Raynare took to the skies summoning a spear of light into her hand, the spear glowed a bright shade of crimson
"BOOST!" Ddraig called as Raynare used his power to enhance the power of the spear, which grew in brightness and size.
"We've got to keep moving, if she gets a direct hit with that spear then we are dead!" Rias yelled as she took to the skills alongside Akeno
"Stay by my side Asia" Xenovia stated as she stood by Asia.
"We had enough problems when we had to fight you Rias when you where under Loki's control with but a fragment of Ddraig's power but this is different. We are fighting Raynare who has the full power of Red Dragon Emperor at her finger tips...what do we do?" Akeno called as she followed Rias, trying to formulate a plan, while changing into her Miko
"All we can do is keep her off us for as long as we can...ill think of something!" Rias yelled as she darted out of the way of a charge from Raynare narrowly avoiding her, but as she looked back she saw that she wasn't the target.
"Asia, you need to move! Raynare coming for you!"
"I want pay back for what you cost me Asia, I lost my body trying to take your sacred gear!" Raynare roared as she set her sights at Asia, Xenovia braced herself, standing in a defensive stance with Durandal braced for impact.
"Don't worry Asia, I've got you covered" Xenovia stated as she focused her magic into the blade, which started to glow with a golden hue, and she moved from a defensive stance with Durandal in front of her to having the blade positioned to to her right hand side. Just above her head
" when she gets in close, in release a wave from Durandal before she gets to close, that's should stop her" Xenovia told her self as she waited for the perfect moment to strike.
"I cant wait to see your blood to spill from my spear, even if I have to skewer your friend to get to you!" Raynare bellowed as she got within 30 ft of Xenovia and Rias.
"Now!" Xenovia yelled to herself as she brought Durandal, down releasing a wave of golden energy which illuminated the abyss. The wave made direct contact with Raynare, but Raynare hardly flinched, she had slowed but other than that she was completely unharmed.
"Is that your best!" Raynare taunted as she got within 10 feet of Xenovia, her spear outstretched for the killing blow, only for her eyes to catch a flash of white and blue
"Koneko!" Asia screamed as she saw Koneko intercept Raynare getting just under her while she was in flight. Koneko jumped from the ground her fist glowing with stored Senjutsu magic, only to land a mighty Shoryuken directly into Raynare unarmoured midsection. The shot caused Raynare to buckle under the force, her wings giving out as she crashed into the ground, almost hitting Xenovia and Asia but they managed to dart out of the way and join with Koneko
"Nice one Koneko!" Rias yelled with pride as she flew down to hover above Koneko. As she did so she charged up as much demonic energy as she could muster
"Now it our turn" Akeno stated as she charged up a massive bolt of lighting.
"NOW!" Rias barked as she released her stored magic, accompanied by Akeno's lighting bolt, which struck its target. Resulting in a massive explosion which caused the magical barriers surrounding Issei soul fragments to crack.
"You see that Rias? The barriers are fracturing." Asia called to Rias, pointing towards the Barriers locations w causing Rias to focus her gaze on the barriers.
"I have an idea..." Rias stated as she dropped to the ground and informed the group of her plan, Akeno stayed in the air keeping visual on where Raynare had landed, dust from the initial striking affecting her vision.
"That was a nice hit Princess. It might have worked on a weakened Issei, but I haven't even warmed up yet...BOOST!" Raynare said happily as she walked from the impact zone, only to raise her left hand as Ddraig bellowed and his gem glowed brightly.
"Xenovia, Koneko can you keep her occupied?" Rias asked
"I can. You can count on me!" Xenovia stated as turned to face Raynare, followed by Koneko nodding and turning to support Xenovia
"Asia, I need you to focus your full attention of Xenovia and Koneko, no matter what.
"I will"
"Akeno, we need need to get to those barriers and shatter them, If we do this then Issei's soul will be freed and Raynare will have trouble maintaining control.
"Hai, lets do this!" Akeno yelled as she darted towards the closest Barrier. Charging her hands with lighting.
Oh I wont let that happen...Explosion!" Raynare smirked behind her helm as she raised her left hand and released a mighty blast from her gauntlet, Xenovia and Koneko used the powers to block the blast and charge towards Raynare, Asia, meanwhile used her sacred gear to heal the scrapes and burns that had resulted from the blast that had not been blocked.
