Stars Weep, Eyes Cry, and Heaven Calls

A/N: Happy Holidays! The final chapter before we start getting to the Tower of Heaven, but there is some cleanup first. Sorry this chapter took so long; it was kind of boring writing these chapters. I don't have much to change about either the Loke arc or the Midnight Sun Encounter arc, so we're skimming through a lot of that. Still an important chapter with hints of future changes, so pay attention.

To make up for the long absence, I'll give a hint to a later arc I was saving until the end of Tower of Heaven, and I can't wait to see your reactions.

SPOLIERS FOR THE BLACK CLOVER MANGA! SKIP TO CHAPTER TO AVOID SPOILERS!

Black Clover is back! I'm so glad to see the Black Bulls in action again, and especially for Magna and Luck to get a whole chapter to be badasses. I'll try to use those two more later since they're my favorite of the normal Black Bulls, it's just hard having half a dozen rivalries and half of those are similarly violent.

Make sure to comment your thoughts, I love hearing reactions to my ideas, both positive and negative.

It has been a few weeks since Phantom Lord attacked the Fairy Tail guildhall, and it was pretty much a distant thought in everyone's minds. Today was an average day in the City of Fiore, and the citizens enjoyed it nicely. The sun was shining, the birds were singing -

CRASH

And the two strongest teams of Fairy Tail were currently having a joint training session in the middle of the forest.

They had split off into separate groups based on their magic and their training needs. One of the groups that were training were the three slayers in a free for all light sparring match.

Light for Slayer magic users.

"Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" Natsu shoots to flame tendrils from his arms at Mimosa and Gray, both of them dodging the attack as it smashes a few trees down instead.

Gray recovers first, summoning a dozen shards of ice before shooting them at Natsu. "Ice Devil's Laughter!" Natsu runs away as the spikes trail past him, Gray keeping the barrage going and tracking him before Natsu disappears behind a tree, the ice shredding it to pieces, but missing their target.

Before Gray can figure out where Natsu went, green vines emerge from the ground and wrap around him, courtesy of Mimosa. "Plant God's Vine Grip! Try breaking out of that!"

Gray struggles for a second before taking a breath before flash freezing the vines in pink ice and shattering them. "Sorry Mimosa, but your magic isn't going to work so well in the cold." Mimosa responds with a sly smirk, confusing Gray until he turns to see Natsu jumped out of a tree to attack him.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Fist!"

The two collide fists, a shockwave emitting out of their clash as both are shot back. Before the two can clash again, the two were surrounded by a field of rainbow-colored flowers. "Plant God's Flower Field!"

The two men's enhanced senses both realize something wrong when their noses smell the aroma wafting out of the flowers. Once they inhale it however, they both suddenly lose focus for a second and want to stop fighting.

That second is all Mimosa needs as she summons her Magic Flower Cannon and it fires a laser at the two of them.

Gray recovers first and reacts immediately by taking a deep breath. "Ice Demon's Rage!" Gray's breath of pink ice collides with Mimosa's plant laser, the two of them locked in a beam struggle.

Mimosa, realizing that Gray is starting to overpower her plant's attack, unleashes her own breath attack to overpower him. "Plant God's Bellow!" A vortex of vines and flowers joins in with Mimosa's flower laser to overpower Gray, but that's when Natsu also recovers from the flower trap.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu's flaming roar connects with the ongoing struggle between them as they all fight to see who will come out on top.

The magical pressure from all four attacks is too much as the beam clash ends in a massive explosion, blowing away all three combatants and destroying the flower, leaving it a draw.

Gray lays on his back exhausted from their training session. "Man, Mimosa. You've only been a member for a month, and you can already keep up with me and Natsu. I guess being a royal enhanced with God Slayer Magic, I shouldn't be surprised."

Mimosa sits up, also tired from the battle, but simply starts pulling grass from the floor to eat to slowly refill her stamina. "I think you two are more amazing. I used everything I had in that last move, but I can tell you two are able to keep going. I'm glad that we started training, now I know that I don't have to use so much power on normal jobs."

The training started when Mimosa (and reluctantly Gray) asked Natsu for help one day after the two complained that they were starving but full at the same time.

Natsu explained that they just needed to eat their own element to fuel their second stomach as slayers.

Gray ate some of Ur's ice, which he remarked tasted like vanilla ice cream, and Mimosa had some of Droy's plants, which she called as a wonderful salad.

After that, Natsu sometimes taught them more about being a slayer, though he usually gave Gray a harder time. The training proved useful to all parties, as Gray and Mimosa got to learn more about their magic, and Natsu got a good fight out of it.

It also had the benefit of making Mimosa's magic less destructive, as the first real mission that Team Black Clover did, she ended destroying several buildings on accident.

It turns out, their team was just as bad as Lucy's in terms of property damage. Between the two groups, only Lucy and Yuno had managed to cause no property destruction as members of Fairy Tail.

