Chapter Sixty-Six: A Meeting of Light and Darkness
What up there, readers, how have you all been? Hopefully, life has been treating you well, and have been enjoying 2022 so far, I know I have. I bet the hiatus must've been hard for some of you, but you don't have to worry about that anymore, because the wait is over, The Other Fifth Leaf is back with a new chapter, I hope you like it. Cya.
"Take this!"
A day had passed since Kenos had defeated Zaxon and had met his partner angel, things have seemingly gone back to normal as he and Asta spar with each other outside the base, their weapons just having clashed.
Upon realizing the clash would end in a stalemate, Asta, with the Demon-Slayer Sword in hand, backed up a few feet. "Not bad, you're getting better at this each time,"
Kenos, with his staff in hand, grinned as he twirled the weapon along his fingers multiple times. "Thanks, I do try, but if we want to be ready for the Royal Knights Exam, we'll both have to get stronger,"
"Well, after seeing the sick new powers you unlocked yesterday, something tells me you'll be just fine," the swordsman replied before raising said sword up. "Now come at me!"
"My pleasure, Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!" Kenos exclaimed, firing his beam.
But Asta was undeterred as he entered a stable stance and used the Demon-Slayer to deflect the attack right back to its origin. But the solar mage wouldn't be defeated that easily either as he quickly cartwheeled out of the way, charging towards his opponent.
"Bring it on!" Asta declared, preparing to use Ki to read his squadmate's next attack, and the technique didn't fail him as Kenos jumped straight into a front flip in an attempt to attack from behind.
The solar mage clicked his tongue when he saw the magicless mage moving his body, ready to strike him once he touched the ground. "Damn, that Ki of yours is at it again, good thing I got a counter, you might want to keep your eyes on the sky, Solar Creation Magic: Rain of Solar Daggers!"
It was Asta's turn to click his tongue in frustration as he diverted his attention to the raining projectiles above him, using the flat side of his large sword to act as protection, but in the process allowed Kenos to land behind him safely and deliver a swift sweep kick, sending the swordsman on his way to the ground.
Unfortunately for Kenos though, Asta was able to quickly roll himself away before performing a starfish kip-up to get back on his feet. Although he had dirtied himself from the action, he was starry-eyed. "Holy crap Kenos, you've never tried something like that before during our sparring sessions, it was super awesome!"
"Thanks, the battle with Zaxon forced me to fight in a way I haven't really fought in before, I just thought that I should try some new fighting ideas out, especially since I already have a new set of abilities to get used to,"
"You got a point there. So, shall we continue?"
A smile creased on Kenos' face as his eyes focused on something behind Asta. "We shall, but with some different circumstances," he replied before running around Asta, earning a confused look from the other Black Bull.
"Um, what are you doing?" Asta wondered.
"Just making this a little more interesting," Kenos answered as he finally got hold of what we saw.
His broom.
The solar mage quickly set his broom down, jumped on it, and took to the sky.
The magicless mage wasn't expecting a move like that. "You're going to fly, aye? That won't change much. You've got two options, either you come down of your own volition," he then raised his sword in preparation to transform. "Or I come up there and make you,"
Kenos put a hand on his chin. "How about a bit of both, I come down, and you come up," he responded, jumping off his broom, plummeting towards the ground, all the while turning to the page of his own respective transformation.
"Works for me!" Asta cried out as he became Black Asta, zooming upwards.
"Heaven Magic: Angel's Child!" the Rossiu cried out as well as he quickly shifted into his half-angel form. Both mages readied their swords as a clash occurred between them for the second time, this clash produced a strong gust of wind that rustled the leaves around them.
"Amazing, so this is Angel's Child up close?! Nice," Asta commented, increasing his strength, slowly beginning to win the clash.
The angelic solar mage too increased his strength. "Right back at you," he stated before breaking the clash and flying away, his demonic opponent not too far behind.
Kenos turned his body around, still flying as he looked at Asta, his grimoire flipping to a new page. "Let's see you deflect my attack this time, Heaven-infused Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!"
