Insert intense guilt here.
Because of a Phantom incident, Haruto meets his old friend who still continues his dream to become a pro soccer player. This is when we learned that Haruto also wanted to become a pro soccer player but things that happened in the past caused him to abandon his dream.
After one disappointing story arc, we are now back in track with the plot of the series. But before talking about Haruto, let's first talk about some new details on why they make new Phantoms. As it turns out, the reason why they need more Phantoms is for the Wiseman to hold the Sabbat without the eclipse. To be more specific, he needs the mana from it. Based on this line, I guess they already hold the Sabbat during the eclipse. It also cause me to wonder, what is this Sabbat and how is it related to the Philosopher's Stone?
More about it, I just love that Sora is starting to ask Medusa if she cares about the Sabbat or she just blindly obeys Wiseman's orders with no question. It's something that feels like they should brought up after the Phoenix arc. I mean, it's about Phoenix not wanting to follow Wiseman's orders and him wanting to do what he wants to do, to destroy. Hopefully, they can expand this angle with Medusa, which might lead us to some interesting events in the future.
Now that I am done talking about the Phantoms in this episode since Bahamut can be easily sum up as "that strong Phantom that easily defeated four Wizard Dragons", it's time to talk about Haruto and more of his past after the death of his parents. What I find interesting is his dream to become a soccer player, which kinda explains why he prefers doing kicks and the use of the WizarSwordGun. He is a guy who is used to kicking the ball that it might lead up to his style of fighting.
Anyway, the reason why he stopped playing soccer is because of what happened prior to the events of the eclipse; he is the one responsible to his friend's injury. It really makes sense why he stopped playing soccer because he still feels the guilt of making his friend stop playing the sport he loves even just for a short amount of time. It also makes sense why Haruto's female friend, Naomi doesn't trust him protecting his friend. She doesn't want him to get involved with someone who made him lose his hope to become a pro soccer player.
This leads us to the main issue of this story arc, the issue of guilt and the issue of trust. Haruto is still guilty of what happened to his friend, that he doesn't know how to face him months after the incident. It also tackles the issue of regaining someone's trust after failing him once in life. These issues are the closest thing we have for the plot of "what if Haruto failed saving a Gate?" Granted, that plot is way more interesting compared to this one, but at least this story arc showed us another side of Haruto that we didn't see and that he once have a dream.
The fights in this episode are fine and still watchable. The only thing worth noting is that they still remembered Drago Timer's ability to create 3 Wizard Dragon clones... and gets beaten by the Phantom. Speaking of which, what happened to Wizard All Dragon? I mean, Haruto only used that form once. Seriously, after the Phoenix arc, it seems that Haruto forget about this form. Oh well, at least the Battride War video game still remembers that this form exists. Back to the fight, the four Wizards are easily defeated by Bahamut but what surprises me is the Gate kicking soccer balls to help Haruto even if his leg is still recovering. Guess that means that he still accepts Haruto as his friend even after what happened. Oh, and his arm is injured in the process.
At the end of the episode, we meet a mysterious man who carries a new magic stone and he wants Wajima to craft a ring for him. Based on his dialogue, it seems that he knows Wajima quite well and that he has rings crafted by him. Considering that there are only two wizards in the show, the White Wizard who recommended Haruto (Wizard) to visit Wajima's antique shop to craft some rings for him, it is quite obvious that this mysterious man is the White Wizard... or some other wizard we don't know.
