Life: 26
The day of the rating game came and Rias looked on in pride as her Peerage stood ready. While they lacked numbers she was certain that her plan of attack would lead them to victory. Both Akeno and Yumi seemed to be willing to put their trust in their King's plan however the newest member of Rias' Peerage wasn't so trusting.
"We are going to lose." Raynare said in a dour mood.
"Relax we'll do fine as long as we follow the plan." Yumi said trying to cheer up the Pawn.
"This entire game was a mistake. We are going to be slaughtered." She says looking at Rias dead in the eyes.
"No, I won't let that happen." Rias says with pride in her voice as she speaks.
"It doesn't matter what you say in the matter. They have both the numbers and power advantage that we can't hope to overcome. There's fourteen of them and only four of us I don't see us winning this anytime soon." Raynare says defeat clear in her voice.
"Enough. I will not hear anymore of this defeatist talk. Now Kiba I want you to set up some traps then Akeno I need you to place illusions over them." Rias ordered and her two servants nodded before leaving to do just that.
"As for you." She says pointing at Raynare.
"I have a very special job for you." She says looking at the former fallen.
"So we're all clear on what we're doing?" Barisol asked for what must've been the tenth time.
"I think we all got it after the third time." Le Fay said with a bright smile on her face.
"Although I do have to ask why don't we just take them out all at once? We could easily be done with this in an instant?" Regulus questioned causing Barisol to give him a carefree smile.
"Cause I want to give them hope so I can look them in the eyes as we take it away from them." His answered cause most of his Peerage to shudder at the answer, except Jeanne who blushed due to the dominating tone he used.
"Who hurt you?" Leo asked his voice one of concern.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Barisol said before clapping his hands together.
"Alright places everyone!" He called out.
Sairaorg was now adorned in his and Regulus' sub-specie balance breaker, Regulus Rey Leather Rex. The Bael clan heir sprouted his wings and flew up into the sky above their home based, he was soon followed by Leo and Barisol.
The other members of Barisol's Peerage all scattered to their assigned locations with the exception of Fenrir, who was charged with defending the home base incase Rias' Pawn somehow managed to make it past everyone else.
Barisol looked over the battlefield with his trusty Rook and Bishop at his sides. He turned to Leo who nodded and uses his all seeing eyes of god to project the visions of Barisol's Peerage directly into their King's eyes.
"Hello everyone! It's me Sera-tan! I'm the referee for the match between Rias Gremory and Barisol Sallos! Oh how exciting I just know my Bari-tan will win!" Serafall announces excitedly as she goes over the rules of the Rating Game.
Barisol smirked as he called out Killer Queen, who was holding a smartphone in his hand.
"Alright everyone on my signal we begin the attack." Barisol spoke over the magical communication spell to the rest of his team.
"Killer Queen if you would be so kind." Barisol said to the stand who hit the play button on the smartphone, allowing for Mozart's Magic Flute Overture to start playing.
"And begin." Barisol said with a smirk.
Raynare was in the gymnasium waiting for her opponents to arrive.
"Any sign of them?" Rias asked.
"No nothing yet." Raynare replied feeling uneasy about the whole thing as she walked through the building.
"Is it possible that they might not be coming?" The former fallen asked.
"I doubt it this is a very strategic spot for them." Rias answered over the communication spell.
Raynare sighed feeling a little perturbed by her new King's approach to the situation. It was clear to the fallen that Rias was in over her head and that was never a good thing. So here she was waiting for someone to fight.
Fortunately, or rather unfortunately in her case, she didn't have to wait long as a fireball slammed into her body burning her. She yelled in pain before extinguishing the flames herself. However her reprieve from pain was briefly lived as she felt a fist imbed itself into her back before she felt a kick to her head that sent her flying.
She had to pull herself from the wall she found herself in only to see both Ravel and Koneko standing before her.
"Found them." She said groggily as she created two spears of light.
"Looks like Barisol was right, Rias did send the fallen one." Ravel said creating another ball of fire.
"Of course he was right." Koneko replied, her cat features on full display and her hands glowing with senjutsu.
Raynare threw a spear at Koneko that the nekoshou casually crushed with her hands before charging at Raynare. The former fallen tried using her other spear as a deterrent for the white haired girl however when she went to strike the girl, Koneko grabbed the spear of light before proceeding to punch her dominant arm. The limb fell to her side uselessly, it having gone completely numb.
