where the spider lilies grow || ambw || black clover

✷✷✷【ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｈｒｅｅ】✷✷✷

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zigokubana

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demon.

with one last look at his friend, asta grabbed the hilt of the pitch-black sword before him. yuno, remembering a distance memory of his determined childhood friend, smiled in knowing. asta tried hard to conjure magic when he was younger, failing every time. yet, yuno knew that his agemate would find a way around his circumstances whether it be through obtaining magical abilities or not.

however, glancing at the withering girl in the distance, another memory crossed his mind.

❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃

sister lily, yuno, and asta, sat in the seating of the chapel as the older female read the children a story.

"...and then the world was covered in a deep darkness", the story read, "just when the demon attempted to demolish the world—"

"HE'S NOT GONNA GET AWAY WITH THAT", a young asta interrupted the story passionately. yuno sighed to himself as sister lily continued her telling.

"a brave mage arose and fought the demon to bring light back to the world."

❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃

it was a hunch, but the thought worried the taller of the two boys. although asta is his rival, he is his friend before that. he doesn't wish for the ash-haired teen to be in danger.

rough dirt accumulated under nora's nails as she scratched the earth below her. she wallowed in excorticating pain, beginning to claw at the burning sensation in her arm. tears were already rolling down her supple, brown cheeks. she didn't know what was happening to her, but she desperately wanted the pain to be over.

the menacing red aura that surrounded her form intensified as a headache pounded in her head. horns began to grow outwards from her temple. a slit formed on her forehead, introducing a third eye. her bottom lip drew blood as sharp teeth began to pierce the flesh. yuno, asta, and revchi couldn't decide what to pay more attention to — the black grimoire that appeared form nowhere, or the maroon-haired girl that transformed into another being.

revchi threw the peculiar sight of nora to the side, deciding to attack asta while he is still distracted. the thief sent his chains after the younger boy once more. asta swung his sword to deflect his opponent's weapon, only for the chains to completely disappear in a blue glimmer.

"he...nullified my magic?!" revchi exclaimed in disbelief.

with revchi's guard down due to shock, asta used the intense muscles he possessed in his legs to boost in the criminal's direction.

"even without magic, I will become the wizard king!" asta declared as he delivered his final blow with a swing of his new sword. revchi slammed into the stone wall behind him, hitting his head hard enough to render him unconscious.

yuno, now unchained, smiled at asta as the shorter showcased his grimoire. his boasting was cut short however as he remembered an injured nora. he swiftly turned around, running towards the girl. he dropped to his knees by her now unconscious form. his eyes grew wide as he watched black horns slowly retreat into her temples. the third eye disappeared into her forehead, leaving it smooth as if it never emerged. asta couldn't comprehend what was going on. neither could yuno who had followed his friend to the laid-out girl.