3° Person P.O.V.

The two young men took their distance. Both wanting to know just how powerful their 'ally' was strength wise.

For a moment, neither of them dared to make a move, gauging each other intensely while an ominous tension erupted in the air. On Castiel's side, he could sense the power within his opponent's body, heavily suppressed right now but that could change at any time.

And on Nico's side, he could sense a... rather strange mix of energies within his foe that befuddled him. It was like a DPU and CPU had merged together or something, only this felt... weirdly different.

The first to move was Nico.

He took out his primary Devil Arm: Rebellion and launched himself at Castiel at high speeds. He practically became a blur, making any form of visual perception of him incredibly difficult. Rebellion: a massive Claymore with a heavy double-edged blade, notched on both sides near the tip. The pommel was a plain one, with a plain grip, but the guard is skeletal, with a skull-design on each side leading to the rib cage from which the blade emerged; on one side of the blade, the skull is that of a human, while the other uses a horned demon's skull. Lastly was the cross guard that was folded inward against the Ribs of the blade. The blade had a static aura around it, HF Technology having been outfitted into the blade itself to give it an increased damage effect. Both its edges were constantly crackling to enhance its dangerous appearance. Plasma energy canisters are on the bottom of the grip as a secondary energy source.

After his first DPU Transformation though, it had transformed into its true form, having tasted the Demonic Power during its first awakening. The cross guard had extended into a V shape instead of gripping the ribs. The skull, instead of being half human half demon, had turned into a demonic horned screaming skull. The spike crown at the bottom of the hilt had split open into separate like a makeshift crown. The HF Technology remains tough, something that Nico was relieved about upon seeing. Ever since, it is used more for enhancing its slashing power rather than creating extra attacks like static slashes, that being usurped by demonic energy attacks instead.

'Fast!' was what Castiel thought before he moved his hand moving at high speed to create a line of runes, launching fireballs at Nico.

Not one of them would hit, however, as the teen would use a series of parkour stunts like flips, spins, hops, skips etc to evade them while closing in on his opponent. For Nico those fireballs were not particularly threatening, he faced way faster and hotter flames before.

In less than four seconds Nico was upon Castiel, he still was not that impressed. Castiel could launch those fireballs fast, true, but it still was simply too far from enough to actually mean he could even be close to a Spec-Ops Agent like himself.

Maybe Nico was worrying too much and those weird energy readings Biko warned him of was just a mistake. Still, best to keep it in mind if something suddenly happens...

Like what happened next, for example.

When Nico was less than three meters from Castiel he heard Castiel say his first loud words since the beginning of the fight.

"Weak" And with that, Nico felt it, something slammed onto his shoulders like a large weight that left Nico feeling much weaker than normal. His movements and power dropped considerably and taking advantage from that Castiel jumped back, but not before he planted a rune using the sole of his feet.

'So, THAT's the energy that Biko warned me about...'

He could feel his demonic powers burning away at the curse, his regeneration beginning to take away its effects. Because of the nature of its effect, his regeneration wouldn't be as fast as normal, Nico noticed, but he didn't focus on that due to noticing an energy spike in the Rune.

From that rune multiple pillars of ice sprouted, trying to impale Nico.

Mentally, the teen rolled his eyes at the attack. If he thought that this attack or that previous instance of that weird energy would stop him, then Castiel would be sorely mistaken. Moving faster than the eye could see Nico used Rebellion to slice all the ice pillars.

'Okay, this is a bit better.' Nico thought. He wanted a strong ally here, who knows what he would be facing and while doing it alone would be more interesting it would still be a tad more difficult. And even IF he wanted to go alone that weird guy already said they should go together, and considering how that Zelretch could probably destroy him and his whole dimension in no time flat if he wanted to, it would be for the best to listen to him.

After Castiel took his distance he completed a spell he was casting at high speeds and low volume. A total of eight magical spheres of energy appeared around him, it was a magical bombardment that Caster preferred.

As Nico felt the energy spiking in those energy spheres, the teen furrowed his brows, eyes glinting darkly as he swiftly activated one of his Skills: a quick PHANTOM WAVE was launched from his leg when he kicked diagonally, followed by several more. This resulted in the two attacks colliding with each other and resulting in a large explosion.

BOOM!

Meanwhile, thanks to having gotten a breathing time from the explosion, Castiel started releasing his cursed dragon tooth warriors. Until the fight against Kokabiel, those warriors were pathetically weak, fragile and the curse they could carry was not strong enough, but now that the seal on Castiel was broken things changed. The seal not only blocked his angelic powers but also did the same with his powers over evil and curses, and now that the seal was gone Castiel's puppets were many more dangerous since they now released a continuous miasma that cursed those who breathed it while also being agiler now and the curse they could individually carry being that much stronger.

These warriors broke through the smoke, charging towards Nico who looked surprised at them. His senses informed him of how dangerous those things were, as they carried a similar energy around them to that moment of weakness earlier. 'Best not let them get too close... and I have the perfect weapon to do that...' he thought, switching Rebellion out in a flash of power, for his next weapon of choice: the Scythe Harvester. The Scythe had a jagged, wing-like blade with multiple spikes coming out the main edge, its colour was black, with the wing-like blade being black where the fingers were and red where the 'webbing' would have been.

The weapon oozed power and darkness, perfect for what he had in mind while Castiel noticed the Scythe's power. He didn't know why, but something told him to NOT let that Scythe hit him or it'd hurt something FIERCE.

Those concerns soon became more founded when, channeling the Devil Arm's power, Nico slashed in a wide arc of darkness spraying across the ground and forming 2 large, scorpion/wolf-like Hybrid creatures. Their bodies looked mostly like Wolves of black fire that emitted darkness, cloaking them in it. At least reaching up to Nico's waist in size while being the length of 1 meter. Their eyes burned like dark violet flames, with their teeth being as long as short swords and their mouths having glowing violet interiors. They each had long Scorpion Tails with violet stingers coming out their behinds though, with Scorpion legs coming out their backs that would extend and retract like whips, each leg ending in single violet talons. Their main arms would have elongated dark violet metal claws instead of paws, while their hind legs would be that of normal Wolves.

He had enough time to use this ability: SHADOW PACK, several times to build up his forces to 60, of which he felt was enough so Nico commanded them to charge at the other force heading their way. Upon gazing at the approaching miasma-covered warriors, they each acted like their namesake and howled, bursting into mad sprints as they charged at each other. The two sides ripped into each other, tearing into each other with reckless abandon. While the Miasma energy would have cursed Nico's forces, they were much larger in number so the weakness wouldn't matter as much. In the end, these forces destroyed each other, leaving their masters alone on the battlefield.

Nico wouldn't let that stand, however...

Engaging a TELEPORT SLASH with Harvester, Nico appeared right behind Castiel with a slash aimed at his back. The other boy quickly dashed ahead, avoiding the strike by a very small margin and the turned around while muttering another Spell, launching a gust of wind at Nico who smashed it with Harvester's power.

"Looks like you have some impressive toys there." Castiel said.

"I would say the same to you." Nico answered.

"But how about we take up a notch?" Castiel said.

Wondering what Castiel meant Nico almost failed to react when the Castiel dashed to him to engage in close combat.

'What the hell?' Nico thought, he never even heard of a mage that would try to take the fights to close combat so this action was completely unexpected. But, Nico still was a well-trained warrior and as such reacted to the sudden shift in time to put Harvest in front of his chest to protect himself.

BAMG

When the punch connected Nico was launched a distance, the power clearly much greater than anything he expected. But before he could try to move and attack Nico was again bombarded by the magic attacks from Castiel.

"SHIT!"

Nico was forced to use Harvester to teleport a distance away.

'Okay, close combat doesn't seem that good of an option unless I use either my Ghoul side or the DPU transformation, but what about long distance?' Nico thought and following that he used Harvest continuously to move at a 'safe distance' of Castiel. Nico then changed weapons to his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory. Those two were designed as M1911 handguns chambered for .45 ACP rounds. They had pivot triggers, customized sights, ported muzzle compensators for less recoil with the barrels extending through the compensators and ported to match the cut in said gun part, and both used reinforced slides. Ebony is in his left hand and colored black, and Ivory was in his right and colored white. They had bolted forward rails, double stack magazines with slam-pads, both had golden plated releases, hammers safety switches and triggers. One however, Ebony, had a hooked two-handed trigger guard while Ivory had a rounded trigger guard.

Charging them with demonic power, Nico went and launched bullets at all the attacks that approached him.

'Huh, this feels weird. It is similar to devil's magic, but somehow much darker. Maybe demonic?' Castiel thought while looking at the bullets that were approaching him. Nico's rate of fire was much greater than Castiel's, so he could not only neutralize the attacks but also attack back.

