"Well Done! I'm glad you got this!" Julius said as he examined the wind elemental script that was inscribed on Yuno's grimoire after he awakened Sylph. "This spell is probably the most Important relic from the dungeon!"
They had explained what had happened at the dungeon in detail to him.
"Most important relic... How cool is that!!" - Asta
"You can read it, Sir?" Yuno asked.
"Yes, to some extent." Julius answered. Suddenly, his eyes transformed into stars and quickly pleaded Yuno. "Say, would you perform this spell for me now?! Please!"
"I'm sorry... But I managed to activate it a few times in the dungeon. However, I haven't managed to do so again ever since."
"What?! I see... that's a shame..." Julius said, melting. Then, just as suddenly, he straightened up, with a small smile on his face, as took in the grimoire and Yuno's face. 'Sylph... The wind spirit of the four great attributes. So she's chosen him in this era.'
Julius closed Yuno's grimoire with a snap and handed it back to him, "All I can say for now... is that this spell will grow with you. Someday it will become an extraordinary power. Take good care of it."
Suddenly, Asta burst in from the side, holding his open grimoire in the wizard king's face.
"Wizard King!! Some weird thing showed up in my grimoire too! Please take a look at it!" He said, shoving Yuno aside.
"That is..." Julius's face scrunched up. "Hmmm... I can't read it at all... I've never even seen this writing in documents." He said, hand on his chin and he peered closer into the grimoire.
"Wait!" Asta quickly reached his hand into the book and pulled out another sword, different from his usual Demon-slayer one. "This thing comes out too!"
"Whoa! A second anti-magic sword!" Julius exclaimed, stars in his eyes.
Asta looked back at Yuno smugly, eyes squinted in pride. 'Heh heh heh heh! I got mine to work!'
"..." - Yuno.
"Anti... Anti-magic power... Could... Could I touch that?" Julius asked, stars twinkling in his eyes.
"Of course!" Asta said quickly getting to one knee and presenting the sword to the wizard king.
Julius grabbed the sword and hefted it, only to drop it to ground and watch the tip sink into the stone below. "Whoa! That's heavy!!"
"Are you ok Wizard king?" Asta asked.
"I'm impressed you can swing this around...!" Julius said, before trailing off as he noticed something else. 'This sword... It's... It's Absorbing my magic?!?!' A small smile formed on his face. "I see... Thank you. Here you go."
"Yessir!" - Asta
"I couldn't handle this one." He said, smiling as he handed the sword back to Asta, who lifted it with ease and swung it around to check if it was really that heavy. "Haha! You can carry it because you have no magic."
"Eh?! How did you know i dont have magic?!" Asta asked, dumbfounded.
"Thats a good question, isn't it?" Julius waved it off, before retuning to his stars eyes look, staring straight at Ray. "Speaking of no magic. Even you don't have magic! You have something else entirely!" he said cheerfully as he moved closer. "Can you show me your powers?!"
Ray blinked. He hadn't expected Julius to notice that he too didn't have magic. Much less the fact that he had Reishi instead. But then again. We're talking about Julius Novachrono here. The split personality of Lucius Zogratis. Part of the sibling family who successfully opened a gate to the devil realm, releasing hunderds of normal and multiple powerfull devils. He should have expected it.
Ray raised his quincy cross, which quickly gathered Magic in the area and formed his grimoire.
"Here." Ray said passing the floating grimoire to Julius, who took it with too much enthusiasm.
"I don't have magic within me. Instead, I have something known as soul power within me. It acts as a supplement for my lack of magic power." Ray explained as he created his kojaku in his right hand and a heilig pfeil in the other.
"I usually go with archery as my go-to method for fighting, but I can pull my weight in close combat aswell." Said as he notched the Pfeil and handed it to Julius.
"How amazing. Especially this writing. I can't read it. However, I do recognize it. I think I have seen this writing on some of relics of the old era. The ones from 500 years ago." Julius said, as he examined the the grimoire in one hand while holding the bow in teh other. He closed the grimoire with a snap and handed it back to Ray, then focused on the kojaku.
"This weapon has been finely crafted. Not to mention that the raw power radiating from it can rival some of the good-teir relics I have back in my office." Julius said. "Can I try firing it?" He suddenly asked, stars in his eyes.
"Why not." Ray said with a small smile as he notched the Pfeil for Julius. "Grip the arrow and the bowstring with your thumb and index finger. Pull back using your back muscles." Ray said, suddenly going full military officer on the wizard king. Klaus's mouth twitched seeing this.
"Pull back fully and choose one point on your face as a refrence point for your maximum draw phase." Ray said, creating another kojaku for himself and drawing it to his cheek. The bowstring was drawn tightly, bending the bow slightly. He let go and the bowstring snapped back into place with a loud *TWANG!*. He turned back to julius and helped him find his maximum draw point. Seeing the wizard king get proficient in drawing the bowstring to his cheek, Ray formed a Heilig Pfeil in his hands and notched it into the bow.
"Now, like i said before. Pinch the arrow and the bowstring with your index finger and Thumb. This will be help in aiming. Next, use your other three fingers to pull the string back. Good. Now aim with your two fingers. Done? Good. Now, slowly open your three other fingers first, before opening your index and thumb. Also, remeber not to jerk the fingers. Or else your aim will be disrupted." Ray said, stepping back and observing.
Julius did as he said and opened his fingers fully. The Arrow was launched from the bow, screeching as it flew through the air. He had chosen a building wall in the distance for aiming. As the Arrow went closer to the building, Julius grew visibly excited. Only Ray looked calm.
"It's a miss." He said.