Koneko used her speed to close in on Raynare trying to land a number of hard strikes but Raynare blocked the strikes and used a powerful kick to get Koneko off her,
"Take this " Xenovia announced as she used the moment to close the gap and bring Durandal down, Raynare caught it just in time by summoning a sword made of light while at the same time boosting again to reinforce the blade against the might of Durandal
"Nice try but not good enough" Raynare stated as she deflected the blade which ended up striking the ground, and using the moment to land a hard elbow to Xenovia's face, however Koneko rushed to Xenovia's aid using the moment to jump on to Xenovia's back and used the position to land a hard kick to Raynare's head, but Raynare manged to block the hit. As she did so she saw that Akeno was very close to one of the barriers and used the break to fire a number of short burst of draconic magic, one managed to hit Akeno stunning her in mid air.
"Akeno" Rias gasped as she stopped moving and and turned to see Akeno falling from the sky, she rushed to catch her, managing to doge more shots that had been aimed towards her.
"Your fights with me Raynare you fallen angel bitch" Xenovia growled as she bull rushed Raynare knocking her aim off target. As Xenovia did this Koneko rushed past her and headed towards another pathway.
"How you holding up Xenovia" Asia yelled as she moved in closer to the duel between Raynare and Xenovia.
"I'm holding up...she's really strong!" Xenovia muttered a she parried a cut from Raynare, but it hit hard enough to partially crush her parry causing her legs to buckle. Allowing the blades edge to graze her skin of her arm leaving a small cut, barely larger than a paper cut
"AHHHHHH!" Xenovia screamed in agony as she collapsed to the ground clutching, her arm, as it it had just been set alight.
"All it took was a nick to drop you to the ground...How pathetic" Raynare sighed, disgusted by how easily Xenovia went down as she leaned down and grabbed Xenovia by the throat.
"Xenovia!" Asia screamed.
"I need to focus harder on healing her, Ddraig's boosting made that cut difficult to heal, thanks to boosting the power level of the sword of light." As told herself as she focused as hard as she could to increase the healing rate
"It seems your knight has bitten off more than she could chew! Come and save her Rias!" Raynare bellowed as she turned to the abyss scanning for Rias, raising Xenovia higher like she was a trophy she was showing off.
"I almost forgot where is the little kitten...here kitty kitty..." Raynare mocked as she turned away from the abyss only to be struck by a bolt of red energy, knocking her back.
"Let go of my knight Raynare, your fight is with us!" Rias bellowed as she flew towards Raynare accompanied by Akeno who was a little worse for wear after being struck by one of Ddraig's dragon shots, her battle attire had been partially burned apart, and she had a few scrapes but she was otherwise fine.
"Dragonshot!" Ddraig called as Raynare raised her left hand and shot a number of bolts of energy, like a cannon shooting grapeshot, Rias and Akeno darted around, avoiding each bolt that came their way,
"Akeno, dart to Raynare's right side ill keep her line of sight on me so you can get Xenovia. I have to hit her with my best shot" Rias called to Akeno who nodded as she moved further to Raynare's right.
"Come on, I thought id have a harder time dodging these! You must be pretty weak if you cant even beat me will having a sacred gear!" Rias cried as she started using more fancy movements to dodge the bolts, turning and swaying in an almost acrobatic display of agility.
"Shut up!" Raynare bellowed as she increased the rate of fire, moving more to the left moving more bolts away from Akeno.
"Is that all you've got!" Rias taunted as she got within 40ft of Raynare.
"Damn you...Raynare called as she grew more frustrated with each bolt Rias avoided. As she focused even harder to hit Rias she had forgotten that she had been accompanied by Akeno.
"Now's my chance" Rias mumbled to herself as she charged her hands with Lighting and as soon as she got close enough to grab Xenovia as she did so she grabbed Raynare and sent a large jolt of electricity onto her right arm, causing her to briefly let go of Xenovia, allowing her to pull her away, causing Raynare to stop shooting and turn to try and grab Xenovia.
