Chapter 5:A Dragon's power
"I'm sorry Mars, but this is the only way. You have to die." A little girl with pink hair said. A familiar fire in her hands.
"If I can put out the fire, It'll weaken him immensely." Noelle said forming a water ball with her wand. Tear flew up above her and called her out.
"I thought you couldn't control your magic." He stated. "That's what I have the wand for. Now focus, this isn't the time to be messing around." She replied.
"Yeah Yeah, whatever." Tear said with a genuine disinterest. He flew upwards away from the action and just observed, eyes still his natural gold but his pupils back to the draconian slits.
When Noelle went and fired out her attack Mars's attention immediately flipped and he blasted her with a punch from his golem that none of them were ready for. "Noelle!!" Mimosa called. "Oh, Shit!" Tear also yelled.
Tear immediately flew down and caught her before she could hit the ground. Her chest was torn up and she was out cold.
"NOELLE!" Asta screeched back at the wall. Asta brought out his large anti-magic sword yelling "Damn You! How Dare You Hurt My Friend!!" However Mars looked rather satisfied. He claimed to have figured out Asta's ability. That his sword destroys any and all magic and that the solution was simply to overwhelm him.
So he summoned a heptet of spinning crystal daggers and launched then at high speeds at Asta. The daggers forced him to stop his mad dash and focus on defense, luckily for him they hadn't been as fast as he feared, but fast enough to cause problems.
Though to his shock; while he was deflecting the daggers Mars was sprinting at him full speed. By the time he looked up it was already too late as he got rocked by the golem, all the way through the wall. Completely out cold.
Mars walked up to the hole he made using Asta, repeating "only the strong will survive." As if it gave him comfort. When he heard Mimosa's calls to her fallen cousin.
She was using her healing magic to stabilize her, it didn't take long luckily and all she had to do now was heal the wounds and hopefully wake her up. "There's no time for Dream Healing Flower Cradle." She thought. "I have to do this as fast as possible. Plant Recovery Magic:Princess Healing Flower Robe" she said aloud, as a coat made of grass and flowers with what look like fairy wings grows around her. "This is my best recovery spell, so please Noelle. Don't die on me!" She thought.
8 Years Ago
A young Mimosa and Noelle could be seen in a grass field. Mimosa had tripped and fell, hurting herself. "Ow Ow Ow, it hurts." She whimpered.
"What are you doing Mimosa? Are you such a dimwit you can't even walk?" The young Noelle said rudely. Despite the remark she stuck her hand out to Mimosa to help her up.
"Thank you Noelle, I really am a bit clumsy sometimes." Mimosa said, sounding just as wholesome as in the present.
four years later, an 11 year old Mimosa could be seen healing a gash on a woman's arm. After just a few seconds of being exposed to her magic the wound completely closed up; not even a scar left behind. After a quick word of gratitude from the woman we see Mimosa out in the courtyard in front of two men.
"Incredible, Mimosa may be capable of growing to the point of being able to healany wound." The second man stated in amazement. The first man however had something less positive to say.
"Have you heard though? The second daughter of the silva house has absolutely no control of her magic. She has to practice daily and even still can't control it in any significant degree." The first man informed.
"To think that someone like that was born into the royal family. I suppose the royalty of house Vermillion are the true royal family." The second man said with a casual disdain.
Mimosa walked out of the courtyard to be greeted with a sight of Noelle practicing her magic. Huge balls of water shot out at random intervals and in random directions. Cries of effort with every shot exiting her mouth. Craters surrounded her and the wall she was targeting was torn up pretty much everywhere. But despite all that, despite all the criticism and insults.
Noelle just kept trying, and trying, and trying.
Back to the Present
"If it were me, I definitely would've given up by now. Practice is for the weak and powerless. To us everything should come easily." Mimosa thought.
Mimosa's eyes started to water a little as she started speaking out loud. "You've always worked hard. And I've always admired you for it." She said, sounding as if she was about to cry.
Noelle's wounds faded, but the healing wasn't complete.
Normally Tear would make fun of a name like "Princess Healing Flower Robe" but even he knew when it was time to be serious. Especially when it was his diregard that got them in this situation in the first place. He didn't know most of these guys very well, but he owed it to them to fix his mistake.
