Chapter 33 - 32

Akeno and Yubelluna stood in a replica of Kuoh academy facing one another.

"You know, if you all wanted to do something in a sly manner you shouldn't be so blatant." Yubelluna said mockingly towards Akeno who just smirked at the remark. ​​

"Ara, ara, what might you be talking about? This honor duel was completely spontaneous." Akeno said in a sarcastic tone.

Truly, not only Rias had a rating game setting prepared, which is not something that can be done in mere minutes, but it was not a simple one like a grassland or desert, but an entire replica of Kuoh High School Academy which was a clear advantage for Rias group that actually went there and knew the place well.

After a few moments, the announcer spoke up.

"The first match of the honor duel between Rias Gremory and Riser Phenex is about to start. Get set, GO!" The announcer said and both Yubelluna and Akeno took flight, both attacking almost at the same time. Akeno launched a thunderbolt at her enemy while Yubelluna sent an explosion.

As magic cast collided, a greater explosion happened and smoke covered the area as Akeno began gathering energy from her surroundings to launch her thunder at Yubelluna before she could attack, only to be shocked when, by the time smoke settled, Yubelluna was nowhere to be found.

"Are we playing hide and seek now? Let this Onee-san humor you a bit then!" Akeno said, releasing the thunder accumulated to damage the area around her through carpet bombing.

///---///

In the observation lounge, Soma was drinking some wine with Riser as he spoke.

"Your queen is quite smart."

"True, if she wasn't smart I wouldn't have her as my Queen." Riser said with a soft smile at the thought of Yubelluna.

To their side, Aya asked.

"Why did she run away?"

"That is simple, to make the enemy spend their energy uselessly." Soma said. "You see, the Gremory Queen has more natural reserves than Yubelluna and if it became a fight of attrition she would lose. By running away like that when the enemy was accumulating their power, Yubeluna made sure to preserve her own reserves while also making the enemy Queen spend her energy."

"That is correct." Riser said. "After our fight against all those strays, Yubelluna realizes how much she wasted her energy as she got tired too fast. As such, she started to plan on how to spend the least amount of energy possible while maximizing what she could truly do in a fight or in a rating game. She is good at planning." Riser said.

After that night Riser and his peerage had been training daily, separately and in groups, as to prepare in case another such attack happened. As they didn't waste their time going to school they could spend time training every day while not changing their lifestyle much.

Truly, while Rias and her peerage trained a week non-stop to close the gap, Riser and his entire Peerage trained for longer and with some members of Ruval peerage (Riser's eldest brother and in 7th place of rating game ranking).

The gap widened, not lessened.

Yubelluna would come out of hiding from time to time to shoot at Akeno who was flying up in the air to get a better view of the terrain. After each shot, Yubelluna would quickly move away, but as time passed more and more of the buildings got destroyed by Akeno's thunder there were fewer places to hide.

This game of hide and seek continued for around half an hour, until Akeno flew down due to exhaustion, and Yubelluna, seeing this, approached to deliver the finishing strike.

Riser smirked and said.

"It is over."

Soma, however, facepalmed and groaned.

"Yeah, Yubelluna lost." He said, shocking Riser who looked at the scene just in time to see Akeno suddenly springing up and releasing holy lightning at Yubelluna, causing her to scream in pain and losing the match.

"Wha-, How?" Riser sputtered and Soma sighed.

"The Gremory queen faked being weak, well she faked somewhat. Her acting was atrocious, well from my point of view it was, but it probably misled Yubelluna and she got defeated in one shot. A shame really, she should be the one to win, but holy-type energy is quite dangerous for devils and the Gremory Queen is half fallen angel. Her being able to use holy energy in some way should be possible, but how it mixes with her devil energy is interesting."

As Soma explained as much he suddenly had a thought.

"Maybe she could accept helping me further my research for a while, I could promise to reattach her without any scars after the biopsy is complete."

Riser looks weirded out by Soma's desire and speaks.

"Bro, I have to say, sometimes you scare me a bit."

Soma just shrugged.

"If I am scaring a 'terrifying' demon from hell, then I must be doing something right." Soma said with a smirk that actually made Riser laugh despite Yubelluna having just been defeated.

The reason why Riser was not overly worried about his girlfriend was very simple. His house was the one that PRODUCED the Phenex Tears, healing some burns would literally be done in seconds and Akeno's attack was not nearly strong enough to cause any irreparable damage for Yubelluna. She would likely not take even five minutes to come over and sit on his lap, asking to be spoiled after having been 'bullied' by the opposing Queen that used holy energy.

