Chapter 34: Issei's different? Time to collect the toll!

"Look Rias-san, Akeno-san! Issei-san is up! He's okay!" Asia declared in a tone of excitement and enthusiasm.

Rias and Akeno didn't reply to Asia, nor did they join in with her happiness of Issei's recovery. Issei wasn't speaking, nor was he showing any sign of life. He was just standing there, staring directly at his opponent, stopping his punch with one hand.

"Oh! It seems that this fight isn't over yet! Looks like the children's beloved hero has risen once again!" Takeshi said as the two in the ring fought within a struggle of power.

"This is more like it Issei. Now I'm going to get a bit serious myself." Sairaorg said brimming with confidence.

But something was wrong…

"Huh? What's going on? I can't move a muscle." Sairaorg thought to himself feeling an intense pressure coming from the man who had a tight grip on his fist.

"Don't you think Issei-kun is acting strange?" Kiba said noticing the differences in Issei's behaviour.

"It's not that Sairaorg is trying to overpower Issei. Issei won't let go of him…" Xenovia added in noticing Sairaorg's struggle from her angle.

"Ahhh!" Sairaorg cries out the second Issei tightened his grip even further.

Bloody began to escape from Sairaorg's open wound and trickled down the lion kings palm.

The warm essence of the lion king however, turned into an advantage. He used his blood covered fist to slip away from Issei's frightening grip and managed to get some distance from the revived Sekiryutei.

"I can see the rumours about your strength were not make believe after all Issei. Now things can get really excit…." Was all Sairaorg managed to utter.

Punches so fast, that not a spectator nor, could Sairaorg himself see it coming. In one swift movement, Sairaorg went from hunched over from Issei's painful gut shot, to looking up at the sky from Issei's insane uppercut to his jaw. The lion king found himself being pushed away by Issei's final punch from his right boosted gear wielding fist, a skull shattering scaled punch straight into his opponents face. All of this built up damage occurred within mere seconds, leaving all who witnessed the aftermath lost for words.

Sairaorg's torso was now unclothed, his right eye dripping with blood and his jaw fractured.

"Looks like it's time for you to face the second half of my curse boy. Now then, let's see how you will manage this battle. Will you be swallowed like the Sekiryutei's before you?" Tiamat said with a malicious grin, admiring her handy work that she planted within Issei's body.

"Cut the feed! Cut the feed! We can't let the children see the Sekiryutei this way!" The broadcaster ordered trying to keep the hero of the Sekiryutei pure for the futures of the underworld.

"It's no good boss! Somebody is hacking us! And to make matters worse, they are live streaming it to every TV set in hell!" The broadcasting team member said as Issei's pupil missing eyes appeared on the camera screen.

"Damn it! Keep working on it!" He continued as he was only able to watch the screen himself, praying for a miracle.

"It won't work.. This will either be the Sekiryutei's greatest triumph over his own power. Or it will be the final curtain call on his journey of trying to suppress the dragon of domination." Tiamat said as she continued to enjoy this fight.

"You didn't did you…. You didn't let the power consume you did you… Answer me Issei!" Sairaorg said to the emotionless Issei in front of him.

Suddenly, Issei let out a thunderous roar, grinning with the eyes of a blood thirsty beast staring down its prey.

"Issei's gone berserk!" Xenovia declared noticing Issei was definitely not himself.

"This isn't good… I will have to knock him out and get him under some restraints! Don't hate me for this Rias!" Sairaorg said charging into the fangs of the beast.

"Issei! Please stop Sairaorg!" Rias said trying to get out of her seat.

"No Rias! You mustn't it's too dangerous!" Akeno said holding the ruin princess down.

"What are you talking about Akeno?! You love Issei too don't you? Then how can you stay so calm right now?" Rias said suddenly noticing Akeno's clenched teeth, the tears escaping her eyes and her tightened fists on her lap.

"We have to believe in Issei. It's all we can do right now." Akeno said suddenly hugging Rias and letting it all out.

"I have to put you down Issei! Don't hold it against me!" Sairaorg shouted as he began his barrage.

The lion king mercilessly threw his fists into the Sekiryutei's un-protected body.

Punches that he delivered to many foes, monsters all those opposed the order of hell. Putting them all down with one attack.

But something was wrong, not a sign that Sairaorg had attacked Issei was shown on the Sekiryutei's face. He looked completely unharmed and unfazed.

