"" - Speaking
'' - Thought
{} - Sparda
[] - Ddraig
Chapter 12
…
" Stella. We have covered the school with a large barrier. With this, unless something disastrous happens, there will be no damage outside." Saji reported the current situation to Rias & Stella, and both the Gremory and Sitri groups had gathered in the park that was right in front of Hagun Academy. Kiba still hadn't shown up and Irina was being looked after by Kurono.
Saji was explaining about the barrier to Rias and was standing unnaturally from the spanking he had gotten earlier. According to his story, Souna had gathered everyone from the student council and put a big barrier on the school after she heard the situation from Rias as a measure to keep the things occurring inside from leaking outside. Their opponent was one of the leaders of the fallen-angels who appeared in the bible and books, Kokabiel.
"This is to keep it to the minimum. To tell you the truth, if Kokabiel were to fight seriously, not only this academy, but the whole region would be annihilated. Adding to that, he has already gotten ready for that. My servant has seen him releasing his power at the school grounds." Souna spoke, Ayato trying to stay calm despite the fallen was trying to destroy everything he knew & was working so hard for as she continued to explain.
"My servants and I will continue to place the barrier to reduce the damages. I want to minimise the damage as much as possible… It's hard to prevent our school from getting damaged. But it looks like we have to since it's the leader of the fallen-angels who is moving."
"Thank you, Sona." Rias said gratefully. "We will do the rest from here."
"Rias. Our enemy is a monster with strength above ours. It's still not too late. We should get your Big Brother…"
Rias shook her head.
"You also didn't call your Big Sister."
"My Sister is… Your Brother loves you. Sirzechs-sama will definitely move. So…"
"I have already informed Sirzechs-sama." Akeno said as she approached the two of them.
"Akeno!" Rias criticised.
But Akeno had an angry expression. "Rias. I know that you don't want to cause problems for Sirzechs-sama. It happened in your territory. In your base. And it happened after the family problem. But it's a different story if the leader of the enemy appears. It is a problem that surpasses the level that you can solve. Let's borrow the strength of a Maou."
Rias took a deep breath and nodded. "Fine." She said in defeat.
"Thank you for understanding the situation, Chief. Sirzechs-sama's reinforcement will be here in one hour."
"One hour…" Sona processed this information. "I understand. In that time, we, the Student Council, will vow to continue to place the barriers in the name of Sitri."
Rias & Stella seemed like They had made their decision as well after hearing Souna's decision.
"…So one hour. Now my servants. We will be on the offensive. We will go inside the barrier and draw Kokabiel's attention. Unlike the battle against Phenex, this is a battle of life and death! Even so, I will not forgive you if you die! We will survive and continue to attend that school!"
[Yes!] The Gremory group replied with energetic voices.
"Ay I will leave the rest to you." Saji spoke with a smile.
"Right…I'm not about to let him destroy everything…" Ayato replied with a serious nod as Saji asked
"So Kiba isn't here yet?"
"Yeah. I also believe in him as well." Saji added as he and Ayato put their fist together and prayed for their missions.
And with that their conversation ended and those part of the group that were going to fight went through the barrier. Once they were on the other side, the barrier closed down behind them. Upon entering the dome, they noticed that almost everything within was a different shade of red. The group made their way to the front doors of the main building, planning to go through it to get to where Balba was said to have been sighted.
"I'm going to make the four Excaliburs into one." Balba said amused
"Balba. How much longer will it take for the Excaliburs to merge?" A voice asked from above, the club members looking up to see Kokabiel was sitting on a chair with the moon behind him.
"It won't even take 5 minutes, Kokabiel." Balba answered, Kokabiel smirking as he spoke
"Is that so? I will leave it to you."
Kokabiel's eyes moved over to Rias as he asked "Is Sirzechs coming? Or is it Serafall?"
"In the places of Oni-sama and Leviathan-sama, we…" Rias started only for an explosion echoing throughout the area, coming from the gym. The gym had been completely destroyed as Kokabiel spoke
"Boring. Well that's okay. It will be entertaining."
"Ayato, I'm sorry for having to ask this but." Rias hesitated. "We want you to be supportive of this fight."
Ayato hardly responded to her. "Not funny, Rias."
"I'm being serious!" Rias responded. "I need you to use your abilities to transfer your power to the rest of us to increase our strength."
"And I need you to think for once." Ayato shot back. "Do you honestly think it's worth keeping me out of the fight just to power you guys up? If there's a problem that can't be solved without Boosting, then I just Boost my own strength and take care of it.
