Note! None of this is following canon material and is just my own telling of the story and my ideas from the 6 month time-skip onwards. Most events around the time though remain canon-based but the story will change from thereon!

In a world where magic is everything, he was born with nothing. In a world where nobles look down on the weak and poor, he grew up in the forsaken land, left to a church. Yet, in a world where dreams where always shattered and belittled, his aspirations spread greater than the universe could ever comprehend.

Just as those loved by mana said, Asta was the bottom of society, a boy who would be even rejected to crop farms or become a wood-cutter due to his absence of magic. He would amount to nothing greater than a failure it seemed, and society did it's best to enforce it that way.

He was a one-of-a-kind, but one that society mocked.

None of this was helped by the fact that his childhood brother was a polar opposite to his power, he was loved by mana beyond belief. This didn't stop their flourishing bond though. Even without blood to tie them together, they were much closer to one another than through blood. They were rivals to one another after all, each having the aspiration to reach the top of the ladder, and become the Wizard King.

Despite all adversity, nothing stopped both Asta and Yuno. Asta found his way to fight, his breakthrough to cut down adversity, and so together, they aimed for the top, and overcame the many hurdles on their way to reach as high as the sky could limit them. The nobles, and all those who looked down on them in pity, never had to do it for long, as the duo of peasants seized every moment, and ascended to become Magic Knights, and even beyond.

They continued to ascend to be the core for the future of the Clover Kingdom.

Darkness, that's all that enveloped Asta's perspective as he felt his soul wander through the empty space of complete nothingness. Then again, darkness wasn't exactly a new concept Asta was new to, the base of his whole power was a dark, corrupt source after all.

He wandered throughout the darkness, his soul not reaching any light as all there seemed to be was complete nothingness. There was no life around, no light or air, no sound at all to nourish the ears… Or at the least, that was for the start. For him, he couldn't sense anything that had any ki at all, it was a vacuum of nothing for some time that his mind was conscious too.

"What is this…? I feel...nothing. This hasn't happened before, has this? Why do I feel some consciousness? Why is my brain letting me see this? Why is there nothing? Am I going insane?" Asta thought to ponder one after another with no rest between. His brain normally fried out of any usefulness when a situation of confusion happened but in such a drowsy state, he simply wasn't even capable of thinking so deeply.

"Asta..."

He heard the mumble of his own name as he suddenly became more aware. But even despite hearing for himself, he could sense no ki at all. There was nothing, so what was this voice?

"Asta…!"

He leant up as he managed to get some sensation of feeling in his body, "What is this? There's nothing I can sense but there must be something? Am I going insane? Is this voice my own?" He felt relatively calm for such a state of confusion, somewhere he would have malfunctioned over several times if this were a different time.

"Asta!"

He finally felt a whole sense of himself as he noticed a growing red light all around. Finally he felt a ki of...something… "What's this? Why do I feel something ominous? What's this pressure?"

"Asta I…!"

There were too many questions, too little answers as the ki began to grow. It had developed so much, from a feeling of nothingness to a sudden overwhelming feeling of pressure. It was as if he was beginning to be compressed from all angles.

"Asta I love…!"

His brain began to feel the overwhelming sense of confusion as his skin began to suffer with a tingling sensation. That soon developed further to irritation as his whole body suffered the pressuring feeling further. "Love?"

"Asta YOU WILL…!"

The messages in his mind began to interchange as his world mentally felt to topple, a nauseas feeling overwhelming him and his brain began to process even slower than it used to. He wasn't sure if it was his brain furthering into confusion, but between the voices in his head and the ominous pressure, his mind flashed images of a strange man. His body was rather unworked and slender it seemed, but most of it was impossible to differentiate as his figure was shrouded in complete darkness. The most he could capture was a disturbed face, covered in black markings, but with a piercing and devilish look in his eyes.

"Asta I lo- YOU ARE"

Asta felt an even greater pressure against himself as he grit his teeth. Regardless, his physique was well enough to handle to pressure exerted upon him. "Who are these voice? I don't understand… Who's this figure?"

"Asta I AM...!"

Slowly, Asta felt his body float closer to the radiant light, or at least the spot where he felt the highest feeling of a resonating ki. "Just...who is this? Why is he appearing to me? Is he just part of my imagination? He was a shadow mostly after all…

"Asta SEE ME…!"

He felt more alert, like a wild animal as his senses peaked again in the moment. He let out very slight grunts of frustration as he began to feel all the pressure and sensations add to one another as his body felt like it was burning alive, each molecule of his skin feeling the same agony as another as it only grew more irritant.

