Chapter Sixty-Five: Guardian Angel
Hey there, readers, sorry this chapter is late, my school's football team had a game on Friday and I went to support, as well as going to their after-party after we won! So I finished up the chapter today, in other words, I'm super excited for tomorrow since October 24th as you all know, is my birthday! I'll be turning 18 and I am pumped, since I'm a boy, I didn't have a Sweet 16, so a Sweet 18 is the next best thing. Something I have gotta say to you all is to please read the author's note at the end of the chapter as it has something very important. That's all I gotta say for now, enjoy Day 5 everyone. Cya.
"Damn, we're finally done, I gotta say, that was a tough one," Kenos said as he slumped onto a couch.
Another two days had passed for the magic knights, but those days were especially tough for the Black Bulls and the Aqua Deer. After explaining what happened to their respective captains after their battle with Annalise and Clara Jane, both Yami and Rill permitted their whole squads to go to Hiroka to help out.
They stayed there for the two days directly, rather than going back and forth, and a large part of the village was reserved for them. During that time, they used their magic to help out the villagers rebuild their homes, restore their land and vegetation, and they often hung out as well. To make matters even better, the dark and picture mages informed Julius and were each rewarded with stars.
Now, the work was over, and everyone went back to their bases. The Black Bulls were currently all relaxing in the main area, noon was soon approaching.
"Y'know, it was kind of fun going to Hiroka," Asta said. "It reminded me a bit of Hage, and it obviously great to get to interact with the villagers,"
Noelle nodded. "True, but while it was fun, I don't think I was the only weirded out by Kenos fawning over Matt the whole time we were there,"
The bulls all shared a unified nod, save for the solar mage. "Weirded out? That wasn't weird, Matt was super adorable, his giggles were so precious. You all just don't get the appeal of a cute baby," he attempted to defend himself.
"Yeah, no," Magna shot down. "What we saw during those two days is almost comparable to Gauche fawning over Marie. Not to mention that looked super out of character for you,"
"It did not, and do not compare me to him, I'm not a creep!" Kenos comedically screamed before turning to the mirror mage. "No offense,"
"None taken," he accepted, too busy looking at a photo of his little sister as they spoke, his nose bleeding.
"Anyways, why don't we talk about something that was truly interesting," Kenos began. "Us working with the Aqua Deer,"
"Yeah, you have a point, their squad isn't talked about as much as others," Vanessa agreed as she took a sip of wine. "Even if you exclude Zuka and her friends, they work very efficiently, and I bet their combat skill is just as good,"
"That makes sense, they did rank 4th in the Star Festival rankings after all," Finral added before he started to sulk. "If only any of the ladies in their squad wanted to talk to me. Every time I approached one of them, they walked away,"
"I'm pretty sure they just weren't interested, either that or they were already in relationships," Kenos told him.
"It apparently happens all the time,"
The solar mage spoke up again. "Well, I liked getting to know more about Zuka's mom. She's super tough, she sort of reminds me of...my own mother," he said with a pause, but made sure not to let his tone sadden and worry his squadmates.
"Yeah, she's really lucky," Noelle added. "No offense to any of you, but how many of us actually have a good relationship, or just a relationship in general, with their mothers?"
"Good point," Luck said. "Our familial relationships either don't exist, or are crap, but that's okay, because we're each other's family,"
Kenos smiled with a nod. "He's right. When I first came here, I avoided talking to any of you because I felt guilty. I initially used this squad as an escape from my siblings. But Asta told me to push past my guilt by seeing you as my family rather than my associates, and since then, I haven't regretted doing so, I've gotten to know most of you very well and you all mean so much to me,"
"What, that was the reason?!" Charmy exclaimed. "We all thought we just did something to offend you,"
"Um, yeah. I guess I never really did tell anyone but Asta," the solar mage confessed with a bit of embarrassment. "Sorry about that,"
"Well, I know that you know this already, but you mean a lot to us as well," Vanessa said. "Even if you joining this squad wasn't your original intention, we're all glad you came here,"
"As am I," Kenos responded as he looked at the dark mage who had yet to say anything. "By the way, Captain Yami, is there anything we have to do today?"
The dark mage put down the newspaper he was reading to look at his subordinate. "To be honest, that work in Hiroka was pretty tough, and we even got stars for it, let's take a day off,"
"Yes!"
"Just wait a minute, I want to change it up this time around. Instead of us all going our separate ways, why don't we do something as a squad," he told them.
"You mean like a…squad outing?" Kenos asked.
"Yeah, what you said. We can go to the capital or somewhere and look for something to do," Yami replied.
"Awesome, but where are we going to go?" Magna wondered aloud. "Will we take turns going to places we each pick, or do we decide some different way,"
"A different way works for me, and I know just what that is," Yami said as he stood up and pointed at their pet bird, who was currently standing on the counter. "Nero will fly onto the head of someone and they'll get to decide. Just like we did when deciding on his name. Any objections?"
"None here," they replied in unison.
"Good, alright Nero, do your stuff," Yami told the bird as he flew into the air, circling around the squad.
"I bet it's going to come to me like it did last time," Luck predicted with a smile on his face. "But I wonder where I will want to go? Ooh, what about a secret underground fight ring?"
"There's no way in hell we're doing that for an outing! That sounds like fun just for you!" the flame mage screamed.
Gordon then began writing something down in his notebook, Finral bent down to read it. "I hope I win, then I can take all my friends to meet my family. Having the two most important groups in my life together sounds like a dream,"
The bulls all gave short warm smiles to the poison mage's view of them, but their smiles were soon replaced with comedic horror once Gordon's family entered their minds. They began to picture what his family could be like, but they eventually stopped, knowing that going further would terrify them for sure.
They all shared one unified thought. "Nope, sorry Gordon, you mean a lot to us too, but no way in hell are we meeting your family!"
Nero then began to descend from the air, everyone waited in mock anticipation, but the bird made his choice as he finally dropped on someone's head.
Kenos' to be exact.
"Oh, it appears I've won this time around," the solar mage cheered for himself politely.
"Aw, damn it, and I wanted to fight some strong people too…oh well," Luck sulked before getting over it rather quickly. "So, where are we off to?"
Kenos held his chin in thought for a decent five minutes as he pondered where to hold the location of their outing. "Eureka! I've thought of the perfect place we should go,"
"Well don't just keep it to yourself, tell us," Noelle told him.
The solar mage waved a finger and gave her a sly grin. "Ah ah, not just yet, I want this to be a bit of a surprise. For now, everyone get your brooms and head outside," he requested.
A short two minutes passed before they were all standing outside, those with brooms had them in hand as Kenos faced the spatial mage. "Okay Finral, I'm going to need you to make a portal to the capital, we can start our flight from there so it'll take less time to arrive,"
"No problem, royal capital, here we come," Finral obliged as he raised a hand, forming a portal to which they all entered before the portal closed.
But unbeknownst to them, they were being watched, and their observer stood out from behind a tree, revealing it to be Zaxon.
"So, that was Kenos Rossiu as well as the other Black Bulls, they are truly interesting," he said before something else came into consideration. "That spatial mage though, he could present a problem…he'll need to be dealt with first,"
"And, here we are,"
The Black Bulls had just arrived at the spot Kenos intended for them to visit. It was the same meadow from before, where so much had happened, Shauna finding a place of comfort, Zuka cheering up Kenos, their fight with Levi to protect the grave of Nathan's dad, and where the sparkle mage's romantic feelings first originated from.
Kenos continued speaking. "When I was in my short slump and you let Zuka take me somewhere, this is where it was," he informed them.
