Chapter Forty-Nine: Finding a Solution

Hey, readers, sorry this one was posted later than I planned, once next month rolls around and school is close to finishing, I'll be able to post more often, I'm really excited to post the debut of Kenos' angel, but to do so, I need to post more, so with that out of the way, enjoy the chapter. Cya.

"Finral, Kenos, Noelle?" Fanzell said as he got up from his chair.

Finral wasted no time getting to the point. "We need your help,"

Kenos and Noelle turned to the spatial mage. "Wait a minute, how did you know to come here?" the latter asked.

Finral turned to her. "When we helped them that one time before going to the Underwater Temple, they gave Asta a map revealing the whereabouts of their home, during my free time, I quickly flew over here and marked the spot so I could teleport here later,"

Kenos perked up. "Oh yeah, I remember, they did give us a map, so much has been going on these past few days, it must've slipped my mind,"

Domina then got up too. "Well regardless, it's good to see you all again, what exactly do you need help with?"

The trio of Black Bulls then began explaining their problem, beginning at their mission to the Underwater Temple, and ending with the current unfortunate fate of the swordsman.

"He can never use his arms again?" Mariella repeated the last sentence told to them, some worry was in her voice, which wasn't something that was heard often, but nobody paid it any mind as they knew how much Asta's example meant to her.

"That's bad, without magic, things are already hard for him, but now his arms, damn, but knowing Asta, I assume he isn't giving up because of this?" Fanzell added, wondering about his student.

Finral was happy to nod. "That's right, and we couldn't be any more happy that he's not taking it too hard, but as for why I decided to come here, it was for Dominante,"

Domina softly gasped. "Me?"

The spatial mage nodded. "Yes, you were a well-known merchant in the Black Market, I was just wondering if you happened to have a Magic Item or some other thing that can undo curses?"

The vortex mage held her hips and closed her eyes, thinking, but she then sighed. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing in my arsenal that is capable of undoing curses," she looked up and saw their faces change into worry, so she quickly waved her hands around.

"Wait just a moment...sure there's nothing I can do, but…," she continued with a sad sigh. "There's someone I know who can, the Queen of Witches who resides in the Witches' Forest,"

"Witches' Forest?"

"It's the home of the witches, where each of them is born, where...I was born, under the Queen's rule, none are to leave the forest to start a new life outside of it, those that do are outcasted and can never return, I, of course, am one of those outcasted after leaving to marry Zell and live in the Diamond Kingdom with him," Domina explained. "The Queen's magic is very powerful, during my time before leaving the forest, I heard that her magic was on par with even your Wizard King,"

"On the same level as Julius, then she'll be perfect," Kenos said.

A thought then came to Finral's head. "Hey, wait a minute, Vanessa's a witch too if I'm not mistaken, I wonder if she thought of going to the Queen before we did?" he voiced.

Those words made Domina's eyes widen. "What?! She went back, oh no,"

"What's the matter?" Noelle asked with concern. "If Vanessa's witch and she went there, wouldn't they just kick her out since she's an outcast?"

"No, normally, outcasted witches who return to the forest are to be executed, unless the Queen personally pardons her, but that isn't the case with Vanessa," Domina replied. "She's a very special witch to the Queen, even from birth, she wasn't like the rest of us, while we were allowed to leave the forest and return back, Vanessa was confined to a singular room in the Queen's palace, none of us were permitted to interact with her, but then, a few years back, the Queen had a scuffle with a mage, and Vanessa escaped with him,"

"You must be talking about Captain Yami, that would explain how she's on the squad," Kenos figured out.

"That may be true, but regardless, if Vanessa did go back, she might never return,"

The eyes of the three Magic Knights widened in shock, Noelle stepped up. "Then we have to go there, for both Asta and Vanessa,"

"Hold up, we're coming too, you don't actually know where the Witches' Forest is, so I'll guide you," Domina said confidently.

