Black Clover: Hidden Fifth Leaf

Time slowed to a crawl.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

I could hear nothing but the thundering of my heart in my ears, the ragged breaths that burned in my chest. The stone, still clenched in my trembling fingers, felt heavier with every passing second. My entire body was locked in place, frozen between the impulse to flee and the paralyzing terror that gripped my soul.

The hooded man's gaze found me—glowing, seething with unrestrained fury. His eyes, sharp as a blade, sliced through the darkness, and in that moment, it felt as if the world had stopped.

The air turned thick, pressing down on me.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't think.

His voice cut through the stillness, low and dangerous.

"If I find the little shit who threw that—" The words died on his tongue the moment his gaze locked onto mine.

A shift.

Not just him.

Every single bandit turned.

Their eyes bore into me, predatory and unforgiving, their expressions twisting into something that made my blood run cold.

I had just thrown a stone.

A single, meaningless stone.

And now, everything had changed.

"Kai?" My mother's voice, barely a whisper, cracked with disbelief and terror.

The hooded man wiped the blood trickling from his temple, his lips curling into a sneer.

"You think you can just throw rocks and walk away, little brat?"

He stepped toward me, his movements slow, deliberate—a wolf savoring the moment before the kill.

I swallowed hard. My instincts screamed at me to run, to move, to do anything—but I was trapped, pinned between the bushes and the moonlit square, exposed like a rabbit before the slaughter.

"Iron Creation Magic: Iron Chains."

Metallic chains erupted from the man's grimoire, slicing through the air with a sharp whip-like crack.

I turned to run.

I wasn't fast enough.

The chains coiled around me tight as a vice, yanking me into the air with a force that sent pain jolting through my body.

A heartbeat later, I was slammed onto the ground before him.

Before I could suck in a breath, a fist drove into my stomach.

Pain. Crushing. Blinding. Agonizing.

A choked gasp tore from my throat as I doubled over, the world spinning. My stomach twisted violently, and the bitter taste of bile burned my throat.

I vomited.

Laughter rang around me—mocking, cruel.

"That's what you get for not knowing your place," the bandit sneered, watching me with amused contempt.

"No! Kai!"

My mother's voice. Raw. Terrified.

I barely registered her desperate attempt to run to me before another bandit—this one broader, his movements effortless—drove a fist into her gut.

She crumpled, coughing out a splatter of blood onto the dirt.

"Stay down, woman," the bandit growled.

"No… please… not my baby…" My mother trembled, gripping her stomach, but she fought to rise.

Even with her body wracked in pain, even when her vision swam, she stood.

Shaking. Bleeding. But standing.

For me.

Her silver-lavender hair clung to her sweat-streaked face, streaked with dirt and blood. Her lips trembled, her knees buckled—but she did not fall.

The bandit struck her down again.

A brutal slap.

Her head snapped to the side.

She collapsed.

Her body hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Blood pooled beneath her temple.

The world faded.

Every sound muffled.

The bandits laughed. Some villagers gasped. Some looked away.

My father lay motionless, his body unnaturally still.

My mother—

Her chest rose and fell shallowly.

Her blood stained the dirt deep crimson.

Something inside me broke.

"MOM!!"

I screamed. Agony. Rage. Despair.

The air shook.

Light erupted from my body—blinding, vast, and ancient.

The village square was bathed in a radiant glow, shadows cast in stark contrast as a surge of pure, overwhelming power filled the air.

And from the center of it—

A grimoire appeared.

It floated in the air before me, its obsidian-black cover etched with golden streaks and glowing white runes. At its center, an All-Seeing Eye gazed unblinking, encircled by shifting arcane glyphs. Beneath it, the Crowned Clover of Decree—a five-leaf clover—was inscribed in luminous gold, marking dominion over Matter, Magic, Souls, Laws, and Reality itself.

A flood of knowledge surged into my mind.

I couldn't focus on it.

I didn't care.

My vision blurred with rage.

The villagers—all of them—collapsed. Their wounds vanished, their bodies restored, but they lay unconscious, untouched by the battle that was about to unfold.

The bandits staggered back.

"What the hell is this?!" their leader snarled, panic flickering in his eyes.

An appearance of another wizard was bad news.

If they were unlucky—if this intruder was a Magic Knight—they were screwed.

They didn't realize the truth.

I wasn't an intruder.

I was their executioner.

I tore through the chains as though they were never there.

"I will kill you all."

The words left my lips in a whisper, but they carried the weight of absolute finality.

One bandit turned, eyes widening. "Hey! He—"

Too late.

A white quill materialized in my grasp, weightless but terrifyingly absolute.

My hand moved on instinct, tracing words into the air.

"Sovereign Script Magic: Law of Absolute Command."

A single word—

"Disperse."

The iron chains dissolved, vanishing into nothingness.

The bandits stared. Horror dawned.

"What…?"

The leader snapped his grimoire open in desperate reflex.

"Iron Creation Magic: Iron Chains!"

I wrote again.

"Stop."

The word shimmered in golden ink—then faded.

Every bandit froze in place.

They tried to move—tried to resist—but their bodies refused to obey.

Fear swallowed their faces whole.

Sweat dripped. Their pupils shrank. Their mouths opened in silent horror.

They knew.

They were at my mercy.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

I wrote the word.

"Kill."

Their bodies remained untouched.

But their souls shattered.

They fell.

Lifeless. Frozen in expressions of pure terror.

The moment the last breath left their lips—

A searing pain exploded in my skull.

I staggered.

A ringing filled my ears, drowning out the world. My vision blurred, blackened—

I collapsed.

And darkness swallowed me whole.