Did Black Clover Just Kill SPOILER in the Latest Chapter?

Black Clover's latest arc has already been much more intense than the Reincarnation arc that had come before as it raises the stakes with some actual deaths compared the fairly bloodless conflicts between the possessed Magic Knights. Which means that the floodgates have been opened to other characters potentially falling in battle as the series continues to set up the real dangers of the Spade Kingdom's Dark Triad. It had already been teased that Asta would lose his life somewhere in the conflict, but the other Black Bulls are also clearly in danger as demonstrated in the latest chapter.

With Dante of the Dark Triad exerting his Devil's power against the Black Bulls, they are already at his mercy thanks to his impressive gravity magic. Sensing that Asta potentially could get much stronger thanks to his Devil power (and wanting to draw out this darkness from a kindred spirit) Dante forms a sword with his magic and pierces one of the Black Bulls.

Hoping to wake up Asta's "true feelings," it's revealed that Gauche has been stabbed through the chest. Vanessa's magic had been reflecting Dante's magic to that point, but his Devil turned out to be even stronger than her avoiding fate magic. This means that Gauche was wide open to the attack, and seeing his friend on death's door, Asta unlocked a terrifying new version of his Devil transformation.

Unfortunately, the chapter ends before we see whether or not Gauche survived this attack. He just might considering the series has not exactly been brave enough to kill off its characters before, but things have already been shifting with these much darker threats and battles. This could be a major turning point in the series with death on the table, but we won't know Gauche's true fate until the next chapter.

If Gauche does die, he will certainly be missed among the Black Bull ranks but at the same time, the group is so big that the series can continue along just fine without one of its key players. Given how much attention he's gotten throughout the series so far, series creator Yuki Tabata just might have been setting the table for this threat for a long time.

Do you think Gauche has been killed? Will Black Clover take out one of the Black Bulls permanently? Is Gauche the right Black Bull member to take out at this point? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!