I watched as Rias and her undesired fiancée traded barbed comments and snide remarks. I let them have their fun, after all this wasn't my show, and I didn't really desire it to be anyway. Let their embittered rivalry take the fore so that I could be forgotten. It wasn't that I did have pride - I certainly did, entirely deserved for the most part - but things were different these days.

With my wants unachievable I suppose I need to find something else to do for fun. Teaching the runts about proper combat was fun enough, if only to watch their faces as they learned just how outclassed they were in the face of a true warrior.

They all had a spark in them that could grow into the roaring blaze I possessed, but time and experience would be required to get there. I could start them along the path and give them a nudge, but the birth of a true warrior is in the crucible of blood and fire, not the coddling of the training grounds.

Well, coddling by my standards. They all seemed to think I was a tad brutal; It's all about perspective, I told them.

They were certainly happier now that they were plowing through their competitors, now weren't they? I had enough time to witness Kiba dismantle everyone who came to face him, Koneko bulldoze those who dared stand in her way, and even Akeno got her showing.

The one thing I had to personally handle was the enemy teams Queen, though she was easy enough. Akeno was sour that I took her fight, but I watched it for all of 5 seconds and I grew bored - Aerial magic combat is not quite as exciting as it sounds, even when explosions are involved. At first one might think I'm wrong, but their entire strategy went something like evade, shoot magic, evade, shoot magic, evade, shoot magic.

Over and over and over, so I simply decided to end the fight right there so we could mop up the rest. And a mere cleanup is all it amounted to, I'm not sure any of my charges truly struggled through any of their encounters.

Of course, we were down to the final test; the truth of why we were all here to begin with. Rias vs. Riser, the magic of annihilation versus the power of fire and regeneration.

I didn't have a bet on who would win simply because I didn't know enough about either of their power level or stamina - Riser could 'win' against Rias by simply outlasting her, or Rias could kill him in a single fell swoop if his regeneration was only active along with his brain.

That's the trouble with regenerators, the difference between a weak regenerator and a strong one is like night and day and countermeasures are drastically different.

Eh, it doesn't really matter. If their primary power is just regeneration, then you can always just pin'em to the ground and let them wear themselves out. Or, since this is a 'competition', prove he can't fight anymore and be done with it.

I doubt Rias thought that far ahead though, she seems like the kind of girl to barrel headfirst into her problems and hope things turn out. Guess I'll see.

Out of the corner of my eye I spot long curls of blond hair, and a face that reminds me remarkably of Riser himself. Must be a relative. They're watching the engaged pairs epic battle of words, eyes glancing back and forth between them in turn.

Their gaze only leaves the fighting couple once she notices my approach. I carefully dragged my sword behind me in what I hope is a non-threatening manner, though I understand that might be an impossibility just with the size of the blade alone; It's very presence is a threat in and of itself.

She jumps as I plant my sword in the ground, letting it sink in a couple of feet to get a good hold before plopping myself down on the ground. Oh look, they've started fighting now, brief lances of destruction flinging out and blazing waves of fire coming back in return. Riser is even more unimaginative with his abilities than Rias was before I gave her some tips, if his control of fire is anything beyond spewing it from his hands. How droll.

"You related to that guy over there?" Her head whipped towards me to show her shocked expression, as though she'd forgotten I was even sitting now more than three feet from her in the few seconds their battle had begun.

"Uh, Yes I'm his sister, Ravel. Pleasure to meet you?" Her confusion was clear and she still gave me a little curtsy. They really drilled home the fancy aristocratic lessons into her.

"Pleasure, you can call me Issei. Do you find this whole situation to be as dull and unnecessary I do, or is it just me?" While I understood commitments and sticking to them, and I certainly didn't mind having the chance to punt around some new blood, the reason as to why I was doing it (not personal reasons, the actual reason why they asked me to) seemed incredibly... Stupid? Idiotic? Those words didn't quite fit, but the point is this entire scenario was quite contrived.

Ravel looked at me askance, glancing at the sword planted in the ground near my feet and back to the battle before settling on me. I got the sense she was judging me, trying to sense if I was being serious or just waiting for her to let her guard down. She reached some kind of decision before letting out a huff, bunching up her skirt and plopping herself down on the ground as well.