"But we can't just leave all the fighting to you." Rias argued. "Even if we'll lose some of our strength by leaving you out of the fight, it'll still be more practical if we can strengthen the group as a whole."
"And are they just going to stand there to let this happen?" Ayato pointed out. "Don't forget this is a fight to the death, our enemies aren't just going to sit around and let us power up and even if they do."Ayato narrowed his eyes. "You guys aren't strong enough to beat Kokabiel, even if I power you up to the limit."
Rias was taken aback by his choice of words. "And you're saying you are?"
"I'd rather try it myself then leave it to you." Ayato answered.
[Are you scared partner?]
Ayato looked at his right hand, as the back of his palmed lighted up once Ddraig started to talk to him.
Ayato scoffed. "Ddraig Sparda, did you seriously just ask me that?"
[I just wanted to be sure. But even you should understand he's on a different level. He is so strong that his name has been recorded in the bible since ancient times. He is the one who survived the battle against God and the past Devil Kings.]
"Yeah, but he's a worthy opponent for me."
Ayato kept his cool.
"Looks like I'll finally have a chance to go all-out."
[Heh, I see. So you truly have no intention of stalling until the Maou arrives. Well that's fine too. So Show him your power.]
"Now. I will have you all fight my pet that I brought from hell." Kokabiel clicked his fingers.
Then from the depths of darkness there was a sound of the ground rumbling as it came closer to them. The thing that appeared was something none of them were expecting. It was ten meters tall. It had a large body. It had four legs, and each leg was thick. Also the claws that grew from each leg looked so sharp they cut through trees. The eyes that were glittering from the darkness were red. From its mouth, what it had were dangerous looking fangs. The fangs were close to each other, and from the gaps there were white breaths pouring out. The animal which resembles it the most was a…dog. A dog from hell, with three heads.
ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!
Its howl was so loud it felt like it shook the ground! The three heads howled at the same time.
Ayato, including your power up, how many times can you transfer your powers?" Rias questioned.
"How many?" Ayato thought about it for a moment. "Probably twenty or thirty times if I was Boosting to the maximum, forty if I push it."
"I see, then we won't have to worry about you running out of stamina anytime soon." Rias said, relieved.
"Just know I'm only Transferring power to you once." Ayato informed her. "If you can't beat it even with double your power then I'll do it myself."
Rias smirked. "If I can't even take down a wild creature like that." She spread her wings out from her back and flew up into the sky. "I don't have the right to call myself the heir to the House of Gremory!"
Akeno followed her and magically transformed her clothing into her Shrine-Priestess outfit. Together with Rias & Stella with laevateinn in her hands , the two of them flew in the air and attacked Cerberus.
ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!
A sudden familiar howl caught everyone's attention as before they realized it another Cerberus appeared. In fact three more appeared, bringing the total up to four.
"It can't be." Akeno said in utter shock. "Why is there more than one?"/p
Kokabiel chuckled while looking down on them from his throne. "Mass-producing them wasn't as hard as you might think, so I decided to bring up the numbers a bit."
"You cur." Stella cursed.
One of the Cerberus jumped after making a growl. One of the heads opened up its jaw wide and breathed out fire. A strong torrent of flames was let loose.
"Too naïve…" Akeno spoke as she stood in front of Rias and froze the fire instantly.
"Take this!" Rias jumped from behind Akeno and released an enormous black block of demonic-power, of her power of destruction.
The other head of the monstrous dog shot out a ball of fire to counterattack, the two powers clashing with each other violently before another head shot out a fireball which assisted with the first one.
The two fireballs joined together and started to push against Rias' destruction ball, the Cerberus tried to shoot another one in an attempt to overpower the attack.
"I have found an opening in you." Koneko spoke as she jumped from beside Ayato and landed a heavy blow onto Cerberus's head.
"Here's another blow." Akeno spoke, pointing her fingers up as she created lightning in the sky before directing it to the Cereberus.
After a single flash, Cerberus was surrounded by violent lightning from Akeno, Rias' blow also added to it but the Cereberus' body didn't get terminated and only struck the side of its stomach, black blood coming from out of the stomach.
Another Cerberus appeared from the darkness, Ayato moving in front of Asia as he started to build his Reiatsu. It made a howl and it came towards Ayato and Asia as Rias called "Ayato! Just use the boost to increase your powers!"
