Chapter Seventy-Six: To Be a Real Knight
Hey there, readers, just want to take some time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! And if I don't post another chapter soon, have a Happy New Year! Cya.
"What the hell?"
That was the thought going through nearly every spectator, taken aback by the speed at which the Black Bulls reached the battlefield and threatened the vice-captain.
Speaking of Langris, even though he was surrounded on all sides, even though he had ten mages who were ready to beat him into a pulp, all he did was chuckle, though he still didn't make a single movement.
"What's so funny?" Asta demanded menacingly.
"What's funny? The fact that you think this little show of yours intimidates me," he replied.
"Says the one who won't move a muscle," Magna pointed out.
"Don't flatter yourself, you're the Black Bulls, a squad of weaklings and rejects," he mocked, glancing at the solar mage behind him. "Except for you, Kenos Rossiu, you aren't like the rest, you're strong and capable, why you joined these failures is beyond me,"
Kenos venomously spat at his remark. "Shut the hell up. I don't want to hear mockery of my family come out of your damn mouth,"
"Them? Your family? How stupid," he taunted.
Luck brought his gauntlet closer. "Let's see how big your talk is when we start breaking your bones,"
"I'd like to see you try,"
"That's enough!" the raised voice came from Julius as he, Marx, Owen, and Sylvester came down and walked to the knights.
The lunar mage, however, shared the sentiments of the Black Bulls as he too was armed and angry. "What the hell was that, Langris?! I hope you're ready to pay the consequences! Lunar Magic-,"
He didn't get to continue further as the time mage raised a hand. "Langris, I don't think it needs to be stated, but I won't tolerate attempted murder, what Sylvester said is true, there will be consequences,"
"What kind of consequences?" Noelle asked.
"His team will be disqualified from the exam, and if we look at the severity of the situation, he'll face a demotion," Sylvester answered.
"Wait, hold off on that," Asta cut in. "Don't disqualify their whole team, his two teammates are innocent,"
"Besides, we want to be the ones to take care of this bastard," Magna added. "If he wants to mess with one of the Black Bulls, it's only fair the squad should handle the problem,"
"Julius please, don't stop us," Kenos said too.
"I'm sorry, Kens, but rules are rules, we can't just let you do what you want," Sylvester replied. "Julius, talk some sense into them,"
"I'll allow it,"
The older Rossiu couldn't believe his ears. "What? That's the opposite of talking sense into them,"
The wizard king faced him. "The Black Bulls are all close to each other, like a family, when one harms their own, the rest want to act, even if it's irrational. Have you ever had a moment like that, when you acted rashly for the sake of people important to you?"
That question made the lunar mage look away, knowing he was guilty of such an act. "Yeah, I guess you have a point,"
Julius smiled. "Thanks for understanding," he placed a hand on his shoulder before suddenly bringing his head to Sylvester's ear, his smile vanishing. "Although that isn't the only reason, there's something important about Langris that's piqued my interest, something that worries me,"
Sylvester's eyes narrowed at the silent remark as his gaze dropped to the spatial mage.
The four mages surrounding Langris all backed up, and Asta raised his sword. "You're going to regret what you did," he was about to charge forward, but that was when a sound caught the attention of not just him, but everyone else down there.
The sound of groaning…a sound that came from Finral.
It wasn't even a second later when the bulls all rallied around their squadmates, momentarily taking their attention off of the vice-captain.
A decent distance away, Leo, Hamon, and Fragil were all running toward the platform, the two males were not happy. "Damn it, I can't believe they beat us, and just when we were about to destroy their crystal," the flame mage said.
"Look on the bright side, we can still be Royal Knights, making it to the second round is big, we're not out of the count yet," Hamon tried to reassure him.
The snow mage nodded. "He's right, the two of you were impressive, you were able to fight against my Phantom Snow Garden and still deliver such power,"
The royal sighed. "I guess, but it's still our defeat. How am I going to face Rama, I told him I'd win?"
"I may have never spoken to him, but from what I've seen, I don't think he'll be-," Fragil was saying before she stopped.
"Is something the matter?" Hamon asked.
"What's going on over there?" she pointed forward, the other two looked in the same direction and saw the large group of people.
