I know its been a minute since the last update for Asta and I just want to say I am sorry as I had a good portion of this already written but kept having idea after idea for the fight scenes and couldn't settle on one so I took elements from them all. You'll also notice this chapter is altogether much cleaner than any I have posted before, this is because it has been edited thoroughly. A shout out to my good buddy Regreme for his help in the final clean-up of this chapter's grammar.

The capital was alight with flames across the whole city.

'I will make him pay...' Asta thought to himself.

Asta and Leo both tore through the streets, cutting down as many undead that came into view. Asta had switched his swords from the Demon Slayer Claymore to the more agile Demon Decapitator Katana. The smaller sword made it so he could tackle more opponents at once while using his breathing techniques and saving his stamina and strength, which he knew he’d need later.

“Man,” Leo huffed as he and Asta were back-to-back and surrounded on all sides. “There’s just so many of them, and we’re only two guys…”

“Is that doubt I’m hearing from my rival?” Asta remarks as the dead charged in, and the two knights effortlessly struck them down in a series of slashes and flaming punches.

“Not a chance,” Leo smiled.

There was a scream of a woman from nearby.

“Leo, can you handle them?” Asta looked over his shoulder.

“I got this,” Leo grabbed one of them by the head and incinerated it to ash.

“I’ll leave them to you then,” Asta smirked as he rushed into the undead mob and slipped through them easily, ’This isn’t like in the manga or anime…. There are way more of them, so many that the knights barely have the manpower to put them down. Where and how the hell did Rades get his hands on so many bodies?’

An undead was about to strike a red-haired woman in front of a cafe, “ANYONE, PLEASE HELP US!” she called out as she held a child close.

“WATER BREATHING, WATER WHEEL!” Asta shouts as he cut through the swarm and the one in front of the woman in half straight down the middle. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked.

The woman looked up, and she recognized who saved her, “Asta?"

“Oh. Hey, Rebecca,” Asta oddly chuckled, “Long time no see. Odd we get to meet up again in this type of circumstance,” he chuckled before getting serious, “You need to get inside.”

“But…” she looked down. “He’s hurt…”

Asta looked down and saw the boy she’d been holding, “Wait, that’s your brother Marco?” she nodded once, “Why are you two in the capital today? Aren’t you off today?”

“We need groceries, so we came in. Then, these things all started to attack everyone,” she cried, “He was trying to protect the others, and he got hurt…”

“Let me see,” Asta knelt down and saw four claw-like scratches on Marco’s forearm that were black and emitting a grayish purple haze. “So, that’s how there are so many of these things running around.”

“What is it?” Rebecca pleaded.

“A curse,” Asta said as he read the Qi flow in Marco’s body, “A curse that turns the ones it affects into these undead. The less magical power you have, the quicker it seems to affect you. The good news is Marco had enough power to stave it off for a while, but the bad news is he’s nearly out of it.”

“Is there any way to save him, Asta?” Rebecca asked.

“There are a few, but given the circumstances, we’re in, we don’t have but one option,” Asta said calmly as the affected area started to fester, and the boy's skin tone started to darken. “The thing is, do you trust me to do it?”

“Yes, please!” Rebecca pleaded, “JUST SAVE MY BROTHER!”

“Calm down, Rebecca,” Asta held up a hand as his black grimoire floated up and a handle came out, allowing him to draw his Demon Destroyer Sword in Anti-magic form. “I’m going to have to give him a small cut with this. It can then extract the curse magic from his body. It’ll have to be deep enough to break his skin. It will leave a scar…”

“Save him,” Rebecca sternly looked at Asta.

Asta nodded once and then proceeded to cut Marco’s arm. It was a shallow wound but deep enough to draw a good bit of blood from the young lad. Asta made the cut, and the curse magic already started to seep out and into the blade. Once it was done, Asta tore his sleeve and wrapped it around the boy’s arm.

Asta’s other grimoire floated up, and this startled Rebecca. She’d heard the rumors of a knight with two grimoires but just played them off as a gimmick to boost propaganda.

“Dark magic, Pain Eater,” Asta said, and Marco’s arms were covered in an eerie purplish-black tent. “It's a minor healing spell to help speed up his recovery and stop the pain. Now get inside and stay there. Barricade all doors and windows. If the place has a second floor, get up there,” he instructed.

Rebecca picked Marco up and looked at Asta, “Thank you,” Asta nodded and then turned around as he used both swords to cut down the undead and made his way back to Leo. “Has he always…?” she thought as the cafe owner hurried her inside and closed the door.

“Leo,” Asta called out, “I know why there are so many of them.”

“What? Why?!” Leo said as he punched another undead.

“It's some sort of curse magic woven into the spell that animates them,” Asta relayed. “If anyone is scratched or injured by these things, they turn into one of them. The less magic power they have, the faster they turn. Do you think you can get it to our forces?”

“Got ya covered, my rival,” Leo smiles. “There’s a garrison not far from here. I’m guessing you’re going to keep pushing on then?”

Asta nodded once.

“Then, get going, my rival,” Leo gave a thumbs up, and the two shot off in opposite directions.

All across the city, the magic knights were doing all they could to suppress the undead, whose numbers steadily rose.

“I don’t have a choice,” Asta said, tightening his grip on his swords, “I’m gonna have to use anti-mana zone in order to wipe out the curse at the rate.” His face hardened as his sword started to pulse.

‘Don’t use it…’ he heard in his head.

“That voice…” he said.