"What did you do?" Raynare sneered out before trying to stab Koneko once again only to have a knee slammed into her gut making her recoil.
"Fly." Was all Koneko said before upper cutting Raynare into the ceiling.
"Fly? Really you couldn't come up with a better one liner?" Ravel asked raising an eyebrow.
"Shut up Yakitori." Koneko retorted with a shade of pink on her cheeks.
In truth this fight had been hard for Koneko, hard to keep it from being a slaughter that is. Barisol instructed her to only use roughly a third of her strength, he gave that order to everyone. It was difficult holding back when she just wanted to let loose. But she understood why he had ordered such a thing, after all this wouldn't be a very interesting Rating Game to watch if it ended in the first few seconds. She looked up at the ceiling, not looking at Raynare but rather were she imagined Barisol was. She could see him conducting the fight to the rhythm of the song he had picked out. While it wasn't a bad choice of music by any stretch of the means, she still would've preferred him to have picked a rap song instead but then again it probably wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic.
"You wanna finish her off?" Koneko asked the Bishop who merely shrugged.
"No I'm fine with watching." She answered.
"I'm sure you are." Koneko muttered to herself.
"Did you say something?" Ravel asked.
"No." Was Koneko's direct response.
Raynare felt humiliated. Not only was she taken care of with minimal effort but her two opponents didn't see as enough of a threat to focus on her. But maybe that was a blessing in disguise? After all maybe she could escape unnoticed, lick her wounds and meet up with one of the others. It was worth a shot.
"Don't even think about it." Koneko called out already knowing what Raynare was going to try to do.
Raynare kept herself airborne only to have to duck and weave out of the way of a few fireballs that almost hit her courtesy of Ravel. Raynare thought she was safe until she eventually realized what the Bishop was doing.
Ravel had lead her into a trap, her back was quite literally against a wall as she hurled a massive wave of fire in her direction. It hit and it hurt like hell. Raynare fell from the sky her body on fire as she crashed into the ground.
"Just finish it please." She begged as Koneko stood over her.
"As you wish." She said before slamming her palm into her chest.
Akeno waited patiently for Raynare to exit the gymnasium so that she could blow it to hell taking out whoever was inside with it. It was a good plan that Rias had came up with, at least it was in her opinion. However before she could do that she needed to wait patiently. And wait she would do. That was until a magic circle appeared above her, before the Queen of Gremory could do anything she felt herself get blasted out of the sky and down into the dirt, just at the feet of her attacker.
She looked up to see Le Fay Pendragon, one of the Pawns of Barisol Sallos. She smiled brightly at Akeno before casting another spell that made the Queen widen her eyes, she just barely managed to roll out of the way, her shrine maiden uniform now caked with dirt and mud.
"Ufufu, you made me quite the dirty girl Le Fay." Akeno teased only to be hit by a weaker spell.
"I wouldn't get too distracted now, this is a Rating Game after all." The younger said causing Akeno to smile, oh she was going to enjoy this.
Akeno fired off some of her thunder at the Pawn, who managed to cast a ward almost instantaneously.
"Sorry but that won't work on me." Le Fay said before disappearing and reappearing behind Akeno.
"Teleportation?" Akeno thought as she turned around, a big mistake.
The moment her back was turned an assortment of Norse circles formed behind her and fired directly into her back. Akeno was panting heavily by the time the attack let up but it would take a lot more to take her down, she was a queen after all. She took a step forward about to charge at Le Fay only for a magic circle to activate under her foot.
"You activated my trap card!" Le Fay cheered as the ground beneath Akeno disappeared.
Akeno started falling but luckily she called out her wings in time to prevent her from hitting the ground. However the walls started to rumble in response as if they were angry that she cheated them a meal. Slowly but surely the walls started to close in causing Akeno to widen her eyes in fear. She needed to hurry and get out of this trap hole.
She flew up as fast as her wings could take her. She barely made it out when the hole closed itself. However she felt pain coming from her head when she felt something wack her. She looked to see Le Fay holding some sort of staff that she brought down a second time only now Akeno was able to dodge the attack.
"Alright I admit you're pretty impressive." Akeno praised causing Le Fay to puff out her chest with pride.
"If you think this is great you should see me when I'm going all out." The blonde boasted causing Akeno to widen her eyes.
