Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.

Saga 3: Friend of the Devil

Limbo

"Godspeed, you scrawny bastard." The voice then goes completely silent.

In front of Asta stands/floats the thing that killed him.

In other words, his "Death".

"BRING IT ON MOTHERFUCKER!" Asta charges towards Death with the broadsword in hand.

Death swings out his arms, sending the orbiting chains towards the charging youth.

Asta parries the shooting pointed chains, but a few nick and graze his arms and legs.

"YOU THINK THAT'S GONNA WORK!? BECAUSE I AIN'T GOT TIME TO BLEED WITH MY LIFE ON THE LINE!"

Asta then swings his blade towards the cloaked giant, cutting through the fabric, revealing nothing but plumes of black smoke.

The figure lets out a hollow roar, sending more pointed chains towards his direction.

And this time, they hit their intended mark. The points jut through Asta's shoulders, arms, legs, and practically everywhere else. The boy drops his blade onto the void below him.

"Damn it... not again..." Asta's strength begins to fade away as the chains begin to suspend his body.

But not really.

Asta grabs the chains with his impaled arms, and begins to pull himself towards Death.

"You know... it's kinda funny, really." Asta continues to tug the bundle of chains closer to the cloaked figure. "I found your weakness."

Death then spouts out more pointed chains from his sleeves, but this time, Asta doesn't stop even when punctured in more places.

"It was so simple... that you disregarded it." Asta coughed out. "You're just like everyone else back there; calling us weak, telling us to stay in the boonies, and telling us that we can't dream. But so what?"

Asta then jerks the chains pierced through his body, inching Death closer towards him.

"That's your world, jackass. Not even remotely different from everyone else's that talked us down." His eyes then blaze with light once more. His muscles now flowing with life yet again. His voice boomed across the empty Limbo. "But now, you're in my world. And you wanna know what happens in my world?"

Asta can honestly hear a faint sound of Death, whimpering.

"You're no Death, Revchi. And I ain't sure as hell dead yet. In other words..." Asta then gives the chains a really hard tug, dragging Death towards him. Asta then winds back his arm, balls his hand into a fist, and slugs it into his black visage of a face.

"PSYCHE, BITCH!" As the cloaked figure is sent reeling back, the chains pierced into Asta's body pull themselves out of his flesh, and the boy himself hits the void below him, right next to where his sword was dropped.

Asta picks up the rusted broadsword, drags the blade toward the fallen "Death", as the so-called "Death" was slowly reverting back to the pathetic bandit that he once was.

Asta just have had enough of this crap.

"P-PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" The aspiration of Revchi begged.

Asta thrusts the broadsword through the bandit's chest, now this time, Asta is the one doing the heavy lifting.

"Whoa!"The disembodied voice called out. "I guess you passed. Gratz, motherfucker!" The voice then starts... clapping?

Asta remained silent. Blood drips from the bandit's impaled corpse.

"Uhh... what's wrong, buddy? Too choked up on your own tears to say anything?"

"No. It's just... why do people like him exist?"

"Pardon?"

Asta drops his sword onto the floor with Revchi still impaled through it.

"People like him... people who are so head over heels from their own power... people who prey upon the weak for their own amusement..." Asta pauses for a moment to pull out his blade out of the bandit's corpse.

"People who are stuck in their own little world."

"I'll tell you why. It's because of magic."

Asta then looks up, ready to listen to what the voice has to say.

"From the moment that mortals obtained the knowledge of magic, it had opened various doors that they never fathomed."

"What was it?" Asta asked.

"A world without meaningless war. A world without omnipresent death. A world without fruitless conquest. A world without rampant famine. From that moment, the world drastically changed. People were flourishing, knowledge was blooming, civilization was spreading, and harvests were plentiful. The world of the living was reaching heights never imagined by the previous era. They finally learned the meaning of the word 'hope'."

"What's wrong with that?" Asta replied.

"One word: complacency."

"What's that word even mean?"

"People eventually grew lazy, to the point where they now pray for every day to be the same. After all, it's all a collective mentality 'Why change what's currently good?'"

"Lazy? But I saw farmers on the field working the fields day in and day out!"

"Did you know that hoes, spades, and axes were meant to be used by hand?"

Asta was shocked into silence. He clearly recalls that the same farmers never used their hands at all when they were toiling in the fields.

"Eventually, those will cease to exist, and every other tools of trade and toil will vanish. Mortals will eventually lose what made them special in the first place, so you know what they do to subconsciously to forget even that?"