"Wow, no wonder that slump of yours didn't last long, this place is absolutely beautiful," Vanessa commented.
"It truly is," Noelle agreed.
"I agree! This place is awesome!" Asta screamed at the top of his lungs.
He was soon stopped as Yami gripped his head and lifted him. "Would you shut up? You're ruining the moment," his captain scolded.
"Sorry about that. Um, hey, you know something, it's been some time since you've done this to me," the swordsman realized.
"Hm, I guess you're right, it has been a while…anyways," the dark mage changed up his stance, reeling the hand holding Asta back. "What are you all waiting for? Our squad outing has begun, now go out there and have some fun!" he exclaimed as he launched Asta into the distance.
"Asta! Don't worry, we're coming! Noelle, with me!" the solar mage bellowed as he and the water mage quickly ran after their squadmate.
"Yeah, sorry about that one, kid, but he'll live," Yami mumbled as he turned to the others. "You guys heard me, go off and do something,"
The others either walked or ran away from him, but he noticed that one of his squad members had yet to leave, or rather two.
"Gordon, Nero, is something the matter?" he asked before noticing the anti-bird resting on the man's head. "And why is he on top of your head like he is with Asta? I didn't think you two would be close,"
The poison mage took out his notebook and wrote something down before handing it to Yami as he read it aloud. "Yes, Nero and I have been great friends ever since we had our bonding time when you all went to the Underwater Temple," he finished reading before giving his output. "I see, well good for you," he then handed the notebook back.
Gordon took it back as he looked up at the bird atop his hat. "Hey Nero, want to go somewhere and look at the clouds?" he silently asked, to which Nero gave a quick nod as they went on their way, passing by Gauche.
The mirror mage was currently using his Reflect Transmission spell to show Marie and Marco the meadow. "And here's another flower, it's even the same color as your dress," Gauche said, a pink flower in hand.
"It's beautiful," Marco said, with the girl beside him nodding. "Are there any red ones around that match my hair?"
"Um, sure, there's one right over there," the mirror mage pointed at a flower on the ground, his tone void of enthusiasm.
Marco could only pout at Gauche's lack of attention towards him, but his pout disappeared and a happy smile replaced as both he and Marie saw a familiar face behind the latter's brother.
"Kenos!" the two children called.
The solar mage, who was running behind Gauche stopped at the sound of someone calling his name, he looked to the left and saw the two kids greeting him. "Marie, Marco, hey," he said back, jogging in place. "How have you two been? Is Sister Theresa doing fine as well?"
"We're all doing great, things have been going good for us," Marie replied.
Kenos couldn't help but smile. "That's awesome,"
"Kenos, c'mon, we're losing him!" Noelle called from a distance.
"Oh that's right, I have to go, bye you two, say hi to Rebecca and Eon for me," the black-haired teen waved before sprinting away.
"Wasn't expecting an interruption like that, but no matter. Okay, Marie, what else do you want to see?" Gauche asked.
"I want to see-," she was beginning to say before she cut herself off, her brow raised. "Um, big brother, I think something's behind you,"
The mirror mage turned around as his sister stated, and she was right, there was something rummaging through the grass and flowers, but with how tall the greenery was, the source of the movement wasn't visible.
"Kenos never said that there weren't wild animals around here. Regardless, if something tries to attack, it's dying quickly, I'm not letting anything around scare Marie…oh, and Marco too I guess," he thought as he slowly neared whatever the target was.
But once he got close enough, he quickly noticed a black robe and short blue hair, causing him to groan. "False alarm, there's no threat here, it's just Grey,"
The transformation mage stuck her head out of the grass, coming into view of the transmission mirror. "Wow, she's pretty," Marie complimented.
Grey shyly twiddled her fingers. "U-Um, thank you, i-it's good to s-see you, M-Marie,"
"Oh, you know my name?" the girl asked, surprised.
"Y-Yeah, Gauche never stops t-talking about y-you. Besides, w-we've met before," Grey replied.
Marie widened her eyes. "We have?"
Gauche was surprised as well. "You have?"
"U-Um, yeah, i-it was a w-while back…," she began before she suddenly ran away. "I have to go!"
"That was weird," the three thought in unison.
Meanwhile, Kenos and Noelle were still running after Asta. "Shit, just how high did the captain throw him?" the former asked rhetorically.
"I don't know, but hopefully, Dorksta doesn't get hurt," Noelle responded before she thought back to something that happened about a minute ago. "Hey, when you were talking to Marie and Marco, you told them to say hi to Rebecca and Eon for you, right?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Kenos raised a brow.
"Well, I've just been wondering, it's been a while since we've really gotten to interact with those two, especially you and Eon," Noelle clarified.
The solar mage was still a bit confused. "I guess, but what are you getting at?"
The water mage paused for a little while before answering. "How do you...see Eon?"
"How do I see her? I think she's cool, she has a great relationship with her siblings, the two of us are quite alike in some things, although, she's a great cook, me on the other hand…not so much. She's hardworking and positive, I don't know what's not to like," Kenos replied normally.
"I see, speaking of like, and this is unrelated to the previous topic, but…what kind of girls do you like, y'know...girlfriend material?"
The solar mage thought about it. "Well, she'd have to be strong-willed first of all, I also like girls who are kind, clever, caring, resourceful, and have a strong moral compass," he answered. "Now there's something I would like to know. Why are you suddenly asking me this?"
Noelle turned her head away from her squadmate. "It was just...something I've been thinking about lately, and you're the only boy in the squad I can talk to about it," she came up with a quick excuse.
"Is that so?" he asked, his tone not making any implication that the royal was lying to him, but his mind was a different story. "Now it all makes sense...Noelle must be thinking about whether or not Asta might find her appealing and she came to me for encouragement. She clearly only mentioned Eon in order to throw suspicion off of herself, ah, it's good to be in the loop, it helps to be able to see past these things," he thought, completely missing what the water mage was trying to do.
"Y'know, if you ever need someone to talk to about that, I'll be more than-," Kenos was continuing to say, but was abruptly stopped as two figures sped right past him. "What the? Magna! Luck!" he exclaimed, the two culprits being the flame and lightning mages, Luck equipped with his Holy Lightning Boots, and Magna with a reinforcement spell.
"What are you two doing?!" Noelle called after them.
"Running away!" they both cheerfully replied.
"Running away, but from what?" Kenos wondered.
"From me, of course!" another voice answered, the voice belonging to the cotton mage, riding her cloud of wool as she rushed past her two squadmates, quickly pursuing her other two squadmates. "I shall not be beaten, once I catch you, you'll have to try my new experimental meadow dish!"
"Like hell, you may be a great cook, but even I'm not going to eat that shit!" Magna yelled.
"I don't know, Magna, you're going kinda slow, you're going to get caught eventually," Luck told him.
"Stop pulling my chain, you bastard! I won't get caught, I'll keep speeding forward, you'll see, and when the exam begins and I possibly get selected, all the magic knights will see too!"
"All of them will see, aye? To do that, you're going to have to make it all the way to the top and defeat tons of strong people. Are you sure you're ready for that?" Luck asked with genuine curiosity.
The flame mage didn't answer right away, but he soon found his answer. "Yeah, I will be ready for it. And I hope that you get selected too and that we're put on different teams, so we can battle each other with everything we got,"
"That sounds like it could be fun, I look forward to that. Make sure you give me an entertaining fight before you lose," the lightning mage lightheartedly taunted.
"Whatever," Magna waved off, seemingly unphased by that one.
"I'm coming for you!" Charmy exclaimed from a distance, slowly beginning to catch up.
