Chapter Forty-Eight: The Cruel Hand of Fate
Hey there, readers, sorry I haven't been posting as often as I'd like to, school has been keeping me busy, but I'll try to get chapter 49 posted before the end of the weekend, with that out of the way, enjoy the newest chapter. Cya and Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Going a few hours back to when the sun was still up, Kenos was still waiting outside of Julius' office, waiting for Yami to come out, fifteen minutes passed before it happened, as the door opened and the dark mage walked out, along with William.
"I better tell my squad to head back to base, they must still be in Kiten, I'll see you around, Yami, Kenos," the world tree mage said as he walked down the hallway.
"Hey Captain Yami, should we head back to Kiten? We did leave Asta, Finral, and Charmy there," Kenos asked.
"Nah, besides, even if we wanted to, our brooms are back at the base," Yami replied as the two walked down the hallway and out of HQ.
"So, what were you talking about inside of Julius' office?" the solar mage asked again.
"Just talking about how we're going to reinforce Kiten's defenses so what happened today doesn't happen again,"
"I see," Kenos responded, glaring at Yami's left arm.
The dark mage quickly noticed this and spoke up. "Is something the matter?"
"Huh, oh, it's just I'm wondering if your arm's okay," Kenos replied.
Yami looked at him. "Julius and Owen already fixed it up, it's good as new," he said. "But even though I say that, I can read your Ki, something else is bothering you,"
"It's just that when I saw Brosnan almost cut your arm off, it made me remember about what happened to Kiato," the solar mage revealed.
"That friend of yours from the Underwater Temple, oh yeah, I guess I can understand," Yami said, remembering how Vetto cut off his leg, in front of everyone.
"Wait, is it possible that we can bring Kiato and his sister here, maybe Julius and Owen can use Chronoaqua Restoration, perhaps they can fix his foot and her throat," Kenos asked, his voice becoming ecstatic at the thought of helping his friends.
"I'm not too sure about that," Yami challenged. "Julius and Owen's magic have their limits, if my arm was completely cut off, I doubt they would've been able to fix it, they'd have to recreate the muscles, bone, nerves, and blood, instead of merely fixing it. In the case of the two siblings, a good amount of hours have passed, so it's possible the nerves in Kiato's foot are dead and will have to be recreated, the same as Kahono's voice box. It's not impossible to fix them though, the world is a large place, there's bound to be somebody who was the power to do so,"
"Oh, I see," Kenos said at the end of the captain's rather long explanation, he clenched his fists tightly. "There's nothing I can do, just like before, I wasn't strong enough, I couldn't save Kiato, and I couldn't save you, I still need to get stronger,"
The solar mage finished speaking, but his eyes then widened as he felt a hand on his head, that hand then painfully tightened around his skull and lifted him up, soon was looking straight into his captain's intimidating eyes, the familiar dark aura surrounding him.
"That's it, I'm getting sick of you talking like that, nothing that happened those times were your fault, so stop saying that, you did the best you could while you were there and that's all I could ask for, you hear," the dark mage in a terrifying, albeit inspiring way. "You'll never change if you talk crap about yourself, don't do it again or I'll kill you, understand?"
"I...I...understand," Kenos replied quietly as Yami let go of him.
Yami then took out a cigarette and lit it, letting it touch his lips before smoke came out. "Good, although you are right about the part where you need to get stronger, you already created Mana Charge, so you're not so far off,"
Kenos smiled. "Thanks, captain. So, what are we going to do about the others that are in Kiten?"
To this, Yami took out his communication device. "Simple, I'll just call Finral, tell him we're here, and just have him teleport himself and the others here,"
The captain pushed a button, and a hologram of Finral appeared. "Yo there,"
"Captain Yami, where are you, Asta, Charmy, and I have nearly looked over all of Kiten looking for you?" Finral asked.
"Oh, a problem came up, so Kenos and I raced back to headquarters," Yami replied, not mentioning the injury with his arm, now it was healed, there was no need to worry his squad members. "The two of us are at the front of HQ, teleport here,"
"On it," the spatial mage responded before the transmission ended.
"There we go, nice and easy," Yami said, Kenos silently nodding.
Just three minutes passed before the familiar spatial portal appeared in front of the dark and solar mages, with the three Black Bulls coming from the other side, Asta, unable to raise his hand to greet his squadmates, merely jumped in the air ecstatically.
"Kenos! Captain Yami!" he exclaimed, running to them.
"You seem pretty upbeat, kid, how'd the three of you do?" Yami asked.
"We did really good. We got a lot of people to safety, and we even fought a diamond mage, I think he was one of those Shining Generals we saw earlier," Charmy replied with a tone just as excited as the swordsman.
"Good," the dark mage said before looking up at Finral, seeing him look a bit uneasy. "Hey, is everything alright?"
