A/N: WARNING! THIS FIC HAS: HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA, mentions/talks of rape/non-con (not actually written), mentions of sexual activity (not actually written), SUICIDAL THEMES, Dehumanism, being pursued by people, uncomfortable situations, misunderstandings and demons being nasty. Be careful y'all, if you're not comfortable with reading this stuff, please don't. Currate your online experience with care.

ENnjoy this 16k word mess of me writting about demons pining for Asta.

Asta didn't think much about who his parents were. He was an orphan, yes, but the church always had chores to do. And if not, then Asta would have found something else to do, like training or helping Sister Lily. Existential reflections didn't come from boredom, and even if they did, Asta didn't care.

The minute they had left him on the doorstep of the church, that was the end of that. His family is Father Orsi, sister Lily, Yuno and all the other children in the church. It was enough for him and he was glad that he had such a family. Who knew, if they had not left him, he might have never had any brothers or sisters, and Asta would have become sad and lonely.

But intrusive thoughts still came in the middle of the night, when Asta couldn't sleep and his brain began to wander in the direction of what ifs. Hage was a small village, but it was on the edge of the kingdom. Maybe the parents were from another kingdom?

Perhaps from the Heart, they have many rivers and reservoirs and there was a stream near the village. To think about the fact that they were from Diamond was scary. He heard from other farmers in the village talking about that kingdom. They ripped and patched together grimoires, made experiments on the development of magic on children. It was the stuff of nightmares. His parents must have left in Clover to protect the child, if the rumours were true. He had no mana and even here he was constantly ostracised for it. And what if he was from Spade? He didn't know what was happening in the Northern kingdom. And moreover, the kingdom of Spade was surrounded by the strong mana zone. You can't get in and you can't get out of there.

And who were they? His mother and father, why-

Why was he left behind? Did they figure out that he had no magic when he was born?

Deep mulling like those usually ended with Asta either falling asleep and forgetting everything, or thinking "I don't care, I will still become the Wizard King for the family that cared for me, not the one that threw me away."

That was many years ago. Asta received a grimoire, became a magic knight in the Black Bulls and slowly began to work towards his dream. There's just one problem. One big, horrid problem, that didn't leave him alone, no matter how many times he solved it.

Demons. Fucking demons. They were like hydras - you kill one, three appear in its place. And this wasn't even a metaphor.

Asta knew a lot of people had problems with demons, but for him it was more specifically with the demon inside his grimoire. He had only seen tidbits of him, the last time they had an actual conversation was in the Witches' Forest. However, recently he had begun seeing... dreams.

No, they weren't dreams. They were nightmares. Nightmares of running from demons, just barely escaping death or even something worse, all while his strength seems to slowly sap away from him.

He wakes up in hell. At least, that's what he thinks it is. Asta can't imagine a place like this being anywhere in the world, much less near civilization or humans.

The world is a rooted cave system that seemed similar to roots, the soil is as black as coal, the fire is blue and cold like ice and the buildings that appear in large open spaces are as white as the dress he wears. Yes, dress. His demon must have a sick sense of humour for putting him in a dress and forcing him to run for his life in it.

The dress is... Asta doesn't think it looks good on him. It's clearly a dress meant to accent one's body but it makes Asta look like it's like a curtain with a gold, tree-like belt. His entire chest is open, save for the two pieces of shawl-like cloth that cover the chest, secured where the belt is but left to billow behind his back like a cape. There's two slits that start at the belt that cut down and reveal the front of his legs, while the fabric pools at his feet.

Maybe it would look good on a mature, tall woman but Asta's short and bulky stature makes the dress seem like a curtain in his opinion.

But less about the dress that makes Asta try and wrap what little of the covering he has around himself and more about the fact that Asta is left in the clearest definition of hell with no grimoire, no swords and with a whole group of demons chasing him through the cave system the minute they lay their eyes on him.

Asta had never felt so helpless when he first had the dream. He was lucky to have evaded them all in that one night simply by blending into the buildings. All he has in that dimension is his strength and his wits, which may as well be next to nothing.

He's an idiot, he knows this, he's bitterly accepted it. He's foolish enough to run from the shadowy demons in human shapes into one of the white ruins, only to find a one not veiled in shadows, teeth open in a parody of a smile and with eyes that do not hide the demon's intentions.

Out the pan, into the fire - if the shadow demons simply chased him, then the ruin demons who found him all but started hunting him with a type of magic Asta couldn't focus on remembering and saying words he couldn't understand. The demon, whose horns had grown backwards and twisted upwards at the end, had acted like it was all a game, judging by the melodious laughter and sickly sweet words echoing the halls as Asta all but ran for his life. Too many times had the devil nearly caught him.

Asta had barely evaded, just somehow managing to evade the devil long enough to escape the ruins and run back into the dark cave system. But there's no escape - if he ran into the black caverns, he'd be eventually found and chased by other more adventurous ruin demons, if he ran into the white ruins for cover, he'd be hunted by one with the disadvantage of getting lost. It was like an endless cycle of trekking through the land, running from wanderers into the temporary safety of the closest ruins, eventually get found out by a demon and barely escaping the castle and ending up doing it all over again until something pulled him out of it.

Asta always woke up from falling down. He once tried to throw himself off a tower on one of the ruins to wake up.

That sure ended well.

The demon of the ruins of the time - odd horns that seemed to grow upwards with just a bit of a curve halfway, arrow-like tail and sleek wings with long, gangly arms - had found him right when Asta had gathered enough courage to jump and began chasing him again.

Except this demon clearly hadn't been playing a game.

Asta and he were teleported into what seemed to be a hall and the demon was just a hair's length away from grabbing him.

Asta ran, like he always did. But this time, this time Asta had gotten caught. The demon hadn't laughed or sang like all the other Ruin Demons did or play some sadistic game of hide and seek. No, the demon had chased him like his life depended on it, yelling at Asta in what seemed to be rage and maybe even desperation. Asta hadn't even managed to get to the staircase before something ensnared him and began pulling him back into the hall in mid air.

There was a moment of pure, unfiltered panic and fear in him before the adrenaline kicked in, he ripped himself out of the bindings and jumped out of the nearest window, loud screams from the devil being the last thing he heard before waking up with a start.

He didn't sleep for two days afterwards. He's avoided going inside the ruins ever since.

Asta always falls down, be it a ruined staircase, through the floor, slipping under his footing or a cliff but the dream always ended with him falling and falling until he hits water. He thought it was water at least, but the red liquid and black smoke and particles floating around him make it difficult to believe.

It's a calm, peaceful descent before a pair of enormous black hands start reaching out to him from below, trapping him in between the fingers. It's the slowest part of the dream, but to Asta it's the most terrifying.

Because the hands that caged him belonged to the very demon inside his grimoire, red eyes gleaming and smile widening. He's trapped and for all he tries, his limbs feel like lead, refusing to so much as weakly push against the flesh.

Asta never knows what the demon wants from him. He always does something different every night but everything from caressing his face with just the tip of his nail to simply staring at him can be a well-disguised threat.

Asta had learnt to read with the help of the book that had the legend of the first Wizard King. The story has been engraved in his mind for almost more than ten years. There have been many people who were cursed by demons with ill intent. Whatever this demon wants from him, it's not going to be good for anyone.

These dreams feel like psychological torture that the crooked horned demon does to make him weaken. He doesn't weaken, if anything he becomes stronger. He's faster, he can hide and evade better now and he can escape the pesky traps that are lying around the woods much easier.

But by God, Asta would leave those nightmares behind in a heartbeat. Even his friends are noticing it. Asta doesn't want to lie to his friends but he can only say that he's getting vivid nightmares. Luck, of all people, immediately responds by grabbing a large bottle of strong but sweet smelling alcohol from the shelves and placing it in front of him.

"Back when I only first joined the Black Bulls, I used to have nightmares. Not scary ones but they're still nightmares. You wake up from them and you can't fall asleep anymore. So i found something out. Your body can't stay awake if it's drunk and your brain can't make up nightmares if it's drunk either. Don't do it every night though." Luck had said. Asta wasn't sure if he was to be believed or not, but anything is good at this point.

Asta had drunk a whole cup, twice the amount Luck had used, and decided that if this doesn't work, he'll resort to worse means. Like actually fighting the demons with his bare hands and whatever large rocks he can find.

Instead, Asta wakes up drunk in the nightmare, wobbles his way to the river he always sees in the distance and simply decides to lie in it. The current takes him slowly to a destination and at some point a strange pebble lands on Asta's chest. Asta, in a drunken haze, begins talking to the rock. About everything. From the disappointment and jeers of the people of his village to the almost manslaughter in the Witches' Forest.

At some point the rant turns into a song Sister Lily had once made up. They had been washing the laundry when she had made up a song about washing the tablecloth. Asta, unfortunately, didn't remember the whole song and many words had become replaced with the next best thing.

"Do~own the creek this fabric flo~oats,

No~othing for me but the sinners belo~ow,

Do~own the river of death I go~o,

Until the sea swallows me who~ole!" Asta sang, water getting into his mouth and making him gurgle. He sings the four lines over and over again, without any care for the direction he's floating.

