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| “ | Scum who hurt others without a second thought for the sake of their own desires. Who feel no sense of guilt as long as they themselves benefit. | „ |
| ~ Nacht describing the Dark Triad. |
The Dark Triad are the main antagonists in the Black Clover franchise.
They are the tyrannical and cruel rulers of the Spade Kingdom, who control their kingdom through tyranny and enslavement.
They are composed by the Zogratis siblings, consisting of Lucius, Dante, Vanica and Zenon, as well as their direct subordinates known as the Dark Disciples, all backup by the Upper-Class Devils' power.
Overview
Origin
The Dark Triad are composed by the four renegade siblings from House Zogratis and their minions, known as the Dark Disciples, all of whom made a deal with the upper-class Devils (including Megicula) and usurped the throne of the Spade Kingdom, overthrowing its original royal family, House Grinberryall, of which Yuno was revealed to be its only known survivor and the Spade Kingdom's former prince, as Lucius split himself into Julius and went undercover into the Clover Kingdom's hierarchical magic system as a member of Aqua Deer, eventually becoming its captain and then the Wizard King.
After seizing the Spade Kingdom's throne, the Dark Triad enhanced themselves and their Dark Disciples with demonic possessions. Each of their mage had reached the level that could match with a Zero Stage mage. Their rule had turned the Spade Kingdom from a formerly benign and peaceful country to a nation of warmongers, sparking rivalry with other three kingdoms.
Conquest
Upon the defeat of Zagred, also known as the Word/Kotodama Devil, the Clover Kingdom was now in disarray due to the elves' invasion. In the meantime, Julius Novachrono, the Wizard King, had revived through his magic, only as a 13-year-old boy, with his power severely weakened.
Weeks after the war against the elves and Zagred, the Spade Kingdom had seized the chance and began to invade other neighboring realms. The invasion started with the Diamond Kingdom, where Zenon Zogratis, one of the Dark Triad, had defeated an army of the Diamond Kingdom, including at least two of the Eight Shining Generals, single-handed. It even terrified Luck when he arrived at the scene alongside Magna and Vanessa.
In the Heart Kingdom, Rolopechika, the queen of the Heart Kingdom, revealed to Asta and his friends that Megicula, the insidous devil who put a curse on herself and Noelle's mother before that, was lurking inside the Spade Kindom. She propsed an idea of training for half a year to face this imminent threat, something that Asta and others agreed.
Heart Kingdom Joint Struggle Arc
During these six months, the Spade Kingdom had conquered one third of the Grand Magic Zone and most of the Diamond Kingdom. Asta, Noelle, Mimosa, Luck and Leopold had assisted the Heart Kingdom and the Clover Kingdom's alliance in the Spade Kingdom and discovered the Dark Disciples' plan to use their citizens as sacrificial lambs and fuel their mobile fortresses. After foiling their plot, Asta discovered the Dark Triad's existence from a surviving Spade villager.
In the meantime, inside the palace of Spade Kingdom, the Dark Triad began their next moves, launching three simultaneous attacks with their Dark Disciples. Dante assaults the Black Bull's headquarters to capture Yami Sukehiro, Vanica assaulting the Heart Kingdom, and Zenon attacking the Golden Dawn's base in Clover Kingdom to capture William Vangeance. In the meantime, the Black Bull Vice Captain Nacht infiltrates their base and discovers their ultimate objective.
Though Zenon's Dark Disciples are defeated, he single-handedly annihilates the Golden Dawn, including Yuno. Half of the squad is killed, but William manages to save the other half at the cost of being captured. Vanica leads several Dark Disciples to the Heart Kingdom who cause great damage, including defeating most of the Spirit Guardians there, and are confronted by Leopold, Luck, Charmy and others. The Magic Knights push back the Dark Disciples, even after they are revealed to be under a curse that continually resurrects them, while Noelle, Secre, and Lolopechka fight Vanica. Despite managing to heavily wound her, they are ultimately defeated when Megicula takes control of Vanica's body and uses its Curse Magic to dispel their magic. After Noelle manages to get a last-ditch attack in, Vanica becomes interested in her and kidnaps Lolopechka in order to motivate her to become stronger. As she flies away, she uses another curse put on her Dark Disciples to turn them into living bombs to destroy the Heart Kingdom. Dante severely injures Gauche and Asta before discovering Grey and Vanessa's identity as Arcane Stage Mages as well and tries to take possession of them. However, he is stopped by Yami, who manages to help Asta defeat him, but they are subsequently ambushed by Zenon who captures Yami and rescues his brother.