A beautifully white glowing white-haired woman in a white and blue-trimmed kimono appeared in front of the knight.

“You must not use that power,” she said to him in the voice he’d heard in his head, “There is another way.”

“It’s been a while since last we spoke. Even though your form has drastically changed and we haven’t spoken in a while, I still know that voice,” Asta smirked, “It's good to see you again, Raava.”

“It is nice to know you haven’t forgotten me, even if you only draw on my powers instinctively,” Raava bowed. “As for the new form, that is due to you,” she pointed out, causing Asta to raise an eyebrow, “When you received the dark and light magic grimoire, it caused me to become infused with light magic and changed my form. I have spent the last few months maturing into this new body. Thanks to the magic, I am now the light magic spirit along with the avatar light spirit.”

“Wait, if you're a light magic spirit, does that mean I can also use light spirit magic?” Asta asked.

Raava only gave a nod, “If you use my power coupled with your Demon Destroyer Sword's curse absorption, then we may be able to save those who have recently been turned into the undead while nullifying the original curse spreaders.”

“But it’ll only work as long as I cast the spell, and there is still the risk of it spreading if I stop it while the opposing mages are still in the city to cast the undead spell,” Asta noted and Raava nodded once more. “Then, we better get started,” he held up the destroyer, and it shifted to its light magic form.

“Do you think you can manage the spell after it’s started?” Asta asked.

“If you can leave the sword with me, I should be able to channel the spell as long as I have it,” Raava stated, “It will take longer to do so, as I will need to gather the mana necessary on my own.”

“I will channel all the light mana I can spare for you then,” Asta said, holding the sword above his head, and the blade started to glow in a blinding white light.

“What is that?” said a man from his spot atop a spire. “That’s a lot of magic coming from over there,” his eyes widened, “Why are nearly half of my undead gone?” He glared, “I bet it's the light type's fault,” he seethed with anger, “I’m coming for you!” He jumped from roof to roof to get to their location.

“That will be plenty, Asta,” Raava held up a hand, “Stab the sword into the ground in front of me, and I will begin the preparations for the spell.”

Asta nodded a single time and stabbed the sword into the ground, allowing Raava to grasp the hilt.

“My job is protection detail then,” he said as he returned his katana and retrieved the slayer and dweller.

“So, you’re the ones that've been destroying my soldiers!” cried a voice of rage.

Asta looked up to see just who’d he been expecting. “Rades Spiritos,” he said as he glared at the wraith mage.

"Oh, a smug magic knight," Rades glared. He looked behind Asta to see Raava and the light she was emitting. "What the hell is that?!" he pointed as he freaked out.

Asta used his earthbending to call a small rock to his hand and threw it as hard as he could without using too much strength at Rades's footing. The mage fell as the small projectile tore through the building and destroyed part of the roofing he'd been standing on.

"What the hell?" Rades grumbled, getting to his feet. "The guy just threw a small rock through the building, like it was shot by an earth magic spell..."

"Tell me why?" Asta glared.

"What?" Rades raised an eyebrow.

"I said, tell me why?!" Asta shouted, "Why are you doing this to these innocent people?!"

"Because I'm more powerful and I can!" Rades laughed, "And if you think some Black bull is going to stop me on the road to destroy this kingdom, then you're dead wrong!" he smirked manically as he activated his grimoire, "I'll take you down, then I'm going after that light thing behind you! I don't know if it's a spell or something, but I do know it'll be bad for the rest of my army if I let it finish whatever it's doing!"

Suddenly, four new figures appeared around Rades. "Say hello to my friends!" he laughed, "Jimmy, David, Alfred, and Carl!"

"Black Bull brat!" Rades laughed to the sky, "Say hello to your demise!"

Asta kept glaring as his black grimoire floated up, and his katana came out to float next to him. He released his grip on the other two swords, and the two floated up on either side of him.

"What are ya gonna do now?! My corpse magic supplies me with any number of corpses!" Rades laughed more, "AND THE BEST PART IS THAT ANY INFECTED BY THEM RETAIN THE ABILITY TO USE THEIR MAGIC POWERS, EVEN WITHOUT THEIR GRIMOIRES! AND ALL WITHOUT DRAINING ME BARELY OF ANY OF MY OWN MAGIC POWER!" His attention then suddenly shifted back to Asta as more piles of bodies rose from the ground, "These guys were all top tier magic knights on par with captains, back when they were alive! So, tell me, black bulls brat! What's your little sword magic going to do about that?!"

"I don't use sword magic," Asta said causing Rades's eyebrow to twitch, and as soon as it did, Asta launched his swords into three of the corpses, impaling them all.

"It doesn't matter if you stab them, idiot!" Rades kept smiling, "They're already dead after all! Now, get up, you three!" he commanded, but the cadavers didn't listen, "HEY, I SAID GET UP, YOU GUYS!" The bodies still remained motionless, and Rades became enraged and directed his focus back at Asta, "You! What did you do?!"

"I impaled them on my anti-magic swords," Asta scoffed with a smirk causing Rades to freeze.

"It doesn't matter, cause as soon as the swords are out, then they'll come after your ass!" Rades threw his arm out to the side, "And you only have three swords, while I have four corpses! Now, get'em, Jimmy!"

