"Ahhh…"
Seeing Claire collapsed in front of him, Riser let out a terrified scream. Driven by fear, he forced his body to move and staggered backward.
He stared at Claire lying on the ground, and only after putting some distance between them did he barely calm down and realize that she had lost consciousness.
The moment he understood that, a flicker of hope appeared in his eyes. An idea surfaced, and he began hesitating, breathing heavily.
After struggling with himself for a while, Riser still chose to shakily get to his feet and head toward Rias, giving up on the idea of eliminating Claire.
Claire had completely shattered his nerve. Even though she was lying there unconscious, he didn't dare approach her. He was afraid that the moment he tried to eliminate her, she would suddenly wake up.
Right now, all he wanted was to find Rias as quickly as possible and eliminate her. That way, even if Claire woke up, the match would already be over, and he wouldn't have to fight anymore.
His Phoenix bloodline had already been pushed to its absolute limit after more than ten resurrections, temporarily losing its healing and immortality effects.
Even so, the Phoenix bloodline was still one of the fastest in recovery. In just this short time, Riser had regained a small amount of stamina.
Relying on that bit of strength, he found his last "Phoenix Tears" and swallowed it.
Although it couldn't restore him to his peak, it still stirred his nearly dormant Phoenix bloodline, allowing him to recover a little Magical Power and some stamina.
With the support of that Magical Power, Riser quickly returned to the place where he had defeated Rias, only to find nothing but ruins and a shattered magical barrier.
Rias hid herself carefully, suppressing even the sound of her breathing to avoid being discovered.
Because of the sudden clash between Riser and Claire earlier, Riser's Peerage Members had gone to support him. In that brief lapse, no one had been left to guard her, giving her the chance to use her remaining Power of Destruction to break the barrier and escape.
"I wonder how Riser and Claire are doing… There hasn't been any elimination announcement for either of them, so they probably both went down."
Panting weakly, Rias spoke to herself while adjusting her condition, trying to restore her Magical Power as quickly as possible.
After hearing the announcement that all of Riser's Peerage Members had been eliminated, and knowing that only Claire remained on her side, Rias easily figured out who had caused the explosion that covered half the separate space.
From her battle with Riser, she had already understood how troublesome the Phoenix bloodline was. Even a Demon King (SS) would most likely die if they took that kind of concentrated explosion head-on.
But Riser might still survive. The Phoenix bloodline allows resurrection. As long as the timing was right, he could endure it.
Simply put, her side's damage had exceeded the limit, but the opponent had a resurrection ability.
Since the only announcement after the explosion was that Riser's Peerage Members had been eliminated, and neither Riser nor Claire had been declared out, the two of them must both be down.
Even with the Phoenix's revival, taking such a powerful attack meant Riser had to be severely weakened.
As long as Claire could still move, a crippled Riser would be easy prey for her.
It made sense. That attack had clearly gone beyond Claire's limits. It was only natural that she collapsed after using it. It was the kind of move that injured both sides.
In other words, the outcome of the match now depended entirely on her. If she could recover faster than Riser, she could defeat him and win.
"Brother, is this what you meant by a guaranteed win? Next time, can you not be so cryptic?"
Under the pressure, Rias let out a helpless, bitter smile as she complained.
She knew her brother hadn't lied. With Claire's attack, if she had known about it in advance, she could have set up an ambush and used that single strike to wipe out all of Riser's Peerage Members, leaving at most a heavily injured Riser.
The key was, she had to know beforehand.
A wave of heat suddenly surged from the wall behind her. Having sensed it in advance, Rias rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the explosion.
By the time she steadied herself, Riser had already flown in, looking battered and exhausted. The flames around his wings had dimmed significantly, and even their size had shrunk compared to before.
How did he recover so fast?!
Seeing Riser like this, Rias was secretly shocked. His current condition was completely beyond her expectations.
Although Riser was indeed much weaker than he had been at the start, the degree of his weakness was actually less than hers, even though she had spent more time recovering.
"Riser…"
"Rias…"
When enemies met, their eyes burned with hatred. Neither had time to think about why the other had recovered so quickly. They only exchanged a glance before gathering Magical Power in their hands and attacking at the same time.
The Phoenix flames and the Power of Destruction collided midway, their powerful Magical Power slamming into the ground and kicking up wave after wave of white mist. The fog inside the arena grew even thicker.
A dark figure flashed through the mist and rushed at Rias at high speed, fist swinging toward her.
Magical Power erupted from her hand, its aura wrapping around her arm. The two clashed head-on, and flames and Destruction Magic spread outward from the point of impact, tearing up the ground around them.
Riser shot up into the air, condensed all the Magical Power in his body into a fireball in one breath, hurled it down at Rias, then dived after it.
Rias twisted aside to dodge the attack, but Riser's follow-up strike was already there. She tried to gather Destruction Magic into her hand and meet him head-on, but as she swung her arm, the aura of Magical Power around it vanished halfway through.
Her Magical Power... couldn't keep up anymore.
"Boom!"
Without the support of Magical Power, that direct clash ended with Rias being blasted away and smashing a huge crater into the wall.
"Crack... thud!"
Pulled down by gravity, Rias fell from the crater in the wall and hit the ground with a heavy crash.
After that series of attacks, she vomited up a large mouthful of sour fluid mixed with blood, and could only let out a weak sound.
Seeing Rias in that state, Riser felt no pity at all. He strode forward, flames gathering in his hand as he prepared to eliminate her.
So I still lost.
Looking at the flames right in front of her, that thought passed through Rias's mind.
Honestly, she could accept this result. Riser was stronger than her, so her chances of winning had always been low.
She was unwilling to accept it, of course, but she had not truly thought the result itself was unfair.
In fact, the moment she had been defeated and only Claire remained uneleminated among her Peerage Members, she had already resigned herself to it.
If... if Claire had not eliminated all of Riser's Peerage Members and given her hope, then she really would have accepted it.
So why... why give her hope only to take it away again? Wouldn't it have been better to let her accept defeat from the start?
If... if she had known Claire possessed such overwhelming power from the beginning, if... if she had managed to persuade Akeno to use the other half of her power, if... if she had found some way to make Gasper, the cardboard box Vampire, bring out his true strength, if...
There were too many ifs in this match. Too many chances for her to win. And now all of them had turned into proof of her own failure.
It was only at this moment that Rias truly began to feel regret.
Aside from Claire's power, which had reached SS, none of the others could have truly decided the outcome. At most, they could only have tilted the balance. But in her current state of bitterness and regret, Rias had completely ignored that.
Driven by the overwhelming unwillingness in her heart, she cast everything aside and decided to forcefully squeeze out Destruction Magic at the cost of her own life, triggering a self-detonation that would eliminate Riser together with her.
There had never been a case where both Kings were eliminated at the same time. She had no way of knowing whether the final judgment would count it as her loss based on who was eliminated first, or rule it a draw because both were taken out simultaneously.
But she could no longer calm down enough to think it through. Pushed on by her unwillingness to accept defeat, she chose to gamble.
As long as it was ruled a draw and they got another chance, then with the knowledge of Claire's power, she would definitely win.
"Bang!"
At the critical moment, an iron sword flew in from the side and struck Riser head-on, sending him flying away along the path of the sword.
The attack itself was not strong, but it was enough to blow Riser back.
That sudden twist made Rias instinctively stop what she was doing.
"Tap, tap, tap!"
Footsteps echoed out as Cid appeared on the scene, his clothes drenched in blood, parts of his skin scorched black, and blood still flowing from many of his wounds.