Note for the first few chapters of this. This will not be dialogue heavy, since he's traveling alone. Dialogue will come more in internal monologues when necessary.
Chapter 3: Within the unknown
September 8th, 1630
In the cramped room that he was being interrogated in, the man named Marx releases the cuff that hold Asta to the pole. His new squad captain, Yami, steps forward and holds his hand out.
Taking it, they share no words. They simply shake, and turn to leave. Before they exit, the Wizard King calls out to Yami.
"Keep an eye on him Yami. He's something special." Yami gives a nod and waves goodbye to his fellow captains. The two head back upstairs where they are met with a boy with brown and green hair, who opens a portal for them to walk through.
As he walks through a portal made by his new 'teammate', his minds goes back to his thoughts back when he was choosing a squad.
(Take your time)
December 20th, 1621
Underneath the shade of a tree, our young orphan Asta lays sleeping. It has been three days since he left Hage Village, but this day, his dreams aren't those of the pitying eyes of his former village. No, this time, he finds himself in a church, reminiscent of the one in Hage.
The only thing that lets him know that he didn't just dream of running away is that the church is very blue, with gold hues. He stands up from the church seats and walks towards the front, when he hears a voice coming from his right, coming from the confessional booth.
Tiptoeing his way towards it, a sudden voice manifests from behind him.
"Well now, you're here earlier than expected." A high-pitched voice of a man says.
Twirling around on a dime, he is met with the sight of nothing that could make the voice. A rustling of cloth from the confessional booth brings his attention back, and he sees a hand with a glove on it beckoning him over
Not knowing what else to do, he gently reaches out and slides the curtain open. With the reveal of nobody being inside the booth, Asta's surprise is almost a physical aura. Looking down at the seat, a key the same shade of the church around him lays there. The only thing that prevented it from blending in with the environment is the glowing hue surrounding it.
Before he can ask what's going on, the voice of the man from earlier begins to speak.
"Find it, and your journey will begin."
When the voice finishes, a strange haze overtakes Asta.
His eyes open.
And he's back in the field that he went to sleep in.
"...was...that just a dream...?" He mumbles to himself
Getting up, Asta notes the significance of his lack of food when his stomach grumbles. Looking around for a way to satiate his hunger for a little, he wanders for hours until sundown comes.
With an unfortunate lack of success, he climbs up a tree to stay off the ground for the night to avoid any carnivorous animals. While up the tree, he looks around to see, at the very far end of the branches, is an apple.
Crawling towards what could be his last meal for the next few days, a beautiful view of the night sky and the surrounding world stretches across for a good while.
And among the stars, a streak of a very familiar blue hue is strewn across the sky in a single direction, towards a single point.
Asta has to blink a couple times to believe what he's seeing. When he realizes that it's not an illusion, thoughts start pouring into his mind.
His dream from the nap before
The words said to him
The glowing key
They all come into one in his mind, as he comes to a decision
December 21st, 1621, Afternoon
Traveling at a very slow pace, Asta has made decent progress since he woke up, but alas, the few apples could only take him so far before he starts to feel the lack of energy.
For all the distance he's covered, he's still in the forsaken realm of the Clover Kingdom, so villages aren't terribly far apart. But unfortunately, Hage village was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, so he's either going to have to find a village, or try his luck at foraging if he wants to last on his way to his destination.
Walking past a river reminds him how thirsty he actually is, so he slides down the side of the road to the edge of the river to remedy his issues. While sitting along the riverbank, a black figure catches his eye.
A bird.
Specifically, an anti-bird.
There's not much to look at, but the bird seems to think the opposite of him. It flies straight at him, and begins pecking his head with painful speed.
"OW OW OW! GET AWAY YOU STUPID BIRDBRAIN!" He shouts in agony.
He flails around and eventually slips and falls directly into the river. The bird flies away when he does. Pissed, he grabs at the gravel in the river floor, and chucks them at the bird.
It immediately flies backwards and up out of sight.
Sighing at his bad luck, he gets up and inspects his ragged and soaked clothes. Nothing got cut, so he shakes it off, and gets back to his journey.
He continues on the path he was taking before, and thinks about why his life has to be this unfair. He never did any wrong to anyone.
