What If 1 - If Rias took the trial.
AN at the end.
-Rias-
"Little Gremory" Tiamat called. "Are you not going to try the last trial?"
I slowly turned my head towards her "...What does it entail?"
"It involves you facing your biggest fears. Prove to me that you are worthy and you shall receive your reward."
…This seems like a bad idea.
I think that I can recover relatively quickly… and a reward from one of the top dragons in the world surely would be amazing…
But I know myself enough to realize that her illusions can really fuck me up.
…But the reward from a Dragon Queen though…
…
…
Fuck it. " I would like to try."
"...Try?... Not a single devil who tried managed to pass it, it also left many of them scarred… and yet you want to "try" " She laughs. " Are you not certain of your success?"
" I… I'm– I am aware of my weaknesses, so I most likely understand how hard it it's going to be for me… But I still want to face it" I tell her.
She then starts staring at me without saying anything. I feel like she's looking at my very soul… It still is fucking terrifying but I am now certain that she's not gonna kill me so I keep staring back.
She then says. "I admire your bravery. However, be aware that the line between being brave and being reckless can be extremely thin."
…Is this way of her telling me that I'm stupid?…
I mean , It IS a bad idea but I'm doing anyway so…
Wait, I'll probably end up raging really hard. I know that she's supposed to be really strong but better warn her. "I… might end up going out of control. So I… really recommend to not let my powers touch you"
"Hoh? You think you can hurt me, little one?" She seemed amused.
"Um… I… Don't know?"
"Can you tell me how you could possibly hurt me?"
I turn my eyes yellow and release my cursed POD in my hand.
She turned serious. "This is… and at the same time, is not the power of Baels."
I nod to her. "Ajuka seems to think that is a mutation."
She looks over it a little more until she says "Very well, I shall take your warning seriously." She starts to release her powers. "Are you ready?"
I take a deep breath and then nod to her.
She doesn't say anything else but I can feel something. My sight starts to get blurry and I suddenly feel tired as fuck… wait, Is she starting the illusion or am I passing ou—-
I feel myself "waking up"...
Weird. When did I fall asleep?
I feel… like I was asleep for a long fucking while. My body is moving very sluggishly.
I slowly raise my body to try and sit up, I open my eyes to see… white walls and a white bed.
…I'm in a hospital? What happened?
I hear someone gasping and dropping something. I turn around and see a nurse that dropped a tray with some medical things on the floor.
"You woke up!" She says like I wasn't supposed to.
I mean yeah? What else I'm supposed to d—- Wait… I know this nurse.
"I will call the doctor!" She says as she runs away.
…I recognize this room… No. I know exactly every single fucking thing in this room.
No… please.
Anything but this.
The doctor comes, examines me and starts congratulating me for my recovery. And starts explaining some things like how long I was in a coma and a lot of random shit but I'm not paying attention.
FAKE
He noticed that I wasn't really paying attention so they decided to just let me recuperate in peace and told me to call them if I wanted anything.
I looked around the room and saw a glass jar with some flowers in it. I try to see my own face. I could not see completely clearly… but I felt dread as I saw that my hair was not red, and my eyes were not blue.
This is not fucking real.
I waited until they left to try and get up… But my legs are so pathetically thin and weak that I fall face first on the floor…
I feel my nose start bleeding but I don't care.
Fake pain
It hurts
I KNOW that this is that trial and refuse to accept this shit as real.
I slowly crawl up to where the window is.
When I reached it, I couldn't open it and I for a second considered just laying down and to start crying… but I refuse to stay here any longer than necessary.
I crawled back to the bed, cleaned my bloody nose on a part of the sheet where it wouldn't be seen immediately and called the nurse.
The nurse comes and says "What do you need?"
"Can–" I started coughing because it's been years since my— this body talked.
She gave me some water and waited patiently for me to try again.
Slowly, I managed to convey to her that I wanted to go to the roof to see the outside again.
