~Brief Recap~
Lily and Asta were on their way back to the church from training together. They sparred against each other to train for the Magic Knight's Entrance Exam, but it ended with them getting a little... intimate. During the training battle match Lily tried to cast a wind spell at Asta like she did when she faced her older brother Zephyr, but it didn't work. Her bewilderment gave Asta an opening and he ended up giving her a minor injury. She lifted her shirt up a bit to inspect how severe it was and accidentally exposed herself to Asta who got turned on. This led to them losing their virginities to each other. After their heated session, Lily mentioned to Asta that she couldn't cast a wind spell when sparring with him. He then came up with a theory explaining why that was. So they were going to head back to the church to ask Yuno and Nash to help them test out this theory.
~Main Story~
While Lily and Asta were on their way back to the church, she got out her royal blue, elegant black bordered six leaf clover grimoire and flipped through the pages. There were lots of wind-based magic spells and spells for summoning various melee weapons other than her scythe inscribed on the pages. But the lettering for the magic spells were faded gray in color whereas the lettering for the weapon summoning spells were prominent black in color. These details piqued Lily's interest and she tugged on Asta's sleeve to get his attention.
"Hey Asta, check this out." Lily said as Asta stopped in his tracks and glanced at her with curiosity.
"What is it Lil?" Asta asked Lily as she gestured for him to take a look at her grimoire. He approached her and leaned over her shoulder so he could see what she wanted to show him. She started to explain the peculiar details to him.
"I have lots of wind-based spells in my grimoire as well as spells for summoning various melee weapons. But look at how the wind spell glyphs are gray and the weapon summoning spell glyphs are black. If my grimoire doesn't store the magic attributes my scythe comes in contact with, then why are there even wind-based spells printed on the pages?" Lily asked Asta who shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe the wind spells appear faded in color because you can't use them right now. Try summoning a different weapon other than your scythe. We already know that you can't use the wind magic." Asta suggested as Lily nodded and prepared to summon a nodachi style sword from her grimoire. Lily's grimoire floated up from her hand and hovered as shining bright blue light aura surrounded it and the handle of an extra long katana-like sword emerged from the pages which she grabbed and pulled out.
"It seems like the spells in black are usable and the spells in gray are unusable." Lily confirmed as Asta smiled. She willed the nodachi sword to be returned back to her grimoire and it dissipated in a very faint smoke-like cloud that dispersed into the air.
"Good! We solved one mystery. Now we just need to find Yuno and Nash so we can test out my theory. Come on let's go!" Asta said as he grabbed Lily's hand, which caused her to blush slightly as he started running towards the church with her. Yuno was outside the church building, using his wind magic to dry the laundry for Sister Lily while Arlu and Horo giggled and clapped in amusement as the clothes rapidly spun in a ball of swirling air. Rekka stood between the two young children with her hands on their shoulders. Nash stood behind them with his usual dull bored expression with his arms up behind his head.
"Hey Yuno, Nash! You guys got a minute?" Asta asked loudly to get their attention as he came to a stop with her right beside him. Yuno finished drying the laundry and used his magic to manipulate the air currents to fold the clothes and linens and float into the empty laundry basket in Sister Lily's arms before turning towards Lily and Asta along with everyone else.
"Thanks for all your help Yuno. You and Nash can go see what Asta and Lily need of you. Rekka, Arlu and Horo come with me." Sister Lily said as she started walking away towards the church doors with the basket of clean folded laundry, the three children following close behind her. Yuno sighed and approached two of them with Nash following behind him.
"What do you want Asta?" Yuno asked, sounding uninterested in what Asta had to say.
"Lil needs yours and Nash's help testing out a theory I came up with regarding her grimoire." Asta explained to Yuno. As soon as he heard that Asta was asking him a favor in order to help Lily, his twin sister, his attitude changed immediately.
"Alright Asta. Nash and I will do what you need us to do. But I'm only doing this for Lily, not you. Remember, you're still my rival." Yuno reminded Asta as an annoyed look appeared on Nash's face.
