The stone corridors of the ancient dungeon echoed with the relentless crackle of electricity.
Luck Voltia darted through the labyrinth like a lightning bolt, leaving a trail of unconscious Diamond Kingdom mages in his wake.
In his eyes burned an intense, manic excitement—a desperate craving to win alone, driven by the lingering, suffocating memory of his mother’s voice.
I have to win by myself…
If I don’t win on my own, Mother won’t love me anymore!
Suddenly, the corridor expanded into a massive underground plaza.
Emerging from the shadows stood Lotus of the Diamond Kingdom, a weary-looking general sighing as he rubbed his forehead.
“Ah, the vigor of youth is a terrifying thing,” Lotus mumbled, his lazy eyes calculating every detail.
“Wrapping lightning around your body to boost speed and strike power…
kids these days are monsters.”
Before Luck could dive in, Lotus activated his Smoke Creation Magic: Invading Smoke Garden.
An odorless, ultra-compressed weakening fog spread rapidly through the air, entering Luck’s lungs with every breath.
As Luck charged forward, his vision suddenly blurred.
His limbs grew heavy, and his breath hitched as the poison drained his stamina.
“You’ve been breathing in my weakening smoke since you stepped in here, kid,” Lotus sighed regretfully, weaving sharp, spear-like smoke tendrils aimed straight at Luck’s throat.
“Let me end your burden.”
Under the suffocating weight of the trap, the shadow of death crept over Luck.
I…
I can’t lose…
BOOM—!
A blinding flash of silver cleaved through the air.
The dense smoke structure exploded into wisping clouds under a single, impossibly heavy sword strike!
“Luck!
It’s too early to give up—you’ve got teammates behind you!”
Asta landed heavily on the stone floor, the massive Demon-Slayer Sword resting across his shoulders, while Noelle landed right behind him with her wand drawn.
“Get out of the way!
He’s my prey!” Luck snarled, pushing himself off the ground as wild, unstable lightning cracked across his skin.
“I don’t need teammates!
I promised my mother I would always win alone!”
“Do whatever you want!” Asta shouted back, effortlessly parrying a sharp smoke spike aimed at Luck’s side with a loud CLANG!
“But I’m doing whatever I want too!
And as your squadmate, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you fight by yourself!”
Asta’s voice echoed through the cavern, firm and unyielding.
Luck froze for a fraction of a second.
The ringing words overlapped with memories of the Black Bulls hideout—Yami’s lazy smoke, Magna’s shouting, Vanessa’s laughter, Charmy offering food—and now Asta, standing right in front of him, blocking a lethal blow.
The cold memory of his mother faded, replaced by the warmth of his new squad.
“You know…” Luck murmured, a genuine, relaxed smile spreading across his face.
“Fighting together with everyone actually seems pretty fun.”
“Oh dear, this is bad,” Lotus muttered, realizing the wild beast had just regained his sanity.
Lotus immediately commanded the remaining Diamond Kingdom foot soldiers to swarm forward, using them as meat shields.
But Asta didn’t even hesitate.
Moving with terrifying efficiency, Asta swept through the small fry like a storm—his raw physical strength and lightning-fast blade work knocking out seven mages in under five seconds.
Seeing his underlings wiped out so easily, Lotus’s eyes widened in genuine alarm.
Realizing this silver-haired kid was a physical monster, Lotus retreated into the shadows, casting Smoke Creation Magic: Fallen King’s Smoke Prison to vanish within a thick, shifting wall of dense smoke.
From deep inside the fog, Lotus launched a barrage of sharp smoke spears at Asta from all angles.
Using smoke to hide and launch long-range attacks?
Asta thought, a confident smirk touching his lips.
Classic ninja tactics.
Utilizing his shinobi training and honed sensory instincts, Asta completely ignored the confusing air currents and locked straight onto Lotus’s true physical position, presence, and heartbeat within the dense fog.
“Found you!” Asta growled.
Coiling his muscles like steel springs, Asta unleashed a fraction of his internal energy, bursting forward with speed that tore the fog apart.
He closed a thirty-meter gap in the blink of an eye, swinging the Demon-Slayer Sword in a full-power, lethal strike meant to take Lotus down in one decisive blow!
What insane speed—?!
Lotus’s battlefield instincts screamed in absolute terror.
As a seasoned general, Lotus didn’t freeze.
Reacting purely on survival instinct, he whipped every drop of his available magic power in front of him, creating a dense shield of compressed smoke while crossing his armored arms to protect his chest.
CLANG-CRACK—!
The heavy iron blade smashed through the smoke barrier like tissue paper and slammed directly into Lotus’s arms.
The crushing impact shattered his bone structure instantly, turning both of Lotus’s arms into a mangled mess of broken armor and crushed flesh.
