The Phenex Rises - Chapter 7

Riser groaned as he lay in the dirt. He wasn’t physically hurt, but despite that, his entire body hurt. Such was how he always felt after getting his ass beaten by Sairaorg. One would think that awakening his mother would make Sairaorg extremely grateful, which he was, and thus he would be gentler in their spars.

Wrong.

In fact, it made Sairaorg go even harder on Riser to ‘show his appreciation’ by attempting to force Riser to grow stronger via his fist colliding with Riser’s face repeatedly. Riser had begun visiting Sairaorg, his peerage, and Misla, three times a week to spar and train. He was extremely grateful for the opportunity because he had been growing in leaps and bounds. It didn’t mean he enjoyed their dozenth spar any more than he’d enjoyed the first. Rather, he enjoyed it significantly less.

As he caught his breath and let his body recover rapidly, he caught sight of Sairaorg looking down at him with a slight frown, “You’re holding back.”

The comment caught Riser off guard. He had been using every skill he had at his disposal, bar one. He’d yet to reveal his Devil Trigger ability to a single being. He’d only used it a few times in private, late at night when everyone was asleep, to keep it as a hidden trump card. It wouldn’t be a very good trump card if he didn’t know how to use it properly when he needed it. The slow recharge on gaining the energy to power it made it difficult to practice with, but he’d done his best ever since he’d gotten it.

Other than that, he’d used all of his abilities against Sairaorg in an attempt to at least make Sairaorg work for his victory. He knew he was getting stronger and making Sairaorg actually have to put in some effort by the slowly growing glow of the white Touki aura around him, but he hadn’t completely bridged the gap between himself and a full-strength Sairaorg just yet. Which he considered to be a good thing. Having a good friend he could spar with to get stronger was a must-have.

Riser sighed and climbed to his feet, dusting off his mostly ruined clothing, “Sairaorg you have one scary instinct to know I was holding back one thing.”

Sairaorg grinned and took a simple fighting stance with a mild glow of Touki around himself, “Show me.”

Riser took a look around until his eyes spotted Kuisha a good distance away from them and the terrain their spar had utterly destroyed, “Kuisha!” he shouted, “Come here!”

Sairaorg looked confused but patiently waited to see what was going to happen. Once Kuisha arrived, Riser took on a serious look, “Kuisha, I’m about to reveal my major trump card. I need you to swear yourself to secrecy about it.”

He knew with one hundred percent certainty that Sairaorg would keep quiet about it. He was just that kind of man. Kuisha though… he honestly didn’t know her well enough to know if she would keep quiet or not. So he couldn’t show Sairaorg without making sure of it.

Kuisha looked to Sairaorg who spoke for her as her King, “I promise, no one will hear of this from any members of my peerage or house.”

That was why Riser trusted Sairaorg without question. Without even needing to ask for it, Sairaorg had included even his own mother in the promise. Even after waking her up, her husband, who hadn’t even bothered to divorce her before marrying someone new, had continued to ignore Misla as he had before her coma.

Kuisha smiled and focused back on Riser, “You heard him, your secret is safe with me.”

Riser chuckled and nodded, “Alright, you’re going to want to get back. I can only do this for a minute or so before I’m exhausted.”

Kuisha quickly made distance once again. Once she was safely out of the way, Riser turned back to Sairaorg and braced himself. He adopted a fighting stance similar to Sairaorg’s as he tapped into the pool of energy that represented the power of his Devil Trigger.

As soon as he did a blast wave of fiery red energy erupted out of him as his entire body transformed into something far more sinister. Two massive horns that curved back had sprouted out of his forehead. From his back burst two feathery wings not too dissimilar from angel wings, only the feathers were colored like flames rather than black or white. His flesh had become chitinous and scaly with his fingers ending in vicious claws. Even his legs had changed becoming digitigrade and ending in cloven hooves.

He focused on a shocked-looking Sairaorg with his glowing red eyes that emitted wisps of flames and grinned showing a mouth full of fangs. Riser flexed his legs before he pushed off of the ground to explode forward at extreme speed. His push shattered the ground behind him and moved him at such speed it actually caught Sairaorg off guard and allowed Riser to nail him right across the face. The blow was strong enough to knock Sairaorg to the side a few steps.

Sairaorg recovered quickly, his shock turning into clear excitement as a grin split his face. He launched himself right back at Riser and the two engaged in a fast-paced furious exchange of punches and kicks. Every time their fists and legs met in a clash it sent out a shockwave that shattered the ground they were fighting on even more than their previous spar had.

Riser could feel the energy within him draining away, a silent clock ticking down to the end of his ability. However, it was going significantly slower than it did when he trained it alone. At his best guess, he could keep it going for two minutes in his all-out battle against Sairaorg. It would last longer if he was fighting to the death and actually killing people. The more violent his actions, the more energy he regained for his Devil Trigger.

Simply put, sparring just wasn’t violent enough for him to build up a lot of energy. Even so, he was having an absolute blast as he fought against Sairaorg. Sairaorg clearly was too according to the massive grin on his face and the raging cloak of white Touki flowing around him. After a few spars, Sairaorg had started to use his Touki since Riser had caught up to his base form. With his Devil Trigger active, Sairaorg had to tap even deeper into his well of power and the usually gentle white glow was a raging inferno that really buffed Sairaorg’s strength.