"Asta DIE..!"

The pain he was feeling before only upped in ante as he failed to contain it. He let out wails of pain as his whole body began to suffer as the sense of ki kept dramatically escalating and the overall intensity of his surroundings constantly multiplied. "What is this?! Why does this hurt!? Stop this!"

"Asta OBEY…!"

All control of his body suddenly felt lost as he no longer felt like himself. All mechanisms in his body felt interrupted and out of control as his body began to overload. "STOP! It hurts! None of this is real at all!" The single image kept flicking in his mind as he began to burst out in agony.

"Asta SUFFER…!"

The only sensation he could now feel was pain, as his whole body became coated in that singular feeling. It was unbearable, like he was a human bonfire in a sea of nothingness. But, in-between that pain, a single image flashed in his mind, an image of a bloodied woman, with a dark stain of blood in the centre of her chest as she reached towards Asta with a faint, yet saddened smile...

"Asta I love you, my dear son..."

There was a moment of silence in Asta's mind as his body resisted against the image before it. His body didn't have time to figure itself out as one last voice echoed through…

"Asta WAKE UP!"

Asta was thrown into shock as he suddenly awoke, feeling a strong mark across his cheek as his dazed vision gazed down towards the floor drunkenly. He felt so numb regardless, that the feeling of the impact against his cheeks was simply nothing.

"Oi! Look at me meat-brain!" Asta heard as he felt himself grasped, with the hand grasping around his cheeks and centring his vision, which made it clearer to his mind who wanted attention, which was clearly Noelle. "Can you snore any louder!? I'm trying to sit here but all I can hear is your ugly tone!"

Asta finally zoned back into reality as he glanced around as much as he could in his position, sighting how he was on the couch, "Sorry?"

"Yes! You better be!" Noelle grunted like a wild animal as she wiggled her arm slightly, shaking his head from left to right as she stared intensely into him with a serious gaze.

"Aw come on now, leave the poor little boy alone," Vanessa lightly chuckled from the other chair as peaked around to see Asta's poor, lousy body being toyed with, "you can't blame him, he seemed exhausted last night after all so you can't blame him for tucking out on the sofa! He must have just been putting in his usual 110%"

Noelle looked slightly dejected to be lacking someone on her side, "B-but didn't you hear how loud he snores!?"

Zora looked on from the sidelines as he shook his head in disappointment, "I think it'd be a nightmare to have either of you for a living. I wonder how Asta copes with you mainly though rather than you groaning about his snoring."

"That's not how you talk to a royal!" Noelle puffed her cheeks as she continued to fling Asta's head in different directions subconsciously.

"And that's how you treat a comrade?" Zora coldly replied as he rolled his eyes towards the royal as she finally released his face from her grasp. "Then again, over these last few months she has gotten more like this, more confident around Asta at least. I wonder if she'll gain any more guts though cause she looks as far in denial as you can get involving feelings with others."

Vanessa finally stood and approached Asta as Noelle returned to her single portion of the seat, "Oh, don't be so harsh! It wasn't just snores, I heard a few whimpers too! Did our poor little boy perhaps have a nightmare?" She pinched a small portion of his cheek and tugged it as she only laughed, and Asta blushed.

Noelle was momentarily filled with shock at seeing Asta's blushes as she grit her teeth, "Damn it, why does he look so cute when he's blushing!? Why does he never blush to me!? What am I doing wrong1? N-not like a care!"

Zora glared on despairingly, "She abuses the poor boy and still wonders why she's not having the same affect? Is she just arrogant or genuinely stupid? I'm betting on the latter."

"O-of course not!" Asta stuttered as he looked embarrassed. And tried to hide his face, only for it to get tugged back, with Vanessa edging closer to him.

"Oh come on! What's wrong? Don't you need an embrace from big sis?" Vanessa lightly chuckled as she seemed to take enjoyment out of this.

Asta tried to back away but was already too close to escape, "A-are you drunk again!?"

"Of course not! I'm not always drunk!" Vanessa rolled her eyes slightly.

Noelle glanced back slightly as she rolled her eyes too while muttering, "Well you always seem to be honestly."

Asta's memory managed to track back into his nightmare as he remembered the woman he saw, and the brutal wounds on her body. Without even realising it, a single tear streamed down his left cheek as everybody was caught surprised. The rather drunken and cheery face of Vanessa right before his eyes moulded into a look of concern and confusion as she released her grasp of him. He felt the warmth of his own tear as he looked as speechless as the rest, "Why...why does that image of her make me sad? What does she matter to me? I've...never seen her before, and yet, why am I so sad."

