Disclaimer: Neither High School DXD nor Elder Scrolls belongs to me, all rights to their respective owners.

Chapter 53

—"Even we who ride the currents of Time cannot see past Time's end… Wuldsetiid los tahrodiis. Those who try to hasten the end, may delay it. Those who work to delay the end, may bring it closer. —

Paarthurnax to Edzard

Haafingar – Nirm 5E

The Skyrim sky was completely clear, allowing the sun's rays to fall on the land of the Nords. Although the sun was very dear to many beings of Skyrim and Aurbis, on a road, which was in the Haafingar hold, there was someone who did not appreciate that star.

"Ugh! Damn shitty sun!" Serana yelled in frustration as she walked back to where the boat, she used to get back to her family's castle was located.

The daughter of Coldharbour was back home after having visited all her friend's former housecarl. This was something that she had been doing regularly once every six months. Although it was something that Edzard never asked of her, or even something that he would ask of her, she decided to do it anyway, as she would ensure that the inheritances, he left behind would not be misused.

'Ed, I'm sure you'd be happy to see how happy everyone is.' Serana thought as she smiled under her hood.

The vampire thought that thanks to the fact that she saw how each of Edzard's former housecarls lived. Each of them had formed their own families and had complied with the requests made by his former thane before leaving for the other world.

'It would have been fun if you had been here for Lydia and Saadia's wedding.' Serana thought amused, remembering how those women had been married in the temple of Mara of Riften. Although Lydia had not been the only one who had married, since all of Edzard's former housecarls had married on the same day in the temple. The couples had obviously been Lydia with Saadia, while Argis had married a Breton named Muiri, who was the assistant to the shop owner of the Hag's Cure. For her part, Jordis had married Aldis, the captain of the Solitude City Guard. On the other hand, Iona had married Sapphire, a member of the Thieves Guild and that was something that neither she nor anyone who knew both women had expected. Finally, Calder had married a Nord woman from Skaal Village, whose name was Morwen.

As she kept thinking about the latest events, her mind recalled her encounter with a being she had not expected to see in her life.

Flashback

The moons shone in the clear sky, allowing one to see also the northern lights that were only visible on northern Tamriel nights. On the road that crossed the hold of The Rift from end to end, there were two people, one was Serana, and the other was Aela. The two lovers were conversing calmly, remembering the news they had received from two of Edzard's former housecarls.

"So, Lydia and Saadia have adopted two children?" Serana asked curiously as she looked at her lover.

"That's right, a girl named Lucie, who was a Nord orphan who walked the streets of Whiterun and the boy named Alesan, who was a Red guard orphan who lived in Dawnstar." Answered Aela with an amused smile on her face, as she remembered that Saadia had told them that she did not intend to have children.

"While that's amazing, what's really amazing is that Iona and Sapphire have adopted two children as well." Serana commented as she looked up at the stars.

"Yeah, that was just as surprising as their marriage. As I remember her, the boy was a Breton named Blaise and the girl was a Nord named Sofie." Aela said as she reached out her right hand and took Serana's left hand.

Aela's action was matched by a smile from Serana, who after smiling stopped abruptly and pulling her lover, captured her lips in a deep kiss.

The kiss that both lovers gave each other began to escalate in intensity, which led to their hands letting go and beginning to run through the other's body. The moans of both began to be present while their hands covered every inch of the other's body, massaging their buttocks and their breasts in an almost wild way. However, before they could do anything else, their sensitive ears caught the sound of approaching footsteps. These steps were muffled using light boots.

"Don't worry about my presence, just continue what you are doing." A woman's voice said, which contained a hint of mischief.

Hearing her, the two lovers quickly let go and jumped back, taking a distance of about five meters with the owner of the voice. When their eyes landed on the source of origin, they both felt their bodies warm slightly, and the owner of the voice turned out to be a pretty Dunmer with very good attributes. If her face and her attributes were good, the clothes she wore of hers were torn in some parts, she showed part of her breasts, with the left side of her chest almost showing her nipple.

"Wow, but if they are a vampire and a werewolf..." The woman said with a smile as she pointed a finger at them. However, said smile began to fade, as she seemed to realize something. A few seconds after making a face that indicated that she was thinking of something, the Dunmer asked something. "Is it Serana and Aela by any chance?"

Hearing their names come out of the stranger's lips, they both began to look at her cautiously, so they slowly raised a hand to where they had their weapons, for Aela to answer later.

"Yes, we are. Do you have any business with us?"

What followed Aela's question, was a great shout to the sky and a thunderous laugh, because the woman seemed very happy about something.

"Ha, ha, ha This is incredible!" The woman laughed amused for a few moments, until she finally calmed down. When she was no longer laughing, she reached into her bag and from there she took out a few cards. Handing them these letters, she told them who those letters were from. "I am doing a favor for a mutual acquaintance. He asked me to deliver these letters to you, well, more specifically to Serana. Although, he told me that, if I couldn't find her, that I should travel to Whiterun and take this to Aela, that she would deliver it to Serana."

Hearing that someone had sent letters to Serana, both lovers were curious, so, taking the letters, they opened the first one.

To Serana or Aela or both if you are reading this together

I don't know how soon you will receive this, but I hope that by the time you receive it you will be in good health. Something redundant if we remember that you cannot contract normal diseases.

The truth is that I have a lot to tell, but I am afraid that this letter is only the preliminary greeting of everything, so I will go straight to the point.

Along with this letter there are some more letters, one addressed to each one, in which I tell you everything that has been happening around here and the rest of the letters are addressed to certain specific people. So, I will ask you to deliver them, since inside there are some personal requests.

So, without further details, I say goodbye and I will continue telling you what you want to know in your respective letters.

Edzard C.R.

By the time they both finished reading that letter, they felt euphoria and calm, because they had been worried about what had happened to their friends. Putting smiles on their faces, both lovers looked at the cards and indeed there were cards with their names, but there were also cards with the names of Tolfdir, Arngeir, Brynjolf, Vilkas, Asia's friends and some others. In addition, there were also three cards, which were bulkier than the rest. Said letters had the names of the three factions to which Edzard had belonged, that is to say, "The Companions", "The College of Winterhold" and "The Guild of Thieves".

Seeing these bulging letters, the two lovers wondered what they contained, but didn't have much time to think, as the sound of the Dunmer's fake cough brought them back to reality. So, posing their gaze on her, they decided to talk.

