Operation: Save Valerie

Rias P.O.V (Time: When the two groups split)

Rushing through the widening passage, Rias noticed that there were magic circles everywhere. Out of them came pools of blood. She couldn't identify where the other side led to, but if her vision was accurate, then there were likely people suffering. The odd part was though that there shouldn't be enough blood here to fuel the mountain. It was just passing human soul and life energy into the pool, likely to make it ideal for vampiric consumption.

'Let's see how far down the chain, these circles affect.' She reached out and poured some demonic power into the tributaries in front of her. Her goal was to see how far her powers could reach.

She felt it spread further and further, till her power fed into the one of the streams that covered about an eighth of the mountain.

'This isn't enough. I need to go further and find the source'. With that she waved her hand sending demonic energy into the magical circles with a bit of her intent ordering the energy to spread out acting as a beacon. She could use this to find these locations after the operation, or get her brother to do it. Finished with the circles, she waved her hand and the circles dissolved under her power of destruction.

'Forward then.' She thought as she kept moving forward.

'Wait' she stopped. 'Where are the rest of the vampires? Surely there should be more.' She found it odd that this place didn't even have guards.

Deciding to be cautious, Rias raised her hand. The black sword shaped like a thin double-helix extending out of a black handle manifested in her palm, the Sword of Akasha. With it, she had a lot of options in case of ambushes or traps.

Surprisingly though, she didn't encounter any more resistance till she reached the heart of the cavern. What she saw raised every alarm she had. Chained to a ritual alter in the center, a blond-haired young woman with red eyes lacking focus was being pumped full of gallons of blood laced with the purest vitality in the mountain. The blood she saw on her way here paled in comparison. Behind her was a middle-aged man with dark silver hair and hazel eyes. He was donned in armor resembling a blue and white version of her brother's. What was disconcerting about him was the unsettling aura he was releasing. She had to wonder what kind of twisted person one would have to be for their aura to reflect should malice.

As soon as she registered his presence completely, two of the tomoe sealing her power vanished, elevating her power to Satan class levels. She didn't want to release the last seal since she wasn't sure what the result would be. It contained the full power of her authority and she wasn't aware of the consequences of its release at this time. Her 'vision' told her that she shouldn't need it though as long as she doesn't play around. Defeat is a possibility in this fight, something she hasn't experienced in while.

"Well. Well. Well. Look what we have here! Zech's little sister, coming to face me alone." He said in a lackadaisical manner. This was good he was underestimating her. She could use this.

She performed a mock bow. "Good day to you, my prince. It's good to see you, though I wish it would have been under better circumstances. What brings you to a place like this?" She stated with mock formality.

"I was growing a little bored and my wonderful subordinate came up with a wonderful idea to use the Graal to make life fun!" He passionately stated "but I guess you knew that already, didn't you?" His face morphed into a sneer. "I'm going to have so much fun with this. Here you are, confronting me in a location nobody that cares about you knows about, alone." He continued as his face warped into a maddening grin. "The stakes are high princess; you win and kill me or I win and well, you won't like that outcome very much. Unfortunately for you, the former is highly unlikely."

Indeed, those were the stakes, but he was severely underestimating her. She wasn't masking her partially unsealed power, so the likely possibility was that he was imagining her as an 18-year-old version of her brother whose only weapon was power of destruction.

"Indeed. You are mostly correct. Let's see about that last one though. One question before we begin. Are you doing this simply to relieve your boredom? Is playing on the vampire race's prejudices, insecurities, and ambitions a game to you?" His grin didn't waver.

"Of course. What other reason would I need? It's in our nature to revel in this. To cause misery and suffering." She shook her head.

"It's people like you that give Devils a bad name. A man living in the past. Deluded by outdated views on our own nature. Now, enough talking. I came here to kill you and that's what's going to happen".

With that, she launched herself at Rizevim at her highest speed, sword positioned for a stab. Stunned, Rizevim raised his hand to block with a powerful barrier. Satan-class devils could fight in hand-to-hand, but it was not preferred. Hell, he has no slouch himself in the art, but to start off with it was unexpected.

As the two collided, the outcome was far from what Rizevim expected. His barrier was being broken down without resistance. He was prepared to face her power of destruction. He even calculated that she may be able to channel it through that sword, but he's never heard of a weapon able to magnify its potency to this degree outside of the personal armaments of Shiva; this weapon wasn't any of the ones he knew that could make it happen and he had been around for a long time.

Decided a quick teleport was the key to getting some distance, he focused on doing so to get some distance. This was where he made his biggest mistake in the fight and he realized why she did this. He couldn't teleport. It wasn't necessarily needed, but in a situation where he'd be met with a surprise unblockable attack, it was the go-to strategy. Something quick to take distance and reassess. The problem in this case came from the delay he experienced from trying to do so.

Suddenly, six pairs of devil wings, a trait gained from being Lucifer's scion, sprouted from his back. Wrapping 2 pairs in front of him, he proceeded to use the other four to try propelling himself backwards.

Once the sword made contact with the wings, they began turning black. Strange markings spread along their form, intense pain coming with them. An instant after the markings spread, the initial contact point disintegrated, making room for the sword to pierce forward. After the contact point was destroyed, Rizevim managed to successfully push himself backwards at an angle to disrupt her charge.

Suddenly though his wings began pulsating with even greater pain as the markings reached his back.

'Ack!' he reeled in pain as he spread his awareness toward his back. He felt them spreading to other parts of his body in a slow methodical manner. 'What is this, did she curse me!? Since when did she get that ability? The Bael family's power doesn't do that!' Suddenly he started panicking, this fight just started and he just lost two major sources of power. In the biblical faction, wings were symbols of power. Their primary purpose was to contain one's power and focus it in a concentrated form for easy use. The benefit was easier access to their large reserves of power. The detriment was an easy target to strike, but they were incredibly sturdy, so that wasn't normally a problem. So, he was understandably frustrated on what he was going to do next.

He reached behind himself and coated his hands in as much energy as he could at the moment and pulled at his two corrupted pairs of wings, ripping them off. He needed to get rid of the source of the taint to prevent the curse's spread from hastening. At this point, he needed to make sure that she didn't make contact with him again.

Seeing his actions, Rias manifested eight orbs behind her. Four for power of destruction and four for death-cursed power. Within moments, she pelted him with a hail of bullets from both powers, while focusing her freezing power toward her right hand.

Rizevim took to blocking these much easier. 'These weren't enhanced by that sword of hers; they're about as strong as her brother's and the cursed ones don't seem to have destructive qualities, so I just need to make sure they don't touch me. It looks like I need to keep this long ranged'. Before he could plan his counterattack, he felt something stab into his back. Looking forward towards Rias, he found that she wasn't there. Slowly looking behind him, he saw her panting with her sword in his heart.

'How?' Was Rizevim's last thought before he was consumed by the sword. His essence, life-force, soul, and memories absorbed into Rias's ever-expanding collection. Then he was gone. Not a trace left of his existence other than the remnant demonic energy permeating the atmosphere and his head. She needed that for proof of her kill.

'I won! I beat a super devil on par with my brother! Once again, making Esdeath a pillar was one of the best decisions I've ever made; her ability to freeze time in a localized space is perfect.' When Rias had gathered her energy in her hand, she was really going for a Satan class time-freeze. Within the seconds that she trapped Rizevim, she moved behind him and ran him through.

'I need to keep the time-freeze secret for as long as I can. I want to keep it a secret before more people find out about it.' She thought as she panted as she started toward the chained Dhampir.