Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter and thank you to all those who reviewed.

"…" Character P.O.V.

'…' Character thought.

"…" Spells.

"…" Animal P.O.V.

'…' Animal thought.

[…] Over-voice.

{…} Through Communication Device

Now then on with the new chapter.

Chapter 32: The One Who Waits Deep in the Darkness

'Why?! I have phenomenal magic that's stronger than anyone else's! I studied everything there was about my magic, polished my skills, and prepared! All for this day! For years…and years! And yet…why?!' Rades wonders as a piece of Carl's clothing lands in his open palm.

"RAAAAH!" Leo roars catching Rades' attention as he turn to see the Crimson Lion member still fighting David with blue fire surrounding his arms. "Fire Phoenix's Wing Attack!" He shouts extends both his arms outwards in either direction, and flames erupt on the underside of his arms, almost creating a flaming-feather like illusion that strikes David in the chest pushing him back a few feet.

"Sea Dragon's…" Noelle begins to say as she generates a large amount of water from her right foot. "River Claw!" She yells as she swings her leg and hits David in the head sending straight into a building with the force of a raging river. "Leopold, do you have a spell that's similar to my Sea Dragon's Roar?" She asks noticing David starting to get back up while dodging more streams of muddy water.

"Umm…" Leo begins to say as he flips through his grimoire until it lands on a certain one. "Yes, I do!" He shouts.

"Than use it at the same time I do and we'll bombard him from both sides!" Noelle shouts as she dodges another muddy water attack, landing on David's right side with Leo on his left. "Sea Dragon's…" She begins to say as she gathers water into her mouth.

"Fire Phoenix's…" Leo begins to say as he inhales, gathering blue fire into his lungs and mouth.

"Roar!" Noelle shouts unleashing a torrent of water towards David.

"Screech!" Leo yells releasing his spell in the form of a large torrent-like blast of fire at David as well.

The two attacks strike the corpse at the same time and completely vaporize its body reducing it to a pile of ash. Rades is in utter shock at the power displayed by the two Lost Magic users against his last corpse.

"How'd you like that?! We took advantage of the gaps in the enemy's mana and vaporized it with our own immense magical power!" Leo yells at Rades.

"That's the spirit! Well done! That's what qualifies you to lead this country as royals!" Fuegoleon shouts in excitement for younger brother and Noelle.

"Yes, sir!" Leo and Noelle shout back giving him the three-finger salute before Noelle blushes in embarrassment from what she had just done.

"I got caught in the moment and I accidentally saluted, too." Noelle says meekly staring at her saluting hand causing Fuegoleon and Asta to chuckle at the girl's embarrassment before turning back to face Rades.

"It can't be…" Rades begins to say as Fuegoleon walks forward towards him. "That can't be…I've got just as much magic as a royal!" He yells as his hands glow with the power of his magic. "I…" He starts to say.

"Fire God's…" Fuegoleon says as his grimoire flips through its pages to a certain one. "Leo Palma." He says as he conjures several lion's palms composed entirely of black fire around Rades, holding him in place causing his grimoire to fall off his person.

"Let me go, you piece of shit! I'm still…!" Rades screams struggling to get free from the Fire God Slayer's spell. "Damn it! Damn it! At this rate, I…" He starts to say.

"There are many, many questions I'd like to ask you." Fuegoleon says standing in front of a restrained Rades. "But before that, I will be confiscating your grimoire." He says shocking the prisoner.

"NOOOOOO! DON'T!" Rades screams as he watches a lion paw made of black fire form from the others holding him as it stretches towards his grimoire.

"That's it." Fuegoleon says as the fire paw brings the grimoire to him.

"Get your hands off my grimoire!" Rades screams.

"What is this grimoire?" Fuegoleon asks feeling something off about the grimoire in his hand.

"S-Stop it!" Rades yells seeing what Fuegoleon was about to do; open it to reveal that it only had one page in it.

'What is that?! The grimoire…' Fuegoleon thought in shock. 'It only has one page?!' He thought.

"Don't look! Don't look at it! Quit looking!" Rades screams.