Luck turned to his friend. "Hey Magna, I have an idea. Instead of running away from Charmy, we should take her head-on. What do you say?"
Magna's face contorted into a grin. "Sounds good to me, you wouldn't like just running anyway, it's your nature to get into the action, so let's make some action happen,"
The two then stopped in unison, their bodies completely in sync as they reeled their hands back, a mass of flame and lightning forming between them.
Charmy saw what they were doing. "Going for your combo spell? So you want to fight instead of run? Works for me!" she exclaimed, jumping off the cloud as it shifted into a large sheep behind her, its fist reeled back for a punch.
"Yeah, I think I might need to intervene,"
A voice suddenly spoke as the three black bulls became wrapped in thread and were suspended in the air. The voice was coming from Vanessa as she approached them.
"Look you guys, I don't mind you having fun, but this isn't the base, let's try to keep the chaos and destruction to a minimum, we wouldn't want to wreck this beautiful meadow now, would we?" she asked.
Magna sighed. "…No, we wouldn't. Sorry about that, I guess we got a little carried away,"
"Yeah, same here," Luck and Charmy apologized as well.
Vanessa then released them. "It's all good, just don't go crazy,"
"You shall still be caught!" Charmy roared as she mounted her cloud, but the two boys were already on their way, the cotton mage let out a yell of triumph before pursuing them.
The thread mage let out a chuckle. "Insane as ever, but I still love them to death," she mused before noticing someone a good distance away. It was Finral, standing alone, a look of subtle worry on his face.
Vanessa crossed her arms as she slowly walked over to him. "Hey there, whatcha doing?"
Finral slightly jumped at the sudden sound of a nearby voice. "Oh, Vanessa, you scared me,"
"My bad. What were you thinking about? Your face looked a bit off," she informed him.
The spatial mage scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, there has been something in my mind for some time. The Royal Knights exam is just in two days, what happens if I get selected to participate?"
"What? So you're saying that if you get picked, you're going to get cold feet?"
"No, it's not that. It's about my little brother, Langris," he confessed. "He's the vice-captain of the Golden Dawn, there's no doubt that he'll be participating. What if I face off against him? I told him that our squad would become better than his squad, but he's still better than me. I'll never be able to take him down,"
"You need to trust yourself," Vanessa said to him with a reassuring grin. "You've changed a lot since you joined the squad, we all have, you don't feel like a coward who would run away from a fight anymore,"
"I know all of that, but what if it isn't enough?"
"That's why you need to trust yourself, you can grow over and over again, but if you don't have trust in yourself and in your abilities, it's all meaningless, you'll always be behind your brother with that mindset," she replied. "This squad already trusts you, we all have faith in your ability. When we fought Vetto in the Underwater Temple, Asta didn't just trust my ability, he trusted yours too,"
A small smile touched Finral's features. "Well, when you put it that way, I shouldn't be here worrying, should I?"
"Nope, you should be enjoying our outing,"
"Right. And, can you stay with me for a little while, there's something I want to talk with you about," he said to her.
"Sure,"
"Ok, we're right under him!" Noelle exclaimed, Asta above her and Kenos.
"We've finally caught up to him, I have a plan," Kenos turned to her. "I'm going to jump, use your wand and blast me with water, it should boost me right up to him,"
She nodded. "Alright,"
The solar counted in his head. "Three, two, one!" he then jumped. "Now!"
Noelle quickly reacted, taking her wand out, aiming at Kenos' back before shooting a waterball, immediately thrusting him into the air in the magicless mage's direction. It only took Kenos a few seconds to reach him, he grabbed onto his arms, pulling them downwards, sending the swordsman directly to the ground.
"I got this part," Asta said as he shifted his body mid-air, so that it was standing upright before he landed on the ground, Kenos landing soon after.
"Nice, that's how it's done," the solar mage cheered as he and Noelle shared a high-five.
Asta then spoke up. "Um, not that I don't appreciate the effort, but why didn't you just have Finral make me a portal? Then you wouldn't need to chase after me,"
The noble and royal thought about what their squadmate just said, it dawned on them that he made it a great point. They gave a unified response to his statement.
"Oh yeah," a look of comedic indifference was present in their expressions.
"What do you mean oh yeah?!" Asta yelled with comedic anger. "I actually thought I was going to die that time, I was up in the air for a while. Is that all you have to say?!"
"All jokes aside, our bad, we didn't think of that right away," Kenos apologized.
"Well, I guess I can forgive you, I know you'd never do it on purpose," the swordsman told him. "So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, what are we going to do here?"
Noelle held her chin, but wasn't sure either. "I don't know," she then faced the solar mage. "You came here before. What did you do?"
"Zuka and I didn't do too much here. We did a little looking, had a quick race, then we…had a fight,"
This put looks of shock on his two squadmates. "You and Zuka fought each other?" Asta asked.
"Oh, no, not at all, we had a fight with someone we encountered here. He went by the name, Levi," Kenos clarified.
"Levi? That name sounds familiar, wasn't he the former vice-captain of the Green Praying Mantises?" Asta remembered.
"That's right, Glynda's his replacement now. When Zuka and I encountered him, Nathan was here visiting his dad's grave,"
"Nathan? That boy we saw with Sylvester in the Star Festival?" Noelle asked this time.
Kenos nodded. "Right again, Nathan's das owed Levi money, but died before he could repay it, so Levi wanted to burn his body as compensation. Zuka wouldn't allow it, so we fought him, but we lost…really bad, and Levi…burned the body," he finished with a somber note.
"Oh, so, is the burnt body still around here?" Asta asked.
"I'm not sure, it could be somewhere around this meadow, but it will always be a reminder of my first failure as a magic knight…or maybe my second one," he stated.
The magicless and water mages raised a brow. "Second?"
"Yeah, my first failure was not trying to get close to you all at first, it'll always stand as my primary regret while wearing this robe. But I didn't lose my chance, and I made the most of it, you guys really are the best," the solar mage smiled.
"You are too," Asta returned before something came to mind. "Hey, I think I know what we can do,"
Three hours passed while the squad stayed in the meadow, all doing their thing while talking to each other, before long, the dark mage's voice echoed throughout.
"Alright everyone, this outing has been fun, but we had better get back to the base to enjoy the rest of our day!" he called.
He didn't have to repeat his statement twice as they all began rallying towards him.
"Man, that was loads of fun," Magna grinned, his arms crossed behind his back as he saw Kenos, Asta, and Noelle. "Yo, what did you three do?"
"Asta came up with this cool thing we could do," Kenos answered. "We would take turns testing our magic to see what kind of different things they could do, like how fast they could make us go, how glamorous we can make it look, stuff like that,"
"During my years of training, I never thought I'd do something like that, but it turned out more exciting than I thought," Noelle added.
"What about you? Did Charmy ever catch one of you?" the solar mage asked this time.
"You'll be glad to know that she did not," the shaded mage confidently replied until Luck suddenly burst into the conversation.
"Correction, she didn't catch me, Magna on the other hand, it appears she finally got him once he started getting tired," he blurted.
A look of comedic horror came to Magna's face. "Please don't remind me," he mumbled before he was suddenly entrapped with coils of cotton.
Charmy flew over to him, her face wearing a comedically evil grin. "Oh Magna, I just can't wait until we get back to the base so you can try what I'll prepare for you,"
"No, I beg of you, have mercy!" he begged.
"Mercy is for the weak!"
"Well, it looks like some of you really had the time of your lives," Yami said before turning to the spatial mage. "Finral, you know where to take us,"
"Right away, captain," he obeyed, forming a portal to which they all walked in, arriving back at their hideout.