Castiel was still not impressed by this, and if anything he was disappointed since he was just too used to face tougher opponents that Nico right now. He wanted to see what were the limits of this one who had 'similar levels of potential' and to do that he wanted to pressure him one step at a time.

Nico saw that Castiel took out a weapon, a bow that gave him ALL levels of threatening vibes.

'Nico, no matter what do not get caught by even one arrow of that bow.' Biko urged him from within his mind.

The fact that there was such an intensity in his voice did much in informing Nico of how much of a threat this Demon Persona. 'Is it that dangerous?' Nico asked, still shooting as if his life depended on that.

'Yes. This bow gives me the feeling of looking at the hottest flame there is and compress it to the limit and then some more. Think of Urthemiel's flames and you get an idea.' Biko explained. 'This is worse than most of your Devil Arms and the damage it could make is nothing to joke about. The only weapon you have that is even barely superior to that one is Soul Edge if fully active.'

'Got it, avoid at all costs or I am fucked'. Nico thought, ending the communication as he saw Castiel pulling the string of his bow.

"GANDIVA" Castiel said as he released the string, an energy arrow there launched at unbelievable speeds and releasing flames that eliminated all shots from Ebony and Ivory instantly in contact.

Nico, out of instinct, quickly did something he rarely did in battles like these, and tapped into his OTHER side, He felt IT's power rush through his body like a flood, enhancing his physical powers to jump to the side and even then he barely managed to not suffer damage from that.

KABBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM

A gigantic explosion happened, taking out everything that was even remotely close to the area of impact to that arrow. The ground turned into a mirror and cracked due to the extremes that the heat and power reached there.

'I see.., so Biko wasn't joking, that thing's destructive power is nothing to joke about...' The teen thought as he flipped through the air, controlling his momentum with parkour stunts. 'In that case, which power shall I respond with? This guy's powers feel foreign, almost alien to me and it seems that he doesn't recognize SP or Devil Arms. Does that mean that... Well. Alright, then...' The way he ended that thought was a mix of grim resignation, dark finality and bloodlust-fuelled eagerness. There were distinct emotions that he felt when channelling his two powers, his DPU powers felt like the cold fury of a warrior out for blood, like he was burning within the icy depths of a fiery hell if that made any sense.

However, using his OTHER side felt like the exact opposite, it felt like he was constantly on high, high on bloodlust, violence, and death. It really got him going and almost drove him over the edge many times. There were risks to using his OTHER side, but like his other two aspects said this guy apparently has no clue about things that a normal person in Gamindustri would know. If that was the case, then...

Oh, yeeeeeaaaaaah...

This was going to get good.

With those thoughts and his new mindset triggered, something snapped within him as Nico landed on the ground, sliding to a halt. The teen hung his head low, catching Castiel's attention for the time being. "#PANT# #PANT#... that's an interesting weapon, you got there..." the male muttered, slightly panting as he dismissed Harvester.

This action set off warning bells inside Castiel's mind. For some reason, the way that he spoke just made his instincts scream at him to be prepared, especially with how the tension on the battlefield seemed to just skyrocket. This guy's demeanor had also changed abruptly, and there was this foreboding feeling coming from him. All this definitely caught his attention as he kept his bow level with his opponent. "Gandiva's a Divine-class weapon, its powers can't be matched by most weapons." he stated.

"I see... that makes sense, a Godly weapon has to be OP..." Nico muttered, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. Slowly, he began lifting a hand to his face, his demeanor unchanging from this new state. "You say you wish to take this up a notch, yes?" He asked, but continued before Castiel could give an answer. "Well then... allow me to oblige you then!"

WHAM!

Castiel's brain shook from the hit he received to his face... from practically nothing. His eyes flew open wide at this, disbelief coursing through his system. 'Wha-What?! What the hell...?!' he thought in shock. 'What just hit me, there was nothing there and then I just got hit?!' His thoughts and actions had been so caught in dismay's web, that he had dropped Gandiva, which served to be the trigger for a rather brutal onslaught.

WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM!

The blonde boy couldn't react in time as he felt like he got punched all over like the Stands did in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. He couldn't find the time to recover as Nico quickly closed the distance and, like he was parodying Street Fighter's Ryu, delivered an uppercut to his chin that knocked him into the air. Then, something grabbed him by his right ankle and slammed him into the ground with brutal force, making Castiel gasp and cough up saliva.

He thought it could end there and he'd get a shot at a counter...

Boy, was he wrong as the thing on his Ankle REPEATEDLY slammed him into the ground without mercy.

SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM!

Honestly, he could see black specs appear in his vision of how hard this thing was slamming into him. Pain wracked his body on multiple levels as Castiel FINALLY got thrown away from the other male... only for something to grab him by the head (feeling like a claw) and slamming him headfirst into the ground. "Gah!"

This something then proceeded to royally mess with Castiel's head by dragging him through the dirt in a 360 circle multiple times (practically drawing on the ground using him as a pencil) before flinging him across the battlefield, making him roll across it which he used to get back to his feet while sliding to a halt.

'Holy shit... urgh! Argh, that burns...!' the blonde thought, groaning in pain as he held his head in one hand while casting healing blessings on his screaming skull. 'What the hell was that just now? Whatever it was, it...' all thoughts stopped him as Castiel looked up to Nico, who was in a combat stance similar to the US Marines back home, but thanks to his Mystic Eye, he could see... something, behind him. They looked like Tentacles, 6 of them to be exact, of a black colour which eerily reminded him of the colour 3 of his Wings possessed. Not only that, but thanks to his divine eye, the male saw them as clear as day unlike before. He suspected that the first hit had dazed him temporarily, throwing his senses out of whack since he could see them so clearly now. No to mention how they looked like they were vibrating extremely fast judging by how they looked to be constantly spasming.

At that point, Nico looked up...

'Okay, that's a little freaky...'

Castiel thought that as he saw the guy's eyes. Well, only his right eye was normal, the OTHER had turned black where the white should be, while the blue had turned a bleeding crimson red. Veins spread across the eye and the left side of his face, too, the Pupil shaking wildly.

Maybe he could ask? Wouldn't hurt they were meant to be allies after all.

"So, what the hell was that? Feels like you put me through a paper shredder..."

"These?" Nico remarked, gesturing to his Tentacles which pointed forwards towards Castiel. He got the feeling they were 'looking' at him with an intense hunger, and he did NOT like it. "Its a long story, but suffice it to say these things vibrate at such a high frequency that not only enhances their attack strength, speed, and agility, but they can also remain invisible unless I will them not to. There's more to it, but let's save that for after this." Nico replied.

"Yeah, let's leave it at that. I got to say, you showed me a neat trick but if this is as organic as I think it is you are fucked." Castiel smirked, a few drops of blood running from his nose.

'Okay... something's not right...' when Nico saw the blood, his mismatched eyes narrowed in confused suspicion. After all, why was his blood fucking SILVER?

Not giving Nico time to think about it Castiel changed weapons again. This time, instead of a bow it was Hruting, a great black sword that almost dripped bloodlust.

When Nico saw that sword, a flash of memory triggered in his mind to when he fought against Maghda, though the reason why eluded him. Nevertheless, the teen thought that it would potentially be a problem, but his Ghoul powers faced many weapons before and he believed that his Kagune would hold up no matter what.

He was proven wrong however, when he launched the first assault at Castiel, and after the first one was deflected (Castiel having already calmed down and could see it even if barely). Following that it was like he could see every single one of the strikes he launched, no matter the angle or the speed he would always react and cut it right in the middle as if it was just a joke.

Shock only lasted a second though, as Nico quickly began analyzing the sword, trying to figure out what its trick was. The memory of when he fought Maghda kept appearing in his mind, for reasons he didn't get.

Eventually deciding that enough was enough Nico decided to change things up a bit, instead of using his Kagune in the long distance style (Tentacle lunges and slashes to a more direct approach by launching his Rinkaku at non-lethal points at Castiel as he did not want to actually kill the guy, but when it was close to Castiel...

'KING STOP!' his ghoul side yelled at him, but it was already too late.

The moment the soundless and supposedly undetectable tentacles were about to get to Castiel he reacted, all at once, cutting the tentacles down with such ease that it was like it was made out of paper.

'GHHYYAAAAAAAAAA!' White Nico screamed in Nico's head, pure and sheer pain coursing through his being and Nico as well. The difference being that Nico was not quite as connected to the ghoul side of things.