Kenos looked worried. "But, you're an outcast, won't it be dangerous?"

"It will, but I owe Asta for helping us, I'll be damned if I don't come with you, besides, the danger will only come if we're spotted, if we can get there, help Asta and free Vanessa without the Queen aware of my presence, I'll be just fine," she replied.

"I'm coming too," Fanzell added. "I owe Asta as well, plus, he's my former student,"

"Count me in, if Fanzell and Dominante are going to this forest, I am too," Mariella finished.

Kenos, Noelle, and Finral all smiled. "Then what are we waiting for, let's get a move on!"

"995...996...997...998...999...1000!"

The swordsman was outside, counting as he did squats, slowly lowering himself down every time.

"Damn, that was intense, it's been a while since I've done so many squats at a time, normally I'd just do 500 and call it a day, but with my arms out of commission, I need to work my legs more, until I can find a way to fix my arms, this will be my new way of fighting," Asta said to himself, imagining how he'd look with legs more jacked than they already were.

Nero then landed on his head, he looked up with a smile. "Hey there, Nero, I was wondering where you went, did you come here to see my workout? Too bad you aren't heavier, then you could've helped me by making my workouts more intense, but then again, you're just a bird, not a human,"

Asta went back to squatting, not noticing the bird's odd look of shock, but then his face changed back into its normal, deadpan expression.

"After I'm done with these squats, I should ask Captain Yami if he knows some more leg training, something tells me it can prove pretty use-," he was saying, but he was cut short as a strong wind swirled around him and began lifting him up.

"Damn it, what's going on?!" Asta exclaimed as he tried to escape but to no avail, the anti-bird got off his head and watched his aimless effort. "It's too late for me to take out a sword since it takes a bit longer now I have to grip it with my teeth," he thought, believing he was in danger, but that worry soon faded as he landed on a broom and a familiar voice spoke.

"Must you squirm so much, Dorksta?"

"Huh?" he said, he turned to the side to find the origin. "Noelle? You're on a broom, but whose?" he looked at who was in front of her, his eyes widened. "Dominante? Mariella?"

"Hey there, Asta, you look well," Domina cheerfully greeted.

"Hello," the ice mage greeted, but nowhere near as chipper as the previous female.

"I'm fine,"

"Asta, good to see you again,"

The swordsman turned the other way to see Fanzell, riding behind Finral. "Old man Zell! Wait, who am I flying with?" he looked directly forward, seeing the solar mage. "Oh, Kenos,"

After the three Black Bulls and the three Diamond fugitives affirmed their plan to their magicless friend, Finral teleported them all into the base, without Yami's knowledge, of course, the three of them got their brooms and were teleported back outside and flew into the air.

"So...why are you three exactly here, and where exactly are we-!" Asta was about to ask, but was stopped as the three brooms zoomed forward, it remained at that fast pace for thirty seconds before slowing down, during that time, the three brooms gained some distance from each other.

"Hey Kenos, where are we going?" Asta asked.

"Where are we going? Well, we're going to a place...to fix your arms," Kenos slowly replied as he exposed the fact that they knew about his problem.

"So...you knew?" the swordsman asked again, there was no direct eye contact between the two five-leaf users.

"Yeah," Kenos replied, never once moving his head. "Finral heard Owen tell it to you at the capital...and then, we all overheard what you said to yourself last night...I'm sorry, I know this is a sensitive topic for you and that you'd rather have us find out of your own volition, it's just...we were worried too,"

The solar mage finished his statement and awaited the magicless mage's answer, the fact that he couldn't see his face only added to the tension, but then, Asta opened his mouth to reply.

"...Thank you,"

For the first time, Kenos turned to face Asta, he could see a tear falling down his face, but he was smiling. "I bet I was acting quite out of character last night, it must've been pretty easy to tell that something was wrong, I'm sorry too, for not telling you all right away, it was just that...despite what I said about not giving up, I was still scared, I didn't want to believe that it could've been over for me, but then I heard what you told Noelle and Finral earlier,"

Kenos' eyes quickly widened. "You heard us too?"

