Anything you recognise isn't mine.
It was ten minutes later, and Roxas had assembled his peerage. After they changed into more battle-friendly outfits, he, followed by his peerage, walked with Grayfia into a more private area in order to be teleported into the Rating Game arena.
"What were you and Achilles talking about, Roxas?" Grayfia asked, curiously, as she slowed down slightly in order to be in step with Roxas.
"Personal stuff." Roxas replied. "I don't wanna say since it concerns... well..."
"I understand." Grayfia replied, nodding, and falling silent as the eleven of them walked into a small room, where Raven and her peerage were sat around, waiting.
Roxas recognised every single one of Raven's peerage members from notes that Valian had given him regarding them, while she was studying Sairaorg and Imogen for the two-on-one Rating Game with them, way back when: her Queen, Velvet Crowe, her Rooks, Eren Yeager and Leone (the former of whom was a Mutated Rook), her Bishops, Sans and Ur, her Knights, Adam Taurus and Mikasa Ackerman, and her Pawns, Papyrus and Reiner Braun.
Velvet had extremely long black hair that dropped to the floor. The bottom of her hair was plaited into big braids, that were tied off by a bandage-like band. Her hair-strands curved towards the left side of her face, and she had mid-length hair which was plaited, and tied by a smaller bandage-band resting on her left shoulder.
Her outfit consisted of a revealing red corset that had an insignia visible below her belt. The same belt rested on her hip and above her torn, black jean trousers, which looked more like shorts than anything. There was a chain, as well as multiple belts wrapping around her right leg, and a few which spiralled towards the lower half of her left. Over her corset, she wore a black jacket like a robe with velvet lacing; the jacket being ripped from the bottom and tightened towards her chest by the belt. She wore protective armour on her footwear, as well as one extra armour plate on her right shin. She wore the same armour in the form of a gauntlet on her right arm, which rested above the same material as her coat. The material arched its way up to and wrapped around her middle finger, highlighted by a rhombus-shaped piercing. Her left arm was completely bandaged up, for a reason that Roxas knew very well.
Eren was a young man of average height and build. He had a fairy long, rounded face and sizeable teal-green eyes. His eyebrows were sparse and seemed to look permanently furrowed. His hair was short and dark brown, with his bangs falling naturally into a middle-parted, curtain-type style. His complexion was somewhat tan. He wore a long beige shirt with a maroon sash around his waist, brown trousers and brown shoes.
Leone was a young, curvaceous woman, with long blonde hair with two long tufts that framed the sides of her head and golden eyes. She wore a revealing outfit with a black tube top, detachable-looking sleeves, pants, boots and a scarf around her neck. What was more unusual about her than anything else was that she had a pair of yellow lion-ears coming out of the top of her head, a matching tail, and a pair of clawed paws covered in golden fur instead of hands.
Ur was a woman of average height with a slim, curvaceous figure. Her irises were black and she kept her dark purple hair at chin length. Her hair was quite unkempt, cascading down the sides of her face and covering her eyes, with only a few strands hanging down her temple, some falling between her eyes. She wore a short, tan jacket with a dark brown collar and cuff and two breast pockets. Her jacket was open to reveal a maroon tube top below it, partially exposing her midriff. She wore a pair of black jeans and a belt with a scaly design and a metal buckle. Her outfit was completed by a pair of simple brown shoes.
Adam was a tall man with auburn hair that spiked backward in a windswept way. While most of his hair was that colour, there were noticeable streaks of dark brown.
He wore a long-sleeved black suit jacket with slit sleeves and more red designs and a white symbol on the left side. His suit jacket was red on the inside with red flame-like accents at the bottom. His suit jacket was half-buttoned, exposing a red shirt with a black line running parallel to his collar under it. He wore long black pants, black shoes with red soles and black gloves with the Greek letter Ω (omega), the last letter in the Greek alphabet.
He also wore a black belt with white domino marks on it, as well as a white mask with red, Japanese-style, horn-like symbols decorating the front and two slits on each side, presumably to allow for vision. He carried a sheathed sword with him.
Mikasa was a fairly tall, physically fit and very muscular girl who looked to be around the same age as Eren. She had chin-length black hair, pale skin and calm, black eyes. Her body looked extremely well-toned, with little, if any, in the way of body fat, and muscles lined throughout her arms, legs and abs. She wore a plain white t-shirt, a pair of form-fitting trousers, a black jacket over her shirt and a dark red scarf around her neck.
Papyrus was a tall, anatomically inaccurate skeleton with a skull more vertical and geometric than his brother. He had a permanent toothy grin on his face, and his eyeballs resembled vertical slits. He wore, strangely, a white chest plate with golden trim, orange-red gloves with gold trim, blue briefs with a golden belt, and knee-high, orange-red boots.
