The final manga arc of Black Clover is afoot. If you’re anything like me, you’re as excited as you are heartbroken about this piece of shonen beauty coming to an end.
Since the Lucius-Julius revelation, things have truly become insane, and chapters 337 and 338 have just taken things up a whole new level.
After his battle with Lucius Zogratis, Asta has landed up in Hino Country, Yami’s homeland. He meets Ryudo Ryuya, the shogun of the Land of the Sun and Yami’s childhood friend. In the latest chapter, Asta is also introduced to Yami’s sister, Ichika Yami.
Tabata sensei also kind of just dropped a whole new magic system on top of us, with Hino Country’s ki-centric sorcery power.
With so many new developments, it’s important to recollect all the Black Clover mysteries that are as yet unresolved. Today I’m going to go over the most burning questions that really need answers before the Judgement Day.
1. Who is Asta’s dad?
Asta’s father is either the mysterious Astaroth, who is one of the 3 rulers of the underworld, or someone from the Land of the Sun, i.e., Hino Country.
Asta’s paternal roots have always been in question right from the beginning. We know that Asta and Yuno were left on the steps of the Hage church on the same day.
We know they have no blood relation, and that Yuno, the song of the Grinberryalls, is the rightful heir of the Spade Kingdom. Asta’s mother is Lichita who was forced to abandon him due to her unfortunate magical ability/curse.
Lichita had a similar ability to what we’ve seen with Henry – the absorption of magical power. Lichita’s allegedly could also suck life force along with magic power, which is why she feared she would harm her son and left him at the church. But who did she have Asta with?
It had to have been someone who could withstand her kind of power, someone immune to her. As we’ve seen from Liebe’s flashback, devils are immune to her power. This brings me to Astaroth.
In demonology, Astaroth formed the evil trinity along with Lucifer and Beelzebub, which is what is said in Black Clover as well. Astaroth also has connections with the Tree of Qliphoth, the magical channel that connects the underworld with the human world.
It’s only with the help of the Tree of Qliphth that the demons can make their way into the living world. It’s possible that when the channel was opened the first time, Astaroth slipped into the human realm and fell in love with Lichita.
In some sources, it’s also mentioned that Astaroth is not all bad, so Lichita falling for him doesn’t seem too unlikely.
I really like this theory of Astaroth being Asta’s dad because it would fit in with the narrative so well. Asta being a devil-hybrid has been a famous fan-theory and with Astaroth in the picture it just makes sense.
The biggest evidence of this is Asta’s appearance in Devil Union. When he fuses with Liebe, he should ideally have only 2 horns, but he has 4 – and later 5. The extra pair of horns are likely his own, inherited from his father.
The fifth horn appears in chapter 326, when Asta and Liebe attain mastered Devil Union. This final horn is shared by Asta and Liebe. This solidifies the theory that the 2 horns before this have to be Asta’s own.
The whole thing about Clover Kingdom thinking Asta is a devil would ironically become half-true, except Asta’s human side is what will triumph.
Additionally, the proof is in his name: Lichita most likely named Asta after his father – the similarities in the name are too strong to be a coincidence.
On the other hand, Asta’s dad might also be someone from might be from Hino country.
Recently, chapter 338 showed Asta spot nomotatoes in Yami’s home-country which is on a different continent than Clover Kingdom. Perhaps Asta’s dad was the one who exported them first to Clover?
Asta’s connection to Yami and ki, to swordsmanship and combat, even his looks to a certain extent, make it possible that Asta is really from the Land of the Sun.
2. How was Liebe born without magic? The Anti-Magic Lore
Liebe was born without magic just like Asta – and it might be because of the same reason: Lichita.
If we assume that Astaroth made it to earth and hooked up with Lichita, this union would have been highly unnatural. It’s possible that the offspring that resulted had two souls – similar to Lucius and Julius.
With Astaroth’s power, maybe Liebe was instantly transported to the underworld, even before Lichita could know him. By fate, she would one day find Liebe and raise him, not long after she was forced to abandon Asta.
Liebe and Asta share uncanny similarities which might also indicate how they might have the same parentage. Magic type is also mostly hereditary as we’ve seen throughout the series, and this might be the case with non-magic types as well.
If Asta and Liebe were both born to Astaroth and Lichita, then it’s possible that Lichita’s curse ripped both of them of any power they might have had after they were born.
(This would mean Lichita’s curse would affect devils as well, or at least hybrids.)
After being born, both shared parallel lives, Asta in the human world and Liebe in the underworld. Liebe, because he had no magic or devil power, could pass through the gates when he was flung by the senior devil, and landed up back on earth.
Lichita raised him and then when Lucifero threatened to take over his body and kill him, she sealed him in Licht’s five-leaf clover grimoire.
