Devil Binding Ritual

Julian sat on the ground cross-legged with his eyes closed.

Black orbs of Anti-Magic floated around him as if having their consciousness.

Julian snapped his fingers as hundreds of swords made of light and Mana shot towards Julian.

Some of the black orbs made of Anti-Magic fused to form a shield while some of them formed a sword to cancel every single attack.

Asta's eyes twitched seeing this.

'Damn! It only took him a few days to surpass my mastery in Anti-magic which I achieved over two years.'

"Don't compare yourself with him; it will only demotivate you," Nacht said to Asta, standing beside him.

Julian clenched his fist as the core of the Anti-magic orbs turned into the power of Abyss.

Instantly the attacks that were canceled by Anti-Magic were erased from their existence.

For a moment, the area around Julian was devoid of any mana.

Mana from different places rushed towards Julian to fill the empty space left behind by the abyss.

'A power that defied the logic of this world…we are fortunate that he is on our side,' Nacht thought as he felt the changes in the air.

Improving the power of Abyss was turning out to be really difficult for Julian.

It was a power that was more terrifying than death since it erased the existence of mana itself, which made life.

To grasp the most basic concept of Abyss, Julian had to die hundreds of times, making him wonder how many more times he had to die to increase his mastery.

The battle against Dante pushed him beyond his limits to increase his mastery, but he can't get such battles every day.

In his pursuit of the mastery of Abyss, Julian unlocked the power of Anti-Magic.

Everything in this world was made of clustered mana, but the degree in which they form a cluster vastly differs.

For example, a fire created by a mage may be stronger than the fire created by nature but in terms of the density of clustered, natural mana surpassed the first.

What Anti-Magic does is not erase mana but break that cluster, turning the target back to particles of mana.

But Anti-Magic was a limit… it can't break the cluster after a certain extent. For example, it can't cut the natural flames.

But the power of Abyss could not only cut through natural flames but also erase it from existence.

For now, Julian completely focused on Anti-Magic since he felt like it was the key to understanding Abyss.

But a question was always in Julian's mind. The power of Abyss solely belonged to him and Anti-Magic was a lesser version of it, so how could the Anti-Magic devil have it.

Does Liebe truly belong to this timeline?

"I think I should visit Atlante after Asta's ritual."

"I am done with my training; let's leave," Julian said, looking at Nacht and Asta.

*******

Devils are creatures of yin-type magic that live in the underworld.

Under normal conditions, they can't cross the gate of the underworld and enter the living world unless some special conditions are met which are near impossible.

Although humans could make contracts with devils, the devils still stayed in the underworld.

This changed when a certain noble family came into existence.

The Faust family is an extinct noble whose only surviving member is Nacht Faust.

This family migrated from the Spade Kingdom a hundred years ago and extended their influence over the Clover kingdom.

Although they appeared to be a normal noble family from the outside, they hid a big secret...

The Faust family could summon devils up to the middle rank to the real world with a ritual and form a slave contract with them for power.

Their numbers were already in decline but everything ended when Nacht Faust was born, the most talented devil summoner.

With his skills, he managed to tame four devils from the underworld but his talent to summon devils became the thing that cost him everything.

During one such summoning ritual, Nacht managed to break free from the common knowledge of the ritual and made the mistake of summoning a High-ranking Devil Lucifuges from the underworld.

Powerless before the high-ranking Devil, Nacht saw his family members die one by one under the siege of the Devil and finally his brother Morgan.

Morgan from the Aquadeer was the Black Sheep of the family who didn't want to do anything with the devil rituals but for Nacht, his brother was his whole life…..his sunshine but in the end, Nacht's ability cost him his sunshine too.

This incident completely changed Nacht as he swore to never use that ritual again but today, he was going against his own words.

********

With Nacht's shadow magic, Asta, Nacht, and Asta reached in front of a mansion that was in ruins.

"Who does this house belong to?" Asta asked.

"A certain former noble. Don't pay attention to it," Nacht replied as they walked through the broken hallway.

As Julian was looking around, his eyes fell on a certain family photo. It had two boys and their parents. One boy had black hair that looked like Nacht while the other was not clear since his face was cut from the pic.

From what Julian knew about Nacht from Yami, the black-haired boy was Morgan and the other was Nacht who carved out his face from the picture himself.

After reaching a certain part of the mansion, Nahct executed his magic.

[Shadow Magic: Dark Garden Invitation]

Shadow enveloped the three of them as they reached a chamber deep underground.

The chamber was an ominous place sending chills down Asta's spine.

There were pillars filled with skulls of humans and other unknown creatures.

At the center of the chamber was a circular altar with various magic circles drawn on it.

"As we already discussed before Asta, you will be making a contract with your devil using the devil-binding ritual.

You must defeat your Devil and make him your slave of power," Nacht said, but Asta remained silent.

Nacht continued.

"But if you lose you will turn into a monster and I wouldn't hesitate to take your life and add to those bones on the pillars."

"I understand," Asta said.

While Nacht told Asta more details, Julian inspected the chamber with curiosity.

The chamber was filled to the brim with negative mana.

'A large number of people have lost their lives here and none of them had a peaceful end,' Julian analyzed from the chamber.

"Do you want a devil slave too?" Kirin asked Julian in his mind.

"Nah, I am good.

One annoying voice inside my head is enough; I don't need another," Julian replied.

"What do you mean annoying?! My sweet voice can even bring life to a dead land.

The problem lies with your brain!

Hmp!"

"Calm down Kirin, I was just looking," Julian replied.

Seeing that Nacht almost reached the end of the explanation, Julian paid attention to it.

"Under normal conditions, you would need a relic that is related to the devil to summon it from the underworld," Nacht said showing four handing looks from his neck.

"But you are a different case, that Grimoire is the strongest connection to a devil you could have

Now step to the altar," Nacht said as Asta walked and stood at the middle of the altar.

[Forbidden magic: Devil summon]

Anti-Magic bursts out of Asta's body and from his Grimmoire and starts taking the shape of a shadow-like figure.

The details became clearer till it took the form of a devil.

Two horns on his head, two wings, a tail,

 and an ominous aura around it… except as described in history books.

The Anti-Magic Devil Liebe freed from the Grimmoire floated in front of Asta in his full glory.

Just as Nacht thought he was going to see an interesting battle, something happened that blew his mind.

Asta and Liebe enveloped each other in a brotherly hug with smiles on their faces.

"Nice to meet you…..brother," Asta said.

"Yeah….Asta"

Ever since the battle with Dante when Asta first met Liebe properly, he communicated with Liebe regularly and formed a relationship of brotherhood with him.

There was no sense of aggression between them.

"Although we have different dreams….we walk on the same path.

To complete what we started, we will need each other," Asta said.

"You become my body and I shall become your soul," Liebe said as he held Asta's hand.

Instead of chains being formed around Liebe's neck, small chains appeared around both of their palms creating a fifty-fifty pact between them.

Chains turned into words and engraved themselves around their wrist finalizing their pact. 

"How touching ~" Kirin commented watching the scene unfold.

'Sure enough, Liebe gives me a familiar feeling as if he is a part of me.'

Julian thought.

"A fifty-fifty pact with a devil ?! That's mindless !" Nacht burst out with shock still trying to process what he was watching.

"Calm down Nacht, you can have all the time you need with Asta to know his story

If you ask me, Asta achieved the best-case scenario."

Julian cracked his knuckles.

"Now let's see how their Anti-magic fairs up against mine."

'Let's see what I can learn from this fight'