A/N: Heyo! I've noticed the Black Clover fanfics are lacking— So in honor of one of my new favorite mangas, I'm gonna be cooking some stuff up.. It'll be almost akin to an Anime Movie storyline, except with canon-changing events, and hopefully plenty of action!

This is set during the six month timeskip, before the invasion of the Spade Kingdom. Manga spoilers are bound to happen! Also yuri ahoy!

Black Clover

The Blue Queen's Hand

While the Clover and Spade Kingdoms prepared for war, the ocean depths to the south of the Clover Kingdom began to part, allowing for a massive structure to emerge. This huge gateway, one day to be known as the "Deep Gate," opened its stone doors to an entirely new world, one where an old problem was set to resurface.

Deep within a castle that lie in that world, a woman whose skin shimmered a crystal blue stood gazing out her window, feeling the familiar surge of ambient mana start to flow into the stagnant world she resided in. A thin smile crossed her pale lips as it brought back memories of a time hundreds of years before.

"Lumiere… I hope you are still alive out there," she spoke in a deep, moaning voice that made the walls around her shudder. "After all, you promised-"

"That I could be the one to kill you."

Chapter One

The Deep Gate

"A dungeon, huh…"

Yami Sukehiro, leader of the Black Bulls, looked down at the message he had received, the cigarette in his mouth burning lightly. He held a serious expression as he looked up at the mage who had appeared to give it to him.

"Sounds like a pain," the brutish man commented. "More of a pain than even this war that's buildin'."

The messenger girl was turned away, her face bright red. Yami looked at her, dumbfounded as she seemed to ignore him…

Probably because he was on the toilet.

"You people are the ones who keep showin' up when I'm taking a dump…"

After business had finished and the messenger had left in a hurry, Yami gazed around the very empty Black Bulls headquarters, rubbing the back of his head.

Though, I wonder if any of those slackers got the mark…

In the Heart Kingdom, within the Royal Palace, Noelle was on her knees, panting and sweating profusely. She lifted her trembling right arm into the air, her eyes wide as she gazed at the mark that was starting to appear there.

Wha… What the—

After a few moments of what felt like intense strain, the feeling subsided all at once, leaving the twin-tailed girl gasping from the effort.

"Noelle?!" Mimosa Vermillion came running over, their power demonstration coming to an abrupt end. Kneeling beside her, Mimosa began to utilize her Plant Magic, vines emerging to wrap around part of Noelle to heal her. "What is that..?"

Noelle stared at the marking, which she couldn't recognize at all. It started at her middle finger, then cascaded down along her arm to her elbow in streaks of azure blue.

"I-I don't know," Noelle said, shaking weariness from her head. "Is it some kind of curse..?"

Princess Lolopechka hurried over, nearly tripping over Mimosa's vines due to her clumsiness as she worriedly knelt down with them. The girl had grown quite fond of her Clover Kingdom guests over the past couple of months, and had dropped any semblance of royal authority around them.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Noelle insisted, waving a hand at the two. Mimosa let her vines dissolve, exchanging a worried look with the Princess. Noelle huffed. "Whatever this is, I bet that Nero can—"

As if on cue, Secre Swallowtail suddenly fell out of the sky in her bird form, smacking limply into the ground. Noelle let out a shriek of terror at the surprise of it, before crawling over to her.

As the three looked down at the bird, they saw that a similar blue marking was on Secre's left wing. Before any of them could try to enact some healing magic, the bird suddenly flailed around, surprising them before flying up and transforming into her Humanlike self.

As she formed, they could tell Secre was weary, the girl holding onto her left arm. "I… don't know what happened…"

Noelle gulped and held out her arm, comparing it to Secre's mark. They were identical in every way, despite being on different arms.

"Can you detect cursed magic within it?" Mimosa looked expectantly at Secre.

The horned girl focused on the mark for a moment, before shaking her head. "It is not Cursed Magic. I can't even detect it."

Lolopechka got a closer look, before summoning forth the water spirit, Undine, the graceful, womanly being appearing behind her.

"Oh my…" Those words didn't bode well coming from the Water Spirit, and everyone looked up to her expectantly. "This isn't good at all."

"W-What is it?" Noelle felt a bit of panic rising, wishing Asta was there right now to maybe dispel whatever this strange magic was.

Undine sighed and looked away, covering her face with a hand. "It seems that she has returned."

Before they could ask more, a black vortex opened up nearby, and Finrel stepped through.