Reiner was a large, muscular man who had had short blond hair, gold eyes, and a very defined facial structure. His great height, greater than Roxas', broad shoulders and serious expression gave him an intimidating-looking presence. He wore a dark gray button-down shirt with rolled up sleeves and dark green pants with a brown belt.
"Roxas." Raven stood up from where she was sat and greeted him. "You showed up."
"Sure did." Roxas replied. "Kinda had to. Not that I wouldn't have shown up voluntarily for this match or anything."
"Of course." Raven snorted, before motioning for her peerage to all stand up, which they did instantly. "Good luck."
"Likewise." Roxas replied, accepting a handshake from Raven when she offered it. Ajuka then walked into the room and cleared his throat.
"Alright, everyone." Ajuka addressed the twenty beings in front of him, as Grayfia had left the room earlier. "I'm going to teleport you all into the Rating Game now. Raven and your peerage, please stand on the left side of the room, and Roxas and your peerage, please stand on the right side."
Roxas, Raven and their respective peerages did as Roxas' godfather instructed, and with a single snap of his fingers, they all disappeared.
After an instant of travelling through Ajuka's transportation-circle that had been conjured up under their feet, Roxas and his peerage found himself in what looked like the entrance area of a large, walled garden that featured many flowers, that were all several shades of purple, with several yellow and green flowers thrown in. It looked very nice, and the area stretched for a long
"The hell is this place?" Valian looked around the place, and knelt down to look at some of the flowers that were close to her.
"It's the Bael Miracle Flo Garden." Rias replied. "One of the largest flower gardens in the Underworld. Last I checked, it has nearly 50 million flowers."
"I asked for an answer, not a fucking encyclopaedia entry, Rias." Valian muttered, as she stood upright again.
Line Break
Meanwhile, Raven and her peerage had been transported into a building that housed seven large, golden statues. The black-haired Branwen Head idly walked around the area, checking the seven blades (which she had fashioned from the Branwen Clan's supply of mithril) that were stored in her scabbard, and silently looking out of the windows and into the sky, where instead of the light purple that the Underworld's sky usually was during the day, it was now an ethereal-looking dark green.
It would be somewhat beautiful in a way, if Raven had the time to look upon it. But now...
"Hello, and welcome, to everyone, Devils, Fallen Angels, Angels and Sex Demons, watching tonight's Rating Game!" The familiar voice of Naud Gamgin called out, his voice booming around everywhere, including the room that a huge magical square had been set up in order to broadcast the Game. "Tonight, as entertainment for this historic Gathering, I can feel that we have a great Game ahead of us. And given that we've got the up-and-coming Rating Game star, Roxas Gremory, and the 4th-ranked champion of the Rating Games, Raven Branwen, competing against each other tonight, I'm sure you'll agree!"
Raven rolled her eyes from Naud's cheesy commentary, and remained silent as he continued talking.
"This Rating Game will be a Game of the regular variant." Naud informed the audience. "No special rules here, just the original, regular, defeat-the-opposing-team's-King kind of Game. Just how most of us like it!"
There was a pause for a moment or two before Naud continued talking.
"So let's get to the fun!" Naud shouted. "It has been decided that the venue of today's Rating Game will be a replica of the centre of Baal, the capital city of the Bael Clan's territory." He explained, in a slightly calmer voice. "Roxas' base is the Bael Miracle Flo Garden, the third-largest flower garden in the whole Underworld, and Raven's base is the Bael Clan's museum, known for the golden statues of every member of the Bael Clan!"
"With the notable exception of Sairaorg." Raven muttered, as she looked around the statues. "Erechus still can't get his head out of his ass about that."
"As you very well know, if Pawns can make it to the other King's bases, they will be eligible for Promotion." Naud explained. "And just before we get this show on the road, let's flash up the values of each peerage member for tonight's game!"
A small magic-circle appeared in front of Raven, which displayed a list of Roxas' peerage members, their peerage positions and their value in numbers next to them.
Roxas Gremory (King): 12
Valian Lucifer (Queen): 9
Akeno Himejima (Bishop): 3
Rias Gremory (Bishop): 3
Xenovia Quarta (Knight): 3
Akasha Bloodriver (Rook (Mutated)): 15
Esdeath Partas (Rook): 5
Asia Argento (Pawn): 1
Kuroka Fujimai (Pawn): 2
Neopolitan (Pawn): 1
Total Value: 54
Line Break
At the same time, a small magic-circle, detailing a similar list, but for Raven's peerage members, appeared in front of Roxas.
