He looked out the window, preparing to wait a little longer until he finished the cigarette in his mouth.
Somehow.
Yami's intuition was telling him that something bad was about to happen.
And his intuition was always accurate.
In the Royal Realm, some distance from the Golden Dawn's headquarters.
A tall man stood on the castle's eaves, overlooking the entire Royal Realm. The towering city walls separated the palace from the sprawling residential areas. The countless houses, no matter how many times one saw them, always felt vast and astonishing.
A crisp sound of footsteps made the man withdraw his gaze. He looked sideways and said, "...You said you had something to tell me. That's quite rare. What is it?"
"William."
Most people, out of respect for the Golden Dawn's Captain William Vangeance, would call him by his surname plus an honorific—Lord Vangeance. This man, however, addressed William Vangeance simply as William, revealing his identity without a doubt: the current Magic Emperor Julius.
William Vangeance stopped some distance from Julius. "Thank you so much for making time, Lord Julius."
He slowly removed the mask from his face, revealing the upper half of his face covered in black scars.
"When I received this mask, it was when you invited me to join the Magic Knights. I then resolved to dedicate my grimoire to Lord Julius, and 11 years have passed since then... And my feelings have not changed in the slightest to this day."
"I have always respected Lord Julius!"
"Oh my, oh my~" Hearing this, Julius couldn't help but scratch his head and laugh, "Why are you suddenly saying this? You're making me shy, haha."
William continued, "...So I strived to join the ranks of the Magic Knights, selecting talented squad members who could be guided by my magic, and founded the Golden Dawn."
"So my effort to become a Magic Knights Squad Captain is the best way to repay Lord Julius, who became the Wizard King."
"And this... is also for another person who is very important to me, a good friend who has been with me since before I met Lord Julius. You two will choose completely different paths in the future."
William paused, "Lord Julius and that friend... both are extremely important to me. I cannot choose between them... So..."
He showed a relieved smile, "I can only ask the two of you to make your own choices."
Julius was startled. When his gaze fell on William again, the black scars were continuously disappearing, and his short hair slowly began to grow. "This..."
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Gerpelt Rock Zone.
Bai En and Rill's group rushed into the Eye of the Midnight Sun's base from the eastern cave entrance. The enemies in the narrow passage seemed to be prepared, casting magic as soon as Bai En's group appeared.
Double-layered flames turned into a ravenous sea of fire, raging through the passage!
But the two sides were clearly not on the same level.
Captain Rill, like an energetic boy, excitedly charged forward alone. He merely glanced at the flames that completely enveloped the passage and immediately got an idea.
His paintbrush swept across light blue paint, then added dark blue, and then, like splashing ink, spread the paint across.
Water instantly burst forth from the paintbrush.
Deep blue ice followed the water, spreading and surging. In an instant, the flames were extinguished by the ice and water. The Mage who had ambushed them was frozen into an ice sculpture. Rill walked forward, gently nudging the ice sculpture, a smile on his face as if playing with a new type of toy.
Passing through the passage, the group entered a spacious clearing where rocks floated.
After dealing with the hidden enemies on the rocks, Bai En suddenly felt a wave of heat coming from the passage above. 'This Flame Magic and magic power, it must be Mereoleona.'
'Then the guy who fought her and hasn't lost yet... Laiya?'
'In this situation, I'll follow Captain Rill for now and conserve my magic. There are still some tough battles ahead!'
'By the way... Elf Reincarnation should also be a type of magic. My Magic Conversion should be able to do the same thing as Asta's Anti-Magic. I'll try it later, to see if I can turn Captain Rill and the others back during the reincarnation.'
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In the Common Realm forest, Black Bulls' base.
Dispatched by Licht, the trio who attacked the Royal Realm—Rades, Sally, and Valtos—appeared at the base's entrance.
Valtos, with his stitched face, softly said, "We're here. The Black Bulls' Captain has been lured away. Intelligence shows that there are no more than five people in the Black Bulls' base right now..."
As a Space Mage, he provided information to the two beside him.
But Sally and Rades seemed to not be listening at all.
"Is this Asta's base? Oh my~ It's a shame Asta isn't home today."
Rades touched the scar on his face, recalling the battle during the Royal Realm raid, and coldly echoed Sally, "I wanted to turn that guy into my toy."
"But if it's the Black Bulls' base, we might find other fresh toys, right?"
Seeing the two of them acting as if they were planning for themselves, Valtos couldn't help but remind them, "Everyone, let's not forget our main objective today."
"This is something that 'that person' specifically instructed us on. We must not disappoint him!"
"Alright, alright."
Rades impatiently waved his hand, "'That person,' 'that person,' my ears are getting calloused. I know what to do!"
A dark space emerged, and corpse puppets walked out of it, one by one.
In a matter of seconds, the corpse puppets became densely packed, surging like a tide towards the Black Bulls' base.
Purple magic rays burst through the door, shooting outwards from inside the base. After the beams dissipated, the members remaining at the Black Bulls' base began their defensive operation.
Seeing that Rades and Sally had already lured the Black Bulls' Magic Knights like bait, Valtos slowly retreated backwards. A dark spatial gate quietly opened beneath his feet, and his figure disappeared into the space.
Following the magic stone sensing tool found by 'that person,' Valtos arrived at Asta's room. He only had to look up to see the magic stone resting on the windowsill and an Anti Bird staring at him.
He took the magic stone from the windowsill, paying no mind to the Anti Bird, and cast Space Magic again...