Leo raised a brow. "Why are they all down here?" they made their way over to the group of crouching bulls. "Any of you mind explaining what's going-,"
The royal stopped himself as they were finally able to see what the subject of the gathering was. "Holy shit! What happened?!"
"Langris happened," Kenos replied.
"Excuse me?!" Fragil turned to her teammate. "What did you do?!" she demanded, but she was met with no answer.
Finral continued to groan, shaking his head before he weakly opened his eyes. "Everyone," he croaked, they were all looking at him. "I lost…didn't I?"
No one could look directly at him, telling him what he needed to know. Tears streamed down his face. "I'm really sorry, guys, you were all cheering for me, I failed you, I wanted to prove myself to Langris and I wanted to make you proud, but I couldn't do either," he gathered what little strength he had to face his teammates. "Leopold, Hamon, I have to apologize to you two as well, I'm the one who agreed to the face-off, you put your faith in me, but it was for nothing, forgive me,"
"Don't you dare say that," Leo said back with clenched fists. "Sure we lost, but we came close, and it was thanks to you, you gave us the best shot at victory,"
"And we are proud of you. Look at how far you've come since I've known you," Kenos took his turn to speak. "And there's no way you didn't prove yourself to your brother, look at how much you made him struggle,"
Finral managed a small smile. "You guys," he said before he started wincing in pain.
Vanessa placed her hands on his cheeks. "Don't force yourself to stay awake, rest for now, I promise that everything will be fine,"
The spatial mage's eyes grew heavy. "O-Okay," he muttered, falling unconscious once more. The group of knights was silent, but their silence was quickly interrupted.
"Are you all done over there?" Langris mockingly asked. "I don't feel like waiting,"
Asta found himself gritting his teeth. "Hey, you mind if I knock some sense into him first?" he requested, getting the same answer from everyone.
"Be my guest,"
The swordsman got up and turned around, facing the pompous noble who stood before him.
"Y'know something?" Langris spoke up again. "Back at Kitten, Finral said that even if he couldn't be better than me, the Black Bulls can be better than the Golden Dawn, what a joke. My whole squad isn't required at all, I'm all that's needed to put you pack of failures in your place,"
"That's enough outta you!" Asta charged forward, with Langris doing the same, both were about to clash, but they were stopped by a single action.
"Time Binding Magic: Chrono Stasis!"
Julius reacted quickly, stopping both mages dead in their tracks. "I take it the two of you can hear me in there. I may have allowed you to settle your dispute, but some things need to be handled first, Owen, if could check on Finral,"
"I'm on it," the recovery expert walked over to the unconscious spatial mage, everyone backed up to give him space as he knelt down and inspected the injuries, especially the chunks removed from his body.
"How is it?" Julius asked.
"Thankfully, there's nothing lethal on an external level, but his skin cells need to be repaired right away, we mustn't waste time," he replied, taking out his grimoire while the wizard King raised a hand.
"Water Recovery Magic…,"
"Time Recovery Magic…,"
Kenos recognized the sphere of water Finral became surrounded in as it floated up into the air, numerals appearing around it.
"Combo Spell: Chronoaqua Restoration!" they called in unison as the spell did its job healing him, the sphere dropping back down before disappearing.
The solar mage bowed his head in respect towards the mages. "Thanks a bunch,"
Owen did the same motion as his grimoire flipped to another page. "I'll continue to keep watch of him, I have to check and make sure he didn't sustain any internal injuries we aren't aware of. Water Recovery Magic: Qualle Operation," he cast his spell as a trio of jellyfish appeared.
Julius nodded. "Now that that's taken care of, time to handle the next part," he took out his microphone magic item and spoke into it. "Attention everyone, due to certain circumstances, we're moving to an early semi-final!"
The time mage freed the two under his spell, the swordsman facing him. "An early semi-final?"
"Correct. If you're going to settle your dispute, I'd rather it be within the parameters of the exam, after all, it wouldn't be quite fair to just put the exam on hold for you. Since Team B would fight Team G in the semi-finals, you'll do it now,"
Asta clicked his tongue. "I was hoping for all the Black Bulls to get payback…," he began, turning to the others. "But if this is how it has to be, I'll win for us!"