Raven Branwen (King): 11
Velvet Crowe (Queen): 9
Sans (Bishop): 3
Ur (Bishop): 3
Adam Taurus (Knight): 3
Mikasa Ackermann (Knight): 3
Eren Yeager (Rook (Mutated)): 10
Leone Nemea (Rook): 5
Papyrus (Pawn): 3
Reiner Braun (Pawn): 5
Total Value: 55
Roxas remained silent as the magic-circle disappeared.
"Now, each of the Kings will have five minutes to prepare for this Game, which will run for three hours." Naud stated. "And that time begins... NOW."
Roxas, who had his phone out, saw the clock on his phone ticking over to 7:55pm (Underworld time), right as Naud announced the beginning of the five minutes. He then placed his phone back into his pocket, walked over to his peerage members, and called them to attention.
"Alright, we don't have much time." Roxas informed his nine servants. "So, let's get a strategy laid out quick."
Line Break
Twenty minutes later, fifteen minutes after Naud had announced the Game to have begun, Akeno and Neo could be seen walking down one of the streets, that would (in regular circumstances) be teeming with Devil life. But now, now that only twenty beings in the entirety of the replica of the city centre, including Akeno and Neo themselves, it was more creepy than anything else, Akeno thought.
The fact that she was walking alongside the only member of Roxas' peerage that was a complete mute didn't help her nerves, either. It certainly didn't help the fact that someone could come from anywhere and attack them at any moment.
Akeno looked up, her huge breasts bouncing in the shrine maiden's outfit she was wearing, towards the enormous department store, and then down at Neo as she tapped her on the back (as that was the highest she could reach).
Neo then pointed upward, which prompted Akeno to do the same... which gave her just enough time to spread her eight Nephalem wings and take to the skies, flying backward and out of the way of Leone, who came jumping down, preparing to punch Akeno from above.
She would have reduced her to a bloody pulp on the ground, judging by how the whole area seemed to shake, and how the hard ground directly below Leone's fist cracked.
Neo had jumped out of the way of harm as well when Leone hit the ground, but she jumped right into the path of Adam, who also came jumping down, unsheathing a straight, single-edged red sword and making to stab her with it. However, right as Adam's sword penetrated Neo's body, she shattered like glass, leaving Adam with nothing as he sheathed his sword.
The real Neo then came walking up from an alleyway that Akeno had passed a couple of moments ago, and joined her.
"Damn." Leone cursed, looking at Adam. "We missed. I'll take the girl with the umbrella."
"Fine with me." Adam replied, looking over at Akeno and using his thumb to push his sword partway out of his scabbard. "I've got this."
As he started walking towards her, Akeno, a serious look on her face, gathered lightning in her hands for a couple of seconds before she fired the two lightning balls at Adam.
Adam then leapt into action, dashing to the side and dodging the two balls entirely, which landed someway behind him and exploded. He quickly jumped over a third attack that Akeno sent at him, and after landing on the ground, he looked up and saw three lightning-blasts coming his way, too quickly for him to dodge.
So in response, he quickly unsheathed his sword, and seemed to catch two of the three lightning-balls on his sword, with the third hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to hiss in pain. His sword glowed as the two lightning-balls hit his sword and disappeared, and he sheathed his sword as he rolled out of the way of some more blasts of energy sent at him by Akeno.
Raven's Knight dashed towards Akeno, pointing his sheathed sword at her and pulling a trigger on his scabbard, which shot out of the scabbard like a bullet, and took Akeno by surprise, hitting her in the chest and making her stumble back. The sword flew up into the air, which Adam jumped up and caught, and then prepared to make a downward slash on Roxas' Bishop.
Said Bishop saw this attack coming, and conjured up a yellow shield just in time for Adam's sword to collide with it instead of her. As soon as sword met shield, a huge blast of lightning shot out of it, impacting Adam's whole body and sending him flying backwards, his clothes singed and burnt in some places. However, his mask was still intact.
He landed on the ground, grunting in pain from the attack that just hit him, and quickly rolled out of the way of a ball of Holy Lightning that Akeno sent at him, while licking her lips in sadistic glee. He jumped aside, twisted his body around in order to land against a nearby building, and jumped off that in order to dodge a medium-sized bird, made out of water and ice, that Akeno sent at him.
Turning around, Adam quickly unsheathed his sword and swung it at the bird, sending out a wave of energy that cut the creature down, before turning around and deflecting several bullets of ice that Akeno threw at him, and dodging the others as best he could.
When the assault paused for a second, Adam took the chance to unsheath his sword, flip his scabbard around at Akeno and pull the trigger, firing bullets out of the scabbard, which hit Akeno's ice-bullets and stopped them in their tracks.
After a couple of seconds, Adam sheathed his sword, rushed to the side, out of the way of Akeno's hail, and dashed at her, unsheathing his sword and swinging at her. But Akeno quickly conjured up a small shield on her hand to block the attack, before leaning back to dodge Adam's next swing, using the same shield as before to block Akeno's third swing, and ducking under Adam's fourth swing and wheeling around him so she was behind him.
