After all, the names of the demons were references to Lewis Caroll’s [Alice in Wonderland]. That was the ability of the Balance Breaker that Shinra-senpai chose—. To be called a subspecies Balance Breaker of the Sacred Gear [Mirror Alice], it had an ability that truly lived up to its name! Shinra-senpai’s family — [Shinra] was originally a family associated with magic. It was similar to Akeno-san’s [Himejima] family, in Japan it could be said that it was ranked as the fifth most powerful family. However, Shinra-senpai has been troubled since her birth by a strange curse which caused her to summon things out of mirrors which did not exist in this world. They finally turned to the Devils — I heard that if they didn’t get the help of the Sitri family, it would even affect their lives. Probably because of their relationship with Devils, senpai’s parents were exiled from the main Shinra clan…. …To be honest, it’s quite horrifying. This power, it belongs to the [Trap] category. In other words, it was especially bad against us of the Gremory household. Calling it the worst wouldn’t be an overstatement. Not only Shinra-senpai, Saji-kun and the other members of the Sitri household were mostly technique types, or wizard types. Besides that, Saji-kun and Rugal-san could be considered power type members. Azazel-sensei also commented that in terms of the balance of the household, the Sitri’s were clearly a grade above us. That’s the truth. We had reflected on this point, and learned techniques, but if we had go against the purely technique type Sitri household as opponents, it would really be…thinking about future rating games evoked a sense of dread. …Well, when this battle is over, I need to have a good training session with Ise-kun and Xenovia for technique types. At the least, we should remember how to deal with a technique type opponent, otherwise the future would be worrying. As we continued to knock the warriors down, it came to the point where Shinra-senpai’s Balance Breaker was the decisive factor of this battle. The man who was watching from the sidelines finally grabbed the sword which was stabbed into the ground. “—Withdraw.”
His deep voice instantly brought silence back to the battlefield. The warriors noticed their sensei’s actions, and neatly opened up a path. It could be seen from their actions that they didn’t want to give their mentor any unnecessary or troublesome thoughts in his advance, and that they had absolute trust in his strength…. He held the Excalibur replica, and advanced to take us on alone. There was clearly only one person…but it made us feel an immense pressure as though there was an entire group of warriors advancing towards us. We couldn’t stop cold sweat from dripping down our faces. Dulio-san put on a false smile as he said
“…Kiba-kun, I think you already know, Cristaldi-sensei used to be the wielder of Excalibur. Now, that is a replica of Excalibur. It currently has the seven abilities of the original. …It would be best to think that its true power is greater than four of the strongest holy swords combined.”
In other words, we should think of the opponent as a monster which far exceeds any expectations — as such is the case. Sona-zenkaichou said via the communications device
“The opponents of the warriors will remain as my household and the members of the [Brave Saints]. Cristaldi’s opponents — will be led by Dulio Gesualdo-san who has been on standby until now, as well as Irina-san and Griselda-san. Kiba-kun will also be going.”
““““Understood!””””
The four people who would be the opponents of Cristaldi, Dulio-san, Griselda-san, Irina-san, and I answered at the same time. The reincarnated Angels opened their symbolic pure white wings while I created several holy demonic swords all around me, of which I then took one of them and got into position facing the target in front of us. As Cristaldi was slowly walking towards us — he suddenly split into numerous avatars. …Were these the avatars created by using Rapidly’s high speed movement? Or were they conjured by using Nightmare’s ability? Although I hesitated on my judgement because he had produced several avatars without the slightest preparatory movements, there was someone who moved ahead first — it was Griselda-san. She gathered particles of light together at her palm to produce many balls of light. “Cristaldi-sensei! I’m firing!”
After saying that, Griselda-san fired an innumerable number of balls of light forwards! Each ball contained a dense amount of light that could even be felt, and even if someone wasn’t a Devil, being hit would result in immense damage. The spheres of light pierced through the avatars! The pierced avatars were destroyed, returning to nothingness. They weren’t avatars created by using high speed? In that case, that means they were illusions created by Nightmare! Just when I was thinking of this, one of the avatars used its sword to deflect the balls of light, and came rushing towards this side! That is the real thing! Irina-san and I raised our swords, and prepared to engage him — Dulio shouted! “It’s Mimic!”
—! I reacted as soon as I heard the warning, and jumped to the side. This was because I realised that if we continued to stay there, it would be dangerous! Irina-san faced his charge, and slashed through what was thought to be an avatar of Mimic in one blow. The avatar’s shape collapsed, turning into a string. I followed it with my eyes. In the middle of the illusion that was shattered by Hauteclere just then — Cristaldi’s figure could clearly be seen. The string in Cristaldi’s hand completely rebuilt itself, returning to the shape of a sword, and then he darted towards Irina-san! Something like this actually existed, within all the countless avatars, there were illusions created by Nightmare, and at the same time it was combined with Mimic. On top of that, the real person used Transparency and Nightmare to conceal himself within the avatars. In only a brief exchange, the three abilities of Excalibur Mimic, Nightmare, and Transparency had all been demonstrated. This all happened in the course of a natural battle. Irina-san probably realised that it was Mimic, so she foresaw the next move and used her sword to block Cristaldi’s attack which appeared out of the illusion! A beautiful defence — the moment I thought that, I saw Irina-san receive a fierce blow from Destruction! The opponent also added on the ability of Destruction in that strike just then! Irina-san endured the blow completely, and half-knelt down on the spot! A vast crater formed on the surface of the ground! The power of Destruction was clearly demonstrated! Even so, Irina-san had used Hauteclere to block a hit from the Excalibur replica, and she made a fearless smile towards her mentor. But the side of her mouth — had blood trickling down it.