After the attacks, the Clover Kingdom's Magic Knight captains hold a meeting to discuss the Dark Triad's plans where Nacht reveals he's discovered their goal is to perform the Qliphoth tree ritual. The ritual would combine Yami and William's magic to create the Qliphoth tree, a magic channel that connects the living world with the Underworld where Devils reside. With the Dark Triad acting as the activators of the ritual, the tree would descend into the underworld and open the seven gates that keep the Devils contained on their respective levels and unleash them into the living world. Distributed among these levels are the ten Supreme Devils, the strongest devils who are connected to the ritual and will be freed with each gate that opens. If the devils were to escape, they would unleash so much destruction that 90% of the human population would be annihilated, and if Lucifero, the strongest Supreme Devil who resides on the lowest level, were to be freed, it would mean the end of the world. Additionally, Yami and William will die at the end of the ritual once the last gate is opened. To prevent his, Nacht proposes they counterattack with an elite force centered around Asta, as his Anti-Magic is their best chance of stopping the Dark Triad, rescuing the captives, and destroying the tree.
Meanwhile, those in the Heart Kingdom have survived Vanica's attack by neutralizing her sacrificial explosions and begin learning Ultimate Magic from the Elf tribe to combat the Dark Triad.
Spade Kingdom Raid Arc
After completing their preparations, the Magic Knights launch their counterattack and use Nacht's Shadow Magic to transport them to the Spade Kingdom's castle three days before the ritual will be completed. When they arrive, they storm the castle along with the Spade Kingdom's resistance and Zenon unleashes a demon sealed underneath the castle to wipe them all out. However, Mereoleona faces the demon by herself and proves to be a match for it while Nacht and the Magic Knights infiltrate the castle and split up to fight the Dark Triad. Yuno and Langris face Zenon, Rill and Charlotte face Vanica, and Nacht and Jack fight Dante. Using prepared measures, the Magic Knights are able to get the upper hand against the Dark Triad, but Moris, the corrupt magic researcher who was expelled from the Diamond Kingdom, is revealed to have allied with the Dark Triad, made a contract with Lucifero, and extracted the inherited knowledge from Lolopechka to modify and accelerate the Qliphoth Ritual's activation. With Moris's modifications, the Qliphoth Ritual unlocks the first gate to the underworld, unleashing the devils on the first level, including the Supreme Devils Lilith and Nahamah, and allowing the Dark Triad to access 100% of their Devil Power. Nacht transports himself and the Supreme Devils away to fight them on his own, but he is grossly outmatched and the Magic Knights struggle against the empowered Dark Triad. It is also revealed the Zenon unleashed a second demon to destroy the Clover Kingdom while its strongest mages are away.
In the Clover Kingdom, the Magic Knight squads fail to faze the second demon as it prepares to annihilate the capital, forcing Julius to temporarily revert back to an adult to fight against the demon. He manages to block one of the demon's attacks, but mysteriously runs out of magic and returns to his child state. The demon attempts to fire another attack to destroy the capital, but it is stopped and slain by Asta, who has made a contract with Liebe and gained greater power over his anti-magic. Asta then regroups with the Black Bulls and they race for the Spade Kingdom to join the fight.