"Asia get back" Ayato spoke, lifting Kuraokamitsu into the air as he started to channel his blue purple Reiatsu into it, Asia taking a few steps back as she didn't want to get in the way.
A second went by. Then its mind registered that the right half of its body was frozen solid! Including its head!
Then he made his move.
"Shikai"
He slashed his sword as a flow of ice in the shape of a Chinese Dragon, with powerful lightning emitting around it was flying to the shocked, frozen and scared Cerebeus!
Half a second later, a large chunk of the School Yard had been reduced to smoldering ruin.
[BOOST!]
Ayato turned his gaze to his Boosted Gear to see that it was starting to flash as Ddraig explained
[It's telling you that it can store the Boosted power up without having to use it. Therefore you can fight without triggering a Reset and still be able to Transfer power to Rias & Stella Vermillion Gremory or Akeno Himejima. However, in exchange your own power won't rise should you choose to do this.]
"What? Since when was that an option? I mean that's convenient and useful but why am I only able to do that now?"
The normal effect for the Boosted Gear is that once Ayato used Boost, his own power would be doubled and after hitting someone or getting hit by someone his power would return to normal and if he wanted to Boost more than once he needed to wait ten seconds until he could Boost again. If he wanted to sustain his extra power or Transfer to someone or something else, he couldn't fight until he was done Boosting.
[It means that both you and the Sacred Gear are evolving day by day. It has made possible what you desired. As you can't tell the fight while needing to Transfer power to your comrades without having to Reset, you wanted to fight while storing power for later. It has now let you do that.]
After hearing the explanation from the Dragon inside his arm, Ayato started to think about this. "So it manifests my desires." He said out loud thinking of the possibilities.
Though as he took the time to think, the fallen Cerberus got back up and pounced at him.
"Ayato-san! lookout!" Asia cried out with worry.
Ayato easily saw it coming and brought out Kuraokamitsu again. "First things first."
SLASH!
The instant Cerberus got close enough was the moment he was finished. Ayato unleashed three slashes that hacked off one of the heads of the Cerberus' two front legs which froze & shattered them, this attack sent them upwards into the sky with blood and smoke gushing out, and the Cerberus started to vaporise.
"Ayato, I told you to focus on increasing our power for now." Rias said, upset.
"Oh don't worry about it." Ayato replied.
[BOOST!]
"If the abilities evolve based on my desires, then maybe this'll work." Ayato aimed his gauntlet at Rias, Stella and Akeno and gathered the power he Boosted into his hand, they both appeared as three small, baseball sized, emerald orbs of light. "It worked."
"What are those?" Stella asked, confused at what she was looking at.
"Your support." Ayato smirked as he cocked back his fist and readied himself. "Transfer; Shot!"
[TRANSFER!]
Ayato fired all the orbs at Rias,Stella & Akeno. Once the power hit the two of them an enormous amount of power went to Rias,Stella, & Akeno, surrounding their bodies with a green flaming aura. They instantly gained an enormous amount of Demonic-Power. All of them were shocked at the amount of power that was overflowing from them. And more than that—
[AAH~!] Rias,Stella and Akeno let out a sexual cry of pleasure after receiving the power up and having it overflowing through them. It was like they had reached a climax.
"Oh for fuck sake." Ayato face-palmed, knowing he should have seen that coming.
"Anyways." Ayato continued, ignoring her entirely. "Now there's only two Cerberus's left."
"Actually, there's only one." Akeno said, lifting her finger up towards the sky.
Her Demonic-Power was radiating so much it was blanketing her entire body. She was surrounded by a strong yellowish-golden glow, along with sparks of electricity all over her. Thanks to the power up she gained, the Gremory Queen was ready to unleash all her power in one shot.
"Yes! Thunder! Resound!" Akeno pointed her fingers to the sky and started to control the thunder before aiming her fingers towards the Cerberus. The Cerberus tried to run from the spot as if it predicted the upcoming thunder before countless swords pierced through its' limbs
"I won't let you escape." Yuuto spoke as he appeared moments before the thunder went down at Cerberus after it lost its movement due to the demonic-swords. The lightning was so big that it couldn't be compared to the one before, it covered more than half of the school grounds.
The howl of the Cerberus was overshadowed by the sound, and its body turned to nothingness from the lightning which used up major amounts of demonic energy. Even if it was Rias and Akeno, continuous shots would have been hard for them as well. The moment the big dog disappeared, Stella pointed her hand towards Kokabiel.
"Take this! Kokabiel!"
