I do not own Black Clover or any of its characters.
Reincarnated
Dane swore as he narrowly evaded Klaus's attack, a spiraling, steel drill. He was struggling, to say the least, using Ko for his armor and having Fox Trot active and Nue in his sword, Tiger Strength also active. His robes had been ruined within seconds of the battle beginning, but he didn't miss them. He wished he could use Raya, but about the same time as he had begun to battle Yuno and Klaus, both of whom had been possessed by an Elf, he'd sensed Raya rush to Mereoleona's aid against five other reincarnated elves, including both Rhya and Rill. Things were bad.
Yuno extended an arm, sending a massive, spiraling arrow of compressed Wind Magic at Dane. Dane swore, slashing hard, but the arrow exploded through his sword, shattering it but missing Dane by millimeters.
"Fuck!"
Then, just before he could form himself another, Goro appeared beside Dane and regurgitated a Diamond Metal sword for him. Dane caught it instantly, the rubies decorating the cross guard and the diamond spike pommel glinting in the light still radiating from Yuno and Klaus, as well as from Licht, who had yet to take any action. Dane's gut dropped, but a moment later, he adapted.
"Fei, Nue!"
Instantly, Fei's pure white flames replaced Ko's, and Nue's flames enveloped the new sword as Tiger Strength reactivated. Yuno fired another spell, but Dane's legs bent before he took off. He grinned as he rocketed around and around the chamber. He hadn't stopped using Ko. He'd simply allowed Ko to possess the clothing inside of his armor, allowing him to use all three spirits at once.
"He's much faster now," Klaus mused.
"My turn!" Dane snarled. "Sorry about this, you two!"
Then, each time he bounced off of a wall, a forest of stone spikes erupted from it, assaulting the pair as Dane slashed at them each time he passed. Hamon, who Dane had trapped as soon as he arrived, finally freed himself and raised his arms. A forest of massive glass spikes burst from the ground around the room, meaning to impale Dane regardless of where Dane was. Instead, Dane cackled, beginning to swing on the glass spikes and use them as extra surfaces to leap around on, transforming any he touched into weapons for his continuing assault. Then, just as he landed, the momentum of the battle shifted in an instant.
It wasn't the first time things had gone wrong. At the beginning of the battle, Vanessa had tried to flee with Mimosa, but before she could, Shiren had arrived, also possessed by an Elf, and had attacked them. Dane had managed to stop the attack, but as Yuno and Klaus joined the attack, the passage had collapsed, and Dane had been forced to pull Mimosa back into the chamber with him. Then, he had quickly trapped Shiren with Hamon. Now, nearly fifteen minutes of fighting later, as Yuno raised his arm, Dane prepared himself to fight, only for the arrow to flash past him at the audience. Mimosa. She didn't even have time to scream, but before it could strike, Dane slammed into her, knocking her out of the way before the arrow slammed into his right shoulder, blasting his armor's upper body apart and his torso a moment later, erasing anything within three inches around his right shoulder. However, as he exploded into the ground, Diamond Metal flooded from the ground, replacing his missing limb and flesh with a prosthetic instantly. Dane grit his teeth, kicking his severed arm to Mimosa.
"Hold onto this for me, will you?" Dane asked, picking up the sword he'd dropped as he restored his armor and clothes.
Yuno raised his arm and formed a massive cyclone bird, which streaked at Dane alongside a barrage of steel drills, glass swords the size of Dane's entire body, and a cloud of stone daggers, Shiren having finally gotten free.
"Spirit Magic," Dane intoned, pulling his sword back as he shuffled his spirits, moving Fei to the sword, Ko to his armor, and Nue to his suddenly Diamond Metal skin directly, "Dragon Claw!"
He slashed his sword through the air in a flash of movement, and a roaring arc of Wind Magic, powerful as a full hurricane compressed into a four foot arc. It took flight with a deafening blast of sound, then clashed with all of the incoming attacks, fighting against them for a few seconds before exploding through all of them, racing across the chamber before erupting into a massive explosion against them all. For a few moments, dust filled the chamber. Then, a tornado roared to life around Yuno, clearing the dust. Shiren and Hamon were both unconscious, but Klaus and Yuno were standing. Their robes had taken the brunt of the blast and were ruined. Yuno's shirt was shredded on the right side, and his pants were ripped off below the knee, the robe missing entirely. Klaus's robes were also gone, as was his shirt, and his pants were little more than short-shorts with random strips hanging off of them.
