➨ Mereoleona made an announcement to the group that now, you were leaving first thing in the morning. Something tells you that she wanted to leave that early in the start. Catching a spy must've confirmed her initial gut feeling.

She also said that the spy told her that he was latched onto Asta at first, before then trying to latch onto you next. Which is why you felt that disturbance coming from him. Although, you doubt you would've allowed him to get very far if he was connected to your shadow. Clearly, he didn't the first time.

That night, when you were getting ready to give it your best attempt to sleep, someone knocked on your door. When you opened it, you found Mimosa, Klaus, and Yuno standing there. "Oh shit, what did I do now?"

Klaus shook his head. "Nothing is wrong. I just thought it would be good for us to touch base before tomorrow. I want us to get a good rest, so it'll be quick."

Somehow, this small meeting was being held inside your room now, and you didn't have much of a say in it. The three of them made a circle, looking very stiff and uneasy.

"I just want to stress how important you guys' safety is on this mission." Klaus started. "We're going against the same people who attacked the capital. They are not a foe we can take lightly. So whatever situation you find yourself in tomorrow, your top priority should always be to stay safe."

His words were directed to both you and Yuno. Between Yuno charging ahead first, and you willingly accepting challenges you may not even be able to handle, it was always a whirlwind for disaster.

Mimosa agreed. "And do not hesitate to rely on your team. We might not be together when we get in there, so you have to have good communication with whoever it may be."

"Is this a pep talk or a lecture?" You raised your brow suspiciously.

"Probably both." Yuno chimed in. "But I get it."

"Do you?" Klaus interjected. "Because you especially have proved time and time again that you have no regard for assessing your enemy before you charge in."

"Y/N does the same thing." He says childishly.

You jumped in. "Okay but I'm also not a 16 year old, wait– he wasn't even talking to me, why drag me down with you?"

"Guys guys, it's late." Mimosa shushed the two of you. "Can we please just make it an effort to keep calm tomorrow?"

You didn't have the intention of getting killed, so this conversation didn't make much sense to you. Although, you were still trying to get over your initial shock at being in the position in the first place. So if that's what they were hinting at, then you understood.

"Deal." You nodded. "No stupid moves, I get it."

"Yuno?" Mimosa glances at him.

He tilts his head away from the group. "Deal."

She clasped her hands together. "Well that's great to hear. I think we should all get some sleep now."

With those final words lingering in your head, you layed down in your bed. You had one shot to prove to people that you are a Royal Knight. People are going to talk, hell, your own squad does it to your face. If you can handle that, then you're confident enough to not let the whispers of the ones who do it behind your back steal your focus.

––––––

When morning actually came, your stomach was in knots. But it's normal... Everyone else is nervous too, right? How could you not be when you're about to be thrown into a giant floating boulder that's swarming with enemies.

Mereoleona was giving the big speech and you were trying to listen, but were frequently getting distracted.

"Boo."

Unfortunately, you flinched. Giving a hard side-eye to the one who had just spooked you by putting their hands on your shoulders. "I will knock your ass out."

Zora snickered. "Do it."

While you were tempted to, Mereoleona immediately cut into the blossoming argument. "Both of you quiet and listen! Or you'll die by my hands instead of the Midnight Suns'!"

Both of you straightened up and shut up.

"Anyways," she continued. "Now that you see the layout, thanks to Shiren's stone creation magic, what do you think the most logical tactic is?" She asked the group.

According to the 3D diagram that was in front of you, there were a lot of connected passageways, and chambers that one could get lost in. Based on this, you could enter from anywhere, and most likey, you'll be thrown into a fight within 5 minutes. The biggest cube had the brightest light and was located in the center. Which meant their leader was hiding. There were other not so large lights which were senior level mages.

Asta jumped up at the opportunity to answer her question. "We have to psyche ourselves up and then kick some major butt!"

You're sure that's the completely wrong answer, but you adored his enthusiasm.

Klaus then offered one. "We split up into teams... balance is key, right?"

That sounded more sophisticated.

Mereoleona nodded. "Yes. We'll split into 5 teams of 4."

Looking around, you already knew there were some good people you wouldn't mind teaming up with. And the obvious ones that you wouldn't. However, you knew too well you wouldn't get to choose the team you were on.

"I don't care who's team I'm on." Zora announced and put his arms behind his head. "As long as it's not this obnoxious rugrat."

Asta gasped in offense. "Excuse you Mr. ReallyCoolMask. There is no need to be so damn rude all the time!"

You stifled a laugh.

Which didn't go unnoticed by Mr. ReallyCoolMask. "I don't know what you think is so funny. Both of you would be much better off running around in circles as bait."

