Last of the Line

I do not own Highschool DxD or any of it's characters. I own only Vale Beleth.

Chapter 8- Fall of the Phenex

Vale watched Riser charge toward him once more, his fist once again engulfed in flame. Vale activated the magic jets on the back of his armor, propelling himself towards Riser with a WOOSH! Vale felt the g-forces of his acceleration pressing against his chest like an elephant was sitting on it. He could hardly breathe as Riser neared him at top speed. As soon as he knew he was close enough, Vale ducked underneath Riser's blow and delivered a vicious lightning-covered uppercut to Riser's jaw, sending the Phenex clan member soaring straight up into the air. Vale gave him no time to recover as he raised his right gauntlet, causing a black sphere to appear in his hands before a gigantic shard of ice erupted from it, surrounded by a vortex of what could only be described as material darkness. The shard soared skyward before piercing Riser through the chest and erupting out his back. Riser coughed out a fair amount of blood which cascaded down onto the visor of Vale's armor before Riser brought his still flaming fist down on the shard. There was a gargantuan sounding CRACK! As the ice shard splintered and Riser melted the section still lodged in his abdomen which had healed totally by the time he had righted himself.

"An impressive attack, but Riser is a Phenex! I am immortal, you cannot hurt me!" Riser yelled as he hurled an enormous fire ball towards Vale. It was at least eight feet wide, as it hurtled towards him, he thought about engaging one of his elemental magic forms but decided against it and tried to activate his magic jets, when his tail called out.

"ABYSS PHYSIQUE LEVEL 1 FORM ACTIVATED! LIGHTNING AGILITY!" his tail called out as the familiar markings spread across his armored form. He activated his magic jets and launched himself at Riser, milliseconds before Riser's spell exploded right where he had been standing. The spell's explosion caused a tremendous cloud of smoke to appear as it collided with the ground before exploding with a mighty BTOOOOM! throwing stone shrapnel shards all across the arena. As the cloud of smoke cleared Riser saw his opponent was nowhere to be seen.

"Where are you?! Show yourself! Come out and face Riser like a man!" Riser roared as he searched all around for his opponent.

"Talking in third person makes you sound like an even bigger douche than normal. You know that?" Vale said as Riser whipped around just in time to see Vale's gauntleted hand collide solidly with his nose, sending him flying into the ground with an THUD! and a CRACK! as he collided with the ground, cracking it severely in a ten foot diameter around him.

"You're half right. You are immortal. I can't kill you." Vale said as he extended an arm toward Riser and began to prepare his next spell. Riser shakily got to his feet as Vale watched his wounds heal once more.

"But I can make you wish I had." Vale said in an oddly even tone as he cast the spell that froze every single atom of water in Riser's body. There was an ungodly scream, more animal than man, as shards of ice erupted all up and down Riser's body. They began melting almost soon as they appeared, Vale activated his magic jets once more as he pressed his attack. He slammed into Riser in a full-body tackle as he slammed the Devil against the wall of the crude arena, causing several of the ice shards poking out of Riser to shatter and fall to the ground. Riser lashed out in a half-blind flame-covered swing. It hit Vale in the side of the helmet, breaking through before it continued going until it hit him directly in his right eye.

Vale roared in pain as he felt a sensation like someone had jabbed a hot piece of iron through his eye, Vale had never felt a pain so intense in his entire life. It was as if there we millions of tiny needles burrowing into his brain, inching ever closer. Without thinking he brought his tail up and shoved the arrowhead shaped tip into Riser's stomach with a wet squelch. Blood splashed onto the ground as the tail called out.

"DRAIN ZERO: IMMORTALITY! TECHNIQUE REPLICATED AT 30 PERCENT. 47 PERCENT. 63 PERCENT." the tail called out as Vale watched with his one good eye as the tail appeared to absorb Riser's blood before Vale slammed his fist into Riser's face once more.

"78 PERCENT. 94 PERCENT. TECHNIQUE SUCCESFULLY REPLICATED AND INTEGRATED INTO ABYSS PHYSIQUE. POSITIVE FEEDBACK ACHIEVED!" the tail announced as Vale continued to hammer Riser's face with blows. Seconds later, Vale felt a warm, soothing sensation as vision returned to his right eye and the burns on his face began to heal. Without warning Vale felt himself thrown from Riser by an enormous gust of wind. Vale hit the ground and skipped of a few times with a CLANG! before he managed to right himself and regain a steady posture.

"Looks like I've evened the playing field. Neither of us can kill the other. But I can still kick your ass." Vale said with a grin, which was hidden from Riser's view by his now restored mask.

"That's impossible! Only Phenex clan members are immortal!" Riser exclaimed angrily as he once more rushed Vale. Vale activated his jets again as he rushed to meet Riser's attack head on. As soon as Riser neared him her heard his tail announce.

