35th Dusk: Breaker
The two Level 3 Akuma called Nagasaki and Hiroshima had already decided on what they needed to do. Confronted with Dylan, who was strong enough to fight them on at least semi-equal footing, they decided that they couldn't let themselves go easy. Put bluntly, it meant that those two Akuma would attack with full power 100% of the time from here on out.
Dylan was not optimistic about his situation. The first Level 3 he had battled against ended with the death of the three other Exorcists that were helping him at the time. Even four-on-one, the Level 3 had not been defeated easily by any stretch of the imagination, so Dylan had found it amazing that when he arrived, he had managed to kill one Level 3 with a surprise attack, and defeat another in actual combat much more easily.
It was not the Dylan had managed to grow in strength that much since his first encounter with a Level 3, that simply wasn't possible. But it also couldn't have been pure luck either. No, most likely, the reason the Level 3's he fought when he first arrived here were so much easier to kill than the first one he had fought in Barcelona had nothing to do with him, but with the Akuma themselves. It was quite likely that there was a structure difference between the strengths of the Levels 3's in the same way that each Level 2 Akuma had a different appearance and special power.
That was the only explanation that would make any sense to Dylan. However, at the current time, it seemed that the Akuma before him were not going to be going down as easily as the ones prior. It may be partially due to the fact that Dylan had not been able to surprise these two as well as he had the first pair, but he also suspected they were tougher. The Auma named Hiroshima had already displayed his ability to grab Dylan's sword with it's bare hands, so it was likely as tough as his original opponent. Although the Akuma Nagasaki on the other hand had shown a much greater worry of Dylan's weapon and dodged his attacks rather than block.
If what Dylan assumed proved right, then that meant that Nagasaki was the weak link in their team, and that it would be easier to destroy it before focusing on Hiroshima. Dylan wanted to think of some kind of strategy to take these Akuma down with, but before he could, Hiroshima began moving. Dylan readied himself with his sword held out, but as Hiroshima approached, it used its special ability.
The Akuma Hiroshima created about 20 illusions of itself that were all heading straight for Dylan. Of course Dylan knew already that the illusions Hiroshima created were not physical and could do no harm to him, but the purpose of those illusions were simply meant to hide the Akuma's exact location so Dylan couldn't figure out which one to attack before he attacked it.
But Hiroshima had underestimated Dylan's capabilities. Morphing his Innocence into a gatling gun, Dylan aimed the machine to the side and began rapid firing bullets while moving the gun to the side. By doing so, he put a rain of bullets and shot through all of the illusions in the hope of striking the real one along the way.
Each time a bullet flew through an illusion, the illusion dissipated, but when the real Hiroshima was approached by the rain of bullets, he let all the illusions drop and circled out of the way of the bullets while continuing toward Dylan. Dylan stopped firing his gun to conserve ammunition and stared at the Level 3. At the same time, he began controlling all of the already fired bullets that had soared behind Hiroshima and had them round back to strike it from behind before it knew what hit it.
However, Dylan had failed to take into account that Nagasaki would see this happen and be able to warn Hiroshima. "Hiroshima, behind you!" Nagasaki did not sound genuinely worried for its partner, but rather was likely only warning Hiroshima because it knew that it would be much more difficult to kill Dylan if it was on its own.
Hearing Nagasaki's warning, Hiroshima stopped where it was and, rather than turn to see what was behind it, shot itself straight up into the air in an attempt to dodge whatever it was. Once it was high up, it looked back down to see the number of bullets that had been flying back at him, and cursed Dylan for the trick. "Damn you, Exorcist!"
Dylan did not bother replying to the Akuma's rage and instead controlled the numerous bullets still and curved them up at Hiroshima again. At that time, Hiroshima made a number of copies again, and they all began flying around. Since Dylan couldn't be sure which one was the real Hiroshima, he scattered the bullets to go for all of them. However, while he did that, Nagasaki acted as well.
