For the first time in history, a total of four ruptures appeared at the same time in different places around the world.
Each of that rupture revealed towers which were named by their respective color.
The Obsidian Tower in the North, The Diamond Tower in the West, The Ruby Tower in the South and The Azure Tower in the East.
The tower itself wasn't a threat, but the ominous aura it generated affected people's minds and physical health.
Because of this, World Ability User Organization held an international meeting, inviting each affected countries' leader together with their representative espers.
Within hours, the meeting room was filled with world's important figures.
"The civilian casualties have reached five hundred thousand people across the world. They are having the same symptoms, painful headache and nausea. We couldn't just stay still in this situation, we should immediately take down these towers."
Theodore Gautier, the representative of The Federation in the west was the first to speak, which was answered by Edmund Aslan, the president of Yhester, a country in the east.
"Do you think we haven't tried attacking it? Everything we use is useless! Bombs, esper's ability… there's nothing that could leave a scratch on its walls!"
Leisa Hrefna, the queen of Themath Kingdom in the south chimed in, "What's the Bureau leader's opinion about this?"
Francis nodded at Idris Brown, the leader of Aerolis. The two had already discussed this beforehand and was planning on offering their idea.
The screen in front of them lit up, revealing the four towers' miniature 3D model.
"This is Yhester's Azure Tower miniature model. As you can see, there's an open door on this side, but if we look closely, the other towers don't. Based on this, we speculate there's an order in clearing this gate."
Francis rotated and zoomed in on one of the tower's walls, coming up with a hypothesis.
"We sent a team of espers with detection ability to analyze the tower from the outside, one of them has a skill to map the tower's interior. Here's what we find interesting."
Francis double tapped the screen and it changed its display, showing a maze leading to a huge blank area.
"There are monsters along this maze and at the very center of this blank area, a boss was detected."
Francis motioned the staff to hand each respective leader a document before continuing, "I'll be blunt. We know that Yhester doesn't have any S-Rank espers, while The Federation and Themath Kingdom have one each, so, to make things fair for everyone, here's our proposal."
Theodore frowned when he read the papers. "Mobilizing all S-Ranks to conquer the tower one by one? What the hell is this Francis? If you take our S-Rank, who's going to defend our country?"
"Agreed, I don't want to leave my country powerless in face of threat." Leisa followed.
Francis nodded but he still continued explaining, "I understand your concerns, but would you rather have them sit around or mobilize them to quickly finish these towers within few hours and eliminate the threat completely? Especially since the tower opens in turn."
Idris spoke up, "It's not just your country that needs the S-Ranks' ability, my country is willing to dispatch our four S-Ranks – including the first S-Rank Guide – to other countries first, not because I don't have concerns, but because I trust my S-Ranks to quickly solve the problem and return to my country."
Each leader looked at Francis and Idris with troubled eyes, they didn't immediately speak out their thoughts but instead discussed it with either their espers or confidants first.
"I actually don't mind the idea."
The stalemate broke out when Marcello opened his mouth, which was met by Theodore's glare.
"Marcello."
Marcello narrowed his eyes and continued, "Even without S-Ranks around, there are a lot of A-Ranks and B-Ranks in the country. What can one S-Rank do anyway? You think one esper is enough to contain the threat spreading through the country?"
He threw a snide remark at Edmund and Leisa, "Or do you distrust the espers in your country that much?"
That made everyone in the room fall silent.
Leisa covered her mouth with her fan, Edmund turned his gaze away as he flipped through the document, while Theodore was watching everyone in the room silently.
A cold war was happening inside the room. His words touched a very sensitive topic in the world of politics – trust. If the leaders said one wrong word in this situation, their country's image would be affected.
"Alright, Marcello already said it anyway, I'll agree to this arrangement." Theodore relented and signed the document, prompting other leader to make their decision too.
Edmund nodded and said, "What he said was logical. I agree with this proposal too."
Leisa observed the two before quietly signing the papers.
"Then we will begin the preparation." Francis turned his gaze to the corner of the meeting room and called out, "Ethan."
'It's finally my time to shine.'
"Yes."
Standing up from my seat, I addressed the other two S-Rank espers in the room.
"Mr. Lorenzo and Ms. Hopkins, please follow me."
'The real challenge starts right now.'
I led them out and headed toward Team Zero's meeting room, intending to strategize with my other teammates. Francis chose me as the meditator, so I was responsible for anything that happened from here on out.
"Told you I'm going to see you soon."
Marcello grinned widely, revealing his handsome smile. I decided to ignore him and his antics. I was still not over the grudge we had before.
"Do you know each other?"
Patricia Hopkins, also known as Fire Queen, was a beautiful lady with wavy auburn hair. Her blue eyes gazed at Marcello and me, assessing the relationship between us.
I answered, "Yes, we've met each other before."
"He's my sweetheart."
"If I'm your sweetheart, then you're my nightmare turned reality."
"Haha... Aren't you being too cold with me?"
"That's my calmest insult for you."
Seeing our interaction, Patricia tilted her head, "Hm? Are you guys lovers?"
'How did you reach that conclusion?'
I scratched my head as I sighed. Because of Marcello's useless comments, I needed to assure her a few times that there's nothing going on between us.
Opening the door to my team's meeting room, my teammates were already waiting with documents in hand.
Xain, Cedric, and Ilyas. Each of them had an unreadable expression on their faces.
Walking to the front, I spread out my papers and declared.
"Let's start the four towers raid plan."