I really wanted to write this. It's the big climax of the first arc and is something I've been strategising about for a while: How to get around the Phenex without holy water or a cross. Because lets face it that's the only reason Issei stood any chance against Riser, and Romulus and Adrianna won't have access to that kind of cop-out. I wondered for a while when while re-reading some of the light novel for ideas and the anime to choreograph some fight scenes. I found a loophole. I won't give it away but its very reminiscent of another fun trick from another popular anime that I like.
Romulus couldn't see the crowd, he couldn't hear the crowd, but he could feel the crowd. It was there, just beyond the boundaries of the pocket dimension used for the game.
Thousands of devils from all across the underworld, along with representatives from every faction even remotely related to death or the afterlife was here. He'd heard from Mephisto that everyone from Hades to Ah Puch to Yama had come to witness his first 'unofficial' appearance in the underworld's most famous sport.
He remembered how he had been just before entering the field. He and Adrianna had been led to a waiting room by one of Mephisto's servants and left there to discuss strategy against their opponents, not that they had much to discuss. The two of them had long since decided on their strategy based on the limited information they had on Riser's peerage.
Beside him. Adrianna looked about as nervous as he felt. Her eyes were darting all around the large amphitheatre that they had been placed into and told was their main base. Romulus grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers through her's and tried to help give her some strength, though her sweaty palm wasn't making it easy.
"I guess this is it?" She asked, looking out over the field they had been assigned.
"Yeah." Romulus replied awkwardly.
"What should we do?" She turned to look at him.
"Why are you asking me?" He asked, stunned.
"It was your plan." She accused. "I thought you'd have some kind of idea."
"I guess. Just keep a look out for anyone that's coming this way, I'll set up some barriers."
The two parted ways, Adrianna brought out her wings to go and search the area for any intruders while Romulus began to create a series of defences to guard their newly assigned territory. Briefly, he wondered back to the beginning of the whole mess that was their unprepared plan, really if was all the Phenex's faults.
48 hours earlier
The large magic circle appeared in the center of Mephisto's private library, depositing the group where immediately Mephisto walked over to a large set of double doors.
"I want all the information available on Riser Phenex's peerage on the double." He slammed the doors and walked over to his desk.
"What do we do Mr. Mephisto?" Romulus asked looking imploringly at his teacher.
"We make do Romulus. We will have to quickly educate Ms. Lorelei on the procedures of the rating games and put further recruiting on hold. We won't be able to get anyone of note on such short notice."
"They can't actually change the date like that can they?" Tannin asked, looking over the scroll.
"They can. The previous month was a courtesy. Now that they know we are recruiting they've cut the time as much as possible."
"At least we have two days." Romulus tried to find a silver lining.
"Yes." Mephisto sighed. "I suspect that Lord Phenex couldn't move the date any further forward without drawing the ire of the other guest that will be in attendance."
"Other guests? What other guests?" Asked Adrianna.
"A game of this significance won't be unattended Ms Lorelei. Should Romulus make it through this ordeal with his marriage hand unclaimed then other potential seekers will have an idea of Romulus and your strength and plan accordingly."
"Can't we just get someone to join us just this once?" Romulus asked.
"Temporary peerage placements are not allowed Romulus. Only those linked to the peerage by a piece can compete for a team."
"So lets put them through the ringer Mephisto. They'll need all the training they can get if they want to make it through this and win."
"Right, Romulus, Adrianna, go with Tannin to the rating game training field, you two will be working night and day for the next two days if we want to get you through this."
With those final words exchanged, the massive dragon had taken the two young children into the rating game field to train. And true to their mentors' words, they had been trained harshly to be ready for their opponents.
Tannin took them out into the rating game arena that was kept in the castle grounds, a way for magicians from the association to practice more... explosive spells without real negative consequences. For the rest of the day the dragon king had trained the two into the ground, doing his best to prepare his students for the fight that lay ahead of them. The next day saw the continuation of their training, with the only break being one to devise a strategy to defeat the seemingly unbeatable Phoenix.
Since they had entered the game field, Romulus had spent most of his time thinking about whether or not his plan would work.