Riser wanted to laugh at how ridiculously strong Sairaorg was with just his body. He wasn’t technically supposed to know that Sairaorg could get even stronger thanks to Regulus. He couldn’t quite remember the name of the technique, but he could remember that Sairaorg could wear Regulus, the independent Sacred Gear the Nemeian Lion, and become even more ridiculous. He hoped, one day, to be able to get that strong himself.

His thoughts didn’t distract him, but he felt his Devil Trigger energy draining away, and, far too soon, it ran out and he transformed back in another flash just in time to take a blow from Sairaorg right to his face. Riser’s head literally exploded into flames as Sairaorg’s fist instantly pulverized it.

After a few seconds, his head was once more fully restored by his original Phenex regeneration, his Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix was still unavailable until the next day due to waking up Ingvlid. Something Sairaorg had no doubt noticed due to the lack of blue and yellow flames from it but hadn’t commented on.

With his Devil Trigger energy expended for the next six hours, Riser collapsed onto the ground with a sigh. His healing was noticeably slower without his Devil Fruit but it wasn’t on the level of him still feeling any pain from the brief but intense fight. Every injury he took hurt, for a brief moment, and Sairaorg didn’t see the point in holding back too much.

With the sparring over for the day for sure, Riser rose to his feet and shook hands with Sairaorg, “Thanks for another ass kicking.”

Sairaorg laughed and clapped Riser on the shoulder, “Anytime my friend.”

Riser chuckled good-naturedly and walked with Sairaorg back to the man's house so he could teleport out. As they got inside they were greeted by the smiling face of Misla Bael, “I heard we had an honored guest.”

Riser rolled his eyes playfully. She’d said something similar at all of his visits. Thanks to his Devil Fruit healing everything wrong with her, Misla didn’t look like she was any older than her mid-twenties. It was honestly hard to believe that she was the mother of someone as old as Sairaorg. Then again, the same could be said for his own mother who’d had four children, a record in the underworld.

“I keep telling you Lady Bael, I’m just another friend of Sairaorg’s, no one special.”

Misla gave him a soft smile while Sairaorg slapped him on the back. She was the one to speak with all of them, “You will always be an honored guest here Riser, no matter how much you protest.”

Riser sighed and accepted it. He honestly felt a little embarrassed by it all. He blamed the memories from his last life. Before them, he would have been bragging to anyone who would listen about his accomplishments without a thought of the consequences. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have done anything to help Sairaorg out to wake Misla up to begin with.

It wasn’t much longer before Riser was teleporting out of the house and back to his place. He was feeling stronger than ever but tomorrow was officially the day of the meeting between the three factions to discuss peace. He planned to be as ready as possible for the incoming trouble.

Naturally, he had considered warning the others of what was going to happen, but he realized he couldn’t. He had no proof. On top of that, he didn’t think he would have much luck convincing Azazel that his adopted son Vali was going to betray him, all in the pursuit of power. It didn’t help that, somehow, Rias had weaseled her way into getting permission for Issei to be around for the meeting.

Honestly, Riser was convinced Rias only wanted Issei around because she knew it annoyed the hell out of him for the sex offender to be nearby. He’d seen the way Rias looked at Issei and how she behaved around him. She clearly wasn’t in love with him like she had been in the canon story. He’d even caught flashes of disgust on her face when Issei did something over the top.

He was kind of glad to see those looks when he caught them, though she was quick to hide them when he looked. She hadn’t been completely brainwashed by protagonist charm. It let him give her the smallest bit of respect. If her reputation with him could be numerically expressed, it would have gone up from negative one hundred to negative ninety-nine.

That thought made him chuckle a little as he stepped off of the teleportation circle into his home in the Human Realm. He walked down the hall a bit toward the side of the house he’d taken over. Any joviality he felt instantly died as the first person he came across was the last one he wanted to see. Worse, the shit stain was trying to talk to Ingvlid.

“You really should get away from him! He’s a bad guy. He’ll force you to do all kinds of perverted things if you stay with him. He only wants you for your body, I’m sure of it!”

Given the look on Ingvlid’s face, he expected she could tell who really just wanted her for her body. If he had to guess, Riser would assume that Issei’s eyes hadn’t wandered above her neck the entire time he’d been shit-talking him to her. Truly, her sneer was a thing of beauty with it pointed at Issei.

When she spoke her voice was as cold as ice, “Lord Phenex has been nothing but kind to me ever since he healed me of my affliction.” She tilted her head up and literally looked down her nose at him, “And at least he has the decency to look me in my eyes instead of staring at my breasts the entire time he’s talking to me.”

Riser smiled a little at hearing Ingvlid defend him. He’d made a point of being a perfect gentleman the entire time he’d been banished to the human realm. It wasn’t much of an act either. He could see how his past behavior would just make him nothing but enemies. He needed allies and being polite cost him nothing while simultaneously building a positive reputation with people.

He decided it was time to save Inglvid from having to deal with the sex offender and finished walking around the corner. Ingvlid was the first to spot him and her entire attitude changed. She gave Riser a radiant smile, “Lord Phenex, welcome home.”

Issei jerked up and slowly turned around to face Riser. Riser ignored him and addressed Ingvlid, “I’m back.” His blue eyes turned to ice as they fell on Issei, “Sex Offender, I believe you were under orders to stay away from this side of the house.”

Issei glared at Riser with blatant hatred on his face, “You can’t get away with this! I’ll save these two girls from your evil grasp!”

Riser stepped toward Issei as an aura of fire erupted around him. The smell of smoke filled the air as his feet scorched the carpet beneath him. Issei began to sweat and fidget, clearly starting to look nervous as Riser’s recent promise flittered through his mind. Issei swallowed heavily and took a step back.

