Chapter 2

[Xeres Allocer]

"Stay still, will you?" he asked, feeling his annoyance rising as he sat there. Next to him, Vallen continued vibrating in place, eyes fixated on the Red Dragon Brat. How he ended up with a friend that interested in fighting and power, Xeres wouldn't know. Probably because he was the least annoying of the entire generation.

Which was actually very sad.

"I just can't wait to see this fight," his friend replied, not even looking away from the most recent target to his power obsessed mind. At least he wasn't dragging him around trying to get Belial into a fight like he had when they were kids. Xeres would take that win. "Do you have a prediction?"

At the question, he glanced at the Red Dragon Emperor and Riser, who were in quite the… animated discussion with Satan Lucifer and the Phenex and Gremory Lords and Ladies. Nepotism was shining through once more and Xeres was hundred percent certain the Red One's would get his way and there'd be a fight for the Gremory Heiress. They could play the "we don't favorite anyone" act as much as they wanted, but they weren't fooling anyone with a brain. Which wasn't to say it didn't work. One would be surprised by the amount of fools in devil society… especially the higher one went in the class department.

Xeres kept his eyes on the duo that was going to fight.

"... Red One, probably," he answered after a moment.

"Really?" asked excitedly a voice from his side. He turned to give an annoyed look at Gremory. The girl had, for whatever reason, remained where she'd been. The worst part was that Sitri was there too. Why hadn't they left already? "What makes you say that?" the redheaded heiress asked when he remained silent.

"I thought we were terrible company. Why are you still here?" he shot back instead, giving the two a half bored, half annoyed expression. Sitri glared at him harder for that, but what else was new? Gremory, for her part, didn't seem at all bothered. She was too happy to have heard that she might get what she wanted, Xeres guessed.

Not that she really had much to worry about. If Lucifer didn't have a plan to get his sister away from the wedding that she clearly despised, then he'd swear off games. There was just no way her family would have left her to it.

He was kind of curious about how the contract had even come to be, quite honestly.

"So?" Sitri urged and Xeres had half a mind to just ignore the two heiresses. Vallen looked interested too though, which was annoying. Figuring that they'd pester him if he didn't answer, he rolled his eyes.

"Something changed. I don't believe the Red One came the same way he was at the Rating Game," he commented, glancing at the two fighters once more. Things seemed to be settling down now, Lucifer ordered something to a close by servant who rushed away. The Satan's wife had joined the group now and seemed to be trying to play peacemaker with the Phenex. Xeres wished her the best. Sounded like an awful job to have at the moment. "He would have, but I don't think it's the case. The variables changed, on his side, at least. Riser is still the same, so… I'm leaning towards the changed variable, if it's all the same to you all."

That was the short of it, at least. Xeres figured that things would go differently now because the situation was more dire. If the guy lost now, then Gremory was done for. No way people would let Lucifer pull strings after this. The Lords and Ladies would be far from pleased. Even those that were on the man's side wouldn't be happy with that.

So, the Red Dragon Emperor was a caged animal, trapped and without options. Those were one of the most dangerous types of people. Especially one that had so much power within their grasp. Desperation was a great factor in deciding how a fight would go.

Not to say that the guy was sure to win, not even close. However, the odds leaned on his side. If he won or not, it would be something for the future. No matter how smart one was, nobody could predict things perfectly. At least not without having all the information, which people hardly ever did. It was why luck was a thing. There'd always be an unknown, a factor that wasn't taken into account. That's what luck was, to Xeres.

"Now I'm even more excited," Vallen said, making him roll his eyes again.

"Aren't you Riser's friends?" Sitri asked, her expression torn between her usual annoyance at them and confusion. How many times did they have to say it for it to stick though? Wasn't she supposed to be smart?

"We are more like… I don't even know. I wouldn't call us friends though. We just tolerate each other," Xeres explained, because Vallen was useless at the moment and he didn't want to deal with the annoying heiress duo more than he needed to.

"Why?" Sitri continued her questioning and Xeres had half a mind to just go away… again.

