Yukinoshita Yukino's easy victory over Georg brought a promising start to the Eligos Peerage.
Unfortunately, while she secured a win, someone from the Hero Faction on the other side had also suppressed the Eligos Peerage, putting them in grave danger.
That person was none other than Siegfried.
As mentioned previously, this former top-tier warrior of the Church possessed extraordinary strength, faintly holding the position of second-in-command—the strongest individual in the entire Hero Faction aside from Cao Cao.
He himself inherited the genetic factors of the dragon-slaying hero Sigurd, and his combat power had fully blossomed after undergoing the Church's rigorous warrior cultivation methods.
As a Magic Swordsman, he possessed several powerful Magic Swords, each with different abilities. His swordsmanship was also extremely superb, at least on par with Kiba Yuuto's, if not surpassing it.
Furthermore, he was a Sacred Gear user, possessing the Sacred Gear that could double his own power for a certain period of time—"Twice Critical." As a sub-species, it allowed silver arms to grow from his back, enabling him to use more Magic Swords while boosting his strength, achieving a combat power increase where one plus one was greater than two.
His Balance Breaker—"Chaos Edge Asura Ravage"—could further increase the number of arms. Much like the legendary Asura, he would transform to have six arms; the more arms he had, the more times his power would be multiplied. Combined with even more Magic Swords, a typical Ultimate-class Devil was truly no match for him in a single exchange.
Naturally, Shiina Mahiru was no match for him either.
Although the "Angel-sama" had improved her strength significantly after numerous special training sessions, she ultimately lacked the ability of Yukinoshita Yukino or Kasumigaoka Utaha to reach the Balance Breaker domain in just a few short months. Even though "Incinerate Anthem" was powerful, her opponent was a human like Siegfried rather than a demonic creature she could exploit. At most, she could deal with High-class Devil-level opponents; an Ultimate-class level opponent was still far too strong for her.
Consequently, after the battle with Siegfried began, Shiina Mahiru was quickly suppressed, even facing several narrow escapes where she was nearly cut down by a Magic Sword.
Receiving the same treatment was Yuuki Asuna, a fellow Holy Relic user.
Although Jeanne was not as powerful as Siegfried, she was an extremely skilled female swordsman. Since she had already reached the Balance Breaker domain, Yuuki Asuna was completely outmatched.
In terms of swordsmanship, Jeanne was in no way inferior to Yuuki Asuna.
In terms of their unique qualities, though Jeanne was human, she inherited the soul of the Holy Maiden who saved her country; she would not lose out to the reincarnated Devil Yuuki Asuna in terms of innate talent.
In terms of Sacred Gears, although Yuuki Asuna could now freely use Holy Swords of various attributes, Jeanne had reached the Balance Breaker domain, putting her far ahead.
In the original work, to deal with this female swordsman, both Rias and Himejima Akeno had to join forces to stand a chance. It was truly a bit too early for Yuuki Asuna to try and face her alone.
Therefore, as a fellow wielder of "Holy Sword Creation," Yuuki Asuna was suppressed by Jeanne in every aspect, facing dangers no less severe than those of Shiina Mahiru.
If the battle continued this way, whether it was Shiina Mahiru or Yuuki Asuna, there was only one likely outcome: being toyed with and tormented to death.
At the critical moment, Yukinoshita Yukino and Kasumigaoka Utaha, having defeated their own opponents, arrived just in time to save the two.
Indeed.
During this interval, not only Yukinoshita Yukino but Kasumigaoka Utaha had also successfully defeated her opponent and secured a victory.
Her opponent, Heracles, indeed inherited the power of the famous Great Hero, possessing a massive physique and Herculean strength. He held the Sacred Gear "Variant Flare," which could blow up opponents while attacking. His Balance Breaker, "Detonation Mighty Comet," allowed him to transform into a living turret, sprouting countless missile launchers all over his body. With pure firepower alone, he was capable of suppressing a Devil legion. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong opponent.
The barriers Kasumigaoka Utaha set up with "Create World" were already strong enough to withstand the full-force attack of an Ultimate-class Devil. Even when Heracles activated his Balance Breaker and unleashed peerless firepower, he could not break through her barrier defenses. Conversely, due to his excessive "tankiness" and lack of flexibility, he was easily captured by Utaha, trapped within a barrier, and subjected to frantic bombardment from all directions.
Thus, Heracles was perfectly countered by Kasumigaoka Utaha. Within a few rounds, he fell, smoke rising from his body, unable to rise again.