Spheres of purplish mana formed around the corpse as it moaned and then launched them at Asta. The swordsman couldn't move, or they'd hit Raava and the spell she was prepping. He also didn't have his anti-magic blades to nullify these attacks, so he took them straight on. Immediately after, the places that were hit on Asta's body started to profusely bleed out as he fell to the ground.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! YOU IDIOT AHAHAHAHA!" Rades pointed, "Carl uses curse magic that causes wounds to bleed out, and they won't stop and can't be closed until you die. Your anti-magic will make a great addition to my undead squad! AHAHAHA!"

"Asta!" Raava called out.

"Don't worry about me!" Asta said as he shakily got up. "This is nothing compared to the pain Marco could've been going through," he lightheartedly chuckled as he held his side, "I've been through far worse before, and I'm not about to let some laughing jackass get the better of me!"

"Better of you! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Rades laughed, "Wow, kid you really are something else! It won't be long until my Turn Undead curse takes effect again and creates enough soldiers to storm the fucking castle! SOON, THIS WHOLE DAMN CAPITAL WILL BE MINE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I won't let that happen," Asta snickered.

"Yo-" Rades started to say but stopped as he saw the look in Asta's eye. His pupils are slitted, with his teeth sharpened into fangs. He then saw it: a second grimoire.

Asta's second grimoire floated up next to him. "Dark Magic, Pain Eater," he said as he placed a hand on his body briefly, covering himself in an eerie purplish-black glow.

"Ha… what the hell was that supposed to do?! You can't heal my curse with such a wimpy spell!" Rades snickered, having regained his composure, "I have to admit, I didn't think you were the rumored dual grimoire holder! Now, I really have to add you to my squad!"

"Ahahahaha!" Asta laughed as he reached over into the black grimoire. "It wasn't a healing spell so much as a painkiller spell. It'll allow me to move without being hindered by my wounds' pain, while also allowing me to get an adrenaline rush," he pulled his arm out to reveal one of the treasures he'd received from the dungeon's armory.

A black metal gauntlet that glowed with red glowing parts in its creases emerged.

He then threw out his right hand and summoned the slayer to it.

"W-what the hell are you?!" Rades said as he started to fear the knight.

"I'm a magic knight!" Asta roared as he rocketed forward with a thrust.

Jimmy then jumped in front of Rades, only to meet the slash and be sent flying. Asta then flattened his gauntleted hand and went for Rades's face. The wraith mage narrowly escaped with his life, but was still cut on the right side of his face by the claw of the gauntlet.

He went tumbling into a pile of corpses, ending up beneath them. Asta then summoned his other two swords and pinned the rogue mage with them, forming an X formation behind his head.

Asta fell back to the ground, breathing hard as Leo and his older brother ran in with Noelle behind them.

"Ahaha! Hey, guys, you missed all the fun!" Asta said. He held his gauntlet hand and grabbed ahold of his right arm, slightly breaking the skin and causing the curses on his body to evaporate.

"Partly! We saw what you did, and I can fully say it was most impressive," Fuegoleon smiled, "I can see now that Leo was right to make you his rival, and seeing as how you're aiming to be the next wizard king, that means you're my rival as well."

Asta gave a big smile.

"Stupid Asta!" Noelle came in. "How can you just run off like that?! You had me really worried, ya know?" she said with deep concern in her voice.

"Sorry, Noelle, but there was no time," Asta winced as she checked him over.

"Well, there's a lot of blood, but it's not too bad, to say the least," she sighed as Fuegoleon went over to look at Rades.

"So, you're the one that was controlling the corpses," he glared down.

"Rades Spiritos," Asta said, "A wraith magic user and a guy with a lot of magic power to go along with it..."

"Oh, yes, I remember you from the exams a few years ago," Fuegoleon nodded as he looked at Rades and saw his grimoire laying on the ground, "How about we have a look?"

Fuegoleon bent down and reached for the book, but was stopped just shy of it as one of Asta's swords shot out to protect it.

The Captain turned to look at Asta, while Leo and Noelle were frozen at his actions, "The man may be a criminal, but that doesn't mean we can go looking at his grimoire without permission, captain," he sternly looked at Fuegoleon.

Rades looked at Asta, shocked.

"As long as I'm right here, that won't be an issue, will it?" Asta stared.

"No, it won't," Fuegoleon held his hands up, "You're an odd one for sure, but I'm glad my brother and I have someone like you around. The other captains will be here soon, so we'll decide what to do with you afterward." He looked back at Rades, then he turned and looked at Raava still prepping her spell. "I believe you can stop now!"

"Better safe than sorry, my dear captain," Raava replied.

"I understand the feeling, but things are o-" Asta suddenly knocked Fuegoleon back with a rough shove as a beam of black magic was blasted straight for his heart, with Asta narrowly escaping it himself.

"This is far from over," Asta growled as he summoned his swords to his hands.

"FUEGOLEON, WE'RE HERE!" Nozelle announced.

"No, you fools, get back!" Fuegoleon called out, but before any of them could react, a massive wispy black portal opened above them, swallowing the whole group.

"My, that was far easier than I thought," came a proudly condescending voice.

The remaining knights and captain turned to see a tall figure clad in a black heavily ornamented cloak and red demon mask under a hood.

"Even in my best efforts to be sneaky and take him down in one go, you managed to save our dear captain," he chuckled, keeping his eyes hidden under his hood.

"Quick your yackin’ and get me out of this!" Rades demanded.

"Oh, do be quiet, Rades," the hooded figure ordered with a light-hearted chuckle, "I already foresaw your defeat, though you did significantly better than I originally expected you to. I'm guessing you were able to modify your spell to act as an infecting curse through the wounded."

