The Abyssal Lord (DxD)

[The Gremorys’ Private VIP Booth]

“Hahaha!! This is amazing! Look at the boy Ddraig, that's who's carrying your name now! HAHAHAHA!!”

After the Gremory team's first victory, a great debate started throughout all corners of the arena, some were discussing the potential of the young devils, some were speculating how far they will go…and there was Xeron, who couldn't stop laughing at the move that Issei pulled.

He even suddenly summoned Ddraig in his human form. Yes you heard that right, he summoned the Red Dragon Emperor to make fun of him, which made the dragon in question silently swear to dismantle the piece of shit that brought this humiliation to him bit by bit.

“Ah~ that was so funny~ don't you think so, Grayfia?”

After slowly calming down, Xeron decided to ask his favorite maid, surely it didn't have anything to do with his own amusement, surely.

“...For him to use all his magical talent to undress girls…I don't know what to say, truly”

“HAHAHAHA!! The look on your face is priceless! I knew he was a pervert, but this is ridiculous!”

Xeron's loud laughter resounded again, nobody interrupted him of course, partially because they also found it funny, but mostly because he was scary. And after a few more moments of laughter, and he calmed down again, it was Lilith's voice that unexpectedly echoed around.

“But I have to say, the boy sure is interesting. And you can't deny that his move worked…regardless of how unconventional may it be”

Her voice rang softly in the air, her beautiful features were confronted seriously, as she stared at the screen in front of her with an unblinking expression.

Despite not speaking much since coming here with Xeron, Lilith was actually a very conversational person. The reason for her silence today was her wanting to know the real reason behind Xeron's seemingly sudden interest in this particular match, and looking at how he's behaving now, it wasn't too hard to figure out…hell, he literally said so a few moments ago.

“That's true, despite how…questionable his methods may be, you can't deny their effectiveness, especially in a match versus a team full of woman, like this one”

The Matriarch of the Gremory family said, it was no secret that the Gremory Household cared for their family, which naturally included Venelana.

The mother cared for her daughter quite much, so much in fact that she was the one who helped the most in organizing this rating game, despite knowing that her daughter's chances were severely limited.

She came here hopeful, but with low expectations. But to her pleasant surprise, the pawn that her daughter recruited turned out to be the one who will help her the most, and him being the Red Dragon Emperor wielder was a welcome surprise as well…even if Ddraig Goch himself was currently sitting a few inches away from her…but we don't talk about that here.

“Humph! I still think that the entire match is unnecessary. But what can I say, this daughter of mine is too spoiled for her own good”

The patriarch voiced his displeasure towards the situation. In fact, if you were to ask Zeoticus Gremory about the thing he's most embarrassed about, it would be doting on his own daughter until she was spoiled rotten…but at least she's actually doing something for herself right now, or that's what he kept telling himself anyway.

“Enough about the rotten tomato and back to the hilarious kid, right Ddraig? What do you think about your so-called wielder, huh?”

Xeron nudged the expressionless crimson-headed man beside him a couple of times, but no matter how many times Xeron smirked at him while nudging his side, the dragon refused to admit that the boy was related to him in any way shape or form. 

But after being poked a few more times, the dragon breathed out a tired sigh, and finally gave in.

“The boy is stupid, devils are clearly superior to humans in every way, so instead of using his racial change to his advantage, he wasted all his newfound potential on his sexual fantasies…I shudder at the thoughts of being stuck with such an insect for as long as he lives”

“Heh, I guess you have me to thank for that Ddraig. But you probably shouldn't ignore the boy for much longer, or he'll tarnish your reputation more and more”

The dragon shuddered internally once more, finding himself swearing to personally straighten the kid after the match…for his own sake.

……..

[Unknown Location - Underworld]

In an underground bunker somewhere in the furthest reaches of the underworld, three devils were sitting in front of a large monitor that was displaying the hot talk of all the underworld.

It was the unofficial rating game held between the Gremory Heiress and the Phenex scion, a huge event that held significant importance across the entire underworld, its outcome directly capable of permanently severing the ties between two the main families in the current underworld.

So naturally, as the main faction directly opposing the current underworld government, why wouldn't they watch it?

But unexpectedly, instead of the boring match between children they thought this would be, something very interesting ended up happening.

“Do you think that he's a true Satan? Like us?”

A handsome man dressed in black armor with a cape, with long brown hair that goes to his hips along with many bangs covering his right eye suddenly spoke out, his eyes not leaving the arrogant figure of the black haired man that was visible on the screen.