"It isn't just you, I'm afraid. Really, this whole... Show could have been easily avoided if it wasn't for stubborn adults thinking they know best. Instead we've devolved to this insensate fight because of people making decisions while completely disregarding the desires of others. Ordinarily I would tell the pair in the arranged marriage to get over it, but when you see the sheer levels of hostility between the two it should be remarkably obvious things wouldn't work out."

Rias was currently displaying her fine new control over her power and sending out thing shards of destruction, mostly focusing on Riser's head. Minimal energy expenditure for maximum impact, proving she did pay attention to some of my advice. Riser on the other hand was letting out massive torrents of fire, causing her to take to the air as the entirety of the floor ignited.

She enjoyed her aerial superiority for several moments before landing on a different side of him that wasn't ablaze and resuming the fight.

"Indeed. I haven't been with Rias's group long, but I've been whipping them into shape for this. She told me she wanted to win and to be free, but I took one look at their 'efforts' at training and asked her if she was really serious, because I didn't see it. Half-assed training routines that didn't leave her members heaps of sweat and muscles made of jelly, poor oversight into the strengths and weaknesses of her individual pieces and more. Ugh."

Ravel's eyes seemed to positively glow with sympathetic light.

"I know exactly what you mean! Riser might be the 'King' but he does exactly nothing to help grow the strength of the group. He tells them to 'train' every once in a while but doesn't tell them how or help them in any way so they have to turn to me, which naturally I'm happy to do but I'm so busy doing everything else for the peerage that RISER is supposed to be doing I can't make sure they're doing it right! And then he has the gall to come up to me and criticize MY training plans that I had to come up with under such short notice!"

She took a deep breath, watching the fight unfold before us as Riser's blaze spread further and further, though he had taken significant damage in the process. His originally immaculate clothing had several holes punched straight through them and large rents and tears from where Rias's power had knocked him over.

"Honestly if I wasn't around this peerage wouldn't even be half as good as it is now, and it currently sucks. My time is so absorbed into managing and helping everyone else train my own power hasn't had a chance to develop at all, leaving me weak as well in comparison to Riser. Hell, he could be so much stronger than he is now himself with the amount of time he has on his hands but... Here we are. Struggling to beat Rias Gremory of all people, perhaps one of the laziest, if kinder, devil's I've ever known."

I let out a laugh at that. "I suppose when she's motivated enough that laziness fades away, but for all her burning will and energy to improve it was clear she'd never had to put in serious effort before. She was very lucky I was there to help her out, else she might have invested a lot of effort but gotten much fewer results, which in turn would have left this much a tossup. Well, with me here it wouldn't have mattered either way, but this way at least they all get to feel useful."

The look I got told me she was dubious. "You think you can beat Riser on your own?"

"Well, honestly I'm not trying to brag no matter how it sounds, but your entire peerage wouldn't stand a chance. As it is Riser's only abilities are... regeneration and fire? Ya, with that he would never be able to even touch me. It's certainly amusing to witness the fruits of my labor, so it was worth it for that at least."

Rias was tiring out, her flight slowing down as she had less and less places to land and Riser himself while dirtied and torn up a bit wasn't suffering any injuries. "Alright Ravel its been fun, but it seems like its about my time to wrap things up."

I slowly stood and stretched, letting the body I'd adopted get its blood flowing again. Turning back to the small blond, I couldn't help but feel a tiny sliver of my humanity rear its empathetic head.

"Ah, Ravel... I'm going to request that you keep your eyes closed for the next little while." Her gleaming eyes drilled into my own, trying to decipher why I'd possibly ask something like that.

"Why would I do that?" I knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder while trying to convey my honest intent.

"As Riser's family member, you shouldn't have to bear witness to what comes next. Please, for your own sake... Don't watch." Without leaving time for any parting questions, I turned and began walking towards the burned-out ring surrounding Riser where he'd been dueling Rias for the past several minutes.

I plodded along, not making any effort to go quickly. I had all the time in the world, after all.

Rias collapsed to the ground in a heap, breathing heavily. I was finally close enough to hear their voices over the roar of the flames.

"Damn you Riser, you useless piece of shit! I won't let you use me like some sideshow you found interesting and picked up off the streets!" They'd been going on about each other the entire time they'd been fighting, and they were slowly running out of new material to hurl at each other.

