Before starting the spar, Yuno and Asta both do a quick 10 minute reading montage of each other's books. The one Asta gave contained his personal experience when learning Zettan Until he mastered to do it at will. The one Yuno exchanged on the other hand gave a detailed explanation and technique on how to make a mana zone as well as the basics of magic circles and runes.
This wasn't their first spar either, they have already done it over a dozen times in the past 2 months, each time passing the techniques to each other and they have already learned quite a lot from each other.
Yuno has learned the basics of ki sensing as well as learned to infuse ki to heighten his control over mana but not managed to use Zettan yet.
Meanwhile Asta had learned how magic circles work on a decent level, using the encyclopedia of runes and magic circles he got as a reward for reaching twenty mastery, he had even managed to began using them in battle.
But leaving the details aside, the two of them silently gave their books to Liebe who wasn't the least bit interested in acting as a tool in their so called battle and left the scene for the spectator stands in piece.
However as soon as Liebe left, Asta pulls out his grimoire and takes all four of his swords at once, and removes the nullification attribute, making the swords each flash in a different colour except the demon slasher which has always been a physical sword.
Demon slayer glows purple, showing the gravity magic now flowing through it as wide blade shrinks instead of enlarging, shifting into a normal claymore. The Demon dweller turns white as it spins mid-air like a wind mill from acceleration and lastly the demon devourer turns green, it's edge getting sharper than ever as the clover leaves on it gets replaced by sharp diamonds while the stem stays the same.
Yuno on the other hand ditches his overly noble like clothes for a simple sleeveless vest like, his grimoire and his spirit bell now circling behind him as he taps into the power of spirit form and summons two long swords of compressed wind, double his height in length before flying into the air with the swords weightlessly moving with his hands.
"You ready?"
"ALWAYS!"
The duo lean forward, their eyes locking onto each other with focus before they launched themselves towards each other.
The winds carried Yuno forward, his sword following it's unpredictability with deadly precision as the two long swords came for Asta's neck with ruthless speed.
Yet he dodged it by barely bending his back backwards, while he used his wings to stabilize himself before rising up and striking at Yuno with a rising slash using Demon dweller but failed to even gaze his skin.
The next second, Yuno raises one of the swords sky high, engulfing its blade with a mini tornado which he used as a whip to attack Asta.
Asta also saw that attack coming, his stance quickly changing to defensive. He lets go of demon dweller, grabbing Demon slayer instead and plants it into the ground like a anchor. He stood his ground as the sharp winds clashed against his skin, leaving hundreds of small cuts.
But the moment the tornaro engulfed him, Asta stopped using his ki sense which he was using reflexively before tapping into mana sense instead.
It was like finding a single slightly different coloured dot in a green canvas, hard to spot and even harder to recognize and track under the constantly changing patterns.
Yet as the winds kept cutting him, Asta constantly expends his mana sense through the wind through will power, eventually the mana sense reachs Yuno who kept changing his position. The split second he found him, Asta dashes straight through the tornado, scattering the winds effortlessly, as he arrives front of Yuno with Demon slayer already mid-swing.
The two clash blades, the claymore against a double longsword dual wield. The clash creates a shockwave, followed by a wave of blue of sparks that burst everywhere like fireworks before vanishing.
Soon the duo gets seperated by the recoil , their feet crashing against the solid floor and making a small ditch beneath their feets while they slide backwards from the impact.
But Asta recovered first thanks to his hybrid physique and launched himself back at Yuno with a single stomp of his feet, his grip switching as he swirls blade the sword with momentum before bringing it crashing down upon Yuno.
Unable to dodge, Yuno was forced to block, or so Asta expected but the ki sense removed that plausibility the moment Yuno noticed Asta approach.
The wind long sword's edge once more clashes against demon slayers, but it didn't rebound, instead the blade slide right alongside the edge striking at the hilt, forcing Asta back only for the situation to reverse with Yuno appearing beside him while crouching.
Then with a quick flick of hand, Yuno stabs, his longsword cleanly passing right by Asta's eye, leaving a small cut on his ear as it fails to deliver a decent blow. However that stab only led to another attack as Yuno's grabbing style shifts from stabbing to slashing, shifting the blade's forward momentum into a diagonal slash that aimed right for Asta's neck.
But the attack never landed, passing straight through Asta instead as his after image slowly collapses from being slashed.
"Don't put your entire trust on ki sense Yuno. That won't work against another ki user."
Before long Asta was standing behind Yuno, his four swords floating in air as each of them pointed at a vital organ. A aura of Acceleration and Gravity magic now surrounded him, like a cloak that began fragmenting and fading away like a fickle ember as soon as it was no longer needed.