It was right about now that Naud announced that Leone had been Retired, but neither Akeno nor Adam seemed to notice this.
Adam smirked, and fired at Akeno from point-blank range with his sheath, but Akeno created another yellow shield in front of her to block the bullet. Like before, a blast of lightning emerged from the shield when the bullet met it, but Adam was ready, rolling backwards and avoiding damage. He then jumped forward with another slash from his sword, but Akeno spread her wings again and flew backwards, dodging the attack and landing a good twenty yards away from Adam, which gave her time to open a large magic-circle and create a huge serpent out of ice, that sparkled with lightning as it hissed loudly at Adam and drew back its head.
Adam furrowed his brow, and sheathed his sword, before quickly unsheathing it to catch a powerful beam of energy, spat out from its mouth. The beam held for about three seconds before the serpent stopped, and it looked surprised to see Adam still standing there, looking unfazed. But one small thing it could see was that Adam's sheathed sword seemed to be glowing with an extremely tense energy.
"Thank you." Adam calmly thanked the serpent, as he laid a hand on his sword-handle. "And goodnight."
Adam then proceeded to unsheath his sword, and from said sword, an enormous wave of energy, built up from all the times that Akeno's attacks had hit his sword, was unleashed.
The area seemed to shake around them as the wave of energy rushed towards the serpent, which gave a final shriek before it was completely destroyed by the energy wave. Said energy wave kept going towards Akeno, who was standing back and preparing to send another elemental animal into the fight, but she was forced to quickly create several layers of magical shield in order to keep herself from being killed by Adam's attack.
The shields did very little in the way of protecting her though, as the energy wave destroyed all of them like they weren't even there, and hit Akeno with enough force to send her flying backwards, some of her clothes blown off.
Roxas' Bishop landed on the ground and gave a whimper of pain, slowly pulling herself up where she saw the remains of the icy serpent she had created melting, as Adam walked through them and towards her, preparing to finish her off.
However, when Adam was only about ten steps away from where Akeno lay, he stopped, seemingly looking at something past Akeno. Something that evidently unnerved him, given that he dashed off, preferring to retreat than engage with whatever was behind Akeno.
"Are you alright?" Akasha's voice sounded from behind Akeno, as Roxas' raven-haired Bishop felt herself being picked up by the Vampiress Rook. "Can you stand?"
"I'm... alright." Akeno replied, wincing as she took her own weight and looked at Akasha and Neo, who was standing beside her. "I'll be okay. Where were you?"
"Roxas' idea to lead Leone into a trap worked." Akasha replied. "Neo drew her into the alleyway, led her right into a magical trap, and I ambushed her and finished her off."
Akeno nodded, tiredly.
"That's good." she replied. "That's one less servant of Raven's to worry about, anyway."
"It is." Akasha replied. "I'm gonna head into the large-ass store over there." she nodded to the store that Akeno and Adam had been fighting outside of. "Claiming it as an important position on the battlefield would help, in this Game."
"Since when did you get so good at tactics?" Akeno asked as Akasha walked away. Roxas' Mutated Rook didn't reply as she continued her walk, her ass swaying with every step she took.
Line Break
Meanwhile, in a large VIP booth, away from the large gathering hall that the rest of the gathering's attendees were stood in, Rias' peerage, Palutena, the Four Satans, Grayfia, Millicas, Venelana, Zeoticus, Alice, Qrow, Summer, Ruby and Yang were all sat around, watching all the angles of the Rating Game through several screens set up around the room.
"I must say." Sirzechs remarked as he watched Neo doing battle with Leone, and luringher away from the battle going on between Akeno and Adam. "It's admirable how well Neo has integrated into Roxas' peerage ever since I traded her to him."
"She looks quite cheerful, too." Zeoticus replied, gesturing to how Neo had a calm grin on her face as Leone punched an illusion of her, which shattered like glass, only to reveal Neo a couple of feet behind the illusion of herself. She mockingly bowed and winked at Leone, before jumping backwards just before she could be punched into next Tuesday by Raven's Rook. "In spite of her past."
"Yeah." Sirzechs replied. "Whoever wrecked the Red Room facility I found her in had better watch herself if Neo crosses paths with her again."
Zeoticus gave a murmur of agreement, as did Venelana.
Line Break
"And Raven's Rook, Leone, has just been Retired!" the sound of Naud's commentary could be heard throughout the replica of the city centre. "That was a damn good tactical move by Roxas' Pawn and Mutation Rook, there. Very admirable."
'Damn right.' Esdeath thought, as she walked into the main residential square of Baal, which was almost entirely filled by houses that, though they looked more irregular than the houses you'd find in cities of the human world, looked very cutting-edge. In their own way.
