The massive destructive energy swept through the ground and towards the spot the heroes were located at, destroying everything in its path. The ground, the buildings, anything that used to be there was turned into rubble and vaporised by the destructive power of the energy unleashed from the self-destruction of the alien ship.

“To think they’re this mad to kill us all!” Vikram bellowed, fighting hard to stay put in the shelter that provided by the destroyed ground around him.

“What’re we going to do?!” William yelled, turning to look at Natsu, hoping he would come up with some kind of plan. “Natsu?!”

Natsu did not respond because his mind had gone blank with shock, unable to believe the reality of their situation. Previously, he was confident that Asura will manage to stop the falling rock at any cost, but he no longer had any hope that he could repeat that a second time. Just one look at Asura’s sorry state can tell anyone that he was in no shape to move his body and fight immediately because of the amount of damage his body had taken and the blood he vomited.

“This is it…! We’re… finished…!” He muttered with a glazed look on his face.

“You’re kidding me!” William shouted, moving over and grabbed his shirt front. “Don’t give up just yet! We can still do something?!”

“Something? Like what?” Natsu asked him in a cold sunken voice. “We’re powerless to stop something of this scale!”

It was a fact that none of them were capable of using powers that could somehow stop this massive destruction. Even though they knew it, they still wanted to do something that was better than sitting there like some statues.

Gram suddenly turned to face the mass of destruction and said, “Finished, are we? Fine, but I’m not going down without a fight!”

He raised his sword, which began to glow brightly, and charged towards the destructive energy with incredible speed. As soon as he reached the destructive energy, he swung his sword and smashed the blade against the wave. The collision of two opposing forces caused a violent release of wind and shock waves that were sent in all directions, buffeting against the other heroes and causing some of the humans to stumble and fall.

“Gah! So powerful!” Gram exclaimed through gritted teeth.

He was channelling his great power through the sword and used it like a stopping force, keeping the destructive wave contained. Unfortunately, he was soon starting to lose the battle of powers, with the wave slowly pushing forward and causing his feet to get dragged as he was forcibly pushed backwards.

“What are you doing?!” Natsu yelled at Gram from the rear, alarmed at seeing him put up a fruitless fight. “We’re all going to die anyway, so why are you still putting up a fight?! Just give up already!”

Gram, who was struggling against the massive wave with all his might, raised his voice and shouted at Natsu.

“Giving up is not part of my lineage!” As Natsu watched in shock, Gram continued his struggle while shouting, “All this time, I let that demon have his way because he’s more powerful than me, and I couldn’t allow my pride to get in the way of our chances for survival, but this… this is different! If we’re going to die anyway, then I won’t perish without putting up a fight at least! I’m not going down without trying my utmost since I have nothing to lose!”

With his shout, he exerted more strength and empowered his sword, giving him the power to push the destructive wave back for a few meters. That was all that he could manage because the wave suddenly strengthened and stopped in its tracks before continuing its relentless path of destruction.

Once again, Gram was back on the defensive as the wave slowly pushed him back while his feet got dragged on the ground. The ground beneath him shook violently and as he was about to lose his footing, Maxwell and William came to his aid and grabbed the sword by placing their hand around it.

“Come on! Stay strong!” Maxwell shouted in a fierce voice.

“You’re all that’s left to fight this thing, so don’t you dare give in!” William yelled firmly.

Gram glanced at the two of them in surprise before grimacing and saying, “You don’t have to say it!” His eyes flashed with power and said, “Let’s keep this up!”

The three warriors began to pool their combined strength and power into the sword, managing to push the wave back by several meters. Natsu watched the three of them fight their hardest against the wave, feeling a sudden jolt in his head. It was not like he did not want to do anything, but he was powerless and giving up felt easier and logical compared to fighting so hard only to end up losing at the end.

He turned to Ward and asked, “Is there anyway that you could teleport this to some other place?”

Ward shook his head and replied telepathically, “No. I would first need to know the destination in order to do that and, second is that I don’t have enough power to teleport this thing away. I’m sorry.”

