The leap from the hovering balcony was pure impulse. The irritation that had built up in me at the sight of Riser Phoenix's smug triumph overpowered boredom and apathy. I landed on the arena lightly, almost silently, but my appearance disrupted the fragile equilibrium that had settled after the game's official conclusion. The air crackled once more.
...
Riser and his peerage spun around sharply. Triumphant smiles instantly morphed into bewilderment, then into thinly veiled malice. Especially from Phoenix himself. His triumph had been interrupted in the most audacious manner.
"What... what are you doing here?!" Riser hissed, his voice trembling with indignation. "The game is over! The winner is decided! You don't belong here, outsider! Get out!"
His harem—his peerage—closed ranks around him, adopting combat stances. Yubelluna, his Queen, took a step forward, her cold silver eyes fixed on me. The Pawns and the remaining Rook unsheathed their weapons or concentrated magical energy. They were battered from their fight with Rias's team, but there were more of them, and they were ready to defend their master to the last.
I ignored their warlike posturing. My gaze was locked on Riser. On his golden suit, on his arrogant face, on the smug smirk that twisted his lips.
"The game is over?" I repeated, slowly walking toward him. My footsteps echoed loudly in the arena's silence. "Perhaps. But the show—not yet. I didn't like the ending. Too predictable. Too… pathetic."
"Pathetic?!" Riser roared, his body once again enveloped in the golden flames of the Phoenix. "You dare call my victory pathetic?! I annihilated the Gremory peerage! I proved my strength! Rias belongs to me by right of conquest!"
"By right?" I smirked, stopping a few paces from him. "You won by numbers. Not by strength, not by intellect, not by valor. You simply… overwhelmed them with sheer mass. Like a cockroach crawling over an ant. That's not a victory; that's beating the weak. And you're proud of it?"
My words struck home. I saw his cheek twitch, saw his eyes darken with rage. His pride, his inflated ego—that was his Achilles' heel.
"How dare you, you nobody?!" He stepped toward me, the flames around him growing denser, hotter. "I am Riser Phoenix! Immortal! I will crush you! I will burn you to ashes!"
"Try it," my voice was calm, even lazy. I stood with my hands in my pockets, as if oblivious to his threatening aura. "Just without your peerage. One-on-one. You and I. Show me your boasted Phoenix power. Prove you're not just a peacock with a loud name and the ability to regrow lost feathers."
I challenged him. Directly, boldly, humiliatingly.
Riser choked with fury. His face contorted. He wanted to rush me immediately, incinerate me, tear me to pieces. His body tensed, flames flared higher… but he suddenly stopped. A cunning expression flickered across his face. He remembered something. About the rules. About demon honor. About how they could be used against a "savage" like me.
"One-on-one?" He burst into laughter, but the laugh was full of venom and contempt. "Now? After I've just finished a Rating Game? After my peerage and I spent our strength crushing those pathetic Gremory? You propose that I, the victor, fight you, a fresh and rested spectator who didn't even dare participate in the official game?"
He glanced at his peerage, and they immediately picked up his tone.
"How low!" exclaimed one of the Pawns. "Attacking someone exhausted after battle! That's un-demonic!"
"He's just a coward!" added the cat girl. "Afraid to enter the game, and now he decided to attack from ambush!"
"A true demon respects the rules of honor!" Yubelluna declared with pathos, looking at me with cold condemnation. "But you behave like a wild beast, knowing neither honor nor dignity."
Riser smiled triumphantly, seeing that their words were getting to me. "Heard that, upstart? My ladies are right. Fighting you now is beneath my dignity. It would be a disgrace to the Phoenix clan. I will not stoop to your level."
Their words, their hypocrisy, their attempt to brand me a coward and a savage, hiding behind their laughable "rules of honor," enraged me. Fury, cold and sharp, pierced me. But at the same time… the thrill of the fight, the desire to immediately break Riser, subsided. Argue with them? Prove something to these hypocrites? Waste my strength on them right now, when they're making it seem like I'm attacking the weak? No. That would be foolish. That would be… uncool.
I saw Riser enjoying my silence, my reaction. He thought he had cornered me with his "rules."
"But," he continued with a magnanimous air, though malicious glints danced in his eyes, "I don't want anyone to think that Riser Phoenix is afraid of some nameless vagrant. I will give you a chance. A chance to die with honor… well, or with what you consider honor."
He took a step forward, his voice growing louder, more theatrical. "I challenge you to a duel! But not here and not now. But on the day of my wedding to Rias Gremory! Before the ceremony! In front of the highest society of the Underworld! Before the Lords of the clans, before Lord Sirzechs himself! Let everyone see how I crush my fiancée's last, albeit fleeting, hope! Let them see how I destroy the one who dared to challenge me! It will be a magnificent spectacle! A worthy conclusion to my triumph!"
He was clearly relishing his idea. To humiliate me publicly. To utterly crush Rias, depriving her even of the illusion of salvation. To demonstrate his power and ruthlessness to all. A typical villain.
His peerage whispered excitedly, approving their master's plan.
I looked at him. The cold fury inside me gave way to icy calm. He had just sentenced himself. A duel before the wedding? In front of all the nobility? Well… that could be even more interesting than just breaking him here and now. It gave me time. And the opportunity to give him an "ending" he would remember forever. If, of course, anything of him remained.
"Before the wedding, you say?" I repeated evenly. My voice betrayed no emotion.
"Yes!" Riser triumphantly confirmed. "If you don't chicken out and show up, savage."
I smirked to myself. Chicken out? Me? Funny.
"We'll see," I threw out vaguely. I wasn't going to give him a clear answer, depriving him of some of his pleasure. Let him guess whether I'd come or not.
I turned and headed for the arena exit, ignoring Riser's victorious smirks and his peerage's contemptuous glances.
"Hey, where are you going?! You didn't answer! Are you scared?!" Riser shouted after me.
I didn't look back. Let him revel in his imagined superiority. Let him prepare for his triumph. The greater his fall will be.
I exited the game dimension through the portal that Grayfia was still maintaining. She watched me with her inscrutable gaze. I was sure she understood everything. And perhaps even approved of this turn of events. This unofficial fight before the wedding promised to be the main event in the Underworld. And Lord Sirzechs would surely be in the front row of spectators.
Well, Riser Phoenix. You chose the time and place of your execution. Wait. I will come. And it will be the last thing you ever see.