The power of Destruction fell on top of Kokabiel. Stella was hoping he would perish with that. But he just stretched one of his hands to the front.
Kokabiel faced his palm towards the sky, the shot changed its direction and went up to the sky and disappeared. Kokabiel showed his malicious smile after seeing the smoke coming out of his hand.
"I see. Rias Gremory's power would grow this much because of the power of Sekiryuutei. Interesting. This is very interesting indeed. Kukuku." Kokabiel started to laugh by himself.
"…It's complete." Balba's voice called out.
The four Excaliburs that were placed on the center of the school field started giving out incredible amounts of light as Kokabiel started applauding "The four Excaliburs are going to become one."
The divine light spread throughout the school field, forcing them to cover their faces with their hands when the light faded. Ayato saw that the four Excaliburs were put on top of each other as they started to become one. When the bright lights were gone, there was one holy-sword at the center of the field giving out a blue-white aura.
"Because of the light created by the Excalibur when it turned into one, the spell on the ground is also complete. This town will collapse within 20 minutes. The only way to dispel it is by beating Kokabiel." Balba said casually, Ayato speechless as he realised that they didn't have long as the magic circle spread around the whole school field and it started glowing and gathering power.
"Freed!" Kokabiel called out, the priest appearing from the darkness as he asked
"What's up, Boss?"
"Use the Excalibur in the circle. It shall be the last entertainment. Fight while using the Excalibur that has turned into one from the four Excaliburs."
"Yeah yeah. Geez. My Boss sure uses people recklessly. But but! It's like I'm so honored to use the Excalibur-chan that has become super wonderful! Something like that? Hehehe! I will just chop some devils now!" Freed put on a crazy smile while holding the Excalibur as Xenovia then spoke to Yuuto and Ayato.
It was Kiba, and he was walking straight towards Balba. He stopped a few feet away from the old man and the newly formed Excalibur. He gripped on one of his Swords tightly in his hands. "Balba Galilei." He said calmly, but in his eyes the flames of hatred were burning like an inferno. "I am a survivor of the "Holy-Sword Project". No. I am the one who was killed by you to be more precise."
"Rias Gremory's ''Knight ``,''Pawn & Stella Vermilion's Queen ". If the cooperation is still valid, let us destroy that Excalibur together."
Ayato nodded as Yuuto asked "Is it okay?"
Xenovia laughed fearlessly as she spoke "At worst, it won't be a problem if I collect the "fragment" of the Excalibur that is acting as the core of it. Since Freed is wielding it, that is a holy-sword but it isn't a holy-sword. Even if it's a holy-sword, it's the same as any other weapon. It changes depending on the person using it. That is a sword of heresy."
"Kukuku…" Balba laughed upon hearing Xenovia.
It was Kiba, and he was walking straight towards Balba. He stopped a few feet away from the old man and the newly formed Excalibur. He gripped on one of his Swords tightly in his hands. "Balba Galilei." He said calmly, but in his eyes the flames of hatred were burning like an inferno. "I am a survivor of the "Holy-Sword Project". No. I am the one who was killed by you to be more precise."
"Hou. The survivor of that project. This is such a misfortune. To meet you in a far east country like this. I feel fate. Fufufu… You see. I like holy-swords. I like them so much that they come out in my dreams. Possibly because my heart has been fascinated by the legend of Excalibur since I was a child. That's why when I found out that I can't use Excalibur I went into despair." Balba started, Ayato wondering why he was starting to tell his life story as the old man continued
"What? Complete? You disposed of us after finding us to be a failure." Yuuto asked in disbelief and doubt as Balba shook his head
"I realised that there was an essential factor needed to wield holy-swords. So I used the numerical value of the "factors" to investigate its capability. Most of the test subjects had the "elements" but they didn't have the numerical value needed to wield the Excalibur. Then I reached a conclusion. Is there a way to take out the elements and gather them?"
"I see. I understand now. The thing that is put inside the holy-sword wielders when they receive a blessing is…" Xenovia spoke, understanding the truth and gritted her teeth hatefully as Balba continued to talk
"That's right, holy-sword wielder girl. We take out the holy-elements from those who have them and crystallise them. Just like this." Balba took out an orb that was giving out light that had the so-called holy aura in it.
