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"Rias" - Speech

'Issei' - Thought

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

Beta'd by BigCC

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"Do what you must rather than what you want. Duty is the price of honour." – Attributed to an Unknown General.

"Regarding the above saying, I consider it both felicitous and fortunate that what I must do and what I want to do are the exact same thing. This way, I don't have to compromise my morals by much." – Excerpt from the Diary of Mei Schwarzwald.

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The Seventeenth Move: Prophylaxis

Secret Laboratory, Amadeus Bael's Castle, Bael Territory, the Underworld

"Well, well, well…it looks like young Amadeus was conducting research on several interesting topics before his passing." Azazel whistled. The former Governor-General was leafing through a dusty notebook, his feet kicked up as he sat at Amadeus' desk. "I know for a fact that several of the topics he was studying were restricted to just you and your private research team Ajuka, particularly three years ago when we were still sitting on a powder keg."

The Maō Beelzebub nodded as he examined a blackboard littered with esoteric runes, symbols, and formulae. "That much is obvious from just what we've found so far, and it's becoming plainly obvious why he kept everything hidden away back here. Finding proof of this research would see him facing a decade of imprisonment at minimum, not to mention some stiff financial penalties." He stepped back and looked around the lab in suspicion. "And I'm starting to get the feeling that we're still missing the worst of it. Something's just not right about all this."

The laboratory that they had discovered was modest in size, but it was filled with dozens of experimental Artificial Sacred Gear prototypes, along with blackboards, printouts, and diagrams depicting either designs for more Artificial Gears or breakdowns of existing Sacred Gears. The only surface not covered in some form of research material was the modest desk resting at the centre where Azazel was currently sitting at. That had been suspiciously clean.

"That's because this is a dummy room." Azazel explained with a smirk, holding up a finger and twirling it around to indicate the room. "Anyone who stumbles across it is supposed to be deceived by this room and its moderately incriminating contents, so we don't notice the secret-secret room located beneath our feet." he finished by pointing his finger downward with a rather smug grin.

"I'm well aware of that." Ajuka waved a hand dismissively. "I noticed it in the first thirty seconds I was in the room. What I mean is, what exactly could be in that room that makes a ten year prison sentence and a multi-million sum fine seem like a slap on the wrists?"

"That…is an excellent point." Azazel frowned in thought. He'd been so amused by the over-the-top deception that he hadn't given any thought to precisely what would make it worthwhile. "Methinks the young Devil was up to something he really didn't want people to find out about…something that would have done more than simply shame the Bael Family. Let's find out, shall we?"

"Indeed, let's." Ajuka nodded sharply. Clicking his fingers, he energised a rather well-hidden transport circle near the back of the room. The two scientists headed into it and vanished in a flash of red light.

With the Gremory Group

Kiba winced as the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess blasted yet another group of gargoyles out of existence. She stood and panted slightly afterwards, her eyes narrowed and full of anger.

"Buchou…we can handle it for now." he said firmly. "You need to conserve your strength for when we confront Mei."

Rias glared at him for a moment before shuddering and nodding. "Yes…you're right, Kiba. I just…I hate that you are all being hurt by this."

"It's nothing, Rias-buchou." Xenovia shook her head firmly. "If one of us were captured like this, both you and Issei would do this for us without a thought."

"Of course! You're all members of my family." The redheaded Devil agreed immediately.

"Then don't feel bad about it." Asia said, hugging Rias gently. "We all love Issei-san too, so we're doing this for ourselves as well."

The rest of her Peerage, plus Irina and Ravel, nodded in agreement with the usually shy ex-nun.

"Asia…" Rias hugged her female [Bishop] back gently. "You're right, of course. Now, let us get back to it!"

Reinvigorated by the support of her darling servants, Rias allowed them to advance down the path, destroying gargoyle golems with ease. Once you had a feel for their attack patterns, they became as easy to destroy as a faceless mob in a video game. If it weren't for their enormous numbers, they'd have been barely been a speedbump for Rias' Peerage.

