The system notification burned across my vision and every drop of warmth drained from my body like someone had pulled the plug on a bathtub full of blood.
Clang!
My fingers had already tightened around Cross Tail's wires before my brain finished processing the two figures perched on the rusted gantry above us.
"As Lady Sona Sitri's Queen… I suggest you answer carefully" Tsubaki glared at the intruders, her violet demonic energy crackling around the fingertips, ready to strike any moment "Why you two are trespassing in a devil territory"
The blonde girl tilted her head.
"Ara~ you don't recognize us? How rude!" She swung her legs one more time, then dropped from the gantry, landing fifteen feet below without so much as bending her knees. Her sky-blue eyes sparkled with a playfulness that didn't match the armored gakuran she wore along with the faint aura of holiness radiating off her "I'm Jeanne! Pleased to meet you, Queen-chan, Glasses-kun!"
The silver-haired man descended with less flair but considerably more menace, his boots touching the concrete floor in complete silence. His red eyes swept over me, then over Tsubaki and nodded with a threat assessment that probably ranked us somewhere between "minor inconvenience" and "light warmup." His gaze lingered on the Cross Tail wires threaded between my fingers, on the potions strapped to my belt, then met my gaze like a test paper being graded by a teacher who already knew I'd fail.
"And I am Siegfried" he said, and after a dramatic pause, he responded "We are-"
But he was interrupted by the girl beside him, making his eye twitch momentarily.
Jeanne summoned a rapier in her outstretched hand, its blade radiating a pale holy glow that made Tsubaki flinch backward half a step. Blade Blacksmith. The Sacred Gear that could create holy swords of any attribute on command. She twirled the rapier between her fingers "—from the Hero Faction of the Khaos Brigade, and we've been so looking forward to meeting you!"
I reached out to my pocket to drink Gravebloom Restoration and Hell Claw Surge, while none of them seemed to be alarmed other than throwing curious gazes.
Siegfried's attention shifted entirely to me, and being the sole focus of those red eyes felt roughly equivalent to standing in front of a loaded cannon. He didn't draw any of his sword yet. Everything about the way he held himself — the loose shoulders, the relaxed wrists, the weight balanced on the balls of his feet passed a single, eloquent message: I could end you before your next heartbeat, and we both know it.
"You're no Devil..." he said. His gaze tracing the Cross Tail wires, followed them to vials in my hand "Yet you stand beside a Devil Queen in Devil territory, armed and ready to fight your own race?" Something shifted behind those red eyes "We know every power you possess, whether it's ground manipulation, potion creation or those wires. We've encountered users of Sacred Gears, holy and demonic weapons, and Longinus-class weapons, so don't try anything foolish...yet"
"Don't be rude, Sieg kun!" Jeanne said, jabbing a finger from the side.
"Tell me then, why you two are here.... because I don't remember doing something significant to get your attention" I said, keeping myself calm despite the losing situation I was in right now.
"The Hero Faction seeks humans who transcend their limitations with sacred gears" Siegfried continued, with a burning resolve evident in his eyes "Humans who refuse to remain ordinary in a world of Devils, Angels and other races. And you...you have a great potential that is being wasted, serving Devils while-"
"Sieg kun is right, you know!" Jeanne chirped in, cutting him off once again much to his dismay "The leader will be thrilled to have another of us join the group!! So?! Will you join-"
"No" I responded.
She blinked a couple times to make sure she heard it correctly, then looked at Siegfried who just clicked his tongue.
Jeanne's shoulders dropped with a soft sigh "That's a shame…" she murmured as her smile returned and pointed her rapier at me "Then I'm afraid you'll have to die tonight!"
Tsubaki's naginata materialized in her hands from the magic circle, placing herself between me and the blonde swordswoman with the deliberate authority that came from being Sona Sitri's Queen.
"I won't let you harm him under Sitri protection" she said, and her voice carried the absolute certainty of someone who meant it down to her bone.
