That day, the day of which he revealed his power, Lakshman began to take action as the hero that he was born to be. Speaking to Bolten, and Erza, he had requested to visit the sites of the location that he had accidentally devastated and check out the spot that the train accident had occurred at. They were surprised as he did not immediately tell them what he intended on doing when he got there, but they knew it was not going to be bad.
The only people opposing his idea were the king and those that witnessed his overwhelming power, they rejected it because they feared what bad things he might do. The second price did not intervene as he was scared to the point of not wanting to get closer to Lakshman and have anything to do with him. The first prince and the princess, on the other hand, protested strongly that they have faith in Lakshman and his good nature.
“He could be deceiving us!” The king protested against the pleas of his children.
“Father, please listen to reason! I will guarantee that he will not cause harm!” Bolten replied in a firm voice.
Truth be told, the first prince had the feeling that it probably was having faith in him that brought Lakshman to reveal his true power. Even Bolten found it a little disturbing to think that he had been hiding it all from their detection but felt reassured that the king from another world placed great faith in him. This made his strong principles act in a way that would help Lakshman do the right thing that Bolten was sure he was going to do.
Despite strong protests from the council, the king relented just a little for his children and said, “Very well, but I want all of his actions monitored. Is that understood?”
“As you wish, my king!” Bolten said, and he and Erza both bowed deeply in gratitude to him.
And so, Bolten, Erza, Raze, and the Nine Heroes of Legends skipped classes and went with Lakshman’s wishes. It took them a few minutes to reach the site of destruction, which was the result of Asura not being careful with his powers. The vehicle stopped several meters away from the destroyed structures and allowed its passengers to exit the car and take a look around at the devastation.
“This brings back memories,” said Vikram in a quiet voice, smiling wryly as he stared around at the destroyed portion of the city.
“It sure was one hell of a battle that day,” commented Natsu with a smile, and looked at his hands, which had completely healed from the injuries he had sustained on that day.
“Yes. It showed that we were lacking in skill even if we got the power,” stated Maxwell, putting on a grim expression.
“We appreciate the great help you’ve provided, heroes,” said Bolten, smiling at them all. “If it weren’t for you buying enough time, then I’m afraid the civilians would’ve been in a far greater danger as the situation escalated.”
William snorted and said, “That’s an understatement. The situation was already bad by the time we got there, it just got a hell a lot more complex when their boss decided to join the fray. Oh yeah, that guy too.”
He added the last sentence and indicated towards Lakshman, who was looking around at the destruction that he had caused. While they were chatting, Lakshman began strolling around the place while looking around at the devastation with a curious expression on his face, and he was followed closely behind by Raze as an effort to keep an eye on him.
“This sure is one big mess,” he muttered, realising that a lot of homes had been crushed beneath all this rubble.
“Like I said, it’s the fault of the aliens for making me go all out and their leader too was a tricky opponent! He used non-verbal chanting to get at me a few times, and then used spells at critical situations to make it much, much worse!” Asura replied, sounding annoyed. “Damn that alien thing! I’ll get back at him for it once he shows up in front of us!”
“Let’s think about that when it does happen,” replied Lakshman in his mind to Asura in a firm voice.
As he was glancing around at the site, he noticed several large vehicles travelling back and forth between several locations. This was soon followed by the fully loaded large vehicles dumping their contents onto the ground before moving away so that the next vehicle could dump its load down. At the same time, he spotted heavy machinery vehicles placed in a stationary position near the bumping spots.
“What are those?” He asked Raze out of curiosity, pointing at the large vehicles, which seem to be missing wheels just like any vehicle he had seen until now. “Are those cars as well?”
“No. They’re trucks,” replied Raze, pointing at the vehicles moving back and forth while making loud rumbling sounds. “They’re used to carry heavy load such as equipment, and the materials to begin construction of the buildings.”
“I see,” said Lakshman, nodding his head slowly in understanding. “I guess those heavy machinery things are similar?”
“That’s right,” said Raze with a nod of her head in agreement. "They are mainly used to clear away any remaining blocks, flattening the ground, and helping the construction workers in the development.”
“That’s nice,” commented Lakshman, smiling at the interesting tool this world used for its development process. “So, how long does it take to complete all of this?”
“Minimum a year, maximum three years at most.”
This startled Lakshman, who exclaimed, “That’s slow!”
Raze, who had become curious due to his exclamation, turned and asked him, “Um…? How are you able to build buildings and structures when you don’t have tools like these? Do you use magic?”
