Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.

Saga 1: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Hage Grimoire Tower, Clover Kingdom, Forsaken Realm (Evening)

PAIN.

All Asta can feel on his chest was the blood dripping out of his wound and the air escaping his now-punctured lungs.

His vision was blurring, his muscles were slowly going numb and cold, and all he can hear from his fading hearing was his killer's maniacal laughter and Yuno's pained cries.

"Sister... Yuno... Everyone back at Hage..." His mind tries to muster up the last of its fading strength as his other foot was slowly setting into the grave.

"KHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Revchi was outright reveling in the death of the ash-haired boy.

Previously, the youngster had tried to stop him from stealing Yuno's 4-Leaf Grimoire that he had received during the annual ceremony at the Grimoire Tower. But unlike his brother-in-bond, Asta wasn't able to receive his own, but even then, he tried not to lose heart in the face of this. Once going outside, the bandit mage ambushed Yuno with his [Chain Creation Magic: Magic Binding Iron Chain Formation], takes his grimoire, and proceeded to gloat about how he's going to sell it to the highest bidder, out loud.

Upon heating the man's treachery, Asta tries to save him, but he was quickly knocked back by his [Chain Creation Magic: Dance of the Pitless Viper], then got mocked for having zero mana in him, and even with that crushing revelation, Asta refused to bend to his will, then made a last desperate charge towards him, only to be impaled through his chest by his magic.

Even with both of his feet in the grave, Asta couldn't find himself to give up now.

After all, if he gave up on life now, then what's the point of his training towards his dream of being the next Wizard King?

Let alone, in front of Yuno, out all people!?

He's his rival, dammit!

With that reassurance in mind, Asta uses the last of his ebbing energy to do what's right.

And that is to stop this horrible man from stealing Yuno's faith, hope, love, luck, and above all, his future.

"Not... yet..." Asta's wounded and impaled body rose up onto its feet from the the cobblestone floor.

"WHAT THE HELL!? MY [Chain Creation Magic: Manhunter Iron Chain Javelins] SHOULD'VE FINISHED YOU OFF, YOU MANA-LESS VERMIN!"

Asta's mangled body trudges forward toward the now beyond-terrified Revchi and Yuno.

"Not yet... Not yet..." Asta's voice becomes hoarser with every feeble step that his nigh-mortem body takes. He then make one last desperate charge toward him.

"NOT YEEEEEETTTT!"

Revchi's fear suddenly turns to disgust.

"Shut up, you vermin." His grimoire flutters open its pages.

"[Chain Creation Magic: Eviscerator]." A rotary blade made of chains with teeth-like blades lining on its sides formed on the back of right arm and the spinning blade digs into Asta's shoulder, then his chest, and finally, out of his lower left rib.

"Just shut up..."

Asta's now-mutilated body falls lifelessly onto the stone floor below.

"AND STOP AND NOTICE THAT YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" Revchi goes into a maddened frenzy as then flails his demented weapon onto Asta's back, haphazardly hacking into his spine, spraying pieces of bone, flesh, blood, and bile all over the stone walls and floor.

And all Yuno can do was just watch helplessly.

After Asta's body was defiled beyond recognition, Revchi turns to Yuno with a crazed expression, void of all sanity.

"You know, I was planning to just take grimoire and leave you be in your shitty little life in the boonies. But after all this shit that just happened, plans have changed." Revchi's words begin to drip with venom. "So in other words..." The bandit then charges towards him with the now-bloodstained magic weapon.

"TIME KISS YOUR LIFE GOODBYE! KHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"This it it for me." Yuno thought. "Asta... Sister... Everyone..."

Death is now at inches away from him.

"I..."

"DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"I WANT TO LIVE!"

Yuno closes his eyes, but he then opens his eyes to see that the psycho's whole right leg being severed off... by wind.

From his grimoire, from Revchi's belt, out of all things.

"GYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Revchi screams in pain, flailing on the ground as his arms and his remaining other leg were sporadically dancing on their own. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?" A pool of blood begins to form next to his leg's stub.

