"They have returned," Seungsik, leader of Tonvic, informed everyone in the meeting room despite writhing in pain from their injuries.
"What should we do?" Hyein was in distress.
"We have no choice but to defend the kingdom. That is the Supreme Six and Twilight Triad's original duty after all," Yohan declared.
"Yohan's right. As the current strongest magical squads of the kingdom, let us do our duty to Hallyu," Wonyoung seconded.
With the empathic words coming from the Centers of both Chosen groups, the rest were convinced to take a stand as well.
"Where are they, seonbaenim?" Hanbin asked Tonvic.
"They are in the open space on the outskirts of Wanna City," Byungchan replied.
"The field where the Seer performs the selection ritual?" Ningning verified.
"Yes. That open field," Hanse confirmed.
"In that case, let's go," the Supreme Six and Twilight Triad left without the injured Tonvic.
The nine groups reached the location using their signature teleportation: IZ*ONE in pink tornado; X1 in Galaxy Blue tornado; Endash in orange spirals; Pone Harmony in dark blue pillars of water; Temp Fist in dark purple swirling clouds; Ace Spa in purplish smoke; Ivy in red flames; The Seraphim glistened in Fearless Blue light; and Jeansnew in bluish-purple spirals.
"Ready to surrender?" Origin, the leader of the Novus Red Force, said with an evil grin.
"Over our dead bodies," Yujin claimed.
"If you say so," Origin cackled.
As if on cue, the Novus Red Force except Origin started moving. The Supreme Six and Twilight Triad had no choice but to retaliate.
"Temp Fist, use your X-Con technique to learn about the powers of our enemies," Eunbi instructed. "Everyone, let's defend Temp Fist while they do their task."
"X-Con: Eye of the Storm!" a dark purple magic circle formed under Temp Fist after the chant.
"Eye of the Storm" is a support-type X-Con technique that enchants the eyes of its users and allows them to see the powers possessed by anyone whom they lay their eyes on. The technique can be detected as a faint glow around the eyes of the Temp Fist members.
To protect Temp Fist from incoming attacks, Hyewon and Hyeongjun, raised their force fields around Temp Fist. The rest had the daunting task of stopping the Novus Red Force members.
Stalling for time so that Temp Fist could gather the necessary information, X1 activated their technique.
"X-Con: Flash!" beneath X1, a yellow-blue-green magic circle manifested.
Flash is an offensive X-Con technique. It releases eleven consecutive bursts of light that deal heavy damage. X1 decided to utilize their X-Con technique due to its large area of effect.
X1's X-Con technique managed to slow down the enemies from further advancing but was unable to deal enough damage.
"We've got it! We know about their powers!" Lew announced.
"Heeseungie-hyung, use your powers to disseminate the information to everyone," Jungwon requested with urgency.
Heeseung was a high-level telepath. In fact, he is the first telepath since Sungwoon capable of Telepathic Replication. Heeseung wasted no time and was able to gather the information from Temp Fist's members' minds and send it to all of his allies.
"Thank you for this!" Hangyul stomped as soon as he received the information. He caused fissures to erupt on the ground. It was the necessary countermeasure against Speedbump who had Hyper Speed as one of his powers. The rest of X1 supported Hangyul in facing Speedbump.
Meanwhile, Theo was on equal footing thus far with Torrid as their streams of blue fire collided with each other. The rest of the Pone Harmony were countering the fiery projectiles coming out of Torrid.
Jang Wonyoung took it upon herself to counter Frazzle's Advanced Electrokinesis as they possessed the same power. With Chayeon's Augmentation, the remaining IZ*ONE members took care of the other attacks released by Frazzle.
After deactivating their X-Con technique, Temp Fist faced Ubiquitous as Hyeongseop was the only one who could counter the enemy's Energy Wave with his own. Meanwhile, Endash took care of Frigid through Sunghoon's Cryokinesis and Heeseung's Telepathic Replication. The Serephims and Spectrum went head-to-head as Photokinesis clashed against each other with Yunjin leading the charge. Jeansnew's Minji and her groupmates got stuck with Synesthesia in the battle of Advanced Telekinesis.
Just when they thought that things were going smoothly, one thing slipped off their minds - Ego. With most of the crossfire stuck in a deadlock, Ego stretched his right hand forward and unleashed his power of Gyrokinesis and increased the gravity around the battlefield. The Supreme Six and Twilight Triad got smashed to the ground, unable to stand under the influence of such strong gravitational force.
As a last-ditch effort, Ivy had no choice but to activate their X-Con technique.
"X-Con: Kitsch!" the technique made a red magic circle appear.
Ivy's technique linked them and their target in such a way that whatever happened to them would also happen to the target and vice versa. The X-Con specifically targeted Ego; for that reason, when Ivy fainted due to the strong gravitational force, Ego fainted as well.
Able to move freely, IZ*ONE desperately countered.
"X-Con: Bloom*Iz!" a pink magic circle appeared under IZ*ONE.
The battlefield around Novus Red Force transformed into a field of colorful flowers. A few seconds later, the flowers simultaneously exploded, hitting their targets spot-on. When the smoke settled, IZ*ONE was shocked to see that the Novus Red Force only got small scratches from their attack.
Origin cackled, "Amazing! You were able to deal us some amount of damage. As recognition of this feat, we will retreat for now and leave you to fight for another day."
"We can still fight!" Seungwoo valiantly claimed.
"Not from where I'm standing," Origin scoffed. "But what do I even expect, you are no match against us. The Golden Age of Hallyu is over!"
Wooseok grunted, "We might not be in the Golden Age anymore, but we can still hold our ground against you."
"If this was the Golden Age, I might have not dared to attempt an invasion. Unfortunately for you, your chances of defeating us are lost along with your Golden Age," Origin said. "Goodbye for now. The next time we meet, we will eradicate Hallyu once and for all."
Those were Origin's last words before they teleported out in a blink of an eye. As for the Supreme Six and Twilight Triad, they were left lying on the ground physically, mentally, and emotionally defeated.