Fate: Bonds Beyond Humanity

by Apprentice of Life

In a world where all can be real, what does it mean to be human? What is the meaning of humanity? A meeting between a human and a devil will have them discovering the truth while chasing their dreams. My take on the combined worlds of Fate and DxD with characters from other franchises if they can be adapted to it. Harem.

9. Chapter 9

Fate/Bonds Beyond Humanity

…..

9- Phoenix Down

…..

Sitting on the balcony of his penthouse, Rutal was having a glass of wine while trying to think of his next move. Reports had already come in from the devil's contacts across the town and he knew that his operation was a bust. Emiya Shirou still breathes and at least half of the assassins were killed.

The building that he lived in was a present from the Gremory Clan. Technically it was Rias' and she could have lived there too but she refused, getting an apartment for herself, smaller and less equipped. But Rutal didn't care, it just meant he got the top of the best building of the town all for himself.

Most of it was a hotel but the last floors were his and they had plenty of space and facilities for him to do as he pleased. With eight floors for himself and his peerage with a pool at the very top, it was a luxurious place but none of it helped at the moment.

He was annoyed, for some reason the human that he wanted to kill escaped death and the only mercenaries willing to do it that he was able to find were now dead. He hadn't managed to get into contact with anyone else, which means that even though only two bodies were found, four were killed.

'This is irritating! How a highschool student and half baked magus managed to kill a Hassan of all people?' He tried to get some explanation for it for hours but the only bodies found weren't compatible with the assassin's or Selene. 'He isn't weak. That is for certain. Damn, I wish I was the one with a pact with him.'

After discovering what made Rias interested in Emiya, jealousy sprouted on his heart together with rage. Rutal is not the strongest in his family, not even close, but he was smart and crafty. It was one of the main reasons why between his few cousins he was the one sent to keep an eye on Rias.

'I need another plan. Now that there was an attack Rias will be on guard and she will also most likely suspect me.' He made sure to leave no evidence of his involvement but Rutal had no doubt he was the number one suspect. To make the matters worse, her suspicion would limit his movements since he won't be able to use the usual contacts that devils had access to in the city.

A word from her and she can make his life really hard since she is the sibling of a Maou and the heiress of her clan. He is practically a nobody, isolated in this world. Money is the only resource that he has in abundance but she can also counter that.

"I still have some moves, this is not over by a long shot." He takes a big gulp of his wine and reflects about his actual condition until he hears a voice.

"Master?" His Queen, Tali, approaches in her sleeping wear, something he could look at and appreciate. She wasn't as beautiful as some devils could be but with her ample breasts and hourglass figure she was still appealing to his eyes. "Are you coming to my bed tonight?" Her green hair was free on her back with only some covering her breasts but that only made it more desirable for him to look at, something that would tempt most men but he could have any time.

"Yes, make yourself ready. I will just finish the wine." Hearing the other, the woman left to prepare while the pureblood drank the last of his cup and got the bottle for the last of it. 'There is nothing I can do for tonight. With any luck, Hassan is still around and he can take care of the brat.'

But the Phenex was not going to hold his breath on that hypothesis. He shall treat the whole thing as a failure and make another plan, if the assassin is still around, great, but he shall consider the man dead. Same with Selene.

Finishing the wine he starts to move back inside, not noticing when the boundary field around the building flickers for a second.

...

Observing the hotel while moving around on another rooftop was a small creature, barely taller than a chair. He had a bird's beak, blue toad-like skin and was bald, dressed with brown robes and a black hat of a court attendant for a daimyo or shogun. He also was holding a staff made of wood with two heads looking away from each other, an old man's and a woman's. It was taller than he was and it had a creepy presence.

It was called the Two-Head Staff, a simple name but the artefact held great power in it and was the instrument of preference for Jakken, now in his true form. The kappa was working on taking over the boundary field around the enemy fortress.

What he was doing was a complicated process of saturating the area around him with his youki and then send it to the boundary field he was targeting. It involved lots of previous practice, concentration and a little dance moving the staff around and in circles, never taking the eyes of the last eight floors of the building and saying magic words.

"I, who controls. I, who dominate. I, who usurps. I, who control. I, who dominate. I, who usurps. I, who control. I, who dominate. I, who usurps. I, who control. I, who dominate. I, who usurps." Around him a lime aura is present as he was finishing the spell. It would be many times easier to do this if he was closer but the distance favored a surprise attack.

Another thing that made the process easier than it should have been was that the boundary field was standard, no one present created it or was really connected to it outside of feeling it in case of an emergency. A part of him was disappointed with such defenses but another was excited because it meant that the plan could go smoothly.

He stopped his dance mid step and let out a cruel laugh. "You dare to harm my charge, the daughter of the great Sesshomaru-sama. Only suffering waits for you." Hitting the staff twice on the ground he sends a small signal to his allies that they could go in. "Now you shall pay for such insolence!"

Inside the building the Gremory group of devils and a hanyou were on the elevator going up to a confrontation. Since Rias was technically the owner of the building she had already dealt with security. They were dressed in their student clothes with the exception of Akeno who was dressed as a hime miko, the same clothes she used when Shirou unlocked her circuits, and even had the smile of a gentle priestess..

Other additions were Setsuna with a guitar case and Kiba who had a sword, his favorite, Holy Eraser, on his side in a sheath. "Everyone remember the plan?" Rias asks, after a couple of nods they stop on the first floor of the penthouse. "Time for payback."

Once the door opens they come face to face with one of the members of Rutal's peerage, a thin woman with blonde hair. She had no time to react as Setsuna and Kiba rushed and knocked her out with blows on the neck and stomach. "We will get this." Kiba said while Setsuna was already advancing deeper inside.

"Remember to avoid killing if you can. Just don't bother if it is too dangerous. From my research there shouldn't be no one like that." Rias warned while she and Akeno remained on the elevator, going to the top floor. Once the doors closed, Kiba checks to make sure that the first victim of the night was really unconscious. He makes a sword that could work like a chain and ties her up.

"We should be careful, there are still possibly 13-." Kiba tried to warn her but Setsuna was already away from his range. There were plenty of corridors that could take someone to different rooms and places and the hanyou was already looking around for anyone.

The penthouse wasn't as much part of a hotel as it was a mansion built on the top of one. There was a chandelier on the ceiling of this specific floor and the mais staircase was an opulent thing with red carpet connecting at least six floors together.

"What?" Someone shouted to the side, exiting a room that looked like a sauna. It was a guy with black hair and some muscle, like a gymnast. He took a look at the duo and began panicking. "INTRU-"

Before he could finish Setsuna jumps in his direction unveiling the naginata she had on the guitar case. The devil had no time to react as he was cut from below until his shoulder then he was hit on the side of his head with the blunt part of the blade.

But the situation was already spiralling with a small girl jumping out of a door in her pyjamas and a toothbrush, Kiba was sure he saw the other blonde at school before. With fear in her eyes she started making a magic circle in front of her with both hands. A huge flame shot out for a second before disappearing. "WHAT?" Confusion was all she knew and before she could react more Setsuna used the tip of the naginata to stab her on the shoulder. The smaller woman screams for a second before Setsuna punches her, taking her out of action.

Hearing the pain of one of his allies had another man coming from a corridor, a huge man, bald, bigger than a door and looking practically made of pure muscle, some as big as a watermelon. He shows up with a huge lifting weight on his right hand and starts screaming in rage as he notices Setsuna looking down at his defeated friend with some blood dripping from the tip of her weapon.

He charges at the hanyou in rage, no hesitation. Before he could grab her Setsuna retreats down another hallway to take the fight to another place without the wounded.

Meanwhile Kiba wanted to slap himself on his face by the turn of events. He would have no time since out of a balcony on the floor above came a swordsman and two other girls who were using daggers, one on each hand.

They also tried to use fire on their weapons but it was snuffed out. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" Asked the swordsman while he took a fighting posture, with the girls taking point in front of him.

Kiba takes a couple of steps back and says with a smile. "Because you asked for a fight."

He had to raise his sword immediately after since the girls, twins from eastern descent both with black short hair, dressed in long skirts made with a fabric he never saw, were on him. The place had enough space they could try and surround him which had Kiba fighting on retreat, taking steps back while keeping the three on his line of sight.

The Gremory Knight finds himself having to push both women by himself when he notices the approach of another sword. It was the only attack his male opponent managed to throw and Kiba blocked it easily while kicking the man back to his allies.

The other swordsman, who wasn't acting like a Knight from what Kiba could tell, wasn't able to just attack and stayed back while the other two jumped at him again. He was slim, with black hair and his weapon was a rapier, dressed in a speedo. He had a small mustache and was having difficulties going in, from time to time trying and stopping short of hitting his allies.

That was great for the Gremory's Knight but he was trying to find more devils as well. "Taking a break on the weekend?" He asked in a playful tone, laying the bait to see if anyone else was close. "Isn't your master generous?" He said while retreating a couple more steps.

The question is ignored and the twins attack, the first one was easily blocked but the second made a somersault over her twin and Kiba in an effort to get behind him. It wouldn't be that easy since Kiba made another sword appear on his hand.

"Static Steel."The new sword, saber with blue colors and white handle appeared on his hand and clashed with the daggers that tried to get him from behind. The owner tried to push him back but only to receive a considerable voltage of electricity, forcing the woman to retreat after losing the feeling on her arms.

On the other side, Kiba was struggling to try and push the other twin when the enemy swordsman tried to stab him in the arm. Kiba ducked, disengaging himself from the first twin and letting the attack go over his head.

Then he used the Static Steel to stab the man on the leg. A scream rangs in the air as the Phenex 'Knight' felt the jolt directly on his body, forcing his muscles to let go of his sword and giving Kiba enough space to use his own as a bat to try and knock him out.

The two women retreated and joined together as they watched their comrade fall to the ground. Kiba just gives them a serene smile. "If you two could surrender, we could avoid further violence today." The two just hold their weapons higher, ready for his attack. "As you wish."

…

At the top floor, Rutal's private abode, Rias and Akeno step out of the elevator. The place was huge for a normal person's standards but to Rias, while descent, it didn't compare to her home in the Underworld. They were hearing a noise of something being hit repeatedly, coming from one of the rooms combined with what sounded like grunts.

"Well… looks like we are going to interrupt something important." Akeno couldn't help but comment. To that Rias just raises her hand and sends a small sample of her Power of Destruction in the direction of the noise.

Her small blast destroys a couple of walls until it blows up in the room Rias estimated the noise was coming from.

"Hmm… you got better at that." Akeno compliments but also notices that Rias had her shoulders down with a bit of sweat on her forehead. 'Not good.'.

"You bitch!" Rutal comes out from the smoke and debris, glaring at the two devils before him. "What do you think you are doing, Rias?" He was dressed only in his pants and had on his face a look that couldn't possibly show more anger if he tried.

