Chapter 37: Rescue

The Captain of the Black Bulls had brought Asta into one of the broken-down buildings that had slightly been refurbished by the Clover Kingdom citizens and Magic Knights. The sparring battle between Asta and Yami was over, although it did result in a defeat for the young squad member.

"God you're annoying…" Yami said towards the boy who he slowly let down onto a makeshift bed. The boy didn't even move much since he had fainted after unlocking a new power with his Anti-Magic.

The bed Yami rested him in was a simple frame made with some wood they found from the Underworld's trees that had been growing all around. The mattress was made with a Knight's Fabric Magic as well as the blankets. The room the bed was in was quite small and congested, and it only the capacity to fit around four people in.

The Black Bulls Captain walked outside the room and lit his cigarette. He leaned against one of the walls that had been erected and stared at the boy who was inside. "This kid really is something. I'm glad I gave him the chance… he's really proven everyone who's doubted him wrong" the Dark Magic user commented, wearing a slight, but content, smile.

Suddenly, some noise started to come from Asta's grimoire. When Yami looked to see what was happening, the grimoire started to flicker and out popped Liebe.

"Yo" Yami greeted the devil with his right hand raised.

"Hey" Liebe returned the greeting.

"So, what do you think about your host's development? Pretty neat, I'd say" Yami chuckled, looking down at Liebe.

"Yeah, it's alrightalthough there's something still missing" Liebe commented, prompting a confused look from the Captain.

Yami started to walk away from the room and Liebe before turning around to answer back. "He's just unlocked a new power, give him some time" and then he went elsewhere.

"Time, huh…?" Liebe repeated what Yami said with a sad expression.

A few hours had passed and many of the Clover citizens as well as the Magic Knights, who had been sparring, had returned for a rest. They all joined together for a small meal and then headed off to their makeshift homes.

Liebe was leaning against one of the trees and was having a rest. His eyes closed and he was thinking about something. The devil's expression went from a smile to a frown very quickly as a slight tear fell from his left eye. He then woke up immediately after the fact.

"Why am I dreaming of her…" Liebe wiped the tear away. He then walked towards where Asta was and saw that he was awake too, sitting upright on the bed. "Maybe I should tell him…" Liebe thought before realising that the boy was looking at him.

Asta quickly stood up from the bed and walked towards the Anti-Magic Devil. In his usual way, he started shouting "Liebe! That power was so cool, who knew you were that amazing?!" Asta shook the devil's hands up and down in excitement.

Surprisingly, for Liebe, Asta was complimenting him instead of himself for the power that was used against Captain Yami.

"Woah bratthat was your power, you drew it out of me" Liebe responded back, still taken back after seeing Asta compliment him.

"Haha… whatever, whatever… we've been together for ages, so it doesn't matter. It's both of our power!" he laughed, scratching the back of his neck in the process.

"We have been togeth-" Liebe started to repay the compliment but stopped himself as he felt his voice shake.

"Liebe are you okay? you seem sad" the ashen-haired boy tilted his head sideways and was concerned for the devil.

Without hesitation, Liebe completely disregarded what happened and just complimented Asta on learning how to use the power. After a few seconds, just as Asta started to head back to bed, Liebe sensed a strong wave of power coming from nearby and immediately turned his head towards the direction.

"Brat! Come with me" Liebe ordered and Asta responded straight away by donning his squad robe and running outside.

"What is it?" Asta rushed as he was also worried about why Liebe sounded so desperate.

"I senseanother devil" he responded in an angered manner, prompting an uneasy look from his host.

The word 'devil' was something that carried mixed feeling for Asta. On the one hand, it's who Liebe was and Asta was fine with that. Although, on the other hand, it also reminded him of Megicula and Vanica, the ones who had turned his life upside down. Even with these feelings, Asta responded and asked if he needed to do anything to help.

"Hmm, let's go towards the source…" Liebe retuned to the Five-Leaf grimoire and instructed Asta on where to go.

"W-wait! Shouldn't we ask for some backup?" the Black Bull wondered, considering they were going to potentially face off against an enemy.

"We can do thiswith OUR new power" Liebe spoke in a way that almost made him sound happy.