"With this, the research on holy-sword wielders improved. Even so, those fools from the Church banished me for heresy and took away my reports on the research. By looking at you, I see that the project was succeeded by someone. That Michael. He made me look like a criminal and this is the result? Well it's that angel we are talking about. Even if he takes the elements out from the test subjects, he wouldn't go as far as to kill them. That part only would make him more human than me. Kukukuku." Balba laughed pleasantly.
"…You killed my comrades and took out the elements needed to wield the holy-swords?" Yuuto asked Balba with his voice filled with killing intent.
"That's right. This orb is from back then. I have used three of them on Freed though. This is the last one."
"Hyahahahaha! Other guys besides me died because their bodies couldn't synchronise with the elements! Hmmm. If I think like that, that makes me special." Freed said, Ayato realising that the other ones who had stolen the Excalibur had died, a small part of him thinking it would've been better if Freed had suffered the same thing.
"You thought that guys like me would end up being tough, didn't you Ayato-kun? No, no. I won't die easily like that."
"…Balba Galilei. How many lives have you sacrificed for your greed and experiments…" Yuuto spoke as his hands shook, an intense aura of anger coming from his body.
"Hm. If you say that, then I will give this orb to you. My research has reached the stage where it is possible to mass produce them in the right environment. First of all, I will destroy this town with Kokabiel. Next I will gather the legendary holy-swords stored around the world. Then I will mass produce holy-sword wielders and start a war against Michael and the Vatican with the combined Excaliburs. I'm going to show the result of my research to those foolish angels and their followers who have convicted me."
Balba threw away the orb as if he had lost interest in it. It rolled on the ground and went to Yuuto's feet, the blonde knight leaning down silently and picked it up. He patted the orb sadly, lovingly, and dearly.
"…Everyone…"
There was a tear on Yuuto's cheek, his expression filled with sadness and anger and then something unexpected happened. The orb that Yuuto held started giving out shallow lights. The lights started to spread and it eventually covered the whole school field. From the ground there were lights coming out and it started to form a shape. Then it formed into a proper shape, the shape of people. There were boys and girls who were giving out blue-white lights and they were surrounding Yuuto
"The various powers that are present on this battlefield made the spirits within the orbs appear."
Akeno said as each of the spirits looked at Yuuto with a dear and sad expression.
"Everyone! I…I…I have always…always thought about it. Was it alright that I was the only one that survived… There were those who had more dreams than me. There were those who wanted to live more than me. Is it alright that I am the only one to have a peaceful life…"
Then one boy's spirit smiled and it seemed like he wanted to say something. He was moving his lips but Ayato couldn't understand what he was saying from not being able to read lips as Akeno read it for him "…[Don't worry about us anymore. You are alive at least]. That's what they are saying."
There were tears coming out from both of Yuuto's eyes because their thoughts reached him. Then the spirits of boys and girls started to move their lips in a rhythm, like they were singing
"…The sacred song." Asia mumbled before Yuuto started to sing along while shedding tears.
The bodies of the spirits started to glow blue-white, growing brighter with Yuuto at the centre of them.
[We were no good alone.]
[We didn't have enough elements to wield the holy swords. But.]
[It will be okay if we are together.]
I could also hear their voices. I heard that originally the sacred-song was supposed to make us Devils suffer. Maybe because there were different types of powers in this place, I didn't feel any pain at all. Instead I felt warmth. Something warm that was thinking about friends and comrades… There were tears flowing out of my eyes suddenly.
[You have to accept the holy-sword.]
[It's not scary.]
[Even if God is watching.]
[Our hearts are always…]
[ONE.]
Their spirits went up into heaven and they turned into a big light that fell down to Kiba.
[Ayato]
Ddraig spoke to him as Ayato mentally asked 'What's the matter?'
[That "Knight" has reached it.]
Ayato's eyes widened as Sparda explained
{Sacred Gears change and evolve while using the feelings of the possessors as a key. But there is a different territory to that. When the feelings and the wishes of the possessor do a dramatic change that changes the flow of this world, the Sacred Gear reaches it. Yes. This is…}
Ddraig made a laugh of enjoyment as he added
[Balance Break.]
The light that split the abyss night looked as if it was giving blessings to Yuuto.
…
(Yuuto 1st person)
I just wanted to live. I escaped from the research laboratory by myself and that was the only thing I thought about while vomiting out blood and running. I got out of the forest and met a little girl, a high-class devil, while the light of my life was disappearing.
"What do you desire?"
The crimson haired girl asked while she held me, who was on the verge of death. I just mumbled one word while my vision was blurring. "Help". My life. My friends. My future. My friends. My power. My talent. My…
I just wished while having all of these thoughts. Those were my last words as a human.