Well, not that it mattered anymore, this little ponyshow was starting to get boring and it was time for the curtains to drop and the lights to fade. My steps were muffled due to the noise surrounding us, but Rias spotted me and must have had some inkling of what was coming because her mouth whispered, 'Oh no'.

Riser himself caught on that something was off and began to turn around to investigate whatever Rias saw, but by then it was too late. I hadn't tried particularly hard to be stealthy, nor was I particularly quick when I raised my sword into position. As a matter of fact, I feel I gave Rise plenty of opportunities to realize the change of combatants, but by the time he actually began the motion to defend himself my sword was swinging through the air.

There was two brief snaps and a meaty slicing noise that was quickly drowned out by Riser screaming as he fell to the ground, no longer supported by either of his feet since I cut them off. They swiftly burned away, disappearing in motes of orange flames, the same motes appearing and coagulating around his stumps as he began to regenerate.

See, there's several ways to skin a regenerator. The simplest is knowing how to cancel their regeneration or knowing the extent of the strength of their power. Basically, can they regenerate from literally nothing? If you cut off their head can they still regenerate? How quickly does their regeneration take effect? So on and so forth.

I'd been watching Riser fight and take devastating blows from Rias and come back in not time and I thought I had a pretty good handle on it. Fortunately, or conversely quite unfortunately for Riser, his regeneration is very quick and thorough. Which means I have almost unlimited reign on what I can do to him.

Riser valiantly tried to scurry away from me without using his still formulizing feet, but I had to give my prey the chance to surrender without too much more pain.

Oh, I forgot to mention that actual strategy for beating a regenerator before, didn't I? Well, allow me to rectify that. In a game-like scenario, where one side can forfeit and give the other complete victory, the answer is simple.

Brutality and copious amounts of pain. Oh, and threats/promises of more if they don't give up. Easy peasy.

I allowed my sword to carve a path through the air, letting out a shrill whistle before it descended like a furious hand of God upon the poor soul under me. The massive blade easily carved through his chest and then into the ground, piercing several feet deep before I released it. Another howl of pain was released from my victim before he got himself back under control.

Idly I wondered if it was causing him more pain as his regeneration simmered and tried to take effect around the blade lodged in his body.

"Well Riser, let me give you a couple options here. I would say I'd like to avoid any unnecessary violence, but that would be a lie, and I won't make a liar of myself, so you know I'll follow through with anything I say."

I crouched down in front of him so he could lift his head and look me in the eyes. I gave him a smile, full of teeth and promises.

"Now, I just spoke to your dear sister, and I'd also prefer to not traumatize her either, so listen closely. You can either forfeit this silly little game right now, and I'll take the sword out of you. Conversely, you could not forfeit the game right now, and I will take you off of my sword." His eyes were hazy with pain, but he still managed to snarl at me.

"Fuck you asshole, I'll come back from this too and burn you to a barely moving crisp!" My smile widened.

"Oh, so full of hate. How delightful. Unfortunately, it won't do a thing for you in this situation. You know, I make sure to miss your spine, so you can feel the pain throughout your whole body. What I didn't miss, however, was your sternum - I made sure you snap nearly all of your ribs free. They're just kind of floating around in there like sticks in jello. See?"

I proceeded to poke his chest, which bent in unnaturally far as I applied pressure and the bones shifted. He let out another piercing cry that trailed on for several moments until I finally relented and removed my finger.

"Now, all that can be over. Just gotta make a decision - I can either take my sword out of you and you can heal, or I can take you through my sword and we can play some more. I'm optimistic you'll make the right choice."

Blood seeped out of his mouth as his lungs filled with blood, unable to properly regenerate the damage or remove the substance from where it wasn't supposed to be. Through the agony I could see stretching his face into an unholy rictus of hate, he spat out his answer to me.

"I was going to leave Rias's peerage alive but now I'm gonna make you watch as they all burn so she understands just what you cost her!"

I let out a laugh straight from the belly. "See, I knew you'd make the right choice! Let us continue."

Turning to face the others, I informed them of his decision. "Riser has refused to forfeit despite being... Indisposed, so the fight continues!" With my announcement done, I turned back to my nearly insensate playtoy. "Sadly, for you, I am a man of my word. Hope you're ready."

With that, I gripped both of his arms and made sure I had a tight hold. In the process my victim was jostled slightly and let out another ungainly scream. "Shut your mouth before I give you something to scream about, you ant. Oh wait, I'm about to! Nevermind, scream your heart out!"

