Letting his head drop for a moment, Asta saw his hands resting on the window sill, they were slightly trembling. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on his spells and arrays, hoping to find relief in work. Sadly, it only frustrated him more since he wasn't able to make any progress due to the feelings haunting his mind.
He had kept quiet about it, and still wasn't planning on talking about it, but Lucas' words earlier pulled the lock around his heart loose. Looking over the maps he made, Asta felt like punching himself.
"Dammit!", slapping himself on the face, he jumped through the window, flying to the red night sky. Going higher and higher, he eventually reached the point where the oxygen in the air was too low to breathe steadily. The cold invaded his body, but the complete silence was worth it.
There was no dust, no broken windows, no poorly made maps, nothing. Looking downwards, there was nothing clearly visible, all but specks on the ground. Turning around, he let his face stare straight into space.
A few days passed as Asta tried to calm himself down. The cold atmosphere, the pure silence made room for his chaotic mind. He knew it wouldn't be easy to visit Agatha, hence why he chose her first.
From before he even returned to Sabaoth, anticipation had been building up. At first, everything was perfectly fine since he was constantly wary of his surroundings. But with Agatha, memories locked away broke free.
At a certain point, Asta was unable to tell how much time had passed. Perhaps Lucas was already back, part of his mind believed he had to be, yet he still stayed there, floating face to face with space itself.
Without the motivation to go back down, he didn't feel like it. It was uncharacteristically of him to feel depressed, yet his own emotions weren't something he had control over, despite everything.
He was wondering whether to give up on the succession, since it wouldn't really solve any of his problems. There was but one thing still holding him back to going ahead with abolishing the whole plan, a promise he made long ago. Would it really be so bad to break a promise if it meant he wouldn't have to worry anymore? He would be able to run away again without any issues.
When suddenly, he felt a buzz. Reaching in his pocket, his own communication device lit up, with a single sentence from Agatha; Help.
Eyes widening, Asta froze for a moment. Shaken awake from his stupor, his mind raced as his body stayed in place. "Dammit! Why are emotions so unruly!?"
Asta plummeted down to the ground. Burning up on reentry, he just increased his speed even more. He wasn't even sure if he should continue the succession, the only certain thing was that he wanted Agatha alive, and most importantly, happy.
Landing near the estate, he created a small tremor, shaking the dilapidated building, making an entire part crumble down.
Rushing into the building, he barged down the door to Agatha's office, only to find her being lifted up by her throat. Isale had the biggest grin on her face as she held a strange coin decorated with a demonic face.
"Oh? Dear brother, you were here too? I'm sorry, but I've already taken her proof of candidacy, you're too late to fight her for it."
Throwing her to the ground, Agatha gasped for air, seeing her outside of her bed, Asta could see all the scratches and scars on her wrists.
"Hahaha, I say fight, but frankly, she was a useless puppet until the end, really, it's quite strange how-"
Isale flinched as a beam of concentrated mana shot a large hole next to her head. Just for a single moment, the entire room turned light blue. She didn't even have the time to react or blink. The residual energy coming from that blast seared the Isale's hairs that got too close.
Twitching in place, Isale could only move her eyes to see the damage done. Never had she seen such a spell, one so focussed on pure destruction, come from Asta.
"The coin," Asta stretched his hand out, the anger clearly visible on his face, yet Isale refused to back down. She had a few followers behind her, there was no reason to be afraid.
'That's right, that spell must've taken a lot of energy as well!'
Pointing at Asta with a condescending look, she tried to keep her composure. "Hah! Are you threatening me right now? Let me tell you, dear brother, that if you want to get this coin back, you'll have to work for it!"
"Isale, I'll tell you this once, give it back," everyone could feel the underlying anger boiling within, barely contained.
Squinting her eyes, Isale, readied her magic to prepare for a fight.
"Don't."
Snapping his fingers, arrays all over the room lit up, tons of spears and swords shot forward, skewering her followers enough to make the make-shift porcupines. Only Isale was left unharmed.
Lifting his hand, a ton of mana started to gather, readying for another massive attack. Isale knew she had no defenses capable of handling such an attack. 'I can dodge it, then I just need to fly out of here! I can't give this up!'
"The hell is going on here?", a blond haired man walked in, just his mere presence scared Isale. The aura the man held was more than capable of shutting her down, and his bloodlust was immense. Gritting her teeth, she gave in.
"Fine, you win," throwing the coin to the side, Isale quickly jumped through the broken window and flew away.
