Hello guys, sorry for the random upload schedule. My enthusiasm for DxD has almost reached 0 since I learned that its been 4 years since the author updated anything, so I pretty much crossed the novel as dead and started moving on. But today, a friend of mine told me that Ishibumi sent a tweet that he is back and working on Slash Dog Volume 4 and True DxD Volume 5, so I guess we're back on business.
Anyways, today we are here with another Longinus rant, this time with my least favourite among the 18 Longinus, Absolute Demise.
I'll be honest, the only reason anyone even thinks of this Longinus is because it's current wielder is hot as shit. Fair warning, I'll be drawing on both Slash Dog and DxD novels for this rant to get a more accurate picture.
Now without further ado, let's get going.
1-Base Form:
> It looked like Kuroka and Bikou also knew Lavinia. Ikuse-san explained to us
> "She's called Lavinia Reni. She's a witch of [Grauzauberer] — the most highly regarded subordinate of Mephisto Pheles-kaichou. Both Vali and I are the same, we're quite fearful of her. She's roughly equivalent to Vali's older sister, if saying that makes it somewhat easier to understand."
> Rias-buchou understood.
> "…[Longinus], the possessor of [Eternal Ice PrincessAbsolute Demise]. [Ice Princess Lavinia], it's also the first time I've seen her…"
> I had also only heard of the name but never met the person. She belonged to the magician organisation of [Grauzauberer] and was known as the strongest [Ice Princess Lavinia]—. She was one of the possessors of a Longinus, [Absolute Demise]. However, it was news to me that she was connected to the Slash Dog team…. It was the first time that I had found out about Vali's weakness. -- DxD Volume 21, Life 1, Part 2.
> It shattered with fragments scattered all over the floor. Lavinia's blue eyes——were dark, the color having become like that of the ocean depths.
> With her wrists now having been freed, Lavinia let out a white breath. And then, from those tiny lips, a curse that did not appear to be of the living world was leaked out.
> The cold air——congregated. Alongside Lavinia, a vortex of frozen air was being gathered. There, similar to ice, something was taking form. The ice appeared to be made up of hands, feet, a torso, and a head placed on top.
> "——This is my puppet."
> What was born beside Lavinia, it was a princess made of ice——. About three meters tall, it had the form of a woman wearing a dress. However, those looks were not those of a human. With neither mouth nor nose, the left half had six eyes, while protruding from the right half something similar to a wild rose was growing. It had four arms, all of which were thin. However, in contrast with those thin arms the hands were large.
> This is...a Sacred Gear, isn't it? Tobio was unable to judge, but he could at least say that rather than magic, it seemed likely that this was the embodiment of Lavinia's will.
> Seeing that strange princess of ice figure, the elderly woman Augusta let of a sigh of admiration.
> "...One of the thirteen, Eternal Ice Princess Absolute Demise. No way, that someone like this girl would be endowed with the incarnation said to overthrow even God..."--Slash Dog Volume 1, Chapter 6, Part 1.
As you could probably tell, Slash Dog is way more chuuni and edgy than DxD. Back to point though, introducing: Absolute Demise, also known as the Eternal Ice Princess, is a Low tier Longinus that manifests as a giant Ice doll that doesn't really have much consciousness, unlike a lot of independent avatar Sacred gears like Canis Lakyon. This Longinus in particular can be said to be the most disappointing of all Longinus, but let's leave my personal thoughts on it aside.
As an independent avatar type, the doll can be remotely controlled to manipulate and form all kind of ice based attacks, although it is unknown if the puppet itself can fight in close combat, or how good it is at that, since its never used that way anyways:
> The princess of ice, swinging her arms horizontally, caused pillars of ice to successively appear from the floor. The blazing giant, heartily swinging the crucifix in a seeping motion, completely mowed down those pillars of ice.-- Slash Dog Volume 1, Chapter 6, Part 1.
Besides that, the user of the Longinus itself also gain the ability to manipulate ice, so the doll itself isn't necessary to act as a medium to channel that power:
A sudden chill then drifted up to them. Everyone's gaze gathered in one direction.
...It seemed that the Augusta hijacked Lavinia was approaching.
Sae held out her palm, and what alighted upon it was white——snow. She gazed up at the sky suspiciously.
"...Snow?"
It gradually gained strength until finally——it turned into an out of season snowfall.
Azazel spoke.
'...Snow huh. If Lavinia's sacred gear were to raise its ability, it's possible to generate snowstorms by means of abnormal weather...and can even create blizzards.'
To be able to even rewrite the weather, Tobio and the others were once again reminded of the menace posed by the special characteristic of Lavinia's sacred gear——of a Longinus.
The snowstorm, being completely out of season, was steadily increasing, and in the process snow was accumulating throughout the area.
The snow had already accumulated to the point that their feet were leaving footprints as they walked.--Slash Dog Volume 2 Chapter 7 Part 1.
Another thing to note is the scale of the Longinus, as with other Longinus, it can scale up to countries:
> The witch — Lavinia Reni said that while she froze the Evil Dragons in the air one after the other. At her side was a humanoid ice figure, standing at a total height of three metres. It seemed to be wearing a dress, and had four slender arms. Although its face didn't have a nose or a mouth, it had six eyes on the left side of its face, while the right side of its face was studded with something resembling the thorns of a rose. —[Absolute Demise][2], one of the Longinus. It was also an independent avatar type. Once activated, the Ice Princess would appear at the wielder's side. The Princess would obey the commands of its wielder, and freeze anything. As long as Lavinia wanted to, it could instantly turn the entire area into a frozen world. At its maximum range, it could lock an entire small country within a crystal of ice. Moreover, the wielder Lavinia was originally a witch who was able to utilise various types of magic. Mass-produced Evil Dragons couldn't possibly defeat her, especially since she had the IcePrincess. .--Volume 21 Life Lucifer.