I pulled.

Riser's screams immediately cut off as his lungs were mangled beyond immediate repair and weren't able to get air to his voicebox. I dragged his body through my sword, more bones snapping and flesh tearing as it parted his body like butter. With a final squelch, Riser was pulled through the sword. He wasn't quite split in two, as the blade had been inserted slightly to the left and down from his heart, as to best sever ribs and hold him in place, but it was a near thing.

Already flames were spilling out to fill in the gaps and restore him to health. I watched with impassioned eyes, waiting for him to be able to speak again. When he looked whole enough to pay attention to my words, I spoke.

"So now we've determined what I'm willing to do you as a little taste test of things to come if you don't give up the good fight. So how about it, devil? Do you want more pain, or will you give up?"

I paused to wonder if Riser's magical power was affected by his emotional state, as the amount and intensity of flames building around him were far greater than the showing he'd given Rias. Maybe he was sandbagging? Either way it wouldn't matter. Flames were an old friend of mine. People always through the 'fires of war' was a metaphor for the light of burning buildings and lit forges or things of that nature, but it was far more literal in my case.

Once I was Shuriman, and an ascendant one at that. Our kind practically defined war in all of its death and glory, and I continued to bathe in furious combat as often as possible even after the empire fell. Once my light burned with bright hues valor and courage, and it led my troops to countless victories. Now, it consumes everything in its path, a wave of hate, pain, and death left smoldering in my wake.

No, to me the Fires of War are all too real.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? I'll fucking kill you you crazy bastard! DIE!" The maddened light of pain and crazed fury burned in his eyes as he slowly stood before me. He raised his hands and my world became fire. It pressed in on me from all sides like it had some physical shape, trying to gouge chunks from my flesh and find purchase to consume me from the inside out.

It burrowed its way down my throat, searching for frail pink flesh to incinerate. Fire filled my lungs, a pleasant heat, and more surged under my clothes, seeking some point of weakness to exploit and make purchase with.

I sat there for several moments, basking in the gentle warmth the fire was giving me.

But I could hardly just sit here and enjoy these pleasant sensations, I suppose. As more blazing tendrils sought to find some part of me it could burn, any part, I began to laugh. Loud and uproariously, I howled. As my mirth slowly faded, I began to walk forward, motes of anger forming in my chest.

"These are not the Flames of Perdition." I inexorably marched forward, still unable to see through the brilliant orange haze around me.

"These are not the flames with a hunger to consume the world." Bare tints of green and brown began to appear, forming a muddle of colors.

"These are not the flames to extinguish all life and burn existence itself to the ground!" The colors finalized themselves into definite shapes as trees and other figures outside the blaze I was inside of could be seen.

"And you think you can harm me with these... embers? These smoldering coals you call a fire? Please, don't insult me." I emerged from the flames as they parted around me, easily letting me slip their grasp.

I'd spoken loud enough to easily be heard, so he had to have known I was coming, but he seemed quite shocked when I materialized through his attack as though it was nothing. Well, it was nothing. To me at least.

His eyes widened in fear, likely realizing if his flames could do nothing, the only thing left for him was to experience pain by my hands until he surrendered.

Blazing wings appeared behind him as he tried to fly away from his fate. "Not so fast, coward."

I planted my fist in the ground, and my infernal chains sprang free at my command. They swiftly reached his foot before he was able to leave the ground, and tethered him, slowing his initial ascent to a bare crawl as he valiantly flapped his wings. I knew how this would go, however, as it always did. Infernal Chains were almost a battle of the wills, rather than a test of physical strength.

I knew the feeling of being trapped far better than anything else alive, and these chains manifested their strength from that feeling. They were created by my actual energy of course, but at their very core the idea of 'entrapment' and 'loss of freedom' was built into them, as they come from me. If the victim of the chains was both physical strong (very, very strong) and was the absolute antithesis of those ideas to their core, maybe they could stand a chance.

Understandably, Riser is not one of those people. He made it nearly 10 feet into the air before the chains snapped back down, dragging his flailing body from the sky and pinning it to the ground. I pounced forward, stabbing my weapon into the ground and gripping Riser by his throat and hefting him into the air.