However despite the victor being clear, the two of them weren't satisfied with that result. In the first place this wasn't a battle but a spar, a mere quick showdown to gauge each other's progress.
And Currently, they both wanted nothing more than to surpass the other as their minds blanked out and their mouths opened, roaring at each other before finally tapping into the moves they wanted to test at point blank range.
"Zettan!"
"Mana Zone!"
SLAM!!
BANG!
The ground collapses under intense gravity, caving in downwards as a crater with Yuno at its center. But Asta wasn't unharmed either as he flew away like a arrow, bouncing several times before landing back on his feet with a big slash at his chest.
Yet as they didn't want to harm each other, the wounds were at most, at just the level of their skin and nothing else.
So soon enough, both Yuno and Asta stood back to their feet while groaning in pain, their heads a little dizzy from the earlier clash.
... They look at each other, a unhappy frown now plastered upon their faces.
It was just for a moment but they both managed to use the techniques they wanted. However, the best grading their attacks would receive would be that of mere imitations.
The mana zone Asta created, if it could be even be called one was barely 4 meter wide, a distance that was more useful to him if he just used his swordsmanship or a normal magic spell instead.
Meanwhile Yuno's zettan had completely broken down before it reached the end of his blade, destroying the wind swords themselves instead of the enemy it was supposed to hit, inevitably making the attack a failure of a finishing move.
For a moment, the two looked at each other awkwardly, then immediately, they slumped backwards as the exhaustion from using unfamiliar techniques finally kicks in form of a headache(Asta) and muscle pain(Yuno).
But even then, the two still had more than enough energy left to argue.
"You call that a zettan, Yuno? Even my first one was much stronger than that."
"The same goes for you! Was that a mana zone or a Mana dome? Why was it smaller than your stupid brain?"
"You! " Asta takes a deep breath, "Whatever... You want anything to eat before we reach the capital?"
"Maybe a sweet potato. Nothing beats the ones father roasted for us through. "
Asta smiles in approval, "That I can agree on."
The spar didn't take more than five minutes but for fighters with strong reflexes, those five minutes might as well be a hour.
Nevertheless the duo didn't care and stood back to their feet again.
They both then left for the cafeteria, however for some reason Asta felt uneasy, almost as if his instincts were telling him that he forgot something.
"Umm... Yuno, is there supposed to be anything important today?"
"Hmm? Not one that i know of."
Yuno calmly denies, leading to Asta having to grind his peanut sized brain as he spins the gears in his head but to no avail.
But then as he was pondering, Asta noticed a certain ghost like figure appearing before him through the walls of the elevator.
"Sir Lemiel? Why are you here?— Oof!!"
Lemiel didn't wait for Asta to finish and moved to grab Asta's face only to phase through, much to his annoyance.
"Are you seriously asking me that!!? You were supposed to be in your room!! Do you have any idea how much I had to search for you!?"
"Calm down, Calm Down. It's not like anything bad happened. I doubt the ground squads have had trouble after the checkpoints."
"ITS NOT ABOUT THAT!!... " Lemiel stops for a second and conjures a holographic map of the bastion, "You gave Exir a task and didn't even bother telling me! And now the lowest floor looks like a darned swamp from the all roots hanging out!"
(Note:- Exir is the 5th wizard king and is in charge of architecture of the bastion. All the wierd thing like holes opening and tunnels forming within the walls were done by him. )
Nevertheless Asta immediately remembered what he forgot and a excited smile crept onto a face. He immediately made a hole in the elevator, flying straight through and began flying down the elevator shaft at top speed.
The winds piled up on his body, causing a mini vortex of wind due to his speed. But he didn't care because as soon as he reached the lowest floor, he burst straight through metal door after chopping and crushing it with magic to avoid any time wasting.
That's when he witnessed it, a small black swirl in the middle of the room surrounded by a circle of black coloured roots.
There were also three other people in the room, namely captain William vengeance, captain Yami and lastly a floating ghost like teenager with skinny femine body wearing a lab coat that was over twice his body size and kept fluttering behind him like a oversized cloak, It was Exir, the 5th wizard king.
But Despite everything else in the room the only thing Asta could focus was the swirl.
It was the gateway to the sealed world of Devils, the true entrance of qliphoth that was made by Osersia to initially dump the negative mana through.
A one way entrance that was supposed to be used once a century. But now it was open on Asta's request,making it the only way to infiltrate and cull the Devil problem forever since there will be no opening of tree of qliphoth by the dark triad this time.