Esdeath's keen eyes narrowed as her ears picked up the faint sounds of footsteps coming from several feet away. She reached down to the rapier she had at her side, and pulled it out with an audible 'shing' noise.
"Who's there?" Esdeath called out. "Show yourself!"
There was no answer for a few seconds, which agitated Esdeath for a second. Gathering cold energy in the hand that wasn't holding the handle of her rapier, she called out again.
"I know you're there!"
A couple of seconds after Esdeath called out, the sound of steps became louder, before Mikasa came into view, holding a pair of swords, one in each hand.
"So you're the first opponent I face as a member of Roxas' peerage." Esdeath remarked, readying her rapier. "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise." Mikasa replied, getting into a combat stance as she prepared for the coming battle. After a couple of seconds, Esdeath shot out a blast of cold energy, which Mikasa rolled to the side of, before dashing towards Esdeath, gripping both her swords in her hands.
Esdeath swung her rapier (which she had modified to be almost as good when it came to cutting attacks as it was at stabbing) at Raven's Knight, but Mikasa jumped over it, landing behind Esdeath. She then took a running jump at the taller woman's back and delivered a kick to her back, which shocked Esdeath from the sheer force of it.
Before Esdeath could turn around and retaliate, Mikasa used Esdeath's back as a footstool in order to jump over her head again, attempting to slash at Roxas' blue-haired Rook. However, her slash was parried by Esdeath as Mikasa landed in front of her.
She performed another jumping slash, which Eseath parried, and attempted to retaliate by slashing at her, but Mikasa rolled back before Esdeath's sword could impact her, then dashed forward, jumping onto Esdeath's sword (which had embedded itself in the ground due to how hard Esdeath had swung it) and using that as a footstool in order to jump over her opponent, landing behind her again.
"Someone's a little sharp." Esdeath remarked, focusing the power of her Sacred Gear, Demon's Extract, into her rapier, and sending a wave of ice at Mikasa, who had to spread her wings and jump into the air, hovering above her blue-haired opponent. "But let's see how you can work against this!" Flicking her left hand upward, Esdeath summoned a number of large icicles above herself and Mikasa, and as she flicked her hand downwards, all the icicles came raining down, all over the residential square.
Mikasa heard the sound of displaced air above her, and her dark eyes widened as she saw all the icicles flying down all over her, and saw Esdeath creating a magical shield to protect herself, a sadistic grin on her face.
Raven's Knight rolled out of the way of an icicle that would have impaled her from top to toe had she not moved, slashed her sword at another icicle, which split it in half, and started slaloming through some more icicles which landed on the ground around her as she made her way to Esdeath. But Roxas' Rook was ready for her, and when Mikasa tried to slash at her, Esdeath swung at her with much more force, sending Mikasa flying as she quickly raised her swords in an attempt to stop Esdeath from bisecting her at the neck.
Mikasa's body bounced off the side of one icicle and would have cracked her back on another had she not caught herself, and flew at Esdeath, slashing through the icicles to clear out an easier path for herself. But right before Mikasa was about to slash at Esdeath, she created a thick ice-wall via Demon's Extract, which Mikasa was unable to fly out of the way of, which caused her to smack against it with a sickening thud and crunch.
Right as that happened, Esdeath thrust her rapier forward, through the ice-shield, and judging by the shriek of pain that came from the other side, the blue-haired former Partas Clan member judged that she had stabbed Mikasa.
Esdeath pulled her rapier back and dissipated the ice-barrier, looking upon Mikasa, who as lying on her back a gaping stab-wound in her stomach.
"Good fight." Esdeath surmised, as she casually stepped on Mikasa with her white, heeled boot. "But it just turns out that you couldn't defeat me, with how weak you are in comparison."
"I-I know I couldn't d-defeat you." Mikasa replied, every word she spoke costing more and more of her dwindling stamina. As she turned her head to look at something behind her, she began to glow blue, a tell-tale sign that one was about to be pulled out of the Game due to being unable to continue to fight. "But h-he can."
Esdeath looked up as Mikasa faded away, and her azure eyes widened as a gigantic, naked, humanoid creature came stomping towards Esdeath, glaring down at her with pure hate on its face.
The being was nearly twenty metres tall, and its hair was long enough to graze its shoulders, and its ears were exceptionally elongated. It had a prominent, hooked nose, its eyes were deeply sunken within their sockets, and its mouth was an unusual, jagged shape that was incredibly unsuited for intelligible speech.
"Oh, boy." Esdeath muttered, as the hulking creature raised one of its fists and tried to crush her with it. However, it was not to be as she spread her eight wings and flew out of the way of the giant fist that would have almost certainly crushed her, had she not moved.
