Tale of Discovery

Chapter 81: Rating Game: Disparity in Strength

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WARNING: Gore/violence/cruelty (Once again, I don't think it's much.)

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I'm currently in the clubroom one hour before the set time of the Rating Game, listening in to Sona encouraging Rias in her upcoming Rating Game.

"This is going to be your first Rating Game, so it's better if you don't rush anything," Sona says before looking my way and voicing,

"Although I doubt you will have much trouble with him around."

Rias glances at me before turning her attention back to Sona and stating,

"We won't be using any of our powers during this Rating Game."

Sona's eyes immediately widen as she exclaims,

"Are you insane?! You are fighting against Riser Phenex, who not only has a complete peerage but is also experienced in Rating Games!"

Rias doesn't say anything in return and just looks my way.

Sensing something, Sona catches onto what's going as she looks at me and asks,

"What are you planning?"

Chuckling lightly, I reply in a mocking tone,

"I will just be breaking and chagrining a young bird the worst way possible."

In response to my words, Sona shakes her head and says exasperatedly,

"After having seen what you're capable of, that doesn't sound funny at all."

Because it's not.

I've been thinking of the best way to do it since last night.

First, I'll have Rias and her peerage deal with Riser's peerage without the use of their demonic powers. Of course, I won't just send them in without any pieces of equipment, so I created three pairs of gauntlets and modified them a little with the help of Yuno.

Simply, the gauntlets are made of a material that prevents any sort of energy from passing through from the user to the other end and vice versa, however, I had Yuno place her Sigilla on them so that I'm able to channel a small amount of my Holy Essence into it.

These are for Koneko, Akeno, and Rias. As for Kiba, since he's good with the sword, I had created a sword for him with the same mechanism as the gauntlets with the anti-energy being in the hilt.

Naturally, the amount of Holy Essence I channel into the equipment won't be on the level of a cheat, but will still be effective nevertheless.

Second, I will have Rias plan what to do. There are several reasons for this. One of them being the fact that this is a chance to improve her leadership skills. As for the most important reason, it's that I don't want to bother with it.

After all, I'm only in this for Riser's immortality and practicing the usage of my Paladin's Aura.

Suddenly, a magic circle appears at one end of the room as a female figure appears from within it.

Observing her, I take note of a few things. She has back-length silver hair coupled with red eyes. Her appearance is that of a woman in her early twenties.

The most notable thing is that she's wearing a blue and white French maid outfit while wearing a white maid headband on her head.

"Who's she?" I ask Koneko who's sitting on my lap.

"Sirzechs Lucifer's Queen, Grafiya Lucifuge."

"By 'Queen', you mean the Evil piece?"

"Um. She's known as The Strongest Queen."

Now that's an interesting title to have. From the looks of it, she seems to be a rather serious woman. Not to mention that she's quite good-looking and... stacked.

"Say... does Sirzechs happen to be gay?"

"Huh?"

"Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask."

Grafiya looks my way, her complexion turning strange when she sees Koneko on my lap. That doesn't last long as she puts on a neutral expression before asking,

"Are you all prepared?"

After receiving the confirmation from everyone who's participating, she states,

"I've been appointed the judge of this game."

Everyone in the room apart from me and Koneko nods their head in confirmation to her words. Is this the hierarchy of the Devils?

Sona takes this chance to say,

"As I will be the broadcaster for this game, I should head over to the student council room."

After bidding Rias farewell, Sona leaves the clubroom alongside Tsubaki who had come with her.

A few moments later, a red magic circle appears on the ground near Grafiya.

"It's about time," Grafiya says.

In response to this, Rias takes in a deep breath before getting up from her seat and saying,

"Let's do this!"

Someone is hyped for this game. Well, it doesn't matter if she's hyped or not. What I care about is if their results are satisfactory or not.

They should be much stronger than before due to the training imposed on them.

Getting up, I grab Koneko's hand and walk with her onto the magic circle alongside the rest of Rias's peerage.

We stand on it for a few seconds, before the magic circle disappears alongside Grafiya and the presences I felt a moment ago.

Could it be...

Using Clairvoyance, I do a quick check of the battlefield, and as it turns out, we are in our school.

It seems like the battle will occur here.

Now, I should find where Riser Phenex and his peerage are at. Hm? They're in the principal's office that I have paid a visit to twice by now.