"Thank you very much for bringing us this." Serana said with a smile, which showed her canines, being imitated by Aela, who decided to add something else. "Yes, thanks for this. If there is anything we can do for you, please say so."

The moment Aela finished saying those words, a smile appeared on the Dunmer's face.

"Indeed... if there is anything you can do for me." The Dunmer said as she approached them licking her lips.

End Flashback

Serana felt a chill run through her entire body, as her mind recalled what happened that night in a cave near where they had met Aryne.

"Who would have thought that I would meet another hero from the ancient scrolls?" Serana wondered, since after that night of fun, the Dunmer told them his identity. After that revelation, Aryne had dressed again, because the threesome they had had was only something passionate and not something binding, since both she and Aela did not feel anything for Aryne, so they only left that night as a good memory of the three. The moment the Dunmer left, both she and Aela quickly headed towards the first relatively large village, since it was, along with the cities, the places where there used to be messenger posts. After finding said building, they sent all the letters to their owners, except the ones with their names, Lydia's, Vilkas's, and everyone who lived in Whiterun, including the thick letter that was addressed to Jorrvaskr.

After that, they went to Whiterun, where upon arrival they delivered the letters to their owners and when they were in Jorrvaskr together with Lydia, they opened the great letter. What they saw inside amazed them all, since it was full of small portraits where you could see Edzard, Asia and little Marie. Seeing their friends after two years, both Aela and Serana and Lydia shed small tears of happiness, especially seeing how Marie had grown. In addition to being confused to see that in other photos there were a few more people, well, the correct thing would be to say a few more women.

Seeing those photos confused those present, so they began to read their letters and when they finished, Serana and Aela began to receive bags of Septims from Vilkas and Farkas, as they had made a small bet with them. Said bet revolved around whether Edzard would manage to have some native lovers of that world, the twins had bet that he would not, since Asia would not allow it, but they had prepared the ground for Asia to learn of the ancient and almost extinct Nord custom of having concubines. Knowing that their friend would talk about it with her husband and knowing what he was like, it was possible that she would allow him to have some extra lovers, so they decided to bet yes. And it seemed that they had been right, as Edzard confirmed that he already had some concubines.

'That was amazing, four thousand septims the easy way.' Serana thought with amusement, but then her amusement turned to worry as she remembered Edzard's request.

Her friend's request was for her to mention to her mother if she knew of any antidote for the damned " Blood of Coldharbour" poison. That request left both vampires confused, since they did not know why he would ask for that. However, when her mother opened her letter, they found out that Edzard's parents had become Bal Champions thanks to that poison, and that made them both feel sorry for Edzard.

'Although my mother mentioned that the only cure for said poison was death, she decided to investigate the few volumes she had on the subject. Unfortunately, there has been no progress.' Serana thought as she kept walking. While it was true that no antidote was found, it was possible that there was a way to purge the poison in another way. 'Although the writings do not mention the specific way, they do mention that great magic could purge that poison, but there is a risk that those affected could die or be left in absolute madness.'

While still deep in thought, Valerica's daughter did not notice that a couple of bandits approached her. Or at least that impression was given by the vampire, since to the surprise of the two approaching bandits, she moved both hands and unleashed two powerful lightning bolts, which hit the two bandits squarely, ending their lives on the spot.

"I hate it when these guys show up like this." Serana said with annoyance, who stopped walking and started running, because she wanted to get home to see if her mother had discovered anything more about that damn poison.

Draconic Deus - 20xx

Night had already fallen on the underworld, causing many of its inhabitants to be in their homes resting peacefully or at least that was what should be expected on a normal day, but this day was far from being a normal day. This was because today was the second day of the so-called «The Great Two-Day Rating Game Festival», a name devised and publicized by the current Lucifer himself, that is, Sirzechs. Although the name sounded somewhat ridiculous, that did not change the fact that two historical things happened, the first was that the previous day some twenty Rating Games were played consecutively and simultaneously, being the first time in history that something like this happened.

Simultaneous Rating Games were set that way to get today's entrants. For that marathon of fights between devils, only one rule had been set for registration and that was that only devils under twenty years of age who had peerage could participate, so the number of combatants was reduced. That made it a quick league, where only the first four advanced to this round. Although the above was historic, today would also be historic, since today a unique Rating Game would take place, which would be put to the test to see if this type of Rating Game would be implemented, which was called, «Raid».

The Raid Rating Game would be a unique type of gameplay, as unlike the previous modes, this one was not based on one team versus another team fighting, but instead took its inspiration from the dungeons they used to have the MMORPGs that humans on Earth played. So, for this mode, a peerage or a group of peerage would enter a dungeon where they would face various enemies until they reached the bosses or the final boss, since the size of the dungeon depended on the number of devils that entered to challenge it.

While there had been some discontent in the devil population over the abrupt cancellation of the Young Devil Rating Games, the announcement of this festival almost completely eased that discontent, replacing it with the expectation and excitement of knowing what it would be about. When it was revealed what would be done in this festival, many devils were excited, so the bets ran like rivers in the bookmakers. At the end of all this bustle, only four peerages remained, whose identities were not a surprise, since many expected it to end that way.

So, while many devils looked expectantly at what was happening in their homes, some others were in the stadium that would serve as the entrance for this type of Rating game. Said entry point was the stadium in the city of Agreas, a floating island in the territory of the Agares family. This island was important for a specific resource, some crystals with which the Evil Pieces were made. The people gathered here were some nobles belonging to the devil clans, along with various important personalities from both the three factions and other factions that already belonged to the Kuoh pact.

While the high-ranking spectators spoke in their respective rooms, inside the Agreas stadium, in a very spacious and comfortable room, all the peerages that would participate in this Rating Game were gathered.

"How are you feeling, Rias?" Sairaorg asked walking over to his cousin who was sitting next to Sona.

"Nervous." The Gremory heiress answered sincerely as she looked at the Bael heir. "How do you feel?"

"Excited." Sairaorg responded quickly and confidently as he slammed his right fist into the palm of his left hand.

Sona and Rias looked at the young Bael and sighed, since only he could be excited about something like this. However, they were unable to say anything, as the king of the fourth peerage approached them.

"I hope you're ready, Rias, Sona, Sairaorg." Said a cold and calm voice, which originated to the right of where they were sitting.