"You attacked my magus!" Rias said, her face carrying her own rage. Glaring at him, she continues. "You think I would let you get away with that?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, but since you attacked me I will show you what a Phenex can do!" His energy raises around him and neither of the women makes a motion to defend themselves. "I will start with your QUEEN!"

Fire rages and flies in Akeno's direction but before it could make contact it frizzes out. "Oh my~! Did you finish too fast? I haven't done anything yet." The raven haired Queen mocks the pureblood devil who looks at his hands in disbelief.

"Surrender Rutal!" Rias was pissed with the guy but she had her priorities. "Your flames aren't going to work here! The boundary field is preventing nullifying them!"

"The boundary- HOW?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. And tried to light his body in flames only for them to completely disappear. He looks at Rias in shock.

"We did what you did; we outsourced the job to someone else. More specifically, to someone who is good at boundary field creation." It was obvious that the blonde man was losing his composure but he managed to calm himself down.

"What do you want, Rias?" The man knew he was at a disadvantage in the whole situation. He still has cards to play but for now he needs to buy some time. "You can't touch me. If you do-"

"You are wrong on that." Rias interrupted. "I can't kill you, true. But I can do some real damage, like, for instance, hurt every single member of your peerage the same way you tried to hurt Shirou."

Rutal laughed. "Now, calm down a bit, Rias. You have no proof." He wasn't sure if she was bluffing or not, Rias is young compared to him and other devils… but she is a Gremory with a protectorate and enough reason to have a chip on her shoulder towards him.

"We both know you are guilty, don't even bother denying it." The red head was ready to liberate her power and the Phenex knew he had no chance in a direct confrontation. "Now you have two choices; Admit it and leave the human world or…"

"Or…" He took a step back when her aura of power got stronger. Rias' eyes never leave him.

"Or worse." Rutal chuckles at the threat.

"Fair enough, without my flames and alone I can't defeat you." He started to grow a smile. "Unfortunately for you, I have someone you can't defeat." An aura of power surges behind him as his Queen approaches her King.

Tali was covered in shadows, her naked form completely dark leaving no features visible below her face and her hair, it was not green anymore, with exception of the tips that kept her natural color the rest was the same color as the night sky. She steps closer and then positioned herself in front of her King. The eyes of the woman were a dark purple and her hair was floating behind her.

But the mana she was emanating, her power, it wasn't something the Gremory King was expecting, something was terribly wrong.

"You may have neutralized the fire of the phoenix but not the shadows where my Queen's power resides." A aura of darkness and divinity was flowing out of the woman. That spark of divinity told both ORC members the source of the new power.

"A sacred gear?" Rias didn't expect that, all the information that she had on Rutal was that his peerage was mediocre at best with little combat power. He avoided Rating Games ever since he lost two in a roll by a landslide and, even then, his Queen was knocked out early in any match he ever participated in.

All the intel she managed to collect ever since she decided to attack told her, quite certainly, that if a confrontation happened there would be no major obstacle in her way.

"Surprised? Tali always had sacred gear but the conditions to use it are kinda… complicated." He exclaimed with a smile full of confidence. Finally his Queen was able to show her true power.

"'Conditions'?" Rias was waking her brain to try and figure out which sacred gear worked like that. So far she hasn't been able to remember any. "Damn it." She started to prepare to fight only for Akeno to step forward and block her with an arm.

"Buchou, you should calm down, there is no need to get mad about something nobody knew about previously." While she said that with a smile her eyes never left the ones of the other Queen.

"Akeno-" Before RIas could say anything else she was interrupted.

"If I try to hold Rutal, he can try to do something unpleasant. Because of the laws of the Underworld, I can't just kill him." Since the pureblood devils are an endangered species, even if most didn't accept that, killing them or doing great harm is considered a crime in the Underworld.

The elder devils don't care much about the lives of reincarnated devils but for them the life of a pureblood is sacred unless they are a traitor and useless since even a traitor can have their utilities.

For that reason, unless in extreme circumstances, killing a pureblood is a sin that won't be forgiven easily. Killing a reincarnated devil is a different affair, since they were treated mostly like property; it was more of a matter of 'who is the owner' for the noble houses.

While it was true that Rutal could try something desperate with her… "Don't lie to me." Rias whispers to not let their opponents hear her. "You can immobilize him just fine."

"Maybe, but you are already tired after that blast, aren't you?" The heiress didn't answer while Akeno advanced. "Let's make this a Queen's fight!" She shouted for all to hear, a challenge of power and pride.

"Tch. What is wrong, Rias? Too scared to fight for yourself?" Rutal tries to bait her into a fight but the redhead wasn't having it. She wants to but her best friend has a point.

"Isn't that what peerages are for?" She was tired even before she entered the hotel, the events of the last few days catching up with her. 'Maybe I should have done this tomorrow.' But her own principles stopped her from resting, pushing her further to get rid of the 'plague' on her land. However just looking at the opponent's Queen had her concerned for the unknown. "A sacred gear is a surprise. Care to share which one it is?"

"Hah! Very funny Rias, but no, I shall keep that little tidbit for ourselves." He then approaches his Queen and caresses her cheek. "Take care of the black haired bitch. Then once you are done help me deal with Rias." The smallest of nods was the reply.

"You think I can't beat you?" The King of Gremory prepares to fight but the man laughs more.

"You can't use your power on me, my regeneration is, afterall, the worst of my clan. Compound that with this flame blocking boundary field and it is not a matter of beating you!" The man turns and starts to run, going into the same hole he had shown up. "But getting away from you!"

Rias was shocked by the development but soon opens her wings to give chase only for spikes made of shadows to appear on her path. She didn't need to worry since yellow lighting destroyed them before Rias got hit. "Akeno, I won't let him escape! Finish Tali and then find us!"

And with that Rias was gone and only the two Queens were left in the room. "You could have killed her, you know?" Akeno said while observing her opponent, the dark aura around her had not diminished a bit during the conversation.

"She would have lived." It was clear that Tali was irritated by the turn of events. "You will regret coming here."

"Fufufu. Are you upset that we interrupted your 'fun time'?" The green haired didn't answer but her energy grew more intense. "I will take that as a yes."

"What would a little virgin like you know?" It was supposed to be an insult but Akeno just shrugged.

"At least I don't open my legs to any man." Finally Tali loses her patience and sends a huge spike made of shadows at Akeno's direction who answers back by making a circle and sending lighting. The two attacks collide and the floor breaks with the impact but both fighters aren't bothered. "Touched a nerve?"

The shadows around the older woman grew thicker. "I don't think your King will have any right to complain if you die." She wasn't going to let her master be insulted in such a manner.

Then shadows jump in Akeno's direction only for them to be shot down with two small circles, followed by a large one sending a lighting straight to Tali who raised a wall of darkness for her defense. The lighting was blocked and the older woman was shown to not be hurt, if anything the aura around her looked stronger.

'That is not a Longinus.' Akeno thinks to herself. 'It is not a famous sacred gear either. I never heard of a sacred gear capable of such a thing… Is this a Balance Break?'

Balance Break; the elevated state that a sacred gear could reach throughout many means, mostly through training or emotionally taxing events. As the name implies, it was a level of power that could change the shape of the word by breaking any semblance of balance in it.

Then the shadows behind shot from the wall in a rain of nails moving at high speed to rip the priestess apart.

"Care to share how you are doing that?" Akeno questions again, while using her circle to rapidly fire various bolts in sequence to break the attack. Every single one of them hits the mark and erases many of the threats before they even get close.

But there was no answer to the question. Tali had lost her patience and just kept launching shadow spikes around, the place was being destroyed by the impacts and stray projectiles, both women ignored the gratuitous explosions in attempts to get each other.

…

This was the first time that Rias hated the opulence that her family has for some things, the size of the penthouse she was chasing Rutal in was too big. To be fair it was the last two floors in one but it was frustrating nonetheless with its many corridors, rooms and even a secret passage that had her wishing she could just demolish the place.

On the other hand, Rutal was hiding behind a corridor trying to keep his distance from the redhead, knowing for a fact that if he is directly caught she could kill him easily and in the rhythm things were going she may as well just do it.

Said redhead was nursing a headache at the moment and just wanted to get everything over with. The day was weighing on her, the many feats of magic, the research she had to do, the planning, the concern, all of it placed her in a worse position than she should have been.

"What is your plan here, Rutal? Run and hide until your peerage is destroyed?" Bantering was not something she wanted to do but she just can't find him. The heiress hoped he would answer and give up his location.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" Unfortunately for her she couldn't pinpoint exactly where his voice was coming from. "What is the big idea afterall? You made it clear you can't kill me!" Because if she really wished him dead there was no need for a confrontation, she would have blasted the direction he was in without remorse.

Something he wanted to an extent.

"I want you gone!" Rias opened a door to the side, it was a library with many shelves and an impressive collection of books. She decides to go in. "You are too dangerous to stay in town and I want you gone!"

"That won't solve your problem, you know?" Rutal's voice was louder. "If you don't kill me, I will tell my uncle about your little secret!"

She knew that, but if she did kill him herself then even her brother wouldn't be able to stop the consequences from what can come after. At that point he would be a martyr, locking her in with the Phenex clan forever.

"That changes nothing! Shirou will succeed anyway and I won't have to deal with you ever again!" The redhead pushes a shelf down to try and spook the blonde out of hiding.

"You are placing too much trust on a human." His voice was even closer. Just a couple more steps "Would it be so bad to marry my cousin? It is necessary for the preservation of our race."

Rias turns around and sends a blast of her power that Rutal barely had time to rise a circle for his protection. His impromptu shield succeeds leaving Gremory scowling.

"That should have been stronger… you are weaker now, why?" Rias lets out a small smile.

"Not weaker, just not trying to kill you by accident." Rias made a point of letting her dark mana out but that was a mistake.

"Oh yes, you are weaker alright. In the past you would be letting out that much from the get go." That was something that the Phenex observed about her.

He has been sent to keep an eye and stop her from trying to do anything that would damage the Phenex clan reputation and while it was limited to just stop her from just getting in intimate contact with any male or do actions that would be considered humiliating he barely had to do a thing on that front.

That gave him the opportunity to watch her as a combatant, a fighter, and while she lacked technique she didn't lack power. He watched her kill a stray once, only using in a single blast of mana with barely any effort and that is why he could say for certain that she isn't at 100% at the moment.

"I am still strong enough to deal with you!" And it wasn't false bravado either. Even if he had his flames, he wouldn't be able to win a fair fight. Rutal wasn't chosen to keep an eye on Rias for his military might or strategic ability, that wasn't why he was there instead of a member of his uncle's peerage

So he had no choice but drop anything around him and get the hell out. Running again, Rias had no choice but to pursue the other pureblood. She throws another attack but the Phenex jumps to the side. "You are getting slower!" He turns around and with a magic circle he sends a blast of wind that forces Rias to land on the ground and hide behind a sofa. "It's true I can't defeat you but I just need to hold you back until Tali deals with your pets!"