"Oh crap," Asta muttered as he placed the Slayer in front of him as the enhanced beam hit, pushing him back a considerable distance, but Kenos wasn't going to waste the opportunity he bought himself as he quickly drew close.
"Great move, Kenos, now it's my turn!" he then exclaimed as he spun his body rapidly, becoming like some black tornado, effectively stopping his opponent from landing a successful attack.
"What in the world?" the solar mage said with a raised eyebrow as he came to a stop, Asta doing the same as he stopped spinning. "It seems I'm not the only one trying new things,"
"Yeah, it just to my head a few seconds ago, I knew it wouldn't give you an area to attack. Who knows, I can probably develop it further into something more refined,"
"That would be awesome, we can dedicate some training into making brand new techniques with our respective transformations. But we'll have to finish our spar first," Kenos said.
Asta nodded in agreement. "Right, and what do you say we finish this with a bang?"
"I say let's do it," the angelic solar mage flew right past the swordsman, sharply flying upward. Once he ascended an additional fifty feet in the air, he zoomed down with tremendous speed, while Asta zoomed up at the same speed.
"Anti-Magic: Black Meteorite!"
"Heaven Magic: Wrath of the Almighty!"
A large shockwave accompanied the third clash, but unlike the previous two, both mages were pushed back by the sheer force of it, leaving them no choice but to fly back down to the ground.
Once they landed, both transformations undid themselves, but Kenos knelt down, breathing heavily. "Damn, using Angel's Child still takes…quite a lot out of me, but I guess I'll…get used to it eventually," he commented in between breaths before standing back up. But then, he reached for one of his fingers before a frown touched his face.
Asta noticed his change in countenance. "What's with the long face?"
"It's just…I'm used to taking off my ring whenever we finish sparring, but now, I don't have it," the black-haired teen reached into his pocket and retrieved the broken fragments that were once his trusty magic item. "Well, at least not in one piece. Now I can no longer use the reinforcement union to perform Solar Godspeed,"
"Hey, it's going to be okay. Sure your ring is no longer functioning, but you've been improving, there's only so much it can do for you. Maybe you don't need it anymore?" Asta said, trying to sound reassuring.
"Yeah, you're probably right,"
The two started to walk back inside. The ash-blonde teen still noticed his friend looking at the broken ring, so he decided to change the subject. "I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about any drawbacks when I transform. Although, I've never been in it for too long, at best two to four minutes," Asta said to his squadmate.
Kenos' face looked away from his hand and towards the other boy's face as it contorted into a playful smirk. "I guess that must mean my form is just stronger,"
"Fat chance of that being true," Asta smirked back as he opened the door, and was welcomed by the faces of the others. "Good morning,"
"Morning there, you two," Yami greeted back. "You guys had quite the spar, I could feel the waves from in here,"
"That's true, Kenos has gotten much stronger, he's been handling my power well so far," a new voice suddenly stated, its origin not taking too long to pinpoint as Kenos' grimoire was floating in the air, opened up, and glowing orange, acting as the source.
"What the hell?!" everyone exclaimed in shock, but the solar mage soon recognized the voice. "Emmanuel?"
"Who the hell's Emmanuel?" Magna asked.
"Oh, that's right, yesterday was so hectic, I forgot to introduce you. Emmanuel is my partner angel, he's the one who gave me access to Angel's Child and the Heaven attribute," he explained.
"Wait a minute, partner angel? So, angels exist?" Noelle asked.
"Correct Noelle, we do in fact exist," the angel replied with a chuckle.
The water mage gasped. "You know my name?"
"Yes, I know all of you, anyone that Kenos encountered within obtaining his grimoire is someone that I too have seen,"
The cotton mage then spoke up. "Wait, I've got a question?"
The grimoire turned in her general direction. "What is it, Charmy?"
"Since angels are supposed to be special, are you responsible for the fifth leaf on Kenos' grimoire?"
"I am, the fifth leaf represents the presence of an angel," Emmanuel answered.
