How I Became the Strongest Sovereign

"Zeref!" Johan and Ciara were the next to arrive after us. Mother, Malia and I, including Jace were the first to arrive outside the gates to the amusement park. Mike refused to go because he hated heights. I didn't know what to expect so excitement rushed through me; I had never been to one of these places before.

"Woah. You look nice." Malia exclaimed as she looked Ciara's outfit up and down. Ciara wore a short light green summer jumpsuit with small white flowers and brown sandals.

Malia, on the other hand, wore casual grey joggers paired with a black cropped vest. On top, she wore a thin, oversized white and black checkered open front, button up shirt. Her hair was put into a ponytail, showing off her collarbone and a silver chain hung loosely around her neck.

"You too, you look amazing! Oh look, they've arrived too." Ciara pointed on the other side of the street. Dozens of people were moving around the streets, some buying tickets and others getting food.

Miss Elena and the others, including Sara, waved at us and we all waved back.

"Ugh, why is she here?" Ciara said in an annoyed tone. I elbowed her, as mother almost heard what she had said.

Naz ran up to Malia, leaping into her arms. Surprisingly, Malia kept her balance, catching her and spinning Naz around before putting her down. I noticed the noticeable hurt on Sara's face as she watched them. Naz squealed in excitement, holding both of Malia's hands and jumping up and down. Ciara giggled before side hugging her.

"You look amazing!" Ciara smiled, looking at Naz's tight black leggings and loose white vest with a vaguely visible sports bra underneath. Malia slapped Naz's ass, smirking and wiggling her eyebrows. Naz gasped, whacking Malia's arm.

I laughed, looking at Jace to see him blankly looking at the interaction. I tried to connect to who he was looking at but it was unclear. Hesitantly, I waved my hand in front of him, snapping him out of his daydream.

Sara jogged towards us, trying to smile but I knew deep down she was upset about how close Naz and Malia had gotten.

"Hi." she said quietly, half smiling. "Happy late birthday Zeref!" she tried to sound happy for me but I could hear the clear hurt in her voice. She hesitantly looked at Naz and they both stared at each other. We fell into silence. Naz held Malia's wrist, clenching her jaw. I could tell that Naz noticed the hurt on Sara's face.

"You look nice." Sara smiled. Naz simply nodded before walking towards Johan and taking Ciara with her.

"I love your outfit." Malia said, awkwardly before walking towards Miss Elena and Xanxus.

Jace and I exchanged a look before looking back at Sara. She blinked away her tears, quickly wiping them away and sniffing. I was about to comfort her when Jace burst out laughing like an idiot. Glaring at him, I waited for him to finish wheezing.

"S-sorry. I can't-" he wheezed, cradling his stomach as Sara and I stared at him in silence. "I-I'll go." he laughed some more before his eyes watered and he stumbled away, still laughing.

"It's okay, Sara. I'm sure if you say sorry, things can go back to normal." I awkwardly looked back at her, putting my hand on her shoulder. Her wolf ears fuzzed as she looked up at me.

"All I did was defend you. Maybe it was harsh but I was just frustrated. You guys always choose Malia's side." she sighed, trying not to cry.

"Well maybe if you weren't mean to everybody when I left, you wouldn't be facing this problem." I said, mentally smacking my head after realising how harsh I sounded.

All of a sudden, I felt chills running up my spine and a force pushing upon me. I looked up to see Malia looking straight into my eyes with a poker face while Naz and Ciara were talking next to her. I slowly retracted my hand from Sara's shoulder, clearing my throat in discomfort.

When the group finally got together, we entered the amusement park and went towards the ticket station.

"Damn! This line is long! We're never getting inside." Jace complained. I stared at the long line of people queuing at the ticket station, snaking left and right, it went on for a 100 or so meters. He was right, we'd be here for hours.

"There should be a VIP line, we can try to get into that one," Gramps suggested.

"Yeah let's do that." I agreed and everyone nodded. We moved towards the alternate line, which was almost empty.

"Excuse me, you're not permitted to enter this line." A man wearing a dark suit held his hand out in front of me.

"What do you mean? We're willing to pay whatever amount is needed." I said politely. Mother was here and I didn't want to cause a fuss.

"Sorry, may I ask for your name please; just to double check because we weren't told that this many VIP's would be coming to the park today." The man stood in our way and flicked through his checklist.

"It's Zeref Amara." Malia spoke for me, stepping up to stand next to me. Everyone continued to chatter behind me and the loud talking from behind me made it hard for me to hear what the guy was saying.

"There's no one on the list with that name, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to join the other line." He finally stopped flicking and put the checklist under his arm.

"What's your manager's name?" I asked.

"I'm sorry but I can't disclose that information." He answered strictly. This guy was annoying.

"Tell him that the Bank of Vrimeon's owner is here." I smiled.

His eyes narrowed at my words, "Wait here, I'll tell him now." With that he started walking away.

"This is annoying." Jace said my thoughts out loud.

"If this works out, we can at least skip that other line." Mr Xanxus tilted his head in the direction of the snaking line.

A couple minutes went by and our light chatter was broken up.

