Serena Snape: Love of Magic - chapter 79

Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.

Grayfia PoV

"It's about to begin," Sirzechs said as he settled into his seat next to Lord Beelzebub. They were both watching the screens in front of them while I took charge of pouring tea for both of them. Once I finished my task, I stood behind Sirzechs and looked at the screen.

"So they actually went with only two members." I said neutrally as I watched the introduction of Lady Prince and her queen. Sirzechs nodded.

"That means we'll be seeing one of them in action. It's still good news," Sirzechs said simply. The three of us stood in silence as the referee introduced Riser.

"That… is a curious choice for a battlefield," I said while frowning. A completely desolate field was disadvantageous, even more so when the person at a disadvantage only had two members to fight a fight against an entire peerage like Riser's.

Using terrain with more defensive capabilities or at least some form of concealment would have been a better decision when faced with such a numerical disadvantage.

"It's obvious that she wants a direct confrontation, Or she has some kind of plan. This is interesting." Sirzechs smiled interestedly, though his smile froze slightly. "Is… is she reading a book and eating snacks? " Sirzechs asked. I didn't answer because I was just as surprised.

Sure enough, Lady Prince had made herself comfortable on the couch inside her castle and began to read a book nonchalantly while eating large amounts of chocolate snacks she had taken out from… somewhere? They just appeared when she pulled them out from under her skirt.

On the other hand, her queen was the one who had made a move. She expected her to make some sort of preparation for the fight. Some sort of trap on the ground or something. But instead, she stood there in the air waiting for time to pass.

After the initial wait, the referee gave the signal to start. Neither of the two involved made any movement, they simply continued to wait.

"Are they surrendering?" I asked awkwardly as I watched Riser's peerage advance across the terrain toward their opponent's castle.

"I… I don't know," Sirzechs said, confused as he settled into his seat. Every second that passed without Lady Prince's queen, Bellatrix Black, moving seemed to lengthen, as she simply let all of her opponents enter her territories. All of Riser's pawns immediately promoted themselves and went on their way.

To our relief, Miss Black finally moved. She reached into her white trench coat and pulled out a strange-looking spear. Lord Beelzebub, who had not spoken until now, straightened up and looked more closely at the screen.

The spear was strange, difficult to describe. Miss Black gripped it tightly and pointed it at Riser's peerage that was dangerously approaching her. And finally, she opened her mouth.

"Come, you barbarians who trample upon my domain!

It's time for your punishment!

My mercy and fury shall transform into blazing stakes and skewer you all!

These stakes are infinite, so despair and gorge in your own blood!!

KAZIKLI BEY!! "

My eyes widened slightly as thousands of stakes rose from the ground and impaled half of Riser's nobility immediately. All of the pawns were impaled multiple times upon initial creation. The bishop also failed to hold up and was also finished off. The rooks were more durable, but the numbers easily overwhelmed both devils, and they eventually succumbed.

The knights were the ones who survived the first wave, but they stayed on the ground, moving desperately with all the speed they could muster, but the stakes kept being created, dozens and hundreds of new stakes sprouted around the knights and twisted, bent and extended as they tirelessly followed the knights, who ultimately were not fast enough to dodge the attacks.

The only one who came out completely unharmed was Riser's bomb queen, which had flown into the sky at full speed, beyond the height of the stakes.

"ooo-eight p-pawns, 2 rooks, 1 bishop and 2 of Riser's knights were defeated and eliminated from the battlefield."

The referee's announcement rang out across the room. 1 bishop. I looked up at the screen and saw Riser's sister still pinned to the ground by several stakes.

"Kazikli Bey, Lord Impaler. Vlad III, the Impaler . The greatest hero of Wallachia, I assume Miss Black is his descendant or heir to his soul." Lord Beelzebub said, Sirzechs nodded.

"What I'm interested in knowing is what that spear is, I don't remember any existing Sacred Gear that is capable of creating stakes like that." Sirzechs said and Lord Beelzebub nodded.

"And there isn't one. There are several terrain and earth manipulation ones, but they are very different from that spear. Those stakes are… different." Lord Beelzebub said as he quickly looked at a tablet that had appeared in his hand. "Whatever she's using, it's imbuing its stakes with something very different than demonic power, and not just its stakes, but the entire territory declared as part of its king. If I had to say what it is, I'd say… it's all imbued with some sort of concept." Lord Beelzebub said with a frown.

"Concept? Like my power of destruction? "What is the concept similar to 'destruction'? " Sirzechs asked in confusion, Lord Beelzebub nodded.