“That’s correct. We often use magic to solidify the materials, place them in blocks, and apply the finishing touches. What’s more, it doesn’t take that much time to do it all as it’s also cheaper,” he said with a smile. Then, as if realising something, he added, “Actually, that’s how I was able to build my own house.”
Raze turned to look at him, clearly surprised to hear that he had built his own house despite her expressions being hidden behind her mask.
“Really? You built your own house? Was that difficult? I mean,” she said and hesitated, realising she might be insulting him by doubting his skills at this point in time. “I mean… Uh…”
Lakshman understood what bothered her and laughed lightly before replying, “It was a new challenge to overcome actually. Throughout my life, nothing came free for me. Sure, I got lucky in many situations but I have to thank my family and friends for sticking around for me and guiding me through it all, otherwise, I wouldn’t be here to speak to you about it.”
Raze turned and observed his face, which was smiling, and seemed to emanate an air of envy towards him. He sensed this and looked at her curiously, to which she quickly faced the direction that the work was being conducted at.
After walking around for a minute, Lakshman came to a stop near where the destruction seemed to stop and asked, “Is this the border? Like, this is where the destruction stopped at?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay,” said Lakshman, and he came to a quick decision on what to do. So, he instructed Raze, “Please, issue an order to have everyone leave from this ground and take their equipment, vehicles, and whatever else they have here with them.”
“Eh?” She asked, sounding surprised as she turned to face him. “You want everyone to leave? But… what do you plan on doing?”
She was surprised to find that he was smiling confidently when he said, “Repaying my debt. Now, please instruct everyone to leave with their belongings and the such because I don’t want to be responsible for what happens next.”
“Uh?! O-Oh! O-Okay!” She said, realising he was actually serious and hurried away towards Bolten.
The first prince, Erza, and everyone else were taken by surprise when Raze hurried over to inform them. While William was sceptic, Martin was worried, Fred was concerned, Natsu and Vikram appeared to be curious along with Maxwell. Even Gram showed interest like he had never shown before at the thought of what the Solaris Hero was going to do.
“Um…? Is it safe to trust him…?” Erza asked nervously, looking towards Raze as if expecting some kind of hint from her.
“I believe it is safe to trust him, princess,” replied Raze, which made Erza feel strangely relieved.
“In that case, there’s no harm in seeing what he does? I mean, he knows he’ll be in serious trouble if he does something bad,” Erza said, smiling a little as she faced her brother.
Bolten nodded, seeming to think over the proposal before saying, “Alright. Let’s issue the instructions he gave us.”
As such, they immediately set out to summoning the workers to their spot and giving them clear instructions on leaving the ground. The people were quite surprised and confused at the same time when being asked to suddenly leave. Still, as the instructions came from the royal siblings, they had no choice but to pack their things and leave with their vehicles, leaving the materials behind in place as it was too much of a hassle to carry all of it away.
“Seriously, just what is he planning to do?” William asked, feeling a nervous as everyone left the place.
“Who knows, but… I’m sure it’s going to surprise us all,” replied Natsu, having a shred suspicion as if he knew what it was the Solaris Hero was about to perform.
“I hope nothing bad happens,” said Martin in a form of a prayer.
“You’re being too negative!” Vikram said bracingly, clapping Martin across the back and making the man wince with pain. “Cheer up, you lot! That guy’s a king, so there’s no way what he’ll do will cause more damage than what’s already been done!”
Despite his confidence, most of the group were not so confident and waited to see what would happen.
It took the workers several minutes to clear out before Raze made it back to Lakshman and said, “Hero, everyone has left as you requested.”
“Good,” said Lakshman with a smile of satisfaction on his face. “I’ll also check just to make sure.”
With that, he activated Elemental Sight that caused everyone to become grey and he started seeing things in different colours. He looked at Raze and saw that she was filled in blue colour, an indication that she was an ally. Smiling to himself, he began searching the place for any sign of life that remained there or was forgotten about. Luckily, there was none, he deactivated the magic while concluding that it was safe to go into action.
“Okay. Here I go,” he muttered, and smiled with energy.
He held his hand out and summoned his Hero Weapon, the Golden Trident, and planted it firmly beside him and closed his eyes. As he did, he began to surge with power that started making the wind blow rapidly in all directions, picking up dust and spreading it everywhere. Raze’s hair started to get blown by the wind, which began to increase in intensity and soon was buffeting against them.
After successfully gathering the energy required to perform the spell, Lakshman opened his eyes aimed his left hand towards the destroyed site and said, “Restoration.”
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In an instant, a large magic circle formed and it spread everywhere until it reached the boundary of the destruction. A moment later, the ground started to shake as it started restoring the destroyed buildings while the wind began blowing wildly in all directions. They were all buffeted by the strong wind force, making them brace themselves against it as the spell worked its magic in restoring the land to the state it was before it was devastated.