"Don't call them that!" Unleashing a huge beam of darkness, Rias manages to break Rutal's attempt of a shield and hit the man.

His back hit a chair but soon he was getting up. "Arg! What about not killing me?" He asked while getting up.

"You can take it." Rias was out of breath. 'Damn it. I should have rested properly.'

That was what her rush and rage made her do, she ignored the signs of her own body and attacked as fast as she could. The Gremory heiress had given time for her peerage to rest but she didn't take any for herself and now she was paying for it since she didn't expect the opponent's Queen to be that strong.

From his perspective Rutal knew that he was relatively fresh and even if his peerage couldn't win, Tali could, he had supreme confidence on that fact. That was the only thing he was counting on. He doesn't need to run, not really, just hide and stall for long enough for his Queen to win the whole game.

'Rias, you really should have investigated me more. Maybe if you did you would know that there was another reason why I am your 'handler'. My Queen's sacred gear is your worst nightmare.' But he was not going to say that out loud. Rutal can brag later. Once Rias is defeated, he can force her to give up her plans for Emiya Shirou.

Once he has the concrete plan, proof of her attempts of escaping the Gremory/Phenex agreement then it will be game over. He could even see the rewards he would be able to get for his efforts, his family will hail him as a hero.

But the man needs to be patient, he needs to buy time. With a slight of hand he made a circle on the ground and used it to kick up the dust around him. Once he was sure Rias was looking into another direction he started to run the other way, his wings basically useless without his flames.

Rias had to once again give chase, she can't let him escape. One way or another this night would mark the end of Rutal stays in the city.

…

Even a team that is specialized in espionage needs someone to be the 'muscle'. Someone to deal with any threats in a more physical manner. And, since the boundary field takeover was stopping people from returning and using magic properly, the muscle of the Phenex peerage needed to work double time.

However he was finding himself unable to help his allies. The first opponent that he chose, a girl he thought he could break in half easily, was giving him much more work than he thought she was capable of. Not being the sharpest tool in the box, all he could do was keep pressing and get her when the opportunity arrives. He was certain he would win, being bigger and stronger.

He also fell to the ground for the third time since the fight started. Around his whole body were bruises and cuts but nothing lethal since Setsuna was finding it considerably difficult to cut something out. Hitting her opponent's was like colliding with a rock, she can damage it but nothing too deep.

Rising to his feet, the Rook of Rutal Phenex lets out a roar and charges again. That was pretty much a summary of how the fight has been going since it began; the guy charges, no strategy or tricks and the girl side steps him and cuts a part of his body while also delivering some other punishment to try and bring him down.

This time Setsuna cuts the left calf and kicks his back making her opponent hit the wall. "Are you a bull that only knows how to charge?" At that point the hanyou didn't expect an answer, the man just gets up, his muscles bulge, veins visible, as he goes at her again. This time Setsuna uses the naginata's body to mess with his legs while she kicks him on the head.

Crashing through the wall, Setsuna waits for her opponent to rise again. "Setsuna!" Kiba appears mostly out of nowhere, a sword she never saw before on his hand, a sword that looked more like a hook than anything. "Are you finished here?"

Both turn to look at the muscle man dragging himself from the rubble. "He is a stubborn one but he is really strong." The hallway the fight had proceeded to was full of holes talking to various rooms, there was an academy, an office, a kitchen and a lounge among others.

"Really? Then maybe you should just kill him." He steps closer to the girl and whispers. "Or if you want I can do it for you."

"Huh." Setsuna murmurs nonchalantly and advances a single step… then she uses the back of the naginata to hit the blonde on his stomach and then she spins to hit him on the face with the body of the weapon followed by a jump kick on his face.

The blonde falls to the ground and has to move fast when the blade of the naginata comes down to try and take a leg. "SETSUNA STOP!" He pleaded as he was drawing his sword, stopping the raven haired girl assault.

Glaring at Kiba she says, her voice showing she was not in the mood for games. "Don't use my name callously, impostor." Setsuna moves to stab the blonde again, who draws his sword back and manages to parry the strike but not the second or the third or the fourth stab, all of them hitting the arms.

Instead of continuing, Setsuna jumps to the left and back as the giant man tries to crush her with his whole body. The huge man then stood in front of her 'ally' who looked relieved by the interference.

"Thanks Marcha." 'Kiba' starts to lose his form and turns into an unremarkable man with short black hair; he was dressed in a black shirt and shorts. "What gave me away?" Now that his ally was around, the giant pile of muscle, Marcha wasn't being as aggressive.

"Doesn't matter." Setsuna could have explained that the man didn't act like Kiba at all by suggesting disobeying his master's orders or telling him how his smell was off since Kiba always smells of metal while he smiled more like paper. Instead, she positions herself again for another counter. "I have a meeting with your master later. He has much to answer for attacking my friend."

"Calm down a bit young lady, there is no reason to be so aggressive. Why don't we sit down and talk with a cup of tea?" The man smiled amicably with his offer but Setsuna wasn't having it.

"Not interested." She jumps back, placing both her feets on the wall and using it like a springboard for an attack. The giant Marcha steps forward to meet her with a punch only for his fist to be stabbed by the naginata.

It didn't pierce much and with a flip Setsuna planted her feet on the man's chest and kicked him back to avoid her blade breaking against the huge man's bones. Marcha falls on his back, hitting the wall in surprise by the strength of the girl's kicks.

He would get up again but the hanyou had no time to press him since the other guy attacked with his sword to try and get her head only for it to be easily blocked by her own weapon. Setsuna then used the lower part of it to hit the knee of her opponent, forcing him down but he repositioned his sword to stop a follow up attack, now holding it with both of his hands.

She could tell that the sword wasn't appropriate for him or better yet, something was missing. Evidence of that was that the man was trying and failing to channel mana on his sword.

"Kinda unfair you are attacking us like that." The man said while breaking the stalemate and letting out a slash with his sword which she easily blocks and he is forced to try and hold her back while she pushes him to a wall. "Coming from nowhere, blocking our magic, all of that without even giving a goddamn reason!"

"You tried to kill my friend." She said and while she appeared calm, in reality only her will was keeping her anger in check. Just remembering what happened the night before was enough to make her push the man harder until he hits the wall.

"Whoa, calm down. You have no proof of that." But he could see in her eyes, she was convinced that they did it and nothing is going to change her mind. "Look! I know you are mad but let's talk about it! There is no reason to kill us!"

"If anyone has to die today, I will make sure they are the ones who deserve it." With that she got ready to let go with one hand so she could deal with him only to have to jump back to evade the pile of muscle that was going to crash where she was.

However she was unable to since the man moved the sword to keep the naginata stuck. When she tries to retreat Setsuna ends up failing and Marcha manages to hit her using his shoulders to send the hanyou through a wall into the kitchen.

The only positive thing during the whole interaction was that her weapon was dislodged from the hook and was still on her hand but the impact rattled her skull for a bit leaving her confused and open. The devil doesn't hesitate to go in and try to go for the kill while she is trying to recover her balance.

Setsuna just recovered enough to get up before he was about to grab her, jumping on a close table and then, to keep retreating, she slides on it until she has to jump out while the table is crushed.

Skipping throughout the sink and oven that the giant follows after and destroys with ease in his goal to do the same to her. She is growing tired of him and was trying to think of a solution to put him down.

Finally Setsuna goes for one she knows is applicable but there is a chance that it may end up killing the man. Her doubt lasted a second and she just decided that since they were going to threaten her friends they could take the risks.

Focusing on her naginata, the young woman jumps back again, now he has her back against a wall but there is no fear. If anything, the man was the one trapped and as he jumped in her direction she didn't hesitate to stab him on the stomach, the excellent blade, strengthened by her youki pierces the flesh, just enough for the tip to go in.

"Fall!" It wasn't a declaration, it was an order. For a second, Marcha didn't look interested in it and moved both of his arms to grab and crush Setsuna's head.

But then he stopped. A few seconds was all it takes for him to start screaming, screaming like he never did before. His insides felt like they were on fire, almost like acid was poured on his intestines.

He just screams until his voice gets hoarse from how much he was screaming. Screams as blood leaves his throat and his consciousness fades from the pain.

Setsuna, without ceremony, pulls the naginata out of her now defeated opponent and steps to the side as the giant falls face first on the wall and slides to the ground.

"MARCHA!" The other devil wanted to go to his companion but hesitated. "What have you done to him?"

"I poisoned him with my youki." The brandishes the naginata to clean the blood and also show the green energy around it. "Don't worry, he will live, maybe.".

It wasn't that she was lying, she did poison the man, but her youki was dangerous, so dangerous that she can't use it herself without the risk of getting hurt. That was her shortcoming, she had the power that she inherited from her father and she can't use it properly.

'To be honest it is a coin toss if he is going to live or not.' Looking to the defeated Rook she starts to march out of the kitchen, the other devil taking a step back for every two steps she takes forward. 'A human would probably have melted with how much energy I used.'

Devils are naturally more resistant than humans, reincarnated or not. There was a chance the man would live, she just didn't care enough at the moment. They were all accomplices to the man who tried to hurt Shirou.

With that in mind she looks at the retreating devil, he is afraid now, she could smell it. 'Good.' She thinks with an impassive face.

Then she jumps at him, and Brosh knows he has no chance of winning.

...

Away from Setsuna's fight, Kiba was dancing with metal and three partners. They had moved from the main hall and now the fight was happening into more tight corridors per Kiba's strategy. He had already managed to piece together that the twins are Pawns while the man was a Bishop and not a Knight since he was too slow for that.

The girls were used to working together but the man wasn't, he was using a sword not as it should be used but as nothing more than a medium for his spells and without them it was nothing better than a club for him, something to swing without skill or care.

Retreating a couple more steps, Kiba could see how the twins were always the first on him, more used to the exercise while the guy lagged behind. Not that they could do much with just knives against him, he was using a longsword and was also faster than them which gives him plenty of space to disengage every time things got too dicey.

Realizing that they were getting his pace and to keep their numbers manageable forces the twins away with his sword and turned around to run, none could keep up with him and once he did a single leap to get to a door he couldn't help but let out a small smile. There were stairs in a small encroached space, some kind of back entrance for staff.

With a plan forming in his mind he looks back and notices they were still on his tail. Pretending to panic he turned and ran to the next floor, moving up three flights of stairs before they were in his vision again. He watches as they look up and talk about something before chasing him once more, Kiba having enough time to take a breather.

