Chapter One Hundred-Twenty-Four: Six Months Later
Hey there, readers, I've got two pieces of news to share with you. First, TOFL has a brand-new cover, once again from Elena Parker. This one is of Asta and Kenos in their post-time-skip outfits, the former wielding his trusty Demon Slayer Sword while the latter stands with a Mana Charge ready to go. I'm really pleased with this one, and, if I don't change my mind in the future, this will be the final cover for TOFL until the 200th chapter, with the very first cover now being relegated to my one-shots while the one of Kenos and Zuka will be up on TOFL's TV Tropes page.
The second piece of news is in regard to the polls, I'll be closing it shortly, so thank you very much to everyone who has voted. To further show my thanks, I'll do what I did in Chapter 47 and provide some fun facts about the creation of the Top 5 voted characters.
Sylvester Rossiu (4 Votes) - The character situation of Sylvester in the early stages of his conception was far different. I always planned to make him the holder of a four-leaf grimoire, but he was initially going to be in a squad, his character arc being to overcome the high expectations put on him as the eldest child of the latest generation of Rossius, but I eventually scrapped it in fear of it possibly being seen as to close to what Kenos could potentially face, which eventually led to me not putting him on a squad period.
Oxanna Rossiu (4 Votes) - As all of you know, Oxanna is Rama's girlfriend, but that wasn't always going to happen. Rama was on OC given to me in the early 20s, so many characters had already been established, so when Rama was put in the Crimson Lion Kings and only had a significant tie to Leopold, I practically said "Oh what the heck" and decided to make him and Oxanna attracted to each other on the spot so he'd have a different dynamic with a character.
Emmanuel (4 Votes) - Believe it or not, it was my initial intention to make Emmanuel a more enigmatic type of character. Even after meeting Kenos, he was to give off a mysterious aura and not be too prone to making conversation so he'd be similar to Liebe in a sense, but upon giving it some thought, I figured that'd get really annoying to constantly write really fast, so I made him the Emmanuel we have now: kind, thoughtful, playful, and a proud romantic.
Zuka Glitenia (6 Votes) - At the really early stages of Zuka's conception, I was considering having her be in the Golden Dawn so that she'd share a parallel to Kenos as he'd be closer to Asta while she'd be closer to Yuno. She'd still be a commoner so that she and Yuno would have something to bond over, but once I started giving the story more thought, I figured it'd be nice to use this as an opportunity to shine a light on the more obscure squads, and just like that, she's part of the Aqua Deer now.
Kenos Rossiu (7 Votes) - The arc Kenos initially had to overcome was one of neglect. Before I got the idea that eventually evolved into Dante and Oxanna having a strained but respectful relationship with him and Richard being disappointed in his son to the point of sending a hitman after him, one of the minor arcs he faced was trying to earn his family's approval due to his Solar Magic leading to mass neglect from all his relatives as they believed something was wrong with him and therefore tried to distance themselves from him as much as possible. Yes, I know what you're thinking, it may be an old faithful trope, but it does suffer from being played out, so I decided to rework it a bit to put the characters more in the gray area so it wouldn't be too cliche.
And with that out of the way, enjoy the new chapter. Cya.
The sounds of nature.
Along the neutral border between nations, that's all that could be heard. The soft howling of the wind that carried a scarce number of dead sticks and leaves, the passing noise of animals whose low cries blended into the background, the rushing currents from a nearby body of water. The area was further up north than anywhere else, adding a cold touch to everything even though not a flake of snow could be seen. If a single word could be used to describe the sight, it would be: tranquility.
However, it wouldn't be like that for long.
In just a single second, the tranquility was crushed by the loud sound of a crash, and then another, and then another, repeating for what felt like forever as it drowned out everything else without contest. The origin of the disruption was unknown, but not for long as the perspective slowly shifted to it, revealing a ginormous black machine that stood on five legs, the middle part consisting of a round array of transparent windows, the very top possessing what looked like an assortment of smaller buildings.
The contraption moved at a moderate speed, a trait that was admired by the only two people who could be seen: two men, dressed in brown and black, both standing by the window. One, a blond, stood straight while the other, a redhead, leaned against his shoulder.
