"Well this isn't good." Tannin said, sitting in a private box with Mephisto.

"Really?" Mephisto asked, exasperated. "Romulus just announced to the whole of the underworld his goals to make the Titanius family the envy of every world. I feel this will not go over smoothly with the Maous."

"Oh please, every noble participant down there declared they wanted to bring honor and prosperity to their clan, and that Belphegor brat said she wanted to be the strongest in the rating games. Romulus might have been a bit more grand, but he didn't say anything those other participants didn't imply."

"That's the point Tannin. With all the others, it was just that, an implication. None of them came and outright said they wanted to make their clans the strongest in the underworld. The backlash from the other clans over that kind of statement, esspecially from the Baels or the Maous, would be massive. Now Romulus has made himself the focus of the rest of the competition, and the remains of the seventy-two pillars on top of that."

"So what?" Tannin shrugged. "Outside that Roygun brat and the Glasya-Labolas heir, none of them could take him in a fair fight. Kid's gonna make it to the finals, and if it takes a near-ultimate-class devil to take him down, then he's already proven himself."

"In an ideal setting, that might be true Tannin. However, this is not ideal, and I can assure you that Romulus will be bereft with all manner of ill fortune in this tournament. In fact, I will be surprised if he makes it past the first round."

"We can't let him win, you know that?" Ajuka asked his fellows as they sat around a table.

"Of course." Serafall agreed. "After that declaration, we'd have to be insane to let him even win a single round."

"Sabotage is ill-advised however." Falbium cautioned. "The eyes of more than our own subjects will be on this gathering. The Extra-demons will not remain silent if they see any indication one of their most prominent members is being unfairly treated by our hands."

"Well then, it's a good thing that we don't need to do anything in the actual battles." Serafall smiled.

"Indeed." Ajuka nodded. "It will require only some minor exercise of our powers to ensure Romulus' failure."

"The first match of the first round will be... Romulus Titanius! Verses... Roygun Belphegor!"

Romulus watched as the order of matches were pulled randomly from a small bowl. There were several other papers, presumably possessing the names of the other contestants. However, in the end Romulus had found out what was necessary for himself. Looking to the side, he saw Roygun looking back, meeting his eyes. The woman smiled and waved while her other hand flicked her pink hair out of her face.

"The first round will take place after a period of three weeks, after which each match will be held simultaneously. In the aftermath, the second round will be held after another week and all matches will takes place simultaneously. Each concurrent round will be held a week after the last until the final round begins a month and a half from now."

Romulus watched as the remaining matches were called, but didn't really care. Adrianna stood by him as they watched the schedule steadily become full.

"Well, look at it this way, we get the toughest fight out of the way first."

"Were you trying to make a joke?" Romulus asked, staring at his queen.

Adrianna looked down at her feet bashfully and Romulus suddenly felt bad.

"It was good." He said, trying to force a smile.

"It was bad." Adrianna said, sighing. "And it wasn't the right time."

"Hey."

The two turned away from the stage to find Seekvaira, Diodora and Eneely coming towards them.

"Too bad about the sorting, right?" Seekvaira asked, jerking her head at Romulus' name across from Roygun's.

"Yeah." Romulus muttered.

"It really sucks." Adrianna said for both of them. "We were really hoping we wouldn't have to fight someone like her first."

"Well someone had to." Diodora said, smiling sympathetically. "I guess you just got a bit of bad luck. But next time it shouldn't happen again."

Eneely nodded vigorously.

"Yeah, this is her last year before she ages out of the tournament. If you join next year too you definately won't be fighting her."

Romulus and Adrianna smiled.

"Thanks."

"It still sucks." Eneely said, folding her arms behind her head. "I spent all that time getting you to show me your skills, and now I can't even use it."

"What?" Romulus asked.

Adrianna gasped.

"Oh no, I showed you so much. I'm such an idiot. I showed you my balance breaker."

Eneely laughed, though it wasn't a malicious thing.

"Yeah. I really thought someone would have told you guys about hiding your power."

Adrianna blushed fiercly.

"We were. I was just so caught up in you liking me I didn't notice. I don't have that many friends, and I don't have any friends who are girls so I thought that maybe we could be friends."

