Aeternum: Chat Group Chapter 42: Surprising Battle!: Rias Gremory vs. Everyone
Himejima Akeno bit her lips hard, frustrated by Rias' decision. She, as well as Kiba, was upset. Rias had decided to fight alone against Riser and his Peerage. They were supposed to fight together with her, but Rias forbade them from doing so. The words she gave them made them feel worse.
"Even though they can fight them and win, the confidence they have in their abilities is ridiculous. Akeno, you will end up losing against the enemy queen and Kiba will end up tired of fighting against various opponents. I can tell this from the confidence they have in their current abilities and the opponent's power level," Rias sighed a little as she said this.
"Listen up, guys, I'm not insulting you in any way. But, looking at the current situation, I'd rather fight alone. And listen to my words: The moment you two put your problems aside and are able to overcome them, that's when you can fight alongside me with everything and I can leave my back to you without a problem."
"Also, I want to send a message to all those who underestimate me, especially my brother," as Rias said those words, she took out a beautiful spear that was as red as her hair. The spear was a chilling scarlet color and emanated a sense of doom. Its blade at the end extended from a sphere that looked like a scarlet gem that divided the blade and the rest of the spear.
Rias was also not wearing her school uniform, but black pants and black heels with a black jacket and a crimson shirt underneath. In the end, she walked out alone and stood in the courtyard, waiting for her opponents.
And, standing in the club room, Akeno looked at Koneko who seemed calm.
"Aren't you upset or worried?" she asked.
"Right now, Buchou can defeat them. If we go, instead of helping her, we would probably obstruct her."
Rias' reason for saying the words above wasn't to anger Kiba or Akeno, but to warn them. Right now, they would only have to face Riser and his Peerage. But, in the future, more terrifying things might appear. If they didn't overcome their problems, they might end up dying or losing important things. Rias wanted them to realize that.
On the other side of the academy, Riser frowned as he felt Rias's power gradually increasing, as if she was calling out to them to come to her.
"What is she doing?" he wondered out loud, frowning fiercely.
"Onii-sama, she probably wants us to all face her at the same time. I can't even sense the others near her," Ravel commented, still with a frown.
"Such arrogance!" Riser exclaimed angrily. At that moment, he looked at his pawns and pointed outside, where he felt Rias's power increasing.
"Girls, go after her! Even if you can't defeat her, you can weaken her so the rest can hit harder!"
"Aye, Riser-sama!" the pawns shouted before jumping through the open windows and running towards Rias.
Where Rias was, she felt eight people running towards her before she could see them stop in front of her.
"So she sent the pawns out first, huh?" Rias muttered before lowering her head slightly, causing her beautiful hair to obscure her now icy eyes.
"I will make it clear to you that I will not hold back. And even if you can save yourselves from dying by the rules of the game, the pain you will feel will not fade away."
"Do not underestimate us, Rias Gremory. We have served Riser-sama and fought by his side for a long time!" Shuriya exclaimed in annoyance before smiling arrogantly: "Besides, look in front of you, we outnumber you."
Rias looked at her before sighing and shaking her head. The spear resting on her shoulder was slowly withdrawn. Thanks to her points earned in the previous mission, she was able to purchase spear mastery for ten thousand points. She could use her power of destruction, but why make them weaker pawns than her? She would simply be using energy unnecessarily.
"I see... then I'll begin," Rias stomped harder on the ground, causing fissures to spread from her position before disappearing from the pawns' sight.
"Eh?!", the two nekomata twins blinked in surprise as they saw a patch of crimson hair appearing and slowly floating between them. Before they could process what had happened, they both felt themselves being hit and sent flying in opposite directions.
Ni and Li only felt as if a powerful mace had hit them hard in the ribs. She felt everything from how their bones broke to how their lungs were pierced and blood rose from their mouths before disappearing from the battlefield.
"Two of Riser Phenex's pawns were eliminated!", at that moment, Grayfia's voice was heard by everyone.
"Impossible!", Shuriya exclaimed, unable to believe that two of them had already been defeated. The others didn't have the time to look surprised. Rias attacked mercilessly, hitting Marion's leg and breaking it at an odd angle. And despite feeling pain, she couldn't scream as she received another kick, right in her chest.
Kacha!
The sound of broken bones was heard and Marion was thrown backwards, destroying a tree.
"A pawn of Riser Phenex, Marion, was eliminated."
Brrrr! Brrr!
At that moment, two chainsaws were heard roaring and approached Rias. But, with a swing of her spear, they were broken into pieces.
"Look for better weapons," Rias commented before swinging her spear in a spinning motion and holding it before throwing it towards Burente. But, almost at the same time as the spear flew out of her hands, she disappeared and appeared holding the heads of Ile and Nel, the chainsaw twins. Then, with force, Rias slammed their heads into the ground.
"Ile and Nel, two pawns of Riser Phenex, were eliminated!"
Rias smiled coldly as she took several steps forward, removing the spear from Burente's pierced stomach.
"Burente, another pawn of Riser Phenex was eliminated!"
At this moment, only two more pawns remained, Mira and Shuriya.
Mira, who was the weakest of Riser's Peerage, was trembling in place. And Shuriya, who had underestimated Rias, was not too different; her eyes were wide open as her legs trembled like jelly.
Rias looked at them before turning the spear in her hand and leaping forward, slashing Shuriya at her waist. Blood exploded forward as her flesh was cut and she disappeared. In the end, Rias took a step and looked down at Mira's smaller stature.
