Chapter 23 – When the Party Starts
Lee continued his training the day after he went with his dad to take delivery of his new ship. As with the day before, he realized that by the end of it he found that he was making decent progress. He was now able to use his SHINNING BUSTER, albeit barely, but enough to make John have to defend or dodge. But more importantly, he had finally returned to a general output level where he was able to use his device, barrier jacket and all. That said, his air maneuverability and speed were still severely lacking and he couldn't transform the staff to any additional modes yet beyond the default mode, as the other two had a higher power requirement. Thus, he also couldn't use his best, most powerful attack spell, PURE LIGHT BREAKER. His dad said that he would be able to achieve it once he was at the passing level as he stated that S was the minimum level required for Lee's breaker, or any breaker for that matter to work.
He also learned a new attack called FLASH SHIFT, with some guidance from his father. It was similar to Sarah's PIERCING LIGHTS except instead of Sarah's spell's large coverage per hit, his spell had a kind of homing ability where they chased the target, even if they changed positions, like a heat seeker, though John said what they were really doing was chasing that person's particular magic since a person's magic was unique to them. Right now, he could only make five of them, and in addition to their homing property, he could also alter their path manually if he needed to, which gave them other advantages as well as they could go faster and take less linear paths to their target when he did so. They also had one more special characteristic over his other spells. He didn't have to fire them out of his hand or staff or any fixed point when he was transformed. Instead, he could form them from anywhere within almost 30 meters of his position. This proved useful for getting behind-the-back shots on his father, which for the first time since Lee started the magic resistance training forced Jon to get serious enough to finally use his own device fully transformed.
Honestly John was surprised at Lee's rapid progress. He had a pretty good idea from the offset that Lee would take to the Magic Resistance training, but even he had to admit that he underestimated Lee's potential, and given how highly he had thought of it to begin with that was saying something. Just a day later, Lee was almost back to his regular full speed, both in movement and spellcasting, to the point that John admitted that he couldn't take it as easy as he had been, especially since Lee was able to put up reasonably strong shielding spells, not to mention that Lee could use a few aura and field defenses as well, allowing him to go more on the offensive as was his general combat style as opposed to the more careful approach that he had been using as of late. This was doubly true now that he could even use all the modes of Haruno, including his MSD sword mode which in itself gave him a natural boost to his physical abilities.
In order to compensate for Lee's growth and mix up the combat a bit, John introduced him to a new spell of his own design, an attack spell called RAGING JUDGEMENT. This attack created hundreds of small dart-like bits of magic. What was more, He could fire them all in one direction or split them off in different directions to disorient Lee, causing him to have to be wary of attacks from every possible direction. What was more, a powerful ability of this spell was that John could also combine individual blasts mid-flight to make larger, stronger ones, as well as split them up again to avoid interception, making it incredibly hard to deal with, which kept Lee at bay quite a bit.
And so over the next few days, Lee kept it up with the magic resistance training, as well as add sparring against the rest of the group in order to keep the training from getting stale. In that vein after dinner one night, John started to teach Lee as well as Sora and Sarah another skill that he had come up with, a new trick he made based off the SHIN Ki skill that allowed John to clearly sense magic power levels and location without sight. Most mages could do this normally but not to such a degree of detail and precision. At most, the average mage may be able to get a general reading of the power relative to their own and a general direction, but in most cases nothing specific enough to be of much use. There were such a thing as sensory mages, who had innate abilities for sensing magic, but they were considered rare, with most others having to rely on a scanner or other such technology for such accurate information. But with this method John had come up with using the unconventional techniques developed for Ki sensing, one could tell where specific magical signatures were, as well as differentiate between them easily. Without a scanner, most mages couldn't tell the differences in magic signatures between mages, and if they could it was usually only due to distinctive characteristics that the magic had or else a personal familiarity with the magic signature in question. It was like magic DNA. With this new method; you could pretty much sense exactly where it was, who it was, and what it was doing. The image you got with this one was specific enough to tell body shape. It could even make a virtual image of the surroundings when it got advanced enough. It was kind of like a second set of really good eyes and ears.
And like that, they arrived at the last day of Lee's Magic Resistance, though in truth it was only going to be a half-day of training because they were going to John's promotion arty that night. Sakura and Chrono, who John had invited, were going to give them a lift there in style, taking them all there in Sakura's family larger limo, which was big enough for them all. During the last day of training, John brought them back to basics, having Lee put everything he had worked on together. In other words, it was just a full out battle where the objective was to fire his PURE LIGHT BREAKER. By this point, John noticed that Lee's speed was more or less back to normal and the general amount of power he could put into his spells was approaching pre-training, which was a frightening thought given that this was still with the resistance seals on. John honestly didn't know how much this training would improve Lee once the seals were taken off, but he had an inkling that it could be beyond even his estimations.
That said, John's curiosity would have to wait for tomorrow, as he realized that their time was up if they wanted to get ready for his party in time. Thus, he had to interrupt Lee just as he made his last attempt at casting his breaker, almost done gathering the power for it. Lee though was worried that he had not completed the training when his dad reassured him, "It's alright Lee. To be honest, you took to this training better than I expected. In truth, you reached S sometime yesterday without realizing it, but I held that information back to see how much farther you could do. That was actually the reason why I kept varying your training lately. Now I would say, with the restraints, you are already a S+ to borderline SS, so in truth I expect if I wasn't pressuring you constantly, you could have probably easily fired your breaker so don't feel bad." Lee seemingly accepted the answer, trusting his father to not lead him astray, and so accepted that he concluded the training. Thus, he was about to take off the sweatbands when John suddenly stopped him. "Hold up there son. Remember, unless they come off themselves, your power will explode out, and possibly destroy the nearby area. I'd wait until they come off naturally if I was you."