"Now this is what I'm talking about," the leaning man whistled. "Traveling through the Strong Magic Region can be a real pain, but now, we can do it in style,"
The man who stood shrugged. "I'm more impressed that we can do it without constantly having to protect ourselves,"
"That too. Man, I wish we always had this, um…um…Candraisel,"
"Candelo," his associate corrected him.
The redhead laughed. "Right, that's what it's called. Thanks. My point still stands, this thing is amazing,"
The blond nodded. "Yup, and we owe it all to that new guy. I was a little skeptical about letting a foreigner into our ranks, but he's more than pulled his weight, so I'll give him his props,"
But then, a dark grin formed across the redhead's face. "Speaking of the Candelo, we'd better go make sure it's working properly, after all…we don't have the strongest batteries,"
His associate grinned in the same manner. "How right you are, we should go give it a look,"
With that, the two walked away, but in the far distance, near the body of water, stood a construct bearing a familiar resemblance, its expression blank and unmoving like a doll, but regardless, it spoke.
"I found them,"
"No, please don't! I beg you!"
Variations of that statement could be heard for hours on end within the walls of the Candelo's largest room, the so-called 'Battery Chamber'. The room itself only possessed one device that stood in the center of the space, with that in mind, any sensible person would've then asked why the chamber needed to be so big, and they'd be met with a single answer.
To house the batteries.
The room was filled with what looked to be regular citizens, all surrounded by mages wearing the same black and brown uniform. They were split into two groups, the first consisting of the aptly titled 'Fresh Pile', comprised of what looked to be about a hundred individuals who were all on their feet; the second group was further away, all carelessly placed in the 'Used Pile', which just so happened to be an actual pile of silent bodies. Were they unconscious or dead? The ones who put them there neither knew nor cared.
"No, don't make me go!" the fearful cry of a man rang out as he was pulled out of the Fresh Pile by two men, said men just so happening to be the blond and the redhead.
"Sorry, we can't do that," the redhead laughed as they approached the machine in the center, already having nine people inside, the man being the tenth as he was thrown in before the door shut behind him.
"Start it up!" the blond shouted as the contraption came to life, lightning up as mana began to leave the ten and floated up.
"Stop!" the man quickly rose to his feet and banged against the walls, staring into the eyes of the pair with a look that begged for mercy, but it wouldn't last for long as he began stumbling, eventually dropping to his knees.
All the while, the two men stared at him indifferently before they shifted to ones of mad glee.
"Ah yeah, this is just what I needed," the redhead chuckled briefly, slinging his arms behind his head. "These past six or so months have been boring as all hell, this is the only thing that can bring me joy nowadays,"
The blond crossed his arms. "What are you talking about? We've been spending time taking over the Diamond Kingdom,"
"Hardly. Sure we beat all their generals, but that pesky country has remained mostly untouched by our forces,"
"It's what the higher-ups ordered, and we both know better than to question them,"
"Yeah, I guess you're right. But hey, at least we can attack the other kingdoms now,"
"No, please spare her!"
The sound of more pleading quickly caught their attention, this one undoubtedly coming from a woman. The redhead eyed his associate, noticing a certain glint in his eyes, one he was no stranger to. "You wanna handle it?"
"I would, thank you," the blond replied with a slight sense of joy as he walked toward the commotion.
"Don't take her! Have mercy!" the cries continued, coming from a young woman with black hair tied in a short ponytail. She stood protectively in front of a smaller girl with the same hairstyle.
"Quit wasting your breath, ya damn bitch!" one of them yelled at her, reeling his hand to backslap her.
But he got no further as the blond grabbed it. "Hey now, what seems to be the issue?" he asked in a calm and friendly manner.
The soldier was about to retort, but then he saw who stopped him. "Oh, Linus, it's you,"
Linus nodded. "It is indeed me. Don't worry, I'll handle this,"
"Alright then, we'll leave it to you, vice-commander," the soldier relented, leaving the blond to now put his focus on the woman, licking his lips ever-so-slightly.
"How can I help you?" he asked her with a happy grin.
