Chapter 43 - Tremendous

"Do you feel that?!"

Flying through the skies at a fast pace, Grim, Theresa and Gauche felt a mana fluctuation emanating from the distance.

"Over there!" Asta spotting a cave ahead of them.

"So that's where they took the children." Theresa frowned.

"Hey! What's that down there!" Asta shouted and pointed to what looked like a small child laying in the snow.

"Marco!!" Grim's eyes went wide when he saw the figure laying motionless. Diving down with Theresa following behind them, the three of them gathered around the small child's figure.

"How terrible!" Theresa gasped when she saw him from up close. "He's covered in wounds."

"Marco! MARCO!!" Grim shook the boy but he wouldn't respond.

"That won't work. He's under some kind of spell that's leaving him in a vegetative state."

"Asta!" Grim looked over at him.

"Yeah." Asta nodded before touching Marco's head with the cross guard of his sword. And as if by magic, light started to return to Marco's eyes as he looked up and saw the three of them huddling around him.

"G-Grim..."

"Marco." Grim smiled.

"It hurts... It really really hurts..." Marco said while wrapping his arms around himself.

"You poor child." Theresa said before opening up her grimoire.

[Flame Recovery Magic: Soothing Holy Light]

Glowing with a gentle orange glow, a couple of small candles materialized into sight as their glow encapsulated Marco's body and caused the wounds he had suffered to start healing at a visible pace.

"T-This feels nice." Marco smiled innocently and looked up at Grim.

Seeing that he was alright, Grim smiled back before standing back up and turning away from Theresa and Asta.

"Sister." He called out before he started walking towards the cave opening.

"Grim?" Sensing that something was wrong, Theresa looked at Grim's back which slowly distancing itself from the three of them.

Not looking back, Grim left a single sentence behind before disappearing into the cave.

---

"ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!"

"Hahahahaha!! Its working!!"

Listening to the screams of a little strapped to a mana suċkɨnġ chair, a black haired man in spectacles laughed loudly as countless children lay at his feet.

"Hey Neige! Bring the next one, this ones fallen unconscious!" The man yelled to a feminine looking white haired young man.

"Yes brother." The white haired young man nodded while pulling a brown haired girl towards his brother.

"No! Let me go!" Marie screamed and tried to pull her arm back.

Ignoring her cries, the white haired man known as Neige continued to pull on her arm while warning her not to anger his brother.

"MARIEEEE!!!" A sudden voice shook the cave as Gauche soared in on top of his broom.

Seeing his sister's arms being grabbed by an unfamiliar male, something inside of Gauche snapped as he released a beam a powerful beam of light that almost decapitated the white haired Neige.

"M-M-MAGIC KNIGHT!!" Neige scrambled to his brother's feet.

'Tch, how did they find us already?'

"Hey." The black haired man looked at his brother who was hugging his feet. "Hurry up and use your magic and get rid of him."

"Y-Yeah." Neige said as his grimoire flipped open.

[Snow Magic: Snow Cry]

Thrusting his arms forwards, a large stream of snow burst out from his palms and swarmed its way over to Gauche.

"I'll kill you..." Gauche whispered after seeing the bruises and scuff marks on Marie's body.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!"

[Snow Creation Magic: Snow Friends]

Gathering his snow together, an army of large snowmen started to form.

"Get him snow friends!!" Neige cried.

Clouded by rage, Gauche didn't put such things in his eyes as he activated another spell.

[Mirror Magic: Reflect Refrain]

Manifesting multiple mirrors around the snow army, light started bouncing between them destroying anything in its path.

"M-My friends..." A look of despair appeared on Neige's face as watched his army of snowmen crumble before his very eyes.

"What the hell!" The black haired man's eyes went wide as he used his mana reading monocle attached to his glasses to measure Gauche's mana reserves.

'Dammit! No wonder this guy is so strong!'

"Kill him obviously!!"

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

While the two brothers were busy trying to think of a method to deal with Gauche, the sound of a person's footsteps echoed from the cave mouth as a black haired young man slowly came into view.

'Dammit! Don't tell me they brought back up!'

Focusing his monocle on the distant figure, the black haired man's face soon froze as he could not believe the sight before him.

"I-Impossible..." He muttered with his eyes trained on Grim's figure.

*Tap* *Tap*

"This much mana..."

*Tap* *Tap*

*Tap* *Tap*

"Its..."

*Tap* *Tap*

"Tremendous."

[First Form: Unknowing Fire]

Ignoring the unconscious children laying on the ground, Grim's body was shrouded in an orange glow as he flashed forward melting the snow in his path and arriving in front of the black haired man.

"Boo." He grinned.

"Heeeeee!!" The man's eyes went wide as he stumbled backwards.

*BANG!!*

Throwing his fist forward, Grim slammed it into the man's face and watched as his figure was thrown backwards crashing into the cave wall and causing some rubble to crush him.

"GYAAHHHH!!!"

"Brother!!" Neige yelled after seeing his brother get crushed by stone.

"Don't worry." Grim's smile grew wider as he slowly turned to look at him.

"I'll play with you later."