Phenex Stadium (The Next Day)
It was the day of the death match and Rias felt something stirring inside herself. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but she definitely didn't mind the feeling. While her two new pillars needed time for their ability to grow, she didn't need it to the same extent. The concepts of their abilities were already integrating into her own. For this fight, she expected her newly gained ability to freeze and destroy demonic energy to be highly useful. Freezing time would take more time to integrate.
Sitting in the waiting room with her family, she contemplated to herself as Serefall Leviathan, her brother's fellow Satan, was providing the introductory announcements.
'It's finally time to end this farce, to set myself free. It's time to show the world who I am' her ruby eyes began to glow 'what I can do' her breath became a cerulean flame 'what happens to those who cross me.' Gazing forward, she looked toward the Grayfia.
"What do you think?" Grayfia looked at her with the same stoic gaze she always carries.
"I am not thinking much of anything. I just hope that you act as to bring about the best outcome." Rias sighed.
"I will do what I must. I have already offered him the opportunity to forfeit. I will use my sealed state unless he forces me otherwise. If he fights with honor; if he shows me a side of himself that I believe is redeemable, he will live." Rias stated while closing her eyes. If she saw something within Riser that spoke of redemption, she would spare him. Till then, she would act as her instincts dictate. She would show him a predator; she would show him how worthless a tiny chicken is in the face of a demon goddess.
Receiving the final bids of good luck from all in the room, a teleportation circle flashed beneath her and she appeared in the center of a flat field. Looking around it appeared as if they decided that a flat plain would give Riser enough things to burn without making it unfair to her. Clearly, they forgot which family she was from.
Arena
"Ladies and gentleman, today's super awesome duel to the death is between the Womanizing King of Phenex, Riser Phenex….
A few members of the crowd cheered. The scene was rather awkward for Riser as he began noticing how poorly received he was. This was especially so, when comparing it the roars of crowds he would normally get at these types of functions." Serefall announced.
'How dare they. They would root for this loser? This Bitch!?'
"And the recently returned Prophetic Princess Rias Gremory!"
As soon as her name was called, the crowd roared as if to herald the coming of their savior. If she didn't know any better, she would've assumed these cheers were genuine.
'How many of these are plants and how many are politicians?' she mused. 'Guess I won't know until this is over '.
These games were never just about the game. There were events that occurred before and after to control the reaction of the crowd. Normally, the heir and heiresses aren't aware of these games. Funnily enough, she found this information out by accident through her nightly visions; she witnessed her parents negotiating deals with a group of merchants who serviced crowd control. By the time she finished her background research after the fact, she was greatly enlightened on the inner workings of these rating games and different ways they can be exploited for political gain. She would have to ask her parents more about that later.
Will the too contestants please step forward! Oh, and Rias, Sona's really rooting for you, so good luck!
It might be her imagination, but it sounded like there's a loud whine in the crowd. Though….
'Did she really have to embarrass us like that. I guess it's pretty clear that she doesn't view favoritism with as much caution as my brother does. He could learn a thing or two from her'
Gremory Family Watch Room
"Aachoo!" a certain Crimson Satan sneezed.
Zeoticus looked at his son with concern.
"Are you OK Zechs? I don't think I've ever seen you sick." Sirzechs responded by smiling while rubbing his nose.
"I'm fine. Someone's probably talking about me." Eyebrow raised; his father gave him a look.
"OK, let's just watch the match."
Phenex Stadium
"3.2.1. Begin" Serefall started the match.
Riser lunged forward with his highest speeds.
'This'll be a breeze. I'll take care of this quickly and get to work making this whore call my name! I'll make her wish she never ran away from me!'
This plan though was clearly a bad one when he felt a small white hand grip his face with the force of an industrial clamp. Demonic energy surging. From there, his world was pain.
Pain. His face burned as he felt his skin disintegrating. While that normally shouldn't be too much of a problem for a Phenex, he felt a curse inject itself into his system from the skin-to-skin contact. Whatever it was, felt like it was burning away his life-force.