Romulus stood at the top of the amphitheatre, looking out towards where he knew Riser and his peerage were. Like Romulus's own base Riser had been placed in an amphitheatre, only his was colored in fiery red and orange as opposed to Romulus' deep purple and steel grey. The area between the two was made to look like a high-class ancient greek town, with marble white houses and ornate looking architecture.
Romulus watched as several long lines of magic flowed from their base all over the field. Invisible to all those who weren't part of his peerage they were remote defense spells meant to impede progress into one's territory.
"How's it all looking out there." Romulus turned to his queen from where she was standing.
"No attacks yet." He said. "I wonder what he'll do."
"He has two Pawn." She mused. "He'll want to Promote them so they'll definitely head this way but he won't send them alone. No one would send two Pawns against a Queen and a King. He's probably gonna go in full force and try to overwhelm us."
"And we can't stop him." Romulus frowned. "We don't have the numbers to attack head on. He has a Queen, a Bishop, a Rook and two Pawns, we'll have to stay on the defensive and try to pick them off one by one."
Adrianna frowned, looking out over the playing field.
"Wait." Her eyebrows scrunched in concentration. "Why do we have to stay?"
Romulus looked at her, confused.
"We can't let him have the base, he'd promote both his pawns and then we'd be against three Queens instead of one."
"By why does this have to be our base?"
"What?"
"Why don't we just get rid of it?"
"... I like the way you think."
"I know."
"I'll distract them, you do your thing."
In the stands, watching the match unfold, countless supernatural entities wondered about the strategy of the two as the King left his Queen in their base to attack their enemies head on.
"What in hell is the boy thinking?" Tannin complained to his own King, watching Romulus run into the forest.
"We'll see." Mephisto said with a smile.
"How are you so calm?" Tannin groused.
"I know what they're doing." Mephisto said simply.
"And what is that?" The dragon demanded.
"If your position is disadvantageous to you and advantageous to your enemy why have it in the first place?" The older devil didn't answer his queen, but instead posed a question.
"Yeah, yeah, their base isn't the best place to be, but if they don't guard it that Riser kid gets two free promotions."
"You misunderstand me Tannin, why have it at all? Why not deny both the advantage and the disadvantage?"
Tannin watched the screen, which was focused on Adrianna as she flew into the air and gathered magic into her hands. Slowly his eyes widened as he caught onto the plan.
"Ha, those two really are kids."
Together they watched as Adrianna Lorelei, Queen of Romulus Titanius, gathered a massive amount of magic.
Up in the Maou boxes, which sat parallel to the boxes of the other underworld rulers in attendance but distinct to allow privacy, the four Maous watched the match between the Titans and the Phoenixes.
"That girl's incredible." Sirzechs marvelled as Adrianna gathered power.
"You can see what they're doing?" Falbium asked his fellow Maous.
"Of course." Ajuka nodded, though even he seemed impressed by the power the newly reincarnated queen was putting out.
"They're going to beat those stupid chickens in one attack!" Serafall cheered.
"Hm, most definitely." Sirzechs agreed.
"That spell most definitely would destroy young lord Riser's whole peerage, but not the king himself, and with Romulus there he'd be taken out along with the enemies, and with Riser still on the field and Romulus retired the match would be over." Ajuka refuted his fellow Maou's ideas.
"Then what?" Asked Serafall.
"I believe we're about to find out." Falbium nodded towards the screen, which had changed to show the side of the Phenexs.
Out in the forest Riser Phenex moved cautiously but quickly through the field towards his enemies base.
Truthfully Riser didn't want to be here. Winning meant this kid would be marrying his sister and he didn't want that. He didn't want anyone marrying his precious little sister. Still the honor of the Phenex clan was on the line -at least according to his father- and he definitely didn't want to do anything to bring shame upon his house.
So with his reasonably small peerage he slowly sneaked across the divide. The Titanius might have thought he was clever, using invisible shield spells to block his way, but any skilled sensor could see his magic from a mile away and though Mihae wasn't the best as magic sensing she was skilled enough that they hadn't come into contact with any of their enemy's protection.
"We're coming up on it now." Yubelluna said, preparing a magic circle.
Riser smiled. His queen had found a rather exceptional talent with explosion magic, a favorite complementary magic to the Phenexs. His family had been quite happy when he'd introduced his first piece.
