Chapter 6: A blackened heart
December 21st, 1621
The march to the village was one spent in silence, as there wasn't much to say from either of them. They only really did speak when deciding what they should spend the 30 yuls Asta got from the shadow on.
"I say we get some food, 30 yuls can get you some good stuff at festivals." Asta lays his thoughts out.
"And I say we get supplies, it's not like we're staying in this village for long." She counters
"Yeah, well the apples are still good, they won't rot for a while. And I can't remember the last time I've gotten meat. It's only ever been nomtatoes." Asta says with finality in his tone.
As he marches with more fervor in his step, Secre doesn't reply, having simply accepted his choice. Upon reaching the center of the village, Asta looks around and can see a few things.
Some stands for a variety of foods, and homeless people in an alley.
A lot of homeless people.
Some guys dressed in purple robes laughing up a storm at a restaurant.
All of these things put him off.
Ignoring his instinct, he headed up to the stand and starts to browse the menu. After a minute of this, a problem becomes glaringly obvious.
These prices are ridiculous.
250 Yuls for a single meat skewer?!
400 for a side of potatoes with one?!
The money he has in his pocket starts to feel all the lighter while reading. And with a sad sigh, Asta turns his back on the stand and begins his search for a general store.
"Well, you win, Secre. Supplies it is." He says, reluctance heard.
He can feel tremors of chucking coming from her, and he has to resist the urge to flick her.
(Take your time)
A good 10 minutes have passed, and Asta has finally found a store with many different goods in it. Stepping in, he finds a significant lack of noise, footsteps, or voices. Heading to the front, he can see that there is indeed a manager at the register, so it's not closed.
However, the man is sleeping, and beside him, an open bottle of alcohol lies.
Not knowing how else to get his attention, he steps on the tips of his toes and tries to reach him, but is still too short. An idea forms in his head.
"Hey Secre, can you wake him up?" He asks politely.
Without a response, she simply flutters onto the man's slumped-over form and begins pecking him. The man begins to stir.
"Mmm... listen, I already told you. I'll have the money next week, now please leave." His speech is slurred, either from the alcohol or just having woken up.
"Um, sir. I'm just here to buy things, who are you talking about?" He speaks with what manners he can think of.
"Hmm?" The man finally looks at who's in front of him and does a double take.
"Oh, sorry bout that kid. Damn assholes keeps coming back for more..." The man mutters the last part.
"Ok... well, I wanna buy supplies for travel? What can I get for 30 Yuls?" Asta asks.
A sad expression comes over the man
"Sorry kid, but that's not going to buy you anything. Prices are too high."
At this, Secre is surprised, or as surprised as a bird's face can express. She flaps towards the nearest price tag on a shelf.
"Asta, ask him why. I've never seen prices like this."
The man only hears chirping, but Asta understands.
"Why're they so high?"
Before answering, the man takes a swig of the bottle to his side. He gives his response after he downs a good portion of the bottle.
"The fuckin Purple Orcas have been going through tons of villages in the forsaken realm, demanding insane amounts of money for half-assed jobs." Asta can tell that if the man was sober, he wouldn't be talking about any of this with him.
But that's not important. What matters is what he said.
"The Purple Orcas?"
The man looks confused for a moment, but realization flashes across his face.
"Oh, you probably don't even know what they are. The Purple Orcas are one of the 9 magic knight squads that serve the kingdom. And since we live in the forsaken realm, we can't send for help to anyone else, they'll just ignore us." The man begins to pass out again, leaving Asta confused about what to do.
Making his exit, Asta takes another look around the village. Now that the man told him, there are hardly any open stores.
It's almost a ghost town.
Not knowing what else he should do, he motion for Secre to come, and makes his way to a nearby alley.
(Take your time)
As he lies on a rooftop, Asta is struck with the realization of a few things.
One, this town is most definitely being screwed with by the people in purple robes.
Two, prices are high everywhere.
And three, the people in purple are assholes.
But why? They're Magic Knights, they're supposed to protect people, not make them suffer. Asta's perception of Magic Knights differs greatly from what he's seen in this village.
As he's about to sleep, the hairs on the back of his neck straighten up.
Shooting out at him at a speed he didn't see coming, chains snap at his feet, and only his luck allows him to dodge them.
"Hey now kid, haven't you heard? You can't be outside these days!" A cruel and snarky voice calls out.
Following the chains to their owner, Asta is met with the face of a pompous man in purple robes.