"Yeah!" his squad cheered.
Julius then turned to Langris. "I take it you have no objections?"
"None at all, in fact, it'll save the time it would take to obliterate all of them,"
"Very well," Julius gave his attention to a figure on the platform. "Cob, please bring down here the remaining members of Teams B and G, Mimosa Vermilion, Xerx Lugner, and Sekke Bronzazza!"
"Rightio, your majesty!" the spatial mage clover-saluted as two gates formed down on the battlefield, with the plant and ash mages walking out of one.
The same, however, couldn't be said for the bronze mage, who had crawled out of his portal, covered in dust.
"What happened to you?" Asta asked.
"That spell Finral hit me with transported me into the bathroom of your base…while your captain was in it," he explained.
All of the black-clad knights winced at the thought of being stuck in such a scenario. "The fact that he's even alive is a miracle,"
The snow mage hurried over to her teammate. "Are you alright?"
Not missing a chance to look tough, Sekke shot up, wiping the dust off of him. "I'm just fine, I managed to talk him out of it before any real damage could be done. In fact, we even shared a laugh over it," he told a half-truth. While he was able to explain his random appearance before he got murdered, neither party was laughing, not for a second.
"Um, that's nice, I'm glad it didn't end badly," Fragil brought her hands together in joy.
Sekke passed a hand over his hair in a suave manner. "As am I," his demeanor switched back to normal once he took into account the number of people on the battlefield. "What's going on?"
"Long story short, Langris gravely injured Finral and tried to kill him, his squad came to his rescue, and now we're facing Team B in an early semi-final," she explained.
Mimosa and Xerx had their own remarks to share, beginning with the plant mage calling out to her squadmate. "Langris, I can't excuse your actions, what you're doing is all sorts of wrong! You're a vice-captain, one of the faces that represent the Golden Dawn, you should know better!"
"Whatever," he scoffed in return.
That response did its job of making her mad. "Why you little-," but her attempt at any counter was cut off by Xerx.
"Cool it, ginger. Your words may be true, but he's not gonna budge at this rate, perhaps he will once we give him a good beatdown," he said to her, not missing a chance to glare at him with contempt. "Just you wait, by the end of this match, that confident look on your face is going to be gone, I promise you,"
Mimosa calmed herself. "You're right, let's regroup with Asta," she said as they did so, Fragil and Sekke took this chance to regroup with their own teammate.
Some more recovery mages came down with a stretcher to take Finral up to the platform, the knights not fighting took this as their cue to leave, but not before giving a thumbs up to Team B. Asta and Mimosa returned the gesture, and in a strange turn of events, so did Xerx.
Unlike the previous battles, it was Julius who stood before the two sets of three as crystals came to each. "The first battle of the semi-finals will soon commence between Team B's Asta, Mimosa, and Xerx, against Team G's Langris, Fragil, and Sekke!"
He watched as the two teams backed up a few yards away from each before stopping. "Match begin!" the time mage warped himself, Sylvester, and Marx back to the platform.
"That was quite the commotion," Augustus commented.
Julius sat on his seat. "No need to worry, your highness, it's all been taken care of,"
Sekke was still mostly ignorant of the tension on the battlefield, so he foolishly chose to adopt a happy tone when opening his mouth to the spatial mage. "Okay, so what's the plan? I take it you'll need me again? Don't worry, I'm ready to-,"
"Shut up," was all Langris said, the tone was calm, but the venom behind each word was palpable, silencing his questions. But it was when he turned to face the bronze mage that he truly felt afraid, gone was the friendly face Langris had when speaking to them, in its place was a look of silent rage on the verge of overload. "I take it you heard what happened to my brother, if so much as another word comes out of your mouth, you're next,"
It wasn't hard to tell that Sekke was virtually shitting his pants, but the snow mage came to his defense. "If you even try to hurt him, especially after the stunt you pulled, forget just the Green Praying Mantises, or even the Black Bulls, every mage here, including the Wizard King, will promptly have your ass. So I suggest you cool it on the threats,"
All Langris could do was suck his teeth. "Whatever, just don't get in my way," he ran towards the opposing team, his crystal behind him.
