The Abyssal Lord (DxD)

[The Gremorys’ Private VIP Booth]

“Akeno will be eliminated”

Silence returned to the Gremory booth shortly after Xeron's laughing fit ended, and as the group watched the fight between the two opposite queens ensuing, Xeron's flat voice broke the concentrated silence, and his words slightly shocked the devils around him.

But it wasn't his words which truly shocked them, it was how serious he actually looked while speaking that truly surprised them, and when at the actual fight, his words proved quite difficult to believe at best.

It wasn't close, not by much. But, Akeno was slowly gaining the edge over Yubelluna in their skirmish, making her ever so slightly in favor of ultimately winning.

Everyone present could see that, and they weren't naïve in any way, they were one of more prestigious devils in the underworld after all.

And don't forget Ddraig, being the Red Dragon of Domination himself, and he also thinks that Akeno will end up winning.

They took another look at the fight, but their thoughts didn't change, the situation was quite evident after all, being further proved by the minor cuts and bruises that Yubelluna kept sustaining over time.

Eventually, when their curiosity was at its maximum, it was the Matriarch of the Gremory house who spoke first.

“Why do you say that Xeron? I've known little Akeno since she was a child, you know? She should be able to win over the Phenex’s queen easily”

Venelana just didn't see Akeno losing, so she couldn't contain her curiosity when Xeron said that she would.

It wasn't aggressive curiosity mind you, it was more of disbelief than anything, it wasn't like the game held much importance anyway, the Satan wouldn't let his precious little sister be sad after all.

And seeing that everyone stopped watching the fight and turned to him, Xeron decided to satisfy their curiosity.

“Your society is a most intriguing one, devils, you believe in the strong, you shun the weak, yet your entire lives revolve around politics. This way of living has dulled you”

Unexpectedly, his words weren't about the fight in any way. Instead, it was about devils as a whole.

And it was true, devils wholeheartedly believe in strength, it's natural instinct for every devil to follow the strongest, it's even happening right now, as in the current Satans being the four strongest devils currently alive.

And yet, the entire underworld is littered with factions, political conflicts, and underhanded maneuvers. It was exactly the opposite of all their ideals.

“We rely on politics to avoid internal warfare, it is unwise to engage in a civil war every time we come to a disagreement”

It was the Gremory Patriarch who spoke, and within reason too, and being one of the most active politicians within the underworld, this was his area of expertise after all.

“A being's nature can't be changed, it can be suppressed, but not changed. A devil shouldn't try to gather political favor when disagreeing with another of his kind, instead he should try to get more power, because that's what truly matters in the end”

“The current system may have brought you overall peace, but it will forever bring you endless troubles, because all it does is suppress the entire race and force them to play nice with each other. But, some just don't like playing nice”

Nobody replied, because when they thought about what he's saying, it turned out to be true.

They all knew it, that's the reason they developed the rating game system after all, it was for high class devils to resolve their conflicts without killing one another, and to some degree it worked, but not entirely.

Take the current situation for example, both Rias and Riser are his class devils, they had a disagreement, so they will resolve it with a rating game like they're supposed to, right?

If Rias wins, sure. But if Rias loses, she will go crying to her brother, who's arguably the strongest devil there is, and he'll either control the situation from behind the scenes, or force Riser Phenex to give up the marriage himself.

The irony of the situation is palpable, simply because even one of the strongest supporters for the rating game system doesn't abide by it when it comes to his own personal matters.

“As for Ddraig, I know for a fact that dragons don't care about those who are weaker than themselves, so he probably doesn't care about the fight either way”

When the Red Dragon Emperor was mentioned, everyone turned to the red headed man sitting calmly at the side, and seeing him not denying Xeron's claims, they took it as him agreeing.

Xeron slowly turned towards the screen, his face chillingly emotionless, his eyes radiating an ominous red hue. And after a few moments of silence, he smiled, a vicious and skin crawling smile that brought feelings of dread into everyone around.

The feeling got stronger as he turned to them, his handsome face slowly began to split horizontally, he began to morph into something grotesque, something terrifying… something that shouldn't have even existed in this world.

He didn't radiate any energy… he didn't have to. Everyone was already pretty terrified, it felt like they were in the presence of an eldritch monstrosity that sapped from their sanity the longer they stared at it.

Even Ddraig had materialized dragon scales all over his body and was staring wearily at Xeron, he unconsciously knew that the thing in front of him wouldn't fight him, but he couldn't help being nervous either way. It was in their instinct after all.