The three young devils looked towards that direction and saw a beautiful young devil, who had long pale greenish blonde hair. Her eyes were pink with slit pupils. Also, she was wearing a pair of glasses that gave the impression of being cold instead of cool. Her clothing consisted of a noble blue outfit with various details and accessories that bore the seal of the Agares clan on them, furthermore, instead of having a long skirt that ended as a dress, she wore a miniskirt. She was also wearing a pair of tall boots, which completed her look elegantly.

Seek-chan. Rias greeted, seeing her other childhood friend arrive.

"Rias." Greeted Seekvaira Agares, the heiress of the Agares clan. After that greeting, the young devil sat next to Rias.

"How have you prepared for this?" Seekvaira asked, looking at the other three kings.

"We have been training since we were told that this would take place, since the way my brother mentioned it to us, left me worried." Rias replied looking at Seekvaira.

"Yes, Rias is right. The way Sirzechs-sama told us that there would be something big as compensation for stopping the Rating Games caused us concern, so we started a few training regimens for our servants." Sona pointed out.

"So, you guys have trained too, huh?" Sairaorg asked as he smiled. "If we weren't on the same team for this, I'd be more than happy to fight in a Rating Game against you."

Sairaorg's words brought smiles to Rias and Sona's faces, who just nodded, knowing that fighting Sairaorg and his peerage would be a good measure of their progress in this time.

"I see, so you are too. That is good, and with this we would only need to start planning our strategy." Seekvaira said.

"Yes, but first I think we should present our peerages, so they know who their allies will be in this." Sona said, earning a nod from her fellow devils.

After that they all called their servants and began to introduce them.

The first to show up were Rias and Sona's peerages, who hadn't had any new recruits, well, Rias's peerage had had a new admission. The newest member of Rias's peerage was a beautiful young woman with dark blue eyes. Her blonde hair was long, and she was tied up in two pigtails with curls as big as drills and blue ribbons holding them in her place. The front of her hair had several bangs that hung over her forehead, with one V-shaped bang that hung over the bridge of her nose. As clothing she wore the female Kuoh Academy uniform, with the difference of wearing a black sweater over her dress shirt instead of her cape.

This young lady was none other than Ravel Phenex, the younger sister of Rias's former fiancé. The young devil had been exchanged with Rias's unused Bishop in an attempt to eliminate the political issues that caused the dissolution of the engagement between Rias and Riser. That's why she was sent for that, along with it also being done for her to get the experience of studying in a school in the human world.

Following the introduction of both peerages, Sairaorg introduced his peerage, starting with his queen. Sairaorg's queen was named Kuisha Abaddon, who was a pure-blooded devil who belonged to the «Extra Devils», which were devil clans that did not belong to the seventy-two pillars. Kuisha's appearance is that of a beautiful girl with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and blue eyes. Her attire consisted of a bodysuit that is open in her chest area revealing her large breasts and cleavage and part of her stomach, the bodysuit has a cut section on her arms that reveals her shoulders. Furthermore, she was also wearing a belt and long pants.

Sairaorg's two Bishops were named Coriana Andrealphus and Misteeta Sabnock, both being members of two of the extinct clans of seventy-two pillars, but not being counted as full members due to their mixed heritage or human heritage. Appearance-wise, Coriana was an attractive and curvaceous young woman with long wavy blonde hair and red eyes. Her clothing consisted of a red business suit with purple details. Misteeta, for his part, was a boy with light green hair and violet eyes, with two identical hair ornaments; one on each side. His clothing consisted of a dark blue suit with gold and red details with red boots that reached above his knees. He covered all these clothes with a white hooded cloak with gold details.

Sairaorg's two Knights were named Liban Crocell and Beluga Furcas, both being members of extinct clans, but Beluga being a pureblood devil while Liban was a devil with human heritage. Liban's appearance was that of a young man with blond hair and silver eyes, whose clothing was a blue suit, over which he wore light armor. In addition, a sword was tied to his waist. On his part, Beluga had the appearance of a handsome young man with brown hair and green eyes. His clothing consisted of full plate armor, giving him the appearance of a true medieval knight.

Sairaorg's two Towers were called Gandoma Balam and Ladora Buné, both like the rest of Sairaorg's peerage were members of extinct clans of the seventy-two pillars, Gandoma being a pureblood devil, while Ladora was of mixed heritage. Gandoma's appearance was that of a large man, as he appeared to be three meters tall. The build of him was muscular with arms and fingers of thick size. His face was more like a monster than a human. Also, his skin was tan in color and his eyes were pale blue gray. Ladora's appearance was that of a tall, lanky man with dark green hair and red eyes.

Finally, Sairaorg's only pawn, whose name was Regulus. Regulus had the appearance of a child with spiky dark orange hair, golden eyes, and facial markings, which were hidden by a golden mask. His clothing consisted of a white and blue suit and black boots.

Following the introduction of Sairaorg's peerage, Seekvaira stepped forward and they introduced themselves. Seekvaira's peerage was by and large the smallest in number, having only two members aside from its king. The first member was a dragon named Alivian, who was the Queen of Seekvaira. The appearance of this dragon was that of a handsome young man with black hair, whose clothing consisted of a butler's outfit.

The next piece was the knight of Seekvaira, a young woman named Bafeel Furcas, ironically this young woman was the sister of Beluga Furcas. Bafeel's appearance was that of a young woman in her early twenties with long straight brown hair. Bafeel's clothing was a gray formal suit.

After the presentation of their peerages, they began planning for what was to come.

"Well, according to what Sirzechs-sama has informed us yesterday this rating game is inspired by dungeon crawling MMORPG games played by humans." Seekvaira said as her eyes fell on Rias.

Upon those words, all the devils looked at Rias almost immediately, those who looked at her included her own peerage.

"Eh?" Rias asked with confusion as she realized that she was the focus of attention. "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Fu, fu, fu. Buchou, out of all of us here, the biggest otaku is you." Akeno replied with a giggle, earning a nod from the others present. "So, we all think that you must know more about this than any of us."

Rias's face flushed red upon hearing her queen say that.

"Akeno is right, Buchou." Kiba said with an awkward smile on his face. "You always talked about the online games of Japanese origin that you played."

"Buchou otaku." Koneko added in a calm voice, as a subtle smile appeared on her face.

The little nekomata's words made Rias's face blush even more. This lasted for a few minutes, until finally Rias was able to speak.