The two quickly rushed towards the source of where Liebe had sensed the devil. It wasn't too long before Asta ran into the problem. The area he was in was a secluded part of the Underworld that would be very hard to find for anyone to find without a guide like Liebe.

It was a place that was surrounded in multiple lavafalls and lava lakes were all over the ground. The walls were the same as where the Clover citizens and Magic Knights had their base, although, these walls had multiple dents and craters indented in them, as if a battle had ensued. However, that wasn't even the main thing Asta noticed. He had also found more people.

"Woah, are you guys alright?!" Asta ran towards the three and saw that they had multiple injuries and blood loss was at a high. Upon closer inspection he realised who they were.

"G-G-Gordon!" Asta rushed to his knees and turned the Poison mage around.

The man had a broken nose with bruises all over his face. His fingers were broken with three of them completely torn off. His grimoire was starting to fade slowly, crumbling piece by piece.

"Gordon… Gordon… GORDON!" Asta screamed. His agonising screams covered the whole area.

Slowly, the Poison mage opened his eyes as he let out a smile and a slight whimper. "Asta… my best friend…" he fainted once more.

The ashen-haired mage slowly and carefully picked his teammate up and rested him against a wall to the right of him. Asta also put his hand to Gordon's chest and was relieved to feel his heart beating. It was slow, but beating, nonetheless. Asta looked through his wounds and saw the most prominent one. It was in the stomach, but the enemy's magic was still surging through it. The Black Bull let out a bit of Anti-Magic and lined it within the wound, causing the magic to dispel.

"His g-grimoire… it's reforming itself…" Asta closed his eyes in relief.

He then turned around and inspected the other mages. They weren't as beaten up, but still were unconscious.

"V-Vice-Captain Langris… and… your-!" Asta was surprised to see that familiar hair colour.

The hair colour he's come to adore. That silver hair he loved. It didn't belong to Noelle, but instead belonged to her older sister.

"Hm, you're… Nobra? No… Nibra? That's not it… Nebra!" he clicked his fingers. The mage was surprised to see another royal in the Underworld, but he couldn't sit still and think about possibilities. He had to get the three out of the situation they were in.

Just as he rested the other two on the same wall Gordon was leaning against, he felt an eerie and ominous presence behind him. The magicless mage turned around quickly and saw a sight that shocked him.

It was the devil that Liebe mentioned. The devil stood tall with copious amounts of blood smeared all across its lips. Its tail was wagging as if it was very happy and the cold, but burning red eyes were beaming brightly.

"So, you're the devil that did this to my comrades!" Asta screamed, bringing his Demon-Slayer and Demon-Dweller swords out of the grimoire.

The devil tilted its head. "Comrades? If they were that close to youwhere were you to help save them…?" the devil laughed loudly in hysteria.

Asta, as soon as the devil started laughing, transformed into his Black Form. It had slightly altered now due to him unlocking a new power. His fangs had grown in size with another one sprouting from the left side of his mouth. Another change was that he now had a tail. Before, the tail only appeared once Asta was letting out an excessive amount of power or had lost control, but now, it was controlled.

"Oh? So, you have a devil's powersTell me, which rat decided to bond with a human?" the devil mocked and crossed its arms together as if it was unimpressed.

"He's not a rat! He's my friend… Liebe!" Asta shouted. He was met with a shocked look from the devil he was facing against.

As if on cue, Liebe appeared from the grimoire once again. He looked towards the devil and his eyes opened wide upon realisation of who it was.

"Metav…" Liebe said in an angered manner.

"You…" Metav answered back.

Asta shook his head from Liebe to Metav, and then again. "Wait… you two k-know each other?" Asta was shocked at this revelation.

"Unfortunately he's a right piece of shit. I've had the pleasure of being victim to his magic... He has Alteration Magicso be ready. He can change the properties of the environment, as well as affect others" Liebe replied.

"Liebe? That's a nice name… wonder who gave it to you. Anyway, you two interrupted my dinner!" Metav charge forward aiming to strike at Asta.

Liebe quickly retuned back to the grimoire and Asta was ready for battle as he found himself in a defensive stance.

The two clashed back and forth. As Metav attacked, Asta defended with the Demon-Slayer sword and the Demon-Dweller sword. This kept on happening for a few seconds before Asta had enough of this interaction.