"Obviously not on the same level, but yes, she has a concept. It's weak, but it's there, and she just instilled it in the Phenex girl." Lord Beelzebub said as he looked up. The three of us looked at the screen quickly just in time to see Ravel Phenex shout out Miss Black's identity.

"Smart." Sirzechs said with a smile, Lord Ajuka nodded.

"Overwhelming, she was right about fleeing the territory. The entire Lady Prince' territory was under Miss Black's control, and if what we know about Vlad III's history is anything to go by, she should be able to create at least twenty thousand stakes for the twenty thousand skewered Ottoman Turkish soldiers, but it's also possible that it's a hundred thousand for the total count of his victims" Lord Beelzebub said approvingly before stopping and looking at the screen and immediately shifting his gaze to the tablet in his hand.

I was also shocked by what we saw. From within Ravel Phenex, stakes emerged and shot outwards, and immediately half of them attacked Riser's queen with great effectiveness while the other half attached themselves to the ground, as if they had emerged from the ground from the very beginning. The damage they had done was considerable.

"I see. How clever." Lord Beelzebub said with a smile. "It took me a while to figure out its effect, but its ability is not 'creating stakes' but rather 'stakes driven into the enemy'. Whenever her stakes passed on to Miss Phenex, they imbued her with the concept of 'already pierced by stakes' so they can manifest from within her body as 'already staked'."

I almost wanted to snort.' A while'? It hadn't even been 5 minutes since Miss Black had summoned her spear.

"Wait, wait, wait, doesn't that violate the laws of causality?" Sirzechs asked in surprise, Lord Beelzebub nodded.

"It does, and that's what's so impressive. She doesn't even seem to put in any effort at all; she's just as casual as ever, she didn't even move from her initial spot. Whenever a stake pierces you, you already enter the 'already pierced' state; no defense or safeguard will do, because it's simply 'already finished'; it's simply the predefined state that stakes manifest in. Impossible to evade, impossible to defend against, and completely lethal." Lord Beelzebub said seriously.

"Unless you're a Phenex," Sirzechs said as he looked at Ravel, still alive even though she was completely impaled.

"Unless you're a Phenex," Lord Beelzebub conceded.

"Still , impressive, I guess we found out that it was worth exactly Lady Prince's queen piece and two pawns. That offensive power is simply ridiculous." Sirzechs said as he shook his head while smiling.

"She is strong, there is no doubt about that, but she has her disadvantages," Lord Beelzebub said simply. "Miss Black never left her territory, and her stakes only reached as far as the threshold of her defined territory. I assume it is a literal representation of the legend of Vlad III as defender of Wallachia, it will only work within any territory she can designate as 'hers'," Lord Beelzebub said with a frown.

"A terrifying defensive ability, huh? " Sirzechs hummed with a smile.

"Wasn't she a princess of Wallachia?" I asked suddenly, remembering the fact. That made both of them freeze momentarily.

"Yes… I suppose that would work, so she could claim all of Wallachia for herself." Lord Beelzebub finally said.

"I guess we're giving Wallachia to Lady Prince." Sirzechs said while chuckling. Once again we looked at the screen. Miss Black had taken out a blessed pistol. A curious weapon, but nothing extraordinary for now. The surprise was that Miss Black's body began to lose shape and a huge blue hand came out from within her.

"What the hell is that?" Sirzechs asked with wide eyes. The monstrosity was some sort of blue-skinned, red-eyed giant, larger than a normal human by 1 or 2 meters. It was pure muscle, literally. Its skin was torn all over, with no signs of healing.

"Is it… some kind of familiar?" I asked in confusion. I certainly wasn't completely familiar with all the kinds of monsters and animals in the Familiar Forest, let alone everyone else. But that giant was really weird.

"No... that's a person." Lord Beelzebub said solemnly as he checked his tablet, surprising Sirzechs and I. "it's soul is definitely that of a person, that of a human, but... someone tampered with it, there are... fragments of other souls that are corrupting it, changing it, and those changes are affecting it's physical body." Lord Beelzebub explained with a frown. Sirzechs frowned as well.

"Is it a danger?" Sirzechs asked directly, Lord Beelzebub shrugged.

"Not really. If it was Miss Black herself who made the 'changes' to that soul, she wouldn't be the first devil to do some strange experiments of that sort." Lord Beelzebub snorted. "Though I am certainly curious as to the method used. I can trace the deformities in that 'giant's' soul back to some strange spikes around his body, but I have no other leads." Lord Beelzebub said simply. Sirzechs sighed.

