Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 63: Black Hole Sun Part 3
Formerly the Grand Meridian, Neutral Territory, Midnight
"... Yuno?" coughed out Julius.
"Okay, which one?" asked Astarte as it looked at both the boy and his palmtop-sized companion, "on second thought, forget about it. Release the [Curse of Envy]."
"YUNO!" the two men cried out as the malevolent force was blasted from itself. As soon as the dark force swept past Yuno and Titania, nothing happened.
"... What?" Astarte remarked in its and others's surprise, "I thought your arms were supposed to fall off or something," it pointed out as it pointed towards Titania, "I remember at least you being the one rude enough to cut both of my arms off."
The Demon than looks down where its arms were lying at, finding that one of its hands were still gripped around the stiletto's handle. It then looked back up to see that the blades orbiting around the boy were not, in fact, four separate parts that made up a singular blade, but rather, they were one blade that can split into several, smaller swords.
[Curse of Envy] didn't affect the two because Astarte itself was still counting as the one who inflicted said attack to itself by the virtue of physically holding onto one part of the whole.
"... Can you two, uh... give me a moment?" the Demon requested as it scooted its foot towards one of its severed arms, "I need to go get something back-"
Astarte kicks up her leg before it can be severed off. The other blades then shortly followed up by the other blades chasing the Demon down.
"Okay okay, I need you to calm down for just moment-" the Demon's pleas were cut off by the other blades flying around it closed in towards Astarte, "on second thought, FUCK OFF!"
It then beat down its wings as hard as it could, unleashing another storm around itself to send the blades into disarray.
"AHAHAHAHA!" Astarte manically laughed as the blades flung up into the air before they fell back towards the earth, "STUPID BITCH! DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT TAKING MY WEAPON IS ENOUGH TO DETER ME-"
One of the blades that fell back to the earth cuts off one of its horns. It didn't simply chip it off like a stone struck with a chisel.
The blade in question severed through a Demon's horn like hot knife through a block of butter.
"... The fuck?" remarked the Demon as it looked down at its cut horn before it realized that the other, similarly-sharp blades fell towards Astarte.
It sporadically dodges each blade that fell towards it before Titania uses her own [Wind Magic] to reestablish command over the floating blades.
"WHAT KIND OF SHIT ARE THESE THINGS MADE OF TO CUT THROUGH DEMONS?!" cursed Astarte as it resumed evading the coordinated assaults by the four blades, each dodge nicking it across its already-flaking skin, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS FEELING?! AM I FEELING MY OWN SKIN BEING CUT?!"
The serrated rectangle attempted to rake itself across its wings, the heavy straight-edge pounded its wedge into the earth as it missed to chop off a piece of Astarte, the crescent sickle twirled around the air in circular flight patterns as it chased down the Demon, and the sturdy and wide steel arrowhead kept violently zipping around the air like a sentient arrow chasing down its target.
"Okay, no idea what's going on but I think we're doing okay?" Yuno commented as he watched Titania go into auto-pilot.
"Whatever you do Yuno, don't attack it yourself," Titania ordered, "that curse she tried to pull earlier copies all damage inflicted onto it and sends it back to the sender," she explained as the Sylph maintained focus over the dancing blades, "the reason why the blades didn't affect us is that dagger held in the Demon's hands makes it fall under the technicality of the blades counting as its own! i'm literally forcing it to keep hitting itself!"
"... And how do you know all of this so suddenly?" Yuno asked, still confused but reassured on what's going on right now.
"I don't know!" Titania pointed out, "but the moment I melded my own mana into those blades... it feels like I'm remembering something!" she remarked as her eyes were kept focused on the blades homing in towards the Demon, "those swords have names! The arrowhead is [Strike, the Gouging], the falchion is [Cut, the Severing], the broadsword is [Crush, the Smashing] and the saw is [Grind, the Biting]! But the fifth on grasped around the Demon's hands, I still can't remember it but I know for certain that it's utterly useless without any of the user's own magic!"
"So keep applying pressure?" Yuno remarked.
"For now, keep an eye out in case if it tries anything funny!" the Sylph spoke as it continued chasing down the Demon with its flying blades.
Outside of the conflict, both Julius and Marx were still lying on the earth, barely clinging to life as both ebbed and flowed in and out of consciousness.
"... Marx," heaved out Julius, "... whatever you do... don't close your eyes..."
"... Lord Julius..." Marx coughed out, "... I burn the midnight oil for a living..." he laughed out weakly, "... thanks to a certain someone..."
"... Diligent as always," Julius replied as he casted a small [Chronostasis] on Marx's wounds before his own, "... I'll buy both of us time... use it... find a way... to clip off... the Demon's wings..."
Marx knew now that he was in a position to make a calculated risk. Observing the combat situation in hand.
