italics - Thoughts

Bold underlined - Spells/Sword Skills

[Bold] - Ddraig

[Ddraig] - Ddraig mental speech

{Bold} - Albion speech

[Issei] - Issei mental speech with Ddraig

[Issei] - Issei speaking with Ddraig

Underlined - Timeskips/Flashbacks

"Bold" - Rating Game Announcement

Disclaimer: I do not own Highchool Dxd, Sword Art Online, or any of its characters. All rights belong to their creators.


Interlude 1: Gremory Vs. Sitri

"Orya!"

"Hm!"

*Clang~ Clang~*

It was an ordinary day. Very nice weather too.

*Clang, ClangClangClang*

Too bad it was being used for training(depending on who you looked at)

"Hah…hah…" Issei panted as he propped himself up with Ascalon.

"Whew." Not too far away, Kiba was also panting harshly.

"Come on, what are you guys waiting for? You need to build up your stamina! Especially you, Issei!" Kazuto, the one who was in charge of training them, shouted out, tapping the back of his blade on his shoulder.

"Hah, hah, let us rest for a bit, you slave driver!" Issei shouted out, nearly collapsing onto the floor right there and then. "You have been forcing us to fight you non-stop for nearly 4 hours already!"

"Then that means you just need to train more!" Kazuto narrowed his eyes.

"We have weights attached to our limbs!" Issei complained. "And they feel so heavy! Me and Kiba have been making do with the Boosts I supply between ourselves every now and then, but we are almost at the end of our limit!"

"It is rare that I agree with Issei, but we are extremely exhausted, Kirito." Kiba wiped his brow. "How come you are not tired?"

"Me?" Kazuto looked a little surprised. "Hmm, well, I guess it's because I am using my Sacred Gear to force my body beyond its limits?"

"…you are even brutal towards your body…"

Kazuto narrowed his eyes at the brown-haired boy who had spoken that. I won't let you rest until you are at least proficient with the blade! You have Ascalon! It would be blasphemy if you do not even use it and keep lending it to Xenovia! I know it is more convenient for her to use it, but after she gets used to Durandal, then what? You have to learn how to use Ascalon to prepare for such a thing happening!

"Kirito-kun~" The voice of his wife/girlfriend brought him out of his thoughts. "You should really let them rest you know."

"But Asuna!" Kazuto dispelled his crystalline blade, facing the two ladies who had just arrived. "Rias told me to train these two, and Kiba himself asked me to train him to be better!"

"No buts." Asuna told Kazuto firmly. "This is not that game, so no overexerting yourself. "

"Mama is right, Papa!" Yui giggled, jumping towards the only devil who did not even look out of breath. "If you keep pushing yourself, your body will not recover properly! Since this is the real world, you can only push yourself so much before your body collapses under the strain!"

"…fine." Kazuto finally relented, causing the two boys behind him to sigh in relief. But after this, they are going to be put under twice as much training! Hmm, what should I do? Make them fight against me while having heavy practise blades to use? I could get Kiba to make them. Or perhaps some of those limb restraints, that make you feel as if you are moving under water? Or perhaps-

"No plotting of extra training as well, Papa." Yui jumped up, smacking the boy in his chest with her head.

How did she-

"You forget that I can monitor your heart rate from the Augma that that you use to monitor your status Papa, as well as your brain waves." Yui chided. "After spending two years watching you and Mama, as well as these almost two years spent with you, I can guess what you are thinking most of the time now."

"…I can never win against girls, can't I?" Kirito asked, a small grin on his face.

"Nope!" Asuna agreed, spreading a picnic blanket out, before opening the basket she had brought. "Now you better let those two rest. Otherwise, when we meet up with Liz online, I will tell her what happened to that sword she made for you."

"Please don't." Kazuto pleaded with his wife/girlfriend. If she hears that I treated it as a disposable weapon against that Boss fight, she will never let me hear the end of it!


Timeskip

"Papa."

"Hmm?" Kazuto looked down, facing his daughter as she sat on his lap. She was peering up at his face, a few crumbs on hers. As he spoke, he used a free finger to wipe them away from her small face. "What is it Yui?"

"I was wondering…" She looked back down at her sandwich. "How did you get access to your Sacred Gear?"

"Oh?" Kazuto smiled faintly, ignoring the smirks that Issei and Kiba were directing at him for acting like putty under his daughter's words. "Why do you want to know that sweetheart?"

"Because I want to know more about it!" Yui turned around in his lap, fully facing the boy. "Kayaba told me about Sacred Gears, but he never explained how they are activated, or why!"

"Hmm…" Kazuto tried to think of a suitable response. "Well, people activate their Sacred Gears when they are under a lot of stress, or under certain conditions."

"Like yours?"

"Something like that." Kazuto nodded his head, ruffling Yui's head. "Do you want to ask Azazel-san later? He knows more about Sacred Gears than me."

"…only if you and Mama come with me." Yui pouted a little, somewhat disappointed that Kazuto did not know much about the ability he had.

"Sure thing." Kazuto agreed easily. After all, I want to ask him some more things…

Having finished his sandwich, Kazuto decided to scoot closer to his girlfriend, before laying his head against her shoulder.

A little surprised by that action, Asuna quickly recomposed herself, resting her head against his. Upon seeing this, Yui quickly made herself comfortable between the two, snuggling against their warm bodies.

Like this, they enjoyed the silence and scenery, acting as if they and Yui were the ones there.

Kiba and Issei, having finished their food, decided to take a short, but needed, break before they were forced to go through their hellish training again.

"Neh, Kirito-kun?"

"Hm?" Kazuto gave a noncommittal grunt.

"Rias-san is going to fight Sairaorg-san, right?" Asuna asked. "Do you think they would be fine?"

"Maybe." Kazuto took a quick peek at said boy. Compared to the first time they met, Issei's body had grown quite muscular. Not so much it was obvious, but enough for Kazuto to tell that he would be a formidable opponent in combat. "His skill with the sword is barely passable, so he would lose against any true practitioner, like us, Kiba or Xenovia, but he is at least skilled enough to slice magic, so he would survive most magic attacks, which are a swordsman's weakness."

"I do hope that Rias-san wins this Game." Asuna murmured. "Though that may be because I am being biased towards her, seeing as she is our friend."

Friend. Kazuto let the word roll of his tongue. Back then, we would have not thought about making friends with Rias-san. At best, we would have been work partners in a give and take relationship. But now…I am a King. A King of an incomplete Peerage, but a King nonetheless. I would need to be more friendly with Rias-san since we would be working close together.

As Kazuto thought these thoughts, he could not help but think.

About his first Rating Game.


Flashback(A day before the Gremory and Sitri Rating Game)

Today was a day of the meeting. A day before the Rating game.

The moment everyone had gathered inside the room(including the SAO duo), Azazel started off the meeting.

"I have some things to talk about, but first things first." Azazel looked towards the brown-haired boy. "Ise, how is your Balance Breaker state?"

"I managed to get used to it somehow, but there a few conditions." Issei frowned slightly as he thought about the conditions that he had spoken about. Honestly, it was a little annoyed at them. It is just like I had managed to complete a extremely difficult test, but behind it was more of them.

"When I change into my Balance Breaker, I need time to charge it up. When it is charging, the time until transformation will be displayed on my gauntlet's jewel. Plus, when I am in the middle of charging up, I can't use Boosted Gear. Doubling and Transfer are, I can only transform once per day, and even if I cancel my transformation before it reaches its time limit, my Sacred Gear would be deprived of almost all its power."

"…yep, just like the data says." Azazel took a quick look through the sheaf of papers in his hands. "It's almost exactly the same as past Sekiryuuteis. Though there were also cases in which they could use the Sacred Gear even before they released their armour. So, what's the time needed for the transformation in your case?"

"Around one and a half minutes."

"So the time was shortened thanks to your training and getting used to it." Azazel mused out loud. "However, those two minutes are a matter of life-and-death. To put it bluntly, it's hardly useful in actual combat. Above all, the time until the transformation during which Boosted Gear can't be used is just too painful. Since there are a large number of people that can defeat you within those one and a half minutes. You have to think of how you can take care of yourself until you transform. Those one and a half minutes are your greatest weakness. You have learned some basic swordplay with Ascalon from Kirito, but it won't help you survive those one and a half minutes easily."

As expected of sensei. Issei nodded as he took in the words of Azazel. He instantly could tell what my weaknesses were and pointed them out. That makes what I have to do much easier. Which begs the question: Should I try to use some swordplay to defend myself for the countdown, or should I just run and evade attacks until then? Issei thought of something he had learned before. Actually, what about those things…

"Boosted Gear's Doubling and Transfer are important, since they have a wide range of uses." Azazel took his attention off his papers. "But Balance Breaker is equally as important as it is indispensable against a powerful enemy. Both have their own weakness and advantages…Issei, how long can you use Balance Breaker?"

"30 minutes." Came the quick reply. "Though, if I use my power, the time I can stay in that state decreases."

"For your first time limit, that is pretty good. Shows the results of your training." Azazel sighed. "Unfortunately, that time limit of yours would be a severe weakness, as normal a Rating Game could last between a few hours to a couple of days. Ise, that means you would have to increase your time limit as much as possible, as soon as possible. So after this meeting, try to increase your limit as much as possible."

"Hai, sensei!" Issei nodded his head.

"Good. Now with that out of the way…" Azazel cleared his throat. "I need to tell you about a small change that the Maou has agreed on. It involves the fight with the Flauros heiress, actually. It has been decided that instead of both matches being played out separately, the match between the Gremory and Sitri Peerage, and the match between the Flauros Peerage and the duo Kirito and Asuna would be held at the same time in the form of a tag-team battle. After that, there would be another match. The second match would be for fulfilling their bet."

"A tag team battle?" Kirito asked in a curious tone.

"Yes." Azazel explained further . "Since both of you have not participated, or even seen a Rating Game before, it has been decided that the Flauros and Sitiri Peerages will fight together against the Gremory Peerage and you two youngsters." Azazel nodded towards Asuna and Kirito. "This match would act as a warm up for you to know what to expect for your own match. And for no unfair advantages, the field is going to be a place which none of you have seen or been to before, since the Flauros heir and Kirito and Asuna have not been in Kuoh for a long time."

"And with that, to put everyone on the same page...Rias, could you tell us what you know about the Sitri heiress's Peerage? Same with the Flauros heiress's Peerage for Kirito and Asuna, if possible."

Nodding her head, Rias passed a sheaf of papers to everyone, including Azazel and the couple.

"As far as I know, Sona has a Queen, a Knight, a Rook, two Pawns, and two Bishops." Rias counted off from the top of her head. "The Queen is a highly skilled naginta user. Their Knight comes from a family of exorcists, and has some talent with the blade as well. Her Rook is a hand-to-hand combatant like Koneko. Her Bishops are unknown, but I believe that they are more inclined towards supporting. And for their Pawns…one of them is a Sacred Gear user which has the ability to restrain and bind an enemy, as well as absorb their energy, while the other is a martial artist." Rias sighed. "Unfortunately, this information is not the full extent of their abilities, since the last time I saw them fight was a year ago sans Sona's recent battle with us against Loki-sama. And unlike us, they have the most up-to-date knowledge on our abilities and skills, so this would be even harder for us. What's more, their latest Pawns do not have their public abilities known besides what I had just said. It is likely they are hiding more abilities from us."

"As for Argo…" Kirito picked it up from there. "She has a Rook, two Knights, and two Bishops. The Rook has a utility type Sacred Gear, so she would most likely be unable to use it for battle. But she uses a mace, so she would pack quite the punch against an enemy. Their male Knight has some decent swordsmanship. Not to the level of Yuuto-san, but better than Hyoudou-san. He is also proficient with Sword Skills. Their other Knight…she is a kendo practitioner, so her skill with the sword is high. Around mine, or Asuna's level. She is also a speed-fighter, so she might resort to hit-and-run attacks like Yuuto-san. As for the two Bishops…one of them would be more proficient in long-ranged sniping attacks, while the other would most likely take a supporting role. However, she is very proficient with the dagger. And as for the King herself…" Kirito held his chin. "She would be a close to mid-range fighter, with her preferred weapons being claws or twin daggers. And all of them would be able to use Sword Skills."

So in total…that would make our total enemy count 14 people. 8 for Sona-kaichou, and 6 for Argo-san… Issei looked around the room. We have 10 people on our side, including Kirito and Asuna-san. In terms of skill, we may be even, but in terms of numbers and information, we are lower.

"In terms of knowledge of the other team's abilities, you are at the disadvantage." Azazel slowly nodded. "Although this is bad for us, these terms are acceptable. Often during the games and actual battles, the enemy has information on our skills beforehand."

Walking behind the desk, Azazel pulled out a whiteboard, surprising Issei by its sudden appearance, before he started to write some thigs down on it

"The Rating Game classifies players into different particular fighting types. Power, Technique, Wizard, Support." Azazel drew two lines, forming a cross. Then, he wrote down these four types, separating them into the four quadrants, before he continued.

"Out of these, Rias is a Wizard-type. The type that is superior in magic in general, so to speak. Akeno-san is the same. Kiba is a Technique-type. He fights with his speed and sword techniques. Xenovia is a Power-type that excels in the area of speed. A player that aims for a one-hit-certain-kill. Asia and Gasper are Support-types. Also, if you are to classify them with even more detail, Asia is closer to a Wizard-type, while Gasper is closer to a Technique-type. Koneko is a Power-type. And lastly, Ise. You are mainly a Power, type, but you lean towards the Support type as well because of your Gift power."

Issei felt like his brain was going to explode. So many things we have to learn! His head swooned a little. So, in other words, there are different types of enemies that can be categorised into four types in each Rating game…and I am a dual type which can be a Power-type that has the ability to support, huh.

Issei took a look at the board once more. This time, there were magnetic chess piece that represents each person in Rias's peerage. For Asia and Gasper, they were represented by the colours green and white respectively.

Issei noticed that he was situated near the Support quadrant, while being in the Power quadrant. Xenovia was firmly in the Power quadrant, with Kiba, Koneko and Asia being the same in the Technique, Power and Support quadrant respectively. Rias and Akeno were in the Wizard quadrant, with Rias and Akeno leaning slightly towards the Power and Support quadrant respectively. He was surprised to see Kirito and Asuna(represented by a sword and a rapier) on the line separating the Power and Technique quadrant, as well as the Technique and Support quadrant respectively. (*1*)

"As for Kirito and Asuna," he indicated to the whiteboard. "Both of you are, without a doubt, Technique-types. But, Asuna is a rare combination of Technique, Power and Support, leaning more towards Technique and Support, while Kirito is a combination of Power and Technique. Depending on how he fights, he can be either types."

Azazel the circled Issei's, Xenovia's, Koneko's, and Kirito's symbols, surprising him for a moment. "However, Power-types have to be very wary of Technique-types. More specifically, a variation of them called Counters. They can come from abilities or Sacred Gears."

"Counter-types are very powerful against Power-types like Koneko, Issei and Kirito because with one move, they can turn an unfavourable situation for them around with a single counter blow. This is because they would return the powerful attack directed at them, plus the power of the one who is doing the countering."

"So basically, a reflection…right?" Kirito asked.

"If that is the case, all I would need to do is pour more power into my attack!" Xenovia exclaimed, clenching her fist to drive her point home.

Azazel shook his head. "It is possible to overcome such a predicament like that, but it is another story when your opponent's skill far exceeds your own, or when they use their abilities to effectively fight against you. For counter-types, it is best to face them off against the same Technique-types, or the Wizard-types excelling in spells like Akeno. Rias's type of spells are mostly on brute force, so they won't work on counter-types as effectively. Basically, your battle compatibility is bad."

"I don't get it…" Xenovia held her head, confused. Issei would have been of the same mind, but he had some idea of what Azazel was saying. "I mean, even if they try to counter us with techniques, if I just overwhelm them, shouldn't that work? Even if our battle compatibility is bad? After all, I still managed to get some flying enemies with Durandal when I swung it hard enough."

No no no! Using a holy sword in a fight and using a regular blade in a fight would have entirely different results, won't it? Issei tsukkomied in his mind.

"Power does not necessarily mean you would always win." Azazel chided. "Ise, you have your Balance Breaker now, but do you think you can win against Kiba?"

Issei thought for a few seconds, before he answered. "…Speaking honestly, he would probably toy with me using his speed and receive little to no attacks."

If Issei was being completely honest, he would have not been able to touch Kiba, no matter what he did. Sure, fending him off would be possible, since he would have some reach with Ascalon now that he could use it at least a little proficiently compared to just using his bare fists. If one asked if he could fight against Kiba, the answer would be yes. But change the conditions from 'fight' to 'win', and there would be no doubt in his mind that he would lose. He might be able to get a few hits in, but Kiba would still win the battle in the end.

"And so that is how it is." Azazel looked at Xenovia. "Whether against Kiba or anyone else, you have openings for counter-attacks. Ise, if you don't create a counter- measure against counter-users, you won't be able to win against Kiba for life. That is what battle compatibility means."

Then, Azazel looked towards Rias. "Rias, if there are any counter-users in Sona Sitri's group, they might run into Ise, you know? If a counter eats up his enormous power, it will be an instant out. You need to come up with and refine some tactics for that."

"I know." Rias frowned. "Asuna-san has been helping me in that regard, along with Kirito. We have already worked out a few scenarios for Issei, and he is training in them. Although…for this battle the chance of that happening is very unlikely. Since most of the opponent are female."

At first, Issei wondered about what Rias was talking about, but he soon knew the answer.

"…Dress Break. Since he is the enemy of women, I don't think they'll want to fight him at all."

Ah, Koneko-chan's sharp words! Ah! What a certain kill! Issei felt his heart sting from that comment. ...but, I see. Women would not want to be my opponent if they have to fight against an opponent who has the ability to send their clothes flying with a single touch!

"What's this about a lecherous technique?"

Issei reflexively bowed body at a 90-degree angle when he felt the killing intent travelling up his spine. "I will never use that against any of your friends! And at that time, it was the only way I could use my magic effectively!"


After a few minutes...

Well, after the beating that Issei received, Kazuto had no problems believing that the boy would be extra careful around women who are not familiar with him(meaning the students of the school, sans the Gremory Peerage). Especially Asuna.

Ack… Kazuto placed a hand to his head. For a split second, he had felt a sharp pain hit his temple.

"Kirito-kun, are you okay?" Asuna, noticing the strange behaviour of Kazuto, placed a hand over his in an attempt to sooth his pain. He could feel the effects of whatever healing magic Asuna was using helping to diminish the pain.

"…I'm fine. Thanks Asuna." Kazuto shook his head lightly, rubbing his forehead in an effort to dispel the migraine which had seemingly formed, before he turned his attention back to whatever Azazel was saying.

"–say the chances of all of you winning are even at the moment." Azazel said. "I do believe that you will win. But I don't believe you would win for sure. The additions of the Flauros Peerage and Kirito and Asuna are wild cards for both teams."

"But if I were to crunch the numbers, the chances of you winning are around 60 percent." Azazel continued. "Like an actual game of chess, the value changes according to the situation on the board."

Everyone listened to the Fallen Angel closely. This person's words had a great effect, in the root of both the mind and body. Even Kazuto, who had not been with the Fallen Angel much, could feel the effects of his words.

"I have lived a long time. In that time, I have seen a great variety of battles. That's why I will say this. I have seen guys win despite having less than a ten percent chance of victory." Azazel's eyes had a steely note in them as he spoke the next words. "Do not take even a one-percent chance lightly. Don't believe that you'll definitely win. However, think that you want to win no matter what. This is the last advice I can give to you all in this training camp."

That was the last advice that Azazel spoke to them about, before he acted as the consultant for the discussion of tactics for the day of the battle.

Timeskip

Pretty soon, Kazuto realised that quite a number of hours had passed. In fact, it was dinner time. Asuna was a little sad that she could not have cooked some of the meal, but she made do with just making a few sandwiches for them to eat later(read, the two of them plus Yui).

"Oh, one more thing." Azazel opened the door to the closed room they had been in. "Because of some information that shall not be disclosed, this game will not be made public. The two Maous Lucifer and Leviathan would be attending, as well as the leaders of the Angel and Grigori faction besides the panel that would be decided for this match with its special conditions. That is all, and don't be so tense, got it?"

Cheery grin on his face, Azazel slowly closed the door behind him after dropping that proverbial bombshell on everyone.

At first, it was silent. Then-

""""EHHHHH?!""""

In the midst of the chaos, as Kazuto placed a hand to his head, no one noticed the golden lightning arcing between his fingers.

..

Afterwards, everyone went to bed a little worried, excited, and for some, pissed. Because the governor of the Grigori had told them that last titbit of information just when he left, there was no way for them to ask(read as interrogate) him about it. And by the time they got their wits together to chase him, he had already left to attend another meeting. Meaning he would not have joined them for dinner.

But they did manage to get revenge on him by preparing some of Asuna's 'Death-spice' sandwiches, with some super sour pickled radishes and extra salty and spicy curry rice for him to eat when he came back.

Revenge was a dish best served cold after all.


Day of the battle

It was time for the match between the Gremory Peerage(and Kazuto and Asuna), against the Sitri and Flauros Peerage.

For the sake of secrecy and privacy(for the match location and for the members involved specifically), a huge magic circle had been inscribed under the Gemory castle. The same could be assumed for the Sitri castle as well. Argo's Peerage would go along with the Sitri Peerage since they would have been together for the sake of planning out for today's match.

Right now, they were a few scant minutes away from all being teleported. As such, everyone was standing above the circle, ready to be transported to the field at a moment's notice.

Besides Asia, Xenovia, Kazuto and Asuna, all of them were wearing their Kuoh Academy summer uniforms. Asia was wearing a sister outfit, while Xenovia was wearing a skin-tight black suit. It honestly reminded Kazuto of a cross between some sort of bondage outfit, and a swimsuit. As for the two of them, they were wearing the same clothes, as well as some light armour that covered their chest, legs and arms. Underneath them were white and black clothes for Asuna and him respectively.

And if everyone's outfits were the norm for them, Kazuto was also expecting the Sitri Peerage to be wearing the Kuoh uniform as well. Rias's parents, brother and Azazel spoke from outside of the magic circle.

Rias, you've lost once before. Win for sure this time."

"Fight a battle that won't make you ashamed as the next head of the family. Everyone else as well, okay?"

"Do your best, Rias-nee-sama!"

"Well, I've taught you about the things you needed to be informed about this time. All that's left is to exert yourselves and go all out.

Kazuto tuned them out, checking through his outfit one more time, as well as Asuna's. It was an old habit from when he practised Kendo. As for Sirzechs and Grayfia, they were not there. Instead, they were at the location of the game. They were helping to prepare all the things that would be needed for the game. Also, it seemed like they were going to be multiple VIPS from other powers were invited, including those from the 3 great powers. Speaking of...

After a brief interrogation from everyone early that morning, they managed to extract the reason for why there were going to be VIPs viewing their match, as well as the fact why it would not be made public. The main reason from the devil side was to reduce the information of the Flauros clan being back in action, as well as to hide their abilities until further notice. The other teams would also get the same treatment until they were facing the Sitri Peerage. It was only then that the opposing team would be able to watch the footage of the match they were about to have.

At that moment, the magic circle mercilessly began to shine.

At last, the game is going to begin, eh? Kazuto was feeling apprehensive. Where would we be fighting? In an arena? A random environment? Or is it going to be in a large building? Either way, we would have time to plan, if what Rias-san had told us was true.

..

The moment the light faded, the first ting Kazuto saw was a large space, filled with comfortable looking chairs, sofas and a large ornate desk.

A reception table? Kazuto blinked in surprise. He had not been expecting that. Walking up to the thing, he hesitantly touched it. …this texture...if it weren't for the fact I can feel the notches and bumps in the wood, I would have thought this was a VR game… Was this what Kayaba wanted to reach?

Kazuo had a brief rundown of the Rating Game system before the match. And after listening to it, he was very inclined to think that the VR game that Kayaba had kicked off for the human world was mean to replicate the Rating games of the underworld.

"This place is…" Asuna stepped up next to Kazuto, her eyes all over the place, in awe and surprise of the level of detail in the Rating Game. His thoughts were interrupted by the announcement that was made.

"Everyone, I, the Queen of the Lucifer group, Grayfia, will be carrying the role of arbiter in the 'Rating Game' between the Gremory group, who is teamed up with Kirito and Asuna of an unknown group, and the Sitri group, who is teamed up with the Flauros group, on this occasion. In the name of my master, Sirzechs Lucifer, I will watch over the battle between these three families. It's a pleasure to be here. To get right to the main topic, the battlefield for today is a small hotel in a random place of Japan. This place has been prepared within a separate space as the game field."

"Both groups have been transported to their respective 'bases'. Rias-sama's 'base' is on the first floor of the hotel, where the reception area is, while Sona-sama's 'base' is on the top floor of the hotel, where the buffet area is. In order for Pawns to promote, please go to your opponent's 'bases'."

So, our bases are on opposite ends of this area, huh. Kazuto began to identify the pros and cons of their current location. Since this place is somewhere none of us have ever encountered before, this mean we would be able to predict the flow of battle to a certain extent. But there is only so much we can counter prepare against our enemy. But the downside would be the enemy would be able to reach our base faster if they flew down. We could do the same, but because of Shino(Sinon), we would be sniped before we could get close to them.

"This time, there will be special rules. Documents on this have been sent to each group, so please check them. A single bottle of the healing item 'Phoenix Tears' has been provided to each team. Furthermore, the time to strategize before the battle is thirty minutes. Contact with the opponent during this time is forbidden. The game is scheduled to start after thirty minutes. The winning condition for this match is for either both partnering teams to have their King eliminated, or for them to surrender."

"Let the strategy time begin."

..

"Based on the map we got, this field is rather large."

Almost immediately after Grayfia announced the start of the strategizing time, Rias opened up the document folder that had been given to them. Everyone gathered around her for the strategy meeting.

"There are 6 floors in total, with a small park in front of the hotel we are in. There is also an adjacent multi-storey carpark, and a part of a shopping district." Rias pointed out each area on the map they were given, before she placed the other piece of papers next to it: A floor plan, and some instructions. "Based on these plans, there is a kitchen, along with the reception area on our floor. The second to fifth floors are all hotel rooms, with the top floor being a buffet area."

"Hm…" Asuna picked up the paper with the instructions on it. "It says here that…there is a restriction on the use of Gasper-san's Sacred Gear Forbidden Balor View, and Issei-san is not allowed to Boost more than 12 times." Her brow raised when she read the last line. The most troubling one. "And this last one…Property damage will be penalised.' In other words, there is also demerit points of the destruction of the surrounding area?"

"That is especially bad for us." Rias nodded in agreement with Asuna's assessment. "Me, Akeno, Ise and Xenovia use mostly area-of-effect type attacks. With the narrow corridors, we would be able to reduce the chance of the enemy dodging, but it also severely reduces our attacking options." She sighed. "So a disadvantage straight off the bat."

"Not quite." Kirito suddenly interjected. "Some of the Sword Skills we use require quite a bit of space of us to activate, or it has a large area-of-effect. With this rule, we would be forced to use mostly thrusting-type Sword Skils. In which case, Asuna, Silica and Sinon, if she holds back, have the advantage. Klein, Argo, Leafa and would have to resort to regular sword techniques, or use thrusting type Sword skills."

"Can you use them?" Rias narrowed her eyes in thought.

"Use them? Yes." Kirito nodded with a frown. "But use them while dealing little damage to the surrounding area? That is a no. We have enough space to swing our blades, but because there is an aura surrounding our swords when we use Sword Skills, that aura would cut into the corridors and parts of the building, unless we use thrusting-type Sword Skills."

