The Anti-magic Blade
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of the Fallen! The moment you've all been waiting for, the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony has arrived! But you want to know something you don't have to wait for, checking out my Pat reon and seeing about becoming a patron! Now then that's about all I got as far as announcements go, and with no guest review questions this week, let's get on to the story!
Hage Village: The Church
'Just a few more days,' Asta thought with his hands behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling of the orphanage. Currently he was supposed to be sleeping but a certain upcoming event was making it difficult.
"You also thinking about the upcoming Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony?" Megicula asked, her astral form perched on the window next to his bed.
"Not like I need to tell you," The ashen-haired boy answered back mentally. After the demoness had appeared to him the two had quickly figured out that only Asta could see or hear her and that they could communicate telepathically with a little concentration. The latter was a blessing as even Yuno might start to think he was crazy if he held lengthy conversations with empty air. "You can feel how excited I am."
"I'm excited too," Megicula smirked playfully, "while I've connected to others in the past it was never quite like this. I haven't had the chance to see a Grimoire ceremony in decades if not centuries. When I was growing up such ceremonies were the things of ancient history. I only ever witnessed them in recordings."
"I never thought to ask about that," Asta sat up in his bed a bit, "in your memories, I never saw anything like a Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony. Do demons have grimoires?"
"That's a bit of a complicated explanation," the winged woman got up and moved to stand next to his bed, "demons once possessed grimoires and practiced a similar ceremony in the distant past during turbulent times. The only living demon who still remembers such a time is Samael. These days only certain demons possess grimoires and they don't require a ceremony to appear."
"But you said all demons possess magic, like the people here," the anti-magic boy tilted his head in slight confusion, "why wouldn't you have grimoires?"
"Demon civilization underwent several advancements even before my time," Megicula explained, "biology, physics, chemistry, architecture, our understanding of the entire world went far beyond anything you could imagine. Our understanding of magic became such that we underwent a sort of evolution. We no longer needed Grimoires to cast advanced spells, they were engraved on our very souls. Grimoires did still exist, but often they would appear only to certain individuals and often with little to no fanfare. After all, why celebrate the appearance of something deemed almost unnecessary by the majority of civilization?"
"You're right about one thing, that is hard to wrap my head around," Asta mused while settling more into his bed. "There's a ton of stuff I don't understand even after seeing your memories."
"I'll be happy to explain as much as I can," the demoness offered, "it's not like I'm doing much else at the moment." The ashen-haired boy nodded and she continued her explanation. It had been a long time since she'd told anyone about the golden age of the demons she'd been born into and found that recounting such tales now was quite enjoyable. Alas, her listener could only stay awake for so long and before she knew it he was fast asleep.
It didn't upset Megicula. There would be another chance for them to speak. She gently ran her fingers along his left arm. The winged woman still found it strange that only their left arms could touch each other, but it was still closer to the outside world than she'd been in a long time and that alone was enough to make her happy for the time being. After that, she bid the boy good night and disappeared back to her real body.
Within Asta's Dreams: A Millenia Ago
While Megicula did have a degree of control over what memories Asta saw, her main concern was keeping him from seeing the torment she suffered in the prison. Due to this, Asta had started having dreams involving his demon friend's earlier memories. Tonight was one such night, and it stretched farther back than any memory Asta had seen yet. He found himself in a strange type of home that appeared to be made of a different kind of wood than he knew staring down at a recently born Megicula in her crib.
He knew she was recently born as a demon woman greatly resembling her, and showing signs of recently having given birth, moved to pick her up and cradle her. The demonic man embracing her had much shorter, and spikier, hair along with a healthy body. This man was obviously her husband, given the fond way he was looking at the woman and her infant. The mother was saying something but Asta couldn't understand since at this point Megicula didn't understand any spoken words.
Eventually, she handed Megicuala off to another demon who appeared to be in his teenage years. Asta would quickly learn that this demon was named Shemihaza, Megicula's older brother by sixteen years. Naturally he wasn't sure what to think of his new little sister and only hoped he wasn't holding her wrong. Thankfully, he appeared to be doing something right as the infant Megicula laughed happily, getting a relieved smile from her elder sibling.
