Chapter 42

3° person P.O.V.

As Rias approached the battlefield she spotted Koneko's wounds and Issei hugging his arms while screaming in pain. She felt furious.

So much fury that her powers spiked to unprecedented levels and she was covered in her Power of Destruction (Writer's note: I will call it PoD since repeating the full name is a hassle) and she was more akin to a burning meteor than a devil flying.

As she reached a close enough distance she yelled.

"What do you think you are doing to my cute servants?!"

And soon after she landed on the field, with her back to Issei and Koneko as she faced Xuelan. She would not allow any more attacks on her servants.

Xuelan saw Rias and she got to say, she was not impressed.

While it may be true that Rias was stronger than Xuelan herself it was still far from matching Raiser, heck she doubted that Rias could face Yubelluna and win the fight. The other bishop is even more out of question, for more unreliable she might be.

As she saw Rias she decided to give it a go, but without really trying to wound her seriously as she knew how much of a siscon and hurting her was a taboo for the whole underworld.

'This game really is nothing more than a game, huh' Was what Xuelan was thinking.

As she readied an Chinese kung-fu stance she waited to see how Rias would attack. She readied her palms with enough Ki as to protect herself from even the famous PoD. The moment Rias attacked she would defend and then go ahead for at least one god strike, but she would let her clothes be damaged so as to have an excuse to leave the game.

She was ready for everything.

Or so she thought.

THUNDERCLAP

A lightning bolt hit her from above with extreme speeds, she could not even think about evading it due to as soon as she noticed it, it was too late.

"Raiser's one rook retired."

As Xuelan left the field Akeno came out of a cloud up high. She smiled with sadistic glee as she said.

"NEVER turn your back to an enemy."

After seeing that and pouting for a bit (her queen stole her limelight after all) Rias turned to Koneko and asked what happened exactly.

"I defeated two of Raiser's pawns but am spent, Issei got his arm broken and Kiba was defeated." Was what Koneko said with a serious and stoic face.

Rias heard that and made a prompt decision.

"Akeno, I want you to go and see if you can find the other two pieces of Raiser. We may have more people on our side now, but Issei and Koneko are not in any condition to fight right now. I will remain here and protect them, you are the only one that can go to fight." As Rias said that she positioned herself so as to protect Issei and Koneko as she did not know when things would turn out bad.

Akeno nodded her head and took one final glance at her two kouhais, seeing them this wounded made her just as furious as Rias and she would make sure to mark that on her enemies' flesh.

As Akeno flew through the sky she felt someone watching her. As she turned around to look for the one doing that she saw in the distance a purple haired feme fatale looking at her.

Seeing her Akeno did not rush in, she knew better than rush towards an enemy that she did not know.

The woman is a busty beauty with long, wavy purple hair that falls all the way down her back and matching eyes. At the front, the right side of her hair falls over her breast and covers her right eye, while the left side falls near the top of her skirt.

Her attire is a dress consisting of a navy blue tunic top with gold accents and a pale blue skirt with open sides, and black shoes over matching thigh-high stockings with garter belts. The top reveals much of her cleavage and is held with a gold choker with blue and red jewels. Over this, she wears a white overcoat with black and gold accents and matching pauldrons.

"You must be Rias-sama queen, correct?" The woman said.

"Yes. You may call me the thunder Miko or Akeno-sama." Akeno said, exuding a confidence that did not lose out compared to her enemy.

"I understand, so as fellow queens let's start this little party and see who is the strongest. You the thunder Miko Akeno, or me the bomber queen Yubelluna." Said Yubelluna.

As soon as Yubelluna said that she waved her weapon of chose, a staff-like scepter with a large red stone in the tip, and a chain of explosions happened.

Akeno managed to defend herself by creating a magic barrier, but it was broken after the fifteenth explosion making Akeno take the full brunt of the last 10.

It is worth notice that while powerful this attack was far from capable of defeating a queen as any queen got the traits of a rook and even if untrained in CQC they still largely suppress others when it comes to bodily resilience.

Even so, the explosions were not a pleasant feeling for her, even though she was a bit of a masochist. Her clothes were damaged and her hair was burned on the tips. It was not a good sight.