Ingvlid had a little smirk on her face as she walked around the retreating Issei to stand next to Riser. The flames didn’t seem to bother her in the least as she looped her arm through one of Riser’s. Riser came to a stop and glared down at Issei from his superior height, “Leave shit stain.”

Issei had a look of constipation on his face as he tried, and failed, to muster some sort of courage or come back to throw in Riser’s face. In the end, he failed and ran away with his tail between his legs. Once Issei was out of sight, Ingvlid gave a theatric shudder of revulsion, “I really can’t stand that boy. If something isn’t done soon, I’ll do something Gremory will regret.”

Riser gently patted her arm while leading her toward the half of the house that was his. Sadly the teleportation room and surrounding hallways were in the Switzerland portion of the home. He led Ingvlid into their half where he found Zenovia in her school uniform working on some homework. Next to the desk she was working at was Ingvlid’s own desk. It was covered in all kinds of books an sheets of paper. Ingvlid was still doing her best to get caught up with modern times. Once she was, the plan was for her to join Xenovia at Kuoh Academy and spend some time around others her age and to get more experience in the real, modern, world.

Ingvlid sat at her desk and picked up a modern history book to read while Xenovia looked up from her own work and smiled at Riser, “Welcome home Lord Riser, how was your training?”

Riser shrugged his shoulders, “Same as always. How was school?”

Xenovia shrugged her shoulders a little, “Same as always. Though…” She looked down slightly embarrassed, “I did require Lady Sitri’s help with some memory magic.”

Riser arched an eyebrow with a questioning look on his face to prompt her to explain. Blushing ever so slightly, she obliged him, “Those three perverts attempted to peek into the girls' changing room after gym class today. I lost my temper at them attempting to view what belongs only to you and caused some damage to the school in my attempt to punish them for their actions. I required the aid of Lady Sitri to cover up the incident.”

Riser sighed, causing Xenovia’s shoulders to slump in shame, then addressed her in a calm voice, “You did nothing wrong Xenovia.” Her head shot up to look at him in surprise so he continued, “If I had been there I would have done much worse to those little shits. They would be nothing but ashes.” Xenovia’s golden eyes widened as he pressed on, “I am also proud of you for going to Sona for help to fix the issue instead of forcing yourself to attempt to fix it on your own and possibly making a mistake. Being a devil is still new to you and I do not expect you to do everything perfectly all on your own.”

Xenovia flushed a little while Ingvlid, who was obviously not actually reading her book, quietly watched and judged what was happening. Riser gave Xenovia a smile and pat her on the head, “I’m proud of you. I’ll be sure to contact Sona and repay the favor she did for us.”

He completely avoided talking about the whole reason she reacted the way she did. Xenovia very much wanted to bear his children and would have already been sleeping with him nightly in an attempt to get pregnant if he let her. Thankfully he was able to talk her out of it until they got to know each other better. He wasn’t willing to become a father just yet and with his family's fertility being a bit higher than other Devils, it was a real possibility that he could get her pregnant rather quickly. Still, she believed she belonged solely to him and reacted violently when anyone tried to ‘take what was his’.

On the bright side, it made her an excellent friend and body guard to Ingvlid since Xenovia believed that Ingvlid belonged to Riser. Or would soon enough that it made no difference.

From there he talked to the pair of girls for a while getting to know them just a bit more. He silently hoped it wouldn’t be too much longer before Ingvlid joined his peerage. He could protect her even if she didn’t, but he could definitely protect her more if she did. After all, there was literally nothing he could do, currently, to prevent someone like Serafall Leviathan from forcefully reincarnating Ingvlid into her peerage.

Once she joined him he would have far more rights as her King and she would be further protected from such actions. Still, secrecy was their biggest protection from something drastic happening. He was certain she would be making her choice before much longer. Ironically, he was certain that Issei’s actions and attitude were actually pushing Ingvlid closer to himself.

Young women didn’t like being heavily perved on, go figure.

—--Line Break—--

Riser, with Xenovia at his side, politely knocked on the door in front of himself before opening it. He calmly walked into the room studying the people inside sitting around a large round table. On the left side of the room, he could see Sona and Tsubaki standing against the wall behind Sirzechs, with Grayfia by his side, and Serafall. The young women were in their school uniforms while the two Satans wore more professional-looking clothing.

In the ‘middle’ of the table, facing the door with their backs to the windows in the room were the Archangel Micheal and Irina, Xenovia’s ex-partner. Micheal was a very calm-looking man with a somewhat effeminate look. Most would describe him as beautiful, rather than handsome. His hair was blond in the shade of gold, and a glowing halo floated above his head. He wore red robes under a white cloak with massive golden pauldrons on his shoulders that connected to a tall neck protector and dipped down to cover the upper center portion of his chest.

The last person sitting at the table was mostly hidden from view due to his back being mostly aimed at the door, but it wasn’t hard for Riser to guess who it would be, Azazel the Governor General of the Grigori. They’d met once, briefly, not too long ago and now they were here to meet again.

Standing behind Azazel was the last person in the room. Wearing a punk-style outfit was a young man with silver-colored hair and blue eyes. Vali Lucifer, the current White Dragon Emperor. Someone else he’d met, briefly. Riser clenched his left hand, the dark blue gem on top of his glove catching the light briefly. Seeing Vali reminded him of the power he had lurking in that one glove, half of Skill Eater, the power of Divide.