Going all out? As in she wasn't already? So she was holding back and already giving her this much trouble? That caused Akeno's mood to sour. Did Barisol think so lowly of them that he would have his servants not fight at full strength?
But did they even need to? So far this Pawn was not only able to contend with Akeno but she couldn't even get a hit on her due to her protective ward. Was Raynare right? Did they make a mistake by agreeing to this match?
"Oh hey Grayfia. You here to take over?" Le Fay's sudden words sent chills down Akeno's body.
"Yes, I'm simply fulfilling my part of the plan." Grayfia answered causing Akeno to look in the direction of the devil maid.
The silver haired queen of annihilation, that was what people called her. She knew you didn't get called something that ominous without earning it first. Akeno couldn't handle a single Pawn how was she supposed to deal with the Queen?
"And here I was starting to have fun. Hopefully in the next rating game we'll be told we don't have to hold back two thirds of our power." Le Fay said kicking up some dirt.
A third? That was a third of her full strength? Where the hell did Barisol find someone so talented? Or could this be a result of the training he put them through? While Rias' Peerage trained it was only ever in a casual manner, never to an extreme level like she had heard Barisol did with his Peerage. At first she was happy with that seeing Barisol's approach as being akin to a slave driver, but now seeing the results she was starting to think differently.
"I'll end this quickly." Grayfia said as the temperature dropped to extreme levels.
The ground beneath Grayfia started to freeze over in ice before that ice quickly spread towards Akeno. The fallen angel hybrid had no time to think when she suddenly felt her lower half be encased in ice only to have it spread up the rest of her body.
The last thing Akeno would see before being fully enveloped into an icy seal was Le Fay activating a teleportation circle to somewhere, both the Pawn and Queen not bothering to give her a second glance.
Yumi's demonic swords clashed against their holy counterparts. With every swing of her sword Jeanne would create a wave of holy swords in Yumi's direction that she just couldn't block. Instead Yumi did the only thing she could and that was to create as many demonic swords as possible, however compared to Jeanne, Yumi's arsenal was lacking.
"Oh I almost forgot. I have a message from Barisol for you." Jeanne said suddenly pausing in her attack.
"Oh? And what would that be?" Yumi asked intrigued by what the enemy King had to say to her.
"He said that this was nothing personal and that he hopes you'd forgive him." She answered causing Yumi to smile.
"Be sure to tell them that there is nothing to apologize for." Yumi requested making Jeanne nod her head before the two went back to their clash.
Nero for her part just stood and watched as the two beauties fought against each other. Truly she had to admit that her master knew how to pick them. She just couldn't wait for her turn to fight the Knight of Gremory.
Yumi created a sword of demonic ice to try and freeze Jeanne however the girl simply parried with her rapier before create holy swords that nearly impaled Yumi if not for her Knights speed allowing her to dodge out of the way.
"I have to admit I've always wanted to fight against a fellow Knight, but why do I get the feeling that your heart is not fully in the battle?" Yumi asked.
"You're really slow." Jeanne said in a huff causing Yumi's eyes to widen.
"What?" She asked unsettled by that, she had always taken pride in her speed and swordsmanship so to be told that she was too slow was a big blow to her.
"Well, its like you go to attack but I already know what you're wanting to do and can stop you at anytime. It kinda makes the fight a little boring." Jeanne said crossing her arms underneath her bust.
Yumi's only response to this was to charge at her but the moment she did, Jeanne took a step back and kneed her knocking the air right out of her lungs as she did so. Yumi fell to the ground holding herself up by her arms.
"Umu, is it my turn?" Nero asked stepping out from behind a tree.
Yumi craned her neck in the direction of the other blonde causing her to widen her eyes. How long had she been there? Why hadn't Yumi noticed her sooner?
"No Nero not yet. I'm not done just yet." Jeanne said to her fellow Knight.
"But I'm bored!" Nero whined causing Jeanne to sigh.
"Fine." She relented stepping away from Yumi.
"Umu!" She smiled at Jeanne giving the girl a big hug as she did, Jeanne for her part returned the gesture before pulling her away.
"See my talent! Hear the thundering applause! Thus, praise! Golden Theater! Laus Saint Claudius!" Nero chanted as the area around Yumi changed, no longer where they in the replica of Kuoh Academy now they were in a theater of some sort.