So far, there are a couple things that are relevant in the flow of battle, observed Marx as he began formulating his ploy before leaping back into the fray, one, Astarte really doesn't care who lives or dies. Only focusing on whoever is getting in its way right now to the point of tunnel vision. Hell, even if it can sense our magic and reprioritize on finishing us off, the blades under Sylph's control is more than enough to not ignore, he realized as the Demon was kept at an arm's length, even if it resorted to throwing one of the few rocks left behind in the wasteland with its freakish strength, only for the projectile to be parried by [Strike]'s advance. Second, if the Sylph's claims hold water, the Demon itself has no magic to fully utilize the dagger that the blades broke off from! thought the adherent as he continued observing this irregular duel, if this is like poker, its hand is junk! But at the same time, the Black Bull and his Spirit companion aren't doing enough damage to make a difference!
Against all logic screaming at him not to do it, Marx knew he had no other choice but to dip his feet a little deeper back into the pit of turmoil. He then slowly charged up his [Torment Canceler] spell for one more shot, keeping the string taut back until at the very last moment.
When the time is just right, he fires, making sure to aim for the part inside the Demon's brain to block off the usage of its [Curse of Envy].
Back in the thick of it, all Yuno could do was watch as Titania operated four different blades to pursue the fleeing Demon. [Strike] continues to lead from the very front, [Grind] and [Crush] flanked the Demon from both sides, with [Cut]'s crescent blade twirling and boomeranging in an irregular fashion which successfully cuts off another of Astarte's horns.
"Now you match," Titania grinned before she noticed that Astarte was now coming towards their direction, "YUNO! HAUL ASS!"
He and Titania flee towards the same direction before the Demon unleashes another hurricane of dark winds from its wings as it flew towards them. This time, the bluster ripped out a streak of land in its path as the blades continued chasing after the Demon, albeit, after they reformulate back into a more acceptable attack formation.
"... Okay, figured something out," Yuno remarked, "I don't think it just uses curses," he pointed out, noticing that Astarte's butterfly wings were acting as a separate attacking unit from the Demon itself from how different its properties were. "Those wings..." he said while looking at the wings trailing behind Astarte, "... every five minutes. That how long it takes for it to unleash its wind attack."
"I'M GOING EAT YOUR FACE OFF, YOU GRINBERRYALL BRAT!" screeched out Astarte as it soared down into a divebomb towards Yuno, its nettle-like teeth bared out of its black gums.
"TITANIA! COVER ME!" Yuno cried out as he called for his broom and took into the air to bait away the now-enraged Demon.
The two were now engaged in a dogfight, with either side not even thinking of slowing down lest they miss out on their directives of either catching and eating the boy or not getting eaten by the Demon-bitch-queen. Neither could attack, only pursue. In Yuno's case, [Curse of Envy]'s properties reflecting the Demon's injuries back at him, while Astarte was too enraged to think straight, along with the fact that it lacked arms.
Just need my arms back, the Demon thought, then I can shank the little twat! No wait, that's a bad idea! it internally redacted its prior thought, wait, I'll throw it instead! Yeah, that'll work.
It knew that it needs to let go of the stiletto dagger in order for its [Curse of Envy] to at least, not send the damages inflict onto it back to nowhere. Best case scenario being that the nailed dagger would register Yuno as the one inflicting damage onto it, allowing [Curse of Envy] to be trigger right after it deliberately gets itself chopped up.
Regardless of what plans were being formulated, this very moment was now going to decide the turning tide of this battle. Astarte immediately goes into a low swoop to catch the boy off-balance during its reascension, the sudden updraft causing Yuno to tip off of his broom for a brief moment before he caught himself back on it.
At around that moment, Astarte quickly switches targets back to its arms still lying about on the ground. As it dove back towards it, Titania caught wise of the Demon's ploy and immediately cuts off the Demon's path with [Strike] barreling towards it.
Astarte simply catches the flying arrowhead between its teeth, clamping down as hard as it could to stop it dead in it path.
IT'LL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO STOP ME! Astarte internally declared as it flew back down faster and faster, THE OTHER BLADES ARE TOO BIG AND HEAVY TO MAKE SHARP TURNS AND THE WHIRLY-THING IS ALREADY FINISHED ITS TRIP AROUND! it gloated as it landed right next to its arms before reattaching them back onto their stumps before hurling the dagger towards Yuno with all of its strength, I WIN BITCH! AS SOON AS THE DAGGER HITS THE BRAT, I'LL LET THE ARROWHEAD BETWEEN MY TEETH GO AND ACTIVATE MY [CURSE OF ENVY]! YOUR MASTER'S THROAT IS GOING TO GUSH OUT LIKE SANGUINE FOUNTAIN! VICTORY IS MINE!