Nagasaki held its arms to the side and Dark Matter visibly gathered around them. After a moment, the Akuma swung its arms from side to side and released the Dark Matter it stored as a large energy wave that targeted Dylan. Seeing it coming from the corner of his vision while keeping most his focus on Hiroshima, Dylan used the plates at his feet to pull him down and below the energy wave, and then shifted his focus to Nagasaki.
Hiroshima may be able to make a number of illusioned copies, but none of the copies could be used for actual combat, so unless the real Hiroshima attacked, it couldn't do anything. But Nagasaki's ability allowed it to attack from a distance without approaching Dylan. This made it easier for Dylan to avoid, but if he were to continually try to avoid Hiroshima's close-combat and Nagasaki's long-ranged attacks coming at him all at the same time, this battle would begin to get very difficult before long. To avoid that, Dylan had to kill off at least one of the two Level 3s before things got too out of hand.
Currently his bullets were flying around and keeping Hiroshima busy, although once Dylan approached Nagasaki, he wouldn't be able to see the Hiroshima illusions' positions or guide his bullets properly. It could open up a possibility of Hiroshima attacking from behind if it noticed it was not being directly followed, so Dylan had to do this quickly.
Dylan morphed his Innocence into the shape of a sword and stabbed at Nagasaki close range. Of course, Nagasaki wasn't about to just let Dylan strike. Nagasaki jumped over Dylan's blade and pulled its leg back, obviously about to attack with its Dark Matter attack again, but in that second Dylan extended a new blade off the end of his Innocence that climbed up toward Nagasaki's let and forms a cuff on the end, latching onto the Akuma's held back leg and preventing it from using its attack.
"What!?" Nagasaki shouted in anger and surprised as Dylan then made his Innocence elastic like a metal cable and swung Nagasaki around and toward the fray of bullets behind them.
When he did and let go of Nagasaki to throw him away, Dylan accidentally and luckily ended up throwing the long-ranged Akuma right into an approaching Hiroshima, who must have noticed that the bullets trajectories were no long pinpointing him and tried to attack and Dylan expected he might. Doing so knocked both Akuma back and put both them and his bullets back in view. Dylan controlled his swarm of flying bullets and had them all converge directly on the Level 3 Akuma, but sadly that was still not enough to finish them off.
Quickly regaining their balance, Hiroshima and Nagasaki pushed off one another and got out of the direct path of the bullets and, now that they knew Dylan couldn't directly attack them with the bullet if he couldn't see their location, swung around behind his back. Dylan clicked his tongue and quickly had the already converging bullets re merge with his Innocence and turned himself around while at the same time morphing and separating his Innocence into two blades.
This proved to be the right choice, for when he turned he saw both of them about to deliver a kick to him. Dylan put his swords in the way of both their attacks, and when they both struck he noticed a difference in effect. Against Hiroshima, the blade of Dylan's sword was barely scratching the sole of its foot; however, against Nagasaki, blood clearly spilt from where the blade struck and caused him slight pain. This much proved what Dylan had already guessed at that some Level 3s were more durable than others, which put Hiroshima in the same class as the Level 3 he had fought in Barcelona.
That now proven fact still surprised Dylan that he was keeping up with an Akuma of that caliber as well as a second one just about as well as he had kept up with the first one when he had been fighting with allies. Thinking over it, he contributed his current success to the fact he had indeed grown some in strength since Barcelona, that his new fighting tactics including his flight and double weaponry had increased both his skill and his options in battle, and that Hiroshima's ability was not able to directly protect him from attacks like the one in Barcelona had with its Dark Matter barriers.
Dylan pushed away the two Akuma, who also jumped back in knowledge of his Innocence's electric capabilities, which may have been their biggest threat in the fight. Immediately after pushing away, Nagasaki bent its leg back again and this time swung it forward to send another wave of Dark Matter at Dylan. Dylan acted immediately and put his two swords together to form a large shield in front of him, and when he felt the impact of the energy wave, pushed it up and over him before morphing his Innocence back into two swords.
