| “ | Buon giorno, young devils. I’ve come from the Vatican, my name is Vasco Strada. | ” |
–Vasco introducing himself to the Occult Research Club, Volume 19, Life.1 — Third Trimester Starts! | ||
Vasco Strada (ヴァスコ・ストラーダ, Vasuko Sutorāda) is a former Exorcist and wielder of Durandal preceding Xenovia Quarta. He is said to be closest to the original wielder Roland of Durandal. He was also ranked as the second-highest official in the Church as Cardinal Priest.
Appearance[]
Despite being eighty-seven years old, Vasco is a two-meter tall, white-haired old man, with a deeply scarred face full of wrinkles, and also an extremely developed muscular build, contradicting his advanced age, fitting far more for an ideal young male. He makes Durandal, which is much taller in comparison to Xenovia, appear small in his hands. During the match between Team Issei and Gremory, he shaved his head for the match and temporarily appeared again in his prime state, his fifties. He also wore a standard exorcist bottom uniform, a Catholic rosary and a stole on his shirtless upper body.
On his farm, Vasco wore farm clothes and a straw hat, and he also had an impressive build. At first glance from afar, one would think that he had previously served in the military or had some kind of athletic training.
Personality[]
Vasco is an extremely gentle and compassionate man. Even though he was a former Exorcist, he has shown no lingering hatred to the Devils and Fallen Angels after the treaty. He also cares for the sake of everyone; not just the Exorcists that rebelled but also everyone involved in the alliance. Vasco was immensely respected by the people of the church due to his immense compassion and powerful strength as shown in Volume 19 when the Exorcists who rebelled shed tears when Vasco intended to sacrifice himself for the Exorcists to find closure from their past. He also has a strategic mind as he secretly cooperated with Azazel in the rebel Exorcist conflict to search and push out the traitors of the Church since the incident with Saintess Asia Argento.
Cao Cao has noted that Vasco, as one considered to be a hero, is similar to Issei.
History[]
When Vasco was still an Exorcist, he was able to defeat and corner Kokabiel during the Second World War. He was also the strongest swordsman in the history of the Vatican. At some point before Asia Argento's banishment from the Church, Vasco met Asia. He also tried to save Asia after he heard the news of her being banished but was too late. He was also, at some point, offered by two of the Four Great Seraphs Uriel and Raphael to be reincarnated as an Angel and be a part of their Brave Saints system but refused as he wanted to die as a human.
In his house confined retirement, he worked on his homeland farm located remotely somewhere in Italy, but later came out to guide youngsters who work hard to guard the world.
Powers and Abilities[]
Natural-Born Holy Sword Wielder: As a natural-born Holy Sword wielder, Vasco can wield Holy Swords. Him, in particular, has an incredibly high compatibility with the notorious wild Durandal, so great that it potentially surpasses its original wielder, Roland, who had immense strength himself. In wielding a Durandal Replica, it was comparable to the original. He also has a hobby collecting Holy Swords during his active years.[1]
Holy Fist: Due to his training and praying as an Exorcist, Vasco could generate Holy Power into his punches, letting him damage beings that are weak to Holy Power even without the use of Holy Swords. Augmented with his tremendous physical strength, he can cause an immense amount of damage to Devils.[2] Vasco's Holy Fist has shown to powerful enough to overwhelm Caliburn's Holy aura and demolished an entire building in the process.