"I am sorry but you will have to wait a few days until the doctor approves you leaving the room. Besides it's in the middle of the night, you won't be able to see anything."
"...Please" I say with a pathetically raspy voice.
She stares at me for a few seconds until she takes pity on me.
"Fine. But not for long, okay?"
I nod to her. She probably is being very unprofessional but I appreciate her being nice.
She finds me in a wheelchair, brings me to an elevator and then to the roof.
I thank her and look outside… where it's night and I can't see shit because it's dark…
Her phone rings.
" I'm sorry but another nurse needs my help." She is about to bring me back.
"You c-can go help first." I tell her "I can wait."
She hesitates a little. "... I guess it's not that cold today…. fine, but wait here! I will be back soon!"
I wave at her as she leaves.
I waited a minute or two until I used the wheelchair to bring me to the guard rails of the roof.
Even with my weak body and a lot of difficulty, I managed to climb the rails.
I take a look at where I would fall…
I think for a second if I will really do this.
What if this is reality? What if "Rias" and everyone were just a dream?... In case this is real then I will feel really bad for the nurse…
But I remember everyone that I met as Rias. My resort, my powers…
Yeah I'm not giving up that reality for this one.
Jump
As I looked down again, I hesitated a bit but… I let go of the rails.
I closed my eyes but made sure to go head first, just in case "everything" was all just a dream, to make sure I don't go into a coma again.
…In the few moments of the fall I felt doubt, regret, fear untill—-
!
I feel myself "waking up"...
…Am I back?
"Rias…"
I hear someone calling my name.
I feel a giant wave of relief because it means that "Rias" wasn't "just a dream" bullshit from me going insane.
I try to answer the voice but… I can't?
"Rias."
"Rias please wake up."
I try to move but I also can't.
"Rias… Please wake up…" I hear someone almost crying.
What the fuck is going on?
I try to sense my surroundings and… succeed. Somehow I manage to "see" the whole room even with my eyes closed.
I "look" around and see my family and my peerage surrounding me while I'm in my bed.
And there is also someone who looks like a doctor looking over me.
…No.
My mother asks "Doctor… is she..?"
No no no nO NO NO NO NO–
The doctor sighs and says "Yes… I'm afraid she has the sleep disease"
I DON'T HAVE SHIT SHUT THE FUCK UP!
"But how?!" I hear Sirzechs scream. "She was just perfect the other day!"
I DID NOT GET REINCARNATED JUST TO BE A VEGETABLE AGAIN FUCK OFF!
"...I'm afraid that this is a rare case. Normally the symptoms are slowly making the devil gradually become more lethargic, but there are cases where someone that seemed perfectly fine just simply did not wake up anymore." The doctor says as everyone around starts having their own reaction to the news.
… Wait. What was the last thing I did?... OH SHIT YEAH . The fucking trial. Yes. this is an illusion of hers.
I breathe a sight of relief (on the inside of my mind, of course, because I can't fucking move).
Right. This is just a trial. And I WILL go back…
But holy shit. This shit of hers is an mangekyou type shit holy fuck.
… Hey! I can curse normally again.
God, holy shit, holy fuck Goddamn. Fucking Christ.
Neat.
Allright. How do I get out?
Do I just wait?... nah.
I tried to release my power… but failed.
…
…
…
Shit.
I… I don't know how much time passed but people came around to visit. Not only my peerage and family but also Sona, Leviathan, Sairaorg and Riser.
They tried talking to me but I could only listen.
I know that this is a test, or at least I convince myself that it is, but this is fucking bullshit.
How long is this going to take?
More and more time passed… because I could see my peerage slowly… growing up.
Some changed hairstyles, some changed a little in their attitudes… but all grew older.
While I… was still in bed.
They never stopped visiting. Always trying to keep me in the loop even if they weren't sure I could hear.
… Look. I get it. I'm weak. I failed. I give up.
