Sacred Gears

Hello again, our topic today is the is the favourite piece of scrap in this world since everyone and their mother in this fandom just loooves to have one A.K.A. Sacred gears.

Now let's begin with our introduction:

> "Sacred Gear are an irregular power that's bestowed to certain humans. For example, most of the people whose names are recorded in history are said to be possessors of a Sacred Gear. They used the power of their Sacred Gears to record their name in history."

> "Presently, there are people who possess Sacred Gears within their bodies. You know those people who play an important role worldwide? Most of them possess a Sacred Gear."

> Himejima-senpai continued after Kiba.

> Rias-senpai then continued to explain.

> "Most of the Sacred Gears have functions that are only usable in human society, but there are exceptional Sacred Gears that are a threat to us, the Devils, and Fallen Angels. Ise, raise your hand." --Volume 1, Life 1, part8

So yeah, this is our first introduction into Sacred gears, "irregular powers" that are generally laying dormant in some part of humanity, bestowed upon them by God.

In general, most of the influential people across history tend to be sacred gear weilders.

Now, there are many instances and examples of sacred gears, and I honestly don't want to bother with them. So just Google up Sacred gears to see all the sacred gears that appeared in the main series, DxD.

Something I will list here however, is all the sacred gears mentioned in the novel Slash/DOG, as I realised that the wiki didn't do it.

Slash Dog Sacred Gears:

--The 4 Fiends: Tāotiè( Devours everything), Táowù( Wind control), Táowù( Electricity Control), Húndùn( Thread control). All independent type sacred gears A.K.A. manifest an avatar.

--Forest of Bewilderment( Canon Name): By means of crafting its ability into a part of the forest, it was something capable of guiding those who were treading within it to whatever place the user wanted.

--Cursed Statue of Radiance Lost A.K.A. Brain Shine Statue( Canon name): Manifests 2 dolls that are uncanny, one-legged, fifty centimeter stone statue.

With tiny wings growing from its back and a single horn on its head, its appearance was one of something grotesque. Each doll is fast, durable and when opening its eyes, it can emit a light comparable to a flash bang, if anyone sees it, they are robbed of their sight forever.

--Insect hell( Non canon name): Allows user to create and manipulate insects that would parasitically feed on the opponent's body gradually from the inside.

--Vicious Bear( Non canon name): A bear plush doll that can grow from an ordinary doll size to three meters in height. Its special characteristic was to protect the woman autonomously and the claws and tusks were endowed with a deadly poison.

--Slime manifestation( Non Canon Name): Allows the weilder to bring one or multiple highly corrosive slimes to life within the weilder's abdomen. The slimes would engage in parasitism towards an opponent, would enter through the mouth, nose, ears, and other orifices and would gradually dissolve the person from the inside.

--Whispering limbs( Non Canon name): Covers the weilders arms in closely packed mouth-like things, if one heard the curses let loose from those numerous mouths, they'd receive a curse that would induce extreme variations in their mind and body.

--Hands of White Flame A.K.A. Flame shake( Canon Name): Possessing the characteristic of causing an ignition phenomenon from one's hands, depending on how it was used the weilder could even form it into a sword or a shield.

--Cursed Dice Bear( Non Canon Name): Allows the user to manifest a humanoid monster which possessed a huge body exceeding two meters. It was of atypical appearance, possessing one eye and six arms, it carries a huge six-sided die in its hands.

An independent avatar type, one whose supernatural ability differed depending on the number of eyes it displayed. It was a power dependent upon luck however, as even though the abilities invoked depending on the number of eyes were powerful, they couldn't be used whenever one wished to. Indeed, the effect depended on the number of eyes that appeared. It was a cursing power that would bestow a heavy negative upon the five senses and the sixth sense of intuition.

--Made In Heaven Discount( Non canon name): While not mentioned in Slash Dog, it is an unnamed sacred gear mentioned by Cao Cao in Volume 9 of DxD, said to be able to accelerate time in a certain space.

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With that out of the way, I would like to mention the types of sacred gears depending on their function, for more details, visit the wiki:

Sacred Gear abilities, with the varieties including 'State Alteration', 'Boundary Seal', 'Attribute', 'Defence', 'Counter', and 'Create' among others.--Volume Slah/DOG 3, Chapter 2.

