During his temporary stay at the church in Hage, Ryoma often went to the forest near the giant demon's skull outside the village.
He often saw Asta sweating profusely in the clearing of the forest.
That young man, without magic, was training his body in the most primitive and arduous way, with every push-up and every swing of his sword accompanied by earth-shattering roars.
He also saw Yuno quietly training on the other side.
He held his four-leaf grimoire, controlling the wind, sometimes transforming it into sharp wind blades to cut through rocks, and sometimes into gentle whirlwinds to stir up fallen leaves. His control over magic already far surpassed that of his peers.
Ryoma would tacitly choose another, more secluded spot to avoid being disturbed.
When attempting to master Space-Time Magic, he didn't want to display it in front of Yuno and Asta. After all, what he had shown before was Ice Element Magic.
In this world, with the exception of people like Asta who have no mana within them, everyone else's magic attribute is determined from birth. And it basically only corresponds to one attribute, and in the future, they can only develop magic of the corresponding attribute through their grimoire.
It's not like Mages in the Fairy Tail World, where the magic power within them is pure and has no specific attribute divisions. As long as there is time and energy, mages in the Fairy Tail world can potentially master multiple attributes of magic simultaneously.
This is an incredibly astonishing thing in the Black Clover world.
The cover of Ryoma's grimoire was silver-white, its pages glowed with a faint starlight at the edges, and there were no patterns in the center, only circles of complex runes constantly flowing like star tracks. He tried to slowly inject his magic power into it.
The grimoire's pages turned by themselves without wind, rustling as they flipped, emitting a mysterious silver glow. But that was all, the pages within the grimoire were empty.
No specific magic circle or spell appeared within it. Instead, there were some obscure and difficult-to-understand silver patterns, like the trajectories of stars, slowly flowing between the pages.
Ryoma frowned.
He focused all his attention, trying to understand and decipher these patterns. Gradually, some vague, abstract concepts emerged in his mind.
Distance, interval, instant, folding, transition...
These words swirled in his mind, but he couldn't connect them, let alone transform them into magic that could actually be cast.
"Tsk, it's not that simple after all, huh?"
Ryoma closed his grimoire with some discouragement.
It seemed that Space-Time Magic was much harder to master than he had imagined. He still needed to learn about the knowledge of Space-Time Magic in this world.
This kind of power, which involves world-level rules, cannot be comprehended overnight.
He took a deep breath and put away the grimoire.
Since the high-end stuff couldn't be used for now, he would use his familiar "old friend" first.
He stood up and extended his right hand. The next second, a grimoire with a cover made of ice crystals, emitting a chilling coldness, appeared out of thin air, quietly floating in his palm.
Although he could use Ice Magic without the aid of a grimoire, he still needed to disguise it to avoid appearing too shocking.
With a thought, the silver-white grimoire opened, and a flash of light disguised it as if he were casting magic using the grimoire.
"Since the new toy isn't working out, I'll just practice the old one a bit more." Ryoma muttered to himself, and the magic power within him began to surge.
He lifted his foot and gently stomped down again.
Eternal Permafrost!
There was no earth-shattering roar, only the sound of tiny ice crystals spreading. Centered on where his foot landed, a layer of glistening frost clung to the ground, rapidly spreading outwards.
The grass, bushes, and rocks in the forest—everything was instantly frozen. The ground transformed into a smooth ice mirror, reflecting the color of the sky.
Unlike his encounter with Revchi, this time, Ryoma's control was more exquisite. The cold only covered the surface of the ground, not harming the roots of the frozen plants.
He raised his hand, palm facing upwards.
Ice Crystal Butterfly Dance!
Countless butterflies made of ice crystals flew from his palm. They flapped their wings, dancing gracefully in the frozen forest, leaving trails of sparkling ice dust wherever they went.
Ryoma looked at his masterpiece and nodded with satisfaction.
Although Space-Time Magic was temporarily stalled, his original power was still formidable enough in this world.
He was about to dispel the magic when he suddenly heard Asta's characteristic loud voice from a distance.
"Yuno! My training for today is complete! Let's have a match!"
Ryoma's lips curved into an imperceptible smile. With the intention of watching the show, he followed the direction of the voice. Not long after, the clearing in the forest came into view.
The scene in the arena was exactly as he expected.
At this moment, Yuno closed his four-leaf grimoire and responded calmly, "You still haven't won against me even once, Asta."
"Today will definitely be different. This time I will surely win."
Asta brandished his huge black sword, full of confidence.
The anti-magic power carried by the demon-slayer sword was a bug-level ability for most magic. It could nullify all magic, its only drawback was that it couldn't affect attacks caused by physical objects.
Therefore, the best way to deal with Asta was to use physical objects for offense, or to defeat him with a speed that Asta couldn't react to.
In the arena, Asta swung the demon-slayer sword, which was utterly disproportionate to his physique, charging at Yuno again and again.
On the other side, Yuno easily dodged with swift and graceful Wind Magic, even managing to launch a few wind blades to restrict Asta in between.
"They really are a match made in heaven." Ryoma leaned against the trunk of a large tree, evaluating with interest.
He knew very well that in a duel of this level, neither of them was using their full strength.
Asta was mostly using Yuno's magic to train his reaction speed and physical coordination. And Yuno was honing his precise control over magic.
Perhaps Ryoma's presence couldn't be completely hidden after all, or perhaps Asta's beast-like intuition finally noticed the extra spectator.
After another charge was deflected by Yuno's whirlwind, Asta suddenly stopped, his vibrant eyes locking onto Ryoma.
"Ryoma! You've come at just the right time!" Asta's loud voice echoed through the forest.
He grinned, showing a smile full of fighting spirit, and without any warning, he suddenly shifted his next target to Ryoma.
His leg muscles bulged, and he stomped on the ground. His whole body shot forward like a cannonball, charging at Ryoma.
This sudden turn of events even made Yuno pause.
Then, he also deflected his wind blades from their original trajectory, sending them whistling towards Ryoma's face.
Front and back pincer attack!
'Hey, how did the spectator get dragged into the fight?' Ryoma complained helplessly in his mind, but his physical reaction was astonishingly fast.
He raised his hand, and a thick ice wall shot up with a "swish," instantly solidifying in front of him.
Clang!
The wind blade crashed against the ice wall with a crisp sound, leaving only a shallow white mark before dissipating into nothingness.
However, the next moment, Asta's figure had already rushed close.
The instant the demon-slayer sword touched the ice wall, the sturdy ice wall, made of magic, instantly melted and disintegrated.
Ryoma couldn't help but exclaim, "This anti-magic attribute... it really is overpowered. It gives magic absolutely no chance to argue."
Although he had long known the characteristics of the demon-slayer sword, experiencing it firsthand was another matter entirely. To clash head-on with it using magic was purely serving it up and wasting magic power.