But something strange happened then. The memory shifted to a few years later. Such an occurrence had happened before, but it was rare. Asta found he was now seeing a memory that was five years later.
Megicula could walk and talk quite well now and developed a few critical thinking skills. Skills she apparently didn't want to use right at this moment. "NO!" The tiny Megicula exclaimed while waving her arms, "I don't want to study!"
"It's not about whether or not you want too," her now twenty-one-year-old brother sighed while holding up a study guide, "You need to study to make sure you understand everything."
"But I've scored plenty high on all my tests!" The miniature demon countered, not at all intimidated by her towering older brother, "I've barely had any bad scores!"
"Then you have less to study but you still need to study what you're struggling with," Shemihaza gave her a stern look.
"No, no, no, no!" Megicula made an 'X' with her hands, "I don't wanna!"
"Gah, you're lucky I don't have time for this," her older brother growled slightly before setting down the study guide, "we'll pick this up later. Right now I need to head out for a while."
"Okay," Megicula chirped, "I'll go with you!"
"Not today," Shemihaza cut her off while pulling on his coat, "I need you to guard the house today while I'm gone. I shouldn't be too terribly long since I'm just dropping off some documents."
"Aaaaw, but I want to go with you," the child demon whined.
"Not today, and that's final," her elder brother opened the door and closed it behind him before she could make any further argument. As a precautionary measure, he also locked it. Of course, that made little difference since the door unlocked from the inside and before he even got to the stairs it opened back up. "I said stay put!"
Shemihaza moved and closed the door once again before speedwalking down the hallway. Unfortunately, his little sister was a persistent one. "Hey, I see you over there!" He pointed at a trashcan she'd somehow gotten behind, "don't think you can hide from me!" This continued as he made his way to the bottom floor of the building.
He spotted her under the stairs, hiding in the laundry chute, spying on him from one of the ceiling tiles. It continued on and on and by the time he got down to the lobby he was starting to run late. Knowing he couldn't keep up this hide and seek game forever, Shemihaza begrudgingly agreed to take Megicula along with him.
A Short Time Later: Office Building
"Now you need to listen to me," Shemihaza sat his sister down in one of the building's break rooms, "I am meeting with a very important person. It shouldn't take long, but while I'm gone you need to be on your very best behavior."
"I'm always on my best behavior," little Megicula responded innocently.
"Being a little gremlin and prankster is not your best behavior," the adult demon rubbed his temples, "just stay in here for a bit and wait for me. I'll be back before long."
"Okaaaaay~," she tilted her head while answering in a singsong voice. Shemihaza rolled his eyes before exiting the break room and heading to the main office room. He took a couple breaths to calm himself down before proceeding inside. The room itself had quite a high ceiling, little surprise considering its occupant.
The demon in the room stood almost four meters tall with powerful muscles that were hidden by his business attire. He possessed blue irises with white sclera, long white hair flowing down to the top of his back and the grey skin on his stomach was said to be characterized by red tattoo stripes, though Shemihaza had never seen them himself. He also possessed a tail and crescent-shaped horns growing out of his skull. This was Samael, the first demon created and king of the demons.
"Shemihaza, come in," Samael greeted good naturedly, his toothy smile showing off his already visible fangs, "I take it you've already double-checked the contents of those?"
"It's as you suspected," he handed said documents over to the king, "these angels, as they're called, seem to have an interest in dealing with us. I'm afraid it's too early to tell how much of an interest."
"They do seem a little overly cautious," the demon king read through some of the documents, "but I'm certain once we get a good dialogue going things will smooth out."
"I'd certainly like to think-KYAAAAAA!" Shemihaza stopped midsentence as he and Samael both hurried out into the hallway. It was there they found the source of the commotion: a demon cleaning lady covered in, frogs? Shemihaza looked over at one of the potted plants to see Megicula giggling to herself. Unfortunately, she wasn't as quiet as she should've been.