Riser walked to the ‘devil’ side of the room and took his place behind Sirzechs and Serafall as was expected of him. He wore a nice black three-piece suit with a red tie and the Skill Eater gloves. The gloves got a mildly curious look from Azazel but didn’t elicit a reaction from anyone else. Why would they? They just looked like fancy gloves.

The room remained silent and tension-filled for the next couple of minutes until the doors once more opened and Rias entered with her entire peerage in tow. Riser had to fight himself to keep from rolling his eyes. Both he and Sona saw no reason to bring more than one member… Though Riser only had one member. Meanwhile, Rias walked in with Issei, Kiba, Koneko, and Asia trailing behind her. All of them wore their school uniforms.

As they stepped inside, Sirzechs broke the somewhat tense silence, “Let me introduce you. This is my little sister and her household. They fought against Kokabiel in the battle a few weeks ago.”

Riser’s eyes narrowed at the back of Sirzechs head at the clear slight of not only not introducing him, but speaking as if it were only Rias and her peerage that had fought against Kokabiel. He wasn’t the only one giving Sirzechs a look either. Serafall had turned her head and was silently glaring at the side of Zirsechs head. Azazel was leaning forward and had placed his head on his fist with a knowing smirk on his lips as he stared at Sirzechs. Lastly, Vali, behind Azazel, gave a quiet scoff.

The only person in the entire room to take Sirzechs at face value was Micheal who smiled softly and addressed Rias, “Thank you for your hard work.”

Riser let the moment pass as he slowly smiled, something that Serafall didn’t miss judging by how she winced. Sirzechs had a habit of putting his foot in it when it came to Riser and public or semi-public events. In this case, instead of showing solidarity among the devils by treating Riser with respect in front of the leaders of the other two factions, Sirzechs had chosen to slight Riser by dismissing his contributions to the fight against Kokabiel.

Something that was only missed by the heavenly faction. Something that was going to cost Sirzechs dearly, politically speaking.

Azazel spoke next, but instead of looking toward Rias as Micheal had, he looked directly past Sirzechs and into Riser’s eyes, something Sirzechs didn’t miss, “Sorry about that. It looks like one of my guys caused you some trouble.”

Riser’s lips curled into a knowing smile. He only just managed to keep from saying anything. However the same couldn’t be said for Issei. Even though he had nothing to do with the battle he still tsked and muttered, “What’s with his attitude?”

Sirzechs ignored the comment, though Riser was certain that if he said anything the Satan would’ve spoken up to silence him. Instead, he moved the meeting forward, “I believe all the participants are here. Let us begin the meeting”

What followed was rather boring. Rias was asked to go over the events of the battle against Kokabiel. Sirzechs was leading things and was clearly not asking the other major player in the battle to contribute to the debriefing. It didn’t look good for the man as magic was used to display memories of the events, most of which contained Riser.

Once she finished the report, silence filled the room for a moment. The heads of the three factions studied each other for a few moments before Micheal broke the silence, “I have questions.”

Azazel smirked, knowing at least some of his questions would match Micheal’s and willing to let Micheal ask them first. Sirzechs gave a small nod to Micheal, “Of course.”

Micheal’s gaze drifted from Sirzechs to Riser standing behind him and looking bored to tears, “Lord Phenex, it was reported, as well as shown just now, that you are fully capable of utilizing Holy Swords without suffering, as a pure-blooded devil should. I wish for you to tell me how this is possible.”

Riser pulled out of his wandering thoughts on future training ideas, turned his gaze to Micheal, and locked eyes with the Archangel. His reply was succinct and delivered in a flat tone, “No.”

The room descended into an awkward silence at Riser’s blunt refusal. Though, going by the look on Serafall’s face, and ignoring the one on Sirzechs’, he’d made the right choice. Micheal didn’t seem bothered by the answer and simply moved on to his next question, “Would you consider turning Arondight over to the church? We believe it’s possible to purify the sword and return it to its former Holy glory.”

Riser actually laughed, “Give one of my most powerful tools to the corrupt incompetents you employ? Never.”

Micheal’s congenial smile actually morphed into a frown at that. His next question was laughable, “Can I take this to mean you have no intentions of ever cooperating with the Church?”

Riser calmly nodded his head, “Pretty much. It’s a completely useless group of idiots with more power than sense. One only has to look at the Kokabiel incident to know, without a doubt, that members of the Church were more than willing to help Kokabiel in his goal of restarting the Great War.”

Micheal’s frown grew as he exclaimed, “I find that hard to believe.”

Seeing as no one else was saying anything, Riser continued, even as Irina was giving him the stink-eye from behind Micheal, “Then please, explain to me why the Church leadership, in its infinite wisdom, decided to send Irina and Xenovia into devil territory to attempt to fight Kokabiel on their own. While I would hesitate to call either of them weak, compared to Kokabiel they are but gnats. Gnats who happened to hold the last two pieces of Excalibur the Church still maintained control of. The Church, in essence, willingly attempted to hand over the two pieces of Excalibur to Kokabiel while simultaneously killing off two promising Exorcists. Or can you truthfully say that Irina and Xenovia honestly stood a chance in hell of defeating Kokabiel?”

Micheal's frown grew but he remained silent, an answer in itself. Riser nodded, “I thought not. See, I don’t have a problem with Heaven, you, or other angels. Not personally, anyway. Despite your inability to control the idiots running your earthly organization. However, you really need to crack down on those idiots and clean house if you expect any peace agreed to in this room to last.”