"Alright, then!" Esdeath hovered around the creature's chest, moving backward with every step she took. "Let's see how much you can take!"
Snapping her fingers, Esdeath conjured up a gigantic spike made of ice, and threw it at the creature, impaling it through the chest. She threw several more ice-spikes, which all made their mark on the huge, hulking creature's body.
Right about now, the creature seemed to have processed that there were huge spikes of ice sticking out of its body, and began pulling them out, throwing them back at Esdeath with surprising accuracy. Right before her eyes, Esdeath could see that the huge wounds she was causing were regenerating, right before her eyes, and regenerating fast. Not as fast as the Phenex Clan healed, but still relatively quickly.
'Alright.' Esdeath thought. 'This calls for something bigger.'
"Balance Breaker!" Esdeath cried, retracting her wings and dropping onto a large centaur, created entirely out of ice, as an army of smaller ice-centaurs, all of which sported two icy Devil wings each, appeared below and around her. There were about a hundred of them "Ice Cavalry!"
At her mental command, all one hundred and one icy centaurs charged at the giant creature, which roared and swung its massive arm at the army of winged centaurs approaching it. Most of the icy winged centaurs escaped its arm, but around thirty did not.
Esdeath's steed was among those that the huge creature's arm missed, and as she mentally commanded the remaining icy winged centaurs to attack the creatures legs, she flew her steed up to the creatures face, and began throwing huge, icy lances at its eyes, all of which made their mark, blinding the beast, which roared in rage so loudly that Esdeath was forced to put her hands up to her ears, along with closing her eyes involuntarily. The sound was as loud as several fireworks going off right in her face.
However, that moment of vulnerability was enough for Esdeath, as well as her steed, to take a severe hit of her own from the huge creature's fist. The flying ice-centaur took the full force of the hit, which shattered it instantly, but Esdeath wasn't completely unharmed. She was caught by the top of the huge creature's fist, but it still sent her flying through the air, dazed as hell. She crashed through the window of one of the houses, with the glass immediately shredding her clothes and skin, and landed with a crack against a wall, which momentarily knocked her out of her daze.
"Ow..." she groaned, slowly pulling herself to her feet as she felt herself bleeding from getting shredded up by shards of broken glass. "This really hurts..."
Esdeath winced, and stumbled for a second, trying to keep herself conscious, but the blood she was losing and the hit she had taken was making that extremely difficult.
Groaning, Esdeath held herself up on one of the posts of a four-poster bed that she had landed beside, and made to spread her Devil wings in order to fly out of the window and confront the giant creature again, but she heard an announcement from Naud that made her lose grip on the bed for a second, causing her to fall to the ground and let herself disappear in a flash of blue.
The announcement that Raven's Mutation Rook, Eren Yeager, had been Retired.
Meanwhile...
Right as Esdeath got sent flying through a window into one of the houses, the giant creature took some time to destroy some of the icy winged centaurs that were attacking his legs. It wasn't too hard, just a couple of sweeping kicks was all it took to cause them all to shatter, and their icy remains to fall to the ground.
As the last shard of ice fell, and silence reigned over the area, the huge creature, losing the will and the might to continue battle, as there was no opponent or emotional trigger in sight, began to fall to the ground, while rapidly decomposing before the eyes of all who were watching the match.
When the huge creature hit the ground, having fully decomposed, the sight of Eren Yeager could be seen rising out of the decomposed body, conscious, but extremely fatigued.
Eren fell out of the huge body, and landed on the ground, in one of the many puddles of water that had collected around the area as a result of all the icy winged centaurs collapsing and melting. As he looked up and pulled himself to his feet, before walking away from the huge, decomposed body of his Titan form, he felt like, even though he knew he was in the middle of a Rating Game, he could drop down to the ground and fall asleep at any second.
However, Eren's dazed state was rudely interrupted when something smacked into his side, sending him flying. He landed on the ground and looked up, blinking in confusion.
"Wh-what?" he groaned, before widening his eyes at the sight of Kuroka and Rias, walking towards him. Kuroka had some kind of blue, fire-like substance gathered in her hands, which she was preparing to fire at Eren, while Rias had gathered the familiar black and crimson aura that was typical of her Power of Destruction.
"How lucky we are, Rias, nya~" Kuroka giggled, her cat-ears twitching in glee. "We've got Raven's most dangerous peerage member right where we like him. Ready to be Retired~"
"I wouldn't say with a hundred percent certainty that he's the most dangerous, Kuroka." Rias replied, the black and crimson aura around her hands intensifying as she prepared to fire a blast of it at Eren herself. "However, he certainly ranks in the top three. Not including Raven herself."
"Yeah, but Roxas has her covered when they inevitably fight." Kuroka replied. "Do you want to do the honours, or shall I?"