"What is it?"

"They create meaningless wars, they bring omnipresent death, they march towards futile conquests, and they devour until famine runs rampant, just so that their focus can be led elsewhere."

Asta is now stricken with pure horror. "... Why?"

"Better question; 'Why not?' It's part of their base nature to take more then they need, but ever since they laid their hands on magic, that little tick in their souls just grew fat in in the past millennium. From magic came peace. From peace came complacency. From complacency bred boredom. From boredom aroused sin. From sin comes stagnation. From stagnation, an endless cycle of violence and greed that all life on this plane of existence cannot escape, assuming that they wanted out in the first place." The voice sighs for a moment before continuing. "Look kid. I don't care if you believe me or not, but the point is, people like rat-ass over there are a dime in a dozen. They. Are. Everywhere."

"N-NO! Sister Lily and the others back at church aren't like that!"

The disembodied voice lets out another exasperated sigh. "You want proof? Fine. Let's summarize your last 4 hours of your life and see what can we pick up from it."

Asta then begins to hear familiar voices echoing in his head.

"Leave me alone already!"

"Asta, you're funny!"

"Stop it..."

"You do know that people are making fun of you, right?"

"Try again next year."

"ZERO! YOU HAVE ZERO MANA!"

"In this world, magic is everything."

"Stop it..."

"Ridiculous."

Asta falls to his knees and his head slumps over, dropping his sword.

"Like I said kiddo, dime a dozen."

No response.

"... You want that second chance now? Because your other option is to wander in this barren void until the heat death of all creation."

"I know what to now..."

"What's that buddy? Can't hear ya when you're mumbling."

"I said I know what to do now." Asta slowly rises to his feet, pulls out his broadsword from the corpse, and strengthens his grip on the handle. "So what you're saying is that..."

"Is what? C'mon, spill it."

"... is to destroy all magic. Am I right?" Asta smiles with a newfound purpose.

The voice then begins to clap. The clapping goes on for a good while until it stops itself.

"You passed, kid."

"Eh?"

"I SAID YOU FUCKING PASSED, YOU NIMROD!"

"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?"

"You honestly almost scared me there for a second, kid. I mean, I thought I had to wait for another cycle to pass to try again. But hey! You did me a solid, Asta." The voice sighs out once again, composing itself. "So in turn, I shall do you a solid by revealing who I am. You're welcome, by the way."

In front of Asta, a pool of the monochrome void begins to bubble and ripple. Rising from the surface, was a figure that was similar in build, height, looks, gender, and age in Asta.

By similar, the two were almost indistinguishable from one another.

The only difference from the two was that one had a black tattoo printed on his right cheek to his eyebrow, his arms and face were littered with scars, his hair was more sky bluish-white to Asta's ash gray, and he had a pair of large, black, bird wings coming out of his back.

"The name's Roth. Nice finally seeing you face to face." The now-revealed Roth extended his hand to Asta.

"Yeah... nice to meet you..." Asta slowly shakes his hand before yanking it back. "W-W-WAIT A MINUTE, WHY THE HELL DO YOU LOOK LIKE ME!?"

"I'm your preincarnation, dumbass."

"Ehh?"

"I'M YOU, BUT FROM A PAST LIFE!"

"Oh." Asta pounds his fist onto his open palm. "Then what are those wings for?"

"I'm a Demon. A Fallen Angel, specifically."

"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?"

"Surprised?"

"WHY SHOULDN'T I BE!?" Asta was freaking out over this shocking revelation that his past life was a demon, out of all things.

"Look, I know that you have that propaganda of that 'the First Wizard King killed the Demon God, saved mankind', among the similar sounding garbage nailed shoulder-deep into your and everyone else's noggins." Roth massages his temples with a "And even though I would like to explain everything to on why and how that is warped beyond recognition, but there are other demons outside of this shithole that can explain all that crap better then me. Once that knowledge is bequeathed upon you, you'll eventually find out for yourself on how butchered the mortal history is as you go about your merry way in your new life."

"Wait, so what you're saying is that everything that I've heard and learned about magic was a lie?" Asta questioned.

"Not entirely, but if you wish to know what the world's really like, then I have a proposal for you." Roth offered. "Go outside, take the second chance, and once you do, I myself will be merged with your soul. After that, find a black bird and follow it until it perches on a dead tree with other birds."

