All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Julius Novachrono

28th Wizard King

^{Click here to see Julius as a child}

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)^note

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 3 (Anime)

Magic Attribute: Time

"People want just one thing from the Wizard King... Achievements that mark you as the strongest. Produce results. Devote yourselves to building a reputation... That's everything. No one who's unable to do that could ever stand at the top...!"

The eccentric but beloved current Wizard King. A powerful man who loves magic, known as a "magic nerd" by his subordinates. He's absolutely enamored whenever he finds a rare or unique magic, with his desire to learn causing him to shirk his duties to his staff's frustration. Julius will interact with anyone regardless of their social status, wanting to learn about every magic in the world.

Uses Time Magic, using time he has "stolen" from enemies to fast forward, rewind, and stop the flow of time.

open/close all folders

# — L

Ability Mixing: By combining Mana Zone with his Time Magic, Julius can accelerate the time of mana around him to sense the very near future and anticipate attacks.
The Ace: The strongest mage in the kingdom as the current Wizard King with an extremely powerful magic, beloved by all the country's citizens for his strength and kind, affable nature, and a figure of wisdom with great knowledge and experience in different magics and the country's social dynamics.
All-Loving Hero: His goal is to end the discrimination between the aristocrats and commoners and peasants of the Clover Kingdom. Julius himself is very courteous and kind, making him loved and respected by everyone in the kingdom. He even holds no grudge against Vangeance for keeping the secret that he has Licht's soul, attributing it to his kindness.
The Archmage: As his title would imply, he's considered the strongest mage of the Clover Kingdom, and is the military commander of all the magic knights in the kingdom. No thanks to being a magic nerd, he's also very knowledgeable regarding many different types of magic.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Says to Asta and Yuno that the only requirement to become Wizard King is merit, right before opening a door to reveal a dozen other talented young sorcerers as part of the Distinguished Service Ceremony. He finally proves why onscreen when he wipes out an entire squad of mages who completely overpowered the heroes and Captain Fuegoleon in seconds without getting a scratch.
Attack Reflector: He can use his spell Chrono Stasis to trap an enemy's projectile in a sphere then send it back even faster, as he does to Licht's Laser Blade.
Awesome Mc Cool Name: Stated so by Zara:
Zara Ideale: Guys like that succeed in the world! His name was cool too! Novachrono!
Back from the Dead: He comes back to life by storing 13 years of age into his tattoo thanks to a magical tool from Lumiere and Secre, but comes back physically 13 years old with one page of his Grimoire left.
Badass Boast: To Licht as he fights him.
"I can see your future already. You can't win against me."
Badass Bookworm: The reigning Wizard King with an absolutely busted time magic as a power, and is a total geek who learns to learn more about and see rare types of magic, to the point he shirks his duties and transforms to conduct his search without being recognized.
Badass Longrobe: The strongest mage in the country and wears a long red robe with white fur that covers his entire body.
Bad Powers, Good People: His Time Magic is revealed to be this. It relies on stealing the time of those he's killed and storing it to be used. Despite this, he's the protector of the kingdom. He came to believe that he was blessed with such a power to become Wizard King so he may change society and protect the innocent, and uses it to save the kingdom at the cost of his life.
Baritone of Strength: Courtesy of Toshiyuki Morikawa and Robert McCollum, Julius is the Clover Kingdom's most powerful mage and has a deep voice in the anime.
Batman Gambit: Thanks to his sharp intuition, he comes to believe that there's an unwitting traitor within the magic knights who's been feeding information to the Eye of the Midnight Sun. His plan is to use the Royal Knights Examination in which the participants will expend their mana and be confronted with others' mana to bring out their true colors, despite the danger it poses. It works when Langris goes on an uncharacteristic rampage after facing his brother, nearly killing Finral before being stopped, and it turns out he's been possessed.
Benevolent Mage Ruler: He has been shown to be a kind, approachable man who protects his kingdom and takes interest in the skills of the youth of said kingdom. Unlike many other nobility, he aspires to end discrimination against commoners and peasants in the kingdom.
Beware the Nice Ones: Julius is a very kind man who treats those he meets respectfully regardless of their social class. He's also used his Time Magic, which is based off stealing the time of enemies, to take many lives, and won't hesitate to age an enemy of the kingdom into dust.
Beware the Silly Ones: He devolves into a geeky otaku when he comes across unique magics, complete with Wingding Eyes. It almost makes you forget that he's the Wizard King, with a magic that can easily slaughter enemies by aging them into dust, a fact he casually reminds some rogue mages about.
Big Good: As the Wizard King, the head of the Magic Knights, he leads them against powerful threats to protect the Clover Kingdom. As an extremely powerful mage and protector of the kingdom, being the Wizard King is his only weakness as pointed out by Licht, and he expends the rest of his magic to stop the citizens from being massacred by a country-wide spell, leaving him vulnerable to get stabbed by Licht.
Bilingual Bonus: The last spell he uses before being stabbed by Licht is "Chrono Anastasis", which is Greek for "time resurrection", to rewind time and erase Licht's light blades from killing civilians in the Clover Kingdom. He ends up bringing himself back to life as a thirteen-year old using his magic combined with Lumiere and Secre's old magic tool.
Bling of War: His outfit as the Wizard King, the leader of the country's military forces, is a furred red longrobe adorned with a golden necklace and medals.
Blue Blood: According to the Marque-page de Grimoire, Julius was born a noble. Despite his highborn status and unlike many other noblemen, he wants to dismantle the kingdom's inequality.
Blue Is Heroic: His mana is blue, he has a blue star tattoo on his forehead, and is the Big Good of the series.
Brought Down to Normal: Using magic to revive himself not only placed him in the body he had as a boy, but took away all the pages of his grimoire but one. Because of the way his stockpiling powers work, he's weaker than the average teenage commoner. He still has his 40 odd years of knowledge and wits to work with, but the Clover Kingdom has to cover his condition up for as long as possible so other nations won't invade now that he can't fight back.
Brutal Honesty: Despite his kind nature, Julius is very much this when genuinely asked advice, telling Asta and Yuno when they ask how to become the Wizard King that pride isn't enough to protect people, and you need to earn achievements and produce results to gain a reputation, calling it everything.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: A magic Otaku that often neglects his duties to do whatever the hell he wants and study other types of magic. He's still the Wizard King, the strongest Magic Knight in the kingdom.
The Chains of Commanding: Contemplates this briefly upon the reveal that Gueldre is a traitor who'd informed the Eye of the Midnight Sun, thinking about how sad it is to be betrayed by comrades who fought alongside him and how he may have made a lot of mistakes on his sprint in becoming the Wizard King. After the Elf Reincarnation he feels a lot of responsibility for it, having been the one to recruit Vangeance into the magic knights and made him captain and having lost to Patry.
Clark Kent Outfit: His outfit hides it well, but Julius actually has a well-toned body as seen in Petit Clover◊, especially for his age of fourty-two.
Combat Clairvoyance: By accelerating time for the mana around him, he can read the flow of mana in the future, which allows him to avoid most of Licht's attacks.
Dare to Be Badass: To Asta and Yuno right after his statement about becoming the next Wizard King:
Julius: [motioning to the other young mages in the hall] All right... can you... give me better results than they have?
De-power: He is reduced to one page of his Grimoire after bringing himself back to life as a 13 year old, losing most of his powers over Time Magic.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Revealed during his fight in Licht that Julius questioned why he was special with time magic and a coverless grimoire, asking himself these questions constantly throughout his life. As a magic knight during which he garnered merit, Zara inspired Julius as the first peasant magic knight during a time when Julius wondered what a true magic knight should be. Zara's death at the hands of his own squad for being a peasant led him to aspire to become the Wizard King through building a record of achievements to be in a position where his voice could be heard, in hopes of creating a country where people like Zara's potential wouldn't be wasted, believing human potential is infinite.
Deus Exit Machina: Leaves right before a bunch of powerful mages from the Eye of the Midnight Sun come to terrorize the kingdom. He later travels to their hideout where he's waiting until the rogue mages return.
Dissonant Serenity: He maintains his affable, friendly tone and smile when casually killing two members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun after they attack the Clover Kingdom, and threatens to do the same to their allies.
Domain Holder: Julius can use Mana Zone, controlling the mana in the area around him. He uses it to increase his spells' power and range, as well as combine it with his Time Magic to foresee attacks.
Dual Age Modes: After getting DePowered into a thirteen-year old after using his magic to save himself from dying to Patry, he uses the remainder of the magic he has left to temporarily age himself into his adult self at prime power to save the kingdom from the ancient Spade demon. It ends up dissipating moments after and he goes back to his child self.
Eccentric Mentor: The fourty-two year old Wizard King with a nerdy obsession of rare magics. He mentored Yami, leads the kingdom's magic knights, and has an interest in the abilities of the kingdom's youth, giving advice to Asta on his journey as a magic knight in hopes of becoming the Wizard King.
Ermine Cape Effect: Although he isn't actual royalty, he's the Wizard King and is more influential than the actual king. He looks the part, wearing an ornate cape with golden necklaces and medals.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": People largely refer to him by his title.
Famed In-Story: Naturally as the country's Wizard King, he's recognized and beloved by most of the populace. Which is why he has to transform if he wants to go incognito to check out people's magics.
A Father to His Men: Essentially took on a paternal role to a young Yami when he was shipwrecked in the Clover Kingdom, taking him into his squad and teaching him the country's language. He was also this to Vangeance who was a cursed illegitimate child hated by his stepmother and ignored by his father, recruiting him into the Gray Deer and giving him his signature helmet.
Flash Step: He appears to do this thanks to his Time Magic, allowing him to avoid attacks by slowing time. It looks as if he's instantaneously teleporting when in reality he only looks that fast because time is slowed down for everyone else but himself.
Foil:
- To king Augustus. Julius is the Wizard King, a position earned through achievements, while Augustus is the kingdom's actual king, a title he was born into. Julius believes that the love for the people should be earned through merit while Augustus expects it to come with one's title and background. Julius wants to end the discrimination against commoners in the kingdom while Augustus, like other aristocrats, looks down on the lower-class. While Julius's time magic is incredibly powerful and versatile, Augustus's light magic is pathetic and doesn't do anything other than creating a light image of himself. And Julius is beloved by the kingdom, a fact that Augustus, whose subjects are indifferent to him, is very envious of.
- To Licht/Patry. Julius is the leader of the Magic Knights who protect the Clover Kingdom. Licht is the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, whose goal is to destroy the Clover Kingdom. Licht has light magic. Julius has the magic that can best oppose light in speed — time. Julius is a benevolent figure who has the love of his people and subordinates for his kindness and strength. Licht is worshipped by his underlings like a god for granting them a second chance and promises of reincarnation, which turn out to be false. Julius hopes for a kingdom of understanding; Licht is too blinded by his desire for revenge to want anything but the slaughter of humanity.
The Gambler: In his old lady disguise, he's seen beating Sekke in a game of cards.
Gold-Colored Superiority: Wears golden clothing and jewelry, and as Wizard King is arguably the most powerful mage on the country.
Good Is Not Soft: He's certainly nice to his allies and is a Reasonable Authority Figure, but he won't hesitate to kill his enemies by reducing them to dust. Then it's revealed that his magic revolves around using the time of enemies he's killed, and Julius notes that he's killed countless people.
Go Out with a Smile: He smiles during his last moments, happy that he's seen so many different magics and known so many people. It's later revealed that he revived himself as a thirteen-year old.
Gratuitous Greek: All his named spells use Greek words. "Chrono" for time, "Stasis" for standing, "Grigora" for fast, and "Anastasis" for resurrection.
Guile Hero: Is quite intelligent and perceptive, figuring out that there was an unwitting traitor within the magic knights and successfully using the Royal Knights Examination to figure out who. And when Asta is blamed for the Elf Reincarnation, he assigns the Black Bulls to go into exile and investigate the devils so nobody has to be punished and the squad will benefit the kingdom, canceling out how they interrupted the trial.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Julius has dark blond hair and is the kind, loving Wizard King who desires to end the Clover Kingdom's discrimination.
Hand Blast: As a more direct form of attacking, he can fire blasts of mana from his hands.
Hard Truth Aesop: When Yuno and Asta ask the Wizard King about what they must do to achieve his rank, Julius answers that nothing is more important than producing results, and he came to be the current Wizard King due to producing more and better results than any other of the captains. While the manga makes clear that effort and kindness are important, this is also a very pragmatic way to see the world.
Heroic Sacrifice: He uses his Time Magic to erase Licht's Arrows of Judgment from killing the kingdom, fully knowing that it leaves him vulnerable as he does so. This ends with him being fatally stabbed by Licht.
Hidden Purpose Test: Although the Royal Knights Examination is meant to create a squad to fight the Eye of the Midnight Sun, Julius's other purpose of the exam is to snuff out any unconscious betrayal, believing that a magic knight has been unwittingly cooperating with the Eye of the Midnight Sun. The tournament makes it possible as people show their true colors when expending mana or confronted by powerful magic on the battlefield. It pays off when it turns out Langris is possessed.
Hour of Power: The now thirteen-year old Julius uses the last page in his grimoire to age himself 10 years to try to save the kingdom from the ancient Spade Kingdom demon released to attack it by the Dark Triad. It turns out to be seconds of power, as very shortly after he reverts back to his young, powerless form and is exposed to the kingdom.
Humans Are Special: A believer in this. Having seen the dichotomy between the arrogant higher class who were too lazy to hone their natural gifts and the lower class who gave up because of their social status, he saw a waste of such potential from both sides of society. It's why Julius became the Wizard King — to not stifle that potential by changing society through his position and the strengths of the people he acknowledges and they acknowledge in turn.
Julius: The potential of magic, and of humans, is infinitely vast. Magic, and humans, should be freer than this.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He's stabbed by a sword made of Licht's Light Magic while he erases his spell to save the Clover Kingdom. He survives thanks to his magic but is brought back as a thirteen-year old.
Internal Reformist: He questioned his purpose in life as he completed missions as a magic knight until he met Zara Ideale, who he came to admire for his kindness, bravery, and hard work ethic. After Zara was killed by his squadmates for being a peasant, Julius rose up the magic knights to become the head of the organization as the Wizard King, implementing the Star System for all magic knights to be recognized for the results they accomplish and have a voice that others would listen to, gradually changing the mindsets of the magic knights and country's citizens.
Keet: Surprisingly enough, he's this around rare magic due to his "magic geek" tendencies as explained by Klaus. He's ecstatic when he sees the rare magic in Yuno's tome, but is saddened when Yuno tells him that he's been unable to use it since. He also gushes over Asta's Demon-Dweller Sword until he realizes that the sword is draining his mana.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Julius is the Wizard King and has tremendous magic power. Also, he is a major geek who can't help giggling like a maniac whenever he sees incredible magic powers from people lower than him in ranks. He is such a fanboy he periodically sneaks out of the castle just to spy on people he has an eye on to, you guessed it, squee at their magic talent. Asta and Yuno stand out as his favorite knights.
Light Is Good: He has golden hair and wears an ornate white and red cape with golden jewelry. He's also the leader of the Magic Knights whose goal is equality between the kingdom's social classes.
Lightning Bruiser: Using his Time Magic, Julius can move incredibly fast and, if an enemy isn't fast enough to keep up with him, he can age their body to dust or blast them with his mana. He's also seemingly unfazed from being swung around and dragged throughout the Clover Castle walls with Licht's whip.