Mars at this point had completely turned around and was coming for them. "Hey, Mimosa." Tear called out from her side. Mimosa turned her head to look at him and Tear continued to speak. "You focus on healing Noelle. I'll take him down before he can do anything to the both of you." Tear said looking back with one eye and keeping Mars in his peripheral.
Mimosa nodded to the plan and redoubled her efforts to heal Noelle's wounds. Tear looked at Mars and cracked his neck. "You got really unlucky you know." Tear randomly said, getting a confused look from Mars. Tear noticed his expression and smiked, showing off his fangs. "You were milliseconds away from trapping your biggest threat like you did the other guys. You missed your one shot at actually pulling out a win here." Tear said confidently.
This got a look of anger out of Mars to Tear's amusement. He knew he said he'd take this seriously but this idiot was just so fun to play with. This little thought process he was having to himself though got him trucked as he missed Mars coming at him full speed. Though last second he was able to activate one of his spells. "Dragon Magic: Obsidian Scales!" He shouted right before he was hit.
Tear was sent flying but he was able to catch himself with his wings. After he stopped moving the black scales were revealed to be covering him, as well as a lack of damage.
"That was actually close to damaging me. You should be proud of yourself." Tear said arrogantly. This was just an act though. Before he had his fire magic activated Tear was absolutely sure he wss stronger; but now that he was healing and buffing himself the gap had closed more than he'd like.
"Just provoke him and stall. I don't want to show out when one of my members can't see me." Tear thought. However, he shook his head and remembered what he promised Mimosa. It was safer to just take him out now instead of waiting for Noelle to wake up.
While Tear went through that thinking process Mars rused at him again, the crystal golem's fist cocked back. This time though Tear was ready as he flew out of the way and charged magic into his wing orbs. "Dragon Magic: Dragon Cannon!" He said, violently flapping his wings.
The two orbs moved at faster speeds than any of Mars's projectiles and managed to blow a part of the golem's chest apart. Mars recoiled from the damage and Tear wasted no time in taking advantage, flying at Mars himself.
Mars swung at him again but Tear was able to barrel roll under it and get to him. Tear tried grabbing Mars and tearing him out of the crystal golem but the fire made it impossible. So what did he do?
he decided to just obliterate him.
"Dragon Magic: Savage Downpour!" He said as a copious amount of his dragon element flew out of his mouth and right into Mars.
unexpectedly the element was harmless at the moment and he had just enough time to knock Tear off. Unfortunately for him though the dragon mana drained his fire healing spell and some of his magic power.
"What are you gonna do without your support spell?" Tear said as he got up. Mars had said something but it was under his breath and he couldn't hear it. Tear smirked and brought his right hand up like he was about to snap.
"Dragon Magic: World Eater's Uproar." He said coolly with a snap of his fingers. Suddenly the residual black smoke left from his downpour exploded violently, bringing the golem to it's knees.
"You should've hopped out that suit. You couldn't have believed you were safe with all that magic surrounding you. I don't know you but I didn't take for a dimwit." Tear said tauntingly.
Tear didn't make anymore advancements and just stood there, slapping his tail on the ground every once in a while. After a couple minutes Tear walked up to the dead mech assuming he had been eviscerated. As most are when they're hit by that particular spell.
That assumption was costly though.
A dagger of crystal shot out suddenly right at Tear's head. He had luckily managed to dodge in time but a large gash had formed on his cheek. "How The Hell Are You Even Alive!" Tear shouted, wincing slightly at the sting of the still air on his cut.
Mars didn't reply and it was instead revealed that he had trapped himself in a dome of crystal which had only barely protected him. "Okay, now you're starting to piss me off. It was fun before, but when dead men don't stay dead it gets annoying." Tear said with a tick mark on his forehead.
Mars, again didn't respond as he restarted his flame recovery magic spell and created dozens of clones. "Oh? Be careful, if you give me too many toys I'm probably gonna break them." Tear taunted with a playful tone, again ignoring his promise of staying serious.
Tear proceeded to go on a rampage; tearing through the clones one by one, each being shattered in brutal and creative ways.