So without further ado, let's start:

1-Base Form:

--State Alteration: State Change Sacred Gears are a type of Sacred Gears that changes the state of a user or another person/object. It can vary from doubling one's own power to halving the power of others. There exists a sub-category of state change Sacred Gears called Recovery Sacred Gears, which heal wounds.

--Recovery:  Recovery Sacred Gears are sub-category of State Change Sacred Gears. It allows the user to heal wounds or restore another person's health. Due to their usefulness and rarity, Recovery Sacred Gears are highly sought after by all factions.

--Creation: Creation Sacred Gears are a type of Sacred Gear that allows the user to create matter/objects out of nothing.

--Defensive/Counter-Based: Defensive/Counter-Based Sacred Gears are a type of Sacred Gear that focuses mainly on defense and countering the attacks of the opponent.

--Attribute/Elemental: Attribute/Elemental Sacred Gears are a type of Sacred Gear that incorporates different elemental attributes in its ability.

--Time/Space-Based: Time/Space-Based   Sacred Gears are a type that have the ability to manipulate time and/or space.

--Barrier/Sealing: Barrier/Sealing Sacred Gears are Sacred Gears that have the ability to create barriers or seal an opponent or ability.

--Independent Avatar: Independent Avatar Sacred Gears are Sacred Gears that takes the form of a living-like creature that moves and acts of its own free will and instincts.

--Sealed/Contract: Sealed/Contract Sacred Gears is a generic term for Sacred Gears that have sealed a powerful creature inside them. These Sacred Gears are powerful, but if the creature inside the Sacred Gears isn't awake or if it's inactive, the user will only be able to use the minimal abilities of the Sacred Gear.

--Vritra Type: Vritra's Sacred Gears are the Sacred Gears that have a part of the soul of the Dragon King, Vritra sealed inside of them. Vritra's Sacred Gears are considered Trap-type Sacred Gears. They technically can all be classified under other categories.

Now, besides their baseline powers, Sacred gears were shown to have different kind of methods to empower them even more.

2-Balance Breaker:

Sacred Gears have an ultimate state of activation called the Balance Breaker, which is the most powerful manifestation of the Sacred Gear. Once reached, the Balance Breaker can be entered again far more easily than the first time.

Generally speaking, a balance breaker can be activated by other rigorous training or a powerful rush of emotions, since all Sacred gears respond to their weilder's desire after all.

But it has been noted that their are 2 ways to artificially stimulate a potential balance breaker:

●Ophis Snake

> "The Sacred Gear possessors who were captured alive and have been under my investigation….had an unnatural death."

> [-! All of them?]

> "Yeah. The cause of it was Ophis's snakes."

> [So they drank it like we thought.]

> "No, that's not it. The possessors themselves didn't drink it. –It's a new type of snake which you wrap around the Sacred Gears. It seems like it stimulates the Sacred Gears strongly using those new snakes. Most likely, instead of the possessors it forcefully drags out the hidden potential power of the Sacred Gear. Instead of its attack power, it was equipped to stimulate the unknown factors of the Balance-Breaker which still has many hidden factors about it. It's the most delicate and dangerous way of doing it. If it goes wrong the Sacred Gears will break. They keep on repeating such forceful experiments. I checked the remaining left overs of the snakes, but it is made to stop working if either the possessor dies or if the possessor reaches Balance-Breaker. Something like increasing the number of those who can use Balance-Breaker, including us, it is a feat we cannot copy right now even if we want to."

> [...So those are the methods to increase the number of those who can use Balance-Breaker huh. If the Sacred Gear goes into a 'burst' mode and breaks, then the possessor will die. Either way, it is a method which they don't mind because the possessors would die if they can't reach Balance-Breaker.] --Volume 7, Boss x Boss.

As we can see, Ophis snake can be used in this way to stimulate a Balance-Breaker forcibly, but the method also comes with a big risk, no that the Hero Faction cares.

●Chaos Break:

> "This is something that was completed with the help from the old Maou Shalba Beelzebub. In other words, it's a doping drug. For the Sacred Gear, that is."