However, the young woman ignored all the red flags as she dropped to her knees. "Please, sir vice-commander, spare my little sister. She's just a child, she'll never be able to endure the mana draining,"
Linus placed his hands behind his back in a civilized manner. "Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but such a decision is out of my control. In other news, she'll be just fine, most of the people in the Used Pile aren't dead…I think, they're just resting, and once their mana recharges, they'll be brought back here,"
"H-Have any people done so yet? My sister and I are new here," she reluctantly asked.
Linus shrugged. "Not that I've seen, but I'm certain it'll be any day now,"
Tears fell down her cheeks. "W-What? You don't know and yet you do it anyway? How could you do such a thing, and to your own people? We're all citizens of the Spade Kingdom!"
The very second she finished that sentence, the vice-commander slapped her across the face, sending her back.
"Big sister!" the little girl ran her way. "Are you okay?"
"Out of the way, runt!" Linus marched over and pushed her aside, lifting her sister by her hair and bringing her to eye level.
"T-That hurts! Let me go!"
"Shut up, you stupid cunt!" he roared angrily. "How dare you so much as think that we're equals, let alone claim so to my face?! I am a citizen of the Spade Kingdom, because I am strong. But you? You're weak, you're no citizen of this glorious country, you're nothing more than livestock, and we don't show any mercy to livestock!"
He then roughly released her before a depraved look creased his features. "However…there is one other use people like you have," he said, kneeling down and extending a hand charged with mana…to rip her entire shirt off with one swipe.
"AHHHHH!" she yelled, instantly covering herself up and dropping to the ground.
"What's wrong? There's no need to be shy, I'm just doing what you wanted. If you service me well, I can consider sparing your sister,"
"Leave her alone!" the little girl reversed the roles, now standing protectively in front of her sibling.
"Ah, how cute, but you shouldn't interfere. After all, your big sister is doing this for your sake, so step aside and I can take her to my chamber," Linus sneered. "Hahahahaha!"
.
.
.
CRACK!
The man's laughter was cut short as the glass window suddenly shattered from something shooting through, the object in question continuing on its path until it lodged itself in the window on the other side.
"Huh?" the vice-commander now gawked at the strange occurrence. "What…just happened?"
The redhead was stunned as well, but he found his voice quickly. "I'm not sure," he approached the projectile, just to stand in shock. "It's…a sword? But…who the hell throws a sword?"
"That's not the question you should be asking," Linus spoke. "We're basically in the middle of nowhere. Who the hell should even be around to throw it?"
"AHHHHH!" the blond would soon get his answer as a new voice caught their attention, the origin growing louder as the person in question roughly crashed on the floor, creating a large cloud of dust.
But despite what looked like a bad fall, the mage was up in no time. "Wow, so that's what it feels like to travel across a Strong Magic Region? It's certainly not the smoothest ride in the world, but I'll get used to it," he then extended his right hand and called out a single word.
"Slayer!"
Then, as if it had a mind of its own, the sword began to free itself, zooming toward the one who summoned it as he used it to disperse the dust, revealing Asta, having forgone his long-accustomed attire in trade for one that left his chest bare, accompanied by a material that covered most of his arms and semi-tight pants that were fastened by a large belt; he traded his shoes for long brown boots that went up to his kneecaps, and the robe that normally covered the upper part of his chest now solely covered his right shoulder.
Linus was shocked at first, but then he regained his confidence. "Well well well, if it isn't a Magic Knight from Clover. We've heard about you guys, but I could've sworn that they only let people in that can do magic," his attention was removed from the girls entirely, now on the newcomer as he got closer. "I don't feel anything from you, but then again, you were able to do that trick with your sword, so you must know something," his grimoire came out as his whole body became coated in metal, the man growing taller.
"But it doesn't matter to me, as long as you're dead, it's fair-!"
"You talk too much," Asta cut him off as the Slayer grew as well before he performed a simple swing, decimating the vice-commander's armor and launching him into the window head-first, knocking him unconscious.
"You're going to pay for that!" the redhead charged.
"No, you are," the magicless mage did something strange, mentally propelling his grimoire to rest above his enemy's grimoire. "Dweller!"