There are lights, long exposure of what seem to be sparks coming into shapes. The red light bounces off the water and shines on his eyes. He's hypnotised but not by the beauty of it. The nostalgic feeling of comfort and belongingness takes him and wraps around him like a halo. It feels natural, it feels right, more than anything ever has.

He drunkenly sings to the glowing lights, unaware that more rocks have fallen on him or that there were more yells of demonic speech in the background, muffled by his own voice and the water in his ears.

He notices a few fallen stones on his stomach and decides to dip himself underneath the water. The stones fall into the deep edge. Asta stays just a few inches below the water. The yelling is getting louder and more distorted. Asta's lungs start burning. It's peaceful.

He eventually floated back up into the surface, but can only manage to keep his torso, head and hands above water.

He remembered a painting in the capital that reminded him of this. A woman half submerged in a lush, green and flowery river with the bottom of her dress floating up to the top. Klaus had said the painting was done by the captain of the Azure Deers. It's name was Ophelia.

Ophelia. Hm, maybe he's Ophelia, half floating in a river in what seems to be a melancholic haze. But it's nice, it's calm, it's the calmest night he's had in weeks. Luck was right about the nightcap, this was great. No running, no fear, no demons-

A pair of clawed hands snake under his waist and knees and he's hauled up from the water in less than a second. Asta's head dangled as he was carried closer to shore, outraged yells and scratchy tones sliding off his ears like water. Oh wait, he's got water in his mouth.

He proceeded to spit out the odd river water out, letting it cascade down his face. The arms carrying him shake him a little and he gurgles out more water. The pace of the person carrying him increases. The arms around him are cold but firm-

Asta's dangling head suddenly smashed into what felt like a stalagmite and he was out like a light, with the last things he had heard being someone screaming angrily at someone.

He wakes up somehow, he's not sure where and his senses feel like soup. He's vaguely aware he's lying on his side, wrapped in soft cloth. He feels that there's some form of binding wrapped around his waist, judging by how heavy it is on his side.

He tried to move, or wiggle out of the hold but somehow the bindings just pressed his body tighter against something firm, with small unintelligible whispers going off near his ears. Several alarm bells go off in Asta's head as he struggles harder, only to be released and have a massive amount of pressure pressed down on his whole body, rendering him immobile.

He can't open his eyes, he's sweating, he's being pushed down in what feels like a soft bag and he can't remember how he got here. It's terrifying and Asta just wants this nightmare to be over with.

"Let me go- please- stop, no more-" Asta breathes out, choked and slurred by the alcohol and his sore throat.

The pressure stops and he's let go, left lying on the soft ground and tangled in what feels like a large blanket. He tries taking deep breaths, anything to calm down but they end up coming out as gasps for air, twitching and tossing in frustration at how disoriented he felt. Maybe it's the alcohol, maybe it's the confusion and helplessness, maybe it's the fact that he's been having these nightmares for almost a month now but Asta feels close to breaking down. A choked sob escaped him as he tried to curl in on himself. Something wrapped around him and pressed him close. Claws started combing through his hair and Asta felt himself drift away.

Comfort, someone was trying to give him comfort. Asta's cheeks flushed.

"Oh, how the underworld has missed you, our poor Babylon." Was the last thing Asta heard before falling asleep.

When Asta woke up again, he was considerably more sober, more lucid and had an enormous headache. He then realized he's in the red water again but with no sign of the ram horned demon. Asta sighed in relief. He was amazed that he woke up at all. Looking back at the dream, he realized he had all but attempted to drown himself with some rocks and the demons who were hunting him were the ones who fished him out. Sure, Asta had gotten the calmest night he had in weeks but at what cost?

But who knows, maybe they'll leave him alone after this. Asta sighed, as if.

His sigh causes the surface which he lied on to stiffen. Asta looked down and promptly saw that he was lying cheek first on someone's pitch black triceps.

"How in Satan's name did you manage to mess up so bad that I had to smuggle you out of Lucifero's castle while that double horned bastard yelled at Zagred for letting you go the first time?" A hoarse and familiar voice resounded above him. "I've never seen anyone throw insults so passionately before. Much less someone screaming at their subordinate while doing it."

"Do you think this is funny, watching me run for my life away from demons in a dress like some novella heroine?" Asta groaned, anger rising.

"On the contrary, if you had stopped running I would've been able to get you out faster. For someone so loud and boisterous, you're surprisingly slippery." Asta's demon replied. The way he said it made it seem like he had nothing to do with it, as if he was innocent in this.

"You're the one who put me there in the first place!" Asta said as he turned to the demon, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"I did not. You did. It's an ability you have. You came there by your own accord, even if unconsciously." The demon replied, poking him in the cheek and pulling at it. Asta whined in pain and ripped himself out of the hold, pushing himself off the demon. "You came to the underworld by yourself. I was the one who always had to fetch you out of it."

"What- that's not possible!" Asta exclaimed. If hell was a whole different dimension, he doubted he could just waltz in there with little-to-no problems.

"For a human, no." Asta flinched at the sentence, immediately understanding what it meant.

"But I am human!"

"No. You're Babylon." The demon said it with such nonchalance, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm a what? A valveon?"

"Babylon. And not a, the Babylon." The demon replied. Asta still didn't know what that word meant. His brows furrowed, trying to rack his brain for anything even sounding like the word. "You don't know what Babylon is. Have you even somewhat heard of it? Mystery, Babylon the Great, Whore of Babylon, Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth, Jewel of Demons-"

Asta lunged at the devil, calloused hands wrapping around the demon's throat in an attempt to choke him. Asta was so mentally tired, he really couldn't find the politeness nor the rationality to not find a way to shut him up. He's been chased by demons in his dreams for a month and in less than a few hours he's gotten drunk, drowned, been suffocated and called a bunch of fancy-shmancy titles that don't even ring a bell.

Asta has had enough and if gratuitous violence will shut the devil's mouth then gratuitous violence he will perform.

"Shut up! I don't know what that is and I don't care! I'm not a demon, I'm nothing like you monsters!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, hands squeezing the demon's neck.

"No, nothing like us indeed. Babylon is no demon, but Babylon is not human either. You cannot deny your nature, you cannot deny your destiny." The demon said, not even relatively phased by the hands tightening on his neck, and reached out a hand to brush a stray lock of hair behind Asta's ear. Asta flinched away from the contact and the demon sighed at the loss of contact.

"Destiny, scmestiny, I don't care what you say I'm supposed to be, I'll carve my own path with my own two hands. I'll be the Wizard King-" Asta was interrupted by the demon laughing. It wasn't an evil laugh either. It was like someone had just realized the irony and humour of the situation. "What's so damn funny?!"

"You, you're funny. You say you won't be Babylon, but you're already declaring what you're meant to do. You really have no idea of who Babylon is, do you?" The demon's grin widened. Asta bristled at the insult, at least it sounded like an insult.

"I don't need to know!"

"Oh but you do. And you're already acting upon it."

"From what I remember I haven't killed a single person. Unlike someone."

"Babylon does not kill. Babylon conquers." Something about the statement made Asta shudder, goosebumps rising on his skin. He pushed the rattled feeling down, determined to ignore it. "You're very good at it, too."

"What-"

"You said you will become the Wizard King? Babylon has promise of both position of power and wealth. You wish to help the Diamond Kingdom become peaceful? Babylon's influence spans across countries and the human who was given the puppet blood follows your words blindly. You wish to make commoners equal to nobles, to show that you can gain something by working hard and striving towards it? Babylon strives to demolish human societal systems, be it religion, power or class." Each sentence made Asta shake with emotion. Was it fury, disgust, self-deprecation or complete shock? He couldn't tell, nor could he stifle the sound of anguish coming through his throat. His hands loosened and he started digging his nails into the collarbone of the devil. He hates him, he hates this creepy jerk who keeps saying weird stuff and claiming he's not-

No. Asta won't accept it. He's human, more human than some humans. He's not this Babylon thing and he's not a demon. He's Asta, a human orphan found and raised in a church who's going to prove to everyone that you don't need a noble bloodline or some awesome form of magic to become great. He'll do it all while being human, because he's human, he has to be-

"Even if you deny it, you've already begun unconsciously towards becoming the epitome of Babylon. Your dreams, your personality, your morals - you hadn't known you were Babylon for one and a half decades but act exactly like one should. Though your behavior might warrant some... unexpected prying from other devils." The demon replied, rubbing soothing lines on his arms. This guy doesn't even make sense, first he's calling him a monster then he's comforting him.

"Moody bastard." Asta chokes out.

"I'm Babylon's moody bastard though, most devils would consider that an honour."

"I don't care about this Babylon stuff or anything like that I just-" Asta choked back a furious sob. "I don't wanna live like this! I don't want to go to sleep knowing that I'm going to be hunted for sport, I don't want to be some form of enrichment for demons, I just want to sleep in peace, damn it!"

"That can be arranged." The demon said calmly.

"Sure it is, what are you going to do, give me a deal I won't refuse? I beat you once, I'll beat you again."