"WHAT THE HELL MAN!?" Asta shouts back.
The man's face darkens. The chains from before wrapped themselves around him, tightening like a snake.
"Watch your mouth around your betters, peasant. Someone like you could never stand up against Revchi Salek of the Purple Orcas." The man growls out. But then, the man's face twists into a condescending expression.
"Oh, this is rich! You don't have any magic, do you brat!?" Revchi throws his head back with laughter. The words hit Asta like cold water down his back.
Damn it...
This again...
No. Not this time.
The oh-so-familiar feeling wells up inside him. He can feel the tattoos slither around his arms.
"Tell you what brat! If you apologize and beg on your knees, I might consider not throwing you off this roof!" The man gives his ultimatum.
With his head down, and hair covering his face, Asta makes his choice. Looking back up, he gives a mocking smile.
"Go to hell asshat!" Asta gives his answer with a smile
A vein pops out of the man's forehead. Asta can feel the chains come to life. Both the ones wrapped around him, and the ones that adorn his arms.
"THEN DROP DEAD YOU WORTHLESS PEASANT!" The man screams, throwing Asta off the roof of the building.
Knowing what he has to do, he lets the feeling take over his body.
As Revchi watches Asta fall out of sight, he feels a cruel satisfaction, knowing that he likely just killed the kid. However, he didn't account for the impossible.
The chains that he used to throw Asta off suddenly shatter at the ends, and the shockwave snaps up the rest of the chains, breaking them until only around half of them remain.
The man is no longer smiling
In an aura of blue flames and chains, Asta rises on a blue ship. Both are surprised at this. Giggles sprout from Asta, and he can feel the boat itself. Like an extension of himself.
That also clues him into what the boat has. Stomping his foot down into the side facing the man, a porthole flips up on the wall of the ship, and a cannon emerges.
Aimed dead at Revchi.
"Snap!"
A large bang sound erupts, and a miniature cannonball shoots at the chain wielder. It doesn't hit him, but it does hit the grimoire floating between the two of them.
As it flies a considerable distance, the man's distraction allows Asta to lower the sails, and begin flying at the man remarkably fast.
By the time he looks back, it's too late.
A meaty crunch rings out as the man's face slams right into the hull of the boat. As he is thrown directly off the roof, a hand grabs at the hood of the man's robe.
From at least two stories up, Asta has the man hung on the bow of the ethereal ship and is lightly rocking it to scare the man.
"Not too bad for a magicless brat, yeah?" Asta mocks
"IF YOU DON'T LET ME DOWN THIS INSTANT, I PROMISE YOU NOTHING BUT PAIN!" He flails around like a headless chicken, even as blood drains from his broken nose.
The man's shouts bring the villagers outside to see what's happening. And many of them are shocked at what they're seeing.
"That's the guy..."
"The one that's been taking all our money!"
"Hell yeah kid!"
The voices of the villagers change into cheers at Asta's actions against the man in robes. As an idea stouts in his mind, he has to hold back his laughter.
With a snap of his fingers and a whoosh of the wind, the ship starts to spin, while tilting upwards to keep the man's robe from letting him loose. After a good seven spins, the bow of his Persona dips forward, throwing the man straight off the ship.
As the man soars through the air, Secre flutters onto his shoulder in silence. Reaching the ground, the ship vanished, and Asta is surrounded by the overjoyed villagers. All of them are cheering, with three of the bulkier men hoisting him on their shoulders.
He doesn't know what to say. So he doesn't say anything, and just enjoys the cheering. Eventually it dies down, and the man from the shop he visited earlier comes forth.
"Kid, what the hell?!" His words confuse everyone, excluding Secre.
"What? What's the problem?" Asta honestly has no idea what he's worried about.
"That was a Magic Knight, and the group leader of the ones that have taken over the town! Do you really think that he's going to just let this go?" His shouts bring clarity to the crowd, and nobody knows what to feel.
"He's right Asta. That may have been good in the short term, but he is going to come back. No doubts there." Secre's words help nothing, and the ones who picked him up set him down as fast as they lifted him.
The pressure behind his eyes rises. His heart starts to freeze. But the powers that lay within refuse to cower and falter so easily.
"Then I'll make it better!" Asta declares, gathering the attention of the people who surround him.
"I can fix this! Are you really going to just let those bastards take everything you have?! Are you really just going to let them win?!" His stabs at their courage spark something inside a number of them. But not all heed his words with such enthusiasm.
