The Black Mask of Clover

Pilot/Ch.1: The Anomaly

In an old ruin deep within the Spade Kingdom, Lucius Zogratis smiled as he felt the soul of Astaroth succumb completely to the power of his Soul Magic. It had been quite the dangerous endeavor binding the Supreme Devil of Time to his will, but now it was proving to be well worth the effort. Soon, he could begin the next phase of his plan to bring true peace to the world as the Final Wizard King. Without wasting a single moment, Lucius closed his eyes and looked into the flow of time to determine the best path forward. Thousands of timelines manifested under his newly acquired foresight. One by one, each of them showed the results of different actions taken by his other self and other people of interest.

The first one that truly held his interest was a young girl with silver hair. Noel Silva, the daughter of Acier Silva, and the youngest child of the Silva family. Lucius couldn't help but shake his head, a rueful smile on his lips. Honestly, the Silva family was a perfect example of why it was necessary for him to take the reigns of leadership. The girl clearly had potential to surpass her mother in terms of raw power and yet her remaining relatives were so quick to cast her aside for her lack of control. Such ridiculous discrimination had cut short a great deal of mages who had the potential to be truly great, be they peasant, royal or in between. A rare frown came across the eldest Zogratis sibling's face as he thought about it. No, in his world, such absurd thinking would not be tolerated. In his world everyone would be equal under his rule. Lucius smiled at the thought before moving on.

Along the same timeline, he saw a boy with dark hair wielding stars and gusts of wind to both dance around his enemies and in turn crush them as they were left disoriented. Yuno Grinberryall; the lost prince of the Spade's royal family. That was one mage that Lucius would need to keep an eye on at all times. Given his nature as the reincarnation of the elf-leader's son, he would prove to be the key to any possible future where his plans fell apart. After taking a moment to commit the boy's potential futures to memory, Lucius then moved on to the dual-magic wielder's friend and rival.

Asta… the boy with no magic potential whatsoever and the flaw of this world. Lucius' eyes narrowed. Handling the future wielder of the Anti-Magic Grimoire would be a difficult task. As much as he would like to eliminate the boy before he grew into his own, Lucius knew that he had to wait until after Lucifero had been sufficiently weakened before he made his move. Even then, he would have to take measures to ensure that Asta didn't manage to land a single hit with any of his anti-magic swords. A single touch would be all it took for Lucius' plans to come crashing down. Fortunately, the boy did have a potential weak-point that Lucius could exploit. The image of a nun standing before the boy flashed through his mind's eye. Lucuis supposed that it was rather cruel of him to take advantage of such a tender moment between Asta and Sister Lily Aquaria, but for the sake of his new world, he would need to take such action.

As he began shuffling through the visions of the future, Lucius began to construct his plans to acquire-

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

"FUCK!" Lucius fell down onto his knees in shock and pain. "What… What the HELL was that!?" Wide-eyed, Lucius tried to peer into that last set of timelines- "GYAAAH!" Recoiling onto his rear, Lucius felt increasingly alarmed as some black miasma of who-knows-what blocked his foresight! "What… what in the world?" Lucuis could only sit there on the floor as he tried to process the fact that something had blocked his foresight! "This… this doesn't make sense! How on earth…?"

Standing on his feet, a scowl made its way across the Devil Host's face as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Something… something is blocking my foresight! Violently." His eyes narrowed. "How? To begin with, to do so would mean that there was some way of blocking foresight in general. That is impossible… no… no… it wouldn't." There has been quite a bit of forbidden research into devils, the binding magic that he had made use of was merely one of several results of such. So, it would make sense, he supposed, that mages seeking the power of devils would look into protecting themselves from a devil's power.

That being said, through all his research on devils, Lucius had not come across anything that would hint to what Astaroth's power over time was beyond vague statements. No where did it mention anything about foresight. His frown deepening, Lucius focused on that trail of thought. "Even taking into consideration that someone may have looked into ways to shroud themselves from foresight, to do so in such a violent manner… would require a great deal of power." Alarm made its way back on to Lucius' face as he followed that line of logic. "Power…power equal to… or greater than that of a Supreme Devil!" It had been a long time since Lucius had let fear creep into his heart, but at this moment he couldn't really blame himself at this moment.

"Something with power equal to or greater than a Supreme Devil… that is… that is quite unexpected. More to the point that it would be able to block off my foresight would mean…" Snapping up in alarm, Lucius looked around him, extending his senses through both the present world and through time itself. For anyone to block his foresight, that would logically require that they too might be able to see him.

With paranoia creeping up in his heart, Lucius made his way to the collection of tomes he had read through in his research. He had no doubt that he would need to do more research and planning if he was to deal with this dangerous anomaly. Somewhat irritated as he began to work though several ancient tomes, Lucius began his revisions to his plans. The one thing that was troubling him was that he didn't even know where to begin.

The only hint he could think of as to the identity of this new presence was the image he had seen before he had been repelled. In the darkness had been a figure in black wielding some sort of miniature cannon in their left hand and sword in their right. The person's face had been obscured by an odd black helmet that resembled a bird's beak. Behind the figure, had been some sort of horned phantom floating in a haze of shadows wielding a sword glowing a sinister dark red. The sheer bloodlust they let off had been the most alarming thing about them.

Lucius suppressed a shudder as he thought of it. Anyone with such power and that kind of temperament would need to be eliminated outright. "Whoever you may be, you cannot be allowed to exist in my new world." Lucius' mouth pressed into a thin line. "I will personally see to it that you are struck down, for the sake of peace." With that vow, the Devil-Host began what would be a long night of study in preparation for this new foe.