"Oh, Finr— GAH!" Noelle gasped. "Are you okay?!"

Finrel looked incredibly tired, but he gave a grin, knowing he needed to put on a cool guy front for these beautiful ladies before him.

"Y-Yeah, training.. Ya know how it goes," the boy said in a gruff voice. He looked at the two girls who had blue marks on their arms and sighed. "So, er… You should come with. Because of those markings."

Noelle and Secre looked at their marks, before slowly standing up with the help of the other two girls.

"Do you know anything about this," Secre spoke, her deadpan red eyes falling upon Finrel.

Waving his hands innocently, Finrel stammered, "N-Nope! I was knocked out til a few moments ago.. Then, er, the Captain.."

As he trailed off, Noelle simply nodded, imagining exactly what had happened when Captain Yami had sought out Finrel and forced him to "surpass his limits" to come here.

"So either way, let's go, otherwise I think I'll just drop here."

Secre turned to the Princess and dipped her head a bit. "We will return."

Noelle followed suit, looking to Mimosa, the redhead looking worried. "You'll be alright, right?"

Mimosa smiled and nodded. "Yep! You can count on me!"

With that, Noelle and Secre headed over to Finrel, whose confident demeanor was starting to waiver. As they passed through his spatial gateway, he decided he needed to say something cool before leaving.

"Don't worry Princesses, we'll be ba—"

Before he could finish, a well-built arm emerged around his neck, pulling him back into the void.

Noelle felt nervous as she stood with Secre in the oddly empty Black Bulls headquarters. Finrel was passed out on the couch nearby, while Yami stared at the girls sternly.

"So.. Erm.."

Secre cut in for Noelle. "Do you know about these marks, Yami?"

Yami puffed his cigarette and nodded. "The gist, yeah. Basically, you two are pretty screwed."

Noelle gasped. "H-How? What did we do? What do we do?"

"Hell if I know!" Yami shrugged. "All I can tell ya is that a dungeon appeared to the south, in the damned Ocean."

The two girls were surprised by this. "A dungeon? It appeared on its own," Secre questioned.

"Yeah.. Seems like that marks shown up on several magic users across the damned continent," Yami told them. "Only people with the mark can get in, and you two are the only ones that got it among the Bulls."

Noelle gulped and shook her head. "If it isn't a curse or something, then what—"

"I told ya I don't know squat!" Yami sighed after this exclamation. "So anyways.. You two needta go check it out."

"B-But our training—"

Yami shot Noelle a dark look. "You think this ain't good training? I bet you just wanna slack off."

Secre, who was keeping a levelhead like she usually did, merely nodded.

"I understand, however…" The dark-haired girl looked down at her marked arm. "We cannot afford too much time on side missions, with the war effort mounting."

"You think I don't know that? You'll be fine," Yami insisted with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "Everyone's preparin' for what's coming, so I bet you guys can go own that Dungeon and bring some nice loot for the guild."

So it is just about glory, Noelle thought with a sigh. She looked over to Secre, noticing a surprisingly worried expression.

"Alright," Noelle said confidently, "We'll go and figure this thing out."

"As if you had a choice," Yami said, before poking Finrel in the butt with his sword, making the boy shoot up in surprise. "Ey, you've got some strength left in ya right? Why not take them to the coast."

Finrel fell over again, not even able to retort or comply. Yami looked down at his unconscious self, then back up to the girls.

"Hope ya got change for a coach," he said with a shrug. Noelle internally cursed her choice of squad for what felt like the thousandth time in her life.

Within a day, the two girls representing the Black Bulls had boarded a ship, and were headed towards the dungeon entrance.

"Thats…" Noelle was in awe of the structure, gazing over the railing at it.

It was a truly massive gateway that seemed to be made of stone. The blue markings on the doors were glowing in and out with bright light, the entrance only halfway open, but that made then opening about ten ship-lengths across.

"I have never heard of anything like this," Secre said. Noelle turned to see the girl coming up to join her. "I have been around for a long time, so to see new things is…" She trailed off, thinking.

Noelle smiled a bit. "I mean, I bet everything that Dork-sta does is pretty new and surprising to you."

Secre nodded. "That's true. He is quite compelling, even if he's lacking in many areas."

"Right? He's such an idiot!"

"Yet, you often blush around him—"

Noelle gasped and turned away. "W-What are you— I didn't expect teasing from you of all people!"

Secre merely blinked at the girl. "I was just pointing out the obvious.