Asta used all his strength to disperse the energy held in his hand. Snapping his fingers, the arrays disappeared, though the corpses remained. Lucas inspected them before shaking his head in disappointment. Using darkness, he removed their existence.
Calming down a bit, Asta bent his knees to pick up the coin. Walking over to Agatha, his nerves shot awake, yet he steeled them. "Take it, it's yours."
Agatha, lying on the ground defenseless, looked up with big eyes. Asta's face was one of pride. Her small hands reached out to take hold of the coin.
"Lucas. We shall aid Agatha first. Dealing with the rest will happen when we are done here. If we fail in getting all of the coins, so be it. Let Descartes or Alastor take the seat."
"Looks like you finally woke up," Lucas walked up to Asta with a satisfying smile.
"I don't find myself often in those situations. Frankly, it was horrible."
"Well, you won't have to worry about Agatha anymore."
"Why?"
Pointing behind him, a group of humans entered the room. They all had gray skin, some had tattoos covering their arms. One man had long black hair, while the other dark red locks. Their skin color was one even Asta hadn't seen before.
"Who are all these people?"
"Augustinus, Galen, Nero, and a few very capable soldiers," Lucas had a very satisfied smile on his face, while Agatha was more scared of the new people, they didn't exactly look friendly.
The black haired man stepped forward, his figure towered above Agatha, "Is this the girl you want us to protect?"
"Yes, Galen, this is Agatha, she has powers similar to a Starborn, but most people here are Starborn, they just have red skin and horns."
"I see. A country filled with Starborn, no wonder this place is falling apart. We'll make due, I've brought my strongest warriors to help out," he shook his head in pity of the people living here. A Starborn entering the Underground resulted in unrest and the deaths of many, yet if one had a county filled with them? To Galen, it was a nightmare scenario.
Agatha didn't know what was happening, but neither was Asta. These people didn't seem like mages, but the power contained within them was more than enough to put them on edge.
One of them stepped forward with an arrogant look on his face, "You wanted funds, right? How's the economy here? What's the black market like? You guys have slaves here?", Augustinus pointed his finger at Asta, almost pressuring him into replying.
Asta nodded slightly, "Yes, we have slave markets. When it comes to the black market, I'm not that well versed in it."
"No matter, I'll find it," waving his answer away, Augustinus moved towards the desk.
Lucas corrected him, "You won't find any money here, go to the capital, where you can make the people addicted to whatever game or drug you find."
"Hoh? Now you're making things interesting. I was going to do this since that old man asked so nicely, but this might be a very profitable endeavor."
"Indeed, I also have an idea on how to make a very decent profit, but I'll have to work out some of the details."
Lucas and Augustinus smiled at each other like they were foxes in disguise. Only Galen felt the need to roll his eyes.
"Lucas, what's going on here, who are these people?", still confused, Asta found all these newly introduced variables chaotic.
"I guess I should give a small explanation. While I was gone during those final years of the academy, I was in the Underground. It's a space under the earth's layer or a subspace, I can't say for certain. There is an entire world there, these people come from there. The biggest country, the Empire held a large underworld, Augustinus ruled it by himself."
As if on cue, the man put on a confident smile as he took a seat behind the broken desk.
"Nero and his group are extremely competent and loyal soldiers from the Empire. Galen is a warrior of a different kingdom that has the strength comparable to me when I was at the beginning of Rank 2, his soldiers will also be quite capable."
Not understanding why so many people would be willing to help them out, Asta was confused to no end. "Just how in the world did you get these people on your side?"
"I helped to end their war," Lucas explained plainly, as if it wasn't anything special.
"Son, if you weren't there, that crybaby would've passed long ago. Take some credit where credit's due," Augustinus had a big smile on his face, happy to finally get a new challenge. "So, when do we start?"
Asta smiled in defeat as he rushed to get all the necessary tools. In the meantime, Lucas educated everyone on how things worked in Sabaoth. Sure, he didn't know too much, but with Agatha's help, who was surprisingly cooperative, they were brought up to speed.
A day layer, Asta brought them the tools to transform their looks. Most adopted a demonic look with medium-sized horns. Not standing out too much, but also respectable enough for people not to look down on them. Lucas wanted to join them, but refused for his own reasons.
Augustinus changed his appearance and looked like an actual demon. He fit the image perfectly. Galen, who had transformed himself, stared at the man. "You didn't change all that much."
"And here I thought I fitted the image of a fox more. Well, this will do as well. Now then, Nero, could you lend me a few of your soldiers? We're going to visit the capital of this place for a bit. Lucas, how much money can I have?"
