It took around a day before Asta got near Klaro's place. His county was nothing grand nor small, it was average in most ways. After investigating Klaro's way of working, he didn't show any great desire for the seat of the Duke, yet there were still plenty of people supporting him, although only locally.
Besides Agares and Alastor, most of the attention went to Descartes and Isale. Asta and his remaining siblings were seen as special cases or outcasts. Asta wasn't even in Sabaoth for years to visit Aurora and experience the outside world.
Klaro wasn't known all that well, most likely since he was quite young and inexperienced, but looking at the county and all the happy smiles on the demons faces, Asta knew he truly was a potential candidate.
Instead of a simple estate or mansion that Agatha and Asta had, due to lack of funds or simply out of a desire to stay out of the spotlight, Klaro had a small castle. Yet looking at it from afar, a slight frown appeared on his face. Unlike the outside, where people were enjoying their day, parts of the castle were destroyed.
'This looks recent,' The mismatch between the state of the small castle and the people mere streets away didn't make sense.
Landing on the ground, Asta found a few bodies of seemingly guards. Drill-like holes were visible on their chests and limbs. Hearing a commotion inside the castle, Asta spread his willpower to check the surroundings. The people who were only a few streets away didn't seem to notice anything strange.
'A low-level illusion?' Asta was about to deny his assumption since he was able to see the current state of the castle, but perhaps it only fooled those of lower Ranks.
Breaking it could reveal the damage done to the castle to the outside. Seeing no point in doing so, Asta stepped into the castle. Blood splatters and bodies decorated the entrance hall. Carefully stepping around the bodies, Asta didn't appreciate his shoes getting bloody. Then again, there were more pressing matters.
Shaking his head, he quickly moved forward. The irony stench guided him to the innermost room. Stepping around a corner, Asta entered a small hallway, two demons further in turned their heads.
"Intruder! Get him!" One of them raised their staff before pressurized streams of hot water shot forward. The other demon quickly conjured ice shards, shooting them all through the corridor.
Not even being able to speak a single word, he was assaulted. Snapping his fingers, a wall of Pure Mana erected before him. The water damaged it slightly, but the durable structure of Pure Mana wasn't so easily bested. Staying in place, Asta simply inspected their attacks from afar.
Knowing their attacks wouldn't be able to destroy the wall right away, one of the demons gathered his mana into a small ice shard no larger than a fist. Shooting it towards the wall, it got lodged in one of the cracks before exploding outwards into a morning star of pure ice, breaking the wall apart.
Having an opportunity, the other mage used the water he conjured earlier to transform it into a whip that shot towards Asta. As it almost reached him, a bright sword appeared out of nowhere to be caught instead.
"Huh?" Three more swords appeared next to Asta as they instantly shot forward, slicing the demons into pieces. No matter their spells, the swords made short work of them.
Their pieces littered the floor as the swords gained a reddish hue due to the blood staining them. "Weren't they at least taught to gauge an opponent's power before engaging?"
Moving deeper, there were a few more demons that tried to stop him, yet all who met Asta left him in pieces.
Opening the large doors to enter a small throne room, Asta made his presence more than known. Once inside, the scene before him surprised him little.
Klaro was covered in wounds as he was surrounded by dozens of magical beasts that were like a living construct of water, shaped like a predatory reptile. Their body, made of constantly flowing, ever-shifting water. No part of it remained solid, its limbs, claws, and jaws were sculpted from liquid tension, holding shape only through willpower.
Just one looked intimidating enough, but the room was filled with these beasts, but Asta glossed over them, staring at the source of their machinations.
"Isale, does nothing hold you back from hurting your brothers and sisters?"
Wielding a fan she held in her hand, she covered the bottom of her face. "Astaroph, are you here to disrupt my plans again?!"
Her anger was visible as the creatures guarding her started to grow a little as the currents that formed their bodies sped up. They took strange forms, some were similar to a large dog or wolf perhaps, and others were just large golems. All created from a swirling tide, they each held two glowing spheres of pale-blue light that floated within the head shapes.
Accompanied by his own swords, Asta wasn't impressed. Instead of wasting his time with Isale, he focused his attention on Klaro. He was surrounded by a few guards who were at death's door while he himself was also covered in plenty of wounds. The fact that he wasn't healing them right away made it clear he held little mana in his core.
"Brother, are you okay?" Asta stepped towards Klaro before the water avatars blocked his way. Not letting Asta intervene any further, Isale ordered her monsters to attack Klaro.
Seeing no other option, Klaro's horn slightly lit up as dark purple flames covered his body. Waving his hand, a wall of dark purple flames rose from the ground, keeping the creatures at bay for a moment as they partially evaporated and shrunk in size. The monsters swung their limbs, shooting off drill-like spears of compressed water that flung Klaro to the wall.
