Asta and Cain pushed of each other, Cain rushed at Asta again but Asta threw both knives at Cain aiming at his head forcing Cain to raise his sword to block, the force behind the knives was astounding it managed to throw Cain off balance.

Asta with another pair of knives in his hands rushed Cain as he was stumbling. He went down low to aim for the joints and the knees but surprisingly to everyone, fire started to come out of Cains boots lifting him off the ground getting him away from Asta and across the cavern near the Axeman. Cain looked down at his unconscious subordinate then noticed the chunk of wall that fell from the wall when the Axeman hit the wall. Colt swore he could hear Cain hum to himself, his focus then shifted to his captain when he heard him start speaking.

"You know, now that I think about it this situation is very familiar to me. Big cave, big bad guy, Black Bull captain fighting big bad guy while protecting his newest rookies. It's making me very nostalgic." Asta brought up his grimoire. "I guess I should make this full on reminiscent. Not to mention the fact I really should use this thing since Yami made me pay for it." Asta turned and faced Colt. "I saved his life, you think he'd at least be okay with me having his sword but noooooooooo. Not only did I have to pay full price for the damn thing, but he also got me to pay for a new one." Colt had no idea what he was talking about until a different sword came out of grimoire. It was a bizarre single edged curved blade all rusted like the rest of Astas weapons. "Demon Decapitator." Asta grabbed the hilt of the sword and pulled it the rest of the way out of the grimoire. "Hey Liebe, you ready bro?" Colt looked around to see who Asta was talking to. "I think this guy should really see what we're made of." Colt watched as Astas arm turned pitch black along with the sword. "You ready for some real fun Cain." Asta then flapped his black wings and went straight for Cain.

Cain brought up his sword and blocked the attack but Asta pressed his attack. The pairs duelled with their blades with flurries of attacks. They both moved unbelievably fast, Colt noticed fire coming from Cains armour as he moved. From what he seen Colt assumed that he was using it to boost his movements and keep up with Asta.

The cavern was filled with the sound of the ringing blades. Colt and Sara just stood there unable to move or take their eyes off the fight. It was like nothing they had ever seen before, and it was making them painfully aware just how much distance there was between them and Captain Asta. In a blink and miss it moment Asta managed to slash Cains hand forcing him to drop the sword. Cain jumped back clenching his hand. Asta stepped forward and picked up the dropped sword. "Meh, balance is a little off, hilts a bit too long, it's not too bad. Liebe what do you think."

Asta looked at his shoulder and to Colt and Sara surprise a tiny black creature popped out of Astas grimoire and perched himself on his shoulder. "Captain!" Asta turned to face Colt leaving Cain to run to the wall that Colt had thrown the Hammer-Man through. "What is that?"

Asta looked to the little creature then back at Colt. "Oh, this is my brother Liebe. Long story I'll explain later right now I'd like the appraise this sword. So, what do you think?"

The creature Liebe started scurrying around the sword looking it up and down. "Well it's definitely unique. Magically made but it becomes magicless when completed that's how he's able to duel us, this is interesting though it looks like it was designed to channel magic. See?" Liebe pointed to a small slot on the hilt of the sword. "Magic goes in and does whatever, don't have any weapons that can do this, might be worth collecting."

"Alright bro, do your thing."

"Okay but first you should do something about that." Liebe pointed to the other side of the room and Asta saw Cain rummaging through the crevice in the wall.

"Hey!" Asta flipped through his grimoire and pulled out what Colt thought looked like a small cannon with a handle, it looked very similar to parts of Lionel's puppets. Asta pulled a piece of it back with his thumb. "Bang."

Asta pulled back the trigger letting loose a barrage of what looked like pieces of metal, Cain avoided the bullets using his fire boots blasting him out of the crevice and around the room, Colt couldn't tell but it looked like there was something in his hand that he put on his back which kept Colt from seeing it. "You are wasting ammo captain. You're not the only one that knows how to make a gun."

"Yeah but I'm the only one that uses them with devil powers, these aren't regular bullets used by the likes of you, Lionel, or old man Byz. This stuff is pure anti-magic, took me months to get this trick right. A few more for two guns at once." Asta pulled a second gun from the grimoire and aimed both at Cain. "Black Bullet Storm."