"Impossible…" Sairaorg said as he stopped to take a breath.

Issei slammed his knee into Sairaorg's face, springing a leak from the lion king's nostrils, letting the blood flow.

As the Lion king was falling to his knees, the Sekiryutei planted a vice grip on his head and slammed him into the ground.

"This is hard to watch ladies and gentlemen! The Sekiryutei is showing little to no mercy for the lion king. And if somebody doesn't stop this soon, there may no chance for a rematch!" Takeshi said fear stricken from Issei's evil and intimidating aura.

"I won't go down that easily!" Sairaorg yelled as he threw another punch at the Sekiryutei.

The malicious fighter grabbed his opponents punch and slammed his arm back into the ground.

The sound of the break echoed in the arena, spectators screeched in fear of this brutal beat down. Thousands rushed for the exit, but the shutters had been deployed.

("That's right…. Don't bother with pointless emotions…. Just kill, destroy anything that gets in your way…" A silent female voice said in the back of the Sekiryutei's head.)

"Oh no, you're not escaping, you will all witness the moment a fool who tried to defy the power inside of him, fell from his pedestal and threw his good name into the dirt." Tiamat said as she saw to it that all exits were sealed.

Issei clenched his own fist, a grin across his face as his green eyes with no pupils focused their line of sight on Sairaorg's skull.

"I can't watch! This is too horrible!" Takeshi said as Issei began to aim for his target.

"Issei-san! Stop this! Wake up!" Asia screamed awaiting the climax.

"Issei-kun! This isn't you! You're better than your ancestors!" Kiba shouted prepared to jump in if he found the opening.

Akeno couldn't say a word, she cried as her hero became the very thing he suffered to oppose.

"He won't stop now. It seems my curse has finally taken a hold of him."

"Tiamat?! What are you doing here?!" Rias practically screamed after the dragon made herself appear before them.

"I came to collect my toll, whether it's your lives or my jewel. It doesn't bother me which." Tiamat said.

"You did this?! But why?! Issei was working so hard to return to you your treasure! He worked himself to exhaustion for you!" Rias shouted back feeling her destructive aura surfacing.

"Well it's more fun this way isn't it? He's always wanted to fight the beast within the boosted gear. The blood thirst of his ancestors. Now he is facing it directly head on thanks to my curse and the little present I gave him before the match." Tiamat said making Rias both furious and shocked as the chaos karma dragon pointed to her neck.

"What are you saying?! What did you do to him?!" Akeno screamed towards the dragon.

"Oh, here it comes now. The finale!" Tiamat said reverting their attention to the slaughter fest.

"Don't do it! YOU MUSTN'T BETRAY WHO YOU ARE! PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT! ISSEI!" Rias screamed blasting her beloved with a portion of her own magic.

The blast met its mark directly as the Sekiryutei began its arms descent.

("Wake up…. You have a lot of potential within you….. You have bested trials like this before in your past. And you will overcome this obstacle… Don't disappoint me young dragon…. I have great faith in you…..")

The voice echoed in Issei's head, a sudden relaxing voice of a stranger he did not know. Yet he somehow felt familiar with. As if he had already met them at some point. But in actual fact he is yet to meet them again.

Suddenly, Issei could feel the pain inside his mind, inside his heart suddenly begin to disperse, he can hear another voice calling out to him, and a sudden warmth hit his back.

"ISSEI!" Rias screamed as Issei's punch was coming down faster now.

What happened next, truly startled the audience. Issei went through with his punch after all. However, its course had been changed and instead hit himself directly in the cheek.

Issei soared backwards and hit the ground.

"I'm such an idiot…. I let the power consume me. But thanks to you, I can feel myself in control again. Thank you Rias." Issei said to himself as he got back up from the ground.

Issei had his eyes closed as tears escaped from his eye sockets.

The Sekiryutei wiped away his leaking tears and opened his eyes.

Issei was in full control once again, instead of pure green lights in his eyes, the dragon like pupils of his partner Draig looked around.

"You can't turn me into a monster….. I WON'T BE A MONSTER!" Issei yelled letting out a huge battle cry.

Issei's power shot out from his body, replacing his fearsome black aura, with a mix of a crimson aura on the outside, and a jade shade on the inside. The colour which matched the eyes of his partner.

