Demon Dweller

In the evening Julian flew towards the base and found that Asta was training with his new sword. He was trying to make a slash like Julian always did but nothing was happening. With his enhanced Sharingan Julian could finally see antimagic.

Unlike the Dark black and purple tint of Black magic, Anti-magic was dark black with a tint of red. The same aura surrounded Asta's 5-leaf Grimoire and the Demon Dweller sword he was holding.

"Asta give me your sword for a minute, " he asked.

"Sure"

As soon as Julian held the sword, it immediately started absorbing large chunks of his mana. Slowly the black blunt sword starts to change color and turns completely white.

Julian slashed the sword a few times and red slashes emerged from the sword destroying the nearby trees.

'As expected, the anti-magic coating vanishes as soon as I touched the sword.' Julain didn't expect the sword to accept him as it did with Licht.

Asta's jaw dropped seeing me use the sword like he never could.

" So cool. How did you do that, tell me! Tell me! " Asta asked excitedly.

"Wait for a minute, let me try something more"

Julian used mana zone to summon a cannon-type structure and fire at him. He pointed the sword at the upcoming projectile and as expected the fire got absorbed into the Sword.

'So this sword is immune to the effect of my flames '.

Asta saw the effects of the sword and got more excited as he would be able to do that too.

While Julian was doing some more experiments, Noelle arrived at that place but her instincts kicked in as she ducked down for a red slash to pass above her head.

She broke into a cold sweat and shouted " What the hell are you two doing !!"

She saw Asta's apologetic expression but Julian had no such expression but of amusement.

"Your reaction speed got better, good job Noelle, " Julian said.

Julian already knew Noelle was there and had every means to stop the slash before it reached Noelle so he tried to see the reaction speed of her instincts. Every organism had an inner instinct that activated against deadly attacks which could be mastered to activate at lower simulations so Julian decided to start training them in that aspect.

"Hey Noelle, you trust me right? " Julian asked.

"Yes, why are you asking? " Noelle said after suddenly asking a weird question.

"From your heart? "

"Yes "

"That's enough "

Julian smiled and pointed the Demon Dweller sword at Noelle which started to turn blue as he got charged with Water magic. Julian replicated the gesture and a slash of water magic was released from the sword.

"How !" both Noelle and Asta had the same reaction.

"Here take it back " Julian handed the sword to Asta which immediately started to turn into its previous black color as Antimagic invaded it.

Slowly Julian explained every feature of the Sword he knew to Asta including the one that connected people.

Julian had a perfect weapon so he showed no greed towards Asta's demon dweller sword.

***

"Today I am teaching you about slashes, " Julian said holding a twig.

"Slashes are one of the basic attacks of any weapon that you pick. Imagine a twig that is wet and you swing the twig, the water on the twig launches into the air, the principle behind slash is the same "

Julian coated the twig with mana and slashed it releasing a red slash.

"The power of the slashes depends on the speed of swing, mana reinforcement, and physical strength"

"Asta, just like water to the twig, it is antimagic to your sword. So If you want to learn how to use slashes you have to increase the flow of anti-magic. "

"Roger! " Asta said

"There are various slashes like some focus on heaviness while some focus on sharpness. For you, Noelle, suitable would be sharpness as you don't have the psychical strength to use heavy slashes or mana reinforcement required for it.

Now Noelle take out your wand and Asta use your new sword to replicate my movement" Julian said.

The training continued for two hours in which Asta's way of swinging his new sword increased while Noelle learned to do basic slashes although she could only do it 3/10 times, her growth speed was very good.

'Unlike me and Yuno who can be called Prodigy in magic, Noelle's talent is nothing to be scoffed that. She picks ups things very quickly it's just that nobody bothered to teach her properly.

Like I had Sister Theresa and Yuno had my notes, Noelle had no one to teach her even the basic things. I even had to teach her basic mana reinforcement'

Julian and Asta gave Noelle a lot of compliments and encouragement to have her improve. In Noelle's mind, Julian had already started to replace the siblings that made her life hell.

Although Asta was a different case, his complements hit something different.

Julian gave them a break for half an hour and discussed some normal things. Noelle opened up about her life before coming to the Black Bulls which made Asta angry but he didn't insult Noelle's siblings but gave some encouragement to Noelle.

After the break was over, it was time for combat training but this time Julian planned to do something different.

The atmosphere turned heavy as Asta and Noelle started feeling fear and heavy pressure on their bodies. This was the mixture of basic level mana pressure and killing intent.

Noelle dropped to the floor shivering as Julian's figure felt like a monster from hell. Asta could not feel the mana pressure but was under his killing intent which made him feel as if something was gripping his heart.

"Stand up move, remember the enemy will do anything to take your life. If you cannot move in is state forget about your dreams. Only those can reach the heights who are brave and willing to move forward beyond what they had done.

Stand up and Surpass your limits !!"

Each of Julian resonated even within the deepest conscience of Asta and Noelle as they gripped their weapon pointing at Julian.

"Come !" Julian commanded summoning Aquila Favonia.

*****

"That's it for today," Julian said using a Phoenix robe on both of them who were huffing crazy.

With his three tomoe Sharingan, Julian could see the world in slow-motion and dodge and counter every move they threw at him.

While clashing with anti-magic, Julian found out many more things about his new weapons. Along with making his slashes stronger by two to three times and switching position with it, the weapons were not affected by anti-magic and retained the reinforcement mana coating.

Asta had a sloppy beginning as he was using a sword for the first time after using a long sword for months but as the battle went on and Julian kept pointing out his mistakes, his style improved.

Noelle showed more improvements with her the spells she unlocked like Water bullet, water beam, water platform, etc, which not only let her attack Julian but also support Asta.

Julian didn't increase the killing intent but kept flaring their inner desire to become strong to make them forcefully counter the killing intent which worked.

Julian was lenient with his practice as Yami had given him a nightmare for a few days without holding back his Killing intent when Julian had asked Yami to train him.

Julian made sure to make Noelle and Asta realize how much they had improved from the previous day and where they stood.

Although Julian was beating up Noelle just like her siblings did but she realized how different it was.

"Rest for today, we will continue tomorrow "

During the dinner, Yami mentioned that Julian was going to be promoted to 5th class Senior magic knight at next week's conference.

Every participant in the dungeon dive was invited to meet the wizard king there. Asta couldn't handle the excitement and burst out cheering. Noelle was shocked to hear that Julian was already a senior magic knight.

Luck was not interested and wanted to do something else.

Charmy raised her hand as she wanted to go.

" You are not going, all you do is eat, " said Yami. Hearing this Charmy started making plans to sneak into the palace.

Leaving that aside, becoming a 5th class senior magic knight in one year was a huge step. The ranks of magic knights were divided into 5 stages

1 . Wizard king

2. Grand Magic knight

3. Senior Magic knight

4. Intermediate magic knight

5. Junior Magic knight

Each of these ranks except wizard king had 5 sub ranks – 5th class to 1st class with the first-class being at the top. A person was promoted based on the stars earned, mission efficiency, and strength. People who reach the level of Grand magic knight have the chance to become a captain. And the person with the most no stars among them can become the wizard king when the previous one retires.

In a time when the ' eye of the midnight sun ' hasn't started its missions yet earning stars was difficult. Julian took a large no. of missions to increase his rank as higher ranking missions would give him more access to information not released in public.

There was an artifact museum that only allowed 2nd class intermediate magic knights or above to visit; Julian was interested in visiting that but kept forgetting about it.