Defiling the Ashes

For some reason, Yagato was thrilled with the circumstances. He may have been chewed out by his squad and threatened with expulsion for his poor behavior, yet it did not seem to be so bad. He would now receive the chance to duke it out with Key Underwood, someone he had been at odds with for some time now. Both their squads had eventually had enough of their vicious bickering and given them an ultimatum: Either end your petty squabbles in a supervised fight, or be thrown out of their respective squads. Their treck through the forest had been a silent and tense one, Yagato seeing no need or reason to indulge in unnecessary conversations. Once they had reached the designated destination, Yagato turned to face his opponent, raising a hand, inviting his opponent to throw the first blow.

It was evident by the crooked smile that crossed Key's face that he had been greatly anticipating this fight for some time. Key let his head droop, keeping his eyes creepily focused on his opponent as he let out a few snickers to himself. The two mages had walked to an open field located near a forest. They were just a few dozen yards from a small, peasant village outside the Capital where their battle couldn't affect anyone else. Besides, if they did, they would only be bothering peasants, which didn't concern Key in the slightest.

The deranged heir to the Clover Kingdom's noble House Underwood prepared himself for the ensuing fight against the 4-leaf clover grimoire jerk from the Azure Deer squad. For the past few weeks, the two mages had been at each other's throats, and now they had all the space and opportunity to settle the score. Their bickering initially began when Key first encountered Yagato using his magic to protect a group of civilians in the kingdom. Even though Key was a higher ranking Magic Knight than Yagato, Key had never seen such powerful magic used so effortlessly before. It made his blood boil to know that Yagato's innate magical talent had the potential to hold a candle to his refined ash magic. That's why, since then, Key had been training endlessly in hopes to compete with the 4-leaf grimoire.

He raised his right hand to his side, calling his grimoire to unsheathe itself and levitate above his palm. It exuded the usual purple aura that followed its summoning, indicating that it was ready to be used. "It's time that I reduced you to ashes, you lucky bastard!" he shrieked, maintaining his wicked grin.

Yagato merely grinned at his opponent's boast, not feeling remotely threatened by it. His own grimoire flew from his belt till it was floating in front of him. It yet remained closed, a clear sign that he did not yet consider Key enough of a threat to use any of his more potent spells. "Talk above action is a typical sign of lacking confidence. Tell me, who are you trying to convince that it will happen? Me or yourself. And since you relinquished the right to the first move... HAVE AT IT!" Yagato shouted as his dark miasma exuded from his body.

The Miasma quickly began to spread to the surrounding area, corrupting the local vegetation and trees. The Miasma's corruption had already managed to spread and defile the nearest ten-meter radius of trees, making them crack and become more akin to charcoal rather than something living. Whilst it kept spreading, Yagato sent a stream of miasma from the palm of his hand towards Key Underwood, hoping to slowly begin the infection of his Mana and body.

"Bastard," Key muttered, flicking his hands forward. "I'll kill you!"

Just then, the Magic Knight's purple grimoire automatically flipped through several of its thin pages before landing on the appropriate spell. "Ash Magic: Phlegethon Wave!" he cried. Suddenly, a collection of purple ash came gushing from the ground in front of him until it formed a ginormous wave. The sheer power of the spell caused his long, grey cape to flap behind him as he beamed with wicked excitement. Using the wave of purple ashes as a barrier, Key witnessed as his larger spell overpowered his opponent's. Having served its defensive purpose, the *Phlegethon Wave* spell continued to rise towards Yagato, ready to wash over him.

Yagato raised a single hand in stoic opposition to the incoming wave of ash. As it approached he found his breathing clouded ever so slightly by the invading ashes, but he stood firm, keeping focus on the spreading miasma as well as the next course of action. The miasma had spread into a radius of over 25 meters now, having consumed the trees in the near vicinity. And it just kept growing. When the wave came into close range, without uttering as much as a word, a bright red magic circle took form in front of his palm. The ashen wave crashed against the circle, withering and disappearing shortly after. The circle glowed ever so much stronger now, and Yagato had just the idea of what to do next. "Impressive spell. But raw power will do you no good. How about throwing in some clever stratagems into this? Surely you didn't reach your status by simply punching hard?" Yagato taunted with glee. "Come on, show me some real senior knight stuff!"