'This guy…he can only use one spell?' Fuegoleon wonders looking at the restrained Rades.

"Damn it! Give it back! Don't you dare look down on me!" Rades yells.

"Who's gonna look down on you?" Asta asks causing Rades to look in his direction. "Couldn't you think of any other way to get people to acknowledge your power?" He asks slowly making his way towards Fuegoleon and Rades but struggles a bit due to his injuries from his fights with Jimmy and Alfred. "You have amazing magic, and you were strong enough to claw your way up…" He says with a snarl. "It's such a waste!" He growls baring his fangs making Rades gasp at his words as Fuegoleon chuckles with a smile on his face.

Asta, no longer able to hold his body up with his own strength, begins to fall forward and was about to hit the ground until he is catch by a pair of gentle arms.

"Easy there, Asta." Noelle says guiding his left arm over her shoulder for him to lean on. "Don't worry, I've got you. Just lean on me, okay." She says placing her right arm around his back and her left hand against his chest.

"Thanks a lot, Noelle." Asta says smiling at her as she smiles back but this causes them both to blush as they turn their heads from each other but still smiling.

'I may not know much about love, but I can tell Noelle just as bad for Asta as Mimosa does, judging from the way she was talking about him.' Leo thought smirking as he watched the two for a second before turning back towards his older brother.

"You were about to overcome adversity, but what you lacked…" Fuegoleon begins to say catching everyone's attention. "…was a righteous heart." He says making Rades grit his teeth. "Pay for your crimes." He says.

{"You're satisfied now, I trust."} A voice says through the communication device in Rades' ear.

'A voice…' Asta thought able to hear the voice because of his sensitive hearing thanks to his Dragon Slayer Magic.

"Asta, did you hear that?" Noelle whispers to her crush able to hear the voice as well.

"Yeah, I did." Asta whispers back to her.

{"As I thought…defeating a captain was too much to ask of your power alone.} The voice says.

"I-It's not impossible…" Rades begins to say communicating with the voice making Fuegoleon stare at him in confusion.

{"Sometimes you can't win even with enormous magic. Catherine was careless and lost as well. My magic is also reaching its limit. There will be no more arbitrary actions. From now on, things are going to go as planned. All for our master."} The voice says shocking the two Dragon Slayers.

'Master…' Asta and Noelle thought at the same time in confusion.

"You're working with at least one other." Fuegoleon says beginning to interrogate Rades. "A Spatial Magic user must have infiltrated the royal capital. Where are they? Have they already fled?" He asks. "No matter where you might've sent the rest of the Magic Knights, you don't have enough power to take over the royal capital." He says shocking Asta, Noelle, and Leo.

"Wait, what?" Asta asks in shock. "All the Magic Knights have been sent away?" He asks.

"He's right, I can't feel any of our allies mana anymore." Leo says trying to find a hint of mana from the other Magic Knights.

"Neither can I." Noelle says before her eyes widen a little when she detects a familiar mana signature. 'Wait, this mana…Nebra?' She thought feeling the magical power moving towards their location.

"I guess we couldn't detect the missing mana because we were so caught up in our fights." Asta says now realizing how much he needs to improve.

"I can't imagine that this was just to go after the king." Fuegoleon says.

[King's Quarters]

Meanwhile, Augustus was being feed by the two women beside him.

[Northern District]

"You've made it clear that your motive is revenge, but what are you and the others after overall?" Fuegoleon asks causing Rades to chuckle confusing the four Lost Magic users.

"Our real objective is…you! Fuegoleon Vermillion!" Rades shouts.

"What…?!" Fuegoleon asks in shock.

"Fuegoleon!" Leo shouts fearing for his older brother.

"What do you-" Fuegoleon begins to say when another black portal appears right under his feet surprising him, Leo, Asta, and Noelle. "This is Spatial Magic!" He says before calming himself. "Very well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He says as the portal swallows him up and closes.

"Fuegoleon!" Leo screams at the disappearance of his brother.

