Life 1. Heiress of the Great King clan

Part 1 – Early Game

This time the plan is different form last time. Rina will protect Rito to assure he promotes. Xie Xie and María will stay at the base to protect Ram and help her to defeat the Pawns. Mint and Ham will go after the Rook, Knight and Bishops.

Meanwhile I, Haruka Sorami, have a pretty specific mission. Ram didn't tell me why, but she said I'll have to defeat the Queen since it would be dangerous if he stays in the game for long.

I run around the edifice using the great speed I gained after becoming a Devil. My idea of Devils being beings of darkness hasn't changed, but I'm starting to reconsider that they're evil.

Rito is an interesting person; he hasn't realised it, but if the stories I heard are true, then this group has changed him for the better. And it's vice versa, he has helped this group; one can tell that just by looking at Mint's new magic and that Ham is slowly losing his aversion towards his right eye. So probably he's changing me too…

I then start hearing footsteps. I look around, and see two people. If I remember correctly, those are the Queen and a Bishop. My opponent is here.

"Queen and Bishop from the Bael group, I challenge you to a formal battle."

They both look at each other after I say that. Then, the Queen answers.

"Very well; let's see if you can predict our strategy before being covered in light."

The Queen charges towards me while enveloping his punches with fire. I dodge the attacks, but two ropes tangle my legs and throw me to the floor.

"This is my [Sacred Gear], [Absorption Line]. Good luck dealing with it."

The Bishop says that to me… then, the Queen attacks once again, and lands his punches on me. Actually, I feel a lot of pain from these punches… what is going on?

"Maybe you already noticed it, but mine aren't normal punches. This power is the mysticism from the Himejima Clan of the Five Principal Clans. It really hurts if you're a Devil, right?"

I try to stand up to attack this guy, but I don't feel any strength left in my body.

"You probably don't feel strength in your limbs. [Absorption Line] has a pretty interesting power. On one hand, one of the lines is taking away your energy. The other one, however, is our key to victory. It's connected to a talisman from my clan, so it's inserting its energy right into your body; a power similar yet different from the holy power is inside you now."

They drained my energy and injected holy-ish power inside me… to think I would lose so fast. The Queen keeps punching me over and over, until the light finally takes me out of this place.

{Combatant Ram Phenex's Knight, retires.}

Part 2 – Mid Game

After hearing of Haruka's retirement, I, Ram Phenex, informed the group about my worry.

"Everyone, listen this, it's important. Haruka was defeated by Seila's Queen. If you find him, you should defeat as soon as you can. This isn't an opponent you can face in a long battle."

María, who seems concerned about Haruka, asks me about our opponent.

"Why are you afraid of him? Silverage must have told you something for you to be this worried."

"Sigh. He comes from the Himejima Clan and is able to use mysticism even as a Devil. Silverage told me he was able to defeat Yami and almost defeated Nero before being defeated by Akai."

María now seems to understand my worries. After all, Nero was her master; she should know why putting such a battle against him is truly a merit.

"They're coming."

Xie Xie says that to us before putting on a battle stand. When I see the opponent, they're the Pawns and the Bishop.

The Pawns throw many papers with weird characters on them. Then, the Bishop starts chanting.

"That which is born out of earth, whose spirit was cast out of iron, by means of water purified, hasten forth before me."

After that chant, the papers summon a golem whose head touches the ceiling! What did they do?

"It worked!"

"Himejima-kun is truly the best!"

The Pawns seem to be happy for the appearance of the golem… so this was the job of the Queen.

"I'll be going after her and the golem, [Balance Break]."

María summons her multiple knights. She's going against the golem and the Bishop, huh. Then, Xie Xie and I must face the Pawns.

The Pawn girl charges towards Xie Xie, but she dodges her attacks. Then, Xie Xie does a punch barrage to her opponent, so she soon falls to the ground.

"Maybe I'm not strong, but I know the weak points in the human body to attack them!"

Then, the Pawn boy who consumes 4 pieces goes after Xie Xie. Before I can react, he pierced through her with a weird object.

"This dagger was blessed by my dad, who is a protestant priest. He gave it to me so I can fight Devils now that I cannot use the Exorcist light I had when I was human."

Xie Xie's body starts to burn! I throw many fireballs towards the boy, but he dodges them.

"Promotion is truly an underrated ability!"

Maybe he promoted to Knight? I can't think about that, so I just keep throwing my fireballs.

{Combatant Seila Bael's Bishop, retires.}

So María already defeated her opponent, which means now she can help Xie Xie-

{Combatant Ram Phenex's Rook, retires.}

When I turn around to where Xie Xie was, the golem had its foot on said place. Did it just…?!

"Xie Xie!"

"I won't forgive you!"

María charges with her swords towards the Pawn while he blocks with his dagger.

"Xie Xie is the same Rook as me. Haruka is swordsman just like me. My comrades have been defeated, and now it's your turn to taste defeat!"

As she says that, her swords break the dagger and slash the Pawn! As I see an opening, I create fire tornado under the Pawns. María then slashes the Pawn over and over while he's caught in my fire!

"I shouldn't have messed with Devils; you were right, dad…"

{Combatant Seila Bael's 2 Pawns, retire.}

The three of them are gone now… however, the golem is still here. María then makes a battle stand towards it.

"I have to win in the name of my friends who have lost!"

She creates more knight troops and goes towards the golem.

Part 3 – Late Game

Over 2 hours have passed since the game started. Mint and I, Abraham Hawkthorn, are running around the edifice. Our opponents must be somewhere.