M — Y

Master-Apprentice Chain: Was Yami's captain, taking him into the Gray Deer and teaching him the country's language and social customs, with Yami in turn becoming the captain of Asta. He was also Vangeance's captain, who later went on to become the captain of Yuno. As Julius dies from his wound by Patry, he finds solace in knowing that his ideals of a country free of discrimination and hatred will live on in the next era of magic knights, with Asta reiterating that same dream in the chapter.
Master of All: The Guidebook gives him a 5/5 in Magic Amount, Magic Control, Magic Sensing, and Cleverness. The only category he doesn't have a 5/5 in is Physical Strength which is 4/5, but when you're as strong of a mage as he is you don't need it.
Meaningful Name:
- His first name is Julius and, like his namesake, is a military leader. Gaius Julius Caesar's, who was dictator of Rome, cognomen (Caesar) also was synonymous with "emperor", and Julius is the Wizard King after all. Another similarity with the famous statesman, he's betrayed by a close subordinate which leads to him getting stabbed.
- His last name is Novachrono, nova and chrono being Latin for "new" and "time" respectively, and he uses Time Magic and gets de-aged after using his magic to save himself.
The Mentor: To Yami. He was the one who convinced him to join the Magic Knights under him in the Gray Deer squad. Yami's very loyal to Julius as a result.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Was Yami's mentor as the captain who took him into the magic knights in his squad and taught him the Clover Kingdom's language, with Yami showing the utmost loyalty to Julius because of it. When he's fatally wounded by Licht he compliments Yami on how he's become such an incredible magic knight and entrusts the kingdom's safety to him as he dies. Subverted later on when Julius is revived as a thirteen-year old.
Messy Hair: As a 13 year old, is hair is long and shaggy to match his de-aged body.
My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Says this after Licht sees his giant, cover-less grimoire, speaking about how he questioned his specialness and this path of merit as he tried to find the answer eventually led to who he is now.
"I am... the Wizard King."
Mysterious Past: Despite being a major character in a series where many side characters get backstories, very little is known about Julius other than that he was the captain of the Gray Deer and mentored Yami and Vangeance and became the Wizard King to end discrimination in the kingdom.
Named After Somebody Famous: His first name comes from Julius Caesar.
Nerves of Steel: Even when confronted with the truth about Vangeance and Licht sharing the same body, Julius maintains a calm, collected demeanor which stays during the battle. He even cordially expresses to Licht his dream as the Wizard King and points out his giant floating grimoire in the sky. He only begins to lose his composure when Licht is about to massacre the entire kingdom with a spell.
Never Gets Drunk: According to the Volume 13 Questions Brigade, Julius is tied for first for characters who can best handle liquor.
Nice Guy: From what we have seen of him, he's shown to be a kind and laid back ruler devoted to achieving equality for the people of the Clover Kingdom.
"No More Holding Back" Speech: Gives one to Licht about how he questioned his purpose in life, eventually leading him to where he is now:
"Time magic and a coverless grimoire. I didn't know whether it was good or bad, but I was special. And so I thought a lot. About what I might be... and what I should do. I asked myself those questions constantly. As I did so, I accumulated results. And when I reached the top, I thought... 'The path that I've walked... is me!' I am... the Wizard King."
Obsolete Mentor: Julius becomes this after he comes back as a young teenager after getting mortally wounded by Patry, being reduced to only having one page from his giant grimoire. All he can do in his position as Wizard King is give out orders, with his current state kept secret from the public, like ordering the Black Bulls to investigate the devils to prevent Asta from being punished for the Elf Reincarnation. As a result, the Wizard King who had time magic is unable to fight against the Spade Kingdom or devils in the following arcs. Even his attempt to use his magic for a short moment to save the kingdom from the giant Spade demon fails and Asta has to come to the rescue.
Older Than They Look: After reviving himself, he has the body he possessed during his mid to early teens.
One-Man Army: He easily subdues a group of Eye of the Midnight Sun mages with his magic, and casually killed three of them because it would've been more difficult to restrain all of them.
Otaku: Julius is a huge magic geek, becoming excited when learning about unique magics, complete with sparkling eyes. So much so that he often shirks his duties as the Wizard King to search for new magics in disguise.
The Paragon: Julius is admired as the Wizard King for his kindness, strength, and goal of ending discrimination within the kingdom. He was the one who recruited Yami into the magic knights, and his duty to his job as captain is heavily tied to his loyalty to Julius. All the other magic knights, including the captains and even the highborn ones, deeply respect him, and he serves as an inspiration to accomplish more to the younger magic knights like Asta and Yuno. His fight with Licht reveals that he intended to become this to change the country, through the strength and merit of those he believes in and acknowledges and those that they acknowledge as well.
Peaceful in Death: As he dies, he entrusts everything to Yami and thinks about how great it is to have met so many different people and to have seen so many different kinds of magic. It turned out he survived, but he wasn't sure he would at the time.
Perpetual Smiler: The man is almost always shown smiling. Even while he's slaughtering the enemy's squad. He does stop smiling when Langris uses magic reminiscent to that of Vetto and Fana, and Licht reveals himself to be in Vangeance's body.
Personality Powers: Julius has Time Magic and is a whimsical, carefree man who tends to shirk his duties as the Wizard King to look for unique magics.
Physical God: Julius is so powerful with his Time Magic that Licht, an elf whose race was so powerful that they were treated as gods in the past, sees him as an all-powerful obstacle sent by nature itself. And that's Julius holding himself back to not harm Vangeance's body.
Power Floats: He can levitate and move through the air, avoiding Licht's spells with incredible speed.
Power Tattoo: He has a mark on the left side of his forehead that stores reserves of his Time Magic in the magic device Swallowtail, which was a creation by the first Wizard King and Nero. After being fatally wounded by Licht he uses it to revive himself but now as a thirteen-year old.
Pragmatic Hero: The reason he casually kills two members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun? It would've been hard to restrain all of them with their numbers. He also proceeds with the Royal Knights Examination's plan to discover an unconscious traitor through having the participants fight, despite its danger which is pointed out by Marx and ends up with Finral nearly dying at the hands of Langris. Then it's revealed that the reserves of his time magic come from the "time" he's taken from others, meaning that Julius has killed plenty of people in the past.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: A chillingly casual one:
Wizard King: You can't possibly have gone to kill... without being prepared to be killed. Right?
Primary-Color Champion: He's the Wizard King, the leader of the kingdom's Magic Knights, and wears an ornate red robe with white shirts and pants cuffed with blue.
Purple Is Powerful: He has purple eyes and is the Wizard King, signifying him as the strongest Magic Knight in the kingdom.
Rapid Aging: Touching members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun have them age so fast that they crumble to dust almost instantaneously.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He created the current star ranking system so that everyone has a chance to be recognized if they put in the work. This is because of Zara, Zora Ideale's father, being the ideal epitome of a Magic Knight, despite being a peasant and not getting recognized, around Julius when they were both just Knights.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a short but succinct one to Langris after he nearly kills Finral during the Royal Knights Examination:
"Those who go easy on their companions in a fight can't be trusted... But those who try to kill their companions have problems that run much deeper than trust!"
Red Is Heroic: Wears a regal red robe and is the equality-seeking Wizard King, whose duty is to protect the people of the Clover Kingdom.
Secret-Keeper: He was the only one besides Yami himself who even knew that the Black Bulls had a vice captain in Nacht, a fact that even the other Black Bulls themselves were unaware of, who's been a spy within the Spade Kingdom for years.
Seers: Thanks to his Time Magic, Julius is able to make predictions about the future, like the fact that Asta will die after the Elf Reincarnation arc.
Shapeshifting:
- He disguised himself as an unassuming old lady in order to see the skills of Asta.
- He later disguises himself as a bartender and oversees the captains after the Star Festival, leaving after Asta, Yuno, Noelle, Charlotte, and Yami get dragged off by Mereoleona.
Skewed Priorities: To the annoyance of his staff (especially Marx), Julius would rather go into the city disguised to search for interesting types of magic than deal with the paperwork he has to go through as the Wizard King. His excitement at seeing such magics also tend to have him momentarily distracted from more serious matters to discuss.
Spanner in the Works: His assignment of the Black Bulls and Golden Dawn to explore a newly-discovered dungeon ends up inadvertently thwarting the plans of the Diamond Kingdom, later leading to Mars rebelling and the downfall of Morris, as well as Asta and Yuno to get power-ups in the Demon-Dweller Sword and wind spirit Sylph.
Sphere of Power: His spell Chrono Stasis forms ringed spheres to restrain projectiles and enemies themselves if they aren't fast enough to avoid.
Stealth Insult: Throws many of these in when awarding the mages at the Distinguished Service Ceremony in an attempt to correct their social deficiencies. They mostly take them as compliments.
Steven Ulysses Perhero: His surname, Novachrono, alludes to the fact that he's a Time Master.
Story-Breaker Power: Time Magic lets him reduce enemies to dust by touch, move at incredible speed, and stop most attacks and restore himself by changing the flow of time. As a result, the Magic Knights face the Third Eye in locations far away from the Royal Capital where Julius could help. He only loses to Licht because he doesn't want to overly harm Vangeance's body and he threatens the entire kingdom, forcing Julius to sacrifice himself and making the reincarnated elves all the more dangerous. And when resurrected, he comes back as a thirteen-year old with only one page of his grimoire, which makes the Spade Kingdom an even greater threat.
Strong and Skilled: Julius is the Wizard King and uses Time Magic with a variety of different uses. He can slow down time to move faster and restrain targets, selectively reverse time to heal wounds, accelerate time to age enemies into dust, and reverse spells to the point they were never cast. He can also combine his magic with Mana Zone, accelerating the time of mana around himself to predict attacks.
Sue Donym: His name when he's posing as an old woman? Chronovala, not much different from Novachrono.
Superpower Lottery: Aside from his sheer magical power, his magical attribute is Time. This allows him to do such things freeze targets place, see into the future, move at ridiculous speed, inflict Rapid Aging, selectively rewind time to erase injuries, and come Back from the Dead by having stored up 13 years of extra time in his magical tattoo.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Damnatio. When Damnation intends to make Asta The Scapegoat for the Elf Reincarnation despite knowing that it wasn't his fault, Julius assigns his squad to investigate the devils to avoid punishment and benefit the kingdom. Damnatio warns Julius that if the kingdom falls into a crisis he'll judge even Julius if he has to.
Theme Naming: Wizard King Julius, the name of the Roman general, follows the Roman statesmen naming theme with Nero, which hints that there's more to the bird than it looks, and king Augustus.
Third Party Stops Attack: As the one foreseeing the Royal Knights Examination, he restrains Asta, on a different team and part of the Black Bulls, and Langris, a Golden Dawn member and exam participant, from attacking each other on the battlefield after Langris nearly kills Finral, as it still is a match.
Time Master: His Time Magic allows him to steal and store others' time, using it to change the flow of time. He's shown to be capable of decelerating time to put his foes in a stasis bubble where the victims experience a split second for an excruciatingly long period of time, unable to move or speak all the while. He's also able to inflict Rapid Aging on an enemy, which the enemy leader finds out firsthand.
Time Stands Still: This is inflicted on anything caught in his Chrono Stasis, trapped in a sphere and in a continuous time loop while unable to move.
Universally Beloved Leader: He's beloved by everyone in the kingdom for his kindness and power, and deeply respected by all the Magic Knights captains. So much so that the actual king is very jealous of it and gets pouty when reminded of this fact.
Wingding Eyes: Whenever he's excited about seeing a cool magic, his eyes turn into sparkles.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Throughout his life Julius questioned why he was special with time magic and a coverless grimoire, wondering whether it was good or bad. Contemplating why, he came to that answer after meeting Zara Ideale, a peasant he considered the ideal magic knight and was killed by his classist comrades. Realizing that society was limiting the potential of its high and lower-class, Julius accumulated results to become the Wizard King, using his special strength so his voice could be heard with his power, rank, and trust to change the people of the kingdom and protect its citizens.
Worf Had the Flu: He held back against Licht because he was possessing Vangeance's body. In the end, he's only defeated because Licht is about to kill everyone in the kingdom, forcing Julius to use his magic to save them and Licht using that opportunity to fatally stab him.
World's Strongest Man: As the current Wizard King, he's the strongest mage in the Clover Kingdom. Licht, who is an elf who are all vastly stronger than most humans, thinks Julius is so inhumanly strong when they fight that he views him as an obstacle sent by nature against the elves for planning to violate natural law.
Wrong Context Magic: His Time Magic is classified by the Heart Kingdom as unnatural, which would make him an Arcane Stage. This is seen in his grimoire, which is a gigantic, cover-less book that floats in the sky. However he's now lost most of his powers after being revived as a thirteen-year old.
You Remind Me of X: Julius reminds Nero of the first Wizard King Lumiere, with both being powerful yet kind, caring individuals with an interest in magic who wanted to better the lives of the kingdom's downtrodden.