[Elsewhere in the Noble Realm]

Meanwhile Nebra was making her way towards the Northern District when she suddenly comes to a stop.

"What the…" Nebra begins to say sensing a change in the Northern District. "Captain Fuegoleon's mana just disappeared. Just like the other Magic Knights." She says before getting a confused look on her face. "But if those lights from earlier were Lost Magic scrolls and he and Leopold became Lost Magic users, how did they manage to capture him when they could do take with me?" She asks and then shakes her head. "No time to think about that now. Those three are going to need backup if this is their final play in this invasion." She says taking off once again.

[In an unknown location]

Fuegoleon had just landed in a white area with strange symbols in circles with a smaller circle inside it all around the room.

"What is this place?" Fuegoleon asks looking around the strange place before he hears footsteps coming towards him.

The unknown person was wearing a dark- and light-colored robes layered over light-colored trousers with dark-colored boots.

"You're…!" Fuegoleon shouts wide-eyed in shock at the mysterious person before him.

[Northern District]

"You evil bastard! What have you done with my brother?!" Leo yells demandingly grabbing Rades by his cloak but all he does is laugh evilly in his face. "What's so funny?!" He asks transforming the fingertips of his right hand into phoenix talons.

"Leopold! He's not the Spatial Magic user." Noelle says still holding Asta up.

"She's right. He was communicating with someone just before Captain Fuegoleon was captured in that spell." Asta says.

"Right, plus that spell pinpointed him, so there's no way the spellcaster could've cast it from far away." Noelle says as she looks around. "They have to be around here somewhere." She says.

Asta also begins looking around and tries using his enhanced senses to find the Spatial Magic user but because of the smell pf rotting corpses and lack of sound, he can't find the culprit. So instead he tries a different method by closing his eyes and concentrating hoping that will get him somewhere. And few moments later he removes himself from Noelle's hold, confusing her.

"Huh? Asta?" Noelle asks wondering what he's doing.

Asta says nothing and charges towards one of the piles of corpses he defeated earlier with his Anti-Magic broadsword at the ready.

"You're right there!" Asta yells as he swings it causing all the corpses to go filling everywhere.

One of the corpses flies through the air as a gray grimoire with a light purple glow appeared in front of the body and a portal, the very same portal that swallowed Fuegoleon, appeared behind him as he flew through it shocking Leo and Noelle.

"He was hiding among the corpses?!" Noelle asks in shock and a little bit of horror.

Asta stepped forward to where the pile of corpses once laid and looked around, wondering if the enemy transported himself far away or close by. He looked around for the mage until he heard a voice and turned to the source.

"I'm impressed you found me." The man said as he appeared on the roof of a tall building, looking exactly like a corpse so he could blend in. "I figured I'd be found if I used magic to transform, so I went to the trouble of making this filthy disguise. What are you, an animal?" He asks as he raises his right hand to his face and pulled it off, revealing his light skin, gray hair, and dark eyes with gray pupils and 2 lines over his face. "But it appears that it's over now." He says.

"What do you mean it's over?" Asta asks with a growl.

"What's over?" Leo asks, still in front of a confined Rades.

Their answer came in the form of another black portal opening and something falling out of it, something they wished they hadn't seen. That something was Fuegoleon, the Crimson Lion captain, with his right arm missing, a blank stare in his eyes, and a puddle of blood forming. The very sight shocked Asta, Noelle, and Leo while Rades was smiling at the sight while his flaming restraints were disappearing, signaling the one thing no one could've predicted, Fuegoleon had been defeated or worse, killed. The silence filled the air for a few as they all absorbed this new discovery and reacted accordingly.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" Noelle screams in terror, seeing the near dead body of Fuegoleon scaring her to the core.

"RRRAAHHHHH!" Asta roars in anger, wanting to kill the one who nearly killed the Crimson Lion captain.

"No. NO! FUEGOLEON! Leo yells as he released his hold of Rades, his hands shaking in horror at the sight of his brother.

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. We're coming to a close on Arc 3 with only five chapters left.

Please be sure to review and tell me what you thought of this chapter.