“No. No. you don’t have anything to apologise about,” said Natsu distractedly, quickly trying to come up with something to do about their current predicament. He quickly thought of an alternative and asked, “Can you heal Asura?”

Ward glanced at Asura and assessed the damage he had taken before telepathically saying, “No. It’ll take me some time to heal his wounds, time that we don’t have.”

Natsu clenched his fists tightly and asked, “What about them? Can you heal their wounds, or maybe boost their powers if possible?”

Ward shook his head and responded telepathically by saying, “Unfortunately, healing them is out of the question due to the constant injuries they’re receiving, but I can boost them with my magic. However, keep in mind that the amount of power they get boosted cannot exceed my own.”

“I see. That’s still something,” said Natsu, nodding his head in understanding. “Do that, Ward. If you can’t heal them, then boost their powers!”

Ward nodded and turned towards the three people supporting each other as they channelled their powers together to keep Gram’s sword from budging. His book opened automatically and flipped through several pages before stopping on a page with words written in a language that Ward was the only one that seemed capable of reading.

As he parsed through the page, the book began to glow brightly before a magic circle appeared beneath his feet and, in the next moment, a magic circle appeared beneath Gram, William and Maxwell. Soon, the three of them were surrounded by a greenish glow that dramatically boosted their powers. Much to their surprise, the amount was so great that they managed to push the massive destruction wave further away from them.

“This is great!” Maxwell shouted energetically. “Thanks, Ward!”

“What took you so long to help us, ah?!” William yelled his demand in an angry voice.

“Don’t waste your effort blabbing! Concentrate!” Gram shouted at the two, making them focus their attention back to channelling their power and exerting their strength against the destructive wave.

Natsu watched in satisfaction at the result, but Vikram dashed the positiveness when he said, “Natsu, this won’t last.” Turning to him in surprise, Vikram indicated Ward and said, “Take a look. Ward’s already being pressured.”

“What?!” Natsu exclaimed, quickly turning to look at Ward.

Sure enough, the Walmeky Hero appeared to be struggling in his attempt to boost the powers of the other heroes. His hands shook, causing the book to shake as well, and his facial expression was struggling as he kept up the effort of maintaining the boosting spell. It looked as if he was in a lot of pressure.

“At this rate, he won’t last,” said Vikram, looking worried. Then he punched his hands together and said, “Dammit! If only I knew how to channel energy and strength, I could help those three! Dammit! I’m so useless! If only I could do something useful!”

His words jolted Natsu and made him think, “Vikram’s feeling this way despite knowing his powers? Of course. I’m sure the others are also feeling that way and this includes the humans of this world as well, and yet… I… I’m so… useless!”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

He clenched his fists tightly in frustration, but he immediately shook his head violently and thought, “No! Think positive! Think positive! Think…! Think! All the heroes have their abilities linked to their visual prowess. Maybe mine’s the same?”

Unlike the titles of the other members of the Nine Heroes of Legends, he could not understand the meaning behind his title, Zeklock. It was an unfamiliar word from his mother language, nor did the people of this world have any idea what it truly meant. So, he was left to his own devices to figure out the meaning of the word, but no matter how much he searched through the definitions of all the words he knew, none of them came close to matching the title.

Thinking about all the time he spent the last ten days trying to understand his own powers, he suddenly realised a mistake he had made and thought, “Wait. What if my title is not one word but two words? Zek… Lock… Yeah! Zeklock! That makes better sense now!”

He immediately formed a serious expression on his face and went into deep thought about his powers.

“Lock is a word the subject of securing, but it also works by stopping something from interfering. What about Zek? I have no idea. That single word threw me off this entire week, and even though I separated them, it still is unknown to me. Maybe Ward knows?”

He looked at Ward and asked, “Ward, do you know what Zek means?”

“Zek? Just that one word?” Ward asked without turning to face him.

“Yes! Just the word Zek!”

“Mmm. No. I have no idea,” replied Ward telepathically, causing Natsu’s heart to sink only to feel hope when Ward added telepathically, “but my Magic Book might have a definition for it. Give me a few seconds to check.”