Yuno then notices that his binding were being to feel a lot looser then before. He then notices that the bindings were accidentally cut off by the bandit's blade during his flailing. Yuno then takes this opportunity to completely free himself and snatch his grimoire off of his loose belt. He then gains distance away from the bandit and prepares his counterattack.

"YOU MONSTER!" Yuno roared out with all of his righteous rage. His grimoire opens up, revealing a new spell that answered to his desire to avenge his fallen brother and rival.

"[Wind Magic: Turbulence Fang Howling]!"

A violent vortex of wind blasted towards the fallen Revchi.

Revchi makes his last desperate stand against the enraged Yuno and the oncoming storm.

"[Chain Creation Magic: Rock-Shattering Anchors]!"

Numerous gigantic anchors shoot from the fallen bandit's grimoire. The metal anchors meet the storm.

The anchors are shredded into shrapnel upon entering the eye of the storm.

With the last figments of his hope of survival all but destroyed like his mighty anchors, the bandit mage was devoured by the vortex and shredded into mincemeat in a matter of seconds.

"Huff... Huff... I... I did it..." Yuno then falls onto his hands and knees, and proceeds to vomit on the cobblestone earth.

Yuno couldn't get the thought of seeing two people being horrifically murdered right in front of him today. The burdensome stress on his mind was almost too much to bear. But above all else, only one question stood in his mind;

Can he really justify this horrific act of violence as self-defense?

"Yuno! Asta!"" A familiar voice called out.

It was Sister Lily's.

Yuno tries to get up, but his legs were trembling too hard to even let him stand.

Yuno then hears a gasp, and sees Sister's horrified expression to the carnage that just passed by around Yuno.

"S-s-s-s-s-SISTER! IT'S NOT WHAT IT-"

Sister Lily tightly embraces Yuno with tears streaming down her eyes. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She sobbed out. "I'm so sorry..."

"Sister..." Yuno whimpered out. "Asta..." He then feebly points toward the mangled corpse of his brother.

Sister Lily then looks at the corpse, only to turn away in horror, and scrambles toward the nearest ditch or bush to vomit into.

"Yuno-onii-chan! Asta-onii-chan!" From the bushes emerged the orphans from the Church.

Upon the orphans seeing Asta's butchered body, Nash falls to his knees in disbelief with a horrified expression on his face, Recca dashes towarde Sister Lily and cries with her, and Aruru along with Hollo freeze in their tracks, traumatized.

Yuno then sees Father Orsi also emerge from the same thicket where the orphans came out from.

"Yuno!" He dashes toward the fair youth and tearfully embraces him. "Thank goodness that you're alright..." He whispers.

"But Asta..."

"Enough of that, at least you're still alive-"

Sister Lily slaps Father Orsi in the face.

"HOW COULD YOU EVEN SAY THAT TO YUNO'S FACE!? HAVE YOU NO SHAME!?" Sister fumed. "DID ASTA EVER MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU!?"

Father Orsi was stunned into silence. To him, Asta may have been a mana-less wretch who would be dead in short notice weren't for his intervention, and his fears/expectations were vindicated right in front of him.

That still didn't change the fact that one of the boys that he raised for over a decade was dead, nor can he deny that he was crushed by his inability to do prevent it in the first place.

But the question still stands; did he really mean anything to him?

The storm of mixed emotions of unfathomable turmoil and sadistic pleasure permeated his very soul at this moment. Father backs away from Sister and Yuno in shame.

"What now, Sister?" Yuno muttered out.

Sister Lily wipes the tears from her eyes. "Take him back with us and give him a proper burial." She limps herself back on her feet. "It's the most we can do."

Yuno nods as he also gets back up to his feet and stumbles toward Asta.

But just as he was about to reach out to his fallen brother, the stone wall next to him suddenly explodes.

"EVERYONE! GET BACK!" Yuno exclaimed as he prepares his grimoire once more against the new foe.

From the dust emerged a tall, lanky humanoid creature made of pure darkness. Its hair was wild and wavy like weeds from the fields, its eyes, teeth, and claws were sharp as knives, and its wings were broad and large like the church's bedsheets.

