Chapter 18: The Treasure Room

"You really defeated another mage like the one we just fought?!" The sound of shouting rang throughout the dungeon. One particular Golden Dawn mage could not believe that Lucas beat a Diamond Kingdom soldier on his own, yet that was the only plausible way it could have happened as there was no one else with him to help.

The mage was Klaus. He had just finished restraining the enemy Mineral mage that Asta had just beaten and made sure that he was set and unconscious within his spell. Next to Mars was the floating Light Sphere that Lucas had conjured up to bind Mystic, the female Diamond Kingdom soldier.

"I... I guess I shouldn't doubt you any longer, Lucas. You...", Klaus lowered his voice which almost turned into a voiceless whisper, "... are a capable Magic Knight".

There was a moment of silence between the Magic Knights that were gathered right outside of the dungeon's treasure room. The only sound that was heard was the slight trickle of the waterfalls that were suspended in the area as well as the sound of soft droplets of water hitting the cave floor.

"Did... Klaus just compliment someone?" Yuno thought to himself.

"My, Lucas just keeps surprising people. He even got praise from Mr. Stubborn, here", Mimosa whispered.

"Hmph. Lucas is a good Knight but don't forget that the Black Bulls took down this other guy!" Noelle spoke with conviction, though upon better inspection showed that she was cheekily trying to put her name on something that Asta had accomplished.

"Now, Noelle. It was Asta's doing that we're safe right now. Man, do I want to fight him!" Luck cheered, completely embarrassing Noelle in the process.

Lucas, however, had his mind on a few different things and didn't pay much attention to the compliment from his Senior Knight. "Huh? Oh, thanks...", he then looked at both Mars and Mystic and had many questions forming in his head.

"What is the Diamond Kingdom's goal? Artificially making soldiers... that's just", he gulped with worry.

He glanced at Mars once more and remembered what he had been muttering prior to his defeat to Asta. "Fana... just what does that mean and why did it irk me?" He wondered.

"Anyways!" Klaus perked up once more. "Lucas, since I am your Senior, as well as the leader of this group, I request that you hand me the other enemy's grimoire at once!" He stretched his arm out and opened his hand, signalling to Lucas.

"Oh, right! The grimoire... here it is". Lucas handed the oddly stitched grimoire to Klaus and the blue-haired mage accepted. "To be honest, the entire situation with the Diamond Kingdom mages gives me the shivers... I'm sort of glad I don't have that grimoire on me anymore".

Asta had rested enough and stood up, medicinal herbs in his mouth and scratches and bruises plaguing his body. He had Mimosa heal him as much as she could as he had sustained many injuries during his fight.

"Hm, I don't exactly know what's going on... but looks like the threat is over!" Asta spoke with his mouthful. He went to scratch his head and felt Nero, the Anti-Bird resting on top of his head. "Oh, Nero! I guess you've made your home up there, haha", he smiled.

There were three Black Bulls and four Golden Dawn members looking at the two enemy mages that they had captured. Asta, Yuno and Klaus with slight injuries along with Lucas, though his injuries were more emotionally driven looking back at the fight with Mystic. Mimosa had been fully healed as she had time to rest in the comfort of her Dream-Healing Flower Basket.

Asta finished chomping on his medicinal herbs. "Say, Four-eyes, do you think that's gonna hold him? Lucas's spell seems stronger so why not have him restrain this pale guy too?"

This comment did not sit well with the Steel mage who immediately started to argue. "My magic is not that weak! The enemy is already injured and there's no question that a noble like me is stronger than a peasant like Lucas!"

Klaus completely forgot about the compliment he had given his Junior Knight and went back to the common, yet old, insults that he had been dishing out for a lot of his time.

Sweat fell from Mimosa's head as she saw how frustrating Klaus was, as well as how frustrated he was himself. "Well... I'm glad they're all safe and ready to go!" She spoke with an upbeat attitude. "I'm also glad that Lucas is safe... I mean, he took down an enemy by himself so of course he'd be alright, but...", she started to blush as she thought to herself.

"Mimosa!" Noelle shouted, snapping her Vermillion-haired cousin out of the trance she was in. "I've been calling your name for a while, but you weren't responding. Are you sure you're alright? Maybe you should rest for a while longer?" The Silva asked worriedly.