And so everyone went to prepare for the party. Lee put on the new tuxedo his mother had bought for him, and was honestly a little surprised it was a perfect fit given how long it had been since his mother last did clothes shopping for him. But, as usual with his mother, she was on point. Sora also had a new tux and Sarah a new white dress. Meanwhile, his father was in what he called his formal TSAB dress fatigues. It was only a few minutes after they had all finally gotten ready and Mary finished taking a dozen photos of everyone that Sakura and Chrono, along with Nanoha and Lance came to pick them up, all dressed more than adequately as well thanks to a shopping spree Sakura had taken the non-Earth mages on the previous day. They got in the Limo and the driver, Sakura's personal maid Suzuki, started towards their destination. It took them the better part of 45 minutes to get to the restaurant, with John explaining to them in the car what the night would entail. First was the welcoming remarks, followed by the ceremony proper that would be broadcasted throughout all of the TSAB. John would be changed into his new General's uniform for the ceremony. Afterwards, the real party would start and people would converse and he would probably be swamped with questions and conversations and the like. The party itself though would probably be over by 11. That all said, they all got a laugh when they finally arrived at the restaurant when they saw the posted sign for the event, "Reserved for the Time-Space Magicians Association."
They walked through the door were immediately greeted by the restaurant staff, which all identified themselves Bureau members, with John explaining that they had rented out the whole restaurant for the evening, though how they even replaced most of the general staff was beyond them. In any case, upon entering the main they found it already filled with people. Some of them, which John pointed out as some of the other Generals and their adjacent Captain Commander's, were in their formal Bureau uniforms like John's. That said, before John could get bogged down in conversations and greetings, he split off with them and headed to the stage entrance.
It only took them a moment to find the table John had reserved for them given that was dead center front, which was good as the lights started to dim as soon as they did so, signaling that the main event was about to start. To start the festivities, an elderly looking man stepped out and introduced himself as Senior Council Member Edwin Aster. The entire of the ceremony itself only took about half an hour. After a speech by the Council Member, John was brought up on stage and he made a small speech he had prepared, including some previously undisclosed details of the events surrounding General Ferro's earlier than planned retirement, as well as some words to thank him and honor his over 70 years of dedicated service, followed by some words about how John would do his utmost to honor and respect the role he had been given and uphold its responsibilities to the best of his abilities. There were a few other remarks that happened from various people afterwards, and then at the very end, the Council Member named Edwin Aster reappeared and officially announced him as "GENERAL CROSS!" He then presented John with the General's Badge and official commendation of some kind that he pinned on John's uniform. What followed was the expected applause from everyone present, as well as the unexpected action's of Mary who ran on stage and kissed him right there on live broadcast. There was more applause and some whistling, but now the Cross children were trying to fade away from embarrassment, except for Sora who joined in the whistling himself, "Give him another for good luck."
It was only after the official remarks and speeches were done that the real party actually got started with everyone getting up and the loud buzz of dozens of conversations starting. Lee though wasn't sure what to do, for as soon as he got up, he found that everyone had already split up, leaving him on his own. Sora and Sarah were already in a rapid conversation with General Lindy who they had just spotted. Meanwhile Sakura and Chrono had been found by Grayson who wanted to introduce them as fellow Earth Mages to some people. And on top of that, Nanoha and Lance, who were already famous for their previous feats were almost immediately surrounded and swept away by others curious about the event.
Lee though wouldn't have to wonder where to go for long as John quickly swept up Lee, wanting to introduce him to the Council Member that had hosted the ceremony, apparently having been acquainted with the senior councilman personally for a long time. Lee introduced himself with a small bow, "I'm John's middle son, Lee Cross, pleased to meet you sir." The elderly man replied in kind, "Edwin Aster, likewise. I have to admit, I was looking forward to meeting you here tonight young Cross." Lee suddenly looked up curiously, "You wanted to meet me sir?" Edwin, "Why yes, it isn't every day that someone as special as you comes up on my radar. Already a SSS+ mage at your age is an amazing achievement to be sure, and news like that tends to travel fast, especially if it's the son of a newly minted General. I'm honestly sure that most the people here tonight have heard of you already." Lee had the good graces to look a bit embarrassed about his sudden fame amongst what were essentially some of the most important people in the known universe, but John just patted him on the head while laughing heartily, "Yes, he is quite special. I have no doubt that he will undoubtedly surpass even me soon. In fact, add that he is already near my level power-wise with his newfound ability to use combination spells and maybe he already has." John continued laughing jovially, but Edwin's eyes lit up, "Ah, a KOU user, I hadn't heard about that juicy bit of gossip yet. but it's always good to hear of other mages with the potential. I am privileged to say that I too share in that rare ability to combine different mages spells. In truth, it is part of how I got to where I am now, for like many council members, I too was once a part of the regular forces. I hope that it aids you in your future endeavors." Lee, "Well thank you, and I hope so as well though I've only done it once so far, and I haven't tried since then because of what happened."
