After testing his own strength, Leon left the underground room and returned directly to his bedroom.
"Balance Breaker... is it?"
Lying on his bed, Leon began to seriously contemplate the matter of the Balance Breaker.
The requirements for achieving Balance Breaker have always been very clear, even recorded in the books in Leon's family study.
Since the driving force of a Sacred Gear is the user's will, when the Sacred Gear user's will or desire undergoes a drastic change—powerful enough to defy the flow of the world—the Sacred Gear will reach the domain of Balance Breaker.
Any Sacred Gear user who can utilize their Sacred Gear completely and freely has the foundation for achieving Balance Breaker. As long as their spirit undergoes a significant change due to certain events, the various emotions arising from this rapid change—such as joy, sorrow, excitement, distress, or fear—will turn into power, causing the Sacred Gear to change into something else based on the user's consciousness, thereby unleashing even greater power.
This is Balance Breaker, the sealed power that breaks the world's balance, essentially the same thing as the Bankai in a certain popular shonen manga.
"The conditions are clear, but how do I achieve it?"
A will powerful enough to defy the flow of the world?
How could he generate such a will?
"I doubt I can achieve it just by training. In the original work, very few Sacred Gear users reached the Balance Breaker state purely through diligent training."
That is because training is just training. No matter how hard one tries, it's difficult for one's spirit to undergo a drastic change. Instead, it's easier to achieve during do-or-die battles, especially for those with unyielding obsessions and wishes. The more they face life-and-death crises, the more powerful their will explodes, at which point they might reach the domain of Balance Breaker.
"Moreover, even if I can reach Balance Breaker, I need to consider what kind of Balance Breaker to achieve."
Every Sacred Gear has a Balance Breaker, just as every Zanpakutō has a Bankai. The only difference lies in whether the wielder can master it.
However, the Balance Breaker of a Sacred Gear is not fixed, or rather, it can be altered. Therefore, besides the normal Balance Breaker transformation, there are also variant forms of Balance Breaker, known as Subspecies Balance Breakers.
According to the original work, the Balance Breaker transformation of a Sacred Gear can generally be divided into three types:
One, the Ascension Face, which enhances the Sacred Gear's original abilities.
Two, the Abyss Face, which pursues the user's proper form with the Sacred Gear to the point of madness, resulting in the user and the Sacred Gear merging together.
Three, the Outer Face, which cannot be categorized into the first two, resulting from a mutation triggered by special circumstances.
Most Balance Breakers fall into the first category, the second is relatively rare, and the third is the rarest.
The White Dragon Emperor in the original work achieved the second type of Balance Breaker, while the Red Dragon Emperor leaned more towards the third type. It must be said that he was worthy of being the protagonist of the original work; whether he was strong or not, he was certainly the most unique one when it came to special circumstances.
"What about the Balance Breaker for Zenith Tempest?"
Leon began to recall the original plot.
In the original work, Zenith Tempest was held by the Church's strongest exorcist, Dulio Gesualdo. After transforming into his Balance Breaker, he could unleash countless soap bubbles to envelop people, and then release various natural powers within the soap bubbles, such as fierce fire tornadoes, strong gusts of wind capable of tearing flesh, all-freezing cold air, and powerful lightning as mighty as divine wrath. It was a powerful ability that could inflict genuine divine punishment upon multiple targets and even change the weather of an entire country.
But this was not the original Balance Breaker of Zenith Tempest; it was a Subspecies Balance Breaker developed by Dulio Gesualdo, named Flagello di Colori del Arcoble (Holy Celestial Rainbow Envoy's Punishment), and Speranza di Briscola (The Final Shining Star).
"The ability of this Balance Breaker feels somewhat similar to Senior Kasumigaoka's Sacred Gear ability..."
Leon scratched his hair.
Utaha Kasumigaoka's Sacred Gear is to set up a barrier that can launch various attacks, which is indeed very similar to this Balance Breaker ability of enveloping enemies in soap bubbles to receive divine punishment attacks.
Of course, the power levels of the two are definitely not comparable. At the very least, even if Utaha Kasumigaoka reached Balance Breaker, she might not be able to unleash Divine Punishment-level powerful attacks inside her barrier, let alone change the weather of a country.
A Divine Destruction Tool is a Divine Destruction Tool after all. It has a clear gap from an ordinary Sacred Gear, with its power far surpassing the latter. Moreover, Zenith Tempest is the second-ranked superior Divine Destruction Tool, possessing a massive difference in power even compared to ordinary Divine Destruction Tools, let alone compared to an ordinary Sacred Gear.
But this is not certain. A Sacred Gear is a power that constantly evolves. What if one day Utaha Kasumigaoka manages to evolve her Sacred Gear to the Divine Destruction Tool level through her own ability?
This is not impossible.
One should know that originally, there were not so many as thirteen kinds of Divine Destruction Tools.
Some Divine Destruction Tools did not manifest in the world at first and were unknown to people, while others evolved later, thus possessing the power to destroy Gods and Maou.
