Asta groaned as he opened his eye and saw Megicula looking at him. "What happens now?"
"Nothing now, get ready to go home. Also, hold these hearts."
Asta nodded as he looked disgusted but held the three hearts.
Megicula then grabbed him and flew up. As soon as they were near the gate, she threw Asta into the gate. As he went past it, Asta looked to see the night sky.
"I am back."
"Good, now let's start Soul Magic X Curse Magic: Morphos Operation." Asta's soul and body started changing, and while it was over, Asta now had an immense amount of mana and magic as he had gained back the magic he had lost.
Asta froze as suddenly he felt a power spike and saw a vision of Megicula. "Boy, this is my first Absolute command: eat two of those hearts."
He looked down as markings appeared on the heart and vanished as he ate the heart. Meanwhile, Megicula cast her Soul Magic as Asta's magic increased more and more. The power of the two Devils had now permanently merged with Asta.
Asta looked as he ate the first two, and just then, markings appeared on him as he fell in pain. After a while, it was over.
"W-What was that?"
"That was an experiment, boy. Seems it worked."
"W-What?"
"It's simple. You ate their heart and gained the magic at the same time. I also increased their spirit in you while my curse kept you as human as possible and your soul intact as possible. Both of them mutated in a way, so you now have magic. Congrats, now Awakened."
Asta looked, gaining an empty look as a barrier of mana formed.
Megicula looked in thought, wondering why the second soul in Asta's body was so different yet the same. From what she could tell, a forbidden magic was used to reincarnate a fetus's soul, and it had attached itself to Asta's growing soul. While Asta himself was a fetus and lost his magic due to the same reason, it seemed the soul had lived alongside Asta, growing up with the same thoughts, emotions, and memories. So, the soul had started to fuse together.
"Hmm, no matter, boy, now eat the Hybrid heart."
Asta's body moved automatically, eating the huge heart as Megicula cast her magic. As soon as the process was over, she destroyed the three souls permanently and put Asta's soul back in the dominant position.
"Wha... what happened?"
"No, it's about to happen."
Asta then felt a huge amount of mana pick up as he saw a dark ball float, while runes glowed on his chest. He fell on the floor, and after a while, it was over.
"W-What did you do?"
"I fused a lot of Negative mana from the Underworld and my mana into your heart, along with a layer of your muscle mutating them. But thankfully now go to your dwelling."
Asta moved as soon as a farmer found him, and they took him back to the orphanage, where he found he was missing for two weeks now. When they asked him, as per Megicula's instruction, he told them he didn't know where he was and only saw a few scary guys and didn't remember anything. After a while, they stopped questioning him.
POV Megicula
Megicula was wandering around the Living World as she had heard an interesting story from Lucifero about a Magicless Devil that was in the living world. She soon found the magicless devil but inside a grimoire, so she took over the devil body inside the grimoire.
"Gahhh!" The small devil screamed as his right side turned into mist. "So you are he, boy, huh?"
"W-Who are you?"
"My name is Megicula, the Queen of the Underworld, and you are the Magicless Devil, huh? Interesting."
"Get you! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!"
"Let me know why you want to kill us, shall we?"
"Ahhhhh!" The devil screamed as markings spread all over his head, and after a while, it was over.
"Hoo, interesting, human. Now, Hildegarde, was it? That the name Richita gave you, right?"
"Don't say her name from your mouth!"
"Hehe, sorry, Hilda. Now, then, let's see how you fare with a curse even more powerful than hers. I wonder how your magicless body will react. After all, the curse I made will absorb Mana and Natural Mana, then split in half, infusing one half into your body and soul, while the other half is used to summon Negative Mana, which is infused into your body and soul as well."
Hilda looked as marks spread across its body.
"Also, don't worry. You won't remember this permanently. Now, if you do survive this curse, I might give you magic."
The devil screamed as soon as its memory was gone, and Megicula vanished.
Megicula appeared in the Underworld as she smiled. "I wonder what result my experiment will bring," as she then went back and started training Asta.
Asta looked at her. "Megicula, why are you here now?"
"I talked to you, of course. Now let me tell you about your curses."
"My curses?"
