BLACK CLOVER: Through the Looking Glass

"What…are you wearing?" Finral asked staring at Wilhelm with a weird look, that was replicated by Yami, and the rest of the Black Bulls that were present in the base, i.e., everyone other than Gauche, Asta, and Noelle who happened to run into trouble.

This all happened when Gauche, Asta, and Noelle witnessed a weird phenomenon in the area where Marie, Gauche's sister stayed. All of the children in the area, including Marie suddenly disappeared from the town. To catch up to them, Asta and Gauche, the latter of whom was not too pleased by Asta's presence went to find them leaving Noelle behind.

Now, it had been quite a long time since they did not come back and Noelle was getting worried. The result of this worry was a badly beaten and bruised man named 'Fuhha!' also known as Sekke Bronzazza. He had come to Black Bull Headquarters to inform them about the request for aid from Noelle but had been jumped on by Magna and Luck.

Listening to him after beating him, Yami decided to leave and check the matter by himself when suddenly a wild Wilhelm appeared who looked giddy for all the wrong reasons, and convinced Yami, which did not take too long, to come with him.

Now, here in front of everyone stood Wilhelm in all of his glory. He still wore his usual attire, over which was a large belt passing from his shoulder to his waist on both of the arms, where two revolvers were stored. On his waist were multiple pouches that appeared to be small pockets. Inside these were different bullets. Over this, he wore a thinner than before but more sturdy chest plate.

This was followed by a coat over the armor. Behind the armor was a large musket strapped, along with a sword and shield.

If that was not all, on his head was a hat like those worn by cowboys.

While these details were visible, underneath his gloves were rings. Multiple rings all of whom had the function to move his mana more properly to give him an edge over his opponent.

To add to the finishing touch, he was wearing glasses on his face that had the function to zoom in, detect mana intensity more accurately, and detect heat signatures.

Not only that, his previous normal necklace was replaced by a magical one as well.

Yes. Wilhelm losing his target hit him hard.

Yes. It pissed him off.

Yes. He has become more cautious.

Yes. He believes that being overgeared is the way.

Believe it.

"We don't have time to blabber around my ride. Open the damn portal." Yami said in his gruff tone to stop any conversation that was about to be initiated on this wasteful topic.

"Okay…*murmurs* but you don't have to be rude." Finral created a portal with a disheartened look, through which Yami and Wilhelm walked, followed by Finral who closed the portal behind him.

"Hmm…where is Shrimpy?" Yami said looking around him, finding himself near wooden houses. Before Finral could explain his side, Noelle appeared from one of the wooden houses with worry marring her face. Though it disappeared for a bit seeing Wilhelm's outfit, it came again as she said, "Captain Yami! Asta and Gauche went to find missing children but have not come back till now."

"Where did they go to?" Yami said stopping Noelle from speaking any further. A bit embarrassed by being caught speaking a bit too much, Noelle replied pointing in a direction, "There. They went there."

"Hmm…Up you go."

"Wo-OH!" Finral shouted in surprise as he was slung over Yami's shoulder like a potato sack and stood on top of his magic broom, and took off.

Following behind him, Wilhelm did the same leaving behind Noelle.

"LET ME STAND PLEASE!" Finral shouted over the wind that was howling in the ears.

"No." Yami replied as he increased his pace and Wilhelm followed him with his hands reaching close to the revolver by his chest.

From then on, they did not share any words between them. Everyone just kept on speeding through to reach Asta and Gauche.

*T*

'Hmm…'

*THD*

'What's that sound?'

*BOOM*

Wilhelm's attention was snapped to the cave in the distance from where smoke started to come with the sound of an explosion.

Seeing this, Yami spoke in a stern tone.

"Finral, create a portal to there.."

"Yes." Finral replied without complaining and created a portal in front of them that the pair blitzed through.

The sight in front of their eyes changed. From the top of the opening in the cave, they saw Asta who was bloodied and battered standing with his sword held in front of a man with white braided hair, floating in the air. Beside Asta laid Gauche who was leaking blood and was impaled from what appeared to be light. The same was the case with an old woman who was dressed as a nun.

Just as they entered, the stranger threw a lance of light at Asta at a blinding speed that…

*WHOOSH*

*ZOOM*

*TING*

…Yami parried as he seemingly disappeared from his initial position leaving behind a Finral who hurriedly tried to stabilize himself.

"Wh-mphm."

Wilhelm stopped Finral from shaking in the air, and placing his hand over his, mouth muffled him and whispered, "Teleport me to Gauche. I need to heal him."