This character is a spoiler for Black Clover's final arc. You Have Been Warned!

Lucius Zogratis

Savior of the World

^{Click here to see Lucius's sacred power form}

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Jump Festa 2023)

Debut: Chapter 306 (Manga)

Magic Attribute: Soul + Body + Blood + Bone + Time + Gravity

"By rights, no living thing should ever be born without magic power. You [Asta] are the world's 'flaw.' For the sake of a just future... flaws must be eliminated."

A mage born with two souls with the other being the Wizard King Julius Novachrono. He is the eldest sibling of the Dark Triad, and devil host of the supreme devil Astaroth. A megalomaniac with a messiah complex, Lucius believes himself to be the world's savior and infiltrated the Clover Kingdom as an unaware Julius. His goal is to use the power of devils to remake humanity into equal, higher life-forms to establish peace and rule over the world as the Wizard Emperor.

Lucius uses two types of magic, the devil Astaroth's Time Magic and his innate magic Soul Magic, transforming the soul, the source of human life, spirit, and magic, of anyone he touches.

A — E

Achilles' Heel: His foresight is such a powerful ability because he can act on what he sees both in combat and for longterm plans. Unfortunately, this means that the future is mutable, and it could theoretically change from what he's predicted due to actions he takes or others take. Chapter 360 sees him realize that his attempted assassination of Asta has caused the cast to hit a collective Rage Breaking Point, spiking their combat abilities far beyond his already generous margins of error. In particular, Yuno is so incensed and determined to avenge his friend that his magical proficiency exponentially increases to the point that it surpasses that of a possible version of him who was such a threat that Lucius prevented him from existing. Even with his foresight surpassed though, he still has several extra measures like tricking Yuno into killing a clone and sending Damnatio to interrupt Asta's deployment.
Actually a Doombot: He can create clones of himself courtesy of his Soul Magic being enhanced by consuming Lucifero and his fellow sibling's magic. Yuno seemingly kills him at the start of his holy war, but that's actually one such clones that he deploys to wear him down. He deploys more after the first one is slain.
Ambiguously Human: From sensing his ki Asta questions if he's fully human. When he transforms into an angelic form he calls humanity's true form Asta senses that his ki is neither human nor devil.
Ambition Is Evil: His ambition of clearing out all discrimination is unparalled, which leads to his journey from a recluse living in an isolated house in the Spade Kingdom to outright taking over the underworld and gaining the power to completely destroy and remake humanity.
Animal Motifs: Deers. As Julius he was the captain of the Gray Deer. And as a "true human" he has stag-like horns, symbols of spiritual authority. Deers are associated with Christianity and stags are used as symbols of Christ, suiting a Dark Messiah who wants to turn humanity into angelic beings.
The Antichrist: A Dark Messiah figure, with all the Antichrist symbolism to boot. "Lucius" is the given birth name of Nero, a Roman Emperor often associated with the Antichrist. The host of the supreme devil Astaroth, one of the underworld's three rulers, his goal involves using the power of devils. He even has a few things shared with the Antichrist, namely coming back to life after being supposedly killed by Patry, a Christ-like figure wielding a sword of light, his true goal to kill everyone and resurrect them as immortals being similar to those of a Dark Messiah, and performs many benevolent deeds and miracles when he's known as the good Wizard King so he could prepare for the end of days.
Arch-Enemy:
- To Asta, who says in monologue he can never forgive him for what he's done, especially for enslaving Sister Lily into doing his bidding. Even after Asta manages to restore her free will, she grows unconscious with her life now depending on Lucius' defeat. With Judgment Day mere days away, Asta vows to take him down. The story makes it explicit he's the most dangerous foe he's faced yet, which is saying something considering the heavy hitters Asta had dealt with leading up to this point.
Asta: I am never gonna forgive you, Lucius!
- He views Yuno as one, seeing him as one of the biggest obstacles to his plans in one of tens of thousands of futures where the heroes have the advantage. This sentiment only grows when Yuno unveils his Never-Never-Land spell, which is tailor made to counter his Time Magic, leading him to declare him his rival. The feeling is not mutual on Yuno's part, however, as he only views Asta as his one true rival.
Badass Longcoat: Like the Dark Triad, he wears a furred longcoat and is one of the strongest mages in the story.
Badass Long Robe: Lucius, the Wizard King and a supreme devil host, wears a long robe underneath his fur longcoat.
Baddie Flattery: Claps his hands and tells Asta congratulations on his promotion for Senior Magic Knight before telling him he's at his final destination. Likewise, he compliments Yuno's strength when the latter manages to repel his Final Judgement.
Back from the Dead: Ryuya warns his Ryuzen Seven that anyone who's been killed by Lucius might be resurrected as Paladins before they go fight Heath Grice, Sister Lily and Yrul, and he did measures to prevent them from killing any of his citizens in fear of them turned into killer supersoldiers against him. Noticeably, he outright revived Heath Grice to serve him even if he shouldn't be able to find his body. When he does start his own holy war, he also shows up with Morgen Faust and Acier Silva.
Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Although Asta and the magic knights kill the 50% of Lucifero that manifests, Lucius helped without them knowing by using his time magic to have his plan succeed, and is the one to fully end the devil king when he travels down to the underworld, defeats the remaining, un-manifested 50% of him, and eats his heart at that.
The Bad Guy Wins: The Spade Kingdom Raid arc. Although the heroes successfully save Yami and Vangeance and defeat Lucifero and the Dark Triad, Lucius has manifested and incapacitates Damnatio, the only one to have found out his true identity, and he's had Adrammelech obtain Lucifero's heart for him after he was killed by the heroes as he had planned, with his long scheme now in its final stages. Extremely Justified though, as he'd gone out of his way to obscure that there even was a bad guy to tackle after Lucifero, having Astaroth's position amongst the trio of devils who rule the underworld be taken by Megicula and hiding within Julius's body unbeknownst to him until the arc's final moments.
Bad Powers, Bad People: As a megalomaniacal mastermind who subtly manipulates virtually every other party to advance his plan of world salvation, it would be appropriate for Lucius to have Soul Magic, which allows him to freely transform and modify people as he wishes.
Barehanded Blade Block: His clone blocks Yuno's Spirit of Zephyr with his bare hand after it cuts off one of his antlers.
Batman Gambit: A key part of his plan is to take Lucifero's power for himself and take control of the power vacuum he left out. The problem is Lucifero is outright impossible to defeat when he's fully manifested. His solution to this is a whole slew of Crazy-Prepared schemes spanning across fifteen years (likely more if you count him manipulating his siblings to become Devil Hosts) that are largely dependent on how others react, accumulating with Lucifero manifesting with only half his power in the real world so he could be taken care of in a more reasonable front.
Betrayal by Inaction: He purposefully and subtly arranges circumstances that would get his younger siblings killed by the Clover Kingdom magic knights so he could collect their Magic to become a god-like being.
Big Bad: After the Dark Triad and Lucifero are defeated, Lucius takes up this role as the true villain of the story, having been the one who led his younger siblings in the past, manipulated the magic knights from the shadows the entire time, and planned Lucifero's defeat at that for his own ends.
Broken Pedestal: After Lucius's true identity and motives come to light, many knights who idolized him lose their trust on him, but not much more than Yami, who realized he was only recruited to fuel his former captain's evil goals against humanity, and has (to his knowledge) killed Asta, a valued member of his guild.
Cain and Abel and Seth: Zenon's backstory reveals that there's actually a fourth Zogratis sibling, the oldest of the siblings who, like Zenon, has a greater aptitude as a devil host than Dante and Vanica. It turns out to be Lucius, who was Julius all along.
Call-Back: His fight against Yuno and Vangeance has him pull out similar movements as when he's dealing with Patry using his Julius alter-ego. He tries to burn away Vangeance's arm with time magic, orders a group of Guardian Angels to bombard the capital which was blocked by Yuno, and tricks Yuno into killing a clone in a moment mirroring his assassination in the hands of Patry that he actually escapes scot-free.
Cannibalism Superpower: Gains a surge in magical power after eating Lucifero's heart, allowing him to outright manipulate life with his Soul Magic.
Chekhov M.I.A.: We're supposed to believe that Dante is the eldest sibling of the Dark Triad, but in Zenon's flashbacks this was revealed to not be the case when young Zenon refers to another, mysterious man on a wheelchair as "big brother". Young Dante never uses a wheelchair and he's been seen next to said mysterious man in one instance. We don't hear about him for the majority of the Spade Kingdom Raid Arc and his face is never seen in Zenon's flashbacks, but it turns out he's already within the Clover Kingdom. For years.
Chekhov's Skill: Julius's power to transform to search incognito for new magics turns out to actually be really important when readers consider that all this time the oldest Zogratis sibling could have had a different appearance from his siblings. And just like their natural magics, his shape-shifting powers involves altering parts of his body. Then Lucius appears, going from a child with blond hair to an adult with black hair and a devil host mark.
The Chessmaster: Lucius infiltrated the Clover Kingdom and rose up the ranks to become its Wizard King, personally recruited and mentored the two mages needed to form the Qliphoth, sent Asta and Yuno on the mission to the dungeon that began the first of their power-ups and Asta helping restore Mars's memories which eventually led to Morris being kicked out of Diamond to joining the Triad and manifesting Lucifero, had his Julius soul come back weakened as a child to not fight on behalf of the Clover Kingdom and didn't have Vangeance punished as part of his plan. He then interfered with Damnatio's sham trial by ordering the Black Bulls into exile instead so they become strong enough to fight on par with the Dark Triad a while later. In the Spade Kingdom raid proper, he used his time magic to make the magic knights' raid go how he wanted it to, having the magic knights, including Asta and Yuno, fight the devil king Lucifero and Adrammelech obtain his heart after the long battle, with it going All According to Plan, without the Clover Kingdom knowing any better for decades until Damnatio's research led him to suspect Julius. The Magic Knights also having many core members with personal scores to settle with the Dark Triad and/or their devils only made things much easier for him.
Combo Platter Powers: He has his innate Soul Magic and Astaroth's Time Magic from being his devil host. After eating Lucifero's heart he gains the devil king's Gravity Magic, and in preparation for Judgment Day he assimilates his siblings' Body, Blood, and Bone Magic, giving him a whopping six magic attributes, and uses them with his Soul Magic to clone himself.
Combat Pragmatist: Despite his power, he's not far from using underhanded tactics to get around opponents he can't beat normally.
- Since a fully manifested Lucifero cannot be beaten at all, Lucius recruited Yami and Vangenance through Julius and planned out a series of Batman Gambits that ultimately led to him killing Morris and breaching from the second layer half-manifested, making him barely managable by Asta.
- When fighting Asta himself, he notes that time magic isn't working against him, so he swapped to using physical attacks instead. When Asta dodges all of his strikes, he takes Sister Lily hostage and makes no hesistation in demonstrating his Soul Magic on her, distracting him enough for him to land a seemingly lethal strike and Lily putting him out of action by blasting him into the Land of the Sun.
Consummate Liar: He's very good at making stories to catch people off guard and to hide that he has a devil in the first place. Granted, nobody bar his Dark Triad siblings would recognize him personally, but it still takes a whole another level of gaming the system for a born peasant and a devil host to move across the other side of the continent taking a split persona to infiltrate the royals of a foreign kingdom, work all the way up to becoming the Wizard King and gaining the trust of its denizens by doing nothing but good deeds, all the while when he's still preparing for his Evil Plan through the persona with nobody having a single idea about what's actually going on for more than a decade. Here's a few examples:
- His background narrative was that he's a born noble, although in Zenon's flashback the Zogratis siblings are obviously peasantry and he only somehow managed to infiltrate a Clover Kingdom royal family using his Julius persona.
- Despite he also claims that he used up most of his mana to came back to life with some help from Secre's magic tool, it's actually because he still has lots of mana stored somewhere else (at least enough to slow down time to a standstill in a single continent).
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- To Patry. Lucius has the attribute that can match Patry's light in speed — time. Lucius Zogratis is the original and other soul of Julius Novachrono; Patry shared the same body with Vangeance, with there being two souls in one body. However, Patry is the dominant persona of Vangeance despite not being the original owner of the latter's body, while Lucius is in full control of both his body and his Julius persona. Patry was an Unwitting Pawn of the devil Zagred, the true perpetrator of the elf massacre, and goes on to work alongside the magic knights against him when the truth is revealed to atone for his actions. Lucius was introduced as the Wizard King Julius, but is much later on revealed to be not only The Chessmaster of the entire plot, but also played the supreme devils of the underworld like pawns and took control of the ones left over from the Spade Kingdom Raid Arc. Patry, like the other Ten Apostles of Sephira, is associated with the Sefirot in the Kabbalah. Lucius, along with the devils, is tied to the Qliphoth, the polar opposite of the Sefirot. Patry's goal was to have his Elf comrades slaughter all of Clover Kingdom's humans in vengeance for thinking that they were responsible for the elf massacre. Lucius's goal is to remake humanity into immortals using the power of devils by unleashing a world-wide holy war using legions of Paladins and devils under his control.