'What happened!?' Biko asked his 'companion' as he never saw him even seen to feel anything that happened. No matter how damaged the main body was or if the tentacles were hurt the White Nico never showed any reaction, but now he was screaming in pain while rolling on the ground.

'I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! I NORMALLY DON'T FEEL A THING FROM THE KAGUNE TENTACLES EVEN IF THEY ARE DAMAGED OR I LOSE THEM, SORT OF LIKE NEVER EVEN HAVING THOSE PARTS TO BEGIN WITH, BUT THE ONES BEING CUT BY THAT SWORD JUST DON'T WORK THE SAME, IT IS LIKE I AM FEELING PARTS OF MYSELF BEING RIPPED APART OVER AND OVER. IT FUCKING HURTS!' The White Nico explained.

That... did not sound all too good, not very good at all. Nervousness and anxiety started spreading from his chest to the rest of his body as Nico opted for a defensive stance, summoning Rebellion back into his hand. The male's grip on the blade tightened immensely, where his knuckles turned white from the lack of blood flow. Hell, he could feel the pressure ebbing away at his Soul right now, and that was something that he didn't want to think about right now, not when there were bigger things to worry about.

Nico didn't know the specifics about that sword of his, but it felt VERY similar to those Bloodfeeders Maghda possessed, but on steroids. Hell, even that feels like an understatement, his senses could pick up the raw energy oozing off that blade, most of that energy having been drawn from Nico's own Kagune. If he were honest, then his Rinkaku Kagune would be at a huge disadvantage here. Maybe his Bikaku would help, but he wasn't certain that would work. He couldn't use his Koukaku as effective as he had been able to use it in the past either, thanks to the Edict of Death. Part of him believed that he should recall his Rinkaku though, divert what remaining RC Cells he had left (he counted up to 40%) to more defensive means within his body. If he were to switch to his Bikaku, he would only be able to generate 2 Tails, and be unable to regenerate the Talons after a total of 3 times.

Thus, that was what he did.

Looking back to Castiel while his Rinkaku vanished into him, Nico eyed the sword he used warily while his Kakugan eye (the black and red veiny one) shook slightly. "I see... so that sword is quite literally a bloodsucker with the added bonus of enhancing your physical ability. As a secondary ability, it can swing at the optimum angles like it has a mind of its own." he mused thoughtfully. As he held Rebellion in his hand, the blade itself started to thrum with power, power that came from his Demonic Power as he began funneling it into the blade. Since he had little information about this blade other than the comparisons, Nico's instincts told him that he would be better off playing it defensive for now, reinforcing Rebellion with Demonic Power, as well as a touch of Hellfire in the form of a low heat around the blade which constantly thrummed with static electricity from the HF Technology imbued within the Devil Arm itself.

Castiel nodded, holding Hrunting out in front of him in a two-handed stance in preparation for Nico's next incoming attack. Watching that Kagune recede made him realize that this sword was indeed a natural counter towards it, so he didn't feel as threatened as he did before when he knew little about this guy's monster powers. As long as he had Hrunting on his side, this legendary blade would not let him down. "Quite an accurate assumption, though it won;t help you very much." he remarked with a shrug of his shoulders. "You still managed to make me go to 30% at least, so do you have more?" he questioned.

To respond to that, Nico blurred forth as Castiel allowed Hruting to swing in the optimal direction of Nico's next attack. The blade of Hrunting and the blade of Rebellion clashed in an epic collision, releasing a massive shockwave which caused the ground beneath them to explode, forming a crater the size of a single story building. Both blades trembled violently against one another, sparks flying by the millisecond as their welders pushed against each other. If one were to look, Castiel would be the one putting less strength into his blade than Nico was, due to how much power he had been supplied by his sword, power that he had gained from Nico's own organic Kagune.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

The two boys went, their blades repeatedly colliding with one another like rabid dogs vying for dominance in a certain territory. Both boys refused to give each other an inch, as although Castiel wasn't losing any ground at all due to the strength of Hrunting, it wasn't like he was gaining any ground either. Nico's Rebellion, when enhanced with Demonic Power, held out well against the legendary sword, for its simplicity was its greatest asset. Among all of Nico's Devil Arms, all of his weapons, this one held the most simplicity in that it possessed no special powers aside from being able to cut better with the HF Technology as well as the Demonic Power amping it up.

Nico couldn't help but feel like this situation would be progressing worse and worse for him if he kept this up. Demonic Power, SP, he had both of them in abnormal amounts. The former having been made larger by his ascension into Multi-Continent Class in terms of DPU Rankings. His SP Reserves had always been abnormally large too, though he got the feeling that his DPU status had something to do with it. He would make a note to ask Biko if he were to survive this battle. Hell, his natural healing factor (a factor which DIDN'T use extra RC Cells or Demonic Power relieving enough) helped mitigate the injuries he received during their clashes, but that help could only go so far. Especially when he would reach the point of his injuries escalating. Plus, they were getting nowhere fast, and that irked the male more than he would care to admit.

Just as they made to clash again...

Nico noticed that there were magic circles appearing all around them, trapping them inside a practical dome.

'Oh no!'

Quickly, Nico made to move out of there before the Magic Circles could fire at him, although Castiel didn't let him thanks to him firing them himself prematurely. That meant that whilst they didn't have their full power output, he could at least catch Nico in the blast and possibly end this fight. Therefore, the blonde Heir jumped out of the area just as the Magic Circles fired a barrage of purple energy attacks at the redhead.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Explosions rang about like they were raindrops during a rainstorm, filling the air and the area within the dome of Magic Circles to the brim. Landing before the dome, Castiel dismissed the dome and peered into the smoke, his eyes narrowing deeply to try and pinpoint Nico's location. Whilst his eye right now wasn't as functional as it could be due to his body struggling to cope with it, Castiel's vision had been somewhat enhanced. 'That attack should have hit him, I caught him by surprise during that attack so he should have had no choice but to take it...' the Heir thought to himself. What, did you think he would resort to just simply Hrunting? he was a Mage as well as a Warrior, and Magic was a part of his arsenal.

The smoke began to clear, and soon enough a figure could be seen kneeling like a knight before a King. He knew that position well, thanks to having seen it more than a few times growing up at the tower. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a certain redhead Spec Ops Agent, kneeling down and looking a little winded. There were certain trails of smoke radiating from his form to show that the attacks had indeed hit, but other than that he looked pretty much fine. Slowly, the teen stood up whilst Castiel regarded him with confusion, wondering how the hell he had managed to dodge that attack.

'Thank you Absolution...' Nico thought to himself, mentally sighing with relief. It had been a reflexive action, something that Nico had done without thinking if he were honest. Hell, it had happened so fast he had hardly any time to even recall what he had been doing. But even so, just a millisecond before he had been attacked by that bombardment of Magic attacks, the Spec Ops Agent had managed to summon Absolution, his Battleaxe and used its power to turn him into the DC Avatar, the form of the Defiler Demon which once wielded the weapon, to withstand the attack. The DC (Defiler Corruption) Avatar was like this extra body which formed over his own, enlarging him and turning him into something else. Plus, it has quite the durability on it, thus it would have been able to shield him from the attacks until they stopped.

It wasn't a perfect attempt though, as some attacks managed to char his back before the form covered it. Most of the skin had been burned to nothing by the attack, exposing fibers muscles and bones. That area had been regenerating till the smoke died down, and during that time he had hastily switched back to Rebellion so Castiel wouldn't notice. He figured it would be best to save that for emergencies. At least his Coat had mostly survived saved for the giant ass hole in it. Though, a little something special about his outfit... it was made from RC Cells. He'd made them from RC Cells due to their better durability than normal clothes, not to mention that they were better for training and long-time use too. Since they were made with RC Cells in them, they could self-repair, which was exactly what his Trench Coat did as trails of clothing spread over the hole over his healing back and mended the damage to his beloved Trench Coat.

"Alright, I gotta admit, surprised you managed to survive that." Castiel remarked, getting Nico's attention whilst the Spec Ops Agent readied his blade. "Nor endure it so well. You must have had something up your sleeve that you're hiding right now, but no matter. You managed to get me to at least 35% so far." the Heir commented whilst getting Hrunting ready for an offensive. "Be wary though, i'm coming for the offensive!"

'Not good... I doubt i'll be able to last long if I have to go for one of those offensives again...' Nico thought to himself whilst biting back a curse. The strength Hrunting possessed was nothing to joke about, it definitely surpassed Rebellion's strength when it was enhanced earlier. If it weren't for him enhancing it with Demonic Power, then it likely would have been damaged from the initial onslaught, and he would have had to switch to another weapon whilst it repaired itself inside his Soul. Nico could well and truly feel the pressure of this battle right now, and he was NOT just talking about the oppressive atmosphere of fighting against one who rules over others. There had to be SOMETHING he could do to get past Hrunting's defenses! Feints wouldn't work since from their last exchanges Nico had determined that the blade optimized itself in the best way possible, accounting for any possible errors in its defenses. He could try to catch Castiel off guard, but how the hell could he do that...?'