"I've had just about enough of this! You hurt my fellow Magic Knights… I will destroy you!" Asta charged towards Metav.

Asta, however, realised that the last part of his declaration isn't what he actually wanted to say. "I will destroy you? That's not what I wanted to say at all… was that Liebe's mentality clashing with mine…?" Asta wondered in his head, whilst he fought.

Unknown to both sides, Nebra and Langris had started to wake up from having fainted. They opened their eyes very slowly and through the blurry vision, they notices that the devil who attacked them was facing off against one of the Black Bulls.

"Black Meteorite!" Asta gained more speed as he slashed through Metav's body. Unfortunately for Asta though, the opposing enemy use it's magic to alter what had happened to him, by reforming its body and closing the wound. The devil turned the negative into a positive.

"You can't do anything against my Alteration Magic! HAHA!" Metav laughed. "Alteration Magic: Curtain Fall!" the devil raised its hand and swiped them downwards. As he did so, spikes from the ceiling started to form and fall towards Asta's way, on the ground.

"Black Hurricane!" Asta span in circles, forming waves of Anti-Magic that encased his boy and protected him from the falling attack. Once the onslaught of ceiling spikes had ended, the boy flew towards the Alteration devil.

"Hm, you're strong so I'll give you thatAlteration Magic: Mana Freeze!" Metav started laughing and jumping up and down from the joy he experienced. "With this… your mana will be frozen in place and you can't use magic anymore!"

Asta smirked slightly as he heard what Metav said. As if it was an act, Asta flew down to the floor, acting if he was stumbling and retracted his Black Form to make it seem like Metav's attack had worked.

"Hmph" the devil approached nonchalantly towards Asta and stood right next to him, staring at him face-to-face. "Waitsomething isn't right…!" As Metav realised what the problem was, it was too late.

"Back Divider!" Asta elongated his Demon-Slayer sword and forcefully stabbed the devil through its body and it screamed in a very high-pitched voice.

Metav struggled and wriggled free from the Demon-Slayer sword. As he did, he managed to chant a spell as he fell backwards "AAlteration M-Magic: Remov-al!".

Metav fell backwards but his spell managed to forcefully remove Asta's Demon-Slayer sword and the Demon-Dweller sword, and it was flung backwards far away from him.

"Soyou have no mana. But I've managed to get rid of your only weaponsprepare for death!" Metav charged forwards again, putting all of his strength into one last attack.

Asta charged forward too, he was coming to clash with Metav who had already readied an attack spell.

"What is this idiot doing? Guess he wants to go out in a bout of gloryAlteration Ma-" as Metav started chanting, he was interrupted by the ashen-haired mage.

"Demon-Dweller!" Asta shouted the name of one of his Anti-Magic swords that had been removed from him because of Metav's magic. However, much to the enemy's displeasure, the Anti-Magic sword flew right back towards Asta and placed itself in his left hand.

"I-impossible…!" Metav cried out. He knew he was going to lose this battle as his life flashed before his eyes.

"Black Slash!" After transforming into Black Asta, the mage infused his Anti-Magic energy within the sword and fired it off towards Metav, crushing and slicing his body into multiple, clean-cut pieces. Asta flew down and landed on the floor and behind him, pieces of Metav's body fell and scattered everywhere.

"We stood no chance… and a peasant defeated him just… like… that" both Langris and Nebra commented weakly, before fainting once more.

Asta reverted back to his unaltered form, but he was confused on one thing. "I need to talk to Liebe about what's going on…" he thought. Quickly though, he ran towards the three mages that he had found beaten and picked them up, one-by-one.

"It's not home… but you'll be safe" Asta spoke softly as he slowly walked away, back towards the rest of the group.

As he was about to turn a corner, he stopped for a brief second and turned his head back where he had just fought. "This feeling… why am I getting this familiar feeling constantly…".

NOTES:

Well, there's definitely something Asta and Liebe need to talk about with each other… but what could it be? :-

So… Asta vs Metav. How do you think the fight went? Was it good to follow? It was quite short but it's because Metav wasn't anyone too major.

Also, Metav means 'Alteration' in Greek so that's cool.

Gordon! He's alive.