"Alright." She whispered Rias with a bit of embarrassment, then gaining confidence in her voice. "If we are based on human video game systems, then we will face a dungeon with several floors, which will be protected by monsters. We may also run into some puzzles that we will have to solve."

"Strength and intelligence." Sona and Seekvaira said in unison, who looked at each other and smiled to see that they were thinking the same thing.

"Strength? Intelligence?" asked Issei not understanding those words or rather, not understanding why they were using them right now.

"It seems that this type of rating game is to test our strength and intelligence." Rias answered, looking fondly at her pawn.

"Oh, I see." Issei responded as he averted his face, blushing at how the king had seen him.

That interaction caused Akeno to let out a cold laugh, while Koneko and Ravel let out an annoyed grunt.

"So, if that's so. How will we form?" Saji asked, looking at his king.

After Saji's question, the peerages of the four devils began to give their opinions for the elaboration of a strategy to deal with the beings that would surely give them a lot of trouble during this rating game, the "bosses" of the dungeon. Thanks to the knowledge of those who had played MMORPGS, they managed to think of a more than sensible strategy, which was flexible enough to be reshaped during combat.

When they finished elaborating their strategy, the door of the room was opened by Grayfia, who was dressed in civilian clothes, since that was her day off. The current Lucifer's wife requested the presence of her sister-in-law and Serafall's sister with their respective peerage. After that request, those requested left the room for a few moments and when they returned, they had confused faces.

"What happened, Sona, Rias? What were you summoned for?" asked Seekvaira, who watched this warily, as he did not understand why only they and their peerages were called.

"Not at all important, it was just for our brothers to wish us good luck." Rias answered in a quick but calm manner.

While that was true, the truth is that both Maous said a few more words to them, which they were. 'No matter what you see, don't tell anyone what you know.'

Those words caused confusion for the two heiresses and their peerages, but they decided to comply with them, even though they felt that something would happen in this Rating Game.

Seekvaira looked at her two friends a bit warily, but before she could say anything, the door was opened again. The person who opened the door told them that they had to leave now, because the Rating game was about to start.

After those words, all the devils in the room looked at each other and began to go inside the stadium, ready to face what was to come.

While the young devils and their nobles went out to the stadium and were led to the place where they would teleport, Yasaka, Kunou and Marie were in one of the VIP boxes. The little dragon was with them because her parents were on a mission with her entire group, so they had asked her to take care of her. Although she could refuse, she decided to do it, because she saw nothing wrong with taking care of her. Fortunately, little her had already finished her treatment a day ago, so she was already without the blindfolds on her. That had caused the little dragon and her daughter to be together watching what was happening.

Despite what had happened a few weeks ago, Edzard's daughter did not mention anything about the statements she made a few weeks ago, almost as if she had forgotten about it, but she wouldn't forget anything, especially after the talk she had with Edzard and Asia.

Flashback

"How come same-sex relationships are normal in Nirm?!" Yasaka yelled in disbelief after hearing how her "fiancé" and his wife mentioned that for Nirm societies it was normal for two people of the same sex to love each other and even get married.

"It is part of our culture, but above all our religion." Edzard replied as he calmly looked at Yasaka.

At the moment of hearing the word religion, Yasaka's face showed a frown, because she did not understand or, rather, she did not expect that a religion would approve that type of marriage, and that in this world not many religions allowed the marriage of couples of the same sex.

'Although, Greeks tend to be more liberal and sometimes have same-sex lovers, but never get married.' Yasaka thought as she recalled what she had learned about the Greek gods. Although her thoughts were not very long, because she had to come back to reality when Edzard spoke again.

"While there are various religions on Nirm, most mortals worship beings called Aetdas or Aedras. Although their names change in each pantheon, they are mostly the same gods." Edzard said as he looked at Kunou, who was thoughtful. "One of the main deities is Mara, the Goddess of love and family. She is one of the few goddesses that appears in almost all pantheons with the same name and it is usually said that she is married or is the concubine of two specific gods, sometimes it is said that she is married to one or the other or sometimes that she is with both at once. The love that Mara professes for mortals makes Nirm's marriage not just oaths, or a bond that unites the flesh, but a bond that unites the spirit of both spouses."

The mention of the union of the souls of the couples caused Yasaka and Kunou to be curious, so they asked Edzard about it, but to their bad luck he didn't know how to answer that. After that, the two kitsunes asked them if they had any friends in Nirm who had same-sex lovers and to the surprise of the two kyubis, it was Marie who answered.

"Yes, there are Aunt Aela and Aunt Serana." Said with a happy smile the little dragon.

Marie's response prompted Yasaka to ask both who these people were and the response she got was that they were lovers and that they were the closest thing to older sister figures Edzard had, along with the statement that Edzard himself had had loving feelings for both of them, but for some reasons no type of love relationship could be materialized.

"So, they rejected you and then became lovers?" Yasaka asked with a small smirk as she looked at Edzard.

Edzard looked away, feeling offended by what Yasaka was implying, but even so, he decided not to answer her, since that would only add fuel to the fire.

"Um…. I wonder why they rejected you… I mean, you're not ugly and from what I saw in the hot springs you have a nice body and you're well-endowed down there." Yasaka commented casually, causing both Asia and Kunou and Edzard to feel a bit uncomfortable by what she mentioned.

"According to them, a decisive factor was age, since they were older than me by several years." Edzard said before letting out a sigh.

"Oh really?" Yasaka asked curiously as she raised an eyebrow, since that argument didn't seem very enlightening to her.

"Yes, but I understand that it was because neither of them wanted to have anything to do with a man." Edzard said, causing Yasaka's curiosity to increase.

"Why?" asked the kitsune leader.

Edzard was about to answer, but before he could say anything, he felt the left side of his abdomen being pinched. Looking in that direction, he saw that the cause was Asia, who gave him a subtle look.

"I can't tell you; I promised not to talk about it." Edzard lied, since he never took that oath, but while he was speaking he forgot that he was not the person who should have said that, since only the owners of those secrets could say them.

Hearing Edzard's refusal to talk about it, Yasaka was tempted to persist, but in the end, she decided not to ask another question on the subject. So, refocusing on their original conversation, they started talking about the meaning of Marie's words.

