Arc 1

This is the 1st arc of Yūki Tabata's Black Clover. Also known as The Road to Magic Emperor Arc

The arc revolves around Asta and Yuno's efforts to enter the order of the Magic Knights, and it also focuses on Asta's first few days as a member of the Black Bull squad.

The Promise
A long time ago, humanity was under attack by a demon, but one mage rose and defeated it. He was then known as the Magic Emperor and his title has since been passed down to the next generations.

In present day, Sister Lily of a church in a village called Hage is being proposed by one of the foster children, Asta. The boy insists on taking her as his bride, which forces her to used a physical retaliation with a magic spell. Other children then interject with one of them, Yuno, gives his opinion regarding the matter. Asta tries to challenge him to a fight, but he is rejected when another boy, Nash, reminds Asta of his lack of magical power. While Asta tries to prove his worth, Yuno begins to complete his daily chores excellently with his magical ability. His excellent prowess causes Asta to feel depressed.

The Sister tries to cheer him up, but it resulted in Asta boasting about his dream on becoming the next Magic Emperor. However, Nash once again reminds him about the type of person that could achieve such dream. Unable to accept his argument, Asta leaves to train on his own while the said boy questions the seniority between them. When Lily tries to stop Asta, Yuno assures her that there is nothing to worry about, which reminds her of Asta and Yuno's past. Somewhere within the forest, Asta resiliently trains his body while Yuno watches him from afar.

Sometime after, Asta and Yuno turn 15 years old as they are able to attend the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony. During the ceremony, Asta fails to receive a grimoire and the Grimoire Tower's master consults him to try again in the following year. On the other hand, Yuno receives a grimoire with a four-leaf clover insignia on it. As everyone realize the worth of Yuno's grimoire, which is similar as the first Magic Emperor's grimoire, Yuno declares his ambition to become the next Magic Emperor. Hearing it, Asta reveals his intention to catch up as his rival, but Yuno calmly brushes him off. At a corner of the ceremony's venue, a mysterious figure witnesses the whole scene and is amazed of the discovery.

Later that day, Asta is left in daze from the whole experience while he hangs on top of a tree and remembers a promise he had with Yuno. As he believes that Yuno has forgotten about the promise, Asta tries to dismiss it with sheer confidence when he sees Yuno walking near the ceremony's venue.

While standing in front of the tower where the ceremony was held, a mysterious figure approaches Yuno and begins to bind him with a magic spell. He then subsequently snatches Yuno's new grimoire and introduces himself as Lebuty, a former Magic Knight turned thief. While Lebuty explains his plan on putting a price on Yuno's grimoire at the black market, Asta rolls down the mountain towards them and warns Lebuty regarding his action. Lebuty then reveals the scar on his face as he dismisses Asta's threat. Asta then tries to attack him, but he is quickly defeated by Lebuty's Dance of the Pitless Viper. Lebuty then tries to diminish Asta's fighting spirit by spelling out the disadvantage he has due to his lack of magical power. Asta begins to succumb to Lebuty's words before Yuno interjects.

The immobilized Yuno then begins to remember a past experience when Asta saved him from a thug whom tried to steal his necklace. It is Yuno's memories of Asta relentlessly tried to take back the necklace from the said thug, which drives him on having the same goal to become a Magic Emperor. As he remembers this, Yuno finally reveals that Asta is his rival in which ignites the fighting spirit back within Asta. Subsequently, a grimoire comes out of the tower's crevice and summons a sword for Asta.

Lebuty realizes that the grimoire possesses a five-leaf clover insignia on it and tries to stop it before the grimoire puts him in a disadvantageous position. Fortunately, Asta manages to wield the huge sword due to his physical training and unconsciously negated Lebuty's magic attack before sending him flying towards the wall. Yuno then grabs his grimoire back and promises Asta to pay back this debt from being save by him while Asta is still cherishing his new grimoire. Yuno then asks Asta whether he remembers their promise from the past in which Asta responses in the same manner when they made the promise.