Lucas, now in focus after stepping away from the two Diamond soldiers, looked at the two royals' conversation and smiled. "They... they're a bit odd... but it's not bad. Noelle is really nice thinking and caring about Mimosa. It just makes me think why-

"Your existence itself is unnecessary".

-why did he say that to her?" Lucas's smile slowly faded.

"Oh... well, whatever. I think we're fine now to continue!" Asta turned around and walked towards the treasure room door.

Everyone stopped their own little conversations and reacted to what the ashen-haired mage said. They all gathered around Asta and looked at the huge door that separated them from the undiscovered riches. The door stretched from the floor all the way to the ceiling, and it had a very odd and golden pattern attached to it in the middle.

The Golden Dawn mages looked up and then back at the Black Bulls.

"Wait... we were having some competition, weren't we? The first squad that would make it here would win...", Lucas pointed in the air, remembering the entire reason why everyone was rushing around in the first place.

Yuno nudged him in the arm slightly. "Hey, Lucas. Is that really important right now?" He sighed.

A small cough was heard right next to Lucas. "Nonsense, Yuno! Lucas is entirely right! We got here first so we win... though the Black Bulls did help very marginally with everything, so I will allow them in too!" Klaus roared, reigniting his competitive side after being left speechless and shocked for the entire time whilst the battle with Mars ensued.

Yuno simply sighed once more. "You can't be serious".

After a long and obnoxious argument between Asta and Klaus occurred due to the former being annoyed about the latter not being appreciative, the Magic Knights all tried to find a way through the door.

"Hmm", Luck examined the door. He used his mana senses to help find a way and within a few seconds found the answer. "It seems like this door is made entirely of magic, so instead of trying to bust through, we'll have Asta slice it with his sword! Like swoosh", he smiled.

"Hmph. No way he can do tha-", Klaus was interrupted by the sound of three sword swings.

Asta had sliced through the door, making a triangle shape with his Anti-Magic sword which allowed everyone a way through.

The Magic Knights walked in and what they saw inside amazed them greatly. Their eyes sparkled and glistened with the gold and expensive-looking artifacts that spread across the giant room. The Knights' jaws dropped seeing the amount of treasures that there was.

There were swords made out of ancient jewels that were scattered atop the mountains of gold. Many treasure chests were buried within with various riches locked away inside. Books that contained ancient and foreign languages were resting on broken, wooden bookcases and by even looking at them once, you could tell how important they were.

"This is... amazing! There are mountains upon mountains of treasures here!" Asta screamed, eyes filled with shining stars. He quickly made his way forwards and looked around for anything that he found interesting.

The other Black Bulls, along with Yuno and Mimosa also followed the mage. They could not believe their eyes either, especially Yuno who had not seen something like this in all his life.

It was the same case for the two royal cousins. Noelle and Mimosa had grown up surrounded by riches but, seeing the sight in front of them showed that they were still in awe.

Lucas took a step forward and his eyes widened in shock. "Th-this... is this what we get rewarded with as Magic Knights?! We get to keep all of this stuff?" He jumped up and down in excitement. Klaus started to walk up to him, presumably to correct him in his thinking, but the Light mage had already ran off to scout the different treasures he could get his hands on.

First, he walked towards the different treasure chests and took a look inside to see what was in them. There were documents of a bygone era, one of them pertained to the time when the first Wizard King was alive, whereas the others were just random records with no such importance.

"Hm, these could be useful to study. If I take these and send them to the Royal Library, then who knows what information we could uncover!" Lucas carefully picked up the documents and neatly slotted them within his grimoire satchel. The material they were made of had become very fragile and brittle, so he carefully reinforced his left hand with Light Magic to make sure they stayed intact.

"Maybe... with all of these treasures I can fulfil that goofy promise I made with my sis, David and Melanie!"

"I... I want to move you, Melanie, and Mr Melanie's Dad to a castle where we can all live together!"

The mage chuckled. "Gosh, how childish... but I do want to still do that. It's not the main reason why I want to be the Wizard King, but it'll show my gratitude to the ones who raised me", he smiled and blushed at the same time.

