"Are you really an angel?" asked one of the young boys from the Sigurd Institution.
We were at the same training ground where I had my first session with Vasco Strada. I hadn't seen them on that day, but the day after, as if drawn by the allure of possibly seeing the legendary exorcist, they had shown up.
I hadn't shown my wings or halo at all since the first day since I had decided that mastering - perhaps to the point of reaching Balance Breaker - my Sacred Gear was more important that practicing combat with my angelic attributes.
Though I still had been training my body and Holy Power, since without those I wouldn't even be able to touch my opponent to activate my Sacred Gear.
"Yep. Wanna see my wings and halo?" I said, to which most of the boys and girls of the Sigurd Institution nodded excitedly.
Their hair was already filled with streaks of grey and white, even though they weren't far off of my age. There was even someone who looked even younger than I.
It was never really discussed in a negative light in canon, unlike the Holy Sword Project, but the fact that whatever they did in the Sigurd Institution resulted in grey and white hair certainly didn't make it seem pleasant.
I released my wings and manifested my halo, causing the kids from the Sigurd Institute to widen their eyes in awe.
"Wow! That's so cool!"
"Your wings are so pretty…"
Children were easily impressed, so they all became incredibly excited. I could see some of them hesitating to touch my wings, but they had enough common sense to know that doing that without permission was kind of a jerk move.
Somehow, they were more mature in that field than even some adults.
But a certain silver-white-haired and red-eyed boy didn't seem to share in the excitement, "You, fight me. I want to see if an angel is really as strong as I've been told."
He pulled the large, sheathed sword from his back and pointed it at me.
Compared to the others, who acted their age, he was certainly different. It wasn't maturity, but rather a sense of determination.
It felt like he, even at such a young age, had found something worth giving his everything toward.
And by the battle-crazed look in his eyes, it seemed like that something was fighting strong opponents. I had forgotten since it had been years since I read Highschool DxD, but this world was absolutely filled to the brim with battle junkies.
"Fine. I suppose it would be a good gauge of my own strength to see how strong a future exorcist is." I said, summoning my Half Critical.
Normally, I doubted wouldn't have bothered to accept the challenge of an ordinary kid like that, but he wasn't just another failure from the Sigurd Institute.
I could tell from the faint Demonic Aura that leaked out from his sheathed sword. Based on my magical knowledge, the seals on the sheath should have been enough to contain any ordinary Demonic Sword, but it completely failed to do that for this one.
And who in the Sigurd Institution wielded a Demonic Sword of immense power? Siegfried.
In canon, he had left the Church and joined the Chaos Brigade and was even the opponent of the main characters.
But maybe I could prevent that from happening. He was undeniably a powerful person, in the future at least, and having him to help would be a pretty decent boon.
Siegfried shifted his stance slightly before he shot out toward me.
Fast.
My eyes widened in shock at how fast he actually was.
Maybe I had been a bit arrogant due to my enhanced physical capabilities as an angel.
If a human could reach such power as Vasco Strada, then underestimating them, even subconsciously, was an idiotic move.
I held out my hand and shot a large bullet of light, which warped the air around it as if it was a hot, summer day.
It wasn't hot per se, but it was filled with energy that could casually destroy even a middle-class devil.
Despite that, Siegfried didn't stop his movements and simply sliced through the bullet with his sheathed Gram.
Spreading out all of my fingers, I shot out ten smaller, but still powerful bullets of light.
But even that didn't hinder him at all, as he slashed through all of them in a clean, single swing of his unfairly powerful sword.
He wasn't even using his Twice Critical to do that. I honestly felt like complaining.
Why couldn't I have gotten training so effective and intensive that it turned one's hair white?!
Why couldn't I have been given a sword that literally shaved away at your life when using it?!
Actually, never mind, that sounds awful.
I sent out a massive, but weak ball light toward Siegfried. But this time, I rushed out alongside the bullet.
Siegfried casually repeated his actions again and sliced through the light ball, but due to its size, he hadn't seen exactly how close I had gotten to him.
So, while his form was still in the post-slice stage, I took reached my hand toward him.
He tried to quickly block me with his sword, but Gram's mass was too much for his small body so he was slower than he could have been if he hadn't stubbornly held onto the sword.
My hand barely grazed his skin as I shouted, "Divide!"
Since I didn't have a dragon's voice to announce what I did, I was forced to do it myself.
Sure, it had no benefit, but this was a shounen world! Announcing your moves was par for the course!
Following my shout, I felt myself gain a sudden burst of energy.
I had successfully taken some of my opponent's power for myself.
Siegfried finally managed to get into a proper form to fight back, but when he attempted to swing his sword at me, he fell face first straight toward the ground.
"W-what just happened? It was like my power was sucked out of me…" Siegfried muttered to himself, his mouth still full of dirt.
I reached my hand down toward him for him to grab. "My Sacred Gear, Half Critical. I can halve your power and take in that half. So basically, if I take your power, I will always be stronger than you."
He reluctantly took hold of my hand and let me pull him to his feet. "What?! That's so unfair!"
That was funny coming from him, who literally had a Demonic Sword that could easily tear me to pieces if he used its power.
"Listen, it's not like I don't agree with you on that, but you can just use your own Sacred Gear. That would make it fair, don't you think?"
His Sacred Gear was literally the counterpart to mine, Twice Critical, after all.
Siegfried blinked his eyes in confusion, "What Sacred Gear? All I have going for me is Gram."
Did something change from canon? Did he not have his Sacred Gear?
Or maybe he hadn't awoken it yet?
"Oops, sorry. I forgot that not everyone had a Sacred Gear like me. But maybe you actually do have one, and just don't know?" I said, attempting to cover up my mistake.
I felt oddly embarrassed at making such a mistake, though I knew that no one else really cared.
Siegfried nodded eagerly. "What do I have to do to check if I have one?"
Well, I don't think I can mimic what Vasco did for me. So, the best option would probably be what Issei did in canon.
"Just imagine a third arming coming out of your shoulder. And envision whoever or whatever you view as the strongest."
He closed his eyes and flexed his right arm awkwardly as if to try to figure out what a third arm felt like.
"Die, Kokabiel!" He suddenly shouted as he swung his sword down at the air.
It was kind of adorable, in a way. There was no doubt that he was envisioning himself as Vasco Strada when he beat the shit out of Kokabiel. But in the future, kids like him would be envisioning themselves as me.
Thankfully, I wasn't embarrassingly wrong, and a third, silver dragon-scaled arm appeared from Siegfried's right shoulder.
He excitedly opened his eyes and moved the arm around, "It actually worked!"
"What, did you think I, Lucian, would somehow be wrong?" I proudly said, with my thumb pointed at myself.
Siegfried grabbed Gram with his three arms and winced in pain at the dragon-slayer sword clashing with his dragon-type Sacred Gear.
He pointed his sword at me again with new confidence. "Let's fight again!"
"No. What if my delicate, cute face gets injured? Unlike you, a single loser, I have a wife, so I have to take care of myself."
Siegfried blinked. "What's a wife?"
AN: I have 4 extra chaps on patreon out rn so if anyone interested:
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Also gib me stones, or Lucian-kun is going to ntr your mum! And reviews too if you don't mind…