Lee proceeded to tell the full story of his power test, including the double breaker combination spell that accidentally causing a Dimensional Shift. After he was done though, Lee was surprised when Edwin Aster actually laughed a bit, "Alas, it just proves that the bigger the effects, the bigger the risks. I too once accidentally caused such an accident on my home world when I was trying to do a combination spell. Yes, I succeeded in creating an all-powerful attack, but I also caused a Dimensional Shift spreading across 4 planets for over a week. Honestly, I got in a huge amount of trouble for that. That said, interestingly enough that event is what ultimately lead me to join the TSAB." Edwin started recounting the story in more detail, with Lee finding it quite the tale. The two of them were so engrossed in conversation that they didn't even notice when John slipped away after noticing Mary looking for him so they could dance.
The rest of the party went pretty fast; at least, until something came flying through the roof. It happened so suddenly that almost no one even noticed it happened until the dust from the forced entrance was already settling. What emerged though was what appeared to be a normal person with a man's build except that their eyes were pitch black and they had a black aura around them. Everyone was frozen shocked for a moment before the team in charge of security stepped up, with some of them immediately going into action to set up a barrier around the building while the others took positions around the unknown entity. On top of that, some of the Generals present even stepped forward to confront this unknown intruder. That said, before any of them could attempt to subdue it, the person like entity immediately locked eyes with none other than Lee, and upon doing so spoke in a sort of robotic voice, "I am Saren stone, serial number 9. For defying us, you shall be punished…"
Before anyone else could make a move, Lee and his group were already front and center, transformed and ready to fight, with Lee standing in front of Edwin Aster, "Sir, leave this to us. I think it's here because of what we've been doing lately, so we should be the ones to take care of it." Edwin was about to ask for Lee and his friends to stand down given that he was the highest authority present. He may have been old, but he was himself a powerful mage, and with that, he knew that whatever the entity that appeared was, though obvious that it wasn't truly human, it was undoubtedly powerful, immensely so. It easily matched the powers of even most the general's present, which made it a grave threat, and so Edwin wanted to tell Lee and his friends to step down and leave it to the other's present. He had no doubt that with so many General's and other mages of similar caliber present, they could subdue this threat, and so he was about to give the order, but then Lee looked back at him, "Sir, this is our home, and this is our fight." Edwin for the first time could feel it in Lee's words and his gaze, his determination was unwavering, and it was clear that he wouldn't stand down, and so he just nodded.
Edwin turned to the other mages preparing to fight, including most of the general's present, "Everyone, stand down." All the TSAB mages looked surprised at Edwin's order, with the head of the security forces protesting, "But sir, we have a clear a present threat, we can't just stand down, especially if you mean to let some kids fight it." Edwin, "I'm afraid our hands are tied. Whether young Lee realized it or not, he just declared sovereign authority for this world, and as Earth is not in any way under direct TSAB jurisdiction yet, we must succeed to his request for now. Besides, I and I'm sure others are curious to see our new General's prodigal son in action." Edwin suddenly turned back to Lee, "But just know, if we feel that you can't handle it, then we will be forced to step in, is that clear?" Lee in response just nodded as he approached, "Thank you, and if I may, I would ask that you increase the size of the barrier as much as possible. I have a feeling that this is going to get a bit messy." Edwin in response motioned to the barrier squad and with the help of Jackson, who was apparently one of the TSAB's foremost authorities on defensive magic as well as Lance, Sakura and Sora, they were able to up-size the barrier while keeping its original strength. Lee then motioned to his other friends to stay back as well to help defend the other party guests who couldn't defend themselves. This one he felt he had to fight on his own, a notion that was reinforced as the Man clearly was eyeing him directly, even possibly waiting on Lee alone as he hadn't lost eye contact once with him since appearing.
Thus, Lee flew up, and like Lee assumed, the manifested Man did the same. It was clear that whatever the man was, he was here for Lee personally, and he wasn't about to disappoint. It fired the first attack by launching a barrage of small black shots out of his hand. Lee countered with a rapid fire of his GLOWING SHOOTER blasts in response. Lee followed up with his new attack FLASH SHIFT making them shoot from behind the Man to catch him off guard, but Lee wasn't that lucky. The man dodged Lee's blindside assault instantly and, summoning a large sword, decided to attack Lee directly. Lee countered in kind by changing his own staff to sword form to meet his foe in close combat, and so the sounds of striking swords filled the air. It seemed even for the first few clashes, but then Lee sent a flying slash of magic off his sword to force the Man back just a bit, giving Lee the space he needed to charge forward towards where he intended his opponent to move. Lee took this opening to deliver what he hoped would be a decisive strike, a direct blow to its head, followed by sending a shockwave of magic off the impact which sent the strange entity crashing to the ground where it cratered on impact. What was more, the flying shockwave off Lee's sword seemingly did its job as it cleanly bisected the human-like entity straight down the middle. Many watching were both impressed and relieved, believing that it was over, but Lee knew better, that had been too easy, and his expectations were met almost instantly as the Man almost instantly regenerated and stood back up after but a few seconds later as if nothing had happened.