A beat. Then, Rias asked a question that had been plaguing her mind. "Would the Flauros heiress pose a threat in this situation?"

"Argo would have a greater range of Skills available to her, but that does not put her on the same level as us." Kirito closed his eyes. "While she has a greater number of Skills available for her to use, we have the better reach. Also, these Skills leave us vulnerable, so unless we are able to recover quickly, or have a partner to cover us, she would not use these skills willy nilly."

"I see. Thank you for that." Rias thanked Kirito for his input.

"How shall we approach this?" Akeno placed a hand on her cheek. "We can leave the building, there is a limit as to how far we can get away from it. We can do an aerial attack or go at them from the bottom."

"They could also use the things around us to fight us." Asuna reminded them. "Gremory-san, you said that there was a carpark near here, right? Could they use it as an improvised bomb? They would not be violating the rules, as they themselves were not damaging the field, but a product of the field itself."

"…" Rias thought about a few plans. Sona could use the cars as bombs, like Asuna had said. But the question is, do they have anyone with the skill to do such a thing? Also, there is the problem of getting to the base. We can us the stairs, fly there, or take the elevator. But we do not have any knowledge of everything is working. In the first place, would gas and water work? Would the cars run too, for that matter?

Mind set, she started to give out some orders. "Kiba, you go and check the cars. See if they are operational. Xenovia, check to see if the gas and water are in working order. Asuna, could you check to see if the elevator works as well?"

""Got it"" Kiba and Xenovia acknowledged Rias, before they sped off to do what they had to do. Asuna just nodded, before she too sped off with her Knight like speed. Rias still couldn't get over the fact that Asuna's speed had been enhanced to such an extent it nearly matched that of a Knight. And that was even before she had been Promoted.

Rias gave instructions to Gasper next. "Gasper, please change into bats and fly to every location within the hotel. Place a few bats outside to monitor the situation as well. Come back to report after you have scouted the area. In the opening of the game, you'll inform us of the situation within the field in detail."

"R-Roger!" The hikikomori cross-dresser turned into a swarm of bats within a moment.

"So, Gasper would be unable to use his Sacred Gear, right?" Issei asked Rias. "Then, would he fight using his vampire abilities and magic?"

"That's right." Rias turned to face Issei. "From the beginning, his time-stopping power carried a lot of risk. The other side has not only the counter-types I mentioned before, but also Saji-kun, who possesses a Sacred Gear that absorbs the ability of others, so we don't know what kind of counterattacks they'll use. Like suppressing it with genjutsu. There are also other technique's to take away a person's vision. When talking about such things, it becomes impossible to use that power in either the games or actual battle. Using meticulous caution is only natural."

Yes, there are many ways to get around Gaper's ability. Rias thought to herself. Gasper's ability was centred around whatever was in his field of vision. Meaning if you reduced said vision or took it away, this practically sealed Gasper's ability. Making him a soft target was just a bonus. Besides, Gasper himself was unable to control his ability very well unless he ingested some of Issei's blood, so this was all the more reason to seal this particular ability for now.

The glasses he had put on was meant to seal Gasper's ability. A product of the Governor's research.

"…The Rating Game isn't something you can win simply by having a lot of power." Akeno said, more for Issei's sake then hers. "The battle situation changes completely according to the battlefield and rules. Because this is a ground where even devils that lack strength can depend on wisdom and rise higher, it has become popular in the Underworld and among the other powers. The rules this time may be disadvantageous to us. However, if we can't make up for this, we won't be able to win and advance in the games from now on."

"'Even a Pawn can take down a King'. This is not only a rule in chess, but also a proverb that stands true in the Rating Games." Akeno smiled at Issei. "In other words, it implies that anyone with the proper methods can win."

"But you have to be careful Ise." Rias scrunched up the papers in her hand slightly She could not help but worry. "Since you attained Balance Breaker, the power of the eight Pawn pieces that I placed inside you have all been forcibly released. With this, you may be able to use Ddraig's power completely, but your body is still unable to fully cope with it. If you are not careful with the power of the Sekiryuutei, your body would be destroyed."

"Got it Buchou!" Issei saluted. "I will do my best to sufficiently restrain my power and help you out!"

"Is that so?" Kirito eyed Issei. "Then, how about a wager…"

..

After that, he strategy-planning continued on after that as well and we decided on even the minute tactics. Kirito and Asuna(when she returned) were also included in this phase of planning, seeing as they could also be used as pieces that Rias could use. They gave their own thoughts to the plans that were made, and changes were also made accordingly. Although, they allowed her to do most of the planning, since this was the first time they were in a Rating game and experiencing one.

Then, once half the time had passed since the strategy session started, the plan had been solidified.

Rias looked around at them and spoke. "The game will be starting fifteen minutes from now. We'll gather here again in ten minutes. Everyone, please remain on standby with your respective methods of relaxing until then."

""""Got it!""""


Timeskip

After they spent their time relaxing in their own ways, everyone gather back and went over the plan once more. Then-

"It is now time to begin." Grayfia waited a few seconds for the devils below to calm down, before she continued. "The time limit for this game will be a blitz-style of four hours. Without further ado…game start."

So, the game has started… Kazuto looked at Rias, who had stood up from her sitting position. And it's a blitz-style with a time limit of four hours…looks like Rating Games have a lot of diversity to them.

"Your instructions are just as we talked about." Rias started to issue commands. "Ise and Koneko-chan you will go up the stairs on the furthest to the left of us. Asuna and Kirito would go via the fire escape. Akeno and Gasper, you would do recon outside of the hotel, and try to see if you can help to knock out some of the opposing teams with lightning attacks. Kiba and Xenovia, you will be going by the furthest right staircase. Like before, Asia and I will be together, but this time, we will be on the move to reduce the chances of us being found and to make it easier for us to reach any one of your teams. Everyone got it?"

Everyone nodded their heads, fitting the small communicator beads in their ears.

"Now then, let us begin!"

"""""""Yes!"""""

"I will be heading off first!" Turning into a swarm of bats, Gasper split most of his transformed minions away from them, flying off to predetermined locations in the area.

At first, Rias wanted to send Gasper in to scout the enemy, but Asuna shot that down quickly. Despite the fact that they were the ones who had access to the kitchen, that did not mean they did not have the means to insta-kill Gasper. Like them, they had no idea what the other team had at their disposal. Even if they had plans of the hotel, they did not show the contents of said rooms. They also had a buffet next to them, but they did not know if they had any garlic-related food items, like garlic bread, or garlic powder. So instead, they settled for him to act like ecurity cameras on the outside and on the inside. As he had a limited number of them, Gasper would only be observing key movement points on a floor, until everyone else was about to move up to the next floor. At that point, Gasper would move up a floor and continue his observations. If he saw something suspicious, he would gather in the rafters to tell them about it.

"Then, Xenovia, let's go."

"Yes, Kiba."

Kiba and Xenovia left second. Kazuto felt that they were a good combination, as with Xenovia's brute force methods, she could be considered a Rook, despite her actual Piece being that of a Knight. Kiba's swordsmanship, although not perfect, was good for fighting against enemies one-on-one. Especially since the staircase would force them to fight head to head.

"Koneko-chan, let's go."

"Yes."

Issei and Koneko were the next to leave. With Toujou-san now using her full abilities, they would be able to get past any of the patrolling teams. Even if they did not, the main goal is to try and get Hyoudou-san to Promote. Kazuto smiled as he thought about the plan. But even if that got halted in some way, there is going to be two others attacking: My team, and Yuuto-san's team. It was a little surprising to see that Rias was plotting like this.

"I shall go then." Akeno bowed her head slightly, before she walked out of the reception area. With a snap, her wings were exposed, and with a flap, she got into the air. Kazuto had no doubts that Akeno would be able to complete her task well enough. That is, until Sinon started to do her usual thing. It feels like I am setting them up for failure, but I did warn them.

"Then, me and Asuna shall head off now." Kazuto stood up, along with Asuna.

"Be careful." Rias looked over them with slightly narrowed eyes. After they left, the only people who would be at their base would be Rias and Asia, but even they would leave once some time had passed to support the group. "If Kirito gets knocked out, this gives the team an edge over us."

"Won't happen that easily." Kazuto shook his head, a small grin on his face as he unsheathed his sword. "I was Solo Floor Clearer for a reason."


Koneko and Issei were advancing through the hotel at a steady pace. It was not quite running, nor was it quite walking. The reason they were moving like this was so that they would be able to react in time when moving around corners, and because with the carpeting on the floor, it muffled any noise they were making. At the pace they were going, their footfalls were practically non-existent.

Since Koneko-chan is using her powers, it would be hard for them to attack us with a sneak attack, wouldn't it? Issei thought to himself, as Koneko's ears twitched every so often. Still, Koneko-chan's in her true nekomata-mode is so deadly cute!

"Mmm…" Koneko frowned.

"What's wrong?" Issei stopped in place.

"This place has many levels, so it is hard to pin-point their exact location." Koneko's ears twitched again. "But I can tell that they are moving."

Currently, the duo were at the third floor. So they were somewhere in the middle of hotel that was their Rating Game arena. If Issei had to guess, everyone was either a floor above, or a floor below them, as this place was rather small. It was big enough for two adults to walk side by side, but the number of rooms they had passed on the way up was on the small side. Around 3 or 4 per side. And this place was a square shape.(For reference, each side is around 20 metres, and they were close to halfway.)

Koneko then pointed her finger upwards. "The closest enemy to us is right above us. But as for the ones on this floor…" Her face suddenly tensed. "…they are heading this way!"

"—!" Issei quickly settled into a swordsman stance, drawing Ascalon from his gauntlet in a practised movement. Usually, he would not have done such a thing, but in an enclosed space like this, he had a higher chance of hitting his enemy. Plus, there was the added benefit of extra range for him.

"Tch!" From behind the corner that they had been approaching, Saji appeared. "I was hoping to catch the two of you off guard, but it looks like I was hoping for too much, huh."

"Saji." Issei tightened his grip on his blade. He could see that Saji had also gone through some changes for his Sacred Gear. When they had been fighting against Loki, it looked like a deformed lizard. But now, it looked more like a gauntlet: a black snake was wound around his right arm tightly, going up to his forearm. His fingers were free, though the back of his hand had the appearance of a dragon's maw.

"Yo, Hyoudou." Saji flexed his hand. "Looks like you picked up some sword lessons from Kiba."

"Plus Kirito-san as well." Issei steadied his sword arm. "Usually, this would be disadvantageous for me, but Kirito has been training me to fight in both enclosed spaces and exposed areas. Let me show you!"

[Boost! Explosion!] Ddraig shouted out.

"Oryah!" Focusing all his power into his foot, Issei practically exploded, closing half the distance between them in an instant.

"Too bad, Hyoudou! The first attack is ours!" Saji shouted out with a small grin, before he thrust his hand out. At the same time, a line shot forwards. With a flick of his blade, Issei managed to slice the line before it came into contact with him…

…but another one shot out, this time going past him!

"Koneko-chan!" Issei spared a glance behind him, before his eyes widened in shock. There was something new behind them. An object that Issei had seen multiple times, but had not paid much attention to them as they made their rounds up to the third floor. To be precise, they were food carts. The ones used to carry food up to rooms. As he watched, the line came into contact with the cart. Shit!

"Koneko-chan, brace yourself!" Issei shouted out, before he turned his attention back towards Saji. He could no longer afford to lose his focus. "Hah!"

"Too bad." Saji jumped to the side, allowing the blade to cleave the air where he had been just seconds earlier, before launching multiple lines at them.

I didn't know he could do that! Eyes widening in surprise, Issei opted to use Ascalon, swinging it in a wide arc that deflected or cut the flying lines. But some got through, hitting the carts behind him and bouncing off of Koenko, who was a little surprised by how little an effect it displayed.

Then, came the pincer attack.

Saji pulled, launching the carts(which Issei had just noticed where tied by sheets) at Koneko, who just barely managed to turn around and stop the carts from dealing any damage to her.

At that moment, another girl jumped out of the overturned food carts, grappling Koneko.

"Koneko-chan!" Issei was forced to jump back as he dodged Saji's swing at him, using Ascalon to cut through the extended line attached to Koneko. Like a hot knife through butter, the line was severed. As he watched, the part attached to Koneko vanished, while the one that was attached to Saji's gauntlet retracted itself.

"I have to say, I did not expect Ascalon to cut through my lines like it was nothing." Saji gave a bitter smile as he observed the holy sword in Issei's hands. "Though, with Vitra being a dragon-type Sacred Gear, that should have been expected, I guess."

"Same to you about your Absorption line." Issei eyed the black gauntlet. "It looks pretty different from when we faced Loki a week back."

"Thanks to my training from hell, I managed to 'awaken' this Gear." Saji raised his hand up to show it off. "It was called Absorption line, but with these many Vitra-type Gears in me combining and stuff, it would be better to call it Absorption Gear. Although it is still incomplete."

"How did you manage to get here so fast?" Issei slowly backed away from Saji. He was at an advantage if they were fighting at range, since Issei would have been able to slice off the lines aimed at him thanks to Ddraig Boosting him. But at close range, it would be him that was at a disadvantage, since he would have blind spots from which he could not attack or defend with his sword. And Saji had settled into a brawler stance. Well, I could match him as well, but I want to see how well my swordsmanship has become. And a match like this is a great way to see where I would need to improve.

[Partner, that is reckless of you.]

I know that Ddraig. Issei narrowed his eyes, the tip of Ascalon aimed at Saji slightly in a relaxed grip. But Asclaon would be the only way for me to counter his lines, and with Argo-san on their side, she would have definitely planted the idea of him being a close-range combatant with the ability to drain the enemy's energy from up close or from far away. Kirito-san said so.

[…I can't deny that.]

"Ready for round two?" Saji inched closer to Issei.

"Let's gooo~!" Issei roared out, before he jumped in for the attack.

*whoosh*

"Too slow!" Saji jeered, before jabbing his right hand out, nailing Issei's exposed shoulder.

"Kuh!" Issei felt the blow rock his entire body, before another one slammed against his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. "Kauk!"

As he was lifted off from the ground, Issei flipped Ascalon such that it was pointed towards him, before he swung it sideways, nicking Saji as he jumped back to avoid the deadly blade, and cutting off the lines which had been attached to him. However, one remained on his left gauntlet. The one which held his sword.

[Reset!] Ddraig shouted out, almost reluctantly.

"You should ditch the sword, you know?" Saji cracked his fist. "I have the advantage over you in close range, since you are no expert with the sword. Besides, you were also a brawler originally."

"Yeah." Issei wiped the spit that had flown out of his mouth when Saji smashed his fist into his body. "That is true. No sense allowing you to gain a greater advantage over me as I try to defeat you. And Saji, looks like you became stronger from that training period, huh."

"Even an idiot can see that, right?" Saji retorted towards Issei speaking like a smart guy.

"Well, I am an idiot at some areas." Issei commented as he sheathed Ascalon by his side. "Sorry Saji, but I am going all out!"

[Countdown!]

"Going straight for Balance Breaker?" Saji's tone gained a bit of steel in them. "Kaichou told me that you would be vulnerable while in that state. You can't Boost, nor would you be able to draw Ascalon from Boosted Gear. Well, that last part is void since Ascalon is by your side."

"Like I said, I am an idiot." Issei shrugged his shoulders, before suddenly launching himself at Saji. "And I got chased by a dragon on a mountain for a month, so don't think I was slacking off either!"

"Wha–" Not expecting this, Saji was unable to react in time as Issei rolled across the floor before he launched himself upwards, both his feet making contact with Saji's jaw. Issei could feel the boy topple over from the sudden attack from below the belt. Literally.

Looks like Koneko-chan and the other girl are fighting. Issei thought to himself as he landed onto his feet. Already, he could hear the sounds of fighting from a nearby room. Neh, Saji. We are similar, you and I. From head to toe, we're similar. When it comes to our lewdness, our earnestness towards our masters, our idiocy, and our tendency to plunge straight forward only.

"Urgh…" Saji groaned as he got up from his laying position. "That was pretty powerful, Hyoudou. But don't think for a second that I will be knocked out by something as trivial as this!"

"Wouldn't think so for even a minute, Saji!" Issei glanced around him. He had to spend the next minute dodging Saji's attacks to prevent him from launching any lines at him. Or…he could counter him with surprise attacks. Then, his eyes locked onto Saji's.

Sorry, Saji. I will beat you and advance forward. Winning today is what's most important for us. Issei thought. I have to get closer to Vali. He will aim at me at some point. At that time, he may cause harm to Buchou, Asia and the others. For the sake of preventing that, I will become strong! I can't stop at a place like this!


It had been several minutes since the game began. And Kiba was starting to get a little tense from not meeting anyone since they started to move.

Currently, they were on the opposite end of the hotel, from where Issei and Koneko were. It had also been a few minutes since the game started…

…and it was too quiet.

Having gone first out of everyone, the Knight duo had managed to climb up to the fourth floor. And if everything was going according to plan, they would be one floor above Issei and Koneko.

And as for why they split up…well, the simple reason would be dividing and conquering. By splitting the teams up, they would be able to obtain the lower floors faster and more securely. They refrained from taking the lift, since it would alert the enemy to their position, as well as make them vulnerable to attacks, as they would have nowhere to escape. Also, they had no plans on securing the upper floors so early. Going in with just two Knights was too risky. At the very least, they wanted a supporter like Issei to join them, or a Rook like Koneko. They could also not rely on Kirito and Asuna, since they would be the only ones capable of facing off against the Peerage of the Flauros heiress.

This was also the reason why Akeno was chosen. She acted as a lookout that would prevent any opposing member of the opposite team from flying down to Promote. Similarly, she was the one chosen instead of Koneko because as the Queen, she had the greatest firepower to defend and attack against the ranged fighters in the opposing team. I think Kirito said she was…Sinon?

Just as Kiba thought that–

–A silhouette stood before them on the stairs they were ascending.

Kiba readied himself quickly, his neck craning to look at the girl that was similarly on edge. Looking closely, Kiba could see that it was a glasses-wearing girl with long hair.

Sona's Queen, the vice-president of the student council. Shinra Tsubaki.

Shinra-senpai is a high-levelled naginta user, isn't she… Kiba thought to himself when he observed the spear being held in her hands loosely. He knew that she had the advantage in terms of range, but with uneven footing, she was bound to be unable to display her usual level of skill. Something that worked in Kiba's and Xenovia's favour.

"How do you do, Kiba Yuuto-kun, Xenovia-san." Tsubaki said in a somewhat indifferent tone. "I knew that you would come here."

"That is interesting." Kiba generated a sword using his Sacred Gear. "Could you tell us how Kaichou reached that conclusion?" Beside him, Xenovia unsheathed the plain, but sturdy, blade that Rias had managed to obtain for her Knight. It was similar in size and weight to her Durandal, so this also served as a way for her to familiarise herself with the blade, and allow her to gain better fighting skills with it.

"It was simple, actually." Tsubaki levelled the spear at them. Beside her, two other individuals appeared. A girl with a tall figure and a slender girl carrying a Japanese sword held in a kendo stance. The Rook Tsubasa Yura, and the Knight Tomoe Meguri, respectively. "Kaichou thought that Rias would send the Knights to the furthest area to reduce the chances of us getting our Pawns to Promote."

That is a fair assumption to make… Kiba thought to himself. Yura-san is good at hand-to-hand combat, like Koneko, while Meguri-san is someone that is proficient with the sword and can use exorcism techniques. He then glanced at his partner. Xenovia can't use Durandal thanks to the special rules. But…that does not mean she is unable to fight properly without her usual armaments. Something the girls might not be able to figure out until later. So, we have the element of surprise for now.

No one moved at first, each of them sizing the other up to see what they would do. Kiba's side may not have the height or reach advantage, but they had a power advantage with Kiba's own Sacred Gear, Sword Birth, and Xenovia's tremendous strength. Durandal may have been sealed, but that did not mean she was out of the running yet. And both sides knew that. The only question was…did she have proper sword techniques down? After all, every time the others saw her fight, it was with brute strength. No finesse in her attacks. Or much technique, for that matter.

"Hah!" Tomoe broke the stalemate first. With a shout filled with fighting spirit, she cleaved her blade from left to right, similar to an Iai draw, as she stepped forward. Due to her higher elevation, this also meant that the slice would be angled downwards naturally, hitting them with an almost one hundred percent chance should they move forwards. The narrow staircase they were on also meant that the blade's arc would cover the entire area, so their only choice would be to retreat to avoid the attack.

…That is, if it was against an ordinary person or a devil who had not been fighting against someone who had crushed their norm with absurdity.

*clang*

Wide eyes met calm ones. "…How?"

"The way your sword was tilting to the right gave it away." Kiba spoke calmly as he held Tomoe in a stalemate. "And, you would have to do better than that to win against me. I have been sparring against someone who has reaction speeds that were just above a devil's, and that was before he reincarnated."

"HAH!" Xenovia took the opportunity presented to her to attack, swinging down her claymore-like blade in a straightforward overhead slash aimed at the Rook, Yura. They did not aim for Tsubaki, as she had the longer reach. But, if they took out the two vanguards before they confronted the boss, this match would be decided. Even if one of them fell, they would be able to severely injure the enemy and make them use their Phoenix Tear.

This was a plan they had decided on beforehand.

"Kuh!" Yura planted both her feet firmly on the stairs, using her fists clad in demonic energy to redirect the attack aimed at her to the side. Unfortunately…

"I expected that!" Xenovia released her hold on the large claymore, allowing it to fly–

J–in the direction of Tsubaki.

"Tch." With little change to her expression, the Queen of the Sitri Peerage expertly spun her naginta, deflecting the large blade yet again to blow past her head harmlessly and into the painting before the stairs, lodging it inside deeply and slicing the painting itself in half.

"Hah!" Xenovia threw herself at Yura, surprising the girl initially, as they wrestled on the floor. Nearby, Tsubaki stood to the side, unable to use her naginta in fear of hitting her own ally by mistake.

"Hmph!" Tomoe, having seen Kiba's eyes flit towards the other battle, pushed against Kiba, forcing him back down the stairs as he lost his balance. Raising his blade, he just managed to defend against the onslaught of attacks aimed at him unleashed by Tomoe's katana. As expected of a Knight. Her swordsmanship is in perfect form…

Both Knights used their Piece's inherent speed to exchange blows at a high pace. Were it not for the fact that they were on an even field, the two might have been equally matched. But Kiba would not know. For with the height difference, sword length difference, and difference in their attacking style, Tomoe was at an advantage. Kiba could not form a blade halfway through the fight, lest he leave Xenovia exposed to an attack from Tomoe.

With a sudden thrust, Kiba found his sword knocked away from his body, leaving him wide open to an attack.

Normally, such a thing would be easy for him to recover from, but with that attack, Kiba's centre of balance was changed. His footing was also on uneven heights, so he could not recover as fast as he usually did on a level field. With all of this combined, Kiba was forced to fall down the steps, his sword turned away from his enemy.

"With this, it is over!" Sensing victory, Tomoe swung her katana from its chest height, downwards–

*slick*

–and impaled herself in the blink of an eye.

"…eh?" Tomoe glanced down…no, she rolled down the steps, managing to see what had pierced her.

A broken, bloody blade that had formed halfway on the steps.

"Sorry, Meguri-san." Kiba gave an apologetic smile as he allowed the sword he had created with his Sacred Gear to dissipate. "We need to win this match."

..

The moment that Kiba had interlocked blades with Tomoe…no, from the moment she attacked using the pseudo Iai-draw, Kiba knew that Tomoe was on par with him, perhaps even better, in the art of the sword. Her swings were precise, her sword sharp and focused. Kiba knew that if he had fought against Tomoe a few weeks earlier, he would have been defeated. At that time, his sword, his swordsmanship, were dyed in the colours of vengeance and anger. They clouded his judgement, and thus, made his path in the sword flawed. Sure, with the target of his vengeance gone and with his heart clear once more, this meant that his sword was now unburdened with such things. But did he grow stronger and better from letting go or overcoming his burdens?

The answer to that, was no. As can be seen when his master pointed out that his blade had become distorted ever since they parted. And after the month-long training, he had managed to get back to what his master had deemed as barely acceptable.

So, in this moment, that meant that Tomoe was stronger than he in the art of the sword.

That was why Kiba knew that he had to rely on the weakness of Tomoe's source of strength: Her confidence in her blade.

With this confidence, it meant that Tomoe did not falter in her attacks. She would rarely question opportunities given to her in the midst of battle. And, unconsciously, she would look down on others should they fail to be able to keep up with her blade. She had trained in the art of the sword, and thus, she was confident in her sword. But too much confidence would lead to overconfidence.

That was what Kiba had been looking out for in their duel.

So, when Tomoe tensed her arms and shifted her back slightly to alter her centre of gravity to thrust at him, Kiba created a small blade just before her feet. this caused Tomoe to lose her balance and trip. Normally, something like this can be easily recoverable.

But because Tomoe was so confident in her (self-presumed)last attack, she did not check to see if her footing was fine. Because she was confident her strike would connect, she wanted to end this fight quickly to help out her partner and her Queen. Because she had done this move many, many times, she did not notice when her body had started to fall forwards as she moved forwards, her mind instead replaying the instant she executed this same move in the past and adrenaline clouding her senses slightly. She had expected Kiba to be cut, and to be severely injured.

And because of this, overconfidence clouded her vision. Allowing Kiba to generate a longer blade just in time for Tomoe's chest and stomach to be pierced, He purposely made them thin as well, so that the blade would break off and shatter in her body, making sure the blow was so severe she would be retired.

..

"…Damn it…I got too cocky…" Tomoe quickly pieced together what had happened. Especially when she saw part of the sword that had pierced her stomach still remain on the steps, and the glint of metal that signified the miniature, broken blade he had used to act as a stopper for Tomoe to trip in the first place.

Sorry, Meguri-san. But this match belongs to Buchou. Kiba watched as Tomoe disappeared into particles of light.

"Sona Sitri-sama's Knight has retired."

""!"" The two Pieces of the Sitri Peerage stiffened in surprise at the announcement that Grayfia made. Seeing a chance, Xenovia headbutted the Rook she was grappling with, before she threw her off her body. "Kiba!"

"Got it!" Kiba created a holy-demonic blade for Xenovia, before he tossed it to her, creating another one for himself to use as well.

"…Damn it." Tsubaki growled in annoyance when she saw that Xenovia had been re-armed, and that Kiba had managed to defeat his opponent. "Tsubasa-san. We are retreating."

"Got it!" The Rook nodded her head once, before she sent a large block of demonic energy at them, along with Tsubaki. Kiba and Xenovia easily dealt with the attack, but when the smoke cleared, the two were gone.

"…You going to pick up the sword?" Kiba did not glance at his partner as he spoke, keeping an eye about their surroundings in case of an ambush.

"No." Xenovia answered immediately. "The blade Kiba made is much better suited for now."

"…That is true." Kiba answered after a moment's hesitation. "Xenovia, report to Buchou."

"Got it." Xenovia conveyed what had happened to Rias, before she turned her attention back to her surroundings. "Then, let's go."

With no other words exchanged between them, the duo cautiously moved to follow the two enemy Pieces that had escaped them.


A few minutes prior…

Akeno was a little bored by what she was doing. But she knew that it was very important.

Her job was very simple: Look over the entire hotel with a bird's eye view, and report the movements of the enemy team if they came within her sight.