Finral's face contorted into a quick nervous smile. "Oh yeah, I'm just fine, don't worry," he replied before turning around, his face returning to its previous look. "What the hell was I thinking, I hope Asta and Charmy don't tell anyone I picked a fight with the Golden Dawn! Wait...don't panic Finral, you know what you said, Langris has always had a big ego, and this is how I'll knock it down a peg,"
Yami gave a small smile. "Great, I'm proud of the four of you, it wasn't even 24 hours since you all went up against Vetto, and you were still able to hold your own against an attack,"
"Thanks a lot, Captain Yami, so are we heading back to base?" Asta asked.
"Not yet, we have one more thing to do, follow me," Yami replied as they followed him back into the building, walking down a hallway before making a turn and walking again.
Asta caught up to the solar mage. "Hey, Kenos,"
He turned his head to the swordsman. "Yeah?"
"I was just wondering, who did you and Captain Yami face off against when you split up from us?" Asta asked curiously.
"Who did we face off against? Well, before any fighting happened, we met up with Captain William, then we encountered two new Shining Generals, as well as Lotus," Kenos replied.
Asta raised a brow. "Lotus?"
"Yeah, that guy we fought in the dungeon some time ago, with Luck and Noelle," the solar mage reminded him.
The two five-leaf users thought back to their second mission, and their first time working together to fight a dangerous enemy.
"Oh, you mean that old-looking guy with the smoke magic, I guess he was able to get out of the dungeon before it collapsed," Asta said. "Were Mars and Andreas there too?"
"No, it was two that I never saw before, but one of them had a dual attribute, Giant magic, and Food magic, the other one had Golden Eye magic,"
Finral and Charmy were listening in on their young squadmate, but the latter only had her focus on one thing he said.
"Food magic!" she screamed.
Yami slowly turned his head to her. "Keep it down," he said quietly, but just as intimidating as usual.
"Sorry, captain," Charmy apologized before walking to Kenos. "That general must be so lucky, having Food magic, being able to make whatever meal he wanted out of thin air,"
"Uh, Chamy, you can make food out of thin air, or at least, your Sheep Cooks can," Kenos reminded her. "As well as that, I don't think his magic makes food, it sorts of acts like magic is food, he was able to eat one of my spells to heal himself,"
"Wow, imagine if I could get a magic attribute like that, Cotton magic is cool, but that would be even cooler," Charmy said.
"His Giant magic wasn't a walk in the park either, he was almost as tall as William's tree," the solar mage told them. "And I had to fight him alone,"
"We saw how large the tree was from afar, it must've been tough to fight someone like that by yourself," Finral said.
"And what about the third mage, the one with Golden Eye magic?" Asta then asked.
Those words caused Kenos to stop, quietly clenching his fists, but he quickly composed himself before anyone noticed. "He was pretty tough, but I didn't fight him,"
"Tough, aye? Well, I doubt he was tough enough to hurt either you or Captain Yami," Asta said cheerfully.
Kenos' expression fell as he looked down, and with Yami in front of them, they weren't able to see his face adopt the same look as his squad member, Kenos soon spoke up. "Yeah...he was no match for us,"
"Kenos...is everything okay?" Charmy asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just...bummed that we couldn't catch them, they escaped shortly after being defeated," he slightly lied.
"I understand, that feeling sucks," Yami added, assisting in the black-haired mage's white lie, understanding his want to not worry the others, but the dark mage didn't know that that wasn't the only thing going through the solar mage's head.
"Brosnan, I'm going to get my revenge on you...but how, if Captain William couldn't completely defeat him, what chance do I have, maybe the key to shortening the gap would be to better my Mana Charge, that might not be easy though since I made the technique, I have no one to teach me how to improve it, so I guess I'll just have to do it through trial and error," Kenos thought to himself, but was snapped back to reality as Yami spoke up.
"And we're here," he said, they all looked and saw a rather wide door.
"Uh, captain, that's just a door," Asta said.
Yami slammed his palm into Asta's back. "Of course I know that's a door, did you just become an idiot or something, the important thing is what's behind the door,"
"Right, sorry," the magicless mage apologized.
"Now let's head inside," Yami said as he opened the door, immediately revealing a familiar figure, at least, to Kenos.
"Owen," he said before realizing something as they all walked inside. "Oh yeah, this is your office, I've only been here a handful of times,"
"That's right, although it would make sense, my most regular visitors are injured Magic Knights," Owen said to him as he got up from the chair he was sitting on and started walking to them.
"So, seeing that your frequent visitors are your patients, I assume the reason we're here is for Asta?" Kenos asked.
The man nodded. "Correct, during the talk I had with Yami, William, Marx, and Julius, Yami told me that one of his squad members had both his arms broken, and that I should check on him," he turned to the swordsman, looking down at his slung arms, putting his hand on his chin.
"Can you really fix my arms?" Asta asked with a bit of uncertainty.
"Of course he can, Owen's the greatest healer this kingdom has ever known," Kenos told him.