- To Lucifero. The King of Devils is one of the three rulers of the underworld and the most powerful devil in the series, who despises humans except for his hosts that he sees as useful to him. He also sees other humans as weak creatures and calls their magic attacks pointless, but he's not a particularly skilled or competent combatant, relying on nothing but brute strength to overwhelm foes. Lucius however is a human that is an Immortality Seeker and wants to use the Tree of Qliphoth to remake humanity with undying bodies and is the other soul of the Wizard King Julius Novachrono, and is a very calculating and competent combatant with numerous tricks and mind games on his sleeve to compensate for his immense power. While Lucifero's magic attribute is Gravity Magic, Lucius however uses Time Magic thanks to being the devil host of the third ruler of the underworld, Astaroth.
- Chronologically, he is this to his predecessor Wizard King Conrad. Both of them are Wizard Kings who rebelled against the Clover Kingdom somewhere down the line, and whose rebellions involved utilizing extremely powerful external magic to obliterate massive populations and remake them into fortunate citizens. However, Conrad's scope of actions is only llimited to the Clover Kingdom, while Lucius takes the destruction to worldwide. While Conrad is formerly an optimistic wide eyed idealist before he is soured by the Clover Kingdom's noble corruption and is a first-hand victim of the noble's actions, Lucius is a foreign infiltrator who is very aware of how corrupt the Kingdom's nobillity are and seeks to change it from the get-go, and is never shown to be one of the noble's victims unlike the other Wizard Kings. While Conrad wanted to use the Clover Kingdom's national treasure against the Kingdom itself, Lucius burrowed the power of devils from the underworld and devised a long game to steal and purify the Supreme Devil's powers.
The Corrupter: Lucius corrupted his broken younger brother Zenon, after having to kill his best friend Allen and coming to believe power is everything, when he took back up his offer to make him a devil host, telling him that the weak die anyways and convincing him to form the Tree of Qliphoth to create a country of undying bodies, killing everyone then resurrecting them as immortals.
Cover-Blowing Superpower: Being the only known time magic user in the world's history combined with Damnatio's research leading him to conclude that Astaroth, the devil of time, left the underworld clues him in to Julius, aka Lucius, being Astaroth's devil host.
Crazy-Prepared: There's not much to say here when he's extensively planning for the king of devil's downfall 15 years ago through a slew of convulted Batman Gambits and has layers upon layers of interferences and precautions to defy a prophecy where Asta and Yuno will defeat him.
Create Your Own Hero: Delicately and knowingly supported the principle protagonists to create a force that could help him defeat Lucifero while still being weak enough that they would theoretically pose no threat to him after he no longer needed them.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: To make him different from Julius and to establish that he is a villain, he has these under his eyes, combined with a perpetual smile or Psychotic Smirk in his default epression.
Dark Is Evil: The devil host of the supreme devil Astaroth, has black hair and pale skin, and the overarching villain of the series.
Dark Messiah: He sees himself as being the world's savior who'll bring true peace by "repairing" mankind through destroying humanity and then recreating their bodies through his siblings' magic to be equal so that there will no longer be any conflict and discrimination, with him ruling over humanity as the final Wizard King. While he considers himself the savior, he sees Asta as the flaw of the world for being born without any magic that has to be eliminated for a "just future". Sitting on a throne with three crosses sticking out of it, Lucius gives Morris "salvation" by restoring his sight and limbs through touch only to put him under his control in service to his plans.
Deal with the Devil: Like his younger siblings the Dark Triad, he's a willing host of one of the highest-ranked devils in the underworld, the time devil Astaroth. And he was the one who actually pushed his siblings to become devil hosts.
Determinator: Just like his predecessor Conrad, Lucius is one of the most resilient foes possible in Black Clover. Even knowing there is a prophecy where Asta and Yuno will defeat him, he has the audacity to go out of his way to try getting around it and still make sure his plans to remake humanity go accordingly. First by causing a disturbance in the Land of the Sun with several Paladins to see if Asta is still alive, then during Judgement Day, unleashing clones of himself to trick Yuno into exhausting his own mana reserves and deploying Damnatio to distract Asta and the Black Bulls as he cleans up the Magic Knight captains in the Clover Kingdom.
Death of Personality: Lucius firmly tells Asta that Julius is dead after fully taking over their body. Asta believes otherwise and is determined to save Julius.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In his youth he thought a lot about his and Julius's purposes and came to the answer that they were to become humanity's savior through binding Astaroth to themselves:
"I gave it a lot of thought. Who were we? What were we meant to accomplish?"
Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: His master scheme spans decades, which had him recruit and nurture Yami and Vangeance, the only mages whose power together could form the Tree of Qliphoth, begin Asta and Yuno's growth early by sending them on the mission to the dungeon where they obtained a new Anti-Magic sword and the wind spirit and Asta helped bring back the memories of Mars, leading to Morris being driven out of the Diamond Kingdom and eventually allying with the Dark Triad. It comes to a head in the Spade Kingdom raid during which he's subtly controlling time, with Yami and Vangeace used to begin the Advent of Qliphoth, Morris used to accelerate the Tree of Qliphoth's growth and bring forth Lucifero's manifestation, and the magic knights fighting Lucifero. The arc ends with Lucius having made the king of devils his Unwitting Pawn, obtaining his heart by having the heroes, including Asta, Yuno, and Yami whose growth he's responsible for, kill him, with the heroes none the wiser that the Wizard King is the Big Bad who's been manipulating them the entire time.
Dissonant Serenity: Maintains a smile and pleasant tone in front of Lucifero before he eats his heart in front of him as well as when revealing himself to Asta and telling him he's reached the end. In the latter, he also has Julius's trademark smirk. Later, when Yuno manages to repel his "Final Judgement" attack, Lucius' is barely fazed and simply rewinds time, with it heavily implied that he was merely testing Yuno's strength.
The Dog Was the Mastermind: The only people we see interacting with Lucius personally are the young Dark Triad, and he spends most of the time in the present going undercover in Clover Kingdom as his split soul. Asta and the Magic Knight captains don't actually recognize him when he shows up, and nobody knows what his innate magic attribute really does and what it even is either, at least until Asta sees it in action.
Double Meaning: "The time has come." It both means that Lucius will begin becoming active and that Black Clover will be ending, with The Reveal coinciding with an announcement that the story will be entering its final arc.
Dueling Messiahs: Asta and Lucius's dynamic. Asta wants to become the Wizard King to reform Clover society and end the country's discrimination. Lucius has the goal of remaking humanity into equals and higher beings to create true peace, and to ensure no further mistakes are made rule the world as the Wizard Emperor. Lucius sees himself as the world's savior and Asta as its flaw. For being the only human without magic whose anti-magic defies Lucius's invincible magic and prevents his soul from being remade, Asta is a threat to Lucius's vision of equality that he won't let live in his perfect world.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Lucius turns out to share his siblings' black hair, pale skin, and status as a devil host.
The Emperor: Intends on ruling over the world as the Wizard Emperor, a position he sees as incomparable to the Wizard King.
Enemy Within: Julius's momentary transformation into his prime adult form runs out of time much faster than he had thought and he feels an enormous unease, still not feeling right after Lucifero's defeat. It turns out to be because of Lucius, who hijacks their body after Julius realizes he is the devil host of Astaroth when Damnatio confronts him.
Embodiment of Vice: An odd twist example. He actually represents a combination of the elements of the psychological Dark Triad — narcissism, psychopathy and machiavellianism with the more obscure Light Triad, empathy, compassion and altruism, all of which being traits his split Julius ego possesses. As a result, he wishes to rule over the world as a God (narcissism), uses and/or sacrifices just about anyone, including his siblings and disciples as pawns to further his own ends (psychopathy) and is a no-nonsense, ruthless foe who is not only a powerful and skilled combatant, but is also a Crazy-Prepared schemer who is willing to overturn fate by any means necessary (machiavellianism). Yet, on the other hand, he seeks to conquer humanity because he wishes to do everything the Wizard Kings before him can't — end the nobility prejudice plaguing the Clover Kingdom but on a worldwide scale, and creating a world where the weak is no longer bullied by the strong because everyone will become a powerful, skilled mage. Being partially of the more obscure psychological Light Triad also correlates to his obscure status unlike the Dark Triad which are The Dreaded, and after consuming Lucifero's heart and becoming a godly being, he becomes both angelic and demonic.
Evil All Along: The Wizard King Julius Novachrono is introduced as kind, albeit merciless and pragmatic at times, and wants to end the kingdom's inequality. Much later he turns out to have been Lucius Zogratis, the older brother of the Dark Triad, who infiltrated the Clover Kingdom to get Yami and Vangeance, his own former pupils at that, to form the Tree of Qliphoth, works with the supreme devil Adrammelech to obtain Lucifero's heart, and manipulated the Clover Kingdom and the Dark Triad for years.
Evil Costume Switch: Now as Lucius Zogratis he switches into more Spade style attire like the Dark Triad's with a dark fur coat.
Evil Counterpart: To himself, in a way. Lucius revealing himself and resuming control over Julius's body has him revert it back to the adult age Julius was initially at at the beginning of the story, but now altered to suit Lucius's true appearance, complete with a hair-colour change to make him match his siblings in the Dark Triad, and his use of time magic to effortlessly incapacitate Damnatio, along with reverting Julius's grimoire back into a more conventional book form, shows that he has the exact same level of power that made Julius nearly unbeatable as the Wizard King, if not even greater control over it. His ultimate aim expressed by Zenon is even ultimately benevolent for humans from his perspective, reflecting Julius's own compassionate nature, but darkly twisted. In essence, he is the Wizard King at the apex of his strength as an enemy to the kingdom now.
Evil Cripple: Zenon's backstory reveals that Lucius used to use a wheelchair, and created the plan to form the Tree of Qliphoth and use the power of devils. This is apparently no longer the case as of present, as Julius is demonstrably not physically handicapped, and when Lucius assumes control over their body, he stands upright and freezes Damnatio with a single finger to the forehead faster than the latter can activate his magic.
Eviler than Thou:
- Lucifero is the king of devils, above even Astaroth the devil of time. Lucius orchestrates his defeat by manipulating time, having the magic knights kill him, and getting Adrammelech, who refused to help Lucifero in the battle when he had commanded him, to obtain his heart, showing that he was the Big Bad of the story all along and made the devil king his Unwitting Pawn, and eats his heart right in front of him in the underworld.
- Indirectly to his siblings, the other supreme devils, and Morris. The Spade Kingdom Raid went All According to Plan thanks to Lucius's subtle planning and toying with time — a plan that involved Lilith and Naamah getting killed by Asta, Magna defeating Dante, Noelle and the others defeating Vanica and Megicula, Yuno killing Zenon using the very power Lucius set up Yuno to obtain in the dungeon, the Black Bulls quickly disposing of Morris, which all ultimately leads to the heroes killing Lucifero, allowing for Adrammelech to obtain the heart Lucius needed. He's partially responsible for the defeats of every other villain in the arc (including his siblings' and youngest brother's death).
Evil Mentor: Played With. Julius was the captain of Yami, taking him into his squad to become a magic knight and teaching him the country's language, and Vangeance, letting him join the Gray Deer and giving him his signature mask. For this reason Julius has Yami's Undying Loyalty. Then it's revealed that Julius is the second soul of originally Lucius Zogratis, with the implication that he sought out and nurtured Yami and Vangeance as they're the two mages needed to form the Tree of Qliphoth, part of his Evil Plan to remake humanity using the power of devils.
Evil Running Good: He's the eldest Zogratis sibling... running the Clover Kingdom's magic knights... as the Wizard King and a secret devil host, nonetheless. And he still indirectly betrays his siblings and supreme devils to obtain Lucifero's heart.
Evil Sorcerer: Although every villain in the story technically counts, Lucius deserves special mention for being the Wizard King, the pre-eminent Archmage of the kingdom whose time magic has actually been derived from being the devil host of Astaroth all this time, and the true Big Bad of the series.