The pages on Key's glowing grimoire casually flipped themselves again until they landed on his next spell. He'd watched the Aquad Deer Knight reduce his wave of ashes into nothing with ease, which obviously struck a nerve. That was a pretty powerful attack spell, and Yagato handled it like it was nothing. And what was with that red circle his ashes disappeared into? Was his opponent's magic able to absorb oncoming spells to charge some sort of later attack? Whatever the case, he didn't want to contribute any more of his magic to find out how it worked.

"I don't take orders from worms like you..." Key said. His voice was uncharacteristically low, and his creepy grin contorted itself into an intense frown. In an instant, however, he seemed to snap back into himself. "But I'm starting to get fired up, either way!" he shouted in his scratchy voice, maniacally raising his hands to the sky.

Suddenly, the green grass in front of Key started to dry up, then shifted in color until it reached a dark-purple hue. Purple ash overcame a large portion of the plain in front of the Magic Knights. Quickly, the ash started to collect itself and change shape. When it was done shifting, the mass of ash scaled higher than the trees that surrounded the battlefield. Key watched, admiring his work, as the ashes formed into a towering, purple beast. The three-headed hellhound gnashed its large, unruly fangs and let out a deafening roar that would've put a lion's to shame.

The force of the hellhound's roar was enough to shake the nearby trees and cause the grass to ripple a bit. Impressed with himself, Key skillfully leapt onto the hellhound's back, then hopped onto its primary head. Outstretching his hands to display his spell to his opponent, Key eagerly introduced his spell with pride.

"Ash Creation Magic: Hell's Guardian!"

Yagato cautiously beheld what his enemy was doing, realizing that Key was about to go full force on him. Yagato couldn't help but be impressed by the construction before him, admiring the detail, potency and elegance of the spell. "Impressive. With a spell like that, I may just be in a bit of trouble." He spoke casually, rubbing his fingers on his free left hand together, as if contemplating something in his hand. "I wonder if you just put all your time in style rather than strength now, little worm. Either way, I'll do you the honor..." Yagato talked as his miasma kept spreading around the area having now consumed forty meters of land with his toxic magic. He then shaped up a collection of his magic on his left hand, which then began to form into something. "Of using a **second** magic circle."

As Key stood aboard the hellhound, two of its three purple heads started heeling, anxiously awaiting their master's command. He gritted his teeth as he bent his knees, glaring at his adversary with twitching eyes. "Stop copying me!" he shouted, angrily referring to Yagato's "little worm" comment.

This was the hellhound's cue. It focused all three of its heads on the tiny Yagato, then leapt incredibly high into the air, nearly uprooting some of the trees around it and granting Key a better view of the playing field. *Letting that stuff touch me is probably bad news. Better try my best to steer clear!* he thought, watching as the miasma branching through the area. From that height, Key also faintly made out the other magic that surrounded Yagato's left palm.*And what's with that magic circle all of a sudden? Is he planning on absorbing more of my ash?*he pondered for a moment. *Well, if it's ash he wants...*

For a third time, Key raised his right hand and his grimoire flipped its own pages in front of him once more. "Ash Magic: Cerberus' Bloodbath!" he yelled. On his mark, the three-headed dog opened all three mouths to release individual streams of ash, completely obscuring the hellhound from Yagato's view once it started. After a while, the ash started reaching the ground, directly raining down on Yagato and the surrounding area. Key's ash spell quickly mingled with Yagato's widespread miasma spell, and the entire ground was covered with purple ashes, while the rest of their surroundings were being swallowed by miasma. At this point, not even an inch of grass was visible.

Still pouring ash from its mouth, the hellhound began rapidly descending onto the mage below it, planning to execute an overhead attack after it finished unleashing ashes on top of Yagato. After closing its mouths and emerging from the ashes, the beast raised its gigantic paw, ready to viciously land on Yagato from that great height, and tear into him with its sharp claws.

Yagato raised his arms upwards as s defense against the hail of ashes, obscuring his vision and began to obstruct his breathing. Getting annoyed with the circumstances, Yagato figured that it was time to bring out *That*. "An impressive display, Kohai." He spoke out, trying to keep on riling him up as the ground began to rumble, distantly but getting closer. Nothing he would notice yet due to the ashen wave and being currently air-borne. He noticed The limited additional glow to his circles, quickly figuring out that what this was. This was nothing more than a litteral smokescreen, trying to keep him from seeing what's coming next. *Too bad for him, though* Yagato thought to himself. He could still feel the Cerberus and its movements. He may not possess the best sensory in the world, but it was hard to miss a spell of such quantity and quality of mana. He knew where the blow was coming from.

