Everything was fuzzy and warm when Asta first woke up. It was weird, because it was winter and it was never warm in the church unless dinner had just finished cooking or the church was opened for service.
Asta opens her eyes with a small groan and winces at her dry throat. She instinctively swallows, only for her throat to spasm. Asta bolts up with a wretch, coughing into her trembling hand.
She barely hears a door creak open through her coughing until a cold and gentle hand carefully rubs her back. "Shh-shh. Asta, it's okay. It's okay. Take deep breaths."
Asta follows Sister Lily's advice while pressing her back into her hand. Her breaths come out as wheezes as her coughing calms down. Something cold touches Asta's lip, making her flinch back, but it soon follows.
"It's water. Drink, Asta. Slowly," Sister Lily says calmly. Asta nods her head and drinks slowly from the glass. Her throat soothes immediately at the cold liquid and Asta opens her eyes when a door is slammed open.
"A-Asta!" Yuno's desperate shout makes the silver haired girl snap her head up.
"Yuno! Don't run in the church! And don't startle your sister!" Sister Lily scolds, still speaking softly. "She's just woken up!"
"S-sorry..." Yuno trails off guiltily, standing next to Asta's mat with her hands pulling at her shirt. Sister Lily sighs quietly before she gives the young girl a smile.
"Asta, I'm glad you woke up. How are you feeling? You were out for a few days," Sister Lily asks gently. Asta blinks and looks up at the young nun before she opens her mouth.
"I–" Asta winces and clears her throat. It felt like something was stuck inside.
Asta clears her throat again before smiling up at the Sister. "'m fine. Body hurts..."
"You got beaten to hell and back, brat. Of course your body will hurt," An unfamiliar voice rings through the room, making Asta jump.
"Please do not curse in front of the children!" Sister Lily gasps softly before giving the other occupant in the room a small bow. "I-I deeply apologize, Lady Mereoleona! I simply–"
"It's alright. This is a church. I know better than to cuss. Sorry," The other occupant–a woman–states with a slight shrug. Asta blinks and stares at the woman with wide eyes.
She towered over them all and had her strong arms crossed over her chest. Her bright, burning hair was held up in a ponytail with some strands falling over her tanned face. She wore clothes that Asta knows are only from the stories Sister tells her and Yuno at night and her eyes were the prettiest blue she's seen.
Asta points at the woman with an awestruck smile. "Pretty!"
"Asta! You know pointing at people is rude!" Sister Lily gently pushes Asta's hand down before the woman laughs loudly.
"You're quite bold, brat!" The woman exclaims before she places her hands on her hips. "I shouldn't be surprised. You said you were going to become the Wizard King, right? That's a big dream for a brat like you. Not even the nobles dream that big."
That's right. The meanie hurting Yuno. The necklace. Her and Yuno's promise. Her and Yuno's rivalry.
Asta blinks at the statement before scowling in determination. "I'll be th' Wiz-Wizard King! I will!"
"No you won't!" Yuno shouts loudly with her arms crossed. "'cause I'll be the Wizard King!"
"No! I will!" Asta shouts back, undeterred by Sister Lily's gentle shushing.
"Girls! It's the middle of the night. Don't shout!"
The woman snarls and uncrosses her arms to place her hands on her hips. "You're both just brats! The road to the Wizard King is full of obstacles, you brats! If you can't fight against danger and fight past your fears, you'll only die along the way! Are you prepared to give it your all? Well?!"
"Yes!"
"Of course!" Both Asta and Yuno declare.
The woman grins ferociously and points towards both of them.
"Good! Because, I'm not taking in two little shits–two little brats who can't back up their words!" The woman exclaims, making every occupant in the room start. What?
"That's right!" The woman's magic bursts out from around her in blood-red flames. "I, Mereoleona Vermillion, will adopt you two brats to train you! Whether you like it or not, I ain't taking no for an answer!"
Asta stares at the cover of her grimoire–her grimoire. Her very own grimoire.
It was old and covered in dirt and clearly left forgotten somewhere... but it's a grimoire. And it is hers.