However, he had foolishly covered his vision for a moment when he used his shield, and once he looked forward again saw a number of Hiroshima illusions surrounding him, and at the same moment, they all went in for the attack. Naturally, only the real Hiroshima could harm him, but since Dylan had no idea which of the Hiroshimas coming in at him from all around was the real one, he wasn't able to just block the real one.
Dylan needed to find a way to keep track of Hiroshima amongst his clones to gain an upper hand, and he actually had just the thing to do so with. But first, he had to figure out which one was real, and so first Dylan boosted himself upward with the plates on his feet and morphed his Innocence into a shotgun, pointing it straight down at the gathered Hiroshima.
By firing just once, a spray of bullet fragments fired out over a field that covered the area the Hiroshimas had converged on, which forced the real one out of hiding. The real Hiroshima flew out of the way of the bullets and let the illusions fade. Immediately after, Hiroshima flew up at Dylan again for a direct attack, but when it did, Dylan morphed his Innocence into the form of a hammer and smashed it down on Hiroshima's torso.
Connecting his attack, Dylan electrified the hammer and shocked Hiroshima, but threw him away before the shock could do any major damage. But even so, Dylan had accomplished his task just now. Unbeknownst to Hiroshima, Dylan just used the exact same tactic on it that he was currently using on Tyki Mikk. By covering up the pain of tiny fragments of his Innocence striking Hiroshima's body with the electric shock of his Innocence, Dylan had successfully put tiny tracers on the illusionary Akuma's body. Now, even if Hiroshima used his illusions or even if Dylan wasn't watching him, he would be able to pinpoint his location simply by paying attention to the sparks emitted by his Innocence.
But since Hiroshima was unaware of this trick, he did not think anything was wrong, and called upon its illusions anyways. Five Hiroshimas then moved up at Dylan again while Nagasaki charged a Dark Matter slice from the side, and Dylan controlled the bullets from his shotgun fire to move up at Hiroshima from behind him.
Dylan watched Nagasaki from the corner of his eye as the Akuma swung its arm and sent a wave of Dark Matter at him. However, Dylan did not move from his position. Instead, he morphed some of his Innocence to be a shield strapped onto the side of his arm and held up his sword in the opposite hand as Hiroshima approached.
First, Dylan blocked Nagasaki's energy wave with the shield on his left arm and deflected it. Next, he gripped his sword with both hands and swung it down as the five Hiroshimas approached from different angles. However, thanks to Dylan's tracers, he knew exactly which was the real one and completely ignored the other four. Dylan swung his sword down as hard as he could and cut into Hiroshima's tough armored skin some.
Being caught completely off guard that Dylan was able to tell which one of it was real, Hiroshima made incoherent noises as the sword drove deeper into its shoulder. Hiroshima tried to move back and avoid further damage, but the instant he tried, he was instead met with a brutal strike to the back by the shotgun bullets from earlier. Hiroshima hadn't forgotten about the bullets or Dylan's ability to control their path, but it had expected to have forced Dylan to dodge his attack with the copies and move further forward, where it would have then turned around and dealt with them. But since it was caught completely by surprise, they instead smashed into its back and attempted to pierce its body. But luckily for it, the bullet were not quite able to drill straight through Hiroshima and only cut a bit into its back.
At that time, even through the pain it was currently in, Hiroshima threw its leg up and smashed it into Dylan's side, sending him toward Nagasaki and off of it. Hiroshima then twisted itself which allowed the bullets at its back to pass upward, although they soon rounded back around at him even though Dylan shouldn't have a clear view of it at that moment.
As Dylan barreled toward Nagasaki, he realized that Hiroshima's physical strength was indeed on par with the Level 3 he had fought in Barcelona, once more confirming his suspicions on the difference between the strengths and abilities of Level 3 Akuma. At that time, Nagasaki readied another Dark Matter attack and let it loose at him. Dylan slowed himself to a stop with the plates on his feet and put his shield up to block again. However, this time Nagasaki expected that and had a second attack already prepared. Before Dylan could deflect the first wave, Nagasaki threw a second one on top of it, increasing the force against Dylan. While the energy waves pushed against Dylan, Nagasaki came in close under Dylan's shield and punched him in the gut.