"Wait." Mihae warned the group, stopping abruptly. Yubelluna and Isabela were able to dig their heels into the dirt and stop themselves in time to avoid whatever their fellow peerage member had sensed but Marion and Burent skidded just enough to slide into the defensive barrier that stood invisibly before them.
"Mihae." Marion complained, rubbing her head. "Why didn't you warn us about this earlier?"
"Because I only just set this one up." A voice came from behind a nearby tree.
With a snap on her fingers Yubelluna made the tree explode, sending bark, branches and debris all over. Riser's peerage were saved from being pelted only by the large magic circle the King erected between his pieces and the blast.
"Did I get him?" Yubelluna asked, slightly fearful. The surprise of the moment lead the Queen piece to put quite a bit more power into her spell than was strictly necessary and for a moment she wondered if she'd seriously wounded their opponent.
"Not yet." Romulus said again. Surrounding the younger devil was a large dome of magic which was pulsing an angry red.
"Get him!" Riser shouted, throwing twin blasts of fire magic at the young Titanius.
Romulus responded by lowering his shield and jumping out the way. The two fireballs sailed harmlessly past the airborne boy, who performed a neat flip to dodge another blast of magic, this time from Riser's Bishop. He landed less than a foot from Riser himself, punching the young noble hard and sending him skidding across the ground before rushing at astonishing speeds towards Riser's Queen.
"Yubelluna!" Riser called out to his Queen as he got to his feet, trying to warn her of the younger boy's approach.
They young woman nodded and responded, conjuring a magic circle in right in-front of Romulus, which detonated and engulfed the area in front of him in smoke. Yubelluna smiled at the successful spell, which only became wider as Riser gave her a thumbs up, and waited for the announcer to name them the winners.
When no voice came around she looked at the still large cloud of dirt and smoke and gasped as a fist appeared from the gloom and knocked her away. Romulus' body followed his arm out, keeping close to the downed Queen so as to keep her allies from firing on him.
"Don't try anything or els-" Romulus was cut off as The previously unimportant Rook and Pawn pieces made themselves known. Marion and Burent each punched him hard in the stomach, causing the Titanius to gasp as the air was driven out of his lungs, before he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist. Isabela's grip was like iron as she lifted Romulus up and threw her body backwards, burying his body into the earth and a perfect demonically enhanced suplex.
Romulus coughed as the dust settled and found himself surrounded by Riser and his peerage.
"Surrender." Riser said holding his hand out and igniting a blaze that was meant to be intimidating. All around him his peerage was going the same. Yubelluna and Mihae were readying their respective magics while Isabela, Marion and Burent got into fighting stances.
"I don't think so." Romulus said, throwing out his arms and projecting a shield.
Taking that movement as a rejection of their offer the peerage began to attack the powerful defensive spell.
In the stands, Mephisto and Tannin watched, a nervous energy present around them, as their student's shield was repeatedly and devastatingly attacked by fire magic.
"He won't last forever under that kind of barrage." Tannin said, his claws puncturing the plush arms of his seat.
"He won't have to." Mephisto reassured, though his voice held a slight tilt of nervousness.
Up in the Maou box, Serafall was bitting her nails comically fast, her mouth making the noises of a shredder and her nails growing as fast at they were cut.
"Calm down Serafall." Ajuka admonished his fellow, leaning away so as to ensure that he wasn't his by any wayward nail shards.
"How can I calm down Aju-chan?" Serafall wailed. "My precious Rom-chan, My little gift to Sona, is about to lose to that little Phoenix and his band of hussies."
"I sincerly doubt that young Romulus would be caught and defeated so easily."
"It's a part of their plan?" Sirzechs asked.
"Indeed." Falbium nodded. "And I believe we're about to see the fruits of their labor."
In the arena Romulus held off the combined attacks of the Phenex clan peerage, though his defences were starting to crack.
At that moment, he felt a pulse of magic, a signal to let him know that his time as a distraction was done. Closing his eyes and concentrating He focused his magic into his shield. The previous faltering magical shield repaired itself, cracks growing smaller before disappearing. The spell expanded, forcing Riser and his peerage to retreat before Romulus dropped the shield and ran through the forest towards his home base.