Before he could think further, Castiel charged at Nico, going for a horizontal slash across his chest. However, Nico jumped back to avoid the blade, then jumped forwards once he hit the ground, practically bouncing into a spinning slash that was aimed at Castiel's neck, for the Heir to block it easily. Sparks flew from their blades once more, before the two broke apart once again. '...Wait as minute, now that I think about it, its been a while since I last used any of my SP attacks beside that earlier PHANTOM WAVE I used to block some of his attacks earlier. I think its because I got so caught up in using my Demonic Powers that I forgot about the Skill attacks that I trained myself to develop during the beginning...' Nico thought, honestly feeling rather disgusted with himself for forgetting them.

He could imagine his mother scolding him about not recalling everything he had learned right now...

'Still...' Nico thought while Castiel twisted a full 360 degrees and swung Hrunting in an upward arc, launching a huge airwave from the sheer force and strength of the sword swing itself. Nico jumped to the side to barely dodge it in time (although his left hand up to his elbow was completely destroyed by the airwave), bending backwards to avoid a follow-up slash before he twirled into a kick to knock his opponent back before he could follow with a third slash, then jumped back to get some distance. His injury regenerated as well, catching the Heir's attention though he didn't say anything. 'How could I use those Skills right now? They aren't the strongest attacks I have, plus its not like I have... oh... Oh! Wait, there IS one!' he thought slightly widening his eyes in realization when he recalled one of the Skills he had possessed in his Arsenal. Sometimes, he REALLY wanted to punch himself for forgetting!

That Skill...

The one he had used when fighting a Fenrir back in Lastation after his first encounter with MAGES.! Before him and the Party learned how to Chain Skills together!

Just before Castiel made to summon more Magic Circles to launch icicles at his opponent, Castiel noticed that there was something different about Nico that just changed right now. Something had piqued his interest and gave him a bit of hope for this situation, a situation which Castiel himself had held dominance over ever since destroying Nico's Kagune.

'What could this guy be planning...?' the Heir wondered, arching a brow as he held Hrunting defensively. 'What could he be playing at...? No matter, he won't be able to get past Hrunting, so I'll be good-'

Right as Castiel thought that, Nico suddenly appeared right behind him in a burst of speed, looming over him from behind as a shadowy specter, only his single glowing red eye being visible. The sudden EXPLOSION of bloodlust that accompanied him resulted in a layer of pressure that loomed over the atmosphere and slammed onto the Heir's shoulders like dozens of 1000KG weights. nearly sending Castiel into shock had he not faced similar opponents before like Berserker. "It would be wise not to underestimate me, Emiya." Nico coldly stated, swinging Rebellion at his exposed back.

"Same could be said to you, as well Nico!" Castiel responded as he swung Hrunting to parry his swing. That was when he noticed it, just as their weapons briefly met and broke apart with a resounding CLANG sound, that the blade of Rebellion was covered in a different type of energy this time. No, this tie the energy aura around it looked almost... transparent, like a mirage or an illusion. Although, Castiel just KNEW from his experience with Magic that it was nothing of the sort. Time seemed to slow down as their blades left each other, and as they did so, Nico muttered two words from his lips whilst getting ready for a second attack, his lone Kakugan eye (which he had kept active this whole time) shone brightly with his bloodlust.

... "PHANTOM... EDGE...!"

BOOM!

In an instant, Castiel gasped when an explosion of transparent energy suddenly erupted from Hrunting, the explosion packing enough power to send him sliding backwards. Only barely did he manage to keep himself on the ground, thus making two long skid marks along the ground till he halted. 'Holy.. what the hell was that?!' the Heir exclaimed in his mind, stunned and bewildered from the recent experience. Just before the explosion had happened, Castiel had noticed that there was this strange mark which had appeared on Hrunting following the collision between their swords. Then, the explosion happened, and now that mark was gone. What the hell, was that some type of Magic just now...? 'No, that couldn't have been Magic, I would have known if it was. Plus Uncle Zelretch did say that my 'ally' would be from another place I haven't heard of before, so is this something unique to these people? Odds are, that's the case considering the evidence before me...'

Castiel had no more time to think when, in an instant Nico was already on him, with his Sword already covered in that transparent energy from before. This time, Castiel refused to let that attack land, and as such he jumped backwards whilst muttering a curse onto that blade "Weak" to limit the energy surge. The Aura quickly vanished as Nico deactivated the weakened Skill, although he didn't let up on his offensive. The result, was Nico unleashing another one of his SP Skills: "PHANTOM BLADES!" He yelled, a Magic Circle appearing behind him and from it, a series of blades were unleashed in Castiel's direction.

'Oh fuck!'

That was what the Heir thought as he let Hrunting's power take hold. The blade became a whirlwind of motion as he began slashing away at the Blades of transparent energy that threatened to impale him several times over. Of course, none of them hit him thanks to the prowess he had as a swordsman trained by the Heroic Spirit Saber, as well as Hrunting as well, but the result was a smokescreen being generated all around him.

Quickly, Castiel got on guard as he held Hrunting defensively, buffing himself with reinforcement Magic as well as activating a few blessings to improve his physical ability. Whilst in this smoke he would not take any chances, plus if he left this smoke then odds were Nico would unleash those blades of his again, something which Castiel did NOT want to deal with since it took a lot of effort to block them. Not to mention that now he felt like he was beginning to work up a sweat, having to swing Hrunting about like his life depended on it, in addition to the surprising surge of Bloodlust. To be honest... he was starting to get a little excited, hopeful even. This may not be the leader in him talking though, but his inner Warrior and inner Mage couldn't help but enjoy the thrill of the fight. A fight where he didn't have to worry about things like injuring his opponent.

Soon enough, Nico's offensive continued as many PHANTOM BLADES pierced through the smoke, forcing Castiel to block them while he muttered a few spells to launch several fireballs at where the PHANTOM BLADES came from. Since they came from a Magic Circle behind his opponent, Castiel believed that they would have to come from his position in order to be launched.

Turned out he was right...

As he soon found himself looking upon an approaching PHANTOM WAVE, that same purple wave of Plasma that had been launched at him previously in their bout.

Cursing under his breath, Castiel held his Sword up and met with the attack, the impact of it sending him sliding out of the smoke... and right where Nico had appeared with Rebellion coursing with transparent energy. Castiel cursed again at this, knowing that he was too busy blocking one attack with Hrunting right now, therefore he couldn't do much but endure the second one since he had so little time to cast any Spells.

BOOM!

The moment the energy slash landed across his back and erupted, the PHANTOM WAVE detonated too, forcing Nico to jump back to get some distance while riding the shockwave. When he landed, the teen slid to a halt, stabbing Rebellion into the ground to halt his movement. Once his momentum stopped, Nico allowed himself to release an audible exhale of relief, having been unknowingly holding his breath during that assault. Now THAT had been some risk-taking on his part. Nico didn't have 100% confidence that what he had done just now would have worked, his SP Skills weren't his strongest powers after all. That didn't mean they were weak, but it was just a comparison to his more Demonic Skills. Part of him wanted to go DEMONIC OVERDRIVE too, since it would raise his physical abilities beyond his human body's limit, but he had refrained since he wanted to conserve energy.

There was no way that all that had done this guy in, not by a long shot.

His suspicions proved to be true when a single swing of Hrunting dispersed the smoke generated by his dual attacks, revealing Castiel to be standing there with his body looking little less refined than it had been before. A little more roughed up, but otherwise he looked fine. Nico didn't let this bother him, or rather he kept his irritation about not doing much damage hidden, since despite himself he had secretly wished to have done more. "... #HUFF#... #HUFF#... how about that?"

"Well, it wasn't too bad at least." Castiel replied as he rolled his right shoulder, feeling some cracks in doing so. He looked Nico over and narrowed his eyes. "Those attacks were weak, way weaker than your Demonic ones. You seem to rely heavily on that set of abilities, which for a warrior is not a good thing at all." Castiel stated, not mentioning that he had to up the power to 50% to healing himself from the damage received. That attack had not been weak by any means, it had the feeling of Nico having put in more energy and effort in than he normally would to pull it off. Plus, he DID, after all, use two attacks to get through his defenses just then, so this could only be expected.

