Spirit of Reversal against the World

I'm getting closer to the location where Tohka is fighting with the AST. I plan to fight her, and even though it might seem like a simple confrontation, I'll try to understand the Sephira crystal.

Also, I'll get to see how strong a Spirit with its original power can be. In the anime, almost all the Spirits were sealed, so I don't have a good sense of how strong they can really be.

Even though my energy consumption is high because it's leaking out, it's still my energy. I'll use that leaking energy for attacks and to strengthen myself.

Boom.

I'm about a block away, and I can already hear the explosions.

"Let's begin," I say to myself.

"Kami-Sama Kara no Okurimono." I activate my Astral Dress; it seems like calling it by name slightly increases its power instead of just creating it.

"Natanael." Now that I'm ready, I reinforce my body with Reiryoku and fly at high speed.

I approach the AST, who are distracted by Tohka. I don't see Kusakabe or Origami—probably too injured to participate in this fight. Kusakabe will likely need a prosthetic if she wants to remain in the AST.

Quickly, I slash the three AST members from behind, cutting them in half while Tohka looks surprised.

"What the..." She starts to say, but I quickly charge at her with a strike. She blocks it with her sword, but not knowing my strength, she's pressured. I push her through several buildings.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She yells at me, probably realizing I'm a Spirit. I ignore what she says and keep advancing.

She readies her sword and slashes. The clash between her sword and my scythe generates a shockwave, destroying the surrounding structures.

She swings, launching a slash of energy that I dodge, passing to the side. The slash hits the building behind me, cutting through it and continuing onward.

"Interesting," I say, noticing that her slash is made purely of Reiryoku. It means I can probably do something similar.

I leap over her and try to strike her back, but she turns and blocks with her sword, retreating backward.

Without giving her a chance to recover, I charge forward, infusing Reiryoku into Natanael's blade.

She tries to block, but the reinforced strike sends her flying through several buildings.

"Urk," she groans in pain as she gets up from the ground.

She glares at me with rage, and I can feel her intent to kill.

"Looks like I've got your attention now," I provoke her slightly as I advance.

She returns the attack with another energy slash, which I block using a barrier.

Now she speeds up, slashing from above with her sword. I dodge backward, reinforcing Natanael with Reiryoku to try to replicate her attack.

She notices the concentration of Reiryoku in my blade and does the same.

"Take this," she says as she slashes, followed by my own attack.

The clash of the two attacks creates a shockwave that shatters the block around us. Ignoring that, I use my energy to boost my speed and strength.

In an instant, I close the distance between us, using a lateral slash.

She tries to block, but I change my attack, landing a kick to her stomach.

"Ahrg," she groans in pain as she's pushed back.

"You bastard," she says, as she concentrates a large amount of Reiryoku in her sword.

"Dangerous," I note, realizing how strong this attack is, so I decide to dodge.

A large purple slash is launched, obliterating several blocks ahead. It wasn't strong enough to cause serious damage but would've injured me slightly.

She slashes again, releasing another smaller wave of energy. I return with an equivalent attack. The exchange creates a crater beneath our feet.

I lose my balance as she charges forward to strike, so I start flying to recover. But she hits me, sending me flying.

"Tsk," I mutter, sending a Reiryoku slash at her, which she dodges, losing her initial momentum.

"You're so annoying, just like the Mecha-Mecha squad," she says to me as she takes some distance.

I gather a large amount of Reiryoku in Natanael's blade while she stays on guard, raising a barrier.

"Huh?" She makes a strange sound, unable to comprehend the situation.

I changed my attack, accelerating toward her and landing a punch to her stomach.

"AHRG," she screams as I move Natanael, unleashing an energy slash from the power within the blade.

"AHHH," she's struck, being thrown several kilometers away.

I use Reiryoku to heavily boost my speed, covering the distance almost instantly. All the windows in the buildings around the area I passed through shatter, and the cars are thrown.

I land a kick to her face, slamming her into the ground, which turns into a crater.

I notice her eyes are slightly glazed, showing clear signs of mild unconsciousness.

Even after all that, she's only bleeding a little, and her armor is barely damaged. "She's stronger than I thought." All these strikes would have killed AST members instantly.

"You bastard," she says as she charges, and I dodge to the side, landing a punch to her face.

"?" She takes the punch, but it's not strong enough to stop her. She takes advantage of our close distance, slashing downward onto my shoulder.