"Grayfia, you said there weren't a lot of missing people in Wallachia, right? " Sirzechs asked in my direction. I immediately shook my head.

"No more than usual; the only thing I could find were disappearances of people, mostly criminals. But it's still Romania, so since the vampires' hunting ground extends across Wallachia, it's possible that vampires are the ones who have been feeding." I said quickly, Sirzechs nodded.

"She may have decided not to use the people within her own territory. She is still a princess of Wallachia, so she may have some attachment to her subjects." Sirzechs said more to himself. "We'll let it go for now. Keep an eye on the surroundings of Wallachia to see if there are any unusual amounts of missing people. If you don't find anything or if she is the one targeting the criminals, just let her do as she pleases." Sirzechs said almost dispassionately.

"Of course, Lord Lucifer." I said immediately. Even though we had changed from the old devils and their opinions on humans. The reality was that we were still completely different races. While Sirzechs liked humanity, he wasn't going to reprimand any devil for killing some humans, not if they were criminals.

Once again, we focused on the screen. Several screens were showing the entire fight from different angles, one of which was following the monster that was carrying Ravel Phenex towards Lady Prince. They immediately started arguing.

On another screen, Miss Black was flying rapidly towards the Phenex Queen directly. The bomb queen was living up to her epithet and launched huge explosions in Miss Black's direction, who didn't bother to dodge.

A regeneration that seemed to be just as strong as that of the Phenex themselves. The value of Lady Prince's queen only continued to rise.

Miss Black finally caught up to Riser's queen and swung her spear. All the chambers began to shake violently. The sky shattered, the ground cracked, fissures opened as what looked like a massive earthquake was generated by Miss Black.

Miss Black's smile was huge, she reached out her hand and her body turned into mist once again. I expected another kind of monster like the last one to come out. But this time it was a dragon's head that emerged from within it which bit Riser's queen all over her torso.

"ll-the queen of Riser Phenex was defeated and taken off the battlefield!"

"What the hell." Lord Beelzebub muttered. We both immediately looked at him. He rarely cursed.

"Did something happen? I know that the creation of earthquakes or a dragon are rare, but is there anything to worry about? " Sirzechs asked confused. Lord Beelzebub wrinkled his nose.

"Not that, although her ability to generate vibrations, to the level of creating earthquakes large enough to shatter the entire ground, is impressive. That's nothing special. The strange thing was when her body turned into that kind of mist. It was for a split second, but I was able to sense tens of thousands of souls within her body. The dragon was one of those souls, either the readings are wrong once again, or she has an army within her." Lord Beelzebub said seriously. I could feel myself pale slightly.

"Thousands of souls within her that she can seemingly release and control as she pleases, she has an army to attack. She has stakes that violate the laws of causality to defend. She herself is an army, an entire nation in one person, and has regeneration comparable to the Phenex. She truly is a truly powerful queen." Sirzechs said solemnly.

"And Lady Prince was able to reincarnate her," I said simply. Sirzechs nodded at the implications.

"And Lady Prince was able to reincarnate her." Sirzechs repeated before smiling. "I'm now more interested than ever in what Lady Prince can do. If she's able to reincarnate someone of Miss Black's level, then she must be something special. I can't wait to see what she does." Sirzechs said excitedly.

Once again, we focus on the screens.

"A vampire huh? I guess that answers their feeding for feeding contract and maybe the disappearances in Wallachia." Sirzechs said while humming, "Does that answer any questions? " Sirzechs asked, looking at Lord Beelzebub, who shook his head.

"Not in the least. While vampires are able to control mist and darkness like Miss Black seems to be able to, it doesn't explain all of her other abilities. So it's simply her own abilities and not something racial." Lord Beelzebub dismissed. "And while they are capable of turning into bats or a group of them, even separating a part of their body to do so, it's nothing comparable to what Miss Black does. They are complete souls inside her. The closest would be a large amount of familiars inside her body."

Sirzechs nodded, almost disappointed that they hadn't managed to discover anything, but he still looked back at the screen. To our greatest disappointment, Lady Prince's queen didn't show any other skills in her fight against Riser. Although it's obvious that she was leading Riser to the castle and gave up hastily. Although she had reason to. A fight between regenerators is simply useless no matter that she is an army by herself.

On the other hand, there was Lady Prince herself with Ravel.