> "So, you are going to strengthen your Sacred Gear then?"

> He nods at my question. …So, they have been researching for things like that huh. I also know they experimented with Ophis's snake by having it on the Sacred Gear and forcing out different types of traits. Siegfried then says it.

> "What will the result be if we were to inject ourselves with the blood of the true Maou who were the archenemies of the God of the Bible who created the Sacred Gears? That was the theme of the research. With quite a number of sacrifices and lots of data collected, it was able to create a fusion between the Sacred Gear and deep devilishness." --Volume 12, Life -2.

As we can see, this is another way to enhance the sacred gear Balance Breaker, by some extensive research and "acceptable casualties", they were able to develop the Chaos Edge that takes inspiration from Juggernaut Drive.

Chaos Drive is transformation form that the users of Chaos Break undergo after injecting it, taking on the physical characteristic of their Sacred Gear on their bodies, as they mutate into various monster-like forms with enhanced physical capabilities in addition to their strengthened Sacred Gear's ability.

However, the Chaos Break has several detriments:

--The user of Chaos Break cannot heal their wounds by using Phoenix Tears.

--The user will have their lifespan reduced if they inject themselves with more Chaos Break doping while under the effects of Chaos Drive.

With that done, let's move on.

3-Sub-Species:

Sub-Species are Sacred Gears that have taken on a unique characteristic because of the thoughts and feelings of the wielder.

They are more powerful than the normal form of the same Sacred Gear, and will sometimes gain a new ability as well.

Sometimes, both the Sacred Gear in its normal state, as well as the Balance Breaker will be a Sub-Species, like Siegfried's for example.

Other times, however, only the Balance Breaker will be a Sub-Species, such as Yuuto's Blade Blacksmith.

Even Longinus can gain a Sub-Species Balance Breaker like Cao Cao's True Longinus' Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin or Sairaorg's Regulus Nemea's Regulus Rey Leather Rex.

So, let's continue shall we.

3-Abyss/Crest/Ex -Side Balance-Breaker:

> Azazel-sensei, had suggested some possibilities regarding the Balance Breaker of a Sacred Gear.

> There was [Crest Side], which was your usual Balance Breaker, including the sub-species ones, with the abilities to either strengthen or evolve. Then, there was [Abyss Side], a phenomenon where the Sacred Gear and its user became one, which happened after the user polished themselves and the Sacred Gear to its limit, and if the user kept wishing for it. The last one was [Ex Side], a new variation that couldn't be categorised into either of those two. The one Tobio had was [Abyss side]. Gressil's expression changed upon looking at that. He became so aroused that his body trembled. --Volume Shin 3, Life Slash Dog.

As we can see, and previously touched upon by previous rant, Sacred gears can go in 3 directions after touching a Balance-Breaker:

☆Crest-Side Balance-Breaker: It is your usual Balance-Breaker or a subspecies. Nothing special here.

☆Abyss-Side Balance-Breaker: This is a step above the average Balance-Breaker, it is achieved when the individual and their Sacred Gears become one, after they have polished it to the extreme.

☆Ex-Side Balance-Breaker: It is when a Sacred gear starts doing something that doesn't remotely connects to its base form. Case in point: Issei Dividing, Balor controlling shadows, etc...

Besides this, we have a last step for Sacred Gears.

4-Juggernaut Drive:

> "Oh yeah. The independent Longinus that is under Sairaorg-san called Regulus can also do something like "Juggernaut-Drive"? Didn't you tell me that Sacred Gears with strong creatures or dragons sealed inside them can do something similar to [Juggernaut-Drive]?"

> "Judging from the system, it is possible. If it's Regulus Nemea or a creature-type sealed in Sacred Gear, it will be called [Breakdown the Beast], which is written as "Beast of Domination" in Japanese. Though the Heavenly-Dragon's Juggernaut-Drive is more powerful. That is special. Well these are very dangerous so you shouldn't use them even if you can. Just like Juggernaut-Drive, it will drain your life force and eventually kill you after going berserk."

> "...Sensei, how about [True-Longinus]'s [Truth Idea]? Does that also have a phenomenon similar to [Juggernaut-Drive] or [Breakdown the Beast]? Does it also have a creature sealed in it?" --Volume 11, Life 3, Part1.