'I am so proud of them.' She thought with a smile. Were it not for the need for speed at the moment, this would be the opportune situation to practice their techniques. She pushed past the thought and focused on the here and now.

After a handful of frenzied moments smashing stone enemies, the Gremory Group ran into the last room of the floor…which looked eerily familiar to the older members of the peerage.

"Hey…isn't this that old abandoned church in Kuō?" Irina asked in surprise.

"It looks like it." Xenovia agreed, eying with disquiet exact duplicates of the mutilated symbols of the Christian faith that had littered the church when she had visited it with Irina back before the Holy Sword incident.

Asia looked around uneasily. This location that Mei had created was completely identical to the real abandoned church in Kuō, where she had been killed. Aside from waking up as a Devil there, the timid ex-nun had no good memories of this place and she wished to leave as soon as was possible. She could almost hear her again…

Suddenly, an unpleasantly familiar voice started laughing and Asia squeaked in fear, shrinking to hide behind Rias, trembling.

"Asia?" Xenovia asked in surprise. While shy and timid, the blond ex-Holy Maiden rarely trembled in fear like this.

"It's her…it's her!" the [Bishop] managed to get out as Xenovia gently hugged her with one arm while Irina glared around warily.

A tornado of black feathers appeared just in front of the altar, eventually clearing to reveal an attractive black-haired woman dressed in an outfit that was basically a BDSM bikini with shoulder pads, elbow-length gloves and thigh-high stiletto-heeled boots, which showed off her supple body and luscious curves for all to see and to its best effect. A pair of black feathery wings spread from her back and violet eyes glared down at the Gremory Group contemptuously.

Trembling in rage, Rias Gremory uttered the name of this Fallen Angel, hatred echoing in her voice even as the Power of Destruction crackled around her like black and crimson lightning.

"Raynare!"

"Humph. I'm surprised that you deigned to remember me after all this time, Devil bitch." The Fallen sneered.

"After what you did to my Ise and my Asia, there is no way I could forget you!" the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess snarled, an aura of Power of Destruction forming around her as she moved to block Asia from the sight of the woman that had killed her.

"Buchou, is this…?!" Xenovia demanded angrily, the Wielder of Durandal bringing her sword up.

"The Fallen Angel Raynare...or at least a very, very accurate simulacrum of her." Kiba answered for the redhead, blue eyes cold as ice. "She's the one who killed Issei-kun and Asia when they were humans…and the one who scarred Issei-kun as badly as he was emotionally."

"This…!" Ravel hissed, flames pooling in her hands as her anger on behalf of her beloved Issei-sama fuelled her magic. The rest of the Gremory Group drew themselves up to prepare to fight the woman who had hurt Issei and Asia so badly. But then…

"Stay back." Rias said flatly as she started forwards, drawing the sword she wore on her hip silently.

"Buchou-!" Kiba started before a flare of power from his master silenced him.

"Kiba…everyone…I shall deal with this one myself." Rias Gremory said coldly, her voice utterly devoid of emotions. "Stand down, now."

"…understood, Buchou." The Survivor of the Holy Sword Project acknowledged and stepped back, the rest following his lead. Asia whimpered as she looked worriedly at Rias' back.

"Don't worry, Asia." Rias looked over her shoulder and smiled kindly at her for a moment. "This will be over quickly."

"Confident for someone as unobservant as you." Raynare jeered as a spear of Light appeared in one hand. "It took you and your pathetic servants forever to discover that I had damaged the Sekiryūtei's heart. And you were the very last to know, oh great Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess."

"Shut your filthy mouth." Rias ground out, pointing her weapon at Raynare. "I was a blind fool. That much I admit to, and I need to make up to Issei about it. But I can make up to him for it because, unlike you, I am still alive. All you are is a golem created by Mei Schwarzwald to be used as a throwaway pawn. I am the one who killed you before, and I sincerely doubt that killing you again will be any harder than before. Asia seeing you defeated will bring peace to her, I hope, as you hurt her before…and for that crime, if nothing else, I cannot forgive you!"