The Exams
Six months later, Asta and Yuno sign up for the Magic Knights Entrance Exam to enter the ranks of one of the nine squads of the Order of the Magic Knights. As the anti-birds of the exam venues begin to harass the examinees, Yuno is left without a single one of them around him while a flock of anti-birds circle around Asta when he approaches his foster brother. While Asta begins his effort on evading the anti-birds, Lily who stayed in Hage is worried about the two foster children while asking the mage who guards the Grimoire Tower about the children's chance on being admitted.

Returning back to Asta, he accidentally collides with an ominous man. Terrified by the presence of the man, Asta tries to lighten the mood by asking the reason a man of his age is still trying to be admitted to the Magic Knights. His decision results in him being strangled by the man before his friend interjects.

The surrounding people begin to notice the commotion and the people involved where they are surprised as they see members of the Black Bull squad along with their captain, Yami Sukehiro, are among them. Before Yami manages to cause further damage, the exam starts and the examiners reveal themselves to the examinees.

The examinees are in awe with the presence of all the captains of the Magic Knights' squads. Their attention is quickly diverted to the head examiner, the captain of the Golden Dawn and the strongest candidate to become the next Magic Emperor: William Vangeance. William then activates one of his spells where a magic tree descends from the sky and gives a broom to each examinees. William then explains the format of the exam and reveals that flying on a broom would be the first of many tasks to be completed. While Yuno easily masters the technique to fly on a broom, Asta is still standing on the ground trying to leave the ground.

Sekke Bronzazza, another examinee, then introduces himself to Asta. He is planning to put himself as close as possible to Asta so the examiners could compare his performance solely against Asta's. The exams then continue with Sekke never leaving Asta's side throughout the various tasks. At the end, William reveals the final task to be a combat test.

As he encourages the examinees to not hesitate during the fight, Sekke asks Asta to be his battle partner. As the fight starts, Sekke reveals his true colors while activating his magic spell. He then condescendingly asks Asta to give his full effort in which Asta quickly dashes towards him. Seeing this, William guesses that Asta is using a Reinforcement Magic but Yami believes it to be Asta's physical prowess. Asta then swings his sword through Sekke's spell and smashes him against the ground while declaring his ambition.

When people start commenting about Asta's seemingly impossible ambition, he revolts by telling them to shut themselves up. The combat test continues with every fights are better than Asta's. It is finally Yuno's turn with a man from the Hapshass family requested him to be his partner. The fight ended almost immediately with Yuno delivers a one-hit-kill attack.

After that, it is the time to announce the results where William explains that the examinees are considered to pass the test when there is a captain of the squads that would recruit them into his ranks. As all examinees are called one-by-one, it is finally Yuno's turn and all of the captains reveal their interest on recruiting him to everyone's surprise. Yuno then proceeds on choosing the strongest squad, the Golden Dawn, believing that the quickest path to become the Magic Emperor is through the strongest squad.

When it comes to Asta's turn, none of the captain raises an interest on him until Yami breaks the silence by giving his thoughts on the result. He reveals that it all comes to the magic that Asta is using on his combat test while emphasizing the importance of magical power to the Magic Knights by releasing an intense wave of magical power himself. Yami then begins testing Asta's resolves for his ambition to which Asta gives him an honest response. Yami bursts into laughter while taking an interest of the boy. He then offers Asta a place in his squad while stressing that it was an order rather than a request.

As the exams ended, Asta quickly dashes out of the venue straight to the toilet. Sekke follows him and without Asta's notice, he tries to send a sneak attack with one of his spells. As he is activates his spell, Sekke is left stunned when realizing that Yuno is standing behind him while activating a spell to obliterate Sekke's spell. As Sekke is trying to find an excuse for his act, Yuno quickly stops him by saying a few threats. Sekke then leaves the toilet followed by Yuno with Asta is still not noticing the scene that was happening near him.

Asta then regroups with his new squad with Yami being very annoyed for making him wait. Asta tries explains his reason but to no avails as Yami once again tries to crush his head. The captain the order his subordinate, Finral Roulacase, to open a portal where Yami throws Asta right through it without hesitation. They arrive at the headquarters of the Black Bull squad. The moment they enter, Asta is left in amazement as Yami introduces the other members while giving remarks about them being the worst squad of the Magic Knights.