"Are you sure? I can make it so that you don't go back there at all. You can sleep in dreamless peace, with no demons coming into your mind to fester nightmares. It'll be like you never existed in the underworld at all." The demon said, rubbing gentle circles on the back of Asta's hand with his thumb.

"There's a but there, I can hear it."

"But you must become my wife."

"... I'm a man, though." Asta said with a blank expression. The demon simply huffed.

"Literally nobody cares. Babylon could be reincarnated as a man, a woman, both or neither - we wouldn't care. Fact still stands that they are Babylon. They were also a demon host and had mana. Much more mana than most humans. You not having any is quite the anomaly. I'm pretty sure the Curse Devil has become enamoured with learning what makes you tick." The demon refuted.

"That changes nothing. I'm not marrying you for a night of peaceful sleep. I'm going to marry someone else."

"Who? The nun?" The demon jeers.

"Yeah!" Asta replied without a sliver of doubt in his voice. The smile on the devil fell, as if he had realized Asta was being serious.

"You might not kill saints but you seem to have a fixation on damning them for sin, huh?"

"What the hell are you talking about?! I love Sister Lily genuinely, unlike someone who's only interested in how he can bed me." Asta spat back, voice dripping with poison.

"You say that as if I don't love you genuinely." He placed a hand over his forehead, feigning hurt.

"Do you, though?" Asta asked. The demon nodded. "Then if I were to ask you for something, would you do it?"

"Yes."

"Cool. When will you give me the divorce when I ask for one?"

"When you die." The demon replies with a smile, no shame present on his features. Asta groaned and smashed his head into the demon's chest. A hiss and a smack on his shoulder showed that he had put too much strength into the headbutt.

"But I wanna marry Sister Lily..." Asta huffed. Maybe he sounded like a child but the past few weeks have drained him greatly, with this specific night taking a toll on him.

"Fair, but have you ever considered that maybe Sister Lily doesn't want to get married at all? I mean look at the Vermillion woman and Nero! Who's to say she doesn't just feel like a husband would be too much work? So wouldn't you be happy to be married to a powerful, handsome and loving demon like me?"

"Firstly, I smell bullshit. Secondly, what's a demon's definition of "handsome" because you're certainly not mine. I might just take my chances with the horde of shadowy demons." Asta said without missing a beat.

"True, you could, but that's not to say it won't get worse. They've been chasing you for quite a while and it's not long before they capture you completely. Especially since after the stunt you pulled, their efforts will now be tripled." The demon said. "You could do what you did all this time, but it'll be harder and harder to evade them and you won't have me to spirit you away from danger. You've never really thought what would happen if they actually captured you, did you?"

Asta gulped. He didn't really know what they were planning and frankly he has no idea what to expect. The entire situation is terrifying. Nothing makes sense anymore and he doesn't have time to actually weigh his options.

"How do i know you're not just going to hurt and manipulate me? You probably set this whole thing up to get me to say yes to this." Asta accused.

"On the contrary, had you been completely human, that would've been a variable possibility. But it's strictly forbidden to hurt Babylon. Last time someone tried it, he got his tongue and fingers chopped off."

"But you'll passively manipulate me instead?" Asta crossed his arms. The demon looked away from him. "Don't ignore the question!"

"Maybe, maybe not. But there's no denying that you'll have to make a choice. It's either me and the antimagic I give you or those demons in the underworld and relinquishing your support of humanity."

"Wait, what?! You're joking, right?!" The entire situation made Asta nauseous. Him, going against all of humanity, his friends, his family, his very being. It made Asta feel sick.

"When I said you were lucky to have me, I mean it. Almost all of the devils you've encountered are severely against humans, fully prepared to destroy and conquer kingdoms on the basis of mere whims, and the rest are strictly neutral and in small numbers. You'd be pressured into killing those you once held dear in the future." The demon sighed through his nose. "I'm one of the few neutral ones. If you had gotten anyone else, they wouldn't really be giving you much of a choice. They'd probably call you silly for having human attachments."

"I genuinely can't tell which is worse."

"Then you must choose - be mine or be passed around by the demons of hell like a cheap whore."

"I'm sorry, what was the other option?!" Asta nearly slammed the back of his head into the demon's chin as he yelled in horror. By the looks of how the demon was rubbing his jawline, he probably did.

"What do you think the "Whore of Babylon" and "Jewel of Demons" titles stand for?" The demon raised an eyebrow. Asta blinked, his horror not even close to going away. Suddenly the prospect of marrying his demon wasn't as bad as it sounded. Sure, the whole idea gave him hives but it was a lesser evil compared to the other, more horrendous option.

"I feel like I'm gonna vomit."

"You can't really vomit in this place. If you did, you'd vomit in the human world too. By the way, what made you try to drown yourself?"

"Luck said a nightcap helps with nightmares. Your brain can't make up nightmares if you're too drunk to make up thoughts and all that."

"Foolish. You're truly foolish. You're so accident prone, you should just let me take care of things." The devil replied.

"No! No I- Listen, i need to think this over. You're basically proposing to me. I can't just go in willy-nilly." Asta said, crossing his arms and staring down the demon. "Plus, you could be lying to me about the "It's only getting harder from here" part. What do you know, you're not the one running around a cave system full of demons!"

The demon didn't seem pleased with his words because his next words were "go prove it then" and with a snap of his fingers Asta was out like a candle.

Asta woke up, still sober and head throbbing. He opened his eyes only to be met with a view of an ice floor, a white creepy wall and himself being tangled in his own dress.

His own demon sent him back to this hellhole, the bastard. Asta was about to yell profanities at the sky when the sound of humming reached his ears. Distorted, scratchy humming. He wasn't alone. There was a demon in the vicinity. And Asta was anywhere from a table length or a whole street away from him.

He quietly turned his head, not daring to even let the fabric of his dress make noise. Then he saw it.

Most of the demons he had encountered were the usual stuff. A pair of horns, a pair of wings and a tail.

This one had two of each. Two pairs of horns, two unfurled pairs of wings and what looked like the largest pair draped over him like a coat. Danger oozed off of this one. Asta wasn't sure if it was his self-preservation instincts, his logic or some deep, premonitioned gut feeling but he knew this guy was stronger than the rest. Way stronger.

Asta was completely sure that any wrong move could end with his guts smeared across the frozen lake. The demon seemed to be preoccupied however with what seemed to be graphs, papers and what-not levitating around him. Maybe he wouldn't hear him if Asta made a run for it.

Asta slowly, carefully sat up, glancing at the devil every now and then to check that he hadn't noticed he was awake. Asta saw the entrance in the distance.

It was a hole in the wall with small frost patterns on the stairs but it was an exit. Problem is that the exit is about a whole street away and there were skeletons and corpses frozen up to their necks at the entrance. As he looked more towards his position, he realized the closer the body was to the center of the lake, the deeper the body was embedded.

Fuck. Fuck, that might just end up being him. Asta glanced at the devil again. Still focused on books, alright. If Asta can tiptoe to the entrance, he can sneak out and prove to his demon bastard that he's overrated and he might not even need his weird protection.

Asta never realized how much he missed Finral up until now. Picking himself and his dress off the ground, Asta walked to the entrance with the roll of his feet.

Everything is going to be fine, he told himself. Keep calm, just take it nice and easy.

His anxiety lessened when he got halfway there with the devil still not hearing that he's moved from his spot or even turned his head.

Asta took another careful step as he looked back at the devil. Still no reaction-

He heard a crack under his foot. The ice. The fucking ice cracked.

At the same time, the devil's ears had twitched. Asta looked at the entrance and sprinted off. He ran in reckless abandon.

He heard the devil huff when he was so close, just a bit more and-

Asta was suddenly suspended in the air, many meters above the ice and just three meters away from the stairs. He kicked himself forward, tried swimming towards the door but he wasn't even moving an inch. And suddenly he was floating backwards. Towards the devil.

"No, no, no, nonono- why?!" Asta whispered to himself as he kept getting pulled towards the demon. Fear started skyrocketing, Asta kept struggling. He wasn't being held and there wasn't any force moving him, how does he get out of this-

"I appreciate the effort, Babylon, but we should reserve time for... these escapism fantasies for later." The devil said and Asta swore it was like he was whispering into his ear. "We've lost too much time, both because of this labyrinth and those pesky humans but now-"

Asta screeched at the top of his lungs when the devil touched his back. The reaction clearly caught him off guard, because the arm was ripped away and Asta was immediately dropped, causing the fear and adrenaline to make him run at full speed.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, go faster, legs!

He wasn't even halfway to where he was when a sudden force slammed him down into the ice, cracking it.

Asta's nails dug into the broken ice and he started dragging himself forward at a feverish pace. It was like climbing with a rock tied to your back and no footing. He continued to climb, arms straining and breath coming out as panicked hyperventilation. He didn't know how far he had gotten but immediately a strong form of pressure pressed down on him, slamming him into the frozen ground. Asta had the air knocked out of him, desperately trying to climb out of the crater the pressure had formed.

He managed to get out of the crater, even with bloody hands, and started to use the skulls and corpses peeking out from the ice as leverage.

