The day of the Rating Game.
The entire school seemed deserted, with a distorted sky, save for a few supernatural entities populating the two magical nodes in the school.
On one side, Rias and her Peerage were seated in the Occult Research Clubroom, while on the other, the Student Council occupied their designated room as the commentators of the upcoming Rating Game.
Everyone in the Occult Research Clubroom had tense expressions on their faces, concerned about the upcoming battle. The only one who seemed indifferent was Rias, the person with the biggest stake in this battle. She looked the same as usual; if there was any anxiety, it was buried far too deeply to be identified. Another outlier was Akeno. She still had a worried expression on her face, but there was an unnatural blush on her face as she occasionally bit her lower lip with an expression that made her seem more aroused than worried.
A knock on the door startled many of the occupants, but Rias casually waved her hand, making the door open automatically. Outside, stood a slender woman in the usual Kuoh uniform with short hair and glasses.
"Welcome, Sona," she said. "Is everything ready?"
"As ready as it will ever be," she responded. "Is everyone here ready?"
"As ready as we'll ever be," Rias shot back with a smirk. "Is he here?"
"He's taken his place at the fort in the alternate dimension, waiting for the commencement of the game to deploy his Peerage. We've rolled the dice on the game mode, and it is a capture the flag type," she said. "Both the Gremory and the Phenex families are already watching the broadcast—Tsubaki is introducing the battlefield to them. You should take your position as well."
"Will do," Rias nodded. "Thanks."
"I know you don't need it, but good luck," Sona said. "Beat that smug look off of his face."
"Of course," Rias nodded and waved her hand, creating a large magic circle under her and her servants. "I'll see you in a bit."
…
The Rating Game was held in an alternate dimension that mirrored Kuoh Academy, chosen by Rias as the field for the so-called defending team. From the casual deployment of his troops at the start of the game, even keeping his Queen beside him for the sake of pleasure, it was clear that Riser felt little threat from Rias and her Peerage.
The redhead in question deployed her limited members in a much more strategic fashion, placing them in a way that anyone could provide support to the rest of the team as necessary. She herself also stayed at her home ground like Riser, keeping an eye on everyone remotely.
With four different screens floating in front of her, she was accurately keeping track of her four Peerage members on the battlefield, namely Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, and Issei. Asia stayed beside her since she had little combat value due to her entire power being focused on healing.
[Shouldn't you also go out? They would do a lot better with you present in the battle.]
[But then I'll be in the middle of the fray when all hell breaks loose.]
[Why are you so sure of that?]
[Patterns become harder to ignore as time passes. And I have five years of observing patterns on my side.]
[In these five years, have you ever tried to look for the source of those patterns?]
[Usually significant historical events. Things that make a significant impact on the future of this world. Due to Issei's nature as the Red Dragon Emperor, everything he does is impactful for the future. I don't know why these events are the ones that allow things to overlap. That much I'm still trying to figure out.]
[So this Rating Game will definitely call in different variants…]
[Call in, whisk away. All sorts of stuff. It's really troublesome, to be honest. The most annoying thing will be the aftermath. Usually, my people don't get caught up in all this until a little later. That makes everyone think that I had something to do with it…]
[The time I spent with Akeno has helped me improve my abilities quite significantly. Are you sure you don't want me to help you get stronger? My second main ability is Empowerment. It provides a comprehensive enhancement proportional to your arousal. And after an orgasm, you would have the equivalent enhancement of being boosted at least once, or even twice, depending on the intensity, with the boost lasting an hour.]
[I'll take a rain check. If the situation with me really becomes dire, you have my permission to touch me as you please, as long as it doesn't involve penetration.]
[You'd rather die than let me fuck you?]
[It's a matter of principle for me. I will not give my virginity to someone who might not stay with me long-term.]
[Still doubtful whether I can accompany you to the next reality, huh? You'll come around sooner or later…]
Orion brought his focus back to the screens in front of Rias to see everyone's progress and raised his brow. The scene was somewhat similar to what he'd seen in the anime before, but Koneko and Issei's cooperation was enough to easily keep four pawns and a rook occupied. Kiba was holding his own against the two knights and two pawns, while Akeno had already eliminated one of the Bishops and was downright manhandling the remaining two pawns, Rook, and the remaining Bishop, Ravel. The aroused blush on her face as she floated in the air while rubbing her legs together gave her the look of a perverted woman who enjoyed torturing her opponents.
[You never told me Akeno had such a sadistic streak in battle.] Orion said. While he was playing a role by stimulating not only her breasts, but also her crotch, the things she was doing were contributing quite a bit to enhancing her arousal.
[She switches when in battle. It has something to do with being driven away from her clan, or something. She's a submissive, almost masochistic woman who even enjoys quite a bit of rough play generally, but her switch flips completely in battle.]
[Honestly, hot. A little broken and unhealthy, but hot.]