"To live as a devil. That was the wish of my master, and also my wish. I thought that it was fine. But… I couldn't forget my hatred towards the Excaliburs and my comrades' vengeance… No, I could have forgotten about it. I…"
I have the best comrades now. Ayato-kun and Koneko-chan. They helped me, who was driven by vengeance. I thought about it while searching for the holy-sword wielder. There are comrades who would help me. I thought, "Isn't this already enough for me?" But if my former comrades' spirits are wishing for their vengeance, I can't let go of my demonic-swords that carry their hatred. But my thoughts were just released.
[Don't worry about us. At least you live.]
My former-comrades weren't wishing for me to deliver their vengeance. They weren't wishing for it!
"But it's not like everything is solved."
Yes, it hasn't ended. If I don't take down the evil thing right in front of me, there will be a repetition of the incident that happened to us.
"Valper Galilei. As long as I don't kill you, there will be those who would suffer the same fate as us."
"Hmph. It's been said for a long time that research always comes with sacrifices. Haven't you realised that yet?"
You certainly are evil!
"Yuuto! Cut down both Freed and Excalibur!"
…Ayato-kun.
"You are the "Knight" of the Gremory group and my comrade! My friend! Fight Kibaaaaaaa! Don't waste their feelings and spirit!"
"You have helped me. Even if you won't profit from it. Even if you might have received punishment from our master…"
"Yuuto! Do it! You have to finish this yourself! Surpass Excalibur! You are the servant of I, Rias Gremory! My "Knight" will not lose to a mere Excalibur!"
"Yuuto-kun! I believe in you!"
Buchou. Fukubuchou… Rias-buchou! Akeno-san!
"…Yuuto-senpai!"
Koneko-chan.
"Please do your best!"
"Kick his Ass Yuuto!"
Stella-sama
Everyone.
"Hahaha! Why are you crying? You were singing with joy with the ghost-chan. It's really a nuisance. It's totally the worst. You know I hate that song. Just listening to it makes the hair on my skin crawl! I don't want to hear it any more. I'm totally at my limit! I'm going to cut you into pieces and calm myself! With this ultimate Excalibur that has merged 4 of them!"
Freed Sellzen. My comrades' spirits reside within you. I can't allow you to do evil deeds with them any longer! These tears I have are tears of determination.
"…I will become a sword."
My comrades. My comrades who have merged with my spirit. Let us overcome it together. The feelings we couldn't say back then! The wishes we couldn't fulfil back then! Right now, right here!
"I shall become the sword of Buchou and my comrades! Please respond to my feelings now! Sword-Rebirth!"
They mixed. It started to align and formed a shape. The Demonic-power and the Holy-power were combining. Kiba could feel it, the sensation. My Sacred Gear and his comrade were telling him. This is sublimation. It was giving out Divine light and an ominous aura. Two opposing powers were coming into harmony, darkness and light came together to create a breathtaking sight. When it stopped, what appeared in his hand was a single sword… It was completed.
"Balance-Breaker'' "Sword of the Betrayer". Kiba declared.
"So that's his Balance-Breaker?" Ayato asked.
[That's right. That is the Ultimate form of his Sacred Treasure. Though it appears to be a Subspecies. Rather than a regular one, this is a unique Balance-Breaker made specifically by the "Knight" born from his own will.]
Ayato processed Ddraig's words, finding them to be a very interesting bit of information.
"A person can create a new Balance-Breaker just for them based on their own will huh?"
This gave Ayato many ideas, if what Ddraig said was true then he could just imagine how much potential his Sacred Gear could have once he got his Balance-Breaker. He then thought of something else.
"Tell me, why can't I use my Balance-Breaker? Am I not strong enough?"
[No, in fact you've already reached a stage where you're powerful enough to have it. However, acquiring a Balance-Breaker requires you to reach your peak in both body and mind. You need a certain catalyst to truly grow beyond what you already are just as the "Knight" has. Once you've achieved that, the Balance-Breaker will be yours.]
"So I need to be triggered huh? That'll be complicated?"
Deciding to settle this later, Ayato came out of his thoughts and went over to where Kiba was.
"Holy and Devil powers fused together?" Rias looked at her Knight with astonishment
"Ho…Holy-Demonic Sword…? Impossible… The polar opposites of two things cannot merge…" Balba made a strong expression as he tried to fathom how the creation of Kiba's new Sword was even possible.