Like his larger sword, the short sword obeyed his command and shot out in a vertical fashion handle-first, said handle slamming into the man's jaw from above like an uppercut, launching his body into the ceiling before the sword came to him.
"Don't underestimate him! Attack him together!" a soldier ordered as five various blasts came his way.
But he wasn't concerned. "Anti-Magic: Black Slash!" energy charged within the Dweller as he sent out five slashes, destroying the opposing spells with ease, so much so that they all kept going, crashing into the quintet, knocking them out as well.
"Holy crap! W-Who is this guy?!" one soldier screamed in terror.
"I'm Asta, a Magic Knight from the Clover Kingdom, and a member of the Black Bulls!" he loudly introduced himself.
"We have no reason to be afraid! Even if he's powerful, there's still just one of him, we have the advantage of numbers!"
The magicless mage felt compelled to chuckle. "Don't you guys know that numbers mean nothing if your stages aren't high enough?"
The scuffle was about to continue with the swordsman preparing to attack again, but he was interrupted as another figure crashed through another window, landing roughly, accompanied by another thick cloud of dust.
"Asta, there you are. What the hell, man? You went on and left without us,"
The ash-blond teen laughed awkwardly. "Sorry about that, I just wanted to get here as fast as possible before any more bad stuff happened to the people,"
The obscured figure sighed. "Fine then, I guess we should've expected that,"
In no time at all, the second newcomer was surrounded on all four sides by four soldiers. "The mana coming off from this one is strong, but if we attack now, we can catch him off guard before he has a chance to counterattack!" one exclaimed as the four fired what looked to be their strongest ranged spells.
Despite that, the figure sounded calm. "Hm, four attacks coming from four different directions at once. Y'know, there were days where I wouldn't be able to block this," the spells drew closer, their force dispersing the dust, revealing none other than Kenos.
Similarly to Asta, the solar mage had forgone his previous outfit. He now wore a black polo shirt with a silver necktie that was emblazoned with the Rossiu crest on the bottom, his pendant now wrapped around his right wrist; he also traded out his black dress pants for dark khakis, keeping his simple shoes. Draped over it was the orange jacket he had been gifted by his special someone, and draped over that was his new robe, now revealing the middle portion of the chest, connected by a red rope.
The noble then grinned as his grimoire came out. "But those days are long behind me. Solar Creation Magic: Amaterasu's Sanctuary!" he exclaimed, the goddess now appearing above him with her hands outstretched, erecting walls all around him, blocking the attacks with ease.
"No way!"
Kenos plainly raised a brow. "There's no need for shock, surely you all knew you weren't the cream of the crop, didn't you? Solar Creation Magic: Solar Construct - Twin Gauntlets!" his fists became coated in the familiar weapons as he went to town on the quartet, taking all of them down in seconds.
"Not bad. Should we count that towards your record?" Emmanuel asked.
His partner shrugged. "Why not?" he playfully answered before getting back to business as more soldiers descended from an opening. "Asta, there's bound to be even more guys in the upper parts. Go and take care of them, leave the ones here to me,"
"I'm counting on you!" his squadmate nodded as he fired a single slash from the Dweller at the ceiling, destroying a part of it before jumping up and landing in a long hallway.
"Okay, now where do I go?" he mused.
"There's an intruder, I see him!" he turned, now spotting a multitude of soldiers.
"Nice, they're all this way," he said, watching them fire a united blast of magic. "You're wasting your time!" he exclaimed, swinging the Slayer with a single hand, deflecting it back at him.
"AHHH!" they screamed as the opponents up front were taken out of the fight, leaving the ones in the back, but they'd be joining their allies as Asta charged ahead with both swords in hand.
Three soldiers ran ahead of the rest, casting melee spells to engage with him in close-quarters combat, but he chose to go around them by leaping on the wall, using it as leverage to jump over them, but not before quickly spinning once he was behind them, striking the trio in the back at once with a wide Black Slash.
"It doesn't matter how hard you all try, you can't get past me!" his fierce voice echoed through the halls as he defeated one soldier after another, moving steadily along until he reached a large door, not wasting any time bursting through it. "If anyone's here, just show yourself!"