His horn darkening, the flames died out, Klaro barely kept his consciousness, and the guards rushed to his aid, but they were all in dire straits. There was nothing stopping the monsters from inching closer.
Isale felt her victory approach as she tried to sense the castle, finding all her followers dead mattered little because of a single thing.
"Hahaha! This is perfect! I can't sense your little slave anywhere. I was planning on only getting Klaro's coin, but getting yours would be quite useful as well."
All smiles behind her fan, Isale knew it would pay off visiting Klaro. Yet Asta simply shook his head.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I don't keep the coin on me. Even if you beat me, which I doubt you can do, it matters little," spoken with a hint of arrogance, Asta enjoyed seeing Isale's frustrated face, even if it was mostly hidden, it was still clearly visible how annoyed she was.
"Then don't waste my time," Moving her fan the monsters started to move towards Klaro and Asta as Isale broke part of the wall behind her and escaped. She already had Klaro's coin and just wanted to finish him off. If beating Asta would result in nothing, there was no point in her staying.
"Brother!" Klaro called out as the beasts advanced towards him. His guards were all in a terrible state, even a single attack would render them dead. Sending his swords over to them to slice the beasts into pieces, the currents simply reconnected a second later.
Asta also wasn't safe as the monsters near him jumped forward. Conjuring up a sturdy wall, he hoped to keep them at bay, but they weren't monsters made from flesh and blood, they recklessly punched the wall apart.
Reinforcing it, some of the monsters had reached his side as well, making him create a cube around himself, shutting the beasts out.
Staring at them, Asta released his aura to investigate their nature while his swords were holding back the monsters attack on Klaro. Simple sword strikes did nothing but slow it down slightly. What confused Asta was that they wouldn't move forward unless their body was reformed.
Making use of it, he let his swords slice and dice them into pieces, not to kill them, but to delay their forward momentum, giving Klaro a bit of breathing room. "Brother! These monsters are controlled by Isale's willpower, I saw her create them. They can only be destroyed using fire! I know it's not right for me to ask this, but please use your Demonic flames to evaporate them!"
Knowing of Asta's weakness, using normal fire was out of the question, but asking for a demon to use his Demonic Powers was also stepping out of bounds. Still, Klaro could only appeal to him.
Klaro was known for being a specialist in earth, many of his guards and followers had the same affinity, creating a strong bond between them but also limiting their options. The few guards that stood a fighting chance were taken care of by Isale's party.
"Hah! Klaro, oh Klaro, have you grown complacent on the path or have you focused all your efforts on building up your county? To say there's only a single solution just shows your lack of understanding," the almost lecturing tone of Asta threw Klaro off.
He was heavily injured and surrounded by monsters, yet Asta talked down to him while also trying to save him. The swords that moved at an incredible pace kept changing patterns, meaning his willpower was split into plenty of things, not that it had any impact on his pride.
"Dear brother, you need to understand that elemental magic is just a combination of mana, runes and an outburst of emotions, only Pure Magic can be considered true magic. Pure Mana can counter any spell as long as you're intuitive enough."
As he said so, he retracted his aura. Having fully analyzed the spell, Asta would be able to completely replicate it. Of course, doing so would require him to use elements, which was a disgrace. 'Only a few should have the authority to use elements.'
"These beasts exist out of currents, the moment it gets cut apart, the entire body freezes as it tries to reconnect its pieces. Have you tried flattening it?", the light smile on Asta's face confused Klaro as the monsters near him inched closer and closer.
Long, translucent fins ripple along their limbs and spines. When the monsters opened their maws, the inside appeared as an abyss of swirling whirlpools.
"Yes! The moment we did so, the water simply escaped and reformed later."
"What else did you try out?"
Asta's voice reached him loud and clear, despite the man being in a cube of Pure Mana that had to be constantly repaired due to the endless assault of the water monsters.
"We kept firing at it, but only fire spells made the beasts shrink."
Shaking his head, Asta was disappointed in Klaro. Raising his hands, mana started to gather near him as the swords that protected Klaro started to move faster and faster, halting the monsters in place. Klaro was focusing on the regenerative powers of the beasts, but the moment his eyes looked down, his face froze up.
The swords moved so fast, he could barely keep up, but each time they swung down, a bit of the ground was chipped. As more and more of the ground was broken, a clear array started to form under the monsters.
'Controlling a single spell takes most of my willpower and attention, yet he's controlling tens of swords at once?'
Something didn't make sense in his mind as he saw the array take form while he was doing so many other things at the same time. When he looked at his brother, all he had was a prideful smile on his face, he wasn't even taking it seriously.
'Not even father has such control!'
Asta raised his hands as mana flooded the room, arrays formed under the monsters as walls of Pure Mana started to encase them in cubes.
Banging on the walls, they tried to break out to no avail as the walls started to close in on them. The size of the cube got smaller and smaller as the mana inside the walls got compressed, making them sturdier.