As soon as the dagger's blade embedded itself into Yuno's arm, Astarte then began activating its curse.
... Huh? thought Astarte, realizing that there was something missing in its thoughts, what kind of "curse" was I thinking about? And why do I have the nagging feeling that I am forgetting something-wait.
The Demon looked down, and finds a spectral-white bolt pierced into its thigh.
... Mother, it thought as the Demon looked at the dying [Memory Magic] mage sneering at it, fucker.
"... Stood still..." Marx gloated, his right arm weakly raised up with a recently-fired [Torment Canceler], "... like a fucking moron."
Overcome with unfathomable rage, Astarte belays its prior plan. It instead grabs [Strike] by its rear notch, wrestling its [Wind Magic]-automated controls out of its mouth before hurling it towards Marx with enough speed to more than likely splatter his brains all over upon contact.
"GO TO HELL!" the Demon cursed.
"MARX!" both Yuno and Julius cried out towards him in tandem while Titania tried to regain control over the thrown arrowhead, [Strike]'s trajectory was too much for her to override its velocity with her [Wind Magic].
Marx didn't have enough time for final thoughts. As death was imminent, the world seemed to slow down to a crawl.
... To enough of a crawl... to hear footsteps coming towards them.
"[Poison Magic: Violett Schirm]!"
A veil of purple toxins draped itself between Marx and [Strike]'s trajectory.
"[Transformation Magic]!" another voice stuttered out, "[Magic Covert]! [Poison] to [Diamond]!"
The wave of venom transmutates itself into a wall of pure, unbreakable diamond, its stalwart form being just enough to stop the thrown arrowhead dead in its tracks before it reached Marx and would've decorated the outside with his insides.
"E-EEK!" a nervous girl's voice squeaked out, revealing itself to be a cyan-haired girl with a Black Bull's robe draped over her simple dress, "i-it's strong enough to break into diamond?!" she jittered out before noticing whom were badly wounded, "o-oh crap! The Wizard King and his assistant are down! I-I need to get help-OH WAIT! WE ARE THE HELP!"
The Black Bulls girl then hastily begins treating the two wounded mages from the supplies inside a pair of field bags slung around her while hastily reading through a manual of how to apply battlefield triage.
"He's not dead, so that's good," a meek male voice remarked with a faint sigh of relief as he walked into the view, revealing Gordon as he pulled out his bullhorn, "EVERYONE! WE'RE HERE TO HELP!" he remarked as he held up a bronze tag, "AND YUNO, YOU DUMMY!" he cried out with visible tears coming out of his eyes, "DON'T LEAVE US BEHIND TO GO AND DO SOMETHING STUPID LIKE THIS ON YOUR OWN!"
"... I didn't want you guys waking up too soon?" Yuno weakly defended himself, to which Gordon's intimidating face was real for a moment.
"You and I..." Gordon replied, trying to sound firm and strict as he possibly could, "... are going to have a talk! LATER!"
"That's great and all," the humanoid embodiment of pure emptiness remarked at the two newcomers, both of whom tried their hardest not to faint where they stood and instead opted to pee themselves as an outlet to even barely register the fear that they're bearing witness to right now, "... but really, who are you fucks? And why do you have a skull for a face while the little minx has a speech impediment?"
Gordon gulped before he answered. "... It's a long but short story."
Flashback, About Half an Hour ago...
"Here," the masked man then handed Gordon and Grey each a pair of shoulder bags, "field medic kits and not enough mana potions for each of you."
"Not enough my behind," muttered Grey as she looked into one of the bags, finding it filled to the brim with bottles of blue liquid, "you know that we're only going after one of our own, right?"
"You really assume that the moron would just go ahead and leave first after losing one of his feet and break several bones on multiple occasion?" the masked man pointed out.
"What's really going on?" asked Gordon.
"Okay, the truth is, I've just been notified by my constituents that they detected an abnormal presence coming from the Neutral Territories," the masked mage stated.
"I-is it a Demon?" Grey asked reluctantly.
"Probably," the masked man replied, "the weirdest part was that it's so-called 'presence' was just really a hole in the middle of a radar, so it might be the case. If you can, stop him. If you change your mind and decide to play the hero, take a shot."
"... You're really a nice guy, aren't you?" Gordon pointed out, "you're just like me, only... meaner."
"Bah, I'll take the compliment," grunted the masked man, "... also, don't die. Or the cappy is going to give the shit like he did back during the Dungeon exploration mission a couple months back."
"You knew?" Grey asked.
"I was in the know about Demons ever since that day," he replied, "even I couldn't prepare for that. But now, after months of enduring and observing from the shadows... I think we might have a fighting chance."
He then hands them a small sack of rocks.
"What are those?" asked Gordon.