"Because we have to. Vallen and I have… different things we like to focus on other than our heir duties," he explained vaguely, even though everyone knew what he was talking about. Fights and games, that was what they did. "Riser is much more involved in that stuff, despite being a third son. So, if we stick with him-"

"It looks like networking," Sitri finished, blinking at him.

"And who else are we going to stick with? You two?" Xeres continued, snorting at the very idea. "Agares is even worse than you," he added, getting an intensified glare in response. "Astaroth and Glasya-Labolas are a mess. Bael is… special… So, yeah, Riser," he finished with a shrug. "And that's the end of the interrogation, yeah?"

With that, he took his phone and continued playing. He wasn't sure the level he was stuck in at the moment was doable after he tinkered with the game, but that was where half the fun came. The number of times he'd beaten a supposedly impossible level wasn't low and he planned to keep at it. Besides, it looked like the fight would take some time to set up anyway.

Xeres heard the heiresses by his side speaking but he wasn't sure if it was between themselves or at him. He'd stopped paying attention already. He caught a huff that seemed to imply it had been the latter before they moved on to the former.

Good.

[}-o-{]

Unfortunately for Xeres, it didn't take long for things to be set up. Much to his annoyance, it had been decided that the fight would take place in a Rating Game space. Furthermore, they'd be placing the spectators of the event, those at the party, inside said space instead of having them watch a broadcast from outside like normal. He guessed it was so that people would have a harder time complaining about cheating of any kind and also because it was all rather last minute.

Didn't mean he wasn't rather irritated by it all, especially because it meant he had to move and leave his games for a bit as they were relocated. Apparently, they'd taken the one on one fight rather literally, throwing the Red Dragon Emperor and the Riser Phenex into a colosseum arena, with the people watching from the stands. On the bright side, they'd been careful to put barriers and stuff to keep the fight away from the public.

That was nice of them, even if Xeres had to wonder who really guaranteed such a thing. Surely most of the people there were over Riser's level and the Boosted Gear might be a Longinus but the wielder had proven to be far, far too weak to really worry about for most of them. Then again, Gremory's peerage was there and they were weak as fuck. Same for Sitri, really. On second thought, Xeres wouldn't put it past most of the other guests to be on a pitiful level even though they were supposed to be "high class".

Speaking of the devil nobility around, now that he had his attention pulled away, Xeres glanced around at the people. It always paid to know what was going on to some extent. That way he knew what to say to who so that they'd leave him alone, at least. If not, he was sure he could do something useful with the information regardless.

A bunch of the New Satan faction around seemed to not care overly much for what was going on other than mild curiosity, probably due to the Red Dragon Emperor. Some others though, looked less than pleased. Probably the preachers in that crowd, those that would cry "nepotism" and "favoritism", as if they didn't do the same thing themselves.

Never let it be said that devil society wasn't full of hypocrites, himself included.

The Old Satan faction in "disguise" around leaned a lot more towards the latter stance, that was for sure. It was also expected, really. They jumped at any chance to undermine the authority of those they deemed usurpers. The funny thing was that most of them didn't even care for the Old Satans and their "rightful place", they just found it inconvenient that the policies had changed with the new leadership.

As he gazed upon the crowd distributed through the stands, however, Xeres found his parents. He stared at them for a long moment with his eyes narrowed before he closed them for a second. 'Of course,' he thought bitterly. 'Satans forbid I have an easy time.'

He turned away from them and looked at the arena, where the fight was being set up. He could deal with the mess that were his parents some other time. He so wished he could be back at home in his room or in his study. He suddenly felt even less like dealing with people, or the fight, or anything.

'Shouldn't have let Vallen drag me here,' he lamented. The silver lining there was that his friend was too busy eagerly waiting for the battle to start and the Gremory and Sitri heiresses seemed to be too busy talking with their own peerages. He did momentarily complain in his mind about the fact that they remained in close proximity to him and Vallen, but there was no point.

If he said anything, he half expected Sitri would decide to stay and be as annoying as she could.