"You're a child, and a peasant, just like us! If we couldn't do it the entire time they've been here, how could you possibly succeed?!" A woman cries out in fear, clutching her child closer to her chest.
Asta has no response to give, as his mind starts to go into overdrive. Or, at least as fast as his young mind could go.
Nothing really stands out to him for a moment.
But he remembers that the key to possibly winning isn't too far.
In fact, it's back up on the roof where he first threw down with the chained bastard.
Calling into his soul for assistance, the chains snap and the ship appears. Hopping on, he wills it upwards, towards his back that was left behind during the brief scuffle.
Scrambling to get it open, he reaches in and searches for it. After a moment of looking, he finds it.
Pulling his arm out of the bag, he clutches the Velvet Key with desperation and hope.
Turning back to face the crowd that remains, he grasps the key into a fist and raises his arm up.
"LISTEN UP! I SWEAR THAT I WILL NOT LOSE. I WILL FIND A WAY, AND I WILL BEAT BACK THOSE PURPLE BASTARDS!" With more confidence than ever, Asta makes the declaration that will make or break his future.
The crowd remains silent for a minute, but eventually, they begin to cheer. Not out of actual belief in his words, but in the hope that it provides them.
Because in these trying times, all they can do is hope.
(Take your Time)
After making his exit with as much discretion as possible, Asta regroups on the outskirts of the village, where Secre passes judgment on what she witnessed.
"That was stupid. The outright dumbest thing I've seen in a very long time. You said you had a plan, so I hope you weren't lying, or you've brought up the hopes of those innocent villagers for nothing." Her monotone voice remains steady, which doesn't help his mood at all.
"Look, I was desperate! That guy was right, the chain dude is absolutely going to come back with more of his buddies, so I had to do something!" Secre is unimpressed with this reasoning.
"But I wasn't lying when I said that I had an idea." He pulls the Velvet Key out of his pocket like it holds all the answers to his problems.
"That key? Really?" Secre remains unimpressed.
"Hey, it's the best I could come up with." He remains confident that this isn't a bad plan.
Standing up, Asta jams the key forward, hoping against everything that this will work.
His wrist turns...
'click'
Briefly gasping, Asta opens his eyes to see that the door to the Velvet Room has appeared. He holds back his celebration and goes to open the door.
As the door creaks open, the blue light from earlier shines through, blinding him slightly. But on the other side lays the church from before, with Igor and his attendant awaiting him.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room. As good as it is to see you again, I must say that you are quite the ambitious young man." Igor's voice is welcoming, but nobody misses the undertone of excitement. Asta doesn't know why.
"Yeah, I came here to ask about something." He starts out as calmly as possible to match Igor's attitude.
"Then by all means, take a seat and ask away." He gestures to the confessional booth to his left. Angelica steps into one side and closes the curtain.
Figuring this will be how he gets his questions answered, he takes a seat in the other side and wonders what to start with.
"So, it turns out that I can use my Persona in the real world, what's up with that?"
"Yes, that's correct. You are able to do such a thing, but to not nearly as great of an extent that you can in the Inversion. You will only be able to summon facets of your original Persona, along with being unable to use the elemental powers that come with it." As sweet as her voice is, her words bring down his mood exceedingly.
"Then what can I do with that?" Asta questions.
"You are able to wield the skills that can increase your overall physical capabilities. None of the Personas you wield at the moment have any, but when you gain some that can, you will see the effects that come with them."
"However, there is another solution that will allow you to use your Personas to their full power, while also fixing the problem that you have come here for." Her words spark a fire in Asta's heart, greater than when he was inspiring the crowd.
"IS THERE REALLY?!" His shouts get Angelica to shush him, while also making him blush at his actions.
"If there's really another way, please. I need you to tell me!" Hope laces his voice.
"Do you approve of this action Master?" She calls out to Igor.
"Yes, I do believe that now is the best time for him to learn about what his journey will contain." With approval from Igor, Asta starts to bound in his seat. Hopping out of the booth, Asta watches as Angelica calmly exits the booth, making her way to Igor. The long-nosed man reaches into his shirt-pocket and fishes out a crimson and black key. Handing it over to Asta, Angelica gestures for him to follow her.
She leads him to the exit of the Velvet Room, and pushes him lightly outside.
"Wait, what am I supposed to do with this?" Asta has no clues as to how this is supposed to help.
"When the time comes, you'll know what to do." Her melodic voice doesn't help, as he is removed from the Velvet Room. As the haze of exiting leaves his sight, he glances down at his closed hand. Opening his fist. he sees the Velvet Key is now on a keychain, with the crimson and black key on it as well.