"Anti-Infantry grenades made from my [Trap Magic] along with a few stones picked out from a river," the masked man explained as he revealed small magic circles planted on them, "infuse them with your own mana, then throw em before they blow up. Time limit's about around five to seven seconds. Maybe three if you're super-lucky," he explained the mechanics of the grenades to the two Black Bulls, "should be just enough to distract a Demon, no?"
Grey and Gordon looked at each other before exchanging nods. "Thank you," she said to the masked man, "we'll come back alive with no deaths! I hope!"
"Will the settlement be alright?" Gordon asked, "in case if things get really bad?"
"Don't worry your pretty little heads," the masked man reassured as he revealed several magic circles planted around the walls of the ruined city, "I strategically rigged the whole place to be my little funhouse," he reassured, "it would totally suck if Demons just came in here and ate everyone without resistance, so might as well help out from the shadows. Or go down fighting. It would suck either way."
"... A-again," stuttered Grey, "... thank you."
"Forget about it," the masked mage shrugged off, "just another job for Clover Kingdom's Superhero Mage of Justice," he dryly remarked as he struck a heroic pose, "saving the Kingdom from scumbags in and out from the blackest of shadows."
"... A superhero that saves people from the shadows..." Gordon mused, "... no wonder Captain Yami recruited you."
"Bah, I was just some punk that got his ass handed by him before he tossed a spare Black Bull's robe at me," the masked man remarked.
"Still," the morose-looking Black Bull smiled sweetly, "I'd like to have a drink with you and the captain sometime. If we get the time. Grey can also come if she feels like it."
"Whatever," the masked man remarked as he walked away, "go and drag that newbie's ass back here alive, would ya?"
"W-we..." Grey stuttered as Gordon got both of their brooms, "... we will! We'll all come back alive, Mr. Superhero!"
The two Black Bulls then left the city while the masked man looked back slightly.
"Sappy bastards..." remarked the Superhero as the two Black Bulls went towards where their fellow Black Bull left, "... guess I'm now 'Superhero' rather than Zora Ideale. Meh, been called worse."
Back at the Present...
"Wait," Astarte flatly remarked, "rocks for grenades-"
A rock hit its face before exploding.
"Yuno!" Grey cried out as she ran towards the Magic Knight that just pulled out a knife from his arm, "are you okay?"
"First wound, really," he replied before looking at Grey, "... who are you?"
"I'm that big quiet guy that's always huffing steam. See?" she explained as she turned herself into a giant, thuggish-looking male.
But just before she can turn back, a kick rocketed into the giant Grey's gut before sending the big lug skidding across the wasteland before she was forced out of her transformation.
"GREY!" Gordon cried out.
"Congrats, you utter dumbass," taunted Astarte before it dodged Yuno's swing from his retrieved dagger by jumping back, "not my fault that she made herself a bigger target."
At the further end of the wasteland, Grey herself was convulsing on the ground, vomiting both blood and bile alike.
"... G-Gordon..." Grey sobbed out, "... it hurts-*urp*" she vomited mid-speech, "... so much."
Gordon lifts up her blouse and finds that her whole midsection was imprinted with purple-colored footprint.
Internal bleeding is thankfully minimal, thought Gordon as he begun his treatment, organs however, bruising is at critical. A couple bones around the pelvic region fractured, he observed his comrade's injuries, if it weren't for her fake body being so massive, a hole would've been blown through her. I can save her with what I have!
"Hang on!" Gordon assured as he took supplies from Grey's bags, "I'll save you right now!"
Back at the main incursion zone, both Yuno and Astarte were now facing each other in a melee, the former fending off the Demon with his stiletto dagger in tandem with his [Wind Magic] while the latter delivered blind haymakers and sloppy high kicks that did more to damage their surroundings rather than actually hit the boy.
"TITANIA!" Yuno cried out as she answered by sending the other four blades to pressure the Demon, "WHAT DOES THIS DAGGER DO?! MY [WIND MAGIC] ISN'T REACTING TO IT!"
"I THINK YOU HAVE TO DECLARE ITS TRUE NAME OR SOMETHING!" Titania stated as she manipulated the four flying blades around the Demon, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE IT, BUT I THINK IT HAS TO DO WITH SOMETHING TO LIKE EARN ITS APPROVAL!"
"THEN WHAT'S THIS THING'S TRUE NAME?!" asked the Magic Knight as he dodged another lariat from Astarte.
"I... I DON'T KNOW!" the Sylph remarked, her head still throbbing as if it were hit with a club, "I'M STILL DRAWING UP A BLANK!"
"How about I blank you two off of existence?!" snarled out Astarte as it laid a powerful stomp right before Yuno, quaking him off of his feet before the Demon unleashed its storm of dark winds from its wings with one flap.