"I have no idea how to describe what just happened here folks, but it seems the Sekiryutei has regained his senses! Hold on, I'm getting a report from the experts in the control room who have been keeping an eye on him. And it turns out that the Crimson dragon was fighting against an evil force inside him and he has finally defeated it!" Takeshi declared reigniting the hopes and faith the children have in the Sekiryutei, their brave and powerful hero.

Issei stretched out his hand to the downed lion king.

Sairaorg hesitated but then took Issei's hand sensing no evil intent.

Issei helped the lion king up and reached into a magic circle he had just created.

Sairaorg was back on his guard again thinking Issei was going to pull a weapon.

"Here, please take this and accept my apology Sairaorg." Issei said handing the lion king something small.

"Are you mocking me Issei?!" Sairaorg said receiving the phoenix tears from Issei.

"That's not it at all. I just want to be able to re-do our fight. I want to go all out against you in a fair fight. And I think with this new power, this fight will be over very quickly." Issei said with his usual grin of confidence and sincerity.

Sairaorg let out a hearty laugh and accepted the bottle without any hesitation.

"Alright then Issei! But be warned, this may be your biggest mistake if I end up winning." Sairaorg boasted feeling the pain ease away and disappear.

"Well then, I guess that would make you the strongest Lion. But I don't intend to go easy on you either!" Issei said equipping his crimson dragon king armour again with this power up.

"It looks like both fighters are ready to start again! Who will be the victor?!" Takeshi said as guests returned to their seats.

Issei and Sairaorg slammed their fists into each other once again.

"Huh? Is Issei-sans opponent really the strongest then?" Asia asked as within an instant, Issei's entire armour shattered upon impact.

"No Asia, it's the opposite." Akeno said in response to Asia's enquiry.

Issei's blazing red hair came out from beneath his dragon shell as if the powerful armour was indeed just that, a shell. A fragile casing clung to an incredible force.

"It's not that Sairaorg is stronger than Issei at all Asia. It's just that…" Rias said as Issei's punch pushed Sairaorg's fist back.

"Issei's armour isn't strong enough to handle the force behind Issei's new power." Rias finished as the fight took a complete turn.

"He's stronger than before? How is that possible?" Sairaorg thought to himself the second Issei's punch broke through and successfully hit him in the cheek. A sudden realisation came across to him.

"I see now…. It wasn't the power of the Sekiryutei that I was supposed to be worried about after all. It was in fact…." Sairaorg thought to himself as Issei once again struck his jaw with his pause.

"The power of Issei Gremory…." Sairaorg thought to himself as his body fell to the floor.

"But! I'm not going to give up so easily!" Sairaorg said as he straightened his body and prepared to counter.

"Amazing…. I can feel so much power flowing through me…. Sairaorg is a very tough opponent. As expected of the Lion king and a member of Bael clan. But I can do it! With this power, I can win!" Issei thought to himself as his power began to balance out and become his truly.

"Let's do this Sairaorg!" Issei yelled as his power stabilised. An immense crimson and jade aura resurfaced and surrounded the Sekiryutei.

Issei's power increase caught the attention of two far off spectators.

"That's right, this is how I have observed you fight. Go and show me the true power of the Sekiryutei, young dragon!" A mysterious character said as he silently observed from a faraway land.

"Aww that's a shame….. I was looking forward to seeing another interesting toy to play with. But I guess this is also interesting..." Yet another mysterious character said.

"Don't go holding back on me now just because you gained an interesting ability... Okay Issei?" Sairaorg said as he and Issei once again exchanged punches.

"Of course not, I'm giving you all I have got to put you down!" Issei said with his signature smile.

"Unbelievable! It's turned into a slug fest! Both fighters are giving it all they have got! The punches just keep flying!" Takeshi shouted as Issei and the lion king continued to hit each other simultaneously.

"That's my Issei. He's definitely back to his old self again. I mean, just look at that smile on his face." Rias said happily as within the brawl, Issei and her cousin smiled brightly regardless.

"Fight to your heart's content you two…" Rias added forgetting what was at stake in this battle.

"The winner….. Will be me!" They both shouted as they slammed what looked like the remainder of their energy into the others cheek.

The combined force of the punches formed a crater in the arena, and shattered Issei's protective dragon shell.

"What an explosive exchange of punches! That punch certainly looked like the finale! But who will remain standing!" Takeshi said a shroud of silence descended upon the audience.

