Chapter Nine: New Powers, New Friendships
Here's the last chapter of the day, readers, enjoy, and once more, stay safe.
"You heard me, move," the man said again. "Don't make me repeat myself,"
The man with the crew cut stepped forward and extended his hand, blocking the other man. "Just wait a minute there Mars, look at them," he said. "They're all Magic Knights, and by the color of those robes, they're part of the Golden Dawn, I hear they're supposed to be the strongest Magic Knights squad in the Clover Kingdom,"
Klaus gritted his teeth and looked down at their plant mage. "Mimosa, are you going to be alright?"
She weakly nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine, I just need to rest in one of my spells," her grimoire came out to her. "Plant Recovery Magic: Dream-Healing Flower Cradle," she said as vines gathered around her and turned into a spherical cradle, she was immersed in flower petals from the torso down.
"Please forgive me, Klaus, Yuno, Letoile, I won't be of much use to you right now," Mimosa apologized. "I'm supposed to be our healer, but instead, I'm the one who needs healing,"
"Don't worry Mimosa, just focus on recovering, we won't let them past us," Klaus responded, before turning to the two mysterious mages. "Just who are you anyway, and how dare you attack someone behind their back, don't you have any honor?!"
The man beside Mars slightly walked up. "Honor? To hell with that, if anything, it's her fault for not sensing and reacting to the spell quick enough," he replied. "And as for who we are, my name is Andreas, and the person beside me is Mars, mages of the Diamond Kingdom,"
Klaus' expression tensed. "Damn it, so the Diamond Kingdom was already here, and we just led them to the treasure,"
Andreas shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, we would've found the treasure eventually, you just made it a bit faster, but there's something I wanna know," he said. "Is it true, in the Clover Kingdom, are the Golden Dawn really the strongest Magic Knight squad?"
"That's right, we are the strongest, and you'll soon regret attacking one of our own," Klaus replied.
But to the steel mage's surprise, Andreas gave a nearly sadistic grin. "Regret? Why would I regret it? I've been looking for strong obstacles to defeat, and if you're the strongest, you'll all do quite nicely," he said, taking out his grimoire, he turned to Mars. "Aren't you going to take out your grimoire?"
Mars made no eye contact with his associate. "You know that won't be necessary, Andreas, the question is why are you taking out your grimoire, do you think you'll need it?"
"Not really, but as much as I enjoy destroying the obstacles in front of me, we were given a mission, we will complete it quickly and efficiently, so we have to eliminate them first," Andreas replied.
"I'm fine, just worry about taking out those Magic Knights," Mars said with an emotionless tone.
"Okay then, time to begin," Andreas said, advancing to the Golden trio. "Let's see how long you'll last, Impact Magic: Double Impact!" he exclaimed as he performed a sequence of hand gestures, unleashing a devastating wave of force, heading towards the three Magic Knights.
"Impact magic?" Yuno muttered, never hearing of such an attribute.
"I'd be careful if I were you, if that spell hits you, it's going to hurt," Andreas said.
"Don't worry, I got this," Letoile said, taking out her grimoire. "That spell will hurt if it hits us right, then I'll just stop that from happening, Compass Magic: Willful Compass!" she exclaimed, causing a large green compass to appear, as the wave drew closer, the needle on the compass turned left, making the wave turn left, completely missing her and her fellow squadmates, but as it hit its new target, the area had been nearly obliterated.
A drop of sweat fell down the side of Yuno's head. "Holy crap, the force of that spell is ridiculous, what would've happened if that actually hit us," he thought.
"Nice work Letoile, but since he uses Impact Magic, that means the one who struck down Mimosa was that Mars boy," Klaus pointed out.
"You stopped my Double Impact, or rather, you merely redirected it, I wonder how that spell would do against a melee attack," Andreas said as he charged at her. "Impact Magic: Shockwave Fist!" he exclaimed, his fist being imbued with magic power.
"That speed, it's unreal, I don't think I can dodge it in-," Letoile thought, but was interrupted midway as the attack made contact, right in her stomach, a strong shockwave soon followed that punch, sending the compass mage to the ground.
"There we go, it seems your defense is garbage against attacks that are close up, hopefully, those teammates of yours will do better," the impact mage said.
"Get away from her!" Yuno exclaimed as he launched an arc of wind at Andreas.
Andreas merely jumped out of the way. "It seems like someone is angry, alright then, bring it on, I'll take you out next,"
Klaus ran over to Letoile and kneeled down to her. "Are you alright, will you be able to stand?"
To his relief, she sat up. "That one really hurt, but it isn't enough to keep me down," she replied.
"That's a relief," Klaus said, turning to Yuno. "Yuno, Letoile has the best defense out of all of us, she and I will fight Andreas, you'll fight Mars. We don't know his potential though, can you do it?"
"It won't be a problem," Yuno replied as wind surrounded him and he floated in the air before speeding towards Mars.
"So you two want to take me on, fine by me, I'm the lucky one who gets to take out two opponents," Andreas said. "Hey Mars, that wind guy is after you, I think you might want to do something,"
"Yeah, I'm already on it," Mars replied nonchalantly as he extended his hand, sending shards of crystal towards Yuno.
The mage quickly maneuvered around all the shards that came his way. "My turn to go on the offensive, Wind Magic: Crescent Moon Sickle!" he exclaimed, using both of his hands to fire off two powerful crescent-shaped slashes of wind at the mage, much stronger than his previous ones.
Mars, however, stood still, not even changing his facial expression, as if he didn't see the approaching spell as a threat. "Is that it, Mineral Creation Magic: Talos Doll," he said as a doll made of crystal appeared in front of him, the doll was in his likeness, it raised one hand, completely blocking the two attacks.
"Damn it, that thing looks strong, but how did he cast a spell like that without his grimoire, well, whatever reason it is, I'll need to use an attack that it can't defend with its hand," Yuno decided to himself, looking through his grimoire's pages, as it stopped on a page, a small smile creased his face. "This should do it, Wind Magic: Towering Tornado!" he exclaimed, sending a large tornado at the doll.
As before, the doll tried to protect Mars, but as the tornado drew close, it was quickly sucked in before being launched out, crashing into a nearby wall. "The range and effectiveness of that spell can be troublesome," Mars said, running out of the way of the tornado.
"It appears I'll have to try a little, fine then, Mineral Magic: Nemean Armor," Mars said as an armor made of crystal covered his chest, arms, shoulders, and legs. "This will do better against those wind spells of yours, so show me what you're made of,"
Meanwhile, with Klaus and Letoile, they were doing their best to fend off Andreas, but he was proving to be quite the formidable foe.
"You two aren't doing too bad, but to be honest, you're starting to get boring, maybe Mars was right, I should've just fought without my grimoire," Andreas taunted.