A pair of clawed feet came into his view and a hand grabbed him by the cloth on his back, pulling him up. Asta held onto the eye sockets of a skull stuck in the ice for dear life. Instead, the skull had been pulled off the ice along with Asta, leaving the mage with a frozen skull in his hands and a devil holding him by his clothes.

The devil took the skull out of his hands and threw it in a random direction. Asta looked at the devil in fear. Loose locks of long hair fell in front of the demon's face, separated only by the horns on his head.

"Babylon, what is the meaning-"

The words of the devil cut off when he looked over his body. He must've seen something as he reached out to touch his torso. Asta, in a moment of self preservation, wrapped his arms around himself, tainting the white dress in blood. How did- oh, right, Asta dug his fingers into what is seemingly broken glass.

Asta's not sure if it was the disobedience, the blood on his hands or the numerous scars on his arms and torso, but it made the demon seemingly simmer with rage. It probably doesn't help that Asta was acting like he was going to be gutted by the guy, which, in all honesty, seemed very possible considering the demon's mood.

"Give me your hand." The devil said. Asta only pressed his hands closer to himself. They didn't burn or hurt but they were cold. So cold he couldn't feel them. It doesn't help that they're calling him that name. "Babylon, why?"

"I'm not Babylon! I'm not- I'm human, damn it! Leave me alone!" Asta yelled at him, feeling himself snap at the seams. He's tired, scared, angry and he just wants to be left in peace. "You, him, everyone here keeps calling me that stupid name! Babylon this, Babylon that, just shut up! I'm not a damn demon, I'm human! So leave me alone already! I'm human, I'm not-"

Asta choked on his words with sob. Warm liquid cascaded down his face, the tears falling from his face and onto the ice. He didn't even realize he was crying. He's so damn tired of all this. He just wants to fall asleep and-

A clawed hand wiped away his tears only for Asta to cry harder. This was wrong, weird. Asta's always been mentally resilient, years of jeers and negative remarks have made him so and he still retained his hope and optimism. He shouldn't be breaking down from almost three weeks of nightmares and attempted captures, he shouldn't be crying his eyes out in front of a dangerous demon and he certainly shouldn't just let him try and comfort him.

Why were they acting like this anyway?! They hunted him for sport, not for whatever this is. They're demons, they kill and hurt people and-

"Who told you that?" The demon asked, gripping Asta's chin to face him. Asta then realized he had said all of that out loud. Fuck. The demon pressed a kiss to his forehead, letting go of his chin and tangling his fingers through his hair. Asta's face heated up. It almost seemed romantic.

"I knew humans were pathetic but this crosses the line." And there went the romantic atmosphere, down into the depths of hell.

"Please, I just wanna go home." Asta breathed out, too tired and drained to pay attention to the demon.

"This is your home." The demon replied, a tiny bit of anguish in his voice. Or maybe Asta was just imagining it. "What did they do to you, sweet Babylon?"

"I'm not Babylon. I'm not. Let me go already."

"No. Not now, not after this." The demon whispered and Asta was brought to the demon's chest, long arms wrapped around him, holding him close. "Perhaps we should push forward the Qlipoth plan, those humans seem to have forgotten their lesson from long ago. We'll start with eliminating the worms in your country, wouldn't that be nice? Maybe a few public executions here and a few decapitated heads on spikes there? Whatever punishment you want them to have. Be it the peasants or the king, they're worthless either way."

Wait a bit longer, and we will take our place as the rightful rulers of the world. All thirteen of us."

Asta didn't hear the last part of what the demon said, drifting out of consciousness.

"Hey, demon."

"Hm?"

"I changed my mind, when's the wedding?"

"That was fast, dear spouse."

"I'd rather deal with one of you than all of them."

"Really now? And what was the breaking point?"

"Some guy was talking about a plan to kill humans. You're not doing that."

"No, you'd hate me forever if I did."

"I would. But you won't do it. So I choose you. Please."

The sound of laughter could be heard.

"A wise choice, my dearest Asta." Asta blushed against his desire not to. Damn demons.

Several weeks passed and Asta was finally out of his funk. The nightmares had finally stopped and Asta could sleep in peace. Asta could look forward to sleeping and wake up refreshed after three weeks of pure, unfiltered sleep-induced panic.

The Black Bulls were also relieved to see Asta go back to his energetic self. It was unnerving to see Asta tired or somber. One had wondered what kind of nightmares he had seen to become like that.

As for Asta...

"It's ironic, really. Two Vermillions and a Silva are completely enthralled with you yet you have eyes only for the nun. It must be a slap to the face for those three." The devil said to Asta as the antimagic mage did his daily sets of training.

'Hey! Leopold is my rival and Mimosa and Noelle don't feel that way about me! They would've been way more obvious if they did.' Asta replied to the devil through the mental link.

"Sure, sure. As if trying to win over your attention all the time isn't a sign." The demon scoffed. "Well, doesn't matter, you're mine so they should've shot their shot earlier."

'You keep mentioning that. Is it really that big of a deal? I mean this is only marriage of convenience.' Asta said. 'And you never said i couldn't marry anyone else while being married.'

"A marriage triangle? They'll have to earn my approval first. And between those four, the wind mage and water mage are taking the lead."

'Yuno doesn't feel that way. He's my rival!'

"Sure, and the weekly letters filled with pressed flowers and minerals from Diamond's borders are purely platonic." The devil retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm getting the idea that you use the words "rival" and "person who's crushing on me" like it has the same meaning."

'Why would Yuno try to crush me?' Asta inquired as he began doing push-ups.

"Forget what i said, you're hopeless in the romance department. Though it wouldn't be a surprise if Yuno ended up being a runaway noble. You usually have that type of effect on royalty and positions of power. Might be from Spade or Diamond Kingdom. Though maybe Spade is more likely, but that wouldn't make sense unless... Nah, he wouldn't be. He's too much of a recluse."

'What? What'd you think of? And Yuno isn't a recluse, he's already made friends in the Golden Dawn and even in the Black Bulls, don't go badmouthing him!' Asta yelled into his head and heard the devil wince. If it's one thing Asta had learnt, it's that yelling in his head was a close equivalent of a sandal throw to the demon.

"Sure, he's got friends but he doesn't make them often. And I was thinking, hey, Yuno has a magic stone from birth, was chosen by a wind spirit and there was a coup in Spade around the same year you two were found in the church. What if Yuno's a long lost prince from Spade!" The devil laughed. Asta chuckled a little bit.

'Okay, yeah, that's a little funny. Yuno is super awkward and a bit detached. He was a real crybaby too when he was a kid. Plus, it'd be weird if they just decided to leave a prince at a church in the middle of nowhere. Wouldn't they have aimed for a noble house or something?'

"Exactly! The only way it would make sense if the guy running was on death's door by the time he reached your village. Spade people are resilient and devoted, they've lived in an incredibly cold climate for centuries. Anything that could kill a spade citizen is worth being wary of."

'Whatever, you're awfully talkative recently. Is something gonna happen?'

"Nah."

Asta's judgemental silence spoke a thousand words.

"Okay, fine, something will happen but I'm not sure what. I can tell there's gonna be some demon involvement - a demon's been climbing up the roots of hell, which means he's got a reason for doing so."

Asta stumbled in one of his push-ups but continued anyway. He was still anxious about the nightmares he had in the Underworld. He wasn't even sure if he'd ever stop being hesitant about the topic.

"Hey, don't worry your pretty little head, spouse. I'm sure i can take him. He's not like one of the lower levels - he's not weak and we might have some trouble with his magic but I can take him."

'You can. But what if I have to? Sure, you're giving me pointers about my power but how are you sure that I'll manage. If we're going to face off a demon in the future, how are you sure we'll be ready?'

"We won't."

'HUH?!' Asta screamed internally as he fell into the grass.

"Ow, tone it down! My ears are bleeding!" The demon yelled at him. "As I said, we don't know what the guy is planning, all we do know is that he's got a possible way into the human world - which means it could be anything from a small cloud like body to a literal full form. Even with those options, it's unlikely that we're lucky enough to get a small one or unlucky enough to face off a demon with a physical body."

'You're talking to the most unlucky person in the country, you might just jinx us.' Asta replied, face buried in the grass. 'But if it's neither, then maybe-'

"A demon host? Maybe. Very likely even. There's quite a few in Spade, so maybe we should watch out for that, but they're more concerned with Diamond. Anyway, even if it's a host, we can't train for a specific method only. You're without magic but you're adaptable. Terrifyingly so. Most of your buddies are. That's what we'll rely on for now." The demon finished.

'Hah, okay. But if we get jinxed-'

"We won't, trust me. When's the last time a demon got a physical body in the human world? Centuries ago! We'll be fine!"

'Antimagic demon, you fucking jinx.'

"Fair enough. Chew me out, dear spouse, but later when both your ass and mine aren't in danger."

Asta wanted to scream obscenities as he locked eyes with the physical form of the devil that had not only caused the genocide of the elves, but also the entire midnight eye scheme.