Even Ur didn't get away scot-free. Her magic had been returning the more she used it, but it ended up backfiring when someone made a remark about her when she had accidentally stripped on a mission once and she ended up destroying half the block.

While the three slayers recovered from their fight, another sparring match was being held in another part of the forest.

CLANG

Erza and Yuno clash their swords in a flurry of steel and wind, Yuno clearly outclassed but holding his own against Erza's superior swordsmanship. The two of them meet in a final clash before Yuno is thrown backward, his feet digging through the dirt.

Erza readies her sword in her hand, pointing it at Yuno. "Your skills have vastly improved since we started training Yuno, but you still have far to go before you reach my level."

"Maybe in swordsmanship that's true, but if Asta could beat you in a fight, then so can I. Swift White Hawk!" Yuno shoots his eagle at Erza who requips into her Heaven's Wheel armor to fly above the attack before summoning her swords.

"Dance my blades!" Erza sends a flurry of blades at Yuno who counters with Wind Blade Shower. Their fight becomes a hurricane of air and swords as they match each other blow for blow.

Realizing that they're in a deadlock, both stop their attacks before they change tactics. Yuno stops sending out wind blades before summoning Bell. "Let's try this! Sylph Barrage!"

The tendrils of wind shoot out at Erza who switches to her Black Wing armor to increase her speed while also swinging out Moon Flashes at Yuno's attack, managing to cancel out every single one of them.

Erza then flies straight at Yuno and requips into her Flame Empress armor, using the momentum to build up speed. Erza then surrounds her sword in flames before shooting it at Yuno, who activates Sylph's Breath.

BOOM

A burst of wind and flames is the result of their attacks colliding, scorching the ground under their feet and uprooting the trees around them.

The dust clears to reveal, Yuno and Erza both hurt but still standing. The two of them wince before they both fall to their knees in exhaustion.

"Well fought, Yuno." Erza pants in between breaths. "You have grown much more accustomed to Bell's power. If you fought me as you are now when I first fought Asta, you would have beaten me soundly."

Yuno grips his hand in frustration. "Yeah, but Asta managed to beat you, so I won't stop trying until I do."

The last group fighting were the other two Wizard King aspirants, Lucy and Asta, currently engaged in a clash of their own swords.

Caliburn meets Demon Dweller as the two clash, neither one giving an inch to other as they trade blows.

Lucy swings at Asta's side but Asta manages to block it by holding his weapon vertically. He then maneuvers his sword under Lucy's before flinging it away with a flick of the Demon Dweller.

Asta doesn't relent as he then swings at Lucy, but Lucy puts up her arm before a flash of white appears and Oathkeeper blocks the attack. (A/N: Imagine it sounding and looking like a Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts for frame of reference.) Asta still pressures her, swinging his sword at her again and again, Lucy just blocking slash after slash.

Lucy smiles after a certain amount of hits right before Asta comes in for another strike. "Celestial Magic: Beta Repulsion!" Oathkeeper glows gold right before Demon Dweller connects for another attack and explodes in energy, blasting back the magicless swordsman as he lands on his feet.

"Woah, what was that?!" Asta asks, stars in his eyes.

"That was a special ability of Oathkeeper. It can build up kinetic energy from attacks before releasing it in one big burst." Lucy explains as she also resummons Caliburn to her hand in a flash of white.

Asta's eyes sparkle at her explanation. "That's awesome even though I don't know what that means! Does your sword also have a special function?" Asta pulls out Demon Slayer as he now dual wields the weapons.

"Yeah, but I can't use it in a fight against you." Lucy explains. Asta looks at her confused before Lucy charges at him and the two begin exchanging hits again.

Lucy swings with Caliburn while Asta parries with Demon Dweller and swings down with Demon Dweller, Lucy blocking it with Oathkeeper.

To the side, Liebe and Celeste were watching their partners fight, the bird Nero taking a nap next to them. "Go, Mother! You can do it!" Celeste shouted.

Liebe however did not really care about the fight and instead was going to be a dickhead about it. "Hey, Asta! Don't fuck up too bad!"

Asta and Lucy's swords collide and grind against each other as Asta screams at Liebe. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be on my side!"

"Well, maybe if you weren't such a little bitch, I'd like you more!" Liebe laughs a bit more before Celeste comments.

"It's not nice to talk to your brother in that way." Celeste says while wagging her finger.

"B-b-brother!" Liebe's face is bright red at talking to Celeste, but also at how she describes their relationship. "Why would call us brothers?"

"Well, Lucy is my mother, so you two are also family. I don't think Asta's mature enough to be your father, so I decided to call you brothers." Celeste then puts her hand on Liebe's chest. "I can't read your or Asta's emotions because you don't have magic, but I can tell that you both care a lot about each other."

Liebe, extremely embarrassed at both his crush's close proximity to him and her ability to see through him easily, just turns around and sputters in refusal.