The water mage chuckled. "I wouldn't call myself the greatest, even after I fix his arms, it'll still have to stay in the brace,"
"That'll be just fine," Yami said before turning to the spatial mage. "Finral, make a portal for us to get back to the base, you'll stay here and wait for Owen to fix Asta's arms, once he's done, the two of you will come back,"
"Okay," Finral responded as he formed a portal.
"We'll see you two later," Kenos said as he walked in.
"I'll throw a celebratory feast," Charmy added as she too walked in.
"Thanks a bunch for this, Owen, it seems I owe you twice now," Yami finished as he walked in last, the portal closing behind him.
Finral scratched the back of his head. "I'll just be outside, I wouldn't want to interrupt you during your work,"
"Thank you, based on the visual severity of the injury, I don't think it should take any more than 20 minutes,"
"Alright, good luck," the spatial mage spoke his last words before leaving the room, heading outside of the building to wait.
Owen walked over and to a chair and lifted it up, bringing it a few feet across from where his chair was. "Alright then, Asta, please sit here and get comfortable, as I said, this will take some time," he sat down on his own chair.
The magicless mage did as he was told. "Okay, I'm ready,"
Owen smiled as his grimoire came up and flipped to a page. "Good, Water Recovery Magic: Qualle Operation," he said as jellyfish appeared around the two, the jellyfishes placed their tentacles on Asta's arms.
"This is a recovery spell? How exactly does it work?" Asta asked.
"The tentacles specifically pinpoint the minute areas of injury where the most damage occurred, the spell will then heal those points, that does put it a good few steps above most recovery spells," Owen explained.
"Cool," the swordsman stated as Owen placed his hand on his chin.
"Interesting, this is something I've never seen before, tell me, how exactly did you obtain this injury?"
"During a mission to the Underwater Temple, more specifically by a mage with the Eye of the Midnight Sun," Asta replied.
"The Eye of the Midnight Sun, I wonder sometimes, what exactly are they trying to achieve?"
"From what I heard from their leader, they want to usurp the current system in the kingdom, no matter what they have to do to get it," the swordsman's expression fell as he thought of Fuegoleon.
"They are a powerful foe, but I know we'll defeat them," Owen told him with a small smile as the two sat in silence for a few minutes. "Now, let's see how your arm is-," he was beginning to say, but stopped as his eyes widened.
That look put uncertainty in Asta's eyes. "Um, Owen, is something the matter?"
"Asta...I have some bad news,"
"I wonder how things are going inside?" Finral wondered aloud, he was sitting on a bench not too far from the building
He took out a Magic Item and checked the time. "Hm, 18 minutes, that's not too bad, he should almost be done," the spatial mage then got up. "I could head in now, that way Asta won't have to walk all the way outside, once he exits Owen's office, we can head directly to the hideout,"
Finral then walked inside, remembering the path Yami showed them earlier, he arrived a few feet away from the spot, quickly noticing the door was still opened, he smiled, soon expecting to hear Asta screaming at the top of his lungs from the happiness of getting to use his arms again, but as he got closer, he heard the magicless mage's voice, but it was nowhere near happy.
"Um, Owen, is something the matter?"
Upon hearing those words being spoken with that tone of voice, Finral pressed his back against the wall, not wanting to be seen.
Owen sighed. "Asta...I have some bad news,"
The water mage then began to explain what that news was, as Asta heard it, his eyes widened in disbelief, outside of the room, Finral heard him too, and he merely grit his teeth as a shadow covered his eyes, but it didn't last long as he formed a portal and walked into it, not wanting Asta to come out finding someone listening in.
The other side of the portal appeared right at the entrance of headquarters, Finral stepped out of it, removing any look of sadness or frustration, replacing it with a casual look.
About three minutes passed before Finral noticed Asta coming down the hall, to his complete surprise, the swordsman's face was totally normal, in fact, he had a small smile on his face.
"Hey Finral, have you been waiting at the entrance the whole time?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," the spatial mage lied before quickly making a portal. "We should head back now, don't want to worry the others,"
"Right," Asta said back with one of his signature grins as the two walked in.
The two mages quickly stepped out of the other side, arriving at Black Bulls HQ, but they were a bit surprised to see a huge grill not too far out in front of them, and by the grill were the others, who turned to face the two immediately as they arrived.
"You're back!" they all excitedly exclaimed, with Magna and Luck being the only ones to run towards the two, the flame and lightning mages slung their arms around the swordsman.
"Captain Yami, Charmy, and Kenos told us about your fights against the Diamond Kingdom, I wish I could've been there, it must've been so exciting!" Luck cheered.
"They also told us about your arms, that's a big relief, although it's quite a bummer you'll have to keep them slung regardless, but what are you gonna do," Magna added.
Asta's expression quickly fell, but it wasn't noticed by the others, they were just too excited. "Y-Yeah," the magicless mage told them.