"So, little Phenex. Shall we continue playing? What will break first, your pride, or your tolerance for pain? Either way, I win, so feel free to choose any option." Watching him squirm was quickly growing boring, and the burning hate in his eyes was only fought in equal measure by fear.

"Choose, boy, before I choose for you." Without the strength to fight me there wasn't anything for him to do but give up or suffer. I toyed with the idea of just killing the bastard, but I decided that would go against my word of cooperation with Rias.

If Pheonix's represented life, well I represented Death. It was an old friend to me, at this point. Not only was my body count innumerable, but I had died 1000 times and come back time and time again to reap more lives - One doesn't escape from those experiences without picking up something... other, along the way.

I'd learned when fighting a particularly stubborn foe who refused to die to channel that feeling, the spirit of Death itself, and wield it like a weapon to cut the hale and hearty down to gasping and infirm with a single blow. It was one of my pinnacle achievements and had saved me many times more since then.

The move lent itself to any style of swordsmanship that focused on ending the fight with a single decisive blow and I'd eventually developed my own styles to work with my unique blade and situation. In particular, the Deathbringer Stance is what I used to channel Death itself into one massive swing, normally finished the fight instantaneously.

It would easily slay Riser in a single blow, but again, that wasn't the point. So pain it is then.

Unknowing of my thoughts of casual murder, Riser spat at me. Or tried to, I realized he could barely speak because I was strangling him, but he got his point across with another glare.

I shrugged. "So be it. Riser still refuses to surrender, so the fight continues!" I kept reiterating that so people didn't think I was keeping this going all for my own amusement. I mean, I was amused, but I did give him a couple chances to prevent it

I flipped my grip on his throat upside down and violently swung his entire body, using his neck as a fulcrum to once again drag a part of his body through my blade instead of the other way around. His legs just below the knee were viciously parted from the remainder of his lower limbs with a spurt of blood and once again, more screaming.

I held him before me as his regeneration kicked in, though slower than I first noted it. "I did try to tell you how this would go, you know? Well, no point in dilly dallying, times a wasting here."

With that I dropped him onto the ground in a heap and reached over to grab a newly formed ankle instead. "Ok, we're gonna do a repeat of that last move, but in reverse. You feel me?"

His eyes boggled at me, probably wondering if I was insane or not. "I watched Rias blow a hole through your head, so I know you'll regenerate from it. Probably. Well, either way, now's your last chance to surrender."

I stared at him, but his mouth remained willfully shut. "Just to confirm, you aren't surrendering, is that correct?"

All I got was a hateful glare. "Good enough for me. Let's do this."

I stepped back, dragging his body along with me to get enough room and momentum to successfully do what I wanted. I'm pretty sure I heard screams for me to stop, but it was hard to hear over the crackling flames that still lingered all around us. That was probably the only reason they weren't trying to stop me either, now that I think about it. Well, there was likely no other way to win, Riser himself against the rest of the peerage was kind of like an unstoppable force scenario.

I was just a much larger, actually unstoppable force.

Well, time to get decapitating. I stepped forward, Riser trailing behind me until my arm thrusted forward, whipping his body into an arc on an intercept course with the fun side of my sword. His hair whipped in the air, his clothes were a ruined mess from being split in half while wearing them, and blood soaked just about every inch in the bottom two thirds of his body. I'm pretty sure a light spray of blood formed an arc behind him as he flew.

Moments before his shoulder (my aim was slightly off) was about to connect with the planted blade, my hand closed in on itself and Riser vanished from my grasp.

The announcer came on again.

"The King from Team Phenex has been retired. Team Gremory Wins!"

Harbinger

General Note: Hey guys, for anyone who doesn't follow my other story and doesn't already know, works been increasing in ironically, my downtime in work (which is frequently a lot) is my only time to actually write. I've been able to get a lot done in the past few days though, so here we are.

I'll say it again since it bears repeating, but none of my stories are abandoned unless I explicitly say so, and I would do that (post a notice) if I actually had to bail on something like this, so don't worry about that. I have 0 intentions or barriers that would require me to do so however, so that shouldn't happen.

Anyway, Some good ol fashioned Aatrox brutality. I've tried to come up with some ideas that actually make Aatrox's moves make sense in a 'real life' scenario. Like his passive is just called 'Deathbringer Stance' and in game, its just some extra damage on one autoattack before it goes on cooldown. So ya.

Let me know what you think!