Nico could only nod, much to his irritation as he looked down at his blade. Rebellion constantly released the humming which came with HF Technology as he thought about what happened so far. "It pains me to admit this, but you're right. Those Skills just now were ones I trained myself in for a long time, but ever since I gained my powers, I've slowly fallen out of touch with using them. Its... not something I'm proud of, both as a warrior and as a person." Nico replied, before he glanced to his left shoulder where he could see a large hole gradually closing up. "I'll have to say though, you DEFINITELY had me on the ropes for a long while. That sword of yours is a nightmare on the battlefield, to be sure with how it automatically makes the best slashes possible with any given situation. If I hadn't recalled these Skills and thought up that entire plan on the fly, then you would have definitely done me in." and all before he could showcase his full power too, Nico thought as he cursed in his mind.

Castiel nodded his head at this. "Well, that will teach you not to overly rely on your Demon Powers then, they're strong don't get me wrong, but when it comes to a time when they aren't available to you, your attack powers will decrease severely as wellas limiting oneself to only one type of power makes it so that you lose most efficiency if it isn't effective due to any reason. Anyways, lets continue. You're already halfway to making me go all out anyway, which is better than what I had expected from someone as unstable and without proper training to master anything to the apex as you. But anyways..." Raising his free hand, Castiel smirked darkly with a sinister glimmer in his eyes, making Nico scowl mentally as he got ready for whatever was coming. "Since you've been taking what I've been dishing out so well, how about I give you a little reward?"

Before he got an answer, Castiel just yelled out "CRUEL STAR!" followed by a 'SCREEEEEEE!' sound. The moment that sound occurred, what looked like a miniature sun, easily the size of a Basketball, formed over his hand. The sun spiralled around above his hand, floating there whilst emitting heat strong enough to be felt by his surroundings. "Try and live through this, if you can..."

Over by his side of the battlefield, Nico felt the extreme heat of the attack, and quickly realized just what the Heir intended to do. Fortunately whilst this flame had been WAY hotter than the other flames from before, his own resistance to fire helped him withstand it. 'This isn't good, that Sun carries quite the heat to it, if I let that hit me then I won't be able to escape unscathed. I COULD just switch to THAT sword and move out of the way then strike at his exposed openings, or I can have Urthemiel appear briefly to counter it with its own Primal Flames.' The male thought, watching as Castiel reared the ball backwards in preparation to throw.

However, at the last second, an idea came to him. One which would allow him to not only repel that attack, but be able to showcase more of his power so that Castiel wouldn't look down on him. It would keep him from relying on Urthemiel, too, which would be a big plus in his book. 'Oh yeah, I'll do that!' he thought, a small smile forming beneath his Mask as he narrowed his mismatched eyes at his opponent. "Heh, fire, huh? Well, ain't that a relief." the male mused, getting Castiel's attention when he raised a brow, pausing his throw at the last second.

"What are you talking about?"

"You thought you were the only one with fire, didn't you?"

Countering with a question of his own, Nico held his own hand out, generating and condensing his OWN fire ability: the Hellfire which came from his Demonic Powers. Unfortunately, its true form was locked from him unless he transformed, but this power burned at up to 3000 Degrees even in its base orangish red form, and he would be putting a LOT of fire power into this one, enough to counter what his senses were telling him. His Hellfire had the ability to devour whatever they touched, as the surroundings between the two males heated up even more when the heat from the two sources combined together. Holding it when it reached the same size as Castiel's CRUEL STAR even when he concentrated and condensed the Hellfire (which resulted in it's IMMENSE heat) the young redhead smirked just as darkly as Castiel had earlier, whilst the mentioned Heir widened his eyes in surprise at the ability. "Well, your not! Now then... LETS SEE WHOSE IS STRONGER, YOUR LITTLE EMBER OR MY HELLFIRE!"

'… Ember?! Oh, NIco did NOT just insult his flames like that. I will make him pay for that one, for sure!' That was what passed through the blonde teen's mind as memories of how he got these flames replayed themselves, of how Kokabiel burned his body to a crisp even as he tried to defend himself and how he still could feel what his eye melting inside his socket felt like. Castiel's brow twitched angrily as he resumed his throw, yelling. "Well, lets see why don't we then!?"

As a result, Nico countered as well, hurling the condensed ball of Hellfire towards his opponent's attack. The two attacks shot through the air like bullets, or great meteors on a collision course. A second later, the two collided... lasting only a couple moments in a heated struggle for supremacy. The raw heat from the CRUEL star had been immense, and Nico had seen it despite the insult he had made earlier as the CRUEL STAR seemingly expanded in size the moment it got released. As such, Castiel smirked at what he was seeing, thinking that his flames would be victorious.

However, just as the upper hand began to side towards him making him open his mouth to gloat, Nico's Hellfire suddenly ERUPTED into a larger blazing form, the condensed flames exploding from the pressure suddenly forced onto them and resulting in Nico's simple fire attack expanding in size to a similar level to Castiel's own. Coupled with their greedy and hungry nature, the advantage soon returned to a stalemate between them... until it reached its peak and-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

In the end, both attacks exploded, negating each other and leaving only a slightly hotter atmosphere behind... and two dissatisfied competitors staring each other down.

'Tch, a draw...!' Both of them thought in annoyance.

'Fucking hell... wish that attack had scorched him into a crisp! Maybe with that he wouldn't be saying that these flames are weak.' Castiel cursed in his mind as he readied himself to fight more. It would be pointless to have another CRUEL STAR attack ready with this information, since Nico could probably make more of those attacks himself. He hadn't felt much of dent in Nico's energy reserves when making them either, so e felt like the redhead could use them constantly and for a long ass time. He could probably do the same thanks to his Magic Core, but this WAS meant to be a Spar and he didn't feel like straining his Magic Core today. Castiel also felt that his attack should have defeated Nico's by a landslide, given that the flames he used were those of a Star, Kokabiel's flames (albeit not at their best since he only absorbed a portion of them from that asshole). Perhaps he could have added the flames from Argetlan as well, but if Nico could just counter with more condensed flames, then it would just cancel each other out again. Again, he didn't want to waste precious energy, a remnant of his behavior when NOT having a Magic Core. To be honest, Castiel could be wastefull and summon more of these, but he was far too used to worry about energy reserves to do such a thing.

On the redhead's side, as angry and frustrated that he felt for his attack not incinerating Castiel's strike in seconds, Nico forced himself to calm down and analyse the situation. 'Alright, so that Sun of his had a lot more heat than my attack, but my Hellfire beat it thanks to its ability to devour what they touch. If they were in their true forms, I bet that attack wouldn't have lasted NEARLY as long under their wrath, since the sun burns at 4000 degrees Celsius whilst my Hellfire in its true form burns at up to 5000. He also didn't compress them NEARLY as much as I did, which lead to mine taking the upper hand hen the pressure forced my Hellfire's compression to shatter and explode. If he had compressed them just as much as I did, then things would have turned out way differently... Maybe if he strikes with that again, I'll just angle mine differently so instead of cancelling each other out they'll move AWAY from my position... but the explosion would still have been massive in any case. Looks like...'

He/I shouldn't underestimate those flames.

Nico broke into a mad dash that broke the ground beneath his feet. Castiel expected the guy to try something funny like that feinting trick again, but instead, something else happened. From Nico's tailbone, erupted another Kagune, this one being a single long, large grey Tail covered in grey Armour plates and ending in 6 long, thin blade-like Tips for stabbing and slashing purposes, while arrow-like Talons protruded from it's sides.

Oddly enough, the blonde thought of a Centipede, seeing it.

Wait... Seeing it?

A thought hit him.

Why could he see this one completely and not the Tentacles?

Those thoughts halted when he jumped back to avoid the lunge of a Tentacle, out of reflex and instinct really. Before Hruting could slash it, the Tail jerked upwards, wrapping around both the blade and the arm holding it to halfway up the bicep. Castiel cringed, feeling Hruting struggle to break free to no avail, much to his shock. "Wait, what?!"

"Surprised?" Nico questioned, smirking again with his Kakugan eye bearing down on his prey. "Its not often I use this, but a Monster has more than one 'Fang' you know. My Bikaku, to be frank, has enough gripping strength to catch several bullet trains rushing at it at full speed. I'm not sure about you, but i'm PRETTY sure your sword doesn't have enough blood to match that. But, just in case..."

It was then that Castiel felt something nicking constantly at his arm, causing him massive pain and discomfort. He glanced down at it, and to his shock he saw that the Tail had formed fanged maws from various places on its body and were in the process of... trying to devour his left arm.