"Yeah, with a lot of help from me!" Came a black-haired girl in glasses, dressed with very little modesty in a revealing crop top and shorts with a robe over them.

"Shut up, Sally! It wasn't even your idea in the first place!" Rades yelled, enraged.

"I do wish you two would stop bickering," came the exasperated tone of a new person out of a black portal, like the one that kidnapped the captains, "Or you'll start to annoy Master Fragment."

"Thank You, Valtos," the cloaked man held up a hand, "Now, you two go free Rades and play with the magic knights, while I go after the Captain and the ashen-haired boy."

The group separated and went after their assigned targets.

"So, your name is Fragment?" Asta clearly kept his eyes on the cloaked man.

"It's actually more of my existence than a name, Asta," Fragment chuckled as Asta was a bit surprised, as he'd never stated his name, "Oh, yes, I know who you are. I know quite a good deal about you, actually, but I'm not in a sharing mood right now, so I'm going to be going after what we came here to get. And just so you don't get in my way…" he held his hand out and sent a shockwave straight for Asta.

The knight prepared to cut the attack apart but found his blade merely cut through the air. As the wave hit him, Asta felt a surge of pain like he'd never felt before running through his body. He keeled over in pain, dropping his sword as he hit his knees.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Asta cried out.

Suddenly, blood started to darken his shirt and right glove as it poured out.

"Asta, what's happening to you?" Fuegoleon asked as he'd only seen the cloaked mage hold up a hand toward the boy. "What did you do to him?"

"A little reminder," Fragment chuckled lightly, "Now, on to you," he turned his attention to the flame mage as Noelle and Leo did their best against the other three.

Fuegoleon ignited his fists with flame magic, but Fragment merely waved them apart with a swift motion before landing a heavy blow to the captain's gut. Fuegoleon coughed up blood from the single punch and rocketed into the building behind him. He lay there, embedded in the wall unconscious, while Asta tried to push himself through his pain.

Fragment casually strolled past him and up to the unconscious Asta. "That should do it," he let out another evil chuckle as he reached up and took ahold of the crystal pendant around his neck, quickly yanking it off.

"Now then," he remarked and turned around to Asta. "On to you," he said with the slightest bit of malice in the undertone of his voice.

Fragment reached into the interior of his cloak and pulled out a jet black sword. It was dual-edged, and if you looked down, there was a black core with grey edging until you reached the guard, which split and looked like a belfry with an orb of black metal left in the center, and the edges rejoined into a cone shape. The orb rested here, as the sides twisted back together to form the handle.

"Time to die!" Fragment laughed as he thrust his blade down, only for it to be forced down into the pavement. "Grr... And who are you?"

"His fiance!" said the girl with purple hair as she stood in front of Asta, thoroughly pissed off as she tightly gripped the sword Asta had given to her on the day of the entrance exams.

"Wait a moment," Fragment stopped and got a better look at her. "If it isn't Twilight Sparkle, or should I say Princess Twilight Sparkle," he chuckled, causing her to freeze for a moment as Asta got to his feet, holding his chest.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Asta called out through his gritted teeth in pain.

"Allow me to formally introduce myself," he gave a dramatic bow. "In the rift is from where I hale. From pieces of this and that is from which I was formed, thus Fragment came to be born!"

"That doesn't make any sense, and how do you know about us?" Twilight pointed her sword.

"I know quite a great deal about you both. It may not make sense, but that doesn't mean it's any less true," Fragment chuckled.

"He's telling the truth, Twilight," Asta breathed heavily.

"Yes, and I've grown bored of these questions, so I believe I'll pick up where I left off!" he forced Twilight out of the way with a single swipe of his sword. She used her's to block, but the force of Fragment’s strike caused it to shatter and sent her flying into a building before falling to the ground.

Asta stared in shock.

"Hmph," Fragment snarked, "I expected more from Celestia's student."

Asta mechanically turned his head, clenching his fist so tightly he drew blood.

"Got to say these brats put up more of a fight than we'd thought," Rades huffed.

"I've gotten so much data, but I really wish I could've gone against the other guy! He was really interesting!" Sally gleefully laughed.

"We must hurry," Valtos added, "Master Fragment, we-"

He was interrupted as a black figure whizzed through the battlefield into a building, through its wall.

Valtos looked and immediately sensed the power. "Master Fragment!"' he called out and opened a portal, but it vanished just as fast as it appeared, "What?!"

"My soldiers, my magic power?" Rades looked at his undead as they all started to fall over and then to his hand, "Why? What's going on?"

"Hey, me too!" Sally said, puzzled but happy about it, "My salamander isn't a salamander anymore! More like a blobmander!"

"What's going on?" Leo added, "I know we've been fighting a lot, but I still had plenty of magic power up until just now!"

"Same here..." Noelle huffed, "It wasn't until that robed guy flew by that this happened." She turned to look in the direction from which the cloaked being came. The blood in her veins froze at what she saw.

"What are you looking at?" Leo said as he turned, and his pupils shrank in shock and fear.

Asta was covered in blood while rage was spread across his face, as his eyes glowed red from the flames of the fights. Black power wafted from all over his body and formed black wings on his back, and he was steadily making his way in the direction of the demon blades that were still in the corpse from earlier. He walked over in between the slayer and dweller.

As he came through, Valtos reacted out of rage, "BASTARD!"