"The graduation was fun… but even still, we feel that there was something missing." Asia says with a sad tone while trying to keep smiling.
God please make it stop.
Part of me is extremely grateful for not being forgotten. But I can see and feel their sadness and disappointment in each visit.
I thought it was bad when there was nothing that I could do and no one visiting in my last life?
This is worse. Because now I also feel disgusted at myself for wanting them to keep coming to visit me, even if it makes them miserable.
Please. Tiamat, God, Zack . Please whatever entity there is, I know that I already asked and got this change but please. Just one more time. Help me!
I'm going to kill that bitch. I will end her fucking life the moment I get out of here. This bitch only knows fucking illusions but thinks that can fuck with me? Just for a trial she thinks she can fucking make me enter a fucking coma?!
I don't care that I asked for this. I'm going to fucking end her shitty life. I'm going to jump into her mouth and D̶̼̫̗̤̹͎͙̆̒ͪ̅e͈̻̺̬̋ͯͧ̿͟ͅs̶̠̥͔̙̬̩̊̽t̺̤̠̠̞̐̿͜r̵̝̩̹̺̳ͬo̩̼̖͊͝y̸̯̫̱̠͎ͩ͆͛ ̛̖͔͎ͬ̽ her from her fucking insides. ̛̦̦ͫ̉I̸̲̱̯͍̭̖̟̿̾͂̆'̦̺̹̜͓̯̓ͦͧͫ́l̨̺̳͉̲͔̼̻ͧl̖̬̲̺̭͙͌͊̚ ̺͓͌͘m̨͕͖̞̱̉a̖̦͕̘͔͆̅̄̃͠k̬̙̥̗̥̝̪̠̎́ě̢͚̙͒͆̎ ̼̣̹͍͉̗̹̰̆̃̕s̭͎̱͕̲̅͜ứ̼̣̞͒r͎͇̥͚ͬ̉͋͝e̩̩̦̺͚̠̺͌ͫ͌͛́ ̛͓̭̎ͨ͆͐s̜̗̘͇̺̏͞h̨͚̖̄ͯ̀e̜̜͓̰̫͍͔̝͐̎̍͝ ̪̰̫̘͋̏̆ͯ͡r̺̻̳̗̲̝̫̠̈́͗ͤ͞e̸͍͕̪̟͙͙̬͋g̘͕̞̞͈͇͚̐̑̊͗͟r̸͖̺̟̠̝̫̗͑͆̆ͅe̤̭̺͈̦̗̭͉ͨ̌̇͞t̪̳̤͑͡s̿̃̂͗͏̟̹̝̯̩͔̭͍ ̴͙̰̑e̡̳̟ͬ́̑v̊̇̈́͏̜̣͉e͎̦͛̕ř̨̝̖̞͓̗̳͇̑͋̋ ͇̬͙͍͇͕ͪͤͦͥͅf̡̱̜̬͉̣͎̤͛ͬ̒u̧̯̭̹̚c̭̝̠̣͌͜k̸͔͓̹͎̮͍̣͔͆i͖̩̔̑͠ͅn̸̗̺̪̬̻̗̘̾ͮͅg̢̻͚͋̋̉ͫ ̄̇̋͒͏̭͖l̶̲̪̝̱̼̃̚e̝͇̮̻̔ẗ̠͍̞͚́̒̑̓t̔͏̙̪̟̘̮î̷̳̼̲̹̝n̷̮̼ͤͫ̊ͮğ̢̬̫̰̳̉̎ ̞̟̹̺͈̆̌ͣ̀m̸̗̪̺͉͇̱̖͕̓e̺̜̤̟͇͍͉̲ͬͣͯ͡ë͕͈̩̖̮̳ͥ̀͜ͅt̳̰͈͍̦͕̬ͦͨ̒̀i̴͔̦͖̬̯ͪ̆n̲͖̰͎̉́ğ͓͎̬̝͑ͬ̆͞ ̷̱̰̜̯̫̪̰́̍̎ͫm̰̙̞͒̀ͅe̼̘̖̩̞͓̙͓ͫ͋͌͑͘, that shitty arrogant bit—
Noisy
Loud
…I hear screaming from outside my room.