“Go ahead!” Natsu urged him energetically, losing his footing a little from the sudden shock wave that occurred from the clashing forces between the three warriors and the massive wave of destruction.

Ward looked at his Hero Weapon and it instantly began to flip through pages at a rapid pace until eventually stopped at the near end of the book. He appeared to read the notes written on the page while Natsu watched anxiously, silently praying.

“I got it,” said Ward telepathically, causing Natsu to smile in happiness. “Zek is an ancient word that means Elemental.”

“Elemental?” Natsu asked in surprise, and Ward nodded in agreement. Feeling triumph, Natsu thought, “Yes! So, it’s Elemental Lock!” He suddenly felt a loss as quickly as he felt happiness and thought, “What does that mean? No. Wait. Lock. It’s stopping and securing. If I’m not securing, then it’s stopping… Stopping? Of course! Stopper! Elemental Stopper! My power is to stop the very nature of the elements!”

Just as he soon as he came to that conclusion, a violent burst of power was unleashed from the massive destruction. At the same time, Ward had reached his limit and could no longer continue boosting the three warriors in their effect. As such, Gram, William and Maxwell were blown from their feet and were about to be enveloped by the massive wave, which had suddenly increased its speed.

“Vikram! Get those three!” Natsu shouted hurriedly.

“On it!” Vikram shouted back, activating his powers and racing off to rescue those three.

In one second, he reached them and moved to grab the three before racing back to the location they were at. He set them down and straightened up to face the wave with a frustrated expression on his face.

“Is this it?!” He asked, his fists clenched tightly, so tightly that his arm shook from exerting his muscles.

“No. It’s not,” said Natsu quietly, slowly moving forward and towards the oncoming destruction.

“Natsu! What’re you doing?!” Vikram shouted in alarm, but Natsu did not respond.

The Zeklock Hero, more precisely known as the Elemental Stopper, had eyes focused only on the target ahead and did not let anything disrupt his concentration. He believed himself to be crazy to suddenly walk towards the destruction that he previously felt he could not defeat, but he suddenly felt a strong sense of courage upon realising what his powers might be and that it could actually stop it.

“Elemental Stopper. If my assumptions are correct, then…” he muttered and thought deeply about what must be done.

The effective way for the heroes to utilise their powers depended on their ability to imagine the what must be done. Natsu was the one who advised them on this and, now, he was heeding his own advice and imagining him having the capacity in stopping the destruction.

“I want to stop it. No. That won’t do. Disappear. It has to disappear. It must disappear! Make it disappear!”

He flashed his eyes open just as the wave reached him, and he extended his right hand out towards it. Within seconds, the wave reached his hand and, upon contact, he felt his hand seer with intense pain as the destruction dug into the hand and threatened to destroy it.

“AAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!” Natsu screamed in pain, and his feet got dragged on the ground as he was pushed back.

“No!” Vikram and Maxwell shouted at the same time while the others watched in shock.

“I’ll get him out of there!” Vikram said, readying to race to Natsu’s rescue.

Suddenly, Ward placed a hand on his shoulder and telepathically said, “Don’t go. You’ll only interfere.”

“Interfere?!” Vikram exclaimed loudly in an angry voice. “He’s crazy! He’ll die!”

“We’ll die at any rate if he fails, so let him do what he can,” said Ward telepathically in a reasonable voice. “Gram, William and Maxwell did their best. Even I lent them a hand. Now, it’s Natsu’s turn.”

Vikram stared at Ward for a moment in silence before turning back to look at Natsu with a worried look on his face.

Natsu’s hand was seared by the destruction and it continued to cause even more damage to Natsu while pushing him back. Despite the pain, Natsu managed to stop his screams and gritted his teeth while glaring menacingly at the destructive light. While being pushed back, he closed his eyes and applied a fearsome concentration in visualisation what must happen.

“Disappear. Make it disappear!” He thought in a determined voice, visualising the wave vanishing from view.

His eyes opened in a flash, and he glared at the massive destruction wave before shouting, “Vanish!”

