Edward used a spell to send his mind inside the space in Asta's Grimoire. So, he found himself in a dark place with a short devil with white hair, clad in all black, including his skin with red eyes.
"Are you Lichita's weird friends?" asked Liebe.
"Weird friend?"
"Yes, she told me about this weird friend who would meet her in the strangest way. Sometimes you would appear in her dreams. Or when she strode in the forest, the trees would turn into faces to talk to her. When she was cooking, a mouth would appear in her soup. Or you would turn into a tiny flame spirit in the candles.
"I thought she made you up."
"That's me. Because of a curse, I could not contact her directly, so I had to be creative in my approach."
"Previously, you said that brat could see her soon. What do you mean by that?" A slight excitement could be detected in the devil's voice, albeit he tried hard to hide it.
"When Lucifero killed her, I secretly preserved a piece of her soul and placed her body in a time loop. So, I should be able to revive her."
Edward was interested in Lichita for two reasons: he was interested in her physique, which could passively absorb Magic Power and Life Force. And the second reason was her son, Asta.
Asta does not have magic power because his mother absorbed it at birth. However, why did he not instantly die since she also absorbed Life Force?
Edward theorized that it was because that kid was also unique. He also theorized that this uniqueness was inherited from his father–which was never revealed or mentioned in the anime or manga.
Unfortunately, in the previous interaction, Edward did not detect anything besides the fact that the kid's life force was very active. And that only meant that he could quickly strengthen his body through physical training, not enough to negate Lichita's ability.
"Can you really revive her?"
"Relax, kid. Since I said I can revive, I can. But now is not the time."
"Why not?"
"I have some things I need to do first."
"What's more important than reviving her?"
Edward squinted his eyes as he looked at the little devil in the eyes, making him tremble. Liebe suddenly remembered feeling the same eyes and powerlessness when facing Lucifero and the other Supreme Devils in the underworld.
"I will ask you a few questions, so answer them without lying," said Edward calmly, making the little devil nod his head.
"How did you create Anti-Magic?"
"I-I don't know. I spent years cursing Lucifero, focusing all my hatred on him. Then, one day, my body developed Anti-Magic Energy."
Edward frowned. The existence of Liebe is an anomaly. In this world, every individual has mana inside their body, no matter how small. The exception to this rule is two people: Asta and Liebe.
Asta's situation can be explained by his mother, but Liebe is an unexplained anomaly. As a devil, how could he be born without any mana whatsoever?
Then, things became even weirder. Due to his lack of mana, Liebe was able to leave the Underworld Dimension to the living world. And he so happened to meet the kind Lichita, a person who can absorb mana's power from them and resist her Life Absorption because of his devil's constitution.
And after her death, she sealed him in a black Grimoire she discovered, and after years of hatred, he suddenly developed a power strong and unique enough that is the nemesis of all mages.
And Anti-Magic can only be used by someone like Asta with no magic power.
Honestly, Edward smells a conspiracy. It seemed that someone had been guiding the existence and creation of Asta and Liebe so that one day, they could wage war against the devil and eventually wipe them out.
Liebe already hated all devils, and if things were to proceed normally, Asta would also develop the same hatred once he learned that devils took his parents from him.
And with all this information, the most suspicious currently is Asta's father. It appears that he plans everything, or he is heavily involved.
'Unfortunately, Lichita refused to tell me anything about him every time I asked or led the subject to him. Hopefully, she will tell me once I revive her. Otherwise, I will have to read her memories.'
"Can you tell me all the information you have in Anti-Magic?"
Liebe was immediately a little embarrassed; "I don't have any information. All I know is that my body can produce a large quantity of it."
Edward frowned before waving his hand. A crystal orb appeared in the space: "Leave this with you."
"What is this?"
"It will scan your body and Life Code to determine how you make Anti-Magic Energy."
"Oh, Okay."
"Take care of the kid. After a while, he should hold a Devil-Binding Ceremony with you. With his personality, he will likely sign an equal contract with you instead of a master-slave one."
