Ultimate Class

Three years passed in the flash of an eye, with Apollyon remaining as the undisputed number one of the underworld's younger generation. In fact, it was proven when the at the young age of 11 he was officially promoted to the rank of Ultimate Class Devil.

As Apollyon had wondered about, a series of arranged marriages ensued after the Evil Piece Ceremony and the Youth Competition. Sona had been both lucky and clever. She had been the last of the few to be engaged, and seeing and hearing what was happening to her friends and disliking the thought of being forced to marry someone like Rias had to with Riser, disgusted and worried her. As such, before one had been confirmed for her, she claimed she would only marry he who defeated her in a game of chess. While not prodigious in demonic energy or her clan trait affinity, she was especially intelligent, which she put to good use.

Unfortunately, Rias was the worst affected by it. In order to forge an alliance with the Phenex clan, Lord Gremory had sold his only daughter, engaging her to the 3rd son of Phenex. Riser Phenex had been especially smug at seeing the dissatisfaction on both of their faces, although less so on Rias' since it was more insulting than anything else.

Rias had not been pleased. Not only was she engaged to someone without her permission or input, but more importantly that someone was not Apollyon. Riser's reputation at this point outside of his ability was already rather muddy with his philandering and harem peerage being widely known. His obnoxious attitude and superiority when facing rias had only worsened her opinion, just as much as she had been infuriated when she found out he had been humiliating her cousin, Sairorg. She had screamed, shouted and even run away to the Bael clan to hide with Apollyon. Of course, she hadn't forgotten to drag Akeno along with her. Her reaction had gotten even worse when she found out that Apollyon had been betrothed to Seekvaira. Her anger, jealousy and despair had almost overwhelmed her, though she had lashed out at everyone during that period of time, especially Seekvaira, nearly ruining their friendship when she accused the girl of stealing what was hers. The engagement had been the only one out of the devil nobility's younger generation where neither party refused or minded. While not admiring each other, both were close and fond of each other, and both were attractive. Seekvaira had secretly been more than pleased, giddy even, which had confused her somewhat, but still, she had made sure to thank her parents. Apollyon didn't mind either, finding Seekvaira pleasant and cute. The reactions of those around him was what was most annoying, especially Rias and Kuisha, though Kuisha had been much quieter and tried to be discreet about her displeasure, she was still very obvious. Eventually, Rias had demanded a kiss in compensation, which then led to Kuisha asking one not wanting to lose to Rias, and equally angry. Seekvaira had then demanded one in compensation as his betrothed, which then led to Sona feeling left out, and thus she got a kiss too. At this point, Apollyon was exasperated and had not even questioned the shy Akeno who had asked for a kiss also.

Due to his close relationship with Rias, he had had a lot of time with Akeno also, and the two had gotten along well. Akeno was glad at his supposed magnamity for not despising her for being part fallen Angel and treating her equally to the others. The two also shared lightning affinities, through which he occasionally helped her with. This added along with his natural charm had soon gotten her smitten with him much like the others, as over the year after the Evil Piece Ceremony, Sona and Seekvaira had soon joined the little club.

In regards to Akeno and Kuisha, that had also caused him a headache, as Rias had quickly made Akeno her Queen after receiving her Evil Pieces, just as Sona had with Tsubaki and Seekvaira with her dragon butler sans Queen Alivian. He had been given to her by her parents, and served Seekvaira as her butler mainly while in his human form. However, unlike them, Apollyon had not used his Queen piece on Kuisha. In fact, he had not used it at all even though he had two more peerage members. If she had been his sole peerage member for the time being, Kuisha likely would not have minded not being his Queen, acknowledging the importance of the piece, especially for someone of his strength and status, however, Apollyon had almost immediately after inducted two other noble devils into his peerage, with one being a Bishop like Kuisha. That had panicked her, and the fact both had been cute girls had not helped her panic. The decision of his had also earned the momentary displeasure of the rest of the girls, jealous and suspicious of his motives, but considering the matters of peerages being private, they soon gave up. Also, both new additions were of high ranking clans, and had shown relative potential. Kuisha had finally calmed down after bargaining some hugs and kisses from Apollyon, which led him to suspect how affected she was, or if it was merely a ploy for his attention and affection. In any case, he didn't dislike her, and so didn't mind. In fact, he found her pouting expression rather cute.