The Titanius queen's face fell.

"But I guess it wasn't about liking me at all."

Eneely rushed forwards, taking Adrianna's hands into her own.

"No no no. It wasn't like that. Well it was but I really did like you. That's why I felt so bad about prying the information out of you."

"Oh. Does that mean we can be friends?" She asked.

"Sure." Eneely grinned. "We can totally be friends."

Adrianna smiled and began to talk with Eneely. Unlike before however there wasn't any real talk about their powers or equipments. Instead Adrianna and Eneely began talking about things that they liked in general. Apparently Eneely and Adrianna shared a love of fantasy books, and began a rather fierce discussion about The Hobbit.

Romulus smiled as Adrianna and Eneely began to talk.

"It's nice when your peerage mates can get along with others, isn't it?"

Romulus turned around to find Seekvaira standing next to him. Alivian was also joining in on the discussion, although he was mostly complaining about how Smaug was derivative of Fafnir and other dragons from their world. Adrianna had countered with the theory that Tolkein had been a contract magician or come in contact with magicians and based the book heavily off of Norse mythology.

"With this, the first stage of the Young Devils Gathering has concluded. We will see all of you here again in three weeks where you will fight for the honour and glory of yourselves and your families."

As the announcer finished and the last of the names were added to the bracket board many of the participants began to break off and leave. Some headed to the main entrance they had presumably arrived from, others teleported directly out. Roygun caught his eyes and gave him a smile and a wink before she disappeared.

"I think Mephisto and Tannin will be waiting for us." Romulus told Seekvaira.

She smiled and nodded in acceptance before offering her hand curled up un a fist.

"See you in three weeks?" She asked.

Romulus smiled, raising his hand and bumping fists with Seekvaira.

"Definately." He turned to the group that was still arguing about themes of greed in Tolkein's books. "Adrianna, we've got to go."

Adrianna turned to him, briefly disengaging from her conversation. "Fine."

She returned briefly to her talk with Eneely and Alivian. Finishing their talk the three exchanged eager words and even a hug before Adrianna walked over to him.

"Let's go."

The two walked away from the match board, which was now displaying just who would be facing who in the upcoming tournament. As the two left the room, they walked along the hallway back towards the entrance they had arrived from.

"Lord Titanius." The elevator's attendant bowed to Romulus before ordering the elevator down to the first floor. As soon as the doors opened, Romulus and Adrianna were greeted with a massive crowd.

"It's them. The heir of clan Titanius and his queen!" One of the onlookers shouted as they began to crowd and push on the two.

Romulus and Adrianna were almost immideately set upon on all sides by the curious and over-zealous devils who wanted a word with the two. Just as Romulus was about to lose patience with the crowd and project a shield to give him and Adrianna some breathing room, a hand rested on his shoulder.

"Time for us to depart Romulus, Ms Lorelei." Mephisto said, conjuring a teleportation circle beneath them. In a flash of light, they disappeared from the city of Lucifaad and reappeared back in the Titanius compound.

"Well that went well." Tannin said as soon as the magic circle disappeared.

"An overexageration if there ever was one Tannin." Mephisto said before rounding on Romulus. "We told you to lay low Romulus. To keep your head down and try to make allies. Now you've challenged the Maous and every pillar still remaining in the underworld."

"I didn't do that." Romulus protested. "I just said I wanted to make my clan the strongest."

"And if you are the strongest Romulus, who is beneath you?" Mephisto asked.

"Everyone." Romulus muttered.

"Exactly. With that statement, you have all but announced your desire to surpass and subjugate every other power in the underworld, no, more than that. You've all but declared war on the world."

"Hang on there 'phisto." Tannin interupted. "The kid made a mistake, but don't make this more than it is. He's pissed off the Maous a bit but the rest of the world couldn't care less about Romulus wanting to make his clan the best. To them it's just the ambitions of a nine year old child. It only means so much to the Maous because of what they did to his family."

"And now because of that Romulus will be facing off against Roygun Belphegor, who is one of the strongest devils born in a cetury."

"I can still win." Romulus protested.

"No kid, you can't." Tannin said. "Even as good as you are. You're not nearly at her level. You're strong for a high-class devil. Strong enough to take on most of the heirs in the tournament, but against Roygun, there's no one else in your whole generation who could toe-to-toe with her."