"Hahaha! She's definitely a Succubus! " Sirzechs said as he let out a laugh at the screen, Lord Beelzebub had a small smile. I let out a sigh as I watched Lady Prince use her hands on Ravel Phenex's body without any concern. Or rather, she couldn't care less; she had absolutely let her sin of lust consume her, and Ravel was all she could focus on.

But the way Lady Prince was manipulating Ravel's body as she pleased, as if she knew every corner of her body, handling it as if she was born to do this. As if Ravel's body belonged to her and as if she was marking her. She was definitely a Succubus.

It wasn't the first shameless act that occurred during a Rating Game, emotions were always running high during a fight so slips could occur at times. But this was different. This was Lady Prince practically bathed in lust, playing with Ravel as if she were her favorite toy.

But leaving that aside, the important thing was something else: the love potion.

"Love potions exist?" I couldn't help but ask. Lord Beelzebub wrinkled his nose.

"Not really. Love… is one of the most difficult emotions to create, almost bordering on impossible if you're not a god and that's your domain. So most likely the potion will simply create obsession, lust, and other feelings close to infatuation and not true love." Lord Beelzebub said simply. We nodded.

The groping continued for a few long minutes until Miss Black and Riser burst into the room, causing Lady Prince to startle and finally regain some sanity.

"By the way, where do they keep getting things from?" Sirzechs asked curiously as he watched Lady Prince try to give Ravel the antidote again, an antidote she had taken out from her skirt several minutes ago. It wasn't the first object she had taken out from there.

"No idea," Lord Beelzebub shrugged. "Neither of them are releasing any kind of energy or power that would indicate they're even using any kind of magic. Maybe it's just an expanded pocket or something similar," he said simply. Sirzechs wrinkled his nose but nodded.

" Ugh !" The three of us grimaced as Ravel gave him a slap that echoed throughout the room after being impaled by her queen.

"At least we know that she can regenerate," Sirzechs said simply as he watched the Lady Prince regenerate after escaping the stakes.

We then saw Lady Prince mock Riser to force him to drink a potion.

"She seems very proud of her potions," I observed, and Sirzechs nodded.

"She just made a Phenex fall in love with a potion; she has every reason to be proud," Sirzechs said simply. "She practically had her eating out of the palm of her hand. I don't know how long that potion would last without the antidote, but it's really dangerous if used in other contexts and without people noticing."

I shuddered slightly. He was right; that potion was dangerous if even the Phenex could succumb to it without being able to defend themselves in any way.

"Ah, it seems young Riser has completely fallen for the trick," Sirzechs said cheerfully. My attention was drawn to the screens once more, just in time to see Riser drink the potion Lady Prince had handed him. A few seconds later, Riser fell completely unconscious. Sirzechs whistled in amazement.

"Interesting… he's not breathing and has no heartbeat." Our gaze alarmedly turned to Lord Beelzebub, who had just casually said that. Just before Ravel's panicked voice echoed out with the same words as Lord Beelzebub.

"Riser is dead?!" Sirzechs quickly asked as he stood up, he almost sounded excited, a smile seemed to want to grow on his face. He understood his excitement, if Riser died, Rias wouldn't have to marry him in any way. And they certainly couldn't blame Sirzechs for planning it in either. It was a clean solution that they had been looking forward to for a while. Still…

"Lord Lucifer." I immediately rebuked, Sirzechs froze for a fraction of a second before correcting his composure. Even if it was the three of us, even if Lord Beelzebub was Sirzechs' best friend, there were certain things Sirzechs should keep up a facade for. And certainly rejoicing at the death of a young devil was one of them.

"I'm sorry to ruin your dreams, but no, he's still very much alive." Lord Beelzebub said with a grimace. Sirzechs' face fell a few degrees, but he immediately recovered. "He's in a kind of... 'stasis'; his body is completely frozen, in a kind of coma. He almost looks dead, but he's very much completely alive. His soul is still completely healthy and attached to his body without any problems." Lord Beelzebub clarified.

Sirzechs nodded, and his gaze turned to the screen once more. The broadcast was still going on, even when the match had ended it was still broadcasting what was happening live in the stadium. And Lord Phenex suddenly appeared.

"Well, who wants to go meet Lady Prince?" Sirzechs asked with a smile. Lord Beelzebub looked up as he considered. After a few seconds he nodded and stood up. The teleportation circle immediately enveloped us before appearing in the stadium.

Just in time to see Lady Prince and Lord Phenex face off.

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