Asta nodded. "I heard what you said about me, about how I'm the first the help people, how I bring out the best in others...how I'm a part of your family, it just made me feel so happy, when I was younger, I always hated that I didn't have magic, but I'm glad I have you and everyone else, I'll take our bond over magic any day, it means more to me than anything in the world,"

Kenos looked back forward, but he was smiling. "You're welcome, and it means a lot to me too," he said as the broom shared between the two five-leaf users was silent the rest of the way there.

"Spark Magic: Ground Sparks!"

Within the undisclosed base of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, the voice of Annalise rang out, she punched the ground, sending the dectet of spark trails towards her opponent, who happened to be the spatial mage, Valtos.

"Not bad," he said, jumping around to dodge the attacks, his grimoire came to him and flipped through pages. "Spatial Magic: Swift Space Slash!"

"I got it, Spark Creation Magic: Wall of Sparks!" Annalise exclaimed as she created her guard she grinned confidently.

"Good reaction time, but don't become complacent," Valtos told her as he created a portal in front of his slash, it went into the portal and appeared behind Annalise.

"Crap," the spark mage muttered as she sensed the mana, but couldn't move fast enough before it grazed her cheek.

"Alright, that's enough," Valtos instructed, Annalise obeyed, dropping her wall as she put her grimoire back in her satchel, he walked over to her.

"You're getting better, but you need to stay focused at all times, even if you've set up a decent defense, your offense is fine as is, but it doesn't hurt to make it stronger, behind the Third Eye and Licht, when it comes to physical power, you stand pretty high," he advised.

Annalise bowed her upper half respectfully. "I'll take your words to heart, thank you for the spar," she said as he too bowed, the spark mage then began to walk out.

"My attack didn't hurt too much, did it?" Valtos asked.

Her back was still turned to him as she waved. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, I'm tough,"

Annalise kept walking for a few minutes. "Don't be complacent, and better your offense, if I can do that, I'll get stronger, and once I do, I can take out those Aqua Deer brats, especially Zuka, she might've learned a few tricks, but that won't matter once we meet again-,"

The sound of soft growling pulled the violet-haired girl out of her thoughts, she found herself in a darker, more vast room, a few feet away was the flame spirit, Salamander, it was a lot larger than it was during the battle at Nean, and beside it, petting its head, was the flame mage of the Third Eye.

"Hey Fana," Annalise casually greeted as she walked over to her, taking her chance to pet the spirit as well.

"Hello Annalise, how are you?" Fana greeted back, a small smile on her face.

"I"m doing just fine, but something feels off," Annalise mentioned. "Vetto hasn't come back from his mission in the Underwater Temple, isn't that weird?"

"It is, but unfortunately, according to our spies, he was killed during the mission by the Black Bulls, and the mages accompanying him had been captured by the magic knights," Fana replied, her voice becoming monotonous.

"Damn it, they beat Vetto, what kind of monster do the Black Bulls have, I'm going to miss having him around, he was tough and foul-mouthed, but we're all friends," Annalise said, turning her head to the side.

"Annalise, your cheek," Fana suddenly stated.

The spark mage dragged her finger by her cheek and checked it, seeing blood. "Oh, this was just from sparring with Valtos, it's nothing,"

Fana walked over to her and gently placed her hand on the spark mage's cheek, a light flame appeared on her cheek. "Don't say that, make sure not to overexert yourself, you're like a little sister to me," she let go, the wound being healed.

"I appreciate the concern, but what are we going to do about those magic knights?" the violet-haired girl asked.

"Don't worry, those who killed Vetto will be overwhelmed by my hate, and be burnt until they are nothing but ash," the flame mage said.

Annalise lightly smiled. "Have I ever told you that you talk funny when making threats?"