'This is too easy.' Kiba would be suspicious of how he was easily running circles against his three adversaries if he wasn't informed previously of how uncoordinated they were on Rating Games.. 'Are they really that dependent on their devil's powers? Or should I say the Phenex's?' Chuckling a bit, the Gremory Knight was holding his sword firmily and once the faster twin got close enough he parried her first knife to the side and kicked her on her sibling dropping them and the guy down stairs.

While the fall and the pile of bodies would be enough to at least leave some wounds in a normal human, to a devil it was nothing and soon the trio gets up, more aware of the danger with Kiba on the high ground.

"Datra, Patra, we need to get the others." The swordsman suggests just for one of the siblings to shake her head.

"If the others were around they would already be here." The other sister followed up with.

"They must be busy. If all the heiresses are attacking then we are outnumbered." They were wrong but there is no way for them to know that

Some of their allies were busy, yes, but the rest weren't coming. The boundary field was blocking not only the flames but also teleportation. The ones that left to make deals were just locked out. Even if they runned back to their base, it would still take some time for them to finish their work, notice that something was wrong and then actually run back from many parts of the town..

The Gremory assault has a time limit, but it was a generous one, all things considered, there was no need to involve the other heiresses on this.

It didn't mean that Kiba should just let his opponents talk and strategize. So he created another sword on his hands, a teal blade that looked more like a spike with a handle. It wasn't anything fancy because it didn't need to be. "Wave Maker."

Shirou had a habit of throwing fire knives on his spars and Kiba had decided to make a counter. Unfortunately even a sacred gear as versatile as his has its limits, unless it can go beyond them but Kiba still can't. It didn't mean that he couldn't use what he had.

By stabbing the ground a small trickle of water starts to leave the sword, with a bit more mana it becomes a fountain and by adding even more it becomes a river with a broken dam.

None could resist or stop the amount of water that hits them. Bones are broken when they hit each other and the wall behind after being hit by the full force of his attack.

After a couple seconds he lets go of his power and watches as the water was leaving the area and probably ruining the carpet of the place.

On the ground, defeated, were the three that chased him. He wished he could have done that sooner but his sword didn't control water, just produced it. It was a quirk that he failed to get rid of unlike some of his other blades and, for the life of him, the Knight can't figure out why.

Kiba approaches cautiously, taking his time to check that his adversaries were really knocked out. Once he was sure he let out a sigh of relief and placed Holy Eraser on its sheath and started to move the bodies, leaving Wave Maker on the ground. He was not planning to let them spread around on the stairs, he was more gentle than that. Kiba also needs to tie them up in case they can get back to fighting.

After dragging the last body in the corridor, Kiba turns to see Setsuna dragging her two former opponents. Both looked to be breathing but it was obvious they wouldn't be fighting again any time soon. "Anyone else around?"

"No. I checked." After dropping the two she proceeds to the main stairs, not willing to risk if the elevator got damaged in some other fight she didn't know about.

"Wait! Help me tie them up before we go." Kiba could see that Setsuna was impatient, she wanted a crack at the enemy King but she was still responsive enough to turn back and help him.

Considering the size of the giant it would take some time for them to leave the floor.

…

Another shadow jumps at Akeno but she dodges using her wings, getting some distance while shooting lightning bolts to destroy the tendrils that tried to impale or grab her. She managed to do it by a hair as her hand casting magic quickly moves to blow up another shadow spike sent flying from her right, it came from a shadow on the ground that disappeared soon after.

'Another trick?' Akeno really wished to know what Tali's sacred gear is. It controlled shadows, that was a fact, but the power looked to be too versatile for it to not be famous in some fashion.

It started by just a couple constructs made of shadows, but the green haired Queen was using them as material to create weapons. But they were changing too much. From just spikes to tentacles to now a battering ram. Akeno couldn't believe what she was seeing and she tried to blow it up only to fail. The construct then hits the younger Queen on the guts and has her hitting a wall.

As she recovered, another assault came with a wave made of black spikes that flew in her direction, she quickly reacted and sent a ball of lightning at it to destroy as many as she could.

The explosion was the sign that told Tali that her opponent was still kicking and the older Queen didn't hesitate, sending more and more tendrils and spikes in that direction, decimating the wall.

Once the dust settled Tali observes that the hime miko was nowhere to be seen after the gratuitous destruction. She can see some blood and starts to take small steps forward before turning around and raising a shell of darkness to protect her from another lightning bolt.

"You are fast." Tali said with a tone of respect. "At least in using magic."

"Oh, you know… practice makes perfect." Unlike her opponent who hasn't a single scratch on her, Akeno was bleeding on her arm and leg. Her clothes were damaged to the point her undergarments were somewhat visible and she was breathing hard. "I train a lot everyday."

"Huh. All training in the world can't compete with my sacred gear. Not when I can go all out." Slowly the woman turns to Akeno and gets another field of spikes around her, ready for lunch.

"Hey, just between us girls… What is the name of this sacred gear?" She wasn't as interested in knowing as she was in taking a break from the fight.

"None of your concern." In reality Tali couldn't reveal the name, if she did then its power would be obvious to the opposing Queen. But even if Akeno figured it out, the green haired woman was still confident in her victory.

Soon more spikes flew in Akeno's direction but now she had more room to dodge and just used barriers and lighting when she had little choice. Still she was in a bad situation, if it wasn't for her use of magecraft, something she used to break a hole on the wall previously, she would already be dead.

A part of her wanted Rias to hear the mess and come back to help but it was imperative that Rutal isn't given enough time to try something unpredictable. Either way, that means Akeno was stuck on this fight but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what the woman's sacred gear was.

They investigated Rutal and his peerage in the Underworld, he had no one this powerful, he would have won some Rating Games if he did. Instead of this ending quickly, with him surrounded like it happened in one of his matches he got to run while Akeno was struggling against an opponent she wasn't able to even hit.

If this shadow sacred gear wasn't in play then the whole thing would already be over.

Running out of options, Akeno decided to go in a full force offensive. Making a huge circle in front of her, she pores as much mana as it was safe on it before throwing the strongest lighting she ever did in her life.

Tali's eyes widened and she rushed to raise walls of shadows to block the attack. When the lighting hit, five walls were between both women, but the impact was enough that part of the floor broke, the walls started to crumble and the whole area around them was falling apart by the collision of powers.

Akeno keeps pushing more and more mana on her offensive, she was sweating and the extension was costly, but she breaks the first wall, then the second and the third only for the attack to stall on the fourth.

Tali was now with magic circles of her own and using her mana to power up her defenses, connecting herself with the creations of her sacred gear upon realizing that Akeno was about to win. All her concentration was on stopping the continuous lighting bolt. Because of the lack of practice with her sacred gear at full power that she was having to use such resources.

But she hadn't had the practice while Akeno spent the last few months improving her ability to channel magic. It was even more evident when the fourth wall broke and the Queen of the Phenex starting engorging the last wall with shadows. Making it thick enough that, finally, the lighting bolt got stuck, unable to break it.

The stalemate continued for a few seconds, until the volatile mana that was colliding between them reacted in a violent fashion and blew up in an explosion that caused a chain reaction of destruction.

Windows broke, fissures opened all around the floor while it gave out and both fighters were thrown back as a result. Thanks to the boundary field it didn't go beyond the personal floors of the devils, but the damage to the building was already done, it would either have to be closed down or reformed, especially where the fight was taking place.

Akeno got up and looked around, she had to dig herself out of some rubble and if her observation was right they were a whole floor below the original point of the fight. "That was the biggest explosion I ever made." She couldn't help but comment as she cleaned herself a bit.

Taking stock of her situation she noticed that there were a couple of new bruises on her skin and she could feel a bone or two out of place but nothing overly debilitating. It was the mana department that was actually bad, she had spent quite a bit just to blast the walls down and in quickly making an emergency shield against the explosion.

'I need to check on Tali. If I'm not-' Before she could finish the thought she jumps back, avoiding a hand made of shadows that almost grabbed her. 'What is this power?' Feeling her skin crawl she looks to the last place where she saw the opposing Queen.

Emerging out of the rubble, the other woman still hadn't a single scratch after all that happened. Not only that but the power she was showing has just gone up on the scale as more hands made of shadows and darkness rise around Tali and charge in Akeno's direction, some turning into spikes, swords or hammers.

The raven haired Queen's eyes widened and she joined her hands and shouted. "SPARK UP!" The aria helps her renew her assault and allows for a rain of lightning bolts that flys from her hands, as numeric as the shadows below.

It wasn't enough and as the powers collided once again Akeno witnessed as the lesser numbers of her bolts failed to stop the assault and she was hit by a torrent of darkness. Her back and wings hit the ceiling and she feels every hit as she struggles to keep herself conscious.

After a few seconds of punishment the attack stops and Akeno starts to fall down, hitting the ruble face first. 'That hurted a lot.' She barely could form the thought before a pair of arms grabs her and pulls her up by her own arms, the other woman approaching confidently.

"That was a nice trick you pulled there." Tali complemented, secure of her victory. "I don't know how you used magic without circles and can't deny that I am curious." She grabs her fellow Queen by the hair. "But that is for later! How many are here? And are the other heiresses on this?"

Akeno managed to let out a small laugh. "Kinda rude of you… asking questions when you haven't answered mine-" Then her hair is pulled, hard. It was clear the older woman was not in the mood for banter.

"Only the winner has the right to ask questions. As the loser, you should answer them, if you value your life." On her other hand, Tali's nails started to grow in size and she placed them on the younger woman's neck. "I suppose that doesn't matter. I will clean the trash anyway."

"SCOURGE OF SWALLOWS!" Six streaks of green light fly in Tali's direction and quickly she raises a wall to defend herself. But while her attention was on that side there was another already in position for a follow up.

"HAAA!" Kiba came from behind the woman, Holy Eraser, aiming for her arms. But the Queen created a coat of shadows around her limbs, managing to parry the strike and giving her time to use her wings to glide back.

The two new arrivals got close to Akeno. "Are you alright Akeno-san?" Kiba asked as he pulled EM, the original article, from a pocket of his jacket. "Here, let me."

"I am fine, Kiba-kun." She said, picking the scalpel from his hand. It was clear in the Knight's eyes she wasn't fine. Even if she smiled at him her hands were shaking and the wounds weren't helping his perspective. "You should save your mana, you are going to need it."

"What can you say about our opponent?" Setsuna interjects the question while the woman surrounded by shadows analyses the new situation. The naginata user got closer to her allies during the lull on the battlefield.

Both sides now had to deal with new elements and, even if she was winning before, now the older woman knew she was at a disadvantage, both new challengers were dangerous in their own right and were relatively fresh by the looks of things. She let out a sneer, considering how close she was from taking out one of the threats only for the situation to devolve to its current state there was no helping the anger that bubbled in her.