Asta simply slightly turned and looked in their direction, and everyone froze in place with fear as he reached for the slayer with his still gauntleted hand.

Black power poured over the weapon and turned it solid black, as more of this power came off of Asta's body.

"All of you, step back," Fragment ordered his underlings as he came out of the building with his own sword, "He's far too strong an opponent for any of you to fight, especially in the state he's in right now." Fragment smiled as he lifted his hood, finally revealing his golden eyes. "Abyss Magic, Abyssal Blade," he said with a sadistic smile as magic covered his sword.

"I suggest you leave unless you want to be cut down without mercy, hehehehhe!" Fragment's smile grew wider.

He and Asta shot at one another, colliding with such a force it sent a shockwave outward, causing the windows in the surrounding area to crack or shatter. The two flew upwards into the sky, colliding over and over again with increasing force as their weapons tore into each other.

The shockwave was felt by an unconscious Twilight on the ground.

'YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!' called a familiar voice, YOU LET THAT BASTARD HURT OUR ASTA! AND NOW, YOU'RE JUST LAYING HERE WHILE HE'S OUT THERE FIGHTING! HE'S IN NO SHAPE TO DO THIS!

"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" she cried, "He's so strong..."

"IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FIGHT TO SAVE OUR HUSBAND, THEN I WILL!'

In the waking world, Twilight's skin started to darken once more, as it had in the dungeon, turning to a bleak grey. Her hair became a shade of purplish-grey with greyish-pink streaks, but this time, she also had a more steady stream of seafoam-colored magic around her eyes. Her green magic seemed to leak out from her body. The wounds, no matter how minor, all over her body miraculously healed in a flash.

Twilight ceased to be the one in control of her body. Now, Midnight had finally come forth into being.

Opening her eyes, Not Twilight looked at the hilt of the sword she was still clutching tightly in her hand. "That bastard is going to pay for shattering the sword my beloved gave us." She held it out, and her grimoire floated up next to her and somewhat flickered, as it had darkened under the concealing spell Twilight had cast to hide its true form. "Briar Magic and Iron Chain Magic! Gather the usable pieces of my weapon now!"

Chains and rose vines spread out and gathered as much of the shattered sword as they could find.

"Tch," she clicked her tongue, "There's barely enough, but I don't have time to waste! Multiple compound magic, Iron Chain Magic, Demon Slayer Magic, and Briar Magic alongside Asura Flame magic!"

Chains and vines crawled up and covered the hilt and the floating pieces of the former blade before they ignited in a bright blue fire. The bundle was soon burned away to reveal a piercing sword similar to a rapier-saber combo with a vine-like pattern.

"Hmmm…" she looked over her new creation, "Midnight is what they called me, from what I heard when I was first born, so thus I will christen you The Midnight Thorn!"

"I have these minions to deal with before we can save our beloved Asta," Midnight let out a strained sigh. "Though I do not wish to share him any further," her focus came to Noelle, "I do kind of like this one."

"Now that that sword brat is gone, we have our powers back!" Rades laughed, "Now go, David!"

The fat corpse let out a low, angry moan as it summoned a wave of muddy water and sent it surging at Noelle and Leo. Noelle was ready to cast her Sea Dragon’s Nest barrier spell when a wall of earth sprang up in front of Her and Leo. The two looked at each other in shock, then looked around, but saw no one.

"Where the heck did that earth magic wall come from?!" Sally excitedly waves her arms about.

The wall then formed into a few medium size mud humanoid forms.

A blue portal opened on the ground in front of Leo and Noelle, and from it emerged Midnight with a sword in hand, "Earth Magic, Mother Goddess Split Body!"

"OH, WOW!" Sally jumped about, "Seemless spell shifting! I really want this one for my research!"

"Twilight?" Noelle asked with much reserve.

"A blue rose knight?" Leo raised a confused eyebrow, "Thanks for the save."

"I didn't save you, but Noelle. You just happened to be right next to her," Midnight scoffed.

Leo rolled his eyes, "Yep, typical blue rose..."

"You are Twilight, aren't you?" Noelle asked again.

"Twilight was named after the beginning and end of the daylight," Midnight snickered as she raised her sword in front of her and then quickly turned it to reflect her face, "I am named for the beginning and end of the day and night before the sun rises at all. I am Midnight!"

Midnight shot forward before anyone could react, and as she did, a chunk of David's mid-section went missing. "Spatial Magic," she said as she revealed her glowing blue blade, "Spatial Slash..."

Rades was frozen while Sally was in awe, "WOAH! So, you're like that other guy and can use more than one magic! Earth and Space, which are exact opposites! I've decided you're both going to be mine! Gel Magic, Sticky Salamander!"

"You're wrong, little girl," Midnight said with a little chuckle, "Compound Magic. Split Goddess with Demon Slayer, and Iron Chain magic." She smirked as the earth goddesses became covered in chains and also each began wielding a Demon Slayer Sword, thoroughly shocking everyone there, "Split Earth Mother Demon Hunting Goddess Knights!"

"How can she wield so many different magics?!" Valtos said with worry, "Not only that, but she can even combine them so seamlessly to make new magic spells?!"

"You have copy magic, don't you?!" Sally blurted out.

"Acute observation," Midnight slightly raised her head, "Of course, I shouldn't expect anything less than that from a fellow scholar and magic researcher."

"I've seen copy magic from one other person. That's how I was able to deduct this outcome, but even he can't stack multiple spells like you're doing so easily!" Sally salivated, "Even then, these are all high output spells! Now, I really want you and that boy!"