But this simple job did not suit the sadistic-machoistic Queen of the Gremory Peerage. She much preferred to fight against her enemy face-to-face. Granted, she knew that in a Rating game, rushing in to fight was not exactly advisable, and that planning was the go-to option, but that did not mean Akeno had to be happy about what she was doing.

Hm… Akeno hummed to herself as she flew over the building once more. Nothing interesting has happened…perhaps all the action is happening inside?

That thought made Akeno frown. In that case, it would be better for me to get inside the hotel. But if I do that, there is a chance that they might be waiting for me to leave the airspace above the hotel so that they can get down to Promote…both options are valid…should I ask Buchou then?

Nodding her head, Akeno was about to place her finger to her ear to contact Rias when–

*swish*

"…that was too close…" Akeno muttered as she looked at the back of her hand which had been raised in the air. She could see the faint red line that was traced along it. "If I had not shifted to the right slightly, that arrow would have hit my hand. "Is this Sinon's shooting ability?"

*shew~*

As if too answer her question, several more arrows flew straight towards her, each aimed at different parts of her body. Dropping like a stone, Akeno narrowly avoided the attacks aimed at her wings and leg respectively. So, they are aiming to cripple me then?

Now on guard, Akeno quickly flew up in a burst of speed. If I fly lower, I would have to crane my neck to see where the arrows are coming from. I would be able to take cover, but that would defeat the purpose of me being outside. And it is essential I stay outside, since they have begun to attack me. They could have done so the minute I stepped outside, but them attacking me now means that I am hindering their plans somehow by being in the sky. This only leaves two options. Flying higher, or flying towards them. The second option would make me an easier target, but I would be able to attack them more accurately as well. But they have range on their side, so that leaves the first option. This would allow me to oversee the entire area, while also making it harder for Sinon to hit me.

A few more arrows were shot her way, but because she was no longer caught off-guard, Akeno easily dealt with them by striking out with her lightning, dodging the rest that drifted off course. Akeno spent half a minute doing this, and each time, although the number of arrows aimed at her increased(somehow not dropping in speed or accuracy much at all in-between each shot per wave), she managed to not get hit even once. In fact, Akeno was making this into a game, her sadistic tendencies coming out.

"Fu fu fu! Is that all you can do?" A vicious grin on her face, Akeno swiped the air before her with her lightning, making aa literal wall that blasted the arrows into dust mid-flight. "Perhaps I should go down there for some disciplining of them? Fu fu fu…"

A few more volleys of arrows, as well as a few stray balls of demonic energy were shot her way, but she neatly avoided them all. Hm…that was strange…that felt much weaker than the last wave they launch-

"Hail Bullet!"

"-!" Hearing the name of an attack with her enhanced hearing, Akeno instantly became more guarded, her eyes on the lookout for the tell-tale sign of a Sword Skill being unleashed. She quickly picked out the golden-yellow colour of the Sword Skill attack. As she watched, the single, glowing arrow split itself into three, glowing spherical attacks, not losing its speed for even a moment. Akeno tried to fend them off with her lightning, but was shocked when they not only got pass her defences, but also followed her slightly when she dodged at the last moment. So, they have a tracking feature…but…

"This is…a bit much isn't it?" Akeno's 'S-mode' switched off as she nervously chuckled when she saw the twenty-odd other glowing arrows flying after her, before they too split into three and homed in on her from various angles.

If I can't block them like usual, then– Akeno turned her wide-lightning strikes into a focused beam. "–how about this?"

Firing it, she was pleased to see the golden attack disperse into fine particles. Unfortunately for her, the attack only managed to destroy one of the numerous attacks aimed at her. Well, this would be harsh…

Utilizing the speed her Queen Piece gave her, Akeno dodged and weaved between the shot aimed at her, using the slightly more stamina-and-demonic-energy-consuming focused barrage to destroy those that got too close to her. However…

"Guh!" Akeno let out a grunt of pain when she got hit by one of the golden spheres in her leg. Instead of dispersing however, she was surprised to see the glow fade, revealing a golden-fletched arrow embedded in her wound. Or rather, one-third of an arrow, perfectly split into a third, and with golden energy faintly surrounding the arrow.

This surprise also caused her concentration to slip ever so slightly, allowing another arrow to weave through her barrage of attacks and hit her left arm.

Now, Akeno was panicking a little. This is bad. With one of my arms out of commission, I would be more vulnerable to that Sword skill. I also don't know if they would be able to unleash it again, since Kirito and Asuna said they could unleash numerous Sword Skills in succession before they had to rest to let their body recover. And that factor is independent from how many Sword Skills they could unleash before their reserves get depleted.

"Buchou, I have been hit by Sinon's attacks. I will be retreating to the ground to take cover." Akeno grit her teeth in frustration at being forced to retreat. "As such I will also be unable to continue my earlier role."

"This is fine." Rias spoke through the earpiece. "The plan for you to be outside was for you to maximise your potential. If you are forced to fight indoors, the only demerit would be that you would have to weaken your loner range output. Hold out until we get to your position."

"Got it." Akeno descended, using a modified burst of lightning to act as a flash grenade to allow her to get away under cover. "I will be at the back of the hotel waiting for you Bucho-"

"Oyah!"

"-!" A male figure garbed in red armour had jumped out of the fourth floor window, sword raised in the air. Acting quickly, Akeno dropped like a stone, shooting lightning out of her hand to injure the exposed foe. Kirito said that there some Sword Skills whose attacks allowed them to move in midair by a few steps! If I can get far enough away, I should be-

"Too bad!" The male figure grinned. Behind him, a female figure she had seen interacting with Asuna appeared as well, a mace clutched in her hands. "You fell for it! Lightning Fall!"

"Cra-"

Akeno did not have enough time to get out of the way. Klein dropped to the floor far faster than she thought possible without the aid of his wings, before he stabbed the katana into the ground, taking in the lightning that was unleashed at him, as well as the lightning he made himself, and redirecting it into the ground harmlessly.

At the same time, the girl in a puffy dress jumped off of the man, mace glowing. "Power Strike!"

"Urgh!" Akeno was slammed into the ground by the mace, the ground cracking heavily underneath her. She tried to move, but found that her body would not respond to her. This is…paralysis?

"Sorry, not sorry." The pink-haired mace-user shouldered her weapon on her shoulder. "We knew the only way that we would win against someone with ore experience and power than us was to surprise them and keep them in place when we dealt the final blow. The Sword Skill I used not only has a stunning effect, it also has an interesting effect when used in real life, where the person hit would be unable to even use demonic energy. Well, provided they do not have the control needed to use demonic energy."

"If it makes you feel better, we have more experience in fighting than you." The red-garbed swordsman walked up towards Akeno, before he placed his sword before him in a kendo stance. "Sorry about this. We have a bet to win for our King."

Move damn it! Akeno struggled to even lift her hand, which felt like there had been specially made leaden weights tied to it. Helplessly, she could only watch as the katana swung down, aiming to bisect her in half. It was even glowing slightly, which meant that the blade was in the process of using a Sword Skill.

I am sorry Buchou…looks like I failed you…

"Sona Sitri-sama's Knight has retired."


A few minutes prior…

"This is rather similar to VR don't you think Kirito-kun?"

"Yeah, it is." Kazuto agreed as he ran his hand over his sword once more. Lisbeth had helped to make it for him, along with Asuna's rapier. He would have asked for something heavier, but flashbacks from when he was playing the Ordinal Scale event stopped him. Well, the blade itself is balanced, if a little on the heavier side overall. Just how I like it.

Kazuto liked his weapons to have some weight. Not only to remind him this was, of course, a weapon, but also to give him an edge when fighting.

..

If one calculated an attack using physics, they would need two things really. Mass and acceleration. If they wanted to find out the pressure used in slicing(or rather, how sharp the attack would be), then surface area used in said act would come into play. Which is why he liked his swords a little on the heavy side. Well, in VR, it does not matter, but now…

Not only would there be some weight the enemy would have to counter should they interlock blades with him, the sword itself would deal out more damage because of the greater force behind it when he swung the blade. And if you added Sword Skills into the equation, which were already powerful enough to perfectly slice a piece of paper in half with a stick…Well, the only way to prevent a Sword Skill from hitting a person would be to either use another Sword Skill, erect barriers stacked up against each other and concentrated on the area of effect of the Sword Skill, or have a ridiculously sturdy item, like Xenovia's Durandal.

..

Right now though, the two were following their part of the plan. Ascending the fire escape.

Not only did this also them to prevent anyone from doing a possible pincer attack, it also served as a way for the duo to prevent anyone from trying to Promote down below, as the fire escape was directly behind their base, and as a way for them to give backup for either Kiba's or Issei's team. Well, I have doubts as to whether they would actually ask for assistance. It would not do for them to rely on another devil's Peerage after all…whoever we belong to anyway…

Well, Kazuto had an inkling it was Kayaba, but that would beg the question of how he managed to reincarnate the two in the first place. And why them, for that matter. Actually, now that I think about it…how did Kayaba manage to reincarnate us? And why us specifically, for that matter?

"Neh, Kirito-kun." Asuna suddenly stopped, calling out to him. "Looks like we have company."

Kazuto's guard immediately came up. Holding his sword out in front of him, ready to activate a thrusting-type Sword Skill or to defend against an attack, Kazuto looked around wearily. Asuna, however, tapped his shoulder and pointed to his ears.

At first, he was confused. But, when he kept quiet, he could hear something. A faint humming, and the beating of some wings. The wings were a giveaway for someone's position. But the way the wings were beating made Kazuto positive that the person had flown very often, and as such, was intimately familiar with wings. Like they had done so a million times.

Not to mention the humming…there was only one person that Kazuto knew who hummed that tune.

Shaking his head with a small smile on his face, Kazuto cautiously went up the stairs, Asuna close behind him, ready to fire off some healing spells on Kazuto if the need arose.

When they approached the next floor, they could see a blonde girl humming to herself, beating her wings up and down so as to keep herself afloat. "Hey Sugu."

"Onii-chan." Suguha stopped her humming. She made no move to draw the katana at her waist. "I should have known you would have come here."

"This place is the best place for an ambush after all." Kazuto grinned wryly. "Not only is the fire escape a good place to coordinate an attack from, since it is connected to multiple locations throughout the hotel, it also protects someone from outside attacks. The metal bars blur a person's movement, and the shadows cast by the building help to hide a person as well. Not only that, but because of the rule to not damage the surrounding area, everyone would be unable to attack from outside in, lest they break that rule and get some demerit points."

"Got it right." Suguha landed on the fire escape, putting away her wings. "Argo was pretty upset when Sitri-san dismissed the fire escape entirely. In fact, Argo ground her head with her first for a few seconds for planning for everything but the fire escape being used by her, or used against her."

"Gremory-san was the same." Kazuto nodded his head. "But she eventually thought of it when Kiba-san reported the fire escape being outside their base."

"Really?" Suguha raised an eyebrow as she drew her weapon. "You guys didn't prompt her?"

"Well, we may have given her a little push with it." Kazuto admitted, before he narrowed his eyes. "And quit stalling."

*clang*

"Wah?!" A brown blur found her attack flung to the side, Kazuto's sword having hit the edge of her dagger, before she was pulled backwards by said dagger, crashing into the wall behind Suguha. Hmm, that looks like it was Fad Edge. A fast attack that was aimed at Asuna…trying to cripple our fighting effectiveness. Must be Argo's doing. The heiresses do not know how dangerous we are.

Suguha's eyes widened slightly. "How did you-"

"Your stance was a slightly off. Alittle too tense. And your eyes kept drifting to the side." Kazuto explained. Asuna quickly drew her rapier from her side, poised to fight. "Asuna, you fight against Silica. I will face Sugu."

"Got it." Asuna slowly walked over to Silica, her rapier poised to thrust forwards at any given moment.

"Think you can take me, Onii-chan?" Suguha grinned lightly as she readied her own weapon. "The last time we fought face-to-face, you lost."

"That match was meant for rehabilitation, and you know it." Despite what he said, Kazuto smiled. "Well, let's make more room shall we? Vertical Square."

Two sets of the four-hit attack later, and part of the door and wall was exposed, giving everyone more room to move and fight. Thanks to using more demonic energy, he managed to bypass the post-skill delay. It was detrimental in the long run for his reserves, but for a blitz battle of three hours, as long as he did not chuck out Sword Skills left and right, he would be able to use them with no problem.

"Didn't you say that breaking the area would give you demerit points?" Suguha raised an eyebrow at that action.

"I'm pretty sure your side did so as well." Kazuto easily countered. "Liz is a mace user, and most of her Sword Skills deal area damage. Sinon is a sniper, but she prefers attacks which pack a punch and have a long range. With the ability to infuse demonic energy into her shots as pseudo Sword Skills, her attacks would be more powerful, but the downside would be the area around her would get damaged slightly with every shot she fires off, and if her shots do not connect, they would create a small crater as well."

"That is true…but enough talk." With that, Suguha rushed him, sword raised over her head slightly in her usual overhead kendo stance. "Hah!"

"Hmph." Kazuto observed the distance between the, before he took one step and leaned to the side, allowing the attack to just brush past his exposed forearm. "You need to do better than that Sugu!"

"I know." Suguha leapt back, using her wings to help her get to the other side of the unexpectedly large platform that was the fire escape. "We may not have fought against each other much in the past few years, but I know that your fighting skills are nothing to scoff at. Especially since you nearly beat me the first time we sparred in the dojo. So, this time, I am going all out!"

The moment she said that, her figure blurred out of his sight. So, she is using her speed this time… Kazuto wasn't too worried. Suguha was someone who learned Kendo from a very young age. The basics of the basics would be ingrained into her. Sure, she could use her experience in live combat(if one could consider fighting in ALO live) to help make her style more flexible and such, but at the core of her fighting style, it is still deeply-rooted in kendo. Meaning…

"There!" Kazuto turned around in time to parry the attack aimed at his head.

*clang*

"… …" Suguha frowned at the block. "What gave me away?"

"You are a kendo practitioner. It would be hard for you to stray from the basics so soon."

"Maybe." Suguha grinned. "But now, I have Sword Skills to back me up as well. And some of them mesh nicely with some kendo stances, don't they?"

At first, Kazuto did not understand what Suguha was talking about. But when his brain connected the dots… …Shit!

"Avalanche!" From her overhead position, Suguha rushed Kazuto, her katana glowing a neon orange.

"Snack Bite!" Kazuto desperately activated the Sword Skill to counter Suguha's. Please be quick enough!

From his memory, Kazuto knew that Avalanche was a slow-to-start Sword Skill. But, that did not mean it was slow. If anything, it was one of the heavy hitting Sword Skills that had decent charging speed as well. If you combined it with the speed of a Knight, that combo became extremely devastating. Especially when said user was a kendo practitioner.

The Sword Skill, Snack Bite, was a skill that also had a small charge time. It was a mid-tier Sword Skill, but it was one of the weaker ones in terms of damage, causing many people to overlook it back in SAO. But what it lacked in power, more than made up for in terms of breaking through an enemy's defence and speed when it came to executing the attack. The only downside was that the skill had a limited range dependent on the sword itself, unlike all the other Sword Skills which had a small multiplier on the range of their attacks.

*clang~*

This time, both swords collided with each other with a much deeper ringing sound. The only indication of such an event happening was the sound it made, as well as the flashes of two swords meeting one in midair for a split second, before Suguha's blade was forced back, while Kazuto was forced to take a step back.

And, at that moment…

"Sona Sitri-sama's Knight has retired."

Chance! Kazuto acted the moment he saw Suguha momentarily pause from the sudden announcement. It was not much, maybe 0.5 seconds, but for his brain, which could process things much faster than regular people and some devils(now even faster after he had reincarnated), that was the opening he needed. "Hah!"

"Ugh!" Suguha got winded by the Senda skill he unleashed on her, forcing her back.

"Hragh!" Kazuto then tossed his sword, now glowing a burning orange, into the air.

"Shi-!" Suguha's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, her blade quickly raising to defend her head from the attack she knew that was coming.

Meteor Fall. A composite Sword Skill that Kazuto once used back in SAO, and had managed to create back in ALO with the introduction of Original Sword Skills. In fact, Suguha had been there when he first created this Composite Skill of his in ALO. It had the greatest potential in terms of PvP and PVE. Plus, Kazuto would be lying if he said he had not missed using this skill against foes. The shock on their faces when they were hit by it the first time, and the frustration afterwards when he used it on them again, was a little addicting to see.

But unfortunately for her, that was exactly what Kazuto was looking for.

The orange glow disappeared the moment Kazuto grasped the blade, surprising Suguha. But that surprise quickly changed to shock when his sword started to spin in his hand, glowing a bright blue. "Spinning Shield!"

"Urk!" Caught off guard by the defensive Sword Skill being unleashed at point-blank range, the kendo practitioner could do little but release her hold on her katana as the Sword Skill smashed itself into her wrist, knocking her sword out of the way and impaling it into the ceiling above. Had she not fallen over from the sudden attack from below her centre of gravity, she would have been able to grasp it. But currently, she was very much vulnerable, seeing as she was sitting on her her butt, with Kazuto's sword was poised over her chest. "Your loss."

"Looks like it." Suguha agreed, sighing. "Ah, I was hoping to win against you. I surrender!"

"One of Argo Flauros-sama's Knight has retired."

"See you later, Onii-chan!" With those parting words, Suguha dispersed into particles of light. It reminded Kazuto too much of SAO, so he turned away from the scene. Now then, Asuna should be finishing up right about now…


At the same time…

This is a pain to deal with…is this what it feels like to fight people like me? Asuna briefly, thought to herself before she deflected yet another attack aimed at her, this time her spine.

The fight against Keiko was…not progressing smoothly at all.

Asuna had known this fight would not be easy at all. First off, Keiko, or Silica, was a dagger user who leaned towards technique. In fact, she had been keeping up with the group that had cleared SAO relatively well. Goes to show that her determination and combat prowess was nothing to scoff at. Asuna knew this, so she was expecting this fight to be troublesome already, but not something she could not overcome.

But then came the actual fighting.

Time and time again, Asuna would lose track of where the small girl was, even when she tried to keep her eyes on the girl. The dagger user would always slip out of Asuna's sight and perception until the last moment, which gave Asuna barely any time to counter her. As a result of this, she had gotten quite the number of light scratches all over her body from attacks that she could not fully defend. And to make matters worse for her, Silica was small, making it hard for her to be hit by Asuna's already small-tipped and precise weapon. Add on to the fact that her Piece was the Bishop, this allowed her to practically spam Sword Skills in quick succession by chaining them like how Kazuto did once, while also making sure that she avoided taking heavy damage and dealing damage to the enemy at the same time.

Guh! Asuna grunted as she took a couple more hits from the small Bishop, managing to parry two of the four attacks, before Keiko slipped out of her perception again. Looks like Argo trained Silica up to be an assassin-type attacker…but it is still not fully polished.

Asuna was slowly learning how Keiko was working. When she was not attacking, the small girl would focus demonic energy on reducing the presence she left behind. Sight, sound, smell, those were either erased or dampened to such an extent it was negligible. If her eyes focused on the Bishop. Asuna would be able to 'see' her outline, but not her features. But should she glance at Keiko out of the corner of her eyes, her mind would not be able to register if Keiko was there, even if she was standing right next to her.

Then, when the girl attacked, she would keep up this presence concealment until the last moment, when she executed her Sword Skill. She would allow her Sword Skill to do most of the heavy lifting while she planned what Sword skill she should use next, and where to use it. The moment her attack ended, she would bring up her presence concealment once more for a few seconds to charge up her next Sword Skill, or to hide from her until she overcame her post-motion delay, and then strike again.

If my thinking is right...Asuna looked around her wearily. Keiko used Accel Raid, then Swift Trick, followed by Mirage Fang and Rapid bite before she starts off with Accel Raid or Fad Edge. And she had used Accel Raid earlier, so...

It was not much. But Asuna's eyes caught the sight of a slight blur next to her. Activating a spell, she aimed it in the general direction of where she thought Keiko was. "Ice Needles!"

The spell conjured numerous ice shards, having been miniaturised by Asuna's tinkering with the output of demonic energy when casting a spell, before shooting them at high speeds and peppering the space she aimed at.

"Kyah!"

Got her! Hearing the short scream, Asuna charged up a Sword Skill that would at the very least, incapacitate the girl. "Neutron!"

"Sona Sitri-sama's Knight has retired."

At the same time as her unleashing the fast-paced Skill, an announcement was suddenly uttered. Keiko, not having expected this, froze up.

Allowing the five-hit Skill to land on her small body and injure her. The attacks were so fast, they forced Keiko to roll away from Asuna in the duration of her post-motion Skill cooldown.

"Urgh…" Groaning, the small girl could only hold her injured right arm and leg as she lay on the ground. Due to the Sword Skill's attribute of Holy, Asuna was sure the attack had the girl in a great amount of pain.

"Sorry, Silica-chan." Asuna apologised as she cautiously walked up to the downed girl. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be…fine, Asuna-san." Keiko winced as she tried to sit up. "That attack is very dangerous against us devils, huh. Did you use it knowing that?"

"Not really." The taller girl confessed. "It was the only Skill I could think of that was fast and could cover a large area with a minimal cost. "

"One of Argo Flauros-sama's Knight has retired."

"And judging by that announcement, it looks like Suguha-san has also retired." Keiko sighed. "I surrender. There is no way I can defeat Asuna-san in this condition. With Kirito-san in the mix, I will lose for sure."

"One of Argo Flauros-sama's Bishop has retired."

"See you later, Asuna-san!" Keiko gave a cheery wave before she to dispersed into light.

"…See you later, Silica-chan." Asuna smiled, before she stood up, sheathing her rapier and waiting for Kazuto to get to her position. She had a Game to win.


"Sona Sitri-sama's Knight has retired."

"What?" Saji blinked in surprise at that, allowing Issei to get a heavy hit in. "Oof!"

"One of Argo Flauros-sama's Knight has retired."

"One of Argo Flauros-sama's Bishop has retired."

Two more announcements came in afterwards in short intervals. When he heard those, a frustrated look came across Saji's face. When he saw that, Issei could not help but taunt him a little. "Looks like your numbers are dwindling, Saji!"

"…We expected this to happen, but for three of our number to be defeated so quickly…" Saji shook his head. "Doesn't matter. If I can get rid of you at least, then this would be worth it!"

Saji quickly pointed his hand at Issei, a magic bullet forming in his hand. So he intends to finish me off quickly, huh. Too bad for you!

Acting quickly, Issei rolled out of the way and into an adjoining room, dodging the large attack, if the large explosion behind him was any indication.

When he rolled back up, he was surprised to see two girls grappling. At least, until his mind registered who it was that was grappling.

Koneko and Saji's kouhai had been fighting for a full minute now, if Issei's estimation was correct. And from what he was seeing, they were evenly matched.

no, that's wrong. Issei's eyes caught the beads of sweat that was on Koneko's opponent's face. Koneko-chan is more superior in hand-to-hand fighting compared to her. However, she is making use of the things here to help prevent herself room being hit. As he watched, Koneko's jab aimed at the kouhai's chest was warded off by a lamp that had been used as a makeshift weapon.

But, in the next moment, things fell apart for the kouhai.

Koneko threw a blanket towards the girl, momentarily obstructing her vision, before she got in close and smashed her fist into her opponent's stomach, momentarily winding her as she stumbled back, her weapon held before her unsteadily. Eh? Saji's kouhai is shaking a little, isn't she? Was Koneko's punch that hard? And why is her eyes swimming a little?

Koneko did not waste any time. Cladding her fist in a pale white aura, she drove it into her opponent's unguarded chest.

*Bang*

A good-sounding noise rang through the surroundings. At that instant, Saji's kouhai dropped to her knees.

"…I drove a fist clad with spirit energy into you. Since damage was also dealt to the blood vessels flowing inside you at the time, you won't be able to build up magic anymore. Furthermore, the damage also pierced through your insides…You can't move anymore." Koneko said as she stood over her opponent, her ears twitching a little as well.

In the back of his mind, Issei recalled something that Azazel had said before. That Koneko's true fighting style incorporated senjutsu that dealt damage to not only the outside of the body, but also the blood vessels and organs inside the body as well. It was a given that such a style could not be used for a long time, as senjutsu handled spirit energy, as well as malice and ill will, but that did not do anything to diminish how effective it was when used for a short time, like in a blitz-style rating game. A single hit from a senjutsu-clad fist, and the opponent would be dealt internal and external damage. Too much, and it would be an instant KO! If one thought about it, once Koneko mastered this, she would be the servant with the most effective attacks against any opponent not trained in senjutsu, or any cultivation art.

But Issei was not thinking about the mechanics or theory or reasoning of this sudden development. Rather…

Koneko-chan…you would look so cool if it weren't for your ears. Now, you just look cute. As Issei thought this, he heard a banging sound from behind him. Quickly turning around, Issei got into a combat-ready stance, only for multiple lines to connect with his body and for Saji to do a flying kick at his chest, knocking Issei away. "Gohok!"

Thankfully, he managed to get a fair distance away from Saji before he could launch another counterattack. Then again, he was focused on the disappearing form of his kouhai.

"…Saji-senpai, I'm sorry."

After she let just those few words leak out, the kouhai's shone and she disappeared from here. She had retired and been transferred away because she had sustained serious damage.

"One of Sona Sitri-sama's Pawns, retired."

"…Damn it." Saji growled, before he created yet another magic bullet in his palm. "If I can get you, then-"

"You won't hit me!" Issei quickly rolled behind one of the beds inside the room they were in. And not a moment too soon.

*Doon!*

Rolling into a crouch, Issei turned around in time to see the magic bullet that Saji had fired make a hole the size of his fist through the bedframe. That was too close! Beads of sweat dripped down Issei's forehead when he looked at the attack that had missed him by a few inches. Had that hit, I would have been out! But, how did Saji manage that? If I recall, he did not have that much of a reserve, like me.

It was then he noticed the line to Saji's chest. His mind made the connection. "Y-you are using your life force to attack?!" Issei realized the reason behind Saji's large magic attacks. The source of his powerful attacks were his life force. "Do you intend to die?"

Saji smiled humourlessly, a serious look on his face. "Yeah, I intend to die. I intend to beat you with the intention of dying. With my low magic, this is the only way for me to shoot powerful attacks. I convert my life-force into magic power using my Sacred Gear's ability. It's just as you see. I'm 'risking my life, as it were.' "

Saji grit his teeth, his eyes never leaving Issei's. "Do you understand our frustration, having our dream laughed at! Do you understand our desperation as we believe in our dream? This battle is being broadcast across the entire Underworld. We have to show the seriousness of the Sitri group in front of those guys that laughed at us!"

At that moment, a certain scene came into Issei's mind. One that overlapped with this very moment.

Saji…He is the same as me from back then…from Buchou's engagement party.

..

It was at that moment that he realised, that maybe, just maybe, Saji and him were not that different after all.

Both of them had wonderful masters. They both had dragon-type Sacred Gears which were linked to the Dragon kings. Both of them also wished to help their masters fulfil their wishes to the best of their abilities.

They had both fallen for their masters. They were both perverts, but had good intentions and was a good person behind that perversion. And, both of them willing to do anything to help their master.

In Issei's case, he had sacrificed his left arm for a temporary power boost to help him defeat Raiser and prevent the marriage of his master, Rias Gremory, with the arrogant Raiser Phenex. At that time, he had not considered his own life. He had poured everything into helping Rias, even if it meant sacrificing his life

And right now, in this case, Saji was willing to reduce his large lifespan in exchange for great power and magic reserves to defeat is enemy. Who in this case, was him, Issei. He would do anything, even die, to help his Master, Sona, reach her goal. Her dream.