Yami then coughed, calling their attention. "Listen up you knuckleheads, we have a lot to celebrate tonight, I already told you I was proud of your fight against Vetto, but that isn't everything," a wide grin then creased his face. "I'm happy to inform you all that we're officially out of the negative star count,"
There was a few seconds of silence, but then realization dawned on the Black Bulls and they too grinned.
"Alright!" they cheered together.
"I almost forgot about the whole star thing to be honest," Gauche stated.
"What do you honestly remember that doesn't have to do with your sister?" Charmy asked, giving the mirror mage a comedic judgemental glare.
"Shut up, you damn glutton!" he exclaimed.
Finral crossed his arms. "I guess we've really done well this year, all those missions we've been on have really paid off,"
Yami nodded. "And it helps that Julius gave us 15 stars for our last mission,"
Kenos smiled as well, but then realized something. "Even though it's good that we've left the negative star count, but the other squads are still ahead of us by large amounts,"
Gordon then wrote something, Noelle bent down to read it. "Even if the other squads are ahead of us, all we need to do is just keep doing what we're doing,"
"I like that mindset, it's been working for us anyway," Vanessa stated.
Grey then shyly raised her hand, Yami turned to her. "Yeah, something the matter?"
She put her hand down and opened her mouth. "U-Um captain, y-you t-told us w-why we w-were celebrating, b-but could y-you tell u-us how?"
"How are we celebrating? I'm so glad you asked, it's the whole reason we have this huge grill here anyways," Yami replied as he walked over and pulled out a large bag, upon opening it, his subordinates all gathered to see what it was, and as they did, their eyes widened in collective wonder.
"Meat!"
"You got that right, I happen to know a guy who knows a guy who's a butcher, we gambled a few weeks ago and I won, but the bastard didn't have any money, instead, he agreed to hook me up with loads of meat whenever I asked, stopped there right after getting back here with Finral's portal," the dark mage explained. "There's so much meat here, you'll all be able to eat to your heart's content and then some,"
"Captain, please let me cook it!" Charmy begged, childishly jumping into the air and latching yourself onto Yami's leg.
"Well duh, of course you're cooking it, no one here in their right mind would dare try taking that job away from you," he told her.
"Damn right about that," she took out her grimoire. "Cotton Creation Magic: Sheep Cooks!" she exclaimed, calling upon the assistants as they made quick work cleaning and applying seasonings to the meat. "Magna, I'll need some fire to start the grill,"
"You can count on me, miss chef!" Magna exclaimed as a fireball formed in his hand, he then tossed it under the steel net of the grill, letting it burn brightly.
Charmy and the sheep wasted no time placing the meat on various parts of the grill, about ten minutes passed before the rich aroma of meat and seasonings entered their nostrils, causing their mouths to drool near uncontrollably.
"Okay, the meat's done, here are some skewers, everyone enjoy!" the cotton mage exclaimed.
Upon being handed a skewer, the Black Bulls dug into the succulent pieces of meat before them, Kenos took a big bite out of his. "Damn, after two big fights not even 24 hours apart from each other, it feels good to have a meal like this, especially since it tastes amazing,"
"So true, this meat is off the hook!" Magna exclaimed with content.
Noelle took a bite of her meat, but glanced at the injured swordsman beside her, her cheeks bloomed a light red. "H-Hey Asta, I understand that it must be hard to eat without the use of both of your arms, so consider yourself lucky that royalty is willing to feed-," she began saying as she fully turned to him.
"Oh hey Asta, you look like you need some help, here," Kenos said, interrupting the water mage's statement, the solar mage pointed a skewer of meat at Asta's face.
"Thanks a lot, I owe you, I was super excited to eat this, but remembered I couldn't, good thing you showed up or that would've been a bummer," Asta said back as he gratefully took a bite.
Noelle's face turned beet red with comedic anger, she pointed her wand at the two. "Damn it!" she exclaimed, blasting water.
Kenos quickly noticed it. "Duck!" he exclaimed, the two teens lowering their bodies as a strong burst of water flew right over them.
The solar mage turned around to the water's origin and of course, saw Noelle, but a dark blue aura surrounded her as she glared at the two boys, namely him.
"Kenos!" she yelled, running at him.
"What did I do?!" he exclaimed, quickly running away, she followed him in circles. "Holy crap, girls can be really crazy sometimes,"
"Take this!" she exclaimed, firing a single bullet. "That's for feeding Asta!"
"I don't get it, that's what friends do!" he quickly ducked, letting the bullet of water find a new target, unfortunately for them both, that target just happened to be Yami.
"What the hell, you two, watching your chase is fun enough for me, don't get me involved," he said, his intimidating aura and glare present.
Kenos and Noelle gulped before bowing their upper halves. "Sorry, captain," they apologized in unison.
The aura disappeared and his glare softened. "Alright then, I accept your apology, but to make it up to me, you'll do some party tricks, in fact, you'll all do party tricks, who's first?!"
"We're up first!" Luck replied, slinging his arm around Magna.