Midnight scowled, "Over my lifeless corpse will I let you have my Asta!" She charged forward with her army.

Leo blinked a few times at that line while Noelle was a bit disgruntled.

"Ah, Noelle... what the hell is she talking about ‘her Asta’?" he asked.

"Apparently, Twilight and Asta have been engaged for a while," Noelle begrudgingly answered with a bit of red on her face.

"WHAT?!" Leo roared.

In the Skies above...

Fragment and Asta were both having it out in the skies above the capital.

Asta glared at the golden-eyed robed man floating in front of him. His breathing was labored as his body was covered from head to toe in cuts and other wounds. Blood dripped off him in slow trickles, down to the ground below. Fragment, on the other hand, barely had any scratches on him at all.

“I must congratulate you on your effort,” Fragment smiled.

Asta threw up his left arm and black flame erupted from it and burned through his glove.

“Black Flame Dragon!” he roared, and the flames shot out at Fragment in the form of a massive dragon.

Fragment was a bit surprised by this but quickly brought up his sword with a wide smile, “Abyss Magic, Abyssal Sphere!”

The magic on his sword shot forward and formed into a massive black ball that proceeded to effortlessly absorb the black flame dragon Asta had shot out. Asta stared in shock as his dragon was devoured by the sphere, before it shrank into nothing, revealing the maniacal smile of Fragment behind it.

Asta channeled anti-magic into his demon slayer, blackening his sword to the point it was just the shape of a sword.

He took in a deep breath and controlled his blood flow, or what little blood flow he had left, "Moon Breathing; Eighth Form: Moon-Dragon Ringtail!"

Asta used the Anti-magic coating to enlarge his blade into a gigantic version of the sword and created a singular gigantic jet-black crescent-shaped slash that slowly decreased in size, creating dozens of pitch-black crescent moon blades that headed straight for Fragment.

"WHAT IN TARTARUS?!" Fragment reeled back in sheer shock from the many incoming black anti-magic crescent moon-shaped blades. "ABYSS MAGIC, ABYSSAL BLADE LEGION!" he shouted as he threw up his hands and created several suits of heavy full-plate black knight soldiers that did their best to engage the incoming anti-magic attack.

It was more or less a one-sided effort to stop Asta's attack with these dolls, but they still did what Fragment wanted and countered the incoming attack just long enough for the dark mage to escape.

Asta breathed heavily, feeling the fatigue and anemia starting to set in throughout his body.

"That was a most impressive display of power," Fragment mockingly clapped as he appeared in front of Asta via a black gate, "If you'd have done that move from the start, I dare say I'd have been in the shape you're in now. I've decided that you're enough of a threat now that I'm actually going to take this a little more seriously, hehehe..."

He reached into his cloak and pulled out what appeared to be an empty hilt. It was white or an extremely light coffee tan color that twisted downwards. At the pommel, there was a singular silver ring that would allow one to hang this item from a hook.

The only material that came to Asta's mind that this hilt could've been made of with this sort of color scheme was bone.

Fragment held the hilt up in front of him sideways. "Abyss Magic, Antithesis..." he grimly said with a wide evil grin. The magic on his first sword immediately dispelled off the weapon before flying into the bone hilt and forming a new jet black purple-edged blade that was much thinner than the first sword.

Asta charged forward, but Fragment easily dodged the fatigued knight.

"I never said I was finished," he smirked as he now held up his first sword.

His golden eyes then turned bloody crimson while he also grew a set of upwards pointing horns on his forehead. From his back sprouted two red bat-like wings, and he also grew a whip-like tail that ended in a spiked spear.

Asta’s eyes widened in horror at this form.

"Demon Blood magic," Fragment said with a sinister tone, "Cursed Blood Blade...."

His first sword's blade raised off its hilt, along with the sphere. A torrent of blood flowed upward from the sphere down the edges of the blade and hardened, forming into a thick red edge, turning the sword into a claymore on par with Asta's Demon Slayer.

"You have-"

"Demon Magic," Fragment showed his fanged smile, "Why, yes, I do!"

The two blade-wielding demonic mages engaged in a fierce battle of blades once more, a battle that Asta was quickly losing.

Asta blacked out for a moment and woke up to find himself in a somewhat familiar landscape, one he hadn't seen for nearly eight years now since coming to this world: a vast kingdom modeled after that of the Black Clover Kingdom. In the distance, there was a series of statues lining the base of the wall in sets of threes before repeating. The statues were of Fluttershy, Applejack, and Twilight, in that order, in the distance.

"I have to get back to the fight!" Asta immediately said.

"You have no chance of winning against that thing," came a familiar voice.

Asta turned and saw the all too familiar form of his older brother standing there.

"Big brother..." Asta said with a light smile, "I'm glad to see you. I could really use-"

"Not this time, Asta," Edward caught him off, "This is your fight, and I will not step and save you." He turned, "I'm not even sure you'd be able to beat Fragment, even at full strength. Whatever it is, it's extremely powerful, to the point it'd even give you more than a run for your money, even if you had access to your full power plus your new grimoire."

"You keep saying it," Asta pointed out, "So, you know who he is?"

"Actually, I don't," Edward threw up a hand, "Its very existence is something that shouldn't be in this world at all, and yet, it somehow managed to worm its way in."

"If you’re not going to help me, then why are you here?" Asta demanded, "I need power, and you're here, so you must be a seal that the real Ed placed inside my soul at some point."

