Not a hell of punishment, but one of design: an artificial battlefield, built to humiliate.
The ground was fractured volcanic rock, black as burned ash.
From the cracks, thick streams of lava seeped upward, the color of coagulated blood.
The air vibrated with heat—and with something worse:
Expectation.
Akeno was the first to break the silence.
“Ah… I remember this setting. Riser has terrible taste, even when choosing volcanoes.”
Kiba maintained his calm posture, but his analytical gaze swept the horizon.
“High ground there… there… and there. Total aerial advantage for them.”
Koneko frowned.
“I don’t like the smell.”
Asia trembled, both hands gripping her staff.
Rias breathed slowly.
This board… wasn’t made to win.
It was made to make her surrender.
Issei stepped forward beside her, his fist clenched.
“Rias… we’ll make it.
We’ll fight until the end.”
She looked at him.
That boy… that human… trusted in her freedom more than she trusted herself.
“Issei,” she said softly. “Thank you for being here.”
The referee appeared as a floating hologram, his voice amplified by demonic artifacts.
“The Rating Game between the Gremory Family and the Phenex Family begins.”
And before the echo faded—
Burning feathers descended.
It wasn’t an entrance.
It was a declaration.
Hundreds of blazing white feathers rained down from above, each one vibrating with blue fire:
the seal of the Phenex lineage.
Issei stepped back.
“W–What is this!? A rain of fire!?”
Koneko muttered dryly:
“Welcome to the Rating Game.”
Bodies formed in the air—fiery silhouettes.
Lesser demons. Phenex pawns. Semi-regenerative fire spirits.
All descending like birds of prey.
And at the center—
Riser Phenex appeared, as if descending onto a stage built for his ego.
Smiling.
Always smiling.
“RIIIIIAS!” he sang, almost amused.
“My dearest, most beautiful, inevitable future wife…”
Akeno murmured under her breath:
“The torture has begun.”
Rias raised her gaze, crimson eyes locking onto him.
“Riser.”
Riser opened his arms.
“Welcome to your destiny.”
Issei felt his stomach boil.
That guy… that bastard…
He spoke to her like she was property.
Kiba clicked his tongue.
“If we stay here, they’ll surround us.”
Rias raised a hand.
“Formation One. Fan-shaped dispersion.”
Her peerage obeyed instantly.
But Riser was already descending like a white comet—
and with him, his full guard of eleven greater demons.
All regenerative.
Issei swallowed.
“This… this isn’t fair. There are too many.”
Rias rested a hand on his shoulder for a brief moment.
“It never is, Issei.”
The rock beneath their feet vibrated.
It was like fighting atop a massive drum, every step amplified by volcanic heat.
Kiba spoke tactically:
“Hostile terrain. Dangerous elevation.
If we’re surrounded, it’s over.”
Akeno inhaled deeply, her soft smile tight with tension.
“I’ll handle the skies if you need it, Rias.”
“No,” Rias replied instantly.
“We can’t wear ourselves down yet. They regenerate. We don’t.”
Koneko murmured, fists ready:
“They’re coming for us first.”
She was right.
Riser didn’t even give an order.
His entire guard attacked as a single body.
Rias raised her arm.
“Regroup behind that rock formation!”
But before they could move—
A white flame whip slammed down between them, cutting the group apart.
“KIBA! KONEKO!” Issei shouted.
A Phenex pawn laughed.
“You can’t escape. The sky and the ground are ours.”
Rias breathed deeply.
Crimson magic began to spiral around her.
“So this is how you want to start, Riser?”
Riser smiled.
“A gift, my dear. So you won’t suffer more than necessary.”
Issei felt something spark inside him.
Hatred.
Pure.
Direct.
Personal.
But he still couldn’t do anything.
The enemy pawns descended in a coordinated assault.
Kiba dashed right. Koneko left.
Akeno fell back to protect Asia.
Rias raised a sigil.
“Akeno, defensive electricity!
Kiba, distraction!
Koneko, break the flank!”
Issei stayed on the front line, swallowing hard—but not retreating.
Ravel Phenex appeared among the troops, observing them as if they were curious but inferior.
“How disappointing,” she murmured elegantly.
“Is this all the Gremory family can present?”
Rias replied calmly:
“Ravel. You didn’t come just to observe.”
Ravel smiled.
“My brother wanted a show. And you were always… entertaining.”