And so, the two five-leaf grimoire holders kept fighting, a test of mostly physical skill for two rookie sword users. Eventually, the physical difference between them made itself known, as Lucy started getting tired and made more and more missteps on her attacks.

Eventually, Lucy swings at Asta, but she is easily sidestepped and Caliburn is knocked out of her hands once more. Before she can summon it back, Asta sweeps out Lucy's legs, knocking her to the ground.

Lucy falls to the ground before looking up to find Asta standing above her, Demon Slayers pointed at her head. "Game over. You lose."

Lucy groans as she sits up. "Wow, I can see how you managed to beat Erza with skills like those. You're almost as good as her at sword fighting."

Asta puts away his swords before helping her to her feet. "Well, if it's any consolation, I think those training lesson you've been getting have worked out great. Not to mention, we mostly fought with our physical strength, neither one of us was going all out."

"So, what are you guys planning to do today?" Lucy asks as she swipes the dirt off of herself.

"Well, Yuno is going on a mission with Mira, Cana, and Charmy." Asta responds. "I don't know why but they keep asking him to go on missions with them for some reason."

Lucy sweats at her friend's obliviousness. 'I'm so glad Natsu isn't like this. It would be so frustrating being in love with him.'

"Since Charmy and Mira are gone, Mimosa will be handling the bar." Asta continues. "I don't know what Noelle's doing today, but Finral's gonna bring me to something called a mixer. I don't know what it is, but it sounds fun."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out." Lucy laughs nervously, though she's sure that he'll be fine. "Me and the rest of my team are heading out for another mission. We're gonna stop off at a nice inn on the way back."

"Well, hope you have a great day." Asta walks away with Liebe floating onto his shoulder and Nero sitting on his head.

"You too, Asta. Be safe." Lucy walked away with Celeste floating next to her with angel wings.

And so, the two left to go about their business.

Surely nothing too crazy could happen before the next time they met each other.

Well, turns out a lot could happen.

Lucy had run into Loke, who she noticed had been looking rather ghastly since the last time she saw him.

Loke tried to play it off, but Lucy could tell that he was hiding pain in his heart. It reached a fever pitch when she heard that he quit Fairy Tail out of nowhere.

She then proceeded to investigate more into it before she discovered his shocking secret and left to confront him.

She found him at the grave of a woman in front of a waterfall under the starry night sky. There he revealed everything to her and why he was acting weird.

Loke was actually the Celestial spirit Leo the Lion, leader of the golden zodiac keys. He had been under the contract of another Celestial Wizard called Karen. She was a member of Blue Pegasus and would bring in multiple men to hang around. Whenever she didn't want to deal with the simps, she would summon another one of her spirts, Aries the Ram, to deal with them.

Aries never wanted to be used as a plaything, but Karen started abusing her instead of listening to her. Leo had enough one day and swapped with Aries and declared that he would stay in the human world until Karen released them from their contracts.

Suffice it to say, Karen did not take that well and spent 2 months trying to convince Leo to stop, but Loke refused, and ended up spending 3 months of immense pain using his magic to keep himself from going back to the Celestial Realm before he acclimated to Earthland.

By that time, he thought that maybe he should try talking to Karen, but at that point, she had used too much magic on a mission trying to open a second gate while Leo was still out, killing her. He was sentenced by the Celestial Spirt King to stay in the human realm until he died, the punishment for killing their master. It had been 3 years now, and his time was finally running out.

Loke was resigned to his fate as he was buried with guilt for his sins.

Lucy, on the other hand, was absolutely livid.

"Who the hell decided that was fair?!" Lucy shouted in tearful rage at her friend's story. "It wasn't your fault that she died, it was an accident because she was too much of a bitch to treat you like human beings! I'm not just gonna let you die for someone else's wrongdoings!"

Lucy then grabs Loke in a hug before trying to save him. "Open! Gate of the Lion!"

A golden aura shoots out of her into the night sky as she tries to share her energy with Loke. "Stop Lucy, you'll die with me if you going like this!" Loke tries to pry her off of him, but the Celestial Wizard doesn't budge.

"No! I made a promise that I wouldn't let anyone else's fate be taken out of their hands, and I'll be damned if I break that promise and let you die without helping! What's the point of having all this power, if I can't use it to save the people I care about! I don't care if the Celestial Spirit King said that it's your fault!"

"He's wrong!"

At that moment, Lucy's words echo throughout the night as she and Loke are thrown back from each other. Loke's glasses, which had fallen off his face, stopped in midair, along with the waterfalls and any other sounds that were going on at that moment. The stars in the night sky seemed to spin at that moment, as the water beneath the cliff they were on shot into the air, where they coalesced into a bright glow.

Out of that glow appeared a massive humanoid being clad in armor with blue skin and red eyes, his most prominent feature being his huge mustache.

This was the Celestial Spirit King. Ruler of the stars, one step below being an actual god, and creator of the zodiac.

