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"Rias" - Speech

'Issei' - Thought

[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear Ability/ Ddraig and Albion Speech

Beta'd by BigCC

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Devils are very closely linked to the Seven Deadly Sins. Each and every devil, whether born or reincarnated is closely linked to at least one of the Sins. The Four Satans each traditionally represent one of them and are expected to have completely mastered their Sin. Lucifer is Pride. Leviathan is Envy. Beelzebub is Gluttony. And Asmodeus is Sloth.

A measure of a Devil is how well they can control their Sin. Those who cannot control their Sin, be it Wrath, Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth or Greed, never advance beyond Mid-Class. It is those who cannot competently learn to control their Sin in even the smallest of ways that turn into Stray Devils, their Sin overriding and mutating their body to a monstrous degree.

- A Brief Explanation on Devils and the Seven Deadly Sins for newly Reincarnated Devils

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The Fifteenth Move: Sacrifice Gambit

For a moment, Rias was stunned speechless. She had seen Akeno be defeated sometimes in Rating Games, but when things were tough and she needed to win, her [Queen], her best friend, had never failed to come through for her. But now…now, in such a situation, Akeno had been beaten with a single spell. She had fallen as easily as Rias could defeat one of those stupid Gargoyle Golems.

'She…Amakusa Chiaki could have used that spell right from the beginning to defeat Akeno.' The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess thought, her temper rising. 'She played with my friend to make a point. Absolutely. Unforgivable!'

"Koneko!" she barked. "Beat her into the ground!"

"Hai, Buchou!" the Reincarnated Nekomata nodded and charged towards the smirking Pawn. A pair of cat ears popped out of her head and a tail emerged from under her skirt as she activated her Nekomata Mode. Blue fire exploded from around her and shot towards her target, only to be blocked by a magic circle.

"Kiba! Xenovia! Stop playing around and destroy those golems!" Rias shouted, "I've had enough of this farce!"

Grimly nodding, the two [Knights] refocussed on their opponents.

Xenovia, even with the speed available to her from [Excalibur Rapidly], was having a great deal of difficulty pinning down the golem of Morisaki Rika, who used her [Time Alter] spells to stay one step ahead of the frustrated bluenette. Kiba had his own problems, as Reo used the [Second Hand of Time] to gain an advantage. The ability to rewind time by ten seconds every thirty seconds did not sound like a tremendous advantage, but ten seconds was a long time in a sword duel and Kiba was covered in nicks and scratches that were bleeding slightly from the minor foreknowledge that Reo had gained from the use of her Sacred Gear.

Time to change things in their favour.

"[Sword Birth]!" the Survivor of the Holy Sword Project roared, stabbing his weapon into the ground and unleashing a positive wave of swords erupting from the ground, spreading out rapidly to try and pierce through Reo from beneath.

"Like I'm that easy to hit!" she scoffed. "[Time Alter: Double Accel]!"

In a blur of speed, the golem replica of the Devil Morisaki Reo dodged all of the swords with ease, her body blurring as she moved outside of the normal flow of time. It didn't surprise Kiba that she could use the same magic as her twin. In fact, he would have been surprised if she couldn't. Still, it made things difficult for him.

'No choice. I have to use it.' He thought with a scowl.

"[Balance Break]!" he declared softly. "[Glory Drag Trooper]!"

In a flash of light, several draconic armoured knights appeared, each wielding a different Holy Sword.

"This is just like Natsuko-chan's [Raiding Rangers of the Queen]!" Reo gasped in shock. "I thought your Balance Breaker was [Sword of the Betrayer]?!"

"I have two Sacred Gears and both have achieved a Subspecies Balance Breaker." The blond [Knight] stated as he pointed his sword at her. "Fall!"

Reo was then assailed by the sword attacks of not only Kiba, but of his Draconic Knights as well, each of which were just as strong, just as fast and just as skilled as Kiba himself.