"ABYSS PHYSIQUE LEVEL 2 FORM ACTIVATED! FLUID MOBILITY!" Vale watched with satisfaction as a look of astonishment spread across Riser's face as the markings on his armor changed and his entire body shifted and flowed around Riser's arm and under his armpit before re-solidifying behind him. Vale wrapped Riser in a bear hug and pushed his jets to maximum and driving Riser into the ground with a crash. Riser roared in pain as Vale continued pushing Riser along the ground, leaving a trail of blood behind him, before rotating 180° and pushing off and propelling himself away using the jets.

"Alrighty, enough games. THIS! ENDS! NOW!" Vale roared as a magic circle appear in front of him and he pulled out what at first appeared to be a long staff with a corkscrew spike at the end. The entire weapon seemed to be wrapped in chains with sealing tags hung all over the chains. After he had removed the entire weapon, it was quite obviously a trident with concave blades on either side of the central tine. After he had removed it, he channeled the proper order of magical signal into the chains, causing them to shatter into nothingness.

"Behold, the trident of the Fisher King. A weapon of such magical power that it supposedly gave even the great Merlin cause to fear it. I dislike using it, it is too wild a weapon and is hard to control. But I'm sure you'll find out it's quite useful on occasion. Here, let me SHOW YOU!" Vale shouted as several small orbs of magic appeared in the air behind him and launched themselves toward Riser. He tried to dodge out the way, but there were too many and they pelted him like so many arrows from a platoon of archers. Some were lightning based and sent powerful jolts of paralyzing electricity through Riser's body. Others were shards of ice and pierced through him and tearing huge gouges of flesh from his bones. Riser fell to the ground under the barrage of magic arrows he hit the ground and lay there for a few seconds before his wounds healed once more. Before he could get up, Vale made three large magic circles appear in the air above Riser, one directly above him one up and to the right, and one to the left.

Before Riser could get up, three gigantic bolts of lightning issued out and struck Riser with and enormous BOOM! and the enormous sound of large amount of electricity arcing from one place to another. When Riser's burns had finally healed, he came to see Vale standing over him with his trident pointed at his throat, the trident was surrounded by a menacing black and crimson aura.

"Now Riser, submit! You may be able to regenerate, but a large enough blast of the Power of Destruction will leave you with no body to regenerate." Riser scowled and conjured a large fireball to his right hand before Vale slammed an armored boot onto Riser's forearm before he plunged his trident into his shoulder. Riser stifled a roar of pain as Vale ground the blades of the trident deeper into his shoulder before finally Riser grunted in a pained voice,

"Fine, you win. Riser submits." Riser grunted quietly before Vale bent down and seized him by the throat.

"Say it so all these nice people can hear you!" Vale said as he hoisted him by the tattered remains of his suit.

"Riser submits. Riser is defeated!" Riser declared to the audience they both knew full well was watching with rapt attention. As soon as he finished speaking the crude illusory arena fell away and they began to fall through a swirling purple backdrop. Vale released Riser, letting him fall back to the ground before the girl with the twin ponytails caught him. Vale dismissed the armor and tail and spread his eight wings and slowed his descent before alighting in the courtyard of Phenex castle. There was a chorus of murmurs as he tucked his wings in. Many of the people in the yards were pointing at him and whispering amongst themselves. He disregarded them all as he saw the front gate open to reveal all the members of the Occult Research Club, minus of course, Issei and Asia. As soon as they caught sight of him, Rias hiked up her dress and began to hurry down the steps toward him as fast as her high heels would allow. Her servants followed after her at a walk. Rias reached the bottom of the stairs and sprinted towards him before wrapping him in a hug.

"Vale, that was incredible! Where did you learn magic like that?" She said as she pulled away to examine him. She saw that incredibly he was completely uninjured. He was though, very tired. Using two different forms along with his new power and the trident with several high level spells had drained his stamina considerably.

"I learned that courtesy of a nasty little vampire who calls herself Dark Evangeline." he said as Kiba walked up and said,

"Here you go Vale-kun." Yuuto said as he handed Vale's cape back to him.

"Well well well Vale, that was an impressive match. Since you were victorious it seems you're now engaged to my sister. Treat her right. Whether or not you plan on ever marrying her or you're just attempting to keep her away from Riser remains to be seen. But it seems our entire family is in your debt. Both my father and I agreed during your match that we were wrong to force our beliefs on Ria-tan. But know this, from now on you will always have friend in the Gremory clan." Sirzechs said as he stepped out from the crowd wearing an ornate mantle. Vale looked over to see Rias blushing at Sirzech's childish nickname of her, before turning once more to face Sirzechs.

"Sirzechs-dono, as I said before, I have no intention of ever allowing harm to befall Rias-hime, by the hand of another or myself. Rias is currently the best friend I've ever had, though I'm not sure I'm entirely worthy of her love should she choose to give it. I thank you for your praise though." Vale said as he gave a small bow to the Satan. Sirzechs smiled before turning his head to gaze at something Vale couldn't see. Vale turned his head to see a large griffon standing some ways off in the distance.

