Bethany sighed as she stepped out of PORTAL's entrance and the swirling vortex closed behind her, before the Tyukuyomi Card floated into her hand, "well, now that that's over it's time to send the others home and finally relax" she muttered. "Bethany!" a familiar and welcome voice called as Akira stepped into the room. "Akira-Kun. How are you dear?" the Mage asked tiredly as she walked over to her Husband. "You look awful, how much Magic have you been using?!" the red-haired man demanded. "As much as I need" his Wife replied. Bethany sighed, "now, if you'll excuse me, I still need to send the people from the Alternate Future timeline back as well" she muttered, stumbling slightly, much to Akira's worry, "you need to eat and rest, right now! Those people can wait a little longer to go home. You need to worry about your own health, okay? I was terrified the last time you had a Magical Exhaustion Fever. Please, just rest for now, okay honey?" the High School Teacher begged. Bethany sighed, "okay, you win, but you have to tell the people I haven't sent home yet that they have to wait longer. Don't blame me if Yami tries to crush your head" she replied.
Her Husband blinked in confusion as the Card Master moved past him to their Bedroom, before blanching and turning around to face her again, "you're just joking about that last part, right Bethany? Bethany?!" he called worriedly as he followed the young woman.
Black Clover
A few days later, the people Bethany had summoned to fight the Devil were standing before her. "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to save my counterpart's future Mrs Yuki" the former Elf Leader said gratefully. "I feel the same. It was nice to know that I'd helped save my friends and even myself from going through what did in our timeline" Patry agreed, smiling happily. "I know that things will be hard for them all for a while, but I know that they can create the future they want to" Lemiel nodded. "Yeah! And I'm happy that none of the Elves from that new timeline will have to get hurt like the ones we had to fight!" Asta agreed with an enthusiastic shout. "Stop yelling damn it! Are ya tryin' ta burst my ear drums!?" Yami yelled. "Ah! Sorry Captain Yami!" the boy whimpered fearfully. Licht smiled over at the boy, "thank you Asta, truly. This is the second time you've risked your own life for my people, even if they are alternate versions. I'm grateful" he said happily.
"Tettia and your son are going to be thrilled when we tell them about all of this" Lemiel chuckled. "Heh, true" the Sword Mage replied. "I really hope that my alternate past self has a better life than I did. I hope he'll be happy" Patry said. "Their future is in their own hands now. I will be checking in on them from time to time, but so far everything appears to be going well- apart from your alternate past self now having a whole lot more responsibility as King- he'll probably need a lot of help" Bethany told Lemiel. "I'll say. I never even became King and I can already guess how much work he's going to have to do" the blond Light Mage replied with a slight shudder. "But it's still better than the Father of your alternate self still being in charge, right? The other Lemiel will have a lot of work, sure, but he's got his friends to help him out, he'll be just fine!" Asta exclaimed in determination. Lemiel blinked at the boy, before smiling, "you're right, I'm sure he can handle it as long as he has the support of those closest to him" he replied. "Okay, is everyone ready to go?" Bethany asked. Everyone nodded except for Yami, "can you wait for a bit? I gotta go take a dump" the Japanese man said.
"Captain! You can go to the Bathroom when we get back to the base! I wanna write to Sister Lilly about how I saved a whole alternate timeline as soon as possible!" the ash-haired boy admonished, before going dreamy-eyed at the thought of the beautiful Nun who'd raised him. Maybe this would be enough to finally make her see how awesome he was and she'd agree to marry him! "Sending you two back to the present day Clover Kingdom isn't gonna be hard for me to do with my current level of Magic, the real drainer is gonna be them" Bethany said, gesturing at the Alternate Licht and Lemiel as she took out The PORTAL again. "Huh? Why's that?" Asta asked in confusion. The Card Mage sighed, "in order to bring you two here, I basically had to combine the powers of The PORTAL and The TIME in order to grab you from the right time period. For example, too early, and Asta wouldn't have been able to use his Black form. But Lemiel and Licht here, aren't from any timeline, they aren't even from the living world. Both of them had to be summoned from the afterlife with a special magic summoning seal that I created, as well as creating new temporary bodies for their Souls to inhabit. It took a lot out of me to do that, which is why I was stuffing myself afterwards.
Now, I have to reverse that seal in order to send them back to the afterlife. It's going to take some time, and I have to be careful of how I alter it, otherwise I might end up sending them to the wrong afterlife, or even Hell by mistake. It'll be very tricky, so I'm sending you both home first since it's easier on me, okay?" Bethany explained. "Woah, it was that hard for you to bring us here?" the anti-magic user asked in understanding, "sorry you had to go to so much trouble" Asta apologised. But the Card Mage shook her head, "it was more than worth it. Now, let's get you two back home, PORTAL! TIME! Open me a path to the Prime timelines Clover Kingdom!" She cried, calling upon her two children. The swirling vortex appeared, this time glowing the golden colour of The TIME and Asta looked back at the young woman, "will we be able to see you again?" he asked, slightly worried that he'd never see his new friend again. "Of course you will, now, you three get going" the young woman replied with a smile.
