on with it…"
Mercury chuckles
Mercury: "ahaha! acting all tough isn't gonna intimidate me~ now come on, take out your wand~
Sam: "nah, i'm doing this with my bare hands…"
Mercury: "but you'll need a wand if you want the most powerful outcome"
Sam: "i don't go hunting rabbits with a cannon"
Mercury thinks to himself
Mercury: "(he really thinks he and the dumb Seishin of his is gonna win from me huh? i'm the strongest one around here!)"
Sam: "i wager my Seishin"
the crowd gasps as people start discussing with eachother "what is he doing?" "if he loses he'll be magicless again!" "what an idiot! last person who said that lost horribly!"
Mercury laughs out loud
Mercury: "okay then! it's a de-"
Sam: "but if i win, you're giving my girlfriend her red Seishin back that you took from her three years ago"
Mercury stops laughing, regains his composure and clears his throat
Mercury: "deal, now let's begin!"
Sam: "on your mark…"
Mercury: "get set…"
then they both cast the spell
Both: "clash!"
the magical beams's clash seem to remain in the middle of the field
Sam: "okay, you can start pushing it further my way now"
Sam replied in a calm tone, Mercury seemingly struggling to hold against Sam
Mercury: "y- you're.. no way… and without a wand? (who is this kid?! from what i heard he only got his magic like 3 days ago! he can't know how to maintain the beam this well already!)"
that is because Sam isn't fighting this battle alone, because he has Zero
Zero: "i got your back buddy"
Sam: "good job Zero! let's do this!"
the clashing point slowly starts moving Mercury's way
Mercury: "(no… i'm not losing against this damn brat!)"
Mercury casted a buff spell
Mercury: "reflect on the present: Laughing Mirror!"
the clashing point reverses it's position and is now close to Sam
Sam: "(crap! it's gonna hit me if i don't regain my composure!)"
Zero came with an idea
Zero: "Sam, have you ever watched Absolute duo?~"
Sam understands the assignment and casts a protection spell
Sam: "sever the fang: Aegis Desire!"
a small forcefield appears around him, making the opposing beam unable to go further, allowing Sam's focus to cool down and regain his composure, making the beam go towards Mercury again
Mercury: "(what kind of spell is that?! i've never read about those in the books before!)"
Sam: "at the end of your wit already? come on Zero, let's finish him off before he can do anything stupid again."
Sam casts a buff
Sam: "a light in the dark: Heavenly Strike!"
the clashing point started rapidly moving towards Mercury, but he wasn't done yet
Mercury: "skin to stone: Petrify!"
Sam suddenly stopped moving, standing perfectly still, the clashing point moves towards him again
Mercury: "I AM THE STRONGEST!! I WILL NOT LOOOOOOSE!!!"
Zero was getting scared now
Zero: "come on Sam this isn't funny, wake up…"
Zero worried for a moment as the beam almost hit Sam, but then Zero started using his own power
Zero: "a light in the dark: Heavenly Strike…"
the clashing point beligned back to Mercury, and before he could react, he got hit by Sam and Zero's beam. as soon as the match was over, Sam started moving again
Sam: "Zero! you did it! you okay buddy?"
Zero was about to faint, because a Seishin using his own raw power uses its own life energy
Zero: "hey Sam… let's have lunch.. with Elisa and maggie after this okay?... cause i'm.. kinda… hungry…"
soon after Zero passed out, Sam stood to Mercury and confronted him
Sam: "alright, show's over, give my girlfriend her Seishin back, now"
Mercury: "heh, you'll see me again later, and winning won't be as easy then!!"
at that moment, a red light blinked from Mercury's chest, as a red Seishin emerges, searching frantically, then when it found Elisa it rushed over to her
Elisa: "Maggie? Maggieeee!!!
Maggie: "Elisa!! oh my god.. i can't believe this is real… i'm free again?!"
Sam: "all thanks to me and my Seishin buddy Zero!"
after Maggie restitches herself to Elisa's soul, Elisa hugs Sam in relief and thankfulness
Sam: "see? i told ya i'd win~"
Mercury ran off, teleporting back to his house, which was a lot more difficult since he now didn't have a Seishin anymore to multiply his mana
Mercury: "that cursed Sam Hart and his stupid girlfriend…"
he finally arrived at his house, he descends to the basement
Mercury: "i'll make sure that next time i'll win"
He goes up to a glass encased creature called an Akki. he lifts the glass case up and wakes it
Mercury: "even if i have to lose control over my own actions to do so!!"
he touches the Akki, and it stitches itself to Mercury's soul
Mercury: "welcome to your new vessel: Magno Zephire!"
later at a snackbar, Sam and Elisa are having some fries to both celebrate and to power up their Seishin
Maggie: "but Elisa, have you seen Zero anywhere? i need to see him again…"
Elisa: "Sam, is Zero awake again?"
Sam: "i don't know, still haven't heard a word from him"
Zero starts slowly waking up, finally replenished again
Zero: "nngh.. mmh? where are we? did we win?"
Sam: "we won Zero, and Maggie has been returned to E-"
Zero: "LET ME SEE HER PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD"
Sam: "calm down Zero, go ahead"
both Zero and Maggie emerge, holding each other tight as they speak to each other
Zero: "thank god you're back!"
Maggie: "when i first got taken away from Elisa, i thought i'd never see you again… i refused to work for him and only functioned as a magic multiplier, not as a helper"
Zero: "i would've done the same honestly, fuck that guy! not literally though hehe"
Sam: "remember though guys, Mercury is gonna be back soon enough…"
Zero: "yeah, but without a Seishin he is almost powerless!"