Riser then looked at the rules set in a document that was quickly signed between himself and Rias and sighed at how ridiculous this whole affair really is.

"You know, with how she acts I almost want to call off the marriage myself." Riser said, looking at the agreement in disgust.

Soma sighed and nodded, this thing was clearly made by someone without a single notion of politics or subterfuge as far as Soma can tell. Riser honestly only signed due to Sirzechs being the one to push this agreement and Riser not wanting to provoke The Lucifer.

The rules of this combat were so obviously rigged that it wasn't even slightly funny.

Rule 1 - No holy-type items or powers are allowed;

Rule 2 - No borrowing the power of other entities is allowed;

Rule 3 - No banishing the enemy away from the fighting arena is allowed;

Rule 4 - Any damage with the intent to kill means disqualification and instant loss for the entire team;

Rule 5 - The winning side can decide the time before the start of the next round with a limit of one hour;

Rule 6 - No healing item can be taken into the arena;

Rule 7 - This tournament-style honor duel will end after one side has all participants eliminated;

Rule 8 - Enhancement drugs are not allowed to be taken before the start of a match.

These rules were clearly designed with the express purpose of binding and weakening those on Riser's side. The document was made after the participants were decided, all by Rias' hands and approved by Sirzechs.

Soma was honestly irritated at this sort of idiocy. It was so beyond obvious that this whole thing was rigged, but it was honestly done as if the one doing the rigging had no real clue on how to do it and were just writing down anything they can to gain an advantage. For Soma, it was clear that Rias truly was desperate to get away from this marriage.

Feeling sympathy, Soma put a hand on Riser's shoulder and said.

"Bro, I feel so bad for you. It must be sad to lack charisma to this extent. If you want, I can give you tips on how to get closer to girls." He said and Riser snorted at that while Aya, on the side, blushed and lowered her head at this sort of discussion.

"Don't worry about it, I am more than capable on my own. It is just, 'sigh', she is an annoying spoiled princess who has her head in the clouds and thinks she is a human, no offense." Riser said and Soma waved him off.

"None taken, my culture and yours are different and I can understand that." Soma said dismissively . He was educated regarding devil society by Ravel and Sona during this time period and came to understand a lot about how the devil society works.

Was it weird that Soma fit better amongst devils in terms of culture and conduct, when compared to Rias?

Nah, it can't be. He is just arrogant, battle and power hungry, horny, barbaric at times, lacks much in terms of normal morals, is right at home when it comes to politics and nobility, likes to do whatever he feels like, and takes way too much pride on his own race, while looking for ways to gain benefits from others or exploit them in deals that are heavily beneficial for him.

See? Nothing like a devil at all.

Soma thought for a while before smiling.

"Don't worry, I have a way to help you out." He said and Riser raised a brow.

"How?"

"Nope, I won't be telling you now. I will explain it to you later on." Soma said before turning to Aya.

He could see her hands were balled together and trembling slightly as she was staring at the destruction of the school in that rating game dimension, clearly of the fight to come.

"Aya-chan, don't worry." He said, startling Aya who turned towards him in surprise.

"Huh?"

"Don't worry." Soma repeated. "When the battle starts, you just need to say the magic words and everything will be alright."

Aya looked confused for a moment before remembering what he meant. She put a hand on her brooch and felt some confidence in herself.

"I will go now." She said with as much confidence as he could muster.

"I will be watching, show everyone how great you really are." Soma said and Aya beamed as she left the room.

Riser looked at her departing figure and after a moment said.

"Bro, if it gets dangerous I will forfeit her match." Riser honestly did not give a single fuck about this match, he had nothing real to lose here except perhaps a little bit of face, but Rias already lost a lot more due to acting like a crazy girl who can't control her peerage.

Truthfully, unless Sirzechs forces it, Riser is confident he can say no to any rating game or anything of the sort that Rias can try and push. Besides, Riser was confident his bro could defeat Rias' Queen and Rias' perverted boy toy. Regarding Sairaorg, Riser can't say for certain, but it would still not mean much even if Soma were to lose to the heir of the Bael family since Soma would not be allowed to use part of his equipment that would be particularly useful against a devil.

Soma, however, just waved him off.