"A-Asta?" Vanessa began in some confusion, "what's wrong?"

Instinctively, Asta responded, "Vanessa, can we talk outside instead?"

Both Noelle and Zora glared in surprise as the string mage complied, "Oh, uh, sure!" The two of them abruptly left and abandoned the room in a long, deep silence from thereon.

When they made it to a quiet space, no time was wasted to wallow in self pity as Asta went straight into the waters of the topic, "Just between us, back there, I really did suffer a nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Vanessa pondered, "you shouldn't need to hide what's going on you know, we all have tough times so...I...and everybody else are here for you."

Asta reflected an anxious look, "I know...but...this felt different..."

"Different?" Vanessa questioned as she crouched down slightly to look eye-to-eye and see more clearly into him, "how so, little boy?"

Asta already felt the shivering feeling throughout his body as he trembled where he stood, "Something was wrong. There was an ominous feeling, I felt like there was a presence with me, toying with my mind and overwhelming me."

Vanessa observed his trembling as she softly held his hand and patted him on the head to try and sooth his nerves, "He's never been like this before. Usually if he had a nightmare, he'd be freaking out and jumping all around. This time though, he seems sad and concerned. Something must be off about this, Asta wouldn't change so much to a situation unless he was rocked to his core by it. He seemed even less saddened when he had his arms cursed."

Far above in the base, Noelle placed herself on an overlooking windowsill of the two as she gave a concerned look, glaring down at them both, "Asta… Why's he so despaired? This isn't like him at all..."

"I guess when his shell is broken, it's really shattered," Zora sighed as he glared down along with her, "who knew that meathead has so much bottled inside of him."

"I'll do my role as his senior and set him back on track," Vanessa gave a final thought before fully focusing attention on the saddened little boy. "Maybe it was just a one time thing, if this is the first time you've had such a nightmare, it'll most likely never occur again. It could just be an anomaly with your sleep finally catching up to you, you have worked yourself to the bone for months now after all," she tried to reassure.

Asta seemed to get more teary without fully expressing the sorrow in his face as he tightly gripped Vanessa's hand even more while glancing straight towards her now, "N-no...there was a woman, sh-she was..." The tears streaming down his face flooded even more as they raced down his cheeks to the tip of his chin and leaped away to the floor below.

"There, there, don't rush it out," Vanessa comforted as she drew him inwards with a warm embrace, feeling his hands tightly cling to her with a desperate feeling. "Something is definitely wrong, he's never had a reaction like this, I can feel his desperate feelings. Furthermore, it's the first time I've even seen him cry. He's such a courageous spirit, even at the deepest moments of adversity he was never wavering so much."

"I-In my nightmare...there was a bloodied woman, she seemed so wounded and on the verge of death...but...she was reaching towards me, with nothing but a calm smile. I don't know who she is...but for some reason my body's first instinct is to cry..." Asta sobbed as he felt the back of his head being gently stroked. "B-but she said something to me I can't r-remember, but all I recall was an overwhelming feeling of tragedy from those words."

Vanessa felt more concerned as she held him even closer to herself, "Could that be some sort of memory? Maybe it's just his mind fooling him, like a single figment of his imagination." "Come now, don't let yourself despair so much. Don't you remember how you resisted it so much against Vetto? I thought you said you wouldn't let it get in the way of your dreams?"

Asta looked less glum as he slowed his tears and eased his pressure, "Y-yeah b-but..."

"Then why are you letting a bad dream get to you? I understand the sorrow you saw, but that sorrow hasn't been realised in reality yet, has it? What you saw may be the future if we don't stop this Devil," Vanessa interrupted. "It'd be best if I diverted his mind from it as he hasn't fully understood it yet, for all he knows it could be meaningless moments in his mind that have been manipulated," she thought before returning to her problem child again, "don't let it despair you, you're Asta after all, the little pumpkin of a kid that inspires everybody so much. What kind of example are you showing now?"

"She's right..." Asta thought to himself, "I pride myself on saving and aiding others. They tell me it themselves, and yet, I let myself wallow so low? Yuno would never despair like this...what am I doing!? I can't let a single nightmare hold me back that hasn't even been realised yet! I'll prevent such a future! I'll overcome these nightmares, and defeat the Spade Kingdom, together!"

Vanessa gave a wide smile, seeing the determination resonating within him again as his tears dried, only leaving the glistening reflection of where the tears once were as he forced back his confident smile, looking up to Vanessa's satisfied expression.