"What do you mean, I don't want to do a trick with you," the flame mage protested.
"Oh c'mon, I'll need your help," the lightning mage told him.
He sighed. "Fine, I'll help you,"
"Perfect," Luck said as the two of them walked to an open space for everyone to see, he extended his hand to his partner. "Let's shake, as a way for me to thank you for agreeing to help me,"
"Oh, okay then, put 'er-," Magna was beginning to say, but as their hands made contact, he was being immediately electrocuted.
"Ha, that was easy, man you're gullible!" Luck laughed.
"Luuuccck, yooouuu sooonnn ooooffff aaaa-," Magna was about to curse, but was interrupted once again.
"Off you go!" Luck exclaimed, spinning him. "Behold our trick, The Spinning Firecracker!"
Magna was spinning violently, surrounded by electricity, right into a tree, he slammed into it, stopping his rotation.
"Ha, that hilarious!" Yami laughed.
"I think we should see if he's okay before we start laughing," Kenos said as he jogged over to Magna, helping him up. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm going to make Luck pay so bad, but...after the world stops spinning," he replied.
"I think I'll go next," Finral said as he stood in front of everyone before taking out his grimoire. "Spatial Magic: Fallen Angel's Gate," the two portals formed, one in front of his chest, the other behind his head, he merely punched the first portal as his fist came out of the second portal, gently punching him in the head.
Unlike the last one, Yami wasn't impressed. "That can't be all, no offense, but that was quite lackluster, try doing something better,"
"Um, okay, let's try this," Finral cast the spell again, but this time, there was a portal on the ground, and one up high in the air. "Here I go,"
He walked a few inches and jumped into the portal, immediately coming out of the aerial portal, he was falling at a pretty fast speed, but just as he was a few feet from hitting the ground, he formed another portal, appearing about 3 feet to the right of where he was about to land, still up in the air, he repeated this for a few minutes, appearing in random places while midair before he decided to land.
The dark mage gave him a thumbs up. "Now that's better, what about you, Vanessa, you want to go?"
"I'll give it a try, but I'm not too good at tricks," she replied as she walked over and stood before everyone. "Okay, my turn, but first," she began as the thread mage walked over to her battle-hungry squadmate and started circling around him, as if she was inspecting him.
"Uh, what exactly are you doing?" Luck asked.
"Oh you'll see," she replied, taking out her grimoire. "Thread Magic: Dancing Doll," she said as she pulled on her bundle of thread, forcing the lightning mage to raise his hands. "I just used that little inspection as a way to set some threads for this spell,"
"Ha! You're the unwilling assistant of another person's party trick, doesn't feel too good does it?!" Magna laughed, finally regaining his coordination.
Vanessa made Luck walk over to her and swing his arms back and forth, for the sake of the fact that it was to be a party trick, Vanessa matched the movements she made Luck do.
"Hey, I'm starting to get used to this, Vanessa, can you make me kick Magna?" Luck asked.
"No," the thread mage replied immediately as she dropped the spell, removing her control of Luck's action.
"Awesome work, now you up?!"
"Me, me, me!" Charmy exclaimed.
The cotton mage grabbed multiple skewers of meat and stood where Vanessa was as the scarlet-clad witch left to join the others.
"Prepare to be amazed, my friends!" she threw four skewers into the air before forming cotton on her back in the shape of a fan as she balanced herself on one foot, the skewers in the air neatly fell into her cotton fan.
"I give you, the Meat Peacock!"
Everyone but Asta clapped as Yami spoke up. "Okay then, who's next, I guess giving Gordon a try wouldn't be too bad," the dark mage turned around to look at the poison mage, but was taken aback by the ecstatic, albeit creepy smile on his face.
"...On second thought, how about Gauche. Sorry, Gordon,"
The mute's smile fell and he wrote something on his notebook, but this time, it was big enough for everyone to see it from where they were.
"I understand,"
Kenos walked over to his squadmate and slung his arm around his shoulder, looking at him understandingly. "Don't worry about them, Gordon, if you want, you can come over to my room sometime and show me your trick,"
Gordon merely nodded, putting a smile on Kenos' face as Gauche stood in front of everyone, he began forming multiple mirrors in groups of various numbers.
"Alright, here's my trick," the familiar purple beam shot out of all the mirrors simultaneously, infinitely reflecting to the other mirrors in their respective groups before it was visible that the beam of each group formed different geometric shapes.
"Ooh, I've never seen you use your magic like that before," Vanessa spoke up.
"It's actually one of the first things I learned since these were the first shapes Marie was able to draw when she was an adorable little toddler," Gauche replied as blood ran down his nose.
"Of course his party trick has to revolve around his sister," everyone thought in unison.
