Sally and Valtos stood rigid, their bodies tense, eyes locked warily on Yuuki.
They hadn't expected Rades to die so abruptly.
"Now that the noise has finally stopped," Yuuki said calmly, withdrawing his gaze from Rades' corpse, "let's return to the main point."
Valtos took a deep breath when he saw that Yuuki had no intention of attacking again.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" he asked.
"I was very clear from the beginning, Valtos," Yuuki replied evenly.
"I agree with the Eye of the Midnight Sun's original ideal—to change the deep-rooted inequality of the Clover Kingdom."
"But that ideal was twisted by Licht. Or rather, he never truly cared about it in the first place."
"So, the one who betrayed the Eye of the Midnight Sun was never us—
it was Licht."
Yuuki's eyes were steady as he looked at the two of them.
"And I will become the new leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun."
Valtos and Sally stared at him blankly.
They clearly hadn't expected his goal to be so… straightforward.
"Then why did you kill Rades?"
Valtos asked instinctively.
Even if he disliked the man, Rades had saved his life.
Yuuki shook his head lightly.
"I didn't think you'd ask something like that, Valtos."
Then, more seriously, he continued:
"Because the new Eye of the Midnight Sun doesn't need him. And frankly—he was far too loud."
"Destroying the current kingdom and rebuilding a new one through indiscriminate slaughter is nothing more than extremism."
"Excessive killing has no meaning."
"Licht actually said something correct earlier."
Yuuki's voice lowered slightly.
'Jealousy and hatred—using blind devotion as an excuse to justify one's weakness and sins, merely to indulge in filthy behavior.'
"You two aren't good people," Yuuki said without sugarcoating it,
"but compared to someone who would massacre an entire village just to increase his corpse count as fast as possible, you at least possess belief—and restraint."
Valtos fell silent, his expression complicated.
"Hehe… getting played like that really does sting,"
Sally giggled, pressing a finger against her soft lips. Her crimson eyes gleamed strangely as she looked at Yuuki.
"I don't really care who's in charge. As long as I can research and experiment freely, I'm satisfied."
She clasped her hands behind her back and spoke in an intentionally coquettish tone.
"New leader, Yuuki-Sama~"
Yuuki gave her a flat look.
Sally immediately withdrew her heated gaze and straightened up, behaving far more seriously.
Valtos raised his head as well. His stiff expression turned solemn.
"You called what we did 'filthy behavior.' That description may not be wrong… but I don't believe I was wrong."
"And yes—Licht betrayed us. He betrayed the Eye of the Midnight Sun."
With that, Valtos dropped to one knee.
"Yuuki-sama."
Not long after, under Yuuki's orders, Valtos and Sally left the cavern first.
Their task was to gather the Eye of the Midnight Sun's remaining assets, stabilize the organization, and reorganize its outer members.
Licht's sacrificial spell had effectively wiped out the organization's middle and upper leadership—but the peripheral members remained largely untouched.
Those people had been beneath Licht's notice.
Yuuki, however, saw value in them.
With his ability to replicate magic and grant it to others, Yuuki had no shortage of potential mid- to high-level combatants. If he wished, he could create them in bulk.
But the foundation of an organization lies in its lower structure.
Ironically, the complete elimination of Licht's loyal inner circle made things easier—fewer ideological remnants to deal with.
With Sally and Valtos—former high-ranking members—Yuuki could consolidate the Eye of the Midnight Sun's forces in a short time.
Yuuki stepped out of the cavern and looked toward the capital.
Golden pillars of light occasionally pierced the sky.
"The elves have completed their reincarnation," he murmured.
"The battlefield is now shifting entirely toward the capital."
Even without seeing it, Yuuki could easily imagine the chaos.
The Golden Dawn—aside from Mimosa, a royal who had entered through connections—was composed entirely of reincarnated elves.
Other Magic Knight squads were no different.
A sudden, unannounced reversal from within.
Enough to bring the Clover Kingdom's greatest trump card—the Nine Magic Knight Squads—to the brink of collapse.
Asta and Yuno are going to have a hard time, Yuuki thought.
But he still couldn't head to the capital just yet.
Another battlefield awaited him.
"Fate. Space. Permeation. World Tree. Corpse."
The list of magic he now possessed passed through his mind.
The World Tree Magic, the most crucial piece, was finally in his hands.
Whether it could serve as a connecting path in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life ritual would depend on what came next.
More importantly, he needed time to properly master it.
As for Corpse Magic—
While it showed little direct effectiveness against devils in the original story, Yuuki firmly classified it as Underworld-tier magic.
The world of Black Clover had an extraordinarily high ceiling.
After all—
The soul exists here as a tangible, manipulable concept.
Rades' ability to recall dead souls and resurrect them was genuine resurrection—not metaphor, not illusion.
Soul manipulation was never trivial, and its potential for growth was immense.
In the entire Clover Kingdom, only two individuals possessed such power:
Rades—and the Wizard King.
No—more precisely—
Lucius Zogratis.
Rades' magic manipulated souls as a whole, hence the name Soul Abductor.
Lucius' Soul Magic, however, altered the consciousness of the soul itself.
He could implant commands such as "Lucius is correct."
Those affected were compelled to obey—
even if they resisted internally, even if it contradicted their will.
They would act as though it were their own desire.
Yuuki remembered that later on, after Lucius devoured the Devil King's heart, his Soul Magic evolved further—
Able to purify and elevate devil souls.
Transforming them into something greater.
Something purer.
Angels.
Yuuki shook those thoughts away and looked once more toward the capital.
Asta and Yuno had their battlefield.
And he had his.
"Conrad," Yuuki said quietly, space warping around him.
"Let me see the strength of a former Wizard King sealed away by magic."
His figure vanished.
Author's Note:
You may want to pay attention to the horns above Asta and Sister Lily's heads in the illustration—
the goat horns of a devil, the sheep horns of an angel.
Devils. Angels. Judgment Day.
And Asta—the one who cannot be purified.
The so-called scapegoat.
Unfortunately, that path is one only Lucius can truly walk.
Translator's notes;
So, guys what the illustration the Author is talking about here is from the latest volume of Black Clover, volume 37.
So, I'll explain for those who may not understand something's because the author seems to be taking inspiration from Christian and Jewish mythos though most of what he's alluding to doesn't track…
So, in the Old Testament of the bible the people of Israel brought two goats before God. They'd cast lots to decide the fate of these two goats. One would be offered up as a burnt sacrifice while the other goat would be presented alive before God and used to make atonement (have you guys watched 'Atonement' an absolutely amazing movie) by the people for their sins, this goat called the 'scapegoat' would be sent into the wilderness bearing all of the people's sins.
Well Jesus is also called the lamb of God because lambs since the time of Abraham have been used as sacrifices for the redemption of sin. So, Jesus's mission was made complete and he became sanctified through death, a grand ritual that would serve as atonement for all mankind.
Lucius was basically trying to perfect humanity in his own twisted way but eh, once someone starts talking about ruling the world most of the time, they're full of shit.
If you'd like to read more about it you can take a look at these verses Leviticus 16: 7-10, John 1: 29, Colossians 2:13-14 then Revelations 5: 6-14.
Sorry for the rant but yeah what the Author is basically saying is that Lucius is the only one with the unique conditions symbolically to replicate this.
Also let's all remember that this book was written in 2024. These were basically just fan-theories.
(End of Chapter)
⭐ Enjoying the story?
You can read ahead and support the translations by joining my Patreon! Your support helps me update faster and take on more projects. Thank you for reading!
Read up to 50 chapters ahead!
patreon.com/AminaSims
Next Bonus Chapter at 3300 powerstones