Because of this, Kasumigaoka Utaha was able to free herself and, alongside Yukinoshita Yukino, support Shiina Mahiru and Yuuki Asuna.
Yukinoshita Yukino supported Shiina Mahiru, teaming up to face Siegfried.
Kasumigaoka Utaha supported Yuuki Asuna, teaming up to face Jeanne.
With their support, the nearly crumbling Shiina Mahiru and Yuuki Asuna caught their breath and were finally able to counterattack.
However, the strength of Siegfried and Jeanne was truly remarkable; even with two against one, it was difficult to break through.
Seeing Kasumigaoka Utaha come to the rescue, Jeanne decisively activated her Balance Breaker—"Stake Victim Dragoon," creating a dragon formed entirely of countless Holy Swords. She seized air superiority and fought Utaha and Asuna from a high vantage point. Siegfried likewise unleashed his Balance Breaker and the Demon Emperor Sword, Gram. His slashes caused both Yukino's blizzard and Mahiru's purple flame crosses to collapse repeatedly, unable to wound them at all.
Jeanne's mobility was far superior to Heracles'. She soared through the sky on the Dragon of Holy Swords, proving so fast that even Utaha's barriers couldn't capture her. Meanwhile, Siegfried used pure, violent pressure to compress the living space of Yukino and Mahiru, leaving the girls in a bitter struggle.
Out of necessity, Yukinoshita Yukino and Kasumigaoka Utaha finally activated their Balance Breakers one after another, putting forth their full strength.
"It seems it was indeed a very difficult fight."
Leon remarked with some emotion.
As their master, Leon naturally knew what the Balance Breakers of Yukinoshita Yukino and Kasumigaoka Utaha were.
The Balance Breaker of "Eternal Ice Queen" is "The Eternal Silver World," which can freeze a massive area within a certain range and sprout ice crystal blades everywhere, bringing a world of ice and blades into the physical realm.
This move is extremely powerful. At its peak, it can completely freeze an entire nation forever. Unless it is a Longinus ranked above "Eternal Ice Queen" or a power of equivalent scale, unfreezing the target is simply impossible. The world of ice and blades also brings extreme damage, comparable to a frozen hell—a terrifying power that can slice and freeze even a Maou's body.
Meanwhile, the Balance Breaker of "Create World" is "Illusion and Reality Utopia," which can expand the barrier's coverage to everything within sight and arbitrarily convert the nature of all powers within the barrier between "illusion" and "reality."
In short, an enemy's attack against you can be turned into an illusion, becoming ineffective, while your own attacks against the enemy are converted into reality. Even ethereal illusions or mental attacks can cause physical damage, making it terrifying.
With these two Sacred Gear Balance Breaker abilities, the four of them—Yukinoshita Yukino, Yuuki Asuna, Kasumigaoka Utaha, and Shiina Mahiru—finally had a way to fight back.
Siegfried's Magic Swords could not withstand the ice and blades capable of freezing a nation. All six of his arms were frozen, and finally, his body was struck by Shiina Mahiru's purple flame cross, burning him into charcoal on the spot. He became the first combatant on the field to die in battle.
It was a pity for this top-tier warrior of the former Church. In terms of raw strength, he was clearly the strongest present, yet he was the first to die, which was truly lamentable.
Although Jeanne did not die outright like Siegfried, she was in a wretched state. Utaha's Balance Breaker couldn't affect living beings directly, but the Dragon of Holy Swords she rode was a manifestation of Sacred Gear power. Thus, captured by the expanded barrier range, Utaha snapped her fingers and turned it into an illusory shadow. Jeanne fell directly from high altitude and was struck by Yuuki Asuna's hidden Niten Ichi-ryu ultimate move. Her body was covered in countless sword wounds, and she lay in a pool of blood, on the verge of death.
Hearing this, Leon couldn't help but ask a question.
"They were defeated just like that? They didn't use any other means to counterattack?"
Leon's brow furrowed slightly.
He vaguely remembered that the Hero Faction in the original work had a forbidden drug called "Chaos Break."
It was a product made by processing the blood of the original Maous, capable of activating the Sacred Gears created by the God of the Bible. By fusing holy tools with the demonic nature of the abyss, one could enter a state called "Chaos Drive," greatly enhancing their strength.
In the original work, both Siegfried and Jeanne had used this forbidden drug, and Heracles possessed it as well. There was no reason for these three not to bring it out after being pushed to a corner.