"You shall receive the power of this sword that has both the power of Holy and Demonic powers with your own body." Kiba roared.
He ran towards Freed. Freed tried to grasp my movement with his eyes, but Kiba got out of his sight by doing a few feints.
Even so, Freed blocked my strike. Seriously. You are quite a skilled, exiled-exorcist. But the aura that was covering his Excalibur was being erased by my sword.
"! That sword surpasses the originator of holy-swords!?" He said in a shocked voice.
"If that was the true Excalibur, then I could not have won against it. But that Excalibur cannot cut the feelings of me and my comrades!"
"Chi!"
Freed clicked his tongue, and stepped back after he pushed me back.
His Excalibur started to twist as if it were alive! It moved randomly and came towards me with intense speed! The ability of "Excalibur Mimic"! I see. It has four of the abilities. Then his sword split into two at the tip of the blade, and started to come at me with god speed. This is the ability of "Excalibur Rapidly". If I remember, its trait was its velocity. It accurately tried to pierce me from every direction, but I blocked each strike. Your killing intent is easy to read. If I know which direction the killing intent is coming from, parrying it is very easy.
Freed shouted. I could see that his expression was filled with both enjoyment and impatience.
"Then! Then I have to add this as well!"
The tip of the holy-sword disappeared. Transparency pheromone? This is the power of "Excalibur Transparency". The ability to make the blade transparent. But if he doesn't change the direction of his killing intent, even if I can't see the blade…
The transparent sword and my sword made sparks. I was parrying all of his attacks.
"…!"
Freed narrowed his eyes and made a shocked face.
…
"Yes. Keep him there like that."
"Let's end this"
Xenovia and Ayato suddenly called, the former held the holy-sword in her left-hand, and put her right-hand in the air while Ayato held Kuraokamitsu in his right in the air.
"Saint Peter. Saint Basil the Great. Saint Denis. Holy-mother Mary. Please hear my voice." Xenovia started to chant, Yuuto wondering what she was doing as the space before him got distorted. Xenovia put her hand in the middle of it and pulled something right out of the dimensional gap. What appeared was a single sword that gave out a holy aura.
"In the names of the saints who reside within this blade, I will release it. Durandal!"
"Unseal and Devastate, Blade of the Dark Knight…Kuraokamitsu!" Ayato called, the crimson cloth that covered his large cleaver sword retracted from around the blade to reveal the gray blue blade with a silver edge, a look of relief on Ayato's face as he'd not been sure it would've worked despite Sparda's assurances.
"A Durandal!? Kuraokamitsu unsealed!?"
"You were not the wielder of the Excalibur!?"
Not just Balba, even Kokabiel couldn't hide his astonishment as they focused on Xenovia who smirked as she spoke "Wrong. I was originally the wielder of Durandal. I was also chosen as the holder of the Excalibur. That's all."
Xenovia stood into a two-sword style stance with Durandal and the Excalibur as Balba spoke "Absurd! According to my research, we haven't reached the stage where someone can wield Durandal!?"
"Of course. Even in the Vatican, they haven't made someone who can wield Durandal artificially."
"Then why!?"
"Unlike those common artificial holy-sword wielders like Irina, I'm a natural born wielder." Balba became speechless at Xenovia's words.
"Durandal is a sword that ravages beyond what people can imagine. It cuts anything it touches. It doesn't even listen to me most of the time. That's why I have to keep it in another dimension, otherwise it would be dangerous. Even I, the holder, have a hard time with it. Now, Freed Sellzen. Thanks to you, we can have the decisive battle between Excalibur and Durandal. Right now, I'm shaking with enjoyment. Don't die in a single strike okay? At least use the Excalibur to its fullest!"
"Takes a strong will to keep Kuraokamitsu in check while it's unsealed but it seems to recognise me as a worthy wielder now" Ayato spoke with a smile as the blade of Durandal started to give out more holy-aura than the Excalibur Freed held, surpassing that of Yuuto's Holy-demonic sword, Kuraokamitsu's aura growing as if to match the Holy sword.
"Is that even allowed!? It became a situation like this! You shitty bitch! I don't need any of that for this setting!" Freed shouted and moved his killing intent to Xenovia, an invisible slash launched towards her.
With a single side slash, the Excalibur shattered. Because of the pressure given by the swing of Durandal, there was a big hole in the school field.
"So it's just a broken holy-sword, huh. It can't even compete with my Durandal." Xenovia made a sigh while looking bored.
