The Devil's in the Details

-Asta pov-

After defeating dark elf Patri with the help of Noelle's big brother. Asta managed to pull the elf out of the depths of his own despair and return him back to his normal state... Well normal enough. Despite no longer being a dark elf, the sclera in his left eye remained black and he still had access to his [Demon light] magic.

!!!

'This magic... What is this!!'

Feeling such heavy fluctuations in the devil's mana signature from above, Patri, Yuno, Mimosa and Nozel's heads snapped upwards.

With large beads of sweat rolling down their faces, the magic sensitive quartet found themselves barely able to form a complete sentence.

"T-This magic power..."

"What is that thing..."

Only Asta who couldn't sense magic remained completely calm. But from the looks on the faces of his friends, a heavy feeling formed in the pit of his stomach as he raised his head up.

"Grim..."

---

-Hage Village-

Following Nero's directions, Finral inserted the magic stones into the stone statue that stood upon the demon's head.

*Sweatdrop*

"Only the eyes are left." He muttered as he put the final two stones into the eye sockets.

*Click*

Once the final stone was inserted, some kind of reaction seemed to take place as the statue started glowing.

*Humming sound*

"What the!!... Is this-MAGIC POWER!!"

---

-Shadow Palace highest level-

'Well... This doesn't look good.'

Speaking in the language of hell, a dark circular portal formed behind Zagred's back. And out from that portal came a flood of weird purple CGI looking stuff.

Facing the weird CGI looking purple stuff that writhed out of the portal, Grim felt his hand tightened on the hilt of his sword.

But instead of feeling fear, his heart started beating even harder. After tapping into his true potential with his elven form, the amount of viable opponents in this kingdom had quickly diminished. Even that ferocious lioness Mereoleona was no longer on his level. Besides Licht and maybe the wizard king, no one else could compete with the current him. And after adapting to the devil's fighting methods he felt like he had lost another... playmate. But now! Seeing this! It looked like he had trump card he hadn't been using this entire time! How could Grim's heart not skip a beat!

And without knowing why, he figured out that the purple stuff Zagred had summoned was solidified magic from the underworld.

"Whoa, what the hell's that?" A familiar voice rang out from nearby.

'That voice!'

Hearing the familiar voice, Grim's head snapped to the side.

Standing there was a bulky man in a plain white t-shirt and black trousers. Holding a katana in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other, the man made a confused face when he saw the solidified magic pouring out of the portal.

"What a weird day..."

"YAMI!!" Grim exclaimed seeing the leader of his squad standing only a few metres away from him.

'Wait a second! How'd he get in here? I didn't feel his mana or ki with Asta and the others.'

"Licht..." Down at Licht's side stood the captain of the Blue Rose squad, Charlotte Roselei... Well the elf version of her at least. Those marks of reincarnation didn't lie.

"Yo brat." Yami called seeing Grim.

"What is this stuff?" He pointed at the solidified magic. "And what's that weird black thing over there?" He said referring to the devil.

Seeing the new arrivals, Zagred's feet slowly began to leave the ground as he rose higher and higher into the sky until he could look down on everyone present.

No longer in the mood to play around, he floated silently in the air and just stared at them in an unsettling manner.

'Creepy.'

"I am different from you." He suddenly started speaking and spread his arms wide.

"In fact, I'm from a completely different dimension. Beating me is impossible. My word soul magic is unstoppable."

'So that's what its called.'

"A mere elf, human, crossbreed and half conscious mortal can't beat me. So do what all inferior species do-

'Half conscious? Whose's half conscious? Yami? No, the devil clearly refered to him when he mentioned a human.

But then who?

The Blue rose captain?

No, she's the perfect image of a "mere elf". And I don't think he'd call Licht "mere elf."

He can't be talking about me since he called me a crossbreed again.

That just leaves... Licht... But that's impossible right? I mean yeah he doesn't speak much, and when he does its slow like he's on the verge of falling... asleep...

No... no that's not right... I mean he's talking a lot more now than he did when he fought me in the eye of the midnight sun's H...Q...'

Slowly connecting the dots together, Grim's head slowly panned in Licht's direction.

As if sensing him, Licht's also moved so that his eyes locked with Grim's.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

With Zagred's monologue going on in the background, for the first time since the two had met, Grim looked into Licht's eyes. And what he saw were dazed eyes that didn't have a shred of emotion in them. Not droopy or unfocused, but definitely not the eyes of a person who was completely here.

Realizing what this all meant and recalling his fight with him, the only thing Grim could say in this situation was-

"Fuck."

---

[Dark Cloaked Dimension Slash]

[Rengoku]

[Briar Magic]

[Demon Dweller Sword]

Attacking the solidified underworld magic, the quartet were slowly being pushed back by the overwhelming size of the spell. If things didn't change soon, they would be overrun by the purple monstrosity.

"FufufuhahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!" The devil clutched its face and let out a chillingly gleeful laugh.

For the first time since fighting the half breed, he was finally able to push him back properly. Who knew that all it took was a spell from his grimoire?

So what if the effects of his magic was reduced when faced against Grim! As long as he could overwhelm him he'd win!

[Rengoku]

[Rengoku]

[Rengoku]

Firing off blast after blast, Grim managed to push back some of the solidified magic, but with the amount coming at him it was only a matter of time until he'd be defeated.

"Just as I thought." Zagred mumbled watching the entire thing from above.

'His magic is able to interfere with the otherworld... Good thing I got him now before he was able to grow.'

And while Grim's action had drawn his attention, Zagred was more caught of guard by Yami.

Watching him continously fire off dark magic spells, he was surprise to find another individual whose magic was capable of interefering with the other world.

Unfortunately Charlotte's briar magic was useless here as every attack she fired was swallowed by the spell.

"Impressive... You are all really impressive. But, you still cannot win. No matter how much you struggle, no matter how much effort you put in, my magic will devour you all."

[Rengoku]

*BANG!!*

[Dark Cloaked Avidya Wild Slash]

*BANG!!*

"So struggle humans... elves, struggle until you breathe your final breath."

*BOOM!!*

"URGH!!" Forced to retreat backwards, Grim felt every bead of sweat fall from his face.

'Dammit! Dammit!! Dammit!!! This magic is really shitty and all, but god dammit I got admit that this is insanely fun!-

*Swoosh!*

*Bang!*

Fighting against a super strong opponent-

*Bang!!*

With my back against the wall-

*BANG!!*

And the odds stacked against me!-

*BANG!!*

WHAT COULD BE BETTER!!!'