"How is she that strong?" Romulus asked.

"She's like you kid." Tannin said. "Not exactly the same. She ain't got your tragic backstory, but she's spent her whole life fighting to get stronger. She's worked herself to the bone, broken most of them at some point or another, to get where she is."

"Lady Belphegor is a prodegiously hard worker." Mephisto confirmed. "And she has recruited to her side a peerage who matches her in determination."

"If I can't win, then why should I even fight?" Romulus asked.

"You could ask a similar question about the Maous." Mephisto pointed out.

"But that's different." Romulus said. "I need to fight the Maous to get justice for my family. I can't just let them get away with what they did. But Roygun's so much stronger than me and I don't have any time to train, why shouldn't I just forfeit?"

"You believe that the Maous of the Underworld will simply wait until you are ready to face them?" Mephisto asked. "No Romulus. You are a threat to the security of not only their territories, but to the underworld as a whole. They cannot risk you becoming a volatile element in their machine. The second they believe that you cannot be used to their advantage in some way, or that they can get rid of you without it being obvious they were responsible, they will come for you."

"I get it Mr Mephisto, but what do we do now?" Romulus asked.

"The same thing we were doing before Romulus. We train the two of you to become the best devils you can be. After that, we simply hope that you are strong enough to create your own path. Now off with the both of you. I believe that you still have some time to practice your magics before sundown."

Romulus and Adrianna exchanged looks before nodding at their teacher and disappearing through their own teleportation circle to get to their training area.

"The kids are fucked. You know that right?"

"I do Tannin, but that does not mean we should let Romulus forfeit. He will need this battle to understand a fraction of just how powerful he will need to be to face the Maous."

"He's got us to train with 'Phisto. We're both stronger than her."

"But we are allied with him Tannin. Romulus will need to understand that there are people just as powerful as us, and even stronger, who stand with the Maous."

"Not to mention the Maous themselves. No matter how much the Titanius clan boasted about being able to stand up to them, Sirzechs and his peerage killed the entire clan, and if he decided not to hide his magic, he could have destroyed the whole place without breaking a sweat. Ajuka would have just collapsed the entire mountain into a black hole and been done with it."

"True enough, but for now we need to keep Romulus focused."

"I'll keep them at it. I don't think increasing their training is gonna change much, but getting them both to become more familiar with their basic powers should help."

"Make sure Romulus knows not to use his new Chakra form in the game. We don't want him to waste the surprise and advantage on a battle he wouldn't win either way."

"And the girl's balance breaker?"

"The majority of the underworld's upper echelons will have seen it during Romulus' game with Riser. Though most do not know that Adrianna has fully unlocked it."

"Unless either of them decided to show off at the meeting."

"You did warn them about that, didn't you?"

"Of course I did. Doesn't mean they listened."

"A fair point. Find out from them if they told any of their competitors about their abilities."

"The boy's too dangerous to leave alone any more." Sirzechs said, meeting again with the other Maous.

"I guess it's too much to ask that we have one meeting without discussing a single extra-demon boy." Flabium sighed.

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud Falbi-kun." Serafall said in a sing-song voice. "These meetings always get so much more fun when we talk about Romu-chan."

"I'm glad that a threat to our national security is so amusing to you Serafall." Sirzechs growled. "Did you hear him up there. He all but declared that he wanted to overthrow us."

"He's a boy Sirzechs, if you think anyone else was thinking that, you're crazy." Ajuka said. "He'll have made a few enemies amongst the more prideful elders of the seventy-two pillars, but there's not a single devil in all the underworld who doesn't want to be the strongest of our kind."

"You should be the most concerned about this Ajuka." Sirzech ground out. "You have said that Romulus was a threat since the beginning. Why are you so calm?"

"I simply no longer believe that we should make such a fuss over him. As of now he is too well protected for us to make a move. Obsessing over his every word and action will do us no good and will only make us more paranoid. What we need is something we possess an excess of; time."

"And when he becomes strong enough to challenge us? When Mephisto tells him the truth of his family and he decides to take revenge?"