Yami then turned his attention to the newest revealed member of the squad. "Grey, show us what you can do,"
The transformation mage was hesitant, but shyly walked over to Gauche, the mirror mage looked down at her. "I know you're shy pretty much all the time, but don't overthink this, it's just a trick, you'll do fine,"
Grey looked at him with slight shock as he walked away, her face was beet red as usual, but whether it was out of general embarrassment or something else, she wasn't sure.
"U-Um, here I go!" she exclaimed as a puff of smoke appeared, once it dispersed, her squadmates saw a familiar sight.
"Isn't that the transformation you used to be in all the time?" Kenos stated the obvious as he looked at the bulky man.
"True, but let's be honest, with what we know about her, it's a miracle she didn't even refuse to try," Yami countered.
Grey transformed back and shyly bowed. "T-Thank you very m-much!" she ran back and buried her face in Gauche's back, oddly enough, the mirror mage didn't seem to mind her action, his face remained indifferent.
"That wasn't too bad, but I know the next one will be great, isn't that right, Noelle?" Yami then stated, all eyes shifting to the royal.
"Um, I don't know, Captain, my magic control still isn't where I'd like it, I think I should sit this one out," the water mage said.
Yami slowly walked over to her and placed his hand on her head tightly, but didn't lift her up, his face looked like it had murderous intent. "Is that so, missy? Well apparently, you had enough control to aim a water ball at Kenos and let it hit me, don't forget what I said earlier, you don't have a choice in the matter,"
"Y-Yes, I understand," she walked up and stood in front of everyone.
"You got this, Noelle!" Asta cheered.
The water mage took a slow and deep breath. "Okay, concentrate, blast out just a tiny amount of water from my wand," she thought as she was beginning to do it, she raised her trusty weapon in front of her face and watched as a small orb of water appeared on the tip of her wand.
"Here I go, don't mess this up!" Noelle mentally told herself as she began moving her wand around, the orb of water turning into a string-like stream as she did so, she quickly began changing her movements and started doing what looked like ribbon dancing.
"And...done," she finished, striking a random pose at the end, claps followed.
"Can't say I was expecting that," Yami said.
Noelle panted a bit before she responded. "Well, I am royalty, as such, we are taught how to dance from an early age,"
The solar mage raised his hand. "I suppose I'm up next," he walked over to where the water mage was a few seconds ago, Kenos extended both of his hands out as orange globes appeared on them.
"I've got the perfect idea for my trick, normally, this would act as my source of light, but it seems I have another use for it," he thought as the globes floated from his hands and into the air, he made more globes and the process repeated until twenty of them were above everyone's heads, its soft light providing a contrast to the bright flame.
"Wow, so pretty," Charmy commented.
Kenos didn't respond, as it took a decent amount of magic control, he opened and clenched his fists multiple times, which lowered and heightened the brightness of the orbs, once his trick was over, he softly clapped his hands as the globes vanished, leaving a faint trace of light for a few seconds.
Yami whistled. "Damn, that was some trick, yo, you're the last one up kid, but with your arms like they are for the time being, you don't have to do one if you don't want to,"
Asta jumped into the air before running to stand in front of everyone. "No way! Everyone showed such cool tricks, I can't just watch, I have to show you what I can do!" the swordsman then began rapidly squatting.
The others sweatdropped. "I don't mean to be rude, Asta, but I don't think that's a trick, it's just you exercising," Finral said.
"True, but it's the speed I'm going at that's important, can anyone do it like I can!" Asta replied as he continued, but stopped once he felt a familiar weight on his head, he looked up. "Nero,"
The anti-bird looked back down at him before pecking furiously on his head. "Ah, damn it Nero!" the magicless mage screamed but with his arms slung, he was unable to swat the bird away.
Everyone laughed as Nero flew off of Asta's head and chose to land on Gordon's shoulder, Magna spoke up. "It seems that Nero had a party trick to show too," he then directed his attention to Asta. "But it's a bit of a bummer for you, rookie, too bad your arms will be in a sling for a little while or you could've done a trick with your swords,"
Upon hearing the flame mage's words, Asta's eyes suddenly widened, but they returned to normal quickly, he then started walking towards the hideout.
"Hey Asta, where are you going?" Noelle asked.
"I'm a bit exhausted from everything that's happened today, I'll call it quits for the night," he replied as he walked inside, thankfully with the doors already open.
Despite his response, Noelle knew something was wrong. "That's strange, it's not too late into the night, it's not like Asta to get so tired all of a sudden,"
"Something's fishy," Yami added. "When he said that, I read his Ki, he's definitely hiding something from us, but I wonder what,"
"I...I know why,"
All eyes turned to Finral as he quietly spoke those words, his head was down.
"What are you talking about?" Kenos asked.
The spatial mage raised his head up, seeing the faces of his squadmates. "I know why he feels so under the weather...it's because of his arms,"
"His arms? But I don't get it, didn't that Owen guy say he was able to fix his arms, but they had to stay in the sling for a little while?" Luck asked.
"Wrong, Owen did say that they had to stay in a sling for a few days, but that was only if he could fix Asta's arms in the first place," Finral clarified.