Asta unleashed a hailstorm of bullets at Cain who was trying his best to avoid the bullets but could only manage to avoid mortal blows. Every spot of Cains armour that Asta shot was torn away by the bullets and begun to reveal Cains actual body. "Better change it up bucket head before I rip end up ripping the bucket to shreds."

"Good advice Captain, I was thinking the exact same thing. You wanted to know what we were here for. Let me show you." Asta saw Cain reach around his back and pull out what he was looking for inside the crevice. It was a single-handed flail, but the design was of it could only be described as regal. It looked like a royal decorative piece than an actual weapon, it had gold lining through the head and the handle and the metal shined like platinum, Asta knew both mineral were terrible for a weapon, they were heavy and soft metals, making them unsuitable for weapons. Then Cain started swinging the flail, Colt saw a build of magic energy from the chain to the head.

"Uh oh." Asta begun to move to evade the charging attack. Cain then swung the flail in Astas direction letting loose a massive wave of magic crashing through the room forcing Colt and Sara to move, dragging Lionel and Desmond with them they managed to leap attempting to evade the debris.

Rubble and dust filled the cavern, Colt and Sara was clinging to each other while trying to keep an unconscious Lionel and Desmond safe, they were surrounded by rocks and debris but absolutely no rocks were on them. Colt looked up and found out why. Asta was there using his shield to cover the rookies from the falling stones. Colt was astounded by his captain's strength, the amount of rubble on the shield must have weighed a ton and he wasn't even shaking. "C'mon kid, if you're going to be the Wizard King you can't let a couple of rocks scare you."

"Captain. What the hell was that."

Asta turned his head towards his rookie. "Let me go ask." Asta pushed the stones off and walked up the rubble. "Fancy weapon you got there. Doesn't look like any flail I've ever seen, and I got three. Those precious metals might make fancy royal ornaments but not weapons and they definitely can't channel magic like that, though I'll take a guess that seeing we're in the smack dab of a strong magic region and you and your cronies have been popping up in all sorts of locations that that flail is what you weirdoes are looking for."

Cain looked directly at Asta gripping the flail then raised it in the. "This flail is the Guiding Star, one of the four great weapons destined for the Perfect Cast. These weapons were made by the Gods of magic that predate even the Elves, who were the architects of the dungeons and whose battles created the Strong Magic Region."

"Can't say I ever heard of them."

"Because you were never meant to. This is my purpose and that of the Perfect Cast and their servant's."

"Can I ask what you guys intend to do when you find all four?"

"You can, doesn't mean I'll answer."

"Okay whatever."

Asta dropped the shield and pulled out the guns and started firing again, Cain started swinging the flail in front of him blocking all the bullets. Asta started to run around the cavern trying to get a better angle with Cain still blocking. "Liebe a little help here bro?"

"No problem."

Darkness started to envelop Asta and took over his arms and recreated his wings and horns. Asta then launched at Cain while drawing a giant blade that Finral told Colt was called the Demon Slayer Sword and swung at Cain. The pair began to duel with their respective weapons.

Colt and Sara were busy getting Lionel and Desmond out of the rubble, Colt struggled to take his eyes of his captain, not a single movement was wasted. They started moving around the cavern so fluidly it was as if they were floating off the ground. Cains flail was glowing and Astas sword was pitch black and it looked like it was expanding but every time the weapons clashed, massive sparks flew out of the weapons.

The two flung themselves away from each other to opposite side of the cavern. Cain let out another surge of magic from the flail. "Anti-magic: Demon Slayer Sword: Black Divider" a pitch-black blade edge came out and expanded from the sword and Asta chopped through the magic and sliced right at Cain.

Cain barley managed to evade the attack, but it did cut through the remains of his armour causing the remains of it to fall off revealing the real Cain. The result was Astas jaw dropping and Colt and Sara dropping Lionel and Desmond.

Cain was easily the skinniest guy that Asta had ever seen, Captain Yami could use him like a toothpick, wearing some thick goggles and in Colts opinion a very bad haircut as though as whoever did it closed his eyes and just snipped the scissors. But the most notable feature were the multiple straight scars on his face.

