Who are you?" Luck demanded. His lightning crackled. He had learned from his earlier mistake—he wasn't rushing in. He was waiting. Watching.
"Names? How polite. You can call me Lotus. I'm a humble servant of the Diamond Kingdom's magical research division." His sharp eyes swept the room, taking in the empty spaces where treasure had been. "It seems you've been busy. All this wealth, and you've already packed it away somewhere. A spatial magic user, perhaps?" His gaze landed on me. On the wheel. On the shadow still rippling at my feet. "Or something more interesting."
"We're leaving," I said. "Take what's left. We're done here."
"Leaving? After taking ninety percent of the treasure and knocking out one of my colleagues?" Lotus laughed, a dry, rasping sound. "That would be a poor report to file. 'Lost the dungeon, lost the treasure, lost the mage. Regards, Lotus.' My superiors would have me retired. And retirement in the Diamond Kingdom is not a pleasant affair."
"That's not our problem."
"Oh, but it is. You see, my young friend Mars here has been very patient. He's been standing still for almost ten minutes now, waiting for me to give him permission to fight. He doesn't complain. He never complains. But I can tell he's eager." Lotus tapped his staff on the ground. "Mars. The ones with the grimoires. Engage."
Mars moved.
Despite his size, he was fast. He crossed the room in three massive strides, each step cracking the stone floor. Flames roared around his right fist. Minerals thickened on his left arm, forming a battering ram of jagged stone. He reached Klaus first.
"BRONZE CREATION MAGIC: GUARDIAN WALL!" Klaus thrust both hands forward. A massive shield of bronze erupted from his grimoire, thick as a castle gate. It was the strongest defensive spell he had.
Mars punched through it like paper.
The bronze shattered. Fragments flew everywhere. Klaus barely had time to blink before Mars's mineral fist caught him in the chest. The impact lifted Klaus off his feet and sent him crashing into a pile of remaining treasure. Coins scattered. Gold dust filled the air. Klaus lay still for a moment, groaning.
"KLAUS!" Mimosa was already running, her vines sprouting from her palms. "Plant Recovery Magic: Healing Cradle!"
Klaus groaned and pushed himself up. His glasses were cracked. His robe was torn. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead. But he was alive. "That... that was nothing. A lucky hit. I wasn't ready."
"You were looking right at him," Asta said.
"I was... strategizing. You wouldn't understand."
Yuno was already moving. Wind gathered around his palm, spinning into a blade of compressed air. "Wind Creation Magic: Crescent Cutter!"
The blade shot forward, sharp enough to slice through solid stone. It hit Mars in the shoulder. The minerals cracked. Flakes of stone fell away. But the flames immediately surged, healing the damage. Mars didn't even flinch.
"His armor's too thick," Yuno said. "And the fire is regenerating it. I need more power."
"Then let's hit him together!" Asta raised his sword—the massive black blade, the first one he had found. "ANTI-MAGIC SLASH!"
He swung with everything he had. The blade connected with Mars's mineral-covered arm. But instead of cutting through, it bounced. Sparks flew. Asta stumbled backward, his hands stinging from the impact.
"What?! It didn't work! My sword always works!"
"His minerals are physical," Yuno said. "Not magical. He's creating real stone, real metal. Your anti-magic can't cancel something that isn't magic."
"So I'm useless?!"
"You're not useless. You just need a different approach."
Klaus had gotten back to his feet. His hands were shaking, but his eyes were fixed on Asta with an expression that was... different. Not contempt. Something else. "You. Commoner. Why did you step in front of me earlier? When Mars attacked me the first time. You jumped between us."
"Because you were about to get hit!" Asta said, like it was obvious. "You're annoying and you talk too much about nobles and your glasses are weird, but you're still a person! I don't let people get hurt if I can help it!"
"You... you absolute fool." Klaus's voice cracked. "You barely know me. I've done nothing but insult you since we met. And you still..."
"That's what being a Magic Knight means!" Asta grinned at him. "We protect people! All people! Even annoying ones with weird glasses!"
Klaus stared at him. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he pushed his cracked glasses up his nose and turned toward Mars. "Fine. If a commoner can fight like that, then I have no excuse. Bronze Creation Magic: SPEAR WALL!"
Hundreds of bronze spears materialized around him. They hung in the air for a heartbeat, then launched toward Mars in a storm of gleaming metal. The attack was massive, coordinated, powerful.
Mars raised his mineral-covered arm. The spears hit him and shattered. Not one got through. The flames healed the scratches instantly.
