A/N: I just got into Black Clover, and like MHA it hooks me in… hard! So I feel like I would do it a service by writing about it. Since I have been pent up to do a story about Lizardmen as well, I decide to give Asta a blessing from a certain serpent god who will replace his main grimoire.

The White Serpent

Humanity had once came close to being eradicated by the demons.

But one mage rose up to save mankind.

He became a legend and the first bearer of the title the Magic Emperor.

Thereafter, generations of Magic Emperor came forward and safeguarded the Clover Kingdom and human.

Yet now, all of that was about to change.

It was a quiet day in the village of Hage. While the village was located on the Forsaken Region, territory reserved for those with low magical power and peasant, the people of this village could count some fortune for being born here because of the historical site close to the village; a giant skull of the three-eyed demon, long slain by the First Magic Emperor.

With the demon cranium overlooking them, the village received a little bit more attention from the kingdom guard patrols and could enjoy a peaceful daily life. Yet this was not to last.

A god slithered into this new world. This place would be its emerge site; this would be a place where it found its chosen, its herald, its prophet.

At the village orphanage-church, it was as lively as ever.

"Hey, Yuno! Fight me!" A boy, no older than nine with white hair and green eyes, yelled.

"No, that's a waste of time, Asta," a boy of the same age with black hair and amber eyes replied.

The white-haired boy, Asta, however, did not relent and jumped forward to try to tackle his 'rival', only for that said rival to dodge out of the way with ease. Unfortunately for Asta, he was being stalked from the grasses below.

Asta's face hit the ground hard and a blue-haired nun walked closer to see if he was alright.

"Please stop, Asta, you're hurting yourself," Sister Lily begged as she let one of the children she held in her arm down.

The boy lifted his face up and looked at the sister with a smile, "Don't worry! I will win this time for sure!"

Lily just sighed before returning the smile, but her expression quickly turned to one of horror as she saw something slithered close to the boy's hand.

A red snake with a ridged head.

"Asta get away from that thing!" Lilly yelled and ran up to him.

The boy only got a chance to turn around just in time to see the serpent bite down onto his hand. Within a few seconds that its fang sunk into his flesh and he could feel something being injected into his hand.

Once the snake let go, Asta could he the blood veins in his hand bulged and colored crimson. Worse, it's spreading.

The white-haired boy looked at the snake in shock and disbelief. The red serpent simply stared back at him with its cold yellow eyes.

"Asta!" Sister Lily shouted. She finally reached him and pulled him away from the venomous reptile. "Asta, are you alright?" The gentle nun asked.

The white-haired boy tried to answer but suddenly found his vocal cord burning like someone had poured acid down his throat. He felt numb; he felt like he was being burned alive from both inside and outside. The boy tried to scream, but nothing could come out, only weak gasping.

"Asta! Asta! Hang in there! Please!" Lily shouted, trying to keep the boy awake. "Yuno, please go find father!" She shouted to the black-haired boy who broke out of his shock state and ran off to do as he was ordered. The sister herself quickly ran inside the church to apply first aid. "Hang in there Asta. Please hang in there."

The sky had been blanketed by the stars. It was a very quiet night at the orphanage, no children cheering, no bedtime story, nothing could be heard but a weak sobbing.

Asta was lying on a bed with an extra layer of fabric to help absorb the bleeding that had taken place instead of normal sweat. As if that wasn't enough, trails of crimson ichor had also leaked from the corner of the boy's eyes and mouth.

The village doctor and herbalist had already come to check on him, but both had concluded that this was the work of arcane — they needed a mage. The local wizard Drouot then came to help, but found that he was unable to do anything because, as the old man put it in his shocking state, 'this is no mere magic, it's just… something else entirely.'

So, no one could do anything but waiting for the inevitable.

Drouot told them grimly that the boy would either die from the venom or from blood loss. However, Drouot had asked them, much to Lily's and Yuno's fury and the Father's dismay, for Asta's body to study this new poison. While refusing at first, they eventually gave in for the sake of others who might suffer the same fate as Asta.