Back at the Spade Kingdom, the devils continue to pour out from the first level of the Underworld and threaten the citizens of the Spade Kingdom while the resistance and Fuegoleon fight them off. As they slowly overwhelmed by the devils' sheer numbers, the Heart Kingdom team arrives and use their newly learned Ultimate Magic to decimate the demon hordes. Inside the castle, Nacht can only run from the Supreme Devils and, releazing he doesn't have a chance to defeat them, tries to seal them away forever along with himself in a world of shadows, but the Devils prove to be so powerful they can affect intangible concepts and destroy his spell. Before the Supreme Devils can kill Nacht, Asta arrives and takes up the fight. Using his new Unite ability, Asta is able to fight the Supreme Devils, dispelling their powerful magic and eventually killing Nahamah. Lilith then fuses itself with Nahamah's remains, obtaining magic more than double their individual strength, then escapes the castle and attempts to kill everyone inside with a massive freezing sun, but Asta reflects it back and invokes fear into the Supreme Devil for the first time in its life. Realizing Asta's Unite is only temporary, Lilith attempts to stay out of his reach and wait out the time limit, but Nacht ambushes it and restrains it long enough for Asta to kill it just before time runs out. Despite the victory, Asta is left unable to use Unite again for 30 minutes and Nacht fears the Magic Knights won't be able to last that long against the empowered Dark Triad.
At Jack's battle against Dante, the latter's Body Magic has grown too powerful, and the former reaches his limit. Before Dante can kill Jack, Magna arrives to take up the fight and save Yami. Dante ridicules the idea that Magna can fight him with the massive divide between their magic power and challenges him to hurt him. Magna takes up the challenge and lands a fireball that seemingly leaves Dantes unfazed, but Dante discovers it created a magic chain that connects with Magna which causes him to lose large amount of his power and cancels his link with Lucifero. Magna reveals his spell adds up the total magic power between them and divides it equally between them. Now equally as powerful as Dante, Magna lands several powerful attacks, but Dante is still able to heal with his Body Magic while Magna takes on damage. Magna perseveres and continues to land blow after blow on Dante until they both run out of magic. Even without magic, Magna continues to fight with bare fists, but Dante refuses to meet defeat and retaliates. After an exchange of blows, Dante collapses and Magna is victorious. Dante's defeat causes a portion of the Qliphoth ritual to vanish, slowing it down and everyone moves on to another part of the castle. After everyone is gone, Dante regains consciousness, but he is so depleted of magic his Body Magic causes him to become malformed. Dante refuses to admit defeat and tries to crawl after Magna to take revenge, only for Jack to return and finish him off to keep him from tainting Magna's victory.
At Rill and Charlotte's battle against Vanice, the Magic Knight captains struggle, and their battle is only made worse when Vanica brings in Lolopechka to fight for her under the control of a curse. Fortunately, Noelle and Gadjah arrive to assist them, and the former reveals she had made a contract with the water spirit Undine to obtain a level of magic called Saint Stage, which is incredibly powerful and effective against devils. Infuriated by Vanica's claims that forcing the kind Lolopechka to hurt others is a good thing and her shameless pleasure she gets from fighting, Noelle vows to destroy her. With the power of Saint Stage, Noelle overpowers Vanica, mortally impales her and prepares to finish her off. However, Megicula possess Vanica's body and partially manifests itself despite the other gates being closed. Megicula reveals that it is able to manifest through one of its curses, requiring the souls of three powerful mages of the same gender: having already claimed Acier's soul and Vanica being on the verge of death. Megicula then takes over the fight and uses a curse to transform Lolopechka into a devil, giving her further power. Noelle tries to defeat Megicula with assistance from Charlotte and Rill, but Megicula defeats them by unleashing a Decaying World curse which weakens all other magic and uses Vanica's body to harness her Blood Magic. Noelle's Saint Stage magic also wears off and with the situation growing desperate, Gadjah stuns Lolopechka and unleashes on Megicula a suicidal attack using his life force to strengthen it. Gadjah's attack proves strong enough to break through Decaying World, separate Megicula from Vanica, and annihilate its body. Noelle tries to gather enough saint stage magic to destroy the exposed heart, but Megicula reveals its body is under a curse that rapidly increases healing and regenerates its body before Noelle can even get close. Megicula declares its superiority and that the mages have no hope of ever defeating it, but Noelle refuses to give up, prompting Megicula to activate a detonation curse on Lolopechka to kill all humans in the castle. Suddenly, Asta arrives and uses his Anti-Magic to negate the curse put on Lolopecka and prevent her from exploding. Recognizing the threat of Asta's Anti-Magic, Megicula tries to kill Lolopechka and Vanica to fully manifest, but Charlotte uses her Curse-countering spell to dispel the curses on them and Rill activates a spell that empowers his allies and prevents them from dying while it is active. Recognizing the power of humans, Megicula uses the control it has over Acier and Vanica's souls to harness their Mercury and Blood Magic and combine it with an army of Dark Disciple Corpses Vanica killed to create a legion of armored blood soldiers to fight for her. Charlotte and Rill work to keep the soldiers back while Noelle reenters Saint Stage and a revived Gadjah along with a newly arrived Luck blast a path through the soldiers and destroys Megicula's body again. Noelle goes for the kill, but Megicula blocks her again with a curse and regenerates. Fortunately, Nozel arrives and unleashes a furious attack on Megicula she is unable to block in revenge for Acier's death. His attack destroys Megicula's body, but even though it is unable to destroy its heart, his Mercury Magic enters Megicula's body and slows its regeneration long enough for Noelle to destroy the heart. With Megicula's death, Acier's soul is freed, Lolopechka is returned to normal, Vanica is left a half-dead corpse, and the ritual is further slowed. After the battle is over, Nacht arrives with Mimosa, who is able to heal those who received mortal wounds during the fight and prevent them from dying.