Klaus's shoulders slumped. "Impossible. That was my strongest offensive spell."
Mars's empty eyes turned toward Klaus. Flames gathered in his palm, brighter and hotter than before. Klaus couldn't move. His legs were frozen. The fireball grew.
Then Asta was there.
He threw himself in front of Klaus, his black sword raised. The fireball hit the blade and dissolved, the anti-magic consuming the flames like water soaking into sand. The heat washed over them both, but neither burned.
"You saved me again," Klaus whispered. "Why?"
"Because that's what people do." Asta looked back at him and smiled. "You don't have to be a noble to be a hero. You just have to care."
Something in Klaus's expression cracked. Not the glasses this time. The mask. The cold, superior mask he had worn since we met. "You're insane," he said. But his voice was different. Softer. "Completely and utterly insane."
"Thanks!"
"That wasn't a compliment!"
But Klaus was smiling. Just a little. The kind of smile that said he had been wrong about something important and was only now realizing it.
Mars attacked again. His flames had grown wilder, his minerals thicker. Lotus was shouting commands from the back of the room, but Mars's movements were becoming erratic. The different magics inside him were fighting each other. Fire and stone and something darker, something that had been forced into his body without consent.
He lunged at Asta. His massive fist, wrapped in fire and stone, came down like a meteor. Asta blocked with his black sword, but the sheer force of the nine-foot giant's blow sent him flying across the room. He hit the far wall with a crash that shook the entire chamber. Stone crumbled. Dust filled the air.
"ASTA!" Noelle screamed.
For a moment, there was only silence. Then the dust cleared. Asta was on his knees, his head bowed, his sword still in his hand. But something else had fallen from the shattered wall. Another sword. Black like the first, but thinner. Lighter. Its blade hummed with a different kind of power.
Asta's hand closed around the hilt. His eyes opened wide. "What... what is this?"
The sword answered him. Not with words. With magic. It drank the residual mana from the air around him, pulling it into the blade, storing it. The Demon-Dweller Sword. The blade that absorbed and released magic.
"I don't know what this is," Asta said, pushing himself to his feet, "but I know one thing." He raised both swords. "I'm not done yet!"
Meanwhile, Yuno was being pushed back. His wind blades weren't strong enough to break Mars's regenerating armor. His barriers shattered under the force of Mars's punches. He dodged and weaved, but he was running out of room.
Then the air changed.
Yuno's grimoire began to glow. Not the usual glow of a spell being cast—something deeper. Brighter. The four-leaf clover on its cover blazed with green light, and the pages flipped on their own, faster and faster, until they stopped at a page Yuno had never seen before. The ink was fresh, as if it had been written in that exact moment.
A warmth spread through his chest. The wind around him—the wind he had commanded since childhood—suddenly felt different. Alive. Like it was listening to him in a way it never had before.
And then something emerged from the grimoire.
It was small. Tiny, even. A ball of swirling green light, no bigger than Yuno's fist. It hovered in the air in front of his face, pulsing with a gentle radiance. Four delicate wings unfurled from its sides, beating so fast they were almost invisible. And within the light, Yuno could sense something. A presence. A consciousness. Something that had been waiting for him.
"Yuno," it said. Its voice was like wind chimes. Like leaves rustling. Like a breeze through summer grass. "I've been waiting for you."
Yuno stared at the tiny creature. His usually stoic expression cracked, just a little. "What... are you?"
"I'm yours. I've been sleeping inside your grimoire since the day you received it. I wasn't ready to wake up yet. But now... now you need me." The light pulsed brighter. "You're fighting someone very strong. Someone with magic that isn't his own. You need more power than you have right now. So I'm lending you mine."
"But I don't even know your name."
"You will. When the time is right. For now..." The tiny creature pressed itself against Yuno's chest. Warmth flooded through him. The wind around him intensified, swirling faster and faster, lifting his hair, making his robe snap like a banner. "Just trust me. And fight."
The light merged with Yuno's body. His amber eyes glowed green. His wind magic, which had been struggling against Mars's armor, suddenly sharpened. The air around him became a weapon, spinning and howling with a power he had never felt before.
Mars charged. His massive fist, wrapped in fire and stone, came down like a meteor.
Yuno raised his hand. "Wind Magic: Crescent Cutter!"
