Chapter 36: Bright Lights & Survivors

"… Actually, I want to pair up with Nero!" Mimosa started to pet the bird who flew over and landed on the royal Vermillion's hair.

"That's fine with me" Nero spoke in her bird form.

Instead of pairing up with Asta, she opted for Nero to be her sparring partner for training. Nero, who could've transformed into her human form to walk, instead opted to remain in her bird form while perched on top of Mimosa's hair.

The two girls started walking elsewhere for their sparring session.

"Urm… Nero, why are you still in that form?" Mimosa asked nervously. Although Mimosa was a cheerful girl, she had hardly ever spoken to Nero before, and as she was also in a non-human form, the royal found it extra nerve-wracking.

"I feel like it" she replied with little to no emotion in her voice at all.

Sweat fell from Mimosa's head as she was feeling the intense awkwardness of the conversation. However, her train of thought was cut short by Nero speaking again.

"Although… your head does feel comfortable" the Sealing Magic user said in a more, happy manner.

"Haha, thanks… I guess?" Mimosa smiled.

The two didn't speak for the remainder of the walk. When they reached their destination for training, the two separated and stood on opposite sides of the area and readied their grimoires.

Nero spoke up "Mimosa… why did you want to pair up with me? I thought you would choose Asta" the girl said, hands on her grimoire and had started to flick through it.

"I'm no match for Asta as I am right now… if you think about it, him and Yuno are already Vice-Captain level and I'm still far behind. I also wanted to test my strength against someone who's been involved in Forbidden Magic!" Mimosa stretched out her hand and gave Nero the thumbs up and winked.

"Well you're certainly happier than you were before, and fine… I guess that's a good reason. Lets get star-" the former assistant to the first Wizard King started to move but was interrupted by the royal she was opposite.

"- it's also because… I want to be your friend!" Mimosa blurted out suddenly which surprised Nero. Mimosa was clearly blushing from the embarrassment she felt saying something like that to her, the girl she had hardly spoken to, but she did anyway.

"… Okay, but I mean… we were friends anyway" the girl smiled back cheekily but started to attack afterwards. "It's because we're friends, that I can't hold back" the girl brought out her glowing grimoire and used a spell. "Sealing Magic: Eternal Prison!".

A box started to form all around the Golden Dawn member, enclosing her within its walls and therefore restricting much movement for her. The glowing blue box had Mimosa trapped.

"Woah, this is a really strong spell! I guess there's no reason for me to hold back either… Plant Magic: Evergreen Draining Roots!". The royal summoned many plant roots that dug themselves under the ground and also stuck themselves to the walls of the Eternal Prison spell.

Nero started to stumble as she realised what was happening. "Ah… my magic is being drained… but how?" the girl asked.

Mimosa, encased by the fading Eternal Prison spell, explained. "This spell drains the magic power of your spells, but it also drains the mana of the person who was casting the attack… so unfortunately, that was you!" the red head smirked.

Nero had to undo her spell, for fear of losing too much of her mana and being unable to fight anymore. "I guess this was another reason you didn't pick Asta… this spell would be useless on someone with no mana whatsoever…" the bird-woman panted, slowly standing upright.

"Oh, I guess you're right! Haha, I didn't even think of that" the royal laughed in her usual, cute way.

Nero finally regained her composure after Mimosa's draining spell. "This girl is really carefree sometimes…".

The two continued to battle it out for a long time. Mimosa and Nero were both trying to use their spells in a variety of different ways in order to power them up.

Mimosa was still focused on being more of a use with her magic. Although this time, she wasn't hard on herself, but was motivating herself more. The talk she had with Asta really improved her mental state and calmed her down and now all she was thinking about was to power herself up instead of regretting what she hadn't done.

"I'm one of the bright lights of the Kingdom…". The royal thought back on what the ashen-haired Black Bull said to her. "Well if I am, then I have to continually prove it!" she smiled. "Mana Zone…" Mimosa started to use the surrounding mana around her to power herself up more and Nero became startled. The Golden Dawn member had her grimoire glowing and the pages were flickering. "Woah… a new spell?".

"Tsk… Mana Zone is a pain" the Sealing Magic user complained as she started to run up to the royal. "I can't let her get this move away or I'm done for!".

"… Plant Magic: Sunshine Brigade!" the royal summoned a ton of sunflowers to sprout from under the ground and they all fired a beam of hot sunlight towards the incoming Black Bull member. "This spell is crazy… and powerful!" the royal cheered.

Nero had to stop in her tracks. Running towards the attack wasn't smart, but all she had to defend herself was her Eternal Prison spell. "Hmm… I'll have to wait till the beams are near and then close them off. "… There! Sealing Magic: Eternal Prison!".

A huge box formed all around the Mana Zone attack, but the spell wasn't draining the attack at all. Mimosa's attack spell was bouncing all around the box, making slight dents and cracks to wherever it bounced off from.

"What is this… my Eternal Prison is useless right now!" As Nero said these words, the trapped attack began to break out from the box and headed once more towards the girl.

Mimosa was surprised with what was happening too. She just thought it was a linear attack, but it also seemed to be homing in on Nero too. "This new attack is something alright!"

The attack was inches away from Nero. The Black Bull decided to jump and transform into her bird form but as she did so, the attack fired into the ground she just launched herself from, and the blast that ensued caused the bird-form Nero to be flung away and hit the wall just behind.

Mimosa was scared she had hurt Nero too much and was about to run towards her and heal her, but Nero told her to stop.