"Hey! Don't decide for me, Yuno!" Nash raised his voice as Yuno completely ignored him.
"Awesome! Thanks guys! We're probably going to want to get a little further away from the church for this though." Asta said as he started walking away from the church, gesturing for everyone to follow him.
"Tch, fine. I guess I have no choice. This better not take too long." Nash groaned and reluctantly followed the three of them away from the church, a ways out just beyond the fence surrounding the perimeter of the property.
"Okay, what is it you wanted me and Yuno for?" Nash sighed, sounding highly uninterested in the matter.
"We need you two to attack Lil using your magic." Asta put it bluntly as a worried look crept onto Yuno's face and Nash's jaw dropped in disbelief.
"Asta, are you crazy? I can't attack Lily. She's the only blood-relative I have that matters to me. What if I seriously injure or even kill her? I would never be able to forgive myself nor you. Me because she got hurt or died by my hands. And you because you were the one that insisted on it." Yuno raised his voice at Asta, upset that he asked him to attack Lily and risk putting her in danger.
"Yeah and I don't even have a grimoire yet!" Nash pointed out, still trying to weasel his way out of the request.
"You can still use magic though, can't you? Grimoires only enhance your magic power not grant it to you, remember?" Asta told Nash who adverted his gaze to the side and crossed his arms in a pout.
"I-I know that already! Believe me, I don't need a magic-less freak lecturing me about a grimoire's purpose. But seriously, am I really strong enough for this kind of exercise?" Nash asked Asta, turning back towards him, tilting his head up so he could look Asta in the eyes.
"As long as you can use your fire magic to attack, you should be good. Besides, we've got Yuno here for the big guns!" Asta said, roughly clapping his hand against Yuno's upper back. Yuno just rolled his eyes.
"Hey! Are you saying that I'm weak?!" Nash raised his voice at Asta who just chuckled, not answering the boy's question.
"No, I'm not doing this. I'm not going to put Lily at risk like this." Yuno said, crossing his arms in defiance. Seeing that Yuno wasn't going agree to the request now knowing what he had to do, Lily decided to try reasoning with him herself. She grabbed onto Yuno's arm and clung to it. He looked at her as she stared up into his golden yellow eyes with her storm blue ones. Asta gave Yuno a jealous glare.
"Yuno, I really need your help for this. If you're not willing to use your magic against me, I'll never get stronger. If I ever had to defend myself against a strong opponent, I would be in greater danger because I wouldn't be prepared. Besides, I have anti-magic weapons and so does Asta. If I can't handle yours and Nash's attacks, he can step in and assist me. Yunooo, your pwecious little sister really needs you! Pleeease, for me?" Lily pleaded while clinging onto Yuno's arm even tighter and looked up at him with a sad puppy dog look of desperation. She was 5'3" and Yuno was 5'7" so you were literally his little sister. Yuno just sighed. He couldn't bring himself to say no to Lily, his precious twin sister.
"Alright, fine. But if you get hurt or end up dead, I'm never going to forgive myself nor Asta." Yuno finally gave in as she smiled brightly.
"Yay! Thanks Yuno, you're the best! Anyways, you don't have to worry so much. Geez! You're like an overprotective older brother. And besides, I'm stronger than you think I am. I'll think I'd be just fine even if you went all out." Lily said to Yuno, giving him a hug then playfully punching his shoulder.
"But I am your older brother. You said I was born right before you, right? We are twins, but I'm the older one of us two." Yuno said with a playful smirk.
"Sh-shut up." Lily said while pouting. Yuno found her little sister pout absolutely adorable. He chuckled which was rare for him. Asta cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and began to explain the theory and strategy to Yuno and Nash.
"... and that's why we need two people with different types of magic attributes to test out this theory, one needing to be wind magic. Everyone understand?" Asta finished explaining everything as Yuno and Nash nodded their heads, showing that they understood.