“He arrived with Lady Lilith and Grayfia, so at least he surrounds himself with respectable company”

A tall bespectacled woman with a voluptuous figure, calmly said, she had tan skin with long brown hair tied into a bun with a headset and purple eyes. She laid on the couch while appearing extremely relaxed, crossing her milky white legs and calmly sipping on wine, her breasts threatening to spill out from her low cut dress, leaving little for the imagination.

“The false Leviathan called him an honorary high-class devil, so I doubt he's even a devil”

The final figure voiced his opinion. He had the appearance of a good looking man wearing the clothes of a noble. His clothes were black with dark red belts and motifs, his hair was pitch black and spiky, his ears pointy and straight. 

He had a serious air around him, in direct contrast to the other two who were present with him, who either looked excessively arrogant, or overly haughty and uncouth.

“Shalba, you should probably inform Rizevim, the lunatic would surely like to see this, plus he'll be able to tell us what he's using”

The devilish beauty unconcernedly said, seemingly unconcerned about what decision the others would ultimately come to.

Which was quite likely, because since the moment she first laid eyes on the handsome black haired man, her only thoughts about him after that concerned bedding him, preferably with force too, she liked to hear them squirm after all.

'Maybe I should make him my personal toy when we capture him'

Depraved thoughts idly started appearing in her sick and twisted mind, but the rough voice of the devil known as Shalba rudely woke her up from her day dreams.

“Probably using a sacred gear of some kind to clear out all the low level trash, shouldn't be too hard to neutralise him”

Shalba arrogantly stated, fully believing himself to be superior to the unknown black haired man, or even any other for that matter, his thoughts may sound dillusional, but in his mind, they were nothing but the absolute thruth. 

Because soon, he will have something that no-one in the underworld, or even the entire world would dare to claim they have.

“Creuserey, Katerea. Don't you dare be late to the meeting with the demon Diablo today, I sacrificed a lot of souls to summon him”

Shalba said with a flat face, devoid of any emotion or anguish, like what he just said wasn't of any significant impact at all…it was like he was speaking about some minor inconvenience, that's all.

“That's true, who would've actually thought that such creatures existed outside our world. Where did they say they came from again?”

“The Abyss they said, I remember Rizevim speaking of such place once”

“It doesn't matter, this so called Diablo promised us power in exchange for souls, and we already paid. What's left is to claim our prize”

The group talked idly with no care in the world, not noticing a wisp of black smoke floating far above their heads, giving of the illusion of an extremely creepy smile.

…….

[Sitri Territory - Rating Game Arena - The Field Behind The ORC Building]

<And Against all odds! The Gremory knight, Yuuto Kiba. Emerged victorious against three pawns, alone!!>

<Impressive use of the sacred gear ‘Sword Birth’. You can practically see his dedication to the sword with a glance>

<Little Rias's peerage is full of little monsters, I kinda feel a little sad for my Sona-tan>

<Don't fret too much, everyone one knows that Sona is exceptionally smarter than most, she'll manage well on her own>

<That's right!! My Sona-tan is the best!>

<sigh>

After the announcements quieted down, the various screens shifted their perspective, going back to the duo of Issei and Koneko, who were making their way towards Kiba.

“Hey Koneko-chan! Why are running from me? Are you still mad about that!”

More specifically, it's Koneko who was making her way to Kiba, with Issei chasing after her.

“Don't touch me, pervert”

Her face as emotionless as always, the cat girl without cat ears made her way away from the brown haired devil, putting in extra effort to leave him behind her and stay as far away from his hands as physically possible.

“Don’t worry, I won't use it on a teammate!”

“Still a terrible techni-”

She walked ahead of him by quite a few meters, and while thinking that she's still hating him after he did what he did, he decided to follow behind her to try to pacify her. But as he was about to do that….a huge explosion blasted away the ground that Koneko was previously standing on, along with Koneko herself. Who got flung away by the explosion, then laid flat on the ground.

“Koneko!!!!!”

The young devil shouted at the top of his lungs in horror, and quickly rushed towards her, her clothes now completely obliterated, her body containing many scars and cuts. The only reason she's not directly eliminated yet was solely because of her ‘Rook’ piece boost, because any other besides her would've turned into particles by now.

“Take”

An incredibly mature and seductive voice rang out, it's figure being obstructed by the rising smoke didn't do anything to diminish its allure, and when the smoke finally cleared out

A stunning and voluptuous woman with long, wavy purple hair that falls all the way down her back and matching eyes. At the front, the right side of her hair falls over her breast and covers her right eye, while the left side falls near the top of her skirt.

She was holding her staff in front of her as she floated above the Gremory duo, looking down at them with a victorious smile.

‘Issei?! Is Koneko alright?!’

Rias's desperate voice rang inside his mind, but he didn't pay attention to her, Koneko was more important at the moment.