Seeing Akeno's almost unstoppable momentum, Riser's Queen appeared on the battlefield, ready to take over, and immediately released explosions all around Akeno.
The attacks were strong enough to tear apart a significant part of her clothes and make her cry out. Though that cry sounded suspiciously more aroused than the one of pain that it should have been.
As the dust dispersed, Akeno was revealed, completely unharmed, but with her clothes completely torn away, replaced by a black leather one-piece that belonged nowhere but a sex-dungeon. With leather belts wrapped around her torso, a single strap going across her breasts to hide her nipples, and a thong, she looked entirely like a dominatrix. Her face was flushed as she took shallow breaths, seeming more like she had just climaxed, which she had, going by the glistening liquid dripping between her legs.
[In my defense, this outfit has very little to do with me. It came out of your Queen's head. All I did was to enable her and make some slight modifications that accentuated her figure.]
Rias didn't say anything as Akeno smiled widely and released multiple bolts of lightning that immediately incapacitated the two pawns, Rook, and destroyed half of Ravel's body, leaving her with most of her body covered in flames. As for the Queen, she barely dodged the attack, getting her arm struck in the process, as a pervasive lightning scar was left on her skin.
"It's time," Rias said, making Asia look up.
"Are we going out, Buchou?"
"Yes," Rias formed a teleportation spell under her and Asia to move to Akeno.
"Buchou!" Asia's sudden shout startled Rias, and she turned toward her blonde Bishop, only to pause in place. Asia was nowhere to be seen.
[…Is this what you meant?]
"Yeah…" Rias clicked her tongue in annoyance before shifting to a grim expression and teleporting to the battlefield.
As she appeared near Akeno, things had already devolved into panic and chaos. Ravel, the only daughter of the Phenex Clan, was nowhere to be found. Riser's Queen had somehow split into a clone, both of whom were flying in front of each other with no identification, and out of the two pawns, one of them was gone, while the other had her copy replace the disappeared pawn. Rias didn't care much about any of that the moment she realized that Akeno was also gone from the battlefield. Releasing a detection spell, she noticed that Issei, Kiba, and Koneko were still present, without any signs of their counterparts.
Seeing the chaotic situation, Orion's first thought was to test something that he'd been desperate to try but hadn't had the chance to do so. Similar to how he'd devoured Rias' clothes before to perfectly understand the structure and imitate them, he wanted to see what would happen if he could devour a devil. Before Rias even landed, he separated an extremely tiny part of himself, smaller than a water droplet, that shot out from Rias and attached to one of the remaining pawns of Raiser. Once things settled and she wasn't being monitored, he would make his move.
"What a pain…" Rias frowned, not noticing Orion's actions as she looked around. "Since when has my Peerage gotten entangled in this bullshit from day one? It's usually not until Kokabiel's assault that my people get entangled."
She released a wide activation spell that suddenly restrained everyone on the battlefield. Under normal circumstances, this would have been nigh impossible to do, but the entanglement with the alternate reality counterparts had left everyone severely weakened, rendering them unable to resist the binding spell that Rias released in the slightest.
[I can't sense Akeno, Rias…] Orion said with a frown. Let alone feeling her presence, even her name had disappeared from his system panel, once again leaving just Rias and his data.
[While unexpected, I told you not to get too attached to her. This was bound to happen, either now or in a few more weeks. She will come back, no doubt, when the collapse really begins, but we will be long gone before that happens. Assuming she stays alive until then…]
[You stayed until the end in the last reality.]
[Those were special circumstances. I was trying to attach myself to Infinity, but I failed.]
[So, what now?] Orion conveniently ignored Rias' ludicrous claim.
[Now, we deal with the aftermath and then prepare to leave. This reality is too unstable for my taste… And we don't have as much time as I thought we did.]
Rias' expression turned solemn as a cracking sound reverberated through the alternate dimension. She quickly gathered the three remaining members of her Peerage, picking them up and placing them behind her with a defensive posture. Before any of them could voice their doubts, a sense of pressure overtook them all as their words got caught in their throats.
"I would prefer if you didn't try to bully my cute servants, Lord Phenex," Rias said with a frown.
The man appeared with a raging torrent of flame, directly increasing the temperature of his surroundings significantly.
"Gremory!" He shouted at Rias. "I'll kill you!" The flames shot directly toward Rias, who immediately teleported away with her servants.
"Easy there," a familiar voice echoed through the flaming torrent as the orange flickers got tinted by a pervasive crimson before disappearing into nothingness. "No need to do anything impulsive, Phenex. My sister had nothing to do with this."
"My son is dead, Lucifer," Lord Riser sneered. "And my daughter is gone. I will have my vengeance in blood. One way or another!"
[Wait, dead?]
Rias didn't say anything, but her brows furrowed in confusion, telling Orion that she was also surprised about Riser's death.
***
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