Arc 3

is the 3rd arc of Yūki Tabata's Black Clover.

The arc revolves around the invasion of the Clover Kingdom's Royal Capital by a terrorist group, who has a mission to assassinate a certain member of the Magic Knights.

Magic Knights: The Gathering
A week after the dungeon exploring mission is over, Asta has finally recovered from his then injuries. As the Black Bull members feast to celebrate it, Yami Sukehiro quickly orders Asta to give his report at the Magic Knights headquarters and assigns Luck Voltia to a mission alongside Magna Swing after he prohibited him from travelling to the Royal Capital. When Charmy Papittson offers herself to accompany Asta, the Black Bull captain immediately rejects her request, which prompts her to leave. As Asta and Noelle Silva arrive at the Noble region, they encounter the Golden Dawn members whom explored the dungeon with them.

Klaus Lunette quickly greets him, but Mimosa Vermilion suddenly avoids Asta. When her cousin asks her, the noblewoman reveals her feeling towards Asta in which renders both of them screeching in embarrassment. After a while, they finally reach the designated venue, where they are greeted by the Magic Emperor himself, Julius Nova Chrono. The said man then brings the young Knights into a tower, where he begins to investigate the treasures from the dungeon. As he looks into Yuno's grimoire, Julius quickly asks him to activate the spell with excitement. Unfortunately, the young Knight is unable to fulfil his wish. The Emperor then decides to leave the fact that Yuno is now the owner of Sylph, the wind spirit, for himself.

Asta then shows his grimoire to him, but Julius fails to identify the writings on it. The former then summons the sword, he found inside the dungeon, and offers it to Julius. When the Emperor holds it, he quickly realizes that the said sword is absorbing his mana. Julius the returns the sword back and explains that Asta is the only one capable of wielding it, due to his lack of magical power.

Subsequently, Asta and Yuno brace themselves and ask Julius the proper path to become the Magic Emperor. Klaus immediately interrupts them as he explains the title to them, but Julius interrupts him and reveals to all of them the vital components to become the Magic Emperor. He explains that the strongest Magic Knight, which is proven from the achievements and reputation from the citizens, is the only mage who is worthy of the title. As both Asta and Yuno realize that commoners, such as themselves, are also able to aim for it, they reply to Julius with determination. Seeing their spirit and motivation, prompts Julius to praise both Yami and William Vangeance for their respective subordinate.

Afterwards, Julius invites all of them to come with him and attend a War Merits Conferment Ceremony, where he is scheduled to honor several Knights whom had accomplished better achievements than them. As they enter the ceremonial hall where the Knights have gathered, Julius asks the young Knights whether they are prepared to surpass the honorary Knights.

The awarding ceremony then begins as Julius calls the first Knight, Leopold Vermilion. The Crimson Lion member is promoted to a 2nd class Intermediate Magic Knight for his achievement of collecting 7 stars of excellence. Subsequently, Sol Mallon of the Blue Rose squad is promoted to a 3rd class Intermediate Magic Knight for collecting 6 stars. Julius then honors the Silver Eagle Knights, Nebula Silva and Solido Silva, whom he promotes to a 5th class Senior Magic Knight and a 3rd class Intermediate Magic Knight respectively. Finally, the Magic Emperor calls the Knights of the Golden Dawn squad, Alecdra Sandler, Siren Tium and Jamon Caseus, whom are promoted to a 4th class Senior Magic Knight, a 1st class Intermediate Magic Knight and a 2nd class Intermediate Magic Knight respectively. At the end of the ceremony, Julius congratulates the honorary Knights and invites all of them, including their captains, to a celebratory banquet, which he had prepared.

Additionally, he also asks them to get acquainted with they young Knights, whom he brought to the ceremony. The Magic Emperor's action, prompts the honorary Knights to give unpleasant stares toward the young Knights. The scrutiny continues at the banquet after Julius left the hall for another matter, which prompts Klaus to voice his concerns over Julius' decision on bringing them to the event. In the meanwhile, Asta begins to indulge himself on the dishes as he ignores the unpleasant atmosphere in the hall. While Klaus gives his remarks for Asta's uncaring nature, Mimosa approaches the latter and shyly strikes a conversation with the Black Bull Knight.

As he observes the unwanted guests, Alecdra finally voices his complaint over their presence. The Golden Dawn Knight's comment prompts the other Knight to join in as Leopold adds a condescending remark about the former's squad. The conflict between the them forces Klaus to defend his friends, but Alecdra severely criticizes him and Mimosa for their disappointing performance during the dungeon exploration mission, which begins to annoy Asta while Yuno remains silent.

The conflict arises when Solido decides to adds his opinion by humiliating his sister, Noelle, whom has been silence since the beginning. Noelle's older sister, Nebula, supports her younger brother and further insults her younger sister. Finally, their older brother, Noselle Silva, steps in and orders Noelle to leave the hall, which finally breaks Asta's patience.

The moment Noelle tries to leave, Asta quickly takes her arm and prevents his squadmate from taking further steps. The Black Bull Knight then stands on top of a table and confronts the nobles whom have been insulting his friends. It prompts Alecdra to restrain Asta with one of his spells, but the latter easily breaks out of it. He then points his sword towards them and vows to become the Magic Emperor to shut them up.

Far at the outskirt of the Clover Kingdom, a mage sits and gazes towards the Noble region. While he talks to his corpse, he is informed that his group's preparation is complete, which prompts him to vocalise his ambition to destroy the Kingdom.

Back at the Royal Capital, Asta's action causes Nebula, Alecdra and Solido to assault the former as they ridicule the former's ambition. However, their attacks are negated by Asta's sword. Alecdra then decides to restrain the Black Bull Knight by preventing him from swinging his sword. As he announces that Asta would receive proper punishment for his action, Solido steps in and prepares another attack. As the nobleman launches his attack, Asta summons his other sword to break his restrain and deflect the incoming attack as he demands the former to apologize to Noelle.

Solido manages to neutralize the deflected attack, but his inability to defeat Asta prompts Noselle to step in. The Silver Eagle captain the unleashes his magical power, which reminds the Black Bull mage from his captain's own pressure of immense magical power. Fortunately, before Noselle manages to cause any damage, Fuego Leon Vermilion interfered and asked his fellow captain to reconsider his action. At that moment, Leopold approaches Asta and declares himself as the latter's rival. When Yuno asks about the Crimson Lion mage's identity, Mimosa reveals that both of them are her cousins.

Fuego Leon then tries to reason with Noselle by emphasizing on the fact that Julius was the one who brought them. However, the Silver Eagle captain responds by giving a condescending remark about the House Vermilion. It quickly triggers the Crimson Lion captain's anger as both of them unleashes hostile magical powers, which cause the hall to tremble as remarked by Klaus.

At that moment, someone enters the hall and informs the Knights that the Royal Capital has been invaded. At the same time, the mage who was sitting at the Kingdom's outskirt, unleashes an army of corpses and causes several destructions within the city.

Fights

 * Asta vs. Rades
 * Yuno vs. Catherine
 * Fuego Leon Vermilion vs. Rades

Events

 * War Merits Conferment Ceremony
 * Declaration of Ascension
 * The Undead Invasion
 * Assassination of Fuego Leon Vermilion