Yumi created a swords to try and impale Nero but the girl just destroyed them with a single swing of her large red sword which now had a fiery aura around it, or perhaps it was just fire Yumi couldn't be sure. Nero looked at the Knight of Gremory with a forlorn look in her eyes.
"Oh how it pains me to attack such a beauty such as yourself. But nonetheless I must win this rating game for praetor sake." Nero said before readying her blade to strike at Yumi.
Yumi Kiba didn't have time to react as Nero closed in on her, and with a single slash of her flaming sword Yumi felt as an explosion erupted from where she stood. She had lost, that much was clear but she had to wonder just how much of this fight was spent with her being toyed with like a fool?
Rias sat in her homebase awaiting to hear back from one of her servants.
"Rias Gremory's Pawn, Knight, and Queen all retired! Oh no that was quick!" She heard lady Serafall announce causing her breath to hitch up.
How had she already lost all of her pieces? Especially with her master plan in place. She never expected the rating game to be easy but she thought that she'd at least make Barisol work in it. Yet somehow they were all taken down almost at the exact same time. She knew what she needed to do and that was to leave her homebase and try to surprise Barisol at his. He might've been strong but she had the Power of Destruction she could easily put him in check and win the game that way.
As Rias stood up to leave she noticed something peculiar. There was a heavy mist entering the room. A quick inhale of the mist made her throat burn and her eyes fester, she started coughing uncontrollably. Was she being attacked? This felt like an attack. But who in Barisol's Peerage had this ability?
She opened the door to leave only to freeze when a knife went sailing past her barely missing her. That was on purpose, whoever threw it purposefully missed. She was able to tell that much. Rias held out her hand and lobbed a large amount of Power of Destruction at whoever it was that attacked. However with Serafall not announcing any retirement she knew that meant she missed.
Rias didn't have time to dilly dally she needed to leave this room. However, much to her dismay the hallway of the old school building was also covered in the thick mist that proved toxic. But that wasn't the only thing that she saw, there standing just a few feet away from her was a figure that she could barely make out but she had a good guess as to who it could be.
"Jack?" She asked covering her mouth with her hand as she talked.
The figure took a few steps forward to reveal the aforementioned girl who held an even look on her face before speaking with a bright happy smile.
"Yup!" She chirped before rushing Rias with two knives in her hands.
The Gremory heir barely had time to move out of the way as Jack tried slashing and stabbing the redhead. Rias knew at that moment that she desperately needed to get out of the building and fast.
Leo watched as Barisol moved his hands in rhythm to the music as if he were conducting it himself. Anytime the music sped up so did his pace and anytime it slowed down Barisol followed suit in a perfectly harmonized manner as if he had been practicing, which wouldn't have surprised Leo in the slightest if he had.
Barisol was having fun. That much he couldn't deny. It was fun watching his Peerage deal with Rias, maybe this would be the wake up call Rias desperately needed. Either way Barisol was content to continue conducting away as he watched through Jack's eyes as the serial killer cornered Rias, who took it upon herself to throw herself out of the building through the window as to avoid being checkmated. Of course Jack followed suit as to pursue her prey. Barisol pointed to Sairaorg giving his best friend the signal he was waiting for the entire fight.
Sairaorg reared back his arm and clenched his fist as tightly as he could before punching in the direction of the old school building. What followed was a shockwave that quickly reached the school building before causing it to collapse in on itself.
Rias looked at the now destroyed building with fear in her eyes. A knife once again sailed through the air only this time it managed to nick her cheek. Another shockwave was sent creating a crater next to Rias.
The red haired girl fled into the forest as more knives and shockwaves were sent her way both barely missing her. As she ran further and further into the forest she failed to take notice that she wasn't alone. For in the trees lurked the wendigos.
Mittens and his horde stared at the girl, Rias Gremory. Now they were ordered not to eat the girl merely give her a scare and that's what they would do. Mittens and his fellow wendigo soldiers all climbed down in a stealthy manner as to not alert the girl to their presence. Before long they had surrounded her and she was none the wiser.
Mittens waited to give the order to pounce and when he did six wendigos charge forward only to be blasted away with the Power of Destruction. However that would not serve as a deterrent for Mittens could always make more courtesy of his masters gift from all those years ago when he brought in mistress Jeanne into the fold.
