-Dante's Pov (1st person), 1 min ago-
Just what the hell is going on? Why can't I kill that rat!? Just how potent is that bastard's regeneration?
My mind was filled with such thoughts as kept slashing through the lesser devil rat that kept coming back like a pest no matter how badly I crushed him.
It was a relentless, and nonstop regeneration to the point that it made me envious of how did such a insect gain such a power that made Lucifer's regeneration look like crap.
I watched as he(Asta) kept adapting to my attacks, his movements growing more fluid each time I slashed his devil heart apart, moreover his personality was the most random thing I could imagine.
Sometimes he was a coward, sometimes he was a honourable warrior, it felt more like I was fighting a entire city of extremists rather than a single guy.
Slash!
I have cut him once again. This time he is dead for sure I thought, but once again that cockroach regenerated in my face, a ever lasting devilish smile on his face as he sadistically slashed his claws at my face.
I didn't bother dodging, it was his first attack that was about to reach me since I began using Lucifero's true power. I was going to show him the difference in our defenses.
Screik! Spurt!
"Ho-How? HOWWW!?" I said in disbelief as blood flowed down my face into my eyes.
I couldn't understand what was happening anymore! The claws ripped through the skin made with body magic as if it didn't exist, leaving a four-claw mark on my face before I instinctively kicked back in pain.
There was no fight, it was infuriating whenever I saw that smile, a smile creepier and more prideful then my own to the point it made me feel inferior.
I have had Enough! I was no longer gonna play around!
So I pulled back my arm, gathering all my magic as every bit of lucifero's magic was gathered into one place, turning into a spell.
"Gravity magic: Ascending hell spire. "
The ground beneath spun like a whirlpool, gathering right beneath the bastard just like I intended and shot up like spike, carrying him with it.
'I was gonna win! I will make him experience the pressure of space and watch as he gets torn to shreds by the nothingness!' Was what I thought with a smile.
Snap!
The spell circle vanished! It snapped without my command or any Interruption!
It was at this moment I noticed it, the dark energy I couldn't sense just devouring every bit of mana it reached like feral beast.
My face wasn't regenerating, the mana circuits in my body felt like they were being chewed on by thousands of mites. The mana was being devoured and destroyed before it could even be imprinted by my intent.
But it wasn't infinite and soon the energy itself broke down after wilting itself away at my mana, but the remenant blocked the circuits on my wound and left arm, stopping regeneration.
"This shutty Scum!! You dare–" I said as my eyes slowly shiftes to the pillar where I saw it, a human with a armor of black looking down at me.
My voice halted in my mouth, the surprise evident in my eyes as I couldn't look away in shock.
"That guy... Was a human?"
I was sure he was a devil, Lucifero himself called him one and his aura didn't feel human at all. Yet as I watched him gaze down at me with nothing but rageful yet merciful eyes, I felt like I was being pitied.
-third person view-
Asta watched as Dante convulses on his spot. He spotted a claw mark on his face, a claw mark he determined was made when he wasn't controlling his body.
Right now, he was controlling all the remaining anti-magic with his ki but it was also the only anti-magic he had left since he wasn't able to produce the same amount as devil part of him.
He slowly collected every bit, flooding it throughout his body which ended up suppressing his Devil blood, turning him back to human. His regeneration stopped, but the muscles he had were now much more developed thanks to all the regeneration his body went through before.
Soon, the gravity began pulling Asta down, not Dante's but the normal gravity. He landed on the spire that had launched him, like a feline his body leaned forward as he glared down at Dante who looked up to meet his gaze.
Then.. He slammed his food down and began running down the spire, sprinting down it's slope while he turned into something akin to anti-magic cannonball.
Hundreds of massive sphere came his way, dirt, stone and plant matter compressed and hurled by Dante gravity magic.
Unluckily for Dante, Asta could predict the trajectory of spheres by reading his ki. he jumped from one place to another, using the attacks as footholds as he launched himself right through the net of rubble.
With all the strength in how body, Asta slammed himself into Dante, flinging him far away before he followed behind to catch up and deal the finishing blow.
The giant body of Dante was dismantled from the impact, shredded down by anti-magic while Asta's armor itself broke in return. To Asta it appeared as if Dante was knocked out, so he jumped, aiming to end it with a punch.
However–
"Surprise!"
Asta's pupil shrunk in terror as Dante locked eyes with him while smiling like a creepy. He watched him extend his left hand, aiming at Asta as the world shifted within a split second.
"Gravity burst... tenfold" Dante casted a final spell, tossing Asta who had used all his anti-magic into the floor with enough force to break the rocky ground.
Just one second, Asta was just one second away before he could end the battle but now he was crawling on the ground, enduring under the intense gravity as he slowly sank into the ground like quicksand.
"NOT YET! I!! CAN'T!! LOSE!! YET!!" Asta screamed as hard as he could. He tried to push himself up to no avail, the bits of anti-magic he was generating was were no-way near enough to even lessen the burden on him by a bit.
Soon within seconds his body began bleeding from nose and eyes, his heartbeat began slowing and his bones became cackling, threatening to collapse within just a few more seconds.
...
In this world, each person's magic attribute are decided on three factors- a person'a fate, their talent and lastly their personality.