For his peerage, he had made Kuisha his Bishop with his mutated piece, while adding Latia Astaroth who while from a branch of the clan, also had a parent from the Agares clan, and so had inherited both clan traits. His third member, was Iryuka Glasya-Labolas, who was from the main branch and showed more potential than its actual heir Zephrydor. Iryuka used up his non-mutated Rook, which helped her defensive clan trait. He had met the two at the Devil Youth Gathering after his Evil Piece Ceremony, and had talked to the both of them. His looks and performance had gained their admiration above the original recognition from his status and rumours. His focus on them had mainly due to his memories recognising them and picking up that they were the future heirs of their respective clans after the original two were removed. This proved their ability, especially with Latia considering she was from the branch clan. Therefore, he had made sure to focus on them and then ask them to join his peerage especially sincerely.

An invitation from the current strongest, most handsome and of the greatest status in their generation had been particularly flattering and appealing, and had not required much consideration on their part. A few weeks later, and they were a part of his peerage.

Despite being basically shunned and abandoned by the Bael Clan, Sairorg had also been given Evil Pieces, or better yet, allowed to keep his, and had also been filling his pieces. Over the three years since, his strength had increased significantly, with the driven devil even beginning to touch upon Touki. As such, his mood and mindset had improved just as much, with his discrimination also diminishing, although the stain on his name was impossible to remove.

The two had also been sparring and training together more and more often over the years, with the two working together in improving their physical bodies and strength and physical skills and Touki. Apollyon had also gained an understanding and ability of Touki, with his being slightly more refined than Sairorg. The only issue was the illness of Misla Bael, which affected them both but more so Sairorg, who in desperation began training even harder.

Apollyon's training got his demonic energy, and more specifically his power of destruction had progressed to a level far surpassing his physical improvements. He had incorporated the knowledge of how to use the lightning logia fruit from the foreign memories he had gained, and further from the basis of lightning magic. His power of destruction was much stronger and more versatile than any other's use of it bar the obvious two such as his father's and Sirzechs. He had surpassed Venelana disappointing and exciting her simultaneously. His mother had been especially glad, as not only had he grown so strong, but now Venelana had less excuses to take him away from her. Due to the growing number of girls around him, along with his increased training, his time with his mother was slightly affected.

Due to his increase in power, his improvement had slowed slightly, but he had also just end termed his growth period which slightly balanced it out. His sparring partners had increased to include his parents, Venelana and occasionally Grayfia and Serafall also. On the rarest occasions he managed to convince Sirzechs to test him as well, though mainly due to the aid of Rias and Venelana pleading too. Thanks to his close relationship with Rias and Venelana he had a close enough relationship with Grayfia to ask her to help him and to spar. By the age of 13 and the public official Youth Devil Competitons, he was already just shy of Grayfia's strength and usually drew with her thanks to his logia abilities. At this point, only Serafall, Sirzechs and his father could injure him, with Serafall's ice being the only one to affect him, whereas Sirzechs and Zekram merely overwhelmed his power of destruction with their own higher rank and purer power of destruction. His was quickly closing in on theirs however, especially his fathers.

By the time of the competitons however, the peerages of Rias and Apollyon had increased in number. Rias had gained a few more members, with Apollyon coming with her one time, and his interference speeding up the process of another.

Thanks to his memories of the future where he doesn't exist, Apollyon remembered the tragic past of Rias' peerage members. One in particular was important as he remembered that the nekoshou Koneko had a stronger older sister who had been wronged and turned into a rebel terrorist. The situation had also occurred in the underworld, allowing him to interfere and gain a strong peerage member.

As such, with the help of his clan he had kept an eye on the Naberius clan and had eventually found the signs of his experimental bases. Soon enough, both nekoshou had been rescued, with Kuroka joining his peerage with his Mutated Rook and Shirone joining Rias' as her Rook. Due to the lessened trauma, with Apollyon's timely saving preventing Kuroka's rebellion and massacre, and lessening the sister's suspicion, Shirone kept her name, instead of being granted the name of Koneko, although Rias did occasionally use Koneko as a nickname, getting the girl used to both names. Kuroka was slightly older than them, but was also stronger than most of them too. Kuroka was particularly beautiful, which had once again earned Rias', Kuisha's, Seekvaira's and to a lesser extents the others dissatisfaction. Over the years his relationship with Seekvaira, prompted by their betrothal had also grown much closer, with her joining Rias and the others in developing strong feelings for him instead of mere admiration. With him saving Kuroka and Shirone, Kuroka also developed a strong obsession and dependence with him, while Shirone was slightly more indifferent due to her lack of awareness of her circumstances she had been saved from. As such, the chaos of his home and the girls around him had only grown.

