Chapter 45: Asta & Liebe

Disclaimer: Day 5 of the 'five-day' week. Lol, it was a weird week and I had a little break in the middle due to personal reasons, but I finished the update off with a bang, I'd say!

Also… NOTE: Again, for manga readers, NACHT will not be in this fanfic. Like I said a few chapters ago, I had planned this before the manga even revealed the Vice-Captain, so I didn't implement him in my plans for this either. Hope you understand!

The sound of three pairs of footsteps could be heard running in one direction. They were rushing towards a single destination; one they could not ignore. It was as if they connected to something within their minds and they immediately responded by making their way towards it.

"Just what was that jolt of electricity we all felt?" Nebra, the Silva royal, asked as she made her way in the direction of which the source was coming from.

"It was a familiar feeling, but we'll have to see. It's almost inviting us to come towards it". Langris responded, using his Spatial Magic to avoid any obstacles that would have slowed them down otherwise.

"I think it's Luck calling to us. I think my friend needs backup so maybe he came up against an enemy too!" Gordon rushed forward, past the other two. "Luck, my friend… you learned a spell that isn't only offence-based! A spell like that shows how much you've grown from being solely battle-focused to now an all-rounder!" He smiled.

They followed suit.

"You're nothing like her!" Liebe screamed. Asta and Liebe had gotten into an altercation and it ended up with the ashen-haired mage's devil attacking him. "When I defeat you, you will compromise and agree with my ideals to wipe out the devils!" He charged at the mage with full speed.

"Nothing like who? I don't understand you half of the time! Why can't we just talk about things?" Asta responded back, dodging the claws and wings of the Anti-Magic Devil who had abandoned all rationale.

"I know I'm right! What they did to me… and to… to your… mother! I'll never forgive them! Anti-Magic: Claw Slash!" Liebe moved forwards and stuck his two arms out. Crackles of black Anti-Magic energy were bouncing off its tips and he contacted Asta with them.

However, they had no effect on him. Due to the fact Asta has no mana, Anti-Magic is useless on him as there's nothing to negate. If Liebe used the move on anyone else, they would be severely hurt.

"Tsk" is all Liebe could say before he flew backwards.

Asta however, was completely entranced by what Liebe had mentioned in the midst of the battle. He walked forwards towards the devil and looked at him, eyes watering and tears falling. "What do you mean, my 'mother'?" The Black Bull spoke softly but with conviction.

Liebe realised what he had said. In the heat of the moment he had blurted out the one secret he had left to himself. The devil was planning on telling his host the truth about his mother and what happened all those years ago, but he could never manage to.

"Liebe. Why do you know about my mother?"

"Stop it… stop!" Liebe propelled himself backwards with his wings and did something that was very surprising. "Since the swords are coated in Anti-Magic, I can control them. Demon-Slayer!" Liebe copied Asta's new technique and the large broadsword came out of the grimoire and towards Liebe who held it in his hands. "So, this is what it feels like!"

"Liebe stop it… please. I just want to talk things through. Drop the sword!" Asta rushed forward to grab the handle of the large sword but Liebe grabbed it and hit him away with it.

"You may not have mana, but I can still hit you with these swords". Liebe flew forwards and tried to attack the ashen-haired mage.

Asta still could not understand what had Liebe all riled up like this. He knew there were still a few things that he was keeping from him, and now he found out it was something about his mother. "Perhaps I should've let you continue with your story a few weeks ago…", Asta thought back to his conversation with Liebe and how he revealed what happened to him in the Underworld.

"Take this!" Liebe swung his arm back to gather momentum on the strike, but his arm couldn't take the weight of the sword and he stumbled to the floor. "Wh-what? This sword isn't even heavy, yet I can't control it?"

Asta ran towards Liebe and gave him a punch in the chest. The devil was sent backwards and crashed into a wall. The wall was invisible, due to the shadowy domain that they were in, but there was something blocking them in.

"Hey… you just crashed into an invisible wall which means we're in some type of confinement. We can break out of this with our Anti-Magic! Liebe… please help me with this!" He reached for Liebe's hand to grab, but it was slapped away.

"No way, not until you agree what I was saying was right… and besides, how come I can't control this sword?" He asked, still annoyed, and confused about his lack of control.

"I was like that too. I couldn't control that sword at all back when I first got it, but Old Man Zell helped me with sword control and swordplay. You never got that help which is why we need to join forces! You're part of the reason why we're such a great team… without you, I'd still be that magicless nobody who couldn't even get a grimoire. I-I need you!" Asta pleaded with the white-haired devil.

