Yami watched as Asta stood there chatting with the mysterious young man on the opposite side, completely defenseless. Expressionless, he raised a hand, grabbed Asta by the head, and hurled him backward.
"Ahhh—!"
With a loud splash, Asta crashed straight into the sea behind them.
He flailed desperately in the water for a moment before finally grabbing onto the edge of the ice, his face twisted in misery.
"You idiot," Noelle muttered as she hurriedly reached out and hauled him back up. "That guy's dangerous—why are you talking to him so casually?"
She kept her voice low, her eyes repeatedly flicking toward the center of the ice field, where Captain Yami faced off against Yuuki.
"I don't know," Asta replied, soaked to the bone. The moment his body touched the ice, he shuddered violently from the cold. "I don't really get the feeling he's a bad guy…"
Yami paid no attention to the exchange behind him. His gaze remained locked on Yuuki as he reached down and drew the katana at his waist.
"Whoever you are," Yami said coldly, "I'm not here to chat. Hand over the magic stone."
He spat out the cigarette between his lips and let it fall onto the ice. In an instant, sharp, oppressive magic power surged from his body, pressing down on the surroundings like a crushing weight.
No matter how easygoing the young man appeared, the fact that he had defeated Vetto—a foe of such overwhelming strength—meant Yami could not afford even the slightest lapse in vigilance.
"The magic stone's no problem," Yuuki replied calmly, pulling it from his pocket and holding it loosely in his hand. A faint smile curved his lips. "But how about making another deal?"
Yami's grip on his katana tightened. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
He had suspected the man's true target was Vetto, but he hadn't expected him to treat the magic stone with such indifference.
…Wait.
Yami's gaze sharpened abruptly.
"You're the masked man."
The phrase another deal made it obvious. Yami had only ever dealt with one person before—someone who appeared through a projected magic image, hiding behind a mask.
Yuuki merely smiled, neither confirming nor denying it.
To Yami, that silence was confirmation enough.
At last, things began to make sense.
Based on earlier intelligence, the Eye of the Midnight Sun had fractured internally. Licht and the Three Third Eyes—the faction that attacked the capital—were clearly the dominant side. The masked man who had secretly contacted Yami belonged to the weaker faction.
His goal had seemed obvious: use the Magic Knights to eliminate Licht's group.
Yami had assumed that this weaker side was vastly inferior in strength.
Yet now, this man had personally killed Vetto.
That realization shattered Yami's previous analysis.
"…What's the deal?" Yami asked after a brief silence.
Frankly, he would have preferred to take both the magic stone and this mysterious man back to the Clover Kingdom. But given the strength Yuuki had displayed, even if Yami could win, he had no confidence he could stop him from escaping.
For now, maintaining the pretense of negotiation was the wiser choice.
"Before we talk business," Yuuki said lightly, "I'd rather not have any eavesdroppers."
In the next instant—
Yami's pupils shrank. He vanished from where he stood, charging straight toward Asta and Noelle.
But the ice beneath him suddenly erupted upward. At the same time, countless sharp ice pillars burst forth, enclosing him completely.
"Dark Cloaked: Unnamed Slash!"
Cold light flashed through Yami's eyes. His katana became a streak of black afterimages, shattering every incoming ice spike in an instant.
On the other side—
Yuuki had already appeared before Asta and Noelle.
"Water Creation Magic — Sea Dragon's Cradle!"
Noelle's tightly wound nerves finally paid off as she released the defensive spell she had prepared in advance.
With a roar of surging water, a hemispherical barrier enveloped her and Asta.
But before she could even breathe a sigh of relief—
BOOM!
Yuuki's magic-coated fist slammed into the water barrier.
The Sea Dragon's Cradle—renowned for its incredible defense—shattered instantly. Noelle's pale violet eyes widened in disbelief as she froze in place.
"Aaaargh!"
Unlike Noelle, Asta didn't hesitate. Roaring through the pain of his broken arm, he swung the Demon-Destroyer Sword in a wide horizontal arc at Yuuki.
Slash—
Yuuki's figure vanished.
Asta's attack cut through empty air. The next moment, a sharp pain exploded at the back of his neck, and his vision went dark.
A faint voice reached his ears just before he lost consciousness.
"…Still too weak."
Thud. Thud.
Both Asta and Noelle collapsed onto the ice, unconscious.
Whoosh!
A blade wrapped in dark magic appeared behind Yuuki's back.
CLANG—!
A deafening crash rang out as weapons collided.
Yuuki blocked Yami's lightning-fast strike with a sword formed of mineral magic.
Their blades rebounded, then collided again in a furious exchange. Afterimages flashed repeatedly across the ice.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew as the two weapons struck each other hundreds of times in mere seconds.
"Unnamed Slash!"
Yami twisted his wrist sharply, unleashing wave after wave of black slashing attacks that engulfed Yuuki.