The five-leaf on the cover seems to mock her with the pitch black color. Even when she turns it towards the candlelight, it doesn't even reflect it back; it's like a void of nothingness.
"I think it's bullshit. The common three-leaf, the lucky four-leaf, the five-leaf from Hell–it's all bullshit, okay?" Mereoleona had once declared with an anger placed for someone or something else. "But... this bullshit may have some truth in it. There's a reason there's hardly any four-leafs around to make it seem like a legend. And that five-leaf–I've never seen one before."
"And in the fifth-leaf, resides the Devil," Asta murmurs with a narrowed gaze. She flips open the grimoire and stares at the spell written in an unfamiliar and unsettling language. The spell that summons her great sword–the one that can nullify magic.
Asta snaps the grimoire closed and hugs it to her chest with a small sigh. She shakes her head and looks up at the twilight colored sky.
She should be dressing the wounds Sister Lily didn't have enough skill and magic to heal. She should be getting cleaned up to head back downstairs and celebrate Yuno gaining a four-leaf grimoire and herself even gaining one. That is what Asta should be doing.
Asta looks back down at her grimoire with a slight frown. She shakes her head again and stands to get cleaned up.
She's about to unbutton her dress‒that's been ripped to ruins! That damn thief‒when something booms in the distance. Asta jumps when she hears something crash loudly outside the church and stumbles to the window.
"Ma?" Asta questions out loud, watching Mereoleona walk out of the smoking and charred crater she created from her landing. She didn't wear shoes and the clearly expensive dress she wore was burnt away all the way up to her thighs.
She looked panicked.
Asta turns around and races out of the room as fast as she could while trying not to put too much pressure on her injured leg. She runs into a wall as Sister Lily and Father Orsi, followed by Yuno and the younger children, rush out of the dining room.
"Ma's outside!" Asta calls out, stumbling past the group to enter the nave of the church. Mereoleona slams open the front doors and is about to race in when she sees Asta.
She stalks forward as Asta uses one of the benches to balance herself. "Ma?! What's going on? Why are you–"
Mereoleona grabs Asta by the shoulders, looking her over with a dark expression. Her eyes pause at Asta's partially healed shoulder before they flick down to where the skirt of her dress is destroyed to inspect the hole in her thigh.
"What happened?" Mereoleona asks calmly, making Asta tense. When Mereoleona is calm, she isn't just serious. She's enraged... and she's out for blood.
"I'm fine. I promise, Ma. I was just about to go clean up when I heard you land," Asta quickly reassures the ferocious woman. Yuno and the others finally rush into the nave, only for all of them to freeze at Mereoleona's appearance.
"Sister," Mereoleona states with an eerie calm tone, "what the hell happened to‒to these brats?"
"Asta, go get cleaned up. Yuno, help her. I'll explain everything that you both had told me," Sister Lily speaks softly. Asta and Yuno silently nod and follow her request.
Asta bites the inside of her cheek as Yuno helps her back to the bedroom they share with the younger children when they come to visit. She glances over her shoulder before leaning closer to her sister.
"Do you... do you think she felt my grimoire... appear in front of me?" Asta asks, ignoring the increasing amount of dread filling her gut.
Yuno stays silent, but glances over her shoulder as well. "I think... we don't need to worry about it."
"Yuno... my grimoire‒it's a five-leaf."
"Asta..." Yuno rolls her eyes and gives the silver haired teenager a look. "If anyone in this entire kingdom was going to get the two rarest grimoires... it was going to be us. Does it really matter what some folk bullshit says about the clovers?"
Asta bites her cheek and stays silent. Does it matter? Does it matter to her? Asta shakes her head before she can even voice her thoughts, a small grin growing on her face.
"No... it doesn't... and Ma will say the same."
"Damn right, she will," Yuno states loudly before Asta quickly shushes her. They are still inside the church!
Asta fell asleep without a struggle; the fight had taken quite a bit out of her and the injuries made her exhausted. She thought she'd simply fall into a dreamless sleep, or dream of something she won't remember in the morning. She thought wrong.
