Preparation

"We should get rid of him."

Standing in the middle of Vanica's training room, Zenon pleaded his case regarding Grim's stay at their castle.

Giggling at her little brother's prejudice against Grim's presence, Vanica couldn't help but want to tease him a little.

"Aww, is my wittle Zenny feeling jealous? Is big sis not spending enough time with him?"

Skipping over to him, she pulled on his cheeks much to his annoyance.

"Stop playing around and take this seriously." He frowned and slapped her hands away.

"Boo!" She stuck her tongue out and threw herself onto a chair made out of solidified blood.

"But seriously, you gotta learn to lighten up a little, all that frowning isn't good for your skin y'know. At this rate your going to end up looking like an old man."

"Vanica..."

"I know, I know." She sighed waving her hand in front of her face.

"But what do you want me to do? Even if I wanted to get rid of him, which I don't. I have neither the power nor the ability to do so. Even with Megicula help I could barely touch him. If you really want him gone that badly, you're gonna have to rely on your own power. Haah, who knows, maybe you'll catch him off guard with your spatial magic and end up teleporting him away."

Frowning even harder at that statement, memories of their last bout replayed in his head.

"I... can't beat him." He relented clenching his fists tightly.

"Neither can I... yet. So you might as well give up for the time being."

Hearing his sister dismiss him so easily for a stranger who had beaten he two of them up less than 24 hours ago, it left a strange taste in his mouth.

First his brother had been beaten so badly that they had to basically hospitalize him, then his sister shows up with a black eye and some strange guy from the same kingdom as the people who hurt his brother, and now he was forced to live with said individual.

What the hell was wrong with his family?

For those contracted to the highest ranking devils, weren't they a little too pathetic?

At times like these, he really wished Lucius was here to balance out the crazy.

"So... If you've got nothing else to say, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."

"What? You're kicking me out? Why?"

"Aww Zenny, big sis can't train with you in here. So get out."

Basically slamming the door in his face, Zenon stood outside the training room in complete shock.

'Since when did my sister train?'

---

-Clover Kingdom-

-Ruined Noble House-

Standing in the underground lair of the devil contracting room, Nacht stared at both Asta and his newly contracted devil Liebe.

"Now that you've made a contract with your devil, the next stage is to unite with him and draw out all of the anti-magic power he possess."

While speaking, Nacht's devil familiar Gimodelo jumped down from his shoulder and fell into his shadow before emerging out of it in his true form.

"In order for you to get stronger, you have to learn to unite as fast possible. But since I don't have the time to teach you, you'll have to figure it out as you fight."

Standing behind Nacht, shadows began engulfing both man and devil as their bodies merged together forming-

[Devil Union Mode: Canis]

"I hope you're a quick study."

---

'Is this enough?'

Standing in the middle of nowhere and breathing heavily, a sweat drenched Yuno blasted dozens of spiral-like holes into a huge rock formation as the memory of his defeat at the hands of Zenon replayed over and over again in his head. To that end, he called out to the man hiding in the trees behind him.

"You can come out now. Or is greeting your new Vice Captain a bit to much for your pride?"

"Haah, you're as nasty as ever." Stepping out from behind a tree, Langris looked upon the youngster who had bested him and taken his title.

"Why are you here?" Yuno asked a bit annoyed that his training had been interrupted.

*Shrugs*

"I heard what happened at the Golden Dawn. Word on the street is that you got completely crushed by a spatial mage and allowed our Captain to get kidnapped."

"I'm going to get him back!" Yuno narrowed his eyes and spoke in a chilling voice.

"Hah, I thought you might say something like that."

"So what? You're here to help me train?"

*Smiles*

"Something like that."

-The Golden Dawn is the strongest magic knight squad in the Clover Kingdom. To attack us on our own doorstep is a humiliation that we can't allow to stand. So we'll make sure to pay them back 100- No! A 1000 fold!"

Somewhat stunned by Langris's intensitiy, Yuno suddenly found him more pleasing to the eye.

"Yeah. We'll make them pay."

---

-Grim Pov-

'Just two more days to go.'

Sitting on the roof of a house belonging to a small family, he watched as a small group of children dressed in puffy clothes played in the snow. In a way, they reminded him of the elven children from Elysia... Y'know outside of the whole inbreeding amongst themselves in order to maintain their race.

But since they were related to the royals of the clover kingdom, it wasn't to surprising. Sadly there were no longer anymore pure blooded elves in this world. The Eye of the Midnight sun guys were all in artifical bodies, the elves of Elysia descended from a single half blood who most likely bred with a human, and he was a half blooded elf himself.

The elven bloodline had thinned to the point that it probably won't ever recover.

That reminded him, since he probably got some of the nobles pregnant, wasn't he also following in Licht's footsteps?

Did he just start a new line of elf descendants?

And if he did, which line was stronger? His or Licht's?

Haa, thinking about it now, after his business with the devils is concluded, he should probably take those kids away from the Clover Kingdom.

He couldn't allow their potential to buried like so many others... After all, how else would they compete with Licht's descendants?