The Black Bulls
After seeing the other Black Bull members, Asta is determined to give the best first impression during his introduction. Unfortunately, no one listens to him as they continue their individual activities with two of them are wrecking the hall. Yami then tries to put a lid on the situation by wrecking a bit of the place as well. The members then immediately stopped and welcome their captain's return. Unfazed by his subordinates, Yami quickly disciplined them with a few words before introducing Asta to them.

Subsequently, Yami explains that there are more members, which are currently absent. A woman, Vanessa Enoteca, then begins flirting with Asta but he decides to stay faithful to the Sister back in Hage. As Vanessa suddenly vomits, another member steps in as he refuses to acknowledge Asta while showing his squad robe as a proof of membership. The said member, Magna Swing, then decides to give an initiation ceremony for Asta after seeing the latter covets over the robe.

Magna then explains that Asta only needs to evade or block one of his spell attacks and he will receives the robe. Asta then immediately summons his sword and assumes a stance to receive it. At the same time, Vanessa yawns from witnessing Magna fabricates another initiation ceremony while another member, Luck Voltia, feels that it could be interesting. The moment Magna launches his attack, Asta immediately realize that he will not survive the attack with his current weapon as slicing the attack would only cause a larger damage.

However, as Asta's mind is clouded with doubts, his body reacts on its own due to his strenuous physical training. Asta then unconsciously rotates his sword's handle and receives the attack with the back of the sword. This leads the sword to deflect the spell back to Magna and causes an explosion near him. Seeing this, Yami starts to postulate that Asta's sword would cut magic with its edges and deflect magic with the fullers.

While Finral is relieved that he does not have to save a new member for once, Magna starts to regain his footing after he reflectively countered the deflected attack with another attack. He then congratulates Asta for his achievement and when Asta reveals his condition of not possessing any magical power, Magna praises him even further. The other members then congratulate him as well with Luck requests another initiation with him while Charmy Pappitson gives him a pastry. Magna then bestows Asta with his squad robe while Vanessa brands his headband with the squad's insignia. In the meanwhile, someone has been watching the whole event from afar and gives Asta imperious remarks.

Soon after, Magna takes Asta on a tour of the headquarters even though Vanessa and the others have not introduce themselves. Magna shows Asta the dining hall, the main bath, the females' quarters in which filled with traps and the beasts' cage. They then coincidentally meet with a girl with silver-colored hair, Noelle Silva.

Magna introduces her to Asta as the other new member, just like him. Feeling delighted, Asta gives her a friendly introduction but she coldly brushes him off. She then declares that a commoner like him should not speak casually to a royalty, such as her. Asta succumbed to her for a moment before he realizes that they are an equal member of the squad. Hearing his reaction, Noelle tries to subdue him with a magic spell but she missed and the attack lands on Magna instead. Noelle tries to justify her action, but Magna remains unfazed and starts shouting at her regarding her admittance to the group was due to Yami's good grace. She then leaves the two of them while discarding her squad robe.

In the evening, Magna takes Asta to his own private quarter. Subsequently, he starts bragging about the fact that his quarter is bigger than Asta's, but the latter is too busy being teary-eyed for having his own room. Asta then starts tidying his room while Magna leaves him alone. Before he goes to bed, Asta begins to strengthen his ambition to be the next Magic Emperor while also declares that the Black Bull headquarters is his starting point.

At the break of dawn, Asta is awoken by an urge to go to the toilet when he is suddenly attacked by a sphere of water. He then finds Noelle trains on her own, as she tries to hit a target with her magic spell. Seeing that none of her attacks was on target, she begins to questions her own ability while remembering the hardship she endured during her childhood due to this and her brother's rejection of her entry to the ranks of the Silver Eagle squad.

Determine to prove her worth, she begins to push herself over the limit and it manifests into a giant sphere of water. The incident alerts Yami, Luck, Magna and Vanessa where Yami believes that trying to neutralize it forcefully would causes harm to Noelle. Yami then stumbles upon Asta and immediately orders him to solve the issue by throwing him towards the sphere. Asta quickly summons his sword and slices through the sphere. While they start falling from the sky, Finral opens a portal and manages to safely transport them near the ground.