"Yes, my curse first gives you high-speed regeneration, one that makes you nearly immortal. I saw you liked to train your physical body. With this, you can train past your limit since you don't have the risk of overtraining and harming your body. Another curse restores your stamina, so you can train for hours on end."
Asta nodded.
"Good boy. Now do as you wish, but I want to see big improvements in physical ability and mana control. Maybe even use your magic attribute."
"Hai."
Two years later, Asta looked as he was practicing his magic outside. From Megicula, he learned he had Three Magic Sealing Magic, Curse Warding Magic, and Dark Magic, as he heard footsteps and turned back to see a teenage girl dressed as a nun walking toward him along with the Father.
Orsi smiled. "Asta, meet Sister Lily. She is starting today as the new caretaker of our orphanage."
He smiled. "Hello, nice to meet you, Sister Lily. And Lily, meet Asta. He is one of the orphans here. He was lost, but we found him recently."
Lily smiled. "Nice to meet you as well, Asta, and I hope you are fine."
Asta nodded. "Yeah, I don't remember much, but I am fine now."
"Well, that's good. Now, why don't we play for a while?"
Three months later
A Very injured, Asta looked as he was grabbed and pulled by the hand of the man who took Yuno's pendant. "Oi, give my brother's pendant back now! Give it back!"
Just then, black markings appeared as the man fell down, screaming in pain. Asta let go and looked in horror at the man screaming, but the mark faded as he took the pendant.
Yuno looked at him. "W-What was that?"
Asta shrugged. "Let's go now." They then walked to the church where Sister Lily healed Asta.
The Next day
Lily looked at Asta. "What is troubling you, Asta?"
Asta shook his head. "Nothing, Sister. I'm fine."
"Please tell me. You both have changed very much. What is troubling you? Can't you tell me?"
"It's my magic."
"What about it? Do you have trouble controlling it?"
"Yes, but it also only hurts others."
"Are you worried about it?"
Asta nodded. "What if I can only hurt others with my magic?"
"Well, offensive magic is a boon if you want to be a Magic Knight."
"But what if I hurt my friends and others as well?"
"I'm sure you can also protect others using magic."
"No, I don't think I can."
"You will, Asta. You have to believe in yourself and practice hard, okay?"
"Okay, Sister Lily, but can you train me?"
"Ehh, me?"
"I want to control my mana and learn Healing Magic. Please train me."
"Well, I've never taught before."
"Please, Yuno can already control his mana, and I need to learn Healing Magic."
Asta looked at her with pleading eyes.
Lily looked at Asta, as all she could see was his broken eye with desperation that should not be seen in a kid.
"I, umm, okay. I will train you."
"Thank you, Sister Lily. So, how do I heal?"
"Let's start with some mana control training, okay? And learning theory on Healing, okay?"
Asta nodded.
Few weeks later
Lily looked at Asta. "Ready to go?"
Asta nodded, as he was happy. Two weeks ago, he found Sister Lily wanted to go train under Sister Theresa in Nairn form training, as he asked to join her. After one letter, Sister Theresa agreed to house Asta as well.
Yuno looked at him. "Asta, return soon, and when we return, I will be stronger."
Asta smirked. "Nah, I will be."
Lily smiled at them. After that, Asta sat on a broom behind Sister Lily as they flew away to Nairn.
Asta held on when he felt Megicula's connection, as he heard her voice. [So where are you going now?]
He concentrated as he thought. [To train.]
[Are you still trying to learn Healing Magic?]
[Yes, it's a good idea. Plus, you said you wanted to experiment, right?]
[Hehe, good point. Cursed-based recovery magic, huh? Truly interesting. I wonder why you are so set on helping people.]
[Well, let's talk about why I should and should not, okay?]
[A talk on Philosophy, huh? I prefer more scientific experiments, but this will be interesting as well. Okay, then let's talk and get to know each other, as the humans say.]
Three years later
In the past three years, Asta had developed a lot. During his stay in Nairn, Sister Theresa helped him gain some control over his huge amount of mana, and after seeing him train so hard, Theresa trained him in the basics of hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship. She also gave him a proper physical training regimen that she made by modifying Mereoleona's old physical training regimens and taught him basic Reinforcement Magic, Healing Magic, and Mana Skin. Before they left, Theresa gifted him one metal sword along with all of Mereoleona's physical training regimens that had been modified to fit him and his diet. Though Asta had never followed the routine, he always trained three to five times harder and more intensely than in the routine, with the help of Megicula's curses. He also ate more food as per the instruction on the training regimen, as his physical training itself focused on training every muscle in his body in order to gain a lean muscular build with compact muscles, high physical power, but with high flexibility as well.
