Hello, Soluxy here with another chapter.
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The Cold Opening Of A Flaming Phoenix III
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Grayfia
The copy of the house was absolutely destroyed. As for some reason, Riser wouldn't die no matter what we did. And the reason our peerage was pretty desperate was simple. Because a few moments ago, the damnable Riser made a fiery chain and linked himself and Sirzechs.
There was a burning chain, liking both Riser and my husband and King. That chain was sapping the strength from Sirzechs, so the peerage grew desperate to make some dent into Riser's defenses. Riser kept staring at Sirzechs, and in turn, Sirzechs stared back with an easygoing smile. As if not worried about the chain at all.
Sirzechs was confident in our ability to destroy Riser by ourselves and hadn't moved from his chair.
I felt furious. Riser wanted to sap the strength from Lord Lucifer and had the gall to do it in front of our eyes?
Everybody else from the peerage was highly furious, so our auras leaked out and exploded the mansion. We combined our attacks to bring a swift end. However, Riser wasn't going down, so we locked him in place, and I approached him. Using my deathly cold magic.
"Do you really want to do that?"
Riser asked while he didn't show any emotion as he asked me this. I thought he was pretty flustered inside. My magic is best for combatting the Phenex regeneration. I could just freeze him and be done with it. But sadistic feelings arose. I wanted him to suffer. So I slowly congealed the blood and the skin of his right arm. I was with my hands and a smirk on my otherwise emotionless face.
Someone yelled out of pain. A scream that I could feel in my bones.
My smirk widened, thinking that Riser was screaming in pain.
Though I soon realized that it wasn't the 16-year-old boy Riser yelling. No, I looked at him, stared at his expressionless face. He wasn't screaming, then who was?
Riser lazily pointed forward with his non-frozen arm.
I stared back and saw my King, my husband, with a frostbitten arm. Everyone gasped and suddenly realized.
Any injury was transmitted between the fiery link.
We tried to sever the connection, but it was like a ghost chain. Every single attack we did passed right through. So we were sure that if we could shut down the user of the chain, then the ability would disappear, but its true colors showed themselves.
"Bu—But an ice magic on this scale should have no effect on my husband…"
This magic wasn't strong enough to hurt Sirzechs, not in a million years. He was a super-devil, able to destroy the world by himself if he had enough days. He was one of the strongest things in existence. It shouldn't have affected him.
"Since it affected me, the effect was transmitted across. It ignores things like resistance and nullification."
Riser lazily responded without any single emotion.
"The moment the chain worked on him. He lost. You all lost. See, the secret to not losing to the Sunflower Chain is not letting it hit you in the first place."
"Bu—But the chain binds you as well. If you heal…"
I was trying to make sense of everything, and then Sirzechs got up from his chair. His arm was hurt by my attack. I felt frustrated. However, it meant that if Riser healed the arm, it would also be transmitted back, and Sirzechs would be back to normal again.
Riser raised his left arm, making me jump a few meters back, and then he chopped his own arm. Sirzechs cried again in pain as his own body was dismembered along because of the weird flaming chain.
"What…? Why are you crying like a little girl? You're supposed to be the big bad Lucifer. Don't tell me… When was the last time you lost your limb, little princess?"
Riser asked Sirzechs this question, as Sirzechs grew pale as the blood pooled out from his missing arm socket. Sirzechs glared but was impotent to do anything. If he blasted the brat with the Power of Destruction, then it would spell the end for both of them.
"I guess you never had to deal with stuff like this. You participated in a war, but all you did was blast away. You were born super-strong and never felt real danger in your life. Me? I had my limbs dismembered more than a dozen times. Get up, princess."
Riser said this as all the members of the peerage bared their fangs. This brat of 16-years-old couldn't possibly know how much they suffered in the past. I could never forgive him. But then, something happened to dampen all our efforts. A flame burst out from his arm, and then it was completely healed. And yet Sirzechs was still missing an arm, we had the technology to regrow limbs, and Phenex tears as well. However, even after Riser healed his own arm, the link did not heal Sirzechs.
"Wh—Why?"
"I made this ability extremely convenient for me and extremely inconvenient for my enemies."