She is floating. All she sees is red. She can't hear anything. She can't feel anything.
Where am I?
"'Does it really matter?' Ge-ge-ge."
Asta can't breathe. Something is filling her mouth, filling her throat. Something is drowning her. Her muscles spasms and twitch.
Something is wrong.
Black‒but it isn't black‒fills her vision. It twists around her to form a claw-like hand before travelling back to form an arm; then a shoulder; then a body; then a face.
"Does it matter now, human?" The thing–the demon‒the devil speaks again, mocking and jovial.
What‒are you?
"Ge-ge-ge. You said it yourself, human. Are you that foolish?" The devil pulls her closer. "I'm a devil. The devil that resides in that grimoire of yours."
Why are you in the grimoire?
"Foolish human! Do you think I'd answer your questions?! Ge-ge-ge. I'm here to kill you," The devil sneers, or seems to sneer, or... doesn't sneer. He doesn't sneer. Not at her. Why?
She feels rage, anger, sadness, grief. She feels disbelief and a thirst for bloody vengeance. She feels... emotions that are not her own.
...You won't kill me.
Asta can barely feel the pressure as the devil squeezes her body. She stares up at the devil before blinking.
"Arrogant! All devils kill you puny little humans! We eat you! We torture you! All devils are scum to you humans!" The devil hisses in a rage and ice cold fury that isn't targeted towards the teenager.
No. You don't want to kill me.
The devil roars and raises his other hand to wrap around Asta. She doesn't feel anything as the devil squishes her.
Asta wakes up with no air in her lungs and her own hand to her throat. It takes her a moment to remember how to breathe as she bolts up from her bed.
Her breaths came out ragged and her entire body was soaked in sweat. Her lungs hurt‒her throat hurts. Her heart is pounding as if it'll beat its last right that second.
Red. Black. A sneer. Grief. Grief‒so much grief.
Asta weeps loudly before she quickly covers her mouth to muffle it. She heaves for air as she curls over her lap.
What did she see? What was she dreaming about? She could only see glimpses and flashes... she‒she can't remember.
"‒ta? Asta!" Asta lifts her head at the quiet shout. It was pitch-black, but what she could see was blurred from her tears.
Shades of vermilion suddenly appear closer before a rough hand grabs the back of her head and pulls her into warmth. Asta uncovers her mouth and instead muffles her weeping into Mereoleona's collarbone as she clenches her fists around the woman's shirt.
The hand keeps her head pressed into Mereoleona's collarbone, unmoving and secure. Asta releases the emotions that she knows aren't hers into the comfort Mereoleona is giving her, unsure and terrified by something she can't remember.
Asta passes out in Mereoleona's arms. Exhausted and still weeping. She doesn't notice Mereoleona's terribly shaking arms, or her shaky breaths she had been desperately trying to calm.
Mereoleona keeps Asta pressed against her, calming her own racing heart.
She had woken up to something clogging her throat and her lungs. It felt like she was drowning; it felt like something that a human like her should not have felt. It left–more like it was ripped away‒before Mereoleona could even get a breath in. It was the loud weep that quickly cut off that made Mereoleona bolt out of bed.
In the nine years she has had Asta... she has never heard her weep. It took her another moment, as she barrels open the door to the brats' bedroom as quietly as she could, did she fully realize that the something had come from this room; it had come from Asta. Or... Asta's five-leaf grimoire.
Mereoleona clenches her eyes shut and presses her lips against Asta's head. She gently lays the girl back onto her own bed and carefully covers her with the blanket. Her‒still shaking‒hand reaches up and brushes Asta's hair from her sweaty forehead. A frown grows on her face before she places her whole hand on the teenager's forehead.
Fuck. She's burning up.
Mereoleona stands up and stalks out of the bedroom, right as Sister Lily stumbles out of her bedroom. "L-Lady Mereoleona! Are‒are the children okay?! I heard a sound and‒"
"They're fine and it was Asta. Did you not feel‒" Mereoleona cuts herself off and clenches her shaking fists to her side.