Theresa also introduced him to Yami, who had lost a bet with Theresa and, in return, had to train Asta in using Dark Magic properly. Asta also learned about Mana Zone from them, but only the basic description.
For magic, Asta was trained hard in mana control and mana sensing. Plus, he had started training in using Megicula's power in various ways as he learned to use her pure devil power. He also learned to assimilate Megicula's power through his three magics. Lily trained him in using Healing Magic and Creation Magic. Plus, he trained hard in Reinforcement Magic and Mana Skin and also challenged Yuno to a few challenges.
Back to present
Asta looked as he felt a presence. He saw a tall, slender man wearing a dark grey vest, black pants, and black shoes, along with a white cravat underneath a black coat with an upturned collar and a black tophat with a red band. He had pale skin, black hair, and red eyes, along with black eyeshadow in large circles around his eyes and black lips. He had a black handlebar mustache and goatee.
Asta looked at him. "Who are you, and why have you been following me for so many days now?"
The man came closer. "Hello, my name is Nathan Agrippa."
"Ehh, can you speak louder?"
"My name is Nathan Agrippa."
"Oh, nice to meet you, Mr. Nathan. But why are you here?"
"For you. I want you."
"WHAT?" Asta backed off.
"I saw your magic. It felt sinister, and I saw you curse various animals. You must have great aptitude for it. What is your magic?"
Asta looked at him. "None of your concern. Why?"
"It seems very useful and also perfect. Would you like to be my apprentice?"
"Excuse me?"
"My family has been Curse mages for ages."
"So you want me to hurt other people?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I want you to inherit my research and be a recovery mage."
"Can you explain? I don't get it."
Few minutes later
"So you are turning your family's knowledge on curses and hexes into healing magic?"
Nathan nods.
"Cool, but I don't think so. I can't leave my home."
"I can move in here. My family owns a building here."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, we own buildings in some key places around the world. One of them is this town."
The next day, Asta was walking home when he stopped as he saw some rise from the jungle. He went over and saw many people working there along with Nathan, who walked up to him.
"Teacher, what is this?"
"We're constructing our new home."
"Ehhh, just like that?"
"These Worker's Master owes my family a lot of favors."
Asta nodded.
In just a few days, the new home was complete. Asta started training and studying with the Agrippa family, learning more about Curses and various ways of death in detail, along with Healing Magic. Asta discovered that the Agrippa family's ancestors had been hosts to Megicula and had a contract with her. The ancestors used to experiment with various curses, and Megicula became very interested in Nathan's research, which she began to read through Asta's body. Nathan also got him books on Rune, Seal, Trap, and Curse Magic from the Clover Kingdom Library. He obtained these through various means, mainly using his magic spell to generate black oil paint and using it to draw words on other paper, similar to how oil paintings were made. With the help of a Royal/Noble, Nathan accessed the Royal Library and copied all the books on Curses, Healing, and Dispelling Curses, and even got books on types of magic and advanced techniques.
Plus, Asta used Nathan's broom to fly around the kingdom, hunting dangerous animals and bandits, using Mana Skin and Reinforcement Magic to refine his combat and magic skills. Through Megicula, he discovered he had another soul and learned to channel its power when Megicula sealed his magic and made him fight a bandit. He found that he also had Weapon Magic, Soul Magic, and Spatial Magic. He also discovered that Megicula now had a new magic attribute: Anatomy Magic.
The orphanage was worried about him spending so much time with such a weird and creepy family, but Asta eased their worries, even though everyone was scared since he was now properly learning Curse Magic, even if it was to heal. Lily also read some of Nathan's books and research papers to improve her Healing Magic, but Yuno wasn't interested in them. It seemed that Yuno's magic, while able to use Healing and Curse Magic, wasn't as suited for him, but he had a high affinity for Creation-type magic. He used the opportunity to read various books on magic.