Fana broke into a short giggle. "You have, but it seems I'll never change,"

"Good, I don't want you to change," she said as she went up and hugged the female of the Third Eye. "I never really had a family, or siblings, but the Eye of the Midnight Sun is my family now, and you're like a sister to me too, with Valtos as a mentor, Sally like an annoying but lovable little sister, and Rades, Rhya, and Vetto as my lazy, tough, and wimpy older brothers, and then there's Licht as a caring father,"

Fana returned the hug. "I'm glad you feel that way, I feel the same,"

Once they two broke their hug, footsteps were heard, they both turned to see another member approaching them, he was of a decent height, and had short, curly green hair.

"Shidan, is something the matter?" Fana asked, her voice quickly shifting to her indifferent one.

"My apologies for bothering you, Lady Fana, Annalise, but I have received word from one of our spies, they've located the whereabouts of another magic stone," Shidan replied.

This caught the attention of the two ladies, Fana stepped up. "Where is it?"

"In a place called the Witches' Forest,"

"I see, I'm heading over there," she stated.

"I'm coming with you," Annalise spoke up.

"No," Fana quickly countered. "You'll stay here and tell the others where I'll be going,"

"B-But-," Annalise was about to protest.

"No buts," Fana said back. "I've heard a little bit about that place, the Queen that resides there is a powerful mage, you won't be coming with me,"

"If she cannot come, then I shall accompany you, Lady Fana," Shidan offered.

"Very well, gather some mages and have them meet me outside in three minutes," Fana ordered.

"As you wish," he replied before quickly exiting the room.

"Let's go, Salamander," Fana said as she started to walk out as well, the spirit walking behind her.

"Wait!" Annalise called, Fana turned to her. "I know why you don't want me to go, you'll think I'll get hurt if we have to face that Queen, but promise me that you'll come back, I don't want to lose you,"

Fana gave her a small smile. "I promise"

"Mother? I guess that's something else I can call you, but it doesn't sit right with me," Vanessa said as she stood before the Queen of Witches.

"Vanessa," the Queen stated.

"That's Vanessa Enoteca now," the thread mage added.

"Enoteca? You gave yourself a last name, what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means 'wine bar', I thought it seemed appropriate to my favorite pastime," Vanessa replied.

"So, my daughter has taken up drinking, I assume that Yami Sukehiro has something to do with it?" the Queen asked.

"Nope, it's all because of you, to forget the life I used to live," Vanessa replied.

The Queen's eyes narrowed. "Is that so, if that's your reason, why have you come back to the place you wish to forget?"

"Because I need a favor, a dear friend of mine has been placed under a curse, it'll ruin his life if it doesn't get fixed, so I want you to teach me, show me how to undo any and all curses!" she replied passionately.

"Teach you how to undo curses? So, you think you can just leave the forest for almost 5 years and then come back when you desperately need help? What an insolent and ungrateful daughter I have," the Queen said, almost chuckling before she looked Vanessa straight in the eye. "My answer is no, you left this place for the world beyond the forest, go seek it for help,"

"Tch, I knew just asking you might not work, but I figured it was worth a try, time to move onto plan B,"

The Queen raised a brow. "Plan B? And what might that just be?"

Vanessa took her grimoire out and pulled on her bundles of thread. "We're going to fight, and once I win, you'll have no choice but to agree to help me,"

"Once you win, please Vanessa, you may be my daughter, but you're still imperfect," the green-clad witch said monotonously as she took out her own grimoire. "The proper words shouldn't be once you win, rather, it should if you win,"

While the two witches were going at it, outside the entrance of the forest, the group of Magic Knights and Diamond fugitives had arrived.

"So this is the Witches' Forest, it's beautiful," Noelle commented.

"Tell me about it," Kenos added, in awe of the sight of large and luscious trees wherever he looked.

"We can't lose focus due to the scenery, this is the most dangerous part of the mission," Finral told them all. "Dominante, make sure to keep your brooms close to ours so you don't get spotted," he said before starting to fly forward.