“GAHHH!” Lotus screamed, spewing blood as he was blasted backward through the stone wall.
Asta adjusted his grip, stepping forward to give chase and finish the job.
“He’s fast, but he won’t get far with those injuries—”
“Asta, wait!” Luck called out suddenly, his sensory magic flaring as he closed his eyes.
“Don’t chase him!
I sense a massive magic power expanding deeper in the dungeon…
it’s completely off the charts!”
In truth, Luck hadn’t just detected that presence; his sensory magic had picked up the overwhelming mana signature deep within the dungeon long ago—he simply hadn’t known its exact location until now.
But that wasn’t the real reason he stopped Asta.
From Luck’s perspective, Asta was still young and relatively green when it came to the messier reality of Magic Knights.
Knowing that Asta’s last mission had involved his very first kill and seeing innocent people die, Luck didn’t want his junior taking the life of an enemy general.
Executing a high-ranking commander like Lotus would drastically escalate border tensions into outright war.
Of course, Julius Novachrono was no soft, cowardly ruler who would sacrifice his own for a false peace, and captains like Yami, Vangeance, Fuegoleon, and Nozel were far from conspiratorial politicians who would sabotage their own kingdom.
If the Diamond Kingdom demanded war, the Clover Kingdom would gladly answer in blood.
Luck simply didn’t want a full-scale conflict starting on account of his junior’s hands.
Asta paused, checking his momentum, and nodded cleanly.
“Got it.
Lead the way!”
Leaving the severely injured Lotus to retreat with his fog vehicle, Asta, Luck, and Noelle sprinted toward the center of the ruins.
Deep within the ancient structure, Yuno, Klaus, and Mimosa had already reached the grand golden entrance of the central vault.
“It’s breathtaking…” Mimosa marveled, looking at the ancient runic gates.
“Hmph.
Nothing an elite order couldn’t handle,” Klaus said pretentiously, pushing up his glasses.
“How could a bottom-tier squad like the Black Bulls outpace the Golden Dawn?”
SWOOSH—!
Without warning, a massive bridge of solid pink diamond erupted silently from the darkness, blasting Mimosa off her feet and slamming her violently into the stone wall!
“Mimosa!” Klaus and Yuno spun around in shock.
Standing atop the diamond bridge was a pale youth with cold, crimson-ringed eyes—Mars, the Diamond Kingdom’s engineered war machine.
“To me…
you’re all just pebbles on the road,” Mars said in a deadpan voice, raising his hand to send a massive wave of razor-sharp diamond crystals crashing toward them.
Klaus unleashed his Steel Creation Magic: Whirling Spear, but his steel was instantly overwhelmed by the sheer force of the diamond wave.
Realizing the massive gap in power and with Mimosa badly injured, Klaus made a split-second decision.
“Yuno!
While I hold him off, force your way into the treasure hall!” Klaus ordered urgently.
“For the kingdom, the mission comes above all else!”
Yuno gritted his teeth, stepping toward the vault doors.
But as Mars condensed a massive diamond block over Klaus’s head to crush him, Yuno turned back, casting a fierce gale that shattered the diamond into dust!
“Why did you come back, you fool?!” Klaus shouted in frustration.
“After we defeat him…
all three of us are going in together,” Yuno said, his voice calm and unwavering.
Asta’s words echoed in his mind—teammates aren’t disposable; they’re family.
Yuno unleashed his full power, executing a double spell creation: “Wind Creation Magic: Gale White Eagle!” and “Rain of Blades!”
A majestic white wind eagle flanked by hundreds of wind daggers soared toward Mars.
But Mars didn’t even flinch.
Without opening his grimoire, he materialized a colossal ten-meter diamond sword—Harvester’s Greatsword—and smashed Yuno’s spells to pieces with a single swing!
“Your magic is useless,” Mars said emotionlessly.
The giant diamond sword descended toward the exhausted Yuno like a guillotine.
“Get out of my way, or die.”
“Yuno!” Klaus screamed in horror.
CLANG—!
A blinding flash of silver intercepted the giant blade.
With a sickening crack, the “indestructible” diamond greatsword shattered into a million sparkling fragments!
Standing in front of Yuno, resting a massive iron sword on his shoulder, was Asta, flanked by Luck and Noelle.
“Leave the rest to us,” Asta said with a confident smirk.
Klaus’s jaw dropped in absolute disbelief.
The very commoner he had dismissed as defective had just effortlessly smashed the spell that nearly killed them all.
“Looks like I owe you another one,” Yuno said with a rare, faint smile.
Noelle immediately rushed over to protect the injured Mimosa with her Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon’s Lair, while Luck stepped forward beside Asta, his lightning crackling merrily.
“Asta, I can’t believe you beat me here!” Luck grinned, his eyes burning with excitement as he locked onto Mars.
“Now I’m even more fired up to fight!”