"Even with my Sacred Gear, this is quite the challenge." The former Knight grunted after furiously parrying, dodging and deflecting the swords of nine Holy Swords for over three minutes. "Very well. I shall show my trump card as well. [Balance Break]!"

With a golden glow, the sword in her hands expanded to the size of a standard longsword. Then the glow flashed over Reo's arms and shoulders, falling away to reveal light armour consisting of gauntlets, chain mail and pauldrons.

"[Second Hand of Time Balance Breaker]." Reo declared softly. "[Wages of Sin]. [Time Alter: Triple Accel]!"

'She's moving even faster than before!' Kiba thought in disbelief as one of his Knights was cleaved in two by the heavier version of the [Second Hand of Time]. He was barely able to avoid a stab to the stomach from the golem as he unleashed another wave of swords around him.

Over with Xenovia, the bluenette was panting hard from effort and was more than slightly frustrated. She had increased the power of [Excalibur Rapidly] with [Excalibur Blessing], but she still couldn't catch up to the tricky spear-using golem, who had started to use [Time Alter: Triple Accel] to counter the Wielder of Durandal's increased speed.

"Let's see you deal with this!" she shouted, speeding into a blur once again.

"No matter how many times you attempt to strike me, it will simply end in the same manner." Rika stated serenely as she too shifted into a blur.

"[Mimic]!"

"Gah!"

Rika blurred back into vision, her arms bound at her sides by an elastic, yet harder than steel, blade that came from Durandal, held by a smirking Xenovia.

"So you used not only the power of [Excalibur Rapidly], but the power of [Excalibur Blessing] and [Excalibur Mimic] in unison with it." The golem struggled to break out of the grip of the sword. "I am impressed."

"[Mimic] is the sword that Irina wielded back when we were both Exorcists of the Church." The bluenette grinned savagely. "Out of all of the swords save for [Excalibur Destruction], [Excalibur Mimic] is the one which I know the best. Using it isn't hard, but I usually prefer to fight without using underhanded tricks or techniques. I am a power type, after all."

"But because the man who holds your heart is at risk, there is nothing you will not do to ensure his safe return?" Rika surmised.

"Exactly." Xenovia nodded.

"An admirable sentiment." The golem conceded. "However…even such pure determination is useless in the face of time itself. [Time Alter: Square Accel]!"

A yellow glow surrounded Rika as her spell took effect and she started moving faster and faster, eventually forcing her way out of the binding and speeding away to kneel panting a short distance away.

"A-Apparently, [Square Accel] is still hard on the body of the user." She coughed and held up one quavering hand. "Even the pseudo nervous system of this golem body is affected by having its time not just accelerated but squared. This will make an interesting accumulation of data for Nee-chan."

Standing up, she glanced at Xenovia, who was scowling at her. She had not expected the golem to escape the grasp of her Durandal. With a tug, she reverted Durandal to its original form.

"Evidently, my current combat capabilities are insufficient when confronted with the power of the Peerless Holy Sword and six of the seven shards of Excalibur." Rika stated. "I shall now face you with my full power. [Balance Break]!"

The Qiáng spear glowed and reshaped itself into that of a Greek Dory and an armoured gauntlet appeared on Rika's off-hand. Clenching it, Rika thrust the fist towards Xenovia, glaring at her opponent.

"[Wedge of Time Balance Breaker]." The Knight Golem stated. "[Hand of Fate]. [Square Accel]!"

'This speed…! Even [Rapidly] with [Blessing] backing it up aren't a match!' Xenovia thought in shock, even as her well-trained warrior body moved to block and parry the blows as best she could. The long stabs and swipes of the spear were hard to deal with due to the ludicrous speed they were flung at her. Only her frequent spars with Kiba had given her the ability to fend off some of the strikes.

'Looks like this isn't going to be an easy fight.' She thought grimly.

Koneko and Chiaki were engaged in a blistering exchange in between the other two battles. Fists were deflected, kicks were redirected, Artificial Hellfire was cancelled out by the bluebell fire of Nekomata Flames and both combatants had already taken serious damage from the other's efforts.

