'This feeling... Its not magic'
Watching with bated breaths, Grim, Noelle, Fanzell and the others stared in shock as the sky darkened and red lightning flashed through the air.
"Asta..."
Emerging from within a pitch black cocoon, Asta re-emerged to the word sporting a lightless black arm, a single pitch black wing and a curved black horn spouting from the side of his head.
"What the hell!!" Ladros backed up slightly.
'Is this... Is this what the queen was talking about...'
Forgetting that he was supposed to pretend to be hurt, Grim's grimoire flashed into sight as it started pulsing with energy.
'This feeling... Its just like the first time I met I saw Asta wield his sword.'
Recalling that time at the magic knight's exam when his grimoire reacted to Asta, Grim realized that it wasn't Asta that his grimoire was reacting to, it was the anti-magic.
'Does it feel threatened? No. Its more like something about Asta's grimoire is agitating it...'
Feeling the aura around his grimoire growing, Grim did his best to suppress it just like he had did during the magic knight's exam as to not interrupt Asta and draw attention to himself. Unfortunately this did not escape the Witch Queen's eyes.
Remembering that he had the power that surpassed that of one of the great spirits, Ladros calmed himself down and started laughing.
"That's quite the transformation you've got there. But pray tell, what exactly are you gonna do with it!!" Thrusting his arm forward, he unleashed powerful beam of magic at Asta in an attempt to incinerate him.
Unfazed by the attack, Asta raised his sword up high as he took a step forward before slashing down with enough force to crack the ground and nullifying the magic in the process.
"Impossible!!" Blown back by the shockwave from Asta's sword swing, Ladros took to the air and started firing off an untold number of magic bullets.
"Hahahaha!! You can't fly! Now stay down there and be crushed like the bug that you are!!"
Reading his ki, Asta ??? through the battlefield before breaking through his attacks and taking to the sky with his black wing.
Seeing them both fly without the use of a broom, Finral couldn't help but say.
"They fly now!!"
Confirming that what they were seeing was actually real, everyone nodded in union and said "They fly now!!"
'This strength.'
*BANG!!*
'This speed.'
*BANG!!*
'This power.'
*BANG!!*
Watching all of this from the ground, Grim felt his hands form themselves into fists as he realized that Asta's current strength was only a bit if not on par with his. The power he attained through many days to of concentration and mana control was immediately achieved within seconds by Asta in this new form of his.
For the first time since coming to this world, Grim finally realized the unfairness of those with extra leaves on their grimoires.
'First Yuno's sudden rise in power and now this! Tch, that God must be laughing his ass off right now.'
While Grim was indeed happy that Asta had gotten stronger, he disliked the fact that the gap between them that he had worked so hard to make had closed with a simple transformation. That being said, he realized that elevating his own power-up by simply getting better at controlling his own mana was also absurd. For someone like Noelle who had struggled with this fact for years, it was indeed absurd that someone like Grim who had only been in the world for five years had better control of his mana despite only really practicing for a few days. In fact, if he had practiced controlling his mana within these past five years, who knows just how powerful he'd be right now.
Watching the fight continue from ground level, Grim couldn't help but nod at what he was seeing.
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!!" Firing off multiple beams of magic while also running for his life, Ladros cursed endlessly as the odds were slowly turning against him.
---
-Witch Queen Throne Room-
"I see now, at first I thought he was just like you, but it seems as though through some kind of spontaneous mutation, his body became incapable of having mana dwell in it. He is simply a defect. But it is because of this defect that he is capable of wielding that sword. He is nothing special at all, but it is because he is nothing special, that he is able to become remarkable."
Listening to the Queens explanation from the battlefield, Grim found himself staring at his flying friend.
"STAY AWAY!! MOVE IT!! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!" Confused, frightened and extremely desperate, Ladros let out a roar as he gather up a large quantity of mana and shot a flaming dragon shaped magic bullet at Asta who had finally decided to finish this.
"In his presence..."
"BLACK-
"STAY BACK!!
"All magic is-
"METEOR-
"STAY BACCCKKK!!!
"Meaningless."
"RITE!!"
Charging through the descending fire and magic, like a rising black star, Asta broke through the flames and with the pitch black Demon Slayer overflowing with anti-magic power, he slashed right through Ladros's chest.
---
"Amazing..." Watching Asta defeat Ladros, Noelle and the others were barely unable to comprehend the sight before them.
After being hit by Asta's Black Meteorite, Ladros's body was sapped of all its mana and left him looking like a anorexic mummy.
"Kill me..."
Standing above him with his wing one red eye, Asta looked down on him with no emotion. This lasted for about a second until Asta switched back to his normal state where he started talking about how killing is wrong and that he should repay all the people he's hurt. It was very Asta-like.
Watching the anti-magic power leave his body, Grim decided to get up now that the fight was over. And while he might not like the Bitch Queen much, he had to admit that she came through with her promise about showing him something interesting.
Just as he was about to go over and greet his friend, the sudden appearance of a familiar mana signature stopped him in his tracks. Looking up at the sky, a flock of ravens gathered together in the air before descending in front of Asta and revealing the Witch Queen.
'What is she doing here?'
"Witch Queen!!" Asta exclaimed with shock and excitement.
"I did it! Did you see me? I beat all the guys from the Eye of the Midnight Sun and Diamond Kingdom!"
"I see..." She nodded while looking over at Grim and smiling.
'Oh no!'
"RUN ASTA!!"
Call it instinct or a sixth sense, but the moment the Witch Queen arrived on the battlefield, an unsettling feeling overcame Grim as he Instinctively switched to [Breath of Flames] to explode the area between the earth and his feet to shoot into the sky.
Seeing him jump away, the creepy smile on the Witch Queen's face revealed itself to everyone as she raised her hand [Blood Creation Magic: Scaffold of Fresh Blood].
With her grimoire wide open, a large pool of blood burst forth from the ground spreading along the dented earth and covering the floor.
Watching as his teammates were restrained by red crucifixes that rose up from the blood pool, Grim couldn't help but curse internally.
'To think you'd actually sense my intent... That blood of yours must have made you sensitive to mana.'
Smiling at Grim's action of jumping out of her range, the Witch Queen couldn't help appreciate him even more.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!" Infuriated by the Lesbo Queen restraining his friends, Asta turned to the Queen and yelled.
Hearing his voice, the Bitch Queen was irritrated that he had interrupted her thoughts on Grim and replied with a cold "Silence."
"GAAHHHH!! ARGGHHHH!!" Feeling a sudden pain spreading through his body, Asta clutched parts of his body as his legs became weak.
"My magic is the ability to make us and control blood-
"ARGGHHH!!!"
"From the moment I used my magic to heal your arms, my magic had already infected you and gave me the ability to freely control all the blood in your body."
"GYYAHHHH!!!"
"Did you really think I'd let someone with the power to negate magic go so easily?"
[Blood Magic: Puppet Bloodflow]
Taking control of Asta's body, Asta's screams suddenly stopped as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he started acting like a puppet on strings.
"Hmm? Your body's no good in that condition."
Flipping to another page in her grimoire, she used the same spell she had used earlier on his arms to heal his entire body."
"Since I cannot wield the anti-magic swords myself, all I need to do is control someone who can."
'This bitch is really insane.'
"You've already shown me how you fight, now you can spend the rest of your life working for me as my sword." Smiling at the bound black bull members, the queen forcefully put Asta back into his black form.
"For your first assignment, I'll have you capture your black haired friend over there."
Seeing her pointing to him, Grim clicked his tongue and summoned out his Beast swords. "Tch, still wanting to control men even though you don't like them, you really are the queen of the lesbos."