Sekke sighed a breath of major relief. "Thanks for that,"
"No problem, we can't let him intimidate us,"
"Right," he took his grimoire out. "Bronze Creation Magic: Sekke's Shooting Star!" he declared as his motorcycle materialized. "Hop on,"
She did so as they rode off.
Team B had yet to make any movements. "So, what's our plan?" Mimosa asked.
Asta gripped his sword. "Just one: take down Langris as quickly as possible,"
"Take me down? You're welcome to try, but I guarantee it won't end well for you!" they looked ahead to see the target in question rushing straight at them from the east.
"Look alive everyone! Mimosa, the crystal's in your hands!" Asta ordered as all three of them broke into a sprint down south.
Langris too started to run south, but at an earlier point, putting him a few meters across the opposing team. "You won't get away from me that easily, I will crush you!" he exclaimed, his voice growing slowly unhinged. "Spatial Magic: Archangel Shootdown!"
The familiar orbs appeared around him as he fired them at great speed. Asta reacted fast, exchanging the Slayer for the Dweller, doing his best to deflect the many orbs coming their way.
"I'm managing to hold back his attacks, but just barely, they're moving faster than they were during the last match," the swordsman thought. "You're getting serious I see, these are moving quicker than before,"
"I'm glad you noticed, they certainly are moving faster, but you appear to be handling it. It seems that I've slightly underestimated you, emphasis on slightly, although, you're already performing better than that idiot, Finral,"
"You keep his name out of your filthy mouth!" Asta screamed back.
"Like I'd listen to anything you say!" the spatial mage started to fire his orbs at an even quicker pace, which managed to bypass the magicless mage's defense and blow three holes into their crystals, but that wasn't all the damage it did, one of the orbs that got through managed to erase a small chunk of the edge of Asta's palm, blood leaking out of it.
"Shit,"
"Oh no, you're hurt!" Mimosa became worried.
"I'll be okay, start healing the crystal," he told her, ignoring his injury as he only parried each attack faster. "If you think one wound will slow me down, you're sorely mistaken!" a burst of energy flowing through him as the flat side of the Dweller hit an orb dead on, using that opportunity, he deflected it right back at its caster, forming a hole in Langris' crystal.
"What the?" the vice-captain grit his teeth, temporarily holding his fire.
"He stopped attacking, this is our chance! Xerx, we need cover!"
"Alright, Ash Magic: Cinder Screen!" he declared, forming his smokescreen, said smokescreen only lasted for a few seconds, but by the time it faded, Team B was no longer in Langris' line of sight.
"So they want to run, aye? I told you all you weren't going to escape me easily, and I meant it," he then eyed his crystal, the damage it took was by no means significant, but regardless, he detached it from his person. "Keeping this on me does more harm than good, now I can strike them head-on without any worry! I'll trace their mana and find them, defeat is their only fate!" he started running their way.
From atop the platform, Julius watched carefully. "My my, this is squaring up to be an interesting fight indeed,"
"I suppose, but based on what I saw during the previous rounds, Langris hasn't gone all out just yet, the same is true for Asta as well," Sylvester added.
"Then we'll just have to wait until they do so,"
The lunar mage eyed the man before he squatted down. "Hey,"
"Yes?"
"Do me a favor and fill me in. What about Langris has got you so interested that you'd look past a disqualifying action?" he asked in a whisper.
Julius met Sylvester's eyes, and they were serious, so he gave his response. "A traitor in the magic knights,"
"A traitor? But wasn't that supposed to be Gueldre? Didn't you catch him already?"
He was met with a nod. "Yes we did, but I had my suspicion that there was another traitor, so I wanted to use this exam as a chance to see who they were. Granted, due to the way knights would be selected to participate, I was taking a gamble, but it looks like my risk paid off. When Langris was fighting Finral during the latter half of their fight, I felt his mana undergo a massive shift, I'm certain he's the traitor, working with the Eye of the Midnight Sun,"
"Wow, to think one of the Golden Dawn would betray us,"
"Not willingly, of course,"
That new line of information shocked the Rossiu. "Not willingly? What do you mean?"