"You never used this ability before in your matches. Why did you keep this a secret." I asked.
"Oh, no… The other peerages were so disappointingly weak. I just used my punches and flames to get the job then. Today, I was feeling a bit celebratory, so I wanted to use one of my useless abilities for fun, I guess."
What…? Useless ability?
"Anyways, I have something to do after this… Mind if I wrap things up here?"
Riser asked everyone. And then…
"Get back!" Sirzechs yelled.
We were too late. New chains grew from Riser's exposed palm and rushed, piercing all of us even as we escaped faster than lightning.
"Now I can hurt you, and you can't hurt me in turn." Riser started zapping all of our power. Before, it felt like a trickle, and now it felt like the floodgates were open. And he was taking everything out of our demonic energy.
Riser extended both his hands and turned them into fists. Making two stars of pure hot plasma in each punch. "Now it's time for the beatdown. You guys can survive this, right?"
Sirzechs lost patience and blasted his Power of Destruction. However, Riser made no effort to move. The blast erased his leg.
"Augustus be damned, you really are stupid…"
Riser said and shrugged his shoulders as his leg healed instantaneously this time. However, I had no chance to see more of his arrogant expression as a sea of pain invaded my senses. That's right, any damage to him is transmitted through those flaming chains, and I have one attached to me. That means my leg—my leg.
Gremory's Pawn retired.
Gremory's Pawn retired.
Gremory's Rook retired.
Gremory's Rook retired.
Gremory's Bishop retired.
Gremory's Knight retired.
Every single member of Sirzechs peerage was retired from that. The system recognized the damage dealt and smartly realized that the combatants couldn't continue out of fear of losing their lives. To this day, the rating game system had reported few deaths. And those cases were highly unusual. However… this was so painful… So painful. I felt cold sweat running down across my face as a scream left my mouth.
Regardless, my husband's blood-curdling painful scream damped my own shriek of pain.
Only I was able to survive, and yet, my leg was fully blown apart. Sirzechs as well, even though he had resistance to his own PoD it was meaningless. Sirzechs and I were able to survive due to being stronger than the other peerage members. We were far above in strength and endurance, so others who received the same wound would faint or lose too much of themselves to be able to continue. I was a bit different. I would have to suffer much more grievous injuries before I was automatically removed by the rating game system—the same for my King. However, we were in an undeniable pinch.
I tried to get up. However, Riser kicked me, Stepped over my body, and then hit Sirzechs so hard, half the man's teeth went out. And then, the destroyed mansion was blown apart with the power of a thermonuclear fusion. It wasn't strange. Sirzechs also could destroy entire cities. But to see a similar strength turned against him was heartrending for me.
My husband could not transform, nor hurt Riser, out of fear of injuring me even further. And now, I was also chained, which meant any spell I would cast would affect us both. Even though my spells shouldn't hurt my husband… And we could not discard our comrades that were retired. It could be that they were still chained, despite being in a medical ward.
We couldn't worsen their injuries further by hurting them even more.
"Is this what the King of the Underworld has to offer? Just a little trickery and he folds just like that? Disappointing, and it was one of my weaker spells too… As expected, other than my peerage, this world isn't the least bit interesting. I got to get to space and explore the universe. That's a much better way to spend my time. However, this damn sin of pride keeps getting in the way."
Riser kept beating Sirzechs over and over… over and over again, treating the man like a punching bag. I crawled, and after losing so much blood, I couldn't think straight. I grabbed Riser by the fabric of his pants. And looked up.
Riser still had that cold, unfeeling look, a face that wasn't supposed to be in someone who commanded fire.
I groaned and cried out of pain, not knowing if I was pleading with him or not.
"I won all my rating game matches up until now. Sirzechs, Grayfia, why did you think it would be different this time?"
Riser boosted the power of the suns in his hands. And then delivered two powerful blows, one to Sirzechs chest and one to his jaw in mere picoseconds. An attack that I could not see.
Gremory's King retired.
Riser Phenex wins.
The system had called the winner. I could not protect my King, my husband.