He didn't get an answer right away, so he took a few steps forward, noting how big and dark the room was. "Creepy,"
"So, you're the one who's been making a ruckus?" a monotone voice spoke up suddenly, but Asta wasn't startled, instead, he followed the voice to its origin: a pale, bald man in uniform with unsettling eyes.
"I wouldn't call it a ruckus, more like I'm saving people," the knight retorted.
"People? No, you're fighting to save batteries,"
That enraged the teen. "How could you say such a thing?!"
"I say it because it's true. They're weak, fragile, and die easily, so they're better off just being a resource, then at least their lives will have meaning. They're not like me, I'm strong, so strong that as the commander, I was gifted with some of the devil's power,"
"Gifted with the devil's power?" Asta repeated. "Yeah, I was told about people like you,"
"That's good, then I won't have to explain it to your dying corpse," the commander snapped his fingers, a strange feeling pulsating through the black bull as a purple substance began covering his face and he dropped to his knees.
"Poison Creation Magic: Basilisk's Breath," the commander stated. "I used the spell before you came here. It pollutes the air with toxins that entered your lungs when you came in, waiting for my signal to activate. You're done for,"
"N-No, I-I'm not. Destroyer," Asta called his third sword, pressing it against his cheek as the negative effects began to disappear.
"That's not possible!" the commander expressed shock for the first time.
"Oh, it's possible alright, but you shouldn't be worrying about that," Asta lodged both smaller swords in the ground and transformed, lifting up the Slayer as it slowly grew into the Black Divider. "You're ready to treat innocent people, your own countrymen, like objects, things that are used and then tossed to the wayside. You make me sick,"
While he was saying that, the commander could only become more and more afraid. "You said you were gifted with the devil's power, right? Well, so was I, and I'm going to use it to take you down!" he yelled, slashing the basilisk in half, the remaining force slamming into the bald man, shooting him into the wall.
Asta exhaled as he detransformed. "Nice," he congratulated himself, hoisting the commander on his shoulder and commanding his swords to enter his grimoire before he retraced his steps and hopped down the hole he made, just in time to see Kenos finish off the last soldier with a decisive punch to the gut. "You took care of them quickly,"
"In all honesty, they're not that tough," he said back with a shrug. "I wonder how strong they would've seemed to us before we began training?"
"We'll never know," he replied as he walked over to the people and threw the commander's body in front of them. "I've taken him down, he won't bother you anymore,"
"Thank you so much!" many of them exclaimed in gratitude.
Kenos approached them from a different direction. "There's no need to thank us, they totally deserved it-," he suddenly paused as his gaze met with the young woman who was about to be defiled. She then saw his eyes narrow as he deduced what happened in his head.
"Who was it?" his voice was menacing.
"It was that guy over there!" her sister pointed to the unconscious Linus. The noble wasted no time nearing him, lifting his body up before stripping him off the upper portion of his uniform, but he wasn't done there.
"Hey, wake up," he lightly tapped his cheek, the vice-commander eventually coming to.
"W-What happened? Was I taking a long nap?" he asked groggily, but then they widened in attention. "Who are you?!"
He wouldn't get an answer though as Kenos punched him dead in the nose, knocking him out again, carelessly tossing him aside with a look of disgust. "Dick,"
He then walked over to the young woman, kneeling in front of her with a smile. "It's not much, but I hope this helps,"
She grabbed hold of it. "Thank you,"
The knight nodded and stood. "We did a pretty good job here,"
"Yeah, you did, without us!" an angry female voice bellowed.
Asta's face took on a look of comedic horror. "Uh-oh," he groaned as a water sphere entered the room via the broken window, landing on the ground before coming undone, revealing Noelle, Mimosa, and Finral.
"Uh-oh is right! What the hell, Dorksta?!" the royal pointed at him. "We had a clear plan, we were supposed to leave together as a unit! But no, you just had to go beforehand!"
"Ha ha, my bad," he nervously laughed as she closed the distance between them in no time, making him back up.
"That's all you have to say?" she crossed her arms.