"I didn't even say anything!" You rebutalled. "And that's rich coming from the same guy who'd be better off taking a nap than giving his help."

Asta crossed his arms with a smirk. "You know what, Y/N? Maybe we should just let him on our team since nobody else is gonna wanna be with him anyway."

You liked the way he thought. "You're right. Let's be the bigger people and welcome him with open arms."

Zora's face fell and opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off when a fiery claw gripped onto his head. As well as you and Asta.

Mereoleona glared at the three of you. "You problem children are with me, I don't want to hear any more complaints, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am." You all said in unison.

Although you can tell the arguments are just starting. At least Asta was here to make Zora's presence more bearable.

You were team 5, and tasked with attacking them head on. Mereoleona must have a plan because you would've never wanted to go head to head with them right off the bat. Most likely her plan was just to eliminate anybody who got in your way. With her, that sounds easy enough.

"Alright. I've done enough talking, now go! I don't care how it gets done, just do it!" She roared in a commanding voice.

After that, you followed her straight into their hideout.

She was fast, and punched a hole straight through the rock like it was nothing. When you stepped inside you wrinkled your nose. The smell was dank, and it was much more humid inside than you thought. For some reason you expected it to be chilly. You've never been inside a rock before. First time for everything it seems.

"They need housekeeping here." Zora muttered.

"Oh god it stinks." Asta cringed.

There was a sudden rumble that caught your attention. You looked ahead to see what it was already and there was a trio of mages getting ready to attack. "Geez, we barely got comfortable."

"Aw yeah opponents already!" Asta cheered. "So how about we divide them up into– what the?" His voice dropped into confusion when Mereoleona took charge ahead of everyone.

She let out a ferocious battlecry and left a blazing trail behind her. Not caring about any of you getting burned in the crossfire. In fact, she had forced you guys to hug the sides of the tunnel in order to not catch on fire.

"Does she even care about us?" Zora said, inching up higher onto the side. "Or is she trying to wipe us out?"

"I don't even think this lady needs our help." You picked your cape up before the bottom was seared right off.

She had taken them down easily. Of course she did, she's Fuegoleon's sister. That whole family is a force to be reckoned with. Being this close to her in action was scary though.

"Are you three going to keep up or get turned to ash back there?!" She yelled. With her around, your nerves weren't as bad, and that was a huge plus. Her flames died down about a minute later, which made it safe to follow her again.

"Since apparently you can't deal with being in the back, lead the way, newbies." She pushed all three of you ahead.

"Um, where?" Zora questioned, looking as the path split off into 3 different directions.

"Yeah, we're totally going to get lost!" Asta agreed.

"Fools!" She boomed. "Of course Mr. Mana-less can't lead the way. But are you two really telling me you can't detect anything?"

"Hey!" Asta whined.

What was she trying to get you to detect anyway? You shut your eyes to focus on the atmosphere around you. Everything felt tame, nothing stuck out. Taking a step forward, you paused in front of the path split. The one in front of you was empty. Nobody was down there.

Oh.

Now you get it.

The one to your left was also desolate. So the only other option was the one to your right. You opened your eyes and it became much more clear. While it may have looked to be empty, there was actually a series of invisible traps laying on the ground. While you couldn't see them, you knew they were there.

"It's this way." You pointed down the dark cavern.

Mereoleona grinned. "Good. So we do have some intelligence on this team."

Zora took a step next to you. "They must've assumed people wouldn't go down the path that is filled to the brim with traps. Well it's your turn." He turned to Asta.

"Huh? But you have to tell me where to go so I can disable them–"

"Oh who the hell cares?" He groaned and shoved Asta forward directly where the first one was. He stumbled, and a geyser of sand encased Asta fully. With a screech, his sword sliced through it.

"See? You're fine."

"If I'm so fine then you dispel them!"

Zora raised his arms. "And please enlighten me on how I'm supposed to do that without Anti-magic."

Asta grumbled and tapped his sword on the ground in front of him. Using it like a walking stick instead of activating everything he touched. And it was working. You followed behind him, watching as the magic circles became visible and fizzed out of sight.

"At least he's innovative." You pointed out. "If we just threw him into traps all day he'd be worn out before a fight really even starts."

Zora rolled his eyes. "He's pretty durable. A trap isn't going to do that much damage. Especially not these ones. They're so low-rate that even a child could walk through and come out unscathed."

"Right, I forgot you were the trap master." You added sarcastically. "Too bad you didn't know they were there until after I did."

"You don't know anything about them anyway. You might've been too scared to even walk up to them on your own."

Mereoleona cut in sharply. "You both suck, keep it moving."

That you did and waited to get to the end. When that happened, two mages were chit-chatting at the other side. Probably not expecting anybody to make it through that far. Asta took off first, his sword outstretched in front of him.