It was to some fortune, well for them at least, that Asta had gone into a comatose state; saving them the despair of having to see him die with awakening terror on his face.

Sister was sitting beside him as he slept. Her eyes were red and dried trails of tear were very much evidenced on her visage.

"Asta," she said softly, wiping away a trail of blood that leaked from his mouth. Drouot said that with how much he bled, he wouldn't make it past tonight. "Oh, Asta." If Lily could cry more she would. "You are so young, you can do so much, please don't die." She knew that he couldn't hear her, but this was the boy she raised like a little brother and now he was about to disappear, forever. "Asta… if you come back… I will marry you as you ask, so please come back." No responses, only slowly breathing from the boy. "Please, Asta."

It was at this moment that she noticed something outside the window of the church infirmary. A pair of yellow eyes with slit pupils. It was at this moment that the sister realized what was on the other side, her fear and fury flared up but she was unable to act when the creature lung through the window.

The red serpent quickly wrapped itself around Asta. No longer was it the size of a regular snake, now it was a fully grown anaconda-sized snake that could strangle a fully grown bull or horse with ease.

"No! Let him go!" The sister shouted.

Her voice roused the others awake. Father Orsi Ofai got up and opened his door, intending to investigate why Lily had yelled in the middle of the night. What greeted him shock him to the core.

The church was littered with snakes and lizards of all forms, sizes, and colorations. Not a single inch in the holy place was not covered in reptiles.

"Aaahhh!" He heard another scream and saw that the children had also opened the door of their chamber to discover this as well.

"Children! Stay in your room!" Father shouted across and the girl who had opened nodded and was about to close the door, but one boy rushed past her and ran across the swarm of reptile.

"Yuno! Don't!" Orsi ordered, but it was no use.

Yuno headed straight for the infirmary, avoiding and blasting away any creatures in his way. But his lack of experience made him missed and it cost him.

A snake lung from the boy's blind side, its fangs sunk into Yuno's ankle. Within a few seconds, he collapsed, paralyzed by the venom, with a shocked expression stuck on his face.

Orsi readied his magic grimoire for the rescue, but in his determination he overlooked a snake from above that fell down and bite him in the neck. He soon suffered the same fate as Yuno. Both of them could do nothing but laid down paralyzed by the venom

'Asta, Lilly, I am sorry,' both of them thought in hopelessness as they could hear some kind of struggle coming out of the infirmary.

Back with the nun, she tried using every tool and magic available to her to free the white-haired boy from the serpent, but nothing work. Her magic dispelled upon contacting with the reptile, all tools and weapons broke against its hide, and no plea could be heard.

Eventually, Lily collapsed on her own accord, already exhausted beforehand.

"Please… let him go…" She managed to mutter before slipping into blissful unconsciousness. The snake spared her a glance then turned back to Asta as it leaned closer to the boy.

Asta slowly opened his eyes. He found himself in a void, empty and colorless. He got up from the ground and observed his surrounding.

"Hello!" He shouted.

There was a momentary silence.

"Warmblood," A voice replied from the shadow. The best way to describe the tone was 'rough', like something inhuman attempted to try to speak in the tongue of men.

"W-who's there!" Asta braved himself, but something in the very core of him, the base instinct of when men were but animal told him one thing; run.

"What is the last thing you remember?" The voice asked.

The boy straightened himself as he recalled his last memory.

"There was a snake and then… it bites me, then it hurt so much that I pass out," The white-haired boy retold.

"So you're not as idiotic as it appeared," the voice hushed.

"Who are you calling an idiot!" Asta shouted, fury flaring up. "And who the heck are you anyway!?"

There was a savage sneer echoed out of the shadow. "Who am I? I AM A GOD!"

The world suddenly exploded. The light blinded Asta for a few minutes before he finally regained his sight and witness what was before him.

No longer was he surrounded by darkness, but in another world. Asta stood on top of a step pyramid that reigned over the lush jungle of green. In the distant, the boy could see strange shapes moving in the sky, above the treeline, and down into the forest floor. He could even feel the heat.