Asta chuckles a little, turning to Secre with a desperate grin.
"Well, I've got something to work with. I guess, let's go find a mirror." Her little bird face is still trying to put together how the single key he had has now become two keys on a chain.
(Take your Time)
Running to a nearby inn, he stops for nothing, hellbent on finding the nearest mirror. Finally settling on the bathroom, he enters a stall and locks the door, finding a mirror above the sink bucket.
Climbing on top of the sink with all the effort his little body can put into it, he finds himself face-to-face with his reflection. A gentle poke to the mirror reveals that he can still access the Inversion, but a red haze of some kind his blocking his entrance.
Well, Angelica said he'd know what to do when the time came.
Pulling out the crimson key, he stick it into the mirror and turns it. Waiting for a moment reveals the haze condensing into a door, reminiscent of the way the Velvet Room does it.
"Ok, are you ready Secre?" Asta wants his friend's permission before diving in headfirst.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Secre rustles into his hair further.
"Ok, let's do this." With that said, he pushes against the door in the mirror, and steps through.
The first thing he notices is that he's entered the reflected bathroom, with the door still in the mirror. The second thing is that his clothes have immediately changed, even with no visible shadows present. With no clue as to what he should be doing, Asta heads to the bathroom exit.
Before he steps outside, he can hear something outside the door in the distance. Something that gives him a wild chill of discomfort.
Rattling chains.
Slowly opening the door, he peeks out to see what's there. Instead of the inn that he entered a minute ago, Asta is met with the sight of corn stalks as tall as the door he just opened. Assuming he could use this as cover, Asta begins to creep through the field, slowly and steadily. Ready to jump on a dime.
As more and more light starts to seep through the field, Asta slows down and gently peeks his head through the field. The sound of chains is still quite distant, and now he can see where it's coming from. Off in the distance, a crowd of people are hard at work, slicing down stalk after stalk of corn, breaking them open, and dumping the contents into bags at their feet.
Only it's not corn that's coming out of the stalks. What Asta sees coming out of them is yellow, circular, and metallic. Astounded, Asta retreats back into the field for a moment, shearing the head off one of the stalks with his dagger, and cutting it open. He stops when he finally gets his eyes on what's beneath the leaves of the corn.
Gold.
Shining, weighty, and real Gold.
"Secre?" His shuddering voice asks.
"Yes?" Her voice is also slightly shaken.
"Is this real?"
"This world or the gold that's growing out of corn stalks?"
"Both."
Hopping off and fluttering down gently, Secre plucks a chunk of the gold from his palms and turns it over every which way until she has her answer.
"It's real. Real gold, that grew out of a corn stalk." The disbelief at what she's seeing is all-encompassing.
Without a moment's hesitation, he starts shoving the gold into his pockets, taking up his dagger and shearing another stalk down. He promptly tears it apart and shoves more of the gold into his pockets. Over and over, with more gold passing through his hands than he ever believed possib-
"ASTA!" Secre's voice snaps him out of his trance.
"Huh? Wha?" Taking a moment to compose himself, Asta looks around and sees that his pockets are full and he's chopped down at lead another ten stalks. A sense of shame creeps up on him, this isn't why he's here.
Stepping away from the pile of empty plant husks, Asta heads back to the light shining through the field, when he hears a familiar voice. Or rather, the same voice but with a second layer of distortion. A sound of a chain whistling through the air, followed by a person's cry of pain yanks his attention towards the location of the people that were farming the gold stalks.
"Work harder, you pathetic lowlifes!" A sadistic cackle follows the words of Revchi, who's taken to whipping the farmers. Asta has to hold back his stomach from expelling its contents at the sight of the farmer's backs. Blistered and scarred, dripping blood, and tears streaking down their faces. The boiling rage he felt before he awoke his Persona comes back with a vengeance.
Glaring at Revchi, his rage turn to confusion at the sight of his glowing yellow eyes. He didn't have those when he threw him out of the village earlier.
"That is not the Revchi you may think he is. And those aren't the villagers you think they are." A voice whispers on the wind. Angelica's.
Glancing around in an attempt at finding her, he gives up after a few seconds, deciding instead to begin making his way forward. In his way are some Purple Orca members, with shadowed faces and shackles on their wrists. Spread between them are some hay bales, hay stacks, and water barrels.