It had grown even further, when Apollyon joined Rias on her trip to Romania. He had remembered the addition of Gasper, and more importantly his only friend before reincarnation, Valerie Tepes. Her sacred gear was immensely important, and something he wanted in his peerage. The current her was pretty low-key, with only one of her brothers understanding her significance, but her sacred gear had yet to awaken or if it had it was unknown temporarily, making his rescue of her much less of an issue.

When Rias had stumbled upon Gasper, he had questioned him, and then used the excuse of saving Valerie to calm him. Hearing enough, Apollyon had then snuck in and kidnapped/rescued Valerie also, offering her to join his peerage too. While Gasper became Rias' Bishop, Valerie became a Pawn, taking up one Mutated piece and two normal pieces.

The sudden rush of events had helped her awaken her sacred gear, pleasing Apollyon greatly. Apollyon had quickly instructed her not to expose it, and made sure to remind both Rias and Gasper to keep quiet about it too. His excuse was that it was too powerful and dangerous to use casually, and that others might get jealous or greedy. That had quickly scared them sufficiently.

His acquirement of the Sephiroth Graal and subsequent actions had impressed and pleased his father greatly. His father had actually laughed loudly for a short while, while patting his back and congratulating him.

Valerie joining him was incredibly important, as not only did it mean her Sacred Gear was now hidden, but also served as a pretty effective healer. Once she had grown comfortable, with both him and her life as his servant, as well as her sacred gear, he had then asked her to save his sister in law, Misla Bael.

The real reason behind Misla Bael's miraculous recovery was hidden to the publicly, but Sairorg and Misla both knew the truth, and both had thanked the two of Apollyon and Valerie excessively. Sairorg had actually cried in joy and thanks while hugging him.

After helping his family, and proving its success in curing the sleeping disease, Apollyon had then worked on finding the hidden descendant of Leviathan. Thanks to his father's connections to the Old Satan Faction, it had been easier, and he had eventually found her.

Before she could be harmed or captured due to her exposure, Apollyon had her moved to his quarters of the Bael Estate where he and his peerage stayed. The introduction of another pretty girl, especially a helpless sleeping one had once more caused dissatisfaction, but the explanation that he was going to cure her, and her status as a Longinus wielding Leviathan quickly silenced them. Luckily for him, no one seemed to question why or how he knew the information he did.

Valerie then used her sacred gear to heal Ingvild. The girl had been scared and surprised at first, but once matters were explained and exaggerated, to the extent that he claimed to not only save and protect her from the evil and cruel reaches of the Old Satan Faction but also had her healed from a deadly disease, she grew slightly more trusting. Her healing triggered the awakening of her sacred gear, Nereid Kyrie, exciting Apollyon, as it meant his long lasting plan for his Queen was in its final stages.

By the time he was 13, he had reached the peak of Ultimate Class, bordering Satan class, in all manners of categories, and now had the courage to attempt his plan. He had been eager while he had been in the familiar forest finding his familiar, but had held back until now. His familiar had been a Dragon which he had Ingvild's slight help with. She too had contracted a dragon familiar, her familiarity with her sacred gear improving greatly. As such, when the next full moon arrived, Apollyon took Ingvild with him to the familiar forest in search of its number one ranked inhabitant.

They searched for a while before finding the Chaos Karma Dragon King. When they finally did, Tiamat was less than pleased at being awoken from her slumber. Apollyon had quickly instructed Ingvild to subtly use her sacred gear to indirectly influence Tiamat, making her calmer and feel more comfortable and familiar with them, in order to make sure he could reason with ehr and better convince her whether verbally or physically;

"You brat! Why are you here disturbing me. Get lost before I burn you to a crisp."

"Tiamat, I am Apollyon Bael, I won't leave, as I am here for you."

"What? Are you here to make me your familiar? You've got some guts kid."

"No, I already have a familiar. I have been saving my Queen piece in order to reincarnate you as my Queen."