End Flashback

The conversation ended with Edzard telling her what the "Sight" ability was, an ability that caused her and her daughter a great surprise, upon learning that Marie was able to see a fragment of a possible future. It was then, that she also remembered her own vision and asked Edzard if it was possible that this ability could show a possible future to another individual outside of a Nirmnian. The answer she got was yes, but that was weird, but not impossible. It was thanks to that answer that she understood that what she saw when she touched Edzard's hand that day was a possible future where the "marriage engagement" between her and Edzard worked. Knowing that she could be her mother again filled her with joy, but also with fear, since she did not know what to do. However, her "fiancé" said a few words to her that penetrated her mind and her daughter's mind and little Marie's.

'It is not good to let a possible future guide your actions, since if you try to avoid it, you may fulfill it and if you try to fulfill it, you may push it away. The best thing is to let life flow, allowing your own actions and desires to forge the path of those in front of you.'

Edzard's words made her understand that she could not intervene in her daughter's actions to prevent her and Marie from becoming lovers, since it could be her actions that lead to it. He also understood that he shouldn't force herself to make the compromise between her and Edzard work, but rather let things flow her own way. Furthermore, after receiving those words, both she and Asia asked Marie about her vision, wanting her to tell them as many details as she could. The little dragon's response was somewhat vague, but it was Kunou who said everything that was seen in that vision, revealing that she had seen it too.

'What they told us is not something easy to interpret, since, although they could be holding hands, that may not be a sign that they are a couple, but it would be a sign that they are very good friends. So this can only be an infatuation on the part of Marie towards Kunou.' Yasaka thought, as she was worried that something like this would happen between Kunou and Marie, who by birth were the heirs of their respective parents. However, despite her concern, she decided to watch what was happening, since she still had time to think about what fate had in store for her daughter and Edzard's daughter.

"Ne, ne. Yasaka-obasama." She called out Marie, who had started calling Yasaka that way.

"Yes, Ma-chan." Yasaka replied, using the name her daughter used to refer to her best friend/possible stepsister.

"Rias-oneesama's brother has already finished speaking."

Hearing that, Yasaka's eyes widened in surprise, as she had completely missed the explanation and introduction of this new type of Rating Game.

"I see… I was thinking about some things. What did he say?" Yasaka asked.

"Only this rating game will be the first of many new game modes. Although the rest will be like the typical Rating Game, that is, one peerage against another, this one is different, since its purpose is not to defeat another peerage, but rather to create camaraderie between peerage to face great enemies, forcing them to create strategies in real time to save themselves and manage to defeat the final "boss". Also, he mentioned that while it is true that all the devils that enter will fight together, in the end each one will get a certain amount of points depending on their performance in the battle. Furthermore, he also introduced the judges to monitor this Rating game." Kunou answered while she did not take her eyes off the stadium screen, as the peerages of the four devils were about to be teleported to the dungeon.

Kunou's words caused surprise in Yasaka, who knew that there was only one judge during the ratings game, whereas there used to be a commentator. However, it seems that in this rating game there would be no commentators, but only judges. So wanting to know who the judges of this game were, she asked the question. "Who are the judges?"

"There are two devils, one is called Diehauser Belial." Marie answered as she got up from the comfortable sofa and went to the center table, where there were several snacks. Grabbing a large amount of snacks, the little dragon headed towards her place on the sofa and after sitting down, she gave some sweets to Kunou, who accepted the sweets and they both kept watching the screen.

Marie's words caused Yasaka to almost choke on her saliva, since one of the judges was neither more nor less than the undefeated champion of the Rating Games himself, the one who had the number one position in the entire classification.

"And the other judge?"

"A certain Rudiger Rosenkreutz." Kunou replied almost carelessly before taking one of the small snacks that Marie had taken to her mouth.

"I see..." Yasaka said with a bit of surprise, since the aforementioned was the one who ranked seventh in the Rating Games, therefore, he was not a small feat.

'The first and seventh ranked in the Rating Game… I knew that the judges for this would be devils of prestige, but not of this magnitude.' Yasaka thought. However, she could not think or say anything else, for at that moment, the four peerages were sent to the dungeon, which was named as «Strunmah Dovahsebrom». Seeing that everything was about to start, Yasaka decided to watch the show that was about to start.

The white light that had blinded the young devils vanished, allowing them to see that they were no longer in the stadium, but that they were in a kind of room, which was made of gray stone, but it could be seen that it was in decay, since several pieces of the stone slabs that covered the floor were completely shattered. That room was illuminated by several "spotlights", which were green and seemed to work with gas. In total around the room there were about four passages, one on each wall, all illuminated by those spotlights. The light they emitted made it possible to see that they were long corridors.

"Where we are?" Sairaorg asked looking around the place.

"Looks like we're already inside the dungeon." Sona replied as she took a few steps and walked to where the spotlight was. Bringing her hand closer, she realized that it emitted a soft form of heat, but she hadn't done that just to see if it was hot, no, she had done it to know if it was possible that that "focus" was a weapon. Realizing that it wasn't, she turned her head and looked at the other devils present. "It looks like this is just a gas lamp. So, I propose that we start exploring a bit, to see the surroundings."

Sona's words were answered by nods from Rias, Seekvaira, and Sairaorg. After that, the four devil kings sent their servants to explore the place a bit, since the place where they were was wide. A few minutes later, all the devils came together again and began to tell what they saw.

"There is nothing in the passage to the right, just a dead end." Said Tsubaki, who together with her companions had gone to investigate that place.

"Same for the passage to the left." Said Kuisha, who had gone with all of Sairaorg's peerage, well, almost all of her, as Regulus and Beluga had not gone with her.

"The back passage is the same." Said Alivian, who had taken his peerage mate to investigate, but with the addition of Beluga, who wasn't going to leave his sister alone in potential danger.

"The front passage has a large golden double door." Said Akeno, who had been the one who led the exploration of the northern passage, which was longer than the others.

"I see, thank you, Akeno." Rias said with a smile before looking at the other kings. "Looks like we found our first entrance."

"So, it seems." Said Sona, whose eyes were hidden by her glasses.

"Yes, we already know which way this starts." Sairaorg said with a hint of excitement on his face.

"What do we do? do we move forward? Or do we wait?" Seekvaira asked, looking at her companions.