"ARG," I feel the pain of my shoulder being crushed, but even that didn't damage the armor. Though the impact is painful, nothing broke.

I sweep her leg, breaking her balance, while I kick her thigh, fully destabilizing her.

I strike with Natanael, aiming for her head, but she dodges, moving her head to the side while flying back, still off balance.

I use a large amount of Reiryoku, beginning to accumulate it in the blade.

Tohka notices this and does the same, but with more energy than before.

"Looks like you're taking me seriously now," I say to her.

"I won't lose," she says with a hint of competitiveness.

We move at the same time, attacking.

BOOOOOOOOM.

The energy release is so great it creates a flash of purple and black light.

A deafening explosion reverberates through the area. The entire city of Tengu feels the impact, starting to shake. The area where we are is obliterated, forming a massive crater. It could easily be said that a large SpaceQuake occurred here. Several blocks around us are reduced to dust.

While the two of us come out unscathed... or almost. Part of Tohka's armor shattered, now exposing part of her chest and thighs. She has a head wound, blood dripping and staining her right eye.

My condition is slightly better; some parts of my armor are broken, but no serious injuries are visible apart from a few cuts.

We both restore our armor at the same time.

"Incredible," I whisper. Although our armors broke, the Angels didn't suffer a single scratch. "I wonder if Angels can be broken," I ponder a question that never came up in the anime.

"I think so too," Tohka agrees, though she probably thinks I complimented her. I don't bother correcting her.

Now she charges again to continue our fight, and I notice a slight smile on her face.

"You seem to be enjoying this," I say to her with a smile.

"Yes? Am I?... Maybe," she doesn't seem to realize her smile or notice that she's enjoying the fight.

I've never felt enjoyment in a fight before, but I must admit, this is exciting.

The feeling of being able to unleash your power on an opponent without worrying about killing them gives a unique sense of freedom. And knowing your opponent can take it only enhances that freedom.

"HAHAHAHAH, yes, I'm having fun too, so there's no reason to stop now," I say as I get closer to strike her with Natanael.

"...I agree," she accepts to continue this unique combat, her smile growing a bit larger.

She strikes, and the clashing of our weapons creates a loud metallic sound, releasing light energy waves.

Tink left, tink right, tink below, tink right, tink above, tink below—a simple exchange of blows between both of us.

After a series of simple strikes, we both take some distance from each other, reinforcing our Angels with Reiryoku again.

"I won't lose this time," Tohka says, determination and a slight competitive tone in her voice.

"I'll say the same, I won't lose." My Reiryoku is being consumed like crazy in this fight, but I don't care now. I want to savor more of this confrontation. So I gather an even larger amount of Reiryoku than last time.

She follows suit, several SpaceQuake alerts going off simultaneously. The AST hasn't even shown up because entering this fight would be suicidal.

"Now," we both say at the same time as we strike.

A colossal amount of Reiryoku collides.

The light is so blinding that the sky splits into two colors—part purple and part black.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

The sound of the explosion can be heard miles away. Everything within a three-kilometer radius is obliterated, forming another massive crater. If there were any underground shelters here, they no longer exist.

The entire city of Tengu suffers from an even more violent earthquake than before. Several buildings far from the blast radius still collapse under the pressure of the wind and vibrations of the quake.

I was thrown far away, my armor was more than 70% damaged, and my arm was broken. Various other minor injuries cover my body, but they're irrelevant.

Fortunately, the area where this fight took place is far from my home.

"ARRRG," I scream in pain as I try to get up, noticing that my right leg has its bones broken internally, probably due to the impact.

I didn't see Tohka's condition, but this fight ends here. I'm sure she's in bad shape too.

But she's alive, and luckily, she's less injured than I am.

"How lucky, hahaha," I laugh somewhat bitterly, seeing how fortunate she was.

I noticed that before the blow completely hit her, she disappeared, likely because she returned to that dark place where Spirits reside.

She probably would have died or been severely injured in this fight, but she left this world before we reached that outcome.

I start using reversal on myself to heal the injuries while concealing my presence.

"It would be bad if AST found me now." I used my Reiryoku recklessly in this fight. But I still saved enough to use reversal in case of an emergency. After all, even these damages are within an acceptable range.

"She's stronger than I expected," I whisper, realizing how powerful an unsealed Spirit can be.

I am superior in strength, speed, endurance, and Reiryoku, but because I wasted energy pointlessly, my power has been greatly reduced.