"Okay! Yuno and Nash, you guys move further away from Lil and prepare yourselves. Lil, you get ready too. I'll go off to the side with my sword in hand so I'm out of the way and ready to intervene if needed. When I say, you guys can start sparring. Remember you only need to cast one offensive spell." Asta said as he summoned his sword and ran to his position while Yuno and Nash went to theirs and prepared themselves for the battle. Lily opened her grimoire and pulled out the nodachi sword she summoned earlier and stood in a defensive stance.
"Ready? Start!" Asta shouted as Yuno flipped open his grimoire and made the first move, Nash following his lead.
"Wind Creation Magic: Swift White Hawk!" Yuno spoke loudly as air currents gathered and swirled, taking the form of a large hawk that was opaque white in color.
"Fire Creation Magic: Blazing Fist of Fury!" Nash yelled as a flame formed into a fist shape and raced towards Lily at decent speed and Yuno's hawk followed the fiery fist, not far behind. Yuno watched in anticipation and concern as she charged towards the two magic attacks and slashed her sword right through the fist, making it split and dissipate. The tiny flame mana particles were quickly absorbed into her sword the same way the wind mana particles were absorbed into her scythe when she was fighting her older brother Zephyr. The hawk, however, quickly dodged out of her sword's range, made a wide circle around her before soaring high into the air. It turned around and dove straight at her with ridiculous speed. A look of fear and terror quickly washed over Yuno's face as the hawk stormed toward Lily with its talons aimed at her heart, ready to rip right through her.
"Lily!" Yuno shouted in Lily's direction as he just watched helplessly. He was tempted to dispel the spell as it looked like the large bird of prey was about to end her life by tearing right through her body. But he knew that wouldn't help Lily get stronger. It would completely defeat the purpose entirely. In the last second right before the hawk was about to collide with her head on, she leaped high into the air and quickly used the momentum to propel herself into a front flip with her sword drawn back above her head held with both hands. Her sword sliced through the predatory bird as it passed beneath her. It let out a screech of what seemed like agony before it too dissipated into tiny particles of mana and were absorbed by her blade. Lily landed, kneeling on her right knee with her left hand planted on the ground and the sword in her right hand pointed diagonally backward away from her body. Asta, Yuno, and Nash just stood there slack-jawed in astonishment.
'See, Yuno? I told you not to worry so much about me. I'm much more capable of holding my own than you realize. And it's all thanks to training with Asta.' Lily said mentally as she looked up and flashed her twin brother a confident smile. Yuno sighed with relief that she was completely unharmed. He was really impressed with how quickly she reacted and how smoothly she executed her move. Lily set her nodachi sword on the ground. She held out her left hand below her glowing, floating grimoire and willed it to descend into her hand. Resting the grimoire on her knee, she quickly flipped through it to see if anything about it changed. She saw that the wind-based spells were black just like the weapon summoning spells. New fire-based spells had been added and were solid black in color as well. But the most exciting change she noticed were the prominent black glyphs of wind and fire combo spells inscribed on the pages. Lily stood up and stuck her nodachi sword blade into the ground.
"Okay, now let's begin the real test! Wind & Fire Creation Magic Combo: Towering Flame Tornado!" Lily shouted as her grimoire glowed an even brighter blue and levitated off her hand, hovering above it. When the aura of her grimoire brightened, two massive mana tendrils formed in the sky and began to twist and circle around each other. One of them made of wind and the other made of fire. They spiraled closer and closer to each other, picking up in speed until they unified and touched the ground as a single terrifyingly destructive force. The fiery vortex scorched and tore at the ground as it rotated rapidly and violently. A massive cloud of smoke quickly spread throughout the area as the grass surrounding the raging hot twister caught fire and burned. The blazing funnel continued to spin ruthlessly in place until multiple fists made of water slammed down onto it, eventually putting it out along with the fire that had begun to spread out from the base of the fiery tornado when the grass around it had caught aflame. As soon as the swirling pillar of flame was out, Sister Lily ran towards them all.