However, Yuno used his own [Wind Magic] to ride the storm itself, only for the Demon to catch wise of him and do the same with its own wings acting as sails.
Titania then uses the fact that both of them are now airborne as an advantage, commanding the blades to surround Astarte before striking towards the Demon from all directions.
"Release the [Curse of Paranoia]."
As the blades closed in towards the Demon, Gordon instead took its place.
"GORDON!" Yuno quickly then tackled down Gordon before he and himself were skewered from all directions, both landing on the earth as the winds subsided.
"Ow..." Gordon groaned out as he now saw Marx on top of him, "what's going on-"
Gordon then suddenly found himself laying next to Astarte.
"Honestly, I have no friggin' clue," the Demon pointed out before it was replaced with Yuno's Sylph.
"EVERYONE'S SWAPPING PLACES WITH EACH OTHER AT RANDOM!" Titania exclaimed before she found herself next to Astarte who being mounted by Grey.
"UWHAWHAHA! WHAT THE HELL?!" squawked out Grey before she found herself next to the Wizard King, "W-W-WIZARD KING?!"
"Sup," Julius weakly groaned out before found himself laying before Yuno, "how's it going?"
"I feel like I'm gonna hurl-" Yuno remarked before he found himself puking on Marx's face, "OH CRAP! SORRY ABOUT THAT!"
"... Not the worst thing that's happened to me today," the secretary calmly remarked before he found himself lying next to Gordon.
Everyone within the Demon Incursion Zone swapped places with each other at random faster than anyone could even react to what's happening.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" cursed Astarte as it ended up lying next to where Julius was kneeling down at before ending up mounting atop of Gordon, "WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!"
Heart Kingdom (Under Siege), Dawn
"Huh," scoffed Jack as he ran into Yami in the dim streets of the kingdom, "never took your ass for an early bird."
"Hilarious," deadpanned the Black Bulls Captain, "no wonder you always look like you're about to jump on someone."
"That's my normal face, you idiot," Jack replied, "so what are you doing out here?"
"Contemplating," Yami replied as he looked at his broken katana, "I already broke my katana twice. And I get the sinking feeling that further jungle combat with giant insect Demons, my sword breaking repeatedly will be the least of my concerns."
"So what?" the captain of the Green Mantis scoffed, "you beat the shit out of that Bakasura twat just fine, right? What gives?"
"I'm thinking about switching to a combat knife," Yami replied, "something shorter, more durable and easier to move around in cramped spaces."
"Tch, knife ain't gonna be enough," Jack scoffed, "practice archery too. My old man taught me a few tricks before he shit the bed during a botched hunt," he explained, "arrows can either be used to kill or weaken. Either one is fine as long as you can follow it up, he said."
"Heh, I'm kinda feeling jealous," Yami sighed out, "your old man at least tried to help you."
"Bah, quit getting sappy. You're gonna make me lose my edge!" Jack complained before he turned back to Yami, "... you sayin' that your old man doesn't like you?"
"More like he'd beat me comatose if I so much as return home after 20 years of absence," the Captain answered, "that is, assuming the Mitsurugi Twins don't get me first."
"Keh, you're the one losing your edge, Yami," Jack scoffed, "the only one who's allowed to kill your ass is me! If you die at someone else's hands, I'll literally drag your ass back from hell and kill yer ass twice over!"
"You know that the way you talk is redundant, right?" pointed out the Black Bulls Captain, "can you go at least go a whole sentence without threatening to kill someone?"
"Pot calling the kettle black here, Yami," Jack hissed back, "you know what? Imma kill your ass right now-"
But before the two can clash, a soft note coming from a harp puts them to sleep. From the shadows came out Mosin herself, her [Gleipnir]'s strings woven into a harp around the High Inquisitor's arms.
"Naughty children needs to go back asleep..." she remarked before she dragged the two away by the threads wrapped around their ankles, "... and naughty boys need to learn how to be more considerate to others."
Formerly the Grand Meridian, Neutral Territory, Dawn
"... Okay," Astarte sighed out as the spectral bolt from [Torment Canceler] faded into its chest as the accursed madness of [Curse of Paranoia] was sealed away, "... time out... need to hurl."
The Demon then proceeds to barf out tar-colored bile along with human bones.
"... I am never going to use that curse, ever again," swore the Demon, "it does nothing but piss me off. I mean, HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO ANYTHING, LET ALONE RELEASE OTHER CURSES WHILE MY HEAD IS TOO BUSY PROCESSING THE RANDOM SWAPPING?!"
"... You have our sympathies," Yuno sarcastically remarked, "all you've done is clown around the whole time. Of course one of your arsenals was going to backfire on you eventually," he pointed out, "do you honestly know what you're doing?"
Astarte clicks its tongue before clutching its head. "Release the [Curse of Vanity]."