"I'm not surprised you two withstood it," Dane growled. "Are you alright, Mimosa?"
"Y...Yeah!" Mimosa nodded, eyes wide as she stared at him. "Thank you!"
"Stay behind me," Dane instructed her. "Nothing will get past me."
Below him, the ground began to transform into Diamond Metal in a wave, spreading rapidly until the entire chamber, and a massive section of the dungeon around it, had been transformed. However, just as he prepared himself to continue fighting, a shadowy portal appeared over the other Elves, Asta falling out of it with a shriek. A moment later, Rhya appeared from it, looking panicked.
"I said to hold still!" Rhya shouted, clutching at his head. "What a pain!"
Raya appeared at Dane's side, bearing a few scratches and bruises, but seeming fine and ready for battle otherwise.
"Mereoleona?" Dane asked.
"She's alive," Raya confirmed. "Exhausted, and she took more of a beating than I did, but she'll be fine."
Dane nodded. "All of my clones have been wiped out."
Asta flipped, landing on his feet on Dane's other side.
"Asta!" Mimosa gasped. "Hey!"
"Mimosa?" Asta asked. "Dane? Raya? Where'd he bring me?"
"Look forward," Dane said. "We're at the heart of the dungeon. Licht is here."
"What?" Asta yelped, looking to the front.
"So, the child with Anti-Magic," Klaus mused.
"That's Klaus," Asta realized. "And that chubby guy from the Golden Dawn. Seriously? You guys, too? This sucks!"
"So the others are acting the same way?" Mimosa asked in a shaking voice.
"A lot of them, but not all," Dane answered. "About half of us, maybe a little more."
"Watch out!" Mimosa shrieked suddenly as Klaus began to fire drills at Asta, only for Asta to dodge the first, then Dane to deflect the second into the ceiling with a Diamond Metal fist.
"Cut it out!" Asta snapped. "I don't want to fight my friends! Just wake up! Why are you..." He stopped, staring at Yuno in shock.
"Yeah," Dane nodded. "Yuno, too. He was fighting me a minute ago, but..." Dane stared at Yuno, who had fallen mysteriously still and silent.
"What?" Asta breathed. "No! How can...There's no way this is happening! I don't believe it! YUNOOOO!"
"Sylph, I need you to sit this fight out," Dane intoned seriously. "We won't do any permanent damage to Yuno, but we have to stop him to undo the elf's control and return Yuno to himself."
Sylph hesitated, looking between Yuno and Dane.
"Please," Klaus scoffed, adjusting his glasses. "Can't you see you're nothing but strangers to us now?"
"No!" Asta snarled.
"I told you, it's pointless!" Klaus snapped.
"Stop screaming or we'll silence you forever," Hamon growled, pushing himself up.
Hamon raised a hand, beginning to form a swarm of massive, spiked, glass crystals as Klaus began to form another drill. Dane stepped forward, sheathing his sword and raising his hands, readying himself to stop the attacks.
"Klaus, listen to me!" Asta shouted. "You can't do this!"
Hamon struck first, sending a barrage of massive, spiked, glass shards at them, only for the first to meet Dane's palm and instantly transform into a swarm of glass spears that shot back the other way. They exploded into the rest of the barrage of Hamon's glass shards, smashing them all, a single piece of the glass formation remaining against Dane's palm until the last of the spears shattered against the last of the incoming glass shards. The glass formation crumbled, clattering against the floor, and Dane looked to Klaus just as Asta stepped into the path of Klaus's drill, shouting in effort as he used his larger sword, braced with his left forearm against the blade, to block it. Finally, he slashed it, splitting it in half.
"I'm begging you, stop it!" Asta shouted. "We're all Magic Knights! Don't you remember that!?"
