The Abyssal Lord (DxD)

[Inside The Rating Game Arena - Rias's side]

<The match has already started everybody~ but we still have some basic rules for our contestants to hear~>

<...A-Ah-h…Y-Yes. Ahem. Both parties have been transported into their main bases, Rias Gremory's base is at the ORC room in the old school building>

<And Riser Phenex’s base is at the principal's office at the opposite side of the school~>

<In order to promote, the pawns of each team must enter the opposite's team base in order to do so>

<Have fun~>

Unlike at the start, the commentators’ voice was heard inside the rating game barriers, and both Rias and Riser heard the announcement.

“President! Did you hear that! I can be promoted if I reach the principal's office!”

Issei said excitedly while looking out from the club room window and looking around, it was still fascinating to him how the devils built an exact replica of his school in a matter of a few hours.

“But that's not only for us, they can promote too, Issei”

Kiba, ever gentle as always, softly reminded the excited brown haired pawn, and watched him deflate like a balloon.

But after a thought came back to him, he soon regained his vigor and regained his enthusiasm.

“I'll be able to try out my new technique Hehehe~”

A creepy laugh resounded around, which granted him a disgusted look from Koneko, and a helpless look from Rias.

“Ufufufufu~ I wonder how the girls you'll try that move on will react~ I bet it'll be funny~”

Akeno, who had her ever present smile, just laughed softly, but for some reason, Issei was getting goosebumps all over his skin, which he knows from experience, this isn't good at all.

“Now that we know where his base is, let's make a plan. How do you think we should approach this?”

Rias clapped twice and announced to her distracted peerage, then pointed at her desk, precisely at the exact map of the school layout that she had laying on the desk.

“How did you get that president?”

“That's from my brother, but that's not important now”

“How about we all rush him at once? From what I know, his peerage members aren't as individually strong as us”

Kiba made a suggestion, but Rias gently shook her head, denying the proposal.

“We have fewer man power, and if they eliminate me we'll lose, we have to think of a strategy”

“Maybe we go through the gym? And send another two through the fields? Like divide and conquer?”

“Not a bad suggestion Akeno, we'll go with that. I'll have gasper with me as protection, Issei and Koneko through the gym, and Akeno and Kiba through the fields”

After everyone nodded in acknowledgement and got to know their roles, Rias handed each one a glowing orb, as she inserted hers inside her ear.

“What's that president? Is it some kind of booster shot?”

“No, this is a communication device, it's how we'll communicate while being far away from each other”

“I've gotta learn as much devil magic as possible after this, it's honestly quite awesome”

After silently saying that to himself, Issei and Koneko went out of the club room, and headed to the gym to start their first confrontation.

……

[The Gremorys’ Private VIP Booth]

“I don't mean any disrespect while saying this Xeron, but I truly find myself in a puzzle at the prospect of you being here with us today”

As all the crowd watched Rias's peerage being the first to move out, Zeoticus suddenly spoke with the ever flowery way he usually does speak in, which made the demon that was paying attention at the screen turn to him with an eye roll.

“Just say you're curious about my reason for being here man, you don't have to tiptoe around me that much”

That elicited a small chuckle from the main Gremory wife, as she watched her husband's smile shake a little, but he didn't lose it of course.

“Again, I apologize if the question disrespected you in any way, but as you just said, I'm merely curious that's all”

Xeron nodded and swiped his hands as if meaning that the question was valid, but as he was about to answer the patriarch, the silver haired maid beat him to it.

“Lord Xeron is merely bored. Due to my prolonged stay with him, I've come to realize that he sees everything around him as entertainment”

These words struck like thunder, and no-one spoke another word, including the servants who had already woken up a small while ago.

Xeron's ever present smile faded, and he slowly turned backwards to stare at his maid in the eyes, and she met his gaze unflinchingly.

Several seconds passed while the two's gazes remained locked in silence, and as Venelana was about to intervene and ask that Xeron doesn't punish the maid severely. They saw his face split horizontally in a hideous smile.

“I was starting to forget why I've taken a liking to you in the first place, but it seems my choice was correct after all”

Grayfia, with her ever present elegance and cold demeanor, just bowed slightly and then turned her gaze back at the screen, meanwhile, Xeron's face regained his usual small smile, and he also turned to look at the screen, but without forgetting to reply to Zeoticus’ earlier question.