The Demon rips itself in half from the head down, said halves split from its twain turning into individual wholes before said two wholes repeated the prior action by splitting themselves into four, followed up by those four to multiply itself into eight copies of itself.
"... Oh dear," Julius remarked in shock, "it's now eight against six."
"Ah, much better," the eight Astarte copies remarked in perfect unison as they all cracked their knuckles and necks, "the best solutions are usually the simplest ones."
The eight copies then break away towards multiple targets. Five copies of the Demon went after Gordon, Grey, Julius and Marx, with the remaining three prioritized Yuno and Titania.
"[Poison Curse Magic: Aufwachen Dachs]!" Gordon casted a spell summons a clan of badgers made of poison to rush down at the Demon copies.
"[Transformation Magic: Magic Convert]! [Poison] to [Lightning]!" Grey declared as she targeted Gordon's [Aufwachen Dachs] spell to convert their properties into streaking bolts of electricity that travels faster and more viciously than its prior form.
The five Astartes simply bulldoze through the bolts of electricity before one of them went ahead and drove its fist between the Black Bulls while the other four each split into two to double team the separated mages each.
Gordon threw down several rock grenades and mixed in his [Dwelling of he Poison Cloud] into the blast to create a thick smokescreen as cover to dissuade the two Demon copies. But from the other side of the obstruction, one copy threw its other through the veil as a projectile, forcing Gordon to duck before he himself was grabbed from behind by his head, lifting him off of the ground in an iron claw grip before slamming his face into the dirt.
"Killing you now would be an utter waste," the two Astartes remarked in unison, "also, that magic of yours earlier, what makes you think that a couple of overgrown rodents constitutes as [Curse Magic] compared to mine?" the Demon taunted, "I'm made of 1000 years' worth of curses implanted into a single body! The amount of power you exude is a wet fart to my eternal storm of evil!"
"... At least... I use my powers..." Gordon sputtered out from the dirt, "... for my friends..."
"Bah, like that makes any much of a difference," it remarked before the other copy grabbed one of Gordon's fingers before snapping it upwards, causing the Black Bull to heave in unfathomable pain. "Buckle up, buttercup," the Demon sneered as its copy grabbed onto his thumb, "you're gonna be our toy until you break for reals."
Elsewhere, Grey herself was throwing as much of the stone grenades as she ran, turning rocks into [Gel] or [Lava] with her [Transformation] to slow down her pursuers while inflicting much possible damage as she could. However, despite the two of their heads being doused with lava and their feet mired with swampy gel, it did very little to even slow them down, cutting her path of escape off as both surrounded Grey.
"Answer me this," the Demon asked, the two copies glowering right over the shrinking girl, "just what made you think that a little lava would hurt me?"
Grey herself was too terrified to answer properly, her body continuing to quake violently as she felt as if she was standing atop of a pillar surrounded by a bottomless pit.
"... My god, you are a hot mess," commented Astarte as it saw the semi-catonic Black Bull foaming from her mouth, "killing you would be a mercy and sparing you would be too much of a mercy... what to do, what to do..." mused the Demon before settling on an idea, "I know! Let's crank up the crazy in the fights up to eleven! Release the [Curse of Deception]!"
A black magic sigil appears over the sky, seemingly floating in the air, doing nothing.
"... Shit, that was a dud," Astarte remarked, "alright, gonna go bully your friend having his fingers broken. Feel free to join in when you wake up."
Upon hearing that the Demon was torturing her close and only friend, Grey, even as her legs shook uncontrollably, steadily got back up to her feet like a newborn deer. Her expression was still clouded in fear but her eyes were now focused. The mage's teeth may have chattered as if she were in a middle of a blizzard, yet she still showed resistance without having to say anything.
"... Was gonna let you go," the Demons pointed out before each of them lifted up their knees, "I'll settle for broken legs."
Against all logic, Grey runs in as she flowed her mana into all of the stone grenades inside of her back to do at least something about this situation. Screaming like a madwoman, she throws the bag full of the stone grenades at the two Demon copies.
But instead of exploding, the triggered [Trap Magic] that was meant to explode instead did something else.
There was [Lightning Magic], [Ice Magic], [Gel Magic] and everything couldn't be classified as a "fiery explosion" happens instead. Nevertheless, the resulting cacophony of randomized magic completely disables the two Demon is what can it be best described as a tangle of iron brambles and diamond-crusted claws.
"Huh," the eight Astartes remarked out loud, "so [Curse of Deception] randomizes spell usage."
This information in question was only heard by Yuno as he just now attempts to cast his recently-relearned [Wind Blades Shower], only for [Towering Tornado] be cast instead.
