Devils Among Fairies

Chapter 18: The Wizard of Time part 1

(???? P.o.v.)

  I was in the middle of fight against the daughter of my late master, who died saving me and my fellow student, Lyon Vastia. My opponent is not only my master's daughter, but she is also one of the strongest members of Grimoire Heart. She's a woman with long, dark purple hair, brown eyes, and wearing a skin tight, white battle outfit. Her name is Ultear Milkovich.

  I've tried to land a blow on her, but her Arc of Time magic would aways stop it by winding back the clock.

When we first encountered each other, Ultear told me that she planned to betray her guild by taking Zeref off the island and tried to convince me to use Iced Shell to defeat Grimoire Heart's guild master, Hades. Iced Shell is a sealing spell that permanently encases it's target in ice, however the caster will turn to water and die in exchange. My master Ur used this spell to seal the demon Deliora away in order to save me from the monster. Ultear was asking me to throw away the life that her mother sacrificed herself to save in order to defeat her guild master, something that my master would never want. She was simply trying to trick me into killing myself for her own agenda, and this was what sparked a fight between us. However, all of my efforts to land a blow on her were meaningless as she just countered with her Arc of Time magic. Now, I was down on one knee trying to catch my breath as I was growing exhausted by the amount of magic power I burned through during the fight. Ultear said to me, "Gray, what I told you before was the truth, I have no ill feelings towards you or your guild. My only objective is to retrieve Zeref, not for Grimoire Heart, but myself. Just let me take the Black Wizard and I will leave all of Fairy Tail be." I looked her in the eye before saying, "No way. If I let you have Zeref, how do I know that you won't abuse his power for evil? Even if you are my master's daughter, there's no way I'm letting you take him away. He's too dangerous to be left alive." Then, a voice from behind me said, "I agree with no letting her take Zeref, but I don't like hearing you say that my friend should die." Ultear and I turned around to see a guy with ash blonde hair, green eyes, wearing a black headband with three red stars and an emblem resembling a bull's head, and a strange black and red arm. Behind him was Erza and Lisanna. Ultear asked the guy, "Who are you and what do you mean Zeref is your friend?" "My name is Asta, and it's just what I said, Zeref is a friend of mine and my brother's. I know what you Grimoire Heart bastards have planned for him, and I refuse to let you get what you want!" He said in anger as he opened an old tattered book and pulled out a massive sword. I was surprised by this because I couldn't sense any magic power from him at all, so I was confused about how did he manage to summon that sword.

(No one's p.o.v.)

Ultear was surprised to hear that Asta was a friend of Zeref and equally so when he pulled Demon Slayer from his grimoire as she had sense no magic power from him and yet was able to summon a weapon from the strange floating book. The Dark Wizard brushed it off as she believed it didn't matter since a giant sword wouldn't help him win against him. She then snapped her fingers to summon an orb into her hand and called out as she threw it at Asta,

"Luminous Minutes!"

The orb multiplied and turned into beams of light that flew towards the Anti-magic swordsman, who then sliced through all of them with Demon Slayer before charging towards Ultear at blinding speed and landed a horizontal slash that sent her flying back and crashing into a tree. Gray and the Time wizard were both shocked by Asta's display of speed and sword skill as he not only cut through the latter's time spell and landed a blow on her so easily. "Based on the name of your spell, I'm guessing that you use Time Magic, right? If so, then sorry to break it to you, but I know someone who's a lot better at using it." Ultear looked at him in disbelief and shock before retorting, "That's impossible, Arc of Time is Lost Magic! In this day and age, I'm the only one who uses it!" "Time Magic is very rare and I only know one person who can use it, and it's the man I aspire to be. The Wizard King, Julius Novachrono, he's the strongest mage in my homeland. I honestly don't care if you believe me or not, because in the end, it doesn't matter. I'm going beat your ass into the ground, along with the others in Grimoire Heart! So, get up and face me!!" Ultear, who had fell to her knees after crashing into the tree due to the pain, stood back on her feet and summoned a clock themed sword before brandishing it towards the Anti-magic swordsman.

"From the way you sliced through my spell, I can assume that you have the power to nullify magic. If that's the case, then it would just be a waste of magic power to keep attacking you with spells. So, I have no choice but to battle you with a physical weapon." She said with a smug tone and Asta decided to stab Demon Slayer into the ground and summon his other sword as he called out, "Slasher!" The Anti-magic katana then emerged from his grimoire and he grabbed its hilt before entering a combat stance, signalling that he was ready to cross swords with the Time wizard. The two then stood there for a moment before Ultear lunged forward with her sword raised high as she brought it down in a diagonal slash, which Asta parried with Demon Slasher and followed with an inverted punch infused with Anti-magic, one of several new skills he and Liebe developed in their time of isolation on Tenrou Island.

Ultear staggered backwards from feeling the force of the magicless swordsman's strike but was quick to recover and attack again as she unleashed a thrust at her opponent. However, Asta simply sidestepped out of the way and countered with a horizontal slash aimed right at the Time wizard's neck. Ultear reacted quickly by ducking under the sword and tried to knock Asta off his feet by throwing a sweeping kick at his legs, but he jumped up to dodge and performed a spinning kick that hit Ultear in the side of her head, sending her flying into a tree. She was struggling to get back on her feet as that last kick likely gave her a concussion. She thought about the brief exchange of blows she has with Asta as she tried to stand up again to fight, 'He's a lot stronger than I thought. This boy has clearly trained his physical abilities to beyond that of an ordinary human, that much was clear as he was able to swing that massive blade from before with such great ease. But I never expected him to be this skilled at fighting. He was able to predict my moves flawlessly, as if he could read my mind. I thought switching to swordsmanship would allow me to be able to win easier since I figured out that he was able to nullify my spell, but it didn't do very much. Even so, I can't give up. I need to defeat him and get Zeref's location out of him, then I can leave this damned island to get one step closer to my goal!'  Asta was able to sense Ultear's Ki and could detect an emotion that struck him as odd, so he asked, "Hey, why are you so desperate to win? Why do you want Zeref so badly, that you would choose to join a group of criminals like Grimoire Heart? I can sense desperation, sorrow, and loneliness in you, so I know that there's something or someone that you want to see so desperately, that you would stoop down to being someone's lackey. So, what is it that you Zeref for?" That's right, Asta was sensing desperation, sorrow, and loneliness from Ultear. Hearing this shocked not only Ultear, but Gray, Erza, and Lisanna as well. The last two knew that Asta was able to read the emotions of others by sensing their Ki as he explained while they were searching for their comrades earlier. Ultear looked down and took a deep breath before looking straight into Asta's eyes, knowing that there would be no hiding her secret, the reason why she was desperate in finding Zeref, and decided to reveal her reasons. "Why do I want Zeref? Because with his help, I can undo the past."