Yami commends Asta for his performance while Noelle expects to be humiliated, yet again. However, to her surprise, Asta praises her for her large amount of magical power and motivates her to train on controlling it. The rest of the Black Bull members follow suit with Magna gives her a pep talk, Finral tries to take her on a date, Charmy offers her a pastry and Vanessa offers her assistance on her training.

The Duty of a Magic Knight
A while later during meal, Asta innocently asks Magna about the responsibilities of a Magic Knight in which incurs Magna's wrath for his ignorance. Magna explains that their job is to protect, Vanessa adds to it by saying it could range from protecting peace to being a bodyguard while Luck simply says that a Magic Knight is allowed to fight without restrain especially against criminals.

Subsequently, Gauche Adlai reveals that he becomes a Magic Knight to use his salary to dote his sister while Charmy believes the occupation allows her to eat various cuisines. Finally, Grey tells Asta that being a Magic Knight is a great job while transforming himself into Asta's spitting image. While Charmy offers Asta and Noelle another dish, both of them agrees that all of their squad-mates are very odd.

Soon after, Magna reveals to both Asta and Noelle that their first mission would be boar hunting at Sosshi. Yami then explains that the request came from an old man whom manage to win on a bet against Yami and Magna. Hearing the excuse, the new members try to get out of it but complies immediately due to Yami's threat. Noelle then starts grouching over the circumstance but then reveals that she is just worried if she would only inflict further damages with her lack of magical control. Magna immediately appeases her by saying that he will be coming along as a supervisor. He then explains that they have to travel by a broom due to Finral's inability to teleport to a place unknown to him. However, to his dismay, Asta and Noelle cannot ride a broom in which leaves Magna without choice but taking them along with his broom, the Crazy Cyclone.

At first, Magna had a problem on taking off due to the sheer weight of the passengers but manage to fly in the end. Unfortunately, it is not a very smooth flight with Noelle holding Magna too tightly while Asta is ignoring his own safety as he is amazed by the experience. In the end, Magna exhausts himself upon their arrival at Sosshi.

The moment they arrive, the first thing that they see is the village being covered by a very thick mist with Noelle believes that it was created by magic. Magna then subsequently asks Asta to cut it. Asta quickly do as he was ordered after being convinced that his sword is able to cut any form of magic. At the end of the mist, they witness the villagers gathered at the center of the village with dozens of sharp icicles floating above them.

As those icicles start falling down, Magna quickly dashes over to them an manage to neutralize the spell with his fire magic. He then finds out that the old man whom made the request has already dead. Subsequently, he sees a group of mages at the vicinity and immediately demands answers. One of the mages, Heath Grice, ignores him while being irritated by Magna's interference. The said man who is sitting on top of a broke wall, launches another attack towards them. Depleted of his magical power, Magna is not capable of retaliating but Asta manages to step in and cuts the spell in half and saves all of them. He then subsequently confronts Heath for his actions.

Asta begins by asking for the group of mages' identity while Magna is considering the possibility of them coming from outside of the Kingdom. At the same time, the group of mages also questioning the appearance of the Black Bull squad and assume that they are on an unofficial mission. Heath then looks at his pocket watch and declares their defeat in within five minutes before pursuing their purpose. Asta begins his assault but one of the mages quickly activates a mist-based spell. Asta quickly negates the spell while Heath analyses him.

When Asta asks him of his purpose on the village, Heath evades the question by simply saying that people who are from the Forsaken region are nothing but brutes that are not worth saving. Heath's comments trigger a memory from Asta's past where he learned something similar from the Lily back in Hage. His ambition to become the Magic Emperor began on that day to protect the lesser people, which he reiterates to Heath.