As soon as he completed saying the word, something happened that no one could truly understand. The Golden Wrist Bands on his wrists began to glow brightly and, in an instant, a flash of light occurred. It was so bright that everyone automatically closed their eyes and turned away in reflex. A moment later, the light dimmed and allowed them to view the scene normally again.

“What the?!” Gram shouted in shock.

“No way!” William said in amazement.

“Incredible,” said William telepathically, forming a small smile on his face.

The massive wave of destruction, which had been driving to destroy them and the planet they were on, was no longer there. Instead, countless particles of light were floating in the air and were slowly moving around, eventually vanishing from sight after losing their substance.

“Am I seeing this?” Maxwell asked in disbelief. “Is this for real?”

“Yeah! This is real alright!” Vikram said energetically, grinning broadly in excitement. “We’re saved! Natsu!”

He ran towards Natsu using his normal sprinting method without bothering to activate his powers. The Zeklock Hero was sitting on the ground in a relaxed manner, breathing deeply from the sudden tiredness he felt. It appeared that activating his powers had drained a huge amount from him in order to make the destructive wave to completely vanish. Unable to sit any longer, he slowly laid himself down on the ground and stared up at the clear sky with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

“I did it. I discovered my powers and saved us all. I succeeded!” He muttered triumphantly, raising his right hand into the air and forming it into a fist to pronounce his victory.

Everyone slowly approached where he lay with smiles on their faces, except for Gram and Asura, who remained in their stationary positions. Gram was sporting some bruises and cuts, but was completely fine while Asura just sat there, breathing deeply because he was unable to move due to the pain in several areas of his body. A while later, several vehicles came to pick up the wounded and carried them off to get recover at the hospital.

The fight was finally over after an hour of battling against the aliens, who had launched their surprise attack by teleporting directly onto the planet’s surface. The only thing left as a mark of their fierce battle was the destruction wrought by the explosion when the aliens detonated their ship in hopes of destroying them and the planet, but they failed. The heroes won at the end.

The only thing that they had overlooked however was the fact that the only remaining alien, whom Asura fought, was no longer there. In the confusion when the massive destruction occurred, he used his magic to hide his presence and slip away from them since all of them were focused on the problem at hand, completely forgetting about him. Now, he watched from a distance while surrounded by dead bodies of the humans that were attacked by his monsters.

“Damn! To think one of them had such a fearsome ability!” He muttered, amazed by the performance of the people of that world. “This planet is inhabited by dangerous creatures and all of them must be judged! However,” he muttered and remembered the mission he was handed to by his master, making him sigh in resignation. He was actually prepared for this outcome from the beginning as a worst-case scenario, but he had hoped that his comrades would succeed.

He looked up at the sky and thought, “My comrades… Your sacrifice was not in vain. Now, I can carry out my mission without any issue.”

In order to carry out his mission, he must first change his appearance to match that of a human of that world. Fortunately, he had many resources to choose from the dead people, including the civilians that were slain in the initial attack of the monsters. He looked for a body of a young body, preferably male, in order to blend in and possibly get closer to the heroes to learn their strengths and weaknesses.

“Ah,” he said, finding a suitable body of a good looking young man to replicate.

Regnil moved over to the young man’s dead body and placed his hand on his head, then activating his magic. In an instant, the body’s structure, physical appearance and further details were copied from the dead body. A moment later, the alien’s body glowed dimly for a moment before the light vanished and revealed him to be a spitting image of the dead body he copied the form from.

The alien, in the form of a human being, checking his new body to ensure that he was able to replicate the form completely without any defects. He even copied some of the injuries the original body sustained to make his appearance convincing when he would meet other humans, by making a convincing excuse of how he survived the slaughter.

“Good,” he muttered in satisfaction.

Seeing no problem with his new body form, he smiled and disposed the original body by burning it to a crisp. He activated a magic spell that caused the smell of burning flesh to vanish on the spot before it could spread and alert anyone of something strange that had occurred there. Once the evidence was destroyed, he stood up and hurried towards the rescue squad in order to begin his first step in socializing with the humans.

“I hope we get along, humans,” he muttered with a sinister smile on his face.