Suddenly—
Clap.
A single, deliberate clap echoed across the stage.
Radiant Man stood alone, bathed in golden sunlight that curled around his form like the arms of a deity. His hands moved with slow, intentional grace, as if weighing the weight of the moment with each sound.
Clap.
Another.
Clap. Clap.
And then faster.
Clapclapclapclapclap—
Until it became a storm of applause, delivered by the hands of the most powerful superhero in the world.
Everyone was frozen.
What was he doing?
Why was Radiant Man… applauding?
But inside Radiant Man's mind, fireworks were erupting. Explosions of pride. Bursts of mad joy. He wanted to laugh, to cheer, to raise his son on his shoulders and scream to the cosmos:
"That's my boy!"
Finally, the Solarion bloodline was showing.
The arrogance.
The steel will.
The recklessness bordering on divine madness.
This wasn't a boy who wanted safety.
This was a conqueror.
Yes… the brat still thought his Esper power would carry him far. He was clinging to it like a crutch—like some toy inherited from his mother's weak, Earthling genes. But that could be corrected.
What mattered was that spark.
That fire.
That unshakable belief that the world would bend around his will.
He was satisfied.
He could work with that.
Radiant Man's applause stopped. The silence afterward was deafening. Every eye was still on him.
And then, at last, he spoke, voice smooth as molten gold.
"If that's what you want… then have it."
A pause. His cape flared in the wind behind him like the wing of a sunbird.
"You may all choose up to four sidekicks."
BOOM.
The crowd exploded again.
Not in chaos.
Not in confusion.
But excitement.
The Superheroes looked around at each other like wild wolves, some grinning with disbelief, others trembling with the weight of possibility.
"Four…!?"
"We can choose four!?"
"That means I can take Blitz, Snapback, AND Magnet Skater?"
"I can finally take my cousin! She's technically listed as a registered sidekick!"
"What if I take four useless ones like him? Will I get praise?"
"Bruh, don't you dare. You'll die before the dungeon opens."
While the students spiraled into a frenzy, Professor Boom tried to maintain some semblance of order.
"Calm down! CALM DOWN!" he bellowed, his voice literally shaking the ground, tiles cracking beneath his feet.
"YOU CAN'T ALL HANDLE FOUR! WE HAVE POWER RANKINGS FOR A REASON!"
He pointed at one lanky superhero who looked like he could barely lift a backpack.
"You, no! I saw your test scores! You couldn't even control a feather droid!"
"I-It was broken when I—"
"DENIED!"
"YOU!" Boom pointed at another with glowing socks. "Your power is literally light-up socks. Absolutely not!"
"PLEASE, THEY LIGHT UP STRONG!"
"THEY LIGHT UP STUPID!"
He turned to another student—this one surrounded by a telekinetic gravity field.
"…You, Gravity Pulse. Four is acceptable."
"Yessir!"
Professor Boom continued filtering them like a customs inspector at a galactic checkpoint.
"Denied."
"Denied."
"Approved."
"Absolutely not."
"Denied. YOU? YOU CAN'T EVEN FLY!"
The crowd began to split—some heroes walking tall, beaming as they selected up to four sidekicks, while others shrank with shame, unsure if they were seen as worthy.
But one truth hovered above all—
Everyone wanted to be noticed by Radiant Man now.
To bask in his pride.
To be seen the way he saw Elius.
But Elius wasn't watching the others. He was calmly walking away from the center, toward the line of unchosen, unwanted sidekicks.
And as he moved, two figures stepped forward.
The first was a boy—skinny, trembling, with a makeshift headband tied across his forehead and way-too-loose shinobi gear dangling off his shoulders. His mouth twitched with nervous energy as he bowed deeply.
"I-I am S-Shiro Shadowleaf! I have shadow clone technique, although… um… my clone… doesn't do anything. Like, at all. It sort of just… stands there. But I believe! In effort!"
He struck a pose and his shadow clone appeared beside him, mimicking the stance perfectly.
And then promptly fell over.
Useless.
The second was a chubby boy with soft eyes and bandages all over his arms. He wore a healer's robe that was clearly stitched by hand, poorly.
"I-I'm Klee. I can… I can heal small wounds. Like… paper cuts. And bruises. And sometimes minor sprains if I try hard."
He demonstrated by cutting his finger with a pencil. Wincing, he held his hand and channeled light into it. After several seconds of intense concentration, the wound closed.
He smiled nervously.
Elius stared.
They were so…
Incredibly useless.
But then—ding.
A mechanical screen appeared before him, flickering softly in the air.
Ding! Sidekicks recognized.
Party Request Valid.
Shiro - Shadow Clone Technique: Activated. Now enhanced. Clones gain limited offensive capability and basic cognitive reaction.
Klee - Self Healing: Mutated. Ability evolved into Micro-Regen Field. Heals all allies within 2 meters over time, including minor tissue damage and stress fatigue.
Cultivator Passive Triggered: Spiritual Recognition Initiated. Elius now receives: +1 Shadow Body Clone +10% Passive Regeneration in battle
Elius blinked. And again.