A large shadow fell over him and he turned around to see what had created the shade.

Behind him was a serpent, tall as a mountain and wide as a great river. Its red scale reflected the orange sun and its cold gaze had made Asta experienced one thing he never had felt before: fear. The gargantuan snake lowered its head toward the white-haired boy.

With its main body that had obscured the view shifted, Asta could see that what stood before him was but a fraction of how massive this being was; he was sure that a few 'mountains' in the distant was not actually mountains.

The serpent extended its fork-tongue, tasting the air before wrapping them around the boy a few times.

Once the tongue retreated, it spoke, "Do you know why you were bitten?"

That was the same voice as back in the darkness. Now that the boy remembered it, this being looked nearly identical to that red snake, albeit the spinal spikes and occasional blue stripe that dotted its body. Then the boy finally got it.

"Ah! You're the one who bit me!" He yelled at the primordial god.

The serpent simply stared at the boy.

"It's good that intelligence was not the trait I am looking for," the being hushed. "Answer the question, warmblood." It commanded.

"How the heck should I know why you sent a snake to kill me!"

"Kill you?" The god merely blinked. "If I wish to do that, I wouldn't have sent a mere serpent, presuming you even deserve the attention from the start."

"Then why?!" Asta questioned.

The gigantic snake waited for a few moments before sneering, "Warmblood, always so emotional, but at least your personality is more fitting than others of your kind, but this is none of your concern. Do you know who I am?"

"What the heck are you on about! Why are you keep asking questions!? Why can't you jus-" The boy complained was cut off when a powerful quake shook him off his feet.

"Answer. The. Question. Warmblood." The great serpent commanded.

For the second time in his life, Asta experience fear.

"Y-you said you are a god, right?" he answered.

"Good, at least you have a decent memory." The being gave a low hiss. "I am a god from beyond this world, I am the most infamous of the Old Ones, I am the Deliverer of the Lustria." The serpent moved away and slithered at the speed Asta thought impossible for something of its size. As its body moved, everything around the god was destroyed by the mere movement of the great serpent. The sound of hundreds of creatures cried out their dying scream echoing throughout the ravaged jungle.

The green of trees was quickly being replaced by the red scale of the being and nothing was left but the body of the serpent that stretched as far as the eyes could see wherever Asta looked. With a mere whim of a god, the entire ecosystem was destroyed. The serpent had extended its head upward, now looking down on him from beyond the sky.

"I am the Lord of Reptile, I am the Arch-Enemy of the Horned Vermin God, I am the Bane of all Skavenkind, I am the Serpent God: Sotek!"

Asta's heart beat faster and faster with each passing seconds he stared into the primordial god's eyes. In his mortal heart, he knew that he was indeed looking at a divine being.

"You shall be my prophet, little warmblood," Sotek said.

That broke Asta out of his trance and blinded.

"W-what do you mean?" The boy asked.

"I have come to this new world to spread my influence, but without any children of the Old Ones in your world I decide to use the native populace instead," Sotek lowered his head back to the previous level. "I have peered into the threads of fate of this world and saw you close to its center," a glint in Asta's eyes shore. He was important! "Do not get ahead of yourself. There are many who were as significant, if not more, as you are in the grand scheme of things, you are simply the most compatible."

The boy took a few seconds to gather himself and spoke back.

"S-so, you want me to be like a priest?" Asta didn't actually look forward to turning into someone like Father Orsi, even if he was grateful for all the support the priest had given him all this time.

"I do not have 'priest', those who worship me does not do so from a shrine, but on the battlefield and from the sacrificial altar," the Serpent God clarified. "I foresaw that you will come into many conflicts in the future. Not only that but your wild nature, your lack of human decency, your wit in battle, and your lack of magic make you ideal for being my prophet."

"How does any of that make me a good choice?" He questioned at being reminded that he lacked magic, not that that was going to stop him from being a Magic Emperor.