"Hello old friend." His voice echoes throughout the frozen time, his tone sad but resigned. "Both wizards and spirts must obey celestial law, and killing your keyholder is forbidden under any circumstance. You are banished from the Celestial world for eternity."

"That doesn't seem fair to me at all!" Lucy screams at the giant being unflinchingly as she stands before him.

Surprisingly, the Spirit King does not smite her in an instant, instead calmy responding to her. "Heiress to the Heartfilia clan, I have made my judgement and it stands. Leo has broken Celestial law."

Loke watches as the two of them discuss his fate in shock. 'He came out here just to dispute Lucy's claim? I know that she's a Heartfilia, but none except the King himself know the true reason for their importance.'

"What the hell is wrong with you! Loke's been suffering for 3 years, just because he wanted to help Aries!" Lucy shouts. "You call him an 'old friend,' yet you let him suffer like this over nothing! He's asking for a second chance, so open your goddamn eyes, Stache Face!"

"Stache Face?"The king is caught off guard by Lucy's comment on his facial hair, but let's her continue, nonetheless.

"Karen died because she didn't want to the right thing, so don't punish him for the same thing! He's innocent!"

"Lucy, please, just let me go!" Loke chimes in. "I just want to be free of this pain and disappear!"

"There's no way in hell I'll let you die!"

Lucy's aura once more explodes in a violent aura, golden energy swirling around her violently. "You disappearing won't help anyone, you'll just hurt the people you care about!"

As Lucy's tears fall from her eyes, all of her Celestial Spirits appear around her, shocking both the Spirit King and Loke.

"What about all your friends?! Would you just leave me, Aries, and the rest of them behind?! Think about us and how miserable we would feel without you!"

Lucy's grimoire then opens up and Celeste appears on her shoulder while she summons Caliburn and Oathkeeper, pointing the blade at the Spirit King.

"Being a Wizard Queen means protecting everyone I hold dear, so I'll do whatever it takes to save Loke! I know that everything will be okay because I will have the strength of my spirits and my friends behind me!"

At that point however, Lucy's magical power wanes after flaring up for so long, causing her to collapse to her knees and her spirits disappear.

"Mom!"

"Lucy!"

Despite her now weakened state, Lucy grips her sword in a sign of determination. "My friends that came over… feel the same as I do. If you're a Celestial Spirit too, then you must understand on some level what Loke and Aries went through. So please… help your friend."

"Hmm…" The King of Stars took a moment to think over what he had heard. "Hearing your impassioned plea for my old friend has caused me to reconsider things. It is not Leo's actions that are the problem, it is the law itself. Leo the Lion, you are hereby granted safe passage to and from the Celestial world."

Loke is left speechless at the Celestial Spirit King's declaration. After 3 years of guilt and pain, to suddenly have that burden lifted in the blink of an eye – it was unbelievable.

Lucy gives the king a smile and a thumbs up. "Thanks a lot, Stache Face."

Celeste also waves at him with a smile. "Thank you for listening to my mother Mr. Mustache."

The Celestial King responds with a wide goofy grin as he disappears. "No thank you, honored one for this meeting. I leave you with these words; Though the future may look black, know that the stars will always shine in the night."

With that ominous warning, he faded away and the world returned to normal.

"What the heck does he mean by that?" Lucy asks as Loke helps her up.

"Lucy, thank you so much for all your help. The only way I feel like I can repay you, as well as honor Karen's life, is to offer you my servitude."

Loke puts out his hand and Lucy accepts it. "Sure thing, but you aren't my servant, you're my friend. Don't forget that."

Loke smiles as he starts to fade away. "Of course. Thank you, Lucy."

Once he disappears, Lucy is left with a new golden key to her collection, as well as a new friend.

'Man, I can't wait to tell the rest about this. I bet it'll blow Asta's mixer story out of the water.'

It turned out Asta had an even wilder night than Lucy did.

He had gone to the mixer and made a friend in the girl he was partnered with Rebecca.

He went to hang out with Rebecca and her siblings, and just so happened to run into Gauche's precious little sister Marie.

Gauche then showed up and got unreasonably upset at Asta's interaction with his sister and threatened to kill him multiple times.

After Marie left, Asta and a distraught Gauche were left to stay at Rebecca's house for the night, where Gauche tried to kill him again.

Asta ended up getting knocked outside and saw that it had somehow snowed overnight, and the whole town was covered in the white powder.

They eventually figured out that the snow was a spell used to control young children and kidnap them.

They went off to find the culprits and defeated them with ease, until a new complication arose.

Sally, the bespectacled girl who kidnapped Asta and Lucy in the capital, appeared and helped out the brothers that were trying to siphon off the kids' magic for the Eye of the Midnight Sun.

After a big fight with her Gel Magic and a giant mud monster, Asta and the others were safe.

Until a beam of light started to take them down one by one.