It flew back up to where Lee was, but Lee knew that he needed to get this fight farther away from the people below, and so flew higher and farther away, with the man following suit. That said, it wasn't wasting any time either as it launched a powerful ray of Black Magic at Lee, who countered with his SHINNING BUSTER. That said, it was close, as it was clear that the opponent in front of him was stronger than any of the other Saren Stone manifestations he had faced, and so he knew he needed to take it up a notch.
Thus, Lee wasted no time in preparing his most powerful spell as a large Magic Circle appeared under him while gathering a huge amount of power into the head of his staff. After it was done charging, he took careful aim at the Man before him, making sure that there were no people in his path as another large magic circle appeared before him. "PURE LIGHT BREAKER!" Lee shot the massive attack at the man who to Lee's absolute shock shot an attack of the same level in an instant. They collided in mid-air, and the explosion was massive, enough to force Lee back and even shake the ground below. That said, Lee wouldn't give up, and so he did the same thing again, and once again was countered, and so the pattern continued, he and the Man getting into a battle of Breakers as Lee fired off breaker after another and the Man did the same as explosions flashed the sky and shook the ground. Thanks to his growth and experience, he found that could fire off his regular breaker many, many times without getting too tired, much to the absolute shock of those watching on below, wondering how anyone, let alone someone as young as Lee could have so much power. John was thinking the same thing, "Though I never thought that he had this much raw magic capacity…"
The rest of the partygoers watched on with amazement and excitement. What they were seeing before them was a great and marvelous battle. To anyone who had doubted the rumors that had been surrounding Lee for the last week, they were quickly converted to believers for none could deny the strength of the young man they saw fighting before them. The one however who was watching with the most interest was none other than the senior council member, Edwin Aster. He was most interested in Lee, looking at his amazing progress. Of course he had heard the rumors and read the reports, but reading about it and seeing it were two different things entirely, and he could honestly say those secondhand accounts didn't do Lee justice.
Lee's friends and family on the other hand were starting to worry. Lee was firing what was supposed to be his strongest attack repeatedly and in was clearly not working. If anything, it was as if it was weaker than it should be. That said, the only one in that group who wasn't worried was John, who knew why Lee was still struggling, and knew that this stalemate wouldn't last much longer for it was almost time for Lee's shackles to come off and then they would all be surprised, even Lee who in the heat of battle and after getting used to them over the last week probably forgot he was even wearing them. John though hoped that it would be sooner than later though as it wasn't just the rest of their group who were getting anxious, as it was clear that some of the other Generals were as well by the fact that they kept asking Mr. Aster if they should help. They all acknowledged that Lee was strong, stronger than any of them had originally given him credit for, but even then they thought that he needed assistance for the enemy he was facing was clearly of an incredibly high level. Edwin himself even had such thoughts, but for some reason, he held them back. Be it his word to Lee or just his own intuition, Edwin could tell, Lee still had more to do, more to give, and so Edwin simply just watched on.
The countless Breaker attacks were starting to have a toll. Lee might have had inhumane reserves of raw magic, but even he wasn't unlimited, he couldn't keep up this barrage forever as he started to feel his magic decreasing in both quantity and power. On top of that, the exhaustion of firing so many attacks was starting to affect him physically as well, as he felt himself slowing down as he continued to fire his PURE LIGHT BREAKER, only to be countered by the man's breaker style attack again and again. Stuck in this stalemate, Lee realized that he had to change course. It was time to stop holding back and put everything into one final attack. Flying up, he leveled himself in the air and started to gather magic up one more time, all the magic he could to pour into this final attack. All at once, an absolutely massive golden magic circle appeared below him as three spell rings appeared before him as he started to gather all the power he could manage in front of him inside the spell ribbon rings he had summoned, forcing as much of his power that he could into it even as he felt the immense strain from doing so, simply pushing through. That said, he couldn't just charge it forever, and so he aimed the sphere at the man. "PURE LIGHT BREAKER, Second Variation." The sphere of magic began to shine brightly. "FIRE!" Lee unleashed an absolutely titanic wave straight towards the man, but the man did something totally unexpected. To Lee's, and frankly the surprise of everyone watching, the weird Man-like entity just stood there, putting up no guard or defense, and simply let the attack hit them as it exploded with so much force that the windows in the vicinity shattered just from the shockwave that it gave off, not to mention that the attack itself punched a house sized hole into the skyscraper it had hit as it passed through his foe. Through the thick smoke, nothing was visible but Lee somehow could feel no difference in anything. The skyscraper, which the attack had passed was now crumbling to the ground, but besides that, there was nothing, and that more than anything kept Lee on guard.
That said, even with that, Lee, or anyone on the ground for that matter, couldn't believe their eyes at what they saw next. When the smoke cleared, the man was still there, clearly unharmed in any way what so ever. Lee couldn't believe it, that had been a full power blast from his strongest spell, and it had hit his foe directly, and it did nothing. The man just laughed and then started to gather up the largest mass of magic Lee had ever seen. It created a gust just from the very minor pulses of magic coming off it. Lee knew he couldn't defend against the attack, he was out of options, knowing he had but one choice left, the one he had been trying to avoid for his father had told him the consequences of taking them off early, but in this case he had nothing to lose. The Man though wouldn't wait any longer, its attack having grown to massive proportions, and so with one last sneer, he unleashed certain death upon his foe.