"Wait, Asta's grimoire has got five leaves too. Does that mean he has an angel as well?" Gauche pointed out.
Emmanuel was quick to respond. "No. The leaves of Asta's grimoire are black, not white, meaning that his fifth leaf holds a devil instead,"
Yami blew smoke from his cigarette. "Makes sense, Black Asta looks far from angelic," he then turned to Asta. "So kid, have you spoken to this devil?"
"Just once, he was really mysterious, and odd, everything about him felt strange," he responded, looking at his grimoire.
"That's to be expected from a devil," Emmanuel said.
"Woah Woah Woah, before we continue, I need an explanation," Kenos interjected, facing his tome. "How exactly are you doing what you're doing? Speaking to us like that?"
"It's simple really, now that I've revealed myself to you, there are some tricks I can do with your grimoire, one being the ability to use it as a way to communicate," the angel replied.
"What else can you do?"
"All will be explained in due time, step by step, after all, you have a lot to deal with right now, not just the upcoming exam,"
"He's right," Vanessa stated. "The incident yesterday regarding your dad. You're taking it a lot better than I thought,"
"I am, he already put me in one slump, he won't put me in another one," the solar mage said back adamantly. "I just have to find out who else is in on it, and figure out what other motive my father had. Could reputation alone push him this far?"
"I still can't believe a father would want to do that," Finral mused aloud. "My dad, not to mention my whole family, hates me, and they never even sent an assassin after me. There's no way it could just be reputation, there must be a greater reason backing it up,"
The angel hummed lightly, agreeing with the spatial mage beside him before giving his own input. "From what I've seen, you can exclude Sylvester and Eleanor from your list of suspects,"
Kenos held his chin in thought, but eventually nodded. "Good point. Ves and I are really close, and Eleanor practically raised me, there's no way either of them would want me dead. So I'll start my search with Dante and Oxanna, then Aunt Reyna, Uncle Marcus, then mom. It's very unlikely my dad would partner up with anyone outside the family, that's just asking to get blackmailed,"
"Good to see you're being proactive about this," Yami praised his squad member. "And once you find everyone responsible, we can kill them,"
"Ooh, I want the first hit!" Luck jumped up and down excitedly.
"We're not killing anybody, what they'll get is an incredibly harsh, yet hush-hush punishment to avoid the public finding out about this," Kenos informed them. "If one of the heads and other members of the Rossiu House are found dead, it'll raise a ton of eyebrows,"
The excitement left Luck's face as he pouted. "Fine,"
"Good, and now we've got that handled, we should get back to training," Kenos suggested.
His squad agreed. "He's right, let's train hard and have a huge breakfast afterward!" Charmy cheered.
"Hey Kenos, since we just did some magical training, why don't we do some physical training?" Asta proposed.
"Good idea, I'm still feeling some of the drawbacks to using Emmanuel's power, physical training would be nice," he agreed. "Hey Emmanuel, I hope you don't mind if I leave the grimoire inside? I won't be needing it,"
"Not at all,"
The solar mage walked to the table and placed his grimoire there, Asta doing the same as he set his own grimoire mere inches away. "I won't need mine's either, all I need is my body,"
Everyone then began leaving the base, the building becoming empty in a matter of seconds.
And due to that, no one could see the phenomenon that was about to occur.
Focus shifted to the two five-leaf grimoires placed next to each other as suddenly, out of nowhere, the leaves on them began lighting up, one glowing black, the other, white as their fifth leaves began taking on a shade of red and orange respectively.
Something incredible was about to begin.
"What's…going on?" Emmanuel wondered aloud within his space as he noticed a black line appear and begin to elongate, providing a great contrast to the surrounding orange.
"Something feels familiar, yet off at the same time," he said as he flapped his wings and took off after the black line, keeping track of it as it continued to get longer.
Eventually, the line's growth came to an end, but as it did, Emmanuel's eyes widened, seeing something he wasn't expecting.