"So wait, does that mean-"

"You've got anything to say to me before I go?"

Asta was shocked. The demon, whom he was taught by the church that they were the embodiment of pure evil and the ones responsible for almost destroying the world, has just now treated him with genuine kindness.

Crude, yes. But still, for the past few moments of being with him, Roth has given him more attention and reciprocation then anyone else he met in the living world.

There was only one thing he could do.

Asta embraces his past life. Tears stream from his eyes and down on his cheeks.

"Thanks for everything..."

Roth embraces back. "Take care of Ravager for me, would ya?"

"What?"

"You know, that big-ass sword that you're holding. I named it 'Ravager'." Roth points toward the rusted broadsword. "Stole it from a dead elf a millennia ago, cuts through all things magic-related like hot knife through butter."

"Wait, elf?"

"You'll figure it out soon enough." Roth assured. "So, shouldn't be going?"

"Yeah, I guess." Asta paused for a moment. "WAIT A MINUTE, HOW THE HELL DO I GET OUT OF HERE!?"

Roth lets out a sigh before letting out another shrill whistle. As the whistle reverberated throughout the empty world, the ocean of black and white begins to bubble around them, and soon enough, solid footing was replaced with a bottomless pool.

"HEY!" Asta was flailing to stay afloat while Roth was flying above him. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"

"The only way to leave Limbo." Roth stated. "You need not to struggle, just let the literal flow of causality absorb you and guide you to your next destination."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!?"

"You'll have to drown to the other side." Asta freaks out at that moment as his splashes get more intense. "But fear not, just close your eyes and it'll be over in an instant."

Asta stops flailing.

A moment of calm appears on his face.

He nods at Roth. Roth nods back.

He then smiles at Roth for a moment before giving him a thumbs-up as he slowly submerges into the monochrome ocean, into the the pitch-black void where no one can see him.

"Good luck Asta." Roth's body then begins to dissipate into black particles from the feet up.

"Finish what we've failed to complete, you boisterous fuck..."

Limbo returns to its barren state once more.

A single teardrop hits the now-solid ground, the final semblance of life echoing in this lifeless world, fleeting away.

Hage, Church Orphanage, Clover Kingdom, Forsaken Realm (Afternoon)

It has been over half a day since they saw Asta leave this world. The whole church was deathly quiet. No one was speaking, no one was moving, and no one was even smiling.

No one, except Yuno, who was just outside, splitting wood, with an ax in his hands.

He been at it ever since this morning, working tirelessly, with all of those injuries surrounding his body.

Right to him was a large stack of chopped wood. It was not as much compared to when he used magic to split a log, but that was the point.

With Asta now gone, Yuno now has to take up his burden, by doing it the way he would do it.

It was for the sake of preserving his memory of his fallen rival and brother.

"Asta..." Yuno swings down the hatchet onto the log, splitting it halfway. "I know that if you were still around, you would've been splitting wood with your bare hands, propose to Sister Lily even as she beat you down with her magic endlessly, and spend the rest of your days training in the woods until sundown." Yuno sets his foot down on the ax, forcing the blade through the wood. "Compared to you in terms of everything that is not magical, let's just say that I have big shoes to fill. I was praised as being the next hope for Hage and Clover Kingdom because of my magic. But funnily enough, I was never praised for being a decent human being."

Yuno stops himself, mid-thought. "Now that I think about it, no one was being praised for being a good person, let alone me and especially Asta." A disturbing thought haunts Yuno for a second. "Are there no good people left in this world?" Yuno shakes his head to rid such thoughts.

"No, there are good people, its just that they're vulnerable to the cruelties of the world." He turns his head, and sees Sister Lily stumbling out of the church. She then comes closer and gently embraces his broken body.

Yuno then realizes what really mattered to him the most.

"Sister..." Yuno drops the hatchet next to his feet. "I think I now know why I wanted to be the next Wizard King now."

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: Hoo boy...

Now we're diving into full on AU-territory from here on folks.

Both Asta and Yuno have now resolved themselves to change the world that they're in, with one that destroys and one that protects.

Asta's demon preincarnation, Roth, was based off Haji from Hungry Joker, also written by Yūki Tabata.

On that note, I'm going to milk a lot of Hungry Joker characters' physical appearances for the demons.

Because f*cking reasons. I just like that manga slightly more than Black Clover (RIP).

As always, please leave a comment, for I'd like to know what you're thinking about this fic.