"I think it would be best for everybody if you took your bride to be and headed home." Sirzechs said as he looked back to Vale. Vale nodded in agreement as he gently entwined his fingers in Rias' and led her towards the griffon, which knelt down to allow them to enter the saddle that was mounted on its back as they neared it. Rias got on the front of the saddle as Vale settled in behind her and draped his velvet cape over her shoulders to prevent her from catching cold as they rode. The griffon then bent it's knees and leaped high into the air before snapping its wings open and flapping them twice and banking towards the portal that led back to the human world.

Vale and Rias watched in silence as the lights of the underworld passed beneath them. It looked like something from a fairy tale. Two young devils, each the next head of their clan, heading back to the human world on the back of a griffon to get away from the stuffy upper-class society of Devils.

"You know, I hate to admit it but, I missed this." Vale said as he looked up into the purple night sky.

"Missed what?" Rias said as she turned to look at Vale seated behind her.

"The purple night sky, the feeling of belonging to a world, even if I don't really belong here." Vale said as he looked down at her.

"Hey Vale, can I ask you something?" she asked, still looking back over her shoulder at him.

"Anything." he replied simply.

"Why'd you do it? Why'd you challenge Riser to a fight? Surely there's some other way you could've broken off the engagement." she asked as she pulled his cape tighter around her shoulders. Vale was silent for a long time as he watched the sky above them.

"Have you ever wondered why I call you Rias-hime, even though I refuse to bow to your brother when he visits? I didn't even know about your rep as Princess of Destruction until your Rating Game. So, it's a tad curious that I use an honorific that means princess, don't you think?" Vale replied, still staring at the purple sky.

"Honestly, I never gave it much thought. I guess I have so many fans here, I just thought you were one of them. Sorry if that sounds conceited." she said with a shrug as she began to rub her arms to warm herself when Vale wrapped his arms around hers and pulled her close to him. She didn't say anything but she enjoyed the feel of his strong arms and chest holding her close. She usually spent so much time protecting her servants, it was nice to feel protected once in a while.

"I use the honorific for princess because you remind me of so many characters from fairy tales across the world. Strong, but beautiful. Wise, but kind and affectionate. Smart, but not conceited or arrogant. The day you walked into my life was the day it got way better. It was the day I started to feel like someone actually gave a damn about how my future would turn out and wouldn't just go their separate way when the job was over like my other friends. And those very reasons are why I challenged Riser to a fight for your hand in marriage. I did it because I saw how much you hated being forced to marry him, so I promised myself I would do whatever it took to break the engagement. I promised myself that when all else had failed you, I wouldn't. Rias, you are probably single-handedly responsible for beginning the path of the Beleth clan's rise back to power. For that Rias, you may forever think of me and my kin as your servants, I owe you a debt I cannot repay. Today was just an attempt to do so." he said as if it were the most plain thing in all of creation.

Rias had no idea how to respond to his speech but there was one thing she felt she needed to do. She lifted one leg up and moved it over to the other side of the saddle and repeated the action once more so she was sitting face-to-face with Vale. He opened his mouth to speak, but all possible words died in his throat when she wrapped her hands around the back of Vale's neck and pulled him into a kiss. Vale stopped trying to speak as he closed his eyes and placed one of his hands on Rias' cheek and kissed her back, before pulling away several seconds later.

"That was my first kiss. It's kind of a monumental moment in a young woman's life. I'm glad to say I enjoyed myself. I think when we get back, I'll take you up on your offer." she said with a smile and slightly flushed cheeks.

"What offer? What are you talking about?" Vale asked quizzically with a puzzled expression as Rias leaned in and whispered something in his ear.

"Oh. OH!" Vale exclaimed as he realized what she meant. He glanced around to check their progress when he saw that the griffon was on it's descent towards the old Kuoh Academy schoolhouse.

It landed a few minutes later, Vale carried Rias bridal-style(no pun intended) back into her room in the schoolhouse. After he set her down she hurried into her bathroom to change out of the dress as Vale flopped down on her bed sheets. He was so tired, but he could push through it. He just needed to rest his eyes for a bit...

Rias stepped out of her bathroom to see Vale asleep on her bedsheets, snoring contentedly. She covered her mouth with one hand in a small giggle as he walked over to the other side of the bed and tucked Vale in under the covers before stripping down and crawling in next to her new fiancee...

Author's Note: Alrighty here it is. As always, still freaking about the peerage and harem. Rias will not be in his or Issei's harem, as I never see her being a concubine to any man, no matter how strong. But I'm gonna stop posting peerage lists, gotta keep you guessing anyways. Suggestions for either are appreciated. Remember to vote on the poll. Like normal, reviews are super appreciated. This is the 19th Angel, signing off...