..

even of you say that, it is clear you are exhausted. Issei could see that Saji was drained of stamina and energy. Not enough to make him stop, but it was clear for anyone to see. Most likely because you are constantly draining my energy, and overestimated how much power you had to control in that attack you just made.

"…Ise-senpai, I'll help." Koneko, having finished her battle and seeing Saji's exhausted state, attempted to come over, but Issei stopped her.

"No, Koneko-chan. Please let me do this just between me and Saji."

Koneko shook her head when she heard what Issei said. "That's no good. This is a team battle. Let's work together."

"Yeah, it's just as you say, Koneko-chan. But, while he was fighting against me, Saji didn't make any direct attacks on Koneko-chan. If he wanted to, he could have attached the line to Koneko-chan and sucked up your power. Instead, he use the lines as a distraction before he directed his kouhai to you. Why do you think he didn't do that even so?"

Koneko couldn't answer his question, but Saji answered it while giving a complacent smile.

"…Sorry, Toujou Koneko-chan. I want to win against Hyoudou, against the Sekiryuutei one-on-one. Didn't I tell you? Our dream is serious. We will build a school. We will construct a school without discrimination in the Underworld. And I will become a teacher…That is my dream…This battle is being broadcasted across the entire Underworld. That's why this has meaning. I, a Pawn! Will win against the same Pawn, Sekiryuutei Hyoudou Issei! I will defeat the Sekiryuutei! I'll win and say it boldly! That I will become a teacher!"

Saji was serious. His gaze was strong and had neither shadow nor gloom anywhere in it.

Issei spoke to Koneko again. "And that's how it is. If I just run away from his challenge, I'd be uncool, right? If I don't do it—. That's why, I have to do it. Because I'm his friend, I have no choice but to fight him seriously. I have to do it! Otherwise, I won't be able to show my face to Buchou!"

We are extremely similar. From our drive to help our masters, to our feelings for them. Issei thought to himself. That's why, the both of us want to fight in a one-on-one setting. No help from either side.

"… …" After hearing Issei's words, Koneko retreated to watch, giving both of them some space.

""Thank you."" Both Pawns thanked the small girl.

"Hyoudou." Saji looked at Issei, his eyes filled with resolution. "I'm serious about what I said earlier. I'm going to seriously defeat you, the Sekiryuutei."

Issei could tell that his determination was tremendous. So, he decided. He too, would show how tremendous his own determination was. "Yeah, let's do this, Saji!"

*Boom*

The moment, those words left his mouth, Saji fired multiple magic bullets at Issei, each of them the size of fists. But Issei, having expected that, jumped towards Saji.

Expecting him to grapple his body, Saji braced himself, but was surprised when he saw that Issei went past him, rolling out into the hallway they had just left moments earlier. "What?"

Acting quickly with the few seconds he had bought himself, Issei grasped onto the handle of Ascalon, which he had discarded earlier, and sliced off all the lines connecting him to Saji.

"Saji!" Issei roared out, taking up a brawler's stance, but with Ascalon held out loosely in his hand. "Like you, I will show you! The fruits of my own training!"

"That won't happen." Saji stepped out of the room, his hand held out before him. Issei's eyes widened in shock when he saw the steadily growing magic bullet in his hand. Issei could feel the demonic energy being compressed as it grew out slowly. Saji was breathing heavily, and sweat beaded his forehead, but he somehow had the energy and strength to grin at Issei. "This next attack, it won't affect the surrounding area. It will completely destroy just your body."

An attack filled with literally all his might, blood and soul… Issei was feeling a little afraid when his eyes set itself on the bullet forming in Saji's hand. He could barely handle the smaller, fist-sized attacks that Saji had been dishing out. Were it not for Kirito's severe trainings, he would have most likely been unable to avoid some of the attacks aimed at him. So, Saji intends to kill me with that… Issei gulped.

Saji smiled. "I was jealous of you. The pride of your master and senpai. The Sekiryuutei. Everyone knows about you. But, even though I'm the same Pawn as you, I have nothing. Nothing! That's why, I obtained pride and self-confidence. I will kill you, the Sekiryuutei!"

Saji…I had no idea you felt that way…Issei felt for Saji. Were their positions reversed, Issei would have no doubt he would hae done the same thing as Saji. No, I have done the same thing before, haven't I? Issei thought back to his match with Raiser. However…your dream…I will overcome it! For Buchou's dream!

Remember. What Kirito told you. Issei calmed himself down, even though he was staring at a large magic bullet that was reaching the size of a softball. Use my abilities in other ways. Dress Break was mainly used as a way for me to counter women and as a supporting attack for my finishers. Recall how I used it….define it…imagine it…

*Tooon!*

Saji finally shot the attack filled with all his might! Yet, Issei did not waver. He grasped Ascalon in his hand, aligning it in the centre of his body. Coat the blade in the core of my magic, Dress Break…and-!

"Dress Coat!" At the same time he shouted out the name of his new technique, derived from his first perverted one, Issei swung down Ascalon fiercely, as if he was willing it to cut through reality itself…

*DOON*

With two, simultaneous explosions, the demonic bullet that had been aimed at Issei...was cut in half. With is structure suddenly compromised, the bullet only managed to make it past Issei's body before it blew up, its aura spreading throughout the surroundings. In fact, it was a miracle that Issei did not get damaged by the attack that exploded so close to him.

"My magic bullet…was cut?!" Saji stumbled back, half in exhaustion and half in shock.

"Yeah." Issei cut the final line that had been connecting him to Saji. The one which had been attached to the back of his left hand. "That new Pawn is a monster, you know? He can break swords with just his skills, and move so fast, it is like he is a Knight. And that is all without Promoting! But, thanks to him drilling me, I can do this sort of thing. Although, this is still in its early stages."


Flashback(One week into the month-long training on the mountain)

Issei could still remember the training Kirito had forced him through.

Again and again, Kirito had sparred with him. And after every spar, they would turn their attention towards Issie's combat abilities with magic.

"I heard from Gremory-san, you know." Kirito spoke as he tapped his sword on his shoulder. "That your first spell was something called Dress Break."

Uh oh. Issei gulped nervously. If Kirito saw the footage from that time, I am dead!

"Just now, you thought something rude, didn't you?"

"N-n-nooo~ Of course not!" Issei practically shrieked in fear. I don't want to have a beating disguised as training!

"…Well, for the moment, that does not matter." Kirito sheathed his blade. "I saw the footage of you using Dress Break. What was it? You used your demonic energy to worm through a person's clothes, thereby shredding them, and exposing their nude bodies to the world, right?"

"…you aren't going to punish me?"

"Idiot. If I want to punish you for creating a magic that only you thought of and give you trauma to prevent you from using it, then what is the point of me training you?" Kirito asked a rhetorical question, before he shook his head. "Yes, I am angry that your first magic is something perverted. But regardless of the reasoning behind it's creation, it is very powerful. This simple magic that you created, in theory, it has the power to bypass any defensive enchantments on a person. At the very least, it could destroy full plate armour, since your magic seems to work by shredding the object from inside out, and as a repeller to force it of the person."

"…It has that much potential?" Issei's eyes widened as he mulled over what Kirito said. Hey, Ddraig. Is what Kirito said true?

[The boy is right. Your magic has the potential to do it. It is just that you did not have the chance to do so.]

"So, what are we going to do?" Issei looked at Kirito in slight confusion. "Practise my usage in Dress Break?"

Kirito slowly grinned, causing Issei to shiver slightly. For the grin promised of pain in the guise of training. "You are going to learn ways of how to use Dress Break offensively, other than as a prelude to a finishing move.

Issei was almost afraid to know how he was going to do so, but he did it anyway. "…and how am I going to do that exactly?"

"In. Live. Battle."

That day, it was said that the screams could be heard from all the way at the canyon, quite a distance away from the mountain the duo were training at.


During the month-long training Issei had to go through on the mountain, Kirito would visit him from time-to-time. This served two purposes. One, it was to see how far he had come in his fighting prowess. And two, to help improve his swordsmanship(a little went a long way), and see how well his training in using his first magic offensively came about.

First, was through live combat. Kirito would fire demonic bullets at him from various directions. Not too fast that Issei could not react, but just fast enough such that if Issei missed, it would hit him and leave a stinging pain behind, like he had been whacked upside the head by a hammer. It hurt, but enough to warrant him taking a break after being hit several dozen times. Eventually, Issei managed to coat Ascalon in the main magic, or core, of Dress Break, leading to the derivation of it: Dress Coat.

Issei had not managed to master the technique of Dress Coat, but it was fine for the moment. the level the two of them were hoping to reach was not attainable with just a few days of teaching, anyway.

The main idea for was for Issei to coat it over his entire body. Dress Break's nature as 'something which broke down foreign things with a trigger' would then take hold. So, whenever an attack magical in nature was aimed at him, it would lessen the attack to such an extent it would be practically negligible if it was weak enough. Of course, if the magic was too great in mass, the resulting destabilisation and explosion would harm him greatly(but not to the extent of the magic attack in its original state). But at the moment, it was enough for Issei to be able to use a medium to channel the core of Dress Break, and use his mediocre skill in swordplay to slice attacks apart or bat them away from him, which would then result in him getting as little damage as possible.

But, even if he failed, Issei still had his other backup.

Dividing.

He managed to get it from absorbing the blue jewel that had come from his rival, Vali. And the technique was a double-edged sword. It had a chance to fail, but if it succeeded it would halve the incoming attack, no matter what. And the cost for using such a technique, whether he succeeded or failed, was shaving off his own lifeforce.

..

And thanks to that final attack… Issei looked down at his gauntlet. The green jewel now sported the numeral '0'. I can go into my Balance Breaker mode!

"Sorry Saji, but you won't stop us at a place like this!" Sheathing his sword into the gauntlet in a fluid motion, Issei thrust his left fist out. "Let's gooooo! Shine! Boosted Geaaaar!"

[Welsh Dragon Balance Breaker!]

A dazzling red and extra-large aura surrounded Issei and changed into armour. At the same time, overflowing power welled up inside him

-About ten minutes had passed since the game began-

Issei was wearing the [Boosted Gear Scale Mail].


"Sona Sitri-sama's Knight has retired."

"One of Argo Flauros's Knight has retired."

"One of Argo Flauros's Bishop has retired."

"Eh?" The red-garbed man said in surprise. He stopped his swing downwards, the blade hovering mere inches from where she was about to be impaled. Most likely, he had been surprised by how quickly his teammates had been taken down.

That simple action of turning his head around…it saved Akeno.

"Akeno!" Just then, out of the corner of her sight, Akeno saw, and heard, her master appearing from around the corner.

"Tch." The mace using girl, Liz(Akeno now remembered the names of the devils in the Flauros's Peerage), clicked her tongue. Possibly in frustration. "We made a mistake, Klein. You handle your fellow red-head. I'll go against the nun. Sitri-san said that their Bishop are not offensive attackers, so I should be able to take her out relatively easily. You need to use your speed against that red-head though. She is their King."

"The one who can disintegrate things with some power she gathers in her hand, right?" Klein retracted his blade. "What about this one?"

"…unfortunately, we have to go fight them first." Liz made a disgruntled face as she lifted her hand up. "Earth Bind"

The moment she said that, Akeno was surprised to see liquid rock from below her, before it covered her entire body and solidified into rock, effectively cocooning her in earth.

"Don't bother trying to get out." Liz turned to face the new enemies that were approaching them, not looking at Akeno as she spoke. "This spell can withstand a Rook's attempt at escaping, be it from inside or out. The only downside is it's time limit."

But it is more than enough for us to deal with at least one of them before we come back to finish you off. Akeno thought to herself, seeing the unspoken words that Liz had wanted to say. Already, she could feel the effects of whatever paralysis that had taken a hold of her during that one Sword Skill wearing off. She was unable to utilise all of her strength, but she could at least move her hands...or at least, she tried to. With the earthen cocoon pinning her arms in place, she could not gather enough strength to even burst out. …Looks like she was telling the truth…

..

..

This will be a peace of cake. Rika, also known as Lisbeth or Liz, smirked as she hefted her one-handed mace. Klein should be able to stall the Gremory heiress long enough for me to take the nun out of commission. She might be able to protect her for some time, but once I use Power Strike, the light stun would buy Klein enough time to get the nun out of the game, and for me to finish off the Queen back there.

Well, it would have been easier if they had finished off the Queen right there and then, but both Rika and Klein did not want to chance being taken out by the Gremory King, even if one of them was keeping watch while the other did the final blow. It was just too risky for them.

"Surrender." The red-haired girl declared, a reddish-black ball in her hands. Standing not too far from her, the nun looked on anxiously. "With my Power of Destruction, you won't be able to win against us."

"Why?" Liz retorted, still smirking. "Cause it can disintegrate anything and everything? Well too bad. By the end of this, you would have lost two more cute servants of yours."

"Is that so?" The Gremory heiress merely raised an eyebrow. "Well then. Asia, would you like to show off your training?"

"Yes!" The nun, Asia, nodded her head strongly, before she slowly stood beside her master. Reaching behind her waist, she pulled out a slim dagger.

Instantly, the smirk on Rik's face faded slightly. So, the nun CAN fight…that is going to be more of a hassle.

"Klein, change of plans." Liz walked away from the Knight. Similarly, Asia followed her actions. "I face the nun. You distract the heiress."

"So, nothing's changed for me, basically?" Klein gave a roguish grin as he prepared himself. "Roger!"

Rika started to tune out whatever Klein was saying after that. Cautiously, she got into the stance she would need to handle the dagger-using nun.

Let's see…she is using a dagger, right? I guess Asuna taught her then. Rika's mind was already thinking through the possibilities that the small girl was going to do. It has been only a month or two, so it is likely that Asuna taught her only a few Sword Skills…maybe two or three. If that is the case, the list of skills would probably be… Armour Pierce, Rapid Bite, or Cross Edge.

"Ha…ha!" Timidly, the small nun thrust her dagger out, only for it to miss her target and hit the floor below, having over-extended and lost her balance.

"Isn't that cute…" Liz actually meant it. There was no malice or any ill intent behind those words whatsoever. The small blonde girl she was fighting was actually pretty adorable. Seeing the petite girl trying to hit her made her even cuter. But still…no Sword Skills? That means she is probably only trained in self-defence then. Not really a good choice to send her out to fight, but whatever. Mentally shrugging, Rika prepped herself to execute the brutally effective and fast Sword Skill she had in mind–

*shink*

–only for her actions to be halted by for some reason.

"What" Surprised by the sudden inability to move, Rika looked down and saw several knives impaled in her legs. All of them were lodged between her joints, and some had stuck itself into where her tendons were. So even if she removed them, she would have collapsed onto the ground, unable to move. As it were, the knives were the only thing that were allowing her to stay upright …What happened?

"Sorry, Liz-san" The small nun, Asia, suddenly spoke from behind her.

"!" Rika tried to turn around to look at her opponent, but found that her body was stiff as a board for some reason. "Why…can't I move?"

"I stuck some daggers into you." Asia tilted her head to the side as she appeared from behind the SAO survivor. "They are preventing you from moving your body."

I take it back! This girl is not cute! She scary like when Keiko is using a damned minigun! Rika did not say this out loud though. Instead, she shouted. "I know that! I'm asking WHY this is happening?! HOW did you even do this?! You tripped earlier, didn't you?"

"Well…Asuna-san taught me a spell she used before in that VR game she played." Asia shyly pressed her fingers together. "It could help me increase my speed temporarily. So, when I used it, I coated the numerous daggers I had on me with Twilight Healing and stabbed it into the parts which help the body move. It doesn't hurt since I am healing the wound and dulling the pain with Twilight Healing, and the best part is, no one would die!" Asia finished in a cheerful tone.

This girl is scary… Was all Rika could think as she looked at the nun(rather, it was former, but Rika didn't care too much) before her. I thought that Asia-cha was a cute girl who would prefer to heal and not hurt anyone…well, technically, if she did what she just said when attacking, the enemy would lose blood and stamina from trying to attack an insanely speed buffed Asia. And even if she chooses not to attack them instead, she can immobilise them by sticking slim daggers into the parts that help us move. Without a healer or a Phoenix Tear, they are pretty much out of commission. Sure, those who are stronger can probably brute force our way through this, but then what? We would severely diminish our fighting capacity since we are essentially crippling ourselves. (*2*).

And this stinks of something Kazuto-kun would cook up. Rika fumed to herself, ignoring the slightly confused Asia before her. Only he would think up something as insane as this and somehow make it work! But…

"You won't be able to get rid of me either." Rika stated confidently. "From what we know, you do not like to kill. You would prefer to save someone."

"That may be true for our cute Asia-chan." Suddenly, a new voice entered Rika's ears. Or rather, a familiar one mixed with the hints of sadism. "But not for me~"

"Q-q-Queen-san!" Rika practically panicked shouted when she felt the chill run up her body. "How did you escape?! There should still be some time left!"

"Ara ara." The Queen from the Gremory Peerage giggled. "You mean that thing? It sure is extremely resilient to physical attacks, like you had said. But, with a focused lightning blast, I was able to escape. It seems to be weak against magic. You really should have thought this through~"

"…I should have check for how resilient it was against magic attacks…" Rika sighed. "Oi, Klein! How are you doing on your side?"

"Unfortunately, I'm out." As if to emphasis this, Klein slowly walked towards Rika's frozen form, the remains of his katana held in his right hand. "Gremory-san used her power on my blade and ate away at it. I tried to hold her off for as long as possible, but she overpowered me in the end."

"You were almost dependent on Sword Skills." From behind the samurai wannabe, Rias deadpanned. "All I had to do was wait for an opening before I struck."

"Still…" Klein sighed heavily, chuckling slightly. "Ah well. Liz, you doing it too?"

"Not much of a choice, right?" Rika sighed as well. "We, the Knight and Rook of the Flauros Peerage, surrender."

"…Argo Flauros's Knight has retired. Argo Flauros's Rook has retired. Argo Flauros's Bishop has retired."

"Rias Gremory-sama's Bishop has retired."

"Oh? Looks like we got one of yours after all." Rika grinned at the shocked faces of Rias and Asia before she too dispersed into light. Well, our Bishop got taken down with their other Bishop, so it isn't really a fair trade. But with their surveillance down, this would be slightly easier for us. Hopefully.


Flashback, a few moments prior…

This is going better than expected… The sniper of GGO, known as Sinon, or as Shino Asada, relaxed, allowing her bow to go slack. Their Queen is currently restrained. Liz is facing off against that nun, and Klein is distracting the enemy King. If all goes to plan, we should be able to knock two of them out before even one of them gets to use their Phoenix Tear.

"Though…it is unfortunate we lost quite a number on our side already." Shino sighed. "Hey, Argo. Are you going to head down now to help Genshirou-san soon? You know pretty well how long he would be able to last against the Red Dragon Emperor, even with the odds stacked in our favour."

"…yeah, I will go soon, Shi-chan." Argo frowned as she tapped her side slightly. "It's just…I was expecting to have at least gotten one of their side by now. Unlike the Gremory heiress, Sitri-san knows how to position her troops well and make the necessary sacrifices to launch a good counter. Her emotions do not blind her as much as the Gremory heiress, so I was expecting her to use the numerical advantage to sacrifice someone and deal the finishing blow to one of them…guess she is more cautious then I thought."

"She does strike you as the type to do anything for her goal at first, doesn't she?" Shino agreed.

"…whelp, no use thinking about it now." Leaping off from her perch on the roof they were on, Argo started to walk off. "Keep an eye on them, will ya? Knowing Kii-bou, he is sure to have taught their King something."

"Got it." Nodding her head, Shino looked back down. Settling into a comfortable position, she overlooked the entire scene that was playing out below, before she frowned, narrowing her eyes as she did so. Hang on…why is Liz just standing there?

Focusing on her now enhanced vision at the scene below her, she managed to catch the glint of metal sticking out of Rika's body. Those are-! This is bad!

Acting quickly, Shina drew an arrow from the quiver by her side and pulled the arrow back. All the way until it touched her cheek. Okay…if I want to get that nun and the Queen, I should focus on dealing out swift attacks instead of heavy ones. So… Manipulating her demonic energy, she allowed it to create a constantly spiralling shape at the tip of her arrow, improving its air resistance and piercing power. Good. With thi-

"You won't hurt Buchou and Asia-san!"

"!" Hearing the voice coming from the air before her, Shino attempted to change her target, letting loose and arrow and nocking another one swiftly. Unfortunately for her, despite the attack having connected, it did minimal damage to her new enemy, having hit one of the numerous bats that he had transformed into.

"Take this!" Several bats dive bombed her, dropping small pouches it was carrying, at the exact time she took in a breath.

The mouth, which had been attempting to rejuvenate her brain with fresh oxygen, instead hacked out the air she had just taken in. A burning sensation was in her eyes and the back of her throat. Is this…pepper?

"Sei!" Apparently, the swarm of bats were not done, for acting as one, they gathered and slammed into the currently coughing Shino. Straight off the building.

Crap! Shino knew that she was done for. Unlike her friends, she did not care much for flying. Or rather, she preferred not to do so. In her opinion, it was better to stay on the ground, or on a perch when she was using the bow in ALO. Flying would have helped given her a height increase, sure, but it was hard for her to concentrate on flying AND shooting with an arrow. And, she did not have the thought to practise using her devil wings the entire time she had been reincarnated. Not even once. And she did not fancy trying to use her wings, which she had not use for the past few months she had been a devil, in a situation where she had only time to shoot a single arrow.

For a few, precious moments, she contemplated using her demonic energy to create a way for her to land safely on the ground. But that was quickly shot down when she saw the swarm of bats form into the figure of an… effeminate young boy who began to shoot demonic energy bullets at her?!

Well, looks like I have no choice then… Gathering the last of her reserves into that single attack, Shino Asada made sure to focus only on her target, as if she was handling Hecate ll instead of a bow, and let the attack fly. Not a split second later, unable to dodge, she was hit by the numerous bullets the Bishop had sent her way. It had dealt heavy damage to her, and Shino knew that she was going to be retired. But, she went with a smile on her face.

Why?

"Multiple Chaser…"

Because she knew, the Sword Skill she had unleashed, would have hit. Definitely.

"One of Argo Flauros's Knight has retired. One of Argo Flauros's Rook has retired. One of Argo Flauros's Bishop has retired."

"One of Rias Gremory-sama's Bishop has retired."


"Kiba, where should we head to?" Xenovia looked around them cautiously.

"Hold on a bit…" the Knight looked at the map before him for a few seconds longer, before he pointed in a single direction. "We should head that away."

"Got it." Nodding her head, Xenovia took the lead, holding onto a large, flaming sword that Kiba had made for her to replace the one she lost.

At the moment, the duo were following behind the Rook, Tsubasa Yura, and the Queen, Tsubaki Shinra, that had retreated from them. They had managed to track them going down the hotel and out of it via jumping out of a open window, but they quickly lost their trail after that. The only reason why they had managed to locate them again was thanks to Gasper's last instructions to head towards the shopping district that was part of the arena they were in, before he was taken out. Well, they told of this by Rias, so that was how they knew it was Gasper that had been knocked out.

Gasper-kun… Kiba unconsciously gripped his Holy-demonic sword that was in his hand. We will avenge you!

"…Neh, Kiba." Xenovia, who had been silent for the past few minutes they had been walking, spoke up for the first time. "When we encounter them again, how should we face them?"

"…You should face their Rook, Yura-san." Kiba answered Xenovia. "You should probably have-!"

*Boom zap crackle fwish*

Whatever Kiba was about to say next was interrupted by a literal carpet bombing of spells, all of them of various attributes.

Making use of their speed, the two Knights dashed away to take cover, just managing to avoid the various attacks aimed at them.

"Kiba! Toss me some swords!" Xenovia suddenly shouted as they were running. Kiba just took it in stride, generating the swords in his hands and tossing them to Xenovia. She then promptly tossed them like a javelin.

Kiba followed their flight path, and when he did… So, Shinra-senpai is up there then…

Kiba could clearly see the figure of the vice-president of the Student Council swinging her arm left and right, bombarding the area they were in with various spells. And that was what made Kiba feel like something was off. Hang on…why would Shinra-sepai expose herself like this? Unless…

"Xenovia!" Kiba tried to warn her off a trap. But–

*clang*

"Thank you for your help, Kiba. But I already expected something like this." Xenovia clutched onto the leg of the Rook she was facing. With her other hand, she stabbed her sword into the ground, before using both hands to grasp firmly onto the Tsubasa's leg and fling her into the carpet bombing. When Tsubaki saw that, she immediately stopped what she was doing to prevent her teammate from getting hit by friendly fire.

At that moment, Xenovia suddenly made a hole in space, causing the Queen to be on the alert. Normally, anyone would think that she would materialise Durandal here—. But that wasn't it. Kiba knew better.

A holy aura drifted out from the tear in space and wrapped itself around the Holy-demonic blade that Xenovia had near her, causing it's innate holy-attribute to practically explode in power!

"—! While keeping Durandal locked up in the space!? You're taking out only its holy aura!"

Tsubaki was shocked as she understood that. Xenovia smiled.

"Yeah, I was suggested an interesting way to use Durandal. I somehow managed to achieve it in my training. Now, I can use it more than sufficiently."

Interesting it one way to put it… Kiba grinned wryly.

..

Rias, Azazel and Kirito highly regarded the legendary blade in Xenovia's possession.

Durandal was a holy sword with tremendous durability and power. But when the owner could not control it, like Xenovia could not, it became a tool that dragged its wielder in its use. A fact that was true, as Xenovia had been tossed about by its destructive power more than once. In the future, she may be able to control it, but at the moment, using Durandal was akin to riding a rampaging horse. Difficult, but not impossible.

That was when the two males had an idea.

Azazel had wondered if Durandal's holy aura could be clad onto Ascalon, or a holy sword that Kiba created.

Kirito had asked if the holy aura Durandal could be condensed and made smaller, until it was like a sharp sheath that covered the holy blade, while also enhancing the sword it was clad on.

As Durandal was simply kept in a space, and continuously emitted its mighty holy aura like a generator it was practically wasted. But, once the hoy aura was taken out and clad onto the other swords, their sharpness and holy aura increased explosively.

What's more, by incorporating Kirito's idea, they managed to destroy a sword without actually destroying it. By making the aura dense and pressing it against the blade like a sheath, it acted like a mould. Should the blade itself crack somehow, or get destroyed, the sword would not become useless. The condensed holy aura would rush to fill in the blanks that the broken sword gave, and because the holy aura was still being poured onto the sword, it would not decrease in strength or power at all.

..

It may not have been Durandal itself, but a power equal to its own that was limitlessly poured onto a different sword. That—was the new power of the holy sword that Xenovia held in her hands.

Utilising the momentary lapse due to surprise, Xenovia rushed in at the Rook!

*fwoosh fwoosh*

Silver light and sparks flashed in the dim shopping area they were in as the enhance Holy-Demonic Sword in Xenovia's possession scrapped against Tsubasa's metal covered gauntlets that were on her hands. The Rook may have been a great martial artist that had defeated several demonic beings or evil spirits when she was still a human, but against Xenovia, who wielded a blade that was equal to Durandal's power, and with her speed, the Rook was slowly being cornered by the flurry of attacks. Eventually…

"Take this!"

Not overlooking an instant of opening, Xenovia swung her blade down, intent on splitting the open Rook in half

…or at least, that was until she thrust her palms out before her— "Reverse!"

Instantly, the moment before the attack connected, the hoy aura disappeared and changed into a demonic aura, surprising the two Knight who had been watching.