While deep in his thoughts, he doesn't notice that the bird from before has returned, flying slowly behind him. But he does notice when a something lands on his head, and his eyes roll up to see the bird from earlier again.
Not a muscle moves, lest he angers the menace that sits on his head. The bird eyes him, but then flies off his head, and in his face.
Asta stumbles backwards, but doesn't fall this time. The bird stares at him more, but then starts to fly in a direction briefly, before turning back to him.
"...do you want me... to follow you?" He warily asks.
To his utter surprise, the bird nods yes.
"YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" He shouts
Another nod.
He doesn't shout again, but he does start to follow.
Going at a slow pace, the bird checks over its shoulder to make sure he's following. After a good 10 minutes of walking, the bird lands on a log, next to a tree.
"Ok birdy, I followed you this far, what do you want?" He stubbornly asks. The bird starts to fly again, but this time, straight up into the tree above them.
A minute passes.
And then...
Thunk
Asta grabs his head in pain, but then realizes what just fell on him.
An apple.
His eyes shoot up to the tree, and he can clearly see that the bird is pecking at the stems that connect the apples to the tree. Before he knows it, apples are raining around him
Not a second more is wasted, and he starts to pile them as much as he can, while pulling his sack of his back. Cramming as many apples inside as he can, he doesn't notice the bird has landed back on the log, watching him.
When he gets as many inside the bag as he can, he finally begins to reach for what remains, to stuff himself full before he continues his trek.
But before he can take a bite, he sees the bird.
Pausing for a moment, he looks back at the apple, then the bird, and makes up his mind.
Using the strength of a 7 year old, he pulls the apple in half, giving the bird one of the pieces. The two begin to eat in silence.
Once he's finished his meal, he faces the bird once more, and the bird does the same. Bowing his head, Asta speaks from the soul.
"Thank you. You've saved my life for a good few days."
The bird doesn't respond.
But it does continue eating.
Not knowing what else to do, Asta grabs his bag, and makes his way back to the path he was taking before.
With renewed strength and vigor, he marches off to his destination.
(Take your time)
Night has fallen, and Asta has taken refuge in a tree once more. With not much else to do at this time, he gives the blue streak in the sky one last look, then simply grabs the thin blanket in his bag and lets his body unwind from all the walking he did.
While the sandman visits Asta, the bird from the afternoon flutters by, and takes a seat on Asta's head. Rustling into his hair, the bird joins him in sleep. When morning comes, Asta will find that he now has a companion for his trip.
(Take your time)
Morning has come and gone, and with it, Asta's solitude on his trip. The bird has refused to leave his side, but at this point, he doesn't see the harm in letting it come with him.
Making his way towards his end goal, he wonders what he will find at the end. With not much else to do, Asta surveys the landscape around him, and to his surprise, a village can be seen in the distance.
Noting down where it is in his head, he refocuses on his goal, which is closer than he remembers. However, what lays before him is different than what he expected.
In his dream, it was a church.
But...
There's nothing in his immediate view for a while. Not knowing what to do, he turns towards the village he saw before, only to see nothing there.
In fact...
There's no trees near him either.
What's going on?
Panic sets in at the lack of cohesion in his situation, leading to Asta making a desperate sprint towards what he hopes is the direction of the village.
And instead of him finding the village...
He falls into a hole he didn't see.
For a solid five seconds, the weightlessness confuses him. But the shock of his back hitting the surface of a water pool snaps him back into his problem.
Swimming back up from the near bottom of the underground pool, he finds the nearest dry land, and throws himself onto the ground.
Heaving precious air, he collects himself as best he can, all to realize that he doesn't have his sack anymore.
His eyes snap back to the water, and he sees the bird holding an edge of the bag, that floats because of the buoyancy of the apples inside, and is flapping it over to him.
Reaching as far as he can without going into the water, he reaches for the bird before the bag, but gets both onto dry land with him. Setting the bird down gently, he roots through the bag, grabbing his blanket, which is partially dry, and wraps it around the bird.
With that settled, he takes a look at his surroundings, only to find that he's landed next to an actual structure.
He's read about these places before.
'Dungeons' they were called.
Assuming that this is the place he was lead to from his dream, he gets up, and cautiously walks towards the open archway.