"Nice work, now, I need to go take a dump," Yami continued.
"On it again," Finral made another portal.
"Thank you, oh, and after I'm done, I'm going to need a portal to the store," the dark mage ordered once again.
But this time, Finral rubbed his arm. "Actually, I was planning to go to the capital to do something really soon,"
Yami raised a brow. "Something really soon? What, are you going to go to the capital or something to chat up some girls?"
"No, not this time, there was something else I wanted to get done," he told him with a nervous tone.
Regardless, Yami relented. "I guess I can allow it, you're a person with your own stuff to handle, I guess I'll have to go to the store by broom," he said before walking into the portal and arriving at the bathroom.
The others began to walk inside. "Have fun wherever you're going, Finral, be careful, and don't be out for too long. You know the captain doesn't want any of us staying out late," Vanessa wished him safety.
"I know, don't you worry about a thing," the spatial mage responded as his squadmates all finally entered the base.
Finral then pulled a strand of his hair. "I better get moving, I hope there's a hairdresser who can help me with this,"
But before he was about to make a portal, a cord shot out of nowhere, wrapping around his hand, soon, more shot out, successfully wrapping around his remaining hand along with his arms and legs.
"What the hell is-," he didn't get to finish before he was suddenly being pulled into the lines of trees that surrounded the base. "Somebody he-!"
He also tried to exclaim for help, but was shut down again as a hand laid itself over his mouth. "What's going on?!" he frantically thought. His question was soon answered as he became face-to-face with Zaxon, the assassin's soulless eyes peering into Finral's very being.
"So, Finral's your name, and you're a spatial mage? Relax, you're not going to die, you aren't my target, but I can't have your magic getting in the way, so you're going to have to rest for a little while," Zaxon explained, his voice just as soulless as he raised his available hand and pressed two fingers on opposite ends of Finral's neck.
The spatial couldn't make a portal to escape with his hands bound, so he continued to yell as loud as he could, but his screams for help went unheard as he slowly, but surely, lost consciousness.
An hour passed since the Bulls had returned, they had all gone back to doing what they normally do.
All except for Magna, that is, who was still bound, a tiny sheep holding his mouth open as Charmy finished her concoction.
"I hope you've saved your appetite for this, behold, my luscious meadow broth," she said, ladling a spoon of it. The odd green it had was unappetizing enough, there was no telling how it tasted.
"Have you gone mad, woman?!" Magna exclaimed to the best of his ability. "I'm not eating that!"
"Sorry, but you don't have a choice," she disregarded his words as she put the spoon into his mouth, dropping the liquid as it traveled down his throat.
"Uh, that tastes awful!"
"It does? Hmm, maybe it needs more salt?"
"I'll tell you what it really needs. It needs to not exist, that's what!" the flame mage screamed violently. "What on earth possessed you to do something like this?!"
"The foundation of cooking is experimentation! Many of the world's greatest dishes started as things which people thought shouldn't exist!" Charmy told him.
"I don't need a lecture, I need to be let out!" Magna continued to scream, turning his head to his squadmates, who didn't look concerned in the slightest. "What are you all just sitting there for?! Come over here and help me!"
"You'll be fine," they replied in unison, their voices not expressing any serious level of care.
"I swear, I will kill you all in your sleep!"
"Hey there everyone," Yami said as he entered the room, just having finished his time in the bathroom. He looked at the bound Magna, and Charmy, who was tormenting him, then looked away. "He'll be fine,"
"Not you too!"
"Now, have any of you seen Finral? I deliberately lengthed my dump time so he'd be here by the time I was finished," he asked everyone.
"I haven't seen him, maybe he's still at whatever place he went to," Vanessa told him.
"Hopefully, he'll turn up soon, despite what I said, I don't feel like flying to the store," the dark mage confessed.
Suddenly, a knock was heard at the door. "That must be him," Yami believed.
"I doubt it," Gauche spoke up. "Finral never knocks, none of us do. Besides, he could just teleport here with a portal,"
"Good point, then perhaps it's a visitor, we've been getting a good amount of those-," the captain was saying, but was cut off by a very nearby explosion. "Shit, forget visitors, we're under attack! Everybody, move in!"
No one wasted even a second, their grimoires out before they even opened the door. They immediately looked around, but strangely saw nothing.
"That's strange, there was just an explosion out here," Asta said with bewilderment.
"I wonder what it could've been?" Kenos wondered aloud before he quickly closed an eye, a beam of light had reflected off of his ring and right in his left eye. He raised his hand up in order to stop the light, but as he did, he noticed the ring reflecting something else, but it wasn't light, instead, it was the image of a man standing on the roof, staring down right at them as he raised a hand.
"Everyone, move!" Kenos yelled as he quickly jumped out of the way, the others were confused by his action and failed to do so, and in seconds, they were suddenly trapped within a transparent yellow dome.
"What the?" they all said.
"Everyone!" Kenos exclaimed again as the guilty figure descended from the roof, letting himself be seen.
"There is someone here, so you're the one who caused the explosion!" Magna accused.
The man made no effort to deny, he simply nodded. "That is correct, it was done to lead you outside and trap you, but it seems an outlier has appeared,"
"Who are you?!" Kenos demanded.
"Zaxon is my name," he calmly replied.
"Don't worry, Kenos, we'll come out and help you!" Asta reassured his friend as he pulled out the Demon-Dweller. "Whatever this is, it's still made of magic, I'll just nullify,"
Zaxon quickly intervened. "If you value your life and those of everyone in there, I'd recommend you don't touch that," he advised. "You're all trapped in my Spatial Magic: Implosion Dome, if the dome is touched by any form of physical or magical contact, it will implode immediately, killing all who are inside, a trusty spell when handling groups. I know your anti-magic powers, boy, but even they won't save you,"
"Uh, that means I can't use Dimension Slash either, the spell will cut through the dome before it gets to him, shit," Yami cursed. "Then there's still one way. One of you contact Finral, he can make a portal on the ground, that won't break any of the dome's rules,"
"If you're trying to get in touch with your friend, I'd advise you to stop," Zaxon said once again as he extended a hand, causing a sound to be heard from the trees. Soon, something emerged that made everyone's eyes widen.
It was Finral, knocked out cold, floating in suspension inside a transparent yellow sphere, that sphere moved towards the dome. "I've already taken care of him, he's within my Spatial Magic: Transporter Sphere, it keeps anyone inside the spell unconscious and can be moved around, unlike the dome," Zaxon explained.
"I don't care what your spells do, why have you come here?!" Kenos demanded once again.
"I'm an assassin," he replied.
"An assassin, then someone hired you to eliminate the Black Bulls, who?!"
Zaxon didn't respond this time, he merely looked down at his grimoire as it slowly flipped through pages.
The solar mage had had enough. "Fine, don't wanna talk on your own? Then I'll make you talk! I'm the only one here who can face you," he then activated his ring, his grimoire flipping to the page where Sunshine Aura was, but before he did, he quickly closed his eyes and opened them, seeing the beads of mana.
"The mana around this Zaxon guy, it feels so strange, his mana is filled with the want to murder, but not the intent. I suppose that makes sense, if he's an assassin, then he doesn't kill for kicks or revenge, it's merely professional, all business. I need to work fast, assassins aren't easy to take down," Kenos thought to himself, before gathering neutral beads for a Mana Charge.
"Solar Godspeed!" he called out the name of his ring-aura combo before he quickly charged forward. "If you tell me who sent you, I promise I'll hold back a bit!"