Jeanne's cheerful expression didn't waver, not even in slightest. If anything, her smile widened until she finally let out a cheerful jump "Student Council Queen-chan wants to play? How exciting!"
Then, they moved at the same instant, Tsubaki thrusting forward with her naginata, aiming for neck, while Jeanne sidestepped with ease and equipped a longsword in her free hand, its blade crackling with a different holy attribute than the rapier. Tsubaki's magical barrier caught the first strike, deflected the second, and Mirror Alice manifested between them, a full-body mirror that could reflect attacks back at double the damage. The rapier hit the mirror's surface, and Jeanne's own holy energy rebounded toward her face.
CRASH!
Jeanne laughed in ecstasy, while dodging her own reflected attack. Then she raised both hands, and different holy swords began materializing around her in a semicircle, a broadsword wreathed in flame, a curved blade wrapped with wind, a short sword emitting frost, and another one, another one....five, eight, halting to twelve blades, appearing in the span of seconds, each one conjured by Blade Blacksmith with a different elemental attribute, each one launched at Tsubaki in staggered waves.
Mirror Alice could reflect one attack. Maybe two with the cooldown, but I doubt it could reflect twelve at once. Seeing this queen, summoned multiple defensive magic circles in front of her in one fluid motion.
But.
Tsubaki's barriers shattered one by one, each holy sword demolishing her defenses like Star Platinum's punch to The World's leg, and even as she brought the strength of Queen piece to parry, the last sword drove straight into the barrier.
KRAAAKOOOOM!
A blinding eruption of holy light swallowed the space between them, and Tsubaki crashed backward through a factory wall with enough force to send bricks spraying across the warehouse floor. She slid to the ground with her glasses split down the middle as her eyes closed, rendering the Queen Piece granted Tsubaki the combined attributes of a Rook, Knight, and Bishop, against Jeanne's Sacred Gear.
Useless.
The Sitri Queen, who could match the master swordsmen like Kiba and Xenovia, who could maintain barriers with her team mates that held back Kokabiel's assault, folded in under ninety seconds.
Jeanne tilted her head, blonde hair swaying, and pouted "Queen-chan wasn't very strong~ Now Sieg-kun, you can have fun!"
Siegfried drew his sword.
The Demon Sword Nothung cleared its sheath with a sound like reality tearing at the seams, its edge so sharp that the air itself seemed to bleed around it. He held it one-handed, loose and ready, his silver hair falling across his predatory red eyes.
Behind his right shoulder, a silver Dragon Arm erupted from his back, metallic and segmented, flexing like a real human arm. From what I remember his Sacred Gear was Twice Critical, the subspecies variant that manifested not as a gauntlet but as an additional limb, doubling his already terrifying speed and strength. The Dragon Arm reached into his coat and drew a second blade: Balmung, the Norse Demon Sword, its aura twisting in a drill-like spiral that summoned a whirlwind strong enough to scatter loose debris across the factory floor.
WHOOOOOM!
Three-Sword Style? Two human arms. One Dragon Arm. Three Demon Swords. And this wasn't even his Balance Breaker, good now that he is still not going all out, because if I had chances of survival then it was right now.
I could just teleport away and complete the quest, but I am no coward, and besides leaving an unconscious Tsubaki to these two, sounds about as appealing as friendship with Sosuke Aizen.
I'd chugged the Hell Claw Surge potion in one go, the fire flooding my veins boosted my speed, strength, and reflexes by roughly sixty percent, which put me, generously, at the level of a dog trying to outrun a bullet train. But I activated Eyes of Future anyway, focusing on Siegfried with everything I had, and now more than half a precious second, the world revealed its hand to me: ghostly trajectory lines bloomed from his swords, showing me exactly where his next three strikes would land.
In an instant, he disappeared from my sight and so did I.
Nothung carved toward my neck, I ducked under the sweep as the wires from Cross Tail lashing outward to thread themselves through the surrounding machinery, the catwalks, the rusted support beams to limit his movements and force him to a position he hadn't anticipated.
CLANG — SHING — KRNCH!