The assembled Phenexs watched the younger boy run away.
"Oh my Maou." Riser muttered. "After him!"
The group ran after the boy, following his obvious trail until they reached the Amphitheatre that made up Romulus' base.
"He retreated here?" Riser wondered aloud, confused.
"He lead us right to the heart of his territory." Burent cheered.
"Let's get promoted." Marion said excitedly.
"Stick together, we don't know what kind of traps they might have set for us." Riser warned. "We haven't seen his Queen yet."
Together, they slowly made their way to the center of their enemy's territory. Excited, Marion moved just ahead of her allies.
"Look, they just abandoned their base, probably thought they couldn't hold it against us." She made her way over to cross the threshold into the theatre, breathing deeply through her nose as the powers of the Queen piece flowed through her. As Marion rejoined the rest of the group, which had come to join her and promote their other Pawn Burent broke formation and ran to quickly promote herself to queen. Not more than a moment later Mihae's head snapped up.
"LOOK OUT!" She screamed, forming a teleportation circle which moved the peerage back out of harms way.
Burent wasn't so lucky as a massive bolt of magic came down from the sky, completely disintegrating the massive amphitheatre like dust in the wind. By the time the light faded to a point where Riser's forces could stand to look at it, where once there had been the Titanius base, there was now a thirty foot crater without a single stone in sight, likewise Burent was gone as well.
"Riser Phenex's Pawn has retired." A voice rang out of nowhere. Together the entire peerage of Riser Phenex gathere back to back, in order to make sure they were without blind spots.
"What do we do?" Yubelluna asked.
"A spell like that will mean that the Queen'll be out of the fight for a while." Mihae said.
"Good, then we just have to worry about the King." Isabela said.
"We should get airborne." Marion advised. "She was up there, she had to be to fire a spell that powerful."
"Then lets get her." Riser ordered, bringing out his flaming wings alongside his peerage's bat-like wings in order to fly up and engage the depleted peerage.
Mephisto and Tannin watched the game with an air of anxiety and optimism.
"That was a damn powerful spell." Tannin praised. "Too bad they couldn't take more of them down with it."
"It wasn't meant to take any of them down." Mephisto told Tannin. "Had she been a bit faster in her casting she would have destroyed the base before any of them could promote. She was careless."
"Still, one piece is better than nothing."
"Now they have to face two queens instead of two pawns."
"They'll pull through."
"We'd better hope so, otherwise we might as well buy Romulus' wedding cloths once this is over."
Romulus flow through the air, hidden high in the clouds of their arena. On his back, Adrianna rested after her spell, drained for the time being as Romulus slowly transferred magical energy to his Queen.
"Did... did we get 'em?" She asked groggily, having regained enough strength that she wasn't in danger of retiring.
"We got the base, and one of their pieces." Romulus answered, pausing in mid-air to get his bearings.
"Re...remember the plan." She murmured. "We need to fight him in the air, and use water shields."
"I know."
"Try to take out as many of them as possible before you use it." She reminded him.
"I know."
"And remember to conserve energy and prepare a teleportation circle beforehand."
"I know."
"And remember-"
"I know Ari, I came up with the plan, remember?"
"Ok, I just don't want you to go."
"I won't."
Adrianna yawned.
"Put me down somewhere. I'll only slow you down."
"I can't, they'll find you as long as you're not retired."
"Then ju-"
BOOM
Their talking was disrupted when an explosion erupted less than ten feet from them. It seemed the Phenexs had found them. In response Romulus summoned a spherical shield to protect himself and his Queen. Holding Adrianna's arms in place around his neck with one arm and securing her leg with the other Romulus rocketed down out of cloud cover.
Almost immediately he was surrounded by Riser Phenex and his Peerage, all of whom were leveling various forms of magic at him.
"You hurt Burent." A woman in a short-skirted black and white dress yelled at him, launching a blast of fire at him. Romulus deftly dodged, allowing the fire to shoot past him further into the sky.
"We were just trying to destroy our base, it's you guys' fault that you were there." Romulus said, again dodging the furious girl's Queen-enhanced attack.
"Surrender." Riser demanded. "Your Queen can't fight, and your surrounded by five of us."