"What? Feel what? Did something happen?" Sister Lily asks worriedly, making Mereoleona curse under her breath. The Sister almost berates the woman, but as she watches Mereoleona cross her arms and pinch the bridge of her nose, she refrains from doing so.
"Lady Mereoleona?"
Mereoleona sighs quietly and looks back into the bedroom, looks back at the possibly deathly ill teenager in her care. "Asta has a dangerously high fever. I... need to go to the Royal Capital. I'll pick up some medicine, but watch over her condition, Sister."
"Of‒of course! Lady Mereoleona, what happened? Why is Asta ill?" Sister Lily asks, worried and terrified for the child.
Mereoleona glares down at the floor, still feeling that something even if she can't even remember what it actually felt like. "I don't know... but I'm going to find out. If she wakes up, or her condition‒call me with the communicator I gave you."
"...of course, Lady Mereoleona," Sister Lily gives her answer before walking into the brats' bedroom. She immediately gets to work and casts her healing magic over Asta.
Mereoleona doesn't give the room another glance as she stalks down the hallway and out of the church. She's in a too small nightgown the Sister lent to her, she has no shoes on, and she probably looks like an absolute fucking mess... but she needs to find information about the five-leaf. She needs information about devils. And she needs Owen to tell her how to make sure a brat with no magic doesn't die from illness when no medicine can help her.
Depending on each person who resides in the Royal Capital, the speed in which rumors and news travels is either a gift or a curse. For Owen, it is both.
Lady Mereoleona of House Vermillion raced out of the Vermillion Residence in a fury, leaving behind a tray of broken champagne glasses, a completely blown out window, and a pair of heels. No one knows where she went and no one has been able to contact her.
When it reached Owen's ears by midnight, he kept his silence on the matter. He has a strong hunch as to why Lady Mereoleona had raced out of the ball held in both Lady Mimosa's and Lady Noelle's honor for receiving their grimoires. He simply finished his usual late night check-ups on his surgery patients and went back to his office to get a head start on his seemingly endless piles of paperwork.
Which is why, when Lady Mereoleona bursts into his office in only a nightgown‒clearly borrowed as it only fell to her thighs‒no shoes despite being someone who knows and follows every single one of Owen's rules, and her hair an absolute mess, Owen hadn't been surprised. What surprises–and fills him with dread–him is the expression of pure and unadulterated terror in Lady Mereoleona's eyes.
"Owen‒"
"What's wrong? Is it your children? What happened?" Owen races forward, already pulling on his coat and making sure his grimoire is secure in his satchel.
Lady Mereoleona breathes out shakily–which raises Owen's panic even further. Lady Mereoleona doesn't shake, nor tremble‒and slams the door closed behind her. "Owen. Do you know of anyone with a five-leaf grimoire? Do you know‒do you know of anyone who‒who... who knows about devils?"
Owen freezes. His mind replays those two questions and then reboots. He sucks in a sharp breath and stares into Lady Mereoleona's eyes.
"Do you need me to check the children right now?" Owen asks seriously.
Devils; they're myths and legends. They were probably around once upon a time–the whole legend of the First Wizard King has some factual evidence after all–but a devil? In a grimoire? He's never heard of anything like it.
Lady Mereoleona breathes heavily and runs a hand through her hair. She takes a deep breath and stares at her trembling hands before she clenches them at her sides.
"I‒I don't know what I felt earlier‒when I raced out of that damn ball. Fuck, it's probably already spread to the Noble Realm now." Lady Mereoleona starts to pace. "I ran out because I felt‒I felt something. Something happened to Asta and Yuno. Something was happening. I‒I had to go and make sure those fucking shits were safe."
"Asta and Yuno Vermillion. Are they male or female?" Owen doesn't voice his thoughts, simply files the information to write down later.