Klaus gritted his teeth. "This isn't good, Letoile and I have each taken a role, I focus on offense while she focuses on defense, but it isn't working very well, and to add to that, he has both long-range and close up attack capabilities," he thought.
"Quiet, don't you dare mock us, we are the Golden Dawn, the Clover Kingdom's best," Letoile spoke up, but with a more stern tone.
"Oh, it's the defense lady, sorry, you may say how your little squad might be the strongest, but I'm not really seeing it," Andreas said back with a stoic expression as Letoile gritted her teeth as well, the impact mage's face maintained its stoic look. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I make you mad, what're you going to do, cast another compass shield of yours and hope I decide to attack from here,"
"I might be good at defense, but I can also do offense as well," the compass mage said, summoning a multitude of large compass needles, sending them straight at the impact mage.
"Not bad, but not bad isn't good enough," Andreas said as he jumped into the air, the needles completely missing. "Please tell me you have something more impressive?"
"As a matter of fact, I do, we'll see how much you talk after this, Compass Magic: Useless North!" Letoile exclaimed as a green sphere appeared beside her, within it was a large suspended compass needle, she pointed at Andreas as the sphere disappeared and the needle raced towards Andreas.
"What, that's the best you can do, just one needle, what a disappointment," he said as he jumped once more, evading the needle.
Letoile cracked a small smirk. "Oh, it's not as easy as you think, why don't you take a look behind you," she said as Andreas did so, and his eyes widened as he saw the needle coming right at him.
He quickly dodged it again. "What, but I dodged it?!"
"You did, but that doesn't really matter, you see my Useless North may produce only one needle, but it will pursue you until it hits you," she explained.
"Awesome work, Letoile, I know you and Klaus can beat him!" Mimosa exclaimed in an attempt to cheer for her squadmates.
Letoile turned to her. "Thanks, Mimosa, but don't worry about cheering us on, all you have to worry about is getting better," she said before then turning to the steel mage. "Klaus, my Useless North has turned the tables, for now, we have to use this as a chance to increase our offensive,"
Klaus nodded. "Yes, you're right, we can't waste this opportunity, Steel Creation Magic: Spiral Lance!" he exclaimed, sending lances towards Andreas as well.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it, I won't be forced on the defensive," Andreas said, doing his best to evade the ever-pursuing needle. "The only way to lose is to destroy it, which, fortunately for me, is in my-," he said, before stopping as he saw the spinning lances approach him.
Andreas sucked his teeth. "Shit, now those things are coming for me...wait, maybe I can use them to take out the needle, I can get close enough and jump at the last second, that should do the tri-," he thought, but was stopped as he felt something pierce the back of his shoulder, he felt a large amount of pain before seeing that the needle had hit him, while he was thinking, he had involuntarily slowed himself down, allowing the needle to catch up to him. The lances got closer, but Andreas was able to dodge them, he then pulled the needle out, letting the blood drip on his fur coat.
Andreas then began to grit his teeth. "Okay, now you two have really pissed me off, this won't stop me, I'm going to destroy you both," he threatened furiously.
"You, pissed off? Give me a break, the two of us get pissed off whenever we hear that annoying voice of yours, maybe you should try shutting up, it would make you a lot more bearable," Letoile mocked him.
"That's it, now you're really dead," Andreas said as he charged at them. "Impact Magic: Heavy Rotating Kick!" he exclaimed as he raised one leg into the air, as it was in the air, magic was imbued into it, causing it to glow, he spun around and prepared to attack Letoile.
"You're not getting her this time!" Klaus exclaimed as he quickly ran in front of his squadmate. "Steel Creation Magic: Full Metal Fortress!" he crouched and placed his hands on the ground, immediately forming a wall of steel between him and Andreas, the impact mage hitting the wall instead of his intended target.
"You blocked my attack, but I'm pretty sure it put a dent in that shield of yours, let's see if you can block another one," Andreas stated, using the momentum created by his kick to spin himself around and enhance the force of his next spell. "Impact Magic: Heavy Fist Frenzy!" both of his hands became imbued with magic and he released a barrage of punches at the wall.
"Crap, my wall won't last long, and he's too close for me to cast another wall," Klaus muttered, but to his utter surprise, his wall broke, a lot sooner than he thought it would, the kick from before had done more damage than originally anticipated.
"It appears that that spell of yours has been taken out of the equation, but my frenzy hasn't!" Andreas exclaimed as his barrage of punches made contact with Klaus, sending the mage flying before hitting the ground.
"Klaus!" Letoile screamed.
"Don't worry about him, your turn is coming up soon," Andreas said to her as he raised his fist.
"Stay back," she said, quickly backing up and sending a group of needles at him.
"These again," Andreas said as he too backed up. "I wonder how Mars is doing?"
Meanwhile, with Yuno, he and Mars were at a stalemate, the wind mage had tried to stick to his long-range attacks, but after equipping the crystal armor, the mineral mage now had an effective defense, but at the cost of his mobility, seeing that the weight of the armor still affected him.
"Take this, Wind Magic: Swift White Bow!" Yuno exclaimed as a bow of wind came to his hand, as he pulled on the bowstring, four arrows of wind appeared, he then released it at his opponent.
"That won't be enough to stop me, Mineral Creation Magic: Harpe," he said as four small blades appeared, those blades then launched towards the arrows, spinning as they did so, cutting through each one and heading straight for Yuno, but luckily, he was able to evade them.
"Damn, he got through that spell too, if I want to beat him, I have to use something more powerful, but first, I should regroup with Klaus and Letoile," he said to himself, turning around, his eyes slightly widened to see Klaus on the ground, as for Letoile, she was using her needles to keep Andreas at bay.
"You shouldn't look away from your opponent," Mars said from behind Yuno, as he turned around, he just barely managed to dodge the shards sent after him, he quickly flew over to his squadmate.
"You can't keep me at this distance forever, once I get close enough, I'll take you down just like that other guy, and then the treasure will belong to the Diamond Kingdom," Andreas said.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Andreas looked up to see Yuno, he landed right next to Letoile, Andreas chose to back up more as Mars approached him.
Yuno turned to Letoile. "How's Klaus?" he asked.
"I'm okay," the two Golden Dawns turned behind them to see Klaus slowly walk over to them, it was easy to see he was struggling. "We need to take these two down quickly,"
"That's just what I was planning to do," Yuno told him. "I need to attack with something more serious, I'm finishing this fight right now!" he exclaimed as green mana exuded from him, lighting almost the whole room.
Letoile's eyes widened. "I'm sensing a lot of mana coming from him, whatever he's going to do, it's going to be strong," she thought.
The impact mage shared her thoughts. "I'm picking up a ton of mana from that wind guy, something tells me he's going to do something big," he told Mars.