"She has a sacred gear that controls shadows and can make them take any form she wants." Akeno explains while she heals herself, not to get rid of the pain but just to get well enough to fight again. The Gremory Queen knows she is going back into this fight one way or another. "All that she makes has weight and she controls it completely. She can make walls strong enough that my lighting can't break them."

Kiba gets in position besides Setsuna, while Akeno recovered both of them would have to work with what they had. "She is way stronger than expected." The blonde commented.

"'No plan survives contact with the enemy.'" Setsuna quoted and both got in position for their assault.

"Before we begin," suddenly Tali spoke, "I must ask; what have you done to my comrades?"

Both new fighters looked at each other. "We tied them up on the first floor of the penthouse." Kiba decides to say and the woman nods in acknowledgment.

"Since you spared their lives, I suppose I shall make an attempt to spare yours." Behind her, hands of shadows start to rise. "Or you could spare me the work and surrender. I will be sure to convince my master to be merciful on his reprisal." After waiting a few seconds and noticing that even Akeno was getting up, ready for a 2nd round, Tali sighed. "Suit yourselves."

Like previously, the appendages take many forms and launch themselves to impale, harm and kill the ones before their owner. Neither newly arrived looked surprised, they trusted their friend's word and Setsuna stepps forward, spinning her weapon in one hand at high speeds.

"CYCLONE BURST!" Unleashed by the combination of her weapon and youki, a true cyclone is spawned and collides horizontally with many of the appendages. To Setsuna's surprise her counter failed to stop even the ones it was colliding with.

But Kiba came to the rescue. "SWORD BIRTH!" In his hands a white sword appears. "Setsuna! Step back!" With his new sword, Kiba charges at the shadows. "Shadow Devorer!"

The limbs that once threatened the Gremory side disappear before the new weapon barely touches them. "What?" Tali is confused, there was no reason for that to happen until she remembers what Kiba shouted before and the information she had previously. "Your sacred gear can destroy my shadows?"

"Haha, I wish." Kiba said looking more tired than previously. "Never thought I would have to fight shadows before." But those things were not just shadows. Before the Knight planned to absorb the mana in them to keep himself up, even if it was just a bit.

There was mana in there, true, but the effects on him were similar to holy energy for some reason.

Luck for him, Tali didn't notice his weakness, she was still shocked by the fact his sacred gear managed to counter hers. If it was only destruction she could work around it but absorption was something she couldn't just deal with at her present strength.

That small lapse of judgment was what another fighter wanted. "Scourge Of Swallows!" Setsuna sends her favorite attack to the side, forcing the Queen to raise a shield again.

Kiba takes the chance and moves with great speed to finish the fight quickly but the shadow user was wary of him and jumped back, moving as fast as he was. The Knight tried to pursue but he couldn't get close, the Queen's piece property giving the woman enough speed to keep up with him, a body that could go longer and magic to support her escape as she created spikes on the ground his feet were touching.

"AAHHH!" It was the only way he could react, there was no chance he could have dodged when his feet were caught by the shadow's spikes.

"Kiba-kun!/Kiba!" Both raven haired women got closer to the Knight as he nullified the shadows again to free himself but the damage was already done.

Once Akeno was in front of him and with a clear target she allowed her circuits to flare while using the mana there to make a circle. She is running on fumes but her anger flares, her wish for some form of payback allowing another lighting bolt.

But Tali already had her number on these. They had crashed enough in the last half an hour that she got the timing she needed for Akeno's circles. The younger Queen needed five seconds to get her attack ready, Talia just needed three to make a proper shield without spending too much energy.

Instead of the expected result she ends up getting hit, for the first time in the whole confrontation between them. The bolt got the green haired woman in the chest as she felt pain, shock and surprise. Neither of them understood exactly what had happened but the circle showed up way faster than the times before.

Setsuna didn't know exactly what happened but she decided to capitalize her chance. The enemy was on the ground and she had every intention of cutting out her neck. Running at full speed, the hanyou prepares for a swift and final blow.

Surprise can wear off fast when in a life or death situation. Tali gets on her knees and manages to make a dome of darkness just in time for the naginata to collide with it.

Not to be detained, Setsuna spins her weapon, adding youki and starts to rain an empowered sequence of combos. Her intent was to break the shield and the woman's fighting spirit in a conflict of attrition, something the hanyou can do since she has her allies around.

A fast slash followed by a stab and then another three slashes hit the shield and everyone could tell that it was starting to get weaker, more than most Tali, who was feeling her grip on her power diminish by just staying on the defensive.

Spikes pop off the shield to impale the attacker and one hits Setsuna on the shoulder, forcing a retreat. Good for her she did since instead of retracting the spikes are shot from the shield at her. She had to use her naginata to block and parry every single one or else risk a debilitating injury.

Akeno noticed that there was something different about Tali's reaction at Setsuna's attack, it was more… subdued, less aggressive than it was before. The spikes were also smaller than previously.

While the Gremory Queen was making some observations, Kiba decided to support his friend with another sword that was similar to the Holy Eraser. "Shadow Eraser!" He hits the shield and Tali disengages to the side, letting it fall down.

Because of how his sacred gear works, Kiba can just create new swords, the gift from God doing most of the heavy lifting by providing the materials, blueprints and even their abilities. However if his emotions are not strong enough or he lacks practice in making a specific sword, they will be weaker.

Holy Eraser is a sword born from his wishes and training. It is a good sword that is growing with both time and practice with every incarnation being stronger than the last.

Shadow Eraser is an improvised mess, still good because he is used to making many different blades but still not as good as its sibling.

That is why it takes a good while for it to neutralize the leftovers of the shield, leaving Kiba open for a giant spike going in his direction, his hurt feet not helping one bit. The Knight notices the shadow construct coming but before he could react a lighting bolt destroyed it.

When the Knight turns to thank Akeno, he notices her propping herself with one arm while the other is raised, exhausted. It was clear that the Queen was on her limits.

But both of them gave Setsuna an opening. She jumps in the air and uses the ceiling to jump herself with her full strength in the direction of the enemy Queen, naginata first, completely covered in youki.

That was where Tali took the second real hit of the night. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" The impact was so strong that dust covered the whole room.

A wave of shadows then pushes everyone pack, none capable of holding themselves on the ground and flying all around the room.

On the epicenter was the green haired Queen, she was barely keeping herself standing, there was a nasty wound on her chest and the shadow aura that was present around her had diminished greatly.

"She is weaker now." Akeno commented, catching the attention of her allies. "Way weaker… almost as if…" She was still trying to figure out what the enemy power was. It was versatile but now was extremely reduced.

"Then we should press more." Setsuna declares, spinning her weapon once again. "This will take her out! Cyclone Burst!" The target is clear and victory is in sight.

Instead of panic, Tali smiles, something that her fellow Queen notices, and jumps to the side avoiding the cyclone which keeps going, destroying every wall on its path.

Once that the wind settles down the Gremory group could see that the shadow aura was stronger, with the woman using it to patch herself up, the wound on her chest closing in seconds. "Did she recover?" Kiba asks but Akeno shakes her head.

"No! I think I figured out her sacred gear's power!" Her observation wasn't unnoticed by everyone else in the room.

Instead of letting the younger Queen talk, the shadow user launched herself in a barrage of attacks with shadows and magic. Either way she needed to end the fight quickly, her second wind won't last for long.

…

While most of the fights happening this night aren't personal, this one was. Even if it can't be called a proper fight with one side running and the other constantly chasing. This game of cat and mouse only served to annoy the redhead more each second that passed.

Rutal was actually having fun with the situation, the inability of Rias in taking him down was truly amusing to the older pureblood, he was even laughing in joy from all that was happening. But he was also running out of places to hide on the last floor and once he got cornered he saw little choice but to go to the rooftop.

Once he arrived there Rutal shot himself as fast as he could to the skies, he could see the boundary field there and without his fire he can't do nothing but position himself properly. It wouldn't take long for Rias to catch up with him.

And that she did, finding him and following him to the air but at that point he stopped, she was now a non threat. "You lost Rias!" He declared with all the arrogance from someone who won the hardest game of his life.

"Really?" She asked once she was close enough. "I have you exactly where I wanted! Tell me how I lose?"

"And how exactly did you want me?"

At that point Rias summoned a circle and presented a paper to him, it was a contract. "I just need you to sign this and then to get out of my property!"

Chuckling Rural could only hold back his laughter. "Is that your plan? A contract?" He was definitely amused. "You really think I'll sign that?"

"You will or you will die." Rias looked at him right in the eyes.

"You are serious? You plan to break the ultimate taboo of our society? On a hunch?"

"It's not a hunch. And you know it."

"It may as well be!" He rejected her proposition. "I won't be signing anything and you can't force me! Look around!" Rutal even flew around in joy. "You can't attack me here! If you do, you break the boundary field! And just like that your peerage is going to be decimated by mine and I will be able to leave if I so desire!"

Now it was Rias' turn to chuckle. "Acting too high and mighty for someone that never won a single Rating Game."

It was clear that angered the man. "You never fought in a Rating Game, Rias. You don't know how grueling they can be!" Instead of mocking, the man's tone sounded legitimately depressed. "Yes, I never won once! But I never had the advantages I needed to win! Advantages you gave me!"

"I gave you nothing! You are without your magic, your peerage is falling to mine as we speak and if you don't surrender and sign this goddamn contract I swear you won't be leaving here alive! It's useless to try and say otherwise!"

"Pft. I won't deny your attack was well executed, except for one thing! A small little detail!" At that Rutal was smiling like a madman. "You don't know all my Queen can do!"

"She never showed herself as anything spectacular." Except more recently but Rias was sure it was nothing too outstanding.

"True. But remember those little conditions I was talking about!" At that moment both heard an explosion below them. "It was for her!" There were few times in his life could brag about something, he couldn't help himself here. "She has a sacred gear, one that I would dare to call a 'Bael Destroyer'!"

"'Bael… Destroyer'?" Rias never heard of such sacred gear before, nor something with such a reputation.

"Feh, most people tend to forget that God created sacred gears for humanity, to protect them from us! The 'supernatural', their superiors! Don't you think he didn't make some to defeat, I don't know, the enemies that have been created to supplant them by his most powerful son?" Rias was not liking the direction that was going. "The thing is that, and this is just a theory of mine, there is a sacred gear made to counter each and everyone of us devils in some way shape or form."

The way he said it, so full of confidence, made Rias believe in him. But that didn't change matters. "If you have such sacred gear why aren't you dominating Rating Games? Or expanding your influence on the Underworld?"

"You are hearing but you aren't listening! The conditions of activation of my Queen's sacred gear are atrocious!" Yet he was still smiling. "Should I tell you? The name of my trump card?"