"The first two qualities make you similar to the Lizardmen, the creature that serves us Old Ones. The third one is necessary because, as I said, my worshippers will find themselves on the battlefields. The last one is a fail-safe trait, but you need not know more than that. But now come the last matter," Sotek observed Asta up and down one last time. "Do you accept this honor, little warmblood?"

"I don't like a bully who goes around biting people!" As strange as that phrase was, the boy was indeed don't like being press-gang like this.

"You can always refuse," Sotek retorted.

"Then I-"

"But my venom shall kill you."

There was a momentary silence.

"You're cheating!" Asta shouted. Sotek's face indicated no humor, however.

"There is no such thing as 'cheating' when it comes to the game of the gods, warmblood. There is no rule, only life or death. Now, do you accept to be my prophet?"

Asta paused, between being used or die he wasn't sure what to choose. Would he die a free man or shackled to the will of a god. Then he thought of them — Yuno, Lilly, Oris, and the other children. If he died then what would happen to them? So Asta finally decided.

"Alright, I accept," Asta replied with determination in his eyes.

"Good," Sotek tried not to look disappointed. Heroic type, they are always the same, especially for a warmblood.

The world around them began to shook, but unlike the quake from before, it was as if the entire reality was breaking apart.

"W-wwhat is happening?!"

"Our deal is sealed, my servant shall await you in the waking world. He shall be your guide. Do not disappoint me, prophet of mine."

With that, Asta's world was consumed in white light again.

The white-haired boy opened his eyes again. He quickly got up in shock and looked around.

He was in the infirmary, sitting on a bloodstained sheet, and Sister Lily was on the floor, unconscious.

"Lily!" Asta shouted and immediately jumped down from the bed to check on her. He observed her, unable to find any injury or any harms on her body or in their surrounding. "Lily wake up!" He shook her but there was no response.

Asta heard a snake hiss, he looked over to see the very same serpent that bit him earlier pointing its tail to a wooden cup next to it. Despite its previous action, something told him to trust this creature.

"She needs to drink that?" The reptile nodded. Asta quickly rushed to get the cup and placed it near Lily's mouth before slowly feed the nun whatever liquid that was inside the cup. Within a few heartbeats, Lily slowly opened her eyes.

"Asta?" The nun hushed. "You… are… okay?" She managed to mutter.

"Never better!" He replied with a wide grin. Lily could only utter a weak smile back.

"Asta! Lily!" Father Oris and Yuno burst into the room. "Asta you awake! Are you two alright?!" Oris asked in both shock and happiness.

"Yeah, but I think Lily need a rest," the white-haired boy informed.

Asta help Lily got back up on her feet and father and Yuno made their way toward them. However, midway Yuno barred the priest way with his arm.

"Wait, there's a snake," the black-haired boy said and pointed at the red serpent on the nearby table.

"There are snakes and lizards everywhere, Yuno," Oris reminded the boy. Though even he wondered why they suddenly became non-hostile all of the sudden.

"This's the one that bit Asta," the boy informed much to the father shock.

Asta, on the other hand, just approached the red serpent much to the father's and Yuno's surprise.

"Are you the servant, he mentioned?" The serpent merely nodded. "Do you have a name?" It didn't react, but a name simply appeared in Asta's head. 'Tehenhauin' was the word that appeared, but it was quite hard to understand by either a mere eight-year-old or someone who was not accustomed to the tongue of the Lizardmen

"Tahun… Tehan… Tupac… AH! Just Tehen then!" The snake just stared at Asta, no emotion visible on its face.

"Asta… why are you talking to a snake?" Oris asked as the three others were too uncomfortable to approach.

"Oh right!" The white-haired boy turned around back to them. Now the others noticed one feature on Asta that had changed, a strand of his hair had changed to the shade of crimson. "A snake god named Sotek make me its prophet!" The boy said bluntly, which followed by much disbelief, questions, and a very convoluted explanation.

Suffice to say, the fate of Clover Kingdom had changed much just in a single day.

A/N: I got no Beta reader on this one yet, Black Clover fandom isn't that big.