'Well, ain't that ironic?' Castiel thought as he released his left arm spirit bone, starting a counter process of devouring the Kagune maws trying to devour him. It was like two beasts trying to eat at each other, the difference, however, was in the sheer scale of devouring. While Nico's Kakugan was like a lion taking piece after piece of the enemy, but Castiel's left arm bone was more like a whale that simply devoured everything in front of it.

Sensing the danger, Nico had no choice but to disengage the Kagune or his already low RC cell's counting would reach its lowest point of his life, this being a testament of how bad a Ghoul matched up to Castiel's skill set.

'Note to self, avoid continuous contact with Castiel using any form of Kagune. Otherwise, I will lose badly.' Nico thought.

Though, he did admit that he had seen something akin to a Bone over the arm beneath the coiling Bikaku.

Both jumped back, getting some distance between each other. They took a few moments to gaze at each other, planning their next moves, before they burst forth into high-speed runs and entered a furious bout of slashes.

SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH!

They went, circling around one another. Nico mentally frowned, noting that there was an extreme difference in sheer power between them. That sword had already devoured quite a bit of blood from his Kagune, much of his RC Cells having been depleted. He didn't like that, neither did his White Copy, however the brief moments where he had been able to devour that arm before it began eating his Kagune he had stolen a tiny bit back. These strikes were no joke either, each time their weapons collided it felt like he was striking against a mountain, an effect he found familiar since it reminded him of fighting Logan back at Skies End when he entered that first Demon Form.

Not only that, but he constantly got Curses put on him like Weak, Slow, Sickness, doubt, etc, and his Demonic Power got a real workout limiting and destroying those Curses.

Jumping back to avoid an overhead smash that resulted in a large crater (even then he got scratched by some of the debris), Nico made to switch weapons, though Castiel didn't let him do that as he dashed forth, swinging at his shoulder. Nico quickly swung a Demonic Power-enhanced Rebellion out of reflex, and it was barely enough to just deflect the attack away from him. He had to angle his blade at just the right angle to divert most of the strength away from him, it showed by how much he was beginning to sweat.

'Looks like I'll have to Armour up...'

Castiel raised a brow when he saw a black light shining at Nico's chest. His unasked questions got answered when he was surrounded by black data streams, ones that vanished seconds later to reveal some... rather demonic knight-esque Armour. It had a black under suit that went from his hands and feet to his neck while the rest had crimson red Armour. The helmet completely covered his head to expose none of his human skull (not even his left eye), being made from demonic-looking, wicked crimson Armour. It had two red eye lenses from which Nico's eyes were located, while the face looked slanted forwards like a demonic snout. There were multiple ridges down the forehead that ended at the nose, which looked more like a short, stubby horn than anything. Out the top of the helmet were 4 long, curved spikes with 2 on each side, and a single ridge in the middle. Across the face's lower section was a lipless maw of crimson fangs designed into the helmet, not an actual maw. From the helmet's sides, two long horns pointed forwards, made from the same material as the helmet. Along the lower jaw and chin were short, stubby spikes like a makeshift beard.

For the upper body the sides, the torso and along the stomach were covered in demonic crimson Armour plates. There were two shoulder pads, 1 for each shoulder, that were much like those of his DPU form in that they were much larger than his actual shoulders and went outwards. They each had a single Spike-like structure similar to the horns from the Helmet protruding upwards, with stubby spikes protruding away from the Armour's wearer. The forearms were covered in crimson Armour that started with thick-looking spiked bands at the elbows and ended with another set at the wrists. Interestingly enough there were black-grey chains connected between these bands, adding to the demonic appearance the Armour had, while the Armour itself formed 4 short claws over the knuckles. The hands themselves were covered by the undersuit. More chains wrapped around his waist, which were connected to these two skirt-like crimson pieces that fell in-between behind him and beside his legs.

Speaking of the lower body, the legs had demonic crimson Armour up to the knees, sporting stubby spikes in various places and ended in single talon toed boots that had an extra talon for heels. "Huh... so you have Armour, too..."

"Too?"

"If you can push me further, maybe you will get to see it!" Castiel shouted as he activated one of his new original spells, Siegfried, to increase his body's physical defense. He could have used Brionac too, but it would not be that good since he might accidentally kill Nico. That attack was just that dangerous as Castiel was not yet experienced enough with it to not accidentally kill Nico.

Looking back at his opponent, Castiel noticed that he had re-summoned Rebellion and was already on his way to strike at him again. Castiel quickly began chanting Spells to hold him off, and by the time he had gotten within sword striking range, the blonde had healed enough to swing Hruting onto Rebellion. Or rather, that was what SHOULD have happened...

"QUICKSWORD."

With that one word, Nico's Rebellion launched a furious flurry of high-speed slashes, slashes Hruting managed to block due to its ability (though Castiel couldn't see them well like that Tail thanks to them being so fast). However, Nico combined this series of strikes with slashes from his Bikaku Kagune, really going to town on Castiel's ass. His repeated use of this Quicksword thing made it nigh impossible to get a strike in himself, so he quickly applied the 'SLOW' curse on his blade, slowing its movements temporarily to get some distance...

If only he had noticed where he was stepping, as the Bikaku Tail surfaced from underground again to spear him.

Not wanting to end up like before, Castiel quickly slashed at it, the blade and the Tail's tips meeting. Because of the nature of the blades, Hruting couldn't draw any blood much to Castiel's frustration. The teen nearly recoiled when he felt two Tentacles slam into the side of his head and hip respectively, making him side flip into the air before he was whacked away by the Bikaku, which ripped itself out the ground and then retreated back into its master.

Sliding to a halt (this time embedding Hruting into the ground for support) Castiel applied some healing Blessings on himself. Seriously, he has had to use these Blessings more than he had been using in his past spars. Well, at least this too was good practice on how to use them.

Nico, who was already on him again, took note of this as he slashed towards Castiel's right shoulder from below. The Heir to the Tower felt Hruting race to block it... when he suffered a slash on his shoulder. "Huh? What the-?" was all he could say before Nico slashed his stomach, chest and opposite shoulder, blood squirting from the wounds before he kicked him away with a roundhouse kick.

"That, dude, was the Vipersword..." Nico proclaimed Rebellion angled downwards at his side. The blade, now that Castiel noticed, looked to be violently rippling like it was a living, thrashing viper. "It uses the body's natural flexibility to vibrate and undulate the sword, making it resemble a rippling snake. This illusion makes its blows almost impossible to anticipate or block. My variant is stronger, though." he explained while his Rinkaku reared back, pointing their tips at Castiel. "Got more techniques, but yeah..."

That was when Nico noticed something. He was sure that he impacted Castiel many times using his blade, but the amount of blood(?) he was releasing was simply too little. That was when he realized, all those attacks he did right now simply scratched Castiel, nothing more.

'How the hell did THAT happen?' Nico thought making a dumbfounded face behind his helmet while looking at Castiel.

Castiel noticed this and smirked.

"Did you like that? I activated an original spell of mine, it is called Siegfried and it has only one ability, it makes damaging my body just that much more difficult.I can still up my defense even further by the way, but unless you up your game it won't be necessary. And don't forget" A light appeared over Castiel as he activated his healing blessings, closing the new wounds on his body. "I can regenerate myself, even if not that fast." Castiel then stuck Hruting on the ground and with a serious pose said. "Do you still have any form to show to increase your power further? If not this spar will turn meaningless."

Strangely enough, Nico had a clear impression that Castiel was royalty somehow, the moment he put his sword on the ground and looked at him he released the same type of charisma that some of the bigger and TRULY powerful nobles and kings of old had. A clear and distinct contrast to those from the 'modern' Leanbox, it was like comparing the ancestor who built a clan with a descendent leading it to ruin.

Shaking his head to get out of this mindset Nico refocused himself. What Castiel said was infuriatingly true, even if he did not want to reveal his DPU form all that much, if he continued as he was it would just turn into a prolonged fight and this was not what either of them was after. They wanted to see the limits and full abilities of the one they should ally with, but both of them refused to be looked down upon. Nico for the sheer desire to prove his strength and that he was the better warrior, Castiel due to the fact that he was the heir to the Tower and had no desire or accepted to be looked down by someone he considered bellow himself in power or would ever accept that.

In the end, the two were hot-blooded young man and both of them wanted to show that they were better than the person in front of them. The two had a deep down and ingrained in their bones desire to be the strongest, their pride demanding victory.

The red-haired demonic teen eventually gained an idea feeling the power of ONE specific Devil Arm reaching out to him. The strongest one by far, out of all the Devil Arms he had. The Devil Arm that held dominance over his Soul, his ultimate weapon. Its power transcended forms, being available no matter if he was in human or DPU Form. It had watched this entire battle, and it wanted to show off its power. His Ghoulish Kagune retracted into him, his Kakugan returning to normal as he held rebellion in his Offhand, the sword thrumming with power and cackling with glee inside of him as he stepped towards Castiel. His posture indicating that he would NOT be bowing today.