Seeing this before her training would have made her much more uncomfortable, but after being struck by lightings for five days' straights she was more than used to this sort of feeling. Another advantage of this training is that now she was much more capable of 'taking a beating' than before, being capable of using a lot more of the rook aspect of her queen piece.

As the explosions ended Akeno flew up high, much higher than before as she took out a mystic code. It was a request she made for Kaguya and Yuzuru, in exchange she promised to inform the two if any 'whore' tried to get close to Castiel and if so, to make sure that they don't try again.

Akeno still remembered the words that Emily said a few weeks ago when she advised her to not try anything with him, she understood very clearly why she said that.

The mystic code she took out was no more than a handle in appearance. It did not seem overly mighty or anything, but the power it could produce was nothing to scoff at. As she moved the handle in a wide arc a thunder whip was released, stretching for more than 50 meters and reaching Yubelluna instantly.

"Crap!" was what Yubelluna said as she kept trying to evade the thunder whip, but every time she managed to escape its course it would divide itself into two or more and at least one would manage to hit her.

"Call me your majesty!" Akeno said, taking WAY too much pleasure out of this whipping. "Yes, more, MORE! Scream for me!" WAY TOO MUCH.

Getting herself back together, and being pissed that she was being whipped for the entire world to see (that is something only Raiser do, and that is just between the two), she liberated an explosion with herself as the center.

Normally, any such explosion would hurt the user but she was more than used to it and developed her own little magic tricks to deal with the situation.

As the explosion took place the tip of the whip was destroyed, following that Akeno suffered a new wave of attacks as multiple explosive spells detonated around her. Even when she managed to tank it and create many small magic shields it still was far from enough.

She then concentrated on what she had learned, of how to feel the thunder element and what it was truly capable of. As she did that she started moving her energy in an involuntary way, faster and faster to the point that her energy started circulating around herself and the ambient in high speed.

As the acceleration continued she started resonating with the thunder element in the atmosphere, so much so that dark clouds started surrounding herself and Yubelluna.

As Yubelluna saw those dark clouds she realized what was about to happen and welcomed it. She needed a reason for losing and a big flashy attack was as good as any, but she would make sure to do her part on the show.

"This is a new move that I created not long ago. It still is under work and I admit that it was a rip-off of something I saw once if you want to blame anyone you can blame my king for it." Akeno said while surrounded by thunders that even passed right through her body not differentiating it from the outside world.

She then opened her palm and it covered itself with thunder, a deep and very concentrated thunder at that. The lightning around her started taking the form of a giant dragon, one that would be capable of defeating almost all low ultimate-class enemies (if it wasn't so hard to make and obvious for those that reached such level).

"Kirin"

The beast roared its draconic head, dashing right through Akeno and toward Yubelluna.

Seeing this as a perfect chance to leave Yubelluna did not even tried to defend herself, she simply liberated one last explosive spell before being 'defeated'.

"Raiser Phoenix Queen retired."

After flying away until around 500 meters away from Akeno the thunder monster she has made was dispersed. Now the only thing she had to do is regroup with the others and wait until they were all recovered before they went to that chauvinistic jerk.

But, one thing remained on her mind.

What was that last movement Yubelluna did instead of taking her down? Akeno understood that if she was disrupted when accumulating energy her attack could backfire so why did her enemy do no such thing?

BOOMM

A tiny explosion happened not far from her, it looked like it might have been the final 'struggle' from Yubelluna. Did she miss the mark?

The answer is-

'What is happening? Where did this spike of energy is coming from?' was the last thing Akeno got to think before it happened.

"EXPLOSION!"

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

///---///

On the poolside Issei was receiving treatment for his broken arm. It was a slow one as Koneko could only channel life energy into him so as to stimulate his body natural recovery, but as she refused to learn more about senjutsu she was not very capable on even the good aspects of it.

She was feeling extremely useless, she not only failed to stop Xuelan's attack that broke Issei's arm she could not even help him recover properly. All because of her own fear of using her own powers.

'Why am I so useless?!' was what was passing on her head, as well as Rias.

She had come here only after her precious Issei was wounded, how could she not feel bad when she saw Issei so wounded and Koneko fearing no better and in such a distress.

And all for her wish. For her selfish wish of choosing who she wanted to be with, not caring about the alliance that her family had with the Phoenix clan (one of the most influential and the richest clan of devils). Not that she would ever accept marring Raiser, but she had other ways.