"This whole fight is just one giant circus for the bitch, ain't it?!" Yuno remarked as he tried to cast [Towering Tornado] to scatter the three Demon copies but instead activates [Wind Blades Shower] instead, the flurry of blades shot out towards the Demons to slow it down, "so much relearning my spells when I can't choose which ones I can use!"
"GAH!" the Sylph threw a tantrum before sending the four blades to distract the other Demons while the third one trips over one of the planted blades before picking itself back up to its clawed feet and resuming its chase, "I'M SO ANGRY! FOR TOO MANY REASONS! ESPECIALLY WHEN I STILL CAN'T REMEMBER THE DAGGER'S NAME! IT'S LIKE THE SHE-DEMON SOLELY EXISTS TO PISS ME OFF!"
Gordon, even as seven out of his ten fingers were snapped like twigs, decides to take a gamble/test with the knowledge of the curse being put into context.
I've never been a gambling man myself... thought Gordon as one of the Demons reached for his right middle finger, ... but right now, no risk, no reward!
As the Astarte-clone placed its clawed hand onto one of his remaining fingers, Gordon immediately activates his [Poison Magic], not caring what it will be, rather focusing on what can he do with it.
Three fingers... Gordon thought as his randomized magic was confirmed, ... are more than enough!
His [Poison Magic] then spreads across the Demon's skin as with his own, the black botches continuing to spread even after the Demon cuts off its own arm to stop the infection. In a matter of moments, the black blight completely covers the flailing Demon before its twisted visage of a maiden was transformed into that of an infernal version of Gordon himself.
"What the fuck-" remarked the Astarte copy before its face was caved in by the now-Gordon copy.
"... Been working on this spell even before we lost all of our spells en masse," Gordon remarked as he got back up, "turns out it only pre-existing spells were taken, not the ones still developing in our grimoires," the Black Bull remarked as his assimilated Demon copy snapped all of his broken fingers back in place, causing him to wince in pain, "originally, it was supposed to weaken innate curses in someone by taking some of the curse myself and develop an antibody to let the person take a better control of it. But after you had to go and say that you are made of curses? Ideas started popping up in my head."
"In other words," the Demon!Gordon crudely remarked, "I am a goshdarn [Curse-Taking Cleaner]! I become your curse! Even if it's just a little! Now it's seven on seven you poophead!"
"... Wow," the Astarte copy remarked unimpressively at the assimilated-curse's juvenile vocabulary, "... I have no words."
Both copies then throw down upon each other, with Julius and Marx fending off the sole Demon copy.
"Alright, so-whoa!" exclaimed the Wizard King as he narrowly dodged the Demon's haymaker before firing a [Mana Bullet] to parry the following kick, "fighting with actual injuries... not great."
"Speak for yourself!" Marx exclaimed as he tried to cast [Torment Canceler], but instead ends up reading the Demon copy's mind, revealing all sorts of masked men experimenting/torturing the Demon from a first-person perspective, "[Mana Bullet] doesn't count as an actual spell since it can be cast without a grimoire and I'm trying to get rid of this curse so I can actually use [Torment Canceler] at my own free will!"
"And how many spells do you have in your possession right now?" asked Julius as he jumped back from the Demon copy's ground punch.
"... About two!" Marx answered as he briefly looked at the pages of his grimoire, "but I've been hitting duds for the past seven attempts! FIFTY-PERCENT MY ASS! YOU KNOW THAT I SUCK AT GAMBLING!"
"KEEP DOING IT UNTIL YOU GET IT!" Julius ordered as he kept firing his [Mana Bullets] towards the replicant Demon, "I'LL KEEP THIS ONE BUSY!"
"MR. MARX!" Grey cried out as she ran towards him, "... wha-what do I do?!"
"Watch my back," he answered as he opened his grimoire once again, "I have very, very stupid plan that just might work."
Marx then points his magically-projected crossbow at himself.
"... Wh-what are you doing?!" gawked Grey, "a-are you trying to kill yourself?!"
"Eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable..." Marx remarked as he readied his next shot of his own [Memory Magic] at his own head, "... will be the truth."
He fires, only for nothing to happen.
"Damn it," he cursed before he turned his head towards Grey, "you got a spare mana potion?"
She hands him one before he downs the whole bottle in one gulp.
"Good," Marx remarked as he tossed aside the empty bottle, "watch my back in case someone tries to jump on either of us."
Meanwhile, Julius himself was balancing between fighting off the copy Demon while trying not to reopen any of his healing wounds. Shot for shot he fired at the Demon, but as the conflict kept pressing on, the Demon was becoming more savvy of where his shots were going, slowly parrying and dodging the Wizard King's [Mana Bullet] with each successive volley canceled.
"Getting sloppy there, aren't ya?" taunted the Demon copy.
"Are you the real one or one of the copies?" asked Julius to redirect the taunt.