Coming to the Anti-Magic lore.
Contrary to what many believe, Liebe was not born with Anti-Magic but developed it during his time in the five-leaf grimoire.
Since he had a deep hatred for devils, he kept cursing them, harboring those negative emotions within a grimoire that had already been morphed due to Licht’s hate and sorrow.
This is how, in his magicless body, he literally grew Anti-Magic. If magic comes from mana, then Anti-Magic possibly comes from negative mana that manifested through negative emotions.
Since the grimoire already had the elf Licht’s own despair, I think it developed an affinity with Liebe’s own despair, cumulating into negative mana and manifesting as Anti-Magic.
Liebe’s Anti-Magic is as unique as Astaroth’s Time Magic, which further proves my point. Further, Anti-Magic might only be manifested through a devil, which is why it is so rare and unheard of in the human realm.
There are so many ways this can go and I really can’t wait for Tabata’s reveal regarding this matter.
Astaroth’s Time Magic grants Lucius the ability to see into the past and the future and also stop, speed up, reverse, and basically manipulate time.
If Lucius had known that Asta and his Anti-Magic were the natural enemy to him and his Time Magic, he could have easily gone back in time and killed Lichita before she was even pregnant. This proves that Lucius couldn’t access any timeline that had Asta in it.
But after he came to know of Asta, he could have told Adrammelech to kill him instead of having him spare his life.
There are 4 possibilities here.
- Maybe Lucius wants to take care of Asta himself and eliminate this “anomaly” to create his perfect world.
- Maybe he is waiting for Asta to make Liebe stronger so he can eventually eat his heart like he did Lucifero’s.
- Perhaps, Astaroth doesn’t want his sons, Asta and Liebe to die and is preventing Lucius from killing them.
- Or, Lucius needed to keep Asta alive because he was the only one who could defeat Lucifero before he could get his heart for himself.
From chapter 274 to 289, the clock tower shows the same exact time. Lucius, with Time Magic, possibly kept reversing time until Asta and the rest could finally kill Lucifero.
In different timelines, Asta has probably died over and over again, but Astaroth’s magic kept bringing him back.
But as to why Lucius didn’t kill him in their battle and had Angel-Sister Lily teleport him instead, needs to still be seen.
4. Will Julius Novachrono come back to life?
Julius Novachrono was pronounced dead by Lucius after he took over his full consciousness. Lucius and Julius exist in the same body, but Lucius, using Soul Magic, manipulated Julius’s soul into submitting to him.
There is no way Julius is dead. He will either come back to life to aid Asta during the final battle, or in some way work with Astaroth to defeat Lucius.
5. What is Julius’s magic?
We always thought that Julius Novachrono had Time Magic but now we know that Time Magic comes from the Time Devil, Astaroth, who resides within him, since Lucius became the host.
Julius’s real magic is Transformation Magic. We’ve seen him transform multiple times as the old lady. This Transformation Magic has potential to be extremely broken, as we saw when Grey began realizing what her power was actually capable of.
This isn’t as much of a mystery, but I’d like Tabata to resolve it nevertheless.
6. How can Lucius Zogratis walk?
Lucius, when he was introduced as the fourth Zogratis sibling, was in a wheelchair. He either lost the function of his legs early in his childhood or was born that way. So how can he walk now?
Maybe Lucius, when he gave soul control to Julius, was able to walk because it was never Julius who had the disability but Lucius.
Or, he used Julius’s Transformation Magic to transform his legs into healthy ones. Transformation Magic, as we know from Grey, has many more uses than we thought.
But the most likely explanation is that after his devil-binding ritual with Astaroth, Lucius was given back the ability to walk through the powers of the highest-ranking devil.
Alternatively, he could also have approached the Witch Queen. If you remember, During the battle with Vetto and the Midnight Sun, Asta’s arms were cursed, making it impossible to use magic to treat them.
The Queen used her Blood Magic to completely heal his arms. So, if Lucius’s legs were cursed, the Witch Queen’s magic could have helped.
7. Are there gods in Black Clover?
The new angel species that Lucius calls Paladin makes me wonder whether there’s a God in Black Clover. Perhaps Lucius is aiming to become that God, naming himself the “savior of the world.”
Species or race-wise, Tabata has established that the Clover-world has devils, demons, elves, dwarves, giants, humans, souls, and spirits. The “spirits” part doesn’t make it impossible for there to be gods – the elemental spirits are pretty close to gods anyway.
The question is … what are all those churches for? Who are the nuns praying to? Is Christianity a thing in Black Clover? What magic type did Jesus have? I doubt we’re going to get any answer here.