"Satisfied?" Cain said with a snarl. "Not many people get to see the real me." Asta, Colt and Sara just stared at him, despite the frailty of his actual form, there was something far more terrifying than an giant armoured knight, there was a sense of savagery coming from him. "As much I'd like to kill you right now, I tend to get little crazy outside of my armour and I can't afford to lose The Guiding Star." Cain reached around his back and pulled out a small tube with a button on top. "Next time you and I face off, it isn't going to stop until I feel your blood drenches my skin as I hold your lifeless body." Cain pressed the button and was enveloped by a sphere of pure light which when receded everything that was enveloped was nowhere to be seen.

Asta pulled all of his weapons back into his grimoire. "Am I the only one that thought that guy was more terrifying outside than he was inside?"

"No." Colt and Sara said in unison.

"Okay cool."

"Captain, shouldn't we be worried that we let a leader of these attackers escape?" Asked Colt.

"What happened, happened rookie. We need to look at the consolation prizes." He looked over at the Hammer-Man and the other Servants. "Along with any others that were captured by the other captains. It was hard enough getting a one of these guys alive but now we have a whole group of them. And also, we know what we're after, this is more of a victory than you think kid."

"Really?"

Asta walked over the pair with a calm smile on his face. "In this business guys you're going to have to learn to see what makes a victory. This isn't a desired outcome but it's one that works for now but can eventually work in our favour." Asta picked up Lionel and Desmond and put them over his shoulder. "You guys got the map to this place?" The pair nodded. "Okay guys. Colt wrap those bad guys up in those strings of yours and let's get out of here."

Sara held the map and led the way out being followed by Asta and Colt.

0

After a long slog through the caves Colt and the others emerged from the caves and found the rest of the magic knights alive but roughed up along with a whole group of servants all chained up in various forms of binding magic.

Colt put their captives on the pile and decided to take a seat on a rock next to Mads who looked like she could barely move. "Have fun?" He asked.

"like I was at a circus. You?"

"Like I was at party at the wizard kings place."

"Wouldn't that just be a bunch of snooty nobles just trying to get in good with royals?"

Colt turned to face her. "Oh, so you've been to a few?" Mads let out a chuckle followed by a pained groan from her aching body. "You okay."

"Nice hot bath and a good night's sleep and I'll be right as rain."

The pair leant back on the rock trying to relax, Colts attention went to his captain who was speaking with Captain Leopold. "When we get back, I need to talk with your brother, we need to do some research on anything that's connected to the dungeons. Should contact the elves and maybe even… Yami…" Asta's attention was taken from Leo to something that was in the corner of his eye.

A smiling Nebra wrapped in water. "Hello there. How is my niece doing?"

A knife slipped out from Astas sleeve, he started moving towards her angrily. "Asta, whoa," Leopold grabbed him trying to stop him. Sekke joined with little success.

The other magic knights stood to attention but didn't intervene thinking its captain business, Nebra just sat on the ground with a dark smile on her face. Eventually Noelle stood in front of Asta and put her hands on his cheek, she leaned in and whispered something in his ear which calmed him down and got him to move away from Nebra and sheeth his knife. Noelle turned to see her sister still with the evil smile on her face. "Care to share what you said? Might need those magic words in the future."

Noelle just stared at Nebra with an anger filled gaze. If there was one person that could fill Noelle with more rage than Vanica it was her own sister, every time she looked at her, she remembers that night.

0

She woke up in the room she shared with Asta to find Nebra sitting in her rocking chair with her baby in Nebras arms holding a knife in her hand over Anya. "Such a beautiful child." Nebra looked at Noelle, there was no sense of sanity in her eyes. "She has your eyes… My eyes." Noelle was frozen by fear, Nebra was going to kill Anya "Mother would be so happy" she looked down at Anya sleeping in her arms oblivious to the horrifying situation "The pride and joy of the Silva family… the failure and the tainted spawn… yet everyone loves you." She leant in closer to Anya. "You hear that sweetheart? Can't even holdup your own head but your already set for life. You will grow up with everyone loving you. Brother Nozel and Solid, the Vermillion family, all the Magic Knight Squads and a mother and father… do you want to know something." She put her mouth next to Anyas ear. "I don't know what that feels like anymore." Nebra raised the knife. Noelle lunged for her wand on her mantle screaming, waking Asta.