"Hah…hah…hah…how surprising. I'm not used to being the taller person in a fight." The former Bael Pawn smirked, seeing the pulsing vein of annoyance on the Nekoshō's forehead at the subtle dig at her height.

"…Nee-sama is beautiful. I will be too." The white Nekoshō formerly known as Shirone shot back with a glare. "I'll be better looking than you."

Chiaki simply shrugged. "True. But did you know your precious sister once tried to fight Mei-nee-sama? It was two years ago or so…Kuroneko no Kuroka was completely defeated without even landing a single blow. Such is the difference between a SS-Class Stray Devil and a SSS-Class Stray Devil, I suppose. She should be glad that Mei-nee-sama considered her unworthy of death at her hands."

The glare from Koneko intensified. "Pay for that."

"By all means…bring it." Chiaki smirked as she raised her fists again.

Same Time

Infirmary, Palace of the Maō

"How is she?" Sirzechs asked the Devil in charge of the medical team assigned to the palace.

"She was very lucky." The man answered. "That blast was far more than the standard sets of Arena Safeguard Protections were designed to handle. I can only shudder at what might have happened had they not been working, or if Amakusa Chiaki had not held back."

Akeno was lying on a bed, stripped of her priestess outfit and wearing a very unflattering hospital gown. She was also unconscious. The minor burns and breaks that she had received from Chiaki's Raika Gōen Kaku spell were already in the process of being healed by the staff there.

"Good. Let me know when she regains consciousness." The Maō Lucifer nodded and teleported back to the throne room. He had gone to see his sister's [Queen] the moment that she had been defeated. That Artificial Hellfire spell had undoubtedly been the one that had defeated Roan and Regalia Bael, so his concern was warranted.

And yet…not only had Amakusa Chiaki, despite betraying her [King] to side with Mei, throttled her attack to the point that Akeno had suffered just enough damage to be counted as 'defeated' for the safeguard system to activate, but Mei had used an advanced version of the Arena Safeguard Protections in order to protect his sister and her Peerage. Once again, a glaring incongruity between what Mei had done in the past and what she was doing now.

Azazel and Ajuka had left for the long abandoned castle of Amadeus Bael, but had taken a portable tablet so they could continue to be updated on the status of the battle. Sirzechs hoped they found something to explain the actions of Mei, because on the face of it, it was almost as if the Stray Devil had developed a split personality due to the incongruity of her actions. On one hand, she had brutally and ruthlessly defeated a force of remnant Old Maō Faction soldiers. On the other, she defeated and kidnapped her former Peerage member. On one hand, she went around and crushed several Peerages, but on the other, all of them had been secret members of the Khaos Brigade once their circumstances had been looked into properly.

'The duality of her actions is very confusing.' The Maō Lucifer thought with a sigh as he reappeared in the throne room.

"Any changes?" he asked Serafall. Asking Falbium was almost pointless, as he slept more than Midgardsormr. Laziest Devil to have ever lived.

"Kiba and the golem twins have used their Balance Breakers." She reported. "To be precise, Kiba used [Blade Blacksmith's] Balance Breaker, as opposed to [Sword Birth's]."

Sirzechs raised an eyebrow. "I suppose he did that because [Sword of the Betrayer] is simply a more powerful version of his regular skills, while [Glory Drag Trooper] lets him use his summoned knights to hem in and outmanoeuvre his enemies. With the time acceleration magic that the twins use though, I think both Kiba-kun and Xenovia-chan are in for tough battles. The Time Twins were powerful Technique-type speed fighters and were considered exemplary definitions of how a [Knight] should enter combat."

"Koneko-chan and Chiaki-chan are also fighting one another." The Maō Leviathan added. "Koneko-chan has the advantage due to her strength; when she hits, it hits with incredible force."

"I also note that Chiaki-chan's Artificial Hellfire has scored a few hits on her opponent a couple of times." The Maō Lucifer noted, seeing that Koneko's Kuō Academy uniform was burned away in several areas.