"That won't be necessary, Spatial Magic: Quartet Warp," he said, forming four circular portals around his body, at the speed Kenos was going, he couldn't stop himself from entering one of them and coming out right in front of a faraway tree, his power knocking it down with a thud.
"An interesting spell, but that won't be enough, Solar Creation Magic: Rain of Solar Daggers!" Kenos declared as the daggers started to fall towards Zaxon, but he responded by merely making a portal beneath him, falling into it fast as he came out somewhere else.
"Damn, this guy is really good with his spatial magic," Noelle commented.
"If he's an assassin, then he'll have a lot of skills under his belt. If only we weren't stuck here," Yami replied, but then he turned to the transformation mage. "Grey, you're our strategist, got any ideas?"
Grey transformed into Charmy as she looked around, scanning the area around her, looking at the dome before looking at Zaxon. "I've got nothing, the countermeasures of Zaxon's dome have stopped us from making any proactive moves right now. The dome will most definitely undo itself once the one who cast it has been beaten, but only when that happens. "I hate to say it, but it's all up to Kenos, he's the only one who can free us," she explained before changing back.
"Damn it all to hell," the dark mage muttered before yelling out. "Kenos! We don't have a single way out of here, you're going to be completely on your own, so push past your limits and beat this bastard good!"
"Yes, captain!" Kenos replied adamantly.
"Strong will, but is that enough," Zaxon plainly remarked as he suddenly started running towards the solar mage at a quick speed.
"Woah, he's a lot faster than I thought, but I'm faster, I'll get-," Kenos was saying, but then Zaxon rapidly made a portal in front of himself, running right into it. "Ok, where did he-," he was interrupted once more as Zaxon's portal appeared behind, the assassin not far behind before he kicked the black-haired teen in the back.
The spatial hitman wasn't done yet as he once more made a portal and fell into it, appearing up in the sky. "Spatial Magic: Space Cutter Bombardment," he said as he put his hand in a chopping shape before launching multiple air swings, but with every swing, yellow spatial magic would take on the form of a crescent-shaped blade, ready to descend on the target.
"You're not going to get me!" Kenos defiantly exclaimed as he got back and did a quick backflip, evading the first set of attacks, but then he switched to rapid hops and flips to keep himself from getting hit.
"You may have a point there, you're certainly a fast one," Zaxon lightly complimented, gravity forcing his body down, but he quickly made another portal, reappearing back up in the air as he fired a slew of blades again.
Kenos decided to change his game plan a bit. He quickly moved to dodge the blades like before, but this time, he jumped on a nearby tree, using it to boost himself up towards the aerial threat. "Thank you meadow experience, Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!" he declared, firing the beam straight at him.
"Impressive, choosing to come up to me, but that's nothing I haven't faced before," Zaxon stated before he made a portal right in front of him, the spell going right into it, but what Kenos wasn't expecting was a portal appear to his left, his own attack coming right back at him, luckily, he managed to cross his arms as the beam he sent forced him back to the ground.
"Shit, I wasn't expecting him to try that, I just thought he'd make a portal to get away, I need to try a different approach, I need to try to get up close and personal, Solar Creation Magic: Solar Construct - Limb Armor!" Kenos' hands and feet became equipped.
Zaxon raised a brow. "An interesting choice of weapon. I was told you were proficient in multiple areas of magic,"
"By whom? Your employer? The one you still haven't told me about, well don't worry, I'll get answers out of you soon enough," the solar mage scoffed, rushing into battle once again, moving faster than he was before. He was soon face-to-face with Zaxon, he was momentarily stunned by the lack of emotion in his eyes, but he quickly regained his concentration as he began to launch a flurry of kicks and punches, but somehow, he was perfectly dodging them.
"No fucking way, nobody has ever been able to match my Solar Godspeed so easily, what the hell is this guy?" the solar mage thought to himself with disbelief.
"This is bad, Kenos isn't taking the advantage," Asta worryingly stated.
"And worst of all, it doesn't even look like that son of a bitch is trying," Gauche added.
There was nothing the Rossiu could do but try his best to go even faster, taking Yami's words to heart, he pushed past his limits and managed to land a solid punch on Zaxon.
The spatial hitman responded to this plainly as he formed one large portal underneath him and Kenos, both falling into it, but the latter wasn't prepared for such a move that would take them both into the air. As such, he was nearly vulnerable to Zaxon once he chose to go on the offensive, firing an array of punches, but mostly kicks. But that wasn't it, whenever Zaxon finished his combo of attacks and was ready to fall down to the ground along with his enemy, he'd make another portal for them both higher up in the air before he did his combo of punches and kicks again. This continued twice until Kenos was sent crashing to do the ground.
"Kenos, are you okay?!" Charmy called.
"Don't worry, I'm good," the solar mage replied as he struggled to get back up after his recent beat down. "But still, I should consider myself lucky. The ring is bumping up my durability so I can keep getting back up over and over-," he was in the middle of thinking before something suddenly wrapped around his wrist.
He looked at the object in question. "It's a metal cord, but how the hell did that get-," he was once more cut off as he was suddenly launched into the air by his wrist. It didn't take him long to see his enemy standing on the ground, the cord coming from some item on his wrist.
"A magic item?" Kenos wondered aloud.
"Correct," Zaxon answered as he continued to pull on said cord, sending Kenos straight towards the outer walls of the base, hitting it back-first, forming a decent-sized crater. He then dropped back down to the ground.
"Now I can eliminate you," the assassin spoke.
The solar mage quickly got up. "That's what you think!" he exclaimed as he flashed around, rebounding off the walls of the base towards a nearby tree, rebounding off of that as well.
"You continue to persist despite only getting one good hit on me. Most of my targets would've been out for the count by now, resorting to begging for mercy," Zaxon told him.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not the same as those other people. Now, tell me who hired you!"
"You're quite adamant about that, aren't you?"
Kenos' face contorted in anger. "Of course I would be!" he yelled as he rebounded off of one more tree, shooting towards Zaxon at an incredible speed.
"Trying some like that again I see? Futile," the assassin plainly retorted, ready to create a portal to get out of the way.
But Kenos had predicted this as a small smirk formed. "Just like I thought," he extended an arm, ready to cast another spell. "Solar Binding Magic: Sunbound Shackles!"
The shackles immediately restrained the hitman's arms and legs, but his hands were still free, meaning he could still make a portal.
But stopping him from making a portal wasn't Kenos' intention.
"Huh?" Zaxon wondered aloud as he looked at the shackles binding him, confused for a few seconds.
That was what he wanted, the solar mage was going to take full advantage of those few seconds. He quickly shifted his body upright while in movement, violently rotating his body as he closed in on the assassin, becoming like a tornado, all before slamming his heel right into Zaxon's face. The spatial hitman became like a rocket as he was shot straight into a tree, hitting it back-first.
"Now we're even, but I'm not done with you, Solar Magic: Solar Cross Destroyer!" Kenos didn't even touch the ground yet before he cast his second strongest spell, creating the two Xs before splitting one and sending them towards Zaxon. The hitman let out a grunt of pain as the lines were slowly crushing him.
The solar mage finally landed with the other X in hand, clenching his fist as it released the powerful blast of magic. "Let's see you get out of this one!"
As the blast neared him, Zaxon opened his mouth. "I won't need to," was his only response as he fought the crushing pain and created a portal in front of him, the blast entering the portal. A new portal then appeared behind Kenos, ready to have him become the victim of his own attack once again.