"Mephisto has made no attempt to raise the boy up. While I'm sure he's lying about something, I am confident that he does not mean us any harm, nor will he use the Titanius clan to shake up the status quo."

"But can we trust that in a century, or a millenium, he will not change his mind? That he won't eventually grow stronger than us?"

"We can't predict that far into the future for anything Sirzechs." Ajuka said. "Our own government is only four centuries old. We can only deal with threats as they come, and right now the remains of the Old-Satan Faction are a far more present problem than the Titanius heir."

"Yeah Zechy-kun. It's your job to handle the internal strife amongst devils like the Old-Satan faction." Serafall said, leaning back in her chair. Leave the extra-demons and the rest of the world to me."

Sirzechs glared at the Satan Leviathan.

"I swear, sometimes I really wish Grayfia had gotten your position."

Serafall let out a gasp of mock hurt.

"Zechy-kun, how could you say that? I thought you loved working with me over your wife. After all, I let you get away with way more stuff."

"She is right." Falbium smiled. "If Grayfia was the Leviathan she wouldn't let you do nearly as much as you do to advance your family."

Sirzechs glared at the two Satans before sitting down in his seat in a huff.

"Now then, if Sirzechs is finished informing us of things we already know." Ajuka said. "We can turn our attention to the increasing number of holy-sword users who are appearing in the Church. Our informants in the Vatican are telling us about a new item being produced by a priest by the name of Valper Galilei. We haven't been able to ascertain the origin of these artifacts but the increased number of holy-sword wielders is concerning for the future of the truce between the three factions."

"There has also been a change in the Himejima clan situation." Said Sirzechs. "The fallen hybrid girl, Akeno, has been formally exiled from the clan."

"And what of it?" Ajuka asked. "The fallen have first claim to her, and she should be picked up by one of them eventually, even if Baraqiel can't claim her with the Himejima's deal."

"The fallen had two years to claim her following her mother's death." Sirzechs said. "By all accounts she has been left on her own. Rias has just earned her peerage set a few months ago, Akeno Himejima would make a good queen for her."

"Why are you running this past us?" Serafall asked. "This sounds more like a clan problem. Not to mention the problems with the mediation forces."

"That's exactly the point. Before another faction can claim an outcast, first one of the mediation forces must declare the person fair game, unless the subject can decide for themselves. Mephisto is one of those mediation forces."

"You think he'll see your claim and then pounce on Himejima and recruit her for Romulus." Ajuka said.

"He's already gotten Romulus close to Azazel, if he recruits the Himejima he'll have allies in the five principal clans and a close bond with the Fallen. It's more power under his wing."

"Given the fact the Himejima have expelled her from the clan, taking this girl in might be more detrimental considering he already has connections in the fallen camp, but I can see your point."

"I want to direct the claim through to one of the other monitoring forces without alerting Mephisto." Sirzechs said. "And that means I need your help."

Serafall and Ajuka exchanged looks. They knew that he was talking about them. Serafall was the head of foreign relations for the devils, and so was closest of the four of them to the inter-faction monitoring system. Ajuka was also the most duplicitous of them, and if anyone could grease a few wheels in those institutions that were meant to be neutral, it would be him."

"Fine." Ajuka shrugged. "But you owe me a favor."

"Nothing out of proportion." Sirzechs immediately said. He'd learned a long time ago that giving Ajuka free reign with a favor usually led to something akin to acts of sabotage and war against other countries.

"Well well well." Serafall's face split into a sinister smile as she tapped the tips of her thumb and fingers in sequence. "Look at you Zechy-kun. For years you have fought with me for Rom-chan, and now you come to me begging-"

"I'm not begging Serafall."

"-On your knees-"

"I'm not on my knees either."

"-For my help. Why shouldn't I just claim her myself?"

"Serafall..."

"Fine fine fine. I'll do this for you Zechy-kun. But you have to let me try and get Rom-chan to marry my So-tan first."

"I promise nothing."

Serafall shrugged and leaned back in her chair.

"Ok."