A low growl escaped Koneko’s throat.
Akeno murmured:
“Rias… this is turning into a controlled massacre.”
Then—
Riser descended, hovering a few meters above the ground.
He extended a hand toward Rias.
“Surrender now, and you’ll spare your pawns unnecessary pain.
You know you can’t win.”
Rias lifted her chin, proud.
“I didn’t come here to surrender.”
Blue fire burned brighter in Riser’s smile.
“Then don’t blame me for what happens next.”
The referee announced:
“First contact imminent. The Rating Game has entered the combat phase.”
Rias murmured:
“Issei. Ready.”
Issei raised his fists, trembling—but steady.
“I’m ready, Buchou.”
Rias closed her eyes for a moment.
Forgive me.
I didn’t bring you here to win.
I brought you here to endure.
The battle exploded.
Phenex pawns fell like meteors.
Kiba intercepted them with near-invisible speed.
Koneko hurled massive boulders like paper.
Akeno electrified the sky.
Issei shielded Asia while trying not to die in one hit.
But the enemy regenerated.
Again.
And again.
Rias shouted orders while retreating.
“Don’t split up!
Koneko, to your left!
Akeno, don’t burn all your magic!
Issei, stay low!”
Riser floated above them, unconcerned.
The board… was his.
Then his voice thundered across the field:
“Come on, Rias. Stop pretending there’s hope.”
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Issei clenched his teeth.
“You son of—!”
Rias placed a hand on his arm.
“Don’t waste energy on him.”
But the truth was… he was right.
Akeno. Kiba. Koneko. Asia.
They were fighting with heart.
But the board wasn’t designed for them to win.
Rias knew it.
And still… she let them fight.
Because surrendering without resistance was worse than losing.
The stage was set.
The enemy had the advantage.
The Gremory peerage was intact—but the attrition had begun.
Hell breathed around them.
And the Rating Game… had only just begun.
The inferno burned in purple hues as Rias gave the order to disperse.
Enemies descended like falling fire, and the entire battlefield vibrated with the metallic roar of Phenex wings slicing through the air.
Kiba sprinted to the right.
Koneko to the left.
Issei stayed with Asia, defending her however he could.
Rias pulled back, trying to reorganize what little control remained.
And Akeno—
Akeno rose.
Electricity crackled beneath her feet, as if every atom in the air recognized her presence.
Her soft, delicate smile concealed something darker. Older. Dangerous.
Her aura surged.
Her magical kimono fluttered under the growing pressure.
A bolt of lightning tore through the sky.
And at that very moment, another figure ascended from the enemy ranks—
Yubelluna, the “Bomb Queen,” Riser’s explosive ace.
Her violet dress rippled like inverted flame, magical spheres floating behind her, each pulsing like a heart on the verge of detonation.
They met in the air.
The duel began without announcement.
Akeno tilted her head, elegance bordering on mockery.
“Ara ara… looks like I get to dance with you.”
Yubelluna smiled, but there was no humor in it.
“I was curious. They say you’re the strongest in Rias Gremory’s group… aside from Rias herself.”
Akeno laughed softly, a whisper of thunder in a dark room.
“Oh, dear. Don’t believe everything you hear.
Sometimes… I’m much worse.”
The air trembled.
Yubelluna raised her hand.
Ten violet spheres formed around her, orbiting like a miniature solar system of destruction.
“Let’s begin.”
Akeno closed her eyes for a single instant.
Then snapped her fingers.
The storm descended.
A white bolt struck down from the heavens, slamming into her own palm, charging her body like a living catalyst.
Her pupils flared electric blue.
“Kaminari—”
And she vanished.
She reappeared directly in front of Yubelluna—too fast to track.
The back of her hand struck, wrapped in pure lightning.
Yubelluna was sent flying, stabilizing herself with explosive spheres.
“Incredible speed…” she muttered, touching blood at her lip.
Akeno licked the corner of her mouth slightly.
“Ufufu… thank you for the compliment.”
Yubelluna extended her hand.
All her spheres ignited.
“Die.”
The sky exploded.
A cascading chain of detonations formed a violet energy dome that devoured air, rock, and light itself.
The shockwave slammed into the ground, sending Kiba skidding several meters.
Issei looked up in horror.
“Akeno-san!”
The explosion lasted over five seconds.
When it finally faded, it seemed impossible that anything could still remain.
But electricity crackled again.