Even now, the destruction caused was still limited by our own attacks. The energy of the two strongest blows used during the fight was enough to wipe out all of Tengu from the map.

However, something similar to a SpaceQuake meeting another SpaceQuake happened. Although they didn't cancel each other out, they still reduced the destruction caused.

"Ara ara, Aurélio-san, you're in quite a sorry state," I hear a voice I wish I hadn't heard at this moment. A girl with black hair, in a Gothic Lolita dress, with one red eye and the other gold with an inorganic clock.

"Tokisaki Kurumi, what are you doing here?" I ask, hiding the irritation in my voice. She's one of the worst people I could run into right now.

"I wonder what I'm doing here, Aurélio-san, hihihi," she says, giggling.

I don't have enough Reiryoku to fight her at the moment.

"If you have nothing to do, you can leave," I say as I get up from the ground, now fully healed.

"You seem to have great regenerative abilities."

It's not regeneration, but she doesn't need to know that, so I remain silent.

"How cold, Aurélio-san. It seems like you haven't liked me since the first day of school... I wonder why," she says with a smug smile on her face.

"I wonder why... Oh, I know, maybe it's because one monster can recognize another, don't you agree?" I say with barely hidden sarcasm.

"Totally, Aurélio-san, monsters really do recognize each other," she confirms.

"If you have nothing else to do, I'm leaving," I start walking, deactivating my Astral Dress and Angel.

" is as strong as it seems to be," she murmurs audibly.

"?" I ask, looking at her.

"Yes, that's your codename, seems like you didn't know yet." I understand now; I've been named by AST or Ratatoskr.

"Well, maybe... I don't think I'm that strong." At least not yet. But in the future, you'll see, Kurumi.

"You're quite the curious person, Aurélio-san," she continues, following me, showing a touch of curiosity about me.

"Could you deactivate your Astral Dress, please, or I might end up thinking you want a fight," I bluff, as in a fight now I'd lose since I don't have enough energy left.

"Of course not, Aurélio-san." She deactivates it, agreeing not to fight.

"What do you want from me? I don't think you're following me just because I'm handsome."

"Without a doubt, Aurélio-san, you are handsome, but that's not really the reason, hihihi." She continues to follow me without answering why she's here.

"So what is the reason?"

"Well... I wonder what the reason could be..."

"Never mind, I don't want to know." It's clear I already have an idea of the reason, it must be related to the First Spirit. As long as she doesn't get in my way, I don't care much about her following me, actually.

"Aurélio-san isn't very curious, even though you're quite a curious existence yourself."

"Have you ever heard that curiosity killed the cat? You should be careful with yours too... you seem like a very curious person," I say honestly, though she doesn't seem to appreciate the reference to cats. I know she likes them. What I said is almost a threat.

"I understand... I'll heed your advice for now, Aurélio-san."

"I'll be going for today..." she says, but it seems like she's waiting for me to stop her to continue this conversation.

"Sure, go through the shadows," I say, looking at the shadows in an alley. She seems slightly surprised because she understands the implications of that phrase. I'm clearly warning her that I know about her and that she's been following me through the shadows.

A clone just left through the shadows while the Kurumi in front of me turns and starts to walk away.

"Don't be so blatant," I whisper to no one as I walk away. Now I know how she managed to stay close without me knowing, but why she stopped when she hit the barrier at school.

My territory can't see her when she's in the shadows, but the barrier can see her even if she's in the shadows.

"Now that I think about it, we're close to Shido's birthday," I think about what would be best for him.

I decide to give him something useful to keep him safe in his mission to conquer the Spirits.

I start making a call.

Truum, Truumm.

"Lars, I have a request for you."

"Aurélio-kun, I'm glad you reached out. Tell me, how can I help?"

"I need you to make me a necklace... inside it, create something that can form a territory if it detects danger. The necklace would be similar to a Realizer, but focus entirely on the barrier's strength. It needs to withstand even an attack from the without a scratch, with the barrier being blue and covering everything within a 5-meter radius." I think that's a good gift.

"Well, well, well, what a unique request, Aurélio-kun... but don't worry, I can have it ready in a week, and it'll be delivered to your residence, okay?"

Today is April 10th, Shido's birthday is on the 20th. Plenty of time.

"Okay, that works for me."

I hang up the phone as I walk home.

"I think I'll skip dinner," I whisper, thinking about jumping straight into bed when I get home.