"There you are you little rat!" The cleaning lady yelled, taking off after the child demon. They reached one of the main rooms where guests sometimes sat to wait and it was there Megicula dove under a rather large piece of furniture. While she was quick, the cleaning lady was quicker and grabbed ahold of her legs to pull her out before she disappeared into the shadows. In a comedic twist, to some, the little demon girl hissed like a cat and bit the woman on the arm, eliciting a frustrated cry of pain.
"I have to say," Samael hummed in amusement, "this isn't how I thought your first couple of weeks would go."
"Your highness!" The woman stood up straighter, though it was difficult due to her still holding onto a feral little child. "I'm so sorry, someone brought this-."
"It's my fault," Shemihaza bowed to both of them in apology, "I couldn't get anyone to watch her today and she refused to stay at home like she was supposed too so I had to bring her here."
"I recall hearing this little one had turned five recently," the demon king held out his hands, "why not let me take a look at her?" The Cleaning Lady handed her over hesitantly.
"My lord, I don't think," no sooner did he try to warn his boss than Megicula reached out and bit Samael's wrist. Instead of reacting in pain, the demon king laughed while the young girl continued to bite and crawl all over his arm.
"She's quite a fighter, I see," Samael laughed.
"My sincerest apologies, your highness," Shemihaza bowed profusely, "we taught her better manners than this!"
"No need to be alarmed," the horned demon assured, "she just needs to get a little bit of her energy out. I've dealt with many children in my time, though I consider all demons in this world as my children, so perhaps that isn't the best example." By this point Megicula had finally calmed down, allowing herself to be held by Samael much like a cat who suddenly decided they like someone. "Now come, we can discuss the rest of this in the office."
The duo turned and headed back to the meeting room, though Shemihaza was still a bit nervous when they entered and sat down with his sister in the demon king's lap. "So tell me," Samael questioned good-naturedly, "how exactly did that little situation occur out there? We don't have frogs near here, as far as I know."
"Oh, it was easy," Megicula began excitedly, gesturing quickly as she explained the intricate way with which she dropped frogs onto the poor, unsuspecting custodian. Again, the demon king burst out into laugher while Shemihaza could only run a hand over his face in irritation. 'What a day,' he thought, 'what a day.' Asta thought much the same, but it was at this point the dream started to fade as the morning sun rose on the next day.
A Few Days Later: Grimoire Tower
The day had finally arrived. Both Asta and Yuno were now officially fifteen years old, meaning the time had come for them to receive their grimoires. The two entered the tower as the representatives of Hage Church while the rest of the inhabitants from the church stood to the side in a shady area where they'd be out of the way but still be able to see the proceedings. The inside of the tower was incredibly spacious, easily fitting the large crowd of teenagers who'd come from Hage and all over the surrounding area to receive their grimoires.
Said mystical tomes were situated in shelves that lined the walls all the way up the tower. There were so many one might've thought the tower itself was made of bookshelves. The two friends looked around in awe, doing their best to contain their excitement. Not that anyone could blame them.
This same excitement was being felt by everyone, so much so that it practically permeated the air. And then, the lights lowered before a flying carpet appeared in the air and floated down towards a podium at the other end of the room. An old man in red wizard robes and a large wizard hat stepped off of it and took up his position at said podium. "So that is the man called Drouot," Megicula surmised, her astral form standing on Asta's left side, "he certainly looks like he's been doing this a long time."
"Certainly longer than I've been alive," the ashen-haired boy nodded. This was further demonstrated by the old mage reciting an introductory speech that he'd clearly done countless times with the aid of communication magic amplifying his voice.
"Has anyone ever asked how often the master of a tower is replaced," the demoness questioned, "I understand that while short compared to ours, some humans have been known to live surprisingly long lives."
"Beats me," Asta shrugged out of habit even if he wasn't answering out loud, "the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony has been going on for so long I'm not sure if anyone even notices when the master is replaced."
"We should consider asking about it later," Megicula mused. She might've said more but by this point Drouot appeared to be reaching the end of his speech.
"And now," his voice boomed with visible excitement, "it's time for the awarding of the grimoires!" The books began to glow then, triggered by a silent command as varying numbers of them floated off the shelves and down to the gathered villagers below. It was a beautiful sight as each grimoire glowed a different color depending on the magic of the user it was going to. For Asta and Megicula, it was like watching a show of dancing lights.