One impaled through the skull by a tail barb.
Another's head split down the middle by a thin line if magic.
A third's arm bitten off and subsequently beaten to death.
A fourth tripped and had it's neck stomped on, separating it's head from it's body.
The crystal clones kept coming and Tear kept killing with a smile on his face and a crazed look in his blood red and slitted eyes. "He might be even more crazy than the Cheery Beserker!" Klaus thought, shocked. "Oh Yeah! Get em Tear! Even though I wish I could fight too." Luck said."Nevermind." Klaus thought with a sweat drop.
"What was the point of this anyway? I'm not tired, I definitely haven't used much mana, I'm not being annoyed into making mistakes. What's your... end... goal...man?" Tear looked back to where he last saw Mars and was confused to see the lack of a large crystal golem.
As Tear looked around and heard a scream coming from Mimosa's direction."SHIT!" Tear exclaimed as he finally located the Golem. Without skipping a beat he leaped and flew over to them at max speed.
"I can't let a healer like you live if I want to win." Mars stated objectively. Noelle was completely healed at this point and just had to wake up. Unfortunately it looked like she would never get that chance as Mars raised his suits fist.
Mimosa tried getting Noelle out the way but the dead weight was too much, she was going to die here with her cousin. There was nothing she could do to stop it. So she had no choice but to reluctantly accept her fate.
Luckily for her though, Tear didn't bend to the idea of fate.
Tear had managed to get there on time and catch Mars's fist. "Got damn, this thing is stronger than I thought!" Tear said, struggle in his voice. Tear was trying his hardest to hold it back but he was sliding slowly on the smooth floor.
Tear dug his tail barb into the ground to anchor himself and fully hunkered down. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Mars yelled with rare emotion.
"Can you shut up? Your voice is annoying me."
"I don't know who you think you are. Taking out my squadmates and new friends, preaching about the weak and the strong when you're not even the second strongest in this room, resorting to attacking already downed opponents because you can't take me on." Tear paused. "You're honestly really disappointing. You have above average magic, you have two attributes, you've been implanted with odd gemstones that radiate mana. And yet you still fall short to a commoner with no magic."
"I'm honestly suprised you made it this far. I can only presume other people had to pay for your weakness if this is all you can do." Tear finished, a straight face on throughout the entire speech.
"Me weak?" Mars thought. "No, I'm strong. That's how I've survived all this time, that's why she's dead, that's why I'm the weapon of diamond!"
All of a sudden we cut to a gruesome scene. Bodies seemingly everywhere and with a closer look, those bodies turned out to be children.
"I'm sorry Mars but it ends like this, you have to die." A familiar pink haired girl said a grimoire eerily similar to half of Mars's. The flame in her hand glowed brightly as the girl got ready to shoot with the intent to kill.
But right before she could, a large spike of crystal shot from the floor and impaled her. "Huh? F-Fana!" The much younger Mars exclaimed having impaled the girl.
Back in the present, Mars had completely lost it. "NO, I'M NOT WEAK!!" He shouted.
"What The Hell?!" Tear said as he suddenly got pushed even further despite all of his efforts. "I should really stop taunting people when I get the upper hand; or really in general!" Tear said in self frustration and a renewed struggle.
Luckily though he was able to buy enough time for Mimosa to get out the way, meaning if he destroyed the golem she wouldn't be injured by any debris. "Dragon Magic: Stygian Flash!" Suddenly red bolts of energy crashed down on Mars and sent the golem flying backwards. Tear used this chance to go and check on Mimosa and make sure she was okay.
"You didn't get injured in that exchange did you?" He questioned with clear concern. "No, I was able to get me and Noelle out of harm's way while you were holding it back." Mimosa reassured.
"Good, I can't have any if my new friends getting hurt." Tear said with an wide smile, his fangs getting exposed and his ears spread out, creating a rather adorable yet kinda scary image. Mimosa blushed slightly at him before giving him a smile of her own. "Exactly, so don't get injured yourself alright? I can only heal so many people at once." Mimosa said with honest concern.
"You don't have to worry about me. Unless he got extremely lucky, he'll never even land a hit that actually hurts." Tear said confidently.