This was the very same devil that had seen him nearly jump off a tower many months ago and then proceeded to slam himself out of a window. The same one that had, by his demon's words, assumed he had attempted suicide twice in the same day and saw him nearly drown in the River Styx.

This was gonna be an interesting fight. Key word - interesting.

The devil had looked at him for a split second, before going back to his business. For a second, Asta had a glimmer of hope that maybe he didn't recognise him.

Hope quickly vanished as the devil spun his head back to look at Asta so fast that the antimagic user could hear his neck crack. After looking Asta up and down, at his grimoire and black markings, the demon fully turned to him, ignoring the leader of the Midnight Eye.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" The demon screeched as he pointed a finger at Asta.

"I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME THING, MISTER 'I HAUNT THE NIGHTMARES OF INNOCENTS BECAUSE I'M BORED'!" Asta yelled in panic as he waved his sword threateningly at the other devil.

"Haunt the-" the demon sputtered. "You know what, I'll deal with you later, just stand there and be pretty for a bit. I have elves to kill."

Before the word magic demon could fully turn around, Asta threw a rock straight into the back of his head. A yell of anger came from the devil as Asta charged a long range attack.

"HEY DEMON!" Asta yelled. The demon turned to him, spite burning in his eyes, and Asta threw the attack straight at him. "GO BACK TO HELL!"

The fight is as tedious as it is mortally perilous and that's not taking into account that Asta's friends, the first Wizard King, the elves (who were apparently manipulated the entire time to resurrect the demon) and several of the captains all nearly had a run in with death of sorts.

In the beginning, the devil seemed to single him out by trying to restrain him. Gravity, familiar snares, even weird creatures from hell that he's seen in his nightmares at times, whatever he had in mind.

It took up until the demon had to literally regenerate from his heart to get it through that the only way Asta will stay down is if he's knocked unconscious.

Boy, wasn't that a fun experience. Asta is pretty sure he's gonna have nightmares of the heart literally rebuilding a whole body from scratch.

He's not sure how they've all managed to win but by chipping away at the enemy's body and his demon actually getting off his ass and doing something, a decisive blow was dealt by Asta, of all people.

Just as the demon was disintegrating, Asta heard it.

"In the very least, it's an honour to die by Babylon's hand. That I may be proud of." The demon rasped, barely eligible from a distance.

"Forgive me, Babylon." The word soul demon spoke into Asta's head. "This one has failed to protect not once, but thrice. Perhaps this is not honour but punishment."

Asta flinched. He hadn't been called that in months. He almost forgot what he was. Almost. He didn't understand, just why were these demons so attached to Babylon? Who were they? What did they do? What is he supposed to do?

'Demon.' Asta spoke to the demon, who was barely a torso at this point. 'What is your name?'

"Za... gred..." the demon breathed out.

'Zagred. The fallen wait for you in the ruins of Babylon.' Asta replied, wondering why he felt the need to give the dying demon some form of goodbye. The phrase had only come to mind recently, but judging by how the demon's eyes widened and seemingly watered, it was the right choice. The demon only gave out a last breath and closed his eyes as the disintegration reached his head.

As the final pieces of Zagred turned to nothing, Asta's body went slack. The pain of previous injuries, muscle pain and fatigue came crashing down as he fell, his transformation having run out of time.

Before he could fall, Yuno caught him and his grimoire midair. Asta was having a hard time breathing.

"Smooth words back there. Not sure if he deserved them though." His demon said in his mind. Asta made a questioning noise at him. "What you said are parting words in the Underworld. For Babylon to say that to a dying demon is to honour the death of one. He died, sure, but he died with a ray of hope."

Asta closed his eyes for a minute simply to process all that. Zagred, who had seen a misunderstanding of him try to end himself, had devoted his last words to apologise to him for failing him. In return, Asta had made the last thing he heard a promise of something better, of a seemingly open path to hope.

Zagred desired to "save" Asta by killing the elves, humans and even his devil but ended up being "saved" by him in the last minute through death.

'Ironic.' Asta thought.

"Your whole life is nothing but irony." The demon said to Asta. "Now get out of here before the whole place goes tits up."

Even after escaping the Shadow Palace, everything still drains Asta. From the first Wizard King parting with Nero to the very news of the Wizard King dying.

Except he's not dead, he's a child now. A child shorter than Asta. And the antimagic mage is far too tired to even begin doing the mental gymnastics of how that happened. He hasn't been this tired since the nightmares.

And then he declared that he had lost influence, Clover Kingdom might get destroyed by the other kingdoms and Asta will die.

At the sound of the possibility of Asta dying, the antimagic demon had yelled up a storm of demands: who, where, how, why, when does he get to kill them.

Asta was partially sure the demon would've left some intel about that just to get the other devils working against that. But whatever assassination attempts the other could've plotted quickly died down upon the given reason.

Asta's power, in essence, came from a demon. This whole catastrophe was made by one and the House of Kira, trying to preserve its military force and the nobility of Clover, will use Asta as a scapegoat.

The devil had only tsked and gone quiet upon hearing the reason.

"Wait- but this demon power does hurt Asta!" Noelle suddenly piped up. Asta was taken aback. She turned to Captain Yami. "Captain, remember when we healed Asta's arms in the Witch Forest and right after that he had reoccurring nightmares for almost a month?! Asta used that transformation for the first time in the Witchs' Forest. It all makes sense."

For a minute, Asta had wished Noelle hadn't brought up those nightmares.

"Nightmares?" Julius inquired. "I... don't quite follow."

"Upon Asta awakening demonic powers, he had suffered from almost nightly nightmares. And it's actually possible that it has a connection to the demon." Nero added from the top of Asta's head. "The two incidents were too close to be simply a coincidence. However, they left unexpectedly after Luck had made Asta drink a nightcap."

"The nightmares weren't that bad, you don't have to worry!" Asta put up a defence.

"You sounded like you were running for your life while dreaming during some nights. It woke me up sometimes." Asta wondered if throwing Nero out of the window would be considered attempted murder, because while he deeply valued her he also wished she'd just stop talking about it. All eyes turned on him and Asta suddenly felt small in the room.

"Asta." His demon spoke up. "You should tell them. At least while nobody is watching you. You can't keep repressing it. You either tell them or they find out through them."

Asta knows what the demon means by them.

Asta's hands clenched at his sides. He wants to leave it behind. Pretend that those nightmares were just that - nightmares. That he wasn't sought out or even connected to demons. That he wasn't some reincarnation of some person who actively wanted to destroy humans or that he was supposed to conquer the continent.

He's not Babylon. He didn't want to be Babylon.

"Asta?" Mimosa touched his shoulder. "You look... pale. Are you sure you're okay?"

Asta took a shaky breath. Mimosa wouldn't tell anyone. Noelle would understand due to how her family treated her and would keep it with her to the grave. Captain Yami wasn't talkative about squad secrets. Julius would respect victim confidentiality.

"I... I didn't want to accept it but- I think those nightmares weren't just nightmares." Asta began. "It's... it felt so lucid and I couldn't even have time to think about it. I was so focused on escaping and surviving that I didn't realize where I was. When I did it... it was too late. It kept happening over and over again."

"What happened exactly?"

"I... I think i went to the underworld. Or was thrown in there. When that creepy guy opened that portal, the creatures that came out were the same ones I encountered. It was like running in a maze - the more you run, the more lost you get."

Yami and Julius were both getting suspicious. It wasn't like Asta to beat around the bush. Something must be up.

"Shrimp, are these nightmares... personal?" Yami inquired. Maybe personal was the wrong word. Asta seemed uncomfortable just by thinking about it. Yami had noticed that the brat had nightmares, as he was more sluggish and depressed during that time. He had worried about it but seeing how he had bounced back at the time made him realize he didn't have to.

Now he was wondering if he should've asked more.

"It's not personal so much as... terrifying. I don't like remembering it. The caverns, the ice, the demons-"

"Demons?!" Mimosa exclaimed. Asta winced.

"Yeah... that's the worst part. I think they're using me as a source of enrichment."

"Enrichment?"

"They've been hunting me down in my nightmares for three weeks straight. I'm not sure how I managed to slip away for so long." Asta bemoaned. "Getting caught was... awful."

Mimosa put a hand on Asta's shoulder, perhaps in an attempt to comfort him.

"That's... I'm not really sure how to describe that. Do you have any idea why they would do something like that?"

"They called me something. Like a name. They called me Babylon." Asta finally admitted. Almost nobody reacted to the name except for a raised eyebrow.

Nobody except Julius, whose eyes widened in recognition and sweat trailed down the side of his head. He turned to Yami.

"Yami, check with your ki. Is there anyone near the office?"

"None. Why the sudden security check?" Yami inquired, seemingly on edge.

"As of this point, what we shall speak about is to not, under any circumstances, leave this room. If information this sensitive were to leak, we'd fall into a domino effect so grave that this incident wouldn't hold a candle. Asta's death might just be set in stone if it does." Julius said, unmistakably shaken and serious. It earned some terrified looks from the trio of magic knights. He turned to Asta. "Asta, I want you to be as honest as possible. Are you sure they called you Babylon?"