The blade that shot from his palm was different. Bigger. Sharper. It wasn't just compressed air anymore—it was air given form by something ancient, something that understood wind in a way no human mage ever could. The blade hit Mars's mineral armor. This time, it didn't just crack. It cut. A deep groove appeared in the stone, and Mars stumbled back. The flames tried to heal it, but the cut was too deep, closing slower than before.
"Your magic," Mars said. His voice was flat, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes. "It changed."
"I had help," Yuno said.
He pressed the attack. Wind blades flew from both hands now, each one sharper than the last. Mars blocked with his minerals, but they were cracking faster than the flames could regenerate them. For the first time since the fight began, Mars was being pushed back.
But Lotus wasn't done. "More power, Mars! Stop holding back! Use the forbidden art!"
Mars's body convulsed. The fire and minerals that covered his arms began to spread. Up his shoulders. Across his chest. His nine-foot frame grew even more imposing as jagged spikes erupted from his armor. The flames burned brighter, hotter, healing the damage almost instantly. His face twisted—not with pain, but with the effort of containing something that wanted to break free. The mana around him became dense and suffocating, pressing down on everyone in the room.
"What's happening to him?" Noelle asked, her voice small.
"They're forcing more magic into his body," Luck said. His grin was gone. His voice was hard. "The Diamond Kingdom's research division... they put multiple types of magic into their soldiers. But the human body can only handle so much. If they push him too far..."
"He'll break," I finished.
The pressure in the room was building. Mars's power was growing exponentially. Yuno's new wind blades were already struggling to keep up. Asta was on his feet again, both swords raised, but even he looked uncertain.
Mars turned. His empty eyes scanned the room. They landed on Mimosa, who was kneeling beside Klaus, her vines wrapped around his wounds, completely focused on healing. She hadn't noticed the giant turning toward her. She hadn't seen the flames gathering in his palm.
"MIMOSA!" Noelle screamed.
Mars lunged. His massive body crossed the distance in two strides. His fist, wrapped in fire and jagged mineral, came down toward the girl who couldn't defend herself. Mimosa looked up. Her green eyes went wide. She didn't have time to scream.
I moved.
The ten tons on my shoulders fought me. My legs screamed. My bones groaned. But I pushed through. One step. Two steps. The floor cracked with each one. Mars's fist was coming down. Mimosa was frozen. I threw myself between them.
The fist hit my back.
The impact was tremendous. Fire washed over my spine. Minerals scraped against my shoulder blades. The force drove me down, cracking the stone beneath my knees. But I held. My arms wrapped around Mimosa, shielding her completely. The flames that would have turned her to ash broke against my skin and died. The minerals that would have crushed her skull shattered against my reinforced bones.
When the attack faded, I was still there. Still standing. Still holding her.
Mimosa looked up at me. Her face was pale. Her eyes were wide. A faint pink blush spread across her cheeks. "You... you saved me."
"It's what I do."
"But the attack... it hit you directly. You should be—"
"I've had worse." I released her gently. "Get back to Klaus. Stay behind the others. I'll handle this."
She nodded, her blush deepening. "Thank you. I... thank you." She scrambled backward, her vines following her, and took cover behind Yuno.
Mars was staring at me. His fist was still raised. But his empty eyes had changed. There was something new in them now. Something that might have been the first stirrings of uncertainty.
I turned to face him fully. The ten tons on my shoulders were crushing. The wheel was turning, but it was too slow. Three to four minutes. I didn't have that long.
I looked at my grimoire. The Binding Vow.
"I, Hasegawa Ouga, make this Binding Vow." My voice cut through the chaos. Everyone stopped. Even Mars paused. "I seal my secret ability for a period of one month. In exchange, my body adapts to this weight not in four minutes—but in one."
The grimoire blazed with light. The wheel began to spin faster than ever before.
"OUGA!" Asta shouted. "What secret ability?! What did you just seal?!"
"One you haven't seen yet. And won't see for a month."
"You sealed a power we don't even know about?! What is it?!"
"A secret."
"THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER!"
The wheel turned. Forty-five seconds. My legs stopped shaking. Fifty seconds. My breathing steadied. Fifty-five seconds. The weight felt like nothing.
Sixty seconds.
CLUNK__
The sound echoed through the chamber. The golden light exploded outward. Ten tons settled into my body like a perfectly fitted harness.
My mana pressure erupted. The floor cracked. The walls groaned. Mars stumbled, his flames guttering.
I stepped forward.
"Now," I said. "Let's see what this body can really do."
(Author note: WHERE ARE MY POWER STONES?????????????????????????????? Just uploaded a novel go read it)