"But what about that?" Mimosa said gesturing to the still bleeding cut on his cheek. "Huh, I had honestly forgotten about that. Think you could heal it? Or do you have to focus on Noelle?" Tear said, looking at the gash in rememberance.
"Noelle has been healed for a while, I'm just keeping her stable since her body went into shock from the sudden damage." Mimosa clarified.
"Well then let's hurry it up, I really need to get back over there." Tear said impatiently, looking back to make sure Mars wasn't on his way. If Mimosa was upset about his impatient remark she didn't show it as she brought a hand to gash.
In just a few seconds the gash was healed with no sign of previous damage. Tear was honestly kinda shocked by how well her healing magic worked. None of the Black Bulls used it to his knowledge and this was his first time working with another squad.
Tear turned around to face Mars who was just now getting up from his spell, an angry and crazed look plastered on his face. "Hey Mimosa, you're definitely more impressive than I thought. So don't let anyone else tell you otherwise not even yourself." Tear said one final thing before running back to Mars with a smirk.
Mimosa on the other hand was a little bit confused. She barely knew this guy and yet he was so intriguing. He was charismatic, kinder than he looks, and seemed to pay attention to people's feelings if he managed to picked up on her recent self doubt.
"Focus Mimosa! Just keep Noelle safe. Worry about interesting guys later!" She thought slapping her cheeks.
Tear was about to go back on the offensive when he heard a loud scream "HEY!!" Tear looked over to see not only Asta, but a new sword that was a lot less beefy than his other one. Not to mention the detail that overall made it seem like it was just a higher quality.
"Well Look Who's Back From The Dead!" Tear exclaimed happily. "But you're a little late Asta! I've already got him down; I jut gotta finish him off!" Tear continued. "No Way! This guy almost killed Noelle and trapped the others! I'm gonna be the one to take him on!" Asta replied.
"Sorry but you had your chance. It's my turn to take this bastard down! Maybe if he's still alive after I'm done you can have a second shot!" Tear said almost condescendingly.
"Actually that sword is pretty cool. And I'd love to see what it can do." Tear thought. "We can just fight him after this to see what it does." The voice in his head argued. "But that would take so much time when I could see right now! And besides this guy isn't all that strong anyway and most of my fun has come from bullying him." Tear continued to argue with himself. "But do you really want to just hand over an easy win to some guy just because you were curious?" The voice questioned.
"Yeah sure why not? It's not like we have anything to lose. If he wins he was stronger and if he loses I'll just save him and pick up where we left off. This can only go in my favor." Tear finalized.
Tear turned to look at Asta who was giving him an odd look. "Hey As- what's with that look?" Tear said. "You do know you said all of that out loud right?" Tear paused and looked at Mimosa for confirmation. To which she nodded with a comical sweat drop going down her head.
Tear's look of shock was short lived however as he decided to play it off before it got anymore embarrassing. "W-Well than you already know what to do Asta! So quit looking at me like that and show off your new sword!" Tear said slightly nervous.
Mars who had also been rather confused by the situation regained his angered look, spawning the crystal daggers that countered Asta last time.
Asta sprinted at Mars just like last time. But one key difference is that he didn't need to stop to block all the daggers. His new sword was fast enough to shatter them all before they could make contact.
Asta jumped at Mars and landed a slash on the golem's chest. He used his built up momentum however to continue up to get a large cut on Mar's shoulder.
"One for me." Asta declared. Sadly though the damage was healed by Mars's recovery magic. "Begone Boy!" Mars said with a punch that Asta had managed to block but still sent him far back.
Once Asta landed ge stopped to take a short break."Why are you just sitting there insect?" A familiar voice said. Tear and Asta looked over to see Noelle, not fully up but at least was awake. "You woke up!" Asta said happily. Mimosa was against her straining herself to talk but Noelle ignored her protests
"Listen,I'm a royal Asta; and you are the first commoner I've ever accepted. So get moving; and don't give up until you beat him." Right after she finished her pep talk Tear and Luck noticed something. "A stream of mana is heading from Noelle to that sword." They thought at the same time
"Vanessa never mentioned magic absorption when she was listing his Anti Magic's abilities." Tear thought. He turned his attention to the sword, it was glowing a bright blue, similar to Noelle's water magic. "Maybe different swords are capable if different abilities. The large sword completely nullifies and reflects magic while this smaller one absorbs it. But I wonder what it can do with said absorbed magic." Tear deduced.