"Oh, no," he shook his head, "I'm the real Ed. As for the power you need and the seal you mentioned, you placed this seal here yourself."

"I never placed a seal on my-" Asta quickly stopped speaking, as Edward moved off to the side to reveal a sword embedded in the courtyard of this place.

"Yes, you did," Ed corrected him, "When you fought your hollow, you sealed it in its sword, thus also sealing away your own powers."

"If I let that thing loose, it-"

"Might try and devour you and destroy the world and everything you hold dear," Ed smirked. "Yes, but that's what our hollows do. It's their nature. But it's quite clear," his face hardened, "If you want to even have a hope of surviving in this fight against Fragment, you're going to need more power..."

Asta walked over and looked hard at the sword, "Even with this power, I still won't be able to win?"

"I don't really know for sure," Ed shrugged, "Why not-"

Asta grabbed the hilt of the sword with a smirk. "Dig deep and go beyond my limits and find out!" he yelled as he pulled the sword out, and black and green-edged reiatsu spewed out from the ground.

Edward smirked, as he too was engulfed in the outpouring of his brother's spiritual power.

In the outside world, Asta had been fighting in a sort of meditative trance, while Fragment was pushing him back.

"Looks like I win this time, boy!" Fragment laughed as he was about to deliver a fatal slash.

Suddenly, he was forced back by an outpouring of power from Asta.

"What is this power?!" Fragment yells, "It's not magic! What is it?!"

The power died down to reveal Asta standing with blackened eyes and a new mask on his face. Every single one of his wounds had miraculously closed, not even a single scar of them was left on his body.

For the first time today, Fragment showed something he hadn't felt before: anger. He glared at Asta, who'd been at his mercy mere seconds before. The demonic magic knight then sprung into action and began his assault on the demonic mage once more.

In the city...

"How is she so strong…?" Leo asked as Midnight continued to assault Sally, Rades, and Valtos.

"How are they still able to fight against her…?" Noelle said as she took deep breaths.

Midnight was indeed putting on quite the display of strength, but that just meant she was taking her opponents extremely seriously. She'd been managing to hold her own quite well, but she'd never got close enough to the group to land a single hit on any of the mages.

Thanks to Rades's corpse with the barrier magic, any spells she used at a distance were automatically blocked, even her anti-magic demon chains, though they were mostly used in blocking incoming attacks or binding enemies. Valtos would counter her spatial magic attacks with his own, causing the two to cancel each other out.

Then, there was Sally and her damn jelly constructs that she used to absorb hits from her Earth golems. The gel would just sploosh back together if it was cut, as even though the Golems all wielded a copy of Asta's Demon Slayer Sword, all their swords could really do was cut through magic or deflect it while without a wielder who had anti-magic. Seeing as how the gel was a construct and not a projectile, it couldn't be dispersed, and if enough distance was put in between the pieces, they'd just reform into more gel lizard things.

On top of everything else, thanks to her multiple high-end spells stacking and fighting, Midnight was also starting to wear down. It was clear she wouldn't be able to keep fighting like this for much longer, or even defend the others behind for that matter. Still, she'd fight till her last breath and leave Twilight to be damned to rot in their mind, as she'd been left to do.

"It won't be much longer now!" Sally eagerly licked her lips.

"Even if she does have a ton of mana and a ton of powerful spells," Rades grinned, "If all she does is pump it out, she'll eventually wear down!"

"Yes," Valtos nods, "Especially with the three of us fighting her at the same time.”

"I won't fall until I've killed all three of you!" Midnight clenched her fist, though she knew they were right.

Suddenly, a great pressure washed over them from above, causing everyone to stagger and barely stay on their feet. Everyone but Midnight found it much harder to breathe as well. Midnight knew this sensation all too well from her recollection in Twilight's mind, when they lived in The Black Clover Kingdom on the other side of the mirror.

"Asta," she said looking into the sky to see Asta had dawned on a mask she nor Twilight had ever seen before. Even so, there was no doubt in her mind that this pressure was his spiritual power being unleashed.

Valtos looked up, and his eyes widened in horror, "Master Fragment..."

Everyone else also looked upwards.

Asta and Fragment were locked in a clash of swords, each matching the other’s blows with such force it caused the equivalent of a thunderclap.

'How could I have acted like such a child?' came Twilight's voice.

"Go back to crying, Twilight," Midnight said to her other-self.

"No," she pulled Midnight into their shared mind space, "You've burnt through most of the mana you had. You barely have enough left to do anything!"

"Then, I'll just help myself to yours!" Midnight said, reaching out, but Twilight grasped her wrist, "I barely have any left, too... But if we work together, we'll have enough to protect Noelle and Leo..."

"Me, work with you when you were too weak to help Asta?!" Midnight shot back.

"I know," Twilight looked away, "Up until now, we… no… I've relied on Asta to protect me from every bad thing out there since we established the kingdom. When push came to shove, I broke..."

"Leaving your body open to become mine!" Midnight snarled. "Why should I work with you when you aren't even strong enough to back Asta up?!" she fumed. "He needs someone like me, not you! I can't stand here and watch him get hurt for us AGAIN!" she screamed.

Twilight realized it then as she looked at her darker self in the face: tears. She had tears running down her cheeks.

She walked over and wrapped her arms around Midnight. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she held her tight, "Of course, you want to help him and have his back, too, because you love him, too..."