He did not smile.
He did not gasp.
Instead, with a calm face and eyes half-lidded, he turned toward them.
"You two. From now on—you belong to my party."
Shiro and Klee stood straighter, eyes wide.
"Y-Yes, Hero!"
"Yes, boss!"
Elius nodded once, then turned to face his four gathered sidekicks.
Lina, the ghost-fingered girl who still avoided eye contact.
Ron, the musclebound, green-footed hybrid who stood with unearned guilt.
Shiro, the determined but ineffective ninja.
And Klee, the overly earnest walking bandage.
They were all standing proudly.
Their powers were still considered trash by the academy.
But Elius knew better.
Inside, he could feel it. Not just the stats. Not just the system. But something else.
These four… were his.
The world might laugh now.
But soon, they'd understand.
He closed his eyes, letting the soft hum of the system screens dance across his vision like gentle sparks in the air.
He breathed in.
Then opened his eyes with steely fire.
"From now on," he said, his voice lined with arrogance and cold clarity, "the four of you will obey every order I give."
"YES, HERO!"
They shouted as one, loud and proud.
And then—
Elius raised his hand high.
The wind howled.
The sunlight flared.
And with a smirk pulling at the edge of his lips, he declared:
"Let's enter the dimensional rifts."
…
The line to the dimensional rift gate was long, coiling like a serpent under the artificial sunlight of the massive training arena.
Students chatted nervously, power signatures flaring briefly in the air as capes flapped and tension rolled across the field like fog.
The air smelled of ozone, sweat, and heated metal. Teams were organizing. Clusters of students whispered, theorized, and prepared.
Among them, one group stood apart.
Ron. Lina. Shiro. Klee.
And Elius—silent, eyes closed, arms crossed, standing at the front of the line like a monument.
The four sidekicks stood behind him, a respectful distance away, unsure if they were even allowed to breathe too loudly.
It was Lina who broke the silence first.
Her voice was soft. So soft it could've been mistaken for wind.
"...I didn't expect to be picked."
Ron glanced sideways at her, scratching the back of his green-scaled neck with embarrassment. "Y-Yeah. Me neither."
Klee smiled awkwardly. "He picked us because no one else would."
"More like because we're trash," Shiro muttered, arms crossed, shadow clone mimicking the gesture beside him. "Let's not sugarcoat it."
Ron chuckled nervously. "We're not that bad…"
Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Your feet look like a chicken mated with a frog."
Ron turned red. "They're velociraptor traits!"
"Exactly."
Lina gave a small giggle, then covered her mouth as if she had committed a crime. The silence between them lifted, just a little.
Shiro narrowed his eyes. "Still… he's scary."
They all looked forward.
Elius stood unmoving. His face was calm, but not kind. His eyes were closed, as if meditating—or waiting for judgment. His aura was cold, coiled, and heavy like obsidian steel.
"He hasn't said anything to us since he picked us," Klee murmured.
"He doesn't need to," Lina replied quietly. "Did you hear what Radiant Man said? 'He has the the capability of hurting the invincible him in the future.'"
Shiro gulped. "That's terrifying."
Ron nodded. "I heard Radiant Man once flew into a black hole just to see if he could punch his way out."
"And he did," Klee whispered reverently.
Silence again.
Shiro turned to Lina. "So… what do your fingers do, exactly?"
Lina hesitated. Her fingers shimmered, becoming slightly transparent for a moment.
"I can phase them… through things. I think. Sometimes. I'm… not very good at it."
Klee smiled supportively. "That's still useful! Imagine if you needed to turn off a bomb without touching the wires directly!"
She blinked. "I never thought of it that way…"
"What about you?" Ron turned to Shiro.
Shiro sighed, gesturing to his clone. "It… exists."
The clone promptly sneezed, then tripped over its own foot and vanished in a puff of failure.
Shiro put his head in his hands. "I've been trying to make it do something for three years now."
Ron gave a sympathetic nod. "Well… I can smell things from really far away."
Lina and Shiro turned.
"That's it?" Shiro asked flatly.
Klee chuckled. "No, he also has dino-strength. His muscles are insane."
"Oh," Shiro admitted. "That's… actually kinda cool."
"I guess." Ron shrugged. "I just wish they didn't come with these stupid feet."
Lina looked at Klee. "And you…?"
"I can heal small wounds."
"How small?"
Klee held up his finger, conjured a tiny flame, let it burn his fingertip, and then closed the wound with a flash of golden light.
"That's… very small," Shiro commented.
"I'm working on it," Klee said sheepishly.
They were quiet again. And then—
"He scares me," Ron muttered.
All eyes went back to Elius. He hadn't moved an inch.
Klee nodded. "I don't want to disappoint him."
"Same," Lina said quietly. "I don't want to get in his way."
"Why do you think he picked us, then?" Shiro asked. "There's no way someone like him would actually want a weak party."
Klee thought for a moment. "Maybe… maybe he saw something in us. Or maybe he just wanted to prove a point."
"Whatever the reason," Ron added, "we're here now."
They fell into silence once more, but it wasn't awkward this time.
It was shared.