Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume18 Chapter11 (section)

===Part 1===

"...Ah, ooh, ahhhhh... Ahhhhhhhhh!"

The darkness dripping out from Millennia Sanctus' left eye was spreading out on the ground.

This dense darkness was able to corrupt Elemental Lords and render them insane&mdash;

Millennia writhed in pain, tearing at her left eye.

The spilled darkness stained her pure white vestments, gradually swallowing her.

"...! What the heck are you doing&mdash;"

Faced with the girl who was being devoured by the darkness that she herself was generating, Kamito had no idea what to do.

...Was she unable to control the Otherworldly Darkness?

No. No way in hell&mdash;

This cardinal had controlled the Otherworldly Darkness many times before.

"Kamito, be careful."

Gripped in his right hand, Est spoke.

"&mdash;There is something inside."

"...What!?"

"Fufu, so you sensed it, my little sister&mdash;"

With half her body swallowed by Otherworldly Darkness, Millennia jeered.

"The Otherworldly Darkness within me is a catalyst for opening a gate&mdash;"

"Did you say gate?"

"To summon... The Otherworld..."

The restless Otherworldly Darkness completely swallowed Cardinal Millennia.

Turned into a hovering black sphere in the air, it started vibrating with an earsplitting sound.

"What is going on...?"

"Kamito, hurry, destroy it&mdash;"

"...! Got it!"

Hearing Est's urgent voice, Kamito instantly reacted.

"Absolute Blade Arts, Seventh Form&mdash;Biting Dragon!"

He unleashed all the divine power gathered in his feet in one go and flew to the air to execute an anti-air interception Absolute Blade Art.

The glow of divine power left a trail of light in the night, dashing through the air like a long dragon.

However&mdash;

Wwwwwn!

An invisible barrier appeared around the sphere, deflecting the silver-white blade.

(...What!?)

Almost like bouncing away, Kamito was sent flying to crash into the ground.

Kamito landed.

(...What the heck was that just now!?)

Was it a wall generated by a barrier, or spirit magic&mdash;

"...! I can't believe it deflected the Demon Slayer...?"

Kamito looked up and stared into space.

Just then, a crack suddenly appeared in the center of the dark sphere that had swallowed Millennia&mdash;

In the next instant, ''the sphere was ripped apart from within''.

Spurting out like blood, Otherworldly Darkness fell all at once, dyeing the ruins black.

Next, two glowing arms emerged from the center of the torn open sphere.

"...!?"

Kamito instantly felt his hairs stand on end with goosebumps.

He felt it instinctively.

This was something that did not belong in this world&mdash;

The dark sphere was shredded then ''it'' appeared in this world.

An effigy of a warrior, three times a human's height, with golden glowing wings.

The beautiful face formed from pure white stone looked both masculine and feminine.

Glowing with bright light, the jewel-like eyes looked down coldly at the earth.

(...A spirit?)

Muttering in his thoughts, Kamito decided no and shook his head.

(...No. I've seen something similar to it before&mdash;)

At the Forest of Ice Blossoms in Laurenfrost, merged with the dominating ice spirit Zirnitra.

The thing possessing Rinslet's younger sister Judia Laurenfrost&mdash;

Inside the Otherworldly Darkness surging in the Elemental Lord's shrine, Kamito had seen it.

"...An angel."

Cold sweat slowly dripped down the back of his hand.

The Demon Slayer in his hand likewise shook slightly.

Millennia Sanctus had said that she was the gate for summoning it.

To summon this visitor from the Otherworld, neither the human realm nor Astral Zero&mdash;

The angel slowly descended to the ground and manifested a single-edged sword in its hand.

The sword's length was twice that of the Demon Slayer.

Facing off against it, Kamito readied the Demnon Slayer and poured divine power into his sword.

"Kamito&mdash;"

Just then, the glowing silver-white sword spoke.

"Yes, I know. It's&mdash;"

"I was created for the purpose of destroying them."

"Huh?"

Hearing what Est said, Kamito asked in return.

"Est, you know that thing?"

"Yes. The primordial memories sleeping inside me told me. I am&mdash;No, the original purpose of every spirit weapon created in this world was to destroy such angels."

Held in his hand, Est was exuding an astounding amount of hostility from her blade.

It was like a beast facing a natural enemy with an unforgivable grudge&mdash;

"Spirit weapons huh&mdash;"

That term had been uttered by Est herself a number of times before.

They were powerful weapons used to annihilate spirits during the Spirit War. Like her, Ortlinde the Scarlet Valkyrie was also a spirit weapon.

If their original purpose was to fight angels from the Otherworld&mdash;

(...Then who was it that created them?)

As though to interrupt Kamito's thoughts&mdash;

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin&mdash;

The angel made a sound in a strange pitch.

"&mdash;Kamito, it is coming."

The angel acted.

It slid over like gliding on the ground. In the next instant, it suddenly disappeared from sight.

"...!"

Immense mass, moving with subsonic momentum&mdash;

In response, Kamito used the Demon Slayer to block.

Mustering his entire body's divine power, he strained his hardest to resist the earth-shattering impact.

"Kamito, I need even more divine power&mdash;Or else we will be overwhelmed."

"...! I'm already doing my best!"

Even though he had drawn upon such a massive amount of divine power in one breath, Kamito was still pushed back.

With his feet scraping against the ground, Kamito was pushed against a building in the training ground.

"Cough... Huff&mdash;!"

His breathing stopped momentarily, Kamito spat out blood.

Without Est's Protection of Steel, he might have been crushed to death.

In front of his eyes was an eerie beautiful face carved from pure white stone.