This behavior made Castiel raise a brow, and a slight tugging sensation form in his gut. The male felt like this was someone who would challenge his rule as king, someone who would stand for himself to the very end... something he truly respected and admired. Not only that, but he could feel something coming from the other male, an energy that he had sensed at the beginning but dormant. Throughout the fight, this energy, which felt like another Clarent only much darker, had slowly but surely become more and more aware as time went on.

Now, it was deciding to FINALLY get involved...

That was the reason why he would finally draw Clarent. The holy sword, the strongest sword he had that signified his rule as a King, it sensed that power and felt that it could rival its own. It wanted to test that theory it wanted to fight against it. But Castiel knew that this guy wouldn't draw out such a powerful weapon unless he had to, it was common sense between warriors.

"Oh don't you worry, I still can go further. But... can you accompany me?" Nico said with a confident smirk behind his helmet. His eyes began too shine a dull red within it as he decided to do it, he decided to draw that weapon. He could feel its gleefulness assaulting his being as well as its power building, building and building within him. It almost felt suffocating to him, but the repeated use of this weapon got him used to this pressure. Especially when it traveled down his arm and into his hand, ready to be unleashed.

"Ha, you should be the one worried about that." Castiel said, taking Hruting on his left hand before drawing Clarent with his right one.

And just with that Nico could feel that Castiel was again even more dangerous than before. The aura of power and dignity he felt before was increased many times over, the energy Biko was feeling anyways.

'It is time, Nico. THAT weapon has finally recovered and is back to 100% capacity, ready to be unleashed onto the battlefield once more. Test the waters with it, first. Use its weaker form to see if its worth going DDD or not, then show no mercy.'

"Well then, I see that new sword of yours has a lot of power..." Nico stated, feeling his adrenaline pumping like no tomorrow as he began releasing the power. Heat rolled off him in waves, challenging the dominating aura of Castiel who felt like he was looking at the fires of hell itself. Nothing like the Underworld the Devils were in, though. This felt stronger, more like a twisted depiction of hell. Slowly, Nico raised his hand, the heat intensifying every second.

"Then how about... we give it a worthy opponent?! Come... SOUL EDGE!"

Hearing the call of its wielder, Soul Edge answered. Orangish red fire roared to life from his hand, shooting up into the skies and releasing a wave of heat, dust and debris at Castiel's direction. Said male raised his arms to shield his face from them, but he still noticed the cracks spreading along the ground from Nico's feet. Though if the smirk on his face was anything to go by, he didn't see the threat he was about to face. The next thing he knew, the flames began to shrink, condensing themselves into a sword-like form within Nico's palm, which clenched them. That action made the flames take on a solid form.

'Yes, finally...!'

At last, he got to see what that power was! That power he had sensed from the very beginning that Clarent bugged him on and on about!

Once the blade was fully formed, Castiel looked... quite surprised actually. In Nico's hand was a truly demonic-looking blade, way more demonic than most of the other swords he had seen. It had the appearance of a giant sword with demonic crimson flesh filling the blunt side of the blade. At the base of the hilt, there was a single, yellow slitted eye with one side of the sword featured a fleshy blade with a metallic edge.

Soul Edge's eye, much to the blonde's discomfort, shifted about like a living human eyeball, before its gaze landed upon him and he felt a glare hotter than the fires that Kokabiel pummeled him with. Not only that, but the sword released a wave of power that pushed back the 'aura' his royal stance had developed, pushing it away from its wielder, challenging the King's rule.

Well, how could he resist such a challenge?

"So then..." Nico's voice brought him back from his thoughts. "Is this the answer you wanted, Castiel Emiya?! If you want more power then you'll have to try and FORCE it out of me!"

'A B Class Noble Phantasm? No, it is simply locked from its fullest potential. Maybe it can reach A+ class? Well, even if all the energy inside is used it still pales in comparison to Saber-sensei's Excalibur and I have no reason to fear it too, even if this demonic energy in the blade seems dangerous.' Was what Castiel was thinking as he readied Clarent and Hruting, excitement from both blades cursing through his whole body.

Once that was out of the way, both Castiel and Nico burst forth towards each other, the ground breaking beneath their feet.

BOOM!

The two collided their weapons, all four of them, together which released a shockwave that ripped the ground beneath them apart without mercy. Nico and Castiel quickly began exchanging blows faster than even their eyes could see, Nico applying the Quicksword technique with Rebellion, though he sometimes switched to the Vipersword Technique when he got the chance. This served the purpose of keeping Hruting busy while also sneaking in a few hits here and there. Hits that Castiel barely felt thanks to Siegfried. Castiel too hit Nico multiple times with Hruting, his swordsmanship being strong and developed enough that even Nico's fancy attacks could not stop Hruting's blade, but all hits were healed in seconds by Nico's regenerative powers.

On the other hand, Soul Edge and Clarent duked it out like fierce rivals, their energies and forms colliding relentlessly and constantly releasing deadly sparks that could incinerate their wielders if they didn't have the ability to regenerate from them. Soul Edge swung with enough physical power that, even in its lesser form, matched Clarent blow for blow. The blood from Hruting boosted Casitel's physical power, but Soul Edge did just as well with having unleashed a DEVIL'S BLESSING on Nico just seconds before their first contact.

Breaking away from each other, Nico raised Soul Edge and unleashed an ATOMIC INFERNO, 30 fiery Homing Rays erupting from the slashing blade that flew towards their target's position. Castiel used Hruting though, and effortlessly slashed them to pieces, but if his instincts about this guy were true, then he was likely going for a fake-out of some sort.

His thoughts turned to reality when Nico suddenly vanished in a red flash, appearing behind him with Soul Edge blazing with orangish red flames. Castiel twisted around to block the incoming INFERNITY EDGE with Clarent, then swung Hruting to counter Rebellion's follow-up slash. He twirled into a double reverse slash, which Nico dodged by teleporting once again, the slashes creating fissures on the ground. The two, as if in an agreement, headbutted each other and both felt equally painful as the two were too hard headed.

Reappearing beside him once again, Nico showed that he had both Rebellion and Soul Edge engulfed with both flames and energy. He unleashed both of them in an X Scissor slash, to which Castiel countered that with his two swords slahing together in a direct strike, the strikes lead to an explosive shockwave knocking them backwards.

Both slid to a halt, looked at each other once, before they charged back in, Castiel muttering a few spells while also creating runes to launch lightning bolts towards his opponent who used a MAGMA SHOT to deal with them, jumping through the created smoke into a spinning disk top slash frenzy, Vipersword applied to Rebellion. Deciding NOT to get hit by that attack, Castiel jumped to the side, allowing both blades to hit the ground while not expecting the shockwave born from them to blow him further backwards. The spell he was preparing was launched as spheres of pure magic energy similar to magic bombardment were launched at the red-haired teen who also avoided them but was caught in the explosion and being sent flying.

Slamming Hruting into the ground, Castiel quickly dashed forth to curt on Nico's shoulder. However, Nico rolled out the way in time, not wanting to endure one of those fissure-inducing attacks before swinging Soul Edge upwards, blocking a strike from Clarent that blew Castiel backwards slightly. Yet, even as that happened, Castiel had a pleased smirk on his lips. Pleasure coursed through his being as the fight only intensified from there.

After they fought for what felt like hours on end, Nico unleashing all his arsenal of Skill attacks combined with his skillful use of the Vipersword and Quicksword while Castiel countered with the buffs his Spell and Hruting offered him, Castiel began to notice something off about himself. Something that he only had a few moments between Nico's heavy onslaught to check.

"It seems you've noticed, too."

Looking towards Nico, who stopped before him with his blades held in a V shaped angle, Castiel raised a brow at him. "What do you mean?"

"Not sure completely, but it looks like your body's overexerting itself." Nico curtly replied, pointing Rebellion at him. "I can sense negative emotions, and your body's been undergoing stress from overheating. Odds are, you won't last much longer if we keep this up."

Castiel just smirked at this, as his eyes caught sight of the way Nico's body also seemed to be showing exhaustion, though Nico did a good job of hiding it. "Looks like you're not at hundred percent either." he commented, getting a mild tensing from the male as a result making him roll his eyes. "You're not the only observant one here, dude. Noticed it a while ago, same for you apparently."

