p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"AN: The plot of this story might seem a bit rushed and that's because it kinda is, this story is basically meant to be a character and background introduction for the *sequel* crossover I'm going to make between black clover rising of the shield hero (the main character of this being the shield hero)/span/p
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p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"I didn't always want to be a Magic Knight; my magic compared to others has always been a little off. while other magic users used magic based off the four elements, wood, light, darkness and others out of all of them mine came closest to the normal darkness magic however it was different, my magic for lack of a better word hungered. Years ago when I first started practicing my magic I went out to the woods so I could learn enough to impress the people of my village, I was blasting large rocks with dark magic and I thought everything was normal a few weeks of practicing on rocks I decided to try it on a tree wondering how much damage it would do to wood, I unleashed a small compared to when I get my grimiore later blast of darkness and immediately realized something was different instead of just hitting the tree and continuing in a straight line my magic also wrapped around the tree looking like a snake wrapping tightly around its prey and with that loss of focus it came rushing back to me entering my body and refilling my magic and surprisingly I felt less tired then I did before, as I look back to the tree I was completely shocked, The tree that I had attacked looked as if the life had been sucked out of it completely it looked like a dried husk of a tree more than anything and as I think that the wood around where my attack hit started to break apart before the tree itself just collapses from lack of support. That day I learned three important facts, one I must never use my magic on anyone until I learn safe ways to use it, two no one must ever learn the full extent of my magic, and three I must become a magic knight not because I want to be one, not because of some need to protect and serve my country, no my magic is hungry and it longs to be fed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"My Name is Shinju of the Hungering Darkness and you will learn true fear/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"I am the Grimiore Master of this tower said the bearded man in the red robe and hat. In just a moment you will receive your grimiore, now im sure some of you will go to the capital to take the magic knight exam and I wish you the best of luck far too few here have become magic knights and those who do never progressed very far, no one from our area has ever become a wizard king and while I don't expect anyone here to I do hope it happens. Now let's get this started said the man as books glowing flew off the shelves to their new owners, grimiore of different sizes and width. As I watch this display of magic I see a book fly towards me its magical aura black tinged with red in a way that screams DANGER to those who see it but none notice due to being so caught up getting their own grimiore. As I catch my grimiore I notice an unusual fact, my grimiore has five leaves instead of the usual three or the rare four that the wizard king had, thinking about it made it make sense within a fifth leaf a demon is said to reside which makes sense due to the abnormality of my dark magic and its hunger. As the Master of the tower is ending the ceremony with his final words I ignore it and walk out surprising them all but I cared not for almost anyone in the village and even those I did care about I was slowly caring less for after so long pushing them away. After spending my last night at home and gather a bit of supplies I take one of the magic brooms our village had not even bothering to care the village only had a few for communal use. Over the next few weeks on my way to the capital I trained whenever I took a break from flying when I wasn't flying or training I ate or slept, had I actually had any reason for anyone to target me I would be worried of them tracking me due to the trail of death wild life and dead plants that was all along my path even the grass due to an area of effect spell I practice with constantly due to how useful it is, and within a few weeks I make it to the capital the evening before the exams after buying a cooked snake from a short old lady I saw I eat it while heading to a nearby inn to sleep for the night. I wake up the next morning stretching out as I got out of the inn bed and head downstairs and out the door heading to the exam site. I notice people handing their grimiore over to a man behind a counter so I get in line to do the same once he gets to me. Once it's finally my turn he puts his hand on my grimiore causing a small glow telling me my number is 237 and I head inside to wait with the others. After another two hours of waiting the exam is finally about to start and I notice all the birds flying near people and recognize them as birds who hang around those with weak magic. I notice most people only have around one to four birds around them though some have more I then start to chuckle because I see a hilarious site a small white/silver haired boy who is being swarmed by the birds while a person relatively nearby him has absolutely none though I notice soon afterwards I have none either. As the first task is beginning I see a captain stand up and use a spell creating brooms for each participant, some struggle with the broom, some do okay riding it but you can see they aren't exactly the best at it either, you also happen to notice the taller kid who didn't attract any birds is riding it like a pro standing up on it. Well I can't let some dumb ass kid show me up as I say mounting the broom like he did preforming aerial maneuvers that push the broom to its limits without exceeding them. I stop after a little while of showing off and look around at the other participants and realize I can't see the white haired midget anywhere in the air, as I keep looking around thinking I must have missed him I happen to see him out of the corner of