180 Twice Critical Sub-Species

Human World, Japan, Kyoto.

With his [sacred Gear], [Dimension Lost], Georg was the first to distance himself from the other fights. Shortly after he appeared on his preferred battlefield, Shuna covered in [Touki] arrived.

"Did he choose a melee fighter to fight me?" Georg asked while adjusting his glasses. "Thinking I can be defeated in close range is foolish. You'll find that I'm nothing like your average magician."

Just as his words fell, a blood-red fireball whizzed past Georg's cheek. Seeing this, his eyes widened, and his pupils contracted for a moment.

"You speak of foolishness." Shuna said quietly. "I believe judging a book by its cover and underestimating your opponent show the peak of foolishness."

After Shuna spoke, Georg's expression returned to normal. Then, without speaking any further, many magic circles appeared behind him. He generated even more magic circles than the drunk Rossweisse did against the [Annihilation Maker's] monsters. What truly differed between these two displays, however, was the fact that there were many different magic systems represented by those magic circles behind Georg. While all Rossweisse's magic circles were all from the Norse runic system.

Shuna's expression did not change at all after seeing this display. Instead of creating [Youjutsu] spells that would counter each of the spells aimed at her, she waited for Georg to activate his spell circles. And she did not have to wait for long. Georg launched hundreds of spells of many different attributes. Quickly, Shuna analyzed which spells would hit her directly, and which she could ignore. Then, she quickly created just enough spells to offset those that would do her harm directly. As far as shockwaves and splash damage went, though. She allowed her [Touki] to defend her from the weaker forces.

Naturally, all the spells that were not countered hit the ground around Shuna and kicked up a massive amount of dust and debris.

"You're very skilled with magic." Shuna said as the dust cloud from all of Georg's attacks dispersed. "However, focusing on one discipline might do you some good."

As Shuna finished speaking, another blood-red fireball was fired at Georg. This time, however, it was aimed at him, rather than slightly to the side. Georg effortlessly defended against it with a magical barrier. Then, the two began exchanging spells from a distance. Eventually, Georg's eyebrow twitched. That was around the time that Jeanne was defeated and planted headfirst into the ground. A few moments later, his other eyebrow twitched.

"This is bad." Georg said to himself. How did both Jeanne and Heracles lose so quickly?"

Then, without a word to his opponent, Georg vanished into a cloud of purple fog.

"I guess.... I won?" Shuna asked herself in confusion.

Shaking off her confusion, Shuna used her [Senjutsu] to pinpoint her comrade's' locations. Then, she began quickly moving toward the nearest one, which was Yuuto.

At the same time, as Mizore knocked Heracles away, Yuuto rushed toward Siegfried. Like Jeanne, Siegfried also chose to distance himself from the other battles. As a prideful swordsman, he wanted no one to get in his way. So, for the next minute or so, Yuuto chased the silver-white-haired youth to a deserted area. Then, when they were far enough away from the others, Siegfried stopped and turned to face his foe.

"*Sigh* I really wanted to fight that James guy." Siegfried said as he placed his hand on one of the swords on his sword belt. "I guess luck just wasn't on my side today."

Creating a simple demonic sword in his hand, Yuuto readied his stance.

"You should think about beating me first." Yuuto said. "If you can't even do that, you'd have no chance against James-Senpai. Oh, and I'm talking about a chance strictly in terms of swordsmanship. If he fought all out, this city would probably disappear."

"That makes me even more curious." Siegfried said as he drew his sword, a light sword like the exorcists from the church use.

"You're an exorcist?" Yuuto asked with a frown. "Come to think about it, you look like someone I know. That white hair and those red eyes bring back some rather unpleasant memories."

"Oh, you must be talking about that lunatic, Freed." Siegfried said with a frivolous smile on his face. "Yeah, I'm a terrorist and even I think that guy is nuts."

"You say that as if you knew what you were doing is wrong." Yuuto said with a bit of shock in his eyes. "Why even join a group like that."

"Well, life in the church didn't allow me to improve my swordsman ship like this life does." Siegfried said with a smile. "And a life where I can't see an improvement in my swordsmanship is not a life worth living."

"*Sigh* You're just as insane as Freed." Yuuto said before changing his expression into a battle ready one. "You're just insane in a different way."

With that, Yuuto burst forward with all the speed he could muster from his [Knight] piece.

*Clang!*

Siegfried, with one hand, blocked the diagonal slash Yuuto made with his light sword. However, he was quite surprised by the power behind Yuuto's slash, not to mention how little wasted movement there was in his action. Because of that, Siegfried began to smile excitedly.

"Oh, this could be more fun than I was expecting." Siegfried said as he tilted his sword, causing Yuuto's sword to slide toward the tip of his blade.

Then, once his sword was no longer in contact with Yuuto's, Siegfried executed his own slash that Yuuto parried effortlessly. Slowly, the two young swordsmen began to increase their speed and power. With every strike and defensive maneuver, they showed more and more of their capabilities. Slashes, parries, and thrusts were exchanged at such a high speed that most middle-rank beings would not be able to follow the sword paths with their eyes.

After a few minutes, Siegfried distanced himself from Yuuto. As he did, he was staring at his light sword. The light it emitted was dimmed significantly. Then, he looked at Yuuto's sword. In Yuuto's hand was the sword he often uses against exorcists, [Holy Eraser]. Seeing that his light sword was rendered useless, Siegfried sheathed it without hesitation. Then, he drew another sword.

"This is the Demonic Emperor Sword, Gram." Siegfried said as he admired the sword's blade. "The strongest demonic sword in the world."