The Dual mage looked up and saw the other Knights scouring around the place. Mimosa had found a red robe, one that was similar to the one she was wearing and was playing around with it. Asta and Luck had found an old communication device that allowed themselves to be projected from. Yuno had been looking through different artifacts to see what they were like, whereas Noelle was busy floating around on a magical bubble she had found.

"Everyone seems to be at it", Lucas smiled. "Well, guess I'll contin-!"

"All of you! Stop touching things without permission! Who knows, perhaps these items are worthy of being national treasures!" Klaus screamed, though it was futile as everyone simply carried on with what they were doing. "And you, Lucas! To your previous point... we most certainly are not rewarded with treasures like this! It is all simply to benefit the prosperity of the Clover Kingdom!" He huffed, seemingly out of breath.

Lucas was slightly defeated. "Oh... I guess that does make sense", he half-heartedly agreed. His wishes of moving his family into a castle had been slightly postponed for the time being.

After Lucas's talk with Klaus, the Light mage decided to just look around instead of touch things for the sake of it. "That Klaus... I know he's my Senior but he's a bit too strict!" Lucas pouted as he dropped his shoulders.

As Lucas looked around, Yuno was also busy checking things out. He wasn't as interested in all of the gold and jewels as some of the others were, so he was looking for anything that caught his eye.

"Asta's busy running around and screaming. He really doesn't know when to calm down", Yuno shook his head with a slight smile. "There's just not that many interesting things here... it's just the usual stuff you would find in something like a treasure room".

The Wind mage looked around for a while. He had opened a few treasure chests and looked through a few books, yet found nothing. That was until a small scroll caught his eye, or rather his sense had picked up on. He turned his head towards a small podium that was stationed ahead and walked towards it.

"This podium... it has some sort of scroll on it and it's reacting with my magic. I wonder...", he reached out for it and opened the scroll to see what was inside. The contents of it were completely foreign to him. There was a language written within that Yuno had no knowledge of. As he tried to decipher it, even though there was no hope of doing so, his own grimoire started to glow a bright green light.

"My grimoire!" Yuno looked at it as it had started to glow. He then took a quick glance at the scroll and noticed that the ancient lettering started to fade away into oblivion. The individual etchings had disappeared and as the final letter went away, the four-leaf grimoire had stopped glowing.

"What... on earth was that?" He wondered, slightly worried and nervous.

Klaus looked around at all of the Magic Knights that were with him. "Honestly. What did I do to be stuck with these people? They touch anything that looks moderately interesting and then don't even apologise!" He shook his head.

The Steel mage then looked at his right arm and separated the two grimoires he was holding that belonged to the enemy mages. He placed one grimoire in his right hand and the other in his left.

"These are so odd. The spiky-haired guy's grimoire... It's light blue but also a dark red? It looks like it's been stitched together as well. And the other one... It's a soft purple, and a bright white colour? Just what is going on at their Kingdom? Are the experiments to do with this as well?" Klaus thought. "Well, then again... we do have two four-leaf users as well as someone with such a tacky grimoire that I wouldn't even want to touch, so there's that".

On the opposite side of the room, Lucas was just wondering around. He looked up and saw Noelle still floating, or rather playing, with the magical bubble she had found. "There she goes again!" He laughed.

"Now, Klaus said not to touch unnecessarily... the gold and jewels can be left alone for now... the books are interesting but they're just random records that don't exactly mean too much...", he analysed his surroundings.

The Dual mage had looked around for a while and he was about to head back to the rest of the group. "Well, that was boring! I was hoping there would be some other cool stuff like... ooh! Maybe some ancient plants or flowers! That would be so cool. I could bring them back and document them in my flower encyclopaedia!"

He stopped in his tracks. "Okay, maybe I should calm down a bit. There's no way something that cool would be her-!" He turned around and as he walked, he felt his shoes kick a large object. "Oops!"

Lucas looked down and saw a big treasure chest. It was much larger than the others and was coloured completely black. It was like the night sky during winter as the touch of it was cold too. There was no lock to it which meant that a key couldn't open it.