my eye… still on the ground trying desperately to get the broom to float. That kid actually wants to be a magic knight? I question quietly to myself a short while later and they start off the second part of the exam, we had to build something out of our magic. As I watched people create thing from small to medium to some decently sized object I decided to begin myself, envisioning what I wish to make I touched my hand to the ground willing my magic to take shape slowly raising my hand alongside me construction as it grew and grew and grew, until it was the size of a large tree complete with leaves and dried out husks of darkness shaped like apples, it was a tree of darkness and death and it was magnificent. I notice the captains taking notice of several people most notably be and the one with the four leaf clover grimiore, and yet again the white haired kid couldn't manage the exam task. The final exam would test my control we needed to fight another person and I specifically needed to make sure I didn't kill or damage them beyond repair. As people started finding partners to fight with a brown haired boy walked up, from how he presented himself it was obvious to anyone that he was a noble and he was strong for a normal person but still nowhere near as strong as me or the four leaf kid. After the current fight was over which I was surprised to see was between the white haired brat and some random dude I can't believe the midget actually managed to win his fight. Well anyway I take the field with my partner, as the fight began I hear him shout out Laser Guillotine and an arc of light comes racing towards me carving the ground up along the way, I look at it and immediately think how pathetic it is and without even using a spell from my grimiore send a blast of my hungering darkness towards the approaching blade of light completely consuming the light before allowing it to race back towards me giving me back my magic plus extra. He looked at me shocked to see I blocked his attack I just look at him blankly "My turn" I say looking at him without emotion and call out the name of my attack Hungering Liquid Darkness sending out a large stream of liquid darkness towards him, panicked he sends another light Guillotine towards my attacked thinking he will stop it… it doesn't and consumes his attack continuing on before covering him completely in the liquid, you can hear his pained screams that quickly quiet down as the darkness races back towards you while he is their unconscious on the floor and look like he had been aged a bit and had his physical strength stolen from him. As the medics quietly work on him I tell them he will be fine but light based healing magic's more than any other will speed up his recovery. As the fights came to an end the captains finally started announcing who they would select to be in their squad, I hear number 236 after a little bit of waiting I here no hands meaning they didn't get a squad. As they say number 237 I step forward watching the captains emotionlessly, one by one I see each and every one of them raise their hands the people behind me freaking out because they have never seen each captain raise their hand for the same person before. Looking at all the captains trying to decide which squad I wish to join, I make my decision I choose to join….. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"I didn't always want to be a Magic Knight; my magic compared to others has always been a little off. while other magic users used magic based off the four elements, wood, light, darkness and others out of all of them mine came closest to the normal darkness magic however it was different, my magic for lack of a better word hungered. Years ago when I first started practicing my magic I went out to the woods so I could learn enough to impress the people of my village, I was blasting large rocks with dark magic and I thought everything was normal a few weeks of practicing on rocks I decided to try it on a tree wondering how much damage it would do to wood, I unleashed a small compared to when I get my grimiore later blast of darkness and immediately realized something was different instead of just hitting the tree and continuing in a straight line my magic also wrapped around the tree looking like a snake wrapping tightly around its prey and with that loss of focus it came rushing back to me entering my body and refilling my magic and surprisingly I felt less tired then I did before, as I look back to the tree I was completely shocked, The tree that I had attacked looked as if the life had been sucked out of it completely it looked like a dried husk of a tree more than anything and as I think that the wood around where my attack hit started to break apart before the tree itself just collapses from lack of support. That day I learned three important facts, one I must never use my magic on anyone until I learn safe ways to use it, two no one must ever learn the full extent of my magic, and three I must become a magic knight not because I want to be one, not because of some need to protect and serve my country, no my magic is hungry and it longs to be fed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"My Name is Shinju of the Hungering Darkness and you will learn true fear/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"I am the Grimiore Master of this tower said the bearded man in the red robe and hat. In just a moment you will receive your grimiore, now im sure some of you will go to the capital to take the magic knight exam and I wish you the best of luck far too few here have become magic knights and those who do never progressed very far, no one from our area has ever become a wizard king and while I don't expect anyone here to I do hope it happens. Now let's get this started said the man as books glowing flew off the shelves to their new owners, grimiore of different sizes and width. As I watch this display of magic I see a book fly towards me its magical aura black tinged with red in a way that screams DANGER to those who see it but none notice due to being so caught up getting their own grimiore. As I catch my grimiore I notice an unusual fact, my grimiore has five leaves instead of the usual three or the