(Take your time)
After a good hour of walking around, searching for something, ANYTHING, any indication that this is what he's looking for, Asta has to call a break.
Not having anything to show for the time he's spent on searching, he tries to recall the way out, but is unfortunately unable to do so. As he begins to freak out, he hears something.
*tink*
His eyes train onto the direction he believes the noise to have come from.
Silence reigns
And then
*tink*tink*
Having confirmation that he was right, he sprints off to follow the noise. Scrambling desperately towards what he hopes is the key to his dream, caution is thrown to the wind.
After reaching the end of the hall, a door stands before him, just a basic wooden door, nothing very special about it.
Slamming into the door, he's snapped out of his maniac frenzy. Calming down, he inspects the door, then puts his ear to it.
...
...
...
*tink*
With the final clue in place, he throws the door open, and what is there is somewhat of a letdown.
It's a study, like the one the father had back in Hage. It's bigger though. There's a desk that's covered in scrolls, a large bookshelf, a nice looking bed, and most curious of all, a mirror that covered the entire length of the wall across from the desk.
Not knowing what else to do, Asta walks to the desk, and starts searching through the scrolls in hopes of finding what he's been searching for.
After he's gone through all the scrolls on the top of the desk, he moves on to the drawers, with no luck for the first two drawers.
But on the third drawer, he finds something. A scroll, like the ones from before.
But this one has a lock on it.
Specifically, a lock with a very familiar shade of blue.
Satisfied with what he's found in the desk, he moves onto the bookshelf, reading the titles as they come.
'Inversion entry No. 4'
'Compendium'
'Best tips to survive'
'The other side of the mirror'
That last title catches Asta's attention.
The other side of the mirror?
What?
Turning back to the mirror that covers the wall across from him, he notices something.
A faint blue glow, coming from beneath the bed. But when he faces the bed in person, nothing is there.
Not knowing what else to do, he goes to the bed, reaches under the mattress, and feels around for what shouldn't be there.
But to his surprise, it is.
Grabbing at it, and removing his arm from the bed, laying in the palm of his hand, is the key he's been searching for.
Glowing a lovely blue, he pulls out the scroll, takes the key, and tries to remove the lock. After a moment, the lock clicks, and he opens the scroll.
But the text on the scroll isn't English. In fact, he's never seen a language like this. And still, that's not the weirdest part.
Because the text starts to glow.
Dropping the scroll and moving backwards as fast as he can without breaking line of sight. The scroll starts to glow even more, until it's completely engulfed in light.
Suddenly, the light flies straight at Asta, and the scroll tightens itself around his arms. He struggles to rip it off, but a burning sensation courses up his arms, making him scream in pain.
As he rolls around on the ground in an attempt to remove it, his back slams against the mirror. Or, he should have. He feels his back hit something, but then he falls right through it.
Before he can rationalize what happened, the burning stops, the light dies down, and the scroll slides off his arm without any fight. Gasping for breath on his knees, he glances at his arms, expecting to see burnt and crispy appendages.
Instead, his arms now have tattoos of chains and shackles.
It's very intricate, with the only thing letting him know that it's just a tattoo is the fact that it's on his arms.
On shaky knees, he gets up, taking another glance at his surroundings.
...what?
"The bookshelf..."
Wasn't it on the other side?
A flare of pain coming from his wrists and forearms garners his attention. Not knowing what else to do, he limps out of the door, heading back down the way he came in his attempt to leave the god forsaken dungeon.
(Take your time)
It wasn't terribly complicated for Asta to make his way back to the entrance of the dungeon, but there were some moments where he seemed to have forgotten where certain corners lead. But after persistence and effort, he finally reached the exit.
Except...
There was nothing outside, just a complete void.
No sign of his bag, the pool of water he fell into, or the bird that's accompanied him.
About to start calling out in desperation for the bird, footsteps make their way towards him. Turning around, the face that lays before him is one that he never hoped he would see again.
Yuno.
To be continued in Chapter 3
A.N.: Hello again, there's a lot that I have to say for this chapter and the next few. I hate having to write a prologue like this. It sucks. But I've gotta power through it, if only for the sake of establishing his powers, and his motivations.