-No POV-
"You —- Treatment!" someone screams
"- Time. I won't —-. —- Please…" the voice was weak. Barely holding together.
The doors opened violently and then— Issei appeared.
Bloodied. Barely standing.
She slowly dragged herself, stumbling towards the bed. She almost collapsed onto Rias, only catching herself by gripping the mattress.
A piece of her arm was missing. One eye refused to open. And there was a gaping hole on her stomach
Issei lifted a trembling hand, reaching for Rias's cheek— only to pause. staring at the blood across her palm. She hesitated, then pulled back, as if ashamed of her own state. But this movement made her lose balance. She barely caught herself, gripping the mattress harder before sinking down besides Rias to keep herself from collapsing onto her.
Issei stayed still for a few seconds, trying to catch her breath. Then, slowly, she chose to touch Rias's face anyway. Gently, she turned Rias's head towards her.
Rias could feel everything. The fading mana, the shallow breath growing weaker and the dying heartbeat.
Tears burned the edge of her eyes. Slowly, she managed to force them open.
With a blurry vision, she could see Issei's eye widening by seeing her finally awake.
Issei smiled. "Hey, Rias… I… missed you.." she weakly said.
Rias started, frozen, still unable to move the rest of her body, unable to stop this. She watched as Issei's eye began to lose focus and then—- the light finally faded.
Issei's breathing stopped.
Tiamat stood somewhat far from Rias. Waiting for the result.
The illusion mist would break the moment Tiamat felt that the person in it managed to break it on their own… or when they completely gave up.
But "giving up" in this case was not merely accepting defeat. It meant that their will had shattered, which, in the past, left the participants traumatized, broken or to become a husk of what they once were.
Nowadays Tiamat chooses to not let the participants break "too much", for it causes less headaches she gets from the families.
So, as usual, Tiamat was going to release the spell, for she sensed Rias's will to give up at some points…. but chose not to. She noticed that Rias had not entered a state close to "despair" yet.
There were feelings of fear, stress, regret, annoyance. Yet Tiamat, due to morbid curiosity, wanted to see what this "mutated power" could bring.
…But at some point, she could feel the distress building up. It was constantly rising up until it stopped— then it instantaneously rose to an extreme amount, making Tiamat panic.
The Dragon Queen was curious to see what could happen, however she did not want to enrage the current Lucifer… nor did she want to break the polite heiress.
She was about to release the spell… However, due to the shock, she hesitated.
Rias had broken the spell on her own.