"Secre, can you get up in the sky and try and look for some place we might want to go? I want to move forward." With a flutter, Secre is skybound and scouting.
Refocusing his attention on what he should be doing, Asta makes his move when the closest one has its back turned. Asta wastes no time diving into a hay pile. Waiting for any sign of him being spotted to show itself, the tension in his body unwinds when he peeks out and sees that the shadow has moved further away.
Brushing his nose to ward off sneezes, Asta starts to survey the environment around him. Not too far is a barn with its door wide open, and in the way are some fences, a lamp post, and two more possible shadows. Coming up with the convoluted plan only a seven-year-old could assume would work, Asta takes a breath and jumps out of the hay pile. Sprinting for the lamp post and taking a leap of faith, he finds himself shooting past the post and heading straight for the entrance of the barn.
His actual plan was to get on top of the lamp post, use one of the shadows as a bounce pad after jumping on it, and roll into the barn. What actually happened has now shortened his plan's time but a significant margin. Taking a look behind him, he can see that the shadows are looking back at the hay pile he was just in. He chuckles at actually evading them, but the chuckle turns into a gasp for air when a foot finds its way into Asta's side, tossing him further into the barn.
"Well well, what do we have here? A little gutter rat scurrying around Captain Revchi's personal farm?" A shadow in the form of a Purple Orca member mocks.
Gasping for air after the kick to his side, Asta takes a moment to assess his options as to how he can fix this problem. He could avoid interacting with this shadow, but that would lead to him being found out by the other shadows, or he could fight the shadow before it has a chance to leave and draw attention to him, but with his condition after the kick, that's a far riskier option.
Before he can try and flee, a pulse from inside calls to him. Looking within himself, he finds the Pixie from earlier presenting a third option. With little hesitation, Asta grabs at her power and watches one of the chain links on his snap, followed by the other links bursting. From the floating shards comes Pixie, who spreads her arms wide with a glow outlining her body. A moment later and Asta realises what she's done.
Rising to his feet, he can feel the pain and breathlessness from the kick fading away like it was never there. Ok, so Pixie can heal him, that's incredible! The shadow that kicked him sneers at the sight of him rising back up.
"It seems that a rotten thief like you doesn't know how to stay down when you've lost. Well, I'll take great pleasure in bringing your broken body before Captain Revchi!" With no further explanation, the shadow exploded from the inside out in a deluge of black and red.
Rising from the pile of sludge, a turtle with a bearded snake coming out of its back appears. Its opening move involves a silent roar, followed by Asta being surrounded by tiny purple orbs that converge into him. After the orbs have settled inside him, Asta begins to feel things. As if his sensitivity to everything around him has been dialed up several notches, but that's about all.
Taking the chance to retaliate, Asta summons out Pixie and takes his shot at the turtle thing.
"Pixie, Zio!" With a spead of her arms, Pixie blasts a jolt of electricity right into the turtle, throwing it onto its back where it flails its legs helplessly. Realizing that he actually got its weakness on the first try, Asta tries to repeat the situation with Pixie.
"Hi there, it's a nice day out yeah?" Can't go wrong with being polite.
"Nice day, my ass! I'm on the floor after some stupid thief managed to come by and hit me hard!"
"Why do you call me a thief, I haven't stolen anything!"
"That's what you're here for though, you're after Captain Revchi's treasure! Well, I'm not giving you anything, so do your worst!"
Feeling that this was a bust, Asta pulls his dagger out and aims right for the center of the turtle's belly. With a moment of hesitation passed, he plunges the knife down, and watches as the turtle stops moving before bursting into a miasma of black. Before he can take a moment to recompose himself, the sound of footsteps send him into a panic, searching for a hiding spot.
Nothing on the floor to hide in or beneath, but following a support pole in the barn leads his gaze to the rafters of the barn. Realizing it's do or die, he sprints for the support pole, and starts to climb it, pulling himself up with his dagger. Just before he's all the way to the top, two more shadows enter the barn and come face to face with nothing out of the ordinary.
"Huh, where the guard that's supposed to be patrolling this area?"
"Did that coward up and flee? Captain Revchi will have our heads if this area is left unguarded!"
"It's fine, we're fine, we just need to spread out patrol areas wider and we can cover his spot. Come on, we have to continue the patrol." With no further arguments, Asta watches as the two begin to leave, one lagging behind so it can begin patrolling the area near the barn front. With a sigh of relief, Asta stabilizes his footing on the rafters, wondering what his plan is now.