“H-Hang in there Koneko-chan! It's just a scratch, you can just shake it off!”

Issei kneeled beside the near naked Koneko, clutching on her wounded body with a grave face.

He leaned her back on his stomach, trying to help her get back up from the ground, but each time he was about to get her off the ground, she'd fall back again, like a puppet that lost it's strings.

“I-I’m sorry”

Her weak and exhausted voice softly echoed, momentarily making Issei stop trying to get her back up.

“I wish I could've more of a help to the president”

And as Issei was about to yell that everything is going to be fine, her body suddenly exploded in a flash of blue lights, fizzling out of Issei's hands, and signaling her ultimate elimination from the match.

<A Gremory rook has been eliminated>

<No!! The cute cat girl is dead!! She was the only I liked!!>

“How dare you!!”

The Red Dragon Emperor wielder immediately shot up, an unfamiliar scowl stretched far across his face in a hateful disdain.

“I'll avenge her myself”

As the familiar crimson gauntlet materialized on his arm, he looked up at the purple haired devil with hatred, but as he was about to fire a dragon shot at her, Akeno appeared between them.

Clad in a shrine maiden's grap, her face ever so gentle, her voice ever so soothing, she turned around to the distraught boy and spoke with a soft yet firm voice.

“Issei-kun, I'll deal with her so hurry along”

Her body slowly floated a few inches higher, golden lightning started madly crackling across her entire body.

“I always to fight you one day, Priestess of Thunder”

Yubelluna, her name was, said with a charming smile, while violent demonic energy started flaring across her body, as in defiance to Akeno's rising golden aura.

Now fully facing the Phenex Queen, Akeno returned the greeting with a smile of her own, her smile equally as captivating as that of Yubelluna, of not more.

“Oh my, I am quite honored. Bomb queen”

…….

After running away, the only thing that came up on Issei's mind was the match.

How would they win? Did they even have a chance? Yes, they may have eliminated a few of them, but that's the thing about having a numerical disadvantage.

‘They just keep coming'

Why is he even fighting in this? He didn't owe the crimson haired devil anything, he obviously wouldn't be affected even if she got married to that Riser. So why is he fighting so damn hard?

Is he right? Is he wrong? He didn't know, everytime he felt regret about joining Rias’s peerage in the first place, a flood of happy memories fills his mind.

Memories of his time in the ORC, memories of his beautiful president extremely charming smile, memories of his extremely entrancing but scary senpai, memories of his cute but unfriendly kohai and lastly, memories of that bastard Kiba! The handsome bastard who he thought was an asshole his whole life, but turned out to be one of the nicest people he had ever met.

So why is he fighting? Why isn't he just giving up? And more importantly, does he regret accepting Rias's offer, despite being warned of the consequences of accepting it.

‘Oh hell no! I'd give up my life two times over, only to be able to see those wonderful breasts all day!’

He didn't question his decision for even a second, even if his reasons were…questionable at best, Issei wouldn't trade the world for his current situation, simply because he feels like this is normal…like it was meant to be in a way.

“Ahhhh!”

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a hard pulling force on his arm, he unconsciously summoned his gauntlet and prepared to fire it, but stopped when he saw a familiar handsome face.

“Kiba! You're still alive!”

“Akeno-san's barrier helped me immensely, I wouldn't have been able to eliminate three of them otherwise”

The handsome blonde devil smiled softly, but quickly turned somber when he noticed that Issei was actually all alone.

Issei noticed the knight's mood change, putting on his face a somber smile of his own.

“Kiba…I'm sorry, Koneko-chan...sh-”

“I heard”

The knight cut him off, and after slowly losing the sad smile from his face, he softly spoke again.

“She's usually not that outgoing, but she seemed pretty excited today…. it's a pity”

The knight said solemnly, followed by a silence that stretched only for a few moments, until Kiba looked up to find Issei balling his fist and hanging it out to him.

“Let's win this, no matter what”

He looked up, expecting to find the pawn smiling half-heartedly and scratching his head. But was instead greeted with an extremely serious expression, which honestly stunned the knight, Issei wasn't exactly known for being a serious individual after all.

The scene formed a smile on Kiba's face, he slowly lifted his hand and fist pumped Issei with a sneer, which illicited a sneer from the pawn as well.

“Of course”

The two lowerd their hands slowly, smiling fearlessly at each other as conviction blazed in their eyes, inwardly swearing to put their all into this match, even if it'll be the last thing they'll ever get to do.

'Kiba, Issei. Do you both hear me?’ 

Suddenly, the voice of their president echoed in both their minds, pulling them back into the current situation.

‘Distract as many pieces as you both can, me an Gasper will launch an attack on their base”