"I'm f-fine… let's continue…" Nero spoke up with a staggered voice. It was clear the powerful attack did a number on her, but she wanted to continue. "I need to improve my magic too… I couldn't do anything back at the gate".

The two continued to battle it out for the remainder of the day.


Elsewhere in the Underworld, there was a group of three who had also been transported, though, they weren't with the others. Injured and broken... All hope seemed lost for them…

"Now why the hell did I have to get stuck with you two?" one of them spoke, in an angered voice and was clearly unimpressed with the company they were with.

"You're not the only one who's annoyed. Just who the hell would want to be with you? The other one is alright though…" another spoke up angrily but was only directed towards one of them.

"Please can we calm down. I would like to be friends with you…" the last member spoke quietly and the other two gave them the cold shoulder.

"How did we even get transported here in the first place? There was the attack on the Capital and then a few hours later, we found ourselves here".

"It was some weird Spatial Magic… wait, don't you use the same magic? Get us out of here, now!"

"My Spatial Magic is only for offence. I can't transport you"

"How useless…"

"Says the one with terrible Mist Magic, what can you even do with something like that? Hmph… even this guy here has more useful magic and he's part of THAT squad".

The three who were stranded together were all Magic Knights. They were all from different squads. They all used different types of magic.

It was Langris Vaude from the Golden Dawn, Nebra Silva from the Silver Eagles, and Gordon Agrippa from the Black Bulls. They were stuck in the Underworld with no way to get out. They didn't even know if any others had met the same fate as them.

"Look Langris, I don't know about you but royalty like myself should never be in a place like this!" Nebra scoffed which annoyed the Spatial Magic user.

"Royalty that had to be saved from an elf by the little sister they neglected for years? That royalty? Do not make me laugh" Langris tried to contain his laughter, although it was entirely sarcastic.

Gordon let out a little giggle. "That's my best friend Noelle. She sure did show them!" he thought whilst smiling.

Nebra then walked up to Langris "you're speaking? Weren't you possessed by an elf? And you're talking to me like that… hmph. I heard your useless brother beat you in the throne room back then" the Silva smirked.

It was clear this group was completely toxic with each other. Ironically, Gordon, who used Poison Magic, was the only one not being toxic and apart from him there was no sense of chemistry between any of them, and that would be bad for all of them.

Whilst the two were arguing and Gordon just standing there not knowing what to do, an eerie presence was starting to creep up to them and then attacked. The walls around the three mages started to crumble and fall apart from the impact of the attack that had started.

"What the hell!" Langris shouted as he and the others dodged the attack.

In front of them was a black silhouette. It had two horns and two beaming, red eyes staring towards them. The mouth was aligned with sharp, white fangs too. The being had a tall body with red lines and cracks covering the surface of its body. A tail was also attached to the attacker.

"Wh-wh-what are you?! Tell me this instant!" the royal shouted to which the being responded calmly.

"You ask me to say what I am as if I'm something foreign… you're the ones that aren't supposed to be here… I should be asking what you are, but since you asked so nicely… I'm a devil, and I live here…". The devil, with a deep and ominous voice that sent shivers through the mages spines, revealed itself to be a resident of the Underworld.

Gordon started sweating from nervousness. "A d-d-devil? Is this thing linked to what we fought back at the Capital?" the Poison Magic user said quietly.

The Vice-Captain of the Golden Dawn spoke up next "we're humans from the Clover Kingdom… we were transported here" the man spoke calmly, but unknown to the devil, the noble had begun to slowly take his grimoire out, ready for battle.

"Human?" the devil titled his head towards the side as if he was confused. "Why are humans in this world?".

Without a moment's notice, Langris started to attack the devil. He swiped his arm forward and used his Spatial Magic to try and wipe the devil out of existence. The powerful magic was sure to kill the devil in front of them.

However… the devil, without breaking a sweat, simply disappeared and reappeared coming face-to-face with Langris.

"You shouldn't have done that…" the crazy being said angrily. "I guess it's my turn…" the devil pulled his right fist back and punched the Vice-Captain point blank, right in the stomach causing him to let out a scream of pain and forcing him to fly back into the wall. Langris' body left a huge imprint behind him and he was struggling to get back up.

Nebra went to take her grimoire out of her pouch, but before she could even do so, the devil teleported towards her and kicked her into the ground. She broke her nose and her body was struggling to keep up.

"Poison Magic: Violett Schirm!" the Black Bull had time to summon a jet of purple poison that was aimed for the devil. Surprisingly, to the other two, the attack actually managed to hit and it started to wear away the devil's arm. However…

"You shouldn't have done that…" the devil quickly teleported in front of Gordon and headbutted him, causing him to stumble back. He then hit Gordon in the face and the force of the punch propelled the man back into a wall too.

Just like that, the three mages were being beaten by an unfamiliar foe. The enemy started to laugh when Langris, Nebra, and Gordon all slowly rose up again.

Together they shouted, "we're not losing to you!" as they all attacked once more.

NOTES:

I wanted to focus on both Mimosa, as well as the other three mages but I didn't want them to be separated into two different chapters, so I just did half for each.

Mimosa training and taking Asta's words as motivation is always wholesome.

I've realised how hard it is to write Nero into a fan fic considering her magic isn't really attack focused. So having her in a battle was weird to say the least.

So here are Langris, Nebra, and Gordon. Unfortunately for them, they were the only three who got separated from the rest of the group… so what will happen?