High School DxD: The Lucifer's Devil Trigger — Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Sparring with the Sun

Tohsaka Rin looked at the dark-skinned archer beside her, a soft sigh escaping her lips.

“Don’t hide it, Arjuna. My father found your catalyst. In this Holy Grail War, you will ostensibly fight as his Servant.”

A heavy trace of reluctance weighed down her words. She had argued, pleaded, and reasoned, but she simply could not win against her old man. The arrangement was set in stone.

Arjuna tilted his head, a slight crease forming between his brows as he processed the strange dynamic.

Tohsaka Tokiomi stepped forward, his posture impeccably straight. “Respected Prince Arjuna, it is not that I do not trust your abilities. It is just that this unmatched war of Servants is simply too dangerous for us ordinary Magi.”

He performed a flawless, rehearsed bow, his tone perfectly measured. “If the opposing factions knew that Rin’s Servant was a powerhouse of your caliber, those cowards who fear your radiance and strength would undoubtedly bypass you to target her directly.”

Tokiomi adjusted his cuffs, his gaze calm. “You have also noticed that, perhaps due to the Holy Grail’s favoritism, both Rin and I have been chosen as Masters. By structuring our alliance this way, if the enemy truly wishes to eliminate a Master, their primary focus will shift from my daughter to me.”

Arjuna stared in silence. His dark, perceptive eyes seemed to pierce straight through the Magus’s chest, reading the absolute truth of the man’s heart. He understood exactly what Tokiomi was thinking.

Even under that piercing, almost divine scrutiny, Tokiomi maintained his elegant composure. He did not flinch, because he had spoken his truth. It wasn’t that he lacked fatherly affection for Rin, but his feelings were entirely eclipsed by a singular, burning ambition: the hope that Rin would survive, claim victory, and reach the Root in the name of the Tohsaka family. To Tokiomi, this obsession surpassed ordinary parental love; it was a higher, purer devotion to their lineage.

He met Arjuna’s gaze without a shred of fear.

“So that is how it is,” Arjuna finally said. He despised prying into the hearts of others just as much as he hated having his own soul examined. But Tokiomi’s intentions were laid bare, cold and pragmatic.

Still, a tactical flaw remained. “But, without a Servant actively protecting the Master, relying solely on Command Spells is a fatal risk, is it not?”

“Please rest assured on that front.”

Following Tokiomi’s confident reply, the heavy, rhythmic clanking of metal echoed from the staircase. A towering figure clad in polished armor and a flowing white cloak descended into the basement.

“Although I am not skilled at taking lives, leave the duty of protection entirely to me.”

The knight walked with a slow, deliberate grace. The sheer weight of his presence flooded the room, so intense that Arjuna found himself unable to look away.

‘This attire…’Arjuna analyzed the newcomer.’Is he a Saber?’No. The aura was different. But in life, this man had undoubtedly been a legendary knight.’This feeling… a Saint?’

As Arjuna sized him up, the armored man did the same. Glancing at the fading light of the summoning circle, the knight curled his lips into a warm, boundlessly open smile.

“I am Saint George. Your Master, I will protect to the very bitter end. When it comes to shielding others, I have never failed.”

Saint George. The moment a Heroic Spirit descends, the Grail provides them with the necessary historical and modern knowledge. Arjuna naturally recognized the legendary dragon-slayer, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing his stoic features.

“Since it is you, then I have no choice but to believe it.” Arjuna paused. His gaze swept over the Tohsaka father-daughter pair and the newly arrived Saint, his voice dropping an octave into something cold and absolute. “I have already roughly locked onto the Lancer of this Holy Grail War. That person, I must deal with personally. As long as I am granted the freedom to move and strike him down, I have no objections to this arrangement.”

Saint George nodded, recognizing the deep-seated karma radiating from the archer.

Tokiomi and Rin exchanged a brief, knowing look. A single name surfaced in the minds of all three listeners. The only enemy in human history who could make the great hero Arjuna speak with such absolute, fatalistic certainty.

Karna.

Miles away, Levi stood in the grand halls of the Einzbern castle, his eyes locked onto the Servant Sakura had just pulled from the summoning circle.

Before the spearman could even open his mouth to state his true name, Levi had already matched the white hair, the golden armor fused to his flesh, and the blazing aura to the legend.