"Guys, c'mon, don't fight," Finral got in between them. "Asta and Kenos were able to handle the situation. While I wouldn't prefer it that way, this side of the mission is complete, and that's what matters in the end,"
"Whatever," Noelle said in a huff, giving the boys her back.
Asta waited until the spatial mage left to walk over to her. "Hey…I really am sorry. I guess I just got impatient, I really wanted to help,"
The water mage turned a bit, eyeing him. "Fine, I forgive you, just don't do it again. Promise?"
He extended one of his fingers. "Pinkie promise,"
She raised her brow with an awkward smile. "I think I'll pass, I haven't done that since I was eight years old," she left him by himself.
Asta waited until she was out of earshot to facepalm. "Pinkie promise? Ugh, why did I say that?" he muttered before quickly reaching into his satchel, pulling out a pen and a small notebook, flipping to a page. "Noelle doesn't do pinkie promises anymore, noted. Next objective, try to find out her favorite color," he wrote those words down before putting them back.
Mimosa passed by the Used Pile, gasping at the sight. "Are these people dead? I can't feel any mana coming from them,"
"I don't know," the young woman replied worriedly. "Is there any way to know for sure?"
The royal snapped her fingers as an idea came to her. "Yes, there is," she took out her grimoire, flipping it to a page. "Plant Recovery Magic - Mana Method: Princess Healing Flower Paradise!" runes gathered around her, forming an array on the floor as she knelt down, her flower robe appearing on her as a green light bathed the ones in the Used Pile, each of them slowly opening their eyes.
"While this won't recover your mana, it will recover your stamina," she relayed to the Spade citizens who awakened.
While a part of them still felt off, the multitude of people smiled in gratitude, nodding to her in thanks, to which she responded in kind.
"Wow, these people are so cool!" the little girl squealed. "Now we can go home!"
"You know it's not that easy," her big sister told her. "Our town has been completely taken over, we can never go back,"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Finral appeared beside them, winking. "You see, we're all on a mission. Some of us were sent here to stop the progress of the Candelo while some were sent to your town,"
The young woman's eyes widened. "You mean…?"
He nodded. "That's right. They're freeing it as we speak,"
"So, that's the building? It's pretty big,"
While the events in the Candelo were going on, the perspective shifted over to a town that was unusually dark, but that was to be expected as it was in the middle of a snowstorm. But that didn't bother the group of four mages who stood on the roof of an adjacent structure, letting them view their target site.
The four mages in question consisted of Luck, Leopold, Rama, and Alice. The sole girl in the group spoke up. "Based on Loropechika's intel, all of the soldiers in the town should've convened in there,"
"That means we'll be dealing with fifty or so of them," Rama added.
Leopold punched his palm. "Pfft, then this will be easy peasy,"
Luck was last to say something as his signature grin took shape. "Let's get moving then, I'm itching to fight," he leaped away, the others following suit.
The inside of the large building was peaceful enough, Spade soldiers were simply walking around or talking to their colleagues, but that peace was shattered into pieces as the eastern wall suddenly gave way and the quartet barged in.
"We're under attack! Everyone prepare yourselves!" one of them exclaimed into a communication device. In a mere minute, all fifty mages were present, the knights standing in a circle. "I don't know why the hell are you Clover pests here, but you're going to regret it!"
"On the contrary, asshole, you'll regret it!" Alice spat back as she was the first one to make a move, her grimoire already out. "Wind Magic - Mana Method: Violent Turbulence!" two arrays formed around her wrists before she conjured wind from her hands, said wind encircling five soldiers, trapping them in an orb. The enemies were being shaken every which way within her orb, and then she swiped her hands to the left, her creation doing the same as it slammed into a wall, releasing those captive, leaving them to land with a thud.
"Is that all you got?! I won't need to transform at this rate!" she taunted them.
"We'll show you!" a group charged at her.
"My friend's right, you lot aren't worth transforming for!" Leopold exclaimed passionately. "I'll defeat you swiftly!"
"Oh really? We'd like to see you try!" the group focused on him launched a united blast.