To be a member of the Gremory Family was to hold the bonds of family close, but that was only the most spoken about part of what it meant to be a Gremory. To hold those you love close, to protect them from harm, and to avenge any and all harm done to your family…that was what it meant to be a Gremory.

Raynare had killed and mentally tortured her Ise, her love.

Raynare had killed Asia, after mentally torturing her, stealing her Sacred Gear and life force and treated her like a tool…her beloved [Bishop], who she had come to care for as a little sister, someone who she loved dearly.

The Fallen had harmed those that Rias Gremory loved and cherished. She had been killed, but Rias had long regretted not taking longer to kill Raynare. How nice of Mei to provide her with a suitable target to unleash her rage upon.

"Hah! Unlike last time, I'm not exhausted and beaten from fighting that filthy human!" Raynare sneered as she spun her spear of Light. "Let's see what you can do, bitch."

"En gardé!" Rias snarled as she lunged forwards, aiming to stab her opponent with her blade. Raynare blocked the stab with her weapon, but the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess swiftly disengaged and let loose a flurry of swift, light stabs that were far more problematic for the Fallen to block.

"Tch. As if such light attacks could pierce my skin!" the Fallen scoffed. Proving her words correct, Rias' sabre glanced off the flawless skin of her abdomen without as much as leaving a mark on it.

"Hm. So Mei even replicated the Angelic ability to make your skin akin to the density of iron." Rias noted clinically. "Well then…let's get serious."

With a flex of her will, the blade of her weapon was coated in the roiling aura of the Power of Destruction. It was something she had learned from her brother's [Knight], Sōji, but she had never needed to put it into practice before now. A [King] fighting on the front lines was simply asking to be eliminated, after all.

Now, though…

"Let's try that again!" the Gremory Heiress glared at Raynare and lashed out with her sword. Although the Fallen managed to block the strike, her Light spear was destroyed in the clash.

"What?!" Raynare yelped as she flapped her wings instinctively, sending her flying back just in time to avoid Rias' second strike.

"I could have killed your original easily, even had my darling Issei not beaten 'you' bloody beforehand." Rias stated as she continued to walk forward slowly, each step measured and deliberate. "So could Kiba and so could Akeno and so could Koneko. You may have some degree of skill, Raynare, but we are all above you. It was the same back then as it is now. You are beneath me."

Letting out a screech of fury, Raynare sent a flurry of a dozen spears of Light flying at the Gremory Heiress who simply raised one hand and blasted them away with the Power of Destruction, a bored expression on her face.

"In the time since your original died, I have faced many opponents who are greatly stronger than myself." She informed the incensed Fallen. "Compared to them, you're just a second-rate fighter, with third-rate powers. How could I fall to you? Know your place."

Leaping forwards, Rias unleashed a powerful thrust that stabbed into the centre of Raynare's chest, in the valley between her breasts. Looking down in shock, the Fallen then screamed as she was simultaneously surrounded and invaded by the Power of Destruction.

"I will save Issei. I will marry Issei. I will bear his children." Rias said softly. "And you? You will be nothing but a distant, twisted memory that we will forget amidst all of our happiness. Begone and return to nothing!"

With one final shriek, the golem of the Fallen Angel Raynare vanished, utterly consumed by Rias' magic. Withdrawing her weapon, Rias swept it to one side in a flourish before sheathing the blade at her hip once more.

"And that is that." she said firmly. "Mei, I tire of these tricks and games of yours."

A screen popped up near her, displaying Mei's masked face. "Now, now Rias-sama. Don't you feel a bit more destressed after that? Miss Argento looks far more at ease as well."

Asia chose that moment to run over and hug Rias tightly again, making the Gremory Heiress smile reluctantly at her darling Italian blonde. Really, she was simply inundated with adorable servants, wasn't she?

"Once you ascend to the next level, it is a straight shot to me, Rias-sama." Mei said softly. "You merely have to get through every remaining Gargoyle Golem left in my possession. Tick-tock, time's ticking down."

As the screen disappeared, Rias restrained herself from muttering several phrases that were beneath her to utter, especially when she was being broadcast across who knows how many countries!

