Fuegeleon walked out of a portal to a forest before looking around. Then, he closed his eyes to sense something before the small Salander on his should suddenly turn into a dragon.
He jumped on its back while carrying Finral and flying in a direction. A few minutes later, he landed in front of a giant rhinoceros more than 15 meters tall. A woman with flaming red hair and one sharp tooth calmly sat on the magical beast' back while eating a piece of meat.
She had a fierce aura surrounding her like a lion always searching for the next prey;
"Sister," said Fuegeleon.
Meanwhile, Mereoleona–who had sensed powerful mana coming from afar–continued eating her food for a few seconds before raising her head. Immediately, she frowned when she saw her little's brother new flaming arm.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"The Clover Kingdom is under attack, so we need your help."
"What do you mean? How could something happen to the kingdom with Edward around."
"Not long ago, the Wizard King removed his curse, so he went on a vacation and could not be contacted."
Veins appeared on her forehead after this: "Are you serious?" Fuegeleon did not say anything else. So, Mereoleona took a small mirror from her pocket and injected mana inside.
A few seconds later, she yelled: "Danm him, why is he not available?" Her anger created a pillar of flame that instantly turned the rhino into her next meal.
Ignoring the overcooked meat underneath her, she stood up before finally realizing that a third person was present.
"Who is this?"
"This a spatial mage from the Black Bulls: Finral."
Typically, Finral would hit on any beautiful woman that he meets. However, he cowered because of the aura released by Mereoleona; to him, this was a beast in human skin.
"Let's go."
Finral opened a portal to lead all of them back to the Clover Kingdom. Because of the distance, he was basically out of mana after the return trip. Nevertheless, with Mereoleona returning, the rampaging elves' clean-up finished quicker.
The only people who gave the captains trouble were Charlotte and Rill Boismortirt, the Aqua Deer Captain and the youngest captain if Edward was not counted.
Then, with Liebe's help, Asta could relieve these people from the reincarnation spell and remove the control the elves' souls had on their bodies.
Once everyone finished, they headed straight for the Shadow Palace, where 10 of the elves had already entered. These ten elves were known as the Apostles of Sephiraph, and each had a magic stone to open the palace's gate.
Luckily for the group, Secre could also use her sealing magic to open the door so that they could enter. Then, Mimosa used her magic to map the entire palace; she discovered all the elves were located at the top of the palace, so the group headed there.
However, what they found shocked them all. All but two members of the Apostles remained standing while the others lay injured or passed out on the ground.
The leader of the Eye of Midnight Sun, Patolli, had turned into a dark elf while battling the other standing member, Licht–who has been the real leader of the elves since five hundred years ago.
More importantly, a devil with two horns and a smirk watched everything from above, amusement written all over his face.
"What's going on?" asked Mereoleona.
"Everything was a lie," said Rhya, on the floor, crying nonstop. He then explained how the humans' betrayal 500 years ago that made them hate humans, their reincarnations, and plans to attack the Clover Kingdom was all this devil's scheme.
He did all that to acquire a grimoire and summon his real body from the underworld.
Knowing who the enemy was, Mereoleona did not waste time and directly attacked.
Fire Magic: Calidus Brachium
She punched with so much speed it appeared that she had a thousand hands. However, she would throw hot flames at Zagred with each punch with incredible speed.
However, the latter just said: "Extinguish." so, Mereoleona's flame extinguished, making her frown. But she did not stop.
Crystal Mana: Mana Zone: Calidus Brachium Purgatory
Purple flame came out of her hand as she punched; even her physical abilities were boosted by mana, making her punches faster and more powerful.
However, with the same creepy smile, Zagred said the same word and extinguished her flame.
"You can also use the Mana Crystal Technique," she commented.
"Indeed. I have to say that Wizard King is a genius this world has never seen. His techniques have so much potential that you people could not fathom."
Zagred said this because, with this technique, he believed he could defeat one of the Highest-ranking devils even though he is only a high-ranking one: that was unheard of.
One of the absolute rules of the underworld is that higher-ranking devils can control the life and death of lower-ranking ones. But, with this technique, Zagred knew he could break that rule.
Mereoleona glanced at Yami before attacking again. However, Zagred said: "Drain and Bind," and she felt her stamina suddenly drain and weaken. Additionally, the ground turned into chains that bound.
Meanwhile, Yami suddenly appeared behind him with his katana clad in his dark magic to slash him.
"Repulse," said Zagred. A powerful repulsing force pushed Yami away until he crashed into the wall. At the same time, Fuegeleon, Nozel, and Jack attacked.
However, Zagred looked at them with disdain. These three only mastered the Liquid Mana method, so they posed no threat to him.
"Infinite Blade."
Thousands of blades suddenly appeared and bombarded Nozel and Fuegelon to kill them Nozel used created numerous mercury tentacles to bounce the sword away, while Fuegeleon ordered his salamander to burn the blades. Unfortunately, there were too many of them.
While Yami and Mereoleona fought against Zagrid, Licht and the corrupted Pattoli fought against one another. Meanwhile, the members of the black bulls, Asta, Yuno, Mimosa, Secre, Noelle, and a few others, looked at this battle in shock.
Although they knew the captains were powerful, they did not expect them to be this powerful, not to mention the devil. Unfortunately, they are useless in this level of fight.