In the future, the world's major factions will observe five new Divine Destruction Tools manifesting, at which point the Divine Destruction Tools will increase from thirteen to eighteen, and even Artificial Divine Destruction Tools will appear, almost disrupting the balance of all factions.
But that is a matter for the future and has little to do with Leon.
Even if more Divine Destruction Tools and Artificial Divine Destruction Tools appear in the future, his Zenith Tempest will still firmly hold its position as the world's second strongest, so he is not worried at all.
Right now, figuring out a way to achieve Balance Breaker is the more important thing.
"This is really going to be difficult..."
Leon realized that reaching the Balance Breaker domain might actually be an unexpectedly difficult task for him.
This is because he has neither a strong obsession nor any ideal or wish he desperately wants to achieve. Although he is preparing for the chaos that will inevitably arrive in the future, constantly pursuing power without rest, he is not particularly obsessive. He even harbors the thought that if he doesn't have the ability to intervene in those major events later, he might as well just lie low and live a free and easy life in Chiba.
This indifferent attitude is undoubtedly highly undesirable for the Sacred Gear Balance Breaker, which requires a strong spirit or will as its driving force to be achieved.
Looking at the original work, none of the Sacred Gear users who managed to reach the Balance Breaker domain were people like him. Even the most seemingly unreliable and lackadaisical individuals must have some kind of obsession or wish in their hearts, which is what made it possible for them to reach the domain of Balance Breaker.
In conclusion, the matter of reaching the Balance Breaker domain might be an unexpectedly difficult thing for Leon.
"...I have to come up with a plan for myself."
...
The next day, in the manor's dining room, everyone was gathered for breakfast.
Leon sat at the head of the long dining table with a sumptuous breakfast in front of him. To his left were Yukino Yukinoshita and Asuna Yuuki, and behind him sat only Utaha Kasumigaoka.
Perhaps due to their background, everyone essentially observed the rule of "no talking while eating," and their dining etiquette, including Leon's, was quite elegant, fully demonstrating what table manners entailed.
Only Utaha Kasumigaoka sat there hardly eating anything, instead yawning one after another, looking very sleepy.
"Damn it, why am I so sleepy and weak?" Utaha Kasumigaoka slumped on the dining table without any regard for her image, her shapely figure pressed against the table, flattening slightly. She said weakly, "I was full of energy last night, feeling no tiredness no matter what I was doing, but why did I become like this in the morning?"
This feeling was like night and day compared to last night, making Utaha Kasumigaoka very uncomfortable.
"Didn't I tell you? Devils are nocturnal creatures!" Leon glanced at Utaha Kasumigaoka, yawning as well. He said, "This isn't something you can't adapt to. Hang in there for a while, and it will get much better once you adjust."
"Here, Senpai Kasumigaoka," Asuna Yuuki poured a cup of hot tea for Utaha Kasumigaoka. She said, "Drink some tea to wake up."
Utaha Kasumigaoka thanked her politely, picked up the black tea, and sipped it slowly, but she still lacked spirit.
"Why do you also look like you haven't slept enough?" Yukino Yukinoshita noticed Leon's abnormality and said with a frown, "I remember you didn't stay in the underground room for too long last night, did you?"
"Yes, I didn't push myself too hard last night and returned to my room early," Leon rubbed his eyes and said lazily, "But I was thinking too seriously about something, and as a result, I only fell asleep very late."
"You should pay attention to rest, Mr. Leon," Asuna Yuuki offered a thoughtful suggestion while asking with some confusion, "What were you thinking about so seriously?"
"How should I put it?" Leon thought for a moment and answered, "I was thinking about how a person like me could cause a strong change in my state of mind."
Yukino Yukinoshita, Asuna Yuuki, and Utaha Kasumigaoka all paused simultaneously.
"What kind of question is that?" Yukino Yukinoshita said expressionlessly, "Are you conducting a life study survey?"
"Why would you want your state of mind to change drastically?" Utaha Kasumigaoka tilted her head and asked, "Does Devil-kun feel dissatisfied with his current situation?"
"Not exactly, right?" Leon saw that they didn't understand, and didn't plan to explain too clearly, saying offhandedly, "I just feel the necessity to do so. You will understand later."
They are all Sacred Gear users. Whether it's Yukino Yukinoshita or Utaha Kasumigaoka, they will definitely face this hurdle in the future and have to overcome it.
"Should we... perhaps consult Miss Musashi?"
Asuna Yuuki hesitated before saying this.
Miyamoto Musashi is different from the others. She doesn't have to go to school during the day, so she adheres to the devil's living pattern: sleeping during the day and being active at night. She is currently sound asleep on the bed in her room and probably won't appear until the evening.
"Consult..."
Leon did not deny Asuna Yuuki's suggestion, tapping his finger on the surface of the dining table.
"Perhaps, I really should find someone to ask for advice?"
Leon recalled a certain individual who had conducted extremely deep research on Sacred Gears.
Should he try to make contact with that person?
It feels a bit dangerous...