Chapter Forty: The Second Leaf

Hey there, readers, how are you all doing, today is the beginning of another week-long update, at this rate, I'm thinking that there will be a week-long update for this story once every month, whether it be 5 chapters, or a special 7. But I have some other news, OC suggestions are down, and this time around, they're down for good, I've already done all the organizing, I know what I'll write until the early 100s, and adding an OC can ruin the flow I've made, so I'm sad to say I won't be accepting anymore OCs until after the Spade Kingdom arc which is many, many chapters ahead, to all those who have suggested OCs, I'd like to thank you, now with that out of the way, enjoy the chapter. Cya.

"Yes!" everyone exclaimed.

"I think it's safe to say he's dead this time," Kenos commented.

Magna and Luck dropped down to the ground, sighing with relief, the flame mage tiredly spoke up. "Good, despite how hard we were fighting, I don't think Luck and I could've gone for much longer, we were running mostly on adrenaline, as well as the few seconds of healing we got from Kenos,"

Gauche and the other two came down and walked to the others. "That bastard went down faster than I was expecting, I take it you all did a number on him before we got here?" the mirror mage asked.

"You better believe it," Asta said as he walked to them as well, Finral and Vanessa were doing the same, he then turned to the solar mage. "Those final attacks we did were pretty cool!"

Kenos smirked. "I know, I bet we looked mega badass," he said before turning to Gauche and looking at him, or more specifically, the blue-haired girl that was hiding behind him.

He pointed at her. "Hey, Gauche, who's that person behind you? Is she a temple mage you helped when the Eye of the Midnight Sun attacked?"

"No, you silly boy," Charmy replied as she went over and pulled the girl into view, she was doing her very best to cover her face. "This is Grey, in her true form,"

"What?!" everyone else exclaimed in total shock. "You're a girl?!"

"We thought you were a boy, you even bathed with us!" Magna exclaimed before he stopped and put both of his hands on the thing in between his legs. "Oh god, that means you've seen everything,"

The other boys all stopped and widened their eyes in comedic shock before doing the same action as their shade-wielding squadmate, except for Asta as his arms were quite sore and seemingly broken.

"N-No, I-I never saw a-any of t-them!" Grey stuttered.

"Oh, and she's super shy," Charmy explained.

"Shy?" Vanessa said as she smiled as rested her head in between her hands. "But you're so cute!"

"N-No I'm n-not, so p-please stop l-looking at me, i-it's so embarrassing," the transformation mage said back.

Kenos focused his attention on her without actually looking at her as to not make her feel uncomfortable. "So, she's a girl, but she's also a Black Bull, which means she's like my family as well, but something tells me getting to know her will be extremely difficult with that shy personality of hers," he thought.

"Hey, since we beat Vetto, shouldn't we be looking for Captain Yami and the perv priest?" Noelle suggested.

"You're right, he said that he and Gifso were trapped somewhere, so we just have to find where that place exactly is," Finral responded.

"Perfect, so far, this is the easiest thing we've ever had to do since we got here," Kenos laughed, the others laughed too, glad that the fight with Vetto was finally over.

But unbeknownst to all of them...the beast mage was still alive, but just barely, within the crater in which he laid, his fingers began to twitch although the rest of his body remained unmoving.

"I'll never...forgive them...never," he weakly thought as a memory of his past came to him.

[Flashback]

Years Ago.

"This is so much fun!" a boy exclaimed, he wore a white tunic, had tan skin, short, white curly hair, strangely pointy ears, and a large smile was on his face as he ran through a wide and open forest.

"Wait up, Vetto, you're going too fast!" the voice of another boy exclaimed from behind him, the young Vetto stopped and turned around, looking at the other boy, he was just a bit taller than him, he had light skin, wore a similar tunic and had similarly pointed ears, his hair was white like Vetto's, but it was tied in a small ponytail.

"Oops, my bad, sorry there Licht," Vetto apologized as he stopped running, giving Licht time to catch up.

The two then began walking together at a moderate pace, Licht looked at his enthusiastic friend, prompting a smile to form on his face. "You seem really excited,"

Vetto grinned. "Of course, why wouldn't I be, I love taking a stroll through this forest, especially when the sun is about to set, everything just looks more beautiful,"

"I suppose, but you shouldn't just run off without telling anyone, you'll worry Rhya and Fana," Licht lightly scolded him.

Vetto raised a brow. "You just mean Fana, right?"