"You red headed bitch you tricked me" Raynare growled
"NOW!" Akeno called as she barely avoided Raynare's grasp and she barrelled towards Asia and scooped her up with her free hand.
"Extinguishing Star! Rias called as she grabbed Raynare and released her ultimate move.
"This is what you get for causing my Issei so much pain!" Rias screamed as she was enveloped in a field of blood red energy, she locked her arms around Raynare's waist as she released her power.
"Let go of me!" Raynare screamed as she started to punch Rias but she wouldn't let go, as she tried to break her grip she saw that parts of her armour was beginning to break down, slowly, but it began to speed up as Rias poured more hate into her attack.
"I've got to give it everything! Rias yelled to herself as she forced more magic out which physically caused her a great amount of pain
"AHHHHHHHH!" they screamed as their was a flash of red light, as she did this Koneko charged towards each of the barriers and landing a hard strike to crack the barrier more even more.
"This should do it!" Koneko yelled as she stopped to see the distinctive glow of Rias's Extinguishing Star. Until it burst with such ferocity it would could have been mistaken for a supernova. The barriers shattered like glass as soon as the explosion happened.
After the explosion Akeno, Koneko, Xenovia and Asia rushed to sight which was covered in thick layer of ash and dust. Xenovia was still on shaky legs but Asia had managed to heal the wound enough to reduce the pain.
"Rias!" Koneko called hoping Rias would call back.
Rias walked out of the sight her uniform, now non existent as she walked over to the group, Asia sing her powers to heal her, she was visibly exhausted and covered in bloody marks from Raynare's blows.
"Is she gone?" Akeno asked.
"I saw her turning to ash... I blacked out when I heard her scream."
"Nothing can survive that!" Koneko sighed.
"Now that...is where you...are wrong" Raynare called weakly as she rose from the ground her armour visibly torn and she was bleeding heavily, but it was clear that Ddraig was repairing the damage.
"How is that possible!" Rias yelled as she tried to take a step only for collapse to the floor.
"Ddraig's armour kept me alive, but it fucking hurt! now its time to kill you...Oh I knew your plan to break the barriers." Raynare stated as she manifested a whip of light and swung it at the group, the whip broke into multiple strands that latched onto the girls who were powerless to break free from its bonds.
"I don't understand, why are you still in control!" Akeno bellowed as she strained to break free.
"Issei's spirit has been weighed down by the fears I have manifested. He cannot have control when those fears cloud his mind." Raynare stated proudly as she enjoyed the sight of the girls squirming in her whip as she planned to kill them slowly, savouring every moment as she visualised her methods of killing them in her head, bring a visible smile upon her lips.
"I have to do something or else...wait ?weighed down by fears...I've got an idea" Rias thought
"Issei if you can here me! You need to believe that your worth fighting for, you have done so much for us all, we couldn't have kept going without you!
"What is she doing!" Raynare cried as the rest of the girls clicked to Rias's plan
"Issei if it wasn't for you I could never had had an amazing new life, you gave me a new view of life and a new family to call home!" Asia yelled
"I would never have become as strong as I am if you had not shown me such kindness Issei, you fought to save my best friend and I can never thank you enough!" Xenovia called
"I would have never broken from the shadow of my sister, and realised my full potential if you hadn't shown me the light!" Koneko bellowed
"Issei! You helped build the bridge that brought my dad closer to me! You made me realise that I should love all that I am!" Akeno yelled
"Issei.. You see me for who I am and not for my title, you gave your arm to Ddraig to give me freedom, and I cannot live without you because I love!
"What ae you doing!" Raynare screamed only to be drowned out by the girls screaming in unison.
"WE LOVE YOU ISSEI!"
As their scream met the ears of Issei, his eyes once clouded by fear of failing those he loved broke, from the nightmares he witnessed as the visions of the girls killing him, turned to the girls hugging and kissing him, talking to him softly took their place.
"We love you" they whispered as a bright flash of light appeared from where Issei soul fragments where located, as the fragments moved to the middle pathway and united together.
"NOOOOOO!" Raynare screamed as she turned to see Issei standing in the centre pathway a look of anger and determination in his eyes rather than a look of terror, which caused Raynare's heart to sink.