But the black bull was ready. "You already tried that on me once, it won't work a second time, Solar Creation Magic: Amaterasu's Guard!" he quickly whipped his body around and cast the spell, the sun goddess protecting him as she blocked the devastating attack.
"Damn, I never realized how hard it is to stop my own attack," Kenos said to himself as the blast finished, now he was ready to take on Zaxon again. "Now, where-," he was stopped midway as a spatial blade was coming right for his face, ready to cut his head cleanly off his neck, but the teen quickly ducked his head, the blade only managing to graze his cheek.
It was the assassin, fully free, his arm and hand still in the motion from sending the recent blade. "Nice reflexes,"
Kenos wiped the blood running down his cheek. "You're free?"
"Yeah, once the secondary blast had ended, your lines disappeared," Zaxon explained, but said nothing else as he sent out more spatial blades.
Kenos quickly began evading them again. "Shit, this guy has combated nearly every move I've made throughout the fight, and I'm still no closer to finding out who sent him after us. If I want to take him down, then I'll need to give it everything I got," he thought to himself as he stopped, casting his guard spell to block the remaining blades.
The solar mage closed his eyes and opened them again, once more seeing the beads of mana, he gathered them together. "This is it, Zaxon! I'm finishing this battle right now,"
"Incorrect, the battle will only end once I've completed my job," the assassin countered.
"I hate to break it to you, but you'll have to end this job a little early," Kenos retorted as his grimoire flipped to the page of his strongest spell. "Solar Creation Magic - Mana Charge: Wyvern of Helios!"
At his call, the powerful orange wyvern appeared, it looked much larger, and it roared much louder. "Just try to redirect this at me! Go!" the solar mage yelled triumphantly as the wyvern flew towards the enemy.
Within the dome, the other black bulls all grinned, Magna was the first to speak up. "Alright, Kenos is bringing out the big guns, victory is in the bag,"
"So captain, are we ever going to find out who sent Zaxon here?" Noelle asked.
The dark mage nodded. "We can take him to the capital and have Marx question him with his magic. All we have to do is wait until Kenos' attack connects and this blasted dome thing disappears,"
But unfortunately for both the Black Bulls and Kenos himself, the assassin didn't look deterred in the slightest. "I won't need to redirect it, Spatial Magic: Mass Warpgate," he said as he extended his arms and then released them, creating a ginormous portal.
"No way in hell!" everyone else exclaimed as the wyvern flew into the portal, Kenos saw another portal appear miles away from where they were, the wyvern flying out of it as it crashed into a flock of trees, destroying them all and creating a shockwave that could even be felt despite how far off it was.
Kenos stared in disbelief. "It's not possible, not even my wyvern spell could do anything, it doesn't matter how strong it is if it can't hit the target," he muttered, disheartened. But that disheartenment only grew as he felt one of his auras disappear.
"What?" he took off his ring and saw that all four outlines had gone black. "No, I still need it for the fight, I have to recharge it," he desperately started adding his mana to the ring, but that action was halted as he fell into a portal, appearing in the air.
Zaxon had appeared next to him, trying to use another blade to decapitate him, but Kenos quickly dodge it, so the assassin kicked him right up the chin, shooting him downwards as he landed with a thud, dropping his ring in the process, his limb armor dissipating, his grimoire's aura disappearing as well as it closed and hit the ground beside him.
The solar mage slowly crawled towards the ring, but Zaxon had beat him to it, picking up the item. "This is what you used along with something else for that Solar Godspeed thing. A truly fascinating magic item, but you won't be needing it anymore," he said before throwing it in the air, making multiple slashes at it with a spatial blade as it landed next to Kenos, he tried to pick it up, but that when...it shattered into tiny pieces.
"NOOO!" Kenos screamed, the ring he had had for so long, the item that had let him stand a chance against so many powerful enemies. Mars, Andreas, Vetto, Brosnan, and Clara Jane to name a few, now it was gone, broken beyond repair, no longer able to be used. The solar mage grabbed the pieces and held them in his hand. "You bastard! Why, why are you doing this?!"
"I already told you, I was sent here by my employer,"
"There you go again about your employer. Just tell me who it is, what idiot would hire a hitman to take out an entire magic knight squad?!"
"Hm, your squad? There seems to have been a misunderstanding, I'm not here for your squad, my one, and only target...was you, Kenos Rossiu," Zaxon revealed.
"Kenos was the target?" the black bulls all thought, completely shocked, but none were shocked more than the solar mage himself.
"M-Me? Someone sent you to kill...me? Who?!" he demanded.
"Yes, I knew you wouldn't get trapped in my dome, I noticed the ring you had on your finger and made a plan to deliberately reflect light at it, knowing you'd move it and see me coming," Zaxon then pulled out some kind of gold trapezoidal item. "I was told not to show you this, but I know if I don't, you'll pester me about it to no end," he kneeled down and placed the object on the ground, pushing a button as large holograms appeared, only showing one figure, a poor man with gray hair.
"Hello, I was told this was where I could find a famous assassin who goes by the name of...Zaxon," the poor man spoke.
The hologram of Zaxon then emerged. "I am he. What do you desire?"
"There's a noble I'd like you to eliminate for me, all some of them do is tarnish our kingdom, in more ways than one, so they must be exterminated," the poor man replied.
"So that's him, some poor guy's the one who wanted Kenos dead, I hope we have a chance to escape, so I can kill him," Luck said.
The holograms continued interacting. "Okay, is there a picture you have of this noble, or can you perfectly describe them to me?" Zaxon asked.
"Yes, I have a picture. I'm lucky to have been able to get this, it was close," the poor man answered as he showed a picture of Kenos.
"Isn't that a Rossiu? They're a pretty important family, are you sure about this?" the assassin questioned.
"I am," the man replied before pulling out a large bag of yul. "And the price won't be a problem either,"
As soon as the hitman saw the bag of money he was holding, he immediately fired a spatial blade his way, but the man dodged it, and was not happy. "What was that for?"
"Based on your clothes, it'd be easy to assume you're a peasant, but now here you come, with a bag full of money and the request to kill a high-ranking noble. Something isn't adding up, tell me, who are you really?"
The poor man chuckled. "I see, well, it appears the jig is up," he said before his body was covered in a gray wind, revealing a different figure than before.
But as Kenos saw that figure, his eyes widened in severe disbelief as he started to slowly shake his head.
The true figure...was Richard Rossiu.
"What?! Kenos' dad!" Asta exclaimed. "He wanted to kill his own son?!"
"No, no, this can't be real. I-It's all a trick isn't it?" Kenos tried to deny it. "Y-You were working with someone who had transformation magic...and had them turn into that poor man before impersonating my father. Yeah, that's it, that's all it is, some kind of ruse to trick me, to get me to let my guard down...right? My dad wouldn't go that far, h-he wouldn't," he said, his voice faltering many times, barely able to keep it together.
"I assure you this is no trick," Zaxon told him as the holograms spoke again.
"Richard Rossiu?" the hologram of Zaxon said, even he was surprised to a degree. "Isn't this boy your son? Normally, I don't question who my employers want me to kill, most of them usually want me to off a member of a rival family, or just someone they don't like, I've never had anyone who wanted to kill their own child,"
"Yes, he is my son, but he must be eliminated," Richard replied. "He has committed a great wrong, he's joined the Black Bulls, the kingdom's worst magic knight squad, this has tarnished the family's name," he thought back to what Arnold said to him. "We have not lost our touch,"
"I heard rumors that the Black Bulls ranked second this year during the Star Festival. I take it the rumor is false?" the hitman asked.