Ways that she did not want to use as it would 'taint' her reputation. But, when she saw how her peerage was right now she could not help but think that her reputation was not worth it.

"Do you think Akeno-sempai is fine?" Koneko asked after exhausting herself. Issei's arm was not bent at a weird angle anymore and he could breathe normally so at least it was not an urgent situation anymore.

"She will be. I know that she got really strong after the training, she will not lose to Raiser's queen!" Rias said and not long after the clouds got really dark.

As the clouds got darker and darker she realized that Akeno was using that move. It was something she had told her about, and even if powerful it was undeniable that it took a huge toll on her body and it would leave her extremely weak after.

Not long after a giant dragon made out of thunder appeared on the field and a message happened.

"Raiser Phoenix queen, retired."

As she heard that Rias released a sigh that she didn't even notice she was holding. That was an 'all in' attack that if failing could spell the doom for Akeno.

Knowing that her queen survived and won put a smile on Ria's face. Even more so when Issei stood up, wobbly but still stood up and smiled at her.

She thought that finally, things were working in her favor. She just needed a little more, just a little push and she would be free from that marriage contract.

Then, the unexpected happened. A surge of energy in amounts that she has only seen on some high ultimate-class devils being capable of using.

Before she could react she heard a bellow.

"EXPLOSION!"

///---///

On Riser's base, he was watching the whole game with a tired face. It was more than just annoying to let himself be beaten by Rias, especially since he knew that his peerage was much more capable. That was especially so when he saw Yubelluna, the woman he actually wanted to marry, be defeated like that.

He knew for a fact that she was taking it easy, not using most of her abilities at all. Heck, knowing her she could have made the air around Akeno turn into propane so that when Akeno released her first thunder she would explode herself (he still remembered she doing that to him a few times during spars, not a funny experience).

But now he could finally go out and fight. He could go and end this charade, but not before his final piece makes her move.

"You can go and attack now my little crimson eyed cutie."

"I-I-I am not a cutie! My name is Megumin, you can call me womanly, gorgeous, or the greates wizard ever and master of explosions, not c-c-c-c-cutie." The girl said, making Raiser release a little laugh. She has always been like this since the day they meet. It was funny then, and it is still funny now.

"Okay, okay. I get it. My precious feme fatale, would you please do your thing." He said to her.

She shivered a bit in excitement, and then she did a pose with her hand in front of her face, bending her back backward a bit and staring at the window for the signal so as to know the exact coordinates of where to attack.

BOOM

As she saw the explosion that marked the exact location for her attack she started her chanting.

"Oh, blackness shrouded in light,

Frenzied blaze clad in the night,

In the name of the crimson demons,

let the collapse of thine origin manifest.

Summon before me the root of thy power hidden within the lands

of the kingdom of demise!"

Hearing this chant Raiser did his best not to laugh. He knew clearly enough that the chant was mostly optional and that she made the words herself, but hearing this he really realized one thing.

The crimson-eyed tribe really are just a bunch of overpowered chuunibyous that did not understand the meaning of embarrassment.

"EXPLOSION!"

And another thing that he understood when he saw his bishop, Megumin really was a strong one.

"That was a great exxpppllllooooo-"

If only she did not pass out after a single attack.

"*sigh* You can retire now. Go to the infirmary and ask for an extra-large serving of everything you want, it is my treat." Raiser said.

The answer was exactly what he expected.

"Milk!"

And so she went away.

She really was an oddball, but when he looked at the crater outside and the cloud of smoke he could not help but realize that she really was terrifying.

"Riser Phoenix one bishop, Rias Gremory one rook and queen, all retired."

///---///

Rias regretted it.

She saw when that explosion happened. It was gigantic, occupying a space of over 500 meters and eliminating everything inside. Her good luck was that her group and Akeno were on the periphery so they did not suffer most of the damage, but it was too much.

When the blast occurred it reached Akeno that was inside its blast area, causing multiple burns and a few broken bones, the accumulated damage was added to her state of being weakened enough that she could barely fly was simply too much for her. She was defeated instantly.

On the other hand, the explosion reached them a bit later the blast a bit weaker already. She tried to create a magic barrier, but all it did was block part of the blast before it broke. Rias was about to move ahead to the blast so as to protect Issei and Koneko, but her dear rook jumped in front of her and Issei. She opened her arms and received all the damage that SHE should have taken.