"When I got to the church‒I knew something changed. Asta was injured‒fuck, it looked like something tore through her shoulder! And her thigh, it had a hole through it! Through it, Owen. The Sister has good healing magic, but she's never dealt with serious injuries like that before. She managed to stop the bleeding and partially healed them, but fuck! And Yuno‒she had less injuries, but her arms and waist were bruised. She had almost been choked to death," Lady Mereoleona rambles almost frantically.
"Both females, both fifteen. Orphans until Lady Mereoleona adopted them. And they've been travelling with her for almost a decade to different Grand Magic Zones. One with no magic, the other with an unknown amount of magic."
"Then‒then Sister Lily told me what the shits told her. Some fucking thief‒a Magic Knight that got expelled. Fuck, when I find him, I'll kill him for sure," Lady Mereoleona snarls darkly, her magic reacting to her fury.
"Lady Mereoleona." Owen gives the woman a look, making her take another deep breath to calm herself down.
"Yuno‒that little shit, upstaging me! She received a four-leaf. A God-be-damned four-leaf grimoire!" Lady Mereoleona barks out a laugh as Owen blinks in momentary shock.
"A four-leaf? So, more than an exceptional amount of magic. What attribute? Is Lady Yuno a battle mage‒a healer?" There hasn't been a four-leaf grimoire in centuries. At least recorded.
"Asta didn't receive a grimoire‒then, but the thief had restrained Yuno when she had let her guard down against two little brats who thought they could teach my little shit a lesson. Asta got her injuries from that fucker, but she got her grimoire. It's‒it's a five-leaf. Owen, I always called that saying bullshit that might have some truth, but fuck!" Lady Mereoleona stands completely still staring at one of the office walls. Her fists were still shaking.
A five-leaf grimoire and a four-leaf grimoire. And they are awarded to Lady Mereoleona's children. Owen should feel terror and dread for the heavy implications, but he's more focused on the normally ferocious woman and her immense terror. It's clear she's never felt this way before; she doesn't realize how much she loves and cares for these girls.
"I think‒I think there's a devil in Asta's grimoire. I think she met it. I woke up to this‒this something. God, I have never felt anything like it before. Before I even realized I woke up, it disappeared. Not even a second later I heard Asta weeping. Owen, this brat‒she's broken her arm three times. One time, it was completely shattered‒the entire thing. She barely even cried. I've never‒fuck and that-that something. It came from her, Owen. From her grimoire. She passed out and then I realized that she was burning up. Fuck, her fever was dangerously high. And‒she has no magic, Owen. Not even the best medicine can help her. If she dies‒"
"Are these not your daughters? Did you not raise them?" Owen barks out harshly, making the normally ferocious woman whirl around with a snarl. Yes, she is still full of denial.
"Lady Mereoleona, I have been a healer in the Royal Capital since before you were born. I was the only healer willing, and probably the only healer stupid enough to get in a fight with you to either knock you out or to give you a concussion severe enough that allowed me to heal you. God forbid the simple physicals you hated so much that I had to muzzle you just so you wouldn't bite me. And let us not forget the Five Years of Frozen Hell either." Owen crosses his arms and glares at the woman. "Out of everything I know about you, Lady Mereoleona, I know for a fact that your ability to fight death itself has passed on to your daughters."
"...they aren't–they aren't my children, you fucker!" Lady Mereoleona hisses ferociously, already gaining back some of her fire.
"Yes, whatever they are to you. Now, where are the children?" Owen asks again.
"In Hage Village. Owen, my questions–"
Owen sighs heavily. "No. I don't know of anyone with a five-leaf grimoire. Nor do I know of anyone who knows about devils. Devils are meant to be myths, Lady Mereoleona. But, let us focus on your–on Asta first."
Lady Mereoleona clearly had more to say, but she lets it go. Owen doesn't say anything about her completely opposite behavior and only follows her out of his office.
"Lady Mereoleona. If this involves devils... will you tell Lord Julius?"
Lady Mereoleona doesn't pause in her quick strides, but her shoulders do tense. Her silence makes Owen sigh.
"I need answers first. I don't care if I have to fight it out of this devil in my–in Asta's grimoire. Once I get something, I'll tell Julius," Lady Mereoleona eventually answers.