Asta's Anti-magic is the same, it isn't a energy different from magic but rather a attribute that opposes and destroys all other.
" Gehehehehe" Dante laughs while approaching the struggling asta as the finaly bits of lucifeto's magic return to him.
Deep down in his chest, Dante could sense the result of his deal- a binding spell on his heart. However he didn't care, to him the Sight of Asta struggling for his life was more than enough satisfying to miss.
He looks down at him, finding him unable to even look back it him and laughs harder. He places his foot on Asta's head, pressing down as he begans insulting him face to face.
"Did you really think you can win? A maggot like you, against a king like me?"
... Asta stays silent or rather he couldn't bring himself to speak but the glare in his eyes was enough to speak for itself.
Now Dante wasn't even trying, his body was also slowly beginning to recover from the claw marks from before.
"Now would you look at that? *turns around* As expected of someone like me, to imagine I almost lost to a vermin like you.. Blah blah blah-"
Asta have not heard a single word Dante said since his eardrums have already been ruptured. To him the world was silent as it can be but he wasn't discouraged.
Ding! The wierd sound of the panel came.
[Trait: Battle fanatic has activated]
[Morale reduction has been restricted]
[ Learning speed has been greatly increased]
"Shut up." Asta grumbles, his mind clearer than before as he find himself unexpectedly calm for someone being crushed under gravity. "I wouldn't have lost if the others wer–... *sigh*"
He didn't care about dante, rather he was ashamed that he thought others will be here to help him this time as well.
It has always like this with him. Almost all his crucial battles were fought alongside someone he could trust, every important battle of his life he had been carried by friends, teachers and other loved ones.
The loneliness of being alone in a fight made him realise something– he was too dependent on others. His techniques were taught to him, the anti-magic which he always used was liebe's in reality.
He had grown to look more after others and stand shoulder to shoulder with them but, he can't surpass himself when he is comfining himself in their shadows and lamenting in their absense.
"Heh. Captain Yami would scold me if he saw me like this."
A change brought by realisation is always the most deep one. Right now, Asta had realised the sorrows, the reason for his dissatisfaction with everything.
He had given up, not on his goal but on his methods. He couldn't protect everyone before, all because he was too easy going, always thinking that together with others he could always triumph over the challenges.
"I don't want to be the wizard king... I won't be satisfied with that anymore, with a title as temporary as that!"
Ki surged through Asta, permeating through every cell of his body like a river flowing into a rice field and flooding it.
He could sense his control over it, it was no longer controlled by him but a part of him. On death's door, he had figured out the last part of the puzzle bothering him– the way to infuse the soul or simply, infuse his intent into his ki.
The ki no longer flowed like a chained bird, now it had turned into a tamed eagle who takes after it's owner. Asta's wishes were now its goal not a command.
Unknowingly, Asta, Someone who had never wielded mana or received any training in doing so had succeeded in creating himself a sort of awakening similar to those of normal mages.
The magic attributes of mages are based on their personality so even the same magic when used by someone else acts completely different.
Currently, The ki infused with Asta's soul had spread throughout his body, merging with Anti-magic which was previously just running on his imagination or belief of what it was.
The Anti-magic liebe used was influenced by his hatred for devils and their destruction, giving it the power to completely oppose the mana of someone the user didn't trust.
.. But what about Asta who was very trusting?... The answer is.. The Foundation of Anti-magic will change, shifting into a different version of Anti-magic– Asta's Anti-magic.
The dark power of Anti-magic changed, turning from destruction to conversion and Mimicking. Just like the soul it was born from, the Anti-magic stopped opposing the gravity magic like a kamikaze. Instead it converted every mana it came close with into Anti-magic itself.
The gravity spell which was crushing Asta vanished. The absurd amount of gravity attribute mana was enough for Anti-magic to feed on until it became able to mimick the gravity attribute itself.
Asta himself didn't realise it yet, his eyes swiftly turning side-to-side as he tried to find a reason before dismissing the change as a stroke of luck.
Slowly he pushed himself up, not a single sound leaving his mouth as he stood up without a single noise while the Anti-magic mixed with the spell to disassemble it bit by bit.
In front of him was Dante, his back turned towards Asta as the delusional bastard kept speaking about the so called difference in levels.
Without wasting a second, Asta lunged ahead with his fingers stretched. A single strike from behind, however before he struck Asta have Dante a single advice:
"Should have killed me earlier... Now pay for it, You jerk!!!"
"Huh!?"
Dante turned around confused to see a extended hand coming his way. He tried to escape, instantly reaching to his mana to pull himself away from the strike.
Unfortunately for him, the Anti-magic had long since surrounded him, turning his magic into more Anti-magic the moment it moved out of his body.
Spurt!!
Silence cloaks the world, leaving only the sound of blood flowing as Asta pierced through Dante's chest, grabbing his demonised Heart and ripping it apart.
Then as if the world seemed to slow down to a halt, Dante watched as clawed right arm of Asta where he had concentrated all of his devil blood, coming straight at his neck.
Dante's life flashed before his eyes, the life he had never enjoyed very much until he became a tyrant. However there was no pity for him and soon as if even the moon didn't want to see him, clouds covered the skies and a drop blood hit his forehead as he stumbled backwards, lifeless, killed with clean painless decapitation that seemed like the final act of kindness Asta has given him.