"Go get five more, then we'll be even." Romulus yelled back, hoping his voice didn't crack with nervousness.
"Ha!" Tannin barked out a laugh. "I told you that line'd come in handy."
"Dear Lord." Mephisto rubbed his head, the pain of Tannin's rather cheesy line actually hurting more than saying God's name.
"Oh!" Serafall awed with stars in her eyes as she watched. "I want him, I want him sooooooooooooo much."
"No." Ajuka told her.
"But-"
"No."
"Meanie."
The attacks only seemed to increase as the fight went on, Romulus used every ounce of power and control he possessed over his wings to dodge the various fire-based attacks that were launched at him by the members of the Phenex clan.
"Ah!" Romulus' shield shattered under the strain, allowing for a small portion of Riser's original attack to sear his right leg.
"Romulus!" Adrianna called out from her own battle.
Though the Titanius Queen hadn't fully recovered from her pervious attack, she had gained enough energy from her King to jump-start her own magic and was busy holding her own against Riser's Rook and Bishop.
Romulus meanwhile was facing the might of a King and two Queens, constantly dodging various attacks and trying to get in close to engage in hand to hand. So far he hadn't been fortunate enough to find a suitable opening in his opponents' defences.
"Just give up." Riser taunted. "You can't win. I can't be hurt, but you, you feel all of this and you keep going."
Romulus winced as another torrent of fire washed over his newly made water shield, causing steam and smoke to rise into the sky.
"Not yet." He whispered.
"AHHHH!" A scream sounded out, distracting Riser briefly as he saw his rook and Pawn fall to the ground, their bodies sparking with electricity. Floating several meters away with her arm outstretched and heavy breathing was Adrianna, clearly the result of his two pieces' abrupt exit from the game.
"Isabela! Mihae!" Riser shouted.
"Riser Phenex's Rook and Riser Phenex's Bishop have retired." The automated voice once again announced.
"You little..." Riser ground out. "You hurt my friends." A massive ball of fire appeared in his hands. "No one hurts my friends and gets away with it."
The fire-ball tore through the air, engulfing Adrianna.
"Ari!" Romulus shouted.
"AHHH!" Adrianna's scream pierced through the fire, which dissipated to reveal Romulus' Queen, scorched and covered with burns but looking very angry. In her arms was a book that Romulus could have sworn hadn't been there before, which flickered and phased in and out of existence.
"Innovate Clear!" She yelled, throwing the book, which opened itself and flipped through the pages before stopping somewhere around halfway through.
"You..." She sputtered. "You won't have... Romulus."
The pages of the book that hovered began to glow white and let out a massive burst of power. Feeling the danger mere moments beforehand everyone present at the battle, friend and foe alike, split into different directions as blast after blast of magical energy pierced through the air.
"Balance Breaker." Tannin said, a hint of incredulity in his voice. "That's the youngest I've ever seen it, even that Vali kid hasn't broken through that barrier yet."
"Indeed." Mephisto replied without taking his eyes off of the shocking display of magic that Ms Lorelei was showcasing. "She's performed a partial unlock, most likely in response to the stress and pain of Riser's last attack. It's nowhere near as powerful as a real balance breaker should be."
"Well, it looks like we'll have to up their training after this." Tannin nodded, smirking as one of Adrianna's blasts grazed the wing of Riser's Pawn.
"We will, Ms. Lorelei will need much guidance to properly use this new power, and I'm sure we'll need to up security to stop and would-be spies fishing for information."
"I'm just wondering if this is what they'll need to turn the tables."
"No matter what, Romulus will be fighting Riser on his own."
"You don't think the girl can hold on?"
"She's been drained by her first attack, and now she's performed a partial unlock of Balance Breaker on her Sacred Gear, she'll be down in a few minutes, the only question becomes how much damage she does before she's forced to retire."
"You think she can take the Pawn and the Queen down?"
"The Pawn? Most definitely. The Queen on the other hand is another story. I don't think I've seen that kind of talent with explosion magic in a human in the last century. She'll be a challenge."
"Well the kid always did love a challenge."
The Maous watched as Adrianna Lorelei unleashed her Sacred Gear's power, firing continuously on her enemies even as they tried and failed to counter-attack.