"I'll leave it to you, then."
Yuno is normally a heavy sleeper. Being able to sleep in places like the geyser Grand Magic Zone she had previously stayed in with Mereoleona and Asta or the Ultime Underground Cave gave her the ability to sleep just about anywhere. In the past nine years, she's grown used to sleeping in the strangest places.
That night, she chose to sleep in a pretty comfortable position on the windowsill. She assumed, with the fight against the thief, Mereoleona's surprising early return to the church, and the celebration of her and Asta getting grimoires, she would sleep like the dead.
With the panicked clamoring and the wind's hollow hymns rousing Yuno from her deep sleep, she quickly realizes she was wrong. Yuno lifts her head, ignoring the rat's nest that is her hair, and blinks at the somewhat blurred scene in front of her.
Sister Lily had her grimoire out and had a healing spell cast over Asta. Father Orsi stood by Asta's head, wringing out a wet washcloth and placing it on her forehead. The children, clearly having been woken up by the quiet commotion, were hovering by the door. Aruru and Hollo were crying with Recca desperately trying to sooth them.
Yuno blinks again and startles. The noise makes the other children jump as Yuno stumbles off of the windowsill and makes her way over to her sister.
"Wha'‒what happened?" Yuno asks, her voice rough from sleep. She grabs Asta's bedpost and stares at the shivering form of the silver haired teenager.
Her skin was pallid and ashen, sweat had covered her entire body, and her eyes were clenched shut and rapidly moving beneath her eyelids. She looked deathly ill.
"Yuno, take the children and go to the nave. We're waiting for Lady Mereoleona to return," Sister Lily orders sternly, sweat dripping from her forehead in her desperate concentration.
"But what happened? Why is Asta like this? When did she get sick?" Yuno asks, her grip tightening around the bedpost enough to make it creak.
"I don't know... but Lady Mereoleona will return with medicine. Now, go take the children!" Sister Lily answers quickly. Yuno continues to stare at Asta‒at her stubborn, unmovable, idiotic sister, and scowls.
"Devil, devil. Devil does cry. Devil, devil. Devil does grieve," The wind giggles. "Devil, devil. Devil must help. Or the devil's sister will die."
Something stabs Yuno in the chest. "...and in the fifth-leaf, resides the Devil."
"You..." The bedpost snaps under her grip and Yuno growls. A breeze, cold and heavy, blows into the room.
It doesn't matter. three-leaf, four-leaf, five-leaf. Yuno never understood why people cared so much about how many leaves a grimoire has. She doesn't understand why people care so much about the symbol.
The further into Clover someone gets, the more Clover discriminates. The hatred grows and the fear festers. Especially for those that were not born in The Clover Kingdom.
Mereoleona had told her and Asta about the other kingdoms, had explained it to them.
The Heart Kingdom is closed off and a complete mystery, but if no one is seeking asylum in Clover, then things should be doing well over there. The Diamond Kingdom is stripped of resources and desperate after the war with a dying and greedy king and rumors of human experimentation. Those who seek asylum tend to stay hidden, but most people in the Forsaken Realm will simply look the other way for a fellow survivor. The Spade Kingdom is completely unknown and dangerous. There is no talk of royalty or government or any kind of communication. No one from Spade seeks asylum... probably because no one can leave Spade, alive.
A person shouldn't be judged on their grimoire. A person should be judged for what they do and how they do it. No more, no less.
Yuno does not understand what the wind is telling her. She does not understand why it names Asta the devil's sister when she is Asta's sister. She doesn't know about devils and she doesn't know if it is strange that the devil is crying or grieving or whatever the wind is talking about.
Yuno has no fucking idea about what's going on right now... but she does know one thing with absolute certainty.
"EITHER YOU BEAT ITS ASS OR I'LL BEAT YOUR ASS TO BEAT ITS ASS, ASTA!" Yuno roared as loud as she could. Asta is her sister and her rival. Bullheaded, ferocious, loud, a bitch, and the first person Yuno has ever looked up to.