"Because of the massive shift in Langris' mana, I'm led to assume some form of mind control has been introduced into the equation, the mana of a person shouldn't change the way it did. He's by no means entirely innocent in the matter, but he's not entirely guilty either,"
Ves held his chin. "If that's the case, who put him under it, and how?"
"That's something I hope we can find out…before it's too late,"
About a decent number of meters away, the trio had stopped running. Asta immediately looked at his hand, blood continued to ooze out of it, but beyond that, it hurt like hell. "So that's how it feels to get hit by those orbs? I can't even begin to imagine the pain Finral must've gone through,"
"Plant Recovery Magic: Princess Healing Flower Robe," Mimosa donned her strongest healing spell and directed it toward Asta.
"What're you doing? You should be using this chance to heal the crystal,"
"I can heal the crystal later, right now, you need it more," she sternly retorted.
He sighed. "Yeah, you got a point there,"
The ash mage crossed his arms. "I take it our plan is still the same?"
"You better believe it is,"
"I see. I'm curious though, if your plan is to take out the prick fast, shouldn't you be busting out that transformation you used?" Xerx asked again.
"I would, but to be absolutely honest with you, I've never transformed twice in a day before. It hasn't been long since I've been able to tap into this power under full control, I'm not sure of the strain it'll put on my body if I use it again, especially since my last transformation wasn't even an hour ago," he confessed.
Mimosa finished healing him and diverted her spell to the crystal. "It's alright if you can't use that form, we just need to take a different approach,"
Asta pumped a fist into the air. "That's a good idea, we're not going to give up, we'll-," he quickly stopped himself, his eyes narrowing.
The plant mage was a little on edge. "What's the matter?"
"Watch out!" Asta's ki detection kicked in as he pulled out the Slayer and used the flat side to block two attacks. Looking ahead, they saw where the attacks came from, or rather from who: Sekke and Fragil.
"He was able to see it coming? But we didn't make a sound," Sekke remarked.
"It's okay, let's try again," Fragil said to him as they repeated the attacks they used.
"Bronze Creation Magic: Sekke Magnum Cannonball!"
"Snow Magic: Sleet Shoot!"
Asta didn't waste any time stopping them. "I kinda forgot we had to face them too,"
Xerx looked at his opponents before scanning the area around them, and as he finished his scan, a grin creased his face. "I'll take care of them,"
Mimosa raised a brow. "You're volunteering? I have to say I'm surprised. Are you sure you can handle them both?"
"Of course, have some faith in me, ginger,"
"Faith? You mean the same faith you fail to have in us?" she fired.
"Exactly," he replied, not deterred by her words. "I've got something special on my side,"
"Something special?" Asta repeated. "Wait a minute, this wouldn't have anything to do with whatever you needed to take care of during our last match, does it?"
"Maybe, maybe not," was his only answer as he started running towards the enemy.
"Xerx is coming at us!" Sekke pointed. "We should engage him quickly!"
Fragil shook her head in disagreement. "No, our target is their team's crystal, we'll go around him,"
"Trying to ignore me will only do you harm, Ash Magic: Cinder Bullets!" Xerx made the same hand motion as when he would use his smokescreen spell, but this time as he blew, he shaped the ash into a circle, and from the circle, a multitude of bullets fired away.
"Crap, Snow Creation Magic: Igloo Shelter!" Fragil summoned protection for both her and Sekke, dropping it once the cascade ended. "Never mind, no point in going after his team's crystal if he's firing that from behind us,"
"Then off we go!" Sekke turned his cycle in Xerx's direction and chased after him.
"Perfect, now that they're out of the way, we can give our full attention to Langris, if we know where he is, perhaps we can catch him by surprise," Mimosa suggested.
However, that was no longer the case once the number of holes in their crystal suddenly increased by five. They turned in the direction it came from, and lo and behold, the vice-captain was running their way.
"I found you!"
"He abandoned his crystal? Why?" the royal thought, but pushed it aside, it could wait for later. "Plant Magic: Magic Cannon Flower!"
The large flower formed behind her and released its powerful blast, but Langris didn't look worried in the slightest. "I'll hand it to you, Mimosa, that's an impressive attack for someone of your skillset, but allow me to show you what a real attack is! Spatial Magic: Archangel Summit!"