Asta, Yami and Patry stepped through the vortex and disappeared. The two Spirits returned to Card form and Bethany sighed, before turning to face Licht and Lemiel, "now for the hardest ones" she muttered, before beginning to walk away, gesturing to the two to follow her. Eventually the small group reached a door that was sealed by magic and seemed to contain enormous power. "Is the summoning seal in there? I can't quite seem to remember what happened right after we got here" the former Prince asked. Bethany nodded, "it is, and the reason you can't remember, is because I erased your memories of the moment directly after your summoning" she explained. Licht frowned, "why did you do that?" he asked in confusion, not understanding why the young woman had done something like that. "Do you know how traumatizing it is to have your Soul forcefully dragged from what should be it's final resting place and put inside a body that it's not used to?" Bethany asked, voice solemn.
"From what I saw from you two, it's like having every piece of your being ripped apart and put back together again inside a vessel that it doesn't belong to. Your Souls almost rejected those bodies and returned to the afterlife on their own. I had to place seals on each of your temporary bodies so that you wouldn't spontaneously die while fighting the Devil. I wanted to stop. To just send you back. After all you'd been through, making you suffer like that broke my heart. But I knew that you would want to help your alternate selves and people whatever the cost. So, I placed seals on those vessels in order to keep your Souls contained. And I also erased your memories of the process so that you wouldn't be too traumatised to fight. I understand if you no longer want to be burdened by me when you return to the Afterlife. If it's what you want, I'll erase your memories before I send you back. You won't remember any or this, and you will be able to continue on as if none of this had ever happened." Bethany promised.
"I'm so sorry for doing this to you both, I knew you wouldn't approve, but I had to! We needed your power to destroy the Devil. Please, forgive me!" she begged, with tears running down her face. Licht and Lemiel looked at each other, before the Elf reached out and tilted Bethany's chin up so that they could look at each other face to face, "while it's true that you used a forbidden practice to bring us into this world, you did it because you deeply wanted to change the future of my people. Thanks to you, everyone is safe now. And besides," Licht smiled sadly, "I also used Forbidden Magic in the past, so I would never think poorly of you for doing the only thing that you could. Okay?" he asked softly. The young woman stared into the Elf's eyes, before breaking down in tears. "I swear, I will never use Necromancy again. Never. This is the one and only time" Bethany swore. "Good" Lemiel said. She wiped her eyes and took a calming breath, "I used The CREATE Card to make those bodies for you to use, if I erase the spell, you'll return to the afterlife in your own world through this seal once I reverse it".
"Okay, you do what you have to Bethany, we can wait, right?" Licht asked his brother. Lemiel nodded, "mhm" he replied with a reassuring smile. The Card Mage looked at both of them, "despite everything, I am grateful for your help in destroying that Devil. I hope you'll be able to rest easy now in the Afterlife" she said with a small smile. Bethany raised her staff and began drawing the Magic that she'd imbued into their artificial bodies and absorbing it back into The CREATE Card. As she did, Lemiel and Licht's artificial bodies began to crumble away. "I truly am grateful. I promise to tell Tettia and everyone else about everything you've done for our alternate selves." Licht promised. "I will too, I know that they'll be grateful to you" Lemiel smiled brightly. "We'll never forget you Bethany. Even though there's not much chance that we'll see each other again, I wish you luck in life. Thank you, for everything" Licht added as both of their bodies disintegrated and their Souls flew back into the portal to the afterlife.
Bethany then erased the Seal on the floor with ERASE. She sighed, "now finally, it's over" the young woman collapsed, boneless on the floor. "Hopefully the next time we see each other again, it will be under lighter circumstances". A knock came at the door, "Bethany-Chan, are you okay?" Akira asked from the other side. "You can come in Akira-Kun" she replied softly. Her husband entered the room, before gasping at seeing her current state, "Bethany! Are you oaky?!" the red-haired man demanded worriedly. "Yeah, I'm just exhausted" she replied. He gently picked her up, "you can rest now, okay dear?" he asked softly, a loving smile on his face. The Master of the Tsukuyomi Cards smiled thankfully, leaning against her love's chest as she slowly closed her eyes in contentment. 'After everything, it's finally over. I saved them all' Bethany thought as she fell into a deep restorative sleep, feeling safe and happy.
'I'll see them again. And this time it will be for a happy occasion'.
To Be Continued