"Yes," it answered as it kicked up the ground beneath to create a dust cloud to obscure Julius's vision.
But before the Demon can deliver a blast of wind from its wings to send Julius flying, he uses his [Time Magic] to randomize between either of his two spells, [Chronostasis] and [Chronotelos].
Either the former can be used to turn the cloud of dust into a solid wall by holding the mass of dirt in place or the latter can simply induced a delayed reaction of the coming wingbeat to buy himself time to get away from the devastating attack.
Either way, Julius thought as he activated his [Time Magic] randomized by the Demon's [Curse of Deception], this is check.
However, instead of either stopping or stretching out time, what happened instead is that the whole surroundings began rewinding back in time. Even though the wastelands were still present, the out of control spell from the Wizard King was more or less a widespread projection spell that Julius was working on before he and Marx ran into the Demon.
[Historía], a spell that was meant to be used for investigative work, was now instead used during combat, completely useless of making an actual difference in battle save for the change of scenery. Beneath Julius's notice due to the sheer chaos that occurred during the fight for their lives against this extremely-fickle and lackadaisical Demon, the spell that was meant for non-combative purposes had completed itself and added itself into the very pages of the Wizard King's grimoire at the WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT.
"... Oh goddammit," cursed Julius as he hastily casted the randomized [Time Magic] onto himself, encasing himself within the bubble of [Chronostasis] as the violent storm of Astarte was unleashed upon him due to his sudden misfortune, WHY DID I LEAVE THE DEVELOPING SPELL IN AUTO?!
As soon as Julius himself flew away relatively unharmed and frozen in time, everyone, including the copied Demons, stopped what they were doing as the scenery unfolding before them was impossible to ignore.
At where Yuno and Titania were fighting against the three Astarte's, a projection of a hilltop cabin emerged. Out of it was none other than Astaroth walking alongside with a woman that similar to him.
"... Asta?" choked Yuno.
"Huh, there's my daughter," everyone then looked towards their respective Demon inadvertently dropped a metaphorical bomb upon everyone.
"... Yuno?" Gordon asked, "... you said that Asta used to be your brother back at the orphanage, right?"
Yuno however, was too shaken to even answer the Black Bull's question as he himself was able to connect the dots on his own.
"... You're Asta's grandmother?" Yuno gawked at Astarte.
"Yeah duh," the Demon casually answered, "and by the way, Licita, that bitch next to him, was my 85th child out of my 39 daughters. Literally everyone else died."
After all this time, Yuno was forced to accept the fact that the Asta he knew and raised alongside was in fact, already had Demon blood running in his veins.
His orphanage brother was in fact, didn't just become a Demon after he'd died that day.
Asta's cruel fate was that he himself was already destined by birthright to become one.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: TWO writer blocks in a row. In a span of three days. And Vanguard ZERO nerfed Brawler Big Bang Knuckle Buster by removing its +1 effect.
As you can tell, this week after two weeks of exhausting holiday back to back of Christmas and New Years on top of reading Code Prime (Transformers X Code Geass) fic, I got a little distracted.
Actually no, VERY distracted.
My personal gripes aside, this chapter is meant to pain Astarte's "nihilism" in a more comedic light but still just as scummy. Everything is a goddamn circus to the Demon, and it doesn't care other than when it chooses to. It's meant to be a mix of hedonism and apathy. Bursts of motivation before stopping to not care anymore before whiplashing back to its manic state.
After all, if nothing really matters, why bother being consistent?
Potentially sloppy writing aside, I'm trying to end the fic before I stretch it out too long and mire myself in an inescapable bog. Gonna do a sequel fic that'll be announced for reals in the next chapter just to calm the fuck down and settle down on a formula. And real life is already catching up with school coming up in a few weeks before my hiatus until around June.
With that said, I'll try to end Apocrypha before the 20th of this month so I can finally reorganize my head. Everything else? That's really up to debate.
References:
- Astarte's line of confusion regarding [Curse of Paranoia] is from Imperfect Cell's reaction to Android 16 from Dragon Ball Z Abridged before taking Hell's Flash.
- [Curse of Vanity]'s function is based off Mariska's self-duplication technique from Lollipop Chainsaw. Also, Astarte's comment on its simplicity is taken from Aku during the final episode of Samurai Jack.
- [Curse of Deception] works functionally to the "confuse" status aliment from Final Fantasy, albeit only when choosing spells rather than dictate a player's actions at random.
- Marx's quote while he aims his [Memory Magic] at himself is from a Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of Four.
- Julius's [Time Magic: Historía] is named after two things: the Greek word for "history", istoría, and the spell [Historia] used by Neinhart in Fairy Tail.
- Astarte's reveal of Licita being its 85th child is based off Charlotte Linlin's status as "Big Mom" of having 85 children.