In front of him was red space, invading his usually endless orange space, with the black line from before meeting a white line on the other side to act as an even divide.
The angel landed and approached the divide between spaces. "I haven't seen something like this in centuries, but something isn't right, there isn't supposed to be a black line on my side, but another white line," he said as he brought his hand close to the red space, but once it passed the divide and entered the crimson area's domain, he felt a great pain and quickly retracted it.
"What the? I recognize that feeling, it's devil mana,"
"Oh, I see you made it here before me,"
Emmanuel flew back as he heard the new voice, watching as Roth appeared, having followed the white line. Although Roth had towered over Asta when they first met in the Witches' Forest, this time, he and the angel were the same height.
The heavenly being narrowed his eyes upon seeing who was on the other side of him. "A devil,"
The devil in question clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Ok, let's get to our first order of business. You'll refer to me as Roth, and only as Roth,"
"Is that your name?"
"Nope,"
"Then what is your name?"
Roth chuckled. "That's not something you need to know. You don't see me asking for your name,"
Emmanuel crossed his arms, his eyes obviously displaying suspicion. "Very well then, don't tell me your name, or even show me your true form behind your silhouette, but I want to know, how did you initiate a Cross?"
"A Cross? Oh, you mean the overlapping of our individual spaces formed when our grimoires are close to each other? It's just something I picked up some time back, didn't know it had a name though," Roth answered.
"I see, I didn't know other beings besides angels could do it,"
The devil chuckled as he slung his arms behind his back. "I'm full of surprises,"
"As I imagine you would be, seeing that you wield anti-magic somehow, a surprise is the appropriate term. So, I take it you're Asta's 'partner'?" Emmanuel inquired, uncrossing his arms to form air quotes around the last word he spoke.
"Really, you're using air quotes? Well, I can't say I blame you, me and the pipsqueak don't exactly work as a coherent unit, he's been using my power for some time now, but hasn't spoken to me, but the same can't be said for you and little Mr. Sunshine I suppose,"
"That's correct, Kenos and I work great together, but that's to be expected, given what I am, and how he is. But enough of that, now to the main question at hand, I know how you initiated the Cross, but I want to know why,"
Roth flapped his black wings, propelling himself a few feet in the air before he looked up, his gaze no longer on Emmanuel. "Why? I just wanted to have a talk,"
"A talk?" the angel asked with a raised brow.
"That's what I said, believe it or not, but until yesterday, I didn't know angels were real. Back where I came from, I was quite…busy, had a lot of…things to worry about, but when I didn't have to do that, I would hear small talk, and among them were talks about angels, beings like you. I didn't think they existed, that they were just some made-up myth, but it's obvious that my initial belief was incorrect,"
"Is that what you wanted to talk about, whether I was real or not?" Emmanuel asked.
"Of course not. Don't be silly, angel, I wouldn't need a talk to confirm your existence, it was already proven yesterday when my grimoire reacted to the exertion of your angelic power," Roth replied.
Emmanuel nodded halfway as he flew up to the same level as the devil across from him. "True, that does make sense. So what do you wish to talk about?"
"I want to talk about history, more specifically, history pertaining to angels and devils," Roth answered.
"The history between our kind, you say?" he repeated. "If he doesn't know about that, then he must rank very low,"
"The history between devils and your kind," Roth corrected coldly.
Emmanuel was confused by the personal exclusion, but continued regardless. "Angels and devils have been intertwined with one another for ages. But what do you plan on doing with such information?"
"Oh, it's nothing much, just a little mission I put myself to. I can promise that it won't cause any problems for humans, or angels for that matter,"
The angel wasn't convinced. "A promise? From you? Can't say that holds much weight. But I guess I can fill you in on the basic history, so pay attention, because I'll only go through everything once,"
Roth gave him a thumbs up, still keeping his gaze away from the being in the orange space.