"What are you guys doing?!" She raised her voice at the four of them. She was clearly upset and concerned about all of them.
"Hey Sister Lily! Did you see how awesome Lil was?!" Asta ignored Sister Lily's question and enthusiastically bragged about Lily, which made her blush out of flattery. She gave him a stern expression. But Lily could see her relief which slightly softened her facial expression.
"Thank God I put out that fire tornado when I did. That was extremely reckless of you guys! You could have destroyed the church and village! Or worse, you could have severely injured or killed yourselves and others!" Sister Lily scolded the four of them.
"But all of us are alive and unharmed, aren't we? No one else is hurt either. And there wasn't any significant damage dealt to the land thanks to you. Don't worry, we're done experimenting now." Lily reassured Sister Lily with a wide cheerful grin. A small smile formed on the nun's face which was replaced by a look of curiosity shortly after.
"So what exactly were you guys up to out here?" Sister Lily asked them. Asta responded to her question, raising his index finger upwards.
"We were testing out a theory I developed regarding a mystery with Lil's grimoire." Asta answered Sister Lily straightforwardly as she tilted her head to the side, seeming a bit puzzled.
"A theory?" She asked as Lily took over and explained everything to her. She began with the moment her grimoire first appeared when her siblings attacked her and Asta. Next, she described what happened during her training match with Asta (obviously leaving out the sex scene). Then she told her about the theory Asta developed on how her grimoire worked and the details of the spell runes printed on the pages that she noticed. To help her better understand, Lily showed Sister Lily the contents of her grimoire. She explained that all the magic-based spells were solid black now but faded gray earlier when she was only with Asta and that the weapon summoning spells were always solid black. And finally, she explained every detail of what happened during her battle with Yuno and Nash. Asta, Yuno, and Nash occasionally nodded and added their inputs. Sister Lily listened to every word, amazed and intrigued. After Lily finished her explanation, Asta concluded the story.
"It turned out my theory was correct. And we couldn't have solved this mystery without these guys." Asta said, smiling as he wrapped his arms around Yuno and Nash roughly but playfully, pulling them in towards him.
"We had to do this in order to confirm Asta's theory. I needed to figure out how my grimoire works. After all, I won't be very useful to the Magic Knights if I don't even know how to use my own grimoire. But I'll admit, that was pretty reckless. Sorry for worrying you, Sister." Lily apologized to the nun who smiled then shook her head and sighed.
"Well I'm just glad you're all okay and the situation didn't get out of control. You were lucky the church grounds only received minimal damage and there were no injuries or casualties. Anyways, you guys must be exhausted from your battle. How about coming in to rest while Father and I prepare lunch?" Sister Lily said as she turned around and headed back toward the church building. Father and the other three orphans Rekka, Arlu, and Horo were waiting in front of the double doors. Along the short walk to the church, Sister Lily occasionally glanced back at Lily, Asta, Yuno, and Nash as they all discussed the highlights of the theory test and exchanged praises. While observing Lily's interactions with the three males, she noticed just how much of an impact she's had on each of them since she became part of the family.
'Lily really is an amazing girl and has a lot of potential. She's kind, caring, encouraging, strong, and ambitious. And she has quite an influence on the three oldest boys of our foster family. Nash seems less sullen and more hopeful, even gaining a little more confidence in his magic abilities. Yuno's aloof disposition has softened a bit and seems happier overall. But the one who's affected by her the most is Asta. Even before he met her, Asta always worked hard to prove himself. But when Lily entered his life, he started training more than ever before. And when he's by her side, he always looks so happy. You can hear the enthusiasm in his voice every time he talks about her or directly to her. The fact that Lily has no magic power like Asta forms a deeper connection between them through mutual understanding. Whenever he's with her, he seems so relaxed as if he feels completely free to be himself around her. It's like all the tension in his body melts away, knowing that she can fully relate to and understand his struggles. Asta, you've found someone very special. I hope you realize soon that Lily is your one and only, not me.' Sister Lily mentally reflected as she arrived at the front entrance of the church and let herself in. Lily stopped in her tracks at the double wooden doors and faced Asta, Yuno and Nash who did the same. She approached Nash and knelt down, putting her hand on his shoulder. He averted his gaze to the side at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact.
