Chapter 139 The Hero’s Return

"Ban-kai."

Quite frankly, the chain of chainsaws that seemed to infinitely extend was something straight out of that certain animated classic. That's the sole reason why Satoshi called it that even though it had an official name— his Chainsaw Familiar, Sain.

"I... It's my defeat. You, you're not human." The Ice Empress mumbled as she collapsed to the ground. Obviously, she was on the verge of death, bright red-colored blood spilled out of her mouth as she coughed and choked, clutching her chest where a gaping hole was left by Sain.

"You, do you also hear the voice in your head, telling you to kill us, humans?" Satoshi asked out of the blue as soon as he approached the Ice Empress.

Ice Empress nodded, then she turned away as if she had done a grave mistake. For once, there was silence in the Ice Cave, and even with the voice constantly telling the Ice Empress to kill Satoshi in front of her, she was able to resist. Somehow, she was able to resist it now compared to before. Well, she was already defeated so that probably affected her response to the voice.

"Looks like we're done here," Lloyd said, putting a hand on Satoshi's shoulder and patting it gently. He deserved it, he did all the work after all.

"You, I don't know what you did to Pelez and Alez but... I just hope that you'll take care of them. Promise me that you won't abuse them, nor let harm befall them. They are my family, my only family."

There was a pause, and then Satoshi nodded. The others didn't speak a single word. Right now, instead of celebrating, they decided to remain quiet due to the overall atmosphere of the place. It would've been infinitely better if their enemy couldn't connect to them, but their enemy could talk, no less. This made the overall subjugation much harder. They don't even know if they could kill the Ice Empress.

Fwooooooosh~~~]

The familiar whooshing sound could be heard from the back once again and the first one to notice it was Vinny, who was constantly keeping track of the surroundings. Once again, she felt an incredible amount of energy from where they came from. And that could only mean one thing. Finally, the Gate had opened and they can now come out of this damned place.

"Let's get out of here, Satoshi," Lloyd called out, turning around while the rest of his team followed. As for Emma, she remained immobile, waiting for Satoshi's call.

"Sure," Satoshi responded, turning around to follow. But after a couple of steps, he balked, and then addressed the Ice Empress for the last time. "Would you like to go with me?" He asked. He didn't make the question sound like an order, but more of an invitation.

"Gladly," The Ice Empress forced a smile on her face. Although this would be the first time she'll be serving a master, she could tell that Satoshi is a leader. After all, his bonds with his summons are unlike any other and she witnessed that firsthand. Besides, with them gone, there's nothing she could do in this limited world. Even if it's just a little bit, she was curious as to where Satoshi came from and how he grew up to be such a powerful figure despite being a human.

.....

The next morning was the final day for the Inter-High Tournament— probably the most anticipated day of the year around the globe. But somehow, the news about the tournament never reached Lloyd and his party's ears and when they were informed about it, they were surprised. T

There's a colony of humans in Antarctica and they are a part of it. And due to that, their lives were pretty much isolated from the rest of the world. Of course, they get updates for huge events from time to time but most of the time they don't know anything. That's one of the many reasons why the news about the Gate reached them a bit too late.

"I guess we should be proactive about this from now on. Since Vinny is the most suitable person to work on gathering information, I'll be assigning the task to you. It won't be that hard, you just have to check the news every day. We should also upgrade some of our equipments here and repair most of them so our connection to the world would be much more stable." Lloyd said.

Right now, they were back at the Headquarters once again, eating breakfast. It won't be long before the Third Round of the Inter-High Tournament commences but Satoshi wasn't worried. Because of his integration with Ghast during the fight with the Ice Empress, he gained more control over Ghast's portal ability. If he willed it, he could teleport to the Waiting Room in an instant so he didn't worry about it at all.

"So, you're a part of this Inter-High Tournament in Japan, right? Shouldn't you be going right now? The countdown says that you only have less than an hour left." Lloyd pointed out, showing the countdown on the live stream that's about to be shown on Youtube. A few minutes ago, the team watched a couple of videos about the Inter-High Tournament and they became hooked. Had they lived in the city, they would've joined the Arena in a flash and gone head to head with other superheroes for money.

"Emma's with him, they can just teleport there at any time." Rachel said. "Thank you for your help earlier, Satoshi. We clearly underestimated you and the girl."

"We thought you backed down during the fight with the ant horde and the spider horde, but you were just bidding your time as it turned out. Had it not been for that, we would've been killed by the Ice Empress." Caleb shuddered. He could still remember how powerless they felt against the Ice Empress and Satoshi was the only one who took a stand against her.

"Do you think there's something about this planet that attracts other entities? I mean, we had alien invasions once a year, and this time huge portals appeared and monsters resided inside." Lloyd suddenly asked, totally steering the topic to something different.

"That's a food for thought, and totally plausible," Rachel responded. "Whatever that is, we should probably find out about it because if not, then there will come a point when we'll lose against an alien invasion."

"Yeah, the aliens are getting stronger and stronger. Remember those Slime Alien ones? They're pretty overpowered. Fortunately, a lot of superheroes teamed up to fight in space. But if the invasion was scattered just like these Gates, then I don't know what will happen." Lloyd continued.

And he was right. Even though Lloyd was the only one who talked openly about it, everyone feared the same thing. There's a reason why aliens are targeting Earth and they don't know the reason why. And who knows what would happen in the next invasion?

.....

While the clock ticked, Hiroshi and the others started getting fidgety since there was still no sign of Satoshi. And then, during the night, they heard that the last Gate— the Gate that opened in Antarctica— was already closed by the Antarctica Exploration Team led by someone named Lloyd. They didn't even bother giving his surname because he's not a high-ranking superhero.

And just like any others, he said in his report that they received help from two teenagers and that if it weren't for them, they would've died. Of course, Lloyd didn't reveal Satoshi and Emma's identities as per Satoshi's request. But he was extremely grateful for them. That's why the least he could do was fulfill Satoshi's request and hide their identities.

This left people around the world wondering who the two teenagers were and if they are really on their side. Many rumors and questions started revolving around the internet and some even found it their life's purpose to unravel the identities of the two.

"You think he'll arrive on time. Five minutes left." Shidou asked. "I mean, this is the Third Round, no less."

"He'll get here," Midori bit his lips. Of course, everyone felt jittery since Satoshi was still not yet there. A few minutes more and they'll be walking towards the stage.

"Yeah, there's no way Satoshi would leave us hanging like that. That's so unlike him," Cherry said. It was obvious that her alter ego, Sassu, was the one currently in control.

"Let's just wait a few more seconds, and then let's head down to the stage." Fuuka cleared her throat. Somehow, everyone's nervousness was getting into her.

Just like in the previous round, there was still no information as to what the contest is going to be like in the third round. But Fuuka, who pondered about it all night, arrived at a conclusion that it was going to be a three-way fight. 'If they were to do that, then it would be clear that they didn't want us to win,' Or so, that's what she thought.

Suddenly, cold winds blew right at their napes, causing them to turn their heads in the direction of the boy's room. There, Satoshi was standing with an ice statue of a lady.

"Are we going or not?" He asked with a huge smile on his face.