"I need you… to live, my son…" a warm voice echoed in Liebe's mind.

"Huh?" Liebe thought, shocked at the resemblance Asta had to someone else who was very important to him. The devil raised his eyes and looked at Asta again who had put his hand forward, reaching out to him. In Liebe's eyes, Asta was looking exactly like his mother. They both had that same big smile on their faces and Liebe couldn't shake that uncanny similarity.

Liebe put his left arm forward to Asta's hand, but then another image flashed in his mind. This time, instead of a happy memory like before, it was completely the opposite. It was of the same woman, who Liebe said was Asta's mother. She was reaching out to him, but there was something sinister about it.

There was a hole in her chest.

"I need you… to live, my son…" the feminine voice repeated.

Liebe smacked Asta's hand away again. "You may be her son! But you… you…" Liebe screamed again and summoned the Demon-Dweller sword from the five-leaf grimoire. "Black Slash!" The devil infused his Anti-Magic within the sword and tried to fire it at his host. Though it was still a problem to control for Liebe, he did manage to release the attack towards Asta.

"Damnit, he was almost there! I need to think of something to do or say which will stop him from this rampage…". Asta easily jumped over the Black Slash that was sent his way. Due to having no mana, the Anti-Magic attack had nowhere to home into, so it ended up hitting the confinement barrier again, shattering it slightly but it just reformed again.

The two looked at the confinement barrier and realised that escaping was a real possibility for them. Unfortunately, for them both, they were arguing with each other.

"Brat… your mother was killed by one of those… high-ranked devils! You still want to say you don't want to wipe them out?!" Liebe roared.

Asta took a deep breath. "Liebe, of course I want to get rid of those devils. They inflicted so much pain on you and me, both. I don't know the whole situation about my mother, and, to be honest, I'm not going to rush you into telling me! Why don't you think from my point of view? Megicula KILLED Sister Lily! The devil almost killed Noelle! Don't you think I want revenge?!" Asta was panting from how he was screaming, and tears even fell from his eyes.

"Liebe… if I submit to only thinking about revenge… I'll lose myself in the process. Back in the Overworld, in the throne room, that whole incident was because I lost control. If I hadn't, then maybe we wouldn't be in this place… so, because of me, that one noble died, and many people have been stripped from their families. I've learned to live with that guilt! I want to help you, I do. Though I will not lose my humanity, not again!"

Liebe was about to respond, gritting his teeth, but Asta continued.

"I will help you kill those high-ranked devils. From my point of view, they can't be allowed to roam free. You and I will join forces for a common goal, but that goal will be to escape the Underworld first and then we'll find those devils".

Liebe was slowly having his rage die down, he realised Asta was in the right but there was still something holding him back from fully accepting the terms of the contract. Asta continued with one last thing.

"My mother… she was clearly someone important to you and she took care of you right? Once you were in the Overworld? Well, if that is what she did then I guess… you and I are more than human and host…

"We're brothers!" Asta smiled with his wide mouth.

"I wish you could've met him, my son… you and he would've been… brothers" She smiled.

Asta looked down at Liebe once more and saw that the devil was crying. Tears fell from his eyes and landed on the pitch-black floor. He was crying a lot. "B-brothers? But I'm a devil and you're a h-human!"

"Like that matters. I'm friends with someone who was a bird for 500 years for crying out loud" Asta retorted back, winking in the process.

A little laugh came out of Liebe's mouth for the first time ever. It was a genuine one too. "I guess… you are like her after all". The Anti-Magic Devil looked into Asta's eyes and saw that there was no hint of a farce and he smiled back. "Well, take my hand then…".

"It took you long enough!" Asta replied.

The two reached for each other. Asta's right hand and Liebe's right hand eventually met for a firm handshake. Suddenly, a bright red flash sparked up from their two bodies and illuminated the shadowy domain that they were in.

"What's happening?" Asta looked around.

"I guess the contract has been made…" Liebe replied.

The walls around them started to crumble and disintegrate and it was because of the Anti-Magic that was being emitted from them. Looking at both Asta and Liebe, there was a white light surrounding both of their chests, more specifically, where their hearts would be. Their hearts and souls were burning of the same bright light and then, a change happened.

Asta's eyes burned a bright, crimson red.

"Hm? What seems to be the matter with that devil-possessed brat?" Maindis turned to face the ashen-haired mage who had stopped in his tracks. His Black Form retracted, and his eyes started to brighten up once more. The fight with Luck was over and he turned to face the Lightning mage.