Without any expression, it kept muttering strange notes the whole time.

(...! What is with this brute strength... Ah...!)

Compared to the graceful looking appearance, its strength far surpassed even that of large militarized spirits.

"Combat memory domain connection established. Analysis complete&mdash;Kamito, this is Dunamis<!--kanji reads "angel of power", katakana reads duminas (middle two katakana switched), but Greek word for "power" used in Bible is dunamis. Given the angel connection, I'm going with dunamis.-->."

"What? That's this thing's name?"

"No, a classification to distinguish type. The ones seen before were reconnaissance type, but this one is&mdash;"

Just then, the angel's shoulders split open to sprout multiple arms wielding swords of light.

"A pure combat type&mdash;"

"...! Ohhhhhhhh!"

Kamito shouted. Kicking against the wall in the training ground with one put, he allowed the gathered divine power to explode.

"Absolute Blade Arts, Seventh Form&mdash;Biting Dragon Revised!"

The power of this anti-air Absolute Blade Art was supposed to be directed vertically, but he unleashed it towards the front.

Boom&mdash;

With a sound like a cannonball, the wall was instantly blown away. The surging divine power dug up a huge hole in the ground.

The contact point of the blade erupted with violent sparks. The angel's gigantic body was pushed back for an instant.

In that instant, Kamito deflected an incoming blade and swiftly turned around. Lowering his stance, he lunged at the enemy's chest.

"Absolute Blade Arts, First Form&mdash;"

Just then, the angel's two wings resonated together to produce strange noise.

Instantly, something resembling tiny glowing runes kept appearing, deploying around the angel.

(...Defense magic!? It's not gonna work!)

Unfazed, Kamito unleashed his sword move.

"&mdash;Purple Lightning, Flare!"

The sword traveling with godlike speed at pointblank range erupted with lightning as it struck the angel squarely in belly.

However, the sacred sword's tip, concentrated with divine power, was blocked by the barrier of glowing runes.

(...What!?)

Those runes, swiftly rotating around the angel, seemed to resemble High Ancient a little.

(...! What, so it isn't spirit magic!?)

"Anti-field&mdash;this rejection barrier has nullified my steel attribute ''on a conceptual level''."

"What the heck!?"

"Not spirit magic. A rewriting of rules. A phenomenon not of this world&mdash;"

A halo appeared on the angel's head.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiii&mdash;

Making a howl resembling supersonic waves, it blew Kamito away.

"Guh&mdash;"

Kamito somersaulted while regaining balance then immediately readied his sword.

"...Did you say your steel attribute has been nullified? What do you mean?

"Reconnecting to combat memory domain&mdash;Begin analysis."

While Est said that, words of High Ancient appeared on her blade and flowed swiftly.

"Est? What the heck are you doing&mdash;"

"Due to contact with natural enemy, part of the spirit weapon's memory domain has been released. Kamito, I will analyze the barrier. Until that is done, please buy time for now."

He heard Est's calm voice in his mind.

"If I buy time, you'll have a way to deal with that cheating barrier?"

"Yes, Kamito. Upon the name of Terminus Est&mdash;"

The Demon Slayer held in his hands glowed with silver-white light.

In front of the enemy, Est's original combat mode seemed to be awakening.

"...I got it. I'm counting on you, Est."

While creating distance to face off, Kamito cautiously bided his time.

Although the subsonic movement was a threat, it was not impossible to evade as long as he discerned the activation time of the movement.

(&mdash;Ren Ashbell isn't gonna lose in contest of speed.)

The angel spread its wings of light and raised one hand to the sky.

Instantly, runes of light turned into countless rings, capturing several demon spirits floating in the air.

(...What the heck is going on this time?)

With the Demon Slayer readied, Kamito remained alert.

As though issuing an order, the angel swung a giant sword forcefully down.

In the next instant, a demon spirit roared and charged at Kamito.

The demon spirit opened their jaws to reveal terrifying teeth and flew at him like a cannonball.

(...Don't tell me it can take control of demon spirits!?)

It was different from how elementalists employed spirits.

It was almost like the spirit's existence itself was rewritten&mdash;

Kamito instantly reacted and swung his sword&mdash;

"Absolute Blade Arts, Third Form&mdash;"

"Kamito, no!"

Est's voice rang out. In the nick of time, Kamito chose evasion instead.

Next, the demon spirit exploded.

"...!"

The violent explosion continued to ring in his ears. Kamito rolled on the ground, dodging the heat wave.

If he had struck the demon spirit directly instead of evading, he would have been blown to bits.

"Spirits can become suicide bombers?"

"Yes. It overwrote the demon spirit's nature to launch a suicide attack."

"It can even do that!?"

While dodging the demon spirits that kept flying over to attack, Kamito muttered to himself.

The angel raised its hand again, seizing control of the demon spirits that kept flowing through the crack in space.

"Damn this&mdash;"

Heat waves from the explosions were scorching Kamito's skin.

It was like using the massive divine power possessed by spirits, turning it into the energy for an explosion.

For example, this would be like nonstop creation of small auto-tracking spirit detonations.

Using an elemental waffe specialized for close quarters combat against them would be really poor compatibility.

(...It's not like I can summon Restia back, right?)

If he called Restia back now, Claire would have to fight alone.

Aiming at Kamito who had evaded the bombardment, the angel shot a new demon spirit projectile.

(...Infinite ammo!?)

He looked up at the reddened sky and grumbled in his thoughts. Just then...

Suddenly, Kamito noticed a change in the surrounding scenery.

"...Two moons?"

Hanging in the sky over the Academy was Astral Zero's moon.