"This is my grimoire!" A village girl smiled happily. "Mine's bigger, mine's thicker." The other gathered teenagers examined their various grimoires, noting their differing features. Like actual books, no two were alike. Some were large, some had a massive number of pages, others were small with one even being small enough to fit in the palms of its owner's hands.
"They really shouldn't be concerned about the size or thickness of their grimoires," the demoness commented to Asta, "when needed, new pages will appear. As long as the user lives and is learning they shall gain new spells, which is why grimoires have no technical page limit."
"If you say so," Asta nodded, "I just wonder how true that is considering your kind eventually got to the point where you didn't use grimoires anymore."
"Hard to say," Megicula shrugged, "I was more a student of science than history. I learned as much history as I needed to aid me in my experiments."
"Then I might need another hypothesis," the orphan boy thought back, "because I'm not seeing any grimoire coming towards me." Indeed, as the last lights faded and everyone else appeared to have received their grimoire, Asta found that no mystic tome was floating down towards him.
"I unfortunately do have one," the winged woman looked down in both thought and a little sadness. Having seen his memories and been in contact with the boy for a few years now, she was more than aware how much he'd been looking forward to receiving a grimoire and being informed of what his magic attribute might be. "We've discussed that the power you wield appears to be antithetical to magic, or anti-magic. More than likely, that same power is repelling the grimoires here since they are composed of magic."
"Yeah, that sounds right," Asta acknowledged while looking down. There was no point in making a scene. He just needed to keep from drawing attention to himself until.
"Oh, Asta," Drouot, unfortunately and somehow despite his age, noticed his plight, "it appears one didn't pick you this time. Well, there's always next year." If this was meant to help, it did the opposite as many of the gathered teenagers started laughing at this turn of events. Had this been a few years ago, Asta would've felt embarrassed and tried to play it off as a mistake or something.
But now, he simply didn't care what anyone else thought. That was until he glanced over at his adoptive family. While he couldn't clearly make out what they were saying, it was obvious the emotion most of them were feeling: embarrassment. Some of the boys of the orphanage looked like they'd expected it all along while the others glanced away, acting as if they didn't know him.
Sister Lily was the only one who seemed genuinely worried about him and how he felt about the situation. Feelings of bitterness and sadness welled up inside him, threatening to spill over for the first time in ages. That's when a bright light filled the room, diverting his and everyone else's attention. It turned out the one responsible was Yuno whose grimoire everyone now noticed was a four-leaf clover grimoire.
The owner of said tome directed his gaze towards Asta, the slightest tilt of his head all the anti-magic boy needed to understand what was going on. Yuno was intentionally drawing attention to himself by pumping mana into his grimoire and causing this little lightshow. Asta understood and turned towards the exit to the tower. This did not, however, mean that his emotions weren't still threatening to spill over.
His feet were like lead. He felt like he was underwater as all noise around him seemed to be muffled. The reason being that for a brief moment, he wondered if there was even a point to leaving the tower. The ones who hurt him the most were going to be in the place he called home. That's when he felt something on his left arm.
Glancing to his left, he saw Megicula urging him forward. She had her arms looped around his left arm, gently tugging him towards the exit. It wasn't much but it was enough to get Asta to move. He walked slowly out of the tower, paying no particular attention to anything, not even those he called family.
A couple minutes later, when everyone had finished besieging him, Yuno also headed for the exit to the tower. The orphans moved to join him. "Yuno," Father Orsi called, "I know you've probably this heard enough, but we'd still like to say-."
"Save it old man," the holder of the four leaf clover grimoire shot a glare in the direction of his family, "the last thing I want to hear is congratulations from any of you."
"But Yuno," one of the orphan boys spoke up.
"But nothing," he growled, "your brother just got humiliated and all you can do is point and laugh along with everyone else! He put his heart and soul into trying to be the best that he can be and all any of you ever do is ridicule him for something beyond his control! But this is the one time in all the years I've known him that he looked like he wanted to give up and it's all because of you!"
"Yuno," Sister Lily tried to think of what to say.