One thing was for certain, Rias was losing her patience. "I grow tired of you!" She charges at him but all that Rutal did was to retreat until his back was at the boundary field.

"Careful Rias! You don't want to break the boundary field do you?" His smile was twisted at implication. "You can't tell who is still fighting or, even better, if the rest of my peerage is not outside waiting to get in and finish with yours." That stopped the heiress on her tracks.

While the redhead was confident that her peerage would win in a direct fight she couldn't deny she was worried. "What is your Queen's sacred gear?"

"Something a little obscure called Destroyer Shadows!"

"That… I never heard about it." That didn't surprise the older devil.

"Of course you didn't! I just said it was obscure, didn't I?" Rutal looked angry just thinking about it. "I thought that I had hit the jackpot that day! A Queen with a sacred gear, something hard to come by! So what if she was human once? She had potential and, once she grew a bit, the power to compete with the best of them! What a fool I was!"

"Sounds like the sacred gear is a weak one." He nods, consenting to that comment.

"It is! Not only did it lack any form of real fire power on its own, the only way to make something useful out of it is with… destruction!" The man smiled and grew even more twisted. "God has a sense of humor! He made a weapon capable of countering the Power Of Destruction! But it SUCKS!" The Phenex face lost any short of mirth, there was only rage. "In the beginning we thought that all it did was control shadows, that it was just shadow puppetry! But there was still hope after all, Balance Break is a phenomenon that happens constantly for the last thousand of years! The problem is unleashing such an event!"

'Yes. That is a thing we can both agree with.' Rias avoids saying it but she knew he was right. Her last hope in case everything else fails, in relation to the marriage, is a fight and if Kiba had a Balance Break already she would be much more confident.

"But then, one beatiful day, we made a discovery! The power of Tali's shadows grows the more destruction happens around her!" Smiling once more he looks at Rias full of joy. "Any kind of destruction!"

"But if it was that game breaking you would have won some fights!" It certainly explained why his Queen was always on the front line and usually one of the first to fall.

"It's on the name! Something needs to be destroyed so her powers can work in a decent manner. The bigger the destruction, the greater the power output of the sacred gear! And thus there lies the conundrum! If there is nothing being destroyed around the user, the sacred gear is worthless… fortunately there is a power that can destroy things quite easily and completely… don't you agree?"

In Rias' mind, cogs begin to turn. She realized now that the whole time she was chasing Rutal the only thing she used was the Power of Destruction, in small amounts, that was true, but if the range of the sacred gear was big enough, just the walls and rooms she obliterated could have fed it.

"Wait! Then why did you run?" Rias questioned. "It makes no sense! You should have holded your ground!"

"If you were at your, best that was my plan!" Rutal admits. "Tell me something, Rias; How long did it take you to plan this small skirmish? A couple of hours? Let's be generous here and say you started yesterday right after the events of the mall! It has to be close since you decided to go for such methods!" He posed to show he was thinking. "Then you probably called your brother, got his permission for an attack but only if I don't die! Am I close so far?"

Rias chooses to not reply, he was more or less right and that wasn't good for her because it meant-

"That is your problem Rias! You are too hot headed! You saw your little human and danger and decided on a gamble to try and take me out!" He opens his arms, inviting her to try and hit him. "I have been waiting for this confrontation for a year now!"

"WHAT?" Rias doesn't want to believe her ears.

"Ever since I received this assignment from my uncle I put myself to study everything I could about the Bael and the Gremory. Every time it was possible and a stray devil showed up, I made sure you were the one on call and that I had someone there watching you!" She tried to remember if she ever noticed something like that but Rutal just kept talking. "I know your habits, your skills and the way you think! I knew from the moment that you made a pact that the magus had to be able to do something worthwhile and once I confirmed it, I had to take him out!"

"If you know so much… Why did you run?" Rias really wanted to know that answer.

"Because you did something that I never saw before; you came here without being at your best." That was one of the few things the fire devil never could have predicted. Rias is proud, as any devil really is, and for her to attack without being at her best was something unthinkable. In his mind she could be impulsive but not that much, she was still a devil after all.

But then she came as fast as she could, with no rest, not much preparation and even if she took over the boundary field of his base. Still, he could work around that, all he needed was Rias attacking with guns blazing with her power, just having her using her power around the building was enough if it didn't hit his Queen.

However, even while she was chasing him, he could see she wasn't fighting like she is used to. He could survive a wave of her power, there are ways around it. His Queen couldn't, she wasn't strong enough, didn't have regeneration and her sacred gear needed something to be destroyed first.

Keeping Rias away from his Queen was the best bet. He couldn't risk a wounded animal hitting her with a stray shot and killing her. Once the rest were eliminated he could block Rias' attacks while his Queen took her out.

And once Rias realized all that, she started to laugh. It wasn't a cruel thing, it was melodious and the kind of laugh that many would love to hear. Rutal was not one of them. "WHAT IS SO FUNNY?"

"You-haha-you!" She takes a deep breath before continuing. "You should have stayed with your Queen. I would have fallen for your trap completely."

"...What?" Rutal couldn't believe on what Rias was saying.

"You are right… I was careless. My anger and fear got the best of me." She started to lower herself down back to the rooftop, the other pureblood doing the same but at a slower pace and keeping his distance. "If you had stayed there… Well… Is the roll of the dice to figure out what I would have done. I was really frustrated with your actions."

"'Was?'" He sounded incredulous.

"Okay, I still am. You really made me furious!" But her smile wasn't saying that. It was patronizing even. "But you made one mistake, a terrible mistake."

"Oh, and what would that be?" Rias shrugged.

"You will know in a few minutes. Meanwhile, I will read the terms of the contract to you. We have some pages to go and I want to get this night over with, I have school tomorrow." With that Rias picked the contract up and began to read it.

The document had at least ten or so pages but that didn't impress Rutal. "I already told you; I ain't signing it.

"Then you will die." With that declaration, Rias starts to read the document, at the same time, waiting for the others to arrive.

…

Shadows were being shot everywhere, they were not as big as they once were, mostly because of a single instruction. "DON'T ATTACK! PLAY DEFENSE!" Akeno had said that as if it was easy.

The idea of getting into a fight and just not attacking or even counter attacking is usually not the way to victory. Sooner or later, when the opponent lowers their guard, runs out of ammo or makes a mistake the proper response is to attack to finish the confrontation or at the very least try to stop more bloodshed.

Kiba jumps to the side, his feet had stopped bleeding thanks to EM but he was swinging his Shadow Eraser like a mad man, trying to keep the spikes from getting him.

On the other side of the battle field, Akeno was back to back with Setsuna, the hanyou was watching the Queen's back when some shadow approached too much while the older of the two was keeping her attacks to a minimum due to exhaustion.

Since the Queen was more limited in really short range options Setsuna was the one that made sure the most dangerous attack didn't touch her.

Tali was going to lose this fight. She could see it clearly as a devil could see in the dead of the night. When the Gremory Queen shouted her command the other two abandoned completely any notion of attacking her, of causing any damage around the place. She didn't expect that someone would figure out her ability and all she could do now was to finish the enemy as fast as she could before her reserves gave out.

In reality they already were dangerously low to the point she had to use her mana to support her sacred gear. That was one of the few advantages that Destroyer Shadows had, that the owner didn't need to spend mana if there was enough destruction happening around them.

Now there wasn't any that she didn't inflict herself and she needed to use either mana or her shadows to do it and that was a waste. She can't even feel the presence of the Power of Destruction of Rias Gremory in the vicinity. That means that her master must have finally run to the roof, confident she had enough for her victory.

Watching as Kiba joined together with the other two just showed that only the opposite was true. Tali was not even being able to keep her enemies apart anymore and her attacks were getting slower, weaker, by the second.

The Phenex Queen needs a plan and fast. Just throwing around her shadows is not going to give her a win but that was all she could do. Without a constant source of destruction that was all she had and the well was getting dry fast.

Remembering what Akeno did earlier on in their fight, the green haired woman decides to gamble on the same thing her fellow Queen did. Desperation was setting in and if she didn't finish this once and for all then she was going to lose anyway.

'If I do this, there is a chance I can't take out Gremory. But this is about survival, if I can't take these three down then everything is lost!' Tali ceases her attacks and retreats the shadows into herself, the aura around her grows and she gets ready to throw everything she has left.

She pours everything she has on her sacred gear, not only her mana and shadows, but her emotions. The connection between a person and their sacred gear was intimate down to the soul where its true form resided.

It was through emotion that the sacred gear could grow, but only if the user's soul and body were strong enough to use the power properly. And she had strong feelings for her master.

Her past was not dark and she didn't have anything traumatic to latch on to and use it to power herself up. But she has feelings for her master, Rutal Phenex was not the best devil in the Underworld but not the worst either. He could have traded her for a better Queen using his family's fortune but he didn't.

And for that she is loyal, not to the point of love but devotion. She would kill for him, die for him. It was not enough for her to break her limits but it was enough for her to be able to utilize the full capability of the Destroyer Shadows.

The trio of invaders watch as the shadows and mana accumulate, first on the woman and then behind her as the shadows take a new form. A reflection of Tali's master, her wish to be with him. Behind her was her wish, a bird made of shadows, a dark Phoenix that brought with it death and destruction.

Kiba steps forward. "Stay behind me."

"I won't let you do this by yourself." Setsuna said, getting ready to advance only for Kiba to extend his arm.

"No! I can stop this! But I need you two behind me!" This was the moment that his training with Shirou paid off. "Don't worry. This is not a last stand or anything like that." He smiled while looking at the bird made of dark fire. "I am the best suited one here to deal with this!"

Kiba starts to focus mana on the Shadow Eraser on his hands, channeling as much power as he could to his sword. Sword Birth also hadn't broken its limits, it had the drive from its owner but the emotional part was not fully there, even if his body was already to the point it could resist the basic power of a Balance Break.

Either way, the Knight of Rias Gremory had evolved in the last few months. The friendships he cultivated, while not complete because of the wall he himself built, allowed him to go to the limits of his actual power. It was not necessary to threaten the balance of the world for one to be powerful. Kiba learned where there was a will, there was a way.

Unlike his companion and friend, he didn't have magic circuits, not enough to be able to use magecraft. What he had was the basic magic of devils and his sacred gear, both pushed by his soul and will.

On his hands is a sword, a new born one, sibling of his favorite blade. The enemy in front of him and in his hands he had the tool to stop her.

Preparations are complete. Tali launches her final attack. "SHADOWS OF PHENEX!" The immense bird born behind her starts to move, a mass of darkness ready and waiting to destroy her enemies. She was sure of the blonde boy before she couldn't stop her new technique by himself.