But rather than avoid it, he jumped up to face it. He held his hands up in a bracing fashion, and as Cerberus came swiping with the paw, Yagato took the full hit and more from the strike, as he added his own momentum to it. Even with the circles in place, he felt the impact as he was hurled away backwards. He crashed into a grand, dried out tree which only so slightly cushioned his fall. The Circles were now brightly glowing with the intensity of a blinding light spell. He chuckled softly as things had gone just about as planned. They were close to breaking, but not quite yet. His seals dissipated and the energy they had absorbed coursed through him. He was saving it. For now.
Yagato rose up from his lying position and returned back up to his feet. Key shouldn't have been able to see what Yagato just did, with the smoke screen he created in the way of his own landing.

"Seems like you got me there, Key." Yagato spoke softly. "I must admit, I didn't think you had it in you to break my circles. Yet here you are, triumphant in this ever so minor victory." He said while slowly backing into the treeline and his own miasma until he stood right at the border of it. Charcoal-like trees, a festering gas of unknown nature that kept eating away at any life in the surrounding. Even the ground itself was now getting defiled and untendable for months to come. "But this is the last victory you'll ever have against me. Blow shall be traded. Spells will be cast. And when all is said and done-!" He shouted as he took stance again. "I will be the winner, and you can return home like the lousy little maggot you are."

*BOOM!* The hellhound landed hard against the ashy ground, standing still in the open field so that Key could plan out his next move. He slicked back his spiky hair as his Violet Orca vest settled back into place. The beast and its rider watched as the life was sapped out of the vegetation ahead. Yagato had disappeared into the trees, which was so far away, Key only heard the loudest bit of his monologue. But it wasn't going to be long before Yagato was able to stand his ground against him again.

Key squinted his bright purple eyes at the dying trees, while simultaneously pocketing his hands in his grey pants. "You might want to start fighting back if you ever hope to defeat me, lucky bastard," he mumbled to himself in his scratchy voice, waiting for his opponent to emerge from the trees and present himself on the field once more. If Key had any chance at victory, he would have to keep the fight near his newly-created pool of purple ashes. Surrounded by ash, he was in his element. Now there was no way he could lose.

Yagato laughed. Sixty meters of land had now been devoured by his magic, and he felt content with the damage he had done for the moment. The miasma began to creep back around the area where they were gathered. He began to walk forward, yet despite that, it appeared as if the treeline wasn't distancing away from him, but rather kept pace. Only the tree tops could now be seen with this great amount of miasma gathering and Yagato felt a surge of glee at the prospect. The gathered energy was starting to grow painful to contain, but he would just need a few more moments. The rumbling grew ever louder as he walked. When he stood about twenty feet away from Key, he began to speak: "What do you think of my beautiful efforts? So far it seems like *The Worm* is outdoing you. This is the pure works of my imagination and skill, all of which you lack?" He spoke before waving with his hand, sending the cloud of toxic miasma swiftly in Key's direction. Coming from every direction, like an omni-directional tidal wave, Yagato sought to keep him occupied to the point where he wouldn't notice the rumbling too much, and hopefully, devoured by the magic, causing madness and absolute control of his body.

"You desired this conflict! Now reap the fruits of your labor!"

Through gritted teeth, the Violet Orca Magic Knight made a stifled sound. Yagato's spell was coming at him quickly and from several different angles. Key would have to act fast if he hoped to avoid the miasma onslaught. His grimoire sprung to life once more, and he aimed his hand at the incoming spell. Following this simple motion, the sea of purple ashes below him shifted, collecting near the hellhound's giant feet then rising to meet the toxins in the air.

The two spells clashed right in front of Key, forcefully blowing on his outfit and wild hair. Since he was using a pre-existing source of ash, Key didn't have to exert as much mana as he would've had to if he would've created the ashes for just the one spell. Nonetheless, he continued gritting his teeth, concentrating on maintaining his second *Phlegethon Wave*. For a mage with a three-leaf grimoire, Key was actually holding up pretty well against the four-leaf's massive attack. This was to be expected of a talented, hard-working noble who was loved by mana. All the same, a single bead of sweat slipped under Key's jeweled headpiece and trickled down his neck. After a few moments, Key strenuously lifted his other hand out of its pocket and struggled to keep his arms raised against such immense power, displaying the obvious effort that went into holding his wall of ashes.