{Combatant Ram Phenex's Rook, retires.}

After hearing that news, Ram says something on the communicator.

{Both Xie Xie and María have been defeated. I'm safe now that the golem was destroyed, but you'll be on your own from now on. Remember that.}

So not only Haruka, but Xie Xie and María also lost… however, there's something more important to focus; what golem was she talking about?

After looking up and down, we finally find them. Seila's Rook and Knight. They're our opponents. However, the Bishop isn't with them, so we'll have to look for him later.

"Take care of the Knight; I'll go for the Rook."

Mint launches dozens of Demonic Fairy magic energy balls to the Rook. In fact, he isn't stopping; he's like machine gun of energy balls right now. He can handle it by himself.

I punch right into the Knight's right leg while saying 1. Then I punch to his left leg by saying 2.

"I'm sorry for this, 3."

I say that as I kick him on the crotch. The face of sheer pain he has says it all.

"Should we finish them off now?"

"Yeah, they aren't going to give us a fight."

I focus all my strength on my punch while Mint creates big energy balls; then, we attacked at the same time.

{Combatants Seila Bael's Rook and Knight, retire.}

"We should go after the Bishop now."

"Good idea, Mint."

And thus, we keep looking for the Bishop.

Part 4 – End Game

Finally, I, Rito Yuma, and Rina reached the flat root; I didn't expect this edifice to have over 70 stories. Seila, with her black traditional Japanese outfit, looks at us. Her eye colour truly makes her more intimidating than she should.

"Congratulations on defeating my servants; however, there two more you have to deal with."

Then, two more people appear on the place. If I remember correctly, they're a Bishop and the Queen who Ram fears.

The Queen is in shock looking at us, and when I look Rina, tears are flowing from her eyes.

"Subaru…"

"Rina…"

They know each other?! What is going here?!

" "My King, I ask to be retired from the game." "

Both of them say that at the same time! And as light covers them, they disappear.

{Combatants Seila Bael's Queen and Ram Phenex's Queen, retire.}

So I'm alone against the mysterious Bishop and the girl with the Power of Destruction?!

"Don't worry Rito, we're here."

After hearing that voice, I turn around and see Ham and Mint! Taking into count all the people who have retired, we're the last on our group aside from Ram, while the entirety of Seila's peerage is in front of us.

"Mint the Living Machine Gun will help you."

"Don't call me like that!"

"Just focus in our battle! Promotion, Queen!"

I give Mint [Number I: The Magician], [Number IV: The Emperor] and [Number XV: The Devil] so he can fight with his full power. Ham takes [Number VII: The Chariot], [Number VIII: Strength] and [Number XVI: The Tower] so can have his specs maximized. Now that we powered up, there's no way we can't win!

I'll use a card that I used many times against Akai, but I never thought I'll use it in a real battle.

"[Number XIII: The Death]!"

He falls asleep just like Akai always did. I don't like this card since it makes battles extremely easy, but I need to win so we won't lose even after our game with Silverage.

"I'll be going straight to the point now, Holy Lightning – Cutter!"

I use the Cutter on the Bishop! That must have been a critical damage!

"Now take this!"

I use the shadow-made blades to pierce right through where I used the Cutter! He won't cause problems even if he wakes up at this point.

"Let's end this."

Seila launches a ball of Power of Destruction! She truly is the heiress of the Great King clan! Meanwhile, Mint has an energy ball of dozen of metres and launches it! The Power of Destruction just disappears before this insanely strong technique! Then, the light generated by the powerful attacks covers the place… Once the light fades away, Seila is seriously hurt. It's time to finish her!

"Take this!"

Ham says that before using his 3 Blows Technique on Seila. The light covers her body after that…

"At least, I'll defeat Tiffania…"

{Seila Bael retires. The game is over. Victory goes to Ram Phenex.}

Part 5 – Checkmate

Once we got home, Xie Xie started packing all her belongings. Ram said she's leaving, but I want to understand why.

"You ask why? Because I'm useless… when we fight you and the other members of Grigori, against Lavender, against the Exorcists, against the Seven Sins, but more importantly, in the [Rating Games]; I didn't do anything. I'm weak. I'm a mistake."

"You aren't a mistake!"

"Yes I am! Don't you know why Ram reincarnated me? When she was passing around in China, she heard the village of an important warrior was being attacked. When she came, the entire village was in flames. She looked around until she found the house of said warrior. There was someone in there, so she reincarnated it. The one she found is me."

"See! She went there wanting to reincarnate you! I didn't know you were a famous warrior."

"I'm not. The one she was looking for was my brother. He's a famous warrior all over China. She reincarnated me because she thought I was my brother. It's a mistake I'm here."

Wow, I didn't know that about Xie Xie… looking back, she truly didn't do anything. She feels like a load to our team.

"So, where are you going?"

As I ask that, the door rings. Xie Xie goes to open the door with her belongings, so the one who rang the bell must be the one who'll take her to her new home. When she opens the door, I can see that man…

"Thanks for helping me, Baraqiel-san."

"If Rito's friend needs help, you can count on me. Come on, Governor Azazel has plans for you."

As she goes out, Baraqiel looks right at me. So she's trying to become stronger with help from the Cadres and the Governor General of Grigori, huh. She owes me a big one.

"Goodbye, to everyone; I'll miss you, but I need to do this."

"Bye Xie Xie!"

As we say that, Xie Xie and Baraqiel disappear. I turn around, but I don't see anyone being sad. Well, Rina has been melancholic since the [Rating Game].

"Subaru…"

I wonder why she keeps on repeating that name…