"So it's finally over, free from this hell of pride." Riser mentioned under his breath, and for a second, I saw melancholy in his eyes.
He approached me, and I struggled to get away. I was the Strongest Queen, I wouldn't…
And yet, Riser quickly approached me as I laid on the soft grass, bleeding out. I tried to make a leg made out of ice. But he stomped on it immediately, crushing the ice. Making my stump sting all the more. I shrieked in pain again and looked at him in abject horror. I was all alone, and the game was lost.
My husband… lost…?
No, that couldn't be. There wasn't a single devil in the whole world that was stronger than my husband… He must have cheated. There was no way… There was some trick to that flaming chain that he wasn't telling us. Could it be a group spell? Maybe some of my husband's enemies colluded with Riser, so they made that spell?
It must have been the old faction. Or perhaps some other group. We cannot have lost to a peerage-less King in a rating game. We're the strongest peerage.
"Your feelings are clear just by looking at your face." Riser commented, with a face that looked drained and done with. "No matter how many times your husband challenges me, he'll lose."
I just… couldn't believe his words. They were just nonsense from a 16-year-old who did not know how the world worked.
He grabbed a vial out from his pocket and let the liquid fall on my crushed thigh. And my leg regrew instantly.
"Let's go. From today onwards, you're my slave." A cosmic phoenix brand appeared on his palm. I tried to run away, but he grabbed me by the neck. I felt a horrible pain searing in my back, chest, navel, and neck.
And then the pain subsided. I tried to get away. But he grabbed me by the hair and pulled my entire body with him as he walked towards the exit. Again with the audience booing him, but this time yells were accompanied with cries of disbelief.
No… A slave…?
A slave to this man?
No…No…NO…
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Serafall
This couldn't continue further, so I stopped him in his tracks. I appeared below and was applauded by the audience due to my intervention. All the members of Gremory's peerage were injured and could not fight anymore. Sirzechs was unable to use his full power during the match.
That was what Riser was aiming for, I believe.
And the peerage had forgotten that Riser said those chains sucked the energy from the targets. He boosted his own power and used it to make those two suns. And then used that stolen power to destroy Sirzechs. Simultaneously, the man himself couldn't hurt Riser because that injury would affect both him and his wife, perhaps even those who were already retired from the fight.
It was a highly unusual spell and highly cruel.
From the point where chains connected to Sirzechs, the strongest peerage had lost. From the moment the chains attached to his peerage, the strongest Lucifer had lost. Riser played the feelings of not wanting to hurt those close to you as a tactic. Riser had exploited that weakness of friendship and camaraderie to stop Sirzechs and his peerage in their tracks.
"Grayfia is important to us. Can we rescind that bet? Is there anything we can do for you?"
I asked him. I asked Riser what he wanted for, instead of Grayfia.
"…" He looked to the side and then finally met my eyes. His eyes were icy, almost as if there were scores of cuts in his iris. He wore a simple checkered grey coat with long sleeves. And a colorful lacrosse shirt. He wore baggy pants to complete the thug aesthetic he desired with a tiny, cheap leather watch. His face was sided by two long bangs on the side, and then his hair was pulled back on top. It was like the mane of a lion. His hair was significantly lighter in color than his family's.
Honestly, looking at how absent-minded his stare was, made me realize that the guy in front of me was highly detached from everything. Usually, when lusty devils win slaves or get an attractive peerage member, you could see the glee in their eyes. With Riser, there was only silence, and yet, his hand still was grabbing Grayfia's hair and dragging her around. To him, slaves did not mean sex slaves, they were workhorses he could use. Grayfia would have to work for him until the day she died.
It took several seconds, but an answer came. And it was as short as Riser's other answers. This was his real personality—he taunted his opponents extremely hard. But he never did it with a smile or anything. He was always neutral with his expressions, and once the fighting passed, he returned to being extremely silent.
"No… If Sirzechs didn't want this outcome, he shouldn't have bet lives." Riser said so with a silent voice.
"Why did you…? No, you know that Sirzechs losing is going to cause problems. It's going to cause problems with your family as well. Devil Society will scorn you for this. Our enemies are going to be increasingly bold after this. After all, the invincible Lucifer was defeated without him even showing his real power."