"...Yes." Asta said, not being able to look at the Magic Emperor longer than he could. The sudden declaration of it made him uneasy. Tense. Paranoid. It was hard to think, to comb through those memories of dreams.

"Did they-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Asta suddenly blurted out. Then came silence.

"Oh Asta. I'm sorry." Julius finally said, his voice filled with such guilt, as if Asta had been subjugated to torture in hell and it was his fault. He pulled Asta into a hug. "I'm so sorry. Nobody should have experienced what you did. You don't have to say what they did to you. It's not your fault."

"Lord Julius?" Asta now sounded genuinely confused. Should he provide context? He was chased around, yes, but-

Or was that really all it was? They may have just hunted him, but in those three weeks Asta had felt so weak, so helpless, so afraid that the only thing that stopped him from breaking out into a cold sweat was the fact that he had come to terms with the existence of demons.

He really felt like he was in hell, regardless of how the demons viewed him.

He sniffed, rubbing at his burning eyes. No, no crying. Not now.

Two more pairs of hands wrapped around Asta. Mimosa and Noelle ahead joined in on the hugfest.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell us. Just go at your own pace." Mimosa said.

"But if anything close to that happens, remember you have people you can rely on. You've got me, remember? I'm royalty, so if anyone tries to hurt you, we'll send them back in pieces." Noelle added, arms squeezing around him.

Asta wrapped his arms around the trio and hugged back. This was... comforting. Very comforting. Asta felt lighter, like a rock had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Thanks. I mean it." Asta replied, digging his face into the crook of Noelle's shoulder.

"Well would you look at that. Haven't seen you all acting mushy in a long time." Yami piped up. "Well, Julius? What do we do about this?"

Julius broke the hug and cleared his throat.

"As i said, this information is strictly confidential. I trust that you all know not to even mention it, as Asta's life could be brought to severe danger. I'm not legally permitted to give you all the details, but Babylon is considered an asset to the forbidden dimension. One that, up until almost a millenia ago, was constantly present. I can imagine that they're going to try and restore it at a moment's notice. But as long as this information is safe, then nothing will change. Asta is Asta, regardless of his status to demons and it's best that it stays that way. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" The magic knights said in unison.

"Good. Then you are dismissed. Except Yami, I need to discuss something with you." Julius said, stopping the captain from leaving. Yami waved off the other four, telling them to meet up with the rest of the squad. Once the footsteps had faded away, Julius went behind his table and sighed. "You might want to steel yourself."

"What's this all about?"

"While I did intend to explain what the title of Babylon meant, seeing Asta's reaction showed that he had already found out the hard way or just knows a few details but if he were to find out, it would hurt him greatly." Julius said as he sat back into his chair. "But Yami, since you are his captain and in essence responsible for him, you need to know this."

Yami's expression soured.

"This isn't good, is it?"

"No. Not at all. Judging by Asta's reactions... I'm afraid he may have been sexually assaulted by demons, more than once even." Julius said gravely, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb. The table cracked under Yami's grip.

"What?" Yami's tone was downright murderous and if Julius had been a lesser man he would've flinched under the tone.

"You might want to sit down for this. There's a lot..." Julius began, a somber expression washing over him. "To think that Babylon reincarnated as Asta... I'm not sure how likely this situation would have been, but if you look outside the box, it lines up."

"What are you talking about, Julius?! What do you mean "reincarnated"? And who's Babylon?" Yami said as he yanked a chair to him.

"I'm not surprised you don't know - Babylon is a historical figure, one that predates even the Wizard King. There's very little information of them in the royal library but one is certain - they're the first recorded demon host and, even to this day, the most powerful." Julius explained.

"That doesn't explain how he could've been sexually assaulted in his nightmares." Yami grit out, finishing his cigarette. He pulled out another.

"Babylon was said to have had multiple forms of magic - not just two like the Diamond Kingdom's experiments. Only ten were mentioned, but there could be more. This was brought upon by deals with demons but the physical description doesn't describe any form of weg." Julius continued.

"You don't mean-"

"Babylon had gained the title of Whore of Babylon, for exchanging their body for power. They died in a catastrophic event for some reason but that's all I have of their death. There wasn't any mention of whether or not they annulled the contract with their demons. By that idea, they must still think they're entitled to... their side of the bargain." Julius had barely said those last words, disgust and regret clogging his throat.

"Damn bastards. They must've seen Asta being their reincarnation and- fuck, i should've noticed. How did the brat survive for so long? How'd he even get out?" Yami bit out as he finished the second cigarette. God, he was burning through these like paper. The bitter aftertaste and nicotine did nothing to alleviate the hurt.

"I don't know, I can only assume he made contact with the demon inside his grimoire. Maybe he created a buffer of sorts to stop Asta from slipping into the underworld at night. We don't know and interrogating Asta would only worsen whatever damage he experienced."

"Fuck, he really got the short end of the stick in life. No mana, no answers and now he's hunted by demons who can't take no for an answer." Yami grit out but maybe that second part wasn't so true anymore. "Do you think we could put an anti-demon ward on him?"

"If there was one, then you'd be the first to know."

"Shit. How many devils do you think he punched down there just to escape by a hair's length? Must be in the double digits, judging by how that demon kept trying to restrain him."

"Perhaps that's the reason why Asta was born without any mana - it must've been expected of him to make deals with more than one devil."

"How do we know it won't take a toll on his body? We all know what happened when he used that black form of his." Yami pointed his third, halfway burned cigarette at the Wizard King.

"Because Asta's soul can directly traverse through the Underworld and this world. He's like a metaphysical gate for demons, and there's no outright limit as to how many he can make - as long as each contract has time to settle in, it can be anything from one to a hundred. We're lucky Asta is as stubborn as he is, otherwise I won't be able to save him from the upcoming trial." Julius sighed. "But if worst comes to shove, those trips to the underworld might return. I have a last minute resort to put through, in case worst comes to shove, but that would mean Asta would have to travel further up north."

"There's demons in Spade, Julius. Our best bet is Heart Kingdom and you know how paranoid they are." Yami warned. The third cigarette was done and Yami had to stop himself from grabbing a fourth.

"I know, I don't like it either, especially since this could worsen the situation in Spade but it's our last resort. If Asta is sentenced to an execution, we'll have no choice but to use it."

Yami grit his teeth. Those damn demon bastards, even when they're dead they're still a pain in the ass, he thought.

Unknowing to anyone, a misunderstanding of the century was brewing, one that would cause the rumor mill of hell to go on a rampage.

When Asta fell asleep that night, he expected another dreamless slumber or talking to his demon again.

Not waking up the hellscape of demons again. The minute he opened his eyes and felt the cold floor of the caverns, he wondered if he should've just gone back to sleep. He doesn't have an inch of mental energy left after today - the mission to break into the Midnight Eye hideout, the elf reincarnation fiasco, Zagred, the talk with Lord Julius. Asta just does not have the energy to play this game of cat and mouse and mixed signals.

But by the sound of footsteps and claws raking against the walls in the distance, playing possum was not an option.

'Or was it?' Asta thought. He's never actually played dead. But assuming that demons can smell fear or hear heartbeats, they'd know immediately. So all Asta could do was groan inwardly and roll onto his back.

Only to fall off a ledge upon rolling.

Asta yelled out in fear as he felt himself fall. Luckily, the fall wasn't long enough to break any bones but it hurt enough to leave a bruise and kick up the dust on the ground. Asta coughed up the dust and sat up.

"What... the hell..."

This was the first time he had fallen and not ended up in the red and black water. Something was amiss. His demon usually found-

Wait. What if Zagred's death had alerted the other demons and they found the Antimagic demon? Asta was fucked if that were the case.

Hearing the footsteps draw closer, Asta quickly looked around for an escape. A tunnel, just a little above his height, was to his left and the mage immediately jumped into it.

The tunnel had led to a labyrinth of more tunnels, twisting and turning at every point. Asta had gone in random turns but with the general idea of going straight forward.

The further he got, the more he noticed that a light was coming from one of the tunnels. An exit. Asta sighed in relief.

The bunched up fabric of his dress fell forward. Except it's no longer white. It's deep rich red, just barely illuminated by the light of the tunnel. Asta looked down on his attire. The dress had stayed the same, with the exception of the change of color. The gold belt had stayed the same but Asta had a feeling that it wouldn't be for long.

'Is... that bad?' Asta thought as he took the fabric and threw it backwards, kicking up the dust in tunnels.

There was a lot of dust in the tunnels and Asta had tried to hold his sneezes in but one had gotten out before he could stop it.

He froze as he heard the sneeze echo through the tunnels. Asta waits for something, anything. But there's nothing. He let out a sigh before continuing onwards.

He finally gets to the source of the light - a hole in the wall, chipped and loose, giving way to the light outside. It's Asta's best bet at getting out of the tunnels but it's too small for him. If he pushes some rocks and what-not off the wall, it could become big enough for him to crawl through.

He pushes and picks at the rocks and they fall apart easily enough so that Asta can push through into the room.