Finral nodded after getting over the surprise and created another portal, this time close to Gauche that Wilhelm kept out of the stranger's sight with his magic.

Stepping out of the portal, Wilhelm studied Gauche.

'Only limbs are injured. No vitals are hit. Either that man did not want to kill him or he had a bad aim. That's for me to think later on, right now, I need to heal him.'

He spoke in his mind as he kneeled over Gauche's fallen figure. He raised his hands to Gauche's chest and…

Fire Recovery Magic

…covered his figure in the flame that started to mend his wounds, stop the bleeding, and give Gauche a soothing and comforting warmth.

'On to the next patient.'

Muttering internally, Wilhelm displaced from beside Gauche to the old woman and repeated the same.

As Wilhelm was running his operations in the background, another scene was playing out in the open.

"Take this." The stranger said as he launched a spear of light at Asta at blinding speed heading straight to his face.

Seeing it, Asta had only one thought in his mind.

'I'm gonna...di—'

*TING*

"Seriously?"

But before he could finish himself internally, he was woken from the trance by none other than Yami who broke the attack of light with a casual swing from the sword.

"Captain Yami! What are you doing here?" Asta shouted in surprise with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Placing a finger at his chin, Yami said thoughtfully, "Why am I here? Well, obviously...I'm a little lost. Give me some directions, damn it." He ended in a tone of frustration.

"Captain, you were lost?!" Asta asked in surprise.

"Of course not, you moron. I was joking, dumbass." Yami said harshly.

"What?!" Asta said out loud at the randomness of the comment.

"We're Magic Knights. Of course, we're going to show up.

Everyone back at the base was useless, so I decided to come myself.

I'll kill them all later." Yami said, not mentioning anything about Wilhelm, knowing that he prefers to fight by hiding instead of going in guns blazing.

"What the heck are they doing when we're in this much trouble?!" Asta said feeling betrayed.

Instead of answering him, Yami said something else with the intention of buying time for Wilhelm to prepare as many traps as he could, feeling that his enemy was no joke, "By the way, didn't I tell you to take the day off?

Want me to give you a permanent vacation?"

He ended up grasping Asta by the head who squirmed in the air in pain.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!

Put me down! Put me down!"

"So, what's his deal?"

Yami said as he put down Asta who rubbed his head in pain, pointing to the Light Magic user who was looking at them without moving.

"Apparently he's the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun." Asta replied with his face wincing in pain.

"Th-The Eye of the Midnight Sun?!" Finral said in surprise as his face became pale from fright.

Hearing this, Yami looked at the person with his eyes quirked up and spoke.

"Oh? I thought he'd be some big, burly guy who could eat a cow in a single gulp, but he's just a scrawny-ass beanpole."

"Um, I'm pretty sure muscles don't really matter." Finral commented on the picture Yami had in mind. But on the inside, he was freaking out.

'What's with that guy's creepy, infinite amount of magic?!

Not to mention, he uses light magic?

That's super rare magic that only a few people throughout the history of the Clover Kingdom have ever used!

Without a doubt, he's super dangerous! I wanna go home!'

While they were bickering on one side, the pair at the side of Eye of Midnight Sun were having their talk too.

"That's the Black Bulls' captain. Shall I summon the Third Eye?" Valtos, the spatial magic user asked with a hint of worry in his tone that was overshadowed by awe for the figure in front of him.

"There's no need. I've always wanted to fight him since he uses dark magic." Licht, the person behind Eye of the Midnight Sun spoke in his gentle soul soothing tone.

"Finral, please get the kids and everyone else back to town." Yami said gesturing to the kids that were huddling in the corner of the cave with fear and tear in their beady eyes.

"Sure, leave it to me!" Finral said thumping his chest in reassurance.

"What are you going to do?" Yami asked looking at Asta, who was actually all patched up by Wilhelm without notifying anyone in the room.

"I can still fight!" Asta said full of confidence.

'I finally get a chance to see Captain Yami in action! There's no way I'm leaving!' Asta spoke internally.

When they were talking, Finral was taking every child including the nun to a safe place when…

"Huh?"

*ZOOM*

*THUD*

…he was attacked only to be defended by Yami's Dark Slash in the nick of time.

"The hell do you think you're doing to my ride?" Yami yelled with righteousness.

'Ride?!' Finral shouted in his mind with self-pity distracting himself from the fear he just felt for his laugh.

"Yeesh! I don't have enough lives to stick around here! Well, see you, Yami!" Finral said as he hurriedly moved everyone including himself through the portal.