"Ā̴̖̥͇͙A̴̗͌ͅA̵̤̻̞ͣ̈̿A̹͖̲̼͚̤̦͋͜A̱ͭ̔̈́͜ͅẠ̶̘̝͍̣̯̱ͪ̄͒̚A̛̖̟̫̹͐ͩḀ̩͖͍͋͠ͅA̠͓̙͉͍̘̗͛͜A̰͈̩̩͔̲̫̥̓͆ͯ̑͘A̮̹̲͂̌͊̄͘A̡͉̥̫̺̲̔̉͗̂ͅͅA̵̭͓̗̳̙̤ͨͦA̬̝̗̙ͫ̍ͧͫ͡Ả̤̼͚͉̱͓̓͋̑͡Ȧ̸̱͎̞̖̺̼̈ͪͬA̡͚̭̺̖̱̳ͣ̍ͧͨA͉̪͙̳̪̰͈̘̾͟A͖̣͍͈̔ͯͩ̓͘A̛͓̣̭ͪA̸̹͕̻͓̖̍̽ͦA͙̰͎͉̼͕͍̰̾͘A͕͎͎͖͇̞͕̳̾̀͞Å͙̝͐ͮ̀A̦̟͓̒̃ͫ̍͡Ā̼̫̳ͤͥ̌͠A̸̰̺͉̻̬͓̣ͨA͔̻͚ͯͨ̽͂́A̤̩͎͔̰̫ͨͦ̿͑͝Ã̵̟̗̥̫̈ͮA̭͙̥̥̹̘̙̍͞Ả̤͉̟̣̬͜Ą̙̟̤͙͉̹ͧ̐͆À̧͍̟̗̭́̚A̝̣̳ͫ̉ͭ͟Ǎ̷̪͉͚̖͚͓ͯͅĄ̦̹͕̾ͯ͐ͅA̖̞̾ͣ̓͞Å͍͍͑͘A̧͉͈͈ͩ͌̓͛A̢͍̜͍̹͆ͣA̸̠̘ͣ̽Ả̓̚҉̺̯̫̳Ȁ̦̹͖̣̘̣̭͜ͅA̺͉̬̪̮̿͐ͤͣ͘Ã̴͍͔̯͚͉͈ͩ͒ͭA̴̝̱͉͖͓͔ͧA͕̤͇͋̍ͭ͘A͉̦̳̺̘̠̿͞A̫̻̤̺̰̺̓͘Á̴͖̲Ä̷̼̰́ͨ̚̚Ạ͓̣͐̑ͯ̓͟A̮̯̟̳͋̒ͬ͢!"
Rias released a guttural scream as she uncontrollably released her power, making it surround her.
Tiamat immediately started to make a mist with the opposite effect of the trial, where it would bring the deepest desires of the user, to try and calm her down. She then made it surround Rias, who was still cloaked with her power and couldn't be seen.
…However, in the next second, Tiamat felt something try to claw her sides and immediately jumped away while unconsciously releasing an attack with her tail. As she jumped, she could see Rias flying away and into the wall.
Then Tiamat looked at where she was hit and saw something resembling a very dense flame, however it was very darkish red… and it was slowly seeping into her scales.
The scales of a dragon who, albeit not physically strong compared to other dragon kings, was still considered a powerful dragon that should not be able to be hurt by a mere high level devil child.
The flame seemed like it wanted to erode her scales, slowly bypassing her physical and magical defenses.
Tiamat tried to forcefully remove the "flame" by expelling her own magic power to combat it… however it was not able to fully remove it.
She tried again and again, but there was always some vestige that managed to stay. She could feel that the places where the flames touched were slightly damaged, so everytime she stopped releasing her power, she could feel the flames wanting to continue its progress.
While Tiamat was trying to think of ways to get rid of it, her senses warned her of danger once again.
She immediately turned around and grabbed the "danger" with her hand.
And now in her hands was the Gremory heiress… but with a new look. Her whole skin was light grey. Her iris was now red, her sclera were black and tears were flowing from her eyes as she tried to remove herself from the dragon's hands.
When they looked at each other, Rias, still enraged, immediately tried to bite down Tiamat's hands, while expelling her power of destruction through her mouth and teeth.
Tiamat notices this and quickly throws her away.
Only for Rias to teleport behind Tiamat to try to hit her again.
In which, once again, Tiamat's tail hit Rias to make distance between them, even if for only a moment.
However this time Tiamat noticed that her tail had now 2 spots where new vestiges of the heiress power were now added. One, apparently from the first attack, the second from just now.
The Dragon Queen was now slowly panicking. Such rage was not easily defeated with force alone unless she wanted to obliterate the little heiress. She could easily imagine the Rias with her bones broken, while still somehow trying to continue the battle.
She could easily murder the heiress, however it would make her an enemy of the devils, would bring some trouble to the former dragon king Tannin, Maou Lucifer would hunt down her wherever she tried to hide… And she personally didn't want to choose this option, for it would be a waste of talent.