"Don't worry," the mineral mage said back. "I'll handle this,"
"Prepare yourselves, mages of the Diamond Kingdom, witness the power of the Golden Dawn," Yuno said as his spell took shape, surprising Klaus, Letoile, and Mimosa. "Here we go, no turning back, Wind Creation Magic: Swift White Hawk + Wind Blade Shower!" he exclaimed as a white hawk made of wind appeared, under it was a multitude of knife-shaped blades made out of wind.
"Holy shit, he just cast two different spells at the same time, a double spell, combine that with the fact that he has a four-leaf clover grimoire, I think we just won," Klaus thought as he saw the spells charge towards their targets.
"I'll admit, that's a pretty impressive feat you pulled, but…," Mars began to say as he took out his grimoire. "Mineral Creation Magic…," he then thought.
The two spells were just about to make contact, even Andreas was getting a little worried.
"...Laevateinn,"
Yuno's eyes widened as he saw a large sword made of crystal appear above the mineral mage, he saw how it completely and effortlessly cut through his double spell.
"...Impressive doesn't make it impossible to stop," Mars finished saying.
"No...way," Yuno muttered as he fell to his knees, he had already used up a good amount of mana fighting Mars earlier, casting that double spell spent whatever was left.
"What, even the double spell wasn't powerful enough to take them out, just who are these guys," Letoile muttered.
"I must confess Mars, you had me worried there," Andreas said. "I bet you would've taken him out sooner if you used your grimoire,"
Mars seemingly ignored him, but Andreas wasn't bothered, they then looked over at Yuno on the ground. "This fight is over,"
"No, it isn't," Yuno said as he tried to pick himself up. "I won't give up, I'll fight to the very end, if I didn't," an image of Asta flashed in his mind. "I couldn't call myself his rival!"
"Rival? I don't know who the hell are you talking about, but this fight has come to an end," Mars said as Laevateinn quickly descended on the wind mage.
"Who is he talking about? I'll tell you who…," a voice said, before anybody could even wonder where it came from, their eyes widened as the large crystal sword broke into two, their eyes widened even more as they saw Asta, his sword drawn, standing right in front of Yuno.
"...He's talking about me!" Asta exclaimed.
"Asta," Yuno said before cracking a small grin. "Well, so much for repaying my debt to you,"
"That Black Bull is here," Klaus said.
"Not just him!" a voice exclaimed, everyone looked up to see Luck, Noelle, and Kenos jump out from the entrance.
"Reinforcements have arrived!" Asta exclaimed before getting a better look at Mars and Andreas. "And who are these two weirdos?!"
"Their names are Andreas and Mars, mages of the Diamond Kingdom," Letoile explained.
"So it wasn't just that smoke mage that was here," Noelle realized.
"Great, I was looking for someone else to fight, and I'm sensing strong mana from these two," Luck said with a grin.
"Yuno, you look tired, rest up, leave these guys to us for now," Asta told him.
Yuno reluctantly nodded. "Alright then," he said as Luck helped him up and brought him to the others.
Noelle turned and saw her cousin in one of her spells. "Mimosa, are you alright?"
Her cousin weakly smiled. "I'll be okay, you don't need to worry about me,"
"Okay then, and you don't need to worry either, because I'm going to protect you," she said as her grimoire came to her. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Lair!" a barrier of water appeared over Mimosa with dragons of water revolving around it.
Kenos walked over to the compass mage. "Letoile, right? Is anybody hurt?"
She nodded. "Yeah, Klaus and I have sustained some wounds, but Klaus' are worse, and Yuno is running low on mana,"
"I see, can you keep fighting?" Kenos asked again.
"Yeah, I'll be just fine, I can keep going," she replied.
"That's good," the solar mage as he walked to Klaus and Yuno, they were staying close to Noelle, both sitting down, Kenos went to them and kneeled down, touching each of them with his hand. "Solar Recovery Magic: Healing Rays of the Dawn," he said as Klaus and Yuno began glowing.
"I know we may be competing with each other right now, but with the Diamond Kingdom here, we're going to have to take care of them first," he told them, looking at Klaus and then Yuno, who gave him a glare before turning his head away.
"Okay, it's just us for now, Luck, and glasses girl," Asta said as the two came to his side.
"My name is Letoile," she corrected.
"Oops, my bad, sorry," he apologized.
Andreas looked at the two Black Bulls. "Things just got a little more interesting, it seems more obstacles have come, I guess we'll have to take them down as well before we get to the treasure," he said.
"We won't waste any more time, Mineral Creation Magic: Talos Doll Swarm," he said as multiple dolls from before appeared. "Destroy every last one of them,"
"Crap, we just got outnumbered," Asta muttered. "But we won't give up! Let's go!" he exclaimed as he and the other two charged at their opponents.
"There are so many enemies to fight, this is awesome!" Luck exclaimed, equipping his boots and gloves, punching and kicking every doll in his way. "Lightning Magic: Thunderbolt Destruction!" he then proceeded to shoot the orbs at the dolls out of his reach.
Asta ran through a horde of them, cutting down each doll one by one, but as he did, he noticed something about the two diamond mages.
"That's strange, they aren't attacking us, or doing anything," he realized. "Hey, you two, what're doing just standing there, are you scared of us or something?!"
Andreas chuckled. "Don't make me laugh, why would I be scared of you people, I just don't want those doll things to get in my way, but Mars over here doesn't feel like wasting time," he replied.
"If these dolls are what you're worried about," Luck began, standing on one of them, Asta turned and saw he and Letoile defeated the swarm. "You won't have to worry anymore, now let's fight, I wanna take you on first,"
Andreas grinned at the lightning mage. "Ooh, I like you, sure, let's fight, we'll see how long you'll last,"
Letoile quickly approached him. "Luck, let me join you, we'll have a better chance if we work together, my spells have a good effect on him,"
Luck took a look at her. "Sure, just make sure you don't slow me down, even though you're a member of the Golden Dawn, give it everything you got,"
The green-haired mage pushed up her glasses. "I don't need you to tell me that," she said as they charged at the impact mage.
"If they're taking on that guy, then you're mine!" Asta exclaimed, running towards Mars.
"You won't get any further," Mars said as he summoned another cluster of Talos Dolls.
"More of these, fine then, I'll bust my way through them all, you won't beat us!" Asta exclaimed as he charged at the dolls.
"Let's see what you two are made of," Andreas said as he sped over to Luck.
"Ooh, you're fast," Luck giggled before dodging. "But I'm faster!"
"We'll see about that," the impact mage said back, quickly approaching him, but backed up as Letoile shot needles at him.
"Don't forget about me!" Luck exclaimed as he launched a quick side kick into Andreas' side, quickly following up with a punch that sent his opponent into the air.