"You took your sweet time, Asta!" Luck called out to him and then flew over with his Holy Lightning Boots, kicking him in the legs in the process.

"Hey! I was dealing with some stuff, Luck… but I guess I'm sorry for the holdup!" Asta replied, getting back to his feet after the friendly assault from the Cheery Berserker.

Maindis was shocked as he was floating, suspended. He couldn't move elsewhere due to the severe surprise he felt that not one, but two, people broke out of his Psychosis Magic. "Hey, hey, hey, hey! This is impossible!" A droplet of sweat formed and fell from his head. Then another one, and another one. It was inconceivable to him that his magic was broken past. "No, no this is just a fluke! Ha, that's what it is… I'll just do it again, that's right! Psychosis Magic: Dream Abyss!"

The Psychosis devil sent a wave of harmful mana towards Asta and Luck once more. The devil expected them to fall into a deep sleep and go back to fighting against each other once more. However, that was not the case.

"Lightning Magic: Electric Brain Wave!" Luck concentrated a mass of his lightning in the core of his brain and then expanded it outwards. The wave of Psychosis was made redundant and the rays diminished into nothingness. "Haha! That was pretty fun! My second non-offensive attack and it was quite cool!"

Asta turned to him, surprised by the change in Luck's tactics, but happy, nonetheless. "I guess it's our turn to show off what we can do, right Liebe?"

"You got it, brat!" Liebe replied from inside the grimoire.

The Psychosis Magic that was aimed for Asta was useless too. The ashen-haired mage simply looked towards Maindis and exerted his own Anti-Magic from his head. The Black Bull seemed to have acquired full control of the devil's power as he concentrated the Anti-Mana from his head to get rid of the enemy's mana rays.

"Demon-Dweller!" Asta summoned the large broadsword, but instead of placing it outwards and concentrating his Ki that way, he stuck the end of it in the ground and held the handle of the sword tightly. Asta then closed his eyes and concentrated to circulate his Ki throughout his own body.

While this happened, a few Magic Knights had arrived. Gordon, Langris and Nebra were on the scene and Mimosa and Sekke also came for backup. Other recovery mages like Nero had stayed behind just in case another attack had ensued.

"It's Asta, and Luck!" Mimosa pointed out. She rushed towards them but then saw the situation that they were in. The two captain's were still under Maindis's spell but were slowly starting to wake up due to the Psychosis wearing off. She also saw Luck hanging back, whilst Asta was in front.

"My best friend! Is he going to defeat that enemy?" Gordon spoke.

"Asta… I know he's capable, but let's see if he can beat my amazing abilities, fuhha!" Sekke laughed.

"Concentrate… concentrate… let the Anti-Magic flood my body. More… that's it…!" Asta opened his eyes and the same bright, crimson red eyes formed. An orb of Anti-Magic formed around Asta and it flooded upwards, like a geyser.

"Wait… this is bad for us, right?" Langris stepped in, worried what the range on the Anti-Magic was. He thought it would hit them, but that wasn't the case.

Although the Anti-Magic was spreading across, it eventually retracted unto itself and began to dissipate.

"Let's go, Liebe… Devil Union: Attack Mode!"

The Anti-Sphere broke apart and there was a completely different Asta in the middle. He was surrounded in a dark-red aura. The sounds of black sparks were rippling throughout the air like electricity and the sparks were travelling up and down the Anti-mage, surrounding him like a coat of armour. Due to this form being offence-based, his red and black armour was coated with black spikes, the tips of which produced Anti-Magic themselves. Looking closely, both of Asta's eyes were crimson-red and the there were two black lines going through his cheeks. Asta now also had a fully formed tail with a large ball of Anti-Magic constantly being emitted from its tip. The Black Bull had both of his arms surrounded in a ring of Anti-Magic. It was similar to Yuno's Spirit Dive form with what he had on his right arm. Lastly, his two jet-black wings had extended further outwards and were dripping in Anti-Magic. If one got too close to him, they would be vaporised, hence the 'Attack Mode'.

With a determined voice, he spoke. He opened his mouth and you could see his teeth had all turned into sharp, white fangs. "You ready to do this?"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go" Liebe responded.

Unknown to them, even one simple attack would be enough to destroy Maindis. Due to the price he paid for acquiring such a magic like Psychosis, he had his body wither away in the process. Though, the heroes did not know this and Asta prepared for the worst with the attack he used.

"Black Destruction!" Asta rushed forward but it didn't look like that at all. It looked like he had teleported in front of the Psychosis devil with the speed he was using. Even though this Devil Union form was offensive-heavy, he still powered up in almost every other aspect.

