-The Triumph Arena-
"And the first mage to step into the arena is the newly crowned Vice Captain of the Golden Dawn! Please give a warm welcome to the one and only YUNO!!"
"WHOOOOO!!"
"WE LOVE YOU YUNO!!"
"YOU'RE THE BEST!!"
"GO GO GO!!"
Walking out from his corner of the arena and decked out in a longer Golden Dawn squad robe. The light of the sun bathed Yuno in its warm rays as he approached the tournament stage. Paying no heedance to the cheers coming from the audience, his focus laid solely on participating in the Triumph.
'C'mon Asta, I know you wouldn't miss this for the world.'
"What a reaction."
Up in the audience, Luck, Vanessa and a couple of the other Black Bulls watched the stage with varying degrees of interest spreading among them.
"Well what would you expect from everybody's pretty boy? Most of the people in the audience only came because they heard that he was participating."
"If only Asta was here." Noelle sighed.
"Yeah." Magna agreed. "To bad he's still exiled because of that magic parliment crap!"
"Speaking of people not being here. Have any of you heard from Grim yet?" Vanessa popped up.
It had been close to six months since the group had last heard from him. The only thing they knew was that he had rescued Marie from a group of masked weirdos before completely vanishing from the face of the planet. The only person who didn't seem to be worried about his sudden disappearance was Yami.
According to him, Grim would show up when he felt like he was ready to.
And that was the end of that.
*Sigh*
'Where did you go Grim?'
---
"And in the next corner and facing Yuno in the first round of this triumphant tournament is the um... Masked man?"
Walking out from the opposite end of the arena, a masked figure covered in a hooded brown robe approached the stage and only stopped when he stood face to face with Yuno.
"Heh." The two gave each other a knowing smile.
"And now." Klaus began. "The Triumph will officially commence! Our first round is Yuno verses the masked man! BEGIN!!"
*DING!* *DING!* *DING!*
Once the go ahead had been given, Yuno didn't hesitate to open his grimoire and wrap his hand in a whirlwind of strong wind magic.
*BOOM!!*
Firing it off at the masked figure, the speed of the attack caused a loud boom to ring out as the masked man lowered his stance and tucked his hand into his robe.
*SCHWING!!*
Moments later, a large black sword appeared in his hand as he slashed it up towards the sky and split the whirlwind in half.
*Gasp!*
"That sword!"
"ASTA!!"
---
Whilst the crowd had completely immersed themselves in the battle taking place below, on one of the many pillars overlooking the Triumph, four hooded figures appeared out of the blue.
"It seems they've started without us." One of the hooded figures muttered as he pulled out a golden key.
Pointing it in front of him, the key seemed to have been inserted into a keyhole that had manifested itself in the air. Twisting it to the right, the sound of something being unlocked could be heard as an ethereal door appeared behind him.
"The time has come Julius."
---
-30 minutes later-
*Sniff* *Sniff*
'Is something burning?'
While Conrad and the other Wizard Kings were busy defeating the current magic knights and draining the mana from the kingdom's citizens, Grim was peacefully sleeping in the inn's bed completely ignorant to the mana being stolen from him.
It if it weren't due to the smell of smoke wafting in from his cracked window, he probably would have slept through the entire ordeal.
---
-Centre of the capital-
Standing on a destroyed piece of rock and overlooking the burning city, the pink haired wizard king known as Princia Funnybunny commanded her near infinite number of legion magic soldiers to roam the streets and round up any of the scattered citizens.
In order for them to turn their dream of a world free of class and oppression into a reality, the mana of the kingdom's citizens was a musthave.
'All for the sake of a better tomorrow.'
Comforting herself with that thought, she used a magic tool to project her voice throughout the entire kingdom and address any groups who had yet to be captured.
"Citizens of the Clover Kingdom!" She started.
"Surrender at once and offer up your magic power as tribute!"
"Resistance is futile!"
"My legion magic soldiers will keep on fighting till their last bit of energy is spent!"
"Anyone found resisting will be punis-
*BOOM!!*
Before she was able to finish her speech, the sound of an explosion going off in the distance cut her off and caught her attention.
Following the sound of the explosion, a high pitched whistling noise began reverberating above her. Raising her head slightly, when she saw what was causing the noise she was left stunned.
"What in the-"
Her legion soldiers... they were falling from the sky.
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
Dropping from the sky like they were meteors, with every soldier that hit the ground a mini crater was formed in its wake. Even Princia had to be mindful to avoid getting hit.
"So you're the one behind this huh?"
!!!
Suddenly hearing an unfamiliar voice echo out from behind her, Princia's head snapped in the direction it was coming from.
*Yawn*
Chilling on the roof a destroyed building, a yawning Grim looked down at the flabbergasted Princia with a playful smile.
'A teenager?!' She frowned.
"Wassup Esdeath." He smiled finding her appearance bearing a striking resemblance to a woman from his fractured memories.
"Esdeath?" Princia repeated finding the name unfamiliar.
But what was even more surprising than finding out that someone had managed to sneak up on her, was the fact that she could barely feel this boy's mana.
Different from the boy with the black swords who had defeated her soldiers in the Triumph, this one clearly had mana. But why she couldn't she sense it properly?
Wiping away any unnecessary thoughts from her mind, she turned to face the unknown boy and asked-
"Your mana, why can't I sense it?"
"Oh?" He raised his eyebrow realizing what she was talking about.
Yawning again, he decided to humour her while his energy slowly returned.
"Due to some special circumstances, my body has a really good relationship with the world's mana."
While it wasn't at the level of Licht's mana melding technique, Grim was able to passively blend in with the surrounding mana.
"A good relationship with mana you say? Sounds like something Conrad would be interested in... What's your name boy?"
"Boy?" Frowning at her disrespect, Grim finally decided to sit up from his laying position.
"Its impolite to ask for someone's name without introducing yourself first."
"Is that so? Then I appologize."
Taking her hat off and bowing slightly, she finally introduced her.
"Princia Funnybunny, a former captain of the Blue Rose magic knight squad and the 11th Wizard King of the Clover Kingdom."
!!!
"D-Did you just say Wizard King?!" His eyes went wide in surprise before the corners of his lips started curling upwards.