F — L

Facial Markings: In contrast to the blue six-pointed star on Julius's left forehead used to bring back himself, Lucius has a black sun as his devil host marking on his right forehead.
Faux Affably Evil: Downplayed. It's not in the same way as Dante or Vanica, but he still maintains his pleasant tone and smile even when congratulating Asta and telling him he's reached his final destination and announces that he is the one flaw in the world that Lucius needs to eradicate for his plan. There's no We Can Rule Together offer or any other mercy offers from Lucius after he makes the threat; he immediately gets down to business.
Flower Motifs: The cover of his Soul Magic grimoire has the designs of lotuses, a symbol of rebirth in Eastern religions, fitting with his Evil Plan to rebirth humanity in immortal bodies, as well as his assumption of control over Julius's body coming with him reverting it to an adult appearance, effectively 'resurrecting' the Wizard King at his peak of health and power. Lotuses are also associated with spirituality, tying into his power over the human soul, ascendance into humanity's "true form", and messiah complex.
Foil:
- To Asta. Asta is the only magic-less human in the world while Lucius is the strongest mage in the story. Both are devil hosts, but while Asta is the devil host of Liebe, the lowest-ranked devil in the underworld, Lucius is the host of the supreme devil Astaroth, one of the underworld's three rulers. Asta aspires to be the Wizard King, while Lucius was the Wizard King for years as Julius. Asta wants to achieve peace and equality by becoming the Wizard King, proving even a magic-less peasant like him can attain the position, and use the status to change society. Lucius used the title of Wizard King as a means to an end to manipulate the magic knights, and his master plan is to annihilate humanity and remake them into new bodies so that everyone is equal with him ruling as the last Wizard King. Lucius views himself as the world's savior and Asta as the world's flaw for being the only one magic-less, vowing to eliminate Asta for his vision of a just future. Lucius has invincible time magic, with nothing in the natural world able to defy it except its natural enemy Asta's anti-magic. Lucius is able to purify devil power to become an angelic being, "humanity's true form", while Asta, whose Devil Union turns him into a demonic knight, is unable to change to this form when touched by Lucius.
- To Yuno. Both were born as singularities. Yuno hosts another soul in his body, the unborn son of the elf tribe chief Licht who sees himself as Yuno, and as a result has two grimoires. Lucius was born the greatest devil host in the history of the Zogratis Family with two souls in one body — Lucius and Julius who oppose each other. Yuno is the rightful heir to the Spade Kingdom as the prince of the House of Grinberryall. Lucius is the eldest sibling of the Dark Triad who overthrew the Grinberryall family to become Spade's rulers. Yuno as the host of Sylph is a Saint Stage able to purify devil power and destroy devils. Lucius developed his Soul Magic to purify devil power into sacred power that he can grant to humans. Yuno is Asta's closest friend and rival. Lucius sees Asta as the world's flaw that he must eliminate for his ideal world. With Asta gone Yuno vows to surpass him and defeat Lucius in his stead, while Lucius intends on crushing Yuno after seemingly eliminating Asta.
Foreshadowing: His true identity has been hinted at for a very long time:
- Julius can transform into an old woman despite having time magic, with only devil hosts, hybrids, and experimented mages able to have two different magic attributes. Lucius Zogratis is the host of the time devil Astaroth, and transforms from the blond child form of Julius into an adult with black hair and a devil host marking.
- For 300 or so chapters, virtually nothing is known about Julius's past save for he joined the Grey Deers, mentored Yami and Vangeance, and became the Wizard King to eradicate all the Kingdom's inequality. Turns out that he excluded lots of important details about his past, because revealing anything else will automatically out him as being associated with the Spade Kingdom's tyrannical Dark Triad and the host of a supreme devil.
- Each member of the Dark Triad has an innate magical attribute related to the body. Dante has body magic, Vanica has blood magic and Zenon has bone magic. Julius's shapeshifting modifies his body and makes a lot more sense when we realize they're his younger siblings. Furthermore, Lucius has soul magic; the soul, alongside body, blood and bone, are the attributes that shape man. Not only is it a theme shared between the siblings, it also ties to Lucius's goal to completely remake humanity.
- Julius's mercilessness against the Eye of the Midnight Sun mages when he confronts them makes a lot more sense when he's revealed to be seeking Vangeance (who contains the soul of its leader, Patry) for the Qliphoth Tree Ritual. In the other hand, he's also willing to keep him alive and in charge even if he got killed and committed treason. It's not a mere act of kindness, it's part of a plan to make sure Megicula, Lucifero and Beelzebub gets drawn out through the Dark Triad.
- Chapter 36 features Julius in the color page and is titled "Light". "Lucius" is Latin for light.
- Opening 2 of the anime has a montage of the Wizard King and the magic knight captains with him, Gueldre (who betrayed the kingdom for money), and Vangeance (who kept secret that he hosted Patry's soul) with black backgrounds, in contrast to the other captains who didn't betray the kingdom whose backgrounds are white.
- When Vangeance recounts how Julius recruited him into the magic knights, he states that "He didn't care about my appearance. All he saw was my power." Lucius sought out Yami and Vangeance, the only mages whose magics could create the Tree of Qliphoth for his Evil Plan, as Julius.
- In Chapter 128, Julius has a discussion with Marx about unconscious betrayal, using the Royal Knights Examination to find an unwitting traitor within the magic knights. Chapter 331 reveals that he was an unconscious traitor all along.
- While fighting Julius, Patry questions why he's so strong despite being only a human. Julius's, aka Lucius's, strength comes from being the devil host of Astaroth, the devil of time and one of the underworld's three rulers.
- In Chapter 215:
  - He spares Vangenance despite the fact he committed treason against him. This isn't arbitary, and it's because Lucius needs him to execute the Qliphoth Tree Ritual.
  - Julius mentions that he has an instinct about unique magics "developed over long years from traveling in disguise" when excitedly asking Nero what her magic is, the Double Meaning being that Lucius spent many years in a different country as Julius Novachrono.
  - He also predicts that the Clover Kingdom will be invaded by other nations and Asta will die. Shortly thereafter, Zenon invades the Clover Kingdom, orders the deaths of half of the Golden Dawn magic knights and captures Vangenance.
- When Julius tries to go back to his adult form temporarily to save the kingdom from the giant Spade demon in Chapter 281, he's out of time very quickly to his shock. In Chapter 311, Julius feels something isn't right, stating something enormous is about to emerge. He continues to feel this unease despite Lucifero's defeat, with it then revealed in Chapter 331 to be because of Lucius, who cut his time in his adult form short and had in fact been using almost all of Julius' time magic power to control time in the Spade Kingdom slowing and rewinding the time there until he landed on a timeline where Asta kills the 50 percent manifested Lucifero.
- During Nacht's Flashback in Chapter 286, his father, who had done extensive research into devils tells him that the devil he is going to going to contract him to a devil that is subservient to the three leading devils of the underworld. He specifically names them as Lucifero of Gravity, Beezlebub of Space, and Astaroth of Time. As Damnatio points out in his summation in chapter 331, Julius is the only person in the world with Time Magic.
- In Zenon's first flashback where the Dark Triad were shown as kids, a mysterious man in wheelchair that isn't Dante refers to himself as the eldest Zogratis sibling approaches young Zenon and offers him to become a devil host. We do not see his face, but the man has a rather familiar square jawline and short, unkempt hair like Julius, but with black hair instead of blonde. This isn't a coincidence.
- Noelle's Saint Valkyrie Armor, Rill's Twilight of Valhalla and Asta's True Devil Union last for a suspiciously long amount of chapters, despite they are supposed to wear out after a few seconds or minutes and shouldn't last long enough to defeat Vanica, Megicula and her demonic army and Lucifero respectively. Julius is using his time powers behind the scenes to turn the battle into his and the magic knights' favor despite supposedly being unable to use said time powers. Note that these also happen specifically in the battles against Lucifero and Megicula, as if it were on purpose or something... The Spade Kingdom clocktower also at multiple points in the raid shows times that should be impossible, in one case jumping backwards almost an entire ten minutes. Lucifero even looks towards the clock at one point during the fight.