‘This time, I’ve really struck gold.’

The feeling, however, was not mutual.

The moment Karna manifested, every instinct honed through a lifetime of brutal warfare screamed at him. He felt as though he had been dropped straight into the deepest pits of hell. Ordinary humans could not distinguish between mortals and Devils, but the Son of the Sun was no ordinary mortal.

His fingers instinctively tightened around the shaft of his golden spear. The air in the room felt thick, suffocating, and distinctly unnatural. Every single person standing before him was a Devil.

“Karna…” Sakura shrank back, her voice barely a whisper, trembling with lingering fear. She looked at the blazing, intense figure and genuinely thought she had summoned a monster who was about to execute them all. “If he’s such a great hero, will he attack us right away…”

Karna’s sharp eyes shifted to the terrified girl holding his contract. The tension in his shoulders dropped a fraction.

“The Master is a bit special, but a Master is a Master,” Karna said, his voice calm and devoid of malice. “Lancer, true name Karna. Please treat me well from here on out.”

Hearing that steady declaration, Sakura finally let out a long, shaky breath. She had been terrified her new Servant would smite her on the spot. In all the fairy tales and heroic epics she knew, Devils were the ultimate evil. A Devil commanding a Heroic Spirit in a Holy Grail War sounded like a twisted joke.

As Sakura’s panic subsided, Karna quietly scanned the room. Devils. All of them. Yet, they lacked the mindless malice of the demons from his era.

His gaze finally stopped on Levi. The magical pathways and command structures in the room were complex. There were actually two Masters standing on this side.

A short while later, the group made their way toward the Einzbern castle’s expansive outdoor training ground. Sakura stopped walking, tilting her head to look at Levi.

“Why do we have to fight each other first?” she asked, genuinely baffled as to why Levi wanted to provoke a spar with a demigod.

“I need to figure out exactly how strong Servants are in practice.” Levi kept his pace steady. Even without his system’s incentives, he would have demanded this clash. “We are Devils. Even if we participate in this Holy Grail War, we are playing a completely different game than ordinary human Masters.”

Devils of the Underworld looked down on human Magi for a very simple reason: Devils believed in absolute, overwhelming physical and magical superiority. The complex, fragile little spells of human Magus families were nothing but parlor tricks to them.

“Sakura, you were reincarnated as a Pawn using Evil Pieces. You had never learned a single shred of magic before yesterday,” Levi explained, glancing back at her. “But after the pieces activated your latent potential, you didn’t feel any strain in maintaining Lancer’s existence, did you?”

“Saying there’s no pressure is an understatement. I don’t even feel like maintaining him consumes any magical energy at all.”

“That’s exactly right.”

Sakura had just been reincarnated, using only three Pawn pieces. Yet, she could instantly mobilize the demonic energy within them to anchor a top-tier Heroic Spirit. And she was only a Low-Class Devil. The maids sweeping the floors in the Lucifer Clan possessed her current level of power.

If one compared Sakura to an elite human Magus, her magical reserves—both in sheer volume and density—would crush them effortlessly. Devils lived for centuries, suffered no language barriers, and possessed physical attributes that shattered human limits. Aside from a natural aversion to holy light, a Devil’s absolute lowest baseline was miles above humanity’s peak., the dark of night actively buffed their physical and magical parameters.

“We are not fragile Magi hiding behind our summons,” Levi said, stepping into the center of the vast, open training ground. “Since we have surplus power, we might just enter the fray ourselves.”

Karna walked silently to the opposite side of the field, his golden spear resting casually at his side.

“Therefore, we must first test what level a Servant’s combat power actually sits at.”

Sakura nodded slowly. She hadn’t considered the tactical implications. But looking around at the group clearing the field, the reality set in.

She and Shirone were the weakest links, and Irisviel was a non-combatant. But Ingvild, after fusing her immense latent power with the Evil Pieces, was terrifyingly strong. Kuroka had recently broken through to High-Class Devil, stepping firmly into the Ultimate-Class bracket.

And then there was Grayfia. Sakura didn’t know the exact metrics of her strength, but even during her tormented years in the Matou basement, she had heard whispers of the Silver-Haired Clan of Annihilation. Grayfia Lucifuge was a Satan-class entity, potentially even stronger than the current Maou Leviathan.