He's greeted by a large, frozen room, high above the floor and with three demons - Four Horns, as Asta has begun to call him, a familiar one and one new - looking at him from below with wide eyes.

Asta then realizes he's popped into the worst possible situation and immediately starts crawling backwards with increasingly panicked movements.

A hand slid into the hole and nearly grabbed Asta, who rolled backwards to evade. This ends with the hand grabbing him by his thigh and squeezing. Asta squealed.

"What strong thighs you have, I'd love to work you open between them." The demon, the one with ram horns, whispers, but Asta could hear it as if it were in his head, from the other side as the thumb caressed the muscle on his leg. The mage sputtered at the obvious flirtation. Asta grabbed the corners of the tunnels to stop himself from getting pulled out by his leg. "Come back to us, Babylon, we've missed you so dearly. Let us worship you once more, just like before."

The trill at the end of the sentence makes Asta kick the hand off his thigh and propel himself backwards, outside of the demon's reach. The demon shouts in pain and another, longer arm comes in to grab him again, but luckily Asta is far enough away.

"Babylon, get out here this instant! Who stole you away?! What low-level imp thought he could keep you away from us?! Answer us! What human filth dared to seal you away?!" Yelled another, different demon, most likely the new one. Asta's head was hurting from the volume as he kept crawling backwards. The hand was moving around, trying to feel where he was. It receded and was replaced by a red eye peering in through the hole. It focused on him and Asta took this as a sign to get out.

He started crawling back from when he went, narrowly avoiding an arm that popped out of a portal. He couldn't go out there, so he had to get to the original entrance.

After several hurried twists and turns, Asta got closer to the entrance of the tunnel. Only to hear voices on the other side. Crap, they found the entrance, he has to find another way out. He turned to the left. Maybe he'd find something there.

A sudden sound of scuttling made him freeze. They... they didn't actually send those creatures after him, right?

... Oh god, they did.

Asta quickened the pace of his crawling.

A ray of hope in the form of an entrance through several stalagmites. Asta squeezed through the rocks and was about to make a run for it when something yanked his dress back, tripping him. The sound of fabric tearing echoed through the cave. The dress was ripped, making a diagonal and jagged line from the middle of his left thigh to his right calf. The fabric was stuck to one of the stalagmites.

"... That's not a bad thing, right?" Asta said out loud. He was really used to his demon answering him every now and then so the silence only made him worry more. He shook his head. This wasn't the time for distractions! He had to either find the antimagic demon or find a way out himself.

...Easier said than done because Asta wasn't sure where he even was, much less if this place even had an exit. He prodded at the back of his mind where the demon usually was but without any reaction. Wait, did they-

Did Zagred give a last message to the other demons before he died and they tracked them through that? Bastard! Even after he gave him a goodbye!

But judging by the fact that they didn't actually know about the antimagic demon meant that he's safe. For now.

Hurried footsteps and the flapping of wings came from the distance. Asta immediately started running in the opposite direction.

Okay, crap, he'll cuss Zagred's corpse out later, he has to escape first. Or hide. Well, hiding isn't an option because of the rags on the stalagmites, so he has to run.

He gets pretty far, in his opinion, and the fabric on the stalagmites gives him a whopping ten seconds to get ahead of them. It also, much to his dismay, spurs on the demons to the point where he first hears loud, emotional yells and then pure silence, with the exception of footsteps.

It's like a horror story. He'd rather have loud and terrifying noises than no noise at all.

There's footsteps. A lot of them. More than just two or three demons are chasing him.

It's a whole squadron of demons, with each their own insane and overpowered forms of magic, chasing Asta with the skills of a veteran hunting party.

Asta is going to fucking die. Everything from the floor to the lack of lighting is gonna kill him.

No, Asta realizes, he can't die because apparently the demons are possessive and severely attached to him. However, instead of dying it's likely that Asta will get fucked - literally and figuratively - within an inch of his life, which is questionably worse in his opinion.

Even the Antimagic Demon, despite his nasty attitude and strong front, never went far in the romance department of their so-called marriage. Soft kisses on the edge of one's lips, cheeky nicknames and little affectionate gestures seemed out of place for Antima but Asta liked them either way. He still couldn't get used to the gestures, blushing up a storm, whether they're soft and long or short and strong.

Asta would also prefer to keep it that way, for now at least.

After that, Asta's brain had all but gone on autopilot, focusing on reflexes and avoiding getting caught.

Demons had come for him almost as if out of the walls themselves and Asta had done everything from throwing rocks to wall running to avoid them. A long run through the caverns, several near run-ins with the demons and throwing one of them into the other was what it took to shake them off.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit- where are you damn it!?" Asta mumbled to himself, poking and prodding at the place in his mind where his demon would be. He's not captured but then where is he?! Asta can only run so much until he gets caught and hiding spots can easily be found if someone looks for them.

Just as he was about to turn and run into another smaller tunnel, something grabbed and slammed him into a nearby wall. Which ended up kicking up more dust.

"God, what's with all the dust in this place?! Does nobody here know how to clean?!" Asta exclaimed in between his coughs.

"You." Said a menacing voice from above Asta. There were two large hands pinning his arms to the wall, effectively restraining them. Looking above, he realized just how short he was in comparison to these demons. The one pinning him to the wall was the new one he saw in Lucifero's ice room. "You have been gone for centuries, finally return only to throw yourself off Zagred's domain and attempt to drown in the River Styx, disappear for months after doing so, come back with a demon pact from some unknown devil and all you can think about is the dust?"

Asta really had nothing to say to that. Except his brain had no control over what he says and his mouth has no filter.

"Well, I am the cleaning in the building I live in, so you can imagine how much this bothers me. This is a lot even for six months." Asta said. The demon glowered, clearly not liking his answer.

"If it bothers you so much, I'm sure you'd love to do something about it. You'll have all the time in the world too," the devil said and leaned in to face Asta, "because you're not going anywher-"

Asta had once read a book. Shocking, yes, but sometimes the days were slow and Asta couldn't train all day, so using his brain was necessary either way. He found a book called "The Art of War" but he couldn't remember the author. However, one particular quote stood out to him: the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

"I'm so sorry for this." Asta said.

So Asta took these words to heart, swallowed his pride, shame, secondhand pain and remorse and kicked the demon in between the legs with all the might his legs and core body strength could give out.

The result was instantaneous. The demon had let him go, screamed in pain and doubled over as Asta made a run for it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry but I really can't stay!" Asta yelled as he ran through halls and passages.

Asta ran through a hallway and stopped before he could fly over the edge. He had gotten into the staircase. At least, that's what he called it.

The whole room was similar to an opening for a spiral staircase that got smaller and smaller the deeper it went, ending with a narrow and steep staircase into Four Horns' ice room. The so-called roots of the Underworld. Asta had gotten the gist that time and space didn't work properly in this place, as he could be on the top of the staircase at one point and end up on the second lowest at a moments' notice.

This was Asta's best bet at getting out of here. To climb up the roots. He'd never gotten far, always slipping on one of the black roots and falling or simply by not watching his step. He's never been to the top, but if Zagred had climbed there to reach the human world, Asta could get closer to waking up by that logic.

Right?

Asta slapped the side of his face. Now wasn't the time to get sidetracked, he had to get out of here. Turning to the roots, Asta hastily made his way up. He had gotten halfway to where he had reached the furthest when a tremor went through the cave. Asta grabbed onto a wall to stop himself from slipping.

A sudden fluctuation of ki beneath him made him leap away from his position. Several large shards of ice were thrown from below into the place he was standing. He looked down to see Four Horns and the ram horned demon at the bottom, with more shards of ice levitating near the former.

Asta involuntarily grabbed the scar on his stomach. This felt way too similar to the first dungeon but Asta knew that there's no talking this guy out of mortally hurting him. He scrambled off to run forward.

The action didn't go unnoticed but essentially nothing changed, except for the fact that Four Horns summoned large icicles from below and began launching them into the stairways and roots in front of Asta.

Asta bit the inside of his cheek and began hurdling himself over the icicles, even using them to propel himself forward.

More rumbling came and Asta slipped. He just barely managed to grab onto the edge of the root and haul himself up.

Letting out a curse, he was about to move forward when a giant jagged block of ice, arguably the size of a demon, launched itself behind him. Asta grabbed onto a wall to stop himself from falling. More crashes resonated.

Asta looked up and saw how more blocks of ice were imbedded in front of him and further up his path, essentially preventing him from going that route. Asta cursed. That was one of his only way out-

Suddenly Asta saw something. The edges of the debris and ice were pretty close to each other so maybe-

Asta grabbed onto the wall, quickly jumped up on the block in front of him and ran up to the one above him, essentially climbing and jumping across the ice and broken roots upwards.

Asta dodged more ice shards thrown his way until something black nearly struck him in the legs. He dodged it with a roll and saw that the ram horned demon was gaining on him, jumping off the ice shards towards him.

Asta rolled down into a block below him to avoid the demon's claws, which left marks as deep and thick as bones in the ice.

Asta flinched and ran into a nearby cavern, running as fast as possible. His eyes scanned the halls and the turns, running anywhere in hopes of losing the demon hot on his trail.