"Give Up, You Can't Win! I Live Too Destroy The Weak!" Mars declared.
"Well You're Not Gonna Destroy Me!" Asta challenged.
"I may not have any magic power; but what I do have, Are My Friends!" Asta shouted.
Through pure instinct he swung his sword despite the large distance between the two. A wide slash of light blue magic that looked like water fired and destroyed all of Mars's projectiles.
In fact the slash had continued on to blast Mars and his Golem to kingdom come, knocking him hard into a wall.
"Wait, how is that possible? I thought he didn't have any magic." Klaus thought. "A water based slashing attack? That means that my mana sense was working right." Luck looked too Noelle and Mimosa. "He somehow managed to borrow some of Noelle's magic?" Luck thought confused.
"Just what in the world is that sword?" They thought at the same time.
"Heh, I don't know how, but I actually managed to do it." Asta said with a chuckle, eyes half lidded and tired. "I'm glad I let you test out that new sword of yours! I wonder what it can do against my dragon magic!" Tear exclaimed. His curiosity was satisfied for now, but he definitely needed to see more of that mana absorption.
To Tear's confusion though Asta never replied. He instead just looked down with a shocked face. Tear raised his eyebrow and looked down, what he saw gave him an equally shocked expression. "W-What?!!" He exclaimed.
It turned out that Noelle and Asta's slash wasn't able to get rid of all of Mar's projectiles. A large shard of crystal had completely impaled Asta in the stromach.
"Hrrk!" The wet sound of liquid hitting the floor reverberated throughout the chamber as Asta coughed out blood and fell over, dropping his sword. "ASTA!!" Noelle and oddly enough Tear screamed.
"I'm fine! Go tend to him!" Noelle said in a panic. "Right" Mimosa replied as she ran over to Asta's downed form. When she reached him though,she realized the injury he had gotten was more severe than she might be able to heal with that magic she had left.
However before she could continue to doubt herself she remembered what Tear told her. "He's right Mimosa. Don't doubt yourself, just keep going until you can't anymore." She reassured herself. "Open Up Your Eyes Brat! Where Did All That Arrogance Go!" Klaus yelled, still trapped in crystal. "You can't die yet, we haven't even had our big fight!" Luck added on.
Yuno was still silent, however. In fact he hadn't said a word since he got trapped in the first place.
Tear also hadn't said a word. But not due to shock, or fear, or anything like that.
No, his silence was due to something he hadn't felt since he was eight.
Pure Overwhelming Rage
"T-That Bastard! I-I-I'll kill him! I'll Tear him Apart! Take those Gems out of his disgusting face and shove it down his throat! Tear his jaw open and eviscerate his insides with my magic! Choke him out with my tail until he begs for mercy, and then I'll run him Through! Gut him like the animal he is and bring the remains right to Diamond! How dare he?! How dare he hurt one of my friends!?"
Tear continued to create these brutal images of Mar's death at his hands.
With Mars however, he was completely knocked out, stuck in his memories before the final trial.
A young Mars could be seen, tearing up a little in a large corridor. "Is the training getting to you Mars?" A familiar voice said. Mars turned around to see an even more familiar face. The pink haired girl.
"When things get tough, just close your eyes and think about the people you love." She advised. "Don't forget, we're here so we can become powerful enough to protect our country. So don't give up ok?" The girl said with a smile.
Another scene at a later time showed them watching the sunset from a large window. "Once we've gotten strong, we'll be able to leave this place." The girl said."Do you think you'll be the first one who goes? Cause I do." She continued. "I mean how could you not be? You're the strongest we all know it." She complimented.
Mars gave a wholesome smile and replied. "When I get out, I' promise I'll wait for you." He said. "Yeah, we'll go see the outside world together." The girl said with an equally wholesome smile.
We cut to a familiar scene, a large group of kids in a large room. "This is the final test. You will all fight to the death, only the last one standing will be permitted to leave and become a mage for this country. Refuse and everyone will be eliminated." A man's voice stated.