However, Yukinoshita Yukino and the others said otherwise.
"No, aside from the Balance Breakers, they didn't use any other means to counterattack."
Yukino, Asuna, Utaha, and Mahiru were very certain about this, leaving Leon to nod thoughtfully.
"Perhaps it's because it's still early, and the Hero Faction hasn't developed this forbidden drug yet."
That was the only explanation.
What followed was not worth mentioning.
As Yukino and the others defeated their respective opponents, the only remaining enemies were Georg, Leonardo, and some second-tier combat personnel who weren't worth much.
Seeing Siegfried and the others fall one by one, those second-tier personnel finally couldn't sit still and made their move. But facing Yukino and Utaha, who had activated their Balance Breakers and possessed large-scale attack capabilities, these combatants could achieve nothing and were soon annihilated.
It had to be said that Yukinoshita Yukino and Kasumigaoka Utaha were truly strong after reaching the Balance Breaker domain. Not counting the recently joined Kanna and Stella, they definitely had the strength to compete for the top three positions in the entire Eligos Peerage, perhaps even securing second and vying for first.
At the very least, if Ram didn't use the "Soldier" promotion to significantly boost her strength, and if Rem didn't use her Oni form, they would likely be inferior to those two.
Having a Balance Breaker and not having one are two completely different concepts. Take the original protagonist Hyoudou Issei: before he had his Balance Breaker, he was always a "small fry" character who had to rely on "cheating" and explosive power-ups during battle to win, yet he was often the one being toyed with. Only after mastering the Balance Breaker did he finally seem like a powerhouse capable of fighting strong enemies, rather than continuing to be a gag character and a power-booster for his teammates.
In the Hero Faction, only those who learned the Balance Breaker could become first-tier combatants. Without it, they were second-tier after all. Had it not been for the special circumstances, Sharon wouldn't even have been qualified to go out to battle with Siegfried and the others at that time.
Afterward, seeing the situation turn sour, Georg began to avoid combat. He manipulated the mist produced by "Dimension Lost" to forcibly transfer members of the Hero Faction out of the isolated dimension on a large scale, preserving the Faction's strength as much as possible. At Georg's signal, Leonardo also completely erupted. Ignoring his young age and insufficient mastery of his Sacred Gear, he forcibly activated the Balance Breaker of "Annihilation Maker"—"Bandersnatch and Jabberwocky," creating twelve giant "Bandersnatches" about 150 meters long and one "Jabberwocky" nearly 200 meters long, launching an assault on the entire Eligos Peerage.
To deal with these thirteen giant monsters, the entire Eligos Peerage exhausted all their efforts. In the end, they only managed to resolve the twelve Bandersnatches, leaving them powerless to resist the final Jabberwocky.
To eliminate those twelve Bandersnatches, Yukinoshita Yukino and Kasumigaoka Utaha had overloaded themselves using their Balance Breakers. Ram had activated the promotion characteristics of the "Soldier," Rem had gone full Oni, Yuuki Asuna and Shiina Mahiru had traded injury for injury, and even Ravel had exhausted her power to the point where she couldn't even maintain her immortality; her demonic power was completely drained.
Even so, the girls were all significantly injured, and the final Jabberwocky seemed impossible to defeat, leaving them on the verge of despair.
"Actually, you have already performed very well."
Seeing the girls looking downcast as they mentioned the matter, Leon couldn't help but offer comfort.
He wasn't lying; this performance truly exceeded his expectations.
One must know that in the original story, the Hero Faction relied on Leonardo's Balance Breaker to throw the entire Underworld into chaos. Many cities in the Underworld were destroyed by those twelve Bandersnatches, and it took the deployment of many powerful Devils to finally resolve it.
As for the final Jabberwocky, even Sirzechs' Peerage was deployed to deal with it, and Grayfia personally took action. In the end, it was Hyoudou Issei, fused with Great Red, who finally defeated it. For the Eligos Peerage to want to resolve such a monster was hopeless unless Leon himself was present.
Therefore, Leon didn't feel the girls had failed at all; on the contrary, he felt they had performed exceptionally well—truly worthy of being the heroines of their respective stories.
That they could resolve those twelve Bandersnatches was already a massive surprise.
The only question was—
"Who solved the final Jabberwocky?"
Leon's question caused the girls to look at each other.
Then, Yukinoshita Yukino gave the answer.
"That Jabberwocky was not solved."
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