Black Rose

Chapter Eight:

Recap:

"I'm so proud of you Asta! Now your dream will most certainly become a reality." she said through her sniffles. She was trying hard to rub the tears from her eyes, but she was just too happy; finally fate was cutting him some slack. Elizabeth had feared the worst when remembering that she didn't help him through the other tests. There was so much stress resting on her shoulders that she felt like she was suffocating; she felt so relived that he was accepted. That someone else was pushing for Austa to show them his best; after all of the years of dealing with the stress and pain of watching others look down on her brother, finally he could prove them all wrong. 

"Number one-sixty-six, step forward." her number was called but Elizabeth ignored them and smiled at Asta before giving him a thumbs up; now it was her turn to push for their dream. She had to get accepted into a Squad, there was no other option. Asta stared at her with a smile before nodding his head and returning a thumbs up.

Elizabeth nodded her head in return and turned towards the large opening with a determined expression on her face; she was done playing around with these people. They would choose her, they would raise their hand, these Captains would choose her; they had too. Elizabeth stared up at all of them with a determined face and stood tall.

All nine Captains stared down at her with blank faces other than the Captains of the Black Bulls, and the Crimson Lions; Yami watched her carefully, while Fuegoleon glared down at her heatedly. Elizabeth stood tall with her hands at her sides. Multiple Captains raised their hands while looking down at her; Captains of the Golden Dawn, Crimson Lions, Black Bulls, Purple Orcas, Blue Rose and the Aqua Deer, raised their hands, while the others stared on at her in thought. Novel Silva suddenly stood and looked down at her with hate resting in his eyes.

"Though you are powerful, insubordination is not tolerated in the Magic Knights; that is why you were not chosen." he said loudly while Elizabeth glared deeply into his eyes. She couldn't care less what that man was saying. All that she needed to do was chose a path that would keep her by Asta's side.

....

When a light smirk rested on her lips the opposing Captains and contestants looked on confused; she had just been scolded by the second best Magic Knight Squad Captain, nothing about that would be something to turn up one's nose at, especially if they were serious about becoming a Magic Knight.

"You think I care about what you have to say? Call it what you want, insubordination, stubbornness, bullheadedness; I don't care. I just want to be alongside my brother." she said confidently while smirking up at the baffled expressions on their faces. Elizabeth skimmed her eyes over the different Captains before resting her eyes on Yami who was smirking down at her.

"For those of you that raised your hands, I appreciate the opportunity you've attempted to provide me; however, I have a dream to fulfill." she paused and bowed her head with perfect posture before continuing.

"I request to join the Black Bulls!" she said loudly and clearly making the crowd go wild. Some whispered that it was where she belonged since she had such a horrible attitude, while others were infuriated with her 'disrespect' to Captain Vangeance by not joining the Golden Dawn. William glared down at her for a long moment before plastering on a fake smile; he had wanted to use her powerful magic as an asset alongside the other orphan he had gained. Looking down the line of Captains he set his fiery gaze onto Yami who was sitting back in his seat while watching Elizabeth walk back into the crowd. This girl could very well put a damper on his future plans with the Kingdom.

After the rest of the contestants were picked through, the test came to an end. Those that were chosen by squads stood around celebrating with childhood friends that had traveled along with them; they may not be in the same squads now, but that didn't make their bonds with each other vanish. As soon as the test was completed, Asta announced that he had to use the restroom and rushed away screaming his regrets in eating the random meal to get himself psyched up for the matches. Elizabeth watched him run towards the bathrooms while shaking her head slowly; she had warned him earlier not to eat foreign food without knowing what it would do to his body. 

Running her hand through her hair quickly, she sighed and rubbed the top of her head trying to ease the pressure swirling there.

The sudden power shifts from earlier had really caused her to have a serious migraine. Normally she can use any magic logged on her grimoire without an issue, she could do that even without her grimoire since that's her natural ability however, there are certain draw backs to that; if she immediately uses said 'new magic' without it being logged into her grimoire completely, then it causes her bodily strain. Without her grimoire, Elizabeth is able to copy other's abilities without issue though she cannot increase the power behind it.

Her grimoire acts as a certain kind of 'limiter' which allows her to keep the traces of magic from another, as well as steal their abilities. By logging it into her grimoire, Elizabeth is able to use new magic, as well as wield it as her own; in other words she can take their power and increase the actual raw mana behind it. There's different strain on the body for different types of Magic; she guessed that Dark Magic had a strong affect on the user's mental state then their actual physical body. She had switched between Asta's anti-magic and Yami's Dark magic too soon.