Licht shook his head. "No, I know Rhya might not look like he's ever concerned about anything, but believe me when I say he cares just as much as we all do,"

"Yeah, alright," Vetto said with a puffed-up cheek, but then it went back to normal as he looked at the ponytailed boy. "But you shouldn't have come after me, I can only imagine how sad Patri must feel right now,"

"Patri? Why would he be sad?" Licht asked.

"Duh, because you're not around, he may be just a toddler, but he's super attached to you, sometimes even more than he is to his own parents, he must see you as his big brother or something," Vetto replied.

"Really? I've never had a little brother, if that's true, I mustn't keep him waiting, do you think we've gone far enough to head back?"

"Almost there, I usually head to the tallest tree in the forest, then we can-," Vetto was in the middle of replying before his foot hit something warm, he looked down to see what it was, but as he did his eyes widened.

"The tallest tree? I think I can see, that's the one, right, Vetto?" Licht asked, looking forward, but he heard no response. "Vetto?" he repeated, he looked beside him to see the boy was no longer there, he turned around and saw him, a shadow covering his face as he bent down to gently pick something up.

"Is something the matter?" Licht asked as he walked to Vetto, looking at the thing in his hands, his eyes widened.

In Vetto's hands was a small bird, but it looked injured, Licht rested his hand over the animal for a short few seconds before bringing it back to his side. "There's a faint trace of mana around it, whatever hurt it, it was a spell, but who would do such a thing?"

"Humans,"

That one word came from Vetto's mouth, but only as a quiet mutter, inaudible to the boy beside him.

"It was those stupid humans, I know none of us would ever do something like this, but those filthy humans would, I'll find the ones who did this...and I'll kill them," he continued muttering.

Licht was busy paying attention to the bird, but then he looked at his friend, he couldn't understand what he was saying, all the future light mage heard was muttering.

"Hey, Vetto, are you alright, snap out of it!" Licht raised his voice, he placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, effectively snapping him out of whatever daze he put himself in.

"Something wrong?" Vetto asked with confusion.

Licht shook his head. "Not with me, let's forget about the tree, we should bring this bird back to the village and nurse it to health,"

"You're right, let's go," the future beast mage agreed as the two turned around and started walking back.

But in Vetto's mind, he was still angry, angry at the humans who made nature suffer.

[End Flashback]

"Despair, I'll make you suffer," Vetto whispered as the red aura around his eye began to engulf his whole body and he began to float.

"Damn Kenos, you and Asta were awesome, standing side by side, looking so cool, and you worked really well together too," Luck praised the two.

Kenos smiled. "Thanks, and I have to say, we-," he was beginning to say before they all heard something terrifying.

"DESPAIR!"

Every single one of them turned around, their eyes turning from joy and happiness to shock and fear in a matter of seconds as they watched Vetto float out of the crater and into the air, the mysterious red aura then becoming a sphere with him within it.

The solar mage grit his teeth. "Oh c'mon, does this guy not know how to die,"

"Tell me about it, but the real question is what the hell is he doing?" Magna said before asking, pointing up at the beast mage.

"What am I doing? I'm so glad you asked, with the power of my third eye, I'll become a bomb, and when I explode, this whole damn place is going down too. I might've not been able to beat you, but that won't matter, because I'm taking all of you down with me!"

"Take this entire place down?" Noelle repeated, she turned around and looked at Kahono, lying unconscious. "Like hell you are,"

"She's right, we're not going to let you do that," Vanessa and Finral added.

"I'm up for one more fight, what about you, Magna?" Luck asked with his signature grin.

"You better believe it," Magna replied with a grin as well.

"Don't think I'll stand aside either," Gauche said.

"Me too, I'm going to pummel you into the ground," Charmy added.

"Y-You can't d-do w-whatever you want, d-do you h-hear me," Grey stuttered, but stood beside Gauche instead of behind him..

Those who were sitting down got back up, and even though Asta's arms ached badly, he gathered his strength and raised the Demon-Slayer sword at his opponent, at the same time, Kenos took his grimoire out before closing his eyes, doing his best to gather surrounding mana for one last Mana Charge attack, his eyes then opened.

"We'll break through our limits again if we have to, because we'll stop you!" the solar mage and the swordsman exclaimed together as everyone else stood ready to fight.

"I commend your attitude, but there's nothing you can do to beat me, it's over, you hear, all over, just give up!" Vetto screamed.

But just then, as he finished his exclamation, a part of the wall next to the Black Bulls burst, leaving a rather large hole, but from behind the hole, a familiar voice spoke up.