Nebra froze in place. The knife never touched Anya.

Noelle remained thankful to this day for Henry Legolant, he noticed someone who didn't belong in the building and alerted to rest of the squad. Finral had managed to make several portals out of eyes line of both Noelle and Nebra with Vanessa snaking her strings in the room wrapping around Nebra. When she tried to stab the baby, Vanessa tightened the strings immobilizing her.

Panicking Nebra tried to drop the knife on Anya, until a giant hand grabbed her knife hand and twisted it away from Anya, followed by a large arm wrapping around her neck. Asta then snapped her wrist forcing her to drop the knife as Nebra let out a blood curdling scream from the pain.

Noelle rushed to the pair and pried her fussing baby away from her deranged sister and held her tight to her chest as she began to cry. They held her until the Clover Kingdoms capital knights came to pick her up, they didn't hear until three days later that she managed to kill the knights in transit and escaped, no one could figure out how.

Noelle slept that night refusing to let go of Anya and Asta held on to the both of them, neither of them slept peacefully for months, it wasn't until they came up with the arrangement to hide Anya in Hage they could even begin to sleep soundly again.

0

She turned her back on Nebra and walked over to Finral. "Finral!" Finral turned at the call of his name, he noticed that Noelle had tears in her eyes as she walked up to him. "I need you to send me home."

All the surrounding knights turned and looked at her. Asta walked towards the pair putting a hand on her shoulder but she brushed him off, he wasn't what she needed right now. Finral put his hands up in defence. "Noelle, I don't think this is…"

"Did I stutter?" She glared right at him, she wasn't going to take no for an answer. Finral opened up the portal and she walked through.

A few minutes after the scene Sara walked over to Colt and Mads and took a seat next to them. "I heard of the bad blood between Captain Noelle and her sister, but I didn't think it'd make her got back to the hideout while in the middle of the mission."

Colt turned his head at Sara and then turned it back. "I don't think the hideout is the home she was talking about."

Sara turned to Colt. "What do you mean?"

0

Noelle walked through the portal and continued to walk towards her intended destination without missing a step, the church in Hage village. She rounded the building and found her little girl playing with some of the other children. Noelle then whistled a little tune that immediately caught the girl's attention. "MAMA!" Anya ran to Noelle as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Noelle crouched down a scooped the little girl up in her arms. She held her tight as though someone was going to take Anya from her. "Oh Noelle."

Noelle turned to find Sister Lily. "Hello Sister."

"Is everything ok? You don't usually come today."

Noelle just smiled. "Had a bit of a bad day." She looked then looked at Anya. "Just wanted spend some time with my baby."

"Not a baby, mama."

"You'll always be my baby."

0

Back at the caves the captains were still going over their stories while the senior knights either watched the prisoners or tended to the injured. Over where Mads, Colt and Sara were sitting the tension between Colt and Sara was palpable, and it was starting to annoy Mads.

Both Sara and Colt refused to look at each other, Colt found a little hobby of stitching his strings while Sara was fiddling with little pebbles she found at her feet then seeing how far she could flick it away. Colt started whistling a nonsensical tune, Sara started tapping her foot, the she started grinding her boot on the rocks, then Colt started plucking his strings. Both kept switching between various forms of fiddling and it was causing Mads blood pressure to rise dangerously.

Veins kept twitching in her head, it was clear to her that they wanted to say something to each other but neither had the guts to do it. It was around the time Colt let out a fake cough that Mads lost her mind. "Oh my God you two are ridiculous. Here's what's going to happen. I am going to either walk or crawl, depending on how my legs are doing, to Amanda over there because I can actually talk to her on some level. You two are going to air out what ever it is between you two or your going to find surplus of snake encounters in your life." With a massive groan she managed to make her way to her feet. "How about that, I'm walking." She started walking away. "ow, ow, ow, ow."

