Black Clover: Awakened

Chapter One

Rhya looked up at the three eyed skull with masked sadness. Since he had returned he a had been working toward a single goal: Licht. He hadn't cared about what was in his way because he was going to reunite with his friend, even if that meant he lied to his people and supported the wild plans of Patolli. A month ago he had finally achieved his dreams if only for a brief moment.

"You just had to up and leave again, didn't you Licht..." he muttered. 

"You say something?" Rhya gave a sideways glance at one of his mandatory travel buddies. He wasn't surprised that Asta had been assigned to come with him, but he still wasn't fond of having babysitters. 

In the month that had past the Kingdom had been working to restore itself from the damage the elves had caused and any items they might have left behind. The Third Eye had been stuck away in the Wizard King's castle with them being the last few of the elves and no one really sure what to do with them. Julius had thought it best that they work closely because of their unique magic capabilities, but Rhya knew that the boyish king was just keeping an eye on them. 

"Nothing that concerns you," Rhya responded passively. He looked back up at the skull and gave a soft sigh. "Now, lets go see the surprise inside." Rhya started into the mouth without another word.

Asta glanced at Finral when he hadn't moved after Rhya. 

After Finral had woken up from his battle with his possessed brother, he had been different around everyone. He was quiet and his usual romantic ambitions were practically nonexistent. Everyone in the house had made attempts to get his spirit back, but it would just end in his exiting the room.  And bringing up his brother was out of the question.

"You coming, Finral?" Asta asked with some concern.

"Yeah, of course," he answered. Asta watched after his friend as he followed Rhya in before heading in himself.

Over the past month there have been different reports of various flairs in mana coming from the skull but any attempts to find anything inside resulted in nothing out of the ordinary. The idea to send Rhya had come from Julius which Yami begrudgingly agreed to because he trusted his mentor. Julius thought that Rhya's elvish connection to the mana might be of use.

Once inside the world around them felt suffocating. The air was thick with mana to the point it was hard to feel anything else. Every direction was the same intensity in power, they were isolated.

"Have you ever felt anything like this before?"  Finral's surprise outweighed his frustration in that moment.  Rhya's jaw tightened, but he attempted to keep an outward calm facade.

"Not in a long time," Rhya admitted. 

Five hundred years ago when the elves were still prospering and before Licht had befriended the humans, there had been some internal conflict about one of the elves that both he and Licht were close with. There were arguments from some of the elders that the power was unnatural, that she was unnatural. She was marked with darkness.

As time went on and she finally her to received her grimoire worries only grew. She had been gentle and never tried to use her power because she believed she was the monster everyone claimed her to be. But the lack of refinement and use made her magic grow wild and controlled by her emotions.

Rhya still regretted what became of her. Even Licht hadn't been able to save her.

"Come on, this way..." Though it had been a while, with enough focus Rhya could cut through the mana and find the source.

The three moved deeper into the skull until they came to a clearing. There, several rocks had been moved into a half crescent with equal spacing between them. Asta's eyebrows furrowed at the oddity. 

"This wasn't here before," he noted.

"So we have mana that's so thick I can't even sense elf boy, but now you're telling me the forest inside the big demon skull has changed because of whatever it is? Things just keep getting better..." Finral scowled when the other two continued to move closer into the center of the clearing and ignored his worries completely. 

Rhya let his senses fall away from him until noise around him grew silent and his body felt numb. All of his energy went into his eyes as they struggled to focus on the very center of the clearing. It was as if there was a wall that willed his attention to waver and took everything out of him to not.

"Asta, I need you to take your sword and cut through the air in front of the center," Rhya steadied his voice. He couldn't give away that he wasn't entirely sure if he was doing the correct thing.

"What will that do?" Asta questioned, but still drew one of his swords.

"Just make sure you leave room from the center, okay?"

Asta gave Rhya an unsure look, but still raised his sword. Just raising the blade he could feel it cutting through mana. He looked at the central spot and took a few steps back, leaving some room between it and the sword. Then, in one fluid movement, he cut down through the air. A crack of gold light followed after the blade as if he had split through time. Fractures began to radiate from the single slice like broken glass. 

As the fractures grew, they started to blaze a blinding light that caused all three to turn away. Within the next moment the surge of light faded back to a gentle glow. They looked back and saw a girl hovering just above the ground, a halo of light surrounding her body and the fractures in the air now gone.

Asta and Finral watched the girl in awe while Rhya moved to catch her just in time as the last of the light dissipated and her body began to drop. It had been a long time since he had seen the short black hair and pointed ears the now resembled his. He couldn't suppress the faint smile that had formed on his lips.

"Maura," he breathed in a sigh of relief.