rare four that the wizard king had, thinking about it made it make sense within a fifth leaf a demon is said to reside which makes sense due to the abnormality of my dark magic and its hunger. As the Master of the tower is ending the ceremony with his final words I ignore it and walk out surprising them all but I cared not for almost anyone in the village and even those I did care about I was slowly caring less for after so long pushing them away. After spending my last night at home and gather a bit of supplies I take one of the magic brooms our village had not even bothering to care the village only had a few for communal use. Over the next few weeks on my way to the capital I trained whenever I took a break from flying when I wasn't flying or training I ate or slept, had I actually had any reason for anyone to target me I would be worried of them tracking me due to the trail of death wild life and dead plants that was all along my path even the grass due to an area of effect spell I practice with constantly due to how useful it is, and within a few weeks I make it to the capital the evening before the exams after buying a cooked snake from a short old lady I saw I eat it while heading to a nearby inn to sleep for the night. I wake up the next morning stretching out as I got out of the inn bed and head downstairs and out the door heading to the exam site. I notice people handing their grimiore over to a man behind a counter so I get in line to do the same once he gets to me. Once it's finally my turn he puts his hand on my grimiore causing a small glow telling me my number is 237 and I head inside to wait with the others. After another two hours of waiting the exam is finally about to start and I notice all the birds flying near people and recognize them as birds who hang around those with weak magic. I notice most people only have around one to four birds around them though some have more I then start to chuckle because I see a hilarious site a small white/silver haired boy who is being swarmed by the birds while a person relatively nearby him has absolutely none though I notice soon afterwards I have none either. As the first task is beginning I see a captain stand up and use a spell creating brooms for each participant, some struggle with the broom, some do okay riding it but you can see they aren't exactly the best at it either, you also happen to notice the taller kid who didn't attract any birds is riding it like a pro standing up on it. Well I can't let some dumb ass kid show me up as I say mounting the broom like he did preforming aerial maneuvers that push the broom to its limits without exceeding them. I stop after a little while of showing off and look around at the other participants and realize I can't see the white haired midget anywhere in the air, as I keep looking around thinking I must have missed him I happen to see him out of the corner of my eye… still on the ground trying desperately to get the broom to float. That kid actually wants to be a magic knight? I question quietly to myself a short while later and they start off the second part of the exam, we had to build something out of our magic. As I watched people create thing from small to medium to some decently sized object I decided to begin myself, envisioning what I wish to make I touched my hand to the ground willing my magic to take shape slowly raising my hand alongside me construction as it grew and grew and grew, until it was the size of a large tree complete with leaves and dried out husks of darkness shaped like apples, it was a tree of darkness and death and it was magnificent. I notice the captains taking notice of several people most notably be and the one with the four leaf clover grimiore, and yet again the white haired kid couldn't manage the exam task. The final exam would test my control we needed to fight another person and I specifically needed to make sure I didn't kill or damage them beyond repair. As people started finding partners to fight with a brown haired boy walked up, from how he presented himself it was obvious to anyone that he was a noble and he was strong for a normal person but still nowhere near as strong as me or the four leaf kid. After the current fight was over which I was surprised to see was between the white haired brat and some random dude I can't believe the midget actually managed to win his fight. Well anyway I take the field with my partner, as the fight began I hear him shout out Laser Guillotine and an arc of light comes racing towards me carving the ground up along the way, I look at it and immediately think how pathetic it is and without even using a spell from my grimiore send a blast of my hungering darkness towards the approaching blade of light completely consuming the light before allowing it to race back towards me giving me back my magic plus extra. He looked at me shocked to see I blocked his attack I just look at him blankly "My turn" I say looking at him without emotion and call out the name of my attack Hungering Liquid Darkness sending out a large stream of liquid darkness towards him, panicked he sends another light Guillotine towards my attacked thinking he will stop it… it doesn't and consumes his attack continuing on before covering him completely in the liquid, you can hear his pained screams that quickly quiet down as the darkness races back towards you while he is their unconscious on the floor and look like he had been aged a bit and had his physical strength stolen from him. As the medics quietly work on him I tell them he will be fine but light based healing magic's more than any other will speed up his recovery. As the fights came to an end the captains finally started announcing who they would select to be in their squad, I hear number 236 after a little bit of waiting I here no hands meaning they didn't get a squad. As they say number 237 I step forward watching the captains emotionlessly, one by one I see each and every one of them raise their hands the people behind me freaking out because they have never seen each captain raise their hand for the same person before. Looking at all the captains trying to decide which squad I wish to join, I make my decision I choose to join….. /span/p