Now I understood why the leader of the [Slash Dog] team, Ikuse Tobio-san, sent Lavinia Reni-san here. The abilities of this Longinus had effects in an ultra-wide range. It's the same as the reincarnated Angel [Joker]'s, Dulio's [Zenith Tempest] and Georg's [Dimension Lost]. I heard that the [Slash Dog] team, when they fought with us in Kyoto too, ended the battle against a large group of enemy devils in one breath with this ability. --Shin DxD Volume 4 Life 3 Part 2.
If nothing else, the Longinus range is at least decent. Another thing to note is the size and power of the doll is not fixed. When used by Laviana in Slash Dog, it's about 3 meters, but remenber, Laviana hated her powers aas a kid and feared her Longinus, so she subconsciously Limits its powers.
Later on, her body gets taken over by Augusta, JJK style, and like in JJK, the thief uses her powers better than her:
An aura of ice was gathered behind her, which formed into something.
It was forming arms, a head, and a dress.
When they saw what manifested behind Augusta, everyone's breath caught.
——Because a giant princess of ice that was some ten-odd meters tall had appeared!
What Lavinia had employed had only been three meters in height. They couldn't help but to be shocked by what was about four times the size of the ice sacred gear.
Could the size really change this much just by having someone else wielding it? Or else had the normal Lavinia been suppressing itspower? --Slash Dog Volume 2 Chapter 7 Part 2.
Of course she probably became a better user as DxD rolled in since she even unlocked a BxB and all that. Another thing is that while rare, the Ice Princess can act by herself:
Holding his hand out, Vali unleashed an aura bombardment upon the Ice Princess!
Sensing this, the Ice Princess also held its four arms out and produced countless ice spears of enormous power.
The Ice Princess then fired these at Vali who was floating in the air.--Slash Dog Volume 2, Chapter 7, Part 2.
Speaking of Breaker, let's move into that.
2-Balance Breaker:
Then, suddenly, snow started falling in this territory.
This snowfall gradually increased its momentum until it became a furious blizzard! However, we didn't feel too much cold from this blizzard. Only the enemy Devils and Grim Reapers were being frozen. Finally, they became frozen in ice.
Around the battlefield, the number of Devils and Grim Reapers who became ice sculptures was increasing.
The one who did this had the atypical appearance of being three metres tall with six eyes and four arms: the Princess of Ice, the Independent Avatar type Sacred Gear that obeyed Lavinia Reni-san.
The Ice Princess at Lavinia Reni-san's side unleashed a furious blizzard that began appearing all over the battlefield and innumerable giant sharp ice pillars were being created everywhere.
Inside the blizzard, Lavinia Reni-san said while showing a beautiful smile.
"This is my Longinus, [Absolute Demise]'s Balance Breaker [Snow World Believed to be Eternal "Assoluto Argento Mondo"]." --Shin DxD Volume 4 Life 3 Part 2.
The blizzard of Absolute Demise is to basically extend its reach and power, it's nothing fancy or complicated. Now i normally wouldn't talk shit about a power if it's hyped up and turns out to be not all that, or if a support power is not actually OP in direct combat.
However, Absolute Demise's BxB has to be the blandest, most boring of all the Longinus, hell even by typical ice power standards, this shit is boring as fuck too.
Once, some time ago, i thought the special thing about the BxB is that it can automatically bypass friends and affect only enemies(Thanks for nothing DxD Wiki), and while everyone with any decent control of their power can do similar things, it was still coll to have it as an automatic function.
But no, turns out that's just her having big control over her Balance Breaker, the thing itself is really just a big blizzard:
I heard that Lavinia Reni-san's Longinus [Absolute Demise], when its power was taken to the extreme, could make abnormal weather happen, to the point of encasing a small country in a world of ice.
Lavinia Reni-san's Balance Breaker manifested only in the limited interior of this territory as the vast underground space had already become a silver-white world filled with blizzards and ice pillars!
This was a blizzard with dreadful momentum! However, we almost couldn't feel the cold air or chill, and only the enemies were completely frozen.
To be able to release her ability while making a distinction between ally and enemy showed that Lavinia Reni-san was completely capable of controlling her Longinus' Balance Breaker. --Shin DxD Volume 4 Life 3 Part 2.
Anyways, the last thing to note about this sacred gear is it's incantation:
<<——From eternal sleep, awaken. And thus, the fool will be made to sleep for eternity——>>--SLASHDØG-:Volume 1 Chapter 6 Part 1.
I don't know if this is just for the chunni or if there actually is a mythological figure sealed here, however that works i suppose.
SO that's about it, a pretty simple rant as i'm trying to get back into the vibes as the next2 possible rants i had planned are heavyweights among the series, Dragons and the Sephiroth Graal, hopefully we'll get either Slahs dog or shin release soon as the new DX8 was just a fucking dissapoutment with nothing new in it, just a collection of the already released but scattered side stories with one new scene between Issei, Tobio and Duluo.
Oh this reminds me, i also saw the new Junior DxD thing, a big boob girl who is afraid of boobs with possibly Adam sealed inside her sword. A bizzare combo all around.
Have yet to actually sit down and read it, i'll wait till enough volumes are accumulated although i don't really have high hopes that it will reveal anything worth noting down.
Anyways, see you guys next time.