"I am going to enjoy destroying her." She growled. "Spread out and look for the way up. Our time is running out!"

With Mei

Leaning back on her throne, the Stray Devil was studiously ignoring the glare that Hyōdō Issei was sending at her with the ease of someone with thick skin.

"Was that really necessary?" the Sekiryūtei asked tightly.

"No, but I did it anyway." Mei answered simply. "All this time, Asia Argento has held fear of Raynare within herself. She didn't see Rias Gremory kill her, so the fear didn't leave her. Unlike the scarring on your heart, it didn't really affect her when she was with her Peerage, but when she was alone? Her display there proves that she had her own demons to exorcise. Now that she has seen your girlfriend tear Raynare, or at least a golem with an almost exact appearance and personality to the original, apart with almost contemptuous ease, she will get over that fear."

Eying her with scant favour, as he was very protective of Asia, Issei nevertheless slowly nodded. Despite the rude and abrupt way Mei had gone about it, she had quite neatly severed one of Asia's fears without risking her in any respect.

"Kindly don't do that again." He 'requested' (read: demanded) firmly.

"Have no fear, Hyōdō-san." Mei shook her head in amusement. "There are no tricks left to pull. Chiaki-chan is resting and awaiting my summons and I have no more secret weapons to delay the advance of your little harem aside from my gargoyle golems. The end of our little game approaches…and it has been far too long in coming."

"How'd you make such a good copy of Raynare anyway?" the Sekiryūtei asked after a moment of silence.

"I owed Serafall-sama and Sirzechs-sama a favour from when I was Reincarnated as a Devil." The Queen of Blood and Betrayal answered. "And I decided to keep an eye on their sisters for them, even with the extra watchers they had stationed in Kuō. Through my observations, I saw…pretty much everything that happened to you, Hyōdō-san. That includes Raynare's power, appearance, mannerisms, personality and quirks. I recorded them just in case I could use them in the future. Foresight, and planning for possible contingencies and opportunities, is an amazing thing, is it not?"

"You kept an eye on Rias and Sona-kaichou…what if they had been in danger?" Issei tilted his head to one side curiously.

"I would have intervened. Depending on what the threat was, I may have simply sent some golems or even stepped in myself." The Stray Devil replied easily. "Once Rias-sama acquired you as her servant, however…well, my intervention was no longer necessary. It became time for them to chart their own courses, without me interfering. I still watched, however, so I could gain a grasp on your combat skills and personality."

The sheer lack of remorse or shame in her voice made hairs on the back of Issei's neck stand up. She either saw absolutely nothing wrong with blatantly stalking him, or she saw it and just didn't care, and he didn't know which option bothered him more.

"Now then…I had better start to draw on my throne in preparation for the fight…" Mei muttered and tapped a depression on one armrest. A pearlescent glow appeared around her as the magic of the throne activated, healing her body to the best of its abilities.

"While it's no [Twilight Healing], this throne of mine is inundated with several hundred different types and variations of healing spells that are activated automatically based on the injuries of the person sitting in it." The Stray Devil explained to a curious Issei "It isn't on the same level as a Sacred Gear, but it is actually able to heal me, unlike the [Smile of the Holy Mother]."

Leaning against a nearby pillar with his arms crossed, the Sekiryūtei said nothing, his mind working over the fact that one of the rare and powerful healing-type Sacred Gears, which could heal everything from humans, to Devils, to Angels, to Yōkai, no longer worked on Mei.

'Mei…exactly what have you done to yourself to make this happen to you?' he wondered silently. Asia had used [Twilight Healing] on him numerous times since she was reincarnated as a Devil, some for minor wounds and some for major, potentially fatal, wounds. In all of that time, there hadn't been a single sign that the use of the Sacred Gear caused a resistance or immunity to build up to it inside his body.

That meant that Mei's excuse that overuse of [Twilight Healing] had caused her to become resistant to its effects was a complete fabrication. Something else had happened that made her either reluctant or unable to use her own [Twilight Healing] on herself, and whatever it was, Mei did not want people to find out about it.

Thus the lie.