"I… I… surrender…" Mira said, trembling in fear. To her, what she just saw was terrifying. Each of her companions who had previously seemed powerful to her, were eliminated with a single move each. And, at this moment, those blue eyes that should have been dazzling and beautiful, were terrifyingly icy, to Mira, seeing those two eyes was like being plunged into the coldest well in existence.
"All of Riser Phenex's pawns were eliminated!"
Riser stood in disbelief inside the room. He only listened as all of his pawns were eliminated one after another at a terrifying speed. He never thought this would happen. Worst of all, he didn't hear any explosions, which he expected due to the power of destruction.
However, soon his body began to tremble in rage as flames emanated from his shoulders and arms.
"Come on! We'll all go right now! We'll defeat her without a doubt!" Riser shouted angrily as wings of fire appeared on his back and he flew out of the room. Behind him, his rooks, bishops, knights, and his queen immediately followed.
When they arrived in front of Rias, they saw her unharmed, without a single speck of dust on her. Her icy blue eyes turned towards them before a chilling smile formed on those beautiful red lips.
"You couldn't wait any longer, could you?" she said, but her already cold eyes flashed with an unknown power and an indomitable will.
"Regrettably, I do not wish to waste time any longer," as her words escaped her mouth and left a silence in the academy courtyard, a huge momentum was released from her as she looked at them.
Unmatched and indomitable power and will were released from her, expanding in all directions. The ground trembled as the sky darkened with a sea of clouds that flowed like untamed waves.
In the end, a powerful rumble was heard as all of the opponents except for Riser hit the ground with their knees; their eyes had turned white and they finally hit the ground with a thud, showing that they had lost consciousness.
"You…" Riser looked at this in disbelief, not knowing what had happened. He could only look at Rias as if it was something unknown. But, he finally woke up as his face contorted in fury and shame.
"Insolent! I will teach you a lesson! You shouldn't have underestimated me, Rias!" Riaser roared angrily as his wings exploded with fury behind him and he flew off at high speeds as his hands ignited with powerful raging flames.
Rias snorted, "Confidence without the power to back it up is simply meaningless arrogance, Riser."
Swinging her spear nimbly and fluidly, Rias struck Riser's hands hard, causing all the fire to explode to the sides and then return back to Riser. Her foot moved forward before she directed her spear in an upward motion, cutting the sea of flames in half, revealing Riser bathed in fire unharmed.
Rias disappeared and struck with the back of her spear, impacting Riser's chin. He felt his consciousness cloud over slightly before gritting his teeth and swinging his right hand forward, firing his flames at full power. But, Rias already knew this, so she had simply grabbed her forearm and exerted force, breaking Riser's forearm.
"You don't understand your power…" Rias uttered, striking Riser's knee and breaking it.
"You don't understand your responsibility…" She swung her spear once more, this time cutting from shoulder to waist; flames shot out from the wound, trying to heal it. But Rias was already striking once more, sending a punch to Rias' face; teeth flew out and a kick sent Riser sprawling to the ground.
"You, who don't understand anything, not even your own life, will you marry me?" Rias for the first time showed emotion in battle, it was pure, unmasked disgust.
"My family seems to think that they can order me around and give me orders like I'm just a chess piece. And yet, none of them really understand or know me," Rias uttered coldly, but there was a flash of sadness that flashed through for a second. With her travels to other worlds, she discovered how small she could be in the face of so many unimaginable things. She had time to think about her family and herself, finding out that her father didn't know her at all. He, like her brother, spent more time on their respective jobs than talking to the rest of the family. And, even if her brother seemed to spy on her, he didn't know many deeper things about Rias Gremory. And her mother, who might be the family member she had spent the most time with, only knew a few things.
The times when she talked to her mother, no longer existed. Of course, this was also partly her fault. Because of that, she understood herself better after thinking about her faults. Rias recognized her faults and those things she had never thought of as such; That's why she was able to improve and be better than she was.
"Don't you understand?! This kind of marriage is important to the Underworld!" Riser exclaimed angrily as he stood up with flames coming out from his wounds.
"Important?" Rias sneered outright: "Don't make me laugh. The arrogance of the people in the Underworld government and the pillars is the reason for the Underworld's decline in power. When they see someone better, they become jealous instead of improving themselves; when they see someone else having something better, they become greedy and want to take what doesn't belong to them, even when they could obtain equal or better things through other means."
Rias moved once more, disappearing from Riser's field of vision. When she appeared behind him, she cut off one of his arms with her spear and retracted her spear in the blink of an eye before cutting off the other arm and extending her hand forward, firing her power of destruction, eliminating Riser's lower body from the waist up.
"Those who cannot recognize and admit their faults cannot improve. And the majority of the Underworld, therefore, will never improve, no matter how hard they try."
"Don't ever even think that you can touch me, Riser," Rias looked down, straight into Riser's eyes.
"For me, Rias Gremory, there is only one man in my heart. My life, my feelings, and everything else, will be handled with my own hands," Rias moved to the side and extended her hand towards Riser, creating a small sphere with her power of destruction.
"Anyone who wants to get in my way, can come and face me," at that moment, right after her last words, the sphere of power of destruction exploded as it expanded, creating a huge ball of destruction that wiped out everything to its left, lighting up the world in red and black.
"Riser Phenex was eliminated along with the rest of his Peerage, and thus, victory goes to Rias Gremory!" Grayfia's voice echoed out to everyone watching the battle. But, no matter which side they were watching from, everyone was silent at the outcome and Rias Gremory's words.
Several pure-blooded Devils were upset by Rias' words, but many more had goosebumps from the power she displayed. Even more, her words seemed to make the hearts of many Devils rumble with excitement and cause their eyes to shine with a light of determination!
_________________________