- If one were to search about the devils of the Qliphoth in mythology you would find that with the exception of Megicula all the names of the other devils coincide with those present through the story. This coupled with Nacht's flashback mentioning the three rulers of the underworld, one of whom is the devil of time, and Julius using Time Magic it was clear that something was very wrong and didn't add up. Julius is the host of the time devil Astaroth, who left the underworld over 20 years ago, and Megicula is Astaroth's successor in the Qliphoth.
- In Zenon's flashback when he's fighting Yuno during the space Kingdom Raid Arc, the panels go out of their way to obscure the eldest Zogratis sibling's face. There's even one panel where he's shown frontwards (facing the reader) in Zenon's viewpoint, but his face is completely scribbled out. It's because anyone who saw his face can instantly tell something is wrong — he does resemble the current Clover Kingdom Wizard King in his prime, just with black hair and eyebags.
Four Is Death: The fourth Zogratis revealed with his plan being killing humanity to remake them into undying bodies, planning the death of the devil king Lucifero to eat his heart for this purpose.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Just like his siblings, it's heavily implied that he used to be a no-name. Now he is practically The Antichrist of Black Clover.
Fur and Loathing: The overarching villain and wears a mantled fur coat like his younger siblings the Dark Triad.
The Gift: He was born with the greatest potential as a devil host in the history of the Zogratis family.
Godhood Seeker: Part one of his plan involves subtly manipulating circumstances so he could take Lucifero and his younger sibling's powers for his own and gain god-like magic that allows him to literally revive dead people and create life out of nowhere. Part two involves wiping out all of humanity and recreating them in Judgement Day, then elevating himself to the Wizard Emperor of the world and not just Clover Kingdom's Wizard King.
Good Hair, Evil Hair: He has blond hair as the good Wizard King Julius. When he's revealed to be Lucius Zogratis, his hair turns out to be black.
Greater-Scope Villain: Had this role as both the Big Good and the Greater-Scope Villain the entire time, being the oldest of his siblings who groomed them to become devil hosts with the goal of forming the Qliphoth to steal Lucifero's power, granting him enough power to lead a self-proclaimed holy war that he calls "Judgment Day". When he finally reveals himself after their defeats Lucius steps into the Big Bad role.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Julius's unusual Grimoire — basically being a cylinder of pages constructed around the book's spine — is just only one of his Grimoires. He has another more standard-looking Grimoire hidden within Lucius which is the one he uses Soul Magic with. Given that Grimoire has the Spade Kingdom's emblem on it (which would had been aroused heavy suspicions considering the bad rep the Dark Triad established there), he likely opted not to use it out of strategic reasons.
Hidden Villain: Lucius is the overarching villain of the story, having infiltrated the Clover Kingdom as Julius Novachrono and groomed his younger siblings the Dark Triad to become devil hosts and form the Tree of Qliphoth. The existence of the eldest Zogratis is shown quite some time after the Dark Triad's introduction. And then he's revealed to be the other soul of Julius, who was introduced in the very first chapter, and planned for the magic knights to defeat Lucifero to obtain his heart. With his hijacking of their body from Julius after Damnatio confronts Julius about being the devil host of Astaroth, he states that "the time has come", stepping into the Big Bad role for the final arc.
Humanity Is Superior: Similar to Julius who thinks Humans Are Special, Lucius is a believer in this as he tells Lucifero. He has a point, considering the non-human enemies the Kingdoms have to fight like Elves and Devils might have immensely powerful magic, but they usually aren't that particularly creative or tactical in using them, so humans can often outsmart them.
Lucifero: My magical power... was the greatest in the world...
Lucius: That's true. But... in this world, we are the ones... with the most brilliant magic. We humans.
Immortality Seeker: A rare example in that it's not for himself but for everyone. His goal and the Dark Triad's is to use their magics over the human body empowered by the devils to kill humanity and remake them into undying bodies, creating a world of equality without fear of death where everyone can live forever peacefully.
Implied Death Threat: To Asta when revealing himself:
"Congratulations. You've arrived. This is your final destination."
Ironic Name: Lucius can refer to Lucifer. In this case, Lucius planned the death of the devil king Lucifero, the In-Universe equivalent to the Devil, to obtain his heart.
Irony:
- Asta's early statements about wanting to surpass Julius to become the Wizard King take on a whole new meaning when it's revealed he's the Big Bad.
- Julius's intention to have the Royal Knights Examination snuff out an unconscious traitor becomes extremely ironic when you learn that Julius himself has been an unwitting traitor all along.
- Julius's incredible power has Patry see him as nature's last bastion to stop the elves from violating natural law by reincarnating their tribe. Only much later is it learned that Julius's strength isn't natural, but from being a supreme devil's host. His innate magic is no better — it goes without saying that a magic that can outright turn (and resurrect) people into angelic Paladin supersoldiers with the magic of purified Supreme Devils is a flagrant violation of natural law. And Lucius's own goal is to take control of all the underworld's devils, wage a holy war with amassed legions of devils and Paladins then make humanity immortal with the devil's powers, a plan more of a violation of nature than Patry's.
- Damnatio warns Julius after he saves Asta from being tried for the Elf Reincarnation that if the country is in danger he'll judge Julius to create a Scapegoat if needed. Turns out Julius himself as Lucius has been the greatest danger to the kingdom and a devil possessed all along, a fact Damnatio discovers when he confronts Julius after his research into the Qliphoth devils.
- With the reveal of the tragic backstories of the three Wizard Kings Conrad summoned in side material, he's ironically the perfect Wizard King to end all inequality as the past Wizard Kings strived for but failed miserably because of the nobility's meddling. The nobility never had an excuse to screw with him unlike with Conrad and the other three as his plans of reformation do not directly interfere with their benefits and are all executed discreetly in shadows, meaning that it will go completely unopposed if not for Asta's intervention. This is despite the fact that he's a foreign devil magic-user infiltrating the Clover Kingdom who goes out of his way to abuse and game entire systems and demonic realms and is far more morally dark than Conrad and the other three, who are operating on a more grounded level, have simpler plans of reform and are portrayed explicitly as Tragic Villains.
Kick the Dog: As a form of psychological warfare, he tends to convert other's loved ones into Paladins who serve his cause to shock opponents and make the fight as one-sided as possible. When he was dealing with Asta, he forcefully converts Sister Lily into a Paladin and uses her against him. Then on Judgement Day proper, he resurrects Morgen and Acier under his service, then uses them against Yami and Jack the Ripper, and the Silvas respectively.
Knight Templar: Lucius fully believes he's the world's savior who will bring true peace by making humanity equal. It's this reason that makes him think he's justified in eradicating humanity and resurrecting them into angelic superhumans, and eliminating the world's flaw Asta, whose lack of magic and anti-magic's defiance of his time magic threaten his goal, calling his strength a threat to world peace.
Looks Like Cesare: One of the more distingushing facial features between him and Julius is his eyebags, which is way more prominent than the Wizard King's.
A Lighter Shade of Black: As deceitful and manipulative as Lucius is his goal of remaking humanity to be equal and live without discrimination and the fear of death makes him much more sympathetic than Lucifero, the arrogant devil king who wants to lay waste to the world, and successfully plans the king of devil's death to obtain his heart for his own plans. He also seemingly lacks the sadism or unhinged tendencies seen in most of the villains fought right before him, such as Dante or Lucifero.
Light Is Not Good: "Lucius" means light and as Julius he has blond hair and wears golden regalia. And when we find out Lucius is his real name, it comes with a sun-like devil host marking on his forehead and The Reveal that he's the main villain of the story who sees himself as the world's savior. Despite being a Devil host with control over supreme devils, he's also heavily associated with angels, with his troops of Paladins being angelic soldiers in white or gold.
Logical Weakness: His Time Magic works by controlling the flow of time, mainly by speeding up time and rapidly aging targets to dust. But in an area where time stands still, his magic is more-or-less useless. Yuno's new Never-Never-Land spell creates a Mana Zone where time stands still and where enemy magic is weakened, rendering his time powers inert.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Following his sibling's theme of having innate magic related to the body, his innate Soul Magic outright transforms people. And in preparation for Judgment Day he assimilates their body, blood, and bone magics into himself.