"I'm going to look for Asta," the wind user announced, "hopefully you'll all feel like apologizing when we get back. I can only handle so much disappointment in one day and I can only imagine how he's feeling."
A Few Minutes Later: Back Alleys Near the Tower
Asta was sitting down with his back against a wall in silent contemplation. He was pretty much still processing today's events, and betrayal. Megicula said nothing, instead offering silent support by hugging him. She'd gotten to know Asta pretty well by this point, including the changes in his personality.
She knew he would talk when he was done digesting everything. And he had a lot to digest. 'I knew there might be a setback or two,' Asta thought to himself, 'being realistic, even if I had gotten a grimoire today it'd still be a massive uphill battle to be Wizard King.' Indeed, the boy had found in his studies of the few history books he'd could come across in the village that those who'd become wizard kings in the past had a laundry list of achievements even before obtaining their positions.
He had to obtain merit, and a lot of it. He had to prove to the people that he was trustworthy and capable of handling the problems that came to the kingdom. That typically involved someone with knowledge, wisdom, and power to wield when the situation called for it. Asta was certain he could acquire the first two in due time, but the last one was up in the air.
The orphan boy truly had no idea just how powerful his anti-magic was capable of becoming. Sure, he put up a surprising fight against Yuno but there were far more powerful people out there. What in the world would he do when he encountered such pe-what was that? A sudden feeling had come over Asta, like there was something wrong.
He wasn't sure how he knew, but Asta was certain it'd be a bad idea to ignore this feeling so he got up and ran towards the direction he felt he should go. At the location where he was headed, Yuno was being confronted by a pair of nobles who'd also been at the ceremony. One was a guy in a yellow business vest while the other had long white hair and a short, white shoulder cape. It was the latter who seemed to have a bone to pick with Yuno for apparently upstaging his declaration about being a magic knight with his lightshow.
Yuno honestly wasn't paying attention, he needed to find his brother and dealing with a pair of stuck-up nobles was just wasting his time. So when the white-haired noble attacked with a blast of fire he surrounded himself with a tornado of wind, not even bothering to use his grimoire. Once the attack ended, the surrounding area was burnt around him save for the circular patch he was standing on. "What?! He did that without using his grim-AAAAH!" Both nobles were sent flying by the agitated orphan's next attack, a powerful blast of wind.
'Good thing these guys weren't very skilled,' Yuno thought while taking a breath, 'I used up more mana than I thought with that display back in the tower.' He started walking forward then, thinking the trouble had passed. This was proven to be wrong as several chains suddenly came out of nowhere and wrapped around him. "You sure put on one good show after another," greeted a man in a red cloak with long black messy hair and a burn scar on the left side of his face, "I was worried for a moment that grimoire of yours was about to get burned up."
"Who are you," Yuno grunted while struggling against the chains. Unfortunately they were quite strong, even strengthening his muscles with some of his remaining mana wasn't enough to break them. Worse, they seemed to be nullifying his wind magic.
"I suppose being from a village all the way out here means you wouldn't know," the man walked forward a little so that he could be heard better, "I was once well-known among the magic knights as 'Chain Magic Revchi'. But I'm now nothing more than a humble thief ever since they expelled me from their ranks. And today I'll be stealing that grimoire." He sent another chain out that snatched the mystic tome from Yuno's hand and pulled it into his.
"What's the point of stealing a grimoire," Yuno asked, his expression and voice managing to remain calm, "it won't be of any use to you."
"Technically correct," Revchi smiled deviously, "no one can wield this grimoire except you, its master. The same goes for all grimoires. But what you clearly don't know is that there are black market collectors out there willing to buy just about anything including grimoires. More than a couple would be willing to pay a small fortune for such a unique specimen as this. And speaking of unique items," he noted the pendant hanging around Yuno's neck, "I'll bet that pendant will fetch a nice price t-huh?"
The cause of his distraction was a figure swiftly moving in front of him and snatching Yuno's grimoire before he could even react. Just as Revchi moved to summon more of his chains a fist collided with his face, sending him flying a short distance away. "A thief, at the grimoire tower of all places," a familiar ashen-haired youth eyed the man disapprovingly.