After Seekvaira's words, the devil kings sat down and began to talk to see what decision they would make, since right now they needed the confirmation of the four to make any decision. In the end, after several minutes of conversation, they reached the decision to move forward. So, moving, they advanced in the following way: The towers would go in the first line, since they were the ones with the greatest physical resistance and could stop any surprise attack. The next line was made up of the knights, who would use their speed to defeat any enemy they came across, while the bishops were in the next line, to provide support and cover. The queens and pawns went along with their kings, serving almost as escorts, since they did not know if they would lose immediately if they were defeated.

With that formation, the devils entered the first room, which was similar to the previous one, except for the hundreds of golden tubes that emerged from the ground and filled the place as if it were a garden. Despite that sight, the devils kept advancing towards the only corridor that could be seen, which was at the other end.

"This is so predictable." Rias said rolling her eyes at the obvious trap they had been set for, since in the middle of the tubes a very wide path could be seen.

"Yeah, it's almost like an insult to us." Sona said looking ahead.

The other two kings nodded, since it was obvious that this corridor was a trap, so in order to dodge it, they all spread their wings and began to fly above the path, in an attempt not to activate whatever those tubes are. However, to their misfortune, at the moment they were in the middle of the entire field of tubes, they opened and out of nowhere, a large amount of steam began to come out at great pressure towards the ceiling.

"AGHHHHH/KYAAAAA!" It was the collective cry that all the devils released when they felt that steam hit them, since to their surprise it was so hot that it hurt them. Those injuries ended up making them fall to the ground abruptly, hitting several tubes, which broke.

"Ugh. That really hurt." Said Saji as he struggled to his feet.

"I understand you." Commented Issei, who also had a hard time getting up.

At the same time as those two, the rest of the devils also got up and began to regroup, because thanks to the fall, they all ended up far away. However, the instant they were reunited, the tubes once again opened and this time they did not release steam, instead various things shot out from there.

"What's that?" Kuisha asked as she looked at the things approaching them.

"I do not have the slightest idea." Alivian said while, like the rest of his companions, they were looking at the things that were approaching them.

The approaching beings were small multi-legged robots, similar to small spiders, whose metal armor was bronze in color.

"Robot spiders?" Issei asked as she fixed his gaze on the spiders, which approached them without doing anything.

"Yes, it seems so." Saji answered as he watched as a small spider approached Koneko.

The young nekoshou watched as that spider came to where she was and began to bite her skirt with two of its legs.

"Hey!" Koneko yelled as she launched a kick at the robot spider, causing it to go flying and end up hitting one of the tubes. After that impact, the spider stood still, showing that it had been defeated.

"It seems that they are not very strong." Akeno pointed out as she approached Koneko. Barakiel's daughter barely took three steps when she was forced to create a defensive magic circle to protect herself from a powerful lightning bolt. When that attack was blocked, Rias's queen watched in amazement as hundreds of those spiders appeared in front of them.

"There are many..." Tsubaki said with a bit of concern upon seeing the large number of enemies, as there could easily be more than a hundred.

"Yes, this has gotten complicated." Said Alivian seeing how the spiders prepared to attack them.

While the young devils fought against literally a horde of mechanical spiders, the judges watched analytically what was happening in the battle, as they had to be alert in case something happened that needed their intervention.

"Ummm... those robots aren't very strong." Diehauser commented as he watched as the spiders were easily sent flying by simple attacks. The man known as Diehauser Belial was the current undisputed champion of the Rating game, making him one of the most influential people in the underworld, outside of satans and nobles. Diehauser's appearance was that of a man with a handsome face who has gray hair and eyes. His clothing consisted of a black outfit with some blue armor pieces. This suit was open on his chest, revealing the devil's ripped abs. Completing his outfit was a red cape with gold accents, which had a high collar.

"They are not robots, rather they appear to be automata." Rudiger pointed out as he continued to watch the scene analytically, being able to see how the knights of the peerage fought against the spiders, cutting them easily. The man named Rudiger was a man who appeared to be in his early twenties with silver hair along with deep green eyes. His clothes consisted of a blue suit with gold details with sleeves and parts of red pants. He has some kind of white skirt with gold details, which is held in place by a black belt. "But the truth is, I don't know what they really are."

"It seems that they know what those things are, don't they, Rudiger-dono?" asked Diehauser, his eyes narrowing slightly as he spoke.

"You can say yes." Rudiger replied, who began to look at how the devils were surprised by the rays that those spiders were throwing.

"I see... Although, it seems that dungeon is not as difficult as one would think it would be."

"It seems so, but since they are in the first chamber of all this it is understandable that it is so." Rudiger said as he watched as the devils had defeated more than half of the spiders that were there.

"Yes, what will follow later will obviously be more dangerous for them." Diehauser commented as he focused on Sairaorg Bael, frowning slightly at the sight.

"That's right, although future dungeons for this game mode will be randomly generated when it begins to be used massively in Rating Games, this dungeon is special and has been built by one person. According to what little I have learned, the dungeon will consist of six rooms without counting the final room. In each room with enemies, which are from two to five, they will run into increasingly stronger enemies. Each room is designed so that they act according to a specific type of situation." Rudiger said as he watched as the young devils began to make their way through the horde of mechanical spiders.

The image that was displayed was that of the towers fighting hand to hand, destroying spiders with brute force, while the knights used their respective weapons to destroy any spider that came close. The bishops, for their part, attacked the spiders that were furthest away with magic, thus reducing the number of enemies that could reach them. Finally, the pawns and kings also did not stand still and fought alongside their partners to defeat their enemies.

The way Rudiger had mentioned the creation of the dungeon made Diehauser immediately understand that the person who designed this was someone from the Kuoh Pact leadership.

'Kuoh's pact, an alliance initially created to stop the hostilities between the Three Factions, but with the appearance of those beings from another world, it has become the place where the greatest secrets of what is happening in the world are hidden today. ' thought Diehauser with a bit of annoyance, since the Kuoh pact had been very limited in the information it showed the public about what happened with the invasions. However, a rumor had started that something big had happened not long ago, something so big that it had changed the politics of the supernatural world. Unfortunately, whatever had happened recently remained in the shadows, as none of the leaders of the pact had spoken. Although, that was supposedly about to change, since it had been announced that there would be a very important announcement regarding this in a few weeks.

"It seems that they are about to finish cleaning the area." Rudiger said, drawing Diehauser's attention.

The Rating Game champion stopped thinking about Kuoh's pact and began to watch the match and sure enough, the young devils had begun to clear almost the entire field.

"Yes, I can see it…" Diehauser said as he decided to stop thinking about Kuoh's pact and concentrate on what was happening.

