Chapter Text
Gifso laughed, tears of relief in his eyes. “He did it! He defeated the beast!” On the monitors, Yami watched Finral and Vanessa pull Asta into a slightly-tighter-than-wise hug, given his injuries.
Yami gave himself a few seconds to be relived, looking over his squadmates and the priests. Nobody dead. Not even Kiato, thanks to Vanessa's tourniquet.
Later, Yami'd have to figure out what was up with that weird power he'd felt from Asta at the end. Whatever it was, it'd sure spooked Vetto.
But they had more immediate problems. Yami looked out of the triangle opening he'd cut in Gifso's tower. Sooner or later, the terrorist spatial mage outside was going to figure out that his boss wasn't coming out. Yami didn't know if the guy could open portals, but Yami didn't want to risk him escaping. The Eye of the Midnight Sun having a direct line to the Underwater Temple was too dangerous for everyone living here.
But the Bulls were exhausted, and if anyone else in the Temple could fight, Yami figured they'd have taken a crack at the guy earlier, since he was vulnerable while having to pin down Yami.
“Oi, gramps. Think any of your people can get into the arena without the last creep seeing? Until he's taken care of and your 'game' is over, Finral can't portal anyone out for medical attention, even if he has the mana.” Which Yami doubted.
Gifso leaned around Yami to peer out at the lone terrorist. He looked torn. “I don't know. But now that that monster is down, some of our recovery mages might try.” Yami could guess what he was thinking. His family needed help, but as the leader of the temple, he was worried about more of his people, especially healers, putting themselves in danger.
Finral's raised voice came from the monitor spell, catching Yami's attention. “Seriously, Gauche?! I have seniority!”
Despite everything- or maybe because of it- Yami couldn't help a huff of laughter. Things were back to normal if everyone was giving Finral shit.
But when Vanessa teased him about running away, Finral sighed and smiled. More sincere than Yami expected, Finral said, “It's true that I did want to run away. But when I heard Asta, my body moved on its own.”
Vanessa's expression softened too. “Because you didn't give up, Asta.”
Finral looked a little teary eyed again. “Because you believed in us, we were able to win. Thank you.”
Asta chuckled, looking perfectly at ease despite all of his still-bleeding injuries. “What are you talking about? You're my seniors, who Captain Yami accepted into the Black Bulls. Of course I believe in you.”
Yami felt his own smile turn smug. Damn right. I picked the losers that everyone else overlooked, and it paid off.
Vanessa told Asta, “You sure know how to make a girl smile.”
Finral sniffled, more tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. “Stop making your seniors cry.”
As the excitement of victory gave way to reality, Yami wasn't surprised when it was Asta who said, “We need to figure out a way to tie up that guy and haul him out of here. There's a lot we have to ask him.” Kid had a practical head on his shoulders, even if he was a reckless idiot.
There was a sudden flicker right on the edge of Yami's senses. His stomach dropped.
The whole world pulsed. Relief turned to dread as something primal howled from Yami's soul. Foul, rotten magic spilled out of Vetto's unmoving form. What the hell will it take to make this guy stay down?! Vetto rose up like a devil from hell, somehow even more horrifying than before. The magic that writhed around him made the taint from before feel like meadow air. The feeling of wrong clawed at Yami's throat.
Through the monitor spells, Yami saw Finral's eyes widen in shock. “You're kidding, right?” His voice was shaking, the returned fear overwhelming his exhaustion.
Last time, Yami felt despair.
This time, it emerged as fury. “That bastard!”
Yami barely felt the table smash beneath his fist. “Let me the hell out of here!”
He could see the buildings outside the barrier, less than a hundred yards away and more distant than the stars. His sword was in his hand, body tense, but there was no point. Raw power couldn't break through dimensions. All those years of stares and whispers, but in the end dark magic was just as mundane as earth or wind. Nothing special, nothing otherworldly-
“It's the same as last time!” Finral yelled.
He's right. When Asta hit Licht, and unsealed something. It was the same feeling of doom and destruction. Like the air right before a lightning strike, or standing on the peak of Yultim at the crack of dawn. But it was infused with something far less natural. Yami's gaze was drawn back to the monitor spells.
