Black Clover: Nah I'd Lose

Beyond the hall lay an observatory overlooking an endless expanse of glistening snow and jagged peaks, where the horizon met a sky filled with swirling galaxies and quite literally shooting stars.

The sight was otherworldly—an infinite canvas painted in hues of violet and indigo, dotted with brilliant constellations that seemed to pulse in rhythm with the heartbeat of magic itself.

"Woah, I am really speechless. The fame about this place seems to be underrated; the real thing is so much better than my initial expectations," Erza was speechless at what she saw.

"I know, right? I'm speechless myself. There is a very big rune array cast some height above us, which seems to be giving us the view, specifically of the sky, around a kilometre above," Akeru's words made Erza focus more on her sensing field.

"I don't feel it," Erza shook her head, seemingly puzzled by this.

She had felt arrays that could hide from her if she didn't focus on one area particularly; however, she hadn't come across any arrays that could hide from her sensing field when she was specifically probing that area. To her, that part seemed to be the same as any other part.

"It seems to be integrated completely with nature itself, no wonder you couldn't sense it." 'I myself noticed it due to "3D Witness" as I sensed a disturbance in the space there.'

A water ball materialized in Akeru's hands which, in the next instant, dashed upwards, though at a very slow pace.

Erza observed it until it reached around the one-kilometre mark, after which it completely disappeared.

"Holy fuck," Erza gulped as she clearly noticed what happened, as she not only felt the presence of a very large array but also saw the water ball completely disappearing.

Akeru was shocked himself as he completely observed what happened.

'What the fuck? That thing completely transported that water ball out of this dimension? Since when was it possible to do something like that with a rune array?'

Akeru's shock was justified.

Though rune arrays could do a lot of things, there were many limitations they couldn't overcome.

A lot of such limitations are lifted when one reaches an advanced level; however, many still remain.

Things concerned with affecting the rules of the world—like space and time—were very restricted, as first of all, bending reality itself was tough.

Secondly, if it was possible to achieve one outcome, it generally required a lot of mana, which generally makes it possible only when natural mana is used.

Making runes that could use nature mana is a skill in itself, which is usually reserved for advanced-level people, and even then, there is a limit.

The Mana method of Heart Kingdom could be said to be an advanced form of that, though you don't really need to be that well-versed in rune arrays to learn it as you could directly incorporate it in your spells.

However, it would be limited to that only, limiting the flexibility a master in this art enjoys.

One such example of the use of spatial magic with rune arrays is artifacts which give spatial storage.

'No wonder it is completely incorporated with nature; it could support such mana activity,' Akeru thought while trying to analyze the rune array.

He spent a few hours that day deciding which one to focus on decrypting for the next few days.

However, in most of the arrays, he found the stealth components to be present way above his level.

He only found a rune array present on the mural to be something that he might be able to decrypt.

So, he started doing just that.

"Wait, are we going to spend time here for a while?"

"Yeah, Ren had given me some interesting information before, which I will tell you later, but basically he is going to do something and we are going to wait for him to accomplish that, if he is successful in that, we are going to be able to capture those two finally," Akeru said with a grin.

Erza was curious, but she didn't ask at the moment and went to set up their tents before she trained.

---

It had been nearly two weeks since Erza and Akeru had made the Polaris Gate their temporary shelter.

Erza was currently training near the gate, while Akeru was still holed up in that wall.

'Boss has been really obsessed with that; he's even ready to eat those shitty bars as food just to get more time to analyze that rune. I bet he dreams of those things in his sleep,' she rolled her eyes as she tried to create a more offensive bullet.

She didn't really like to eat those shitty bars, but she had run out of the cooking ingredients yesterday and had to start eating those again.

Suddenly, a bright shining light came from her back, making her instantly tighten her grip on the gun and rush into the hall.

"What happened?" she asked urgently as she saw Akeru on the floor.

"I don't know. I think I accidentally activated whatever was to be activated here?" He chuckled at his own joke.

She could clearly feel an area of dense mana around him, now engulfing her too, clearly indicating that he was serious at the moment about the unfolding scenario.

"Huh?" Erza muttered as she felt her grimoire shining.

She also noticed a similar kind of light coming out of Akeru's t-shirt, indicating that a similar thing had happened.

'So, that's where he has his grimoire,' Erza noted while focusing on the murals on the wall.

They had become clearer at the moment.

Suddenly, they heard a voice and the stick figures on the wall started moving.

"In the beginning, there were not many races in the world; a race called Devils dominated the world," the voice, whose gender Erza couldn't determine, started speaking.

Various stick figures of different shapes could be seen, which Erza recognized as devils as she had seen some recently in the Abyss Grip.

"Among the suppressed races, the dominant one was the beings loved by mana—Elves, who opposed the devils. Their magic could combat the devils and help them survive in that chaotic world.

Their presence had also established them as the leaders of the other races, making them the rulers and representatives of the races suppressed by the devils.

However, that didn't last for long as devils were inherently clever in nature; they had a knack for inciting conflicts among the races under Elves.

This led to the area of the world occupied by the elves and suppressed races starting to decrease along with their numbers.

Then that incident happened—the Sundering.

It happened not long before the time which had been deduced to be when every other race would be extinct.

The individual who was the centre of that incident singlehandedly had multiple names.

However, the one by which he was known the most is—'The Venerable One.'

His rise was sudden. Nobody knows what he looks like to this date or which race he belongs to.

However, one thing everyone knows is that his understanding and control of mana was something that hadn't been seen before.

He could manipulate the laws of reality at his will, and in front of him, all magic—whether Elven or Devil's—was the same: completely meaningless.

He single-handedly defeated the rule of devils and sealed them in a separate dimension, whose name is now 'Underworld.'

Not only that, but after some time, he also created 8 spots that could be used to access the underworld.

One spot was kept on each continent, and this place is one of those.

I am a humble servant of my lord who was told to inscribe the history for future generations at this spot, and this is the last place for me to add it."

Suddenly, the voice of the speaker became sorrowful.

"After the Sundering, the ruler of this era, my lord, completely disappeared from the world after creating these gates, and I have been waiting for his return for 67 years. I don't know when he will return, but as his loyal servant, it's my duty to wait."

***

Author's Note: Okay, that's the lore I was talking about that I created. I think it does suit the term that devils are "ancient races"; however, unlike other races, they were in a different realm altogether.

I will expand more on this probably in late Volume 4 or in Volume 5, so this is late-game stuff.

Anyway, Volume 2 is going to end soon; some more stuff will happen before this volume also ends, so look forward to the next few chapters, as stuff is going to get spicy xD.

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