But above all else, this... creature, had an almost otherworldly presence to it. As if it shouldn't something that should've existed in the minds of mere mortals.

Combined with the fact that it had an nigh-uncanny resemblance to the demon from the fairy tale that Sister Lily read to him and Asta back at their time at church, Yuno can only draw one conclusion.

It was an actual demon.

The shadowy Demon looks at Asta's corpse and reaches out towards it with its clawed hands.

Yuno flies into rage. "[Wind Magic: Vacuum Grenade]!" Yuno then throws a ball of pressurized air toward the Demon, and upon physical contact, the ball explodes a sharp burst of gust, causing the demon to be... not fazed in the slightest.

"[Wind Magic: Crescent Moon Sickle]!" Yuno swings both of his arms outwards, sending a crescent blade of wind towards the demon.

The Demon responds by parrying the air blade with its claws, dissipating it.

Yuno stands frozen upon the realization that his spells are rendered useless against this foul entity. A four-leaf grimoire, once used by the first Wizard King to slay the demon and save mankind, but yet here he is, with the same power, same adversity, but different stakes, with inversed results.

"[Water Creation Magic: Holy Strike of Love]!" A giant fist made of water flies toward the demon, but this time around, the demon bobs and weaves under the punch, and drives a sharp punch of his own through Sister Lily's stomach, sending her barreling towards the stone walls.

"SISTER!" The church group cries out. Her mouth is choked with blood and her eyes were gaped open in a agony.

"[Fire Recovery Magic: Hearth of Respite]!" Father Orsi opens his grimoire and numerous small wisps of flame surround Sister Lily's broken, but still breathing form. "Hang in there!" Father then inputs more mana into his healing flames.

The demon meanwhile, takes advantage of the chaos, and snatches Asta's body from the pavement.

Yuno, upon seeing this, runs toward the demon holding Asta over its shoulder slowly begins to take flight. As he reaches out towards Asta, he grabs onto the demon's arm right before the demon itself kicks Yuno off of its arm.

Yuno catches himself mid-fall with his [Wind Creation Magic: Cushion Cloud] and uses his [Wind Magic] to boost himself upward to reach the demon holding Asta's body.

Yuno then reaches out toward Asta, only for him to grab his headband as it slips off of his head.

The demon lets out a shrill shriek before rending Yuno with his other clawed hand, causing him to lose focus on his magic as blood sprays out of his fresh cuts across his chest, and fall towards the hard cobblestone ground.

"Asta..."

As the demon flies off toward the sunset with Asta's corpse in tow, all he feels on his back was the sensation of him hitting the cobblestone ground before blacking out.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: So... a few things.

First, I had this idea brewing in my head for about a couple months. All of which include original characters (Names, Magic, Etc), headcannons (Raise your hand if you're not the only one bothered about the lack of lore of Diamond Kingdom, Spade Kingdom, Heart Kingdom, and Yami's homeland), and amongst other shit that I've drafted on my free time.

Second, will I continue on Nerve Damage: Season 2? Answer; I'm having too much fun to even stop.

Third, this is an AU/What-if fic and as time passes by (for context: Black Clover gets a new chapter every week), it might lean toward AU in terms of lore (headcannons really, I mean, the demons are up and center for this fic).

Fourth, let's just say that I'm going to put at least a good chunk of canon and original characters on the chopping block. If Tabata says in his interview that he took inspirations from Lord of the Rings for his general setting, then I'm heading toward Game of Thrones as my general tone direction.

Because f*cking reasons. Also the fact that there's a small part of me that wants to write a deconstruction fic of Black Clover.

Finally, after all the shit above, you may ask; "Am I f*cking insane?"

HAVE YOU EVER READ MY NERVE DAMAGE CONTINUATION FIC!?

Rhetorical question; Of course I am f*cking insane.

I'm pretty much walking on a minefield blindfolded at this point, but who knows;

I might come out partially intact.

If you have any questions, ask me. I like to hear on what you have to say about my Black Clover AU fic.