"That was interesting to watch." It's only the reminder that a guard is not that far from the barn that keeps Asta from screaming in panic. He does however, fall off the rafter, only managing to catch himself a second before he would beyond the point of no return. With a relieved glare, Asta pulls himself back up onto the rafter, and begins explaining what the guard was rambling about before he died.
"They think you're a thief that's here to steal treasure? Could those gold stalks be the treasure they're talking about?" Secre tries to reason.
"I don't know, if that was the case, wouldn't all the guards be spread around the field instead of around the whole area if that was what the 'treasure' was?" She conceded the point.
"What did you find while you were in the air?"
"This place is pretty big, heavily guarded, and the entire surrounding area is filled with gold stalks, all being harvested, one area at a time. But something I noticed was that the areas that the people farmed and moved on from, immediately grew back after they left."
"Weird, where's all the gold going?"
"I saw some of the shadows take the bags that the gold was being put in to the house in the center. That place has a ton of guards around it. If there's something that they're trying to hide, it's probably hidden there." Secre flutters over to the nearby window above the other entrance to the barn gesturing for him to follow. With relative ease, Asta hops from one rafter to another until he's at the window, following Secre's gaze.
Well, she wasn't wrong about the big house being well guarded. That's at least eight shadows in the front side of the house. A little path through is widened for other shadows to enter the house with the gold bags. Pulling back from the window, Asta begins to brainstorm as to what he could do. A few minutes pass, Asta taking in everything he can to try and put together a plan. It's only when the blackness of the night begins to turn to an orange-pink hue does he come up with a plan. He's really low on time, but this could work.
"Secre, I have an idea. I need you to take some rocks or something and draw the guards attention away for just a few seconds. I'll give you the signal as to when, ok?" Reluctant to blindly trust his idea, she decided that he is able to handle himself, and makes her way to go find some rocks.
Five minutes later, and Asta is on the barn roof, watching for Secre to confirm she's ready. When she finally emerges from wherever she was and gives him a nod, he knows that it's time. Taking a deep breath, and giving Secre the signal, he watches as she flies over the heads of the shadows, dropping pebbles on their heads. They all wince at the feeling of a rock falling on their heads turning to face where it felt like it came from.
This was his moment. With a great leap that could only be performed in the Inversion, Asta jumps from the barn roof, straight to the roof of the central building, staying as quiet as possible as to not draw attention. When they finally go back to their previous positions, Asta signals for Secre to return to him as he begins to move towards the chimney. Landing on his head, she watches as he gently lifts the grate off the chimney, setting it off to the side, and slowly lowers himself into it.
One foot pressed into the wall at a time, letting his back slide slowly as he alternates between feet, he eventually reaches the bottom. Thankfully, there wasn't a fire going, or he'd be a very bad situation. In front of the fireplace is a gate, and passing through the living room are the shadows that were carrying the gold, chatting among each other.
"So, how much do you think those slaves will manage to make this cycle?"
"I'm betting on them not meeting the demands of the Captain. You know what that means, right?"
"Yup, we get to 'replace' them, and toss some new ones in. It'll be a blast!"
"And the best part is, I didn't give them enough to meet the demands!"
The two shadows cackle at that, exiting the house, not noticing Asta watching from the fireplace. Frozen, Asta doesn't know what he's supposed to make of what they said.
"Secre, what did they mean by 'replacing' the people they were talking about?"
"..."
"Secre?"
"They're planning on killing them. That's what they meant by 'replacing' them." Secre sounds horrified of what this place holds, Asta pales at her response.
After taking a few deep breaths, Asta realizes it's about time he left the ashy firepit. Gently folding the gate in front of him and setting it out of the way, Asta crawls quietly beneath the window exposing the room he's in. Finally at the hallway the shadows were walking through, Asta gets off his hands and knees, finally back walking on his feet.
Strolling down the hallway, waiting for something to happen, he makes his way to the end, where to his left, a single door lays. Assuming this is where the shadows came from, he grabs the doorknob and tries to turn it. It's locked. Assuming that this is the place where those 'slaves' are held, maybe they cound open the door from their side.
With a gentle knock, Asta waits for a response.
"...Hello?"
"Hi there, can you open this door for me?"
"No, we can't do that, the guards will be mad if they think we're trying to escape..."
"I need to get inside there, so please open the door!"
"Why would you ever want to come in here? Nobody that's ever come in has left alive. It's only a matter of time before we're replaced as well..."