Romulus was slammed into a tree, tearing through it and several others until he managed to skid to a stop on the ground. Tannin was already on him, his massive claw coming down at devesating speeds. With no time to dodge the blow, Romulus instead settled for forming a shield between himself and his trainer. Tannin's strike crashed into the shield, shattering it into pieces but slowing enough for Romulus to fling himself out of its range. The dragon king was about to pursue but was suddenly blasted in the back by a beam of powerful magic. Adrianna Lorelei was hovering above the forest, providing covering fire for her king.

Sparing only a glance back at the queen Tannin's wings flared and opened, instantly forming a dozen magic circles that blasted towards her. Adrianna barely had the time to throw up her own shield, which was instantly broken. The Titanius queen was consumed by Tannin's magic and when the beam of energy faded away, Adrianna was falling towards the ground.

"Ari!" Romulus yelled, abandoning his fight with Tannin to help his queen. His wings unfurled from his body as he soared, leaving a fading trail of purple light as he went. He caught her before she even reached the tree tops holding her as her eyes fluttered back open.

"Wha? What happened?"

"I did kid." Tannin said, flying up towards them.

You didn't need to do that Mr Tannin." Romulus said. "That attack was too strong."

"Tough luck kid, if you think that's bad, you should see what that Belphegor brat has planned for you. Now quit complaining, we still got three weeks of training left before you kids got your match."

Nodding at the dragon, both members of the peerage got back into ready stances as Tannin readied himself for another assault.

Roygun Belphegor didn't really care too much about the Young Devil's gathering. It was a place for the heirs of prominent clans to hash out their feuds and disagreements without causing clan disputes. Compared to her, everyone here was a weakling. There were a few who showed promise of course. The crippled Bael kid and the Glasya-Labolas heir were both good, and in time might even become serious contenders in the Rating Games. Still, they were kids, and not nearly strong enough to face off against her in a serious match.

That led her to the opponent she was facing now. Her first match of the tournament, and she would be facing the only other Extra-demon participating. Really she was pretty sure this was just a way to get her to eliminate Romulus Titanius early and make sure that no clan heirs suffered the humiliation of being beaten by an outsider.

At least with her they could excuse it. Belphegor was a part of the main underworld faction, she had been exiled from her clan for participating in the tournament and involving herself with the new Satans. She was almost one of them, and that was better than letting the kid kick the butts of the various heirs and nobles.

And kick butt he would. She'd heard of, and more recently seen, his fight against one of the sons of the Phenex clan. A good win, even outnumbered and outpowered. The win was secured long before the last blow was dealt, and seeing it Roygun could commend the kid's inginuity.

That didn't mean she was going to take it easy on him.

"Hey Roygun." The older devil turned to look at her queen, who was regarding her as she looked out over the arena they and the Titanius peerage were placed in. "What formation are you feeling?"

Roygun considered her whole peerage. Individually, any of them could probably take out both Romulus Titanius and his queen. Together, it would be overkill.

"All of you stay here." She said, gesturing at them to relax. "I'll take care of this myself?"

"You sure?" Asked one of her bishops, although they looked anythin but concerned.

"Yeah. All of us going out there is kind of overkill."

"But why not let one of us do it?" Another of her pieces ask. Roygun shook her head. Her peerage was always itching for a fight. One reason why she had chosen them, and why they had advanced so far.

Suddenly the ground shook and a massive plume of smoke extended into the sky somewhere off in the distance.

"Well, it looks like we won't be promoting. That's the same trick he played with the Phenex kid."

Her peerage nodded along with her.

"Destroying his base to deny his enemies promotions. It's a good idea considering he's outnumbered. No chance he could ever defend it, and now we have no idea where in the field he is since he doesn't have to waste resources to defend a position." Her bishop said in approval.

"Good for a small, mobile peerage like his. Especially if he plans to take us on individually." Her queen agreed.

"He doesn't actually think we'd just split up like that right?" A knight asked. "I mean, we are a lot stronger than both of them so I guess I could see how we could cover more ground, but traps and ambushes are built for that kind of play. It's a rookie mistake to send out pieces on their own."

"He's not trying to out-strategise us. There's no winning move for him here unless he suddenly figured out how to become an ultimate-class devil in the span of three weeks." Roygun said. "He's just trying to make this as difficult as possible. Stay here, defend the headquarters if they attack but don't pursue."