The attack connected, and though Dylan could feel it wasn't quite as powerful as Hiroshima's, it still managed to throw him down some. When he did get thrown down, Hiroshima came up from behind him and made to punch him itself. However, Dylan did not even try to dodge this attack because the sparks emitted from his Innocence told him that it was not the real Hiroshima. So instead of paying attention to the bluffed illusion, Dylan turned himself around where the real Hiroshima was still running from the bullets.
"You can't fool me any more Akuma." Dylan told Hiroshima.
But when he did, Hiroshima became enraged and flew straight for him while ignoring the bullets following him. Dylan morphed his Innocence into a sword and readied for its attack. When Hiroshima came close, Dylan stabbed his blade's tip at the Akuma's face, but instead of attacking head on, Hiroshima leaped directly over him and stopped right behind him.
Because of that, the bullets that had been following Hiroshima were now heading straight at Dylan. With Dylan's Innocence fragments not only could he track where Hiroshima was at all times, but he didn't even have to directly influence his bullets to have them fly after it. Instead, the fragments acted like magnets that drew the bullets toward Hiroshima without his assistance. Hiroshima probably guessed that something along those lines was happening, since the first time Dylan couldn't make the bullets follow him, so this time he must have had something that allowed it to work. Because of that, Hiroshima thought that by doing this Dylan might get caught in his own attack.
However, Dylan was not that easy to catch. Instead, Dylan took direct control of his bullets back, merged them back with his Innocence's main body and turned around to swing his sword at Hiroshima again. But when he did, Hiroshima once again displayed his incredible durability by catching Dylan's sword with its bare hand. In the same second, Hiroshima brought up its legs and smashed them at top strength into Dylan's gut.
The force and strength of the kick made Dylan cough up blood and probably cracked a few ribs as it sent him flying down towards the ground. Dylan used his Innocence enough so that he did not break any more bones, but that one attack in itself was enough to put him in critical position. Worse, before Dylan could even get back up, Nagasaki had closed in on him to attack. From a close range, Nagasaki threw a Dark Matter wave, and for the first time that attack struck Dylan's body directly.
However, despite the direct hit, the attack did not cleave Dylan's body in two. Rather, that energy exerted a force on Dylan's body that felt like he was being crushed. Dylan practically felt like it had crushed his heart, but he managed to stay alive though the pain.
But even so, his body was weak, and so the Akuma named Nagasaki grabbed Dylan by the throat and began squeezing. "Finally," Nagasaki breathed in frustration. "It's about time this Exorcist just went ahead and croaked. Now I'll enjoy squeezing the last bit of life out of him." It said, tightening its grip on Dylan's throat.
Sadly, Dylan was so limp he was barely showing the pain of being choked. But even in that situation, Dylan still tried to think of a way out of this. (No... I can't die...) Dylan's thought went on in his head, and then a stupid idea came to mind. In one last act of desperation, Dylan clutched his Innocence in his hand and sent an electric voltage up through his own arm in order to shock the Level 3 gripping his neck.
Caught completely off guard, Nagasaki yelled in pain and let go of Dylan out of pure instinct and put distance between them. Thanks to that, Dylan fell to his knees and choked for air. And even though he looked that helpless, when he looked back up at the pair of Level 3 Akuma, his expression was anything but. Even in that situation Dylan still looked as determined as ever.
And with that determination, he spoke out loud to himself. "Not a chance..." He muttered while attempting to stand back up. "The two of you... aren't even Noah. I swore to return to the Order after I killed Tyki Mikk. So there is not way I can lose here now, without even coming close!" As Dylan roared that last part out, he got back onto his feet and clenched his teeth at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"Shut your mouth Exorcist! You've already lost." Nagasaki exclaimed and then held one of its arms back and began charging an especially strong Dark Matter wave. "Just watch, you won't even have enough strength left to dodge this attack!"