"I think I will." Rias replied, closing her hands into fists and closing her eyes for a couple of seconds, focusing as much of her Power of Destruction into them as possible. When she opened her eyes, which were usually blue, the last thing Eren saw before he was Retired by the oncoming blast was that her eyes had turned as red as her hair.
As the announcement that Raven Branwen's Mutated Rook had just been Retired boomed across the battlefield
Line Break
Dressed in her own casual attire, which consisted of an open, mildly-frilly black jacket, plain white t-shirt, black trousers and a pair of studded high-heel combat boots, Akasha walked into the large department store, with her mind wandering as to where she could station some guards, created by the blood-reserves that she had access to.
However, as she stepped over the threshold into the shop, Akasha's nose picked up the scent of the blood of a Devil who wasn't in her husband's peerage. As it turned out, she was not the first one to enter the store.
Walking past a beauty shop and a restaurant, Akasha turned to the left, where the smell of blood was stronger. There was also an escalator that went to the first floor of what Akasha had to assume was four or more.
Mentally electing to take the trip upwards, Akasha started towards the escalator, but her way was impeded by someone coming out of the book shop to the immediate right of the escalator that Akasha was walking towards, reading some sort of adult romance novel. The source of the blood that she had smelt.
It was Raven.
Raven didn't notice Akasha (or rather, she didn't pay any attention to her at all) until she was barely ten steps away from her, when she shut her book with a snap, and looked up at her, a calm look on her face.
"Well." Raven spoke to Akasha by way of greeting, her voice as calm as her expression. "Looks like Roxas had the same idea as I did. Capture the Bael's Goods Store as an important landmark."
"It would seem so." Akasha replied. "I never thought of you to be the woman who's into smut, Raven. Especially kinky smut, judging by the cover." she added, gesturing with her head towards the book Raven was holding in her hand, which she idly tossed back through the open door into the book store.
"When you've been divorced from a perverted Dragon King for several decades, at the very least, one has to make do." Raven replied, resting her hand on her scabbard. "Something that I doubt you've ever had to deal with."
"True enough." Akasha replied. "Though I'll admit I never had that much interest in such activities. Until I met Roxas about forty years ago, and he... well..." She rubbed her legs together momentarily, something that didn't go unnoticed by Raven. She rolled her eyes at the gesture.
"I'm sure he made you destroy your vocal chords several times over with how loudly you shrieked his name." The Branwen Head replied, a biting tone entering her voice.
"Oh, he did." Akasha retorted, licking her lips. "In the forty or so years I've been Roxas' second wife, he's done me so many times I doubt anyone would ever be able to stretch my sides ever again." she winked at Raven. "You jealous?"
That seemed to touch a nerve in Raven, as she pushed down on a button at the top of her scabbard, and a sword flew out of it at extreme speed. Akasha saw it coming though, and jumped to the side, letting the sword fly past her completely, with Raven, who had spread her ten Devil wings, flying at speed after it.
She caught her sword, wheeled around, and dashed at Akasha, who summoned a pair of guards for her arms, made out of crystallized blood. She raised one arm to block Raven's first slash, raised the other one to block her second, leaned backwards to dodge the third, then had to backflip out of the way of the fourth, then dodge out of the way as the black-haired Devil dashed at Akasha in an attempt to stab her.
Placing her hand, palm and all, on the ground in front of her, Akasha created a wave of blood, infused with Holy energy, that rose higher than Raven herself. She only noticed it when the wave was fractions of a second away from crashing down on and engulfing her, but Akasha knew she had dodged it when she saw a corvid with black feathers and red eyes flying above the wave, and fly, right over Akasha's head.
Akasha could only turn around in time to see Raven, who had transformed back into her human form, slash at her again, with the force of her attack pushing Roxas' Mutated Rook back a step or two each time. When Akasha was just about to be forced to step backwards onto the escalator, Raven jumped into the air and did a powerful, two-handed slash infused with her own demonic energy, that caused her sword to be embedded in Akasha's arm-guards for a second or two.
A second or two that Akasha was all too happy to exploit, as she pulled Raven's sword towards her, away from its wielder (who let go, knowing better than to let herself be jolted into a position that could compromise the result of the fight). She then leapt up to the top of the escalator, putting some distance between herself and Raven, yanked the sword out of her arm-guard, and threw it away before Raven could close the distance between herself and Akasha.
Akasha then swerved around Raven, who tried to throw a punch at her, and threw a kick at the small of her back, but was caught by surprise when Raven swivelled around and deflected Akasha's kick away from her spine via the gauntlets that she wore, and did the same with a kick aimed at her face.