Gram, also known as the Demonic Emperor Sword, is a large double-edged sword that has vibrant colors despite being a Demon Sword. The pommel is a gold cone-like shape with the addition of a triangle attached to the pommel. The triangle is missing the base and the middle of it because of the pommel and the handle is colored with a mix of red and purple. The cross guard is a rectangular bar colored black, with gold symbols etched onto it a brown X-mark in the middle and features a red semi-circle protrusion on both sides of the cross guard. The blade is black with a red edge, but a red aura sometimes shrouds it giving it a dark red color all around. The blade itself is fairly long, and near the tip, it curves upwards, then curves back in. The blade also sports three hollow holes in the form of a triangle and is located in the middle of the blade curving upwards. At the bottom of the blade, there is a piece of metal, acting as a fuller, it has red lines on it that increase in height but it stays on the golden part and the fuller at the bottom is in the shape of a rectangle standing upwards, the difference is that the top left has a large amount taken of off it, which makes the left side shorter compared to the right. Further along the blade is a golden design, which looks like a blade, with two black rectangles connected by a line and the tip of it goes out by a small degree and goes back into the tip of the blade, the tip part of the blade design is two black modified squares and a black diamond-like circle shape. {A/N: Description found on the Fandom Wiki}

Understanding that his normal demonic swords would never be enough to compete with a sword the caliber of Gram, Yuuto dissipated his sword. Then, his demonic energy spiked.

"[Balance Break: Sword of the Betrayer]." Yuuto said as a double-edged sword appeared in his hand.

This western sword had a half-black and half-white blade. What made this sword even stranger than the two-toned blade, was the fact that both demonic and holy energy were mixing harmoniously with it.

Realizing that they were both ready, Yuuto and Siegfried both charged forward. This time, however, when the blades clashed, Yuuto's had a small knick in the blade. As they continued to clash, after a few minutes Yuuto's sword broke. Undaunted by this, Yuuto simply created another blade and continued to fight. As time went on, Siegfried eventually drew another sword.

"And this is Dainsleif, the Demonic Ice Sword." Siegfried said as he drew a second sword, mid-combat.

Seeing a second sword swing at him with Siegfried's introduction of the blade, Yuuto created a second [Holy Demonic Sword in his free hand]. With the properties of wind and fire imbued into it, he used it to defend himself from the incoming ice sword. And like that, the fight continued with Yuuto continuously creating new swords whenever one was destroyed.

"So, even your dual wielding style is pretty refined. I gotta say, I'm impressed." Siegfried said with a big smile on his face.

"I'll admit you're good." Yuuto said as he continued to exchange sword strikes. "But if this is all you've got, you'll never be able to touch James-senpai. He wouldn't even have to draw his second sword."

"Oh, so he's used to fighting against the two-sword style, huh?" Siegfried said as his smile further broadened. "I'd wager he's surprisingly good at using it, too. But I bet he's never seen anything like this. [Twice Critical]."

To Yuuto's surprise, a third arm, covered in silver dragon scales burst from Siegfried's back and drew another of the swords hanging on his waist. Then, the new arm swung the sword it drew at Yuuto, who crossed the two swords in his hands to defend himself. As a result of the collision, Yuuto slid back and away from Siegfried who chose not to follow for the moment.

"This is my subspecies [Twice Critical]." Siegfried said while waving the new appendage. "You see, usually a [Twice Critical] doubles the wielder's power. But, in my case it manifests as another arm that has the total strength of my entire being. Oh, and this is Balmung, the demonic sword of whirlwinds."

Balmung is a long sword with a darkish purple color, which reach up to half the blade nearing towards the upper portion where it is silver, it has a unique cross guard, a light purple part placed onto the cross guard extending up the purple-colored fuller with a small yellow circle in the middle making it seem almost like an eye, a yellow two-handed grip, and a purple pommel that has light purple ornaments around it. {A/N: Description forom the Fandom Wiki.}

With his new sword's introduction out of the way, Siegfried once again charged toward Yuuto. Being outnumbered with the number of weapons, it did not take long for Yuuto to fall into a disadvantage. On top of that, the fierce winds produced by Balmung were making the fight even more difficult for the young devil. Then, just as Siegfried was about to land the strike that would claim victory, Georg appeared next to him from a purple fog.

"Siegfried, we need to leave, now." Georg said a little frantically.

"What's wrong, Georg?" Siegfried asked with a smile of contentment. "I was just starting to have fun."

Siegfried was not speaking mockingly with that last statement. As he was pressing Yuuto, Yuuto was improving quickly. Although he was not at the point that he would be able to defeat Siegfried, his skills had improved quite a bit in that brief period.

"Jeanne and Heracles have already been defeated and their opponents, the two ultimate-rank devils are on their way here." Georg explained. "So, we need to leave, now."

"*Sigh* Fine." Siegfried said as he sheathed his three swords. Then, his third arm retracted into his back. "Hey, what's your name, kid?"

"Kiba Yuuto." Yuuto said while breathing heavily.

"Good, I'll remember it." Siegfried said with a frivolous smile. "I hope you're even better with those swords of yours, and we'll fight again."

Then, Siegfried disappeared with Georg in another cloud of purple fog. A minute or so later, Mizore and Moka arrived.

"I guess the one that controls [Dimension Lost] got here before we did." Mizore said, looking around the battlefield.

"Are you alright, Yuuto?" Moka asked as the two approached.

"Yeah, just a little tired." Yuuto said.

"Sorry to say this, but we need to hurry over to James." Moka said. "They're probably gonna gather there."

"Okay." Mizore and Yuuto said.

Then, the group of three ran toward where James was fighting Cao Cao. On the way, they met up with Shuna who looked like her condition was good, with no injuries. Like that, the four young devils rushed to help where they could.