Asta was left as the last one standing against the leader of the Midnight Sun, a man in white robes with blonde, fancy braided hair, and strange red markings on his face, Licht.

"You people are born as sinners, and you shall die as sinners, so is the will of the Midnight Sun."

Asta realizes he was the one that appeared before the Wizard King when he and Lucy were captured. "Hey, you! Why did you jerks want my friend Lucy?!"

SHINK

He was met with a light sword to his leg as his response.

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!"

"How dare you even mention her name in your mouth, with your accursed mouth." Licht's face is one of absolute disgust as he looks down at Asta. "The women of the Heartfilia family are saints compared to the rest of you filth."

He then looks at Asta's grimoire floating nearby. "So, it's true. You really do have it."

Asta is too busy dealing with a stab wound on his leg to process what the light user said. 'I can't even see the attacks coming. He seems to be shooting them out, so if I charge forward, my swords should be able to block his attacks.'

Asta runs forward using Demon Slayer as a shield, but Licht appears behind him in an instant. "Give me back that grimoire."

Asta's eyes are wide as he sees a ball of light form in Licht's hand and shoot out at him. The only thing he can think of is this.

'I'm dead.'

Suddenly, a portal appears above them and out of it appears Yami Sukihero swinging a sword cloaked in darkness as it slashes through Licht's attack like butter.

"Mr. Yami!" Asta exclaims. "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Noelle called us soon after you left." Yami takes a puff of his cigarette as he explains. "No one in the base was awake, and I didn't want to bother getting the old man, so I came by myself. I'll kill those guys later. Think of this as me making up for not being here to fight those"

'What the hell are they talking about?!' Finral shouts internally. 'I got dragged out of bed and now there's this guy with a weird, intense energy! This guy's light magic is bad news, and I wanna go home!'

"Mr. Finral!" Asta yells. "Can you take the injured people out of here and back to town!"

"What about you?" Finral asks.

Asta looks down at his injured leg but chooses to ignore it. "I can still fight!"

'Not to mention I get to see Yami in action! I can't pass up this chance!'

As Finral is about to leave, Licht tries to fire a light beam, but Yami blocks it with his sword.

"Woah! What was that sword?! How did you block it so easily?!" Asta asks with his eyes full of stars.

"Well, this is a katana." Yami explains. "They're really popular in my home country, the Land of the Sun. If you wanna know how I blocked it, then watch closely."

Yami and Licht then clashed, their darkness and light magic countering each other at every turn.

Asta watches with wide eyes at every attack that gets thrown, especially how Yami manages to counter and parry attacks that seem to be in his blind spots.

'Wow! Yano's so strong, I bet that he could've beaten Jose in half the time we fought him!'

Yami and Licht then stop fighting for a bit, as Licht's speed and Yami's reaction time have only left each other with grazing wounds.

However, Licht shows off more of his power in the ability to heal himself. "Light Recovery Magic: Healing Light Particles."

"Oh come on!" Asta complains. "He can heal as well?! How is that fair!"

"Well guys that are loved by mama tend to have lots of spells. Kind of like your friend mister handsome." Yami comments. "Enough of that, you ready yet?"

"Um, ready for what?" Asta asks.

Yami swats away a few light attacks while he explains to Asta what he means.

"Where I come from, there's this thing called Ki that people are taught to use. The looks people give you, the sound of their breathing, smell, their muscle movements, even a vague feeling that someone is watching you. In simple terms, Ki is just all the different ways that people give off life energy.

"It's how I'm able to predict his attacks and react to them. I'm sure you've done similar things. You're the second person I've met that I can see a real potential for using Ki."

"Who's the first?" Asta asks.

"Natsu." Yami answers to Asta's shock. "I've seen him fight a few times and he seems to be able to do it on instinct. Makes sense though, he has dragon senses, so I guess he picked up on it naturally, though he obviously isn't great at it, or knows how to use it that well."

"Did you try teaching him about this too?" Asta asks.

"Nah, he annoys me." Yami replies. "He challenged me to a fight once and I kicked his ass. I'll kill him for that one day."

'Why is that his reaction to everything?' Asta thinks with a frightful face. "Um… are you sure I can do this so soon?"

Yami takes another drag of his cigarette. "Where I'm from, there's a saying. 'A warrior never breaks his word.' You said that you're gonna be the Wizard King right?"

"Surpass your limits. Right here. Right now. There's no other way."

Those words hit Asta like a sledgehammer, the same ones Yami said to inspire him when he fought Erza.

"YESSIR!" Asta shouts in determination.

Asta then practices the technique against Valtis, the Spatial mage from the capital attack. He tries blocking the first hit but whiffs and takes unnecessary damage.

Yami punches him on the head for his mistake. "You dummy, you can't just use your ears. Concentrate on all your senses."

Asta tries again, this time emptying his mind until he detects an incoming attack and perfectly reflects it.

"I did it! Yami sir, I really did it!" Asta's face is one of joy at learning something new.