“As the big breasted maid with a fetish said, I'm here purely for fun, so don't sweat it”

His reply confirmed what Grayfia said, but the way he said it made the ever stoic maid twitch a little while glaring at her master, which drew out a joyous laughter from the patriarch.

“I see. Well, I'm glad that Grayfia is at least having fun, she was always not interested in anything that we were sure that she asexuall”

The patriarch's comment in turn, made the demon burst out laughing, himself. While Venelana stifled a few chuckles herself.

Meanwhile, the maid in question was glaring at all of them, like they murdered her entire family.

……

<I guess it's finally starting~ I hope they'll at least make this entertaining>

<Again. I don't think that such an important is being held for entertainment purposes>

<Don't be such a bad sport Astrei~ I'm sure you know why we're all here, right?>

Astrei just sighed to herself, things were already stressful enough because of Rias's situation, but add the annoying Serafall and the demon lord that nobody knows what he wants to the mix, and it becomes quite the unnerving situation.

‘I want to see my baby boy, Millicas'

<Oooh~ it looks like we'll be having our first fight of the night~ Issei-kun and Koneko-chan Vs the three Phenex pawns Ile, Ne and Mira, the rook Xuelan. Things are looking bleak for the crimson Princess~>

<Indeed. They are severely outnumbered, but we shouldn't rule them out just yet>

The various screens around the arena flashed, and all of them simultaneously showed the figures having a stand off in the gym.

But they didn't stay standing for long, because the Phenex rook immediately rushed at Koneko, hitting her in the abdomen and launching her a couple of meters back.

“Koneko!”

Issei called out in concern for the Nekomata, but was interrupted by a burst of wind that slammed into his body and sent him flying to the edge of the gym, cracking the wall.

<Oh~ that's surely going to hurt~ But I guess the Red Dragon Emperor wielder wouldn't go down like that!>

<I agree. lf he did go out with that then I would've questioned why Rias recruited him in the first place>

Even after being slammed into the wall, Issei didn't get any timeout and had to quickly dodge out of the way, because the twin pawns somehow pulled a chainsaw each and started chasing him with full power.

“AHH! What is this! Who gave them chainsaws?”

He kept dodging out of the twins’ slashes, while keeping an eye on the pawn Mira, who kept continuously hitting him with wind torrents left and right.

Meanwhile, the two rooks kept exchanging blows, each hit heavier than the last, but with none connecting on each of them so far, besides the opening move that Xuelan did on Koneko.

“Ha! Keep trying! You're never going to catch me!”

After landing a small distance away from his pursuers, Issei stood straight and brought the Red Dragon Emperor gauntlet near his chest and shouted.

“Boost!!”

The green gem imbued on the gauntlet glowed in a green light that kept getting brighter and brighter until finally, a domineering voice echoed around the gym, and by extension, the entire arena

“Explosion!!”

And true to its words, an explosion of crimson flames suddenly erupted around the brown haired devil, shrouding his figure in a flames made from mana, and momentarily stunning the three pawns who have been chasing him until now.

“I trained pretty hard, you know!”

Moments later, when the flames died down, he looked exactly the same, but the speed in which he launched into the twin pawns was incomparable to before.

The pawns didn't have time to react, and panicked when they thought that they're about to be hit with a special move of some kind, but that didn't happen, and they were each slapped on the across the shoulder instead, which sent them hurling back into the ground.

But Issei didn't have time to celebrate his victory, because the moment he landed, Mira's weapon was suddenly thrust into his face, but due to his boosted status, he immediately caught it.

“Got you!”

Grabbing the wooden stick with his gauntlet, he leaned it to the side and struck it with his bare hand, shattering it in one hit and giving him ample time for a counter attack, which he of course didn't waste.

“Aaah!”

Taking the chance, he struck her in the shoulder with his bare hand, sending her flying backwards, and into the ground.

“W-we won't lose!”

“Yes! We can't disappoint Riser-sama”

Issei didn't get to celebrate winning his fight early, because the sound of the twins declaring their intent to never lose was heard from behind him.

They each got up and grabbed their chainsaws back up again, this time imbuing them with demonic energy and immediately rushing towards him with scowls on their cute faces.

“You broke my weapon. Unforgivable!”