"She used Senjutsu to shield her actual body though, so she's fine." Serafall smirked, before it was replaced with a frown. "This entire game is pointless though. Why issue such a challenge? It's only a matter of time before we break the protection on the coordinates and invade properly. Considering how smart Mei is, a waste of time like this is severely out of character."

"I agree." Sirzechs nodded. Like his compatriot he fully understood how intelligent the Rogue Queen was and this show of short-sightedness on her part was most puzzling. "Oh? Looks like we've entered the final straight of this battle."

On the screen, Xenovia's weapon, EX-Durandal, had vanished from sight.

"She's using [Excalibur Transparency] to make her blade invisible." Serafall deduced easily. "That won't be enough to defeat Rika with her personal time accelerated by a factor of four."

A smile played across Sirzechs' face. "If she was only using a single Excalibur Core, I'd agree."

In a split second, the golem of Morisaki Rika froze, several dozen holes open on her body. With a shimmering wave, many strands of EX-Durandal appear out of thin air, all ending in Xenovia's hands before snapping back into the original form of EX-Durandal.

"She used the powers of four Cores simultaneously; [Rapidly], [Mimic], [Transparency] and [Blessing]." Sirzechs smiled. "For all that she claims to be a pure Power-type; that girl can come up with some interesting techniques."

With Kiba, he smiled grimly at his teammate's victory and changed the Holy Swords on his Knights. Their speed went up slightly, but it shouldn't have gone up by any truly significant amount.

"What could he be planning?" Sirzechs mused. "Those look like copies of [Excalibur Rapidly] but at their best Kiba's creation are nowhere near the same level as an Excalibur fragment; the speed they can grant is less than a quarter of the real deal. Nowhere near enough to offset that time spell's speed advantage."

The dance continued until all of the knights and Kiba were arrayed around Reo for just an instant. It was then, when wide blasts of light (or rather, Light) were unleashed from the blades, covering a wide area that Kiba's plan was shown. Since Reo apparently expected him to try and match her speed, he chose to instead use an area of effect attack that he guided her into walking into.

"And for someone who claims to be a Technique type, Ki-kyun can sure put out a lot of power when he needs to." Serafall smirked.

"Serafall, that isn't what a Power-type is." The Maō Lucifer rolled his eyes. She never did understand the subtle difference between being powerful and being a Power-type.

As the two golems disintegrated and their cores winked out, Sirzechs focussed on the last of Mei Schwarzwald's Peerage still standing…Amakusa Chiaki. She looked distressed at seeing the golems of her sisters destroyed.

"This must be hard for her…she saw Mei kill her sisters three years ago, and now she's had to see them getting defeated one by one." Serafall grimaced.

"But that begs the question of why she's helping Mei of her own free will now." Sirzechs pointed out. "She was under the effect of the [Memoria Blade] for the past three years and is loyal to Mei by her own admission. If Mei did kill her Peerage and Amadeus, then why is Chiaki loyal to her?"

On the screen, Chiaki was being hard pressed by Kiba, Xenovia and Koneko. She had summoned the [Katars of Vāyu] and was lashing out with them to keep her attackers off balance, adding some of the Artificial Hellfire to the wind blades to make them more deadly and explosive, but with three-to-one odds, one wielding the Peerless Holy Sword, one with an active Balance Breaker and one being an enraged Reincarnated Nekoshō, most High-Level Devils would have been eliminated before this point, so her grit was rather impressive.

No one could avoid being hit forever, however, and Koneko was the one who slammed a powerful blow into Chiaki's midsection with enough force to send her flying through the air to impact on the wall, leaving a large cracked crater around her.

"Ouch." Serafall had to wince at that. "Ko-chan didn't pull her punches there. That had to have hurt."

'Now what will you do, Amakusa Chiaki?' Sirzechs thought as the new Stray Devil slumped to her knees and coughed up some blood. 'What will you do?'

With Chiaki

Her entire body hurt, but especially her back and midriff. As she slumped to her knees, blood welled up in her throat and she coughed it out. Evidently the Nekoshō knew how to use internal Chi strikes as well. Had she not held back with that, Chiaki was pretty certain she would have been Retired by the Rating Game's Wards.