Immense Strength: Vasco has tremendous strength developed from constant training and experience of countless battles since his youth, able to defeat the Cadre, Kokabiel, in World War II in his twenties. The Fallen Angel proclaimed him as a holy sword wielder with unrivaled strength when remonstrating Xenovia Quarta.[3] Despite being an 87 years old human, his punches were as powerful as Sairaorg Bael's and can easily collapse modern buildings;[2] during his first meeting with Issei Hyoudou, he stopped his movement by simply placing one hand on his shoulder, exerting enormous pressure in his grip.[1] Even Ewald Cristaldi, one of the best Exorcists himself stated that he was a true monster;[2] taking on the entire Gremory Group, as well as Genshirou Saji in his Black Armor, and stopped a punch from Issei in his Crimson Armor despite holding back. He could even do a simple kick that sent a mass-produced Evil Dragon flying away.[4] Bikou has compared his strength to Sun Wukong, overpowering Bikou and Gogmagog, countering a rocket punch using a single punch.[5] After returning to his prime, Vasco overpowered Gogmagog, Bikou, Fenrir (in his weaker, smaller state) and Vali Lucifer in his Silver Armor.[5] Vasco's anomalous strength even terrified some of the Gods in the Azazel Cup, causing him to be regarded by them as the strongest Human.[6]
Immense Durability: Vasco has abnormal durability for a Human, he could continue fighting in his prime state after taking on attacks from Ouryuu Nakiri's Dragon Man form and earth-based attacks, Irina Shidou's countless Light bullets and Xenovia Quarta's Cross Crisis, resulting in him crashing into a building.[7] After the Azazel Cup match, he was shown to be completely unscathed.[8]
Immense Speed: Vasco is shown to be extremely fast, able to catch Devils and Angels by surprise despite being a Human and of senior age.[1] In Volume 24, he displayed enough speed in his prime state to leave behind afterimages and outmaneuvered Vali in his Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive.[5]
Immense Stamina: Vasco has massive stamina; despite being an 87-year old man, his physical abilities have not been tarnished. Instead, he remained just as strong as ever able to fight against the extremely powerful Gremory group during the rebel Exorcist conflict, however, his stamina has notably been depleted compared to his youth, as evident as he showed signs of fatigue after that fight and a short battle with Arthur Pendragon.[2]
Master Combatant: Vasco is an extremely powerful Exorcist, supposedly able to slay even the most powerful Devils using his skills alone, defeating the Fallen Angel Cadre Kokabiel in his youth.[1] Rias Gremory claimed that even the current Satans feared Vasco Strada in his prime. Even Ewald Cristaldi who is the mentor of the Exorcists called Vasco the true monster. His overall strength and combat skills, honed through a lifetime of training and combat experience, allow him to fight on par with extremely powerful combatants which Bikou compared to Sun Wukong.
- Master Swordsman: He is a tremendously skilled and powerful master swordsman with immense combat experience, able to overcome master swordsmen like Kiba and Xenovia with minimal effort. In his hands, the Durandal Replica yielded power on par with the original, then slashed Rias' Extinguished Star, an immense compression of Power of Destruction and fought on par with Arthur Pendragon, a prodigious master swordsman that wields Caliburn, the Strongest Holy Sword.[2] After having his original strength restored, he could demonstrate his legendary swordsmanship on Durandal II to directly slashed Vali's Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive enhanced Demonic Power and even completely destroyed his entire armour, cut apart an army of Bikou's Youjutsu clones and even defeated Arthur, overwhelming the latter in terms of power, stating Arthur's superior swordsmanship with Caliburn is still immature.
- Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Vasco is also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant whose skills are further supplemented by his immense physical abilities, as shown when he blocked Irina's Hauteclere using his fingers, caught crushed Yuuto Kiba's Sword of Betrayer just by gripping it, and threw extremely powerful punches that could destroy buildings simply from the shock-wave generated from his fists. He even incorporates it to negate various magic attacks by attacking their calculation structure with his rapid finger jabs. Rias even noted Vasco's unarmed combat prowess is on par with Sairaorg, a Devil who is an extremely powerful martial arts master.[2]
Keen Intellect: Befitting his age and experience, Vasco has vast knowledge in various topics related to the Three Factions, most notably about Heaven. He also has immense wisdom, as he criticized Cao Cao's immature thoughts on heroism.
- Master Theologian: As a former veteran Exorcist, Vasco has immense knowledge of Christianity, having been promoted to Cardinal Priest, the second highest official in the Church. He could identify Sacred Gear users, Holy Swords and Holy Relics. Through his own connections, Vasco managed to acquired a piece of the original Holy Grail for Grigori for Valerie to restore her conciousness.
- Demonologist: As part of his Exorcist training, Vasco learned demonology which is further accumulated from his immense experience in fighting Devils, thus he could effectively counter special Demonic Powers such as Bael's Power of Destruction as shown when he used the Durandal Replica to cut Rias's Extinguished Star. His insight in demonology allows him to correctly deduce that the unknown Devils used by the Alliance of Hell were being born from the Mother of Devils, Lilith.
Magic: Although, Vasco himself hasn't shown much usage of Magic, from his combat experience, he appears to have abundant knowledge in Magic. As a testament to this, he blew off Rossweisse, a genius of Norse Magic, as merely a young Magician with flaws in her spells. Vasco can use Magic to fly or to store away Durandal II in another dimension and summon it back when he needs to use it.