Everyone saw the attack hit Lee. Everyone looked shocked at the explosion that followed, so powerful that it sent Lee into and through the nearest building which all but disintegrated on impact from the raw power that had been unleashed upon it. The generals looked on in horror as they thought it was their fault for not going in. Edwin was cursing himself, as the entire battle had basically been his idea. He had been so curious about Lee's capability, his power that had caught his interest that he had agreed to Lee's request, something that in hindsight seemed all to ridiculous. All of Lee's friends were shocked beyond words as they gazed helplessly at the sight of the explosion, still covered with smoke. Mary was crying herself out of her mind. Everyone at the party looked with fright, for the blast that had hit Lee was well. Though none of them wanted to admit it, most of the general's wouldn't have been able to survive such an attack head-on without any kind of defense as they saw happen to Lee. The only one who wasn't worried in the least was John, who was the only one who had an inkling of what was about to happen. That said, even he was unprepared for what came next.
Out of nowhere, everyone felt a HUGE surge of power come from the middle of the explosion area. It was enormous, much more than the attack that had just been fired. No one knew where the power was coming from. It was much larger than the powers of the two combatants. Its power was great enough that its raw power alone blew the dust and debris away, revealing its source to all present. In the middle of a huge crater, floating in the air right where he was standing before the attack was Lee, glowing intensely with a bright golden aura. The raw power leaking out of him was tremendous, well far and beyond what he had ever shown before, but something was different about it. For lack of a better description, it looked smoother, it flowed cleaner, more controlled than Lee's power had been before, and between that new control and smoother flow, it was undoubtedly much, much stronger than before. The raw force it exuded alone was enough to shake the ground in the vicinity, gravity itself seeming to triple under the power that was leaking out of Lee. John had an idea of what was going to happen and ran to Edwin, "Tell headquarters to put up a dimensional level barrier around this dimensional space NOW!" No time to waste." Edwin relayed the message through his device to headquarters that immediately notify the agents on standby in the ships that had been placed in orbit as security for the event half way through his sentence to do as he instructed.
Suddenly, Lee's magic started to skyrocket. He was summoning all the power he could for the next attack, and he was holding nothing back. He hadn't known what to expect from his father's magic resistance training, but it was obvious to him that it had done all his father promised and more. His power, he had never felt it flow so cleanly, so effectively before. Previously Lee had felt like he had to strain himself to get the level of power he had wanted, but now, it just seemed to flow out of him with no resistance at all, allowing him, for the first time, to truly pull out his all.
The entire city seemed to start shaking. The ground was exploding randomly making craters, chunks of rock and debris were rising and exploding, the winds running wildly almost as tornado with Lee at its core. Lee though wasn't going to let all this magic go to waste, and so he prepared his true, final attack as he pointed his staff skywards to the foe that he would defeat without fail. Three giant spell ribbons appeared above the staff. A large sphere of golden magic appeared in the center, its power beyond compare, but Lee was not about to stop there. To the amazement of all those watching, somehow, another sphere of really dark gold with a sort of red aura appeared beside the first one, equal in power and size. Then Lee started chanting, "The power of that which governs all things, with your blinding authority, lend me your strength to pass judgment on this day." The two spheres started to combine together, fusing their immense energies together to create a single spell, one of such immense power that even Lee could barely contain the force it emanated, but he would not give up now as he focused in. "PURE LIGHT BREAKER and RAGING JUDGEMENT FINAL COMBINATION ATTACK." Suddenly, a strainge, multi-shaded gold magic circle appeared right in front of the massive spell Lee had created, and at the same time, four large multi-shaded golden magic circles appeared in a square formation above his target. "Final Judgment, TRIAL OF LIGHT!" He fired his absolutely massive wave of a spell into the magic circle in front of him, and then out the other four above his foe, waves of equal size and power fired down, massive golden torrents all covered in the same darker golden aura that flickered like flames. That said, that wasn't all, for like an ever shrinking cage, somehow the massive breaker class waves moved, shifting their trajectory until they converged upon their target. At the moment that they all hit their mark, they effectively fused together and created a HUGE explosion. The force of the impact was so massive it appeared to encompass almost the entire downtown area. To save the barrier from breaking completely and returning all the displaced civilians into harm's way, Jackson had to open part of the defense barrier to let the power go through, for at the level of raw magic that Lee had unleashed, without this release, the barrier would have been destroyed for sure, and possibly those still inside it along with them.
The other generals had to put up a barrier to protect everyone from the shockwaves of the blast as well as the debris and smoke that blanketed the area after. The dust and smoke in the air took a good bit to dissipate, but when it did, an incredible and almost scary sight revealed itself before them. Everything within eyesight was almost totally obliterated to dust. The area was completely barren, even the buildings, like it had been simply erased and replaced with the current wasteland that was there presently. John was the first to fly up to take in the damage sight, soon followed by a few other high-level mages who judged it was safe enough to do so, and they were shocked at what he saw. The entire district of Tokyo they had been in looked like it was completely erased from existence. Nothing remained there; even the buildings on the outskirts of the explosion radius that survived were either crumbling or severely damaged. Hen in the middle of this disaster zone was a huge crater, easily at least 200 meters in diameter. It was Lee's friends and siblings who first went looking for Lee, but it took a bit for Lee's power had seemingly all but vanished after that display of raw power. That said, they caught up with him just in time to see him wrap up this fight. About five minutes later, Lee finally climbed down to the center of the crater, where a single solitary Saren Stone was still floating. That said, before Lee could even do so himself, his ever trusty partner Haruno automatically changed itself into its sealing mode, and so Lee with the last of his strength held it up high, letting his device take care of the rest. Haruno, "Sealing, Saren stone number 9. Seal." A small ray of golden energy hit the Saren stone and it floated over and Haruno absorbed it.