The slash, an attack trapped by momentum, could not be stopped and hit against Tsubasa's open palm, who then proceeded to flick it away again like before. But because she had parried the attack with the unprotected part of her hand, it very nearly sliced off the palm which had connected with the holy blade. As it was, the palm had a deep cut. Kiba had no question that if she had not used that ability she used earlier, she would have been unable to defend against the attack properly. Thanks to the coat of aura turning into demonic power at the last second, it did nothing against Yura-san, who has the origin of demonic magic. That sure-fire killing slash became a heavy, ordinary slash instead. Worst case scenario for her, she would have been instantly retired. In every sense, it was the definition of a close shave from death.

But still… turning a holy aura into a demonic aura?! Disregarding how close the action Tsubasa had performed was, Kiba was shocked speechless by what had just occurred. Yura-san had called out 'reverse'. In other words, she transformed a holy aura into a demonic aura? Was that Yura-san's ability? Or a Sacred Gear? I don't fully understand the reason, but it is definitely going to be troublesome. She is one of those Counter-types.

Kiba knew that Xenovia possessed impressive skills. But that did not change the fact she was mainly a Power-type. Her battling would be disturbed due to the fact she has trained and fought based on holy swords. Without the advantage she usually fought with, her attacks would eventually turn on her due to her lack of experience with attacking with an 'ordinary blade'. Xenovia would have fallen prey to a counter and lost the match.

If that is the case… "Xenovia! Switch with me!"

By his shout, Xenovia and Kiba quickly swapped places. Kiba now facing Tsuaba Yura, while Xenovia faced Tsubaki Shinra.

..

..

Unknown to him at that time, this mistake costed them many things later on.

At the time, Kiba thought it would have been better for him to fight against Tsubasa, a Counter-user, as even if she reversed his swords, it would have no effect. After all, reversing a sword which blended the holy and demonic attributes together would have no change on the sword at all. If he fought the known Counter-user, and Xenovia faced off against the Queen, it would have resulted in their win.

That was what he had thought. But…

Had they continued the way they were fighting, the duo would have won in the end.

But because of the wish to end this fight as soon as possible, and due to short-sightedness, Kiba made a mistake and sent Xenovia out against the Queen, who had yet to reveal what she was truly capable of.

..

..

Pretty soon, the two fights neared their climax.

Tsubasa could only rely on her martial arts to fight against Kiba, but his speed, coupled with his swift strokes of his blade, pretty much overwhelmed her.

Tsubaki was also unable to fight well against Xenovia, the holy aura coating her blade, plus the speed and strength behind each attack making it hard for the naginta-user to get a good hit it. In fact, Xenovia pretty much had the Queen's back against the wall. And Kiba's expectations were not betrayed, for the naginta in Tsubaki's hands broke straight down the middle with a well-placed slash!

She had her!

As if his thoughts were transmitted to her, Xenovia raised her blade and entered a posture for the finishing strike! She can do it! If we take out the Queen, the whole situation will become considerably easier!

Naively, that was something that Kiba thought. That everything would be easier.

"With this—this match is decided!" Xenovia shouted as she swung the sword up again, intent on dealing a fatal blow to Tsubaki.

—At that instant.

"Sacred Gear, Mirror Alice ."

A huge ornate mirror appeared before Tsubaki! Unable to stop herself, Xenovia cleaved through the mirror, crushing it to pieces. At the same time the mirror was destroyed, a large wave was released, and attacked Xenovia!

With a bewildered expression on her face, Xenovia spurted out blood all over the place.

"You were a fool, Kiba Yuuto-kun." Tubaki looked at Kiba with a sneer on her face. "When this mirror is destroyed, the impact dealt to it is doubled and returned to the opponent. —I am a counter-user. It was a mistake to send the Power-type Xenovia-san against me."

"Gahah!"

Unable to stand, Xenovia coughed out even more blood from her mouth, collapsing to her knees as pain flooded her system.

They got us… Kiba grudgingly admitted to himself. If I had not been so impatient…

"The only one remaining is you, Kiba Yuuto-kun." Tsubasa cracked her knuckles as she approached him along with Tsubaki, a small grin on her face. Well, I guess she would like to have revenge for my constantly giving her small cuts here and there. But unfortunately, your revenge would have to wait!

Making full use of his speed, Kiba moved to pick up Xenovia and then swiftly hid himself within one of the shops, his form a blur.

Carefully, he placed Xenovia behind the counter and searched for any medical supplies that they could use.

This is our complete loss…to think that she would station two counter-users here… it seems that Sona-kaichou intended to completely crush us first. So she had naturally predicted that we would be the likely attackers. She basically baited us to fight against them and try to overpower them.

If Kiba thought about it, it was natural. Out of everyone in the Gremory Peerage, only two people poised as a large threat straight off the bat: Kiba Yuuto, and Xenovia Quarta, the two Knights who were quick on their feet and had the ability to use holy swords.

Had she predicted everything to this point?

Kiba frowned to himself. There was no medical case anywhere in the shop they were in. And in the state Xenovia was in, there was no doubt she would be retiring soon. She had received a attack comprised of concentrated holy aura from Durandal, after all. Had she handled it poorly, she would have been instantly retired. To make maters worse for them, Rias was the one who held the Phoenix Tear. And the duo did not have any healing techniques to heal themselves either.

"…Abandon me, Kiba." Xenovia suddenly said. "I'll disappear from this place anyway when I retire soon because of these injuries."

"Yeah, I know that." Kiba stopped searching for the medical supplies, instead looking around him for anything he could use. Spying the cloth that hung over the doorframe, he took it down and used it to help bandage at least some of Xenovia's wounds to stem the blood flow. "But, you know, I promised that I wouldn't abandon an ally so easily."

"…How soft. You're just like Ise."

"That makes me happy." Kiab smiled at those words that Xenovia said. "Because part of me also thinks that I'd like to become like him."

And that was the truth. Kiba admired Issei's spirt, the ability to never give up. Even though he knew he was weak, he still confronted the enemy. He belittles himself, but in fact, he understands himself more than anyone else and works hard. In terms of physical strength, Kiba had no question that Issei had surpassed him. All his effort deserved admiration. Advancing step by step with effort, Kiba felt that his progress was nobler than anyone else. He smirked. I guess it could be said that his guts are his signature.

"Become like Ise? You mean become a pervert?" Xenovia gave a weak grin. She knew what Kiba was talking about, but she could not help but tease him.

"That is Ise-kun's thing. —I want to obtain his guts and willpower."

At those words, Xenovia let out a strained laugh. "…That doesn't suit you best, though."

"True. But, as long as I can move even a single finger, I won't fall! And even if I fall down, I'll do what I have to do, even if I can move only a single millimetre or inch. Because otherwise…the regret of not doing anything would be so painful that I'd die!"

"…I see." Xenovia let out a small sigh. "Are you telling someone like me to move since I can still move a single finger? What a cruel guy."

"Yeah. I guess that was cruel of me." Kiba agreed. Then, his ears heard something. …footsteps…I guess Shinra-senpai found us.

And, just as he suspected, the front door was opened up, revealing the figure of Tsubasa with her fists at the ready. Tsubaki was not too far behind her, her naginta at the ready. Kiba was confused by this, but when he look closer, he could see that the naginta was special. …I see, so Shinra-senpai collapsed her naginta into two when Xenovia struck to bait her.

"It was useless to hide." Tsubaki readied her naginta. "We could sense the demonic energy escaping your body."

Despite the enclosed area they were in, she sounded confident that she could face the two of them. And to be honest, she had reason to be so confident.

Their opponents, two Knights with the ability to wield holy swords, were practically cornered. One was on the verge of retiring. The other would be able to last for some time, but not enough to finish off the two of them. By all appearances, they were on the verge of being taken out of the game.

Kiba stood up, showing himself to the duo. When they saw his appearance, they stopped. "Have you resolved yourself?" Tsubaki raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of heart the Knight displayed, but paid it no mind.

Behind him, hidden from view, Xenovia opened up a small tear in space, allowing Durandal's aura to flow into him. —Xenovia. You'll retire from here soon. But before that, I think that I'll show it to you.

"Yes." Kiba levelled a steely gaze at them. "We have."

This technique created by you and me, Rias Gremory's two Knights! We won't go down without a fight!

*Zazazazan*

Holy demonic swords sprang up everywhere within the small shop, instantly shredding through the goods that were on display. The holy demonic aura that covered them might have been little. But, if Durandal's aura is also added to them, it's another story entirely.

"—Durandal Birth!"

Like a bunch of hungry piranhas, the blades surrounded Tsubaki and Tsubasa, aiming to shred them. But, at the last moment, Tsubasa threw herself at the blades. It held them off for a few seconds before it consumed her, piercing through her metal gauntlets and body like tissue. But those few seconds Tsubasa gave allowed Tsubaki to escape. ...Looks like Shinra-senpai escaped. The guts of the Sitir Peerage are great as well. Kiba mentally praised the way Tsubasa had held off the holy sword from attacking the Queen by smashing them and acting as a meat shield.

"Sona Sitri-sama's Rook, retired."

"Kiba. That was a nice attack." Kiba turned to look at Xenovia. She had managed to crawl up, using the counter they were hiding behind as a crutch, He could see that her body was glowing.

Kiba smiled. "Yeah, when you and I work together again, we can make more holy swords bloom. And hey, it looks like you could move after all."

"Yeah…" Xenovia smiled. "Looks like I had some of Issei's guts after all, doesn't it?"

With a short lived noise, the holy swords imbued with Durandal's aura, as well as Xenovia, disappeared.

"One of Rias Gremory-sama's Knight, retired."

"…Yeah…you showed some of Issei's guts there." Kiba muttered, before his eyes gained a steely note in them. And now…to get to Shinra-senpai and finish her off.


At the same time…

Several minutes had passed since Issei had started to fight with Saji.

The two of them were exchanging punches with each other. Issei chose not to use Ascalon in this fight, partly because he wanted to honour the duel they were having, and partly because he was not good enough to handle the holy sword in close quarters. At least, not yet. At the same time, Saji was not using his gear to attach and Absorption Line to him.

But despite this, the two of them were not equal. No matter how anyone looked at it, Issei held the advantage. Saji was already drained off quite a bit of stamina from firing off magic bullets using his life force to enhance them, and his stamina was only being drained even further. What's more, he was quite ragged from having to defend against the armoured fists of Issei.

He was, more often than not, forced to defend by using a bundled-up line on his arm acting as a shield, but…not every attack could be defended against.

Every time Saji hit Issei, Issei hit back with his fists. Every kick was met with a kick. They were literally trading blow for blow. But the outcome was clear for those who were watching.

Issei would win.

Issei not only had armour protecting him, his Sacred Gear was also making his base abilities rise little by little. Meanwhile, the more Saji hit, the worse his condition became. Pretty soon, Saji would be unable to fight against Issei.

However, if one factored that in, it could be said that Saji was performing splendidly, even if he was half dead, with wounds littering his entire body. After all, he was fighting against THE Red Dragon Emperor.

Well, the one thing that Saji had going for him was that he could siphon off some energy by directly punching him.

Ah, his wrists… Issei winced when he heard a snapping sound coming from both of Saji's hands when he smashed them against Issei's chest once more.

But that was not the only reason he winced. Though his armour was firm, every time Saji managed to hit Issei, his body and mind shook and resounded. It was not noticeable at first, but it was becoming more distinct as time passed. —It told him he was also certainly receiving damage.

"…I'll win…Today, I'll defeat you…I'll take the first step towards my dream…" Saji continued to fight, even as he was spitting out blood from the various attacks that Issei dealt to him.

What? How am I receiving damage? Issei was a little confused by this. After all, even though he did not belittle Saji in the slightest, he had not expected to be so injured as to have swelling appear on his body. But then, he thought back to something Tannin told him.

..

Flashback

"Kid. Listen carefully. The most fearful attack is a 'heavy blow'"

"A heavy blow?" Issei repeated, confused.

"Yeah, the Rating Games that you'll be fighting in from now on will have various people fighting with various feelings." Tannin nodded his head. "For the sake of one's desire, for the sake of a hobby, for the sake of one's family, for the sake of a woman, for the sake of wealth, and for the sake of a dream. Various thoughts and feelings mix together. Among these, there are even people who have invested their lives into the games. Among the participants in this hellish iron pot, there is an attack that must be feared the most. That is the 'heavy blow'."

"Is that a special final move? Or a Sacred Gear? A magic technique?" Issei asked, wanting to know more about this 'heavy blow'

"No." Tannin indicated to Issei's arm. "Kid, grasp your fist. What is being grasped inside your hand there?"

Issei did as he was told. But, when he looked at it, all he could see was a clenched fist. Nothing more. "…I don't know."

"It is 'filled' with something. A dream, or a soul. One's life is 'put into' that fist." Tannin explained. "This is, above all, dangerous. If one has time to prepare other attacks, this blow can be dealt with to a certain extent one way or another. But, just that is not enough. The heavy blow reaches to the core of the body. This is effective. It is frighteningly effective. Even in the Underworld with its magic and science, the damage of that blow can't be expressed clearly. But the ones who had been hit with this blow understand. 'Yeah, this is bad', they think. An opponent that can release this blow is an unmistakably, genuine strong enemy. You must never go easy against them. If an opponent can release that blow even if he is of a lower level than you, that is a different story. If you receive that blow, the battle situation will change completely. It pierces you. No matter what defence you use against it, it will reach the core of your body."

Flashback end

..

At that time, Issei did not understand what Tannin was talking to him about. But now…

I understand now, ossan. Saji's blows were, no, are piercing me. They are passing through my armour and reaching my body!

[This spirit…]Ddraig spoke in Issei's mind mentally, a shocked tone laced in his voice. [Is the 'Prison Dragon' that sleeps in his Sacred Gear responding to Saji's feelings?]

Although Issei could not fully understand what was happening at that time, he did have one thought pass through his head. …Dragon-type Sacred Gears are scary, Ddraig.

"Hyoudoooooooooooooooou!"

Even if his mind and body was tormented by the cruel reality, Saji didn't stopping punching. His attacks became more furious and numerous, siphoning more of Issei's power and using it to deal damage to him. It was like an endless cycle. The energy Issei created was slowly taken by Saji to be used. The taken energy was then replenished again, so Issei always got back got he lost. Even then Issei could tell that Saji was losing steam. "Do you know what my dream is? It's to be a teacher! A teacher! I will become a teacher! Can't I become a teacher!? Why do we have to be laughed at!?"

*Gonn!*

Issei knocked Saji down, but he stood back up almost immediately. Damn it! What fighting spirit he has!

"We didn't declare our dream for the sake of being laughed at…!"

"I'm not laughing!" Issei shouted, redirecting an attack meant for his head to shoot past him harmlessly. "It's impossible to be able to laugh at you when you're risking your life like this!"

Facing him, Issei hit Saji again and again.

Saji's face quickly started swelling up, and he spat out broken teeth and blood from his mouth. Even so, Saji stood back up, and faced me again and again. He was that foolishly honest.

"Today! I will! Surpass you!"

Saji's shout heavily resounded all the way through Issei's armour, along with each punch he sent towards Issei, each one hitting heavier than the last.

"Justtry it then!"

With a roar, Issei pounded tens of blows into Saji as retaliation.

Yet….

"Hyuh…Hyuh…"

….even after all that, Saji still continued.

His face was swollen and his left eye was completely shut.

His body was shaking, and his stance was also unsteady. Some of his fingers were bent in the wrong direction as well. Even so, Saji faced his opponent with only a strong glint in his eyes.

"Come, Saji. Come! Sajiiiiiiiiiiiii! You won't let it end here, right!? You don't intend to let it end like this, right!? Weren't you going to do the things that aren't possible for idiots like us and run swiftly forward!?"

Issei half-shouted, half encouraged, at Saji to continue on. To not fall and give up right there and then.

As if in response to that, Saji slowly moved forwards, step by step.

He did not run away. Saji faced forward. Without shifting his gaze even an inch away from Issei, he advanced straight forward.

When he saw this, Issei was reminded of when he first saw the video of him fighting against Raiser Phenex. Though Saji was worn out, he had moved forwards with a burning resolve, in order to reach his opponent. His appearance was practically the same as Issei's back in the House of Phenex battle

"You also trained desperately, right? I trained desperately as well." As Saji said this, he exuded a dreadful pressure. One that Issei could not help but feel fear from when he was gripped by it. Despite the difference in stats, despite the difference in specs, Issei had still be gripped by the primal emotion known as fear. After all, even when Issei had hit Saji again and again, he just wouldn't fall! Just like a zombie that refused to be killed.

For there to be an opponent that I feel such great fear against… Hey, Raiser Phenex. You also felt like that when facing me, didn't you? I understand it now. The reason why you kept knocking me down—.

"Saji, I'm going to beat you."

Said boy reacted to the statement that Issei made in a predictable manner. Clenching his bent and deformed hand into a fist, he threw a punch at Issei. The fist filled with the soul of Saji was fast. The fastest in the entire match so far. Yet, to Issei, that fist extended forward with a seemingly slow speed in his eyes. Issei avoided it with the smallest of movements, before exchanging a counter-punch with him.

*Dagan!*

"…"

Issei's punch perfectly hit Saji's face. He also felt good feedback from it. It was a blow that completely cut off his consciousness.

But, Saji did not fall. He grasped onto Issei's right hand with both hands, refusing to fall. Issei continued to look at Saji's form until it disappeared into light particles. Not out of respect or anything(actually, there was some of it, but the latter emotion was more rampant), but because he felt that if he did not continue to look at Saji, he might revive himself again and attack once more. And a part of him wished that Saji should stay down. So that he did not have to hit his friend any more.

"…"

"One of Sona Sitri-sama's Pawns, retired."

"Koneko-chan..." Issei stowed away his armour's mask on his helmet and showed his face.

"?" Koneko looked at Issei, her cat ears twitching slightly in response

"Could you hold my hand?...This is the first time I knocked down a friend. I understand it. I understand it, but…"

"…Senpai." Koneko gently grasped his trembling fist while smiling. Issei could feel it even through his gauntlet.

"You were cool. A senpai to be proud of."

"Thank you…Koneko-chan…"

The two of them started to slowly make their way up the hotel. Time was of the essence, but at the same time, Issei was a little shaken by what had happened. What he had to do. Koneko could sense this with her senjutsu, so she tugged on Issei's hand, getting him to move as she comforted him.

At that moment...

….I have to say, that was really manly of that Pawn."

""!"" Both members of the Gremory Peerage separated their hands quickly, turning around to face the new speaker.

A curly brown-haired girl instantly appeared in their sights! Despite seeing that the two were on guard, the new addition was relaxed. She played with her curly-brown hair for a few moments, not caring about the way the two members of the opposing team were looking at her. Well, makes sense. After all, she is the other King… …Argo Flauros, if I remember correctly.

"Nyaha~ I thought that Pawn would resort to sneak attacks to chip away at ya, but looks like I was completely wrong! Being wrong in times like this is pretty nice." The King scratched her head. "Just like Kii-bou and Aa-chan, he sure defied expectations. Shame those old geezers look down on reincarnated devils." She stopped scratching her head, allowing a glint to appear in her eyes as she spoke. "Devils like that Pawn are hard to find. Willing to sacrifice anything to fulfil their goal."

"…how did you get past my senses?" Koneko asked, a shocked expression flitting over her face. "I couldn't…no, can't even sense you with my senjutsu…"

"Demonic magic is such a cheat." Argo said in a cryptic tone, before she lunged at the duo. "Senda!"

"Woah!" Due to the short distance, as well as the fast activation speed of the Martial Art Sword Skill, Issei just barely managed to avoid the fist aimed for his upper arm. Koneko was also pushed out of the way, so she was not harmed. I know Koneko could have attacked Argo, but we just don't know enough about Sword Skills. The chances that Koneko's senjutsu could work on Argo is high. At the same time, her being taken out before Argo is even higher. After all, we are dealing against a King. With the same energy levels of Buchou!

"Good reflexes!" Argo dashed past them, stopping just behind their positions. Issei tried to grapple the smaller King and knock her away, but she was faster. "But not good enough! Suigetsu!"

"Argh!" Issei, unable to defend himself properly against the roundhouse kick Sword Skill, could feel his armour crack slightly from the blow. N-no way!? That attack pierced Scale Mail?!

[Partner, be careful!] Ddraig warned Issei. [That Sword Skill…it's very dangerous!]

Why? Issei mentally asked as he rolled away from Argo, cradling the broken part of his armour.

[I don't know why I didn't notice this earlier…but, these Sword Skills…their energy is similar to your master's Power of Destruction!]

Buchou's power?! Issei's eyes widened as he desperately avoided the flurry of attacks Argo started to use with her bare hands and dagger. She was no longer shouting out the attacks, but the unmistakable glow around her weapon and body arts showed the activation of Sword Skills. Isn't that super bad?! He winced when some of the attacks nicked him. They did no damage his armour much, only leaving some scratches here and there. But the aura was somehow damaging his body that was inside the armour. The stickiness of the blood from not only the fight with Saji, but this one as well, was making it very uncomfortable for the young boy.

[It is not on the same level as your master's indiscriminate destruction.] Ddraig further explained. [It feels the same, but it is not quite the same. While your master's Power of Destruction is something that destroys anything and requires immense focus to prevent it from running rampant and harming its user, these Sword Skills are something else. In terms of destructive potency, they are much, much weaker. But if I were to put it into words…yes, it is like they are taking the energy from the Dimensional Gap and using it as literal weapons of power and technique.]

"That is super dangerous, ain't it?!" This time, Issei shouted out loud. Thankfully, it was when Argo had managed to fend off a sneak attack from Koneko, while simultaneously throwing some sharpened sticks at him, their glowing form missing his right arm by just a few millimetres. So no one gave him weird looks for his sudden exclamation.

"'Course it is. These are meant to prepare the younger generation for battle after all." Argo helpfully supplied, before she smashed a flurry of fists over his entire body. "Deadly Blow~"

"Krgh?!" Issei was somehow locked in place as Argo jabbed a single fist into his chest. Then, he felt numerous punches. All he could see was a blur of purple light as he felt his armour tank the hits. Each second felt like he took 3 hits at the same time, and he was stunned for 3 seconds, unable to counter, before he was blown back. "Guah!"

"Senpai!" Koneko rushed the frozen Argo, quickly using her senjutsu to deal heavy damage to the small King.

"Kuk!" To her credit, all Argo did was vomit out some blood as she was launched backwards from Koneko's Rook-enhanced punch, but she quickly recovered mid-air. Opening up her wings, Argo stopped in midair and dropped to the floor, before she dashed away from them, throwing honest-to-goodness smoke bombs to hide where she went. Argo's a ninja?! That is so cool! Or rather, when did she get time to make smoke bombs?

"Senpai! Are you okay?!" Issei's attention was drawn by the extremely worried kouhai of his. Looks like Koneko-chan forgot to call me by name. She must be super worried if she is just calling me senpai, and not Issei-senpai…

"I'll be fine." Issei winced as he climbed out of the small crater that the attack that had launched him made. "Nothing that Asia can't fix!"

"True…" Koneko admitted with a disgruntled look. "But Issei-senpai got hurt. And his armour is damaged. Badly."

"It is?" Issei blinked as he looked over himself. True to her word, a small portion of his armour, just below his ribs, was completely exposed. Other parts were cracked, mostly around his upper body. But when he knocked on them, they gave out a strong sound and did not crumble. Looks like these cracks are superficial. But just in case, I'll switch to a support role now. "…let's meet Buchou at the top." Issei ruffled Koneko's head, before he proceeded to move towards the stairs.

They had 3 more floors to climb.


Timeskip

Kazuto had been waiting for a few minutes when he finally saw the appearance of his temporary comrades. The first ones were Rias, Asia, and Akeno. When he saw them, he and Asuna stepped out of their previous location, and made their way to them cautiously.

"Report." Rias quickly got behind cover as they talked, prompting Kazuto to give a small grin. Good, she is at least treating this as a battle situation.

"Judging from the announcements earlier, from the Sitri side, we still have their King, Queen, and two Bishops. The Flauros side only has their King left. In terms of numbers, we have the advantage." Kazuto told her what he knew. "However, ever since we arrived here, there has been no movement whatsoever. In fact, we have not sensed anyone near here."

"…I see." Rias frowned. "We have already cleared the entire hotel, so…Sona is not here then? If that is the case, then where are they?"

"Buchou!" At that moment, Kiba's voice crackled over the communicators they were wearing.

"Kiba?" Rias gave a surprised expression when she heard his voice. "So you weren't taken out. That's good. Why are you-"

"Buchou, I found the King of the Sitri Peerage!"

"""!"""

"Where is she?" Rias quickly demanded the Knight.

"I found her when I was chasing their Queen." Kiba admitted. "One of their Bishops are also there, so I retreated immediately. Currently, I am watching over them."

"Stay safe, and keep us updated Kiba." Rias ordered, before se relayed further instructions to the other team separated from them. "Issei, Koneko, you are to meet up with us at where Kiba is. Kiba, your location?"

"…The park area in front of the hotel." Kiba replied.

..

..

When the group arrived, they could see the figures of Kiba, Koneko, and Issei facing what seemed to be a glowing dome. When Kazuto looked closer, he could see that there was something inside the dome. Or rather, someone...

"…Sona, you're quite bold. To choose to be exposed and to stay here." Rias said as she made her way to next to Issei.

"Haven't you yourself, the King, also moved personally as well, Rias?" Sona questioned the red head.

"Yeah, since we've already reached the final stage either way." Rias admitted, a rigid expression on her face. "Though it seems to have turned out quite differently from what I expected…"

Especially since we got Asia and Rias to act as an emergency response unit in this case. Kazuto thought to himself. I know that the Kings are supposed to be protected to prevent them from losing, but honestly, to get them to stay in one spot, safely protected, is outrageous! Teamwork is what takes down foes, not team members alone! Without their King to back them up, they might as well lose when up against a team with their King fighting and commanding, damn it!

"Your expressions are on your face, Kirito." When Kazuto noticed, he saw that Sona was looking at him, a small grin on her face. As if she was amused by him. "I know that the norm is for the Peerage members of the King to move, but that is because this is a show to them. To showcase and brag about their commanding ability and how strong their Peerage is."

"…I know that. But it is a little stupid from my point of view." Kazuto complained. "The King the strongest asset, is sitting on ass when things happen. They get a view of what is happening, but so what? In my opinion, having the King back up their Peerage members is the smartest move. Fewer Pieces are lost in the long run, and the enemy would have to deal with greater numbers at the end."

"But that can be easily countered." Sona rejected his complaint. "…although, it seems that the Flauros heiress and you have similar opinions."

"'Course we would." Kazuto shrugged. "We were friends for a while."

"Past tense?" Sona noted. "Are you two going through a rough patch then?"

"Not really." Kazuto shrugged. "So, why are you stalling?"

If Sona was taken aback by his statement, she did not show it. "…what makes you say that?"

"If you weren't stalling, then I am an idiot." Kazuto deadpanned. "You are obviously waiting for something. The question is, what for?"

It was true. Ever since he saw the figure of Sona, he had a nagging feeling at the back of his mind. That something was off. Not because Argo was not there, but because of a more, simpler reason. …Where is their Bishop?

"…I have to give you credit. You noticed part of my plan." The Sitri heiress confessed. "But it doesn't matter. My plan is complete."

"What do you-" Issei did not get to finish as he stumbled, a hand going to his head. "A-rere?"