As Akasha jumped into the air in an attempt to axe-kick Raven into oblivion, Raven simply stepped back, grabbed Akasha's leg, and threw her bodily over the ledge and down to the ground floor of the store, not wasting a second before running away, making a beeline towards her sword, which she picked up, not even stopping as she changed course toward the large grocery store at the end of the hallway on the first floor.
She was followed after half a minute by Akasha, who retracted her ten Nephalem wings as she landed in the entrance to the store, and immediately began sniffing, in an attempt to detect Raven's blood so she could try and get the drop on her.
However, there was no blood to be smelt.
'How strange.' Akasha thought. 'I was so sure that Raven came in here. And I don't see any exit on the other side of this store.'
Akasha walked through one of the many isles throughout the grocery store, her eyes narrowed from how focused she was on finding Raven's scent. She looked left and right, trying to hear, as well as smell, Raven's movement, but the only thing she could hear were her own footsteps.
As well as, after a couple of seconds, the sound of a sword cutting through some rope, and the sound of displaced air. Akasha looked up and saw something falling down from the ceiling, where she saw Raven hovering silently above, sword out. The pink-haired Vampiress jumped backwards, back-flipping away from whatever Raven had tried to drop onto her head, as said thing dropped harmlessly to the ground, and exploded.
Right as it exploded, a familiar scent that Akasha (as well as all Vampires) absolutely LOATHED invaded her nostrils, with it being so strong that she could taste the smell (which made her want to vomit), before she could directly smell it.
Garlic.
Akasha put a hand to her mouth, coughing and retching from the overpoweringly strong scent of garlic, which seemed to invade every part of her body, as Raven quickly dropped to the ground, her sword out and her eyes narrowed.
"I think I went a little overboard." the Branwen Head remarked, as she walked towards Akasha, sheathing her sword but keeping her hand on the handle of the blade that she'd recovered. "I knew you were only part-Vampire thanks to Roxas' Evil Piece, and that might have reduced your kind's vulnerability to garlic. So I thought, you know, 'better safe than sorry.'"
When Raven was only a step or so away from Akasha, she unsheathed her sword and performed a quick jumping slash, causing Akasha to shriek in pain.
As she flipped over Akasha's head, Raven slashed her sword faster than a regular eye could see, cutting Akasha down to size with pinpoint precision with every slash she made. When she landed behind Akasha, who was on her knees now, Raven drove her sword into Akasha's lower body from behind, which was the final thing that was needed in order to render Akasha as Retired, evident as she quickly disappeared in flash of blue.
Line Break
In the VIP booth, around the same time as the fight between Akasha and Raven ended, Palutena reached out to Isane and gave her a light tap on the shoulder.
Isane turned around, looking at Roxas' wife.
"What's up, Palutena?" she asked, quietly.
"Isane, you remember what Valian and I talked to you about, right?" Palutena asked, her green eyes looking into Isane's chocolate-brown ones. "I think it's time that we... got to it."
"What?" Isane blinked, before realising what Palutena was talking about. "Ahh. I got you."
"I'm going to need a description of what she looks like, though." Palutena informed Isane as she opened a portal with her staff, and gestured for Isane to walk through. "For Roxas, you know?"
Isane nodded, walking through the portal, with Palutena following and the portal closing up behind them.
Alice Gremory was the only person in the booth to notice this, but, as this was nothing that caused her any immediate disquiet, said nothing and turned back to the game.
'Hmm.' She thought to herself as one of the screens switched to an underground station, which Akeno and Neo were just making their way into. 'I wonder if we'll get to see that technique Rias and I worked on.'
Remaining Members of Roxas' Peerage:
Roxas (12), Valian (9), Akeno (3), Rias (3), Xenovia (3), Asia (1), Kuroka (2), Neo (1)
Total Value: 34
Remaining Members of Raven's Peerage:
Raven (11), Velvet (9), Sans (3), Ur (3), Adam (3), Papyrus (3), Reiner (5)
Total Value: 37
And that's the thirtieth chapter of Nephalem of Gremory! The Rating Game between Roxas Gremory and Raven Branwen has begun! And so far, in the first of three chapters that this Rating Game will play out in, everything's all to play for, with Roxas' peerage having the advantage in numbers but Raven's having the advantage in points.
And we have hints of Neo's past (that may or may not involve a certain redheaded hot Russian spy), something that Palutena and Isane are going to do (which some of you might have figured out), and a technique that Alice has been helping Rias with (which, if you've read my now-discontinued RWG fic, you might know what it is. Stay tuned to see Rias in action with it!).
Anyway, what did you think of this new chapter? Please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me, let me know in a review or PM (or talk to me on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)), as I really enjoy talking to readers!
Next Time: The Rating Game Continues.
Preview of Next Chapter:
"you're in for a bad time, girlie."
Seeya!