"Are you serious!? Are you really serious!? The legendary Excalibur-chan is shattered into pieces!? Horrible! This is really horrible! Kaaaa! Was it wrong to use something that was broken from the start? The shallowness of humans. The foolishness of the Church. I want to grow up while taking a glimpse of it!"
Blood launched from out of a slash as Ayato appeared a good distance behind Freed. The priest's killing intent became weak as Yuuto charged at him. Freed tried to block the attack with the remains of his Excalibur but the remains of Excalibur crumbled and shattered.
"Did you see it? Our powers have surpassed Excalibur." Yuuto spoke as he cut down Freed who fell down as blood came from his wounds.
"I should have done this a long time ago." Ayato said in a dark tone.
Igniting the blade with ice Ayato slashed out his Kuraokamitsu and with one swing, Freed's head was chopped off his neck. Freed fell down while blood came out of the now headless neck, the decapitated head in question rolled on the ground, stopping slightly next to the body as they both rested in a pool of blood. In a few seconds both the head and body lit up in ice, shattered away like a large popsicle, shattered away any evidence that the one known as Freed Zelzan ever lived.
The field was as silent as a grave, no one dared to utter a word. Freed was a hated existence that no one would mourn. but none of them knew what to say after seeing Ayato just execute him like that. Battle to the death. You couldn't stand in this place unless you were prepared to die and you had to accept the fact that it wouldn't be weird to lose your life. But it was easier to die than to kill, that's what most of them felt, Ayato obviously didn't share that sentiment.
"Ho…Holy-Demonic Sword…? Impossible… Two things that are conflicting existences cannot merge…" Balba Galilei made a strong enough fortune to bring everyone's attention to him instead of Freed.
Ayato pointed his Holy-Sword at him and prepared himself to end his life as well. "You're next, old man."
But Balba didn't notice Ayato's threat and kept babbling to himself. "…I see! I understand now! Holy and Demonic. It will be an explanation, if the beings that represent the two become unbalanced then it is possible! Then not only the Devil King but God has also…"
STAB.
A spear of light pierced through Balba's chest, who seemed like he realised something. Balba went down after throwing a solid amount of blood. Soon his dead body vanished into particles of light.
Balba. You were remarkable. The reason you went up to that conclusion proves that. But, I don't mind whether you are with me or not. I could have done it by myself from the beginning."
Kokabiel, who was up in the air, was sneering. The one who killed Balba was Kokabiel.
"Hahahaha! Kahahahahahahahaha!" Kokabiel laughed loudly and landed on the ground. An overwhelming pressure. The leader of the Fallen-Angels finally stood in front of the group while sending out an intense aura and confidence. While smiling fearlessly he said. "Sekiryuutei. Increase your power to its maximum and then fight me."
He made an order full of confidence, and Rias got enraged. "Are you trying to give us a chance!? Don't mess around!"
Kokabiel seemed amused by her outburst. "Don't mess around? Hahaha. You guys are the ones who are messing around. Do you guys think you can defeat me?"
Ayato stepped forward, not caring about how strong his opponent was. "What happens while I'm powering up? I seriously doubt you'll be patient enough to just wait."
"Hahahaha! No, of course not." Kokabiel pointed to the group behind Ayato. "To pass the time, I'll be fighting the rest of them. The Sisters of Sirzechs and Their Peerage, including the Holy-Demonic Sword, a powerful Sacred Gear user and the wielder of Durandal. I'll be entertained for a few minutes at least."
Everyone snarled at Kobabiel. They knew that he was stronger than they were but it was beyond looking down on them if he felt he could beat all of them by himself without a struggle. Even though they felt a lot of pressure from facing a Fallen-Angel that has been recorded in the bible since ancient times. The fact remained that if they didn't defeat him this town would vanish.
"Guys!" Ayato yelled out, getting everyone's attention. He held up his Boosted Gear and prepared himself. "…Stall him."
Those simple words, filled with the same arrogance that they knew only Ayato could pull off, somehow ignited their fighting spirit and they all hardened their resolve, ready to take on this overwhelming foe.
"Don't be too upset if we defeat him before you're ready." Akeno said, in a teasing manner.
Ayato smirked. "Hmph… Don't get cocky."
[BOOST!]
…
Harem list: Stella,Rias,Asia,Akeno,Nene,Ayase,Shizuku,Tohka,Kanata,Serafall,Kurono,Xenovia,Irina,Kotake,Kotume.