"I won't be trying, I'll be doing! Flame Magic - Mana Method: Profound Spiral Flame!" three arrays formed above him, a lion's head emerging from each as they joined him, enhancing his trusty spell to the point where it didn't only contend with the opposing blast, but overpowered it in seconds, defeating the ones who sent it.
"And that's how it's done!"
"Nice one, Leo! I expect nothing less from my rival!" Rama congratulated him from afar while in the middle of evading half a dozen spells.
"You better show them what you can do!" the royal sent a thumbs-up his way.
"But of course! Lightning Magic: Presence of Byakko!" the commoner accessed his strength booster as he switched from dodging attacks to practically tanking them.
"How the hell did he become so tough all of a sudden?!"
"That's the least of your worries!" he retorted as he created a multitude of runes, turning them into small arrays that surrounded him and ten soldiers in a dome. "If you want to escape, you'll have to beat me!"
Realizing that they had no choice, his opponents assumed stances, creating various melee weapons as they rushed his way.
Rama's grimoire flipped to a recently added page. "Lightning Magic: Discharge Palms!" he rubbed his hands together as they crackled with white electricity. Rushing their way as well, the difference in speed became painfully apparent as he struck each of them with his palm once while avoiding the slightest injury, both sides coming to a halt as they now stood on opposite ends.
One of the men groaned from the hit, but grunted soon after. "You damn brat, I'm gonna kill you!" he tried to turn and fire a ranged spell, but instead, he kicked thin air, losing his balance and falling on his bottom. "What the hell?"
"I see you're feeling the effects of my new spell. Once you're hit by it, the nervous system's connection to your muscles gets scrambled for a little while, and that's not it," Rama explained before the dectet suddenly got electrocuted, dropping like flies as the array dome came undone.
"Lightning Magic: Thunder Fiend!" Luck declared, his body transforming as it weaved around a soldier, the blond returning to normal before kicking the back of his head.
"You can't catch me!" he created a trio of arrays in the air, using them as leverage to jump around, taking one soldier down after another.
In just five short minutes from when they arrived, the group had utterly annihilated their adversaries. "Um, great work, team!" Alice shyly cheered for them.
"I'll say," Leopold slung his arms behind his head.
Rama pulled out his communication device. "Now that we're all done, I'd better notify the others,"
"And you two are the last ones," Finral said as the two sisters walked out of his portal, all of them having vacated the Candelo.
"What do we do about these guys?" Noelle pointed to the pile of unconscious soldiers.
Her cousin shrugged. "Beats me. We obviously can't take them in as prisoners, imagine the legal fiasco that'd put us in. We can probably just leave them here, they'll have to wake up eventually,"
"Sounds like a good plan to me, besides, it serves them right for what they did," Kenos entered the conversation. "In other news, I just spoke to Rama, their side of the mission went without a hitch,"
The spatial mage was glad to hear that. "Great, everything is really going our way, I was afraid that we would suffer a few setbacks,"
"Well, let's rejoice for the fact that none of that came to pass," the solar mage nodded with a smile, turning to where the swordsman was standing. "You hear that, Asta?! Mission accomplished!"
However, he was ignored as the magicless mage's attention was on the Candelo.
His friends approached him. "Is something on your mind?"
"Yeah, there is. I don't think we should just leave this thing lying around for the Spade Kingdom to find and reuse it, we should destroy it," he told them.
"That makes sense to me, losing this means losing all the time and resources put into building it," the silver-haired girl agreed. "So, who wants to do the honors?"
"I'll do it," Asta replied before he smirked. "I've been looking for a chance to test that out. Do you all care to help?"
"Not me, it's best I conserve as much mana as I can to take everyone to their destinations," Finral politely declined.
"No problem, three contributors will be more than enough," Asta said as he took out his second sword and transformed, letting it surge with more anti-magic than usual. From there, it began to grow a little before black energy coated its sides in a similar manner to the Divider, however, unlike that weapon, the anti-magic extension had markings, depicting lines that ascended to an image of an orb resting at the top.
"Anti-Magic: Demon Dweller Sword - Black Uniter!"
The hands of Kenos, Noelle, and Mimosa each lit up with mana of their respective colors, said mana shooting into the evolved sword as orange, blue, and green raced around the lines, converging at the orb in the center.