"You're going to entertain him Roygun?" Her queen asked. "You don't usually play around like this."

"We don't usually play kids that are a lot weaker than us." Roygun countered. "The kid's good, strong for his age. I guess I've got some respect for guys like him. I can already tell he's gotten stronger than he was at the opening ceremony. They'd have had to work themselves to the bone to get to that much stronger in just three weeks."

"Fine." Her queen said, rolling their eyes. The rest of her peerage joined in as Roygun left the large hut that was designated as their base.

Romulus and Adrianna watched Roygun Belphegor leave her base, without any of her peerage following her.

"What's she doing?" Adrianna asked.

"Falling for it." Romulus said.

"No way." Adrianna countered. "We saw some of her games with Lord Mephisto. There's no way she came out here alone unless she wanted to."

"So she's springing the trap?" Romulus wondered. "She wants us to come out and attack since she's on her own. Her Peerage is probably searching for us right now. Once we confront her, she'll call them back and bring whoever she has in hiding out."

"Unless she really is alone and thinks she can take us out on her own." Adrianna watched the older devil intently.

"Exactly."

Both Romulus and Adrianna jumped back as Roygun appeared between them. Out in the field outside her hut, the image of Roygun faded away, revealing itself to be an illusion.

"Get her!" Romulus yelled, rushing the older woman and encasing himself in a shield to augment his fist.

Roygun just watched and moved at a leisurely place as she calmly blocked each of Romulus' attacks. She caught caught her opponent's eyes flicker slightly to the left before he dove that same way.

A blast of magic rocked the ground, sending debris into the air as Adrianna called down a destruction spell onto Roygun. Romulus came out of his role, holding himself as well as his ten year old body could handle as his queen hovered high in the air.

"Did you get her?" He asked.

"She did." Roygun said as the smoke cleared. The older woman was standing in the middle of a newly formed crater, watching them with a raised eyebrow and a look of mile approval.

"Good job kid, that spell would have knocked out anyone your age, probably most of the older ones too."

Roygun flared her power, clearing the dust and smoke that had resulted from Adrianna's spell and sending both of her opponents tumbling backwards. Adrianna nearly fell out of the air as she was pushed back, only to right herself seconds later and see Roygun floating right in front of her.

"Eeep." She squeaked, but didn't have anymore chances to do anything as Roygun tapped her on the forehead and her eyes glowed. As soon as she did, Adrianna's eyes dulled and her magic faded. She began to fall but was caught by Roygun before she disappeared in a burst of light.

"Romulus Titanius' queen has retired." The announcer's voice resounded through the arena.

Romulus watched Roygun float back down onto the ground.

"What did you do?" He asked.

"Just shut down her magic for a second. Then I put her under a small sleep spell. She'll wake up in a few minutes."

Romulus sighed in relief before he fell into a combat stance.

"Alright then. It's just you and me."

Roygun just observed him neutrally.

"Listen kid, you don't want to give up, and I respect that, I really do, but this isn't a fight you've got any chance of winning."

"This was never about winning. I knew I was gonna lose from the beginning." He said. "You're an Ultimate class devil, Mr Mephisto and Mr Tannin said I'm good, but I'm not that good. I just want to see how good I am."

Roygun raised an eyebrow, a look of acceptance on her face.

"Just getting a feel for the competition for next time. I can get that."

She disappeared suddenly and Romulus felt a pain in his stomach. He looked down for a moment to find that had landed a heavy punch to his abdomen. As she pulled back, Romulus fell to the ground losing consciousness.

"You did good kid. I needed to try with that one."

"Romulus Titanius has retired, Roygun Belphegor is the winner."

That was the last thing he heard before the world went dark.

Mephisto and Tannin watched as Romulus was extracted from his match unconscious.

"Well, that settles that." Mephisto said, rising from his seat.

"Kids at least got a hit in." Tannin shrugged. "Can't expect more than that really."

"Indeed, though I believe Romulus and Ms Lorelei will be quite disappointed in themselves."

"Not much to do about that but put them through more training really." Tannin shrugged.

"Quite. Well, I believe we should retrieve our charges and withdraw, should we not?"

"Lead the way."