He swiped both hands up in an uppercut fashion, creating a large mass of spatial magic that rushed ahead of him, growing bigger as it did. It wasn't hard to guess that it overwhelmed the opposing attack with little difficulty.
"Damn it, the attack's too big to dodge! Get behind me!" Asta jumped in front of his teammate and did his best to use the Slayer to slice it, but while his initial strike handled the brunt of the spell, it didn't stop parts of the attack from hitting him, successfully managing to tear parts of the clothes and form cuts around his body, but worst of all, the remnants had damaged the crystal further.
The swordsman could only grunt as he dropped to one knee, using his sword to keep him up, his breathing had turned erratic.
"Now there's a sight I like to see," Langris sneered. "A weakling on his knees, looks like that last attack did quite a bunch of damage, it's to be expected though, that's my go-to spell for a one-move victory. But don't you worry, I won't use it again, after all…,"
He paused as the orbs from his shootdown spell appeared around him, but these were noticeably bigger, that wasn't the only change though, Langris' features adopted a sadistic smile.
"...I want you to suffer,"
While that exchange was going on, Xerx was running as quickly as he could to not get caught up by the duo chasing him.
"Running will do you no good!" Sekke exclaimed cockily. "The two of us will take you down!"
"My my, aren't we getting confident?" the ash mage commented. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, I can promise that by the end of this little bout, I'll be victorious,"
"You should take your own advice, don't make promises you can't keep," Fragil jumped off the transport and started running, her grimoire flipped to a page. "Snow Binding Magic: Trapping Snow Garden!"
At her call, snow began to form on the ground, and it was rapidly heading toward Xerx.
"With the way the snow is expanding, escaping it won't be easy," he thought, but then it happened, something across from him caught his eye, and it made him grin.
"There it is," he thought. "That means I'm going to have to take a bit of a risk," in a moment's notice, he drew a circle and inscribed a command before throwing it across from him, and then…he jumped.
His opponents were shocked by this. "What?!"
He continued to stay in the air, but before he could fall back down, he raised an arm, and it became bound.
Fragil snapped, making her snow melt. "An impressive move, deliberately falling into your own trap to elevate your body to get past my spell, but you've left yourself vulnerable,"
Sekke drove over to her. "Get on, there's a new spell I've been meaning to try out, this is the perfect chance to do so,"
"Sure," she replied as she got on. "Show me what you got,"
"You bet, Bronze Creation Magic: Sekke's Rolling Crash!" he declared as a turquoise translucent sphere encased them, and while they didn't move at all, the sphere rolled at a violent speed.
"Bah ha!" he laughed as they took off, coming at full speed, but despite that, Xerx wasn't worried at all.
And his enemies would soon learn why, for once they were just a foot away from the ash mage, a magic circle glowed under them, and they suddenly disappeared.
The vice-captain dispelled his trap and dropped to the ground. "Ah, nothing like a trusty warping trap. Now those two are on the other side of the field where I set the other circle. Hopefully, the shorty and ginger are holding up fine,"
He started running in their direction, but it didn't take long to see them, and it wasn't a pretty sight.
"Ha ha ha! Now do you get it, Asta? No one in your pathetic squad can hold a candle to me!" Langris laughed crazily. "You said you'd make me regret my actions, but look where you are now! I'm going to make you suffer for daring to act against me, you'll soon learn that I'm the stronger person, and the stronger magic knight!"
"The stronger…magic knight?" those were the only words the trapster has taken from the spatial mage's tirade, and it made him grit his teeth like never before. "You, it's people like you I despise the most! People who I've given my life to take down by any means necessary! I'll never forget how it all began, how I swore my revenge!"
[Flashback]
Fourteen Years Ago. Town of Virtus.
It was a foggy day in the sizeable town, full of houses, but not a person was outside, the inhabitants had chosen to remain in the comfortable warmth of their individual homes. The streets were completely empty.
Well…almost.
One man ran down the street, his most notable feature being his striking red hair.
Further away, at the edge of town, stood a small, humble house, and inside of the house was the ash mage, a boy of a small eleven years. He was at the stove cooking a stew.