By the time his friends and family got to Lee's sode, it was all over, but were glad to see he was okay and that he had been nothing short of awesome. That said, one of them realized that it might have been a bit too soon to pile on the adulation as John quickly walked up to and looked more closely at Lee. "Everyone, hold the compliments, Lee can't hear you, he's fainted on his feet." Everyone looked at Lee's face more carefully and each of them in turn suddenly realized that it was true, Lee was unconscious. They guessed the only thing holding him up now was probably pure determination. John, "That's what I call willpower." He picked up his son to carry him back. Lee was still clutching his staff so tightly they couldn't get his unconscious hand to let go. Chrono ended up having to keep it lifted so that it didn't get dragged on the ground, for even in Lee's unconscious state, his raw determination kept his device and barrier jacket active, though this actually relieved John because it told him that his son was all right, just exhausted beyond imagination.
They arrived back at what was the restaurant, now destroyed, where all the people were, wondering what had happened. When they got there, they placed Lee on the ground where along with Sakura, Sarah and Lance, a General named Joan Brets, head of section 8, also known as the Angel of Healing for her exceptional talents in the medical field went to work trying to revive Lee. To Joan's surprise, there was absolutely no damage to the liker core that she could feel, despite the immense amount of power that Lee had channeled, it was to her mindboggling. In fact, except for being unconscious and having some minor battle injuries all over his body, he was perfectly fine. They healed the minor injuries first. Then they proceeded to replenish his some of his near 100% empty magic supply, but upon the attempt, they could all tell that they wouldn't be able to restore him even close to full, for his raw inner capacity for magic was immense, well beyond anything even the general had ever come across, and were barely able to even get to a third at that, and that third was estimated by Joan to be about as much as 40 or 50 regular SS class mages, if not more, it was mind numbing.
Lee woke up about 20 minutes later feeling a bit tired but on a whole, was feeling pretty good, surprisingly not sore in the least. When he woke up, he saw everyone above him, looking at him with mixed expressions. Some were of sadness, some of relief and some of pure amazement. He stood up and looked around, "So how bad is the damage this time?" Lee was suddenly looking around at the barren desert-like landscape. Edwin though was the one that came over to Lee, "Don't worry, what you see is the worst of it. Luckily, your father saw this coming ahead of time and had the T.S.A.B. erect a dimensional barrier to prevent a Dimensional Shift. Beyond that, we've already called in the required specialists to deal with the damage to your city, especially since we are able to respond immediately after the damage occurred in this case so everything will be fine." Lee looked relieved at this. After he gained his composure though, he was engulfed in a crowd of people. They were all impressed with his battle, including the generals. Another council member even asked him if he wanted to join the T.S.A.B. right then and there, assuring that he would give him all the resources someone of his power would require as well as other enticements, but Lee turned him down saying that he was too young.
Lance stepped forward to volunteer to help fix the city, though he admitted that it was a tall order that he probably couldn't do all by himself, no matter how good he was at advanced restoration magic. He could take care of the spell, but even with his large reserves, he was short on the raw power necessary, and so he asked John and a few other Generals for some assistance with the power, which would allow him to cover a significantly larger area than he could normally. They moved away from the crowd to give themselves some room to work. S
A Green magic circle appeared below them and a second one above them as Lance started to enact what was without a doubt the largest restoration spell he had ever cast, "Catastrophes mark now be gone, erase all traces of your destruction, MAGICAL RESTORATION – MAXIMUM!" A giant flash of light pulsed out from the center of the magic circles. It spread all over the city and the surrounding areas. Wherever it passed, the area became as good as new, even if the damage hadn't been from the battle. Everyone looked on completely shocked at the level of the restoration that had just been done. They all knew that restoration magic was a highly advanced skill that most mages spent their entire lives to hone down, which was why there were dedicated squads for it, but Lance's abilities with the rarer art were beyond compare. It was as good as any of the bureau's emergency restoration squads and it was done by only one teen, albeit with the help of five generals' magic, but still, it was an immense feat of magic few would soon forget. In any case, by the time Lance was done, the squads that had been called in to do the restoration work had arrived, but found that there was nothing else they needed to do. In any case, with that part done, they had to get everyone got back into position as the barrier squad, now exhausted, finally released the barrier that both concealed them as well as held all the civilians out of harm's way, returning everything to normal.
The party soon resumed, but the focus had shifted dramatically for quite a bit. The attention was no longer centered on John whose promotion was the reason for the event, but on Lee due to his grand showing. Lee was, for a good long while, inundated with conversation and even recruitment requests from the bulk of the partygoers, making him feel like he was some sort of exhibit at a zoo, for no matter who he was with or what he was doing, whenever he passed by, everyone's eyes seemed to lock on to him. Luckily, at least the interaction part didn't last forever, the focus of conversation shifted back to the normal status quo with many people vying for the new Generals time, even if he did still feel peoples gazes upon him. John though was actually relieved for the time he was not being swamped by people if he was being honest, but knew that the politicking and schmoozing were just part of the job as it had been when he became a Captain Commander, and thus infinitely more so as a General.