His eyes drifted to Azazel, then to the back of Sirzechs head, “Of course, you’re not the only one who needs to do some house cleaning to get rid of idiots.”

Azazel smirked but didn’t say anything, accepting the dig with more grace than Riser would have expected. Riser continued in a bland tone, “Case in point, Valper Galilei. A man who kidnapped, tortured, and murdered children all in the pursuit of finding what allowed people to wield Excalibur. When his evil ways were exposed what did the church do?”

There was silence from Micheal as his frown shifted to a look of guilt. Riser let the silence drag for a moment before he continued, “Instead of putting down the rabid animal, your Church merely excommunicated him. A punishment that is a mere slap on the wrist compared to his horrific crimes.”

He gestured to Irina, “Worse, your church now blatantly uses his research to empower its people. If we did something like that you would be down here condemning us for the horrific crime but because it benefits you, you say nothing, do nothing.”

His eyes bored into Micheal’s while he ignored Irina clearly trying to set him on fire with her silent glare, “I was under the impression we Devils were meant to be the ones supporting and promoting evil, not the Church.”

Micheal finally broke eye contact with Riser and looked away in shame. Riser took that as a little victory. He was under no delusions that he was a good guy or on the side of right, or justice, or anything like that. He knew his race was filled with pieces of garbage and they were, generally, pretty evil.

It was the hypocrisy he couldn’t stand. Heaven and the Church were supposed to be the good guys and yet some of the things they did were just as evil, if not worse, than some of the things his own side did. It actually pissed him off that no side was ‘on the side of the angels’ as it were. Frankly, he couldn’t understand how Micheal hadn’t fallen yet.

The silence that followed lasted for quite a while as no one seemed to know what to say. Finally, Azazel broke the silence with a loud snort. His eyes found Riser’s, “That’s one big pair of balls you got kid.”

Riser stared directly into Azazel’s eyes as he replied, “Don’t get me started on you. Your group is the second most likely one to break the peace treaty. Third is the old satan faction but, according to propaganda, their not with us so feel free to wipe them out if they annoy you.”

Serafall immediately spoke up while giving Riser the stink eye, “Young Lord Riser’s words do not represent the stance of the current administration.”

Riser just shrugged and went silent. There were plenty of things he could say about all sides. Frankly, no side was innocent in anything. They’d all done a ton of shit to each other and humans that could probably never be forgiven.

Sirzechs picked up where Serafall left off, “We should return to the matter at hand. I would like to hear the opinion of the Governor General’s opinion on Rias’s report.”

Azazel just shrugged his shoulders and spoke with an uncaring tone, “It doesn’t matter what I think. Kokabiel was acting on his own.”

Micheal faced Azazel, “Are you saying you did not know anything of this?”

“I let him move until I knew what he was planning. But I’ll bet he didn’t know that I had also infiltrated this town.” His eyes drifted over to Riser at that comment before he moved on, thumbing at Vali behind him, “I had the White Dragon Emperor take care of it, didn’t I?”

Azazel slouched into his seat, “And Kokabiel’s been put into the lowest level of Hell for permanent freezing as punishment. He won't be appearing ever again.”

Micheal, still seeming a little down from Riser ripping into him, addressed his fallen brother, “The problem is Kokabiel’s motivation for his actions, that he was dissatisfied with you all.”

Azazel sighed but his tone was a little flippant, “Yeah, it seems he was really unhappy that the war ended halfway through. And I have no interest in war this late in the game.” His lips curled into a smirk as his gaze swept over the other faction leaders, “Then again, aren’t there some like that in your factions as well?”

Serafall, Sirzechs, and Micheal all winced at that since it was one hundred percent true. In the case of the Devils, it was the blatant Old Satan Faction that wanted war. For heaven, it was a little more subtle and mostly rested with the human portion of their faction, the Church. Yet it was no less true that dissidents in all three factions wanted to continue the war despite the terrible cost it would come with.

Sirzechs tried to brush the rebuttal under the rug, “That has nothing to do with the matter at hand. The purpose of this summit is…”

“Ugh, enough with the annoying talk. Let’s just make peace already.” Azazel cut him off. He smirked mockingly, “That’s what we are all after, isn’t it?”

There was yet another silence, which was really starting to get on Riser’s nerves, before Azazel continued, “The current three-way deadlock is only doing harm to this world and us. You all agree, don’t you?”

Micheal sighed softly, sadly, before he spoke, “The two war generals, God and Lucifer, have been annihilated.”

Riser heard a soft gasp from Asia behind him as her worst fear was proved true by the current head of Heaven. Riser felt a little sorry for her, Asia was a good girl, even if her taste in men was absolute trash. He was one hundred percent certain it was some form of Stockholm syndrome or some other physiological disorder that had Asia latching onto the pervert so tightly. It was definitely something to do with the lonely life the church forced on her that left her so naive to the rest of the world.

Azazel seemed to agree, “That’s the thing. The problem lies with the two outside of the three powers…” His eyes traveled to Riser, “Though I wonder if it’s three now, the Red Dragon Emperor, the White Dragon Emperor, and Young Lord Phenex, a mysterious and impossible bug in the system. All beings capable of being powerful enough to change the world. I’m curious what you three have to say.”

Vali spoke up first in an uncaring tone, though while he spoke his eyes were fixed on Riser, “All I want is to be able to fight against strong people.”