"Riser, don't worry. With what I gave Aya-chan I doubt that this Queen can even hope to damage her. Hell, I am not fully confident in fighting Aya if she uses what I gave her right now unless I have counters prepared." Soma said, making Riser look surprised.

He heard from Ravel how Soma manhandled a dragon made of holy swords, and he also got the information that Soma could go toe to toe against Dimaria. For him to not be confident facing Aya, what exactly did Soma give her?

///---///

In a V.I.P. room, Sirzechs was drinking some wine as he was watching the show. As a Satan he was allowed to have his own private room, he offered to let Rias and her friends to stay with him in this room but they refused, instead they were in a larger room downstairs.

Grayfia, watching the match, couldn't help but speak up.

"Are you sure your actions this time were correct, my king?"

"Of course, it is just some entertainment for a happy event, after all." Sirzechs said in a light tone, causing Grayfia to sigh.

"Is this your opinion as Satan Lucifer, or is it your opinion as Sirzechs Lucifer?" Grayfia questioned, making Sirzechs frown slightly.

In truth he could see how things could go bad, but he was much too weak against his sister and, truth be told, he did not think much of the Phenex House. They were rich, sure, but their strongest powerhouse could not come even close to match Sirzechs himself and everyone knew it.

Devil society was a 'might makes right' world, and Sirzechs was the mightiest of them all.

"It is my opinion. Besides, I am not forcing anything, just giving my adorable Ria-tan a chance." Sirzechs said and Grayfia sighed, wondering if she should root for Riser as to make her husband less of... this, or if she should root for Rias instead.

Not for the girl's sake, Grayfia quite agreed with the marriage and thought that Rias was largely overreacting to all this, but because Grayfia feared that Sirzechs might actually kill Riser at the altar out of sheer spite.

Gremories and their love for family, Grayfia was only glad that Sirzechs didn't make her wear that brunette wig after that first time he called her mommy during sex.

Seriously, it was disturbing.

Grayfia wanted to ask more, but someone came knocking, or, to be more precise, knocked down the door with a kick.

Serafal was in the entryway, her foot still raised from the motion of kicking the door open and Sirzechs looked at her with a raised brow.

"Sera, I thought you were too busy to attend. Come, come, I have enough seats for you to enjoy this show with me." Sirzechs said with a charming face as Serafal lowered her foot to the ground.

"I wasn't busy. I was just tired after performing on my Magical Girl Levi-Tan show and stopping ANOTHER political disaster when the seventh son of house Andromalius decided he wanted to try and take one of Ra's descendants into his peerage as a pawn. We are lucky the Egyptians were not overly mad, but it still was a pain to stop the Egyptian god of the sun from burning down some small settlements in Israel." Serafal said, sitting down on the chair.

"You work hard." Sirzechs said, filling her glass of wine.

"Someone has to since the others clearly are not doing a good job. After all, our Satan Beelzebusb that controls the research department refuses to listen to requests and just research whatever catches his fancy, our Satan Asmodeus that controls the military is not willing to do more than the barest minimum to keep us HAVING an army to some degree, and you let our internal political situation keep split in several factions that you seem unable to unite and are now trying to make what houses listen to us lose the unity that keeps us from open civil war." Serafal said, making Sirzechs wince.

Yeah, the internal politics of devils was a gigantic mess that was barely kept together, not due to Sirzechs' personal efforts even if HE was the satan responsible for this, but because of the political machinations of Zekran Bael. Truly, devil society was a 'might makes right' world, and Sirzechs was the mightiest of them all, not the most capable to rule or lead.

Serafal just looked Sirzechs in the eye and spoke clearly and plainly.

"This marriage is going through unless BOTH sides say otherwise, both the kids and the parents. Don't try to play games with the future of our race for the sake of your sister, Satan Lucifer, or I will take a one month vacation and when the wars I keep stopping happen you will be able to see if you really ARE amongst the strongest in the world."

"Now, now, we should just watch the show for now. We can discuss details later, okay? Okay." Sirzechs said as the second fight was about to start.

Serafal glared at him before turning her gaze to this pointless endeavor of Sirzechs, trying to not cause a new civil war even as he seemed to WANT to cause issues.

///---///

"Ara, ara, a cute little girl after the last one. Maybe lord Phenex is running out of options." Akeno said and Aya gulped.

This was Aya's first true fight and she saw how strong her enemy was, if she was hit even once Aya would lose.

