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Himmel and Hölle are a matched pair of Varunium swords—a straight sword and a katana—first carried by Sun Jin Kaisara and later stolen and wielded by Forza Ninetails. Their gentle orange glow and use in Sōyō-Ryū make them among the most recognizable Templar weapons of the modern era.

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The pair

Together, the blades form the asymmetrical weapon pairing associated with Sōyō-Ryū. They are the only currently named example of this katana-and-straight-sword configuration.

Material and appearance

Both blades are forged from Varunium Steel, the sacred Templar metal created from ore enriched by the Red Sun’s cosmic radiation. In Templar myth, that power ultimately descends from Varuna, making the swords more than exceptional weapons: they are portable expressions of the same force from which Templar magic originates.

Himmel and Hölle emit a gentle orange fuzzy glow. The illumination appears to live within the metal rather than shine across its surroundings, giving the blades a contained, almost living presence.

Presented to Kaisara

The pair were given to Sun Jin Kaisara as a ceremonial gift marking her rise to the rank of Redken. In her hands, they became both symbols of Nightfall authority and practical instruments of her reputation as a renowned sword dancer.

Kaisara wielded Himmel and Hölle through Sōyō-Ryū, balancing Hölle’s crushing katana strikes against Himmel’s more graceful movement and control. Their contrasting roles allowed her fighting style to appear flowing and acrobatic without sacrificing brutal stopping power.

The RD10-003 program

Kaisara later entrusted the swords to RD10-003 as a temporary donation to Sun Jin weapons research. The program studied the Varunium pair as part of an effort to understand—and eventually reproduce—the extraordinary qualities of Templar weaponry.

During that program, the captive Forza Ninetails was equipped with Himmel and Hölle for live field testing alongside the Gotanenks Armor. He was drugged and mind-controlled into compliance while the researchers measured the equipment’s performance under real combat conditions.

Stolen by Forza

When Forza broke free from RD10-003, he took Himmel and Hölle with him. What began as equipment forced upon him by his captors became his signature weapon set throughout the Red Sun Rising saga.

Forza’s possession of the pair creates a complicated chain of meaning: the swords remain relics of Kaisara’s Redken authority, artifacts of Sun Jin experimentation, and instruments of Forza’s captivity and eventual escape. Through them, his combat identity remains visibly tied to both Kaisara’s influence and the institution that weaponized him.

Relationship to Sōyō-Ryū

Sōyō-Ryū does not require Varunium weapons, but Himmel and Hölle are its defining named pair. The style uses Hölle for weight and impact while Himmel carries movement, redirection, and connective flow. At full speed, the result resembles a sword dance: graceful and acrobatic in silhouette, devastating in execution.

Other paired blades