Finral was pale and sweating, swaying with exhaustion, eyes wide and teeth clenched like he was trying not to throw up. He'd never looked worse, even sick as a dog. The bloody light of Vetto's magic was so strong it tainted Gifso's spells, erasing the blue and bathing everything in a red haze.
Blue.
“The blue doesn't go up forever, did you know? It curves away under you.”
Wait-
“There's nothing, not even air. Just dark space.”
Finral.
Thousand of portals. Holes in space, connecting one place to another through a plane of nothing. And the place where nothing lived...
“Nothing between you and the stars.”
Yami's heart beat faster. He felt the image solidifying in his head, the new magic inking itself into his grimoire. Yami turned back toward the opening in the tower. He raised his sword, inhaling. Dark magic rose from his skin, clean and cold. His mind cleared of everything but one truth.
If there's a place we meet...
Yami brought down his sword, and the world shattered.
Then I can cut anything.
With the spatial bubble burst, Yami jumped out of Gifso's tower. He landed on the terrorist before the man even realized what was going on. The terrorist went down, and Yami kept moving. The scenery of the Underwater Temple flew by in unimportant flashes, all of Yami's focus on his destination. The cave that housed Gifso's arena had started the day unbroken, but now it sported several giant holes from Vetto and Noelle's magic. Yami leaped up and into the closest one.
He heard their voices.
Finral, the fear stripped back out and replaced with determination. “-come this far! I'm not giving up until the end!”
Noelle, haughtiness replaced with the beginnings of actual authority. “There must be something we can still do!”
Asta, still loud, still aggressively undaunted. “Bring it on!”
Yami wasn't too late.
He jumped down from the hole, landing hard on the shattered floor. Not that it mattered, enhancement magic cushioning him from the blow.
They were alive. Under the profound clarity still ringing in his head from the spell, a trace of droll humor drawled, “Right, consider it brought.”
There was a burst of noise from the Bulls, variations on 'Captain!' in surprise and relief.
Except for Finral crying, “Yami! You finally came!”
It'd been years since Yami had told Finral to not to bother with his rank. They had over a dozen members now, but Finral had never started using the title. Yami had never asked him to. It'd never even crossed his mind.
In this moment of clarity, Yami wasn't afraid of the emotion filling his chest when he looked at Finral. He would kill or die for any of the Bulls. Any of the family he'd made in this once-foreign kingdom.
Asta rallied again. “Now that Captain's here, let's beat the snot out of this guy!” Bleeding and shaking with fatigue and pain, barely on his feet, but still ready to go. Yami knew that if he had to, Asta would keep going until his heart gave out.
Good thing he didn't have to.
Yami started toward Vetto, ruffling Asta's hair in passing. “Who do you think you're talking to? Don't get a swelled head.”
Asta stopped, blinking. “What?”
“You guys already risked your lives fighting him.” Yami's eyes swept over all of them, lingering on Finral. “You did good.” Finral was staring at him like the words actually landed for once. Like Asta's presence finally unlocked what Yami had been trying to tell him for years. Maybe Yami would be jealous about that later. But right now, in this place of clarity, there was only satisfaction that Finral could finally hear the sound of his own worth.
Yami stepped past his squad members, looking up at the growing sphere of pulsing magic with Vetto at its heart. “I'll be nice and take care of the cleanup.” He smirked, readjusting his grip on his sword. “Rather, I'm taking all the glory.”
The reason I'm able to surpass my limits is because of you.
Magna and Luck, who gave it their all. Asta, who never gave in. Noelle, who unlocked her fury. Gauche, Grey, and Charmy, who came together. Vanessa, who stood up and rejected a fate she didn't like.
Finral. Finral, who finally realized that he was enough to tip the scales of destiny. That his power mattered, that he mattered.
Loving them wasn't a weakness. It was a strength. Being in love with Finral-
You've always mattered. About time you saw it for yourself, Finral.
Yami raised his sword.
Vetto growled, “It's no use... You humans shall taste despair... Despair!”
Yami didn't feel anything but the certainty of his path. No fear. Not even anger. “It doesn't matter how strong your magic is. This spell cuts through dimensions!”
His blade fell, and the world split in two again. The building magic of destruction choked and dissipated, severed by the cold, clean line of darkness and space. It was probably the sudden change in pressure from the dissipated magic... but for a split second, Yami thought he could see stars.
-being in love with Finral was just another kind of strength.
“See ya, Mister Despair.”