Both fighters smiled after the force of the punches resided.

"Haha, you really are strong Sekiryutei." Sairaorg said as they both remained in their same position.

"Yeah and so are you Sairaorg. I can see why they call you the strongest youth." Issei replied.

"But today….. The victory is… yours." Sairaorg said as he fell backwards from Issei's punch and hit the ground.

"He's down! Sairaorg is completely out cold! Which means….. The victor is our challenger! And our new champion…. The Sekiryutei! Issei Gremory!" Takeshi shouted rewarding the strongest with a huge round of applause.

Issei's peerage and a certain other individual made their way to the fighting ring as Issei received his prize.

"It's finally complete." Issei said as he placed the remaining shard in the ruby of Asura.

"It looks like you managed to pull off a miracle after all. I'm impressed Sekiryutei." Tiamat said dispersing the happy peerage.

"Here you go Tiamat, as promised your lost treasure." Issei said handing Tiamat the ruby.

"So you're not going to keep it for yourself after all?" Tiamat questioned resulting in the transformed Issei smiling as he looked over at his family.

"I've already got everything I need." Issei replied truly defeating the greed that corrupting him. Resulting in Tiamat getting closer to him.

"I can see how you've become so popular in so little time Sekiryutei. I think I'm starting to like you now Issei." Tiamat said making Akeno and Rias angry when she suddenly licked his cheek and touched his chest.

"There you go, the curse is gone now and so is our debt. I look forward to getting to know you better dragon god." Tiamat said now walking off.

Rias rushed to her husband, but stopped suddenly when she recalled something Tiamat said.

"And a little present…"

Rias saw the blue bite mark and did something which startled even the exhausted Sekiryutei.

"Ouch! Rias what are you doing?" Issei said after Rias bit him in the exact same spot and grabbed onto his arm.

"Issei is mine chaos karma dragon. Do you understand?! I won't hand him over to you!" Rias boldly declared holding tight to her Issei.

"I guess this is our own battle then Rias Gremory. I'll be seeing you all soon then…" Tiamat said as she disappeared away in a magic circle.

Sairaorg got himself up on his feet and looked over at his tired opponent.

"That was an amazing battle. You've earned my respect." Sairaorg said extending out his hand for Issei to shake.

"Thanks. But next time, let's settle things between us in a fair battle. A fight where you can show me your true power. A rating game, I look forward to seeing your secret power Lion king." Issei replied grasping hold of his hand in an earnest handshake.

"I won't lose next time, be prepared." Sairaorg exclaimed.

"Well we won't go down so easily either." Issei said.

The second Sairaorg let go of Issei's hand and exited the arena, Issei felt himself tire.

Falling backwards, Issei's hair returned to its original brown colour, caught by his precious family before he hit the ground.

Meanwhile, in the deepest depths of hell….

Two powerful entities were gathered together, the very same two who spoke out to Issei in his battle with the dragon within him.

"It's rare to see you help out another dragon in this dimension. Or is that why you are known as the dragon of dragons? Well? Apocalypse dragon?" A female voice said as the great red western dragon as long as 100 metres flew out through another dimension.

"It's you again… What the hell do you want Ophis?!" Great red responded with his well-known delinquent like attitude.

"Don't play dumb Great red… I know you interfered in my fun today." A cute young girl with long black hair down to her hips and black eyes said as she continued to stare at the colossal dragon with an emotionless face.

"What the hell, you got a problem with what I did?!" Great red responded.

Ophis who is known as a shape-shifter, wore a gothic Lolita dress.

"No… Not at all… I only desire one thing in this world…. And that's to get rid of you and return to the dimensional gap… So I can return to the world of silence." Ophis replied feeling no signs of anger or resentment towards Great red's interference.

"Not interested…. You can't defeat me and neither can the vanishing dragon!" Great red arrogantly declared as he began to transport back to the dimensional gap.

And that's the chapter done! How did you like it? So Issei can't use his crimson dragon god overdrive with even his strongest armour? So you know what that means right? That's right , Issei will have to get his armour changed so it can adapt to the power scale. But who can help him with that? I'll let you figure that out :P. As I said in the previous chapter, the next chapter will be a light hearted kings game chapter where the Gremory girls will be competing against their master and king. Chapter 35: Who is the king today? The kings orders are absolute!