"Wait," Domina said, stopping him right in his tracks. "I might be in danger by coming here, but my danger isn't guaranteed, that isn't the case with you,"

"How so?" Asta asked.

"The Witches' Forest is a bit of a misandrist place with loads of misandrist people, it's forbidden for any men to enter," she explained.

"What?! And you didn't tell us? If we can't go in, that's over half of us taken out of the fight," Kenos said.

Domina waved jazz hands in a soft manner. "Relax, I have a way to get you in, don't forget that you're talking to one of the best merchants in the Black Market," she then reached into her dress and pulled out a folded gray cloth, she then unfolded it, revealing a large tarp. "Behold, the Cloaking Cloak!"

"The Cloaking Cloak? I'm guessing it's going to make us invisible?" the solar mage asked.

"You got that right, but it doesn't just make you invisible, it cloaks your mana as well, so no one can detect you," she replied.

"That's awesome, so what are we waiting for, hand over that cloak, and let's get moving!" Asta exclaimed ecstatically.

"Not so fast, I only have one cloak, and there are two brooms with guys on them, if this is going to work, you two have to keep your brooms together," Domina instructed the solar and spatial mages.

"Okay then," Kenos and Finral obeyed, moving their brooms closer to each other as Domina placed the cloak over them, to the perspective of the females, the males disappeared from sight.

"It worked, we can't see you," Mariella stated.

"But it seems we can still see you, and everything else around us," Fanzell commented.

"That's the beauty of this cloak, it also works a bit like binoculars, you can see others, but they can't see you," his wife squealed.

"Nice work, now we can finally move in," Kenos said.

"True, but let's go in slow, we aren't trying to attract any unnecessary attention to ourselves," Domina told them as they all flew into the forest.

"Wow, the inside is even more beautiful," Mariella commented, noticing all the buildings that were inside the forest, it was almost like they had entered into another world.

"I know, I'll never forget this place, but I'm a lot happier with you and Zell in my life," Domina said to her.

"So, where exactly is the Queen's palace?" Finral asked.

"It should be too far away, it stands close to the center of the entire forest, we'll arrive there in a few-," the vortex mage's words were cut short as a sound was heard, she looked forward to see two bulky robot-ish figures coming towards them, they looked to be made out of some kind of mud-like substance.

"What are those things?" Noelle asked.

"They're golems, the forest's security system," Domina replied.

"Shouldn't you be worried then?" Kenos asked.

"Don't worry, the golems are only designed to detect two types of intruders: magic beasts, and men, they aren't sophisticated enough to detect outcasted witches, before I left, I told the Queen their detection capabilities needed work, but now, I'm glad she never implemented them,"

True to Domina's words, the golem merely passed by them, not seeing them as a threat whatsoever, and of course, they couldn't even see the four males accompanying them.

"Awesome, we owe you one for this cloak, Domina," Fanzell said, praising his wife.

"Aw, Zell, you're making me blush," Domina responded, childishly holding her face from her husband's words.

"Hey," Mariella said, everyone turned their eyes to her as the ice mage looked ahead. "I think I can see her palace,"

The others looked forward too, and lo and behold, the palace was in sight, a good distance away, but in sight nonetheless.

"Great, this mission so far is going off without a hitch," Kenos said with a big smile on his face. He was right though, everything was going fine.

Or so he thought.

Another pair of golems flew by, thanks to the previous encounter, the group showed no fear and anxiousness as the bulky mud figures were close to passing them, but unfortunately for the males, as they were flying by, a part of the back of the cloak got stuck on a tree branch, but they didn't notice, once they kept flying forward, the branch successfully managed to pull the cloak off, unveiling the four mages, right as the golems reached them.

Noelle turned to her black-haired squadmate, a look of comedic indifference was on her face. "You just had to jinx it, didn't you?"