The group of mages then activates a composite spell of mist and ice and manage to create a barrage of icicle spears. The icicles subsequently attack the villagers from multiple directions. Asta manages to deflect a few of them but Heath easily thaws them, leaving Asta and Magna on defense to protect the villagers. Magna starts to loose even more magical power but he determines to continue to fight due to his pride. Noelle tries to launch an attack but missed her target, which leads Heath to comment on her flaws. A discouraged Noelle begins to think about escaping, which reinforced by Magna's request for her to escape as well. But, one of the children of the village approaches her and begs for her protection. Noelle regains her fighting spirit and it triggers her grimoire to reveal a new spell that manages to protect all of them with a water-based barrier. Seeing an opening, Asta immediately rushes towards Heath and delivers a thrust to his torso.

Unfortunately Asta's attack did not manage to land a significant damage as Heath reacts fast enough to freeze the ground around former in which dampen his momentum. He immediately land a counterattack and begins to freeze Noelle's barrier while Asta is laying on the ground. As Heath proclaims he will finish in 25 seconds and Magna is nearly giving up, Asta comes back for another attack but he is not fast enough to ambush Heath. Asta gets back on his feet but only to be sent flying once more.

This leads to Magna begins remembering the moment he got accepted to the Black Bull while thinking that Asta should put this to rest. Heath asks Asta the very same question in which the latter shows his determination and his duty to protect. Asta's statement awakens Magna from his slump with him punching himself in the face. While leaving the protection duty to Noelle, Magna comes out of the spell and challenges Heath. He then asks Asta to recreate the initiation ceremony they had before with Magna activating one of his spells. Unfazed by it, Heath protects himself with a defensive spell while letting the strays to pass him. Unfortunately, he does not notice that Asta is deflecting those stray attacks back at him and his group. The attacks manage to take down all of them while Noelle protects Magna from the icicles coming from above him. When Heath tries to freeze the fire after realizing that it would not fade, Asta quickly jumps in and swings his sword onto Heath's body.

As Heath loses his consciousness, Magna quickly activates a restraining spell by taking advantage the fire that is still burning on the opponents' body. Unfortunately, one of Heath's subordinate manages to escape by extinguishing the fire with a water magic spell. While Noelle also deactivates her spell, Asta suddenly faints due to exhaustion. Seeing Asta's efforts in the fight, Noelle begins to see Asta in different light while silently complementing him.

Suddenly, an anti-bird appears from Asta's robe and flies away towards one of the villager's houses where it finds a stone with symbol of a crescent moon and three four-sided stars on it. The said bird then takes the stone and returns back to Asta's side. It then starts pecking Asta on the head until he wakes up. Noticing the stone on it's beak, Asta tries to return the said stone, which belongs to the village's chief, to the villagers but the latter decides to give it to him as a sign of gratitude. Unbeknownst to Asta, Noelle has been observing him and the anti-bird and she has become enamored by the anti-bird's behaviors.

Moments later, Heath finally regains his consciousness and finds himself and two of his subordinates tied and hindered from using any magics by Magna's restraining magic spell. When he learned that Magna intends to take them in for questioning, Heath immediately commits suicide by using a magic item he kept inside his stomach. Heath's act of committing suicide while taking his subordinates along with him completely frustrates Asta due to the former's lack of respect for life.

Meanwhile, Heath's escaped subordinate arrives and quickly gives a report about their failure to their employer. However, the said employer, who wears a robe with the Golden Dawn squad insignia on it, does not seem to be frustrated by the turn of event while installing a piece of stone into a sephirot. The said employer also reveals that there is no major setback on the plan after learning that the stone, the employer asked Heath and his subordinates to retrieve, is at the Black Bull's hand.

Returning back to Sosshi, Asta is still being chased around by the anti-bird which keep pecking on his head. Noelle who has been following them, quickly offers herself as the bird's companion in an effort to take it from Asta. They then notice two children are standing in front of a grave which they learned to be the grave of the chief of Sosshi village and one of the children is his grandson, Nick.

The boy then starts reminiscing about his grandfather's past ambition of becoming a Magic Knight. One of the memories that he remembers is his grandfather's regret of not participating in one of the Magic Knights entrance exams where the latter decides to focus on working at the village.