The giant bird of darkness was huge, its presence was enough that behind the woman who commanded it there was only darkness. It had no eyes, and its 'feathers' looked more like smoke leaving its body. It started to move by opening the huge wings and sailing towards the target with its long neck pointing in their direction, a shadow beak looking more like a huge spike intended in piercing hearts.

Even with its enormous mass the thing was considerably fast, not that they had anywhere to run since the thing looked like it was going to take down the whole floor with it. But that didn't disturbed Kiba, he was calm at the moment, focused.

Shadow Eraser started to let out an aura of power and he threw himself at the monstrous bird. There would be no retreat, in this confrontation between powers, between sacred gears, Kiba also decided to go with everything he had.

He raised his sword high, the best defense there is an attack.. "SHADOW ERASER!" The powers clashed.

Similar to Holy Eraser, its sibling was made to 'erase' something the owner wanted gone but its capability was limited. There are lines that Kiba can't cross with it, not by a lack of will, it was once again his lack of emotional maturity that was holding him back.

But devil magic could bridge the gap, if his sacred gear couldn't grow stronger on his eyes the Knight decided to grow himself instead. This was the result of intense sparring with Shirou and Setsuna, he learned with them how to make more types of swords and how to focus his power on the swords he already had.

Even if he wasn't able to erase the mass immediately, he could force a confrontation by erasing it while it clashed with him. Two existences collided even if one was technically the predator of the other. Created specifically to defeat the other.

The dispute between them wasn't something that should happen but it did because of the difference of power. While Destruction Shadows hadn't seen much use because of its limits it was still evolved enough thanks to the emotions the Queen nourished it with.

Shadow Eraser found itself victim to its weakness, the fact that its owner was not in tune with it yet added by mass, weight and quantity of shadows that were used on the attack.

Kiba still perseveres, using his wings to stabilize himself; he kept pushing forward with his sword, feeling the muscles of his arm tearing apart by the opposite force that couldn't back down.

Leftovers of shadows that his sword was failing to contain were also passing by it, cutting his arms, face and chest. The uniform he was using was already ruined at that point and he is still being pressed. Excruciating pain ran through his arms as he fought to hold the tide back so his sword could erase the attack.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He kept pushing with all of his strength, giving everything he had to cut the phoenix that threatens his friends.

Akeno could only watch, unable to muster any mana to help at that point. Even her circuits are screaming to her that she had already gone too far during the whole night.

Setsuna was holding herself back, standing in front of the Queen, trusting that her friend would succeed. She wished she was the one there, in the front, taking down that dark bird. But her skill set would be useless to cover her allies since only Yuuto could bring the full power of his swords to bear.

A sword being used as a shield, that was Kiba's position at the moment. He could feel both the weight of the attack and the pain on his muscles from his resistance. 'It- It- Is like- trying to- hold back a train.'

Little by little the Knight was being pushed back but the shadow was also becoming smaller, weaker. Its essence being lost both in the offensive and to Kiba's sword. It was only a matter of time until one of them would break and fall.

Steel broke first.

Unfortunately for Kiba he was not strong enough to hold back the wave born from both a sacred gear and all the magic power from a far older Queen. Tali may not be strong by herself but the magic gave her shadow enough fuel for it to surpass Kiba blade. But it was not the winner of the match.

Kiba received the last hit of the battle on his chest, he sailed through for a moment until Setsuna caught him. "You did well, Kiba." She said in respect for his efforts.

It was true that his sword broke but Kiba was the winner of the dispute of powers. The shadow could only hit him with the last of its existence before disappearing completely, not doing any damage to anything or anyone else.

Tali couldn't see the end of the battle. The Phenex Queen had put all she had on a single smashing attack and ended up knocked out on the ground, exhausted and naked. She gave everything she had and in the end it wasn't enough.

"Here." Akeno presented Setsuna with EM. "I'm out of mana." At least without enough to heal Kiba safely. She was exhausted to the point that she needed to sit down for a couple of minutes.

Without hesitation Setsuna started to heal Kiba and after a few minutes she had dealt with most of the wounds. "Should we do something about her?" The hanyou asked while motioning to the downed Queen.

"She must have some clothes around, I will take care of it." Akeno said getting up. "I will take care of her and Kiba, you still have a part to play."

At that her fellow raven hair nods and gets up to leave, her naginata resting on her shoulder.

"Make sure the bastard squirms." Hearing the Queen requests, Setsuna delivers a thumbs up and goes to the rooftop at a calm pace.

That was the only place they could be since the rest of the floor was silent. Setsuna wondered if Rias was the one who took them there or was the older devil who was truly without a place to run.

Jumping up to a corridor, the Kuoh's students could see how ruined the hotel was, at least on the last floors. Not only had the impacts of the fight caused a lot of damage but she didn't even need to bother walking around to look for some stairs, at least not much.

The place now had more holes than cheese, she could see the back and forward of the whole place. She was sure Rias was responsible for most of the damage but a part of her felt bad for the residence, it was in ruins.

Not even a couple of steps and there were already so many wreckage around her that Setsuna felt like she was passing by a war zone. In a way it was. A small-scale war between two noble factions.

And she was about to finish it.

Finding the steps to the rooftop she starts to go up. In a few seconds she starts to hear a voice. It was Rias' "...do you understand?"

"Yes woman! I do! It doesn't mean I will sign the bloody thing!"

"You will! It is just a matter of time." That was Setsuna's cue to open the door. "And there she is! Setsuna, please tell me that everything has gone as planned."

Rias' exclamation surprised both the hanyou and the older devil. "Who is she? A new member of your peerage?" Rutal was trying to figure out who the new arrival was while Setsuna looked at Rias.

"The Queen gave us a little more trouble than she should but it's all over." Recovering from the surprise from Rias' action wasn't easy, she felt herself slipping a bit there. A part of her still expected the redhead to be on a warpath. "Have you already explained everything to him?"

"I was just finishing the contract right now." At that Rutal snapped out of his stuporn;

"Where is Tali?" The demand wasn't a surprise.

"Defeated." Setsuna replied before turning back to Rias. "Can I-"

"What?" Rutal refused to believe what he heard. "Tali was defeated? After all the waves of destruction that Rias made?"

"Oh, yeah! How did you guys deal with that?" Rias was really curious about it.

"She just ran out of energy." Instead of explaining much Setsuna just said that before just marching to the Phenex. "Now, are you going to sign the contract or you are going to die?"

Incredulous, the Phenex steps forward to stand face to face with Setsuna. "I don't know who you think are or where Rias found you but if you work for Rias. You! Can't! Kill! Me!"

"But Rutal…" Rias said, a coy smile on her face. "She doesn't work for me. She isn't even a devil of any kind."

"So what?" He looks to the heiress. "Is she human? Is she upset that I hurt your human pet?" Looking back to the raven head he laughs. "That is irrelevant! Doesn't she know I am a Phenex? A pureblood devil?"

"Oh, she knows all that~" Rias was practically singing.

Instead of noticing that something was wrong with the situation he continues. "Then she knows it!" Directing all his attention to Setsuna he says with gusto. "You can't touch me! The moment you do, you will invite hell upon your life! My family will lay waste to-"

Finally Setsuna punches him on the face, throwing him to the ground a good few meters away. "Rias… hold this please." She offers the naginata to the redhead. The heiress accepted but still asked.

"You sure?"

"Yes…" She crackles her left fist with her right hand. "I want to take my time."

While the girls talked Phenex checked his face, his nose was bleeding, and he was growing angry. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!" He tried to conjure flames on his hands but they still failed. Grumbling, he made a fist. "I will KILL YOU!"

Throwing himself at the young woman, Rutal tried to go for a right hand hook. Setsuna sees the moviment perfectly telegraphed and side steps his punch to follow up by grabbing his arm and twisting it to the side before kneeling him on the stomach.

After that the man couldn't help himself and tried to hold the pain in but Setsuna wasn't about to let it up. She punches the devil on the face twice before he falls to the ground again. Once he was there she kicked him on the chest, making him skip on the ground a few times before losing momentum and falling to the ground.

The Phenex regeneration was kicking in, much more slower than usual since flames were not being used to support the process. Barely getting any healing done, Rutal had no time to react when Setsuna got closer and punched him again when he tried to get up.

Summoning some flames, Rutal is going for a counter attack, accessing correctly that even if he can't throw his fire around he can use it if he focuses enough and if he is close. It is consuming more energy than usual to keep it lit but he had confidence he just needed to touch the woman and he could win.

Managing to do just that, the Phenex watched as his flames burned the uniform on Setsuna's arm and a little bit of her skin but that was it. The girl places her own hand over his and breaks his wrist. This time Rutal screamed.

"AHHHHHH! YOU BITCH!" He was holding his hand, trying to starve off the pain. In Rating Games such a thing never had happened to him, he usually would have surrendered before things reached this point. His regeneration was working on it but it was too slow for his tastes.

"Technically correct." Setsuna admitted. "You are not used to this much pain at once, are you?"

He wasn't, he was a strategist and usually he would have already healed and surrendered by the time this much damage was done. Once he noticed Setsuna was approaching again, he panicked. "Wait! Hold one a bit! What do you want? Why are you here?"

"You really don't know who she is?" Rias was amused by the whole situation. Using the naginata as support she leaned forward with a smile. "You really don't know? Are you serious? For someone who bragged about being prepared you really missed the mark!"

"What are you-" Before the man could finish the question he received a knee to the face.

"You forgot to pay attention to Shirou himself, or better yet, to the people he surrounded himself with." Rias was content to watch the blonde man taking a beating but she was not that cruel. "Either way, this is your last chance. Sign the contract or Setsuna here is going to end you."

"You are bluffing." He then turns to the girl. "Do you know what will happen if you kill me?" Rutal waited for a couple of seconds for a response but the girl just looked at him with a sharp glare. "My family, the richest in the whole Underworld, will come after you! They will call in every favor and convince the Maou himself to do something about it! And then when they finally figure out that I disappeared because of Rias, she will marry my cousin anyway! There is no winning for you here, or her!"

During his speech, Rutal was getting up, more confident than before. In his eyes, Rias can't really touch him. The moment she did something irreversible then she would be in a position that even Emiya Shirou's 'miracle' wouldn't be able to help. While its true that he attempted murder on the magus, she had no proof. He felt safe.

That safety lasted until Setsuna punched him on the liver, then the face and followed with pushing his head on the ground. "I don't care."

"Do you want to know why I am so confident?" Rias offered when she saw the man rising his head little by little. "Rutal… who is she?" She asked while pointing to Setsuna who was just glaring at him, waiting for the pureblood to try anything.

"New member for your peerage? I had seen her going to your club as well! So what?" The man lifts his head and glares at Rias. "She is irrelevant! She- AHHHH!"

Setsuna didn't like the fact she was mostly being ignored and she stepped on the devil's hand with gusto. "I was the one having a date with Shirou. A date your assassins interrupted!" It was clear she was still upset with that.