Trying to think of how to convince the person on the other side of the door, Asta remembers the guard's conversation.
"You need more gold if you want to actually complete the task you were given, right?"
"...Yes, but we can't leave or ask for more, the guards will hurt us if we do..."
"I have gold with me right now, from the fields. If you open the door, I'll give it to you, and we don't have to tell the guards, ok?"
No response from the other side, but a lone *click* lets Asta know that he managed to convince the person on the other side. Opening the door, Asta is met with the face of a villager that he saw earlier, the mother who was holding her child and asked to know how he would solve their problems.
"You have gold?" Shuffling through his pockets, he pulls out all the gold he picked earlier and hands it to the woman. Watching her tear up reminds him of why he's even here, as he pushes past her, even as she regroups with the other people who are there in the basement as well. Looking around the room now, Asta can see that there are several looms, those things that are used to spin thread. Piles of golden chains sit on the floor beneath the looms.
As the people begin to sit back down at the looms, Asta watches as they start to spin and slide the gold into the needle, astonishingly turning the chunks of gold into the chains that clutter the floor. Assuming that he's got nothing else to say to them, Asta pushes forwards towards a door on the other side of the room. Before he reaches it, his eye is caught by the standing mirror to his left. Inside the mirror is a familiar blue haze, and the sensation of his right pocket vibrating.
"Secre, I think I've gotta do something really quickly, can you watch my back? If something's coming, just peck the hell out of me. I'll understand what's happening." She nods, and flies towards the stairs that they entered from. Relaxing at the thought of being covered, Asta pulls out the Velvet Key and pushed it into the haze inside the mirror. The door solidifies, and he swings it open, stepping through.
The lovely song of the Velvet Room comforts him, it's so much more relaxing than that hellish farm he was just in.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room, dear guest. It seems that much weighs on your mind." Igor's astute observation infuriates Asta.
"What hind of hellholle did you send me to?! That bastard Revchi is making the villagers I swore to protect suffer!" His shouts almost overpower the Aria playing in the room, but Igor's smile remains.
"I understand that it may seem like that, but allow me to give further explanation as to what that place really is. Though it may seem impossible, that place is not the reality you know of normally. That was a form the Inversion, specifically, Revchi's Inversion. The reality that you're currently in was formed by his own desires being twisted into something malicious." This doesn't make much sense to Asta.
"The village that you wish to liberate from Revchi's control is the basis of which this alternate reality has formed from. This reality is how Revchi views the village in his mind, not how it truly is. Using the second key we gave you, you can enter distorted areas of the Inversion that would be locked off normally."
"Revchi himself is unaware of this reality's existence. None of the people that you saw in the basement or fields are the actual villagers that you wish to protect. They are what we call 'cognitions'. Beings formed from how Revchi perceives the people in reality."
"But that means that going here was a waste of time, if they're not real, there's no way to help them!" Asta cries out in despair.
"Ah, but there is. Do you remember what that guard you fought earlier called you?" Igor grins.
"...He called me a Thief, there to steal Revchi's treasure."
"That's right, that 'treasure' the guard was talking about is the core of this entire reality. If you were to pull a plant out by the roots, what would happen to the plant?"
"...It'd die." Hesitation lines his tone, as the implications of that meaning something Asta doesn't like.
"Correct, but let me be the first to assure you that it would be the world that dies, not Revchi, so please don't fear that you will kill him." Asta sighs in relief.
"However, let me also explain that if you are not careful, Revchi could die here."
"The Revchi in this world is interconnected with the one in reality, two sides of the same coin if you will. If you kill that Revchi's shadow, the one you saw with the glowing eyes, it will be as if half of the real Revchi's mind has simply shut down. He will die, and it will not be quick." Igor's lack of a grin shows how serious this is. Asta swallows down his fears as best as he can.
"So, the people aren't real, and if I want to keep my promise to the village, I have to find and steal the treasure?"
"Yes, that's right. What you're looking for doesn't have a physical form at the moment, but we'll explain more about that later once you've found where it's held. Right now, you're looking for a haze, similar to the one that you see when there's an entrance to the Velvet Room, simply colored white. When you find that, you have your goal. Now, do you want me to cover anything else, or are you good for now?" Before he can ask anything else, a stabbing pain erupts from his head.
Oh shit, he knows what this means. Without further delay, he sprints out of the Velvet Room as fast as his little legs can carry him.