"That was a good attack, now it's my turn, Impact Magic: Heavy Body Tackle!" he exclaimed, spinning his body mid-air before coming down with tremendous force.
Luck crossed his arms together and took the impact of the blow, creating a small crater underneath him, the lightning mage could feel the pain in his arms, but his stance remained steadfast.
"Get away from him," Letoile said, sending more needles at him.
Andreas in turn jumped in the air to avoid them, ending his struggle with Luck. "Now this is getting interesting, Impact Magic: Double Impact!" he exclaimed, launching the wave of force in mid-air towards Luck.
"I already know how to get around this spell, Compass Magic: Willful Compass!" Letoile exclaimed, creating a shield above Luck, redirecting the attack.
"Thanks, that spell of yours is pretty cool," Luck thanked her.
"You're welcome, but I'm not done yet," she said, creating another compass shield, once more redirecting the force, she then did it again.
Andreas was visually confused. "What're you doing?"
"You're about to see right now, this thought just came to me," she replied, creating one more shield, redirecting the attack at Andreas. "Time for you to get a taste of the power of your own spell, Compass Magic: Willful Compass - Full Deflection!"
"Shit!" Andreas yelled as his own wave of force hit him, sending him crashing into the wall.
"That was so cool Letoile, but we need some insurance," Luck said, blasting multiple orbs at him, causing him to fall down from the crater, he laid there unconscious. "There, now he's down, I was hoping for more of a fight though, I guess you guys wore him out pretty good,"
Meanwhile, with Asta, he continued to cut down the swarm of crystal dolls, but Mars kept sending more and more at him, he was becoming quickly overwhelmed.
"You look like you could use some help," two voices from behind him said, his eyes widened as needles and orbs came from behind him, crashing into the swarm, he turned to see Letoile and Luck.
"Cool, you two beat that guy so quickly," he said.
"True, but he was already worn out to an extent beforehand, and Luck was pretty useful," Letoile responded.
"Yeah, and you should've seen the spell she used on that guy, sent his own attack right back at him," Luck added before turning to her. "Say, why don't we have a fight after this,"
Letoile was a bit caught off guard by that question. "Um, I'd rather not, we're both Magic Knights,"
"Ah, no fair," he pouted. "Well, I guess we can help Asta for now by destroying those dolls," he and Letoile continued firing their respective projectile spells.
"Great, now all I have to do is get this guy," Asta said, as he walked to the mage.
"I'm not sensing any magic from him, how has he been able to defeat my swarm, well no matter, my Nemean Armor is more than enough, it stopped that wind guy, stopping him shouldn't be a prob-," Mars thought, but was stopped midway as Asta then stood still and planted his foot on the ground, a crater formed under it as he zoomed to the mineral mage.
"Take this!" he exclaimed, using his sword to launch Mars into the wall with tremendous force, surprising everyone there.
The one who was probably most surprised by this was Klaus. "How did he do that? Not even a double spell from Yuno could get close, and now that I think about, those two have been holding their own since they got here, even with Letoile's help, I couldn't get a single hit on either of them, how is it possible that a squad like the Black Bulls fight on par with the Golden Dawn?"
"I told you not to underestimate Asta, he's no ordinary commoner," Yuno said to him.
"What, how?"
Kenos was the one to explain this time. "Asta's sword is capable of negating magic on contact, in other words, anti-magic,"
"Anti-magic, I've never heard of such a thing," Klaus said.
"Yes, combined with his hard work, he can fight on par with us despite not having any magic whatsoever," Kenos continued.
This shocked Klaus even more. "No magic?"
"That's right, and Luck has been doing good too, I told you we'd prove you wrong, the Black Bulls aren't weak," Kenos said as Klaus gave a frustrated look. "Klaus, you asked me why I joined the Black Bulls, right?"
"That's right," he replied.
"Well, I joined for personal reasons, reasons that I don't really feel like sharing, but regardless, I know one thing, I don't regret joining this squad, the people might be a bit strange, but I enjoy being with them, and because of that, I won't let you badmouth them, you've seen firsthand that they're not as weak as you thought they were," the solar mage finished.
Klaus didn't say another word, it was clear to see he was in thought.
Meanwhile, Mars was laying in the crater, his armor had disappeared, and as he laid there, nearly about to fall unconscious, a faint memory flashed in his head.
[Flashback]
Some Years Ago. The Diamond Kingdom.
A young Mars walked into an empty hallway, he was dressed in a simple white tunic, he turned to his left to see a small barred window, only showing a little bit of the outside.
"Oh, Mars, there you are," a voice said, Mars turned to see a young girl, dressed in the same tunic, she had short, pink hair. "Something told me you might've been here, what're you looking at?"
"I was looking at this window," Mars replied as the girl walked over to him. "Hey, do you ever wonder...what it's like on the outside?"
"I do, ever since we were born, we never got to see the outside, I heard that it's beautiful," she replied with a smile.
"Will we ever get a chance to go outside? To see what the world has to offer?" Mars asked again.
The girl chuckled. "You always ask so many questions, don't you," she said, causing Mars to blush. "Ah, don't be embarrassed, I like it when you ask questions, your curiosity sparks my own,"
"Thanks, but...will we ever get to go outside?" Mars repeated his question.
The girl looked at the window. "To go outside? We have to be strong, strong enough to survive this place, if we're weak, then we're nothing more than pebbles on the ground, pebbles beneath the feet of the strong," she replied.
"But, what if we're too weak?"
The girl took a hold of his hand. "We won't be, we'll both be strong, then we can see the world together, okay,"
A small smile appeared on Mars' face. "Okay, we'll do it together...Fana," he said.
[End Flashback]
"I won't let myself be weak," Mars muttered. "I have to be strong," his grimoire floated in front of him. "Mineral Creation Magic: Titan's Heavy Armor,"
"That should be the end of this battle," Kenos said, taking his hand off of Yuno and Klaus, they then stopped glowing. "There you go, my spell restored your mana as well as your physical condition,"
Mimosa also was released from her spell. "And I'm back in fighting shape too," she turned to her cousin. "Thank you for protecting me, Noelle,"
"You're welcome, after all, we are family," she said back.
The two Golden Dawn knights got up. "Well, I guess I must thank you for healing me," Klaus said, Yuno remained silent.
"No problem, but since this is the treasure room and the door hasn't opened yet, the competition isn't over," the solar mage reminded him, before stopping as they heard a rumbling sound coming from the crater where Mars was, but everyone's eyes widened as they saw Mars, his body covered in a colossal amount of crystals, with arms and legs, sharp crystals protruding from every direction.
"I'm not done yet," the mineral mage said as more swarms of Talos Dolls suddenly appeared, blocking the others from Asta. "Boy with the sword, it'll just be you and me,"
Asta got into his battle position. "Fine by me,"
"More dolls, how many can this guy cast anyways?" Letoile commented.