"Asta," Yuno's eyes actually lit up in surprise, "what are you doing here?"
"Helping out my brother," he glanced back with an almost smile on his face before returning his gaze to the man who was struggling to his feet.
"Well well," Revchi smirked despite holding the throbbing part of his face where he'd been punched, "that was quite a hit. It's too bad that seems to be all you have going for you."
"You think so," Asta narrowed his eyes while slipping Yuno's grimoire into a leather holder on his waist he'd planned to use for his grimoire, "I imagine you took my brother here by surprise, but you don't have that now."
"Neither do you," the thief smiled wickedly, "now die!" Several more chains were summoned but Asta sped through them, bobbing, weaving, and jumping around the living links. His speed surprised Revchi as he closed the distance in seemingly no time at all and swung another blow towards his stomach. The former magic knight wrapped chains around his stomach to protect himself, which they did but still shattered under the force of Asta's blow as he was sent into a wall.
"You think I need surprise to beat you," the ashen-haired boy approached slowly.
"Y-You still need a g-grimoire," Revchi coughed, "I recognize you, the boy who caused a scene by getting nothing despite waiting so long. I don't know how you broke my chains, but I felt it when you touched them, there's not an ounce of magic within that body of yours."
"It's not worth explaining to you," Asta picked him up by his collar, "I'll become Wizard King my own way."
"What, the wizard king?!" The thief actually laughed, "you think anyone would choose a runt like you whose only ability is a bit of enhanced strength?! Get real, all the wizard kings throughout history were practical miracle workers with their magic. But I guess a sheltered child like you wouldn't know, you see I'm only a couple steps above an average magic knight. The ones above me are absolute monsters, practical forces of nature and you can't fight something like that with your fists alone!"
This was enough to give Asta pause. He'd been pondering this very issue only a few minutes ago. To have it straight up confirmed by a former magic knight brought those fears and insecurities back to the surface. Even if his hesitation was only momentary it was enough time for Revchi to summon another chain and whip Asta across the face with it, causing him to let go. "Now die! Dance of the Pitless Viper!"
Several more chains whipped and tore at Asta with pointed arrowheads on the ends of them, hitting him with enough force to throw him into the opposite wall. "Asta, speak to me," Megicula shook him by his left arm, "are you alright?" He didn't answer but the demoness knew he was alive. Upon closer inspection, she found his toughened body had taken no damage from the attack, save for some tearing to his clothes.
Even so, he was unresponsive as Revchi assaulted him with more chains. "That's right, no matter how much physical strength you have it's useless!" He declared, "in this world, magic is everything!" The chains continued to thrash the youth as he sat there, not seeming to register the hits.
"Asta, you have to get up," Megicula pleaded, "you're tough but you're not invincible. It's only a matter of time before the attacks either penetrate your skin or this idiot figures out he can choke you and block your airways. Someone of this level shouldn't be a problem for you so get up and fight!" But Asta didn't respond, his mind apparently elsewhere as his doubts took hold once again.
'No,' the demoness thought in irritation, 'I won't let you die here!' Apparently she was going to need to do something a little unorthodox. Fortunately, Megicula had done this a couple times before. She was going to take control of Asta's body, a feat made possible by the fact their souls had merged voluntarily.
Asta might be a little upset with her afterwards since she wasn't planning on showing mercy. But the winged woman would rather have him alive and angry at her than dying because he'd given up. So she readied to do what needed to be done, but just before she switched, Yuno yelled out.
"Don't you give up now Asta," he yelled, "it's true you'll never become the wizard king, but that's because I'm going to become the wizard king! But in order to do that I have to have a rival and that's you, Asta!"
"What, you claim a magic-less boy as your rival," Revchi laughed as he moved to step on the orphan boy, "literally the only person in the world without a shred of ma-." The thief stopped as he felt a vice-like grip on his ankle.
"Get off me, loser," he shoved the man back, causing him to nearly fall over as he looked on in shock.
"But how? I've been thrashing you with my chains this whole time?" The Chain wielder asked in astonishment as he noted the lack of actual damage to his victim's body.