"Mr Amara! It's an honour to meet you. I'm gravely sorry for making you and your family wait so much." A bald man in a lab coat bowed his head in front of us, then shook my hands violently. Sweat rolled down his forehead and he frantically wiped it off with his sleeve. He must've known who I really was then. Nice.

"Likewise."

"Please come in, you don't need a ticket, just show them this," the bald man spoke, as he handed me a black card with the alchemy company's logo, "Please have fun, try every ride; there's also a VIP line especially for you, so you can skip the queues."

"Thank you Mr…"

"Ohh, sorry, my name is Mr Hageshi." he replied politely, "One more thing, I'm really sorry to say this, but everyone who enters is not allowed to use mana, so you must wear these dampening bracelets."

His eyes gleamed a little before his subordinate came out from behind and handed us the bracelets. I exchanged looks with Gramps before we all put the bracelets on. It was uncomfortable for sure, it automatically tightened around my wrist and restricted some movement.

[Mana Use has been dampened by 30%]

It must have been because of my abnormal body, the dampener worked worse than it was supposed to.

"I really can't feel my mana." mother said, looking at her hands. I basically had two dampeners on my body right now. The eye patch and this bloody bracelet. Everyone stared at their hands except Malia who looked directly at me before diverting her gaze. She looked unbothered by the fact that her mana had been dampened and her poker face exceeded Gramps. Even he was flexing his fingers in shock.

"Okay, let's go!" Mr Hageshi exclaimed, before guiding our group past the security checkpoint and finally into the actual amusement park.

"Finally!!!" Jace shouted, stretching his arms out and yawning.

"Zeref, the adults will go our own way, you kids have fun and stay safe." Gramps said.

We nodded in understanding. Mother flashed me a wry smile before locking her arms with Miss Elena and the adults were off. "Don't get kidnapped kids!" Mr Xanxus teased before swinging his arms around Gramps.

"Okay, let's stop wasting time. Where are we going first?" Ciara asked.

"The punching machine!" Jace shouted as Naz flinched away, surprised by his yelling. She whacked his arm, rubbing her ear.

"I actually wanna try that." Johan raised his arm up like he was in class and Ciara followed his movements.

"Let's go." Naz and Malia led the way while locking arms.

**

"Ughh! I can't do this. What if I break my hand or something." Naz moaned.

"You can do it, it's just for fun and just imagine the bag is Sara's face." I grinned.

"Hey!" Sara punched my arm, before distancing herself again, when her gaze met Malia's.

Naz took a deep breath and got into a fighting position; she threw a straight punch at the bag and it knocked back. I was actually surprised by her strength and she was quite strong physically. Numbers started popping up from a screen powered by mana, 50… 120… 200...300.. The number kept rising until it reached a stand still at 486.

"486, not too shabby for a cave troll." Jace mocked, "My turn now, move out the way u fish."

"Shut up you-" Naz didn't know what to say and frustrated, she walked away from the punching machine and stood by Malia's side. They both sat at the chair, observing and booing. Jace rolled his eyes, rolling his shoulders back and shaking his arms.

Jace punched and missed about 3 times before his 4th one landed.

"Ahahahahaha! 312! Don't chat to me!" Naz bellowed, as she rolled around on the floor holding her stomach and laughing. Everyone giggled as Jace stared at the score dumbfounded.

"This is rigged!" he shouted, pointing at the machine and catching stares.

"Okay, okay move over. My turn." Ciara pushed him aside and rolled her arm around like she was going to unleash a catapult of a punch.

Johan went after Ciara, both their scores were 516 and 700 respectively.

Malia went second to last; sighing. As the machine yelled 'Go!' Malia half heartedly tapped it causing 'boooos' to come from Johan, Jace and Ciara. The machine rung "100" along with a "you suck."

Jace laughed at the machine's comment. "Come on! Try!" I cheered her on, earning me an eyeroll.

"Fine."

I watched as she took a deep breath, her arm moved at a fast speed. Was she always this fast?

Dingg! Dingg! Dingg! The contact with the bag made the numbers sky rocket. A text appeared: 'Congratulations! New high score: 1000! You're the boss!'

Everyone stared at her with open mouths. A crowd had built up around us for some reason after Malia's punch. Johan looked a bit disappointed as he held the previous record. A fit of claps arose and Malia smiled at me.

I smirked at her. How was she this strong without mana?

Now it was my turn. I just had to hold back enough to get a good score and not break the machine; super strength really didn't help in these situations. I knew how I would punch.

Let's try a jab.

I got into a boxing stance and relaxed my shoulders. I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I exhaled before throwing my jab at the punching bag. My hand cut through the air effortlessly and made contact with the bag.

Ding!Ding!Ding!

The sound of the machine made the atmosphere silent as everyone anticipated what the score would be. The number rose 100...300..500..700...

Score: ???

"What?!" Jace shouted as he approached the screen and tapped it a few times. I must have broken the machine. Sh*t.

"Zeref, try it again, your punch didn't register." Johan insisted.

"Look at that building! Let's go there!" I pointed at some random building which looked the most interesting and dragged Jace and Malia by the arms and rushed off.

"Wait! You need to punch it again." Johan said as the others followed behind us.

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