"Surrender." Koneko said flatly.

"Not…not an option, I'm afraid." Chiaki rasped out as she forced herself to her feet. "I am the last true line of defence between my last living sister and those who seek her life. Would you sit back and let someone kill your sister if you were in my position?"

The white Nekoshō's eyes turned slitted and catlike for a moment in anger before returning to normal. "Point. Make you retire then. Save Issei-sempai and stop Mei, whatever it takes!"

Dun-dun.

The world slowed down around Chiaki as Koneko started to leap forwards, one hand raised to deliver the final strike. The new Stray Devil knew that one more hit from a Rook like Koneko would almost certainly force her to be retired.

Dun-dun.

She could hear her heart beating as she came closer to being defeated. All of her training, all of her strong words…worthless? Was this how her time in this Rating Game would end? Defeated so easily?!

Dun-dun!

'No! It can't be!' Chiaki's mind rebelled against the idea of that happening. 'I can't just let myself be retired! I can't leave Mei-nee-sama alone! Not again!'

A scene flashed through her mind, of that disastrous day, three years before…of her oldest adopted sister, standing among the fallen bodies of their sisters, throttling Amadeus Bael with her bare hands and screaming in grief and rage, tears streaming down her face.

Chiaki had been too weak to help her…too weak to stand alongside her and take some of the burden that was now crushing her, draining the last family that Chiaki had left in this world of her life.

Dun-DUN!

"I won't allow it!" the former Bael [Pawn] screamed, and slammed her Sacred Gear point first into the ground with both arms, unleashing a powerful omnidirectional blast of wind and Artificial Hellfire that slammed into Kiba, Xenovia and Koneko, throwing them back.

"I won't allow you to defeat me!" Chiaki shouted, standing up and taking a stance. "I am the last wall that protects my sister! The last one who wishes to protect her! I won't let her be alone anymore!"

"You don't have a choice." Xenovia said coldly. She had recovered from the sudden airtime with her usual alacrity and now drew back her sword for one more strike. Swinging Durandal down, she sent a wave of Holy energy straight towards Chiaki, who was frozen in instinctive fear at so much of the anathema to Devilkind being sent towards her.

'When the time comes that you face defeat, look within for the strength to stand again.'

Her sister's words came to her as the Holy energy drew closer and Chiaki immediately leapt to the attack, smashing both blades of the [Katars of Vāyu] into the wave with a shriek of rage.

"Are you mad?!" Rias shouted. "Even the protections may not save you with that much Holy energy!"

"If I can't save my sister, I'd rather die!" Chiaki shouted. "I. WILL. PROTECT. HER!"

"Not alone." A voice said from behind her as a pale, transparent hand covered one of her own.

"N-Natsuko-chan?!" Chiaki gasped and turned her head slightly. Arrayed behind her was the entirety of Mei's former Peerage, floating in ghostly spiritual form towards her, leaving all who watched the event gaping in disbelief…all but a certain Stray Devil in her throne room.

The spirit of Morisato Natsuko smiled gently at her. "You are finally back where you belong, Chiaki-chan. We have been watching and have heard your determination. We will grant you the power you seek. Defend Nee-san, Chiaki-chan. Show the world that nobody messes with our sister and gets away with it."

The other spirits vanished and Natsuko gave Chiaki a kiss on the forehead before vanishing also. The Stray Devil felt energy surging through her and into her Sacred Gear and smiled savagely. "[Balance Break]!"

"What?!" the Gremory Group shouted.

The Katar glowed and enclosed her arms, flowing up them and down her back before forming skeletal ribs that wrapped around her torso to secure themselves. Then arms started sprouting from them, made of a bronze material that looked like metallic copies of her regular arms. A total of six extra arms sprouted from her back, each holding a different object. One was a pennant, one was a club, one was a statue of a gazelle, one was an Indian sword, a patta, one was a shield and one was a chakram.