"Here we go!" Asta spun around, firing three exceptionally powerful slashes, each laying waste to Candelo before the mobile fortress eventually blew up in a loud explosion.
The citizens watched in awe and disbelief as he detransformed, having destroyed the thing that had led to their torment with what seemed to be little effort.
"Amazing," they couldn't help but think in unison.
The group of knights now directed their attention to them as Kenos spoke. "Our mission is complete. The Candelo is gone, you're no longer slaves, and your town has been liberated. You're free to return to your lives,"
"But, I don't understand, you're from Clover, why have you gone through all this trouble to help people from another country?" the young woman questioned.
"Because what's being done to you is wrong, plain and simple," the solar mage answered. "As well as that, we're at war with Spade right now, but only with those who are aligned with the devils, so you have nothing to worry about,"
Despite being excluded as a potential target, the girl gasped. "D-Devils? If they're the enemies you're trying to defeat, then you aren't dealing with any ordinary Spade denizen,"
"What do you mean?"
"The ones in our country that wield the power of devils are the ones who rule over us and have done so for 16 long years. They call themselves…,"
"...The Dark Triad,"
Footsteps.
As the perspective shifted to a dreary-looking castle, that was all that could be heard as a man walked down a silent hallway, passing by no one, but that was to be expected, not many were permitted this far within the building without direct permission.
Who was this man? None other than the mysterious bone mage, his hands in his pockets and his face obscured like before. He said nothing at all as he reached a door, not bothering to push it as it opened on its own, the man now walked into a dimly-lit room that was still majorly in darkness, but he wasn't perturbed.
"Ah, how nice of you to finally join us," a male voice confidently spoke. "Tell me, where have you been…Zenon?"
The shadow that loomed over the man's face finally lifted, revealing a monotone expression and a feature that would catch anyone's attention immediately, that being the cross-like mark that went down his left eye.
"Just checking on something," he plainly replied as he approached a table with two other people. One was the man who spoke earlier, he wore a crown with a stitch mark going across his forehead; the second was a woman who wore an eyepatch over her right eye with a Spade insignia.
"I see," the man said back as Zenon sat down.
"Was there something you wanted to ask me, Dante?" the bone mage questioned.
Dante waved it off. "No, but is it really so wrong for an older brother to want to know what his little brother is up to?"
"We're not kids anymore. If anything, Vanica is the one you need to keep an eye on,"
"Hey, I'm right here," the woman pouted. "Have some respect for your big sister, I'm perfectly self-sufficient,"
"He isn't saying you're not, just that you tend to be a wildcard at times, especially during our training days," Dante tried to calm her down. "Speaking of training, Zenon, how goes the progress of your protege? I take it he's getting the hang of his…new powers,"
The youngest sibling shifted his gaze to the edge of the room where a hooded figure stood, cloaked in darkness, but still somewhat visible. "His improvement has been exemplary,"
"Good, though I'm not surprised, seeing that he's one of them," Dante's tone was pleased as his gaze fell on a second figure who was standing next to the hooded one, also obscured by the shadows. "I'm pleased to report that progress with my own protege has gone well too,"
"Ugh, it's not fair, I want an apprentice," Vanica whined.
"Don't be a baby, you have something that the two of us don't," Zenon chastised her in a monotone voice.
"And that is?"
"More disciples,"
She sighed. "Yeah, I guess you have a point. Now I'm bored, I need something fun to do other than training,"
"Relax, little sister, you shall find joy soon," Dante said to her as he grinned. "Because now…we can begin to make our move and begin to attack the other nations,"
"Speaking of that, I'm curious," Zenon voiced. "Why did we wait half a year to attack Clover or Heart? Especially since we attacked Diamond right away,"
"Because there was information that we had still yet to decipher, only now are we ready to advance. Don't forget, this was never our plan, it was his. As for why we attacked Diamond, that was at the behest of our ally, he desired a little bit of vengeance, and I can respect that," Dante then extended his open hand, a dark look of seriousness mixed with glee present as he continued.
"Our wait has finally come to an end. Soon, all humanity will be in the palms of The Dark Triad,"