The power of the clashing forces dissipated as both spells finally canceled each other out. Key huffed and sighed on top of his hellhound's middle head as it let out a low growl. Having just expended a lot of energy into his last move, Key allowed the hellhound to disappear into wisps of pure mana, leaving Key to gently descend onto a fraction of the ashes that were once strewn below him. Even though the two spells had voided one another, Key's defense only ended up using a portion of what was on the ground. His grimoire floated in front of him, glowing and ready to utilize the ashes to Key's advantage. He was still in his domain.

"I won't go down so easily," he spat.

"No? It seems like I am at the advantage." He spoke, as now that the clouds of miasma had dissipated, it started to reveal the surrounding in full, with the treelines much closer now than previously, having shrunk down the arena considerably. The dead trees held an intimidating presence, with their "charred" black bark and red glowing lines, with huge drag marks behind them. Yagato eyed his opponent up and down, taking note of the ashes he stood in, and how it seemed like he had elected to dismiss his most potent spell in favor of remaining in place. He stared Key right in the eye. "Do you think a small pile of ashes will keep you safe? I mean... I know that ashes are your thing but... This is just sad to look at." He spoke as the miasma kept leaking from his body.

"So sad to see all your spells be made for naught. Maybe it's my turn to cast a spell for once. I'll even give you a handicap." He said as he started to dedicate his absorbed mana and energy to split it up in two reserves for two different spells. "**NÓTT! DIANA!**" He cried out as magical claws of his toxic miasma took form around his hands and fingertips, together with a sudden ray of Miasma being fired off from his extended palms. When the great ray had been fired off, Yagato began to run at high speeds towards Key, keeping track with the beam. If he decided to use his ashes to block the beam, he would hopefully get a chance to get a slash or two at him. And if he went to protect himself from Yagato, the roar would be in a better position to rend the ashes and punish Key's frame.

Key's grimoire rapidly flipped its pages. "Ash Magic: Tantalizing Boulder!" he exclaimed with one hand lifted.

Around the conflicting Magic Knights' feet, ash stirred and started to pile up in front of Key. In no time, the collected ash swirled and hardened into a solid sphere that measured to be half the size of his previous construction. Upon creation, the newborn boulder quickly rolled towards Yagato and his own spell. Suddenly, the mass of ash was met with the impact of Yagato's projectile spell. Though the spells were of about the same latency, the beam did not match the boulder's scale, causing Key's ashes to be virtually unphased by Yagato's miasma blast. With Yagato closely following his initial spell, Key watched as the giant ash sphere persistently made its way towards his target with the intention of throwing him off his course.

Yagato would not relent. The beam had weakened and halted the boulder for enough a period of time for him to make his next move. With his superior physical prowess, he jumped over the boulder and made a dive for Key. He did not need to land either of the spells yet. He just needed to get close. With a wicked grin on his face, he stood in the same vicinity as Key and his Ashen pile. Perfect. "Defilement Magic: Ahriman!" He cried out as a box of pitch black Miasma began to take form. With a six and a half meter radius, it would soon be required of Key to either move or get stuck within it's confines. It wasn't the fastest spell, so there was yet time to escape from it, but if he remained, then the advantage would be all his. "What say you now, Pup!" Yagato cried out.

Surrounded by malicious mana, Key had no retort. He looked around desperately for a way out but found none. "What?" he gasped. "Noooooooo!" he shouted viciously, until Yagato's spell rendered him mute from the outside. The black box solidified around him, encasing him in the dark space. Trapped within the confines of the box, Key began to breathe in the miasma, an action that typically warranted fatal effects for its victims.

Yagato was caught within the confines of the Ahriman box together with Key now. With his miasma claws in hand he stood ready to wreak havoc on the poor kid. But he was not sure of how well Key were experienced with his sensory skills, so he elected to keep back for the moment, even if the miasma was starting ot feel like it was burning his hands. With a point upwards with his finger, the roots of the trees outside began to dig and tunnel under the ground before shooting up from the ground, ready to strike and bind mr Underwood down, making him easy prey. It may be pitch black even for Yagato, but so long as he kept breathing and exposing himself to that Miasma, he had absolute control and "vision" of the situation as he prepared to dash forward and slice Key if the miasma infested roots succeeded.

With no way to retaliate or counter, the roots reached up and grabbed hold of Key, which prompted Yagato to charge forward, and with a clenched fist, he delivered a hefty blow to Key's gut, knocking him nigh unconcious. Yagato let the Ahriman barrier falter and dissipate, brushing of fake dust from his shoulders before casually walking away. "Next time, think before challenging your betters."