Julius turned to him puzzled, then quickly looked back, only to see the arrow whizz past the building entirely. Julius visibly deflated.
"That's alright Wizard king. It was a good shot for your first time shooting. Most people won't even be able to get the arrow flying." Ray soothed him, patting his back.
The comical scene made Klaus's mouth twitched again, while Asta quickly rushed to Ray.
"Ray! Ray! Me too! Me too! Teach me too!!!" He said, jumping up and down in front of Ray.
"Later Asta, not now." Ray said, returning to his original position, at teh back of the group.
Julius straightened up, realising that he wasn't behaving like the wizard king anymore. The archery lesson brought out his inner kid accidently.
"Ahem. At rate, wonderful work with the dungeon! Well done! You all handled the mission incredibly. Especially you Ray. Defeating one of the Eight shining generals along with Lotus Whiltmann, the Smoke tactician of the Diamond kingdom. A job well done. I hereby award 5 stars to the Black bulls and the Golden Dawn teams that explored the dungeon, braving traps, and tricks to bring back glory to the clover kingdom. Additionally, I award 2 stars to Ray for defeating a member of the eight shining generals and Lotus Whiltmann." Julius said, going back to his wizard-king-business mode.
All of them knelt as He conjured up 12 stars, handing them out to Klaus, Asta and Ray.
After recieveing the stars, Julius was about to say something, when Asta quickly Spoke up.
"uhhh.... Ummmm... c-c-c-could I ask you something?!"
"Ask me what?"
Asta swallowed nervously, before steeling himself and talking again. "How does one..."
"...Get to be the wizard king." Yuno finished, having appeared beside Asta at some point of time.
The sight of the two-standing side-by-side and asking this with such serious faces made Julius pause. Then,
"Hahaha! I see! You two want to be the wizard king, do you?" He said, laughing heartily. "All magic knights should be that ambitious!"
"It's rude to ask the wizard king a question like that directly, you two!!" Klaus said, joining into the conversation. "Listen to me! The wizard king must have a noble heart and the deep trust of the people..."
"No." Julius said, cutting him off. Suddenly he was serious. "It's merit."
That paused everyone. Ray just stayed at the back, listening half-heartedly. He really wanted to go back and sleep. Nero, sitting on his shoulder seemed the same.
"You can't protect the people with pride alone."
"Trust comes after you've built up your reputation."
"People want just one thing from the wizard king."
"Acheivements that mark you as the strongest."
"Produce results."
"Devote yourseves to building a reputation. That's everything."
He narrowed his eyes.
"No one who's unable to do that could ever stand at the top!" Julius said, staring directly at Asta and Yuno.
They both clenched their fists. Asta grinned in thrill while Yuno's face grew even more serious. Both spoke at once. "Bring it on!!"
Seeing this, Julius smiled to himself. 'Your newbies have some determined eyes... Yami... William...'
Then, he burst out laughing, breaking the serious mood.
"All right! As a matter of fact, we're holding a decoration ceremony for the magic knights who've been awarded an outstanding number of stars today. I hope you'll come and join us!" He said heartily.
"Huh...?!" - All of 'em.
__Inside the Royal palace__
Their footsteps echoed in the stone walls surroudning them as they approached the throne room of the wizard king.
The massive doors swung open, revealing a bright room and a lineup that'll make any villain want to go home crying to their mother.
[The Silva Siblings, Nebra, Nozel and Solid, from the Silver Eagles.
Captian Charollete and Vice-Captian Sol from Blue Rose.
The Vermillion siblings, Leopold and Feugeleon, from crimson lions.
Three Golden Dawn members, Alecdora Sandler, Shiren Tium, Hamon Ceasus.]
Julius, turned around to face the group, and spoke, though it was mostly for Asta and Yuno.
"All right... Can you give me better results than they have?"
*Silence*
Then, Asta broke the silence.
"Wh-Whooooaaaaaa! So cool!!"
Julius simply smiled and walked to the throne, sitting down and starting the ceremony.
"Leopold Vermillion of the crimson lion king knights, with seven stars earned!! I grant you the title of intermediate magic knight, second class!!
You use the same flame magic as your big brother, the leader of crimson lions, and your power is overwhelming! I guess you'll have to be carefull not to go overboard. (Ha ha ha!)" - Julius
"Evil needs no mercy" - Leopold
"Sol Marron of the Blue rose Knights. with six stars earned!! I grant you the title of intermediate magic knight, third class!!
You're as dynamic as the guys! Both that and your creative earth magic are amazing, but your too much of a free spirit!!"
"My sis... I mean, the captain is the only one who can tie me down." - Sol
"Nebra Silva of the silver eagle knights, with nine stars earned. I grant you the title of senior magic knight, third class!!
The skillful illusions you work with your mist magic are fantastic! Just take care not to use them to play with the enemy more than necessary. You might get yourself Bitten."
"I thank you for the warning, Your majesty. (Heh heh heh.)" - Nebra
"..."
"..." - Solid
"..."
"..." - Sandler
"..."
"..." - Shiren
"..."
"..." - Hamon
{A/N: Couldn't bother with the extras. Also, I just don't like solid. So I skipped him too.}
"All right. Well done, all of you. We've got a simple reception set up. So, I hope you'll enjoy yourselves." Julius said, smiling as he stood up from his throne slowly, adding as he did, "Oh, I almost forgot. We have some special guests with us today. make sure you get to know each other real well! (Ha ha ha!)"
On cue, all the magic knights present in the room turned to look at Asta and the others, standing silently at the back of the room.
"..." - Magic knights.
"...!!" Asta and Co.