"No, it's true, but their success was nothing more than a fluke, next year they'll rank ninth place just like they always have," the Rossiu responded. "And Kenos will still be a part of them. I don't even really understand why he joined them. They may consist of some well-mannered people, but they're still the Black Bulls, why couldn't he join the other squads? I know there was a rift between him and my other two children, but he should've pushed past that for the family's sake,"
Zaxon raised a brow. "I see,"
"There was something my father always told me when I was a boy, something he instilled in me that I alone know and observe to the best of my ability," Richard began. "He said that reputation must always come first, for if it's compromised, those whom I love will become victims of scrutiny. He said that those who tarnish our family name without remorse, don't even deserve…," Kenos' eyes widened further as his father stated the last two words of his sentence.
"...To live,"
"I-It can't be," he muttered, he could feel tears running down his eyes.
"So that's why I want you to kill him, but make sure he dies painlessly. Once the job is done, bring his body to me, he is still a Rossiu, so he will have an honorable funeral, I will tell everyone he died in the line of duty, and he will be buried on the family estate. This is a hard decision, deciding to be the reason for my youngest son's death, but it's a sacrifice that must be done as one of the heads of our house, even if God himself chooses to never forgive me for this act...I will carry that burden alone for the rest of my life," Richard said.
"You do this all for the sake of your family's reputation, but if anyone were to find out about this, your efforts will have been for nothing, and your family name may never recover," Zaxon informed him.
Richard merely responded by taking out another bag of money and throwing it to the spatial hitman. "That's to make sure no one finds out about this and tells the public,"
"Alright then, it'll be a pleasure doing business with you," Zaxon accepted as the hologram ended, and the assassin picked up the item, putting it away.
By now, Kenos was already crying, it was true, that truly was his father, no one else knew about their inner familial problems, but he never imagined his dad doing something like that. The other Black Bulls were all stunned into silence, not knowing what to say.
"He wants me dead, my own father wants me dead," Kenos continued to cry. "No...no...NOOOOO!" he screamed before suddenly passing out.
"Oh no, he's fainted from the shock, the bastard's going to kill him!" Yami exclaimed.
Zaxon walked over to the unconscious solar mage. "I will admit, I do feel bad for you, but I must finish my job," he said as he raised a blade up and attacked, ready to kill him, but suddenly, Kenos' grimoire began to glow, floating up between Zaxon and its master, remaining unopened as it created an orange sphere around Kenos which blocked the attack.
The assassin's face showed great surprise for the first time. "What? A grimoire acting on its own?"
"Um, what's going on?" Asta asked with confusion.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Vanessa replied.
Kenos remained unconscious within the protective sphere, all alone in his mind, he could only think about what he had just seen. Why did it have to be real? Why couldn't it have been fake? Why, just why?
.
.
.
"You aren't giving up, are you?"
Kenos' eyes shot open as he realized he was standing up. He looked around and saw that he was in an orange space, with white feathers falling all around.
"I've seen this place before, during my fight with Brosnan, but how did I get here," the solar mage remembered.
"Are you giving up?"
"Wait, you're the voice from before, back at the Witches' Forest, who are you?! Where are you?! Show yourself!" Kenos yelled, his voice echoing throughout the space.
The voice chuckled. "Very well then, the requirement has been met," they said as a light wind blew around the space, gathering the feathers into a decently large ovoid that floated some meters in the air, a few seconds passed before they burst, revealing a majestic figure.
It was a tall male, he had short snow-white hair, a serene-looking face, his eyes glowed a bright orange with an orange halo atop his head, he wore a simple ancient white Roman tunic adorned with golden markings all over, and connected to his back was a pair of beautiful wings that flapped slowly.
Kenos was in complete shock at what stood before him, he almost couldn't speak, but eventually found his voice. "I don't believe it, it's…," he began.
The grimoires of the Clover Kingdom have always had three leaves, which represent faith, hope, and love. Within the fourth leaf lies good luck, but within the fifth leaf, lies one of two things, either a devil, or…
"...an angel," Kenos finished softly.
The angel in question smiled. "It's good to see you, Kenos," he said, flying down to him.
"Y-You know my name?"
"Of course,"
"Wow, so pure, so majestic, so sac-," Kenos was thinking before he stopped, having a question he desperately wanted to ask. "Wait, when I was fighting Licht and Vetto, they mentioned something. Were they referring to you, are you...the sacred one?"
"Yes, that is a common title our kind go by, but we all have individual names of course, as for me, you may call me...Emmanuel," the angel replied before introducing himself.
"Emmanuel," Kenos said. "I have so many questions, and I don't even know where to start. If I had to start somewhere, I'd want to know if you're responsible for the fifth leaf on my grimoire?"
"I am, the fifth leaf represents an angel, it's a sign that we reside within it," Emmanuel answered.
"So does that mean Asta's grimoire has an angel too?" Kenos followed up before realizing something. "Oh wait, you don't know who Asta is,"
"I know who he is, ever since you've obtained your grimoire, every interaction you have, I've seen, I know all the Black Bulls, as well as Zuka, Sylvester, your siblings," he responded before his face grew serious. "But as for your first question, Asta's grimoire doesn't possess an angel, it's a black five-leaf grimoire, it holds a devil,"
"A devil, the sworn enemy of angels. Wait, when my grimoire flashed, was that you?"
Emmanuel shook his head. "No, it was the grimoire itself. White five-leaf grimoires, or angelic grimoires as they're also called, have the natural ability to react to large exertions of devil power,"
Kenos held his chin. "Ah, I see, when Vetto activated his third eye in the Underwater Temple, and when Asta transformed in the Witches' Forest, it was devil power my grimoire was responding to,"
"Yes, angelic grimoires are very special, they all have a degree of sentience, and there's something else important regarding them, that have to do with me, and with you,"
"With me?"
"Correct, you see, angels choose the masters of their grimoire before that person is conceived into the world, and the same is true with us," Emmanuel explained. "Before you were even born, I knew you and chose you, and when you were old enough to get your grimoire, it came to you. Those who are chosen by angels to wield angelic grimoires are also affected by our divine influence, which changes their magical attributes into something new. If not for me, you would've ended up with your mother's steel magic, but now, you have solar magic,"
"So that's why I have this attribute? I just thought at first that something was wrong with me when they found out I didn't have an ancestor with my magic," Kenos said, not noticing Emmanuel smile at the mention of an ancestor.
"Wait, I have one more question,"
The angel nodded. "What is it?"
"When I asked you to show yourself, you said you could because a requirement had been met. What requirement was it?"
"Well, for my kind, we can only appear before our partners, the masters of our grimoires, for the first time, when they go through a type of severe emotional crisis. Back at the Witches' Forest, I was able to first speak to you since it was the first time you felt you could actually die, but speaking to you was all I could do, if I wanted to completely reveal myself to you as I am now, something bigger would have to happen," Emmanuel explained.
Kenos' expression became a sad one as he looked away and held his arm. "Yeah, I guess your own dad wanting you dead would do the trick," he said somberly with a sniffle.
Emmanuel walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know what you're going through isn't easy, but don't let it get you too down. Your father has made one of the greatest mistakes of his life. It has been said that sacrifices are necessary to achieve your goals, but some sacrifices just aren't worth making. I've been around for thousands upon thousands of years, take my word for it," he said, making Kenos giggle, making the angel happy. "Remember, there are people who care for you, people who love you and will do anything for you, like your squad, don't forget them and how much they mean to you as well,"
The solar mage smiled as he took one last sniffle. You're right, I can't let myself be bummed by this, he already did it to me once, this time, I need to keep my head up and confront it,"
"That's the spirit," the angel grinned.