The only man in the room, Riser, is sitting on the principal's seat with two girls in his arms, and behind him are multiple girls.

They collectively make a total of 16, which is exactly four times the amount of personnel on our side if I'm left out of the equation.

Soon, Grafiya's voice resounds seemingly everywhere as she begins to introduce herself then explaining the reason for the Kuoh Academy to be chosen as the battlefield.

She then announces the location of our bases before finally going silent.

Turning my head, I look at Rias who's deliberating on something before asking me,

"Can we set traps?"

Traps? If Riser's peerage is dumb enough to fall into traps, they're more than welcome to make use of it.

Seeing me nod my head, Rias unrolls a map of the school out of nowhere on the table in the clubroom and begins to explain her plan.

The plan is a rather simple one. Akeno and Koneko set some traps up while Kiba fends off the enemy's personnel with my aid.

As the game ends with Rias's defeat, she's going to be staying in the clubroom and send instructions from there using a little magical object we all attached to our ears.

And so, before we head out, I apply my Paladin's Aura to everyone which not only heightened their spirits, but they claimed that their power increased a lot.

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"What's with this guy!?"

"Forget about him, this guy over here is simply untouchable!"

Listening to the anxiety within the voices of the two identical petite girls, I shake my head in disappointment.

Kiba is currently just defending and not attacking because I ordered him to do so.

Why? I wanted to gauge the strength of our opponents, but the result was rather displeasing.

Letting out a sigh, I relay a new order to Kiba,

"Finish them."

In a mere five seconds, Kiba slashes the two girls, which results in them turning into motes of light before vanishing.

Soon, Sona's voice resounds stating the termination of the two girls, which turned out to be Riser's Pawns, from the game.

"Good job," I praise Kiba before checking the state of the battlefield using my Clairvoyance.

Quite a distance away, I see two girls wielding swords moving forward while behind them a girl wearing a kimono follows suit.

From the looks of it, the girl is a magic caster, in other words, a Bishop while the two sword wielders are Knights like Kiba.

Sharing the information I got with Kiba, I order him to deal with them while making sure to not let his guard down.

Once again using Clairvoyance, I check the locations of our foes. The ones who are closest to our side apart from the group Kiba is heading to face, are another group that is going to where one of our traps is set at.

"Rias, a group of three are heading over to the gymnasium. Two identical girls with beast-like ears and a dark-skinned girl who's dressed like a slut."

As the over-watcher and information broker, I perform my job by relaying information over which Rias is supposed to make use of and make proper decisions according to it.

Through my birds-eye view of the battlefield, I see Akeno moving over to the gymnasium.

"All according to plan..." I mutter to myself upon seeing how easily they deal with Riser's peerage.

I was expecting them to beat Riser's peerage, but not this easily. That guy seemed so arrogant based on Koneko's description of him. Also, the way he handled himself in the principal's room made me think he has become like so because of how strong his peerage is.

Apparently, I had my expectation bar set too high for a noble chicken.

Forget it, perhaps focusing on the battlefield will bring me some comfort by a strong opponent appearing or something.

I do manage to find something interesting.

A purple-haired woman with voluptuous breasts is heading over to where Akeno is fighting with the last remaining girl, which happens to be the one dressed like a slut.

Passing on the information, I call over Koneko to where I am as I begin to move towards where the enemy's "base" is at.

As I am on my way, I detect another group of four girls nearby moving toward our base.

Confident in Koneko's skill, I send her over to deal with them as I continue to make my way to where Riser is at.

That doesn't go as planned with me running into two girls.

A blonde-haired girl as well as an orange-haired girl who's covering half of her face with a white mask.

The blond-haired girl examined me from head to toe before saying,

"You guys sure are lucky. I don't know how you're doing it, but you have been rather annoying to deal with."

Seeing her speaking her mind in such a haughty tone as well as the lovely dress she's wearing, I can tell that she's different from the rest.

"Who are you?"

The other girl begins to walk closer while saying,

"She's Ravel Phenex, sister of Riser Phenex. Her participation in this game is as that of a Bishop, but she won't be fighting, just spectating."

The heck? Not fighting and just spectating? As if I'd take that excuse.

Checking everyone's condition using Clairvoyance, I see Rias is coming over while the rest are nearly done with their opponents.

