As Ronin and the others were nearing the dense forest on the outskirts of the town, Ronin noticed Ela and Sam following them. Smirking, he asked the others to speed up. "Isn't this an ideal speed, Ronin-san?" Tadao asked. "It is, but we'll reach our destination faster, which is more ideal for me." Ronin replied, not revealing Ela and Sam's presence. They all agreed with him and started running faster, at around seventy kilometers per hour. Ela and Sam couldn't keep up with them and started doubting their decision when they saw peculiar markings showing them the route. Ronin left behind multiple markings for them to follow, like Kunai knives, paper bombs, shuriken's etc. on trees inside the forest.
They reached the foot of the mountain and stopped. "Alright, rest for now. Conserve your energy. We have to scale this mountain without stopping." Ronin said. "We don't mind moving forward right now. Scaling this mountain is child's play." Samao replied. "Don't worry, the reason why I asked you to run faster was for us to be able to rest here. I need to study this mountain while we're at it. That's why. It's been holding my katana for centuries. I wanna know what all changes have been there ever since." Ronin explained. "Ah I see. Alright, let's camp up here." Tadao said.
They camped up at the foot of the mountain. Ronin touched the steep mountain to understand how magic flow works inside. "Wow. This mountain is so rich in mana. It can source the whole town for more than a thousand centuries and still have enough mana to habitat the life present here." Ronin exclaimed. "How come? This mountain was depleted of mana or so the people say." Tadao exclaimed. "Wait, I think I know this mountain. How fooling of me. If only I knew my Katana was so close to me. I used to teach kids magic control here." Ronin exclaimed. "Good old days!" Samao exclaimed. "True. I never sensed any kind of call from my Katana ever before though. And yes, I can agree. This mountain didn't have any kind of mana within, making it the best spot for teaching mana control." Ronin explained.
"How far is it gonna be?" Sam grunted as they followed the signs when they saw Ronin and the others.
"So there here." Ronin thought. "Let's move forward. We should start scaling it." He said.
"Did he see us?" Sam asked, hiding behind some bushes. "No, I don't think so. They're scaling the mountain though!" Ela replied. "Scale!?? This mountain is at an angle of 105 degrees! How can someone scale it!?" He gasped. "They're magic users, Sam. They can possibly do anything." Ela grunted. "Look at that sign! Showing the clear road up! They're dumb or what?" Sam pointed towards a sign that showed the road to the top of the mountain.
Ronin and the others started running up the mountain by focusing their magic onto their feet, using them as suction cups, making it possible for them to run on it. "Look at them, running at a goddamn steep mountain!" Sam gasped. "Let's go on this path. Might lead to the top sooner!" Ela exclaimed.
Ronin reached the top of the mountain, followed by Samao and Tadao. "Alright, where are you now?" Ronin said, closing his eyes to focus on looking for it. "There." He replied. "Did you find it?" Samao asked. "I think so. There are ruins in a distance. The Katana's magic, it's all over the mountain, making it difficult for me to know the exact location. Let's start with the ruins." Ronin explained when Ela and Sam reached the top and came face to face with Ronin. "What are you two doing here?" Tadao asked. "Ah well, we aren't burdens so here we are, in front of you with no damage!" Sam exclaimed. "You aren't burdens. It's just that playing defensive comes with a disadvantage. But now that you've reached here on your own without any mortal damage, I'm a bit relieved." Ronin replied. "Alright, let's get your weapon now, shall we?" Sam smirked. "We're heading to the ruins, let's go!" Tadao exclaimed.
When they reached the ruins, Ronin sensed a huge amount of aura coming from the center. "It's definitely here. I'm certain." He exclaimed. As they entered the ruins, everyone else felt it as well, the high amount of aura. Ronin entered the center of the ruins. A square pattern appeared on the floor and four pillars came out of the ground. "Stay back, everyone." Ronin warned. Suddenly, from the middle, a podium came out of the ground. "What is that?" Sam gasped. "Ancient ruins always have some kind of magical attribute to them." Tadao replied.