'What is this, my regeneration is failing! It's too busy fighting this curse to properly heal me!' Slowly it became harder and harder to think beyond the pain.
'It hurts!'
'It burns'
'what's happening to me!?'
'Why am I doing this!?'
"And….in a pathetic few moments Rias has seized Riser by the face and seems to be ripping him apart using her Demonic Energy! He's just flailing there like an animal, not even fighting back!" Serefall exclaimed with a relish reminding everyone that through her silly exterior, she was still a devil that reveled in the suffering of idiots.
'Who's Rias? Who's Riser?'
'Who am I'
"How Pathetic." Serefall finished
This process continued on for minutes before Rias decided she would give him one last scare before ending his life. Raising her other hand in the air, she began gathering extremely dense demonic power in a marble-sized orb. When he noticed this, the husk that used to be Riser Phenex looked up at the orb in terror knowing that it was likely to be his end. Shifting the gaze to his tormentor, he noticed her eyes, then everything vanished.
Dark Space Inside Ria's Mindscape
Riser is in a pitch-black ocean of absolute darkness. Suddenly, two massive orbs of cerulean blue opened in front of him. With the added light he notices a massive eastern serpent dragon with pitch black scales and cerulean colored energy pulsing between it' scales.
'What the hell is that!' He asked himself in fear as his spiritual body began shaking uncontrollably in fear.
Looking at it, three words came to mind. Destruction. Death. Torment. With that, the dragon roared as if to shatter the heavens.
The mental world around him shook as if the end had come.
As it happened, his vision began to darken slowly as if to let him wallow in his fear.
Phenex Stadium
Suddenly, the crowd went silent as a high-pitched scream resembling a dying pig rang from Riser's clearly terrified lips. They didn't know what happened to him, but he clearly lost any will to continue, not that it matters.
'Too easy' She thought. 'This wasn't even a fight. I should have used a stronger seal. Alright time to end this charade.'
Suddenly, before Rias could deliver the finishing blow, an orange teleportation circle glowed next to them and a young woman with golden blond drill-like hair, blue eyes, wearing a black dress walked out. It didn't take a whole lot of mental gymnastics to figure out that she was Riser's mother.
"Please stop!" She pleased hoping the demon in front of her would listen.
Ria paused and gazed toward the newcomer. "Ma'am, you realize this is a death match, right? This doesn't stop until he dies." She stated with a dispassionate stare.
"Then I would invoke the right to substitute. I will pay my life for his." Rias was shocked. This man, this sniveling snot bubble in front of her had family that was willing to die for his womanizing ass?
"Why? Why would you give your life for this pathetic waste of space rather than using it to raise your other kids" Lady Phenex shook her head.
"Because he needs me now. Because he deserves a chance to become the person some young lady would be honored to marry" She smiled as she continued. "It would be tragic for him to lose the chance to turn his life around. To die as this" She pointed at the sniveling husk with a half skinless face.
*Sigh* She felt the fight drain out of her. Mothers had this infectious love that really made it hard to be vicious.
"Alright, I would like to request the proctor declare my victory. Do you accept in his place Lady Phenex? Nobody needs to die today." She finished as she retracted the curse from Riser's system as well as any lingering demonic power. A good thing from this match is that her body absorbed enough of his demonic essence to begin integrating the regeneration and hell fire abilities into herself.
"Thank you! Thank you! I'll make sure that the next time you see him, he'll be a new man!" Lady Phenex said with her head bowed low.
"Please, you don't have to bow, just get him some medical attention and he should be fine." Rias finished as she tried getting the concerned mother up, while internally snickering. 'He'll certainly be a new man alright, but I guess she won't know that till he regains consciousness.'
"Winner: Rias Gremory!" and the crowd roared as they stood up giving Rias a standing ovation.
She was free.