As the cube kept shrinking, Klaro was staring at the potential power of them. The monsters started to use their most powerful abilities, firing off drill-like shapes of water that tried to bore through the wall, yet it only cracked slightly before repairing instantly.
At a certain point, the monsters couldn't keep their form as their watery form was compressed to a cube. Under massive strain, the cubes held strong, falling on the ground, you could grab them with a single hand.
Klaro didn't want to imagine what would happen if something made of blood and flesh was trapped in such a contraption. 'If you don't use your most powerful move at the start, you won't be able to get out at all.'
It terrified Klaro slightly, but he had to push those thoughts away as Asta approached him with a few small cubes in his hands. Throwing them towards Klaro, he panicked as he clumsily caught them.
"Your abilities are clearly better suited to manageing a territory. Also, be careful with them, any crack would make the cubes explode."
His eyes widened slightly, slightly scared, but mostly happy he caught them as he did.
"Here, take these," pulling out a few healing potions, Asta circumvented using Light magic to heal them directly.
Placing the cubes carefully on the ground, he gladly accepted the potions as he divided them among his guards first, using the leftovers for himself.
"Thank you, Astaroph. Even if I don't have my coin anymore, you still helped."
Shaking his head, Asta had a disappointing look on his face. "Having family members battle it out was the wrong way to go about succession anyway. It's clear we're meant to aid one another, not fight. I'm helping Agatha reform her county. Once you've patched yourself up, we could use your aid."
"Heh..," Klaro looked at the people behind him, all struggling to heal their wounds. Slowly getting back up, Klaro felt bad for them. "My good friends, what happened here was my fault. I should've paid more attention to her movements. While it might not bring any kind of relief or comfort, I will compensate everyone for their losses and service. Please gather the men who have passed and figure out where their families live. I will visit them personally and apologize in person for what happened."
Barely healed from his own wounds, Klaro was only thinking about the people he lost and those who would abandon serving him after such a disaster. Yet, the men were clear in their intentions. "Lord Klaro, we're not going anywhere. We dedicated our lives to serving you. The men who passed, wherever they are, are there with pride, knowing full well they protected you until the end."
There was a determined look on their face, one that showed complete loyalty, not wavering in the slightest, they trusted Klaro to the fullest. Asta felt strange knowing such a bond was still possible.
"Then, please help me once more!" Bowing to them, they gathered around him to straighten his back. They all carried smiles, the sadness hidden within, they were just glad to be alive for a bit longer.
Feeling strange standing there, Asta already had what he wanted, and confirmed the location of Klaro's coin. There was no need to stay any longer. Turning around, he started to walk towards the exit.
"Astaroph! Wait!", running towards him, Klaro stopped in front of him before bowing deeply.
Not responding, Asta just stared at him. "You have saved our lives knowing full well you wouldn't get my candidacy coin. Not only that, you healed my men without breaking your own vows. If you become the Duke, what would you change?"
"Everything, starting with this ridiculous ritual of letting half-brothers and sisters fight it out to figure out which bloodline is superior."
"Then I'll support you in every way I can."
Thanking him, Asta left with a strange feeling in his heart. His initial goal was to just get Klaro's coin, but seeing that wasn't an option anymore, Asta knew that saving him would indebt him enough to support his efforts with Agatha. Despite the cold rational behind his actions, his feelings also played a part, he cared for him.
At the beginning, he didn't have a great idea of what he would do with the seat, but the longer he thought about it, the clearer it became. Having 10 years to think something through made certain things clear for him. To Asta, the entire world of Sabaoth was going downhill at a rapid pace.
Not that Aurora was a heavenly place, but it was a lot fairer than Sabaoth. While Sabaoth was in a downward spiral, Aurora, which is practically at war with itself, was still growing moderately over time.
Inspired by certain things, Asta wanted to completely reform the entire system of power and authority. "The strong rule"-mentality was a way savages followed. The idea that horns and the amount of demonic powers one could conjure were the origin of respect had to be torn down.
If he could prove his own capabilities without using any elemental or demonic powers, achieving feats others couldn't despite being more powerful, people would start to listen to him. Sadly, to prove exactly that, he needed power to get the people to listen in the first place.
Weeks passed by as Lucas returned with good news. Their plans could go ahead without any hindrance. Agatha's county slowly started to change into something respectible with the help of Klaro's resources and men, the streets quickly became paved and buildings were erected.
Bell and Trane came to help them out at the mansion. Each having their luggage brought over, Bell had a surprising amount of letters from a secret admirer, one Asta cared little for at the expense of Bell's expectations.
Of course, it all came at a large cost, one that Augustinus was responsible for paying. At first, only Lucas trusted him to come through, but after receiving bag after bag of gold and crystals, it was clear the man was a genius in his own world.
Lucas and Asta only had a few months left before their year was up and they would be faced with Alastor. It was time to put all their plans in motion.