Mars and the rest of the kids looked in shock. However one brave(or insane) boy attacked first, going for Mars with lightning in his hand.
This attack unfortunately led to the boy's death however as a spike of crystal shot out and killed him on impact.
Children's screams filled the room as blood splattered in a gruesome scene filled with nothing but death. Mars, with blood that was not his, was breathing hard. Whether is was from trauma or exhaustion wasn't important.
"Mars." A familiar voice called out. Mars looked back to see his friend, fire in her hand. "Fana?" Mars called out and revealed her name. "I'm sorry but this is the only way. Now die." Fana said rushing at him.
Mars backed up and rose his arms on instinct. A familiar spike of crystal shot up. Blood splattered on Mars's arm as he moved them out of his vision.
But he really wished he hadn't.
He had completely impaled his only friend, who he had promised to see the world with.
Not another word was spoken.
Not another word was thought.
All he could do was breathe, until even that felt impossible as he started hyperventilating. He was scared, tired, traumatized and confused. Quickly all of these feelings culminated into one coherent thought.
To Scream.
"It seems Mars is the last one standing. Which means he will be the one to get the mage stones." The voice from before said. "Yes, and for his compound magic he can have Fana's. She was the last to get defeated and her abilities will be quite useful." A second man said. "Thus, through the deaths of his peers the strongest mage is born." The second man finished.
"I-I don't need anyone. With my power I will never need anyone. Those who don't have power are weak. And the weak Die." Mars thought.
He had managed to get back up to the shock of all the clover mages except one.
"Give Up! You're just a pathetic child! You had no chance of defeating me!" Mars declared.
Mars brought his Golem's hand up creating another Laevateinn and swinging it at the downed Asta and Mimosa. Luck and Klaus tried to break free but they wouldn't be able too Yuno on the other hand was different.
"ASTA!" Yuno shouted, the first thing he'd said since he got trapped. "No matter what spell I use it'll be too late. But I can't let him die." Yuno thought. Suddenly his grimoire started glowing brightly as it began flipping through pages at an extremely fast rate.
That's when it happened. Time had almost seemed to stop as the very world around him was drained of color and painted in a bright shade of silver. Yuno looked around confusedly as he saw a very small girl with greenish blonde hair, small wings, and a glowing green dress.
But he also saw something else, something that didn't belong here.
Something that terrified him.
A ginormous cloud of ominous black smoke, with red energy crackling throughout that went all the way to the sealing. The mana coming off of it was so potent it even gave whatever this girl was on his shoulder pause. The only distinguishable thing in the smoke was a single red eye that seemed to promise death to all that gazed upon it.
"W-What the hell is going on?!" Yuno asked with unforeseen nervousness in his voice. The girl didn't reply though as she brought a hand up and blew in the direction of Mars and Asta.
The slow moving wind mana had barely made contact with the sword when it and the golem immediately shattered, blowing Mars back into the wall, passed out again as time resumed as normal.
Due to Mar's defeat his binding spell became undone. Klaus and Luck ran over to Yuno to question him on what happened. "Yuno, what did you do?!" Klaus exclaimed with Luck backing him up. "I don't know." Yuno replied.
But before he could question further though Yuno continued. "There was this tiny person-" "Tiny Person!?" Klaus interrupted. "I think." Yuno said, averting his gaze.
He didn't want to mention the terrible mana he saw, it was uncomfortable just thinking about it. He shivered which Klaus chalked up to him being tired.
"Well, he's down now. For goos this time." Klaus reassured. Yuno however was looking at his grimoire "this writing, is it from that scroll?" Yuno wondered
Asta was still passed out being healed when a black and red aura surrounded his knew sword and brought it into his grimoire.
Tear however had just broken out of his rage filled trance. He had been surprised at the sudden defeat of Mars but wasn't complaining. This way he could kill him without him fighting back.
Unfortunately killing Mars would have to wait as the entire dungeon started rumbling. "The ceiling's caving!" Yuno called out.
Without skipping a beat Yuno immediately used his "Wind Magic: Celestial Wind Ark!" They all got on exept for Tear, who was running over to Mars.