She could be a bitch like that.

Not that he was one to talk.

Ultimately, things were ready to get started and Vallen was already at the edge of his seat by then. The murmurs of the high society talks went silent, because nobody wanted to miss the actual fight. Regardless of how it went, it'd cause more political waves than it already was by just happening at all. 'So, how's it gonna go?'

"Balance Breaker," the Booster Gear announced as soon as the match started and Xeres heard many gasps and other surprised exclamations. "Boosted Gear: Scale Mail." It was, indeed, very impressive that it was happening at all, Xeres would admit. However…

"Well, there go the chances, I guess," he commented idly, leaning back and whatever wisp of excitement he might have felt for the match vanished. Vallen, next to him, looked the complete opposite. He was even starting to drool a bit, he noticed.

'Gluttony devils,' he thought with a roll of his eyes. They were always hungry, always looking for more to indulge in. Vallen was no different, even though his inclinations leaned towards fights and shows of prowess of any kind… He didn't understand, but then again, he was a completely different kind of devil.

"What do you mean?" Gremory asked him, confused… and scared. She hid it well, or maybe it was well buried under other emotions, but there was a very clear spark of panic there. She clearly wanted, desperately, to believe that the Balance Breaker would save her. It was honestly quite sad. "That's-That's Balance Breaker!" she exclaimed, as if that were all that needed to be said.

"And it's impressive. Especially for how long he's had the Sacred Gear," he agreed. However, he followed that with a shrug. "But it doesn't matter. Being stronger won't help him. Riser is a Phenex, he'll take all the punches the Red One throws at him, and he'll just stand up again."

Don't get him wrong. From where he stood, Riser was not that hard to overpower. Sure, their fellow devil had potential, a whole lot of it. It was just that for as much as Vallen recriminated Rias laziness, Riser was about the same. More preoccupied with admiring his face in the mirror or making use of his peerage, rather than training.

If the fact that even without training he still earned his spot as one of the top ten strongest devils of their generation wasn't enough of an indication of his potential. One only needed to look at his Phenex traits, an affinity for fire and wind was a nice touch, but the Power of Immortality factor was what took the cake.

Riser wasn't strong per se, but what he really excelled at, was staying on the battlefield. Vallen's claims of the golden man being the ultimate punching bag were not wrong. Most of the time, all he needed to do against a stronger opponent was grit his teeth and power through the pain until they tired themselves out.

Sure enough, that was exactly what was happening in the arena. It was all very impressive, for sure, but Xeres already knew what was going to happen. It might as well be like watching a movie where he already knew the ending.

Boring.

"But… But the Phenex aren't invincible. I know that," Gremory mumbled, her voice shaking as much as her hands. "He's boosting a lot more."

"It's a new Balance Breaker." It was Sitri the one that explained, making Xeres lean back. With any luck, this would be over quickly and he wouldn't have to talk again. He'd made a mistake with his comment from before, evidently. "Hyoudou got it very recently, since he didn't use it for your game. It means he hasn't trained with it, doesn't have it under control. He probably won't last, and even if he did, he'd need a lot more to power through the Phenex's Power of Immortality."

"That… That's…" Gremory mumbled, looking between Sitri, the fight, and Xeres. He resolutely kept his eyes on the arena though, because it seemed like entirely too much trouble to deal with the heiress at the moment. She was annoying on a good day, if he'd learned anything from all the meetings they'd had through the years.

That very day? No, thank you.

'Eight seconds,' Xeres noted mentally when the Red One's armor fell apart.

"Issei," Gremory whimpered in a whisper.

"I guess it's over," Sitri said, sounding disappointed and despondent, probably in her friend's stead. She wasn't particularly affected by this in any way though, except maybe whatever hit the New Satans as a whole got from the whole stunt, but it'd be mostly directed at Sirzechs, probably. Nobody wanted to make an enemy of all Satans, after all, so Old Satan supporters tended to focus on one of them at a time. "I'm sorry, Rias."