Rias looked at each creature in terror as they growled and jerked themselves forward their gnarled teeth nearly biting her. They were on every side of her slowly closing in. She needed to stay calm, she could easily get out of this all she had to do was use her Power of Destruction, after all they weren't immune to it.
Before Rias could do anything she felt something cold press against her neck. She glanced back only to see Jack a smile on her face as she spoke her next words in a cheery manner.
"Checkmate!" Rias' mood turned sour but she had no choice but to resign now.
"Rias Gremory has resigned the winner is Bari-tan!" Serafall cheered.
Barisol smirked as his song finished just in time.
Following the conclusion of the rating game Barisol stood before Rias in the actual Occult Research Clubroom. She knew she had lost and now was time to pay up or at least it would if not for one fact.
"You cheated." She said in defiance.
"What?" He gave her an incredulous look as she placed her hands on her hips.
"You heard me you cheated! What even were those creatures?" She said jabbing a finger into his chest.
"That was Mittens, he's one of my Pawns and he has a sacred gear that lets him create weaker copies of himself." Barisol answered.
"A likely story." Se says still in disbelief.
"Well you can ask him yourself isn't that right Mittens." He says turning to the wendigo butler.
"It is true. Master blessed me with this sacred gear years ago after he killed a man by the name of Gilles. It is especially useful for cleaning the Sallos estate." Mittens said causing Rias to jump as she saw the creature once more but this time he was wearing clothes...how odd.
"I-I…" Rias tried to find some argument she could use but couldn;t think of one.
"I lost now what do you want." She asked and Barisol moved closer to her.
"Just stand still this will all be over soon enough." He said placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Steal Soulbound Object." He activated the skill claiming his prize.
Skill acquired!
Power of Destruction: An ability once exclusive to the Bael clan! As its name suggests, the Power of Destruction is a type of demonic energy, that grants its users great explosive power and can completely annihilate things when used! But you already knew that! It's damage and cost varies depending how much MP you decide to use!
"What did you do?" Rias asked as she held herself close.
"This." He said holding up a bit of the Power of Destruction in his hand.
AN: And that's a wrap! Barisol won his match no surprise there, and he didn't even fight himself. Hopefully it was good enough to satisfy you guys, I'd hate to have dropped the ball on this one. Anyway let's move onto reviews!
Frescko: Not bad, I might just use it.
Akamiki-kun: Hail madness! As for who's in Rias Peerage its Kiba, Akeno, Raynare and Gasper (who she still can't use).
DiDaKari: Hopefully it wasn't too hyped that this disappoints. Now I can't get the image of Barisol looking like Lucemon Falldown Mode out of my head, I might just do it now for the mind fuckery. You were right giving Mittens a sacred gear is op, luckily I happen to have one lying around from a few chapters ago, originally I thought of giving it to Killer Queen but then the idea of Mittens leading a horde of Wendigos just became too much fun to pass up. And thanks you have a good day too!
joepaul6: Yeah I Ophis would do that wouldn't she. Also I agree it would ruin what makes Barisol special.
NazgulBelserion: I assure he was at Vali's level like two levels ago, now he's stronger.
sykartracer: Thats fair. Yeah which means next chapter should be reveal. I could see Ddraig doing that it would make sense.
Shadic21: Here you go!
Daniel-palacio: Thanks!
The One True Demon Lord: I'm not going to lie when I first read your review I thought you wrote "One cinnamon roll too pure for the world and the other ruthlessly protecting him from the world," which made me laugh a little. Although I agree they would be like Lelouch and Nunnaly. I might just have to save that for later and dear god if he did do that Yasaka I can only imagine what would happen next. Thanks for the recommendation I'll be sure to watch it once I have a more stable source of wifi. That's good information to know about cats, I'll be sure to put this new knowledge to sue next chapter at the earliest.
Harbinger of Mayhem: Yeah I was short on time to write so I had to hurry it up.
Nayrcon: No problem! Yeah, I ended up writing for one of my other stories that I've been neglecting which is why there was a period without updates to this one. Hopefully it was to your liking!
Maxinonor: Thanks for the review.
Guest: Hey no problem I try to make it a point to reply to everyone that leaves a review on the latest chapter. Yeah I can understand not wanting to get caught watch DxD it would be hard to explain away.
God Emperor Terra Bornstellar: I plan on using other stuff don't you worry.
OechsnerC: Thanks!