"A-Asta!" Mimosa said in awe of his abilities.

"The Anti-Magic the brat's giving off. I was sure it would hit us, but it looks like he's in 100% control of his abilities". Langris commented.

"He is my sister's friend… now I know we were wrong in how we treated them". Nebra spoke.

"Fuhha!" Sekke smiled.

In the midst of the battle, the two captains woke up. The Psychosis Magic that was held onto them had disappeared and they had recovered.

"Man, that was a pain". Yami spoke casually. He then looked towards the youngest Black Bull and saw what was happening. "HAHAHA! Looks like you surpassed your limits again! Go on and beat him… Vice-Captain!

Fuegoleon spoke from behind, still trying to gather his thoughts. "Don't you think revealing the Vice-Captaincy role like that is a bit absurd?"

"Haha, I guess so. We're the Black Bulls though. We are known for being absurd!" Yami laughed. Seemingly, he had no recollection of what happened during his Psychosis-induced coma and the same was said for Fuegoleon.

"V-Vice-Captain?!" Asta shouted with stars in his eyes.

"Not the time…" Liebe replied.

"Right… sorry! Well, before you go, why don't you tell us the reason for you being here?" Asta spoke to Maindis, Demon-Dweller sword fully charged up with the Black Destruction attack.

"Lord Beezlebub is not happy with you two in particular… and of course, that Bone Magic guy is even worse". Maindis replied. He figured he was going to die anyway so he might as well reveal information.

"Beezlebub? Who's that? And Bone Magic? What are you talking about?!" Asta shouted.

Liebe was silent, however. The mention of the name 'Beezlebub' made him think about something.

"You should be proud! You have a high-ranked devil wanting to come after you! I'm not sure what you did but it's tied to Megicula's fate and of course, Vanica was the Bone Magic guy's older sister… hee…hee… heehee!" Maindis cackled. Ironically, he boasted about becoming mature with the development of his Psychosis Magic, but now since it was made useless, he reverted back to his natural devil personality.

"There are more… of the same people, like Vanica?" Asta gulped in shock.

"Oh definitely. Don't worry though, there's more of us coming right now! Have fun fighting all of us devils off for the coming days and weeks!" Maindis screamed, cackling in hysterics.

"… Black Destruction!" Asta jabbed the Demon-Dweller sword into the floating face of Maindis and let out a powerful surge of black Anti-Magic. It left the Demon-Dweller sword and exploded from within Maindis's face, causing it to violently break apart and its innards flying out, melting away from the leftover Anti-Magic.

After a few minutes and people settling down. Asta walked up to the rest of the group who had gathered.

"Guess there was no need for me to use my Electromagnetic Link move, haha!" Luck laughed. "Asta, here defeated that freak quite easily".

"We can't rest guys… that devil said more of them are planning to come down here. We need to train and train and train. We must leave this place as soon as possible! I already got the information from Luck that other devil attacks had happened… Good work, everyone!" Asta smiled.

"Well, of course!" Nebra flicked her hair backwards, similar to how Noelle would do so.

"You're definitely Noelle's sister!" Asta laughed. "Vice-Captain Langris… I was wrong about you. You're someone who's worth forgiving". He smiled.

"Hmph. I just want to leave this place. If I have to deal with you people, then so be it". Langris replied in a snarky manner, though he was actually slightly smiling.

In the midst of this, Yami and Fuegoleon walked up.

"Looks like you're even speaking like a true Vice-Captain! I knew you had it in ya…" Yami smiled. "So, new Vice-Captain… what shall we do, since you and that devil of yours know a whole lot more than us".

"Hmm. First of all, Nero, Captain Yami and I will try to fast forward out power to be able to break the seal in the portal connecting the two worlds".

"Second, we need a patrol unit of strong mages. They'll be set around the perimeter of our little area and they'll warn us about enemies".

"Lastly… guys, we will make it out of here!" Asta cheered.

The others followed suit.

NOTES:

Quite a long chapter! Thought I'd treat you guys since I've been absent and it's the last update for a bit!

Asta has learned to use Devil Union which is the coming together of a human and a devil soul for a common goal. Asta and Liebe are now one with the same goals in mind which allowed for this transformation.

A bit more backstory with Liebe and Asta's mother. More will come in the future!

I wanted this to be an Asta and Liebe-focused chapter. I know Luck was also there, but I really wanted to show off Asta.

Another onslaught of devils are coming, will our heroes win? Well, you'll find out soon enough, but next chapter will see a detour… to the Overworld!