As Noelle hid her embarrassment, footsteps sounded on the deck as someone else approached them. They looked to see a familiar, but slightly unwelcome, figure standing there.

Kirsch Vermillion smiled as he moved a hand through his hair for a lavish entrance as sea-spray from a breaking wave blew over the deck.

Did he time that entrance?! Noelle looked at him, a bit annoyed by this person who was technically related to her.

"Ah, so you both received this mark as well!" Kirsch showed a mark on his neck, which was in the similar vain to the girls' marks. "It is.. Well.. In an unsightly place for me, but I believe it helps to distinguish my elegance!"

The two girls just stared at the pompous guy as he let out a self-sustaining chuckle.

"It is odd, to have these marks on different parts of us," Secre stated.

"Yeah…" Noelle nodded. "Is anyone else here on this ship?"

"Ignoring my existence? That's a classic Noble move."

Noelle shivered intensely as the voice came from behind them, turning to see Zora Ideale hanging from the railing behind them.

"What are you doing there?!" Noelle demanded.

Zora hopped up onto the railing and shrugged. "I don't have to answer that." Noelle growled a bit.

Secre eyed their fellow squadmate. "You are not marked."

"Verrry perceptive," the red-haired boy said mockingly. "I'm just here to check out the dungeon. The boss said I'm crafty enough to maybe break in."

"The Black Bulls, always so.. gauche," Kirsch said disdainfully.

"I'll put a trap up your noble ass, maybe that'd be more fun," Zora retorted scornfully.

Kirsh merely turned away, as if not hearing his words, crossing his arms. "Well, with how things are going, I do not mind working with you both when inside the dungeon."

While Zora lamented being ignored and Noelle tried to stop him from attacking, Secre nodded.

"That would be wise. We're all in this situation together."

"Ahoy!" The Captain's shout drew their attention to the helm of the ship. The burly man pointed towards the dungeon entrance. "We're almost there! How close should we get?"

Noelle cupped a hand at her mouth. "As close as you can get!"

The man shook his head. "The gate is suckin' in tons of water, we'll crash if we get too close!"

"Hey water girl, you can just hitch us a ride, right," Zora said.

Noelle scowled a bit at that, but nodded. "Yeah yeah.. Everyone stand close."

Summoning forth her grimoire, Noelle lifted a hand towards the ocean swells.

"Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Cradle!"

A smooth sphere of water began to swirl around the group, the ship's crew panicking as they were surprised by the sudden swirling water, watching as it then lifted up off the side of the ship and began to move across the water, towards the open dungeon.

"At least the mark has not affected our magic, it seems," Kirsch pointed out.

"There is no semblance of Cursed Magic," Secre told him. "We have no clues as to what it does, if anything at all."

Kirsche sighed. "It is quite unsightly to have a useless, glowing mark."

Noelle was focusing hard on her spell, though it was much easier these days thanks to all of her training since she joined the Black Bulls. She saw Zora doing something out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey! What are you doing," she shouted.

The boy looked back with a grin full of sharp teeth. "Just seeing if I can trap up this sphere. Seems like it works."

Noelle gasped. "D-Don't do that!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

Within a few minutes, they had reached the entrance. Sure enough, water was pouring into the odd gateway and vanishing into the void within it like a waterfall. Noelle settled them nearby, everyone watching the ominous sight for a moment.

"I wonder if the ocean would empty out if this thing stayed open forever," Noelle commented aloud.

"What a stupid thing to say," Zora said. Noelle gritted her teeth, but the boy suddenly touched the wall of the sphere, a circle of runes appearing there. "Anyways, I'll be out here til I can break in. Have fun, or die, whatever."

From the circle, a portion of the water wall fell over, and he stepped out onto it, somehow moving and floating along with it as he moved up towards the large, open stone door.

"Jeez…" Noelle focused on reforming that section of the barrier.

"I find ignoring such peasant antics is the best way to go," Kirsche said. "Now, shall we?"

Nodding, Noelle took them into the darkness of the dungeon entrance…

It was then that Secre remembered something from all those years ago, a memory of the first wizard king, Lumiere, appearing in her mind. It alarmed her, but as they passed into the darkness of the dungeon, the memory began to fade into a haze… Though despite the memory leaving her, one truth lingered in her mind:

They shouldn't have come here.

To Be Continued…

Next Chapter: The Blue Song

A/N: A little on the short side, but I feel like this is a good setup. Let me know what you think, reviews are always handy!