As Aya began to prepare she was interrupted when Akeno spoke up.

"Hey, I heard you have a fallen angel in your house. Is that true?"

"Yes, Mittelt-chan. She is my friend." Aya said cheerfully. She and Mittelt were friends, after all.

Akeno heard this and looked at Aya with some pity.

"A piece of advice, from a senpai to her junior, don't get close to her or that boy, Soma. The research he is looking at is an evil thing that no one decent would want anything to do with, and you should never trust a fallen angel." Akeno said, mostly because of what little intel she got about Aya's backstory from the dossier that Sirzechs prepared.

As Aya was working with Soma, an unknown in devil territory, it was quite natural for Sirzechs and the devils to investigate any persons of interest like Aya. Normally such research was kept under lock and not to be shared, but Sirzechs shared what intel he could with Rias and the others about Aya after it was decided she would be one of the participants in this fight.

Akeno, truth be told, felt sorry for the girl and would want to help her if possible. She too felt abandoned in the past and suffered a lot to just survive, being an outcast and hated for no good reason, but Akeno also disliked Soma who was friends with Riser and was studying the Holy Sword Project that caused so much grief to Kiba. And Akeno also despised the very existence of Mittelt due to the little blond being a fallen angel.

As such, Akeno decided to give this advice to Aya and try not to hurt the girl much. Akeno was a cruel sadist, yes, but only for those who deserve it in her opinion or were fallen angels.

However, as these words were spoken an ambiguous and dangerous air appeared as Aya's previously nervous gaze became determined.

"You don't know them, they are my friends and I won't let you speak badly of them. They are wonderful people, so take it back." Aya said and Akeno just shook her head.

"I guess it will take you more time to see what sort of monsters they are." Akeno said with slight dissatisfaction. She heard of what sort of thing the Holy Sword Project was from Kiba, and she had also heard of how Soma nearly killed the Sitri heiress as well as his brutality during the fight.

How could she not call someone like that a monster?

And yet, in the eyes of those he saved, he was a hero.

He was Aya's hero, and she would not let someone calling Soma-kun names go.

As Aya held the item Soma gave her, she squeezed it and a voice came out of it.

"Master presence detected, please say the magic words for a complete activation."

Akeno looked surprised by this as the little item in Aya's hand spoke. From it, a handle came out and butterfly-like wings appeared on the handle, Aya changing to grip the handle as she spoke.

"Give me power, Diamond!" Aya said and a pillar of light came out of the now named Diamond, illuminating the whole arena.

As the lights receded, Aya was wearing a magical girl outfit. Her dress resembled a wedding dress with plenty of white and diamond-like highlights. In this form, she wore a golden crown with a white veil attached to it, floating by itself around her head. She also had a white bow with a gem attached to her neck. Additionally, there are gold extensions attached to both her hips and forearms. The edges of her skirt fold together like flower petals, with the tips of her skirt also colored golden.

The magical stick in her hand was waved with her hand as she stared at Akeno who was dumbfounded at the sudden transformation even as Aya pointed her wand at her.

"I will make you say sorry for saying bad things about my friends." Aya said as she waved her wand, and even without wanting to, a blast of concentrated mana flew at Akeno, blasting the devil away.

A great area of destruction from her wand launched towards where Akeno was.

Truly, tapping into the magical energy of all her alternative selves from across the entirety of the multiverse was nothing to scoff at.

In the viewing booths, Soma was quite glad that his original design worked well enough, even if he would have preferred if he could have made the skirt cover more of Aya's legs instead of being above the knees.

On the side of Soma, Riser looked at the scene in front of him for a moment, closed his eyes, and spoke.

"Yep, if you weren't a person of interest before, you are one now bro."

"Well, it IS an amazing mystic code with absurdly high magical capabilities, but it ha-"

"No, it is not because of actual danger." Riser said before sighing. "It is because-"

///---///

"I WANA! I WANA, I WANA, I WANA, I WANA!" Serafal said as she completely forgot her prestige as a Satan or anything like that, glued to the viewing mirror as she saw her dreams come true.

A true to Satan, Mahou Shoujo.

///---///

AN:

In case anyone is wondering, Aya's magical girl dress is based on Tobiichi Origami astral dress in Date a Live. And no, Soma only knows how to make Kaeidosticks that look like Mahou Shoujo costumes, he can change their designs a bit but they would still be like that in general.