"Don't blame me, how was I supposed to know that was going to happen," Kenos protested, unfortunately, that didn't stop the fact that the golems were looking right at them, eyes flashing red.

"Screw going slow, everybody, fly for your lives dammit!" Domina exclaimed as the three brooms began quickly flying towards the castle, the golems on hot pursuit.

"I have a way to stop them," Mariella spoke up. "Do we have a spatial mage here?"

"Yeah, I'm one," Finral replied.

"Alright, I'm going to take out the golems, but I need you to teleport them onto a soft landing spot, if we let them crash on the ground, it'll only alert more golems and possibly some witches to our location," the ice mage explained.

"Good plan, I'm with you," the spatial mage responded.

"Okay Domina, stop your broom," Mariella said, Domina obeyed as the former assassin stood up, looking back at the golems, her grimoire came out. "Ice Creation Magic: Assassin's Blade Storm!"

At her call, she created a stream of liquid ice in front of her, from those streams, ice blades of varying sizes shot out, hitting the golems multiple times, they then began falling. "Finral, now!"

"On it, Spatial Magic: Fallen Angel's Gate!" he exclaimed, forming two portals, the golems fell into the first portal and came out of the second portal, which was directly above a tall tree, their descent was barely heard.

"Awesome work you two," Noelle said as they got even closer to the palace, her eyes then widened as she pointed at the building. "Over there, I can feel Vanessa's mana,"

"Wait, Vanessa's here too?" Asta asked with surprise.

"Yeah, we figured she'd be here to try to fix your arms too since she's a witch," Finral replied. "And from what I'm sensing, she's the only one there, we can get her out before we even need to worry about an encounter with the Queen,"

"And with Vanessa safe, we can then find the Queen and ask her to help Asta," Fanzell added as he took out his bladeless sword handle. "The wall will have to go first, Kenos, can you lend a hand?"

"Of course," the solar mage replied as he took out his grimoire.

"Wind Creation Magic: Emperor of Slashing Winds!"

"Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!"

The two spells fired off simultaneously, destroying a large chunk of the palace's wall, the group wasted no time flying in and dismounting, but once they did, their eyes widened.

They were expecting to find Vanessa, but what they weren't expecting to find was the Queen with a red scythe in her hand, and her foot planted right on the head of an unconscious thread mage.

"V-Vanessa," Asta muttered.

"There's someone else here, how did we not sense her mana?" the others thought in unison

The Queen slowly shifted her head to look at the group. "Oh my, I have intruders, and four of them are men, it's been a while since I've seen one, those golems really need to do a better job," she said before noticing one familiar face among the crowd. "Dominante, I didn't expect to see you back, especially after you left this place for the Diamond Kingdom, how have you been?"

Despite the seemingly kind question by the Queen, Domina knew it was just a mask the mere way she asked it made the vortex mage break into a cold sweat.

Fanzell stepped in front of her protectively. "Watch it, I won't let you try anything on my wife,"

"Your wife? Oh yes, you're the man she left us for, I hope you're keeping her safe," she said, her voice remaining plain, yet with this underlying threatening tone.

Asta stepped forward. "What have you done to Vanessa?!"

"What have I done? I merely disciplined my daughter, she thought she could defeat me, despite the fact that she's imperfect, so I showed her the errors of her ways," she replied quite calmly.

"So, I take it you're the Queen of Witches?" Kenos asked seriously.

"You are correct,"

"So, she's the one who's on the same level as Julius, I can't even sense her mana, she must be hiding it, similar to Domina's cloak, she's definitely the real deal," the solar mage thought.

Noelle flinched. "This isn't good, with the Queen right next to Vanessa, getting her out of the way just got a lot harder, maybe I should try Sea Dragon's Roar, but it'll undoubtedly hit Vanessa, uh, what do we-," her thought was interrupted by a sudden, yet familiar exclamation.

"Get away from Vanessa!" Asta exclaimed as he started running towards the Queen.