- Magic Theory (Nullification): His immense experience and knowledge born from his years of fighting against Magicians and Magic users, becoming a top theorist in Magic, therefore letting him locate even the tiniest flaws in his opponents' magical attacks and lets him neutralize them via the application of brute force to very specific points on the magic attack or phenomenon.[2]
- Flight Magic: During the events of Volume 21, Vasco used Magic to stay afloat in mid-air while fighting mass-produced airborne Evil Dragons.[4]
Equipment[]
Durandal (デュランダル, Dyurandaru): A legendary Holy Sword liken to be on par with Excalibur. It was originally wielded by Roland. During Vasco's tenure as an active Exorcist, he wielded the original Durandal with great potential to be remembered by all supernatural forces even after his retirement. He treated the original Durandal as his companion and son from his past battles, tearfully hoped it would eventually shine again in the hands of successive wielders. His successor to the Holy Sword is Xenovia Quarta.
Durandal Replica (デュランダル・レプリカ, Dyurandaru Repurika): In Volume 19, Vasco was given a replica of the original Durandal by the Pope. As it is just a replica, it only has one-fifth of the power of the original. But even though it's just a replica, Vasco was able to draw out its maximum potential; demonstrating the ability of Durandal to cut everything without exception.[2] He also used it to fight off mass-produced Evil Dragons until Trihexa was sealed.[4]
Durandal II (デュランダルII, Dyurandaru II): The newest version of the holy sword created by the Vatican. Durandal II as a blue blade and an aggressive aura. Durandal II is an evolution of the original Durandal which Vasco previously wield and it was made so that he can display his sword skills, which were once called a "living miracle", for the Azazel Cup. Durandal II has shown tremendous power, almost comparable to the original Durandal as Vasco could fight and match the Vali Team in terms of power, generate colossal holy aura that could destroyed Vali's Silver Armour and overwhelming Arthur's Caliburn the strongest Holy Sword.
Rejuvenation Concoction: A concoction created for Vasco using the joint powers of Valerie's Holy Grail, Gasper's Balor Power, and Koneko's Senjutsu (Touki). This lets him temporarily return to the age where he was at his prime, letting him display immense strength and skill once restrained by his eighties year old body. He would not have taken the concoction before the Three Factions' treaty.[5]
Quotes[]
- (To everyone):"Now, the supernatural races will have a video recording of this. In the past, the Devils who stood above high-class Devils and all of the abnormal existences would only have appeared in rumors or legends. It was the first time that they had been seen, and no one knew how to respond. But if a recording of a battle is left behind, regardless of whether they're a Heavenly Dragon or something else, there will now be evidence. All that's left is to feel that aura on an actual battlefield." (Light Novel Volume 24, Life 4 — Vasco Strada and Crom Cruach)
Trivia[]
- Vasco is a Spanish name whereas Strada is an Italian name, so this suggests Vasco is Spanish-Italian.
- Vasco means "crow" and Strada means "spread out, extend". These two meanings could very well be a reference to the fact Vasco can fly.
- Vasco is the oldest known Human in the series.
- Vasco Strada refused the offers to become the Ace of two out of the Four Great Seraph, Uriel and Raphael because he wanted to die as a Human. If he had accepted, then he would have become one of the strongest, if not the strongest, among the Brave Saints.[1]
- Vasco's initial retirement wish was to spend his remaining days peacefully on his homeland farm as a human and once considered the Evil Dragon War as his final battle.[9]
- Vasco in his prime was able to easily defeat Fallen Angel cadres, and also ultimate-class Devils.[9]
- Vasco wants to give his blessings as a priest at each of Issei's wedding ceremonies, as it would give him great satisfaction to do so.[10]
- Vasco once communicated with Sairaorg Bael over the subject of coffee beans by coincidence at Cafe CxC.[11]
- Vasco's first battle in the Azazel Cup was against Team White Dragon Emperor of the Morning Star.[5]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Light Novel Volume 19, Life 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Light Novel Volume 19, Life 3
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 3, Life 4
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Light Novel Volume 21, Life 2
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Light Novel Volume 24, Life 4
- ↑ True Light Novel Volume 2, Life 1
- ↑ True Light Novel Volume 2, Power Within Force. The Violence of Heaven and The Slashing Princess
- ↑ True Light Novel Volume 2, Durandal
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Light Novel Volume 23, Life. Youth Because of this Youth
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 24, Life 1
- ↑ Light Novel DX.6, Life 5