"Ew, creepy." Yami cringes.

"Say what?!"

After that, Licht got angry and tried to blast with a giant beam of light, but thankfully Finral appeared with Gauche, who uses his Mirror Magic to reflect the laser beam at Licht.

Licht lays injured on the ground at receiving his own magic power at full force while Yami and the rest stand over him. "Guess your light magic isn't so great against mirrors, huh?"

Licht, however, doesn't respond and looks at Gauche instead. "I'm glad.. that you're… safe."

Before anyone can question what that means, they sense three new presences enter the area.

One is two toned hair and a lazy face that suddenly appears in front of Yami and taps his grimoire. "Man, looks like things got pretty hectic. Oh well, guess I'll save my friend."

Yami immediately slashes him away. 'This guy has Light magic too?'

In the background, a woman with pink hair surrounds Licht in flames that start healing him. "Flame Recovery Magic: Phoenix Robe."

"I'm sorry… that I had… to ask for help." Licht wheezes. "But everything's okay… now that you're here."

Licht then goes into his bad guy monologue and explains who the three be people are.

He explains that because there are three leaves on clover grimoires, they are called the Third Eye and each represented an opposite to the three leaves of faith, hope, and love.

The one with a lazy face is Raia the Disloyal, who shows off that he can use Copy Magic to replicate Yami's Darkness magic, along with Light and Spatial magic.

The second man has long hair and beast fangs with a necklace of fangs. He is Vetto the Despair and uses his Beast Magic to break Yami's sword.

Last but not least is the pink haired woman, who blasts Yami with a giant wave fire. She is Fana the Hateful, and she uses Flame Magic that was enhanced by the Fire Spirit Salamander.

Thankfully, he is saved by the arrival of three more Wizard Saints, Nozel, Jack, and Charlotte.

The trios then fought each other, but while everyone was focused on their battles, Asta managed to sneak up on Licht and hit him with Demon Slayer.

Asta's attack had unfortunately undone a seal on Licht that caused his magic power to start selling up inside of him as he ranted about how Asta's sword belonged to 'the master'.

The Third Eye intervene and seal Licht's power away before teleporting away, promising to slaughter the Fiore Kingdom next time.

Asta's adrenaline finally ran out and his injuries caught up to him as he passes out in his victory.

The morning after that, all the Wizard Saints were called to meet in the capital under the Wizard King's command.

Assembled were 9 of the Wizard Saints, all accomplished mages with great power, considered the peak of the country's magic power just under the Wizard King.

Yami Sukihero, S-Class Wizard of Fairy Tail.

Nozel Silva, Guildmaster of the Silver Eagles.

Dorothy Unsworth, Guildmaster of Blue Pegasus.

Jack the Ripper, Guildmaster of the Green Praying Mantises.

Charlotte Roselei, Guildmaster of the Blue Roses.

Jura Neekis, S-Class Wizard of Lamia Scale.

Rill Boismortier, Guildmaster of Aqua Deer.

And last (and certainly least), Gueldre Poizot, Guildmaster of the Purple Orcas.

Any missing members (barring one) were either injured (Fuegoleon), stripped of their title (Jose), or were too busy/couldn't bother showing up.

The more violent members (Yami, Jack, Gueldre, and Nozel) had been arguing for the past five minutes while the rest were annoyed at waiting for so long. (Except Dorothy because she was asleep)

"Unbelievable. You had 4 Wizard Saints and you still let those villains get away." Gueldre comments.

"Keh keh, they weren't the cannon fodder that you deal with!" Jack responds.

"Calm down, original scrawny face line dude. It's true anyway." Yami remarks.

"Silence foreigner and former peasant. You're annoying." Nozel calmly says.

"Ridiculous. You men have been arguing since we got here, and we haven't accomplished anything." Charlotte is cold as always, though internally she frets over being seated next to Yami.

"Now now, why don't we calm down, everyone? No need to bite each other like wolves." Siegrain says with a sly grin on his face.

"Shut up weird birthmark guy. I bet you're having a blast watching us, aren't you?" Yami retorts.

'Geez, the mood is really tense right now.' Rill thinks. 'I'm the youngest guy, so I should lighten the mood.'

Rill pulls his eyes apart to look more like Fuegoleon. "Look! This is my Fuegoleon impression!"

"What do you think you're doing?" Nozel says with his face in shadow.

"So what if you're the youngest, don't let it get to your head." Jack threatens.

"Huh?!" Rill is confused by their intense reactions to his joke.

"I feel that your joke was in bad taste Rill. It hasn't been that long since Fuegoleon's injury." Jura says.

Yami, however, enjoys the joke and pats Rill on the head. "Hah hah, you're funny kid!"

At that point, William Vangeance, Guildmaster of the Golden Dawn, enters the room. "Sorry to have kept you waiting."

"What kept you so late, Vangeance?" Charlotte asks.