Beside him, Xeres saw Vallen slump back on his seat, probably very disappointed in how the match had gone. Sure, he might have gotten a short burst of excitement from it, but it was still a very sad display. Eight seconds, that's how long the object of his friend's… He wouldn't say admiration, but it was somewhere around that… had lasted.

"Match isn't over yet," Xeres reminded them, but mostly Vallen, watching through half closed eyes at the fight.

"Shut up, Allocer," Gremory told him, not angry but defeated. There was no life in her voice anymore. It was honestly quite pitiful. "If the Balance Breaker wasn't enough… It's over."

"So much for servants being like family and all that shit, huh?" Xeres commented, snorting. "There are five ways the Red One could still win this, from what I know. And that's considering he's dumb as a rock."

"Really?" Gremory asked, some light coming back to her eyes as she turned towards the fight. It said a lot about how much that statement had caught her attention that she didn't even argue the insult.

"Really?" Sitri asked, with disbelief so clear in her face that it made him roll his eyes.

"Really?!" Vallen asked, starting to vibrate in his seat once more.

'Can this be over already?' Xeres wondered, wishing he could just be at home playing games and not having to deal with all that he was having to. Alas, he was stuck for the moment. Interestingly, while they talked, it seemed like the Red One had started doing something.

And it looked like it was one of the ways he'd thought of.

'He's not a complete lost cause. Vallen will like that,' he mused, watching as the Red One struck the fear of Big G into Riser. Literally, considering he somehow used a holy cross on his fist as if it were the flimsiest knuckleduster and splashed holy water on it. 'Not quite how I had thought it, but still,' he noted to himself.

Because how the fuck was the guy touching those things? Xeres had thought about getting a hold of the items, sure. The Gremory had a former nun, a former Maiden, in their midst. Chances of them having such objects at hand were good. It was a wonder they hadn't used those during the Rating Game, really. However, he'd thought of something along the lines of just throwing them at Riser, or quickly placing the chain of the cross around his neck or something like that… Those actions were better done while the armor was still active, instead of waiting for his transformation to wear off.

The possibility of the usage of items was something Xeres expected already. The moment the kid had shown himself, Xeres assumed he had been given some kind of device or weapon that could nullify or overpower Riser's Immortality by Sirzechs. Both something from the Satan's personal collection and Beelzebub's own inventions. He had noticed how the use of items had been left without saying while marking the rules of the duel, after all. It was something he expected to be hiding in some kind of dimensional pocket or something.

What he wasn't expecting, though. Was for the object to be a cross of all things. And the fact the Red One was taking his damn time with the thing in his hand and he didn't seem affected. Why not use it while transformed when he had the physical upperhand though?

'Unless the transformation itself was the catalyst for the plan?' Xeres wondered. 'Either that or he thought he could do it with Balance Breaker but had a back up plan. Both sound too smart for the guy but weirder things have happened.'

Something very weird was going on there and Xeres didn't like not knowing about it. 'Might need to check the records on the Red One… maybe even the White One, just to be safe,' he noted to himself. It'd be such a bother to do so and it'd cut into his game time. Needs must though and he'd rather have important information like that at hand.

If he couldn't plan, he couldn't make sure that things went well and he could continue to play without being bothered, after all.

For the moment, he watched as the Red One smacked Riser with a punch that was probably the stuff of nightmares for many a devil. Boosted Gear, holy cross, holy water and it sounded like he'd even strengthened those latter two's effects. Talk about overkill, man.

"I have no idea how the fuck he did that," Vallen breathed out, a wide grin and a mad glint in his eyes as he leaned forward. "You are gonna have to tell me about that, Xeres," he said then, and Xeres was kind of glad he already had plans to figure that out, or Vallen would never shut up about it until he did anyway. "But that was amazing," he added, a chuckle escaping his lips.

"Issei!" Gremory cried out then, jumping over the railing when the fight's outcome was officially announced. Her devil wings appeared on her back as she glided all the way until she was next to her knight in red armor. 'All very touching,' Xeres thought, growing bored. 'So, are things over now or… fuck,' he cursed in his mind as he turned just in time to see Vallen jump over the railing himself.