Lee was glad when he found himself a free moment to breath, free of people wanting him to recount the battle for the umpteenth time, something he found especially redundant given that all present had been witness to the fight in its entirety. That said, his solitude was short lived as Edwin Aster came over to where Lee had slinked off to, "You did a fine job boy, a fine job indeed. Most impressive." Lee, "Thank you for the complement, as well as your trust in leaving it to me." Edwin, "You are most welcome, and while I admit part way through I started to regret my decision, I must say you more than lived up to your end of the deal. With power like yours, I would be remiss if I didn't directly ask you to consider joining the Time-Space Administration Bureau. Of course, unlike most who have offered you much the same today, I don't mean immediately. I am a big proponent of youth and education, and so while there are many who have joined at your age, I would recommend seeing those things through before setting yourself upon a more singular path for the rest of your life. But it is something I dearly hope you will consider in a few years when you are done with that and looking for a career. With your strength and skill, I cannot think of a better place to apply them if you truly want to make a difference. I can already guarantee you that you would easily make it to a high rank, maybe even General, possibly even higher." Lee looked a little embarrassed, "I'll think about it. It's already an idea I have for my future now for sure. I would like to do something meaningful with my life, you know." Edwin replied, "Just the attitude you need to be a good mage. The T.S.A.B., though I freely admit is at its core both a bureaucracy and a military, its first, last and main objective is for the wellbeing of all living things, and there is a never-ending shortage of good talent needed to further that cause." Lee, "Yeah, I'm starting to see that."
Edwin Aster, "I like your way of thinking, and so I wish to impart two pieces of my wisdom. The first is to be wary of power, as it can lead one astray even with the best of intentions. Don't use it meaninglessly, but at the same time do not fear or despise it and waste the chances it can provide you either. It can have dire consequences, even when used with the best of intentions, though given how close you are with the young Miss. Takamachi, I assume she might have already told you about that." Lee suddenly looked taken a bit by surprise, looking to Nanoha across the room quickly, and then back to Mr. Aster, "No actually, though I've noticed that she's secretive about her powers sometimes, but I trust her, so I've never wanted to pry, even if you've just confirmed my suspicion." Edwin Aster, "Ah, maybe I have just revealed something I shouldn't have, and if so I apologize, and shall say no more." Lee nodded.
Edwin Aster continued, "Luckily, the second bit of advice I have is not so sensitive, and of a much more practical nature. According to what you said earlier, and from what I could see, you don't know how to do really use combination spells at will, am I correct." Lee nodded and the councilman continued, "I thought so. Luckily for you, it turns out that I, as another blessed with the combination ability, have done some extensive research on the matter and figured out most of its key points, though I am sure there is plenty left to be discovered." He took out an electronic tablet and handed it to Lee, "This here contains the bulk of my research that I did for the TSAB on the subject. Included with that are methods on how to use a combination spell that I have discovered or learned from others, going from basic to more advanced techniques that allow one to more finely control the spells and even choosing whom you borrow a spell from. Mind you, that only works if you already know the person and the spell in question. It even has directions on how to limit their power or change the balance of the spells to produce different effects. The only other person I ever directly gave this info too stated that they have benefited a lot from it, so I am hoping that it can do the same for you. Those capable of using combination magics are very rare with only about 1 in every 100 million or so mages has the physical ability to use it, and the amount of them who are at a high enough level to actually be able to use them are infinitely fewer still. As far as I know, in the entire of the T.S.A.B. I think there is only about 20 something people registered to be able to use them and all of them on active duty, without exception, are SS or higher mages. It is actually a few of these images that usually reached the ultimate 'Z' Mage Level. I am hoping that this can help you to learn your new gift." Lee looked at the tablet with excitement, "Thank you sir, I am sure this will help me immensely." Edwin gave Lee a quick smile before he turned away, another General clearly waiting to engage Edwin in conversation and Lee walked away.
Lee realized that it was getting close to the time his father said they would be leaving, and so he went in search of his group despite the fact that the partygoers were still looking at him whenever he passed, Lee himself already feeling the fatigue setting in from the day's events as a whole. That said, no sooner had he started his search then he bumped into a younger looking mage on accident. He was probably only around Lee's age, give or take a few years at most. Lee though immediately reached out a hand to the fallen mage, "Sorry, that was my bad." The other boy, "Its alright, its quite crowded here." He took Lee's offered hand and helped himself up. Lee though didn't fail to notice that the other boy was wearing a T.S.A.B. uniform, but it was obviously different in design from any of the ones he had seen. Lee admitted himself cruous, "So are you in some T.S.A.B. training camp or something? I don't recognize the uniform." The boy in question seemed frozen for a moment, and then let out a small chuckle, "No, I am in the T.S.A.B." Lee seemed taken aback but he remembered his dad saying that while it would feel quite uncommon on Earth, on other planets it wasn't uncommon for people about his age to already be working in their chosen fields, including the TSAB, which was why he wasn't completely thrown off guard. The other boy though simply introduced himself, "By the way, my name is Saito Yui, pleased to meet you." Lee, "And I'm -." Saito, "Lee Cross, General Cross's middle son. Pretty hard not to know who you are after your little show earlier." Lee had the good sense to look a bit embarrassed at his sudden fame, but outside that, he suddenly remembered hearing Saito's name before, but he couldn't remember from where, "I feel like I've actually heard your name before. I think my father mentioned it to me once. Are you part of section 5?" The mage now known as Saito looked a bit perplexed at the comment. "No, not section 5, I'm a bit beyond that kind of designation. It was hard to work up to the top where I am now. Being the Supreme General Commander isn't an easy thing to do, though you yourself do seem to have some skill yourself."