Balmung's drill-like aura caught me across the shoulder as I rolled, and the concentrated whirlwind attached to the blade sliced through my haki defense slightly, drawing a line of blood from my collarbone to my palm that burned like someone had pressed a hot iron to my skin. I bit back the scream, redirected the momentum, and lashed out with a wire-formed spear aimed at his sword hand.
He deflected it with the flat end of Nothung without batting an eye.
Once again eyes of Future filled me with the gaps as I saw the ghost-image of Siegfried's next attack, a diagonal slash from Balmung aimed at my waist. I pivoted left, barely dodging the blade, but still it was close enough to feel the heat of the Demon Sword's aura sear the hair on my arm.
To his surprise, I drove my fist forward into the gap between his guard and his onslaught, my knuckles connected with his cheekbone hard enough to make him staggered for a few seconds.
THWACK.
Blood seeped from a cut on his right cheek, a thin red line drawn across his pale skin, and the entire factory seemed to hold its breath.
Siegfried stopped moving. He raised his free human hand and wiped the blood away with his thumb. He stared at the red smear on his skin the way a king stares at a peasant who just spat in his wine.
"You actually wounded me?" he said, rage bubbling within him as he tightened his grips on the swords.
"Why is that surprising to you, eh? I thought you said you fought with Longinus users...." I snickered "Was all that just a boasting lie? Tell me, how many arms do you need before you learn how to use one properly?"
Something shifted in Siegfried's expression, as the cold analytical mask of his drained away, and what replaced it was the look of a man who had decided to stop playing. A rage bait is all you need to make your enemies go nuts as you hit the nail with a calm calculated mind.
All according to the plan.
"Then understand the consequences of your arrogance!" He lashed out glaring at me "When I finish with you, I'll hunt down everyone you care about. The nun living with you, and the fallen angel that you have taken liking to! You challenged someone beyond your level! They'll pay the price for your bluster!"
"Try your best, then"
I yanked every Cross Tail wire I'd threaded through the factory's infrastructure simultaneously. The wires attached to rusted support beams cracked load-bearing pillars and the entire wall of the factory groaned, dropping the twisted steel beams and fractured concrete slabs.
A cascade of debris thundered down from the ceiling in a waterfall of industrial ruin, ten thousand pounds of manufactured demolition aimed squarely at the spot where Siegfried stood.
KRRROOOOM!
Siegfried didn't flinch.
Nothung carved through a falling concrete slab with the ease of a man slicing bread. Balmung's whirlwind aura deflected a steel beam mid-fall, sending it spiraling into the far wall. The silver Dragon Arm snatched a chunk of concrete from the air and crushed it to powder. He cut his way through the collapsing architecture the way a shark cuts through water, heading straight to me.
But the debris cloud was what I needed. Dense, choking gray dust swallowed the factory floor, reducing visibility to arm's length, and I triggered the Earthbending, slamming my palms against the concrete, feeling the stone respond to my will and launched myself upward on a pillar of erupting floor, looking over the dust cloud in Siegfried's position.
I could see him through the haze. Eyes of Future showed me his silhouette, and without wasting a moment, I reached for his head for successful extraction.
Fwooosh!
My fingertips brushed his temple, and the disc extraction was a success, I felt the bizarre sensation of reaching into someone's existence and something emerged. A Sacred Gear Disc, half-formed, partially extracted, glowing with the pale luminescence of multiple silver arms. Siegfried's consciousness staggered for two seconds, swaying like a drunkard, his mind fractured by a half-completed extraction that scrambled his thoughts into incoherent static.
Wham!
His fist hit me in the chest before I could pull the disc free.
I was blasted backward by the impact, hitting a pile of rubble, and felt three ribs object loudly to the impact while I cursed my luck to not get my hands on half-extracted Sacred Gear Disc. The disc got back to Siegfried's head with a soft click and clarity poured back into those red eyes.
He looked at me with something that wasn't anger anymore but closer to fascination, the way a scientist looks at an experiment that just come up with an impossible result.