The young devils were sitting in circles, taking a breath, because the battle that had just ended was very difficult, not because of some level of power, but because of numbers. This was because those spiders came in such large numbers that they overwhelmed them in such a way that they received some injuries.

"That was terrifying." Issei said while he was lying on the ground.

"Don't tell me, it's almost the same as when you go to buy eggs on sale." Commented Saji, who was in the same position as Issei. "Only this time it was fucking clockwork spiders and not angry housewives."

The mention of shopping for offers caused Issei and those who knew about that type of fight to feel a chill run through their bodies.

"It's nice to remember, but we have to get going." Sairaorg said approaching the two reincarnated devils.

Issei and Saji looked at each other and sighing, they got up quickly, to continue their way.

The group made up of the four peerages began to walk down the next passageway. Their step was slow and careful, as their last meeting had made them understand that anything could happen here. So, after walking for a few minutes, they finally reached the next room, which was also closed by another large golden door.

"Here we are… The second gate." Sona said walking towards the door, only to be stopped by Rias who met her eyes.

"What do you think you're doing, Sona?"

"Don't worry, Rias. I don't think anything will happen just by opening the door." Sona answered, because she saw that her friend was worried about what could happen when she opened that door. Seeing Rias' concern, Sona decided to reassure her by telling her that she shouldn't expect something bad just by opening the door. So, breaking out of her friend's grip, Sona gently pushed the door, showing that there was nothing behind it. Witnessing that, Serafall's sister turned around and said something. "See, I told you –"

Whatever Sona tried to say was interrupted when Saji, who had followed closely behind her, used his «Line absorption» to catch her right wrist, thereby pulling her towards him. The reincarnated devil's action was followed by the impact of a huge steel bolt at the place where Sona had previously been. That bolt was thrown with such force that the point was completely embedded in the ground.

Everyone's eyes widened when they witnessed that, because that steel bolt was big enough and had the necessary strength to have been able to kill Sona with a single blow.

"W-w-what the fuck?" Issei said fearfully seeing the large steel bolt stuck into the ground.

"What is that thing?" Tomoe asked, who was scared and panicked for almost seeing her king die. After those words, she approached the bolt, or at least she tried to, because her advance was interrupted by Gasper, who shook his head when the swordswoman looked at him.

"It looks like a large bolt." Xenovia said, pointing out the obvious.

"We know that, but the question is, where did it come from?"

The question asked by Ravel, who was trying to discern what was going on.

At Ravel's question, Sona, who was being held by Saji, looked at her pawn and after blushing for a moment, she let go and fixing her glasses looked at her queen and spoke about her. "Tsubaki, use your sacred gear to see what happens."

Tsubaki nodded at her king's order, so, taking a few steps, she summoned her sacred gear. The mirror that was Tsubaki's sacred gear manifested in front of the door leading to the other room. Taking advantage of this, Tsubaki ran to the side and looking through his mirror surface, she saw what was in the room. A second after she saw what was there, a new bolt hit the mirror, completely destroying it.

"It seems that the bolts are thrown by a kind of robot in the shape of a semi-sphere, which has several legs to move around." Tsubaki said as she quickly approached them.

"So technically they're mobile ballistae." Said Seekvaira, who had her arms crossed under her chest, making it look bigger.

"So, it seems." Rias said, while thinking about what to do. However, before she could say anything else, Ravel stepped forward and asked Tsubaki if she had seen the entire room.

Riser's sister's question was answered in the negative, as Tsubaki couldn't see the entire room, only the right half of the entire room. That news worried the devils, but knowing that they had to go through that room, they began to plan how to enter so that they would not be detected by those ballistae, which seemed to be automatic.

Yasaka looked at what the image displayed with curiosity and concern. The curiosity was because I didn't know what the things that were attacking the devils were, since the image only showed where they were located, the concern came from the fact that those attacks seemed like they could end the lives of the devils if they received them a direct hit.

"I knew Ed said this would be hard for them, but I didn't expect this level. I wonder, what are those things?" Yasaka asked, hoping for no answer, since both Kunou and Marie had fallen asleep on the comfortable sofa. Deciding not to make too much noise, the kitsune got up from where she was sitting and took her daughter and her "stepdaughter" to carry them while they rested. Sitting back down, Yasaka looked back at what was happening on the screen and saw how the devils used fire and water magic to create a fine mist with which to gain entry as quickly as they could. When they were inside the room, the camera that was following them showed the entire room. The room itself was similar to the previous one, but with the difference that there were no golden tubes, instead there was nothing, it was literally a room with nothing more than those semi-spheres that shot bolts the size of a motorcycle. "From the way they attack, they look like a ballista."

Edzard's "fiancée" watched as the towers began to move and charge against those things, while the knights used their speed to get their attention, causing them to throw their bolts at them, thus preventing them from harming their companions. Although the battle seemed to have already been won, to the surprise of everyone, including the spectators, those semi-spheres turned out to be more resistant than the spiders, since a blow from Koneko, a tower that stood out for its strength, did nothing more than a small dent in the outer metal that covered the ballistae.

"It seems that they are stronger than the mechanical spiders in the previous room." Yasaka said as she narrowed her eyes as she watched as the devils began to form groups to face each of the ballistae. The ensuing battle was tough, causing many of the devils to use more strength. The towers were forced to be always alert, as were the knights, while the mages had to use spells of a certain level of strength to destroy the ballistae.

After several minutes, the ballistae were destroyed after receiving a large amount of damage.

"It seems that they have achieved it, but it is seen that some are tired and there are three more rooms to go, which will surely have stronger enemies and let's not talk about the final "Boss" that awaits them at the end of everything."

The four peerages of the young devils were walking with difficulty, as they were injured and tired. They were currently walking down the corridor that would take them to the last room, which was where the final boss was supposed to be.

"Come on guys. Almost there." Rias said as she walked leaning on Issei, who was not only carrying Rias, but also carrying Akeno. Both women were covered in a few injuries.

The rest of the devils also arrived leaning on a companion, since they had wounds caused by bladed weapons, which they obtained from the enemies in the two rooms that followed the ballista room. Initially they thought that those ballistae were strong, but when they got to the next room they found about twenty spheres, which were swarming around the room, almost without giving them any importance. However, that changed when they set foot in the room, for at that moment the spheres began to move in circles around them, enclosing them as the spiders had done. When everyone had prepared to fight hand to hand, they suffered a great surprise, because the spheres were divided in two and revealed a small golem made of golden metal, which was armed with a sword in one arm and a crossbow in the other.