"But to do any of that, I need to beat Zaxon, he's currently kicking my ass, what do I do?" Kenos asked.
"There is a way," Emmanuel replied. "Now that I've shown myself to you, I can share my power with you,"
"You can?"
The angel nodded. "Yes, but we'll have to be careful, too much angelic power can overwhelm and kill you, your body needs to be able to take it," he warned. "How does 30% of my power sound? It seems like a safe margin, but to apply less strain on your body and mana supply, the power will only manifest on one side,"
"30% sounds fine, let's do this," Kenos agreed.
"Great," Emmanuel then extended his hand. "It'll be a pleasure to work with you directly from here on out,"
Kenos slowly extended his own hand as the two shook. "The pleasure is all mine,"
Back outside of Kenos' mind, Zaxon fired multiple arrays of spells, trying to destroy the orange sphere, but nothing was getting through.
Within the dome, Noelle spoke up. "I'm getting really worried, will he be okay?"
"There's no way to tell," Yami responded. "All we can really do is wait,"
But it turns out they didn't have to wait for very long as Kenos' hand twitched, he then slowly began to rise.
"You've gotten back up," Zaxon said.
It was Kenos' turn to say nothing in response as the orange sphere burst, the shockwave pushing the assassin back a number of yards. The solar mage's grimoire opened and flipped to a blank page, ready to inscribe a new spell, but this time, a bright white glow and a soft angelic hum accompanied it.
He looked down at the new page. "This is the spell that will allow me to harness 30% of Emmanuel's power, but the attribute for it, it isn't solar magic, it's…," he began before looking at the page closely. "...Heaven magic?
Zaxon quickly ran forward, so Kenos wasted no time as he closed his eyes and cast the spell. "Don't let me down!"
The grimoire glowed a bright white and orange as something amazing happened. An orange light covered his left hand and foot, with two swift movements, the light shattered, revealing a golden armored glove and boot, orange light clustered together atop the left side of his head, forming half of a halo, orange light gathered behind the left side of his back, with a flap, the light shattered, revealing an angelic white wing, an orange light shot out of his grimoire, coming towards him, he grabbed and waved it, causing the light to shatter, revealing a luster silver sword with a gold handle. He finally opened his eyes, revealing that the left eye had become bright orange, contrasting the amber color of his right eye.
Everyone stared in shock and disbelief at what they were seeing. "Incredible," Asta said in utter awe, not noticing his grimoire flashing with a red color.
"It doesn't matter what form you take, you won't stop-," Zaxon was saying, but never got to finish as Kenos suddenly appeared right behind him.
"I won't stop you? We'll see about that," he said as he performed a side kick, sending the assassin into the tree he hit earlier.
Zaxon quickly recovered and fired the spatial blades, instead of running like he did last time, the solar mage flapped his singular wing as he took to the skies, using his sword to cut any attacks coming his way.
The hitman created a portal and entered it, appearing in the air, continuing his onslaught, but Kenos effortlessly dodged or stopped each one.
"Wow, this feels so easy," he remarked.
"It truly does," a voice spoke.
"Huh?" Kenos wondered aloud. "Emmanuel?"
"I'm speaking to you from within your mind, when you enter this transformation, we can telepathically communicate with each other," the angel explained. "You also have access to my personal magic attribute, Heaven magic, but that's not it. Go to one of your solar magic spells,"
"Alright," he obeyed as he did so, and was pleasantly surprised to see white text added to each one. "Awesome, let's take it out for a test-run, Heaven-infused Solar Creation Magic: Rain of Solar Daggers!"
At his call, the daggers fell, but they looked different, they now had white outlines, as well as a small angel feather in both sides of the handle, and they were falling much faster. A few grazed Zaxon before he made a portal to escape, but by then, his opponent was already behind him.
"Heaven-infused Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!" Kenos declared, firing the beam, but as well as going faster, it was surrounded by white rings. The beam successfully hit their target, sending him back.
"So, my dad wants me dead, and he thinks I've tarnished the family name. Y'know what I have to say to that, screw him, who cares what he says, who cares what he thinks, until I get some answers from him, he isn't my father anymore. I have people who care about me, like them," he turned to the Black Bulls, who were all still staring in disbelief. "I'm going to get to the bottom of all this, and it begins with beating you!"
His grimoire flipped to another page, fully being inscribed in white text as he immediately cast it. "Heaven Magic…," he quickly flashed towards Zaxon, extending the side of his sword in front of him as the side hit the assassin's torso, carrying him up into the air with the angelic solar mage. He then descended downwards with Zaxon's back closest to the ground before they collided with a great crash.
"...Wrath of the Almighty!"
The final spell had done the trick as Zaxon was finally unconscious, causing the dome and sphere to vanish.
"Yes, we're free!" they all exclaimed.
"Huh, what happened?" Finral wondered as he started to awaken. "All I remember is-, holy crap, what the hell happened to Kenos!"
"It's a long story, we'll explain it to you later," Vanessa said to him as they started running to their squadmate.
Kenos' form deactivated as he dropped to a knee. "Dang, even 30% takes a lot out of me, damn,"
"Kenos, you were amazing!" the other Black Bulls exclaimed as they reached him, the swordsman helping him up.
"I didn't know you could do something like that," Magna said.
"Same here, you've got to fight me with that some time," Luck added.
"For now, we're just glad you're okay," Yami finished.
Kenos nodded. "Thanks a bunch, you guys, but we'll need to call someone to take him in," he turned to Zaxon. "Oh, and could you all do me a favor and not tell anyone else about what my father did, Zaxon had a point, if anyone finds out, our family name will never recover. I want to confront him about it myself one day, but first, I'll need to find out if any other of my family members were in on it, or if he did this alone,"
"No problem," they all replied.
"Hey, Kenos, I have a question," Asta spoke up. "That form you went into, the one that looks a lot like my black form...what's its name?"
"Its name?" he repeated before taking his grimoire and searching for the page. Once he found it, he stopped for a few seconds, looking at his squad as he gave them a warm smile.
"Angel's Child,"
Author's Note (SUPER IMPORTANT! Please read EVERYTHING!)
Hey readers, I hope you've enjoyed the introduction to Emmanuel, but I've got some news to share with you. Until further notice, the story will be on a hiatus, now before you ask, it isn't because I don't know how to progress the story from here, I know what I'm going to type until chapter 108, then I'll need to think about how to progress the story. The actual reason why is because I have other fanfics I haven't worked on in a long time because I've been so busy progressing with TOFL (The Other Fifth Leaf for those who didn't know), so now I'm taking a break from TOFL to work on them, I've got stories for Power Rangers, Cardfight Vanguard, and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, so if you know those categories and want to read something to carry you through the hiatus, check them out.
But there's one more thing I want to do for you, the first, and probably last, dialogue prequel for the next chapter, so here it is!
Asta: Angel's Child? What a cool name!
Kenos: Thanks, I think it's pretty cool too, and it came in the nick of time, or else I'd be screwed.
Yami: Great work surpassing your limits, you've made me proud.
Kenos: U-Um, thanks, captain.
Emmanuel: You truly have a wonderful family.
But while they all spoke, within Asta's grimoire, Roth watched curiously, the devil squinting his eyes with the utmost seriousness.
Roth: What an interesting turn of events. I didn't think the rumors were true, but they are, that means one thing's certain, that angel and I...need to have a little talk.
Join me next time on The Other Fifth Leaf Chapter 66: A Meeting of Light and Darkness.
(Feel free to theorize how this chapter will play out in the reviews, if I like what I see, I'll add it to the next chapter)