M — W

The Magic Touch: His Soul Magic modifies the soul through him touching someone. It's so versatile to the point that he can do nearly anything to almost anyone he touches. Through it, he seemingly revives Heath Grice who detonated himself to pieces more than 300 chapters prior, heals Morris's vision and limbs through his siblings' magics and distribute ridiculously powerful devil magic to some others.
Make Way for the New Villains: Played With. He's formally introduced in Chapter 331, name and appearance, when it's revealed he planned Lucifero's death to obtain his heart. However, his existence was shown in Zenon's backstory which took place before Lucifero's manifestation, and not only that but he's the true identity of Julius, who first appeared in the story in Chapter 1.
The Man Behind the Man: He is the true mastermind behind the Dark Triad, being the one who introduced his siblings to devil possession and had been secretly manipulating the events that lead to the Spade Kingdom War, Lucifero's ascension and defeat, all for his agenda to remake humanity by temporarily destroying and then regenerating them into undying bodies.
The Man Behind the Monsters: Thanks to being the strongest human mage who takes control of the Qliphoth's remaining devils by conquering each floor of the underworld, having Adrammelech lead a group of high-ranking devils at the Clover Kingdom border to distract Yuno, the Golden Dawn, and the Black Bulls while he makes his move in the Royal Capital.
Manipulative Bastard: He's absurdly subtle at it. Most of his actions that are actually preparations for his Evil Plan can be seen as Julius being really generous when taken out of context. He took in Yami, a shunned foreigner hated for his dark magic, and Vangeance, a cursed illegitimate child detested by his family, in as magic knights of the Gray Deer with the purpose of eventually nurturing them to be powerful mages who would form the Qliphoth. He's also admired by Asta and Yuno, whom he began the journey of their growth when he assigned them the dungeon exploration mission which had Asta and Yuno obtain a new Anti-Magic sword and the power of the wind spirit — a journey that culminates in him using them to kill Lucifero and take his heart for his own nefarious purposes. And it's not just the Clover Kingdom, either; he also drove Zenon into accepting devil possession, indirectly got his siblings killed or crippled by people who hold personal grudges against them and drew out Lucifero while using his time magic to ensure Asta defeats him.
Mark of the Beast: He has a sun-like marking on his right forehead as the devil host of Astaroth, the supreme devil of time.
Master of One Magic: A master of devil magic, born with the greatest devil host potential in the history of the Zogratis Family who bound the supreme devil Astaroth to himself. To the point he learned magic to purify devil power and grant humans sacred power.
Meaningful Background Event: We're led to believe that Julius wasted all of his mana reviving himself with Time Magic and Secre's magic tool, but from Chapter 274 to Chapter 331, the Spade Kingdom clock tower is consistently present in the background of scenes, with following chapters showing times on the clock that would be impossible considering the progression of the plot. This is a hallmark sign of some very powerful time magic in action, but Julius, the only known time magic user is supposedly defunct and incapable of holding fights after being assassinated by Patry. The whole thing makes no sense unless Julius is somehow obfuscating powerlessness. Turns out that while Julius is actually De-Powered so Lucius could operate against his siblings and the supreme devils beneath notice, Lucius himself isn't. Chapter 331 heavily implies that he still has more than enough mana to manipulate time the entirety of the raid to obtain the outcome he wanted back then, and he proceeds to travel into the Underworld to kill off the remaining half of Lucifero in the following chapter.
Meaningful Name:
- Lucius means "bright" or "light" in Latin, fitting with his magic purifying devil power into sacred power, transforming humans into angelic forms, and his devil host mark being a sun-like symbol.
- Going with the literal "bright" meaning, Lucius can also mean "intelligent" and he turns out to be the mastermind of the entire story.
- The name Lucius also refers to Lucifer, suiting a devil host who can purify devil power to transform into an angelic form, and the main villain of the story who, ironically, planned the death of Lucifero to take his heart.
- Lucius was the personal name of many members of the Julii Caesares, the illustrious Roman family of Gaius Julius Caesar, Julius's namesake. Lucius was the given name of Nero, a matrilineal descendant of the family and a Roman emperor infamous for being a corrupt tyrant. Nero's persecution of Christians, blaming the Great Fire of Rome on Roman Christians and torturing and executing them, led him to be portrayed as The Antichrist. His aspiration to become the Wizard Emperor instead of just King fits with his and Julius's Roman emperor eponyms.
More than Mind Control: His Soul Magic doesn't directly brainwash people, he tampers with their soul in any way he likes to. Therefore, people affected by him have their personality intact, but they are hardwired to be fully loyal for his cause, which sometimes makes them look and act completely wrong especially when it comes to someone like Sister Lily. Furthermore, unlike exorcising Reincarnation Magic with Anti-Magic, exorcising Soul Magic is way harder because it only causes the target to fall into a coma until Lucius is defeated.
Multiple-Choice Future: His foresight works as this, seeing into tens of thousands of different possible futures.
Mythical Motifs: Both Devils and Angels. Just like his siblings, he is the demon host of a supreme devil, but on the other hand, he purifies all these devils into sacred power and annihilates humanity to recreate them as angelic superbeings. Very fitting for a Dark Messiah who proves to be the most morally dark Wizard King and one of the most competent foes in the series.
Named After Somebody Famous: His name comes from the original name of Nero — Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lucius is the birth name of the infamous Roman tyrant Nero, and hiding under the Wizard King and controlling his actions means that he's The Antichrist of Black Clover, something that the real Nero is often accused to be because of his persecution against Christians in ancient rome. He's a Well-Intentioned Extremist and he makes valid points about the Kingdoms being Crapsaccharine Lands where royalty and nobles freely persecute commoners or supposed defects, but his solution is comparable to comic book supervillains seeking global domination which is as cynical as it is effective, and he does make his priority to eliminate Asta because of his lack of magic and his potential of being a true resistance to him.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: He is well aware that Asta poses the greatest threat to his plans due to his Anti Magic, and immediately confronts Asta with the clear intention to kill him and remove the only obstacle to his plan. After seemingly eliminating Asta he intends on crushing Yuno because he's the key to the one in tens of thousands of futures where the heroes have the advantage.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Off-screen he traveled to the lowest level of the underworld and defeated the un-manifested 50% of Lucifero, which took the combined efforts of the strongest magic knights and Lucius's help unbeknownst to them, with readers only seeing Lucius standing over a defeated Lucifero before he speaks of human brilliance and eats his heart.
Oh, Crap!: He panics once he realizes that the current timeline is radically different from all the ones he’s observed with his powers and the power of his opposition, particularly Yuno, greatly exceeds what he was expecting. Turns out it's just his clone and he's on his throne in the sky, thinking to himself that his plan is flawless even if his foresight is surpassed.
Omnicidal Maniac: Zig-Zagged. His plan is to destroy all humans through unleashing a holy war with legions of Paladins and devils under his control. The next stage would involve remaking humanity with equal, undying bodies and removing inequality and the "fear of death", so it was actually the means rather than the ends for him and Zenon, unlike with Dante and Vanica who embraced it.
One-Man Army: He takes control of all the underworld's remaining devils during the Spade Raid including the supreme devils, incarnating and purifying them.
One-Winged Angel: More like Six-Winged Angel. Using his Soul Magic to become "humanity's true form" has him grow stag-like horns and halos above his head and one around his body with angelic wings jutting out.
Orcus on His Throne: After Sister Lily deposes Asta to the Land of the Sun, he no longer directly fights on his own to absorb his sibling's magic. Even during Judgement Day, he doesn't directly fight, instead sitting somewhere high above at the sky and letting his Paladins, Guardian Angels and copies of himself do most of the work.
Perpetual Smiler: Maintains his smile throughout his encounter with Asta, even when telling Asta that he’s the flaw in the world that he needs to eliminate as part of his plan.
Personality Powers: In contrast to Julius who was carefree and whimsical like most good time users, it's fitting that the cunning and manipulative Lucius, whose plan has been brewing for decades unbeknownst to the Clover Kingdom, has the power to completely modify and brainwash people with his Soul Magic.
Physical God: He’s stated to be more powerful than his other self Julius, and he proved it by easily defeating Asta by outmaneuvering him strategically, and he’s the only character to have three magic attributes, Soul, Time, and Gravity. Ryuya even notes that his Soul Magic is now strong enough to create people out of nowhere in addition to brainwashing people in one touch and reviving dead people.
Playing Both Sides: Played both the magic knights and the supreme devils to his own ends for years, making him also the true series-wide Big Bad. He infiltrated the Clover Kingdom and became its Wizard King, mentored the pupils needed to form the Qliphoth, planned for the magic knights to defeat his own siblings, who he groomed into becoming devil hosts, and the Qliphoth devils, including the king of devils Lucifero to have the supreme devil Adrammelech take his heart for him.
Playing Card Motifs: His grimoire features a spade and upside-down spade. A spade symbolizes death while the upside-down spade represents rebirth, perfectly fitting his plan to kill all humanity then remake them into immortals using him and his siblings' magic strengthened by the power of devils.
Powers via Possession: Like the younger Zogratis siblings, he's the host of a high-ranking devil, in this case Astaroth who gives him Time Magic.
Psychotic Smirk: A megalomaniac who has a constant smirk on his face.
Satanic Archetype: "Lucius" is a Latin name meaning "light" and is related to the name Lucifer, the first name of Satan. He initially presents himself as the good Wizard King Julius Novachrono, a benevolent figure associated with light, but his true identity isn't revealed until much later. He manipulated many events in the story corrupting his youngest brother Zenon into becoming a devil host and guiding Yami and Vangeance to become powerful mages so that he could eventually use them to form the Tree of Qliphoth and bring devils into the human world, ultimately aiming for the downfall of the king of devils Lucifero and had the magic knights he mentored kill him, all for his underling the supreme devil Adrammelech to steal the devil king's heart for him. When in "humanity's true form" he appears as an angelic being similar to how Lucifer was an angel of light before his fall from grace.
Seers: Like Julius he can see the future, with everything having gone as he foresaw it except for Asta.
Self-Duplication: After absorbing his siblings' body, blood, and bone magic in combination with his own soul magic, he majorly fights by sending his clones to attack the Clover Kingdom and gang up on Yuno after he kills one while he watches from his throne in the sky.
Serial Escalation:
- Lucius' scheme of of complete global annihilation and the recreation of humanity in order to eradicate all inequality is similar to his predecessor Conrad's rebellion attempt, which involved reviving several other Wizard Kinds to annihilate the Clover Kingdom and recreate a portion of the casualities into a paradise devoid of inequality and prejudice. It's just not only Lucius planned on taking Conrad's plan further on a worldwide scale, he also plans on infiltrating the Wizard King seat to do it all along instead of simply being Maddened Into Misanthropy.