"My turn!" his friend exclaimed, his voice sounded further away as he dropped to the arena like a boulder.

"What is he doing?!" Sitri asked, scandalized.

"Picking up a fight at the worst possible time, obviously," Xeres answered tiredly and he massaged the bridge of his nose. 'Oh well, time to pull the meathead out of the fire once more,' he thought, sighing in exasperation. Sometimes he wondered why he was friends with Vallen, honestly.

"Aren't you going to do something about him?!" Sitri asked, giving him an angry look. Why was she expecting him to deal with Vallen? He would, but she had no business expecting him to do anything.

"In a second,"he replied with a shrug, standing up and leaning on the railing. Looking down, he saw Vallen's Power appearing around his hands already. A dark black and green miasma gathered on his fist as wisps of it drifted lazily from them. Compared to the Power of Destruction, or Riser's own golden flames, it didn't look that impressive, he supposed. Xeres knew better. "Nothing will stop him until he gets at least a little of that fight out of his system."

And the Gremory peerage would do well for that, it seemed, because they had already jumped in between the Red One and Vallen. Nice of them to throw themselves under the bus like that. After all, the Boosted Gear wielder didn't have any fight left in him, that was for sure.

Glancing to the side, Xeres caught the Sabnok Lord and Lady looking at their son as if he might as well have been any rowdy stranger. Because of course they were. No wonder he received gifts every so often for keeping their son from doing too much damage to the family reputation. They couldn't be bothered to do it themselves. All the loss to them though. Vallen was going places, even if he was still a meathead.

Xeres would sit and watch that train wreck gleefully.

'Bad idea, pretty boy,' he thought then, catching sight of the Gremory Knight rushing his friend first. It'd have been better to let the Rook take the first hit – Not that it would have changed things much – if the blonde was counting on his speed to save him.

With more speed than most weak devils could track, the blonde boy moved. A pair of swords materialized in his hands. – both of the elemental kinds and tainted by what was clearly demonic power – while he rushed towards Vallen. With a last hop to the side, the kid poised himself to strike at his friend next in a swing that would surely decapitate even Riser if it hit.

A dark green hand smacked him aside like he was a fly. Vallen didn't stop or even look at the Knight as the kid flew into one of the pillars of the stadium and got buried in the rock rubble.

'That's gonna leave a mark,' he thought, and that was quite literally the case, because he could already see the ugly bruise forming where the Knight had landed. The skin started to crack, almost as if it was falling apart, black and green veins spreading through his face.

The white-haired Rook followed the Knight's example as if it hadn't ended in disaster and all she achieved was a flimsy punch that might as well have been to Vallen what a mosquito bite would have been to a human. She was swiftly dealt with, punched into the ground where she stood, cracks formed in the ground as it gave in to the force of the punch. Imitating the green marks growing on the Nekoshou's bloodied face.

'Well so much for these guys putting up a fight. They were practically useless. Train more, man. Are you gonna make me do all the work?' he thought as his power started to gather itself at a measured pace.

Vallen turned towards the Queen and King that stood between him and the Red One. Xeres couldn't see it, since Vallen had his back to him. However, he was sure his friend was wearing a wide grin and chuckling like the deranged battle maniac that he was.

'You've done nothing so far and two are out, please don't leave it all to me,' Xeres thought to himself grimacing.

"Do something!" Sitri ordered, making him turn and glare at her. White wisps floated around the edge of his vision as he did, making the girl's mouth click shut.

"Why don't you do something?" he hissed, tilting his head. "That's your friend about to get smacked."

Predictably, she didn't do anything, because Vallen was causing a scene and her joining in wouldn't be proper. It was honestly very amusing. She was just as much of a hypocrite as the rest of them, just like the Old Satans, the New Satans and everyone else. She liked to play the good devil, like the Gremory did, but as soon as things didn't go their way, then clearly the evil ones were at fault and they needed to do something.