First the smaller buildings were brought back and then slowly the spell moved onto restoring the taller buildings. It took several minutes for all of this to happen and, all the while, they were doing their best to not get blown away by the wild wind.
Finally, the wind slowed down and returned to normal as the magic spell completed its job. Everyone uncovered their eyes, which they had been shielding against the storm of wind and dust and stared in shock at the restored portion of the city. It was as if that place was never destroyed, and the buildings also shone with a glitter that only new buildings would after a fresh construction.
“Wha-Wha-Wha-What the heck?!?!?!” Vikram exclaimed in a loud voice, staring at the restored buildings in shock.
“W-Wow…!” Natsu said slowly, staring in awe at the miracle that had occurred right before his eyes.
“T-This is…! Wow! J-Just incredible!” Maxwell exclaimed in a soft voice, staring wide eyed at the restoration of the destroyed land.
Martin and Fred remained silent, but the shocked looks on their faces clearly stated just how amazed they were by it. Even William was rendered speechless, even having his jaw drop open in shock at the spectacle that he had dismissed so easily a while ago.
Ward, who was also surprised but not as much as the others, said telepathically, “That’s one powerful spell. To be able to restore this much in such a short time, the user must contain a great amount of control over it and have the power to back it up.”
“I agree,” said Bolten in agreement, blinking in surprise while his sister stared at it with a shocked disbelieving look on her face.
Lakshman, who had been supplying the energy to the spell all this time and controlling it with great concentration, let out a sigh and relaxed his hand. At the same time, his weapon vanished from sight as it was no longer needed to help him concentrate his energy. Beside him, Raze stood stock still and silent without making a single sound, causing him to turn towards her with a look of concern on his face.
“Are you okay?”
“Eh? O-Oh! Y-Yes! Quite!” She replied hastily, realising her mistake of allowing her feelings to show in her voice. She coughed repeatedly and said, “T-That was some magic spell, you use, Hero.”
“Yeah,” he replied shortly, smiling in satisfaction while the others hurried over to where they stood.
“That was incredible, Lakshman!”
“Without a doubt, that was the best magic I had ever seen!”
“It’s incredible!”
“What was that magic? Mind telling me?” Bolten asked, who was in front of Ward, who surprisingly looked eager to learn about it as well.
“It’s called Restoration, one of the highest ranked spells that I learnt back in my world,” he informed them calmly.
Asura did not agree as he said inside his mind, “You learnt it? Are you joking or what? I developed the spell, and you’re now using it! That basically means you’re the owner of the spell since you and I are one and the same.”
This merely made Lakshman chuckle with laughter as he heard Ward telepathically mutter, “Restoration… Okay. I’ll note it down for future reference.”
“It takes quite a bit of energy, concentration, and accurate control in order for you to be able to carry out your intentions,” explained Lakshman calmly, pleased that they were interested in learning such a powerful and useful spell. “You can also use it on people to quickly heal their injuries and any abnormalities that were affecting them.”
“You mean it can cure illness, diseases and the such?” Bolten asked curiously. When Lakshman nodded, he widened his eyes in amazement and said, “Wow! That’s an incredibly useful spell!”
As the Solaris Hero nodded in agreement with a smile on his face, Raze raised a question that stunned everyone and made their smiles vanish almost instantly.
“Can it bring the dead back to life?”
There was a momentary pause before Lakshman, who was deeply troubled by the question, replied a little hesitantly, “Raze… I’m sorry, but that’s not possible. Any non-living matter can be reversed and reconstructed so long as it was activated within the year after the destruction occurred but bringing back what can’t be brought back is… impossible.”
“I… see…” said Raze, her shoulders slumping a little in sadness. When she replied, her voice gave away her disappoint as she said, “I’m sorry for asking something absurd even though I should’ve known the obvious.”
Her words were followed by an awkward silence, which Lakshman broke with a sad smile on his face.
“Well, I can understand how you feel as I too lost my parents, and I wasn’t even around when it happened. So, it’s easy to understand that the one wishe the child of a deceased parent would want to use it to bring their parents back. I know I would do it.” When they looked at him in shock, he suddenly said with a sad look on his face, “But, I know that bringing back life isn’t cheap, and that a hefty price must be paid.”
“Yes. Life isn’t cheap after all. It should be treasured at all cost,” added Bolten in support of him.
Raze, who had been in gloom a moment ago, seemed to have been convinced by their words and said in a more natural voice, “Yes. You’re right, prince. My apologies for suddenly thinking of the unreasonable. I apologise to you as well, hero.”