"That's the Innovate Clear." Sirzechs stated with a raised eyebrow.
"Haven't seen that one in a few centuries." Serafall said excitedly. "Not since Morgan-chan and I tore it up during the trials."
"You two ended up throwing massive orgies in the forests outside Salem and started one of the largest and most ineffective witch hunts in history." Ajuka admonished her.
"Still, that girl and I had some wild times."
"It's a wonder you never reincarnated her." Fabium teased his fellow Maou.
"Oh believe me Fal-chan, I tried. She had this stupid thing about remaining human and getting into heaven... she did but really she must hate it up there with all those stuffy prudes. I'm sure she would have preferred it down here with me and So-tan."
"Well it looks like it's newest wielder has found a home."
"I wonder if Romulus would be willing to trade her to Rias?"
"I doubt it Sirzechs."
"Don't be such a downer Aj-chan. Of course you should try Zechy-chan, right after I convince Rom-chan to marry my So-tan."
"Hey, He's marrying Rias."
"So-tan."
"Rias."
"So-tan."
"Rias."
"Do you two even understand the word dibs?" Ajuka asked the two, a twitch forming in his brow.
"Sorry Aju-chan." "Apologies Ajuka."
"Good, now lets get back to watching."
The assembled heads of the Devil government, having just finished a conversation so childish that it would have made children sweat-drop in incredulity, turned their head in order to watch actual children fight for their status and for their audience's entertainment.
Adrianna's blasts were finally starting to slow down but were not weakening. Instead, as they slowed, they only grew more powerful. Riser ordered his Queen and Pawn in separate directions to minimise the chance of single blasts boing more damage.
"Ah!" Riser yelled as he was blasted by a powerful blast of magic. Flames erupted over his wounds, healing his injuries in an instant and even repairing his cloths as he again took flight with his fiery wings.
Away from Adrianna's valiant last stand. Romulus soared through the air and clashed against Riser's Pawn Marion.
"You can't win." Marion called out, coming back around to strike again as the younger boy. "Even if you beat all of us, Riser can't be hurt. He's immortal."
"Immortal isn't invulnerable." Romulus said, encasing his fist in a shield spell to act as a bashing weapon. The boy dodged a blast of fire, which was lost in the clouds growing ever more numerous in the sky. Coming in close Romulus reeled back his arm, taking a moment to prepare as Marion prepared for an attack of her own. The two clashed, slamming hard in to each other. With her greater height and longer reach Marion's punch struck first with enough force to instantly incapacitate the Titanius heir. Her aim was true, and the first flew straight towards Romulus' face.
It never hit.
Instead the blow contacted and shattered a shield spell the young heir had created just in front of his face. With an opening made from her failed attack, Romulus' punch landed, striking her in the gut. Marion gasped as the attack winded her and her eyes lost their sheen as unconsciousness claimed her from a combination of exhaustion and pain. Romulus caught her as her body fell forward dissolving into light and retiring from the game.
"Riser Phenex's Pawn has retired." The voice announced.
Romulus looked back over to his Queen's battle, and found that Adrianna was looking far worse than he had left her. She was hovering up and down, slowly losing strength and dropping before forcing herself to continue and rising back up to her height. Her book -whatever it was- continued to fire and Romulus could see more than a few marks on Riser's Queen and Riser himself.
"Ari." He yelled, flying quickly towards her.
"Romulus?" Her voice was laden with exhaustion and her vision swam, making it look like anywhere between one and three of her friend were flying towards her at any given time.
Seeing the girl's distraction, Riser and Yubelluna took their chance. Conjuring fire and explosion spells in their hands they threw them at the girl before diving again to dodge another blast of her book.
"ARI! Look out!" Romulus screamed at his friend, who hadn't noticed the powerful spells that were rocketing towards her.
Arianna didn't have time to react. The spells slammed into her with force, draining the last of her magic and causing her Balance Breaker to disappear. Romulus reached her as she began to disappear. He held his Queen as she dissolved, making sure that she didn't fall while she was being taken from the arena. Finally she was gone, not a piece of her remained in the arena and Romulus knew that she'd been taken to healing quarters to recover from her injuries.