Kiba has some minor injuries, while Akeno is carefully dodging the explosive magic of the voluptuous woman while looking for an opportunity to attack her.

As for Koneko, she's giving her opponents the last few punches.

Focusing back on the two girls in front of me, I walk toward the girl that's approaching me.

She suddenly dashes at me and throws a punch at my face.

Naturally, before she can land the hit, I punch her in the guts with my maximum force. This results in her flying away into the distance before turning into motes of light as Sona announces her termination.

Ravel, the girl who's supposedly Riser's sister, watches me wide-eyed as I make my way over to her.

Once I am close enough, I move my head close to her ear and whisper,

"You're supposed to spectate, right? I've heard that you guys are immortal... However, I don't think that's the case at all. Witness as I kill your brother."

The moment I'm done, I heed her no attention as I make my way to the building Riser is in.

Suddenly, Riser flies out of the building and lands in front of me. On his face is an expression of rage and disbelief.

"Ready to die?" I mock him.

He doesn't seem to be in his right mind as I don't get a response but instead an explosive kind of magic thrown at me.

I don't move away from it at all and allow the magic to "hit me" and explode.

Using Vector Manipulation, I cancel out any forces that come near me, while getting encompassed by the explosion.

Ravel is cheering on Riser, while the person himself has a more natural look on his face as he seems to regain a little of his earlier arrogance.

That doesn't last long, however, as I wave my hand in front of me fast enough to break the sound barrier and send clear up my surroundings.

Seeing me emerge from his explosion unharmed, Riser's expression takes a turn for the worst as he rushes at me with everything he's got.

Naturally, he's unable to deal me any damage as I cancel everything out.

Soon, he stops and stands still while gazing at me with a horrified expression before asking,

"What are you?"

Shrugging, I respond,

"Your nightmare fuel."

Using Indoctrination I order him,

"Don't forfeit no matter what."

Right after I say so, I appear in front of Riser, puncture his chest with both of my hands, grab several of his ribs and pull them out.

Before he's able to react, I knee him in the crotch with just enough force to shatter his waist-bones and send him flying into the building's wall.

Riser screams in agony as he falls onto the ground.

"Looks like he can still feel pain, huh..." I say in a voice loud enough for Ravel who's behind me to hear properly.

I use Telekinesis to move Riser towards myself before slamming him into the ground in front of me.

Walking over, I see flames appear on his wounded areas before going away and revealing an unharmed Riser.

Looking at where Ravel is, I smile before raising my leg and slamming into Riser's guts with enough force to form several cracks on the ground.

I watch Riser desperately attempting to push my leg away, however, unable to do so because of the disparity in our strengths.

Soon, the Rias and the co. appear at the scene and watch on as I continue to torment the once-proud noble.

Waiting for him to heal up from his injuries, I use Plunder on him.

"Guess, I'll have to finish you off now," I declare before using Creation to produce Caliburn.

Holding the sword in my hand, I swing it down at Riser's neck, however, before it can hit him, Ravel runs over while screaming,

"Please stop!"

Caliburn comes to a halt several centimeters away from Riser's neck.

"Weren't you going to just spectate?" I ask her.

"I know I said that, but please stop. Don't kill him," she desperately asks of me.

"Give me one reason that I should spare him," I say while sneering.

Ravel doesn't know what to say for several seconds, so I prepare to swing the sword down once again.

Upon seeing this, Ravel panics before screaming,

"No! I will offer myself in his place! Just let him go!"

Finally, she said it. Took her a while.

"Is that so?" I say while gazing into her eyes.

Pulling out a weirdly shaped paper, she says,

"I'm willing to offer myself to you as long as you let Riser live."

Signing the contract with her, I grab Riser, who watched everything with shock, by his collar and raise him from the ground.

Applying Indoctrination, I move my mouth close to his ear and whisper,

"You are a gay man that loves to be pushed down by other men and will stop at nothing to do so. The effect will go away by thirty days and after that, whenever you touch a woman, you will remember a random moment of being penetrated by a man."

Letting drop onto the ground, I say,

"Announce your forfeiture."

The moment he does what I told him to Grafiya's voice resounds, announcing the result of the battle while everyone apart from the Phenex siblings is gawking at me.

Today's harvest was good.

Looking toward the doll-like girl that's going to be mine according to the contract we signed, I begin to think of all the information I can extract from her and her uses.