Nick then asks Asta if someone from the Forsaken region like him could really enter the ranks of the Magic Knights. Asta replies to him by saying that he is of the same status as him to prove the possibility of a peasant to become a Magic Knight. Subsequently, Asta encourages Nick to work hard in order to achieve his goal. The anti-bird then immediately pecks Asta on his head yet again after hearing Asta's speech.

The Rewards
After completing their mission in Sosshi village, the three of them return back to the headquarters and greeted by Yami and Vanessa. The latter reveals that the Magic Forensic Division has begin their investigation although they have not seems to find any clue regarding their affiliation just yet. Subsequently, Yami informs them that the Magic Emperor had bestowed them with a star for Magna, Asta and Noelle's excellent performance. The additional star put the Black Bull squad on a 100 stars difference with the top squad, the Golden Dawn. Yami also distributes the members salary with Asta is completely excited with his first earned money while Noelle is not amazed by the amount she received. While congratulating the new members with their first salary, Vanessa also invites them on a shopping trip to a castle town in the Common region.

Upon arriving at Kikka, Asta yet again being amazed by the scenes he had never experienced beforehand and starts running around ahead of the others. His actions starts to draw attention of the crowd whom notice his affiliation with the Black Bull squad. Additionally, Vanessa and Noelle also attract an equal amount of attention, especially from the males. Vanessa tries to appease Noelle whom starts to worry about the commotion they caused by saying that their presence as a Magic Knight is enough to suppress the level of crime activities while also hoping that she could attract a few sophisticated men.

After completing their errands, Vanessa then takes Asta and Noelle to a black market hidden behind a wall in one of the alleys of Kikka. She then explains that the nobles usually avoid such a place after seeing Noelle's surprised look. Subsequently, she also informs Noelle that they might be able to find an item in the market that could help in improving her controls over her magical power.

While touring the black market, Asta notices an area of the market that is quite crowded in which revealed to be a casino. In there, he accidentally sees one of his acquaintances, Magna Swing, playing after receiving his salary.

In the same casino, another mage is being beaten in a game of card by an elderly woman. The mage, Sekke, then starts complaining about his new life as a member of a Magic Knights' squad regarding his squadmates' treatment of him. He then notices Noelle and Vanessa from across the room and immediately tries to flirt with them. Unfortunately, the two of them harshly rejected him before Asta interrupts their conversation.

Asta quickly recognizes Sekke but fails to remember his name. On the other hand, Sekke is still shocked that Asta is able to be acquainted with two beautiful ladies. He then tries to criticize Asta but it backfires when Asta reveals his recent accomplishment. In that moment, a thief snatches the belonging of the elderly woman who was gambling against Sekke. Asta quickly pursues the thief while Sekke activates one of his spell. He then also starts pursuing the thief after giving Vanessa and Noelle a few sweet words, which gives an opposite effect on both of them.

Asta manages to nullify the thief's spell while Sekke stops the thief by charging directly at him. Unfortunately, the thief manages to paralyze Sekke with a magic item before losing his consciousness. Sekke who thinks that he is about to die, starts giving his final wish to Asta. However, Asta quickly rejects his so-called dying wish and tells him to live and fulfil it by himself. Vanessa then takes a look at the injury and reveals that Sekke is not in imminent danger while applying an ointment on his foot. Sekke then leaves before he receives further embarrassment while Vanessa starts to notice a deeper personality that Asta has within him. The three Black Bull members then return the elderly woman's belonging before leaving the place themselves. As they leave, the elderly woman transform into a middle-aged man whom is revealed to be the current Magic Emperor, Julius Novachrono, as he receives a call from one of his subordinates. The call seems to be an emergency but the Magic Emperor remains calm while hinting that he had found a candidate to solve the issue for them. Meanwhile back at the casino, Magna is still gambling even after losing almost all of his possessions but is still determined on winning.

Fights

 * Asta vs. Lebuty
 * Asta vs. Sekke Bronzazza
 * Asta, Magna Swing, and Noelle Silva vs. Heath Grice

Events

 * Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony
 * Magic Knights Entrance Exam
 * Black Bull Initiation Ceremony
 * Noelle's Magical Rampage
 * Asta's First Mission