Then, he fell to his knees. He would have probably fallen onto his face had Kiba not acted quickly and caught the stumbling boy, preventing him from falling further.

"…Ise?" Rias was the one that noticed the change in him second, followed by Asia. Asia hurried over to Issei and activated her Sacred Gear. While giving off a pale green colour, it wrapped around Issei's body with a gentle light.

Everyone had a bewildered expression on their faces, sans Kazuto and Asuna, who narrowed their eyes instead and prepared for combat, and Sona, who had a smile on her face.

"Neither Asia-san's Sacred Gear nor the Phoenix Tears will have any effect. Rias," Sona explained to her gathered audience. "I saw the video records of how the battle with Raiser was finished. What I understood from that was that Hyoudou-kun is a boy that won't give up in battle, to the point of being frightening. For the sake of his comrades, for himself, and above all for Rias."

"We may not be able to defeat him with just damage." Sona continued. "No matter how many times we knock him down, he'll just get back up. To us, your so-called 'guts and spirit' is just as astounding as the power of the Sekiryuutei. Yes, if you don't give up and keep on standing up, you believe that you'll eventually defeat your enemy. That willpower connects directly to the power of the Sekiryuutei and increases your power by several times as well. That is the greatest weapon for Hyoudou-kun."

"T-That's because guts and spirit are my only redeeming feature…" Everyone ignored Issei's weak mutters.

"That's why we had no choice but to beat you with a different method." As she spoke, she took out a red packet from her pocket. One that sloshed with liquid.

Kazuto's eyes widened. "…you took his blood…"

"Nya ha ha~ Perfect score, Kii-bou!" As if like magic, Argo appeared behind Sona's Bishop, along with the second Bishop that Kazuto had noticed was missing earlier. "What I tell ya? Kii-bou and Aa-chan are pretty good with their brains."

In her hands were numerous packets of blood, and one of them was connected to a line that led to–

Damn it! Acting quickly, Kazuto threw his sword like a throwing pick, slicing the line. Blood gushed out of the cut line, but the damage had been done. "I never doubted you for a second, Flauros-san." Sona shook her head lightly, before she continued. "Hyoudou-kun is a reincarnated devil that is a human at his base. It's lethal if a human loses half of the blood coursing through their body. You know that, right? The rule of the Rating Game. When a devil reaches the point of being unable to fight during the game, they are forcibly transported to the medical room."

She is smart. Kazuto frantically thought on how to save the poor boy from retiring further. With Argo's high sneaking stat having been made real by demonic magic(at least, that is what Kazuto assumed it was), they would need all the help they could get. Asia's Sacred Gear can't replenish blood. It only heals wounds and recovers some stamina. But… Kazuto's mind went to some testing the had done during their month-long training …Asuna does have a spell to do that!

"Asuna!"

"Got it!" Her thoughts aligning with her boyfriend/husband, Asuna immediately sheathed her rapier and dashed towards Issei, the words of the unique magic system flashing around the girl.

"It's too late. Issei has lost enough blood to be transported to the medic-" She stopped when she saw Argo's tense expression. "What is it, Flauros-san?"

"Something that could turn things around for them." Argo answered nervously.

Looks like she has the same idea that I had. Kazuto grinned.

..

The two had first met online. To be precise, a few months before the SAO beta, when they were looking for beta players.

At the time, the two did not speak to each other much. One because he was untrusting of the world around him, and the other because she did not want to attract any unnecessary attention. Especially from the other side of the world, the supernatural.

But, as time passed, and they went through more and more tests, and as the herd thinned out, they eventually stumbled across each other.

Kazuto had noticed Argo due to her ability to make full use of the system to efficiently gather information and execute tasks. If one person had just managed to obtain the way to get the secret chest, she would have already done so for the entire level, and would act as a trader to sell the info for in-game currency for her to upgrade her weapons.

Argo had noticed Kazuto for how efficiently he did things. What regular players considered to be suicidal and impossible to do without a party, he managed to do so alone, and would continue to do so unless it had to do with team fights. Then, he would act to help others, drawing away agro, until the person he had been helping was able to come back into the fight, while also managing to not get himself killed doing such a thing.

The two hit it of pretty well, discussing old games, how to beat them, strategies they favoured. They discussed many, many things.

Then, came the beta.

The two of them chose to go their separate ways in the game. They kept in contact and such, but they never teamed up unless absolutely necessary. The boy because he liked to go solo in games, and the girl because she was using demonic magic to help her fight and grind, while also focusing more on espionage, information gathering, and how to survive should she be cornered. During this time, they would only really chat and catch up when they were in the middle of boss fights.

Then, the beta ended. A few months passed by before the official release of the game. The original plan was that they did the same thing in the beta. But while Argo was contemplating creating a guild for her to search for and sell information, Kazuto had decided to play the game like he had in the beta.

But then…the truth came out.

The first thing they did was meet up to discuss what to do. Eventually, it was decided that Argo would act as a information broker, while Kazuto acted as a solo player, helping Argo out from time to time by giving her his old equipment, or equipment he could not really use.

The first bit was broken almost immediately when Asuna decided to partner up with Kazuto until the 24th floor, where they split up until the 59th floor. The second part was kept, all the way util the end of SAO.

Time passed. The duo met each other frequently, both to pass along information, and for Kazuto to help his friend survive the next fight to gather more info. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that Argo was the second female he was on good terms with and interacted frequently. (excluding Asuna, who was his partner at the time, and in the future, in both contexts.)

Argo was there when Asuna and Kazuto split on differences in how they should approach SAO. She was there when Kazuto joined the Moonlit Black Cats, and how he taught them to survive.

… …and she was there to see how he spiralled into depression, guilt, and self-loathing when the guild he had joined had tutored, died, with the leader of said guild committing suicide when he learned Kazuto was a Clearer and the Beater. It pained the young girl's heart to see her good friend jump into battles in a suicidal manner, uncaring for his life. The kindness she had seen in the beta was still there, yes. But the way he approached life was…cynical. It was so bad that Asuna, who had refused to meet Kazuto face-to-face due to their differences, had asked Argo what was going on with him, and to help stop him in being suicidal.

Then came Christmas, when he was given the information on the special event boss, Nicholas the Renegade, and its rumoured revival item drop. She had been extremely worried for his life when she gave the information to him, but she did not allow it to show. She was afraid that he was going to die.

But much to her surprise, he had not only managed to solo the boss, he had managed to return to his usual self. …Well…usual to the extent he was no longer charging into fight like a suicidal maniac that only wanted to die in a glorious blaze of… well, not glory. Argo knew Kazuto well enough that he did not do anything for glory.

And then, even more time passed. Kazuto and Asuna reconciled and began to partner up again. They fought a boss(or, if the rumours were true, Kazuto soloed a floor boss), he joined her guild, and they got married. And then, the game was cleared. And they lost contact. Mostly because of her actions.

Fast forward a few doze months, and they were now at the present

..

Kazuto and Argo knew each other well enough that they could tell when the other person was lying, and how they thought to an extent. So, Argo could tell that Kazuto had a plan to fix this.

"Stop her, quickly!" Argo flung numerous throwing picks at the unarmed Asuna, who dodged them with just a hair-breadth–

–allowing Tsubaki to skewer the girl's leg and prevent her from moving.

"-!" Asuna, to her credit, did not scream as she nearly collapsed onto the ground, only choosing to unsheathe her rapier as quickly as possible to slice off the shaft of the Queen's naginta and jump back to Kazuto, away from the danger.

"Sona. You—!" Rias gave an impatient look. Kazuto could not tell if her expression was meant for Asuna, who had been stopped from administering treatment, or for Issei, who was currently in the middle of being retired by the tactic that Sona had used.

"…as you can tell, I used Saji's Sacred Gear to suck out Hyoudou-kun's blood little by little." Sona continued when she felt that there was no other interruptions. "In order to continuously use a Sacred Gear, whose original ability is to suck out the energy of the target, to suck out their blood instead, considerable training and precise control was necessary. But, Saji managed to accomplish it."

"Hyoudou-kun. You are close to retiring. You should only be able to do one or two attacks now. The reason is blood loss. Your armour is solid. Your offensive power is great." Sona did not let her eyes shift from the anaemic Pawn. "However, when I searched for ways to defeat you, there were many. Even if we can't physically defeat you, the game rules will consider you unable to fight. Saji- He was always saying that he would surpass you. To Saji, you are a fellow Pawn, a friend, and a rival he wants to surpass. However, you have a legendary dragon inside you. With just that, he possessed an inferiority complex towards you. I wanted to convey to that child that he could fight while crying over such a thing. And that was conveyed to him. This line didn't disappear even when Saji was worn out. He filled it with that much intense feelings."

Sona jabbed a finger at Issei as she shouted the next words. "I'll say this to you who is about to disappear from this battlefield soon. Just as you were aiming only for the top, Saji was running towards the objective of defeating you. —You aren't the only Pawn that has a dream and lives earnestly! The one who beat you was Saji Genishirou!"

When Issei heard this, Kazuto saw that he had a mixed expression on his face. It was half shock, and the other half…was respect. If Kazuto had to wager, it was directed at the Pawn he had been presumably fighting, Saji Genshirou.

"Well…I had to secretly place it on you and constantly expend demonic energy to keep both myself, my deadweight, and the line hidden once Genshirou-san retired, but the rest of what Sitir-san said was true." Argo added, but she was ignored by everyone there.

"Rias." Sona now turned towards her friend and rival. "What are you willing to bet on this battle?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "I'm willing to risk my life. My dream is a very difficult one. If I don't destroy the obstacles one by one, I can't cut open a path of solution. So, Rias, I will destroy your pride and estimation."

Upon hearing those words, Rias's expression turned sour, as if she had eaten a bitter bug.

"So…you aimed a little higher than Rias." Kazuto stood before Asuna in a protective manner. She had managed to heal the wound on her leg, but she needed time to recover some of her demonic energy and mental concentration before she could get back into the fight. And that time was something he was willing to buy for her. "You made plans not only to fight against Rias, but also plans in case your first plans failed."

"That's right."


Issei felt like shit.

Well, that was not too far off from the truth of his actual body, since going by what Sona had just told them, he was about to be retired from severe blood loss. But he digressed.

Stumbling a little as he shuffled forwards, he slowly approached Sona, getting Kiba and Koneko to stay where they were as he moved. He wanted to at least make his last stand on his own two feet, regardless of how bad damaged his body was. Just like Saji.

Neither her Queen, Bishops, or Argo did anything. Well, that makes sense. I am going to be retired after all. And if I had gone towards Buchou and the others, they would have sped up the process of me being knocked out by forcing more blood out of my body through physical trauma.

And it was because of this, he knew he had a chance to help Rias one, final time before he was forced to retire from the match.

Saji…you are such a gutsy guy! You could have just ran away from me to stall for time, but instead, you chose to try and fight against me, face to face. You literally sacrificed your body for your King just so that your team would win! Issei grunted as he forced his body to pump blood through his body to keep him going, even if for just a few more minutes. And even Flauros-san helped you out with that…you defeated me…but…

"Before I retire…I think I'll disappear after I've fulfilled my worldly desires…" Issei muttered out, coming to a stop. Now, he was just in-between both Peerages.

Concentrating all his remaining demonic energy into his head, he started his second unique magic spell. The one he had made out of his desires. Flash, my delusions!

"Rise, my lust! Unleash, my worldly desires! Spread out, the world of my dreams!"

Instantly, a mysterious space expanded and unfolded, with Issei in the center. Feeling a weird feeling on their skins, all the girls present protected and covered their bodies.

Once that feeling passed, Issei looked towards Rias. "Please let me hear your voice!"

[Ise, are you okay…? If you do such a strange thing, it'll affect your health…]

In response, Issei heard a cute-sounding voice. But it was not from her mouth, which had remained closed. Instead...it had came from her breasts. I see, I see. Fufufufu. I can hear it. I can hear it! Excellent!

"Buchou, you're worried about me right now, aren't you?" A grin lit up Issei's face as he spoke. "That I'll hurt my body by doing something strange…"

At his words, Rias had an astonished expression on her face. "Ise! H-How do you know that…?"

Smiling now, Issei turned and questioned Sona.

…Or rather, her breasts.

"What are you thinking about right now?"

[Could he have developed a technique to hear the voice of people's hearts~? No way~, that's very troubling~]

I see, I see. So Sona-kaichou's breasts arrived at that conclusion. …But it looks like the character of the breasts aren't always the same as their owners. Buchou's breasts sounded like a little girl. Kaichou's breasts sounded similar to her older sister, Serafall Leviathan.

"Sona-kaichou, you thought that my new special technique could let me hear the voices of people's hearts, right?" Issei smiled in satisfaction when he saw Sona had an extremely surprised expression. Fu fu fu, it looks like my new technique worked perfectly!

"Fufufu, that's not it. It's close, but that's not it. I wanted to hear it. The voice of chests! No! The voice of breasts!"

Taking a pose, Issei called out the name of his new special technique with pride. "My new technique, Bilingual! My new technique lets me hear the voice of breasts from women only! …Haa, haa. When I question them, the breasts tell the answer to only me without lies! …Haa, haa. It's the strongest technique that lets me understand the heart of the opponent!...Ugh, I don't have enough blood…."

..

Actually, Issei had managed to develop three techniques. This last one was actually borne out of his base desires.

When he had been secluded on the mountains, his sexual desire was refused. As a result, it piled up.

He wanted to see breasts, but there was no material for him in the wilderness. No porno books. No women. Just a huge dragon, and the occasional appearance of Kirito.

And so, he had a sudden burst of inspiration amidst his lust. He knew of famous priests who had secluded themselves on mountains for training and pursued the state of mind that opened up enlightenment. They abandoned their worldly desires. But what if one did the reverse instead? They pursued their world desires?

His heart arrived at searching for erotic things and their source.

He did various things. Looking at the night sky and thought of boobs. Sat in Zen meditation stances while he rested. Even sitting under a waterfall and filling his head full of worldly desires instead of abandoning them. He realized that he wanted to talk to breasts.

With his lack of power, this was just a dream. But…he was no ordinary person no longer! He was a devil! And he had a Sacred Gear, one of the Longinus, Boosted Gear!

…And so, with the power of the Sekiryuutei, he completed his mission in the mountains!

..

"Hey!" Issei snapped his gaze towards the Bishop closest to Sona. "Breasts of the Bishop onee-san over there, what are you thinking!?"

"No, don't listen!" Said Bishop, feeling danger towards her body, quickly covered her chest as much as she could, but unfortunately for her, she was too slow.

…or rather, her actions were futile.

[Kiba-kyun! I'm so happy to be standing on the same battlefield as Kiba-kyun!]

"What's with that!? It's only Kiba that's popular!" Issei complained. I mean, I kinda expected that, but still! "The breasts of the other Bishop onee-san, what are you thinking!?"

As he spoke, Issei turned towards the other Bishop that was near Argo. When she saw that, the opponent crouched down with her head between her knees, trembling slightly.

"Please stop it! It's disgusting!"

[Hyoudou is scary…Even though he has such a strong-looking armour, why can I only see him as an ordinary pervert…?]

At that point, Issei felt even more light-headed, so he started to sway left and right. Uu, so my body is nearing its limits…

But…when he suddenly looked around…everyone's eyes were twitching. ….A-re? Hey, why aren't you all surprised at this strongest technique of mine!

Sona's eyes twitched, and Rias put a hand to her forehead and sighed.

"Rias…This is a little…"

"I'm sorry…" Said devil apologised, rubbing her head like she had a margarine.

"I think it's a scary technique, but with this violation of privacy, won't female devils no longer fight him from now on?"

"Yeah, we'll have to be severely careful now…"

"Nyha…I mean, I can see it's usefulness, but if it weren't so perverted and disgusting for the people involved, I don't think this technique would be banned. Too much." Even Argo, which Issei knew to be extremely perky, seemed a little downtrodden by what was going on. "It's basically a invasion of privacy for a maiden."

""That's true, isn't it?"" The two other Kings agreed in a dead tone.

Issei looked on blankly as the two Masters of had a discussion.

A-rerere!? What was with these reactions!? I think it's definitely a useful ability! Rather, like this, it's as if I'm-.

"a true pervert…"

"""You ARE a pervert!"""

Immediately after his true thoughts slipped out, Issei received a full-blown tsukkomi from both the Gremory and Sitri sides!

Issei was feeling speechless! He thought his newest technique was the strongest, yet…

"Asia's breasts, what are you thinking right now!?"

[Stupid Ise, how can you do such a thing while injured! B-But, I'll definitely cure you!]

Ah, what a thing. So Asia's breasts were tsundere! Issei thought in surprise.

Bloodlust was suddenly aimed at Issei! He felt chills down his spine. When he moved his head to look at the source…he felt as if his lost blood was but a mere illusion!

"HIII!" Issei gave a small scream as he saw the devil(he knew that was their species, but he felt like he was looking at a TRUE devil in sheep's clothes!) glower at him, his sword's keen edge glinting–

–as if it were hungering for blood.

"Oi…Issei…" Kirito growled. "You better keep that in check, got it?"

"YES SIR!" Despite the obvious lack of blood in his system(which was still leaking out, now that he noticed), Issei jumped to his feet as if he had been shocked, back straight like an iron bar as he saluted the devil before him. "I WILL KEEP MY PERVERSENESS IN CHECK, SIR!" There is an aura around him! An auuuuuraaaaaaaa!

""You better apologise after this is over…got it~?" Asuna also spoke up from beside the black devil, a serene smile on her face. But Issei could tell that there was promise of murder and blood behind that innocent smile.

"I will repent for this!" Issei quickly did a splendid Dogeza! If there was a certain pair of parents in this world, they would have given thumbs up at that pose! (Nice one, pervert boy!(*3*)) "In fact, I will apologise right now! I am sorry for using my perverted ability!" Even though this was an honest desire of mine!

"…Even though you were cool before…Lewd Sekiryuutei. The worst."

Koneko's scathing words gave Issei the final critical hit! He felt that that shaved off his hit point to the negative!

Au! Koneko-chan's scathing words! Issei's vision swam, and he felt his head getting heavier. Ugh! …It's no good. My dizzy consciousness was at its limit. I didn't have enough blood… Alright, then I'll at least read Kaichou's strategy at the end.

"Kaichou's breasts-san! Please tell me what kind of strategy you intend to use now!"

[This special barrier made by my Bishop is a decoy~ . Only my spirit has been placed in the barrier, and my body is just a holographic image~ . Since my spirit has come here, it's possible to make the presence of my body disappear and to make it look like my aura is inside the barrier~ while my true body is on the roof~ It's a strategy to make you attack the me inside the barrier and weaken you guys even a little~ Every little bit counts after all~~ I was su~per worried when you guys got to the roof. Thankful Argo help hide me, so I was fine~]

Issei wasted no time. "Everyone, the Kaichou in that barrier...is a decoy. She's just a holographic image created by the two Bishops inside the barrier…Their strategy is to make us wastefully attack the barrier here and weaken us even a little…The real Kaichou is on the roof! It seems that only her spirit has been moved into the hologram…That's also why Koneko-chan's enemy detection couldn't find the Kaichou on the roof. But, because her spirit came here, Bilingual also worked and let me hear the holographic breasts, is that it…?"

After communicating just that, Issei finally collapsed to his knee. But he refused to fall further than that, so his final position looked like a knight being knighted by a king.

"Ise!" Asia, upon seeing this, attempted to rush towards the boy, only for Argo to stop her, claws inches from her exposed, unarmoured skin.

"Woah there. No healing of the brokenly overpowered Pawn please." Argo said in a carefree tone, but the glint in her eyes promised she would end the girl if need be.

"I…I won't let you stop me!" Drawing out a single dagger from among her large arsenal, Asia quickly thrust it towards her foe's hand, intent on hindering her movements, only for the healing blade to be turned away with a quick flick of the wrist.

"That wasn't nice." One jab later, and Asia was forced into Rias's arms.

Issei watched with hazy vision as this unfolded. Kiba could not get to Issei, as he was preoccupied with the Queen. The same for Akeno, Koneko, Kirito and Asuna, as out of nowhere, several crossbows, primed and ready, popped up. Each of them were loaded with numerous arrows, bolas, or what looked to be improvised bombs. And all of them were aimed at the small group. The chances of them running out of ammo was also low, as a tube(or box) was attached to each crossbow, along with motors.

Hastily, Koneko and Akeno rushed forwards to intercept the first volley of attacks. The Rook protecting their left, the Queen protecting their right. Asuna and Kirito had stayed further back, intercepting the ones aimed at their previously unprotected backs.

"Sona!" Rias cried out in surprise. "How did you set this up?!"

"Flauros-san's archer Bishop-piece set most of this up." The Sitri heiress admitted. "Originally, I want to make the final confrontation up top, but she changed to locations. I have to admit, this is working out better than expected."

In a single move, the Gremory Peerage, which had the superior numbers and power, were cornered.

They could not fly out of the way, as the two Bishops, now that their main purpose had been revealed, could support their Queen and take them out in a few hits. Not a single one of them could try to leave and go after the other's King, as that would spread their forces so thin, that if a singe one of them got distracted, it would mean their King gets damaged. And although they had the Phoenix Tears, they had wanted to save it for Kirito or Asuna, who were better in terms of technique and skill. The worst thing was Rias having to use it on herself, but how long before she fell? A King on their own could not stand against another King and their Peerage and not hope to win the battle with. Especially since Rias still did not have great control over her Power of Destruction, and since they had another King on their side which suited being an assassin.

And Kiba could not help either. He was trying to destroy some of the turrets, but Tsubaki had taken out a new naginta, this one a little longer, and started to press the Knight back! Her quick thrusts, coupled with the magic bullets she and the other Bishops let out from time to time, as well as attacks from Argo at his least defended areas, made the Knight had pressed to take a reprieve.

In the terms of chess, they were in Checkmate.

[Issei. Can you hear me?] Suddenly, a calm voice entered his mind. [If you can, just tilt your head to the right side twice.]

Asuna-san…? Issei thought to himself. He had not expected the chestnut-haired girl to use his Billingual to speak with him. Not questioning her(not that he could), Issei did as what Asuna told him.

[Good. I want you to shuffle your body a few steps to the right.] Asuna instructed. [If all goes well, you won't be taken out of the fight just yet. And hurry!]

At that exact moment, Issei saw Koneko get nailed with a particularly large explosive. It did little damage, but the large smokescreen allowed one of the Bishops to fire in an attack, damaging Koneko significantly. Weakened and confused, Koneko was unable to defend against the other volleys of attacks aimed her way.

"…Ise…senpai…" With little fanfare, Koneko was retired from the game.

"Rias Gremory-sama's Rook, retired."

The small Rook's retirement created a hole in the defensive ring. Something that Akeno quickly covered. But it was only a matter of time…

"No!" Asia, who had been unable to heal Koneko in time from the quick bombardment, finally acted. Kneeling down, she struck a pose of prayer. A light shone faintly from her body, and it spread outwards her surroundings.

Asia knew that the opponent would be healed as well, and that Issei could not be healed by her. Yet she still did it. Such was her nature.

"I was waiting for that!" The Bishop that had been maintaining the barrier undid it, causing the holographic image of Sona to disappear. Not only that, but Issei could also sense a new presence on the roof they had vacated just minutes ago. She quickly dashed forward, trying to get into the healing aura.

Issei had a sudden feeling of foreboding, but he could not say anything.

Thankfully, their Knight did.

"Everyone, get out of Asia's healing aura!" Allowing the naginta to be stabbed into his gut, Kiba quickly snapped the long spear, before he took a page out of Kirito's book; He created and threw numerous blades at the contraptions.

He was then forced to create a new blade to defend against Argo's attack, but the objective had been complete. The keen edges of the swords thrown sliced into the fragile-looking crossbow, destroying them. This allowed everyone to escape by flight…

…just as the Bishop stepped into the green healing aura that Asia was emitting.

"Reverse!"

*Don!* The pale green light changed instantly and emitted something red and dangerous instead.

"-Ah."

In that instant, Asia's body shined and disappeared.

What? Issei's eyes widened. What just happened?

"…The reverse of healing is damage…Argento-san's healing ability is immense…If that is reversed…"

The opposing Bishop that had entered Asia's healing area had a satisfied-looking expression on her face, even as she vomited blood. "…I beat the Gremory's healer…Kaichou…"

Sona's Bishop then disappeared at the same time as Asia, as did all those who were enveloped in the light

"One of Rias Gremory-sama's Bishop, retired."

"One of Sona Sitri-sama's Bishop, retired."

Issei had half-expected to join their ranks, but a single shout from Asuna, along with the light-headedness he had been feeling disappearing, made it a fact that he would still be able to fight.

"Water Recovery!" The moment those words left her lips, Issei saw a blue light surround his frame, before it slowly dimmed. But, as it dimmed, Issei felt better and better, until it was like he had never lost a single litre of blood. Blood stated to flow out of the pipe still attached to him as well, unlike the trickle from before.

"This is…" Issei experimentally moved his body in wonder, as everyone looked at him in various states of shock. "…how?"

[A spell from the VR game we play. It the type that would regenerate health over time, with a debuff clearing effect. Kirito-kun thought that recovery-type spells would work on healing the body of any ailment, like poison or temporary blindness via magical means, with debuff clearing effects would work. We had not expected it to work on your blood loss completely though.]

This is… Issei was grateful for the girl's actions. Now he could fight again! "Thank you Asuna-san!"

Asuna, despite the sweat that beaded her face from clear exhaustion, gave a cheerful smile.

"Thank Kiri-"

*shink*

"-to…kun?" Asuna slowly trailed off. Her eyes, as well as Issei and Kirito's got drawn in to the bloodied spike that was protruding under her chest.

"Asunaaaaa!"


Kazuto, at first, had felt relief flooding through his system when he saw that Asuna had not been retired by the red aura that Asia emitted. She was severely weakened, yes, but nothing a little time and a simple healing spell cast on herself could not fix. She had not been fully hit by the red aura Asia-chan emitted, yet to think it was still this potent…

"Thank Kiri-"

*shink*

"-to...kun?" Asuna weakly called out to her boyfriend near the end of her words, both his and her eyes drawn in to the broken wood that was jutting out of her stomach. When Kazuto followed the direction it came from, he saw the slowly lowering arm of the Queen.

Everything seemed to freeze for Kazuto when his eyes went back to his beloved.

"Asunaaaaa!"

Kazuto's heart felt like it was dying all over again. He had hoped Asuna's status as a level 50 Clearer would stop her from dying in this Rating Game, but that small hope of his died along with whatever emotion he had coursing through his mind when he heard the announcement made by Grayfia.

"Kirto-sama's Faux Pawn, retired"

No... Kazuto stared at the remnants of light that represented Asuna's departure. A small part of his mind tried to tell him that she was fine. That she was not actually dead, nor was she in a serious condition. That she was actually lying on a comfortable bed in the infirmary, resting up as the Game went on.

But the truth was..that part of his mind was quickly snuffed out.

Kazuto had never really gotten used to Asuna's death in SAO.

In SAO, when you died once, you died in real life. No do-overs. So, when he saw Asuna's form perish, he had felt like he had died. But, she survived. By some miracle, or perhaps, because he managed to deal the final blow just before the Nervegear fried Asuna's brain, the death game got cleared, and Asuna survived.

In ALO, after Asuna was set free from that prison and was playing VR games again, he did not mind as much if Asuna died from some sort of reason. In ALO, the death animation was vastly different compared to the one in SAO. No collapsing of polygons for the player. Instead, they shrunk down into a small coloured ball of flame, which snuffed itself out after a set time. So, if he saw Asuna die in ALO before his eyes(not that he would ever allow such a thing to happen if he could help it), he was able to cope to a certain degree.