"Fuckin...hell..I was so close"
I spat blood, grabbed the Gravebloom Restoration potion from my belt, and drank it in a single desperate gulp. Active regeneration flooded my system for one minute on the clock, ribs patching back, cuts sealing, shoulder wound closing like a zipper being pulled shut. Then I grabbed the Fallen Angel Transformation potion and downed that too, because half-measures were going to get me killed.
Fwooosh!
Black wings erupted from my back, dark feathered and wrong in every way that mattered, and light gathered in one of my palm, a purple spear of condensed radiance humming with the holy light of a Fallen Angel's birthright
Siegfried raised an eyebrow in amusement, as he dashed straight to me to put an end to this battle.
KRRRUNCH!
A pillar of concrete erupted directly beneath Siegfried, catching him mid-step, tilting his balance forward and I saw the opening with Eyes of Future painted him using Nothung down to stabilize, leaving his right side exposed for exactly 0.4 seconds.
I dashed at him with everything I got.
If I miss this chance, I will end up dead for sure.
Balmung's drill-aura roared toward my left side and I made the trade. I stepped into the strike, felt the Demon Sword's edge bite through my flesh just below the ribs, felt pain erupt like a volcano in my midsection, and in exchange..... in exchange for blood and agony and a wound that would've killed me if the Gravebloom wasn't still ticking in time limit, I found the opening.
The light spear in my hand drove forward with every ounce of boosted strength the Hell Claw Surge afforded me, and its point found Siegfried's right arm and pierced it clean through.
SPLAT!
Blood sprayed across the factory floor, as Siegfried's right human arm, the one gripping Nothung separated and fell to the concrete with the Demon Sword still locked in its dead fingers.
THUD!
Siegfried's scream shook dust from the rafters, a sound torn from somewhere deeper than pain, from pride, from outrage, from the disbelief that a nobody human with newfound powers had just taken a piece of him.
The Dragon Arm on his back lashed out reflexively, and I was already too slow to dodge, it caught me across the chest and launched me backward into a shattered wall, but I was grinning through the blood because the arm, that was lying on the floor wasn't growing back anytime soon.
He stood there, breathing hard, his remaining hand pressing against the bleeding stump. His other arm reached out to pick up the sliced off arm but then,
Sploooosh!
Then, out of nowhere, a giant water wave swept over the battlefield like the wrath of an ocean lord, taking away the debris and his arm, as he jumped away to save himself with an annoyed grunt.
A massive barrier of pressurized, magically-controlled water erupted between Siegfried and my crumpled form, a wall twenty feet high and dense enough to blur the light, and behind it stood Sona Sitri with her full peerage flanking her like chess pieces arranged on an endgame board. Demonic energy flooded the factory in waves as she glanced at me, then at Siegfried and finally at Tsubaki with clenched fists.
Sona's eyes then locked on Siegfried with the ice cold fury that I never witnessed in the canon. The water swirled around her hands in serpentine shapes daring him to make a move.
Siegfried assessed the situation in the time it took me to blink. Seven Devils. Sitri territory. His right arm washed away by waves in a puddle of his own blood.
Mission status: catastrophically compromised.
Jeanne appeared beside him in a flutter of blonde hair and holy energy, her cheerful demeanor completely intact despite the outcome of the battle surprising her "Ara~ the Sitri heiress herself! Looks like We're outnumbered, Sieg-kun..."
With his remaining integrity, Siegfried reached down and picked up Balmung with a flick of the Dragon Arm, and turned those red eyes back to me one final time with a look of finding the meaning of hatred.
"This isn't over..." He said pointing Balmung at me "I won't stop until either one of us are dead! And, now I don't care if you join or not, I will-"
"It's time for a retreat!!"
But before he could finish his words, once again Jeanne throws a ball at their feet and they both disappear in a bright white smoke.
Sona's gaze turned to me as Saji and others went to check on unconscious Tsubaki and I knew this night was far from over.
Sigh, the curse of night still lives on.
. . .
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