A figure emerged from the smoke—floating.
Akeno was smiling.
Her skin bore light burns, smoke trailing from her shoulder… but she was alive.
More than alive.
Excited.
“Oh my, Yubelluna…” she said sweetly.
“You almost had me.”
Yubelluna gritted her teeth.
Her spheres doubled. Then tripled.
Akeno tilted her head.
“You know… I always thought explosions were beautiful.
But nothing compares to the sound of lightning traveling down someone’s spine.”
Her black wings spread wide.
The sky darkened.
A second lightning bolt descended—larger, wilder, hungrier.
Akeno channeled it straight into her own chest… then released it like a spear.
“RAIKOU NO YARI.”
The lightning lance shot forward like a divine projectile.
Yubelluna tried to evade—but it was too fast.
The impact was not an explosion.
It was a roar.
Light engulfed everything.
Yubelluna screamed, thrown backward as her spheres destabilized.
The Bomb Queen lost her rhythm.
Her aura flickered.
Balance—shattered.
Akeno hovered above her, calm as a priestess and merciless as an executioner.
“Your power is beautiful, Yubelluna,” she said softly.
“Explosive… chaotic.
But it’s built on pride.”
Her smile darkened.
“Mine… is built on pain.”
Yubelluna screamed in fury.
“DON’T UNDERESTIMATE ME!”
All her spheres collapsed into a single point, forming a massive bomb the size of a car.
Akeno did not move.
She sighed.
“Then…”
She raised her hand to the sky.
Her hair floated under static charge.
Thunder answered.
“…let us dance.”
The bomb detonated.
Akeno extended her palm.
And lightning fell.
Violet light and white light collided in a brutal clash, tearing the air apart, shattering rock, turning the battlefield into false daylight.
Below, Kiba shielded his eyes.
Koneko clenched her teeth.
Asia fell to her knees under the pressure.
Issei felt his chest vibrate from the inside.
Rias whispered from afar,
“Akeno…”
The final explosion roared.
When it cleared—
Yubelluna still floated.
But she trembled.
Her wings were shattered.
Her dress burned.
Blood streamed down her forehead.
Akeno descended slowly.
Not with haste.
Not with violence.
With elegance.
She took Yubelluna’s trembling hand as a tiny sphere formed weakly.
“Shhh… it’s over,” she whispered.
A final spark coursed through Yubelluna’s body.
The announcement rang out:
“Riser Phenex’s Queen has been defeated.”
Yubelluna’s body dissolved into particles, removed from the board.
Akeno exhaled, wiping blood from her lip.
She looked up at the sky, where Riser observed with arms crossed.
She did not smile.
She did not tease.
She spoke coldly, like thunder before a storm.
“One.”
And descended toward her allies.
Because even though she had won—
This was not victory.
It was only the first step
in a game they were never meant to win.
The sky still vibrated with the echo of Akeno’s duel when the next move fell like a sentence.
A rain of burning feathers descended from above.
Each glowed like a flare on the verge of detonation.
“Numbers…” Kiba muttered. “Too many.”
“They’re splitting. Surrounding us,” Koneko said.
She was right.
From all four cardinal points descended Riser’s personal guard—the Towers.
Living fortresses.
Phenex fire burning in their wings.
Armor reinforced with combustion runes.
Regeneration bordering on absurd.
“Like fighting walls,” Kiba murmured.
“Walls can fall,” Koneko growled.
The first two struck the ground like meteors.
Kiba leapt back.
Koneko planted herself, muscles taut as steel.
“Orders from Lord Riser,” one intoned.
“Neutralize. Do not kill. If resistance continues—suffer.”
“I’ve suffered before,” Kiba replied calmly.
“And overcome it.”
Koneko charged.
The ground shattered beneath her.
Her punch struck armor with a sound like metal against a mountain.
The Tower stepped back.
Two steps.
Pain surged up her arm. She ignored it.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The damage regenerated instantly.
“Koneko, down!” Kiba shouted.
She ducked.
His blade flashed overhead, carving armor with surgical precision.
A clean line.
Not enough.
“Barely a scratch,” the Tower rumbled.
Another guard slammed into Koneko, hurling her into rock.
“KONEKO!” Kiba shouted.
He rushed forward—
Only to be intercepted by three Towers.
Perfect formation.
No gaps.
So this is it…
Riser didn’t come to play.
He came to crush.