- In general, his presence heralds the apex of a series of ever-escalating threats since Zagred and a step-up compared to the Dark Triad. The villains in the Spade Kingdom raid arc might be absurdly powerful, but at least every major encounter bar Zenon is an Unskilled, but Strong brute who can be outsmarted. There's no leeway for this with Lucius here, and he is a literal supervillain in a stock shonen manga who not only can fight, but is also Crazy-Prepared to defy the prophecy of him being defeated by Asta and Yuno, with more than enough strength and intellect to take both of them down so long as they get a step wrong.
Shadow Dictator: Played With. Lucius has been the head of the Clover Kingdom's magic knights and the most influential figure in the country for years while in his guise as his second soul Julius, with no one suspecting anything of him while he furthered his and the Dark Triad's plan until Damnatio's research into the Qliphoth devils leads him to piece together that Julius is the host of the time devil. The despot aspect is mitigated however, since he's been doing nothing but good deeds in Clover Kingdom until he exposes himself.
Shared Family Quirks: In his Lucius and Julius souls, he shows several personality quirks shared with his Dark Triad siblings.
- Just like Dante, he possesses immense ambitions and dreams of taking over the world. However, while Dante simply wants to wipe out humanity To Create a Playground for Evil, Lucius desires to reform them into immortals after wiping them out.
- His geeky, curious personality towards new magic and his tendency to slack off from his duties to go research magic incognito brings into mind Vanica's cheerfulness and curiosity towards battling powerful opponents, and her tendency to slack off from duties to wreck havoc.
- Just like Zenon, Julius is a no-nonsense, merciless man who doesn't play around when he gets to confront an enemy, subtly boasts against them and sports the power to back his threats up.
Sharing a Body: Lucius was born with two souls in one body, and "sent" Julius on a mission for their ideal of true peace. Julius is horrified when he realizes that he's Astaroth's devil host when Damnatio presents to him his evidence. He tells Damnatio to stop himself before Lucius takes over and incapacitates Damnatio.
Smug Smiler: Always smiling thanks to his foresight, messiah complex, and magical power, boasting to Asta that he's stronger than Julius before they fight.
Sibling Murder: For decades, he's been plotting to take his sibling's power for himself and combine them with his Soul Magic so his own innate magic would be powerful enough to outright resurrect people and create people out of nowhere. Unlike most examples however, he only banked on the Dark Triad and the Clover Kingdom's magic knights to act in ways he wants them to, rather than directly arranging the events that led to the Spade Kingdom raid or even killing them directly.
Sphere of Power: His nigh-invincible time magic is even stronger than Julius's and manifests as large spheres that can stop time within them or destroy anything in their path.
Soul Power: His innate magic is Soul Magic, transforming the soul of anyone he touches. He uses it to transform himself and Sister Lily into the angelic "true form of humanity". Later it's revealed that the Magic can even outright revive dead people and create new ones from nowhere. This makes him an incredibly lethal enemy since if anyone goes near him they're taken off from the scene because the magic is very difficult to completely reverse, and if anyone dies when fighting him or his minions, they're assuredly going to be used against their former allies. There's a reason why Ryuya evacuates every civilian potentially under the range of the Paladin's fire when they come to his place. It also forms a common theme with his sibling's magic and especially fitting for his plan to completely remake humanity, as blood, body, bone and soul together form the key components of a human.
Start X to Stop X:
"Judgment Day will occur seven days from now. This will be humanity's final holy war... fought to bring about a world where nothing as foolish as war exists."
Strong and Skilled: Unlike most non-humans or devil hosts who don't have much of strategy other than overwhelming foes with incredibly powerful magic, Lucius knows perfectly how to strategize against foes in a fight. He spends the start of his fight against Asta analyzing what weaknesses he has, and as soon as he knows his Time Magic doesn't work on Asta, he swaps instantly to fighting bare-fisted.
Strong Family Resemblance: In his true appearance as Lucius Zogratis with messy black hair, he turns out to be a dead-ringer for his youngest brother Zenon. When the Dark Triad were young however, whatever little we see about his face resembled Dante a few frames away instead, but with unkempt hair.
Sue Donym: His real name Lucius is only two letters different from his other self, Julius.
Super-Empowering: Thanks to incarnating and purifying the underworld's devils, he can turn humans into paladins with new magics, bestowing Sister Lily with Beelzebub's Spatial Magic.
Super-Strength: After consuming Lucifero's heart, Juilus gains incredible physical strength on top of his skill in magic. During his fight with Asta, he completely destroys a rooftop with a single punch, with Asta commenting that he's as strong as Lucifero.
The Svengali: Lucius, as Julius in the Clover Kingdom, recruited a teenage Yami, a hated and feared foreign shipwreck, and Vangeance, an abused, cursed child, into the Gray Deer, gaining their loyalty when they were the two mages needed to create the Tree of Qliphoth as part of his grand plan which had them nearly killed from being used as Human Sacrifices for the ritual.
Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Just after Asta has a final conversation with Sister Lily over his old desire to marry her, and after verifying that a straightforward clash between his Time magic and Asta's Anti-Magic won't guarantee his victory, Lucius uses Lily as a demonstration of his Soul Magic to turn her into an Paladin. Her first words to Asta in this state being to sincerely plead with him to die for Lucius' goals and humanity itself, the shock of which distracts Asta enough for Lucius to land a seemingly fatal strike to his chest.
Time Master: It's one of his trademark powers because of Astaroth, but he can use Time Magic on an even huger scale than when he was acting through Julius after absorbing Lucifero.
Theme Naming: Twofold.
- He continues the Roman naming theme of his other soul Julius, King Augustus, and Nero.
- Lucius is also the third character with a name meaning "light", following Licht and Lumiere. Except Lucius doesn't share their morality.
Utopia Justifies the Means: His goal is to use his siblings' magic to remake humanity to be equal so that the world will have true peace without any discrimination, war, hate, and sorrow. Too bad it involves destroying humanity first, unleashing devils into the world, making himself rule humanity, and killing Asta, the flaw in his plan to be removed as the only lifeform without any magic.
Villain Has a Point: His point is proven right many times throughout the series. Clover Kingdom is a Crapsaccharine World that looks like an ideal place to live in first glance, but in truth has a jarring problem with snobbish royals who despise commoners and their own "defective" kin (he did indirectly witness Zora's dad being murdered by his own squad with the royals laughing). That the four hostile Wizard Kings in the Sword of the Wizard King movie met their end in the hands of selfish nobles when their operations to reform the Kingdom conflicted with the noble's self-serving interests further validates his actions. Unfortunately, his solution to the royal problem boils down to exterminating all of humanity and recreating them as immortal superhumans, with people out of the four kingdoms being on his line of fire too.
Villainous Lineage: The oldest sibling in a family of devil hosts, with the Dark Triad being a group of malicious, unrepentant individuals. Zenon's backstory shows Lucius was the one to further push the Villainous in the Lineage, trying to convince Zenon to become a devil host when he was a child.
Villain with Good Publicity: The overarching villain of the story, and the Wizard King as Julius loved by everyone for his kindness and strength. Played With, however, as it's made clear that Julius and he are two different people who share the same body, hence while Lucius is 'technically' the same person, he's not the one who earned the people's love and respect.
Visionary Villain: Lucius's grand goal is to use his and his siblings' magics to kill all of humanity and then recreate them in equal bodies so that there will no longer be any discrimination and thus no anger, sadness, and war, Lucius's ideal of true peace. And to prevent further mistakes, he would rule as the final Wizard King. As part of his goal he "sent" Lucius on a mission to the Clover Kingdom and wants to eliminate Asta, who as the only human without any magic is a flaw in Lucius's plan for equality.
Walking Spoiler: The very existence of a fourth Zogratis isn't revealed until 75 chapters after the Dark Triad are formally introduced. Then we learn that the fourth Zogratis, Lucius Zogratis, is the second soul of Julius right before the beginning of the final arc.
The War to End All Wars: The Qliphoth Tree Ritual of the Spade Kingdom Raid Arc is just a phase of his long game he exploited to take Lucifero's power for himself by separating him into a more manageable level. The actual endgame of his plan is to take control of all the remaining devils of the underworld and use his Soul Magic to turn humans into Paladins reinforced by purified supreme devils, then use the amassed Paladins and Devils to wage a final Holy War against humanity and remake all the casualties in undying bodies as he rules over them as the Wizard Emperor. He announces that he will issue the attack a week after his first battle with Asta.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Remaking humanity to be equal so that everyone, especially the weak, can live in peace does sound well-intentioned and Clover Kingdom has too many snobbish royals that everyone's seeking to put an end to the inequality. Too bad Lucius took pages from a literal supervillain's playbook as means to the end and Asta is considered a flaw that can't be allowed to live in his perfect world.
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: He is a Dark Messiah who hides inside Julius and influences his decisions from within his split personality. For a denizen of the Clover Kingdom, it's very difficult to believe that he's anything but a benevolent ruler and not an Antichrist figure trying to end the Kingdom's inequality and suffering through a worldwide Holy War.
The Worf Effect: Exploited by Lucius himself. Patry killing Julius sounds a lot more impressive than it seemingly is when you consider that he just killed off the ultimate devil host by extension in one fell swoop. However, it's implied that this was a part of the plan to perserve Vangenance's body, which is required to draw out Lucifero. Not only he could revive himself no problem (and still has enough mana to slow down time in an entire continent), he was fully expecting Patry killing him to move towards the next phase of his plan.
World's Strongest Man: He was already regarded as the Clover Kingdom's strongest mage as its Wizard King Julius. He then goes on to defeat the un-manifested 50% of Lucifero without half his body in the underworld, who when manifested at 50% took the combined effort of the strongest magic knights with Asta's True Devil Union nullifying his magical advantages and Lucius's help with his time magic to defeat him, a feat that Lucius accomplishes alone. He tells Asta he's stronger than Julius, using stronger time magic and his innate soul magic, and proves it by turning a fair fight against Asta into a flat-out Curb-Stomp Battle within a single chapter. Ryuya of the Land of the Sun even informs Asta that he had absolutely zero chances of winning against Lucius had he gone back to fight him without training more, even when Asta could fight on equal footing with Lucifero at that point.

Characters / Black Clover: Julius Novachrono

All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Julius Novachrono

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)^note

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 3 (Anime)

Magic Attribute: Time

This character is a spoiler for Black Clover's final arc. You Have Been Warned!

Lucius Zogratis

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Jump Festa 2023)

Debut: Chapter 306 (Manga)

Magic Attribute: Soul + Body + Blood + Bone + Time + Gravity

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Black Clover: Julius Novachrono

Edit Locked

All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Julius Novachrono

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)note Other Languages: Raúl Anaya (Latin American Spanish)

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 3 (Anime)

Magic Attribute: Time

This character is a spoiler for Black Clover's final arc. You Have Been Warned!

Lucius Zogratis

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Jump Festa 2023)

Debut: Chapter 306 (Manga)

Magic Attribute: Soul + Body + Blood + Bone + Time + Gravity

Previous

Index

Next

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)^note