"Hey, thanks a bunch for helping me out. You're pretty good with your fire magic, especially for not even owning a grimoire yet. I think you'll have no problem getting into a Magic Knight squad when you're old enough." Lily thanked and encouraged Nash. He raised his head and looked her in the eyes, a small glimmer of hope danced in his purple orbs like a faint candle flame.
"Thanks, but I wasn't that good. But if you and Asta get into a Magic Knight Squad, I'll start to believe in myself and train hard to pass the Magic Knight's Entrance Exam!" Nash said as a small hopeful smile appeared on his face.
"That's the spirit, Nash!" Lily said in an upbeat tone, patting Nash on the shoulder. He motioned for her to come closer. She leaned in closer to Nash as he raised his hand up to her ear, speaking in a hushed tone so no one else could hear.
"But just between you and me, I think you have a much better chance of becoming a Magic Knight than Asta does." Nash whispered into Lily's ear as she giggled and pulled away.
"Aww that's so sweet of you Nash. I'm glad you have faith in my skills and abilities. But I think Asta has a pretty good chance of getting into a Magic Knight Squad too." Lily said as Asta glanced back and forth between her and Nash with a puzzled look on his face.
"What are you guys talking about?" Asta asked as he tilted his head to the side and twisted his pinky inside his ear.
"Don't worry about it Asta. It's nothing to be concerned about." Lily said with a smile as she flicked her hand up and down, dismissing the subject. She then walked up to Yuno as Nash went ahead inside the church.
"Thank you so much for helping me out even though it was potentially dangerous. I really appreciate it. But I can understand why you were reluctant to participate in my grimoire theory test. You didn't want to hurt your long-lost twin sister that you've only known for a few years now. After all, we were separated from each other not even a day after our birth fifteen years ago, only meeting for the first time ten years later. It really meant a lot to me when you finally agreed to battle against me even though there was a chance it could end in disaster. But thanks to you, I've figured out how this grimoire of mine works. And now I can become even stronger." Lily said as she gave Yuno a bear hug. He returned the embrace then ruffled her hair.
"You're welcome Lily. You are my precious twin sister after all. I realized that taking the risk was more important than halting your progression." Yuno said, smiling softly before he went ahead and opened one of the double doors. But before he went inside, he looked back at Lily as she approached Asta with a faint blush on her face. A small smile formed on Yuno's face because he knew she had a crush on Asta. He really wished that Asta would just give up on Sister Lily already and go after her instead. Normally, a good older brother would be particularly overprotective of their sister when it came to dating, but Yuno grew up with Asta so he trusted him with Lily. But he wouldn't hesitate to intervene in order to protect her from any kind of harm. Since he wasn't there for the first ten years of her life, he felt even more obligated to look after Lily as the older twin. Yuno went ahead inside the church and shut the door so she could talk with Asta privately.
"Asta, thanks so much for everything: for taking me in and adding me to your family, for encouraging me and giving me hope, and for helping me get stronger. I may have been born to a royal family and never had to worry about food or money while I lived with them. But these past five years of living in Hage Village with you and everyone else have been the best few years of my entire life. Even though it's a vastly different lifestyle, I prefer this little village over the castle back in the Spade Kingdom. And it's all because of you, Asta. You made me feel truly loved and valued which, for me, is something that money and social status can never do. Thank you for giving me a life worth living. You'll always be the most important person in my heart." Lily said as she leaned in close to Asta's face and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips. As she pulled away, Asta leaned in more as if he didn't want the kiss to end yet.
"Come on, let's join the others for lunch." Lily said as she gently grabbed his hand and opened one of the church doors and led him inside the building.