"Can't beat you? Well, I suppose you're right, they can't…," the voice began to say as they walked through the hole, appearing on the battlefield, causing every face of the group of magic knights to smile or grin, for that person was none other than the dark mage himself, his katana drawn, ready for battle.

"...But I can,"

"Captain Yami!" everyone exclaimed as they ran to their captain, but Yami put his hand up, causing them to stop as he walked over to them instead.

"Hey there everyone, how's it going?" he asked quite casually as he blew smoke from his cigarette.

Normally, they would've been annoyed by his calm tone in such a dire circumstance, but right now, they didn't care about that.

"You're here, that means you escaped, how exactly did you escape?!" Asta asked.

"Got a new spell, really came in handy for getting me out," he explained before looking at the bomb in the sky that was Vetto. "And it seems I'll need it again to handle this mess, but before that, there's something I have to do,"

He then walked a little closer to his squad members, beginning with the magicless mage before shifting to another, resting his hand on each.

"Asta,"

"Kenos,"

"Noelle,"

"Magna,"

"Luck,"

"Vanessa,"

"Finral,"

"Gauche,"

"Charmy,"

"And...um, who exactly are you?"

"O-Oh, I'm Grey, t-this is my t-true f-form, and y-yes, I-I'm a girl,"

"Oh, really, good to know," Yami finished as he grinned. "I was able to see you all fight until the last parts, I know that I usually don't say this right to your faces...but I'm really proud of every single one of you, you all pushed past your limits and became stronger, and seeing you do that just made me push past my own," his katana then surged with dark magic.

The others didn't say anything, only a smile formed on their faces as they all clover-saluted.

Yami nodded to their action before focusing on Vetto. "And now, the only thing that's left to do is to take you down,"

"Try all you want, Yami Sukehiro, but you'll fall too!" the beast mage exclaimed back as the aura started to become stronger. "Despair, despair, despair, despair, DESPAIR!"

The dark mage slowly raised his katana into the air with one hand, slowly gripping finger by finger with his other hand. "Would you shut up, I've gotten sick of hearing you say that word over and over again, despair this, despair that, well, it all ends here, because my spell…," he began. "...Cuts through dimensions,"

"Dimensions?" the others wondered quietly.

Yami's grimoire came up to him, turning to the page of his new spell. "Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Dimension Slash!" he exclaimed as he brought his katana down with tremendous force, his slash hitting the aura sphere right in the middle, cutting it and Vetto cleanly in half.

"What...the?" the others said, their mouths agape as the sheer power of the captain's spell.

Vetto's body fell down to the ground with a thud, the red aura disappearing, Yami blew smoke out of his cigarette one more time before he sheathed his blade. "See ya around, Mr. Despair…," he began before turning around, seeing the looks of awe on the faces of the other Black Bulls, he then gave a slight smirk. "...Thanks for toughening up my squad,"

"Holy crap, that was awesome!" they all exclaimed as they ran to him again.

"So cool, you went like this and that, and then that," Kenos said, childishly reenacting Yami's attack. "Not to mention you made it look so easy too,"

Footsteps were then heard from the hole, they all turned to it to see Gifso coming out, he had a panicked look on his face, but once his eyes fell on his unconscious family, he ran to them.

"Gio! Kahono! Kiato!" the game mage cried as he bent down and embraced his son and grandchildren, tears fell down his face. "I'm so sorry, you got hurt, just to entertain this old man, especially you, my two grandchildren, you both had such great dreams and worked so hard to achieve them, but now it's over,"

Yami walked over to the crying old man. "Sorry about them, old-timer, but they meant a lot to two of my squad members, so if we ever find a way to help them, we'll tell you right away,"

Gifso got up and wiped his tears away. "Thank you, all of you, I am in your debt, you saved our community," he then pulled back his beard, removing the Magic Stone from the necklace it was attached to. "Here, this is what you came for, take it, you all deserve that much,"

"Gee, thanks," Yami said as the stone was placed in his hand. "Well, with the stone in our possession, Black Bulls, I'm happy to say that this mission is officially over,"

Five hours passed as most of the Black Bulls were in some kind of infirmary, each lying down on an individual bed with a water cord of some sort attached to their arms in order to heal them and monitor their vitals.

"It's really over, five hours have passed, there's no way Vetto would stay down for that long if he was still alive," Magna said.

"Great, I can't wait to go back up to the surface and see Marie," Gauche then said. "It's felt like I've been here for weeks,"

"Gauche, we haven't been down here for more than half a day," Charmy reminded him.