"[Katars of Vāyu Balance Breaker]…" Chiaki breathed. "[Armed Asura of Vātāvaran]!"

With Azazel and Ajuka, Amadeus Bael's Abandoned Castle

"Huh." Azazel blinked. "Well, that's a new one."

"Every single member of Amadeus' Peerage with a Sacred Gear had a Subspecies Balance Breaker. I fail to see why one more is of any concern." The Maō Beelzebub said distractedly. He was currently hacking Amadeus' old computers.

"The [Katars of Vāyu] were only ever a proof of concept Artificial Sacred Gear, Ajuka." The former Governor General said patiently. "They were never supposed to have a link to the System. All of the other ones were, but not them. That means that there should have been no possibility for them to take advantage of the bugs in the system. Ergo, that Balance Breaker she is wielding is a sheer impossibility. It should not be possible for it to exist."

"That last part was redundant."

"Yes, I simply wanted to really emphasise the fact that the [Armed Asura of Vātāvaran] should not exist." Azazel huffed. "The only possible way it should exist is if Mei somehow mucked about with it while it was still inside of Chiaki and established a connection to the system. I can't do that with a 100% success rate and I don't think you could either."

"What would be your success rate? Mine would be about 89%." Ajuka asked idly. "Simply because doing that sort of thing isn't my specialty, you understand."

"A little better…about 94%." The Fallen admitted. "Mei's good, but she doesn't have our experience. No way would her chances have been above 60%, 70% at absolute best. She wouldn't chance someone she went to such extremes to retrieve with such mediocre odds of success…so how did she do it?"

"She does have that ancient Fallen Sacred Gear Extractor, doesn't she?" Ajuka mused as he tapped a few keys. "I can think of a dozen ways just off the top of my head that she could improve it to remove the ghastly side effects and make it a painless process that doesn't kill the target. She could have used that to extract the Sacred Gear, make the necessary modifications, put it back and then simply await the right time for her adopted little sister to need the Sacred Gear's Balance Breaker."

"But…if the extractor's been modified like that…" Azazel muttered thoughtfully. He was interrupted by a beep from the computer.

"Ah-ha. Got you, Amadeus." Ajuka smirked. "An Eternity Code? Psh. No match for an Eternity Decoder."

"You wrote a computer program specifically to counter a single password screen?" Azazel asked mildly.

"An Eternity Code is basically unbreakable unless you have something that can match it." The Maō Beelzebub informed him. "My Eternity Decoder basically matches it and then overwhelms it, subsuming it into itself as it goes."

"So…matching eternity to eternity?" the Fallen sighed. "Well whatever. Anything interesting on that thing or is it just a list of Amadeus' porn collection?"

"Artificial Sacred Gear designs, notes about his Peerage and…notes about the last days of the Great War of the Biblical Factions." Ajuka said with a raised eyebrow. "Specifically, the part when the Nitenryū ran amok through the main battlefield, and of course, the part where the God of the Bible ripped out their souls and created the [Boosted Gear] and [Divine Dividing] to imprison them. I'm fairly certain most this information is taken from the Bael Family's archives…"

"Aren't those the 'do not even breathe on them without permission' family files?" Azazel asked with a raised eyebrow. "This is Amadeus' computer, not Mei's, right?"

"It is indeed. It also has a switch that can detonate this entire castle in a massive magical explosion." The Maō Beelzebub said calmly. "A somewhat draconian failsafe mechanism, wouldn't you agree? Hmm…there's also a secret laboratory just down the corridor from where Mei killed Amadeus. I think having a look there would be beneficial. And…we're in."

As the two powerful supernatural beings walked down the dusty passages of the castle, both had their minds full of what a lot of the evidence was saying about both Mei and Amadeus…and not liking the conclusions their brilliant minds were drawing.

Back in her throne room, Hyōdō Issei watched several bursts of light retreat into Mei from the throne and really did not know what to think.

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Next Chapter: The Sixteenth Move: Scholar's Mate

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