"Angels were the first to exist, created by the words of the Almighty, through the mouth of the Lord," Emmanuel began. "Not too long after, devils came into the world, there were only two of them, but that didn't last for long as their numbers soon became numerous. We initially disregarded them as they only had conflicts with each other, but they soon began to lay waste to the inhabitants of the world, as such, we took action. Many battles were fought between us, the angels won some, the devils won in others, but we maintained a higher number of triumphs. And then…the war happened,"
The sudden pause caught the devil's attention as he finally broke his relaxed posture and looked at the angel. "You mean, that war?"
"So, you know about it?"
"Yeah, I didn't come into existence yet, so I wasn't aware of what party those devils were facing off against, but the consequences of it were undeniable,"
Emmanuel nodded. "They were,"
"So, I have a question. You've fought and beaten devils in that war, powerful ones right?"
"I have, and?"
Roth continued. "So, did they have any weaknesses, especially those easy to exploit?"
"All beings have weaknesses, devils are no exceptions, even the strongest have their vices," Emmanuel answered. "As for those easy to exploit, that can vary,"
The devil nodded. "Interesting, very interesting, that makes my mission a little bit easier. That's all I wanted from our talk,"
"I see, but we're not done here," the angel raised a hand. "Although you were the one to establish the Cross, I too wanted to talk to you about something, but another question has arisen. Throughout our conversation, when devils have been mentioned, you personally excluded yourself for some reason, why?"
Roth's eyes narrowed. "Why? Because I'm different from them, that's why,"
Emmanuel waved his arm horizontally. "Nonsense, devils are all the same!" he exclaimed for the first time that discussion. "You were born from malice and sin, just like every other devil, who only finds purpose and pleasure in doing what's immoral. I don't know what this mission of yours entails, or what it has to do with other devils, but it doesn't make you some deviant from the rest!"
"What did you say?!" Roth yelled back. "Don't go making assumptions like you know anything about me!"
"I don't need to make assumptions, that's just in your nature, always has been, always will be," Emmanuel stated.
"Don't think that I'm so one-dimensional that I can be lumped in with those other bastards. I may not know how the deal is with you goody-two-shoes, but there's no way angels can all be these infallible entities incapable of falling off the deep end!"
Those words managed to accomplish something as Emmanuel looked away, his glowing orange eyes showing some regret. "There was…one, long ago, but our kind do NOT speak of him, he betrayed us, he…betrayed me," he clenched his fist tightly.
"That means both of our sides have their outliers," Roth fired, crossing his arms this time.
Emmanuel didn't respond, instead, he continued with something else. "Now onto my main question. From what I've seen, Asta is a noble soul with noble intentions, but he's in possession of your grimoire. What do you plan to do to him? Is he going to be affected by this mission you have concocted?"
Roth laughed. "You really expect me to tell you all that? That's for me to know and you to find out, I've gotten what I wanted out of this conversation, I'll keep my promise and leave the aforementioned parties out of my scheme,"
"Wait, you better not-," Emmanuel was going to say, but was interrupted as the spaces started to suddenly rupture. "No, the Cross is being undone, Kenos and Asta must be separating their grimoires,"
"Then this meeting…is hereby adjourned, so long, birdy," Roth finished as he eventually faded away, the black and white lines doing the same.
The white-haired sacred one watched in silence as his space returned to the way it was before sucking his teeth in annoyance.
"Damn it,"
The solar and magicless mages both grabbed their grimoires at the same time, the latter walking away to talk to Magna and Luck.
The angelic grimoire opened itself and glowed. "Kenos, you're back already,"
Kenos raised a brow. "Already? It's been an hour and a half since we went outside. Does time work differently inside the grimoire?"
"You could say that. So, how did the training go?"
"It was brutal, my muscles are crying out in even more pain than during the baptism. I don't know how Asta does it," he replied.
Asta grinned. "Yeah, it's pretty tough, but you'll get used to it after the first five years,"
"You cannot be serious,"
"I totally am!"
As everyone shared a laugh over the Rossiu's suffering, Emmanuel was in his head, thinking about the talk between light and darkness, before one prominent set of words entered his mind.
"You all better prepare for what's to come, whatever it may be,"