"So... you two thought that mind reading was the only option?" Asta said nonchantly as he sat cross legged in front of the two girls, "you didn't even try talking to me first!"
Asta was fuming, his anger barely contained as scolded the duo without mercy. He kept going and going about what would happen if Kaelum didn't stop those two.
"Who was that guy anyway? Why was he in to-"
"You stay silent! You won't be getting any answers unless you sit here and think about your actions."
Asta interrupts Sol, silencing her words before they could be heard by Mimosa and mercilessly grounded them both before leaving the room.
"As for you," , Asta slowly turned his neck to quill who was nervously standing outside, " Don't think about getting that scroll."
Quill smiled, his face contorting into a smug expression as he brought out a small sphere.
"I would think twice if I was you. I got a full size picture of last night right here."
Quill flashed the sphere, creating a sort of magic hologram right above it that showed Asta alongside Mimosa and Sol.
Asta looked at it, becoming for a second before chuckling as he looked at quill like he was a fool.
" Are you threatening me?" Asta asked, a expression of amusement appearing on his face as he snapped his fingers, "With what? You got no evidence nor was that accident my fault."
"Are you serious right now? It will on- Huh?", Quill became confused as he felt the sphere suddenly begin heating up, only for it to burst into flames a second later.
"NO!" He screamed, his prized camera destroyed in a instant right before his eyes.
Slowly quill turns to Asta who was looking down at him with a demonic smile and watched in terror as Asta picked up the broken sphere and toke out Yubin from within.
" Don't ever try to mess with me again... Especially not with machines made that work on runes." Asta said, his expression confident and brimming with pride as he handed back the broken camera to Quill, "Hope you have enough savings to pay for all the enchanting I did."
Quill fell his knees, begging Asta for forgiveness as he latched onto one of his feet and was being dragged across the floor.
Despite how much of bad guy Asta wanted to be, he couldn't bring himself to stay tough in front of Quill's begging and eventually forgave but made sure to make a clip of it from the inner device he just took from the camera.
Asta then took his time dealing with the inn payment, ate his breakfast and paid for the others in advance and left the inn, only to sense someone looking at him from front.
"You sure took your time, didn't you? I was beginning to expect you wouldn't come here."
Asta looked at the cloaked figure in front of him with a scimitar hanging at his belt and felt a wave of nostalgia from his life of Jassen wash over him.
"A knight must be prepared, even if he was only called for formal meeting." Garde said as he raised Asta's first note alongside another letter, "But I didn't expect us to meet here."
The letter was sent to Garde by Asta when he was leaving for the clean up mission alongside his team, it told the location of his mission and the time frame.
This would have been a huge problem if this got out, but Asta had full faith in a descendant of Luinins.
The two didn't say a word more, reached out to their weapons and grimoire and left the town at full speed as they sprinted through the streets, leaving gusts of wind as they passed by.
It didn't even take the duo two full minutes to exit the town and reach a clearing the forest with trees chopper here and there.
"You prepared in advance... As expected from someone of your household."
"You talk as if you knew personally knew my ancestors, aren't you a descendant of Jassen as well?"
Asta looked at Garde, his face distoring as he burst out in laughter, he clutches onto his stomach while trying to calm himself down as he almost fell.
A few seconds later the machina grimoire and along with it, Yubin also came out and joined in laughter as tears begin falling from Asta's eyes.
"A descendant?, it would be better to call me a reincarnation right?" Asta asked Yubin, his hand lightly holding bug in his grasp.
Yubin turns to Garde, barely controlling it's emotions as it flew closer and landed on his shoulder.
"I want to ask you this.. did Razte marry quila or did he die a virgin?"
Bang, a sword hit Yubin straight on, only to be blocked by his metal body as Garde swatted Yubin away, his expression furious as he points his blade at Asta.
"I didn't come for jokes... Are you related to the guardian king or not?", flames coated Garde's scimitar, his face changing to a cold, detached expression.
Asta stopped his laughter, raised his head to look at the splitting image of his former knight and brought out Goliath from the grimoire.
"Save the words, let the swords do the talking."
"That's what I was waiting for." Garde spoke, his voice lagging behind his own body as he reached Asta in a split second, far surpassing the speed he showed in the arena.