Kenos put on his ring and activated it. "That doesn't matter, what matters is that we take them down as soon as possible," he replied as his grimoire came to him, flipping through pages. "It's my turn to get into the fight, Solar Creation Magic: Solar Construct - Blade!" a sword of sunlight appeared in his hand.
"Alright, everyone! Charge!" he called as the five mages ran towards the swarm, Mimosa and Noelle staying behind.
Meanwhile, with Asta and Mars, with his armor, Mars had a good defensive stance, and unlike Yuno, Asta could only fight at close range, making him prone to long-range attacks.
"We'll see how much better you can do against these compared to your windy friend over there," Mars said, firing shards at Asta.
"Is that it!" Asta exclaimed, quickly slashing at the shards. "I can do this all day!"
"I don't know what's the deal with that sword, but it's somehow negating my spells, I have to find a way to get around it," Mars thought before an idea came to his head. "There we go, Mineral Creation Magic: Harpe," he said, sending only one blade at the swordsmen.
"Only one blade? Don't you underestimate me!" Asta exclaimed, charging to take the blade on.
The second he did that, Mars cracked a small grin.
Just as Asta was about to cut the blade, a large shadow loomed over him, he looked up and saw Mars, his armor ready to do a clap.
"I don't know too much about that sword, but one thing is obvious, it can't negate what it can't hit!" the mineral mage exclaimed, clapping Asta between the hands of armor.
Kenos slashed through a doll, he looked beside him to see how Asta was doing, his eyes widened as Mars clapped him with his armor, the others turned to see the same thing.
"ASTA!" everyone screamed.
The hands of armor contracted, and they saw Asta, laying down, his sword a few inches from his hand, blood coming out from his forehead.
"I-Is he," Noelle began muttering, hoping that her squadmate had not just been killed.
"Finally, I managed to take one of you down, now it's time for the rest of you," Mars said.
"Not...yet,"
The low sound of a voice surprised Mars, he was even more surprised as he saw Asta slowly grab his sword and get up, using it to aid him, his clothes were partially torn, leaving the entire right side of his torso exposed, blood fell from his forehead. "I said, not yet, I'm not giving up,"
"He's alive," Kenos said, utterly shocked, that attack would kill anybody else for sure, but somehow, Asta survived.
"He's incredible," the thought passed through everyone's minds.
Mars gave him a frustrated look. "Why won't you just die, I don't sense a drop of magic in you, you're weak, you're nothing more than a pebble on the ground!" he exclaimed.
"I may be a pebble, but…," Asta began as he positioned himself, and zoomed forwards, soon, he was only a few inches away from Mars' face.
"...I'M THE PEBBLE THAT SHATTERS DIAMONDS!" he exclaimed furiously, slamming his sword into Mars' shoulder, destroying the armor and slamming him into the ground with a thud. Asta walked over to him and saw that he was unconscious.
The dolls began shattering around them, Kenos looked at Asta. "We did it, it's over, the threat of the Diamond Kingdom is no more,"
"That's a relief," Klaus said. "Asta, Luck, bring Andreas and Mars over here, we have to restrain them,"
The two of them did so, Klaus' grimoire came to him. "You two gave us quite the fight, but not anymore, Steel Binding Magic: Ironclad Coffin," he said, confiding the two in metal coffins.
"And that's the end of that," Asta smirked. "Great job, everyone,"
"Hey, Asta, are you sure you're okay?" Noelle asked with some concern.
"Yup, I'm all good," he replied. "It's going to take more than that to beat me,"
"I see," she said before her cheeks bloomed a light red. "And...your shirt is torn, we can see your stomach,"
Kenos looked at Asta and was impressed by his physical physique, he had seen it before during their daily bath, but that still didn't change his mind, but then something else came to his mind.
"Why is Noelle looking so flustered? There are other girls here, but they look fine, heck, Noelle should be fine since she's on our squad, she must've seen him shirtless a good amount of times...what a minute, could it be, does she...like Asta?" he thought.
"Those muscles of yours are ugly," Noelle said to Asta, crossing her arms and turning her head away from him, her cheeks still rosy.
"Ugly?" Asta asked in a comedic crestfallen tone.
Kenos looked at the two of them before he turned his head away, a comedic indifferent look was on his face, the answer to his question was painfully obvious.
"Nah," he thought. "I don't know too much about girls, but I'm pretty sure if they like someone, they'd compliment them on their good qualities,"
"So, now that we won, how are we going to get inside?" Yuno asked.
"I don't know," Klaus replied. "My attack didn't work on it earlier, we know it has been reinforced through some kind of spell,"
This caught Asta's attention. "Wait, if it's because of a spell, then I can just undo it," he took out his sword and pointed the tip at the door, gently tapping it.
A minor shockwave was released as the door began to open itself, once it was fully opened, the group looked inside and gasped, the room was loaded with shiny treasure, gold, and other things.
"Oh yeah, now that's what I call treasure!" Asta exclaimed starry-eyed before remembering something. "Oh, wait, which squad won the competition?"
"Well, I guess it's a tie," Mimosa replied. "We made it to the previous room first, but Asta was the one who opened the door,"
Kenos and Klaus sighed. "Okay then, it's a tie,"
"So, what do we do now, we found the treasure?" Asta asked before feeling something land on his head, he looked up. "Nero, where have you been?"
The bird got off his head and flew towards a door at the end of the room. "What, is there something over there?" Asta walked over to the door.
Yuno also did some walking around. "As for your question, Asta, now that we've found the treasure, I guess we should contact the capital or something," he replied before noticing a pedestal, on the pedestal, there was a scroll.
"What's this?" he wondered as he picked up the scroll, he saw words on it, his grimoire then glowed before coming up to him, flipping to a blank page, the words on the scrolled then disappeared, appearing in the page.
"Well, we've completed our mission, let's take those two diamond mages with us to the capital-," Letoile said before being cut off by the sounds of steps.
"Huh?" the others asked, hearing steps too, coming from the entrance of the door, they looked to see who it was, as they did, their eyes widened in panic.
Andreas and Mars.
"That's impossible, we defeated you and confined you, how are you here?!" Klaus exclaimed, but stopped as he then noticed that the two mages were covered in flames, one wing spawning on their sides.
"I didn't think you would have to make me use this," Mars said. "We can still fight, thanks to my Flame Recovery Magic: Phoenix Robe,"
"Flame magic, but, that's not your magical attribute, a mage can't have more than one," Klaus said.
"Well, as you can see, it's not impossible, not for the Diamond Kingdom at least," Andreas responded.