Kiba moved at full speed.
Too late.
A fist slammed into his stomach.
Darkness flickered.
Another Tower seized him by the neck, lifting him effortlessly.
Pressure tightened.
His blade barely marked the arm.
“Koneko…,” he thought.
She rose, blood on her lip.
“LET HIM GO!”
Her aura exploded.
Strength surged.
She struck upward.
The Tower flew.
She followed, both fists crashing down.
It regenerated.
Slowly.
“Hard…” she breathed.
More Towers descended.
Circle closed.
“No way out.”
Kiba struggled.
Koneko’s eyes hardened.
“I’m not alone.”
She hurled a stone.
The Tower raised its arm.
Mistake.
Kiba’s blade changed shape.
Longer. Sharper.
A perfect lance.
It pierced the guard’s shoulder.
The grip loosened.
Kiba dropped, rolled, reclaimed his blade.
“Thanks,” he gasped.
They regrouped.
The field trembled.
Five Towers advanced in perfect sync.
Impossible to evade.
“Koneko, behind me!” Kiba shouted.
She stood beside him.
“If we fall,” she murmured,
“I won’t leave you.”
Attacks crashed down.
Steel-breaking blows.
Nothing worked.
This is the gap…
Between us and Riser.
The sky turned crimson.
“RETREAT!” Rias screamed.
Too late.
One Tower lifted Koneko by the throat.
Another drew back a flaming fist—
The announcement echoed:
“Two pieces of Rias Gremory have been defeated."
The bodies of Kiba and Koneko disintegrated into particles of light.
Rias stood frozen.
Her heart shattered.
The storm was only beginning.
The announcement of defeat still echoed when the battlefield twisted, reshaping the board with methodical cruelty. The sky burned in a dense red, as if Riser’s will itself were painting the world at his whim.
Rias watched from her command platform, fingers digging into the arms of the throne that marked her position. Her eyes were open—but they did not seem to see.
Kiba.
Koneko.
It wasn’t just that they had fallen.
It was how.
Crushed. Outmatched. Removed without leaving even a crack in the enemy’s defense.
Akeno placed a hand on her shoulder.
“President… breathe. You’re not alone.”
Rias pressed her lips together. When she spoke, her voice came out thorned.
“I… underestimated this. I underestimated Riser. I underestimated his army… I underestimated the distance between our worlds.”
Akeno was about to answer when a distant explosion tore through the air.
Dust rose like fog as Issei Hyoudou fell flat on his back.
“AGH—FUCK—!”
He didn’t finish.
A Phenex guard demon—smaller than the Towers, but just as lethal—placed a foot calmly on his chest. It wasn’t an attack.
It was a demonstration.
The pressure stole the air from his lungs.
Issei struggled, spitting saliva.
“G-get off… fire bastard…! I’m not… I’m not gonna—”
The demon tilted its head, impassive.
“My master does not require your surrender. He only requires that you stay still.”
The foot pressed down just a little more.
Issei felt his ribs protest. A sharp pain tore through his vision. Everything turned red, and for a moment only one simple, brutal thought remained:
I can’t fail.
Rias believes in me.
Rias’s voice slammed into his memory like an oath:
“Issei… be my first pawn. I want to walk with you.”
Issei screamed.
It wasn’t heroic.
It was desperate.
His arm burned.
Not with fire.
Not with magic.
With rage.
The red gauntlet flared.
BOOST!
The demon staggered back a step, startled by the surge.
Issei pushed himself up, trembling, his chest ablaze with pain—but alive.
“You thought… you could just leave me there…?”
He coughed blood. Smiled crookedly, as if shame no longer mattered.
“Forget it. I’m Issei Hyoudou. Rias Gremory’s Pawn.”
The demon regarded him with infuriating calm.
“You are loud. And weak.”
Issei charged.
The demon caught him with one hand and slammed him into the ground. Issei rolled across shattered stone, lungs screaming. He tried to stand—
—and was struck again. Clean. Precise.
This wasn’t a fight.
It was a lesson in humiliation.
Yet Issei, face filthy and vision shaking, rose again.
He didn’t shout.
Didn’t threaten.
He just advanced.
The demon frowned for the first time.
A tiny mistake.
A moment of doubt.
Issei felt it.
BOOST!
His fist slammed into the demon’s abdomen. A clumsy, imperfect blow—carried by pure will. The demon doubled over, air forced from its lungs.