"YOU REALLY WANNA LET MA REGRET TAKING YOU IN?!"
If Asta dies here, Yuno's about to fight God himself just so that she can drag her back. Only Asta will be her rival to become the Wizard King. No one else.
Asta is floating‒a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶?‒but it doesn't feel like she is. She doesn't see red anymore, only black‒b̶u̶t̶ s̶h̶e̶ h̶a̶s̶n̶'t̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ h̶e̶r̶e̶ b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶... h̶a̶s̶ s̶h̶e̶?‒and she can hear everything, She can feel everything.
Why is she here... again? Has she been here before?
"EITHER YOU BEAT ITS ASS OR I'LL BEAT YOUR ASS TO BEAT ITS ASS, ASTA!"
Asta's eyes slowly grow wide at the faint roar. The nothingness. The red. The devil. The emotions. The grief.
"YOU REALLY WANNA LET MA REGRET TAKING YOU IN?!"
Asta feels sick at the sudden barrage of memories. She feels her muscles twitch and she releases a gasp that she cannot hear.
She whirls around, ignoring how her hair floats around her like she was underwater. She doesn't see the devil... but she knows the devil is here. It has to be.
Asta clenches her jaw as the fire inside her explodes. She takes a deep breath and opens her mouth.
YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! COME OUT SO I CAN BEAT YOUR ASS!
A growl pierces through Asta's head, making her grab the side of it. "HOW?! HOW ARE YOU BACK?! LEAVE! LEAVE!"
Asta flips back and dodges the black hand trying to grab her. She crouches in the not-air air and snarls at the devil before she jumps back to dodge it again.
NO! YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO ME OR YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE THE ASS BEATING I HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU, BITCH!
"GET THE FUCK OUT! YOU–YOU HUMAN SCUM!" The devil screeches. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! I WILL!"
Asta watches the devil's movements as she dodges his hands. She jumps over one of the grabs and barely lets her feet touch the black mass before she's sprinting up the devil's arm.
HOW ARE YOU GONNA KILL ME IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE BALLS TO DO IT?! YOU WON'T FUCKING KILL ME!
Asta leaps towards the devil's face with her fist pulled back. The devil swings a hand out to slap her away, but Asta quickly flips in the air and lands on top of the hand. She uses it as a springboard and leaps again.
I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'RE SAD AND I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU THINK EMPTY THREATS WILL WORK, BUT THIS IS MY GRIMOIRE AND THAT MEANS YOU ARE MY DEVIL!
Asta twirls and kicks out her leg, slamming it against the devil's head. The strength and the momentum causes the giant devil to fly to the left.
STOP BEING A WHINING LITTLE PUSSY AND ACTUALLY TALK TO ME!
Asta pants for air, completely muted. There is no sound; no anger; no grief. A heartbeat skips and Asta is suddenly flown back.
Hey! Hope you all like the new chapter! Oh my God, I did not expect this story to get this much love this quickly!! Thank you all so much! I really, really appreciate it!
So, right off the bat, I've changed quite a few things. Whoops, not whoops. I did say both Asta and Yuno will be overpowered... oh well! It'll be a fun story to write!
Will Asta's punch be enough to defeat the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun? Will she just punch Vetto until he begs for mercy? Will she punch Mars so many times that he becomes a good guy? Will Yuno teach the nobles lessons in humility and kindness by beating the absolute shit out of them until they all secretly fear peasants? Will she just break Catherine's jaw and leave the fight like that? Will she simply beat Alecdora with just her fists instead of using magic to prove a point in the Royal Knights Exam? We will see! We will see...
By the way, I think because I've implied that Mereoleona and the girls visit the church every once in a while, I would think Mereoleona would give them some money to live off of. Sister Lily and Father Orsi of course wouldn't take too much, but they are very thankful and use the money to improve the church and the children's lives. Mereoleona also gave them a communicator in case they need help, or an emergency happens.
Anyways! I hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Bye.
WhovianWhoudini