Kael stared at the screen, his heart pounding. No matter how many times he did this, the nerves never went away. It had been quite a while since his last pull, and he felt like his luck might be a bit rusty.
The classic summoning animation began. Ten beams of starlight converged into a swirling vortex against the interface's dark sky. One by one, the stars fell like meteors, their colors revealing the rarity of each card.
The low-grade blue stars streaked across the screen first. Kael ignored them, his focus narrowing on the ninth star. In this system, the ninth card usually set the pace for the tenth. If the ninth was purple (SR), then the tenth was guaranteed to be at least purple or higher.
Kael preferred Gold (SSR) characters, but Purple ones were often more practical. Ace, for instance, was much smoother to use, because Gold characters had a massive magic consumption rate.
Of course, that was just the logic he used to comfort himself when he didn't pull a Gold. As the saying goes: why settle for purple when you can have gold? Even if a Gold character was difficult to use, recycling it for experience yielded a much higher return than a Purple one.
Blue!
When the ninth star flashed blue, Kael's heart skipped a beat. He was going to have to gamble everything on the very last card. This was getting a bit too intense.
WHOOSH—!!
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of golden light erupted from the horizon, streaking across the screen like a sun dropping to earth.
"IT'S GOLD—!!"
Kael shouted at the top of his lungs, completely forgetting he wasn't alone in the house.
"What happened?! Kael?! Is it an attack?!"
Natsu, Gray, Erza—and Lucy—burst into his room, looking ready for war.
Kael froze, awkward heat flooding his face.
"Uh, no… nothing. False alarm. Sorry, everyone. Go back to sleep."
"Are you sure?"
Lucy asked, eyeing him with deep suspicion.
"Positive! Just a bad dream!"
Kael nodded frantically. Seeing no immediate threat, the group grumbled and headed back to their rooms to get some rest.
Kael turned his attention back to the screen. The cards flipped over one by one until the final golden card revealed its face. He leaned in, careful to keep his voice down this time.
"It's him…!"
Despite his effort to stay quiet, he couldn't hide the shock and joy in his eyes.
The man on the card had spiky yellow hair and bright blue eyes. He wore the standard green flak jacket of a Konoha shinobi over a blue uniform, but over that was a distinctive white, short-sleeved cloak with red flame patterns along the hem. On the back of the cloak, five bold characters read: Fourth Hokage.
Kael had pulled the legendary "Yellow Flash" of the Leaf Village—Minato Namikaze.
"This is huge. A total win!"
Minato was easily one of Kael's favorite characters. He was calm, gentle, and brilliant—the "perfect" ninja and the "perfect" husband (though his track record as a father was… tragic). Beyond his personality, his strength was undeniable. With the Flying Thunder God Technique, he could move through space and time in the blink of an eye.
The legendary Jiraiya once said that, compared to Minato, everyone else seemed ordinary. In the world of Naruto, perhaps only Itachi Uchiha could rival his natural genius. While Hashirama and Madara were essentially gods, Minato was the pinnacle of what a human shinobi could achieve.
Kael was dying to test the transformation right then and there. He wanted to feel what it was like to teleport across a battlefield. However, he forced himself to wait. The magical surge from a Gold transformation would be too loud—and it would definitely wake the others.
Even the system seemed baffled. Is this kid actually the luckiest person alive? The odds of a single ten-pull yielding a Gold card were slim, yet Kael seemed to hit the jackpot more often than not. And to pull a high-tier Gold like Minato? It defied all logic.
Magic Council HQ: ERA
BANG!!
"This is absurd! Absolute madness!!"
Org slammed a newspaper onto the council table, his face red with fury as he read about the upcoming duel between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord.
Siegrain leaned back, a small smirk on his face.
"What's so absurd about it? I think it's a brilliant solution. Settling a dispute through a sanctioned competition avoids casualties and keeps the public entertained. I don't see a better way to handle this."
"It's a loophole!"
Org shouted. "They're clearly just finding a way to fight without us being able to arrest them for 'unauthorized guild warfare'!"
Siegrain spread his hands.
"And what do you suggest? Phantom Lord destroyed the Fairy Tail building first. If we don't allow Fairy Tail a way to vent their anger legally, the situation will only escalate into a real war later."
"Venting? Fairy Tail has caused us enough headaches already!"
Michello added. "If you ask me, we should just forcibly disband them!"
"Now, now,"
Yajima—Makarov's old friend—spoke up. "Fairy Tail might be a handful, but they've done a lot of good for the kingdom. They're the victims in this specific case. If we disband them now, we risk turning some very powerful wizards against us."
He looked around the room, pointedly.
"Would you rather have a restrained Fairy Tail that follows the rules, or a rogue Fairy Tail that has nothing left to lose?"
The room went quiet. Everyone remembered the caliber of wizards Fairy Tail produced. If people like Erza, Laxus, or that newcomer Kael turned to the dark guilds, they would become a threat greater than the Balam Alliance.
Finally, Chairman Crawford spoke.
"Wizards sparring to improve their strength is perfectly legal. Fairy Tail might have a motive for revenge, but they are staying within the rules. As for Phantom Lord, we will discuss their punishment for the initial attack after the duel is over."
Yajima breathed a sigh of relief. He knew how close his friend's guild had come to being erased.
Three days passed in a blur of anticipation.