Liebe nodded his head. He had his suspicions about Asta's origin since he did resemble Lichita. Now that his identity was confirmed, he would take good care of his younger brother.
Edward opened his eyes and returned to the real world.
"Alright, thank you, kid, for your help."
"It was my pleasure, sir," responded Asta with shining eyes. Edward nodded before canceling the buff spell he placed on him and giving him a healing spell before the overdraft of using power beyond his capability arrived.
Asta felt the warning rushing through his body. He also felt a sense of loss when he felt how weak he became. Then, he motivated himself since he could one day reach that height.
Meanwhile, Yuno watched everything with profound focus.
'Asta, I will not lose to you. I will be the one who becomes the Wizard King.'
"I have a final gift for you," said Edward. A scroll appeared in his hand before handing it to Asta. The latter opened and read the title: "Life Force Body Strengthening."
In this universe, [Aura] cannot exist whatsoever. No matter how Edward tried, he could not combine magic with life force. So, he concluded that the laws of this universe were different and prevented the existence of such an energy as [Aura].
So, he developed other methods to strengthen his body. By absorbing mana from the environment, he can improve his life force, strengthening his overall physique. The process was relatively easy since a similar method already existed in the Empire, so he had to modify things a little bit.
The method he gave Asta was also a slightly modified version. Edward could control ambient mana through the Mana Zone. However, Asta could not do the same because he did not have mana inside his body.
Another law that Edward discovered was that Arcane Sorcery was also impossible to be used in this world. In the Empire, as long as someone has a certain level of soul strength, talent for Energy Sensing, and unique meditation techniques, an individual can control the ambient mana in nature to cast spells; essentially, Arcane Sorcerers are low-level Mana Zone users.
Unfortunately, in this universe, to use the Mana Zone, the mana inside a mage's body has to resonate with the ambient mana of nature–along with having sufficient soul strength and Willpower.
So, Asta cannot use the same training method as Edward. So, he modified this technique so that Asta could use breathing methods and some yoga movements that allowed him to absorb mana from the environment passively.
"Yami," said Edward.
"What is it?" asked the black-haired Captain.
"What's with this response?"
"You already wasted a lot of my time. I could be taking a massive dump right now."
"Don't you have any respect? Look how the others look at me with reverence and awe–except for the squinty eyes that seem to want to slice me up."
(AN: For the people who have not watched Black Clover, he is referring to Captain Jack the Ripper of the Green Mantis Squad.)
However, Yami just looked at him blankly before continuing to smoke his cigarette.
"No wonder you're almost 30 and never have a girlfriend."
Veins appeared on Yami's forehead, but Edward ignored him.
"Whatever. I wanted to say, don't forget to teach this kid how to sense Ki. Otherwise, he will be pretty useless in most high-level battles."
"That's a good idea," after calming himself down. After a few decades of friendships, he was used to these backhanded jabs at his personal life.
Ki Sensing can be considered another significant gain that Edward acquired in this universe. Ki is a natural energy emanating from people or objects when they move. And it is a great way to predict a person's movements and attacks.
It is the perfect technique for Aura Masters for close combat and can be used by Arcanists to predict the type of spells from their opponents.
After instructing Asta and Yami, Edward talked briefly with the other Captains and participants before leaving. Then, the examination continued.
A few people joined a Magic Knight Squad. However, this did not mean that the people who failed left empty-handed–at least not all of them. Some people who had decent results could join the Border Army.
This army was mainly composed of low-level mages; however, they had large numbers and could use a magic formation that allowed them to mix the powers of many mages. They must patrol the borders and hold the enemy long enough for the magic knight reinforcements to arrive in time.
Edward created this army to deal with the constant attacks of the Diamond and Spade Kingdom. And ever since their inceptions, the border situation has drastically improved.
The mages at the exam who did well in the written test will be selected as researchers, teachers, and even inventors based on their talents or magic.
Captain Vengeance took care of everything and sent everybody to their designated place before the entire event ended. And on that same day, news of what happened in the exam spread throughout the kingdom through television and newspaper.
