It's noon, the sun is shining. The light falls down onto a ruined city as people run around while begging for mercy.
As far as one could see, they will only see broken buildings and streets littered with blood, destruction and remanent effects of magic.
In the distance one could see a crumbling castle. The city had fallen alongside it's protestors but– there was one remaining.
Clutching a dark bladed katana as he knelt on the floor, Asta looks up to the skies towards the hundreds of paladins hovering above him. He was injuried, his Devil form had just ran out, however even then he refused to stay down.
Planting the sword in the ground, Asta stood up to his feet. He looked forward, his eyes flickering between the dozens of faces of his friends now looking at him with pity.
"So you can still stand? You never cease to amaze me... Asta."
A voice came, echoing in the streets.
Asta turned, his face lacking any excitement, determination or grit he usually has. He looked at the one who spoke, his heart filled with rage as he clutched his sword tighter.
In front of him was Lucius, the bastard who had taken away everything away from him. Yet for some reason Asta felt more disappointed, disappointed in himself that is.
"Here to laugh in face now? You have already took everything. My friends. My family. What more do you even want?"
Asta looked ahead and spits, his blood filled saliva causing a splash as he begans walking towards Lucius.
It was gonna die and that was a fact that everyone knew, but that fact didn't bother Asta in the slightest.
However if there was anything, there was one thing he regretful of– the fact he was going to take someone to afterlife alongside himself.
"I am sorry liebe. It looks like our journey ends here."
"What are you sorry for? My life was yours the day we killed lucifero... If anything, my time is long overdue."
From within the grimoire, Liebe gives his last bit of Anti-magic to Asta. The two of then were going down but they won't lose without a fight.
Crack!
Like a arrow , Asta charges ahead towards lucius much to his enemy's amusement. The paladins saw him move and counter attacked but kept moving through, taking everything with his body.
The first to strike was a converted magna whose fireball Asta split into two, then came a net of lightning as Luck appears kicking from the side.
The kick rippled through the air, barely missing by an inch. The residual shock left a shockwave, however it didn't do anything.
Asta grabs luck in the mean time, slamming his face to floor despite knowing it didn't even damage him. His aim wasn't to hurt his friends but instead take Lucius's head at any cost.
Meanwhile Lucius watched the variable in his plan from the distance, looking nonchalantly as the magic knights swarmed to protect him like servants.
He watched Asta struggle while smiling confidently as the black blade pierced through the net of magic spells,coming straight for his heart.
However, at the last second just before it reached him, Lucius smiled like a demon and spoke.
"Farewell. Asta."
Asta stabbed demon-slasher through lucius's heart but for some reason he felt like something was wrong. His eyes burst open in shock as Lucius blurred away, appearing farther just put of his blade reach.
"H-How?"
The strike should have disabled his magic, it should have killed him. Yet as Asta took in the sight, he saw another figure standing beside Lucius with a red cat made of string in her hand.
A realisation dawned on him, it was a impossible fight from the beginning. So as the final ray of hope left his soul alongside the strength in his body, he for the first time in his life. Gave up.
Then they came– the remaining attacks he had barely been dodging with his life on line.
First a javelin of water burst through his shoulder, disarming him as Noelle appears in her Paladin form with a armor of water. Then came a sharp root that pierced his abdomen conjured by mimosa.
One by one, over dozens of strikes bombarded him until Asta was a half dead charred corpse barely clinging to life.
... For a moment Asta felt like the world had slowed, there was nothing left in his body to send the pain back to his head.
But... As he looked forward for the last time, he saw Yuno standing in front of him while bell urged him to stop before the blade beheaded him, sending his head into the air as the sharp wind blades disintegrate his body and grimoire to shreds.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Asta felt his head bounce, eventually coming to stop with Yuno in his vision once more. He was full of regrets but when he saw the single running down his sworn brother's eye, he couldn't help but pity him.
"I guess you have guys it worse then me. But if there is a afterlife then I will meet you there. Everyone."
Light faded from Asta's eyes, he was dead at last..
——
"... Where am i?"
Floating in a empty void, Asta opened his eyes. He was dead so he presumed this was the afterlife.