Ronin raised his hand and touched the platform. Suddenly the weather changed with black lightning clouds covering the mountain. The platform started cracking and lightning struck it from the sky. "Ronin-san!" Tadao shouted. Nothing was visible as a smoke screen took over the entire ruins. "Is Ron okay!?" Ela gasped. "He'll be fine don't worry. Lightning is his own attribute to begin with." Samao replied, reassuring Ela. As the smoke vanished, Ronin was holding his Katana, murmuring something. "Come on! I was only gone for a short while. I'm back now! Sorry for not trying to find you before!" Ronin grunted. The Katana's back was out of the podium, but it was still stuck inside. "What's happening, sensei?" Samao asked. "I won't force you out of this slab even though I can. I'll let you decide if you help me on my journey or not. All your choice buddy." Ronin said. Suddenly, the podium started shaking and it shattered, revealing the Katana which went into the air. "Good choice, Soul!" Ronin exclaimed. The Katana slowly came down to him as a huge amount of aura fell on him from the sky, covering him up with a huge amount of magic as he aura grew. "This magic! It's so beautiful!" Samao exclaimed. "Ronin has spent all of his lives, fighting for the sake of innocents with this magic, I can feel it. With this, two Katanas are back. We're reaching our destination, slowly but yes. And with this, his healing abilities should be on par right now. Still not to their full extent, but yes." Grid explained, appearing right behind Sam, scaring him.
Ronin looked directly towards Ela, with his glowing cosmos red eyes. They looked terrifying, but had a sense of warmth, thankfulness, and kindness in them which was clearly visible to Ela. He came to her and said, "I couldn't have done any of this without your help, Ela. I'm entirely grateful to you. Not just you, but everyone here, Samao, Tadao, Sam and Grid, I'm thankful to all of you as well. I know it's just the start of the adventures, and I've only found just two Katanas, but know this, we're sticking in this together. There's no me in here, just us." Ronin said, pointing at his heart. Suddenly, Ela turned red. "What is this? I've never felt like this ever before!" She thought. "So now what? We have to run all the way back to the town? I'm so tired! Can't you like summon some kind of vehicle or something!?" Sam gasped. "Oh yes off-course your majesty! We'll also bring an airplane for you! And yes, some tea! You want anything to eat?" Grid taunted him. "That'll do for now! Thank you." Sam replied with a smile. "The town awaits your return, Tadao. You're an important part of the government." Samao said. "That's the thing Samao, this guy here, can't run back to the town as he's out of energy!" Grid taunted Sam again. "You don't have to worry about that. I've got a huge amount of magic back. And as I can feel it, my teleportation powers are totally back!" Ronin exclaimed. Grid smirked as he could smell victory while others were excited to witness Ronin's teleportation powers. Ronin grabbed Ela's hand out of the blue, making her feel shy, a bit excited, and shocked. He asked others to get in contact with him, directly or indirectly. Grid returned to Ronin's body while the others connected themselves to him. "Teleportation." Ronin chanted. Within a blink of a second, they were all teleported to the Seki mansion. "Guys, we've attained a big victory today. Rest easy. We still have a long road ahead." Tadao said. "I'll be heading to the stadium to train." Ronin said as he teleported away.
All night, Ronin shed his blood and sweat to unleash his powers and tried to get them under control. It was putting a lot of strain and stress on his body, which was not at all used to such vast amount of energy. Many times, he nearly gave up, but the sight of Akira's death and Nue's laughing face gave him the chills and angered him. It was his own powers, so Grid wasn't able to do much help either. "It's all on me!" He grunted. Teleportation, controlling natural elements like wind, water, fire, etc. and most importantly, different magical elements that he created while training. He focused on unlocking his light magic and dark magic as these elements were also important to him, attaining access to both the elements was a huge success for him. He even mastered the art of destruction, gravity, and space magic though all of this strained his body to such an extent that he was down with a very high fever when he returned.
Ronin entered the mansion back and saw Ela coming towards him. Suddenly his eyes closed as he fell down. Ela caught him in time. She was able to feel the fever. "You have such a high fever Ron!" She gasped. He growled in pain. "Why isn't his healing abilities working?" Ela asked. "It's a fever which is due to exertion. Healing abilities won't work here." Tadao replied. He carried Ronin to his room, where he put a wet towel on his head.
"How did this even happen? Like, he just attained his powers back! When he got his magic back for the first time, even though he was in a coma, he didn't have fever. Why this time?" Ela asked. "I don't know the reason, but I think this happened because his body wasn't able to keep up with the amount of power he produced, exhausting him completely, though he continued to train, resulting in full body soreness, and hence, a high fever. The only logical reason behind nothing happening before is him being highly active. His body is used to physical stress and that level of magic didn't take a toll on him. Also, he didn't really spend all of his time on training before." Tadao explained. "It's his old habit, trying to do everything in a single day. I tried stopping him, but he didn't listen to me." Grid grunted.
Suddenly, they heard a loud blast outside the mansion.