"The Diamond Kingdom, what a minute?" the steel mage thought before noticing something, even as they fought, he didn't take the time to notice their grimoires, they looked different from normal ones, they each had two distinct colors, and in between the colors were stitch marks, almost as if...two grimoires were put together. "I remember hearing something about the Diamond Kingdom, how they performed cruel experiments on their residents to create stronger mages, is this the result of those experiments?"
"Those guys are back, let's get them!" Asta exclaimed as he saw the two, quickly drawing his sword and running towards the mages.
"Mars over here has mineral magic and flame magic, as for me…," Andreas began as he raised a leg into the air. "Behold, Combo Magic: Tempest Heavy Rotating Kick!" Instead of magic gathering, wind gathered in his leg as he made a kicking motion, firing a strong force of wind, hitting Asta, and sending him crashing into an entirely other room. "I have combo magic as well, it allows me to imbue an element into my impact magic to make it stronger,"
"This isn't good," Noelle muttered, but then she noticed that Andreas and Mars were still covered in the Phoenix Robe spell. "That spell is still healing them, its attribute is flame, maybe if I use my water magic, I should be able to extinguish it," she thought, pointing her wand at them.
Mars quickly caught on to her plan. "Nice try, but no," he said as he cast his titan armor spell, quickly firing off crystals at her, slicing at her, sending her to the ground.
"Noelle!" Mimosa exclaimed, running to her cousin, she knelt down and inspected her injuries. "Oh no, these are bad, she'll die of blood loss if she isn't treated right away, I'm going to have to use my best healing spell," she thought as her grimoire flipped to a page. "Plant Recovery Magic: Princess-Healing Flower Robe," she became clad in a dress of flower and vines, she rested her hands above Noelle as she began to glow. "I'm going to heal you, so don't die on me!"
"We have to take them out before they can recover," Kenos instructed as the remaining mages each fired off an attack spell at the diamond mages.
"Laevateinn," Mars said, summoning the sword, blocking their attacks, the robes of flames then disappeared, showing that the two had somewhat recovered.
"It's my turn, I will take you all out!" Andreas exclaimed, zooming towards Letoile. "And I'll start with you, Combo Magic: Explosive Shockwave Fist!" fire was infused into his fist and he punched her in the gut, the following shockwave mixed with flames, launching her into a wall.
The compass tried to get up, but she couldn't and dropped to the ground again. "Damn it, I can't get up,"
Andreas turned to Luck. "You're next, Combo Magic: Steel Heavy Body Tackle!" he exclaimed as his body became covered in steel and jumped into the air, spinning around, crashing forcefully into the lightning mage, sending him into a wall, unable to fight either.
Kenos' expression tensed. "Shit, Luck and Letoile have been fighting this entire time, they haven't had a chance to be healed, and they don't have Asta's durability, it's just up to me, Klaus, Yuno, and Asta,"
"Damn, that hurt a lot," Asta said as he got up, he then felt something pecking his head. "Nero, what do you want?"
The bird flew and landed on something, Asta looked at it more closely and saw what it was.
"A sword, in here, and it's smaller than my sword, it could come in handy," he said, grabbing onto it.
Andreas looked at Klaus. "You're last up, four-eyes,"
A vein pulsed on Klaus' forehead. "Don't call me four-eyes! Steel Creation Magic: Spiral Drill Shower!" a rain of spiral lances fell on the dual mage.
"That won't stop me, Combo Magic: Tempest Heavy Fist Frenzy!" Andreas exclaimed, speeding past the falling drills, wind infused into his fists, Klaus crossed his arms and took the barrage of punches, only being pushed back a few feet, still standing.
Meanwhile, with Mars, only Yuno and Kenos stood to fight him.
"It's up to us to take him down, Yuno," Kenos said, but the wind mage didn't respond, annoying the solar mage a little.
Yuno instead just ran towards Mars. "Wind Creation Magic: Swift White Hawk!" he exclaimed, sending the beast at the dual mage.
"That attack won't be enough, Solar Creation Magic: Rain of Solar Daggers!" Kenos exclaimed, sending the daggers on him as well.
"This will be easy to stop," Mars said as the armor quickly backed up, escaping the range of the daggers, as the hawk approached him, the daggers fell on it, stopping it from advancing.
"No way," Kenos and Yuno both said, their spells stopped each other.
"I said that would be easy," Mars said, his attention then shifted to Mimosa, who was still healing Noelle, he then fired two Harpe blades at them.
"Mimosa, look out!" Yuno called, Mimosa turned and saw the blades approaching her, but she didn't move, knowing if she did, they would hit Noelle, she braced herself.
"Don't worry, I'm here!" Asta exclaimed, getting in between the two girls and the blades, cutting through them with his new sword.
Kenos smiled. "It's about time," he looked at the sword in his hand. "A new sword, that doesn't look like your other one,"
"I found it in that room, it's a lot lighter and can be used with just one hand," Asta told him.
"Thanks for saving us, Asta," Mimosa said gratefully.
"No problem," Asta responded with a grin.
"Hey, Asta," the swordsman turned to see Noelle, sitting up, her wounds had stopped bleeding. "What're you doing, hurry up and win this already,"
Asta's grin only widened. "Don't you worry, I intend to do just that," he said, just then, his sword began glowing, a blue outline forming in its center. "Wow, what just happened?"
"That won't matter!" Mars exclaimed as he fired a Harpe blade at Asta.
Due to his reflexes, Asta made an immediate slashing motion to stop the blade, but as he did, a crescent-shaped slash of water was released and sped towards the mineral mage, sending him to the ground.
"Did he just use...a water attack?" Kenos wondered aloud, the sword had somehow taken Noelle's attribute into itself and used it for an attack.
"I'm not sure of exactly what I did, but that was awe-," Asta began, but stopped as he felt immense pain, he looked down and saw the Harpe blade that Mars had shot earlier, buried in his stomach, blood gushed out of his mouth as he fell to the ground.
"Asta!" Yuno exclaimed.
"Mimosa, I'm fine, go tend to Asta," Noelle told the plant mage with a frantic tone.
"Alright," Mimosa obeyed, running over to Asta, she then gasped. "Crap, his wound is incredibly bad, he's losing more blood than Noelle was," she placed her hands above him as he glowed.
"Don't worry, I'll come over there, we can both heal him," Kenos said, running to them.
"You're not going anywhere," Mars retaliated as he fired shards of crystals, stopping the solar mage in his tracks.
"Damn it," Kenos muttered as he then heard a sound, he turned and saw Klaus on the ground not too far from him.
"That wasn't too bad of a fight, but he can't beat me alone," Andreas said, slowly walking to Klaus.
"Stay away from him," Noelle warned, casting another Sea Dragon's Lair, but in her current condition, she could only cast one big enough to cover her, Klaus, Mimosa, and Asta.
"I've got Andreas," Yuno said.
"That leaves me against Mars," Kenos responded.