Dane narrowed his eyes as Klaus's hand clenched as he was adjusting his glasses, Klaus staring at the hand as he moved it away from his face.
"You fool!" Klaus seethed, suddenly furious. "Regardless of what we were in the past, our grudge is far deeper than any bond we shared!"
He sent a pair of drills at Asta, only for Asta to slash both swords, splitting the drills at the same time. Then, a pair of massive steel spikes erupted from the ground, stabbing at Asta, only for him to dodge backward. One of the two spikes, which crossed in front of him, grazed his side, tearing a gash into his side.
"Easy," Rhya spoke up. "Don't go overboard or you'll wind up dead. What a pain. Though...I guess as soon as we get the Grimoire and the sword, you won't be of any more use to us."
Asta, Dane, and Raya glared at Rhya.
"Doesn't look like you're plannin' to give up," Rhya sighed.
"Give up?" Dane scoffed, grinning wickedly. "Not a chance. I'm just warming up for the pain event!" He pointed his sword at Licht.
"Well, if you're set on dyin' to protect your Royal pal..." he paused as Hamon formed yet another barrage and Klaus formed a massive, round, glowing, tail-like creation with a drill at the end, "by all means, have at it."
"You never learn," Dane smirked. "These two can't beat me."
"Asta, Dane," Mimosa whimpered. "No."
"Relax, Mimosa," Dane said, turning and smiling kindly back at her, his genuinely calm and caring expression at almost comical odds with the situation. "We're in no danger from Klaus and Hamon, and we're not going to kill them. We'll protect you."
Mimosa's eyes widened slightly before she nodded, managing a semi-confident smile. "I know."
"Such faith," Shiren grunted, finally pushing himself up. "You place too much trust in each other. You've already lost an arm."
"Not yet!" Asta growled. "I'm not dyin'! Not yet! I made a promise to my friend that I would get out of this place alive! I won't let teammates kill each other! I'll survive. I'll get through this! And one day, I'll become the Wizard King!"
Suddenly, Yuno's eyes shot open in surprise.
"That was quite an impressive speech coming from someone who's too tired to move his own body," Klaus mocked.
"Valid point," Dane grinned wickedly. "Flame Recovery Magic, Phoenix Robe."
The spell blazed to life around Asta, immediately sealing his side and beginning to recover his stamina as its wings spread out behind him.
Asta grinned instantly, nodding. "Thanks. That's much better."
"What!?" Shiren snarled. "I thought his main type of magic was Earth-based! Is it one of his Spirits' magic?"
"It doesn't matter," Hamon decided. "We've heard enough."
"This is where you die," Klaus warned.
"HUMAN!" both shouted, as though an insult.
The spells exploded forward, Asta and Dane moving to prepare, only for a massive tornado to erupt from Yuno's palm, crossing the room to expand in front of them, blocking the attacks for them.
"Save your breath, Asta," Yuno said coldly, despite the smile on his face as he landed before them and turned back to the other reincarnated elves. "The next Wizard King is me."
Dane opened his mouth, but stopped before he could break the news that Fei's return meant. Julius was dead, but he couldn't tell them that. Not yet. They needed to be focused on the here and now, and so did he.
"Yuno?" Mimosa asked.
"Wait, I'm confused!" Asta shouted.
"Yuno has resisted the elf's personality," Dane smirked. "Took you long enough."
"Sorry about your arm," Yuno said. "Can you reattach it?"
Dane was silent for a few moments. "If we have to fight Licht, it's probably not going to go well. This one is stronger than the one that we fought in Nean, and stronger than the Third Eye."
"All of whom were Captain level," Yuno recalled, nodding. "We'll be careful."
"Wait!" Asta shrieked again. "Are you sure you're you!?"
"Yeah, I'm me," Yuno said dryly.
"It's just that you've got pointy ears and stuff!" Asta pointed out.
"So what if I do?" Yuno asked. "Who cares?"
"It's just, you're actin' normal!" Asta continued.
"I'm here too!" Sylph reminded Asta, pointing at her own pointed ears. "And look! We even have matching ears now!"
"Bell," Yuno said evenly, "please stop talking."