At Langris and Yuno's battle against Zenon, Yuno comes up with a plan to instantly defeat Zenon and asks Langris to buy him a few minutes. Despite Zenon using a spell that gives him absolute control over the magic in the area, Langris is able to resist it and defend Yuno from Zenon's attacks while he charges his spell. Zenon denounces their efforts and proclaims that they mean nothing against his absolute power while managing to wound Langris. Just as Langris is unable to defend any longer, Yuno fires his spell that pierces straight through Zenon's chest. Mortally wounded, Zenon reflects on his past where he befriended a boy named Allen as a child and rejected the opportunity to become a devil host to compete with him to become the commander of the Spade Kingdom's defense force. However, while exploring a dungeon, they came across a devil sealed inside, and Zenon reluctantly killed Allen to destroy the devil with his strongest spell. The event caused him to believe absolute power was all that mattered, and he returned to his family to become a devil host and enact his eldest brother Lucius's plan to rebuild humanity with undying bodies and create a peaceful world no matter what it took. After finishing his reflecting, Zenon decides to make a deal with his contracted Devil, Beelzebub, for a Devil's heart in exchange for his soul. Beelzebub grants Zenon's request and grants him a Devil's heart that allows him to heal and transforms him into a Devil with increased power. With his new strength, Zenon easily defeats Yuno and sends him flying through a wall, mocking his decision to avoid shooting his heart and killing him immediately with his previous spell to avoid hitting Langris. Zenon then turns his attention to killing Langris, but Finral arrives to save him and the brothers team up to fight Zenon. Through teamwork, Langris gets a clear shot to attack Zenon's heart, but his Spatial Magic isn't strong enough to destroy it and the two are defeated. Before Zenon can kill then, Yuno returns after obtaining a second grimoire and new Star Magic. With his new magic attribute and increased power, Yuno is able to evenly match Zenon and the two fight to prove their respective ideology is right. Eventually, Yuno is able to achieve Saint Stage and destroys Zenon's heart. As he dies, Zenon wonders why Yuno was able to overcome the hurdles while he couldn't and remembers his promise to Allen.
Even though every member of the Dark Triad is dead, the Qliphoth Rituals is taken over and maintained by Moris. The Black Bulls confront and defeat Moris, but Lucifero possesses his body and uses his magic and life force to open the second level to the Underworld. Lucifero then takes control of all the remaining devils from the first and second levels and begins merging them into a body he can manifest into while capturing Yami and William to keep the ritual going. Even though Asta manages to destroy the giant fusion of devils and rescue the captured captains, Lucifero is able to form the monster's remaining flesh into a body he manifests half his essence into. After a grueling battle, the Magic Knights are able to defeats Lucifero, but Adramelech, the Supreme Devil released from the second level, steals Lucifero's heart and disappears with it. Later in the Clover Kingdom, Julius is confronted by Damnatio about the origin of his Time Magic being connected to the Supreme Devil Astaroth. This causes Julius to remember Lucius, but the latter takes over their body and incapacitates Damnatio before meeting up with Adramelech, who is revealed to serve Lucius and the whole Qliphoth ritual was actually for obtaining Lucifero's power. Lucius later retrieves his sibling's corpses, enters the underworld, defeats Lucifero, steals his magic, and takes control of the remaining Supreme Devils.