"You think I will just become your servant, and a devil at that? You are too weak boy, I doubt your piece would be able to work on me even if I somehow agreed."

"You can't call me weak before defeating me, Tiamat, and my piece is mutated."

"Did you say your name was Apollyon Bael? As in that brat of Zekram's who has been popular lately?"

"Yes."

"Alright. I guess I could spare some time to teach you some manners, and that there's always someone better out there."

Before he could respond, she lunged forwards, her class slashing through his body. At least what seemed his body. Apollyon had barely reacted in time, grabbing Ingvild and flashing off as thunder, carrying her to a nearby mountain peak to watch, and be out of harms way. While Ingvild was strong, stronger than Sona, Rias and the others around him, due to her Leviathan blood and Longinus, she was definitely not at the level yet where she could interfere with this battle.

Tiamat scowled after she realised she had only got his afterimage, albeit impressed. His speed had made her cautious enough to realise that he wasn't the usual overconfident braggart, but someone who actually could make her work for a victory. Her scowl quickly changed into a predatory grin as she grew excited at the prospect.

Morphing into human form, she exchanged a series of quick blows with Apollyon. Not achieving much, she changed back into dragon form, and the two got into a much more serious battle. Apollyon was utilising all of his training, even his self created moves based off of One Piece. Crimson lightning thundered all over the area, leaving a barren wasteland and effectively wounding Tiamat.

Thanks to his logia abilities, he managed to gain a steady advantage over Tiamat as he avoided injury and her wounds accumulated and tired her more quickly, even though his strength was only marginally above hers. Victory finally crawled by, albeit barely and more so on a technicality. Either way, Tiamat begrudgingly agreed, and upon looking at his prematurely matured body looking closer to 16 than 13, Tiamat claimed him as her mate as well as her King. His unequally handsome face blushed as crimson as his lightning in response, earning an amused chuckle from Tiamat, who proceeded to tease him further.

"You have defeated me, and we dragons submit and listen to strength only. As my King, I will only listen to you anyway, and by defeating me you can claim me as your mate. Therefore, from now on, you are my mate. I won't let you refuse."

Her eyes twinkled, especially considering that Apollyon had also promised her a lot of treasure. She had lived a long time, and seen a lot of handsome and strong men, dragons and gods, but one such as Apollyon, who was so handsome and so strong for his age and shining so bright with potential was something else entirely. She wanted to lay claim to him that could be considered a treasure, and was also interested in what would undoubtedly be an interesting future beside him.

Her joining of his peerage as his Queen and mate had unsurprisingly garnered a lot of negative feedback, this time with his mother and Venelana included. The two,older women were jealous, although not for the same reason as the other girls. They were married, but still laid claim to a role suited for an older woman, but now Tiamat filled every role, as his peerage member, older and mature woman to help and coddle his, while also being his self proclaimed lover. In any case, all of the women and girls around him held opinions, but his reasoning and Tiamat's strength quickly calmed them down. His father, on the other hand was again incredibly happy and impressed. Even in the underworld and to the proud devils Tiamat was considered a mighty figure, and held considerable status.

The introduction of a Dragon King into his peerage had automatically disqualified him from the informal rating games at the Youth Competitons under the group section, due to his peerage's strength being far too unfair and gaining the first place unilaterally. He was still eligible for the individual competition, although that too was complained about due to his status as an Ultimate Class Devil, however, it was allowed as the age limit to entry was at 25, which was argued that others with Ultimate Class strength could also appear among the contestants.

Over these three years, his body had grown taller and sturdier, gaining muscle and even greater charm. While clearly muscled, it was not to the same extent as Sairorg, instead leaner and more perfectly proportioned. His face had also matured slightly, becoming more manly, which alongside his more muscular form, reduced his androgynous appearance and instead replaced it with a stronger masculine charm. While undoubtedly handsome, he still retained his beauty, and his long hair, which now reached his waist.

Like Rias, he had also ventured into the human world to explore, and had searched for and eventually stumbled across both Lavinia and Jeanne. He had found Lavinia just after she had been abandoned by Glenda and had coaxed her into joining his peerage, while he had found Jeanne after her expulsion from her orphanage and had reincarnated her also, managing to find her before she joined the Chaos Brigade. Lavinia had taken up his remaining Mutated Pawn, whereas Ingvild had previously taken the other along with two regular Pawns. Jeanne on the other hand, used up only a single regular Knight piece, and awakened her sacred gear Blade Blacksmith by the way. It was likely stimulated by the Evil Piece and came as a pleasant surprise to Jeanne and the rest of his peerage, while he was merely glad at the ease of awakening rather than surprised since he already knew from his memories of the future.

