Dxd: A demon Among Devils-Chapter 25: []:First shadow

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He wrapped his fingers around the hilt, feeling the dark feelings coalesce beneath the steel, grimacing as black thoughts raged into his mind. He lifted it and pointed the corrupted sword towards his opponent's distant chest. It was an unmistakable gesture of challenge.

Kiba raised an eyebrow in response.

"You are full of surprises, aren't you Arisato-san?" the handsome boy said, and there was genuine warmth in his tone.

He had ten minutes. Ten minutes before Mordred's power became too much and the sword reverted back to its normal, unaltered state. Ten minutes to defeat a devil who could create swords of his own and imbue them with demonic energies. Ten minutes to beat a foe who was faster than him, stronger than him, and possibly more experienced than him.

He welcomed the challenge. He had faced worse.

The final blow came not because he was superior to his foe in swordsmanship, but because Kiba had overextended. The devil lunged, using his superior speed in the hopes of outflanking him. As the boy shot past, he kicked a leg out, and Kiba tripped over it, tumbling head over heels until he landed heavily on his back. And then the Black Sword was at his throat, just as the demon sword had once been at his.

It was a remarkably off-putting way to end a duel between swordsmen. One was expected to adhere to certain rules of chivalry. Tripping an opponent was hardly chivalrous. But he was not bothered by this fact. Shadows had never been chivalrous. Why should he?

He looked down to his opponent, who was wearing a strangely satisfied smile on his face.

"Yield."

Kiba sighed, and the blade he had been using fell from his hand and vanished.

"I yield."

Just in time too. He sensed his Persona's influence overloading the medium that was the blade, infusing the weapon with power it could not hope to hold. He withdrew the sword from Kiba's throat and saw the faint trails of smoke emitting from its blackened surface. The request sank into his conscience. He allowed it and instantly he could feel Mordred's presence returning back into his mind. He smiled thinly. Even the dour knight that had taken up Arthur's place in the king's absence did not wish to stay long in the sinking ship that was a dissolving blade. And that was what it was doing. As his eyes flickered back to the weapon in his hand, it was to see the sword disappearing amidst a cloud of black smoke, the blade hissing as its very molecules broke down and succumbed to the power it had been forced to bear.

Such was the punishment of forcing immense power into an inferior vessel and why Nihil weapons were needed to contain even the weakest of Personas.

His gaze turned to Kiba who was eyeing the last remnants of the sword disappearing in his hand with a slightly miffed expression

"If I had lasted a few more seconds," the boy complained, "I would have won."

But he hadn't. He told him that and Kiba reluctantly nodded.

"You're right, I suppose."

The devil offered a hand to him and after a second of hesitation he took it, pulling his opponent back up. The sword-user grinned in thanks and then threw an arm around his shoulders in a comradely fashion.

"So you can summon demon weapons."

The two began walking back towards where the rest of the Occult Club was waiting for them. At his cautious nod, Kiba continued on.

"And you can make them last. Corporeal. Though judging from Clarent you would need stronger material."

The boy was quick. He nodded again. Kiba's arm tightened around his shoulders.

"You are going to make me one."

He frowned. That was a request he would not take lightly. It was not that he couldn't make them. He could. He just wouldn't. Nihil weapons could become incredibly powerful when fused with the correct Persona, often taking the form of the weapons the Persona itself had used in life or legend. The first Nihil weapon he had created was made not for him but for Yukari. The girl had been depressed ever since she had learned the truth about the death of her father, and though he had comforted her on that deserted beach, he knew that she also needed a different form of closure.

So he had formed the first weapon, a great bow of lacquered wood, and he had infused it with the Persona of Minamoto no Tametomo, the legendary archer who had once sunk a boat filled with enemy warriors with a single arrow. He had presented it to Yukari who had given him a brilliant smile in return and they along with the rest of SEES had ascended the Tower that very night, fully intending to test the weapon and in the process allow the girl some form of vengeance against the Shadows that had taken her father.

It had been a remarkably fast and brutal affair.

They had seen the first Shadow, lurking in the corridor, and Yukari had taken aim with the Nihl Bow and let loose. The arrow had predictably pierced it, going right through the Shadow as though it wasn't there. Then it had gone on to pierce the wall behind and then the wall after that, flying through multiple barriers, spearing through them like a needle through paper. When at last it stopped, halted by the outermost wall, the arrow had detonated, exploding in a flash of purple light and blowing a house-sized hole into the Tower itself. They had ventured towards the opening, stunned, and gaped at the fifty story drop that awaited them.

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