"No lock or keyhole... maybe it's open already?" Lucas tried to pull the chest open, curious about its contents, but he was unsuccessful in doing so. "Hm, there's no clear way to open it. Maybe I'll bust it open with my magic!"

There was a second of silence as Lucas thought to himself. "Wait, if I do that then Klaus will start shouting. What if I do it silently?" He smirked slightly. He thought of a cheeky plan to open the treasure chest that would cause no problems for Klaus.

"Okay...", Lucas put his left hand on top of the treasure chest, while his right arm rested on top as well. "Light Magic: Ange-!" As soon as the Golden Dawn mage activated his Light Magic, his left hand got glued to the top of the chest and Lucas was unable to pry it off. He then realised another thing. "Wait... my right hand is stuck to it as well! I didn't even use that other magic!"

The Dual mage started to panic. He couldn't get his hands away from the black treasure chest and he had started to think of the worst possible scenarios.

"What if I never get free of this? Will I be stuck like this forever?"

He shook his head violently to get rid of those thoughts. "No, no. Calm down. My hands are stuck so maybe I just use all of my magic to bust it open? I guess I'll deal with Klaus's punishment later...".

"Light Magic: Angelic Stri-! Nope, it just stops me using my magic...". As soon as Lucas would activate his magic, a weird energy that surrounded the black treasure chest would make it so that his magic stopped working. "This is different to what Asta does... it's not the same thing as his sword's power, so just what..."

"Wait, what if I...?" Lucas turned and stared at his right hand. He thought about using it, the dreaded Time Magic. He gulped and felt a pain in his throat. "I haven't used it since I was eight years old... I can't!"

Lucas thought about what happened the last time he used his Time Magic. The sound of a punch, a kick, as well as a whip, rang around his head.

"I won't use a spell. I'll just softly activate it... yeah, that shouldn't be a problem. Besides, no one can see me use it!" Lucas thought to himself, gaining a bit of confidence back that he had lost briefly.

The Dual mage took a deep breath and sighed. He opened his eyes and concentrated. First, he looked at his left hand. "Light Magic...", he had activated his magic on the left side of his body as he saw his hand light up. "Okay, next is... T-T-Time Mag-ic".

Lucas looked at his right arm as it started to light up a bright blue. His hand was enveloped in a blue light. Though, instead of it being a constant light, it was blinking. Lucas didn't have control over his Time half in the same way he did with his Light half, and so it was struggling to stay hold. "What do I do, what do I do?"

Lucas's worrying was short lived, however. As soon as he had dual activated, the treasure chest opened easily. It didn't even have to be broken apart.

"Wait... if it didn't have to be broken, was this chest just waiting for me to use both of my attributes?" He gulped once more, feeling terrified that someone had made this chest specifically for him. "No way... this chest can't have been made for me! Maybe there was a way to open it normally and I just couldn't find it! Yes, that's it...".

The chest opened and what was inside was something Lucas never expected.

"There's two... weapons? Two... blades?" Lucas thought as he picked them up.

The blades that Lucas had picked up were relatively easy to hold. They were made of a very hard material but were still very light. Each blade had a brown, wooden handle as well as a grip that was easy to hold. The grip was a soft and comfortable material which made it very easy to handle. There were certain indents within the grip of the two blades to allow the user to rest and cushion their fingers in.

The shape of the blades themselves were different from a traditional one. These were quite short and small, reinforcing how light they were as well as how easy they were to manoeuvre around. The sharp edge of the blade was the largest part of the weapon and the opposite area, the spine of the blade was normal as it went and joined up with the handle.

Each blade looked to be a pure matte black, however. They did not look appealing in an aesthetic sense but looked like they could deal a lot of damage if used properly.

Finally, one of the largest details about the blades was that they were connected by a tough chain at the end of their handles that could attach and reattach with each other.

"W-woah... these blades, they look so menacing, yet very appealing to me. If they were in a chest like that... that could only be opened by me then I think I should keep them... for now, at least", Lucas though to himself. He was still very weirded out about the entire situation. The fact that there was a chest that was essentially for him was the scariest thing for him to think about.