Riser smirked at the not-so-subtle challenge that Vali was essentially issuing with his statement seemingly directed right at himself. He’d gladly fight, and decimate, Vali. He held zero fear toward the silver haired great-grandson of Lucifer. While Vali had an impressive amount of Demonic Power, Riser was nearly a match for it, only having slightly less. Add in his immunity to all Sacred Gears, and his victory over Vali was pretty much assured. He had many skills, abilities, and fighting experience to handle Vali. Vali simply relied far too heavily on the power of Divine Dividing.

Azazel chuckled at the clearly expected answer, “You can have plenty of strong people to fight without having a war. What about you Red Dragon Emperor?”

Issei grimaced and fidgeted around after being put in the spotlight, “Huh? Um… If you ask me such a hard question suddenly…”

Riser snorted in derision causing Issei to glare at him. Azazel clearly noted the interaction and let the silence hang until it was clear that Issei wasn’t going to say anything, even after Rias came up and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He didn’t know the Red Dragon Emperor well enough to push his buttons in the direction he wanted the boy to go. The only things he’d seen of the boy were a terrible rating game and a black market video of his duel against Riser Phenex. In both cases, he hadn’t really shown much of interest, though his perversion was clear for all to see. In either case, Riser had handed Issei his ass both times, even beating Issei in his Balance Breaker form with ease.

“What about you Riser Phenex?”

Riser lifted his hand and clenched it into a fist, thin wisps of smoke began to rise from between his fingers, “I honestly don’t care. Peace? War? What’s the difference?” His gaze swept over everyone in the room, he even turned to look at everyone behind him, “Whatever is chosen in this room today, there will continue to be conflict because the world is full of upstarts, fanatics, and idiots.”

He unclenched his fist letting the smoke dissipate, “But, I guess an official peace will make it a lot easier to smite the fuck out of anyone who starts shit in my town in the future.” His gaze fell directly on Vali, “After all, anyone who starts shit from here on out is clearly a traitor and should be put down like a rabid dog.”

Riser saw a very brief flash of surprise on Vali’s face before he got it under control and resumed looking bored and nonchalant about the whole meeting. Riser’s very obvious gaze wasn’t missed by any of the higher-ups, and all of them wondered what Riser knew, but they didn’t.

“Aside from my personal feelings,” he turned to look at Xenovia, “I choose peace so that you can once again speak with your friend without her being compelled to kill you because Micheal wishes to continue to perpetuate a lie to the true believers.”

Before anyone else could say anything, the entire room was filled with powerful magic that froze a couple of people within the room in place, namely Asia, Akeno, Koneko, Sona, and Tsubaki. Everyone else was either too strong for it to affect them or had an item to prevent them from freezing.

[System Alert! New Quest!

The next stage!

This is the next big moment in the story. How will your presence change things? What will you do?

Option 1: Do little to nothing, it’s not like anything truly dangerous will happen if you’re lazy.

Option 2: Do whatever you want and make an even bigger change to the canon story! Let’s see some chaos!

Reward: Same as always, let’s see what you do!]

Riser, immune to the effect of the Forbidden Balor View, checked his new quest before he glanced over his shoulder at Rias who remained unfrozen due to touching Issei who had Boosted Gear summoned. The idiot was looking around in shock before he spotted his frozen companions, “Akeno! Asia! What’s going on?!”

Riser noticed Issei only seemed concerned with the bustier frozen girls as he didn’t pay much attention to the frozen Koneko. Azazel was the one to answer him, “Time has been stopped. Aside from those of us with superior power.” His gaze fell on Riser and contained a curious glint.

Vali addressed Issei, “We were protected by the power of the dragons, the same goes for those wielding holy swords.”

Riser looked over at Xenovia holding Durandal and gave her a proud look. She held her sword at the ready by his side and kept a serious look on her face. However, she did straighten up with more pride at his look of approval.

There was a rumble that caused the building to shake a bit as an explosion went off outside. Xenovia joined the others at the window to appraise the situation. She turned and addressed Riser, “Magicians, lots of them.”

Serafall seemed offended as she exclaimed, “How rude! Ignoring a Magical Girl like me!”

She received several deadpan looks, including one from Riser. Micheal stood and looked out of the window, “But… What is this power?”

Sirzechs also climbed to his feet with a sigh, “They probably coerced that half-vampire boy in Rias’s peerage and created Balance Breaker conditions.”

Rias gasped as she put two and two together. Kiba had a knowing look that quickly transformed into concern while Issei was shocked, “What half-vampire boy?”

Rias explained about the last member of her peerage while looking exceptionally concerned for his safety, “Gasper Vladi, my second Bishop. I’m not strong enough to control his power so he had to be sealed away within the Old School Building. He’s probably scared out of his mind right now!”

They all watched as yellow beams came from the eye-shaped marks on the hoods the magicians wore. Every time they hit one of the Angels, Fallen Angels, or Devils meant to act as guards, the individual hit would vanish in a burst of particles.

With their troops being teleported out and their backups not teleporting in, it quickly became clear to everyone that the attack was well-planned and coordinated. Riser wasn’t sure who said it first, but when the word ‘traitor’ came out, the tension in the room skyrocketed.

With the situation explained, a simple plan was formed. Rias and Issei would be using the Castling move to swap with Rias’s spare rook in the clubhouse. Meanwhile, Vali took off out of the clubroom to swat the magicians. Riser couldn’t help wondering if he was the only one to notice the same particle effect of the weird teleportation that happened to the magicians as to the guards.