"Ah, you know. Being a guildmaster sometimes means you have business you can't get out of." Vangeance responds.

"Where were you during the distinguished ceremony not too long ago? It's customary for the guildmaster to accompany their members on such an occasion. Did you have more business to attend to as well?" Nozel questions William intently.

"Actually, I can explain that." Siegrain interjects. "Me and Vangeance had an important conversation that day about rather private matters, so I apologize for distracting him that day. Perhaps Fuegoleon wouldn't have suffered such a fate if he was there."

"Yeah, don't talk bad about Goldy." Yami comments before his words become more accusatory. "I mean, you don't use Light Magic, do you?"

"Of course, I use World Tree magic." William says while sprouting a small tree in his hand.

The mood becomes intense again as everyone becomes silent.

Yami stares at Siegrain, who has a thin smile as always. 'I never liked that kid. He was the youngest Wizard Saint ever before Rill, but I've never actually seen him fight. William convinced Julius to include him as a Wizard Saint not long after he joined the council, and I can sense that his magic is plenty strong, but there's something about him that I've never understood.'

'His ki is odd.'

That has never happened to Yami in his entire life. Every living being has Ki, so unless he's dead, he should be able to sense something from him, but instead, it's always been the ki of an inanimate object.

If that wasn't enough, Siegrain had something else that made Yami suspicious of him. Around his right eye were strange red marks. Siegrain claimed that they were birthmarks, but he had never seen or heard of any similar markings.

Until he fought the Third Eye last night.

Now, all eyes were on Siegrain as he has features similar to the terrorists attacking the kingdom.

Not long after William showed up, the Wizard Saints were called downstairs to a room with the Wizard King, his aide Marx, Asta, and the 2 Midnight Sun members captured during the capital attack.

"Hey, kid. What the hell are you doing here?" Yami asks.

"The Wizard King asked me to help him with my swords, so I did." Asta responds.

"What did you call us here for, Master Julius?" Charlotte inquires.

"Something of vast importance." Julius says with a serious look on his face before he turns to the captured wizards currently under Marx's Memory Magic.

"Who is the name of the man who betrayed us?"

Not surprising anyone, it was Gueldre, who tried to run away like a little bitch before Asta and Rill stopped him.

It was a good thing that they did because everyone else had already prepared to destroy the room entirely to stop him.

"Before we end this meeting, there is something else of importance to mention." Julius says, confusing everyone. "We discovered another name from them that you may know, Siegrain."

"Jellal."

Siegrain's face becomes closed off as hears that name. "*Sigh* I hoped that I would never have to hear that name again."

"Who is this Jellal person?" Nozel asks.

"He's my twin brother that went missing years ago." Siegrain explains. "I thought he had died when Zeref cultists attacked our village when we were young, but I have been made aware that he is still alive and active in the criminal world. I will have to bring this to the Magic Council's attention to find out more about what he's planning."

The next day, after both Lucy and Asta's adventures, the rival teams had met together and discussed the prior events, much to each other's shock.

Natsu was rather upset when Asta finished his story, his body starting to become coated in flames. "You got to fight those creeps who kidnapped Lucy?! Also, what the hell did Yami mean that I annoy him to teach me something?! I ought to go fight him right now!"

Lucy puts her hand on top of Natsu's, calming him down and dousing his fire. "Calm down, Natsu. I'm glad to see you worried about me, but don't start breaking things in anger."

Lucy then turns to Asta. "So those weirdos worship my family?" Lucy sighs. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm gonna get kidnapped again?"

"There was something else I forgot to mention." Asta says. "The Wizard King told me and Julius about these weird Magic Stones that they're looking for, and Mr. Yami is taking a bunch of us to go find one on a mission."

"Aw man, I want to go with you guys to kick some eyeball ass!" Natsu shouts.

"Just because they call themselves the Third Eye doesn't mean they're actual eyeballs." Lucy comments.

While the entire guild was shocked to hear that Loke was a spirit, none were more upset than Finral, who was currently bawling his eyes out. "I can't believe that… my fellow ladies' man… is going away!"

Loke walks up to him and puts his hand on Finral's shoulder, his tears stopping for a moment. "Do not despair, my friend. This is not goodbye, for I shall return. When I do, I will be able to assist you in the art of picking up babes, like never before, as Leo the Lion!"

Loke's oddly triumphant speech resonates with Finral in their chauvinistic ways, as the two bawl their eyes out and hug each other.

"Okay, that's enough." Lucy pulls out Loke's gate key. "I'll send you back before you two can get any crazier."

"Wait, before you do." Loke pulls out some tickets for Lucy. "Tickets to a sweet beach resort."

Lucy's team cheers for the vacation tickets but are interrupted when Asta asks a dumb question. "What's a beach?"

Everyone stares at Asta like he's an idiot before remembering that he lived in a peasant village in the middle of nowhere.

"I read about it in a book." Yuno explains. "It's a big body of water that people go to and have fun in."