Those spheres moved quickly among all of them, attacking with their blades, to then disappear and distance themselves to attack again with their crossbows. The battle they gave them was hard, as they attacked and fell back, but they were also very resistant, since they managed to withstand a blow from Sairaorg himself, coming out with only a slight dent. That battle was one of the ones that had caused them the most damage, since those bolts were not only the normal bolts that are embedded in your body, as some generated explosions of flames, lightning, or ice.

The battle lasted several minutes, minutes in which all their abilities were put to the test, since they had to use all their abilities to escape from there. Fortunately, they managed to defeat those spheres, but they came out with some injuries and almost completely exhausted, which made the challenge of the next room very difficult, where they literally faced robots about three meters each. These were armed with a sword blade and a hammer. These enemies were so strong that they forced Issei to go into his balance breaker and use his «Rook» form to take on one alone. Even Sairaorg had trouble facing one of these giants, because no matter how many blows he gave them, he didn't fall, but counterattacked, managing to deliver a couple of very powerful blows to the young devil, causing him considerable damage.

After those battles, they finally reached where they were now, in front of the final door.

"Behind this door is the 'boss', right?" Seekvaira asked with concern, as she saw the state of everyone present. The Agares clan heiress had several cut wounds, along with an occasional steam burn wound.

"Yes, he is supposed to be behind this door." Answered Sona, who was being helped by Saji. Sona's wounds were made by slashes from a sword blade and by bolts from the sphere's crossbows, which impacted her right thigh and her left shoulder.

"We can't give up after coming this far." Sairaorg said, who had several parts of his clothing torn from him, as he had fought in single combat against one of the giant robots. His injuries were moderate, as he received cuts from the robots' weapons, along with a few blows from the giant's hammer, which broke a few bones.

"Too bad we lost the three Phenex Tears we had when we fought those spiders." Akeno pointed out, who remembered how those spiders had managed to steal those potions to destroy them. It almost seemed that that attack was to take those objects away from them. They had not realized it until they left the room with those spheres, because since they came out with some more serious injuries than those they got against the spiders, they decided to heal themselves to avoid suffering more injuries in the other room, but when they realized that they no longer had those potions, they decided to enter without them, that's why they were very injured.

"Yeah. It's also bad that our demonic power is almost on the verge of running out." Said Kuisha, who was leaning on her king's shoulder.

"Yes, it seems that we have everything to lose." Ravel pointed out, who was leaning on Koneko, who had a sour face because of it.

"Maybe you have the odds, Bird girl." Koneko said causing an angry mark to appear on Ravel's forehead.

"What did you say?" Ravel growled bringing her face closer to Koneko's.

"What you heard, Bird girl."

Koneko's mocking words were about to start a fight between her and Ravel, but it didn't start, as it was stopped by a throat clearing, whose origin was Rias, who gave both a look, calming them down on the spot.

After that, the group of devils looked at the door and after the kings of the peerages looked at each other and nodded, all of them together pushed the door as best they could. Said door opened slowly and released a screeching sound, which chilled the bodies of the devils.

The members of the four peerages slowly and cautiously entered the last room, and what they saw surprised them, for there was nothing.

"This is rare. Because there is nothing?" said Kiba, who had his sword in hand.

"I understand you; this is worrying." Xenovia commented, who was looking around the place, trying to find something or someone.

"I-I don't like this place." Gasper said with a bit of fear because the place was so quiet that they didn't know what to do.

Ruruko agreed to what Gasper said, as she was also terrified by the lack of presence in this place.

All the devils began to comment that this place scared them, but despite that they continued to advance until they reached the center of the room.

Clank!

The sound of a gate opening made itself present, causing the devils to look up at the ceiling, since that was where the sound was coming from. The devils had expected some mechanical being to appear, but to their utter surprise what fell from the ceiling were three huge spheres that seemed to be made of energy. The three spheres were of different colors, being red, green and blue.

When the three spheres hit the ground, they exploded in a wave of energies, which did not harm the devils, but to their surprise they began to heal from their injuries and regain their strength. When the process ended, they were about to talk about what had happened, but they couldn't even say a word, because at that moment a new green sphere fell, but unlike the previous ones, this one did cause them damage and that was the to paralyze them completely.

The faces of the devils were filled with panic and terror, for they felt that they were trapped in a narrow steel box, unable to move any muscle or even speak. When despair began to overwhelm them, a golden light appeared below them and ended up engulfing them all, leaving that room in silence.

Author's note:

To those who have made it this far, Thanks for reading. Because being honest, I don't know how to write much in English and I'm relying on Google translators and the dictionaries that come with office 2019.

And here chapter 53...

Now, as you can see, we've gone back to Nirm for a moment. This will be more recurring after the next arc, in which I have planned entire chapters that only take place on Nirm. In addition, a new arc has started which is basically a "rating game", which involves the four rookies. While I've tried to make the dungeon scenes longer, I haven't been able to find a way to do it. So, from now on I warn that this arc will be somewhat rushed.

It is also seen that Yasaka has learned how Nirm societies work and has also learned that she and her daughter have had visions of a possible future. Now, about the matter of the Dovahkiin's daughter with Kunou... This is something that may or may not happen, since even though Marie is a Dovah, she is still an infant, so she doesn't quite understand what marriage is or what is the love of a couple.

About the peerage, about the Seekvaira peerage, only those two members are known, so I have only put them. But that does not mean that it will continue like this, since in the future I may add some OCs, which will serve to fill some positions in peerages (This is just an idea, if it gets complicated, I won't do it XD)

Finally, I have a problem with Xenovia…. The thing is that the way I've written her character in the fic makes it difficult for me to make her join Issei's harem, so there are times when I think about including her in the Dovahkiin's harem. But I'm still not sure, that's why I want to ask you what you think, do I include her in the Dovahkiin's harem, or do I find a way to put her in Issei's harem?

Also, another question, who do you think could be possible lovers for the Nerevarino? I accept suggestions for her XD.

Well, I apologize for any misspelling. Do not forget to leave a review if you liked the chapter or if there is something that needs to be improved or if you have any questions about the story. Also, any constructive advice is welcome. With nothing more to say, until the next chapter.