The mirror mage groaned. "Uh, fine, I'll just call her, I just hope Marco isn't around her this time around," he said, whispering the last part.

Luck sat up. "I feel so refreshed, I just want to fight someone, any volunteers?"

"No, I'm fine," Finral replied.

"And that reminds me, that combo you did with Vanessa and Rasta was really cool, your spatial magic is pretty awesome, it almost makes me want to respect the fact that you're my superior," Magna said to him.

"You should already be doing that anyway!" the spatial mage exclaimed as he quickly sat up, earning a laugh from a few of the others.

"But he's right, you were really cool," Vanessa told him before turning to the transformation mage whose bed was next to hers. "And Grey, since we know you're a girl now, you can join us for some of our outings,"

Grey covered herself with her bedcover. "M-Me, go outside w-with all those p-people l-looking at me, n-no way,"

The thread mage sighed. "Fine, you don't have to go on outings with us, but we will try to hang out with you more,"

The others looked at her, but then their gaze averted to the balcony at the end of their room when they heard a sound coming from that direction.

"What's going on out there?" Gauche wondered aloud.

They all walked over to the balcony, but their eyes widened as they saw the people of the Underwater Community, cheering for the Magic Knight squad.

"Black Bulls, thank you so much!" one person cheered.

"We saw all of your battles, you fought so hard to save us, we're forever in your debt!" another one exclaimed.

"They're...cheering for us?" Finral said with obvious confusion.

Even Luck looked confused as he rested his chin on his pointer finger. "That's strange, nobody's ever cheered like that for us, usually we just get booed at,"

"I don't know, I could get used to this," Magna said as he crossed his arms above his head.

"Don't get cocky, besides, not all of us are here, there are others who deserve praise too," Vanessa said to him as they all thought about the Black Bulls who weren't present with them.

"We're coming in,"

Two unified voices said as the door to a room opened, the voices belonged to Noelle and Kenos, inside the room, sitting up on two beds right next to each other, were Kahono and Kiato.

The song mage waved, with her throat pierced by Vetto, speaking caused her great strain.

"Hey there, you two, thanks for visiting, but are you sure you shouldn't be resting?" Kiato greeted before asking.

"No, it's been a good few hours, we're just fine, it's you two we're concerned about," Noelle replied as she sat on a chair next to Kahono while Kenos took a seat next to Kiato.

"We wanted to say we're sorry," Kenos suddenly said. "We had a short talk, and we discovered that it was because we weren't strong enough that Vetto crushed your dreams," he said, looking down at Kiato's dismembered foot, which was heavily bandaged.

The water mage nodded. "Yeah, it's our fault, we were both there when you were fighting, but we couldn't do anything to help you-,"

"Don't say that,"

Kiato was serious as he interrupted her, but that serious look quickly changed into a warm smile. "We don't blame either of you," he said before he looked at Kenos. "Sure, my dream is gone, but that's only for now, I know there will be a way, someday, I'll dance again,"

The solar mage widened his eyes, despite his smile, at the corner of the dance mage's eye, a tear fell, he then suddenly stood up, a tear coming down his own face. "Thank you so much!"

"You're thanking me? What for?" Kiato asked with confusion.

"What for? Are you kidding me, you helped me so much, thanks to you, I turned a technique that I once thought I could never learn, and incorporated it into something unique, something that's all my own," Kenos replied.

The others raised a brow since they weren't present to see Kenos use Mana Charge. "Are you talking about Ki?" Kiato asked.

"Yeah, but I don't use it the same way as Asta or my captain would," he replied again.

The dance mage grinned as he brought his hand forward. "Then you're welcome, I liked helping you too,"

Kenos wiped away his tears as he did the same thing, the two high-fiving. "Don't worry, I'll do whatever I can to fix your foot, no matter what, I'll save your dream, it's the least I could do,"

"Cool, then I'll be waiting," Kiato said as the two grinned.

Noelle and Kahono smiled at the two, the former looking at the latter, her smile fell a bit. "Hey, Kahono, I-," she was going to say before the song mage bumped heads with her, both of their eyes closed.

"You don't need to worry about apologizing, Noelle, it's just like what Kiato said, I'll sing again, one day," Kahono mentally told her. "But what's more important right now is you, that attack you used against Vetto was incredible, you made such a powerful spell, I'm proud,"

"But I wasn't able to save you in time," Noelle thought back in a slight tone of distress.