He remained in his spot, silent, with Xenovia back by his side as he watched Azazel hand Issei two bracelets and explain their use, “The first one can be used as compensation for using your Balance Breaker.”

That surprised Issei, “You mean I’ll be able to use it?”

Azazel nodded, “Yes, but I don’t know for how long. Put the other one on the half-vampire, it can bring him back under control.”

Riser arched an eyebrow at how Azazel just happened to have exactly what they would need in his pocket. He knew the fallen leader was a genius among geniuses, but to be prepared like that meant only one thing. He knew. He knew the details of the attack, of Vali’s betrayal, and he did nothing to stop it. He couldn’t really think of another reason for Azazel to be so oddly prepared.

He didn’t say anything though. He had no interest in playing any of Azazel’s games. He just quietly watched as Rias and Issei teleported out of the room and were replaced with a rook chess piece. Sirzechs picked it up while speaking, “Once Rias and Issei get Gasper back, we can start our counterattack.”

Before he could say anything else he was interrupted by Grayfia drawing his attention away from the window and into the room, “Lord Lucifer.”

He turned and watched as a magic circle formed and twisted through the air until a woman appeared from it, “Good day, current devil kings Sirzechs, Serafall.”

The person appearing from the teleportation circle was rather famous, thanks mostly to her name. Katerea Leviathan, a direct descendant of the original Leviathan. Though, much to her shame, she did not inherit the original Leviiathan’s most potent magic, Sea Serpent of the End. Unlike the Leviathan Riser currently had living under his roof.

Katerea was a beautiful-looking woman with brown hair, light purple eyes behind spectacles, and a voluptuous figure wrapped in a revealing outfit. Riser knew, for a fact, that no devil in existence had bad eyesight. Damaged eyes from battles? Sure. Missing eyes? Sure. Blindness? Sure. Myopia, nearsightedness, farsightedness, cataracts? No fucking way. Either their vision was perfect, or it was damaged by battle. Which meant every devil who wore glasses did so purely for fashion.

Katerea lifted her staff into the air an gathered orange-colored magic into the center of the crescent shape at the top, “To bring destruction and chaos to the world.”

It immediately erupted into a powerful explosion, one which Riser ignored as Azazel, Sirzechs, and Micheal all worked together to erect a barrier that protected everyone from the blast. When the light faded and the smoke had mostly dissipated, everyone could see the building they had been inside of was nearly obliterated by that one spell.

Katerea’s condescending voice filled the air, “For the leaders of the three great powers to put up a defensive barrier together… What a disgrace!”

Riser crossed his arms over his chest, bored and annoyed by all the talking and posturing. Mostly because he knew what was going on and he wanted to get on with kicking the shit out of his enemies. Still, he kept an ear open as Sirzechs asked, “What do you think you’re doing Katerea?”

She cackled in an unpleasant manner, “My thinking it just the complete opposite of those of you at this meeting. If God and the Devil aren’t around, then there should be a revolution in this world.” Her gaze focused on Serafall and everyone could see the hatred there, “Starting with you Serafall. You’ve been slacking off ever since you stole the title of Leviathan from me!” Her grin turned wicked, “But don’t worry, I’ll be killing you here today and taking the name of the Devil King Leviathan.”

Things escalated from there with Azazel and Katerea heading into the air to do battle one on one. Sirzechs and Micheal continued to protect everyone while Grayfia went about analyzing the magic that was preventing teleportation for them. Sirzechs looked at the magic spells colliding with the barrier and commented, “We don’t want this turning into a war of attrition.”

Hearing the words, Riser looked at Xenovia. She looked back and nodded her head. Kiba, seeing the interaction stepped to their side and was soon joined by Irina as well. Riser spoke up, “Then, we’ll take care of some of them and see about lowering the heat on you.”

Sirzechs looked annoyed but couldn’t say anything against it. Riser smirked at his discomfort. He highly doubted the two of them would ever get along, even if he managed to find a way out of marrying Rias.

The four of them, Riser, Xenovia, Kiba, and Irina stepped out of the circle protecting those who were still frozen and made their way onto the battlefield. Xenovia and Irina quickly fell into a perfect tempo with each other. It had been less than a month since Xenovia was excommunicated and that was nowhere near enough time for them to lose their teamwork. Kiba, on the other hand, worked spectacularly on his own using his summoned Holy-Demonic Swords to deflect the blasts coming from the magicians.

Riser calmly walked along while summoning a beautiful white sword made of pure condensed fire. Anytime one of the yellow beams came anywhere near him he casually swatted it to the side with the sword in his right hand. Then he counter-attacked by firing off a small bullet of black flame. All of his counter-attacks aimed directly at their heads and easily burned through the hood to touch their foreheads. He had a sinister smirk as they burst into particles, teleporting out.

They wouldn’t survive.

Experiments with his black flames had shown that they were almost as deadly as legends made them sound. The flames didn’t burn for a full seven days, but they did burn for a full twenty-four hours, even under water. On top of that, the flames would stick to whatever they touched and the only way to remove them was to cut off whatever they were stuck to. That just proved Kokabiel had a scary instinct or intellect when he so quickly sliced off his own arm. In the case of the magicians, that would mean removing their heads.

Every magician he tagged would end up dead, one way or another. Part of him wanted to feel bad about ‘murdering’ the magicians. The rest of him? He knew it was sefl defense and they deserved it. They were the ones who chose to attack. They were the ones who wanted the war to continue into perpetuity. They were the aggressors. He knew, without a doubt, that if they lived they would only come back to attack again and again. Mercy toward them was only a future of pain for his loved ones and himself.

