Demon hunter sword

Before I begin, I openly admit that I am extremely biased towards a more gothic art style. When I first saw this sword, I was pretty much immediately in love with it. That being said, I'll do my best to find flaws, though it's gonna be hard.
I immediately interpreted this sword as some kind of two handed gladius, especially with the prominent leaf blade and extremely accommodating grip. I imagine this sword would be fairly front heavy, and very good at chopping or slashing. Additionally, the up-swept guard is arguably the most practical layout, and is excellent at catching an opponent's weapon. From a practical standpoint, this would be a terrifying sword to face in battle.
Artistically, my favorite thing about this blade is that while there are many design accents, these accents are in no way overbearing, nor would they in any way detract from the functionality of the blade. The handle looks comfortable, the pommel looks extremely unique, and the skull looks like it has a crown made from a rising sun, which is simply awesome for a demon hunter sword. I originally thought the guard was a pair of clawed fingers until I looked closer. The fact that they're not makes the design even more unique and equally awesome. (Unless they're in fact supposed to be clawed fingers, in which case I've goofed in my interpretation.)
With all that aside, the only real design improvements I can think of would be to first have a slight expansion of width in the center of the handle. This would help prevent the hands from slipping either up or down along the length of handle, though there are plenty of two handed blades without this feature, such as many interpretations of the Grosse Messer. The blade indent furthest away from the handle happens to be at the thinnest point of the blade. Given the extreme weight of the top half the blade, this would be a serious point of weakness, and I don't think the aesthetic of the design would be hurt by having it filled in. Speaking of aesthetically, making the stones in both of the skull's eyes and the pommel shinier would help them pop out a bit more, but would also detract from a more rugged feel. A final possibility would be to add a small fuller to the middle of the thickest point of the blade. This would make it less front heavy while also making it lighter, but that can also be a bad thing if you want this blade to be a meat cleaver, which I imagine it would be.
Great job on this design, and keep up the awesome! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="366" title=" (Big Grin)"/>