"Hey You Brat! We Don't Have Time! We Have Too G-" Klaus stopped himself. Tear had turned his head slightly to glare at Klaus with one eye, said eye glowing a bright, intimidating red, and the jagged slit that represented his full use of his mana.
When Tear was about to get to Mars however he heard Mimosa call for him. "Please Listen To Klaus Tear! I Can't Have Anymore Of My Friends Getting Hurt Either!" She said. This actually brought Tear to a stop as he looked back at the still wind vehicle.
Tear snarled to himself in annoyance and flee at max speed back to them. After he landed he looked back at Mar's passed out form. "I would've rather killed him myself. But I guess the dungeon doing it for me will have to do." He thought angrily.
"We've got to help him." Asta suddenly said as he woke up. Klaus was about to say something but Tear beat him to it. "Sorry Asta but no. He tried to kill us and almost succeeded with you and Noelle. I may not know any of you very well but I can't risk any of you for him." Tear said, the ending of his sentence seemed different somehow but none of them could place their finger on it.
All they knew was that it left no room for argument.
Yuno immediately drove them away from Mars. Yuno couldn't find the way out with all the debris and Mimosa couldn't heal Asta and guide them out.
"Take a right." Luck said suddenly. "Huh?" Yuno said questioningly. "I can sense the way we came and guide us out." Luck clarified.
With Luck giving the directions the only problem was the debris falling around them. Luckily though Tear and Klaus were able to take care of that problem whenever it arised.
In fact even Noelle was able to help, managing to focus her mana enough to strike true.
But even with all of their efforts a single large brick slipped through heading straight for Mimosa and Asta.
Luckily though Tear had managed to react in time and covered them with his wings. "So warm." Mimosa thought with another slight blush. But she didn't let it distract her for long as she immediately went right back to healing Asta.
When they made it out of the collapsed dungeon Tear unwrapped the two and gave them a kind look that covered the seething rage he was actually feeling.
"You're okay right? My wing's scales are pretty sharp so I hope I didn't cut you or anything like that." He said. Mimosa looked away from Asta for the first time since the debris had almost hit them. "No I'm fine, and thanks to you I was able to keep Asta stabilized all the way through the trip." Mimosa said in that wholesome voice that he really liked for some reason.
"Well that's nice to hear. I didn't put in all that effort just for my new squadmate to die." Tear said with that same fang exposing smile, ears spread out, exept only this time his eyes were their natural gold. "His eyes changed color? How did he do that?" Mimosa thought curiously.
In fact now that she thought about it, what was up with this boy? Literally nothing about him was normal. His skin was darker than she'd ever seen, his hair was curlier than she even thought was possible, fangs, sharp ears that reminded her of something she read when she was a child, his pupils didn't dilate like a human's and were more like a lizard's, not to mention the tail and wings but she chalked that up to his magic being weirdly extensive.
But one of the weirder things about him was his character. He seemed so kind yet his very mana felt dangerous if you were next to him long enough, he seemed to enjoy fighting like Luck yet seemed so annoyed whenever he got hit unlike Luck. He was so unserious even when the situation was dire until Asta got gravely injured.
"He must care about his friends a lot then, if he got so mad about a guy he had just met." Mimosa deduced.
Her observations were cut short however by Tear himself as he snapped in front of her face. "Hey! Wake up, I know I'm beautiful and everything but Asta needs to be your main focus not me." Tear's self centered comment was ignored by Mimosa as she got back to focusing on Asta, face red in embarrassment.
Tear giggled a little as he looked back and saw a vehicle made of smoke. Tear tilted his heas to side in confusion, he wasn't able to tell what the vehicle carried exactly for gold, so he assumed they were diamond kingdom survivors.
"Well aren't they lucky." Tear remarked casually to everyone else's curiosity. Tear looked and saw the curious gazes and simply pointed at the vehicle getting smaller and smaller as they got farther and farther.
"Hey I recognize that magic!" Luck suddenly exclaimed. "That's the diamond mage who managed to escape from us before we could take him down!" He finished. Noelle gained a look of realization as she confirmed Luck's statement.