"What did I just say, I don't blame you, besides, he could regenerate, if anything, it's my fault for not reacting fast enough," Kahono mentally said. "But you did your best, you've grown up so much in such a short amount of time, in fact, a really short amount of time, it hasn't even been 24 hours since we've met, but when we did meet, you had trouble controlling your magic and I felt some insecurities inside you, but now you're stronger, and you feel a lot more confident, good for you,"

The two girls separated their heads from each other, both were giving each other warm smiles, it was Kenos and Kiato's turn to smile at them.

"I'm going to do the same as Kenos, I'll find a way to fix your throat, you'll get to sing again, that's a promise," Noelle stated.

"Thanks, both of you, I know Kahono has trouble speaking, but I think she'd agree with me when I say that the two of us are glad that we met you," Kiato said as he brought his fist forward, Kahono smiled as brought her fist to his, the water and solar mages smirked before they reached over the bed to share a group fistbump with the two siblings.

"Us too," they said.

Noelle and Kenos then waved one more time as they left the room, walking down the hallway.

"Hey, Kenos,"

The black-haired mage looked at her. "Yeah?"

"I've been wondering, have you seen Asta?"

"Rest in peace, ya damn bastard," Yami said as he gently brought his hands together in front of his face.

Resting in front of the dark mage was Vetto's body, covered in a large white tarp, at the beast mage's feet was a line of stones.

"Hey, captain,"

Yami turned around to see Asta walking toward him, his jacket was off, leaving him only in his white tank top, both his arms were slung up in a brace.

"Hey there, kid," Yami said back as he returned his attention to the dead mage.

"What are you doing here?" Asta asked.

"Giving him a quick funeral, it was something I used to do back in my homeland," the dark mage replied.

Asta raised a brow. "Even for enemies?"

"Yup, even for them, at least, sometimes, only if they were a real threat and gave us a serious challenge, and I think we all know this bastard checks the bill," Yami replied before turning to the swordsman. "So, what are you doing here?"

"It wasn't easy with my broken arms, but I brought these," the magicless mage replied as he dug through his sling with his fingers, slowly pulling a few flowers, each one a different color.

"Wasn't going to give him flowers, but alright," Yami said as he walked over and took the flowers, walking back to the alignment of rocks and placing them there.

"You know something, captain, Vetto was always talking about despair, and inflicting it onto others, right?" Asta asked.

His captain nodded. "That's right, if you ask me, he spouts that word one too many times, what's your point?"

"Well, during the fight, I kept reading his Ki in order to anticipate his attacks, but I was able to read something else,"

Yami raised a brow. "Something else, and what might that be?"

"He felt sad, during the whole fight, the only emotions I could read were rage and sadness, not sadness because he was hurting us, but over something else," the swordsman replied as he looked at Vetto's body. "He wanted everyone to fall into deep despair, but this whole time, the one in the deepest despair...was him,"

Yami looked at Asta before looking up, he walked to the swordsman and pulled his headband over his eyes. "Well look at you, reaching such a conclusion, I swear, you're starting to get just a little smarter,"

"Ah! Captain Yami, where are you, I can't see a thing!" Asta exclaimed, trying to find the dark mage.

Thankfully, Yami came over and pulled it back up. "Just playing a harmless joke, now let's get back to the others, it's time we leave," he said as the two walked out of the area, but with Asta behind Yami, he wasn't able to see his captain's face tense up. "I wonder what made Vetto despair more than anyone else, maybe it has something to do with the story Licht told back in the cave, and speaking of Licht, something seemed strange about him, his Ki felt faintly familiar to someone I know," he thought as they kept walking.

"Thank you again for your help!"

The Black Bulls all stood together as the entire Underwater Community stood across from them, the latter were cheering once again.

Gifso walked up to them. "Will you ever come to visit us again?"

"I don't see why not, just no more deadly games," Yami replied.

The game mage chuckled. "Alright then, you're always welcome, stop by anytime, we'll-,"

The priest was interrupted as a faint song was heard, they all looked to see it was coming from Kahono, it sounded really strained.

Kiato looked at his sister and decided to join the vocally-injured priestess, soon the other members of the community began to join them.

"Incredible," Finral muttered as he opened a portal. "Alright everyone, let's head back to shore and get our stuff,"

One by one, the Black Bulls entered the portal, soon it was just Kenos, Noelle, and Finral.

The noble and the royal waved to their sibling friends, who waved back, they all exchanged a happy smile before the two magic knights turned around and entered the portal, the spatial mage quickly joining them as his spell vanished.

Their time at the Underwater Temple had come to an end.