As we can see, Juggernaut Drive is a special mode for the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing, but that doesn't mean its unique.

As said by Azazel, any sacred gear with a Creature-Type sealed inside have a similar mode that is called "Breakdown the Beast".

As for the True Longinus, it has a special mode too, the Truth Idea.

All this modes invoke, except Truth Idea, invoke even more power from the sacred gear but at a great cost.

Now to be clear, not all sacred gears have creatures or souls inside them. Like, it should be really obvious, but apparently some people don't realise it:

> "Can I have a look at the Evil-Piece inside you for a bit?"

> Saying that, Beelzebub-sama poked his finger at my chest and creates many small magic-circles. The devil-letters and numbers written on the magic-circle are circulating really fast.

> "Hmm. Looks like you are trying to do something interesting. You are going to the depths of the Sacred Gear right? It's only something possible because it's a Sacred Gear type with a soul sealed in it. The one who pointed out this possibility must be the Viceroy of fallen-angels, Azazel....." --Volume 8, Extra Life.

As you can see, it's not common for Sacred Gears to have souls inside them.

But anyways. Now that we are basically done with all Sacred Gear power ups. We can move on to weaknesses.

Now, when it comes to Sacred gears, there are generally no glaring weaknesses. But there there indeed different type of counters for them, some unique, some not. Here we go:

•Sharing of properties: This is a common problem with Dragon/Snake/Demonic/Creature type sacred gears, they tend to share their nature with their weilders, and in return, their weilders gain vulnerability to Creature-Slayer types of weaponry. Case in point, Dragon type sacred gears are vulnerable to Dragon-Slayer attributes.

•Sacred Gear Cancellor: Admittedly, this is a unique problem, as only Rivezim Livan Lucifer has it, but still, pretty much almost all Sacred gear effects have nothing on him, even the Longinus, they just get their effects cancelled. Unless it's a unique type of ability that either "Bypasses" the effect like "Penetrate", or the ability didn't exactly originate from the sacred gear itself.

For instance, the Boosted Gear doesn't have Penetrate, that is Draig's ability. Neither does Divine Dividing have reflect. They are abilities that both Issei and Vali gained from The Heavenly Dragons, not the sacred gears.

Now I know this sounds weird, but you have to remember. The Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing aren't actually powered up by Draig and Albion's souls.

Because, if that was the case, then the Gear would shut down when  both of them were manifested outside of it at full power, which it didn't.

So whatever fuckery God did, he didn't make the 2 Longinus completely dependent on the Heavenly Dragons.

I would like to mention that the Truth Idea can't be cancelled by Rivezim, since its from God himself. So his little trick won't won't any effective.

•Divinity: Now this is something that I realised most people glossed over. But it was proven over and over again, that almost all Sacred gears have a shit compatibility against a God. The most prominent example being Tartarus fight:

> Georg said,

> "I've started the teleportation, but Erebus is resisting in his area! There is a high possibility that I might not be able to teleport all of you to the designated place— which is right before the enemy. But I'll try to send everyone as close to the target as possible!"

> [Erebus used a darkness incantation on you with his remaining power. Sekiryuutei Ddraig will not be able to appear immediately. And while he can't do so, you will sink into the Abyss.]

> That technique of Erebus... It was to seal Ddraig!

> [There are many Longinus possessors in this space. A perfect opportunity for dealing with them all at once. From the moment you teleported, this space was adjusted from the outside to become my area. Unfortunately, you were so focused on the new children of Lilith and Erebus that you didn't notice me. The owner of Dimension Lost should no longer be in control.] --Volume Shin 3, Life 4.

As you can see, Tartarus and Erebus both were able to highjack the Boosted and Dimension Lost. Not to mention Loki messing up the Boosted Gear to create a replica powered up by a curse.

In general, all powerful gods can actually just shut down a Sacred gear if they so desired, Longinus included.

Of course, there is an exception. The True Longinus is immune to this effect as it has God's will backing it up against another God's divinity, not to mention its God-Slayer attribute.

So yeah, that is that I guess. Thanks for reading this far and please ask any questions you might have. See ya next time.