<But I'm different. I spent my entire life in war and conquest, I can see it…This so called Yubelluna, she's preparing something…I don't like it one bit>

His voice, twisted and corrupted, rang heavily inside the room, his features twisted in a skin crawling expression, smiling sadistically like a predator who finally found his long lost prey, only for it to be threatened right in front of his eyes.

<Not one bit at all>

His voice slowly deformed into unrecognizable growls, completely lacking any sympathy or reason, it contained unrestrained anger that threatened to drive all people present into madness, their bodies trembled in front of the undisguised monstrosity, their minds screamed for them to flee…but they couldn't move.

It felt any wrong move meant death, any small mistake ment endless suffering, just looking at the being in front of them for too long was driving them insane.

His presence felt suffocating, dreadful, it was like being thrusted in the deepest pits of despair, and one just wrong move and they shall be all subjected to madness beyond their comprehension.

But as soon as some of them were starting to feel like they were losing their minds in this indescribable madness…everything suddenly turned black, and they all fainted.

<sigh>

The being slowly started morphing back, his pitch black skin regained its previous snow white hue, his swirling red eyes were transformed back into golden red, and his black hair slowly grew shorter and shorter again, and after a few seconds, Xeron's regular appearance was seen once more.

He looked around the room with a flat gaze, silently looking at all the unconscious bodies around him for a few seconds, and then looking back at the screen, specifically at Akeno.

The black haired beauty in a shrine maiden was fighting admirably, her usual beautiful features were confronted in a serious expression that some may say didn't fit her, but Xeron would disagree.

“She looks too much like her…maybe that's why I like her so much”

His words were said in a low voice, but the tone carried an immense amount of sadness, it spoke words about the care that Xeron held for the one he directed his words at.

“But…she isn't her, huh”

A sad smile soon found itself on his face, and after looking at Akeno for a few more seconds, he turned back from the screen and snapped his finger loudly.

The unconscious bodies began slowly floating upwards.

Each one was seated in his previous location. It truly happened a few moments ago, and when everything was perfect, he snapped his fingers again, and everyone woke up.

 

“You asked why I think she's losing, right? ”

Venelana slowly looked over at the source of the sarcastically amused voice of the black haired demon, and nodded her head in obvious curiosity.

Sporting the light smile that he always has, his eyes were turned back towards the screen, and started explaining his reasons, but Venelana suddenly noticed something different about him

He didn't look as usually vibrant as he always was, his small smile looked quite fake, there was something off about him, it's almost like.

'He looks sad’

………

[Rating Game Arena - Directly behind the principal's office]

“You're all hiding, aren't you?! Come out and fight us fair and square!”

In the middle of the track field near with nothing else in sight, Issei and Kiba stood next to each other with their sacred gears out.

Nothing happened at first, but just a few seconds later, a cloud of dust suddenly rose in the distance and out from it came a beautiful young woman.

She had light brown hair and green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a full set of silver armor with black accents, and lastly, she carried a broadsword by her hips.

“My name is Karlamine, I'm Riser-sama's knight”

She slowly unsheathed the sword from its scabbard, and after pointing it at their direction, she spoke out once again.

“You must be out of your minds to come at me directly, but I quite like idiots like you”

Her sword suddenly caught fire, coating the blade fully in raging flames, a signature of the house of Phenex and very harmful to any being who dares to touch it.

“I'm Kiba Yuuto, Rias Sama's knight”

The one who answered her was Kiba, he walked forward from beside Issei and similarly unsheathed his own sword, and with an annoyingly handsome smile, he spoke out again.

“I'm quite looking forward to cross swords with a fellow knight”

“Well said! Rias Gremory knight!”

Having been officially challenged, the brunette didn't wait for any longer, she dashed towards the blonde swordsman with a speed that Issei couldn't even follow.

The blonde of course wasn't any slower, he dashed ahead himself and met the brunette blade with his own, and as they started crossing blades a few meters away from the Issei, the after effects of their blades clashing were so appearing and disappearing so fast, they looked like they were fighting in a different dimension entirely.

“Amazing!! But wait…does that mean I don't anything to do”

Issei was obviously amazed by his friend's performance, but having nothing to do kind of disappointed him just a little, at least until a voice pulled his attention away from the two knights' fight.

“Not necessarily”

A voluptuous woman with short light brown hair and gray eyes. Her hair had three red highlights across, she was wearing a plain white mask which covered the right side of her face, but that didn't do much to hide how beautiful she truly was.

“All Karlamine thinks all day is swords, swords and more swords, what an unbelievably unrefined girl”

Another voice suddenly echoed, and when Issei turned to her, he found that she was another beautiful girl as well!! What the hell is up with that Riser guy!!