"I'm confused, didn't he do that at headquarters?" Charmy asked.
"Not exactly, when Owen tried to heal his arms, he said that he had bad news," Finral recalled somberly.
"And that news was? Don't just leave us hanging," Yami told him.
Finral bit the inside of his cheek before continuing. "The damage Vetto inflicted on Asta's arms was very severe, Owen told him that the majority of bones in his arms were nearly shattered, with some bones being full-on disintegrated,"
Those words shocked everyone present, not a single face remained indifferent, even for people like Luck or Gauche, Kenos spoke up. "S-Shattered, d-disintegrated?"
Finral sadly nodded. "And it's not just that, since Vetto was using his Mythical Beast Magic when he crushed Asta's arms, Owen said that he detected a curse on them too,"
"A...curse?" Noelle repeated. "Does that mean the magic Vetto was using was...Forbidden Magic?"
"It appears so," Finral replied.
Kenos couldn't believe what he was hearing. "If parts of his arms were disintegrated, then I doubt Chronoaqua Restoration can fix those parts, but what about the shattered parts, perhaps they can fix it, or maybe…," he began thinking. "There's something I can do,"
All eyes then shifted to him. "What could you do?" Gauche asked, though his tone obviously revealed his remaining shock.
"I-I could try Mana Charge,"
"Mana Charge?" everyone but Magna, Luck, and Yami asked.
"It's a technique I created when I was fighting Vetto by myself, I gather neutral mana around me to boost my spells, perhaps I can use it with my recovery spell, it must be able to do something, it just has-," Kenos was explaining, but Finral raised a hand, stopping him.
"It's a possibility, but is the spell capable of undoing curses?" Finral asked.
"Curses? N-No...not to my knowledge," the solar mage reluctantly answered. "So that means there's nothing we can do?"
"I'm afraid so, Owen knew that too, that's why he said that Asta...could never use his arms again,"
Those last words felt like a punch in the gut for the Black Bulls, Kenos fell to his knees and looked at the ground. "Again, another time I wasn't strong enough to help someone, we were all there when Vetto did it, I was there, but I couldn't do anything,"
"Don't blame yourself," Vanessa told him, hiding her clenched fist. "When Vetto crushed Asta's arms, you were the first to react, it's because of you that I could get him out of there, but now, he can't even lift his sword or do anything else with his arms for that matter,"
"Life was already hard for the rookie seeing that he had no magic, but now fate had to throw him something like this, damn, that's just cruel," Magna said.
"And what about his dream, the one about being the Wizard King? Won't that come to an end too?" Charmy mentioned.
Kenos quickly stood up. "I can't believe Asta hid this from us, he put on a brave face to not make us worry, but that isn't something he should keep to himself!" he turned and started running into the hideout. "I'm going to drag him from his bed and bring him here, he has to know that we'll be here for him!" he disappeared into the building.
"What about you, Finral, why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Yami asked.
"Asta doesn't know that I know, I just happened to overhear Owen telling him that, but it isn't my problem to tell with Asta around, and I knew this would be sensitive for him, so I kept my mouth shut," he replied.
Vanessa walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We know you meant well, but what Kenos said was right, Asta should know we'll be there for him,"
"Hey, everyone, we have a problem!"
Everyone turned to see Kenos running towards them. "What is it?" Noelle asked.
"It's Asta, he's not in his room!"
"What?!"
"After seeing that he wasn't in his room I used my godspeed combo to search all the places in the hideout he could, but he isn't anywhere,"
"He must've gone back outside shortly after going in, we were all talking so it's possible we didn't notice him," Finral deduced.
"Then that means he's out there, but where?" Noelle wondered.
Kenos walked alongside the trees, but as he did, he heard some decent sounding rustling, the solar mage didn't feel any wind, which only meant one thing.
"Hey, I think I know where he is,"
"Asta...I have some bad news...you can never use your arms again,"
"Never again," Asta nonchalantly repeated Owen's words, the magicless mage sat on a rock, in the middle of a clearing in the trees, he looked up at the moon, completely alone.
A few yards away, the others were hiding behind trees, looking at their squadmate as he sat in solitude.
"Nice work finding him so quickly, Kenos," Yami whispered.
"I'm just lucky the leaves rustled when he passed by them, or else I wouldn't know which way to go," the solar mage said back.
"Should we go up to him?" Charmy asked.
"No, he needs this moment to himself, once he decides to come back, then we can talk to him," Vanessa replied.
"I can't use my swords ever again, which means I can't fight to be the Wizard King," they quieted down upon hearing Asta speak again.
"And what about Yuno, he was so worried when he saw my injury, but would that mean he won by default? He's going to be the Wizard King, just like that," he continued. "And what about the other Black Bulls, I know they won't kick me out of the squad, but now I'm of no use to them, should I just leave?"