"So you thought that was going to work on us?!"

You and Zora followed not too far behind him, ready to finally get a hit on someone.

Wrong again.

Mereoleona came out of nowhere and plumutted down onto the mages in a fiery blaze.

You stopped and blocked your face from the flying pebbles that were being thrown around. Once the mess calmed down you sighed. "How does she keep one-upping us?"

"How does she keep one-upping us?"

You paused and turned to the echo–no, the exact copy– of your voice. Barely 3 feet away from you, there was a clone of... you. It stared back with a replicated look of confusion. Everything was the same, and you're sure it even blinked at the same time as you.

"What the hell is going on?"

"What the hell is going on?"

Damn, it was talking at the same exact time and speed as you. You turned to the group. It can't be that hard to tell which one is real, right?

Mereoleona crossed her arms. "Well how did you manage that?"

She couldn't be serious. "I didn't! I don't know what that is."

"I didn't! I don't know what that is."

Asta's eyes widened. "How are we supposed to figure out which one is the real one?" He walked up to the fake one and squinted his eyes. "Man, they're definitely identical."

"You had to get that close to see that much?" Zora scoffed.

You looked at Asta, like the choice was obvious. "It's me, you're looking at the fake!"

"No, she's the fake. You're looking at the right one!"

Wow, that's incredibly annoying. Mereoleona's eyes skimmed over you and the imposter. Not coming to any visual conclusion. "Hmm, not sure. We're being tricked, clearly. So let's make this fast."

Asta stepped back and put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, but how do we do that?"

While those two were debating, you were wondering about how you can prove that you are... Well, you. Maybe the fake can't copy spells? You could throw one out. There's no point in answering questions because it'll just mimic the exact answer you say.

Spells, that seems to be the only proper thing you can think of.

Another voice came up from behind you and put one hand on your left shoulder. "Boo."

Against your will, you flinched. Just like you did the first time he did that stupid prank on you.

Zora chuckled and placed his hand on your head. "She's the real one."

Mereoleona didn't wait for confirmation before setting the other one on fire. You were grateful that she didn't have the wrong one, but she could've at least given it a second or two. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"I do." Zora replied, moving in front of you so now he wasn't just in your peripheral. "Was I right, little miss puppet master?"

You wished you had something smart to answer him with, but you didn't. That was actually a smart move to make. It took him under 5 minutes to figure that much out.

"Wait, but how did you know that it was her? I thought she flinched." Asta asked.

"She did the first time I did it too." He replied boredly. "The other one was still as a rock."

Perhaps he wasn't the worst teammate to have. Still not a good one, but not the worst. "I'll give you credit where credit is due. That was good."

"I know." His tone was cocky.

"And just like that, you lost your credit."

The flame that was raging from beside you was put out by a water magic ability and there was an unknown man standing there. He looked exhausted, that much you could tell from the bags under his eyes. A red marking on his left cheek and an eye popping through his forehead.

Your gaze dropped to the white robe he wore. On the left side, there were 3 golden eye designs stacked on top of each other.

"Not him again." Asta muttered and took a step backwards. "He's a part of the Third Eye. The Midnight Sun's strongest mages."

Oh shit.

"That's right." The man said. "Call me Ryha, and the scary but pretty lady can call me whatever she wants." The color of his grimoire changed from blue to gold. "Healing light particles."

"So he just steals people's stuff." You said. "Which means he has way more abilities than all of us combined."

Ryha's grimoire flipped again, this time turning into a dark purple and a blade appeared in his hand. From the looks of it, it's dark magic. Actually, it looked pretty similar to something you've seen in the past, but you couldn't put a finger on it.

Asta did though. "Hey, that's Captain Yami's spell!"

You have to wonder when he came into contact with the Black Bulls' captain, but it wasn't important at the very moment. You knew that this spell was a slash, one that you'd have to dodge in order to survive.

Ryha's leg slid backwards. Taking a stance that didn't seem to be his either. Must've also been the captain's.

All three of you timed it without hesitation. Just as Ryha's arm moved the slightest centimeter, you leaped up into the air. The slash cut right through where you were standing previously. Had you not moved, it would've been over.

Mereoleona, however, did not jump. No she didn't even move. Instead, she punched the attack. Lighting up the entire thing before it burned out.

"She's insane." You breathed once you were on the ground again. "We're just her cheerleaders at this point."

"Nothing else to do unless we want to die by her hands." Zora said.

One thing was for certain, Mereoleona truly didn't need your help physically. If she wanted to, she could burn down their entire hideout and not break a sweat. It would be so easy for her.

So just what in the world did she insist on bringing you guys along with her?