"That doesn't matter! Even if you joined the Gremory clan he is still just human!" She wasn't removing her hand and the bones were entering in a cycle of breaking and regenerating. "It doesn't matter who you are! I will-"

"Your next line is going to be;" Rias decides to drop her two cents. "'Make sure you pay for this humiliation.'"

"Make sure you pay for this humiliation!..." Rutal glares at Rias while the girl was all smiles. "Do you think you're funny?"

"I think you are the funny one." Rias gave back with a shake of her head. "Let me ask you again… who is she? Look at her, pay attention… are you sure you have never seen her before? In a certain meeting before the beginning of the term proper?" Since she could tell it wasn't ringing any bells with Rutal she sighed. "Really? Was the revelation that Shirou was an Emiya that much shocking?"

He could remember the first time he heard about the potential Magus Killer son running around, it was the meeting on the first day of classes of the term. Many things were decided in that meeting and he still couldn't figure out exactly what Rias wanted to say… but he knows how to figure it out. "Who are you?" Now he asked politely and even the feet on his hand let out the pressure.

"Higurashi Setsuna." She says her name without major trouble. "Higurashi is not my surname. It's my aunt' s. My real name is Inutai Setsuna." The name was familiar but it wasn't enough yet.

"She is the daughter of Sesshoumaru." Rias offered helpfully.

A blink, then two. Rutal turns his head completely to look at Setsuna, a fear creeping on his heart as he just looks at her. He shakes his head, wanting to deny the information before screaming in fear, dragging himself away from the duo when Setsuna lets his hand go.

Fear, panic, terror. An array of emotions passed by the man when he heard that name. And he had reasons to do so. Many reasons.

"You realize now… don't you?" Rias asked while she approached Rutal, there was no more amusement on her face, this was serious. "I can't deal with you by myself that easily… I could kill you and fall on the Phenex clutches forever or I could try and find another solution. I made this whole plan of threatening you peerage to force you to sign the deal...then Setsuna came in and offered to help."

The original idea was to kill everyone but Rutal, either he would accept and leave or he would lose every resource he had in the human world. It was a cruel plan, but Rias was going to do it. Without support to act as his proxies, the pureblood either would have to risk himself or lay low.

He wouldn't be able to complain if that's what she did. The law would be completely on her side, since to most elder devils all she would be doing was breaking his things, a payment or two could solve that and her brother wouldn't get on her case with his new laws that actually protected the reincarnated devils.

Didn't mean that Rias would like to use such methods, on the contrary she wanted another solution, as fast as this one but other solution nonetheless. It would leave a bad taste in her mouth killing someone for just being loyal.

It was then that Setsuna offered her help. "Let me tell you what will happen if you don't sign the contract. She is going to kill you, no ifs or buts." Rias was being completely honest and direct with Rutal, the hanyou just waits for the devil's decision. "After you, we are going to make the rounds with your peerage. Best estimate? Only you die and every member of your peerage signs the same contract. They walk away and if someone asks, Setsuna takes the credit." With that the plan was hatched, since the King and Queen had too much explosive power they would go for the top straight away while the Knight and Setsuna took care of the majority of the forces in a more controlled manner so the lower floors didn't get damaged. It also doubled in keeping the hanyou from fighting the more dangerous element in the opposing Queen. Rias then shrugged. "I mean… she is not a devil. She is pretty much a princess of the japanese supernatural… and no one wants to mess with her father."

And her father was terrifying in itself. 'The strongest monster of Japan!' Rutal thinks while gulping. "My family would-"

"Be convinced by my brother that there is nothing to be done about the situation. I mean, Jakken warned us he had a charge to take care of and you sent attackers to her date."

"You have no-"

"Your world against ours." Rias interrupted him again, not even angry at the attempted outburst. "And Sesshomaru wouldn't care about what his daughter did, he would care that she defended herself, as she should and if your family doesn't know when to quit… that won't end well for them. To my benefit, I kinda want to see that happen."

The law of devils was irrelevant in those circumstances, the world was ruled by the strong and Sesshomaru is the strongest youkai, period. Rutal remembers hearing one story about him, that he once fought and defeated a god of war in single combat after nine days and eight nights of struggle.

On the dawn of the last day the god fell to the ground and the dog youkai offered surrender or death. When the youkai left the battlefield he was mostly fine, barely wounded and with a new sword he had taken as a trophy that had the power to destroy mountains in a single swing.

And the god was dead, Sesshomaru can kill gods and that is terrifying by default.

That is not even counting that he was one of the leaders of the Youkai Faction and offending him could offend the others. And on top of all that the gods of Japan may also run interference. Rutal's death could bring out an all out war if Sesshomaru wanted.

Except that it won't, he realizes that. Rutal realized he is not important in the grand scheme of things. Unlike Rias he had no Maou as family and even if his family is the richest he wasn't part of the main one, just a cousin.

The Phenex could posture and complain but it would not be Rias taking the brunt of it, it would be the daughter of Sesshomaru and Sirzechs wouldn't risk a war. As the redhead had said, her brother would listen to her or he was already on the scheme anyway and the moment that Rutal died all he would do is deliver a half baked excuse to his family and leave it at that.

Picking up a fight with the majority of the supernatural of Japan was a terrible idea, it didn't matter who would win, they would be easy pickings for the next challenger. It was why nobody messed with the place.

"Then why?" He asked, now he was ignoring Rias and looking only at the daughter of Sesshomaru. "Why don't you just kill me?"

"Because you are not worth it." Blunty and direct, Setsuna said what she accounted as enough.

If she killed him she would have to call her father and justifie all that had happened, then he would probably want to meet Shirou because her mother would want that as well and then her sister would be there… Setsuna is not ready for that kind of pressure.

Rutal didn't know that, he didn't even realize it. 'I… am not even good enough to kill?' He could see the events happening in his mind. His death would accomplish nothing, it would barely be a footnote on the history of the world.

For a member of the Phenex clan, a devil of pureblood and a member of the 72 Pillars, that was a hard pill to swallow. Setsuna wasn't someone from the Underworld and had enough protection that she could kill him free of consequence.

She couldn't kill someone like Rias herself or Sona since the Maous, powerhouses they are, would come for vengeance, but him and Seerkvaira? Maybe not her since she is a heiress from the Pillars, the one with the purest blood.

Him? He was worthless… 'I… don't matter…" In a way, the assignment on Rias was the greatest opportunity he could ever have. With the reward from it he could get something to raise his power or a better position on the Underworld. Maybe even marry Ravel, the only woman born out of the main house in this generation.

But now the reality of the situation was calling and none of it was possible. Either he is going to die or he is going to lose all the power he had, or would ever have. By trying to preserve his family honor, he overstepped and Rias lost her patience with him.

"Fine… I will sign it." Rutal finally said, defeated. He realized that there was nothing he could do, he poked the bear and found it friend with a dog that was willing to bite his throat.

The contract was humiliating, there was no other way to call it. In layman's terms, neither Rutal or his peerage are allowed to leave the Underworld without Rias' permission, if not her's then Lucifer's. They also were not allowed to talk about Rias, her peerage or anyone under her protection.

There were a lot of details and paragraphs that spoke of procedures in case he wanted to contact her or anyone on her list but the fact was that he probably wouldn't be allowed to talk with her for the rest of his life.

For all intents and purposes he was exiled and would have no permission to speak about any of his discoveries about Emiya Shirou. If he did then she would have legal grounds to punish him, combined with the fact that she could also use that to break her engagement with Riser.

That was only the legal part. The magical part of the contract would rip him apart if he broke any of it. Once signed he would be under the obligation to inform his peerage of the details they needed to know and they could never again mention Emiya Shirou for the rest of their lives.

In reality it wouldn't be that long. Once Rias marries Riser he could probably ask for it to be lifted. Either with that or if the engagement was broken in some way, like she wanted. For that the blonde would have to wait a few years, not much for a devil.

Later he will notice something interesting about the contract, something that promised to give Rias a headache. But for now... "I don't know the magician's name."

"What?" Rias was annoyed at that piece of information.

"I don't know the name… because I erased it from my memory." Rutal was smiling at that point.

After the fiasco with the assassins he made sure to forget the name of the magician that helped him. Oh, he had a few details and could easily recognize his ally's face but that was it. He did it just in case Rias had gone for the proper channels to get him investigated, it was one of the guarantees he made just to be sure but it ended up being used anyway.

She is only asking for a name and he had none to give, usually a name would be enough but here hasn't it. If Rias wants to try and get him in front of the person he would tell who he was easily.

But Rias is still a hot head and she just looked mad but accepting of his actions, the contract made sure he couldn't lie to her, ever, while it is valid.

And there was nothing the heiress could do about it. Self hypnosis is much easier than hypnotizing someone else. That is a small victory he could take from this, a token victory that meant the situation is not over for Rias, the risk of the magician acting again will always be there until they are found.

'A better loser would offer assistance… I'm a sore loser.' Rutal would admit that, in the privacy of his mind. "If you two are done, I will ask you to leave. I need to collect my things and peerage before I go."

"Very well." Rias agrees with him. "I already have asked permission for your departure… my brother said he would have someone waiting for you." She gives the naginata back to Setsuna and both turn to leave. "I would suggest you didn't keep whoever he sent waiting."

With that Rutal is left alone on the roof. He could see the boundary field disappearing soon after which means his peerage now could go in and out. Depending on how many were still standing he had no excuse and would have to leave in a few hours at best.

After some fast calculations he thinks to himself. 'Can't get in contact with them. Whoever the magician is, they will notice when I don't show up for our meeting in a week. Are they going to be able to do anything about this? Probably not.'

After reuniting with the rest of his peerage, Rutal left Fuyuki in defeat. He had no other choice and because of the contract he couldn't even properly report all that had happened.

…..

The reason why this story begins a year before cannon is preparation. There is a lot of stuff I need to set up so this world makes some sense and some of you already noticed plenty of that. Another thing I wished to explore is why there are different types of sacred gear and why Rias was allowed to stay on the human world without supervision.

Rutal helped with that but there is still a lot of ground to cover before in many aspects of my own creation because I also added to the storyline. Between all that there is also Shirou's own story that is going to be more expanded in the break time from school, the japanese system is different as I said previously and that is gonna be relevant since they have three breaks during the school year.

I also made my own sacred gear here… I don't like the name but it was the best I could make up using the themes the dxd author made so…. suggestions? If anyone has a better name please feel free to share, I will give the proper credit and use it if I don't decide to use it on something else.

The next chapter is going to be the end of the first term of school and we go to the first break, where Shirou is going to take center stage as we will build a little more of his origin.

I am proud to say I gave minimal spoilers on this. Now if I can only get better in the grammatical sense...