Lucas shook his head and pointed at Asta, "He'll give you the funds you need. He's Asta, short for Astaroph the 52nd. Asta, could you give him 90% of your treasury?"
"90%? Have you gone mad?", before Asta was even able to completely show his surprise, Augustinus was already standing next to him with a sly look.
"See it as an investment, good sir. I'll give all the money back whenever you wish," the massive grin on Augustinus' face fit his demon form a bit too well.
"Fine. I'll trust you since Lucas does. Take this. It'll give you access to my treasury back at my mansion. Find a maid Bell there and show the document, she'll guide you further."
Augutinus accepted the document with a big grin before moving out with a few men. Asta was still a bit confused before Lucas grabbed the maps. "Nero, these are maps of this location, please find a suitable way to transform the land into an agricultural one."
Looking over the papers, Nero nodded before asking a question, "Where's the rainzones?"
"Rainzones?", Asta had no idea what he was on about, since there was never even any rain in this place to begin with.
"I'll take care of that. There aren't any specific zones, it will just rain every week or so."
Agatha raised her head, carrying a look of confusion. Seeing her stare, Lucas revealed his little plan. "I'm going to change the landscape to create a river through your place. I'll create a few lakes as well with magic. After some time, the hydrologic cycle will take over and rain will appear."
Some people looked at Lucas like he had gone insane, only Asta nodded slightly, "I suppose that would work, but it won't be so simple as to just introduce large bodies of water into the county. We'll need to slowly transform the earth into something fertile."
Nero nodded as they continued their conversation, Agatha was left in the dust as Galen took his stand next to her. He didn't say a word, but to Agatha, this man left a massive impression on her. Besides his strong and big build, his long locks of dark hair and that concentrated face shook her.
"Uh-uhm, who are you?", not catching all the names at first, the information overload was too much to handle for her.
Galen bowed slightly before getting on his knees to meet her face, "My name is Galen, miss. My queen has tasked me with following the orders of the Starborn, which is protecting you. I will stay by your side for as long as need be."
"Oh uh, okay," her voice was small, almost inaudible, but Galen nodded.
Lucas eventually prepared himself to leave. "Asta, we should go to Protaris, I believe we should be able to make a deal with him."
"A bet of some sorts?"
"Yes, I want to bet the flourishing of Agatha's county on the line. We just have to play to his cards, we'll compare the income from his and her place, the most wins."
"Even if we make the people here happy again, and have trade through agriculture, it won't even fill up the hole left by her debts."
"True, that's why I'm planning on making an artificial epidemic."
Everyone in the room froze for a second, if Augustinus would be here, there might've been some laughter, but that was absent now. Asta sighed, since he knew Lucas was capable of it, and it would be extremely profitable if they also had the antidote.
"You're not exactly improving the image of humans we demons have."
"If you have a better idea, Asta, I'm all ears."
"No, we'll go with it. First we'll have to trick Protaris. Let's get to it," leaving without much fuss, they flew through the air to reach the next destination.
On the way there, Lucas couldn't help himself, "When I returned, I saw quite a familiar spell."
Asta sighed, "My emotions got the best of me, and your spell is a great way to release some steam."
"Hahaha! So you're saying you copied my spell in that very moment?"
"Oh shut it. I admit, I was impressed by it, so I may have spent some time studying it. Still, it has a lot of room to improve upon."
"Enlighten me."
"Your beam is just a ton of mana brought together before bursting to a single direction. This technique is something for an animal, not a human being."
"You're not far off."
"What? Anyway, the beam is concentrated and goes as far as the energy will carry it, but the target is often small. In other words, the total energy used is way too big for the possible damage it can do."
Lucas nodded, at first he was extremely impressed by its power, even remembering it took his own arm at one point. The problem was the huge energy cost, preparation time and area of effect that was simply too big.
"What you should be looking for is a way to limit its range and limit energy wastage, like transforming it into a whip of sorts."
Rubbing his chin for a moment, Lucas thought of tentacles, but shook his head. "There might be something there, but if I keep the magic manifested, I'll have to touch it. I'm somewhat immune to lower concentrations of Darkness, but that beam is too powerful."
"Hearing you say you're even somewhat immune to Darkness makes me want to have the same body, at least then those inferior elements wouldn't taint my person anymore."
"Trust me, you wouldn't want it."
As they kept flying, they eventually arrived at their destination, the county of Protaris.