"Well, luckily for them they're too far away. But at least their strongest member didn't make it out." Tear said, masking anything personal he had with Mars.
"Yes, I'd say this was a semi success. No one really got any treasure and only the diamond kingdom had casualties." Klaus said pushing up his glasses.
However they were wrong about the diamond kingdom suffering casualties.
"It's really good I was able to get you out of their. The higher ups would never let me go if you died." The smoke mage remarked to an unconscious Mars.
Mars woke up soon after which caught the smoke mage's attention. "Well look who's finally awake." He said. Mars sat up and looked over at him "Lotus?" He called him out by name.
Lotus continued his little speel talking about the gold Mars had helped aquire, but he wasn't listening as he looked back the way they came.
Mars started remembering more of what happened in Fana's last moments. She hadn't just died after he implaled her, her healing magic was good enough to save herself. He remembered that she had used up her time to heal whatever injuries were left on him.
He even remembered her last words.
"Now go see the outside world, you've earned it. For the both of us."
Mars turned around to face Lotus. "Hey Lotus." He called. Lotus turned around to face him with a questioning grunt. "You saved me, so for that I thank you."
If Lotus was shocked at all he didn't show it in his face. "Well look at that, you actually can say thank you."
They landed relatively soon after they got out. Everyone except for Tear was exhausted both magically and physically.
Mimosa dispelled her Flower Robe as soon as Asta woke up.
"Oh man, y-yep that hurts." Asta said as he stood up. "That's what happens when you get stabbed through the torso. Well really I'm assuming since I've always been too strong for an enemy to get me like that." Tear lied.
Asta snickered a little bit but stopped soon after due to the stabbing pain. Mimosa stood up and apologized "I didn't have enough magic power to heal you completely, so it was more like first aid." She said shyly.
Asta dismissed it though saying he wouldn't even be alive without her which brought a smile to her face. Luck suddenly chimed in however with much less serious remark "I seriously thought you were gonna kick the bucket before our fight!"
"No way. No dying for me until I become the wizard king." However Yuno had something to say about that "Silly Asta, I'm the one whose gonna be wizard king." Asta smiled but another voice interrupted the moment. "Sorry you two, but you have to be the strongest to be the wizard king. Which means as long as I'm alive Julius will have a long reign. Or who knows, maybe I'll be the wizard king." This time Tear had chimed in as he walked in close, a smirk on his face.
"No Way You Wanna Be Wizard King Too!" Asta shouted. "If that's what it takes to be the absolute strongest than why the hell not?" Tear responded.
"You three." This time Klaus chimed in. The three commoners looked at him in confusion as he walked up arms spread. "You good?" Tear asked before suddenly getting pulled into a hug. "I'm so very sorry!" Klaus apologized.
"I rejected you three because you were commoners. And for that I am completely ashamed." Klaus continued.
"You three are exemplary magic knights and the order is luck-" "Yeah that's great and all, but can you GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Tear interrupted.
"I am pouring my heart out here you ungrateful-" "yeah yeah whatever man. I don't need you to tell me I'm an awesome magic knight, I know it already. But I'll accept praise anytime so if you have more to say you're free to do so." Tear said light heartedly.
Klaus just gave an indignant look while the rest of the group started laughing. "Noelle!" Asta called out.
"Looks like I'm not the only one with torn clothes." He said jokingly. Noelle looked down and saw that the middle of her chest was showing and screamed. Running over and jumped on Asta's already damaged stomach.
Tear immediately bust out laughing at that as Mimosa panicked that her hard work might've been undone. "Alright, you two crack me up. I wasn't sure how much I'd like y'all but if you're gonna be this funny I don't have a problem." Tear said wiping away a- well... Tear.
Asta woke up soon after and the three new rivals smiled at each other. An unspoken promise of competition that the three refused to lose.
Chapter End
An: This chapter actually didn't take me thag long. Most of what I wanted kinda just wrote itself to be honest. Also the regular 7k words if you were sad about the chapter length last time. And if you're curious about my track meet I got lightwork uncontested first place. I do Triple jump, Long jump, and if I do good possibly high jump as well. Remember that God loves you more than anything in the world and I hope reading this fic is as fun as it is to write it!