"Now that tastes good," he mused, trying some of it, he then walked to the fireplace, where bread was baking. "And this looks done,"
He brought both to the table along with two bowls. "Everything here's done, now where is he,"
On cue, the door opened, and in walked the man before, catching his breath, regardless, a smile was on his face. "I'm not late am I, Zora?"
Xerx, or rather, Zora shook his head. "Nope, just got the food on the table,"
"Great, I'll wash up," he said and soon, they were at the table eating. "Amazing food as always, especially this stew, I love the heartiness, really fills the stomach,"
"Thanks a lot, Zara," he accepted the word of praise, but that had only gotten the man to stare at him. "What?"
"Zora, how many times have I told you to just call me dad," Zara told him.
Zora took a bite of bread before answering. "No can do, when mom died, she asked me to take on her responsibilities, so I think it's only fair I'm allowed to refer to you as an equal,"
"Is that so? Well, I also got gifts for your mother, so here you go," his father reached a clenched fist over to him.
"Cool, what did you get me?" the boy eagerly opened the fist, but was met with a smelly surprise. "My nose!"
"Ha!" he laughed. "Nothing like a Rainbow Stink Bug,"
"No way, you haven't used one of those on me since-," Zora began, but Zara finished for him.
"Your mother died. Just a little reminder that you don't have to be my equal, just worry about being my son, my kid. Childhood doesn't last forever, but you're squandering it by doing work in the house all day instead of making friends with the kids in town,"
"I don't need all of that. I like just staying in here," the future ash mage replied.
"Alright then, if there's no convincing you. I did actually get you a gift though, here," he handed it over.
What Zora held in his hand was a doll, made in the likeness of a man, he had red hair, but it was standing up, aside from that, he was wearing a cape and had a black plating around his jaw and upper chest.
"What is this?"
"A doll, I made it myself. Fashioned it after you, I call it 'Zora the Super Mage', a hero who fights crime and Injustice. You like it?"
"Um, I guess, but what's with the backstory?" Zora asked. "I'm no hero, I hardly even go outside,"
"It's to show what you could be if you just let more people in,"
The boy looked down at his bowl of stew. "I said I'm fine, Zara. Can we just change the subject,"
"Okay, okay, let's talk about the stew some more," he raised his bowl. "Something like this would be great to have after a long day of training,"
Zora sighed. "If you ask me, there's no point in training to be a magic knight, they don't take in commoners. Didn't the last three failures show you that?"
"Nonsense, I just wasn't taken in because my skills weren't impressive enough for the captains, but this time will be different," the father pumped his fist up. "The entrance exam is just in a week, I'm going to show them the results of my training and they'll know the name of Zara Ideale, just watch, I'll do it,"
And do it he did. A week later, Zara had proven himself and was enlisted into the ranks of the Purple Orcas, the action caused much surprise throughout the kingdom due to the circumstances, but they eventually died down after the first five months, though none were more surprised than Zora, and like the others, it eventually subsided.
It was a sunny day in town when Zara entered the house, wearing his squad robe, and saw his son sitting down, who looked confused by his presence. "Hey, Zara, I didn't know you were visiting today,"
"My captain gave the squad an early day off," he explained as he sat down. "Man, do I have to tell you about the mission I had last week,"
"What happened?"
"Well, I got partnered with these three powerful knights from a squad called the Gray Deer and their magic was off the chain, one guy had time magic, the second guy had phantom magic, and his brother had chimera magic," he started telling him.
"Brothers?" Zora cut him off.
"Yeah, their names were Richard and Marcus Rossiu. From what I know, their family's a pretty big deal, can you hand me some paper and something to write with,"
"Sure," the boy got up and retrieved them, handing them to his father.
"They were wearing this pendant, I'm guessing it's a family crest or something," he said as he drew the object almost perfectly. "I wonder if I should get myself one of those,"
"Don't bother, there's only two of us, now about the mission," Zora reminded him.