As Lakshman nodded his head silently in agreement, Natsu was concerned, and he asked, “But wait…? How can curing diseases and restoring non-living matter the same thing? I mean, how does that work, Lakshman? Scientifically speaking anyway.”
Lakshman seemed to think over Natsu’s words before replying, “I’m not too sure how to respond scientifically because of lacking certain amount of knowledge. However, I can clearly say that by non-living matter, it’s basically describing matter that has less to none spiritual presence. Humans have a strong spiritual presence, so it’s impossible to restore it. Whereas, diseases are small matter that can easily be cured because of the lack of spiritual presence they possess.”
While everyone was amazed by his response, Natsu spoke in amazement, “Wow. What you said is so religious related, but I don’t think I can refute since I may be in the wrong.”
There was an awkward silent, which Vikram broke by cheerfully saying, “Hey! Come on! Instead of feeling so down, let’s be happy that Lucky was able to restore this entire place back to what it was once like!”
“Eh?” Lakshman asked, looking surprised. “Did you just refer to me as… Lucky?”
“Yeah! Isn’t that what your name actually means?” Vikram asked and as Lakshman nodded his head, the Sonic Hero beamed at him and said, “Then, I’ll call you that! I mean, we’re all friends after all!”
His cheerful words made Lakshman to look at him in wonder and say, “Friends…?” Liking the sound, he smiled a little more than usual and asked, “Okay, friend. What would you like me to call you?”
“Call me what you always call me,” replied Vikram, looking as if that was obvious.
“Alright, Vikram it is,” said Lakshman, and he extended his hand out to Vikram, who shook it with his own firmly.
“Hey! I’m a friend as well! We’re in this together after all!” William said, moving forward and shaking hands with Lakshman, who was a little surprised but continued to smile pleasantly at them.
“Same here! We’re all here together!” Maxwell said, shaking hands with Lakshman just like them.
The ones to follow in shaking hands with Lakshman were Fred, Natsu, Ward, and finally Martin, who was nervous. Gram was the only one who remained outside the circle, and when Vikram called him out, the Tempest Hero told him, “Mind your own business,” which annoyed the Sonic Hero and resulted in him being completely ignored.
Once the exchange of shaking hands was over, Lakshman said, “I’ll work on restoring the other destroyed places, but only if the destruction had occurred within a year. Also, can I be sure that my debt will be cleared with this?”
He asked the question while indicating the restored land, to which Bolten nodded and said, “Of course! It is a given considering the effort you went through to restore all this when it could’ve taken a long time for us to restore it all, and you offering to restore the other destroyed parts of our world is an added bonus! I’ll make sure you receive proper rewards for your services!”
“Thank you, Bolten!” Lakshman said, and the two shook hands firmly with each other with mutual respect.
After that, the first prince issued instructions to the workers, who were dumbfounded to find all the buildings restored upon their return, to check through the construction to make sure there was no problems. Lakshman remained silent and let the prince do what he must because he knew that Bolten was just making sure the buildings are not hazardous since it’s people’s lives they are responsible for.
When the instructions ended and the workers began heading to their posts, Bolten turned to them and said, “Let’s go and visit the spot of the train accident.”
“Sounds good,” replied Lakshman, and they all headed back towards the car that was waiting for them.
Once inside, Bolten ordered his driver to take them to the location where the train accident had occurred. And so, the Nine Heroes of Legends, the two royal siblings, and Raze were drive off towards the site, and it took them several minutes before they exited the city and reached the spot. Out through the windows, they could see several vehicles parked near the crashed train and people positioned here and there as if they were inspecting the crash site.
“Are they…?” Natsu asked slowly, getting an inclining of who they might be.
“They’re the Hero Groups assigned to investigate this accident by the Hero Security Agency,” answered Bolten.
“Eh? There’s a Hero Security Agency?” William asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
As Bolten nodded his head in assent, Erza explained, “There are four governing sectors in the heroes and they are the League of Heroes, the Federal Bureau of Heroes, the Hero Security Agency, and Federal Bureau of Hero Investigation.”
“Oh! So, they’re like the police!” Vikram said, realising what her words meant and relating them to the term most commonly used in his home world.
“Oh! Police. I know them as well,” said Fred, smiling in recognition of a familiar term.
“What’s a police?” William asked, looking confused.
“Oh, come on! They’re basically the enforcers of law, who keep us safe, and fight against threats!” Vikram stated, looking exasperated at the Titanium Hero.
“Well, sorry for not knowing what the term meant!” William retorted, folding his arms and looking irritated.