A beautiful young girl with dark blue eyes. She had long blonde hair tied into twintails with large, drill curls and blue ribbons keeping them in place, with several bangs hanging over her forehead.

“And I thought I finally found a cutie, he turned out to be another sword freak”

She started slowly walking in Issei’s direction, coming to a stop and standing just out of his immediate reach.

Soon, several other girls suddenly appeared from several other directions, completely forming a circle around Issei and surrounding him from all directions.

“How truly unfortunate”

The blonde girl's humor-filled voice sounded out again, and as she looked at Issei haughtily and smiled, she found Issei too busy panicking about the odds being stacked against him 6 to 1 to even listen to her probably.

“sigh. But really, Rias-sama seems to have….”

The blonde haired young woman gaze slowly swept over Issei, and after coming to a conclusion, she looked up to him and smiled innocently.

“A strange tastes in men”

Her words didn't match her cute appearance at all, which greatly disturbed Issei on a few different levels.

“A cute girl with a sharp tongue?! What the?! Boosted gear!!”

He summoned his sacred gear and pointed at the blonde girl in preparation for a fight, but the girl just shrugged at him dismissively.

“Oh, excuse me, but I'm not fighting. Would you please do the honours, Isabella”

“What the hell!?”

Issei felt like he got cock-blocked for some reason, but soon noticed the brown haired girl with a mask approaching him, and got immediately alerted.

“I am Riser-sama's rook, my name is Isabella. Here I come, Rias Gremory's pawn!”

She got into a boxing stance and immediately lept in his direction, showering him with a flury of punches that left the wind howling in their direction.

Issei quickly evaded her at first, ducking and weaving between the hits and narrowly escaping by just a few inches from being sucker punched in the face.

He leapt a distance away from her to reset the fight, but there was something that he just couldn't get of his head.

“Hey!! Who the hell is she? What does she mean by not fighting?!”

He pointed at the blonde girl and exclaimed loudly, which was in turn met by a cute hand wave and a nice smile.

“She's in the game as a bishop, but she's more or less a spectator”

Isabella didn't go easy on him, she instantly chased after him with her fists still itching to hit him in the face.

“She’s miss Ravel Phenex, Riser-sama little sister”

“Phenex?!”

As Isabella was calmly answering Issei’s question, she launched a few more punches his way which he also evaded, but not so closely this time, with a few coming close to hitting him, but not quite there yet.

He kept away from her again, with a look of shock, he looked back at Ravel and exclaimed.

“She's his little sister!?”

“Yes”

Isabella closed the distance between them again, and after launching a few upper cuts in his direction but with no success, she stopped momentarily while looking slightly impressed.

“You're not as bad as I thought you would”

She looked quite impressed, but didn't stay still enough for Issei to bask in the moment, she didn't give him a chance and immediately rushed into his direction again.

“Well, I didn't train with Koneko-chan and Kiba for nothing”

He kept dodging the punches like usual, but it seems that his stamina had finally reached its limits, and after he ducked to avoid a punch to his face, he was suddenly met with a kick to his upper abdomen that sent him flying backwards.

After being launched a couple of meters backwards, he stumbled a few meters until he eventually landed with his back flat on the ground.

“sigh. I hate being able to do nothing and just waiting for the gear t-”

He tried to get up while talking to himself, but he didn't get to finish the sentence…which honestly not many would either, not after being punched square on the face, and sent flying upwards in the air.

Luckily, his gauntlet orb suddenly glowed in a green hue, and with the resident dragon's soul announcing another 'boost', it signalled his fifth power up for today.

'This might be able to defeat a pawn, but not a rook'

After the full brunt of the punch settled down, he landed on the ground further away from the rook, but this time, Isabella didn't chase after him.

“Looks like Rias Gremory trained you well”

Sounding quite impressed, she slowly held up her hands in a stance again, smiling excitingly as she watched him get back up again.

“You bet!!”

He up again, and after getting in a boxing stance similar to Isabella's, he looked directly into her eyes and spoke with a dead serious expression.

“I'm the president's subordinate. So for her sake”

He held up his gauntlet at her direction, and as ominous crimson sparks began to gather at the tip of the gear, he spoke out again.

“I won’t lose!”

………

Meanwhile, as the fighting just outside was getting more and more fierce, Rias and Gasper were successfully able to sneak into the principal's office.

The red head slowly opened the large doors and got into the building, immediately followed by her bishop with a paper bag on his head.

“I was waiting”

Immediately after she took a few steps into the halls, an arrogant and condescending voice addressed her from above, which was of course. Riser Phenex.

Rias looked upwards, immediately seeing him leaning on the railing and looking down at them with a calm smile.

“Rias, my love”