"You better come back, damn it!" Yami said as he kept his focus on Licht with his blade readied.

"So cool! How'd you stop that?

What's up with that sword?!" Asta asked with a star in his eyes.

Annoyed due to his shouting, Yami barked back.

"Shut up, brat.

This is a weapon called a "katana" from my homeland, the Land of the Sun.

And that was—" He stopped in his words as he moved his sword to parry the attack of Licht as he moved through the field.

"Like I have time to explain all this right now. Besides, it's a pain.

Just watch!" Yami said with creased brows on his face. Then, he focused completely on Licht and started to mow down through Licht's attack. No matter where he aimed and no matter how many spears were sent his way, Yami shortened the distance between him. But Licht changed his attack.

"Light Magic: Light Swords of Conviction."

He shouted as he showered Yami with swords of light that shot at him with exponentially greater speed.

'Eh, that is annoying…' Yami thought as he moved his muscles much faster dealing with the swords of light coating his blade in Dark Magic.

"Awesome!" Asta spoke with his eyes reflecting fascination for the Yami's skills.

"He's boosting his physical abilities with reinforcing magic and cutting my light magic with a sword cloaked in dark magic.

But that's not all." Licht muttered to himself before turning back to Yami and with a small imperceptible smile that crept on his face, he spoke, " How about this, then?" Licht said as he sent out beams of light toward Yami.

"Heh! Your flimsy femboi swords did not work so you are sending light noodles, huh?" Yami muttered as he dodged the attack when…

"Huh?"

…the attack steered off and started to follow Yami.

'So this light noodle is a light snake. Not that it will make any difference.' Yami thought as he twisted him in mid-air and oriented himself at the light 'noodles', steeling his eyes…

Dark Cloaked Avidya Slash

…swung his sword coating it in dark energy that shot in the form of slashes of darkness that cut through all of light 'noodles' like it was no big deal, reaching Licht's face passing by it, grazing it leaving behind a scratch.

He placed his fingers on his cheek which had a shallow cut, and with an indescribable expression bordering on amazement and anger said, "So this is the power of the great Magic Knight heretic."

But instead of answering him, Yami looked at Licht with a doubtful look and spoke without hiding it.

"Huh?

Hey, have I met you somewhere before?

I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone who uses light magic.

Who the hell are you?"

At this, Licht spoke as if he had been waiting for this question to come.

"Let me tell you a fable.

Long ago, in a certain village, there lived a people with very strong magic.

They were loved by mana.

They changed the weather and manipulated ley lines." He took a breath as if he had been reliving the past glory.

"They had the power to rival the gods.

The humans from outside the village worshipped them as such.

However, gradually, the humans grew to fear their power. They envied it and wanted it. They tricked them, massacred them, and stole their powers."

Yami hearing this spoke in an unimpressive tone.

"What kind of story was that? What's that got to do with you?

Planning to become a bard or something? All right, I've got a little story, too. In a certain place, there was a pure young man. His folks were fishermen, and they started sending him out to fish from a young age.

And then he got shipwrecked and washed ashore in a strange country.

'Who the hell is this?' One of the people native to that country spoke.

'He's wearing grass sandals.' Another spoke.

Since his race and culture were different, he went through some nasty stuff there.

But..." He stretched leaning forward while Valtos' veins bulged on his forehead hearing his story which was basically mocking the sad past of the person he revered.

Seeing it, Yami grinned internally and continued to speak seeing that it was pissing his enemy off.

"He kicked all their asses and became the boss of a group.

The end!

Well? What'd you think of my response fable?

Well, it's half of my life, actually."

He ended with a mock thoughtful look.

Now Valtos could not hold it in anymore.

"You bastard! You dare mock Master Licht?!"

"Shut up! Your face is scary!

Why are there lines on your face?!" Yami said pointing at him with a disgusted look.

"You're bringing that up now?!" Asta added at the absurdity of the comment.

Taking in a mouthful of air, Licht spoke as if understanding Yami.

"As a foreigner, I suppose my story had nothing to do with you."

Then his expression became serious as he asked Licht.

"Are you the guy who took out Fuegoleon?

"I am.

Although I laid my plans carefully and had him walk into a trap." Licht replied with a serene look launching an attack on Yami.

"Yeah, I figured.

You'd never take down that King of Hardnoses with stuff like this." Yami commented in a matter-of-fact tone as he dodged the attack.

"Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Lightless Slash!"

*** 

Thank you: Himanshu_Dwivedi_4919, Beleth_85, Marcus_Leyero, lord_of_Wright, euros for powerstones.

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