Koneko was defeated then and there.

As she saw Koneko sorry state she felt tears slip out of her eyes, impossible to control. Especially when Koneko turned to her, revealing how even her face was covered in burns and scars. The smile that Koneko showed might as well have been an accusation to her.

'Why weren't you ready?'

'Why did you force her to fight to this point?'

'Why? Just why'

'Why did I not train better before?'

'Is this really worth it?'

'Why am I so weak?!'

It was those words that floated on her head when she saw Koneko in that state.

And if she was like this, Issei was worse.

He was a MAN! He should have protected her! He should have been stronger! HE FUCKING PROMISED HER! He should NOT have to see his cute kouhai so hurt while he was fine.

PUNCH

He started punching the ground in frustration when she was removed from the game. And then the announcement.

"Riser Phoenix one bishop, Rias Gremory one rook and queen, all retired."

Hearing those merciless words made everything even more real for the two. Rias knew that the only one they needed to face of now is Raiser and that he could appear at any moment. But she also knew that he was likely on top of the school building, sitting on a throne.

And the fun part is that after the announcement happened he did go to the top of the school and sit on a throne. As a devil he always had a like for the dramatic, so waiting for Rias to the final battle needed the necessary style. The real reason, however, was to give them the time to recover.

Under normal circumstances, he not moving to fight Rias immediately could be seen as a weakness for the old devils watching, but if he was to be sitting on a throne those old bastards would think of him as a typical devil showing off and not think much of it.

He really was giving all possible opportunities for Rias. He gave her time and made all his peerage to take it easy on hers, even if with that damphir kid it was unnecessary. As he waited he hoped and prayed for Satan that Rias could come here quickly so that he could lose already and go home. He wanted to go see his lovers and make sure they are fine.

On Rias side, she stood up and rubbed her checks so as to remove the tears there. She needed to go to Raiser and finish this.

PUNCH

Issei was still punching the ground, his knuckles were bleeding but he could not stop. He probably did not even register this while in this state. He just kept punching.

Rias put a hand on his shoulder and said.

"Come on, we have to go now." It was like a shock circulated through Issei as he remembered why he was here. He was here to help Rias be free of that marriage contract, he was here to help his king and friend.

As he stood up a chilling gaze appeared in his eyes.

He would defeat Raiser himself and make him wish he did not have started this fight.

Rias saw the seriousness of Issei's face and choose not to comment on it. It was better than she let him deal with whatever he was feeling. Instead, she asked.

"How many boosts do you have accumulated in you?"

"I have six. My uppermost limit right now is 15 and that is the absolute max I can go." Issei said. Rias nodded at that, formulating a simple plan that she could only hope would work.

"We will wait here for one minute and then go to Raiser's place. If he comes earlier we will deal with him then, but if he decides to wait we will be ready for him." She then decided to give one extra order. "Try to calm down a bit and focus on recovering s much energy as possible, I will need you to leave the field as soon as you transfer me the boosts but you might need the extra energy so as to survive until the transfer moment."

Issei nodded, pretending to agree with Rias. He had other plans, plans involving his gear and a few seconds.

///---///

A minute later Issei and Rias approached the school building, both with serious faces and accumulating their energy to the best they possibly can. As they were a few meters from entering they heard a detached and bored voice from the top of the school.

"Finally! I was getting tired of waiting. Don't bother to walk and just fly here, don't make me keep waiting, my beautiful bride." That final word gritted Issei and Rias ears worse than any offense, meanwhile Raiser felt a desire to wash his mouth with bleach.

Hearing Raiser words Issei liberated his four wings while Rias liberated her six and together they flew to face their enemy. As soon as they got there they saw Raiser sitting on a golden throne drinking wine with a classic song playing in the back (all just to showcase a sophisticated image to the public, if it depended just on him it would be a reclining chair drinking beer while listening to some 70's rock).

"We have come to finish this, Raiser!" Rias said, liberating her mid high-class level of power. The energy was radiating from her almost like the Ki from dragon ball, but the color is red in this case. "Get out of that chair and face us." As she said that she launched a blast of concentrated PoD in Raiser's direction.

Seeing this attack that would wound most opponents Raiser honestly did not care. The only question to him was if he should show his recovery speed by taking the hit or burn it to show his power.