"Sorry you had to see me at such a weak moment, Yuno," Asta apologized as he stood up and stretched his joints a bit, "I'll destroy this guy now." As if in response to his new resolve, the air seemed to change and in a flash of black and red lightning, a tattered grimoire appeared in front of the anti-magic boy.
"I knew it," Yuno grinned, "as if it was possible that you wouldn't be chosen." Ominous energy radiated from the book which possessed a five leaf clover as it opened up. From its tattered pages a large black sword as tall and half as wide as its new owner planted itself in the ground before Asta. As he reached forward to grasp the weapon, the shadow of a winged woman appeared and embraced him from behind.
"How is that possible," Revchi stumbled back in fear, "my chains can read the amount of mana in a person's body, you had absolutely none so how can you have a grimoire?!"
"Who knows," Asta pulled the sword out of the ground, "but I can tell you what I do know." The former magic knight raged and sent his chains to attack the boy once again. Unlike last time, however, they were stopped as the ashen-haired boy cut cleanly through them, the spell nullified by his anti-magic. Rocks would go flying next as Asta launched himself towards the now horrified thief, "even without traditional magic power, I can still become the wizard king! Because my magic is never giving up!"
He slammed the blade into the man, sending him flying into the opposite wall and this time he cratered it. A second hit would prove unnecessary as he slumped over, unconscious. With his defeat, the chains binding Yuno also disappeared. "Looks like you saved my life again," Yuno noted as he approached and put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "so, you ready to go home?"
"Yeah," Asta returned his sword to his grimoire, looking upon the new tome with a restrained but still happy look in his eyes, "it's best we clear some things up."
That Evening: The Hage Church
Everyone looked up in relief at the sight of Yuno walking through the door with Asta in tow. "You're back!" Father Orsi stepped forward then. "It's good to see that you're alright A-."
"Be quiet old man!" The boy glared at him, "you, every one of you are part of the reason I considered not stepping foot back here again."
"But Asta," Sister Lily tried to plead, "This is your home. You're always welcome he-."
"Am I," he narrowed his eyes, "if you'd known I didn't have magic when you adopted me, would you still have kept me?"
"What are you talking about, of course we would've," Orsi was still confused, "why would we turn away a child in need?"
"Because why invest your time in a lost cause," Asta barked back, "all these years you raised me, was that just out of obligation since you run an orphanage? I guess it doesn't look good on anyone if they get rid of a baby. Neither you nor anyone else here actually believed I could achieve anything, no doubt you've been counting down the days until I finally leave here."
"Why would you think that, Asta," Lily looked genuinely hurt by this accusation.
"The way you looked at me back there at the tower," tears began to fill his eyes, "you all looked like you either expected it or that I was an embarrassment to you. I didn't ask to be this way, to be born the only person without magic! I wanted….more than anything….to be like all of you….to be a part of this family." He hung his head then, tears now flowing freely.
No one knew what to say at first, but Father Orsi approached him cautiously and hugged him. "Forgive me, Asta," he too began to shed tears, "I hadn't realized, no, I knew and I ignored it. I let my own goals and aspirations get in the way. I should've shown you that I believed in you just as much as I believed in Yuno. Instead I let bad behavior towards you slide time and again even though I'm supposed to care for and love all the children that wind up on my doorstep."
"I'm sorry too," Sister Lily apologized while also hugging him, "even if I never said or did anything unkind to you, I still stood by and let the others mock you. How can I call myself a good caretaker if even one of my children is feeling misery that I can do something about?" Then slowly, the other children also joined in, voicing their own apologies. They were, after all, supposed to be a family and family cares for one another.
Now, seeing that they truly were apologetic for their behavior, new tears began to flow from Asta's eyes, tears of joy. The ashen-haired boy decided then that, flawed as it was, this was still his home. He'd give them one more chance. After all, today marked yet another drastic change in the direction of his life.
At last the grimoire has appeared and we've entered the canon timeline! But of course, changes have already occurred and now the butterfly effect will continue. What will Asta's path be now with Megicula aiding him? Tell me what you think in your comments and reviews along with what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! Also, be sure to see about becoming a patron for news, scene samples, and even commissions! Be sure to stop in next time as our hero sets out on his journey! 'Til then.