Chapter 22: My flowers bloom and dance in the wind

King Midas looked down at Athena and her ringing cellphone, and suddenly felt offended.

"Do you actually believe," he hissed, "that I am going to allow you the time to pick up your call?"

"No, but you may try," replied Athena as she put her cellphone to her ear.

King Midas pointed his right index finger at Athena, and before anyone knew about it, a light beam shot out of his finger, heading straight at Athena. Isumi calmly threw out one of her spells, which created a barrier in front of Athena and the others. King Midas' light beam hit on the barrier, and resulted in a huge explosion. Athena and her allies remained unharmed, although the loud explosion meant that nobody could hear what Athena was talking on the phone.

"Thank you, Saginomiya-san," said Athena as she put down her phone. It appeared that she had finished her call as the explosion quieted down. She then turned to King Midas. "Indeed I wouldn't have the time to pick up the call if I am facing you alone," she said, "but we can achieve much more if we have powerful allies."

King Midas snorted. "You only have five friends with you," he said, "and you call them powerful allies?"

"They are more powerful than an entire army," said Athena, beaming. "And speaking of army… we do have one."

"What…" King Midas began, but he was interrupted by a series of noise of explosion as his troops were destroyed on both sides. He looked further and saw that tanks were emerging from the streets and the woods. In the heat of the battle, the army had finally arrived.

"Damn it, I have been paying too much attention to Athena and the butler boy, that I haven't seen these pieces of metals coming!" King Midas swore to himself, but it was too late. The army had come too close to him that, even though he had the power to wipe them all out, he would certainly have to take some hits.

Then there came a noise of "knock knock" from behind. King Midas turned and saw Hakuou Academy, so the noise must have come from the school's public announcement system. If anything , the "knock knock" sounded like someone testing the microphone.

"This is a message to King Midas from Harukaze Chiharu, Acting Student Council President of Hakuou Academy," Chiharu's cold voice came out of the PA system. "You are completely surrounded by the Japanese Army, which have authorised Hakuou Academy to command this operation against you. There is no way to escape or to survive the attack of the entire Army. Surrender now and we can cease war, or else the tanks will open fire until nothing is left of you!"

"Hey, she is doing a pretty good job, that Chiharu," said Hinagiku, grinning.

"She was handpicked by you as Vice Student Council President," said Hayate, also grinning. "Of course, serving on the Student Council is great training as well."

King Midas was also grinning, but he wasn't as relaxed as Hayate or Hinagiku. "Don't be kidding me, little girl," he hissed. "Do you actually think that I, the great King Midas, would be scared of your feeble tanks? If I feel like, I can actually stomp your weapons like a child's toys!"

There was a short pause from Hakuou Academy's end. "So I take that as a refusal to surrender," Chiharu said finally. "All tanks, prepare for attack."

The tanks all turned and pointed their cannons at King Midas. "FIRE!" Chiharu shouted, and all tanks began firing at King Midas. They all saw that the body of King Midas was pushed forward or backward as he was hit, yet they didn't hear a sound of pain from him. Smoke soon covered the entire giant, and the tanks finally stopped as he became invisible to their eyes.

"Have we got him?" said one of the soldiers in the tanks, as his head emerged from his tank to have a better look at King Midas. As the smoke cleared, however, he was shocked to see that King Midas was still standing, although several parts of his body were scratched. The firepower of the tanks was not completely useless, but it was clearly not useful enough.

"Well, this hurts more than I have expected," said King Midas softly, "but you would not kill me quick enough with that firepower before I turn you all – " he pointed at one tank, and another beam of light came out of his finger, hitting the tank – "into this," he finished his sentence. The tank he had pointed at gradually turned into gold. The soldiers in the tank managed to escape in time.

Hinagiku was shocked. "W – wait a second. I have heard about the 'touch of Midas', but not the 'beam of Midas'!" she exclaimed.

"It looks like that the legends are outdated," said Hayate, who didn't find what he had just said funny.

"This is very bad for the Army," said Hinagiku. "Now that King Midas does not have to touch the tanks in order to turn them into gold, the advantage of firing at him from distance is now gone!"

"I can turn any tank you have into gold from where I am now," said King Midas, echoing Hinagiku, although he did not acknowledge her observation. "So what do you think is likely to happen first: your tanks destroying me, or me turning them all into gold?"

Chiharu did not respond. In fact, she did not know how to respond, as she never expected that King Midas was really so powerful.

Athena had been watching in silence as things went from bad to worse. Finally she grabbed her cellphone again to call Chiharu.

"Listen up," she said on the phone, "tell the tanks to pull back for now to avoid too much casualties. We will weaken him so that he cannot turn anything into gold any more, and then you will blow him up."

"How are you going to do this?" asked Chiharu, who wasn't sure if the Chairperson had become crazy. Indeed, why would the attacks of 4 or 5 people (and a serpent) be more powerful than an entire army of tanks?

"Just trust me on this," Athena smiled as she hanged up the phone.

King Midas stared at her. "Just so you know, I heard every word you have just said. Whatever you are going to do, you will never be able to surprise me!"

"It doesn't matter," said Athena. "I will give commands to my friends here loudly, and you wouldn't be able to stop them even if you know exactly what they are going to do. You won't be surprised, but you will be defeated."

King Midas grinned. "Is that so?" he asked.

"How about you try?" said Athena calmly as she turned to her allies.

"Machina, hit him in the stomach," said Athena very casually. One would never expect an order to attack be delivered like asking for the table salt be passed.

Machina the giant serpent dashed forward, knocking all the monsters in front of him away, and headbutted King Midas in the stomach again. King Midas saw him coming, but he was still too slow to defend himself. Unwittingly, he fell for an attack which worked on him twice.

"The two Saginomiyas, please hinder his movements."

Both Ginka and Isumi pulled out their spells, and sent them towards King Midas. The spells sparkled along the way, and created a huge flow of electricity as they reached King Midas. The giant screamed loudly in pain, but he couldn't move a muscle to remove the spells. The combined power of the Saginomiyas was apparently too much for him.

"Hayate, attack his heart. That is one of his weak spots."

Hayate grabbed Wooden Masamune tightly. "Just like the wind: HAYATE NO GOTOKU!" he shouted, and dashed towards King Midas along with a gust of wind. He stabbed Wooden Masamune with all his might into the heart of King Midas, who was knocked back as he coughed out dark blood. Obviously Hayate's attack had severely wounded King Midas.

"Finish him please, Hinagiku-san!" shouted Hayate, who was still hanging on King Midas, before Athena gave her instructions to Hinagiku.

"His head, Hinagiku! That's his second weak spot!" shouted Athena, following Hayate's order.

Hinagiku swung Shirosakura around as she rode on the gust of wind Hayate had just created. As she came close to Hayate, she saw the butler holding his left hand out for her. She blushed, but she held her left hand out to him as well. As their hands touched each other, Hayate pulled Hinagiku up, who began flying towards King Midas' head with the power of Shirosakura. The legendary sword glowed as she prepared for her final attack.

"Ultimate: SHIROSAKURA… " she cut across the face of the giant for four times at lightning speed, and – "CRESCENT!" she swung the sword across King Midas' neck. As King Midas screamed in pain, his head fell off from his body, and bursted into pink flower petals. As the petals were sent everywhere, it certain looked like -

"My flowers bloom…" began Hinagiku.

"… and dance in the wind," finished Hayate.