Even Asta's Anti-Magic is no use since he has only been training as a magic knight for over two weeks. Even with KI, he could not keep up with the movement of Nozel and the other two, let alone Yami and Mereoleona.
And Yuno was in the same spot as him. He has recently awakened the Wind Spirit he made a pack with, and the sudden increase in mana because of the elven soul inside his body did not help. So, those two watched this battle with gritted teeth while promising themselves they would get stronger.
The only helpful person in this battle is Vanessa. As she watched her friends die in front of her in the chaos, she awakened fate magic and reversed their death. Although this magic only worked for those she cared for, luckily, Yami is one of these people.
So, she could save him a few times before her mana ran out.
After a few minutes, Zagred laughed as he looked at the tired and battered captains while he remained the same.
"Excellent. I have already tested the scope of my power, and now it's time to leave before that monster show up. Before then, I will give you a parting gift."
He then summoned a bunch of creepy purple monsters whose bodies seemed to be made of short tentacles. The moment these monsters appeared, they absorbed the ambient mana in the palace before multiplying like an uncontrollable plague.
Then, they attacked the injured elves and the other magic knights like Asta and Noelle.
"Double," said Zagred to create a clone of himself to continue fighting these captains while he headed for the exit. Unfortunately, he did not travel far before the entire Shadow Palace paused for a moment before a portal appeared out of nowhere.
From there, Edward walked out with his white and gold magical robe. He looked at everyone before smiling: "Miss me?" Everyone sighed in relief after seeing him.
He looked at the battered Captains and said: "You guys need more training."
"Hurry and end this," said Yami with a grumpy tone. Edward shrugged his shoulder before slowly flying to Asta's group.
"I need to see your grimoires," pointing at Asta and Secre Swallowtail. The former immediately handed his grimoire while the latter hesitated for a moment before also handing it over.
Edward took an orb from Asta's grimoire before absorbing the information inside. He raised his hand to create a black ball: Anti-Magic. However, he soon shook his head as he knew he could only turn a small portion of his man into Anti-Magic Energy; it was not enough.
So, he placed the orb back inside before reading Secre's Grimoire. Her sealing magic was extraordinary as it was forcibly changed by Forbidden Magic, making it evolve to the point of almost sealing concepts.
So, after reading the Grimoire, new pages appeared on Edward's Grimoire. At this point, the silent spell he placed on Zagred the moment he laid eyes on the latter was dispelled by a weird trident that could dismantle anything it touched. With his mouth free, he could use his Word Soul Magic again.
"What kind of magic is this?" asked Zagred, trying to buy himself some time–albeit, he was also curious. He could tell this magic was not from this world since only this type of magic his trident–an ancient artifact–could not easily dismantle.
Unfortunately for him, Edward was not in the mood to chat. He waved his hand to create numerous magic circles that formed a sphere around Zagred before they enclosed on him until he shrank to the size of a tennis ball. The devil could not resist a single bit. Edward then waved his hand to manifest a golden light that healed all the injured individuals–including the elves. Even Patolli's dark elf form was slightly reversed, changing him back to his usual self with only one eye remaining completely black.
Additionally, Patolli was then divided into two people; Vengeance and himself.
"Follow me," said Edward to everyone as he flew outside. A gentle breeze levitated the people who could not use flying spells. Outside the palace, Edward waved his hand to heal and wake up the sleeping magic knights once occupied by the elves.
He instilled the memories of the battle against Zagred in their minds before having them follow him. So, a strange could be seen above the Capital; the Wizard King led all the captains and magic knights.
As he looked at the destroyed kingdom, Edward asked the group: "Do you blame me for now showing up earlier?"
No one answered him, including Yami and the headstrong Mereoleona.
"I can honestly tell you that I knew this attack would happen and did not do anything."
Everyone remained quiet while a few people lowered their heads while some trembled.
"I did this to teach you three lessons: First, never become over-reliant on others to save you. In this world, only your family and loved ones would go to extreme lengths to protect you, and even this is not guaranteed."
Edward paused for a moment while still looking in the distance.
"Second, I want you to understand how weak you truly are. Your achievements as magic knights or Captains are nothing to brag or be proud about. Because in the end, with your strength, you could not protect this kingdom and its citizen."
Many people–mostly the Captains–clenched their hands after hearing this, while some even had tears in their eyes. But no one said anything.
"Lastly, I will show you the pinnacle of power in this world. I am not doing this to show off but to inspire all of you. I want you to know that one day, you will reach this height and even surpass it.
"Of course, none of you would believe me or understand my meaning, but you will in the future."
After saying that, his Grimore floated in front of him.
Time Reversal Magic: Chrono Anastasis.
An enormous clock face covered the entire Clover Kingdom, meaning all three Realms. Then, the hand started to move backward, and in doing so, time was also moving backward.
All the destroyed places of the kingdom and the people killed in the incident returned to the state a few hours ago.
"Phew," muttered Edward as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. When Julius used this spell in the main timeline, he only covered the Noble Realm and reversed time to a few seconds. But he had to cover all three realms and revert time to 2 hours ago.
So, he used a lot of mana and most of the [Stored Time] he had in reserve. Finally, he turned around to face these people who looked at him with shock, awe, envy, and even a little fear.
"Go and appease the citizens. Although I have revived them, their memories of death are still there."
The knights nodded their heads, still in a daze, before leaving. Meanwhile, Edward returned to his castle.