Option two it is. It is more dramatic and showed his powers better.

He waved his hand and following that the PoD attack Rias launched was engulfed in Phoenix flames so intense that even energy attack was consumed by it.

That did not faze Rias as she knew it would be an uphill battle from the start, but before she could continue to attack Issei got in front of her, glaring at Raiser as if he was his mortal enemy.

"You are going down." Was what Issei said before raising his sacred gear and activating its power. A power that he unlocked not long ago but still is far from capable of using it for long stretches of time.

"Balance Breaker: Scale Mail!"

Issei was covered in a red armor that completely covered his body. There was a small tail in the back and a big red gem in the chest area as well as on his hands, the helmet looked like a futuristic one with many sharp angles in it. The eyes were crimson visors made of reinforced glass and they were flashing red due to the energy circulating on Issei's body.

"I will finish this in 10 seconds." Issei shouted while liberating two rocket boosters from his back, accelerating towards Riser with his hand covered in flames.

As he got to Raiser he punched with all his strength.

"Little Boy!"

Raiser took the hit on the face but was not fazed at all. He just stayed still as his face was punched, not that he even felt anything as he simply stayed in place as his face regenerated to what it was instantly.

Issei started using many more attacks on him.

He punched;

Kicked;

Launched flames from his mouth;

But,

He never really got to deal any lasting damage to Raiser;

Such was the power difference that came from years of training, not a few weeks.

All that Issei did was damage Raiser's throne,

before he dropped to the ground.

Issei could not move a single muscle anymore. The balance breaker allowed him to use his boosts on himself for a longer period, all the energy that he accumulated could be used for a longer time.

But even so, Raiser was stronger.

"Not bad, I could actually feel those last few ones. Keep practicing and you just might manage to be a worthy enemy someday." Raiser said that before standing up, his appearance not changed in any way but Rias could feel that his energy dropped a bit.

As he approached the fallen Issei that could not stand up anymore Rias made a prompt decision and send him out of the game.

"Rias Gremory one pawn, retired."

Now it was just her and Raiser. She started releasing blast after blast of concentrated energy at him, and the most infuriating part is that all of them hit the target.

But even when it hits the damage made was quickly healed back, not even a burn mark left on Raiser's skin.

"Why do you fight so much, dearest Rias?" Raiser asked, still walking like there was no difference between her attacking or not.

"Because I don't want to marry you! I want to decide who I marry myself, for myself and not because others decided it for me." Rias said, while her attack started raising in frequency to the point that she was liberating lasers of PoD at Raiser.

It did not bother Raiser that much, he was used to pain. Heck, he went through survival training with Berserker for an entire week (the reason might or might not have been because he spied on Illya taking bath). After that experience, he developed an almost complete immunity to pain (and an absolute terror of Berserker).

"But it was the decision of our parents. It is for the betterment of our race and two houses so why do you keep going against it?" Raiser said, this time stepping hard on the ground and releasing a wave of flames to his surrounding, missing Rias but creating an inferno of flames in every direction.

Seeing those flames Rias knew that she would probably lose… no, she got the confirmation of that. She was not his match and no matter how much she struggles she would certainly lose in the end.

She was about to simply give up, no point in continuing when you were in such a clear disadvantage when she remembered her little fight against Castiel. How she had given up and what he said to her. About how she lacked backbone and how she was not ready for the world.

She would prove him wrong.

He said she would lose and give up, so that is exactly what she would not do. She would show that she was ready for the world out there and that she was no longer simply the little sister of Syrzechs Lucifer, but that she is Rias Gremory. A proud devil heiress that would not simply give up.

"I stand up here because I decided so. I. DO. NOT. WANT. OR. WILL. MARRY YOU! NO MATTER WHAT YOU OR ANYONE ELSE HAS TO SAY I WILL REFUSE THIS MARRIAGE WITH YOU, RAISER PHOENIX! I WILL FOLLOW MY HEART TO THE END"" She screamed at the top of her lungs, the energy around her radiating with righteous fury as she would not bow to this travesty of a marriage.

She would NEVER marry him.

And at that moment, when she believed that he would finally strike her, the next few words that came out his mouth shocked her and everyone else that heard them.

"I give up."

"Raiser Phoenix gave up the game, WINNER is Rias Gremory!"

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