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The Devil Binding Ritual
After Yami and Vangeance are captured by the Dark Triad, the Magic Knights and their allies train during the three days leading up to their assault on the Spade Kingdom. After their preparations, the Clover Kingdom's special assault force and their allies raid the Spade Kingdom to rescue the captains and stop the formation of the Tree of Qliphoth.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Make no mistake — The Dark Triad, Megicula and Lucifero lost, the House of Grinberryall take back the Spade Kingdom, and the heroes successfully save Yami and Vangenace. However, this was merely the final stage of a decade-long gambit of the overall Greater-Scope Villain, Lucius Zogratis, who was sitting inside Clover Kingdom as its Wizard King for 331 Chapters. All the while when this goes completely unbeknownst to his alter-ego Julius and the audience until the arc's final moments.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Morris turns out to have formed this with the Dark Triad after he was forced out of the Diamond Kingdom by Mars, with Morris healing and strengthening Dante as well as having designed the mobile fortresses to harvest the magic power needed to form the Tree of Qliphoth.
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent from the story for over 60 chapters, Magna returns in Chapter 289 with Zora when the Clover Kingdom raids the Spade Kingdom.
- David Versus Goliath: Magna is the David to Dante's Goliath, being a peasant with low magic power against an incredibly powerful devil user. Using his Soul Chain Death Match on Dante when he lets Magna get a free hit on him out of his pride to not even fight someone as weak as him, he fights Dante on equal ground with them each having half of their combined magic power, with Magna coming out victorious when they get into a fistfight once they run out of magic power.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: After they run out of magical power while connected with the Soul Chain Death Match, Magna gets into a good old-fashioned fistfight with Dante and wins.
- The Legions of Hell: Morris using Lolopechka's wisdom to accelerate the Qliphoth to open the first gate not only leads to the Dark Triad entering their 100% devil power forms and Lilith and Naamah to emerge, but also swarms of low and mid-ranking devils to attack the Resistance outside the castle, all on top of a giant legendary demon sent by the Triad to attack the Clover Kingdom.
- Remember the New Guy?: Nacht is introduced to Asta as the elusive Vice Captain of the Black Bulls, something that not even the other members are aware of. It can be justified as he was spying on the Spade Kingdom for a long time before the series began. Julius has some knowledge of Nacht's existence, but unaware he had devils in his possession.
- Rescue Arc: The arc becomes this, with the Clover Kingdom's special assault force invading the Spade Kingdom's castle to rescue Yami and Vangeance.
- The Reveal:
- All this time the Black Bulls have had a vice-captain named Nacht, who has been serving as a spy in the Spade Kingdom for years.
- Nero had healed a dying Tetia, who had survived and was pregnant with a surviving twin child. Her descendants went on to establish the elf village Elysia in a Strong Magic Region in the Heart Kingdom, which is where Patry, Vetto, Fana, and Rhya are now residing.
- Liebe, the devil in Asta's grimoire, was adopted by Asta's biological mother Licita, who was killed by Lucifero when he tried to take over Liebe's body. She sealed him inside the grimoire to protect him, with his goal to kill every devil in revenge for her death.
- Megicula had been planning for her descent without the Tree of Qliphoth by sacrificing three powerful female mages – Vanica, Acier, and Lolopechka. Acier's death and Noelle defeating Vanica to the point of near-death allow her to partially manifest through Vanica's body.
- There is a fourth Zogratis sibling, the oldest of them who has greater aptitude as a devil host than Dante and Vanica like Zenon. The siblings' goal is revealed to be to use devils' power and their magics to kill all of humanity then remake them into undying bodies, creating a world without fear of death.
- Yuno has been harboring the soul of Licht and Tetia's child all this time, who is the true user of Yuno's wind magic and four-leaf grimoire. Recognizing his own strength, he obtains his true Spade grimoire and magic — Star Magic.
- The biggest one of the series by far. Julius is actually a split personality, with his original personality being Lucius Zogratis, the oldest of the Zogratis siblings who has been manipulating the heroes and villains the entire time, with Adrammelech serving under him and giving him Lucifero's heart, all as he had planned.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: There are seven levels of the underworld of which ten devils are matched to the Qliphoth in separate locations. The deeper the level, the stronger the devil, with Lucifero the final and most powerful devil. The upper devils are as strong as the Dark Triad while the lower devils are even more powerful.
- Time to Unlock More True Potential: After their losses against the Dark Triad, the main trio undergo training with mentors to prepare for the assault against the Spade Kingdom:
- Asta trains under Nacht, who draws out the devil in his grimoire, Liebe, for him to claim his power. When Asta befriends and makes an equal contract with him, he fights them to the death for the two to achieve Union Mode.
- Yuno, while training, encounters Langris, now the former Vice Captain of the Golden Dawn, who he asks to train him to prepare for his rematch against Zenon, another spatial mage.
- Noelle learns to undergo Spirit Dive with Undine, and Mimosa, Secre, Charmy, Luck, and Leopold, are taught the elves' esoteric art Ultimate Magic when they re-encounter them after Vanica and her Dark Disciples' attack on the Heart Kingdom.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 279: Morris is not only revealed to be a Devil host, but his magic gives him an ability to extract and transplant information from anyone... including Lolopechka's Wisdom. He uses her wisdom to find a way to accelerate the Tree of Qliphoth's process, opening the first two gates of the Underworld and releasing their supreme devils, Lilith and Nahmaah.
- Chapter 306: This episode reveals Zenon's past — that he wasn't the cynical and cold warrior that he has been in the story, and only managed to become so after a tragic incident forced him to kill his beloved rival Allen to kill a devil. It also reveals the existence of a fourth Zogratis sibling, a mysterious man in a wheelchair who led all of his younger brethren into becoming the Dark Triad, with the last being the traumatized Zenon who asked him to turn him into one.
- Chapter 308: Yuno's wind magic isn't actually his true magic. The wind magic and his grimoire are in truth of Licht and Tetia's son, whose soul has been in Yuno this entire time and stayed after the reincarnation magic was dispelled. Yuno, upon learning this from the soul within him, gains his true Spade grimoire and gets back up for his fight against Zenon.
- Chapter 317: Despite saving Yami and Vangeance and destroying Lucifero's blob of combined devils, the second Qliphoth gate devil Adrammelech appears to warn everyone to get out of there because Lucifero himself is now half-manifested. He makes his appearance using his magic to make everyone bow their heads by making them fall into the ground and appears right next to a terrified Asta who just used up his Devil Union, angry at him for trying to prevent his manifestation.
- Chapter 331: Multiple major reveals.
- Yuno's mother, Ciel was revealed to be alive and rightfully reclaims the Spade Kingdom.
- Megicula wasn't one of the original supreme devils, but only replaced Astaroth, the time devil at least 20 years ago.
- The fourth Zogratis sibling seen in Zenon's flashbacks? He's actually hiding in the Clover Kingdom for 331 chapters straight. All the while when assuming as his split personality Julius Novachrono. And he's actually the host of the missing supreme devil Astaroth — Lucius Zogratis, who was playing a decade long game that accumulated with him cooperating with Adrammelech to use the Qliphoth Tree Ritual to kill 90% of humanity and remake them.