"Well, anyway, these blades are quite small. I wonder if I'll be able to use them properly? I may have to teach myself", the Dual mage thought with his Dual Blades in hand. "Though... me with weapons? I like flowers and such so even holding these things makes me feel out of place, haha. I guess there's a first time for everything!"

He was analysing the Dual Blades for a while when he picked up something approaching from the treasure room's entrance. "N-no way!" He quickly ran towards where the entrance was and saw his Golden Dawn teammates engrossed in whatever they were doing. Noelle had stopped playing with the magical bubble and joined up with Mimosa, whereas Asta was slightly further away being pecked on by Nero. The only person who had stopped in his tracks was the Lightning mage, Luck.

"I was sure I sensed-!" Lucas's thought process was interrupted by a shout from the Cheery Berserker.

"Everyone, look out!" He shouted quickly to the other Knights from atop the hill of golden coins and jewellery he was standing on.

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and reacted to the strange, yet powerful mana presence that had entered the treasure room.

The powerful mana presence wasn't just limited to one person though. There were two of them that had entered the area.

Out of the shadows that covered them, a huge crystalised structure emerged from within. It was that same soldier, Mars, who had come to fight again, and just behind him was beaten-up Illusion mage, Mystic.

"Y-you again! Oh, w-wait!" Klaus shouted. The grimoires he was holding wriggled free from the Steel mage's hold and quickly returned to their users. Mars and Mystic both caught their grimoires as soon as they flew over and started to flick through them.

The smoke from the emergence subsided and Mars walked forward in his Heavy Armoured Titan. His body was still covered in injuries, yet what he did next had everyone surprised.

"Flame Recovery Magic: Phoenix Feathers Robe". Mars summoned a recovery spell that helped to heal his wounds that he had sustained from the battle against Asta. The warm flames surrounded his body and relaxed his muscles whilst the healing process had also begun.

"Th-that's impossible! Everyone should have only one magical attribute! They should only be able to use... I, I just don't understand! Is this what the Diamond Kingdom experiments were? To enhance their military by creating dual attribute soldiers?" Klaus wondered, body shaking in fear and discomfort.

"D-dual attributes...! Just like Mystic! I... I should have told everyone! I... I made a huge mistake", Lucas was lost in thought and blamed himself for what was happening. He quickly ran forwards to help, yet Mars had already made his move.

"Mineral Magic: Crystalised Hold!" The Diamond mage summoned floors of hardened minerals that crept up towards the many Magic Knights. First, it took hold of Klaus and rendered him immobile. Next was Luck and Yuno. There legs were intertwined within the crystal structures that were summoned, also stopping them in their tracks. Finally, the spell had also reached where Lucas was and it made sure that he could not move, almost gluing his feet to the crystals that were sent.

Noelle then took her wand out and started to form a condensed water ball at the tip of it. "Hmph! There's no way you're coming in here and ruining our day. I'll just take care of those flames that are healing you in one momen-! AHHH!"

Noelle couldn't finish her sentence as she was sent backwards with a sharp cry that rang throughout the treasure room. Mars had moved his Heavy Armoured Titan's arm and, with huge force, sent the youngest Silva sibling flying.

The royal was in a heap on the floor. Her clothes were ripped and shredded, due to the sharp contact from the titan's crystals. As she was hit in the chest, many wounds had opened up from her neck down to her stomach with blood spilling outwards and everywhere. She had become unconscious.

"Noelle!" Mimosa cried out. She was not hit by Mars's punch, even though she was so close. The Vermillion quickly rushed over to tend to Noelle. "Th-this... is horrible!" Tears started to form in her eyes.

Asta was at the side of the room, and he couldn't believe his eyes. He saw the attack on his squad mate and was furious with the Diamond Kingdom mage. "N-N-NOELLE!" He screamed. The magicless mage started to run forwards with his large broadsword ready at hand. Thankfully, he had not been caught by the Crystalised Hold spell and could move fine.

Lucas, however, was completely distraught with himself. "If I were quicker at telling everyone about the mana presence... then Noelle would be fine... If I had remembered to tell them about the dual attributes, then we wouldn't be... in this... mess!" He teared up. He clenched his fists together, signalling his immediate frustration.

"Wh-what do we do...?!" The Light mage cursed.