"That's the Asta I adore!" Vanessa cheered as she squished him against her, leaving his arms to flail as all she could hear was his muffled complaints, "it's the Asta we all do little boy. We all love you dearly." Vanessa let a single tear escape her as she gently wiped away his tears instead, "Please, for us all, stay brave, because we'd all put out lives on offer to save and protect you."

Asta blushed slightly as she swept away his tears and stroked his head once more, "Now let that be the last time I hopefully have to see you cry, or unless you end up so happy you cry."

"Th-thanks Vanessa...sorry to be a hassle..." Asta blushed as he tried to avoid eye contact with her out of embarrassment.

"No, no!" The sting mage cheered, "we're like family, so your big sis doesn't mind looking after you!"

Asta only blushed further as he tried to shake himself out of his imagination, "W-well I'm hear to look after you too th-then! I'll be a great protector for everyone!"

"You've already done a great job of that, little boy," Vanessa smiled as she pat his head once more, reminiscing of their previous encounters.

"Oi, what's going on?" A stern voice questioned as the foreboding figure of Yami appeared before them both. He was always practically exerting darkness as he groaned each phrase through his cigarette.

Vanessa released Asta as she spun him around to face Yami, while resting her arms on Asta's shoulders, "Oh, nothing much. We were just having a friendly chat! I never expected you to make it off of the loo so soon though."

Yami took a puff from his cigarette as he exhaled all the smoke at once, judgementally staring down and spotting the faintest of traces of Asta's tears, "I don't know what you consider a friendly chat then. Were you bullying him or something? If so, just go ahead cause I don't care."

"It was nothing! There's no way I'd bully such a cutie so cruelly!" Vanessa cheered as she tugged on his cheek slightly.

"Both of you are terrible liars, you should practice that too," Yami sighed again, "but if you don't want to tell me then I don't mind, but you better get on with chores ASAP, then us two are training together. I want to see how much you've developed from the pushover you started as." Yami began past the two of them.

Asta thought more than he had ever before it felt as he turned to the back of a progressing Yami, "I had a nightmare. That's why I'm teary, that's why I'm here right now."

Yami glanced back, recognising the potency of such a minor event as he took another puff and walked to Asta, "You're not one for nightmares or crying are you? Must have been a bad one then eh?" Asta remained mostly silent as he looked down in embarrassment. Yami raised his hulk of a right arm as he gently pat the boy on the head, "Though I think crying is an ugly look for you, I hope you recognise there's no shame in fear. Whatever you saw, whatever stirred these emotions in you, know that it's nothing to cower about. Let it inspire you instead, to overcome that nightmare. You know what I think of all this fate bullshit and that, so if you're worried the future, remember it's in your hands."

"Oh my! Captain Yami maybe isn't a complete jerk after all to Asta! You two must be getting on really well!" Vanessa exclaimed in jubilation.

"Meh, he's ok," Yami sighed as he tightened his grip around the skull of the boy and lifted him without a shed of caring, "just because he's better than trash doesn't mean I like him.!

Vanessa rolled her eyes, "Sure, I bet he's your favourite deep down tough guy. You never take any of us out for training!"

Yami tightened his grip on Asta even more, hearing the kid faintly beg for any mercy at all, "Only because he's the bastard we're relying on to dice this Devil mainly. Also I want a punching bag and he's a viable solution, unless you wanna take his place?"

"I'm all good thanks," Vanessa sighed as she looked in pity at the suffering boy, "don't kill him though, I could use with that little bull still."

"Pfttt, sure. Firstly though..." Yami loaded his arm like a canon, "GO DO THOSE CHORES!" He blasted the innocent teen at full force against the fort, making way for him to have an even greater clean-up as the front door blew off cleanly in the wake of the human projectile.

Vanessa glanced towards Yami, "Now he's gone, wanna tell the truth?"

The captain took another long puff into his cigarette as he began forth, "I was honest saying he's no trash, but he's special too I suppose. Try and not taint him for me, I'm gonna mould him all the way to him becoming the Wizard King myself. The kid has it in him to go all the way."

Vanessa stayed still as Yami continued onwards again, leaving her behind as he followed his trail of destruction. Before he could reach back inside though, he heard a shout from the String mage which made him turn once more…

"Wait…! I think you need to hear of what he saw..."

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy this and I hope you have a wonderful day! :D

Hope I can get a rhythm going eventually and provide an entertaining story for anyone who will hang along!

NEXT CHAPTER: How Far We've Come