Dark Disciples
Overview
The Dark Disciples are elite groups of the Dark Triad. In Spade Kingdom, they are equivalence to Magic Knight Captains in the Clover Kingdom, Spirit Guardians in the Heart Kingdom, and Eight Shinning Generals in the Diamond Kingdom. They have been enhanced by the lesser devils granted by their leaders. All of the Dark Disciples appeared by far are shown to be sadistic, arrogant and brutal to the point of boasting their own power and other qualities whilst trampling upon the lives of humans.
So far, Zenon and Vanica both took their respective Dark Disciples to the battlefield, whilst Dante's Dark Disciples stayed in his castle and served as guards.
Members
- Zenon's Dark Disciples
- Gaderois Godroc (deceased)
- Foyal Migusteau (deceased)
- Vanica's Dark Disciples - Set to assist Vanica in her attempt to destroy the Heart Kingdom and kidnapp Princess Lolopechika. All of them were killed after Vanica detonated them with Megicula's magic. It was also reveals that Vanica had over a hundred disciples she tortured to death for her amusement.
- Svenkin Gatard (deceased)
- Sivoir Snyle (deceased)
- Halbet Chevour (deceased)
- Robero Ringert (deceased)
- Hischer Ongg (deceased)
- Dante's Dark Disciples - Some Dark Disciples, implied to be Dante's minions, mostly served as guards in his castle, something they find it tedious to do. One of them had discovered that a mysterious Magic Knight from Black Bull squad had inflitrated Dante's castle as a spy, but he was instantly dragged into the darkness by the said spy's Shadow Magic, so that the said Dark Disciple would not reveal what he had discovered. The said spy was later revealed to be Nacht, the vice-captain of Black Bull and also a Devil-Possessed like Asta, who had departed from the squad for disliking Yami and inflitrated the Spade Kingdom to gather information.
Trivia
- As the name suggests, the Dark Triad are based on and named after the three antisocial personality traits of the same name itself; Dante represents Narcissism, Zenon represent Machiavellianism, and Vanica represents Psychopathy.
- The Dark Triad are meant to serve as a complete contrast to the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the Elf Tribe..
- Both the Eye of the Midnight Sun and Elf Tribe were composed of people that were the victim of manipulation and suffered through traumatic events that motivated them to seek revenge and avenge their fallen comrades.
- The Dark Triad, on the other hand, are composed of ruthless, psychopathic beings that care very little for others and are primarily motivated by the desire of craving for chaos and destruction.
- The Dark Triad serves as the general archenemies to three main heroes of the story. They also gave their taunts and challenge towards the heroes in order to provoke them.
- Comparing to his siblings, Zenon is more like a personal archenemy to Yuno. Whilst the entire Dark Triad are responsible for the deaths of Yuno's parents (the previous rulers of Spade Kingdom), Yuno has a more personal grudge and hatred towards Zenon besides that, due to Zenon's more recent actions of capturing William Vangeance and killing half of the Golden Dawn squad members. Zenon had proclaimed that he was far stronger than Yuno before almost fatally killing Yuno.
- Dante personally confronted Asta and caused him to gone berserk after stabbing Gauche right in front of him, in order to spark the rage and malice within Asta.
- Vanica, along with Megicula, are responsible for killing Noelle's mother, Acier Silva, which caused an impact to Noelle's life as well as Nozel's begrudging disregard towards her. During her assault in Spade Kingdom, Vanica not only taunted Noelle about what happened to Acier, but also kidnapped Lolopechika away in order to challenge Noelle, just like how she did years ago to take a child as hostage and provoke Acier into becoming stronger.
External Links
- The Dark Triad on the Black Clover Wiki.
 Villains
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Eye of the Midnight Sun Other Members Paladins Members Elf Tribe Clover Kingdom Golden Dawn Purple Orca Green Mantis Magic Parliament Devil Believers Rogue Mages Diamond Kingdom Eight Shining Generals Mage Warriors Other Members Witches' Forest Devils Spade Kingdom Dark Disciples | ||