Mira also stood back up again, and after grabbing the two largest pieces from her broken weapon, she similarly imbued them with demonic energy and rushed at him from the opposite side.

Issei, seeing the three pawns rushing at him from every direction, decided it was finally time to test his epic move, the one he trained ever so hard for, and poured blood, sweat and tears to bring to reality. So he let out his devil wings, and said dramatically in the most epic voice he can muster.

“Take this!”

His wingspan widened further and further, the green gem shone even more brightly than before, and when he finally lifted the gauntlet fully in the air, he snapped his fingers producing a crisp metallic sound that echoed around.

“Dress…Break!”

A Gremory magic circle appeared on each of the Phenex pawns’ shoulders, and then and there, in front of everyone watching either in the arena or inside the rating game itself, their clothes disintegrated on their own, leaving them entirely naked, rendering them unable to continue the match.

“Hahaha! How's that! I used up all my magical talent to make girls naked! This is my original technique, Dress Break!”

“You leecher!”

“Despicable”

“You're the enemy of all women!”

Issei didn't take the insults to heart of course, because like it or not, this was justice! And he didn't have any intention of backing down!

<...How vulgar>

<Hahahaha! I didn't know that Rias's pawn was this hilarious~ He even called it ‘Dress Break' Hahahaha!>

<But on a more technical note, he must've planted his imagination on the girls when he came in contact with them>

<Ha-a~ you have to admit that he's original though~>

<That's also true>

‘Issei, is everything alright on your end?’

“President? Yes, everything is wonderful! ‘Dress Break’ worked too!”

Back in the ORC room, Rias choked on her tea at the mention of that dreaded move that her beloved pawn created, and she suddenly got chills thinking about what she had done to help him develop the technique.

‘'T-That’s g-great Issei, then follow the plan, Akeno should be making her move right about now”

Issei was obviously none the wiser about Rias's conflicted thoughts that concerned his beloved move, he was busy getting the hell out of there to care.

“Where are you going!? Don't flee, you cowards!”

“The match hasn't been decided yet!”

“Come back here!”

Ignoring the shouts of the Phenex peerage, and bolting out of the gym as fast as they can, they were greeted with the dark sky and abnormally windy weather, and when they looked above the gym building, there were huge dark clouds that were swirling ominously up in the distance.

“Ufufufufu~”

The sound of thunder roared in the sky, and the dark clouds parted, revealing a huge magic circle that didn't last for more than a split second. Because immediately following it was a huge bolt of lightning raining down from the sky and onto the gym, completely pulverizing the entire building, wiping out all three figures inside and leaving a huge charred crater along with a rapidly rising cloud of smoke in its place.

““Ahhhhh!””

The explosion knocked back the Gremory pawn and rook, but they immediately stabilized themselves and looked up to the sky, specifically at the Gremory queen, who was wearing a shrine maiden outfit and was weirdly blushing for some reason.

<Riser Phenexs’ three pawns and a rook have been knocked out>

<First Blood!!!>

The announcement was heard by the contestants this time, but Issei and Koneko didn't pay attention to it.

“A-Amazing…How is Akeno-san this powerful”

“...Akeno-senpai is well known as the Priestess of Thunder, I heard that those who know her are aware of her immense power”

“T-The Priestess of Thunder…I'd die for sure if she hit me with something like that”

<Destroying a strategic location while knowing that she's outnumbered, I'm not really sure if this is a good move or not>

<Hmm~ a very bold tactic for a first timer indeed. As expected of the muscle brain princess>

<I guess this will force Riser to go all out?>

<That's true~>

'The real challenge begins now'

Issei and Koneko suddenly heard Rias's voice from the communication device, grabbing their attention.

‘We’re still outnumbered, and it'll take some time before Akeno could fire another spell of this magnitude’

'Me and Gasber will join you back when Akeno recharges. So until then both of you should start getting ready for the plan's next phase'

And after saying that, the connection was cut, leaving both Issei and Koneko among themselves.

Issei's smile tensed a bit, and when he looked at Koneko, he noticed a smile very similar to his own.

“The next phase is…”

“We're going to join Yuuto-senpai in the track field, and annihilate the enemies in the area”

Issei didn't reply, he looked down at his gauntlet and clenched his hand, silently hoping that Rias's plan would end up working.