As the Akuma readied its attack, Dylan focused all his energy onto his Innocence. (More...) He thought to himself. (I need more strength. More power!) Dylan was calling out to his Innocence for help in a desperate desire for victory. As he did, an electrical current swirled around the blade and slowly grew stronger. (More grow stronger. Give me strength; enough strength to win, enough to destroy the Akuma, to kill the Noah...)
Dylan's thoughts continued, and Nagasaki finished charging his attack. With that power stored up behind him, the Akuma let the attack burst forward at Dylan in one concentrated strike. It was fairly close-range, so Dylan only had a moment more to react. With that moment, Dylan pulled back his Innocence and prepared to attack as well. At the same time, he gave one last pleading thought to his Innocence, (Give me enough strength... to protect what I care about!)
And at that moment, Dylan could feel it. He could feel the energy of his Innocence growing and synchronizing even more with him. It was a sensation unlike any he had felt before, and yet he knew exactly what it meant. He had been told about this once before by General Cloud Nine while the two of them were making their way back to Headquarters. Dylan could feel his Innocence synchronization rate growing higher and higher to new levels he had never achieved before now.
And at that same time, something happened at the headquarters of the Black Order, even though Dylan had not been there in years. Komui and Reever Wenhamm took the platform elevator to reach Hevlaska due to a rare event occurring with the Innocence she held inside her.
When Komui arrived, Hevlaska warned him, "Don't get to close Komui, you'll be hit."
Hevlaska was referring to the grand light coming from within her that she held back as best she could. "Heva!" Komui called out to Hevlaska.
"Painful..." Hevlaska muttered out loud. "The cubes inside me are resonating. Rampaging like babies..."
"Is the Critical Point appearing?" Komui questioned.
"The 'Critical Point'!" One of the Great Generals, the five who were above Komui stated. "The one with a Synchro rate of over 100%."
"I don't know who it is but... he is appearing!" Hevlaska said while struggling against the great light in her. "The 'Critical Point'! The Exorcist who will become a new General... is appearing!"
Komui heard those words, and when he did, a single name popped into his head. A young Exorcist by the name of Allen Walker, despite his young age, entered Komui's mind as if someone else put it there for him.
But there was something that nobody was aware of. Something that not Komui, not Reever next to him, not any of the Great Generals knew. Not even Allen Walker, who was in fact exceeding the Critical Point while fighting against the very Noah Dylan was searching for: Tyki Mikk; not even Dylan fighting Level 3 Akuma while also in Edo; and not even Hevlaska who was feeling the awakening of someone passing the Critical Point herself was at all aware of.
That something that not a single person in the world knew was happening was that there was not one, but two people exceeding the Critical Point at the exact same time. One was the very person those at the Order somehow knew was doing so, Allen Walker, and the other was the man that Komui had not seen in years and had no way of knowing was even in Edo, Dylan Aiken.
With that power, Dylan swung his Innocence sword forward and pointed it directly at the Akuma named Nagasaki past its Dark Matter wave and released the power in one powerful attack in the form of a lightning bolt. Up until now, Dylan was only capable of channeling the electricity directly through his Innocence into whatever it was in contact with, but now that power had evolved and Dylan was capable of releasing that energy to attack from a distance in an even more lethal voltage.
The lightning strike struck through Nagasaki's Dark Matter wave, and then continued on to strike Nagasaki itself in the same second. Pierced with that lightning, Nagasaki screamed in agony, and in the next second, blew up. Having witnessed this scene, Hiroshima was so shocked that it just remained floating where it was and looked at Dylan, who looked back at it with cold hard determination with his sword pointed forward, electricity still swirling around the blade like a threat to be used at any moment.
"Critical Point Breaker..." Dylan spoke, declaring his new power that would have given him the rank of General in the Order. "...Blood-Sworn Knight, activate!"
Hearing those words, the remaining Akuma, Hiroshima, clenched its fists in rage. It screamed a single phrase at Dylan to represent its utter loathing for him. "DAMN YOU, EXORCIST!"
And now, that battle was about to draw to a close.