As such, his peerage was now nearly entirely filled, missing only a single Knight and Pawn. His peerage was also completely filled with beautiful and cute girls, being rather suspicious, but his status and strength, as wel,as his polite public behaviour dimmed the rumours and suspicions.

Seekvaira was slightly jealous, as were the other girls, but his relationships with all of them had been improving, and he had promised to not do anything he shouldn't except with her to Seekvaira.

The public Youth Gathering of Noble Devils had arrived and begun, with Apollyon in the spotlight as usual. The organisers had decided to place the group competition first, likely due to Apollyon being the star of the event, and only in the solo competition.

Apollyon was seated on a small throne beside his father while he and the four Maous sat in larger thrones, all in the biggest VIP box above the arena. Befitting his status, he wore exquisite aristocratic attire that perfectly matched his gorgeous face and showcased his well defined physique. His smiling and waving at the crowd only served to further excite them, with some female devils even fainting. Despite his young age, his appearance was deceptive and looked older, which was why he appeared so handsome and had such an effect.

The matches passed by quickly, with only a few peerages being noteworthy in their ability. Due to the requirement to have at least six peerage members, neither of Apollyon's friends other than Sairorg participated. His friends and peerage where all watching the stands along with their parents. To his surprise, Iryuka was sitting with Ravel Phenex, and Rias was getting along with the blonde rather well despite her animosity for her brother.

Soon enough, the competition ended with final victory of a smug Riser. His smug expression was crumpled however, upon seeing Apollyon's bored expression, his indifference worse than mocking him.

"Now, for the solo competition, the first round is for all contestants to get into the ring, and only the last 32 standing will remain. No rules, anything goes."

Over 100 Noble devils were teleported randomly into the large rating game arena, while the rest of the crowd watched on at the spectacle.

Rolling his eyes, Apollyon floated up into the sky and elementalised. His crimson lightning body of destruction swelled slightly, before lightning shaped power of destruction rained down on the surroundings, instantly eliminating over 10 contestants.

Having decided he had participated enough, Apollyon turned back into his normal form and yawned, landing back down and sitting on a nearby piece of debris from his attack. After half an hour, the number of contestants were divided into 32, teleporting everyone back to the stands while they waited for the next matches.

Rias, Sona, Seekvaira, Iryuka, Kuisha, Latia, Apollyon, Sairorg and Riser had all made it through, with Sairorg having shown especially powerful performances.

Rolling his shoulders, Apollyon smiled and congratulated them all. Rias glanced at him sneakily, before blushing and blurting something out.

"Apollyon! Whoever wins out of us, you have to give us a reward."

The rest of the girls shared a look and blushed too before nodding and glancing at him eagerly. Rolling his eyes, Apollyon sighed lightly before grinning back, "Sure. But to make it fair, if none of you make it to the top 8 then your reward goes to whoever wins a game between the other girls. The pouting of the other girls from his peerage that weren't devil nobility quickly shifted into teasing grins at the high class devil girls. Even Tiamat chuckled lightly, amused at his wit.

Kuroka smirked, "Don't do too well girls, nya."

Akeno giggled, "Fufufu, sorry Rias, I'm not sure whether to cheer for you now."

Seeing all of the girls fired up, Apollyon gave a small smile before staring at Riser, his mood complicated. He was unsure if he should involve himself in the matter between Rias and Riser. It was a political issue, and one that should be resolved by Rias, not him. But, he also didn't want to see her engaged to someone else, no matter how selfish or hypocritical it was. Rias too was desperate to rid herself of it, and so he felt he should. However, the political sensitivity was not something he wanted involve himself in, and ignoring the Phenex family, upsetting Lord Gremory would be annoying. Shrugging, he decided to do it, unwilling to cower back because of some complications that couldn't be dealt with. Also, as the son of Zekram Bael, politics will always follow him so avoiding it could only last so long. In any case, he was sure he was already stronger than both Lord Gremory and Lord Phenex, so he could always beat the two into submission in a worst case scenario.