"Romulus Titanius' Queen has retired." The automated voice said, announcing the disappearance of Romulus's first and only piece in the game. The young devil didn't have much time to contemplate on his Queen's defeat however, as he turned to spot Riser and Yubelluna taking up positions to confront him.
"Give up." Riser again demanded, readying himself in the likely event he was rejected. Likewise Yubelluna prepared herself, spinning a magic circle between her fingers.
"No." Romulus growled out, sizing up his competition now that he was on his own.
Neither Riser or Yubelluna were in top form. Riser's exposed form was covered in burns and cuts from Adrianna's attacks that seemed to be taking a while to heal. Yubelluna was also covered in burns, but as she didn't have the natural healing of the Phenex clan she wasn't recovering as quickly as Riser was.
"You're both tired and drained. You two should give up."
Riser narrowed his eyes, glaring at the younger boy.
"Never. Surrender would do nothing but bring shame upon my family, even defeat meant that I would have struggled and fought. I won't let myself or my friends be dishonoured like that. I'll fight until one of us is down."
Romulus and Riser stared at each other across the open divide. Storm clouds gathering and darkening the sky around them. Thunder roared and lightning flashed all around them from their places in the air and soon the only thing illuminating them was the radiant glow of their wings. Romulus looked over at the Phenex, who was bathed in the warm glow of the reds, oranges and yellows of his fiery wings. If nothing else he could respect Riser's convictions. Romulus didn't think that Riser would ever give in, his pride and his nobility as a high-class devil meant he would never allow himself to be dominated by anyone not sufficiently powerful.
On the other side Riser was taking his time. On the other side of the rapidly darkening sky floated his opponent. Time was his ally in this, every second was one more that he and Yubelluna could recuperate, one more second he had to heal, one more second closer to full power. Romulus was right about one thing, they both were drained. The Queen's attacks had done far more damage than he wanted to admit and with Marion's retirement he was down to just himself and his Queen. He needed to draw this out.
"If that's how you want it, then send her out." Romulus shouted over the cracking thunder. "Let's make it just you and me."
Riser smirked. "You scared?"
"No, I just want a fair fight."
Outside the match, seated comfortably, Tannin and Mephisto watched with baited breath as the arena grew ever darker.
"You think he'll do it?" Tannin asked.
"If young lord Riser's sense outweighs his pride, then he won't, but children are oft subject to their baser desires."
"So he'll do it?"
"I have no idea."
This is getting real tense." Tannin tried to divert the subject away from Riser, instead focusing on the assembled spectators.
"This has been a rather good match." Mephisto nodded. "I thought that Adrianna would destroy everyone not of Phenex blood, but it appears that young Riser's peerage has a good synergy and power."
"Still, now that it's just the three of them, do you think He'll be able to pull it off?"
"As long as they stay together, and Romulus doesn't get distracted, he should be able to take them both. I just hope he keeps his focus."
"The kid's got a good head on his shoulders, he'll pull through, he always does."
"True."
Up in the box of the Maous, the four leaders of the underworld watched what seemed to be the final confrontation of the Phoenix and the Titan.
"This is getting good." Falbium said, flicking a kernel of popcorn into the air and catching it in his mouth.
"Awwww." Serafall moaned distressed. "Why, this is so nerve-wracking, Rom-chan is handing on by a thread and that Phenex kid is just stalling. If this keeps up we'll be getting invitations to Rom-chan wedding with that little Phoenix brat Ravel."
"Calm down Serafall." Ajuka soothed the Maou of Foreign Relations. "Everything we've seen so far has been nothing but a prelude. The real fight starts now, and I do believe young Romulus has victory in hand."
"You sound so certain." Sirzechs said, glancing at his friend.
"Pay attention to everything that has happened Sirzechs. I'm sure he's had to improvise, but I can see that Romulus has gathered all the cards he needs to win this duel."
In the arena, Romulus moved slightly to the left, deftly dodging a streak of lightning that struck the Earth.
"I'll give you one more chance to surrender." He yelled over at the two others.
"I should be saying that to you." Riser replied, smirking as he felt the last of his wounds heal under his cloths. Yubelluna still looked a bit beat up, but he'd been subtly sharing his energy with her so she should be fine to finish the fight.