"Woah! That sounds awesome!" Asta says, excited at this new fact. "I want to go to- GAH!"

Yami shows up and grabs Asta on his head. "I'm taking you and Noelle with my group to the Magic Stone location, so hurry your ass up!"

"YESSIR!" Asta shouts while his head is being crushed.

"Wait, why aren't me and Mimosa coming with you?" Yuno asks.

"Your magics aren't really useful for where we're going." Yami explains. "Besides, I need you two to be there while I'm gone. Some people are gonna come by, and I don't want them wrecking the place while I'm gone."

Everyone looks at him in confusion as he walks off with Asta still clutched in his hand.

"So, Luce? You ready to have fun at the beach?" Natsu asks with a smile on his face, but notices Lucy is still frowning in concentration. "What's wrong, still focused on those Sun idiots? Don't worry, me and Happy will make sure you're safe."

"Aye sir!" Happy cheers. "I'll hit them all with the grossest fish I can find!"

Lucy laughs at their idiotic comments. "Thanks, a lot guys, but I think that it'll take more than just you and a gross fish to beat them. Besides, that's not what I was thinking about."

"Well, what were you thinking about?" Gray asks.

"It's just, those strong wizards Asta mentioned called themselves the Third Eye based on the clovers on our grimoires." Lucy explains. "I understand that they might not know about the five leaf grimoires, but there's no way they don't know about four leaf grimoires. Heck, the leader even had a four-leaf grimoire of his own."

"Lucy, what are you getting at?" Erza questions.

"If they're elite squad is based off of the leaves on a grimoire…" Lucy says.

"…Then there may be a secret 4th member."

(Witches Forest)

The Witches Forest, a place completely secluded from the rest of the continent, was home only to female wizards who call themselves witches, most of which are known for having mysterious abilities compared to most other wizards.

All of the women there are considered to be the daughters of the Witch Queen, who has been alive for unknown times, and is said to be on par with the Wizard King in strength.

However, among the Witch Queen's daughters, three would be considered of the utmost importance compared to the rest.

One had pink hair and left about 7 years ago, but that was right before the other two showed up. One was a timid girl with blue hair that was followed around by a talking bipedal cat, the other was a cheerful girl with white hair and a blue flower in her head.

These women were called the Priestess of the Witch Queen, and she declared that they would one day be the most powerful witches the world had ever seen.

Even greater than the Progenitor of Witches.

With all of this information, you would think that these girls would be lording over the rest of the forest like princesses, and never worried about anything in their lives.

You'd be wrong.

Currently, the two girls were fretting over having broken a painting that depicted the Progenitor of Witches.

"Oh, no! What do we do, Wendy?" Asked the white-haired girl, who was wearing a white and blue dress with a white witch hat.

"How should I know Yukino?! I didn't mean to break that painting; I was just trying out a new spell!" Frets the blue haired girl, who was in a blue and green dress with a dark blue witch hat.

"Well, how are we gonna tell mother?" Yukino says.

"Tell mother what?"

The two immediately straighten up and stand in front of the painting in a feeble attempt to hide their mistake.

In front of them stood the Witch Queen, who was in a light green dress and witch hat with red eyedrops, her height towering over them.

"Oh, uh, we were just gonna tell you that we think your training is great!" Wendy says while the two girls sweat buckets.

The Witch Queen tilts her head to the side and sees the broken glass that reveals the broken frame. "*Sigh* Go check on the exceed, she is worried about you two, so don't make two people mad today."

The girls pout at having been found out and walk away in shame, knowing that they will receive twice as much training the next day.

The Witch Queen stares at the painting for a bit before cleaning up the glass. "Thankfully, only the frame was broken, or else their training would be five times harder for the next month."

She then lifts up the painting, depicting a woman in robes with braided vibrant red hair that was so red it was almost like blood.

Scarlet red blood.

The Witch Queen then does something that no one – not even her daughters – had seen her do in hundreds of years.

"I miss you…"

She smiles.

"Irene."

Boy, I just dropped a lot at the end of that chapter, didn't I?

As a reward for waiting so long for the next chapter, that was a prelude to the mystery arc I mentioned a while ago. I won't talk about it too much because a lot of the reveals are spoilers but be excited for the revelations when we get there. You'll find out more about the story behind that later.

The bit about Natsu using Ki regularly is based off of the way he moves and talks about fights in the series proper match up with the way Ki works, so i thought it would be fun to give him Ki potential. Other characters will also use Ki as well, so be on the lookout for that.

The only other thing I feel like talking about is Lucy's theory about a Fourth Eye member. It was weird to me that they were called the Third Eye when there are four well known leaves on a grimoire, but you'll have to wait to find out who the mystery member is.

Everything else was only slightly changed, but don't worry, I'm about to get motivated real soon once we get to the fight against Jellal, which will be the biggest fight in the series so far.

Next Time: Chains of Heaven's Past