It was both amusing and annoying.

Turning again, he saw Vallen get shot with both Power of Destruction and Thunder. If they thought that would do anything to him, then they were wrong. Hell, they probably did him a favor, giving him an excuse to get rid of the stifling clothes he'd complained so much about. Vallen could have protected those with his magic like he did his body, but he didn't bother, because of course he didn't.

His friend preferred the barbaric look. If he could get away with being shirtless, he would go for it. 'At least he kept his pants this time,' Xeres thought gratefully. He still remembered the days when his friend would refuse even that. It'd led to a lot of very awkward and uncomfortable moments, that was for sure, even for the normally uncaring Sabnok.

'Time to step in, I guess,' Xeres decided, dropping from the railing and gliding towards where the mess was going on. He knew, after all, that a single hit would take down the King and Queen duo. Besides, if Vallen actually punched Gremory, it'd be hassle of a situation to deal with and he'd rather not.

Evidently, someone had the same idea as him, because a wave of power that sent a shiver down his spine struck his friend. Xeres discreetly gulped as he approached his friend, who was now encased in ice together with more than half of the stadium. Although, the attack must have been just a warning shot – by that particular devil's standards, that is –because he could see Vallen already cracking the thick layer of ice around him.

"A little late, Allocer," someone told him and he put on his best politician expression.

"I apologize, Lady Leviathan," he said, doing his best to sound like he meant it. He left it at that. He wasn't Vallen's keeper, damnit! "Let's go, man," he continued then, as he saw his friend free himself from the ice.

"But the Red-!"

"I don't care," Xeres told him, unimpressed. "Let's go, before you get yourself killed. You'll get to fight him some other time."

"Fine," Vallen replied, pouting like a child.

Sometimes Xeres really wondered why he was friends with the guy.

"... You know Power of Damnation, I'm sure," he said then, turning towards Gremory, who had rushed towards her Rook with the Red One while the Queen went for the Knight. Both of them clutched the spots they had been hit on, trying and failing to save face by holding back whimpers and groans. Xeres knew that if they didn't receive treatment soon, that wasn't going to last. Gremory turned to glare at him but he continued, uncaring. "Phoenix Tears would be ideal, but Twilight Healing should do the trick… Eventually, even if it might take some time."

All he got for his helpful advice was a hateful growl that made him roll his eyes. He had lost the ability to care what these people thought about him years ago. With a sigh, he turned toward Vallen, who seemed to be shivering slightly. A hit from a Satan was no joke, after all, warning shot or not. Still he seemed to be mostly okay, and at least he wasn't glaring in the brat direction anymo-

"No," he hissed. The kid was okay, but please. The last thing they needed was Vallen looking at the Satan Leviathan with his fighting face. Xeres was not going to save him from that one.

"You sure I can't-"

"No, Vallen."

"... What about the chicken?"

"Ah, knew I was forgetting something… Meh, he'll be alright."

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: This was a surprisingly easy chapter. Easier than I thought it'd be before we started it, at least. We did skim and downright ignore most of the Issei-Riser fight, but that's because it went mostly according to canon.

Arc: Funny thing, did you know that in the Light Novel, Issei doesn't use the cross until after his Balance Breaker runs out? That is… kind of odd given that he waited for his biggest advantage to be gone to use the trump card. We changed things a bit to try to give some sense to that particular scene.

Adrian: It's also far from the most glaring plot hole in DxD though so… *shrug*

Arc: Hope we can cover as many as we can here. With that said, Vallen got some interest in Issei now that he discovered he isn't the ultimate failure everyone expected him to be (Unlocking a Balance Breaker so soon after getting the SG is definitely not normal). So, expect Vallen to start getting more involved. And with that, the plot to slowly start changing. Xeres will be right behind him, if anything, because it would be more bothersome to not go.

Adrian: Everyone has that one friend, I guess. Anyway, hope you guys liked this second chapter for Antagonistic and remember to leave a review if you did. It's much easier for us to know which Fables are popular and which aren't that way.

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