Yuno ran towards the dual mage. "Take this, Wind Magic: Towering Tornado!"
"An impressive spell, but you're not the only one who can use wind, Combo Magic: Tempest Heavy Rotating Kick!" Andreas exclaimed, but this time, he rotated his body to increase the force of his kick, sending a strong amount of wind force towards Yuno's tornado, dispersing it.
"That combo magic of his is really troublesome," the wind mage muttered to himself.
"Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!" Kenos exclaimed, firing the shot at Mars, but he retaliated by blocking it with Laevateinn.
Kenos sucked his teeth. "I'm not going to get any attacks in with that blade of his blocking them, meaning I have to fight close up," he activated his ring once more, he checked and saw that two green outlines had turned black. "This is the second time using my ring today, I just hope it'll last until the end of this fight, Solar Creation Magic: Solar Construct - Blade!"
The sword came to his hand and he charged at Mars, jumping into the air, as he descended, Mars defended himself using the arm of his armor, Kenos managed to chip off a few pieces before landing back on the ground.
"What kind of attack was that, this is a real attack," Mars said as one of his armor hands balled up into a fist, ready to punch Kenos.
"We'll see how real of an attack it truly is, Solar Creation Magic: Amaterasu's Guard!" Kenos exclaimed as the goddess appeared, blocking the attack, he then smirked. "Well, I guess it wasn't such a real attack after all,"
Mars ignored his opponent's remark and turned to his ally. "Andreas, you are winning, right?"
"Can't really answer that right now, this obstacle is a pretty tough one, he's clearly stronger than the other ones I fought," Andreas replied.
"I see, in that case," Mars said, summoning Laevateinn once more.
Kenos sighed. "Great, he brought out that thing again,"
"I'm not using it on you," Mars muttered quietly, he looked at Andreas, the impact mage nodded back and put some distance between himself and Yuno.
Kenos looked confused. "What're they planning, well, whatever it is, I have to be smart, right now, that sword blocks my long-range attacks, his armor withstands my close-range attacks, I can't really do anything right now, but why is he looking at Yuno...wait a minute,"
Yuno saw Andreas back up. "Here's my chance, Wind Magic: Crescent Moon Sick-," he began, ready to cast his spell, but just as he was about to complete the motion, at the corner of his eye, he saw Laevateinn, ready to descend on him for the second time that day. "Crap, I'm already casting a spell, I can't do it and avoid that sword so quickly, and Asta isn't here this time, if I don't do something, I'm screw-," he thought, but was once more interrupted as he felt himself get pushed out of the way.
"What the? But how?" he asked himself, he looked behind to see who had done it, and when he did, his eyes widened. "Kenos,"
The solar mage had perceived that Mars was intending to attack Yuno, and just as the blade of crystal was ready to descend on Yuno, Kenos used his increased speed to push him to safety, but in the process, put himself under the large bladed spell.
"He endangered himself, just to save me," Yuno thought before another thought came to his head, something he had said earlier. "There's no way I'm working with another stuck-up noble, even if he is a part of Asta's squad,"
The wind mage sucked his teeth. "Damn me," he muttered as he shot the sickle at half strength at Kenos, pushing him out of the way as well, the blade crashed into the ground, not a person was hit by it.
Yuno got up. "Damn me, damn me, damn me!" he thought angrily to himself. "First I'm saved by Asta, then by Kenos, I need to be stronger, my double spell from before didn't work, I need to get a lot stronger, after all, I'm striving to be the Wizard King!"
His grimoire then glowed and a bright light shined, temporarily blinding him, once the light faded, his eyes opened, but something strange was going on, nobody else was moving and the area had taken on a grayish color.
"Did I...stop time?" he wondered before noticing something, or someone, in front of him, it appeared to be a small fairy, she was clothed in a green dress, had blond hair, and pointy ears, she smiled at Yuno before blowing at both Mars and Andreas.
Color returned as time went back to its normal speed, but as it did, both Mars and Andreas were sent flying into walls, breaking Mars' titan armor.
"No way, incredible," Yuno muttered, but to his surprise, Andreas and Mars stood back up.
"This...isn't...over," Mars said in between breaths. "Flame Recovery Magic: Phoenix Robe," he said as the robes of flame covered the two once more, but dispersed just a few seconds later. "That's the best I can do for recovery right now,"
"Don't worry, it'll be more than enough, I'm going to use my best spell," Andreas said, turning to Yuno and Kenos. "Consider this an honor, only those I deem the greatest obstacles make me use this, so prepare yourselves, Combo Magic: Flame Wind Double Impact!" fire and wind gathered as he did the gestures, infusing them with the wave of force.
"We can't let that hit us!" Kenos exclaimed as he ran in front of the attack and cast an Amaterasu's Guard spell, the wave of force made contact with the defense spell, Kenos could feel the intensity of the attack and struggled to completely block it.
"Damn, what is this spell, the power behind it is ridiculous," Kenos said in between groans of pain, trying his best to stop it, but it was no use, his defense spell eventually disappeared, exposing him and Yuno to whatever force was leftover, which surprisingly, was a lot, the two were sent into a wall, the area around them taking twice as much damage.
Kenos struggled, but he managed to get up. "I can still go on, the ring increased my durability," he turned to Yuno and saw that he was down, but not unconscious, he then looked at his ring, all four outlines went black. "I'm the only one left,"
"Just one more obstacle to go, it seems my spell didn't finish you, you're a lot tougher than I gave you credit for," Andreas said.
"Let's hurry up and take him down, then we'll kill them all and claim the dungeon," Mars added.
"Kill us all, I can't let that happen, as well as protecting everyone and claiming the dungeon…," Kenos began, his mind recalling two things that were said to him.
"Aren't you ashamed, Kenos Rossiu, a member of an esteemed noble house, joining the Black Bulls...what would your family think?"
"There's no way I'm working with another stuck-up noble, even if he is a part of Asta's squad,"
The solar mage clenched his fists and grit his teeth. "...I'm going to change their minds!" he exclaimed. "I already proved to Klaus that he was wrong about the Black Bulls, but now, with both him and Yuno, I'm going to prove that they were wrong about me!"
Just then, his grimoire floated up to him, flipping to a pair of blank pages, the pages were then inscribed on with words.
Kenos gasped. "A...new spell?"
"Your new spell won't matter if you can't use it!" Mars and Andreas exclaimed together, running at Kenos from opposite directions.
"Quiet, this fight has been going on for some time, I'm going to put an end to it, for good," Kenos said as he spoke his new spell. "Solar Magic…," he began as two Xs of sunlight appeared, one broke up into two straight lines and flew in opposite directions hitting both diamond mages and pushing them so that they were back to back, right in front of Kenos a few yards away.
"What is this spell? I feel like it's trying to crush us, or keep us right here," Mars noted.