As the devil and dragon picked up their two charges and left, the underworld cheered for Roygun, as well as the other round winners. Diodora Astaroth had advanced over Eneely Vassago, while Seekvaira had triumphed over Zephyrdor Glasya-Labolas. The Glasya-Labolas heir had defeated another of competitors, while Riser Phenex had defeated Sairaorg Bael after a lengthy battle. The rest of the matches had not been important enough for Mephisto to really follow, especially since Romulus had been eliminated. Mephisto had never really been one to follow the young devil's gathering, and since most of the heirs would not be competing again for a while he had no real reason to start now.

The only reason this year's gathering had had so many young heirs had bee Romulus' involvement, and Mephisto had no intention of bringing the boy back for a while, at least until he was fully ready to deal with the Maous and the Elders. Really, his whole involvement had been meant to show off how strong he was at a young age before withdrawing him from the main faction and cultivating his relations with the Extra-demons. After all, word travelled fast about the rating games, even to places where they were seen as affronts to the old Satans.

Over the night, Mephisto made sure to prepare for Romulus' return to more educational training. As much as physical and magical strength mattered in the Underworld, the mind could not be ignored if Romulus really wanted to secure himself against the Maous, who were all undeniably intelligent, if in some cases quite childish.

As the morning came and Romulus and Adrianna woke up once again, they seperated for the day as Mephisto directed them to different lessons. Adrianna was ushered off by one of Mephisto's most trusted tutors, while Romulus himself was brought into a room with a single table and two chairs. Mephisto was sitting on one of them, and gestured for Romulus to take a seat opposite him.

"Mr Mephisto, what's going on?" Romulus asked. "Why did you make Adrianna go somewhere different?"

"Well Romulus." Mephisto said. "I've allowed you to advance primarily in physical and magical strength, without too much of a focus on general education. However, we are at a point where that approach is no longer acceptable."

Romulus groaned.

"Do I have to go to school?" He asked. Mephisto chuckled lightly.

"Nothing so drastic Romulus. We will just be toning down some of your training regime in order to focus slightly more on academic subjects. Before we get to that however, there is something else that I would like you to do for me, sit."

Romulus walked over to the table, taking a seat opposite Mephisto and looking at the board that rested in front of him.

"It's a chess board." He said.

Mephisto smiled and nodded.

"Indeed Romulus. I believe it is time to familiarize you more deeply with the Underworld's favorite passtime. Now, summon your evil pieces if you will."

Romulus concentrated for a moment before a purple magic circle appeared and dropped fourteen chesspieces on the board. Mephisto tossed two more pieces onto his pile, a king and queen, which Romulus took and arranged into the correct formation with the rest of his evil pieces.

Mephisto tapped his finger into the board, and sixteen magic circles rose on sixteen squares, summoning in a set of chess pieces. Romulus could see that like himself, Mephisto had evil pieces mixed in with normal ones.

"Now, let us begin. I'm sure you're familiar with the way each piece moves, yes?"

"Uh-huh I do Mr Mephisto."

"This should be good." Tannin leaned back observing the game between master and student.

Mephisto shot Tannin a look before his eyes returned to Romulus with softer eyes.

"Well then Romulus, you hold the white pieces, it is your move."

Romulus looked over the board, taking in each of his pieces. Purple, glowing and shaped differently than standard pieces. He reached out and picked up his e4 pawn, moving it two places forwards and setting it on the board with a small 'clack'.

Mephisto regarded the move.

"Well done Romulus, a good move."

With that, the old devil made his move.

A shorter chapter than normal, and the end of the first arc. Hope you enjoyed. The Roygun battle was a little hard to do because it had to be a cake walk for her. She's a near ultimate-class because of her king piece, and had no problems with Romulus. Now he faces his first big defeat and with that, we know just how he stacks up.#

We also see the first seeds placed for some of Rias' peerage, which won't come to fruition for a while. According to some info I found. Rias' peerage goes; Akeno, Koneko, Kiba, Gasper before she recruits Issei. Now Akeno is only recruited a year and a half after she is exilled from the clan, and she is exiled when she is ten. I don't know the time until the others but I in general believe they occured within a year or two of each other. I'll be playing it a bit loose with the official timeline so sorry if some events don't add up exactly.