I opened my eyes the very next morning and found out that I was sleeping on my bed. My bed. My home. A place that was away from my school. That was indeed weird and bizarre. I’m not really sure what happened but last thing I remembered was we were all having a blast with our celebration on our victory against Escher. Maybe I was just too tired to remember what happened moments before I went to sleep last night.

It was then I remembered something. I walked home together with the rest of Stardust. Then I was scolded by my mom for coming home late. I guess that was it. Looks like she doesn't even notice or remember about Escher's illusion. I decided to walked out of my room and saw my mother was making breakfast.

“You got up early today, White.”

“Uh…yeah…Just getting some fresh morning air, mom.”

I walked outside of my house and saw the dark blue morning sky. I looked around and found nothing different at all. Then I looked at the direction where my high school was and there was no spheres at all. There was no more of that fake dome. Since I already got up early, I figured it was best if I make an early move to my school to see if yesterday's adventure has been cleared out for sure or not.

I prepared for school and ate the breakfast that my mother made. I stick in my feet into my shoes and made my way to the school. Something was weird back there. My mother made me one of my favourite dish, grilled cheese sandwich. That’s not something you make everyday in this household to be honest. Yes, it's not really common here.

"Is something special going on today, mom?"

My mom then replied, "Have you forgotten already? Today is the last day of Magic Duel. That's why I make that sandwich. It's a good luck dish."

"I see..."

Leaving that aside, I made my way to the school. Starting from the Quarter Final to the Semi-Final and of course, the Final throughout the day. The Quarter Final will begin this morning while The Semi-Final will be around after lunch. The final battle won’t be around the end of school as it will be resumed this night. Where everyone can see it on prime time television live. Apparently, today was the only day they are broadcasting this because each school has a different date of their own for their last day of Magic Duel.

It looks like everything seems to be working out. Everyone was fine but what about my friends? I looked around the school but non of my friends were there yet. I decided to wait it out at a certain tree that a certain someone always hangs around at.

And as I hoped, they were all alright. They looked pumped up and ready for our next big match which was against Team Brilliance.

The Leader of Team Brilliance, Rin Zeelint approached me and said, “May the best team win, White.”

That was what Rin Zeelint told me before we parted ways into our team’s preparation room. She looks very determined from the way she speaks to me. Of course, I'm sure this will be a tough fight considering that we're against one of The Top Seven Students of Soul Power High School, Rin. Let's not forget that she has an ensemble of key players in their team.

-------------------------------They have those three idiots, The Magnificent Three. If I'm not mistaken, the leader among the three, Nanjo Sojiro had that ability where he could make a clone of himself. The ability isn't as useful during a combat unless the clones were able to surround a single enemy. But I might expect some surprise from him ever since that incident with that so called guild the other month.

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Then there's Aizen Ascree who has excellence in aiming. He could use any type of projectile and I fear that these guys might bring along a real projectile like an arrow or something for him to use. What about Adam Rift and his ability to melt himself? Considering that his ability mostly used to make him move to a different position at a quick time, we should be careful about him as well.

Then we have two interesting guy in Team Brilliance. There's Meme Elementz and his break dancing ability. That would cause some trouble with his unpredictability. Most of us haven't really seen him fight. In fact, this guy will be fighting us by dancing. It'd be wise for us to be prepared for his moves. The other interesting guy was Zayn Mayan. His ability was called Spirit Guardian if I'm not mistaken. He's able to use the ability of four legendary animals that he has. But I think I heard from Zone that he might be able to use a 5th one. How can that be? Well, Zone gave some information to him the other day. We better get ready for this 5th animal state he might use against us.

I think I mentioned everyone including Rin already. Wait, there's one more girl. Izzy Nova Crystallia. The Spellsword. She's the only wizard in this school to have extreme knowledge about both the art of war and the ethereal ways of power. She's pretty adept at most weapons utilisation and she's also versatile in a lot of combat situations. This was all mostly thanks to the time Izzy and I both played a bunch of Role Playing video games. Basically, I'm kind of similar to her. Except for the fact that I'm not a master of weapon utilisation or a master at handling magic.

I mean, I barely used my wind ability against my recent enemies including Escher himself. I may need some more training from Fitz. I also heard from Fitz that Rika might be able to teach me some basics of her own magic. What's the reason behind that? Well, every wizard can learn these elemental magics. The only biggest obstacle was the effort it needs. Fitz said that my wind adaptability looks promising considering that I'm from a lineage of an interesting wizard. I should really find out more about my ancestor if I have the opportunity. Maybe I can ask Mei for help.

But I'm getting sidetracked here. Putting that aside, I made my way to my teammates and discussed some strategies with them. Once strategy meeting was over. Everyone went to their separate ways in preparation for the Quarter Final that's going to be in several minutes later. As I was waiting for that, I noticed that Blax hasn't left the meeting place yet. His face doesn't look like his normal self. I took this opportunity to go and talk to him.

"What's up, Blax?"

Blax looked at me unwillingly and said, "I'm fine as always."

"Really? You don't look fine at all from the looks of it..." I raised my eyebrows.

He sighed and told me, "Alright you got me, White. I have some issues with my girlfriend, Kin right now."

"Is that all?"

"Well...The Black Berserker has been dealt with in a way so I think that's all."

"What have you done to make her so upset, then?" I tried to understand his situation.

He walked around the place while telling me his story, "It's nothing really. I've been trying to get away from her because I was afraid of The Black Berserker causing some harm to her. Now that The Berserker has been dealt, I was hoping that I would be able to talk to her. But it looks like it was too late. She's already starting to doubt our relationship..."

"What about you? Are you doubting as well?"

He shrugged and said, "Who knows...I'm not very sure about that. This was all just a mess. I didn't really think it through when I decided to do what I did. But I guess, there's no turning back now. It's not like I can rewind back in time and correct my mistakes. You probably can't even do that, White."

I sighed and agreed to him, "Well you are kind of right about that. And I also can't rewind the time...Except for one case that is..."

"And what's that?"

"It was when I awakened to my ability. I could only do it once. Now I can only pause the time for a measly few seconds. I'm not sure how useful my ability can be."

Blax then smiled and told me, "A measly few seconds is enough to help us win The Magic Duel, Captain."

Hearing that from him made me feel a little bit better about my ability. But then he immediately destroyed that mood by saying something else.

"But then again, you can also manipulate the space around you isn't it? It would be useful if you can actually do it for a bunch of times and not once per several hours."

My mood went down as I told him, "Way to lower your expectations on me, Blax. That ability requires a lot of Infinitum to be used."

"And that is why you now have to use that wind magic that Fitz teach you, right?"

"Exactly."

"See? It all works out in the end, Captain. I'm sure things will be fine."

I laughed a bit and said, "Well what about you. Will you be fine?"

"Oh don't worry about me. I'll be in my 100% when the match begins."

"Good to know, buddy."

"I think I'll take a walk in the mean time...See you around, White." Blax said his farewell and left the area.

The Quarter Final Match will begin in about half an hour. I still have some time from the looks of it. I decided to find the other main members of Stardust and see how are they currently...I hope everything goes well for us all.

TO BE CONTINUED