'a feint.', Asta instantly saw through the swordmanship of Garde, his battle experience of two three lifetimes and understanding of Luinin swordmanship gave him a edge over Garde.
Asta leaned forward, resting the claymore's flat side on his arm as he deflected the slash with ease, Only to attack back with a horizontal sweep that ripped the ground open, halting Garde's momentum.
Garde retreated, his battle plan already useless but stayed calm as he had a bunch of reserve plans for any situation.
Flames gathered near his feet, sending him high into the air, barely dodging a slash from Asta. Garde moved his body, landing gracefully right behind Asta, bombarding him with barrage of slices.
However, Asta didn't even look back, the black wings of Anti-magic bursting out from his back, blocking the sword in it's path as Asta clutches the handle with both hands.
Garde blocked, flying away from recoil as he saved himself from a full on upwards swing that shredded his cloak to bits, only to crash into one of the trees.
"Black wings.. the stories did talk about King Jassen having wings but not about the colour, maybe th-"
Garde stopped his overthinking, bringing himself back to the fight, barely dodging a metal spear that popped out of the ground followed by hundreds of others, together forming a graveyard of spears.
"You seem to be not taking this seriously." Asta said as he appeared behind Garde, "maybe I should be more offensive."
Garde turned, his scimitar stabbing at Asta only to see him fade through as the stab passed through empty air, Garde has fallen for the easiest of tricks for a ki user.
The mistake was gave Asta enough time to also arribe beside him, both the machina and Anti-magic grimoire hovering beside him as he slams his fist right into Garde's chest, sending him crashing right through the trees and into a small rocky hill.
Garde coughs blood, his face pale and red as he failed to understand why he was losing despite being stronger in both magic and ki capacity.
"The Mastery!, He is using weaker version of higher stage techniques." , The understanding dawned on Garde, he never stood a chance unless it was a battle of attrition.
Garde felt the despair, the feelings of being worthless. However, the luinin knights have never known retreat and will never know.
So he ramped up his mana, pulling himself up through his magic, pulsing his ki to every cell of his body as he stood back up on his feet, blood dripping from his head and hand as he gripped his sword with all his might.
"Now that's the spirit, COME AT ME" Asta roared, his wings already in flight as sped up towards Garde and split the small hill with a threefold size Goliath while Garde vanished from the spot.
Garde smiled, not one of fear of nervousness but one of enjoyment, his instincts taking over his body as both fighters let themselves be dragged into a enjoyment of battle, losing themselves to it.
Garde blurred forward,stabbing his sword which was bright like a fallen star straight towards Asta, only to be deflected by the Anti-magic and hit the nearby trees instead, reducing them to mere ashes.
Asta tossed Goliath, expending it as he used as a floating shield while he brought out the short sword pair of Redemption and Judgement, and then followed up to match Garde's momentum.
They both engaged in a scuffle, dancing around the gigantic blade of Tenfold Goliath, exchanging blows left and right as Asta flawlessly deflected the attacks that were clear as day in his eyes.
Garde's mind grew more paranoid with each exchange, anxiety and despair trying to take eat away at his fighting spirit but he endured it, carefully bidding his attacks as he laid down his cards one by one for a final surprise.
Soon the moment of waiting ended, Garde smiled as he switched his feint with a attack, staggering Asta's posture as he quickly closed in, his sword coated in flames that started as white and then changed into transparent flames.
" I win."
Garde felt the victory in his grasp as his blade came closer and closer to Asta, giving him the satisfaction of a proper battle... However,
"No... I win" Asta whisper, his expression extremely serious with no shred of joy or happyness on his face as he lifted Judgement and pointed at Garde, "You fought well, but this ends here. Stockpile release: Final judgement"
Asta released all the mana stored in Judgement, condensing it into a beam of white flames as he once saw licht do, hitting Garde point blank.
Garde was engulfed, trapped and hit by a accumulation of all his mana right back to him as he was blasted far away, eventually crashing down in a middle of pond in the other side of the forest.
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Hello this is the author and I just wanted to ask if you find any difference between the first and current chapter. if you do, give me your thoughts in the comment. I mean writing style of course.