Lee suddenly got a flash of memory about a conversation he had with his father, "The rank above the Generals, the highest rank without being a Special Forces member or on the council is the Supreme General Commander. The current Supreme General Commander Saito Yui, is the one who gives us generals our orders." It was only then that it all clicked and Lee finally realized who he was talking to, "Wait a minute, do you mean the Supreme General Commander who rules over all the other Generals?" Saito replied, "Now you got it. Despite my age, my hard work and the recognition of the previous Supreme General Commander got me this ultimate position when the last one, who was also my greatest mentor was invited to the council for his achievements. I admit though that the appointment wasn't without its challenges to be sure, as I am the youngest Supreme General Commander in history, and so there were many who opposed my appointment including a majority of the Supreme Council. That said, it is the sole job of the previous Supreme General Commander to choose their successor if able, and if not then they are appointed by a vote of current Generals instead so lucky for me their opinions are mostly irrelevant in the matter. It's one of the systems that's in place to balance the power of the council out and give a safe guard against purely political appointments as to give a countering voice. Thus, even against the council's opinion, my mentor made me his successor and left for the council, though he is now considered an odd ball on the council for it, but his decision is final, no one under any circumstances can alter it without just cause, of which there are very few only to be used in emergencies. As I've said, it's set like that so that there is a balance of political power in the TSAB" Lee looked amazed that someone so close to his own age ruled over his own father, not to mention the monolithic organization that the TSAB was in general.
Saito, "By the way, you were pretty impressive in your battle earlier, still nothing on me but also very impressive. Work the kinks out and work your way up to my level. If you do, I would enjoy a sparring match." Lee didn't know what to say to such a declaration, but just went along with it, "Okay, it's a deal. Although to be honest, I think I could still go farther if I really tried. I know for a fact that unconsciously on some level, I held back a bit, trying not to repeat what happened last time I tried a full powered attack." Saito though just gave Lee a knowing smirk, "I already knew that. If you had gone full out, I don't think this island you call Japan would be anything more than dust. I could feel you barricading a large amount of your magic. For one thing, this attack according to headquarters only had a portion of the power the spell you used at Fretica had. From the report I received, today you only hit 1.9 billion. That means that the same still holds true for the statement I said earlier. Train and meet me as an equal. Also, I guess as its highest ranking officer, I should suggest joining the Bureau; it can only help. I can even put you in as a special officer reporting only to me or would you rather be put under your father since I can arrange that to if you like." Lee replied, "Thank you, the offer sounds good, but at least for now I'll hold off. There is still stuff I think I have to do first, but it's definitely an option I wish to look into in the future." Saito sighed, "Not quite the answer I would have hoped, but better than nothing."
Soon after, Lee finally started meeting up with his friends, and eventually John finally found them as well, having a hard time separating him from the many people who wanted his time along with Mary, "Time to go Lee." John, after looking at his son for a second decided to tell him, "Why haven't you released your barrier jacket yet?" Lee suddenly looked down at his clothes, and sure enough, he found that he was, without realizing it, still wearing his Barrier Jacket and had been for the entire second half of the party. He wondered if that was the reason why everyone kept looking at him as he walked past them. He had honestly thought it was because of what he had done earlier, but in any case, he thought it best to return to his regular evening attire. Thus he quickly released his barrier jacket, his familiar blue marble Haruno reforming around his neck, and with that they got into Sakura's waiting Limo and headed home after the incredibly long day…
Author's Note:
Okay, so this chapter took quite a bit more editing to finish up than I originally intended, especially since it's was originally quite a bit shorter than the more recent chapters. Honestly it originally had felt a bit rushed, and the pacing was all over the place, and so I had to rewrite many parts of it, and remove some others, and even add some additional context and dialog to others to get the flow right, but I feel happy with how it turned out in the end.
In any case, I've been told that the plot for this chapter was pretty predictable, especially since it was for the most part inferable from the previous two. Anyone who didn't expect me to drop a Saren Stone appearance during John's promotion party when it was stated that it would happen on Earth probably didn't pay enough attention to the previous chapters, since I've been setting it up pretty hard between setting the party event on Earth and making sure it was obvious that the TSAB was aware of the Saren Stones. Thus the point of this chapter was basically to show that despite their threat, Lee and company were up to the task.
As for Lee, yes, his power seems to be coming out the wazoo, and that's kind of true. A single week's worth of training shouldn't result in any great powerup, but it seems to kind of do so here. That said, I want to clarify that while that is the apparent result, the Magic Resistance training didn't really increase Lee's overall power, but instead just trained him to use his existing power better. As shown in his power assessment, Lee is already an absolutely devastating force of Nature, but that was only at his max. That event showed that he had a massive amount more power within him than he had shown before that point, but he didn't really have significant control of it and its backlash upon him was significant. Thus the Magic Resistance training was effectively to teach him how to channel that power more efficiently to mitigate those bad side effects, and in that way allow him to use that massive power normally.