Add Levi to that roster, and their faction was a walking natural disaster.

While Sakura processed the sheer absurdity of their lineup, she retreated to the edge of the field. In the center, Levi and Karna locked eyes. Weapons were drawn in perfect synchrony.

Off to the side, Kuroka and the others had already started whispering, placing bets on the outcome. But the ambient noise faded into nothingness for the two men on the field.

Karna leveled his spear, the golden tip catching the moonlight. “Battle… Since you wish for it, I will not let you down.”

For a man of few words, the statement was a heavy warning. He would not hold back.

Levi nodded. He took a slow, deep breath, locking every ounce of his focus onto the demigod.

“Begin!” Grayfia’s voice cut through the night air.

They moved in the exact same fraction of a second.

Karna lunged. His long spear was an extension of his own body, mastered to the absolute peak of martial perfection. But even the greatest spearman was bound by the physics of reach and optimal distance.

Levi’s approach was far more visceral. Tapping into the dark, thrumming power of his Devil Trigger, a violent surge of blue demonic aura erupted around him. He lowered his center of gravity, his body blurring forward like a phantom, his right hand gripping the hilt of the Yamato.

The air warped. Four ethereal, glowing blue Summoned Swords materialized out of thin air around Levi and instantly shot toward Karna with the speed of railgun projectiles.

Karna did not retreat a single inch.

He shifted his footing by a mere fraction, his body brushing past the lethal trajectories of the phantom blades. Using the momentum of his pivot, he swung his golden spear in a devastating arc, smashing it directly toward Levi’s half-drawn katana.

Clang—!

A shockwave of sparks and displaced air exploded outward. The heavy scent of sulfur and ozone permeated the training ground. The sheer kinetic force of the clash made the ground beneath them spiderweb with cracks.

They exchanged a flurry of blindingly fast strikes, but the longer they fought, the more Karna’s instincts screamed at him.

Clang—!

After parrying another heavy downward cleave, Karna frowned. Levi’s physical strength and speed were monstrous, easily surpassing his own base parameters. Yet, while Levi’s technique was lethal, it lacked the refined, singular focus of a warrior who intended to win through a war of attrition. Judging by his stance and muscle memory, Levi was the type to strike faster, hit harder, and end a life in a single, imperceptible draw.

If that was the case, why was he engaging in a prolonged clash of brute force?

‘A trap!’

Karna’s pupils constricted. A massive, roaring torrent of flames erupted from his body, a burst of Prana designed both to incinerate his enemy and act as a blinding smokescreen.

Pouring immense strength into his arms, Karna swept his spear horizontally to force Levi back, simultaneously twisting his neck to look over his shoulder.

Just as he suspected.

The four Summoned Swords he had dodged earlier hadn’t dissipated. They had banked sharply in mid-air and were currently hurtling straight toward his exposed back. His spear was already committed to the forward sweep; he couldn’t pull it back in time to parry, and the dense demonic energy of the phantom blades would pierce right through his standard flames.

For any ordinary hero, this was a guaranteed fatal strike.

Unfortunately for Levi, Karna was the furthest thing from ordinary.

His eyes ignited. Two concentrated, blinding beams of crimson heat erupted from his pupils, carving through the air and swallowing the four Summoned Swords in a fraction of a second.

The moment the phantom blades shattered into harmless blue sparks, Karna snapped his attention back to the front.

If his tactical read was correct, the real strike was coming right now.

He was right. The Summoned Swords had been nothing but bait. The burst of flames hadn’t pushed Levi back, and the horizontal spear sweep had been perfectly calculated. Levi had used the half-drawn Yamato to catch the edge of the spear, using the kinetic recoil to instantly sheathe the blade.

Click.

He drew it again.

A singular, terrifying arc of spatial-rending light slashed through the smoke.

Karna narrowed his eyes, his superhuman reflexes locking onto the trajectory of the blade. He instantly shifted his center of gravity, thrusting his golden spear forward with explosive force to intercept the strike.

But the moment the spear tip pierced the space where the blade should have been, the light vanished.

The spear tore through empty air, scattering an afterimage into blue mist.

Levi was gone.