Yuuki exhaled slowly, his gaze sharpening. He raised the mineral blade with both hands and brought it down in a powerful arc.
Mid-swing, the blade expanded explosively, transforming into a colossal Sword of victory.
BOOOOM!
The black slashes collided head-on with the massive blade, detonating between them with an ear-splitting roar.
Both fighters halted simultaneously.
"So this is Dark Magic…" Yuuki said, gazing at the shattered remains of the Victory Sword as it dissolved into magic particles. "Pure destruction. No wonder they call you the 'God of Destruction,' Captain Yami."
Yuuki had attacked Asta and Noelle not only to keep them from overhearing the deal—but also because he wanted to personally experience Yami's Dark Magic.
After all, this was one of the rare Netherworld-tier magics.
From that brief exchange, Yuuki had already drawn conclusions.
If Light Magic embodied speed, then Dark Magic was the embodiment of destruction.
Mineral Magic was famed for its durability, and with Yuuki's rising magic power, its hardness had only increased.
Yet even so, it had been damaged so severely by ordinary Dark Magic slashes.
That alone spoke volumes.
"…This isn't how cooperation works," Yami said coldly, raising his katana again.
Yuuki immediately spread his hands. "I had no intention of hurting your subordinates. They're just sleeping."
Neither side had gone all out. This was merely a test.
From that test, Yuuki confirmed that Yami was no weaker than Vetto—yet fundamentally different. Unlike Vetto, Yami wouldn't lose himself to madness and emotion.
A man who repeatedly surpassed his limits mid-battle was far more troublesome.
And in any case, now wasn't the time to clash seriously with Magic Knight captains.
However—
Just because Yuuki wanted to stop didn't mean Yami did.
"As a captain," Yami said calmly, "I can't just ignore you attacking my squad."
"If you want to talk deals—take this first."
Yami gripped his katana with both hands. His presence shifted violently.
Dark magic surged, condensing rapidly toward the blade's tip. The katana turned pitch black.
Yuuki felt it immediately—not just magic, but ki itself was converging onto the blade.
A suffocating sense of death flooded his instincts.
…This is it.
Yuuki's expression changed. He recognized the technique Yami had awakened in the Underwater Temple.
The attack said to cut through dimensions.
He moved to evade—but Yami was already prepared.
"Dark Cloaked: Black Hole!"
A basketball-sized black void formed between them, radiating terrifying gravitational force.
Yuuki's body was dragged back instantly. His movement slowed drastically under the pull.
Danger screamed through every nerve in his body.
Especially under the passive influence of Beast Magic, his perception of danger was sharper than ever.
Seeing the dark flames dancing along Yami's blade, Yuuki drew the Demon-Destroyer Sword from subspace.
If he couldn't dodge—
Then he'd clash head-on.
"Dark Cloaked: Dimension Slash!"
Yami swung.
A massive black slash tore through the air.
"Demon-Dweller: Spatial Slash!"
Yuuki poured all of his surging spatial magic into the sword. The groove along the blade erupted with blinding light as he roared.
Two fear-inducing slashes collided.
There was no explosion.
No sound.
Only a vortex-like distortion twisting the space where they met.
The residual force alone split the entire ice field cleanly in two—along with the sea beneath it, as if forcibly torn apart.
Humm—
The warped space shuddered, then calmed. Both slashes vanished without a trace.
The silence made the attack all the more terrifying.
Yuuki exhaled, glancing sideways.
A single, razor-sharp cut stretched across the ice beside him.
Crack.
Crack.
Moments later, that section of ice shattered completely, dissolving into the sea.
Yuuki narrowed his eyes.
This exchange—he had lost.
Even with the Demon-Destroyer Sword's anti-magic properties and spatial magic combined, he had failed to fully negate Yami's Dimension Slash.
The power of that Dark Magic was genuinely frightening.
If he had to analyze it—
The loss came down to the nature of his spatial magic.
The spatial magic he had replicated—whether from Finral or the assassination squad's captain—was fundamentally supportive.
If he had used Langris's highly destructive spatial magic instead…
The outcome might have been different.
"…Now," Yuuki said, lifting his head and smiling once more, "we can talk about the deal, right?"
"…Fine," Yami replied flatly.
"You can have the magic stone and Vetto's body," Yuuki continued. "All I ask is that when you return to the Clover Kingdom to report, you don't mention my involvement."
"To be precise—you can say you killed Vetto."
Yami frowned, puzzled. The deal was entirely in his favor.
"…Why?"
"I need to remain completely in the shadows," Yuuki explained. "Vetto must be recorded as having died by your hand—not mine."
"This only requires concealment for a while. There's no downside for you."
Yami understood immediately.
And because of that, he could also hear Yuuki's distrust of the Clover Kingdom's internal power structure.
Aside from Yami himself, Asta and Noelle also knew of Vetto's death. Yet Yuuki had merely knocked them unconscious rather than killing them.
That alone spoke volumes about his intentions.
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