Issei gasped, eyes burning.
“…It’s possible. It can be done.”
Then the ground burned.
Incandescent feathers rained from the sky.
The air tightened—as if the board itself were breathing.
Riser Phenex descended with the elegance of someone who had never known defeat.
He landed before Issei.
And the world froze.
Issei stepped back without meaning to. Not from fear—from instinct. The gap between them was too vast to deny.
Riser smiled.
“I didn’t expect this human to be so entertaining. He’s not strong. Not talented… yet he keeps getting up.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Like an insect that refuses to die.”
Issei clenched his teeth.
“I won’t let you marry Rias! I won’t allow it!”
Riser tilted his head, almost kind.
“Oh, little pawn… you have no idea how this world works.”
The heat rose. The air warped.
Riser took a step.
“I’ve already defeated your companions. I’ve seen their strategy. I’ve seen your limit.”
Issei trembled—but his eyes burned.
“I don’t care,” he spat. “If I have to break… if I have to die here—”
He raised his fist, as if that single gesture could push the world back.
“I’ll keep hitting you until you fall.”
Riser laughed.
Not mockingly.
With genuine amusement.
“Very well, Hyoudou Issei. Show me how far the hope of a useless man can go.”
Issei inhaled, searching for Ddraig, for a miracle—
“Ddraig! I need—!”
Riser didn’t wait.
He moved.
It wasn’t speed.
It was distance erased.
His hand seized Issei’s face and smashed him into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
The third wasn’t needed to break his pride—only to remind him who owned the board.
Stone shattered. Dust and blood filled the air.
Rias screamed from her platform, voice breaking:
“ISSEI! STOP! DON’T TOUCH MY PAWN!”
Riser glanced up at her, smiling like someone indulging a child.
“Ah, Rias… always so melodramatic.”
He looked back at Issei and lifted him by the throat like dead weight.
“I’ll teach you something no one in your world ever did.”
Issei kicked weakly, breath gone.
“The world—”
Riser hurled him forward with obscene ease.
“—doesn’t belong to those who desire it.”
Issei rolled, stopped, coughed. His body was a map of bruises.
He tried to kneel.
Riser raised an eyebrow.
“Seriously?”
Issei couldn’t stand.
But he lifted his head anyway, throat full of blood.
“My… President… doesn’t deserve… someone like you.”
The words came broken.
But they came.
And that was all that mattered.
The air exploded.
Blue flame engulfed Riser’s hand.
“Then, Hyoudou… stop trying.”
Riser stepped forward to finish it.
Issei raised his fist.
Small.
Fragile.
Ridiculous.
Yet filled with the one thing Riser would never understand:
Faith in Rias.
The field’s cameras shook.
Rias screamed, too late:
“ISSEI, DON’T—!”
Blue fire consumed the scene.
And the announcement boomed like a verdict:
“The Pawn of Rias Gremory has been defeated.”
Silence.
Rias lost her breath.
Akeno clenched her teeth, trembling with helplessness.
Kiba and Koneko, watching from the infirmary, felt something break in a place that wasn’t physical.
The gambit had completely collapsed.
And for the first time—
Rias Gremory understood this wasn’t a match.
It was a humiliation.
The board burned.
Not metaphorically.
The Infernal Game Board, suspended beneath a dome of living obsidian, breathed with every movement—like an ancient beast savoring the consumption of hope.
Rias stood on her platform. A pillar of crimson light bathed her, marking her rank as the Red Queen of the West.
But there was no authority in her posture.
She looked younger than ever.
Smaller.
Broken.
Around her, fallen pieces floated like dying embers—symbols of defeat.
Akeno.
Kiba.
Koneko.
Issei.
Her guild.
Her family.
The Underworld audience murmured.
Not with pity.
With hunger.
They were watching a Gremory gem shatter live.
At the far end of the board, Riser Phenex lounged against a wall of fire that recognized him as its master.
A goblet appeared in his hand with a soft clink.
He didn’t even look at Rias.
She was no longer a threat.
He smiled.
“Gremory… the game is over.”
Rias didn’t answer.
She couldn’t.
The referee raised his voice—final, absolute:
“RESULT CONFIRMED.”
Light descended like a symbolic guillotine.
“RIAS GREMORY SHALL BECOME THE WIFE OF RISER PHENEX.”
Silence.
Hell had decided.
And this time—
no one would rise again.