8. What happened about Charmy being a dwarf? What happened to the dwarves?
So, we know that Charmy has dwarf-origins. She is a dwarf-human hybrid and has dwarven mana. Dwarves lived alongside elves and humans but it hasn’t been revealed what happened to them.
Did they move to another continent? Are they hiding underground? Were they all massacred by another species?
The dwarves are definitely worth exploring before the series ends.
9. Where is the Earth Spirit? Who will get it?
The Earth Spirit is the only one out of the 4 Elemental Spirits who hasn’t made an appearance in the series. There is a good chance that the Earth spirit will be introduced with the dwarves, since the dwarven race has always been connected with earth.
Dwarves have always been touted mythologically to be a race of skilled miners and craftsmen.
Tabata has borrowed these 4 elemental categories from the Swiss philosopher, Paracelsus. As of chapter 226, Sylph, the Spirit of Wind, Salamander, the Spirit of Fire, and Undine, the Spirit of Water, have been explored. Gnome, the Spirit of Earth, hasn’t been mentioned yet.
If and when Tabata decides to introduce the dwarf race into Black Clover properly, we can expect the Earth spirit to follow.
The Earth Spirit feels like it might belong in the Spade Kingdom because of the obvious earth-spade relation. It might also be with Mars, the Diamond Kingdom’s Shining General and the user of Crystal Magic.
A lot of people think Mars from the Diamond Kingdom will get the Earth Spirit, but since Tabata introduced new characters with the Fire and Water spirits, it would be anti-climactic to have a character from the past to get the new Earth spirit.
So, I believe a new character might enter the fray and they might have the Earth spirit.
10. How did Asta find Licht’s swords in the dungeon?
Asta found the Demon-Dweller in a hidden room within a dungeon in chapter 18 and the Demon-Destroyer in the central room of the Gravito Rock Zone’s floating dungeon in chapter 156.
He got the Demon-Slayer out of the five-leaf grimoire, which makes sense, since the grimoire and all 3 swords belonged to Licht. So how did 2 of them end up in 2 different dungeons?
The Demon-Slayer sword can channel the user’s magic into the blade. It can cut and remove magic, even mental enchantments. Asta also uses the Demon-Slayer to fly.
The Demon-Dweller sword is able to store magic power. Asta stores Anti-Magic in the Demon-Dweller and later even other people’s magic, like Noelle’s. He found this sword in the dungeon. How did it land up there?
The Demon-Destroyer sword is able to absorb the effects of magic like curses and even neutralize devils’ magic. It also possesses a special ability known as Causality Break, but whether this is something that is specific to Asta or the sword, we don’t know. It can also negate Reincarnation Magic.
Asta’s fourth sword, the Demon-Slasher sword, is originally Yami’s sword, or rather, katana.
Except for the fourth one, all 3 of the swords should have come out of the grimoire. Instead, he happens upon them in dungeons. We know that dungeons in BC house several powerful treasures left behind by mages that possessed them.
The artifacts include magic tools as well as ancient magic.
But how did the Demon-Dweller and the Demon-Destroyer end up there?
11. How does sorcery in Hino Kingdom differ from magic in Clover Kingdom? Breakdown of Magic Structures:
In the latest chapter, Ryu says that in Hino Country, they call magic sorcery, magic power sorcery power, and use scrolls instead of grimoires.
Is this just a cultural thing or is there a difference in the magic itself? We know that grimoires have something to do with souls, or simply the inner attributes of a person.
Lucius’s grimoire has 2 spades on them, signifying that he’s from the Spade Kingdom and has 2 souls inside of him. Do scrolls work in a similar way?
I think in the Land of the Sun, the people use ki to explore sorcery. In the 4 Kingdoms, it’s more mana-based.
If this is the case, a detailed explanation would be amazing before the finale.
12. Is Yami really oblivious to Charlotte’s feelings?
It’s bizarre how Yami, master of ki-detection, hasn’t been able to tell that Charlotte has feelings for him.
Maybe his own feelings for her cloud his ki judgment. It’s also possible that the way ki-detection works, you can’t recognize the feeling right away.
Yami felt particularly strong ki from Charlotte, but mistook it for hate. Asta, too, can’t tell that both, Noelle, and Mimosa are crushing on him, despite being fairly experienced with sensing ki.
This would be clarified if Tabata explained how ki works in the Black Clover universe.
Either way, things are about to really heat up in Black Clover as the Judgement Day approaches. I just hope none of these mysteries are left unresolved.
13. About Black Clover
Black Clover is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūki Tabata. It has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since February 16, 2015.
The story centers around Asta, a young boy seemingly born without any magic power, something that is unknown in the world he lives in; and his foster brother Yuno who received the rare four-leaf grimoire and has more magic power than most people! With his fellow mages from the Black Bulls, Asta plans to become the next Wizard King.
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