Letting the enraged devil run loose on the forest was also not an option, since it was territory… and also Tiamat was sure that Rias could somehow sense her flames and would just go straight to her.
So she decided to take a gamble and hope for the best.
She once again started to make her mist… but instead of trying to make illusions, she made it a portal.
Rias was almost about to reach her until she saw the other side of the portal and then stood frozen in her spot.
Through it, voices could be heard discussing.
"She is not going to let you keep a slime." Someone said through the portal..
"...Rias will end up finding it funny and letting her keep it." Another voice
A loud sight could be heard. "Issei please be reasonable" The first voice, who now sounded a little exasperated, said.
"I am being reasonable! I have the perfect buddy that shares my pas—- WHAT THE FU— RIAS!?" A third voice was about to argue back but noticed the portal.
Rias hesitated slightly but started slowly walking towards the portal. Tiamat waited for her to pass through and then closed it.
Tiamat waited some minutes, still trying to get rid of the heiress' power in her body, until all of it disappeared on its own.
She plopped down on the floor, tired because of the stress and the annoyance that this whole situation was going to bring her.
'What a fucking mess' She thought to herself.
AN: Hey! A new chapter (technically) in less than a month! It's been a while since I did that (I think).
Anyway, about the chapter:
I tried writing in third person. I was thinking of doing it in certain moments, maybe in fights or maybe when it was just talking and not on Rias POV(maybe). I decided to let this extra chapter be a trial.
I originally wanted to make Rias go through these tests in the story. But she kind of almost recovered from the trauma of "being reincarnated" and "issei dying", so this would kind of reset everything.
Sona would feel guilty about sending her there, Rias's peerage would feel guilty about letting her on her own. Her family would be sad. Sirzechs would be pissed, etc…
I had something that would start the next chapter and I didn't want to do something like "and Rias passed 3 weeks in the time chamber just recovering" or use the next chapters for her to recover from trauma (i'm going to let that happen in the far future).
While I do sometimes get in the mood to write sad shit and drama, I didn't want to abuse it. That is why this is an extra chapter.
It would kind of feel forced to me when I just managed to get her training going and all.
Also it would make things awkward with Tiamat and it would be weird for her to go "Hey… Uhhh. Do you still want a familiar?" after all that.
So what do you think? Did you like this extra chapter? Was the no POV part good? Too much drama? Should I have written more of the battle, even with the difference in power?
I also have a pat reon now! I have one tier and it's $3. FOR NOW there is ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFIT other than helping me if you can and feel like it.
patr eon JobsJobs1
This is my first story so I don't really feel like locking chapters (especially since I literally release the chapters in 1 or 2 days of making them).
I do end up procrastinating a lot. But with a I feel like I can tell myself that "it a job now, go fucking write it NOW."
And in case I get writer's block, I can start writing some of my other fanfic ideas that I never started because I already have this one to worry about. In my head I can think of 4.
An adrenaline junkie Amazon/Renard from Freya familia in Danmachi.
An Female Emiya Shirou that wants to try and destroy the world (this one will end up being edgy as shit, and as you can tell, villain mc).
A pokemon trainer that is also a streamer, heavily inspired by "livestreaming my pokemon journey" by President Poverty. I want it to be fun but also I want to add some more serious and fucked up shit into it like "I will touch the skies" by Soussouni and "welcome to the insane world of pokemon" by CaptainMoonshine.
And the story of Zack (the god mentioned in the first chapter), how he goes to overlord "new world" and makes Momonga take care of most things while he is playing around with magic.
(note: Besides Zack, all the others are Female OCs)
But these are for later.
Also, for the fanfiction . net readers, Rias's scream was suposed to be the berserkers from fate and fgo's scream (where they are white blocks in texts) but fanfction doesn't like them.
Bye for now and see you next chapter (I promise it will still come out this month unless something serious happens in my life).