It seemed they had a way to communicate through whatever barrier they had set up because it wasn’t long before he was left alone and the magicians retreated far away from him. Apparently, they didn’t like there being consequences to their actions.

He didn’t mind though as it gave him time to watch Xenovia fight and get heavily questioned by Irina about her vastly improved strength. Xenovia had taken to Total Concentration Breathing like a fish to water. She got further with it in a week than he had in two. Though they were both at the point where they could do it permanently. Kiba and Koneko were trailing slightly behind but would be able to do it permanently at any time.

Speaking of Kiba, Riser turned to observe the other male and smirked at the sheer speed and power the boy was showing. Between his seemingly permanently active Balance Breaker and the breathing technique, he had fully stepped into the realm of a High-Class Devil. That officially bumped him up to the third strongest member of Rias’s peerage only behind Akeno and Rias.

With Riser sticking close to the protective sphere around the others, the magicians stopped attacking it. However, they kept the barrier up just to stay on the safe side and prevent any lucky shots from accidentally getting through.

Riser couldn’t help wondering when the next stage of the event would begin. In short, he was bored of waiting for Rias to free Gasper and end the time stop. While he was waiting for that, he absent-mindedly continued to counter potshots taken at him by the occasional brave idiot while he watched Azazel and Katerea fight. He was especially interested when Katerea used Ophis’s Snake to empower herself further since she was clearly no match for Azazel on her own.

It was interesting to feel her power increase. There was just something off about it that made it clear it wasn’t her own power that she was using. He wasn’t going to spout some nonsense about it not being her power or anything like that. Frankly, if he could, he’d get himself a bit of Ohpis’s power too.

It was around then that Rias, Issei, and Gasper rejoined them. Riser didn’t pay much attention to them, but he did notice something that irked him, just a bit. There was a sword blade sticking out of the Boosted Gear, which meant Issei had still been given Ascalon. Riser had no idea why that happened, Issei was still just a loser with nothing going for him due to Riser’s interference in events.

He decided to take his annoyance out on the idiot magicians still trying to attack the Satans to drain their magical defenses. He dismissed the sword of fire he’d conjured. It was time for an upgrade. A magical circle formed in the air to his right. As it rotated a sword handle emerged from it that he quickly grasped and pulled on to reveal Arondight.

He’d taken the time to learn the trick of storing a sword away from Xenovia. It was the same way she stored Durandal when it wasn’t in use. Although, his had fewer seals on it since, unlike Durandal, Arondight didn’t have a ‘spirit’ that let it choose its wielders. Or, if it did, it was as insane as Lancelot had been and didn’t care who held it.

With his sword in hand, he decided to try out something new, something he’d wished he’d thought of back during the fight against Kokabiel. Since he was mostly being ignored, only needing to deflect an occasional attack with Arondight, he began to channel his Demonic Power into his left hand causing the flames he summoned to quickly begin color shifting. He’d gotten strong enough to begin at blue, skipping the orange stage, but still wasn’t strong enough to immediately begin with black flames.

On the bright side, it was a lot quicker and easier for him to get to the black stage. He continued to feed his Demonic Power into the flames until he’d drained himself of about half of his reserves. The small ball of black fire hovering about his palm was putting out an oppressive heat that everyone could feel. The battle lulled for a moment as everyone stared at the flames in his hand with different feelings.

The devils didn’t seem too surprised, though Sirzechs and Serafall looked concerned, this was the first time they’d felt the flames in person. Micheal looked shocked and a little afraid. Azazel probably would have had something to say if he wasn’t too preoccupied fighting a clearly pissed-off Katerea.

Meanwhile, the idiot magicians floating in the sky upside down were looking a little fearful. He’d put more power into the flames in his hand than several of them combined. Then, it got worse.

Riser lifted the flames and pressed them against the edge of Arondight. The sword instantly swallowed the flames and stored them within itself. He could feed his own attacks into Arondight and use its ability to fire them with double the power he’d provided. It meant that using Arondight as a medium for his attacks essentially doubled the power he had available to use.

He looked at the magicians floating above them all with a wicked grin on his face. He had no special name for this move, didn’t see the point really, but he knew it was about to make them all very afraid regardless.

Knowing they were in danger, the magicians focused their fire on Riser, hoping to deal with him before he could unleash his attack. It was far too little, far too late. With a casual swing of Arondight, Riser unleashed a massive wave of black fire that swept through the area. It burned physical and metaphysical alike. Screams of agony filled the area as dozens of magicians were caught in the unrelenting attack.

At the same time that Riser was wiping out dozens of magicians, permanently, the time-stop effect finally vanished releasing those trapped in its grasp. Simultaneous with the time-stop ending, the gate the enemy was using was also dispelled. It was truly time for the counterattack to begin.

—--Line Break—--

AN

Alright, I’ll end it here because this seems like a good place to stop. Especially since I’m not sure how long the final part of the fighting will take. Still, it’s a good 9k words long so it’s not like it was cut off super early or anything.

I’d also like to apologize for the silence. Been busy with a LOT of things going on. For those of you new around here, I’m a live-in caretaker and sometimes the people I’m taking care of have lots of doctor appointments within a short time. Then there’s usually a long gap between.

Between taking care of them, a minor bought of writers block, and some family crap no one but me cares about, I didn’t have much time to write. Still, I knocked this chapter out in the last three days and I plan to begin the next one right away. It shouldn’t take me long at all to get it done.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one!