The mages all widened their eyes at the thought of losing Asta. "No way, we'd never let you leave, you're a valuable member of this squad," they all thought.
"So many bad thoughts, so many conflicting feelings, I just, I just…," he stood up and looked at the sky.
"NO WAY, I'M NOT GOING TO QUIT!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "This isn't the time to feel bad about yourself, if fate wants to screw with me, then I'll screw with fate right back, I swear, I'll find a way to fix my arms, or at least find a way to fight again, I won't lose to the Eye of the Midnight Sun, or to Yuno either, I'll beat them all!"
The Black Bulls were certainly shocked by Asta's sudden exclamation, but unlike before, smiles were beginning to form on their faces.
"I remember, back at Hage, when I fought that Revchi guy to save Yuno, I nearly fell into despair, but just like what Kenos said, I can't let despair take me, I'll never let that happen again!"
"What a relief," the others thought, Yami quietly stood up.
"C'mon, let's go, we don't want the kid to know we were listening in on him," he whispered, the others nodded as they silently stood up and walked back to the base, glad that their magicless squadmate, despite the situation he was in, had not lost his enthusiasm and he steadfast never-give-up attitude.
The next morning came as Asta walked out of his room, he thought back to the previous night, when he came back from his self-talk, he saw that nobody was outside, so he walked inside the hideout and arrived just in time to see them all heading to their rooms.
"I wonder what was up with them? It was still early, did they just head to their rooms to do something else?" he wondered aloud as he arrived at the main hall, but noticed that only Yami was present, he was reading a newspaper.
"Good morning, captain, where is everybody?" the magicless mage asked.
"They all head out," Yami plainly replied.
"I see," Asta said, he walked out of the area and began making his way through a different hallway, wondering what to do.
"Hey there, Kenos,"
Asta turned his head at the sound of the solar mage's name being called, he saw that outside a window, Noelle and Finral were standing together, with the aforementioned Kenos joining them.
"Hey, you two look happy," Kenos said.
"Why wouldn't we be, I'm just happy that Asta is doing okay, with what happened to his arms, I was really worried, but his declaration last night put me at ease," Finral replied.
Asta's eyes widened. "They...they know?"
"So, I'm guessing that the others have all moved out too?" Noelle asked.
The solar mage nodded. "That's right, Magna and Luck head out to search dungeons, Gordon and Gauche are visiting the Royal Library at the capital, Charmy and Grey went into the woods to find some magical herbs, as for Vanessa, I'm not too sure where she went, but I know wherever she went, she's doing what the rest of us are doing: finding a way to fix Asta's arms,"
Asta's eyes widened once more. "They're trying to find a way to fix my arms too?"
"We can't fail, Asta is a member of our squad, but he's more than that, he's a part of our family, he's the one who brought out the best in all of us, he's always the first one ready to help someone, so it's our turn to help him," Kenos said.
The water and spatial mages nodded, the latter spoke up. "I think I know a place we could visit, let's get moving," he said as he formed a portal, the three walked into it before it closed.
The magicless mage didn't say another word, a shadow covering his face as he walked back into the main area, passing by Yami as he made his way outside, he then looked up into the sky as Nero conveniently landed on his head.
"Y'know something, Nero, I was never blessed with magic, the thing that I thought would make my dream come true, for years it bugged me to no end, but…," he began before tears began to stream down his face.
"...I'm glad that I was blessed with great friends, I'll take that over magic any day," he cried.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Finral's portal, he, Kenos, and Noelle arrived in front of a house.
"Where are we, and what is this place?" Noelle asked.
"You'll see, we're about to get help from some familiar faces," Finral replied as he walked forward and opened the door, immediately causing Noelle and Kenos' eyes to widen.
In front of them were the Diamond Kingdom Fugitives, Fanzell, Dominante, and Mariella, they were all sitting at a table, but were just as surprised once the door opened to reveal the trio of magic knights.
Finral wasted no time getting to the point. "We need your help,"
Miles away from the Black Bulls base, within a vast forest, Vanessa stood in front of a large gate, it looked old, with vines growing around it, but the thread mage knew that it was nearly impenetrable.
"The Witches' Forest, I never thought I'd come back here," she said before looking up. "HEY, THE GREATEST GENIUS SINCE THE FOUNDING OF WITCHES HAS RETURNED, SO OPEN THE GATE!"
Not even ten seconds passed before the gate opened, Vanessa took a deep breath before walking in as the gate closed behind her, she kept walking forward down a one-way hallway, but stopped once she arrived in front of a high platform, with a person standing on top of the platform. It was a woman, she was dressed in a light green dress, she wore a light green witch hat, but with her back turned, her face was hidden.
"The Queen of Witches, you look well, so, how have you been, your majesty?" Vanessa asked sarcastically.
"Your majesty?" the Queen said before she turned around, revealing a hair color identical to Vanessa's, as well as wearing some kind of makeup that looked like black drops going down her eyes.
"Is that any way to greet your mother,"