As his friends and girlfriend drew closer, Issei grew lost in thought, his eyes on the healing Stray Devil.

Throne Room, Palace of the Maō, Underworld

Sirzechs had to sigh in satisfaction (and a bit of relief) as Rias dispatched the golem of Raynare. She hadn't tortured or drawn out the 'death' of the golem as he would imagine she would have dearly loved to, settling instead for mentally tearing Raynare to shreds with her words.

A part of Sirzechs was always a Gremory instead of the Maō Lucifer and thus he strongly approved of his baby sister's actions. One simply did not allow someone to get away with hurting someone you cared for if you were a Gremory.

"Ria-tan handled that well." Serafall remarked. The 'Maō Shōjo', as Sirzechs knew Issei secretly called her, had somehow replaced her large silver throne with a large, comfortable office chair and was spinning around on it now that Rias and her Peerage were hunting for the way to the last floor of Mei's tower.

"She did indeed." The Maō Lucifer agreed. "I hope that the Grigori won't be too put out with Rias for killing the golem of a Fallen."

"Meh. I'll sort them out if they do." The Maō Leviathan dismissed the concern easily.

The door opening made the two Devil Kings look around. Standing in the doorway, albeit somewhat shakily, was Himejima Akeno. She was wearing her Kuō Academy uniform as her Miko robes were rags at this point.

"Akeno, should you even be up? You got hit very hard." Sirzechs asked in concern for his sister's [Queen]. He quickly walked over to her and escorted the weakly protesting Yamato Nadeshiko to a seat that Serafall quickly conjured near his throne.

"I'm fine, Sirzechs-sama…just a bit fragile and weak." Akeno demurred again. "After I woke up, I just… couldn't just lie there while Rias is racing to save Issei-kun."

The expressive violet eyes of the [Priestess of Thunder] quivered as she turned to face the screen. Sirzechs knew that Issei dying from the blood of Samael had hit the entirety of his sister's Peerage hard; Rias was hurt the worst, with Akeno a very close second. She had been almost catatonic, with only her father Baraqiel able to pull her out of her state.

Once again, the Maō Lucifer cursed that he had not ordered something done about Mei the very instant she had slain her Peerage. He hadn't been able to because the Bael Family had claimed sole right to pursue and slay Mei. The current Head of the Bael Family hadn't looked very pleased to state such, which led Sirzechs to believe that some within the Bael Family had pushed for him to claim the Right of Pursuit. Even his mother, Venelana, a former member of the House of Bael, hadn't been able to discover who or why.

That whoever it was behind the order was able to make people not spill the beans to the Flaxen-Haired Madame of Extinction when she threatened them was telling.

He could have ordered other teams to locate her, but he had been distracted by various other projects and calamities at the time, so he had simply allowed the issue to drop in spite of his reservations. And now his sister's happiness was in grave danger of being torn from her for the second time in as many months.

A magic circle appearing in the centre of the room drew his attention. He tensed for a moment before recognising it as Ajuka's. All of the Maō possessed personal transportation circles bearing a mix of their original family's rune combined with the rune of the office they possessed. In Ajuka's case that was the Astaroth Family's rune combined with the Beelzebub rune.

When Ajuka and Azazel appeared, alarm bells started to ring in Sirzechs' head. Both of the researchers looked incredibly grim. Even worse, both know-it-alls seemed to be recovering from quite a shock. That was a very bad thing; anything that could shock two of the Biblical Faction's greatest minds was not going to be a good thing.

Obviously they had discovered something at Amadeus' castle that was of high importance.

"Ajuka, Azazel…what did you find?" he asked sharply.

"'Zechs…" Ajuka said, his old friend's voice faint with disbelief. "We got it wrong…so, so wrong."

"What?" Sirzechs blinked at this. Ajuka was usually direct and to the point with his words, not meandering with vagueness. "What did we get wrong?"

"Mei, Sirzechs." Azazel answered gravely. "Mei and the death of her Peerage…what happened three years ago did NOT happen the way we all believe it did…"

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Next Chapter: The Eighteenth Move: Back-rank Mate

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