Sam: "i don't know zero, something gives me the awful feeling he isn't the same anymore as he was during our battle… what if he's hiding something stronger from us?"
Zero: "what, like an Akki?"
Sam: "Akki? what's an Akki?"
Zero: "it's the same concept as a Seishin, but they can also manifest weapons from spirit energy, dangerous ones like blades, guns, lazers, etcetera! not only that, but they can take full control over their master at will, and those things are aggressive as fuck"
Sam: "are you saying that he might have one of those?"
Zero: "i don't know, but one thing is definite… from the energy i sensed coming from him, he's not one to mess with at will"
Sam: "that only gives us more reason to find our father! if we can unlock your full potential we can achieve your Spirit Art! if we achieve your Spirit Art, not only will it be a legendary moment in history, but also we might be able to defeat Mercury at his strongest!"
Elisa: "i'll go with you! i'm not gonna risk losing my Seishin here again…"
Sam: "very well then, you can come with me"
but Zero interfered for a moment
Zero: "say i hate to break it to you Sam, but… how are we gonna get there? it's too far to just teleport to…"
Sam: "don't worry Zero, we'll go by bike"
Zero: "what?! that's not fast enough!"
Sam: "unless you wanna waste your stamina on teleporting 50 meters at a time… or dashing"
Zero: "fine… we'll go by bike, but please make sure the road is safe.. Mercury might be onto even the possibility of us trying to find our dad and he might try to stop us"
Maggie: "no need to worry about that, Sam and Elisa now have right about an equal level of mana, that's two in one!"
Zero: "so… no worries about being ambushed?"
Maggie: "not much at least"
Zero: "then what are we waiting for? let's hop on our bikes!"
Sam and Elisa go back home to get their bikes, meeting up at a cafe in the middle of the city
Sam: "you ready Elisa?"
Elisa: "born ready"
they step onto their bikes again and soon leave the town
Sam: "this… this is amazing… i've never been outside my hometown…"
Elisa: "you think i've been?! how are we even supposed to find him?!"
Sam: "oh that's easy, we just keep going this path for a while until we find a village, his door should be number 2"
Sam casted a buff to go faster
Sam: "at the speed of light: Dash!"
Elisa: "hey wait up!"
she copied the spell and went after Sam, but soon the two of them were stopped by a strange barrier
Sam: "what in Jesus' mother on a tricycle is this?!"
a voice sounded from the barrier, seemingly a voice message left by its setter
Mercury: "i've heard you two want to find that old scientist to get stronger huh? first prove to me that you're strong enough to deserve that power!"
Sam: "damn it! how the hell are we supposed to do that?! i don't know how to break barriers yet!"
Elisa: "i could try something"
she clears her throat before she starts casting a spell
Elisa: "rooted in the earth, i call a power, turning minutes into hours, blowing up like a balloon, popping hard like one too, summoning matter of corrosion, i cast: Explooosion!"
the explosion corroded through most of the barrier, the rest is easy to take care of
Sam: "let me handle the rest…"
Sam clears his throat too
Sam: "explosion."
another massive explosion appears, simply from a mild action spell
Zero: "huh… didn't Maggie say we have similar levels of mana now?"
Sam: "yeah… weird…"
Maggie: "sorry… i may or may not have gone a little soft…"
Elisa: "it's okay, we'll train!"
meanwhile at Mercury's basement
Magno: "master, i felt the barrier breaking with brute force… should we take action?"
Mercury's eyes widened a bit before calmly replying
Mercury: "let them have their way. they won't escape the next trap i've set for them~"
back at Sam and Elisa. they are now biking through a forest, where there's trees in the way everywhere
Sam: "i think we're getting halfway to my dad's lab! let's go!"
but soon enough, when they see the end of the forest, they come out right where they went in
Elisa: "what the fuck? we just went in this way!"
they try again to go through the forest, but the same thing reoccurs
Sam: "i think i know what might be causing this… zero, can you detect any magical force inside that forest?"
Zero looks around, and gasps
Zero: "a recursion spell… those things aren't easy to create… this has to be the work of a mighty magic user.. it has to be an Akki at this point!"
Sam: "do you know where it is?"
Zero: "i can't tell the exact location… something is jamming my senses…"
Maggie: "a distortion field… how do we-"
Sam: "wait! zero, let's go back into the forest, i just realized something…"
they all walk back into the forest, Sam pointing something out halfway, pointing at a strange looking tree
Sam: "you see that tree over there? the one cut perfectly in half? if you go a few steps further and look the other way, you can see that same half tree here…"
Elisa: "leave this one to me then…"
she steps forward, placing her hand roughly where the barrier should be
Elisa: "multiply the reversal: Mirror!"
the recursion spell was nullified by being multiplied against itself
Elisa: "look! it's changing!"
the forest returns to normal, despite the fact that Mercury's spell is still active in some way
Sam: "good job Elisa! he won't even know we passed the forest because his magic field isn't directly tampered with!"
Sam couldn't be more right, as Mercury has only set a single new trap beforehand, not even being aware of Sam's success
Sam: "come on guys! we're halfway there!"
they try to go further, before coming to a stop as they see a kid sitting by the side of the road, looking around anxiously, backing away from Sam as he senses a huge amount of mana coming from him
???: "s- stay away from me! please don't hurt me! i'm sorry that i'm weak!!"
Sam: "(who is this kid? why is he so scared of me? did he go through anything harsh?)"
Sam stepped off his bike and consoled the kid
Sam: "i'm not gonna hurt you don't worry! what's you're name?
???: "K- Kaede… Kaede Arashi…"
(TO BE CONTINUED)