It was at this moment, that Castiel decided to end this, and to do that he would have to go all out. It was time, not only had Nico pushed him to this point, but the way they were going it wouldn't be long before they were unable to show their full power. That could not be allowed, something both of them could agree with. This fight was to gauge each other's ultimate power after all, so something like that couldn't be allowed to happen. "How about this, then? We each go into our full power and unleash our strongest attacks. Winner is whoever's left standing."

Nico shrugged. "I'll take that bet. Now..." the teen chuckled sinisterly as he discarded Rebellion into his Void Storage while gripping Soul Edge in two hands. "Hit me with your best shot, Castiel Emiya!"

"Hah, be careful what you say, Nico! Those are some fighting words!" Castiel responded, closing his eyes and calling upon his full power. In moments, the male was bathed in a white light, which soon faded to reveal him being clad in a golden Armour, no different from the royalty that he was. Out of his back, were his 4 Angel wings purest of white that made Nico had the impression of what the first Goddess light must have been like, while his left set of 4 were abyssal black as if someone cut apiece of the darkest corners from space and made wings out of it.

Not to mention that his power shot through the roof. It clearly overshadowed most enemies Nico ever thought, and the dread Nico felt from the energy Castiel was releasing seemed to come from all his instincts. Almost like any attack from that energy that was embracing Castiel's full body was poisonous to Nico.

However, Nico didn't falter as he held Soul Edge in a ready stance. "So.. this is your full power, is it?" he remarked, slowly. 'There's his Armour too... reminds me of a royal king becoming a knight to protect his people...'

"Yup, now, show me this power that rises against this King, Nico! Show me the power that rumbles within you!" Castiel bellowed, stabbing Clarent into the ground which cracked the earth and made it rise up behind him, a golden holy aura surrounding him.

Well, if this guy wanted to see his full power, who was he to argue? At this point, it would be considered cowardly NOT to transform.

Closing his eyes, Nico then concentrated, reaching into the depths of his being to the DPU Core within him. It soon answered his call, and from deep within, the primordial power of the DPU flooded his being to begin the transformation.

Outside, Castiel remained silent as he saw his opponent get engulfed in a cocoon of flames, flames that roared like a vicious beast rebelling against its masters who had subjugated it for so long, before they subsided to reveal Nico in a brand new form. Now, Nico stood as a grown man standing at 8 feet. His red hair had turned completely black, his eyes unknown since they were closed. His body is covered in orangish red Armour, as well as a fleshy skin-tight suit. The head of his Armour covered much, save for his eyes, which were seen through empty holes in the helmet, and the mouth. The helmet had a large crest-like shape, with the muzzle AKA the mouth bare to expose his mouth. The chest, shoulders, arms, legs and waist were all completely Armoured, everywhere else being covered by a fleshy skin-tight suit. The Armour had an orangish red sheen to it, with the hands being shaped into clawed Gauntlets with spikes coming out the elbows. More spikes protruded from the shoulder guards and the knees. On the chestplate there was a glowing yellow core of energy, as well as matching veins that spread across the man's body. out the back of the man's tailbone, was a long, segmented crimson red Tail, the same length as his height. Out his upper back was a pair of flaming wings like a Phoenix's, shaped like the namesake, and reached down to its feet which had several long talons protruding out of the front, 1 extra from the heel. Though, what caught his attention the most was the admittingly powerful orangish red aura flooding through his system.

All around him, Nico's new form affected his surroundings, heating up the atmosphere way more than his Hellfire had done previously whilst his aura flared just as wildly. KI and BLOODLUST surged from his being, as well as from his weapon like two large beasts roaring in unison. His grip on Soul Edge tightened as he eyed his opponent, who just floated there with his mismatched wings staring right back... with no small traces of excitement in his body language.

"Alright..." Nico began, speaking as if he had two different voices as he opened his crimson eyes, showing the glowing black slitted power button symbols in them as he held Soul Edge in its true form and glory towards his opponent. In this form, while Soul Edge retained a Greatsword-like form, it possessed no eyes this time, along with sporting multiple edges with it's middle having a row of long, large teeth going to just beneath its tip, shrinking in size the more they neared. It had a semicircular Guard shaped like a talon, with a shorter one opposite it. "This is what you wanted, Castiel Emiya. Are you satisfied that you see my full power, yet?!" he asked him.

"Very, for uncle Zelretch to say that you are on the same level as me I would admit nothing less. Now, let's release our most powerful strikes and define once and for all who is the strongest right now." Castiel answered with the unchanged kingly and dominant aura around him. It was less like he was proposing a course of action and more like he was ordering as such.

Nodding his head Nico entered in a stance and started releasing his full power, and that would be best utilized by one of his most dangerous attacks: FIRE SCORCHER. Truthfully, he hadn't pushed himself to use it with Soul Edge's full power before, but there's a first time for everything. Raising the monstrously large blade, the black haired DPU began pumping all his power into it, both his Demonic Power and his SP Reserves. The two energies spiraled together, combining into a deadly, violent mixture erupting from the blade's form to the tip. When they reached the tip, the energies gathered together into one big ass meteor that rivaled half the battlefield in size. The meteor crackled chaotically, like it was the center of a raging storm with a furious layer of electrical energy. Nico also added in the power of his Hellfire in its true form, resulting in the black and red flames ROARING to life beneath him, spiralling upwards and merging with his attack, turning it into a black and red version of itself with similarly crackling energy. The energy made waves that ripped through the air that blew away the dirt around its maker while pushing the ground behind him upwards... an equal amount that Castiel did before.

Seeing this Castiel did the same. He put Hruting away so as to focus his entire power on his next move. Putting his two hands in Clarent he put it in an overhead strike and started preparing his full strike. A ray of crimson thunder-like light was released from the blade as pure magic power was transformed into pure power by the blade, but in contrast to how it originally was now it also released a ray of holy light and silverish flames that came out of Argetlan. The holy energy Castiel had, the flame power of the star carried by Argetlan, and the magic energy with the unlimited amount by his magic core, all three were uniting as one and being amplified further and further by Clarent. The energy was easily comparable to the one coming from Nico's strike, especially when the three colors of energy fused together to create a crystalline-like red beam of concentrated energy.

The two glared at one another, knowing that this was simply too much for any spar but neither would accept backing down or show weakness. The two were Warriors, not just normal civilians, with a lot of pride and this ambiguous situation that deciding who is the stronger was still on the air was something neither of them would accept.

With this in mind, both teens raised their blades backwards, rearing their attacks back.

"You ready?!"

"That's my line!"

Both unleashed their own respective war cries before they launched their attacks. Each one looked like it would cause extreme amounts of damage not to the users, but to their surroundings including the entire dimension as well. Such was the level of power that these attacks had reached.

Just before they could though...

"Alright, I think you two ave gone far enough."

Another voice broke through to them making the two males go wide-eyed in surprise. The source appeared before the two attacks from the side, simply glaring at the attacks. That glare alone destroyed the attacks, leaving nothing left of them. "I'd rather you two NOT destroy each other and my pet project. I do need my two beta testers' after all."

'Shit, I didn't even sense his presence...' Nico thought, eyes wide as he mentally checked his reserves. Looked like he still had a flicker of power in both his energy sources left, enough to remain transformed for a good 10 minutes. 'I knew he must have been powerful when I met him before, but geez...!'

"*sigh* I guess that is it, huh?" Castiel said, relaxing enough to dispel his armor but leaving his wings open. No point in taking then in if they didn't had any draw back anymore, they simply helped him to fly and some little things, they were not like Nico's DPU form that had to be dispelled since it consumed energy to maintain. Castiel then turned to Nico and said. "No hard feelings for me trying to kill you, I hope."

Nico could only release a chuckle, it is like Castiel had multiple personalities or something, he could go all serious, then be kingly, and now he seems like a chill dude. In all honesty Nico rather liked it this way, different actions to different environments.

"Sure, no problems." Nico said before turning to Zelretch and said. "I am just surprised you could stop both attacks with a stare, was it a secret technique?"

Zelretch looked surprised before giggling and saying.

"Nope, I just released a fraction of my power and tried to copy Jiren from Dragon Ball Super. To be honest I just had to think to stop this attack and that would have been enough, but it was fun to imagine myself like a buffy alien."

Nico could only release lot's of cold sweat from this. If it was true that Zelretch could stop all of that energy with just a thought then he simply was too much of a monster. He went straight to the new list of his mind, one entitled 'Never to piss off'.

"Anyway," Castiel said, drawing the attention of the two other people there. "Now that we finished the introductions and everything how about you tell us what are these things you want us to test, uncle Zelretch."

"Excited, aren't you? Wanting to grow strong already to deal with those problems?" Zelretch asked, but seeing the fire in Castiel's eyes was answer enough. "Fine, this is how this will work-"