“Now, now,” said Erza, trying to calm them down.
“You are right though, Vikram. They are similar to the police, although, that term has been depreciated for a really long time,” replied Bolten, smiling serenely at him.
“Cool! Can’t wait to see what kind of things they’re using to investigate!” Vikram said eagerly, becoming keen all of a sudden like a child that was told they were being taken to the park.
The car slowly descended towards the ground and touched down lightly before the engine went silent. Everyone got out of the car and they were greeted by two people, who looked like they had come over after seeing them descend. The man at the front was tall, strong looking with hardened features while the man next to him appeared young and dedicated with the determined expression he wore.
“Oh my! First prince Bolten, and princess Erza! What a pleasant surprise this is!” The leading man said, looking surprised to see the unexpected guests and smiled as he walked forward and shook their hands.
“Good to see you, Bernard!” Bolten replied, releasing his hand and stepping back to look up at the man.
“How are you doing, Bernard?” Erza asked politely.
“I’m doing great!” The man, identified as Bernard, said and laughed heartily. He turned his attention to the ten others and, not recognising the nine of the faces, he curiously asked, “And… they might be?”
“The Nine Heroes of Legends,” replied Erza with a sweet smile.
“Oh! Wonderful!” Bernard said, beaming at them with excitement. “My name is Bernard Gord, everyone. I work for the Hero Security Agency and my position is that of a Staff Officer. It’s a pleasure to meet the heroes from other worlds!”
“Likewise,” replied Lakshman, shaking hands with Bernard before everyone took turns to shaking hands with him, even Gram shaking his hands although a bit reluctantly.
Once that was done, Bernard stepped back and asked Bolten, “So, prince, what brings you and your compatriots here on this lovely day?”
“We came to see what had happened here and maybe find out who the culprits are,” said Bolten in a smooth voice.
“I see, and I take it the heroes are here to assist?” Bernard asked, to which Bolten nodded his head in assent. “Okay. Very well. Please, come with me then.”
As he turned around and was about to leave, the youth asked, “Sir, is it wise to allow them into the restricted area? We don’t have proper authorisation.”
“A royal delegation has come in hopes of helping us while bringing with them the Nine Heroes of Legends, and you want me to simply turn them back?” Bernard asked in a stern voice, to which the youth shrunk back and looked dejected. Satisfied that the message went home, the Staff Office turned to them and smiled as he said, “His name is Dirk Jerald, and his position is that of an Assistant Staff Officer. In short, he’s my assistant.”
After briefly greeting Dirk, they followed Bernard as he led them towards the crash site, where the train remained as it was left the previous day. Many people were using their Magic Enhanced Devices to use magic spells that seemed to be scanning the area and looking to understand how the accident had occurred.
“What have you been able to find?” Bolten asked, getting right down to business.
“Well, as it turns out, the Undercarriage Gravity System had exploded beneath all of the coaches, including the engine,” replied Bernard, coming to a stop while facing the train. “We suspect it to be a bomb, and it was activated remotely.”
“Remotely?” They said simultaneously, looking surprised.
“You mean, the culprit was one of the passengers when they triggered it?” Vikram asked, looking wide eyed at Bernard.
Bernard chuckled lightly and said, “No. I don’t think the culprit would risk getting caught the very train accident he was instigating. If they are smart, they would’ve located themselves far away from the train and be able to see the detonation of that huge explosion and trigger the bomb placed underneath the train.”
“Wait!” Bolten said, suddenly realizing the implications of what Bernard was saying. “Are you suggesting the bomber was somewhere nearby and was watching the whole thing? Which means…!”
“Which means that our observer had been somewhere nearby,” said Bernard in a quiet voice, casting his eyes to all sides to where they stood.
There was a moment of tense silence as they all turned around to check their vicinity to find that it was just them and the officers belonging to the Hero Security Agency.
Just then, Bernard broke the tension by chuckling and saying, “Relax. We’ve been scouring the whole place, but nothing turned up. I think it’s safe to assume that whoever we’re dealing with here are pretty smart.”
“Don’t praise them!” Bolten said, becoming annoyed at the Staff Officer. “They have no idea the shock, the terror, and the pain those poor people had experienced because of their cowardly act!”
“My apologies, prince,” replied Bernard apologetically.
They fell silent and were on the verge of looking around when Martin, who was looking very nervous, spoke.
“Do you… uh… guys… um… feel it?” He asked tentatively.
“Feel what, Martin?” Natsu asked, turning to look at him curiously.
Then he said something so unsettling that made them stop and turn to face him with serious expressions on their faces.
“You know… the feeling you get when you’re… um… being watched.”