The three Black Bulls looked at the swordsman. "Of course Asta will just charge ahead, after all, he's the first to help anyone,"

The Queen looked right at the ashen-haired teen running at her, her eyes fell down to his injured limbs. "That boy's arms are broken, but that isn't it...he has no magic, and I can feel a curse on them, could he be the one?" she thought before she extended her hand at him. "What an imperfect little boy,"

Then, as almost on cue, crows came out from openings in the building's walls and flew towards Asta, but the boy just kept running.

"Mind giving me a hand, old man Zell!" the magicless mage called.

"Alright!" Fanzell called back as he shot a blast of wind at Asta, propelling him into the air, past the crows, and right above the Queen.

"Take this!" Asta exclaimed, fashioning his leg for a one-legged dropkick, the Queen quickly jumped out of the way as he landed next to Vanessa.

"I got you!" the wind mage exclaimed, carrying the two back to the group.

The Queen looked intently at Asta before pointing at him. "You, boy, you have a curse on your arms, don't you?"

Asta widened his eyes. "How did you know?"

"I could sense it on you, I take it you're the one Vanessa came here for, she wanted me to teach her how to undo curses, I refused, and then she wanted to fight me, but of course she couldn't defeat me, as she was losing, she even went as far as to offer herself to be my slave if I just undid the curse on her dear friend," the Queen explained.

Everyone widened their eyes, especially the magic users of the group, remembering what Domina said about the Queen not letting Vanessa leave, but they would've never believed Vanessa would offer herself.

"Hm," a weak voice called out, they all looked down to see Vanessa groaning, she then slowly opened her eyes, but they quickly shot open after a few seconds. "W-What's going on? Why are you all here? And the Diamond fugitives,"

Domina knelt down to her. "You tried to fight the Queen to help Asta, but you lost, we just saved you,"

Vanessa quickly stood up and looked at her mother, clenching her fists tightly. "What I said still stands, please help Asta, and I'll stay here,"

"No way am I letting you do that!" Asta yelled at her. "My arms aren't worth your freedom!"

"Yes they are!" Vanessa yelled back. "You're an incredible magic knight, and an incredible person, you have so much more to do, even though you weren't gifted with magic!"

"You're right, I wasn't gifted with magic, but do you know what I was gifted with? Great friends! And you're one of those friends, I can't lose you, none of us can lose you, you mean too much!" the swordsman protested.

"Even if that's true, you mean more to us than I do, you brought out the best in the Black Bulls, ever since you joined, we've become better mages and better people, why won't you just let me do this for you!" the thread mage yelled even louder.

"Enough! We won't lose you!" Asta used his teeth to undo his sling, revealing his discolored arms, he then took out his grimoire and dunked his head in, pulling out the Demon-Dweller Sword with his teeth.

The Queen, seemingly for the first time, widened her eyes. "Could it be? The Demon-Dweller Sword? How does a mere human have it?"

"What are you doing?" Vanessa asked.

Asta knelt down. "I'm going to see if my anti-magic sword can break the curse, I haven't tried it yet, but if it could work, everything will be okay," he managed to say as he slammed the sword down on his arm, but that action caused excruciating pain. "AH!" he dropped the sword.

"Stop this, you're only hurting yourself," Vanessa said, trying to help him up.

"I must say, I'm quite touched, but despite that, none of you are leaving, it's time that I put in a little effort," the Queen said, taking out her grimoire. "Vanessa will stay here, and the rest of you won't leave this forest alive-," she was about to cast a spell, but then a loud noise was heard.

"What the?" Finral said, he and the others turned around, and widened their eyes.

Outside the palace, in the forest, smoke rose into the sky as fire was seen.

"The forest...it's burning," Kenos stated.

"It appears we have more intruders," the Queen extended her hand as a large globe came to her, she looked into it to see who was invading her domain. "I assume you know who these people are?" she swiped her hand up, creating a large screen for everyone else to see.