Kenos took the other X and pointed it right at the two. "It's over now," he thought as sunlight began charging in it, the solar mage spread out one hand before clenching it tightly.
"...Solar Cross Destroyer!"
The X released a massive blast of magic, everyone from the side watched as it hit the two mages, knocking them out while doing a sizable amount of damage around them.
Noelle released her water barrier as she and Klaus got up to help Luck and Letoile, Yuno got up and walked to Kenos. "Not bad," he said.
"Thanks, it's clearly stronger than my Sunbeam Ray," Kenos said back as he heard an intense rumbling, they looked around and saw debris falling. "Oh no, our battle has left the dungeon unstable, it's going to collapse, we have to get out of here,"
"Leave it to me," Klaus said, summoning his chariot, everybody got on.
"Mimosa, how's Asta?" Noelle asked.
"It's too close to call," she replied.
"Guys...wait," they heard Asta mutter.
"You're awake," they said.
"Yeah, I regained consciousness some time ago, long enough to see that awesome spell of yours Kenos, but…," he said, weakly pointing behind them, they turned and saw Andreas and Mars on the ground. "Please...help them too,"
"What, we can't help them, they're the enemy," Kenos protested.
"Yeah, but...they're people too, we can't just leave them like this,"
Kenos sighed. "I must say, Asta, you're a better man than me, or rather, a more merciful one, but sorry, as well as the dungeon collapsing, Klaus' chariot is short on space," he said to the disappointment of his squadmate. "C'mon Klaus, we have to hurry,"
"Ah damn," Asta weakly said, falling into unconsciousness again.
"Asta!" Mimosa exclaimed, continuing to heal him.
"Let me help," Kenos said as he knelt, using his own recovery spell.
Klaus' chariot dodged debris on the way to the exit, with Mimosa occupied, Letoile used her magic to guide them, Yuno and Luck destroyed any debris that got too close, even Noelle helped, using her wand to fire as much water as she could, while it didn't destroy any debris, it pushed it away from them.
"We're almost there, but we can make a shortcut, Yuno, Luck, shoot your spells directly in front of us, it should lead outside," Letoile instructed, Yuno and Luck obeyed and did so, the chariot soon flying through the newly made opening, right outside.
"Alright!" they all cheered, happy to see the sun again.
"How long were we in there for?" Noelle wondered aloud, seeing that the sun was about to set.
The chariot landed and they all got off, being careful when handling Asta's body.
"The two of us have healed him the best we can, right now, it all depends on when he'll wake up," Kenos told them as they all looked at Asta.
To their relief, he slowly began to open his eyes, seeing everyone look at him. "Hey there everyone, is there something on my face?"
"No you idiot, you woke up," Yuno told him with a small smile.
"Oh yeah, my wound doesn't hurt anymore," he stated, getting up.
"You have Mimosa and Kenos to thank for that," Klaus explained.
"Mimosa, Kenos, I owe you two one," Asta thanked the two Magic Knights.
Mimosa slightly blushed. "It was my pleasure,"
Kenos grinned. "No problem, we're squadmates,"
"It's good that you're awake, but now that that's out of the way," Klaus said, walking over to Asta and Yuno, to their surprise, he gave them both a big hug. "I'm so sorry, you two!"
"Huh?"
"I'm sorry, I underestimated you just because you were a commoner," Klaus said to Asta before turning to Yuno. "And despite not being displayed during this mission, I have looked down on you only because of your background, I'm proud to have you on the Golden Dawn,"
"Thank you," the two rivals said to the steel mage.
"And that's not it, I owe an apology to the Black Bulls and to you, Kenos," Klaus continued. "You might still be on the less sane side, but you are a very capable squad, I apologize for insulting them and Kenos' decision to join them,"
"Thanks," the Black Bulls said to him.
"Same with me," Letoile said, catching their attention. "I never looked down on commoners, there was really no point in it, but today, I've seen that they have great potential," she turned to the lightning mage. "Especially you, Luck,"
"Thanks, you were awesome today too," he said back.
Yuno turned to Kenos and walked over to him. "I'm not blameless either, Kenos, I'm sorry for what I said about you, it's just that I've spent some time around nobles who are arrogant and stuck-up, when I heard you were a noble, I thought the same was true for you, but I was wrong, you saved me, even at your own risk,"
Kenos smiled. "It's alright, as you already heard in the dungeon, I was planning to do whatever I could to change your minds about me, so no worries, it's all in the past," he said as he extended a hand, Yuno gratefully took it and they shook.
"So, what about the dungeon?" Luck spoke up.
"Well, since it collapsed on itself, no kingdom can really claim it and get the treasure," Letoile replied. "So, I guess we can just head back now and report this to Captain William,"
"Sounds good to me," Klaus said. "Hey, Black Bulls, you need a lift, we can bring you back to your base?"
"Yes please," they all replied at once, Klaus summoned his chariot and they all got on and rode into the sky.
"The Clover Kingdom put up quite the fight," a voice said, watching the Magic Knights take off.
It was Lotus, sitting on one of his transportation spells and behind him was a load of the treasure.
"But the Diamond Kingdom won this one," the smoke mage monologued. "That solar boy's spell wore off eventually and I made my way to the treasure room, but then, it began collapsing, good thing I got some of it, along with you,"
He turned behind him, laying on the treasure was Mars, Andreas, and the lower mages that had accompanied him.
"We might've lost, but we got the treasure, so technically, we won," Mars said.
"Yeah, but I can't believe we lost to those Magic Knights, next time we encounter them, I'm kicking all of their asses," Andreas added as Lotus flew off.
Mars rested on his back. "Hey, Lotus...thanks,"
Lotus was caught off guard. "Thanks? You've never told me that before,"
"Well, he's right, as much as I hate to admit it, you saved us back there," Andreas said as well.
"You're welcome, now rest, you've been through a lot," he told them, the rest of the way was silent.
Mars turned his head and looked at the sunset, he had seen it many times, but this was the first time he paid any attention to it, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He smiled peacefully. "The outside, I'm here, Fana, I hope wherever you are, you're enjoying it too,"
The two groups of mages from different kingdoms, each flying in a different direction, though they were bitter enemies, neither of them denied that that dungeon had changed them, in one way, or another.
Author's Note: Hey readers, just wanted to give some credit where it's due, the OC character Andreas was not my own, but in fact, an OC of Warmachine375, a different fanfiction author, War PM'd the character as well as the attribute and spells to me as well as some other OCs and I decided to use them all in the story. If any of you have an OC you want me to use, either PM me or write in as a review, tell me their name, age, attribute, spells, description of spells, and a description of their character, you can send more than one, but please, not too many, I will look at them and PM you if I want them to be in the story. With that out of the way, enjoy your weekend, I've got a cake to go cut. Cya.