The pair kept fiddling each trying to break the tension, especially Colt because he knew Mads doesn't make empty threats. Colt took a breath about to break the silence. "It was my Father you idiot." Sara beat him to it.

Colt raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Sara looked at him dead in the eye. "You wanted to know what separated us two years ago? It was my father, he made stop seeing you, he wanted me to have absolutely no form of contact with you because he thought that any association with the Thieving Wizard would harm our reputation as the honourable Shimmerlin Nobel Family." Sara leant forward letting out a sigh of relief felt the weight off her chest.

Colt shook his head confused. "Since when the hell did you ever care what your dad thought. You started your rebellious when you were five."

Sara pursed her lips remembering what he was talking about. "In retrospect he might have been right about our dogs, the bottle of steak sauce and that annoying Cromley guy who was just so proud of his royal gown." She leant forward on her knees.

Colt leant back with his arms crossed. Both remembering that day. A smile cracked on both their face. "Nah that was awesome." Colt said with a chuckle.

"Yeah that was pretty great. To this very day I'm impressed that he could run that fast in those buckled shoes."

Colt looked back at her. "Though it doesn't change the fact that you would never listen to your father. Especially when it came to us. I still got scars from things he used to throw at me."

Sara looked at him, there was sadness in her eyes. "Colt, you remember my uncle, right?"

Colt closed his eyes and took a breath. "Oh. That's why."

"If we kept hanging my 'head of the royal guard' uncle would have done everything in his power to see you arrested, and you know he could do that."

Colt nodded, he's met her uncle. The brown-nose doesn't even begin to describe him. He made it to the top of the royal guard by schmoozing some of the upper members of the clover family. When it came to Colt it wouldn't take much to convince people that he did something to put him away for the rest of his life.

"It hurt so much to do what I did. There were so many times I just wanted to see you, Colt you were my best friend. I wasn't even supposed to take the entrance exam, my parents wanted me to continue that lame ass family business, which would have felt like grinding my skull against stone. So the opportunity to leave that life behind, fight people for a living." She looked right at Colt and smiled. "Meet interesting people, and best of all get away from my families annoying stylist Emma. Hate that woman, always trying to put me in those dresses." Colt snickered. "What?"

Colt looked at her laughing. "You in a dress."

Sara gaped at him, then shoved him while cracking a smile. "For your information I look good in those stupid dresses, jerk."

"I'm sure you do. But the only times I've ever seen you in a dress, you stepped on them and tore them up." Sara kept hitting him.

Eventually they heard the call to move out. Finral had opened a portal which would take them to the capital to take the servants to prison. The pair stood up feeling much happier than ever. Colt put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for what I said in the caves. I shouldn't have lashed out like that."

"I got to punch you in the face so we're good."

"No, we're not." Colt stopped. Sara took an extra step before stopping. "You remember that place, restaurant Corvins?"

Sara smiled. "Of course it was our home away from home. I haven't been there since I had to stop seeing you. I bet Corvin misses us."

"Tomorrow night, you and me. My treat."

She looked down at the ground before looking back at him. "I'd love that Colt."

"Sara! C'mon!"

The pair looked to the portal and saw Amanda waving at them. "Guess we better get moving." Said Sara as she ran to the portal and went through leaving Colt with Finral and Asta.

"What was that all about kid." Asked Asta.

"Oh just making some dinner plans with an old friend sir."

"Ah." Asta huffed with a nod. "So, you got a date?" Colt laughed at the idea, but then the more he thought about it the more his face changed to shock. "Smooth, kid." Asta said putting his hand on Colts back. "Real smooth." He pushed him through the portal with a laugh.

Hello the people who are still reading this story despite the 'brief' intermission, I apologise for that, 2020 was one hell of a year, started TAFE, COVID shit so I had to work on TAFE from home, my work computer hardrive went to hell so I had to do all my TAFE work on my laptop, the poor thing wasn't made for it, thank god for one drive. I hope you are all safe and well in these hard times. Thankyou for sticking around and as a thankyou the next few chapters will be some fluff pieces followed by something every anime/manga story truly needs. Read the next chapter to find out what. I hope you enjoyed the chapter I may be a little rusty.