A small hole in the wall caught his eye. An opportunity!

Asta all but launched himself into the hole, crawling through and crawled to the other side.

The sound of running water reached Asta and he sped up and out of the cavern into the more illuminated part of the system. He had entered what seemed to be an external passage, a tall area that seemed to only have a ceiling and a cliff, which he was standing on.

Asta briskly walked to the edge of the cliff and peered down.

"THAT'S THE RIVER?!" Asta exclaimed. Indeed, beneath him was the river he had previously floated in, but the difference here was that Asta no longer drunk and saw the horrors of the place.

The river had a polluted, dark grey colour with seemingly no shore. Wispy souls rose to the surface, either peace or anguish on their faces, before going back down into the river below, letting a new soul float to the surface in their place. The current was fast, leaving foam in its wake against the occasional stalagmite that came from beneath the water.

It looked like a river of floating bodies, if Asta hadn't known what a soul looked like, thanks to freeing the elves with antimagic. And Asta had previously taken a dip in there.

"How am I not dead yet?" Asta wondered out loud. A sudden crash resounds in the distance. A roar of the word "Babylon" and loud threats of breaking his legs echoed through the caves. Four Horns was coming.

Shit. Asta looked around. Outside of jumping into the river full of dead people and souls, there was a small ledge like stairway to his side. Asta ran for it.

Pressing himself close to the wall and grabbing loose edges of rock for stability, he started slowly but surely tiptoe down the ledge.

'Demon?! Antimagic demon, where are you?! I'm three minutes away from having my legs chopped off, please say something damn it! Antima, wake up, please!' Asta yelled internally, mentally searching for the wispy demon as he walked.

The path went downwards and Asta kept his track for a good while before a nauseous force pressed down on the entire area. He froze, hoping that the demon wouldn't hear him.

Asta couldn't hear or see the four horned demon, but once the pressure was gone, it could be assumed that he was too. Asta sighed through his nose and continued his journey.

Upon placing his foot forward, some of the footing crumbled, making him yelp in surprise as his body nearly slipped and the rock of the cascaded down the rocky wall and into the water. Double shit.

Instead of the usual pressure, it seemed as though everything started levitating. The stones, the dust, Asta himself, even the bubbles of water from the river started rising. Asta was lifted off the ledge and in a moment of panic started climbing up the rock wall with whatever his fingers could grab.

A large gust of wind came from the direction of the cliff. Fuck, fuck, please don't be what Asta thinks it is.

The sudden levitation spell abruptly ended, forcing Asta to hang off a few disjointed rocks. He thanked his training.

"Found you."

Asta looked above him to see the four horned demon standing on the wall, wings spread and tail lashing out. If it had not been for the hair falling along with gravity to reveal his enraged face, Asta wouldn't have been able to tell that he was actually sticking to the wall.

Asta gulped. He looked mad. Really mad. Furious in an almost calm and collected way. Asta was sweating bullets from the gaze Four Horns gave him.

"... Lovely view you got here. Really," Asta started, desperately trying to hold on with a nervous smile brandished on his face, "really sets the mood."

Four Horns' eyes narrowed. Asta mentally kicked himself and, in a last ditch attempt, the place in his mind where the demon was. Why did he think buttering up Four Horns was a good idea?!

"You have quite the spine for pulling the stunts you've pulled, Babylon." Four Horns began.

"How many times do I have to tell you this? I'm not Babylon!" Asta countered, his facade falling off his face. "I don't even know who you are! Outside of your adress that is. I don't know anyone's name and you're all hunting me like the end of the world is coming if you don't get me."

Something changed in Four Horns' posture. Or his aura in general. Gone was the burning fury and rage, replaced by something Asta couldn't focus on. The demon's ki had abruptly changed and Asta could quite get a grip on how or why.

"You... don't remember?" The demon began. Asta shook his head. "The first gate?" Asta shook his head again. "The rise of the four kingdoms?" Another negative answer. "The first advent of the Qlipoth?" Negative again. "Not even your first demon, Satanael?"

"No." Asta answered, profoundly confused. Satanael and Qlipoth were two very separate names that Asta doesn't even know existed. They felt... weird. Familiar but it left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. It didn't help that the Qlipoth sounded a lot like the Apostles of Sephiroth. "Am I supposed to?"

Four Horns didn't answer. He just... stared at Asta like he was his biggest mistake. It was unnerving.

"...You don't remember. You don't remember." Four Horns repeated. He fell silent, shoulders shaking as Asta wondered if he had said something wrong. And then he started laughing.

Four Horns was laughing like Asta not knowing anything was the obvious thing in the world and he saw it only now. The laugh rang across the cave, causing several stalagmites to fall from the ceiling.

"Of course, of course! It all makes sense now! The lack of contract, the escapistic games, the human indoctrination- it all makes sense now!" The demon laughed, a hand sneaking it's way up to his face to hold it, or to face palm himself. "They sealed your memories. The human insects realised who you were and sealed your memories, your very being away. They couldn't bring themselves to have a being like you around and among them. They made you throw away your true self."

Asta was partially sure Four Horns was going insane. The behavior was very similar to what Asta had gone through on his previous journey here - denial, delusions and a mental breakdown. But for some reason, somehow Asta felt like Four Horns had said something right, but couldn't pinpoint what.

Four Horns was becoming increasingly mentally unstable and Asta didn't want to stay for long to find out what that entailed.

"Asta?! Where are you?!" Came a scratchy voice from inside Asta's head. Antima. Holy shit, Asta had never been so relieved to hear his voice.

'RIVER, RIVER, ABOVE THE RIVER ON THE WALL, FOUR HORNS LOOKS LIKE HE'S ABOUT TO BLOW A FUSE!' Asta yelled, panic overtaking him.

Lucifer suddenly snapped his head to look at Asta. Oh, he heard that.

"Shit." Asta and Antima both said in unison. Four Horns made a grab for Asta and Asta, in a moment of great muscle memory association, let go of the rocks and fell down into the river.

Four Horns launched himself after Asta and just as he was about to grab him, his eyes widened as he saw something behind Asta. Antimagic flooded into the cavern, blinding both of them, and two arms grabbed Asta and pulled him backwards, the dark energy clouding his vision.

Once the darkness had receded and the red world was there again, Asta could finally breathe. The labored breathing and the rasps of his demon was all that could be heard, the demon's strong arms wrapped around his body like molded iron. It sounded like he had come in a hurry, practically racing to find him.

There was a moment of peace.

"Did- did they catch you?" Asta asked, still reeling from being chased through the caverns by ten whole demons and borderline killed by invisible pressure. They chased him like if they didn't catch him, the world would end with a flood.

"No. Did they catch you?" The demon replied.

"Almost. Almost but no." Asta breathed out. "Where were you? I thought they found you and locked you up for keeping me away. That Zagred snitched on you."

"I passed out before I could stop you from drifting. Too much antimagic was used today, I was knocked out the minute you threw yourself on the bed." The demon said, arms squeezing around him as if to check that Asta was real. "They nearly got you."

"They weren't like this. It was usually just one or two but now-" Asta choked on his breath, adrenaline making him stutter his words. "It's like every demon went on a manhunt for me. Even Four Horns. They're never this aggressive."

"Lucifero..." the demon grit out. "They must've panicked when you decided to not show up for the past six months. Can't blame them for the reaction but I'm still pissed at the whole thing."

"The double horned guy is Lucifero?" Asta asked, still not being able to digest the whole situation.

"Don't say his name. I don't want his or his two bootlickers' names coming out of your mouth." The demon said as a hand shot from under him to pinch his cheeks. "Got it? Or I'll be demanding you to do your spousal duties."

"...You know what, I don't wanna know. Do you have a feud with him?"

"Sort of..." the demon replied. "Bastard stole everything from me. I'll never forgive him."

Asta wasn't sure what names meant for demons but by the sound of antimagic simmering, it must've meant a lot. Names and identities are important to humans too. But Asta has never had something like that from the beginning. He had always been Asta - an orphan from a small village, no family name and no past. A nobody.

He didn't want to be the Wizard King for the title, he wanted to be him to help commoners, to help those in need, to help those like him.

But if someone had stolen his name started hurting those in need? Asta would go insane with wrath. So he wiggled around in the demon's hold, turned to him and hugged him.

"...What are you doing?"

"It's a hug, I'm comforting you." Asta said softly.

"For someone so scared of demons, you sure like jumping head first to help one, dear spouse."

"Do you want me to let go?"

"No." The demon said, arms tightening around Asta. "Don't let go of me."

A/N: okay so this was a mess and a half and i probably won't write a continuation until further down the manga, probably in six months, give or take. To be fair, this thing was like 16k words. This was written in a moment of inspiration and looking over it i wonder, why?. I have like four different fanfics in need of updating. Why did i write this? No idea. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this, not sure when i'll update this again. I can say for certain that i already have an idea for the first half of the second chapter, but i plan this to be a two-shot. Thank you for reading, write about your favorite moments and tell me if i should update any fore-warnings in this fic.