"Right, there were a lot of details, but it ended with fighting fifty enemy mages. You should've seen it, the battle was insane, those three used their magic in some creative ways,"
"But what about you?" his son asked. "I've seen you're magic, you could've taken them all down by yourself with your traps,"
"Perhaps, but even if I could, there's no way I would. The Magic Knights have this inside code we follow: fight as a team, that's the only way we'll make it far," Zara explained. "Being a magic knight isn't about showing off how strong you are, it's about working with others to achieve a common goal, in our case, it's keeping the people of this kingdom safe,"
"I see,"
The purple-clad knight ruffled his son's hair. "Tell you what, I've got a mission in four days, after I get back from it, why don't I introduce you to them, I bet you'll hit it off just fine,"
"Okay, I'll be waiting,"
Sadly, that day never came. Six days later, instead of having dinner at home with the four knights, Zora was standing in the rain, in front of him was a tombstone with a name on it.
Zara Ideale.
"What happened, Zara, how did you die? You were strong," Zora mumbled, holding back tears.
"Why did this day have to happen again?! Just why?!" his mumbling turned into screaming as he stared at a tombstone not far away, which read the name of his mother, Zoe Ideale.
He slowly began walking away. "It's not fair," once he reached a tree, he heard footsteps behind him, quickly hiding, he saw two men approach the knight's grave.
"Who are those guys? Are they the brothers Zara was talking about? Or are they squadmates here to pay their respects?" he thought to himself.
"So this is where he was buried?" the first man said.
"Seems like it. Zara Ideale, you were a decent squadmate, I'll give you that much, and you were pretty capable too, but…," he paused before spitting on his tombstone and stepping on it. "Listening to some filthy peasant call me his comrade sickened me to no end. I'm so glad I decided to do our enemies' job for them and kill you myself,"
This revelation shocked Zora to his core. "H-He did what?"
"In fact, I wish you could come back to life so I can do it again,"
At that point, Zora didn't want to hear anymore, so he broke into a sprint towards his home, the rain masking his now flowing tears. As he ran, he passed by two guys.
And both were wearing pendants with wyverns.
The boy heard one man exclaim something, but whether it was directed at him or not didn't matter, all he could do was keep running. He entered his house quietly, silence reigned for a few minutes, but it would reign no longer as the kid began to scream and bang his hands on the table for what seemed like hours.
Eventually, his loud vent of frustration came to an end, and all that was left was unbridled anger, it was then that something caught his eye: sitting on the table, was the doll his father made for him. He walked over and grabbed it, clenching it tightly.
"It was from that day forward that I realized my mission,"
Years passed as the focus shifts to a bar, where two magic knights are harassing a female maid.
"C'mon just spend a little time with us," one suggested.
"I can't, I have to work," the maid refused, clearly uncomfortable.
"Do you know who we are? We can easily bring this place down, you should know better than to refuse us," the second one threatened.
"What's going on here?" another voice joined the conversation, it was Zora, now in his more recognizable attire.
"Who are you? You better stay out of our business, or else,"
Zora grinned. "I'll take or else," he replied, taking out his grimoire.
The scene quickly cuts to the two knights beaten to a bloody pulp, earning gasps from onlookers.
"Stay safe next time," the ash mage told the maid as he left the tavern and walked down the road, thinking about everything else he had done that week. Stopping a smuggling ring, thwarting extortion schemes, and putting an end to other crimes, crimes that were all committed by the kingdom's elite.
"Every corrupt magic knight, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, no matter what I have to do…I will put them all in their place,"
The scene then shifts from his walk down the road leading him to come to Arbus' aid against the true Xerx Lugner, and taking the vice-captain down.
"I'll continue until there are only those who are worthy to be magic knights, people who are like you…,"
An image of Zara flashed in his mind.
"...Dad,"
[End Flashback]
"Let's see how you fare against this!" Langris exclaimed as he sent the orbs Asta's way.
"Asta, we need to evade his attack, and you need more healing," Mimosa pleaded.
"No, we can't run, if we do, he'll just come after us, and with powerful spells too. We need to take him down right here and right now, so I must stand my ground," the swordsman dug deep to find the strength to start getting up.
But his movement stopped once a figure came in between him and the attack, and the magicless mage was shocked by who it was.
"Xerx?"
"Hey jerk…," Zora said to Langris, making the vice-captain eye him.
"I'll decimate you, idiot, my dad knew what it meant to be a magic knight, what they were supposed to do, what they were supposed to be, but you…,"
"...YOU ARE NO MAGIC KNIGHT!"