"I guess I have no choice then. I didn't want to use this." Romulus said.
Riser and Yubelluna frowned. If he had something that could beat them, then why hadn't he pulled it out before?
"You can't see it, can you?" Romulus smirked for the first time. "You two, your entire peerage, you've just been helping us the entire time."
Romulus raised up one of his hands, and between his fingers, small sparks of electricity formed and arched. Around Romulus, a large shield spell formed, not the deep blue of each of his previous spells, but instead electric blue.
"Electric Grid: Arch!" Romulus yelled, the shield changing form and creating two solid lines of lightning connecting Romulus to the storm clouds above.
A roar echoed across the arena, not the harsh sound of explosion or fire magics, and not the sudden crash of natural lightning and thunder. The roar was of a beast, long slumbering and awakened. Riser and Yubelluna looked up at the clouds, seeing that the lightning that had once been striking relentlessly at the ground was instead collecting. Streams of lightning were pulled together at the point where Romulus' shield spell had pierced the clouds.
"Come out... My Chimera!" Romulus announced.
From the clouds, composed completely of powerful lightning, a massive beast emerged. It had the head of a lion and the back of a goat, with a snake tail curling and hissing at the two Phenex clan members.
"Now fall, in a flash of lightning." Romulus dropped his hand, pointing right at Riser.
The Chimera roared once again, and disappeared into the clouds. The remaining lightning concentrated and gathered again before in a flash it struck. Both Riser and Yubelluna were caught unprepared. The attack struck in a mere fraction of a fraction of a second, and truly terrifying speed considering the Chimera was close to the size of a full grown dragon. It slammed into Riser with enough power that he was instantly knocked unconscious, ending the match. It also saved him from the majority of the pain as the electricity arched across his entire body. Even knocked out cold he screamed out before he disappeared in a shattering light show.
"Riser Phenex has retired. The winner it Romulus Titanius."
Romulus' shoulders slumped in relief. Looking over he could see Yubelluna looking dumbly at him before the two of them were extracted from the arena and sent to their separate areas. Romulus' vision was dominated by light as he was teleported.
When the brightness finally faded the boy found himself standing in front of Mephisto and Tannin, who both wore smirks.
"Good job kid." Tannin praised.
"I'm gonna sleep now." Was all the response Romulus could manage before his eyes lost their focus and he collapsed.
Tannin was already there to catch the boy before his body could hit the floor.
"Huh, the kid really did bet everything on that one."
"Indeed, though it worked so I suppose we can't berate him for taking the risk."
"Ha, I'm upping his training with the girl to control her Gear, I think that's a good punishment."
Mephisto smiled as Tannin picked up Romulus' unconscious form and swung it over his shoulder and the two made their way over to the infirmary to reunite the King and his Queen in the healing chambers.
Well there we go, The end of the betrothal of Romulus and Ravel. I know Riser seemed a little out of character here but remember, this is Riser at around 13 or 14, before puberty and before he most likely gets all horny. I also think that as a child and early teen he'd probably be more innocent and less dickish. Not less prideful but more, I don't know, noble. I understand if you don't like the way I'm characterising him but try to remember that he is teen Riser and will eventually grow into someone more similar to the person we see in the novels and show. Though this will leave an impact and we may see some more of him.
It was Kirin. That was the attack. To anyone not familiar with Naruto or this technique. The idea is to use fire techniques to raise the ambient air temperature and create an ascending air current. This causes the formation of Cumulonimbus clouds which are common thunderclouds seen in storms. From there he used a lightning shield stretched into the clouds to connect to and shape the lightning into an attack that could strike with.
Not only is this attack incredibly powerful and fast given that it uses lightning from storm clouds but it also contains a trace of light element in it, which devils are weak to. I came up with this from watching the training of Akeno with her father where he said that by combining her holy power as a fallen angel she could transform her thunder magic into lightning magic. Kind of similar attack instead it's natural lightning.
Now to those who said that because it's a rating game arena is doesn't have the necessary water in the air to form a cloud, that's why Romulus used water shields, to form steam and therefore condensation to create the clouds. It's a slight pull on the old suspension of disbelief but really nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to fiction and if you can believe most of what happens in the actual DXD show, then you can believe this.