The Black Bulls all widened their eyes again. "The Eye of the Midnight Sun,"

Finral then pointed at the person in the center of the terrorist group. "And isn't that Fana the Hateful, a member of the Third Eye?"

"Oh crap, it is," Asta replied. "Vetto was already hard enough, and this time, the whole squad isn't together,"

"The Eye of the Midnight Sun, who exactly are they?" the Queen asked.

"A terrorist group that is searching for objects called Magic Stones," Kenos replied.

"So, I assume they're after this?" she asked again, everyone turned to her as she motioned to her ear, revealing an earring, and the jewel hanging down her ear was a purple triangle.

"A magic stone, I didn't think we'd find one here," Noelle admitted.

The Queen was about to reply, but then she felt something else. "Well, it seems this terrorist organization aren't the only intruders,"

"What?!"

The Queen swiped her hand, showing another part of the forest, and in that other part was a group the fugitives recognized.

"The Diamond Kingdom!"

Asta looked up, noticing that Mars was among them. "It's Mars, I'm glad to see he survived the collapsin dungeon, but I guess we'll have to battle again,"

While the swordsman seemed partially happy that the mineral mage was alive, the same emotion wasn't present in the solar mage as he noticed one mage in particular.

Brosnan.

Kenos angrily narrowed his eyes. "Fate has let us cross paths again, I'm going to make you pay Brosnan, today," he thought.

Noelle turned to the Queen. "Okay, at this point, I think we can all agree that both the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the Diamond Kingdom is here to cause trouble for the forest, so why don't we make a deal,"

The Queen raised a brow. "What kind of deal?"

"You may be a powerful mage, but even you can't be in two places at once, so if you heal Asta's arms, we'll stop the two groups from destroying the forest, an equivalent exchange, our help for your help," the water mage explained. "So, what's it going to be?"

The Queen held her chin, thinking for a few seconds before she looked back at the royal. "Very well, what you say is true,"

"Nice work, Noelle," Vanessa praised her.

The girl merely flicked her ponytail. "Thanks, but were you surprised, I'm royalty, we know how to negotiate," she said confidently, but in her mind, it was a different story. "Oh crap, I was so scared, she gives off this mysteriously bad feeling, luckily I can keep my cool,"

The Queen's grimoire flipped through pages. "Blood Recovery Magic: Curse Breaking Blood-filled Cocoon!" she exclaimed as a large red sphere trapped Asta, from within, the color of his arms began to change back to normal, the sphere then disappeared. "There, my half of the deal has been fulfilled,"

Asta began moving his arms in a windmill motion. "Holy crap, it's completely fixed, thank you so much!"

Vanessa smiled. "I'm glad that you're back to normal, and now that you're better, I won't feel guilty about doing this,"

Asta turned to her with a confused look. "Do what-," he was asking, but was interrupted as the thread mage pushed him to the ground, the water and spatial mages joined in as the solar mage and the trio of fugitives merely watched.

"This is for not telling us about your arms in the first place!" Vanessa exclaimed. "I know it was a sensitive topic for you, but we're your family!"

"She's right Dorksta, you wouldn't believe how shocked we were when we first heard it, you had us worried sick!" Noelle added.

"As your superior, please don't feel like you can't talk to me when you're troubled, if I hadn't heard you and Owen, we still wouldn't know and would think you'd be just fine!" Finral finished.

"Um, I know you all are angry, but...I don't feel anything," Asta said plainly. "I guess the Queen's spell buffed me up even further,"

"That's true, my recovery spell is quite powerful, now, I believe you will live up to your end of the deal?" the Queen responded before asking.

Asta grinned as he reached into his satchel, pulling out his magic knights' robe and putting it on, but without his signature blue jacket present, it made him look quite different, he drew out the Demon-Slayer Sword and picked up the Dweller, holding them both up in front of his chest with the others standing beside him.

"Of course we will, let's go, everyone, time to kick some ass!"