"No, I finished my business with Devil Society." He said it so despondently. As if a chapter from his life was torn off by his own hands and discarded into the trash. As something that should have never happened in the first place. "From now on, take me off the Rating Game register."
"The old faction, they're going to pester you. What will you do?"
"I don't care about some old faction or whatever. In fact, I don't care about Devil Society, the Fallen Angels, or the Angels. I don't care about any mythology for that matter either." He said it extremely slowly with his silent voice, taking his time to list the things.
"And about Grayfia, why are you taking slaves? Do you feel satisfied for taking away the liberties of others?"
Riser did not respond and just looked at Grayfia and then took a good look at the audience. Honestly, I didn't know what he was thinking half the time.
"It seems she cares more about her impending marriage than her sister-in-law's freedom." He silently commented. But Grayfia and I knew what Riser was talking about. Because in the stands, the little sister of Gremory. Rias Gremory looked at herself despairingly, never really looking at the enslaved Grayfia being dragged off.
A self-absorbed… brat.
I couldn't help but think of that. And just as I was lost in thought, Riser was passing by me.
I raised my hand, and an ocean of water accumulated in a dark sphere. The pressure would be enough to make his internal organs explode out of his body if I launched it. I threatened him with this ocean of water accumulated in a ball right at my hands.
"You won't shoot."
Riser passed by me with a whisper that I wasn't supposed to hear. He was talking to himself, unconcerned. Almost unfocused and thinking about something else. He dragged Grayfia by her hair, painfully, in the dark corridor.
And I just couldn't hit him.
Because at the end of it all, I pitied him.
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Review Corner
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Blood-Stained Minazuki; Darkjaden; Daoist 832572
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked the fight.
VGBlackwing
Issei will definitely appear in the wedding arc. But it will be a very long way from here before I start messing with the canon cast.
Righteet; Coolfire364
This Riser is morally grey, and he's seen much of everything. He's not a bad guy but not a good guy either. He won't be committing genoicde or murdering everyone like some other gamer fics though. However, his peerage might. He has a bad sense of morality and thinks people learn from suffering from their mistakes. And that's why he won't release Rias from marriage because he thinks devil society can learn to not trade weddings like this when people suffer for it.
As I said before, he's not a good person.
Zerak; King dedede
It's mostly an overblown number of wins. I just wanted to exaggerate for story purposes, no need to dwell on the strict maths.
Thomassmith69
Yeah, I would be very pissed as well if my wife was stolen like that.
November-5hit; Efe Dundar
No, they don't, and after the unbeatables were found to be cheating, they had a convenient excuse to say Riser was cheating as well.
AnimeA55Kicker
All of his peerage members are very powerful, and most of the story will be focused on them. Riser just learned that the Devil problems were his problems with his pride.
Chamberstaneshia69
Serafall is sympathetic to his plight but she still respects the power structure. If he wins, then Devil Society gets made fun of. She is a leader and has her own responsibilities.
Loser Stuck In Memory Lane
I won't say it right now, but I didn't want to write an MC everyone liked and praised, so I went the opposite way. He's right in the middle in terms of morality, though my story will still be very grimdark.
Lord Michael Demiurgos
Don't worry, every chapter has a story to tell. No delays due to the gamer system.
Wahyubison
There will be some dubious consent here and there, but the MC won't be raping anybody.
Don't forget to leave your review on the latest chapter if you want questions answered or get engagement with the author in the next chapter.
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Author's notes
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So, the conclusion to the cold open. This is the last chapter before we rewind time. Don't worry though, this fic will not spend a lot of time with the game aspects. This is more of a story focused on small stories throughout time. The main cast won't be prevalent at all in this fic. So things like Kuoh Town and its canon arcs won't be there. I'm using the world to tell my stories, nothing more.
If you feel strongly about me or my work and want to support me, search for patron and Soluxy together on Google. Or go on Pa/re on and put a /Soluxy after the com. You can view my work early and make valuable suggestions and comments right on my docs.
I would be forever grateful if you become a patron!
Don't forget to follow or favorite if you want to be alerted to new chapters!