Stage 0
[Heart Kingdom Throne room]
"Fufufu, it seems that not everything is going to plan." Standing behind a plain looking throne, a woman whose body was largely made up of flowing water chuckled in a playful manner.
The woman seated on the throne on the hand sighed heavily.
"With what we know about his personality, we should have seen this coming."
"Sooo, what do you want to do?"
Falling silent for a moment, the woman suddenly looked up and said "Have Gaja engage him. If we want his help then we're gonna have to show him that what we're made of."
"What about the others?"
"Send another Spirit Guardian to test them."
*Sigh* "If that's what you wish."
---
*FWOOSH!!*
Soaring through the air without a care in the world, Grim felt the wind brush against his skin as he took in the natural sights of the heart kingdom until he was well above it.
'The mana in this place feels way cleaner compared to the Clover Kingdom.'
Closing his eyes and taking it all in, he suddenly felt the corner of his eye twitch.
"Let me guess." He smiled and turned around. "You're a magic knight of the Heart Kingdom?"
Behind him, a tall man with a lean body and a large scar running down from his left cheek to neck floated silently. The most striking thing about him was definitely his black hair with a striking patch of white at its centre.
"We're called Spirit Guardians here."
"Is that so." Grim smiled and looked at him up and down while nodding.
'He's floating without using magic...'
Wearing sleeveless loose fitting clothing, from his aura alone he could tell that this man was no stranger to combat.
Heh.
"I guess I can play with you a bit before I go and step on that queen of yours."
Having the queen's face flash through his mind, the blank look on the Spirit Guardian's face suddenly turned stern as he stretched out his right hand and said- "You won't get the chance."
[Lightning Magic: Tenjiolia]
[Tenjiolia: Upon activation, the caster holds out their right hand and releases a lightning bolt from their palm. This spell is incredibly fast.]
Watching without his eyes doing so much as twitch, Grim's body leaned slightly to the left and let the long stetch of yellow pass by him.
'He dodged?'
Frowning at the ease in which Grim avoided his magic, Gaja fired the spell off again in short bursts.
*ZAP!!*
*ZAP!!*
*ZAP!!*
*ZAP!!*
'Its fast, but not particulary difficult to avoid if I know the trajectory.'
Reading the flow of mana through his HyperFocus ability, he noted that evading such attacks wasn't really that hard for the current him.
[HyperFocus: A combination of Grim's mana sensing, ki reading, see through world, beast instincts and divination magic rolled into one. While it takes a toll on his mental strength the longer it is in effect, when utilized properly nothing can escape his perception.]
Growing tired of dealing with such trivial magic, he was about to complain until he saw some weird runes begin to swirl around the hand Gaja was using to discharge his magic.
'What is tha-
*ZOOOM!!!*
Suddenly the speed of [Tenjiolia] skyrocketed! Even managing to out pace the processing speed of his hyperfocus and brush against his arm causing a splurt of blood.
'Oh?'
Grim's eyes widened slowly as he turned to look at his bleeding arm.
*GRINS!!*
*BOOM!!*
Feeling a sudden sense of oppression bear down on him, the expression on Gaja's face turned serious for the first time.
'To think that he could provoke such a reaction from the world's mana by merely opening his grimoire.'
*Smiles*
'So that's what you saw in him.'
Slowly raising his arm into the air, the runes around his arm began their ascent and formed a giant mana circle.
"You are strong Grim of Clover."
"But-"
*Black Storm Clouds Begin to Gather*
"In front of the vast amounts of power found in nature's mana. Humans don't stand a chance."
Faced with the power of nature itself, for the first time in his life Grim felt insignificant. But if he just gave up because things weren't looking good, would he still be Grim?
"Ha...Ha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
Staring down the storm clouds above and feeling the insane amounts of mana it was gathering, his body began to tremble in excitement as his heart beat quickened and the mana in his own body began to rise at a dangerous pace and cause the mana around him to fluctuate.
"You said that humans can't match the power found in nature."
*Crackle*
"Then its a good thing that I'm not a human!!"
[Breath of Thunder]
---
[Heart Kingdom Throne room]
"WAAAHHHH!!!"
Swept away in a violent current of water, the recently kidnapped Asta who had been forcibly seperated from the others and forced to fight against a small army of knights made of water, transformed into his Black Form and wielded the Demon Dweller sword while trying his best to resist against the whirlpool of water that was dragging him down.
"The negation of magic." A gentle voice suddenly echoed out all around the room.
"That's the power of your devil isn't it?"
'This voice! Where's it coming from?!'
"As unpleasant as it may be, it seems you're quite adept at using it. Unfortunately, a person without magic can only be a stage 9 at best."
'Stage 9? What the hell is that?!'
Pushing his head out of the water, Asta finally got a glimpse of the owner of the voice.
"What the-" Seeing the owner of the voice, Asta was left speechless.
Towering over him and possessing a near ethereal level of beauty, a pale faced woman whose hair and dress was made up entirely of flowing water looked down on him with an expression that could only be described as compassionate.
"Greetings devil possessor of Clover, I Undine of the Heart Kingdom and one of the 4 great spirits humbly welcome you."
"THIS DOESN'T FEEL LIKE MUCH OF A WELCOME!!" Asta yelled while straining to keep his head above water. "AND WHAT THE HELL IS A STAGE 9!"
"Oh right." Undine hummed almost ignorant to the fact that Asta was on the verge of drowning.
"I forget that your kingdom doesn't use a magical stage system. But simply put, in this kingdom magic is ranked by ability and prowess."
'Ability and prowess?'
"The lowest stage being 9, then 8 and so on. Whilst the highest stage and only belonging to the those whose magic stand above all others is-
STAGE 0."
---
[Above the Heart Kingdom]
Having finished gathering a sufficient amount of nature's mana and ready to activate the spell at a moments notice. Gaja gazed down at a trembling Grim who was discharging a large amount of lightning magic.
'To not back down in the face of overwhelming power. Its a praise worthy quality. But ultimately futile.'
Closing his eyes and then opening them, he lowered his hand causing the storm cloud to rumble.
[True Lightning Magic: Irial Astrauza]
[With an open grimoire, the user holds their right hand up and draws a magic circle in the sky. Storm clouds gather around the magic circle as it focuses natural mana,[1] and a large lightning bolt crashes down on the target.]