…and by 'certain degree', he meant getting Asuna's remain flame and reviving her as soon as possible, regardless of the location and how safe it was. Which meant a large stock of revival items were in their shared inventory…

Well, even if they could be revived or not in-game, all the SAO survivors took care to not just go ahead and die needlessly in ALO, even if it would not harm them in real life. ALO was just a VR game, after all.

Kazuto had thought that after all this time, he had managed to get rid of the trauma of Asuna dying once in SAO.

He was wrong.

So, so wrong.

Something in him snapped. And another thing in him crumbled down, like a dam bursting forth with every single drop of water it had accumulated.

Kazuto felt a haze-like thing surround his mind. And then–


Argo was afraid. Very, very afraid.

This is bad… She thought to herself when she saw Kazuto, or as she knew him, Kirito, suddenly fall to his knees, slumped over like a marionette with its strings cut.

Now, one might ask, why was she acting like that?

Well, the answer was deceptively simple.

She knew how Kazuto reacted whenever someone died before his eyes. She had seen it firsthand when the Moonlit Black Cats had al but perished in the trapped treasure room. In fact, she had come close. VERY close, to revealing her existence as a devil to Kazuto and Asuna when she saw him acting way too much like his old self during the Ordinal Scale event. The only reason she did not was because unlike in SAO, he actually did not act in a suicidal way. His gruff and angry way during boss fights remained the same, but he did not brush others off coldly afterwards, not did he stay up several days in a row just grinding and fighting like in SAO, forgoing sleep and food. It also helped that he enlisted help from the GGO player, Shino Asada and his AI daughter, Yui. It also helped that he was still hanging on by a thread because Asuna was still alive.

But, if he watched Asuna 'die' before his eyes…in a manner way too similar to SAO…well, she had only two words on her mind.

We're fucked.


After the disappearance of Asuna, Asia and the enemy Bishop from the battlefield, there was only nine devils left.

The enemy side had four people left. Sona Sitri, Shinrai Tsubaki, the remaining Bishop student council member, and the Flauros's heiress.

For their side, the only ones left were Kirito, Kiba Yuuto, his master Rias Gremory, Akeno Himejima and Issei, who had somehow managed to have his lost blood restored to him by Asuna's final move, before she got retired by an attack from the enemy Queen. The only reason why the perverted boy had not gone down immediately was also because of he had shifted to the side a few steps, just shy of Asia's healing aura range. Something Kiba thinks had something to do with Asuna as well. Was the shock from Asuna-san's death too much for him? Kiba frowned. Come to think of it, Kirito was always very protective of Asuna-san whenever it came to her life being in danger, or of she was being targeted by Issei. Although that last bit was because Issei was being a pervert. But either way…

We lost half our members… Kiba was angry. Mostly frustrated, but there was anger mixed in as well.

This game was meant to be where one side could dominate the other. That was what Kiba originally thought, even if there were more people on both sides than originally anticipated.

But reality was not so kind. Straight from the beginning, things have been disadvantageous to them. A greater number of people, each with the powerful skills that Kirito and Asuna had access to. Demerit points for damaging the playing field, which heavily restricted the attacks of practically half of their Peerage, not including Kirito and Asuna!

He could already hear the comments of the high-class devils watching them from above. But, he did not let that drag him down, nor discourage him from his goal.

Buchou's estimation will surely fall. Kiba tightened the grip on his sword. He was plenty shocked by the planning of Sona. But he did not allow that to discourage him. But, we would not let it fall any lower than this.

"Issei!" Kiba narrowed his eyes, hands ready to grasp a sword that was not there. Yet. "Power me up!"

"Gotcha!"

[BoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoost! Transfer!] The green jewel flashed several times, before pale aura was transferred to Kiba. Already, he could feel the increase in his abilities rise significantly.

"I won't let you!" Grabbing yet another naginta from somewhere, Tsubaki got ready to make use of the speed granted to her by the Queen piece to intercept the white Knight.

Yet no one got the chance t do anything.

"RARGH!"

A literal wall of energy blasted everyone away, knocking some of their feet. When Kiba righted himself, what he saw…

…-was a stunning sight.

Wha-

A literal storm of energy was swirling around Kirito's kneeling form. As he watched, changes started to appear all over the boy's body.

The simple shirt and armour he had been wearing turned to shreds, only to be replaced by a black trenchcoat that went down to his feet. Steel-studded boots lined along the side appeared on his feet, as well as black clothes on his legs and upper body. A green visor that covered his face, shaped like the beak of a bird was also formed. And behind the tinted visor…Kiba could see that the gamer-swordsman had his eyes changed into a golden colour, completely unlike his usual onyx black coloured eyes.

"Kuh!" Tsubaki took a step back cautiously, careful to not let any openings in her guard show "So that one had a Sacred Gear? And it awakened at such a time as well?!"

Ever so slowly, Kirito turned his head to face Tsubaki's guarded form. "-d-e_!"

Acting just like a typical berserker, Kirito leapt at the form of Tsubaki, hands outstretched and sword ready to cut her down–

–only for the naginta to shoot up and swipe through the sword, leaving him with only a hilt. Making use of the significantly less dangerous Kirito, Tsubaki spun around and kicked Kirito in the stomach, forcing him away from her.

"That was dangerous…" Tsubaki narrowed her eyes. "But without that sword, all I would have to worry about is your Sacred Gear. Which I doubt you understand how it works, since you just awakened to it."

"Kh." Kiba, in place of Kirito, let out a hiss of frustration. What the Queen had just said was true. As of right now, Kirito and Asuna, despite having the better skills and techniques, could not match up to the experience that the other devils had accumulated over the years on how to use their devil body and magic. They had managed to close the gap with their Sword Skills...but with the weapon gone, Kazuto was unlikely to be able to display his full power. Unless he gave a sword to Kirito, that is.

That was what Kiba had thought, and what he had believed in.

But–

Kirito merely retreated back a few steps, raising his arm as he did so. And then-

"Ah!" Tsubaki fell to her knees. "I…I can't move?!" Tsubaki's face was filled with panic.

Kiba could also empathise with her. After all, like the Queen, he suddenly found it difficult to move. But, unlike the Queen, who was obviously Kirito's target, he could move a little.

"W-why can't I move? Sacred Balor View was banned, and he has been taken out, so why-" Tsubaki's words were cut short. Tsubaki's mouth was moving, but no sounds were coming from it. It was like she had been muted.

Holding the broken hilt of his sword, Kirito stabbed it to the ground, surprising Kiba by his actions. A glowing magic circle appeared below Kirito's feet, and it glowed a pale golden and black colour.

"I-_-_-Summon_-mine-_-forg-_-cat_-_-_t_-_-e-_-_"

The swirling vortex intensified, but it quickly stopped, condensing to form…something. Kiba could not tell, for suddenly, a bright let burst forth.

"Dark Repulsor!"


Tsubaki side

whatshappeningwhatshappeningwhatshappeningwhatshappeningwhatshappeningwhatshappeningwhats-

Tsubaki was in a panic. She could not move. She could not speak. Her legs felt like they were pinned in place by a huge force, while her arms were stuck in place, as if they had been frozen. Her body could shift left and right, as well as her head, but just barely.

Her eyes could only watch in morbid fascination as she witnessed the scene before her.

The Red Dragon Emperor's blood -Issei's blood- was surrounding Kirito. It rotated in the air slowly, making the image of a hurricane, with Kirito in the eye of the storm. It drew everyone's attention to him. The blood circulated in a clockwise direction. As she was the closest to him, she could see the blood made an outline of a blade as it condensed. She was also able to see that ripples appeared along the sword as it pulsed with light.

With a start, she realised she was looking at the forging of a blade.

And once the light died down, it revealed–

–A beautiful crystal sword.

"Dark Repulsor!"


Kiba was looked at the newly formed blade in shock. Amazing…He used Ise's blood as a catalyst, turning an otherwise ordinary blade into something…more…

Even from his current position, far away from Kirito, he could feel the power that the blade held. It was not a holy blade, that was for sure. But the aura it released could be on par with Issei's Ascalon.

Kirito stood up and raised the blade to his side. It was a posture Kiba was familiar with.

It was the same one he had used to break a blade.

"You_il-_d-…hurt…..Asuna!"

"N…no!" Free from the mysterious paralysis that had struck them, Tsubaki threw the Pheonix Tear she had on hand onto herself as she launched consecutively large magic attacks at the boy. She was also being boosted by the other Bishop, so her attacks were faster and stronger than they originally were. All of them hit the black-clad boy.

In response…Kirito just moved.

"…Ah…" Tsubaki's voice could only utter a single sound, before she disappeared into particles of light.

"Sona Sitri-sama's Queen, retired."

She didn't even get a chance to use her Sacred Gear… Kiba was in awe of how fast Kirito had dispatched the Queen, the second strongest Piece of a Peerage, in a near instant. But that awe quickly evaporated when he noticed that Kirito was not acting like his usual self. He was breathing heavily, and he had wide openings in his stance. Slowly, he swayed in place, as if he was listening to something that only he could hear.

"…Kirito-san?" Akeno looked at the black-clad devil warily. He paused in his movements, freezing in place. "…Are you okay?"

"-_-_-!"

With a garbled shout, Kirito dashed at Akeno, his crystalline blade already moving at high speeds.

"-!" Having not expecting that, Akeno just reacted by dodging out of the way, using magic to blast the sword aimed at her with a concentrated mass of crackling energy.

When he saw that, Kiba had expected the sword, made out of a crystal-like material, to have shattered the moment it came into contact with the magic attack comprised of her Fallen Angel heritage and Demonic magic. But sadly for everyone involved…

That was not what happened.

instead of shattering, the crystal sword had instead been forced downwards from the attack, sending Kirito into a twirl. But he quickly recovered from that, planting both feet into the ground firmly. Pulling back his other, free hand, his fist smashed into Akeno's raised ones, knocking her away from him slightly, while his sword swung up from it's downwards position. Not only that, the sword cut a deep red gash across her raised arms, even as Akeno winced from getting the hit from Kirito, stepping a few steps back from the two hits.

"""!"""

Impossible! For the first time, Kiba felt his mind go blank with shock. Kirito forced Akeno-san back? With a single fist? Akeno is a Queen, meaning she has the traits of the Rook, which specialises in defence! Kirito-san is just a devil with a Pawn piece! That was something we had confirmed before the game! And yet…he manged to injure her and push her back within the same moment?! And his sword… Kiba eyed the delicate-looking blade cautiously. Kirito's blade should not be stronger than any of mine! If his gear was something like Sword Birth, it should have shattered the moment it came into contact with Akeno's guard! He did not have the time for it to develop and control it to my level, seeing as he has just awakened to his Sacred Gear! But it did not…so…

A cold feeling went slid down Kiba's chest.

It was also with a dull realisation that Kiba realised that everyone had remained rooted to the ground for no reason when Kirito created his sword.

That feeling, if possible, became even colder. Especially when he realised that Kirito's eyes looked glazed over. Is he not completely conscious of what he is doing?

"Oi, Kirito!" Issei shouted out, taking a step forward. "What the hell are you doing man? That's Akeno-san, you know? Your ally! OUR ally!"

"Oi, Sekiryuutei!" At that moment, Argo shouted at the pervert "Don't go near him."

"Why not?" Rias frowned. "Surely, if we reason with him, he would-"

"He won't." Argo had an unnaturally serious expression on her face. "As of this moment, we should put this Rating Game on hold until Kii-b-, no, until Kirito is either retired, or gets his senses back."

"You are making an unnaturally big fuss of this Flauros-san." Kiba narrowed his eyes as he thought over the heiress's words. "For what reason should we listen to you?"

"The last time something like this happened, he gained tunnel vision and did not stop until he completed his objective." Argo glanced at the growling form of Kirito. He had stopped at first, but now, he was leaping towards them. "-Shit! Surge Terror Fist!"

Argo's arms blurred. Then, Kirito was launched backwards, flying straight into a tree.

"That should keep him down for a small time." Argo winced as she slowly stepped out of the stance she had gotten into to use the Sword Skill. "Anyway, as I was saying, Kirito has a severe case of tunnel vision. The last time he entered such a state...well...you know of the Ordinal Scale event for the Augma a few months back right?" Seeing everyone nod their heads, she continued. "He went from rank 800 to rank 2 in a matter of three nights."

"""-what!?""" Everyone shouted in shock.

"Now you see why I am so worried?" Argo gritted her teeth as she looked for any signs of Kirito. "I wager Kirito is just driven with rage at seeing his girlfriend going through harm. Again. And that anger is making him have tunnel vision that makes him not differentiate from friend or foe."

"If that is the case…" Sona's voice came through an amplified earpiece that Argo was holding out. "Then wouldn't the Maou stop this game immediately?"

"I don't think they will." Came Argo's grim response. "For one, they would want Sitri-san to lose this match. With Kirito going berserk, this is the best way to humiliate her: A single Pawn decimates the Queen, King and Bishop of the opposing team, along with the other, half-breed King of a disgraced family. Another reason would be that this is a good way to see if the Kings can react to surprise events. After all, this is already a different way of doing things, no? With the rules being told to you just before the match begins instead of being told a few days or weeks in advance. Them allowing this to happen would not be too detrimental to what they want to see, whatever it is. Those old geezers." Argo cursed.

She is right. Kiba realised. In all the Rating games that I have witnessed, the information was sent to the teams days, or weeks before the actually game. This is completely unexpected way of doing things, but we all took it in stride since we are used to things happening suddenly.

"So, what do you say?" Argo asked. "Truce?"

"…Truce." Rias agreed after a moment of thinking. "Until this matter is settled. Then, we would allow each side to recover a bit in plain sight, before we fight again."

"That is agreeable by me." Sona said her piece. "You would have found me anyway, so I am coming down to help."

"Don't fly." Argo warned. "We still don't know his full capabilities. For all we know, you could be a sitting duck if you tried to get to us by air." With that, Argo cut off their connection.

"Graaghh~!" Just in time too, as coming out of the woodwork was Kirito. A few leaves were stuck to him, but other than that, he looked relatively unharmed.

"Alright, Issei use your Dragon Shot." Rias quickly ordered, firing off small spheres of demonic energy at the oncoming freight train that was Kirito to try and slow him down. "If the other Bishop can use that reversal technique, please do so when on Issei's attack! Akeno, you continuously fire your holy lightning at Kirito. We will try to stop him from the front!"

""Hai, Buchou!"" Everyone did as they were told quickly.

[BoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoost! Transfer! Dragon Shot!] Ddraig announced as Issei launched the attack at the still dashing Kirito.

"Reverse!" With a yell, the other Bishop raised her hand and turned Issei's attack into a holy-attributed one.

*kiriririri*

"Haaaaah!" Akeno too let out a shout filled with fighting spirit as she continuously discharged her holy lightning. Rias and Argo fired off demonic bullets as well, each concentrated and filled with as much power as possible that they could force into each attack before they let it fly.

*Ka-doon~!*

With a large impact, every attack hit Kirito's undefended body!

"That should have taken care of Kirito, right?" Issei asked a little nervously. Not that Kiba could blame him. After all, their attacks all combined together should have been overkill for any other devil. A lightning-based attack that had the attribute of a Fallen Angel, the continuous fire of two Kings, and a Boosted to the max magic bullet that had its attributes reversed to holy, turning it into a dangerous attack.

And yet…

why did Kiba still feel a chill in his bones? And why was there no announcement about Kirito's retirement from the game?

"Grrghhh…"A low growl, filled with killing intent, came from the large cloud of dust that had been stirred up by everyone's attacks. With a single swipe of a blade that emerged from the inside, that cloud dispersed…

revealing a bloodied Kirito for all to see, his limbs all intact.

Involuntarily, Kiba took a step back in shock. "…What in the Maou's name IS he made of?"

"…ah shit." Argo gulped. "Did he cut the demonic bullets that we launched at him?"

"""Wait, what?!""" Everyone turned towards the slightly sheepish looking King in shock. """He can do WHAT?!"

"…Please tell me you are joking…" Rias gulped. "He has the power and skill to slice magic IN HALF?!"

"I wish." Came the grim response. "Hell, not even I thought he would be able to do such a thing. Well, I should have expected this, since he managed to react in time to cut a sniper round with a sword."

"…huh. Guess that is why Kirito-san beat me into using Dress Break offensively. It sounds pretty badass if you can slice magic or bullets in the air."

Everyone ignored the statement that Issei made, though in their hearts, they agreed with the latter part of what he said.

"…rargh!"Kirito leapt at them, crystalline sword glowing with a Sword Skill ready to be launched. Now that he was closer, Kiba could see that his clothes were singed, and he was bleeding from his left arm. But other than that, he seemed fine.

"Akeno-senpai! Buchou!" Kiba retreated back a few steps, sword at the ready. "Get ready!"

"Let me help you once more!" In an unexpected move, the other Bishop rushed forwards, hand raised. "Reverse!"

I see! Kiba had been confused by what the girl had done, but he realised why she did it a few moments later. Sword Skills use our demonic energy, so if we reverse that, it would turn into holy energy! And if Kirito, who is currently enveloped in his demonic energy, was hit by that, he would be harmed by the by-product that is the holy energy!

"…KRGH!"Letting out a pain filled grunt, Kirito did not stop–

*shink*

–and executed the Sword Skill, piercing straight through the Bishop, starting from her hand. He also held onto her to make sure she did not escape from the attack

"…ah…aAAHHH~!" The Bishop let out pain filled screams, thrashing about as she tried to get out of the vice-like grip Kirito had her in. The holy energy that was enveloping her sword and his body harmed her as well, sending waves of pain crashing through her system

"Kusaka-san!" Sona's voice echoed throughout the field, prompting Kiba to look behind him. When he did, he was met with the sight of the black-haired devil running towards them, shock and anger painting her face. "NO!"

"One of Sona Sitri-sama's Bishops, retired."

Thankfully for the Bishop, she was retired soon after her pain-filled shrieks started, putting her out of the pain she had been subjected to for a few brief seconds of having not only her arm bisected by a sword, but also having holy energy running rampant all over her body from the close proximity of being to the reversed Kirito.

The holy aura surrounding him was soon gone, dispersed from Kirito no longer emitting and demonic energy for the reverse to work. Taking this as a chance, everyone tried to attack him again. This time, Sona created some water dragons to restrict Kirito, while Kiba and Argo worked together to bring down the black devil.

"Petro, Basileus, Dionysius, Holy Mary. Please listen to my voice!"

Space warped and a tear was created. Kiba stuffed his hand into it quickly. I only have one shot to use this to my advantage!

"In the name of the saints lodged in the holy blade, I release thee. -Durandal!"

*Buuuuuuuuuuuun...*

As soon as the large sword was released, it started to emit a low hum.

"-_-_?-_-_-_!"

The holy aura from the sword being released alerted Kirito to the danger before him. But he was a second too slow.

"Sorry Kii-bou, but you should take a break." Argo, making use of her small and agile form, sprinted before the restrained Kirito and quickly swiped her claws over his eyes. A quick spurt of blood showed the attempt had been successful. Temporarily making him blind.

Kirito, upon having his eyes burst into nothingness by the attack, struggled to escape. But it was inevitable for him. The holy sword hummed, emitting a peaceful and quiet surge as it sliced Kirito.

…that should have been the end of things, but Kiba clicked his teeth in both frustration and respect for the swordsman.

after all...

…he had managed to evade the attack, only having his left arm loped off instead of his entire body being split in twain. Not only that, he was also freed from that last attack, due to the magic restraints having been cut by Kiba's attack. But it did not change the fact that although he was freed, he was blind.

"Ah… " Kiba gave a sheepish expression as he looked at the floor after he attacked. It had been cut into two neat, equal halves that spanned quite a distance away from him. I had wanted to suppress its power, but it seems I would be receive a minus evaluation from this…well, an even greater minus evaluation for Buchou. This is a failure on my part

"Kiba!" Rias was surprised at the appearance of Xenovia's holy sword. "How did you get Durandal?"

"Xenovia." Kiba responded. He was a little surprised by how well the sword was responding to his thoughts. "She is the one who suggested this. That, in the case that she became unable to function and fight, she would transfer the sword's right of use to me, since this sword is too good for her." He held Durandal in both hands. "It seems my Balance Breaker allowed me to attain the ability to handle Durandal like this."

"…I would have lost hard…" Sona sighed when her eyes laid upon the holy blade. "What is with that ridiculous cut anyway? Wasn't Durandal supposed to have high destructive force? Does this mean that you can control it better then Xenovia?"

"…I will explain later." Kiba eyed the other King that was lounging nearby with a smile on her face. "We are still in the middle of a match after all. And I am still wary of Kirito-san."

"I think we can relax a bit." Sona pushed up her glasses as she looked at the person they were talking about. He was standing very still, not moving much. "No matter how much of a monster swordsman that Pawn is, he is now blind after all. He would be unable to display his earlier strength, since he would be unable to accurately defend or fight against us with his sight robbed from him."

When he heard that, Kiba wanted to agree with that assessment of Kirito. He was supposed to be less of a danger now.

…so why did that chill he had first felt still persist?

"...eath for all of you."

When he heard that, Kiba would admit, he felt like someone had dropped a block of ice down his spine. For Kirito was looking straight at them.

The broken part of the visor that Argo had slashed remained broken, but steam started to rise from the wound across his face. It strangely reminded Kiba of a show he had once caught by accident. But that was not all.

"…you're shittin me." Argo voiced everyone's thoughts. "He has damned regeneration."

Kirito had bent down and picked up the sword he had dropped with an arm…an arm that was made of light coming from the stump that had been cut off.

"DEATH OF ALL OF YOU!" Kirito roared, swinging his reacquired sword at them once more as he practically reappeared before them, sword already swiping to take off Kiba's hea–

*clang*

"No you won't!" Argo reacted just in the nick of time, standing just before Kiba and using her claws to hook onto the crystalline blade and turning it away from them, out of harm's way. This small opening allowed Kiba to recover from the push that Argo had done to him as he stabbed the Peerless Blade into Kirito's stomach.

Unknowingly, Kiba had performed a Switch with Argo.

"…gragh~!" Kirito roared in pain as the holy aura of the holy sword started to damage him from the inside. Swiping his own sword around left and right, Kiba was forced to let go of the hilt to prevent it from being cut off from elbow down.

"That was close…" Kiba looked on warily. "Flauros-san, are you okay?"

"I'll…live." She grunted out. When he looked at her, Kiba was surprised to see that she was missing her leg.

"Your leg-"

"I'll be fine." Argo managed to stand, using Kiba as a support. "Something like this would not dull my specialty of intercepting when needed. Kii-bou is too great of a monster for me to act like an assassin."

"Is that so?" Sona narrowed her eyes as she thought of some way to get them out of this situation. "…Hyoudou-san, how many more minutes do you have on your Scale Mail?"

"Erm…about five minutes left." The perverted boy answered. "Why?"

"…no…" Rias suddenly glared at Sona. "Absolutely not."

"Eh? Buchou, did you understand what Kaichou wants to do?" Issei asked.

"…Ise, she wants you to act as bait. Then, when Kirito is distracted by you, she would want me and Akeno to deal finishing blows to him." Rias explained the situation to both him and Kiba in a slightly angry tone.

-!...I see. Certainly, Kiba could agree that such a plan would work well. Issei's Scale Mail boasted a very high degree of toughness. If Issei Boosted himself, he should be able to restrain Kirito without getting done in so quickly, allowing Akeno and Rias to deal the finishing blows, this being a hghed chance if he Boosted them first. What's more, if Issei survives, they can just use the Phenex Tear to bring him back to his peak condition.

But at the same time, Rias would not use such a strategy if she could help it. Rias cared for her servants after all, Issei even more so.

But at the same time…this was the best solution.

Out of all of them, Issei was the one who boasted the highest survivability. Not only because of his Scale Mail, but also because of his supreme tenacity.

He refused to fall when he had been a devil for just a few days, facing off against a Fallen Angel. He refused to back down, even at the cost of his life, when he was fighting Raiser Phenex. He did his best, and tried to go beyond, during the fight against Loki.

These incidents, while they ended up in him obtaining help in some way or the other, showcased that he was unwilling to back down. And he would always try to get back up, no matter what damage his body sustained.

"…Buchou, please allow me to do this." Issei looked at Rias, a fire burning in his eyes. "Akeno-san and Buchou has the best chances of defeating Kirito in one shot. I am a Power type. Kirito is a mixture of Power and Technique. He already knows all my moves, so he is a bad matchup for me. So, Buchou. Please, allow me to at least allow you to defeat him."

"… …" Rias bit her lip, obviously frustrated. But in the end, she relented. "…fine. But you better survive."

"Hai, Buchou!" Issei saluted his master.


Slowly approaching the black-clad devil, Issei increased the abilities of his body until it was the limit set by the game, his eyes peeled for any movem-

"Hargh!"

There he isssss! Issei reacted as fast as possible, grabbing onto Kirito's net-like arm with his hands. "Sorry, Kirito, but you are staying here with me!"

"Grr…"Kirito snarled as he tried to escape. Unfortunately, Issei was holding onto him with all the Boosted strength he had. At that moment, he was much, much stronger than Kirito. That said, the struggling from the captive in his hands was making it hard for him to hold onto him.

"Buchou!" Issei called out to his master. I hope they hurry up! I don't think I can hold onto him for much longer! "Fire away!"

The moment he spoke those words, he felt a sharp pain on his nose, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

A-are? What happened?


*Doon doon doon doon*

Kiba saw that Akeno, Rias, and Sona fired off large attacks at the struggling form of Kirito. Somehow, he had managed to remove the holy sword that had been stuck in his guts, but that was something that could be left for later.

Although the attacks that Sona were using did little against Kirito, Akeno's and Rias's attacks did, having been Boosted 3 times each by Issei before he went on his mission.

Doon! His visor broke off.

Doon! His trenchcoat's arms were blown off, leaving his arms bare.

Doon! His arm lost a chunk of flesh.

Doon! A hole was made in his stomach.

Blam! A lightning attack hit the side of Kirito's face, forcing it back hard enough that it smashed into Issei's forehead. In fact, there was so much force behind it that Issei had been knocked out, releasing his hold on Kirito as he was retired.

"Rias Gremory-sama's Pawn, retired."

hopefully, this is enough. Kiba thought to himself as he saw the wobbling form of Kirito. His body looked to be on the edge of breaking. The net arm they had seen was gone, as was a part of his right shoulder, exposing the white bone underneath. A clean hole had been made in his gut the size of a softball. allowing everyone to see through to the other side. His visor, which had been floating above his head, was also nearly gone. All in all, Kirito looked to be in a sorry state, and should have keeled over at least three times already.

Of course, Kiba's expectations betrayed him.

"Grr…" Slowly, with his bones making sickening clacking and popping sounds, Kirito made his way towards the group, sword back in his hand. As they watched, his body slowly mended itself together, growing flesh and organs in real time. The net arm made a reappearance as well.

"…are we sure Kirito-san is not related to the Phenex clan in anyway?" Sona asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

That's what we want to know!? Literally everyone else thought to himself. Kiba especially was reminded of Issei when he first faced Raiser in his first Rating Game.

Then, his mind drifted to before that particular event. To be precise, the time when Rias used her powers on- …hang on…am I an idiot? Are WE idiots?!

Kiba slowly moistened his lips, gulping nervously as he did so. "Buchou…" he started slowly, eyes now frantically searching. "If you get close enough to Kirito, do you think you can use your ability on his head?"