"Yeah, we're kinda in the middle of something here," Asta agreed.
"That's so rude!" Sylph shrieked, glaring at Yuno. "Forget the shorty, why don't you start complimenting me on my cuteness or something!?"
"Who are you calling shorty!?" Asta demanded. "At least I'm more than three inches tall!"
"Five inches!" Sylph snapped.
"Quiet, both of you," Yuno sighed.
"Get serious!" Dane snarled as he sensed Licht's power beginning to flow.
"You've reawakened," Klaus called out, interrupting Sylph as she was berating Yuno. "After you stopped moving, I thought you had fallen asleep again. It's good to have you on our side." He offered Yuno his hand. "Come and stand over here."
"Excuse me?" Sylph snarled, turning back to them. "I was talking, thank you!" Her shriek sent a gale force wind roaring across the room at Klaus and the others.
Yuno reached up, pushing Sylph out from in front of his face. "I'm not sure exactly what's happening, but I can sense that there are different souls moving within their bodies. Klaus and Hamon as we know them are lying dormant somewhere on the inside."
"Oh, really?" Asta asked. "So, how are we gonna bring 'em back."
Yuno placed a hand over his own chest, no doubt feeling the elf soul within himself.
"What's up?" Asta asked.
"Still, I am Yuno, one of the Magic Knights of the Clover Kingdom, and no one else!" Yuno declared.
"This is a shame," Klaus sighed. "That human vessel is awfully stubborn. It's clear now. He hasn't fully awakened. He was acting on a sort of autopilot when he fought before. The humans have tainted him! Very well. We'll slay the vermin behind you and exercise you from that body!"
Klaus, Hamon, and Shiren's power spiked, a massive wave of their three magics all exploding across the chamber at them in spikes, only for a tornado to roar to life around Yuno, blocking all three attacks and shattering the spikes they'd formed.
"Those bodies belong to my squadmates," Yuno snarled as the tornado faded. "Leave them now or I will force you out."
"Well, if this is the way you want to behave," Hamon growled, crouching just as glass exploded up from the ground around him.
"You've left us no choice!" Klaus shouted, steel exploding up around him as well as stone exploded up around Shiren.
"Whoa!" Asta shrieked. "They're making the room shake just by glaring at us! This is bad!"
"I know I can't fix this," Yuno said, once again holding a hand to his chest. "But I can stun and capture them. I'll stop them. You three stand back."
"No," Dane said. "I'll handle these three. Yuno, focus on Licht. Kill him before he takes any action. Asta, stay here. If Licht somehow gets your swords, we're fucked."
Yuno nodded just as Dane exploded into motion, everyone ignoring Asta arguing against being left out of the battle. Before Dane, Hamon and Klaus had formed a massive steel fortress atop a tank's base, massive drills bristling from the front of the tank like spikes. The top half of the fortress was either coated in glass or was made from it, and the air around the fortress was filled with a wide variety of glass flowers. And crouched atop the fortress was a massive, stone goliath wielding a pair of massive axes and Shiren standing atop its shoulder. However, as Dane reached them, he tapped his palms together before slamming them into the front of Klaus and Hamon's creation.
"Mana Zone, Transmutation Magic, Binding Chains!" Dane smirked.
Instantly, both the massive steel and glass fortress and the stone goliath both transformed into Diamond Metal in a flash of light before exploding apart into thick chains. The chains whipped outward, smashing all of the glass flowers before whipping inward and binding the three, slamming them to the ground where more chains burst from the ground, binding them further.
"Impossible!" Klaus roared. "Our magic power was far superior to yours!"
"That doesn't matter with my magic," Dane smirked. "I change substances on a molecular level, regardless of magic power difference, and once I change it, I can take control of it and add the magic power in the spell to my attack, or simply use it instead of my own. Anyone who uses magic that uses physical objects to attack me is within my sphere of influence. You can never defeat me." He turned his head to Rhya, who was staring at him in shock.
"Unlike these two, I have no problem killing you," Dane smirked, a split-second before dozens of Diamond Metal spikes burst from the ground, missing Rhya only because of an intervention by another.
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