"Of course, I love him!" she cried, "That is why it hurts so much when I see him get hurt, even more so when I can't do anything to help! It becomes unbearable, as I can't even hold his hand while he recovers!" She threw Twilight off her, "It’s not fair that you get him, and I get nothing!"

"I'm sorry. I never knew..." Twilight looked down in shame.

"HOW COULD YOU KNOW?!" Midnight blurted out, "You never listened to me until we came to this world..." she bawled.

"I'm listening now," Twilight looked at her other self, no, her sister. "And I'm not going to shut you off ever again, Midnight. You will even get to spend time with Asta. I swear I won't let you rot here anymore. First, we have to help Asta and do what we can here."

"I'll be holding you to that," Midnight dried her eyes, "But how do we help Asta? Neither of us has enough mana to do much more than a few minor spells."

"Separately, yes," Twilight nodded. "But if we work together, we'll drastically increase our power. If we're separated, our power is only half of what it’s supposed to be. Light and Dark, together..." she clasped her hands together around Midnight, and a warmth began to fill them both.

"We are the goddess of Balance, after all," Midnight chuckled, "Leave it to the bookworm of us to figure out our strength was only half of what it should be."

"It was only thanks to you," Twilight smiled, "Two halves make a whole. And Light and Dark mark the goddess of Balance..."

The light and warmth enveloped them both, and they returned to the waking world as one.

"What's going on?!" Sally called out in worry, "Her mana pool just exploded!"

"I'm going to make you regret tangling with us!" Twilight of Balance remarked as she created a bow and then held up her right hand as a spark of magi appeared in it. She took it and drew it back on the bow in her left hand.

"I don't even think I can deflect something like that!" Rades said as he backed away.

"Valtos, you gotta send that arrow away!" Sally panicked.

"If I do, it'll eat away at most of my mana," Valtos said with fear.

"DO IT NOW!" Sally cried out, and Valtos opened a portal just as Twilight shot the arrow.

The concentrated magic went through the portal, and a massive lavender explosion erupted in the distance from the capital.

Noelle and Leo were frozen in awe at the fight, while Twilight jumped back between them and fell to her knees, having exhausted her mana and returned to her normal self.

Up above, Fragment took note of this feat and locked swords with Asta once more. He then made a swift motion and disarmed the knight, while sacrificing his Antithesis, and grabbed ahold of Asta by the neck.

Only the upper left portion of his mask remained on his face as he glared at the demon mage.

"As fun as this is, I'm afraid my pawns are nearly out of battery life," Fragment said without a shred of remorse. "Thanks to that stunt your little princess has pulled, we're done for day!" he smiled as he threw Asta to the ground, where he impacted just in front of his friends and Twilight.

Fragment quickly appeared in front of his own group, "Rades, were you able to add in the feature I asked you to?"

Rades blinked for a moment, and then gained a wide, evil grin. "YES, SIR!" he laughed as he activated his grimoire, "Corpse Fireworks!"

"I shall open a gate for us, master," Valtos weakly said.

"Poor Valtos, allow me," Fragment said in mock concern, "Abyss Magic, Abyss Gate!" A large demonic gate appeared in front of them. "I suggest you get ready for a lot of cleanup duty!" he chuckled while pulling his hood up. He then noticed something at Twilight’s waist, "The Element of Magic!" He quickly summoned his Antithesis once more.

"Twilight! Move!" Asta ordered as Fragment’s sword blade shot outward.

"Hmmmmmm!" Fragment let out an annoyed groan. "I'll just go after something else then," his gaze was now on Noelle.

"NOELLE!" Asta said as he took a deep breath and controlled his blood flow to blur right in front of the silver-haired girl, causing the blade to run through his chest.

Noelle looked in horror as blood ran from his mouth.

"Hmph," Fragment deactivated his weapon. "Stupid boy..." he remarked as Asta fell to the ground.

"They're ready, boss!" Rades chuckled.

"Activate them," Fragment remarked.

"Yes, sir!" Rades mock saluted as he said," Boom!" Then, he walked through the gate, followed by his party.

Soon, explosions started to go off all over the capital.

"They didn't," Asta winces in pain as he looked over at the piles of corpses. They were starting to expand. "They did..." he grunted as he got to his feet.

"Asta, don't move," Noelle said, "You have to stay still, or you’ll bleed to death!"

"Have to... purify the... corpses and curses," he said as he reached Raava, who'd been charging her spell this whole time, "Will it... cover ... the city?"

Raava gave a single nod before Asta stepped behind his sword. The light spirit entered his body, as he took hold of his weapon. The sword’s coloring changed to have a gold hilt and guard, while the blade turned black with a white edge.

Asta held the sword above his head. "Spirit Light Magic: Cathedral Requiem of the Eternal Rest, Revival of Lost Souls!" he cried out, and a large cathedral of light sprang from the magic around him and played a song.

All across the city, the dead looked up to the sky before falling over and turning to dust. People affected by Rade's curse soon felt much better. Something stirred in the souls of many across the Capital as well.

Once the spell was over, Asta dropped his sword and fell to his knees, having completely fallen onto the ground.

"Asta...!" he heard, as everything faded to black.

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did when brainstorming and writing it. The coming chapter or chapters will be a bit more mellowed down and focus more on Asta and his standing with the girls in his life since coming to The Clover Kingdom, with less fighting and more drama as well as laughs.

Stay strong and keep reading. Never stop pushing your limits my fellow Magic Knights!

GHOST ALVASA, OUT!