"Dear guest, if you wish to leave this reality, use the Crimson Key on a mirror in a safe area. Good luck to you!" Igor's words echo behind him as he jumps into the light outside the door to the Velvet Room.
Back in his body, he jerks around to the entrance of the basement, hearing keys jingle in the door. Snatching the Crimson Key from his pocket as fast as possible.
"What's your plan now, Asta?" Secre demands.
"We gotta leave for now, I'll explain later!" He finally manages to get the key into the mirror, watching the haze condense into the door for him to exit from. Before he can swing it open and leave, a voice he was hoping not to hear shouts at him.
"HEY, YOU'RE THAT BRAT THAT DEFIED ME EARLIER! BRING HIM TO ME, NOW!" Without further delay, Asta dives through the door, watching as gold chains spring to life behind him, all charging straight at him. If he was just a moment slower, the chains would've caught him. Rolling through the stall he entered from, Asta has to catch his breath after his escape. Looking back at the mirror, he watches as the door fades into a haze again, and the key drops from where the lock was held.
Realizing that he's safe, he lets himself drop and roll over onto his back. A small weight walks off his head, and he's reminded of something he should do.
"Thanks Secre. That was close." His gratitude is heartfelt and whole.
"It's fine, but I think we should find somewhere to rest for now, it's pretty late at night, and I'm tired." She's got a point, his limbs feel like they're dragging rocks tied to them.
"Ok, let's go then." He picks her up gently, and sets her on his head again. Exiting the inn, Asta is stopped by nobody. A palpable sense of fear and despair reigns across the village, something he didn't notice before he entered Revchi's Inversion. In one of the alleys around the town, a ladder is propped against a house, giving Asta a place to climb. After making his way to the roof, he pulls out a blanket from his bag, and settles down. Tearing one of the remaining apples in half, he sets it down on his back so Secre has a place to eat without her food rolling off the roof. After the two have eaten, they curl up into the blanket, and fell to sleep almost instantly.
It's been a hard day since arriving in the village, but hope remains burning in their hearts. The issue is making the villagers believe it too.
To be continued in Chapter 7...
A.N: Well, this wasn't planned. It's been a while since I've come to this fanfic. I don't know what made me want to come back to this, but I just had a burst of inspiration, and the urge to rewatch some of Black Clover. That just lit a torch in my heart to start writing, and now I'm here. So, there's a couple things that I'd like to cover on how the concepts will work. First, the Metaverse will be known as the Inversion. I would use the Inverse as the name, but that's already been used by someone else, the writer of a a fanfic called 'Social Links and Genuine Things'. It's a good read, one that I hope will be updated someday. Two, entering this world's version of Palaces will be done through mirrors and a key that will create an entrance into an area's distortion. Basically, if an area, like the village, has a Palace in it, entering the Inversion won't be possible without the key to unlock it. Otherwise, Asta would only be able to enter what amounts to Mementos, everyone's Inversion. This might not make sense right now, but I'll put together a sheet on the concepts that I'm creating with visuals once I've got that all down. Second, Revchi and his Distortion. At this point in time, Revchi is still a Magic Knight, and does not have his burn scar on his face, so he's still acting like hot shit. I imagined that his distortion would be a farm, as he's been going around with a squad through tons of other villages, treating them like crops to be harvested for his own gain, meaning that he sees villages like this as his own personal farm, one where he's in charge, and those who aren't Purple Orca members are slaves to be worked. As for the basement with the looms, I thought of the folktale of Rumpelstiltskin, where he would turn straw into gold in exchange for a girl's firstborn child. I took the concept of a magical loom and decided to apply it into Revchi's distortion under the thought of "If these people are spinning more chains for him to use, the more powerful he becomes overall, furthering the cycle of slave labor". As for the crops, I just thought it made sense. He forcing the people to harvest more profit for him to use, so why not make it literal gold they're harvesting. It would also help in furthering Revchi's actual thoughts on the villagers, as well as give Asta a way to show that he's still a poor orphan, and the thought of getting money is very appealing to him. The idea of using the gold as a way to enter the basement was actually something that came to me when I has Asta enter the house. It was originally going to be him and Secre breaking a lock on a backyard cellar outside the house, but with the guards there, that was off the table. And third, he 's around level 8 right now, so he's going to be capturing and fusing more Persona's next chapter. I'm also going to be crossposting this on AO3, as I got an account on there, so for those who prefer AO3 to , but as of 7/10/, the servers are down, but when they're up, boom. So I hope to see you all there.
Please review, I'd love feedback and criticism :)