"""… … …""" Everyone looked at Kiba for a few moments, before simultaneously, facepalming.

"How is it that we never thought of that…" Rias groaned.

"Yes…if we had done that from the beginning instead of just barraging him, wouldn't that have led to his instant retirement?" Sona sighed though her hand. "Though right now, how do you propose that, Yuuto-san? HE has both his arms back, and we don't know if that crystalline arm of his is as strong, or perhaps stronger, than his original arm."

"You would also have to get past Kii-bou's insane reaction speed." Argo added. "So you would have to near him without him noticing, or stop his swordsmanship straight from the front."

"Well… …" Kiba had an idea about that.


Timeskip

It took some time, but Kiba managed to locate Durandal after a while. Somehow. it's holy aura had been…sealed, for lack of a better word. But with this, the plan is ready!

"Kirito!" Kiba dashed towards the still healing devil, who was still making his way towards Argo and Sona, his movements painfully slow. "It is time for you to retire!"

*clang*

Kiba's eyes felt like they would bug out of his head when they saw what had happened. The crystalline sword had manged to stop Duradnal's blade. And the sword had remained intact too, even when the precise cutting power that the holy sword was emitting at the moment managed to cut the ground beneath him in half, and cause numerous spurts of blood to appear on Kirito's sword hand, the sword did not shatter on impact. In fact, Kiba could not see a single scratch on the thing!

"I…don't…think…so…"Kirito said, before he executed a Sword skill. Twin swords seemed to appear at the same time, striking Durandal near the base of the blade. Kiba nearly dropped Durandal when he felt the intense vibrations from that attack, but he managed to keep a grip on it.

"Buchou, please do so!" Kiba shouted as he pressed the Peerless Sword of Roland against Kirito, forcing him to try and push back as well to prevent the holy sword from cutting into his body.

"…Sorry Kirito…" Rias, appearing there in a few seconds thanks to Akeno making use of her Queen's speed, smashed her hand, clad in her Bael's bloodline's power, into the back of Kirito's head.

For a moment, it seemed like Kirito would have been able to react in time. He quickly disengaged from Kiba, before swinging the flat of his sword to try and prevent Rias's hand from getting too close, unable to properly swing it in the enclosed space he found himself in. And for a split second, it seemed like Kirito's plan had worked. The hand had been stopped by the sword.

But the famed Power of Destructionwreathed hand overpowered Kirito, especially since he had been severely weakened, managing to reach Kirito's head, instantly defeating him.

The effects were instant. Kirito, unable to defend against the all-powerful attack, collapsed to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. For a single, terse moment, everyone waited with bated breath, half expecting the boy to rise up and challenge them again. But those fears were banished when the tell-tale light from retiring appeared around him.

"Faux King Kirito-sama, retired"

Everyone kept quiet for a moment, before they all let out a breath they did not know they had been holding.

"…finally…" Rias sighed out, snuffing her power out as she did so. "He has been dealt with…so, I have been meaning to ask you Sona, but…why on the roof?" Rias questioned her friend. "If you had hidden somewhere else, it would have been harder for us to find you."

"…Originally, this place was supposed to be the place where I was hiding." Sona admitted. "But Flauros-san told me to stay on the roof, while they set up a trap below. It did not make sense at first, but when I saw how she took advantage of the skills of her Peerage to set up the trap…well, I had no objections at the end. You saw the end result of that thing."

Yes…that was very stressful… Kiba agreed.

"Well, that was part of the reason." Argo interjected. "The other part was because it would have been a good way to wait it out and exhaust you guys even more."

"So, that was a stamina waster, basically. Or an attempt of one, until Kirito went nuts." Rias sighed.

"Umu!" Argo said. "And with this, the match between the two of us shall continue in a few minutes!...is what I want to say, but I think that the game goes to you, Gremory-san."

"As much as I hate to admit it, the Flauros-heiress is right." Sona sighed, pushing up her glasses. "We have two Kings on our side, but one is unable to show even half her original strength. Your side still has a King, a Queen, and a Knight, two of which have abilities or items which are deadly to devils in general. But…" Sona gave a depressed smile. "I want to fight to the bitter end."

"…I understand your feelings, Sona." Rias too, smiled at her friend/rival. One filled with sympathy and understanding. "…Then, shall we use this opportunity to see which of us is better? Not our Peerages, but just us?"

"…the King must survive until the end." Sona suddenly said, confusing Kiba for a moment. After all, what she just said was common sense for anyone playing chess. That WAS the objective of the king piece after all. "That is the duty of the King. If they are taken out, the game would be over, right?"

"…exactly. I can understand the reasoning for you hiding out, Sona." Rias merely nodded her head.

"Rias, Saji won against the Sekiryuutei. Neither Ise-kun nor you made any mistakes. —Please don't make light of that child. You aren't the only ones that are desperate."

"…Yes. I could sense that with my body, Sona." Rias nodded her head. "But even though we are this close to winning, it feels like our loss."

"Strange. That is how it feels for me as well."

Th two best friends looked at each, smiles on their faces. "Then, Sona— let's settle this."

Rias took a step forward.

When Kiba saw that, he instantly knew what his Master was thinking. So, he acted accordingly.

"If I sense danger, I'll enter to help immediately. I won't listen to your selfishness Buchou."

"… …" Rias did not respond to his words, but he knew that she understood. If she was close to losing, he would step in. Sorry Buchou, Kaichou. I won't listen to either of your complaints and enter to help if the situation is unfavourable. After all, if the King is taken out, it is all over.

"Ara ara." Akeno smiled, but anyone could see that she was on guard against the other King amongst them. "Then, what about you, Flauros-san? Will you join in on this free for all?"

"Naw~" Argo gave such a response in a carefree tone. "First and foremost, I was never a front-line fighter. I am more of a supporter, or someone who specialises in espionage. If I try to butt into their match in my condition," She indicated to her chopped of limb. "I would be the first one out. I'll just stay at the side lines and see who wins. Then, I'll retire. I prefer to see things end with my own eyes. Not only as a King who needs to regain her clan's honour, but also as a newbie to the group of young devils of this generation."

And with that, it was decided that only two people would be fighting.

The two best friends smiled each other, determination burning in their eyes, before they acted.

One stood out in terms of raw power. The other, in technique. Only one could win from this clash.

"Resign confirmed. Sona Sitri-sama has retired. Argo Flauros-sama had retied. It is the victory of Rias Gremory-sama."


Azazel's laughter echoed throughout the VIP room.

"…So that was the current Sekiyuutei."

One of the spectating leaders murmured that. The entirety of the VIP room was open-mouthed, each displaying various reactions.

That was the natural reaction for any sane person. After all, they had seen quite a spectacle of a battle.

"So, three events were borne from this game, eh?" Azazel murmured to himself, replaying the match in his head.

A new stupid technique was created and shown, courtesy of the current Sekiyuutei.

-Bilingual-

At first glance, this technique was too dumb. It was a perverted, completely useless technique. Even to Azazel, who was open-minded to perverted things, could not understand what had happened entirely.

But, in reality, Bilingual was a fearsome technique, even though it was not flashy.

If the opponent was female, the state of the battle would likely be overturned. Because it exposed the inside of their hearts. There was no other technique as terrifying as this to an opponent.

Moreover, it could read the inside of their hearts even in the type of situation where the spirit was being projected as a holographic image.

In matches limited to female opponents, he would be unparalleled with that technique. Azazel chuckled lightly to himself. He keeps rapidly developing techniques that make him hated by women. Does he really intend to become popular?

Azazel felt that it was very regrettable that Issei, the person who had created this move, did not completely understand it's amazing capabilities, since he had thought of it at the height of his suppressed sexual desire. Rather, it looks like Rias would tell him that he would be banned from using it in the games in the future. As it is now, he would be unable to participate in games with other devils, since many of them own female devil servants.

Then, there was the other technique that had been obtained by the Sekiryuutei.

-Dress Coat-

In all honesty, when Azazel first heard of it, he was afraid of the potential it would reach once it was mastered.

A magic that was exclusive to Issei, due it being a derivative of his other perverted technique, Dress Break. So not only does this make it hard for anyone to replicate, as they do not have a base for it, it is also a fearsome anti-magic technique. And to think it was also still under development! That magic is pretty powerful against Wizard and possibly Support types. And it looks like Kirito-kun was the one who guided Ise into making this technique just because he was also able to do so…that is some crazy stuff right there!

Azazel turned his attention to the other event that had been created.

-Kirito's Sacred Gear-

All the people in the VIP room knew of the SAO incident. In fact, quite a number of them came to see the game because of Kirito's involvement with the freeing of the 8,000 individuals involved with the supernatural world.

Angels, devils, youkai, even a few gods(depending on who you ask), had been trapped in the game. So, it would not be wrong to say that all of the people freed from the game owed Kirito their lives.

So, they were very interested when they heard he would be participating in the Rating Game that was originally meant to be for the Sitri and the Gremory heiresses. But nobody had expected their saviour to have a Sacred gear of his own when they came to watch the match.

That Sacred Gear… Azazel recalled the immense wave of energy he had felt coming from Kirito when he had donned the outfit. It seems to be unique one, that Sacred gear.

Azazel had never seen any Sacred gear like Kirito's before. It was very similar to Issei's and Vali's Boosted Gear and Dividing Gear respectively, creating armour as part of its abilities. But Kirito was different from the two. In the sense that his gear had never been recorded in any of the Grigori's records. Not only that, it's abilities that Kirito showcased reminded Azazel of a third-person adventure game…

Looks like I have a new project for the next few months

"Hohohoh, what an interesting battle."

Odin stroked his beard as he said that, a smile of satisfaction on his face. He called out to Sirzechs.

"Sirzechs."

"Yes."

"About that kid who has the dragon Sacred Gear."

"You mean Hyoudou Issei-kun? He has the Sekiryuutei."

However, Odin's next words were unexpected.

"No, I mean the Pawn of the Sitri family."

I see, so he paid attention to that one.

"What a good devil." Odin continued speaking. "You should take good care of that one. He'll become strong. The achievement of beating the Sekiryuutei kid is huge. Watching the Rating Games of devils is fun because of this. The weak change in the middle of a match. This is what a true match is."

Odin is paying the greatest of compliments to someone whose existence he didn't even know about several hours ago.

"That's right, that's right! Odin-ojii-chan really understands things, after all "

Serafall also praised her little sister's group and seemed cheery, even though she had watched the entire game with a tearfully crying face until then.

That pawn of Sona Sitri. She said his name was Saji Genshirou. Azazel chuckled as he thought deeply about the future. You could say that his estimation rose more than Ise in this match.

This game was broadcasted across the entire Underworld. Unexpectedly, the name of this previously unknown dragon Sacred Gear user may become more famous than the Sekiryuutei. Ise, Rias. This world that you're trying to plunge into has many difficulties in store for you all.


Timeskip

When Kazuto came to, the first thing he felt was coldness on his wrists. The next thing was that he was laying on something soft.

what happened? He groaned softly. Feeling uncomfortable for some reason, he attempted to sit upright, but felt his body meeting resistance when he tried to do so. In fact, he could hardly move his body.

Wha- Finding that only his head had completely unrestricted movement, Kazuto craned his neck forwards as much as he could see.

What he saw was numerous bindings all over his body, not so much that it was uncomfortable, but enough that it completely prevented his body from eve moving. In fact, had Kazuto not looked, he would have thought that there was nothing binding him down at all besides the silver metal cuffs that were attached to his hand.

Why am I- At first, he was confused. But the memories from the game came flooding back to him. …Ah…

Kazuto leaned back against the bed. Now that he knew the source of his discomfort, he could rest easier.

He remembered everything that had happened in the game. Their strategy meeting. The fight he had with Suguha and Keiko. Their confrontation with the other side.

Asuna's retirement.

Even now, fully knowing that she was actually fine, a part of his mind wanted to go crazy, go made with grief at the loss of Asuna once more. But thanks to the discomfort from the restraints, he managed to push down that mindless rage of his. Then, he thought back to the next events that occurred.

His transformation. His game-like abilities. And, most importantly–

The creation of Dark Repulsor.

Kazuto did not know how he managed to make the blade that Liz made for him. But he disregarded that point for a bit.

"I went berserk…" Kazuto thought that saying it out loud would help alleviate the worry in his mind. It did not. So, I went berserk…..That was such a strange feeling.

Actually, when Kazuto was felt something in his body snap, and his mind grow hazy, he had the chance to make it clear again.

It was a fleeting moment, since a part of his mind knew that Asuna was actually alive.

But, he chose not to. He chose to allow the haze to cover his mind. He wanted to black out, to be embraced by that momentary darkness that came with the final blow that was sure to happen, with him being so exposed as he was. He wanted to be in that darkness and wake up next to a perfectly fine Asuna.

And then, he felt his consciousness take a backseat. He saw, or rather felt, his body's Sacred Gear activating.

He could see things happening, feel the pain and drain on his body as it met attack after attack, and him dishing out attacks of his own. But he could not do much.

As the events played out, it would have been an understatement to say he was shocked. To think I had a Sacred Gear of my own all this time, and I had no idea of its existence...

It was mind-numbing, to say the least.

Then, he saw his outfit. The creation of Dark Repulsor. And his blatant disregard for staying down.

That was my Black Swordsman outfit. Kazuto had a few thoughts on it. So, is my Sacred gear something like Sword Birth? Or is it like Liz's? Creating things from my imagination? He shook his head. No use thinking about all of that now. Although… Kazuo allowed a smile to bloom on his face.

So that was what it felt like to be a boss, huh? Now I can see why Kayaba wanted to be the floor 100 boss back in Aincrad…


Several people came into the room a few minutes later.

"Kirito-kun!" Asuna leapt at Kazuto.

"Asuna!" Kazuto was relieved when he saw Asuna's face. It helped finally disperse the negative thoughts he had in his head about Asuna's death. "Are you okay?"

"Mhm." Asuna patted down her body. "All fine! The people here patched me up pretty quickly."

"Nah~ Kii-bou." Argo gave a sly grin as she approached the bound Kazuto. "Hiding that outrageous Sacred gear…you are really something, ya know?"

"I can't help it. I'm surprised I even had this gear to be honest." Kazuto could not help but grin. "Why, you scared?"

"Ha!" Argo gave a bark of laughter. "You and Aa-chan would get absolutely demolished by my Peerage later on. Though, I have to admit, it would be an experience to treat you like a Raid boss."

"So we still doing that fight?" Kazuto gave a grin. "Can't wait to actually use my Sacred Gear without going berserk."

A knock interrupted their banter, causing all three of the to turn their heads to look at the door(In Kazuto's case, he had to strain his neck to do so.)

"May I come in?" Sirzechs did not wait for a reply before he approached Kazuto. "I am sorry about this harsh treatment, Kirito-kun." He explained as he undid a few magic circles inscribed into the belts holding him down. "We were worried you might go out of control again when we you came to, so we had to take precautions and bind you down."

"It's fine." Kazuto could understand where he was coming from. "I do have a request. Could you either change the way the retirement system works? It seems that I was not completely over seeing Asuna's death back in Aincard, so I went crazy for a while. Plus, I am sure some of the survivors of the SAO incident would get some flashbacks when they see the retirement system in action. Those that played the game or were part of the system seeing all the deaths and fights, anyway."

"You would have to ask Ajuka for that." The final few circles were removed, allowing Kazuto to sit up properly. "He designed the games, so if you wanted to make any adjustment, you would have to ask him. Although, we are going to change it to be less flashy, I think." Sirzechs drew back. "And speaking of Games, we would also like to ask you about what happened during the game."

"Ask away." Kazuto faced Sirzechs. Asuna and Argo took seats beside him, also wishing to hear what had happened.

"What is your Sacred gear?" Ah, the expected question.

"No clue." Came the immediate response. Kazuto tested the mobility of his arms befiore he continued. "Before this game, I did not even know I had a sacred gear."

"Have you ever activated it before?"

"A few times, actually." Argo responded for Kazuto, drawing surprised looks from the other three in the room. "Once when he fought Kayaba, and another during a GGO event. The indicator of it being active seems to be his gold eyes." Seeing their surprised looks, she shrugged. "I'm an Information dealer. You think I did it as a hobby? Plus, this is a great way to make cash."

"…Explain." Kazuto did not like the way Argo was looking at him.

"Oh, you know," Argo's Cheshire grin did not go away. "You are a future Evil Piece of mine. I would always want to know what changes you went through so that I can get you into my Peerage."

"Only if you win the bet." Kazuto shot back, a smile on his face.

"…Okay. Then, this would be my last question." Sirzech's continued his questioning. "Do you have any clue as to why your gear manifested the way it did?"

"…I… Kazuto hesitated. "I'm, not too sure. I'll ask Azazel for help."

"I see then." Sirzechs turned his back on Kazuto. "Kirito-kun. We will postpone your match with Argo to be in a day or two. After that incident… we would like to make sure you are of a stable mind before you do a match again."

"Okay." Kazuto was a little disappointed. Argo and the rest, having seen this match, would most likely make this into a 'stop-before-a-fatal blow' type of match. All of them were experience enough in the usage of their Sword Skill to manipulate them to prevent any fatal attacks. Plus, they could regulate the amount of demonic energy that is converted into the Sword Skill to purposely weaken it. And he wanted to try out his Sacred Gear as soon as possible.

…but he understood why they postponed the match. He was thankful they had the chance to fight at all, to be honest. They had a bet to settle after all.

..

..

Later on, Kazuto heard that they(the Gremory Peerage) had won the game. However, even though they had won it, the evaluations of the Gremory side was lowered quite a bit.

Not only because of the side that was slated to win had lost half of its member at the end, but also because of the severe damage that had been done to the arena. Granted, some of them was done to stop Kazuto who was rampaging(something they only allowed because they did not expect him to go full 'Floor Boss' on the two Peerages), and by the tag-alongs, but in the end, the Gremory side's evaluation as a team dropped a bit.

But as a fighting force, it gained a significant increase from a few of their members gaining and showcasing a portion of their full potential.

Saji also seemed to have received an award(To Kazuto, it was just a small, expensive looking box.) for managing to take down Issei, the MVP of the enemy team. Kiba got the MVP for the Gremory side for his handling of Durandal and the most kills in the entire match.


Timeskip(Present time)

After that and some testing from both psychological experts and Azazel for my mental health and my Sacred Gear respectively, we fought against Argo. Kazuto smiled when he thought about that fight.

It seemed to be a match slated against Kazuto's side in the beginning. A half-filled Peerage against two Pawns. Judging just by this, it was obvious on what the outcome was.

But if one took into account experiences in fights, as well as their reputations…

It was a great match, and a hard fought battle for both sides, but in the end, Kazuto's side won. No one could beat the best pair when it came to fighting.

When Kazuto attacked, Asuna helped to chain them for him. When Asuna attacked, Kazuto became the shield that did not allow anything to touch her. She overwhelmed them by hitting the so fast and hard it broke through their defence, while Kazuto overwhelmed them through his reaction speeds and pure power-technique combinations he dished out.

And when he activated his Sacred Gear? Needless to say, he soloed the remaining members of the enemy Peerage. Those that had not surrendered from a fatal attack, anyway.

And this was all made better by his daughter watching them show off their cool sides once more!

Afterwards, as per the bet, Kazuto got a wish from Argo. Something he use almost immediately after the Rating Game Gremory had with the Astaroth Peerage.

That wish, unsurprisingly, was for everyone to be part of his Peerage.

There was some fuss due to the elders(or as Argo liked to call them, old geezers) not wanting to have a reincarnated devil have the Peerage of another devil, half-blood as she may be, King included, but that was quickly resolved when it was stated that it was from a deal(read as bet) they had made, as well as the Maou stepping in.

And with that, everyone got aa downgrade in their abilities, but gained an upgrade in their stats. If Kazuto were to liken it to something, then it was like someone going from a Epic-tier level 10 to a Legendary-tier level 5.

Speaking of cool sides…

"Yo, Issei." Kazuto called out to the boy who was hydrating himself. (He still could not get used to the fact that he and Asuna were now acting more casual to the members of Rias and her Peerage to the point they were no longer calling them with honorifics. Well, most of the time. Sometimes, it would slip out every now and then.) "How is your relationship with Rias-san, eh?"

"Pffbt!?" Said boy took a glorious spit take out of shock. Coughing and spluttering, Issei looked around frantically, before he clamped a hand over Kazuto's mouth, a frantic expression on his face. "SHH~! I don't want anyone else to know that I am dating Buc-, I mean, Rias!"

"Aren't we at your house?" Kazuto gave the boy a teasing grin as he pulled away the boy's hand.

"I know that!" Issei looked around once more, before he slowly sat back down. "But you don't know this place as well as we do! There are eyes and ears everywhere in Kuoh! If someone catches even a HINT of something romantic going on, gossip would occur, plans and schemes would occur, and should those rumours be true, it would be death! Either by jealous guys, jealous girls, protective admirers, or both! All of the above applies to me since I am dating one of the two great Onee-samas of Kuoh Academy, and because all the famed girls in Kuoh Academy are going to be part of my harem!"

Issei whisper-shouted the last part, a fist thrust into the air.

Besides him, Asuna just sighed. She had simmered down compared to when they first met Issei. Now, the two of them were accepting his perverted tendencies as part of his nature. His personality was great. His dreams…not so much. Well, at least he is not one of THOSE people when it comes to having a harem…..

"Ah, speaking of harems, how is yours coming along, Kirito?" Issei asked the black-haired boy.

"For the last time, it is not a harem." Kazuto complained, sighting as he did so. "The only time I will admit I have a harem is when shit goes down."

..

Yes, it was official. Kazuto had a harem in rea life! Just like those Main Characters he saw in anime and sometimes, those story-based games he played!

…what are you, an idiot? Like hell he would accept such a thing that easily! Or even Asuna for that matter! They would tear out the limbs of the one who suggested that and castrate them!(Yes, this is a fourth wall breaking section as well as a tsukkomi)

No, this 'harem' is more of a protective detail that Keiko had created along with his AI daughter Yui(He still can't come to terms with the fact his daughter knew what a harem was and that she thought it would be more fun to have more 'Mamas and siblings in the future').

The 'harem' was more or less a protection detail for Kazuto. Not only to protect him from thirsty women that would be guaranteed to approach him for his fame and wealth as the clearer of SAO, but also as a way to give Kazuto a clutch when needed. The girls had all noticed that he, more often than not, kept things close to him way, way too often. and even if they tried to coax it out from him, the only one with any real power would be Asuna, and even then, it would take some coaxing(read as threats from her cooking) before they could get the thing troubling him off his chest.

By forming this 'harem', also known as the Team-which-protected-Kazuto-from-otside-threats-AKA-women-after-him, they would be able to stop any girls with malicious intent from approaching Kazuto and corrupting him, while also making sure that Kazuto would be more open with his friends. Especially the girls, since the guys were idiots half the times. And the only other guy in their group was Klein, a 25-year old man who is still single and still looking for a girlfriend. And if they felt like they actually, genuinely loved Kazuto in a romantic way, then all the better. Getting three birds with one stone.

Of course, this came with the repercussion of him being recognised as scum and a playboy by certain women or men, getting a few monikers, like 'Master of the Bedroom', 'Beast Tamer', and 'Lady Killer', as well as having the complete misunderstanding he had a harem from the rest of the world.

Kazuto's friends knew the truth of course. But they would prefer to tease their friend instead.

..

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." Issei smirked, but there was mirth in his eyes. "You have a long way to go before you become a harem master. You can't be a Harem King, since that is my future position!"

Kazuto felt something snap in him.

"…since you seem to have recovered your energy, let's have a good sparring session, okay Issei?" Kazuto gave a dark smile towards the Red Dragon Emperor, causing him to sweat cold sweat.

"N-now now, let's talk this out." Issei slowly stepped away from the ticked off boy. "w-wat, I said! A-at least let me get my swoooorrddd~!"


(*1*) – Kazuto can brute strength things with Sword Skills, which also fall under the Technique area. Asuna however, uses a rapier, which focuses more on technique. And she also has a range of spells, both ALO and the ones devils use, under her hand. She chose to go through with healing, buff and debuff type spells, since she prefers to attack head on instead of from the backlines using a staff

(*2*) – This is actually something true. With how Asia attacks in this fic, anyone who is unprepared against the cute Bishop would be pretty much done for. Against the Knights, Bishops, and Pawns, they would have little way to retaliate without taking themselves out of the game. As for the Rook, Queen and King, they could brute force their way through and remove these obstructions, but they would be crippling themselves, as I stated earlier. These daggers are specially made to inflict more damage when being pulled out, like those barbed arrows. They also have the added danger of severing arteries and tendons, so they would have to deal with severe blood loss, or a useless arm or leg. Maybe even lower body, as Asia could just jab one up the base of their spine. That said, Asia would be able to safely remove them, given some time, as she would have been trained in first-aid in the church she grew up in, which is further stacked up with medical knowledge that Asuna would teach her.

(*3*) – Arifureta reference. Afterstory

AN

Finally, I have finished this monster chapter! Whether it is good or bad, remains to be seen by you viewers!

But still...this is unexpected.

45, 000 words.

That is the number of words that make up this entire interlude.

Was the arc worth the number of words? To be honest, I felt like I could have done better. Some parts just did not…click for me, so a few bits would feel forced here and there, I feel.

That said, how was it? With this, we now have something that explains how close Argo is to Kazuto, as well as the reason for why Argo is now part of Kazuto's Peerage. This would set some things up for future arcs.

Asia also now has an assassin-like way of attacking. Personally, I feel like Asia does not want to fight because she does not want to hurt anyone. With her using Twilight Healing as an anaesthetic and healing agent, she can now use the thin daggers to immobile her enemy by slipping them between joints and bones. What's more, if she wants to, she can fight against an enemy and make them surrender without even shedding a single drop of blood.

By coating her dagger in her Twilight Healing, she would be able to cut someone up, inflict massive amount of pain from that attack, only for the wound to heal. The wounds would heal, but the stamina is lost and possible injuries can be inflicted after she disprupts an attack. This is more extreme for Asia, and as such, she would not use that way of fighting unless she wishes to do so.

Then, we have Kazuto's Sacred Gear.

I may have talked about this in my previous chapters, but Kazuto's Sacred Gear is constantly evolving and upgrading itself. Now, I won't go into detail as to why this is so, but the only info I am willing to give is that it is part of a 'Series'.

And finally, we have the harem. Yes, the dreaded and hated harem I made.

… …did you honestly think I would do something as dirty as make Asuna and Kazuto accept a harem? I mean sure, the potential is there, but having a harem suddenly pop up for no reason other than them becoming devils is way too much of a stretch.

In OPG, the feelings built up to pave the way for a harem. In A Gamer's Guide to the Underworld, it was implied there was a harem, or the makings of one, before Kazuto was reincarnated as a devil in future chapters after he was reincarnated.

For my fic, this would be the start of a harem. Yes, I admit that. But the 'harem' would be more of a tittle, and less of an actuality until AFTER Underworld. So the poll for the harem would decide which members would be his harem, and which members are the 'protect Kirito from devious women', because let's face it. Kazuto is dense and would not be able to sense malicious intent from ladies due to the rather limited interaction he had with other people in real life besides his family and Argo for close to a half a decade. Even if I do not include SAO, he spent most of his time as a loner, and only really interacted with a few select individuals. This remains more or less the same after SAO and he started to play ALO.

Well, with all that said, I will be taking a break from writing this series until next month. I have been neglecting my other fic, and I really want to finish up at least a few chapters before I go back to my usual schedule. The poll is also going to end after the next chapter is up, so please do it!

Anime is life, and please review!