However he had a feeling that something was wrong, something like a instinct telling him wasn't completely dead yet.
There was no one beside, whether it be heaven or hell there was no way he would be alone in the afterlife. He tried moving and it felt like he was in water, with the only exception being that he felt no need to breath at all.
"What place is this? Hell? Heaven?"
"The void."
A voice answered, leaving Asta baffled as he turned around to find himself looking at a eye ten times his size.
The eye looked down at him, a wave of pressure coming along it's stare as fear poured out from the depths of Asta's souls. A chill ran down spine, causing him to retreat away, however the eye didn't mind his reaction in any way.
"You can take your time. Its what I have most of."
The eye spoke, it's voice coming from every direction at once like a echo in a cave. But finding no hostility, Asta relaxed a little and nodded.
It took him over an hour to get used to the pressure, An hour to calm down from his panicked state. Meanwhile he had also began adapting to moving in this void, his movements slightly better than before.
Turning his head to the eye, Asta swam up to it in a awkward manner. He locked his eyes at it, hesitating to speak.
"I know what you're gonna ask so let me start. First, you are not dead and this isn't the afterlife. Second, I am stuck here just like you."
The eye spoke as if it could read Asta's thoughts. It's voice giving a calm and believable vibe so Asta let his guard down a little.
"Then let me ask, who are you? And how did I end up here?"
Asta asked to the eye, dozens of questions churning in his head as the curiosity kept him restless.
For a second there was silence, followed by a round rumbling. The eye blinked, giving Asta goosebumps before it replied:
"A conceptual being. I am a conceptual being."
"Eh? The heck is that?"
Asta has no idea what that meant. He has always been a muscle brain so it was no wonder he had no idea of what the eye was talking about.
" You must be a muscle head... *sigh* fine then, listen... A conceptual being is basically formed when living beings believe in something for a long time and will survive as long as they are believed in."
"?? So basically you are born from thoughts...? What about the angels people pray to?"
"Of course they exist as well. Just not in the void like me."
The revelation was shocking, never once in his life had Asta imagined that things like angel were real. However he was idiot to think so because he fought their literal counterparts– the devils.
It meant that everything he had heard about in fairy tales could very well exist. But as he was getting lost in his imagination, the eye offered a deal:
"Do you wanna live again?"
A chill spread throughout Asta's body, forcing him in to look at the eye in confused gaze. Even with all of its history, there has never had been talk of a revival spell in clover kingdom.
"Live again? I can go back?"
Asta asked, the hope in his heart rekindling once more as he smiled.
"No. Thats not possible?"
The mood fell, the hope was slowly fading back as soon as the eye answered.
Things seem to never to Asta's way and it was something he knew that as well. It was almost as if som–
"You can go to another world instead."
.... Bewilderment came, leaving Asta puzzled and clueless. He had no idea of what the eye meant by another world and he had never bothered to imagine something like that.
"There are other worlds?"
He inquired the eye for his answers. He watched the eye nod up and down in agreement, but before he could answer, Asta heard something crack.
"It looks like time is running out."
"Running out? What do you mean running out!? Didn't you say we had a lot of ti–"
"Look at yourself. You're cracking."
Asta slowly looks down, his eyes widening on terror as he noticed a crack on his wrist.
The crack was widening slowly, expending as Asta's soul began scattering away. It was almost as if he was losing a part of himself each second he hovered in the void.
"I don't know what your name is. But i offer you a deal."
Asta heard the eye speak. His focus completely on it as it explained it's offer.
"You have to find something for me. Agree to it and I will give you everything I own."
"Everything? "
"Everything... I will send you to another world similar to yours. What you do next is not my problem, but as long as you are willing fulfill my last wish, I promise, you will reach that world."
This was the most one sided deal Asta had ever seen. There were visibly no downsides for him whatsoever.
So as one would expect he didn't even bother to consider and extended his hand.
"What are we waiting for then!? Send me away! "
For a second Asta saw the eye's pupil expand, then as if it was just a dream, he blinked and found himself in a different scenery and a different world.
[End of chapter]